Day: January 21, 2022

Fuzhou, city of 8 million, will leverage an Open Permissioned Blockchain (OPB) Adaptation of The Casper Network in an NFT-based agreement between CasperLabs and BSN to bolster blockchain innovation in China

ZUG, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CasperLabs, a leading blockchain software company for the enterprise market is pleased to announce a partnership with China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) that will see BSN adopt an Open Permissioned Blockchain Adaptation (OPB) of the Casper Network to serve as the preferred blockchain for the City of Fuzhou. CasperLabs is building the OPB protocol, and will be the service provider to BSN.

The BSN OPB initiative aims to transform blockchains, including public chains, to allow them to be seamlessly deployed on the BSN, which was architected and is managed day-to-day by Red Date Technology, one of the four founding members of the BSN. The chain will be called Fuzhou Chain and will be a preferred infrastructure choice for public and private blockchain initiatives in that region. The partnership between CasperLabs and BSN will add the Casper Network as Fuzhou city’s chain.

The agreement is based on the use of the BSN’s OPB, which adapts public chains to offer permissioned controls over node deployment. The BSN platform provides developers with easy onboarding into public and private blockchains to build applications with reduced operational costs, improved flexibility and better regulatory oversight.

The partnership between CasperLabs and BSN will transform the OPB iteration of the Casper Network into the preferred blockchain of Fuzhou City’s — aptly dubbed “Fuzhou Chain powered by Casper.” The Fuzhou chain will provide blockchain developers with simple access to the powerful capabilities of the OPB and will introduce the Casper Network’s unique combination of scalability, security, and decentralization to BSN national initiatives.

To commemorate the joint initiative, CasperLabs and BSN minted a multi-signature non-fungible token (NFT) / Distributed Digital Certificate, representing the mutual agreement and serving as a symbol of the innovation the parties expect to result from the partnership.

The newly minted agreement follows the Casper Network’s integration into BSN’s interoperable network back in February 2021. The integration allowed BSN developers to leverage the Casper Network to reduce operational costs associated with the creation of decentralized apps. Now, harnessing an OPB adaptation of the Casper Network, BSN aims to bolster blockchain innovation in the eight -million strong city of Fuzhou.

“We are happy to bring the Casper Network into the Chinese market as a permissioned chain. Developers and companies will soon be able to access Casper technology through BSN to deploy their applications. We will also initiate a trilateral partnership between Fuzhou City, BSN and the Casper team to set the stage for Fuzhou chain for business opportunities in China,” said Yifan He, CEO, Red Date Technology and Director, BSN Development Association.

Founded in 2019, the BSN (Blockchain-based Service Network) China is an infrastructure initiative to accelerate blockchain adoption globally. The BSN is a platform that provides developers with easy onboarding into public and private blockchains they can use to build applications with reduced operational costs and improved flexibility. Since its launch the BSN has deployed more than 140 virtual data centers across the globe dedicated to running and processing transactions on the blockchain networks supported by BSN. The vision of the BSN is bringing low-cost, efficient and flexible blockchain development environments to developers around the world.

In October 2021, Red Date announced it would launch the necessary infrastructure for an OPB by the end of January, with the expectation of widespread use of NFTs in China in the next five years. Since its launch, the BSN has deployed more than 120 public city nodes across China, serving as data centers dedicated to running and processing transactions on the blockchain networks supported by BSN.

Mrinal Manohar, CasperLabs CEO and co-founder, comments: “This partnership provides the Casper Network with the opportunity to bring new blockchain capabilities, advice and support to the people of Fuzhou. By partnering with Casper, the BSN gains from Casper’s scalability, security, and decentralization. The use of (OPB) eliminates the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for gas fees. All combined, this makes it much simpler for developers in and around Fuzhou to generate public and private blockchain applications at a lower cost.”

Powering Fuzhou’s blockchain also has special personal significance for CasperLabs. CasperLabs CTO Medha Parlikar practices a form of martial arts that has its roots in Fuzhou, and she feels connected to the city through this activity.

