Supersonik gets $5M from Andreessen Horowitz for its AI agent that runs live product demos




Supersonik gets $5M from Andreessen Horowitz for its AI agent that runs live product demos

Ex-Typform CEO and serial entrepreneurs launch Supersonik to end demo delays with an autonomous, multilingual AI agent that instantly joins video calls, showcases real software, and adapts every pitch in real time.

San Francisco, Sept. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In a world where buyers expect everything on demand, sales teams are still asking leads to fill out a form and wait for a demo. Supersonik is here to end the wait. Launched today from stealth with $5 million in seed funding, the company is introducing an autonomous, multilingual AI agent that instantly joins live video calls, showcases real software in action, and adapts every demo to the buyer in real time.

The seed round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by strategic angels from Google, DeepMind and Salesforce among others.

Supersonik founders: Pol Ruiz, Daniel Carmona Serrat and Joaquim Lechà.

“Our vision is simple,” said Daniel Carmona, CEO of Supersonik. “Every prospect should be able to click a button and get a live, personalized demo of real software, in their own language, the moment they are ready. No forms, waitlists, or back-and-forth.” 

Supersonik is built for a new generation of software buyers: global, fast-moving, and impatient. Its AI agent jumps on an instant video call, shares its screen, and guides prospects through real software as if it were a seasoned sales rep. Unlike static tours or recordings, Supersonik adapts in real time to each prospect, drawing on live product use and conversational intelligence to make every interaction tailored and interactive. Supersonik agents are able to pull in live data from CRMs, websites, documentation, and knowledge bases meaning each demo is fully tailored to the prospect’s industry, size, geography, and tech stack without a briefing. And unlike traditional sales calls, Supersonik is available on demand, in almost every language, at the exact moment a buyer signals intent.

The use cases for Supersonik are immediate. Companies can place a button on their website that lets buyers request a demo instantly at peak intent. They can re-engage leads that went cold with a live conversation instead of just another email. They can use Supersonik to qualify and route prospects in real time or even upsell new features in existing accounts. Each scenario delivers the same advantage: scale every demo without stretching sales teams thin.

Supersonik was founded by Daniel Carmona Serrat, Joaquim Lechà, and Pol Ruiz. Daniel, a serial entrepreneur, had been working with Pol for the last 3 years in automating manual operations with AI. Together, they began exploring how AI agents could remove one of the biggest bottlenecks in software sales: delivering demos instantly and at scale. At the same time, Joaquim, then CEO of Typeform, shared their conviction that the way software is sold was overdue for change. Joining forces, the three combined entrepreneurial experience, SaaS leadership, and deep technical expertise to build Supersonik.

“We’re living through the biggest tech shift of our lifetime with AI, and teaming up with Dani and Pol was a no-brainer to build a future where every company can engage buyers instantly, globally, and at scale, transforming how software is discovered and bought.” added Joaquim Lechà, co-founder at Supersonik.

Supersonik is already working with multiple companies ahead of its launch and plans to double its team by the end of 2025. The funding will support hiring in engineering and go-to-market, as well as continued investment in secure, compliant and reliable AI infrastructure to ensure agents are not only reliable but enterprise-grade.

“Live demos have been too costly and slow for most SaaS companies to scale. Supersonik changes that by turning the sales process into an instant, interactive product experience that delivers real value from the start,” said Gabriel Vasquez, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “This is a fast, technical team with the ability to recruit and build at the highest level, and we believe they’re poised to redefine how software is sold.” 

Looking ahead, Supersonik plans to deepen its product capabilities beyond demos, enabling AI agents to power onboarding, support, renewals, and more. The goal: to transform how businesses talk to their customers across the entire lifecycle, with zero lag and full intelligence. 

“Buyers move fast,” Daniel Carmona said. “The fastest way to lose a deal is to make a buyer wait. Supersonik makes sure you never lose a deal to an avoidable delay.”

Media images can be found here. 

About Supersonik
Supersonik helps B2B SaaS companies sell faster with AI-powered product demos. On a live video call, our AI Agent shares the screen to walk buyers through a personalized, interactive demo in any language. This lets teams skip long sales calls and focus on closing deals.

About Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic. We invest in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across AI, bio + healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has $46B in assets under management across multiple funds.

CONTACT: For further information please contact the Supersonik press office on INSERT EMAIL 

HappyRobot raises $44M to build a digital workforce for the real economy




HappyRobot raises $44M to build a digital workforce for the real economy

HappyRobot is building an AI workforce powering enterprise operations. With adoption accelerating and over 70 enterprise customers in production, the company is already redefining the economics of the supply chain.

San Francisco, Sept. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The operations of most organizations still rely on high-volume manual labor – millions of conversations, documents,  and updates every day just to keep things moving. For decades, this work has been handled by overwhelmed teams or outsourced to call centers, with inefficiencies and crucial tasks slipping through the cracks amidst the chaos. HappyRobot is changing that. The San Francisco-based startup’s $44 million Series B funding will scale their platform to build & deploy AI workers, bringing the next generation of automation to the backbone of global trade. 

The $44 million Series B financing round was led by Base10 Partners with participation from existing investors, a16z, Array Ventures, and YC. New investors include Samsara Ventures, Tokio Marine, WaVe-X, World Innovation Lab (WiL) and other industry operators and global logistics funds. This financing follows a $15.6 million Series A financing round raised in late 2024, which was led by a16z and included investment from YC and Carles Reina’s Baobab Ventures. The company will use the capital to grow its product engineering, forward-deployed engineering, and go-to-market teams; enhance its platform’s functionality; and continue building the AI workforce.

