Day: February 3, 2022

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FloQast Celebrates 2021 as Landmark Year for Company Growth

Fueled by a Successful Series D Funding Round and Hiring Campaign, FloQast Continues Building Momentum Throughout Q4 with Massive YoY Growth Rate

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FloQast, a provider of accounting workflow automation software created by accountants for accountants, today announced its Q4 and 2021 metrics, concluding a milestone year highlighted by international expansion, new product and company initiatives, industry accolades, and the biggest growth the company has seen since its launch. The company reported 97% year-over-year growth in annual recurring revenue (ARR) for the quarter, as well as 153% year-over-year growth in net new ARR for 2021. Further, with more than 1,500 customers globally, FloQast added 171 new customers in Q4. These milestones stem from the recent $110 million Series D funding, led by Meritech Capital, and further the company’s leadership role in workflow automation technology.

“This past year, FloQast experienced exceptional growth across the board – including funding, product and platform launches, customer acquisition and more – making this one of the most important and successful years for the company since we were founded,” says Mike Whitmire, inactive CPA, co-founder and CEO at FloQast. “This growth is a testament to the critical advances taking root across the accounting industry and highlights FloQast’s ability to deliver next-generation technology to usher in a new era of modernization and change.”

Over the course of 2021, FloQast experienced milestones in several key areas:

  • A successful $110 million Series D funding round, led by Meritech Capital, and a valuation of $1.2 billion, making the company a “unicorn workflow solution provider.”
  • The receipt of 36 G2 badges in 2021, including:
    • #1 Leader in the G2 Momentum Grid, Fall 2021 and Winter 2022 Leader, Users Love Us, High Performer in Enterprise, Leader in Mid Market, and Winter 2022 Momentum Leader.
  • Notable Q4 customer acquisition includes prominent names such as Atmosphere TV, Demandbase, Valo Health, BioLegend Inc., Black Rock Coffee, Shenandoah Valley Organic, and more.
  • The launch of several new initiatives, tools and programs, including:
    • FloQast Ops, a new workflow manager solution that addresses upstream and downstream financial functions to deliver greater control and transparency across accounting operations.
    • FloQast ReMind, a new request management workflow add-on that automates manual tasks and delivers new levels of visibility across the close process.
    • FloQast Studios, a full-scale production arm of FloQast designed to create entertaining, engaging, and educational content by accountants for accountants.
    • Partnership with Donnelley Financial Solutions (NYSE: DFIN) to transform the financial close and reporting processes, especially for companies planning to go public.
  • Notable growth in EMEA including:
    • The opening of FloQast’s London-based office.
    • 68 new customers – notable Q4 logos include Revolut, Babylon Health, Watches of Switzerland, and Ironsource.
  • The appointment of several new executives to drive FloQast’s success in 2022 and beyond, including:
  • The hosting of TakeControl 2021 in September, FloQast’s third-annual user conference, drawing more than 2,000 industry professionals and recognizing world-class accounting professionals and FloQast customers excelling in their pursuit of operational excellence.
  • The receipt of several high caliber awards and accolades, such as inclusion in Built In’s Best Place to Work list for the fourth year in a row, being named one of the Best Workplaces in the Country by Inc. Magazine, and one of the Best Places to Work by the Los Angeles Business Journal.
  • Reaching 1,000 users in the FloVerse, an online community platform for FloQast customers to network and collaborate.

This growth and momentum is made possible by FloQast’s community of employees who are committed to making accountants and financial leaders’ lives easier and more productive. Despite the challenges faced over the past two years during the pandemic, the company continues to excel in its performance, a credit to the team’s commitment to customer service and excellence in pursuit of FloQast’s overarching vision.

