Connect with us

Technology

Benjamin Capital Acquires New Thing Co. To Enhance ‘Money Moments’ Marketplace

Published

on

Innovative fintech player to integrate emerging augmented reality in the next stage of its mission to revolutionize and disrupt the fast-growing consumer cash rewards arena.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. and OULU, Finland, Sept. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Benjamin Capital Partners announced today the acquisition of New Thing Co., an Austin, TX-based leader in creating extraordinary customer experiences on behalf of brand marketers, featuring its proprietary augmented reality rewards tool and technology. This tool will be integrated into the fast-growing Benjamin app that allows consumers to generate cash rewards – called Benjamin Money Moments – on a broad range of everyday activities including purchases, mobile gaming, and viewing ads.

Benjamin Capital Partners acquires AR firm New Thing Co. to boost money moments

As a key element of the acquisition, New Thing co-founders Aubrey Johnson, CEO, and Jason Bender, CTO, will assume leadership roles in product development and engineering as EVP Product Strategy and EVP Technology, respectively. Both will be reporting into Erno Tauriainen, Founder and Chief Product Officer.

“I’m pleased and excited  to announce our acquisition of New Thing Co.,” said Tauriainen, who is a 15-year veteran of the cash rewards space, with two previous exits.”By bringing Jason and Aubrey on board, we’re not only adding top-tier talent with unparalleled experience in cash-back and user engagement, but we’re also gaining cutting-edge AR technology that will revolutionize how consumers interact with brands, merchants, and games.”

Johnson and Bender are renowned for being early and key members of the Dosh team, a leading cash-back platform that was acquired by Cardlytics for $275M.

“We are honored and thrilled to join the Benjamin team as they continue to have incredible success in the consumer rewards space,” said Johnson. “At Dosh, we built a premier cash rewards engine whose success was a function of creating a world-class user experience, supported by sophisticated technology. We are eager to apply this expertise to this company’s mission to put one or more Benjamins in every user’s wallet every single month.”

This acquisition coincides with a $13 million capital raise, including both debt and equity, from existing investors Play Ventures and Big Bets VC. This fundraising was orchestrated by respected industry veteran Jordan Rohan, who joined Benjamin over the summer as its Chief Financial Officer.

“We are delighted to have the continued support of our visionary investors. The financing has enabled Benjamin to scale its user base past 900,000 monthly active users,” said Rohan, “This capital will also drive our expansion into exciting new verticals including commerce, payments, advertising and more.”

Since coming out of beta in October 2023, the Benjamin app already has over 1 million downloads. Revenue growth has also been very robust and is approaching $4 million MRR in September.

“Our vision is for Benjamin to be the facilitator of a comprehensive cash rewards lifestyle across the full range of commercial brands and entities with which consumers interact on a daily basis from groceries to gas to going out to eat.” said Tauriainen. “The Benjamin wallet will be the catalyst for a series of ‘Benjamin Money Moments’ for consumers as they go throughout the course of their days.”

About Benjamin Capital Partners
Benjamin Capital Partners is the holding company for the Benjamin App, a new cash-rewards platform for consumers, merchants and gamers to earn cash, called Benjamin Money Moments, by completing daily tasks, playing mobile games, viewing content and ads, and making everyday card purchases with cash back. Founded by industry pioneer Erno Tauriainen, and led by digital industry veteran Lon Otremba, Benjamin looks to innovate a number of massive industries, including cashback, gaming, and digital advertising.

About New Thing Co.
New Thing is an Augmented Reality Rewards utility that provides marketers and advertisers the power to easily bring engaging AR and rewards to their marketing and advertising campaigns.

