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News Release Digital Asset Direct

Jason Carris Buys Independent Print Shop and Converts Business to Minuteman Press Franchise in Red Bank, NJ

Minuteman Press International Inc

Jason Carris is the new owner of Minuteman Press in Red Bank, NJ, which is part of the Middletown Township. Utilizing the Minuteman Press Franchise Conversion Program, Jason purchased independent print shop All American Print & Copy Center, which was in business for 40 years, and took over the location in September 2021. Jason says, “ The biggest advantage of buying this business was having an established clientele. We did our research and made sure the owners were respected by their clients. There was also 40 years of history and track record as well.” What is it like for Jason to be a new local business owner in Red Bank? He says, “Once you make that leap, it’s a very exciting experience to own your own business. We have a vibrant community here and I see the long-term growth potential. I am looking forward to making Minuteman Press a real pillar and trusted business partner in Red Bank / Middletown Township.” Jason further explains, “I think we have a tremendous opportunity to expand our wide format printing business with banners, posters, and signage remaining in high demand for our clients. I am also looking forward to bolstering our in-house mailing and direct mail services to help other local businesses reach their target audiences.” Prior to franchising, Jason worked in medical publishing and digital marketing. He also ran a number of small consulting businesses in his career. He says, “A combination of things – including the pandemic and economic forces – made me decide to go fully into business ownership. My wife Renee has an entrepreneurial spirt as well.” He adds, “ Minuteman Press International and our Regional Vice President Jim Galasso guided us through the purchase of the business step by step. Jim made the process easier to manage and I couldn’t have done this on my own without the help from the team at Minuteman Press.” Why Minuteman Press? Jason answers, “We did a lot of research and Minuteman Press jumped out to us on a number of levels. They were on a lot of top franchise lists, they appealed to people who hadn’t owned a business, and the business seemed easy to learn. In addition to being a highly respected franchise, Minuteman Press had a reasonable cost of entry and I appreciate their cap on royalties.” He continues, “The support has been wonderful. Because there is a 40-year history of the independent print shop we purchased, we have been transitioning the business. It’s great to have the training and support especially since I had not run a business of this scope before.” When asked about the keys to making that leap and becoming a business owner, Jason shares, “I think the two biggest keys to owning a business are to really make sure you feel 100% comfortable with the business model, and to believe in your products and services. Also, it is important to be proactive but also have patience after buying the business. Think about growth potential, and understand there is a learning curve. That’s normal for everyone.” Minuteman Press in Red Bank is located at 518 Route 35, Red Bank, NJ 07701. For more information, call 732-758-6200 or visit their website: https://minuteman.com/us/locations/nj/red-bank. Learn more about #1 rated Minuteman Press franchise opportunities at https://minutemanpressfranchise.com. For more information on the Minuteman Press Franchise Conversion Program, visit https://bit.ly/minutemanpressconversions. Contact Details Minuteman Press International Chris Biscuiti +1 631-249-1370 cbiscuiti@mpihq.com Company Website https://minutemanpressfranchise.com

January 24, 2022 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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News Release

Aver, the World’s First Fully Decentralized Web3 Betting Platform, Closes $7.5M Seed Funding Round

