If you made it through Walter Isaacson’s 615-page biography of Elon Musk, you may have noticed that Musk’s tunneling venture, The Boring Company, is allotted all of three pages.
I found that to be a bit peculiar. While hardly the size of SpaceX, Boring Company is still one of the most valuable startups in the world—last worth some $5.6 billion in 2022 (though a recent employee share sale implies a more than $7 billion figure). The City of Las Vegas has entrusted Boring with the initial approvals it needs to build a 68-mile underground public transit system—a shocking vote of confidence for a startup that has built a mere 2.4 miles of operating tunnel since inception.
There has been little in-depth reporting about the company: what happened to projects from California to Illinois, Texas, Florida, and Maryland that have all fizzled or been disbanded, its high turnover levels, how Boring’s president, Steve Davis, is running the whole operation, or why the City of Las Vegas took such a big bet on Musk’s tunneling venture when the City’s own Mayor has worries about being a “guinea pig.”
In my recent feature story about the company, I dig into it all. I spoke with former Boring Company executives and staffers, as well as politicians and lobbyists who worked with Musk’s tunnel company on various projects, local Las Vegas residents, and engineers. I also reviewed thousands of pages of emails between Boring Company employees and local government officials, lobbying records, maps, and Boring contracts.
The reality of The Boring Company is a drastically scaled-back version of the lofty vision Musk started working on in 2016. The Boring Company was supposed to deliver an underground maze of tunnels with small stations all across a city, where people could travel in their own autonomous vehicles at speeds of 150 miles per hour. The initial goal, according to Musk, was to build one mile of tunnel in a week.
In seven years, Boring has completed just 2.4 miles of operational tunnels. It has put its self-driving vehicle plans on the back burner in favor of a Tesla chauffeur service, and it’s moving people at relatively mild speeds of under 40 miles per hour in Vegas. Former employees report a nearly constant churn of staffers and executives (“Working at Boring Company is like a big fire drill every single day,” one former employee told me). Perhaps most importantly, the company seems to have lost the close attention of the man who started it all: Musk.
One former employee summed up the company’s predicament in a nutshell: “Elon’s idea for the Boring Company was a good one. It just hasn’t been executed on.”
You can read the whole story here.
See you tomorrow,
Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: [email protected]
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- RepeatMD, a Houston, Texas-based e-commerce and loyalty technology platform for aesthetic and wellness practices, raised $50 million in Series A funding. Centana Growth Partners and Full In Partners led the round and were joined by Mercury Fund and PROOF.
- Candex, a New York City-based provider of vendor management solutions, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Goldman Sachs Asset Management led the round and was joined by WiL and existing investors Altos, NFX, Craft, JP Morgan,and Edenred.
- Second Front Systems, a Wilmington, Del.-based company designed to deliver software applications for national security missions to the government, raised $40 million in Series B funding. NEA led the round and was joined by Moore Strategic Ventures and AE Industrial Partners HorizonX.
- Mozaic.io, a Nashville, Tenn.-based platform for splitting payments across creative teams, raised $20 million in Series A funding from Volition Capital.
- Hololight, a Durham, N.C. and Innsbruck, Austria-based streaming platform for virtual and augmented reality, raised $12 million in funding. Flatz Hoffman led the round and was joined by EnBW New Ventures, Bayern Kapital, and Future Energy Ventures.
- Again, a Copenhagen, Denmark and Berlin, Germany-based startup that uses gas-eating bacteria to convert carbon dioxide into chemical products, raised $10 million in seed funding from ACME Capital, Google Ventures, and Atlantic Labs.
- Vimcal, a New York City-based calendar and meetings app, raised $4.5 million in funding. Altos Ventures led the round and was joined by others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- ARCHIMED took Instem, a Staffordshire, U.K.-based developer of software and tech-enabled services designed to accelerate drug discovery and development, private for £203 million ($253 million).
- Ardian agreed to acquire Verne Global, a London, U.K.-based operator of data centers, from Digital 9 Infrastructure. Financial terms were disclosed.
- E Source, a portfolio company of Align Capital Partners, acquired UMS Group, a Parsippany, N.J.-based utility management consulting firm. FInancial terms were not disclosed.
- Lead Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Viva Day Spa, an Austin, Texas-based spa operator. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Norwest Equity Partners acquired United Sports Brands, a Fountain Valley, Calif.-based portfolio of sporting goods and active lifestyle brands. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Pictet acquired a majority interest in Pareto FM, a London, U.K.-based provider of operational, maintenance, and management services in buildings. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- KKR acquired Potter Global Technologies, a St. Louis, Mo.-based provider of fire safety and emergency communication products, from Gryphon Investors. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Siris agreed to acquire BearCom, a Garland, Texas-based provider and integrator of wireless voice, video, and data solutions, including two-way radios and surveillance cameras, from Bertram Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOs
- Shein, a Singapore-based fashion retailer, confidentially filed to go public, according to theWall Street Journal. The company was last valued at $60 billion in May 2023.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- Twelve Below, a New York City-based venture capital fund, raised $108 million across two new funds focused on fintech, health care, energy, and SMB companies.
Corrections, Nov. 28, 2023: The digital version of this newsletter has been corrected to reflect that Altos, NFX, Craft, JP Morgan, AmEx Ventures, and Edenred did not participate in Candex’s Series B round and that Twelve Below raised $108 million across to new funds, not Twelve Capital.
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