Technology

Billionaire founder of Luminar replaced as CEO following ethics inquiry

Austin Russell, who became a billionaire after his lidar startup Luminar went public, appears to be out as CEO, according to the company’s board.

Luminar’s board announced Wednesday — the same day of its first-quarter earnings report — it had replaced Russell and appointed Paul Ricci to the role. Ricci is the former chairman and CEO of Nuance.

The press release states that Russell resigned as president and CEO and as the chairperson of the board, effective immediately. The board said in the press release the resignation followed a code of business conduct and ethics inquiry for the audit committee of Luminar’s board. Russell will remain on the board and be “available to the incoming Chief Executive Officer on transition and technology matters,” according to the release.

A day after the leadership change was announced, board member Jun Hong Heng als resigned, according to a regulatory filing, which stated his decision was not due to any disagreements with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices.

It’s not clear if Russell was forced out or if he resigned willingly. Russell could not be reached for comment. Heng could not be reached for comment. The board did not provide further details of this ethics inquiry except that it “does not impact any of the company’s financial results.”

In a further twist, the company’s earnings report and slide presentation makes no mention of the change of leadership. The first-quarter press release even includes an upbeat statement from Russell that outlines the company’s strategy to drive down cost with its new Halo product.

“In a world of macro uncertainty and adversity, we’re firing on all cylinders to ramp up production, ramp down costs, and capitalize on the future, as evidenced by our announcements today,” Russell said in the statement. “This kicks off our new operating plan for Luminar with a unified product platform, enabling radical focus and streamlining of the business, as well as unlocking value throughout our organization.”

Meanwhile, the press release from the board tells another story.

“We are excited to announce Paul as our next CEO,” board member Matt Simoncini said in a statement. “His track record speaks for itself. He is a visionary leader with a rare combination of technical insight and operational excellence. His commitment to innovation, his ability to scale organizations, and his instinct for anticipating where technology is heading make him the ideal person to lead us into our next chapter of growth. The Board has full confidence in his leadership, and we are excited about what lies ahead.”

Simonici, who retired as CEO of Lear in 2018, is chair of the board’s audit committee, which also includes Jun Hong Heng, who is the founder and chief investment officer of technology investment firm Crescent Cove Advisers, Evergreen Capital Partners founder Dominick Schiano, and Daniel Tempesta, who served as executive VP and CFO at Nuance.

Luminar burst onto the autonomous vehicle scene in April 2017 after operating for years in secrecy. Russell, who was just 22 years old at the time, was thrust into the spotlight and became a Silicon Valley success story. Luminar was founded by Russell in 2012, but it would be years before his company would be known by the public. He worked on the Luminar technology as a Thiel fellow, which gives young people $100,000 over two years to drop out of college and pursue their ideas.

In 2021, Luminar merged with special purpose acquisition company Gores Metropoulos Inc., with a post-deal market valuation of $3.4 billion. Luminar raised $250 million prior to the SPAC announcement.

This article originally published May 14. It has been updated to include information about a board member resigning.

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Technology

Twenty years strong: a love letter to TechCrunch

TechCrunch is turning 20. I’ve been here half that time. I worked previously at numerous major media properties, including Time Inc, Dow Jones, and Reuters; this has been the best job of my life, which is maybe why the time has gone so fast.

There’s nothing like the culture here. Contrarian, smart, hilarious, and hard-working. Almost everyone at TC wears multiple hats, as anyone who has worked here will tell you. This isn’t just another media company — it’s a place where people are curious about everything, everyone cares a crazy amount about the brand (and each other), and where challenging conventional wisdom isn’t just encouraged but expected.

Over the past decade, I’ve personally had the opportunity to interview some amazing people: Sam Altman, Marc Andreessen, Lina Khan, Conan O’Brien, Al Gore, Finland’s Sanna Marin, along with people making defense tech, building consumer giants, and selling their software companies for billions of dollars. My colleagues have collectively talked with thousands more whose impact on our lives is felt daily. From these conversations, we’ve learned — then explained to our readers — how technology, policy, and human ambition intersect to shape the world.

We’ve done this from our homes, from coffee shops, from offices, but also across the world, to the many places TechCrunch has taken us, from Lisbon, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, and Davos to (nearly) the opposite end of the globe: Lagos, Nairobi, Hong Kong, and Hangzhou.