Aver

Aver, a decentralized peer-to-peer betting exchange built on the Solera blockchain, today announced it raised $7.5 million in seed funding. The raise was led by Jump Crypto, which along with its affiliate Jump Capital, is a key player in both the crypto and sports betting venture capital domain. The project also drew backing from other venture capital heavyweights, including Mirana Ventures, Susquehanna International Group, Genesis Block Ventures, Serum Ventures, Blue Pool Capital, MEXC, Gate.io, Petrock Capital and Solar Eco Fund. The seed round will be used to help bring the world’s first decentralized Web3 betting platform to market as well as fund development and legal regulatory operating costs. The platform expects to launch in mid-2022, after a closed beta in Q1 2022. The innovation underlying Aver is a blockchain protocol which enables peer-to-peer matching of bets in a way that does not require a ‘trusted middleman’ - as is the case in a traditional bookmaker or exchange such as Betfair. This enables betting at a fraction of the cost as compared and eliminates counterparty risk. Aver has ambitions to move to an open-source structure over time, allowing for third parties to build applications on top of the technology, such as new features, interfaces and markets, and supporting the continued development of the Aver ecosystem. The investor line-up represents some highly strategic investment partners for the ambitious early-stage project - including heavyweights in both the sports betting and crypto trading domains and connections to some of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. Peter Johnson, Partner at Jump Crypto - “At Jump, we are excited about the future of Web3, sports betting, and the confluence of these two areas. We believe Aver’s approach to decentralized sports betting can increase transparency, reduce costs, and enable operations at a global scale.” Dean Carlson, Head of Digital Asset Investments at Susquehanna - “Aver brings real innovation to the betting industry. Its open and decentralized mechanism of exchange has the potential to really disrupt the traditional betting markets - facilitating more fluid trading, greater price transparency and returning a significant chunk of the profit margins back to users.” David Toh, Partner at Mirana Ventures - “In many respects, blockchain and Web3 technology is still in its infancy, and we are still in the early stages of wider adoption. Part of the challenge ahead is designing a product that offers users all of the many benefits of decentralization - but without any compromise to user experience and ease-of-use versus traditional platforms. From what we’ve seen to date, we are confident that the Aver team can deliver on that.” The Aver platform is built on Solana - a blockchain network which has gathered much attention in recent months, as it boasts transaction costs and processing times approximately 1/1,000th of that on Ethereum. The team behind Aver has already brought a proof of concept technology to fruition as part of the Solana Ignition Hackathon, claiming a top spot and recognition among the hundreds of promising applications of the blockchain technology in the decentralized finance (‘DeFi’) space. For more information on Aver, please visit the project on Twitter @AverBet or at aver.bet. ABOUT AVER Founded in 2021, Aver is a decentralized peer-to-peer betting exchange built on the Solana blockchain and the world’s first decentralized Web3 betting exchange. Contact Details Hot Paper Lantern Michael Adorno +1 212-931-6143 madorno@hotpaperlantern.com Company Website https://aver.bet/

January 24, 2022 09:01 AM Eastern Standard Time

NICOLAS JIMENEZ NAMED DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS FOR COMCAST HOUSTON

Comcast Houston

Nicolas Jimenez has been named director of Government Affairs for Comcast’s Houston Region. In this role, Jimenez will be responsible for overseeing regulatory, franchising, and public policy matters across the entire region. “I’m so excited to join the terrific Comcast team in our Houston region and continue to build on the excellent relationships we have with our government and community partners,” Jimenez said. “My family and I are thrilled to now be part of America’s most diverse city and to a region known for growth, hospitality, and innovation.” Before joining the Houston team, Jimenez led Comcast’s government affairs efforts in South Metro Denver and Southern Colorado. He also worked at Comcast’s Philadelphia headquarters, where he served as national partnerships lead for Internet Essentials, Comcast’s signature community impact initiative aimed at helping income-constrained households get online. Jimenez is a passionate lifelong learner and community-oriented leader, who has a long history of development and paying it forward. “We are excited to have Nicolas join our Comcast Houston team,” said Toni Beck, vice president of External Affairs, Comcast Houston. “His expertise and background in government affairs, passion for digital equity and meaningful stakeholder engagement will be an invaluable asset as we deepen our connection with communities and customers, remain laser-focused on closing the digital divide and grow Comcast’s business in the Houston area.” Jimenez replaces Melinda Little who was promoted to a government affairs role in the Company’s central division. Jimenez is a graduate of Temple University, Fox School of Business. He is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who enjoys volunteering and spending time with his wife and kids. Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company that connects people to moments that matter. We are principally focused on broadband, aggregation, and streaming with 57 million customer relationships across the United States and Europe. We deliver broadband, wireless, and video through our Xfinity, Comcast Business, and Sky brands; create, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, Universal Studio Group, Sky Studios, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, multiple cable networks, Peacock, NBCUniversal News Group, NBC Sports, Sky News, and Sky Sports; and provide memorable experiences at Universal Parks and Resorts in the United States and Asia. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information. Contact Details Foti Kallergis +1 832-986-0196 Foti_Kallergis@comcast.com Company Website https://houston.comcast.com/

