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Live from New York and San Francisco.
This is Bloomberg Technology coming up short seller Hinduburg Research but against roadblocks based on what it calls inflated key metrics and a lack of child safety.
And TikTok gets sued in California, New York and other states for deceiving users about its safety for children.
Plus, we hear from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond on a AI in an exclusive interview at the firm's tech Stars conference in Europe.
But first we go straight.
To shares of Roadblocks, which are tumbling today after short seller Hindenburg Research said it's vetting against the Gaming Plan platform, saying in its report that it has inflated key metrics and also focusing in on a lack of safety for children on the platform.
We go to Bloomberg's Bailey Lipschutz for more.
First, the accusations of people of key metrics, time spent engagement.
What are they accusing hinden By Research, Well.
That's the big thing Carol is that this is a new take from the short seller Nate Anderson Hindenberg targeting that they are inflating or, according to Hindenberg, are inflating some of those metrics to appease investors. We've seen long discuss the issues potentially with the platform and child safety. Bloomberg had a terrific big take in the summer titled Roadblocks Pedophile Problem. So that has been a well discussed aspect. But those kind of allegations from Hindenburg that they have
been inflating some of those metrics. Again, the company says that they reject those deemed in the report.
But that's what's new.
Is that the company could at least again if you take Hindenburger face value they're betting against, the company could be boosting some of those numbers to lay any investor concerns that maybe they don't have the reach or the engagement that Wall Street is looking for.
Bailey, let's go to Roadblocks's response in full in New York.
Let's bring it up on the screen.
We totally reject the claims made in the report. The financial claims made by Hindenburg Research are simply misleading. The authors are emittedly short sellers and have an angender irrespective of the substance of Roadblocks's business model and results.
And what they go on.
To say is kind of a pushback against the thesis at the center of Hindenburg's research, which is because this is a company which Hindenburg claims isn't profitable, that the claim is they're misleading investors because they rely on a daily active user number and a people number that are the same. And if you read the footnotes of the disclosures, the footnotes read you shouldn't rely on the daily active user number because it could include box or it could
include alt accounts. In other words, one user holds multiple accounts. It's a hard one to follow, but just go over the back and forth between the two parties.
Bailey, No, to your point, edit, when you look at how Roadblocks or really any other media or video gaming platform is valued, whether you want to point to is the company did the amount of cash receipts or their bookings growth. That is bullish for the company in their view. But to your point, what Hindenburg has laid out looking at those metrics, they're looking at profitability at a string of unprofitable quarters, you really have to take it into consideration. Again,
Hindenburg is betting against the company. The company is down seventy percent from its all time high back in twenty twenty one. It has been on a string of losing kind of down days, down about thirteen fourteen percent from a September high. So it really depends how you want to valuate.
You can point through any.
Short seller report really and say that they're cherry picking data, which seems to be kind of what Roadblocks is doing here.
But also on the flip.
Side, if you're an investor who's long the stock, you need to understand and kind of wrap your mind around the totality of that data.
But that also could just be.
Why we're seeing Roadblocks down four percent, kind of pairing back some of those losses.
I do just want to call out that we're at.
About nine times what is normal in terms of trading volume, more than seventeen million shares already changing hands in the first hour and a half of today, which really is more than we would normally see in an entire session.
We have Roblocks's response, and of course they've long been trying to show off ways in which they're trying to take on the safety concerns as well.
I'm interested in that this isn't the only.
Voice of a bearish nature though, And we've heard from Edwin Dorsey, for example, who writes multiple bearish cases, and actually he doesn't take any.
Bets on the stock.
He just outlines why he's perhaps concerned about particular companies. So is this a mounting view of concerns around numbers or is this the first.
Time I think when it as it relates directly to the user metrics, again, that is new. Is from my understanding, that is not what Edwin Dorsey has targeted. That is not what Bloomberg and other outlets have reported primarily around child safety potentially putting profits over people. But these allegations in terms of potentially inflating numbers, to my knowledge, is new and I have read and read, as I'm sure a number of viewers do have read a lot of
what Edwin Dorsey and Barcave put out. And again they've been publishing on this company for quite some time. In their most recent report was just earlier this week, kind of incorporating some of their metrics and their latest report from last week. But that really from the Bearcape perspective. For the most part, at least what I've read, focuses more on child safety profits and some of the or lack of safeguards.
