Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Want another reason to get this free in your inbox? The emailed version of this newsletter includes polls, including one this week that asks readers what they think the best business model is for autonomous vehicle technology. Have an opinion about this? Email me your opinion at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com with the subject line “AV poll.”
OK, back to the show. There’s another twist in the road for lidar company Luminar. And yes, it includes some inside-the-boardroom intrigue.
First, let’s 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 didn’t 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 (cue the deep and foreboding “dum dum duuuuummmm”): He has made a bid to acquire Luminar.
Senior reporter 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 possible hostile move — it was, after all, disclosed in a filing from Russell, and Luminar is not commenting on the proposal. But we’ve learned from a source that members of Luminar’s board approached the founder about the idea last month. (The word we were told was they “encouraged” it.)
The implication here is that some of Luminar’s nine-member board really does 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.
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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’ve heard Russell is already 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.
Deals!
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin
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 $27 and $33, in hopes of raising as much as $825 million. If the company attracts investors at the top of that range, it will debut with a valuation of about $7.2 billion.
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 20 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 300 of Lilium’s patents. The price, €18 million ($21 million), is a stunning number when compared to the more than $1 billion the defunct startup raised over its lifetime.
The question is what does Archer plan to do with these patents? The company isn’t explicit, but there are some hints, which you can read about in my story.
Other deals that got my attention this week …
Airbound, an Indian drone startup founded in 2020, 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 at Tesla, SpaceX, and Anduril, joined.
Dexory, a warehouse robotics 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.
FleetWorks, a logistics startup developing an “always-on” AI dispatcher, raised $17 million in equity and debt, including a $15 million 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 $50 million 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 $20 million in Series A funding led by Notion Capital. Other investors included Point Nine and Chalfen Ventures.
Zepto, the Indian grocery delivery company, raised $450 million in funding ahead of a public listing set, Bloomberg reported.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin
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 $13 billion to beef up its U.S. manufacturing over the next four years. (This plan hasn’t been well received by labor unions in Canada, by the way.) Five new vehicles will be developed and produced through 2029 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: 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 2026, 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’s been a while since Waymo has experimented with delivery. Is this a hint of what’s to come? I believe it is.
One more thing …
Speaking of 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 participate if you sign up for the newsletter. I will share the results next week.
