• Arrival

  Led · Convertible Note · Nov 2023

  Arrival is an electric-vehicle startup that planned to use microfactories to build electric buses, vans and a car designed for Uber drivers. It also had programs for XL delivery vans targeted at the U.S. market with planned production in Charlotte, North Carolina by 2024. Those plans have largely unraveled: the company has dropped its Uber car and bus programs, slashed production targets, and laid off workers four times in the past 15 months. Arrival has missed SEC filing deadlines, including its 2022 annual report, and executed a reverse stock split to try to regain Nasdaq compliance. Financially, Arrival reported about $43 million of cash and cash equivalents at the end of the first half of 2023 and a net loss of $155.7 million in that period (versus a $100 million loss in H1 2022). It reduced capital expenditures to $4.1 million in H1 2023 from $198.9 million in H1 2022 as part of restructuring and cost-cutting efforts. The company is pursuing strategic alternatives, including a potential sale, while seeking additional capital to continue operations. Arrival is a pre-revenue electric vehicle maker focused on purpose-built last-mile delivery vans and a microfactory manufacturing approach. The company has shifted its product strategy to prioritize XL vans for the U.S. market and plans to start production in Charlotte, North Carolina in late 2024. Arrival is currently burning cash rapidly and has implemented drastic cost cuts, including a planned 50% headcount reduction to leave fewer than 800 employees and a target cash spend of no more than $35 million per quarter. It has built two L vans so far at its Bicester facility and aims to produce 10 L vans and accumulate 250,000 kilometers of public road mileage by the end of 2023 to validate engineering. Financially, Arrival says it is pre-revenue, reduced net debt by $121.9 million after a February sale of common stock, and is seeking further financing to fund XL development and ramp production. Leadership changes include the appointment of Igor Torgov as CEO and other governance moves such as a proposed reverse stock split to regain Nasdaq compliance. Arrival develops electric buses. The company is led by a former head of Yota. The article reports that a fund linked to Vladimir Potanin invested €50 million in Arrival. The report does not provide details on the financing instrument or other participating investors. No operating metrics, revenue, or user numbers are included in the article. Public comments attached to the article express a range of opinions about the company and its investors. Arrival is a British electric vehicle company that focuses on commercial vehicles, notably vans and buses. Founded in London in 2015 by Denis Sverdlov, the company has attracted strategic investors including Hyundai, Kia, UPS, and BlackRock. Earlier this year Arrival secured a reported €100 million strategic investment from Hyundai and Kia at a €3 billion valuation and later received a $118 million investment from BlackRock. The company has an order from UPS for 10,000 Generation 2 electric vehicles. Arrival plans to open a small-scale “microfactory” in Rock Hill, South Carolina, investing $46 million to establish its first U.S. production facility. The Rock Hill site is expected to produce up to 1,000 battery-powered buses per year and employ about 240 people once it opens next year. Arrival is a UK-based electric-vehicle startup led by Denis Sverdlov that has developed in-house software, materials, components and other technologies for Generation 2.0 electric vehicles. Its core product is a scalable 'skateboard' electric platform that can be adapted across multiple vehicle categories to underpin Purpose Built Vehicles (PBVs). Arrival is targeting vans and other vehicles for logistics, on-demand ride-hailing, and shuttle-service markets. The company plans to explore those segments through co-development with automotive partners. In January 2020 Arrival received a €100M investment from Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation to enable co-development of eco-friendly vans and other PBVs. Hyundai will contribute €80M and Kia €20M as part of the deal.

