The mobility sector has been abuzz with activity in the past decade, from the rise of ride hailing and the sudden explosion of shared electric scooters and bikes to the pursuit to commercialize moonshots like automated vehicles and flying cars.
At the center of this evolving industry are the investors, who are tapped into a range of startups from early to growth stages. TechCrunch simply couldn’t hold an event on mobility without hearing from the people who are hunting for the best opportunities in the industry and tracking all of its changes.
That’s why we’re happy to announce investors Reilly Brennan, Amy Gu and Olaf Sakkers, all of whom have expertise in mobility, are joining us on our virtual stage at TC Sessions: Mobility 2020. The virtual edition of TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility will occur over two days, October 6-7 and feature the best and brightest minds in the world of mobility, including Argo AI founder and CEO Bryan Salesky, Waymo COO Tekedra Mawakana, Spin co-founder Euwyn Poon and Uber director of Policy, Cities and Transportation, Shin-pei Tsay.
Brennan, Gu and Sakkers will come together to debate the uncertain future of mobility tech and whether VC dollars are enough to push the industry forward.
Brennan is the founding general partner of Trucks VC, a seed-stage venture capital fund for entrepreneurs changing the future of transportation. Brennan is known as much for his popular FoT newsletter as his investments, which include May Mobility, Nauto, nuTonomy, Joby Aviation, Skip and Roadster. He is a board director at Zohr and SEEVA.
Brennan also holds a teaching appointment at Stanford University, where he teaches every year in the School of Engineering and the d.school. His classes bridge the fields of transportation, design and entrepreneurship. Prior to Trucks, he was executive director for Stanford’s automotive research program, Revs.
Gu is the founder and managing partner of Hemi Ventures, a VC firm that invests in early-stage companies in emerging technology sectors like AI, biotech and autonomous vehicles. Prior to her experience as an investor, Gu was an executive and adviser at companies including Evernote, Robinhood and Udacity. Fast Company named Gu among its “Most Creative People of 2015,” and she was named in “40 under 40 of 2018” by Silicon Valley Business Journal and “Rising Stars in VC” by National Venture Capital Association.
Sakkers is a founding partner at Maniv Mobility, a global fund investing in the leading mobility startups. The fund has invested in Aurora Labs, Intuition Robotics, Nexar, Revel, Ridecell, Turo and Upstream. Sakkers sits on the board of Autofleet and Clair Labs and is a board observer at Cognata.
In 2019, the Israel-based VC firm closed a $100 million fund backed by 12 corporations, including the venture arms of Aptiv, BMW, Hyundai, Lear Corp., LG Electronics, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, Shell and Valeo.
Get your tickets for TC Sessions: Mobility to hear from Bryan Salesky, along with several other fantastic speakers from Porsche, Waymo, Lyft and more. Tickets are just $145 for a limited time, with discounts for groups, students and exhibiting startups. We hope to see you there!