Autotech Ventures, a specialist venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, has launched its inaugural fund of more than $120 million to invest in startups revolutionizing ground transportation. The fund comprises both financial and corporate investors. Among the fund’s corporate investors are BorgWarner and Autoliv, as well as dozens of others, including vehicle manufacturers, parts suppliers, repair shop chains, leasing corporations, refueling station networks, dealership groups and trucking firms, who together represent a global market capitalization of more than $500 billion.
Founded by Alexei Andreev and Quin Garcia and featuring a team of seasoned transportation executives, investors and entrepreneurs, Autotech Ventures is the world’s first venture capital firm focused solely on ground transportation, according to the company. Autotech says it believes that the magnitude and speed of disruption of this $3 trillion sector warrants a specialist approach to venture capital, in order to provide leading startups with the capital, transportation market intelligence and access to corporate scale-up partners needed to succeed. The fund has already made investments in DeepScale, Lyft, Outdoorsy, Realine, Volta Charging and Work Truck Solutions.
“The ground transportation sector is experiencing a moment of unprecedented innovation, and there has never been a better time to invest in the many exciting companies leading that charge,” said Andreev, managing director.
“Our mission is to form bridges between our portfolio companies, our corporate partners and our many other contacts in the transportation sector to commercialize solutions to society’s most pressing transportation challenges,” added Garcia, the firm’s other managing director.
Masahiro Suzuki, partner in charge of strategic partnerships at Autotech, noted, “Startups are adept at quickly turning disruptive ideas into action, while industry incumbents are excellent at scaling and accessing a large customer base. At Autotech, we bring startups and corporations together to leverage their complementary strengths and help our portfolio startups create the future of ground transport.”
Forrest Iandola, CEO of DeepScale, echoed the sentiment, saying, “Autotech helped us recruit talent with deep ties in the automotive industry, and together we identified and contacted the right people at OEMs and Tier 1s to further our automotive business development efforts.”
To learn more, visit autotechvc.com.