January 24, 2022 05:00 AM Central Standard Time

Spotlight Sports Group Announces Title Sponsorship of the FSGA Winter Conference

Spotlight Sports Group

Spotlight Sports Group, a world-leading technology, content and media company specializing in sports betting and fantasy sports, announced the company will be the title sponsor of the upcoming Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA) Winter Conference at the LINQ Hotel in Las Vegas on Feb. 15-16. The FSGA Winter Conference brings together fantasy sports, sports betting and gaming executives from across the world to network and discuss major trends in the marketplace, new technologies and emerging legislation and regulation impacting the entire sports gaming industry. In addition to breakout panels and keynotes, the conference features an awards ceremony and an innovation pitch competition. Spotlight Sports Group’s SVP of Business Development, Rick Wolf is a founding member of the FSGA and will co-host the event. As the title sponsor of the event, Wolf will also provide the opening remarks to start the conference focused on the massive expansion of sports betting and gaming set to take place for 2022. “With the emerging legalization of sports betting across America, specifically in states with large populations like California and Texas, companies have a limited time to take advantage of the gold rush. In 2022 alone, we’re predicting the number of American sports bettors with legal access to sports betting could double, from less than 40% to close to 75%,” said Wolf. “This year’s conference will explore all the ways businesses can innovate and create sustainable revenue streams before it's too late to scale efficiently.” In addition to the title sponsorship, the company will co-sponsor a free-to-play game for all attendees alongside the FSGA. Spotlight developed the free-to-play game through its self-service game engine. The game concept provides the FSGA audience a proof of concept of how companies can quickly bring to market a coveted user engagement tool like free-to-play games. The prop-style free-to-play game will be available to all attendees and will feature a prize of an autographed NFL jersey. “For more than 20 years, the FSGA has been at the forefront of progress for the fantasy, sports betting and gaming industries,” said Harry von Behr, Spotlight’s managing director of sport and co-US CEO. “Spotlight is one of the only companies to provide a full-service technology and content offering across the entire fantasy sports, sports betting and gaming industries. The sponsorship is a natural extension of our capabilities, providing value and insights to all those in attendance.” For more information regarding the conference and other attendees here: https://thefsga.org/fsga-winter-conference/ ABOUT SPOTLIGHT SPORTS GROUP Spotlight Sports Group (owned by Exponent Private Equity) is a leading technology, content and media business specializing in sports betting. Evolved from the Racing Post Group, Spotlight Sports Group engages millions of people directly through Racing Post, Pickswise, Free Super Tips, Fantasy Alarm and myracing. The company also has decades of experience in powering growth and conversion for the world’s biggest sportsbooks and media companies, delivering best-in-class technology and expert scalable content experiences in more than 70 languages. Contact Details Michael Adorno +1 212-931-6143 madorno@hotpaperlantern.com Company Website https://www.spotlightsportsgroup.com/en_us/

