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Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of transporting people and packages from Point A to Point B.
The LA Auto Show was this week, and while it no longer has the cachet of the pre-COVID days, there was still some notable news to come out of the event. TechCrunch reporter Harry Weber was on the scene helping me cover the news. One of the biggest announcements had nothing to do with a vehicle reveal. No, it was Amazon stating that he was now going to sell cars on the Internet, starting with Hyundai.
Other coverage included the debut of the Lucid Gravity SUV and a handy roundup that covered tech, EVs and other fun stuff that caught our eye.
Okay, let’s dive in!
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micromobbin’
Upwards, the French revamped e-bike marketplace, raised $30 million in a raised valuation. Normally this news would go in our deals section below, but I wanted to think about the point of this round.
Upway is present in several countries in Europe and has recently expanded to the US. It takes used e-bikes from reliable and desirable brands, repairs them and ships them to customers at a decent price. Running this business properly requires smart supply chain and logistics management, and it looks like Upway is on the right track. In today’s capital markets, it is not so easy to get new investors if you do not prove the viability of the business.
Zooming into the macro environment, e-bikes aren’t going anywhere. In fact, as more people buy new bikes, the used market is growing. And with all the e-bike batteries we’ve seen, a company that offers safely refurbished e-bikes seems like a pretty good deal.
— Rebecca Belan
Offer of the week
Just a recap this week!
Divergent Technologies, a Torrance, California-based startup developing an industrial digital manufacturing system, raised $230 million in a Series D funding round that led to a $100 million investment from Hexagon AB. The round also included participation from new and existing institutional and family office investors.
Gravityan EV infrastructure startup, raised $13 million in a seed round led by GV (Google Ventures).
GM acquired Tesla’s key supplier gigacasting Tooling & Equipment International, Reuters reported.
InDrive, the “offer-based” ride-hail platform popular in Latin America and Asia, has launched a corporate and M&A division called New Ventures to invest up to $100 million in startups in emerging markets over the next few years. The $100 million won’t come from a fund, exactly. The plan is to invest the money “over the coming years by making annual distributions of investment funds from our balance sheet, starting in 2024,” Andries Smit, vice president of New Ventures, told TechCrunch.
Loopa shared e-scooter startup based in Tokyo, raised $24 million to expand charging ports to 10,000 by 2025, from about 4,900 today.
Revolva San Francisco-based electric commercial fleet company, raised $25 million in equity project financing from Greenbacker Capital Management.
Mobility Shekel, a B2B auto dealer marketplace in Africa, raised more than $7 million in funding consisting of $3.2 million in equity and over $4 million in debt. Ventures Platform co-led the round alongside MaC Venture Capital. Other investors include Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, Unpopular Ventures, Maiora Capital, PageOne Lab Inc., Phoenix Investment Club, Heirloom VC, Pioneer Ventures and other angel investors. Meanwhile, Zedvance, VFD Microfinance Bank, Zenith Bank and Fluna, among others, provided the debt component.
Doctrinea New York-based EV financing startup; raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Nyca Partners. Assurant Ventures and Giant Ventures also participated.
Notable reads and other items
Autonomous vehicles
Texas is poised to be the next hotbed for autonomous vehicles and a potential regulatory battleground. AVs are unregulated in the state, but as robot incidents increase, cities may be turning to a weapon that California doesn’t have, TechCrunch reporter Rebecca Bellan writes.
Meanwhile, GM has taken the reins at its troubled AV Cruise subsidiary, going so far as to bring in one of its own executives to head the self-driving car company’s legal and policy, communications and finance teams.
A number of Cruise Employees told TechCrunch that morale is at a new low thanks to parent company GM’s decision to suspend its employee stock sale program. But wait! On Saturday, Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt sent an email to employees (which TechCrunch has seen) apologizing to employees, taking responsibility and reversing course, somewhat, on the stock sale. Open with:
“I know the news about the changes to our RLO program was extremely difficult to hear and there were many unanswered questions. We left you with worries about your colleagues, your career and your personal finances. That’s the last thing I want for anyone and I’m really sorry.”
