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Employers turn to freelancers to fill tech skill shortages following global layoffs, reports Freelancer.com

FREELANCER.COM

Freelancer.com (ASX: FLN) (OTCQX: FLNCF), the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and jobs posted, today released its quarterly Fast 50 Index for Q3 2022 which reveals insights into the fastest growing freelance projects and most in-demand skills. The index, which is based on data from 296,000 jobs posted on Freelancer.com between July 1 to September 30, 2022, reveals a major surge in tech-related jobs in Q3 when compared to Q2 2022 and Q3 2021. Android App Development (up 80.5%, from 1,082 to 1,954) ranked as the fastest growing project type in Q3 2022 when ranking the percentage growths from all 2,000 skills available on Freelancer.com. This was followed by AJAX (up 66.4%, from 1,059 to 1,763) and API (up 59.5%, from 1,587 to 2,532) jobs which are both skilled related to website and software development. The sudden surge in tech-related freelance jobs first observed in Freelancer’s Q2 2022 index, comes off the back of global tech layoffs and hiring freezes across the so-called ‘tech winter’, that started with a ‘crypto winter’, as informed by Freelancer.com in earlier Fast 50 reports. According to a tech layoff tally, more than 42,000 workers in the U.S. tech sector lost their jobs in 2022. Tech-related jobs dominated the rankings when comparing Q3 2022 to Q3 2021 year-on-year. Software Development jobs were the fastest growing skill (up 54.7%, from 1,587 to 2,442), while jobs for Coding ranked as the second highest growing skill (up 45.5%, from 1,004 to 1,461) and Backend Development came in third (up 37.7%, from 1,111 to 1,530). “The macroeconomic environment, tech winter and nosebleed inflation has led to an almost daily string of announcements of layoffs. The most similar event was the Global Financial Crisis where we saw three trends: businesses looking to cut costs and going online to hire freelancers, people looking for work online and a lot of startup businesses formed to bridge people through hard times. However this was mostly contained to the United States. We think that heading into 2023 we could see this all over again, but on a more global scale,” said Matt Barrie, Chief Executive at Freelancer.com. These layoffs may also increase the amount of startups being founded, not only across the US but also in Europe, with skilled people being cut from bigger organizations, but with experience either building their own companies or working in highly successful startup environments, as described by Alan Poensgen, in his Fortune article of October 5, 2022. Fast 50 Q3 2022 vs Q2 2022 Analysis Employers look to freelancers to plug tech skill gaps Overvaluations and dropping stock prices have caused mass hiring freezes and layoffs across the tech companies globally in 2022. According to online tracker Layoffs.fyi, there have been 83,173 layoffs from 661 startups this year, as of October 2022. This is almost half of the total of 179,164 tech layoffs since the beginning of COVID-19. These layoffs, which accelerated in May 2022, have contributed to increases in tech-related jobs across the platform. While Android App Development dominated Q3 and was ranked as the fastest growing job on Freelancer.com, employers have been turning to the platform to support niche, highly specialized tech projects. AJAX, which is used to develop websites, and API, which allow software programs to communicate with each other also took second and third place, respectively. Niche skills in AngularJS, a toolset for building apps, and Codeigniter, a toolset for web development, equally rose by 22% in Q3. “Michael Milken said ‘the defining characteristic of the 21st century was the competition for intellectual capital’. There’s a chronic skill shortage in western nations, forcing businesses to go to the Internet to find talent. Freelancer.com has the largest online pool of talent in the world.” said Matt Barrie. Projects seeking experts in Amazon Web Services (AWS) grew by 27.6%, from 3,004 to 3,834 jobs in Q3, while Software Development continued its growth from Q2 with a 18% increase from 2,069 to 2,442 jobs in Q3. Artificial Intelligence jobs also grew by 15.9%, from 1,055 to 1,223. Marketing Trends - Marketers turn from SEM to SEO, YouTube & traditional This quarter, the data revealed shifting trends in marketing and advertising. Projects for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) fell by almost a third (30.4%) in Q3 - from 2,300 jobs to 1,600 from the previous quarter. On the other hand, digital marketing, traditional marketing and YouTube jobs spiked in interest. Most commonly, in Q3 employers are looking for support with SEO ranking. Blog Writing jobs, which are usually associated with businesses hiring freelancers to write SEO-friendly blog content, increased by 55% in Q3, from 1,058 to 1,642 projects. Digital Marketing also saw a 23.1% increase in Q3, jumping from 1,738 to 2,141 jobs. These jobs range from hiring business consultants supporting social media strategies to SEO managers. Notably, Q3 also saw many employers turn to the platform to hire community managers, digital