TECHNOLOGY, INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
Businesswire | July 10, 2023
DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DOCN), the cloud for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and startups, has acquired Paperspace, a leading provider of cloud infrastructure as a service for highly scalable applications leveraging graphics processing units (GPUs). The acquisition and integration of Paperspace’s advanced technology into the DigitalOcean platform will extend DigitalOcean’s offerings, enabling customers to more easily test, develop and deploy artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) applications, augment and enhance existing AI/ML applications and utilize GPUs in ways that have predominantly been the domain of large enterprises.
The increasing demand for AI/ML cloud solutions makes Paperspace’s GPU-powered infrastructure and AI/ML focused software stack valuable additions to DigitalOcean’s portfolio. Like DigitalOcean’s approach to the cloud, Paperspace simplifies the AI/ML experience, enabling easy and cost-effective experimentation and production across various AI/ML use cases, such as generative media, text analysis and natural language understanding, recommendation engines, image classification and many others.
The acquisition benefits both organizations’ customers. Paperspace’s customers will now have access to a broader cloud services platform. Paperspace customers will also gain access to DigitalOcean’s extensive documentation, tutorials and support system to assist them in their journey to build and deploy AI applications. DigitalOcean customers exploring or already building AI/ML applications will now be able to leverage GPUs alongside their CPU workloads. Together, DigitalOcean and Paperspace will provide smaller businesses and startups with a comprehensive suite of cloud offerings, advanced networking, and the flexibility to harness both GPU and CPU capabilities as AI/ML technologies evolve and demand increases.
“We are excited to expand our portfolio tailored to the world’s SMBs and startups with simplified AI/ML offerings,” said Yancey Spruill, CEO of DigitalOcean. “This acquisition marks a significant milestone in DigitalOcean's journey to revolutionize how SMBs and startups harness the power of the cloud and AI/ML for their applications and businesses. The combined offerings allow customers to focus more on building applications and growing their businesses and less on the infrastructure powering them.”
Paperspace will benefit from DigitalOcean’s highly effective self-serve model and efficient go-to-market strategy. The acquisition expands DigitalOcean’s serviceable market and presents cross-sell and upsell opportunities for both entities, leveraging DigitalOcean's mature platform, efficient marketing engine and its extensive customer base to drive growth.
"DigitalOcean is renowned for simplifying complex cloud technologies and making them more accessible to developers and business alike,” said Dillon Erb, Co-founder and CEO of Paperspace. “We are thrilled to join forces with DigitalOcean, as we believe there is no better company to unlock the endless possibilities of AI/Ml for developers and businesses alike."
Importantly, the alignment in organizational history and culture between DigitalOcean and Paperspace will ensure a smooth integration process and a collaborative work environment. The two companies’ shared values and commitment to customer success will continue to foster innovation, enhance customer experiences, and reinforce both entities as industry leaders in cloud computing.
Transaction Terms
Under the terms of the transaction, DigitalOcean acquired Paperspace for $111 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to have an immaterial impact on 2023 financial results. “Paperspace is a rapidly growing business with leading edge technology that significantly accelerates our AI/ML capabilities. We expect it to enhance our revenue growth in 2024 and beyond and we will invest commensurately to further accelerate its growth and take full advantage of this tremendous emerging market opportunity,” said Matt Steinfort, DigitalOcean’s CFO. On its Q2 2023 earnings call on August 3, 2023, DigitalOcean will share more details on the strategic benefits of the acquisition and update the Company’s financial outlook for 2023.
About DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean simplifies cloud computing so businesses can spend more time creating software that changes the world. With its mission-critical infrastructure and fully managed offerings, DigitalOcean helps developers at startups and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rapidly build, deploy and scale, whether creating a digital presence or building digital products. DigitalOcean combines the power of simplicity, security, community and customer support so customers can spend less time managing their infrastructure and more time building innovative applications that drive business growth. For more information, visit digitalocean.com.
About Paperspace
Paperspace is a cloud platform for building and scaling AI applications. Paperspace customer use-cases include deploying LLMs, fine-tuning Foundation Models, building the next ChatGPT, harnessing generative media, and many more. Tens of thousands of individuals and businesses use Paperspace to explore new models with Notebooks, automate training with Workflows, and bring their applications to life with Deployments.
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Small Business Trends
Sustainable Earth | April 23, 2022
Sustainable Earth, a collaboration between Arizona State University (ASU) and Wells Fargo, has announced the launch of the Sustainable Earth Small Business Awards (SESBA) to celebrate the innovative solutions small businesses throughout the US are developing to support their communities and the planet. The program will award more than $50,000 in prize money, with individual award amounts up to $5,000, to 15 US small businesses making strides toward a more sustainable future.
The award program, which is seeking nominations now through July 1, 2022, is open to any US-based small business and its employees who demonstrate innovation in sustainability. This can include, but is not limited to, the use of renewable energy, water conservation, waste reduction, creating closed-loop systems, increasing equity and accessibility, etc. Solutions may be in development or currently in practice.
“The collective efforts and innovative solutions by small businesses and individuals within those organizations are making a profound impact on the future of our earth and communities. Our goal with the Sustainable Earth Small Business Awards is to celebrate those taking action in big and small ways and share their stories so that it may trigger ideas for other businesses and leaders.”
Sustainable Earth Program Manager Katelyn Armbruster, M.Ed.
Businesses with fewer than 500 employees are invited to share their sustainability stories via video or podcast. Nominations must include a description of the challenge, what solutions were tested and implemented, and what worked, what didn’t, and the outcomes.
“Small businesses have long been the backbone of our economy and they have become integral to moving the needle on sustainability,” said Alicia Marseille, Interim Deputy Director, Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service. “This award program honors their hard work and dedication, and perhaps more importantly, will also serve as inspiration for other small businesses wanting to implement sustainability, but may not know where or how to start.”
About Sustainable Earth
Sustainable Earth, powered by ASU, is a sustainability-, knowledge- and idea-sharing website created to empower individuals, businesses and educators to contribute to a more sustainable tomorrow. The platform provides sustainability information, news and education presented in an approachable format, and includes sustainable-focused micro-courses, educational tools and learning activities, and new research coming out of ASU and other institutions. Sustainable Earth is a collaborative effort, funded by Wells Fargo and developed by Arizona State University (ASU). For more information, visit sustainable-earth.org.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets, proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of small businesses in the U.S., and is the leading middle market banking provider in the U.S.
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Technology
Scienaptic | April 19, 2022
Scienaptic announced that Profectus Capital is now live on its platform. Scienaptic has implemented its credit decisioning engine and industry-tested scorecards for Bureau data and Financial Statements as part of Phase-I deployment to improve small and medium company (SMB) loan choices. Scienaptic's AI technology will also be used to identify risk trends in Profectus' customer behavior and deliver more precise prediction risk alerts. Scienaptic is a market-leading global provider of AI-powered credit platforms.
Profectus Capital is a systematically significant non-bank financial corporation located in Mumbai and registered with the Reserve Bank of India. It provides term loans and working capital loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the manufacturing and service industries. Profectus intends to use Scienaptic AI to bolster its credit decisioning processes and expand loan availability to underrepresented MSMEs.
“We are delighted to be working with Profectus Capital to help strengthen the credit and financing opportunities for its clients. Profectus has tremendous domain expertise in MSME/SME funding and are poised to scale their asset base dramatically. We are sure that Scienaptic's unique, adaptive AI technology will enable the company to serve more SMEs, reduce credit risk and create maximum social impact to the manufacturing and service sectors of India.”
Joydip Gupta, Business Leader Scienaptic AI
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