📟 Planes, trains and electric automobiles
Vol 105
This newsletter aims to separate the signal from the noise for investment in all things sustainable transportation: Electrification, mode shift, active and public transit, and mobility aggregation, across both people and goods movement.
🌱STARTUP WATCH: Sustainable mobility startups (pre-seed or seed) to keep an eye on
2DaLoop (Michigan, USA): Software to improve battery recycling
Elementrailer (Washington, USA): Motorized electric trailer designed to assist EVs while towing
ManaBattery (Colorado, USA): Sodium-ion batteries
MetaLearner (California, USA): AI to improve supply chain efficiency
Undelay (Georgia, USA): Software to make legacy airport operations more efficient, including taxi queues
💰FUNDING: Capital raises from startups previously featured in Startup Watch
Crux (Vol 53) raised a $50M Series B from Lowercarbon, along with Andreessen Horowitz, Ardent Venture Partners, and others
Goodwings (Vol 63) raised a $3M Seed Round from Global Cleantech Capital, JTB Corp, and others
Plug (Vol 69) raised a $6.7M Seed round from Floodgate, Autotech Ventures and A*, along with Virta Ventures, Cleo Capital, Toba Capital and others*
📰QUICK HITS: Notable news from the last two weeks
👩🏽⚖️Government, Policies & Cities
🚲 How did Bentonville, Arkansas become Bicycle City, USA? Hint: Thanks to support from the Walton family, of Walmart fame.
💯 NYC is celebrating 100 days of congestion pricing. One of the newest states: complaints about excessive car honking are down by 70%.
🚄 The US Dept of Transportation is canceling a $60M planning grant for high-speed rail in Texas. Red state projects are also getting the axe…
⚓️ The International Maritime Organization (IMO) reached a landmark agreement for net-zero shipping targets. The US withdrew from the negotiations…
↘️ Flights from Europe to the US are in double-digit declines. Tourism to the US is likely to take a big hit given the current political environment.
🇨🇳🇪🇺 China and the EU are beginning to discuss a new EV trade framework based on minimum prices. The US tariffs are prompting China and the EU to consider a more cooperative relationship.
🚉 The US federal government is taking over the Penn Station rebuild from New York state. New York state is likely happy to have the feds run the project, so long as it actually gets done.
🇨🇳 China is cracking down on carmaker advertisements for “autonomous driving” and other advanced driver assistance terms. The federal government will play a bigger role in approving new software upgrades for existing vehicles.
🛬 In response to tariffs, China is stopping its airlines from buying Boeing planes. This exacerbates Boeing’s woes…
🔬Markets & Research
↗️ In the US, EV sales were up in Q1. Other automakers are gaining, while Tesla sales are down.
🌬️ Local air pollution improved dramatically following the electrification of Caltrain in the Bay Area. Caltrain’s electrification is like NYC congestion pricing: the longer it’s in place, the more positive benefits we see.
↘️ Gallup polling reveals that EV interest in the US is waning. The politicization of EVs may be at play.
🏭 Corporates & Later Stage
🏰 Lyft indeed acquired FREENOW. Lyft now has a European base.
🥊 Tesla allegedly had a team to squelch driver complaints about EV range. The feds are unlikely to intervene.
🐣 Startups & Early Stage
⛴️ Arc Boats (Startup Watch Vol 4) has signed an agreement to convert a Port of LA tugboat from diesel to electric. Arc is known for recreational boats, so this commercial work would be an additional revenue stream for the startup.
🛳️ Electric ferry maker Artemis Technologies (Startup Watch Vol 95) entered the US market with a bang, signing Delta Marine as a customer. Delta Marine, from Washington state, runs the largest fleet of passenger ferries in the US.
🛻 Slate was unveiled as a Michigan-based manufacturer of budget electric pickup trucks. Jeff Bezos is a major backer and many execs have a background at Amazon.
👁️ BluSmart, a recent EV Indian rival to Uber, shut down. The company is in the midst of a fraud investigation.
🔋Sodium-ion battery startup Bedrock Materials, which raised a $9M seed round a year ago, is shutting down and returning capital to its investors. Hats off to the founding team for showing true leadership.
🛤️ Autonomous rail startup Parallel Systems raised a $38M Series B. The company’s novel approach allows electric trains to better compete with trucking.
🚛 In a surprise move, Lucid won the bankruptcy auction for Nikola’s assets. Both companies have industrial operations nearby in Arizona.
🚙 Canoo founder Tony Aquila was the only bidder in the bankruptcy auction for the company’s assets. Aquila plans on pursuing defense opportunities for the electric truck maker.
🛴 Redwood Materials secured a battery supply agreement with Lime. Redwood certainly has lots of the right supply agreements in place.
🧑🏽💻 V2G software startup Nuvve is in talks to buy Fermata. The deal would give Nuvvee software on the cheap.
*Disclosure: I am an investor in Plug, and affiliated with Virta Ventures, who is also an investor in Plug