Venture Capital Trends in the Mobility Space

Reilly P. Brennan is a founding partner at Trucks, a seed-stage venture capital fund for entrepreneurs changing the future of transportation. He has over 75 venture investments in transportation, including Roadster, Gatik, May Mobility, JetZero, nuTonomy, Bear Flag Robotics, Skyryse and Joby Aviation. 

Reilly taught classes at Stanford University (2013-2021), in the School of Engineering and the d.school, focused on transportation, design and entrepreneurship. Prior to Trucks, Reilly was Executive Director for Stanford’s automotive research program, Revs.

His influential newsletter FoT is a radar for what’s happening in transportation. He was a member of the Le Mans-winning factory Corvette C5-R program. His personal land speed record is 168 mph, behind the wheel of a Chaparral 2E. 

www.trucks.vc 

Jeff Peters leads Ibex Investors' $113M early-stage Mobility Revolution VC fund focused on manufacturing, logistics, and mobility. With about a decade of experience as a sector-specialist VC, Jeff pursues a high-concentration, high-conviction strategy - writing outsized investments at Seed and Series A as a lead or follower in outsized startup opportunities leading to outsized returns. He serves on the board of directors on seven startups including TeraDAR, Chemix, aifleet, and Glimpse.

He has spent his entire career around the transportation ecosystem in different ways. Prior to Ibex, Jeff was the first hire on the investing team at Autotech Ventures - a ground transportation focused VC firm with corporate LPs. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford Management Science and Engineering, has a PhD and two Masters degrees (engineering and economics) from Purdue University, as well as a BSE from University of Michigan in Aerospace Engineering. He worked at Northorp Grumman Space Technology and Ball Aerospace. He also sold cars and worked on cars growing up in Ohio.

https://www.ibexinvestors.com/ 

Ally Warson has experience as both an operator and investor. Prior to UP.Partners: Ally worked at Sherpa Capital, where she helped transition the firm’s brand, serving as a founding member of ACME Capital.  Before venture, Ally held a variety of roles at Google. She led a corporate strategy team for the Ads business, informing product roadmap trajectories and leading international competitive sales trainings for agency sales teams. Ally also worked with Google.Org to facilitate grant awards to sub-saharan African entrepreneurs across 4 African countries and worked with YouTube to lead video strategy for fast-growing consumer brands.

Ally is an active member of AllRaise and distributes their weekly newsletter to over 4,000 young women looking to break into finance. She also founded two nonprofits: Off The Record (an event platform designed to remove the stigma of mental health issues) and Above The Median (aimed at democratizing access to executive women leadership.)

When not chasing deals, Ally aims to discover novel international travel experiences, uphill skiing tracks and running trails.

Website: https://up.partners/ 

Jens Wiese co-founded Leitmotif in 2023 with Matt Trevithick. He brings over 20 years of transatlantic business and deal-making experience to the firm. Jens’ significant investing expertise ranges from later-stage venture capital to multi-billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions. He is a sought after board member with the proven ability to orchestrate complex international partnerships that drive strategic and financial value. Jens is based in California and also drives substantial business for

the firm in Europe. Previously, Jens served as Head of Corporate Development at Volkswagen Group, where he oversaw several major acquisitions that accelerated the automaker's transition to electric mobility.

He was instrumental in developing Volkswagen's battery strategy, spearheading key investments and partnerships with Northvolt and QuantumScape (NYSE: QS). Additionally, Jens initiated and led the strategic partnership with Ford Motor Company, which focused on electric and light commercial vehicles, and has since become one of the largest industrial alliances in the automotive sector.

Earlier in his career, Jens held senior management consulting roles at AlixPartners and Roland Berger, where he specialized in M&A, restructuring, and performance improvement for clients in the automotive and industrial sectors.

Jens earned a master’s degree from Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München.

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Leitmotif

Leitmotif is an independent venture capital firm anchored by a $300 million commitment from European industrial interests. With investors in Palo Alto and Munich, it actively bridges the

innovation ecosystems of the US and Europe. Leitmotif's first fund focuses on decarbonization and leans later stage. The firm has made 14 investments since inception in 2023.