Dynamo Dispatch (02/22/21)
Issue 140 | Amitruck, Vizion, Locus
Dynamo Dispatch. Weekly update from Dynamo Ventures covering the latest and greatest in supply chain, mobility, and building venture-scale businesses.
💥 Have you seen any interesting startups recently? Introduce us.
❤️ We would love your support. Please forward to friends and share on social media.
🗞️ If you were forwarded this and found it interesting, please sign up.
🎙 Check out Dynamo's podcast series, The Future of Supply Chain.
Weekly Commentary 💭
We had a great episode on the Future of Supply Chain this week with our good friend Mark Ford joining us to talk about managed transportation and the concept of transparency. Check it out here.
We Are Dynamo,
Santosh, Ted, Barry, Jon, Rachel, and Emily
Note: please add “dynamo@substack.com” to your email client, so you don’t miss future issues due to aggressive spam filters.
Supply Chain 📦
LTL Thriving as Companies Reset Supply Chain. As online shopping booms in the US, LTL carriers face more freight resulting in a boost in revenues and pricing leverage. LTL gives retailers and eComm providers more flexibility in their supply chain as they can keep up with the shorter notice and lead times. Related, Freight Rates Surge with No Significant Relief in 2021.
Texas Supply Chains Crippled Due to Winter Weather. Recovery is slow but steady in the areas hit by the winter snowstorm that slammed parts of the south. Roads, rails, ports, and runways are slowly digging out from under the snow and ice, allowing transporting to resume gradually. As of Friday, hundreds of thousands of residents still have no power in Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, and West Virginia combined. Related, Union Pacific, Shuts Down Most of the Intermodal Network Due to Weather.
🌟Shopify Benefits From New Business Owners. Americans are opening online stores and selling goods and services on Shopify to make a living as COVID continues to impact the job market. However, the surge in eComm that drove the company’s growth is expected to taper as COVID subsides. It is also worth noting that it is difficult for new businesses to obtain capital and scale up in this uncertain environment. Speaking of eCommerce, JD Logistics IPO in the Pipeline.
Flexport Launches PO Visibility Feature. Companies can now manage POs in real-time through the Flexport platform and reduce the issues associated with a lack of “first-mile” transparency. By having a line of sight on activity from PO through manufacturing, Flexport and its users can streamline their international logistics workflows. Also, Maersk Growth Veterans Launch New Supply Chain Fund to fund the next Flexport.
Trucking Firms Exploring Use for Augmented Reality. Daimler, XPO Logistics, DHL, and UPS are beginning to implement VR and AR for training, operations, marketing, and servicing equipment. XPO Logistics uses the technology to display diagrams and other information to guide workers in collecting goods in its warehouses, increasing their overall efficiency. Related, JB Hunt Now Powered by Google Cloud.
Walmart Says Its Automated Supply Chain is Ready to Scale. Walmart will invest in their distribution, eComm fulfillment, and market fulfillment centers, with many built inside or beside the current stores. They believe the automation will help expand fulfillment capacity as the retailer is trying to attract more customers to Walmart+, a competitor to Amazon Prime. Also, Amazon Air Could Pave the Way for Speedy eComm Deliveries.
The State of Hydrogen-Powered Fuel Cells for Heavy-Duty Trucking. Carmakers, truck makers, and suppliers are investing heavily in fuel cell technology. Despite the billions of dollars funneled into the gas alternative, onboard hydrogen storage is far less efficient than battery-powered trucks, and the technology is not in commercial production. Heavy-duty truck fuel cell adoption is projected to be just 2.5% by 2030. In middle-mile logistics, Dynamo portfolio company, Gatik Launches First Electric Automated Delivery Trucks.
Mobility 🚗
UK Supreme Court: Uber Drivers Are Not Self-Employed. The UK Supreme Court ruled Uber Drivers as workers, meaning thousands of drivers may be entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay. The ruling could leave Uber facing a hefty compensation bill and have broader consequences for the gig economy.
State of the Air Taxi Ecosystem. Lufthansa Innovation Hub’s teardown of the air taxi industry is centered around trust (which in our mind is closely linked to safety). While the three early winners- Joby, Lillium, and Volocopter are the best-funded to date, they need to maintain their technical leadership and further the trust the public has with their capabilities. Related, The Uberization of Private Jets May Be Permanent.
🌟QuantumScape Soars on Technical Breakthrough. QuantumScape announced that it has successful developed a multi-layered solid-state lithium battery. The breakthrough is a big step forward for the company that might need to deliver a battery that has as many as 12 layers so it can be viable in a production vehicle. Also, VW's Potential Porsche Listing Signals Automotive Upheaval.
Ford To Be Fully Electric By 2030 in Europe. The announcement comes as climate leadership buckles down in Europe, with major cities getting more aggressive about gas and diesel car bans. To help achieve their goal, Ford is investing $1B into a new EV manufacturing facility in Cologne, Germany. The first fully electric passenger vehicle to come out of that factory will roll off the line in 2023. Also, Ford F-150 Hybrid Owners in Texas Are Using Trucks to Power Their Homes.
