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Viant Announces Appointment of New Head of Corporate Development

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Eric Sterns to Lead Viant’s M&A Program

Viant Technology Inc. , a leader in CTV and AI-powered programmatic advertising, announced the appointment of industry veteran Eric Sterns as Head of Corporate Development to lead the company’s M&A program and help drive forward strategic initiatives. Sterns joins Viant from RBC Capital Markets, where he spent the last 11 years helping form and lead the Digital Media Investment Banking Coverage team, and will now report to Larry Madden, Chief Financial Officer.

“After working closely with Viant over the years, I could not be more excited to join one of my long-time clients to help drive forward a strategic M&A roadmap,” said Eric Sterns, Head of Corporate Development, Viant.

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“As Viant continues to strengthen its market leadership position, Eric’s exceptional track record with marquee transactions and strategic insight makes him the perfect addition to drive our next phase of growth,” said Larry Madden, CFO, Viant. “Eric’s ability to assess complex deals and drive successful outcomes makes him the ideal leader for our M&A program as we continue to expand our capabilities and market presence.”

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Sterns brings 13 years of M&A and corporate advisory experience across digital media to Viant. Over the last decade at RBC Capital Markets, Sterns orchestrated and worked on dozens of M&A advisory and IPO transactions within adtech, including Novacap’s acquisition of Cadent, Nexxen’s acquisition of Amobee, and the merger of Telaria and Rubicon which formed Magnite, establishing himself as a trusted strategist for high-value deals.

“Having analyzed the adtech landscape for the past decade, there is ample opportunity and strategic consolidation on the horizon,” said Eric Sterns, Head of Corporate Development, Viant. “After working closely with Viant over the years, I could not be more excited to join one of my long-time clients to help drive forward a strategic M&A roadmap.”

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Michael Chorey, Founder of Wendy’s FreshAi, to Join Presto as Co-Founder and President of Presto IQ

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Presto launches new dynamic data unit and adds one of the QSR industry’s most experienced AI visionaries to its market-leading Voice AI platform

Apollo Funds to Acquire Kelvion, a Leading Global Provider of Heat Exchange & Cooling Solutions

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Triton to retain minority interest in Kelvion

Apollo announced that Apollo-managed funds (“Apollo Funds”) have agreed to acquire a majority stake in Kelvion (or the “Company”), a leading global provider of energy efficient heat exchange and cooling solutions, from funds advised by Triton (“Triton”). Triton will maintain a minority interest in Kelvion.

Founded and headquartered in Germany for over a century, Kelvion has established itself as a premier provider of thermal management solutions across a broad spectrum of industrial and high-growth end markets. Today, Kelvion is a leader in advanced cooling technologies for data centers, the Company’s largest and fastest-growing segment. It also plays an enabling role in several key energy transition markets, including carbon capture, hydrogen, electrification, renewables, and heat pumps, delivering highly reliable and sustainable solutions to customers around the globe.

Kelvion operates an extensive global footprint with sites across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. Triton acquired and rebranded the company in 2014 (formerly GEA Heat Exchanger Group). Since then, Kelvion has undergone a significant transformation, shifting its portfolio and strategic focus toward secular megatrends in High Tech and Green Tech, while driving operational excellence and expanding its global customer base.

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Waleed Elgohary, Partner, Apollo, said, “Kelvion has established itself as a premier provider of energy efficient solutions, with a global footprint and leading customer base. The Company is well positioned to meet the demand of several very large secular tailwinds, including AI & cloud revolution, energy transition, and reindustrialization. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to support the Company’s growth in this next phase in partnership with the Triton, Andy and the rest of the management team.”

Andy Blandford, CEO of Kelvion, said: “We thank Triton for their support and the good collaboration throughout the years. Today, Kelvion stands stronger than ever, delivering cutting-edge solutions across high-growth markets that matter most for the future of industry and the planet. We are thrilled to welcome Apollo Funds as our new majority investor. Their deep expertise in both clean energy and industrial technology, along with their global network and long-term mindset, makes them an ideal partner. Backed by the combined strength of Apollo and Triton, we are poised to accelerate our growth trajectory, continue investing in innovation and talent, and further solidify our position as a global leader in energy-efficient thermal solutions.”

Apollo Partners Claudia Scarico and Jeremy Honeth added, “We have followed the Kelvion business for several years, and Andy and the management team have done a terrific job transforming the business into a leading solutions provider serving highly technical end markets that we believe should continue to benefit from multiple secular megatrends. We are excited by its growth plans and look forward to supporting Kelvion in partnership with Triton.”

