UPS Ventures

Electrifying passenger and commercial travel

EV Economy

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 Arrival is a UK-based company that manufactures electric passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles. This includes the &ldquo;Arrival Car,&rdquo; which the company intended for ride-hailing and car-sharing services; the &ldquo;Arrival XL Van,&rdquo; an urban utility vehicle; and the &ldquo;Arrival Bus,&rdquo; which can be tailored to community requirements.&nbsp;
 
 
 Furthermore, the company&rsquo;s vehicles have embedded telematics for data collection from an array of sensors. This enables vehicle owners to track real-time and historic location, speed, and other data. The vehicles can also be analyzed for health faults and incidents.
 
 
 Arrival intended to manufacture these EVs through a decentralized microfactory network that uses cell-based robotic assembly. These microfactories will be located in areas of demand using existing commercial spaces or warehouses. They will be operational within six months of readying a site. The vehicles will be manufactured from proprietary composite materials, which are low-cost, 50% lighter than steel, durable, and resistant to damage.
 
 
 Arrival began testing its buses at a facility in December 2021. Furthermore, in September 2022, the company reported that it produced the first production verification vehicle at its Bicester Microfactory.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Arrival&rsquo;s latest funding was in 
 <a href="https://arrival.com/news/">
 September 2023
 </a>
 , when the company secured bridge financing of up to USD 50 million from Antara Capital and Highbridge Capital Management. The funds were to be used as working capital or to explore a potential sale. Prior to this in March 2023, the company established a USD 300 million equity financing line with Westwood Capital. In April 2023, the company was listed on the Nasdaq through a SPAC merger. The combined company was valued at USD 524 million. However, in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/26530">
 February 2024
 </a>
 , Arrival reported its delisting from Nasdaq due to its inability to produce its annual statements for 2022. During the same month, the company also reported that it filed for bankruptcy.
 
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Fast Radius, Inc. is a leading cloud manufacturing and digital supply chain company. The Cloud Manufacturing Platform™ from Fast Radius is a first-of-its-kind solution that integrates design, production, and fulfillment operations through a common digital infrastructure to make manufacturing easier, more accessible, and more sustainable. Founded in 2017, Fast Radius, Inc. is headquartered in Chicago with offices in Atlanta, Louisville, and Singapore and micro-factories in Chicago and at the UPS Worldport facility in Louisville, KY.

Optoro is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider with a returns management system (RMS) for brands, retailers, and 3PLs. The RMS spans the entire returns lifecycle— from return initiation, return methods, dispositioning/grading, restock, and ultimately resale. Optoro's RMS threads together the returns experience from customer-facing returns channels (website portal) to back-end operational systems like WMS.

Arrival is a technology company that develops a generation of two electric vehicles. It develops software, materials, components, and scalable skateboard platforms and its micro-factories allow them to make vehicles and adapt to any mobility ecosystem. It is a zero-emission solution for cities and a human-centered, intelligent design to revitalize public transportation. The company’s new method uses low CapEx, rapidly scalable Microfactories that can be placed anywhere in the world to serve the regions they are located in. It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in London, England.

TuSimple is a self-driving truck company developing a technology that allows driving from depot to depot without human intervention. The company's trucks are capable of self-driving from depot to depot and do so every day for its customers. It develops a commercial-ready Level 4 (SAE) fully autonomous driving solution for the logistics industry. The company is driven by a mission to increase safety, decrease transportation costs, and reduce carbon emissions.  In 2015, Jianan Hao, Mo Chen, and Xiaodi Hou headquartered the company in San Diego, California.

Rithmik is an AI platform. They offer predictive maintenance on mobile mining equipment. They provide innovative solutions for optimizing productivity and profitability. They are AI-powered analytics systems purpose-built for mobile mining equipment.

Inxeption is the Industrial Commerce SuperApp. Its secure and scalable cloud-based digital commerce platform brings Capital, Data, Products, and Services on-demand for Industrial and supply chain businesses. Companies of any size in any industry can drive more sales, gain operational visibility, and realize cost savings. Inxeption Commerce Partners enjoy access to sell products on the Inxeption B2B marketplace and to develop new online commerce channels, as well as valuable applications that simplify and streamline logistics and other operations. Inxeption’s challenge to the Industrial sector is: Let's Do Business Better.

