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Apple Rush Company, Inc.

Apple Rush Company, Inc. (Otcpink:APRU), a leading player in the functional beverage industry, proudly announces it has cleared up final details of brand ownership with Bob Corr and Corr Brands, Inc. Tony Torgerud, CEO of Apple Rush, has negotiated a historical closing on the rights and trademarks of Corr Brands, Inc. In the transaction, Bob Corr has agreed to transfer the rights of the Corr Brands, Inc. trademarks and to forgo any royalties from previous agreements to give Tony and Apple Rush the best opportunity to succeed moving forward. Tony Torgerud said, “I have been negotiating for a year with Bob and he finally felt it was time to work out an agreement that would benefit everyone. Over the next couple months, all the required paperwork will be filed for transference and updates on all intellectual property held by Corr Brands, Inc. Not having to pay royalties will add thousands to the bottom line.” This agreement solidifies the future of the “Rush” family of brands that have been in the market since 1972. Bob Corr stated, “I want to see Apple Rush succeed and I feel the timing is right to get this deal done. I retired a long time ago and it is now time to write the next chapters of this story and with Apple Rush having its own production capabilities and its own tunnel pasteurizer, it is an opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted. I have given up hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties, licensing fees and shares to enhance shareholder value.” With our pilot production abilities, we hope to do some reformulations to introduce a 2024 version of Ginseng Rush and the relaunch of the original Apple Rush flavor line. Apple Rush has held a license for 13 states and International distribution for the last 8 years and now owns the IP without paying the $5,000 per state license, another bottom line gain for all of our stockholders. About The Apple Rush Company, Inc. The Apple Rush Company, Inc., through its subsidiary APRU, LLC, is a distributor of CPG products under the trademarked Apple Rush brand, Element brand and other labels. The Apple Rush brand has more than 50 years of existence in the natural beverage industry. As a historical leader in the organic and natural beverage sector our goal is to now become a leader in the distribution of anhydrous hemp oil products nationwide. For more information, please go to www.aprubrands.com, www.element-brands.com, elementk.kratomwave.store www.alkhemicalroots.com with our expanded product portfolio. Safe Harbor Act: Forward-Looking Statements are included within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations including words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and similar expressions are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact Details Apple Rush Company, Inc. Tony Torgerud +1 888-741-3777 dtorgerud@aprullc.com Company Website http://www.aprubrands.com

May 14, 2024 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

PathAI Announces PLUTO: a State-of-the-art Foundation Model to Enhance AI-powered Pathology Tools

PathAI

PathAI, a global leader in AI-powered pathology, today announced the launch of Pathology Universal Transformer (PLUTO), a pathology-centric foundation model, to further differentiate their portfolio of products geared towards biopharma and pathology laboratory customers. In machine learning, a foundation model 1 (FM) is a model trained using self-supervised learning on a large scale of unlabeled data to mathematically capture salient information from inputs to the model. Once trained, the FM can be adapted to enable specific tasks in new contexts, especially including previously unforeseen contexts and tasks. The process of adapting a high-quality FM yields better downstream pathology tools, with lower development time and cost, than building bespoke tools from scratch. For example, a pathology FM may be adapted variously to perform cell and nucleus segmentation at microscopic scale on immunohistochemistry (IHC) slides, or to perform histological subtyping at macro-scale for H&E slides. Developing high-quality FMs is particularly important and complex in pathology where there are many different kinds of tasks at different scales of the whole slide image (WSI) data including cell, tissue, and (whole) slide levels. PathAI’s PLUTO was developed to enable this wide diversity of pathology tasks, and was trained using hundreds of millions of unlabeled image patches from about 160,000 WSIs across 30+ disease areas, numerous indications, stains, scanner types and magnification, and over 50 sources of data. To learn high-quality representations of the unlabeled training data, PathAI researchers designed a pathology-focused self-supervised training process using multi-scale, flexible deep vision transformer architectures with novel training objectives. Researchers then evaluated the quality of the resulting FM by adapting it to a wide diversity of pathology-specific tasks, and found that PathAI’s FM outperforms current state-of-the-art models on (whole) slide, cellular and subcellular tasks. Additionally, PathAI’s FM enables building AI-powered pathology tools at multiple scales and resolutions, and is significantly more compact than previously published models, driving massive reductions in training and inference costs, and enabling highly scalable data generation and product development. PLUTO and its adaptations are set to power PathAI’s best-in-class suite of AI products 2 for diagnostic pathology labs and biopharma use. PLUTO will be adapted to develop the next generation of PathAI’s best-in-class products. PLUTO’s embeddings will enable prediction of underlying molecular alterations driving cancer and disease phenotypes–including those previously hidden to AI–as well as the discovery of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets. “PLUTO is meticulously designed to fuel research efforts for better diagnostic and prognostic tools across multiple disease areas. This technology will enable users to compress their pathology workflows using an exceptionally diverse, multi-resolution foundation model at significantly greater speed and a much broader scale than before,” said Harsha Pokalla, Head of Machine Learning at PathAI. “Our aim is to deploy this single, robust model to address a diverse range of applications and use cases within pathology and to continue developing new high performance AI tools that serve our mission to improve patient outcomes.” Footnotes Foundation Models are for research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. PathAI’s AI products are for research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. About PathAI PathAI is the leading precision pathology company providing software and AI-enabled solutions to all pathologist stakeholders including laboratories, research institutions, and the biopharma industry. Rigorously trained and validated with data from more than 15 million annotations, its AI-powered models can be leveraged to optimize the analysis of pathology samples to improve efficiency and accuracy of pathology interpretation, as well as to better gauge therapeutic efficacy and accelerate drug development for complex diseases. For more information, please visit www.pathai.com. Contact Details SVM Public Relations and Marketing Communications Maggie Naples +1 401-490-9700 pathai@svmpr.com Company Website https://www.pathai.com/

