Thoma Bravo Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy Software Firm Dayforce
The buyout firm is working on a take- private of Minneapolis-based Dayforce that could be announced as soon as the coming weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Entrepreneur
8 minutes ago
- Entrepreneur
Can a Swiss eSIM Startup Crack the World's Most Complex Mobile Market?
Into this chaos walks Yesim, a Geneva-based company that thinks it can unite 1.8 billion Asian mobile users under one digital umbrella. Bold? Absolutely. Impossible? Let's find out. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur Asia Pacific, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Mobile network testing across Asia for over a decade reveals every trick in the book: overpriced roaming packages, sketchy airport SIM stands, and the dreaded "your phone isn't compatible" message. So, when Swiss startup claimed they could solve Asia's connectivity maze with a few taps, it warranted a deeper investigation. Here's the thing about Asia's mobile market: it's simultaneously the world's most advanced and most fragmented. South Korea pushes 60% 5G penetration, while parts of Southeast Asia still struggle with 4G coverage. Singapore boasts 150% mobile penetration (yes, that's more phones than people), while China keeps international eSIMs at arm's length behind its digital Great Wall. Into this chaos walks Yesim, a Geneva-based company that thinks it can unite 1.8 billion Asian mobile users under one digital umbrella. Bold? Absolutely. Impossible? Let's find out. The Asian Mobile Market is a Beautiful Mess First, let's talk numbers. Asia-Pacific hit 1.8 billion mobile subscriptions by the end of 2023 – that's 63% of the population. About 1.4 billion people actively use mobile internet. These aren't just casual users either. Filipinos average over six hours of internet use daily (most people barely manage that on their laptops). The eSIM opportunity here is massive. The global market reached $9 billion in 2023 and is expected to surpass $14 billion by 2027. By 2030, three-quarters of smartphones worldwide will support eSIM. In Asia's tech-forward markets (the likes of Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo), eSIM adoption is already racing ahead. But here's where it gets messy. Each Asian market plays by different rules. Japan's carriers embrace eSIM but protect their turf fiercely. Singapore welcomes innovation with open arms. China? Well, China treats eSIM like a state secret, with regulators moving at glacial speed while citing "data sovereignty concerns." The fragmentation creates real-world headaches. Last year in Bangkok, observers watched a German tourist spend 45 minutes trying to activate a local SIM, only to discover his phone was carrier-locked. Meanwhile, his companion breezed through immigration with her eSIM already active. That's the promise and the challenge that Yesim faces. "Simple Made Real" Approach Yesim launched in 2019 with a straightforward pitch: download the app, buy data, start browsing. No contracts, no store visits, no fumbling with nano-SIM ejector tools. They now claim coverage in 200+ countries with what they call "1-Click" activation. Testing their app across several Asian markets reveals a refreshingly simple interface – almost too simple for tech enthusiasts who want granular network controls. But that's the point. Yesim targets three key groups: tourists who want Instagram to work, business travelers who need reliable email access, and digital nomads living the laptop lifestyle. Their pricing structure stands out. A 500MB trial costs €0.50. Regional plans covering Southeast Asia or broader Asia-Pacific run 1-20GB for 30 days. Unlike competitors selling 7-day tourist traps, Yesim defaults to month-long validity. Smart move for the growing "workation" crowd. The technical side impresses even more. Their "SwitchLess" network technology automatically hops between carriers to find the best signal. During testing in Singapore, the system seamlessly jumped from Singtel to StarHub when entering a coverage dead zone. No manual network selection, no dropped connections. The Competition Gets Fierce Yesim isn't playing in an empty field. Singapore-based Airalo has millions of users and substantial venture capital backing. Holafly pushes unlimited data plans across Asia. Saily, backed by NordVPN's team, undercuts everyone on price. Then there are the local giants. In Japan, NTT Docomo, SoftBank, and KDDI offer their own eSIM services, which offer the advantage of native network priority. India's Airtel and Jio bundle eSIM provide a range of services, including streaming services and cricket packages. These aren't sleepy incumbents; they're fighting for every subscriber. What's Yesim's edge? Testing shows it's the sub-regional flexibility. While others sell single-country plans or massive "global" packages, Yesim offers logical groupings, such as "Southeast Asia", which covers Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, and Laos. Perfect for the Bangkok-to-Bali circuit. Cracking the Code, Market by Market Let's break down the key battlegrounds: Singapore: The perfect beachhead. A tech-savvy population, regulatory openness, and Changi Airport handles 65 million passengers annually. If Yesim can't succeed here, they should pack up and leave. Japan: Huge opportunity with tourism rebounding and 5G everywhere. But Japanese carriers play hardball with MVNOs. Yesim needs local partnerships, stat. South Korea: Another 5G pioneer with tech-obsessed consumers. The challenge? Koreans are fiercely loyal to domestic brands. Foreign services need to prove themselves. China: Forget it. Seriously. The regulatory maze makes eSIM expansion nearly impossible for foreign players. Yesim's smart to focus elsewhere. Southeast Asia: The real prize. Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines have massive, mobile-first populations hungry for affordable data. Digital nomad havens like Canggu and Chiang Mai are natural Yesim territories. Putting It Into Perspective So how does Yesim win? Based on network testing experience and conversations with Asian carriers, here's the playbook: Partnerships are everything. Integrate with Grab, Gojek, and other super-apps. Strike deals with AirAsia and Scoot for in-flight promotions. Explore co-working spaces from WeWork in Bangkok to Hubud in Bali. Localize aggressively. The app needs flawless Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese interfaces. Payment must include Alipay, WeChat Pay, PayPay, and KakaoPay; traditional credit cards are not accepted. Target the hubs. Win in Singapore, Tokyo, and Seoul first. These tech-forward cities have a profound on the entire region. Success there creates credibility elsewhere. Embrace the nomads. Southeast Asia's remote work visa programs are exploding. Thailand's new digital nomad visa, Bali's thriving co-working scene – these communities need reliable, flexible connectivity. Yesim's 30-day plans align perfectly. The Reality Check Look, dozens of eSIM startups have promised to "revolutionize" Asian connectivity. Most fail because they underestimate the complexity. This isn't Europe, where you can blanket-cover 27 countries with one strategy. Asia demands nuance. What works in Singapore flops in Jakarta. Japanese users expect perfection; Filipinos prioritize value. Chinese tourists require VPN-friendly networks, while Korean businesses seek enterprise-level features. Yesim has the technical chops with network switching and a reliable app. But success in Asia requires more than good technology. It needs cultural fluency, regulatory savvy, and the patience to build market by market. The opportunity is real. Asian tourism is roaring back, remote work is permanent, and eSIM adoption is accelerating. By 2030, this market is expected to surpass the combined markets of Europe and North America combined. Can a Swiss startup navigate Asia's complex and challenging mobile sphere? There's reason for cautious optimism. Yesim's flexibility and focus on user experience position them well. But they'll need to move fast – Asian markets don't wait for anyone. Next time network tests happen in Seoul or beach-working occurs in Bali, it'll be interesting to see if Yesim's little app icon spreads across Asian smartphones. In this market, that's the only metric that matters.
Business Insider
16 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Here's the exclusive pitch deck Ambience Healthcare used to raise $243 million as the AI scribing gold rush hits new highs
The race to dominate AI-powered medical transcription is speeding up. Ambience Healthcare just landed a fresh megaround of funding to accelerate its growth. The startup pulled in a $243 million Series C round at the end of July, co-led by Oak HC/FT and Andreessen Horowitz. San Francisco-based Ambience sells ambient transcription software to summarize conversations between doctors and patients. Increasingly, Ambience is also automating the many administrative steps that follow, like medical coding and payment processing. It's one of the best-funded players in a sector awash with investor cash: In the first half of 2025, US healthcare AI startups pulled in 62% of the $6.4 billion invested across digital health, according to Rock Health. A16z is a previous investor in Ambience, first backing the company's Series A, according to PitchBook. But the firm surprised the industry this summer by making a new investment into Ambience's closest competitor, $5.3 billion Abridge. A16z led Abridge's $300 million Series E just a month before Ambience's raise. The firm's double-dipping, a practice that's usually taboo in venture capital, underscores just how frenzied the Silicon Valley gold rush for healthcare AI scribes has become. And the industry is about to face a big shake-up — electronic health records giant Epic plans to release its own AI scribe this month, Politico reported. Epic didn't respond to requests for comment on the reports. Cofounder and chief scientist Nikhil Buduma said in a statement to Business Insider that Ambience is "looking forward to the announcement," arguing that the launch will help Ambience further stand out from the crowd as the startup helps complex academic health systems save money across a range of capabilities. "Epic entering the game will likely help reduce the amount of noise in our market by accelerating the consolidation of low-cost, low-value players who haven't shown the ability to extend beyond simple ambulatory specialties," he said. Ambience was always intended to be more than an AI scribing startup, cofounder and CEO Michael Ng told Business Insider. When the startup raised its seed round in 2020, it included two products in its pitch deck