The combination creates one of the top “pure play” AWS partners in the United States and Latin America, with deep Amazon Connect and application modernization expertise underpinning a focus on helping customers get the most from their cloud investments.
Eplexity is one of the fastest-growing Amazon Web Services Partners with expertise in managed services, large-scale legacy to cloud migrations, and automation through DevOps pipeline implementation and management. Their CXOS Cloud Management Services Platform is built to AWS best practice standards utilizing DevOps tools and practices. CXOS enables customers to provide faster cloud adoption through proven, secure, cost-effective, and optimized migration methodologies, which increase performance and reliability.
The combined company will serve over 500 clients across a diversified set of industries, including oil and gas, logistics, travel and hospitality, healthcare, high-tech, and the public sector.
This milestone will drive growth and elevate the service quality of the combined company’s growing customer list. “The acquisition of Eplexity brings together two AWS Premier Consulting Partner ecosystem leaders to deliver a pure-play solution of scale to the market,” said Jim Walker, CEO, CloudHesive.
“The Eplexity team’s proven success in the small to mid-size market, combined with CloudHesive’s strength at enterprise scale, gives us unmatched capabilities delivering products, services, and solutions to help customers achieve their AWS goals.”
This investment represents the second acquisition for CloudHesive. In 2022, CloudHesive acquired Dextr Cloud, the industry’s most powerful customer service and performance contact center, as a service solution developed on the AWS service eco-system. This was rebranded ConnectPath CX Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform, powered by Amazon Connect. The acquisition of Eplexity is critical to help CloudHesive grow its Contact Center, AI/ML, Big data, and application optimization practices. This acquisition will increase CloudHesive’s footprint in the United States to include an office in Denver, Colorado, and add additional Amazon Web Service Partner Programs and Competencies to its portfolio.
CloudHesive is an Amazon Premier Partner and an Amazon Managed Services Partner founded in 2014 by veterans in the cloud technology space. We help our customers adapt and transform their organizations by leveraging the power of the public cloud ecosystem through consulting, and next-generation managed services with a focus on Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, and Application Optimization. We service global customers and have headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and offices in Norfolk, Virginia, Santiago, Chile, Bogota, Colombia and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Joining forces with CloudHesive allows us to merge their cutting-edge technologies and service solutions with our Managed and Application Modernization Services,” said John Clendennen, CEO of Eplexity. “This powerful combination will provide unique, customized solutions for customers looking to modernize or transition to AWS environments.”
Strattam Capital first invested in CloudHesive in 2021 to enable CloudHesive to accelerate its pace of innovation while continuing to provide best-in-class services to its high-profile customer base. In addition, the investment provided CloudHesive with the resources to expand its operations and sales team, supporting customers in both the public sector and commercial space, and to pursue rapid geographic expansion.
The Leading 100 List 2023, the highly anticipated international annual research list recognizing innovative tech start-ups driving the future of brand-to-consumer has been announced and the local Ft. Lauderdale-based FIT:MATCH has made the list.
FIT:MATCH is a ‘Digital Twin Matching Platform’ for B2B apparel brands enabling them to match their customers with the best-fitting products. The company’s patented algorithms derive a shopper’s 3D body shape, or “digital twin,’ using augmented reality and LIDAR-powered devices, to make personalized product recommendations in hard to fit categories. FIT:MATCH is designed to eliminate brands’ and consumers’ questions about fit in order to drive conversion and loyalty, while reducing returns.
The Leading 100 List, produced by The Lead, recognizes high impact technology start-ups that are transforming the direct-to-consumer business model and driving business value for brands as well as retailers. These young companies are venture capital funded and predominantly in their seed or series A round of financing. The Leading 100 companies are solving business problems, powering growth, and helping brands deliver on customer expectations through innovative, accessible, and powerful technology solutions. All companies were vetted and selected using a rigorous methodology which measured Innovation, Business Impact, Commercialization & Customers, Teams & Experience, Competition, Media Buzz, and Investor Value Creation. Company data was collected via a combination of CEO interviews, company nomination data, and publicly available market data.
FIT:MATCH, the digital twin platform, recently partnered with disruptor brand Savage X Fenty, in collaboration with Intel to launch the next generation of its award-winning, patented body shape technology. The product, dubbed Fit Xperience, gives shoppers the opportunity to get scanned in an in-store fitting room using Intel’s RealSense technology and the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit.
