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.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2020

TuSimple develops self‑driving truck systems and operates testing fleets with human safety operators for long‑haul highway routes. The company began public‑road testing in 2018, including a 120‑mile stretch between Tucson and Phoenix and segments in Shanghai. It maintains a global headquarters in San Diego, an engineering center and truck depot in Tucson, and additional operations and a facility in Texas to support autonomous trips; it also has operations in Beijing and Shanghai. TuSimple has expanded its commercial partnerships and investor base to include logistics and automotive players such as UPS, Mando, Traton Group and U.S. Xpress. The company continues to scale testing and operations in the U.S. while diversifying strategic investors and customers. Financially, TuSimple has raised $648 million since its 2015 founding, including a recent $350 million round. TuSimple develops autonomous driving systems and software for heavy commercial trucks. The company operates a fleet of 40 self-driving trucks in the U.S., used for testing and freight runs between Arizona and Texas. TuSimple was launched in 2015 and has operations in China, San Diego and Tucson, Arizona. It is backed by investors including Sina, Nvidia, UPS and Tier 1 supplier Mando Corporation. TuSimple is working with partners to move from retrofitting to purpose-built autonomous semis, including a 2024 production plan with Navistar. The new partnership with Traton will expand operations into Europe and aims to develop Level 4 autonomy on Scania trucks, beginning testing on a route between Södertälje and Jönköping in Sweden. TuSimple builds a full-stack Level 4 autonomous driving system for long-haul trucks. The company operates testing programs and fleets in China, San Diego and Tucson, Arizona, and reports more than 50 trucks and 18 contracted customers. TuSimple was founded in 2015. It plans to use new funding to continue developing its autonomous vehicle technology and to expand long-haul routes in Arizona and Texas. Financially, the company has raised $298 million in total funding to date. TuSimple has conducted public-road testing since 2018 and runs daily tests with partners such as UPS on routes between Phoenix and Tucson. TuSimple develops camera-centric Level 4 autonomous driving systems for commercial trucks and operates daily commercial routes in Arizona. The company runs three to five fully autonomous trips per day across three routes and has 12 contracted customers. TuSimple emphasizes a camera-based perception stack (claiming a 1,000-meter vision range) while using LiDAR for mapping and some data collection. On-road trips run with two safety engineers—one behind the wheel and one monitoring data—and the company says these paid runs both generate revenue and validate its system. TuSimple plans to scale its commercial fleet to more than 50 trucks by June and expand fully autonomous deliveries into Texas. It is also funding joint production programs and integrations with OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and sensor partners to enable commercial production and operation of self-driving trucks. TuSimple develops a full-stack autonomous driving system for line-haul trucking that integrates perception, localization, mapping, motion planning, control and actuation. The company uses advanced sensor fusion of cameras and radars to detect and track objects beyond 200 meters and its localization achieves consistent decimeter-level precision. Its decision-making system adapts to road conditions, including lane changes and speed adjustments, to maximize safety and efficiency. TuSimple demonstrated an SAE Level 4 self-driving system in Shanghai and is ramping up deployments in the U.S., starting in Tucson, Arizona. The company is focused on scaling testing to two full truck fleets—one in China and one in the U.S.—and is building a production engineering team in Tucson while maintaining R&D in San Diego and Beijing. TuSimple is led by CEO Mo Chen.