🥊Kicking Off Q2'25 with Momentum

Q2’25 is off to a strong start! Exciting news from Ottometric, Cargado, and more. We're proud to back bold teams shaping the future of mobility and logistics. Keep reading to learn more!

Apr 24, 2025

Welcome to The Paddock, your go-to place for the latest insights and trends revolutionizing the mobility sector globally. 🚗

— Curated by Rodolfo, Enrique, Gastón, Cecy, Bernardo and Rodrigo: the Proeza Ventures team. 💪

📌 Do you know a startup reshaping mobility by being more efficient, safer and environmentally friendly? We want to meet them! 📩

🏁 Check our investment thesis and learn more about our Portfolio Co.

🪩 Proeza Ventures Spotlight

🌟 Exciting Opportunity for Start-ups at MOVE London!

We are thrilled to announce a fantastic opportunity for start-ups with under £5M in revenue and funding! Join us at the Start-up Village for just £484, which includes:

✅ A dedicated booth ✅ 5 event passes ✅ Branded graphics board ✅ The chance to apply for our pitch competition

And here’s the best part: start-ups referred by Proeza Ventures’ team will receive an exclusive 30% discount! So don’t hesitate to reach out to us and help your network take advantage of this incredible offer.

Don’t miss out on this unique chance to showcase your innovation and connect with industry leaders. For more details please reach out and secure your spot today!

🏆 Our PortCos News

🚛 Cargado Secures $12M in Series A to Transform Cross-Border Freight

We're excited to announce Cargado has closed a $12M Series A financing, positioning the company for even greater growth in the cross-border logistics space.

Since we backed Cargado last year, their mission has been especially close to us — with deep ties to both Mexico and the U.S., two of our hometowns. This funding round, led by LGVP and joined by Conversion Capital, Assembly Ventures, and Friends & Family Capital, alongside continued support from Ironspring Ventures, Zenda Capital, and Proeza Ventures, will fuel Cargado's next chapter of growth.

Cargado isn't just another freight platform. It’s a collaborative, user-friendly marketplace that makes logistics smoother, more transparent, and more profitable for shippers and carriers alike. The Series A funding will support the team’s expansion and the development of new features designed to enhance collaboration across borders.

As a company uniquely positioned between Mexico and the U.S., Cargado understands the complexities of cross-border trade. The recent tariff announcements have reinforced the need for their solution, and with this new round of funding, Cargado is more ready than ever to lead the way in transforming this industry.

We’re eager to continue watching Cargado evolve and achieve its milestones, and we’re proud to be part of this journey. Stay tuned for more exciting updates as the team continues to scale.

🔗 If you want to learn more about their fundraise and their next steps, click here:

Congrats On All The Progress

Issue #52: Announcing Cargado’s Series A

To say the last few months at Cargado have been a rollercoaster would be an understatement. Every few weeks, we’ve anxiously watched to see what the President would announce regarding tariffs. Tariff discussions have shaped our industry since Donald Trump’s first administration updated NAFTA to the USMCA…

3 months ago · 4 likes · Matt Silver

🚘 Ottometric raises $10M Series A to revolutionize ADAS validation

We’re proud to announce that our portfolio company Ottometric has successfully closed a $10M Series A round led by Schooner Capital, with participation from Rally Ventures, PS27 Ventures, Somersault Ventures, and Proeza Ventures.

ADAS validation is one of the most time-consuming and costly challenges in the automotive world—often taking over a year and up to $100M per vehicle program. Ottometric is changing the game with an AI-powered platform that turns this manual, data-heavy process into an automated, scalable solution—cutting costs and timelines by over 50% while improving system safety and performance.

We are incredibly proud and excited to continue supporting Ottometric as they scale their platform, grow their Tier-1 and OEM customer base, and help bring safer, smarter vehicles to market faster than ever before.

Congratulations to Joseph Burke and the entire Ottometric team on this important milestone. Onward and upward!

🔗 Want to learn more about Ottometric’s fundraising and next steps? Click here: Ottometric Secures $10M Series A Financing

🔋 Exclusive Webinar: Electric Era CEO Quincy Edmund Lee Discusses the Future of Retail Loyalty

We’re excited to share that Quincy Edmund Lee, CEO of our portfolio company Electric Era, will be attending an exclusive webinar, Retail's Loyalty Frontier: EV Charging Transforms Customer Lifetime Value (Part 2!), on Wednesday, April 30th, 2025, at 10am PT / 1pm ET.