Omer Ozden, Chairman of RockTree Capital, who was critical in forming the cross-border East-West partnership notes: “RockTree is honored to have helped bring together BSN and CasperLabs to evolve the joint venture further and celebrate the initiative with the City of Fuzhou. We see this as a massive display of confidence in Casper technology, and the deep integration that Red Date is undertaking to advance innovation with government, state owned enterprises and private enterprises in China.

About CasperLabs
CasperLabs, a leading blockchain software company for the enterprise market, is re-imagining blockchain for enterprise with a future proof solution. The company also provides development, support and advisory services for organizations building on the Casper network. Guided by open-source principles, CasperLabs is committed to supporting the next wave of blockchain adoption among businesses and providing developers with a reliable and secure framework to build private, public and hybrid blockchain applications. Its team possesses deep enterprise technology experience with a cumulative 100 years of enterprise experience, hailing from organizations including Google, Adobe, AWS, Dropbox and Microsoft. To learn more, visit https://casperlabs.io/

About Casper Association
The Casper Association is the nonprofit entity that oversees the ongoing evolution and decentralization of the Casper Network. It provides resources to help accelerate the adoption of Casper and its growing ecosystem of decentralized applications. To learn more, visit casper.network

About RockTree Capital
RockTree Capital, a merchant bank and fund based in China focused on blockchain projects and mobile e-commerce companies, with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, New York and Toronto. RockTree Capital invests into top-tier blockchain projects and accelerates their growth in Asia.

About BSN
The Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) is a cross-cloud, cross-portal, and cross-framework global public infrastructure network used to develop, deploy, and maintain all types of blockchain distributed applications (DApps). BSN aims to change the existing problem of the high cost of developing and deploying blockchain applications by, just like the internet, providing public resource and interoperability environments to developers. In this way, the development and universal adoption of blockchain technology can be largely accelerated.

For more information, please contact:
Ellis Ballard
Cryptoland PR
ellis@cryptolandpr.com

The not-for-profit GSF is known for operating internationally award-winning schools. Its related entity, Global Schools Holdings (GSH), drives the internationalisation and growth.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Jan. 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Singapore-based Global Schools Foundation (GSF) announced that the reputed Waterbridge Global Education Co. Ltd., which owns and operates a network of five highly acclaimed and premium international schools in Cambodia, has formally joined the GSF schools network.

Waterbridge owns and operates four campuses of the Harrods International Academy (HIA) and one campus of the Renford International School (RIS) in Phnom Penh. GSF has a network of 26 international schools across 9 countries, offering best-in-class education to nearly 25,000 students from over 70 nationalities.

Together, they plan to bring a brand of holistic education to Cambodia that will combine futuristic learning with global mindedness.

“We plan to work together with Harrods and Renford to set up 21st-century high-quality schools to meet the aspirations of Millennial parents and nurture their Generation Alpha children into Global Citizens,” said Mr. Atul Temurnikar, Co-Founder and Chairman of Global Schools Foundation. 

Focused on K12 education, the GSF network of schools offers the best of innovative educational practices and capabilities, with emphasis on skills-based learning through a strong network of international educators. Their curricula offerings include International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge IGCSE, with a strong focus on global values.

HIA and RIS will benefit from the strong track record of GSF schools in academic results and entrepreneurship among their students.

“Students and parents of Harrods and Renford will truly benefit from the huge network of GSF schools. Their mindful use of personalized learning systems promotes creativity and collaboration among students, and encourages them to be inquiry- and kindness-driven global citizens,” said Mr. Sambath Sok, former CEO of Waterbridge, who will continue to serve as Advisor to GSF Cambodia.

GSF had earlier announced that they had raised US$250 million for investments in K12 education in Asia and the Middle East. It has also entered into a strategic partnership with Dwight School Seoul, a leading super-premium IB School, with links to New York.

As GSF celebrates its 20th anniversary, its entity Global Schools Holdings (GSH) drives the growth strategy and internationalisation roadmap from its HQ in Singapore. GSH is a participant in Singapore government agency Enterprise Singapore‘s Scale-up SG programme, where GSH has been working with PWC on its strategic growth plans, which include business optimisation, internationalisation, market prioritisation and business matching, and has benefitted from the programme’s peer sharing and networks.