Claus von Hermann, Fund Managing Partner, Head of DACH and Co-Head of Industrial Tech at Triton, said: “We thank Andy, the further management team and all employees of Kelvion for their hard work, commitment and collaboration over the years. Together, they have driven a remarkable transformation, positioning the company at the forefront of global industrial innovation. We believe that Apollo is the perfect new partner for the company providing avenues to new growth and we look forward to supporting both the management and Apollo team in that.”

Over the past five years, Apollo-managed funds and affiliates have committed, deployed, or arranged approximately $58 billion1 of climate and energy transition-related investments, supporting companies and projects across clean energy and infrastructure.

The transaction is subject to satisfaction of certain closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026.

UBS AG, J.P. Morgan Securities plc and Barclays Bank PLC (acting through its investment bank) served as financial advisors to the Apollo Funds, while Sidley Austin LLP served as legal counsel on the transaction. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP served as legal counsel in connection with the financing of the transaction.

Guggenheim Securities, LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc acted as financial advisors to Triton while Kirkland & Ellis served as legal advisors.

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Sciens Building Solutions Acquires Houston-area Company

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Addition of Alarmtechs enhances Sciens’ Texas presence and adds to its growing nationwide platform

Sciens Building Solutions (“Sciens”) announced it has welcomed Katy, Texas-based Alarmtechs, Inc. (“Alarmtechs”) to its growing portfolio of companies. This is the latest acquisition announcement from Sciens and helps further expand their presence in the Texas market, while providing Alarmtechs and its customers with even deeper resources and expertise, as well as the ability to leverage Sciens’ growing presence across North America.

“I am looking forward to partnering with Sciens to help take the Alarmtechs team to the next level,” said Bill Waters, Alarmtechs founder. “We have wonderful employees and great customers and to see this partnership drive more success for those folks means everything to us. Our employees are considered family, and we are happy to have partnered with a group that we trust to take care of them and provide additional opportunities for their professional development.”

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Established 34 years ago by Bill Waters, Alarmtechs is a complete low voltage systems installation, servicing and monitoring company serving all of Texas’s major metropolitan areas. Their expertise includes fire alarm, security integration, ERCES, access control, and sprinkler services with specialty focus on multi-family new construction.

“Alarmtechs is a highly respected fire and life safety company who expands our ability to provide the full Sciens Service Suite (S3) in the important and growing Texas market,” said Terry Heath, Sciens’ CEO. “Along with our many other Divisions in Texas, we are excited to partner with Bill and his family-focused business, which is nicely positioned to provide local, regional, and national service support to our expanding customer base.”

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and backed by The Carlyle Group, Sciens Building Solutions is a fire and life safety company focused on protecting lives and reducing business risk. This includes the design, installation, and provision of maintenance and inspection services for fire detection, fire sprinkler and security systems across a variety of commercial vertical markets

Founded 34 years ago in Katy, Texas, Alarmtechs is a Potter dealer that is focused on fire alarm, security integration and sprinkler services. They are licensed in the areas of alarm, sprinkler, extinguishers, ERCES, and security

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Xsolla’s Leading Web Shop Puts Mobile Developers Back in Control to Shift Revenue, Own Their Data, and Build Direct-to-Player Experiences That Scale

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A Major Update Adds Catalog Sync, Advanced Reward Chains, Advanced Subscriptions, and Buy Button integration to the Leading D2C Monetization Platform for Mobile Games

VideoShops Launches, with Instant Storefronts, Same-Day Pay on Sales and No Gatekeeping

Built for everyday tastemakers, VideoShops is poised to replace outdated affiliate linking networks with the first AI-powered open marketplace that lets anyone shop, share and sell unlimited products through their own storefront and get paid same day commissions without approvals.

VideoShops, a next-generation social commerce platform designed to replace outdated affiliate systems, officially launched today on web and mobile. After a successful beta period with tens of thousands of early users, the platform is now open to creators, influencers, and everyday tastemakers ready to turn their content into commerce.

Founded by award winning entertainment executives Abra Potkin and Nicole Winnaman, VideoShops enables anyone to launch a digital storefront in under 60 seconds and earn same day commissions, ranging from 10% to 50%, on every sale they influence, without applications, minimum follower counts, or long payout cycles. VideoShops merchants can promote and sell their products through any creator’s storefront with zero upfront fees and 100% performance-based sales commissions.

