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Zillow launches a personalized hub that guides home buyers from first search to closing

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Summer Launch 2026 introduces four new products to help buyers plan, finance and find a home, and give sellers more exposure before their listing goes live

SEATTLE, June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Zillow® is launching a personalized hub that guides home buyers through every step of their purchase in real time. In addition, three new features have been designed to give buyers and sellers more clarity at every stage of the transaction.

The median home search for a buyer takes from three to four months, involves countless conversations with an agent and lender, and culminates in gathering documents at a few days’ notice, all while tracking a budget on a spreadsheet. It’s a process that moves more than half of buyers to tears, according to Zillow research. And today’s market conditions aren’t making it any easier. Buyers, nearly half of whom are first-timers, are navigating a market where the housing recovery is “back on pause,” with mortgage rates climbing past 6.5%, adding more uncertainty to an already complex process.

Now, Zillow is giving buyers a clearer path forward: a single place where everything comes together. The new personalized hub guides buyers through four milestones: setting a budget, finding a home, making an offer and closing the deal. It brings together goals, finances, tasks, documents, and the agent and lender a buyer is working with, all in one place. And all of those details update automatically as the journey evolves, so buyers always know where they stand and what to do next.

“Zillow has spent 20 years turning on the lights in real estate, giving buyers and sellers access to information they’d never had before,” said Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow’s chief executive officer. “The next frontier is the journey itself: the financing, the coordination, the offer, the closing. For the first time, every home shopper on Zillow has a single place that brings it all together, so instead of wondering what comes next, they always know exactly where they are and what to do.”

Personalized moving hub: A clear path from first search to closing
Home shoppers start by answering a single question, “Are you buying, selling, both, or just browsing?” From there, they receive a personalized plan.

The hub immediately displays:

BuyAbility℠: This personalized, real-time affordability tool helps buyers understand the range of home prices and monthly payments that may fit their financial situation. They can then use that guidance to shop for homes that are realistically within reach. That information is updated with live mortgage rates.Local market insights: This includes market conditions, median days to pending, active listings and a one-year price forecast.The shopper’s team: If a buyer is already working with an agent and loan officer, those contacts are given in this view. If the buyer doesn’t have a team, the hub brings up Agent Finder to connect them with an agent in their area.

From there, buyers are guided through four milestones: setting a budget, finding a home, making an offer and closing the deal. The hub shows buyers which areas to focus on and lists the steps to follow below each milestone. Progress is updated automatically — when a buyer gets pre-approved, the hub moves forward; when they go under contract, closing tasks appear.

The hub is available now on iOS and Android, and will be coming soon to Zillow.com.

Three additional Summer Launch features give buyers and sellers the tools to plan their move
Zillow’s Summer Launch goes beyond offering the personalized moving hub with the addition of three new features designed to help buyers and sellers move forward during those moments that matter most.

“Every feature in our Summer Launch was designed around a specific moment when buyers lose clarity or momentum,” said Christopher Roberts, chief product officer at Zillow. “The hub gives buyers confidence by making a complex process easier. The shared collection feature helps partners collaborate on their home search, and the ability to shop with Verified Pre-approval shows buyers what they can actually afford on every listing, not just the list price. Zillow Preview opens the pre-market to every buyer, not just those in a certain network. Together, these features remove the friction that makes the home-buying process so hard.”

Zillow Preview
Zillow PreviewSM gives soon-to-be sellers the opportunity to hire an agent to show their listing to the broadest online audience possible before it actually goes on the market. During this window, the home appears in every buyer’s regular Zillow search, with a Preview label.

Buyers can now filter specifically for Preview listings. Once they find a home they’re interested in, they can save it, pre-book a tour or use the time to get pre-approved — signals that indicate serious buyer interest. Sellers get real-time engagement data on views, saves and tour requests to refine their list price and strategy before their listing is fully active. Preview is available through more than 1,200 participating brokers nationwide.

