Porsche
Canvas Category OEM : Automotive
At Porsche, the focus is on the cohesion and teamwork of our employees. Because if you want others’ hearts to beat faster, you have to carry your own in the right place. Developing the technology of tomorrow. Always surpassing yourself. Working at Porsche offers many challenges. What might it be like? On our website www.porsche.com/careers you can get insights into the Porsche working environment and experience first-hand what makes working at Porsche so fascinating.
Assembly Line
Black Semiconductor closes €254M for next-gen graphene-based chip tech
Germany’s Black Semiconductor, a startup in the next-generation chip technology sector, has announced €254 million in Series A funding. This is one of the largest funding for a deep tech company manufacturing chips in Europe to date. Of this, €228.7 million in public funding from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia over the next 7 years under IPCEI ME/CT. Alongside the public funding, the company has secured an additional €25.7 million in equity funding.
The round was led by Porsche Ventures and Project A Ventures, with participation from leading venture capital firms, corporates, and industry leaders including Scania Growth, Capnamic, Tech Vision Fonds, and NRW.BANK, joining the seed round investors Vsquared Ventures, Cambium Capital, and Hermann Hauser’s Onsight Ventures.
With the fresh capital, Black Semiconductor will accelerate its R&D initiatives and establish pilot line manufacturing capabilities in Aachen, Germany, an important step towards fulfilling its long-term goal of producing and implementing high-quality graphene in Europe. The company plans to inaugurate a pilot manufacturing facility in Aachen by 2026, demonstrating the seamless integration of graphene into electronic chips.
Porsche Ventures invests in battery startup South 8 to boost cold-weather EV performance
All cars suffer when the mercury drops, but electric vehicles suffer more than most as heaters draw more power and batteries charge more slowly as the liquid electrolyte inside thickens. Drivers in Chicago found this out the hard way last January after many Teslas failed to charge during a deep freeze.
One startup, South 8 Technologies, says it can make cold-weather charging more reliable by filling batteries with a pressurized, liquified gas electrolyte instead of a liquid one. In the process, it hopes to slash the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 30%.
The company recently attracted new funding from Porsche Ventures in the form of a SAFE note, which will be applied to a Series B round that the company is starting to raise. Stepien said he could not disclose the size of Porsche Ventures’ investment.
cylib raises €55M to scale its lithium battery recycling facility
Aachen, Germany-based cylib, a sustainable end-to-end battery recycling firm, announced that it has raised €55M in a Series A funding round in equity financing. The latest funding was co-led by World Fund, and Porsche Ventures, with participation from Bosch Ventures, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, and NRW.Venture. Existing investors Vsquared Ventures, Speedinvest, 10x Founders, and established business angels, also participated. The round, which is the largest round ever raised by a European battery recycling company, was completed less than 24 months after the company started operations. With a team of over 60 professionals, the company plans to use the funds to make key hires.
The company’s proprietary end-to-end recycling technology was developed over several years of research at the renowned RWTH Aachen University. It enables every component in a lithium-ion battery to be recycled, making it the only company on the market to offer clients a way to recover all elements from production scraps, EVs, or micro-mobility batteries. The company claims to have outperformed long-awaited industry break-even points by reaching a recycling efficiency of> 90 per cent while reducing the environmental footprint (GHG-potential) of the recycling process due to cylib’s water-based Lithium and Graphite recovery by 30% in comparison to competitors.
Celestial AI Closes $175 Million Series C Funding Round Led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund
Celestial AI™, creator of the Photonic Fabric™ optical interconnect technology platform, today announced it raised $175 million in its Series C funding round led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT). In addition to USIT, the round included participation from new and existing investors including AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Temasek, Temasek’s wholly owned subsidiary Xora Innovation, IAG Capital Partners, Samsung Catalyst, Smart Global Holdings (SGH), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Engine Ventures, M-Ventures and Tyche Partners.
Amid the explosive growth in demand for generative AI applications and next-generation data centers, hyperscalers are increasingly constrained by utility power availability, memory capacity and high cost of operation. Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology addresses these critical challenges by revolutionizing memory and compute fabrics. This transformational solution provides the foundational technology for users to continue making advancements in AI while maintaining scalable, sustainable and profitable business models. This latest round of funding will enable Celestial AI to execute multiple large-scale customer collaborations focused on commercializing its breakthrough Photonic Fabric technology platform.
