Latest news with #SeriesB
Business Insider
13 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
This AI security tech alerts store staff if it thinks you're trying to steal something
One of the best ways to deal with shoplifting is to prevent it from happening in the first place. That's the goal of Paris-based AI startup Veesion, which has developed an algorithm that can recognize gestures to predict potential retail theft incidents. "I happen to have an uncle in Paris that runs and operates three supermarkets, so I exactly know what shoplifting represents for retailers," cofounder Benoît Koenig told Business Insider. Veesion said its tech is deployed in 5,000 stores across Europe, Canada, and the US. The startup recently raised a $43 million Series B funding round to further its expansion into the US. The alarm over shoplifting has subsided somewhat over the past year as retailers and law enforcement have gotten a better grip on the problem. Earnings call mentions of the term "shrink," the industry term for missing inventory, have come down significantly among the major retailers Business Insider tracks, according to data from AlphaSense, an AI research platform. But even though shoplifting is making fewer headlines (especially compared to retail's splashy new AI capabilities), Koenig said the problem remains a compelling one to tackle with machine learning. "It's not glamorous, but the ROI is quite direct," he said. "You're going to arrest shoplifters, recover inventory, and save money." One key difference between Veesion's tech and some other visual security approaches is that it says it doesn't rely on individual tracking or physical characteristics that could raise concerns about bias or personal privacy. "The algorithm doesn't care about what people look like. It just cares about how your body parts move over time," Koenig said. The system analyzes footage from the existing security camera network to detect humans in the picture, identify their movements, and recognize various objects, such as merchandise, carts, baskets, or bags. If a movement is deemed suspicious, a video clip is flagged and sent to store security personnel, who can then investigate or intervene. Security teams can update the app with additional details about whether the alert was necessary, whether a theft was stopped, or how much a stolen item was worth. Koenig said more than 85% of alerts are marked as relevant for the store operators using the Veesion said one US client was able to cut their losses from the health and beauty section in half in the first three months of implementation. Many US retailers have responded to the shoplifting problem by locking up items or limiting the ways people can shop, but that approach increasingly appears to be backfiring in the form of declining sales and worsening customer experiences. "Retailers have implemented a number of security measures — many to the detriment of the shopping experience — to protect merchandise from theft and to keep their employees and customers safe," the National Retail Federation said in a December report on retail crime. By layering onto a store's existing security camera infrastructure and alerting staff to specific risky behavior, Veesion says its tech can help create a more pleasant shopping trip. Koenig said the tech can also help reduce employee theft, which industry groups estimate costs retailers as much as shoplifting does. "It has an internal deterrent effect," Koenig said. "They know there is an AI in the cameras, so they're going to be careful with what they do." There are further retail use-cases that Veesion is exploring too, including improper scans at self-checkout to slip-and-fall detection. For now, Koenig said the tech is not just effective at detecting and disrupting would-be shoplifters — it also deters them from coming back. "This is much more than just recovering a few bucks," he said.
TechCrunch
a day ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
The new math: why seed investors are selling their winners earlier
Charles Hudson had just closed his fifth fund several months ago – $66 million for Precursor Ventures – when one of his limited partners asked him to run an exercise. What would have happened, the LP wondered, if Hudson had sold all his portfolio companies at Series A? What about Series B? Or Series C? The question wasn't academic. After two decades in venture capital, Hudson has been watching the math of seed investing change, maybe permanently. LPs who've previously been patient with seven-to-eight-year hold periods are suddenly asking questions about interim liquidity. 'Seven or eight years feels like a really long time' to LPs right now, says Hudson, even though 'it's always been seven or eight years.' The reason: a steady stream of venture returns in recent years — returns that made long hold periods acceptable — has largely dried up. Coupled with the availability of other, more liquid investment options, many backers of very early-stage VC are demanding a new approach. The analysis his LP requested revealed an uncomfortable truth, says Hudson. Selling everything at the Series A stage didn't work; the compounding effect of staying in the best companies outweighed any benefits from cutting losses early. But Series B was different. 'You could have a north of 3x fund if you sold everything at the B,' Hudson discovered. 'And I'm like, 'Well, that's pretty good.'' Beyond pretty good, that realization is reshaping how Hudson thinks about portfolio management in 2025. Though now a veteran investor – Hudson has spent 22 years in VC between Precursor, an eight-year run at Uncork Capital and another four years at In-Q-Tel earlier in his career – he says investors in very young companies are being forced to think like private equity managers, optimizing for cash returns alongside the home runs that, if they're lucky, define their careers. It's not an easy mental change to make. 