<div>
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    <li>
      <p>
        Lilium, a Nasdaq-listed eVTOL jet developer, has announced plans to file for insolvency and apply for government-supervised restructuring after burning through USD 1.1 billion raised since 2021.
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    <li>
      <p>
        Lilium went public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in 2021 at a USD 3.3 billion valuation and had over 1,000 employees. The company will now need to seek alternative financing from third parties, including potential purchasers of their assets.
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        <b>Analyst QuickTake:</b>
         This insolvency filing comes right after the German Parliament denied Lilium's request for a EUR 50 million (~USD 55 million) loan in 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35028">
          October 2024
        </a>
        . The rejection of the loan application blocked a matching EUR 50 million loan that it received from the German state of Bavaria in 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33501">
          September 2024
        </a>
        .
      </p>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <p>
  </p>
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<div>
  <p>
    <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2024-10-25/lilium-set-file-insolvency-protection-salvage-evtol-aircraft">
      Aviation International News
    </a>
  </p>
  <p>
    <a href="https://skift.com/2024/10/25/flying-taxi-startup-lilium-burned-through-1-billion-now-its-facing-bankruptcy/">
      Skift
    </a>
  </p>
</div>


Passenger eVTOL Aircraft

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 <p>Lilium, an eVTOL jet developer listed on Nasdaq, is planning to declare insolvency and initiate a government-supervised restructuring process after utilizing all of the USD 1.1 billion it had raised since 2021. </p>
 <p>In 2021, Lilium became a public company by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and was valued at USD 3.3 billion. It had over 1,000 employees. For future financing, the company is considering seeking third-party investors, which could potentially include buyers of their assets.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> This insolvency filing comes right after the German Parliament denied Lilium's request for a EUR 50 million (~USD 55 million) loan in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/35028"> October 2024 </a> . The rejection of the loan application blocked a matching EUR 50 million loan that it received from the German state of Bavaria in <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/33501"> September 2024 </a> .</p>

Lilium plans insolvency filing after German loan denial

Data Infrastructure & Analytics

<div>
 <p>With the leadership of Fintop Capital and Jam Fintop BankTech, Infinant, a provider of banking technology, has secured USD 15 million in a Series A funding round. Other contributors included Bankers Helping Bankers, Woodforest Financial Group, and Raido Capital Partners. The total funding of the company is now raised to USD 20 million.</p>
 <p>The company plans to use the freshly acquired funds to broaden the array of its product offerings. Their focus includes Interlace Console, Payments Hub for ACH services, Wire and FedNow services, Settlement Ops, and also Card Platform that will cater to card issuance and processing with Visa DPS.</p>
 <p>Infinant, founded in 2020, has developed a cloud-based platform, termed as Interlace. This platform is instrumental in enabling banks to launch digital banking solutions and increase their scale. The platform operates above legacy core systems, permitting banks to handle operating accounts and end-user accounts from a single platform. Moreover, it seamlessly integrates with existing core banking systems, empowering banks to maintain control of operations, compliance, and their ledger without having to replace the core.</p>
 
</div>

Infinant raises USD 15 million in Series A funding to expand product offerings

Disrupting the traditional financial system using blockchain

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 <p>Solayer, a protocol built on Solana, has introduced its governance token LAYER and set up the Solayer Foundation. The LAYER token operates as an SPL-2020 token that empowers holders to participate in governance decisions. Its distribution will be carried out in three stages, rounding up with Solayer Season 1. Eligible members will receive notifications via the Solayer dashboard to agree to the terms and conditions before getting their tokens.</p>
 <p>Moreover, the Solayer Foundation, an independent non-profit, has been established aiming to promote protocols that enhance scaling of the Solana virtual machine (SVM). The foundation will help in propelling the protocol's development, which has so far garnered USD 12 million in seed funding from notable investors such as Polychain Capital, Binance Labs, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko.</p> 
</div>

Solayer launches LAYER governance token and non-profit foundation

<div>
 <p>Plume Network, a layer-1 blockchain network for real-world asset (RWA) finance, has initiated a USD 25 million ecosystem fund. This fund is backed by investors like Galaxy Digital, Superscrypt, and Mechanism Capital and is designed to support early-stage RWAfi projects and real-world asset tokenization on its platform.</p>
 <p>The fund, known as the RWAfi Ecosystem Fund, will zero-in on five crucial areas: Innovative RWAfi product development, vertically integrated ecosystems, global accessibility and retail adoption, institutional integration, and cross-chain interoperability. Providing not only capital investment, the fund also offers strategic go-to-market support and guidance to projects that utilize Plume's network and infrastructure.</p>
 <p>A wide range of sectors are targeted by this initiative, such as private credit, insurance products, royalty assets, infrastructure projects, AI/GPU resources, capital infrastructure, investment funds, and collectibles. The fund is currently going through applications from pre-seed and seed-stage founders operating in RWA and DeFi.</p>
</div>

Plume Network launches USD 25 million real-world asset (RWA) ecosystem fund

Empowering Tomorrow's Innovations with Generative AI Infrastructure

Generative AI Infrastructure

<div>
 <p>Exabits, a compute-based layer platform, has integrated 4,000 NVIDIA H200 GPUs into its network, expanding its operations across the US and Europe. The company, valued at USD 150 million and with USD 10 million in annual recurring revenue, aims to transform GPU clusters into investment assets.</p>
 <p>The new GPU infrastructure features a unique Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) and a 3.2 trillion InfiniBand architecture. This advanced system ensures secure and verifiable AI computations while maintaining data integrity and confidentiality. It is particularly designed for sectors dealing with sensitive data such as healthcare and financial transactions.</p>
 <p>With this integration, Exabits positions itself as the only player in the crypto space with in-house capabilities to manage and scale a 4,000 GPU H200 architecture. The system is built with a focus on serving demanding enterprise clients from autonomous driving, healthcare, and financial modeling sectors. It also aims to support innovations in DeSci and AI agent communities.</p>

