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Workera Announces Strategic Investment from Accenture

PR Newswire

The investment underscores Workera’s leadership in verified skills intelligence and highlights Accenture’s commitment to empowering organizations with skills-based training in technology, data, and AI


PALO ALTO, Calif.
, Jan. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Workera, the leading AI-powered skills intelligence platform, today announced a strategic investment from Accenture (NYSE: ACN) marking a significant milestone in their strategic alliance. This multi-faceted alliance includes a strategic investment by Accenture, a reseller collaboration enabling Accenture to deliver Workera’s solutions to clients globally, and a technology integration establishing Workera as the official skills intelligence layer within Accenture’s LearnVantage platform. Together, the companies aim to accelerate the adoption of skills-first strategies, helping organizations navigate the complexities of today’s talent landscape.

The partnership comes at a pivotal time. Accenture research reveals that 61% of workers worldwide will require retraining by 2027. While 94% of employees express readiness to learn new skills, only 5% of organizations are effectively reskilling their workforce at scale. The challenge is particularly pronounced in high-demand fields like AI, machine learning, and cloud computing, where skill requirements continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace.

This collaboration builds on Accenture’s April 2024 selection of Workera as a skills intelligence partner for LearnVantage, a comprehensive learning platform designed to address the rapidly shortening half-life of technical skills. Where technical expertise once remained relevant for a decade or more, many skills now require reskilling and/or upskilling within just four years—and even sooner in cutting-edge areas like generative AI and machine learning.

“The rise of generative AI has amplified our clients’ need for training and upskilling their people in cloud, data, and AI as they build their digital core, which is essential for reinvention,” said Kishore Durg, global lead of Accenture LearnVantage. “By integrating Workera into Accenture LearnVantage, we’re equipping enterprises with the tools to personalize learning journeys and optimize workforce capabilities using skills intelligence data. This partnership, including our recent investment, underscores Accenture’s commitment to delivering transformative value to our clients.”

“Workera’s expertise in skills intelligence, combined with Accenture’s global reach and innovative solutions, will redefine how organizations approach workforce development,” said Kian Katanforoosh, CEO and founder of Workera. “Together, we are advancing the skills-first movement, empowering companies to align their talent strategies with business objectives and unlocking new opportunities for growth and innovation.”

To learn more about how Workera can help you with workforce transformation initiatives in 2025, please visit www.workera.ai.

About Workera
Workera is pioneering the future of skills technology, reimagining how organizations align business needs with verified skills data to future-fit their workforce and accelerate productivity and innovation. Trusted by the Fortune 500, Workera leverages AI-powered agents to deliver unparalleled insights into workforce capabilities, utilizing a state-of-the-art skills ontology and cutting-edge LLMs for the most precise skill measurements available.  With Workera, businesses can strategically align teams, accurately identify and bridge skill gaps, and optimize talent allocation with unprecedented efficiency. Our commitment to delivering measurable and verified skill data empowers business leaders to not only manage their workforce more effectively, but also to harness the full potential of their human capital. Workera was named in Fast Company’s exclusive Most Innovative Companies list for 2024 alongside Microsoft, Canva, and others leading the AI revolution. Discover how Workera is helping future-proof workforces at Accenture, Siemens Energy, Belcorp, The United States Air Force, and Samsung at www.workera.ai.

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SOURCE Workera.ai

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FriendliAI and Hugging Face Announce Strategic Partnership

PR Newswire

  • Developers will be able to utilize FriendliAI’s accelerated generative AI infrastructure service to deploy and serve models in the Hugging Face Hub


REDWOOD CITY, Calif.
, Jan. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — FriendliAI, a leader in accelerated generative AI inference serving, and Hugging Face today announced a strategic partnership that allows developers to utilize FriendliAI’s inference infrastructure service to deploy and serve models directly in the Hugging Face Hub.

FriendliAI Endpoints, the fastest GPU-based generative AI inference provider according to Artificial Analysis, is now available as a deployment option on the Hugging Face platform. Directly from any model page on Hugging Face, developers can now easily deploy models using FriendliAI’s accelerated, low-cost inference endpoints. This partnership leverages the convenience of Hugging Face’s platform alongside FriendliAI’s high-performance infrastructure, enabling developers to streamline their AI development workflow and focus on innovation.

