BMW i Ventures Announces Strategic Investment in May Mobility
- Phil Diianni
Mountain View, CA - February 28, 2018… BMW i Ventures has announced a strategic investment in May Mobility, a company developing fleets of self-driving micro-shuttles.
May Mobility began commercial operations this year, just over a year after the company’s launch. An October 2017 pilot with Detroit-based Bedrock was a key milestone in demonstrating the readiness of their technology for real-world operations.
“Vehicles and programs of all sorts are being announced or tested and trialed, but May Mobility is actually solving today’s transportation issues with self-driving vehicles on real city streets today,” said Uwe Higgen, Managing Partner at BMW i Ventures. “We invested in the team because they’re reducing the complexity of the problem to actually deliver autonomous mobility now, instead of years from now, and the feedback loop will be invaluable to the future of the industry.”
May Mobility’s team has deep experience in autonomous vehicles, combining both technical stars with business development and operations experts.
“Communities everywhere are facing transportation challenges, and we’re ready to solve them with our fully-managed, right-sized microtransit service,” said Alisyn Malek, COO and co-founder of May Mobility. “Our new investors will allow us to deploy to more communities even more quickly, and to grow our engineering and operations capability to deliver the best customer experience. It’s a great time to join the team; the demand is huge and the potential impact immeasurable.”
May Mobility will have several additional pilots in the coming months.
About BMW i Ventures
BMW i Ventures, BMW’s EUR 500 Mio million venture capital fund, invests money and resources in startups in the fields of autonomous driving, digital car and automotive cloud, e-mobility, artificial Intelligence and data, industry 4.0, shared and on-demand mobility, customer digital life, and energy services. The firm has already partnered with innovative companies such as Carbon3D, Chargepoint, DesktopMetal, JustPark, Life360, Moovit, Nauto, Scoop, Stratim, Turo, Xometry and Zendrive. BMW i Ventures invests in all stages from seed and incubation to growth companies.
About May Mobility
May Mobility brings communities closer together, with fleets of self-driving vehicles that make short distance travel safe, personal, and effortless. From business districts to educational campuses to residential areas, May provides a fully-managed, right-sized microtransit service that helps people engage more fully in the places where they live and work, while helping make the streets safer and supporting healthier local economies. Its pilot in downtown Detroit was the first successful self-driving vehicle to replace an existing transportation solution on city streets. May’s founders bring unparalleled expertise in academia, innovation and the auto industry, counting University of Michigan’s APRIL lab, MIT, the DARPA Urban Challenge, Ford, GM, GM Ventures, and Toyota among recent experience. Their goal is to realize a world where self-driving cars will reduce the need for individual car ownership, encourage better land use and foster more vibrant, livable communities. The company is backed by BMW i Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Maven Ventures, SV Angel, Tandem Ventures, Trucks Ventures, and YCombinator.
May Mobility began commercial operations this year, just over a year after the company’s launch. An October 2017 pilot with Detroit-based Bedrock was a key milestone in demonstrating the readiness of their technology for real-world operations.
“Vehicles and programs of all sorts are being announced or tested and trialed, but May Mobility is actually solving today’s transportation issues with self-driving vehicles on real city streets today,” said Uwe Higgen, Managing Partner at BMW i Ventures. “We invested in the team because they’re reducing the complexity of the problem to actually deliver autonomous mobility now, instead of years from now, and the feedback loop will be invaluable to the future of the industry.”
May Mobility’s team has deep experience in autonomous vehicles, combining both technical stars with business development and operations experts.
“Communities everywhere are facing transportation challenges, and we’re ready to solve them with our fully-managed, right-sized microtransit service,” said Alisyn Malek, COO and co-founder of May Mobility. “Our new investors will allow us to deploy to more communities even more quickly, and to grow our engineering and operations capability to deliver the best customer experience. It’s a great time to join the team; the demand is huge and the potential impact immeasurable.”
May Mobility will have several additional pilots in the coming months.
About BMW i Ventures
BMW i Ventures, BMW’s EUR 500 Mio million venture capital fund, invests money and resources in startups in the fields of autonomous driving, digital car and automotive cloud, e-mobility, artificial Intelligence and data, industry 4.0, shared and on-demand mobility, customer digital life, and energy services. The firm has already partnered with innovative companies such as Carbon3D, Chargepoint, DesktopMetal, JustPark, Life360, Moovit, Nauto, Scoop, Stratim, Turo, Xometry and Zendrive. BMW i Ventures invests in all stages from seed and incubation to growth companies.
About May Mobility
May Mobility brings communities closer together, with fleets of self-driving vehicles that make short distance travel safe, personal, and effortless. From business districts to educational campuses to residential areas, May provides a fully-managed, right-sized microtransit service that helps people engage more fully in the places where they live and work, while helping make the streets safer and supporting healthier local economies. Its pilot in downtown Detroit was the first successful self-driving vehicle to replace an existing transportation solution on city streets. May’s founders bring unparalleled expertise in academia, innovation and the auto industry, counting University of Michigan’s APRIL lab, MIT, the DARPA Urban Challenge, Ford, GM, GM Ventures, and Toyota among recent experience. Their goal is to realize a world where self-driving cars will reduce the need for individual car ownership, encourage better land use and foster more vibrant, livable communities. The company is backed by BMW i Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Maven Ventures, SV Angel, Tandem Ventures, Trucks Ventures, and YCombinator.