About FloQast
FloQast delivers workflow automation software enabling organizations to operationalize accounting excellence. Trusted by more than 1,500 accounting teams – including Twilio, coinbase, Los Angeles Lakers, Zoom, and snowflake – FloQast was built by accountants, for accountants to enhance the way accounting teams work. FloQast enables customers to streamline processes such as automated reconciliations, documentation requests, and other workflows that impact the month-end close, financial reporting, and payroll, and is consistently rated #1 across all user review sites. Learn more at FloQast.com.

Contact:
Kyle Cabodi
FloQast Director of Corporate Communications
kyle.cabodi@floqast.com

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Woolpert Acquires eTrac Inc., a Vessel-Based Hydrographic Survey Firm Headquartered in California

This merger combines complementary marine technology products and services to better serve U.S. and international clients with integrated capabilities.

DAYTON, Ohio, Feb. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Woolpert has acquired eTrac Inc., a vessel-based hydrographic survey and marine technology firm that conducts custom and integrated marine services for projects across the U.S. and its territories. These services include collecting and processing hydrographic survey and bathymetric mapping data for coastal mapping, navigation safety and nautical charting, high-resolution multibeam sonar data for shipping channel dredging and pipeline inspections, underwater imagery and aerial lidar data for change analysis, and vessel positioning and monitoring.

This acquisition combines the hydrographic survey and multibeam sonar expertise of eTrac with Woolpert’s aerial topographic, bathymetric and geospatial capabilities to deepen service offerings, leverage inherent synergies, achieve operational efficiencies and extend geographic reach. It also unites eTrac’s fleet of survey vessels with Woolpert’s 49 manned and unmanned aircraft.

eTrac is headquartered in San Rafael, Calif., and has offices in Texas, Washington and Alaska. eTrac will become part of Woolpert’s geospatial sector and will expand to serve clients throughout the U.S. and around the world.

About Woolpert
Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. Woolpert is an ENR Top 150 Global Design Firm, recently earned its sixth-straight Great Place to Work certification and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been America’s fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has more than 1,600 employees and 60 offices on four continents. For more, visit woolpert.com.

About eTrac Inc.
eTrac Inc. was established in 2003 as a hydrographic survey, vessel positioning and marine instrumentation firm. eTrac has quickly grown to include over 40 employees in several offices along the coastal United States. The firm has earned a strong reputation among many sectors of the hydrographic industry, including government agencies and private industry. Its equipment fleet has also grown to include geophysical survey vessels as well as several ultra-portable, shallow water survey craft. eTrac is committed to continual reinvestment in industry leading equipment and knowledgeable staff to complete multibeam, singlebeam, sidescan, subbottom, mobile lidar and water-level surveys required by our clients. For more, visit etracinc.com.

Media contact: Woolpert PR Manager Jill Kelley; 937-531-1258, jill.kelley@woolpert.com

Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knDzoTW7-kA

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Afreximbank’s Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA) invests in Ecow-Gas to promote LNG distribution in West Africa

KIGALI, Rwanda, Feb. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), a development impact-oriented subsidiary of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), has announced that it has invested into Ecow-Gas B.V. (Ecowgas), a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) distribution infrastructure platform in the West Africa region.

Due to limited power supply from the grid, the industrial sector in Africa suffers severe energy shortages with attendant high production costs, inefficient operations and reduced global competitiveness, amongst others. Off-grid solutions are required to address these challenges and put Africa firmly on the path to energy sustainability.

FEDA’s investment in Ecow-Gas will support the creation, in partnership with a leading international oil company, of the infrastructure to provide access to cheaper and cleaner fuels for underserved industrial customers across the region using LNG. This will also promote efforts to minimize CO2 emission by replacing environment-polluting fuels currently in use.

Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chariman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, noted that “FEDA’s investment in Ecow-Gas is a testament to its mission of providing development equity capital to sectors critical to the growth and development of intra-African trade, export development and industrialisation. Through this investment, FEDA is seeking to unlock access to affordable and cleaner energy for industrialization purposes and to significantly impact intra-regional trade, especially in the West Africa region.”