'The companies where there's the most secondary interest are also the set of companies where I have the greatest expectations for the future,' says Hudson. It's not just Hudson; his thinking about secondary sales reflects broader pressures reshaping the venture ecosystem. Hans Swildens is the founder of Industry Ventures, a San Francisco-based fund of funds and direct investment firm with stakes in 700 venture firms, told Techrunch in April that venture funds are 'starting to get savvier about what they need to do to generate liquidity.' He's seeing venture funds hire full-time staff members specifically to pursue alternative liquidity options, with some seed managers dedicating months to 'manufacturing liquidity from their funds.' Though this reshuffling of priorities extends far beyond any single fund, the pressure is particularly acute for smaller funds like Precursor, a traditional seed-stage fund that prides itself on backing unconventional founders like Laura Modi of ByHeart baby formula (a solo founder in a regulated industry with no prior experience) and Doktor Gerson of Rad AI (whose previous startup had failed). While firms with mega-funds like Sequoia and General Catalyst can afford to wait for $25 billion outcomes, smaller funds need to be more tactical about when and how they harvest returns. Perhaps nowhere is the shift more visible than in Hudson's relationships with limited partners. University endowments, once the most coveted LPs in venture, are now grappling with unforeseen challenges from the Trump administration. Harvard, of course, is the poster child here, with federal investigations into its admissions practices, threats to research funding tied to compliance issues, and ongoing scrutiny of its substantial endowment amid calls for universities to increase their annual spending requirements or face taxation. Hudson says that based on his conversations with LPs inside these organizations, they've never believed more in the power of venture, yet they've also never felt more hesitant about making 10- to 15-year illiquid commitments. The result is a more complex LP base with competing needs. Some want 'as much money back as soon as possible, even if that's a suboptimal outcome in the long term,' says Hudson. Others prefer that Hudson 'hold everything to maturity, because that's what's going to maximize my returns.' Navigating these demands requires the kind of portfolio management sophistication that seed investors haven't traditionally needed, which Hudson views with some ambivalence. Venture, he says, is starting to feel a lot less like an art and something that 'feels a lot more like some of these other sub-asset classes in finance.' Hudson isn't without hope, he adds, but he is clear-eyed about what's changing on the ground, as well as the opportunities those changes create. As funds grow larger and deploy more capital, they're becoming necessarily more algorithmic, looking for 'companies in these categories, with founders from these schools with these academic backgrounds who worked at these companies,' he says. The approach works for deploying large amounts of capital efficiently, but it misses the 'weird and wonderful' companies that have defined Hudson's best returns and kept Precursor in the game. 'If you're going to hire people just off a resume screener tool,' he says, 'you're going to miss people who maybe have really relevant experiences that the algorithm doesn't catch.' You can hear our full interview with Hudson via TechCrunch's StrictlyVC Download podcast. New episodes come out every Tuesday.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
After raising $38M, African e-commerce startup Sabi lays off 20%, pivots to traceable exports
African B2B e-commerce startup Sabi has laid off around 20% of its workforce (~50 employees) as it pivots from its original retail-focused platform to double down on a growing business in commodity exports. The layoffs, confirmed by the company on Thursday, are part of a broader restructuring aimed at aligning resources with what it describes as rising demand for traceable, ethically sourced commodities, an area it began building out last year under a new vertical called TRACE (Technology Rails for African Commodity Exchange). Launched in Lagos in 2020, Sabi began as a software platform helping informal retailers digitize inventory and sales amid COVID-19 disruptions. It later expanded into a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) marketplace with embedded finance, scaling across Nigeria and Kenya. By mid-2023, Sabi claimed over 300,000 merchants and $1 billion in annualized GMV. That momentum helped it secure a $38 million Series B round at a $300 million valuation. But like many startups in the B2B e-commerce space in Africa, Sabi faced structural headwinds: thin margins, capital intensity, and tough unit economics. Unlike competitors that burned through capital, Sabi maintained an asset-light model and stayed profitable. Still, the market shift has been clear. What African B2B e-commerce startups can learn from OmniRetail's profitable run In March, the company launched TRACE as a new business line, alongside FMCG. The new vertical targets mineral and agricultural exports such as lithium, cobalt, tin, and cash crops, where global buyers increasingly demand transparency, ESG compliance, and traceability. Sabi says it now exports over 20,000 tons of such commodities monthly to buyers across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. It has also launched operations in the U.S. and made senior hires to support that expansion. 'Sabi is entering its next chapter, with a focused commitment to commodity trade and traceability for global customers,' it said in a statement. 'We're doubling down on the part of our business seeing the most demand, built on the strong foundation we've laid since 2021 by supporting African merchants and their growth. To align with this momentum, we've made the difficult decision to restructure parts of our team.' The transition underscores a broader theme: as informal commerce platforms in Africa search for sustainability, Sabi is showing that evolving into infrastructure plays for global trade is possible. While this strategy offers higher margins and clearer paths to profitability, it can also lead to internal shakeups as Sabi's restructuring shows. 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
