China is falling but we got a $1 Billon new fund

Hi all!

The interest in Zero Emission Aviation continues to accelerate. In the past two years, we saw billions of dollars in new investments.

It's great to see local Beta Technologies of Vermont in the race to validate this promising technology with their Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) "Alia" aircraft. The $375 million Series B they just raised certainly won't hurt the progress.

Over the past years, we at NPA have been honored to play a small part in bringing this technology to market with our Canadian client SkyCanoe, an indigenous-owned company developing a remotely piloted, zero emission cargo aircraft.

The State of Manufacturing

The Manufacturing PMI Index keeps dropping and last month registered at 55.4%, the lowest it's been since July 2020.

Of 18 industries, 16 reported slower supplier deliveries.

We expect delivery performance to significantly worsen in the next few months due to the current Covid shutdowns in China and the resulting logistic bottlenecks this will cause.

And it is getting worse, a lot worse. More Supply Chain news.

On Semi, Texas Instrument and Infineon’s Global Distribution Center in Shanghai was forced to shut down due to Covid lockdown. Transfers to other sites will add a minimum 2+ weeks delay in deliveries.

Nexperia, Vishay, and Everlight Electronics are all experiencing similar challenges.

Samsung’s Xian factory, which produces 40% of the company’s total NAN flash output, is on a partial shutdown.

Littelfuse is still on a strict lockdown (since 4/20!) in Shanghai, Kunshan, and has suspended operations. This will severely impact deliveries.

Capacitor companies, Nippon Chemi-con, Kemet & Nichicon, are all experiencing production stops due to Covid lockdowns and raw material shortages. Further increases in lead time and delivery delays are expected.

Thank you, EPE ELECTRONICS, for continued Real-Time market updates and for finding these hard-to-get components.

After a decade of declines, battery prices have increased in 2022. The most expensive component of electric vehicles is expected to see a 20% price increase.

Tive, an NPA Startup to Watch in 2021, raised $54M in a Series B funding round led by AXA Venture Partners.

Starry, another NPA Startup to Watch in 2021, debuts on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "STRY".

Realtime Robotics raised $19.8 million in an equity round from 32 investors.

Have you ever wanted to know really know why 5G is so vital for the future? Here's the complete Hitchhiker's Guide to 5G.

Amazon creates a $1 billion fund to invest in startups building supply-chain, logistics, and warehouse-innovation tech.

Applications are officially open for the Cambridge, MA-based BlueSwell Incubator. For more info, check here or apply here by August 8th.

ePropelled announced that Aerotor, an Israeli company, has selected ePropelled’s starter generators and intelligent power systems for its Apus 15 multi-rotor Quadcopter UAV.

GPR was selected by Automotive News as a PACEpilot 2022 award finalist. Congrats!

Nodar raised a $12MM round from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Rhapsody Venture Partners. Nodar was also listed as a finalist for the Automotive News PACEpilot 2022 award.

Seurat announced that their first print depot is powered by 100% green energy.

In our April survey, we asked who offers or sells allocation components to brokers at insane prices.

The results of our readers showed that Component OEMs, large Corporations, and Small Businesses each contributed 17%, while almost 15% is due to Distributors causing these insane price hikes.

And now, as companies shift their priority to protect their people and put a bigger spotlight on their workforce, we'd like to ask:

Couples are moving their Weddings to the Metaverse. Great, NFTs as Wedding presents! ThatllBeOneLameWeddingNight (Source: Morning Brew)

Fort Worth, Texas, is now the first city government in the United States to mine bitcoin. HopingThePowerGridsWillHandleIt (Source: CNBC)

MIT researchers have developed a system that enables a robot to learn a new pick-and-place task based on only a handful of human examples. ReprogrammingARobotIn15Minutes

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