This article has been contributed by Monalisha Thakur, Co-founder & CMO, Tummoc.
The mobility industry is evolving quickly due to new technologies and the growing demand for sustainable forms of transport. While certain startups are leading this, the female entrepreneurs within those startups face huge challenges in accessing funds.
This is not just about inclusion; this is overlooked potential in the growth of innovations and market value. Funding mobile women entrepreneurs is critical as the sector has a high growth potential and gives effortless access to new markets and ideas.
Through their experiences, women founders in mobility have learned that the funding gap is fueled by deeply segregated biases. Regardless of possessing a solid business approach, market demand, and established traction, many women have remained skeptical about capital due to huge biasing hurdles. Investors appear to interrogate the founder’s leadership skills or their forgetful technical competencies, assuming that they simply cannot expand vertically in a capital-rich industry.
This article discusses the issues that stem from insufficient funding provided as well as the steps that can be taken to foster a more inclusive volatile startup environment.
Reasons why women positioned in mobility face difficulties obtaining funding.
The numbers are shocking. Out of women led firms, only 2% venture into global capital mobility crossing nations which remains unprecedented.
Bias Against Investors, Implied and Expressed
Several female entrepreneurs reported a distinct difference in the way investors pitch to them versus their male counterparts. Men are frequently asked about their growth prospects, while women are asked the risks and challenges they are expected to encounter.
For instance, some investors are prone to asking women founders, “What do you consider the risks?” or “How do you intend to manage setbacks?”, whereas male founders are asked, “What’s the speed at which you can scale?”, and “What’s your expansion plan?”
This kind of difference in questioning leads to bias, unconscious in nature, where an entrepreneur is asked to think about the risks only instead of the opportunities available. A pitch that sounds less optimistic results in lesser investment.
Underrepresentation Within Venture Capital Firms
Venture capital as an industry is, for the most part and always has been, male-dominated, and very few women hold decision-making positions. This gives credence to the notion that male investors prefer to back male founders since they invest in people they can relate to.
A number of women in mobility have crossed paths with all-male investor panels who are not very familiar with female-led businesses in this space. Even if this is a lack of intent, it does create a sense of reluctance that makes it difficult for women entrepreneurs to access capital.
Mobilities businesses are more difficult to scale due to higher capital requirements, unlike many SaaS startup businesses, which can remotely expand with little funding.
Missed innovation opportunities
Women bring unique insights to mobility, particularly in public transport, accessibility, last-mile connectivity, and sustainability. When women-led businesses are excluded from funding, investors miss out on fresh, consumer-driven innovations that could reshape the industry.
Women influence 70-80% of consumer purchasing decisions. Female founders often have a deeper understanding of market needs, particularly in areas like safety, convenience, and user experience. Overlooking their businesses means ignoring a huge potential for the customer base.
Slowing down industry progress
Let’s not forget that startups drive industry change, and limiting investment to male-led companies slows down innovation and market evolution. More diverse leadership leads to better financial performance and problem-solving, yet many investors are still hesitant to back women-led mobility businesses.
Well, change is possible. Here’s what needs to happen:
More women in venture capital and investment roles
To state obvious funding decisions, start with those who control the money. Increasing the number of women in venture capital and leadership roles will lead to more inclusive investment decisions.
Gender-neutral pitch evaluations
Startups should always be evaluated based on their potential, not the founder’s gender. Blind pitch assessments, where business ideas are reviewed without revealing the entrepreneur’s identity, could help reduce bias in funding decisions.
Expanding alternative funding options
Instead of relying only on VC funding, women entrepreneurs in mobility should consider impact investing, crowdfunding, or even grants. Moreover, many entrepreneurs have succeeded with crowdfunding platforms since they cut out the need for investors.
Better networking and mentoring opportunities
Women founders in mobility can overcome challenges of scaling and fundraising by joining women-centered accelerators and making use of organized mentorship systems.
There is a need for more active support for women entrepreneurs with investor access, experienced mentors, and industry stakeholders to help them address intricacies in the sector.
