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imimobile and SMARTY Partner to Bring End-to-End Personalised Communication to Its Growing Customer Base

imimobile

imi mobile, the global cloud communications software and solutions provider (part of Webex by Cisco), has announced that SMARTY, a UK SIM-only mobile network, has deployed imi connect and imi campaign to support its growing subscriber base and drive a more seamless customer experience across its marketing journeys and digital channels. With imi mobile’s communications platform as a service (CPaaS) solution – imi connect - at its core, SMARTY can now better support seamless customer engagement across its customer onboarding programme as well as throughout its in-life and retention campaigns which required greater need for effective, cross-channel, personalised communications. This has allowed SMARTY to replace disparate services and vendors, consolidating these channels and services to minimise costs, maximise operational efficiencies and improve campaign response rates. Replacing the manual processes of previous solutions with imi mobile’s multi-channel CPaaS technology has provided SMARTY with better automation through one central platform to manage all its customer interactions. Its teams now have real-time insight into the communications customers are receiving and how they are interacting and responding to these, which in turn offers the ability to add further levels of automation and intelligence throughout the customer journey to improve the overall experience. “As we continue to grow our customer base, it was becoming apparent that we needed to change the way in which we interact with customers,” said Sayed Hajamaideen, Head of Marketing & Propositions at SMARTY. “Our ethos is simple, honest mobile and we found that imi mobile aligned very strongly to this with its easy, straightforward, and intelligent technology. SMARTY is in an extremely competitive industry, and we are an ambitious company – we were looking for a highly personalised, automated customer experience solution that would keep pace with the speed at which we are moving. imi mobile has helped overhaul our entire approach to customer communications through its CPaaS platform and multi-channel capabilities to ensure a frictionless experience for our growing customer base.” imi connect sits at the heart of SMARTY’s customer communications, from welcome and onboarding to loyalty and retention campaigns. It directly integrates with SMARTY’s existing systems, including its CRM platform, which allows SMARTY to automate communications with customers at key moments to, for example, ‘refer a friend’ or ‘leave a review’. This integration also provides a complete view of the customer and helps SMARTY’s teams to craft appropriate communications specific to their journeys. The platform also syncs with SMARTY’s Trust Pilot reviews programme, using rich communication services (RCS) to make it even easier and more convenient for customers to leave reviews, with SMARTY now reaching a 70% 5-star rating. This end-to-end journey orchestration allows for more interactive conversations that better relate to each individual customer and their needs at that time. “We know that customer experience is becoming a board-level discussion, as more and more business leaders understand its increasing impact on the bottom line,” said Jay Patel, VP & GM, Webex CPaaS. “SMARTY is at the forefront of this curve, seeing the critical importance for implementing a CPaaS solution to manage its customer communications. They needed a better solution to support their customer base, one that could help evolve marketing-led journeys to an end-to-end customer experience. The imi connect platform acts as a central hub, delivering automation, personalisation, innovation, and a multi-channel approach to support how SMARTY is able to engage their customer base at each and every stage of their journey. Using this approach to reaching out across the most appropriate channel, SMARTY has unsurprisingly seen up to a 500% uplift in campaign engagement compared to the traditional single channel approach.” With automation, personalisation, and the ability to innovate with agility at its core, imi mobile enables seamless 'two-way' communications for SMARTY’s customers, giving customers the ability to respond directly in the same channel where they have received the messages from SMARTY’s team. This joined up communication across all channels has made it extremely easy and efficient for SMARTY to continually communicate with its customers in a place and time that suits them best so that they can be kept up to date with new products and services, while also be able to make informed decisions on tariffs and packages. For more information on imi connect, please visit imimobile.com/products/imiconnect About SMARTY: All of SMARTY’s plans are jam-packed with data, unlimited calls and texts and are flexible 30-day plans. With SMARTY, EU roaming is included (up to 12GB) and, as there’s no contract and no tie in, customers are never forced into accepting price rises, giving customers complete honesty, flexibility and simplicity. SMARTY is powered by Three’s strong and reliable 3G, 4G and 5G network, which delivers super-fast speeds for browsing, streaming, gaming, downloading, and emailing. The SIM-only network is on a mission to put the trust back into the mobile industry, by doing things properly. SMARTY believes there’s a better way to do things; great value, simple plans, transparent pricing and flexible 1-month plans. On SMARTY, customers don’t need to worry about a hefty bill or nasty surprises at the end of the month – it’s simple, honest mobile. For more information on the new plans, visit www.smarty.co.uk About imimobile imi mobile, part of Webex, provides cloud communications software and services that manage business-critical customer interactions at scale. We believe that customer experience is the key competitive advantage for consumer businesses. So, we're creating a world where enterprises can stay constantly connected to their customers. A world where every touchpoint, on every channel, is an opportunity to deliver rich, engaging, intuitive experiences. Our API and low-code Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) offering, imi connect, enables large enterprises to automate, orchestrate and monitor their customer interactions all on one platform. This helps businesses to lower costs, reduce complexity and accelerate IT roadmaps. Our innovative platform and applications are being used at scale today by blue-chip global enterprises and leading public-sector organizations to deliver smarter customer interactions, such as AA, Best Buy, BT, Capitec Bank, Centrica, EE, IHG, Mercedes, Orange, O2, Vodafone and Walgreens. The business was acquired by Cisco Systems in February 2021 and has global offices across the UK, USA, Canada, India, and South Africa. www.imimobile.com Contact Details Michael Kocher +1 704-960-2295 michael@kitehillpr.com Caroline Brunton +44 7796 274416 caroline@kitehillpr.com Company Website https://imimobile.com/gb/products/imiconnect