With Zillow Preview, no private network is required. But sellers who decide to go the private-network route pay a price: They lose access to the full buyer pool and net 1.5% less on their sale, which could amount to more than $30,000 in high-cost markets, according to Zillow research. A Zillow survey conducted by The Harris Poll finds that 85% of soon-to-be sellers would be more likely to hire an agent who can show their listing to the broadest online audience before putting it on the market.

Shop with Zillow Home Loans Verified Pre-approval
Most buyers lack financial clarity when they start their home search. Only 28% of prospective buyers who plan to finance have been pre-approved before they begin their search, and about half don’t know what pre-approval means, according to Zillow research.

Now buyers have a way to shop with Zillow Home Loans Verified Pre-approval, with that pre-approval connected directly to a buyer’s home search. Buyers will clearly see whether a listing is a match or is out of their price range as they browse.

A home costs more than its list price. That’s why taxes, insurance, HOA fees and closing costs are factored into Verified Pre-approval, so buyers understand why a higher-priced home may still fit within their means, or a lower-priced one may not. Zillow Home Loans is the only lender to integrate financing directly into the home search in this way, with the buyer’s loan officer accessible throughout the process.

Shared collection
Most people buying a home aren’t doing it alone. More than half of buyers in 2025 purchased their home with a partner, according to Zillow research, and for most of them, coordinating their search consisted of texting screenshots and forwarding listing links. The new shared collection feature replaces that with a single shared workspace inside Zillow, where buying partners can save, organize and compare homes together in real time, with any update immediately visible to both people, across iOS, Android and the web.

Tech momentum at Zillow keeps growing
Today’s launch is the latest move by Zillow to streamline the home-buying process and build consumer confidence throughout the full transaction.

In summer 2025, the company introduced SkyTour, an interactive 3D exterior home tour built on Gaussian splatting technology originally developed by the gaming industry; and Offer Insights, a tool that shows buyers in real time how competitive different offer prices might be. In fall 2025, Zillow launched in-app messaging for co-shoppers, AI-powered virtual staging on ShowcaseSM listings, and an integrated closing dashboard, connecting the front end of the search with the back end of the transaction.

Earlier this year, Zillow launched Zillow AI mode, a conversational AI experience built directly into the app that lets buyers and renters ask questions in plain language, explore neighborhoods, compare affordability and book tours without leaving Zillow. Now available to a growing number of users, it will be expanding throughout the year.

About Zillow Group: 
Zillow Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: Z and ZG) is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people.

As the most visited real estate app and website in the United States, Zillow connects hundreds of millions of consumers with innovative technology, trusted agents and loan officers, and seamless digital solutions. With industry-leading tools and resources, Zillow supercharges real estate professionals so they can grow their businesses and deliver exceptional client experiences. For renters and housing providers, Zillow offers not only a robust marketplace but a set of end-to-end products and services to streamline applications, leases, payments and more.

Zillow’s ecosystem spans the entire home journey — from dreaming and shopping to renting, buying, selling and financing.

Zillow Group’s affiliates, subsidiaries and brands include Zillow®, Zillow Premier Agent®, Zillow Home Loans®, Zillow Rentals®, Zillow® New Construction, Trulia®, StreetEasy®, Out East®, HotPads®, Follow Up Boss®, ShowingTime® and dotloop®.

All marks herein are owned by MFTB Holdco, Inc., a Zillow affiliate. Zillow Home Loans, LLC is an Equal Housing Lender, NMLS #10287 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org). © 2026 MFTB Holdco, Inc., a Zillow affiliate.

(ZFIN)

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SOURCE Zillow

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Slope and Velocity Clinical Research Partner to Standardize Inventory Management and Drive Study Feasibility Across 70+ Sites

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RICHMOND, Va. and DURHAM, N.C., June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Slope, the only end-to-end, vendor-agnostic software provider for managing clinical inventory and biospecimens, and Velocity Clinical Research, the world’s largest organization of fully-owned and integrated clinical research sites, today announced that their strategic partnership has led to a comprehensive roll-out of Slope’s premium inventory management solution across Velocity’s 70+ sites spanning the United States and Europe. The deployment is already enabling Velocity to leverage trial equipment data to inform study feasibility decisions across its network.

