Evangelos Simoudis of Synapse Partners joins Nick to discuss AV, Mobility, and the Disruption of Big Auto. In this episode, we cover:
- Backstory / Path to becoming an investor
- What is the investment focus/philosophy of your firm?
- What are the key drivers of automotive disruption?
- Can you talk about the role of big data and machine intelligence in AV?
- Can you give us an overview of the framework you use for investing in mobility and talk about the new investment areas in the category
- What business models have and will emerge as we adopt autonomous vehicles for on-demand mobility services?
- What needs to happen for these business models to be implemented and what sort of timeline are we looking at?
- Talk about some of the notable companies funded in the space and potential exits in the short-, medium-, and long-term?
- What do you think will happen to the large, incumbent automakers?
- Where do you find interesting big data and AI startups working on mobility-related problems outside Silicon Valley, Israel, and China?
- How do you identify areas to invest, create value for your portcos, and help drive exits?
- Advice for founders working on AV and mobility tech?
Guest Links:
- Synapse Partners
- Evangelos on Twitter
- Synapse Partners on Twitter
- Evangelos’s Book: The Big Data Opportunity in Our Driverless Future
Quick Takeaways:
- Synapse’s focus includes big data applications using AI in industries such as telco, finance, and transportation.
- Synapse invests at Post Seed and Series A.
- Synapse leverages relationships with key players and thought leaders. This surfaces the problems that can be solved with big data solutions.
- Analytics play a pivotal role in tracking potential startups. Synapse maintains a detailed database and scoring system to monitor specific companies and categories to invest in.
- Key drivers in automotive disruption are consumer mobility with increased urbanization, robotic assistance for an aging population, and the sharing economy of the new generation.
- Big Data and AI are enabling autonomy. They map the path for the vehicle and also personalize the experience.
- As investing in automated vehicles is capital intensive, Synapse focuses on enabling autonomy—finding technologies that will help corporations achieve their automation goals.
- There are a variety of business models that may be adopted with upcoming automotive services, including transactions, subscriptions, advertising, data, and fleet management.
- Evangelos believes that monetization will be repeatable by 2022 or 2023. The most important aspect of the business model is repeatability.
- While great progress is being made on the tech side of automation, many concerns remain unaddressed: privacy, infrastructure, liability, and cybersecurity. Without considering these factors, it is difficult to assess monetization.
- The inability to predict the movement of vehicles and individuals in cities may adversely impact exits.
- To reach the startups in other countries, Synapse finds local partners who share a similar investing approach. They have found that the startups with the most success come from areas with a large automotive presence such as Germany, France, and the UK.
- Many founders lack an understanding of how the automotive industry works. The phrase “Disrupting the automotive industry” should not be used. Instead focus on your startup’s key competitive advantage.