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Amazon and Microsoft Veterans Join Forces with the Allen Institute for A.I. to Launch MajorBoost

MajorBoost

Three tech and healthcare veterans collaborating at the Allen Institute for AI (AI2) today launched MajorBoost. The AI-based communication and decision support company is set to significantly improve efficiency in the healthcare system by reimagining how doctor’s offices and insurance companies communicate with each other. “Instead of spending more time on patient conversations and conducting health care follow-ups, medical providers are spending endless hours on the phone navigating the maze of health insurance call centers,” said Lekshmi Venu, co-founder and CEO of MajorBoost. “MajorBoost empowers providers to get their questions answered quickly, resolve insurance issues faster, and ultimately grow their patient service and human connection.” It’s estimated that medical providers lose $35B annually due to antiquated processes and inefficiencies in the insurance system, simply because they’re trying to confirm patient eligibility, claim status, and other administrative tasks. By serving the more than 2M medical billers, front desk staff and call center staff in the healthcare industry, MajorBoost has the potential to change lives and the nature of work. “The pain is real, and the younger generations aren’t going to put up with the current system,” said Ben Hesketh, co-founder and CTO of MajorBoost. “Our AI-enabled phone automation delivers productivity, intelligence and decision support to healthcare teams, getting them off the phone and back to helping patients.” With general availability imminent, MajorBoost is already working with private practices that report seeing immediate results including a boost in same-day issue resolution rates and more patient conversations by using the AI-based tool. Healthcare providers can register for access to MajorBoost at www.majorboost.com. About MajorBoost MajorBoost is founded by technologists who personally live with the challenges of health insurance reimbursement, and were leaders at major tech companies and health plans. Backed by the Allen Institute for AI, MajorBoost builds cutting edge AI to improve the lives of patients, healthcare workers, and call center agents. About the MajorBoost Founders As CEO of MajorBoost, Lekshmi Venu is building on her experiences at both Amazon and the healthcare industry. Prior to co-founding MajorBoost, Lekshmi led a global data science and AI team at Amazon. After earning her MBA at Harvard Business School, Lekshmi held leadership roles at Express Scripts (Cigna) and a mid-size long-term care distributor. Ben Hesketh, CTO of MajorBoost, is a tech innovator and entrepreneur. Ben created first generation products in IoT, AR/VR and NLP and amassed over fifteen patents to date with Microsoft. He began his software career in video game development soon after graduating from Cambridge with dual degrees. MajorBoost is Ben’s third co-founded startup. Andrew Palmer, VP of Engineering, is a technologist and professional weightlifter with a passion for improving the lives of patients and healthcare providers. After graduating with an Engineering degree from University of Dayton, Andrew developed health insurance software and later joined Microsoft as a software developer. Andrew was a developer at Moz and Rover, and most recently founded and led engineering for a social network with over 500K users. About the Allen Institute for AI (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 200 top researchers and engineers from across the globe. To date, AI2 has spun out over 10+ companies via its commercialization arm, the AI2 Incubator. Learn more at allenai.org and ai2incubator.com. Contact Details Owen Media Forrest Carman +1 206-859-3118 forrestc@owenmedia.com Company Website https://www.majorboost.com/

July 15, 2021 07:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Modulus Therapeutics Secures Funding for Cell Therapy Design Platform, Adds Alana Welm and Raphael Gottardo to Advisory Board