May 14, 2024 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Crant Launches Updated Product Offerings, Revolutionizing Access to AI-Powered Brand Building

Crant

Crant, a leader in creative AI solutions empowering businesses to create effective brand building strategies through the use of competitive intelligence in the digital age, announced today the latest evolution of its Ink Lantern product suite: Ink Lantern Lite. The platform aims to revolutionize how businesses build and monitor their brands, providing accessible, AI-powered competitive intelligence across diverse industries. The enhanced tools come at a time when according to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 73% of B2B marketers prioritize content marketing as part of their overall strategy. Ink Lantern combines the rapid analysis capabilities of social listening tools with the in-depth strategic guidance of brand consulting firms, providing a unique solution that is both cost-effective and efficient. Designed for sectors including sports and outdoors apparel, healthcare and biotech, technology, travel and hospitality, cultural institutions, education, and adTech, Ink Lantern offers a suite of advanced tools to enhance brand building and content engagement. "Ink Lantern offers high-caliber, accessible solutions to major brands designed to make brand building more effective. With the extension of Ink Lantern Lite, companies of all sizes now have access to more effective brand building and marketing that drives differentiation," said Alvaro Melendez, Co-founder of Crant. "With the introduction of Ink Lantern Lite, we are leveling the playing field, allowing smaller businesses the same opportunities to excel as their larger counterparts." Based on a brand's needs, Ink Lantern and Ink Lantern Lite effectively benchmark brand love, quantify market engagement, and unlock top-performing content strategies. Additionally brands are able to evaluate commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and compare performance across critical social media platforms. "Since integrating Ink Lantern into our operations, we've experienced a remarkable shift in how we execute our brand strategy. The platform's deep insights and AI-powered analysis tools have enabled us to refine our digital marketing efforts and better understand our position in the competitive landscape. Ink Lantern is a game-changer for Museo de Arte Puerto Rico, providing enterprise-level insights and consulting at a fraction of the cost,” said Larissa Vazquez of Museo de Arte Puerto Rico. Ink Lantern has been recognized by The Webby Awards and The Anthem Awards, and continues to set standards in the AI-driven brand building space. To learn more about Ink Lantern and to begin your journey towards enhanced brand building, please visit www.inklantern.io. About Crant Founded in 2020, Crant, is a pioneering creative AI company that empowers businesses to build super brands in the digital age. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, Crant develops groundbreaking solutions including Ink Lantern, an AI-powered platform that enables companies to foster deeper connections with their audiences and cultivate enduring brand love. Additionally, Crant also offers comprehensive AI training programs—from Basics AI 101 to the creation of an internal AI Council, these programs are designed to enhance customer engagement and proficiency with AI technologies. Recognized with prestigious accolades including The Webby Awards and The Anthem Awards, Crant combines cutting-edge innovation with a commitment to excellence. Under the leadership of founder Alvaro Melendez, honored by PRovoke Media as one of the most innovative people in the Americas in 2023, Crant helps businesses navigate modern marketing with intelligence and creativity. About Ink Lantern Ink Lantern, an AI-powered platform by Crant, revolutionizes brand building by enabling more effective connections with audiences. Leveraging AI technology and market insights, Ink Lantern provides tools and analyses for monitoring market position, navigating the competitive landscape, and identifying growth strategies. With features like brand love analysis, DEI indexing, competitive benchmarking, and engagement metrics, Ink Lantern offers actionable insights and budget-conscious strategies for businesses to build stronger, more effective brands that resonate with customers and stand out in crowded markets. Experience the power of AI-driven brand building and unlock your brand's potential with Ink Lantern. Contact Details Kite Hill PR Lara Schembri lara@kitehillpr.com Company Website https://www.inklantern.io/

