Latest news with #PitchBook
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta acquires AI audio startup WaveForms
Meta has acquired AI voice startup WaveForms for an undisclosed sum, The Information reports. It's the company's latest buy to strengthen its new AI unit, Superintelligence Labs, and Meta's second major AI audio acquisition in the last month after it bought PlayAI. WaveForms, founded just eight months ago, raised $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz in a round that valued the company at $160 million pre-money, per PitchBook data. Two of the startup's co-founders – former Meta and OpenAI researcher Alexis Conneau, and former Google advertising strategist Coralie Lemaitre – have reportedly joined Meta. While at OpenAI, Conneau co-created GPT4-o Advanced Voice Mode neural networks. TechCrunch has reached out to WaveForms to find out if its third co-founder and chief technologist, Kartikay Khandelwal, will also join Meta, as well as the outcome of the deal for the roughly 14 other staffers (per LinkedIn) at the company. WaveForms appears to have taken down its own website, but the company's LinkedIn page describes its mission as solving the 'Speech Turing Test,' which tries to measure if a listener can distinguish between human and AI-generated speech. WaveForms was also developing 'Emotional General Intelligence,' which focuses on understanding individual self-awareness and management. 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
CNBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Former X CEO Linda Yaccarino takes helm at digital health company eMed
Linda Yaccarino, the former chief executive of Elon Musk's social media platform X, is pivoting into health care. The digital health company eMed Population Health on Tuesday announced it has appointed Yaccarino as its new CEO. EMed is developing a population health management platform for the blockbuster weight loss and diabetes drugs called GLP-1s, the company said. It had raised a total $22 million as of 2022, according to PitchBook. Yaccarino, who rose rose to the top of NBCUniversal's global advertising business before joining X, will help eMed establish "game-changing partnerships" and navigate complex markets, the company said. "The healthcare industry has been disrupted by technology, but not yet completely transformed by it," Yaccarino said in a statement. "There is an opportunity to combine technology, lifestyle, and data in a new powerful way through the digital channels that impact consumers directly in ways that have never been done before." EMed is part of the growing group of digital health companies that are trying to capitalize on the sky-high demand for GLP-1s. Goldman Sachs analysts expect 15 million U.S. adults to be on anti-obesity drugs by 2030, and they predict the industry could reach $100 billion in annual revenue by that time. Yaccarino stepped down from her role as CEO at X in July and did not disclose a reason for her departure. EMed said she is a "highly sought-after leader" with an "undeniable ability to negotiate new partnerships." "To be a leader in today's healthcare marketplace, companies need to have a fearless tenacity that allows them to not only grow, but to also be brave enough to step forward and redefine an entire industry," Yaccarino said.
Business Wire
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Wire
DLA Piper Advises Albers Aerospace in Its Acquisition of a Defense Technology Company
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DLA Piper advised Albers Aerospace, a warfighter-focused partner delivering advanced solutions across aerospace and defense sectors, in its acquisition of a global leader in Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) integration. With this new acquisition, Albers Aerospace delivers tailored ISR solutions that meet the operational needs of its clients worldwide. From concept to delivery, Albers Aerospace ensures mission success through superior technology, engineering, and support. 'Congratulations to the entire Albers Aerospace team on this successful acquisition, which will immediately benefit the strategic mission of the company and add to their industry-leading capabilities,' said Jeffrey Houle, Co-Chair of DLA Piper's Aerospace, Defense, and Government Services Transactional Practice. John Albers, CEO of Albers Aerospace, said: 'We appreciate the careful guidance and unwavering support from Jeff and the DLA Piper team. Their extensive experience and industry insights were crucial to the closing of this key acquisition.' Along with Houle (Washington, DC), the DLA Piper team that advised Albers Aerospace included Partners Tom Pilkerton and Julia Kovacs (both Baltimore) and William Bartow (Philadelphia); Of Counsel Christina Pappas (Baltimore); and Associates Julie Franki (Atlanta) and Huntington Domine (Palo Alto). With more than 1,000 corporate lawyers globally, DLA Piper helps clients execute complex transactions seamlessly while supporting clients across all stages of development. The firm has been rated number one in global M&A volume for 15 consecutive years, according to Mergermarket, and ranked as number one in VC, PE and M&A in combined global deal volume according to PitchBook. DLA Piper's Aerospace and Defense practice offers a multidisciplinary international team with deep expertise across the defense contracting lifecycle, from bid preparation and regulatory compliance to contract performance and dispute resolution. Our integrated team of government contracts specialists and corporate attorneys adeptly manages complex transactions—including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships—essential for success in this rigorously regulated sector. Drawing upon extensive experience with federal acquisition regulations and national security mandates, we provide comprehensive legal counsel that safeguards compliance while facilitating clients' strategic growth within the aerospace and defense industry. About DLA Piper DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, positioning us to help clients with their legal needs around the world. In certain jurisdictions, this information may be considered attorney advertising. About Albers Aerospace: Albers Aerospace is a trusted leader in aerospace and defense, delivering advanced, mission-critical solutions that empower the Warfighter and enhance national security. With expertise spanning digital and systems engineering, ruggedized power and container solutions, unmanned systems, and networking, Albers Aerospace supports defense operations across land, air, and cyber domains. As a privately owned, next-generation contractor operating at the crucial intersection of commercial and defense sectors, we bring agile, scalable, and high-performance solutions to meet the evolving demands of modern missions. Our commitment to being a reliable partner drives us to invest in cutting-edge technology, streamlined processes, and uncompromising quality standards, ensuring our clients' operational success and resilience. Guided by core values of excellence, integrity, dedication, & stewardship, Albers Aerospace is dedicated to delivering innovative solutions today that solve the challenges of tomorrow.