Modulus

Modulus Therapeutics, an artificial-intelligence powered cell therapy design company, announced it completed an oversubscribed $3.5 million Seed round. The round was led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from KdT Ventures, and the Allen Institute for AI (AI2). Modulus also announced the formation of their Scientific Advisory Board with founding members Alana Welm and Raphael Gottardo. The new funding will be used to expand development of Modulus' Convergent Design™ platform that combines key technology components, including gene editing, machine learning, multi-omics, and high-throughput in vivo screening to bring an intelligent, unbiased approach to immune cell therapy design. “Modulus has an ambitious goal and an innovative platform combining modern machine learning, synthetic biology, and cutting-edge lab automation to treat tumors and eradicate cancer,” said Chris Picardo, Investor at Madrona Venture Group. “Their method unlocks true high throughput screening for cancer-fighting immune cells and creates a massive new dataset that is perfectly suited for AI. We are excited to work with them as they build out their team and capabilities.” Modulus is first focused on developing therapies based on natural killer (NK) cells for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, building on recent momentum in deploying these cells against solid tumors. Despite the rapid growth of the cell therapy market, the design of these cells is still largely a bespoke, craftsman-like process limited by human understanding of biology. “High throughput discovery approaches in cell types such as natural killer cells have lagged behind those in other cell types,” said Alana Welm, Scientific Advisor. “We’re really excited about the therapeutic prospects of exploring the different ways that these cells can be engineered.” Modulus was founded in 2020 by bioengineer Max Darnell, Ph.D. and bioinformatician Bryce Daines, Ph.D., who met as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at AI2, a research institute created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The founders set out to invent a platform for systematic and repeatable discovery of next-generation cell therapies to unleash the potential of the immune system against solid tumors. “The AI2 Incubator's mission is to help founders launch AI companies that have the potential to change the world,” said Bryan Hale, Managing Director at the AI2 Incubator. "By harnessing cutting edge AI to seek out life-saving treatments for solid tumors, Modulus has the potential for a truly big impact." While much of the Cell Therapy industry remains focused on problems such as taking existing therapeutic cells and turning them against new targets, Modulus takes a broader approach. Rather than focusing on a single feature, such as targeting, Convergent Design™ enables simultaneous improvement along multiple axes of therapeutic importance converging on optimized cell designs. “Modulus is the only company we’ve seen which is focused on engineering the chassis of these cells.” said Rima Chakrabarti, MD, Principal at KdT Ventures. “By modulating the innate cellular machinery, Modulus can optimize not only for therapeutic efficacy but for improved manufacturability and storage as well, bringing us closer to curative, off-the-shelf immune cell therapies.” Modulus has reengineered the concept of Cell Therapy Discovery by dramatically increasing the number of candidate cells that can be tested simultaneously and using machine learning to interpret the results. As a result, Modulus can learn how entire networks of genes impact a cell’s function, not just one gene at a time. “By combining high-throughput screening with machine learning, to interpret and predict genetic interactions, we get a multiplier on our experimental throughput that dwarfs previous approaches,” said Bryce Daines, Ph.D., co-founder of Modulus. “Repeated over cell types and diseases the result is a flywheel of discovery.” “When combined, these technologies provide a path for discovering the enhancements that cells need to accomplish a complex therapeutic task, like fighting a solid tumor,” said Max Darnell, Ph.D., co-founder of Modulus. “Current cell therapy design is like trying to find your way out of the woods without a GPS. This platform gives us the tools to navigate the cell’s design space systematically and effectively.” For more information about Modulus, please visit https://www.modulustherapeutics.com/ or follow them on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Alana Welm is Senior Director of Basic Science at the Huntsman Comprehensive Cancer Center, Full Professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah, and an Investigator at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Welm's laboratory studies breast cancer metastasis. Dr. Raphael Gottardo is Scientific Director, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center, Professor, and J. Orin Eson Foundation Endowed Chair at Fred Hutch. Dr. Gottardo is a computational biologist and expert in the rapidly evolving field of data science as it is applied to cancer and related diseases. Modulus is engineering next-generation immune cell therapies, starting with Natural Killer cells rationally designed for the treatment of solid tumors. Modulus’ Convergent Design™ platform combines genetic engineering, machine learning, and high-throughput in vivo screening to systematically converge on optimized cell designs. Modulus is committed to the discovery of cell therapies to treat a broad set of patient populations not currently served by existing treatments and will use its platform to enable partners and develop an internal pipeline of therapeutics. Contact Details Owen Media Forrest Carman +1 206-859-3118 forrestc@owenmedia.com Company Website https://www.modulustherapeutics.com/

July 15, 2021 09:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

John Steven Joins ThreatModeler's Advisory Board

ThreatModeler Software, Inc.