Within seconds, customers are matched with the best-fitting Savage X styles based on their exact body shape. This first-of-its-kind experience is available exclusively at Savage X Fenty retail stores, debuted at its new Lenox Square Mall location in Atlanta, Georgia in February.
This new experience weaves together augmented reality, computer vision and artificial intelligence, creating a re-imagined in-store fitting room experience. Shoppers who take part in Fit Xperience step into the fitting room where Intel RealSense depth sensors create an anonymized avatar based on their exact body shape. The technology then compares the shopper’s body to the database of digital twins (bodies that have been scanned previously), and – with an AI assist from Intel OpenVINO – recommends the best-fitting products to the shopper. By using depth sensors, and not cameras, to generate a mapping of a shoppers’ shape, FIT:MATCH has ensured the entire experience is both safe and private, with no videos and pictures taken or stored. The process is also extremely fast — it takes less than 30 seconds from beginning to end — saving time, both for the shoppers and the store associates.
Savage X Fenty closed a strategic investment in FIT:MATCH last year to accelerate expansion of the AR-powered technology, which solves the fit challenge that has long plagued brands and consumers by utilizing body shape data rather than just standard measurements.
This is the type of “high impact technology” that The Lead is looking for in their startups honored in The Lead 100 List 2023.
“Capitalizing on the learnings from the initial Fit Xperience rollout, we wanted to take the entire experience to the next level. This new product leverages Intel’s RealSense technology, as well as OpenVINO software to deliver a powerful, fast, and immersive shopping experience,” said Haniff Brown, Founder and CEO of FIT:MATCH. “We truly believe this is the most frictionless in-store fitting experience on the market.”
Companies from across the value chain all around the world — including marketing, ecommerce, customer experience, stores, data, AI, last mile, checkouts and payments, sustainability, merchandising, and Web3 — were nominated & considered. All companies were vetted and selected using a rigorous methodology which measures Innovation, Business Impact, Commercialization & Customers, Teams and Experience, Competition, Media Buzz, and Investor Value Creation. The selection committee, led by The Lead’s Chief Content Officer, Sonal Gandhi, conducted the analysis and final selection.
“The pace of change in the fashion, beauty and consumer industries has become dizzyingly fast, even for the industry leaders,” says Gandhi. “The companies selected for The Leading 100 list represent some of the best examples of how technology innovation is helping address the needs of this rapidly evolving business environment. Some are helping brands get the best out of the latest advances in powerful technologies such as AI, while others are creating solutions to optimize efficiency and productivity across the value chain.”
The Leading 100 List of 2023 is presented in partnership with RILA, NYFTL, XRC Ventures, Plug & Play, The Robin Report, and SUBTA. The Leading 100 Selection Committee includes: Pano Anthos, Founder & Managing Director, XRC Ventures; Jackie Trebilcock, Managing Director, New York Fashion Tech Lab; Nicholas Ahrens, Senior Vice President of Strategy, Innovation & Content, RILA; Nick Reasner, Director, Innovation & Customer Experience, Simon Property Group; Chip Korn, Partner & Co-chair, Emerging Company & Venture Capital Practice Group, Foley Hoag; Ken Pilot, Founder, Ken Pilot Ventures; Will Decker, Head of Brand & Retail, Plug & Play Tech Center; Christine Russo, Principal, RCC Agency; Tom Barbaro, Co-Founder, Cogent; Juan Mejia, Managing Director, BrightTower; Ian McGarrigle, Chairman, World Retail Congress; and Robin Lewis, Founder & CEO, The Robin Report.
“At XRC Ventures, we are excited about new technologies that empower brands and retailers to innovate,” says XRC Ventures Founder & Managing Director, Pano Anthos. “The Leading 100 List includes startups that are doing just that by developing and leveraging new approaches in AI applications, spatial intelligence, supply chain redesign, sustainably-focused methods, and more. I look forward to seeing these startups help lead our industry into the future.”
The Leading 100 will be honored at The Lead Innovation Summit on July 12th & 13th, The Lead’s flagship event where the entire fashion, beauty, home, CPG, food, beverage, health, wellness, and retail innovation community will converge to engage the future of the direct-to-consumer business model. The annual event will bring together executives from enterprise brands and retailers, challenger DTC brands, innovative unicorns, technology start-ups, enterprise technology, investors, dealmakers, analysts, and stakeholders that comprise The Lead’s network.
