Invests

Volvo Group Venture Capital (VGVC) has invested in Optibus which supplies optimisation software for public transportation planning and management. “The investment highlights the companies’ shared commitment to sustainable bus fleets and more efficient transportation operations,” VGVC said in a statement. The companies said high quality, sustainable public transportation can be achieved through industry wide…

Credit: Den Rise/Shutterstock Chinese automaker FAW Group has made a strategic investment in Horizon Robotics, the local artificial intelligence (AI) firm, without disclosing the size of the deal. Beijing-based Horizon Robotics describes itself as a leading developer of automotive-grade AI computing platforms for intelligent vehicles and is said to have been the first Chinese company to commercialise…

Trucking company Schneider National Inc. is looking to expand its role in chemical distribution through an investment in a startup that is building an online marketplace for industrial raw materials.The Green Bay, Wis.-based carrier led a Series A funding round for ChemDirect Inc. that will give Schneider a minority stake in the business and make the trucking company a key logistics connection for the digital operation. The terms of the investment, which would give Schneider a 12% to 13%…

South Korea’s Lotte Chemical Corporation said it would invest an additional KRW140bn (US$108m) at its Daesan plant, 75km southwest of Seoul, to expand the range of solvents it produces for electrolyte used in the production of lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). This is in addition to the KRW210bn investment already announced to increase electrolyte solvent production capacity at the plant. Electrolyte is…

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: London-based Entrepreneur First, which invests in nascent startups, connects co-founders, and offers other support, has raised a $158M Series C — Entrepreneur First made a name for itself a decade ago in its home base of London, and then further afield, for the novel approach it takes to tech investing … Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: London-based Entrepreneur First, which invests in nascent startups, connects co-founders, and offers other support, has raised a…

Sensing a global opportunity in the electric vehicles (EV) segment, Indian automotive ancillaries are shifting gears in sync with the trend, said a top industry sector official.Many of the players in the $46 billion (FY21) industry are also supplying to non-auto sectors like defence, railways and aerospace, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) President Sunjay J. Kapur said."About 60 per cent of our Executive Committee members (about 50) are ready to supply components for EVs and the remaining 40…

Volvo Group unit Volvo Energy is investing in the UK-based, second-life battery energy storage specialist Connected Energy in order, it says, to further accelerate Volvo Group’s battery business and sustainability opportunities. In its mission to support and secure an attractive and sustainable circular business model for batteries, Volvo Energy is investing approx. SEK 50 M for 10 percent in the UK-based second-life…

LG announced that it is investing $450 million into producing 4680 battery cells, a format pioneered by Tesla. While the Korean battery manufacturer didn’t confirm that the new cells will be for Tesla, it is extremely likely. When Tesla unveiled its plan to produce its own new tabless battery cell in a bigger format with a new chemistry, the automaker claimed to have solved some major issues that were preventing the industry from producing bigger cylindrical Li-ion cells in a new format called 4680. Tesla’s new…

NEW DELHI: Equinix, a US-headquartered data centre company, has announced an initial investment of $86 million to build a new data centre in Mumbai. The firm has acquired a four-acre land parcel in the city's Chandivali area. The new data centre, to be named MB3, will be Equinix’s third such facility in Mumbai. MB3 IBX will be adjacent to Equinix MB2 IBX and 1.5 km away from MB1 IBX data centre. The first phase of MB3 is scheduled to open in Q2 2024,…

Cape Town-headquartered venture capital (VC) firm HAVAÍC has announced the completion of its first investment in ShopEx, a Nigeria retailer. HAVAÍC says it is investing US$400,000 from its US$20 million HAVAÍC Universum Core African Fund. The investment forms part of a US$625,000 convertible note round alongside existing angel investors. ShopEx mobilises a combination of traditional and digital channels to market, sell, and distribute some of the world’s top brands in Nigeria and other…