Autotech Ventures’ new $230M mobility fund adds fintech, circular economy to investment strategy

Autotech Ventures will use its newly closed $230 million fund to transcend the founding of start-up floor transportation startups and spend money on what the corporate believes are the following large alternatives in automotive and mobility.

Prime of the record is fintech, logistics, provide chain and round financial system.

In line with the corporate, the $230 million in funding, the third since its launch in 2017, will likely be used to spend money on seeds by Sequence C mobility-related initiatives. Varied monetary and company LPs participated within the fund, together with Allison Transmission, American Axle, Iochpe-Maxion and Shell.

“We’re nonetheless a land transport targeted firm and we now have a really related technique. [with this fund]” Alexey Andreev, Automobile Technology Initiatives the overall supervisor informed TechCrunch. “At a excessive stage, it is the identical as Fund 1 and Fund 2. Nonetheless, one of many quickest rising areas is fintech with SaaS. The auto enterprise is inefficient and there are large revenue pockets to be seized.”

The agency is especially focused on transportation-related fintech startups which might be poised to develop throughout a recession.

“We predicted that ultimately there could be a recession and recognized areas that might profit when the financial system softens,” Andreev stated, noting that this newest fund has been invested in (previously Otto) Yendo, a Dallas-based startup. prospects borrow towards their autos on the similar rate of interest as their customary bank cards.

Autotech Ventures’ earlier fintech investments embrace UK-based purchase now, pay later startup Bumper, and a purchase right here pay right here, Carpay credit score service SaaS platform for automobile sellers.

Andreev stated the agency can also be exploring funding alternatives within the round financial system, an rising business targeted on discovering methods to reuse supplies and merchandise. As automakers transitioned from gas-powered autos to electrical autos, round financial system initiatives have garnered rising consideration and funding.

Autotech Ventures can also be cautiously entering into productive AI, however Andreev rapidly famous that the corporate has not made any investments on this space.

Autotech has a number of 500 million {dollars} administration and has invested in additional than 40 firms.

A few of the agency’s investments embrace pc imaginative and prescient startup DeepScale (acquired by Tesla), Lyft, used-car market operator Frontier Automotive Group, Drover, Outdoorsy, Swvl, parking app SpotHero, and Xnor.ai, which Apple acquired in January 2020. 100% of those startups, together with indie Semiconductor and Volta Charging, went public.