Four years ago, a startup lab launched that wasn’t an incubator, accelerator program, or venture firm. UP.Labs, as it was called then, built startups designed to solve problems for corporate customers such as Alaska Airlines and Porsche, as well as for the outside world.
The firm still has the same mission — albeit with an addition to its approach, a new name, and a $100 million investment from Silversmith Capital Partners. Vantora, as the firm is now called, continues to work with its corporate customers, including some new ones in industrial manufacturing that it declined to name, and in the oil and gas sector.
Founder and CEO John Kuolt told TechCrunch that Vantora is moving toward a “proprietary M&A pipeline.”
In the past, Vantora would end up spiking ideas that were strategic to its corporate partners, but too sensitive to bring to the outside world.
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.
While Vantora still shares office space with the California-based VC, it is its own entity, Kuolt explained.