Los Angeles, CA – March 12, 2024 – Deluxe announced today that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Applications Technology (AppTek), LLC, a leader in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Natural Language Processing such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Machine Translation (MT), Large Language Models (LLMs), Text to Speech (TTS), and Voice Cloning and Conversion. As part of their partnership, Deluxe has acquired a non-controlling interest in AppTek and becomes the exclusive reseller of AppTek products and services to the global Media and Entertainment industry.
“Innovative technology has always been core to the products and services that Deluxe offers,” said Chris Reynolds, Executive Vice President and GM of Localization and Fulfillment at Deluxe. “We’ve been working closely with AppTek for several years and have been impressed by their technology and breadth of experience. Our expanded relationship will allow us to combine the extensive expertise of both companies to develop solutions for practical challenges that our customers face in a way that respects the role of creative localization professionals.” Reynolds also shared, “These technologies can provide access to content that hasn’t previously been localized, while also addressing workflow challenges for translators and other localization and creative professionals to scale more efficiently. Deluxe is built upon human creativity as the cornerstone of effective storytelling and believes the use of AI can be sensibly applied to empower content translators, voice artists, and other localization professionals to further open up new markets and diverse content types to broader regions around the world.”
Through this partnership, Deluxe can also offer customers and media professionals best in class AI professional services, to develop custom high-performance AI tools and models that are exclusive to them. This allows customers to benefit from the fusion of Deluxe’s extensive workflow experience and AppTek’s award-winning science team, while preserving data privacy and exclusivity. Custom solutions can be directly integrated into a customer’s technical environment or consumed through Deluxe’s platforms.
“AppTek has long believed in pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence and its real-world applications, and Deluxe brings the same passion in content transformation and accessibility. We are beyond excited to partner with a media services company that has such a rich legacy in the media and entertainment industry,” said Mudar Yaghi, CEO at AppTek.
The combination of AppTek’s best-in-class technology and world-class science team, paired with Deluxe’s existing localization platform, services and expertise, results in the most comprehensive, advanced and innovative language service offering in the Media & Entertainment industry today.
With the backing of Platinum Equity, Deluxe has continued to focus on global expansion and investment in technology to provide enhanced service offerings to customers. Since Platinum Equity acquired the business in 2020, Deluxe has made nine acquisitions and strategic partnerships.
About Deluxe
Deluxe Media Inc. (Deluxe) provides innovative, secure distribution and localization services for studios, streaming platforms and content creators worldwide. Deluxe’s cloud-based solutions offer unprecedented flexibility and reach through its customizable, end-to-end solutions that enable customers to create, transform, and distribute content and immersive streaming experiences to audiences on a global scale.
About Platinum Equity
Founded in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity is a global investment firm with approximately $47 billion of assets under management and a portfolio of approximately 50 operating companies that serve customers around the world. Platinum Equity specializes in mergers, acquisitions and operations – a trademarked strategy it calls M&A&O® – acquiring and operating companies in a broad range of business markets, including manufacturing, distribution, transportation and logistics, equipment rental, metals services, media and entertainment, technology, telecommunications and other industries. Over the past 28 years Platinum Equity has completed more than 450 acquisitions.
About AppTek
AppTek is a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies for automatic speech recognition (ASR), neural machine translation (NMT), natural language processing/understanding (NLP/U), large language models (LLMs) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies. The AppTek platform delivers industry-leading, real-time streaming and batch technology solutions in the cloud or on-premises for organizations across a breadth of global markets such as media and entertainment, call centers, government, enterprise business, and more. Built by scientists and research engineers who are recognized among the best in the world, AppTek’s multidimensional 4D for HLT (human language technology) solutions with slice and dice methodology cover hundreds of languages/dialects, domains, devices and demographics, and drive high impact results with speed and precision. For more information, please visit http://www.apptek.com.
AppTek is a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies for automatic speech recognition (ASR), neural machine translation (NMT), natural language processing/understanding (NLP/U) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies. The AppTek platform delivers industry-leading solutions for organizations across a breadth of global markets such as media and entertainment, call centers, government, enterprise business, and more. Built by scientists and research engineers who are recognized among the best in the world, AppTek’s solutions cover a wide array of languages/ dialects, channels, domains and demographics.
