All posts tagged: 90M

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore Unveils M for Environmental Initiatives

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore Unveils $90M for Environmental Initiatives

Published by skeptic

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore highlighted $90 million on Friday as a down payment to help reach the state’s ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change. The money is set aside for three distinct initiatives, including $17 million to buy and lease electric school buses, $23 million to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure and $50 million for the electrification of schools and multifamily homes to cut emissions. “We think this is an important statement to show that this is a commitment that we plan on keeping,” Moore, a Democrat, said. “We know this will take time, but it’s time that we are planning on moving with a sense of urgency on, and we believe that this $90 million down payment shows not just a measure of sincerity, but also a measure of aggression in the way we’re hoping to address this issue.” The money was described as a start in how the state will reach the ambitious goals to reduce climate change that was charted in legislation approved …

Starship Technologies raises M for robot delivery service

Starship Technologies raises $90M for robot delivery service

Published by skeptic

Starship Technologies, a player in autonomous delivery services, has raised $90 million in funding for its delivery robots. The funding marks a big milestone for the company, bringing its total funding to $230 million since its inception in 2014. Starship Technologies will use the fresh capital to bolster global expansion efforts and capitalize on the soaring demand for home deliveries. The company was founded by CEO Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis in 2014 in Tallinn, Estonia and San Francisco. In his early 40s, Heinla was working in robotics. He spearheaded a proposal for a NASA competition asking for help building an autonomous rough-terrain robot, which could be used to find and retrieve rock samples on Mars. The design wasn’t selected but the idea remained. Together with Danish entrepreneur Friis, who Heinla knew from his days at Skype, the founders contemplated how robots could be used for carrying out deliveries on Earth instead of Mars. VB Event The AI Impact Tour – NYC We’ll be in New York on February 29 in partnership with Microsoft to …

Starship Technologies raises M as its sidewalk robots pass 6M deliveries

Starship Technologies raises $90M as its sidewalk robots pass 6M deliveries

Published by skeptic

Sidewalk delivery robot services appear to be stalling left and right, but a pioneer in the concept says it is profitable and has now raised a round of funding to scale up to meet market demand. Starship Technologies, a startup out of Estonia that was an early mover in the delivery robotics space, has picked up $90 million in funding as it works to cement its position at the top of its category. This latest investment round is being co-led by two previous backers: Plural, the VC with roots in Estonia and London that announced a new $430 million fund last month; and Iconical, the London-based investor backed by Janus Friis, the serial entrepreneur who was a co-founder of Skype, and who is also a co-founder of Starship itself. It brings the total raised by Starship to $230 million, with previous backers including the Finnish-Japanese firm NordicNinja, the European Investment Bank, Morpheus Ventures and TDC. As with previous rounds, Starship Technologies is not disclosing its valuation. In the decade since it was co-founded by Friis …

Starship nabs M to expand autonomous delivery robots globally

Starship nabs $90M to expand autonomous delivery robots globally

Published by skeptic

Veteran autonomous delivery robot developer Starship Technologies announced it had raised an additional $90 million in funding to help expand its micro-logistics service to additional territories around the globe. Starship Technologies was founded in 2014 by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis based on the idea that autonomy can help many of the challenges in last-mile deliveries. The company’s L4 autonomous delivery robots have completed over six million trips to date, transporting meals, packages, groceries, and important documents to students and other customers. In August 2023, that mileage total was five million, operating in 30 different areas. Today, Starship’s robots have expanded to 80 locations worldwide, including the US, UK, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, and Finland. During its decade-long run, the autonomous delivery robot developer had raised $160 million but just shared that it has garnered an additional $90 million to continue to expand its last-mile delivery services. Source: Starship Technologies Starship to expand autonomous delivery robot services In a press release today, Starship Technologies shared details of its $90 million funding round co-led by …