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“Affiliate tech hasn’t changed in over a decade, it was built for brands, not for people. We didn’t just fix the system, we rebuilt it from scratch! VideoShops’ Universal Merchant Engine™ (UME) lets any retailer distribute their full catalog across millions of commissionable storefronts, powered by real people sharing what they love,” said Co-CEO Nicole Winnaman. “We eliminated the links, the approvals, and the delays. What we built is a frictionless retail engine where anyone can sell, share, and earn, instantly.”

At the heart of VideoShops is our proprietary UME, the technology transforms broken and clunky affiliate retail linking into frictionless, creator-powered commerce. With over 400,000 products from 2,200+ brands across beauty, fashion, wellness, and lifestyle, the UME allows any online merchant to instantly syndicate their full product catalog across every creator’s storefront. The UME leverages AI to personalize each creator’s storefront with products proven to convert for their audience. Retailer catalogs sync automatically into each creator’s marketplace. The result: everyday creators become super sellers, data-backed, no guessing, as the marketplace re-ranks in real time and pays out the same day, with no extra work or approvals.

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“We designed VideoShops to unlock a new kind of commerce, one that’s powered by people, not platforms. Our goal was to make selling as intuitive as sharing, and to remove every barrier standing between influence and income,” said Co-CEO Abra Potkin. “Whether you’re a college student, a beauty expert, or someone with taste and trust in your circle, VideoShops gives you the tools to monetize it in real time. No gatekeeping. Just access.”

Built for inclusivity from day one, VideoShops democratizes earning power, unlocking monetization that was once reserved for top-tier influencers. There are no gatekeepers, no follower minimums, and no approval process. Anyone can launch a storefront, share what they love, and start earning immediately. Backed by over $42 million in funding from a powerhouse group of tech investors, including Jeff UbbenMark LoreAlex RodriguezDick CostoloKevin Mayer, Shervin Pishevar, and Chris Barkley, VideoShops is powering the next flywheel for social selling.

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Arkestro announces strategic relationship with BDO USA to expand and secure predictive procurement transformation services

Global predictive procurement platform Arkestro aligns with BDO USA to support its management consulting business and supply chain and procurement practice.

Arkestro, the leading predictive procurement platform accelerating enterprise scale, has announced a strategic relationship with BDO USA, one of the nation’s leading accounting and advisory firms. Through this collaboration, Arkestro will enhance the value of its predictive procurement technology with BDO’s sourcing, supply chain, and operations consulting services.

This helps clients unlock material value across all types of spend, whether it’s direct, indirect, or logistical spend.

BDO’s procurement and supply chain practice will leverage Arkestro’s predictive procurement platform to redefine how procurement accelerates savings realization. Arkestro combines AI, automation, and behavioral science to reimagine strategic sourcing and procurement of all types. Critical legacy procurement processes, including supplier selection, bid design, and negotiation, are transformed to accelerate savings, strengthen supplier relationships, and improve operational agility.

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“BDO’s focus on unlocking human and business potential through collaboration and innovation aligns with our vision to change how organizations view and use predictive procurement,” said Rob DeSantis, CEO and co-founder of Arkestro. “This relationship helps BDO clients unlock material value across all types of spend, whether it’s direct, indirect, or logistical spend. By uncovering hidden pricing opportunities at scale, and non-competitive pricing, clients gain the visibility and speed they need to make better decisions and free up team time to focus on their most strategic work — without increasing headcount.”

As businesses seek to navigate margin pressure and supply chain risk, BDO and Arkestro will deliver scalable solutions without traditional implementation or integration investments. Unlike other procurement tools, Arkestro’s dynamic learning engine drives intelligent baselining, predictive error handling, and proactive supplier recommendations, enabling smarter, faster decision-making. By combining BDO’s consulting capabilities with Arkestro’s predictive procurement platform, BDO clients will be able to achieve rapid and sustainable savings while transforming procurement and supply chain operations.

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“Together, BDO and Arkestro accelerate procurement transformation, driving organizational change while managing overhead, elevating talent, and helping to ensure business continuity,” said Eskander Yavar, National Managing Principal of Advisory at BDO. “With BDO’s trusted advisory services and management consulting capabilities, we are creating value without the need for additional resources, marking the beginning of a new era in sourcing and procurement.”