ORBITLESS™ is the first novel drivetrain technology in generations. The patent pending ORBITLESS™ Drive can be used in a variety of applications from Motion Control, Robotics, Electric vehicles, Wind Power or really anywhere gear motors are used . It can be an alternative to a Planetary Drives, Harmonic (strain-wave) or Spur Gearsets, or used in combination to derive the desired ideal gearbox. Available in single stage, multi-stage, high and low ratio configurations, the possibilities are endless. We work with leading innovative gearhead, power transmission, and gearmotor companies that are looking to maintain their competitive edge. Our company provides a technical consultancy service and a support network, to offer external clients transmission design, analysis, build and test engineering.

Mandaê joins logistics and technology to innovate the delivery industry with a fluid and uncomplicated service. Think ''UPS without the trucks'': Mandaê is reinventing parcel logistics through a digital platform that organizes the entirety of the parcel supply chain to deliver a seamless, high-quality and efficient parcel shipment service for SMBs in Brazil. The company's model is asset-light, working with players across each of the principal steps of the parcel supply chain: pickups, cross-docking, and last-mile transport. In a country where the national postal service is effectively the only shipping option for SMBs, Mandaê’s platform is the only one that allows them to use private transporters, helping SMBs save up to 35% on their shipping costs. Its mission is to “Connect Stories” through logistics. The company is well funded with backing from some of Latin America’s top investors, including Monashees, Qualcomm Ventures, Performa, Valor Capital, Hans Hickler (former CEO of DHL Express-USA) and others. Mandaê was selected to the 2015 Endeavor Startup Network, was winner of the ABComm Innovation in E-commerce Logistics Award in 2017, and winner of the São Paulo “Smart Cities” category of the 1776 Challenge Cup.

Peloton Technology was founded in 2011 by a team of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to address major pain points of today’s trucking fleets – accidents and fuel costs. Peloton's system uses radar and DSRC vehicle-to-vehicle communications to link active safety systems between pairs of trucks, reducing collision-related expenses and fuel costs. The drivers remain fully engaged and retain steering control, while the system controls acceleration and braking similar to adaptive cruise control. The dramatic reduction in aerodynamic drag in these platoons provides substantial improvements in fuel economy for both the trailing and leading trucks: with on-road testing showing average savings of over 7% between the two trucks.

Deliv is a crowdsourced, same-day delivery service that extends the reach of omnichannel retailers and provides their customers with an even more exceptional shopping experience. The company helps retailers enhance their customer experience by giving customers the choice to receive their items whenever and wherever they want. Deliv allows retailers to offer their customers a same-day delivery option as they shop from their website, mobile app or even when they are shopping in their physical brick and mortar stores.   The same-day delivery button is simply added into the existing checkout process which allows the retailer to maintain ownership and data from each customer transaction. All same-day delivery orders (whether purchased online or in the store) are fulfilled and delivered from local brick and mortar stores, which now allow retailers’ stores to strategically become local distribution centers. This allows retailers to deliver faster and cheaper and in a more convenient way than any pure play eCommerce player like Amazon.   Deliv has partnered with nearly 100 national and regional omnichannel retailers, as well as the four largest mall operators in the U.S., Simon Property Group, Macerich, Westfield and General Growth Properties. These mall operators manage close to 800 malls across the country, and extend this offering to all of its tenant retailers. Deliv is currently live with almost 100 retailers in nine malls across the four mall operators in five geographies within California and Illinois. Deliv is quickly expanding to dozens of other geographies nationwide.   Deliv’s crowdsourced drivers are made up of highly educated, experienced customer service and sales personnel. They are rated by customers so the platform is able to prioritize the allocation of jobs to those with the highest ratings. The Deliv platform incorporates smart routing and full transparency including the ability for shoppers to watch their delivery on a map real time from pickup to delivery to their doorstep.    To date, Deliv has raised $12.5 million from traditional, institutional and strategic investors including the four mall operators, Simon, Macerich, Westfield and GGP, as well as General Catalyst Partners, Operators Fund, PivotNorth Capital, RPM Ventures and Upfront Ventures.

