The future is UP when it comes to transportation tech if this past week’s elite UP.Summit hosted in North Texas is any indication. 

On Friday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott addressed more than 250 CEOs, industry innovators, investors, political leaders, and military officials gathered at Circle T Ranch just outside Fort Worth for the invite-only UP.Summit. The three-day event—once described by a co-creator as “Sun Valley meets CES meets the Oshkosh Airshow meets Burning Man meets TED meets Davos“—convened minds, money, and mobility tech from across the globe.  

Abbott joined Perot Group Chairman Ross Perot Jr. for a fireside chat on the final day of the summit. In the business-focused discussion, the governor lauded Texas’ “spirit of innovation” and invited the assembled innovators to bring their companies and cutting-edge mobility developments to the Lone Star State.

“It’s an exciting time to be working on mobility for the Texas of tomorrow,” Abbott said. “We hope companies from all over the world come to our great state to develop, test, and manufacture their revolutionary technologies.”

During the fireside chat, Abbott highlighted his successful efforts to recruit Tesla’s new Gigafactory to Texas, noting that the state’s business-friendly regulatory environment and thriving economy were key selling points for Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

[Photo: Office of the Governor]

“Texas is the capital of entrepreneurs”

Expanding on why he believes Texas is a place for innovation, Abbott said, “One reason Texas is the capital of entrepreneurs is that they know we will partner with them to ensure they have what they need to succeed. We have predictable regulations, a young and educated workforce, and a regulatory climate that moves at the speed of business, cutting red tape.”

The governor also pointed to recently passed legislation including House Bill 5 and the Texas CHIPS Act, aimed at attracting semiconductor companies and other tech firms to the state.

Additionally, Abbott credited partnerships with organizations like the Army Futures Command, Bell, Volkswagen, General Motors, and others with cementing Texas’ role as a global leader in developing cutting-edge mobility and other key technologies.

In a statement, Abbott said, “the future of America, the future of the world, is Texan.”

In addition to the dialogue on Texas’ business climate and other tech talks, the Friday summit highlighted mobility innovations from national and global companies across the industry.

Companies soaring, driving, rocketing ahead

Beyond Abbott’s fireside chat, the UP.Summit’s Friday lineup featured more transportation tech innovators making headlines from new facilities and partnerships to funding and awards. (Find a recap of the first two days here.)

Among those announcements: Range Energy won the award for Engine Tech Innovation of the Year from AutoTech Breakthrough, ZeroAvia was lauded as a leader in hydrogen aviation by making Powerlist 2023, and Beta Technologies opened a new electric aircraft production site.

Electric aviation startup Beta Technologies announced it opened the doors on a new 188,500-square-foot “net zero” production facility in Vermont, where it will manufacture up to 300 all-electric aircraft each year.

In deal news, Jedsy secured a multi-million dollar deal with Germany’s Asklepios Healthcare. Founded in 2021, the Swiss startup develops advanced delivery drones capable of direct docking at a recipient’s window or balcony. Together with Asklepios medtech division Medilys, the collaboration aims to transform medical supply delivery through its innovative drone tech.

Kent, Washington-based Stoke Space also announced new funding ($100 million) and shared its first rocket name (Nova). “Stoke is attempting to build the most robust fully reusable rocket in the world—one that turns around in 24 hours throughout a long service life,” said Stoke Space CEO and Co-Founder Andy Lapsa in a statement. The new investment more than doubles the company’s total funding to $175 million.

Stoke has been granted dedicated use of Launch Complex 14 by the U.S. Space Force for its orbital flights. The name of its first reusable rocket is now official: Nova. [Image: Stoke]

Overall, insiders say the industry momentum behind mobility tech innovation was evident in the transportation advances unveiled at the 2023 UP.Summit. That’s in large part due to Santa Monica, California-based UP.Partners, a key organizer behind the summit.

The multi-strategy firm, along with its heavyweight event hosts and partners, works to catalyze industry progress through integrated efforts.

Dallas-Fort Worth/Bentonville venues; UP.Partners’ ‘virtuous ecosystem’

The first UP.Summit was hosted at Circle T Ranch in Westlake in 2019. Watch the video here. [Photo: Texas UP screenshot]

Established in 2017, the summit is jointly organized by UP.Partners, Ross Perot Jr., Tom Walton, and Steuart Walton.The event, first hosted in Texas in 2019, rotates annually between Dallas-Fort Worth and Bentonville, Arkansas. Last year’s event at Crystal Bridges in Walmart’s hometown in Bentonville was a summit reboot after a pandemic pause. 

The exclusive gathering typically brings together around 250 attendees; the 2022 event included investors representing over $1 trillion in capital and influential corporate leaders in mobility. The summit is one leg of multi-strategy firm UP.Partners’ mission to build a “virtuous ecosystem” through the efforts and partnerships forged by UP.Ventures, UP.Labs, and UP.Summit.

Combined with UP.Ventures’ investment initiatives, the firm aims to progress toward its vision of transforming how the world moves. The group calls transportation the “underlying fabric of society” and touts investment in “companies that make you say, ‘Hell yes!'”

UP.Partners Moving World Report: Mobility money flows 

UP.Partners’ Cyrus Sigari

Earlier this year, UP.Partners released its inaugural Moving World Report, a 125-page data-driven look at mobility innovation and market dynamics in transportation tech across land, air, sea, and space. Among the major conclusions from the report: VC funding for mobility has outpaced other tech sectors. Mobility venture capital funding has increased more than 30 times since 2013. Last-mile delivery and electric vehicles have received nearly half of mobility VC dollars since 2020, per the report.

The report also finds mobility is now the largest contributor to emissions in the U.S., with 37% of U.S. CO2 emissions, the largest of any sector. Ground transportation represents 78% of that total, with sea transportation at 11%, air transportation at 10%, and rail at just 1%

As a VC investor, UP.Partners Co-Founder and Managing Director Cyrus Sigari said the report will inform the firm’s investment strategy. In an interview with Bloomberg in March, Sigari said other key areas of focus are addressing the pilot shortage in aviation and investing in technologies to improve battery supply amidst surging demand.

Sigari said pairing mobility startups with major corporate partners is key to “affect major change in how we move people and goods around the world.”

UP.Labs Innovates Upward

LA-based Pull Systems is UP.Labs first jointly founded startup with the venture lab’s inaugural partner, Porsche AG. [Image: Porsche AG]

UP.Labs, the group’s venture lab launched just over a year ago, was named to Fast Company’s prestigious list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023 in March. UP.Labs ranked No. 7 in the Business Services category for “paving a new path in corporate innovation.”

UP.Labs John Kuolt

UP.Labs CEO John Kuolt said the lab brings together corporate reach and scale with the “world’s best entrepreneurs to create maximum impact.” The lab has been working with global corporate partners to ideate and launch transformative mobility startups.

In March at South by Southwest, UP.Labs announced the launch of Los Angeles-based Pull Systems, the first joint startup with inaugural partner Porsche AG. Pull Systems is developing a machine-learning-as-a-service solution for capturing and analyzing vehicle data. During the UP.Summit, the partners launched Sensigo—their second joint startup—to anticipate and streamline automotive repairs with an AI-based platform.

Porsche AG said Sensigo was the second of six startups it expects to launch with the venture lab. 

Corporate partners, apply now

Per the UP.Labs website at the time of writing, the venture lab is accepting applications for two open seats in its 2024 Corporate Partner cohort. 

Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.

Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.