Omnic, an international research and development company specializing in automation and self-service solutions for the logistics, e-commerce, and retail sectors, has officially announced its foray into the Saudi Arabian market, is poised to revolutionize last-mile delivery by offering a shared infrastructure to market players, bolstering their efforts to meet the sustainability targets set by the government. The company is planning to invest around USD $6 Million to the development of the infrastructure and install 2000 lockers covering all Saudi Arabia cities during the next couple of years.

At the heart of this initiative is an open network, comprising a network of parcel lockers accessible to multiple stakeholders, including logistics providers, postal services, e-commerce platforms, and retail enterprises. The network extends a warm invitation to businesses to become part of this network, granting them access to the advantages of parcel lockers and the cost savings that come from not having to invest in their standalone infrastructure. This move also benefits consumers, who will no longer need to shuttle between different locations to collect parcels from various online vendors and delivery services. All these entities share the same parcel lockers, making it convenient for consumers to receive or return their packages in one central location.

When it comes to accelerating sustainability efforts within the Saudi logistics landscape, Omnic's open parcel lockers network plays a pivotal role. Shipping packages to parcel lockers empowers logistics and postal services to process the same volume of orders while reducing driving by a significant 62% compared to traditional door-to-door deliveries. Consequently, one parcel locker in regular use leads to a remarkable reduction of 13,845 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions – equivalent to the environmental benefit of planting 2,769 trees.

Hayk Avagyan, Omnic Board Member, expressed his optimism about this ambitious endeavor, stating, "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represents a highly promising market at this juncture. We are confident that our open parcel lockers network will continue to expand. Given the recent government decision to grant licenses to Chinese logistics and e-commerce giants to operate in the country, Omnic finds itself at the right place at the right time. We stand ready to support these prominent players with our infrastructure and contribute to the realization of sustainability goals."

CyberSaint’s new strategic appointments reinforce the company’s commitment to delivering the industry’s leading cyber risk management platform

CyberSaint, the leader in cyber risk management, today announced the appointment of Matt Alderman as Chief Product Officer (CPO). In this role, Alderman will lead the company's product strategy and development initiatives, bringing a wealth of experience and vision to further enhance CyberSaint's strong position as the cybersecurity risk management market leader. With a proven track record of driving product innovation and success in cybersecurity, Alderman is well-positioned to contribute to CyberSaint's ongoing growth and development.

"I am thrilled to join the CyberSaint team and take on the role of Chief Product Officer," said Matt Alderman. "CyberSaint has a reputation for delivering innovative solutions, including industry risks and continuous control automation, and I look forward to leading the product team as we continue to build the industry's leading cyber risk management platform."

Matt Alderman is an information security, compliance, and risk veteran with over 25 years of experience designing and implementing solutions. Prior to joining CyberSaint, Alderman was Vice President of Product for Living Security. He has held various executive leadership roles, including Chief Executive Officer of Security Weekly, acquired by CyberRisk Alliance in 2020, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Layered Insight, acquired by Qualys in 2018, and Vice President of Strategy at Tenable. He continues to host his podcast, Business Security Weekly, and advises many startups in the industry. Alderman holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Computer Engineering both from Case Western Reserve University, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

As part of this transition, CyberSaint's Founder and previous Chief Product Officer, Padraic O'Reilly, will assume the role of Founder and Chief Innovation Officer. In his new capacity, O'Reilly will focus on driving innovation across the organization and advancing CyberSaint's commitment to staying at the forefront of the cybersecurity industry.

"We're thrilled to welcome Matt to our team, as his arrival marks a significant step forward for CyberSaint,” said Padraic O’Reilly, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at CyberSaint. “He brings a wealth of experience that will undoubtedly elevate our product offerings and drive us to new heights. His deep industry knowledge and strategic mindset will accelerate our mission to help enterprises worldwide manage cyber risk with confidence."