This announcement is yet another milestone in Arkestro’s recent growth journey. In May, the company announced a strategic investment of $36M, led by Altira Group and Aramco Ventures, to accelerate Arkestro’s ongoing innovation in AI-powered procurement technology. In 2025 to date, five nationally recognized executives from leading organizations joined Arkestro’s Executive Advisory Board to support the company’s continued growth in procurement.

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Deck Commerce Launches Centers: A Modular OMS Helping Brands Deliver Better Order Experiences

Giving brands the tools to grow reach, boost conversions, deliver with confidence, and keep shoppers coming back.

Deck Commerce , the leading order management system (OMS) for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, announced the launch of Deck Commerce Centers, a modular order management solution that helps brands manage the entire order experience with greater control, flexibility, and efficiency. This launch reinforces Deck Commerce’s commitment to helping brands improve every stage of the order journey: from expanding reach and increasing conversions, fulfilling faster and more accurately, and driving long-term customer loyalty.

Deck Commerce Centers support the entire order journey, beginning with accurate Delivery Promises that convert shoppers and continuing through fulfillment, delivery, and returns. Each Center helps brands improve key steps in the process by making inventory more available, orders easier to manage, fulfillment faster and more accurate, and service more reliable. This connected approach strengthens customer satisfaction, protects margins, and fuels long-term growth.

“Order management is where customer expectations meet operational realities,” said Chris Deck, CEO of Deck Commerce. “The Centers give our customers the flexibility and tools to meet those expectations while driving stronger business outcomes. From faster fulfillment to fewer cancellations, we help brands deliver better experiences with every order.”

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A Modular System Designed for the Full Order Experience

Deck Commerce Centers bring together key order management functions into purpose-built, role-specific workspaces that help teams manage complexity while staying focused on the work that matters. The modular approach allows brands to start with the Centers they need today and expand as their business evolves.

  • Order Center orchestrates and fulfills every order with precision. From routing to returns, Order Center automates the steps that reduce costs, eliminate delays, and keep orders on track across any channel or fulfillment path.
  • Inventory Center provides real-time visibility across distribution centers, stores, and fulfillment partners. With centralized control, brands can allocate inventory smarter, prevent oversells, and increase revenue through accurate availability.
  • Fulfillment Center streamlines picking, packing, and shipping workflows. By reducing manual tasks with tools like barcode scanning, wave picking, and automation, teams can fulfill more orders with greater speed and accuracy.
  • Store Center turns retail stores into efficient fulfillment hubs. Store associates can easily manage ship-from-store, in-store pickups, and returns through intuitive dashboards that prioritize tasks and automate repetitive processes.

Each Center is designed to simplify operations, reduce errors, and help brands adapt to changing business needs, all while maintaining a single, unified view of the order journey.

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From Planning to Payout: CaptivateIQ Unifies Sales Planning and Incentive Compensation with AI-Infused Platform

RevOps, Finance, and Comp Leaders Gain Agility and Maintain Revenue Resilience Amidst Market Volatility

CaptivateIQ, a leading sales performance management solution, launched the next generation of its platform: combining incentive compensation management with sales planning capabilities into one, AI-infused workspace.

Economic uncertainty has changed how companies plan for and incentivize revenue growth. Previously, finance, revenue operations, sales, and compensation teams conducted sales planning and incentive design once a year. Amidst a volatile market and scrutiny on efficiency metrics, top-performing companies are revisiting incentives and sales strategy more frequently and, according to CaptivateIQ research, seeing three times the growth compared to those that rely on plans set at the beginning of the year. However, this constant scrambling often leads to errors, slow reactions, and unoptimized resources, and ultimately erodes trust with payees and leadership.

With today’s announcement, CaptivateIQ now helps both operations and compensation teams keep up with today’s rapid pace of change by introducing new capacity planning, quota management and predictive modeling capabilities to its already-robust planning and incentives offerings. Combined, these capabilities deliver a single source of truth, from headcount planning to payouts, and give teams everything they need to plan, manage, monitor, and adapt their sales and incentives strategies throughout the year.