“Enterprise Singapore congratulates GSH on the expansion of its network of schools to Cambodia. Through targeted business matching efforts, companies like GSH are able to find like-minded overseas partners to grow their international footprint. Through this partnership, GSH will be able to expand its curriculum enhancements and suite of education data analytics developed in Singapore through its global network of schools,” said Dilys Boey, Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Lifestyle and Consumer Group, Enterprise Singapore.

GSF has won 300 awards over two decades at the national and international levels. The awards were won in different categories like Innovation and Management, Performance Excellence, Business Excellence, Green initiatives, CSR and Sustainability.

About GSF and GSH

Founded in 2002, Global Schools Foundation is a Singapore-headquartered, community-oriented education institution whose mission is to cultivate and nurture young minds into global leaders of the future. Its schools have emerged stronger with their proprietary learning technology involving data analytics and artificial intelligence to bring success to these schools and accelerate students’ learning outcomes. GSF’s entity Global Schools Holdings aims to leverage its two decades of expertise in establishing top-quality schools, successfully growing its family of schools, and helping them achieve their vision through its future potential investments,

About Enterprise Singapore

Enterprise Singapore is the government agency championing enterprise development. ESG works with committed companies to build capabilities, innovate and internationalise. It also supports the growth of Singapore as a hub for global trading and startups and builds trust in Singapore’s products and services through quality and standards.

Visit www.enterprisesg.gov.sg for more information.

Media Relations 

Ms. Rupali Karekar
Head, Media Relations
rupali.karekar@myglobalschool.org

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

This partnership with Nimbly enables the company to optimise production and adhere to strict international standards

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Jan. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Nimbly Technologies today announced that Indonesia’s largest, award-winning wooden frame manufacturer, Astari Niagara, implemented Nimbly to digitalise their operations. With this, the company is able to optimise their production processes and improve their audit scores, leading them to receive the coveted “low-risk” factory status by major U.S. retailers.

“We have used Nimbly since June 2020, starting with our export and quality assurance processes and now expanded the use to our equipment maintenance,” explained Livia Geraldine, the CMO of Astari Niagara. “We needed to automate our operations because manual processes were becoming increasingly labor-intensive and error-prone. We had low visibility into our machine health, for example, and inaccurate data due to human error which resulted in unplanned downtime, disrupting our regular production flow. All of these things led to bottlenecks and extra labor costs.”

With Nimbly, Astari Niagara automated standard operating procedures (SOPs) and processes which enabled the operations team to monitor productivity in real-time, predict and prevent machine breakdowns and optimise preventive maintenance schedules. “It is a leap forward from manual to fully automated routines preventing unexpected downtime and optimising efficiency,” Livia explained. “We achieved consistency, transparency, and control of our teams and processes. We enabled real-time issue notification with predefined rules and alerts, automating the lifecycle management of incidents.”

As a world-class manufacturing company in their journey towards Industry 4.0, continuous improvement is critical for Astari Niagara. By digitalising operations, all data is automatically captured and analysed, facilitating managerial decisions for continuous improvement opportunities.

Finally, by automating SOPs and checklists, Astari Niagara is able to adhere to numerous international standards related to responsible sourcing, factory quality, security and so on. “By digitalising our audit processes we are able to improve our audit scores significantly, becoming certified as a low-risk factory. This certification certainly opens up tremendous opportunities for business growth,” Livia concluded.

Daniel Hazman, Founder and CEO of Nimbly, is excited to partner with Astari Niagara. “As someone who was responsible for Walmart factory certification, I know how important it is for a supplier to be classified as low-risk and become the preferred partner. It’s such a privilege to be on the other side now, helping manufacturers like Astari Niagara not only pass their audits with flying colours but also accelerate their digital transformation journey!”

About Astari Niagara

Established in 1980, Astari Niagara is the first mass producer of wooden picture frames in Indonesia, with a 33,000 square meter factory outside Jakarta with a production capacity of 600,000 pieces of frames per month in an array of finishes using high precision machinery from Germany and Italy.

