General Motors launched its first venture capital fund—GM Ventures—last summer. We covered the news, and in December, still early in the $100 million fund’s life, I did a Q&A with GM Ventures president Jon Lauckner. At the time, the fund had invested in just two startups—battery maker Sakti3 and Bright Automotive, which offers a new approach to hybrid electric vehicles. GM Ventures was really just getting going—and Laucker was limited in what he could tell a reporter.
Now, things have changed somewhat—and the fund is definitely heating up. It has closed four deals—with Powermat (wireless charging technology) and Envia Systems (materials for increasing the storage capacity of lithium ion batteries) joining the initial two. Four more have been approved and should be announced relatively soon. Another pair of GM investments that predate the founding of GM Ventures, Coskata and Mascoma (both biofuels companies), were also transferred over to Lauckner’s charge. All told, GM has put about $30 million into those six companies, with investments typically running between $3 million and $7 million per deal. And Lauckner says a half dozen or so more deals are in the works.
To read the full, original article click on this link: GM Ventures Growing Up—A Quick Look at How it Operates and How Deals Work | Xconomy
Author: Robert Buderi