HappyRobot co-founders (L to R) Pablo Palafox, Luis Paarup and Javier Palafox.

HappyRobot gives enterprises a new kind of teammate: AI workers that can handle end-to-end tasks, communicating over the phone, email, and chat, parsing documents, browsing sites, and logging crucial data. Designed to handle the messy, dynamic workflows of  real-world operations, these workers are handling critical tasks – negotiating rates, booking appointments, collecting payments, recruiting staff, and keeping stakeholders updated – without relying on brittle rules or rigid scripts. The impact goes beyond cost savings, with organizations boosting revenue generating activities and infinitely increasing their velocity. 

HappyRobot: The anatomy of a workflow – incorporating communication, system integrations, file parsing, and more guided by an AI agent

“Most people don’t realize how much time and money is burned just coordinating operations and sharing information,” said Pablo Palafox, co-founder and CEO of HappyRobot. “Our goal is for an AI workforce to handle all that manual coordination and execution so people can focus on the strategic work, relationships and exceptions that really drive value.”

The returns are already visible across the company’s 70+ enterprise supply chain customers like DHL, Ryder, and Werner. In appointment scheduling, the platform has reduced resolution times from over a week to under 30 minutes. In collections, customers report returns exceeding 119 times their initial investment. In outbound sales, HappyRobot agents are delivering over 19 times ROI, while carrier sales operations have seen returns north of 5x – all while freeing up human operators to focus on relationship-building and strategic work.

As adoption grows, so does the sophistication of the AI workforce, expanding into modalities like browser agents and advanced reasoning, and building a robust platform. That includes the AI Auditor, an automated agent designed to review the activity of AI workers, flag exceptions, and ensure compliance. The AI Builder will allow operators to deploy new workers with a prompt, making automation configurable by the teams closest to the work. And the HappyRobot operating system gives teams a centralized interface to monitor, manage, and coordinate operations with an AI workforce at their fingertips.

HappyRobot: Staffing AI agent confirms contract work and finds a replacement.

Unlike generic copilots or point solutions, HappyRobot is a vertically integrated orchestration platform. It combines multiple AI models (transcription, LLMs, voice generation, optical character recognition, AI browsing and more) with deep integrations (TMS, ERP, CRM, APIs) and a robust infrastructure layer built for production reliability at enterprise scale. Every deployment is supported by a dedicated forward-deployed engineer (FDE) who customizes and maintains the AI workflows on site – a model that accelerates time-to-value and ensures operational readiness.

“Our investment thesis lies in automation for the real economy. HappyRobot does just that,” says Adeyemi Ajao, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Base10. “This is one of the hardest-working and technically brilliant teams I have seen in 20 years in tech. Their  vision to deploy their AI workforce to manage operational tasks across the supply chain & beyond is the future for the logistics industry and workforce. They are customer-obsessed and that is exactly what it takes to drive transformation in this complex space.”

HappyRobot: Performance analytics tracking revenue and sentiment for an outbound sales agent across versions.

The company’s origin story is personal. Co-founders Pablo Palafox, Luis Paarup and Javier Palafox started working together years before incorporation, bonding over robotics projects, deep learning projects, and a shared ambition to build something foundational in AI. After stints in cloud architecture, AI research, and corporate finance, the trio launched HappyRobot in 2023, having built a voice AI that could hold a natural phone conversation – and found its first commercial application in a fractured world of freight communication. 

As supply chains grow more complex and customers demand faster, more reliable service, the pressure on human teams has intensified. Meanwhile, call center burnout, labor shortages, and software fragmentation are driving up costs. By automating frontline communication with domain-specific AI workers, HappyRobot offers a scalable, efficient, and auditable alternative. 

With this new funding, HappyRobot plans to scale hiring across engineering, deployments, and product, while making their AI workers more robust. The long-term vision is clear: to build the digital workforce that powers operations. 

Media images can be found here.

About HappyRobot
HappyRobot is an enterprise-grade platform to build, deploy, and manage an AI workforce. They work with supply chain enterprises to automate end-to-end tasks at scale, leveraging communication, document parsing, web browsing, and other models to offload complex tasks from human teams. HappyRobot enables enterprises to move faster, automate information exchange, and get real time data visibility across the organization. Common use cases include inbound and outbound sales, shipment updates, scheduling, payment collections, recruiting, and support, working across the organization as an AI partner. For more information, please visit www.happyrobot.ai.

About Base10 Partners
Founded by Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian, Base10 is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund investing in founders who believe purpose is key to profits and in companies that are automating sectors of the Real Economy. Through its program the Advancement Initiative, Base10 donates a portion of firm profits to underfunded colleges and universities to support financial aid and other key initiatives. Portfolio companies include Notion, Figma, Stripe, Popmenu, and Nowports. Connect via base10.vc .

About a16z
Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic. We invest in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across AI, bio + healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has $35B in assets under management across multiple funds.

CONTACT:  For further information please contact the HappyRobot press office on press@happyrobot.ai 

HappyRobot raises $44M to build a digital workforce for the real economy




HappyRobot raises $44M to build a digital workforce for the real economy

HappyRobot is building an AI workforce powering enterprise operations. With adoption accelerating and over 70 enterprise customers in production, the company is already redefining the economics of the supply chain.

San Francisco, Sept. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The operations of most organizations still rely on high-volume manual labor – millions of conversations, documents,  and updates every day just to keep things moving. For decades, this work has been handled by overwhelmed teams or outsourced to call centers, with inefficiencies and crucial tasks slipping through the cracks amidst the chaos. HappyRobot is changing that. The San Francisco-based startup’s $44 million Series B funding will scale their platform to build & deploy AI workers, bringing the next generation of automation to the backbone of global trade. 

