Toast Selects FreedomPay as its Preferred Payments Partner for Global Enterprise Merchants

Toast will now enable enterprise merchants to combine FreedomPay’s best-in-class global Commerce Platform with its leading restaurant digital platform

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FreedomPay, the world’s leading independent commerce platform and Toast, the all-in-one digital platform built for the entire restaurant community, signed a partnership agreement making FreedomPay Toast’s preferred payments gateway partner for select enterprise brands.

Toast will be able to offer its cloud-based digital platform for restaurants to leading enterprise merchants in the U.S. and Canada who are on the award-winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform.

Kelly Esten, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise at Toast stated: “As the restaurant industry rapidly adapts to new service models, Toast continues to deliver the industry’s trusted digital platform to help restaurants of all sizes and types—including franchisees—drive profitability, create the streamlined dining experiences guests expect, and make managing food service operations across properties easier than ever. We look forward to partnering with FreedomPay as we drive our enterprise expansion.”

FreedomPay Senior Vice President, Sales & Digital Development Nate Ware added: “This exciting collaboration between FreedomPay and Toast delivers advanced capabilities to large merchants. We are quite simply ‘unleashing the power of pay’ to thousands more businesses to help support Toast’s growth across enterprise level merchant solutions.”

FreedomPay is one of the world’s fastest growing Fintechs, innovating and transforming commerce to Next Level™ payment solutions. FreedomPay is aggressively expanding in new markets including the Middle East, South America, Africa and APAC. FreedomPay has recently been named one of the Fastest Growing FinTechs to Watch in 2022 and is a finalist for the Best Payment System in the PayTech Awards, London 2023.

FreedomPay and Toast will be exhibiting together at HITEC in Toronto, June 26-29. Visit booth 516/518 to learn more.

About FreedomPay
FreedomPay’s Next Level Commerce™ platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, foodservice, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay’s technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world-class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay’s robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in-store, online and on-mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. www.freedompay.com

Jennifer Tayebi
Hill+Knowlton Strategies for FreedomPay
+1 734 395 0780
jennifer.tayebi@hkstrategies.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8856540

Dominica Ranks as Safest Country in the Caribbean in 2023 World Citizenship Report: CS Global Partners

London, June 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Commonwealth of Dominica has been crowned as the safest place in the Caribbean in the second annual World Citizenship Report published by the world’s leading government advisory and marketing firm, CS Global Partners.

Using data from the World Citizenship Index (WCI), the World Citizenship Report’s data-driven tool which measures 188 countries across five motivators most relevant to the mass affluent, the Nature Isle topped the Safety and Security pillar in the region with a score of 76.9, bringing it to the 38th safest place in the international arena.

In the Caribbean, Grenada (46), St Kitts and Nevis (48), Saint Lucia (50) and Antigua and Barbuda (52) followed Dominica’s safety and security rank of 38. Iceland (1), New Zealand (2) and Switzerland (3) kept their top rankings globally for the second year in a row, while economic giants like the US (65) and China (111) trailed much further behind Dominica.

Dominica continues to place emphasis on physical safety, rule of law, and political stability and ranks high in categories like voice and accountability, where citizens feel empowered to hold leaders accountable to their demands and needs.

The post-pandemic return to ‘normal’ has been marred by generational inflation, broader macroeconomic volatility as well as the geopolitical instability stemming from the crisis in Ukraine – which has threatened to upend the ‘Long Peace’ enjoyed since the end of WWII.

The resultant supply chain, energy, and political pressures have pushed the global economy closer to a recession and are forcing governments to enact monetary and fiscal policy changes that are pressurising households the world over. Perhaps more importantly, the upheaval of the last two years that has engendered both restrictions on local and international movement and increased economic headwinds have compelled the world’s citizens to reappraise their relationship with their own governments with respect to freedom, safety, and opportunity.

The mass affluent and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are looking for alternative destinations as a bolt-hole for future crises in countries that offer the freedoms that are lacking in their home nations.

