Participated · Equity · Jun 2023

Bluedot is a local Turkish startup that operates a payment platform and charge-management app for electric-vehicle consumers and corporate fleets. It was founded by Ferhat Babacan and Selinay Parlak. The app provides access to more than 120,000 charging stations in the U.S., offers cashback on automotive spending, and delivers local rewards at nearby shops and restaurants. Bluedot plans to add route optimization and home‑charging reimbursement features to its mobile app and control panel. Financially, the company launched its platform following a pre-seed earlier in 2023 and a $5 million round in June 2023, and has now received an additional investment from Revo Capital with terms undisclosed. The company aims to increase usage of EV charging networks and become a key player in the evolving EV ecosystem. Bluedot provides a charging payment and management platform for electric vehicle drivers and fleets, offering a mobile app and a card for drivers plus charging management solutions for fleets. The company works closely with fleet management companies, OEMs, and rental companies. Co‑founded by Selinay Parlak and Ferhat Babacan, Bluedot is based in San Francisco, CA. The product stack includes an app, a card and a dashboard; the Visa debit card is issued by Piermont Bank under a Visa license. Bluedot plans to expand its portfolio to include new fleet verticals and is pursuing strategic partnerships to improve EV access and simplify experiences for individual drivers and fleets. The company intends to use the newly raised funds to add advanced features such as route optimization and home charging reimbursement to its mobile application and dashboard. Bluedot issues a debit card and mobile app for EV owners and fleet managers to consolidate auto-related payments, with a focus on EV charging. The company offers a flat $0.30 per kilowatt-hour rate at participating charging stations and 20% cash back on charges at nonparticipating networks, plus 5% cash back on automotive expenses and 2% on other purchases. Users can find stations and initiate charging through the Bluedot app at roughly 60% of U.S. charging stations; the startup declined to name its charging partners. Bluedot currently serves individual drivers acquired via auto dealer and rideshare partnerships and plans to target fleets next to help manage expenses and billing. The company manually aggregates customer charging and emissions data today and intends to automate those analytics to make the service smarter and more scalable. During Y Combinator’s winter 2023 cohort, Bluedot plans to focus on growth, product development, partnership deals, and pilot tests of a Bluedot Fleet Card.

Led · Series B · May 2021

Solid Power develops all‑solid‑state battery cells aimed at increasing energy density for electric vehicles; the company says its batteries can deliver a 50%–100% energy-density uplift versus rechargeable lithium‑ion cells. It currently manufactures 2 Ah cells and is producing 20 Ah cells on a pilot basis with standard lithium‑ion equipment, and says “hundreds” of 2 Ah cells were validated by Ford and BMW. Under separate joint development agreements with Ford and BMW, Solid Power will deliver 100 Ah cells for testing and vehicle integration from 2022; those 100 Ah cells will have a larger footprint and more layers than the 20 Ah pilot cells. The new funding is intended to boost manufacturing to produce the company’s highest ampere‑hour output yet. The company has previously raised a $20 million Series A in 2018 with participation from BMW, Ford, Samsung, Hyundai, Volta and others. Solid Power develops next-generation all solid-state batteries (ASSB) that offer higher energy density, improved safety, and greater reliability compared with lithium-ion cells. Its technology targets applications including electric vehicles, medical devices, aircraft, and satellites. The company occupies a 21,000 square-foot facility in the Colorado Technology Center in Louisville, Colorado, and was founded in 2012 by CEO Doug Campbell. In December 2017 Solid Power announced a partnership with the BMW Group to jointly develop its solid-state batteries for electric vehicle applications. Solid Power closed $20M in Series A funding to scale up production via a multi-MWh roll-to-roll facility, planned for full construction and installation by the end of 2018 and full operation in 2019. The new production capacity will be used for preliminary qualification of the company’s solid-state cells for automotive, aerospace, and defense markets.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2020

Phantom AI provides a comprehensive autonomous driving platform that includes computer vision, sensor fusion and control capabilities. The company was founded in 2017 by Hyunggi Cho and Chan Kyu Lee and is based in Mountain View, CA. Phantom plans to use the new funding to accelerate series production development with major OEMs. The startup has raised a total of $80.2M since its founding. Its product focus is on moving autonomous-driving technology into production through partnerships with automakers. Phantom AI develops a vehicle-agnostic autonomous driving platform featuring computer vision, sensor fusion and control capabilities delivered through a modular, software-based vehicle stack. OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers can select and customize components of the stack for high flexibility. The company was founded in 2016 by lead engineers from Tesla’s and Hyundai’s ADAS teams and is led by CEO Hyunggi Cho. Phantom AI works with several automakers, a truck OEM and multiple European and Asian tier 1 suppliers. The company raised $22m in a Series A round, bringing total capital raised to date to $27m. It plans to use the funds to accelerate product development and to scale operations in Europe and Asia.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2019