That is right.
They are different vcs in that respect, and we made every effort to invite Hindenberg and Nate Anderson on this program, and we've made every effort to invite roadblocks onto Bloombo's Baya Lipshaltz. Thank you very much. Another breaking news story
this morning. TikTok was sued by California, New York and a dozen other states Tuesday for allegedly deceiving users about its safety for children and using harmful and addictive features to keep children on the platform for longer to maximize profits. TikTok has not responded to a request for comment. Bluebags Mike Shepherd joins us out of DC. Just explain the basics of the action taken by these states, the mechanism by how they took it, and what the claim is.
Well, the states have worked together in this claim against TikTok, as you described, going after the company over what the state Attorney's General call harmful behavior to the public. In other words, baking in harmful and addictive features into the algorithm, into the software, into this platform that children are using, so that they are hooked, so that it keeps them on as repeat customers, so that they stay on the
platform longer. This includes things like endless scrolling. It also includes features like beauty filters and comments and likes that can also harm children's self esteem. All of this, they are saying, is causing a public health crisis among young people, and they are taking steps to try to address it.
There's not the only lawsuit, of course, There's been a barrage. There was a federal lawsuit just in August claiming TikTok allowed children to open accounts and gathered information about them when.
They shouldn't have been.
What's interesting is TikTok, like Meta, like many other companies when it comes to social media and children, and in putting in place what.
They say are safeguards.
You've got all accounts for teens under eighteen starting out as private, they say, and a screen limit of some sixty minutes. What's interesting in this case is that the attorneys general take issue with those sorts of safety precautions, saying they're not really real.
Well, that's right, and in fact, in the case that you mentioned, I'm so glad you brought it up, Carol. In August, the Federal Trade Commission sued the company for failing to abide by the terms of a twenty nineteen
settlement over child privacy. In both of these cases, what the federal government and then the state attorney's general are alleging is that these measures have not been enough, and in fact, in the case brought u by California today in the other states, they are saying that children's private data was being exploited without parental consent or notice, and that is just a fundamental, in their view, violation of that relationship with children under the age of thirteen.
Mike Shepard, We appreciate it. Thank you.
Now let's turn our attention to South Korean tech giant Samsung, issuing a rare apology to investors after it posted disappointing results, admitting that it's grappling with a potential crisis after losing its way. The newly appointed head of Samsung's core chip business has promised to overhaul the organization and began laying off workers last week in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. As part of a plan to reduce global headcount ed.
Okay, Coming up on Bloomberg Technology, Rivian hits a snag in its supply chain, throwing a wrench in twenty twenty four production targets. One of the stories will bring you later in the hour. Take a look at shares Nvidia. It's off its session high where it touched again of four percent, but that would make the stock trading its highest level since mid July.
It's interesting they're holding.
Their AI summit DC right now where they're talking up Blackwell and they're talking up about how energy efficient it is, trying to overcome concerns about power consumption in the context of GPUs that go into data centers. We continue to track in VideA for obvious reasons.
Stay with us. This is Bloomberg Technology.
Amazon is set to face an antitrust suit filed by the US Federal Trade Commission over complaints that its online marketplace practice is harmed competition. Bloomberg's lear Nyland joins US our of DC and laya, give me the basics of the complaint and the process.
Yeah.
The FDC filed this complaint a year ago in September, alleging that Amazon has harmed merchants who use its online marketplace through a variety of tactics. Amazon of course denies the allegations and filed a request that the court throw out.
The complaint at this early stage.
