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The Big One: Air taxis are coming — and cities aren't ready, experts say
The age of flying taxis is a lot closer than people may expect, and cities aren't ready for it, a panel of experts said at a conference in San Francisco last week.
A number of companies could offer passenger service via their electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOL) within two years, but cities don't yet have the infrastructure in place to support that service, Matthew Friedman, chief of the office of aviation planning for the California Department of Transportation, said at the recent Airtaxi World Congress & urban eVTOL conference. The four-day event, covered by Andrew Mendez of Bay Area Inno, was held at the Grand Hyatt hotel at the San Francisco International Airport.
Most notably, Friedman said, few municipalities have put in place so-called vertiports, the take-off and landing facilities for such aircraft. He added that city officials and regulators need to graduate from thinking about air taxis as a "theoretical" issue to asking, "How do we make this happen?"
One key issue the industry and regulators will have to contend with is finding suitable locations for vertiports. Those may be easier to site in some locales than others.
San Francisco, for example, has 1,392 suitable locations to place such facilities, according to a joint study earlier this year from Caltrans and the San Jose State University Mineta Transportation Institute. By contrast, the study identified only 43 suitable sites in San Jose, California.
The study considered a variety of factors, including safety, access to other modes of transportation and the impact of such facilities on disadvantaged groups.
Regulators also will have to figure out how to manage the airspace, especially if and as air-taxi companies begin to operate dozens or even hundreds of aircraft in particular areas.
"We have to work on the airspace together," said Caryn Lund, vice president of regulatory and government affairs for airport construction firm Ferrovial S.E., who joined Friedman on the panel. "We have to be working on the airspace now."
Read more: Air taxi service is coming. Cities aren't ready for it, experts say.
Startups to watch
- Electric Hydrogen Co., a Bay Area green-hydrogen startup, has raised a $380 million Series C round. The company has developed industrial-scale electrolyzers for separating hydrogen from water. Its large scale, 100-megawatt systems can produce as much as 50 tons of hydrogen a day, and among its first customers will be New Fortress Energy Inc., which plans to use its system to produce green hydrogen at a plant in Texas, Bay Area Inno reports.
- Loop, a Chicago startup that offers an artificial-intelligence audit and payment platform for logistics firms, raised $35 million in a round co-led by by J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners and Index Ventures. Loop launched from former Uber Freight team members, Chicago Inno reports.
- Vectari, led by a former Bank of America executive, closed on $1.7 million in pre-seed funding for its AI platform for banks. Its tools aim to help financial-services companies maximize efficiency and compliance, Charlotte Inno reports.
- Philadelphia-area startup MentoMind, which uses AI to help students prep for SAT exams, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding. The company's web app gives students mock tests with results, helps them set goals with personalized daily study plans and has an AI-based chatbot that helps students stay on track, PHL Inno reports.
- Damon Fletcher, former chief financial officer of Tableau, is launching a tech-spending software company called Millworks Analytics. Launched out of stealth last month, the company provides a granular breakdown of clients' cloud spending and analytics to better understand their costs, Seattle Inno reports.
VC voices: Why now is a 'remarkable time' to invest
Phoenix-based venture capital firm AZ-VC sees no signs of slowing down more than a year after launching the largest fund in Arizona.
The firm in 2022 closed a $110 million fund with money raised primarily from in-state investors to meet a growing need for startup financing beyond seed-stage capital.
Although economic headwinds have caused some venture capital firms to pull back on funding startups this year, AZ-VC has only continued to build upon the initial momentum of its fund, said Jack Selby, the firm's managing partner.
As startup valuations have dropped from a pandemic-era frenzy, now is a "remarkable time" to be a venture capital allocator, Selby told Amy Edelen of AZ Inno.
"If you're trying to raise money, the tables have certainly turned versus what they were five years ago because we're very much in kind of an economic downcycle. But as an allocator, it's great," Selby said.
Read more: AZ-VC builds on momentum of $110M startup fund, exec touts 'remarkable time' to invest
Free money: Startup grants to apply for right now
Looking for non-dilutive funding for your startup? Grants could be a good place to look to find capital without giving away equity in your company or taking on debt.
That's why we've compiled a list of startup grants you can apply for now, along with some to keep on your radar as their next application cycles open.
Read more: Startup grants to apply for
Weird and wired: This app can translate your baby's cries
When a baby starts to cry, new parents have to play a guessing game to figure out why. Hunger? A dirty diaper? Or something more serious, like pain?
Apolline Deroche says some of that guesswork can be eliminated by an app her startup, Cappella, is aiming to launch in November that acts as an AI-powered baby cry translator.
“We’re able to, one, identify there’s a baby crying,” Deroche told Hannah Green of BostInno. “And, two, as soon as the baby starts crying, we assign a meaning to the cry. So we can tell whether the baby is tired, hungry, in pain, needs to burp, needs a diaper change or something else.”
Read more: Cappella is translating baby babble with its forthcoming app