Setting up and deploying generative AI models at production scale presents challenges such as complex infrastructure management and high operational costs. Friendli Dedicated Endpoints handles the hassle of infrastructure management, enabling developers to deploy and serve generative AI models efficiently on autopilot. Powered by FriendliAI’s GPU-optimized inference engine, Friendli Dedicated Endpoints delivers fast and cost-effective inference serving as a managed service with dedicated GPU resources and automatic resource management.

The addition of FriendliAI as a key inference provider advances Hugging Face’s mission to democratize AI, while furthering FriendliAI’s mission to empower everyone to harness the full potential of generative AI models with ease and cost-efficiency. With this partnership, FriendliAI becomes a strategic inference provider for Hugging Face.

“FriendliAI and Hugging Face share a vision for making generative AI, and further agentic AI, more accessible and impactful for developers,” said Byung-Gon Chun, CEO of FriendliAI. “This partnership gives developers on Hugging Face easy access to FriendliAI Endpoints, a fast, low-cost inference solution without the burden of infrastructure management. We’re excited to see what the amazing developer community at Hugging Face will build with our inference solution, and we look forward to any future opportunities to partner with Hugging Face to provide developers with even more powerful tools and resources.”

“FriendliAI has been at the forefront of AI inference acceleration progress,” said Julien Chaumond, CTO of Hugging Face. “With this new partnership, we will make it easy for Hugging Face users and FriendliAI customers to leverage leading optimized AI infrastructure and tools from FriendliAI to run the latest open-source or their custom AI models at scale.”

About FriendliAI

FriendliAI is the leading provider of accelerated generative AI inference serving. FriendliAI provides fast, cost-efficient inference serving and fine-tuning to accelerate agentic AI and custom generative AI solutions. Enjoy the GPU-optimized, blazingly fast Friendli Inference through FriendliAI’s Dedicated Endpoints, Serverless Endpoints, and Container solutions. Learn more at https://friendli.ai/. 

About Hugging Face

Hugging Face is the leading open platform for AI builders. The Hugging Face Hub works as a central place where anyone can share, explore, discover, and experiment with open-source ML. Hugging Face empowers the next generation of machine learning engineers, scientists, and end users to learn, collaborate and share their work to build an open and ethical AI future together. With the fast-growing community, some of the most used open-source ML libraries and tools, and a talented science team exploring the edge of tech, Hugging Face is at the heart of the AI revolution.

Contacts:
Elizabeth Yoon, FriendliAI, [email protected]

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SOURCE FriendliAI

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Booking Holdings to Webcast Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Results on February 20

PR Newswire


NORWALK, Conn.
, Jan. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) announced today that it intends to hold a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results on Thursday, February 20 at 4:30 p.m. ET. The event will be webcasted at ir.bookingholdings.com and the audio will be available for replay on the website for seven days thereafter.

Booking Holdings will post a release containing its fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results on the company’s Investor Relations website, ir.bookingholdings.com, at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, February 20.

Source: Booking Holdings
#BKNG_Earnings

About Booking Holdings

Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) is the world’s leading provider of online travel and related services, provided to consumers and local partners in more than 220 countries and territories through five primary consumer-facing brands: Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable. The mission of Booking Holdings is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. For more information, visit BookingHoldings.com and follow us on X @BookingHoldings.

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SOURCE Booking Holdings

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Genius Group files Rights Offering Prospectus Supplement to increase Bitcoin Treasury

SINGAPORE, Jan. 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

Genius Group Limited
 (NYSE American: GNS) (“Genius Group” or the “Company”), a leading AI-powered, Bitcoin-first education group has filed its Prospectus Supplement for its recently announced rights offering, with 100% of net proceeds going towards buying Bitcoin for its Bitcoin Treasury.

The Prospectus Supplement can be viewed at this link.

The Company has provided a guide for shareholders on the rights offering, together with links to the company’s recent Investor Call, Investor Presentation and FAQs which can be viewed here.

The Company will conduct an investor call and webcast to discuss the rights issue, together with the Company’s Bitcoin Treasury Strategy and 2025 outlook. The call will take place on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at 6.00pm Eastern Time and will be hosted by the Company’s CEO, Roger Hamilton.

The live webcast of the call, and subsequent replay, will be available at this link.

A link to the script, investor deck and recording will be available after the live webcast at https://ir.geniusgroup.net/

About Genius Group

Genius Group (NYSE: GNS) is a Bitcoin-first business delivering AI powered, education and acceleration solutions for the future of work. Genius Group serves 5.4 million users in over 100 countries through its Genius City model and online digital marketplace of AI training, AI tools and AI talent. It provides personalized, entrepreneurial AI pathways combining human talent with AI skills and AI solutions at the individual, enterprise and government level. To learn more, please visit www.geniusgroup.net.

