Latest news with #ElizabethHolmes'
Business Mayor
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Startups Weekly: A brighter outlook, but don't get carried away
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here . Startup news this week was fairly routine — in a good way: Aside from a minor kerfuffle between Y Combinator and Google, there was no headline-grabbing drama. Just steady progress and business as usual. Image Credits:Chime With IPO plans, acquisitions, and new launches, this week offers genuine reasons for optimism and bullishness. But don't get carried away, either: We're not ready for Theranos 2.0. Interesting filing: Digital consumer bank Chime publicly filed for an IPO this week. Among other numbers, the paperwork revealed it paid around $33 million to the Dallas Mavericks as part of its marketing efforts. Neon lights: Databricks is planning to spend around $1 billion to acquire Neon, a startup building an open source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres, with hopes that their combined offerings will let customers more efficiently deploy AI agents (whatever those are). Catching the worm: Savings and investment startup Acorns acquired EarlyBird, an investment gifting platform for families, for an undisclosed amount. EarlyBird will shut down, and its co-founders will help build out Acorns Early, the startup's smart money app for kids. Bridging gaps: AutoUnify, the latest startup coming out of Porsche's partnership with venture studio hopes to become the Plaid of automotive retail with an API that bridges the communication gap between dealerships and service shops on one side and manufacturers and software vendors on the other. Friend or foe: Google launched its AI Futures Fund, a new initiative seeking to invest in AI startups that use DeepMind's tools. Also this week, Y Combinator released a brief accusing Google of being a 'monopolist' that has 'stunted' the U.S. startup ecosystem. Dual use: British startup Vertical Aerospace is working on a hybrid-electric eVTOL aircraft that would capitalize on its position as the only European player in the space, among rising demand for home-grown defense solutions. Are you kidding? Elizabeth Holmes' partner, Billy Evans, is reportedly trying to raise $50 million in funding for a new blood-testing startup with a pitch that resembles Theranos'. Image Credits:Bestow AI was once again a recurring theme in the pitches from startups that announced rounds this week, but these companies focus on a wide range of sectors and problems. Plus, there's fresh funding for fintech and for New York-based startups. Bestowed: Insurtech startup Bestow raised a $120 million Series D, including $75 million in primary investments, to launch new products and underwriting capabilities. AMD-powered: Las Vegas-based TensorWave raised a $100 million funding round co-led by Magnetar and AMD Ventures for its data center infrastructure, which primarily relies on AMD hardware. One step ahead: Sprinter Health, a company offering at-home preventative healthcare services such as blood draws, raised a $55 million Series B round led by General Catalyst. Pan-African: Egyptian startup Nawy, Africa's largest proptech platform, secured a $52 million Series A led by Partech Africa and $23 million in debt financing to support its MENA expansion. Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are its next markets. Read More Reverse flipping – medium rare or well done? - Breakfast club: Fast-growing AI note-taking platform Granola raised a $43 million Series B at a $250 million valuation and launched a collaboration feature for teams. Fusion in a bottle: University of Wisconsin spinoff Realta Fusion obtained $36 million in fresh funding, which it plans to use to finalize the design of its Anvil prototype reactor. Talking babies: Hedra, a company helping artists produce podcasts featuring AI-generated talking babies, locked in $32 million from a16z. Fashionable: Doji, a startup hoping to make virtual apparel try-ons both fun and social, secured a $14 million seed round led by Thrive Capital it will use to improve its AI avatars. Bigger apple: New York-focused VC firm Work-Bench raised $160 million for its fourth fund, which will support seed-stage founders building enterprise software. Deeper: Mercury co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund launched a $26 million fund to back early-stage startups more meaningfully than as an angel investor. The fintech company was last valued at $3.5 billion in a March funding round. Image Credits:Eric Slesinger CIA officer turned investor Eric Slesinger may be the only American VC exclusively investing in European defense tech. In a recent episode of the StrictlyVC Download podcast, he told TechCrunch about the arguably prescient move that led him to found 201 Ventures.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Critical need': Contra Costa Health gets $98M in state funding for new facilities
