NUTS & BOLTS 02.10.25

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THE NUTS & BOLTS

Thank you to BuiltWorlds for recognizing Ironspring Ventures on its 2024 Top 50 Venture & Investment Deals List! This list highlights the top?publicly disclosed?private capital deals driving technology adoption in the built environment spanning venture capital funding rounds across construction tech, building tech, and infrastructure tech; industry tech company M&A; and VC fund launches. We were honored to have our 2024 accomplishments (including the close of our $100M Fund II) celebrated here alongside an impressive group of peer built world investors.?

Keep reading for the latest digital industrial news.

THE HEAVY HITTERS

???Uncertain Times in Manufacturing?

• After threatening to impose steep 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, President Trump announced these measures would be postponed for 30 days after winning concessions from both countries, putting off a potentially destabilizing trade war (at least for now). China, however, now faces 10% tariffs, and with imports from Mexico, China, and Canada accounting for more than a third of the products brought into the US (more than $1T a year), economists warn the tariffs (and accompanying retaliatory actions) could result in inflation and disrupt global supply chains.??
• Signaling the end of the great American industrial conglomerate,?Honeywell (119 years old) announced it would split into three independent companies (aerospace,?automation, and advanced materials). With GE's successful transition from a massive industrial conglomerate to three thriving businesses as a guide, activist investor Elliott Investment Management pushed for the Honeywell break up to boost the $150B company's underperforming share price and increase its?financial (as well as focus its executive teams).?

-In addition to GE, United Technologies, Danaher, and Alcoa have all performed better having separated the large parent company?into stand alone units.

• Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar predicted its sales would drop in 2025, as dealers scale back equipment purchases due to weak demand resulting from high borrowing costs and ongoing inflation. The news came after the company announced its Q4 2024 sales dropped nearly 8% (to $6B) in construction and fell 9% (to $3B) in its resources business. A cautious outlook on 2025 comes partially from buyers’ “wait and see” approach to purchasing new machinery with uncertainty around government spending under President Trump (following $1T committed under the previous administration via the 2021 infrastructure law that funded upgrading roads and bridges).??
• Global industrial services powerhouse Emerson Electric agreed to buy the remaining shares in software supplier AspenTech it didn’t already own for $7.2B, helping to advance Emerson as an industrial tech company focused on factory floor automation.? The $265 per share offer, which implies an enterprise value of $16.8B, represents a premium of 10.4% from the price?Emerson offered for the company in November.??

-AspenTech, which provides software for a variety of industrial uses (from distribution management systems to geological simulation software), will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emerson following the transaction’s close (expected in June).?

???Making Headlines in Construction

• Not backing down is building materials distributor QXO (led by serial entrepreneur Brad Jacobs), which took its all-cash offer to acquire Beacon Roofing Supply directly to the company’s shareholders (after having its previous offers rejected several times). The latest submission included buying all shares outstanding of Beacon for $124.25 per share, the same price QXO offered earlier, valuing the company at $7.7B (roughly $11B including debt). QXO argued this was a compelling offer for shareholders and that the deal shouldn’t face significant antitrust or other regulatory issues.??

-Beacon, the largest publicly traded distributor of roofing materials and related building products in the US and Canada, called QXO’s proposal one that “significantly undervalues Beacon and fails to reflect the company’s growth strategy and upside potential.”??

• Data center builds continue to propel the construction industry, with these projects largely responsible for a 19% increase in non-residential construction planning activity since December 2023, (compared to 5% growth without their inclusion), according to Dodge Construction Network. And these facilities are poised to meaningfully impact the US economy, says J.P. Morgan, estimating that spending on data centers could add between 10-20 basis points to domestic economic growth in 2025 and 2026.?

-The new Trump administration is playing a big role in spurring data center activity, with its recently announced Stargate initiative (a joint venture between OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle) investing $100B in AI infrastructure (potentially reaching $500B by 2028). Each Stargate data center facility will be massive, at about 500,000 square feet.?

-Amazon, Google, and Meta are also among the big tech companies fueling the data center surge as they make major data center investments to meet growing AI demand.?