John Steven is joining the advisory board of ThreatModeler Software, Inc. Mr. Steven has over two decades of software security experience including notable achievements in threat modeling, cloud security, architectural risk analysis, and security testing. In 2015, he founded Codiscope, a spin-off of Cigital which was acquired by Synopsys. He will be working closely with ThreatModeler’s executive team to help shape and guide the company’s planning and go-to-market strategies. “Threat modeling can frustrate organizations because they’re advised to over-rely on singular tactics, such as data-flow diagramming, and because they implement threat modeling as a point-in-time activity. I encourage organizations to treat threat modeling as a capability, incrementally maturing activity throughout their DevOps lifecycle,” said Mr. Steven. “ThreatModeler is uniquely positioned to help teams facilitate threat modeling capabilities throughout their SDL. from secure design, to security test planning, to defect or vulnerability triage and remediation.” Mr. Steven, currently the Chief Technology Officer at Concourse Labs and Founding Principal of Aedify Security LLC, possesses extensive knowledge in managing innovative security firms. His capabilities include identifying and solving cloud risk problems through automated cloud governance, as well as creating efficient threat modeling and security architecture. Mr. Steven is a keynote speaker, co-author of the BSIMM study and has helped several CISOs define and implement their security initiatives. “We’re delighted to welcome John Steven to ThreatModeler. We’re continuously striving to innovate and making one click threat modeling a reality. The experience and insights he brings to our mission will be invaluable,” said Archie Agarwwal, co-founder and CEO of ThreatModeler. About ThreatModeler Software, Inc. ThreatModeler is an automated platform that provides a sustainable, self-service threat modeling practice for applications and infrastructure that evolves as the infrastructure grows. ThreatModeler encourages collaboration through its simple process flow diagram-based functionality. It is easy to use in the creation of threat models which identify, prioritize and mitigate threats, while communicating them broadly. ThreatModeler integrates with JIRA, Jenkins, and Azure Boards and Pipelines, with bidirectional web services API also unifying stakeholders in collaboration. Teams are empowered to code and deliver new products with security built-in as early as the design phase, which is based on global security and compliance standards. Contact Details ThreatModeler Software, Inc Sarah Chan +1 201-266-0510 marketing@threatmodeler.com Company Website https://threatmodeler.com/

July 15, 2021 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

BettorEdge Surpasses $3.5 Million in Sports Betting Orders in Just Six Months, Since Inception

BettorEdge

BettorEdge, a Minneapolis-based online no-fee sports betting marketplace and social platform connecting sports fans, today announced it has facilitated more than $3.5 million in exchange orders since its launch in January 2021. High interest in the Stanley Cup Playoffs contributed to the boost in orders. Two of these playoff games ranked the highest in BettorEdge’s all-time top five games in volume of orders. The volume of orders on the platform doubled from May to June, as well. BettorEdge is a platform created with the bettor in mind. Instead of losing money to in-house favored lines, deposit fees, withdrawal fees, and the inability to withdraw funds when needed, fans on BettorEdge can trade bets with no fees attached. “Odds are stacked against the bettor with traditional sportsbooks, and we’re changing that,” said James Seils, Co-Founder of BettorEdge. “As bettors ourselves, we knew there was a need for a social marketplace and our growth in just six months validates the need for a betting experience like BettorEdge in this industry.” BettorEdge is uniquely positioned at the forefront of in-play betting as it gains momentum in the American market. Rather than relying on a pricing engine for every live play of a game, BettorEdge users set the market prices, effectively removing the hurdle of requiring a pricing engine. The PGA’s U.S. Open and Travelers Championship in June marked the two busiest weekends of in-play betting for the platform to date. “Our sole purpose is to innovate for the benefit of the sports bettor,” said Greg Kajewski, Co-Founder of BettorEdge. “Our growth is proof positive that putting the power back into the hands of the sports bettor through an engaging social media platform, is the type of experience that bettors are truly looking for. We’re excited to keep innovating our platform for the betterment of the sports bettor and excited to see how our growing audience utilizes our capabilities for the upcoming NFL season.” About BettorEdge BettorEdge was founded in 2019 following a University of Minnesota SportRadar Innovation Challenge. Iowa native founders, now Minnesota residents, had a vision of creating a more efficient sports betting marketplace that offered a better fan experience at no fee to the consumer within the US. BettorEdge has a strong emphasis on giving the edge to the bettor through offering a fair market, providing data and analytics and creating a seamless social community. Access to their webapp can be found at app.bettoredge.com and additional information at BettorEdge.com. Contact Details Hot Paper Lantern Bailey Irelan +1 614-795-3308 birelan@hotpaperlantern.com Company Website https://www.bettoredge.com/

