⚡ Will EV’s really win?

September 11, 2024
10:58 am

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Portfolio news

⚡ Congratulations to Joyride on their latest fundraising round! They’ve secured $5.2 million, led by Yamaha Motors, with follow-on investments from Urban Innovation Fund, Two Small Fish Ventures, and ourselves. This investment will propel next-gen connected mobility forward, fostering global adoption of sustainable, connected, keyless, and trackable electric vehicles. We are very excited to keep supporting Joyride’s journey on reshaping mobility.

⚡ Kudos to Ridepanda for their new partnership with Brompton e-bikes and pedal bikes, one of the world’s most respected bicycle brands. This collaboration will further enhance the constantly growing fleet of e-bike and scooter options on Ridepanda’s platform.

⚡We invite you to read this new piece about Bliq’s latest ride-hailing service, Bliq Trips. Bliq’s objective is to provide drivers from various ride-hailing services with improved information about their trips. Today, the app also empowers passengers to choose their preferred driver. According to Bliq CEO Julian Glaab, “After witnessing the positive reception of our passenger app, which has now garnered 30,000 users since its launch, we have decided to leverage our expertise to introduce our own service offering. In our initial market, Berlin, several hundred drivers are already available for Bliq Trips.”

⚡ Congratulations to the Telo team for securing a $5.4 million round from Neo and Spero Ventures! Additionally, it’s exciting news that Marc Tarpenning, a Spero venture partner and Tesla co-founder, will be joining the board. This fundraising will enable the team to cultivate deeper relationships with potential fleet customers and develop two “fully functional press vehicles” that will emulate the look, feel, and finish of the final product.

Interesting Reads

🔍 Will EV’s really win?

A couple of weeks ago Apple shocked the mobility industry when its secretive car project “Titan” was terminated even before its launch to the market. Add that to past news mentioning EV sales are slowing and the outlook doesn’t look as promising as expected. It is true that the overall transition to EV’s hasn’t been as fast as first predicted; the main concerns remain around cars’ affordability, charging availability and the overall user experience. However, what is also true is that EV sales in North America were up 47% y-o-y in 2023 and are projected to be +30% in 2024, on what could be considered an amazing growth relative to almost any other segment of the massive transportation industry.

In Mexico, the EV market is growing at an annual average rate of 30% and is highly dominated by hybrid solutions, they account for almost 75% of the total. Nonetheless, battery electric vehicles have experienced impressive growth in the past years, in 2023 sales grew by 150% y-o-y and for 2022 it was almost 5x vs the previous year.

This growth can be attributed in part to the arrival of Chinese brands to the Mexican market; companies such as BYD and JAC, amongst others, have established a strong position in the country with an aggressive expansion strategy. In a sense, these companies are solving the affordability issue for consumers with cars starting as low as ~21k USD.

These price strategies have the potential to accelerate EV adoption, they also translate into a direct and positive effect for end customers in how the market and competitors are reacting. For example, Tesla and its latest price cuts in its car models or Rivian, who announced that the new R2 model will have a starting price of $45k USD, 35% lower compared to the R1T. Commitment and confidence towards EV transition is evident, as RJ Scaring, Rivian CEO, mentioned he has “absolute and complete certainty that the entire world is going to convert to electric vehicles”. We are witnessing amazing efforts from car manufacturers to lower entry barriers and reduce EV’s affordability issue, or at least level it with non-electric vehicles.

As for the infrastructure concerns people have when thinking of owning an EV’s, there has been significant improvement also, Bloomberg reported that average utilization rate for most of the fast-chargers in the US nearly doubled in last year. As utilization rates continue to rise and become profitable, we expect to see more and more chargers being installed and consumer concerns regarding charging infrastructure transform into increased demand for EV’s.

Simultaneously, we’ll likely see more innovation and product development in the space and companies gaining more traction as the market accepts these new solutions. Like Waymo, a referent in the autonomous ride-hailing services, who expanded operations to Los Angeles and will launch in Austin, Texas by the end of the year. We’re probably still far from full adoption of solutions like these ones, but in terms of EV’s potential we wouldn’t want to overestimate the technology in the short term to later underestimate its long term effect, or what is best described as the Amara’s Law.

