Tech Moves: Gennev founder steps down; Aurion Biotech CEO is out; Temporal adds president

— Jill Angelo, founder and CEO of Seattle menopause startup Gennev, announced that her chapter with the business is ending. Florida-based women’s health company Unified Women’s Healthcare acquired Gennev in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, and Angelo transitioned to president of virtual health at Unified. She is now resigning from that role. The acquisition “was not just a milestone — it was validation of a vision that started with a small but mighty team determined to make menopause mainstream. It also set a precedent that a women’s health startup can successfully exit,” Angelo said on LinkedIn. Angelo launched her business… Read More

Apr 3, 2025 - 20:23

Tech Moves: Gennev founder steps down; Aurion Biotech CEO is out; Temporal adds president

— Jill Angelo, founder and CEO of Seattle menopause startup Gennev, announced that her chapter with the business is ending. Florida-based women’s health company Unified Women’s Healthcare acquired Gennev in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, and Angelo transitioned to president of virtual health at Unified. She is now resigning from that role.

The acquisition “was not just a milestone — it was validation of a vision that started with a small but mighty team determined to make menopause mainstream. It also set a precedent that a women’s health startup can successfully exit,” Angelo said on LinkedIn.

Angelo launched her business as Genneve in 2016. The company provided telehealth services and products for women going through perimenopause and menopause. Gennev continued operating as its own health unit within the larger company after the acquisition.

Before creating her startup, Angelo spent more than 15 years at Microsoft in marketing and product roles.

Angelo did not say what her next role would be, but that it would ideally include “more in-person time, creativity, and possibly a passport stamp or two.”

— Aurion Biotech has pushed out its CEO. Swiss healthcare company Alcon last week acquired a majority interest in Aurion, a clinical-stage startup in Seattle that is developing advanced cell therapies to treat eye diseases.

Following that deal, Alcon jettisoned founder and CEO Greg Kunst, replacing him with former Chief Scientific Officer Arnaud Lacoste.

According to Endpoints News, the two companies have been at loggerheads over Aurion’s IPO plans, taking the dispute to court in November. Last summer Aurion announced that it received special designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that should expedite development of its treatment for a common cornea disease.

— Temporal appointed Jim Cyb as president and leader of its go-to-market efforts, and Sahir Azam as its first independent board member. The Seattle startup helps companies write and run cloud applications. This week it announced $146 million in new funding, and is valued at $1.72 billion.

Cyb’s past accomplishments include helping scale SaaS companies Duo Security and Zendesk. Azam is the chief product officer of MongoDB.

— General Fusion, a Richmond, B.C., fusion energy company, welcomed former Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith as a strategic advisor. Smith worked for decades in aerospace, leading new product development at United Space Alliance, Sandia Labs and Honeywell Aerospace.

— Seattle’s apree health announced Jonathan Porter as its new CEO. The company formed in 2022 following the merger of Vera Whole Health, a Seattle primary care business, with Castlight Health, a San Francisco healthcare navigation company. Porter was previously chief product officer for apree, and has served as CPO for Bright Health Group and athenahealth.

— Ben Pitasky has returned to the world of trucking logistics. The former head of finance and accounting at Convoy, a Seattle startup that folded in 2023, is now chief financial officer for Alvys, a California-based company working to improve trucking efficiencies. Pitasky comes to Alvys from the career platform Handshake. He has also held roles at Amazon.

— Light AI, a Vancouver, B.C., healthcare tech company, appointed Anthony Schaller as chief technologist and president.

Schaller has led or advised on tech innovation at roughly 20 companies over his career. He served as CTO/senior vice president of technology at corporations including Match.com, Yahoo and Ticketmaster.

Light AI is using artificial intelligence to build diagnostic tools that operate on smartphones. Its first target is creating a tool that can diagnose Strep A through phone images.

— Seattle’s Augmodo announced Simon Morriss as its commercial director for the Asia-Pacific marketplace. The startup uses a variety of technologies including smart-badges worn by employees, computer vision, augmented reality, AI, spatial computing, 3D mapping and data analysis to help customers keep track of their inventory. The company raised $5.3 million in seed funding in October.

— Group14 Technologies, a Washington state next-gen battery materials company, announced two new members of its board of directors: Stellantis CFO Richard Palmer and former General Motors global manufacturing lead Gerald Johnson. Group14 is building what is expected to be the world’s largest manufacturer of silicon-carbon battery material in Moses Lake.

— Sigma Design, a product development and engineering company, has set up shop in Seattle. The 30-year-old business serves the aerospace, defense, tech and industrial sectors and is based in Camas, Wash. It has additional Washington offices in Kirkland and Vancouver, as well as in Oregon and Singapore.

Doug Hill, senior VP of strategic accounts, and Jim Berton, senior director of strategic programs, have relocated to the Seattle office on a “semi-permanent basis,” the company said.