Aria Insights fuses information across a team of intelligent aerial robots to transform data into actionable insights. They enter logistically difficult and potentially dangerous settings to bring data to the decision makers, thus keeping people out of harm’s way.

Ally Commerce is a complete ecommerce outsourcing solution for branded manufacturers selling direct-to-consumer. Ally is multi-channel, including marketplaces and your own branded website. We are a true turnkey solution. Our services include web design, marketing, pricing, customer service / sales support, warehousing, inventory and order management, fulfillment, and returns management.   Ally is the proven leader in its industry. We have set the bar as the leader across key ecommerce metrics ranging from conversion to customer satisfaction to shipping. And our fees give you the best margins of any option.   Ally's advantage stems from its expertise of selling online, multiplied by its state of the art technology and operations. Our customers turn to us as their partner and thought leader for ecommerce. Our proprietary cloud-based technology enables us to operate your ecommerce for less than if you did it yourself. It enables unique conversion strategies that have not been matched anywhere else. Our technology also gives you the ability to understand your customers. It is scalable, agile, and requires literally no integration from you.   Could you imagine maximizing your online sales while doing so with better economics than you've ever had? That is Ally. We look forward to partnering with you.

Kabbage is a financial technology and data company pioneering a new, automated way for small businesses to access working capital. The company simplifies the manual application process to one that is 100% online and automated. Businesses can use their business data to submit an application online and receive an answer in minutes instead of waiting weeks and filling out numerous forms like traditional lending methods. Businesses can access ongoing lines of credit up to $250,000. Kabbage leverages business data generated such as revenue, accounting data, business transactions, shipping data, social media and other sources to understand a business’s overall health and calculate credit lines throughout the customer lifecycle. The company began serving online merchants in 2011 and extended its automated lending platform to all small businesses – online and brick-and-mortar – in February 2014. In November 2013, Kabbage expanded its business to mobile with an iOS and Android app that enables users to apply or access their funds from their smartphones. Kabbage used to provide a consumer lending product, Karrot, but it is no longer available. Kabbage expanded the application of its platform in March 2015 by licensing the data and technology platform to power lending for other organizations. The company was named one of Forbes magazine’s Most Promising Companies list for the second year in a row. Kabbage further extended its lending reach in May 2015 with the announcement of the new Kabbage Card, which gives businesses the ability to pay for items at the point of sale with a purchasing card tied to their Kabbage account. Kabbage also collaborated with MasterCard in May 2015 to make Kabbage’s data and technology platform available through MasterCard’s network of acquirers. In August 2015, Kabbage was named the 36th fastest-growing private company in America on the Inc. 500 list. In October 2015, Kabbage completed a Series E funding round of $135 million led by Reverence Capital Partners. Holland’s ING, Spain’s Santander (via InnoVentures, Santander's venture capital arm); and Canada’s Scotiabank also participated in the round. Kabbage also announced a strategic partnership with ING to deliver instant capital to small businesses throughout Spain. In June 2016, Kabbage was named to CNBC's annual Disruptor 50 list of the most forward-thinking and ambitious companies that are revolutionizing industries and markets worldwide. Two months later, Kabbage was named to the Inc. 500 list of the country's fastest-growing private companies for the second year in a row In August 2016, Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) upgraded and affirmed ratings on Class A2-2 Certificates issued by Kabbage Funding 2014-1 Resecurization Trust. The certificates were upgraded from BBB+(sf) to A-(sf) based on structural improvements to the transaction’s concentration requirements and the existence of more historical data relating to Kabbage’s collateral. KBRA also affirmed the ratings on the Class B2A Certificates of BB-(sf), Class B2B Certificates of BB-(sf) and Class B2C Certificates of B+(sf), which were initially rated in November 2015. In 2017, the company raised $250 million from Softbank Group Corp., raising its total equity funding to $500 million, making Kabbage one of the most well-funded companies with a female co-founder at the helm. It also secured the largest asset-backed securitizations of small business loans in the online lending industry of $525 million. In November, it diversified its debt-funding sources further with a $200 million revolving credit facility with Credit Suisse, earning investment-grade ratings of ‘A’ and ‘BBB’ by DBRS. It ranked on the Inc. 500 list as one of the country’s fasting-growing private companies for a third consecutive year, on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list, among CB Insights Fintech 250, in the top 10 of KPMG’s Fiintech 100, and its co-founder, Kathryn Petralia, was named one of Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women in the World.

