Toyota is looking for the next new thing in mobility, climate, AI, and industrial automation. Its answer is $1.5 billion in new capital that will focus on, and invest in, the life cycle of startups — from the first seeds of an invention through its growth stage and eventually to mature companies.
Toyota made two related announcements Tuesday that provide a snapshot of the company’s growing interest in the startup ecosystem. It also hints at how those startups, and their inventions, may play a part in Woven City, a prototype city located on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan designed to incubate startups and that opened this year.
The Japanese automaker said Tuesday it has created a strategic investment subsidiary called Toyota Invention Partners Co. with about $670 million in capital, while its growth-stage venture arm Woven Capital launched a second $800 million fund.
The Toyota Invention Partners subsidiary will take a long-term strategy focused on Japan-based startups, eschewing the traditional fixed investment periods found in other funds. Woven Capital general partner George Kellerman described Toyota Invention Partners Co. as a bookend of sorts to the company’s other investment organizations.
