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Artificial Intelligence

BC Platforms, RIKEN and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) collaborate on artificial intelligence approach to identify people most at risk of from COVID-19

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BC Platforms, a global leader in clinical and genomic data management, analytics and access, announces that it has joined forces with Japan’s RIKEN research institution and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (‘THL’), in an international research effort to support development of a precision prediction model to identify those most at risk from COVID-19. RIKEN and THL play significant roles in Japan and Finland, respectively, in the fight against COVID-19, improving society’s resilience to the coronavirus pandemic.

RIKEN has developed precise disease stratification algorithms using information geometry and artificial intelligence which is applicable to determine which people are at risk of mortality and aggravation from COVID-19. THL leads a nationwide research project, COVIDprog, which collects samples and data from patients with positive COVID test results to support the identification of individual characteristics, including underlying genetic causes, which affect outcomes. BC-Platforms is providing its BC|INSIGHT platform to enable the curation, integration and analysis of THL’s clinical data of 300 to 1,000 Finnish COVIDprog research subjects using RIKEN’s algorithms. This is to identify a ‘COVID-19 prediction procedure’ that can estimate symptoms and outcomes of COVID-19 based on health records of infected patients obtained before SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Dr Kazuhiro Sakurada, Group Director at RIKEN, said, “SARS-CoV-2 infection exhibits inter-individual clinical variability, ranging from asymptomatic virus carriers to individuals with severe disease that rapidly progress to respiratory failure. There are known and unknown factors that influence the symptoms and outcomes of COVID-19. In addition, heterogeneity in susceptibility to infection and severity of symptoms may be present among vaccinated individuals. At RIKEN we are developing a personalized phenotypic prediction model which is applicable to identify those at high risk, potentially saving life by providing care to those groups.”

Professor Markus Perola, leader of the COVIDprog research at THL, said, “We are collaborating with RIKEN and BC Platforms to research a ‘COVID-19 prediction procedure’, making use of the rich patient data in our COVIDprog, coupled with RIKEN’s AI modelling skills and BC Platforms’ secure data management capabilities. Our hope is, together, we will gain insights into exactly who is at risk from COVID-19, and why, at a molecular/genetic level, so society can better allocate resources to those who most need them to survive the pandemic.”

Tero Silvola, CEO of BC Platforms, said, “Systematic data sharing in a safe and secure manner is crucial in our fight against COVID-19. We are delighted to collaborate with RIKEN and THL on their novel data-led approach to protecting people in the pandemic. We will use our BC|INSIGHT platform as a data-backbone, to provide the Japanese and Finnish researchers with the high-quality data they need to determine predictive procedures to support shielding and treatment of people during this, and future, pandemics. We are looking forward to working with RIKEN to make this AI prediction platform available to other healthcare systems in order to help them to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Susceptibility and resistance to SARS-CoV-2 depends on multiple factors, including the central role played by innate and acquired immunity, which are in turn influenced by previous vaccinations, such as BCG, and infections from other corona viruses. The gut microbiota also helps shape the immune system, which can be damaged by inappropriate use of antibiotics. Why some people rapidly progress to respiratory failure in COVID-19 is poorly understood, with multiple associations observed between outcomes and hypertension, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Several genes have been identified from research on other coronaviruses, including ACE2 and TMPRSS2, which are directly involved in viral infection. This international collaboration aims to unpick these phenotypic and genetic associations to provide a better understanding of specifically why and how COVID-19 leads to mortality in some patients.