May 14, 2024 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Anthropos raises $2.7m to help companies build the workforce of the future using AI

Anthropos

Talent shortage and skills development are among the top two priorities businesses are struggling to get to grips with today, according to Gartner. Helping them take control of the situation, startup Anthropos has raised $2.7M to create a new way for companies to help employees evolve their skill sets in accordance with business needs while improving retention. With offices in the US and Switzerland, Anthropos’ pre-seed round is led by Switzerland-based Founderful with additional participation from Eden Ventures, Exor Ventures, Zanichelli Venture, Alessandro Rivetti and several angel investors across the EU and US. “People want to see a clear path to grow in their organization and learn the exact skills they need to succeed there. At the same time, you can’t run your business without modern skills and a solution to constantly understand what your people can and cannot do. It’s a problem that is intensifying across all industries and it will get even more important as people need to adopt AI and make it part of their daily job,” said Stefano Bellasio, CEO of Anthropos. Anthropos was founded by Stefano Bellasio and Giacomo Marinangeli after building Cloud Academy Inc, a cloud training platform they started in 2013. The duo scaled the business to over $25M in ARR with Fortune 500 customers like Microsoft, Warner Media, and Deloitte, and, in the process, realized the majority of their enterprise customers were struggling with the same interrelated problems: employee retention and skills development. After exiting the business to the UK's largest tech training provider, Stefano and Giacomo decided to focus on a completely different space with Anthropos, a solution that wants to help corporates with their constant challenges to retain and build their skills. Anthropos helps companies centralize all their skills, employee experiences and training libraries in a modern, employee-focused platform. With Anthropos, companies can map out dedicated paths for every role inside the organization. As a result, employees can upskill themselves in accordance with the roles they want to advance in, and companies can constantly assess what skills are relevant for each role and verify which employees have those skills. This is a significant improvement from the status quo of long, convoluted employee questionnaires to ascertain skill abilities. Central to evidencing its approach, Anthropos is able to verify soft and technical skills at different stages of the employee lifecycle, from hiring to training and progression. As part of the platform, Anthropos has built its own skills taxonomy, which currently covers over 60,000 skills and 18,000 job roles. The company has also created a new technology, called AI Job Simulations, to screen candidates at scale by placing them into immersive real-life scenarios with virtual customers, stakeholders, and colleagues where they can solve missions that demonstrate their soft and hard skills. Early customers at Anthropos have decided to customize their AI Job Simulations to screen candidates at scale and to prepare them for new roles, letting them make mistakes talking to (virtual) customers and other teams and learning from them in a safe environment. The founders describe Anthropos as the easiest way to build a school for each organization where people can learn and evolve with the business at different stages of the employee lifecycle. As part of this, Anthropos is also designed to act as a network. Employees can see the skills their colleagues have, learn how they acquired them, and ultimately pinpoint potential mentors to help them grow. The team launched Anthropos earlier this year and their initial customer base, concentrated in the tech and tech consulting space, is already leveraging Anthropos to stay competitive and retain top talent. Current customers are using Anthropos to rapidly verify the skills of employees that were migrating to new roles, to easily identify the right people with the right skills for certain projects, and to screen candidates at scale by putting them in real scenarios related to their roles using the company’s AI Job Simulations. “It’s a great opportunity for companies. We have seen it first hand, modern generations consider growth and a clear path to learning new skills as the most important aspect of their jobs. It’s more important than your salary or bonuses. If you can’t provide this, you will see employees joining and leaving within months.” said CEO Stefano Bellasio. Antonia Albert, Principal at Founderful added: "We believe that every employee wants to grow and evolve, and that lack of career development and advancement is one of the key drivers of employee turnover. Using AI to democratize career paths and skills development is such a great mission. We are convinced that Stefano and Giacomo, after having successfully scaled and sold their previous tech company, are the right founders to give both companies and employees the transparency needed to enable clear career paths and professional as well as personal growth. Looking ahead, Anthropos plans to provide companies and employees access to thousands of skill paths and AI Simulations for roles and skills across multiple departments that every organization can customize. The company is also planning to publish its first batch of AI Job Simulations in the coming months. “Giacomo and I envision Anthropos becoming the solution for companies to manage and develop all their competencies. In a world that will be redesigned by AI in every role, we believe it’s a great opportunity to help everyone transform their careers,” added CEO Stefano Bellasio. About Anthropos Anthropos reimagines the connection between people and companies as both adapt to a new way of working. People are more ambitious than ever but they are not ok staying in roles and companies that don’t invest in their growth, with values they don’t share.Similarly for companies: skills are changing so rapidly that looking for the right people is the biggest investment in the budget while retaining the existing talent is always a trial and error process. Our thesis is that both parties could use a different solution to solve this problem.For more information please visit https://anthropos.work/ About Founderful Founderful is Switzerland’s leading pre-seed fund, backing founder teams building tech companies with the potential to become global market leaders. Founderful has a track record of supporting exceptional founders in creating breakthrough companies and has the passionate conviction that the Swiss startup ecosystem is just starting to write its best success stories: www.founderful.com Contact Details Anthropos Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://anthropos.work/

