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Hashnode funding round attracts marquee tech investors as traction gathers pace

Stockwood Strategy

Global blogging community for developers Hashnode, today announced it has raised US$2.1m in funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge. A range of marquee investors* also participated including Naval Ravikant (early investor in Twitter, Uber and co-founder of AngelList), Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal (founders of BrowserStack) as well as Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur (founders at Razorpay). Founded just 6 months ago in June 2020 by Sandeep Panda and Syed Fazle Rahman, Hashnode helps developers and engineering teams start technical blogs and share them with the broader developer community. The platform is growing at a rate of 25% month-on-month in. More than 20,000 new developer blogs have been created on the platform in a few months and over 500,000 readers visit https://hashnode.com every month. Developer blogs are the heart of many developer communities that share, learn, and drive innovation around specific products, projects, hacks, and code branches. The rapid growth of the API economy, which is underpinning the tech sector's growth, has been fuelled by these developer communities. Currently, there are two types of blogging solutions. Publishing networks (like Medium) help a blogger with social media credibility and reach at the cost of content ownership and customization. There are self-hosting solutions, like WordPress, but distributing the content is difficult, which makes it hard to create large, active communities. The cost of running the software also keeps increasing. Hashnode helps writers focus on writing and gives them the freedom to blog without the risk of losing their content or losing control of traffic and SEO. Fazle Rahman, CEO at Hashnode commented: “We realised many writers just want a platform that helps them focus on writing and gives them the freedom to blog without losing control over their content or thinking about traffic and SEO. Hashnode allows developers and businesses to create a blog on a custom domain and stay connected with a central community for content distribution. This solves both the problem of content ownership and distribution.” Hashnode powered blogs are easy to use, set up, configure, highly optimised for SEO, and have built-in community interaction functionalities like reactions, comments, bookmarks, and more. “Hashnode allows developers and businesses that want to build developer communities to create a blog on a custom domain, and stay connected with a central dev community for content distribution. The platform also allows publishing articles directly from Github, a feature not available on other publishing tools,” added Fazle Sandeep and Fazle are avid developers, bloggers and authors who have both published several books on various web technologies. They graduated together from IIIT Bhubaneswar in Computer Science Engineering and have a shared passion for building products for the web and teaching developers online. * Angel investors in the round include: Naval Ravikant (AngelList, Uber, Twitter, Stack Overflow, Yammer), Ed Roman (Pluralsight and Hack Summit), Shashank Kumar (Razorpay), Harshil Mathur (Razorpay), Ritesh Arora (BrowserStack), Nakul Aggarwal (BrowserStack), Christopher Golda (BlackType, acquired by Twitter), Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks), Salil Deshpande Uncorrelated Ventures) and Guillermo Rauch (Vercel). Ends About Hashnode Hashnode is a free content creation platform and community that allows people to publish articles on their own domain and helps them stay connected with a growing developer community. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://hashnode.com/

December 15, 2020 11:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Velocity Global appoints ADP veteran Jim Birch to modernize International PEO payroll