March 10, 2022 04:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Telos Blockchain Joins Bloktopia’s Metaverse

Telos Foundation

Telos Blockchain (Tlos) has become a virtual tenant of Bloktopia and is already organizing to put that space to good work. With Bloktopia now ready to launch its Alpha, the Telos team will be able to use the space as a virtual meeting room for all its AMAs (ask me anything - meetings). Telos has plenty to talk about regarding its recently launched Ethereum Virtual Machine (tEVM ), its decentralized file storage system ( dStor ), its roadmap and a metaverse environment just seems like the perfect setting for these talks. After all, both the tEVM and dStor can and will be used to power the needs of Web 3.0 based dApps. “Bloktopia’s metaverse is a positive step in Web 3.0 adoption and the Telos team is eager to jump in feet first. This is just the beginning of a multi-trillion-dollar industry, and this is just the first step of our grand metaverse ambitions.” Justin Giudici, Acting CEO at Telos Foundation. Introducing the tEVM: Telos is a 3rd Generation, ESG compliant layer 1 blockchain that has been executing energy-efficient smart contracts uninterrupted since 2018. Every transaction on the Telos Network uses less than 0.000002 kWh of energy per transaction and costs end users zero to near zero in gas fees. Telos can generate blocks / smart contracts for Solidity, Native C++ and Vyper faster than any other chain. The network’s core strength stems from its tight use of C++ and custom Wasm runtime environment. It is super-efficient and is one of the main reasons why Web 3.0 dApps can deliver instant transactions while using Telos. Telos is already capable of sustainably delivering hundreds of millions of almost fee-less transactions per day before any future sharding / rollups. The Metaverse will need this level of capacity to thrive. Telos' current capacity is sufficient to handle the transaction needs of every single existing layer 1 chain, including all their future forecasted growth for the next decade. With any one of the following third-party comparisons, one can clearly see for themselves some of the proven strengths of Telos. Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Fantom and Telos vs the Clock Telos vs Fantom Telos vs Avalanche vs Binance Smart Chain vs Ethereum *Visit links above For Web 3.0 commerce and entertainment to thrive, dApps need speed, capacity, affordability, energy efficiency, decentralization and even decentralized file storage. P2P file storage is precisely why Telos dStor was developed. dStor is a decentralized peer-to-peer cloud-based file storage system that is fully integrated into the Telos architecture. With dStor, individual users, collectors, digital graphic artists, musicians, filmmakers and gaming companies can store all their digital Web 3.0 content seamlessly and simultaneously. This storage capability is available in all global regions, in a decentralized environment and for prices far lower than conventional services that only have single-region availability. *Developer Alert: Telos Spark Hackathon - 100,000 Tlos for First place! Live now! - Register Here Telos Ignite Grant Program - 12 million over 4 years! Live now! - Register Here The next era of blockchain will be very exciting for both developers and end users alike. Keep an eye out for our virtual meetings on bloktopia! About Telos Telos is a 3rd generation smart contract platform that offers compatibility with Solidity, Vyper and Native C++ smart contracts, providing full EVM/Solidity support as well as a fee-less native smart contract layer upon which the EVM is built. Telos performance is unrivaled in the industry and was purpose-built to offer speed, scalability, cost-effectiveness, decentralization and end-user fairness. The network can sustainably support hundreds of millions of transactions per day, produces blocks in 0.5 second intervals on a first-in-first-out basis (eliminating frontrunning on the network), offers a fee-less native and low per transaction cost EVM (<$0.10), and a fully decentralized block producer network. About The Foundation The Telos Foundation is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization established as a promotional and funding body to advance the Telos Blockchain Network and provide support to network applications. Contact Details The Team hello@telosfoundation.io Company Website https://www.telos.net/

