Press Releases

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — AutoGrid, the leader in flexibility management software for the energy industry, announced today that it has established a wholly-owned subsidiary, AutoGrid Systems KK (AutoGrid KK), in Japan. AutoGrid KK will provide direct sales and technical support to better serve the company’s rapidly-expanding Japanese customer base.

“AutoGrid considers Japan one of our most important strategic regions in the world, with its swift deregulation and strong momentum toward adoption of new energy technologies,” said Dr. Amit Narayan, chief executive officer of AutoGrid. “The Japanese government has mandated a near doubling of renewable energy generation by 2030. Our direct presence there will better enable our customers to leverage the virtual power plant (VPP) capabilities of AutoGrid Flex® to integrate more renewables by aggregating, dispatching and marketing flexible energy from demand response (DR) and distributed energy resources (DERs).”

Leading AutoGrid’s strategy and growth initiatives for Japan and the broader APAC region is Frederick Pugh, Representative Director. Pugh will spearhead AutoGrid’s efforts to help the Japanese electricity industry incorporate new technologies in the renewable energy space, allowing it to leverage artificial intelligence to manage DERs and build new business models. Fluent in Japanese, Pugh comes to AutoGrid with leadership experience at multinational firms including Oracle, Dell EMC and TIBCO.

“Japan is one of the world’s most dynamic energy markets,” Pugh said. “The accelerating adoption of retail competition, deregulation, renewable energy, and behind-the-meter solar and energy storage is creating enormous opportunities along with immense technological and marketing challenges that our products solve.”

AutoGrid KK represents the latest in a series of AutoGrid investments in the Japanese market. It comes on the heels of AutoGrid’s partnership, announced in June, with Japanese energy services and trading company ENERES. AutoGrid software will help ENERES establish the world’s largest storage VPP by asset volume. In September 2018, AutoGrid announced a partnership with Macnica, a leading Japanese supplier of networking and software products to governments and enterprise customers, to deploy its suite of energy internet applications in the Japanese market. In addition to the establishment of AutoGrid KK and its partnerships with ENERES and Macnica, AutoGrid has previously announced projects with Mitsubishi in the energy storage and virtual power plant areas.

“As solar and storage costs continue to decline and new capacity markets open, DER and DR resources are becoming a key component of our daily operations,” said Masahiro Kobayashi, President & Representative Director of ENERES. “AutoGrid Flex gives us a proven, AI-driven comprehensive distributed energy management solution that allows us to fully leverage our own DER and DR resources and those of our customers in real time.”

About AutoGrid:
AutoGrid builds software applications that enable a smarter distributed energy world. The company’s suite of flexibility management applications allows energy companies to deliver clean, affordable and reliable energy by managing networked distributed energy resources (DERs) in real time and at scale. AutoGrid has contracted more than 5,000 megawatts of DERs and works with more than 50 leading energy companies around the world, including Schneider Electric, CLP Holdings, CPS Energy, National Grid, NextEra Energy, Shell, Total, Swell Energy, and Xcel Energy.

Media Contact:
Richard Miller
rich.miller@auto-grid.com

 

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SOURCE AutoGrid

HELSINKI, July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Cyber security provider F-Secure has released a free new online tool that helps expose the true cost of using some of the web’s most popular free services – the abundance of data that has been collected about them by Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon Alexa, Twitter and Snapchat. F-Secure Data Discovery Portal sends users directly to the often hard-to-locate resources provided by each of these tech giants that allow users to review their data, securely and privately.

“What you do with the data collection is entirely between you and the service,” says F-Secure Chief Information Security Officer Erka Koivunen. “We don’t see – and don’t want to see – your settings or your data. Our only goal is to help you find out how much of your information is out there.”

More than half of adult Facebook users, 54%, adjusted how they use the site in the wake of the scandal that revealed Cambridge Analytica had collected data without users’ permission.* But the biggest social network in the world continues to grow, reporting 2.3 billion monthly users at the end of 2018.**

“You often hear, ‘if you’re not paying, you’re the product’. But your data is an asset to any company, whether you’re paying for a product or not,” Koivunen says. “Data enables tech companies to sell billions in ads and products, building some of the biggest businesses in the history of money.”

F-Secure is offering the tool as part of the company’s growing focus on identity protection that secures consumers before, during, and after data breaches. By spreading awareness of the potential costs of these ‘free’ services, the Data Discovery Portal aims to make users aware that securing their data and identity is more important than ever.