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
How to cash out in Silicon Valley — without setting off alarms
In startup land, wanting a payout can look like betrayal. As exits remain elusive, early startup backers and founders are increasingly turning to the secondary market to get some cash back on their long-held shares. But cashing out—even just a sliver—can trigger board backlash, founder resentment, or worse: a signal to the market that the rocket ship might be losing steam. In this high-stakes environment, secondaries have become a necessary but delicate art form. "For seed funds, secondaries are a must these days. Whoever's not doing it is not keeping up to speed on the market," said Itamar Novick, the founder of Recursive Ventures. Novick wrote a pre-seed check into Deel in 2019. Over the years, as demand for shares of the $12 billion HR startup surged, he's cashed out portions of that investment by selling to other existing Deel investors who wanted to boost their stakes and to new investors looking for additional equity beyond a primary fundraise. (Novick clarified that all of the deals happened before Deel's legal battle with rival Rippling kicked off in March.) Despite the rising demand for investor returns, however, it's not open season for secondaries. Investors or founders hoping to get liquidity in a secondary sale have to carefully time, price, and brand the transaction, or risk sending catastrophic signals about the company's outlook to the market at large. "It's a fairly bad signal for other investors to know the Series A lead wants to sell their shares at, say, a $5 billion valuation," said Deedy Das, a principal at Menlo Ventures. "Why would later-stage growth investors want to buy in then? If the Series A lead doesn't believe in the growth, why should we?" That unspoken secondary market etiquette is at the center of VC's liquidity dilemma, Das said. Investors hoping to sell part of their stake might piss off their founders, to whom any sale attempt can seem like a bet against the company's future. Larger investors may not be able to sell any portion of their stakes without sending the markets reeling. And founders hoping for some liquidity through a secondary sale, facing the same market sentiment risks, might get blocked by their board of directors. It's blocking some investors from getting the returns they need in a stagnant exit market. Here's how investors and founders are navigating those dynamics to cash out without disturbing the capital waters. VC's backup exit route As VC exits through M&A and IPOs continue to stall, secondary deals are booming. The market for VC secondary investments into startups has surged to about $60 billion, up from $50 billion in the last quarter of 2024, per PitchBook. In the past year, investors have used secondary sales to scoop stakes in headline startups like OpenAI, SpaceX, Stripe, and Databricks. The action is highly concentrated among VC's biggest winners, however. On secondary market platform Hiive, the 20 startups facing the most demand accounted for 83% of secondary trading volume in the first quarter of the year. At the top tier, founders often care less about existing shareholders looking for liquidity, since they're swimming in investor demand, Das said. The trouble comes when an investor wants to sell part of their stake in a startup with a more modest growth rate, perhaps that's valued in the few billions of dollars — certainly an "upper class" valuation, but not quite part of venture's 1% — after holding those shares for the better part of a decade. "Then the founder might come back and tell you, 'We're going to the moon; we're going to be a $100 billion company. Do you not believe in us?' That's a more frequent scenario," Das said. For founders, it's personal, said Hinge Health CEO and cofounder Daniel Perez. "We all have egos, and this is our baby. It's our life's work. Even when a seed or Series A investor wants to take a little bit off the top, you're thinking to yourself, 'this is going to be the worst transaction you've ever made, because the stock's just going to keep going up.' That's what I initially thought," he said. But early-stage investors' push for returns has become easy to empathize with. Dave McClure, the founder of VC firm 500 Startups who now focuses on secondary market buys with his latest firm Practical Venture Capital, said that small pre-seed and seed stage funds, family offices, and individual investors are especially squeezed when companies stay private for longer. "That's fine for maybe institutional investors, but it's really a mismatch for everybody else that isn't," McClure said. "Maybe they were thinking they'd get their money back in seven to 10 years instead of 12 to 15 years. Now, they're like, I've got to send my kids to college, I want to buy a house, I've got a medical emergency. At that point, of course they want to get some money back." Perez said that, as Hinge Health waited out venture capital's exit drought, the physical therapy facilitated a tender offer in 2022 to allow early investors to get some returns on their stakes. The company had previously completed a $200 million secondary investment as part of its 2021 Series E fundraise, which brought some liquidity to Hinge Health's employees and early investors, as well as to Perez and his cofounder. Perez said employees with incentive stock options that had vested their shares for at least one year were eligible to participate, which was true of most of Hinge Health's employees at the time of the sale. The company attempted another secondary sale for its investors in the intervening years before its IPO this May, but ultimately ditched the efforts after confronting a gap in pricing expectations between the intended secondary buyer and Hinge Health's existing shareholders. As the secondary markets mature, those transactions