On March 16, 2021, the General Motors logo appeared on the facade of the General Motors headquarters in Detroit.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
A humanoid robot startup co-founded by the CEO of bankrupt fintech firm Synapse has lobbied for funding from Silicon Valley investors, claiming it has close ties to the company and is about to receive funding from General Motors – Claim rejected by car manufacturer.
The company, Foundation Robotics Labs, is seeking the final $1 million in funding for an $11 million seed round, according to documents obtained by CNBC. Investor pitch claims GM has committed to invest alongside Menlo Park-based venture capital firm tribal capital.
“The Foundation is building humanoid robots to take over jobs done by humans in factories, warehouses and homes,” the startup claims.
In addition to the seed investment, the fundraising document also said that General Motors will become the foundation’s first customer with a target order value of $300 million, and will also provide access to its factories to help them train robots.
“General Motors has agreed to let us collect real-world data at their plants,” the foundation said in the filing. “Our team began the collection process this week at the Mexico plant. We may be the only company in this space with such a data set.”
“fabricated” claims
But most of the foundation’s claims about the automaker are exaggerated or untrue, according to GM and one of the startup’s founders.
A GM spokesman said that while GM has had several meetings with foundation executives, it does not allow data to be collected from its factories, has no robot order agreements and does not plan to make investments.
“GM has never invested in Foundation Robotics and has no plans to do so,” spokesman Darryll Harrison said in an emailed statement. “In fact, General Motors has never entered into any form of agreement with the company. Any claims to the contrary are fabricated.”
Foundation co-founder Mike LeBlanc confirmed GM’s view in a phone interview with CNBC and said he was embarrassed by the existence of marketing materials that exaggerated their relationship.
“The engineering work we’ve done is truly incredible and it’s a cornerstone of the future of this company,” LeBlanc said. “To me, that’s Foundation Robotics.”
new foundation
The foundation was launched in April by Synapse CEO Sankaet Pathak and Tribe Capital CEO Arjun Sethiand LeBlanc, co-founder cobalt Robotics is a manufacturer of autonomous security guards, according to the company’s funding pitch.
It raises money as U.S. businesses look to automate more of their workforce: 25% of capital spending by industrial companies in the next few years will be automated systemAccording to McKinsey.
The misleading fundraising pitch was shared this month in an email group involving about 1,500 startup executives and investors, according to one recipient. The contents of the document were confirmed by people with direct knowledge of Tribal Capital.
Tribe Capital and its co-founder Sethi declined to comment, while Pathak did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Fintech collapse
This robotics startup finds itself in the spotlight The implosion of Pathak’s other company, Synapse, which spawned Mercury and dave Provide banking services by connecting them to FDIC-backed banks.
Synapse, co-founded by Pathak in 2014, went bankrupt earlier this year after some of its largest customers, including Mercury, left its platform over disagreements over customer balances.
The chaos has locked up the accounts of more than 100,000 Americans for more than a month, totaling $265 million, according to the trustee appointed to oversee the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.
To make matters worse, trustees say there is an $85 million gap between the funds held by Synapse’s cooperative banks and what depositors are owed, and there are currently no answers as to where the missing funds are.
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