July 15, 2021 09:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time

New app integration standard aims to accelerate in-cab tech development industry-wide

Eleos Technologies

Fleets benefit when mobile apps play nicely together in the truck cab, says Eleos Technologies CEO, Kevin Survance. Now, thanks to a new mobile app-to-app connectivity protocol, it will be possible to seamlessly connect commercial trucking solutions like ELDs, workflow and bypass apps, sensors, and cameras. OpenCab is a new specification from Eleos, aimed at accelerating the development of in-cab technologies for the whole trucking industry. It enables Android apps running on in-cab devices to securely share information, which in turn will let fleets combine whatever proprietary solutions they prefer—without enlisting each vendor for custom integration work. This means faster and cheaper development of better user experiences, which don't require drivers to switch between apps and duplicate their data entry. Eleos initially created OpenCab so that ELD and telematics vendors could easily integrate with the Eleos workflow platform. "The spec emerged from building best-in-class driver experiences that required integration with other mobile apps on an in-cab device," Survance says. "Our focus is on providing a single pane of glass for drivers—a unified app that can integrate all the functionalities they need to use in their jobs. This means we have to integrate information from other mobile apps. "Getting these mobile apps to share information often required a great deal of custom integration work. It was a development and maintenance nightmare. We naturally started to look for a way to standardize app-to-app communication." Although its direct consumers are trucking app developers, the OpenCab standard also benefits carriers. By offering a simple way to integrate multiple proprietary systems, the spec makes it possible for any fleet to mix and match their preferred applications, while improving and simplifying the user experience for their drivers. "This will offer fleets a way to assemble best-of-breed solutions with greater confidence, and spend less time on costly projects trying to get apps to work with each other," Survance says. With a standardized way to connect Android mobile apps in the cab, solution providers and in-house developers can create integrations with other providers, at far less time and cost. Any solution that supports the OpenCab standard will work with any other, rather than requiring custom code or SDKs for every different solution integration. "From both an engineering and a project implementation perspective, using OpenCab is simply the most efficient thing to do," Survance says. "You could go off and create your own way of doing things, but this is a simple, well-documented spec that can help the trucking industry standardize." About Eleos: Eleos simplifies drivers’ lives by putting everything they need in one unified workflow and communication app. The platform offers an extensive collection of powerful pre-built components that allow for full customization of the app to match every evolving business need. Eleos powers driver apps for the industry's foremost fleets, like Knight-Swift, Ryder, Prime Inc, TMC, and many others. Learn more at eleostech.com. Address: Eleos Technologies 200 N Main St Suite 205 Greenville, SC 29601 Further information: https://opencabstandard.org Contact Details Wes Pollock +1 803-422-1195 wes.pollock@eleostech.com

July 15, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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CSG Systems International to Hold Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call on August 4

