Faster Apple Products and Google's $5 Billion Buy

the next hour. One week later, Twitter is no longer getting a new board member on el Mask might have changed the biggest shareholder of the company's mind blast rising inflation with the war in Ukraine still raging on, We'll see how it's felt across the pond and how crypto

could potentially help. And we'll go to the floor of the NAZDAC for a conversation with the head of the US Listings and Revenue to get a look at the current I p O market how all this volatility is affecting filings while amid the war in Ukraine rages on. Consumers on both sides of the Atlantic currently turning their belts due to the rising cost this on them, particularly

at the gas pump for example. A key question that many have been talking about is whereas the store of value is it gold is a digital goal for example. Let's talk about all of that with our next guest, John Glenn UK Economic Secretary to the Treasury of course, MP, and it's one of sort of wonderful to have you here, minister. And I'm interested first and foremost about what are some people have said as the red carpet being rolled out in the United Kingdom at the moment too, cryptocurrencies to

innovation of that sort. Why, well, I think we've got to accept that this is going to be a great opportunity. We've got to regulate to innovate those. So we've gripped it in the UK. I made a speech last Monday and I announced a number of interventions. We want to bring industry together with our regulator, with government so we can work out the best steps to take this interesting phenomena forward because it has many applications both for financial

services and to the wider economy. And so I'm excited about that and I'm pleased that we're able to get that engagement with industry both here and in London in order to drive it forward. Let's talk about here in New York and the meetings you're having with SEC Federal Reserve.

This has got to be a cross atlantic regulation because this is a global asset class well, every jurisdiction will have a slightly different take on it that I was here in the autumn and I'm back here now, as you say, in Washington this week as well, talking to regulators, talking to government for talking to industry as well, to ensure that we meet expectations, that we think creatively about what we need to do to get this into the right place, so that consumers have certainty that any risks

are dealt with and faced up to, and we can actually come to terms of some of these challenges in terms of how do we tax or do we tax in what way? And how do we create a regulatory framework that is reliable and gives innovators some assurance about the future. What do you make of talent? And in particular, I think of what the Bank of England have been worrying about the scams that are involved within the crypto space, Andrew Bailey speaking out about that, the head of the

Bank of England. Meanwhile, I think it was the Magavinglens fintech. How be leaving to a crypto job, are you seeing more jobs being grown there and you see how do you see the sort of tension between institutional finance moving into the world of the well in the UK we've been a global hub of fintech and we've seen that to be very resilient and I see in cryptocurrency and

the exchanges that are developing in the UK a great opportunity. Yes, it's right that we've got to get the right regulatory framework in place, and Andrew Bailey has been very clear on that. We've got to come to terms with the promotions regime that protects consumers, but we've also got to embrace the opportunities of new technologies and new phenomena and

how it will apply to markets. Let's talk about the phenomenon, the sensationalism in many ways some people would say of non fungible tokens and f t s. We've seen, of course some valuations take a nose dive, but still a lot of interest. And what I mean, we've got the Royal Mint looking to create an f T. Just tell us our audience a bit about that. Well, that was part of the announcement last week that the Chancellor wants us to create an n f T in partnership with

the Royal Mint. And it's important that we pick up on the emblems of change that exist here and the opportunities that will exist in the future. So we've asked the Royal Mint to develop that n f T and we look forward to that happening by this summer. Of course, look at a time in the United Kingdom where my family on the phone talks day in day out about the inflation, the cost of gas, electricity, what's happening in terms of the ramifications in many ways, of course antagonized

by the invasion of Russia into Ukraine. But talk to us about you know, how the UK feels right now. I'm looking at February north point one pc growth, the economy being stifled, and that's before you even factor in the implications of the Russia Ukraine invasion. Well, clearly, these are incredibly challenging times. I think we all hope that we've come out of COVID and we get to brighter times,

but that hasn't happened. What's happened in the Ukraine has had a very difficult has a very difficult impact on the economy, and we are we are seeing that we also had global pressures in terms of inflationary pressures, and that's playing out, its playing out here in the US, it's playing out in the UK and across the globe, and these are challenging times for for British consumers. Challenging times for British consumers where they're being asked to burden

heavier taxes. I mean, in particular, perhaps the largest overall tax burn in the UK since the nineteen fifties, and a time where they look to their own Chancellor of the Exchequer and feel he Rashi Sunak is perhaps out of touch with some of the burdens they're having to share.

