Led by FTV Capital, with participation from NVIDIA and existing investors, funding will further solidify Kore.ai's leading position in explosive advanced AI market 

Kore.ai, a leader in enterprise conversational and generative AI platform technology, today announced $150 million in funding. The strategic growth investment was led by FTV Capital, a sector-focused growth equity investor with a successful 25+ year track record investing across enterprise technology, along with participation from NVIDIA and existing investors such as Vistara Growth, Sweetwater PE, NextEquity, Nicola and Beedie. The new funding will accelerate Kore.ai's market expansion and continuous innovation in AI to deliver tangible business and human value at scale.

Poised to seize market momentum around putting AI to work

The AI market has seen rapid growth and disruption driven by advancements in technology and shifting user expectations. Gartner estimates the conversational AI market to reach $377 billion in revenue by 2032, up from $66 billion in 2023. This reflects an exponential demand for enhanced customer experiences, streamlined business operations and innovative GenAI applications addressing specific business tasks.

Kore.ai provides an enterprise-grade no-code platform to help companies of all sizes power business interactions with AI safely and responsibly while driving significant revenue and cost savings. From conversational virtual assistants to generative AI (Gen AI) applications, Kore.ai's differentiated platform offers purpose-built workflows, highly configurable tools and a flexible, open architecture that are recognized as the leading approach by customers and analysts. This gives teams the ability to craft custom solutions or deploy pre-built, domain-trained virtual assistants across multiple industries such as banking, healthcare and retail and across a variety of functional roles such as IT, HR and others, to accelerate time-to-value.

"We have been working with advanced AI for a decade now – our deep technology expertise and market understanding put us in a prime position to take advantage of the momentum and to do AI right in order to meet growing customer needs," said Raj Koneru, founder and CEO of Kore.ai. "Sitting above the infrastructure layer and LLM chaos, our open approach grants businesses freedom of choice with built-in guardrails for effective AI implementation. As we look to enhance our Gen AI-powered innovations and drive wider adoption across a variety of market segments, we are pleased to have the backing of FTV Capital, a firm that has significant experience in our space and invaluable connections across the enterprise to augment our exciting growth trajectory."

"We've spent significant time examining the landscape and evaluating advanced-AI platforms, and Kore.ai clearly stood out with its proven enterprise-grade platform capabilities, visionary leadership, strong R&D focus, established global customer base and clear path to profitability," said Kapil Venkatachalam, partner at FTV Capital. "We're excited to partner with such an experienced and high-caliber team that consistently delivers world-class innovations, and we look forward to leveraging our deep knowledge and network to catalyze Kore.ai's success."

Market understanding and expertise across diverse use cases

Today, several Fortune 2000 companies across a variety of industry verticals leverage Kore.ai to enhance their customer, employee and contact center agent experiences and drive measurable ROI. Customers include leading financial institutions, such as PNC Bank and large global banks, as well as major brands such as AT&T, Cigna, Coca-Cola, Airbus and Roche.

Over the past several years Kore.ai has consistently demonstrated triple-digit year-over-year growth in revenues. The company automates 450 million interactions a day for about 200 million consumers and two million enterprise users worldwide. In addition to domestic growth, Kore.ai's growth has been fueled by rising demand from emerging markets in Asia Pacific, Europe, LatAm and the Middle East. As a result, Kore.ai has added new Global 2000 enterprise customers across major verticals.

PubMatic, an independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, today announced that Robin Steinberg, formerly Vice President, Advertiser Solutions, has been promoted to the position of Senior Vice President of Advertiser Solutions, with a key focus on agency demand and CTV publisher partnerships.

Steinberg joined PubMatic in September 2022 to evolve PubMatic’s key relationships with large agencies. She has also developed innovative marketplace strategies to connect buyers and sellers, a crucial component of PubMatic’s revenue growth and brand recognition. Her leadership directly contributed to the company closing 10 supply path optimization (SPO) deals across the United States in 2023, driving SPO share of total activity on the PubMatic platform to over 45% by the end of the year. Additionally, Steinberg was a critical contributor to the 2023 launch of Activate, PubMatic’s end-to-end SPO solution.

