Tech startups have been busy even during the past many months of lockdown. Here is an article from Emerging Tech Brew. We highly recommend you subscribe to their newsletter.

Drones: Skydio is emerging as the de facto drone rival to China’s DJI by focusing on autonomous software. The Redwood City California startup announced a $100 million Series C this week, using the occasion to unveil its new X2 enterprise drone (pictured above).  In their promo video, you will notice a few shots from Santa Cruz.

Robotic process automation: RPA has piqued investors’ interest during the pandemic. On Tuesday, RPA startup UiPath got a piece of the excitement, raising a $225 million Series E and unlocking decacorn status with a $10.2 billion valuation.

Telemedicine: Yesterday, Doctor on Demand announced a $75 million Series D. Something, something, years of telemedicine adoption in months…

Chipmaking: Chinese startup Eswin raised a $283 million Series B. The deal was a month ago, but I’m still including it because 1) that’s a large Series B and 2) China developing chip self-sufficiency is a key storyline of the 2020s.

EVs: As Tesla’s stock hangs out in the stratosphere…

• Ford and Amazon-backed Rivian raised $2.5 billion in fresh financing last week. 

• Karma Automotive received a $100 million lifeline from investors, per Bloomberg.

• Fisker recently raised $50 million to hold it over until a Q4 IPO (more on that below).