With many parts of the world also experiencing an uptick in violent crime due to ineffective policies and rising inequality, smaller jurisdictions in particular are increasingly prioritising efforts to ensure the rule of law for all as part of efforts to boost tourism and attract digital nomads. In the Caribbean for example, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data shows that St Kitts and Nevis saw a 50 per cent reduction in its average crime statistics over the past five years resulting in it being ranked among the safest islands to visit in 2023 by well-known tourist guide “Travellers Worldwide”.

Caribbean nations that offer investment migration schemes such as Dominica, offer global citizens access to some of the best travel and economic markets in the world.

Dominica began welcoming foreign nationals to obtain citizenship in 1993. The island remains politically and economically stable, with a low crime rate and rich investment opportunities.

Chantal Mabanga
CS Global Partners
+44 (0) 207 318 4343
Chantal.Mabanga@csglobalpartners.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8856088

Cohere Lança Série C de US$270 Milhões para Levar IA Geradora para Empresas

Financiamento irá acelerar a posição de liderança da Cohere e proporcionar para as empresas a capacidade da IA na plataforma de nuvem de preferida, para a manutenção dos dados privados e seguros

SÃO FRANCISCO e TORONTO, June 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  A Cohere, principal plataforma de IA para empresas, anunciou hoje a disponibilização de novo capital no valor de US$270 Milhões como parte de seu financiamento da Série C. A Inovia Capital liderou a rodada, com participação adicional de um grupo diversificado de investidores institucionais e estratégicos globais, incluindo NVIDIA, Oracle, Salesforce Ventures, DTCP, Mirae Asset, Schroders Capital, SentinelOne, Thomvest Ventures e retorno do investidor Index Ventures. Este grupo representa investidores dos EUA, Canadá, Coreia, Reino Unido e Alemanha, e inclui algumas das empresas de tecnologia mais respeitadas do mundo.

“A IA irá impulsionar a próxima década de sucesso nos negócios”, disse Aidan Gomez, CEO e cofundador da Cohere. “Com a empolgação inicial com a IA generativa se transformando em novas maneiras de acelerar os negócios, as empresas estão procurando a Cohere para posicioná-las para o sucesso em uma nova era da tecnologia. A próxima fase dos produtos e serviços de IA irá revolucionar os negócios e estamos prontos para liderar o caminho.”

“Estamos no início de uma nova era impulsionada pela computação acelerada e IA generativa”, disse Jensen Huang, fundador e CEO da NVIDIA. “A equipe da Cohere contribuiu fundamentalmente para a IA generativa. Seu serviço irá ajudar empresas em todo o mundo a aproveitar esses recursos para automatizar e acelerar.”

IA Criada para Empresas
A plataforma de IA da Cohere foi projetada exclusivamente para empresas, oferecendo opções de implantação seguras de dados nos ambientes de nuvem, personalização e suporte ao cliente existentes das empresas. A plataforma inclui também um ecossistema de parceiros de consultoria e integradores de sistemas para ajudar as empresas em qualquer estágio de sua jornada para a IA.

A suíte de IA corporativa da Cohere é independente da nuvem, oferecendo os mais altos níveis de flexibilidade e privacidade de dados. A plataforma foi desenvolvida para estar disponível em todos os provedores de nuvem, implantada dentro do ambiente de nuvem existente de um cliente, nuvem privada virtual (VPC) ou até mesmo no local, para atender às empresas onde seus dados estão abrigados. Isso capacita as empresas a transformar produtos existentes e criar a próxima geração de soluções inovadoras que definem a era, mantendo seus dados seguros.

“Temos por objetivo investir em grandes empreendedores que tenham grandes missões e ambições em todo o mundo”, disse Steve Woods, CTO e sócio da Inovia Capital. “Poucas ideias podem mudar fundamentalmente a sociedade e agregar mais valor à humanidade. Esta é obviamente uma dessas oportunidades e estamos entusiasmados em fazer parceria com a Cohere para poder fazer parte deste empreendimento.”