Across these cities, we’ve sat down with founders who became superstars and superstars who became prison inmates. We’ve watched boring technologies take over the world and celebrated technologies that devolved into dumpster fires.

We’ve seen entire industries born, mature, and sometimes wither. We’ve watched two-person startups become trillion-dollar companies and told you about business innovations that flipped industries upside down — from subscription models to the gig economy to, more recently, AI roll-ups. We’ve reported on breakthroughs that changed everything. We’ve also covered “breakthroughs” that amounted to bupkis.

And we’re still here. In recent weeks alone, TC has sat down with the prime minister of Greece and the mayor of San Francisco; we’ve also covered big stories involving the most prominent VCs, startup founders, and big tech outfits in the industry. I’d stack our transportation, startup, cybersecurity, and AI coverage against anyone’s.

These are tough times in media; it’s among the growing number of industries in flux. But to everyone who’s gleefully written about the supposed demise of TC, plot twist — we’re still here! Twenty years in, we’re still breaking the stories that matter, still holding power accountable, still finding the next big thing before it’s obvious to everyone else. We’re doing it for a growing audience, too.

Michael Arrington, thank you for creating this brand that became so much more than any of us could have imagined. Thanks to every parent company that’s supported us and helped us keep doing what we love, including, today, Regent. TC’s ownership has changed over the years, but our mission to find the signal in the noise and tell stories that matter remains the same.

Here’s to the perspective that twenty years gives you, and to twenty more years of asking hard questions, helping readers see around corners, and working with people who make even the roughest days worth it.

To everyone who’s been part of this story — writers, editors, sources, readers, attendees, speakers, critics, and cheerleaders — thank you for making TechCrunch what it is, a place for people who want to understand what’s coming next, who firmly believe that tech can make the world better — and who trust us to call out when it doesn’t. We appreciate you. Cheers!

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Technology

Meta AI gains video editing capabilities

Meta said Wednesday that it is adding video editing capabilities to Meta AI that let users edit short videos using preset AI prompts to change costumes, locations, and styles. With these new features, the company is taking on rivals like Google that have been steadily adding generative AI video tools to their apps, as well as other AI-powered editing platforms like Captions.

The company is rolling out the editing tools to the Meta AI app, Meta.ai website, and its Capcut competitor, Edits, in the U.S. It says that the features were inspired by its Movie Gen AI models, but it’s not clear if the company is using those models to power the editing tools.

For now, users will have to deal with 50 presets to edit a 10-second video. Meta said that it gathered feedback from creators to make these presets so that they can be easily included in the Edits app.

ezgif 27dbf937d8be70 — Image Credits: Meta AI

The presets can apply a “vintage comic book style” to a video, change the lighting in a clip to a rainy day, or swap out a subject’s clothing to a space cadet suit, to give a few examples. You can share edited videos directly to Facebook and Instagram from the Edits and Meta AI app.

Meta said it plans to add more customization options later this year.

“We built this […] so that everyone can experiment creatively and make fun, interesting videos to share with their friends, family, and followers,” the company said in a blog post. “Whether you’re reimagining a favorite family memory or finding new ways to entertain your audience, our video editing [tools] can help.”

Meta AI already has image generation features across platforms. It seems with this video editing feature, Meta wants more creators to use its own tools rather than third-party apps.

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Technology

Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z bio and health strategy, steps down

Vijay Pande, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz who founded the firm’s a16z Bio + Health strategy, announced that he is stepping down from his role.

Since its founding in 2014, a16z Bio + Health has raised four funds of nearly $3 billion each, including a $1.5 billion fund that closed in 2022. However, it’s now seeking a much smaller $750 million fifth fund, The Wall Street Journal reported. In January, a16z Bio + Health announced that it will manage a $500 million biotech fund funded by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

a16z Bio + Health backs digital health startups and companies at the intersection of AI, computation, and biology.

Pande’s investments include Devoted Health, an individualized medical plan provider; Function Health, a personalized lab testing startup; and Freenome, a company aiming to detect cancer through blood draws. Before joining Andreessen Horowitz, Pande was a professor of chemistry, structural biology, and computer science at Stanford University.

The remaining partners on the a16z Bio + Health team are Jorge Conde, Julie Yoo, and Vineeta Agarwala.