This week, global automaker Toyota announced a major expansion and rebrand of its standalone venture capital fund, Toyota Ventures, and growth of its assets under management to more than $500 million with the addition of two $150 million early-stage funds: the the Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund and the Toyota Ventures Climate Fund.
Originally founded in 2017 as part of the Toyota Research Institute, the carmaker’s in-house R&D facility, the flagship fund has invested in 38 companies to date, spanning the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, cloud computing, data, mobility and robotics. Toyota Ventures portfolio companies have included electric air mobility firm Joby Aviation, EV urban rideshare company Revel, and automated last-mile delivery company Boxbot.
Those subsectors will continue to be in focus the Frontier Fund, which will expand to include smart cities, materials, energy, as well as digital health and financial technologies.
“Startups are tackling the world’s challenges, and at Toyota Ventures we want to open even more paths to investing in them,” said Jim Adler, founding managing director of Toyota Ventures. “Since we started our first fund four years ago, we’ve been on a journey with our portfolio companies to discover what’s next for Toyota and for the world. Today, we’re thrilled to be embarking on the next leg of that journey with the Frontier and the Climate Funds.”
The Climate Fund is an entirely new capital pool for the VC fund, and will focus on finding and funding early-stage startups in the field of carbon neutrality.
“At Toyota, we’re taking a diverse science-driven approach to addressing climate change and offering people many ways to lower their own carbon footprint,” said Gill Pratt, chief scientist of Toyota Motor Corporation, CEO of Toyota Research Institute and board member of Toyota Ventures. “Part of our strategy includes partnering with talented entrepreneurs from around the world to help accelerate innovation in the startup community. We are tremendously excited about tapping into that talent through the Climate Fund.”
