bp ventures invests in private, high-growth technology companies to accelerate innovation across the energy spectrum, managing a portfolio spanning advanced mobility, low carbon and digital sectors.
Erin serves as a partner at the NATO Innovation Fund, following a tenure managing partner at bp ventures. Her earlier experience includes serving as an investor director across several companies.
The cleantech start-up will use the capital to expand its team, develop new products and reach more customers.
"This funding round further strengthens our collaboration with bp, Goldacre and Aston University, who have shown equal ambitions in accelerating the growth of Grid Edge. Optimising energy demand to reach net zero is now an essential requirement for businesses. We are proud to provide many leading companies with predictive AI technology to reduce energy consumption and save money."
The investment coincides with a commercial partnership to integrate autonomous vehicle software into warehouse and delivery operations.
"We are excited about the opportunity to work with Oxbotica to develop a wide range of autonomous solutions that truly have the potential to transform both our and our partners’ CFC and service delivery operations, while also giving all end customers the widest range of options and flexibility."
The Series B round was led by bp ventures with participation from a global investor syndicate.
"We are very excited about the amazing endorsement we have received from new and existing investors. This round of investment marks a key chapter in Oxbotica’s continued growth and pushes us forward in commercialising our autonomous software today, through key strategic go-to-market partnerships. The high-quality and global footprint of our investors cements our position as a leader in autonomy. We will use funds raised to accelerate the global deployment of our transformative technology."
The Series C round was co-led by Target Global, RTP Global, and Autotech Ventures, bringing the company's total funding to £27.5m.
"The car market is one of the last retail categories that has yet to shift online, with online penetration of car sales being still below 1%, while 20% of all UK retail sales are now online. Drover’s digital ‘car-as-a-service’ model is the right approach to truly build the ‘Amazon of Cars’ as it lends itself much better to an online model than does the long-term commitment, high ticket size type transaction of buying a car with cash or on finance. As a result, the last few years have seen Drover evolve and grow into a seriouscontender in the UK car retailing market. The Drover team has been agile through COVID-19 and that has enabled us to continue to show fantastic growth in a challenging time. The need for a simpler, more flexible model for car ownership is only accelerating and we’re proud to be leading that journey in the UK and France and in hopefully many more markets in the future."
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