Artificial Intelligence

Permira to Acquire Majority Position in BioCatch at $1.3bn Valuation

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Permira Growth Opportunities Transaction builds on initial minority investment made in early 2023 to acquire a majority position and support BioCatch’s accelerated growth within online fraud detection and financial crime prevention
NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, May 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — BioCatch (the “Company”), the global leader in digital fraud detection and financial crime prevention powered by behavioral biometric intelligence, today announced that Permira Growth Opportunities II (the “Fund”), a fund advised by global private equity firm Permira, has agreed to acquire a majority position in the Company. Alongside the Fund’s investment, existing shareholders Sapphire Ventures and Macquarie Capital will also increase their investments in BioCatch. The transaction is expected to accelerate the Company’s global expansion, advance its innovative product roadmap and support its continued overall growth.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Fund will acquire a majority stake in BioCatch, buying out shares primarily from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities and Maverick Ventures, in a secondary transaction valuing the Company at a total enterprise valuation of $1.3bn.
BioCatch was founded in 2011 – at the dawn of a significant consumer shift from branch to online banking – with a mission to fight fraud and keep users safe in online transactions without disrupting user experience. Today, the Company is a leader in behavioral biometric intelligence and advanced fraud detection, leveraging patented artificial intelligence, data science, and machine learning technology to analyze a user’s cognitive intent and deliver highly accurate insights as to the legitimacy of their identity, motivations, and behavior. In 2023, the Company expanded its mission to include a proactive approach to fighting financial crime with the launch of predictive, behavior-based mule account detection.
As fraud attacks have become increasingly scaled, sophisticated and complex, BioCatch has experienced significant and sustained momentum. Permira, via its growth equity strategy, completed an initial minority investment in the Company in early 2023, a year that BioCatch ultimately finished with 49% ARR growth, whilst also surpassing the $100 million ARR milestone and attaining EBITDA profitability. Today, BioCatch counts more than 190 financial institutions as customers globally, including over 30 of the world’s largest 100 global banks, who use its solutions to fight fraud, facilitate financial crime prevention and decision intelligence sharing, accelerate digital transformation, and grow the value of customer relationships.
Permira brings a growth mindset to BioCatch’s next chapter, with the ability and network to help the Company expand across Continental Europe, where Permira was first established nearly four decades ago. In addition, Permira is excited to back the Company’s exceptional management team and innovative product roadmap, and is committed to further strengthening BioCatch’s global leadership position both organically and inorganically.
“Permira has backed the theme of cybersecurity for several years, and within this, online fraud detection, customer identity and access management markets have become a clear focus. We have tracked BioCatch with enthusiasm for many years, and now having been a shareholder since early 2023, our conviction in the business, its growth potential, its technology leadership, and its management team continues to grow. We’re excited to become the company’s majority shareholder and look forward to a continued successful partnership with Gadi and the BioCatch team as we seek to further accelerate growth and expansion in the years to come,” said Stefan Dziarski, Partner and Co-Head of Permira Growth Opportunities.
Gadi Mazor, CEO of BioCatch, added: “After building a strong partnership with Permira over the last year, we are delighted to welcome them as majority shareholders. The firm’s impressive experience within technology and cybersecurity, combined with their scale, global network, and our close working relationship, has been invaluable since their initial investment. We’re excited to take BioCatch to the next level together. I’d also like to thank Matthew Kinsella from Maverick Ventures and Dewey Awad from Bain Capital for their support over the last four years, which has been key in helping us establish our leadership position in the market.”
“We have had the privilege of partnering with BioCatch over the past four years and worked closely with Gadi and the BioCatch team to develop a long-term strategy to realize the business’s growth potential,” said Dewey Awad, a Partner at Bain Capital. “Together, we drove several key initiatives aimed at augmenting BioCatch’s go-to-market strategy, team, and operations, all with the goal of protecting end-users and their most sensitive transactions. We believe the company is well-positioned to continue its growth journey under Gadi’s leadership and with Permira’s support.”
“At Permira, we are looking to back product-led businesses operating in structurally growing end markets and that have management teams with the ambition to scale and grow their business. We found all of that in BioCatch and were grateful to have the opportunity to make an initial investment in 2023. After a successful first year, we are delighted to take a majority stake in the business as it continues to grow at scale. With the full extent of Permira’s resources and experience at its disposal, we’re excited for what’s to come at BioCatch,” commented Ran Maidan, Senior Adviser and Head of Permira in Israel.
About Permira
Permira is a global investment firm that backs successful businesses with growth ambitions. Founded in 1985, the firm advises funds with total committed capital of approximately €80bn and makes long-term majority and minority investments across two core asset classes, private equity and credit.
The Permira funds have an extensive track record in technology investing, having invested in 50+ companies across SaaS, cybersecurity, digital commerce, fintech and online marketplaces. Permira invested in BioCatch via its Growth Opportunities Fund; its strategy is to back disruptive technology and tech-enabled companies as they scale to the next level. The Permira funds have previously supported and helped scale some of the largest and fastest-growing technology businesses globally, including Genesys, TeamViewer, Zendesk, McAfee, Mimecast, Carta, G2, Sysdig, SonarSource, Mirakl, and others. Permira closed its second Growth Opportunities Fund in December 2021 at $4 billion.
The Permira private equity funds have made approximately 300 private equity investments in four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Healthcare and Services. Permira employs over 500 people in 15 offices across Europe, the United States and Asia. For more information, visit www.permira.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
About BioCatch
BioCatch stands at the forefront of digital fraud detection, pioneering behavioral biometric intelligence grounded in advanced cognitive science and machine learning. BioCatch analyzes thousands of user interactions to support a digital banking environment where identity, trust, and ease coexist. Today, more than 30 of the world’s largest 100 banks and more than 190 total financial institutions rely on BioCatch Connect™ to combat fraud, facilitate digital transformation, and grow customer relationships.
BioCatch’s Client Innovation Board, an industry-led initiative featuring American Express, Barclays, Citi Ventures, HSBC, and National Australia Bank, collaborates to pioneer creative and innovative ways to leverage customer relationships for fraud prevention. With more than a decade of data analysis, 90 registered patents, and unmatched expertise, BioCatch continues to lead innovation to address future challenges. For more information, visit www.biocatch.com.
Media Contacts
For BioCatch
Mac KingSr. Manager, Corporate Communications, [email protected]+1-206-200-8596
For Permira
James [email protected] +44 774 7006407
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Artificial Intelligence

JupiterOne and watchTowr announce partnership to protect business critical assets with broad exposure management capabilities

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SINGAPORE, May 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — watchTowr, a leader in external attack surface management (EASM) technology and fuelled by watchTowr Labs, a renowned vulnerability R&D capability, has formed a strategic partnership with JupiterOne. JupiterOne is a leader in cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM) technology. This collaboration enables customers to rapidly prioritize emerging threats within their constantly changing environments, focusing on fixing the most critical risks impacting their business, which enables an end-to-end continuous threat exposure management process (CTEM).