marketing campaign managers and social media managers. Traditional advertising also saw an increase in Q3. Flyer Design projects increased by more than a quarter (27.5%) from 1,658 to 2,114 jobs. A similar increase was also seen for projects relating to Covers and Packaging, which increased by 27.3% from 1,253 to 1,596 jobs. Many employers turn to the platform to crowdsource ideas for packaging labels and shipping boxes designs. When comparing Q3 2022 to 2021, advertisement design is up 15.7%, from 1.516 to 1,755 jobs. “With the onset of new digital marketing channels, businesses are learning that their strategies must diversify and move away from primary channels, such as SEM. Paid advertising alone is no longer the most viable alternative. What we are witnessing is demand for freelancers with skills in social media, short video platforms, earned & owned content, SEO and a whole spectrum of marketing strategies that before were in the realm of large corporates only,” said Hector Perez-Nieto, Marketing Director at Freelancer.com. Jobs seeking YouTube skills were the fifth fastest growing skill in Q3 2022 - growing by 32.3% from 1,138 to 1,505 jobs. Many of the jobs seeking YouTube skills are related to vertical videos and Shorts content. While there was a 10% increase in TikTok related skills and projects seeking TikTok content creators, employers seek YouTube and video editing skills three times more. Companies turn to freelancers for lead generation & customer support The layoffs aren’t just affecting tech roles, but also sales and customer services roles across businesses. Over the last quarter, there was a significant increase in demand for customer service, customer support and sales-related skills on the Freelancer platform. While virtual assistance jobs have always been a popular freelancing project type, Q3 2022 saw an increase in employers hiring virtual assistants. Jobs for Customer Support grew by 30.5% in Q3, from 1,531 to 1,998 jobs. This was also closely followed by Customer Service projects which rose by 27.4% from 1,370 to 1,746. Lead generation and cold calling was also a popular project type in Q3. Jobs to generate Leads jumped by a quarter (25.3%), from 1,387 to 1,738. Sales specific jobs also increased by 18.7% from 2,544 to 3,020 total projects. One boutique recruiting agency in the US successfully hired a freelancer to manage cold calling and follow ups for only US$38 per hour, with a maximum of 40 hours available for the freelancer per week. The platform is also used by mortgage brokers to source sales virtual assistants to call realtors for loan officers. Ethereum and NFT projects continue steep decline In Q2 2022, Freelancer reported a fall from grace for jobs relating to Bitcoin, Crypto and NFTs, which were once ranked as the fastest growing freelance jobs on the platform for 2021. It’s now Ethereum’s turns as Ethereum-related jobs plunged in Q3 2022. The fastest falling job types on the Freelancer platform in Q3 were Solidity, a programming language used to implement smart contracts for mostly Ethereum based platforms, and Smart Contracts were - declining by -56%, from 1,422 to 613 jobs, and -49%, from 1,442 to 726 jobs, respectively. NFTs jobs were slashed by half (49.5%) in Q3, dropping from 1,424 to only 718 in total. This trend was closely followed by jobs for Ethereum specifically, which fell by 39.9% from 1,173 jobs to only 705. Blockchain jobs also fell by 26.7%, from 3,216 in Q2 but continue to retain interest with 2,357 jobs reported in Q3. Business cards are back in business With corporate and networking events back in action, so are business cards. In Q3 2022, Business Card design spiked by almost one third (30%) from 1,861 to 2,427 jobs. This is the first time since the start of 2020 that projects for Business Cards have grown significantly. ##### Freelancer Fast 50 The Freelancer Fast 50 index is the world’s largest forward indicator of trends in online jobs related to industries, technologies, products, and companies. The data is based on 296,000 jobs posted to the Freelancer platform between 1st July to 30th September 2022. Fast 50 Quarterly Index – Q3 2022 Fast 50 - Q3 Year-on-Year Comparison ###### About Freelancer Twelve-time Webby award-winning Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by total number of users and projects posted. More than 60 million registered users have posted over 20 million projects and contests to date in over 2,000 areas as diverse as website development, logo design, marketing, copywriting, astrophysics, aerospace engineering and manufacturing. Freelancer owns Escrow.com, the leading provider of secure online payments and online transaction management for consumers and businesses on the Internet with over US$6 billion in transactions secured. Freelancer also owns Freightlancer & Loadshift, enterprise freight marketplaces with over 550 million kilometres of freight posted since inception. Freelancer Limited is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX:FLN and is quoted on OTCQX Best Market under the ticker FLNCF. Contact Details Freelancer.com Marko Zitko +61 404 574 830 mzitko@freelancer.com Freelancer.com Sebastian Siseles +1 415-801-2271 sebastian@freelancer.com