March 09, 2022 03:26 PM Eastern Standard Time

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BLUEPEAK TO BRING A FASTER, MORE RELIABLE INTERNET TO LAWTON, OKLAHOMA

Bluepeak

Bluepeak, an innovative internet provider, announced today that it has received franchise approval from the city of Lawton, Okla., to build a high-speed fiber network to meet the growing needs of the community, today and in the future. The approximately $40 million expansion – the largest such investment by Bluepeak in the state of Okla. – will bring Bluepeak service to more than 40,000 residences and businesses in Lawton. “The city of Lawton has been a steadfast partner in our work to bring a next-generation, fiber-to-the-home network to the community,” said Rich Fish, CEO of Bluepeak. “At Bluepeak, we take pride in being relentlessly for our customers and we can’t wait to show the good people of Lawton what that means for them.” With Bluepeak’s advanced fiber connection, residential customers can get up to 5 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) of symmetrical bandwidth (upload and download) and businesses can get up to 10 Gbps and beyond of symmetrical bandwidth. Bluepeak’s fiber network will provide faster speeds, better connectivity, and the bandwidth to connect more devices for internet, streaming, gaming and more. “The City of Lawton is thrilled to see industry in Lawton growing with the investment from Bluepeak,” said City Manager Michael Cleghorn. “Access to high-speed internet, such as fiber connection, is vital to the growth of communities. We look forward to the possibilities this kind of access will present Lawton citizens.” “We are excited to have Bluepeak coming to Lawton to provide high speed internet services,” said Okla. State Rep. Rande Worthen. “One of the goals for the legislature has been to expand high speed internet to all four corners of the state. Just as exciting is, this is being done without the expenditure of any state dollars and solely by private capital.” “I am looking forward to Bluepeak expanding to Lawton in the near future,” said Okla. State Rep. Daniel Pae, a native of Lawton. “As we have learned during the pandemic, Lawtonians need access to affordable and reliable high-speed broadband, and I believe Bluepeak will help us accomplish this objective.” Bluepeak has coordinated with the city of Lawton and will begin construction on the new network within the next 90 days. For more information and to receive the latest updates, visit www.mybluepeak.com. About Bluepeak Bluepeak is building a faster, more reliable internet without the things that get in the way of great service — like red tape, hidden fees, and slow response times. Offering up to 5 gigabits of speed for residential customers and 10 gigabits for businesses, Bluepeak is a whole new ballgame — from internet to TV, to connecting every device in a home, to powering a business, Bluepeak not only provides the best fiber connections in the communities it serves, but also meets the growing needs for how its customers live. Contact Details Bluepeak Jesse Granger +1 720-703-4315 mediaqueries@mybluepeak.com Company Website https://www.mybluepeak.com

March 09, 2022 12:10 PM Mountain Standard Time

DataWeave Releases Report on Grocery Private Label: Finds Inflation-Driven Explosion

DataWeave

Private label packaged foods up 38% in value sales share in 2021 5 of the Top 14 grocery categories are private label 8 of the Top 10 brands with the most SKUs are private label DataWeave, a global leader in retail data, pricing and AI analytics, today releases its report on the ascent of private label brands in the grocery space, Inflation Accelerates Private Label Share and Penetration. The study digs deep into the reasons behind and numbers backing the rise in popularity of private label food brands and products resulting from the pandemic, and now rising inflation. “Across the ten major grocery retail chains we analyzed, private label brands were more economical compared to national brands, which is likely one of the key factors contributing to the private label’s increased penetration across grocery categories, said DataWeave CEO Karthik Bettadapura. “We will continue to watch private label closely, as it seems to be impacting many decisions across the retail value chain, from margins to merchandising.” The report looks at top private label brand penetration, ranks brands by category, and tracks price variations across regions, along with private label ratings, reviews and ranks. It finds that on average, retailers in the U.S. carried more than 4,500 private label products online and had private label brand penetration of more than 13 percent. DataWeave analysts feel this trend will only continue to grow at a historic rate as inflation pushes consumers to buy more affordable private label products in the months ahead. “Availability and affordability amid prolonged economic uncertainty furthered the power and presence of private label brands in 2021, increasing market penetration beyond all expectation. Our data found that eight of the top ten brands with the highest number of SKUs carried across all grocery retailer websites in our analysis were private label goods, signaling the strength of their Share of Voice and verifying a shift in consumer preferences,” said Krish Thyagarajan, president and COO of DataWeave. DataWeave’s methodology draws on more than 500 billion global data points, looking at both external sources and their own internal banks to explain that data. This Private Label report is the latest to compare prices and popular differences by brand, category and retailer, in light of inflation and market-driven economic changes. Watch next for a DataWeave report on the shrinking price disparity between organic and regular food products, with an interesting private label twist. DataWeave is a leading provider of advanced sales optimization solutions for e-commerce businesses, consumer brands and marketplaces. The AI-driven proprietary technology and language-agnostic platform aggregates consumable and actionable Competitive Intelligence across 500+ billion data points globally, in 25+ languages, with insights to drive performance for more than 400,000 brands across 1,500+ websites tracked across 20+ verticals and ensure online performance is always optimized. Learn more about the power of big data and global level analytics in understanding the rapidly changing retail industry at DataWeave.com. Contact Details Amy Fieber +1 917-837-3724 amy.fieber@dataweave.com Company Website https://dataweave.com

