The corporate venturing arm of US automotive company General Motors and Japanese financial services group Mitsui are among the syndicate investing $30m in Proterra, an electric bus company.
GM Ventures and Mitsui were joined by venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Vision Ridge Partners and 88 Green Ventures in the round. Proterra previously raised $20m from MK Energy and Infrastructure last year, meaning it has raised at least $50m.
GM told news provider Reuters it had invested about $36m in start-ups and it will be announcing a few more investments soon.
Proterra said the investment would help it roll out additional pilot fleets and complete initiatives to reduce costs and increase production at its US manufacturing plant, providing it with capacity to produce 400 buses annually.