October 13, 2022 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CHARGEFUZE BRINGS INNOVATIVE MOBILE CHARGING STATIONS TO WESTFIELD SHOPPING CENTERS IN THE U.S.

EMC

(LOS ANGELES – October 13th, 2022) –chargeFUZE will scale its innovative and autonomous out of home mobile phone charging stations into Westfield shopping centers in the US, the company announced today. The initiative is part of a thorough effort to ensure that Westfield guests have the best experience possible and can take advantage of all digital and tech forward initiatives on site. chargeFUZE’s portable charging network is being rolled out across Westfield’s US shopping centers, allowing guests to charge their devices while ‘on the go.’ ChargeFUZE’s innovative technology will enable Westfield visitors to remain untethered and to charge any device from the comfort of their person, while shopping, dining, and more. ChargeFUZE’s all-in-one portable chargers will be made available for rental via a quick QR code scan. When finished, guests can return the charger at their convenience to any of the chargeFUZE kiosk locations throughout the network. ChargeFUZE co-founder, Brandon Afari said, “We are incredibly excited for the opportunity to partner with a company like Westfield. Both our companies hold similar values in creating a meaningful brand and experience for our customers, and we are proud to align our objectives with theirs. In looking at all of our partners and locations, chargeFUZE is the perfect fit for Westfield, and we are looking forward to expanding across the US together.” ChargeFUZE co-founder Ryan Levy said, “Westfield is another large scale partnership that we are excited to announce and proud to be affiliated with. We are privileged to align with amazing corporate leaders across industry sectors, all of whom are a testament to the large scale need for chargeFUZE and its best in class technology platform. Our goal is to become the ubiquitous solution across all out of home experiences - and we are working hard on achieving this goal. We believe that in today’s digital world, individuals should always be enabled by their devices and we are excited to offer chargeFUZE to Westfield shoppers across the country.” chargeFUZE is already live at Westfield World Trade Center, Westfield Valley Fair, and Westfield San Francisco Centre, with installations continuing in most of Westfield’s US shopping centers throughout the year. Guests will be able to access chargeFUZE products via iOS and Android applications, or via a web application. ChargeFUZE is the largest and most innovative provider of high-speed, on-the-go mobile charging. It is making the experience of mobile charging ubiquitous by allowing users to rent a portable charger on the go from any of their kiosks. ChargeFUZE’s comprehensive network of autonomous kiosks enables users to charge their phones anywhere, and never miss a moment of the action, the event or their experience. When they’re done, users can easily return the portable charger at any chargeFUZE kiosk nationwide in over 25 states. They are currently powering guest experiences across sports, entertainment venues, music festivals, experiential retail, hospitality venues, casinos, hospitals, universities, restaurants, bars and many more. More information is available at chargefuze.com, contact@chargefuze.com LinkedIn or Instagram. Contact Details chargeFUZE contact@chargefuze.com

October 13, 2022 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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With New Study, Assembly Asks Marketers: “Do you really know Gen Z?”

