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TECNO and BBC StoryWorks Unveil New Film Exploring the Human Stories Behind “100 Portraits of Becoming”

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As part of TECNO and artist Angélica Dass’s global “100 Portraits of Becoming” project, the new BBC StoryWorks film reveals the personal journeys behind the portraits, bringing to life a shared vision of seeing beyond the image to understand the people behind it.

HONG KONG, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Global innovative technology brand TECNO has jointly produced and released a new film with  BBC StoryWorks to unveil the project of “100 Portraits of Becoming,” a two-year global portrait project co-created by TECNO and internationally acclaimed visual artist Angélica Dass which started from Kenya as the first chapter. Building on TECNO’s philosophy of inclusive imaging technology and Angélica Dass’s distinctive approach to portraiture, the project plans to bring together 100 portraits and personal stories across five countries, moving beyond visual representation to explore the individuality and humanity behind each portrait. Through the personal journeys featured in the film, audiences gain a glimpse into the energy and aspirations of people navigating today’s changing world — how they are finding their own paths, shaping new possibilities and imagining who they want to become.

The film also explores the shared vision behind TECNO’s collaboration with Dass. While TECNO’s Universal Tone technology seeks to fairly represent the beauty of different skin tones and human diversity, Dass’s work has long challenged the labels and assumptions through which we see others. Together, they bring a shared belief to “100 Portraits of Becoming”: that being seen is about more than appearance — it is also about being understood for who we are.

Through the film, this idea comes to life in Kenya, where the first chapter of “100 Portraits of Becoming” began. It introduces some of the people behind the portraits, each with a different story of finding their own way forward. For agripreneur Alex Mutua Muli, opportunity wasn’t something to seek elsewhere, but something to create at home. By connecting local farmers to wider markets, he is helping build a future in the community where he grew up. Alexander Odhiambo took a different path, turning an uncertain start to his career into a new beginning. From a small apartment in Nairobi, he co-founded a software company that has since grown to serve markets across Africa, opening doors for others along the way. And for Jelimo Cheboi, what began as a small WhatsApp group became something much bigger. As co-founder of GirlSkate Nairobi, she has helped turn a shared passion for skateboarding into a growing community where girls and women can challenge expectations, find belonging, and express themselves on their own terms.

Their stories are different, but each challenges an assumption about what is possible — whether it is where opportunity can be found, what a career can become, or who gets to belong. Together, they offer a glimpse of the people behind the portraits, whose lives cannot be summed up by a single image or label.

“The beauty of this project was the chance to look beyond an image and let people tell their own stories. Through their passions and experiences, every person we met brought a vibrancy and depth to the film that a single portrait may not fully capture. We hope the film will encourage audiences to see people with a little more curiosity and a little more understanding,” said Tom Deakin, Director, Content Strategy at BBC StoryWorks APAC.

“100 Portraits of Becoming” is a two-year global project bringing together 100 portraits and personal stories across Kenya, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Brazil. Together, these portraits and stories will form a growing collection that celebrates the many different ways of being human — 100 people, 100 stories and 100 ways to see humanity. Following its first chapter in Kenya, the project will continue its journey to more countries around the world, uncovering new stories, experiences and perspectives on what it means to become. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories and the latest updates from “100 Portraits of Becoming” on the BBC StoryWorks project page and “100 Portraits of Becoming” by TECNO and Angelica Dass official website.

About TECNO

As a global innovative technology brand with operations in over 70 markets, TECNO has been committed to revolutionizing the digital experience in global emerging markets, relentlessly pushing for the perfect integration of contemporary, aesthetic design with the latest technologies and AI. TECNO offers a wide range of smartphones, smart wearables, laptops and tablets, smart gaming, HiOS operating systems and smart home products. Guided by its brand essence of “Stop At Nothing,” TECNO is committed to unlocking the newest technologies and AI-powered new experiences for forward-looking individuals, inspiring them to never stop pursuing their best selves and their best futures. For more information, please visit TECNO’s official site: www.tecno-mobile.com.

About “100 Portraits of Becoming” by TECNO and Angélica Dass

“100 Portraits of Becoming” is a global portrait project created by TECNO together with internationally recognized artist Angélica Dass. Over two years, it will produce one hundred portraits across five countries — Kenya, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Brazil — pairing Dass’s portrait methodology with TECNO’s Universal Tone inclusive imaging technology. Each portrait moves beyond a face to the person behind it: to lives unfolding across different cultures, generations and moments of social change. One hundred portraits become one hundred ways of seeing humanity — and one growing archive of who we are, told by the people living it. To learn more, please visit: https://www.tecno-mobile.com/100portraitsofbecoming/.

