Tech startup Mojio is shifting into high gear as it continues to cruise down the venture capital highway.
The Vancouver-based firm specializing in technology that connects cars to the Internet announced Thursday (November 30) it’s raised $30 million in Series B funding.
The funding round was led by Toronto’s Kensington Capital Partners and included new investors Trend Forward Capital and Innology Ventures.
All previous investors in the company — the Amazon Alexa Fund, the BDC Venture Fund, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners and Relay Ventures — also participated in the latest round.
In 2016, Mojio became the first company to receive funding from the B.C. Tech Fund. The $100 million fund of funds is also managed by Kensington Capital.
While the B.C. Tech Fund is a fund of funds, the province has designated $25 million for Kensington to make direct investments into startups.
Kensington managing partner Rick Nathan told BIV in 2016 the B.C. Tech Fund’s direct investment in Mojio was in the $1-3-million range.
Mojio has worked with hardware partners to develop a device that plugs into a car’s onboard diagnostic port and sends encrypted data to Mojio’s cloud over 4G LTE. A car that previously had no Internet connectivity is instantly online.
The technology caught the eye of wireless carrier T-Mobile US (Nasdaq:TMUS), which began selling Mojio’s technology at its 4,000 American retail outlets in November 2016.
Mojio now sells its technology through seven carriers in five countries, including Telus (TSX: T), Rogers (TSX: RCI.B) and Bell (TSX: BCE).
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