🚀 Announcement 🚀 We're thrilled to share that Toyota Ventures has raised another $300M to expand our early-stage investing in frontier technologies and climate solutions. The two new funds, Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund II and Toyota Ventures Climate Fund II, will support startups developing disruptive technologies and business models at the forefront of innovation. Read the press release to learn more: https://lnkd.in/g7XeyAwi
Toyota Ventures
Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
Los Altos, California 15,888 followers
We are explorers
About us
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Toyota Ventures is Toyota’s first standalone venture capital firm. Through the Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund, we invest in artificial intelligence, autonomy, mobility, robotics, cloud technology, smart cities, digital health, fintech, energy, and materials. As part of Toyota’s ongoing efforts to accelerate carbon dioxide reduction, we also invest in startups that are creating scalable solutions for carbon neutrality, as part of the Toyota Ventures Climate Fund.
- Website
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https://toyota.ventures/
External link for Toyota Ventures
- Industry
- Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- Los Altos, California
- Type
- Privately Held
- Founded
- 2017
- Specialties
- artificial intelligence, robotics, data, autonomous vehicles, mobility, energy, digital health, fintech, smart cities, carbon neutrality, and frontier tech
Locations
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Primary
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4440 El Camino Real
Los Altos, California 94022, US
Employees at Toyota Ventures
Updates
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Toyota Ventures reposted this
The news is out! Renewabl has secured 𝗮 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 led by Helen Ventures, with support from Encevo , Nesta, Toyota Ventures, Enery, PortfoLion Capital Partners, and QVentures, alongside continuous backing from South Pole. This investment is a game-changer for our mission to 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 by revolutionising energy procurement. With this milestone, we will accelerate the development of Renewabl Track, our SaaS tool for visualising and assessing renewable energy portfolios, and Renewabl Trade, our marketplace for procuring hourly-matched renewable energy products. We are expanding our reach into Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. A huge thank you to our investors, team, and clients for believing in our vision. Together, we’re paving the way for a more sustainable and transparent energy future. Full press release 👉 https://lnkd.in/dmvyHF-m Juan Pablo Cerda Nikolaj Martyniuk Mikael Myllymäki Antto Piirainen Nicolas Milerioux Natalie Fonseca Licciardi Alex Hook Bence Banhalmi Patrick Horka Harveer Singh Bharaj
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Toyota Ventures is excited to announce our investment in Renewabl's seed round led by Helen Ventures. Renewabl has developed a software platform that analyzes companies’ renewable energy portfolios and facilitates Renewable Energy Certificate transactions via tenders or marketplace. The technology automatically matches companies’ energy consumption patterns on an hourly basis with the existing renewable energy solutions the company has procured as well as recommends the optimal profiles of renewable energy developers and their projects to achieve the company’s target Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) score. “We’re impressed by the expertise of Renewabl’s founding team and their approach to optimizing clean energy procurement. Renewabl’s software platform and marketplace are key stepping stones on the path to offering impactful and traceable solutions for strengthening the claims of renewable energy credits and the realization of a true zero-carbon electricity grid.” — Lisa Coca, Climate Fund partner, Toyota Ventures Read more on the Toyota Ventures blog: https://lnkd.in/d8gtCAVa
A Platform for Transparent and Traceable Renewable Energy Certificates
medium.com
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Toyota Ventures reposted this
Here at Zeti we've hit a milestone 🥳 We're thrilled to share we have now prevented over 10 million kilograms of CO2 from entering our atmosphere! 🎉 How? By accelerating the adoption of clean transport and making the road to a greener planet a bit smoother. 🌍 Take a look at that impact below. Here's to driving change, one clean mile at a time [pun intended] #Sustainability #CleanTransport #GreenFuture #FinanceForGood #CleanFinance [epa.gov]
