Get to know the new VC company secretly supported by Volkswagen

Called a new enterprise firm Leithmotif It was in a quiet blitz for the last 16 months, financing in about 20 beginnings was directed to decarbonization. Its portfolio includes home companies, space and battery plays, four nuclear fusion beginnings. However, the company only said that the finances are “European Industrial Interests.”

Now Leitmotif said the money came from: Volkswagen group.

The German car giant is $ 300 million for the first fund of Leitmotif, its only limited partner; Leitmotif placed about a third for this to date. On Tuesday, Volkswagen GROUP Director General Oliver Blume said that Leitmotif’s investments could help the carbon footprint of the car manufacturer and the company’s “circular economy inside and outside the company.

“Volkswagen culture is a team culture,” he said.

Leitmotif, Matt Trevithick and Jens Wiese wants to go further in accordance with the management partners of the young company. More than Volkswagen, they hope to twist the consecutive funds attracting more European Industrial Interest.

This is an ambitious effort. Funding for hardware startups, especially in a serious production component, it became harsh in the last few years. But Trevithick thinks that there is a right time to try to invest in such companies.

“Technology has always been a driver of man’s progress and I think it belongs to the majority of the United States,” he said. “I think the next part of the world is about to produce a number of technical opportunities in the United States in the United States.”

Leitmotif is also built in the transatlantic stock when the geopolitical environment is strained by the Trump Office.

This confusion, Wiese – Volkswagen Group’s M & A, the head of the Investment Advice and Partnership Department was the division of Leitmotif before the start of Leitmotif.

Priority one: Earn money

Trevithick and Wiese said Volkswagen was the most priority when it agrees to invest in the background: save money.

“First of all, this is due to the establishment of a successful enterprise company,” Wiese.

Volkswagen Group, although there are hundreds of billions of dollars in the year, Wiese said, “How to learn how the industry kept the industry”.

After that, the VC company, according to Wiese, said he planned to invest in “includes categorical companies in our interests” and bring benefits to Volkswagen Group.

Wiese said that over time, the Leitmotifin portfolio has been interrelated with about a quarter and its countless brands.

Home Truck Startup Harbinger is an example. Leitmotif, LED LED Harbinger $ 100 million B series in JanuaryAnd Wiese said that the beginning was discussing cooperation with the collaboration of Volkswagen’s freight distribution.

Geographically, Leitmotif’s Investment Strategy is the strategy, so 70% of its capital will be placed in the United States, and the other 30% have been laid to the EU. The company will protect offices in both Palo Alto and Munich.

Trevithick said Leitmoteifin’s global investments in the FIRST Fund, “Solving today’s known problems” and “in billion dollar markets” and “ready to buy universities”.

The other 30% of the Foundation will be called “revolutionary innovation”, which called the “revolutionary innovation”, “billion dollar markets in the 2030s and beyond”.

So far, this strategy has led to redwood materials, redwood materials, reusable missile company stock space and even a circular polyester starting SYRE. Leitmotif, more in his portfolio, so far, openly supported the information.

Leitmotif will finally have other funds; Trevithick and Wiese, especially said they see robotics and AI. Volkswagen, if he chooses, if Leitmotif is independent and so far focused on completing the first fund.

Timing is everything

Thanks to the end of 2023, high interest rates, especially hardware or “deep technology” hardware or “deep technology” clotans or “deep technology” were the worst time in recent memory to close.

Trevitick said he created a great time to start Leitmotif.

“When strong companies are separated from the weak, it stands in the markets. Everyone is financed in one bubble,” he said.

TrevITHICK said that the collection of funds was reduced to other companies to take less risk.

“Everyone has a myopic about his portfolio, because there were fewer new dollars to finance the good companies there,” he said. “I think that this is a large number of interest to participate in the GUKUK TIME, maybe we will not be able to access.”

This interest came to a large part thanks to the backgrounds of Wiese and Trevitick.

Wiese spent about eight years in the Volkswagen group, where the merger, acquisition and investment for the German car manufacturer. During this stint in Volkswagen, the Wiese was contacted by a Battery manufacturer in both Europe and in the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States. ”

Meanwhile Trevithick was partner in Venocia for a year. There, in early 2010, the highest profile betting in the original pure technological boom, the highest profile betting, with early Battery Maker – was eventually Lucid Motors.

Investment, advice and guidance companies through the next pure technological bust were a valuable experience to navigate the uncertainty of the spread of the industry.

Many corporate “net zero zero” purposes are either hedged, or announced, Trevithick said that the clean technological industry is “started in a better condition this time.”

Moreover, Trevitick said he believed that the unpredictability would offer more opportunities for firms such as leithmoteif.

“I think we will all agree that it will be a very changeable environment. The initiators, startup and enterprise capitalists must prefer in disproportionately,” he said.

“We feel very confident in our portfolio,” he said. “Yes, (Decarbonization) is the main topic. At the same time, we invested in the companies that we have no work, which is the subject of the day.”

This story was updated with comments from Volkswagen Group CEO Olive Blume.