That's pretty unusual, but Meta was successful in the first round when it did that against the FTC complaint, or Amazon tried as well. The judge recently released his decision and he agreed to toss out just a couple of allegations under various state law claims that Amazon's marketplace violates state consumer protection laws. But he ruled that the FTC's complaint can move forward, which is a pretty big blow
to Amazon. Amazon had said made a bunch of arguments that you know, its marketplace is designed to help consumers, all of its algorithms are designed to help lower prices, and the judge just said that may be the case, but at this point in the suit, like, I can't really consider that. We have to move forward a little bit before Amazon is allowed to make those kinds of arguments.
Okay, so Amaz in front and center, but so too is Alphabet at the moment in multiple ways. We're expecting yet further updates in terms of concerns around its own marketplace today, I believe.
Yeah, so yesterday in the Google Place or case, this is an anti trust case that was going on out in California.
Involving Epic Games.
The judge in that case imposed an injunction on Google that's going to ban it from paying developers or manufacturers to make its place.
Or the default one on its device.
So it can no longer pay developers to exclusively launch their apps and the app store. It has to allow other companies that want to, like perhaps Amazon or Microsoft, to offer alternate app stores for Android devices. And this lasts for three years. The idea is that Google has made all of.
These provisions and its rules.
Related to the app store that really harmed competition found last year, and so this three year prohibition on paying developers to launch exclusively and being forced to allow other app stores is to help develop more app stores in the Android ecosystem.
So Google is going to appeal.
Of course, they already announced that yesterday, so this isn't going to go into effect immediately, but you know, there was an immediate impact on the stock price because you know, this is a fourteen billion dollar year business for Google, and it's going to definitely impact the amount of revenue they make each year. Separately today, sorry, carry on separately today. In the search case, this is the one that the
Justice Department filed in twenty twenty. The judge ruled earlier this year that Google has an illegal monopoly in online search and online search ads, and the Justice Department is supposed to make its first proposal sometime later today about what it thinks Google should be forced to do to sort of remedy the harm caused in the online search market. You know, we had reported a couple months ago that one of the options that they might be proposing as
a breakup. So this could be the first time that the federal government is looking to break up a company in decades.
So we're sort of eagerly awaiting that here in.
DC Search app Store and over Amazon It's marketplace.
Doreys a lot on your plate, We appreciate it, Leah.
Now let's just talk.
About another company, Meta now, But it is actually rolling out.
New AI tools to help advertisers.
Create and edit videos more easily, seeking to reach Facebook Instagram users who are spending.
More time watching videos now.
The new features, which will be available broadly next year, will let advertisers use generative AI to turn static images into video ads, and marketers will also be able to edit and adjust the size of the video ads automatically. Let's bring in Rachel Tibograph, who is a founder and CEO of mcmac e commerce marketing platform from multichannel Brands.
So interesting all these generative AI tools we had, of course to CEO coming on of other key social media companies that have really been thinking about the ways in which they can use jenners to AI. That was Pinterest last week. We get Meta today, Rachel. What does it add to your marketers who want to spend time on these companies.
Yeah, the announcement that Meta made around what they call metagen video is pretty big because the number one barrier to advertising is creative and the fastest growing ad platforms
are ones that are centered around short form video. So the fact that they're now going to create solutions that democratize video creation, it should boon to them to get more AD dollars, not just from Big Fortune one thousand brands, but really all of the SMB businesses, and that's the long tail of advertising that's really going to propel mephis growth forward.
But go into this visual that we see now impressions Commerce impressions, You'll say, basically, Meta is driving two thirds of social traffic or mike Max's already a winning formula.
From your perspective, it absolutely is. But to put this slide into context, between twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four, we've seen a ten percent growth in brand traffic in Meta. We've seen one hundred and ninety percent growth in brand traffic in TikTok. So if Meta wants to continue to have this huge leap in front of platforms like TikTok and Google, it needs to continue to make investments in
their platform. They cannot rest on their laurels. And that's why I'm personally very proud of Meta for recognizing that they need to make deep advancements in AI to continue to lower the barrier to entry for advertisers.
Rach, I'd like to go back to Meta and that news for a minute, because you understand the importance of technology from the advertiser's perspective, right. The basics of it are, this new feature can turn a static image into a video ad simple. But I think metas startings get a lot of credit for the real world progress it's making in AI. Just your reaction to that basic idea and what you think it will do to move the path forward for advertisers.