The $44 million Series B financing round was led by Base10 Partners with participation from existing investors, a16z, Array Ventures, and YC. New investors include Samsara Ventures, Tokio Marine, WaVe-X, World Innovation Lab (WiL) and other industry operators and global logistics funds. This financing follows a $15.6 million Series A financing round raised in late 2024, which was led by a16z and included investment from YC and Carles Reina’s Baobab Ventures. The company will use the capital to grow its product engineering, forward-deployed engineering, and go-to-market teams; enhance its platform’s functionality; and continue building the AI workforce.

HappyRobot co-founders (L to R) Pablo Palafox, Luis Paarup and Javier Palafox.

HappyRobot gives enterprises a new kind of teammate: AI workers that can handle end-to-end tasks, communicating over the phone, email, and chat, parsing documents, browsing sites, and logging crucial data. Designed to handle the messy, dynamic workflows of  real-world operations, these workers are handling critical tasks – negotiating rates, booking appointments, collecting payments, recruiting staff, and keeping stakeholders updated – without relying on brittle rules or rigid scripts. The impact goes beyond cost savings, with organizations boosting revenue generating activities and infinitely increasing their velocity. 

HappyRobot: The anatomy of a workflow – incorporating communication, system integrations, file parsing, and more guided by an AI agent

“Most people don’t realize how much time and money is burned just coordinating operations and sharing information,” said Pablo Palafox, co-founder and CEO of HappyRobot. “Our goal is for an AI workforce to handle all that manual coordination and execution so people can focus on the strategic work, relationships and exceptions that really drive value.”

The returns are already visible across the company’s 70+ enterprise supply chain customers like DHL, Ryder, and Werner. In appointment scheduling, the platform has reduced resolution times from over a week to under 30 minutes. In collections, customers report returns exceeding 119 times their initial investment. In outbound sales, HappyRobot agents are delivering over 19 times ROI, while carrier sales operations have seen returns north of 5x – all while freeing up human operators to focus on relationship-building and strategic work.

As adoption grows, so does the sophistication of the AI workforce, expanding into modalities like browser agents and advanced reasoning, and building a robust platform. That includes the AI Auditor, an automated agent designed to review the activity of AI workers, flag exceptions, and ensure compliance. The AI Builder will allow operators to deploy new workers with a prompt, making automation configurable by the teams closest to the work. And the HappyRobot operating system gives teams a centralized interface to monitor, manage, and coordinate operations with an AI workforce at their fingertips.

HappyRobot: Staffing AI agent confirms contract work and finds a replacement.

Unlike generic copilots or point solutions, HappyRobot is a vertically integrated orchestration platform. It combines multiple AI models (transcription, LLMs, voice generation, optical character recognition, AI browsing and more) with deep integrations (TMS, ERP, CRM, APIs) and a robust infrastructure layer built for production reliability at enterprise scale. Every deployment is supported by a dedicated forward-deployed engineer (FDE) who customizes and maintains the AI workflows on site – a model that accelerates time-to-value and ensures operational readiness.

“Our investment thesis lies in automation for the real economy. HappyRobot does just that,” says Adeyemi Ajao, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Base10. “This is one of the hardest-working and technically brilliant teams I have seen in 20 years in tech. Their  vision to deploy their AI workforce to manage operational tasks across the supply chain & beyond is the future for the logistics industry and workforce. They are customer-obsessed and that is exactly what it takes to drive transformation in this complex space.”

HappyRobot: Performance analytics tracking revenue and sentiment for an outbound sales agent across versions.

The company’s origin story is personal. Co-founders Pablo Palafox, Luis Paarup and Javier Palafox started working together years before incorporation, bonding over robotics projects, deep learning projects, and a shared ambition to build something foundational in AI. After stints in cloud architecture, AI research, and corporate finance, the trio launched HappyRobot in 2023, having built a voice AI that could hold a natural phone conversation – and found its first commercial application in a fractured world of freight communication. 

As supply chains grow more complex and customers demand faster, more reliable service, the pressure on human teams has intensified. Meanwhile, call center burnout, labor shortages, and software fragmentation are driving up costs. By automating frontline communication with domain-specific AI workers, HappyRobot offers a scalable, efficient, and auditable alternative. 

With this new funding, HappyRobot plans to scale hiring across engineering, deployments, and product, while making their AI workers more robust. The long-term vision is clear: to build the digital workforce that powers operations. 

Media images can be found here.

About HappyRobot
HappyRobot is an enterprise-grade platform to build, deploy, and manage an AI workforce. They work with supply chain enterprises to automate end-to-end tasks at scale, leveraging communication, document parsing, web browsing, and other models to offload complex tasks from human teams. HappyRobot enables enterprises to move faster, automate information exchange, and get real time data visibility across the organization. Common use cases include inbound and outbound sales, shipment updates, scheduling, payment collections, recruiting, and support, working across the organization as an AI partner. For more information, please visit www.happyrobot.ai.

About Base10 Partners
Founded by Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian, Base10 is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund investing in founders who believe purpose is key to profits and in companies that are automating sectors of the Real Economy. Through its program the Advancement Initiative, Base10 donates a portion of firm profits to underfunded colleges and universities to support financial aid and other key initiatives. Portfolio companies include Notion, Figma, Stripe, Popmenu, and Nowports. Connect via base10.vc .

About a16z
Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z) is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic. We invest in seed to venture to growth-stage technology companies, across AI, bio + healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has $35B in assets under management across multiple funds.

