Venture capital is an integral part of the development of new technologies. The Automotive Partnering Summit is designed for CEOs and CFOs interested in developing partnerships on the path to automotive commercialization, from sensors and software in autonomous cars to advanced battery packs and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. The panel discussions will provide insight into what VCs look for in funding companies and strategies for business development and individual presentations will showcase the latest technologies from early-stage companies seeking funds. In addition to presentations and panel discussions, the symposium is also designed to provide opportunities for one-on-one meetings that will allow for in-depth conversations and next-steps.
Final Agenda
Monday, June 4
7:00 am Summit Registration & Morning Coffee
8:15 Organizer’s Opening Remarks
Shannon Given, Editor, Cambridge EnerTech
8:20 Navigating the Landscape of Structuring Partnership Agreements for Early Stage Companies
David Jacoby, President, Boston Strategies International
Early stage investments in EV require partnerships, but they also require the development of strategic customer relationships and intellectual property. How can you be proactive and early to the market while avoiding the erosion of strategic customer relationships and intellectual property to partners who you may not be married to for the long term? Hear examples of agreement structures and relationships that balance risk and reward for early-stage partnerships.
9:05STRATEGIC INVESTING PANEL DISCUSSION: Partnering & Investing on the Convergence of Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, Energy Storage & Renewable Energies
Moderator: Dirk Michels, Partner, Energy and Project Finance Group, Ballard Spahr LLP
Boris von Bormann, Founding Partner, renu Ventures
Joshua Posamentier, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Congruent Ventures
Hara Wang, Associate, Braemar Energy Ventures
Cassie Bowe, Associate Vice President, Energy Impact Partners
By 2030, it is predicted that 95 percent of US passenger miles will be served by on-demand autonomous EVs owned by fleets in a business model dubbed “transport-as-a-service” (TaaS), whose market size is expected to exceed $120 billion by 2025. Discover what VCs look for in funding companies and new business strategies in a TaaS based economy and how to ready your company to participate in the upcoming mobility disruption.
10:00 Networking Coffee Break & 1-1 Partnering Meetings
11:00 Economical, Scalable, and Precise Autonomous Vehicle Localization and Navigation with ‘Fingerprint’ Technology
Paul Drysch, Vice President, Sales and Business Development, Civil Maps
Civil Maps provides vehicular cognition for self-driving cars, emulating the mental routines of human cognition used in the tasks of driving and navigation. Fingerprint Base Map (FBM) serves as a component in Civil Maps’ cognition offering, enabling autonomous vehicles to understand where they are in the world and what is around them. Unlike solutions that are dependent on processing hardware and third-party data centers, FBM is utilized entirely on-the-edge, in-vehicle.
11:15 Wireless Charging: Integrating Electric Vehicle Autonomy, Renewables, and Battery Storage
Jeremy McCool, CEO, HEVO, Inc.
HEVO represents how to achieve electric vehicles adoption, and accelerate renewable development and energy storage implementation. As autonomy becomes more prevalent in disrupting the transportation industry, and electric vehicles become the common platform, it is required that ubiquitous universal charging be made available, and seamlessly connected to renewables and battery storage. Only through the integration of this ecosystem will the full potential of all technologies and industries be fully realized.
11:30Do Robotaxis Dream of Real-Time Maps?
Ethan Sorrelgreen, CPO, CARMERA
CARMERA provides real-time HD maps to power autonomous vehicles at all levels of autonomy. CARMERA Autonomous Map (CAM) is already deployed at city-scale through our partnership with self-driving taxi company Voyage powering L4 autonomous vehicles on over 750 miles of road with real-time updates flowing in both directions. CAM allows AV companies like Voyage to localize, do in vehicle perception efficiently and path planning. Throught real-time updates being provided to their vehicles within minutes of being observed CAM allows AVs to much more efficiently navigate by knowing what the conditions are on the road ahead.
11:45 STRATEGIC INVESTING PANEL DISCUSSION: Investing in the Potential of Global Automotive Innovation
Moderator: Ken-Icho Hino, Director, Custom Research, Cleantech Group
Panelists: Quin Garcia, Managing Director, Autotech Ventures
Kevin Deneen, Senior Associate, Aster Capital
Andrew Byrnes, Investor, Comet Labs
The transportation sector is undergoing several epochal changes simultaneously: autonomous driving, electric vehicles, and connected cars. Each will significantly impact the auto sector. This panel gives a glimpse of the future opportunities globally, the innovation centers across the globe, and how VCs harness the investment potential in these different areas.
12:40 pm Lunch & 1-1 Partnering Meetings
2:05 Solid-State Batteries for an EV-Driven Future
Erik Terjesen, Senior Director, Licensing and Strategy, Ionic Materials
One of the largest barriers holding back electric vehicles from widespread adoption is range anxiety. To enable a green future that’s powered by affordable, long-range EVs, car manufacturers are cranking up R&D efforts around solid-state battery solutions. In this session, attendees will learn about the different advantages of solid-state systems and, specifically, how they will increase EV range by allowing for previously inaccessible, higher energy density, battery chemistries.
2:205-minute Fast Charge Batteries for Higher EV Adoption
Robert Rango, CEO, Enevate Corp.
Extreme fast charging batteries with high energy density can help break down barriers to higher EV adoption. Enevate develops and licenses silicon-dominant anode cell technologies that enable 10x faster charging with compromising the EV range or energy densities, operates at low temperatures, and has increased safety. Such extreme fast charging batteries also enable lower cost EVs that fit in daily driving use.
2:35 How Do We Power Millions of EVs?
Jason Appelbaum, CEO, EverCharge
With many new electric vehicles slated for 2020 and beyond, cities, consumers, and OEMs must consider how they plan to power these vehicles. Investing in a massive infrastructure overhaul will be time consuming and expensive. However, by leveraging smarter dynamic charging technology, we can power more vehicles by simply using power more efficiently.
2:50STRATEGIC INVESTING PANEL DISCUSSION: Alternative Investing Structure
Moderator: Shannon Given, Editor, Cambridge EnerTech
Panelists: Conrad Burke, Vice President of New Ventures, Intellectual Ventures
Robert Rango, President & CEO, Enevate
Lauren Burrows, Principal, WindSail Capital Group
Investment is surging into all facets of the EV supply chain as the opportunity to gain a piece of the evolving new vehicle market emerges. This panel will evaluate the opportunities of alternative investment structures that allow institutional and strategic investments to marry innovative technologies and business models with investment firms with deep pockets, access to customers and partners, and the understanding on how to navigate small companies on high growth trajectories.
3:50 Networking Refreshment Break & 1-1 Partnering Meetings
4:50 Commercialization of a New Class of Additives to Improve Li-Ion Abuse Tolerance
Steven Weiss, PhD, President, Xilectric, Inc.
Xilectric has developed a new approach for managing electrolyte degradation. The technology helps with high voltage, high temperature, and fast charge. More generally, the technology improves the abuse tolerance of Li-ion batteries. We have shown a greater than 2.5x lifetime increase for a variety of electrolyte and cathode formulations.
5:05 Liquefied Gas Electrolytes for Lithium Batteries
Jungwoo Lee, CEO, South 8 Technologies, Inc.
A novel class of electrolytes using liquefied gasses for lithium batteries has demonstrated compatibility with lithium metal and high voltage cathodes, excellent performance from ambient to -60°C, and improved safety through the mitigation of thermal runaway. The improved energy density from the use of lithium metal with high efficiency and NMC cathodes with stable performance will push this technology beyond the 400 Wh/kg threshold while maintaining excellent cycle life.
5:20 Close of Summit