Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash Inc., smiles during the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, Oct. 22, 2019.
Martina Albertazzi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DoorDash said on Thursday that it will transfer its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq, a potential blow to the NYSE.
The food delivery company expects to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Sept. 27 at market open, under the same symbol, “DASH,” according to a filing.
“We are delighted to join a community of leading technology companies with our transfer to Nasdaq,” DoorDash Chief Financial Officer Ravi Inukonda said in a statement.
The NYSE has been attempting for years to secure more tech company listings and gain share against the Nasdaq. Between 1983 and 2022, the Nasdaq had nearly 7,000 initial public offerings, compared to just under 1,400 on the NYSE, according to statistics compiled by the University of Florida’s Jay Ritter.
DoorDash’s announced move comes as the tech IPO market appears poised to pick up after a slump since late 2021. Arm, the U.K.-based chip design firm, just went public on the Nasdaq, and Instacart filed to debut on the Nasdaq last month, listing DoorDash as a competitor in its prospectus. Cloud software vendor Klaviyo filed to go public on the NYSE last month.
DoorDash initially began trading on the NYSE in December 2020, with a price of $182 per share. Its debut came at a popular time for tech IPOs, within months of the IPOs of Airbnb, Roblox and Wish, the discount marketplace. Of those companies, only Roblox trades on the Big Board.
The two new features, announced Monday in a post during the Cannes Lions festival, will help brands better leverage discussions on the platform. The company said the tools are powered by an engine called Reddit Community Intelligence that turns “posts and comments into structured intelligence.”
Reddit announced a “listening tool” called Reddit Insights, which shares real-time insights with marketers to help them identify trends and launch campaigns. The other tool, called Conversation Summary Add-ons, allows brands to show “positive” user content under their ads.
“These are tools for a new era of community marketing, one where brands can tap into Reddit’s authenticity and connect meaningfully with high-intent communities around the world,” the company wrote.
Read more CNBC tech news
The company said Publicis served as the exclusive alpha tester for Reddit Insights, while Lucid and Jackbox Games were among the early testers for Conversation Summary Add-Ons.
Companies across industries are betting on new ways to harness AI to improve advertising campaigns and better engage with users. These new tools are transforming the industry while also putting pressure on some advertising stalwarts.
The industry is also currently navigating a bumpy environment spurred by the trade war with China.
During the recent earnings season, many companies warned of sluggish advertising sales in certain regions due to a rocky macroeconomic environment. Recent developments, however, have suggested a cooling of tensions between the U.S. and China.
Last month, Reddit posted strong sales and upbeat guidance. The company has benefited from recent changes to Google search and internal site improvements, which include convincing logged-out users to open accounts. Logged-in accounts are more beneficial to advertisers.
European defense technology startup Helsing on Tuesday said that it’s raised 600 million euros ($693.6 million) in a bumper new round of funding.
The investment was led by Prima Materia, the venture capital firm founded by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and by Shakil Khan, an early investor in the popular music streaming app. Ek is also chairman of Helsing.
Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Plural, General Catalyst and Saab also put money in, alongside new investors BDT & MSD Partners.
Defense and the technology behind it have become a hot area for investors lately, amid major global conflicts, including the Ukraine war to Israel-Gaza. Last week saw a further escalation of war in the Middle East as Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Iran.
In 2024, venture funding in Europe’s defense, security and resilience sector reached an all-time high of $5.2 billion, according to a recent report from the NATO Innovation Fund. The sector grew 30% in the past two years, outperforming the broader VC market, which saw a 45% decline over the same period.
Founded in 2021, Helsing sells software that uses artificial intelligence technology to analyze large amounts of sensor and weapons system data from the battlefield to inform military decisions in real time. Last year, the startup also began manufacturing its own line of military drones, called HX-2.
Helsing, which operates in the U.K., Germany and France, said it would use the fresh cash to invest in Europe’s “technological sovereignty” — which refers to attempts to onshore the development and production of critical technologies, such as AI.
“As Europe rapidly strengthens its defence capabilities in response to evolving geopolitical challenges, there is an urgent need for investments in advanced technologies that ensure its strategic autonomy and security readiness,” Ek said in a statement out Tuesday.
Helsing did not disclose its new valuation following the latest financing round, which is subject to “certain approvals,” according to a statement. The firm was previously valued at around 5 billion euros in a 450 million euro funding round led by General Catalyst last year.
Sword Health, a startup focused on helping people deal with pain through digital services, is expanding into mental health and has raised additional capital to fuel its growth.
The 10-year-old company is introducing Mind, which uses a combination of artificial intelligence, hardware and human mental health professionals to treat patients with mild depression and anxiety. Sword said Mind will help users access care whenever they need it, rather than during sporadic, hourlong appointments.
“It’s really a breakthrough in terms of how we address mental health, and this is only possible because we have AI,” Sword CEO Virgílio Bento told CNBC in an interview.
Also on Tuesday, Sword announced a $40 million funding round, led by General Catalyst, in a deal that values the company at $4 billion. The fresh cash will support Sword’s efforts to grow through acquisitions, as well as its global expansion and AI model development, the company said.
The round included participation from Khosla Ventures, Comcast Ventures and other firms. Sword had raised a total of more than $450 million as of September, according to PitchBook.
The financing lands as the digital health market shows signs of recovery following a difficult post-Covid stretch, when rising inflation, higher interest rates and a return to in-person activities led to a dramatic retreat in the industry.
Earlier this month, Omada Health, which offers virtual care programs to supports patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, held its Nasdaq debut, though the stock is trading below its initial public offering price. Weeks before that, digital physical therapy provider Hinge Healthhit the New York Stock Exchange. The shares are trading a few dollars above their offer price.
Sword, which was founded in Portugal and is now based in New York, offers tools for digital physical therapy, pelvic health and movement health to help patients manage pain from home and avoid other treatments such as opioids and surgery. Patients can sign up for Sword if it’s supported by their employer or their health plan.
Mind users will receive a wrist wearable called the “M-band” that can measure environmental and physiological signals such as heart rate, sleep and the lighting in a user’s environment. Mind also includes access to an AI Care agent and human mental health professionals, who can deliver services such as traditional talk therapy.
Bento said a human is always involved with a patient’s care, and that AI is not making clinical decisions.
For example, if a patient has an anxiety attack, Sword’s AI will recognize that and could ask a clinician to approve some physical activity for later that day to help with recovery. The clinician would either approve the physical activity that the AI suggested, or override it and propose something else.
“You have an anxiety issue today, and the way you’re going to manage is to talk about it one week from now? That just doesn’t work,” Bento said. “Mental health should be always on, where you have a problem now, and you can have immediate help in the moment.”
Bento said Sword has some clients that have been on a waiting list for Mind, and the startup has been testing the offering with some of its design partners. He said early users have approved of Mind’s personalized approach and convenience.
“We believe that it is really the future of how mental health is going to be delivered in the future, by us and by other companies,” Bento said. “AI plays a very important role, but the use of AI — and I think this is very important — needs to be used in a very smart way.”
Disclosure: Comcast, the parent of Comcast Ventures, is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC.