Trucks Venture Capital
Trucks Venture Capital is a San Francisco-based, transportation-specialized seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2015 that invests $500K-$2M in early-stage mobility, AV, aviation, and EV startups, backed by major transportation industry LPs including auto OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and airlines.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Trucks Venture Capital does
Trucks Venture Capital is a transportation-specialized seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2015 in San Francisco. The firm invests $500,000 to $2,000,000 in seed and pre-seed rounds, typically acquiring approximately 10% ownership stakes, with a stated decision timeline of 4-5 weeks driven by a consensus-based partnership evaluation model. Each partner must raise their hand for a company to remain in the funnel, allowing the firm to evaluate roughly 1,000 inbound transportation startups per year while making 6-8 new investments annually. The firm has raised three successive core seed funds: Trucks Venture Fund 1 (pre-2018), Trucks Venture Fund 2 ($52,525,252 closed June 2021), and Trucks Venture Fund 3 ($70,000,000 closed January 2025), its largest to date. In parallel, the firm launched the Trucks Growth Fund in 2021 to enable follow-on participation in later-stage rounds of existing portfolio companies, accessible to accredited investors via AngelList. The firm is led by four partners — Reilly Brennan, Jeffrey Schox, Kathryn Schox, and Puneeth Meruva — with Jason Townsend serving as CFO.
Trucks' technical and brand platform centers on three assets: (1) Trucks Radar, an internal data platform built by partner Puneeth Meruva that triages the firm's inbound pipeline; (2) the FoT (Future of Transportation) weekly newsletter authored by Reilly Brennan, distributed Sunday evenings California time and functioning as both an intelligence product and a deal-flow magnet; and (3) a library of detailed investment memos published for nearly every portfolio company. The firm is structurally differentiated by its LP base, which is described as the largest collection of global transportation players anywhere, spanning three auto OEMs, three auto suppliers, one communications company, vehicle manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers, tire manufacturers, insurance providers, rental car agencies, and airline carriers.
The firm's revenue model is conventional for a venture manager: management fees on committed fund capital (approximately 2% of AUM across TVF2, TVF3, and the Trucks Growth Fund) plus carried interest from successful exits. Notable portfolio outcomes include Bear Flag Robotics (acquired by John Deere), Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY), NuTonomy (acquired by Delphi), Roadster (acquired by CDK Global for $360M), Zendrive (acquired by Intuit), and AEye (NASDAQ: LIDR via SPAC). Active investments span autonomous vehicles (Gatik, May Mobility, AEye), aviation (Joby, JetZero, Universal Hydrogen), maritime fusion (Maritime Fusion), commercial EV financing (Astranova Mobility), software-defined vehicles (Aurora Labs), PNT/satellite (Xona Space Systems), and EV charging (ChargerHelp!). The firm operates with a 5-person team and a community-led go-to-market anchored on FoT, the FoT Summit in San Francisco, and the women.trucks.vc diversity initiative.
Trucks Venture Capital firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Trucks Venture Capital
- Legal name
- Trucks Venture Capital
- Website
- https://trucks.vc
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Trucks Venture Capital is a San Francisco-based, transportation-specialized seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 2015 that invests $500K-$2M in early-stage mobility, AV, aviation, and EV startups, backed by major transportation industry LPs including auto OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and airlines.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Trucks Venture Capital industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Early-Stage Venture Capital
- NAICS
- Other Financial Vehicles (52599)
- SIC
- Investment Advice (6282)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B) (FSANAAAB)
Keywords
Where Trucks Venture Capital is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Trucks Venture Capital business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others
Revenue model
- Venture capital fund management & carried interest: As a venture capital firm, Trucks generates revenue primarily through management fees on committed fund capital (TVF1, TVF2 closed on $52,525,252, TVF3 closed on $70M) and carried interest from successful portfolio company exits across seed and growth-stage investments
- Trucks Growth Fund (follow-on vehicle): A parallel follow-on fund open to accredited investors that makes later-stage investments into the best companies from the Trucks core portfolio, sourced through the FoT newsletter readership community
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Seed/Pre-seed investments of $500K to $2M for ~10% ownership stakes, decision timeline 4-5 weeks |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
Trucks Venture Capital product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Trucks Venture Capital is an independently held, thesis-driven venture capital firm that invests exclusively in early-stage transportation startups. It manages a series of core seed funds (most recently Trucks Venture Fund 3 at $70M) and a parallel follow-on Growth Fund, writing checks of $500K to $2M for approximately 10% ownership stakes and reaching investment decisions in 4-5 weeks. The firm evaluates roughly 1,000 transportation startups per year and makes 6-8 new seed investments annually across autos, trucks, aviation, aerospace, maritime, EVs, micromobility, and adjacent transportation verticals.