March 09, 2022 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

Kolleno raises £4M seed to help businesses solve their cash flow struggles

Kolleno

Kolleno, a London-based fintech start-up specializing in Accounts Receivable (AR) management for SMEs, has attracted £4M ($5.4M) in seed funding led by Eurazeo and Stride.VC, with participation from Euler Hermes, HubSpot and several angel investors including Michael Pennington, Mark Ransford, and Will Neale. Founded in 2020 by Dimitri Raziev, CEO (ex-Goldman Sachs, Fasanara Capital) and Ron Danenberg, CTO (ex-Expedia Group, Vatglobal), Kolleno simplify B2B credit control and collections for SMEs by automating the management of receivables on one single platform. The idea to form Kolleno was born from their experience observing the impact that manual processes and poor cash flow management were having on SMEs. In less than 18 months of operation, the start-up has already acquired customers across several markets in Europe, the UK, the US, Canada, and South Africa. The platform does cash reconciliation, prioritises the workflow and provides tailored collection strategies by advising the most effective communication channels using AI and machine-learning technology. The customers are approached via omnichannel, in-app communication methods (including email, SMS, and call.) Moreover, the platform has a Payment Portal, which is accessible straight from the email or text received by the customer. The user-friendly dashboard provides data insights and credit analysis helping to mitigate risks and reduce the number of bad debts. As a result businesses get paid faster and reduce manual work and processes by 100%. Kolleno has already p rocessed over 170,000 invoices across the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK, and Europe since it launched. “Previously, businesses had to hire credit control specialists or give extra tasks to existing members of their team to manually monitor the payment dynamics of customers. An employee had to identify late payers, then prioritize, contact and follow up with individual clients to ensure late payments were received. This was not only time-consuming but also stressful for business owners and often prone to errors,” remarks Kolleno CEO and co-founder Dimitri Raziev. “Kolleno has been designed to alleviate these challenges by automating manual legacy processes to eliminate errors, ensure that businesses get paid faster and improve cash flows for our clients, some of whom have reported greater than 90% recovery using our platform.” In addition to automating and streamlining processes, Kolleno’s software offers added convenience by partnering and offering an Open API integration with leading ERP and software solutions, including Xero, QuickBooks, and Clio to better meet the needs of its clients. The software is also equipped with machine-learning technology capable of automating and optimizing the timing, method and delivery of client communications, and offers a variety of efficiency-improving features, such as an actions board and payments portal to simplify follow-up and receipt of payments. “The technology has reached a level where it is able to remove repetitive tasks from employees and perform them faster and more accurately, freeing up time for staff to focus on higher value-added activities and speeding up the sales-to-cash timeframe. We are excited to build something that saves time and money for businesses” says Ron Danenberg, CTO and co-founder of Kolleno. “The B2B payments market is far bigger than the B2C. However, the level of digitalization in the B2B sector is lagging behind. That is why we are excited to invest in Kolleno - I firmly believe that the biggest opportunities in the B2B payments sector are yet to come”, says Chloé Giard, investment director at Eurazeo, the lead investor in the round. "Kolleno has demonstrated a relentless focus on helping business owners manage their cash and receivables simply and swiftly using software, in stark contrast to the current status quo: working with clunky and expensive agencies who are misaligned with their clients", explains Pietro Invernizzi on the decision of Stride.VC to back Kolleno. As the company continues to build towards the future, initial seed funding will be used to scale up Kolleno’s capabilities and offerings. To assist with these efforts, the company has recruited Djibrane Larrabure (ex-Deloitte consulting) as Chief of Staff and onboarded a team of nearly ten professionals to expand its product, marketing, sales and partnership offerings across regions. “This achievement is the result of the team’s tireless efforts to build a leading platform to help businesses thrive. As a team, we look forward to continuing to support the long-term success of our clients and are grateful for the faith that our investors have put in us to deliver on this promise. Stay tuned – because we are excited for what is to come!” say the company’s founders. Contact Details Kolleno Bilal Mahmood +44 7714 007257 b.mahmood@stockwoodstrategy.com Company Website https://www.kolleno.com/