The Leading 100 List of 2023
Accrue Savings
Adentro
Alloy Automation
Anvyl
Archive Resale
Archive.com
Breinify
Browzwear
buywith
Canal
Carro
Catch
Checkmate
Chord
Cogsy
Constructor.io
Crossing Minds
Curated for You
Cymbio
Daasity
DataMilk
Disco
Drop
EcoCart
EON
Factored Quality
Fairing
Feel
Fermat
Fillogic FIT:MATCH.ai
FlagshipRTL
FloorFound
Floship
Fondue
Fuse Inventory
Hang.xyz
Haus Analytics
Hexa 3D
Howl Technologies
Humankind
Intelligems
Kahoona
KERV
Kevel
Leap
Lexer
Lily AI
Link Money
LiquiDonate
The Miami Metropolitan region (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach) came in with the overall lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.2%!!
Last month Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Florida’s economy continues to work for Floridians with February’s unemployment rate remaining at a low 2.6 percent, while the national rate increased to 3.6 percent.
Furthermore, Florida’s unemployment rate has decreased by 0.7 of a percentage point over the year and has remained lower than the nation for 28 consecutive months since November 2020. In February 2023, Florida’s private sector employment grew by 5.0 percent (406,600 jobs) over the year. Between February 2022 and February 2023, Florida’s labor force grew by 247,000 (2.3 percent), which is faster than the national labor force growth rate of 1.5 percent during the same time period.
“Florida’s economy continues to be number one in new business formations while growing our labor force and creating jobs faster than the national rate,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “As the federal government continues to flounder on key issues like inflation, Florida will continue to get the fundamentals right.”
All ten major industries experienced positive over-the-year job growth in February. Florida’s private sector employment increased by 0.4 percent over the month (+34,800 jobs) in February 2023, faster than the national rate by 0.2 percentage point over the month and 2.0 percentage points over the year. In February 2023, Florida employers have added jobs for 33 months since May 2020, with the exception of October 2022. Florida’s over-the-year private sector job growth rate has exceeded the nations’ job growth rate for 23 consecutive months since April 2021.
“Thanks to Governor DeSantis’ ongoing commitment to investing in infrastructure enhancements and workforce development initiatives across the state, Florida’s economy continues to fire on all cylinders,” said Meredith Ivey, Acting Secretary of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO).
“Florida gained nearly 35,000 jobs over the month in February 2023 and our state’s unemployment rate remains consistently low. DEO is committed to continuing to champion Governor DeSantis’ mission through its partnerships and programs to ensure Florida sustains its economic success.”
In February 2023, trade, transportation and utilities gained the most jobs among all major industries, adding 12,800 jobs (+0.7 percent) over the month, followed by education and health services, adding 11,400 jobs (+0.8 percent), and leisure and hospitality, adding 10,700 jobs (+0.8 percent).
Data from the month of February continues to indicate there are many job opportunities available for Floridians throughout the state, with more than 409,000 jobs posted online.
The industries gaining jobs over the year included:
leisure and hospitality (+104,700 jobs, +8.7 percent)
education and health services (+89,400 jobs, +6.5 percent)
professional and business services (+67,300 jobs, +4.4 percent)
trade, transportation, and utilities (+62,100 jobs, +3.3 percent)
financial activities (+25,200 jobs, +3.9 percent)
total government (+20,800 jobs, +1.9 percent)
construction (+19,700 jobs, +3.3 percent)
other services (+18,300 jobs, +5.4 percent)
manufacturing (+16,700 jobs, +4.1 percent)
information (+2,400 jobs, +1.6 percent)
Floridians in search of work and new job opportunities are encouraged to turn to the CareerSource Florida network for help. Floridians can find guidance on how to register with Employ Florida and search listings of available local job openings. Career seekers also can improve their employability by perfecting resume writing and interviewing skills, establishing career goals, and pursuing customized career training. These services are provided at no cost to job seekers.
In February 2023, Monroe County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate (1.6 percent), followed by Miami-Dade County (1.7 percent), St. Johns County and Gulf County (2.2 percent each), and Wakulla County and Okaloosa County (2.3 percent each). In February 2023, all of 24 metro areas in Florida had over-the-year job gains. The areas with the largest gains were Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (+68,700 jobs, +4.7 percent), Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (+68,300 jobs, +5.0 percent), and Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall (+53,800 jobs, +4.4 percent).
The entire Southeast Florida region, or Miami Metro region, came in with the overall lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.2%!! The Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall metropolitan division came in first for the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 1.7%. The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach tied for second place for the lowest unemployment rate in he state at 2.5% and West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach came in at th8ird -place for the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.6%.
