Toyota Ventures bookmarks $300m for global startup investments

Photo credit: Mioarseralyain / Wikimedia Commons

Toyota Ventures, the Japanese carmaker’s VC arm, will set aside US$300 million in total for startup investments across two global funds.

This allocation will be shared evenly between Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund II (TVFF II) and Toyota Ventures Climate Fund II (TVCF II). The move brings the company’s managed assets to over US$800 million.

“With seismic breakthroughs in generative AI, e-fuels, space commercialization, carbon capture, and synthetic biology, it’s a crucial time to be investing for Toyota,” said Jim Adler, founder and general partner of Toyota Ventures.

With TVFF II, led by veteran investor David Sokolic, Toyota Ventures will back startups dealing with technologies like AI, robotics, cloud services, and quantum computing. It would follow in the footsteps of the first TVFF, which invested in the likes of satellite provider Starfish Space and quantum computing startup Haiqu.

In contrast, TVCF II will target firms working on climate change and environmental sustainability and will be led by Lisa Coca. Some of the first TVCF’s investments include firms working in renewable energy, energy storage, and hydrogen solutions, contributing to Toyota’s carbon neutrality goals.

Since launching in July 2017, Toyota Ventures has supported over 75 startups, leveraging Toyota’s global footprint and expertise. The company is based in the US but has portfolio firms across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

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