Over 28,000 CVE records were published in 2023; a figure that is expected to increase as attackers shorten the time from known vulnerability to exploit, reducing it from weeks to days. JupiterOne and watchTowr’s integrated solution empowers enterprises to discover their most critical and exploitable vulnerabilities, prioritize them with asset context based on business impact and receive an actionable remediation plan to improve security posture.
This partnership enables a complete continuous threat exposure management program, addressing the full spectrum of cyber risk management. The fully integrated solution provides continuous monitoring and assessment of both internal and external digital assets, allowing for prioritization and effective threat mitigation for a business’s most critical assets. “Our partnership with watchTowr is a game-changer” said Forte. “Combining our data aggregation with real-time asset discovery and automated security testing allows us to offer a unique, all-encompassing approach to exposure management.”
Benjamin Harris, CEO, watchTowr, said, “While the number of reported vulnerabilities continues to rise, the vulnerabilities that matter – in mission-critical, key systems – have exploded at an alarming rate. This reality, combined with the significant shift in speed by attackers to weaponize vulnerabilities – the ability to validate exploitability and prioritise actions based on real business risk has never been more vital. We’re excited to join forces with JupiterOne to give security teams around the globe this much-needed end-to-end capability.”
About JupiterOne:
JupiterOne is a cybersecurity startup delivering powerful software solutions to companies across all industries, providing deep insights to cyber assets and the relationships between, empowering security professionals to have true knowledge and ownership of their attack surfaces.
About watchTowr: 
watchTowr is a global cybersecurity technology company, built by former adversaries.
watchTowr’s world-class External Attack Surface Management and Continuous Automated Red Teaming technology is informed by years of experience compromising some of the world’s most targeted organisations and utilised by Fortune 500, financial services and critical infrastructure providers every day.
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Artificial Intelligence

Clarivate Declares Dividend on Mandatory Convertible Preferred Shares

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LONDON, May 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CLVT; CLVT PR A) (“Clarivate”), a leading global provider of transformative intelligence, today announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $1.3125 per share on its 5.25% Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Shares (the “Preferred Shares”), payable in cash on June 3, 2024 to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 15, 2024.

On the mandatory conversion date, which is scheduled to occur on June 3, 2024, each Preferred Share will automatically and mandatorily convert into a number of ordinary shares of Clarivate (and cash in lieu of any fractional ordinary shares) based on the average volume weighted average price (“VWAP”) of Clarivate’s ordinary shares over a 30-trading day period that begins on, and includes, April 18, 2024 and is scheduled to end on, and include, May 30, 2024 (the “valuation period”). If such VWAP is (i) greater than $31.20, then the mandatory conversion rate will be 3.2052 ordinary shares of Clarivate per Preferred Share, (ii) less than or equal to $31.20 but equal to or greater than $26.00, then the mandatory conversion rate will be a number of ordinary shares of Clarivate per Preferred Share equal to $100.00 divided by such VWAP and (iii) less than $26.00, then the mandatory conversion rate will be 3.8462 ordinary shares of Clarivate per Preferred Share. The mandatory conversion rate will be announced following the end of the valuation period. The above description of the terms of the Preferred Shares is not complete and is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by reference to, the “Statement of Rights” for the Preferred Shares, which is filed as Exhibit 3.2 to Clarivate’s annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This communication contains “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, which express management’s current views concerning future business, events, trends, contingencies, financial performance, or financial condition, appear at various places in this communication and may use words like “aim,” “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “future,” “goal,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “see,” “seek,” “should,” “strategy,” “strive,” “target,” “will,” and “would” and similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on management’s current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy, and other future conditions. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include those factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our annual report on Form 10-K, along with our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). However, those factors should not be considered to be a complete statement of all potential risks and uncertainties. Additional risks and uncertainties not known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also adversely affect our business operations. Forward-looking statements are based only on information currently available to our management and speak only as of the date of this communication. We do not assume any obligation to publicly provide revisions or updates to any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as otherwise required by securities and other applicable laws. Please consult our public filings with the SEC or on our website at www.clarivate.com.
About Clarivate
Clarivate™ is a leading global provider of transformative intelligence. We offer enriched data, insights & analytics, workflow solutions and expert services in the areas of Academia & Government, Intellectual Property and Life Sciences & Healthcare. For more information, please visit www.clarivate.com.
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