Applied Intuition Grows to $6 Billion Valuation, Securing $250 Million in Series E Funding to Advance Vehicle Software and AI Capabilities
Applied Intuition, Inc., a vehicle software supplier for automotive, trucking, construction, mining, agriculture, and other industries, has raised a $250 million Series E financing round at a $6 billion valuation. The round was led by Bilal Zuberi at Lux Capital (Series C lead investor), Elad Gil (Series D lead investor), and strategic investor Porsche Investments Management S.A. representing the well-known successful sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. Applied Intuition also announced the following new and existing investors: Andreessen Horowitz (Series A lead investor), General Catalyst (Series B lead investor), Mary Meeker at BOND, Human Capital, Henry Kravis, Mustafa Suleyman, Ray Dalio, John Quinn, and Nico Rosberg.
Applied Intuition has maintained sustainable triple-digit percentage growth year-over-year, profitably. It has expanded beyond its Silicon Valley headquarters to Detroit, Washington, D.C., Germany, Korea, and Japan and has customers worldwide, including 18 of the top 20 automotive OEMs.
The company will use the financing to make significant investments in generative AI to unlock substantial value for customers and partners. With recent advancements in large language models (LLMs), Applied Intuition is uniquely positioned to help its customers revolutionize the vehicle software development process. The company will continue to recruit the world’s best software and AI engineers to further expand its offerings that enable its customers to have the world’s most advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) solutions.
AM Batteries Closes $30M Series B led by Toyota Ventures to Accelerate the Commercialization of its Dry Battery Electrode Technology
AM Batteries, a pioneer in the field of lithium-ion dry-electrode technologies, today announced it closed a $30M Series B in an oversubscribed funding round led by Toyota Ventures. New investment combines strategic corporate support from Porsche Ventures and Asahi Kasei, with financial investment from RA Capital Management - Planetary Health, Wilson Sonsini, and Industry Ventures. The round also includes existing investors such as Anzu Partners, TDK Ventures, Creative Ventures, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures, Foothill Ventures, and Zeon Ventures.
As more sustainability-focused gigafactories dot the world in places like Asia, Europe, and the United States, efficiencies in battery manufacturing are paramount. With strong commercial traction from tier-one battery producers, AMB’s funding from a robust set of strategic and financial investors will help the company develop and drive the commercialization of dry powder coating technology and equipment for low-cost lithium-ion battery manufacturing.
🔋 The Race for Solid-State Batteries
Solid-state batteries could reshuffle the deck on the market for electric vehicles. Longer ranges, faster charging times, greater safety—solid-state batteries offer numerous advantages for electric cars. Many other applications are also conceivable, such as in aerial taxis, commercial vehicles, and buses, as well as stationary energy storage for renewables. The road to market readiness, however, is by no means clear. Six key tasks need to be solved for a breakthrough in the automotive industry alone: improving product properties, converting existing gigafactories to solid-state production, integrating the batteries into vehicle systems, establishing robust supply chains for new materials, reducing costs by enlarging cell formats, and funding the start-up stage.
While Asian manufacturers like CATL and LG dominate lithium-ion technology, most of the leaders in solid-state battery technology are start-ups in the USA. The established Asian players are not leaving the field without a fight, however. For example, leading cell manufacturers in Korea are forming close partnerships with their suppliers to drive the technology forward. The big carmakers appear to have learned their lesson from lithium-ion batteries. In order to prevent further dependence on Asian suppliers, they have been investing heavily in tech start-ups.
Porsche and UP.Labs plan to build tailormade start-ups
Porsche is expanding its venturing network by collaborating with UP.Labs, a new model for fostering innovative start-ups. The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer has agreed with the US company on a three-year cooperation aimed at establishing six companies from 2023 to 2025 with new business models in various areas of mobility.
The startups’ focus will revolve around Porsche’s core activities. For example, these could involve predictive maintenance, supply chain transparency or digital retail. Porsche is investing a sum in the double-digit millions for this purpose. The startups will be minority owned by Porsche, with the option to purchase them entirely after three years. Development is already underway for the first two startups, to be founded before the end of 2022.