Velocity Global

Velocity Global, the leading provider of global expansion solutions, today announced global payroll veteran, Jim Birch, as vice president of Global Payroll and Product Strategy. Birch joins Velocity Global to lead cutting-edge strategies to streamline Employer of Record payroll execution for midmarket and enterprise clients. Birch joins Velocity Global from ADP, a leader in global payroll solutions, where he led product management and the user experience for automated payroll processes across ADP’s Streamline-Celergo multicountry payroll services. For a decade prior, Birch grew operations at Celergo before ADP acquired it in 2018. “Jim applies his world class know-how to scale global payroll operations for our clients,” said José Montero, Velocity Global chief operating officer. “For an Employer of Record, global payroll requires intricate coordination with clients and their HR platforms. As remote teams drive the largest workforce shift in recent memory, Jim will connect our payroll operations with backend name-brand payroll platforms for our clients, and make our solutions more accessible to enterprises.” Clients rely on Velocity Global’s expertise and global infrastructure to hire internationally without the cost or complexity of setting up their own foreign legal entities. As a strategic partner offering International Professional Employer Organization (PEO) services, Velocity Global serves as an employer of record to manage in-country compliance, payroll, and benefits for its clients’ supported employees. “Payroll is equivalent to the last-mile delivery of a paycheck -- it must be frictionless for the employer and the supported employee,” said Birch. “Today, the International PEO model mainly serves growth companies as they expand globally with speed and limited investment. I am energized to scale our global payroll operations to connect with enterprise platforms as corporations seek that same flexibility.” For 15 years, Birch led and integrated global payroll processes; led IT network, software development, and product management; and managed client services and a global network of payroll providers. He held international assignments serving as managing director of Celergo’s London, Singapore & Hungary regional offices. Jim will report to Velocity Global’s Chief Operating Officer, José Montero. View a biography for Jim Birch and other leaders at Velocity Global. ABOUT VELOCITY GLOBAL Velocity Global helps companies grow globally. Founded in 2014, Velocity Global’s clients rely on its expertise and global infrastructure in 185 countries to hire compliantly around the world, increase revenue, scale efficiently, and access global talent. Named a “Leader” in Global Employer of Record services by prominent analyst firm NelsonHall, Velocity Global is a strategic partner to its clients with comprehensive services led by its core offering of International PEO as well as Immigration, Entity Setup and Support, Global Talent Acquisition, and Consulting. Velocity Global is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with regional headquarters in Amsterdam and Singapore, and local employees in 14 countries. Contact Details John Hall +1 720-650-4348 johnhall@velocityglobal.com Company Website https://velocityglobal.com/

December 14, 2020 07:02 AM Mountain Standard Time

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Richpanel raises funding to eliminate customer service tickets for ecommerce

Stockwood Strategy

Richpanel, a revolutionary customer service platform for the ecommerce industry, has raised an undisclosed investment as part of Sequoia Capital India’s Surge with the aim to eliminate customer service tickets with an “Amazon-like” customer account section. Founded in January 2019 and headquartered in both India and the US, Richpanel was created with the purpose of helping ecommerce companies scale business without hiring more agents. The platform allows merchants to design an account page on their online storefront where they can automate order tracking, exchanges, returns, cancellations, and any other scenario which would otherwise result in a support ticket. While tech giants like Amazon and Uber have made massive investments to automate their purchase & post purchase flows like “where is my order” and “change trip destination”, these kinds of queries result in support tickets for every other business. They rely on a team of agents and a ticketing system to handle them, creating costs and inefficiencies. Richpanel’s platform helps these businesses launch a self-service portal on their stores, allowing customers to perform actions without ever having to contact a support agent. This means businesses can scale their operations without constantly expanding their support team. “The first time I disputed a cancellation fee on a ride-sharing platform, I mentally prepared myself for a 15-minute-long chat with a support rep, but I was pleasantly surprised when the entire process took less than 60 seconds. This automated customer service support technology can save ecommerce businesses millions of dollars, and we felt there was a real need to productize this for everyone else,” said Amit RG, CEO at Richpanel “At Richpanel, our goal is to help clients eliminate unnecessary support tickets. Businesses have tried chatbots, FAQs and help center solutions, but what they need is a solution that does not ‘deflect’ customers but ‘resolves’ their issues. Currently, our platform is able to resolve 40-50% of incoming queries and we will take this up to 80% over the coming months,” Amit RG added. Richpanel is the next generation in customer service support and seeks to disrupt the help desk software market as well as customer care outsourcing services, where businesses are expected to spend $110b by 20241. The platform provides a seamless experience for both visiting customers and businesses to handle cases where customers need to speak with a human. The ‘agent inbox’ helps brands manage all their support channels - email, live chat, social media & phone - from one place. The integration with ecommerce platforms help agents see complete purchase history, take order actions and respond to customers from one screen. Clients such as US-based apparel company Pawz.com are seeing positive results with Richpanel. “As one of Richpanel’s early adopters, we have been extremely happy with the platform and the team’s ability to deliver well on projects. Currently, our self-service flows powered by Richpanel are able to close nearly 60% of all incoming queries or tickets, without the need to interact with an agent,” said Julian Quintães, CEO at Pawz.com. Ends Notes to the editor 1 Radian Insights, Outsourced customer care services market worth $84.7 billion by 2020 Richpanel is a customer service solutions platform, purpose-built for the ecommerce industry. Founded in January 2019 with headquarters in both India and the US, Richpanel’s self-service platform allows merchants to design an Amazon-style account page on their store, where they can automate order tracking, returns, exchanges, cancellations, order changes and more. The platform also has an agent help desk to help customer support agents manage incoming queries across various touch points such as email, live chat, social media and phone. Today, over 1,000 merchants all over the world use Richpanel every day to support their customers. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://richpanel.com/

