Dynamo Dispatch (2026/02/16)

Issue 362 | Gather AI, Keychain, Apptronik

Dynamo Dispatch. A weekly update from Dynamo Ventures covering the latest and greatest in supply chain, mobility, and building venture-scale businesses.

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Weekly Commentary 💭

2026 is shaping up to be the year supply chains separate the doers from the waiters. Container oversupply, tariff whiplash, and AI-driven demand are forcing a hard reset, and the winners are those moving fastest on automation, diversification, and real-time operations. Stord’s latest research confirms that AI has already crossed the chasm in ecommerce, and the playbook is clear for those paying attention. Read more below!

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Madelyn, Madison and the rest of the Dynamo team

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Make, Move, and Monetize 📦

⭐ Scrapping Strategy Looms Large in 2026 as Carriers Manage Growing Oversupply. Container shipping is drifting into a textbook oversupply: record new builds are hitting the water while scrapping is nearly nonexistent, leaving an aging fleet to swell capacity. Losses and profit squeezes are already showing up at leading carriers, and guidance suggests this year hinges on whether the industry finally accelerates recycling and normalizes routes. It’s a buyers’ market for now, but expect lines to fight back, through scrapping, slower speeds, and tighter capacity management, making rate relief fragile and execution the key investor watch. Completely unrelated, Former Karaoke Company Drags logistics Into the ‘AI Scare Trade’.

Report: 47% of Carriers Plan to Delay Fleet Investments Over Tariffs. Carriers are splitting into two camps for 2026. Nearly half plan to delay fleet investments amid tariff pressure after a bruising 2025 capex slump, which risks slowing modernization, fuel efficiency gains, and alt-fuel adoption. At the same time, over a third aim to accelerate purchases, often to pre-buy before tariffs bite, while most expect freight rates to rise, setting up a potential second-half reentry for those who paused. For shippers and investors, this bifurcation means uneven capacity and cost trajectories; those who secure equipment and tech early could grab service and margin advantages while tariff policy becomes a central planning variable. Also, Shippers Wary of Rising Transportation Costs as Fleets Put the Brakes on Spending and Tariff Rethink? Trump Reviews Steel, Aluminum Duties as Inflation Looms.

US Mineral Supply Chains Remain Exposed to China Chokehold: USGS Report. The latest USGS report shows US mineral dependence worsening year over year, with full import reliance across more commodities and heavy exposure to China for critical inputs like rare earths, graphite, and antimony. Washington is moving to counter this, announcing a multibillion-dollar stockpile and a preferential allied trade bloc, but decade-long permitting timelines still stall domestic mining and processing. This widens a strategic vulnerability: expect tighter industrial policy, pushback on permitting, and accelerated moves to diversify and onshore refining/recycling, because any Chinese export curbs or trade shocks could ripple through defense, energy, and electronics supply chains fast. For more, check out Trump’s Critical-Mineral Actions to Counter China Spark Market, Oversight Concerns.

What is the State of AI in eCommerce in 2026? New report from Dynamo portfolio company, Stord, details how AI has crossed the chasm in ecommerce. Most shoppers now use AI, agentic assistants are steering toward “zero-click” buying, and adoption skews young while Boomers’ trust/privacy concerns persist. On the supply side, usage is widespread but maturity lags; the few fully scaled brands see clear lifts in revenue and CLV, leaner inventory, and lower costs, even as legacy data debt and last-mile complexity hold others back. The takeaway for leaders? Optimize for answer engines (AEO) with machine-readable, RAG-grounded catalogs and unify OMS/WMS/ERP for real-time, self-correcting ops, because AI is now the gatekeeper of demand, and only agent-legible, AI-native brands make the shortlist.

How a Combined UP-NS Railroad Would Alter Market Dynamics. Union Pacific’s bid for Norfolk Southern would create a coast-to-coast rail giant with dominant share across most commodities, prompting antitrust concerns even as UP/NS argue an “end-to-end” deal boosts service and truck competition. The Surface Transportation Board has already rejected the initial 6,000-page filing as incomplete, while shippers and experts warn open gateways don’t prevent leverage over joint/local rates and that rail price moves can ripple into trucking. If approved, pricing power and routing influence could tilt toward a UP-NS network unless strict conditions curb rate tactics—making regulatory guardrails and shipper routing strategies decisive for costs across energy, chemical, and intermodal flows. Related, Norfolk Southern Union Pacific Merger Reshapes Rail Network And Risk Profile.

