Toyota is looking for the next new thing in mobility, climate, AI, and industrial automation. Its answer is $1.5 billion in new capital that will focus on, and invest in, the life cycle of startups — from the first seeds of an invention through its growth stage and eventually to mature companies.
Toyota made two related announcements Tuesday that provide a snapshot of the company’s growing interest in the startup ecosystem. It also hints at how those startups, and their inventions, may play a part in Woven City, a prototype city located on a 175-acre site at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan designed to incubate startups and that opened this year .
The Japanese automaker said Tuesday it has created a strategic investment subsidiary called Toyota Invention Partners Co. with about $670 mil