December 09, 2020 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

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CMMC Center of Excellence Announces Engagement Agreement with 6clicks

Interoperability Clearinghouse

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Center of Excellence (CMMC-COE), hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public-private partnership serving the public and private sectors for more than 15-years is proud to announce a partnership with global software provider 6clicks and the establishment of CMMC-COE APAC lead by 6clicks founder, Andrew Robinson. This unique partnership will extend efforts to advance the goals and objectives for improving the cyber and supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD) global Defense Industrial Base (DIB) network of contractors, suppliers, and vendors. 6clicks provides an innovative software-as-a-service platform used by consultants, governments, and businesses around the world designed to streamline risk assessment and compliance activities across multiple standards, including CMMC. 6clicks has offices in Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom, and in Melbourne, Australia. Andrew Robinson, Founder & Head of Cyber Security, 6clicks sums up the partnership with: "Supply chains are global and to secure them we must be willing to cooperate across national and regional boundaries to synthesize and build upon existing cybersecurity standards. The CMMC-COE and CMMC-COE APAC are a key part of this important mission." “This is a momentous occasion for us”, said Mr. John Weiler, Chairman of the Board at CMMC Center of Excellence, “Our Asia Pacific center will further help advance the goals and objectives for improving the supply chain security and resilience of the US Department of Defense (DoD) beyond North America”. This collaborative partnership between 6clicks and CMMC-COE helps further their respective and complementary missions and objectives regarding the adoption, use, and expansion of cybersecurity best practices. The adoption of next-generation software like 6clicks to assess and accelerate cybersecurity maturity will better drive efficiency and improve the decision-making capabilities beyond outdated legacy systems. The objectives and mission of 6clicks and CMMC-COE are in direct alignment with the US Department of Defense Office of Inspector General on cybersecurity best practices, risk management, and compliance. The objective to secure and scale the DIB contractor community, the information and communications technology community. This partnership establishes a broader CMMC ecosystem to improve security and resilience. Some specific actions will include: The co-development of CMMC advisory services, cyber training, and education programs to accelerate CMMC certification, increase cyber adoption, and improve cyber protection and resilience. Co-sponsor symposiums, training programs and podcasts leveraging their combined cyber and IT expertise. Host regular working groups, with other partners, to enable collaboration and communications. Source qualified cyber professionals to serve as cyber and CMMC advocates. Establish an independent Industry Cyber Security Advisory Council with peer organizations to advise and educate leaders across government and industry on the continued evolution and effectiveness of CMMC. Engage with the Defense Industrial Base contractor community across the Asia-Pacific region to enhance education, training, preparation, and compliance with provisions of the CMMC requirements. The CMMC-COE ( http://cmmc-coe.org ) and the CMMC-COE APAC ( https://cmmc-apac.com/ ) will focus on bringing together the many disparate cyber and national security communities of interest to reduce complexity, improve awareness, and accelerate industry effort to become more cyber resilient against the growing threats from nation states and criminal enterprises. The CMMC-COE partner network, including 6clicks and the CMMC-COE APAC will be sharing a wide range of capabilities such as cyber standards frameworks, education, solution architectures, cyber mentoring, workforce, and other elements needed to scale to the demands of the entire DIB marketplace in the U.S. and abroad (400,000 contractors worldwide). The CMMC-COE establishes both a Market Place and Knowledge Clearinghouse that will include resources that support the overall effort, including white papers, tutorials, recorded webcasts, presentations, and more that will help reduce the cost and burden on small and medium size contractors already struggling from the impact of COVID and the complexity of small and large federal contracts. With this, we are excited to have 6clicks and the CMMC-COE APAC included in our trusted portfolio. For more information on the CMMC-COE, please visit http://cmmc-coe.org email: info@cmmc-coe.org For more information on 6clicks, please visit https://6clicks.io/ For more information on the CMMC-COE APAC, please visit https://cmmc-apac.com/ email: contact@cmmc-apac.com About Us ---------- CMMC-COE.ORG is a unique non-profit public-private partnership, with a vision to accelerate Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMM) adoption, and reduce time & cost for security compliance for our partners by leveraging commercial best practices, CMMC standards, and innovative solutions for a measurable success. Our mission, focused on DOD mission objectives, cost containment and expeditious CMMC compliance, is to help the DIB improve cyber posture and resilience, and simplify its acquisition. The CMMC-COE is hosted by the Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a public/private partnership (P3) chartered in 2007 as an honest broker to reach outside the confines of the Federal IT advisories that lack dynamic reach into the Global IT Market, and dedicated to the adoption of commercial IT management standards of practice and innovations emanating from the Global IT market. Team IT-AAC has already demonstrated the value of its decade long investment, and provides a unique value to agencies seeking to achieve accelerate the transformation of legacy processes and systems. Our Just-in-Time SMEs apply an innovative suite of Technology Business Management and Agile Acquisition Processes needed to assure the business value of commercial IT. The Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), is the managing partner that make up the 24 NGO/SDO organizations that make up the IT-AAC. ICH provides the contract vehicles, clearances, and critical resources proven to guide sustainable, measurable and repeatable processes needed to drive better investment decisions as the speed of mission need, while aligning existing processes, methods and workforce with IT reform mandates contained in Clinger Cohen Act, FITARA, IT MGT Act, EO13838. Contact Details Bob Dix +1 703-975-6633 bob.dix@it-aac.org Company Website https://cmmc-coe.org