In her new role, Steinberg has been tasked with direct management of the agency team in North America as well as continued support of the company’s growing connected TV (CTV) publisher relationships, ensuring that PubMatic is the premier connection point between those publishers and the agencies. PubMatic closed 2023 boasting a 27% year-over-year increase in its CTV publisher customer base over 2022 to over 270 streaming content providers. Steinberg will aid in driving CTV performance across programmatic guaranteed (PG) and private marketplaces (PMP) deals by bringing publishers and buyers more closely together.

“In this dynamic marketplace, I couldn't be more thrilled to support our clients, partners and the overall ecosystem as the advertising industry continues to innovate and grow,” said Steinberg. In 2024, PubMatic will continue to lead the programmatic supply chain's evolution, particularly in high-growth areas such as CTV and retail media.”

Prior to PubMatic, Steinberg served as Head of Agency & Client Partnerships at video technology company Connatix, where she oversaw commercial deals, relationships and partnerships with agency holding companies. She also spent over two decades on the agency-side, building, running, and transforming publishing investment teams at MediaVest and Carat, evolving the business practices to lead with a digital-first and innovative approach.

In her new role, Steinberg will continue reporting to PubMatic’s Chief Revenue Officer, Americas, Kyle Dozeman.

“Robin has had a tremendous impact on the business and I’m excited to see her in this elevated role,” said Dozeman. “Under her leadership, PubMatic has become an important connection point between our buy side clients and CTV publisher partners.”

Global research offers insights into how consumers engage with and experience brands. 

Merkle, dentsu's leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company, has unveiled the first installment of its 2024 Customer Experience Imperatives research series, titled "Engagement to Empowerment: Winning in Today's Experience Economy."

Merkle has released its CX Imperatives report for the past 12 years, and this is the first year its forward-looking flagship piece is based on proprietary research. This report, which is the first of several to be published in 2024, focuses on insights from a consumer survey conducted in Q4 of 2023. Merkle surveyed 2,100 consumers and 820 brands across 18 countries and three continents. This initial installment is focused on consumers, who were asked questions on topics such as AI in marketing, preferences on customer data usage, and adoption of emerging tech. The brand responses will be the basis of the second report, to be released this spring.

Technology advancements have continually accelerated over the years, which has elevated and evolved consumers' expectations, giving them greater control and influence over the way brands market to them. Merkle's research shows that on average, only 2.5 sources of information influence a consumer's brand decision. Brands don't have the same margin of error they once did, so it's critical that they embrace and support this new wave of empowered consumers and make it clear how the experiences they deliver improve their customers' lives.

To excel in an increasingly crowded field, Merkle urges brands to focus on responding to consumers' stated preferences about their brand experiences in an effort to increase trust and build long-term relationships.

"With this research, we wanted to give CX practitioners real insight into how consumers experience brands today," said Pete Stein, global president of Merkle. "Brands that wish to excel in the experience economy must keep pace with customer's evolving expectations."

The study's findings reveal six critical imperatives for brands who seek to deliver exemplary customer experiences:

1. Understand CX fundamentals from the customer's point of view.
2. Use customer data for the customer's benefit.
3. Use ethical AI to create convenience and build trust.
4. Meet the customer's need for live human interaction.
5. Focus on the post-purchase experience.
6. Experiment with emerging tech to invent new forms of customer empowerment.

Stein adds: "At a time when consumers have more control and buying options, it's critical for brands to not just chase trends but get to the root of what a 'great' customer experience entails. True customer empowerment requires more than just personalization; it demands authentic connections and experiences that resonate deeply."

Octoparse, a no-coding solution for web scraping to turn pages into structured data within clicks, makes bulk-extracting of data further accessible. With no required coding, the software is a great fit for both expert and novice users. Last month, it launched its advanced template of lead generation, Contact Details Scraper.

