US subsidiary · Venture capital
Toyota's Silicon Valley venture arm gets $300 million for two new funds
- Parent
- Toyota Motor (Toyota City, Aichi)
- New US unit
- Toyota Ventures (new Frontier Fund and Climate Fund), Los Altos, California
- Value
- $300M
- Status
- Launched.
- Date
- 2021-06-03
Toyota AI Ventures, Toyota's venture capital unit in Silicon Valley, renamed itself Toyota Ventures and launched two funds of $150 million each. The Frontier Fund invests in early-stage startups in areas like AI, robotics and new ways of moving people. The Climate Fund backs startups working toward carbon neutrality. Assets under management rose to more than $500 million.
Why it matters
It expanded one of the largest Japanese corporate venture units in the US and gave Toyota an early view of US clean-tech startups.
Where it started
The unit began in 2017 as Toyota AI Ventures, part of the Toyota Research Institute. Before the rebrand it had backed 38 startups in autonomy, AI, data, robotics, cloud computing and mobility.
A wider brief
The Frontier Fund added smart cities, digital health, financial technology, materials and energy to its list. Founding managing director Jim Adler said the goal was to find "what's next for Toyota," noting the company had itself pivoted to cars in the 1930s.
The climate bet
Adler said the Climate Fund would not be "dogmatic about hydrogen," even though Toyota had worked on it for decades. He expected renewable energy, hydrogen production and storage, and carbon capture all to play a role in reaching carbon neutrality.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