Investors should reevaluate the risk
The notion that women-led businesses are inherently a riskier investment is not always data driven. While the existing contemporary suggests that stronger returns are generated from diverse leadership teams, many investors are still skeptic. It is crucial that the financial arguments follow through. Prioritizing investment in women-run firms is essential in achieving sustained growth in a particular industry.
The lack of financial support for women entrepreneurs who wish to establish mobility startups goes beyond issues of gender and actually serves as a constraining barrier for innovation and expansion into new markets for the long-term evolution of the industry.
Allowing ladies to access the capital they require to innovate will deduct systemic biases, allowing women entrepreneurs to compete on a more leveled field. Women owned firms are experts in deep market analysis and have fresh ideas and unique ways of solving problems, which is beneficial for the mobility industry. However, existing biases hinder their access to funding, leading to slower innovation in the industry.
Momentum is building, but it is far too slow. Women-led organizations should have a seat at the table since this leads to smarter policy-making by receiving direction from industry experts rather than outsiders looking in.
These problems can enable mobility sectors to take advantage of new opportunities, setting in place greater competition within the industry as well as fostering inclusion.
Every week, it seems like a new startup wants to be a leader in the autonomous driving sector. Interestingly, most startups that want to lead this industry don’t have an option to buy their technology from companies like Waymo and General Motors. This means that these new startups need to develop the technology themselves. This is why so many startups are entering the autonomous driving market and why the sector is growing so quickly. Quite a few companies are creating autonomous driving technology, and they certainly aren’t all going to survive, though. Instead of trying to persuade you about who the best companies are, We’ve narrowed down our list of the most prominent autonomous driving startups in the US. Here you go!
Headquarters: Mountain View, California, United States
Waymo – Top Autonomous Driving Startups in The US
In the race to develop a self-driving car, it’s hard to talk about autonomous driving startups without mentioning Waymo. Waymo is not a car company. It’s a self-driving technology company. And it’s the most well-funded of all the autonomous vehicle startups out there. The company started life as an independent entity named Google Self-Driving Car Project before becoming a subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc. in December 2016.
Waymo is the undisputed leader in autonomous vehicles, with over 3 million miles driven on public roads and another 5 billion miles driven in computer simulations every year. In 2016, the company introduced its first fully driverless car prototype — a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan equipped with Waymo’s proprietary sensors and software.
The company maintains that its objective is building a self-driving car that can operate safely, reliably, and successfully. As part of this effort, Waymo has made its software and hardware stack open source and is working with partners such as Jaguar to bring new self-driving cars to market.
Waymo Driverless Car
Cruise
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
Cruise – Top Autonomous Driving Startups in The US
Cruise is one of the most well-known autonomous vehicle startups in the US. The startup has raised nearly $6 billion in funding and is currently valued at almost $20 billion.
The Cruise was founded in 2013 in San Francisco, California, by Daniel Kan and Kyle Vogt. It began as an autonomous vehicle company specializing in self-driving car hardware and software. Still, it evolved into a company that exists to develop autonomous vehicles for mass production and use.
The startup’s mission is “to bring safe, clean, and affordable transportation to everyone, everywhere.” Cruise has developed a self-driving system that can be applied to multiple vehicle platforms to achieve its mission. It also created a Cruise Anywhere app that allows users to summon self-driving cars from their smartphones. GM acquired Cruise Automation in 2016 for over $1 billion.
In 2018, General Motors invested another $2.25 billion into Cruise Automation to increase its equity stake to 75%. In February 2019, Honda announced it would invest $2.75 billion into the startup and take a 5% stake in Cruise Automation.
Zoox
Headquarters: Foster City, California, United States
Zoox – Top Autonomous Driving Startups in The US
This startup is a pioneer in the autonomous vehicles space. It is developing a self-driving ride-hailing service using its driverless electric vehicle. The vehicle doesn’t have a steering wheel or pedals and is designed to carry up to four passengers and travel 75 mph. The company envisions its autonomous driving service as an on-demand mobility solution that provides consumers with safe, low-cost urban transportation around the clock.