A notícia de hoje dá seguimento a vários acontecimentos da Cohere em diversas áreas: anúncio recente de colaboração com a Salesforce Ventures para a promoção de uma IA geradora com valor comercial; engajamento com a LivePerson para impulsionar a experiência dos clientes; e uma série de demandas e interesses adicionais por parte do mercado corporativo. Com o avanço da tecnologia líder do setor da Cohere, a avaliação mais recente do modelo de linguagem da Stanford também classificou o modelo de Comando da Cohere com alta precisão em relação aos modelos comparáveis. A Cohere também lançou recentemente o primeiro modelo de compreensão multilíngue publicamente disponível, treinado em dados autênticos de falantes nativos; este modelo tem capacidade para ler e entender mais de 100 dos idiomas mais falados do mundo.

“A Cohere tem uma rara combinação de talentos de primeira linha, a tecnologia mais inovadora e está mais bem posicionada para aproveitar a oportunidade do mercado corporativo global de IA Gerativa e LLMs”, disse Lance Matthews, Diretor Administrativo da DTCP. “Nossa estrutura de fundos e relacionamentos exclusivos nos permitem reunir uma coalizão de investidores institucionais e estratégicos globais, incluindo a Deutsche Telekom, para acelerar a visão da Cohere de oferecer essa tecnologia para empresas de todo o mundo”.

Para mais informação sobre a Cohere e a sua equipa em crescimento, visite cohere.com.

Sobre a Cohere
A Cohere é a principal plataforma de IA para empresas. Sua IA de categoria mundial é unicamente adequada às necessidades dos negócios, desbloqueando a facilidade de uso, acessibilidade e privacidade de dados sem precedentes. A plataforma da Cohere é independente da nuvem, acessível por meio da API como um serviço gerenciado e pode ser implantada em nuvem privada virtual (VPC) ou mesmo no local para atender às empresas onde seus dados estão abrigados, oferecendo os mais altos níveis de flexibilidade e controle. Fundada por ex-alunos do Google Brain e um coautor do seminal artigo Transformer, a Cohere tem a missão de transformar empresas e seus produtos com a IA, desbloqueando uma maneira mais intuitiva do que nunca de gerar, pesquisar e resumir informações. A empresa é apoiada por um grupo de investidores institucionais e estratégicos globais, incluindo DTCP, Index Ventures, Inovia Capital, Mirae Asset, NVIDIA, Oracle, Radical Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Section 32 e Tiger Global, bem como vários luminares da IA, incluindo Geoffrey Hinton, Jeff Dean, Fei-Fei Li, Pieter Abbeel e Raquel Urtasun.

Contato com a Mídia
press@cohere.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8856104

Cohere annonce une série C de 270 millions de dollars pour mettre l’IA générative à la portée des entreprises

Le financement renforcera la position de leader de Cohere en permettant aux entreprises de bénéficier de l’IA sur la plateforme cloud de leur choix, tout en préservant la confidentialité et la sécurité de leurs données

SAN FRANCISCO et TORONTO, 12 juin 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  Cohere, la plateforme d’IA numéro 1 pour les entreprises, a annoncé aujourd’hui un nouvel apport de capitaux de 270 millions de dollars dans le cadre de son financement de série C. Inovia Capital a mené le tour de table, avec la participation d’un groupe diversifié d’investisseurs institutionnels et stratégiques mondiaux, dont NVIDIA, Oracle, Salesforce Ventures, DTCP, Mirae Asset, Schroders Capital, SentinelOne, Thomvest Ventures, et à nouveau l’investisseur Index Ventures. Ce groupe représente des investisseurs des États-Unis, du Canada, de Corée, du Royaume-Uni et d’Allemagne, et comprend certaines des entreprises technologiques les plus respectées au monde.

« L’IA sera le moteur du succès des entreprises au cours de la prochaine décennie », a déclaré Aidan Gomez, PDG et co-fondateur de Cohere. « À l’heure où l’intérêt initial pour l’IA générative s’oriente vers des moyens de renforcer les entreprises, celles-ci se tournent vers Cohere pour se positionner avec succès dans une nouvelle ère technologique. La prochaine phase des produits et services d’IA va révolutionner les entreprises, et nous sommes prêts à ouvrir la voie. »

« Nous sommes au début d’une nouvelle ère portée par le calcul accéléré et l’IA générative », a déclaré Jensen Huang, fondateur et PDG de NVIDIA. « L’équipe de Cohere a apporté des contributions fondamentales à l’IA générative. Son service aidera les entreprises du monde entier à exploiter ces capacités afin d’automatiser et d’accélérer leurs processus. »

Une IA créée pour les entreprises
La plateforme d’IA de Cohere est spécialement conçue pour les entreprises. Elle offre des options de déploiement sécurisé des données dans les environnements cloud existants des entreprises, une personnalisation et un support client. Cela inclut un écosystème de partenaires consultants et intégrateurs de systèmes pour aider les entreprises à chaque étape de leur parcours en matière d’IA.