In this 45-minute session, Brittany Kaplan will host Quincy and loyalty expert Joy Das Gupta (former Starbucks) to explore how EV charging can transform your parking lot into a powerful loyalty driver.

🔗 This executive-focused session is designed for enterprise retailers looking to gain a competitive edge through innovative loyalty strategies. Register now to secure your spot here.

🚌 BusUp Celebrated as One of Spain's Top 100 Startups for 2025 by Revista Emprendedores!

We’re thrilled to congratulate BusUp for being recognized as one of the Top 100 Startups in Spain for 2025! 🚀 A huge thank you to Revista Emprendedores España for this well-deserved recognition. It's an honor to see BusUp continue to innovate and create impact within such a vibrant community of entrepreneurs. We look forward to seeing all the exciting milestones yet to come.

🔗 Learn more about this incredible achievement here

🚘 From Boom to Balance: How U.S. Auto Dealerships Are Navigating a Changing Market

Just two years ago, U.S. auto dealerships were riding high on a wave of record-breaking profits, driven by scarce vehicle supply and insatiable demand. But the tide has turned.

In 2024 and early 2025, dealerships find themselves at a crossroads. Higher interest rates, affordability constraints, rising inventories, and evolving consumer behavior are squeezing margins and pushing dealers to rethink the fundamentals of their business. BCG’s latest survey of over 160 dealers—spanning small independents to major franchises—offers a candid snapshot of how the industry is adapting.

🔧 From Selling Cars to Solving Challenges

The era of easy profits is over. Today, survival depends on agility. Dealers are under pressure on all fronts:

New-car sales have slowed to a crawl, with affordability emerging as a primary roadblock.
Used-car inventory is hard to source, and retail prices are falling—squeezing margins even tighter.
Meanwhile, customers are keeping their vehicles longer, making service and parts a bright spot in an otherwise flat revenue landscape.

The playbook is changing. Dealers are shifting from a volume-driven mindset to one of operational efficiency, margin optimization, and smart diversification.

📉 New Reality, New Rules

Margins on new vehicles are plummeting as interest rates rise and OEM incentives struggle to keep demand afloat. Floorplan financing costs have surged, days to sell have doubled, and average transaction prices have dropped by 4% since 2022. The power to sell above MSRP—once commonplace—is quickly vanishing.

Even the once-hyped EV boom has cooled, with slow adoption rates and inventory pile-ups. OEMs are now offering double the incentives for EVs compared to traditional cars.

📈 Used Cars: Hot Demand, Cold Supply

Used-car sales rebounded 10% in late 2024, but sourcing remains a headache. Dealers are increasingly turning to expensive auctions as trade-ins become scarce. Acquisition costs are rising even as used-car prices fall—putting a squeeze on margins and forcing a rethink of pricing, sourcing, and remarketing strategies.

🔧 Service: The Quiet Powerhouse

One area continues to shine: service and parts. With the average U.S. vehicle now over 12.5 years old, consumers are spending more to keep cars running longer. Franchise dealers have an edge here, thanks to warranties, brand trust, and deeper customer relationships.

However, the rise of EVs threatens to disrupt this stronghold too—fewer moving parts mean fewer routine maintenance needs. Dealers will need to invest in specialized EV service capabilities and digital tools to maintain their edge.

🤖 Dealers Embrace AI, Digital Retail, and New Revenue Streams

The good news? Dealers are no longer resisting change—they’re leaning into it.

Over 80% plan to invest in AI by 2026 to improve inventory management, optimize pricing, and personalize customer experiences.
Digital retail continues to rise, with 80% of leads now generated online.
New revenue streams like EV charging, fleet servicing, and mobile maintenance are gaining ground, even if the business case is still being tested.

Amazon’s entry into the space underscores the urgency: if dealers don’t own the digital experience, someone else will.

🧭 The Road Ahead: From Dealers to Digital Operators

The U.S. auto dealership is no longer just a place to buy cars—it’s becoming a digitally enabled service hub. Success in this new era means mastering both the online and offline customer journey, embracing tech-driven operations, and future-proofing against everything from EV disruption to tech-platform competition.

The shift is clear: dealers that can combine local trust with digital fluency and operational excellence will lead the pack. The rest risk being left behind.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the data, you can read the full BCG article here.

📯 Hot Deals

At Proeza VC we check many deals weekly. Here are the Top deals that caught our attention recently!

