A leading automation solutions provider for the dental industry to use IntelePeer’s AI-driven Communications Automation Platform to improve patient experience

IntelePeer, a leading provider of AI-powered communications automation solutions, has partnered with Dental Robot, the first intelligent automation platform designed for dental support organizations (DSO) to transform the $30B DSO marketplace where most calls and communications have changed very little in the last 20 years. Created initially to automate the insurance verification process, Dental Robot will now implement IntelePeer’s communications automation platform (CAP) to deliver an omni-channel, self-serve environment to its customers’ patients in order to improve data integrity within RCM (Revenue Cycle Management). To kick off the partnership, the two companies will be presenting at Becker’s Healthcare Future of Dentistry Roundtable.

“We’re excited to introduce the power of generative AI to the Dental Robot platform, taking the patient experience to the next level through the use of AI and automation,” commented Frank Fawzi, CEO at IntelePeer. “Working together, IntelePeer and Dental Robot solve two major pain points for the industry – insurance processing and the ability for patients to effectively self-serve without the need of costly human intervention. By using our communications automation platform, dental practices will be able to reduce labor costs, deliver personalized communications across channels, and see a return on their investment in a matter of weeks.”

Powered by AI, IntelePeer’s platform automates communications in a low-code and seamless manner. The platform leverages Azure’s OpenAI to enable users to build communications-enabled workflows that integrate seamlessly with existing processes. Moreover, users can create intelligent AI voice and messaging bots based on customer interactions, CRM information, and other data sources to enrich the patient experience. IntelePeer’s communications automation platform functionalities available to Dentist Robot customers include:

• True omnichannel experience automating messaging, chat, and email interactions.
• Virtual assistants harnessing built-in natural language processing and generative AI.
• Automated appointment scheduling, confirmation reminders, and rescheduling capabilities for both new and existing patients.
• Easy integration to CRM and other business applications.
• Self-serve data gathering capabilities and automated bill payment.
• Practice-specific Q&A database along with generative AI used to enable robust responses to thousands of questions.

“By partnering with IntelePeer, we’ll continue to improve both front- and back-office experiences for dental practices nationwide,” said Manuel Barroso, Chief Executive Officer, Dental Robot. “Together, we’re enabling practices to decrease manual processes, increase staff productivity, and save hundreds of hours a week by tapping into the power of AI and automation.”

As part of the partnership, IntelePeer will join forces with Dental Robot to present at industry events across the country. The first event, Becker’s Healthcare Future of Dentistry Roundtable, will feature Manuel Barroso and IntelePeer executives, Joe Galinanes and Corbin Fields, discussing how AI and automation can positively impact the patient experience in a session titled: Streamlining Customer Service and RCM with AI Automation. The presentation takes place on October 26, 2023, at 3:30 pm.

Arteria AI, the market-leading applied AI company building modern documentation infrastructure for institutional finance, today announced its oversubscribed $30 million Series B financing round led by GGV Capital U.S., with participation from all existing major investors, including Illuminate Financial, Information Venture Partners, BDC Capital and Citi. The round brings the company’s total funding to $50 million to date.

Arteria has been trusted by a multitude of premier financial institutions (including a number of global Tier 1 banks) to help them harness the power of AI to improve operational efficiency and enhance client experience. Documentation holds the key to capital markets transactions. Arteria’s AI-enabled software brings documentation to the digital age at an enterprise scale and unlocks speed and efficiency in areas like trading, lending and asset management, among others. Since launching in 2020, Arteria has experienced unprecedented momentum fueled by growing demand from banks, tripling its recurring revenue in the past year.

Shelby Austin, CEO and Co-Founder of Arteria AI, said, “We are thrilled to partner with GGV U.S. on our mission to address the documentation challenges in financial services. This milestone is proof positive that we are driving real and recognizable value throughout our customers.”

“Automation has come in waves to large financial institutions, but little has been done to effectively target documentation. It’s not just about cost and inefficiency – there are troves of valuable data that are just sitting idle,” said Jeff Richards, Managing Partner of GGV Capital U.S. “Arteria has built a powerful platform that is used across the leading financial services enterprises. We’re delighted to lead Arteria’s Series B and support the team’s vision to transform documentation in Financial Services.”

