Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. There is another twist in the road for lidar company Luminar, and it includes some inside-the-boardroom intrigue.
First, let us catch up. You might recall that Austin Russell, the billionaire founder and CEO of Luminar, was more or less pushed out of the company by its board following an ethics inquiry. But Russell did not go quietly into the night. He popped back up on our radar a few weeks ago with the launch of a new company called Russell AI Labs. And now he has made a bid to acquire Luminar.
Senior reporter Sean O’Kane broke the story. He has since learned a few more details beyond what is disclosed in the SEC filing. This may look like a possible hostile move, as it was disclosed in a filing from Russell and Luminar is not commenting on the proposal. But we have learned from a source that members of Luminar’s board approached the founder about the idea last month. The word we were told was that they encouraged it.
The implication here is that some of Luminar’s nine-member board really do want him back, despite the fact that three of those board members on the audit committee conducted an ethics inquiry into him just a few months ago, leading to his resignation.
The proposed takeover as described in the filing is vague, but it could involve Russell AI Labs acquiring a different automotive tech company and merging it with Luminar. Since this morning, we have heard Russell is already trained on a few options as part of the diligence he has done with Russell AI Labs, which he views as an incubator of sorts.
Two notable deals this week occurred in the electric aviation sector. First up is Beta Technologies, which took advantage of eased SEC rules during the U.S. government shutdown to price shares for its initial public offering. The shares are priced between twenty-seven and thirty-three dollars, in hopes of raising as much as eight hundred twenty-five million dollars. If the company attracts investors at the top of that range, it will debut with a valuation of about seven point two billion dollars.
The SEC issued guidance earlier this month that lets companies in IPO limbo allow their statements on certain areas, including share price, to become automatically effective after twenty days, even without SEC staff review. Several other companies, including Navan, have pressed ahead with IPO plans under this rule.
And there is Lilium, which was involved in a very different kind of deal. The electric aircraft startup may have ceased operations a year ago, but its tech is living on over at Archer Aviation. Archer won a competitive bidding process, one that Ambitious Air Mobility Group and Joby Aviation also participated in, and bought all three hundred of Lilium’s patents. The price, eighteen million euros, or twenty-one million dollars, is a stunning number when compared to the more than one billion dollars the defunct startup raised over its lifetime.
The question is what does Archer plan to do with these patents? The company is not explicit, but there are some hints.
Other deals that got my attention this week include Airbound, an Indian drone startup founded in twenty twenty, which raised eight point six five million dollars in seed funding led by Physical Intelligence co-founder Lachy Groom. Humba Ventures and Airbound’s existing investor, Lightspeed Venture Partners, as well as senior leaders at Tesla, SpaceX, and Anduril, joined.
Dexory, a warehouse robotics startup based in London, raised one hundred sixty-five million dollars in equity and debt. The one hundred million dollar Series C round was led by Eurazeo with participation from backers LTS Growth, Endeavor Catalyst, DTCP, Atomico, Lakestar, Elaia, Latitude Ventures, and Wave-X. The company also secured sixty-five million dollars in debt financing from Bootstrap Europe.
FleetWorks, a logistics startup developing an always-on AI dispatcher, raised seventeen million dollars in equity and debt, including a fifteen million dollar Series A round led by First Round Capital’s Bill Trenchard. Y Combinator, Saga Ventures, and LFX Venture Partners also participated in the FleetWorks Series A.
Pony.ai and WeRide have received a key approval from Chinese securities regulators that clears the way for the autonomous vehicle technology companies to pursue secondary listings on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. The Chinese companies are already publicly traded in the U.S. on the Nasdaq Exchange.
Starship Technologies, the autonomous sidewalk delivery startup, raised fifty million dollars in a Series C round led by Plural. Karma.vc, Latitude, Coefficient Capital, SmartCap, and Skaala also joined.
Upciti, a Paris-based smart city software company, raised twenty million dollars in Series A funding led by Notion Capital. Other investors included Point Nine and Chalfen Ventures.
Zepto, the Indian grocery delivery company, raised four hundred fifty million dollars in funding ahead of a public listing set, Bloomberg reported.
The National Transportation Safety Board has weighed in on OceanGate, the disaster that killed five people during a voyage to view the wreckage of the Titanic. The NTSB issued a report that found the Titan submersible did not meet manufacturing safety standards.
Stellantis and Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai are working together to build robotaxis for use in Europe, albeit via a nonbinding agreement. The plan is to integrate Pony’s self-driving software into Stellantis’ electric medium-size van platform.
While Stellantis delves into autonomous vehicle tech, it is pulling back on electrification. The automaker said it will invest thirteen billion dollars to beef up its U.S. manufacturing over the next four years. This plan has not been well received by labor unions in Canada. Five new vehicles will be developed and produced through twenty twenty-nine as part of the investment into factories in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. Only one of those will be electrified, a marked difference from Stellantis’ strategy a few years ago.
Uber is offering a new kind of gig work with digital tasks like uploading photos to help train AI models.
Waymo is expanding to London. The company said it will offer a commercial robotaxi service in London in twenty twenty-six, marking the Alphabet-owned company’s second international expansion following Tokyo.
As per usual, there was more than one piece of Waymo news. The company locked in a strategic multiyear agreement with DoorDash to deliver goods to customers in the Phoenix area using driverless vehicles. It has been a while since Waymo has experimented with delivery. Is this a hint of what is to come? I believe it is.
Speaking of Waymo and delivery, it got me thinking about what the best business model is.