Yeah. Absolutely, So to put this into context, advertisers can spend somewhere between ten percent of their overall marketing investments. I'm creative, but that's just in the cost of creative, the amount of hours that go into creating a video, approving a video, up and down the total pole. That's several people's jobs within an organization. So a simple solution like this might seem obvious and small, but it actually
can change marketing and advertising as we know it. It also could create a rippling effect in terms of headcount. You might need fewer marketers with tools like this, So it's a really big deal in the advertising industry. The flip side is from Fortune one thousand brands. When it comes to AI and creative, they do have two major concerns. Number one is copyright violation and number two is data privacy.
So there is a difference when you talk to a marketer that's running a business that's doing fifty million dollars revenue versus when you talk to a marketer that's running a business doing a billion dollars in revenue. So Meta is going to have some work to do with the major advertisers to us sage concerns around copyright and data privacy.
I think we're going to move on a little bit to Amazon. It's Prime Day. I know that at home Prime Day is going to be big, So I've got a few things, so I've got to get for other people. Let's be honest, it's completely inane. Why is Amazon Prime Day window important for you in your platform?
Yeah?
Absolutely so. Amazon Prime Day has now become a ten pole mode moment, not just within the US but globally. It's a day to really move a lot of excess supply and bring value to consumers. In twenty twenty four, this is really important on any given day. At MCKMAC this year, we've seen a twenty percent decline in basket sizes. You've now seen this play out in public earnings of
mass consumer product companies. Volume sales are down. Why Because the last few years major mass consumer product companies have taken price hikes and now consumers are fighting back with their wallets. What Amazon Prime Day is going to show us today and tomorrow is how willing are consumers going
to spend during this year's holiday season. There's been inflation, there's been price hikes, but on the other side of the equation, the FED dropping interest rates and hopefully doing that again in November and December brings optimism to consumers.
Rachel Tivograph, founder and CEO of matt covering all of it, thank you so much.
The US is in the early stages of an investigation into potential Chinese hacking of American telecom companies. It's according to a top intelligence official. Investigators say a hackers may have accessed court authorized why tapping information.
I want to discuss all of this.
The president of Wandross and former CASA Chief of Staff kissed and Todd. So how do we know that it might be Chinese hackers?
Well, we're still learning about this effort. But what we're hearing right now is that this malicious actor we're calling salt Typhoon, which is part of a People's Republic of China PRC state sponsored cyber campaign. This one in particular, we believe to have hacked into internet service providers a little over a month ago, and we're researching now if it in fact has hacked into communications companies. We do
believe this is part of this broader campaign. We saw volt Typhoon earlier this year, which attacked our IT networks, and we've seen flax Typhoon, which is a cyber espionage effort by the People's Republic of China against thaiwik organizations.
Kirstin, the focus is infrastructure telecoms, but war to infrastructure. Your expert analysis on.
That, it's all infrastructure. When we look at intelligence over the last two years. Last year, our annual Threat Assessment from the United States Intelligence Community said that China would be seeking to pre position itself on all infrastructure, so that if we believe in china strategic objective to go after Taiwan, it would have the ability to disrupt and in some cases destroy our infrastructure to minimize our ability to act as an adversary against China against Taiwan.
So the response the safety is there enough coming from the United States.
We absolutely have to be doing more. If I'm a CEO or a board member of a company, I am ensuring that I am elevating my security, my safety, I have to assume that China is on my network. This isn't about fear. It's about strategy and being smart and preparing for a more secure and resilient infrastructure. We have to elevate our game. This shouldn't be news to any company. It shouldn't be news to any board member. Cyberboard governance, the ability to bring this into the boardroom has never
been more critical. All companies, particularly critical infrastructure companies, should be testing business continuity plans, should be testing different scenarios to ensure that they are safe and secure in light of this increasing threat.
Kissed and to President of Wondrous and former sis A chief of staff, thank you so much.
This Thursday, Blue.
Welcome back to Bluebog Technology.
I'm Caroline Hid in New York and I'm Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.