CONTACT:  For further information please contact the HappyRobot press office on press@happyrobot.ai 

BIGC Launches BIGC AI+, The First AI Agent in K-Entertainment




BIGC Launches BIGC AI+, The First AI Agent in K-Entertainment

• Building on its integration of global live streaming and AI, BIGC is expanding its exclusive technology into AI Agents.
• Strengthening K-pop and K-entertainment’s global digital competitiveness and driving the widespread adoption of EnterTech.

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Entertainment-tech company BIGC (CEO: Mihee Kim, www.bigc.im) operates an “all-in-one digital venue” platform that connects artists with fans worldwide.

Centered on K-pop and cultural concerts, BIGC provides integrated services for the online monetization of performances and artist IP, including: ticketing, AI-powered live streaming, fan interaction, video OTT, global commerce, and fan data analytics.

In particular, BIGC has been spotlighted as an innovative platform driving the AI transformation of the K-entertainment industry, in line with the global spread of cultural trends led by K-pop. Beyond simple technology adoption, BIGC leverages AI to revolutionize content distribution and fan experience, setting new standards for the market.

BIGC has collaborated with major media companies such as CJ ENM, MBC, and SBS, while expanding its business foundation through global projects with top-tier K-pop artists. Within two years of launch, the company has expanded its services to 224 countries, surpassing 1.2 million members, with approximately 80% of its users overseas, primarily in Japan, Greater China, and North America.

From its inception, BIGC has set the “Digital Evolution of Live” as its core vision, focusing on AI research and commercialization. In 2023, the company realized real-time multilingual live broadcasting with its AI auto-subtitling system in 12 languages. In 2024, BIGC maximized live immersion with AI-generated fan cheering comments and VOD upscaling features.

Since launch, BIGC has actively applied AI in real-time concert streaming, fan interaction, video subtitling, and community operations. Building on this expertise, the company has developed a specialized AI agent service for EnterTech, called BIGC AI+.

BIGC announced that it will officially launch BIGC AI+, Korea’s first AI agent for the entertainment industry. BIGC AI+ is based on three years of real-world operational data and technology, providing K-pop big data services, AI Live features, and AI Artist Messaging technology.

For example, in AI Live, “AI Caption” automatically translates artist speech into subtitles in 12 languages, while the “Artist Protector” detects and corrects offensive or abusive language in fan-artist chats.

BIGC AI+ will be offered to partners as SaaS and API solutions, enabling seamless integration into their own services.

BIGC’s proprietary AI technology, tailored for the entertainment industry, has already undergone three years of verification within its platform. For global live streaming, it has supported more than 2 million live sessions, evolving into a market-leading technology.

After closed beta testing with existing partners in the latter half of this year, the service will be expanded across the broader entertainment industry. This initiative is regarded as both an effort to expand the global K-pop fan experience through AI and a strategic technology investment to secure the next-generation competitiveness of the K-entertainment industry.

BIGC plans to further enhance its AI technology by linking it to fan games, fan platforms, and global commerce services, ultimately presenting a new paradigm for K-content export models.

Jungwoo Kim, CTO of BIGC, stated, “AI technology is not just about automation—it’s a means to deepen the emotional connection between fans and artists. This AI agent incorporates BIGC’s expertise accumulated over the past four years and will accelerate the application of AI in the EnterTech industry.”

He added, “We are preparing advanced technologies such as AI-based content curation and live MC features, which will further solidify K-entertainment’s global leadership through BIGC’s unique technology base.”

Contact:
stella@bigc.im
soomin@bigc.im

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/24a21153-221f-4c9b-945b-9ae512698f3f

BIGC Launches BIGC AI+, The First AI Agent in K-Entertainment




BIGC Launches BIGC AI+, The First AI Agent in K-Entertainment

• Building on its integration of global live streaming and AI, BIGC is expanding its exclusive technology into AI Agents.
• Strengthening K-pop and K-entertainment’s global digital competitiveness and driving the widespread adoption of EnterTech.

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Entertainment-tech company BIGC (CEO: Mihee Kim, www.bigc.im) operates an “all-in-one digital venue” platform that connects artists with fans worldwide.

Centered on K-pop and cultural concerts, BIGC provides integrated services for the online monetization of performances and artist IP, including: ticketing, AI-powered live streaming, fan interaction, video OTT, global commerce, and fan data analytics.

In particular, BIGC has been spotlighted as an innovative platform driving the AI transformation of the K-entertainment industry, in line with the global spread of cultural trends led by K-pop. Beyond simple technology adoption, BIGC leverages AI to revolutionize content distribution and fan experience, setting new standards for the market.

BIGC has collaborated with major media companies such as CJ ENM, MBC, and SBS, while expanding its business foundation through global projects with top-tier K-pop artists. Within two years of launch, the company has expanded its services to 224 countries, surpassing 1.2 million members, with approximately 80% of its users overseas, primarily in Japan, Greater China, and North America.

From its inception, BIGC has set the “Digital Evolution of Live” as its core vision, focusing on AI research and commercialization. In 2023, the company realized real-time multilingual live broadcasting with its AI auto-subtitling system in 12 languages. In 2024, BIGC maximized live immersion with AI-generated fan cheering comments and VOD upscaling features.

Since launch, BIGC has actively applied AI in real-time concert streaming, fan interaction, video subtitling, and community operations. Building on this expertise, the company has developed a specialized AI agent service for EnterTech, called BIGC AI+.

BIGC announced that it will officially launch BIGC AI+, Korea’s first AI agent for the entertainment industry. BIGC AI+ is based on three years of real-world operational data and technology, providing K-pop big data services, AI Live features, and AI Artist Messaging technology.