"We are delighted to welcome Matt Alderman to CyberSaint as our new Chief Product Officer," said Jerry Layden, Chief Executive Officer at CyberSaint. "I also want to express my gratitude to Padraic O'Reilly for his exceptional leadership. As Chief Innovation Officer, Padraic will play a key role in fostering a culture of continuous innovation at CyberSaint, ensuring that we stay ahead of the curve in this dynamic industry."

Ziff Davis, Inc., today announced its participation in one investor conference in December.

Details of the conference are as follows:

Barclays Global Technology Conference

Location: The Palace Hotel, San Francisco, CA

Date and time: December 7, 2023, 1:20 pm (PT)

Webcast: https://cc.webcasts.com/barc002/120623a_js/?entity=46_WPVX3T1

Advent International (“Advent”), one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors, today announced the appointment of Tricia Rothschild as an Operating Partner. Rothschild will play a key role in helping Advent identify and support new investments in wealth and asset management, including related technology and data & analytics.

Rothschild is a highly accomplished executive with decades of experience in financial services, with a focus on wealth and asset management, investment data, technology, and information services. Rothschild spent more than 25 years at Morningstar, transforming the company from startup to a leading, global and publicly-listed provider of investment research software, data, and index solutions. During her tenure at Morningstar, she held numerous senior leadership roles, including most recently serving as Chief Product Officer and Co-Head of Global Markets, where she was responsible for an $800 million portfolio of global software, data and research businesses serving both retail and institutional investors, and developed and led the firm’s global equity research business. Following Morningstar, Rothschild served as President for Apex Fintech Solutions, a digital B2B fintech platform providing custody, clearing and other services to leading brokerages, financial advisors, global institutional investors and fintech firms.

“Tricia is one of the most established leaders in wealth services, with an incredible track record of building businesses with both innovative and cost-effective solutions that drive enhanced outcomes for investors and their advisors,” said Gabriela Weiss, Principal at Advent. “Tricia’s insights and extensive network of industry relationships around the world will be instrumental as we pursue investments that capitalize on the opportunities presented by the global wealth creation megatrend, which includes increasing democratization of access to investment services, innovation in investment approaches, and the evolution of the financial advisor role. With this space poised for long-term growth, we are thrilled to partner with a seasoned executive like Tricia and look forward to growing Advent’s portfolio together.”

"I am excited to work with Advent due to its disciplined and selective investment strategy, its global reach and experience, and its focus on growth and true partnership with its portfolio companies,” said Rothschild. “Technology continues to disrupt the wealth management industry, creating significant and unprecedented opportunity for investment, product innovation and transformational growth. I look forward to leveraging Advent’s global platform and expertise as we capitalize on strong industry tailwinds around professionalizing and democratizing access to investment services to meet investors’ needs.”

Rothschild currently sits on the boards of wealthtech and enterprise software firms, including Nitrogen and Canoe Intelligence, where she supports the leadership teams of both companies in their growth initiatives. Additionally, Rothschild serves on the CFA Institute Board of Governors, which oversees the investment industry’s premier professional organization and credentialing program, with 200,000 charterholders around the world and a long-standing mission of promoting the highest standards of ethics and rigor in investment management globally.

As an avid supporter of community engagement, Rothschild is also a co-founder of the Chicago Giving Circle (CGC). CGC brings together Chicago-area donors who collectively support a select group of innovative and high-impact nonprofit organizations focused on improving the lives of Chicago-area families in need. Rothschild also serves on the board of Rock the Street, Wall Street, a financial and investment literacy program that brings both gender and racial equity to the financial markets by educating high school girls and improving the pipeline of diverse talent entering the investment arena.

During the course of her career, Rothschild has received several awards, including Financial Planning’s “Most Likely to Change Wealth Management” list in 2021, and was named to Investment News’ “Women to Watch” list in 2020.

Rothschild received her Master of Arts in Russian and eastern European economics from Indiana University and her Bachelor of Science in communication studies from Northwestern University.

