Vantora raises $100 million to build physical AI startups for corporate clients

Vantora, formerly known as UP.Labs, has closed a $100 million investment from Silversmith Capital Partners, marking the first outside capital the four-year-old venture lab has taken. The funding coincides with a strategic pivot: instead of launching startups for the open market, Vantora will now create companies exclusively for its corporate partners, with a focus on physical AI.

Founder and chief executive John Kuolt describes the new approach as a proprietary M&A pipeline. Corporate partners fund each venture and serve as its first customer, but they also receive an option to acquire the startup and integrate it into their core operations. The structure lets Vantora tackle strategic problems it previously had to decline because the work was too sensitive for public exposure.

Kuolt cited a concrete example: an idea developed for partner J.B. Hunt was shelved when the logistics company refused to let it reach the broader market. Under the new model, that concept can now move forward. The partner roster includes Porsche, the lab's first corporate backer from 2022, along with Alaska Airlines, Wabash, and TDG, the parent company of Ashley Furniture. Additional unnamed clients in industrial manufacturing and oil and gas have also signed on.

Until now, UP.Labs shared office space in California and maintained operational ties with the venture firm Up.Partners, though it was never financially dependent on the fund. Kuolt said Vantora is now a fully independent entity, and the Silversmith round formalizes that separation.