BMW i Ventures

BMW i Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Bayerische Motoren Werke, investing in technology companies that support BMW's current and future mobility, transportation, and services businesses. Based in Mountain View with offices in San Francisco and Germany, the firm pursues global investments, including North America, Europe, and Israel. It focuses on early to growth-stage opportunities in automotive technology, software, SaaS, AI and machine learning, hardware, energy, digital platforms, and related sectors such as supply chain, fintech, e-commerce, and oil and gas. BMW i Ventures seeks to accelerate portfolio companies by combining capital with strategic guidance, helping them scale quickly and deliver real-world impact across manufacturing, transportation, and services within BMW's ecosystem and beyond.

Marcus Behrendt

Managing Partner

Allen Chen

Senior Associate

Margret Dupslaff

Associate

Baris Guzel

Partner

Michael Hammer

CFO

Past deals in Public Transportation

May Mobility

Series D in 2023
May Mobility, Inc. is an autonomous vehicle company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, founded in 2017. The company specializes in developing and deploying autonomous vehicle technology to enhance public transportation systems. May Mobility operates a fleet of six-passenger electric shuttles that navigate through traffic using mapped and closed-loop routes. By analyzing city traffic and commuter patterns, the company identifies bottlenecks and optimizes transit routes for various communities. Its services aim to reduce human error in driving, lower pollution levels, and provide economic benefits to both communities and riders. Through its innovative approach, May Mobility seeks to create a safer, greener, and more efficient transportation environment.

May Mobility

Series C in 2022
May Mobility, Inc. is an autonomous vehicle company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, founded in 2017. The company specializes in developing and deploying autonomous vehicle technology to enhance public transportation systems. May Mobility operates a fleet of six-passenger electric shuttles that navigate through traffic using mapped and closed-loop routes. By analyzing city traffic and commuter patterns, the company identifies bottlenecks and optimizes transit routes for various communities. Its services aim to reduce human error in driving, lower pollution levels, and provide economic benefits to both communities and riders. Through its innovative approach, May Mobility seeks to create a safer, greener, and more efficient transportation environment.

May Mobility

Series A in 2019
May Mobility, Inc. is an autonomous vehicle company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, founded in 2017. The company specializes in developing and deploying autonomous vehicle technology to enhance public transportation systems. May Mobility operates a fleet of six-passenger electric shuttles that navigate through traffic using mapped and closed-loop routes. By analyzing city traffic and commuter patterns, the company identifies bottlenecks and optimizes transit routes for various communities. Its services aim to reduce human error in driving, lower pollution levels, and provide economic benefits to both communities and riders. Through its innovative approach, May Mobility seeks to create a safer, greener, and more efficient transportation environment.

May Mobility

Seed Round in 2018
May Mobility, Inc. is an autonomous vehicle company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, founded in 2017. The company specializes in developing and deploying autonomous vehicle technology to enhance public transportation systems. May Mobility operates a fleet of six-passenger electric shuttles that navigate through traffic using mapped and closed-loop routes. By analyzing city traffic and commuter patterns, the company identifies bottlenecks and optimizes transit routes for various communities. Its services aim to reduce human error in driving, lower pollution levels, and provide economic benefits to both communities and riders. Through its innovative approach, May Mobility seeks to create a safer, greener, and more efficient transportation environment.

Moovit

Series D in 2018
Moovit is a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) provider and the world’s #1 transit app. Moovit simplifies your urban mobility in +2700 cities all around the world, making getting around town via mass transit easier and more convenient. Moovit has more than 300 million users, and was named Best Local App of 2016 by Google and Best of 2017 app by Apple. By combining information from public transit operators and authorities with live information from the user community, Moovit offers travelers a real-time picture, including the best route for their journey. The Moovit community sends active reports about their travel experience, such as bus congestion levels, cleanliness, and more to help others have a better travel experience. Moovit generates up to four billion anonymous data points a day that comprise the world's largest repository of transit data. The Big Data gathering is aided by Moovit’s network of more than 500,000 local editors, called “Mooviters”, who help map out and maintain local transit information in cities that would otherwise be unserved. Moovit is available for free on iOS, Android & Web in over 2,700 cities, across 86 countries worldwide, and can be used in 44 languages.

Proterra

Series F in 2017
Proterra Inc. is a manufacturer of zero-emission electric buses, primarily focused on providing sustainable transportation solutions for public and commercial transit. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Burlingame, California, with additional offices in Greenville, South Carolina, and City of Industry, California, Proterra designs its products, including 35-foot and 40-foot electric buses, to meet the diverse needs of urban and regional transit routes. The company's Catalyst platform is noted for its modularity, allowing it to adapt to various operational demands while delivering high energy efficiency. Proterra also offers a broad range of services, including vehicle electrification solutions, fleet planning, charging infrastructure, and comprehensive vehicle maintenance programs. By facilitating the transition away from fossil fuels, Proterra aims to enhance environmental quality and reduce operational costs for fleet operators, contributing to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

RideCell

Series A in 2016
RideCell provides fleet automation and management software for ride sharing and car sharing. Its platform automates onboarding, driver-rider matching, scheduling, routing, payment processing, dynamic pricing, and demand-supply balancing, and includes analytics and configurable settings. The Demand-Response product automates requests and dispatch, while Fixed Route offers real time tracking, delay alerts, and proactive notifications for buses and shuttles via phone, text, web, or mobile apps. The platform supports end-to-end operation of mobility services, including rider onboarding, ID checks, referrals, promotions, and online management of fleets. RideCell serves public and private transportation, universities and campuses, and maintenance and delivery fleets, helping operators launch and scale mobility services efficiently. By integrating fleet IoT data with digital vehicle control, it turns manual processes into automated workflows and improves efficiency and monetization. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Europe and Asia.

Embark

Seed Round in 2012
Embark is a mobile application designed to make it easy to get around cities using mass transit. Among other features, the iOS and Android application tells users when trains and busses are coming and will send push notifications when services are delayed. With over half a million users and rapid growth, Embark's simple and powerful mobile application is designed to bring urban transportation into the age of the smartphone. Embark is available for twelve major transportation systems in the US and the UK and is expanding rapidly. Embark won best transit and mobility app awards from the New York MTA App Quest and NYC Big Apps 3.0 contests.
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