You are, of course within the team of Reshisu Snax, and I'm wondering how how he is dealing with the pressure that is currently upon him upon his family when of course many are warring that his own family members haven't been paying their own tax that they should have been doing. And and we look in particular at his wife, who of course has is billionaire super rich in her own right, but many field didn't pay UK taxes on

her overseas earnings. How is that being digested? Well? I think the chance is absolute professional in the way he's worked over these last two years. He was parachuted into this role as the start of a global pandemic, and he's worked tirelessly to provide interventions to support the British economy. I recognize these are challenging times for him and his family,

but he will come through them. But his focus is on doing what it takes to get the British economy into the right place through these very, very difficult times, and he's made a number of interventions dealing with the thresholds of when you start to pay national insurance and tax support for the least well off in society. Of course, there will be many who will say there's more to be done, and he will look to the future fiscal

events to address some of those concerns. How do you feel when as a member of you know, Conservative party, looking at really what ethically it's being judged at by at the moment when we think of that that the party gave the leader of your party went underwent. When we look at the Chancellor of Exchecker who seeming lea just doesn't seem to be in touch with the reality, many people feel that. And he's holding a green card at the same time as being chance to the Exchequer.

What sort of really tethering he has in the longer term to the country. And then you of course, I mean nothing to do with you, I realized, but certain you know today just the unseating of an MP and and a crisis election because of you know, previous misdemeanors when it comes to sexual abuse. I mean, how does it make you feel when you're trying to stand up here in the US and defend your Conservative Party. Well, I've been in this post for nearly four and a

half years. I'm the longest serving Economic secretary we've had in the UK. It's great privileged to do this job, and I like the Chancellor focus on the task in hand. I've done that through three chancellors, and I've always been impressed by the professionalism of the people I've worked under.

And there's no difference with Rishi Sunach who's a first rate boss of first rate Chancellor, and I have absolute confidence in that he will come through these difficult moments and we will see what can be done in terms of future fiscal events of the budget. Well, come back, tell us the story I'm following in the UK, and indeed how you continue to embrace some change and certainly in the world of technology, the UK Economic Sectuary to the Treasury that is John Glenn Well. Week feels like

a month, doesn't it? With Elon Musk and Twitter. Just take a quick look at where things stood just one week ago. Because last Monday, it was of course revealed the Musk held nine stake and Twitter, making him the company's biggest shareholder. While the next day Musk was invited to join Twitter's board of directors, which accepted. We then learned Musk was delayed in reporting his new steak and Twitter and concerns that the sec might start looking around.

Twitter employees also started voicing concerns about having Musk's involvement and the influence he might have on the company. And then over the weekend, when you've been tweeting about Twitter quote dying, then tweeted the Jeff Beys also about turning Twitter's headquarters into a homeless shelter. And on Sunday night, we learned that Twitter the CEO Pagal that Musk won't be joining the board after all after some pretty bad

jokes on Twitter as well, Buy a Musk. So we're going to dive into all of this, and the first angle we're going to look at is why Musk might have rejected the offer. In particular, to be on the board joining me now John C. Coffee, Junior Professor Law at Columbia University Law School. And what's an extraordinary story

to be unfolding? And I'm interested at the moment, professor, about first and foremost what you think is behind all of this, what is initially perhaps a rejection about well, on one level, this looks like deja vu all over again, or Elin being Ela. He did this, said Tesla. When he didn't disclose or he falsely disclosed that he had an offer to take the company private, that Saudi Arabia

was standing behind, you didn't have it. And when the sec sued, he agreed that he put in the general counsel of the company is an intermediary between him and any public statement about the company. Now, he's never been happy with that, he's never really obeyed that. But now we're over at Twitter and he's doing the same thing. He's under a legal duty to disclose when he crosses five percent. He eventually got up to near ten percent.