Chelcie Taylor, Investor at GGV Capital U.S., said: “We were immediately drawn to Shelby’s ability to communicate the scale—and opportunity—of the unstructured data problem. Her deep expertise and ability to attract incredible talent and drive growth, gave us confidence that Arteria could usher in a new AI-driven paradigm for how the modern financial institution engages with documentation.”

Citi backed Arteria through its strategic investments program by the Spread Products Investment Technologies (SPRINT) team, a group which invests in and incubates innovative, strategically relevant technology companies providing next-generation solutions to the financial markets. “We thrive on modernizing our franchise and delivering better services to our clients through digital innovation and partnership with industry-leading software providers such as Arteria AI,” said Mickey Bhatia, Head of Global Spread Products at Citi.

“Documentation is at the center of client experience, and there is significant value in getting it right,” said Fernando Dammert, COO of Financial Institutions Sales and Solutions at Citi. “Arteria AI enables us to collaborate more efficiently across functions and drive value for our clients.”

Arteria will use the funds to further accelerate go-to-market activities and continue to develop its market-leading artificial intelligence technology in financial services.

The Arteria AI Platform

The Arteria AI platform removes the need for legacy manual processes by structuring data at the onset of the documentation lifecycle. The platform then surfaces data and insights through intelligent workflow tools to speed up decision-making processes for all stakeholders with a highly intuitive front-end.

Built by subject matter experts, data scientists and technologists, the AI platform forms the documentation layer for banking processes and enables the real-time flow of data and analytics. By connecting documentation processes to the automation lifecycle, Arteria enables true straight-through-processing in core business activities across the enterprise.

High-growth field service management platform at the convergence of SaaS and payments helps customers simplify operations, streamline their sales processes, and improve collections

Complementary solutions align with current customer base’s needs, enhancing cross-sell opportunities and strengthening relationships

Further expands total addressable market

WEX, the global commerce platform that simplifies the business of running a business, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Payzer, a high-growth, cloud-based, field service management software provider. Upon expected completion, the acquisition will advance WEX’s growth strategy of expanding its product suite and creating additional cross-sell opportunities by providing a new, scalable SaaS solution for its approximately 150,000 small business customers who operate field service companies.

“We are thrilled at the prospect of providing an exciting new offering for our Mobility customers with the anticipated acquisition of Payzer,” said Melissa Smith, WEX’s Chair, Chief Executive Officer, and President. “Payzer's top-tier service offering and feature set is at the convergence of SaaS and payments. Payzer is an example of us finding a high-growth market with a customer base that overlaps with our current customer footprint, with a great product and service offering to address the needs of these customers.”

WEX is a leader in mobility solutions with more than 600,000 customers and approximately 19 million vehicles served on its Mobility platforms. Payzer is a full-featured field service management SaaS provider, offering scheduling, dispatching, customer communications, invoicing, sales proposals, supply ordering, and maintenance agreements. Payzer has initially focused on providing solutions to HVAC, plumbing, and roofing small businesses. These solutions are all woven together in an easy-to-use and intuitive software package available on both desktop and mobile applications. In addition, Payzer has deep relationships and distribution partnerships with key OEMs in the industries it serves, simplifying the relationship for customers with their upstream suppliers.

Transaction Details

Pursuant to the terms of the definitive agreement, WEX will acquire Payzer for total consideration of approximately $250 million, with additional contingent consideration of up to $11 million based on defined performance metrics, subject to certain working capital and other adjustments. WEX intends to finance the acquisition through its revolving credit facility and cash on hand.

The transaction is expected to be completed before the end of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions.

Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results

In a separate press release issued today, WEX announced its third quarter 2023 results and raised its full-year 2023 financial guidance.

As previously announced, WEX will host its third quarter earnings conference call today, October 26, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. (ET). The conference call will be webcast live on the Internet, and can be accessed along with the accompanying slides at the Investor Relations section of the WEX website, www.wexinc.com. The live conference call also can be accessed by dialing (888) 510-2008 or (646) 960-0306. The Conference ID number is 2237921. A replay of the webcast and the accompanying slides will be available on the Company's website.

