Savvy Wealth, a digital-first platform for financial advisors centered around modernizing human financial advice, announced the successful close of a $72 million Series B funding round, led by Industry Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on private technology investments. Savvy will leverage the fresh funding to accelerate its core technology offering, hire top technical talent and expand recruitment of independent advisors and advisory teams to its affiliate registered investment advisor (RIA), Savvy Advisors. The firm will also accelerate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to build personalized knowledge bases on each client, providing predictive, real-time intelligence tailored to individual financial profiles and needs. Ritik Malhotra, Founder and CEO of Savvy Wealth. “At Savvy, we’re embedding AI inside the core of our CRM and advisor-facing tech stack to ‘10x’ their capabilities – unlocking predictive, real-time insights that strengthen human relationships. As modern advisors continue to choose independence, Savvy’s boutique culture, cutting-edge technology and full-service platform offers them a welcome home where their voice matters.” Recently surpassing $2 billion in assets under management, Savvy continues to build upon the sophistication of its offering, which includes solutions designed to meet the complex needs of high-net-worth investors. As Savvy expands its client base, it plans to evolve into a modern wealth management platform that offers more premium services to vertically integrate all of an individual or family’s financial needs.
Falkon SMS’s integration with Hubspot allows sales and marketing teams to send and receive text messages directly from within their CRM accounts and manage conversations in real time through seamless and instant synching of contacts
Falkon SMS, has officially launched its HubSpot SMS integration, allowing sales, marketing, and support teams to send and receive text messages directly from within their HubSpot CRM accounts. The new integration offers seamless contact sync, message automation, and more—designed to accelerate customer engagement and streamline operations. This integration empowers teams to communicate faster, stay organized, and manage conversations in real time without switching tabs or juggling external SMS tools. Key Features of Falkon SMS for HubSpot: Instant Contact Sync HubSpot contacts automatically sync to Falkon SMS—no manual imports, ever; Send & Receive Texts in HubSpot; Chat with leads and customers directly within your CRM timeline; Scheduled Texting Plan texts ahead of time—ideal for appointment reminders, campaign launches, or follow-ups; Group Messaging & Broadcasts: Start group chats for collaboration or send mass updates with ease; Automated Replies & Keyword Triggers; Set up smart auto-responses to handle common queries efficiently; Analytics & Performance Insights: Track message delivery, engagement, and campaign success in one place.
84% of consumers now trust in the quality of private labels more or the same as national brands and 47% saying they’ve tried a private label product specifically because it was a dupe of a name-brand item
First Insight study reveals that 71% of consumers surveyed believed they could recognize a private label when making a purchase, yet 72% were unable to do so when shown side-by-side images of store brand and national brand products. 84% of consumers now trust in the quality of store-brand products more or the same as national brands, while 52% say they’ve been influenced to try a store-brand product by in-store promotions, packaging, displays or marketing materials. Among the findings: The stigma once associated with private labels have largely disappeared. Seventy-seven (77%) of consumers aren’t concerned with how they’re perceived for purchasing private label products. Today’s shoppers love finding “the dupe.” Smart imitation has become a badge of savvy shopping, with 47% of consumers saying they’ve tried a private label product specifically because it was a dupe of a name-brand item. 44% of consumers—and 70% of those earning more than $150k per year—saying they’re more likely to try a private label if it’s marketed as a dupe of a high-end product. Consumers are willing to break from their normal brands to try new products. While 48% of consumers still identify as brand loyal, more than half say they’re either brand curious (32%) or motivated by price and savings (20%). Brand loyalty is no longer a guarantee. Consumers today no longer worship national brands; they chase value, quality and availability. 71% consumers say they would be willing to try a private label if their preferred national brand was out of stock. And once a consumer makes the switch and feels satisfied, they rarely go back, with 45% saying they’ve permanently switched from a national brand to a private label when the product met or exceeded expectations. The perception of store brands varies by income level. While the stigma around private label is fading overall, more affluent shoppers still feel image-conscious. 44% of consumers making $150k+ per year say they’re concerned about how they’re perceived when buying private label products. This is a significant increase compared to 27% of those earning $51K–$149K and 17% of those earning $50K or less. Essentials are the entry points for private label trial. Grocery (56%), household cleaning supplies (38%), clothing and apparel (34%), and personal care and beauty (33%) are the most commonly purchased private label categories. Private label is driving brand advocacy—and store traffic: 66% of consumers say they recommend private label products to friends and family, and 34% say they’re more likely to shop at a retailer specifically because of its private label offerings.