Emmanuel Assiak, Acting Chief Executive Officer, FEDA, added: “We are delighted to partner with experienced operators and investors on this mission-critical opportunity to unlock the provision of cheaper and cleaner fuel in West Africa. The combined complementary skills and capabilities within the Ecow-Gas platform stakeholders will help enable the Company to execute its growth plans. We believe that EcowGas will help to significantly remove the energy supply and cost bottlenecks that negatively impact the competitiveness of the region as a manufacturing destination.”

Kwaku Boakye-Adjei, CEO of H Investments and Ecow-Gas, commented: “We are excited to commence this project as we see LNG as not only a fuel for large scale Independent Power Producers in the region but for mid to small scale industries as well to transition from Heavy Fuel Oil, Diesel and other distillates and ultimately, to renewables. LNG powered microgeneration can help to alleviate issues such as intermittency which act as a barrier to wide scale adoption of renewables in West Africa.”

FEDA pursues a multi-sector investment strategy along the intra-African trade, value-added export development and manufacturing value chains which includes financial services, technology, consumer and retail goods, manufacturing, transport & logistics, agribusiness, as well as ancillary trade enabling infrastructure such as industrial parks, in Afreximbank’s member states.

About Afreximbank

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade. Afreximbank deploys innovative structures to deliver financing solutions that support the transformation of the structure of Africa’s trade, accelerating industrialization and intra-regional trade, thereby boosting economic expansion in Africa. At the end of 2020, the Bank’s total assets and guarantees stood at US$21.5 billion, and its shareholder funds amounted to US$3.4 billion. Afreximbank disbursed more than US$42 billion between 2016 and 2020. The Bank has ratings assigned by GCR (international scale) (A-), Moody’s (Baa1) and Fitch (BBB-). The Bank is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt.

For more information, visit: www.afreximbank.com.
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Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1739740/FEDA_Logo.jpg

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CGTN: China stands ready to present a streamlined, safe, splendid Winter Olympics

BEIJING, Feb. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The Beijing Winter Olympics will raise the curtain on Friday, with thousands of athletes from across the globe joining the mega sports event in the Chinese capital city.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the Games at the National Stadium in Beijing with world leaders from dozens of countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and heads of international organizations, such as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“The world is turning its eyes to China, and China is ready,” Xi said while addressing the opening ceremony of the 139th session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) via video link on Thursday.

The Chinese president told IOC President Thomas Bach and other IOC members that China will do its best to deliver to the world a streamlined, safe and splendid Games and act on the Olympic motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.”

Xi also thanked the committee for its long-term contribution to China’s sports as a whole and its support and guidance in bidding and preparing for the Games.

From ‘One World, One Dream’ to ‘Together for a Shared Future’

“From ‘One World, One Dream’ in 2008 to ‘Together for a Shared Future’ in 2022,” Xi said China has been actively participating in the Olympic Games and consistently promoting the Olympic Spirit.

Beijing is the first city in the world to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

Fourteen years ago, with the motto of “One World, One Dream,” Beijing 2008 Olympic Games showed the world how an open China embraced the world and how a diverse world greeted China.

Xi said in the address that the world is experiencing great changes that have not been seen in a century: the COVID-19 pandemic, a new period of turbulence and transformation and multiple challenges to humanity.

For the first time in over 100 years, the Olympic motto was updated last year, adding one of the most resonant words since the pandemic – “together.”

Bach, in his New Year’s message published on the IOC website, said Beijing 2022 will be a chance to “live our new Olympic motto” to become stronger by standing together in solidarity.

By using “Together for a Shared Future” as a slogan, China is conveying a message of solidarity, urging humanity to stay united in the face of global challenges, including the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

Mobilizing 300 million people

China is committed to pursuing the Olympic ideal with concrete actions, Xi said in his address at the IOC session.

The Chinese president’s primary goal of holding the Games to inspire 300 million people to participate in winter sports has already been fulfilled.

