The Venture Codex

Led · Equity · Aug 2024

Lucid Motors designs and manufactures luxury electric vehicles, notably the Air sedan and the Gravity SUV. Its vehicles emphasize cutting-edge engineering, long driving range, and high performance. Lucid has entered a strategic partnership with Uber that includes a $300 million investment. That investment is part of a premium global robotaxi program that will use Lucid’s EV platform and operate exclusively on Uber’s rideshare platform. The program will leverage the Nuro Driver™ Level 4 autonomy system and is expected to launch next year in a major US city. Uber plans to deploy upwards of 20,000 Lucid vehicles across six years, marking a major commercial expansion for Lucid. Lucid Motors produces the Air luxury electric sedan and is positioning the upcoming Gravity SUV as its entry into the popular North American SUV market. The company said Gravity is expected to enter production by the end of 2024 and has restructured operations ahead of that launch, including a May 2024 layoff of about 400 employees (roughly 6% of staff). Lucid reported a second-quarter 2024 net loss of $643 million while setting a sales record that generated $200 million of revenue. At the end of the second quarter the company had $1.35 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Lucid’s majority owner, an affiliate of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, has committed to buying at least 50,000 of its EVs and is helping the company build a new factory in the Kingdom. The company says it needs additional capital both to stem losses and to fund the Gravity launch. Lucid Motors builds luxury electric vehicles, primarily the Air sedan. The company has struggled to find buyers for its high-priced Air and has cut prices multiple times to boost sales. It plans to produce about 9,000 Air vehicles this year and expects to begin building the Gravity SUV at the end of the year. Lucid lost $2.8 billion in 2023 and finished the year with just under $1.4 billion in cash and equivalents. Its largest backer, Ayar Third Investment — an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — already owns roughly 60% of the company. The company recently announced a $1 billion stock purchase from Ayar Third Investment to bolster liquidity as it seeks more luxury EV buyers. Lucid Motors develops luxury electric vehicles and is preparing to commercialize its first model, the Lucid Air. The company will use new capital to complete engineering development and testing of the Air, enter production, and begin a global retail rollout starting in North America. Lucid also plans to construct its factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. Founded a decade ago as Atieva, the company originally focused on battery technology and shifted to producing cars, changing its name in 2016. It previously unveiled the Air, secured a deal with Samsung SDI for lithium-ion batteries, and announced plans for a $700 million factory. Lucid had struggled to raise the funds needed for production and was quiet for nearly a year while seeking financing.