Despite EV delivery delays, Faraday Future raises M to stay afloat

Despite EV delivery delays, Faraday Future raises $90M to stay afloat

Published by skeptic

Faraday Future has managed to raise $90 million from existing investors to help it get its much-delayed FF 91 luxury electric SUV to production and delivery. Faraday’s investors will also accelerate an existing commitment of $15 million, the EV company said Tuesday. Faraday is one of a litany of EV SPACs — EV startups that went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company — that has struggled to stay afloat. The company keeps burning through cash and putting its hand out for more, while pushing the delivery date of its vehicles. Against that backdrop, Faraday Future has also been investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, and suffered through one internal drama after the next. Despite repeated production delays and an inability to deliver vehicles into customers’ hands, Faraday in May announced that its luxury EVs would have ChatGPT capabilities, an attempt to jump on the AI bandwagon and attract attention. And perhaps it worked, because the company, which as of April only had $30 million …

Synthesia secures M for AI that generates custom avatars

Synthesia secures $90M for AI that generates custom avatars

Published by skeptic

Once the pandemic normalized virtual meetups, the concept of “personalized AI” began to gain steam. Startups creating “AI-driven” avatars — realistic-looking characters with synthetic voices that star in pre-recorded or live videos — have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital over the past few years. As such avatars improve, they promise to deliver more personalized digital marketing and training experiences while reducing the costs typically associated with video production. That’s at least the sales pitch from Synthesia, one of the startups using AI to create synthetic videos for advertising and other use cases. The company yesterday announced that it raised $90 million in a Series C round led by Accel with a strategic investment from Nvidia and participation from Kleiner Perkins, GV, Firstmark Capital and MMC. The round brings Synthesia’s total raised to date to $156.6 million, and it values the startup at $1 billion post-money (up from $300 million in December 2021). Co-founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli tells TechCrunch that Synthesia is a “sustainable business” and wasn’t looking for an additional …

Nordic VC Voima Ventures launches €90M fund for deep tech startups

Nordic VC Voima Ventures launches €90M fund for deep tech startups

Published by skeptic

Nordic VC firm Voima Ventures today announced its third fund with an initial closing of €90 million fund and a final target of €120 million, focusing on early-stage “deep tech” startups from across the science realm. Founded out of Helsinki, Finland, in 2019, Voima Ventures targets companies at the pre- and seed-stage, and mostly involving startups emerging from university labs and related research institutions. Voima also occasionally delves into later stage investments where it involves existing portfolio companies, and its typical areas include companies working on sustainability, life science and health, and other “groundbreaking” technologies such as quantum computing. Voima’s first two funds were launched back in 2019. Its €20 million Fund I was essentially the spin-off portfolio of state-owned technical research center VTT which remains one of the fund’s limited partners (LPs) today, while the second €60 million Fund was announced simultaneously alongside the new Voima Ventures brand and a swathe of additional LPs. The first two funds have backed some 30 companies, including the likes of Solar Foods, Dispelix, Betolar, and MVision, and …

Infogrid raises M for its AI-driven building monitoring tech

Infogrid raises $90M for its AI-driven building monitoring tech

Published by skeptic

Infogrid, a startup that uses AI to collect and analyze data on things like air quality, occupancy and energy consumption, today announced that it raised $90 million in a Series B round led by Northzone and AO Proptech. William Cowell de Gruchy, Infogrid’s CEO, says that the cash will be put toward product development, strategic hires and customer acquisition efforts. “Now was the time to raise the capital and use it to drive our expansion,” De Gruchy said. “We are coming off of 5x growth last year and the market is strongly calling for our solutions … We opted for equity because alongside capital, we want strategic partners to help us scale to the next level and we have both VCs and clients and partners investing. This brings value far greater than even the cash.” De Gruchy — who has a fascinating history, having studied cage fighting and served as an army officer before pivoting to a quieter, white-collar career in due diligence analysis — founded Infogrid in 2018. While working for strategic advisory firm …