AUGUSTASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK8NEWSROOMTOSHIBA, NATURENIX EXPAND EV BATTERY SUBSCRIPTION IN BANGKOKSRE.ai, a startup founded in 2024 by former Google Research and DeepMind engineers Edward Aryee and Raj Kadiyala, has emerged from stealth with a US$7.2 million seed round.The round was led by Salesforce Ventures and Crane Venture Partners and was oversubscribed, signaling strong investor interest. The company, a member of Y Combinator's Fall 2024 batch, will use the funding to expand its team of AI engineers and Salesforce experts. SRE.ai develops natural language AI agents that automate complex DevOps workflows across major enterprise platforms like AWS, GCP, Azure, and ServiceNow. These AI agents can be tailored for tasks such as managing release pipelines, monitoring data, and flagging security risks.The company's origins are tied to its founders' experiences at Google, where they observed the sophistication of internal infrastructure tooling compared to what was available to most enterprises. This gap mirrors the broader history of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), originally developed at Google and later adapted by the industry.Despite DevOps being mainstream for over 15 years, surveys reveal many enterprises still struggle to realize its benefits. Persistent challenges such as untangling metadata conflicts and complex multi-platform integrations highlight the limitations of traditional DevOps tools. By enabling natural language-based automation, SRE.ai aims to simplify operations and improve productivity at scale.The successful funding round underscores the market's readiness for AI-driven DevOps solutions, positioning SRE.ai as a potential leader in bridging the gap between advanced infrastructure practices at tech giants and enterprise reality. Toshiba and Japanese battery startup Naturenix are expanding their battery subscription pilot for electric motorcycle taxis in Bangkok, signaling progress toward scalable battery-as-a-service (BaaS) solutions.The new phase, running December 2025 to March 2026, will shift to a paid model and target 100 EV motorcycles and five charging stations. This follows the first phase (Sept 2024March 2025), which was free and focused on testing battery swapping and charging systems. The upgraded system will deploy enhanced battery packs with real-time monitoring and faster charging, while Thailand's Windee International will collect driver feedback. Insights will refine technical performance, study degradation, and improve user experience.Toshiba and Naturenix aim to commercialize the subscription service in fiscal year 2026, with future applications for industrial vehicles under consideration. This initiative reflects a global shift to BaaS models that reduce upfront EV costs. Similar programs include India's SUN Mobility, which has run battery swapping since 2019, and China's NIO, which offers three-minute automated swaps and on-demand charging.The Climate Policy Initiative highlights battery subscriptions as a way to lower adoption barriers by separating battery ownership from vehicle ownership--tackling range anxiety, charging delays, and high costs.Crucially, the model also supports circular electrification and battery reuse, addressing sustainability challenges. With only 5 percent of lithium-ion batteries recycled (vs. 99 percent for lead-acid), extending lifecycles reduces toxic landfill waste and the 46 percent carbon emissions from EV battery production. By prioritizing durability and reuse over volume, Toshiba and Naturenix are aligning innovation with environmental responsibility. SRE.AI RAISES $7.2M TO AUTOMATE DEVOPS WITH AIKey Highlights· SRE.ai raises $7.2M led by Salesforce Ventures and Crane.· AI agents automate DevOps workflows across AWS, GCP, and Azure.· Founded by ex-Google and DeepMind engineers, joined YC Fall 2024.Key Highlights· Toshiba and Naturenix expand Bangkok EV battery subscription pilot· Second phase shifts to paid model with 100 bikes and 5 stations· Focus on reuse, circular electrification, and sustainability in EVs
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