December 08, 2020 10:20 PM Eastern Standard Time

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Cloud Conventions Launches Community, a Platform to Strengthen Attendee/Exhibitor Engagement

Convey Services

Cloud Conventions, the industry leading virtual event technology solution today expanded its capabilities by launching Community ™, a new feature set designed to promote attendee/exhibitor engagement, networking and communication. Community provides a searchable attendee and exhibitor directory for connection, a message center for interactive communication or meeting requests and a one-on-one chat feature so attendees and exhibitors can open a discussion from within a booth. “Cloud Conventions continues to pioneer new capabilities in the virtual event space with features that accelerate direct connection between sponsors, exhibitors and attendees,” said Carolyn Bradfield, CEO of Convey Services, parent company of Cloud Conventions. “Our new Community platform allows attendees and exhibitors to find each other, as well as start conversations that lead to building relationships during the live portion of a virtual event and beyond.” Community is an opt-in program accessed from attendee and exhibitor dashboards within the Cloud Conventions platform. Event managers customize searchable directories by allowing specific data to appear in contact cards and enabling messaging for two-way communication. Directory access is controlled by the event host allowing exhibitors to be added to the directory based on sponsorship levels. The new Message Center within Community organizes attendee and exhibitor outreach, as well as booth chat sessions, and manages requests for meetings using Cloud Conventions’ matchmaking service. US-based attendees can choose to opt-out of directory listings and messaging. To support strict GDPR compliance, international attendees must choose to opt-in to be contacted or viewed in the directory. Opt-in attendees become visible to exhibitors when they enter their booth. Exhibitors can select an attendee and open a chat dialog with them, or the attendee can open a dialog with the booth. Cloud Conventions maintains privacy controls to comply with both CCPA and GDPR. It supports ADA requirements to accommodate people with disabilities to avoid the risk of legal repercussions based on failure to provide attendees with easy access to content and programming within a virtual event. “ Community is only one of the platform features that promote attendee engagement within Cloud Conventions,” added Bradfield. “Discussion forums, social networking, roundtables and a host of options improve engagement between attendees, exhibitors and sponsors. We continue to focus on adding tools and creating opportunities to enhance attendee engagement and build value into the experience. When attendees are engaged, they stay in the event longer, are more motivated to interact with exhibitors and generate valuable sales leads.” Attendees receive message outreaches within their Community dashboard, get notified when new messages are waiting, and can access active message threads on any page inside the portal. Daily indexed emails collect and organize messages to provide a summary of each outreach and a link to go back to the Cloud Conventions-hosted event to read and respond. Show organizers and event managers can learn more about Community by visiting https://cloudconventions.com and explore all of the Cloud Conventions solutions and attendee engagement strategies in the resource center. About Cloud Conventions Cloud Conventions is a Virtual Trade Show and Conference Platform from Convey Services that brings new capabilities to a marketplace looking for solutions to replace the thousands of live trade shows, annual conferences and association meetings cancelled in the wake of COVID-19. Originally launched as ConveyLive, Cloud Conventions automates exhibitors and virtual booths, attendee registration, speaker sessions and reminders, invitations and email communication, while at the same time producing detailed analytics on attendee, session and exhibitor activity. Trade Associations and event managers can explore all of the Cloud Conventions solutions by visiting https://cloudconventions.com or contacting info@cloudconventions.com or call 888-975-1382. Cloud Conventions™, Community™, Cloud Kickoffs™, Conduct™, One-Touch Email Share™, Hub & Spoke™, 360° Virtual Exhibit Hall & Lobby Experience™ and ListLock™ are trademarks of Convey Services LLC Contact Details Bruce Ahern +1 770-580-0810 bahern@conveyservices.com Company Website https://cloudconventions.com

