The Daily Dish (5/4/21)
Arrival and Uber are working on an electric ride-hailing car
UK-based EV startup Arrival $ARVL is working with Uber to develop an electric car that will be “Purpose-built” for ride-hailing.
Arrival plans to put the car into production in late 2023 and says it will not be exclusive to Uber.
It’s another vote of confidence in Arrival, which just became a publicly traded company in March after merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Founded in 2015, Arrival is also developing electric delivery vans and buses.
Electric vehicles are, currently, more expensive than the cheapest internal combustion or hybrid cars.
The goal is to design an affordable vehicle from the outset, Elvidge says, though Arrival believes it can broadly reduce the cost of manufacturing electric vehicles by using so-called “Microfactories,” or highly automated, small-footprint facilities where it plans to build its vehicles.
Uber has quietly poked at a number of electric vehicle startups over the last few years but never struck any deals, though it has recently cleaved a number of money-losing divisions, like the one focused on autonomous vehicles and the one dedicated to flying taxis.
The partnership with Arrival may be a sign that it’s ready to try to execute on its promise to make 100 percent of its rides happen in electric vehicles in the US, Canada, and Europe by 2030 – a goal Uber said it would reach by partnering with a variety of companies across the transportation industry.
Equinox Said to Discuss Going Public Via Social Capital SPAC
Equinox Holdings, the luxury gym operator popular among financiers and celebrities, has held talks to go public by merging with a blank-check company backed by investor Chamath Palihapitiya, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Negotiations between a Social Capital Hedosophia affiliate and Equinox, which also operates SoulCycle and Blink Fitness, aren’t finalized and it’s possible that discussions may not result in a deal, said one of the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
It couldn’t immediately be learned which Palihapitiya vehicle is set to take Equinox public.
Representatives for Equinox and Social Capital Hedosophia declined to comment.
Equinox, which was forced to shutter many locations last year due to the pandemic, reported a loss of around $350 million on about $650 million in revenue last year and has drawn interest from SPACs valuing it at $7 billion or more, Bloomberg News reported last month.
Led by executive Chairman Harvey Spevak, Equinox struck a funding deal with private equity firm Silver Lake last year to build out its Equinox digital platform.
Lidar maker AEye valuation slips 25% to $1.5 billion on new SPAC merger terms
AEye Inc and a blank-check firm backed by financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald on Monday amended their merger agreement, valuing the lidar sensor maker at $1.52 billion, citing valuation changes of publicly traded lidar companies.
In February, AEye had agreed to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company CF Finance Acquisition Corp III, in a deal that valued the company at $2 billion.
The companies attributed the terms of the amended deal to “changing conditions” in the automotive lidar industry.