For more information, please visit https://www.geniusgroup.net/

Forward-Looking Statements 

Statements made in this press release include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will”, “plan,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “continue,” or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate and involve factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and are advised to consider the factors listed above together with the additional factors under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Reports on Form 20-F, as may be supplemented or amended by the Company’s Reports of a Foreign Private Issuer on Form 6-K. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events, new information or otherwise. No information in this press release should be construed as any indication whatsoever of the Company’s future revenues, results of operations, or stock price. This communication is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any such offer can only be made by means of a prospectus. The prospectus is available at https://ir.geniusgroup.net/sec-filings/all-sec-filings##document-716-0001493152-25-003099-2 or by contacting the contact set forth below.

Contacts

MZ Group – MZ North America
(949) 259-4987
[email protected]
www.mzgroup.us



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LKQ Corporation to Release Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results on Thursday, February 20, 2025

ANTIOCH, Tenn., Jan. 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — LKQ Corporation (Nasdaq: LKQ) will release its fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results on Thursday, February 20, 2025.

Conference Call Details

LKQ will host a conference call and webcast on February 20, 2025 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time (7:00 a.m. Central Time) with members of senior management to discuss the Company’s results. To access the investor conference call, please dial (833) 470-1428. International access to the call may be obtained by dialing (404) 975-4839. The investor conference call will require you to enter conference ID: 628335.

Webcast and Presentation Details

The audio webcast and accompanying slide presentation can be accessed at (www.lkqcorp.com) in the Investor Relations section.

A replay of the conference call will be available by telephone at (866) 813-9403 or (929) 458-6194 for international calls. The telephone replay will require you to enter conference ID: 856832. An online replay of the audio webcast will be available on the Company’s website. Both formats of replay will be available through February 27, 2025. Please allow approximately two hours after the live presentation before attempting to access the replay.

About LKQ Corporation

LKQ Corporation (www.lkqcorp.com) is a leading provider of alternative and specialty parts to repair and accessorize automobiles and other vehicles. LKQ has operations in North America, Europe and Taiwan. LKQ offers its customers a broad range of OE recycled and aftermarket parts, replacement systems, components, equipment, and services to repair and accessorize automobiles, trucks, and recreational and performance vehicles.

Contact

Joseph P. Boutross
LKQ Corporation
Vice President, Investor Relations
(312) 621-2793
[email protected]



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PENN Entertainment to Report Fourth Quarter Results and Host Conference Call and Webcast on February 27

PENN Entertainment to Report Fourth Quarter Results and Host Conference Call and Webcast on February 27

WYOMISSING, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
PENN Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq: PENN) announced today that it will release its 2024 fourth quarter financial results at 7:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, February 27, 2025, followed by a conference call and simultaneous webcast at 9:00 a.m. ET. Both the call and webcast are open to the general public.

The conference call number is 203-518-9783 (conference ID: PENN); please call five minutes in advance to ensure that you are connected prior to the presentation. Interested parties may also access the live call at www.pennentertainment.com; allow 15 minutes to register, download, and install any necessary software. Questions and answers will be reserved for call-in analysts and investors. A replay of the call can be accessed for thirty days at www.pennentertainment.com.

About PENN Entertainment

PENN Entertainment, Inc., together with its subsidiaries (“PENN,” or the “Company”), is North America’s leading provider of integrated entertainment, sports content, and casino gaming experiences. PENN operates in 28 jurisdictions throughout North America, with a broadly diversified portfolio of casinos, racetracks and online sports betting and iCasino offerings under well-recognized brands including Hollywood Casino®, L’Auberge®, ESPN BET™ and theScore BET Sportsbook and Casino®. PENN’s ability to leverage its partnership with ESPN, the “worldwide leader in sports,” and its ownership of theScore, the top digital sports media brand in Canada, is central to the Company’s highly differentiated strategy to expand its footprint and efficiently grow its customer ecosystem. PENN’s focus on organic cross-sell opportunities is reinforced by its market-leading retail casinos, sports media assets, and technology, including a proprietary state-of-the-art, fully integrated digital sports and iCasino betting platform and an in-house iCasino content studio (PENN Game Studios). The Company’s portfolio is further bolstered by its industry-leading PENN Play™ customer loyalty program, offering its 31 million members a unique set of rewards and experiences.