Some deals we found interesting

🚀 Altilium, a UK-based electric vehicle battery recycling startup raised a $12 million Series A from investors including SQM Lithium Ventures. (21.Feb.2024)

🚀 Applied Intuition, a Mountain View, Calif.-based vehicle software supplier for the automotive, trucking, construction, mining, agriculture, and other industries, raised $250 million in Series E funding. Bilal Zuberi at Lux Capital, Elad Gil, and Porsche Investments Management led the round and were joined by Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and others. (12.Mar.2024)

🚀 Axion Ray, a New York-based company creating an AI-powered platform to predict product failures from field service reports to sensor readings announced a $17.5 million Series A funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners including strategic investment from RTX Ventures; existing investors, Amplo and Inspired Capital participated in the round as well. (12.Mar.2024)

🚀 CARiD, a NJ-based automotive parts e-commerce platform raised $35 million in funding led by Fifth Star Inc. (7.Mar.2024)

🚀 Carputty, an auto financing startup based in Atlanta, has raised $80 million comprising a $75 million warehouse facility from Silicon Valley Bank and $5 million in equity led by TTV Capital. (6.Mar.2024)

🚀 Celadyne, a Chicago, IL-based decarbonization and hydrogen solution company, raised $4.5M in Seed funding. The round was led by Maniv and Dynamo Ventures, with participation from EPS Ventures. (15.Feb.2024)

🚀 Daze, an Italian startup and currently a producer of electric car charging solutions, announces the completion of a €15 million Series A capital increase with participation form CDP Venture and EIC-Fund. (14.Feb.2024)

🚀 Enapi, a Berlin, Germany-based broker for EV charging transactions, raised €2.5 million in pre-seed funding. Project A Ventures led the round and was joined by Seedcamp and HelloWorld. (19.Mar.2024)

🚀 Fever, a Swedish startup that provides a platform for utility companies, electric vehicle manufacturers, data centers, and power producers to operate their own virtual power plants, raised a $10.8 million seed round led by General Catalyst, with La Famiglia and Norrsken VC also investing. (15.Feb.2024)

🚀 Glimpse, a Somerville, MA-based provider of battery quality monitoring solutions for battery producers and electric mobility companies, raised $4M in Seed funding. The round was made up of capital from Ibex Mobility, Flybridge Capital Partners, and other angels. (7.Mar.2024)

🚀 goUrban, a Vienna-based mobility SaaS provider has secured €3 million to develop its corporate fleet software solutions and further expand into shared mobility. (18.Mar.2024)

🚀 Haomo.ai, a Beijing startup that is developing technology for autonomous driving, raised a $14 million Series B round. Chengdu Wufa Private Equity Fund Management led the investment. The company has raised a total of $200+ million. (22.Feb.2024)

🚀 Hellas Direct, an Athens, Greece-based provider of car, motorbike, home insurance and financing solutions for car expenses, raised €30 million in Series B funding. ETF Partners led the round and was joined by others. (29.Feb.2024)

🚀 InDrive, a California-based ride-hailing app, has secured a $150 million deal from General Catalyst to bolster its product and market expansion plans. (14.Mar.2024)

🚀 Moove, an Amsterdam-based provider of revenue-based vehicle financing, closed a $100 million Series B backed by investors including Uber and Mubadala. (19.Mar.2024)

🚀 Necture, a a Vienna, Austria-based company designed to help businesses transition to electric vehicle fleets, raised €7 million in Series A funding. Smart Innovationsfonds and Verbund X Ventures led the round and were joined by others. (13.Mar.2024)

🚀 Neural Propulsion Systems, a Pleasanton, CA.-based startup, that develops radar technology for autonomous vehicles, raised a $17.5 million Series B round led by Cota Capital, with GM Ventures and RTX Ventures also investing. (7.Mar.2024)

🚀 Packfleet, a London-based carbon neutral courier, secured $10 million in a round led by General Catalyst and Voyager Ventures. (11.Mar.2024)

🚀 Prolog, a Brazilian fleet management startup raised $1 million from Parceiro Ventures. (13.Feb.2024)

🚀 Pulsar, a Mexico-based startup that performs AI-driven manufacturing operations analysis, raised $8M in a round led by Cometa. Seaya Cathay Latam, Kayyak Ventures, and Arca Ventures also participated in the funding. (29.Feb.2024)

🚀 Range Energy, a Mountain View, Calif.-based producer of electric powered commercial trailers, raised $23.5 million in funding. Trousdale Ventures led the round and was joined by Up.Partners, R7, and Yamaha Motor Ventures. (28.Feb.2024)

🚀 Roam, a Kenyan startup that produces electric motorcycles, utility vehicles, buses, and energy systems for the African market, raised a $24 million Series A round. Equator was the deal lead, with At One Ventures, TES Ventures, Renew Capital, The World We Want, and One Small Planet also pitching in. (14.Feb.2024)

🚀 Sostengo, a Central American Insurtech, secured $3.8M seed funding for Latam markets and U.S. Hispanic entry. People Fund participated in the deal. (5.Mar.2024)

🚀 Ubirider, a Lisbon startup that whose platform and app provides transport agencies and consumers with tools for planning and paying for trips, raised a $1.95 million seed round. Techtree Investments and Cedrus Capital were the co-leads. (6.Mar.2024)

🚀 Uhnder, an Austin, TX-based provider of commercial digital radar chips and software, raised $50M in Series D funding. The round was led by ACME Capital with participation from Magna, Qualcomm Ventures, El Camino Capital, Monta Vista Capital, Sagitta Ventures, and HT Capital. (22.Feb.2024)