AVs in Manhattan

Hi there,

Alphabet’s CapitalG growth arm (formerly Google Capital) has finalized a billion-dollar financing to Lyft, cementing the Google parent’s divorce from Uber. Alphabet was an early Uber investor, via Google Ventures in the startup’s 2013 Series C:

Lyft has now raised $1.6B in disclosed capital in 2017, nearly doubling its total funding ahead of a potential IPO. Other Uber rivals are bulking up, too; see our 8,000+ word Uber Strategy Teardown for a competitive landscape deep dive.

Although Lyft has been racking up positive headlines in the wake of Uber’s dumpster fire of a year, UberEATS has been one bright spot of growth for the embattled company. A report this week had the food delivery business accounting for up to 10% of Uber’s global gross bookings.

We noted the significance presence of UberEATS in our analysis of Uber’s job listings:

Another recent report points toward a potential tie-up between GM Cruise and Uber, despite GM’s $500M stake in Lyft. The GM-Lyft partnership aimed to field thousands of self-driving Bolts in 2018, but the two are said to have drifted apart as of late.

Although there have been no public indications of a strained relationship, GM would have good reason to be wary of Lyft’s shift towards its own AV technology and open autonomy strategy (the company has even partnered with GM archrival Ford).

Regardless of whether the GM-Uber deal materializes, expect that early AV and ride-hailing agreements will continue to be broken and reshuffled. As AVs mature, the nitty-gritty details of monetization and data-/revenue-sharing will be another challenge for the complex web of relationships in the space.

Techstars Mobility 2017

The Techstars Mobility team held their third-annual demo days in Detroit this week, with a diverse set of 11 companies spanning active motorcycle safety, carbon fiber recycling, car subscriptions, and more.

Clients can click here to search and track this year’s cohort (and also check up on the progress of last year’s class).

Coming this December

We’re excited to have Jim Adler, head of Toyota’s AI Ventures arm, joining us at our A-ha! conference.

We’ll kick off with our first-ever Demo Day and also unveil this year’s AI 100 list of up-and-coming startups applying AI across mobility and other industries.

If you haven’t grabbed your ticket yet, get $500 off this week with the coupon code “vroom.”

Have a great week, everybody!

Kerry
@kerrygwu