The announcement states that Nasdaq-listed company Allbirds has completed the sale of its footwear and apparel business and has officially renamed itself Smartbird, shifting its focus to enterprise-grade AI infrastructure. The company also announced management changes and increased its convertible debt financing capacity from $50 million to $100 million to fund its new business initiatives.
Sell footwear and apparel business
The company previously gained attention for its running shoes and sustainable brand positioning, but has now exited its original footwear and apparel business. The company stated that the sale was first disclosed in April of this year and has now been completed.
Originally, the company planned to use NewBird AI as its brand name, but ultimately settled on Smartbird. Following the rebranding, the company will focus on providing managed, dedicated AI computing clusters for enterprise clients.
The new CEO comes from the computing power industry.
The company disclosed that Nadia Carlsten has been appointed as President, Chief Executive Officer, and member of the board, succeeding the outgoing Joe Vernachio. Independent director Lily Yan Hughes will serve as Chairman, and Annie Mitchell will continue as Chief Financial Officer.
Carlsten previously served as CEO of the GPU computing infrastructure company DCAI and was involved in advancing sovereign AI supercomputer projects related to Nvidia. She has also worked at SandboxAQ and Amazon Web Services.
Financing limit increased to $100 million
In alignment with its business transformation, Smartbird is increasing the size of its convertible bond financing from $50 million to $100 million. The company states that these funds will be used to build an AI computing cluster dedicated to enterprise-grade custody services.
Currently, Smartbird is engaging with potential clients and designing its first cluster deployment solutions. The company aims to address the demand for dedicated computing power and managed operations in enterprise AI workloads.
- The sale of the original footwear and apparel business has been completed.
- The company name has been changed from Allbirds to Smartbird.
- The convertible bond financing limit has been increased to $100 million.
Additional information: Allbirds' stock ticker on Nasdaq remains BIRD; the original text does not mention whether this name change will be accompanied by a corresponding adjustment to the trading ticker.