Think about all the people who sold in that interval between five percent and ten percent, which could be a hundred million or more in terms of shares. Now, those people would have sold at a much higher price if he had disclosed that he was buying and that he was going on the board, whether it was just becoming the largest shore of the company. Because he is basically the world's richest band it can buy what he was. When he didn't disclose, they sold at a lower price

than they would have gotten with fair disclosure. And some of those people may sue in a class action claiming that they were cheated by effectively insider trading when he brought the stock with disclosing information that he was required

by lawder's clothes. You can debate both sides of that, but it is likely to get either a private lawson or the SEC suing on behalf of those shareholders has been concerned they were concerned about some trading activities at Tesla when he was traded heavily, when he was an effect paging the shareholders, pulling them to see if they wanted him to change his ownership levels. There could be the SEC and the SEC is mind a recurring pattern of close to the line or over the line inside

of trading violations, and that could bring a very serious lawsuit. Professor, talk to us about produciary duty here because many felt perhaps it was in any way many ways defensive of Twitter to a broad him onto the board. At least it stops him perhaps building up the stake further than any further than for example, however, what limitations would have it put on a mask to his own communications, his

own tweeting, if he indeed had joined the board. Of course, I think the reason he did not go on the board which partly that the CEO really couldn't tolerate some of the statements he was making. He for example, tweeted the world that he would like to have Twitter stopped selling advertising. Now that must have stunned the CEO because

Twitter makes about nine of its revenues from advertising. If you're the CEO, you just can't have anyone, including this richer man as a director, making statements for that having them cleared by management counsel or anywhere. So that was one about a half business, and I don't think the CEO could focus on long term planning where he's going to get a daily barrage of comments in all directions

from Elon Musk. So just to walk us through again the legal ramification saying you're expecting a sec an indeed path private lawsuits currently. I mean it's something thatferent different things that have There could be a class action by investors who sold during the period when he had not closed what he was supposed to disclose is greater than five percent ownership, which went up to ten percent. The SEC could say, also, uh, these statements really a due

amount to a material omission. You didn't disclose that you own over five percent. You breached your legal duty, and we say that also could amount to insider trading. Or they could just say you made false and reckless statements. I think fines, professor, would that be what comes in it? I'm sorry? And would the ramifications be fines or something worse? Oh, if you are well. First of all, inside of trading can be a criminal offense. The SEC can't charge your crime,

but the Department of Joctors conceivably could beyond that. The SEC can sue for damages equal to as much as three times the game made or the laws subverdict. Here would be a game when he bought this stock, he didn't disclose at the asset when he crossed five percent what he was doing, and the SEC could see three times the game on the staff between the five percent level and the ten percent level. He's the richest man in the world. That won't bankrupt him, but painful amount

to pay. John Coffee, Jr. Columbia Law School Professor, fascinating conversation. Thank you very much. I want to stick with Musk and with the internal issues he was of course facing from Twitter and welcome in when Securities managing director Dan ives for what is another extraordinary story involving you know Musk and from your perspective, what happens now if he's

not on the board? Ok? I think you know him being on the board that was almost a Cinderella's story to the point that he'd be on the board, they'd women his ownership to fift and your strategically could help the company. Now it's a total different situation. I view it as more hostile. I think the opposit ste going forward. And now the question is does he team up with private equity and how active does he get? I mean

for Twitter. I think this goes from a Cinderella's story to the potentially game of Thrones with uh, you know, Musk and Twitter and the board clearly gonna lock heads. Great analogies that what if they're gonna lock heads? Do you anticipate Well, first and foremost is your number one perspective that we do see some sort of buyout just Twitter eventually get bored or go private. What do you expect, Look, I mean, before Musk is involved, I mean, Twitter as

a stock's been a significant on the performer. Advertising has been extremely disappointing, which is why he's sort of the night and shining armor at least for investors in Twitter. You know, I think now the next step is going to be he's going to be allowed for us. I do not expect that he's gonna go home, reduce his steak, and now there's gonna be a bright spot on Twitter and from the strategy advertising that obviously have a key

quarter coming up. And for Twitter, for you know, for the board, it's their worst nightmare because Musk in the boardroom is contained Musk outside the boardroom. Now this becomes a soap opera, get out the copform. I mean, he's an activist in STI with eight million who follow him on Twitter. And I'm interested as to what therefore you think can be damaged imitations here? What what will be

the product innovations that potentially start happening. Look, I think eventually this is gonna sort of end with some sort of strategic initiatives and know whether that ends with an ultimate sell, if that ends with maybe sunsetting some products focus on some of the subscriber and advertising side, because that's that's the issue right now. I mean, they're losing Instagram,

