Regent aims to fly its electric seagliders over the waterways of Japan
Billy Thalheimer (CEO) and Michael Klinker (CTO) of REGENT with a full-scale mockup of their first electric seaglider.
Courtesy REGENT
Regent, a startup developing electric seagliders to transport people and cargo, has raised a $60 million round of venture funding and struck a partnership with Japan Airlines to figure out how to bring the company’s flying electric ferries to the waterways of Japan.
Venture fund 8090 Industries co-led Regent’s series A round alongside Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, with Japan Airlines Innovation Fund and Point72 Ventures also participating among others. The new funding brings Regent’s total capital raised to $90 million to-date, according to co-founder and CEO Billy Thalheimer.
The funding follows two major milestones for the clean transportation startup. As CNBC previously reported, Regent built a quarter-scale prototype and completed a series of test runs on Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay late last year to prove that its seagliders, which are technically known as wing-in-ground-effect craft (WIGs) can “float, foil and fly” as expected.
The prototype was able to repeatedly motor out of a harbor slowly, then launch from a speed of about 40 mph into the air, where it flew around 10 feet above the open ocean at a speed of approximately 50 mph in different, travel-safe weather conditions.
The commercial version of this battery powered 12-seater, named the Viceroy, will fly higher above the water at speeds of up to 180 mph, Thalheimer says. The battery that powers the Viceroy seaglider will have a range of about 180 miles.
More recently, Regent built a full-scale mockup of the Viceroy, and a “sim room” at its headquarters where visitors can sit in a mock cockpit, and virtually fly the seaglider over any chosen waterway. Thalheimer said, “You can build as many decks or pitches as you want but this is the experience that unlocks excitement.”
Regent has built a full-scale mockup of its first electric seaglider, the 12-seat Viceroy.
Courtesy REGENT
Eventually, travelers should be able to go down to a dock and board Regent seagliders like they would a regular ferry or water taxi. Besides using these WIGs for travel in coastal communities, Regent plans to sell seagliders to organizations providing cargo transport, search and rescue, offshore logistics as well as security and defense services.
Airlines and ferry operators including Mesa Airlines, Brittany Ferries and FRS are among customers who have already signed deals to purchase Regent’s seagliders. The company says it has orders for more than 500 seagliders representing some $8 billion in future revenue. Southern Airways is poised to take the first production Viceroy, which it plans to operate under their Mokulele Airlines brand. Mokulele currently operates inter-island routes throughout Hawaii.
Regent will use its new round of funding for hiring as well as building and testing full-scale prototypes of the Viceroy, along with all the safety systems required to run the seagliders with people on board, Thalheimer says.
The company already has 55 full-time employees, the CEO said, and has managed to attract talent from the likes of SpaceX and Bureau Veritas, an international regulator of ships and vessels.
Longer term, Regent is developing a 100-seat seaglider dubbed the Monarch which is in early design stages. Including regulatory approvals, the company expects its Viceroy 12-seat seagliders to be in production and in service within two to three years. It expects the larger Monarch seagliders to be in service by 2030.
8090 Industries general partner Rayyan Islam, who co-led the series A investment in Regent, told CNBC that his firm backed the startup because of the demand for its seagliders, and the early team’s success in prototyping and proving the viability of the Viceroy.
Islam’s firm sees a new industrial revolution underway, one in which every sector will need to pursue “decarbonization” in a way that makes good business sense. Regent’s seagliders, the investor said, can eliminate much of the greenhouse gas emissions from short-haul flights in aviation, and other emissions from ferries and water taxis, which typically run on diesel while working alongside existing infrastructure.
Islam also envisions Regent seagliders carrying people and equipment to help build, monitor or maintain offshore energy developments, from aging oil rigs to massive wind turbines.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is initiating a secondary share sale that would give the company a valuation of up to $800 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
SpaceX is also telling some investors it will consider going public possibly around the end of next year, the report said.
At the elevated price, Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor would be valued above ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which wrapped up a share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.