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SOURCE TECNO MOBILE LIMITED

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commercetools Named a Leader in 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce as AI Reshapes the Market

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40 minutes ago

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October 22, 2026

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commercetools is a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce for the seventh consecutive year.commercetools has been driving AI innovation on how enterprises build, operate and sell, including capabilities like Sphere, Commerce MCP and commercetools for Builders.commercetools is helping global enterprises modernize complex commerce operations and prepare for a future where both people and AI agents discover, shop and transact.

BOSTON, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — commercetools, the digital commerce AI company, today announced it has been positioned as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce. This marks the seventh consecutive year commercetools has been recognized as a Leader in the report.

As AI reshapes commerce, commercetools is expanding how it supports the enterprises who build and operate commerce experiences, and the shoppers who use them. Global enterprises including JD Sports, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Chemist Warehouse and Mirion Technologies are using commercetools to modernize complex digital commerce, accelerate growth and adopt new AI-powered ways of operating and selling.

“Commerce is moving from systems that simply respond to human instructions toward systems that can increasingly understand, decide and act,” said Doug McNary, Chief Executive Officer at commercetools. “We’re proud to be named a Leader for the seventh consecutive year. Enterprises shouldn’t have to choose between the flexibility they need today and the autonomy they’ll need tomorrow. Our focus is giving them the technology to support both.”

Over the past year, commercetools has introduced new products and capabilities designed to bring AI across the commerce lifecycle:

Sphere: Brings together commercetools’ AI-native infrastructure and agent governance through Commerce MCP into a unified platform for enterprises to build, operate and sell with AI.commercetools for Builders: Helps anyone build, extend and evolve enterprise commerce faster with AI.AgentSphere: Lets enterprises build and manage AI agents to run commerce operations and agentic shopping, with appropriate guardrails to do so safely and at scale.Modular commerce offerings: Gives enterprises the flexibility to start with the capabilities they need and expand over time, accelerating time to value without requiring a full commerce transformation upfront.Commerce Integration Layer: Centralizes integration logic behind customer-facing experiences. Storefronts, mobile apps and AI agents connect through a unified layer hosted and maintained by commercetools.Smart Data Modeler: Uses AI to accelerate product data modeling, helping teams build the right foundation faster and reduce time-to-launch.

commercetools’ customers include large enterprises across retail, manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare and telecommunications in markets around the world.

To learn more about commercetools’ position as a Leader, download your complimentary copy of the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant report today.

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce Platforms, Aditya Vasudevan, Penny Gillespie, Sandy Shen, Jason Daigler, Mike Lowndes, 19 October 2026

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are trademarks of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates.

Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About commercetools

commercetools, the global digital commerce AI company, helps enterprises transform commerce for the AI era. Built API-native from the start and AI-first by design, our technology enables agentic shopping experiences, automates commerce operations and gives businesses the agility to modernize faster, innovate continuously and operate more intelligently.

More than 500 global brands, retailers and enterprise companies rely on commercetools to power their digital commerce. Together, they process more than $100 billion in annualized GMV, over 700 million orders and more than one billion customer records on our platform.

Media Contact: comms@commercetools.com 

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SOURCE commercetools

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Phylo’s Biomni Lab to expand the use of AI agents in scientific research at Bayer

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October 22, 2026

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Phylo, Inc. announced today a partnership with Bayer to deploy Biomni Lab, Phylo’s agentic AI platform to accelerate scientific research and evaluation. 

Under the agreement, Phylo will provide Bayer with full access to its agentic platform that helps Bayer scientists bring together scientific literature, biomedical data, and analytical methods in one environment, reducing the manual effort required to assemble and assess evidence. The platform’s inspectable workflows preserve the context behind each result, allowing researchers to review the underlying sources, methods, and execution and apply their own scientific judgment. Bayer scientists will gain access to Biomni Lab for workflows focused on assembling literature and omics evidence for drug discovery.

“This partnership reflects our belief that AI should expand scientific curiosity, not just speed up routine work. Giving our scientists an AI partner that brings rigor to every step lets them explore more ideas, ask bolder questions, and find the insights that move drug discovery forward, ultimately accelerating the pace at which we can bring new medicines to patients,” said Sai Jasti, Senior Vice President, Head of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Bayer Pharmaceuticals R&D.

