Automotive Ventures reached its $15 million goal for a new startup investment fund focused on mobility technology and other sectors.
At least 18 dealer principals invested in the fund, formally known as Automotive Ventures Mobility Fund II. It is the third fund for the Atlanta venture capital firm and has both previous investors and new participants, general partner Steve Greenfield said.
Returning investors include dealer principals Liza Borches, CEO of Carter Myers Automotive in Charlottesville, Va.; Jason Tamaroff, vice president of Tamaroff Auto Group in Southfield, Mich.; Marsh Butler Jr., president of Butler Auto Group in Macon, Ga.; and Brian Godfrey, president of Pat Milliken Ford in Redford Township, Mich. Andrew DiFeo, general manager of Hyundai of St. Augustine in Florida, is among the new dealer principal investors.
The fund has attracted 58 total investors so far.
Meetings with potential investors will continue in the coming weeks, which could put the fund well above its initial goal, Greenfield said.
“We’ve probably got a couple of months left before we wrap up the fund, [but] we’ve hit our target,” Greenfield told Automotive News on March 12 while in Guadalajara, Mexico, to speak with a dealership group considering an investment.
Assurant Ventures, the venture capital arm of Assurant Inc., recently became an investor. Assurant, of Atlanta, provides products and services to safeguard connected devices, homes and automobiles.
“This investment brings strategic value to our business and presents a powerful opportunity to co-invest in tools and technologies that support our automotive dealer partners in the evolving mobility space,” AJ Fang, a partner at Assurant Ventures, said in a statement announcing the firm’s participation in the fund.
Some investments have come from faraway places. Nurlan Smagulov, chairman of Astana Group, a dealership group in Kazakhstan, participated in the fund through his MyVentures fund, according to a Feb. 5 article in Forbes Kazakhstan.
Automotive Ventures’ first fund, for $7 million, focused on global seed-stage investments in automotive and other mobility technology. A $13 million DealerFund backed by dealerships and focused on automotive dealership technology followed.
While mobility is the priority, Automotive Ventures’ new fund could still make dealership retail technology investments.
“It will be rare, but it will happen,” Greenfield said.