🚀 257, a NYC-based software and AI company focused on the residential energy market, raised $9.2m in seed funding. The round was led by F2 Venture Capital. (19.Mar.2025)

🚀 Allen Control Systems, an Austin, TX-based company which specializes in autonomous precision robotics for defense, raised $30 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Craft Ventures with participation from existing investors Inspired Capital and Rally Ventures. (27.Mar.2025)

🚀 Also, a micromobility startup spun off from electric vehicle maker Rivian, raised $105 million from Eclipse Ventures. (26.Mar.2025)

🚀 Augment, a San Francisco-based AI-powered logistics platform, raised $25 million in seed funding from 8VC. (19.Mar.2025)

🚀 BasePower, an Austin startup that provides home backup battery systems, raised a $200 million Series B round co-led by Addition, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Valor Equity Partners, with Altimeter, Terrain, Thrive Ventures, and Trust Ventures also anteing up. (09.Apr.2025)

🚀 BetterFleet, an Ann Arbor, MI-based software company specializing in electric vehicle (EV) fleet management solutions, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Aligned Climate Capital, Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF), and Remarkable Ventures Climate (RVC). (25.Mar.2025)

🚀 Blubrake, an Italian e-bike startup secured €12 million in funding to drive mass adoption of its Anti-lock Braking Systems (ABS) for light electric vehicles. The funding comes from a round co-led by micromobility investment fund Fundracer BV, venture capital fund Algebris Cimatech and component supplier Tri-Star Group. (02.Apr.2025)

🚀 Capalo AI, a Finland-based battery energy storage systems trading optimization company, raised €3.8 million ($4.1 million) in seed funding. VentureFriends and PROfounders led the round and was joined by existing investors Inventure and Innovestor. (20.Mar.2025)

🚀 Cargado, a cross-border freight marketplace and load board for U.S.-Mexico freight, announced a $12 million Series A funding round led by venture capital firm LGVP include new investors Conversion Capital, Assembly Ventures, and Friends & Family Capital, as well as existing investors Primary Venture Partners, Ironspring Ventures, Zenda Capital and Proeza Ventures. (07.Apr.2025)

🚀 Conifer, a Sunnyvale, CA, startup that is developing electric hub motors free of rare earth elements, raised a $20 million seed round from a syndicate that included True Ventures, MaC Ventures, and MFV Partners. (14.Apr.2025)

🚀 Contoro Robotics, an Austin startup that develops AI-powered robots designed to autonomously unload non-palletized boxes from trailers and shipping containers, raised a $12 million Series A round. Doosan, Coupang, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, and IMM as well as previous investors SV Investment, KB Investment, Kakao Ventures, and Future Play invested in the deal. (25.Mar.2025)

🚀 DeCharge, an Indian startup that is building a network of electric vehicle chargers to provide fast and accessible charging for EVs, autonomous fleets, and robots, raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Lemniscap, withColosseum, Daedalus Angels, EV3Labs, Echo Fundraiser Chainyoda Jedis, and Levitate Labs also investing. (27.Mar.2025)

🚀 Dyna Robotics, a Redwood City, Calif.-based AI-powered robots developer, raised $23.5 million in seed funding. CRV and First Round Capital led the round and were joined by Sancus Capital, Umami Capital, Hardware Club, and others. (25.Mar.2025)

🚀 Evera, a Paris startup that provides electric vehicle subscription services tailored for businesses, raised a $2.2 million round. Investors included Groupe Magellim and Newfund NAEH Innopy as well as previous investorsMCapital and AstoryaVC. (19.Mar.2025)

🚀 Evident Battery, a Watford, MA, startup that builds AI-powered inspection systems that assess the health, lifespan, and value of electric vehicle battery packs without dismantling them, raised a $3.2 million seed round. Ibex Investors led the transaction, with Nationwide Ventures, Automotive Ventures, and Avesta Fund also contributing. (01.Apr.2025)

🚀 Fleetio, a Birmingham, AL, startup whose platform and mobile app help organizations track, analyze, and improve fleet operations by managing vehicles, equipment, parts, and drivers, raised $450 million to purchase Auto Integrate, which allows businesses to create, manage, and invoice repair order requests. The deal, which values the combined company at $1.5 billion, was co-led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and previous investorElephant VC. (25.Mar.2025)

🚀 Kaiko Systems, a Berlin-based startup which enhances maritime operations with AI-powered frontline intelligence, has secured €6 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by Hi Inov and Flashpoint Venture Growth. (19.Mar.2025)