• Superpedestrian

  Participated · Equity · Feb 2022

  Superpedestrian develops electric micromobility vehicles and an advanced software platform centered on its LINK e-scooter and Vehicle Intelligence system. The company recently announced Pedestrian Defense, an AI-based safety system that fuses multiple vehicle sensors to detect unsafe riding behaviors and can automatically slow or stop a scooter in real time. Superpedestrian’s LINK fleet has launched in 57 cities and has logged tens of millions of miles, and the company holds over 40 patents in vehicle safety, automated maintenance, fleet optimization, and context awareness. Following field tests, the firm plans to deploy Pedestrian Defense in the first 25 cities across the U.S. and Europe during 2022, while expanding the LINK shared e-scooter service and boosting R&D. The new funding will be used to scale deployments in micromobility and support advanced R&D programs. Superpedestrian was spun out of MIT in 2013 and positions itself as a world-leader in transportation robotics and human-scale mobility. Superpedestrian develops the LINK e-scooter, which incorporates On-Board Intelligence and an active safety system. The company intends to use the new funds to accelerate expansion of its LINK scooter fleet. Spun out of MIT and led by founder and CEO Assaf Biderman, Superpedestrian invested eight years and $75M to patent more than 30 electric vehicle technologies. The LINK scooter performs autonomous maintenance and safety verification before every ride, with each vehicle containing five computers that act as an "A.I. Mechanic," monitoring components thousands of times per second and self-repairing electronic systems. From the outside LINK appears like a typical scooter but is more rugged and designed to protect riders and the vehicle in real time. LINK has thousands of vehicles on the road across 12 cities from Seattle to Rome, and the company is vying for permits in New York City and other major global cities. Superpedestrian, founded in 2012 by CEO Assaf Biderman, is a mobility engineering and technology company known for designing micromobility vehicles including the Copenhagen Wheel. It develops intelligent e-scooters featuring a proprietary Vehicle Intelligence System (VIS) that monitors the entire vehicle in real time and runs a self-diagnostic check before each ride. Superpedestrian’s scooters are engineered to last more than 2,500 rides, can travel up to 55 miles on a single charge, and the company says resilient vehicles keep per-ride operating costs around 50% lower than other operators. The company acquired Zagster’s micromobility fleet operations business and launched LINK, a shared micromobility platform that lets riders rent e-scooters via smartphone. LINK emphasizes collaboration with cities, fast onboard geofence enforcement, rider safety, and fleet management designed to meet city needs. Superpedestrian makes electric scooters equipped with a vehicle-intelligence platform that detects more than 100 situations that could lead to malfunction, triages issues, and determines responses to prevent vehicle damage and rider injury. Its software continuously monitors for problems such as water penetration, cut internal wires, battery cell temperature imbalances, and braking issues, and can enforce local speed limits via geofencing. The scooters can last up to seven days without recharging, assuming about five to six rides per day. Superpedestrian is currently focused on selling its platform and vehicles to operators, though it plans to eventually sell directly to consumers. The company is on track to launch in multiple markets in January, with operating partners yet to be announced. Financially, the startup has raised a total of $64 million to date. Superpedestrian began as the maker of the Copenhagen Wheel, a circular unit that adds motorized assist, battery and sensors to bicycles. The company is shifting to a B2B business selling hardware and software diagnostics to e-bike, scooter and moped fleet operators, leveraging roughly one million kilometers of aggregated data from Copenhagen customers. Its stack includes sensors, embedded controllers, and software protected by dozens of patents across multiple jurisdictions. Superpedestrian says its technology improves rider control and synchronization of power to pedaling, and can monitor battery health to reduce overheating risk. The company is micro-vehicle agnostic and plans to introduce these products and services into the rapidly growing shared scooter and e-bike market. It employs roughly 50 people and has drawn investor support for the new direction.

• Flipkart

  Participated · Equity · Jul 2021

  Flipkart is a Bengaluru-headquartered e-commerce marketplace serving hundreds of millions of consumers in smaller cities and towns and owning fashion e-commerce startup Myntra. It leads the Indian e-commerce market with roughly 48% share, according to Bernstein. The company was valued at $36 billion in the new investment. Flipkart faces competition from Reliance Retail, Amazon, SoftBank-backed Meesho and a growing set of quick‑commerce apps. India’s e-commerce market is estimated to be worth $133 billion by next year. As part of the deal with Google, Flipkart will receive Google cloud offerings. Flipkart operates a broad e-commerce ecosystem in India that includes the fashion marketplace Myntra, a large logistics and supply-chain arm called Ekart, and the recently launched social-commerce offering Shopsy. The company says it has amassed over 350 million registered users across its services, and Ekart employs more than 100,000 people while delivering to over 90% of addressable pin-codes. Flipkart has signaled continued investment in new categories, made-in-India technology, and support for millions of small and medium Indian businesses, including kiranas. Management has described the latest fundraise as a step toward a public listing as soon as early next year. As part of the financing event, employees were given the option to sell stock options worth $80.5 million. The company faces close competition from Amazon and potential regulatory headwinds from India’s proposed tougher e-commerce rules. Flipkart is a leading Indian e-commerce marketplace offering a wide range of categories including electronics, fashion, general merchandise and grocery. The company said the fresh $1.2 billion equity infusion led by Walmart will help grow its marketplace and expand payment and delivery services. Flipkart reported its monthly active customers surged 45% year-over-year and those customers are making 30% more transactions; the platform recently surpassed 1.5 billion visits per month. Walmart acquired a majority stake in Flipkart two years ago and led the latest round, which values the company at $24.9 billion post-money. Flipkart said it aims to continue innovating and bring the next 200 million Indian shoppers online as the country’s internet market recovers from the COVID-19 crisis. The company is operating in a competitive environment as new players such as JioMart expand across India. Flipkart is India’s biggest online retailer, operating a broad e-commerce marketplace connecting millions of buyers and sellers. The company reported 54 million active customers and projected gross merchandise value of $7.5 billion for 2018. Flipkart currently operates at a loss as it prioritizes rapid growth. Walmart’s investment is intended to fuel expansion and improve logistics and purchasing power; the deal includes $2 billion of new equity earmarked for growth. Flipkart’s leadership has stated the company will remain a distinct brand while Walmart helps prepare it to become a publicly listed, majority‑owned subsidiary. Strategic partners named in the transaction include Tencent, Tiger Global, Microsoft and Accel, and co‑founder Binny Bansal remains an investor. Flipkart operates as a pioneer in Indian e-commerce, selling a wide range of consumer goods online. The company recently received a fresh capital injection as part of an extension to a $1.4 billion financing round announced in April. SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund purchased a mix of primary and secondary shares as part of the extension, and the deal reportedly makes the Vision Fund one of Flipkart’s largest shareholders. Flipkart said the new injection leaves it with over $4 billion on its balance sheet, a war chest for competing with Amazon’s India unit. Prior participants in the April round included Microsoft, Tencent and eBay; SoftBank’s investment adds another prominent global backer. Public reports cited in coverage place the SoftBank deal around $2.5 billion, though the company and SoftBank declined to disclose the size.

