Business Insider

For a moment at the beginning of 2024, as healthcare investors broke out their checkbooks after a two-year funding desert and gave new life to a struggling class of startups,?it looked like starving healthtech founders would be fed once more. This year's new funding reality hasn't given all the healthcare darlings a seat at the table. The healthcare startup Forward abruptly shut down this month after raising a $100 million Series E last November for its AI "doctor in a box,"?a bet marked by numerous logistical and financial challenges. Many more startups are quietly struggling — cutting their valuations, selling off assets, or closing their doors without any announcement, investors told Business Insider. While in 2021 there were a record 729 healthcare-startup deals, amounting to an eye-popping $29.1 billion, the first three quarters of 2024 brought in only about half of those deals, with much smaller checks: Startups had raised $8.2 billion through September in 379 deals, per Rock Health. The dropoff suggests hundreds of startups that nabbed funding during?venture capital's ZIRP period?have been left out to dry. PitchBook data showed that as of mid-November, 327 digital health startups that grabbed funding in 2021 hadn't raised since. Not even the AI boom, which has brought back-to-back fundraises for hot healthcare startups?like Abridge, can make up for the discrepancy. Read more about why many digital health startups are quietly raising down rounds and closing up shop on BI:?https://lnkd.in/euV3r6i8 (Credit: Getty Images, Tyler Le/BI) #healthcare?#digitalhealthcare #startups

#ad They say “perfection is the enemy of progress,” and that can certainly be true when it comes to AI adoption. IBM

By homing in on the skills organizations need to succeed and how to use AI tools to help surface in-house talent, companies could move the DEI story away from conflicts and focus on its benefits. Presented by Indeed for Business.

Businesses are turning to AI chatbots to deal with customer service. The new tech saves them money, but it's leaving a lot of people frustrated.

Apple used to hate the ad business. Now, it looks like it's taking it more seriously. So, how big could Apple's ad business get? That's a question lots of people in the advertising world have been wondering. And that includes Google. And now, thanks to documents unearthed during Google's antitrust court case, we can see how Google has been thinking about Apple's potential as it edges into an industry Google has dominated for decades. Titled "Operation Black Walnut," the 2022 report appears to have been assembled by Google strategists to try to imagine what kind of ad business Apple might eventually build out one day. Apple's current ad business is mostly confined to selling ads on its App Store search results page. But the report's authors speculate that Apple could eventually start selling ads that run on other people's apps and eventually on the web via its Safari browser. It might eventually become a $30 billion business, they guesstimate. Read the full document on Business Insider:?https://lnkd.in/dfP73d-8 (Credit: Getty Images) #google #apple #projectblackwalnut

While Macy's says a single employee was responsible for the error, accounting and auditing experts told BI it should have been caught much earlier.

Labubu, a furry plushie with an unsettling grin and serrated teeth, is all the rage in Asia. The toy's popularity comes from celebrity endorsements and providing adults with emotional comfort. If you like this story, you'll love becoming a subscriber! Don't miss out on our biggest sale of 2024, 80% off a Business Insider subscription. Learn more here: https://trib.al/ODh3tKL

In a blog post, Zoom Video Communications Inc explained why it will henceforth be known simply as the AI-first company "Zoom Communications Inc."

"When we spend time in members' homes, we find the things that don't come up in the clinic but will absolutely affect their ability to stay healthy and manage a chronic condition." – Dr. Alexander Billioux, CMO, UnitedHealthcare Government Programs UnitedHealthcare #ad

NowThis laid off about half its unionized newsroom, the second deep round of cuts this year at the digital news outlet.