The venture capital arm of the maker of Jeep SUVs, Ram pickup trucks and other vehicles in its first year has supported pioneering electric-vehicle battery materials, new technologies to enhance safety, and products to offset carbon emissions.
Stellantis Ventures on Thursday said it has invested in 10 startups plus an undisclosed mobility venture capital fund. The size of that support is roughly a third of the approximately $325 million (300 million euro) it has committed to boost fledgling companies that could help advance its mission toward clean, safe and affordable mobility, said Adam Bazih, head of Stellantis Ventures, which is about the amount the automaker expects to invest each year depending on the market. The automaker is pursuing almost $325 billion (300 billion euro) in global annual revenue by 2030.
“Being a corporate strategic investor, we want to see return on investment, and have a relatively reasonable timeframe” to see financial returns on these investments, Bazih said. “But ultimately, it’s about: How can we make a difference for our customers by bringing in this external startup ecosystem, and hopefully bringing those products or services or solutions somehow into our processes or into the hands of consumers?”
Bazih recognized venture capital does represent risky investments, and Stellantis, he said, has a preference to earlier funding opportunities for a long-term approach. The potential is for the company to adopt the technologies and use its ownership to acquire fully, benefit from the firms going public or sell.
The automaker already has highlighted a couple: Last month, the automaker announced an investment in California-based Lyten Inc., a maker of lithium-sulfur batteries that could go into vehicles toward the end of the decade. In March, the United Kingdom’s Envisics Ltd. announced Stellantis and GM had invested in its $50 million funding round to create holographic head-up display projections on windshields.
In April, Stellantis unveiled the refreshed 2024 Jeep Wrangler SUV with Jeep Badge of Honor guides from Trails Offroad for four-wheelers. The startup has a library of more than 3,000 derailed off-road trail guides in the United States and Canada.
Also deploying this year is a product from California’s Nauto Inc., which uses artificial intelligence to assess driver behavior risk and external road risk and coach motorists to prevent crashes. It will be available this summer on Stellantis commercial fleet vehicles, a priority for the company’s growth goals.
Other startups focus on the move to EVs. UniMelt is a plasma process to produce domestically sourced, cheaper critical materials for EV batteries, 3D printing and other applications from Massachusetts-based 6K Inc. Meanwhile, Boston’s Electra Vehicles seeks to use AI and machine learning for battery systems to use the full power of its cells, which could improve range.
Viaduct Inc. in California also leverages AI. Its technology focused on vehicle analytics to identify anomalies in fault and sensor data and predict vehicle health and needed maintenance.
Focused on improving navigation, France’s Geoflex, a worldwide operator of satellite position augmentation technology, claims its services can provide accurate geolocation information down to 4 centimeter accuracy on land, at sea or in the air.
Stellantis Ventures’ support also extends beyond traditional automobiles. Beweelsociety is a sort of spinoff from Stellantis to develop connected ebikes and an app to support financing, insurance and other services. Leverage the Peugeot Cycles brand, the bikes will start to be sold in specialized cycling networks and tech retailers in Europe starting in the last quarter of 2023.
Stellantis CEO “Carlos (Tavares) has talked about this publicly, but we’re looking at this freedom of mobility, mobility tied to freedom, and freedom tied to mobility,” Bazih said. “That doesn’t always necessarily have to be on four wheels or even three wheels, but can be can be other forms, as well. … We have priorities, but we think in this case in particular, if you look at certain geographies, and even more recently at the augmented use of ebikes in the United States and elsewhere, it seemed to make for a compelling potential opportunity.”
Stellantis also is looking to be carbon net-zero by 2038. Although the automaker is adopting renewable forms of energy and plans to launch full EVs, it’s also looking at opportunities to offset certain carbon emissions. It has supported France-based NetZero, which wants to turn agriculture residues in biochar, a stable form of carbon that can be mixed with agricultural soils to improve crop yields and reduce the need for fertilizers in the tropics.
Stellantis Ventures also is exploring the advantages of investing in a small venture capital fund focused on mobility. Although most of its investment are directly with startups, this support gives Stellantis access to partners with which the fund already is working and future ones, as well. Bazih said the company foresees the possibility of a “multiplier force” for the partnership.
bnoble@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @BreanaCNoble