Zoox has a different objective from other autonomous driving companies. It’s not just making “an SAE Level 4 self-driving car.” Instead, it is building a fully autonomous, zero-emissions vehicle designed for ride-hailing that seats four passengers in a way that makes them face each other.
Unlike traditional self-driving cars, Zoox’s vehicle is bi-directional. As a result, it can drive forward and backwards in the same direction, enabling it to do more efficient U-turns.
Zoox was founded by Tim Kentley-Klay and Jesse Levinson in 2014 and has raised $290 million from investors including DFJ, Lux Capital, Greylock Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Blackbird Ventures.
May Mobility – Top Autonomous Driving Startups in The US
One of the first movers in autonomous vehicles for public transportation, May Mobility is a startup already operating a fleet of driverless shuttles in downtown Detroit. The company’s primary focus is “first- and last-mile” transport — connecting people who live or work on the outskirts of a city with public transit hubs like train stations or bus stops.
The company first raised seed capital in 2017 and has since raised an additional $11.55 million — including a Series A round led by BMW Ventures in 2018 and a follow-on round led by Toyota AI Ventures and Maven Ventures in 2019.
May Mobility launched its first commercial service this summer, carrying passengers between two parking lots at the University of Michigan’s Mcity facility for autonomous vehicle testing. In addition, it partnered with the Detroit Department of Transportation to launch a shuttle service that moves commuters from the city’s QLINE rail line to their nearby offices each morning.
Aurora
Headquarters: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Aurora – Top Autonomous Driving Startups in The US
Aurora is the only company on this list that’s not actively pursuing a product. Instead, it’s building the tools used to build self-driving cars. Aurora aims to create an open platform for self-driving tech, which it will license to other companies. That means Aurora isn’t aiming to compete with any of the companies on this list. Instead, its goal is to help them all succeed in their efforts.
Aurora is on a mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. Self-driving technology could save hundreds of thousands of lives and remake cities.
Their safe and pragmatic approach is to build self-driving technology that will move people and goods worldwide one day. They bring together an incredible team with diverse backgrounds and experiences with a singular objective – to deliver on the promise of self-driving technology.
Aurora is working with several partners, including VW Group and Hyundai, and ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber. The company’s biggest claim to fame came in 2019 when it acquired Uber’s ATG division in a deal worth $4 billion.
Aurora has raised more than $1 billion in funding from investors like Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners.
Nuro
Headquarters: Mountain View, California, United States
Nuro – Top Autonomous Driving Startups in The US
Nuro is one of the most prominent autonomous driving startups in the US. The startup was founded by two former Google engineers, Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, in 2016. In June 2018, the company was granted a permit to test self-driving vehicles on California’s public roads in June 2018.
Nuro aims to build a self-driving vehicle that can help people with their daily tasks. Unlike most other autonomous driving startups, Nuro doesn’t aim to revolutionize personal mobility; instead, it tries to enhance the efficiency of delivery services. The company demonstrated its prototype in 2017, which didn’t have a driver’s cabin as any human operator would have limited the vehicle’s potential.
Nuro’s mission is to make local commerce more convenient for everyone through the instant delivery of goods and groceries.
Lyft
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
Lyft – Top Autonomous Driving Startups in The US
Lyft is perhaps the most aggressive startup in autonomous driving technology.
The company put down a $300 million investment in the self-driving car startup Drive.ai to put the startup’s technology in Lyft cars by 2022. The two companies expect to launch test programs over the next three years as they work to integrate the technology into Lyft’s fleet.
Lyft also partnered with Waymo, Alphabet’s subsidiary developing self-driving cars, back in 2017 and has been allowing Waymo’s autonomous vehicles on its ride-hailing platform since then.
Lyft’s objective is to build an open-source autonomous driving system that will allow any car manufacturer to integrate it into their vehicles for free. To achieve this goal, Lyft has been working on gathering the necessary data and building a high-definition map that will help self-driving cars understand the roads they travel on.”
The company said it extends the program across more cities and even allows riders to hail vehicles without a safety driver.
Autonomous driving tech will be advancing rapidly over the next few years. These companies are among the leaders in this field.