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We are thrilled to announce our investment in Artificial.Agency's $16 million financing round. The company is developing an AI-powered behavior engine that enables developers to transform characters and other decision-making systems into individualized AI agents with perceptions, actions, personalities, and goals. “We’re excited about how Artificial Agency’s AI behavioral engine can accelerate game development and create a more immersive, engaging experience for players, ultimately paving the way for new gameplay ideas. The team’s experience in machine learning and game development is impressive, and we’re proud to support their work towards advancing human–AI interactions.” Chris Abshire, principal, Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund. Toyota Ventures is proud to support the Artificial Agency team with Radical Ventures, with participation from Flying Fish Partners and others. Read more on the Toyota Ventures blog: https://lnkd.in/ghvk9-ZD
Game-changing Technology for Transforming Human-AI Interaction: Our Investment in Artificial Agency
medium.com
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Toyota Ventures reposted this
We’d like to introduce you to our robotics suite for the nursery and greenhouse grower industry. We’ve been working with customers in this space for several years. With that in mind, we’d like to thank Ken Altman and the Altman Plants team for their support. But yesterday at #cultivate24 (by AmericanHort) marked Burro's official in-person launch in the industry. And what a day it was! Hundreds of insightful attendees got hands-on with Burro Grande, Burro, and our new user interface designed specifically for nursery operators. We talked use cases, workflows, partnerships, and interesting ways that our technology can help our customers begin to revolutionize their operations. Then we celebrated with a couple hundred friends at Beers With Burro 🍻 🫏 We’re proud and grateful to serve this industry. Thank you for your partnership! #agtech #robotics #horticulture #goodburro
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Toyota Ventures reposted this
Thanks, Tanya Dua, for your interest in Toyota Ventures and the insightful questions!
Technology Editor at LinkedIn covering AI | Conference Moderator & Speaker | Columbia Journalism Grad | Ex-Business Insider
🚨A founder and general partner at Toyota’s investor arm, Jim Adler began his career as a Lockheed Martin rocket engineer before eventually becoming an investor. He joins us for VC Wednesdays.🚨 ✒️ How does your background as a rocket engineer help as a VC? When you're investing in deep tech, having a technical background is super helpful. Your natural approach is to ask: Does the technology work? What are its potential pitfalls? Does it violate any fundamental laws of the universe, like the second law of thermodynamics or perpetual motion machines? That’s the first qualifier of any of my investments. I'm a big Charlie Munger fan, who said that think about all the things that can go wrong, address them, and you have a much better chance of things going right. ✒️ What’s your investment thesis and biggest focus areas in 2024? You can’t centrally plan innovation. We believe that the dynamism of the startup ecosystem forges the future. Our mission is discovery, in terms of what's next for Toyota and the market. We invest out of two funds: our frontier fund, which focuses on deep tech, autonomous mobility and robotics; and our climate fund, dealing with things like carbon capture and storage, renewable energy. AI is one of our biggest focus areas across both funds, but the next wave will actually be more valuable than the current generative AI wave. ✒️ How so? I’m in the Yann LeCun-Judea Pearl school of thought, in that there are three rungs of AI — seeing, doing and imagining. We're just in the early innings. What's going to power the next rungs? New computing. So, we're looking at neuromorphic computing. There will be next-gen compute and algorithms that'll be able to do much more with much less energy than today. We have a company called Recogni that provides high throughput and low power for edge inference applications. We’re also thinking about how to use AI to discover new materials for direct air capture and drug discovery, for example, through Orbital Materials. ✒️ Are you still bullish on autonomous vehicles, given their recent adoption challenges? It's been slower than expected, but I am still bullish. At the end of the day, real value to customers, if delivered safely and effectively, will win. The question is timing. We have investments in autonomous forklifts with Third Wave Automation, powering spatial understanding with Slamcore and autonomous vehicles with May Mobility. They are all generating revenue and delivering value to customers, so we feel pretty good about our position in them. ✒️ What’s one investment you regret passing on and why? Not passed on, but one that we didn't get into was Together AI, which is doing distributed computing for AI. We really wanted to get into it, and couldn't because it was oversubscribed. Because our fund is relatively young, and it is deep tech, I'm sure there will be ones I will regret, but they haven't proven themselves yet. #VCWednesdays #vc #venturecapital #startups #TechonLinkedIn