For example, in AI Live, “AI Caption” automatically translates artist speech into subtitles in 12 languages, while the “Artist Protector” detects and corrects offensive or abusive language in fan-artist chats.

BIGC AI+ will be offered to partners as SaaS and API solutions, enabling seamless integration into their own services.

BIGC’s proprietary AI technology, tailored for the entertainment industry, has already undergone three years of verification within its platform. For global live streaming, it has supported more than 2 million live sessions, evolving into a market-leading technology.

After closed beta testing with existing partners in the latter half of this year, the service will be expanded across the broader entertainment industry. This initiative is regarded as both an effort to expand the global K-pop fan experience through AI and a strategic technology investment to secure the next-generation competitiveness of the K-entertainment industry.

BIGC plans to further enhance its AI technology by linking it to fan games, fan platforms, and global commerce services, ultimately presenting a new paradigm for K-content export models.

Jungwoo Kim, CTO of BIGC, stated, “AI technology is not just about automation—it’s a means to deepen the emotional connection between fans and artists. This AI agent incorporates BIGC’s expertise accumulated over the past four years and will accelerate the application of AI in the EnterTech industry.”

He added, “We are preparing advanced technologies such as AI-based content curation and live MC features, which will further solidify K-entertainment’s global leadership through BIGC’s unique technology base.”

Contact:
stella@bigc.im
soomin@bigc.im

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/24a21153-221f-4c9b-945b-9ae512698f3f

VoxelSensors to Advance Next-Generation Depth Sensing Technology with 10x Power Savings for XR Applications




VoxelSensors to Advance Next-Generation Depth Sensing Technology with 10x Power Savings for XR Applications

VoxelSensors, a company developing novel intelligent sensing and data insights technology for Physical AI, today announced a collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to jointly optimize VoxelSensors’ sensing technology with Snapdragon® XR Platforms.

Brussels, Aug. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — VoxelSensors, a company developing novel intelligent sensing and data insights technology for Physical AI, today announced a collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to jointly optimize VoxelSensors’ sensing technology with Snapdragon® XR Platforms.

Technology & Industry Challenges
VoxelSensors has developed Single Photon Active Event Sensor (SPAES™) 3D sensing, a breakthrough technology that solves current critical depth sensing performance limitations for robotics and XR. The SPAES™ architecture addresses them by delivering 10x power savings and lower latency, maintaining robust performance across varied lighting conditions. This innovation is set to enable machines to understand both the physical world and human behavior from user’s point-of-view, advancing Physical AI.

Physical AI processes data from human perspectives to learn about the world around us, predict needs, create personalized agents, and adapt continuously through user-centered learning. This enables new and exciting applications previously unattainable. At the same time, Physical AI pushes the boundaries of operation to wider environments posing challenging conditions like variable lighting and power constraints.

VoxelSensors’ technology addresses both challenges by offering a technology that expands the operative limits of current day sensors, while collecting human point-of-view data to better train physical AI models. Overcoming these challenges will define the future of human-machine interaction.

Collaboration
VoxelSensors is working with Qualcomm Technologies to jointly optimize VoxelSensors’ SPAES™ 3D sensing technology with Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 Platform, allowing a low-latency and flexible 3D active event data stream. The optimized solution will be available to select customers and partners by December 2025.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Qualcomm Technologies,” said Johannes Peeters, CEO of VoxelSensors. “After five years of developing our technology, we see our vision being realized through optimizations with Snapdragon XR Platforms. With our sensors that are ideally suited for next-generation 3D sensing and eye-tracking systems, and our inference engine for capturing users’ egocentric data, we see great potential in enabling truly personal AI agent interactions only available on XR devices.”

“For the XR industry to expand, Qualcomm Technologies is committed to enabling smaller, faster, and more power-efficient devices,” said Ziad Asghar, SVP & GM of XR at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We see great potential for small, lightweight AR smart glasses that consumers can wear all day. VoxelSensors’ technology offers the potential to deliver higher performance rates with significantly lower power consumption, which is needed to achieve this vision.”

Market Impact and Future Outlook
As VoxelSensors continues to miniaturize their technology, the integration into commercial products is expected to significantly enhance the value proposition of next-generation XR offerings. Collaborating with Qualcomm Technologies, a leader in XR chipsets, emphasizes VoxelSensors’ commitment to fostering innovation to advance the entire XR ecosystem, bringing the industry closer to mainstream adoption of all-day wearable AR devices.

About VoxelSensors:
VoxelSensors is a Belgian deep-tech startup committed to developing advanced sensing technologies that enhance human-centered contextual interaction. With a focus on efficiency and scalability, we aim to empower AI with the necessary contextual data for smarter and more personal insights.

Snapdragon branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Snapdragon is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Attachment

• VoxelSensors x Qualcomm 2025

CONTACT: For Press Information contact:
Email: press@voxelsensors.com
Website: https://voxelsensors.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/voxelsensors

South Africa SME Trends Analysis Report 2025 | Tech Startups and Fintechs Emerging as Lifelines for SMEs Facing Finance Challenges




South Africa SME Trends Analysis Report 2025 | Tech Startups and Fintechs Emerging as Lifelines for SMEs Facing Finance Challenges

The latest report on SME trends highlights challenges and opportunities within the sector, such as job creation, entrepreneurship, red tape, and access to finance. Despite accounting for 50% of employment, SMEs in South Africa face limited growth due to a low rate of entrepreneurship and government inefficiencies. However, digital transformation and tech startups present growth potential. Trends include declining bank credit to SMEs and an increase in black-owned businesses. The focus remains on high-growth SMEs amid mixed economic conditions.

