Rather than full automation, the industry is embracing a more nuanced approach where technology augments human capabilities, creating hybrid workplaces where workers are upskilled to work alongside and manage robotic systems. 

Today’s modular and scalable automation solutions enable incremental modernization, allowing logistics providers to start small, prove ROI, and gradually expand their automated operations while maintaining market adaptability. 

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While AI copilots — which work alongside humans to speed up their workflows — currently comprise 90% of company activity, the tech will serve as a stepping stone to more autonomous solutions in the coming years. Eventually, AI agents could manage entire industrial processes, shifting human roles from operational tasks to strategic oversight.

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Through M&A, leaders like PowerFleet and Element Fleet Management are layering on expanded capabilities that help fleet managers optimize for elements like charging schedules, battery range, autonomous routing efficiency, and maintenance cycles.  

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By 2029, SDVs could account for as much as 90% of auto production, up from just 3% in 2021, per Morgan Stanley. However, the transition comes with steep challenges, such as the technical complexity involved and the need for strong cybersecurity measures to protect connected vehicles.

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Despite the declines, global regions like the US and Europe have made gains in median deal sizes this year, and both the US and EU continue to provide government grants and loans to climate tech solutions. China, on the other hand, has rolled back some of its clean energy subsidies, and VC enthusiasm has waned in the country this year.

Globally, governments are focusing more on early-stage technologies that are ready for commercialization. Two prime examples in the US are nuclear fusion energy and direct air capture of CO2, both of which have received substantial funding from the US Department of Energy this year.

Download the full report to access comprehensive data and charts on the evolving state of climate tech across sectors, geographies, and more.

Below, we cover key shifts in Q3’24.

• Climate tech funding falls to $4.8B in Q3’24, marking the lowest point since Q2’20. Venture capital has shifted away from the sector as high interest rates impact climate tech’s capital-intensive projects and as investors pivot toward AI, which tends to feature more rapid developments and shorter commercialization timelines.

• M&A activity drops dramatically in Q3’24, with only 43 deals completed — a more than 50% decline from the previous quarter. While notable exits like Kyte Powertech ($277M valuation) and SRE Power ($72M) suggest a steady appetite for grid infrastructure solutions, the overall slowdown signals a more selective M&A environment, potentially limiting exit opportunities for highly valued climate tech companies.

• US and European deal sizes show resilience despite the slowdown in global funding. In the US, the median deal size has reached $6M in 2024 YTD (up from $4.3M in 2023), while Europe’s median deal size has grown to $4.9M (up from $3.7M in 2023), indicating sustained investor confidence in these markets.

• Despite declines in overall climate tech funding, companies commercializing solutions in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) continue to secure significant capital, as demonstrated by Twelve‘s $200M Series C round in September. Twelve is using the funding to finish building its Washington state facility, where it will produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that it claims can deliver up to 90% emissions reduction compared to conventional jet fuel.

Source: CB Insights — Twelve Funding Insights

• Electric vehicle technology funding reaches a critical low of $0.6B in Q3’24, marking its lowest point since early 2020. However, the sector still attracted notable deals, including 24M Technologies‘ $87M Series H round at a $1.3B valuation, pointing to selective investor appetite for more mature EV tech companies.

More energy resources from CB insights:

• 5 climate tech markets gaining momentum in 2024
• The grid tech market map: The companies tackling the growing need for reliable electricity
• The energy impact of generative AI: 3 technologies transforming the future of data centers
• Analyzing 15 oil & gas leaders’ tech priorities: Here’s where incumbents are buying, investing, and partnering
• Sodium-ion batteries are poised for a breakout moment — energy players should prepare
• Why energy giants should have green ammonia on their radar

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Essential resources to understand the future of automotive, supply chain, & aerospace tech:

• How AI is reshaping the auto industry — A look at 15 high-momentum technologies across the automotive value chain.