We are having a rally on our hands at the moment.
Ed, look at the NASTAC at one point two percent, mag seven doing its thing.
Who leads the charge? And VIDIA?
Of course, let's get onto the individual movers as we still contemplate the direction of travel for the Federal Reserve and indeed whether they can continue to cut at the pace and video bounces back three point three. This makes it a thirteen percent rally.
Over the last five days.
As of course, we also get news about it's energy efficiency coming from its AI event that's happening today.
Microsoft up a percentage point.
Interestingly, though some more bearish coals are coming to this particular name.
Will it live up to its AI hype?
Oppenheimer now warning on its AI revenue being overestimated. Nevertheless, Microsoft pushes up more than a percentage point. Super Micro coming down from its super rally yesterday. We're down by almost six percent, let's call it after it rallied more than fifteen percent yesterday. This is on the back of it talking about it deploying over one hundred thousand graphics processing units so GPUs in just one quarter alone. They're
also talking about liquid calling systems. But remember this is a name that's been beaten up because a word about accounting.
The DOJ investigating that ed.
Now there are corners of the market around the world where investors are a little bit disappointed that China is holding back on further stimulus, but Beijing still expressing confidence in current targets.
Wand Boss.
We have food of confidential and realizing our we're goes for the whole year and have full confidence in maintaining continued, steady and sound developments of the economy.
Let's bring in bloombergs Isabelli, who all week has been tracking what's going on in the China equities market. And I guess if you're tuning into Bloomberg Technology for the first time, or even if you're tuning in for many times over the past week or so, this idea of China stimulus and following the world around the clock big market swings, particularly for tech names. What's kind of happened overnight? What's the new bit?
So China reopened its market and anticipation was really building up. Everyone was excited what will happen because we saw this spectacular rally that was powered by the massive stimulus that we've seen. But as we saw the investors were disappointed. China immediately held the press conferencing their continent they will reach their growth goalsing they will promise to further support growth, but stop short of issuing more stimulus. So we have
investors really underwhelmed by that. We have the benchmark CSI closing up around six percent, but that's after the eleven percent The Hangsng index in China tumbled ten percent that's the worse than two thousand and eight. And you look at the Golden Dragon Index now it's down by six and a half percent. The consensus among economists and analysts
in my inbox is really just they're all disappointed. They're saying that, Okay, nothing much is new compared to the previous announcements, and it looks like the commitment to fiscal stimulus looks weaker than expected. So it just really shows how the optimism in China is quite fragile at this point.
For now, ed it's about Lei the wrap up on what's happening for those Chinese related names. Let's go out to Europe now though, because JP Morgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Diamond sat down for an exclusive interview of the most Lisa Bromo. It's in London at JP Morgan's twelfth edition of the Textiles Conference in Europe. Here's what he had to say about the USIPO market.
I think it may very well stay muted because markets may come down as opposed to just go up endlessly, and they may find other sources. So when I speak to a lot of private equity and private cap, private venture and stuff like that, they tell you they have more non and public sources. I do think it's very important that our policy make us understand, you know, because even here in the United States, we've made it hard to go public.
Let's dig into that and some European names. Matt Gehl for more, you're head of Tech investment banking in Europe. For JP Morgan, Matt, it's great to have you here.
And look, we seem to be seeing the same.
There are some large FinTechs in particular that we're all waiting for with baited breath. We think of Klana, we think of Stripe, which of course US based but Irish founders think are revolute. But they're all able to tap the secondary market get liquidity that way. Is that going to continue?
Yeah, well I think it will continue.
But I also think getting these secondary deals done is actually a really signal of strength in the market. These companies are able to go out there, being able to give liquidity to some of their earlier investors, put a fairly attractive valuation on the company and remove some of the time pressure to having to go public. I think there's still a very strong intent of all these companies
to get public in the near to medium term. By doing these secondary deals, it means they can go exactly when they're ready and not be forced into a window that might be a little bit challenged with some of the macro and geopolitical issues we're going to be facing over the next six to twelve months.