Mike Nieves

SVP, Finance & Treasurer

PENN Entertainment, Inc.

610/373-2400

Joseph N. Jaffoni, Richard Land

JCIR

212/835-8500 or [email protected]

KEYWORDS: Pennsylvania United States North America

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Casino/Gaming Entertainment Online

MEDIA:

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Q2 Announces New Partnership with Alloy to Deliver Joint Fraud Monitoring Solution for Banks and Credit Unions

Q2 Announces New Partnership with Alloy to Deliver Joint Fraud Monitoring Solution for Banks and Credit Unions

Partnership empowers financial institutions to manage their fraud posture by balancing proactive monitoring and account holder experience

AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Q2 Holdings Inc. (NYSE: QTWO), a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for financial services, today announced a strategic partnership with Alloy, a leading identity and fraud prevention platform provider, to deliver a joint ongoing fraud monitoring solution for Q2 Digital Banking customers. Powered by Alloy’s centralized identity decision engine for fraud detection and prevention, this new solution addresses the growing need for financial institutions to take control of their fraud monitoring efforts while maintaining an engaging user experience and growing their business.

Through this partnership, Q2 and Alloy will deliver a solution that addresses ongoing fraud risks, such as account takeover and peer-to-peer (P2P) payment fraud, that continuously threaten financial institutions. According to Alloy’s upcoming 2025 State of Fraud Benchmark Report one in three financial institutions lost over $1 million to fraud last year. Additionally, account takeover fraud was the most common fraud type by case volume identified by mid-market banks and credit unions in 2024.

“The joint solution Q2 and Alloy are offering will go a long way towards enabling financial institutions to prevent fraud without hindering customer experiences, which is a very difficult thing to do,” said Matt Quale, President of Digital Banking at Forbright Bank. “I’m excited about this partnership’s ability to facilitate business growth and mitigate fraud losses for banks and credit unions.”

Alloy will serve as the centralized identity decision engine, integrating Q2’s digital banking data, Q2 Innovation Studio, and Alloy’s robust data partner network to help financial institutions prevent more fraud. The ongoing fraud monitoring offering will be the first solution to actively ingest user activity signals coupled with fraud signals from multiple third-party data sources with the ability to interdict in real time on risky activities that may occur within the Q2 Digital Banking platform.

“We believe that successful fraud prevention starts with a holistic approach to understanding identity,” said Parilee Wang, Chief Product Officer at Alloy. “That means not just tracking the suspicious movement of money, but also separating out the identities of fraudsters from those of genuine customers. Our joint solution with Q2 brings together the various data sources financial institutions need to more clearly understand their customer so they can better reduce criminal activity throughout the customer lifecycle.”

By bringing together events in Q2 digital banking with industry-leading third-party data vendors in Alloy’s identity-centric decisioning platform, the joint solution will provide real-time digital banking user action risk assessments and ongoing monitoring. The partnership will also help distinguish genuine customers from the risky ones ensuring that genuine customers benefit from a seamless digital banking experience while strategically introducing healthy friction for riskier customers.

Additionally, it will improve operational efficiency via centralized decisioning and streamlined case management.

“This strategic partnership between Q2 and Alloy represents an evolution in fraud prevention for financial institutions who leverage Q2’s digital banking platform,” said Jim Mortensen, Strategic Advisor at Datos Insights. “By combining Q2’s digital banking platform with Alloy’s identity-centric fraud prevention and orchestration capabilities, Q2’s clients can leverage a more dynamic approach to fraud detection. What makes this partnership particularly compelling is the real-time risk assessment and interdiction capabilities coupled with the ability for client FIs to make timely modifications to their fraud detection processes rapidly. This approach should help Q2 clients strike that crucial balance between strong fraud prevention and maintaining the seamless digital experience consumers expect.”

“Banks and credit unions need scalable fraud solutions to combat growing fraud threats while maintaining an engaging customer experience,” said Jeff Scott, VP of fraudtech solutions at Q2. “Our partnership with Alloy will enhance existing native fraud monitoring capabilities within Q2 Digital Banking, providing a scalable, flexible, and identity-centric approach to fraud monitoring across digital channels. We are committed to continuously empowering our customers to help them fight against fraud and protect their account holders.”

To learn more about Alloy and Q2’s new solution, please visit this link.

About Q2 Holdings, Inc.