CSG

CSG ® (NASDAQ: CSGS) invites you to participate in a conference call on Wednesday, August 4, 2021 at 5:00pm EDT to discuss the company's second quarter 2021 earnings results. The conference call will feature CSG President and Chief Executive Officer Brian Shepherd and CSG Chief Financial Officer Rollie Johns. To reach the conference, call 1-833-921-1665 and use the passcode 4290448. Click here to join a webcast of CSG’s earnings call in live or archived format. # # # About CSG For more than 35 years, CSG has simplified the complexity of business, delivering innovative customer engagement solutions that help companies acquire, monetize, engage, and retain customers. Operating across more than 120 countries worldwide, CSG manages billions of critical customer interactions annually, and its award-winning suite of software and services allow companies across dozens of industries to tackle their biggest business challenges and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. CSG is the trusted provider for driving digital innovation for hundreds of leading global brands, including Airtel Africa, América Móvil, AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, DISH, Formula 1, Hutchison 3 Indonesia, Inmarsat, Mastercard, Maximus, Microsoft, Mobily, MTN, New Leaf Service Contracts, State of California DMV, TalkTalk and Telstra. To learn more, visit our website at csgi.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Copyright © 2021 CSG Systems International, Inc. and/or its affiliates (“CSG”). All rights reserved. CSG® is a registered trademark of CSG Systems International, Inc. All third-party trademarks, service marks, and/or product names which are referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners, and all rights therein are reserved. Contact: John Rea Investor Relations CSG +1 (210) 687 4409 john.rea@csgi.com Contact Details CSG John Rea +1 210-687-4409 john.rea@csgi.com Company Website https://www.csgi.com

July 15, 2021 06:30 AM Mountain Daylight Time

You & Mr Jones Data Company fifty-five Expands U.S. Executive Team

fifty-five

fifty-five, a new breed of data company that helps brands leverage data and technology to improve marketing, advertising and the customer experience, is adding to its leadership ranks as part of its U.S. expansion. The company is promoting Robin Clayton to managing director and appointing Alicia Arnold to managing director. Both Clayton and Arnold will report directly to Hugo Loriot, partner at fifty-five. This expansion comes at a time when updates to consumer privacy laws and third-party tracking are impacting advertising leaders globally. “We are thrilled to be announcing the promotion of Robin and the appointment of Alicia,” said Hugo Loriot, partner at fifty-five. “They both bring extensive industry knowledge and will play critical roles in the success of fifty-five in the U.S. and in our efforts to continue to grow our footprint globally.” In her new role, Arnold brings 20 years of award-winning experience working at the intersection of digital, marketing, and technology. Arnold will be responsible for overseeing the operations and performance of fifty-five in the U.S. across new verticals, delivering on business strategies, nurturing talent, enhancing the culture, and growing the fifty-five footprint. Prior to joining the team, Arnold founded a global consulting firm and held client leadership and executive roles at Cognizant, Forrester, and Hill Holliday. She is also a member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association and volunteers with the CXPA Boston Marketing, Community Engagement, and Event Planning team. “At fifty-five, we have the opportunity to shape the future and leave a lasting imprint. Technology and data are transforming how brands connect with their customers. Whether B2B or B2C, data and technology are front and center,” said Arnold. “fifty-five is at the forefront of that change and I cannot wait to see where our team takes the company.” Clayton has worked with fifty-five for the last two years, most recently holding the position of executive director where she led the U.S. consulting practice and was responsible for overall client delivery and growth across accounts, building BrandTech partnerships, managing the U.S. consulting team, and driving a data-driven performance agenda. In her new role, Clayton will focus on balancing growth with building out the right team and organizational structure to sustain and enable that growth. Throughout her time with fifty-five, Clayton has been an instrumental part in generating awareness for fifty-five while delivering quality work to build out case studies and credentials. “I am thrilled to be expanding my career with this amazing team,” said Robin Clayton. “I am looking forward to building on the incredible work we’ve been doing over the last two years, delivering innovative data transformation work with amazing clients, attracting great talent, and taking the time to foster team culture and spirit so it’s embedded in our work products.” About fifty-five fifty-five, the data company fifty-five is a new breed of data company that helps brands like Adidas, Shiseido, and Nestlé leverage data and technology to improve marketing, advertising, and customer experience, through a combination of specialized consultancy and technology services. fifty-five was founded in 2010 by former Google executives and is now a proud member of You & Mr Jones, the world’s first Brandtech group. Headquartered in Paris, the company has a global headcount of 300 with a footprint in New York, London, Geneva, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Taipei. To learn more about fifty-five and its offering, visit here. Contact Details Kite Hill PR Kerriann Becker +1 631-235-7796 kerriann@kitehillpr.com