SpaceX has been investing heavily in reusable rockets, launch facilities and satellites, while competing for government contracts with newer space players, including Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin. SpaceX is far ahead, and operates the world’s largest network of satellites in low earth orbit through Starlink, which powers satellite internet services under the same brand name.
A SpaceX IPO would include its Starlink business, which the company previously considered spinning out.
Musk recently discussed whether SpaceX would go public during Tesla‘s annual shareholders meeting last month. Musk, who is the CEO of both companies, said he doesn’t love running publicly traded businesses, in part because they draw “spurious lawsuits,” and can “make it very difficult to operate effectively.”
However, Musk said during the meeting that he wanted to “try to figure out some way for Tesla shareholders to participate in SpaceX,” adding, “maybe at some point, SpaceX should become a public company despite all the downsides.”
WATCH: What retail investors should know about OpenAI and SpaceX
The logo for Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 17, 2021.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
A U.S. judge on Friday finalized his decision for the consequences Google will face for its search monopoly ruling, adding new details to the decided remedies.
Last year, Google was found to hold an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search, and in September, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the most severe consequences that were proposed by the Department of Justice.
That included the proposal of a forced sale of Google’s Chrome browser, which provides data that helps the company’s advertising business deliver targeted ads. Alphabet shares popped 8% in extended trading as investors celebrated what they viewed as minimal consequences from a historic defeat last year in the landmark antitrust case.
Investors largely shrugged off the ruling as non-impactful to Google. However some told CNBC it’s still a bite that could “sting.”
Mehta on Friday issued additional details for his ruling in new filings.
“The age-old saying ‘the devil is in the details’ may not have been devised with the drafting of an antitrust remedies judgment in mind, but it sure does fit,” Mehta wrote in one of the Friday filings.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has previously said it will appeal the remedies.
In August 2024, Mehta ruled that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act and held a monopoly in search and related advertising. The antitrust trial started in September 2023.
In his September decision, Mehta said the company would be able to make payments to preload products, but it could not have exclusive contracts that condition payments or licensing. Google was also ordered to loosen its hold on search data. Mehta in September also ruled that Google would have to make available certain search index data and user interaction data, though “not ads data.”
The DOJ had asked Google to stop the practice of “compelled syndication,” which refers to the practice of making certain deals with companies to ensure its search engine remains the default choice in browsers and smartphones.
The judge’s September ruling didn’t end the practice entirely — Mehta ruled out that Google couldn’t enter into exclusive deals, which was a win for the company. Google pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine on iPhones. It’s lucrative for Apple and a valuable way for Google to get more search volume and users.
Mehta’s new details
In the Friday filings, Mehta wrote that Google cannot enter into any deal like the one it’s had with Apple “unless the agreement terminates no more than one year after the date it is entered.”
This includes deals involving generative artificial intelligence products, including any “application, software, service, feature, tool, functionality, or product” that involve or use genAI or large-language models, Mehta wrote.
GenAI “plays a significant role in these remedies,” Mehta wrote.
The judge also reiterated the web index data it will require Google to share with certain competitors.
Google has to share some of the raw search interaction data it uses to train its ranking and AI systems, but it does not have to share the actual algorithms — just the data that feeds them.” In September, Mehta said those data sets represent a “small fraction” of Google’s overall traffic, but argued the company’s models are trained on data that contributed to Google’s edge over competitors.
The company must make this data available to qualified competitors at least twice, one of the Friday filing states. Google must share that data in a “syndication license” model whose term will be five years from the date the license is signed, the filing states.
Mehta on Friday also included requirements on the makeup of a technical committee that will determine the firms Google must share its data with.
Committee “members shall be experts in some combination of software engineering, information retrieval, artificial intelligence, economics, behavioral science, and data privacy and data security,” the filing states.
The judge went on to say that no committee member can have a conflict of interest, such as having worked for Google or any of its competitors in the six months prior to or one year after serving in the role.
Google is also required to appoint an internal compliance officer that will be responsible “for administering Google’s antitrust compliance program and helping to ensure compliance with this Final Judgment,” per one of the filings. The company must also appoint a senior business executive “whom Google shall make available to update the Court on Google’s compliance at regular status conferences or as otherwise ordered.”
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
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