This partnership represents a significant milestone for both organizations. Slope further solidifies its position in the clinical research space by standardizing its industry-leading clinical inventory management solution with a premier research site network, while Velocity gains access to an innovative platform that has already been adopted by over 2,400 research sites globally across over two dozen countries.

“Slope’s base inventory management solution had already been independently adopted at 31 of our sites,” said Nicholas Spittal, Chief Operations Officer at Velocity. “This grassroots adoption gave confidence that Slope is easy to use and already providing added value for running efficient sites. With real-time visibility into study equipment and clinical supplies across all of Velocity, we can now make faster, better-informed decisions about operational readiness, prioritization, and allocation of work. We’re already leveraging this data to support our study feasibility and quality assurance processes.”

“From its inception, Slope has championed research sites first and foremost,” said Rust Felix, Co-founder and CEO at Slope. “Research sites are on the front lines of clinical trials, playing the most challenging and critical role in bringing new therapies to patients. When we help them work more efficiently and reduce their administrative burden, the entire clinical research ecosystem benefits. We applaud Velocity for recognizing the value that Slope brings to research sites, and we’re excited that our partnership is already fueling our joint efforts to address one of the industry’s most significant pain points — managing the inventory and study equipment that are essential to running clinical trials.”

By feeding Slope’s equipment data into its broader operational infrastructure, Velocity can now determine at a glance whether a site is operationally ready to support a new study — reducing the time and guesswork involved in site selection. As the partnership continues to scale, both organizations expect these operational gains to translate into faster study startup times, reduced supply waste, and a stronger competitive position for Velocity’s sites in attracting new trials.

About Slope

Slope is the only end-to-end, vendor-agnostic software provider for managing clinical inventory and biospecimens across the entire clinical research ecosystem. Trusted by 2,400+ sites in over two dozen countries, Slope delivers measurable results: 71% average reduction in lab kit waste, 98% site adoption on sponsor-contracted trials, and up to 98% fewer lab queries.

By unifying and tech-enabling the clinical inventory and biospecimen lifecycle — inventory management and supply logistics; sample collection processing, storage, and shipment; and data exchange with core clinical systems like EDCs and lab databases — Slope eliminates the inefficiencies that slow trials, hinder site staff, and inflate costs. The platform serves research sites, sponsors, labs, and CROs with solutions ranging from premium inventory management for sites, to end-to-end biospecimen lifecycle management for all stakeholders. Learn more at slopeclinical.com.

About Velocity Clinical Research

Velocity Clinical Research is the world’s leading organization of fully-owned and integrated research sites. The company partners with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to research new drugs, medical devices, and diagnostics that could improve human health and wellbeing. Velocity’s unified research site solutions deliver the right patients, investigators, and research staff for clinical trials across the U.S. and Europe. For more information, visit velocityclinical.com.

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SOURCE Slope

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Bandwidth Launches ‘Build,’ Giving AI Agents Autonomous Access To the Bandwidth Communications Cloud

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Enables AI agents and developers to autonomously activate communications services and launch voice applications in minutes

RALEIGH, N.C., June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bandwidth Inc. (NASDAQ: BAND), a leading global cloud communications company, today announced Bandwidth Build, a new platform enabling AI agents and developers to autonomously provision and launch communications services on the Bandwidth Communications Cloud.

As AI increasingly becomes a builder, operator, and consumer of digital infrastructure, communications services must become as accessible to AI agents as they are to human developers. Bandwidth Build extends the Bandwidth Communications Cloud into this emerging agentic ecosystem, enabling AI agents to provision communications capabilities and launch voice applications through automated workflows. It also gives human developers a faster path from experimentation to production. Bandwidth Build is accessible via a self-serve UI, API, CLI, and SDKs. Once authenticated, AI agents can use Bandwidth’s MCP Server to securely access Bandwidth APIs, provision communications services, and automate workflows.