About Nimbly

Nimbly Technologies is a Software as a Service company that helps organisations in multiple industries empower frontline employees to do their jobs properly and consistently through an easy-to-use mobile app and a powerful dashboard. Nimbly digitalises manual processes/ SOPs; creates digital routines; and automates reporting, insights, and issue tracking. Nimbly has partnered with more than 150 clients in eight countries including KFC, Janji Jiwa, 7-Eleven, Under Armour, Wilmar, Cargill, Toto and many more.

For more information, please contact:

Jessica Schwarze

VP of Marketing, Nimbly Technologies

email jessica@hellonimbly.com or phone +65 97106713
Related Images

Image 1: Livia Geraldine, CMO of Astari Niagara

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

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• Livia Geraldine, CMO of Astari Niagara

Partners Australian Droid and Robot, PBE Group, and Rajant Reach 1.7 KM to Reclaim and Restore Operations for Collapsed Limestone Mine Protecting Lives and Jobs

Malvern, Pennsylvania (USA), Jan. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rajant Corporation, the exclusive provider of Kinetic Mesh® wireless networks, and its technology partners Australian Droid and Robot (ADR) and PBE Group, have completed the deepest remote underground mine inspection in history. Using ten ADR Explora XL unmanned robots and a wireless below-ground communication network, a mobile infrastructure depth of 1.7 kilometers was achieved to enable the reestablishment of operations at a collapsed limestone mine and restore jobs.

A significant, unexpected mine collapse occurred in August 2021 causing an expulsion of air carrying dirt and rocks that flew out of all portals and ventilation raises. The air was estimated to be moving around 120 mph. It was determined that this collapse was caused by the failure of very old pillars (40 to 70 years old) thus creating a substantive surface subsidence. The surface subsidence measured approximately 800’ (ft) across and over 100’ (ft) deep. No one was injured in the incident, as the mine had been evacuated well prior to the incident. Working with the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the operator and MSHA determined no one should enter the mine until some type of unmanned survey could be conducted to assess the conditions of the mine safely. The solution to achieve this came through the collaboration of ADR, PBE, and Rajant.

“Prior to the collapse, the mine had a two-way radio system running over a leaky feeder,” shared Rajant Sales Director Todd Rigby. “The leaky feeder was not functional following the collapse, nor did it have sufficient bandwidth to support unmanned robots or drones. Rajant BreadCrumbs® were installed by Rajant’s channel partner PBE mostly at the surface of the mine to provide a reliable high bandwidth link from the portal to an emergency operations center overseeing the remote surveying done by ADR and its fleet of all-terrain ground robots equipped with BreadCrumbs. The robots initially dragged three network infrastructure points into the mine and then staggered along various routes up to 1.7 Kilometers deep. During the longest mission, the robots were transmitting 80 Mbps, and included high-definition video and Lidar to create a virtual 3D model of the mine.”

“ADR keeps a small fleet of robots ready to go for emergencies, but this was going to require more units with different sensors and capability,” said Dr. Joe Cronin, Operations Manager and one of the founders of Australian Droid & Robot. “We quickly built more robots and undertook a thorough testing regime to imitate the conditions and distances we would experience in the US. We had teams all over Brisbane, and at one stage, we had robots strung across more than one suburb, controlled from a central location. The robots were shipped to the US less than a month later and were accompanied by Andre Preller, Head Electronics Engineer and Callum MacDermid, Senior Robotics Engineer. After a day’s testing on the surface, the robots entered the mine, each robot relaying the communications signal to the next, creating a high bandwidth, daisy-chain network into the mine. A week later, the team had acquired enough data for the mining team to be able to restart operations – the only company globally who could assist with the right equipment in the right timeframe.”

“Before the collapse, PBE was the mines communications infrastructure provider. When we learned about the need for unmanned inspection after the collapse, we focused on finding the best solution for fast, flexible deployment and high performance,” added Rob Koch, Director of Technology, PBE Group. “The mine needed a high throughput, flexible data network to support a broad and changing set of inspection deployments. The Rajant mesh technology was the clear choice for this need. In execution, the challenge was to design network elements deployed into the mine by the robots themselves. We moved quickly to source the best antenna technology for the robots and backhaul nodes. Then we went onsite to build the robot deployable nodes and surface network to move data to the inspection operation center. The network and antenna elements provided plenty of time to facilitate the inspection event. We are glad the mine chose PBE on this groundbreaking project to safely bring the mine back into production using the best technology available.”