Assembly

Gen Z Decoded, an all-new study packed with first-hand insights about Generation Z, curated over the course of the past year, is out from global media agency Assembly. Unlike previous studies that seek to understand this evolving and influential group as one whole audience, Assembly prompts brands and marketers to consider this: Gen Z is a series of journeys, each individual and nuanced, dependent on the experiences of Zs in their particular stage of life. Available for download here. The study taps into learnings from Assembly client campaigns [Supercuts, Diesel, and Converse], first-party research powered by Appinio across six markets (UK, US, France, Germany, China, Korea), and additional expert insights curated from Assembly’s Europe Strategy & Insights team. It additionally includes 8 essential principles for brands to build meaningful relationships with Gen Z, as well as a foundational growth plan following the agency’s “Find, Change, Grow” methodology. “As they look to discover themselves, Gen Z is going on an internal journey, often staying fluid and flexible with their own identity,” said Jennifer Brown, Strategy Manager, Europe at Assembly. “They’re in an ever-changing state of discovery across different life stages, so a one-size-fits-all approach from brands isn’t going to work.” The study identifies one of Gen Z’s 6 primary characteristics as “ shapeshifters ”, with 78% of Gen Z believing that people should be able to define their own identity instead of being labelled by society. The fluidity in their identities also extends to their relationships with brands, with 55% of Gen Z stating that they aren’t loyal to any brands. Other key characteristics that distinguish Gen Z: Globally Connected: Gen Z have experienced connectivity unlike any other generation before them. 77% of Gen Z say they have never met an online friend in person, further emphasizing the emergence of digital-only relationships Passionate Disruptors: While they aren’t the first generation with grand ambitions to change the world, Gen Z is the generation that has been armed with the Internet to help them do so. 70% of Gen Z believe they can take part in a social movement through social media Entrepreneurs: By 2025, Gen Z will make up 27% of the workforce, though they’re not necessarily only interested in conventional career paths. 42% of Gen Z say they have a “side hustle” and express wanting to disrupt the way jobs work in the future, many envisioning themselves to be their own bosses Purposeful: While living much of their lives on the internet, Gen Z are also intentional about how and where they are spending their time online, and with who. 27% of Gen Z spend less time on platforms with ads, and 55% of Gen Z in the 18-25 age group are experiencing social media fatigue Vulnerable: Despite their confidence and tenacity, Gen Z put enormous pressure on themselves to carry through on their values; and also despite being so digitally connected, 79% of Gen Z express feeling lonely. “Our advice to brands is: go on the journey with Gen Z and don’t stop learning. It’s all about continuous testing, learning, and adapting, because Gen Z will continue to evolve, so brands should do the same,” said Kristie Naha-Biswas, Head of Strategy & Planning, Europe at Assembly. Access Assembly's Gen Z Decoded here. ABOUT ASSEMBLY: Assembly is the modern global omnichannel media agency, bringing data, talent, and technology together to find the change that fuels growth for the best brands on the planet. Our approach connects big, bold brand stories with integrated, global media capabilities that deliver performance and drive large-scale business growth. Our work is powered by our proprietary, in-house technology solution, STAGE, and led by our global talent base of over 1,600 people around the world. We’re purpose-driven at our core and pioneers in social and environmental impact in the agency world. Assembly is a proud member of Stagwell, the challenger network built to transform marketing. www.assemblyglobal.com ABOUT THE REPORT: Gen Z Decoded for Brand Growth is the culmination of research and real-life experience, looking at the evolution of Gen Z behavior over the past year. This large-scale report is part of a series of thought leadership, roundtables, and research insights about Gen Z, coming exclusively from global media agency, Assembly. Assembly Custom Research Powered by Appinio: Appinio is a global market research platform that enables companies worldwide to get thousands of opinions from specific target groups in just a few minutes. Assembly surveyed a Gen Z audience size of 1,500 across the UK, US, France, Germany, China, and Korea. https://www.appinio.com Contact Details Sara Pollack, VP of Marketing +1 917-438-4922 sara.pollack@assemblyglobal.com Company Website https://www.assemblyglobal.com/

October 12, 2022 05:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Empower Kids to Prevent Racially Motivated Bullying

