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A humanoid robotics startup co-founded by the CEO of bankrupt fintech company Synapse has approached Silicon Valley investors for funds, claiming close ties and an impending investment General Motors — Claims rejected by automaker.
The company, called Foundation Robotics Labs, is seeking the final $1 million in an $11 million seed round, according to documents obtained by CNBC. The investor pitch claimed GM had already committed to investing, along with Menlo Park-based VC firm Tribe Capital.
“The foundation builds humanoid robots to take over the work that humans do in factories, warehouses and ultimately homes,” the startup explained.
In addition to the seed investment, the fundraising document said GM would be the Foundation’s first customer with a targeted purchase order worth $300 million and had also provided access to its factories to help them train their robots.
“GM has agreed to allow us to collect basic data at their factories,” the foundation’s document says. “Our team is at its facility in Mexico this week to begin the collection process. We would probably be the only company in this space with such a data set.”
“Fabricated” claims
But according to GM and one of the startup’s founders, most of the foundation’s claims about the automaker are exaggerated or untrue.
According to a GM spokesman, while GM has met with foundation executives a few times, it has not authorized data collection from its factories, has not made any agreements for robot orders and has not planned any investment.
“GM has never invested in Foundation Robotics and has no plans to do so,” spokesman Darryll Harrison said in an emailed statement. “In fact, GM has never entered into any agreement with the company. Any claims to the contrary are fabricated.”
In a telephone interview with CNBC, one of the foundation’s co-founders, Mike LeBlanc, acknowledged GM’s arguments and said he was embarrassed that marketing materials existed that overstated their relationship.
“The engineering achievements we have achieved are truly incredible and are the foundation of what this company will be,” said LeBlanc. “For me, that’s Foundation Robotics.”
New foundation
The foundation was launched in April by Sankaet Pathak, CEO of Synapse, Arjun Sethi, CEO of Tribe Capital, and LeBlanc, co-founder of Cobalt Robotics, a maker of autonomous security guards, according to the company’s fundraising campaign.
It’s a fundraiser at a time when American companies are trying to automate their work more: According to McKinsey, 25% of capital spending by industrial companies will go to automated systems in the coming years.
According to one of the recipients, the misleading fundraising pitch was shared in an email group with about 1,500 startup executives and investors this month. The contents of the document were confirmed by someone with direct knowledge of Tribe Capital.
Tribe Capital and its co-founder Sethi declined to comment, while Pathak did not respond to comments.
Fintech meltdown
The robotics startup is in the spotlight after the implosion of Pathak’s other company Synapse, which enabled fintech brands like Mercury and Dave To provide banking services by connecting them with FDIC-backed banks.
Co-founded by Pathak in 2014, Synapse went bankrupt earlier this year after some of its largest customers, including Mercury, left its platform due to disagreements over customer balances.
The chaos has left more than 100,000 Americans with a combined $265 million in deposits frozen from their accounts for more than a month, according to a trustee appointed to oversee the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Making matters worse, there is an $85 million deficit between the holdings of Synapse’s partner banks and depositors’ liabilities, and there are still no answers as to what happened to the missing funds, according to the trustee.
Pathak’s move to his next venture, which came on the heels of Synapse’s still-ongoing failure, has raised eyebrows among some founders and investors in the startup community.
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2024-06-12 22:54:41
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