Four years ago, a startup lab emerged that defied easy categorization—not quite an incubator, not exactly an accelerator, and not a traditional venture firm. Known then as UP. Labs, it focused on building startups aimed at solving problems for corporate clients like Alaska Airlines and Porsche, as well as for the broader world. Today, that same organization retains its core mission but has evolved significantly: it has a new approach, a new name, and a fresh $100 million investment from Silversmith Capital Partners.

Now called Vantora, the firm continues collaborating with its corporate customers—including new ones in industrial manufacturing (which it declined to identify) and the oil and gas sector. However, its focus has shifted: it now builds startups exclusively for its corporate partners rather than for the wider market.

This means Vantora still creates startups for its corporate allies, who invest in the ventures and act as their first customers. But these partners now have the option to absorb the startups into their core operations—essentially keeping them private. According to Kuolt, this shift has driven Vantora's growing emphasis on physical AI startups. Previously, the firm would abandon ideas that were strategically important to its corporate partners but too sensitive to expose publicly.

"We were missing on the biggest value problems, which had the biggest upside because of that," Kuolt said in a recent interview. "Imagine you're a Fortune 100 industrial company and you need to retrofit all of your hardware and machines for autonomy. You need to own that, it needs to be sovereign, and you can't rely on a third party to go do that for you. You need to own that intelligence layer. They're never going to let us go sell that to their competitors."

EMBED_PLACEHOLDER_0

This change has enabled Vantora to "unlock big physical AI use cases," according to Kuolt, including with existing customers. For instance, the firm devised an idea to use AI to enhance the business of its partner J. B. Hunt. "They said there is no way you can take this out to the world, and so we passed on it," he said, adding that this proprietary model now allows Vantora to pursue it.

The firm launched in 2022 with Porsche as its first corporate partner. Since then, Vantora has launched several startups for Porsche and secured deals with Alaska Airlines, J. B. Hunt, Wabash, and TDG, the parent company of Ashley Furniture.

In its early days, UP. Labs was tied—though never financially—to venture firm Up. Partners. While Vantora still shares office space with the California-based VC, it operates as its own entity, Kuolt explained, noting that the $100 million from Silversmith represents the company's first outside investment.