YourUpdateTV

All kids connected with bullying—those who experience it, engage in it, and even witness it—can suffer long-term mental health consequences. Recently, VP of Education, Research, and Impact at Committee for Children & Mom of 2, Dr. Tia Kim, participated in a satellite media tour campaign to talk about racially motivated bullying and ways to empower kids to activate their upstander power. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/WKlo9vIaKdk It's back-to-school season and it's never too early to start talking to kids about racially motivated bullying and empower them to recognize, report, and refuse it so they are set up to make responsible decisions and thrive. Committee for Children is launching its fifth annual Captain Compassion campaign during National Bullying Prevention Month to teach kids how to prevent bullying in all forms, with a special emphasis on behavior motivated by racial bias. Developed by Committee for Children in 2018, Captain Compassion is an anti-bullying superhero who teaches upstanders how to recognize, report, and refuse bullying through a series of engaging, age-appropriate comic strips. One out of five students report being bullied during the school year. In 2019, of the students who reported being bullied, race was the most frequently reported characteristic referred to by hate-related words. To help address this issue, this year’s Captain Compassion comics focus on a school community that’s struggling with the social-emotional effects of racially motivated bullying. With the help of Captain Compassion and her trusty sidekick Kid Kinder®, the entire school community learns how to stand up against bullying to create safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments where children of all backgrounds can thrive. Drawn from Committee for Children’s decades of work in the field of bullying prevention, the Captain Compassion campaign presents free, award-winning comics that provide families, teachers, and caregivers with powerful, research-backed tips to empower their children and communities to stand up to bullying. The Captain Compassion site also includes resources like a Secret Decoder Wheel puzzle for kids, informative videos, downloadable posters, and more. To learn more about Captain Compassion and bullying prevention, visit CaptainCompassion.org each week this October to read brand-new comics and solve the Secret Decoder Wheel puzzle with the children in your life. To learn more about social-emotional learning and Committee for Children, visit cfchildren.org Tia Kim, PhD Bio: Vice President of Education, Research, and Impact Dr. Tia Kim is a developmental psychologist, a parent-child relationship expert, and a mom of two. She believes in a strong family foundation, open lines of communication, and the critical role that parent-child relationships play in children’s safety and well-being. With her experience as a parent, education research scientist, and psychologist, Dr. Kim aims to provide families with simple, research-based tips and insights to help them start conversations about bullying prevention. Dr. Kim began her career in academia but later decided she wanted to see her research in action helping children and youth. Today, she leads Committee for Children’s team of research scientists to develop and evaluate the quality, effectiveness, and impact of the organization’s social-emotional learning programs and family engagement work, including this year’s bullying prevention campaign, Captain Compassion. Dr. Kim received her doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and completed three years of post-doctoral training at the National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention. Before joining Committee for Children, she served as an assistant professor in human development and family studies at Penn State Brandywine. About Committee for Children: Committee for Children is a global nonprofit that has championed the safety and well-being of children through bullying prevention, child protection, and social-emotional learning (SEL) for more than 40 years. With a history of action and influence, we’re known as a leader in social-emotional education and a force in advocacy, research, and innovation in the field. We take a comprehensive approach to SEL, promoting social-emotional well-being from birth to early adulthood—supporting not just classrooms, but entire communities. As our programs transform the lives of more than 24.4 million children per year, we rise to meet societal challenges to ensure children everywhere can thrive. Learn more at cfchildren.org. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

October 12, 2022 02:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Fullintel Appoints James Rubec as Head of Product

Fullintel, LLC

Fullintel, a leading media monitoring and analysis services company specializing in human curation combined with powerful predictive intelligence, is pleased to announce it has appointed James Rubec its new Head of Product. A former senior director of product management and director of content and licensing management at Cision and Cision Canada, Rubec is an industry leader with a history of thought leadership and innovative data storytelling around how media influences the world around us. Rubec has used data to predict elections, uncover societal trends, and improve internal business processes. His work has appeared in outlets such as The Financial Post, Yahoo Finance, Variety Magazine, and the CBC. Helping communicators understand the media landscape and capitalize on opportunities Rubec has now joined Fullintel to collaborate with clients to identify opportunities and use cases for PredictiveAI™, Fullintel’s human-in-the-loop machine learning solution designed to predict the virality of media stories and social posts. “My goal is to help PR professionals tell more effective stories and help organizations take advantage of the predictive tooling that Fullintel has developed,” says Rubec. “By better understanding the landscape through PredictiveAI™, communicators can identify an issue before it becomes a crisis or better identify stories that should be amplified to make them powerful promotional tools. We’re taking PR past gut instinct and into data science.” He’ll be focused on expanding the product roadmap for PredictiveAI™, to make it an even more agile and flexible tool as part of the Fullintel Hub, Fullintel’s real-time media monitoring platform. A history of using data to improve products and processes Rubec got his start as a reporter in Ottawa, Ontario and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, working as a PR professional in Toronto before transitioning to the media intelligence space nearly a decade ago. Since then he’s primarily focused on building tools and processes to help organizations move faster, engage the media more efficiently, and better understand their industries. “James has shown he’s a leader who can motivate action through data,” said Fullintel President Andrew Koeck. “He’ll work closely with our clients to evolve our software offerings and build a product roadmap to leverage our real-time monitoring and analysis tools, to provide insights and data never before available from any vendor.” Rubec’s addition builds on Fullintel’s growing momentum in the PR measurement industry, culminating in the company winning Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards at the 2021 AMEC Awards for media measurement. His hiring follows Fullintel’s hiring of Angela Dwyer as Head of Insights, and the company’s shortlisting for five 2022 AMEC Awards for outstanding media measurement. Fullintel combines best-in-class technology with expert content curation to deliver the most relevant, cost optimized media monitoring, daily news briefs, and media analysis possible. Our analysts curate print, online, social media, broadcast, and influencer opinions in real time – compiled by technology, supplemented and verified by humans. Where technology alone fails, your dedicated analyst has you covered. Fullintel has offices in Cambridge, Mass., Ottawa, Ont., and Nagercoil, India. Contact Details Samuel Chen +1 339-970-8005 schen@fullintel.com Company Website https://fullintel.com/

