Four years ago, a startup lab emerged that defied easy categorization—not quite an incubator, accelerator, or venture firm. Then known as UP.Labs, it built startups to solve problems for corporate customers like Alaska Airlines and Porsche, as well as for the broader market.
The firm still has the same mission, but with a critical new approach, a new name, and a $100 million investment from Silversmith Capital Partners. Now called Vantora, it continues to work with corporate customers, including unnamed new partners in industrial manufacturing and oil and gas. However, it has shifted to building startups solely for its corporate clients, not for the wider market.
A Proprietary M&A Pipeline
Founder and CEO John Kuolt told TechCrunch that Vantora is moving toward a "proprietary M&A pipeline." The firm will still build startups for corporate partners, which invest in the ventures and serve as their first customers. But those partners now have the option to fold the startups into their core businesses—essentially keeping them in-house.
That shift has driven Vantora's increased focus on physical AI startups, according to Kuolt.
Previously, Vantora would spike ideas that were strategic to its corporate partners but too sensitive to bring to the outside world. "We were missing on the biggest value problems, which had the biggest upside, because of that," Kuolt said. "Imagine you're a Fortune 100 industrial company and you need to retrofit all of your hardware and machines for autonomy. You need to own that, it needs to be sovereign, and you can't rely on a third party to do it for you. You need to own that intelligence layer. They're never going to let us sell that to their competitors."
This change has allowed Vantora to "unlock big physical AI use cases," Kuolt said, including with existing customers.
For example, the firm devised an idea to use AI to advance the business of partner J.B. Hunt. "They said there is no way you can take this out to the world, and so we passed on it," he said, adding that the proprietary model now allows Vantora to pursue it.
From UP.Labs to Vantora
The firm launched in 2022 with Porsche as its first corporate partner. Since then, Vantora has launched several startups for Porsche and struck deals with Alaska Airlines, J.B. Hunt, Wabash, and TDG, the parent of Ashley Furniture.
In its early days, UP.Labs was tied—though never financially—to venture firm Up.Partners. While Vantora still shares office space with the California-based VC, it is now its own entity, Kuolt explained, noting that the $100 million from Silversmith is the company's first outside investment.
As of 2026, the demand for physical AI—artificial intelligence applied to robots, autonomous vehicles, and industrial systems—has surged, with enterprises seeking sovereign control over their AI infrastructure. Vantora's model positions it to capitalize on this trend by building and retaining critical AI assets for its corporate partners.
via TechCrunch AI