Participated · Series C · Apr 2024

Yoshi Mobility is a tech-enabled mobile car care company offering on-demand services for consumers and enterprise fleets, including preventative maintenance, tire care, multipoint inspections, and on-site EV charging. The company launched out of Y Combinator in 2016 and has completed millions of vehicle services to date. Since the pandemic Yoshi has increased its revenue tenfold, driven by growth in its fleet business and corporate partnerships with Fortune 100 companies that offer services as employee benefits in return-to-work programs. Yoshi recently completed its first acquisition, Mobile Auto Concepts Inc. (MACi), which expands its preventative maintenance and mobile-service capabilities. The company is scaling three new business lines—preventative maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections, and electric vehicle charging—and is commercializing a mobile EV charging platform for fleets. Its virtual inspection business is growing through partnerships with companies such as Uber and Turo and is positioned to accelerate onboarding for gig drivers and small businesses.

Participated · Series C · Apr 2024

Yoshi Mobility operates a mobile car-care platform that began with on-demand fuel delivery and now offers preventative maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and a mobile EV charging service. The company has boots on the ground in 15 states and can provide vehicle services to customers in all 50 states, having completed millions of vehicle services to date. Yoshi has shifted toward commercial customers and counts corporate partnerships with Fortune 100 companies such as Uber and Turo; its virtual inspections can be completed in up to 10 minutes. The company says monthly revenue has increased 10x since its Series B in late 2020. In March it acquired Mobile Auto Concepts Inc. to broaden preventative maintenance, tire care and eco-friendly wash offerings. Yoshi also integrates with GM’s OnStar telematics (covering roughly 34% of cars on the road) and plans to scale its EV charging, maintenance and support products for owners and enterprise fleets. Yoshi offers a subscription service for on-site car maintenance and gas delivery, providing services such as gas, oil changes, and car washes directly to customers while their cars are parked. The company serves both individual consumers and fleets, including rental cars, delivery vehicles, highway patrol cars, and school buses. Yoshi operates in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, Nashville and Atlanta. Led by CEO Nick Alexander, the business focuses on convenience and vehicle uptime through drop‑in maintenance at customers' locations. The company closed a $13.7m Series A and intends to use the funds to further accelerate geographic expansion. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. Yoshi provides on-demand refueling and other auto services—car washes, oil changes and supplies—through an app and a subscription model. The company charges drivers $20 per month plus the cost of regular or premium gas and any extra services or supplies. It operates refueling services in the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta and Nashville and partners with Firestone to offer free tire pressure checks and tire purchase/installation bookings. Yoshi requires at least three Yoshi-member vehicles in the same lot to initiate a refuel and also sells items like windshield wiper blades through its app. The startup has shifted from pure direct-to-consumer delivery to offering on-site services and benefits to employers and fleet operators, with some employers subsidizing memberships. Yoshi plans to use new funding to expand into additional towns and to add more auto-related services to its menu. Yoshi launches a "set it and forget it" mobile fuel-delivery service that schedules refueling at places where users park for long periods and performs other simple services like tire inflation, wiper replacement and car washes. The company engineered its own delivery trucks with a proprietary Fuel Vault system that can access a car’s tank even if the gas flap is locked. Users authorize Yoshi to sense when their vehicle is nearby so the company can optimize routes instead of delivering on-demand. Pricing for consumers is a $15 monthly subscription plus the cost of regular or premium gas and other supplies; Yoshi also establishes ad hoc pricing for fleet clients and has a partnership with Firestone for tire purchases and installations. The startup says it is already profitable and operates beyond the San Francisco Bay Area, including Nashville and Atlanta. Yoshi is engaging local regulators and fire departments on safety and legality, is exploring changing driver classifications (1099 contractors today) and plans to develop technology for EV rapid charging and alternate fuels like hydrogen or biodiesel.