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It’s driving value in both customer-facing experiences and back-end operations. This includes tackling challenges specific to digital retail, like personalizing product merchandising and forecasting inventory needs. 

While customer service has been the dominant focus so far, more advanced use cases are on the horizon. These include multi-application orchestration through solutions like composable AI, which helps synchronize genAI tools across an organization’s e-commerce tech stack. 

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B2B payments tools reach cross-functionally across companies, making it not only more essential, but also more complex, to efficiently integrate these tools into workflows.

To help strategy teams prioritize B2B payments tech markets in their planning decisions, we plotted markets across 2 dimensions:

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What you need to know:

• Companies like Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, Lilium, and Volocopter are nearing eVTOL commercialization, with plans to launch air taxi services as soon as 2025, pending regulatory approvals.

• Regulatory hurdles, infrastructure requirements, and battery efficiency are key challenges that need to be addressed before eVTOLs can become a widespread mode of transportation.

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The post Small electric aircraft are edging closer to swarming the skies — here’s what to expect as the ‘flying car’ tech matures appeared first on CB Insights Research.

In the US, checks and cash have already declined from representing half of all B2B payments in 2019 to a projection of less than a third (32%) in 2024, according to eMarketer. In emerging markets, paper’s share of B2B transactions is likely higher, but coming down thanks to the rise of digital commerce and digital operating systems for merchants.

Companies offering B2B payments solutions are digitizing and automating formerly manual processes like creating invoices, processing payments, and analyzing payments data. Many are building platforms that consolidate the steps in the B2B payments value chain in one place, enabling faster and more transparent payments and financing between businesses. 

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The logistics giant is ceding its USPS contract — worth ~$2B per year — to its competitor UPS in September 2024. But despite the upcoming loss in revenue, FedEx’s recent earnings have exceeded expectations and it has actually seen its share price reach an all-time high since USPS announced it wouldn’t renew. 

As FedEx cuts costs and reconfigures its shipping network to focus less on expensive-to-maintain air cargo (which USPS relied upon heavily), it now has more wiggle room to ramp up its investments in areas that promise a long-term pay-off.

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Humans will still play a crucial role — but instead of assembling parts or operating machinery, they will maintain robots and keep them running.

In these future factories, robots coordinate in unison, completing work automatically — without breaks, every hour of the day — to get products out the door. 

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The impact on the pharma industry has been substantial, with Ozempic’s producer, Novo Nordisk, seeing a 36% rise in sales in 2023 driven by the accelerated adoption of its GLP-1 products. D2C pharmacies like Hims are also entering the space, offering their own GLP-1 drugs at a fraction of the cost to patients. 

The rapid growth in prescriptions for these appetite-curbing drugs has drawn wide-spread attention from corporates across industries.  

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The industry is built around encoding information in quantum entities called “qubits” — which have a probability of being either 1 or 0, as opposed to traditional bits that can only be one or the other — to open up new computational approaches and ways of handling data that are not possible on conventional devices.

For example, quantum computing could allow entirely new algorithms that are much more efficient at some key tasks — like complex optimization problems, sorting through large datasets, and running simulations. Though the tech is not yet mature, companies are already working to apply quantum computing to commercial applications like drug discovery, finance, materials discovery, and logistics. Investors are excited — startups in the space saw equity funding surge to $1.3B in 2023, a rare bright spot for venture last year. As quantum computers become more capable in the coming years, expect commercial interest to rise quickly.

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At the same time, rising fuel prices and a thinning labor force are pushing other industries like retail and pharma to favor privatized fleets that can better ensure timely delivery of goods to customers. For example, for Walmart, owning its fleet has been key to keeping prices down and ensuring products are in stock.

To successfully run a fleet, operators need to maintain high visibility into freight movement, optimize routes and schedules, and ensure compliance with driver regulations. They’re turning to tech solutions like transportation management and yard management systems to achieve this — as well as tech like AR/VR to train employees on skills like truck loading. 

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While this has created a new level of accessibility for consumers, it has also led to spikes in drug shortages and counterfeit medicines. 

