A startup that builds other startups raised $100M, and is all-in on physical AI
Four years ago, a startup lab launched that wasnât quite an incubator, accelerator program, or venture firm. UP.Labs, as it was called then, built startups designed to solve problems for corporate customers such as Alaska Airlines and Porsche, as well as for the outside world. The firm still has the same mission â albeit with a critical addition to its approach, a new name, and a $100 million investment from Silversmith Capital Partners. Vantora, as the firm is now called, continues to work with its corporate customers, including some new ones in industrial manufacturing that it declined to name, and in the oil and gas sector. But now, itâs more focused on building startups solely for its corporate customers, and not for the broader market. Founder and CEO John Kuolt told TechCrunch that Vantora is moving toward a âproprietary M&A pipeline.â This means Vantora will still build startups for its corporate partners, which invest in the ventures and serve as their first customers. But those corporate partners now have the option to fold the startups into their core businesses â and essentially keep them to themselves. That shift has influenced Vantoraâs increased focus on physical AI startups, according to Kuolt. In the past, Vantora would end up spiking ideas that were strategic to its corporate partners, but too sensitive to bring to the outside world. âWe were missing on the biggest value problems, which had the biggest upside because of that,â Kuolt said in a recent interview. âImagine youâre a Fortune 100 industrial company and you need to retrofit all of your hardware and machines for autonomy. You need to own that, it needs to be sovereign, and you canât rely on a third party to go do that for you. You need to own that intelligence layer. Theyâre never going to let us go sell that to their competitors.â This change has allowed Vantora to âunlock big physical AI use cases,â according to Kuolt, including with its existing customers. For example, the firm came up with an idea to use AI to advance the business of its partner J.B. Hunt. âThey said there is no way you can take this out to the world, and so we passed on it,â he said, adding that this proprietary model now allows Vantora to pursue it. The firm launched in 2022 with Porsche as itsfirst corporate partner. Since then, Vantora has launchedseveral startupsfor Porsche and struck deals withAlaska Airlines, J.B. Hunt, Wabash, and TDG, the parent of Ashley Furniture. In its early days, UP.Labs was tied â although never financially â to venture firm Up.Partners. While Vantora still shares office space with the California-based VC, it is its own entity, Kuolt explained, noting that the $100 million from Silversmith is the companyâs first outside investment.
