- Mike Falter
Managing Large Capital Projects at Scale
Start-ups are good at a lot of things, but investing in and managing large capital projects may not be at the top of the list.
Start-ups are generally small, scrappy and under resourced. They are nimble and can pivot quickly, learning from mistakes as they go after nascent markets, business models or technologies with huge future growth potential.
Fortune 500, and other larger companies, have achieved success at scale because they are the best at what they do. They are experts at successfully deploying and managing large amounts of capital in their core markets. They have well developed processes and controls, highly experienced management teams and are accountable to the public markets.
Britishvolt was founded in 2019 and had plans to deploy ~ $4.7 billion for a state of the art battery manufacturing facility in northeast England. According to Crunchbase, the company had raised a total of $2.4 billion of debt and equity funding.
The company recently filed for bankruptcy. Successfully deploying that amount of capital through such a new organization seems like a daunting task.

Smaller Intelligent Power Device (IPD) Improves Safety in Auto Power Distribution Boxes
Renesas Electronics has released a new automotive Intelligent Power Device (IPD) for vehicle electronics and power distribution box applications.
IPDs act as e-fuses and replace mechanical relays in that automotive power distribution boxes that direct 12V bus power to various vehicle loads like heaters, auxiliary motors, lamps and ECUs.
The new device comes in a compact TO-252-7 package that reduces the mounting area by about 40% compared with traditional packaging.
A range of protective functions are integrated to include load short-circuits, over temperature, sense current output, and GND open protection. Battery reverse connection protection with self-turn-on is also provided.
The full article is available here:
Smaller Intelligent Power Device Improves Safety in E-fuse Auto Apps
Funding and Other News
Arm-Based Chips Make Inroads With Apple, Amazon
Pasqal raises €100M to build a neutral atom-based quantum computer
Refined Laser Systems Puts $2.9M Toward Rapid Cancer Diagnostics
Intel CEO: Chip supply chains will shape geopolitics more than oil over the next 50 years