From ride-hailing apps to driverless car technology, transportation startups have attracted unprecedented sums of investment capital from auto manufacturers in recent years. In the past few quarters, that trend has been accelerating.

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An analysis of 附近上门 data shows that since the beginning of 2019, the world鈥檚 largest car and truck manufacturers have led financing rounds valued at more than $6 billion. Over that period, they鈥檝e participated in more than 50 deals for several million dollars and up, indicating an expanded willingness to pump significant sums into rounds.

鈥淚t has been a continuation of the trends for many of the automakers that have been particularly active over the past few years,鈥� said , a partner at Detroit-based transport venture firm . 鈥淚n 2019 and 2020, however, it has been interesting to see a few automakers鈥攑articularly those in Asia鈥攁ggressively ramping up their innovation efforts.”

Below, we take a more detailed look at where Big Auto is putting its capital, which companies are spending the most and where the current investment path is headed.

Hot Sectors, Big Rounds

First, let鈥檚 look at where the money鈥檚 going. The sectors driving away with the largest sums of automaker capital include autonomous driving technology, electric cars, batteries and ride-hailing.

We break out the largest funding recipients in Big Auto-led rounds in the chart below. (See full list of.)

For the most part, the same subsectors have been attracting automaker interest for years, but the funding dynamics have changed some in recent quarters.

In particular, we鈥檙e seeing more partnerships and joint investments involving multiple automakers. Examples include 鈥檚 participation in a $1.15 billion May round for 鈥檚 self-driving unit, , and Volkswagen鈥檚 $2.6 billion round for -backed .聽 Even longtime rivals and BMW are teaming up by launching a .

鈥淚鈥檓 not sure 5 to 10 years ago we would have imagined Ford and Volkswagen coming together to collaborate on electric and autonomous vehicles, or Daimler and BMW鈥檚 collaboration on mobility services,鈥� Stallman said.

However, as the true cost of launching electric and autonomous vehicles鈥攁nd competing against and on mobility services鈥攈as come into greater clarity, these partnerships make quite a bit of sense.

Another broad trend is a move toward components developers. The years 2016 to 2018 were active for acquiring full-stack autonomous vehicle technology companies, Stallman noted. But more recently, automakers are turning their attention to enabling and component technologies that align with in-house architectures. This isn鈥檛 broadly reflected in the largest deals chart above, but looking at a , it鈥檚 a more visible trend.

Most Active Investors

There鈥檚 wide variation among automakers in startup round counts. Several are, on average, participating in more than one sizable deal a month. Others are more sporadic.

Below, we take a look at the most active by deal count since the beginning of last year:

One key takeaway is that we鈥檙e seeing more startup capital coming from large auto manufacturers in Asia.

in particular has upped its game. The Korean auto giant wasn鈥檛 much involved in the startup space before 2017, according to 附近上门 data. In the last few years, however, the company has backed at least 35 rounds, including 18 since the beginning of 2019.

, meanwhile, tied with BMW as the second most active investor. The count for Toyota included several supergiant rounds of $100 million.

It鈥檚 also worth pointing out companies not in the rankings. , for instance, hasn鈥檛 been doing much startup investing, presumably preferring to innovate in-house. is also not active in venture-stage investing, nor are France鈥檚 or Japan鈥檚 and .

The Road Ahead

While automakers did a lot of startup investing in 2019, they didn鈥檛 do much acquiring.

There were a few deals: Honda bought Drivemode, a Silicon Valley developer of smartphone apps for drivers, in its first startup acquisition to date; Tesla snapped up , a computer vision startup; and PSA Group acquired , a platform for car rentals and parking it had previously backed.

Big Auto is, however, increasingly competing with Big Tech in the transport space. Just last week, for instance, bought , a developer of technology with applications in the automotive space, and over the summer picked up , a developer of autonomous driving software. also has made some transport acquisitions, as have Uber and other ride-hailing players.

Interest from Big Tech is a concern, as the most valuable technology companies are worth many multiples more than the biggest automakers, making M&A an unlevel playing field.

That said, automakers鈥� investment activity shows they鈥檙e serious about keeping abreast of innovation in spaces that impact them by putting more money than ever toward stakes in startups, even if they鈥檙e not buying them whole.

Main photo courtesy of Florian Steciuk via Unsplash.

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The round caught our eye not merely because we don鈥檛 see many Croatian companies on our radar, but also because it made us wonder how strong the aggregate EV venture capital scene has been. So, we dug into , and graphed the results.