There are a lot of companies poised to do something big in the world of autonomous driving. As with any major technological trend, it’s important to keep a close eye on the companies in this space. As they grow, they could emerge as some of the most powerful players in the massive field of autonomous driving. The next decade will likely see many of them launch exciting new products and services and maybe even be acquired by some big tech giants. Don’t be surprised if Apple or Google snaps up one or more of these companies, although there’s no reason to believe that they won’t continue growing on their own just as well. In any case, it’s important to keep your eye on these startups to see how they’re faring in years to come.
FAQs
Which are the top autonomous driving startups in the US?
Most prominent autonomous driving startups in the US are:
Cruise
Zoox
May Mobility
Aurora
Nuro
Waymo
Lyft
Which company is leading autonomous driving?
Top companies that develop AI for self-driving cars are:
Cruise
Waymo
Agro.ai.
Is self-driving market growing?
According to researched data, the self-driving market is projected to grow from $54.23 billion to approximately $555.67 billion in 7 years.
What company makes chips for self-driving vehicles?
Companies that make chips for self-driving vehicles are:
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by MoEVing.
Electric Vehicles have brought revolution in automotive industry. The electric vehicle industry in India is a growing fastly. The EV market in India was valued at USD 5.5 Billion in 2020. As per the experts, it is expected to reach USD 17 Billion in five years. Recently, in December 2021, more than 50,000 registration were done for electric vehicles. This shows the customers interest in electric vehicles in India. EVs may soon replace ICE vehicles. Government also supports the market. The central and state governments have launched several schemes and incentives to promote electric vehicles in India. Investors are also inclined to invest in EV space.
Looking at the growth and opportunity in EV market, MoEVing was started. MoEVing is a technology Platform with a vision to accelerate EV adoption in India. Know about the MoEVing company, founders, funding, business and revenue model, and the startup story.
MoEVing is accelerating EV adoption with a unique technology based platform approach. Founded in February 2021, in Gurgaon (India), MoEVing is India’s first technology platform focused on developing the EV ecosystem with data at the center of its strategy. MoEVing’s current product offering on the demand side, provides solutions to top e-commerce, e-grocery, FMCG, logistics and D2C companies to optimize their logistics costs and meet their goals of reducing carbon emissions. At the same time, on the supply side, MoEVing works with OEMs, driver cum owners and financial institutions to help address various constraints that are coming in the way of EV adoption.
MoEVing is a technology led company with a vision to transform the EV ecosystem to accelerate EV adoption in India. It is a holistic approach to demand aggregation, supply optimization, connecting with charging infrastructure and financing.
MoEVing’s platform approach enables drivers to become micro-entrepreneurs, allowing assured revenue, access to charging solutions, financing, vehicle-know how, and thus increasing their income by 50%.
MoEVing – Industry
EV adoption in India is at an inflexion point particularly in 2W and 3W in commercial mobility for intra-city use cases (range of 80-120 kms) driven by multiple reasons, the top ones being:
Government push towards electrification of commercial fleet including by way of subsidy of ~10-15% of vehicle cost.
Electric vehicle adoption in India is at the right inflection point to leverage it to create both economical and sustainable benefits for the society. 2021 is the year where many critical ecosystem players have become active in the EV ecosystem, including OEMs bringing in high quality EV vehicle products into the market, charging infrastructure development becoming easier on ground and new age banks being open to financing EVs. With a management team having run over 100 Million Kilometers and a cumulative EV sector experience of 30 years, the team at it’s core believes that electrification of the B2B delivery space is possible today and provides a great business opportunity for accelerating adoption of EVs among last mile delivery drivers.
MoEVing – Founders and Team
Vikash Mishra – Founder of MoEVing
The founders, Vikash Mishra (ex McKinsey, Shell, EV background) and Mragank Jain (ex. Standard Chartered Private Equity, A.T. Kearney) along with the key management team have experience of managing an electric vehicle fleet that has run over 100 million kilometers, policy advocacy and scaling up large businesses. MoEVing is backed by angel investors of high repute including professionals from private equity background, board members of the largest automotive OEM in India and others.
