Autotech Ventures, the venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, has reportedly raised $120 million from auto companies and financial investors to launch a new fund.
According to a news report in Reuters, the company said with the new funding it will invest in startup companies that are focused on digital vehicle technology and transportation services. The fund is also aiming to hook up its company backers with some of the startups it will be investing in. Among the automobile investors in the new fund are BorgWarner and Autoliv and two unidentified auto companies, reported Reuters, citing Autotech Ventures founders Quin Garcia and Alexei Andreev.
The venture capital fund already has investment in Lyft, the ridehailing startup, and Outdoorsy, which helps people share recreational vehicles. Other investments include Work Truck Solutions, a startup that develops software to help manage commercial truck fleets and track their movements.
The move to launch the new fund comes at a time when car manufacturers and suppliers are eyeing the tech markets for new ideas and the talent to implement them. They are also wary of overpaying for it, which is why VC funding like this may be attractive to them, noted the report.
While technology is coming to all aspects of the automotive market in the self-driving space, which has interest from a slew of tech powerhouses including Tesla, Google and Apple, the Autotech Ventures VC fund will invest in companies that are developing a specific type of technology, rather than one that does it all, noted Reuters.
As an example, Reuters pointed out Autotech Ventures has invested in Deepscale, which is working on technology that processes the information collected in the car by sensors and the outside environment. It isn’t however, trying to create an entire operating system for self-driving cars.
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