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.