Seasoned marketing veteran brings over 25 years of experience driving sales and marketing alignment

Xactly, the leader in intelligent revenue solutions, today announced that Jennifer McAdams is joining the organization as Chief Marketing Officer. With over two decades of experience leading marketing teams within the software industry, McAdams will partner with Xactly’s marketing and sales teams to create and execute integrated strategies that will accelerate growth and drive significant impact for Xactly.

McAdams has worked closely with Xactly over the past year, serving in an advisory CMO role as part of Vista Equity Partners’ Value Creation Team. Her partnership and the execution of a comprehensive marketing plan generated increased pipeline and higher quality leads for Xactly, inspiring the decision for McAdams to join permanently as a member of the senior leadership team.

“Jen’s comprehensive and inclusive approach is already paying dividends at Xactly,” said Arnab Mishra, Chief Operating Officer at Xactly. “Aligning Marketing with Product, Support, Customer Success and Renewals will propel the brand and pave the way for Xactly’s next stage of growth.” 

Prior to Vista Equity Partners, McAdams served in various marketing roles at Progress, SAP, Ixia and Kaseya, dedicating her career to implementing impactful marketing strategies that empower sales teams.

“Xactly is a proven category leader in sales technology, developed by salespeople and for salespeople,” said McAdams. “By rallying sales and marketing together under one umbrella with streamlined processes, common KPIs, and a shared sense of trust, we’re poised to help customers adopt a similar holistic approach and achieve even greater high-quality revenue in the future.”

Josh Main joins as Senior Vice President leading the revenue organization and Maggie Williams Dryden joins as Vice President and Head of Marketing

Mojix, a global leader in real-time item-level visibility solutions for supply chains, today announced it has named Josh Main as Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Partnerships, and Maggie Williams Dryden as Vice President, Head of Marketing. These key hires are part of the company’s ongoing initiative to build its global sales and marketing organization for strategic growth.

“The future is bright for Mojix,” said Main. “In a connected supply chain ecosystem, partnerships are a fundamental part in the exchange of information, finances, and goods. I'm looking forward to working with our world-class client base throughout EMEA, LATAM and the US. Having been named Google and SAP partner of the year multiple times with previous organizations, I’m confident that our partner ecosystem will thrive as we enter 2024.”

Josh is an accredited SaaS supply chain executive with a proven track record for building strategic partnerships, resulting in numerous successful company launches and exponential growth. In his most recent role as VP of Global Alliances at project44, Josh led a global team responsible for enabling and driving channel revenue for over 100 technology/strategic partners. Upon his exit, the ecosystem had contributed to over half of the revenue growth. Josh is passionate about continuous education and in addition to his undergraduate studies, he attended executive education at Kellogg and MIT focusing on scaling operations, managing strategic alliances, and supply chain analytics.

“As digital transformation continues for supply chains, it is now more important than ever for companies to have visibility into their goods while in motion and while at rest,” said Williams Dryden. “Mojix brings together the critical data infrastructure and visibility that will optimize investments that have already been made across warehouse, transportation, and order management systems. I’m excited to empower brands to reach greater profitability with Mojix.”

Maggie brings to Mojix more than 20 years of experience and leadership in driving value for growing organizations. Maggie specializes in digital orchestration, brand storytelling, and accelerating scale for enterprise software organizations in IoT and supply chain technology. Having worked for iconic brands including The Ritz-Carlton, her SaaS resume includes Triax Technologies, e2open, Manhattan Associates, Numerex, and SCI Solutions. Maggie holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism with an emphasis on strategic communications from the University of Minnesota.

“I’m truly excited to bring in sales, marketing and partnership expertise with Josh and Maggie joining the Mojix growth leadership team,” said Chris Cassidy, CEO of Mojix, “Their collective experience and expertise come to us at exactly the right time as we are building out a Mojix long-term strategic vision that will take the company into the next phase of growth.”

NICE was recognized for leadership in Contact Center Infrastructure, Interaction Analytics, and Workforce Engagement Management

NICE today announced that it has been recognized by destinationCRM’s 2023 CRM Industry Leadership Awards as a top five finalist across three major categories honoring the Best CRM Software, Solutions, and Innovators across the contact center industry. These three awards categories include Best Contact Center Infrastructure, Best Contact Center Interaction Analytics, and Best Workforce Engagement Management (WEM).

destinationCRM/CRM Magazine's 2023 Industry Leadership Awards highlight the top technology vendors in customer service, marketing, and sales, covering enterprise and midmarket/small business CRM suites, contact center infrastructure, contact center interaction analytics, marketing automation software and solutions, salesforce automation software and solutions, customer data platforms, business intelligence and analytics, workforce engagement management, and contact center outsourcing, based on feedback from leading industry analysts and consultants.

