01What changed
The product name, and the addresses it is served from. Ascent became Umbodi on 2 September 2026. Every page, every interface string and every published document now uses the new name.
02What did not change
Everything else. The publisher is still I-Novanet Software Ltd, the same registered company. The engine, the pull-request workflow, the autonomy controls, the measurement methodology, the API, the licence terms and the accounts are unchanged. This was a rename, not a transfer, a merger, or a new product.
03Why the name changed
"Ascent" was not distinctive enough to resolve to us. Measured on 1 September 2026, six questions a buyer would ask about the product — what it is, what it does, who is behind it, what it costs — each returned a confident answer about a different company. At least seven other businesses in and around AI trade under that name. A search engine cannot cite a company it cannot tell apart from six others, and an autonomous search product that its own category cannot identify is a poor advertisement for itself.
The rename was the correct remedy rather than a preference, and it was made on a measurement rather than a hunch.
04Where the old addresses go
Nothing that used to resolve has been deleted. Every former address issues a permanent redirect to its counterpart:
| Former address | Now |
|---|---|
umbodi.ai | 301 to umbodi.ai, path and query preserved |
ascent-app-three.vercel.app | 301 to umbodi.ai, path and query preserved |
/blog/ascent-geo-aai-citations-features-guide | 301 to the same article under its new slug |
/blog/what-does-ascent-really-do-seo-only | 301 to the same article under its new slug |
If you hold a bookmark, an API reference or a link from before September 2026, it still works.
05What the name means
Umbodi — from the Old Norse umboði: the one who holds a mandate to act on your behalf, within limits you set. It was chosen to describe the thing the product actually is: an agent that acts for you, under authority you grant and can withdraw.
06How to verify this
This statement is intended to be checkable rather than taken on trust.
- The publisher is I-Novanet Software Ltd, Registrar of Companies File No C145967, BRN C17145967, incorporated 22 March 2017.
- The company profile is linked from the structured data on every page of this site, and named on the Terms, Privacy and Licensing pages.
- The former hostnames above still answer and still redirect here, which is checkable from outside without our help.
- Questions, including from anyone reconciling the two names in a directory or dataset: hello@umbodi.ai.