La suite d’IA pour entreprises de Cohere est agnostique au cloud, offrant ainsi les plus hauts niveaux de flexibilité et de confidentialité des données. La plateforme est conçue pour être disponible chez tous les fournisseurs de services en cloud, déployée dans l’environnement cloud existant des clients, dans un cloud privé virtuel (virtual private cloud, VPC) ou même sur site, afin de répondre aux besoins des entreprises là où se trouvent leurs données. Cela permet aux entreprises de transformer les produits existants et de créer la prochaine génération de solutions révolutionnaires, tout en sécurisant leurs données.

« Notre raison d’être est d’investir dans de grands entrepreneurs qui ont une mission et des ambitions d’envergure mondiale », a déclaré Steve Woods, directeur technologique et associé d’Inovia Capital. « Très peu d’idées peuvent changer fondamentalement la société et représenter une vraie valeur ajoutée pour l’humanité. Il s’agit de toute évidence d’une telle opportunité et nous sommes ravis de nous associer à Cohere pour la mettre à profit. »

La nouvelle d’aujourd’hui succède à des avancées de Cohere dans plusieurs domaines : une annonce récente de collaboration avec Salesforce Ventures pour faire progresser l’IA générative afin d’apporter de la valeur aux entreprises ; un engagement avec LivePerson pour dynamiser les expériences des clients ; et une demande et un intérêt croissants de la part du marché des entreprises. Cohere continue de faire progresser sa technologie de pointe, et selon l’évaluation la plus récente des modèles de langage par Stanford, le modèle Command de Cohere atteint aussi un haut niveau de précision par rapport à des modèles comparables. Entre-temps, Cohere a récemment lancé le tout premier modèle de compréhension multilingue accessible au grand public entraîné à partir de données authentiques provenant de locuteurs natifs ; il est équipé pour lire et comprendre plus de 100 des langues les plus couramment parlées dans le monde.

« Cohere dispose d’une combinaison rare de talents de premier plan et de la technologie la plus innovante. L’entreprise est idéalement placée pour saisir l’opportunité que représentent l’IA générative et les LLM sur le marché mondial des entreprises », a déclaré Lance Matthews, directeur général de DTCP. « Notre structure de fonds unique et nos relations nous permettent de rassembler une coalition d’investisseurs institutionnels et stratégiques mondiaux, dont Deutsche Telekom, afin de mettre en oeuvre la vision de Cohere, qui consiste à rendre cette technologie accessible aux entreprises du monde entier. »

Pour en savoir plus sur Cohere et son équipe en pleine expansion, rendez-vous sur cohere.com.

À propos de Cohere
Cohere est la plateforme d’IA numéro 1 pour les entreprises. Son intelligence artificielle de classe mondiale est spécialement adaptée aux besoins des entreprises et offre une facilité d’utilisation, une accessibilité et une confidentialité des données sans précédent. La plateforme de Cohere est agnostique au cloud, accessible par API en tant que service géré, et peut être déployée sur un cloud privé virtuel (virtual private cloud, VPC) ou même sur site pour répondre aux besoins des entreprises, offrant ainsi les niveaux les plus élevés de flexibilité et de contrôle. Fondée par des anciens de Google Brain et un co-auteur du rapport de recherche novateur Transformer, Cohere a pour mission de transformer les entreprises et leurs produits grâce à une IA qui permet de générer, de rechercher et de résumer l’information de manière plus intuitive que jamais. La société est soutenue par un groupe d’investisseurs institutionnels et stratégiques mondiaux, dont DTCP, Index Ventures, Inovia Capital, Mirae Asset, NVIDIA, Oracle, Radical Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Section 32 et Tiger Global, ainsi que par plusieurs experts de l’IA, dont Geoffrey Hinton, Jeff Dean, Fei-Fei Li, Pieter Abbeel et Raquel Urtasun.

