--- title: A startup that builds other startups raised $100M, and... description: Startup builder Vantora, formerly known as UP.Labs, has raised $100 million from Silversmith Capital Partners in its first outside investment. The firm builds... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-startup-that-builds-other-startups-raised-100m-and-is-all-in-on-physical-ai-cgwy2pmrc twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A startup that builds other startups raised $100M, and is all-in on physical AI | daily.dev og:description: Startup builder Vantora, formerly known as UP.Labs, has raised $100 million from Silversmith Capital Partners in its first outside investment. The firm builds... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-startup-that-builds-other-startups-raised-100m-and-is-all-in-on-physical-ai-cgwy2pmrc og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cGwy2pmRC.png og:image:alt: A startup that builds other startups raised $100M, and is all-in on physical AI og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A startup that builds other startups raised $100M, and is all-in on physical AI **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Startup builder Vantora, formerly known as UP.Labs, has raised $100 million from Silversmith Capital Partners in its first outside investment. The firm builds startups for corporate customers like Porsche, Alaska Airlines, J.B. Hunt, Wabash, and Ashley Furniture's parent TDG. It is shifting toward a proprietary model where corporate partners can keep the startups exclusively for themselves rather than selling to the broader market, a change that founder John Kuolt says has unlocked bigger physical AI opportunities involving retrofitting industrial hardware and machines for autonomy. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Velatir raises €5m to sell European companies control over their own AI](https://daily.dev/posts/velatir-raises-5m-to-sell-european-companies-control-over-their-own-ai-bynlndoyj) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI chip startups soak up $1.1B in VC funding this week](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-chip-startups-soak-up-1-1b-in-vc-funding-this-week-sbcfggett) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Prime Intellect raises $130M Series A to help enterprises build their own AI agents](https://daily.dev/posts/prime-intellect-raises-130m-series-a-to-help-enterprises-build-their-own-ai-agents-obnk2m77j) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#venture-capital](https://daily.dev/tags/venture-capital), [#robotics](https://daily.dev/tags/robotics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-startup-that-builds-other-startups-raised-100m-and-is-all-in-on-physical-ai-cgwy2pmrc) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A startup that builds other startups raised $100M, and is all-in on physical AI","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-startup-that-builds-other-startups-raised-100m-and-is-all-in-on-physical-ai-cgwy2pmrc","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-startup-that-builds-other-startups-raised-100m-and-is-all-in-on-physical-ai-cgwy2pmrc"},"datePublished":"2026-09-18T23:27:13.713Z","dateModified":"2026-09-18T23:47:40.911Z","description":"Startup builder Vantora, formerly known as UP.Labs, has raised $100 million from Silversmith Capital Partners in its first outside investment. 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