Augmate offers an IoT and wearable device management platform that allows organizations to develop end-point solutions, bringing the power of IoT, blockchain, and AI to the world. The company's goal is to connect all things with the same powerful simplicity of wearables. The company's blockchain-based protocol-agnostic platform provides growth that enables enterprises to manage IoT devices. It aggregates sensor data through a secure network of wearable devices and beacons. To optimize conditions for safe and productive actions, it manages the distribution of information across a workforce. The company's current hardware partners are Google Glass, Vuzix, Epson, Uvex, Recon Instruments, and Optinvent. Augmate was founded in 2013 and is based in New York.

Itembase is an e-commerce API integration platform. It is a marketplace that connects e-commerce shops with solution providers. It allows solution providers to offer services on multiple shop systems by solely integrating with itembase. Today, already more than 120,000 e-commerce shops get access to the best solutions tailored to the needs. Itembase was founded on 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

HubLogix is a SaaS based solution that empowers online retailers to automate logistics process throughout the order lifecycle. We work with some of the the leading commerce platforms (e.g. Channel Advisor, Magento, Shopify, Amazon, etc.) and a growing eco-system of third party logistics providers and distributors to make sure orders go from cart to doorstep as efficiently as possibly.

Shutl is a technology startup that offers convenient fulfillment services by connecting online retailers with local same-day couriers.   The company solves fulfillment for retailers and shoppers by enabling immediate or convenient delivery of online purchases. Its platform creates a marketplace from the capacity of local courier firms and uses retail partners’ local stocks to fulfill purchases. It integrates with all major dispatch software and retailers’ existing technologies.   Shutl operates in more than 50 towns across the United Kingdom with a virtual fleet of thousands of couriers who complete 10,000 deliveries every day.   Shutl was founded in December 2009 by [Tom Allason](http://www.crunchbase.com/person/tom-allason) in London, United Kingdom. It also has operations in Manhattan and Chicago.

SensorLogic provides M2M application hosting and the only PaaS (platform-as-a-service) provider that offers easily customizable M2M solutions with a pre-integrated nation-wide GSM/GPRS network. Customers using Sensorlogic's XpressIQ Service Suite have access to ready-to-use applications for GPS tracking, asset monitoring and control, as well as value-added network services

Truviso data analytics software is designed to give network-driven businesses immediate insight into their operations through continuous analysis of live production data.  These customers have traditional data warehouse and business intelligence solutions that cannot deliver actionable information from their production systems quickly enough, or cannot scale efficiently with rapidly increasing volumes of data. The flexibility Truviso customers gain by being able to combine current and historical data in real time provides them with accurate visibility and actionable information for their marketing, sales and operations teams, as well as for their partners and customers.

Impinj is a provider of RAIN RFID solutions that deliver Item Intelligence to retail, pharmaceutical, healthcare, food and beverage, and many other industries. We enable the Internet of Things to identify, locate and authenticate billions of items, and our Item Intelligence platform comprises the most comprehensive and widely adopted RAIN RFID product portfolio in the world. For more information about Impinj, visit www.impinj.com.

Xytrans designs and manufactures high-frequency transceivers and outdoor units for global leaders in wireless broadband communications.

Launched in 1999, Air2Web offers companies the tools and technology to promote products and brands, improve the efficiency of customer service and enable mobile transactions, anytime, anywhere. Over the past 10 years, Air2Web has launched thousands of mobile marketing campaigns and integrated mobile technology into strategic business applications for customer care.   Acquired by Velti in 2011, Air2Web's tools and technology are now integrated into Velti's full-funnel mobile marketing platform. Velti's results-focused technology platform, coupled with Air2Web's mCRM solutions, allows marketers to harness the power of mobile to reach new customers, drive consideration with interactive mobile marketing strategies, accelerate consumer actions using meaningful data, and nurture customer relationships thru data-driven marketing programs. Velti is a publicly held corporation based in Jersey, and trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol VELT. For more information, visit www.velti.com.

