Marketing intelligence platform Singular has raised a $30 million Series B to grow its own business of unifying marketing data. Singular works with user-level data and creates audience segments, with its main focus on mobile and Web advertising sources, attribution, and analytics. It provides its own reporting and segmentation tools rather than integrating with third party products like a true CDP.
It’s hard not to be snarky about this: someone at Amazon thought a voice-powered microwave with automated popcorn replenishment was worth a press release. Maybe they were being ironic. If you insist on taking this seriously, it illustrates continued progress in voice-based consumer interfaces. Amazon released a dozen other voice-powered devices as well.
An even broader study that NSU Technologies ran for Software AG found that retailers who lead in adopting digital technologies had a six percent annual growth rate over three years, while laggards’ revenue was flat. Early adopters also had nearly twice the price-earnings ratio as the others: 22.32 vs 12.22. The survey provides lots of details about strategy, governance, deployments, business impact and technology. Good stuff but beware that the answers reflect an IT department viewpoint. Dead giveaway: 0% reported that business perceives IT as slow and inflexible.
Tech is fun but a little caution is always a good idea. This Pentagon-funded report on blockchain says that, whatever its theoretical virtues, existing real-world implementations contain major security weaknesses. Raise your hand if you’re shocked.