MAKING MOBILITY MOVES

Looking back at 2021, it’s no secret that venture funding broke global records and the unicorn count exceeded 1,000. We’re proud to say that the Autotech portfolio continued to rapidly grow, and saw three more unicorns emerge – Outdoorsy, Volta and Indie Semiconductor.

In 2022, we see tremendous opportunity for start-ups where FinTech meets the mobility space. Today, financial institutions lack flexibility and are focused on high-profit customers, turning their backs on a significant portion of potential customers who are unbacked or underbanked. This creates opportunity for specialized financial instruments which will help make mobility more affordable, and we are already watching many gain meaningful traction and growth.

Much of the root cause of supply chain challenges is based on the ease of access to and management of capital, payment processing and logistics payment. Today, a myriad of FinTech solutions are available to help companies manage how they get paid, how they pay others and provide increased access to capital. 

We’re also seeing tech penetration in the insurance industry due to new and evolving modes of transportation and the rising cost of repairing used and electrified vehicles.

Carpay, a loan management software company focused on enabling Buy Here Pay Here (BHPH) for dealerships, is a new FinTech solution, developed by founder Brandon Cavalier, who as a BHPH dealer discovered the severe lack of loan payment technology. His goal was to make credit more accessible to the overlooked and underbanked American consumer. By helping the asset class to be better serviced, Carpay streamlines and pools fragmented data sets collected by dealers, achieving the scale to provide dealers access to more capital, giving the underbanked consumer an option for an auto loan that cannot be accessed through a traditional financial institution.  

Carpay's Loan Management Software helps BHPH dealers manage their loan portfolios and keep delinquencies under control. It also helps late customers get caught up, and prevents others from falling behind, by making it easier for the borrowers to pay for and manage their auto loans.

Carpay Credit, which launched in mid-2021, gives these dealers a line of credit secured by their loan portfolio, so that they can stock their lot full of cars and keep issuing more credit to more of these consumers.

Since its launch in 2016, Carpay has onboarded more than $1B of BHPH loans to its servicing platform and has given over 100,000 consumers control and transparency into their auto loans that they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

• BasicBlock, a FinTech company that is reshaping financing options for the trucking industry, announced a $78 million debt and equity raise in January to fuel expanded services, client support and employment opportunities throughout the U.S. Autotech Ventures led the round with Clear Haven Capital Management, and Emergent Ventures along with continued investment from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, SaaS Ventures and TNT Ventures.
   
• Laka, a bicycle insurance company, that has rethought coverage for all cyclists to include coverage for theft, damage and vandalism, third-party loss and more, recently announced a $13.5 million debt and equity raise led by Autotech Ventures.  Referred to as “collective cover,” Laka bills customers based on the collective claims of its members each month – as opposed to the traditional model of charging a premium up front based on projected risk models.
   
• Bumper, an automotive FinTech firm that offers buy-now-pay-later options to help drivers manage the cost of car repairs, secured $12M in Series A funding to continue its expansion in European markets. The round was led by Autotech Ventures, with participation from Jaguar Land Rover’s fund InMotion Ventures, and a group of undisclosed angel investors.
   
• Mundimoto, an online motorcycle buying and selling startup, raised $22.6 million to expand its platform beyond Spain and into Europe, starting with Italy and Holland.  The company plans to hire 50 engineers and 250 new employees to advance the technology product and support international expansion. The round was led by AutoTech Ventures, international investment fund P101, Autotech Ventures and Maniv Mobility.

ADAS Sensors 2022
April 12-14 - Virtual 

Alexei Andreev will be diving into what’s driving this large and rapidly growing market during the annual event which is being held online again this year.  


VECS
May 17 & 18 - Gothenberg, Sweden
Quin Garcia will deliver a keynote at the Vehicle Electronics & Connected Services conference on May 17.