may not feel as emotionally charged. investors told BI. Still, shareholders should loop founders into their secondary sale attempts as early as possible, and ideally have a prospective buyer lined up to make the company's job easier. If the founders are completely against the sale, immediate liquidity may not be worth souring the relationship. Novick said that when he's faced secondary deal backlash from founders in the past, he's backed off his plans entirely. Who gets to sell? For most startups, only early investors can sell any significant part of their stakes without triggering a negative market reaction. Investors who entered the company at its Series B or later, especially investors with board seats, are generally prepared to hold those stakes through an exit. Any failure to do that could spell trouble and hurt the company's ability to raise money in the future, Slow Ventures principal Yoni Rechtman said. "It's a good argument for not taking board seats. That could signal something worse," Rechtman said. He drew a connection to the public markets, where board directors selling shares can easily trigger a bigger stock selloff. "If this were a public company, how would it look?" More risks arise when a founder wants to sell part of their stake. A founder secondary sale can trigger the rest of the company's investors to try to sell shares, too, Novick said. Worse, it could hint to the market at large that the founder isn't bought into the startup's future growth. "When the founder sells secondaries, hunting season starts," Novick said. He noted that founders can't get away with selling more than a very small portion of their stakes: " Any signal where the founder is selling more than 10% of their holdings is going to be disastrous, and it's pretty likely to be blocked by the board." It's not uncommon for founders to be approved to sell shares for discreet goals, like to buy a house in the ever-expensive Bay Area, Rechtman said. But larger deals are a different story entirely. "When we see people selling between six figures and a couple of million dollars, it doesn't bother me at all, assuming the company's at a later stage, and especially if it's part of a primary transaction. They're basically clawing back the salary they deferred for the last several years working on the company," he said. "When we see people doing really big blocks, such that they're generationally wealthy no matter what happens, that's really uncomfortable." Startup employees are often left out of the liquidity conversation entirely. While founders may work to organize employee tenders late in the company's life to help get some cash back to their early joiners, employees generally aren't allowed to try to sell their shares except in deals facilitated by the company, with little say in how or when that sale happens. "The point of going to a startup is supposed to be that you work for a long time and eventually get rewarded in liquidity," Hinge Health's Perez said. "But now, employees aren't getting any money back." Structuring secondaries Early backers looking for returns should be careful of how much of their stake they sell at once. Novick and Rechtman said early investors can generally sell 10% to 30% of their stakes without raising any eyebrows. Rechtman said he'd consider sales up to 50% standard for small funds, while Novick said an investor kicking off half of their position would be a large and more unusual sale. Any more than a 50% stake sale could raise red flags for the market. Ideally, those sales happen as part of an equity fundraise that the company is already conducting. By pairing primary and secondary sales, the startup can send better signals to the market and handle changes to its cap table in one fell swoop. Investors told BI that the startup may charge a fee, which can fall either to the buying or selling shareholders, to cover the legal expenses and other work associated with executing a secondary sale "out of cycle." While most deals are enjoyed by tech's hottest private startups, with far less demand down the food chain, Rechtman sees those deals, and the conversations around secondary market demand accompanying them, as "cultural priming" for transactions down the line. "It was, for a long time, almost immoral or ugly to sell secondaries. It will take a long time for those cultural norms to change as the market norms do," he said.
Canada News.Net
03-08-2025
- Business
- Canada News.Net
Neuralink to test brain implant in UK for spinal injury patients
FREMONT, California: Elon Musk's Neuralink is taking its brain-computer interface technology to the UK, with a clinical trial aimed at helping patients with severe paralysis operate devices using only their thoughts. The company announced it will partner with the University College London Hospitals trust and Newcastle Hospitals to conduct the study. Neuralink said the trial will involve patients suffering from conditions like spinal cord injuries and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). These individuals may qualify to test the company's implant, which is designed to enable control of digital and physical tools via brain signals. The UK study comes as part of Neuralink's broader efforts to scale human testing of its brain chip. The company began human trials in 2024 after addressing safety issues flagged by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which initially rejected its application in 2022. According to Neuralink, five patients with severe paralysis are already using the device to control external tools with their thoughts. Founded in 2016, Neuralink has raised about US$1.3 billion from investors and is reportedly valued at approximately $9 billion, according to PitchBook data cited in media reports. Last month, the company secured $650 million in fresh funding to advance its work on brain-machine interfaces.