Sephora offering Lyft ride credits to shoppers enabling them to be “delivered” to a participating store and receive personalized ‘skin scan’, exclusive sampling and expert guidance from beauty advisors
Sephora U.S. has announced its first-ever “Delivered to Beauty” activation, in partnership with Lyft Media. From July 7-10, the beauty retailer is offering Lyft ride credits (up to $20 off) to shoppers in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, enabling the shoppers to be “delivered” to a participating Sephora location. Once they arrival in the store, shoppers can receive guidance from Sephora’s beauty advisors, along with a personalized “skin scan,” exclusive product sampling and $10 off any order (over $50) at checkout. The activation is part of Sephora’s new “Get Beauty from People Who Get Beauty” campaign, which aims to showcase the value of “trusted and personalized expertise provided by Sephora.” As part of the activation, which was developed in partnership with Lyft Media, select vehicles will be custom wrapped with Sephora branding, transforming the journey into an extension of the beauty experience itself, the company said. “At Lyft, we want to connect people with the places they love, and our partnership with Sephora really leans into that,” said Suzie Reider, executive VP of Lyft Media and Business. “It’s a natural collaboration: a rider steps out of their Lyft, transported by a driver who knows their way around their communities, and enters Sephora’s best-in-class shopping experience that offers expert guidance, too.”
Wegmans is testing Instacart smart carts that automatically recognize items as they are placed in the cart and track spending, provide product recommendations and access to deals based on customer’s location in the store to offer seamless in-store CX
Wegmans Food Markets is testing Instacart Caper Cart smart carts at a store in Syracuse, N.Y. This marks the first deployment of Caper Carts at Wegmans, as part of an initial in-store program offering customers a smarter, more seamless way to shop in-store. Part of the Instacart Connected Stores platform, Caper Carts are equipped with cameras, a built-in scale, and location sensors connected to Nvidia Jetson hardware which work together with an edge AI system to automatically recognize items as they are placed in the cart. Once products are added, customers can watch their running cost total, similar to an online shopping cart. Caper Carts also feature an interactive screen that tracks spending, provides access to deals, and offers product recommendations based on the customer’s location in the store and the carts’ contents. Wegmans customers can log in to their Shoppers Club loyalty account on the cart’s screen to shop with a Caper Cart. When finished, customers can check out directly from the cart. “Caper Carts are transforming everyday grocery shopping into a faster, more personalized experience,” said David McIntosh, chief connected stores officer at Instacart.
CharmKey’s AI keyboard app lets users select from built-in tone presets to instantly rewrite any message for the right context and offers expertly crafted chat templates for high-pressure moments, rooted in psychology and social dynamics
Startup CharmKey, a smart AI keyboard app, is redefining how people communicate—by helping them say exactly the right thing at exactly the right time. CharmKey isn’t just another keyboard—it’s a social communication assistant. In the age of digital relationships and remote work, messaging is your first impression. Misreading tone or replying too late can cost opportunities or lead to misunderstandings. CharmKey bridges that gap, making sure users feel confident, understood, and in control—without overthinking every word. Key Features: Instant Tone Switching: Users can select from built-in tone presets—like Polite, Professional, Chill, or Flirty,—to instantly rewrite any message for the right context. One text can now fit multiple situations with one tap. AI Reply Generator: Stuck on how to respond? CharmKey drafts natural, thoughtful replies instantly. Whether it’s romantic, friendly, or business, users can skip the stress of writing and sound confident every time. Emotion Analysis from Screenshots: CharmKey lets users upload screenshots of conversations to decode hidden emotions, red flags, or signals of romantic interest—helping them decide what to say next and avoid awkward missteps. Plug-and-Play Chat Templates: From breaking the ice to confessing feelings, CharmKey offers expertly crafted chat templates for high-pressure moments—rooted in psychology and social dynamics. Create Your Own Tone: Advanced users can customize or build their own tone presets, giving full control over how they sound in different conversations—whether it’s charming, assertive, or playfully mysterious.
