Humane, the company behind the much-hyped Ai Pin that launched to less than glowing reviews last month, is on the hunt for a buyer, Bloomberg reportedciting anonymous sources.
The company has reportedly been valued at between $750 million and $1 billion, and the sale process is in the early stages, Bloomberg reported, citing the sources.
Humane has never disclosed an official valuation in any of its funding rounds, though The Information mentionted last year when its valuation was 850 million dollars.
Humane did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
A needle in a haystack
It was founded in 2017 by former Apple executives Bethany Bongiorno and Imran ChaudhryHumane had raised about $230 million from backers including Microsoft, Qualcomm Ventures, Marc Benioff and OpenAI’s Sam Altman before any part of its product was even publicly revealed.
The company finally unveiled its product last June: Called the Ai Pin, it’s a wearable gadget with a projected screen and AI-powered features. The reveal kicked off a pre-order period in the US, but the launch was delayed before the Ai Pin finally dropped in mid-April.
The Ai Pin has a unique form factor and is packed with sensors, an artificial intelligence generator, and a tiny projector that can project a screen onto any surface — like your hand.
But with a $700 price tag, plus a recurring $24 monthly subscription that gives the user a phone number and unlimited data to fuel as many inquiries as they can muster, Ai Pin seemed to be a tough sell in a cash-strapped consumer market . In some ways, the device seemed like a solution in search of a problem, and many of its initial reviews said that the Ai Pin doesn’t really do much more than what you can already do with your smartphone.
High-profile YouTuber and reviewer Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, gave a particularly damning review, which many said could single-handedly kill Ai Pin before it was properly launched.
Throw into the mix complaints about battery life and overheating issues, not to mention other emerging (and cheaper) smart gadgets like Meta’s Ray-Bans and Rabbit’s R1, and it was looking increasingly unlikely that the Humane could make some kind of sense. position in the mobile device market.
It is also worth noting that the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Patrick Gateswho joined Humane in 2019 after 13 years at Apple, left the company in January along with 4% of the workforce.
All in all, things haven’t looked rosy at Humane in a while, so the news that it might be looking for a buyer doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Whether a suitor is willing to bite, however, is very much in the balance.