Okay, So, amid that uncertainty, if they do tap the markets, do they do want to do an IPO where do they always come to the US at the moment given the liquidity here?
Yeah, I think the US has certainly become the default for any business that's got a global footprint. And if you've got a global footprint, you have the ability to go public wherever you so choose. And the US is the deepest, it's the richest, and it's the most open, most regularly of all the IPO markets that are there. So for any European business it's got a global footprint, the US is really the first, the second, and the
third option they're thinking about. But most companies are trying to keep optionality, and particularly companies that have more of a European centric footprint are European champion, they're definitely keeping the options open for a European deal and for larger European companies that have a European home grond. Those are deals we do think are going to be able to get done in Europe over the next twelve to twenty four months.
Matt, it's ed here in San Francisco.
I hope you're well.
When I left London six years ago, it was those same fintech names that were the shining lights of European tech.
Still the same.
Names now for all the analyst decks that hit your desk and you're thinking about the next big thing? Is there anything else out there in your neck of the woods in industrials, hard tech chips.
Yeah, well, I.
Mean you said you said it right, those are the same names that are out there. They've gotten a lot bigger and so that's still a very good thing. So when they do go public, I think that's going to be very, very positive for the overall markets. But yeah, we are seeing a lot of investments into new areas. Deep tech has become really the buzzword of Europe, just as.
It's in the US.
So that's spanning everything from the European versions of the LMS, but we're increasingly seeing new investment going into chip companies, into industrial software companies, and so I think we've widened out a lot of the focus of the investment in Europe beyond just fintech, in some traditional enterprise software and I think that's going to be a net benefit for the whole ecosystem as we look out two three four years in.
The context of technology, what is the future for London's equity capital market? Is there evidence to you that in the post Brexit world it's a great place to do a tech IPA.
I think it could be a great place to do a tech IPO for the right company. As I mentioned, if it's a British based company that's got a global footprint like an ARM, a very natural listing location is going to be the US. It's got the deepest investor base, It's going to get you the best valuation, and that
was really a huge success for ARM. If there's a business as I mentioned before, that looks more European, a little bit more UK centric, and it's going to come out with a sizable offering and a lot of liquidity, there certainly is an.
Investor base to tap, but it really.
Needs to be the right type of company public in the UK at the right time.
Let's talk about ARM a little bit more. They've often perhaps taken questions at least and whether they do another offering secondary listing over in the UK, we're also thinking it might be getting in the mix of what we are in terms of M and A as well. What do you hear on ARM and how do you hope to serve the company?
Yeah, I think well, I mean the IPO, as I mentioned, has been a huge success in the US, and normally in the months and quarters after an IPL you like to concentrate your liquidity in a single market, so I think that's been the focus for the company. Certainly, over time it could make sense to open up another listing, just like most of the major European companies have eight hours listed in the US, the likes of ASML or even ARM when it was listed in the UK, we'd
do that. So I think that's certainly something they're thinking about doing in the near to medium term, but it's not imminent. From an m Andy standpoint, you know, ARM is not vinetarily inquisitive company, but because they become so central to the entire ecosystem, and because so much more activities happening around M and A and semi connectors, You certainly can't put it past them. The one thing they need to focus on, as ARM has always been the
Switzerland of semi connectors. They're neutral and sell to everybody, So before considering any type of M and A, they need to make sure they're not going to create a situation where they're competing with their customers.
There lies a large company.
What you can do from a JP Morgan perspective in terms of secondary listings, in terms of advice is huge. What about the companies that are coming through the ranks and getting themselves VC funding just early stages. How are you looking to serve them or who's come to fill the void of Silicon Valley Bank?
Is it the HSBC that makes the purchase.
Well, I think it's an open market. There's a lot of people trying to fill it. We certainly like to be one of the ones that are doing so. We've recently hired over fifty bankers that are completely focused on serving early stage technology companies really Series A onwards and trying to fill the void that some of the challenges that Silicon Valley Bank went through.
But it's not just because of it we've done that.
We've done that because we think if we can engage with the company.
Earlier in his life, we can help that.