• After a drastic 44% drop in contech investing in 2023, activity in the space bounced back in 2024, with total dollars invested up 2% (reaching $3.1B) and deal count up nearly 38% (at 325), according to Cemex data. Much of this momentum can be attributed to the AI boom, which drove up venture transactions last year across all sectors.?

-In the broader venture market, contech continues to grow its share, making up 1.1% of total VC spend in 2024 (up from 0.6% in 2019).?

????Navigating Change in Transport & Logistics

• Changing course is UPS, which will reduce the amount of Amazon packages it delivers by more than 50% by the second half of 2026, under an agreement in principle reached by the two companies. For years, UPS has sought to reduce its reliance on Amazon (its biggest customer), aiming to capture volume from more profitable segments including healthcare product shippers and small- and medium-sized businesses. Today, UPS’ US network derives about 20-25% of its volume from Amazon (about 12% of its revenue).?

-Under the new deal, UPS will deliver fewer Amazon packages, at more profitable rates.???

• In the name of supply chain resiliency,?importers and logistics companies are spending billions to expand their networks across the US, not only to have warehouses and transportation routes close to fast-growing population centers in the South and Southeast, but also to have access to numerous ports on both coasts as labor issues and geopolitical instability necessitate flexibility in how to receive and move goods.??

-Once dominant, the ports of LA and Long Beach lost an estimated 20% of import volumes to other ports during the pandemic, but last year they roared back, with imports up 22% (to more than 10 million boxes), nearly matching the record volumes of 2021. After imports favored east coast ports for decades, the recent spike in west coast activity signals that having connectivity on both coasts enables retailers and manufacturers to hedge against volatility and minimize supply chain disruptions.?

-Texas ports (in Houston and Corpus Christi) too saw increased traffic in 2024, with both reporting growth in year-over-year cargo movements. Port Houston even broke records, with container volumes and cargo both jumping 8% and 6% respectively YOY.?

• Heads up in LA, as Waymo robotaxis, which have become common on the city’s surface streets, may soon drive on freeways, as the company said it will begin testing its fleet on Interstates 10, 110, 405, and 90. The ability to access freeways is key to Waymo’s commercial prospects, particularly in spread out cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles, as the shortest route to reaching a destination often involves freeway driving.??

-Waymo began testing freeway driving in the Bay Area over the summer.??

• And AV technology is making great strides outside of urban areas too, with “robotruck” maker Kodiak announcing it sold two class 8 tractor-trailers to Atlas Energy Solutions. Kodiak leaders said the equipment delivery makes it the first autonomous trucking company to launch heavy-duty commercial driverless operations, marking the first phase in its commercialization roadmap, which includes over-the-road long-haul service in the future.?

-Atlas will use the Kodiak trucks to deliver frac sand along a 42-mile road that runs through West Texas and eastern New Mexico.?

-Also going big on AV truck tech are startup Waabi and automotive heavyweight Volvo which announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks. The partnership involves combining Waabi’s AI tech into Volvo’s autonomous trucks and is considered a vertical integration, not a retrofit, as the vehicles emerge from the factory fully equipped and ready to drive.?

?EV Ups and Downs in Alternative Energy

• In a tough spot are heavy-duty truck manufacturers and dealers who face a shifting regulatory landscape around the zero-emissions big rigs they are trying to sell, making it challenging to foster a commercial market for the vehicles. Just before the Trump administration took office, California (which is the focal point for this predicament), abandoned a request to the EPA for a waiver that would have allowed the state to coerce trucking companies to buy battery-electric vehicles. Staying in place, however, is California’s rule that requires manufacturers to sell a growing number of zero-emissions trucks each year.??

-Lacking a regulatory push to purchase big rig EVs, fleets are unlikely to buy many of these trucks, which can only drive about 200 miles per charge and lack ample charging infrastructure.?

• The innovation ecosystem, recognizing the critical need to develop and deploy tech that expands the grid to support the charging infrastructure build out that is essential to driving EV adoption for both large trucks and passenger cars, has jumped in to meet the moment of surging electricity demand (thanks largely to more EVs on the road and to the rapid proliferation of data centers), with the number of VC deals supporting electrification efforts rising to nearly (or above) 100 deals annually over the past several years. Utilities may be able to produce sufficient power, but unless the grid capacity is there, EV charging infrastructure (and other power hungry facilities) will continue to struggle to scale.?
• Though there are clear roadblocks to scaling up EV adoption, EV battery plant construction is speeding ahead, now a market valued at $13.6B in 2024 and expected to reach $26.5B by 2030. Battery plants remain a bright spot in the EV ecosystem as their expansion is supported by government incentives at the same time battery tech sees significant advances that require new production processes and facilities.

