OpenAI buys Hiro; investors push back
OpenAI acquired personal-finance startup Hiro as part of a push into workflow-specific financial features for ChatGPT. Separately, some OpenAI investors are questioning the firm's $852 billion valuation as it shifts strategy toward enterprise-focused products. (techcrunch.com) (reuters.com).
OpenAI has bought personal-finance startup Hiro as some of its own investors question whether the company’s $852 billion valuation still fits its changing strategy. (techcrunch.com) (usnews.com) Hiro founder Ethan Bloch announced the deal on April 13, and OpenAI confirmed it to TechCrunch. Terms were not disclosed, Hiro said it will shut down on April 20, and it plans to delete user data from its servers on May 13. (techcrunch.com) Hiro was founded in 2024 and launched its consumer product about five months ago. The app asked users for salary, debt and monthly spending, then ran “what-if” scenarios to help them make financial decisions. (techcrunch.com) TechCrunch reported that Hiro was backed by Ribbit, General Catalyst and Restive, and that Bloch said Hiro employees would join OpenAI. LinkedIn listed about 10 people associated with the company, according to the report. (techcrunch.com) The purchase lands two weeks after OpenAI said it had closed a $122 billion funding round at an $852 billion post-money valuation. OpenAI said on March 31 that the new capital would help it expand frontier artificial intelligence, computing capacity and demand for ChatGPT, Codex and enterprise tools. (openai.com) (cnbc.com) On April 14, Reuters reported that some OpenAI investors were questioning that valuation as the company shifted more attention to enterprise products and competition with Anthropic. The report said OpenAI had redrawn its product roadmap twice in the prior six months in response to pressure from Google and Anthropic. (usnews.com) The tension is over what OpenAI is building for. Hiro’s software was a consumer finance tool, but TechCrunch said OpenAI already markets ChatGPT to business finance teams, leaving open whether Hiro’s technology will become a standalone product or feed enterprise features inside ChatGPT. (techcrunch.com) Bloch has sold a finance company before. His previous startup, Digit, was sold to Oportun in 2021 for more than $200 million, according to TechCrunch, giving OpenAI a founder with a track record in consumer fintech as it tests more specialized financial tools. (techcrunch.com) For now, the clearest immediate change is for Hiro users, whose app is being wound down within days of the announcement. For OpenAI, the deal adds a small finance team just as investors press the company on whether its next phase is consumer software, enterprise software, or both. (techcrunch.com) (usnews.com)