“We are once again pleased that destinationCRM’s judges acknowledged that NICE delivers an industry-leading combination of Contact Center Interaction Analytics and Infrastructure, and Workforce Engagement Management on the CXone open, cloud CX platform,” said Barak Eilam, CEO, NICE. “We are honored to see that our substantial investment in CX innovation along with our significant business success is reflected in these awards, as we enable organizations to differentiate through customer experience in today’s digital era."

Addressing NICE’s strengths in the “Best Contact Center Infrastructure” category, destinationCRM wrote, “CXone has emerged as the centerpiece of NICE’s entire contact center portfolio, and with good reason. Analysts have long said that CXone is a complete package that contains everything a contact center could ever want, and it’s only getting better with NICE’s ongoing development around its Enlighten AI engine.” According to industry analyst and awards judge Max Ball, principal analyst at Forrester Research, “With CXone, NICE has melded functionality into a single platform that provides omnichannel customer service, full workforce optimization capabilities, and powerful AI.”

Referencing NICE’s position in the “Best Contact Center Interaction Analytics Category,” destinationCRM.com noted, “NICE has been a stalwart of the interaction analytics space for decades, and 2023 has been no different. Its CXone Interaction Analytics is AI-powered, omnichannel, and able to identify trends and root causes across 100 percent of interactions—whether they’re voice, text, or digital—to understand what was communicated, identify outcomes, and evaluate the overall experience. Analysts expect the product suite to only get better and further NICE’s dominance in this area as the company continues to incorporate its Enlighten AI engine more deeply.”

Addressing NICE’s third award, “Best Workforce Engagement Management (WEM),” Sheila McGee-Smith, founder and principal analyst of McGee-Smith Analytics, said, “Integrated seamlessly with a CX platform? Check! Best-of-breed solution with any contact center solution? Check! Continually raising the bar? Check!” Added the publication, “But NICE is not just in it to check off boxes. Its solutions are the real deal, and the company keeps pushing the envelope as it more deeply integrates its Enlighten AI engine into the larger CXone platform, helping to simplify a very difficult process.”

Added Rebecca Wettemann, founder and CEO of Valoir, “NICE continues to be one of the most attractive WEM vendors for customers with very complex requirements.”

Abridge, the leader in generative AI for clinical documentation, announced a Series B raise of $30 million, led by Spark Capital. The round also included existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as several leading healthcare innovators including CVS Health Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Lifepoint Health, Mayo Clinic, SCAN Group, UC Investments (University of California), and the American College of Cardiology. This investment will support large-scale health system rollouts and accelerate product advances that will create additional value for patients, clinicians, and health systems.

“Spark Capital is proud to lead this industry-defining investment in Abridge,” said Will Reed, a General Partner at Spark Capital focused on growth stage AI investments. “We chose to invest in Abridge based on their deep AI-native talent led by Zack Lipton (Chief Scientific Officer), their commitment to building solutions around deep clinical workflows, and the overwhelming positivity from customers.”

Abridge’s software automatically converts a patient-clinician conversation into a structured clinical note draft in real-time, leveraging their proprietary AI pipeline. The solution has been proven to save clinicians over two hours per day from administrative burden that previously took time away from patients and detracted from clinician work-life balance. In recent implementations, over 91% of notes across over 40 specialties were drafted solely with their AI, requiring minimal input from the clinician. The solution has been uniquely designed with trust and auditability, providing the ability to quickly see source data from any AI-generated summary.

“We share Abridge’s vision of doing all we can to help clinicians focus on their patients, rather than needing to multitask with documentation,” said Dr. John D. Halamka, President of the Mayo Clinic Platform.