(KRON) — Contra Costa Health announced on Wednesday that it has secured about $98 million in state funding to create three new facilities for mental health and recovery services. Elizabeth Holmes' boyfriend launches biotech company startup CCH says the funding comes from California's Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP), which is 'a multi-year state initiative to improve behavioral healthcare infrastructure paid through Proposition 1.' California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) revealed the award distributions this week. CCH owns the property where the new facilities will be built. 'We have a critical need for these programs to better serve Contra Costa residents throughout the County and close to their home communities,' said Dr. Suzanne Tavano, Director of Behavioral Health Services for CCH, in a news release. 'The addition of these facilities will expand access to essential care to better support people who are in need of and would benefit from the mental health treatment services to be provided. This investment will make our county healthier, safer and more able to provide appropriate care for all our residents.' CCH confirmed the $98 million will support the following projects: Delta Recovery Center (Oakley): A campus to include a 16 bed-adult residential treatment center and a 16-bed mental health rehabilitation center. Los Medanos Recovery Center (Pittsburg): A hub including a sobering center, crisis triage center, withdrawal management program and outpatient behavioral healthcare services. Sherman Recovery Center (Pleasant Hill): A 16-bed adult residential treatment and transitional residential facility designed to support adults with behavioral health needs in a structured setting. More details about the below projects and their timelines are expected by early summer. Officials say that Prop 1 funding is expected to create more than 5,000 residential treatment beds statewide and increase outpatient capacity by 21,800 people. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NDTV
11-05-2025
- Business
- NDTV
Fraudster Elizabeth Holmes' Partner Launches New Blood-Testing Company Similar To Theranos
Jailed Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes' partner is starting a new blood-testing company. Billy Evans, who shares two children with Holmes, is attempting to raise money for the company that describes itself as "the future of diagnostics", having a "radically new approach to health testing", according to a report in The New York Times. The startup's core idea sounds similar to Theranos, where Ms Holmes duped investors by falsely claiming to have developed 'revolutionary' blood-testing methods that could use small volumes of blood, such as from a fingerprick, for multiple diagnostic examinations. Called Haemanthus, Mr Evans' startup claims to have developed a machine that uses lasers to analyse blood, saliva, and urine samples to detect cancer and infections. Unsurprisingly, the device's photo bears an uncanny resemblance to Theranos' infamous blood-testing machine, known as the Edison or miniLab. The company is planning to start with pet health before expanding to humans, and it seeks to raise more than $50 million. Despite being imprisoned, Holmes has been providing advice to her partner on the startup. James W Breyer, a well-known venture capitalist and early investor in Facebook, told the publication that he refused to put in money, having done so on two occasions with Theranos in the past. Where is Elizabeth Holmes? Holmes is currently incarcerated at the Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Bryan, Texas, after being sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding investors in 2023. Over the course of her nearly four-month criminal trial, Holmes insisted she did not commit any crimes, despite evidence presented by the government and witness testimony suggesting otherwise. Once a Silicon Valley star, Holmes had a meteoric rise and was on the covers of business magazines that hailed her as the next Steve Jobs, owing to her similar dressing style to the Apple founder. Her deception was persuasive enough to draw in sophisticated investors like software magnate Larry Ellison, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the Walton family behind Walmart.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elizabeth Holmes conviction upheld by US appeals court
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes' bid to have her conviction overturned was shot down in court Monday. A three-judge panel for the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected claims of legal errors at the trials of Holmes and her former boyfriend, Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani. The duo was convicted in separate trials of defrauding investors in their failed blood testing startup, Theranos, which was once valued at $9 billion. Holmes launched Theranos as a startup while still a college student. Starbucks removing over a dozen drinks from its menu next week: Here's the list She rapidly ascended to Silicon Valley biotech stardom and was crowned America's youngest self-made billionaire. Currently, the disgraced former CEO is serving an 11 years and three months sentence at the all-women's Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas. The court's opinion ruling against Holmes' bid read in part: 'Defendants argued that the district court erred by allowing former Theranos employees, who testified as lay witnesses, to offer improper expert testimony. The panel explained that if a witness offers an opinion that is based on specialized knowledge, experience, training, or education contemplated by Fed. Rule of Evidence 702, a party cannot evade the Rule by labeling a witness 'percipient. And there is no 'on-the-job' exception to Rule 702. But the fact that a witness's testimony pertains to scientific matters, or conveys opinions drawn from the witness's own experiences with such matters, does not automatically render it expert testimony within the ambit of Rule 702. Considering each of the challenged witnesses with these principles in mind, the panel held that some aspects of the testimonies veered into expert territory, but any error was harmless.' In a recent interview with People magazine, she gave details about her new life behind bars. Balwani is serving a 12 years and 11 months sentence. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