Led · Equity · Nov 2023

Avayler is a software-as-a-service platform developed in-house by Halfords to manage automotive services across its garage network and mobile vans, unifying bookings, job execution, parts bidding and invoicing. The platform offers dynamic pricing, mobile scheduling that factors van location and parts availability, route optimization, colleague productivity tools, traffic information, and real-time ETA tracking for customers. Avayler operates as a standalone entity within the Halfords Group with a separate P&L and was launched in July 2021. The business has grown rapidly, winning customers including American Tire Distributors, Tirebuyer and Mobivia. Following the recent investment, Bridgestone will roll out Avayler technology into its retail stores and mobile applications to support drivers, fleet managers and vehicle owners under a commercial agreement. The company is positioned as a unique, fully integrated garage management and customer-facing solution with no direct equivalent cited in the market.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2023

CarIQ, founded in 2016 and based in San Francisco, builds machine identity verification and a vehicle-native payments platform that lets vehicles connect directly with banks and service providers to pay for services without a physical credit card. Its flagship product, Car IQ Pay, enables commercial fleets to autonomously initiate, validate, and complete payments for fuel, tolls, parking and other services, and is accepted at over 21,500 fuel stations nationwide including Shell and Sunoco. The platform replaces incumbent fuel cards, reduces back-office reconciliation time, and leverages vehicle data to automate payments, manage spending, generate insights, and reduce fraud. The company positions itself in the roughly $600 billion connected-vehicle payments market. Financially, CarIQ has raised $42 million to date, including a recent $15 million Series B, and reports increasing demand from fleets and merchants. The company plans to use the new funds to accelerate expansion of its payment platform and add commerce categories such as electric vehicle charging, repairs, registration, and insurance. Car IQ builds an autonomous payment platform that lets vehicles validate services and pay for them without human intervention or credit cards. Its core technology creates a digital vehicle fingerprint from complex sensor data to enable vehicle-level identity management and data governance. That fingerprint allows cars to connect directly to physical infrastructure, mobility platforms, and financial institutions to schedule appointments and complete transactions autonomously. The platform is positioned to serve OEMs, fleet managers, car-sharing and ride-sharing services, and commercial fleets, with partnerships across OEMs, financial institutions, and third-party service providers. Founded in 2016 by Sterling Pratz, Car IQ is developing a payment gateway to connect vehicles directly to banks' payment networks. The company recently closed a $5 million Series A to accelerate growth, grow its team, and scale operations.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2023

Car IQ is a San Francisco-based vehicle payments company whose flagship product, Car IQ Pay, uses machine identity verification to allow vehicles to connect directly with banks and service providers and make purchases without a physical credit card. Car IQ Pay automates payments for commercial fleets for fuel, tolls, and parking by leveraging vehicle data to help manage spending, generate insights, and reduce fraud. The service is accepted at over 21,500 fuel stations nationwide, including Shell and Sunoco. The company raised an additional $15M in Series B funding, bringing total capital raised to $42M. Car IQ plans to use the funds to accelerate expansion of its payment platform and to add new commerce categories such as electric vehicle charging, repairs, registration, and insurance. The company is led by CEO Sterling Pratz. Car IQ is the first payment solution developed specifically for vehicles and fleets, enabling vehicles to transact directly, securely, and autonomously with merchants. Its contactless payment network allows connected cars and trucks to pay for services including fueling, tolling, parking, and more without adding extra hardware or requiring a human credit card. The company’s patent-pending “Know Your Machine℠” technology uniquely authenticates vehicles and embeds security elements into the payment stream to enable banks and merchants to authorize vehicle-initiated purchases. Car IQ positions its offering as a replacement for incumbent fleet card products, aiming to reduce fraud risk and eliminate tedious back-office reconciliation for fleets and merchants. Leadership describes machine banking as the future and says the technology can expand beyond vehicles to enable IoT devices to pay autonomously. The company recently closed a $15 million Series B to broaden relationships, expand into new markets, and add features to its offering. Car IQ builds a vehicle payment gateway to enable cars to autonomously connect to banking networks and pay for services, removing the need for credit cards in vehicle service and payment workflows. The platform targets automotive OEMs, financial institutions, and third-party service providers, with a focus on fleet managers, car-sharing services, ride-sharing platforms, and commercial fleets. Car IQ’s dynamic identity management leverages vehicle sensor data to create a unique digital vehicle fingerprint, enabling direct connections to payment networks and improving data governance at the vehicle level. This approach aims to reduce fraud risk, add transaction transparency, and streamline operations for fleet managers. The company says it will grow its team, scale operations, and focus on powering full machine commerce as it executes its roadmap. Sterling Pratz, founder and CEO, launched Car IQ after previously founding Autonet Mobile, which was acquired by Lear Corp.