Product overview
Trucks Venture Capital operates as a thesis-driven early-stage venture firm rather than a single unified software product. Its offering is a platform-plus-modules architecture composed of three successive core seed funds (Trucks Venture Fund 1, TVF2, and the current TVF3 which closed on $70M in January 2025), a follow-on Trucks Growth Fund for later-stage portfolio allocations, the FoT (Future of Transportation) weekly intelligence newsletter, and an internal data platform called Trucks Radar that triages roughly 1,000 inbound transportation startups per year. Together these products support the firm's investment thesis of funding entrepreneurs building transportation that is decarbonized, safer, and more accessible.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- FoT (Future of Transportation) Newsletter: Weekly newsletter authored by Reilly Brennan, described as the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital, sent on Sunday evenings covering transportation transactions, news, and opinion.
- Trucks Radar
Products and services
- Trucks Venture Fund 3 LP (TVF3) Core seed-stage venture fund that invests $500K to $2M in early-stage transportation startups for approximately 10% ownership stakes. Limited to institutional Limited Partners committing capital to the Limited Partnership vehicle.
- Trucks Venture Fund 2 (TVF2) Predecessor core seed-stage venture fund that closed on $52,525,252 in 2021. Backed by seven large global partners (three auto OEMs, three auto suppliers, one communications company) plus transportation-focused family offices and fund-of-funds. Made seed investments in Universal Hydrogen, Swyft, Token Transit, and others.
- Trucks Growth Fund Follow-on/secondary fund vehicle launched in 2021 that makes later-stage investments into the strongest companies from the Trucks VC core portfolio. Open to accredited investors via AngelList; first allocation was in Gatik's Series B led by Koch Disruptive Technologies.
- FoT (Future of Transportation) Newsletter Free weekly intelligence newsletter authored by partner Reilly Brennan and the Trucks team, described as a compendium of transactions, news and opinion about what's happening in transportation. Distributed Sunday evenings California time and serves as the public intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital and a primary deal-flow generator.
Companies that use Trucks Venture Capital
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Trucks Venture Capital technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature3 records
Trucks Venture Capital partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Techstars MobilitycoreTrucks partners have served as mentors at Techstars Mobility since at least 2017, where they sourced SEEVA Technologies. The accelerator was co-founded by Ted Serbinski who co-wrote Trucks' 2016 unification thesis post. Trucks evaluates many Techstars Mobility alumni.
- United Airlines VenturesminorStrategic investor in JetZero alongside Trucks VC in the ~$175M Series B round (January 2026), aligning with JetZero's zero-emission aviation mission.
- Northrop GrummanminorStrategic investor in JetZero's ~$175M Series B alongside Trucks VC (January 2026).
- RTX VenturesminorCo-investor in JetZero's ~$175M Series B alongside Trucks VC (January 2026).
- Airbus VenturescoreCo-investor with Trucks VC in AEye (LiDAR) round, alongside GM Ventures; partnership reflects aerospace industry alignment.
- GM VenturescoreCo-investor with Trucks VC in AEye (LiDAR) round alongside Airbus Ventures.
- AngelListcorePlatform provider hosting the Trucks Growth Fund investor sign-up flow (angel.co/v/back/trucks-growth-fund), enabling accredited investors to join the fund.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Trucks Venture Capital competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Hyundai Cradle: Corporate venture capital arm of Hyundai Motor Group focused on mobility, smart cities, energy, and EV startups. Comparable as a transportation-only corporate VC with industrial anchor LP; competes with Trucks for seed-stage deals in EVs, hydrogen, and urban mobility.
- Toyota Ventures: Corporate venture arm of Toyota Motor Corporation investing in autonomy, robotics, climate, and mobility startups. Comparable as a transportation-focused corporate VC that competes with Trucks at the seed stage while providing industrial go-to-market support that Trucks' smaller Growth Fund cannot match.
