Maniv Mobility announced today that it has raised more than $40 million its first fund dedicated to auto-tech. The fund is twice Maniv's target and limited Partners in Maniv include equity crowdfunding pioneer OurCrowd, InMotion Ventures, a subsidiary of Jaguar Land Rover, and the $14 billion French Tier One supplier, Valeo, as well as hedge funds and family offices.
An affiliate of 20-year-old Maniv Investments, Maniv Mobility invests primarily at the seed and Series A stage and already boasts a portfolio of 15 mobility technology startups, mostly in Israel with some in the US. Over the last few years, and especially since Intel announced the acquisition of Mobileye (NYSE: MBLY) for $15.3 billion in March, the global automotive industry has increasingly been looking to Israel for the technology building-blocks that will be the center of its future value chain.
Maniv Mobility Israeli portfolio companies include cloud based connected car company otonomo, V2X company Autotalks, smart dashcam company Nexar, smart car engine company Cognata, car cyber security company Upstream Security, and nano-antenna depth sensing company Oryx Vision.
Maniv founder, Michael Granoff has been involved in transportation technology for nearly 15 years, beginning with a role in the creation of the Washington, DC-based energy security policy group, Securing America's Future Energy. He also participated in the electric vehicle infrastructure and services start-up, Better Place, which raised nearly a billion dollars before closing down in 2013.
Granoff said, “The move in locomotion from gasoline to electric, while being a crucial step, I now realize will also someday be seen as an historical footnote. The true headline of the coming era in transportation is the switch from manual vehicles to automated ones. Automated vehicles will be electric - breaking oil's stranglehold, and giving us cleaner air. But these vehicles will do so much more: Save lives and time through accident avoidance, expand mobility to the young, the old, the infirm, allow us to reclaim precious real estate from idle vehicles, and more.”
We’re honored to be participating in Maniv Mobility’s first fund,” said Sebastian Peck, Managing Director at InMotion Ventures. “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.”
“OurCrowd is excited to be a major investor in Maniv Mobility, which is focusing on the next generation of transportation technology,” said Jon Medved, CEO of Limited Partner OurCrowd. “Now that Israel is recognized as a world leader in this sector, there will increased global attention to Maniv’s portfolio companies, many of whom are already pioneers in emerging new technologies, ranging from automotive data to advanced sensors, simulation to robotics, and automotive security to inter-vehicle communication.”
“Valeo is happy to join Maniv Mobility as Limited Partner, which is a pioneer in the automotive tech area in Israel,” said Jacques Aschenbroich, CEO of Valeo. “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."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 26, 2017
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