FROM OUR TEAM

On?Heavy Hitters: The Digital Industrial Podcast, Co-Founder & General Partner?Ty Findley?speaks with J.P. Morgan Managing Director, Technology Investment Banking - Head of AI & Applied Technology Kristina Nilsson?on?macro trends ahead for public and private markets in 2025 (including in Applied Tech and AI where her team focuses), her take on the evolution within the industrial innovation ecosystem over the past 20 years, and why recent advances in AI have the potential to reinvigorate productivity in the industrial realm. Listen to the episode?here!

Last week, Ironspring Ventures and Headline co-hosted the first ever (to our knowledge) Industrial Innovation Pottery Night in New York City, bringing together 14 early-stage? founders to learn the craft and foster community among entrepreneurs building companies in industrials. Many thanks to all who joined us and to CIBC for supporting the event.

Front and center here is Ironspring's own in house master potter Investor Max Adelman!?

THE DEALS AND?M&A

Deals

• Basetwo, a Canadian maker of software that recommends manufacturing efficiencies, raised a $11.5M?in Series A funding led by AVP. Other investors included Glasswing Ventures, Deloitte Ventures, Global Brain Ventures, Shimadzu, and Chiyoda.
• Tive, a Boston-based?provider of shipment monitoring solutions, raised $40M?in Series C funding. WiL and?Sageview Capital?co-led?and were joined by AVP, RRE Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Fifth Wall, Supply Chain Ventures, and Sorenson Capital.
• Helion, an Everett, Wash.-based nuclear fusion startup, raised $425M?in Series F funding at a $5.2B?valuation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, SoftBank and insiders Sam Altman, Capricorn Investment Group, Mithril Capital, Dustin Moskovitz, and Nucor.?
• Stratus, a cloud platform for construction contractors focused on fabrication workflows, raised $32M?led by Radian Capital.
• Earth AI, a San Mateo, Calif., mining exploration startup,?raised $20M?in Series B funding.?Tamarack Global and Cantos Ventures?co-led?and were joined by Overmatch, Alpaca, Sparkwave Capital, YC, and Scrum Ventures.
• Skild AI, a Pittsburgh AI robotics company, is in talks to raise $500M?from SoftBank?at a $4B?valuation.?
• Veir, a Woburn, Mass., startup replacing conventional power lines with superconductors, raised $75M?in Series B funding. Munich Re Ventures?led?and was joined by Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, Tyche Partners, Piva Capital, National Grid Partners, Dara Holdings, SiteGround, and insiders VXI Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Engine Ventures, Fine Structure Ventures, and Galvanize Climate Solutions.
• UVeye, a Teaneck, N.J., vehicle inspection tech startup, raised $41M. Woven Capital?led?and was joined by UMC Capital, MyBerg, and insiders W.R. Berkley, Menora Mivtachim, and More Investment House. It also secured a $150m debt facility from Trinity Capital.
• Bonsai Robotics, a San Jose, Calif., autonomous agriculture startup, raised $15M?in Series A funding. Bison Ventures?led?and was joined by Cibus Capital, Acre Venture Partners, Congruent Ventures, Fall Line Capital, E14 Fund, SNR, and Serra Ventures.
• Meteomatics, an Exton, Pa., weather intel?provider, raised $22M?in Series C funding. Armira Growth?led?and was joined by Alantra and Fortyone.
• Motif, an SF-based developer of architecture design software, raised $46M?in seed and Series A funding from CapitalG, Redpoint Ventures, and Baukunst.
• Tradeverifyd,?a Bozeman, Mont.,?provider of supply chain risk management software , raised $8M?in Series A funding. Silicon Road VC?and Bread & Butter Ventures?co-led?and were joined by Acronym, Techstars, and a100x.
• Tandem, a startup that leases excess office space, raised $6.1M?in seed funding from Collide Capital, 1984 Ventures, and YC.
• Monograph, an SF-based architecture?project management platform, raised $20M?in Series B extension funding led by Base10 Partners.
• GenLogs, an Arlington, Va.-based freight intelligence startup, raised $14.6M?in Series A funding co-led by?Venrock and HOF Capital.
• Pendulum, a supply chain planning startup, raised $11M?in VC funding and $11M?in non-diluted R&D funding from Lowercarbon Capital, Cross Border Impact Ventures, Decisive Point, Collab Fund, and Blaise Agüera y Arcas.
• Trayd, a construction payroll platform, raised $4.5m in seed funding led by Suffolk Technologies, with participation from Bloomberg Beta and YC.