• Innoviz Technologies

  Led · Equity · Dec 2020

  Innoviz Technologies Ltd. announced it expects to receive $200 million in funding through a private placement. The company entered into a subscription agreement for 20,000,000 common shares at $10 per share for gross proceeds of $200,000,000. The transaction is being led by Antara Capital LP and was raised at a post-money valuation of $1,375,000,000. The board of directors has approved the transaction. The closing is targeted for the first quarter of 2021 on the date of, and immediately following, the consummation of a merger and is subject to regulatory and stockholder approvals and other customary closing conditions. The company has entered into a 180-day lock-up agreement from issuance. Innoviz develops solid-state lidar sensors and bundled perception software aimed at autonomous vehicles and robotaxis. Its flagship product, InnovizOne, is an automotive-grade lidar system the company says can be produced and sold at roughly 90% lower cost than its first-generation system. Innoviz packages perception software with its sensors and partners with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers such as Magna, HARMAN, HiRain Technologies and Aptiv. The company has secured commercial design wins, notably with BMW for series production starting in 2021. With the new funding, Innoviz plans to scale production, expand manufacturing capacity, and grow in key markets including the U.S., Europe, Japan and China. It also intends to invest in R&D to develop next-generation products and improved software performance. Innoviz Technologies, based in Kfar Saba, Israel and led by co-founder and CEO Omer Keilaf, develops solid-state LiDAR sensing solutions aimed at the mass commercialization of autonomous vehicles. The company leverages proprietary System, MEMS and Detector designs to deliver long-ranging, accurate sensing at cost and size targets for automotive adoption. Its product lineup includes InnovizPro, a development platform for automakers, Tier 1 suppliers and tech companies, and InnovizOne, an automotive-grade LiDAR device targeting levels 3–5 autonomy. InnovizPro was slated to be available in Q1 2018, while samples of InnovizOne were planned to begin shipping in 2019. The company said it will use the new funds to grow its team across R&D, operations, marketing and business development. At the time of the article the Series B had been extended and the company reported total funding of $82M. Innoviz makes solid-state LiDAR sensors designed for greater reliability (no moving parts) and improved sensing across challenging conditions such as bright sunlight. The company offers a development-focused product, InnovizPro, and plans to begin delivering InnovizPro to automakers starting in the first quarter of next year. Its automotive-grade InnovizOne sensor is slated to be available as a manufacturing sample sometime in 2019. Innoviz raised $65 million in a Series B from strategic partners and auto suppliers to help push toward mass production of its LiDAR modules. The funding will also support the company’s computer vision work and formation of new partnerships. Strategic investors Delphi Automotive and Magna International—both positioned to supply automakers with autonomous-driving components—are already working with Innoviz to integrate its technology into OEM systems. Innoviz Technologies develops compact solid-state Lidar sensors aimed at autonomous vehicles. The company says its prototype is working internally and it plans a public demo by the end of this year, with a mass-production-ready product targeted for mid-2018. Innoviz aims for an under-$100 price point at volume by reducing components and expects a package smaller than 5cm x 5cm x 5cm. The company declined to disclose technical details but said it took a different technical approach to the scanning element than competitors such as Quanergy and MIT. Beyond hardware, Innoviz is expanding its team to build complementary software for mapping and localization, object detection and tracking, and sensor fusion. Financially, Innoviz raised $9 million in a Series A round closed in February.

No current team members are available.