A video case study documenting the achievement is available. The mine intends to implement a mine-wide Kinetic Mesh network. In the future, if they were ever to have an issue of instability, they can simply run a single ADR robot into the mine using the preexisting network infrastructure, protecting the sanctity of worker safety and uninterrupted productivity.

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About Australian Droid and Robot

Queensland technology company Australian Droid and Robot (ADR) deliver cutting-edge technology to companies right across Australia and across the world.  Taking the world’s best technology and innovation and adapting and modifying it to meet the needs of Australian companies and Government agencies, ADR is changing the way businesses operate.  ADR supplies a range of products and services including:

• Industrial Robotics and Automation;
• Drone and Robot Services; and
• Custom Robot Solutions.

ADR’s approach is ‘Safety by Separation’ – Mining utilises the Hierarchy of Controls to mitigate risks. If the two most powerful controls; Elimination and Substitution cannot be relied on and Engineering and PPE are not relevant, automation and robotics allow personnel to conduct hazardous tasks remotely. Therefore, ‘Separation’ is a control where personnel and the hazard are disconnected – they are not in the same place. When this control fails, no personnel are exposed to a hazard.

About PBE Group

PBE Group is an international manufacturer and systems integrator in the communications, safety, and power verticals. We serve the public safety, cellular, tunneling, construction, data center, and mining sectors, celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2021. PBE Group provides customized adaptive solutions when reliance on safety and productivity is essential. We integrate our industry-specific manufactured products and best in class 3rd party products delivering robust and commercially viable solutions. Our international growth comes from three main verticals: Power, Communications & Data, and Safety Products, the essentials of any industrial project. Our experienced sales, engineering and production teams have delivered 800 projects in more than 60 countries worldwide. We have a global install base of certified and warranted power and communications infrastructure, service centers and highly skilled engineering capabilities. PBE offers hire/lease as well as direct sales. To learn more, visit PBEgrp.com.

About Rajant Corporation

Rajant Corporation is the broadband communications technology company that invented Kinetic Mesh® networking, BreadCrumb® wireless nodes, and InstaMesh® networking software. With Rajant, customers can rapidly deploy a highly adaptable and scalable network that leverages the power of real-time data to deliver on-demand, mission-critical business intelligence. A low-latency, high-throughput, and secure solution for a variety of data, voice, video, and autonomous applications, Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh networks provide industrial customers with full mobility, allowing them to take their private network applications and data anywhere. With successful deployments in more than 70 countries for customers in military, mining, ports, rail, oil & gas, petrochemical plants, municipalities, and agriculture. Rajant is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with additional facilities and offices in Arizona and Kentucky. For more information, visit Rajant.com or follow Rajant on LinkedIn and Twitter.

 

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• Robotic Intervention on Behalf of Human Safety & Job Restoration

Alice DiSanto
Rajant Corporation
914-582-8464
adisanto@rajant.com

On the heels of announcing its new leadership team, Tony Roma’s plans for future growth as it reaches its milestone anniversary and has a mission to continue providing customers with a world-class dining experience

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Romacorp, Inc., the parent company of Tony Roma’s^®, the world’s largest casual dining concept and widely-recognized restaurant brand that specializes in ribs, celebrates its 50^th anniversary. On January 20, 1972, the company’s founder Tony Roma opened his flagship restaurant, Tony Roma’s, in North Miami, Florida. The restaurant quickly became one of the most popular eateries in Miami and established its niche in the market.

Over the years, loyal customers, families and friends continued to flock to the restaurant for its popular Baby Back Ribs. These special ribs emerged as a house specialty that are now enjoyed by guests across the globe. Now, after 50 years of successful growth and world-wide expansion, the company is celebrating being one of the most recognizable names in the restaurant industry.

