TOYOTA is setting up a new fund dedicated to startups specialized in robotics and artificial intelligence.
In two years "Toyota AI Ventures" has invested $100 million in nearly two dozen tech startups, the company has decided to reinvest another $100 million to find new technologies. A significant investment to become a "critical partner" for these robotics and AI startups.
Created in January 2016, the Toyota Research Institute has not been idle. Adjacent to Stanford University, this institute has specialized in "high-potential areas" for Toyota: robotics and AI. An institute supported for two years by Toyota AI Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of the parent company, and which has allowed, in two years, to invest $ 100 million in 19 startups such as May Mobility specialized in autonomous vehicles, or Intuition Robotics, specialized in cognitive AI.
A new $100 million envelope has been released for this fund, but with a change in focus: targeting startups that are not first-time entrepreneurs and that are more economically viable than their predecessors.