Media Contact:
hank@m8media.net 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/benjamin-capital-acquires-new-thing-co-to-enhance-money-moments-marketplace-302253593.html

SOURCE Benjamin Capital Partners Inc

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

JAMS Launches AI for Enterprise Job Scheduling: JAX and JAMS MCP, on the Model You Choose

Published

on

By

A new AI agent and an open-standard connector let IT teams query, diagnose, and manage automation in plain language, on the model they choose, with operational data staying inside their own network

LONDON, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — JAMS Software, an orchestration solution for scheduled and event-driven automation, today announced the general availability of two AI capabilities for enterprise job scheduling: JAX, an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client, and JAMS MCP, a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard that brings JAMS into external AI coding tools. Both capabilities ship at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

Automation environments grow faster than the teams that run them. Jobs multiply across SQL Server, Azure Data Factory, Airflow, SAP, JDE, and Banner, and when one fails, finding the root cause often means searching several consoles at once, frequently outside business hours. At the same time, IT leaders carry pressure to adopt AI while staying accountable for where operational data goes. JAX and JAMS MCP close both gaps together.

Full details on how JAX and JAMS MCP work, including the control model behind every action, are available at jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

JAX is an AI agent that runs inside the JAMS Web Client. It finds jobs, troubleshoots failures, and answers how-to questions in plain language, with each response grounded in the JAMS user guide and checked against a built-in glossary. JAX acts only when a user asks it to. Reads flow freely, and every write action pauses for the user’s explicit approval before it runs. JAX does not learn between sessions, and conversations are not retained on the server.

JAMS MCP is a connector, built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, that brings JAMS into the AI tools engineering teams already use, including Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex. Users query jobs, investigate failures, and manage runs in plain language without leaving their tool.

Both capabilities run inside the customer’s own network and act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions. There is no elevated AI account: whatever a user cannot do in the JAMS interface, JAX and JAMS MCP cannot do on that user’s behalf. Every JAX and MCP operation is recorded in its own dedicated log, and changes made through the JAMS API land in the JAMS audit trail like any other change. Customers choose their own AI model, whether a commercial provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic or a model running entirely on their own hardware, and JAMS never trains on customer data. In the current release, neither feature edits or deletes a job, folder, schedule, or agent definition. For teams that must keep operational data within a defined boundary, JAX runs on a local model entirely inside the customer’s own network, so nothing leaves at all.

“Adopting AI usually means giving something up, most often visibility into where your data goes,” said Pete Hegland, Chief Executive Officer of JAMS Software. “We built JAX and JAMS MCP so that trade does not have to happen. Every action runs as the signed-in user, every change waits for approval, and the model itself can run entirely inside your own network.”

“IT teams across the United Kingdom and EMEA tell us the same thing: they want the benefit of AI without losing sight of where their data goes,” said Greg McLaughlin, Account Executive for EMEA at JAMS Software. “JAX and JAMS MCP let them keep operational data inside their own network and still get answers in plain language. That combination is what makes this practical for the teams I work with.”

JAX and JAMS MCP are available now to all JAMS Web customers across the United Kingdom and EMEA, with no separate licence, SKU, or additional cost. AI-assisted creation of new jobs and workflows from a plain-language description is on the roadmap for a future release, gated by the same approvals and permissions as every other action.

Learn how JAX and JAMS MCP work at https://jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

Fast facts

JAX is an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client for job scheduling and workflow automation.JAMS MCP is a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, for Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex.Both act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions, and there is no elevated AI account.Customers choose the AI model, including a local model that runs entirely inside their own network.JAMS never trains on customer data.Both are available now at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

About JAMS Software

Founded in 1987, JAMS Software is an orchestration solution that helps IT teams centralize, automate, and manage scheduled and event-driven jobs across complex, hybrid environments. Over 850 customers rely on JAMS to run their automated workloads. JAMS Software, LLC is headquartered at 108 Patriot Drive, Suite A, Middletown, DE 19709.

Media Contact
Bobby Schmidt, Vice President of Marketing
press@jamssoftware.com
800.261.4267

 

 

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/3007577/JAMS_logo.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/3007578/jams_jax_ai_agent_job_scheduling_1.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/3007579/jams_jax_mcp_ai_control_model.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/3007580/jams_mcp_ai_connector_claude_cursor.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/jams-launches-ai-for-enterprise-job-scheduling-jax-and-jams-mcp-on-the-model-you-choose-302833908.html

Continue Reading

Technology

Video: CNPC offers green chemical answer

Published

on

By

BEIJING, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from chinadaily.com.cn:

Located on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Tarim 1.2 MTA Phase II Ethylene Project and its supporting green and low-carbon demonstration facility of PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, are offering a new example of China’s low-carbon industrial transformation.