TikTok and others in social media. Must that's not necessary as expertise, but I mean, this is really gonna over the coming months, and you know, I think year you're really gonna be I think very tough situation for Twitter and Spoard if they somehow, you know, miss execute again over the coming quarters. Before you go, we've got time to just also think about the world of cybersecurity from him, because I caught my attention was your note that you

put out about sale Point. Of course, the deal being done there in the purchase. What do you make of the focus and where to be putting your money at the moment in terms of cybersecurity. I think it's a golden age from cybersecurity. It's a defensive area of tech. Look at sale Point getting bought and you know, Manny and got bought by Google, and I looked at names like Tennable, pal out those cyber arc Checkpoint among others, and I think in it really just shows the value

of cybersecurity. Public investors will sell of the stocks the strategic and financials will buy them. Dan, I'm it is always so great to catch up with you with all the analogies of whe Bush. We thank you so much. Well, I'm more X. This is bringing back I'm Caroline Hyde and new or this is Blombog technology. Here are a few of the other stories that we've been following in Canadian e commerce software firm that's Shopify, plans at ten

for one stock split. Now will we're giving CEO Toby Looker a special founder share that will preserve his voting power as long as he's at the company now shares a Shopify And they've been under pressure and what by half this year, but ending the day as you can see a little bit higher. Sony and the owner of Lego Group. Now those two companies have invested two billion dollars and Epic Games, the maker a Fortnite. The investment

values Epic at thirty one and a half billion. The video GameMaker is one of the five most valuable startups in the US. It's currently waging, of course, though a costly legal battle with Apple and Alphabet of a fees charged by app stores. China meanwhile has approved the first batch of new video game licenses. Since July, Bluebugs learned that regulators have distributed a list of approved titles to developers. Last August, China's far reaching tech crackdown spread to online gaming.

The government introduced measures capping playtime for minors and new requirements aimed at curving addiction. This is Bloomberg Technology. I'm Caroline Hyde in Family Chang with several big names, of course expected to go public this year. Some are kind of decelerating their efforts with a volatile market upon our hands. Joining us now to discuss all of this in the pipeline. How solid it is, Karen Snow, Senior vice president ahead

of us listings and revenue for the NAZZAC. Some fantastic to have some time with you, Karen and talk to us about the solidity of the pipeline. How are we seeing companies? Are they just hunkering down weathering until we do see an ease up in volatility? Is it something different? Yeah, I think companies are really preparing to go public. I think this year is going to be a situation where you see windows of opportunity uh, and they want to be able to hit the market when that window opens.

We are starting to see signs of life. What I would say is that we're very focused on the VIX, which is the volatility index UH, and when that um is between a really below twenty five, which is really where we like to see it. Ent of companies go public when it's below that level, So we're very focused on that as a lead indicator, as well as a convertible market, which has started to open up. The VIX has stayed below twenty five for the past eighteen sessions,

which I think is a good sign uh. And we're starting to get inbound calls from companies that are looking to go public at the end of April early May. What kind of companies come, uh, Well, there are a lot of interest from consumer companies. That's about thirty seven percent of the pipeline tent or tech companies. Nineteen percent are healthcare companies, about ten percent are financial companies, and

the remainder are industrial and energy companies. So really good breath and depth from and representation from the entire economy. And when you're thinking about how it would be taken down by the market. It feels as though everyone's offer an inflation headge at the moment, and these companies sort of an analyzing how they can tell that story in some way. Yeah, I think it's important. Um. You know,

valuations have adjusted for that inflation. Um. You know, companies have to address the current pipeline situation UM with you know, all the disruption um. So they definitely have to have their ducks in a row. Uh. And I think there's no rush to go to the public markets at the moment. There's plenty of ways to raise capital UM, so people really want to make sure that they're ready. What I would say is that we see a very healthy pipeline. The pipeline for companies is greater than it was this

time last year, So we're very optimistic about that. Talk to us about whether or not there is a disconnect between the public markets and the private markets at the moment, I think we're starting to see that close. Uh. You know, what I would say is that, you know, public markets tell you exactly where they think things belong um, and private markets respond a little bit more slowly to that. I don't think that's a bad thing, but that is, you know, one of the key differences between the public

and the private markets. I think companies that are looking to go public understand that, um, and they've gotten their heads around their current valuations and what the market expectations

might be. We've had, of course, a fascinating story in whichever way you want to slice it with what's happening between Elon Musk and indeed Twitter, and what many have looked at is perhaps a lack of a controlling state by a founder, whereas we look at a Shopify for example today that's doing a stock split and and making sure that the founder continues to maintain some sort of level of control. When companies are coming to the market at the moment, how are they looking at those sorts

of narratives in the way in which companies are structured. Yeah, well, what I would say is that E s G has become much more topical for private companies coming to the market. We're spending a lot more time with companies on the private side as they're preparing. Governance has always been very topical UM and UM. You know, it's really up to

the company how they want to structure their business. UM. You know, investors I think will assign a discount or a premium based on what they feel as the right structure.