Dublin, Aug. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “SME Trends in South Africa 2025” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

This report on small and medium enterprise (SME) trends includes information on size estimates and the state of the industry in terms of growth and challenges. Key trends that are analysed include job creation, government support, red tape, failure rates, entrepreneurship levels, access to finance, enterprise and supplier development and the township and informal economy. Other significant trends discussed include franchising, female entrepreneurship, digital transformation, tech startups and competition.

South Africa’s SME sector continues to face significant challenges, limiting its ability to generate the jobs the country urgently needs. The outlook is mixed: on one hand, the rise of tech startups and increased venture capital funding signal potential for future growth, alongside a growing share of formal small businesses owned by black entrepreneurs.

On the other hand, the sector struggles with reduced bank lending, limited VC activity compared to other African countries, and broader economic pressures. Experts caution that without meaningful structural reforms, substantial growth remains uncertain. A critical debate persists over whether support should prioritize high-growth SMEs, which drive jobs and turnover, or the many microenterprises that survive with difficulty but contribute little to employment creation.

Introduction

• The government and experts have long held that supporting SMEs is key to reducing unemployment.
• In 2023, formal small businesses accounted for 33% of employment, and informal businesses a further 17%.
• However, the overall contribution of SMEs to job creation and value-add is low compared to many other developing economies.
• The sector has largely failed to create many jobs due to the country’s low rate of entrepreneurship, poor SME survival rates, red tape and government inefficiency, difficulties accessing finance and a concentrated economy.
• Nevertheless, digital transformation, digital finance, the emergence of tech startups and support for high-growth businesses provide an opportunity to grow the SME sector.

Trends

• Banks’ share of total credit to SMEs has declined in recent years.
• Digitalisation of financial services.
• Increase in the share of formal small businesses owned by black people.
• Increased focus by government and big businesses on assisting township and rural based businesses.
• Industry Recent job losses and a decline in turnover in the SME sector.
• Slow improvement in government paying suppliers on time.
• South Africa is falling behind other African countries in venture capital funding.
• The emergence of tech startups.
• The number of franchises has declined in recent years, but the share of black franchisees has increased.

Opportunities

• Better monitoring of state SME programmes.
• Business support programmes that back high-growth SMEs.
• Credit bureau information that keeps better track of SMEs.
• Credit guarantee lending can be improved.
• Fintech and non-bank lending to SMEs.
• Getting the state to pay SMEs on time.
• Increase in VC funding.
• Increasing procurement to SMEs through an e-procurement portal or set-asides.
• More effective enterprise and supplier development programmes.
• Offering digital services to SMEs.
• State-funded programmes aimed at entrepreneurs in townships and rural areas.
• The promotion of franchising as a secure route to business ownership.

Challenges

• Access to finance, while a low share of bank credit goes to SMEs.
• Compared to other emerging markets, very few people own or run a business.
• Government inefficiency.
• The government often fails to pay suppliers within 30 days.
• Highly concentrated economy makes it difficult for SMEs to compete.
• It’s unclear how successful ESD programmes have been.
• It’s unclear how successful township programmes have been.
• Lack of monitoring by the government of SME programmes.
• Red tape affects SMEs.
• SMEs have struggled to create jobs.
• Tax incentives have not assisted SMEs as intended.
• The economic slowdown.
• Uncertainty over whether set-asides for SMEs are appropriate given the cost to taxpayers.

Key Topics Covered:

1. INTRODUCTION

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE INDUSTRY

3. SIZE OF THE INDUSTRY

4. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

5. KEY TRENDS
5.1. Job Creation
5.2. Low Level of Entrepreneurship
5.3. Red Tape and Failing Government
5.4. Government Support
5.5. Access to Finance
5.6. Enterprise and Supplier Development
5.7. Township and Informal Economy
5.8. Franchising
5.9. Female Entrepreneurship
5.10. Digital Transformation
5.11. Tech Startups

6. COMPETITION

7. INDUSTRY TRENDS

8. OUTLOOK

9. REFERENCES
9.1. Publications
9.2. Websites

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/fkzkkj

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BIGC Raises $14M to Fuel Global Expansion of Its All-in-One Digital Venue Platform




BIGC Raises $14M to Fuel Global Expansion of Its All-in-One Digital Venue Platform

• Introducing the Industry’s First All-in-One Digital Venue Technology for the Global Entertainment & Live Performance Market, BIGC Secures $14M in Series A Funding
• With 1.1M BIGC members—80% of whom are international fans—BIGC secures fresh capital to lead the global entertainment-tech industry.

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BIGC, a leading entertainment-tech company founded by CEO Mihee Kim, announced that it has successfully secured USD 14 million (KRW 18 billion) in Series A funding.

With this round, BIGC’s total funding has reached USD 25.4 million (KRW 33 billion), providing the company with strong capital to aggressively expand its global entertainment-tech platform business.

BIGC operates the world’s first All-in-One Digital Venue platform that connects artists with fans worldwide.

Centered on K-pop and cultural concerts, the platform integrates a full suite of services essential for the online monetization of live performances and artist IP, including ticketing, AI-powered live streaming, fan interaction tools, video OTT, global commerce, and fan data analytics.

A key differentiator lies in BIGC’s proprietary live-streaming technology enhanced by AI, combined with its advanced ability to analyze fan data across more than 200 countries.

Building on partnerships with over 130 teams—including leading Korean media companies, K-pop musicians, and K-artists—BIGC has recently expanded its scope to include J-pop, world-renowned artists, as well as festival IPs.

