<div>
  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>
        Braze, a customer engagement platform, acquired North Star, its exclusive reseller in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), for an undisclosed amount. The transaction is expected to be finalized in Q2 2024. Following the acquisition, Lewis Barnes, one of North Star's co-founders, will assume the role of senior director of customer success for ANZ at Braze.
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        The acquisition enables Braze to have direct presence in the ANZ market, as well as the benefit of the North Star team's local market knowledge.
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        North Star has been re-selling Braze since 2016 and has provided services to 130+ brands in Australia and New Zealand, including Canva and KFC Australia. These services include sales, onboarding, and customer success support.
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        <b>Analyst QuickTake: </b>
        Braze's acquisition of North Star is expected to facilitate the expansion of the company's customer base in Australia and New Zealand. The acquisition provides Braze with insights into the local market, including customer needs and existing brand relationships. Furthermore, the acquisition offers Braze an efficient way to provide sales and customer support services to its ANZ-based clients.
      </p>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <p>
  </p>
</div>


<div>
  <p>
    <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230330005721/en/Braze-to-Acquire-North-Star-Exclusive-Australian-Reseller">
      Press release
    </a>
  </p>
</div>


Marketing Automation

Braze acquires Australian reseller North Star

<div>
 <p>Mediaocean, an advertising infrastructure solutions firm, has announced its acquisition of independent AdTech platform, Innovid, for a price close to USD 525 million.</p>
 <p>This acquisition, when combined with Mediaocean's own Prisma and Flashtalking businesses, is aimed at developing a leading independent ad tech business with a focus on creative and CTV. The idea is to provide an unbiased alternative to Google, supplying an omnichannel orchestration for brands and agencies.</p>
 <p>Mediaocean is an omnichannel advertising platform that simplifies the media and creative operational processes. It merges AdTech and creative tools together, allowing advertisers to optimally leverage mobile, social, and video campaigns. The platform enhances ad management, analytics, and reporting through tool integration.</p>
 
</div>

Mediaocean to acquire Innovid for USD 525 million to establish independent AdTech business

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 <p>Bloomreach, an ecommerce personalization platform provider, has introduced new features in its Discovery platform. These features aim to enhance ecommerce productivity and user experience.</p>
 <p>Among the newly launched features is the Personalisation Studio that modifies search results according to user behavior. It optimizes the search function, providing users with more relevant results. The Real-Time API Merchandising feature utilizes customer data to deliver personalization, making the shopping experience more intuitive and curated. Additionally, with Conditional Slot Merchandising, product displays can be organized using specific rules, ensuring that products are presented to consumers in a way that boosts relevance and interest.</p>
 <p>A feature named Dynamic Categories has also been introduced, which automatically generates product categories grounded on various conditions such as price, type, and other significant factors. This feature helps in better product segmentation and enhances navigation experience for customers.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> This recent development and the <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/35429"> October 2024 </a> partnership with Planet to offer a unified commerce personalization solution contribute to Bloomreach's overall strategy to enhance&nbsp;ecommerce personalization.</p>

Bloomreach adds new features to Discovery platform to enhance efficiency

<div>
 <p>AppsFlyer, a marketing measurement and analytics platform, has introduced an AI enhancement for its Protect360 fraud prevention solution to fight fraudulent activities in marketing campaigns and networks. The AI enhancement processes several data points using machine learning models for fraud detection. It offers real-time fraud detection, post-attribution fraud identification, enhanced deterrence capabilities, and increased detection accuracy in industries like gaming, gambling, and finance.</p>
</div>

AppsFlyer adds AI layer to Protect360 fraud detection solution

<div>
 <p>BrightEdge, a company specializing in AI-driven organic search and digital marketing automation, has incorporated new AI functions into its Data Cube X solution. Through this platform, clients can track and examine their brand's presence in Google AI Overview (AIO) search results.</p>
 <p>Data Cube X enables users to have real-time insight into their brand presence in Google AIO search outcomes. It observes changes in the digital footprint, pinpoints consumer touchpoints via search, and empowers content optimization for relevance and freshness. The solution is designed to work in conjunction with BrightEdge Copilot for crafting content and BrightEdge Autopilot for content structuring.</p>
 <p>BrightEdge explains that these fresh capabilities offer brands the opportunity to identify and respond to prospects in Google AIO, observe their AI presence development, and modify to the ever-changing AI search environment.</p>
</div>

BrightEdge releases AI capabilities to monitor and analyze brand presence in Google AI Overview search results

<div>
 <p>Enterprise customer data platform Zeotap recently raised an impressive USD 25 million in a funding round. Contributors include both existing and new investors, notable names being SignalFire and Salica Investments. The funds were garnered through a strategic blend of equity and debt raised over the course of the year.</p>
 <p>Expected use of the funding includes bolstering of AI capabilities, particularly in partnership with Google Cloud, augmenting market penetration with expanded customer and partner programs, and driving forward product innovation. This innovation is projected to place emphasis on privacy tools and data integration. </p>
 <p>Zeotap has managed to establish a substantial footprint in Europe, with clientele including some of the biggest names in retail, telecommunications, sports, and betting. Noteworthy partners include two of the three largest German food retailers, major European telecoms companies, FC Bayern Munich, and global sports betting behemoth, Entain.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> This funding round follows the previous one in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/25576"> January 2024 </a> , when Zeotap attracted investment from the former Vodafone Germany CEO to drive growth in the enterprise CDP market. This recent investment will support the CDP's functionality <a href="https:<br>
//zeotap.com/news/zeotap-announces-25-million-funding-to-mark-profitability-milestone-adds-chair-and-coo-to-leadership-team/#:<br>
~:<br>
text=CDP%E2%80%99s%20functionality%20to"> through </a> collaboration with Google Cloud.</p>

