Autotech Ventures’ new $230 million mobility fund adds fintech, circular economy to its investment strategy

Autotech Ventures will use its recently closed $230 million fund to expand beyond its early-stage ground transportation startup foundation and invest in what the firm believes are the next big opportunities in auto and mobility.

Fintech, logistics, supply chain and circular economy are at the top of the list.

The $230 million fund, the third since launching in 2017, will be used to invest in seed through Series C mobility-related startups, according to the company. A mix of financial and corporate LPs including Allison Transmission, American Axle, Iochpe-Maxion and Shell participated in the fund.

“We are still a ground transportation focused company and we have a very similar strategy [with this fund]” Alexei Andreev, CEO of Autotech Ventures told TechCrunch. “At a high level, it’s the same as Fund 1 and Fund 2. However, one of the fastest growing areas is SaaS-enabled fintech. Car trading is inefficient and there are large pockets of profit to capture.”

The firm is particularly interested in transportation-related fintech ventures poised to grow during a recession.

“We made a prediction that sooner or later there will be a recession, and we identified areas that benefit when the economy softens,” Andreev said, noting that this latest fund invested in Yendo, a Dallas-based startup (formerly known as Otto) which allows customers to borrow against their vehicles at the same interest rate as standard credit cards.

Autotech Ventures’ previous fintech investments include UK-based buy now, pay later startup Bumper and Carpay, a buy here pay here loan servicing SaaS platform for car dealerships.

Andreev said the firm is also exploring investment opportunities in the circular economy, a nascent industry focused on finding ways to reuse materials and products. The start-up of a circular economy has received increasing attention and investment as car manufacturers move away from gas-powered vehicles and towards electric cars.

Autotech Ventures is also cautiously wading into generative artificial intelligence, although Andreev was quick to note that the company has not made any investments in that area.

Autotech has more than 500 million dollars under management and has invested in more than 40 companies.

Some of the firm’s investments include computer vision startup DeepScale (which was acquired by Tesla), Lyft, used car marketplace operator Frontier Car Group, Drover, Outdoorsy, Swvl, parking app SpotHero and Xnor.ai, which Apple acquired in January 2020. Five of these startups have gone public, including indie Semiconductor and Volta Charging.