George Kellerman, managing director of Woven Capital – which invests on behalf of Japan-headquartered carmaker Toyota’s Woven Planet subsidiary – explained to Global Corporate Venturing how the fund operates and its relationships with Toyota Ventures (formerly Toyota AI Ventures) and Toyota.
Learn more about Woven Capital during its joint interview, The curious case of CVC: new players, new opportunities, with Lukasz Garbowski, investment director of Btomorrow Ventures, at 1:40 pm PST today, the first day of the Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation Summit in Monterey.
1. Tell us a little about Woven Capital.
Founded in 2021, Woven Capital is the $800m corporate venture capital arm of Woven Planet, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Toyota Motor Corporation, committed to developing the safest mobility on the planet. Woven Planet plays a leading role in accelerating Toyota’s transition from a global automobile manufacturer to a global mobility company. Woven Capital aims to broaden Woven Planet’s global reach and accelerate innovation through investments and partnerships with exceptional growth-stage companies.
2. What is your investment strategy?
Woven Planet and Woven Capital are focused on developing software at the centre of mobility. We are acquiring digital technologies that either fill gaps in our technology stack or that will provide skills and capabilities that we do not currently possess and that might take too long to develop in-house. We want to invest in companies that have the potential to collaborate with us from day one.
With the backing of one of the largest and most profitable automakers in the world, Woven Planet has the scale and resources to become a top player in autonomous vehicles (AV) and other cutting-edge mobility technologies.
3. How has your firm evolved from its founding to today?
Given Woven Planet’s emphasis on the future of mobility, it might be easy to limit our horizons to technologies aimed specifically at moving people or goods from point A to point B. But mobility involves entire ecosystems of participants – manufacturers, logistics operators, payment systems and so on.
Woven Planet’s view of the future also includes Woven City, a prototype for the cities of tomorrow, which involves social and economic structures much broader than what might typically come to mind when you say “mobility”.
There is a sector grid diagram we like to use when we are discussing our mission. It shows 12 separate sectors that we consider part of our purview, and mobility is only one of them. Others include energy, agriculture, education, smart homes, healthcare, payments and finance, and safety and security. It is safe to say that as Woven Capital looks to bridge the hardware and software gaps in our company’s capabilities, we will be on the lookout for innovative technologies in any or all those sectors – and more.
4. What’s Woven Capital’s relationship with Woven Planet, Toyota and Toyota Ventures? How do you leverage the partnerships with these groups?
One of the key values we bring to the table is the ability to connect our investments with Woven Planet but also to the larger Toyota group. It is important to note that we operate as an independent company and are built to move with agility and speed. But, by working together, we can share learnings and resources to accelerate and scale the development of the mobility ecosystem.
We also work closely with Toyota Ventures, a separate entity that is designed to discover what’s next for Toyota by making investments in early-stage startups. We help each other’s portfolio companies to collaborate on new technology and business development.
5. How big is your investment team and what is its structure?
Since the launch of the fund in January 2021, we have grown the team from two to nine members over the past year. We hope to bring in additional members with the target of 12 by the end of 2022. The team is split across our offices in Tokyo and Silicon Valley.
6. What inspired the name of the firm?
The inspiration for “Woven” comes from the earliest days of the company that is now Toyota. In the late 19th century, the prolific inventor and company founder, Sakichi Toyoda, developed an automated loom for weaving fabrics. Now we are aiming to weave technologies into a better world for everyone.