Q2 is a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for financial services, serving banks, credit unions, alternative finance companies, and fintechs in the U.S. and internationally. Q2 enables its financial institution and fintech customers to provide comprehensive, data-driven digital engagement solutions for consumers, small businesses and corporate clients. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 has offices worldwide and is publicly traded on the NYSE under the stock symbol QTWO. To learn more, please visit Q2.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and X to stay up to date.

About Alloy

Alloy provides an Identity and Fraud Prevention Platform that enables global financial institutions and fintechs to manage identity risk so they can grow with confidence. Over 600 of the world’s largest financial institutions and fintechs turn to Alloy’s end-to-end platform to access actionable intelligence and the broadest network of data sources across the industry, as well as stay ahead of fraud, credit, and compliance risks. Founded in 2015, Alloy is powering the delivery of great financial products to more customers around the world.

Media Contact

Maria Gari

Q2 Holdings, Inc.

[email protected]

315-657-0041

Alloy

Larissa Padden

202-841-4419

[email protected]

KEYWORDS: Texas United States North America

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS: Online Privacy Technology Payments Finance Fintech Banking Professional Services Software Digital Cash Management/Digital Assets Data Management

MEDIA:

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Virtu Financial to Host Conference Call Announcing Fourth Quarter 2024 Results on Wednesday, January 29, 2025

NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Virtu Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq:VIRT), a leading provider of global, multi-asset financial services that delivers liquidity and innovative, transparent products across the complete investment cycle to the global markets, will announce its results for the fourth quarter 2024 on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, before the US market open.

Virtu will host a conference call to discuss the company’s financial results at 8:30 AM (EST). A live webcast of the event will be available and archived on the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at https://ir.virtu.com/events-presentations. The call will be open to the public.

About Virtu Financial, Inc.

Virtu is a leading provider of financial services and products that leverages cutting-edge technology to deliver liquidity to the global markets and innovative, transparent trading solutions to its clients. Leveraging its global market making expertise and infrastructure, Virtu provides a robust product suite including offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker-neutral, multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology. Virtu’s product offerings allow clients to trade on hundreds of venues across 50+ countries and in multiple asset classes, including global equities, ETFs, foreign exchange, futures, fixed income, cryptocurrency and myriad other commodities. In addition, Virtu’s integrated, multi-asset analytics platform provides a range of pre-, intra-, and post-trade services, data products and compliance tools that clients rely upon to invest, trade and manage risk across global markets.

Contact:

Investor Relations and Media Relations

Andrew Smith
[email protected]
[email protected]



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T. ROWE PRICE ADDS INSTITUTIONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE FOR FIXED INCOME

PR Newswire


Jeff Helsing appointed to newly created position to drive commercial engagement across fixed income asset class


BALTIMORE
, Jan. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ —  T. Rowe Price, a global investment management firm and a leader in retirement, announced that it has hired Jeff Helsing as Institutional Business Development (IBD) Executive, Fixed Income, a new role. He will report to Doug Greenstein, the Head of US Institutional Business Development in T. Rowe Price’s Americas institutional division.

In this newly created position, Jeff will work in close partnership with Chris Tarui, Head of US Consultant Relations and OCIO as well as Americas Central and West Coast (US and Canada) Relationship Managers. Jeff will be directly responsible for working with institutional investors to help deliver a full range of fixed income solutions and will work closely with colleagues in sales, client service, consultant relations, investments, and product — including Oak Hill Advisors (OHA).

Before joining T. Rowe Price, Helsing served as a Senior Product Manager at Western Asset Management. Prior to that, he spent 20 years at PIMCO in both Portfolio Specialist and Portfolio Manager capacities. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Arizona State University and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

“We are delighted to welcome Jeff to T. Rowe Price,” said Greenstein. “With nearly 25 years of experience in the industry, Jeff’s extensive knowledge and expertise in fixed income will be invaluable as we continue to expand our distribution capabilities within the asset class. We are excited to integrate him into our Americas team and the broader Fixed Income investment division, and we look forward leveraging his depth of experience to drive new opportunities for our clients.”

ABOUT T. ROWE PRICE
Founded in 1937, T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ – GS: TROW) helps individuals and institutions around the world achieve their long-term investment goals. As a large global asset management company known for investment excellence, retirement leadership, and independent proprietary research, the firm is built on a culture of integrity that puts client interests first. Clients rely on the award-winning firm for its retirement expertise and active management of equity, fixed income, alternatives, and multi-asset investment capabilities. T. Rowe Price serves millions of clients globally and manages US $1.61 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2024. About two-thirds of the assets under management are retirement-related. News and other updates can be found on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and troweprice.com/newsroom.

