Industry 4.0 innovation needed with shift from crisis management to innovation

Start-up innovation and momentum is helping to shape the future of mobility, but these new players face a host of challenges in bringing their ideas to market. Incubation hubs, technology challenges and venture capital funding are helping to do just that.

Toyota Ventures, a standalone early-stage venture capital firm owned by Toyota, has been actively nurturing start-up talent over the past few years and issued three separate ‘calls for innovation’. Its latest focus is on the factory of the future, and a call for innovation is offering between US$500,000 and US$2m in venture capital (VC) funding to help bring to market solutions that advance smarter, sustainable and interconnected factories.

The move comes as the industry continues to struggle with bottlenecks in manufacturing supply chains, which have limited growth opportunities. Jim Adler, Founding Managing Director of Toyota Ventures, speaks to Automotive World about the importance of investing in this topic today and the impact it could have down the line.