Intel announced its latest tranche of deals: $132 million invested in 11 startups. The deals speak to some of the company’s most strategic priorities currently and covers artificial intelligence, autonomous computing and chip design.
DispatchTrack, which created a platform for last-mile deliveries to help companies mimic Amazon-like experiences by planning and tracking deliveries more easily, has closed a $144 million investment from a single investor. This is the company’s first-ever funding after scaling up as a bootstrapped startup to support more than 60 million deliveries per year.
VanMoof, the Dutch e-bike startup that launched in 2009, raised $13.5 million from London VC Balderton Capital and SINBON Electronics, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer that is its bike assembly partner.
Haulin’
If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s how complex and sensitive our supply chain is. Startups going after this sector, whether it’s in subcategories like freight, autonomous robots or logistics, might find a more welcoming investor community.
I’ll be rounding up news and tips in this category when there is news to share. This week, there was.
The United States Postal Service pushed back the deadline for official bids to make its next-generation mail truck due to COVID-19, Trucks.com reported.
Curri, an on-demand construction materials delivery service co-founded by Matt Lafferty and Brian Gonzalez, has started to offer its services in all 50 states. The company, which graduated from Y Combinator’s demo day about a year ago, says its service saves customers roughly half the cost of deploying an in-house fleet for delivery.
Freight mobility company Einride struck a partnership with Oatly to help the plant-based oat drink company transition to electric delivery trucks. The partnership will kick off in the fourth quarter of 2020 in Sweden, where both companies are based.
Layoffs and people news
Just when I think layoffs are slowing, another round of announcements or tips about cuts head my way. Amid the furloughs and layoffs, there has also been some executive reshuffling.
A few layoffs and executive moves stood out this week, namely cuts at Cruise and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s decision to put the head of paint operations in charge of all production at the company’s factory in Fremont, California.
Let’s dig in.
On the same day that Musk defied local regulations and said he would reopen Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, the CEO put a new person in charge of production.
Musk named Richard Miller, who was director of paint operations at Tesla, to head production at the factory, according to an internal email sent to employees and viewed by TechCrunch. It appears that Miller replaces Jatinder Dhillon, who was the company’s manufacturing director. CNBC had reported in March that Dhillon had left the company, although his LinkedIn profile still shows he is at the company and in the same role.
The email reads, “Due to excellent performance as head of paint operations in Fremont, Richard Miller is hereby promoted to overall head of Fremont Production. Congratulations!”
The timing of this, and who he picked, matters here and suggests that the reopening is more chaotic and disorganized than Musk or Tesla would want folks to believe.
Meanwhile, I got my hands on the memo sent by Cruise CEO Dan Ammann that informed staff of cuts and realignment of resources. (Bloomberg was the first to report the cuts.)
The company said it’s cutting nearly 8% of its more than 1,800-member workforce to reduce costs. The layoffs will affect employees in Cruise’s product, marketing and rideshare business units, according to the memo.
The official statement might rub those who were let go the wrong way. It reads: “In this time of great change, we’re fortunate to have a crystal clear mission and billions in the bank. The actions we took today reflect us doubling down on our engineering work and engineering talent.”
The cuts are notable. But so is the decision by the company to close its Pasadena office, which housed its lidar team. Cruise acquired in 2017 a lidar startup based in Pasadena called Strobe. According to the memo and one source, the lidar team is being folded into its San Francisco operations.
Other moves:
Zomato, an India-headquartered food delivery startup, cut 13% of its workforce and reduced pay for remaining employees. The 11-year-old firm didn’t disclose the exact number of people it was letting go, but the number is above 500.
Fair, the car subscription startup backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from SoftBank and others, has a new CEO. The company announced that Bradley Stewart, who had been CEO of aviation startup XOJet from 2013 to 2018 (when it was acquired by Vista Global), will now lead the company. Stewart confirmed in an interview that Fair is working on raising another round of funding that will include both equity and debt to push ahead on its business now focused squarely on car subscriptions for consumers.
Moto moto
As Harley-Davidson rounds year one on its electric debut, we’re still riding in the fog on how to evaluate the company’s EV pivot, according to TechCrunch reporter Jake Bright.
The American symbol of gas, chrome and steel released its first production electric motorcycle, the LiveWire, in September 2019, but still hasn’t offered sales data. Instead of posting a separate line for EV purchases in its 2019 and 2020 financial reporting, Harley folded LiveWire units sold into its “Cruiser” sales stats, that include some 16 different motorcycle models.
HD’s electric debut received mostly positive reviews from motorcycle stalwarts, but without sales data it’s difficult to evaluate the company’s shift to electric.
The LiveWire is supposed to lead a future line-up of EVs planned by Harley-Davidson — spanning motorcycles, bicycles and scooters.
The company saw a decline in sales and continued losses in its first quarter financials, but “remains committed to advancing our efforts in electric,” HD’s new CEO, Jochen Zeitz, said.
Another component to grading Harley Davidson’s foray into electric is seeing the follow on products to the $29K LiveWire, which was priced too high for the millennial market.
“The company needs to release EV-specific sales data and tell us what’s next in its voltage-powered lineup,” Bright wrote in this feature on Harley Davidson’s electric ambitions and the e-motorcycle market.
Notable reads and other tidbits
Here’s some other stuff that got my attention.
Of course, I’ll kick it off this must-read list with a survey we conducted with seven venture capitalists, including Ernestine Fu of Alsop Louie Partners, Stonly Baptiste & Shaun Abrahamson from Urban.us, Rob Coneybeer with Shasta Ventures, Shahin Farshchi of Lux Capital, Kate Schox with Trucks VC and Jeff Peters from Autotech Ventures.
We asked these VCs their thoughts and advice for mobility startups in this COVDI-19 era.
New York City celebrated its longest stretch of days without a pedestrian death in decades, The Hill reported.
Greentech Media interviewed McDonald’s former global product director, James Wehner, about his plans to shake up EV charging in his new role as chief technology officer at Engenie, the U.K.-based charging specialist.
Self-driving vehicle startup Aurora released a blog post explaining its process for rapidly converting on-road events into virtual tests.
Tesla plans to unveil new advanced battery technology it has developed that can produce power sources for its EVs which last for “millions of miles” and can be produced at low costs, Reuters reported.
Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle technology startup backed by Ford and Volkswagen, has developed a return-to-the road playbook. The guide lays out a detailed plan on how it will resume AV testing while keeping its employees safe.