A few days before gadget criticisms weighed on the Human pineA futuristic portable apparatus propelled by artificial intelligence, the founders of the company gathered their employees and encouraged them to prepare. Critics could be disappointing, they warned.
The founders of Humane, Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, were right. In April, criticisms brutally swept the new product of $ 699, which Humane had marketed for a year with advertisements and during sumptuous events such as Paris Fashion Week. The pin ai was “totally broken“And had”flagrant defectsSaid certain criticisms. One declared it “The worst product that I never reviewed. “”
About a week after the release of criticism, Humane began to speak to HP, the computer and the printing company, to sell for more than a billion dollars, according to three people with knowledge of conversations . Other potential buyers have emerged, although the talks were relaxed and no official sales process began.
Humane has kept Tidal Partners, an investment bank, to help navigate discussions while managing a new financing cycle which would assess it to $ 1.1 billion, according to three people with knowledge of the plans.
The developments equivalent to a facial plant by Humane, which had positioned itself as a higher competitor among a wave of manufacturers of IA equipment. The San Francisco company had lifted $ 240 million from powerful Silicon Valley investors, including Sam Altman, Director General of Openai, and Marc Benioff, Managing Director of Salesforce, who assessed the start-up at 1 billion Dollars according to his enormous ambition and promise. Humane spent five years building a device to disrupt the smartphone – Only at the paw.
In early April, Humane received around 10,000 orders for the AI pine, a small fraction of the 100,000 she hoped to sell this year, two people familiar with sales said. In recent months, the company has also faced the departures of employees and has changed a return policy to Address of canceled orders. On Wednesday, he asked customers to stop using the AI pins load housing due to a fire risk associated with his battery.