March 09, 2022 09:30 AM Eastern Standard Time

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Dalmore Group and North Capital Talk Secondary Market Opportunities

Dalmore Group

As one of the leading Broker Dealers in the crowdfunding space, Dalmore Group is uniquely positioned to facilitate and support issuers who seek to leverage secondary markets. Having seen what is working well in the industry, Dalmore regularly provides the benefit of that knowledge to its clients, including the provision of access to secondary trading solutions through Alternative Trading Systems (ATS), such as PPEX ATS, operated by North Capital. According to Etan Butler, Chairman of Dalmore Group, “We are seeing an increase in Regulation A+ issues seeking to incorporate secondary market trading functionality as part of their model. Up until now, we have seen a lot of secondary trading activity in connection with our fractional share ‘series issuers’ in the collectible, art, NFT, and real estate space. But now we expect the trend to expand to other areas as issuers look to provide a path to liquidity to their investors while leveraging the benefits of secondary trading activity under Regulation A+.” Butler credits The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, signed in 2012, for these opportunities because it loosened regulations to encourage the funding of small businesses and democratized investing in private companies for almost anyone over the age of 18. Through Regulation A+ and CF, investing in high potential companies at the earliest stage is no longer limited to accredited investors, funds, or high net worth individuals. The opening of these funding opportunities to early-stage companies gives them access to capital from the crowd in their primary issuance. “We see more and more companies inquiring about secondary market opportunities at the earliest stages of their capital formation. In fact, companies working with Dalmore Groups' secondary markets have completed 54,000+ trades from July 2021 to January 2022. The challenge is to have the right guidance and support of a Broker Dealer such as the Dalmore Group from day one, as decisions in how offerings are structured and brought to market in primary issuance can impact future secondary market opportunities,” explains Butler. In analyzing what is fueling growth within the secondary market, Butler says that “a built-in secondary marketplace, accessible via the issuer’s own website and app, is a natural progression for funding availability. The involvement of an ATS in the process gives investors an immediate path to liquidity and takes away an investor’s need to rely on a future liquidity event to exit their investments and potentially realize gains.” James P. Dowd, CEO of North Capital, agrees. “Prior to the passage of the JOBS Act, exempt securities transactions were called private placements and they were just that: private transactions organized as one-off, bespoke agreements between an issuer and investors or between a buyer and a seller. The ability to conduct public, exempt offerings has changed the landscape. Now issuers can solicit accredited and non-accredited investors using traditional advertising and digital marketing techniques. As a result, the overall direct market for exempt securities has grown exponentially. It is only natural that this growth would lead to a demand for liquidity via the secondary market.” Looking ahead to where the secondary market is going, Butler feels that “as more and more companies see the opportunity and power of raising capital from the crowd, including their own audiences and customer base, more issuers will focus on both Regulation A+ and Regulation CF offerings. We believe that the increased supply from early-stage companies will be met with the increased demand from investors. The growth in crowdfunding activity in primary issuance should also lead to the expansion and growth of secondary market opportunities.” By expanding access to capital for issuers, companies like Dalmore Group and North Capital enable more small businesses to grow, which leads to more job creation and greater economic activity. “Overall, it is great for the economy and for entrepreneurs who have traditionally lacked access to capital,” says Dowd. “Markets are a wonderful thing if they are free, fair, and transparent. Open markets encourage participation, which is good for both business and investors. I know that not everyone agrees with this view, which I have advocated for two decades, but we are betting that we are correct, and the naysayers are wrong.” Butler agrees. “Providing liquidity to investors in early and mid-stage companies is very exciting. In the past, only later stage companies provided a credible path to liquidity to their investors. Now, even the smaller guys can compete – and that’s a very good thing.” ABOUT DALMORE Dalmore Group specializes in helping companies raise capital online at scale through Regulations A+, CF and D, and has onboarded over 200 Regulation A+ issuers since 2019. Learn more about how Dalmore Group is leading the way for primary issuance and secondary market trading of private securities at www.dalmorefg.com and keep up to date on the latest company news and information directly via Dalmore Group’s LinkedIn page ABOUT NORTH CAPITAL North Capital Investment Technology provides comprehensive digital platform technology, brokerage, and advisory solutions for private and other exempt securities, supporting issuers, broker-dealers, funding platforms, and investment advisors. Through its registered broker-dealer North Capital Private Securities Corp., the firm offers technology-enabled escrow, streamlined investor vetting and compliance management (KYC/AML, suitability and accredited investor verification), transaction processing, online payments, clearing, custody, and secondary trading through the PPEX ATS. For more information, visit www.northcapital.com. Contact Details North 6th Agency Trisha Larocchia +1 516-225-5932 tlarocchia@n6a.com Company Website https://dalmorefg.com/