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Key capabilities include:

  • Connected Workspace: Instead of working in disparate spreadsheets and disjointed tools, CaptivateIQ helps analysts move faster and reduce errors with a single up-to-date dataset, connected modeling and built-in collaboration and workflows. With a single source of truth, sales leaders and payees have complete, real-time visibility into sales strategy and payouts – boosting trust and motivation.
  • Unbeatable Flexibility: SmartGrid, CaptivateIQ’s modeling engine, enables teams to model and implement any sales or incentives strategy, no matter how complex. When it is time to pivot, the no-code interface and AI-guided plan building make it easy to adapt, with no waiting on IT or outsourcing changes to professional services.
  • Intelligent Optimization: With CaptivateIQ’s scenario modeling and analytics, analysts can model, iterate and optimize incentives and sales strategies in a fraction of the time. Catalyst, a new AI/ML solution now infused throughout the platform, powers everything from custom forecasting models to anomaly detection and puts AI/ML capabilities in the hands of any analyst or admin.

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“Agility isn’t a luxury anymore; it’s now critical to revenue growth. The difference between today’s winners and losers will be the ability to move fast, adapt easily and continuously optimize. But for many operations and comp teams, disjointed workflows, static tooling and manual processes stand in the way,” said Mark Schopmeyer, co-founder and co-CEO of CaptivateIQ. “With this launch, CaptivateIQ is now the only solution that truly unites incentive compensation and sales planning in a single agile platform. So instead of navigating internal chaos, teams can work together to chart a path to resilient revenue, even in times of constant change.”

With CaptivateIQ, customers have seen up to six times faster sales plan creation, reduced time spent on planning by 75%, and increased seller attainment by over 10%.

“Our sales planning process used to be bogged down by a massive, unwieldy spreadsheet. With CaptivateIQ Planning, we’ve streamlined the entire process – optimizing our plans and aligning our incentives for better results across the board,” said Adam Edmiston, Senior Director, Revenue Operations & Strategy at Bloomreach.

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Intelo.ai and Fluent Commerce Announce Strategic Partnership to Revolutionize Order Management with Advanced AI Agents

Intelo.ai, a leader in AI-powered optimization, and Fluent Commerce, a global provider of industry-leading order management systems (OMS), announced a strategic partnership to integrate Intelo.ai’s advanced AI agents with Fluent Commerce’s robust order management platform, Fluent Order Management. This collaboration will empower businesses to achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, cost savings, and customer satisfaction in their fulfillment operations.

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The partnership will leverage Intelo.ai’s cutting-edge AI agents to enhance Fluent Commerce’s already powerful OMS, addressing critical challenges faced by retailers and brands in today’s complex supply chain environment. The initial integration will focus on four key areas:

  • Shipment Consolidation: The Shipment Consolidator Agent significantly reduces split-shipment rates, for example, from around 17%, to below 10%. This leads to substantial reductions in freight spend, decreased customer frustration, and a smaller carbon footprint. The agent simulates “ideal” single-box fulfillment, quantifies deltas, and generates placement actions, such as moving inventory between distribution centers and stores to prevent forecast splits.
  • Fulfillment Distance Optimization: The Fulfillment Distance Optimizer Agent minimizes average shipping distances and associated zone-based carrier fees, all while preserving delivery speed. This agent ranks SKUs and locations with the highest distance penalties and runs micro-simulations to reposition just-in-time safety stock, ultimately outputting an Inventory Placement Plan.
  • SLA Guardianship: The SLA Guardian Agent proactively prevents late shipments by identifying and temporarily pausing under-performing nodes before service level agreements (SLAs) are breached. It streams fulfillment events, calculates throughput deviation, and can automatically adjust network configurations in Fluent Order Management, while notifying users of changes and estimated restoration times.
  • Dynamic Buffer Curation: The Dynamic Buffer Curator Agent continuously fine-tunes minimum/maximum stock levels, safety stock, and display-only quantities per item-location. This will effectively reduce stock-outs and minimize stale inventory, optimizing inventory levels based on expected demand and service-level costs.

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“Our partnership with Fluent Commerce represents a significant leap forward in intelligent order management,” said Jeff Fish, Co-CEO at Intelo.ai. “By connecting our AI agents directly into Fluent’s industry-leading OMS, we are providing businesses with real-time, actionable insights and automated capabilities that will transform their fulfillment operations, leading to substantial cost savings and improved customer experiences.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Intelo.ai to bring these advanced AI capabilities to our customers,” said Nicola Kinsella, Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce. “This collaboration underscores our commitment to providing the most innovative, AI-powered order management solutions on the market. The integration of Intelo.ai’s agents will empower our customers to make smarter, more proactive decisions, ultimately driving greater efficiency and profitability.”

The integrated solution will allow for both “recommend-mode,” where alerts and ROI insights are posted to platforms like Slack/Teams, and “auto-mode,” which can trigger transfer orders directly in Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.

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