Primer Acquires Yonder, Adds Disinformation Analysis to AI Portfolio for Information Operations

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Jun 07, 2022, 09:30 ET

With Yonder, Primer gives commercial and government organizations early intelligence about emerging narratives that may impact their brands or strategic advantage – and helps to create a window of opportunity to take countermeasures.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Primer, a leader in machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) solutions for government agencies and Fortune 1000 companies, today announced it has acquired Yonder, a pioneering company in disinformation analysis. Yonder is renowned in the information operations space, having deployed AI technology to identify disinformation campaigns and provide contextual intelligence for some of the world's largest organizations, including a global retailer, a fast food brand, a telecommunications giant, and the U.S. Government.

Primer redefines how people engage with an increasingly complex world of information with its AI-powered toolkit for risk and security applications that support time-sensitive, mission-critical decision making. By pairing Yonder's contextual narrative intelligence capabilities with Primer's state-of-the-art NLP models and solutions, such as Primer Command for real-time security and operational intelligence, customers can proactively monitor emerging narratives, identify the groups starting and promoting them, assess the potential risks, and take action to avoid or mitigate harm to their brands and operations.

Getting ahead of false or misleading influence campaigns - before they go viral and have lasting effects on perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors - is essential to combating the challenges of information-based warfare. From the war in Ukraine to market manipulation of cryptocurrency, disinformation changes the course of conflict, impacts elections, degrades brands, and distorts discussions. Primer has a track record of success deploying NLP infrastructure and pre-trained engines that help organizations such as the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) detect, understand, and respond to disinformation campaigns as part of their overall information operations posture.

"Primer saw a unique opportunity to join forces with Yonder and accelerate our ability to provide the world's best solutions for detecting and monitoring information operations and disinformation campaigns as they unfold, giving customers early warning capabilities to launch countermeasures and defend against attacks," said Sean Gourley, CEO, Primer. "The experts at Yonder have defined and shaped the disinformation analysis space over the last several years. We are thrilled to welcome them to Primer and help our customers meet the rapidly changing needs for today's information warfare environment."

"Since our founding, Yonder has been dedicated to developing technologies to protect brands and their reputations from manipulation on social media. It's clear this mission is more important than ever, and Primer is the perfect partner to take our solutions to the next level," said Jonathon Morgan, CEO, Yonder. "Primer's machine intelligence for text-based information is unparalleled, and Primer's talent is world class. Together, we will continue to deliver the industry's best tools for information operations, situational understanding, and decision support."

"The ability to collect, analyze, and act on intelligence that could impact reputational integrity has become mission critical for organizations of every size, in every industry," said Tejas Totade, CTO, at Ruder Finn, one of the world's largest independent global communications and creative agencies. "Yonder's narrative detection capabilities coupled with Primer's innovative language analysis platform will be a uniquely powerful solution for Ruder Finn as we help our clients promote and protect their brands."

Strengthening Primer's Foundation

Today's announcement builds on Primer's strategy to build the infrastructure for creating and deploying NLP models and applications that enable government and civil society organizations to be successful in their missions.

The acquisition of Yonder follows Primer's recent acquisition of LightTag, which added team-based data label management software to Primer's infrastructure, ensuring better data on which to train NLP models, higher model performance, and faster deployment of models into production.

Yonder complements Primer Command, an AI-powered real-time security and operational intelligence solution that provides situational awareness of fast-breaking events to inform timely decisions and action.

Customers and partners will now have access to a larger set of complementary technologies designed to analyze and interpret natural language, including Primer's pre-trained NLP models with advanced algorithms for bot detection, synthetic text detection, and claim detection and extraction.

For more information about today's announcement and to request demos of Yonder and Primer Command, please contact Primer.

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About Primer
Primer builds machines that can read and write with human-level precision. Primer's industrial-grade NLP technology is deployed by some of the world's largest government agencies, financial institutions, and Fortune 50 organizations. Trusted to operate in sensitive and complex data environments, Primer provides deep and proven artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) solutions tailored to risk and security applications, including: monitoring global events in real time, identifying disinformation campaigns, responding to cybersecurity attacks, detecting risks to brand reputation, and other impacts on organizational resilience and mission success. Primer is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with offices around the world. For more information, please visit https://primer.ai.

Media contact:
Kim Dion, PR/AR, Primer
[email protected]

® PRIMER is a registered trademark of Primer Technologies, Inc.
® PRIMER COMMAND is a registered trademark of Primer Technologies, Inc.

SOURCE Primer