A recent F-Secure survey found that 54% of internet users over 25 worry about someone hacking into their social media accounts.*** Data is only as secure as the networks of the companies that collect it, and the passwords and tactics used to protect our accounts. While the settings these sites offer are useful, they cannot eliminate the collection of data.

“While consumers effectively volunteer this information, they should know the privacy and security implications of building accounts that hold more potential insight about our identities than we could possibly share with our family,” Koivunen says. “All of that information could be available to a hacker through a breach or an account takeover.”

However, there is no silver bullet for users when it comes to permanently locking down security or hiding it from the services they choose to use.

“Default privacy settings are typically quite loose, whether you’re using a social network, apps, browsers or any service,” Koivunen says. “Review your settings now, if you haven’t already, and periodically afterwards. And no matter what you can do, nothing stops these companies from knowing what you’re doing when you’re logged into their services.”

More information on what people can do to reduce their data footprint on Facebook, Twitter and Google, is available on F-Secure’s blog.

*Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/05/americans-are-changing-their-relationship-with-facebook/
**Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/30/18204186/facebook-q4-2018-earnings-user-growth-revenue-increase-privacy-scandals
***Source: F-Secure Identity Protection Consumer (B2C) Survey, May 2019, conducted in cooperation with survey partner Toluna, 9 countries (USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Brazil, Finland, Sweden, and Japan), 400 respondents per country = 3600 respondents (+25years)

About F-Secure

Nobody has better visibility into real-life cyber attacks than F-Secure. We’re closing the gap between detection and response, utilizing the unmatched threat intelligence of hundreds of our industry’s best technical consultants, millions of devices running our award-winning software, and ceaseless innovations in artificial intelligence. Top banks, airlines, and enterprises trust our commitment to beating the world’s most potent threats. Together with our network of the top channel partners and over 200 service providers, we’re on a mission to make sure everyone has the enterprise-grade cyber security we all need. Founded in 1988, F-Secure is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd.

f-secure.com | twitter.com/fsecure | linkedin.com/f-secure 

F-Secure media relations:
Sandra Proske
+49-176-7003-6664

 

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

 

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SOURCE F-Secure

TEL AVIV, Israel, July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — IXDen, the leading solution provider for securing IoT devices, today announced their new ‘IXDen Smart Homes’, a product which will protect billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices against cyberattacks, tampering, and data manipulation. The fully automated solution will for the first time utilize behavioural biometrics on endpoint devices and will include multifactor authentication driven by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The wide range of protected devices will include cameras, smart thermostats, smart routers, and baby sensors among many others.

The new software comes in response to recent reports in July of a massive data breach of a smart home device platform in which more than two billion records were exposed. The breach at a Chinese based company, stands to have compromised not only account details and personal information of consumers around the world, but also millions of cameras and listening devices in private homes.

Zion Harel, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of IXDen, said, “As more and more smart home devices hit the market place, consumers are increasingly opening themselves up to significant risk. These devices which offer users the greatest of convenience also offer unprecedented accessibility to hackers who are increasingly able to infiltrate homes, stealing data and personal information, and even recording and filming users in their homes. As this massive data breach highlighted, while there are many vendors providing home automation devices, there is a lack of accepted industry security standards to ensure that customers and their data are kept safe. Our innovative and unique solutions for securing IoT devices, enable our customers to secure their smart home devices, and gives them the peace of mind that their personal data and lives remains secured and private.”

According to Statista Research Department, by the year 2020 there will be 30 billion IoT devices in everyday use, including smart home devices, mobile phones, wearable technology, home appliances and cars. 

“With the increased volume and sophistication of today’s cyberattacks, security in homes has become much more relevant,” Harel added. “In order for the next generation of smart home devices such as cameras, thermostats, and smart air conditioners to gain mass adoption, they must be completely secured. The ability to secure these products will literally make or break the IoT revolution. With today’s announcement, IXDen is taking a huge step forward to assure that this bright IoT future does not become a security nightmare.”

For more information on IXDEN Smart Homes email info@ixden.com  and visit www.ixden.com.