March 09, 2022 09:16 AM Eastern Standard Time

MyYogaTeacher Launches Official 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Program Online

MyYogaTeacher

MyYogaTeacher announces the launch of a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) program, which will be offered three times each year, and features live instruction by a group of highly-skilled, certified, India-based and -trained instructors. Unlike the self-paced, pre-recorded, video-based packages sold online, which offer digital materials, videos, and only a handful of live sessions led by an instructor, MyYogaTeacher’s courses are 100% live, taking place daily over a period of 95+ days. MyYogaTeacher was named one of “The 6 Best Online Yoga Classes of 2022” by Byrdie. “Our students have a wide range of reasons for pursuing teacher training,” says Jitendra Gupta, the Indian-born CEO of MyYogaTeacher, who co-founded the company with Mexican-American entrepreneur Will Allen, after pursuing yoga to improve his personal physical and mental well-being. “Some definitely have a desire to teach yoga, but others simply want to improve their practice and challenge themselves a bit further by expanding their yogic knowledge and taking their physical practice to the next level.” The program is open to students of all levels. The Yoga Alliance-certified teacher training program features 6 highly-qualified MyYogaTeacher instructors, and is led by Rohan Shroff, who earned a Masters in Science in Yoga from SVYASA University in Bangalore and has over 1300 hours of yoga teacher training from well-known and respected institutions in India. Rohan has graduated over 500 students from online and in-person teacher training programs, including over 100 MyYogaTeacher students, and he also teaches Pranayama, Meditation, Ashtanga Vinyasa, Yoga Sutras, and Methodology, at MyYogaTeacher. Besides live instruction on a variety of topics–yoga history, theory, anatomy and physiology–in addition to asana practice, pranayama, chanting, meditation, yoga sutras, and more, the program includes a 150-page e-book, recordings of the classes so students can return to each session and review, plus a community setting that keeps students engaged, motivated and energize. They can also live chat with instructors (Bodhi Abishek Singh, Gomati Woli, Stuti Asher, Umesh Balavaradaraju, Bharath Ram) and fellow students. “What’s great is that your investment in teacher training is nowhere close to the cost you will incur by traveling to India during our post-Covid era,” says Gupta. “And we offer students a 14-day free trial so if they are not happy with the coursework, they can cancel.” The first round of this YTT program runs from March 5 to May 28, and the program will be offered 3 times each year. The next round will take place in the summer of 2022. Learn more about the program and featured instructors here. About MyYogaTeacher MyYogaTeacher is reconnecting yoga to its roots and sharing it through live lessons taught by the world’s foremost teachers who studied yoga at India’s most elite universities and schools. With over 100,000 registered U.S. students, it offers over 40 group classes daily, and provides private sessions, along with over one million minutes of live interactions each month. The Cupertino, California-based company was co-founded in 2018 by Jitendra Gupta and Will Allen. Gupta is the successful former co-founder of Punchh, who turned his struggle with burnout into a platform to help others. Allen is a former mechanical engineer who left the lucrative aerospace industry to travel the world, and pursue yoga and meditation over the past decade. MyYogaTeacher recently received $3 million in seed round funding, led by TSVC, with participation from Leonis Investissement, Weekend Fund, All Access Fund, and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments. For more information, visit MyYogaTeacher.com. Contact Details Carolyn Kamii PR Carolyn Kamii +1 310-251-0550 carolyn@carolynkamii.com Company Website https://www.myyogateacher.com/

March 09, 2022 04:30 AM Pacific Standard Time

China Tower (788.HK) Fully Implemented "One Core and Two Wings" Strategy, Maintained Steady and Continuous Growth in Overall Performance