October 12, 2022 10:11 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Kimberly Biddings, VP Of Product At BIO-key, Discusses Increased Cyber-Protection

BIO-key International, Inc.

Contact Details Catalyst IR- William Jones, David Collins +1 212-924-9800 BKYI@catalyst-ir.com Company Website https://www.bio-key.com/

October 12, 2022 09:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Homeowners Gained $60,200 In Equity On Average This Year — Blend’s New Digitized Home Equity Lending Software Will Make Accessing That Easier Than Ever

Blend Labs Inc.

Home equity in the United States hit record levels this year, exceeding $29 trillion in the second quarter, according to the Federal Reserve. That represents a gain of nearly 28% in equity year over year, with the average homeowner gaining about $60,200 in equity. But sky-high inflation and a clunky, outdated lending process have made using that equity difficult for many homeowners. These opposing forces are creating increased demand for financial products — especially home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) — that allow homeowners enjoying near-unprecedented home equity gains to tap into that new equity while banks struggle with an outdated, largely paper-based application process to approve new HELOC and home equity loan requests. That’s why companies like Blend Labs Inc. (NYSE: BLND) are working to digitize the home equity lending space. The cloud-based software platform turns a slow, 30-plus step process from application to funding into a quick process that can be completed in about three steps. HELOC Demand Is Surging, But Banks Are Still Relying On Outdated Paper-Based Applications HELOC volume surged almost 50% in the first half of the year, as the revolving line of credit with a variable rate and, usually, no origination fee is more attractive than a cash-out refinance for borrowers who locked in historically low rates on their original mortgage in the last few years. Homeowners are looking to leverage this spike in home equity to consolidate high-interest debts into lower-interest home equity lines of credit, make home renovations that could increase equity even further or use as a down payment on a second property to build up a real estate portfolio. That increase in HELOC volume is likely also thanks to the introduction of digital or tech-based solutions to the mortgage space that make it easier for customers to shop around for financial products, compare rates and offers and complete the application process. Traditionally, home equity lending has been slow to modernize, relying on a paper-based process with an average of 30 or more steps between application and funding that can take over 45 days to close. A lot of this is because of the clunky manual process on the bank’s side that leaves the customer waiting while a banker reviews the application, verifies assets and income, pulls credit, requests documents and so on. To meet the increasing demand, banks with the help of fintechs are finally taking this opportunity to update and digitize that process so homeowners can tap into their equity faster and more easily. Figure Technologies Inc. (NYSE: FACA.U), for example, is using blockchain technology to record and exchange data about a loan, automating much of the manual process that used to be needed. Meanwhile, Button Finance is using artificial intelligence to speed up the decision-making and funding process for home equity loans. Blend Instant Home Equity Brings Much-Needed Digitization to Home Equity Lending Blend Instant Home Equity is the latest from a company determined to bring digitization and tech-based solutions to the real estate and mortgage industries. The new product incorporates some of Blend’s existing software, like its Blend Income Verification and remote online notarization platform, to create a faster and more cost-effective alternative to home equity lending. The automated end-to-end product integrates identity and income verification, property appraisal, title, decisioning and notarization to cut the time and costs associated with processing a home equity loan application. For bankers, this makes it possible to generate a personalized offer for homeowners, approve it instantly and close it in a matter of days rather than weeks. For consumers, this means they can now easily access their home equity for things like debt consolidation and more. Unlike other fintechs in the home equity lending space, Blend uses modular architecture that makes it easy to develop new banking products that all integrate into one platform. This allows banks to digitize more of their services without relying on multiple pieces of software that may not integrate with each other. Banks incorporating the new Blend Instant Home Equity product can easily add its mortgage and other lending software. That ecosystem approach seems to be working, too, as Blend reports that 71% of its current customer base uses two or more Blend products. As competition in home equity lending heats up, banks are going to need digitization tools like these to handle larger volumes of applications while avoiding the long wait times that could drive customers to competing lenders. Powering the Future of Banking Blend is the infrastructure powering the future of banking. Financial providers—from the largest banks, fintechs, and credit unions to community and independent mortgage banks—use Blend’s platform to transform banking experiences for their customers. Blend powers billions of dollars in financial transactions every day. This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice. This article contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements generally relate to future events, future performance or expectations and involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this article may include, but are not limited to, our expectations regarding our product roadmap, future products/features, the timing of new product/feature introductions, market size and growth opportunities, macroeconomics and industry conditions, capital expenditures, plans for future operations, competitive position, technological capabilities and strategic relationships. The forward-looking statements contained in this article are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from the outcomes predicted. Further information on these risks and uncertainties are set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements in this article are based on information available to Blend and assumptions and beliefs as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, Blend does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. Contact Details Investor Relations IR@blend.com Company Website https://blend.com/