Led · Debt Financing · Jan 2024

Magic Leap develops augmented‑reality headsets and related software, having launched the Magic Leap One and later Magic Leap 2 as it shifted fully into enterprise use cases. The company targets verticals such as healthcare, design, manufacturing and collaboration and is pursuing commercial adoption across customer use cases, applications and content. Magic Leap employs about 1,000 people and has raised roughly $4.5 billion in total funding to date. Leadership recently changed: Ross Rosenberg became CEO in November after Peggy Johnson stepped down; founder Rony Abovitz started the company in 2011 and left as CEO in 2020. Management says the product roadmap focuses on expanding field of view and immersiveness, making devices more mobile and less tethered, and ultimately reducing size and weight toward glasses‑like form factors. Magic Leap faces new competition from Apple’s Vision Pro (launching next month) and Meta Quest 3, but cites a slight pricing advantage ($3,300 versus Apple’s $3,500) and continued focus on enterprise precision use cases. Magic Leap is an augmented-reality startup focused on headsets and forthcoming AR glasses. The company has shifted its messaging and strategy to focus on enterprise customers after years of pursuing military and consumer opportunities and bankrolling expensive games for its costly headset. It revealed a smaller-footprint next device, called the Magic Leap 2, and said it will roll out that hardware sometime next year. The startup announced a $500 million financing at a $2 billion valuation from existing investors, echoing an October 2014 raise of $542 million at a reported $2 billion valuation. Crunchbase lists Magic Leap as having raised $3.5 billion in total funding; the company’s valuation has declined from $6.7 billion in 2019 and it nearly shut down last year, cutting staff and raising hundreds of millions at slashed valuation terms. The company replaced founder Rony Abovitz with former Microsoft VP Peggy Johnson as CEO and did not disclose the specific investors in the latest round. Magic Leap built high-profile augmented-reality hardware whose initial consumer device failed to meet expectations after years of hype. The company has abandoned consumer plans and is concentrating on enterprise opportunities, citing progress in healthcare, enterprise, and defense deals. In April it announced a large round of layoffs (about 1,000 jobs) and issued a WARN notice, later withdrawing that notice after new funding. CEO Rony Abovitz told staff the new financing came from unnamed current and new investors and hinted additional deals will be announced as they close. The company has raised roughly $2.6 billion across nine prior rounds. COVID-19 was cited by the company as a key reason for the April disruption. Magic Leap develops spatial-computing hardware and is pushing a cloud-oriented "Magicverse"—a spatially mapped digital infrastructure layer intended to enable cloud AR experiences. Its sole product, the Magic Leap One, retails for $2,295. The company has spent heavily on hardware and has been accused of having only marginal differentiation from competitors' devices. Leadership is emphasizing a shift toward platform and cloud plays, partnering with telecoms on 5G to support those ambitions. Magic Leap courts VR/game developers for content while also pursuing enterprise and strategic partnerships. Financially the company has raised substantial capital to fund its strategy, most recently securing additional financing from a major carrier. Magic Leap is an augmented-reality startup developing spatial computing hardware and software. Its first commercial device, the Magic Leap One Creator Edition, is described as a lightweight, wearable computer that enriches real-world experience with digital content; the Creator Edition is a limited developer-focused edition scheduled to ship later this year. Until the announcement the company had not launched a product, though it streamed a demo and specs of the Magic Leap One alongside the deal news. Magic Leap has raised roughly $2.35 billion to date to develop its hardware and software and completed a March financing that valued the company at $6.3 billion. Strategic backers named in the article include Google, Alibaba and Axel Springer. The company has entered an exclusive U.S. distribution and strategic partnership with AT&T covering network access, content distribution and devices, and AT&T will be the exclusive wireless distributor in select U.S. stores starting this summer. AT&T’s investment also makes its communications chief a board observer.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2020

GrocerApp operates a low-price online supermarket in Pakistan, offering groceries, vegetables, beauty & wellness, household care, baby care, pet care, meats & seafood with doorstep delivery. Founded in 2016 by Ahmad Saeed, Hassaan Sadiq, and Rai Bilal, the company emphasizes customer experience and seamless order fulfilment. The founders previously played key roles scaling PakWheels and have rapidly expanded GrocerApp from Lahore into Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Between its $1.0M seed round and this Series A, the company reported a 300% increase in orders and revenue, with total annualized revenue exceeding US$15 million. Management states unit economics are sustainable and plans include expanding to additional strategic Pakistani cities and launching new online grocery initiatives. GrocerApp highlights its operational infrastructure for receiving orders, beginning fulfilment, and completing delivery to support daily customer growth. GrocerApp, founded in Lahore in 2016 by Ahmed Saeed, Hassaan Sadiq, and Bilal Zafar, operates an online grocery platform allowing customers to order groceries, fruits, vegetables and meat through web and mobile apps for same-day delivery. The company runs a pure-play model with its own inventory, fulfillment centers and an operations model that now relies on a network of freelance drivers. GrocerApp offers about 4,000 SKUs in Lahore and 1,500 SKUs on its app in Islamabad and Rawalpindi following recent expansion. It has recently achieved multi-fold growth and is currently growing at 20–30% month-over-month. The startup plans to use new funding to make its supply chain more efficient, automate processes to scale, and fuel further expansion. Management is exploring expansion to Karachi next year.