Microsoft acqui‑hires Cove team
Microsoft hired the team behind Sequoia‑backed AI collaboration platform Cove in an acqui‑hire move announced this week, underlining consolidation in collaboration tooling and integration risk for acquirers. Boards and compensation committees will need to watch retention incentives and post‑deal integration plans closely. (techcrunch.com)
Cove was founded in late 2023 by Stephen Chau, Andy Szybalski and Mike Chu, all alumni of Google Maps, and Chau later served as head of product at Uber Eats. (techcrunch.com; geekwire.com) The startup raised a $6 million seed round in 2024 with capital from Sequoia Capital and angels including Elad Gil, Homebrew, Adverb, Scott Belsky and Lenny Rachitsky. (techcrunch.com) Cove’s product was built as an “infinite whiteboard” that generated editable AI-driven cards, tables and lists using context pulled from a built‑in browser, PDFs and images, directly competing with tools such as Miro, TLDraw and Kosmik. (techcrunch.com) Customers were notified by email that the Cove service will shut down on April 1, 2026, that all user data will be deleted after an export window, and that March subscriptions have been refunded. (techcrunch.com) Cove’s own announcement frames the change as a move to “continue this work at Microsoft AI” and states that “the ideas behind it will live on” inside Microsoft’s environment. (cove.ai; techcrunch.com) Public records and reporting indicate Cove operated with fewer than 10 employees, and outlets note the financial and employment terms of the transition were not publicly disclosed. (geekwire.com; aidirectory.com) The technical fit cited by reporters points to prior Microsoft moves—Copilot was added to Microsoft Whiteboard in 2023—and the timing coincides with recent reorganizations inside Microsoft’s Copilot group under Jacob Andreou as the company intensifies commercial Copilot adoption. (techcrunch.com; geekwire.com)