May 14, 2024 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Trust & Will Named to the 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50 List For Pioneering Online Estate Planning

Trust & Will

Trust & Will, the leading digital estate planning and settlement platform in the U.S., announced its inclusion in the CNBC Disruptor 50 list today. This prestigious annual list, published by CNBC, the global leader in business news, highlights some of the most innovative venture-backed companies disrupting their respective industries and driving change across the business world. The CNBC Disruptor 50 recognition follows a remarkable period of company growth that includes several significant milestones: Unveiled a refreshed Trust & Will for Advisors platform Expanded product offering to include probate and settlement services Hired several key executives to join the leadership team Achieved B Corporation certification Named to the Inc. 5000 list (#363 overall; #21 in financial services) With more than 700,000 users, Trust & Will’s platform has experienced a 1300% growth rate, according to Deloitte, and will reach even more families in 2024 and beyond to help with estate planning and probate. Trust & Will is poised for hyper-growth mode growth as more generations understand the importance of estate planning, codifying their legacy for the future, and preparing for the impending ‘Great Wealth Transfer.’ "Empowering families to leave a lasting legacy is our mission, and it’s an honor to be named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 for our pioneering work bringing estate planning to as many Americans as possible," said Cody Barbo, Founder and CEO of Trust & Will. “Planning for the future is one of the most important acts a family can take amid the chaos of everyday life, and we’ve made it as simple and affordable as possible. The years ahead should be even more ambitious for our organization as we work to get millions more Americans to prioritize estate planning.” The CNBC Disruptor 50 list highlights today's most forward-thinking and ambitious companies that are fundamentally changing their industries. Trust & Will joins a venerable group of companies featured on the list over the years, including OpenAI, Airbnb, Uber, and SpaceX. All submissions were subject to a comprehensive and rigorous process of research and evaluation across a wide range of quantitative and qualitative criteria, as well as feedback from CNBC's editorial staff and a global pool of entrepreneurial experts from around the world. For the full list of Disruptor 50 companies, please visit www.cnbc.com/cnbc-disruptors. ABOUT TRUST & WILL Trust & Will is simplifying estate planning and settlement with attorney-approved, legally valid documents and processes designed to adhere to individual state guidelines. Since 2017, we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of Trust & Will members leave their legacy with an affordable way to create an estate plan or settle the estate of a loved one. Our platform uses bank-level encryption that protects customer data and complies with the highest security standards, including SOC 2 and HIPAA. Trust & Will is the official estate planning benefit provider for AARP members, along with several leading financial institutions, who all believe in our mission of helping every family leave their legacy. To learn more, visit trustandwill.com. Trust & Will is an online service providing legal forms and information. Trust & Will is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Contact Details Danielle Nuzzo +1 631-807-7772 danielle@trustandwill.com Company Website https://trustandwill.com