Contact Details Scraper is a game-changing solution to simplify the lead generation process. It covers most mainstream platforms, allowing users to collect customer information, including names, contact details, company names, job titles, etc. In short, it can prove useful to professionals in sales, marketing, and other industries that rely on lead discovery. Meanwhile, Contact Details Scraper extends its capability beyond just emails and phone numbers. It can capture social media profiles linked directly from web pages, including YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more.

The preset Task Template is one of the most powerful and popular features of Octoparse. Hundreds of Templates cover the most popular websites, like Amazon, Twitter, Google Maps, etc., making web scraping even more time-saving and effortless. They can cater to various scraping requirements and allow users to extract data in bulk by entering only a few parameters.

However, different users might have particular needs in scraping data. If you face difficulties in using preset templates to pull data from complex web pages, you can create a Custom Task and build a scraper with the powerful tools offered by Octoparse! It allows you to grab data from any website through an effortless point-and-click interface. It also provides users with RegEx Tool, XPath Tool, API, Database Auto-export Tool, etc., that aim at boosting the user experience.

Octoparse provides both free and paid plans, tailoring the extraction experience to their specific needs. The free plan provides a basic extraction framework for individuals embarking on their data extraction journey. For users seeking to leverage the full potential of the software, the paid plans offer a robust suite of advanced features, including access to Cloud Extraction, 24/7 services, and more. With the flexibility of these plans, users can select the option that best fits their data extraction requirements.

Many clients utilize Octoparse Cloud Service for large-scale extractions, making it feasible to extract and store significant amounts of data. This is especially beneficial for businesses handling large data volumes or under tight schedules. Auto-saved to the cloud, the 24/7 continuous operating feature of the cloud service allows the unbroken extraction of copious amounts of data at any time of the day or night.

Websites increasingly use CAPTCHAs to restrict web scraping, making the traditional way of manual solving or delaying scraping tasks troublesome and time-consuming. To simplify the process and accelerate data scaling, Octoparse has incorporated an automatic CAPTCHA solver into the system. This will auto-solve CAPTCHAs, enhancing your workflow efficiency.

To curb potential IP restrictions from frequent data scraping, Octoparse enables IP rotation using anonymous HTTP proxy servers, making it safe and secure for the user.

Equally compatible with static and dynamic websites, Octoparse can smoothly navigate and interact with pages that use Ajax.

Consumer products expert with mastery of operations 

Toluna, the leading global insights technology and panel provider, today announced the appointment of Lucie Claire Vincent Ortiz to its Board of Directors. Lucie Claire will join the Board of Directors to guide the organization as it seeks to reset the standard for delivering world-class insights and business impact, with a particular focus on the needs of consumer packaged goods.

For over 30 years, Lucie Claire has held senior operating executive positions with large multinational consumer product companies, including Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Philip Morris International. She also has extensive experience in evolving organizational culture and ways of working to support business transformation, DEI strategies, and acquisition, retention, and promotion programs.

As an international consumer products president and leader of P&Ls for Fortune 100 companies, she has held on-the-ground roles in North America, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and leading businesses across all continents. She is also a Qualified Risk Director.

Lucie Claire currently serves as Co-President of the board of directors of the International Women’s Forum Connecticut, a global non-profit with the mission of advancing women’s leadership and championing equality worldwide. She also serves on the Executive Committee as Secretary and Finance on the board of directors of GallopNYC, a non-profit that uses therapeutic horsemanship to help riders with disabilities.

She is an Adjunct Professor at New York University (NYU) for the School of Professional Studies, Master of Integrated Marketing and Communications, and is mentor and advisor for startups in retail technology, consumer goods and consumer HealthTech.

Lucie Claire Vincent Ortiz said, “Market research is a critical component of the workflow of every CPG leader. I look forward to working with Frédéric and the Board of Directors, sharing my CPG experience as well as my functional expertise as we pursue our objective of delivering on-demand access to panel, platform, and research expertise.”