G2 Microsystems, Inc. designs, develops, and markets low-power Wi-Fi system-on-chip solutions, modules, and networking applications. The companyâ€™s solutions are used for asset tracking applications in healthcare, oil and gas, chemical, government, and automotive industries; wireless sensing applications in enterprises, retail outlets, factories, and warehouses; and in consumer devices, such as media players, gaming platforms, digital cameras, remote controls, headsets, and computer peripherals. Its modules provide connected Wi-Fi and networking services for mains and battery-powered devices.   The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Campbell, California. It operates a research and development facility in Sydney, Australia.

DemandPoint, Inc. provides management consulting, training, and technology services. It offers fulfillment systems and architecture, supply chains, manufacturing capability, operational excellence, information technology and systems architecture, and organizational and change management assessment services. The company also provides training and education, consulting and process design, and technology solutions. Its clients include medical devices, consumer products, pharmaceutical, logistics, aerospace/defense, contract manufacturing, and high tech/capital equipment industries. DemandPoint, Inc. was founded as Pelion Systems, Inc. in 1996 and changed its name to DemandPoint, Inc. in March 2007. The company is based in Englewood, Colorado.

nuBridges provides technology solutions for extended enterprises that share sensitive data across applications, departments and organizations, and face complex security and compliance mandates. Their innovative data encryption, data tokenization, key management, managed file transfer and EDI solutions help customers get information from point A to point B; do it safely; and prove compliance.  Proven in production, nuBridges software and services readily scale across heterogeneous enterprise environments including legacy systems, and offer unified visibility for improved analysis, decision support and administrative efficiency.  nuBridges solutions and support have established a new standard of quality for the industry, and are trusted by the world’s most demanding organizations to exchange and protect billions of payment card transactions, personal data records and business-critical file transfers.

Servigistics is the world's leading enterprise software solution provider for Service Lifecycle Management (SLM). As the recognized leader in SLM, Servigistics’ main goal is to help their clients transform their service business operations to achieve new sources of revenue, profits, competitive differentiation and customer loyalty. At Servigistics, their mission is to consistently deliver beyond their client expectations so they can consistently deliver beyond their customer expectations.

CarrierPoint designs and develops web-based logistics software that enables shippers and carriers to communicate with each other. The company’s range of solutions consists of compliance, monitoring, collaboration, and integration. Compliance offers eRFQ, contract management, shipment rating, dispatch, scheduling, and freight payment services. Monitoring offers status tracking, delivery confirmation, dock delivery, and analysis reports. Collaboration consists of planned and unplanned collaboration. Integration consists of OMSI and professional services. CarrierPoint was founded in 1999 by Cliff Isaacson and John Thomson and is based in Georgia.

Moai Technologies, Inc. provides e-sourcing consulting and technology-enabled solutions. It offers RapidSource program to provide strategic sourcing analysis on specific commodities; and CompleteSource Solution Suite that allows purchasing and supply chain managers to implement e-sourcing strategies, as well as offers a range of online negotiation formats, including multi-line, multi-parameter eRFxs, reverse auctions, and multi-stage negotiations. The company’s consulting solutions include development of custom and optimized commodity templates, marketplace and industry dynamics research, cost and strategy modeling, reverse auction scenario planning, benchmarking and should cost applications, reverse spend analysis strategies, cost reduction measurement systems, and post-implementation performance tuning. Moai Technologies, Inc.’s e-sourcing solutions include spend analysis, sourcing management, contract management, and quickstart program. It also provides category of services that include technical implementation, education, support, and hosted services. The company serves enterprises and mid-sized companies. Moai Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

UPS Ventures is the private equity strategic investment arm of UPS. The Fund is a corporate venture capital group which focuses on developing critical partnerships and acquiring knowledge returns from its investments in information technology companies and emerging market-spaces.

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