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Today’s number is 6. That is the number of entities Alibaba - the Chinese tech giant will split into and pursue independent IPOs.

Hello and welcome back to news, trends & insights in the industry.

In today’s edition:

• 3 Start-ups (Venti, Cabify, IntegrityNext)

• 2 Old guards (Alibaba, Walmart)

• 1 Lidar-free robotic delivery (Neubility)

• 1 Origin of Freight Shipping

Let’s dive in.

In the Box

Venti raises $29m Series A to grow

Venti Technologies has closed a $28.8 million Series A to help it continue building its software, secure more deals, and partner with more third-party for hardware.

The goal is to design autonomous vehicles for industries and logistics hubs.

The company's target customers include a range of supply chain businesses that cover warehouses, shipping, ports, and other logistics environments where human labor is primarily used to operate this equipment.

The funding was led by LG Group’s venture capitalist arm; LG Group Ventures. Other investors that participated in the funding include:

• UOB Ventures Management

• Safar Partners

• Alpha JWC

• LDV Partners

Competitors: Aidrivers, Outrider, EasyMile

IntegrityNext closes first-ever funding of $109m

The Munich-based IntegrityNext recently announced it raised $109 million for a new twist in supply chain software.

According to Techcrunch, the platform that helps organizations with lots of suppliers automatically audit and monitor those companies for compliance with environmental and sustainability governance (ESG) rules, both those that companies set for themselves, as well as those coming from a growing body of regulation.

Single investor: EQT Growth

The company has been profitable since 2004, and bootstrapped till this first funding. Some of its enterprise customers include Siemens Gamesa, Infineon, and SwissRe,

Competitors: Prewave, Worldfavor, Sesamm

According to the CEO, they decided to raise capital while the ESG evolution phase is on the rise. The goal is to ride the wave for their next growth phase.

Cabify -the Uber rival has raised $110 million to scale

The Madrid-based mobility platform has recently raised $110 million for strategic plans and steering its way to profitability and sustainable mobility.

The funding which is a mix of equity and debt had the following investors:

• Orilla Asset Management (the family office for Francisco Riberas, who is one of the major shareholders of Gestamp, a Spanish automotive manufacturing giant)

• financial services giant AXIS (via its Fond-ICO Next Tech)

Founded in 2011, the ridesharing company has 42 million registered users and 1.2 million drivers across eight markets that include: Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Peru,

Valuation: $1.42 billion as of July 2022 as per PitchBook notes.

Technology

Neubility to roll out 400 lidar-free robots by end-year

The autonomous robotic delivery start-up announced plans to roll out 400 lidar-free robots for deliveries and security.

This is a bump from 50 robots that are already in circulation.

Founded six years ago, the company has come a long way from its original product - a haptic glove device for video games.

However, the move into delivery robots since late 2019 has been met with ambitions of competitors in space;

• Coco

• Starship Technologies

• Kiwibot

• Knightscope ( for security robots)

• Cartken

Tech: Visual simultaneous localization and mapping (V-SLAM) and sensor fusion.

Instead of using pricey lidar like Neubility competitors, the company uses V-SLAM. This allows autonomous mobile robots to perceive their surrounding environment and get visual data from the physical world; then, it builds a 3D map generated by the robots and localizes the robots in that map.

Old Guards

Alibaba

The Chinese tech giant is in the works to split the conglomerate into six different entities and pursue independent IPOs.

According to Nasdaq, the sixth entities will be in the following order:

• Chinese e-commerce

• Global e-commerce

• media and entertainment

• Cloud computing

• Logistics

• Digital mapping and food delivery

Each entity will have its own CEO, but the current Alibaba Group holding company will be overseen by Daniel Zhang - the current Alibaba CEO.

Walmart

The US retail giant laid off 201 workers from its fulfillment centers in Pedricktown, New Jersey, according to a WARN notice filed with the state.

The company anticipates fewer orders in a statement in the Supply Chain Dive content piece.

“Customer expectations are changing, and we are moving quickly to meet and exceed their needs. As demand grows, we are maximizing our network of stores and fulfillment centers, to deliver items for online customers, when and how they want them.”

Logistics Origins

Origin of freight shipping

The transportation of cargo by sea dates from ancient Egypt when used boats to transport goods along the Nile River, while the Greeks and Romans used ships to transport goods across the Mediterranean Sea.

In the modern era, the development of larger and more advanced ships, as well as the invention of the steam engine, led to the growth of the shipping industry. The first steam-powered ship, the Clermont, was launched in 1807 and revolutionized transportation by sea.

The Industrial Revolution in the 19th century also had a major impact on the shipping industry, as it led to increased production and demand for goods, which in turn created a need for more efficient and reliable methods of transportation. This led to the development of larger and more specialized ships, such as container ships and oil tankers, which are still used today to transport goods around the world.

Today, freight shipping is a vital component of global trade and commerce, enabling goods to be transported between countries and continents quickly and efficiently.

Thank you for reading.

My goal is to break down complex technologies in the logistics and supply chain industry. Hope it is worthwhile.

Over and out,

Okerosi