Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Elvie, one of the UK\u2019s most feted female-led start-ups, has been acquired by the US rival that was pursuing legal action against the \u201cfemtech\u201d group before it fell into administration.The London-based group, backed by investors including British billionaire Michael Spencer, has been bought out of a prepack administration by California-based Willow on Friday. The Elvie brand and products will continue through the US group.\u00a0The companies have been locked in litigation launched by Willow in 2023, alleging patent infringement on a number of its designs. FTI Consulting was appointed to oversee a prepack administration, according to people familiar with the events.One investor said the company\u2019s fate was a further sign of how difficult it was to scale up promising tech businesses in the UK.\u201c\u2060Without serious and incentivised US backers you cannot win in their market. \u2060If Elvie was a USA business it would have had protections [over its intellectual property], growth capital and be a decacorn [valued at more than $10bn].\u201dFounded by Tania Boler in 2013, Elvie has developed a leading brand for female technology products such as silent, wireless breast pumps. The women\u2019s health start-up has been held up as an example of success for female VC-backed groups in the UK.\u00a0Elvie products are available across European countries, and as recently as January was promoting its latest app-controlled \u201csmart\u201d baby bouncer at the CES conference in Las Vegas. Elvie\u2019s first product in 2015 was a pelvic floor trainer.The start-up had raised $150mn by 2021 from a variety of investors including BlackRock. Spencer, the former ICAP boss and ex-Conservative party\u200e treasurer, also invested millions of pounds in the start-up in early funding rounds through private investment vehicle, IPGL.However, investors told the FT they expected to be wiped out through the prepack administration. FTI Consulting has overseen the administration of Chiaro Technology Limited, which was trading as Elvie, and completed the sale of its business and assets to Willow. Sarah O\u2019Leary will continue to serve as Willow\u2019s chief executive, and Elvie\u2019s head office will move to join Willow in California. The company has begun a consultation process into redundancies caused by the combination of the businesses in the UK.\u00a0O\u2019Leary told the Financial Times: \u201cThis is an exciting opportunity to bring two leaders in the category together to better be able to compete and really realise the promise of what our product platforms have started to build.\u201dElvie has often sought to challenge public preconception and destigmatise public breastfeeding, including with a campaign of putting giant breasts on major London buildings, as well as pelvic floor exercising.O\u2019Leary said the deal would expand global distribution and bring together\u00a0product portfolios\u00a0in a \u201cconnected, cohesive platform for women\u2019s health\u201d.Karim Abdel-Ghaffar Plaza, a director of Elvie, said: \u201cWhile this transition marks a significant change for the company, we are happy that the much-loved Elvie brand \u2014 with its iconic products and innovation \u2014 will continue its journey under Willow\u2019s guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Elvie, one of the UK\u2019s most feted female-led start-ups, has been acquired by the US rival that was pursuing legal action against the \u201cfemtech\u201d group before<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-256174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}