“What better way to kick off 2022 than to be celebrating this monumental moment for our 50 years old brand,” said Ramon Bourgeois, CEO (Acting) & COO of Romacorp, Inc. “As we look to the next 50 plus years, we are focused on growth, a fresh new concept, family-friendly dining experiences and continuing to serve up our saucy and flavorful ribs. We look forward to bringing families together around the table for many more years to come.”

Tony Roma’s is delighted and honored that dignitaries including U.S. Representative Val Demings have shared congratulatory wishes to the brand, which has been serving families and communities for five decades, locally in Florida and around the world.

Tony Roma’s is a full-service, family-friendly dining destination with locations spanning 5 continents that serves up its World-Famous Baby Back Ribs and beloved menu classics, such as Kicking shrimp, Onion Loaf, Miami Burger, Sizzling Ribeye & Romaritas. Recently, the brand announced its new visionary leadership team, who are paving the way for the brand’s next chapter of growth to expand the brand and Tony Roma’s portfolio of dining experiences.

Later this year, the brand plans to launch a 3,000+ square foot dining prototype along with its 500 square foot fast-casual concept Bones & Burgers™, which will cater to on-the-go guests, while still providing the same quality ingredients and fresh preparations in an authentic quick-service space.

The company plans to open 200 Tony Roma’s locations over the next decade, primarily focusing on markets in the Middle East, Asia and the United States. The newest Tony Roma’s locations are set to open in North Carolina this summer and Montana before the end of the year.

For more information about Tony Roma’s, please visit TonyRomas.com for more details and dining reservations.

About Romacorp, Inc.
Romacorp, Inc., is the parent company of Tony Roma’s restaurants, the world’s largest casual dining concept specializing in ribs. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Tony Roma’s is present in 20 countries and is one of the most globally recognizable names in the industry. The first Tony Roma’s restaurant opened 50 years ago in North Miami, Florida. For more information about Romacorp, Inc. and Tony Roma’s, visit www.tonyromas.com.

Media Contact:
Chloe Blair
Uproar PR for Romacorp
615-517-5116
cblair@uproarpr.com

Expanding its managed services portfolio

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Jan. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Expereo, the leading global provider of managed Internet, SD-WAN, SASE, and Cloud Access solutions, announces the launch of SD-WAN Gateways. This new service boosts the SD-WAN performance for enterprises with a global footprint to support their multi-cloud strategies and increase application performance.

SD-WAN Gateways allow enterprises’ global network to enhance the SD-WAN experience between data centers and hub sites both intra-regionally and globally, without sacrificing in-country performance. Enterprises can combine their existing SD-WAN solution with Expereo SD-WAN Gateways, to optimize the end-user application experience and reduce operational costs.

The new service leverages Expereo’s managed SD-WAN service offerings complemented with proprietary smart BGP routing optimization technology, optimizing SaaS reach and access to public and private cloud, overcoming internet limitations.

“Businesses are entering a multi-cloud era in which the internet cannot always provide consistent quality for enabling their applications to perform seamlessly. One of the main SD-WAN Gateways benefits is that it combines a scalable network infrastructure with an enhanced WAN performance boosting your application performance. This results in a better user experience and higher productivity,” comments Sander Barens, CPO of Expereo.

As Thomas Jongerius, SD-WAN/SASE Technical Lead at Expereo explains “Many enterprises face poor application experience due to unpredictable Internet performance resulting in high IT and support cost for businesses that operate globally. Our new SD-WAN Gateway service is all about getting the best application performance across the entirety of your network.”

With SD-WAN Gateways, Expereo expands its managed services offering, taking a new step towards simplifying global cloud connectivity.

About Expereo

Expereo is the leading provider of managed network solutions, including Global internet connectivity, SD-WAN, SASE, and Cloud Access Optimization services. Expereo is the trusted partner of 30% of Fortune 500 companies and powers enterprise and government sites worldwide, helping to enhance every business’ productivity with flexible and optimal Internet performance. In Feb 2021, Vitruvian Partners international growth capital and buyout firm acquired a majority stakeholding in Expereo, alongside the leading European private equity firm Apax Partners SAS and the company’s management.

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Contact:
Emese Csikai
+44 7518 293463
emese@grammatikagency.com