December 02, 2020 03:30 PM Eastern Standard Time

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M Moser Associates Expands North American Presence with Toronto Office Launch

M Moser Associates

Global workplace design firm, M Moser Associates, announced the expansion of its presence in North America with the opening of its Toronto office. A multi-disciplinary firm known for its strategy-led, holistic and integrated approach to workplace design, M Moser has created dynamic and human-centric spaces for many of the world’s most successful companies. Industry veteran Chantal Frenette and M Moser Director, Dave Ge will lead the Toronto office, bringing a combined strength of local knowledge and global learnings. With multiple locations throughout the US and Canada, M Moser’s newest venture is part of an enterprise-wide transformatio n focused on helping clients reinvent the purpose and flexibility of their work environments. “The additions of Chantal and Dave perfectly align with M Moser’s mission of assembling the industry’s most talented professionals to provide a multidisciplinary approach that supports our clients through integrating architecture, design, engineering and technology,” says Nabil Sabet, Group Director at M Moser. “Toronto is a unique opportunity with huge potential. Our team is well-suited to meet the rapid and systemic changes that are prompting our clients throughout North America and around the world to rethink the future of the workplace.” Chantal and Dave bring a wealth of experience to the Toronto market. With over 20 years of experience, Chantal Frenette, Director, works with clients and team members to support lasting workplace transformations. Her diverse work history includes roles at CBRE, Kasian Architecture, and as owner of her own firm, Modo. Throughout her career, Chantal has always applied a purpose-driven approach as she leads the design strategy and vision for her clients. Chantal thrives on breaking down the complex challenges facing organizations as she develops holistic solutions and human-centered, resilient work environments. During his 18-year-long tenure at M Moser Shanghai, Dave Ge, Director, Design and Project Management, has cultivated critical skills in design, project and construction management, and material sourcing. Among other notable achievements, Dave was Project Director for the award winning Red Star Macalline HQ project in Shanghai. Recently awarded a Commendation for Excellence in Interior Architecture by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Red Star Macalline has also been listed as a finalist in Interior Design Magazine’s 2020 Best of the Year Awards. Sabet adds, “With Chantal and Dave leading our growth in Toronto, clients will gain exposure to new perspectives and workplace solutions that will enable employees to thrive and seamlessly transition between in-person and remote work settings. Our goal is to provide Toronto-based clients with the physical, social and digital workplace solutions they need to succeed in today’s environment.” +++ ABOUT M MOSER ASSOCIATES M Moser Associates is a global architecture, design, strategy and delivery firm with more than 1,000 professionals networked across Asia, India, Europe, and the Americas. Since 1981, we have helped transform organizations large and small as they’ve expanded locally and globally, providing solutions that meet the unique needs of their business and their people. Today, work happens everywhere, and the purpose of the office and the role it serves for employees is evolving. We believe that now, more than ever, a company’s physical workplace is a critical resource for creation, socialization and culture building. At M Moser, we work as one integrated team to align the physical, social and digital elements of your workplace and create healthy, agile and resilient virtual and physical spaces where people can connect, collaborate and do their best work – wherever they may be. To learn more about our team and how we work with clients and industry partners to create dynamic, resilient and human-centric environments please visit mmoser.com. MEDIA CONTACTS Mica Guitron North America Tel: +1 415 279 7305 Email: micag@mmoser.com Alex Kendrick Europe Tel: +44 207 621 5400 Email: alexk@mmoser.com ++ Contact Details Kristina Corso +1 908-278-6225 kcorso@hotpaperlantern.com Company Website https://www.mmoser.com/en/