The Unintended Consequences of ADAS. Long-term use of ADAS functions such as backup cameras can lower driving skills as humans come to rely on machine over their own skill. Inexperienced drivers could be the worst affected with an estimated 32% increase in poor driving by 2040 due to overconfidence, mode issues, smartphone distractions, and HMI clarity. Also, Bosch and Microsoft Join Forces to Offer OTA Update Capabilities to Vehicle Software.
Cities Prefer Mass Transit Over Highway Projects. As part of a survey spanning 100 metropolitan areas and 139 cities across the US, researchers asked local and regional leaders to identify their top infrastructure priorities and flag those that gained urgency during COVID. Surprisingly, leaders chose mass transit over highways. Mass transit projects count for only 21% of all transportation projects yet are vital to essential workers’ needs and reduce carbon emissions.
Foxconn: “Limited Impact” From Chip Shortage. Car manufacturers such as VW, GM, and Ford have cut output as chip capacity has shrunk. Yet, Foxconn’s customers have faced limited impacts as they established proper preventive measures before the shortage. Foxconn expects to do well in the first half of 2021 as the pandemic eases and demand is sustained. Major Foxconn customer, Apple, Is Buying AV Sensors.
Fundraises and M&A 💸
💥Amitruck Raises Pre-Seed Funding by Dynamo and Plug and Play. Amitruck connects transporters directly with cargo owners via its web or mobile application, avoiding intermediaries. Funds will be used to expand its growing client base in East Africa.
💥Vizion API Raises $1.5M Led by Dynamo Ventures. Vizion is an API-based solution for ocean freight visibility created to solve the lack of visibility in maritime logistics. The funding will be invested in product and sales efforts.
Shift One Raises $5.2 in Seed Round led by City Light Capital and JAM Fund. Shift One connects available warehouse and logistics labor with companies in last-mile logistics, eComm fulfillment, and large-scale event management. Shift One plans to use this round of funding to build technologies and expand into new markets.
Mundi Raises $7.8M in Seed Round Led by Base10. Mundi wants to reduce risks involved with B2B transactions in the cross-border marketplace by financing Mexican exporters and freight forwarders through advancing payments for their cross-border transactions. The funding will help hire more employees and expand its features.
Edgybee Raises $9.5M in Series A Led by Seraphim Capital. Edgybee provides real-time high-precision geometrization and visual augmentation of aerial video. Using their Visual Intelligence Platform, users can register and track assets in a video shot by a drone. The new partnerships brought on by this investment allow the company to drive innovation and expand its global footprint.
SUPER73 Raises $20M Led by Volition Capital. The Orange County, CA-based EV brand produces two-wheeled EVs sold on a custom basis. SUPER73 will use the funding to support growth in sales.
Recogni Raises $48.9M in Series B. The startup is designing an AI-powered vision recognition module for AVs. The company says the funds will help it bring its perception product to market while expanding the size of its engineering and go-to-market teams.
Locus Raises $150M in Series E Led by Tiger Global Management and Bond. Locus leases out robotic fleets for organizations looking to automate logistics, differentiating themselves by offering a more modular and flexible solution for automated warehouses. This massive funding round will expand international operations, R&D, sales, and marketing and increase its current headcount of 165 by 75 in the coming year.
Standard Cognition Raises $150M in Series C led by SoftBank Vision. Standard Cognition provides an autonomous checkout solution that is installed in brick-and-mortar retailers’ existing stores quickly and easily. This new funding will help the company scale to meet customer demand.
Verizon Acquires incubed IT. incubed IT is an Austria-based startup that develops autonomous navigation and fleet management software for autonomous mobile robots. Verizon’s 5G and edge compute technologies and incubed IT’s software will allow enterprise customers to gain new efficiencies and scale autonomous mobile robot fleets.
Company Building 🛠️
WSGR: 2020 Venture Financing Report. Some useful stats in here around valuations, round sizes, and terms (preferences, participating/non-participating, anti dilution provisions, et al).
Why Product Management is Hard. You’ll hear at Dynamo that product sits in the head of the CEO... till it can’t. At that point, a CEO is faced with hiring their first PM to share the burden and over time, lead the charge. It’s important to nail this hire (perhaps the highest leverage hire made) and that’s easier said than done. A thread on why PM (and product-related decisions) is so hard.
Chief Community Officer is the New CMO. “Community isn’t a single Slack group or event or newsletter. It’s an aggregation of all of these touch points, and includes both customers, eventual customers and one-time users. Despite this nebulous, disconnected reality, companies are paying more attention to various channels as remote work and digital communication powers our days. My recent tweet underscored the chord community strikes even in sectors such as edtech, which often have to sell to fragmented customer bases.”
Who's Hiring? 👩💻
Software Engineer at Vizion in Atlanta, GA (remote ok).
Supply Chain Data Analyst at Stord in Atlanta, GA.
Account Executive at SVT Robotics in Norfolk, VA (remote ok).
Check out other jobs at Dynamo portfolio companies.
💥 Have you seen any interesting startups recently? Introduce us.
❤️ We would love your support. Please forward to friends and share on social media.
🗞️ If you were forwarded this and found it interesting, please sign up.
🎙 Check out Dynamo's podcast series, The Future of Supply Chain.