Summary
Warehouse Automation
Carbon Trading
Others
Warehouse Automation
Ouster的earning call里面专门谈到了warehouse automation。这是一个很有空间的市场
The warehouse automation market is just in its infancy and already generating millions in revenue for our business. The market opportunity is estimated at over $15 billion today as less than 20% of warehouses currently have any form of automation. According to a recent report, the market for mobile robots is estimated to grow 10 times by 2030 driven by the sale of automated mobile robots which tripled from 2018 to 2020.
合作的对象也很广
Ouster is already working with customers, including large industrial OEMs looking to automate their own fleet and a large global company looking to invest millions into automating its warehousing operation as well as a number of leading warehouse automation companies, including Vecna Robotics, Third Wave Automation, ATI Motors and Balyo.
Amazon是最早关注自动化仓库的公司,在2012年收购了Kiva。Shopify在2019年收购了6 River,也是类似的系统。还有上面提到的Balyo,都属于Autonomous Mobile Robot系列。
这个领域很像是室内的无人驾驶。也是需要电池,mapping,sensing和processing。最近Nvidia的keynote也有相关的介绍。
During its March 2022 GPU Technology Conference (GTC) this week, Nvidia unveiled Isaac Nova Orin, a computing and sensor architecture powered by the company’s Jetson AGX Orin hardware. Nvidia says that Isaac Nova Orin comes with “all the compute and sensor hardware needed to design, build, and test autonomy” in autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) — types of robots that can understand and move through their environment without being overseen directly by an operator.
中国也有这样的创业公司,VisionNav
Founded in 2016 by a group of PhDs from the University of Tokyo and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, VisionNav’s valuation was boosted to over $500 million in this round, up from $393 million just six months ago when it picked up 300 million yuan ($47 million) in a Series C financing, it told TechCrunch.
Amazon还成立了一个创投基金来鼓励这个领域的发展,获得投资的公司还是挺有意思的。
这个领域虽然没有无人驾驶那么耀眼,但是公共危害小,又有实用价值,很适合小范围的试验和迭代。感觉更适合投资。
Carbon Trading
留意一下这周Shopify和Cloudflare的earning call,都在强调carbon removal和net zero
Shopify announced its support of nine new tech-driven innovators in carbon removal through our Sustainability Fund, bringing our total carbon removal purchase commitment to $32 million. Shopify is the largest purchaser for eight and the first purchaser for four of these new partners. As the largest purchaser, we are providing companies with a strong revenue stream that helps them secure financing, and as the first purchaser, we are sending a clear market signal for others to buy from these partners.
Carbon Removal对于实现net zero emission很关键。逻辑很简单。
重要的是,有了Carbon Removal后,carbon credit的价格有了变化。所以开始讨论carbon credit的关注点会从quantity转为quality。很有意思的是这个不是政府强制的市场,而是Shopify这样的头部企业自发的。
传统的credit存在一个double counting的问题。A种树生成credit,B用煤发电,然后和A卖credit,其实总的emission没有变化。有了carbon removal,就做到了总体是真正的net neutral。种树其实也是一个麻烦的事情,因为需要确保种够,万一发生火灾了呢?这就是卫星图片可以帮忙的地方了。
这个quantity到quality的转变,在carbon trading的市场会发生很大的变化。从
转变为
McKinsey认为carbon的市场在2050年可以达到50 Trillion。Marketplace肯定是很赚钱的,所以现在大家都要来抢着指定标准。
这个carbon removal的credit感觉有点像mortgage 了。不一定有单个的技术可以大规模普及,但是会有各种项目展开。前期通过资产投资,后期通过credit来赢取现金流。所以可以把后面的现金流金融化,前提就是对carbon credit要有标准。这个市场规模,比SaaS的subscriptions高太多了。
现在还已经有这样的fintech公司了,Enduring Planet
Out of the gate, Enduring Planet offers revenue-based financing to companies that bring in more than $25,000 per month. In exchange, companies must hand over a chunk of their monthly revenue (up to 7%) to Enduring Planet, in addition to as much as 3% more off the top, and a 1% origination fee, until the loan is paid back. So far, it’s funded two startups: New Sun Road, which builds software for renewable microgrids, and Aquaoso, a climate risk data company.
Net Zero以后就会像Organic Food一样成为标签。中国反正以后内循环,就不用担心这些事情了。
Others
我的生物知识很差,但是不难感觉到生物技术在医疗和以外的领域会大有作为。
俄乌战争,造成全球fertilizer短缺,科学家现在可以让植物通过土壤来自行生产
Legumes produce their own nitrogen fertiliser by partnering with naturally occurring rhizobia soil bacteria. The bacteria fix nitrogen from the air into ammonia, which they exchange with plants for sugars and fatty acids.
还有可以消化塑料的enzyme
The enzyme was able to complete a “circular process” of breaking down the plastic into smaller parts (depolymerization) and then chemically putting it back together (repolymerization). In some cases, these plastics can be fully broken down to monomers in as little as 24 hours.
有意思的事,这个enzyme是通过ML找到的
Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering and College of Natural Sciences used a machine learning model to generate novel mutations to a natural enzyme called PETase that allows bacteria to degrade PET plastics. The model predicts which mutations in these enzymes would accomplish the goal of quickly depolymerizing post-consumer waste plastic at low temperatures.
备注:我持有的股票包括MQ,PL,GOOG和PTON。