About IX-Den: 

IXDen was founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs and former senior figures at companies such as Amdocs, Microsoft, and Fundtech. IXDen’s IoT software solution introduces patent pending, security technology to protect businesses and organizations from IoT information tampering. IXDen creates a dynamic ‘biometric’ identity for any IoT device and performs multifactor authentication driven by proprietary topological mathematical models, statistics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

IXDen is a Labs/02 portfolio company, a seed stage fund backed by OurCrowd, Motorola Solutions International, Reliance Industries, as well as by Six Thirty VC, private investors and the Israeli Innovation Authority. For more information, visit labs02.com    

For press materials:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t7aprzq63hdwzud/AAAfxSAkyH7q8NRJDp-YZH2-a?dl=0 

Press Contact:
Leah Stern, OurCrowd Dir. of Communications
E: leah@ourcrowd.com
P: +44-747-019-6826

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SOURCE IXDen

HONG KONG, July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — China’s freight transportation industry is undergoing a radical transformation fuelled by artificial intelligence and big data, according to a keynote speech delivered by Dandan Shan, CEO of ForU Trucking, at RISE 2019 in Hong Kong.

Shan—who founded China’s leading truckload service provider in 2015—shared her insights during the FullSTK and binate.io tracks, which examine how coding and data analysis are influencing modern businesses and society. During her keynote, Shan highlighted how technology had enabled the optimization of revenue and customer service in one of Asia’s fastest-growing industries.

Following the demand for freight transportation as a result of the eCommerce explosion in China, market share of the truckload services are worth over CNY 1.92 trillion. Truckload services currently represent almost two-thirds of China’s mammoth freight transportation market and this figure is predicted to reach CNY 2.42 trillion by 2020. Despite its rapid expansion, the industry is hugely fragmented with more than 20 million trucks on the road—70% of which are operated by individuals or small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to Shan, there are three pain points plaguing today’s industry: a lack of standardized pricing, inefficient dispatching and unreliable service quality. To address these, ForU Trucking developed its world-leading online truck logistics platform, which uses intelligent pricing, intelligent service and intelligent dispatch to handle fuel efficiency and customer experience.

Historically, the freight transportation industry has suffered from variable pricing and frequent cost fluctuations as a result of seasonal changes in supply and demand. In traditional operating models, it requires an average of ten calls and one hour to obtain and negotiate a quotation in China. To streamline and optimize pricing, ForU Trucking’s platform uses an algorithm that harnesses information collected from big data (such as truck capacity, distance, historical pricing, seasonality and existing demand versus supply, etc.) to provide an accurate and standardized quotation in under two minutes.

In addition, traditional dispatch modes are often inefficient, amounting to high operational costs and low-profit margins. Powered by artificial intelligence, ForU Trucking’s intelligent dispatch system optimizes routes for drivers, increasing a truck’s monthly operating mileage from 6,520 km to over 11,000, and reduced the transportation cost per load by 20%. These savings have also directly benefited drivers with a 12.5% increase in monthly revenue.

Finally, the platform’s real-time system monitoring delivers consistent service standards for enhanced customer experience. Freight transportation is often subject to significant service issues, including traffic delays, a lack of transparent tracking and damaged goods due to unpredictable road conditions. ForU Trucking harnesses real-time location-based services, big data and GIS, and predictions calculated by AI to automatically detect and report any abnormalities that occur throughout the transportation process. These systems reduce the number of calls received by customer service teams and allow for greater operational efficiency, resulting in a tenfold increase in the number of orders processed per day per person.

About ForU Trucking

ForU Trucking is a technology-driven logistics company that focuses on truckload transportation in China. It has received more than 7 rounds of investments from well-known VCs and institutions. ForU Trucking is the first Internet company in China to apply big data and artificial intelligence in the truckload logistics sector. It uses advanced technologies to refactor the end-to-end transportation process, aiming to provide best price and service to shippers. ForU Trucking is one of the first non-asset brokers in China, signing up leading customers in multiple industries since the platform was launched in March 2015. Currently its transportation network covers 30 provinces and municipalities, except Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Tibet. ForU Trucking organizes a huge number of different types of carriers, including leased fleet, contracted carriers, and owner operators, to service shippers’ different needs.

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SOURCE ForU Trucking

ROCKVILLE, Maryland, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Fact.MR has recently published a new study titled “Product Engineering Services Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Market Insights 2019 to 2029“, which delivers a precise insight about the global product engineering services market and their anticipated emergence across diverse sectors. The report highpoints that advent of connected/smart technology along with the succeeding hike in sales of smart electronic devices, in-vehicle networking systems and smart homes, are marked as key factors stirring demand for product engineering services in the global market.

As per this smart Fact.MR, the global demand for product engineering services is predicted to account for revenues valued US$ 26 Bn by the end of 2019. It has been recorded that gains will be mainly underpinned by the surging demand for shorter product life cycles. In addition, myriad opportunities are expected to hit vendors of product engineering services, after the dramatic growth of new product launches across diverse industry verticals.

