 "Toyota launches $111 mn fund for start-ups")
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, announced overnight a JPY 13.5 billion ($111 million) investment fund for start-ups developing advanced automotive technologies. The new fund is a collaboration between Toyota and two financial institutions: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and asset management company Sparx Group. The fund is named ‘Mirai Creation Investment Limited Partnership,’ a hat tip to Toyota’s hydrogen-cell vehicle – which went on sale on October 21 – and the Japanese word for ‘future.’
According to a Kyodo report, Toyota is contributing JPY 10 billion ($82.3 million); SMBC, JPY 3.3 billion ($27.2 million); and Sparx Group the remaining JPY 200 million ($1.6 million). Sparx Group will act as the fund’s general partner.
A Toyota press release states that target investment areas include artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and “technologies related to the production, supply, and use of hydrogen.” While the firm didn’t directly mention autonomous driving, AI and robotics are core technologies related to self-driving cars.
At this year’s Tokyo Motor Show (which is still underway), Toyota showed off the latest Mirai and a futuristic hydrogen-powered vehicle called the FCV Plus. It’s clear that the company sees hydrogen cells, not batteries, as the next big thing in green automotive – and has even said as much publicly. Toyota claims that current battery technology doesn’t provide enough distance per charge, and that the materials they’re made of limit “energy density” – you can only cram so much power per battery and so many batteries per vehicle.
