Babylon, the troubled digital health company that’s been looking for a buyer for more than a year, told the Texas Workforce Commission it would “permanently close” its Austin headquarters as of Aug. 7 and immediately lay off 94 employees, according to a notice filed with the agency.
The U.K.-based company, which went public in a 2021 SPAC deal, has been struggling for months to secure financing for its business, Forbes reports. The pitch from the company led by founder and CEO Ali Parsa was that artificial intelligence software could make primary care more affordable and accessible, but it was far from profitability. In 2022, Babylon reported a net loss of $369.8 million on $1.1 billion in revenue. In the first quarter of 2023, the company had $77.7 million of cash and cash equivalents with $52.1 million of that being held for the pending sale. The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading and delisted Babylon at the end of June.
A take-private deal announced just two months ago with MindMaze has collapsed.
Babylon was said about a year ago to be holding preliminary discussions with some investors about how to address a crumbling share price that’s wiped almost $4 billion off its value since its October 2021 listing in New York. Babylon at the time dismissed those claims as “market gossip.”
The company went public via an October 2021 merger with Alkuri Global Acquisition run by former Groupon executives. The transaction reflected an initial pro forma equity value of approximately $4.2 billion.