January 20, 2022 12:08 PM Eastern Standard Time

Shekel Technology Drives its First US Autonomous Store

SHEKEL

SHEKEL (ASX: SBW), the Israeli-based leader in artificial intelligence-based (AI) electronic weighing systems, will see its groundbreaking product identification technology implemented in the world’s first fully first autonomous store opening shortly in Fayetteville, Georgia. Nourish + Bloom, a new retail chain which aims to offer healthy food to communities across the United States, will feature Shekel’s smart solutions for accurate and real-time identification of shelf products in its flagship store due to open on January 21. Developed for the global retail and healthcare services sectors, the technology enables the rapid implementation of autonomous shopping at reasonable costs, while completely maintaining the buyers’ privacy. Shekel’s technology will combine with Hitachi’s consumer tracking technology in the Nourish + Bloom chain. Customers will use a mobile app, developed by UST, make their purchases from product-aware shelves, and have payment channeled directly to their payment systems, completely eliminating waiting in line at checkouts. The store also includes a bistro offering a wide range of healthy fresh food to order, where the customer can sit in a café to eat on the spot or have delivered. In addition to the autonomous shopping experience, customers can have their purchases delivered to their homes by dedicated robots. The N+B chain, which has a social and environmental agenda, promotes a unique concept that it says redefines the "traditional corner store in the neighborhood" by focusing on the personal connection of the neighborhood retailer while introducing sustainability and autonomous checkout technology. The highest priority is given to local brands to reduce the carbon footprint. In addition, fresh food products and the importance of care and health are high on the chain's priorities while adhering to the highest standards. The new store is the first expression of its kind worldwide, resulting from the unique collaboration of three advanced technology companies, Hitachi, SHEKEL, and UST who have partnered to create an innovative and advanced system for the retail world: SHEKEL's product identification technology enables accurate and real-time product recognition technology; Hitachi's 3D LiDAR technology, enables monitoring customers and linking products to their personal shopping cart without compromising the customer privacy; while UST developed the in-store management systems and the store app. UST also manages the project, integrates between all three and makes the application accessible to the store customer. Jamie and Jilea Hemmings, founders of Nourish + Bloom Market, are excited to redefine what the future of grocery shopping looks like: “Through our partnerships with UST, and Shekel for autonomous and smart shelf technologies, we will be able to increase access to healthier food options as we continue to expand around the United States." Rami Bahar, Chief Business Development Manager of SHEKEL stated: “We are proud to partner with a new retail chain that promotes and operates on the values of innovation, sustainability and community. SHEKEL is at the forefront of retail tech with an outstanding combination of patented IoT sensors and artificial intelligence-based algorithms, resulting in the best product recognition technology available today. Our groundbreaking technology enables a scalable implementation of autonomous shopping, at reasonable costs, without operational limitations while completely maintaining the privacy of the shoppers. The partnership with Hitachi and UST, each a leader in its field, enables us to offer a holistic and complete product, with an attractive return on investment model that allows, for the first time, a profitable rollout of autonomous store networks." How it works To buy in the autonomous store, the customer downloads an app and enters the means of payment only once. When the buyer arrives at the store, a barcode is used for identification. Selected products are placed in the shopping cart, and at that moment the smart shelving system identifies the purchase, knows how to refund returned products and informs the retailer of what was taken, anything that may be missing, and what was not returned to its place. On the successful transaction, the buyer exits the store, and the receipt is sent to the app. Following the launch of the flagship store in Fayetteville, GA the chain intends to develop a network of franchise branches across the US with the same concept over the next few years. SHEKEL and the other partners will be contracted as providers of the autonomous store platform. About Shekel – Doing Magic with Gravity SHEKEL has been at the forefront of the digital weighing industry for the past four decades. Thanks to a unique combination of innovative technology, sophisticated software, artificial intelligence models and advanced algorithms, SHEKEL's weighing systems have proven their ability to provide weighing solutions with maximum precision, as well as gaining recognition of their products and indicative solutions for a wide range of industries, from retail and medical to science and security. SHEKEL strives to help its partners reach their goals and serve their customers in the best way, and to improve the lives of millions all over the world. Leveraging many years of experience and countless success stories, our aspiration to preserve SHEKEL’s status as a leader in the digital weighing industry is embodied and defined in our basic principle: the customer is at the center of everything that we do. That magic solution that blends many years of thought leadership, combined with a mindset of entrepreneurship and innovation, is what motivates our team to continue to develop differentiating technologies, and in this is the source of SHEKEL'S appeal. The protected combination of SHEKEL patents, which combine weighing technologies with artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies has led to the development of our "product-conscious technology". SHEKEL is committed to continue to innovate and expand into global markets. Our website: www.shekelonline.com About N&B Nourish + Bloom Market is the first autonomous grocery store with robotic delivery in the United States and the first African American owned autonomous grocery store in the world. Nourish + Bloom is on a mission to make eating healthy and convenient. We believe that everyone deserves to eat healthy. Nourish + Bloom offers locally sourced craft items, such as produce, meats, baked goods, dairy and prepared meals, alongside everyday convenience items with no checkout. The benefit of autonomous shopping, vending, and robotic delivery means you have 24/7/365 access to real food and environmentally friendly products anytime. All products provided at Nourish and Bloom Markets are made with the highest quality ingredients that are minimally processed. www.nourishandbloommarket.com / About UST Born digital, UST have always believed in the power of technology to engineer a better future/ UST helps the world’s best companies succeed through transformation. Using a nimble, creative approach UST works together from start to finish to realize their customers’ vision for tomorrow. With the right talent and tools, UST crafts disruptive solutions, and provide the resources and expertise clients need to bring them to life. About Hitachi Vantara Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., guides our customers from what's now to what's next by solving their digital challenges. Working alongside each customer, we apply our unmatched industrial and digital capabilities to their data and applications to benefit both business and society. More than 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies trust Hitachi Vantara to help them develop new revenue streams, unlock competitive advantages, lower costs, enhance customer experiences, and deliver social and environmental value. Visit us at www.hitachivantara.com. Contact Details SHEKEL Ifat Yoffe +972 54-345-6250 ifat@shekelonline.com Company Website https://shekelonline.com/

January 20, 2022 10:45 AM Eastern Standard Time

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NYPA and SIGA Explore Using Level-0 Monitoring Technology To Overcome Cybersecurity Gaps in the Energy Sector

SIGA OT Solutions

The New York Power Authority (NYPA), America's largest state power organization and SIGA OT Solutions, a leading OT cybersecurity company, formed a collaboration in 2019 as part of a New York State economic development partnership, and have published a white paper based on their findings, called Overcoming Cybersecurity Gaps in the Energy Sector: How to Address Stuxnet-Type Scenarios Using Level-0 Monitoring. NYPA identified cyberattacks as a major threat to its operations in the coming years. NYPA’s cyber division—together with the AGILe team—aimed to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks on its facilities. The main objective of the collaboration is to reveal otherwise undetectable cyber threats—such as unique Stuxnet-type scenarios—using SigaGuard, an advanced electrical signal conditioning and analysis solution. SigaGuard is the leading process-oriented detection (POD) solution based on Level 0 information which cannot be tampered with or masked. Cybersecurity gaps in OT environments need to be addressed taking a multi-level approach, with ongoing threat analysis to minimize the attack surface of potential hackers. When considering adversary tactics and threat models, there is an apparent gap in the field level of the process and sensors, Level 0. This gap was exploited in several cases in recent years and can cause dangerous situations—which can impact the OT process and endanger lives. The recently published white paper describes how NYPA and SIGA collaborated in a simulated attack environment to test these scenarios. The sequence of attacks was carefully designed and executed by NYPA’s AGILe lab team and cyber experts, focusing on the main cyber scenarios which affect the real operation of a sub-station with either false or no reporting to the control level. The test outcome validates the significance of Level 0 monitoring as a holistic approach towards OT cybersecurity, clearly demonstrating the unique advantages of combining POD and Level 0 data. Focusing on electric signals—before they are converted into data packets and filtered by the PLC—is probably the most effective technique for accurately identifying an operation anomaly, regardless of the cause. It can bring the highest possible level of visibility into process equipment and sensor functioning, closing an intractable gap against determined adversaries. Link to white paper: https://sigasec.com/resources/overcoming-cybersecurity-gaps-in-the-energy-sector-how-to-address-stuxnet-type-scenarios-using-level-0-monitoring/ Alan Ettlinger, Sr. Director, Research, Technology Development and Innovation at New York Power Authority, noted: “NYPA places a priority on preventing any downtime, failure or malfunctions of its mission-critical infrastructure, and we invest a great deal of effort and resources to ensure resilience and security. SigaGuard’s monitoring system that detects anomalous behavior and provides real-time validation of process data was demonstrated in a substation environment, which is one of our critical assets, and conforms with NYPA’s innovative deployment plan in the areas of process resilience and security.” Amir Samoiloff, co-founder and CEO of SIGA, added: “SIGA’s cooperation with NYPA has demonstrated a strong and strategic bond with a major utility in the U.S., with the highest professional conduct. This collaboration became possible due to the excellent expertise and motivation of the NYPA team. SIGA is looking forward to deepening its partnership with NYPA’s elite cyber protection team by further integrating SIGA’s cyber security solution, SigaGuard, into additional NYPA critical infrastructure centers.” About NYPA NYPA is the largest state public power organization in the US, operating 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. More than 80 percent of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower. NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It finances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. For more information visit www.nypa.gov SIGA OT Solutions Developer of SigaGuard, a technology platform that providesincipient failure detection for infrastructure operators to improve the reliability, safety, and cybersecurity of their assets. SIGA’s technology is US patented and ISO / IEC 27001 certified providing OT monitoring, anomaly detection and cybersecurity solutions for commercial, industrial, critical infrastructure, ICS and SCADA systems. SIGA Data Security and SIGA OT Solutions Inc., a Delaware corporation, boasts satisfied customers in the United States, Europe, Singapore, Japan, and Israel, and were named a Gartner "Cool Vendor" for Industrial IoT and OT Security, and is a recipient of the EU Research and Innovation program - Horizon 2020. For more information visit www.sigasec.com Contact Details SIGA OT Solutions Ilan Sosnovitch +972 50-327-3092 ilan.s@sigasec.com Company Website https://sigasec.com/