October 12, 2022 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Who Might Benefit from Staggering Gaming Growth Projections?

ESE Entertainment Inc

ValueTheMarkets News Commentary - With the gaming market projected to expand from $178bn to $267bn between 2021 and 2025, well-positioned service providers to this industry could reap the benefits. This article discusses the issue with reference to Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and ESE Entertainment (TSXV: ESE) (OTCQX: ENTEF). ESE Entertainment (TSXV: ESE) (OTCQX: ENTEF) is an entertainment and technology company focused on gaming and esports. In particular, the business is concerned with player acquisition services and the creation and distribution of digital content. In short, the company are experts in programmatic marketing for the videogames industry. With its targeted programmatic campaigns, the business is clocking up more than 7.3 billion impressions and sourcing 500,000 new players each month using its sophisticated technology. These figures have helped attract the attention of some of the biggest names in the industry and seen ESE Entertainment source legions of players for their games. For example, projects for Roblox and Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming helped bring in 3.6 million and 2 million new players respectively. On the back of these successes, ESE Entertainment has just announced a US$5m contract to deliver its technology and user acquisition services to a major European video game developer and publisher who is a new customer for the business. The company’s CEO, Conrad Wasiela, commented: “This is yet another example of us executing and securing new long-term multimillion dollar contracts for our gaming technology. “We are keenly focused on increasing sales and improving margins, and we believe landing larger technology contracts is the key to achieving these goals. We are excited to continue updating current and future shareholders with new developments at ESE.” It’s the latest update following a slew of positive news from ESE Entertainment, with its recent record-breaking third quarter financial earnings showing 276% revenue growth to CA$15.9m. Gross profit soared too, climbing by 595% to CA$3.1m after the business signed 25 new deals so far this year. The business will be hoping that its customer acquisition expertise and technology will make it a key partner for major developers in the coming years. Apple Inc ( NASDAQ: AAPL ) designs, manufactures and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories. The company also offers payment, digital content, cloud and advertising services. The business’ customers are primarily in consumer, small & mid-sized business, education, enterprise and government markets worldwide. A key way in which Apple Inc is poised to enjoy the gaming boom is through its App Store. The platform is already a major money-spinner for the tech giant and it reportedly features more than one million games alongside other applications. The company has confirmed that it is hiking prices on the App Store platform though, noting that a “slower economy” has impacted revenues. Additionally, the platform is becoming more ad-heavy as Apple Inc looks for more ways to increase revenue. While the company has a tight grasp on consumers through the popularity of its iPhones, it seems like these changes to its mobile gaming platform could hurt its popularity among both gamers and developers. Additionally, while Apple Inc’s iPhone is still enormously popular, the business appears to have had some issues with sales of its new model. Late September saw Bloomberg report that the company was shelving plans to hike production of the iPhone 14 after initially overestimating demand. The business will be hoping that this is merely a blip and not an indicator that its products are losing their appeal. Nvidia ( NASDAQ: NVDA ) designs, develops and markets three-dimensional graphics processors and related software. The company offers products that provide interactive 3D graphics to the mainstream personal computer market. The primary way in which this business enjoys exposure to the videogames industry is through its graphics cards, which are present in many gamers’ computers. These include top-of-the-line chips that utilize advance technology like artificial intelligence but can set users back over $1,500 apiece. In addition to its work on the hardware side of things, Nvidia works with videogame developers through offerings like Omniverse, the company’s real-time design collaboration and simulation platform. The idea behind Nvidia’s software is that it can help artists and designers enjoy more seamless collaboration within the development process as gaming industry progress leads projects to become increasingly complex and challenging. But the omniverse platform is just one of many software applications developed by Nvidia for use by game developers. The company’s expansive suite of game development tools include applications for simulation, asset processing, lighting and 3D creation platforms. The business will be hoping that continued growth in gaming industry revenues will bleed through to both its hardware and software development offerings. Jeff Bezos’ Amazon ( NASDAQ: AMZN ) is an online retailer that offers a wide range of products, including books, music, computers, electronics and numerous other products. The business offers personalized shopping services, Web-based credit card payment and direct shipping to customers. The company also operates a cloud platform offering services globally. While Amazon is perhaps best known for its ecommerce and video streaming service offerings, the company also offers services for videogame development. These come through Amazon Web Services (AWS), the business’ cloud computing platform. The company has boasted that its AWS for Games solution will help developers build, run, and grow their games through dedicated solutions for cloud game development, game servers, game security and more besides. The dedicated gaming offering, which Amazon announced the launch of in March 2022, could be very successful as the company claimed in its most recent earnings that AWS is already the most broadly adopted set of cloud infrastructure services. While the business now has tools on offer for other game developers, the business has also tried its hand at creating games itself. Increasingly ambitious titles from the Amazon Games subsidiary have included New World and Lost Ark. 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October 11, 2022 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