December 02, 2020 09:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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LambdaTest raises US$6m, targeting a million users in 2021

Stockwood Strategy

Cloud-based browser testing platform LambdaTest today announced it has secured US$6 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, a rapid scale-up program for startups in Southeast Asia and India. Blume Ventures, Entrée Capital and Leo Capital also participated in the round, along with Gokul Rajaram and Ramakant Sharma. With the platform, companies can test their website’s look, feel and performance on different browsers, operating systems and device combinations. Equally, in today’s development cycles where automation is crucial, it allows businesses to scale as their testing requirements grow. The fundraise will fast track LambdaTest’s mission of scaling its ecosystem and building the next-generation cloud infrastructure for the developer and tester community. The proliferation of devices and browsers has made it increasingly complex and fragmented for developers to test their websites and apps. Test automation is critical with today's agile development cycles, but building an in-house device lab can be prohibitively expensive for businesses. LambdaTest bridges this gap by allowing users to run both manual and automated tests on their websites and webapps across 2000+ different browsers and operating system environments. Since its launch, LambdaTest has been used to perform more than 12 million tests by its 350,000 users including individuals, SMEs and Fortune 500 companies such as Xerox, Cisco, Deloitte, Media.net, Coca Cola, Trepp, SurveyMonkey, Capgemini, HBR, Dashlane and Zoho. Founded in 2017 by Asad Khan and Jay Singh, LambdaTest is a testing infrastructure company that allows developers to seamlessly test their websites and apps on any browser or operating system environment. “Our ultimate goal is to bring the whole testing ecosystem to the cloud platform, where all testing processes are done in a seamlessly integrated infrastructure that is easy to scale up and helps for easy application, debugging, and ultimately helping to bring out the best quality products in the shortest amount of time,” said Asad Khan, co-founder & CEO, LambdaTest. The funding caps off a busy year for LambdaTest, which saw a huge increase in demand following the pandemic and the rapid migration to digital technologies - a trend that is here to stay. The company has seen 8-10% month-on-month growth in terms of sign-ups, customers, website visits, and revenue, and has more than 350,000 users from 132 countries using the platform. “This round of funding validates our efforts and strengthens our commitment to building a next-generation cloud infrastructure for the developer and tester community,” Khan added. Ends About LambdaTest LambdaTest is a testing infrastructure company that allows users to run both manual and automated tests on their websites and webapps across 2000+ different browsers, browser versions and operating system environments. The platform has been used to perform over 12 million tests in just three years, and is now being used by over 350,000 users across 132 different countries. About Surge Surge is Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program for startups in India and Southeast Asia. Surge combines $1 million to $2 million of seed capital with company-building workshops, a global curriculum and support from a community of exceptional mentors and founders. The program’s goal is to supercharge early-stage startups and give founders an unfair advantage, right out of the gate. For more information on Surge, visit www.surgeahead.com. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://www.lambdatest.com/

December 02, 2020 07:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Let’s Dive lands US$1.7m to make remote working more human, tackling concerns of worker isolation

