Israel-based venture capital fund Maniv Mobility closed a $40m fund on Wednesday that featured limited partners including InMotion Ventures, the strategic investment arm of car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover.
Automotive supplier Valeo, equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd and unnamed hedge funds and family offices have also backed the fund, along with three founders and chief executives from Maniv Mobility’s portfolio companies.
Maniv Mobility focuses on seed and series A-stage startups in the mobility sector. The fund has already made 15 investments to date, and its portfolio companies include Nauto, Otonomo and Intuition Robotics.
Sebastian Peck, managing director of InMotion Ventures, said: “We are honoured to be participating in Maniv Mobility’s first fund.
“Some hugely promising businesses are being built in Israel, so expanding our reach here has been an important objective. InMotion’s mission is to support the best mobility startups all over the world, and this partnership with Maniv will form an integral part of that.”
Jacques Aschenbroich, CEO of Valeo, said: “We can see in the current portfolio that Israel is becoming a major player in several technologies driving the coming revolution of mobility, be it driverless, connected or digital.”