Zeotap raises USD 25 million in funding to enhance AI collaboration with Google Cloud, expand market reach, and product development

<div>
 <p>Agentio, a YouTube ad marketplace, has successfully raised USD 12 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by Benchmark, and included contributions from returning investors Craft Ventures and AlleyCorp. The company's total funding raised so far has exceeded USD 16 million.</p>
 <p>The newly acquired funds will be used to expand Agentio's marketplace for YouTube creators. Additionally, the funds will be employed to improve the company's AI technology. This technology is integral in establishing brand safety for creators.</p>
 <p>Agentio has developed an AI-powered advertising platform that links brands with online creators. This enables the scaling of sponsored content campaigns. The platform is specifically designed to work with YouTube Creator-led sponsored ad reads. Agentio uses predictive algorithms to pair up suitable brands and creators and to give real-time performance metrics.
 </p>
</div>

Agentio raises USD 12 million in Series A funding to scale and enhance platform

<div>
 <p>HighLevel, a CRM platform provider, has introduced AI Employee, a suite of business automation that blends six AI tools. It is freely accessible until the end of 2024, after which it costs USD 97 monthly per sub-account.</p>
 <p>AI Employee suite encompasses Voice AI for lead qualification and call handling, Conversational AI for customer support across multiple channels, Reviews AI for online review management, Content AI for content creation, Workflow AI Assistant for automating processes, and Funnel AI for setting up landing pages.</p>
 <p>The firm asserts that AI Employee operates as a full-time staff member, enabling companies to automate monotonous tasks, save time, and cut costs. The suite provides unlimited usage with no hidden API fees, and is aimed to manage the entire customer journey from lead acquisition to conversion.</p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> This latest development is in line with Highlevel’s recent fundraising activity in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/28426"> April 2024 </a> , where it secured a strategic investment from General Atlantic to support further platform development.</p>

HighLevel launches AI Employee automation suite to enhance productivity of sales and marketing teams

<div>
 <p>Digital experience platform provider, Acquia, has announced its plans to acquire Monsido, a software solution for website accessibility and optimization, from CivicPlus. This move is slated to occur in early Q1 2024.</p>
 <p>Monsido is a SaaS platform specializing in helping businesses with website monitoring and enhancement, content quality, data privacy, and performance. It also aids with search engine optimization and compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and legislation: features that are compatible across all content management systems.</p>
 <p>Post-acquisition, CivicPlus will continue its service to US local government customers as resellers, whereas rest of Monsido's customers will shift to Acquia. This acquisition is foreseen to heighten Acquia's capabilities in its digital experience platform, eventually leading to the creation of more optimized, accessible, and inclusive digital experiences.</p>
 
</div>

Acquia acquires Monsid to expand Acquia's digital experience platform capabilities

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

<div>
 <p>TikTok has partnered with Getty Images to grant advertisers the ability to utilize Getty's licensed images and videos via TikTok's AI ad creation tool called Symphony Creative Studio. This collaboration allows advertisers to create AI-generated video ads using Getty's licensed content, complete with AI avatars, multilingual dubbing, and the creation of multiple ad versions. Ultimately, this gives brands the opportunity to access Getty's commercial-use safe images and videos in order to generate unique content geared specifically for TikTok.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake</b> :<br>
 This partnership extends Getty Images' presence in the AI industry, following its previous collaborations with companies like NVIDIA ( <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/32119"> July 2024 </a> ) and Picsart ( <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/30496"> July 2024 </a> ) after launching its own AI image generator last year.</p>

TikTok partners with Getty Images to integrate licensed content for AI-generated ads

<div>
 <p>Ad platform Sovrn has introduced Ad Management software to aid publishers in controlling their advertising operations and revenue. This software presents an alternative to typical sales houses, offering more autonomy for publishers over their ad operations.</p>
 <p>This software encompasses features like dynamic price floors, traffic shaping, aggregated auctions at the page-level, and identity deployment. It provides real-time performance analysis across 40+ dimensions and 20+ measures, permitting A/B testing and control over SSP demand and channel relationships.</p>
 <p>The usage of this software can lead to an average savings of 49% in fees when compared with revenue share models. Sovrn asserts that using their page-level auctions and dynamic price floors can increase yield by over 10%. In addition, their zero take rate feature has resulted in savings of over USD 500,000 in SSP fees for publishers.</p>
 
</div>

All Updates

Braze acquires Australian reseller North Star

Mediaocean to acquire Innovid for USD 525 million to establish independent AdTech business

Bloomreach adds new features to Discovery platform to enhance efficiency

AppsFlyer adds AI layer to Protect360 fraud detection solution

BrightEdge releases AI capabilities to monitor and analyze brand presence in Google AI Overview search results

Zeotap raises USD 25 million in funding to enhance AI collaboration with Google Cloud, expand market reach, and product development

Agentio raises USD 12 million in Series A funding to scale and enhance platform

HighLevel launches AI Employee automation suite to enhance productivity of sales and marketing teams

Acquia acquires Monsid to expand Acquia's digital experience platform capabilities

TikTok partners with Getty Images to integrate licensed content for AI-generated ads

Sovrn launches ad management software for publishers to assist in advertising operations and revenue management

Marketing Automation

Braze acquires Australian reseller North Star

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