- BMW i Ventures: Corporate venture capital arm of BMW Group investing in mobility, transportation, and sustainability startups from seed to growth. Operates in the same transportation thesis universe as Trucks but with deeper balance sheet and BMW as anchor LP, allowing larger check sizes and later-stage participation.
- B Capital Group: Global multi-stage venture firm with a dedicated mobility and transportation practice, co-invested with Trucks in JetZero's ~$175M Series B. Comparable as a larger, more generalist investor that competes with Trucks at the Series A and Series B stage of transportation deals and can write meaningfully larger checks than Trucks' Growth Fund.
- GM Ventures: Corporate venture capital arm of General Motors investing across mobility, electrification, autonomy, and connected vehicle startups. Direct overlap with Trucks' thesis and a documented co-investment relationship (e.g., AEye with Airbus Ventures), with significantly larger check capacity as a corporate balance-sheet investor.
- Porsche Ventures: Corporate venture arm of Porsche AG investing in mobility, automotive technology, and adjacent services from seed to growth. Operates in the same transportation investment universe as Trucks, with anchor industrial LP (Porsche AG) that creates similar go-to-market advantages for portfolio companies.
Direct peers
- Fontinalis Partners: Detroit-based venture capital firm founded by Bill Ford (Ford Motor Company chairman) that invests exclusively in mobility and transportation startups across seed, Series A, and growth stages. Direct peer as a transportation-focused VC with a strong industrial LP base, operating in the same founder universe and competing for transportation seed deals.
- Energy Impact Partners: US-based venture capital firm investing across the energy-mobility convergence, with significant overlap into EVs, charging, fleet electrification, and transportation decarbonization. Comparable as a thesis-driven VC competing for the same energy/transportation deals Trucks targets, with a more established LP base of utilities and energy corporates.
- Maniv Mobility: Israel- and US-based venture capital firm exclusively focused on mobility and transportation, making seed and Series A investments across AV, EV, and logistics. Direct comparable as a transportation-only specialist VC that co-invested with Trucks in Aurora Labs and competes for the same seed-stage transportation deals.
Emerging players
- Elemental Excelerator: Honolulu- and US-based impact accelerator and investor focused on climate, energy, and mobility infrastructure startups. Comparable as a mission-aligned investor in transportation decarbonization, operating an accelerator-plus-equity model that overlaps with Trucks' seed-stage transportation thesis.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Trucks Venture Capital social profiles
Digital presenceTrucks Venture Capital financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Trucks Venture Capital leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Trucks Venture Capital subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Trucks Venture Capital funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Trucks Venture Capital M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments92 records
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Trucks Venture Capital
What does Trucks Venture Capital do?
Trucks Venture Capital is an independently held, thesis-driven venture capital firm that invests exclusively in early-stage transportation startups. It manages a series of core seed funds (most recently Trucks Venture Fund 3 at $70M) and a parallel follow-on Growth Fund, writing checks of $500K to $2M for approximately 10% ownership stakes and reaching investment decisions in 4-5 weeks. The firm evaluates roughly 1,000 transportation startups per year and makes 6-8 new seed investments annually across autos, trucks, aviation, aerospace, maritime, EVs, micromobility, and adjacent transportation verticals.
Is Trucks Venture Capital a public or private company?
Trucks Venture Capital is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped.
When was Trucks Venture Capital founded?
Trucks Venture Capital was founded in 2015. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Trucks Venture Capital based?
Trucks Venture Capital is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Trucks Venture Capital make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Venture capital fund management & carried interest is the primary driver. The others are trucks Growth Fund (follow-on vehicle).
Who are Trucks Venture Capital's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Hyundai Cradle, Toyota Ventures, BMW i Ventures, B Capital Group, GM Ventures and Porsche Ventures. Direct peers are Fontinalis Partners, Energy Impact Partners and Maniv Mobility. Elemental Excelerator is listed as an emerging player.
Does Trucks Venture Capital have an API?
No public API is recorded for Trucks Venture Capital.
What industry is Trucks Venture Capital in?
Trucks Venture Capital's product category is Early-Stage Venture Capital. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSANAAAB, Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B). Its NAICS code is 52599 and its SIC code is 6282.