Doing More with Less: Practical AI Moves for Procurement Teams in 2026. Procurement teams are under mandate to cut costs and move faster, but big-bang platform swaps aren’t the answer, incremental AI wins are. The fastest ROI comes from GenAI as a drafting/communication co-pilot (RFPs, SOWs, supplier emails) and modular layers for spend classification and supplier risk monitoring that sit on top of existing ERP/P2P, reinforced by human-in-the-loop workflows and basic data hygiene. The move that matters then, appears to be a staged roadmap from low-complexity, high-impact pilots to scaled capabilities, delivering quicker cycles, sharper visibility, and measurable savings while freeing buyers for higher-value work without a costly transformation. Completely unrelated, What Tariffs Mean for Logistics in 2026.

The US is Awash in Natural Gas, but American Factories Still Can’t Get Enough. US manufacturers face repeated shutdowns during cold snaps despite record gas production and strong LNG exports. The problem isn’t supply, but pipeline bottlenecks. Homes, power plants, and export contracts get priority, leaving factories last in line and triggering severe price spikes. Trade groups are pushing for shorter pipeline contracts and emergency LNG limits during extreme weather. Export terminals briefly feeding gas back into domestic grids confirms the issue is transport, not supply. Until the industry recalibrates midstream capacity, contract priority, and emergency protocols, winter volatility will persist. Manufacturers are shifting toward dual-fuel resilience and storage hedging, while pressure mounts for pipeline expansion and updated market rules. Also, Why Renewables Companies Are Embracing Natural Gas and US Natural Gas Production to Reach Record Highs in 2026 and 2027.

Can Reshoring Deliver Manufacturing Sustainability Benefits? Reshoring accelerates as manufacturers pursue resilience and control, pairing domestic moves with automation and AI. But sustainability gains aren’t automatic, US grid mix and water stress can raise emissions if firms only shorten distances. Success requires integrated redesign, rigorous baselining, and multi-year patience. Treat reshoring as long-term restructuring with clear cost-recovery plans, viable sites, workforce strategy, and tracked ESG metrics. Done well, it de-risks and lifts margins; done poorly, it destroys value. For more, check out The Future of Manufacturing with the Reshoring Institute.

White House Eyes Fees on Foreign Vessels to Fund Shipbuilding. The White House proposed funding US shipbuilding through fees on foreign-built cargo ships and land-port imports, bundled with a Maritime Security Trust and incentives for yard upgrades and training. Backers tout it as stable long-term financing; critics call it a stealth import tax that risks repeating the disruption from earlier tariff surges, with murky revenue projections. For operators, expect higher landed costs and reduced Canada/Mexico routing appeal if enacted. US yards and Jones Act suppliers gain, but price pass-through tolerance, trade retaliation, and legal challenges will determine real impact.

Who Is Paying for the 2025 US Tariffs? US tariffs rose sharply in 2025, shifting economic pressure onto American firms and consumers rather than foreign exporters. Rather than crippling Chinese suppliers, the duties prompted importers to pivot toward alternatives like Mexico and Vietnam, a move that, while cushioned by exemptions and product substitution, still drove import prices higher. For operators, the message is clear — tariff protection hasn’t reduced your costs; it’s restructured them. Build supplier diversification, pricing discipline, and tighter contracts into your core strategy to navigate the persistent margin pressure ahead. Related, 90% of Trump’s Tariffs Are Paid for by American Consumers and Companies, New York Fed Says.

Request for Startups 📢

Dynamo is always looking to meet startups that are helping to make, move, and monetize goods. Check out our latest request for startups below!

The Future of Operational Technology (OT) — Reindustrialization is colliding with decades-old, vendor-locked PLCs and fragmented OT networks, creating a critical opportunity for software-defined, interoperable, secure, and AI-assisted control systems to become the foundation of the next industrial era. Read more here.

The Future of Supply Chain 🎙️

Check out our podcast series that’s been running since 2018. On each episode of the Future of Supply Chain, we sit down with a different entrepreneur, investor, or industry veteran to discuss innovation, technology, and the most exciting opportunities in supply chain as we build the future of the industry together.

Fundraises and M&A 💸

Allonic Raises $7.2M in Pre-Seed Funding. Budapest-based Allonic is developing an automated manufacturing process called 3D tissue braiding to produce robotic bodies, initially focusing on manipulators such as hands, grippers, and end-effectors. The funding will be used to advance its manufacturing platform, expand the team, and support pilot projects and early commercial deployments with industrial partners. The round was led by Visionaries Club, with participation from Day One Capital, Prototype, SDAC Ventures, TinyVC, RoboStrategy, and angel investors from OpenAI, Hugging Face, ETH Zurich, and Northwestern University.

Upside Robotics Raises $7.5M in Seed Funding. Waterloo, Ontario-based Upside Robotics develops lightweight, solar-powered autonomous robots that deliver precise amounts of fertilizer and nutrients to corn crops using proprietary algorithms informed by weather and soil data. The company will use the funding to advance research and development, scale production to meet demand from more than 200 farms on its waitlist, and expand into the US corn belt. The round was led by Plural with participation from Garage Capital and the founders of Clearpath Robotics.