July 14, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CSG Supercharges Customer Engagement Solutions with Acquisition of Kitewheel

CSG

DENVER, July 14, 2021 — CSG ® (NASDAQ: CSGS), the leader in innovative customer engagement, revenue management and payments solutions that make ordinary customer experiences extraordinary, today announced the acquisition of Kitewheel, the leading provider for customer journey orchestration and analytics. The acquisition unites respective industry leaders and propels CSG into new industry verticals, unlocking a $10 billion global market growth opportunity that further extends the company’s position in customer experience management. “Kitewheel is a natural extension to CSG’s customer engagement portfolio and strengthens our presence in faster growing industry verticals like retail, financial services and healthcare, which further diversify our revenue mix and customer base,” said Alfred Binford, president of customer engagement for CSG. “Kitewheel’s expertise and established market leadership will enhance our ability to deliver greater value to new customers around the world and turbo-charge the global expansion of our customer engagement business.” According to Forrester's research on "How to Choose the Right Tech for Your CX Needs" (June 29, 2021), "[c]ustomer-obsessed firms must break down organizational silos to focus on the needs of their customers. But disparate and overlapping technology investments severely hamper their collaboration efforts.” The combination of CSG’s digital customer engagement technologies and Kitewheel’s journey orchestration and analytics SaaS technology creates a powerhouse, cloud-based, engagement platform that orchestrates real-time, contextually relevant customer experiences for leading brands. The result is a real-time interaction management platform that bridges the gap between information silos and taps into the power of unified customer interaction and behavioral data to produce meaningful, end-to-end customer journeys. “In today’s hyper-connected, hyper-personalized world, the ability to offer differentiated customer experiences can make or break a company and brand,” said Mark Smith, president, Kitewheel. “By joining the CSG family, Kitewheel brings added scale to our combined customer engagements portfolio, tying together CSG’s proven products, experiences practice, journey orchestration, analytics and communication engagement channel solutions. These real-time interaction management capabilities are unmatched in the industry and offer an end-to-end solution with the agility and intentionality companies need to wow their customers.” CSG and Kitewheel have already successfully sold and delivered multiple customer wins worldwide, including a full-suite deployment at one of the world’s largest global banks. The financial services giant turned to CSG and Kitewheel to simplify and automate its mortgage notification process and comply with various regulations. The bank increased its digital customer notifications by over 10%, reduced paper and postage costs and improved overall operational efficiency. Based on the success of the mortgage use case, the bank has since expanded the CSG-Kitewheel technology suite to other lines of business in its ongoing effort to provide optimized micro-journeys for exceptional and personalized customer experiences. Building on a successful partnership that began in 2018, this acquisition combines two industry leaders – CSG, a global leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integrated Revenue and Customer Management and Kitewheel, a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Journey Orchestration Platforms, Q4 2020 and a visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Hubs. For more information on CSG’s customer engagement solutions, visit https://www.csgi.com/capabilities/customer-engagement/. # # # About Kitewheel Kitewheel empowers the world’s largest businesses to understand and improve the consumer experience with the leading customer journey management platform. Kitewheel’s innovative Customer Journey Hub orchestrates intelligent customer journeys by unifying decisions across disparate systems, touchpoints, and technologies and provides seamless customer experiences that drive real-time revenue as well as long-term loyalty. Kitewheel serves its global partner and client base from offices in Boston and London. For more information, please visit http://www.kitewheel.com and follow Kitewheel on Twitter and LinkedIn. About CSG For more than 35 years, CSG has simplified the complexity of business, delivering innovative customer engagement solutions that help companies acquire, monetize, engage and retain customers. Operating across more than 120 countries worldwide, CSG manages billions of critical customer interactions annually, and its award-winning suite of software and services allow companies across dozens of industries to tackle their biggest business challenges and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. CSG is the trusted provider for driving digital innovation for hundreds of leading global brands, including Airtel Africa, América Móvil, AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, DISH, Formula 1, Hutchison 3 Indonesia, Inmarsat, Mastercard, Maximus, Microsoft, Mobily, MTN, New Leaf Service Contracts, State of California DMV, TalkTalk and Telstra. To learn more, visit our website at csgi.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Copyright © 2021 CSG Systems International, Inc. and/or its affiliates (“CSG”). All rights reserved. CSG® is a registered trademark of CSG Systems International, Inc. All third-party trademarks, service marks, and/or product names which are referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners, and all rights therein are reserved. Contacts: Tammy Hovey Global / North America / Asia-Pacific Public Relations CSG +1 (917) 520-2751 tammy.hovey@csgi.com Kristine Østergaard CSG Europe / Middle East / Africa Public Relations +44 (0)75 0051 8412 kristine.ostergaard@csgi.com John Rea Investor Relations CSG +1 (210) 687 4409 john.rea@csgi.com Contact Details CSG Tammy Hovey +1 917-520-2751 tammy.hovey@csgi.com Company Website https://www.csgi.com