Vogt went on to say that the company was working on a way to conduct a new auction that would mitigate potential tax liabilities.
He later wrote that “as CEO, I take responsibility for where Cruise is today. There are no excuses and there is no sugar coating what happened.”
Modernize: On Sunday night, and after The Station was sent to subscribers, Vogt resigned as CEO.
Profits
It was a slower earnings week for transportation. However, there was some notable news.
Still not looking good Birdwhich the quarter ended after it was delisted with a loss of $19.8 million. Bird’s going concern warning remains in place – the company has suffered recurring losses and negative cash flow since inception and has accumulated a $1.6 billion deficit as of September 30, 2023.
Revenue remains light, despite the Spin purchase, at $54.3 million (up from $72.8 million in Q3 2022). We are now entering the winter when cash flow will decrease even more significantly. Bird ended the quarter with $10.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, which by my calculations gives it another nine months at its current cash burn. The company says it will not be able to meet its obligations in the next 12 months.
GogoroHe also still feels his previous stings currency conversions. Its revenue of $91.8 million for the quarter was down 10.2% year over year. However, battery exchange revenue of $33.6 million was up 10.4% year over year. The battery-swapping giant closed the third quarter with a net loss of $3.1 million, down from net income of $56.4 million in the same quarter last year. On an adjusted basis, Gogoro reported EBITDA of $13.1 million, up from $9.2 million in Q3 2022.
Fisher also had a troubling third quarter, reporting a bigger-than-expected loss.
Electric vehicles, charging & batteries
Arrivalthe once-busy EV startup that went public through a merger with a blank check company has secured a $50 million bridge loan — funds that will keep it afloat long enough to explore a potential sale.
Cadillac debuted the Optiqan entry-level compact crossover EV that will sit below the Lyriq.
of Candela The electric hydrofoil ferry, now in production, made its first “flight” in Stockholm.
Exxon wants to mine enough lithium from Arkansas to power 1 million EVs annually.
GM is absorbed BrightDrop, the wholly-owned EV subsidiary, a change that included the removal of its CEO. Does the same fate await Cruise, another of its subsidiaries?
Mercedes plans to build about 30 fast-charging hubs at Buc-ee locations across the South. TC+ reporter Tim de Chant explores why mega-convenience stores could be the key to unlocking EV fast charging.
Redwood materials will supply Toyota with cathode material and anode copper foil for battery cells produced at the automaker’s $13.9 billion plant in North Carolina that is slated to go into production in 2025.
Tesla is reversing its earlier threat to sue Cybertruck resellers. Also, an upgraded Tesla Cyberquad for kids is back on sale after a safety recall.
The future of flight
Archer Aviation signed a memorandum of understanding with Air Chateau, a private carrier in the UAE, worth approximately $500 million for the planned purchase of up to 100 Archer’s Midnight eVTOLs.
Joby Aviation and Volocopter gave the public a vivid glimpse of what the future of aviation might look like, with the two companies conducting short demonstration flights of their electric aircraft in New York.
Zip line marked a major milestone in its US operations. The Federal Aviation Administration has approved Zipline to fly its autonomous drone without visual line-of-sight observers. Shortly after The FAA has lifted this requirement, Zipline flew the Platform 1 aircraft in the Salt Lake City area without the visual observers previously required. Zipline now flies to Utah without that requirement and will soon expand that approach to its U.S. operations, according to the company.
Car technology
Fed they want speed reduction technology in every new car. Are American drivers ready?
Software updated Rivian infotainment systems. About 3% of its vehicles were affected by the issue, which is being addressed with an over-the-air software update.
riding-greeting
Uber introduces new features aimed at addressing the issues of unfair deactivations often faced by drivers with plenty of hail and delivery.
