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Telus Ventures invests in Vancouver-based connected car startup Mojio

Telus Ventures, Iris Capital each investing undisclosed amounts in Mojio
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Mojio has partnered with telecom carriers across the globe, including T-Mobile in the U.S., Deutsche Telekom in Europe, and Telus (TSX: T), Rogers (TSX: RCI.B) and Bell (TSX: BCE) in Canada.

The venture capital arm of Telus Corp. (TSX: T) is among the latest investors to get behind a Vancouver-based startup specializing in connecting cars to the Internet.

Mojio announced Thursday (March 8) Telus Ventures and Iris Capital are each investing undisclosed amounts into the company.

Telus Ventures managing partner Rich Osborn said in a statement that making investments in “emerging technology leaders like Mojio” would help expand Canada’s market for connected cars.

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.

To date, 500,000 cars that previously had no Internet connectivity are now online, while the company has collected nearly 10 billion kilometres of driving data.

Mojio has partnered with telecom carriers across the globe, including T-Mobile in the U.S., Deutsche Telekom in Europe, and Telus, Rogers (TSX: RCI.B) and Bell (TSX: BCE) in Canada.

Mojio revealed in December 2017 that it had raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Toronto’s Kensington Capital.

A year earlier Mojio became the first company to receive funding from the B.C. Tech Fund.

Kensington Capital also manages the province’s $100-million fund of funds.

Although 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.

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