Koch Industries (Koch)
Canvas Category OEM : Chemical
What began as a small engineering firm in America’s heartland has grown and flourished into one of the world’s largest private companies. From life’s basics to tomorrow’s technological breakthroughs, it’s our job to create and innovate a wide spectrum of products and services that make life better – and to do so responsibly while consuming fewer resources.
Assembly Line
Outrider Closes $62 Million Series D Financing to Drive Growth of Yard Automation
Outrider, the leader in autonomous yard operations for logistics hubs, has raised $62 million in an oversubscribed Series D financing round. The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with additional investments from 8VC, ARK Invest, B37 Ventures, FM Capital, Interwoven Ventures, NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), and Prologis Ventures. This funding will drive the commercial scaling of Outrider’s autonomous yard operations as a service with Fortune 500 customers in 2025 and solidify its position at the forefront of logistics automation.
With over $250 million in equity capital raised to date, Outrider is working closely with customers to launch and scale autonomous yard operations as a service across industries such as package shipping, retail and eCommerce, consumer packaged goods, and automotive. Since 2019, Outrider’s customers, representing over 20 percent of all yard trucks in operation in North America, have been actively involved in product testing and pilot deployments, highlighting their commitment to reinventing yard operations.
weavix® Secures $23.6 Million in Series B Funding
weavix, the Wichita-based technology firm specializing in frontline communication and efficiency solutions, announced today it has successfully raised $23.6 million in its latest Series B funding round. The investment was led by global software investor Insight Partners, with participation from Four More Capital, The Friedkin Group, and Perkins Coie. As strategic partners and leaders in the industrial world, they now join Koch Disruptive Technologies, which previously invested $10 million in Series A funding in January 2022.
With this new funding, weavix intends to expand its product offerings and strengthen its market presence in industries such as manufacturing, construction, food and beverage production, hospitality, and energy. The funds raised will be primarily allocated to rapidly scale operations across the United States to meet demand and secure the position as the leading frontline worker platform benefiting the hands-on workforce through employee communication to drive engagement, enablement, and retainment.
Silo Technologies Lands $132 Million in New Capital
Silo Technologies, the leading provider of modern technology solutions for the food supply chain, today announces $132 million in new capital. The company’s $32 million Series C round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, a global leader in supply chain logistics known for their focused investments in technologies that disrupt established industries. Additional participants in the round included existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Haystack Capital, Tribe Capital, Collate Capital and Moore Capital.
Silo offers a holistic fintech platform that makes financial solutions and data insights accessible for distributors and grower shipper businesses of the perishable food supply chain.
Celestial AI, the Creator of the Photonic Fabric Optical Interconnect Technology Platform, Raises $100 Million in Series B Funding
Celestial AI, the Photonic Fabric™ company, today announced it has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) and Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund. Other major investors in the round include Samsung Catalyst, Smart Global Holdings (SGH), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, The Engine Fund, imec.xpand, M Ventures and Tyche Partners. Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric technology platform delivers optical connectivity performance levels that are ten years more advanced than existing technology offerings.
After close collaboration with hyperscalers, AI compute and memory providers, Celestial AI is introducing the Photonic Fabric™, the optical interconnect for disaggregated, exascale compute and memory clusters. Photonic Fabric is unconstrained by package beachfront limitations and can deliver data to any location on the compute die, directly to the point of consumption. The bandwidth delivered by the Photonic Fabric is 25x greater and delivers more than 10X lower latency and power consumption than any optical interconnect alternative, such as Co-Packaged Optics (CPO).
Percepto Raises $67M Series C, Receives FAA Waiver, Ushering in New Era of Autonomous Drone Inspections at Industrial Sites
Percepto, the leading autonomous inspection and monitoring solution provider, announced today a combined $67M Series C in equity and debt funding, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), alongside new investors Zimmer Partners and one of the largest U.S. energy companies. The round includes participation from existing investors U.S. Venture Partners, Delek US Holdings, Atento Capital, Spider Capital and Arkin Holdings, bringing the total investment in the company to more than $120 million, reflecting Percepto’s strong performance and confidence in its robust offering.
Percepto recently received an unprecedented, nationwide Beyond Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver from the FAA, allowing the company to provide any US critical infrastructure site with remotely-operated automated drones without the need for site specific approvals from the FAA. A game changer for the industry, this waiver removes logistical and cost barriers, such as the need for radars or people on the ground, fueling the adoption of autonomous drone technology.
Koch Teams With Startup to Build Giant Battery Factory in Georgia
Norwegian startup Freyr Battery and energy conglomerate Koch Industries Inc. are accelerating their plan to build a multibillion-dollar battery plant that will be among the largest to tap incentives in President Biden’s climate, tax and spending plan, Freyr said.
Koch’s chief executive long opposed environmental regulation and subsidies while funding groups that questioned climate change. The company and Freyr will likely invest more than $2.6 billion in two phases for the Georgia plant, which will supply batteries primarily for the U.S. power grid.
Koch Strategic Platforms Leads $102M Series D Funding Investment in 6K To Accelerate Battery Material Production and Recycling
6K, a leader in the sustainable production of engineered materials for lithium-ion batteries and additive manufacturing produced from its UniMelt® plasma technology, announced today it has raised $102 million in its Series D funding first close. The round was led by Koch Strategic Platforms, a subsidiary of Koch Investments Group, an investment arm of Koch Industries, with participation by investors Energy Impact Partners, Albemarle, HG Ventures, as well as participation by 6K’s existing investors. The Series D proceeds will fund production expansion for premium 3D metal powders in its 6K Additive division and accelerate the deployment of cathode production plants in its 6K Energy division.
The $102 million raised is the first of two funding tranches for Series D, which is expected to reach $150 million in total. With an expected close in spring 2022, 6K will add a limited group of strategic investors. 6K is working with partners throughout the supply chain with the intent to build an end-to-end solution, including its partnership with Albemarle for the sustainable production of lithium products, and Heritage/Retriev for the production of cathode from end-of-life batteries. 6K is opening its $30M Battery Center of Excellence in August 2022 and working through site selection for its first 10-20 GWh cathode plant with production launch in early 2024.
Celestial AI Raises $56 Million Series A to Disrupt the Artificial Intelligence Chipset Industry with Novel Photonic-Electronic Technology Platform
Celestial AI, an AI-accelerator company with a proprietary hardware and software platform for machine learning chipsets, today announced a $56 million Series A investment led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) with participation from Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund, The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT, Tyche Partners, Merck’s corporate venture fund, M-Ventures, IMEC XPand, and venture capital investor in the Princeton University ecosystem, Fitz Gate. The new capital will be used for expanding the global engineering team, product development and strategic supplier engagements, including Broadcom, to build the company’s Orion AI accelerator products. Celestial AI’s mission is to fundamentally transform the way computing is done with a new processing system, based on their proprietary Photonic Fabric™ technology platform, that uses light for data movement both within chip and between chips.
Koch Ag & Energy High Value Digitalization Deployments Leverages AWS
This application uses existing plant sensors, Monitron sensors, Amazon Lookout and SeeQ software to implement predictive maintenance on more complex equipment. The goal accomplished was successfully implementing predictive maintenance requires data from thousands of sensors to gain a clear understanding of unique operating conditions and applying machine learning models to achieve highly accurate predictions. In the past modeling equipment behavior and diagnosis issues requiring significant investment in time money inhabiting scaling this capability across all assets.