Welcome to this episode of The Friday 5 with Steve Greenfield, Founder and CEO of Automotive Ventures, an auto technology advisory firm that helps entrepreneurs raise money and maximize the value of their companies.
360Converge
To start off today’s segment, 360Converge, a provider of communication workflow automation in automotive, announced the acquisition of Valuinsight, an inventory analysis platform that can enable automated equity mining for inventory acquisition.
The addition of Valuinsight to the existing 360Converge communication platform will increase dealerships’ texting and emailing capabilities, while decreasing the labor needed to effectively monetize the store’s existing customer base.
Harley-Davidson
This week in SPAC news, Harley-Davidson is taking its electric motorcycle division LiveWire public through a merger with a blank check company sponsored by executives of AEA Investors and Bridges Fund Management.
The agreement with special purpose acquisition company, AEA-Bridges Impact Corp, will preserve much of Harley-Davidson’s ownership while giving LiveWire access to the capital that the public markets can provide and fold in Taiwanese motorcycle and sport vehicle manufacturer KYMCO as a key partner. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022.
The combined company is expected to have an enterprise value of about $1.77 billion dollars and post-money equity value of about $2.31 billion dollars at closing.
Nuvocargo
Nuvocargo, a logistics startup out to help simplify the challenges of cross-border trade, has raised $20.5 million dollars in a round led by Tiger Global Management.
The round valued the new york-based startup at $180 million dollars, more than double the $70 million dollars it was valued at when it raised $12 million dollars in April. The additional funding brings Nuvocargo’s total raised to date to $37.8 million dollars.
The startup claims to pair its technology with a “team of experts” to integrate end-to-end movement of cargo in “a single platform.” specifically, it offers an all-in-one service that rolls freight forwarding, customs brokerage, cargo insurance, and even trade financing into one UI-friendly software and app. The company claims it gives its customers more visibility and better data to understand their supply chain.
AMPLY Power
BP took its first major step into electrification in the U.S. with the acquisition of AMPLY Power, an EV charging and energy management provider for fleets that operate trucks, transit and school buses, vans, and light-duty vehicles.
Financial details of the agreement are not being disclosed.
Founded in 2018, AMPLY Power aims to make EV adoption easy for fleets. The California-based firm has two offers for fleet operators: fully financed charging-as-a-service and customer-financed software-as-a-service.
AMPLY Power’s Omega Charge Management System software provides real-time monitoring of EV charging operations and preventative maintenance for both vehicles and chargers.
Bumper
In international news this week, Bumper, a UK-based auto fintech startup, raised $12 million dollars in series A funding.
The round was led by Autotech Ventures, with participation from Jaguar Land Rover’s Fund Inmotion Ventures, and a group of prominent angel investors.
The company intends to use the funds to roll out its car repair financing platform across Germany, with plans to launch in Spain and the Netherlands in the next three months.
Founded in 2013, Bumper (formerly named Auto Service Finance) provides an interest-free digital payment platform for vehicle repairs and services, enabling owners to spread their costs. It also delivers an installment financing solution using proprietary AI-enabled technology to facilitate real-time lending decisions.
Bumper works with 2,500 franchised dealers, over 700 garages, and major car brands across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Carma
And finally, Australia’s Carma raised a $20 million dollar seed round from Tiger Global Management. Carma has been operating in stealth for the past nine months and said the funding enabled the company to recruit an executive team, develop its website, and establish its first inspection and reconditioning facility in Sydney.
Increasingly, consumers want a contactless, frictionless way to not only search for and buy a used car, but also have it delivered to their doors — a service companies like Carma are offering in their native markets around the world.
Carma will begin another round of fundraising soon to support its accelerated expansion plans in 2022.
Companies to Watch
Every week we highlight interesting companies in the automotive technology space to keep an eye on. If you read my monthly industry intel report, I showcase a few companies each month, and we take the opportunity here on the Friday 5 to share some of those companies each week with you.
Today, we have two companies to watch: Rhombus Energy Solutions and EV Passport.
Rhombus Energy Solutions
Rhombus Energy Solutions develops intelligent, power conversion, and energy management systems for energy storage, microgrids, vehicle charging, and test equipment applications.
Rhombus offers standalone products, power conversion modules, semi-custom configurations, as well as contracted product development services and high-power certification testing.
Rhombus also offers vectorstat cloud-based, multi-system communicator and monitoring for power systems with remote, real-time management.
Founded by some of the best engineers in the industry, Rhombus is led by a powerhouse team with a unique mix of industry experience and deep subject matter expertise.
Check out Rhombus Energy Solutions at www.RhombusEnergySolutions.com
EV Passport
EV Passport is the EV charging hardware and software platform for purpose-driven organizations.
Brands committed to sustainability rely on EV Passport to provide their customers with the most seamless payment experience to charge any electric vehicle without requiring a separate app, account or a top-up balance.
EV Passport is the only platform that enhances customer engagement for these companies by providing custom branded hardware with API-powered software that easily integrates with their existing applications and services.
Check out EV Passport at www.EvPassport.com.
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So that’s your weekly Friday 5, a quick wrap-up of the big deals in automotive technology over the past week.
It’s an exciting time to be in the automotive space, with a ton of deals going on. Make sure you stay tuned in each week to stay up to date on the auto industry’s technology M&A activity. I’ll keep my fingers on the pulse of deals being done, so I can share updates with you.
If you’re an early-stage automotive technology entrepreneur looking to raise money, or an entrepreneur who wants to chat about the best timing and process to sell your company to achieve the best outcome, I’d love to discuss it with you at steve@automotive.ventures.
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