“At UCI Health (University of California Irvine), our dedicated focus is on enhancing operational efficiency and simplifying documentation for our physicians and caregivers. The decision to invest in Abridge reflects our commitment to achieving these goals and, importantly, addressing clinician burnout. We recognize the impact of streamlined processes in alleviating the burdens on our healthcare professionals,” said Scott Joslyn, Chief Innovation Officer of UCI Health. “We are excited to forge this partnership with Abridge and Dr. Shiv Rao’s team.”

A few weeks ago, Epic named Abridge the first Pal in its “Partners and Pals” program. Abridge’s solution is now available for a deep unique integration in Epic’s clinical workflows, giving clinicians the ability to seamlessly integrate real-time, structured summaries of patient conversations. The partnership also enables full implementation in as little as two weeks. There have already been several successful health system deployments of Abridge’s Epic-integrated solution, including The University of Kansas Health System, UPMC, and Emory Healthcare, among many others.

“We are encouraged by the enthusiasm of thousands of clinicians who use Abridge every day and we look forward to collaborating with this talented team,” said Vijay Patel, managing partner and co-founder of CVS Health Ventures. “Our shared focus on innovation in healthcare can help enhance the work Abridge is doing across a range of clinical use cases including primary care.”

“The investment and support of these iconic institutions is a game-changer for Abridge, dramatically accelerating what we can do to solve a critical issue facing every health system,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, co-founder and CEO of Abridge. “We are grateful to have an extraordinary and rapidly expanding group of partners who share our ambition to preserve the empathy and humanity in healthcare by enabling clinicians to be more present with their patients.”

Funding propels Upfort’s efforts to empower businesses in building cyber resilience

Upfort, a cutting-edge cyber security and insurance platform, today announced it has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round led by SYN Ventures, with participation of Eniac Ventures and Fika Ventures, which co-led Upfort’s seed round. This investment advances Upfort’s goal to simplify the way brokers and insurers sell insurance and shield their clients from cyber threats – a trillion dollar drain on the economy, with ransomware attacks alone affecting 66% of organizations in 2022.

Upfort revolutionizes how cyber risk is assessed and managed, empowering insurers and brokers to dramatically reduce their clients’ exposure to cyber attacks. In fact, in a recent 18-month study of a leading cyber insurance program, policyholders that fully implemented Upfort Shield saw significantly fewer security breaches and claims, with the likelihood of filing a claim decreasing by 80%. Upfort allows organizations to fully address their cyber security needs–from risk management tools to insurance policies–through one easy-to-use platform.

“Upfort was founded as a comprehensive cyber platform to safeguard businesses against evolving threats and new risks. The new investment will enable us to build on these efforts as we continue our mission of accelerating the world’s journey toward cyber resilience,” said Xing Xin, Upfort CEO and Co-Founder. “We are grateful for the ongoing support of all of our investors, including SYN Ventures, as we fundamentally transform the economics of cyber risk. Today’s announcement is a testament to their trust and support of our work to bolster cyber resilience for companies worldwide.”

Businesses can leverage the best in modern cyber protection by partnering with Upfort, and there are a myriad of benefits to them, including transforming a historically cumbersome and costly process: cyber insurance underwriting. Upfort’s proprietary cybersecurity technology streamlines the cyber insurance purchase and underwriting process for brokers, insurers and their clients. These offerings holistically protect organizations against the leading causes of cyber claims. Upfort’s AI-powered email protection, network defense, security training, and ongoing monitoring are trained on and tuned to prevent incidents causing widespread financial damage to businesses.

“At SYN Ventures, we wholeheartedly believe in the Upfort team’s vision–and ability–to transform the way businesses approach cyber security protection and resilience overall,” said Ryan Permeh, Operating Partner at SYN Ventures. “In an age of rising cybercrime, Upfort equips organizations with the tools they need to protect themselves against the threat of cyberattacks, prevent losses, and analyze risk more intelligently. We are excited to spearhead the Series A funding round for Upfort - can’t wait to see all it does next.”

The Series A fund was led by SYN Ventures, with additional participation from Eniac Ventures, Fika Ventures, Altai Ventures, Chaos Ventures, Aquila Capital Partners, Gaingels and Cyber Mentor Fund.

Today’s announcement comes amid a series of pivotal developments and company milestones for Upfort. Last month, Upfort announced its transition from Paladin Cyber to Upfort, reflecting the company’s expanded capabilities as a one-stop shop for businesses’ cyber security and insurance needs.