Frédéric-Charles Petit, CEO of Toluna, said, “Lucie Claire is a transformational and innovative leader. Between her vast experience working on-the-ground with people across the globe, her deep understanding of consumer and market dynamics, and her track record of developing and implementing strategic plans for global categories, she is a natural fit as a member of our Board of Directors. I’m thrilled to work alongside her and to have her counsel as Toluna joins with MetrixLab to create a global force in market research.”

• Rokt to become an extension of Deliveroo's advertising platform on the order confirmation page in the delivery app

• Partnership launches in the UK and France, with plans to expand into other geographies

• Advertisers in the Rokt Ads network can now reach customers ordering on Deliveroo

Rokt, the leading ecommerce technology company that uses advanced machine learning and AI to serve relevant offers to shoppers, has today announced its newest partnership with delivery giant Deliveroo on the order tracker page.

Deliveroo has been building its retail media network since launching its advertising platform in 2021, supporting its restaurant partners to reach more customers on the platform.  

As part of its newly developed advertising platform, Deliveroo has confirmed it will now integrate with Rokt, an exclusive marketing channel, which allows brands to capture the full attention of customers directly on ecommerce confirmation pages. This means that advertisers in the Rokt Ads network can now access Deliveroo's audiences, and Deliveroo can provide the most relevant third-party offers to customers on their order confirmation page.  

"We're absolutely thrilled to welcome Deliveroo to the Rokt family," said Craig Galvin, Chief Revenue Officer at Rokt. "We're committed to driving relevance and value for our partners and their customers with our solutions in ecommerce. Our brand-safe marketplace brings together premium ecommerce sites and advertisers, with Deliveroo being the latest to join an exciting roster of leading international brands that have partnered with Rokt to boost their retail media program and advertising offering."

Rokt will become an extension of Deliveroo's advertising platform via the order tracker page in its delivery app. Recently, Deliveroo has been exploring non-endemic partnerships and broadening the range of brands it introduces to its customers. Rokt will enable Deliveroo to amplify these efforts whilst also protecting the customer experience, ensuring each advertising message is relevant to each end customer.

The partnership is launching in the UK and France, with plans to expand into Ireland soon after. Rokt will bring a stable of premium advertisers to Deliveroo's platform, including Skin+Me, LookFantastic, Pure Pet Food, and Headspace, to name a few.

"Deliveroo Media and Ecommerce provides brands with an opportunity to connect with millions of engaged customers at or after the point of purchase. We're delighted to partner with Rokt as we look to grow our advertising platform and build on this new revenue stream," said Ankit Jindal, Head of Advertising at Deliveroo.

Rokt powers billions of transactions globally each year, which advertisers across B2B, finance, travel, retail, and other DTC verticals can access through Rokt Ads. 

Deliveroo is the latest in a series of new partners Rokt has launched with this year, including Redbubble, Asos, Klarna, Lyft, boohoo, Morrisons, and Afterpay.

ZeroSum's eBook highlights the keys to automotive retail success in the coming year. 

Automotive retailers will need to turn to technology, including local market data, artificial intelligence, machine learning and automated advertising solutions to thrive in 2024. The findings are part of ZeroSum's "2024 Automotive Marketing Strategies + Retrospective of the 2023 Market" eBook, which reviews complexities the automotive industry dealt with in 2023 and provides a roadmap for dealers ready to adopt new strategies in 2024.

The report was released by ZeroSum today and can be downloaded for free here. 

"2023 brought unexpected change within the auto industry," said David Cox, COO at ZeroSum, "Market dynamics such as declining household incomes, high interest rates and high vehicle prices created a drag on sales. Moving forward, it is critical for dealers to leverage live local market data to understand customer demographics, vehicle preferences and demand. There are still millions of in-market customers looking for vehicles and dealers need to work a little harder to find them."

