The Wire (Page 313)

WPP (NYSE: WPP) today announces that it is acquiring Diff, a leading commerce agency based in Montreal, Canada. Diff is an award-winning developer of tailor-made commerce solutions with specialized capabilities that address the rapidly growing Shopify commerce ecosystem.

The end of the year is coming with great news for us, at Nestor. We’re thrilled to announce that we raised a $2 million seed round to advance our mission and support organizations worldwide to move beyond the traditional rigid jobs architecture and build agile people strategies based on skills.

Rokt announced a secondary transaction led by Square Peg and Wellington Management that increased Rokt’s valuation to $2.4 billion, less than 12 months since we raised $325 million in our Series E fundraising round. “Despite broader market declines in valuations, we continue to see rapid growth in Rokt driven by new ecommerce partners and an uplift from advertisers,” said Bruce Buchanan, CEO of Rokt. “Due to the challenging economic climate, ecommerce companies are focusing on more relevant customer experiences that improve economics and deliver new revenue. This has further propelled Rokt’s growth and we’re pleased to see this expression of support from existing investors as Rokt looks towards an IPO.” During 2022, we announced multiple significant new partnerships, including with Uber and AMC Theatres.

Frame AI, the leading AI-driven platform for Customer Intelligence, announced today that it has raised $7.6M in funding to accelerate growth. The oversubscribed round was led by existing investors G20 Ventures with participation from FirstMark and Greycroft, and attracted majority participation from new institutional investors Velvet Sea Ventures and ValueStream Ventures, and strategic investors Twilio ($TWLO) and LiveRamp ($RAMP).

Audiense today announced the acquisition of SOPRISM, the digital consumer insight tool which supports leading agencies and brands in developing their audience understanding. As part of the acquisition, Audiense will merge the SOPRISM team and product into the existing platform, to enhance the analytics and insights available for customers.

Following a successful pilot, EverService Holdings, LLC “EverService” has launched a new Lead Capture Services product aimed at helping thousands of SMB companies around the USA capture more leads, book more appointments and generate more revenue at potentially lower costs per lead. The new offering integrates solutions from two of EverService’s brands, Blue Corona and Nexa, by generating increased demand through industry-leading digital marketing, answering calls 24/7/365 and booking appointments directly in clients’ CRM and field management software. “We are relentlessly focused on delivering value for our clients”, shared EverService CEO, Jeff Mosler. “This combined offering solves a business opportunity that most of our clients seek — increase lead generation activities and maximize conversion to scheduled appointments.” Early results from clients in the professional and home services verticals are positive, showing an average call conversion rate of >30% to qualified leads from calls that otherwise would not have been answered.

The acquisition unites the leading commerce platform for publishers with the leading digital performance advertising platform, to provide increased advertiser engagement and publishers with diversified and increased revenue. LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #acquisition -- Ad.net, a leading provider of digital performance advertising through intent-driven marketing for leading brands and agencies, announced today its purchase of IntentX, the leading commerce platform for publishers at scale to increase their revenue.

Waymark, a pioneer in using artificial intelligence to speed up and scale up video production, today announced the inclusion of its platform in the creative directories of both Hulu and Roku. Small and medium-sized businesses can now access Waymark through the ad managers of both major streaming platforms to create high-quality video advertisements.

Stratus, the leading facilities services and brand implementation services firm, today announced the acquisition of Comet Signs, based in San Antonio, Texas. The combined organization now consists of over 1,100 employees throughout the United States.

ATX Venture Partners led the round; Galaxy Interactive, Silverton Partners and DNX Ventures also participated Protopia AI helps enterprises maximize value from their real data using AI/ML with a novel privacy-enhancing layer that ensures raw sensitive data is never exposed to AI, but the AI still gets everything it needs Protopia AI will use the funding to further build out engineering teams go-to-market efforts, as well as advance product features Eiman Ebrahimi, CEO at Protopia AI (Photo: Business Wire) AUSTIN, Texas--( BUSINESS WIRE)-- Protopia AI, a company that helps enterprises fully leverage their AI data, today announced its $6 million seed funding round led by ATX Venture Partners. Protopia AI solves a significant problem in the space: the inability of enterprises to access key data needed for their artificial intelligence models because of data protection policies.