January 20, 2022 09:03 AM Eastern Standard Time

DistroTV Launches Free-to-Stream DistroTV Español Channel Bundle

DistroTV

DistroTV, the largest, independent, free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platform, today debuted DistroTV Español. The new free-to-stream channel bundle features 20+ Spanish-speaking channels and will be available to Spanish speakers in the U.S., as well as Spanish speakers in Latin America. This comes on the heels of the streaming platform’s push to expand its global audience footprint into both territories. This signals the start of what will be a strong 2022 for DistroTV, with more milestones on the horizon, including the FAST platform’s very first original movie premiere. “Our mission is to provide free-to-stream content to our growing and increasingly diverse global audience,” said Navdeep Saini, co-founder and CEO of DistroScale, parent company of DistroTV. “Given the fact that roughly more than 53 million people speak Spanish in the U.S., we could not be more excited to extend our free-to-stream content to this important, often under-served audience, as well as in Latin America. 2022 is all about breaking ground, and with that, breaking down content barriers so that the most viewers globally can consume content that is thought-provoking, stimulating, inclusive, and enjoyable.” DistroTV Español brings both Spanish- and English-speaking channels to new countries, such as Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Bolivia and Ecuador, and expands upon the streaming platform’s current Spanish offerings in the US, Canada, and Europe. "The decision to bring DistroTV to Latin America presents a novel and innovative proposal,” said Ricardo Alarcón, chairman of Mexican-Colombian production firm TRIPTIC. “It means a significant amount of content produced in Latin America will be made easily available to audiences in the region. The current state of the market and audiences is right for an ad-supported OTT to achieve great success in Colombia and Latin America." “We are thrilled to partner with DistroTV as we continue to expand our digital footprint in the U.S. and Latin America,” said Victor Montilla, president of Olympusat International. “The addition of Olympusat’s free, ad-supported streaming TV channels to DistroTV’s platform provide a vast variety of scripted series, movies, and content from around the world, as well as multi-genre HD programming to Hispanic households across the Americas.” DistroTV Español currently includes the following channels, and is forecast to grow: Movies Cine Real: Focuses on award-winning and independently produced movies and series from Spain and Latin America, presented in their original Spanish-language format. Cine Sureño: Top-notch contemporary films and series from around the world, dubbed or produced in Spanish. Focuses on dramas with some action. Horrorfy: A channel dedicated to the most suspenseful and nail-biting horror, sci-fi, and thrillers from Spain, Latin America and around the world. Juntos: Family-oriented programming produced exclusively from the Hispanic audience Top Cine: A premium selection of the best scripted series and miniseries from around the globe. Features a thought-after library of original productions and exclusive fiction series appealing to the US Hispanic audience. Entertainment & Lifestyle Chiquilines: Fun and educational programming from around the world, as well as interactive entertainment that the whole family can enjoy. WappTV: Creates cultural change via gender perspective, participation and collaboration, moving to a more open, friendly community. Canela TV: Free Latino TV - with over 8000 hours of premium Spanish and English Content, it is the premier destination for US Hispanics! News & Opinion Euronews Español DistroTV continues to grow and diversify its 150+ channel content library. The platform’s strong programming lineup includes a mix of popular film and television shows, such Bloomberg, EuroNews, People TV, Magellan TV and TD Ameritrade network, as well as independent channels like Black Enterprise, as well as Kweli TV, which spotlights the rich history and global diversity of the Black community; and Desi TV, the premiere South Asian free channels. Audiences can enjoy these channels for free anywhere across a wide array of CTV and mobile devices, as well as on the web by visiting Distro.tv -- no registration, credit cards, or signup required to stream for FREE. To become a viewer and / or understand which channels are available for live and / or Video-on-Demand (VoD) access in the various countries, visit https://www.distro.tv or install DistroTV for free on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV, LG TV, Samsung TV, Sony TV, iOS, or Android. To access DistroTV Español, visit https://www.distro.tv/espanol/. About DistroTV DistroTV is the largest, independent, free, ad-supported streaming television service on the market. Launched in 2019 by parent company DistroScale, the platform caters to a multicultural, rapidly expanding, globally-minded audience of passionate viewers in the US, Canada, and UK. Satisfying the growing demand for premium video content in multiple languages, DistroTV delivers premium video content from producers globally across North America, the UK, Bollywood, Latin America, China, Southeast Asia, and growing. With more than 150 channels plus thousands of Video on Demand (VOD) shows, DistroTV cultivates content that covers a broad spectrum of topics to connect with people’s passion points around Entertainment, Lifestyle, Sports, News, Documentaries and International Content in live, linear and video-on-demand formats. DistroTV is available on the web, as well as through Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Apple TV, LG TV, Samsung TV, Sony TV, and iOS and Android devices. About DistroScale DistroTV is the first direct-to-consumer offering from DistroScale, a technology company founded in 2013 and known for providing a global clientele of thousands of media properties with the industry’s most comprehensive video platform for web, apps, and streaming. DistroScale is an all-in-one solution providing infrastructure, content delivery, curation, analytics and a full suite of monetization options. Video enabled by DistroScale reaches more than 250 million visitors per month. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. To become a DistroTV viewer, visit www.distro.tv. More information on DistroScale & DistroTV is available at www.distroscale.com. Contact Details Mackenzie Gavel +1 631-739-5716 mackenzie@kitehillpr.com Company Website https://www.distro.tv

