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Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs launch Odysee, an AI-enabled startup taking a new approach to schedule optimization
One year after announcing their partnership to solve business challenges through innovation, Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs, have officially announced their first new startup, Odysee, at the UP.Summit. Odysee, which launched with $5M in seed funding led by UP.Partners, is focused on lending powerful AI and computing power to inform real-time tradeoff decisions in planning for and managing operational logistics, starting with scheduling. The platform will ensure the best use of each aircraft asset and the interconnections between them, empowering teams to more effectively optimize one of the most complex areas of an airline’s business.
Odysee utilizes an operations research-led approach to build flight schedules and rapidly quantify the impacts of schedule changes on revenue, profitability and reliability. The platform can run hundreds of simulations within seconds to provide accurate flight-level insights to stress-test a future schedule. This tool can assess more options and evaluate more variables than the human brain – giving teams the opportunity to make more informed decisions.
J.B. Hunt and UP.Labs Unite to Establish Logistics Venture Lab to Fuel the Next Wave of Innovation in Logistics and Freight
At the UP.Summit, J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., one of the largest supply chain solutions providers in North America, and UP.Labs, a first-of-its-kind venture lab unlocking the future of transportation and mobility, announced their establishment of the Logistics Venture Lab (LVL).
The logistics and freight-focused lab will aim to launch as many as six startups over the next three years to solve core strategic challenges within the industry. The startups, the first of which the companies target to begin launching in 2025, are inspired by opportunities to drive efficiency and solve common problems faced by providers in the logistics and freight transportation space. They will focus on key industry service areas such as brokerage, dedicated, intermodal and truckload, among others.
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.