Navya shortfall at French autonomous shuttle startup

French tech hopeful Navya appears to have hit a wall less than six months after the autonomous shuttle company was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The company has parted ways with founder and CEO Christophe Sapet two weeks after he disclosed that the company would fall well short of its 2018 revenue targets. In addition, four board members have stepped down, including those representing investors Valeo and Keolis.

In a statement to tech blog Maddyness, the board said the decision by some members to leave was not a sign of doubts about the “operational or technical projects conducted with Navya and in particular the partnerships put in place.”

Still, the upheaval comes as a blow to a company that has often been held up a shining star in the French Tech ecosystem.

Founded in 2014, the company makes autonomous shuttles that have been drawing international attention thanks to numerous pilot projects, including several in the U.S. Last year, the company unveiled a Level 4 autonomous taxi that seemed to point to big things ahead.

Along the way, the company, now with 200 employees, raised an impressive $73 million in venture capital. In late July, the company entered the Paris Stock Exchange with a first-day close of €7.15 per share. At the time, the company said it had sold 67 shuttles in 16 countries through the first quarter of 2018.

But on December 7, the company revealed that things were not going as hoped. Rather than hitting the €30 milion target, the company said annual revenues for 2018 would likely be in €17 million to €19 million range. Its stock plunged, cutting its market cap from €185 million last summer to €54 million in early trading today.

Navya blamed the shortfall on several projects under negotiations but that had been delayed into 2019, in part due to a fuzzy U.S. regulatory picture.

Just how big of a setback this will be remains to be seen. The company is searching for a permanent successor, but for the moment CFO Frank Maccary will be the interim boss. The company also said it still has €24 million in the bank, and had recently secured a line of financing worth €30 million from the European Investment Bank.