Request For Sample Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=3756

IT & Telecom and Healthcare Together Acquire 3/5th Shares

With a stern look at the ongoing trends across the product engineering services market, budding need of organizations to improve the ‘time to market’ (TTM) cycle is becoming a prime determinant, thereby, delivering impetus to the development of the target market. In addition, the requirement for speed grows has motivated several verticals, such as IT and telecom and healthcare to extensively outsource their product engineering needs. Based on this study, the demand from IT & telecom and healthcare verticals would collectively account 60% revenue share in the product engineering services market during the coming years.

Demand for Smart Consumer Electronics Influencing Market for Product Engineering Services

The study discourses that the consumer electronics industry would provide lucrative prospects for product engineering services providers due to increasing importance of enterprises on improving customer satisfaction and expand competitiveness. Moreover, mounting demand for smarter consumer electronics, mostly in developed countries, is supporting market value of product engineering services in certain regions like North America and Europe.

Preview Analysis of Global Product Engineering Services Market Report Segmented By Service Type (New Product Development, Product Testing, Product Sustenance, Product Deployment, Product Support, Product Management), By Verticals (Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Transportation, Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Industrial Manufacturing, IT & Telecom, Media & Entertainment, Others), & by Region –

https://www.factmr.com/report/3756/product-engineering-services-market

Transforming Nature of Digital Technologies Proving Effective for Product Engineering Services

According to research insights, product engineering services are expected to witness significant transformation due to rapidly escalating digital technologies. Some of the advanced technology areas like DevOps, are influencing different sections of product engineering services for positive results. Furthermore, the count of companies renovating their product offerings is rising to align themselves with emerging digital technologies. Also, the growing focus of enterprises on structuring their personal digital platforms is very likely to outline the future technology landscape of software product engineering services.

The final section of the report talks about the competitive landscape, with further focus on company aspects such as product portfolio, sales footprint and strategy overview. Some of the prime players mentioned in the report are Persistent System, Mindtree, Tech Mahindra, Tieto, Wipro Accenture, Cognizant, Altran etc. This assessment is a rich data source for new entrants and existing players to draw useful conclusions.

Request Methodology of this Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RM&rep_id=3756

More ICT Market Reports from Fact.MR

Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market– The mindfulness meditation application market is likely to see an incremental opportunity of ~ US$ 184 Mn between 2019 and 2029. With self-care blooming as the latest health and wellness trend, meditation apps are gaining their due and entering the ‘most searched’ and ‘most downloaded’ lists of applications.

Structured Cabling Market– Value of the structured cabling market was estimated at nearly US$ 16 billion in 2018, and is forecast to record a CAGR of approximately 8% through 2028. North America remains the leading market for structured cabling, undergird by the proliferation of data center projects in the U.S.

Computer Aided Dispatch Market– Computer aided dispatch system manufacturers are directing their efforts towards integrating novel technologies to improve the efficiency of their systems. Advancements in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence are finding widespread applications in an assortment of verticals including computer aided dispatch systems.

About Fact.MR

Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that’s why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.

Contact Us
Rohit Bhisey
Fact.MR
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United States
Email: sales@factmr.com
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SOURCE Fact.MR

NEW YORK, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The artificial intelligence (AI) technology company Dashmote has secured $2.8 million in funding from a group of American and Chinese investors. These resources will kick start a long term plan that will enable the Amsterdam-based company to scale-up and bring its data and image analytics solutions for enterprises to new and larger venues. The funding round includes investors from SP Investment Associates (SPIA), Three Curve Capital (TCC) and Gaomei Yunjing Investments.

Retrieving data from the visual web
Dashmote’s mission is to lead people and companies through an AI and data-driven world. Every day, around three billion images are uploaded to the internet. Dashmote’s A.I. technology is capable of analyzing these images and gain valuable insights. With its SaaS-solution, Dashmote is already helping companies such as Heineken, Coca Cola, Unilever, and L’Oréal to understand their audiences and the market they move into.

Large companies that operate in consumer electronics, food and beverage, and cosmetics use Dashmote’s AI tools and analysis to sharpen their marketing efforts and upsell capabilities. The tool is used to discover market trends, operate an effective segmentation of the offer, and measure the audience engagement and sentiment.  

With the new funding, Dashmote heads towards a bright future. “We are very pleased with the international group of investors. They are a great fit to support our ambition to solidify our position in existing markets and to roll out to new markets,” said Dennis Tan, CEO and co-founder of Dashmote. “With SPIA and Three Curve Capital, we not only receive funds to grow our business, but we will also benefit from their experience as venture and growth investors and their vast network. It is important for us that Gaomei also joined this round, considering our current footprint and plans in the Chinese market.”