OHA is the private markets platform of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ – GS: TROW). For more information, please visit oakhilladvisors.com.

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SOURCE T. Rowe Price Group

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Guggenheim Investments Announces New Private Debt Vehicle Backed by Allianz Global Investors

NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Guggenheim Investments (“Guggenheim”) today announced the closing of an approximately $400 million vehicle that will invest in Guggenheim’s private debt strategy. The transaction was led by Allianz Global Investors (“AllianzGI”). A group of funds managed by StepStone Group (NASDAQ: STEP, “StepStone”) co-underwrote the transaction. This vehicle includes approximately $100 million of financing.

“Investors have a multitude of options in the ever-evolving private debt market,” said Dina DiLorenzo, President of Guggenheim Investments, “and we are thrilled by the trust placed in Guggenheim by world-class fund allocators.”

“We are excited to have prominent institutional investors like AllianzGI and StepStone as LPs,” said Kevin Gundersen, Head of Guggenheim Corporate Funding, LLC, the private debt investment manager of Guggenheim Investments. “We believe this partnership continues to fuel the ongoing success of our franchise and enables us to further leverage our strong origination and underwriting platform in a rapidly growing market.”

“We are pleased to establish a partnership with Guggenheim’s private debt team and help structure this transaction,” said Anselm Feigenbutz, Portfolio Manager for Secondaries Private Debt at Allianz Global Investors. “This investment provides us with access to a high quality portfolio with attractive diversification across borrower, sector, and vintage backed by a GP with an established track record in private credit.”

Guggenheim Securities, LLC served as exclusive placement agent to Guggenheim Corporate Funding, LLC. Latham & Watkins LLP provided legal counsel on the transaction.

About Guggenheim Investments

Guggenheim Investments is the global asset management and investment advisory division of Guggenheim Partners, a global investment and advisory firm with more than $335 billion in total assets1.

Guggenheim Investments has more than $249 billion2 in total assets across fixed income, equity and alternative strategies.

Guggenheim Investments focuses on the return and risk needs of insurance companies, corporate and public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, wealth managers and high net worth investors with a track record of delivering results through innovative solutions. For more information, please visit https://www.guggenheiminvestments.com.  

About Allianz Global Investors

Allianz Global Investors is a leading active asset manager with over 600 investment professionals in over 20 offices worldwide and managing EUR 560 billion in assets. We invest for the long term and seek to generate value for clients every step of the way. We do this by being active – in how we partner with clients and anticipate their changing needs, and build solutions based on capabilities across public and private markets. Our focus on protecting and enhancing our clients’ assets leads naturally to a commitment to sustainability to drive positive change. Our goal is to elevate the investment experience for clients, whatever their location or objectives.

Data as at 30 September 2024. Total assets under management are assets or securities portfolios, valued at current market value, for which Allianz Global Investors companies are responsible vis-á-vis clients for providing discretionary investment management decisions and portfolio management, either directly or via a sub-advisor (these include Allianz Global Investors assets which are now sub-advised by Voya IM since 25 July 2022). This excludes assets for which Allianz Global Investors companies are primarily responsible for administrative services only. Assets under management are managed on behalf of third parties as well as on behalf of the Allianz Group.

About StepStone

StepStone Group Inc. (NASDAQ: STEP) is a global private markets investment firm focused on providing customized investment solutions and advisory and data services to its clients. As of September 30, 2024, StepStone was responsible for approximately $682 billion of total capital, including $176 billion of assets under management. StepStone’s clients include some of the world’s largest public and private defined benefit and defined contribution pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies, as well as prominent endowments, foundations, family offices and private wealth clients, which include high-net-worth and mass affluent individuals. StepStone partners with its clients to develop and build private markets portfolios designed to meet their specific objectives across the private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate asset classes.

___________________
1 Assets under management are as of 09.30.2024 and include consulting services for clients whose assets are valued at approximately $94bn as well as $40.4bn in non-advisory Assets Under Supervision.

2 Total assets are as of 9.30.2024 and include leverage of $14.8bn. Guggenheim Investments represents the following affiliated investment management businesses of Guggenheim Partners, LLC: Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, LLC, Security Investors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Distributors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Investment Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Corporate Funding, LLC, Guggenheim Partners Europe Limited, Guggenheim Partners Japan Limited, and GS GAMMA Advisors, LLC. 

Contact:
Gerard Carney
Guggenheim Investments
917-703-6368