Vikash Mishra serves as Chief Executive Officer of MoEVing.
With over 20 years experience in the energy and mobility industry, he is responsible for MoEVing’s vision and development. He has been supporting the electric mobility ecosystem for the past 5 years and has even set up the Electric Mobility Initiative at Shakti Foundation for EV policy advocacy, while leading business at Lithium, the largest EV fleet operator and charging infra network. Vikash has a deep understanding of the energy industry and energy transition.
Mragank Jain serves as Chief Strategy Officer of MoEVing.
With over 20 years experience in the private equity and consulting industry in his extensive time in private equity with Standard Chartered Private Equity and SUN Group, he is responsible for MoEVing’s strategic directions and growth. He has been supporting the growth and development of various portfolio companies while playing the role of a board member. Mragank has a deep understanding of technology, automotive, financial services and logistics sectors.
MoEVing – Idea & Startup Story
Vikash, Founder of MoEVing has been in the electric vehicle fleet business for multiple years, has experience running both electric bus fleets and electric car fleets. Given his in-depth understanding on the vehicle products, operating these new age EV products and related infrastructure, being part of building the EV policy framework in India and working with large fleets, he instantly knew late 2020 that India is at an inflection point where one needs to tie the loose ends and take an ecosystem approach to accelerating EV adoption.
When the pandemic hit, he realised what a large opportunity the B2B last mile delivery space provides in terms of electrification. Having been in the space for years, he approached leaders across various sectors, investors, OEMs, charging infrastructure companies, policy makers, financiers, including brainstorming with his college batchmate, Mragank on how this very inflection point in the automotive sector can be leveraged into making a profitable business opportunity. Post multiple brainstorms with potential clients, drivers, financiers and various stakeholders, Vikash realised that the issue wasn’t optimizing order delivery which was already solved by organizations like Delhivery, Porter and Shadowfax. The issue was now reducing cost of logistics on the demand side due to unstable fuel prices as well as there being not one player who is enabling adoption of low cost vehicle technology like EVs for the driver cum owners.
This is when Vikash established MoEVing in early 2021 as a driver-centric platform that provides full-stack technology solutions including delivery, charging, financing and analytics solutions thereby making EV adoption a seamless process.
MoEVing – Vision
In five years, MoEVing expects to become a $1 billion revenue company, providing full stack solutions across form factors, with deep data expertise, having international presence and a business structure where investors with different risk profiles can participate. MoEVing has raised over $5 Million in seed capital to prove the playbook and roll- out the technology platform.
MoEVing – Name, Tagline, and Logo
MoEVing Logo
The core vision of the startup is MOEVING people and goods emissions free! Integrating the aspect of EV to moving got us MOEVING! The logo was designed to be simple for all to understand with a focus on EV.
MoEVing – Product & Services
MoEVing Operations across India
Electric vehicles are revolutionizing the larger automotive sector both for people and goods movement. With the enhancement of product availability across various vehicle form factors in India, intra-city logistics is a $375 Billion opportunity that can be electrified swiftly. MoEVing provides a full stack solution to e-commerce, e-grocery, FMCG, logistics and D2C companies, where it is the single point of contact for end to end services once the goods are lifted from MoEVing’s customer hubs to be delivered to end-consumer. Currently MoEVing provides intra-city goods movement services where per day usage of a vehicle is 80-120 kms to align with the travel range that vehicles offer per charge. As more and more vehicle types (light commercial vehicles, 4W, buses, trucks) become available and are commercially viable, MoEVing will continue to on-board all vehicle form factors onto its platform.
MoEVing’s business model rests on data driven defensibility as its foundation. With every vehicle being connected to the technology platform on a real time basis, MoEVing has created a data warehouse and is developing data science algorithms to drive commercial outcomes from gathered intelligence around battery behaviour, vehicle behaviour and driver behaviour leading to additional revenue streams. MoEVing’s platform is curated in a manner which allows low customer acquisition cost (CAC), low customer churn, scalable with international application with data as a moat in the business.