May 14, 2024 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Bacula Announces New Features for HPC Backup and Recovery

Bacula Systems

Expanding its leadership in high security backup and recovery for HPC and demanding IT environments, Bacula Systems today announced new features designed specifically for HPC customers. Bacula is also proud to announce partnerships with many of the industry’s leading performance storage providers. "Bacula is the only solution capable of handling billions of files in extremely high-throughput applications. Bacula’s participation in the ISC Hamburg exhibition demonstrates its full commitment to helping HPC customers save time and considerable costs" said Gopal RajGuru, Bacula CEO. Enhancing Bacula’s exceptionally broad storage and Cloud compatibility, a new lock function has been added to align the immutable status of backup data with the backup retention configured in Bacula. Bacula’s Cloud Storage Class is now also configurable in Azure, Oracle and Google. This allows precise control over where to store each backup set, using any kind of criteria, directly from Bacula without touching the destination Cloud storage configuration. Bacula helps HPC customers automate complex tasks with a new Large Backup File Split feature, which speeds the back up of large numbers of files by splitting the workload into concurrent backup processes in a simple, smart and automatic way. This saves HPC customers significant amounts of time for very large datasets, and Bacula automatically manages the backup to any file-server or NAS. “Bacula also reduces the possibility of human error by eliminating the need for a configuration update process. This is particularly useful when many users create complex folder structures with lots of different files where the distribution of the data varies dynamically in an unpredictable way” said Jorge Gea, CTO of Bacula Systems. Partnerships: Bacula is also delighted to announce a number of new strategic partnerships with the most high-performance and secure storage specialists to build on its growing momentum in the HPC industry, including: ExaGrid: ExaGrid provides Tiered Backup Storage with a unique disk-cache Landing Zone, long-term retention repository and scale-out architecture. ExaGrid’s Landing Zone provides for the fastest backups, restores, and instant VM recoveries. The Repository Tier offers the lowest cost for long-term retention. ExaGrid’s scale-out architecture includes full appliances and ensures a fixed-length backup window as data grows, eliminating expensive forklift upgrades and product obsolescence. ExaGrid offers comprehensive security and is the only two-tiered backup storage approach with a non-network-facing tier, delayed deletes, and immutable objects to recover from ransomware attacks. Combined with the power of Bacula Enterprise, ExaGrid Tiered Backup Storage provides a backup solution for HPC organizations with the highest performance, security, and scalability at the best price. Storj: Bacula has launched a strategic partnership with Storj, which delivers faster cloud object storage at 90% less cost than AWS S3 while dramatically reducing data’s carbon footprint. Storj achieves this by leveraging unused global storage space to create a highly-secure global network, eliminating the need for costly data centers and providing enterprise-level durability and high performance without data replication. With Bacula and Storj, businesses save up to 90% on cloud storage with increased security and lower costs. Storj Chief Revenue Officer Colby Wineger said, “Storj is very pleased to partner with Bacula to lower customers’ costs and upgrade enterprise data backup and recovery. Together we help to protect organizations from the problems of downtime and data breaches with a cost-effective approach and lighting-fast downloads.” SoftIron: SoftIron is a world-leader in true private cloud. Its superior, purpose-built hardware is designed, developed and manufactured in house, and it is the only manufacturer to offer auditable provenance. HyperCloud by SoftIron allows organizations to build a true private cloud on-premises that deploys, manages and consumes like public cloud. HyperCloud provides the elasticity of cloud in a solution that is fast and simple to deploy, driving extreme agility. Combined with Bacula, SoftIron’s solution is perfect for scalable backup and recovery. Backblaze: Backblaze makes it astonishingly easy to store, use, and protect data for various industries, including HPC customers. Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage provides an infinitely scalable foundation for researchers, businesses, developers, IT professionals, and individuals to build applications, host content, manage media, backup and archive data, and more. Backblaze and Bacula customers enjoy no minimum retention penalties, no egress fees, highly performant and secure cloud storage at dramatically lower prices. With over three billion gigabytes of data storage under management, the company currently works with more than 500,000 customers in over 175 countries. Wasabi Technologies: Recognized as one of the technology industry’s fasting growing companies, Wasabi is on a mission to store the world's data by making cloud storage affordable, predictable and secure. With Wasabi, visionary companies gain the freedom to use their data whenever they like without being hit with unpredictable fees or vendor lock-in. Instead, they’re free to build best-of-breed solutions with the industry’s fastest-growing ecosystem of independent cloud application partners. Customers and partners all over the world trust Wasabi to help them put their data to work so they can unlock their full potential. Visit wasabi.com to learn more. About Bacula Systems: Bacula Enterprise is a highly secure, scalable backup and recovery software for HPC, large organizations, data centers and MSPs. Bacula’s customers include NASA, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Navisite. www.baculasystems.com Contact Details Rob Morrison rob.morrison@baculasystems.com +41 21 641 60 80 rob.morrison@baculasystems.com Company Website https://www.baculasystems.com/