AudienceXpress, a Comcast Advertising company, today announced it has partnered with Epsilon, a global advertising and marketing technology company, to introduce a new capability for enhancing audience-based, convergent television buying.

This new partnership taps into synergistic strengths on both sides of the integration and allows marketers to enhance audience reach and drive scale across today’s fragmented, complex and dynamic TV ad landscape.

Epsilon is now able to tap into AudienceXpress’s reach, scale and expertise across the CTV sector. This partnership accelerates Epsilon’s clients’ ability to harness the power of their first-party data and Epsilon’s data with the insights from AudienceXpress to activate, execute and measure campaigns with a greater degree of accuracy.

With access to more transaction and behavior-based data than ever before, AudienceXpress will be able to create even more precise CTV audience segments for clients.

Therefore, brands, agencies and advertisers now have the ability to reach unique audiences with greater precision across all premium video channels, with a privacy-focused approach.

“As we began to search for a partner that offered the scale and ability to reach the specific audiences and data insights we needed, we were impressed by AudienceXpress’s vast network of aggregated premium video inventory,” said Dennis Self, GM of Data Solutions, Epsilon. “Through this mutually beneficial partnership, we are able to move forward with an innovative approach that allows us to quickly scale this important partnership.”

“The TV ad marketplace continues to grow, evolve and shift constantly and dynamically, and so we recognized the need to provide a way for advertisers to find and connect with their audiences when, where and how they want to consume media,” said Katy Loria, CRO of AudienceXpress and FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the TV ad industry that is also part of Comcast Advertising. “This new partnership brings together some of the core strengths and assets of two key industry players to deliver a much needed way for advertisers to navigate and thrive in today’s TV ad ecosystem.”

Workshop, an email platform for internal communications, announced today that the company has raised $12 million in Series A funding. The round was led by McCarthy Capital out of their Emerging Growth strategy. It also included support from a group of prominent Midwest venture funds, including Ludlow Ventures and M25.

This additional round of investment follows a seed round of $5 million in July 2022, just 18 months ago. Over the last year, Workshop has become one of the fastest-growing internal communication platforms, gaining hundreds of customers and delivering emails to well over a million employees. It is now the chosen tool for employee-facing emails at Fortune 500 companies and name-brand organizations worldwide, including Papa John's, Steve Madden, Edelman Financial, Northern Tool, Movement Mortgage, and more.

"We are excited to continue to support Workshop as they further invest to expand their team and product," said BJ Hansen, Managing Director at McCarthy Capital. "Workshop is committed to being the leading internal communications platform, allowing its customers to better connect and engage with their employees."

Workshop was co-founded in 2020 by Rick Knudtson (former co-founder of Flywheel), Ben Stevinson, and Derek Homann (former founders of Median). The group came together with a shared vision to help other organizations create a positive, engaging company culture through great internal communication. The latest round of investment highlights Workshop's essential role among distributed and global teams, which often struggle to create alignment and deliver engaging, relevant content to their employees.

"We've loved working with McCarthy Capital over the last 18 months and couldn't be happier to continue our journey with them," said CEO and co-founder Rick Knudtson. "Together, we share a passion for this market and a big vision for how our product can impact it. I'm excited to further invest in Workshop's platform and teams as we pursue our mission to create more happy Mondays for employees everywhere!"

The funds will be used for accelerating the innovation of Workshop's easy-to-use solution for internal email; recruiting additional talent for the engineering team; scaling Workshop's go-to-market efforts, including expanding sales and marketing; and reinforcing the customer success team with additional support.

"Workshop is gearing up for an incredible year, and we're excited to add even more talent to the team in Omaha and beyond," said Chief Operating Officer and co-founder Derek Homann. "We believe in our mission to create happy Mondays for our own team, too, and can't wait to make 2024 a year of growth, innovation, and shared success!"

