Phantom Auto, a distant driving startup that launched seven years in the past amid the thrill of autonomous automobile expertise, is shutting down after failing to safe new funding, TechCrunch has discovered.
Phantom Auto, which had raised a complete of $95 million, developed a teleoperation platform that allowed a distant driver, typically positioned hundreds of miles away, to function a automobile if wanted. The corporate attracted a mixture of backers, together with angel buyers and early-stage VCs akin to Bessemer Enterprise Companions and Maniv Mobility, non-public fairness agency InfraBridge and strategic buyers akin to ArcBest and ConGlobal. The startup’s final increase was $25 million in 2023.
The startup had come near securing one other spherical of funding, nevertheless it fell by unexpectedly, based on a supply who spoke on situation of anonymity. At its peak, the startup employed about 120 individuals. Phantom Auto, which had lower workers final yr, employed somewhat greater than 100 individuals as of this week. It was primarily based in South San Francisco.
Phantom Auto’s demise is the newest in a protracted line of startups that popped up because the autonomous automobile expertise business gained consideration and funding from buyers. That buzz, which led to billion-dollar acquisitions and valuations within the business, pale as optimistic timelines to deploy robotaxis and self-driving automobiles slipped. A wave of consolidation, shut downs and pivots adopted. The troublesome fundraising atmosphere up to now 18 months induced one other wave of closures.
Phantom Auto founder and CEO Shai Magzimof posted Tuesday on LinkedIn that the corporate was ceasing operations.
“After seven years of efforts to reshape the way forward for bodily labor at Phantom Auto, we’ve made the robust determination to shut operations. there are numerous elements contributing to this, together with market circumstances and inadequate funding,” he wrote. “I categorical gratitude to our staff, buyers, clients, companions, and all who’ve joined us on this journey. these occasions are difficult, however my main concern is our crew. We possess distinctive expertise now in search of alternatives within the job market. I’m dedicated to offering references for our staff. personally, I’ll be taking a pause to unwind and take into consideration the subsequent steps.”
Sources advised TechCrunch that the corporate had traction on the shopper deployment aspect. Nonetheless, it was nonetheless reliant on exterior funding to maintain operations going and finally to scale.
Phantom Auto was based in 2017 and initially targeted on making use of its teleops expertise to autonomous automobiles on public roadways akin to robotaxis and self-driving vans. The corporate’s govt crew quickly realized that even with its expertise, large-scale business deployments of driverless automobiles on public roads was many years away.
Phantom Auto pivoted in 2019 and began purchasing its distant driving system to logistics, particularly forklifts and yard vans that haven’t any autonomy in addition to autonomous sidewalk supply robots. All of those automobiles function at low pace and, except for supply bots, are in confined environments. The corporate had buyer agreements with Maersk, CJ Logistics, ArcBest and autonomous sidewalk bot startup Serve Robotics.
