Autotech Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm has recently raised USD $150 million in funding with capital commitments from both corporate and financial investors, including Bridgestone and Stoneridge, Lear, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB, few other vehicle manufacturers, repair shop chains, parts suppliers, leasing corporations, trucking firms and dealership groups. The new investments bring the total to an estimated US$270 million under management till date.

For the record, Autotech Ventures has secured US$120 million in debut funds with plans to invest in early-stage ground transportation startups. The company has made investments in 26 startups, including a few exits, like DeepScale, Frontier Car Group and Xnor.ai.

Daniel Hoffer, Managing Director, Autotech reportedly said that the corporate limited partnership base is their key strategy and a differentiator for the firm. At a higher level the company provides transportation market intelligence, capital as well as access to large corporations in the industry, including the firm’s limited partnerships.

Hoffer added that startups certainly value the connections with the firm as it can easily accelerate their go-to market, distribution channels along with providing M&A opportunities and greater access to other forms of business development.

He also said that the firm generally aims for the seed and Series A funding. However, it will occasionally participate in Series B as well as later-stage funding rounds. The managing director indicated that with its new fund, it will be targeting early-stage startups in several sectors that comes under the category of ground transportation & mobility, including electrification, autonomy, connectivity, shared-use mobility and digital enterprise applications.

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, that has toppled the public transportation, ride-hailing and shared mobility sector has shifted focus of Hoffer and his equivalent Autotech venture capitalists onto logistics & supply chain visibility, the two major areas that may show promise in this pandemic affected scenario.

Source Credits: https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/06/autotech-ventures-raises-more-than-150-million-with-an-eye-on-ground-transportation-startups/