May 14, 2024 05:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

HANetf's Hector McNeil discusses shifting investment focus beyond 'Magnificent Seven'

HANetf Holdings Limited

HANetf co-founder and co-CEO Hector McNeil suggests a strategic shift in investment from dominant tech stocks to broader tech themes. In an interview with Proactive's Stephen Gunnion, McNeil advocated diversifying away from the 'Magnificent Seven,' big tech firms, due to their high PE ratios and concentration risks. He highlights the potential of broader tech investments, particularly through ETFs that offer diversified exposure across various tech sub-sectors, including robotics, cybersecurity, and digital entertainment. McNeil emphasised the benefits of equal-weighted ETFs, such as the HAN-GINS Tech Megatrend Equal Weighted UCITS ETF (ITEK) which ensures no single stock dominates the index, providing a balanced investment approach. Additionally, he explored opportunities outside the traditional tech sector, particularly in emerging markets. McNeil underscored the growth potential in the e-commerce sector within these markets, driven by high growth rates and an absence of state-owned enterprises. He pointed out specific ETFs like the EMQQ Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce UCITS ETF (EMQQ), which focuses on major market e-commerce, and discussed the significant gains of companies like Pinduoduo and Tencent. McNeil also mentioned the Future Defense UCITS ETF (NATO), which has gained traction by capitalising on the rising importance of cybersecurity in global defence strategies. Contact Details Proactive UK Ltd +44 20 7989 0813 uk@proactiveinvestors.com

May 13, 2024 10:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Finseta doubles revenue, turns a profit in transformational year

Cornerstone FS PLC

Finseta CEO James Hickman tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion the company experienced a transformative year in 2023 as it doubled of revenue and reported a pretax profit of £1.3 million, a significant recovery from a previous loss. Hickman attributed the improvement to a strategic refocus on enhancing the sales pipeline, expanding the payments network, and refining the product and geographical reach. Key strategic changes included shifting from indirect to direct client interactions, which increased the proportion of revenue from direct clients from 78% in 2022 to 95% in 2023. This shift also resulted in margin improvements and an increase in the average transaction value as the company began serving not only small businesses but also medium-sized businesses and high-net-worth individuals. The company also underwent a rebranding from Cornerstone PLC to Finseta, aimed at differentiating itself in a crowded market and reflecting its evolved business strategy and ethos. Furthermore, Finseta expanded its international presence, partnering with best-of-breed payment companies and banks to enhance its service offerings globally. Noteworthy developments included a new corporate card scheme with Mastercard and the approval to provide payment services in Canada, emphasizing Finseta's commitment to geographical and service expansion in its operations. Contact Details Proactive UK Proactive UK +44 20 7989 0813 UKEditorial@proactiveinvestors.com

May 13, 2024 10:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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New Tech Paves the Way for Faster Airport Security