Below is known deal and dollar volume for venture capital, private equity, and corporate venture capital (CVC) rounds raised by companies in 附近上门鈥檚 EV category. Note that the category includes EV manufacturers, as well as companies developing battery technology and vehicle charging infrastructure.

So far in 2019, there have been 27 rounds raised by EV companies, accounting for approximately $2.1 billion in known funding.

Over the past year, we鈥檝e covered a number of rounds that related to electric vehicles in some form or another. For example, In April, we covered how , a developer of battery technology for use in electric vehicles, raised $170 million in a funding round led by German auto giant .

The California-based Sila Nano is working to improve lithium-ion batteries. Its chemistry allows for 鈥渓ighter, safer, higher energy density batteries for mass adoption of electric vehicles, smarter, longer-lasting portable electronics, and broader use of renewable power sources,鈥� according to the company.

Big car companies are also at work. Earlier this year, tied up with to the tune of $500 million. The pair are working on new batteries for Ford鈥檚 own electric car work. If that sounds similar to the Rimac round, it should.

And last September, Daimler also put money in San Francisco-based , a maker of battery-electric buses. It co-led in the company, which previously made 鈥渂uses for municipal, federal and commercial transit agencies,鈥� according to our friends at . In partnership with Daimler, TechCrunch that Proterra would 鈥渨ork with Daimler to possibly electrify the company鈥檚 Thomas Built Buses division, which manufactures a line of school buses.鈥�

Around the world it seems that the tide has crested on gas-powered cars; at least in terms of where research, and the future are looking. It will be years and years until the world sells more electric cars than those powered by old-school methods. But the deals needed to reach that tipping point are being sorted as we speak.

Indeed, we鈥檝e been on this topic essentially since 附近上门 News came into publication, noting in 2017 that the venture classes are into the space. Even back in 2009, a period in which the global economy was dark, there was a good sum invested into the space. Since then China has for their development, for example.

There鈥檚 More To Autos Than Electricity

We鈥檇 be remiss to leave today without pointing out that the dollar amounts we discussed above are small compared to another category of automotive investment. Namely, self-driving tech.

There has been a staggering amount of money invested into autonomous car tech in recent years. Indeed, according to 附近上门 data, the figure is north of $16 billion globally since the start of 2018. With that in mind, the Rimac round is impressive but comparably modest.

Indeed, so far this year we鈥檝e seen two billion dollar or larger rounds in the self-driving space. Uber鈥檚 picked up a billion, and , part of the empire raised $1.15 billion as well. That鈥檚 a lot of money.

But ironically, electric cars are a reality today. They exist, they are sold, they are driven. Self-driving tech remains, in contrast, partial and not yet as good as it needs to be. This makes for an interesting wager of sorts. But perhaps in the end we鈥檒l get a self-driving Rimac.

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The financing sets a post-money valuation of around $19 billion for the San Francisco-based company, 鈥渋nclusive of SoftBank Vision Fund’s previously announced investment commitment,鈥� Cruise said in a issued this morning.

The money came from a group consisting of institutional investors, including funds and accounts advised by and existing backers General Motors, and Honda, according to Cruise.

The latest financing brings the company鈥檚 total raised since inception to $7.25 billion, it said. In May 2018, SoftBank and GM led that gave the company a post-money valuation of $12.7 billion, according to its 附近上门 profile.

鈥淒eveloping and deploying self-driving vehicles at massive scale is the engineering challenge of our generation,鈥� said Cruise CEO , in the press release. “Having deep resources to draw on as we pursue our mission is a critical competitive advantage.”

Besides its San Francisco headquarters, Cruise has offices in Seattle, Pasadena, and Phoenix. Its mission is to build 鈥渢he world鈥檚 most advanced self-driving, all electric vehicles.鈥� GM acquired the six-year-old company, formerly known as Cruise Automation, for in 2016. We reached out to the company for more details and will update the story when we have them.

In general, the self-driving space is heating up. Interestingly, SoftBank is funding more than one related initiative. Last month, we reported on how confirmed that its cash-burning self-driving unit received a $1 billion investment from auto giant , Japanese automotive components manufacturer ., and the SoftBank Vision Fund. As part of that, Uber said it would spin out the unit into a newly-formed advanced technologies 鈥渆ntity鈥� focused on 鈥渢he development and commercialization鈥� of automated ride-hailing services.

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