Experienced, international investors
For Gaomei, a Chinese VC, this is the first investment outside their home country of China. “Dennis and Stefan have proven even before we came along that they had a clear vision on how to enter Asian markets,” said Ning Gu, founder and general partner at Gaomei. “They have done so successfully with their own strategy of local culture and approach with an international push.”

Both SPIA and TCC have deep networks in the U.S., Europe and Asia and bring decades of experience in scaling fast-growing companies, including those with global ambitions similar to Dashmote’s.

Scaling up and expanding
Dashmote is already profitable and will use the funding exclusively to rapidly scale up. The company will double its number of employees from 45 to 90. The New York and Shanghai offices will increase in size, and new offices in the U.S. and Asia are planned to open in the near future.

The company will also use the fresh capital to expand its product portfolio. Dashmote’s AI technology is now predominantly serving image analytics for trend, brand, and location intelligence services. In the near future, the company intends to unlock information from online video material – another potentially inexhaustible source of insights for companies. Together with a new way to visualize the gathered information, this will offer companies even more possibilities to understand data and leverage it for marketing, strategy and sales purposes. 

About Dashmote
Dashmote was founded in 2014 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands by Dennis Tan (CEO), Matthäus Schreder (CPO), and Stefan Tan (CFO). The applied AI insight platform helps companies make complex decisions based on data gathered from images and text uploaded to the internet. The company headquarters is in Amsterdam with offices in New York, Vienna, and Shanghai.

Contact: Stefan Tan, stefan@dashmote.com, 646-233-3634

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SOURCE Dashmote

NEW YORK and PARIS, July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Scope Technology announced their successful migration to Microsoft Azure today.  The partnership includes Scope’s adoption of Azure to enhance their advanced enterprise solutions. It will also promote R&D collaboration on AI driven image recognition technology along with sales collaboration between the two companies. 

Scope’s platform solutions feature connected car, IoT partner marketplace, and mobility platform solutions. This new offering will significantly enhance the adoption of innovations in connected car solutions.

“For twenty years Scope has been bringing innovation to the automotive, insurance, and fleet markets while maintaining our core values of improving driver safety and helping to prevent road fatalities. Today, we continue that tradition with new solutions that are powered by big data, machine learning, computer vision, and artificial intelligence, which requires highly robust, innovative, and secure solutions to serve our global customers. Microsoft Azure provides a powerful tool for us to accelerate the evolution of the next generation of connected car solutions,” said Jacob Hasson, CRO at Scope Technology.

Scope Technology processes billions of meaningful vehicle events every month from over 50 countries worldwide. While today’s systems capture vehicle, driver, and contextual information, the next generation of connected car solutions will expand the ecosystem beyond the vehicle. 

“End customers have new expectations about their vehicle experiences and Scope’s solutions are helping the large enterprise companies transition to a more engaged and richer customer experience with actionable insights and advanced services. Scope is helping them to grow into new markets while offering new services,” said Hasson.

“We are entering a new era of services around connected cars. The partnership with Scope Technology will enable them to fuel their digital transformation, and accelerate innovation in their connected car and vehicle technologies to create solutions that are even more intelligent and data driven. Microsoft aims to enable our customers to focus on innovation and how they will continue in transforming their industries,” said Samer Abu Ltaif, President of Microsoft Middle East and Africa.

Microsoft Azure provides a powerful cloud platform that maximizes the evolution of Scope’s big data and artificial intelligence connected car solutions for customers in multiple verticals worldwide.  Scope is helping companies better serve their customers while continuing to make roads safer.

About Scope Technology

Scope Technology is an innovative connected car company with a solid foundation of technology. From OEM, fleet, and insurance solutions to new computer vision AI solutions – Scope’s purpose is to help companies accelerate their business through the power of actionable insights from vehicle and driver data. For more information please visit: https://www.scopetechnology.com  

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

 

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SOURCE Scope Technology

BELLEVUE, Wash., July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Icertis, the leading provider of enterprise contract management in the cloud, today announced the closing of a $115 million Series E round. With this funding, Icertis becomes the first Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) company in the world to be valued at more than a billion dollars.

Icertis is recognized as the CLM category leader due to its groundbreaking AI-infused Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform and unparalleled success in winning Global 2000 customers. It counts some of the most sophisticated enterprises across all major verticals, as well as 5 of the world’s top 10 most valuable companies, as its customers. Today, the ICM platform helps customers worldwide manage over 5.7 million contracts with an aggregate value of more than $1 trillion.