January 20, 2022 09:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

BirchAI RAISES $3.1M SEED ROUND FOR HEALTHCARE CUSTOMER SUPPORT PLATFORM POWERED BY CUTTING EDGE AI

BirchAI

BirchAI, the leading AI platform for healthcare customer support, today announced $3.1 million in seed financing led by the AI-focused venture capital firm Radical Ventures. Leveraging groundbreaking natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, the company is set to significantly improve efficiency in the healthcare sector by automating resource-intensive aspects of customer support including the summarization, classification and analysis of customer calls. BirchAI is a spinout from the Allen Institute for AI (AI2), one of the world’s leading AI research organizations. In addition to Radical and AI2, Flare Capital Partners and WRF Capital are participating in the funding round. In many sub-sectors of healthcare, front-line phone-based customer support teams are staffed by clinically or otherwise highly trained employees. The industry already faced the retirement bulge of Baby Boomer staff aging out of these roles, and the pandemic has made finding qualified support staff a pressing issue for the medical device, pharmaceutical and health insurance industries. Using state-of-the-art AI, BirchAI is tackling this costly dilemma by automating after-call work for large enterprises, while simultaneously capturing the data from these calls to provide customer insights. BirchAI was founded by Kevin Terrell, Sumant Kawale, and Yinhan Liu. The team has worked together in AI applications before starting BirchAI, and brings together deep expertise in cutting-edge AI, healthcare, and enterprise AI deployment. “Many calls in the healthcare industry are complex, lengthy, and costly, due to significant documentation requirements,” said Kevin Terrell, co-founder and CEO of BirchAI. “Our initial focus is on complex calls, which generate over $10 billion in annual costs to the healthcare system. With BirchAI, companies will make it easier for their employees to document and analyze calls. Our platform lowers costs and improves the quality of the customer and employee experiences.” BirchAI’s world-class AI team is led by its co-founder and CTO Yinhan Liu. Prior to BirchAI Yinhan was a star researcher at Facebook AI Research (FAIR), where she was lead author on some of Facebook’s most important work in NLP, including the well-known RoBERTa and BART papers. Yinhan is responsible for building BirchAI’s NLP technology from the ground up, allowing for accurate language documentation and summarization at a greater scale. “The BirchAI team brings extraordinary technological depth and industry experience to tackling a very real problem facing the healthcare industry,” said Radical Ventures Partner Rob Toews, who has joined the BirchAI board. “The BirchAI NLP platform goes beyond delivering cost savings and efficiencies. AI technology of this nature also unlocks insights that can fuel strategic product and business decisions for its customers.” WHY BIRCH.AI MATTERS Leading-edge NLP can now be applied to the healthcare industry’s most costly customer support challenges. Integration allows for a simple platform deployment so there’s no disruption to critical business and customer service. The platform detects trends well ahead of traditional analysis allowing for an earlier warning system if a potential harmful pattern appears. Automation of call handling lowers After Call Work on average by 50 to 75%, saving time and money while improving employee engagement and customer satisfaction. The additional funding will accelerate the Birch.ai team’s growth, address its customer backlog, and allow the company to advance its AI platform. BirchAI is currently working with multiple Fortune 500 healthcare companies, including a payer and a leading medical device firm. The company is also focusing on growing its client base in the pharmaceutical sector to help with the pharmacovigilance process. “BirchAI’s intelligent automation platform transforms and digitizes some of the most complex and manual call-based workflows in healthcare, enabling customer support teams to provide higher-quality patient care guided by new clinical insight, while also reducing the cost of this care,” said Parth Desai at Flare Capital Partners. “Flare Capital is excited to support the BirchAI team on their mission.” For more information about BirchAI, please visit www.birch.ai or follow Birch_ai on Twitter and LinkedIn. About BirchAI: BirchAI was founded in 2020 by leading experts in artificial intelligence, process improvement and the healthcare industry. Backed by the Allen Institute of AI (AI2), Birch.ai provides a solution to tackle fundamental problems within our healthcare system through AI and natural language processing. About Radical Ventures: Radical Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in people applying artificial intelligence to shape the future of how we live, work and play. From healthcare and financial services to infrastructure and manufacturing, Radical partners with entrepreneurs who understand the transformational power of AI. Learn more at www.radical.vc. About AI2: AI2 was founded in 2014 with the singular focus of conducting high-impact research and engineering in the field of artificial intelligence, all for the common good. AI2 is the creation of Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, and is led by Dr. Oren Etzioni, a leading researcher in the field of AI. AI2 employs more than 100 top-notch researchers and engineers from across the globe. AI2 prides itself on the diversity and collaboration of our team and takes a results-oriented approach to complex challenges in AI. Learn more at allenai.org. Contact Details Forrest Carman +1 206-859-3118 forrestc@owenmedia.com Company Website https://birch.ai/