AUTO REMARKETING NAMES DANIEL BURKE TO ITS 2022 “40 UNDER 40” LIST

Agora

Auto Remarketing named Daniel Burke, CIO / CSO of Agora Data, to its 2022 “40 Under 40” list. The accolade recognizes current and next-generation leaders of the used-car business making big differences in the industry and at their respective companies. “I’m honored to be named to the Auto Remarketing “40 Under 40” list,” said Daniel Burke, Chief Information Officer / Chief Strategy Officer, Agora Data. “This recognition acknowledges the critical tech innovation we bring to the industry and our continued success in providing highly accurate loan performance data and predictive analytics to independent auto dealers who offer their own in-house financing.” Agora Data is the nation’s leading resource for non-prime auto dealers to secure affordable capital and build their own captive finance solution. The company offers independent dealers access to capital market financing at low-cost interest rates, along with data-driven analytics. Daniel is the architect of Agora Data’s proprietary machine learning / AI advanced modeling that allows Agora Data to provide an unprecedented high degree of certainty of non-prime loan payment outcomes. To date, Agora Data has analyzed over $76B worth of non-prime auto loan data to predict (to 98% accuracy) the performance of auto loans. In December 2020, Agora Data made auto industry history by closing the first-ever crowdsourced non-prime auto securitization. This breakthrough accomplishment allows auto dealers to have direct access to ample capital with favorable terms and lower loan interest rates to help fuel their business. “We’re excited to debut our inaugural ’40 Under 40: Industry’ program, and share the stories of these outstanding honorees. These are the next-generation leaders of the used-car business, and their accomplishments are as numerous as they are impressive,” said Joe Overby, senior editor of Auto Remarketing. “Congratulations to all of our honorees – we look forward to celebrating with you at Used Car Week in November!” Auto Remarketing’s “40 Under 40” honorees will be recognized at a ceremony this fall at Used Car Week in San Diego, CA., at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. For more information on Agora Data, visit www.agoradata.com. About Agora Data, Inc. Agora Data, an automotive industry fintech, is the nation’s leading resource for independent auto dealers and finance companies. Auto loan originators can secure affordable capital to build their own non-prime captive finance solution, obtain actionable loan performance data to optimize their lending portfolios, and leverage a suite of other products to safely grow their business. Powered by patent pending technology, originators can access real-time data analytics and planning resources to help optimize the performance of their portfolios. Agora Data made history by closing the first-ever crowdsourced non-prime auto securitization in 2020 and continually brings groundbreaking products to an underserved market. For more information, visit www.agoradata.com or contact us at 1-877-592-4672. # # # Contact Details Shelly Vandeven +1 682-282-4130 media@agoradata.com Company Website https://agoradata.com/

October 11, 2022 09:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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AUTO REMARKETING NAMES DANIEL BURKE TO ITS 2022 “40 UNDER 40” LIST