K&R International Services Adopts Descartes to Automate EU Ecommerce Filings

Ampersand announced a $15 million Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Matrix and Flex Capital, to build integration infrastructure that lets agentic applications read and write inside legacy systems of record such as CRM and ERP platforms. New investors in the round include Yelp, Tenacity Capital, CTO Fund, Mana Ventures, and prominent angel investors, and Bessemer Partner Lauri Moore will join Ampersand's board. The company also announced the beta release of Andi, its AI integration agent that helps developers with the implementation work required to run their products in each customer's environment. Ampersand was founded by Ayan Barua, formerly CTO and co-founder of Siftery and VP of Engineering at G2, and Lauren Long, who built Firebase Extensions at Google; the two spoke with more than 100 companies building integrations before writing Ampersand's first line of code. Moore said connecting an agent to a system of record is a demo, but keeping that connection alive across hundreds of customers, with writes you cannot afford to get wrong, is much harder, and that is what Ampersand is building.

LeapXpert and Webex by Cisco announced a collaboration that extends Webex beyond internal collaboration into governed client messaging, starting with WhatsApp. The integration, available now on the Webex App Hub, lets Webex users message clients on WhatsApp without leaving the platform, signing in with their existing Webex credentials on desktop or mobile. It is the first of several channels LeapXpert plans to bring into Webex, and additional messaging channels will be rolled out. Every message is checked by data loss prevention in both directions, and the full conversation is captured by LeapXpert for archiving. With Webex used by 95% of the Fortune 500 and roughly 300,000 organizations worldwide, the partnership brings governed consumer messaging within reach of tens of millions of business users. A Leap Work account and a Webex license are required, and LeapXpert will showcase at WebexOne 2026, October 5 to 8, 2026, at booth B24.

Guild has achieved Workday Certified Integration status with the launch of the Guild Workday HCM Connector, the workforce development platform announced. The certified connector links Workday Human Capital Management directly to Guild, replacing manual file transfers with an automatic synchronization of employee information used to determine and manage eligibility for Guild programs. Guild said the connector is designed to reduce implementation complexity and ongoing maintenance while improving the reliability and accuracy of the employee data that governs access to its programs. OU Health, the University of Oklahoma's academic health system, is among the first employers to implement the certified integration. Guild also plans to expand its integration through Workday Cloud Connect for Learning, allowing skills earned and learning completion data from Guild programs to feed directly into an employee's Workday profile.

S&P Dow Jones Indices announced a series of benchmark rebalancings on Thursday afternoon, effective prior to the market open on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Cloud communications software maker Twilio Inc Class A will join the flagship S&P 500, moving up from the S&P MidCap 400, replacing Warner Bros Discovery Inc, which is being acquired by S&P 500 constituent Paramount Skydance Corp in a deal nearing final completion. Twilio shares rose 1.6% in extended trading, while semiconductor test equipment producer FormFactor Inc will fill Twilio's former spot in the S&P MidCap 400 as it shifts up from the S&P SmallCap 600. The small-cap benchmark will in turn absorb SaaS platform Workiva Inc, which replaces FormFactor and gained 2.7% after-hours. In a separate structural shift, newly formed Consumer Staples entity Vylor Inc. joined the S&P 500 on Thursday following its spinoff from Corteva Inc, which will transition into the S&P MidCap 400 on Oct. 6, taking the spot of Olin Corporation; Olin moves to the S&P SmallCap 600 to replace chipmaker Qorvo Inc, which is being acquired by Skyworks Solutions Inc in a pending transaction that prompted the chain of small-cap reallocations.

RocketReach announced a strategic data partnership with Gong to become a Gong Enrich Data Partner, bringing its 700 million preverified contacts into Gong's AI-powered Revenue Graph. Under the deal, GTM teams can connect RocketReach to Gong and pull RocketReach contact data directly into revenue workflows, including access to RocketReach's 700+ million verified contacts. The integration lets teams fill missing email addresses or phone numbers in Gong Engage Flows, enrich contacts and accounts in a single click without leaving Gong, and move from research to outreach using preverified data. Gong admins retain full control over RocketReach's placement in their enrichment waterfall and CRM syncs, and teams can use existing RocketReach credits through Gong's Bring Your Own Keys before drawing on Gong credits. RocketReach is available on the Gong Collective today, with MCP support planned in the near future. RocketReach is trusted by more than 30 million users and 95% of the S&P 500, and provides access to over 700 million contacts and 60 million companies worldwide.