“For agentic AI to matter in research, it has to earn the trust of the scientists doing the work. Bayer’s selection of Biomni Lab is a strong endorsement of the scientific rigor and AI capabilities we’ve built into the platform,” said Kexin Huang, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Phylo. “Our vision is an AI-native operating system for biopharma, where every scientist can direct a team of AI agents to pursue complex research questions. With Bayer, we aim to show what becomes possible when AI capabilities meet deep scientific expertise: more hypotheses explored, more discoveries made, and new possibilities for medicine.”

About Phylo

Phylo’s mission is to bring the best agentic intelligence to every biomedical scientist. Its enterprise-grade AI platform, Biomni Lab, is the first Integrated Biology Environment—a unified workspace where scientists collaborate with AI agents across literature research, experimental design, biological data analysis, and scientific decision-making.

Biomni Lab is now used by leading global biopharma, including Bayer, Chugai Pharmaceutical and Ono Pharmaceutical. Phylo is based in South San Francisco, backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Menlo Ventures.

For more information, visit phylo.bio. To learn more about Biomni Lab, visit biomni.phylo.bio.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/phylos-biomni-lab-to-expand-the-use-of-ai-agents-in-scientific-research-at-bayer-302917080.html

SOURCE Phylo, Inc.

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Sandler Partners Welcomes Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region

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October 22, 2026

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New Hire Announcement | Independent Technology Distributor Sandler Partners grows its Sales Engineering team, adding Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sandler Partners, the leading independent Technology Solutions Distributor, announces the addition of Bryan Rias as Director, Sales Engineer, West Region, further strengthening its dedicated sales engineering team and the technical support available to Partners in the West Region.

Bryan brings more than two decades of experience designing and delivering complex technology solutions, including enterprise and Cloud architecture roles at Lumen/Savvis and IBM focused on infrastructure modernization and customer success. His expertise spans automation, edge computing, disaster recovery, application performance monitoring (APM), and DevSecOps. In his role, Bryan will support Partners across the West Region, aligning early with them on strategy and leading thoughtful discovery to help them find the right fit for each client.

For Bryan, strong relationships and solid values guide his life and form the foundation of his professional success, a perspective that fits naturally within the Sandler Partners community. When he is not working, Bryan spends time with his family, including his wife, three sons, and a grandson, RVing, boating, and biking, along with pursuing his passion for freediving.

“Bryan brings the kind of hands-on experience our Partners value: he’s been in the room on complex deals and knows how to turn a customer’s needs into the right solution,” says Justin Marano, Chief Revenue Officer, Sandler Partners. “He came to Sandler for the freedom to work across best-of-breed Providers, and our Partners in the West will feel that right away. He’s collaborative, grounded, and focused on helping Partners win. I’m excited to have him on the team.”

“I’m excited to get to work alongside our Partners, helping them navigate complex opportunities and bring clarity to technical decisions,” says Bryan. “For me, it all comes back to relationships. When you build them on trust and shared values, the results follow for our Partners and their clients. That’s something that the Sandler community really embodies, and I look forward to getting to work with our Partners!”

About Sandler Partners
Sandler Partners helps empower its network of leading independent Sales Partners to deliver a comprehensive range of technology solutions to organizations worldwide, including Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Connectivity, Cloud, Colocation, Mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), and Continuity. Its community-focused approach enables Partners to identify the right solutions for customers quickly and objectively from a diverse portfolio of 220+ Providers. Partner sales agents, VARs, and MSPs gain access to an innovative suite of sales tools within the Sandler Portal—including SCOUT, Solutions Finder, Scout for Solutions, and the Marketing Center—several of which are AI-powered, all backed by a robust support network, dedicated Sales Engineering expertise, and rich marketing resources. Together, these tools and resources empower Partners to focus on what they do best: delivering quality, value, performance, innovative solutions, unmatched expertise, and exceptional service to their clients. Members of the Sandler Partners community also benefit from the industry’s strongest negotiated agreements and a dedicated team committed to ensuring commissions are accurately identified, tracked, and paid. For more information, visit www.sandlerpartners.com.

Sandler Partners – Media Contact
Tina S. Dyksterhouse
tina@sandlerpartners.com
310-861-2295

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SOURCE Sandler Partners

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