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Autotech Ventures
Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
Menlo Park, CA
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11-50 Employees

July 14, 2026

Tomorrow, Dave McShane will join a fireside chat and panel discussion at the FreightWaves Supply Chain AI Symposium in Chicago about where logistics innovation and startup investment are heading, and where AI is delivering for logistics operators today.

July 13, 2026

Many people assume Chinese automakers will enter the U.S. the same way Japanese and Korean brands did - ships full of imports, new dealerships, years of brand-building. That's not how this plays out.

Autotech Ventures Managing Director Quin Garcia introduces a different framework in his latest Automotive News commentary: COBVs - Chinese-Owned, Built-in-America Vehicles. The vehicles will be assembled in existing U.S. plants, often with UAW labor, engineered by Chinese OEMs and likely sold through American franchise dealers.

The sales economics are manageable. The fixed ops implications are not.

Quin highlights what dealers and investors should be watching: the Polestar sales ban and what it reveals about connected-vehicle compliance; the race to acquire brownfield capacity in North America; and why the first 24 months of any new OEM launch will test service operations before it tests the sales floor. Check out the full article linked in the comments.

June 30, 2026

Every lithium-ion battery hits the same physics ceiling on performance and lifespan, regardless of chemistry. That ceiling shows up in EV range, drone flight time, satellite durability or AI data center power draw.

The fix isn't redesigning the cell. It's a layer that changes how the battery is controlled.

Gaussion built that layer. MagLiB is a magnetic retrofit system. Aeon is the control chip and software that runs on top of it. Together they extend performance across any chemistry, with no change to the underlying battery design. We followed on in their €24.5M round, co-led by BGF and AlbionVC and others. Congrats to Tom Heenan and the team!

June 12, 2026

A technical breakthrough in robotics buys you six to twelve months. Then the field catches up. So the real question isn't how good the technology is. It's what's left when everyone else has it, too.

Burak Cendek highlights what that looks like: founders who've felt the gap between a lab demo and a factory floor, moats built on distribution and data rather than method, and the patience to win one task completely before chasing the platform.

June 09, 2026

Two of our portfolio companies just made Supply Chain Digital's Top 10 Supply Chain Startups list.

GenLogs is building a nationwide intelligence layer for commercial trucking using roadside sensors, satellite data, and billions of data points to give brokers, insurers, and shippers a cleaner picture of what's actually moving on US roads.

Augment is tackling the operational chaos inside freight workflows. Their AI teammate, Augie, handles the repetitive, time-sensitive work of booking and executing truck shipments around the clock, so operators can focus on the work that truly requires human judgment.

Trucking captures more value when better data drives faster decisions. Congratulations to Ryan Joyce and the GenLogs team, and to Harish Abbott and the Augment team!

June 01, 2026

The GCC has become a serious mobility deployment environment and it's worth understanding why.

Abu Dhabi just issued the world's first city-level Level 4 autonomy permit. WeRide and Uber are running fully driverless robotaxis on public roads today. EV penetration doubled across the region in a single year. These aren't just news announcements, they're operating realities.

What separates the GCC isn't ambition. Every city has ambition. It's that governments are building infrastructure ahead of demand and acting as anchor customers - a combination that founders spend years chasing and rarely find.

May 28, 2026

Fleet repair in the U.S. is a coordination problem disguised as an operational one. Thousands of vehicles, dozens of shops, fragmented systems, no visibility. That's not a repair problem. It's a data and workflow problem.

Our portfolio company Fixico figured that out over 12 years, working with 250+ fleet and insurance customers across Europe. Now, they're bringing that playbook to the U.S., partnering with Caliber, the largest collision repair network in the country, to give U.S. fleet operators a single connected experience from intake to repair to performance data. This is a huge milestone for Derk Roodhuyzen de Vries and team. We're excited for what's next!

May 26, 2026

Last week we hosted our 10th Annual Fund Forum - time really does fly! Thank you to the portfolio companies, LPs and all guests who took the time to participate.

May 21, 2026

The Middle East has spent decades importing mobility innovation. That's changing fast.

Our director of partnerships – EMEA, Rabih Haydar, highlights why the region has moved from aspirational to structurally different: sovereign capital at scale, governments that move fast on regulation, and a founder ecosystem where a logistics startup can land a port pilot in months, not years.

A few things we're watching closely:

• Chinese OEMs (BYD, NIO, XPeng) validating EV demand across Gulf markets
• NEOM and Masdar as live proving grounds, not concept papers
• A real window for the region to become a net exporter of mobility solutions within a decade

The window to engage early is open. Rabih's full piece is worth the read. Check it out!

May 12, 2026

Following our recent expansion into the GCC, Brian Donnelly sat down with our new director of partnerships for EMEA, Rabih Haydar. They discussed the market dynamics creating real opportunity in the region and where the biggest openings lie for early-stage founders. As Rabih puts it, the GCC isn't a market where you test quietly. If your solution works, it scales fast.

Rabih is joined in the region by senior advisor Saud Abbasi, and together they give us a genuine advantage in understanding how the market operates. Watch the video to learn more.

May 07, 2026

Big signal from Abu Dhabi on the future of mobility and industrial ecosystems in the Gulf region.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Office مكتب أبوظبي للاستثمار (ADIO) unveiled a broad set of partnerships at Make it in the Emirates 2026. These span electric urban delivery fleets, automotive localization, smart manufacturing and supply chain innovation. This development underscores how mobility transformation is deeply intertwined with industrial policy and infrastructure, and how governments in the region take an active role in advancing the mobility sector.

May 06, 2026

Our portfolio company, Laka, just closed its fourth acquisition in three years. This London-based micromobility InsurTech acquired VeloLife, adding 100+ UK independent bike shops to its dealer network. Each of Laka's acquisitions has added something distinct: scale, geography, or capability. This one checks all three. Congratulations to Tobias Taupitz and the entire team. Onward!

The Atlas

As we kick off 2025, one question drives us: What’s next for transport and mobility?

At Autotech Ventures, we’ve been tracking innovation through our proprietary deal flow database, a resource built on 19,000+ early-stage startups reviewed since 2016. This resource gives us a unique vantage point to identify emerging trends across multiple subsectors before they hit the mainstream.

From electrification and autonomous systems to shared mobility models and sustainable logistics, 2025 promises transformative shifts in how people and goods move globally.

Check out our outlook report here.

Press Release

Digitization-led disruption set to reshape GCC auto commerce ecosystem

Digitization-led disruption set to reshape GCC auto commerce ecosystem
March 30, 2026

Between Two Lightbulbs

Between Two Lightbulbs S2 Ep. 3: Desteia
Desteia (formerly known as "Auba") simplifies logistics by using AI to extract and organize information from unstructured data like emails, messages, and logistics documents.

Between Two Lightbulbs S2 Ep. 2: Latent AI
Organizations are grappling with deploying AI applications at the edge, where sensors and IoT devices are key to transforming operations.

Between Two Lightbulbs S2 Ep. 1: Gaussion
Gaussion has developed a novel solution that radically enhances battery performance using an external magnetic field during charge and discharge cycles to enable rapid charging by steering ions within existing battery cells, thus lowering cell degradation and extending battery life.

Conclusion

We are launching a new series, “Between Two Lightbulbs,” where Kellie Lindsay, our director of strategic partnerships, talks with startup founders to learn how they’re solving mobility challenges and discuss trends in our venture ecosystem.

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