Toyota Motor Company is investing $300 million in its investment branch to support early-stage startups focusing on green technology and innovative advancements in areas such as carbon capture, artificial intelligence, and space marketing.
According to “THE BUSINESS TIMES,” this injection increases the total assets managed by Toyota Ventures to over $800 million. This comes at a time when companies worldwide are scaling back project activities due to a broader downturn.
Jim Adler, General Partner at Toyota Ventures, said, “If you don’t seize opportunities embedded with risks, you will miss out on what is happening in the world.” He added that Toyota Ventures achieved profits by early planning to invest in the air taxi company – Joby Aviation for vertical electric takeoff and landing, which went public last year and is also a partner with the automotive company.
Adler stated that they provide access to the most turbulent companies, affirming that it would be a mistake for them not to continue. The new amount of $300 million will be evenly divided between Toyota’s second climate fund and the emerging hydrogen company Ecolectro it supports.
The second fund focuses on deep technology, while the latter will concentrate on scientific-heavy startups such as Starfish Space for satellite services and Haiqu for quantum computing software company.
With the downturn in major project landscape, the number of companies launching capital investment units dropped by approximately half in the past year, down from 122 companies in 2022, according to “GCV.” Global Corporate Venturing industry data provider.
Recently, large companies have reduced or closed their investment sizes, such as the software giant SAP, Coca-Cola bottle packaging company Arca Continental, Anheuser-Busch, and Verizon Communications, according to “GCV.”
Source: Economic Funds Gateway
