Carmaker General Motors and venture capital firm 500 Startups have launched a Silicon Valley-based seed investment initiative called Batch 21.
Batch 21 will begin working with its first group of startups in April 2017 and is targeting mobility services, machine learning, virtual reality, robotics and additive manufacturing technology.
Participating teams will receive funding as well as mentorship from GM and access to its corporate infrastructure. There will be a demo day for startups and they could potentially get follow-on funding from GM.
Jon Lauckner, GM’s chief technology officer, said: “Working with 500 Startups will help us identify early-stage startups that could have relevance for automotive, but are either services or supporting technologies rather than merely vehicle features.
“Being able to mentor startup companies and learn from them is important, and 500 Startups has a track record of finding this talent globally.”