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Carta’s valuation will be cut by billions in an upcoming secondary sale

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Carda once-thriving Silicon Valley startup that famously exited considered one of its businesses earlier this yr is working on a secondary sale that might value the corporate at $2 billion, TechCrunch has learned.

Carta is working with investment bank Jeffries on the sale and initially expected demand for the offering to be $4 billion, but sources say as much as $2 billion could prove ambitious.

This is a large, if not entirely unexpected, drop in the valuation of Carta, which was originally focused on capitalization table management software but over time began to evolve right into a “private stock exchange for companies.” His goal was to leverage the network of firms and investors that used his platform and to which he had insight. The most significant idea was to turn into the transfer agent, broker and clearing house for all private stock transactions in the world.

As a part of this narrative, Carta launched an exchange to seek out buyers for shares using an auction system, and later used the identical system to reinforce its own value in the eyes of investors. Indeed, after big jumps in valuation, from $1.7 billion in 2019 to $3.1 billion in 2020, Carta announced in the summer of 2021 that it was value a whopping $7.4 billion after the primary sale of its shares at value $100 million at a price of $6.9 billion by itself stock exchange. own platform.

Roughly 15 months later, in late 2022, the corporate’s CEO, Henry Ward, he told Axios that Carta was value much more – $8.5 billion – after a separate secondary sale. (He didn’t disclose what number of shares were sold at that valuation or who bought them.)

These rising numbers were already astonishing to some industry insiders, who had long chuckled that Carta had simply combined a lot of different, moderately lucrative businesses in an try to position itself as the following largest platform company.

But its $8.5 billion valuation seemed doomed to say no much more after an uproar earlier this yr with a startup customer whose criticism concerning the company reverberated throughout the remainder of the startup world.

It all began in early January, when Finnish CEO Karri Saarinen filed a criticism very publicly that Carta used details about his company’s investor base in an try to sell his shares to outside buyers without the corporate’s knowledge or consent.

Ward initially blamed a rogue Carta worker, however the startup founders began comparing notes – and sharing similar experiences – and inside 72 hours of being accused of misusing customer information, Carta said it was exiting the business line that had gotten it in a lot trouble .

“Because we have data, if we trade in secondary markets, people will always worry that we are exploiting data, even if we are not” – Ward announced right now on Medium. “Therefore, we decided to prioritize trust and exit the secondary trading business.”

A public relations disaster for Carta. This wasn’t the primary time Carta was in the press for the improper reasons. The company has a protracted history be taken to court by and oppose former employees who alleged that the corporate had a toxic culture, including one which disadvantaged women.

Now Carta is outwardly returning to its roots – and an earlier valuation that arguably higher suits the business. While Carta’s tabletop business continues to grow – a source in the know said Carta generated $380 million in revenue last yr – it also lost $65 million in 2023 and “doesn’t have a lot of other places for it to grow.” – it said. person.

Another related challenge is that Carta has not found a approach to increase the profitability of its fund management business on a gross margin basis. Part of this will likely be attributable to the best way the corporate has valued the business, but it surely doesn’t help that a lot of Carta’s clients don’t return because they have not been capable of attract further latest enterprise funding. Meanwhile, Carta’s group of former customers is now so large that they’ve moved to larger banks like Morgan Stanley to make the most of the identical services they once received from Carta.

Carta didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

Over the years, Carta has grown roughly $1.2 billion from investors – says startup tracker Tracxn. Venture capital firms leading rounds at the corporate include Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Spark Capital and Tribe Capital.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident

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Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.

In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”

Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500

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Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.

The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.

More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)

Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.

The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.

Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.

Image credits:Raspberry Pi

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers

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According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.

However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.

Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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