M&A, IPOs, & Fundraising

• LG Electronics is reportedly acquiring a 30% stake in Bear Robotics, a California-based server robot startup, for about $180M, boosting its stake in the business to 51%.
• Nikola (NASDAQ: NKLA), the electric car manufacturer, is exploring options including potentially selling parts or all of the company.?
• Apollo Global Management?completed its $3.6B?take-private buyout of Barnes Group, a Bristol, Conn., maker of aerospace components.
• Aptean?agreed to buy Atlanta-based supply chain software firm Logility (Nasdaq: LGTY) for around $482M?in cash, or $14.30 per share. Aptean backers are TA Associates, Clearlake Capital, Charlesbank Capital Partners, and Insight Partners.
• One Power, a Findlay, Ohio-based industrial power company, filed for a $100M?IPO. It previously planned to go public via SPAC but terminated the deal last July. Backers include Ecofin Investments.?
• Diversified Energy?(NYSE: DEC) agreed to buy Permian Basin-focused Maverick Natural Resources?for $1.28B?from EIG.
• Ancora Holdings?plans to launch a?proxy battle to force U.S. Steel?(NYSE: X) to drop its merger with Nippon Steel?(Tokyo: 5401) and oust its CEO.
• QXO (Nasdaq: QXO) is going hostile on its rebuffed $11B?takeover offer for Beacon Roofing Supply?(Nasdaq: BECN).
• Eversource Energy?(NYSE: ES) agreed to sell water supply business Aquarion Water?for $2.4B?to a quasi-public entity in Connecticut.
• Hybird Energy, a Danish B2B energy management developer, raised €2.4M. BackingMinds?and Climate VC Transition?co-led?and were joined by Notion Capital and 2degrees.
• Moove, Dutch mobility fintech whose backers include Uber, acquired Brazil's Kovi, which has raised over $140M?from firms like Quona Capital, Broadhaven Capital Partners, and OneVC.
• American Axle and Manufacturing?(NYSE: AXL) agreed to buy auto engineering firm Dowlais?(LSE: DWL) for ￡1.16B?in cash and stock.
• Shift4Good, a VC firm focused on sustainable transportation in Europe and Asia, raised €220M?for its debut fund.?
• Databank, a Dallas-based data center operator, raised $250M?from TJC, plus launched a $600M?secondary share sale.
• Infinity Natural Resources,?a West Virginia-based oil and gas?producer operating in the Utica and Marcellus Shales, raised $265M?in its IPO. It priced at $20 ($18-$21 range), and will list on the NYSE (INR).
• Stellar V Capital, a SPAC formed by Greek shipping execs, raised $150M?in its IPO.
• Nippon Steel?(Tokyo: 5401) launched a $456M?tender offer for the remainder of its subsidiary Sanyo Special Steel?(Tokyo: 5481), representing a 37% premium.
• Cybernetix Ventures, an early-stage VC firm focused on robotics startups, is targeting $100M?for its second fund.?
• Nissan?(Tokyo: 7201) is preparing to end its $58B?merger talks with rival automaker Honda (T: 7367).

THE JOBS

AIM?- Systems Integration Engineer, Embodied AI Engineer?(more)

FleetPulse - Director of Marketing, Software Engineer?(more)

Harbinger - Senior Advanced Manufacturing Engineer - Automation, Change Management Implementation Specialist?(more)

There are 120+?open roles?on our jobs site. Check these out!