BMW i Ventures, the independent venture-capital arm of BMW Group, has closed a new $300 million fund built on a single thesis: artificial intelligence will reshape how the entire automotive industry operates. The launch brings the firm's total capital under management to $1.1 billion.
Physical AI takes the wheel
Fund III will back early-stage through Series B startups across North America and Europe working on physical AI and agentic AI, alongside industrial software, advanced materials, and manufacturing and supply-chain technologies. Physical AI — the discipline that lets robots and autonomous machines perceive, plan and act in the real world — sits at the centre of the strategy, echoing the embodied-AI bets driving rounds like Sereact's Series B and Generalist AI's $400M raise.
Building on a decade of automotive bets
BMW i Ventures has a track record of reorienting each fund around the next structural shift. Its 2016 debut fund centred on autonomous vehicles and digital tech; its 2021 vehicle focused on sustainability and supply chains. Managing partners Marcus Behrendt and Kaspar Sage argue AI will become the foundation other technologies are built on — citing portfolio company Synera, whose AI agents can compress engineering workflows from weeks to minutes. Since 2011 the firm has made more than 90 investments and seen over 30 exits, including GaN Systems, acquired by Infineon for $830 million.
An automaker's widening robotics footprint
The fund deepens BMW's broader push into automation, which already spans humanoid-robot pilots at its Leipzig plant and a growing roster of corporate robotics funds such as Asteria's Pegasus Tech vehicle. BMW i Ventures has not yet deployed capital from the third fund, but says several AI-focused investments from its closing second fund are already in the pipeline.
Reporting based on coverage from TechCrunch and BMW Group.