You of course saw an expert on the E and the S as well as as the G, and I'm interested in the social path at the moment that now is a time more than any that we're thinking about humanity really when we're looking at Russia, Ukraine, when we're thinking about all the stakeholders, the way which employees want to see their companies stand for something, when they see the customers want to see their companies stand for things. How you seeing that being sort of exercised by businesses

and looking to list as well. Yeah, well there's a lot more conversation around UM stakeholder capitalism because of that. It's the entire ecosystem m UM that is focused on it. And I think companies are recognizing that their customers, that their employees, that their investors are all focused on these issues and want to make sure that UM, wherever they work, wherever they shop, UM, that those brands and companies are

doing the right thing, whatever that may be. And how about the the environmental because suddenly it feels as though a country with an administration that was so focused on energy transition is suddenly having to think about well digging oil gas what we usually depend on for our energy. And I'm interested is to what companies you're coming through. You said about what ten per cent will there? About what energy businesses, what kinds of energy businesses? Yeah, well

we're seeing a lot of new energy. We're actually, um, you know, experiencing a lot of transfers to NASDAC and the utility sector as that UM, whole sector transitions to new energy. UM. So we've been seeing this for quite some time. UM. I think that the current climate UM has really raised people's awareness UM as it relates to our dependency on carbon UH. And then of course you have the sec SEC out with their climate change proposal.

So there's a lot going on in the space. UM. This is a lot of bobbing and weaving and threading needles. But I don't think there's any doubt that our economy is transitioning to new energy. Well, Karen Snow has been great to have some time with you and let you get back to the healthy pipeline and see as and when the company's come back, and I that vixed level

currently sub we thank you so much, Karen snow off NASDAC. Meanwhile, and it's been a while since Jeff Bezels pledged to fill the skies with a fleet of delivery drones zipping parcels to customers homes in thirty minutes. Now almost actually a decade after that promise, Amazon's drones have mostly technical

challenges to show for themselves. Amazon Prime Air co founder Conchi giving even a video posting it on LinkedIn showing a package being delivered in the middle of well nowhere, let's talk about all of this and more when Spencer Soaper with his big take. Of course, a key story that dropped on the Bloomberg for our terminal uses today

and Spencer will have been the main issue. Well, the main issue is this design where Amazon wanted to combine the new verability of a helicopter that go up and down with a plane that could fly forward, and that's

a really difficult design to pull off. They wanted it for the payload that it can carry up to five pounds, which represents about eighty five of Amazon's deliveries, as well as the range they wanted to be up the drone to be able to do a fifteen mile round trip, which they see as being critical to serve a big enough population um and so that design has been tricky, and you know, last summer they had a really bad incident when the drone was transitioning from that up and

down flight pattern to the forward pattern, where one of the motors failed. There's there's six propellers on the drawn. One of the motors failed and it completely disabled the thing. All of these safety mechanisms that were supposed to kick in failed as well, and you ended up with a pound drone dropping from the sky to the ground. And it's this hot lithium battery on board that powers it,

creating a brush fire that spread. And so that was alarming to federal aviation officials who are worried about the airworthiness of this thing. You know, we're gonna have this flying over roads and people and and schools. You know, how safe is it? And yet despite all those headwinds, despite the issues that the engineering issues, the safety issues, this seems to be an area that still committed to Is Is it because of the supply chain headaches, the costs?

What is it that makes it still so attractive? Yeah, well, you figure thirty minutes that's really a critical window where you think, you know what, that's fast probably than me leaving my house and going to the store and coming back, whereas a lot of their other options like two hour delivery or same day delivery, a lot of times you're still just quick to run out to the store. In fact, So that's really that trying to match that instant gratification.

Um is where drones fit in as well as some of the things you talk about like costs and you know, dispatching drivers. Is that uh, you know, robotic drones are the ultimate solution to that, to that quick delivery challenge. So they continue to deploy capital there. Invest it's all about R and D. We know that with Amazon, they've also of course has been raising some extra debt to be able to finance general corporate purposes. But a massive one sale coming from Amazon talked to us about what

we think it will be useful. Yeah, they haven't given a whole lot of clarity on it other than like the unity's general corporate expenses. And so with Amazon, they keep expanding capacity, They keep expanding um uh, you know,

trying to get closer to customers. Uh. And so we're going to see see more of that, you know, the creep of the Amazon where house is going to get closer and closer to you, and the facilities get more and more specialized to to be more efficient and and really from your perspective, the safety concerns that workers I'm in telling their inside stories, you think they're surmountable potentially.