The report reviews the arduous year of record-high prices on new vehicles and a surge in new vehicle inventory which led to static movement on dealer lots. Dealers experienced further setbacks including the strike against Detroit's top three automakers and the impacts of aggressive EV targets, which will require more than half of all new cars to be electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. As dealers have ramped up EV inventories, customer demand has not followed suit. This has led to a glut of EVs sitting on dealer lots.

For 2024, ZeroSum's eBook will point dealers to four key directives:

• Leverage data-driven marketing for targeted campaigns
• Embrace AI-driven tools, with human oversight
• Optimize inventory management for efficiency
• Recognize the enduring value of personal interactions to increase sales

"2024 is a year for dealers to show strength in their local market," said Cox, "Inventory is growing, and the industry will continue to be extremely competitive. Now is not the time to be quiet, a dealer needs to leverage the best market intelligence to be proactive and move more cars than their competitors."

Leader in Exposure Management and Security Validation Welcomes Margo Kahnrose, Katia Levitin and Eynat Grunewald as Company Experiences Rapid Growth

Cymulate, the leader in exposure management and security validation, announced today the addition of three new members of its leadership team, including two C-level executive positions. These new appointments introduce Margo Kahnrose as Cymulate’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Katia Levitin as Chief of Staff. Eynat Grunewald, the Company’s General Counsel, has also been elevated to Cymulate’s management team.

“As we continue towards our next stage of growth, we are thrilled to enhance our leadership team with experts in their respective fields,” said Eyal Wachsman, CEO and Co-founder of Cymulate. “Margo, Katia, and Eynat each bring fresh perspectives and deep expertise within their areas of focus, and I look forward to working closely with each of them to best serve our customers, employees and key stakeholders.”

Margo Kahnrose, named a Stevie Awards winner of Female Executive of the Year in Business Services (2021), has 20 years of experience in marketing and brand management. Prior to Cymulate, she served as CMO at Skai, an omnichannel marketing platform, and has previously held leadership positions at Kenshoo and SpotHero. Kahnrose is an established and proven marketing leader with a track record of building effective brands and campaigns for tech companies through authentic storytelling, demand generation and strong team collaboration.

“As threat landscapes widen, it is increasingly evident that constant security validation is the only way to clearly identify your organization’s practical risk and what to do about it. Cymulate is leading the industry towards maximizing the effects of security investments with better resilience and agility,” said Kahnrose. “I look forward to working closely with the leadership and marketing teams to continue to shape our messaging and brand position in the market so that it effectively reaches those in need of our technologies.”

As Chief of Staff, Levitin will oversee strategic operations and cross-functional collaboration, enhance workflow efficiencies, and work alongside the CEO and the executive team to better refine and execute Cymulate’s goals and mission. Levitin has more than 15 years of experience delivering high-quality results within the technology, fintech, and advertising industries. Prior to joining Cymulate, Levitin served as Chief of Staff for Voyager Labs and AvaTrade. She has also worked in similar business operation positions for Bidalgo (acquired by ironSource) and Amdocs.

“Cymulate’s remarkable growth and widespread usage is a testament to how successful the organization is at aiding security teams in measuring and tracking the effectiveness of their controls and defenses,” said Levitin. “As Cymulate rapidly expands globally, ensuring that we are scaling internal operations sufficiently to meet the growing needs of our customers and our organization’s strategic goals will be a top priority in order to remain a leader in the cybersecurity space.”

Eynat Grunewald has also been promoted to the company’s management team as General Counsel. In this role, Grunewald will continue overseeing legal matters, providing strategic legal counsel and guidance to the management team, managing legal risks, ensuring regulatory compliance, and supporting the company’s innovation and growth. Grunewald has more than 10 years of legal experience and prior to joining Cymulate, was a senior associate at Shibolet & Co.

“I am thrilled to continue my journey with the Cymulate team, a dynamic force in the cyber industry,” said Grunewald. “By integrating technological, business and legal needs, working together to drive innovation and navigate challenges, we will continue to support the company’s ongoing success.”