Whatsapp rolls out voice calling feature for large businesses; to explore AI-powered product recommendations on merchant sites
Whatsapp is introducing the ability for large businesses to reach customers through voice calls, which will allow the app to explore the use of AI-powered voice agents. The company is also looking into using AI to recommend products to users. While the company doesn’t charge for its AI features at the moment, there is a possibility that it could put a price tag on that after it achieves scale. Today, small business accounts can already chat with customers over voice on WhatsApp, but larger business accounts haven’t yet had the ability. In the next few weeks, larger businesses will be able to access this feature via the API. This will allow customers to place voice calls to businesses and allow businesses to call back customers. WhatsApp said it will soon add a way for customers to send and receive voice messages from businesses, too. By enabling voice pipelines, companies could set up an AI-enabled voice agent through a startup like Vapi, ElevenLabs, Coval, or Phonic to run their customer service over WhatsApp. In addition, an AI-powered chat-based customer support and outreach feature that began testing last year is now being expanded to more merchants in Mexico. In addition, WhatsApp is looking to AI to power product recommendations on a merchant’s site.
Chuck E. Cheese’s spin-off arcade concept for adults combines a rotating mix of retro classics with the hottest new titles, features retro-themed merchandise and is overseen by an animatronic character to create a “a nostalgic nod” to the company’s history
Chuck E. Cheese has launched Chuck’s Arcade, which combines a rotating mix of retro classics with the hottest new titles, including state-of-the-art racing simulators and immersive virtual reality hits. Included in the curated collection of retro legends are such offerings as Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Mortal Kombat, Donkey Kong and Centipede. Select arcade locations also feature retro-themed merchandise. The assortment includes classic logo apparel, collectible toys, novelty candy and prize redemption items. Each Chuck’s Arcade is overseen by an animatronic character such as Chuck E. Cheese or one of the other familiar figures from the brand’s past. The characters, however, do not perform as they do at Chuck R. Cheese locations. Instead, they stand watch in what is described as “a nostalgic nod” to the company’s history. No two Chuck’s Arcade locations are exactly alike, the company said. Instead, each offers a unique environment. The arcade was created for adults and lifelong fans who grew up “surrounded by the electric glow of arcade screens, the symphony of digital soundtracks and the thrill of chasing high scores with friends long into the night.”
Hightouch AI platform offers “multi-zone” identity resolution, making both probabilistic and deterministic identity resolution fully configurable, directly in the data warehouse to optimize customer profiles for different downstream use cases
Hightouch, the leading data and AI platform for marketing and personalization, today launched Adaptive Identity Resolution—a breakthrough that turns messy customer data into usable profiles that adapt to different use cases. Part of Hightouch’s warehouse-native Customer Data Platform (CDP), this new capability introduces “multi-zone” identity resolution, enabling businesses to toggle between high-confidence deterministic matching and higher-reach probabilistic matching within a single project setup. Hightouch is the first to make both probabilistic and deterministic resolution fully configurable, transparent, and warehouse-native. This enables brands to control their identity resolution logic, optimize for different downstream use cases, and preserve data ownership at every step. Key features include: Multi-zone matching: Dial your confidence levels up for precision or down for reach. Use deterministic and probabilistic resolution in parallel depending on your use case. Warehouse-native architecture: Perform identity resolution on your complete data, directly in the data warehouse, removing the need to move data into a separate CDP or black box. Configurable & transparent: Fine-tune matching logic, inspect machine learning decisions, and customize golden record logic without code. Real-time data activation: Put merged profiles to work instantly across ads, email, customer success, and more through Hightouch’s deep integration ecosystem.
BNY is to give AI-powered ‘digital employees’ who clean up code and validate payment instructions their own logins to access apps and provide them with email accounts
Bank of New York Mellon has given dozens of AI agent ‘digital employees’ their own logins and will soon provide them with email accounts. BNY chief information officer Leigh-Ann Russell tells that the bank’s AI hub has created two worker personas: one that cleans up code and another that validates payment instructions. The agents have direct managers and, because they have their own logins to access apps like their human colleagues, can work autonomously. Each instance of the agent works in a defined narrow team to avoid giving them access to too much information. BNY is planning to give the digital employees their own email accounts and possibly access to Microsoft Teams so that they can contact their human colleagues with issues. The bank also intends to build agents to carry out other tasks but stresses it is still hiring humans.