The round was co-led by Greycroft and Premji Invest with participation from existing institutional investors including B Capital Group, Cross Creek, Eight Roads, Ignition Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and PSP Growth.

“When Greycroft invests in a company, we commit to a long-term partnership and, since leading their Series A round in 2015, we’ve been proud to support Icertis as it transforms the foundation of commerce,” said Mark Terbeek, Partner, Greycroft. “Over that time, we’ve seen the company become the undisputed CLM leader, acquiring a huge stable of blue-chip customers and generating a return on capital that is among the best we’ve ever seen. We have no doubt they will become the next giant in the enterprise SaaS market.”

“As we run a long-term evergreen crossover fund, we look for companies with enduring growth prospects that can execute and thrive well beyond an initial public offering,” said Sandesh Patnam, Lead Partner for Premji Invest in the US. “Icertis has all the hallmarks of a company that will grow into a juggernaut – an innovative product that delivers substantial value for customers, deep cash reserves to develop the market and a track record of flawless execution.”

For the first time in history, contracts are being digitized, allowing enterprises to reimagine contract management and place it at the center of their commercial processes. The ICM platform, powered by artificial intelligence, unlocks the commercial value embedded in a company’s contracts. By transforming these static documents into strategic digital assets, enterprises can protect against risk, improve compliance, accelerate business velocity, and optimize commercial relationships over the entire life of the contract.

“Companies must re-imagine every business process to compete in today’s hyper-competitive global markets,” said Samir Bodas, CEO and Co-founder of Icertis. “Nothing is more foundational than contract management as every dollar in and every dollar out of a company is governed by a contract. As the CLM market takes off, we are thrilled to have Premji Invest join the Icertis family, Greycroft double down by co-leading this round, and all investors re-up their commitment as we execute on our mission to become the contract management platform of the world.”

The CLM market is massive and growing rapidly – MGI Research estimates the total addressable market (TAM) over $20 billion, with SaaS CLM growing at a 31% compound annual growth rate. “The growth in CLM adoption is fueled by digital transformation,” said Igor Stenmark, MGI Research Managing Director. “Companies are re-focusing technology investments away from traditional ERP/Financial suites towards automating and digitally instrumenting key processes like contract management. Enterprise contract management providers like Icertis are well-positioned to ride this wave.”

Icertis consistently garners high scores and strong reviews in analyst- and customer-driven assessments. The company “has continued to improve its CLM product and has acquired a series of Fortune 100 clients as a result,” writes Andrew Bartels, author of The Forrester Wave™: Contract Lifecycle Management for All Contracts, Q1 2019. In this comprehensive evaluation by Forrester, Icertis received the top score out of all vendors in the Current Offering category and the highest score possible in the Customer References category.

The new funds will be used to:

• Increase investment in the industry-leading ICM platform and growing stable of verticalized business applications built on the platform to help customers increase revenue, reduce costs, improve cash flow, manage risk and ensure compliance.
• Extend the Icertis Blockchain Framework, the world’s first blockchain framework integrated with an enterprise contract management platform, to create practical and transformative solutions to solve real-world business challenges including supply chain transparency, certification compliance, outcome-based pricing and more.
• Accelerate the infusion of artificial intelligence and advanced cognitive services into the ICM platform to solve previously intractable enterprise contract management challenges that can be uniquely addressed only by these new technologies.
• Scale sales and marketing efforts globally to reach every leading company in the world, and expand business development initiatives to grow the partner ecosystem.
• Finance opportunistic acquisitions tied to commercial value generation in contracting.

Icertis has achieved a 125% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past four years. To address this rapid expansion, Icertis opened offices in London, Paris, Singapore, Sydney and Sofia, Bulgaria in the last 18 months, bringing the company’s worldwide office count to 12. The company is experiencing more growth than ever and today has customers across all major industry verticals including ABB, Airbus, 3M, BASF, Bertelsmann, Cognizant, Daimler, Humana, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Qantas and more.

Icertis received the following industry, partner, customer, and employee recognition recently:

• Leader in the Forrester Wave™: Contract Lifecycle Management for All Contracts, Q1 2019
• AI Brave award for AI capabilities
• Top Innovative Supplier for Daimler globally
• IACCM EMEA Award for Excellence and Innovation 
• Top Company to Work For in Washington State
• Microsoft US Manufacturing Partner of the Year Award 

For more information about Icertis, visit our Series E press kit. 