MarketJar

Airport security delays and operational disruptions are becoming an increasingly common headache for travelers around the globe, often leading to missed flights and mounting frustrations. A recent incident at Birmingham Airport vividly illustrates this growing problem. Lucy Kenneally and her boyfriend Matthew experienced the chaos firsthand when they endured a staggering four-hour wait in the security line and ultimately missed their flight. 1 Days later, Gatwick Airport faced significant delays after a fire alarm in the South Terminal prompted a full evacuation, causing passengers to be stuck on the runway and leading to a cascading effect of delayed departures. 2 Of course, these are just a few examples that highlight a much bigger issue. In reality there are thousands of delayed flights every day across the US and up to 20,000 delays every single day around the world. The problem has gotten so bad that the Biden administration has developed a new rule to address one of the most pressing travel grievances: flight delays. 3 Announced in late April, the rule mandates airlines to provide automatic refunds for delays that disrupt travelers' plans significantly, reflecting a major shift towards enhancing passenger rights. Another major issue that demands an urgent solution are airport security breaches. According to the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), there have been at least 300 instances of people bypassing parts of airport security in the last year. 4 These security concerns are coming to light at a time when the TSA is working to solve airport security issues by upgrading checkpoints with more advanced technology developed by AI security company Liberty Defense Holdings (TSXV:SCAN) (OTCQB:LDDFF). Liberty Defense specializes in advanced security solutions tailored for areas with high pedestrian traffic and heightened security needs, including airports, stadiums, and educational institutions. The company's flagship product, HEXWAVE, licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), offers discreet, scalable protection that detects both metallic and non-metallic weapons. Revolutionizing Airport Security with Advanced Technology Liberty Defense Holdings (TSXV:SCAN) (OTCQB:LDDFF) has successfully deployed HEXWAVE across various market verticals and signed several large contracts with airports around the globe. The company also inked a $3.8 million contract with the TSA for its High-Definition Advanced Imaging Technology (HD-AIT) Wideband Upgrade Kit to improve detection capabilities and enhance the passenger experience. On May 13, Liberty Defense announced that its HEXWAVE system has been selected by the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC) to enhance the TSA’s Aviation Worker Security Screening. ROC, a vital transportation hub serving about 2.4 million passengers annually with 120 daily flights, is now the first U.S. airport to integrate HEXWAVE into its security operations. This deployment marks a notable step in using advanced technology to bolster airport security and operational efficiency. “As industry leaders, we are excited to be the first airport in the United States to acquire the HEXWAVE system to use in our broader airport security program,” said Deputy Director at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport Andrew Moore. “ We will use the HEXWAVE to provide enhanced security and an improved screening experience in non-traditional areas of the airport. We are excited to work with Liberty Defense as we are continually looking to innovate and improve the overall safety of our airport.” Unlike traditional weapon detection technologies, HEXWAVE utilizes millimeter wave technology, advanced 3D imaging, and AI to detect a wide range of concealed metallic and non-metallic threats—including liquid, powder and plastic explosives, and 3D printed ghost guns—without requiring passengers to remove common items like belts and shoes. This capability allows for a faster, more seamless screening process, enhancing the flow of traffic and reducing bottlenecks at security checkpoints. Liberty Defense is also expanding into international markets, announcing a recent shipment of its HEXWAVE™ system to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands and Subic Bay Airport in the Philippines. Click here for more information about Liberty Defense (TSXV:SCAN) (OTCQB:LDDFF). [1] https://nypost.com/2024/05/06/lifestyle/england-airports-15-minute-security-wait-turns-into-4-hour-nightmare/ [2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13399237/Chaos-London-Gatwick-airport-passengers-evacuated-South-terminal-fire-alarm-goes-amid-fears-flight-delays-inevitable.html [3] https://www.vox.com/politics/24147613/flight-delay-refund-white-house-rule [4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2024/04/04/airport-security-tsa-stowaway/ Disclaimer 1) The author of the Article, or members of the author’s immediate household or family, do not own any securities of the companies set forth in this Article. The author determined which companies would be included in this article based on research and understanding of the sector. 2) The Article was issued on behalf of and sponsored by, Liberty Defense Holdings Ltd. Market Jar Media Inc. was paid $1,500 for the production and publishing of this article by Liberty Defense Holdings Ltd.’s Digital Marketing Agency of Record (Native Ads Inc.). Additional details relating to Market Jar Media Inc.’s engagement by Liberty Defense Holdings Ltd.’s Digital Marketing Agency of Record (Native Ads Inc.) are set out in https://pressreach.com/disclaimer-scan. 3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not Market Jar Media Inc., its directors or officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Market Jar Media Inc. for this Article. Market Jar Media Inc. was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this Article. Market Jar has not independently verified or otherwise investigated all such information. None of Market Jar or any of their respective affiliates, guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any such information. 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May 13, 2024 08:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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