BMW iVentures, the car manufacturer’s corporate venturing division, is looking to raise a €500m ($530m) fund to invest in dozens of startups in the transport sector over the next decade.
The announcement follows iVentures’ moving of its headquarters from New York to Palo Alto in July 2016 to be in closer proximity to potential investees. The office in New York remains open, while the California headquarters will be scaled up from a current two to seven or eight team members.
The unit also hopes to expand its international presence, eyeing Europe, Asia and Israel.
Established in 2011 with $100m in capital, BMW iVentures initially focused on technologies around electric driving and mobility services, but it is now widening that scope to include related fields such as autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, the cloud and 5G mobile phone technology.
Moving forward, the unit will operate independently from its parent company. It will be led by two managing partners, who will report to the BMW Group Steering Board, three board of management members as well as the head of corporate planning and product strategy.
Ulrich Quay (pictured), managing director of BMW iVentures, told Global Corporate Venturing: “Initially, for the past five years, we have been exclusively focused on mobility services, so any consumer-facing services that make getting from A to B a better experience.
“Now that has changed because we have realised that there is so much happening around the car where external input is really helpful, especially software related developments like autonomous cars, artificial intelligence, machine learning.
“The role of smaller, flexible start-ups is getting increasingly high. One way of being able to integrate that into a company, or helping the company to tackle those areas is making investments.”