Tekcapital portfolio company Guident could enjoy a substantial valuation uplift this summer as the company rolls out its autonomous vehicle safety SaaS solution.
The UK Investor Magazine Podcast was recently joined by Guident CEO Harald Braun for a deep dive into the company’s latest developments. The focus of this podcast was two recent announcements.
The first was the expansion of the strategic partnership with Auve Tech concerning Guident’s Remote Monitoring and Control Centre safety solution and its integration with the Mica autonomous shuttle. The second was a new partnership with Star Robotics representing Guident’s entry into the robotic surveillance and inspection industry.
The calibre of Guident’s two partners should not be underestimated.
Estonia-based Auve Tech has partnered with SoftBank affiliate Boldy to make Mica shuttles available in 50 locations across Japan by 2025.
Auve Tech is an Estonian Deep Tech start-up selling autonomous vehicles to Japan, a country synonymous with technology and vehicle manufacturing, and Guident is helping Auve Tech launch in the US.
Star Robotics has secured venture funding and is revenue-generating in a real-world setting with material scalability.
The two partnerships demonstrate a huge addressable market for Guident. Most major players in the Level 4 autonomous vehicle market are already billion-dollar companies and Guident is carving out a potentially market-leading safety solution with a broad base of applications.
Unique Proposition for UK Investors
Guident and Tekcapital shares especially present UK public equity investors with a rare and arguably unique opportunity.
Speaking with UK Investor Magazine, Harald Braun touched on a proposed funding round designed to accelerate growth across the company.
As one would expect, Braun did not disclose any specifics of the round. There is no detail on the funding level or valuation, yet. The details are confidential for the time being.
We do, however, know it will be a venture capital round in US private markets.
From a valuation uplift perspective, it is a very exciting time to be a Seed/Pre-Seed investor in growth companies in the Electric Mobility and Autonomous Mobility space. And that’s exactly what Tekcapital and its shareholders are.
Guident has one foot in the clean technology subsector, Electric Mobility – which attracted the most venture capital investment in 2023 – and the other foot in the Deep Tech Autonomous Mobility sector.
According to Dealroom, VC investors poured $22bn into Electric Mobility in 2023. This sector includes electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging and lithium battery technology. US VC investors allocated just under $4bn to the Deep Tech Autonomous Mobility. One could argue that Guident is a communications company, but its technology’s foundations are certainly rooted in the aforementioned industries.
Tekcapital currently owns 100% of Guident, which was valued at around $20m in terms of NAV on TEK’s balance sheet in the half-year report.
This is pocket change in the grand scheme of things. On the successful completion of the proposed funding round, one would expect a substantial uplift in the Guident valuation.
There is serious capital around for mobility companies and Guident is at the forefront of making the next wave of autonomous mobility safer. To compound the attractiveness of Guident’s revenue-generation model, the company is adopting a SaaS offering that tends to command higher valuations.
Guident Valuation
The UK has a problem in pricing technology risk and attributing a long-term value to big tech. This hasn’t always been the case, but a combination of Brexit and higher interest rates has made the current environment particularly challenging. UK public markets struggle to look at the bigger picture and real-world benefits of technology. That’s why ARM chose to list in New York.
However, Tekcapital investors need not worry about the UK’s current deficiencies with pricing technology risk when considering Guident because the company is tapping up US private equity investors who readily support early stage innovation in the sector.
US investors tend to have a much longer time horizon and have a bigger appetite for risk. The ‘Magnificent 7’ is evidence of this.
London’s public markets may change their risk tolerance and approach to big technology in the future, but for now, Guident will enjoy a supportive environment in the US. This should feed directly into Tekcapital shares.