Pharmacy owner Joe Zhou buys StrongRoom AI for $3m after EVP loan
Zhou, who runs five pharmacies through his Aceso Group, said he was aided with a $1 million loan from StrongRoom AI investor EVP.
Four tumultuous months after StrongRoom AI raised $17 million at a $70 million valuation, the startup's assets have been sold to pharmacist Joe Zhou for $3 million.
The purchase was aided by EVP — the VC which invested $10 million in StrongRoom AI weeks before alleging it was defrauded by the startup — and which Zhou said lent him $1 million as part of the sales process.
Zhou said EVP's assistance was purely a loan, not debt that could be converted to equity.
"There's a lot of people who have lost money during this process, including many VCs like EVP, Artesian, Tyson Blake or InterValley," Zhou said. "Right now the cap table doesn't have any of them on it. But if they want to reinvest... I want to save the company and get everyone's money back."