China Tower Corporation Limited

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 9 March 2022 - The world’s largest telecommunications infrastructure service provider China Tower Corporation Limited (“China Tower”, or the “Company”) (Stock Code: 0788.HK) is pleased to announce its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2021. Performance Highlights Our revenue maintained a healthy growth and increased steadily in 2021 and our profitability continued to improve. In 2021, we recorded operating revenue of RMB86,585 million, with a year-on-year increase of 6.8%. Our EBITDA 1 reached RMB63,017 million, up by 5.9% year-on-year, with an EBITDA margin 2 of 72.8%. Profit attributable to owners of the Company amounted to RMB7,329 million, up by 14.0% year-on-year, with a net profit margin of 8.5%. We maintained a stable and abundant cash flow. In 2021, net cash generated from operating activities amounted to RMB60,503 million, while capital expenditures reduced by 32.1% year-on-year to RMB25,192 million, resulting in our free cash flow 3 increasing 72.9% year-on-year to reach RMB35,311 million. Our debt leverage ratio was stable and manageable, and our financial position remained healthy. As of 31 December 2021, our total assets amounted to RMB323,259 million, and our interest-bearing liabilities stood at RMB101,304 million, representing a gearing ratio 4 of 33.4%. Aligned with our commitment to providing good returns to our shareholders, the board of directors of the Company recommends paying a final dividend of RMB0.02624 per share (pre-tax) for the year ended 31 December 2021, equivalent to a payout ratio of 70% of our annual distributable net profit. Supporting the construction of 5G network in an intensive and effective manner, our TSP business continued to grow steadily Our belief in sharing and creating synergy continued to prevail as the coverage and depth of the 5G networks extended constantly at an even faster rate. Based on the new features of 5G network construction, we fully leveraged our advantages in resource coordination and sharing, as well as expertise in operations, to launch innovative and cost-effective products and solutions. We integrated these products and solutions to speed up the launch of our integrated wireless communications coverage solutions and DAS sharing solutions to meet the network coverage demands of our customers by offering a low-cost, highly efficient and quality service. In 2021, we completed approximately 552,000 5G construction projects, supporting the large-scale construction of 5G networks in an economic and efficient manner. Meanwhile, 5G has become an increasingly key driver for the growth of our TSP business, which in turn propelled our overall business to grow steadily, cementing our position as the market leader in the construction and operation of telecommunications infrastructure. As of the end of 2021, the total number of our tower sites had reached 2.038 million, representing a net increase of 15,000 compared to the end of 2020. The total number of TSP tenants amounted to 3.260 million, 85,000 more than at the end of 2020. Our TSP tenancy ratio increased from 1.57 at the end of 2020 to 1.60. In terms of our DAS business, we covered buildings with a cumulative area of 4.99 billion square meters, up by 22.9% year-on-year, while the cumulative length of high-speed railway tunnels and subways covered reached 16,906.0 kilometers, an increase of 33.1% year-on-year. In 2021, our TSP business revenue recorded a year-on-year increase of 4.3% to RMB80,197 million, of which tower business revenue increased by 3.4% year-on-year to RMB75,857 million and DAS business revenue increased by 23.0% year-on-year to RMB4,340 million. Focused on boosting new growth momentum, the development of Two Wings business started to show remarkable results We seized the opportunities brought by the development of the digital economy and actively responded to the national “dual carbon” goals. Leveraging our unique advantages in resources and capabilities, we maintained a clear focus on product innovation and platform optimization to fortify our core competencies and expand our market. As a result, the Two Wings business continued to scale rapidly, helping to strengthen the multi-pillar development structure and create new growth momentum for the Company. In 2021, our Two Wings business recorded revenue of RMB6,131 million, or an increase of 55.6% year-on-year. It accounted for 7.1% of overall operating revenue and contributed 40.0% to the incremental revenue in the year. Focused on key sectors, the Smart Tower business sustained a rapid growth. We seized the opportunity of digital transformation across the society, drawing on our abundant site resources and our largest domestic tower sharing and practical Internet of Things platforms to focus on key sectors centered around our Tower Monitoring service to drive the transformation of telecommunications towers into digital towers. With a coordinated approach, we continued to delve into key sectors including forestry, water conservation, agriculture and environmental protection, which are connected to major national projects such as the conservation of the Yangtze River, and forest and grassland fire prevention. As a result, we achieved a rapid growth and established our brand as a company that serves people’s livelihoods and makes contribution to social governance. We developed our innovative national “Tower Monitoring” platform and deepened strategic cooperation with industry partners in the areas of algorithms, cloud resources, transmission and terminals, in order to grow together with our partners. In 2021, our Smart Tower business achieved revenue of RMB4,060 million, a year-on-year increase of 35.2%, of which 51.6% was contributed by our Tower Monitoring business. Our Tower Monitoring business achieved revenue of RMB2,096 million. This reflects a continued shift of our business from resource leasing towards digital applications with higher value. Further strategic planning helped our Energy business grow in scale. Drawing on our expertise in energy operations and securing power supply, we continued to expand the scale of operations of our Energy business, centering around core areas such as battery exchange and power backup. We accelerated the economical and efficient establishment of internet-connected, environmentally friendly and smart battery exchange facilities, with a focus on key sectors such as finance, healthcare and transportation. We also introduced four-in-one power security solutions that cover power backup, power generation, monitoring and maintenance, which drove a rapid growth in the number of users and revenue. As of the end of 2021, we had developed a cumulative 612,000 users for our tower battery exchange services, an increase of 311,000 from the end of 2020, making us the largest operator of battery exchange services for light electric vehicles in China. Our Energy business recorded revenue of RMB2,071 million in 2021 with a year-on-year increase of 121.5%, of which the tower battery exchange business accounted for revenue of RMB1,243 million, representing a growth of 239.6% year-on-year. Mr. Zhang Zhiyong, Chairman of China Tower said, “Looking ahead, we will further our ‘One Core and Two Wings’ strategy to seize opportunities arising from the development of 5G new infrastructure and the digital economy, as well as the ‘dual carbon’ goals. Our position as a ‘world-class integrated information and communications infrastructure service provider and a highly competitive information and new energy applications provider’ will see us developing an operating system that is professional, intensive, delicate, efficient and digitalized. We will use this to build an enterprise centered around sharing, service, innovation, technology and value creation. We will sustain the stable growth of our operating results and strive for value growth and the sustainable and high-quality development of the Company.” Note 1: EBITDA is calculated by operating profit plus depreciation and amortization. Note 2: EBITDA margin is calculated by dividing EBITDA by operating revenue, and multiplying the resulting value by 100%. Note 3: Free cash flow is the net cash generated from operating activities minus the capital expenditures. Note 4: Gearing ratio is calculated as net debt divided by the sum of total equity and net debt, then multiplied by 100%. Net debt is calculated as the amount of interest-bearing liabilities minus the amount of cash and cash equivalents. About China Tower Since its incorporation on 15 July 2014, China Tower Corporation Limited (“China Tower”) has developed into the world’s largest telecommunications tower infrastructure service provider with compelling market advantage under the national strategy of Cyberpower. The Company implements the strategy of “One Core and Two Wings”. “One core” refers to the traditional tower business and indoor Distributed Antenna System (DAS) business, which provide services to the TSPs based on site resources; while “Two Wings” refers to the Smart Tower business which mainly provides tower site resources and information services to different industries, as well as Energy business to satisfy the growing demands on innovative energy services in the society, such as battery exchange, power backup and charging. China Tower adheres to the “sharing” philosophy for business development. It promotes site co-location and provides a wide range of services to fulfill the specific needs of its customers. As of the end of December 2021, the Company’s total assets amounted to RMB323,232 million. China Tower operated and managed 2.038 million tower sites across 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in the PRC, and served over 3.459 million tenants with the tenancy ratio of 1.70. Contact Details Callis Lau / Gary Li / Emily Chiu / Charmaine Siu +852 2136 6952 chinatower@iprogilvy.com