Stockwood Strategy

Let’s Dive a platform for remote employee engagement and building team culture has today announced it has raised US$1.7 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge. The funding round also saw participation from Village Global and several angel investors*. Let’s Dive will use the funding to further build experiences on the platform to help remote teams tackle isolation, distribute the product to thousands of companies around the world and build a cross-border product team. The on-going global pandemic has upended traditional ways of working, forcing businesses all around the world to set themselves up remotely. Let’s Dive’s founders, who have been building solutions for remote teams for over five years, know from experience that isolation and the lack of team bonding are the biggest obstacles to successfully sustaining a remote work culture. Let’s Dive is a platform that eliminates isolation by bringing teams together and recreating a social space where participants can connect through a range of exciting activities. This creates deeper bonds amongst remote teams who lack the advantage of personal connections. Teams can play games like poker, pictionary, icebreakers, trivias, chess, card games and organise YouTube watch parties. Let’s Dive has already attracted over 100 teams from 28 countries to its platform. Businesses currently using the platform include teams from Silicon Valley giants like Facebook, Airtable, and in India, some of the biggest tech companies like Swiggy and Hike. Currently, Let’s Dive is an invite-only experience. Companies can apply for access on www.letsdive.io. “Having founded and run one of the first 100% remote working businesses, I have personally seen the importance of togetherness and team camaraderie as core pillars of company culture. Remote working poses a significant challenge for businesses trying to maintain this. With Let’s Dive, we set out to solve this problem and drive real engagement and interaction amongst colleagues online,” said Nitesh Agrawal, Co-Founder, Let’s Dive. “Let’s Dive has already gained strong traction and attracted hundreds of teams to our platform - without any marketing. The product’s experience is so unique that teams feel connected within a few hours of usage. With the funding and partnership from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, as well as investors such as Village Global, we look forward to rolling out Let’s Dive to businesses globally to help them create the best possible remote team culture.” added Nitesh. The company was founded in July 2020 by Nitesh Agrawal and Om Prakash. Both have had previous experience with building and scaling startups and have worked with startups like Housing.com, Ola, Mykarma, Fitzoo. Before Let’s Dive, Nitesh led Indiez as founder and CEO, where he built a community of 10,000+ engineers from 50+ countries and was one of the first 100% remote organisations. Ends *Along with the marquee investors, top tier angels such as Utsav Somani from iSeed, Akhil Paul, Anand Chandrasekharan (Former Snapdeal CPO and Facebook Director of Messenger), Zvi Band (Founder, Contactually), Job Van (Founder, Remote.com), Ravish Naresh (Founder, Khatabook), Sai (Founder, Mobile Premier League), Cecilia Stallsmith, Sunita Mohanty (Facebook), OnDeck community and Kamir Kothari (SVB) also participated in the round. About Let’s Dive Let’s Dive is on a mission to build togetherness for businesses with remote working teams. The SaaS platform provides a social space for remote teams, and aims to help companies build their culture through fostering better human connections. Let’s Dive users can hang out, play games, or watch videos, all while sharing their audio and video with their colleagues. For more information, visit: https://www.letsdive.io/ About Surge Surge is Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program for startups in India and Southeast Asia. Surge combines $1 million to $2 million of seed capital with company-building workshops, a global curriculum and support from a community of exceptional mentors and founders. The program’s goal is to supercharge early-stage startups and give founders an unfair advantage, right out of the gate. For more information on Surge, visit www.surgeahead.com. Contact Details Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://www.letsdive.io/

December 01, 2020 07:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Getting a Safer Haircut During the Pandemic

D S Simon Media

Innovation has been key to survival for small businesses in 2020. The coronavirus has caused sweeping changes to business practices, while bringing phrases like “contactless” or “socially distanced” into everyday vernacular. But for hair stylists at salons there is no way to provide their service in a virtual world. From the onset of the pandemic, salons have faced multiple shutdowns due to changes in local health orders. It’s been a long difficult road for salon owners, stylists, and customers who rely on them for haircuts, color, and the salon experience. Now we need to get our salons back on their feet. The Back In Style Campaign aims to help stylists connect, grow and thrive in a more beautiful digital future, with viral social media campaigns and activations targeted towards salon clients at a national and regional level. This month, L’Oréal Professionnel Products Division, with brands including L’Oréal Professionnel, MATRIX, Biolage, Redken, Pureology, Kerastase, Mizani, Baxter of California, and Pulp Riot, is excited to launch a new campaign called “Back In Style”, aimed at bringing awareness to the struggles of salons impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic while empowering their owners and stylists. Timed to Small Business Saturday, the goal is to bring clients back into the salon and return to style. It has been a long difficult road for everyone in the salon industry, but they are coming back. Now it is time to get the nation’s salons back on their feet. The Back In Style Campaign aims to help stylists connect, grow and thrive in a more beautiful digital future, with viral social media campaigns and activations targeted towards salon clients at a national and regional level. During a nationwide media tour in partnership with D S Simon Media and YourUpdate TV, MATRIX Global Business Ambassador, salon owner and TV personality Tabatha Coffey shared the latest salon recommended safety protocols to put clients’ minds at ease, and salon services and styles for minimizing time in the salon chair while maximizing the time between appointments. To learn more about the Back In Style campaign, visit https://www.hair.com/back-in-style.html - 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

November 30, 2020 03:44 PM Eastern Standard Time

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