I mean a lot of the workers believe in the technology, just think that there's a little bit of too much haste to bring this to uh uh, you know, to people's homes to actually try to deploy it where they feel like maybe this needs to come back to the R and D cycle and more tinkering and more um learning before before they're trying to prove the airworthiness of these machines. Spencer soaper, great reporting and it's amazing, big take. I urge every want to go and see it online

and on the Bringing Bag terminal. Thank you so much. Time now for our crypto report with our crypto contributor.

That is a question Anni Bassa Bitcoin while declining again in the last twenty four hours under pressure, but it's not actually the underperformer, right, Yeah, very interesting here we have all coins that have really dropped a lot more now looking at a seven day decline of more than twenty percent for for for first stable coins and alt coins such as Cardono to Luna, as we know that these companies are already kind of buying each other's reserves.

When you look at terror, Luna for example, buying not just Bitcoin but also Avalanche was down more than on the seven day period here, Caroline, So you're looking at correlations. While some are dropping more than others, It's important to recognize now how much this entire community is related to each other. So if you're buying Bitcoin, what happens to the terror price, if you're buying Avalanche, or what happens to the terror price? Um, what else is bitcoin related to?

I think it's very interesting you're seeing this intensifying correlation with the NAZAC one d. If you take a look at this chart, it's greater than really it's ever been. So Nazac sells off, so does bit coin. How important is that to market participants because many every now and then sort of send out full tweets saying, like the corronations putting back a little bit, but do they want to see it dislocate somewhat from the nast act I guess that means that it's deemed a risk asset. Yeah.

I had a conversation with the hedge fund manager who is typically invested in a lot of other hedge funds, and asked if this is now a diversifier and he said he was able to hold stable because or generally stable because he had Bitcoin rather than a lot of other risk assets. So to your point, there's some traditional money managers that do take a look at this and say, okay, we still want a diversifying asset here, but most people who are so bitcoin believers in buying bitcoin don't look

at the volatility here. And again we are down below forty dollars again on bitcoin, right, So what we're back to asking what is that floor? They're still looking to what that three hundred thousand or five hundred thousand per bitcoin price target looks like over the next five years. The question is if this or is it dud, then how quickly do we get to five thousand? And indeed, what it means for the nasson interests coming from institutional

colims right exactly? Because what is it correlated to? They are still gonna have that question. We are getting more answers and they're definitely quants out there that are doing the math on this, because even beyond Nazdak the you and I had spoken to somebody a little earlier making that correlation with the dollar. If the dollar weakens, that gives you a case for bitcoin as an alternative currency,

doesn't it. Or if inflation rises that's another correlation that used to be there now that is breaking down more dramatically. So again, early days of an asset class a fun Wall Street strategist thing to do to figure out what it is really related to and geographical demand. We have any breakdown on that of late, that's an interesting question,

especially because Tara has been such a big buyer. There's a lot of questions about what it means to have one buyer being such a big base here to the asset. But yeah, beyond that, unclear as to how much more or after a Bitcoino and Salt Bahamas coming up around the corner, how much interest is being drum up among new investors around the world. We brace ourselves for a whole load of headlines coming out of assault actual we just digest what was well a whole load of expersions

being cast towards some older participants in Wall Street. Coming from one Peter till At, of course the overall Bitcoin two over in Miami Bloom Shanali Brassak, where the breakdown and correlations. We thank her meanwhile coming up using wigs to help solve the problem of bias in a I. This is going to be a fascinating conversation with the co founders of Parfait about how they're really looking at data sets, open source data sets that they're helping to

improve the people of color. This is blom Back disrupting AI. Indeed, it's data sets. It's the ultimate goal of parfe It's a company fan of two sisters and some other co founders, and they're doing it by getting into the rapidly growing wig market. Now they have the backing of some of the pretty big names already, including Serena Ventures. But by

of course Serna Williams joining me. Now are two women behind this happened to be sisters, as we just mentioned, a sony for Igmanadian and it's great to have some time with both of you and as first and foremost talk to us about what inspired you to would want to take in what is a rapidly growing market in a large one in terms of total addressable market. Yeah, so the origins of Parfrey really started with an experienced a problem experienced by many women, which is managing and