Xi said by preparing for and organizing the Winter Games, China has boosted its regional development, ecological establishment and quality of life, in addition to opening up a broader space for the development of winter sports around the globe.

Over 346 million Chinese people have participated in winter sports activities since Beijing’s successful Winter Olympics bid in 2015, with a participation rate of 24.56 percent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows.

By early 2021, the country boasted 654 standard ice rinks, a surge of 317 percent from 2015, and the number of ski resorts has risen from 568 in 2015 to 803 now.

A research report on China’s ice and snow industry in 2021 showed that the scale of the Chinese industry increased from $42 billion in 2015 to $93 billion in 2020.

According to China’s development plan for ice and snow sports from 2016 to 2025, the total scale of the industry will reach 1 trillion yuan ($157.2 billion) by 2025.

China’s efforts would “open a new era for winter sports globally,” Bach said.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-02-03/Xi-addresses-139th-IOC-session-opening-ceremony-via-video-17lmXTxdZza/index.html

Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NjX8qm6YEo

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CGTN: Putin believes Beijing to host Winter Olympics of highest standards

BEIJING, Feb. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — For Chinese, this Spring Festival is an occasion of “double happiness,” with the hosting of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Adding to the festive mood is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s scheduled visit and attendance to the opening ceremony of the grand sporting event.

Ahead of Putin’s visit, China Media Group (CMG) President and Editor-in-Chief Shen Haixiong interviewed the Russian president, welcoming him to Beijing and asking him about sports and ties with China.

It’s not the first time for Putin to accept Shen’s interview. Four years ago, they sat down for an exclusive interview at the Kremlin in Moscow, marking the first interview the Russian president had ever given to the Chinese media at the Kremlin.

Putin’s expectation for Beijing 2022

“I firmly believe that the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing will be held to the highest standards. I wish a successful performance and luck to all athletes, participants in the Olympics, and bright unforgettable moments and joy to the guests,” Putin said in expressing warm wishes and high expectations for the upcoming sporting gala during the recent interview.

Putin told Shen that he believes those excellent preparations made by organizers for the Olympics will help the Olympic athletes show their sporting character and demonstrate their skills and ability to achieve their goals in a fair and uncompromising competition.

He also said that Russia has been and remains committed to the traditional Olympic values. “Russia opposes the attempts to politicize sport or use it as a tool of coercion, unfair competition, and discrimination.”

Nearly 3,000 athletes from approximately 90 countries and regions will compete at the Beijing 2022, which features more events and will produce more gold medals than any previous Winter Games.

Chinese-Russian sports exchanges

As for the interaction between Russia and China in sports and physical education, Putin said it occupies an important place in bilateral humanitarian cooperation.

Apart from cooperation in junior hockey, Putin cited Russian and Chinese cooperation in physical education and sports in 2022-2023, which was announced by two leaders in December 2021, saying it will be a significant and memorable event for the two countries.

According to Putin, the program includes about 500 various popular and youth sports events, as well as educational, sports science and staff training activities.

Developing bilateral ties on equal, non-ideological basis

Shen noted that China and Russia viewed each other as friendly nations from the start, then advanced to a constructive partnership, strategic partnership, comprehensive partnership, and strategic interaction. In June 2019, relations were upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era. Last June, the two sides also agreed to extend their Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation for another five years.

Relations between Russia and China are developing on an equal, non-ideological basis, Putin stressed, adding that the “partnership is sustainable, intrinsically valuable, not affected by the political climate, and not aimed against anyone.”

China remains firmly top of the list of Russia’s trade partners, the president said, citing preliminary data that bilateral trade reached a historical high, totaling $140 billion last year amid the pandemic.

The meetings of the two leaders played a key role in enhancing bilateral cooperation, Putin said.

Nearly three years after Putin’s last visit to China, the upcoming trip will witness the 38th meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Russian president since 2013.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-02-03/Putin-believes-Beijing-to-host-Winter-Olympics-of-highest-standards-17lnQsbhtCM/index.html

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