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Okay, back to the show. There’s another twist in the road for the lidar company Illuminated. And yes, it does involve some boardroom intrigue.
First, let’s catch up. You may remember it Austin Russellthe billionaire founder and CEO of Luminar, was more or less ousted from the company’s board following an ethics investigation. But Russell didn’t go quietly into the night.
It popped up on our radar again a few weeks ago with the launch of a new company called Russell AI Labs. And now (cue the deep and foreboding “dum dum duuuuummmm”): He’s made an offer to acquire Luminar.
Senior Journalist Sean O’Kane broke the story, which you can read here. He has since learned a few more details beyond what is disclosed in the SEC filing.
This may look like a potential hostile move – it was eventually revealed in a filing by Russell, and Luminar is not commenting on the suggestion. But we learned from a source that Luminar board members approached the founder about the idea last month. (The word we were told was that they “encouraged” it).
The bottom line here is that some of Luminar’s nine board members really want him back, despite the fact that three of those board members on the audit committee conducted an ethics investigation against him just a few months ago, leading to his resignation.
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The proposed acquisition, as described in the filing, is unclear, but could involve Russell AI Labs acquiring a different automotive technology company and merging it with Luminar. As of this morning, we’ve heard that Russell has already been trained on a few options as part of the diligence he’s done with Russell AI Labs, which he views as an incubator of sorts.
Offers!
Two notable deals occurred this week in the electric aviation industry.
First it is Beta Technologieswhich took advantage of relaxed SEC rules during the US government shutdown to price shares for its initial public offering. Shares are priced between $27 and $33, with hopes of raising up to $825 million. If the company attracts investors at the top of that range, it will debut at a valuation of about $7.2 billion.
The SEC issued guidance earlier this month that allows companies in the middle of an IPO to allow their statements in certain areas, including stock price, to automatically take effect after 20 days, even without SEC staff review. Several other companies, including Navan, have gone ahead with IPO plans under this rule.
And there is Liliumwhich was involved in a very different kind of deal. THE The electric aircraft startup may have gone out of business a year ago, but its technology lives on Archer Aviation.
Archer won a competitive bidding process – one that also involved Ambitious Air Mobility Group and Joby Aviation – and bought all 300 of Lilium’s patents. The price, 18 million euros ($21 million), is a staggering figure compared to the more than $1 billion the abandoned startup raised during its lifetime.
The question is, what does Archer plan to do with these patents? The company is not clear, but there are some tips, which you can read in my story.
Other deals that caught my eye this week…
Airbornean Indian drone startup founded in 2020, has raised $8.65 million 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 from Tesla, SpaceX and Anduril, joined.
Dexorya robotic warehouse startup based in London, raised $165 million in equity and debt. The $100 million 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 $65 million in debt financing from Bootstrap Europe.
FleetWorksa logistics startup developing an “always-on” artificial intelligence dispatcher, has raised $17 million in equity and debt, including a $15 million Series A round led by Bill Trenchard of First Round Capital. Y Combinator, Saga Ventures and LFX Venture Partners also participated in the FleetWorks Series A round.
Pony and WeRide have received key approval from Chinese securities regulators that paves the way for self-driving technology companies to proceed with secondary listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Chinese companies are already listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the US.
Starship Technologiesthe launch of autonomous pavement delivery, raised $50 million in a Series C round led by Plural. Karma.vcLatitude, Coefficient Capital, SmartCap and Skaala also joined.
Upcitia smart city software company based in Paris, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Notion Capital. Other investors included Point Nine and Chalfen Ventures.
Zeptothe Indian grocery delivery company, raised $450 million in financing ahead of an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported.
Notable reads and other items
THE National Transportation Safety Board has weighed in on OceanGate, the disaster that killed five people during a trip to see the wreck of the Titanic. The NTSB issued a report which found that the Titan submarine did not meet construction safety standards.
Stellandis and Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony are working together to build robotics for use in Europe, albeit through a non-binding agreement. The plan is to integrate Pony’s self-driving software into Stellantis’ electric mid-size van platform.
While Stellantis is delving into autonomous vehicle technology, it is pulling back from electrification. The automaker said it will invest $13 billion to boost its U.S. production over the next four years. (That plan was not well received by labor unions in Canada, by the way.) Five new vehicles will be developed and produced by 2029 as part of the investment at plants in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Only one of them will be electrified, a significant difference from Stellantis’ strategy a few years ago.
Uber offers a new concert type: digital tasks such as uploading photos to help train AI models.
Waymo extends to London. The company said it will offer a commercial robotaxi service in London in 2026, marking the Alphabet-owned company’s second international expansion after Tokyo.
As usual, there was more than one Waymo news. The company locked a strategic multi-year agreement with DoorDash to deliver goods to customers in the Phoenix area using driverless vehicles. It’s been a while since Waymo experimented with delivery. Is this a hint of what’s to come? I believe it is.
One more thing…
Talking about Waymo and delivery, it got me thinking about what the best business model is. It’s been a minute since we’ve had a poll, so I hope you’ll participate if you sign up for the newsletter. I will share the results next week.