January 19, 2022 09:00 AM Pacific Standard Time

iTradeNetwork Launches Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) Solution to Enable Faster, More Collaborative, Data-Driven Food and Beverage Supply Chains

iTradeNetwork

iTradeNetwork, the industry’s largest perishables network with over 8,000 food and beverage trading partners, proudly announces the launch of its Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), a new way for companies to collaborate, transact, and drive more profitable supply chains. Network-as-a-Service quickly establishes trading connections between any two companies in the food and beverage industry to meet the evolving and timely demands of today’s environment. In the last two months, more than 60 new enterprises—including industry giants Trader Joe’s, Aldi and MBM/McLane—have joined iTradeNetwork’s industry-leading network to trade with the thousands of companies already on the network. NaaS offers more than just trading connections. It includes capabilities for buyer-mandated Advance Ship Notices (ASN); allows adherence to regulatory mandates in the U.S. and Canada like the recent Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard and the Safe Food for Canadians Act; provides superior quality via fresh inspection and reduces transportation costs through enhanced freight capabilities. To remain competitive and improve resilience, buyers and sellers need the simplicity of one trading network and a single supply chain analytics hub. This eliminates second-guessing and back-office rework. Network-as-a-Service provides all this and more: Immediate connectivity to any retail grocer or foodservice distributor. Get paid faster and reduce back-office rework: benefit from industry-best invoice matching rates in excess of 97 percent and eliminate manual reconciliation that delays payment. Be more responsive: quickly meet emerging regulations or buyer mandates such as Advanced Ship Notices, the U.S. Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard, Safe Food for Canadians Act, FSMA 204 and more. Analytics and insights: take decisive action with supply chain health monitoring, opportunity and trend identification, anomaly management, and contract and pricing evaluations. Collaboration with trading partners: communicate with in-app real-time messaging instead of phone calls and emails. Act quickly on P.O. changes, complete with audit trails. “Today’s supply chains are more complex than ever, but they should not require equally complex tech stacks to manage them. Network-as-a-Service not only connects suppliers and buyers quickly so they can start transacting, but it also provides add-on modules for traceability, freight and other solutions to help suppliers compete and achieve supply chain resiliency,” said Nathan Romney, Chief Product Officer of iTradeNetwork. To learn more about Network-as-a-Service, contact sales@itradnetwork.com. ABOUT ITRADENETWORK iTradeNetwork, Inc. (ITN) is the leading global provider of supply chain management solutions for the food and beverage industry. Built upon deep industry expertise, a rich data foundation and the industry’s most extensive trading partner network, iTradeNetwork’s collaborative solutions allow distributors, manufacturers, operators, retailers, suppliers and wholesalers of all sizes to reduce cost, grow revenue and strengthen trading partner relationships. Today, iTradeNetwork’s growing customer list includes thousands of global companies. For more information, visit: www.itradenetwork.com. Contact Details Landis Communications Inc. Robin Carr +1 415-971-3991 itn@landispr.com Company Website https://www.itradenetwork.com/

January 19, 2022 06:01 AM Pacific Standard Time

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