Hi ,
Here are the past week's AutoTech and Mobility transactions. For a more detailed monthly recap, check out our
. Enjoy!
Last Week's Auto-Tech Transactions:
F&I Tech:
has raised $2 million in a new funding round from SOSV, Net Insurance, AI Startup Incubator, ParticleX, Artesian (Alternative Investments), EXCON Services, and Global Insurance Accelerator. MotionsCloud uses AR and AI technologies to assess and expedite home and auto insurance claims. Founded in 2016, MotionsCloud offers insurers an AI-powered claims service that according to the company significantly reduces processing times, bringing the cycle down to 3 hours from an average 10+ days, and saves up to 75% on processing costs. (
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Dealer Tech & Auto Commerce:
Volvo Cars has taken a minority stake in
through Volvo Cars Tech Fund, its venture capital arm. Carwow is active in the UK, Germany and Spain for online sales of new cars. Volvo Cars said the move would give it insights into online sales, customer acquisition and content creation, which will help its shift towards online and direct customer relationships. (
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, the Central and Eastern Europe-focused used-car platform, has raised €100 million in equity and asset-backed debt. Athens-based VentureFriends led the equity round, with participation from Adevinta Ventures, UNIQA Ventures GmbH, Rockaway Capital, Velocity Partners, FJ Labs, Collective Spark, Endeavour Catalyst and others. (
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Air Mobility:
, a Burlington, Vermont-based electric aviation company, announced the close of a $375 million Series B funding round on Wednesday, bringing total venture funding for the maker of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) to nearly $800 million. (
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, a U.K. startup that’s developing hubs for flying taxis, is closing in on 20 million pounds ($25 million) in funding after attracting two new backers. The Dymond Group of Companies will invest in the infrastructure business while European real-estate fund M7 Capital is also taking a stake. Minority shareholder Hyundai Motor Company invested earlier this year. (
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, an electric autonomous airplane manufacturer, has closed on a $37 million Series A funding round that will allow the startup to fast track the production of its Pelican aircraft to committed buyers and beef up its research and development. (
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Autonomy & Robotics:
WeRide.ai and Pony.ai, which both operate out of China’s southern metropolis Guangzhou and California, have participated in
’s one billion yuan ($153 million) Series A funding round. (
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, which specializes in autonomous forklifts, stacking vehicles and other logistics robots, is the latest industrial robot maker from China to get funded. The Shenzhen-based automated guided vehicle (AGV) startup has snagged 500 million yuan (around $76 million) from a Series C extension round led by Meituan, China’s food delivery giant, and 5Y Capital, a prominent venture capital firm in the country. Its existing investors IDG Capital, TikTok’s parent firm ByteDance, and Xiaomi Technology founder Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital also joined in the round. (
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has raised $130 million of Series A capital investment, led by Ford Motor Company and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP). According to Cavnue, plans for the first "CAV Corridor" are moving forward in metro Detroit. Working with MDOT, Canue said they identified a 25-mile segment of I-94 between Detroit and Ann Arbor that could serve as the first highway for autonomous vehicles. (
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AgTech:
Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley, the strategic business development and investment arm of Yamaha Motor Co., led a $7.5 million Series A funding round for
, developers of the world’s first AI-powered interactive software that enables farmers to plan, simulate, and validate the movement of equipment in the field and execute field operations efficiently. (
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Vehicle Assembly, Supply Chain & Logistics:
, a startup that makes a digital production system for designing and building cars, raised $160 million to scale operations and roll out its technology to factories in Europe and the U.S. The funding was led by investors including Hedosophia. (
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, a transit tech and analytics firm based in the U.K., has raised $3.25 million in seed funding, capital that will help the company expand in the U.S. as federal infrastructure spending shifts into high gear. (
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Electrification & Alternative Fuels:
has raised $125 million from investors including asset manager BlackRock to increase supply of its electric-vehicle chargers. Oakland, Calif.-based FreeWire makes chargers that include embedded batteries for energy storage, a feature that the company says brings down costs and easily integrates with existing electric grids. (
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, a provider of EV charging setup and tools for multifamily buildings, closed on a $13 million equity and debt investment. The financing includes a $10 million Series A round led by the venture capital arm of Aligned Climate Capital and a $3 million credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank. (
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The Mobility House announced the acquisition of
, a provider of managed electric fleet charging services at a guaranteed price-per-mile. The combination of The Mobility House’s decade-plus experience with smart charging worldwide and Charge Theory’s pioneering Charging as a Service (CaaS) model creates a complete, world-class turnkey charging solution for electrifying fleets - from school and transit buses to last-mile delivery. (
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, a battery analytics company, has secured $30 million in additional Series B financing led by global investment firm Coatue Management. The round extension, which includes personal investment from Lip-Bu Tan and participation from existing investors, builds on TWAICE’s $26 million Series B in May 2021 led by Energize Ventures. (
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Vehicle Connectivity:
SambaSafety, the market leader in driver risk management technology, has acquired
, the UK-based leader in telematics, camera and corporate data aggregation and risk analytics. SambaSafety serves more than 15,000 global corporations and insurance carriers with driver monitoring and online training on the Qorta platform, as well as risk pricing solutions. The merger will allow customers of both businesses to leverage the powerful combination of telematics and camera critical events data from CMS and SambaSafety driver risk data sources, providing the most comprehensive view of driver risk available anywhere. (
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Shared Mobility & Subscription:
Mass transit group Swvl will acquire U.K. startup
, estimated to be a $100 million acquisition. Swvl is an Egyptian startup that provides shared transportation services for intercity and intracity trips, recently expanded into Turkey with its acquisition of Volt Lines. Earlier this year it went public (NASDAQ: SWVL) via a SPAC. (
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In further news from Swvl, they have expanded into Turkey with the recent acquisition of
, a B2B transportation-as-a-service operator. (
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Micromobility:
Lyft has signed an agreement to acquire
, a Canadian supplier for bikeshare equipment and technology, in a move that the company says will double its scale in micromobility. (
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Singapore’s
has raised a $43.5 million Series B round, bringing its total capital investment to $77.7 million. This investment was co-led by GSR Ventures and Square Peg, with participation from Singapore’s EDBI. (
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has raised a $5.3 million Series A led by Jungle Ventures, with participation from Wavemaker Partners. The latest funding brings Dat Bike’s total to $10 million raised since it was founded in 2019. (
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Have a great week,
Steve Greenfield
678.576.9972