Watch the video to discover how CNPC is exploring a cleaner and more circular future for the industry.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/video-cnpc-offers-green-chemical-answer-302834036.html

SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn

Continue Reading

Technology

Shanghai Electric showcases embodied intelligence robot matrix and AI-native smart factory solutions at WAIC 2026

Published

on

By

Featuring humanoid robots with 41 degrees of freedom, pipe‑inspection robots with ±1mm positioning accuracy, and 51 industrial‑grade AI agents

SHANGHAI, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Operations in high-end equipment manufacturing often involve confined spaces, complex objects, and fine manipulation tasks that demand sustained and stable precision. At the recent 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (WAIC 2026), Shanghai Electric (SEHK: 02727, SSE: 601727) showcased its comprehensive portfolio of embodied intelligence solutions tailored to a range of industrial scenarios.

Themed “AI for All: Smart Squad, Shining Without Limits,” Shanghai Electric highlighted its capabilities across embodied AI robots, robot core components, and AI-native smart factory solutions, demonstrating end-to-end capabilities spanning complete robot systems, critical parts, industrial software, and smart factory architecture.

“The true value of embodied intelligence lies in understanding real industrial tasks: combining the strength, precision, and stability of machines with human experience and judgment to drive a genuine paradigm of ‘machine-assisted, human-machine collaboration,'” said Wang Chunlei, deputy general manager of the Robotics Business Unit at Shanghai Electric Automation Group.

Shanghai Electric’s robotics portfolio covers five key industrial scenarios: connector insertion, electrical operations, flexible sorting, intelligent assembly, and pipe processing. Highlights include:

“SUYUAN” bipedal humanoid robot: With 41 degrees of freedom for enhanced mobility, it is equipped with a multimodal visual sensing system on the head and torso, along with a dual-battery hot-swap system. It is well-suited for inspection, material handling, and assembly tasks.”TUOYUAN” industrial wheeled humanoid robot: Powered by an embodied intelligence foundation model and force-position hybrid control, it is capable of multi-spec connector insertion, material sorting, and loading/unloading of automotive sheet metal parts.”Mermaid” bionic wheeled humanoid robot: Capable of autonomously identifying buttons, knobs, and air switches, it generates real-time operation paths.Autonomous pipe inner-wall chamfering robot: Designed for confined spaces, it can position and process thousands of hole edges with accuracy within 1 millimeter while transmitting data in real time.

Shanghai Electric also showcased its portfolio of core components ranging from power-output to end effectors. Among them, the planetary roller screw offers more than three times the load capacity of traditional ball screws, while the DexHand dexterous hand is designed to meet diverse gripping and manipulation requirements.

Shanghai Electric launched 51 AI models and agents under its “StarCloud Intelligent Manufacturing” series across three domains: R&D and design, production and manufacturing, and operations and maintenance—covering critical equipment processes such as process optimization and wind power facility maintenance.

These industrial agents are embedded in robotic decision-making systems and the operational logic of AI-native smart factories, transforming industrial expertise into digitized, reusable capabilities. They support production-line scheduling, quality inspection, and predictive maintenance, driving the evolution of manufacturing systems from experience-driven to data-driven operations.

Shanghai Electric also released the “AI-Native Smart Factory Technology White Paper,” proposing an active evolution architecture that enables real‑time, closed‑loop optimization of production data, giving the factory self‑perception, self‑decision, and self‑execution capabilities. Built on First Principles, the AI‑native smart factory vertically integrates process flows, industrial software, agents, and smart equipment to dismantle traditional hierarchies while horizontally bridging data silos. The architecture features three core layers: the AI factory brain as the “control center,” industrial agents and embodied robots as the “execution network,” and the physical twin as the “digital mirror.”

Leveraging its deep industrial expertise and comprehensive solution capabilities, Shanghai Electric will continue to drive the implementation of AI in industrial settings, tackle technical challenges facing embodied intelligence in complex scenarios, accelerate the large‑scale deployment of AI‑native smart factories, and deliver replicable solutions across diverse manufacturing environments.

SOURCE Shanghai Electric

Continue Reading

Trending