Within just two years of launching its service, BIGC is now available in 224 countries and has surpassed 1.1 million members. Notably, approximately 80% of its users are overseas fans, with strong growth in Japan, Greater China, and North America.

BIGC has achieved an exceptional growth trajectory in both its global membership base and revenue. In the past year alone, membership has increased 13-fold, while average revenue has grown nearly fivefold compared to the same period last year. Over the last six consecutive quarters, the company has recorded an average quarterly growth rate of 48%.

A BIGC spokesperson stated, “The large-scale USD 14 million (KRW 18 billion) Series A round, which began in April, was successfully closed in August. The round was led by Stonebridge Ventures and BonAngels Venture Partners, with participation from Nextrans, NAU IB, Hana Ventures, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), and Alois Ventures.”

Jonghyun Lee, Executive Director at Stonebridge, emphasized, “In the rapidly growing global K-entertainment market, BIGC’s ‘All-in-One Digital Venue’ is more than just a platform—it represents the next-generation entertainment-tech standard that breaks down the boundaries between offline and online experiences.” He added, “We are confident that this investment will serve as a turning point that reshapes the global market landscape.”

Sooheon Lee, Partner at BonAngels Venture Partners, who has supported BIGC since its early days, stated, “We have witnessed the BIGC team constantly challenge limits and turn their vision into reality.” He continued, “The overwhelming pace of growth and global expansion achieved in such a short period is truly rare, and we look forward to seeing their next steps on the global stage.”

Meanwhile, according to Grand View Research, the global live performance market is projected to grow from USD 40 billion in 2020 to USD 140 billion (approximately KRW 194 trillion) by 2030. The share of online performances, which stood at 11.2% in 2024, is also expected to reach 35% by 2030. In response, BIGC envisions leading digital innovation in the global entertainment industry—traditionally centered on offline experiences—by connecting offline and online through its All-in-One Digital Venue platform.

Mihee Kim, CEO of BIGC, stated, “This investment goes beyond funding—it marks the starting point for realizing BIGC’s vision of becoming the ‘Global No.1 in Entertainment Tech’ that unites artists and fans around the world.” She continued, “With our unique technology and products, we will redefine the global fandom experience, expanding beyond K-pop to the worldwide stage.”

She added, “We are deeply grateful to the investors who resonated with the founding team’s vision and provided their support. Moving forward, BIGC will set a new standard for digital innovation in the global entertainment industry.”

contact:
soomin@bigc.im
stella@bigc.im

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/693fc67a-3a49-449b-b79e-129a4a979d14

Invoice finance fintech FundTap transforms eSigning processes with Annature




Invoice finance fintech FundTap transforms eSigning processes with Annature

BRISBANE, Australia, Aug. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FundTap, a fast-growing fintech platform delivering on-demand invoice finance to small businesses across Australia and New Zealand, has transformed its eSigning experience through a strategic partnership with Australian eSignature innovator, Annature.

Since implementing Annature’s technology in early 2023, FundTap has digitally processed thousands of applications—dramatically streamlining its document workflow and speeding up turnaround times by up to 20%. The integration includes a tailored witnessing feature built by Annature to meet FundTap’s unique compliance needs.

As cashflow is the number one issue for small business owners, FundTap provides on-demand invoice finance, helping business owners access money when they need it most. Developed with time-poor small business owners in mind, FundTap’s fully automated application process reduces sign-up time to as little as 5-10 minutes, in contrast to 2-4 weeks for banks.

However, FundTap identified that the last bottleneck in its application process was clients returning signed documents, which also require a witness to sign. Responding to these specific requirements, Annature integrated its eSigning and witnessing functionality seamlessly into FundTap’s application process via API, transforming what was previously a manual process.

“As all our documents require both signing and witnessing, we needed a solution that satisfied our stringent legal requirements, while making it as easy as possible for our clients,” said FundTap Founder and Director Matt Peacey. “While other providers have an over-engineered approach that doesn’t sit with our ethos, Annature presented a simple, streamlined and elegant solution that instantly solved our problem.”

After implementing Annature’s technology, FundTap also saw the majority of documents signed and returned within minutes (where it had previously taken up to a few days), as a result of automated reminders built into the API. “Some of our clients have very complicated business structures or multiple trustees who all need to sign, which was previously onerous on everyone, and documents would sometimes not be signed correctly,” adds Peacey. “Annature’s solution helps us deliver on one of our core values, which is to ensure we’re saving customers’ time.”

“FundTap is a perfect example of a service provider we knew would benefit from our eSigning solutions, including our simple, efficient and legally compliant witnessing functionality,” said Annature founder and CEO Corey Cacic. “Like FundTap, we’re driven by a passion for empowering small businesses through technology. I look forward to continuing our partnership as FundTap broadens its reach in Australia.”

ABOUT ANNATURE:

Annature is Australia’s leading eSignature and client verification provider, established in 2020. It offers secure and efficient digital signing solutions ideal for businesses needing to send documents electronically and conduct client verifications seamlessly. Its user-friendly platform, competitive pricing, and dedicated support team set it apart, ensuring a reliable and cost-effective service for its clients.

Website: https://www.annature.com.au/

ABOUT FUNDTAP:

FundTap is a leading provider of on-demand invoice finance, established to help small and medium businesses in New Zealand and Australia manage their cash flow effectively.

FundTap provides hassle-free payments on unpaid invoices, enabling businesses to cover expenses and invest in growth without lengthy paperwork. Their platform integrates with popular accounting tools to make it easy to get started, allowing businesses to go from invoices to cash within hours.

