Quin Garcia
Managing Director at Autotech Ventures
Quin Garcia
Managing Director at Autotech Ventures
Incline Village, Nevada
Overview
Work Experience
Managing Director
2013 - Current
Founders can get in touch with me via founders@autotechvc.com Autotech Ventures (www.autotechvc.com) is a transportation-focused venture capital firm. We help startups scale by connecting them with our vast partner network. The firm’s three funds, with over $500 million in assets under management, have invested in many leading mobility startups including: Exits include: Lyft - [IPO NASDAQ: LYFT] Frontier Car Group [Acquired by OLX GROUP] Xnor [Acquired by AAPL] DeepScale [Acquired by TESLA] Drover [Acquired by Cazoo] Volta Charging [Acquired by Shell] Swvl [IPO] Digital Motors [Acquired by Truecar] Cazoo [IPO] Indie Semiconductor [IPO] Active portfolio consists of: 2016: Outdoorsy (outdoorsy.com) 2017: Work Truck Solutions (worktrucksolutions.com) 2017: Spothero (spothero.com) 2017: Metawave (metawave.co) 2017: Rollick (rollick.io) 2017: Cogniac (cogniac.co) 2018: High Definition Vehicle Insurance (hdvinsurance.com) 2018: Shiphawk (shiphawk.com) 2018: TruckLabs (XStream Trucking) (trucklabs.com) 2018: Bus.com (bus.com) 2019: SafeAI (safeai.ai) 2019: Verdant Robotics (verdantrobotics.com/) 2019: Fixico (fixico.nl) 2019: Latent AI (latentai.com) 2020: Klearnow (klearnow.com/) 2020: Hayden.AI (Hayden.ai) 2020: Newtrul (www.newtrul.com/) 2020: CarPay (Carpay.com) 2020: MasonHub (Masonhub.co) 2021: BusUp (Busup.com) 2021: Pickup (Pickupnow.com) 2021: Veo (veoride.com) 2021: Marti (marti.tech) 2021: BasicBlock (basicblock.io) 2021: Bumper (bumper.co) 2021: Laka (laka.co) 2022: Gridwise (gridwise.io) 2022: Fox Robotics (foxrobotics.com)
Advisory Board Member and Investor
2007
The company was founded out of my home in Palo Alto as carpooling startup Zimride, then eventually morphed into Lyft. I primarily advise the two founders on automotive strategy, autonomous strategy, and corporate partnerships. Among other things, I have facilitated key relationships between Lyft and their autonomous corporate partners. Lyft is preferred by drivers and passengers for its respectful and friendly experience, and its commitment to effecting positive change for the future of our cities. www.lyft.com
Automotive Alliances
2007 - 2012
Founding employee, key contributor to automotive technology, strategy, and initiatives. Led technology partnerships with automakers, Tier 1 Suppliers, Battery Manufacturers, Electric Utility Companies, and Engineering Services Firms. Frequent spokesperson in conferences, print media, and television.
Research Assistant
2006 - 2007
Research assistant under Professor Christian Gerdes developing and testing of electric-powered, telematics-equipped vehicles. Our lab did research on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in the days before autonomous vehicles.
Business Analyst
2005 - 2007
Management consultant providing pricing, supply chain, and complexity management business analytic services to clients in automotive, computer, and computer peripheral industries. My primary client was the captive finance arm of a global automaker, for which we created multivariable regression models to assist the automaker in estimating the price its off-lease vehicles could fetch at wholesale dealer auctions.
Hybrid Powertrain Team Leader
2003 - 2004
Lead team of graduate and undergraduate engineering students in development of a split-parallel hybrid electric powertrain for a Ford Explorer SUV. Competed in 2 seasons of the FutureTruck hybrid SUV automotive engineering competition in Detroit sponsored by General Motors, Ford, and US Department of Energy.
Auto Mechanic
2001 - 2001
I worked as an auto mechanic and auto body repair technician during an extended Summer job at an automotive repair shop owned by a successful Porsche race driver. We worked mainly on German cars and performance cars, but also did general repair work. I learned how to do MIG welding of car bodies, bondo repairs, and general mechanical repair of vehicles. I also learned that I prefer to work more on my own cars rather than other people's cars :-)
Education
MS
2005 - 2007
Bachelor of Science (BS)
2003 - 2005