MAKING MOBILITY MOVES
An update on all things Autotech
Summer, 2021
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Will venture capital drive the future of mobility?
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It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down -- including VC. As reopening continues -- what’s next for mobility? This year’s TC Sessions: Mobility, a virtual event held this past month, focused on exactly that in a panel discussion that featured our Managing Director, Quin Garcia, along with Clara Brenner and Rachel Holt.
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Quin: When we had peak COVID fear across the spring of 2020, everyone went down periscope and battened down the hatches and [looked] for capital to kind of endure nuclear winter for some months. New startup formation during that period dropped dramatically. Then a few months passed, and then we hit summer of 2020 and everyone put the periscope back up and realized that, actually, we’re going to be OK. And new companies started to get formed, natively, remote companies started to get formed. So we started to see the rate of startup formation around that time increased dramatically. And then of course, existing companies were kind of coming back to the well.
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In addition to how the pandemic is shaping mobility VC, the panel discussed the recent rise in SPAC mergers in the transportation space.
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Quin: I wouldn’t say that they’re good or bad. They just are, they’re a financial instrument. In many ways, they look and smell like an SPV, a special purpose vehicle, although there’s some differences. Our portfolio has benefited from SPAC mania … SPACs offer a lower effort to go public than a traditional IPO, primarily due to the fact that traditional IPOs have more onerous compliance requirements with securities laws. I could see SPACs continuing to be used over the coming years, though it’s possible regulators might clamp down on them a bit as they clamped down on traditional IPOs when they saw irrational exuberance, and some folks getting hurt by traditional IPOs many years ago.
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To watch the entire panel discussion, click here (ExtraCrunch Subscription required).
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PICKUP
PICKUP coordinates the pickup and delivery of big and bulky items from retailers like Williams Sonoma, Big Lots, and At Home to deliver large items like mattresses and furniture to customers.
One of the reasons we’re proud to participate in their $15M Series B is that PICKUP looks to employ people customers would trust, such as military veterans, first responders and teachers, to be among its crew of “Good Guys” to deliver and assemble large items.
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According to Founder, Brenda Stoner, PICKUP will use the new funding to hire more employees on the tech and operations side, acquire more customers, and expand into more markets. The company has just under 100 employees now and plans to add 100 more in the next 18 to 24 months, Stoner said, and will expand into 15 more markets in that same time frame.
Meanwhile, organizations are racing to provide fast and convenient delivery services with the speed, flexibility and convenience that customers have come to expect. To help solve this challenge, PICKUP introduced PICKUP Fusion -- the end-to-end omni-delivery solution that supports the delivery of big, heavy and high-value items.
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VEO
We’ve mostly stayed away from micromobility, choosing to wait for the right start-ups. Enter Veo, the first profitable micromobility company. We led the $16M Series A to help grow its footprint in the U.S. and increase its R&D budget to create more form factors, changing how people move around. You can read more in TechCrunch.
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CAZOO
Fresh off their acquisition of our portfolio company, Drover, Cazoo -- the U.K. used-car sales portal -- will be the next company to pursue more growth by way of a SPAC. Cazoo will list on the NYSE by way of a business combination with AJAX I, a special purpose acquisition vehicle founded by hedge fund supremo Dan Och in partnership with Glenn Fuhrman and others.
The deal values Cazoo at $7 billion and will also include an extra $1.6 billion in new financing.
SWVL
We're so proud of the team at Swvl who announced their SPAC with Queen's Gambit Growth Capital.
Not only is Swvl delivering on the promise to transform mass transit, they're doing it with both substance and style. After 50 million safe, reliable, and affordable rides, they are becoming the first $1B+ unicorn from the Middle East to list on NASDAQ, and the only tech-enabled mass transit solutions company to list on any stock exchange. Further, Queen's Gambit has an all female leadership team and board which found fundamental alignment with Swvl's focus on women's safety in shared mobility.
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Join us in welcoming Kellie Lindsay to the team as Director of Strategic Partnerships. Kellie brings to Autotech expertise leading and facilitating technical professionals and executives to create and execute product, service and business strategies. With experience across manufacturing, chemical, mechanical, electrical and software engineering, she collaborates with all facets of business teams to work on “what’s next” and get results.
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Kellie was previously Director of Sales and Business Development for Thirdware Labs (20% owned by Ford), working with start-ups, tier suppliers and OEMs to advance the implementation of emerging technologies including: AI/ML, blockchain and distributed ledgers, connectivity, and digital transformation - for automotive, industry X.0, smart city and mobility applications.
Prior to joining Thirdware, Kellie managed global tier supply accounts for ON Semiconductor focused on autonomous, ADAS and electric vehicle applications. She was also director of marketing and strategy for Ricardo – a global engineering, strategic and environmental consultancy focused on advanced on- and off-highway vehicle systems, sustainability, mobility and cybersecurity for automotive, marine, rail and defense.
Kellie is also the current President of Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation, leading their vision to advance and empower women in automotive, transportation and mobility.
You can learn more about Kellie’s incredible career in our latest Q&A.
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PORTFOLIO MOVES
- Outdoorsy, the Airbnb of RVs, has raised $120 million to fuel growth of its RV rental platform. Outdoorsy has also announced a new partnership with Collective Retreats to transform the outdoor hospitality market.
- Cogniac, the enterprise Visual Intelligence Platform that maximizes the value of visual data, has announced a new partnership with Doosan Bobcat North America to enhance the efficiency of the manufacturing warehouse kitting process.
- BusUp, the #1 corporate bus commuter management solution in the EU and Latin America, has partnered with Edenred Benefits to reduce client mobility costs by up to 40%.
- Hayden AI, the artificial intelligence start-up that delivers city solutions designed for modern traffic conditions, has raised $4.5 in their latest funding round, bringing total fundraising close to $10 million in less than a year’s time.
- Carpay, a loan management software provider that reduces barriers to car ownership, is the newest NIADA National Corporate Partner.
- Fixico, the end-to-end and fully Digital car damage handling platform for insurers, fleets and rental, have set up an international partnership with SHARE NOW.
- Rollick, the marketplace for power sports vehicles, has announced that 100 OEM brands and thousands of U.S. dealers now use its Aimbase technology to meet the evolving needs of recreational vehicle shoppers.
- SafeAI, the start-up that retrofits mining vehicles with autonomous technology, raised $21 million in their Series A round led by Builders VC.
- ShipHawk, the premier packing and shipping software for ERP-connected businesses, announced the closing of a $17M growth financing round.
- Latent AI, the startup that brings AI to any edge environment without changing ML frameworks, announced a strategic investment from Booz Allen Hamilton.
- Metawave, the high precision vehicle radar company delivered the first 76-81 GHz beamformer chips to the joint venture between automotive giants Denso and Toyota, MIRISE.
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WHERE TO FIND US
Join us online and in person!
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[Podcast] September 17, 2021: Quin will join Innovating With Scott Amyx to talk about the trends he sees in post-Covid transportation, micromobility, SPACs, and emerging innovations in the transport tech space.
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[Web Conference] September 21-23, 2021: Alexei will be presenting: “LIDAR SPACs: Financials Overview, Current Status, and Future Predictions” at the fully online Automotive LIDAR 2021 conference.
[Austin, Texas] September 29, 2021: Dan Hoffer will be presenting “How to Spot the Next Mobility Unicorn” at MOVE America 2021. This LIVE event will be held at the Palmer Events Center in Austin, Texas on September 28 & 29.
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