Humane, the company behind the wildly popular Ai Pin which launched to less than glowing reviews last month, is looking for a buyer, Bloomberg reported Quoted from anonymous sources.
Bloomberg quoted sources as saying that the company has priced itself at between $750 million and $1 billion, and that the sale process is in its early stages.
However, Humane has never disclosed a formal valuation in any of its funding rounds the information last year mentioned Its valuation was $850 million.
Human Rights Watch did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
Pin in the haystack
It was founded in 2017 by former Apple executives Bethany Bongiorno And Imran ChaudhryHumane raised about $230 million from backers like Microsoft, Qualcomm Ventures, Marc Benioff, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman before any part of its product was publicly unveiled.
The company finally unveiled its product last June: called Ai Pin, a wearable device with a display and AI-powered features. The reveal kicked off a period of pre-orders in the US, but the launch was delayed before the Ai Pin finally dropped in mid-April.
Featuring a unique form factor, the Ai Pin is equipped with sensors, generative AI and a small projector that can project a screen onto any surface – like your hand.
But with a $700 price tag, plus a $24 monthly recurring subscription that gives the user a phone number and unlimited data to run as many queries as possible, Ai Pin appears to be a tough sell in a cash-strapped consumer market. . In some ways, the device seemed like a solution in search of a problem, and many of its initial reviews said the Ai Pin didn’t do much more than you can already do with your smartphone.
YouTuber and prominent reviewer Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, provided a particularly damning review, which many said could single-handedly kill Ai Pin before it even launches properly.
Add to the mix complaints about battery life and overheating issues, not to mention other emerging (and cheaper) gadgets like Meta’s Ray-Bans and Rabbit’s R1, and it seems increasingly unlikely that Humane will be able to gain any kind of meaningful benefit. A foothold in the wearable market.
It is also worth noting that the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Patrick Gateswho joined Humane in 2019 after 13 years at Apple, left the company in January along with 4% of the workforce.
Overall, things haven’t looked rosy at Humane for a while, so news that it may be looking for a buyer isn’t too surprising. However, whether any suitor is willing to bite is very much in the balance.
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