BMW i Ventures launches $300 million fund for AI startups

BMW i Ventures, the independent venture arm of BMW AG, has launched a new $300 million fund. Announced on Wednesday, the vehicle brings the firm’s total capital under management to $1.1 billion. The fund will invest in early-stage through Series B startups in North America and Europe.

The firm is pivoting its strategy to prioritize AI as the foundational layer for future industrial technologies, moving beyond the focus of its previous funds. When BMW i Ventures launched its first fund in 2016, it focused on autonomous vehicles and digital technology, while its second fund in 2021 targeted sustainability and supply chain startups. Managing partners Marcus Behrendt and Kasper Sage assert that AI will be the foundation that other technologies are built on. Behrendt explained that the firm attempts to adjust and shift its focus toward new trends that will actually determine the future, rather than chasing trends for their own sake. This strategic shift expands the firm’s toolkit for sustainability rather than replacing it, as the firm remains committed to its existing focus on industrial software and sustainability.

The new fund will target startups working on agentic AI—defined as AI systems capable of taking actions—and physical AI, which refers to AI applied to robotics and autonomous vehicles. Sage noted that some of the most significant opportunities lie in applications that may appear mundane but deliver substantial operational impact. He highlighted Synera, a German portfolio company that uses AI agents in design and engineering, as an example of this thesis. Synera built AI agents on top of its platform to automate complex design workflows. Sage explained, “And what you get out of this is crazy, because you can basically cut down a process of, let’s say, three weeks of time that humans would interact with one another to make a certain change, and you can cut down that to minutes” to streamline engineering processes. He described this capability as highly powerful.

The venture firm has not made any investments out of this third fund yet. However, its second fund has been used to invest in more than 35 investments. These include five recent undisclosed AI-focused startups that the firm has not yet publicly discussed.

Why it matters

BMW i Ventures is signaling a strategic pivot toward agentic and physical AI, betting that these technologies will become the foundational layer for industrial software and manufacturing rather than just another trend.