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Our portfolio company AM Batteries , which is focused on developing lithium-ion dry-electrode technologies, has established a new Customer Success Center. The facility is designed to help customers test and qualify their materials on AM Batteries' dry-electrode manufacturing process in a dry-room manufacturing environment, ensuring optimal electrode and battery performance. This setup will enable the production of industry-standard, double-sided, moisture-free electrodes, which are essential for customer testing. Additionally, it provides customers a way to work with moisture-sensitive materials. Read more in the press release: https://lnkd.in/gdaH6C7D
AM Batteries' Opens New Customer Success Center Program with $2.23M Grant from Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative
prnewswire.com
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Our portfolio company ZymoChem is rethinking the scalable production of everyday items through bio-technology and delivering them without compromise. They recently unveiled BAYSE™, a fully bio-based and biodegradable Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP). BAYSE™ serves as a direct substitute for traditional SAPs, which are derived from fossil fuels and are crucial elements in disposable absorbent hygiene products like baby diapers. Read more below:
Introducing BAYSE, ZymoChem's revolutionary Super Absorbent Polymer, that is bio-based and biodegradable. BAYSE is a foundational ingredient underlying everyday products across a host industries, including absorbent hygiene. Learn more about BAYSE and how we are building a #FossilFreeFuture by clicking below. https://lnkd.in/enCnExBU
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Check out the recent chat between our founder and general partner, Jim Adler, and LinkedIn's Tanya Dua. They dove into Toyota Ventures' thesis, the team's objectives in 2024, thoughts on AI, and more. 👇
Technology Editor at LinkedIn covering AI | Conference Moderator & Speaker | Columbia Journalism Grad | Ex-Business Insider
🚨A founder and general partner at Toyota’s investor arm, Jim Adler began his career as a Lockheed Martin rocket engineer before eventually becoming an investor. He joins us for VC Wednesdays.🚨 ✒️ How does your background as a rocket engineer help as a VC? When you're investing in deep tech, having a technical background is super helpful. Your natural approach is to ask: Does the technology work? What are its potential pitfalls? Does it violate any fundamental laws of the universe, like the second law of thermodynamics or perpetual motion machines? That’s the first qualifier of any of my investments. I'm a big Charlie Munger fan, who said that think about all the things that can go wrong, address them, and you have a much better chance of things going right. ✒️ What’s your investment thesis and biggest focus areas in 2024? You can’t centrally plan innovation. We believe that the dynamism of the startup ecosystem forges the future. Our mission is discovery, in terms of what's next for Toyota and the market. We invest out of two funds: our frontier fund, which focuses on deep tech, autonomous mobility and robotics; and our climate fund, dealing with things like carbon capture and storage, renewable energy. AI is one of our biggest focus areas across both funds, but the next wave will actually be more valuable than the current generative AI wave. ✒️ How so? I’m in the Yann LeCun-Judea Pearl school of thought, in that there are three rungs of AI — seeing, doing and imagining. We're just in the early innings. What's going to power the next rungs? New computing. So, we're looking at neuromorphic computing. There will be next-gen compute and algorithms that'll be able to do much more with much less energy than today. We have a company called Recogni that provides high throughput and low power for edge inference applications. We’re also thinking about how to use AI to discover new materials for direct air capture and drug discovery, for example, through Orbital Materials. ✒️ Are you still bullish on autonomous vehicles, given their recent adoption challenges? It's been slower than expected, but I am still bullish. At the end of the day, real value to customers, if delivered safely and effectively, will win. The question is timing. We have investments in autonomous forklifts with Third Wave Automation, powering spatial understanding with Slamcore and autonomous vehicles with May Mobility. They are all generating revenue and delivering value to customers, so we feel pretty good about our position in them. ✒️ What’s one investment you regret passing on and why? Not passed on, but one that we didn't get into was Together AI, which is doing distributed computing for AI. We really wanted to get into it, and couldn't because it was oversubscribed. Because our fund is relatively young, and it is deep tech, I'm sure there will be ones I will regret, but they haven't proven themselves yet. #VCWednesdays #vc #venturecapital #startups #TechonLinkedIn
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