To combat these public health risks, regulations have been put in place to promote pharma supply chain traceability and safety. For example, the FDA announced that players along the supply chain must meet new Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) standards by the end of 2024. This will require companies throughout the value chain to maintain and share electronic documentation regarding the chain of ownership for their products.

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Across 2023, retail tech fundraising followed the overall venture slowdown: retail tech startups grabbed $19B in equity funding — just a third of the 2022 total ($55B) and 84% lower than the peak in 2021 ($118B). Deals also declined in 2023, down 44% YoY to 2,339.

But as the year closed out, some quarterly indicators turned positive. For instance, retail tech saw 10 mega-rounds (deals worth $100M or more) in Q4’23 — up from 6 the prior quarter. M&A activity continued its upswing after hitting a recent low in Q2’23. And funding to store tech companies more than doubled quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) in Q4’23.

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Consumer journeys have grown more complicated amid the rise of e-commerce, making options like BOPIS (buy online, pick-up in store) table stakes for any retailer looking to serve both in-store and online shoppers. To fulfill orders quickly and accurately, retailers must prioritize efficient distribution, inventory visibility, and last-mile flexibility. 

Striking this balance is especially crucial in grocery, where thin margins raise the stakes on profitability. A well-executed omnichannel fulfillment strategy can yield strong customer loyalty and repeat visits, while serving a wider customer base.

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Historically, uptake of reusable packaging has been slow due to logistical complexities, affordability, and worries about customer adoption. However, consumers are also ready for a switch: A 2023 pilot study conducted by the WWF found that one-third of consumers opt for reusable packaging when given the option. 

It’s important to note that for reusable packaging to actually be sustainable, companies need to ensure its return and reuse. For instance, plastic reusable packaging typically needs to be used 50+ times before its environmental impact outperforms paper packaging.

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The company has raised over $800M in equity funding and has been a unicorn (a private company with a $1B valuation) since 2018.

The pain in supply chain & logistics tech, however, is not restricted to Convoy.

We also used CB Insights valuation comparables data to dig into Flexport — and it looks like its valuation is likely 80% lower than its 2022 round that valued it at $8B.

Want to learn more? We break it all down in this research brief.

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In addition to these larger factors at play, procurement teams must work cross-functionally to ensure other parts of the business have the tools and supplies they need. This requires that they maintain relationships with suppliers, ensure legal compliance, and analyze data across their organization to evaluate how current vendors are supporting workflows. 

Tech companies are helping procurement teams more efficiently source and compare new vendors, maintain supplier relationships, assess renewals, and more. In the market map below, we identify 82 tech vendors addressing critical aspects of procurement across 9 categories. 

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Meanwhile, the pressure to adopt sustainable business practices is mounting with the rise of new legislation. For example, in the coming years, the EU is expected to require the implementation of digital product passports (DPP) across a number of categories, which will affect retailers in areas like apparel and consumer electronics. DPPs use QR codes and technologies like blockchain to trace individual products throughout the entire supply chain as well as post-purchase. These solutions can help ensure that products are sourced sustainably, and they can also be used to verify product authenticity for resale.   

To help retailers strengthen circular practices in order to keep up with evolving regulations and achieve their sustainability goals, tech vendors are developing a wide variety of solutions. These tools enable retailers to exercise sustainable production and transport, identify opportunities for repair, authenticate products and profit from resale, responsibly dispose of goods at the end of their lifespan, and more.

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Why? It’s a combination of the company being priced for perfection and macro headwinds.

Let’s dig in.

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Tech vendors are helping fashion brands and retailers reduce their environmental footprint throughout the supply chain. Solutions include using generative AI and 3D modeling to help design garments more efficiently for production, bio-based materials that reduce plastic and water use, and alternative end-of-life plans for products like resale or recycling. 

In the market map below, we identify 93 vendors addressing critical aspects of the fashion supply chain across 14 different categories. 

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