caring for our textured hair. The journey for me started at ten years old when I had a very terrible experience with a chemical actor that made all of my natural hair fall out, and so I really started using hair wigs and extensions to give my hair a break and then a chance to regrow and have essentially spent the last twenty years navigating the friction field market of

hair wigs and extensions. So real. From our collective experience solving technical challenges during our times and some of the largest tech companies in the world, we were really inspired to leverage AI and computer vision to improve the lives

of people in our communities. And with black hair at the top of our list of problems that needed real investment for a better solution, PARTE was really born with a mission to develop products and services with technology that recognize and prioritize all people, starting with people of color. And if we talk to us about how you're going to be using facial recognition skin coloring to be able

to match people to the correct wig for example. And when you're looking at servicing your direct to consumer, what what was missing in the data in the open soul stage already? Yeah, you know, our world continues to be more informed and shape our artificial intelligence, and as we think about the future, we really have to start prioritizing

and final solutions to make it much more equitable. And so the training data using based recognition technology currently are largely imbalanced and it often relies on data it's very similar in makeup, and thus the visual makeup of those faces do not represent the composition of faces worldwide. So this often results in very poor performance for people of

color who don't fit into that data set. And so the impact of this can be seen in the innovations and compumor facing a I that caused negative external experiences for people of color. You know. One study by the Georgia Insue Technology soft findings autonomous driving systems that have

more difficulty in detecting pedestrians with darker skin. Um you know, another studies showed that you know, non white test taker is taking exam proper and software imported issues would attempting to verify their identities and so at part they were really trying to tackle these problems to make major progress in improving the product and service outcomes for marginalized communities, starting by building bacial recognition technology for women and people

of color. So, so five million already raised. I mean, of course, you've got a product that you want to unfold. You've got a list of what ten thousand at least people that signed up to be starting to buy their wigs by you. And but you're looking at, of course improving manufacturing when it comes to wigs, but also, as you say, building up the data set, making aim more fit for purpose less bias. Start to tell us how

you go about doing that from the ground up. Yeah, from the many apologies I said so too earlier, So this one was aimed at you. Yeah, so um, right now, manufacturing this industry hasn't seen innovation in quite some time. You're the raw hair and lace products that are used to construct these wigs really require significant time and manual intervention, which is a large reason for the exorbit price tag.

And so really our goal is to fundamentally change the way that these products are produced from the source, making it faster and cheaper to produce customized wigs at scale, okay, And I'm interested in therefore also if we're code, when you're looking at the manufacturing revolutionizing that getting people a more valuable product, but are more consumer sensitive price point in particular on perhaps something that usually will cost thousands

coming down to the hundreds. If we're I'm interested in, what also you need to do in terms of bringing less biased within the data that you're using. How are you going out and ensuring that you're making it better and a more efficient AI? You know, you know, we can't ever say that our visual intelligence is going to

be perfect. And while we take those precautions, you know, going out and collecting law data ourselves, making sure that our data sets are valves when it comes to annotations and gender and all those types of things, we also have a very human focused pipeline in which our silas and our you know, live team members are going in and correcting and annitating any data that doesn't that the

customers needs. And ASA briefly, I mean, of course, your product is for people of all colors, and therefore very much you can see that from your marketing and the way in which you're focus. But talk to us about just how big a market this is. Remind the people have been putting money in there that this is sizeable, this is scaling. Yeah, this is a thirteen billion dollar market.

It's expected to grow by thirteen percent thirteen point two billion by six and so women have been largely underserved in the core pieces of wig wearing that require you to be able to wear these products to look natural and confident, and that's true customization. And so what we're really doing is creating a way for these women to be able to customize their wigs and extensions without all

of that manual friction. And quite frankly, what we have found is because of the way the manufacturing process is today, it's going to be required for us to be able to scale this to the thirteen billion dollar market that needs it um we would require AI and technical intervention and that's what we're working on today with this round of funding. Well you and Live today, we thank you so much for coming out of Beater and coming on this program. So if we're co Igmanadian, we thank you

so much. Co founders of Parfit a fascinating story, go check it out and all their marketing. Meanwhile, that does it for this edition. Of bloom bag technology. We'll joined tomorrow by the like so Matthew Ball from Billy and Co. This is Bloomberg