July 14, 2021 06:30 AM Mountain Daylight Time

Unique Stays Are Booming on Airbnb, with Big Opportunity for Hosts

YourUpdateTV

From a treehouse to a giant potato hotel, searches for unique homes on Airbnb have increased by 94 percent in 2021 compared to 2019, with Hosts of unique stays collectively earning $300 million globally. Recently, the Host of the Big Idaho Potato Hotel, Kristie Wolfe, teamed with Airbnb and YourUpdateTV on a satellite media tour to talk about why guests are so drawn to unique homes and the economic opportunity of hosting for those with unique spaces to share. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/R3kglXdaOA8 The Big Idaho Potato Hotel is one of the several unique stays that travelers are turning to break up the monotony of the past year. According to the Airbnb Report on Travel & Living, this fascination with unique stays is universal, with 55 percent of the 100 most wishlisted homes in the last year falling into unique categories. Unique home searches have increased by 94 percent in 2021 compared to the same time period in 2019. Searches for certain types of unique homes – such as yurts, huts and farm stays – have exploded by 10x compared to just two years ago. In fact, there are over 170,000 unique properties all over the world on Airbnb. Unique Hosts have also benefited from the increased interest in unique stays. Since the start of the pandemic, they have collectively earned $300 million globally. To help meet the pent-up demand, Airbnb launched the new Flexible Destinations tool for guests who aren’t committed to a specific destination and want to be able to filter for unique stays when finding trip accommodations. Spending time outdoors has become more important than ever, and parks are seeing a broader range of people visiting and enjoying in record numbers. As more and more people flock to these treasured places, it’s imperative to be safe and thoughtful about how to enjoy and experience them. Airbnb has teamed up with the National Park Foundation to encourage people to recreate responsibly in parks this summer and share some really helpful tips. This includes: Be mindful of where you plan to visit. Don’t overcrowd areas, as this may endanger the safety of yourself and others. When you’re ready to leave a park, make sure to pack up your garbage. Minimize waste by bringing food in reusable containers and utilize refillable water bottles. Remember to respect wildlife and always observe from a distance. And be an active part of making the outdoors safe and welcoming for park visitors of all identities and abilities. Whether you already have a unique space to share, or are interested in creating one, now is the time to consider joining Kristie in sharing it with people from all over the world, on Airbnb. If you’re interested in learning how to get started as a Host, go to airbnb.com/host About Kristie Wolfe: Kristie is a proud Idahoan who is passionate about living simply. In the winter of 2013, she fulfilled a lifelong dream of building her very own treehouse and sharing it with travellers from around the world. From the success of that unique stay, she has since been able to build a hobbit hole, refurbish a fire lookout and, of course, has made over a 6-ton spud guests can sleep in! About YourUpdateTV: YourUpdateTV is a social media video portal for organizations to share their content. It includes separate channels for Health and Wellness, Lifestyle, Media and Entertainment, Money and Finance, Social Responsibility, Sports and Technology. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

July 13, 2021 05:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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