Business
From electric charging to supply chain management, InMotion Ventures preps Jaguar for a sustainable future
Since InMotion Ventures, the independent investment and incubation initiative set up by Jaguar Land Rover, launched in 2016 the firm has focused on backing companies across the mobility space broadly. Its 15 active investments run the gamut from autonomous vehicles, to car insurance tech, to ride-sharing, and travel planning, but increasingly the firm is focusing its efforts on vehicle electrification and sustainable supply chains.
As the mobility market moves to embrace electrification, InMotion wants to make sure its portfolio is in the mix.
That’s evident from its most recent investment in Circulor, a company that monitors supply chains from raw material inputs to finished outputs with an eye toward sustainable sourcing.
“As an OEM nowadays it’s increasingly important to have increasing transparency and visibility into how all of those materials have been sourced,” said the firm’s managing director, Sebastian Peck. Circulor already has a strong footprint in the automotive industry, Peck said, and is working with a major oil company on tracing the share of recycled plastics that have come from that provider. “It has applications across any industry.”
Jaguar Land Rover is also using Circulor’s technology to track a material that’s being used in the interior of one of the company’s vehicles, Peck said. The stealthy project hasn’t been publicly revealed yet, but the company has worked with a university and supplier to trace the material from its point of origin to the finished product.
Sustainable supply chains aren’t the only priorities Peck laid out in a recent interview with TechCrunch.
As the mobility market moves to embrace electrification, InMotion wants to make sure its portfolio is in the mix and Peck said it would be looking to make investments in a number of different areas around electric vehicles and batteries.
“We have looked at a number of companies who are developing new battery chemistries. We haven’t made an investment yet,” Peck said. “We don’t have a deep enough insight into the IP portfolios of the big battery suppliers to really be able to reliably benchmark those new chemistries. We have not had enough conviction to make an investment or back a particular company. From a value chain it is two or three steps away from us. It’s a space we’re looking at.”
-
Entertainment6 days ago
Summer Movie Preview: From ‘Alien’ and ‘Furiosa’ to ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’
-
Entertainment5 days ago
What’s on the far side of the moon? Not darkness.
-
Business6 days ago
Thoma Bravo to take UK cybersecurity company Darktrace private in $5B deal
-
Business6 days ago
How Rubrik’s IPO paid off big for Greylock VC Asheem Chandna
-
Business5 days ago
TikTok faces a ban in the US, Tesla profits drop and healthcare data leaks
-
Business4 days ago
London’s first defense tech hackathon brings Ukraine war closer to the city’s startups
-
Business7 days ago
Zomato’s quick commerce unit Blinkit eclipses core food business in value, says Goldman Sachs
-
Business6 days ago
Photo-sharing community EyeEm will license users’ photos to train AI if they don’t delete them