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Business Standard
a day ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Data analytics firm Tredence bets on GenAI to fuel growth over next 5 yrs
Avik Das Bengaluru Listen to This Article Data science and analytics firm Tredence, which recently became a unicorn and is valued at about $1.5 billion, is betting on the rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) projects to fuel its growth over the next five years, its co-founder Shashank Dubey said. 'If you use the multiple from our Series B fund raise, whatever the math we used while raising at that time, the same factor multiplied with my current revenue will value us at about $1.5 billion,' Dubey, who is also the head of analytics delivery, told Business Standard during an interaction. Backed by Advent International
Business Upturn
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Upturn
UPDATED: Serina Therapeutics Congratulates Juvenescence Ltd. on $76M First Tranche Close of Series B Funding and Strategic Partnership with M42
HUNTSVILLE, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — This press release has been updated to reflect the correct timing of the funding round. Serina Therapeutics, Inc. ('Serina') (NYSE American: SER), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing its proprietary POZ Platform™ drug optimization technology, today congratulates its strategic partner and largest shareholder, Juvenescence Ltd., on the $76 million first tranche close of its targeted $150 million Series B financing, as well as its new strategic partnership with M42, a global tech-enables health company headquartered in Abu Dhabi. 'Juvenescence has been a critical partner to Serina, providing strategic guidance and capital that have helped us advance our POZ Platform™ into the clinic,' said Steve Ledger, Chief Executive Officer of Serina Therapeutics. 'We congratulate Richard and the entire Juvenescence team on this next phase of growth and look forward to working together to deliver breakthrough treatments to patients around the world.' This significant investment and accompanying strategic alliance mark a major milestone in accelerating Juvenescence's mission to develop innovative therapies targeting age-related diseases and extending healthspan. As part of this partnership, Juvenescence and M42 will launch a drug development hub in Abu Dhabi, combining AI-enabled drug discovery with cutting-edge data and clinical infrastructure to speed the development of novel therapeutics. 'We are grateful for the continued support of our investors, including new investor and strategic partner M42, who have joined us on this remarkable journey. Our partnership with M42 signifies a shared commitment to developing sustainable, long-term collaborations,' said Dr. Richard Marshall CBE, CEO of Juvenescence. 'Together, we are excited about the opportunity to help build a leading life-sciences hub in Abu Dhabi and establish a pipeline of innovative therapeutics that will improve the lives of millions of patients.' As a core portfolio company of Juvenescence, Serina is proud to be part of a growing network of science-driven enterprises working to transform the future of medicine. About Serina Therapeutics Serina is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of wholly owned drug product candidates to treat neurological diseases and other indications. Serina's POZ Platform™provides the potential to improve the integrated efficacy and safety profile of multiple modalities including small molecules, RNA-based therapeutics, and antibody-based drug conjugates (ADCs). Serina is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama on the campus of the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology. For more information, please visit About Juvenescence Juvenescence is a clinical-stage AI-enabled biotech company developing novel medicines to extend healthy lifespan. Our approach centers around developing medicines that target core aging mechanisms to treat and prevent age-related diseases. It was founded by Jim Mellon, Dr Greg Bailey, and Dr Declan Doogan – with a track record of leading 2 of the 10 largest biopharma deals in the last decade, including the sale of Biohaven to Pfizer for $11.6bn. The Juvenescence team, led by Dr Richard Marshall CBE, consists of world-class R&D leadership that have previously been instrumental in the approval of medicines totaling $30bn in peak annual sales. Powered by an unrivaled drug development team, Juvenescence leverages innovative AI tools to unlock successful therapeutics. The company's diverse, AI-enabled medicines pipeline of clinical and near-clinical stage candidates targeting core ageing mechanisms are in development for cognition, cardio-metabolism, immunity, and cellular repair. In addition, Juvenescence has investments in a number of innovative companies and platform technologies focused on AI and regenerative medicine. For more information, visit: About M42 M42 is a global health champion powered by artificial intelligence (AI), technology and genomics to advance innovation in health for people and the planet. Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, M42 combines its specialized, state-of-the-art facilities with integrated health solutions like genomics and biobanks, and harnesses advanced technologies to deliver precise, preventive, and predictive care, impactfully disrupt traditional healthcare models and positively impact lives globally. Established in 2022, following the coming together of G42 Healthcare and Mubadala Health, M42 has more than 480 facilities in 26 countries and over 20,000 employees. M42 includes renowned healthcare providers including Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Danat Al Emarat, Diaverum, Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Hospital, and Moorfields Eye Hospital Abu Dhabi. As well as operating the Emirati Genome Program, M42 runs Abu Dhabi BioBank and ADHDS, a global tech-enabled healthcare company operating Malaffi. For inquiries, please contact:Stefan Riley [email protected] (256) 327-9630