MoEVing – Funding
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
December 2021
Seed Round
$5 Million
D.S. Brar, Promoter-Chairman, Aragen Life Sciences; Anshuman Maheshwary, COO, IIFL Wealth and Asset Management; Dr. Srihari Raju Kalidindi, Executive Director & COO Viyash life sciences; D.N. Reddy, Managing partner, Vindhya Group; Ashish Goel, Founder, Urban Ladder; Krishnadeva Veerareddy, Serial Tech Entrepreneur; Vijay Dutt, Founder, Citadel Management Consulting; Manas Fuloria, Founder & CEO, Nagarro; Nishant Sharma, Co-Founder, Managing Partner & CIO, Kedaara Capital; Mukul Dhyani, Senior IT Executive based out of Europe, Naresh Agarwal, Head of India R&D, Traceable; Abhishek Poddar, MD, Macquarie (MIRA); Mayank Gupta, ex-KKR Director; Anand Dalmia, Co-Founder, Fisdom; Bhanu Singhal, ex-Citibank, Govind Agarwal; Chaitanya Kamdar, Subodh Gupta and Mukesh Tiwari.
MoEVing – Getting Clients after Startup Launch
The company was incorporated on January 19th 2021 and signed its first PAN India contract on January 21st, 2021 with one of India’s biggest e-grocery companies. Their main strategy was and is delivering the best service to ensure there is no reason for any client to not convert their last mile delivery to electric. MoEVing started with 1 client and expanded very quickly to 20+ clients in 11 months because they continuously provided their thesis operationally and supported various requirements of clients and drivers to make the transition to EVs seamless.
The company has a low/zero CAC business model, since the beginning they have no sales people in their team. The growth is purely driven by two factors.
The clients, top e-commerce, e-grocery, FMCG, logistics and D2C companies needing to optimize their logistics costs and meet their goals of reducing carbon emissions.
Time and again, the proven track record with multiple customers of scaling fleet across cities and across vehicle form factors, nationally.
MoEVing – Challenges Faced
Here are some to the major challenges faced initially:
Client based challenges: Electrification of the fleet requires fundamental changes in the operational approach, which leads to us crossing initial knowledge hurdles with any client or driver they onboard.
Infrastructure based challenges: Currently most charging infrastructure providers are focusing investments towards fast charging solely focused on B2C uptake with close to no planning overlap with B2B EV charging usage where the larger percentage of adoption will take place in the coming 5 years. This created an issue for MoEVing initially but now they create their own charging spaces where drivers can charge vehicles, park, get their vehicle maintenance & related services done.
Financing based challenges: With no proven product life cycle and product know-how, it was initially difficult to convince both traditional and new age financiers to finance EVs at an affordable rate.
Driver based challenges: Initial challenges around driver training, basic understanding of EVs and how to charge them. But these are easily overcome through company’s driver training.
MoEVing – Growth
MoEVing Growth
Since its inception in February 2021, MoEVing has signed contracts worth US$ 180 million in revenue potential (over three years) with 20 clients in e-commerce, e-grocery, FMCG, logistics and D2C companies. The Company has established its presence in 10 cities and operates a fleet of 650 vehicles (3W and 2W) and has a 90 people team.
MoEVing – Competitors
No player is taking an ecosystem approach towards EV adoption currently, most of the EV logistics players are solving for delivery optimization using EVs. Currently players in the same space are Mahindra Logsitics, Zypp, and LoadXX.
In the next 24 months, MoEVing aims to onboard 25,000 driver cum EV owners by end of 2023, have 50% of India’s charging stations on its app, finance a large proportion of EV fleet and facilitate financing of the same through other partners, and abate 2 Billion MT of carbon.
MoEVing – FAQs
When was MoEVing founded?
MoEVing was founded in February 2021 at Gurugram.
Who are the founders of MoEVing?
Vikash Mishra and Mragank Jain are the founders of MoEVing.
What services MoEVing offers?
MoEVing offers delivery services across different sectors, charging services, training programs for drivers and others.
Mansi Maheshwari