Workshop also announced the official launch of its new communications calendar feature, which joins a suite of workflow-enhancing tools that help internal communications teams manage their emails at scale. Communicators can now see every email that has been sent and every email that is scheduled in one simple calendar view, ensuring their messages have the best chance of being read. When paired with features like sharing and privacy settings, dynamic distribution lists, and AI-assisted content recommendations, it's easy to see how Workshop can help manage internal emails across global, distributed teams and enterprises.

Amazon to launch online vehicle sales in the U.S., starting with Hyundai in 2024, making it more convenient for customers to find and buy their vehicle of choice on Amazon.com and pick it up from their local dealer

Hyundai names AWS as its preferred cloud provider to help facilitate digital transformation of the automaker's operations, production, and customer service

Amazon and Hyundai to bring the Alexa Built-in experience to Hyundai's next-generation vehicles

Amazon and Hyundai Motor Company announced a broad strategic partnership to bring innovative new experiences to customers. The announcement was made today at the 2023 Los Angeles Auto Show and a livestream can be viewed here: https://youtube.com/live/Qzhq1tShTMc. This strategic collaboration includes Amazon launching online sales of Hyundai vehicles in the U.S. in 2024, Hyundai naming AWS as its preferred cloud provider to help facilitate digital transformation, and the Alexa Built-in experience coming to Hyundai's next-generation vehicles.

"Hyundai is a very innovative company that shares Amazon's passion for trying to make customers' lives better and easier every day," said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. "Our broad, strategic partnership should do just that, from changing the ease with which customers can buy vehicles online, to making it simple to use Alexa in Hyundai vehicles for entertainment, shopping, smart home adjustments, and calendar checks, to enabling Hyundai to transform their customer experiences and business operations by moving to AWS. We look forward to inventing together for many years."

"Partnering with one of the world's most customer-centric organizations unlocks incredible opportunities as we continue to expand our portfolio, grow our sales network, transition to electrification and realize the future of smart mobility," said President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company Jaehoon (Jay) Chang. "Amazon is the ideal partner to help realize our vision of progress for humanity, including improving how people and goods move more efficiently and sustainably. Hyundai is the first automotive company available for full end-to-end transactions in Amazon's U.S. store and this is another example of how we continue to push for ways to elevate the customer journey together with our outstanding retail partners."

Users can quickly make informed decisions and boost revenue growth

Heap, the leading digital insights provider, today introduced new features that guide users to actionable insights with out-of-the-box dashboards. These insights identify friction points across the customer journey.

Heap breaks down data silos across acquisition, activation, and engagement with a single click. New features allow teams to accelerate growth loops and optimize product enhancements. These make it even easier for companies to deliver intuitive digital experiences to their customers.

"These innovations are a game-changer for unlocking a product's hidden potential,” said Rachel Obstler, CPO at Heap. “We are investing in our user experience by providing automated insight. This drives down time to value and helps users arrive at ‘aha moments’ within minutes. By simplifying data analysis, we enable businesses to act faster, enhance user engagement, and increase conversions. This empowers customers to thrive in the digital landscape."

As companies are choosing if they want to migrate to GA4, Heap’s new features provide a seamless alternative. With these new features, even non-technical users can quickly access meaningful analysis without building complex queries via:

• Overview Page
  • Enables users with a one-click dive into actionable insights across key growth levers of the customer journey via pre-built dashboards.
• Acquisition Analytics
  • Users gain immediate access to crucial user metrics, enabling them to act faster and stay ahead of the competition. Businesses can then understand where users come from and how each acquisition channel is performing across a variety of metrics.
• Engagement Chart
  • Users are able to understand bounce rates and page views. This provides immediate action items for improving user engagement and conversions by identifying high-performing campaigns and increasing ROI.
• Rage Clicks
  • Automatically capture and surface rage clicks so customers can find, watch, analyze, and fix frustrating user experiences.