Rivian builds electric consumer vehicles, notably the R1S SUV and R1T pickup, and is developing a lower-cost R2 slated for 2026. The company delivered 10,661 vehicles in Q2 and 8,640 in Q1, with Q2 representing a 23% drop from the prior-year quarter. Rivian lowered its 2025 sales target due to tariffs and trade tensions but still expects to deliver between 40,000 and 46,000 EVs this year. Management achieved a second-ever gross profit in Q1 after simplifying and redesigning the R1S and R1T, which materially cut production costs. Despite the gross-profit milestone, Rivian remains unprofitable overall and has historically burned through billions of dollars. The company is also exposed to potential policy risks if the federal EV tax credit is eliminated, which could reduce demand. Rivian is an electric vehicle manufacturer focused on consumer EVs, including its next‑generation R2 midsize SUV. The company announced plans in December 2021 for a second factory east of Atlanta intended to double production capacity with a targeted 400,000 vehicles per year. Facing a cash crunch, Rivian paused construction on the Georgia site and shifted R2 production to its Normal, Illinois plant, a move projected to save $2.25 billion. Rivian has received a conditional $6.6 billion loan commitment from the DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program to restart the Georgia factory. The Georgia facility is expected to begin operations in 2028, will employ 7,500 people by the end of 2030, and had a $1.5 billion state incentives package tied to it. The company also secured $827 million in Illinois incentives to support R2 production at Normal; the loan follows other large federal LPO commitments for EV projects. Rivian builds electric vehicles and an in-house software stack and zonal electrical architecture that enables over‑the‑air updates and reduces vehicle wiring and ECUs. The company recently began production of next‑generation R1T and R1S models and is developing a mass‑market R2 SUV. Rivian’s new zonal architecture cut ECUs from 17 to seven and removed about 1.6 miles of wiring per vehicle, yielding a roughly 44‑pound weight savings and faster build times. Its software stack covers real‑time operating systems for vehicle control, ADAS, safety systems, and infotainment. Rivian plans a factory in Georgia and will license electrical architecture IP to partners. The company faces a challenging path as it scales products, but its shares jumped more than 49% in after‑hours trading on the news of Volkswagen’s investment. Rivian develops all-electric consumer vehicles (the R1T pickup and R1S SUV) and is building commercial delivery vans for Amazon. The company is preparing to begin production of its R1T pickup this summer and is building out its own EV charging network. Rivian is fulfilling a 100,000-vehicle order for Amazon and plans to produce those vans at its updated factory in Normal, Illinois, with first van deliveries slated for late 2021. The company has spent more than $1 billion updating and expanding the 3.5 million-square-foot factory; a pilot line is producing validation prototypes daily. Financially, Rivian recently raised a large funding round and is valued at $27.6 billion according to a person familiar with the investment. Rivian is an electric vehicle company focused on consumer pickup and SUV models plus commercial delivery vans. Its core products mentioned are the RT1 pickup and the R1S SUV. The company also plans to produce purpose-built delivery vans for Amazon. Rivian raised $2.5 billion to push those vehicle programs forward. The funding is intended to accelerate bringing the RT1, R1S and the Amazon delivery vans to market in 2021. The article does not include operating metrics such as revenue or user data.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2019

Argo AI develops a virtual driver system and high-definition maps intended to enable SAE Level 4 autonomous driving for ridesharing and goods-delivery in dense urban areas. The company is based in Pittsburgh and has been testing its technology in multiple U.S. cities including Austin, Miami, Palo Alto, Washington, D.C., Dearborn and Detroit. The Volkswagen alliance turns Argo into a transatlantic company by adding Autonomous Intelligent Driving (AID) as its European headquarters in Munich and expanding staff roughly 40% to more than 700 employees. The transaction raises Argo’s valuation to more than $7 billion and leaves it a private company in which Volkswagen and Ford hold equal stakes, with remaining equity set aside for employees. Argo will treat VW and Ford as separate customers while enabling some collaboration to share costs, and its board will include two VW seats, two Ford seats and three Argo seats. The company says the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020 and is subject to regulatory approval. Argo AI develops and deploys AI, machine learning and computer-vision technology to build safe and efficient self-driving vehicles. The company was created as an independent entity with its own equity structure and plans to outfit Ford vehicles with its self-driving technology. Ford has committed $1 billion to the venture, to be invested over five years, and will be the majority stakeholder. Employees at Argo AI will receive equity in the company. The team includes leaders with ties to Carnegie Mellon and experience building autonomous vehicles for companies such as Caterpillar, and several senior staff recently left CMU and Uber to join Argo. CEO Bryan Salesky, who previously worked at CMU’s National Robotics Engineering Center and led self-driving hardware at Google, has said the company is targeting full autonomy by 2021.