March 09, 2022 07:27 AM Eastern Standard Time

CORRECTING and REPLACING American Solar Urges UN’s Sustainable Development-NY Committee to “Accelerate the Pace” of Solar Energy Adoption to Support SDGs

American Solar

Second paragraph, second sentence of release dated March 8, 2022, has been amended: American Solar Founder and CEO Meir Yaniv recently gave a presentation on how the company’s Modular Digital Enterprise™ (MDE™) framework can accelerate the pace of solar energy installations during an official session of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development-NY ( NGOCSD-NY ) via a webinar titled, “UN76 Dialogue: Inclusion & Diversity Impact Change.” NGOCSD-NY’s official motto is “Turn Your Passions into Actions for Change.” The NGOCSD-NY has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations (UN) Department of Economic & Social Affairs and has Official Association with the UN Department of Global Communications. American Solar CEO Meir Yaniv commented: “Addressing climate challenge is at the heart of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the driving factor behind the United States’ net-zero emission targets. Accelerating the pace at which green energy can be deployed in homes throughout the globe is a key component of those goals and one that the MDE framework from American Solar is proving to achieve. For the last four consecutive quarters, American Solar has grown by more than 150 percent per quarter." American Solar is exponentially expediting the growth of the solar market and accelerating the pace of solar energy installations with its proprietary MDE framework. The framework is a robust, scalable and fully remote technology platform that reduces the overhead costs of marketing and operations, enabling American Solar to effectively lower the costs for homeowners who want to jump on the solar bandwagon. In addition, the MDE framework has allowed American Solar to streamline the process of going green, making solar power accessible to more homeowners than ever before. About American Solar American Solar is committed to achieving one goal – covering America with solar to achieve net-zero emissions targets at an accelerated pace. The company’s Modular Digital Enterprise™ (MDE™) framework employs innovative management tools and advanced data-based technology to expedite and simplify the way homeowners purchase solar panels. American Solar’s mission is to heal the planet while helping Americans become energy independent, free of utility monopolies, and accumulate a substantial and exponential amount of savings, year after year. The quickly growing company is positioned in the top 20 solar companies in the U.S. and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Please visit https://www.americansolar.com for more information. Contact Details Rainier Communication for American Solar Jenna Beaucage +1 508-340-6851 jbeaucage@rainierco.com Company Website https://www.americansolar.com

March 08, 2022 05:02 PM Eastern Standard Time

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