🚀 Kavak, a Mexico City startup that buys, refurbishes, and sells used cars and offers financing and warranties to customers in Latin America and the Middle East, raised a $127 million round and $400 million in debt. The equity piece was co-led by SoftBank and General Atlantic at a $2.2 billion valuation, a 75% decrease from its valuation in 2021, according to Bloomberg. (16.Apr.2025)

🚀 Leta, a Nairobi startup that helps African businesses plan delivery routes, track shipments, and manage logistics payments more efficiently using AI, raised a $5 million seed round led by Speedinvest, with Google's Africa Investment Fund and Equator VC also investing. (19.Mar.2025)

🚀 Motai, a Bogota-based marketplace for buying and selling used motorcycles raised $1 million pre-seed round led by Alaya Capital, Orbit Startups, Angelu Hub Ventures, First Check Ventures and others. (22.Apr.2025)

🚀 Mundimoto, a Spain-based provider of a motorcycle trading and renting platform, raised $21.1M in funding. Specifically, the financing round included €8.1M in equity, complemented by €13M in bank financing from Santander Consumer Finance, Banco Sabadell, and La Caixa. (24.Mar.2025)

🚀 Nowos, a European lithium-ion battery repair and maintenance startup, raised €6 million in a round led by impact venture fund Shift4Good, with participation from Dutch investors Fair Capital Impact Fund and Goeie Grutten Impact Fund. (09.Apr.2025)

🚀 Nuro, a Mountain View, Calif.-based autonomous driving technology developer, raised $106 million in Series E funding, valuing the company at $6 billion, from T. Rowe Price Associates, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Tiger Global Management, and others. (09.Apr.2025)

🚀 Nyobolt, a Cambridge, UK, that is developing ultra-fast charging battery technology that can charge electric vehicles and industrial machines in under five minutes without degrading battery life, raised a $30 million round. IQ Capital and Latitude were the co-leads, with Scania Invest and Takasago Industry also contributing. (16.Apr.2025)

🚀 Ottometric, a Boston-based advanced driver assistance systems training automation company, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Schooner Capital led the round and was joined by PS27, Somersault Ventures, and existing investors Rally Ventures and Proeza Ventures. (04.Apr.2025)

🚀 Parallel Systems, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of an autonomous battery-electric rail system, raised $38M in Series B funding. The round was led by Anthos Capital, joined by Collaborative Fund, as well as Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures and others. (14.Apr.2025)

🚀 Plug, a Santa Monica-based EV wholesale auction platform, raised $6.7 million in seed funding. Floodgate, Autotech Ventures, and A* led the round and were joined by Leap Forward Ventures, Renn Global, Cleo Capital, angel investors, and others. (08.Apr.2025)

🚀 PulseTrain, a Munich-based electric vehicle battery management solutions developer, raised €6.1 million ($6.7 million) in seed funding. Vsquared Ventures and Planet A led the round and was joined by Climate Club. (19.Mar.2025)

🚀 Rerun, an Stockholm-based open source AI platform for robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles raised $17 million in seed funding. PointNine led the round and was joined by Sunflower Capital as well as existing investors Costanoa Ventures and Seedcamp. (20.Mar.2025)

🚀 Theion, a Berlin startup that develops advanced lithium-sulfur batteries that it says offer three times the energy density of traditional lithium-ion batteries at one-third the cost, raised a $16.3 million Series A round led by Team Global, with Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungen and Enpal also taking part. (19.Mar.2025)

🚀 Vallor, a Miami-based procurement contracts management AI agents developer, raised $4 million in seed funding. Dynamo Ventures and Bloomberg Beta led the round and were joined by Liquid 2 Ventures, El Cap Ventures, Rock Yard Ventures, and angel investors. (07.Apr.2025)

📗 Interesting Reads

🌍 Europe at a Crossroads: Will the EU Stay the Course on Clean Mobility Targets?

Electric mobility groups E-Mobility Europe and ChargeUp Europe have urged the European Commission not to ease 2025 CO₂ emission targets, warning that doing so would undermine the EU’s climate goals and stall progress in the electric vehicle (EV) transition. While automakers argue that meeting the targets could cost them over €15 billion in fines due to weak EV demand and insufficient infrastructure, advocates counter that these concerns are overstated — pointing to credit trading mechanisms and accelerating infrastructure investment. Despite extending the compliance window from one to three years, the EU has reaffirmed its 2035 zero-emission vehicle goal. With EV sales up 40% year-over-year and new affordable models entering the market, advocates fear that regulatory backpedaling could weaken Europe’s competitiveness against global players like China and erode confidence in the region’s climate leadership.

👉 Check the full note here.