Contact auprès des médias
press@cohere.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8856104

PM Abiy Confers with Kenyan, Somalian Presidents on Sideline of IGAD 14th Summit in Djibouti

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held talks with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia and President William Ruto of Kenya on the sidelines of the 14th IGAD Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government.

“Given our many shared mutual interests and concerns, Ethiopia will continue working closely with each country in overcoming our common challenges,” Abiy twitted.

“I Met with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia and President William Ruto of Kenya on the sidelines of the IGAD Summit this morning. Given our many shared mutual interests and concerns, Ethiopia will continue working closely with each country in overcoming our common challenges.”

The 14th Ordinary Summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Heads of State and Government has kicked off today.

The leaders and officials of the member countries will discuss on regional issues including IGAD’s response to the region’s endeavors.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

IGAD Calls on Sudanese Warring Parties to Cease Hostilities, Give Dialogue Chance

The Executive Secretary of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has called on Sudanese warring parties to cease all hostilities and give real dialogue a chance.

Speaking at the opening session of the 14th Ordinary Assembly of the IGAD Heads of State and Government held in Djibouti today, the Executive Secretary, Workneh Gebeyehu underscored for a credible cessation of hostilities, the violence and bloodshed must first stop in Sudan.

Today’s summit has brought together leaders and officials of various countries including Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to discuss regional issues including IGAD’s response to the region’s endeavors.

Workneh underlined: “It is an opportunity to prevent further loss of life and allow the safe evacuation of civilians who wish to escape the fighting. We urge the warring parties in Sudan not to allow war to bring out the worst versions of the best of us.”

Noting that this summit comes at a time of great opportunity and positive developments in the IGAD region, the secretary noted that we must recognize the momentous and positive developments in peace and security for the region.

He added the war in Sudan has caused thousands of injuries and over 1.4 million displaced since the fighting broke out almost two months ago, on15th April 2023.

IGAD heads of state and government had convened an emergency summit on 16th April 2023, within less than 24 hours of the onset of hostilities to respond to and make an effort to contain this situation, he recalled.

Following the meeting, the leaders of the IGAD member countries took bold step to establish the High-Level Delegation, led by Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of South Sudan, and Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, President of Djibouti and William Ruto, President of Kenya.

“This demonstrates our collective determination to bring about a peaceful resolution. We are looking forward to the report of the High-Level Delegation and the draft roadmap on peace in Sudan,”he said.

IGAD welcomed the efforts to suspend hostilities through the temporary ceasefire reached on 20th May and the 24-hour truce that came into effect from 06:00am on Saturday 10th June 2023, he added.

However, he further stated the resumption of fighting in Khartoum, parts of western Darfur and El-Geneina in northern Darfur as well as other parts of the country is most discouraging.

IGAD is extremely concerned by the violence in Sudan and wishes to stress that in war, there are no real winners, he said.

Highlighting how serious the situation is in Sudan, the executive secretary went on as saying:“Before this conflict broke out, the Republic of Sudan was already one of the biggest refugee-hosting countries in Africa and the world. As a result of the ongoing conflict, we are now facing twin prospects of ‘double-displacement’ of refugees and asylum seekers as well as the increased challenge of food insecurity in Sudan and our region which has barely recovered from the devastating drought.”

And he emphasized that IGAD, friends and neighbors of Sudan have a moral and historical obligation to halt and reverse the course of this conflict.

On the other hand, Workneh mentioned the resurgence of Al–Shabaab, food insecurity, humanitarian issues and other difficulties in the IGAD region.

Speaking on Ethiopian affairs, the executive secretary appreciated Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his leadership in achieving the cessation of hostilities agreement and silencing of the guns in northern Ethiopia.

“This historic milestone marks a significant step towards peace, stability, and reconciliation in the region. The prime minister’s dedication to dialogue and peaceful resolution has proven instrumental in bringing an end to the bloody conflict, fostering an environment of trust and understanding among the parties involved,”the executive secretary pointed out.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency