The Pulse
Vantora bets on private AI systems for industrial companies
Vantora, formerly known as UP.Labs, has secured more than $100 million from Silversmith Capital Partners to build AI-native operating companies inside industrial enterprises.
AI.info Team ·
Vantora bets on private AI systems for industrial companies
Vantora, the startup builder formerly known as UP.Labs, has raised more than $100 million from Silversmith Capital Partners and is changing how it commercializes the companies it creates. Rather than building ventures for broad markets, Vantora says corporate partners will increasingly have the option to keep those startups and fold them into their own operations.
The investment, announced on September 16, 2026, is Vantora’s first outside capital since its launch in 2022. The company says the funding will support new corporate partnerships, development of its COSMOS data-ontology product and hiring across artificial intelligence and commercial roles.
That model puts Vantora between a venture studio and an acquisition pipeline. Corporate customers invest in the startups formed around their problems, become the first customers and receive a path to bring the resulting company or technology inside their core business.
How Vantora’s ownership model works
“The world's largest enterprises are sitting on enormous value disguised as problems,” said John Kuolt, Founder and CEO of Vantora. “And there is a conundrum: there has never been a way to align the world's best tech entrepreneurs with the massive problem sets of the world's most important companies. Equity is what aligns them. We call it Sovereign AI: if the intelligence layer of your business is going to be built on your operations and your data, you must own it.”
John Kuolt, Founder and CEO, Vantora
Vantora calls that ownership structure “Sovereign AI.” The company says a partner holds equity from formation, shares in the venture’s upside and can move it into the parent company once the product produces measurable operating results.
Why physical AI fits the new ownership model
The shift has pushed Vantora toward physical AI: systems that control or improve machines, industrial equipment and other physical operations. Vantora’s announcement says the company has been commercializing physical AI inside large partner enterprises, with the enterprise retaining a path to own the resulting ventures outright.
From Porsche to J.B. Hunt
Porsche AG was Vantora’s launch partner when the company began as UP.Labs in 2022. It has since worked with Alaska Airlines, J.B. Hunt, Wabash and TDG, the parent company of Ashley Furniture. Vantora also said it has added customers in industrial manufacturing and oil and gas, but did not name them.
The company’s projects cover more than autonomous machinery. Its announcement cites systems for product configuration and quoting in made-to-order manufacturing, as well as a rebuilt maintenance-planning operation for airlines. Vantora said it has launched 17 ventures and is targeting 20 by the end of 2026.
The company also reported 79% year-over-year revenue growth, though it did not disclose revenue figures. Its corporate partners typically bring operating data and personnel into the process, while Vantora supplies startup founders, product development and artificial-intelligence engineering.
Silversmith takes board seats as Vantora expands
Silversmith’s investment gives the Boston-based growth-equity firm three seats on Vantora’s board: Todd MacLean, Danielle Waldman and Annie Cory. Silversmith said it manages more than $5 billion in capital.
Danielle Waldman, a principal at Silversmith, said Vantora had been building physical-AI systems before the term became widely used.
“Very few organizations are commercializing solving real pain points, building ventures inside large partner enterprises, and giving the partner a path to own those ventures outright,” Waldman said in Vantora’s announcement.
Vantora’s approach gives industrial companies a way to fund AI projects around proprietary workflows without committing to an internal research program or buying a generic product. The trade-off is narrower distribution: a venture designed for one company may not be available to its competitors, limiting the market it can serve.
For Vantora, the immediate test is whether its new funding can turn that constraint into a repeatable business. The company now has more capital, a named financial backer and a stated target of 20 ventures by the end of 2026.