“AI agents are building, configuring, and operating technology on their own. With Build, we’re extending the Bandwidth Communications Cloud to support that shift,” said John Bell, Bandwidth’s Chief Product Officer. “AI agents and developers can access the same production-grade voice infrastructure that powers mission-critical communications for enterprises worldwide. Build eliminates the friction between an idea and a working application by providing immediate availability.”

Bandwidth Build starts with a trial that includes a pre-configured U.S. phone number, complimentary usage credits, and immediate access to Bandwidth’s Voice API to get started. Agents and developers can build voice applications using the communications capabilities most commonly required for AI-powered interactions, including inbound and outbound calling, text-to-speech, transcription, recording, and conferencing–all on the same global mission-critical infrastructure used by Bandwidth’s enterprise customers.

AI agents and human developers can start building at bandwidth.com/build-sign-up.

About Bandwidth Inc.
Bandwidth Inc. (NASDAQ: BAND) is a global cloud communications company that helps enterprises deliver exceptional experiences through voice calling, text messaging and emergency services. Our solutions and our Communications Cloud, covering 65+ countries and ~90 percent of global GDP, are trusted by all the leaders in unified communications and cloud contact centers–including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Google, Microsoft, RingCentral, Zoom, Genesys and Five9–as well as Global 2000 enterprises and SaaS builders like Docusign, Uber and Yosi Health. As a founder of the cloud communications revolution, we are the first and only global Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) to offer a unique combination of composable APIs, AI capabilities, owner-operated network and broad regulatory experience. Our award-winning support teams help businesses around the world transform their communications every day.

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SOURCE Bandwidth Inc.

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Vacuum-Compatible High Load Hexapod, New from PI

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Vacuum-Compatible 6-Axis Hexapod for Precision Positioning of Heavy Loads up to 80kg

SHREWSBURY, Mass., June 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PI (Physik Instrumente), a global leader in precision motion control and nanopositioning technologies, announces the H-850.H2IV vacuum-compatible hexapod, a six-degree-of-freedom positioning system designed for high-precision alignment and motion control in demanding vacuum environments.

Target applications include semiconductor manufacturing, lithography, synchrotron beamlines, optical alignment, aerospace testing, and advanced scientific research.

Key Specifications:

Vacuum compatibility: down to 10⁻⁶ hPaLoad capacity: up to 80 kg (176 lbs)Repeatability: ±0.2 µmSelf-holding force: 200 kg (440 lbs) horizontal; 50 kg (110 lbs) in any orientationMotion axes: X, Y, Z translation + pitch, roll, and yaw rotationArchitecture: parallel-kinematic, six simultaneous actuators

Parallel Kinematics for Superior Performance
Unlike stacked serial-axis systems, the H-850.H2IV uses a parallel-kinematic architecture in which all six actuators move a common platform simultaneously. This delivers higher structural stiffness, lower moving mass, improved path accuracy, and better repeatability across all axes. Because cables remain stationary, the cable management issues common in serial systems are eliminated — a meaningful advantage in vacuum installations.

Self-Locking Drive Improves Safety and Stability
The self-locking drive mechanism in the vacuum hexapod holds loads in position without power, preventing drift during extended measurement cycles, power interruptions, or sensitive alignment procedures. This protects expensive payloads and reduces overall power consumption.

Simulation Software Reduces Integration Risk
PI’s PIVirtualMove software allows engineers to verify workspace limits, payload conditions, force and torque constraints, and center-of-gravity effects before deployment — reducing project risk and accelerating system integration.

Industries Served and Applications
Typical applications of the hexapod include the alignment of optics in vacuum chambers, lithography and inspection systems, beamline instrumentation, and satellite sensor testing.

Specifications, datasheet: H-850.x2IV Vacuum-Compatible Hexapod

PI Americas
www.pi-usa.us | info@pi-usa.us | (508) 832-3456
Media Contact
press-release@pi-usa.us

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SOURCE Physik Instrumente (PI)

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