Company grow when they really need to support the most. That's what cements the relationship. You get to know the CEO, the board, the founders really well. You help them think through strategically what to do, and then you're not telling an IPO story for someone you never met before.
You're telling an IPO story for a company you've been working for for five years.
So I think there's just a huge opportunity to bank a company as a bank you can never grow out of.
And that's what we're trying to do together at JP. Morgan Matt.
Let's end the conversation with twenty twenty five. What's the technology story going to be in Europe next year?
I think the technology story, it's such a global industry, it's going to be very much the same as what we're seeing in the US markets. I think we are starting to see a broadening out beyond the Magnificent seven and starting to see investors to look more toward some of the smaller cap names, some of the higher growth names that aren't in.
That large cap back basket.
We're starting to see similar things happen in Europe. I think Jamie earlier noted that we may still see a somewhat more muted IPO market in the first six months or so of the year, but we are seeing a ramp and activity of companies preparing to go public.
That's happening in the US, that's happening.
For European companies that want to go public in the States, and that's happening for emia based companies that go public here. So I think the future is looking brighter for IPOs. It might not be a stampede in the first couple of months of next year, but it's certainly looking on like twenty five is setting. It selled up to be better than twenty four and certainly than twenty three.
Was Matt gal for more. We thank you head of Tech Investment Banking in Europe for JP Morgan. Now, let's just talk about TikTok, because moments ago it responded to its lawsuits by fourteen states alleging harmful features on the platform for children.
Now, the company says.
That we strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading. We're proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we've done to protect teams.
We will continue to update and improve our product.
You can see the statement in full on Bloomberg dot com.
All right, coming up on Bloomberg Technology, the world's largest virtual clinic for women and families raises one hundred and twenty five million dollars in a Series F round.
We're going to speak with the CEO, Kate Rider. That's next. This is Bloomberg Technology.
Virtual clinic. The Maven Clinic.
Says it's raised one hundred and twenty five million dollars in It's Lacy's latest Series F funding round, bringing its valuation to one point seven million dollars. For more, We're joined by the CEO, Kate Ryder, and look, Stepstone Group leads the round. You've got existing investors, General Catalyst Ae Koya coming on board.
What do they want to see you do with the new funds? Kate?
Well, big plans as you can imagine. But I think you know, we're we're really excited to complete this fund raising round at a time when there's never been more need in women's in family health, and I think over the last decade since we started, we've really been able to build a comprehensive care platform deliver better access across fertility, maternity, pediatrics,
and menopause care. And now really the next decade is about transformation and taking a lot of the data and the distribution power that we have to go even deeper to really transform outcomes.
Your own chief product and operating officer says, look, maven Clinic is technology platform and a healthcare company an equal measure. We care about the technology element to a certain degree first and foremost on the show. Okay, so what do you do with the data? Is it all about articial intelligence? Where does that funding.
Go to work?
Well?
I think for us, the care engine that powers our care coaching and our telehealth and all of the providers that come together to take care of our patients is
one of the areas that we're most excited about. And so if you can imagine all of the different ways and all of the different data points that our members generate, both on the platform as well as through third party sources like wearables or data and EMRs, if all of our providers have access to that, then just care itself becomes that much better.
You can get into predicting.
Risk, but really it should feel.
You know, healthcare is such a fragmented industry with your data in so many different places that you know, I think for across all journeys, it's just going to start to feel better very very soon as Mayven in other platforms like ourselves, start to really harness the power of artificial intelligence in our underlying technology.
Kate Maven is a great example of technology and a different approach to an industry that is beholden to an insurance system. I always ask about this, how do you fit within America's insurance system? So in practice it's actually easy for parents who have to decide can I do this? You know, can I make use of this service in a way that I can afford it?
Yeah?