Stanhope AI Raises $8M in Seed Funding. Stanhope AI develops a brain-inspired AI model for autonomous systems based on active inference, enabling machines to learn and adapt in dynamic, real-world environments beyond static large language models. The company will use the funding to accelerate deployments of its Real World Model, expand its team, and advance the next phase of applied AI in areas such as drones and robotics. The $8M seed round was led by Frontline Ventures, with participation from Paladin Capital Group, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund, UCL Technology Fund, and MMC Ventures.

Algorized Raises $13M in Series A Funding. Algorized develops an edge-native Predictive Safety Engine that uses existing wireless sensor infrastructure, including Ultra-Wideband, mmWave, and Wi-Fi, to enable industrial robots to perceive human presence and intent in real time. The company will use the funding to scale commercial deployments across Europe and the US, advance its intent-prediction foundation models, and expand engineering hubs in Switzerland and Silicon Valley. The $13M Series A was led by Run Ventures, with participation from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Acrobator Ventures, along with continued support from existing investors.

Hauler Hero Raises $16M in Series A Funding. Hauler Hero develops an all-in-one AI-powered software platform for waste management companies that integrates customer relationship management, billing, routing, and camera-based fleet visibility tools. The company will use the funds to commercialize its suite of AI agents, including tools for service issue detection, customer support, and route optimization, and to expand its offerings for municipal customers. The Series A round was led by Frontier Growth with participation from K5 Global and Somersault Ventures, among others.

Didero Raises $30M in Series A Funding. Didero provides an agentic AI platform that automates global manufacturing procurement by ingesting emails, messages, and purchase documents and executing workflows on top of existing ERP systems. The company will use the funds to further develop its platform and expand its ability to streamline sourcing, supplier communication, order tracking, and payments for manufacturers and distributors. The $30M Series A was co-led by Chemistry and Headline, with participation from Microsoft’s venture fund M12.

Keychain Raises $30M in Series B Funding. Keychain provides an AI-powered supply chain platform for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, connecting them with packaging and raw material suppliers to coordinate procurement and manufacturing logistics. The company will use the funds to expand its network of suppliers and brands, enhance its AI-driven forecasting and scheduling capabilities, and enter new CPG market segments. The Series B round was led by Wellington Management and BoxGroup, with additional investors undisclosed.

Trener Robotics Raises $32M in Series A Funding. Trener Robotics develops Acteris, a robot-agnostic AI skills platform that enables manufacturers to program and control industrial robots through natural language and physical AI-driven adaptive automation. The company will use the funds to accelerate R&D through its T-Labs program, expand skill training capabilities, hire global talent, and grow its market presence and partner network. The round was co-led by Engine Ventures and IAG Capital Partners, with participation from strategic investors Cadence and Geodesic Capital through Nikon’s NFocus Fund, along with several existing venture backers.

Gather AI Raises $40M in Series B Funding. Gather AI provides an AI platform that uses off-the-shelf warehouse cameras and autonomous drones to monitor operations, scan inventory data such as barcodes and expiration dates, and log insights into warehouse management systems. The company will use the funding to support continued growth and expand its embodied AI platform for warehouse automation. The $40M Series B was led by Smith Point Capital, founded by Keith Block, with participation from existing investors including Bain Capital Ventures, XRC Ventures, and Hillman Investments.

Apptronik Raises $935M in Series A Funding. Humanoid robotics startup Apptronik develops embodied AI-powered bipedal robots, including its Apollo platform, designed for tasks such as unloading trailers, picking warehouse inventory, and tending machinery. The expanded capital will support continued development and commercialization of its humanoid robots as the company advances partnerships with customers and scales production. The latest $520M extension includes participation from existing investors Google, Mercedes-Benz, and B Capital, alongside new undisclosed investors.

ZIM Acquired for Over $3.5B by Hapag-Lloyd and FIMI. ZIM is an Israeli container shipping company operating global trade routes and a fleet of owned and leased vessels, along with digital shipping technology solutions. Under the agreed structure, Hapag-Lloyd will acquire ZIM’s international shipping operations, leased vessels, global routes, and technology division, while FIMI will acquire the Israeli strategic assets and establish a new entity to comply with the state’s golden share requirements. The transaction values ZIM at more than $3.5B, with Hapag-Lloyd partnering with Israeli private equity fund FIMI, managed by Ishay Davidi, to complete the acquisition.

Who’s Hiring? 👩‍💻

Be sure to check out the Dynamo website for more job opportunities at our portfolio companies!

Special Projects Lead at Lux Aeterna in Denver, CO.

Founding SDR, Italian Market at Bonx in Paris, France.

Area Manager at Stord in Las Vegas, NV.