Website: https://fundtap.co/

Contact:
Corey Cacic
corey@annature.com.au

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7becd81c-25ad-4c27-a210-ed2052823cfe

Global Leader SNF and Houston Startup Mars Materials Break Petrochemical Reliance, Validating Sustainable Acrylonitrile




Global Leader SNF and Houston Startup Mars Materials Break Petrochemical Reliance, Validating Sustainable Acrylonitrile

Mars’ Impurity-advantaged Acrylonitrile Meets Industry Performance Standards and Demonstrated as a Drop-in Replacement

HOUSTON, Aug. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mars Materials, Inc. PBC™ (“Mars” or the “Company”) (https://www.marsmaterials.tech), a company working to store captured carbon dioxide into everyday products, today announced industry-first validation of its product, an impurity-advantaged acrylonitrile. The product validation was completed by SNF, the industry leader in the global $11B polyacrylamide and water-soluble polymers market. The product met all performance standards across SNF’s extensive product portfolio. This multi-year validation effort overcomes a decades-long industry hurdle and significantly de-risks Mars’ path to commercialization.

Acrylonitrile is a chemical building block used in everything from carbon fiber in aerospace, defense and grid infrastructure to essential polymers in water purification, pulp and paper, mining and personal care like diapers. For over half a century, buyers have relied on a sole petrochemical process to produce acrylonitrile, but the process is a significant source of emissions. Mars’ novel scalable process directly addresses this, producing drop-in replacement acrylonitrile from captured CO₂, and only generating water that can be treated and recycled within its process. Mars’ product milestone unlocks new possibilities for the supply constrained acrylonitrile industry, where global buyers such as SNF are actively seeking to reduce Scope 3 emissions with solutions that don’t require downtime or additional capital expense.

“This validation proves our technology can meet the exacting quality demands of major industrial partners like SNF. It’s a critical inflection point in our approach,” said Aaron Fitzgerald, CEO of Mars. “We’re building on this success, doubling down on strategic partnerships to demonstrate that our acrylonitrile can produce high-performance, carbon-negative carbon fiber. We’re not just creating sustainable chemicals; we are turning everyday products into sources of carbon storage and building a circular carbon economy.”

Acrylamide-based polymer expert, Cédrick Favero, understands the weight of this achievement: “To see a novel, performance-advantaged acrylonitrile not only work but also meet the stringent quality standards for bioconversion to acrylamide monomer and subsequent use in polymerization on the first attempt is a game-changer.” In 2025, Cédrick joined Mars’ Advisory Board “to actively participate in the transition from fossil-based chemistry and add more tailwinds to the team’s pioneering work.” He goes on to say: “The Mars Materials team has unlocked a massive market with policy-driven decarbonization pressures and huge impact on freshwater access.”

In 2023, riding its momentum after completing gram-scale partial product validation with global buyers and the design of its kilogram-scale pilot plant, Mars learned that maintaining its piloting operations in the Bay Area, California would require an extensive regulatory and permitting review along with high facility build out costs. Facing existential timeline delays and budget overruns, Mars kicked off a nationwide site selection, ultimately relocating to Houston, Texas. With its robust critical infrastructure, deep talent pool and access to relevant Fortune 500 companies, Texas accelerated Mars’ access to a knowledgeable and equipped ecosystem and enabled it to co-locate its pilot plant at a Shell site, whose support has reduced costs by millions of dollars and sped up Mars’ development efforts by an estimated three years.

Building on the proven performance of its acrylonitrile in demanding downstream applications—ranging from municipal and industrial water treatment to mining, oil and gas, pulp and paper, textiles, home and personal care, construction additives and agriculture—Mars is now actively advancing commercialization and broad adoption across these critical sectors, furthering its mission to enable a circular carbon economy. Concurrent with these commercial efforts, the company is scaling up production capacity and preparing for long-duration operational runs to demonstrate the technology’s reliability for industrial adoption.

Mars is currently raising funds to accelerate scale-up activities and validate its acrylonitrile in new high-value derivative markets. Leveraging its success in the $11 billion polyacrylamide and water-soluble polymers market, the company will target the $4 billion carbon fiber market.

About SNF

SNF is a specialty chemical company and an expert in water chemistry. All our products treat, preserve, and recycle water. We help reduce energy needs and carbon intensity while contributing to the responsible extraction of crucial mineral resources essential to the energy transition.

As a global leader in designing and manufacturing water-soluble polymers, SNF continuously improves a range of more than 1,000 products, which helps preserve natural resources, encourages recycling, and improves industrial process efficiencies. In addition, SNF products have several complementary functionalities, making them suitable for many applications, such as solids-liquid separation, viscosity modification, and friction reduction.

Press Contact
Ms. Hanène Vanhoute
Communication Director
hvanhoute@snf.com
https://www.snf.com/

About Mars Materials

Mars Materials, Inc. PBC (Mars) is a Houston, TX-based venture- and Breakthrough Energy Fellows-backed carbon dioxide utilization startup. Mars’ mission is to reverse humanity’s industrial waste carbon footprint by sequestering captured-CO₂ into high-performance industrial materials such as carbon fiber and acrylamide-based polymers.

Contact & Investor Inquiries:
Aaron Fitzgerald CEO,
Mars Materials
Aaron@marsmaterials.tech
https://www.marsmaterials.tech/

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eba9d21d-0606-47c6-a367-78959a876978

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d2e6695f-fc47-4ec9-86c9-f392e29cb664

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ef7e5fdd-cc8b-40b3-94ea-e788e9b0fed0