About Icertis
Icertis, the leading enterprise contract management platform in the cloud, solves the hardest contract management problems on the easiest to use platform. With Icertis, companies accelerate their business by increasing contract velocity, protect against risk by ensuring regulatory and policy compliance, and optimize their commercial relationships by maximizing revenue and reducing costs. The AI-infused Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform is used by companies like 3M, Airbus, Cognizant, Daimler, Microsoft and Sanofi to manage 5.7 million contracts in 40+ languages across 90+ countries.

Icertis Media Contact:
Haley Flanagan
Corporate Communications Manager
CorpComm@icertis.com 
+1 425-869-7649

 

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SOURCE Icertis

SEOUL, South Korea, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Janssen Korea Ltd. and Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC today announced the launch of the Seoul Innovation QuickFire Challenge in Smart Healthcare in collaboration with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI). The challenge invites innovators from around the world – including start-ups, entrepreneurs, academics, scientists, and biotech researchers – to submit the best idea, technology, or solution that aims to address a health need for the world’s population.

Up to two awardees will receive up to KRW 150,000,000 (approximately US$134,000)¹ in grant funding, one year of residency at the Seoul Bio Hub, one year of mentorship and coaching from experts in science, technology and commercialization at the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, and access to the JLABS global entrepreneurial community.

“The Asia Pacific region is a health tech powerhouse,” said Melinda Richter, Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS². “Korea is an emerging leader in health tech innovation, and there is tremendous potential in the areas of AI, blockchain, and big data among others. The Smart Healthcare QuickFire Challenge is a global call for submissions with the aim to identify great, tech-enabled ideas that can make a long-lasting, positive impact on the health of individuals and communities worldwide.”

The QuickFire Challenges, managed by JLABS—the no-strings-attached incubators of Johnson & Johnson Innovation—seek to empower and enable groundbreaking science and health solutions by encouraging students, entrepreneurs, researchers, and start-up companies to apply. The Smart Healthcare QuickFire Challenge focuses on the following technology-enabled innovation areas:

• Big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain
• 3D printing, Internet of Things (IoT), sensors, wearables
• Personalized medicine, companion diagnostics

“In collaboration with local leaders, we are working to support the entrepreneurial community and enhance the life science ecosystem by fostering an environment that embraces novel scientific and technological approaches to improving the health and care of patients and consumers,” said Jenny Zheng, Area Managing Director, Janssen North Asia³. “We are interested in QuickFire Challenge applicants with ideas that leverage health tech to advance customized approaches to patient care, shared decision making, and efforts to lower barriers and improve access to care.”

The QuickFire Challenge aims to advance game-changing, early-stage innovations by combining Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s unique vision for collaboration in an open innovation model with the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s efforts to drive innovation and commercialize its research outcomes; KHIDI’s professional and systems-building support; and the Seoul Bio Hub’s ability to accelerate the development and commercialization of potential early-stage, life-science solutions.

This announcement marks the third QuickFire Challenge in Korea, following the launch of the previous Seoul Innovation QuickFire Challenges in August 2017 and August 2018. The deadline to apply is September 15, 2019. For more information about the Smart Healthcare QuickFire Challenge (including the terms and conditions of entry), please visit: http://jlabs.buzz/SmartHealthcare  

About Johnson & Johnson Innovation 

Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC focuses on accelerating all stages of innovation worldwide and forming collaborations between entrepreneurs and Johnson & Johnson’s global healthcare businesses. Johnson & Johnson Innovation provides scientists, entrepreneurs and emerging companies with one-stop access to science and technology experts who can facilitate collaborations across the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer companies of Johnson & Johnson. Under the Johnson & Johnson Innovation umbrella of businesses, we connect with innovators through our regional Innovation Centers; Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS; Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc.; and our business development teams to create customized deals and novel collaborations that speed development of innovations to solve unmet needs in patients. JLABS provides the laboratories, expertise, education, tools and resources needed to help life science startups thrive, all with no strings attached. A Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center (CDI @ TMC) has been established to accelerate the development of medical devices. For more information about Johnson & Johnson Innovation, please visit: www.jnjinnovation.com.

About Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS

Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS (JLABS) is a global network of open innovation ecosystems, enabling and empowering innovators across a broad healthcare spectrum including pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer and health tech sectors to create and accelerate the delivery of life-saving, life-enhancing health and wellness solutions to patients around the world. JLABS achieves this by providing the optimal environment for emerging companies to catalyze growth and optimize their research and development by opening them to vital industry connections, delivering entrepreneurial programs and providing a capital-efficient, flexible platform where they can transform the scientific discoveries of today into the breakthrough healthcare solutions of tomorrow. At JLABS, we value great ideas and are passionate about removing obstacles to success to help innovators unleash the potential of their early scientific discoveries. JLABS is a no-strings-attached model, which means entrepreneurs are free to develop their science while holding on to their intellectual property. JLABS also produces campaigns to seek out the best science called QuickFire Challenges. For more information, visit http://jlabs.jnjinnovation.com/ or follow @JLABS. 

About the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

At Janssen, we’re creating a future where disease is a thing of the past. We’re the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, working tirelessly to make that future a reality for patients everywhere by fighting sickness with science, improving access with ingenuity, and healing hopelessness with heart. We focus on areas of medicine where we can make the biggest difference: Cardiovascular & Metabolism, Immunology, Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Neuroscience, Oncology, and Pulmonary Hypertension. Learn more at www.janssen.com. Follow us at www.twitter.com/JanssenGlobal. Janssen Korea Ltd. is one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. 

Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 related to the launch of the Seoul Innovation QuickFire Challenge in Smart Healthcare. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Janssen Korea Ltd., any of the other Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and/or Johnson & Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the potential that the expected benefits and opportunities related to the collaboration may not be realized or may take longer to realize than expected; challenges inherent in new product development, including the uncertainty of clinical success and obtaining regulatory approvals; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; uncertainty of commercial success for new products; the ability of the company to successfully execute strategic plans; impact of business combinations and divestitures; challenges to patents; changes in behavior and spending patterns or financial distress of purchasers of health care products and services; and global health care reforms and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson & Johnson’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2018, including in the sections captioned “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” and in the company’s most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and the company’s subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.gov, www.jnj.com or on request from Johnson & Johnson. The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC and Johnson & Johnson do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.

¹ From the KRW 150 million grant, each awardee will receive a KRW 75 million grant including one-year mandatory residency, which must be used toward the rent and utilities at the Seoul Bio Hub for a year.
² Melinda Richter is employed by Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC.
³ Jenny Zheng is employed by Janssen Korea Ltd.

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SOURCE Johnson & Johnson Innovation

AUSTIN, Texas, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — San Bernardino County, which is the largest county in the United States by area covers the areas of Los Angeles and Long beach of over 20,000 square miles. The Real Estate Services Department at San Bernardino completed over 108 capital improvement projects in 2018 for a total of $67M toward its infrastructure, bridge replacements, and right of way projects. The Project Management Division (PMD) has selected Aurigo Essentials Cloud to streamline the way it plans and delivers its capital projects in the future.

“The PMD division at San Bernardino county wanted to select a modern software that handled the entire capital project lifecycle over the cloud, and yet met our budget, and demand for a quick implementation cycle. After a thorough vetting process, we selected Aurigo Essentials as they checked all the boxes. We are looking forward to a strong technology partnership with Aurigo,” said Joel Garnica, Supervising Project Manager, San Bernardino County.

“Aurigo is excited to partner with the San Bernardino County and help the Real Estate Services Department to meet its capital project management needs with Aurigo Essentials. We see our entry into the small and medium government market place with Aurigo Essentials as a major game changer, that will help small and medium government agencies plan and deliver their capital projects using best in class cloud software at a very affordable price,” said Balaji Sreenivasan, CEO of Aurigo Software Technologies Inc.

About Aurigo

Aurigo Software is America’s leading provider of modern cloud software to help infrastructure owners plan, build, maintain and operate their multi-billion-dollar capital investments safely and efficiently.

Aurigo Masterworks Cloud is a comprehensive suite of enterprise software products that automates the entire lifecycle of capital programs, including planning, forecasting, budgeting, bid & estimation, project management, contract administration, scheduling, right of way, permitting, materials testing, field inspection, civil rights, and document control. The system has powerful reporting and dashboard capabilities, a native mobile application and is investing extensively to harness Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technologies. Aurigo helps over 200 customers plan and deliver over $300 Billion of capital programs safely and efficiently. Aurigo is a privately held US corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas, with wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada and India.

Aurigo Essentials Cloud is an all-in-one construction project management software solution, built on the same powerful Aurigo Masterworks platform. Aurigo Essentials is catered to needs of Small and Medium Government agencies, to help them automate their capital planning and construction lifecycle processes at a very affordable price.

Visit www.aurigo.com/essentials for more information.

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SOURCE Aurigo Software