No, it's a great question. And you know, for us, we truly believe in an industry as central as women's in family healthcare, you have to innovate from within and partner with insurance and providers to deliver the best care and experiences for members. And so for us, we actually do partner with some of the largest insurans. So whereas we're helping fill in a lot of gaps and access to care with our virtual care model, we're also helping
members understand their benefits, what's covered, what's not. And then in fertility specifically, we are the payers. So we have a carve out fertility model called Maven Managed Benefit where we have contracted rates with a lot of different fertility
clinics best in class around the country. And so that also allows our members to have a really transparent experience while they're managing their fertility journeys, know exactly how much everything costs, you know, get the virtual care and coaching through Maven, and then as they make their way into the maternity journey, and that's also when we're really partnered with the health Insuran to help them have the healthiest outcome you know, possible during their pregnancy and get all
the right access to their benefits.
Caroline asked you what the investors in this series F wor wanted to see and the other question to finish this conversation that comes out of a series F is when is your company going to stand on its own two feet, make meaningful revenue the business model support your business when I would like.
To think we're standing on our tv and making meaningful revenue today. However, if we're asking about is going public then it is certainly we do want to, you know, be a public company one day. I think it's really important that, you know, we center women and families at the center of our care model for us to remain independent, and so we're very heads down on our product roadmap.
There's still so much left to do and to build, so we're taking a few more big bets first, but the public markets is where we intend to head.
Okay, Ryder Mayven Clinic se, it's great to have you back on Bloomberg Technology. Thank you very much and congrats.
Looking now.
In the next edition of Bloomberg Chief Future Officer, I sat down with ETCCFO Rachel Glazer, who is keeping the e commerce giant focused on growth as post pandemic inflation cuts into spending. Here's how she's using AI to help.
I think Etsy's uniquely physician to benefit from AI. Finding that needle in the haystack is this tricky That's part of what makes Etsy both delightful and frustrating to people.
And being able to serve.
The good stuff to the top fastest is where AI can really benefit us.
Our mission is keeping commerce human and actually we talk about AI is helping us to be super human. It's really the partnership between AI and humans that makes Epsy work.
AI can help Etsy's customers personalize their searches and steers shoppers more directly.
To items they may want to buy.
It's also helped the company improve reliability by predicting delivery times more precisely, but that doesn't solve a larger challenge getting more consumers to think of Etsy more often and ultimately become repeat biased.
To this end, Etsy invented.
Gift Mode, getting in the top of mind consideration when you're thinking I have a gift, I'm going to go to Etsy. Just getting that to be more habitual. Gift Mode provides a perfect opportunity for that. We get to know the gifter, but we also get to.
Know the recipient.
So it's a way to sort of a more viral way to bring in more introduce more people to to Etsy.
It's the introduced gift mode with a flourish rolling it out to an audience of millions.
That's a really good gift.
Now we've got to get fans something.
Wait, we could use it's new gift mode for.
Don't easy gift mode new minets.
You well took a big bold fast bet this year and I'm for a Super Bowl ad.
How much is marketing part of the process? How important is that as a cost base?
Yeah?
I love marketing.
I was told by another CEO that I work for that I'm most growth oriented CFO that he had ever worked with, because I'm a big believer in spending that money to increase brand awareness. A big bet on the Super Bowl ad was never intended to be an rowa positive investment. It was really intended to be a launch of a new initiative, a product.
We We've said a.
Lot of times that it was a kickoff, not the mic drop.
So Miss Bloomberg Chief Future Officer, featuring ETCCFO Richard Glazer, Tonight nine thirty pm New York Time bed.
Okay, time for talking tech and first start. Rivian shares plunged last week after it slashed its production outlook.
We know why.
A miscommunication between Rivian and a supplier left the carmaker without access to copper windings, a core component in its electric motors. Plus the UK's opening and Office to speed up approvals of AI drone and other new technologies. The Regulatory Innovation Office is designed to reduce the time entrepreneurs wait to get inventions to market. It will also streamline the regulatory hurdle startups deal with. And Google's assessing nuclear power there's a possible energy source.
For data centers.
You may join Microsoft and Amazon in using atomic energy to feed the AI boom. The companies not ruled out Japan as a source for its energy.
Caroc.
What a show, What a lot of breaking news. That does it for this edition of Remode Technology.
Recap, check out the pub you know where to find it from New York and SF.
This has been made technology