</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> Other notable initiatives to scale GPU capacity for LLM training include CoreWeave's <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/37006"> partnership </a> with Cohere to build a multi-billion-dollar AI data center in Canada and xAI's planned <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/37005"> expansion </a> of Colossus supercomputer in Memphis. Meanwhile, companies also raised funding to expand data center capacity for GenAI workloads (Nebius AI <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/36720"> raised </a> USD 700 million, Crusoe <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/37588"> raised </a> USD 600 million, and Nscale <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/37002"> raised </a> USD 155 million).</p>

Exabits integrates NVIDIA H200 GPUs for AI computations

Using online platforms, autonomy, electric and fuel-cell tech solutions to shape the future of trucking.

Truck Industry Tech

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

<div>
 <p>Torc Robotics and Aeva have enhanced their collaboration to further the development of autonomous trucks. Torc Robotics, a subsidiary of Daimler Truck specializing in self-driving technology, and Aeva, a company focused on sensing and perception systems, are combining their expertise in this venture.</p>
 <p>The expanded partnership calls for data sharing from 4D LiDAR sensing and utilization of a Freightliner Cascadia vehicle platform for long-range sensing applications. This progress builds on a previous agreement where Daimler Truck chose Aeva to supply its long and ultra-long-range LiDAR for autonomous commercial vehicles. The goal is to commercialize these autonomous vehicles by 2027.</p>
 
</div>

Torc and Aeva expand partnership to advance autonomous truck development

Conservation Tech

<div>
 
 <p>Agricultural supply chain SaaS startup based in Finland, Orijin, has received seed funding from Brainforest and Gorilla Capital, of an undisclosed sum. </p>
 <p>According to the company, this financing will be allocated towards technology advancement, global expansion, and providing sustainable solutions for smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. </p>
 <p>Orijin's platform offers features such as deforestation monitoring and real-time product origin verification, specifically for coffee and cocoa supply chains. These services ensure alignement with the EU Deforestation Regulation. </p>
 
</div>

Orijin raises seed funding for product development and expansion

Sustainably solving the food shortages of the future

Smart Farming

<div>
 
 <p>Orijin, an agricultural supply chain SaaS startup based in Finland, has received seed funding from Brainforest and Gorilla Capital. The amount of funding remains undisclosed.</p>
 <p>This financing will be directed towards technological enhancement, global expansion, and providing sustainable solutions to smallholder farmers and agribusinesses.</p>
 <p>Orijin's platform offers features such as deforestation monitoring and product origin verification in real-time for coffee and cocoa supply chains. This ensures compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation.</p>
 
</div>

Foundation Models

<div>
 
 <p>AI search engine Perplexity AI has started using OpenAI's o1 model in its Pro subscription tier.</p>
 <p>The o1 model is designed for reasoning tasks like solving puzzles, coding, and complex mathematical problems. The platform also supports other models such as GPT-4o and Claude 3 Sonnet/Opus.</p>
 <p>Perplexity is working on new homepage widgets to combine information from its Discover feed, weather updates, and stock prices. These widgets are part of their plan to build an AI-powered homepage for the internet, offering users a central hub for personalized information.</p>
 
</div>

Perplexity adds OpenAI o1 model and develops homepage widgets

<div>
 <p>Nikola, a manufacturer of electric and hydrogen trucks, has joined forces with WattEV, a company offering heavy-duty truck charging and electric Trucks-as-a-Service (TaaS). The collaboration involves the sale of 22 fully battery electric trucks.</p>
 <p>The transaction was made possible through Nikola's dealer Next Generation Trucks, following WattEV's prior purchase of 14 electric vehicles in 2023. This collaboration is set to help Nikola achieve its yearly delivery target of 300-350 trucks.</p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> Nikola’s other BEV customers include <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/11001"> Walmart </a> <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/14210"> , </a> <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/20702"> J.B. Hunt, </a> and <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/updates/17991"> Alberta Motor Transport Association </a> .</p>

Nikola partners with WattEV to supply 22 BEVs

AI, robotics, and IoT to streamline the flow of goods and information

Logistics Tech

<div>
 <p>Data capture and digital solutions provider, Zebra Technologies, is set to acquire Photoneo, a company specialized in robotic vision sensors and intelligence software. The financial details of the acquisition have yet to be disclosed.</p>
 <p>Photoneo strengths lie in their 3D vision and AI robotics systems, which are certified to integrate seamlessly with major robotic manufacturers globally, particularly in robot-arm applications.</p>
 <p>Post-acquisition, Photoneo Brightpick Group will continue operations under a new name, Brightpick, with primary focus on warehouse robots. The acquisition deal is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2025.</p>
 
</div>

All updates

Lilium plans insolvency filing after German loan denial

Infinant raises USD 15 million in Series A funding to expand product offerings

Solayer launches LAYER governance token and non-profit foundation

Plume Network launches USD 25 million real-world asset (RWA) ecosystem fund

Exabits integrates NVIDIA H200 GPUs for AI computations

Torc and Aeva expand partnership to advance autonomous truck development

Orijin raises seed funding for product development and expansion

Orijin raises seed funding for product development and expansion

Perplexity adds OpenAI o1 model and develops homepage widgets

Nikola partners with WattEV to supply 22 BEVs

Zebra Technologies to acquire Photoneo from Photoneo Brightpick Group for undisclosed sum

Passenger eVTOL Aircraft

Lilium plans insolvency filing after German loan denial

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