that it planned to build in tandem: one for ambient scribing, and one that would use AI to derive medical codes from clinical notes — a critical step in ensuring doctors get paid by insurance companies for the care they provide. Ambience has over 40 health system customers, including top players like the Cleveland Clinic and Memorial Hermann Health System, and all of them use its scribing tool. The startup has released adjacent products for medical coding and other administrative tasks that its founders say are easy for providers to add on. It's also automating referrals, pre-visit patient summaries, and medical orders like lab tests and prescriptions. When asked about A16z's investment in Abridge, Ng said A16z doesn't sit on Ambience's board, and praised general partner Julie Yoo, who he said has provided crucial support to Ambience from its earliest stages. "It's hard for us to speak on other parts of the other funds that decided to make their own choices," he said. Ambience's existing investors, The OpenAI Startup Fund, Kleiner Perkins, and Optum Ventures, also participated in its Series C. While Ambience has substantially expanded its product lines in the five years since its founding, Ng said the company has built about 10% of the offerings on its road map. But as the tech accelerates, Buduma said, Ambience is a year or two away from fully automating all administrative tasks for providers. "We're sitting here with a clear line of sight to a world where a clinician walks into the room, you can have a conversation with the patient, and everything else is automated in the background by the AI platform," said Buduma. "All of a sudden, you're liberated from the keyboard, and you just get to talk to the patient in front of you." Here's the 15-slide pitch deck Ambience Healthcare used to raise $243 million. Ambience Healthcare Ambience Healthcare Ambience Healthcare Ambience Healthcare Ambience Healthcare Ambience Healthcare Ambience Healthcare Ambience Healthcare Ambience Healthcare
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Thoma Bravo Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy Software Firm Dayforce
(Bloomberg) -- Thoma Bravo is in talks to acquire human resources management software provider Dayforce Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. The buyout firm is planning to take the Minneapolis-based company private in a deal that could be announced as soon as the coming weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. The US-Canadian Road Safety Gap Is Getting Wider A Photographer's Pipe Dream: Capturing New York's Vast Water System Festivals and Parades Are Canceled Amid US Immigration Anxiety A London Apartment Tower With Echoes of Victorian Rail and Ancient Rome Princeton Plans New Budget Cuts as Pressure From Trump Builds Shares of Dayforce rose as much as 22% in pre-market New York trading on Monday. The company, whose shares also trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, had a market value of about $8.4 billion at the close on Friday. While discussions are advanced, they could still be delayed or falter and it's possible another bidder may emerge, the people said. Representatives for Thoma Bravo and Dayforce didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Dayforce shares have fallen about 60% from their 2021 peak through Friday. While the company increased revenue more than 70% between 2021 and 2024 and became more profitable, the enterprise software market has had difficulties maintaining momentum after a runup during Covid-19 lockdowns. Companies spent money at the time to upgrade their systems, only to pull back after offices reopened in a shaky economy. 'We would not be surprised if DAY chose to sell given the lack of appreciation for the stock in the public markets,' Jefferies Financial Group Inc. analysts including Samad Samana wrote in a note to clients after the Bloomberg report. 'It has been tough sledding for DAY the last few years post-Covid highs, not unlike the rest of the HR/payroll coverage universe. However, it has also underperformed the entire group.' Thoma Bravo, led by co-founder Orlando Bravo, has remained an active buyer this year in what has remained a challenging environment for private equity firms seeking to deploy capital. It agreed to purchase Boeing Co.'s flight navigation unit and other digital assets for $10.6 billion in April, and in July it struck a $2 billion deal to buy restaurant software maker Olo Inc. The firm has been in talks about a potential takeover of Verint Systems Inc., Bloomberg News reported last month. Dayforce, which rebranded from Ceridian HCM Holding Inc. last year, provides AI-powered software for managing recruitment, payrolls and employee career development. Its customers include companies in the health-care, retail and hospitality and financial services sectors. With about $1.2 billion in debt, the company has an enterprise value of more than $9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. --With assistance from Amy Thomson. (Updates with pre-market trading, industry context from third paragraph.) What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates Living With 12 Strangers to Ease a Housing Crunch Bessent on Tariffs, Deficits and Embracing Trump's Economic Plan How Syrian Immigrants Are Boosting Germany's Economy ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
