DENSO Corporate Ventures Investment Manager Participates in Mobility Investment Panel at SAE International Event

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (Feb. 3, 2021) – DENSO, a leading mobility supplier, today announced Zhe Huang, an investment manager in its Corporate Ventures unit, participated in a panel at SAE International’s Government/Industry Digital Summit. The panel was entitled “Investing in Mobility – A Conversation with the Venture Capital Community.”

Other industry leaders who joined the talk included Ulrich Quay, BMW i Ventures; Alexei Andreev, Autotech Ventures; Prachi J. Vakharia, SafeAl Inc.; and John Casesa, Guggenheim Securities LLC. Their session focused on how traditional transportation players, venture capital and private equity companies can bridge the gaps between different visions for mobility.

“This was an important conversation about mobility’s evolution, and the role investment strategy has in shaping its future,” said Huang. “As a supplier, we are always looking for new partners who can help innovate legacy products and processes, as well as strengthen our work in new domains like connectivity and automated driving.”

For years, DENSO has made strategic investments a focal point in its efforts to advance existing and new technologies. They are such a priority that DENSO made them a crucial piece of its Second Founding, the company’s strategy to enrich mobility and expand into new business areas. In 2018, the company announced that over the previous four years it had invested nearly $100 million in startups to accelerate development in new mobility areas.

More recently, and despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, DENSO has remained committed to collaborations that speed innovation. DENSO’s recent partnerships include:
• Working with startup Aeva on advanced LiDAR;
• Investing in Lambda:4, a German developer of wireless positioning technologies to strengthen DENSO’s passive digital key;
• Investing again in Ridecell to boost DENSO’s Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) offerings; and
• Investing in EV startup Envoy Technologies, also to expand DENSO’s MaaS program.

Such partnerships also bolster DENSO’s internal initiative Reborn 21, which intends to transform company operations and position it to provide new value to society and customers. Through the initiative, DENSO is recommitting to its foundational pillars of "green" (environmentally friendly) and "peace of mind" (safer world for all). Strategic partnerships advance company work in these areas.

For those interested in building a career at mobility’s cutting edge and collaborating with the industry’s brightest along the way, visit densocareers.com.

About DENSO
DENSO is a $47.6 billion global mobility supplier that develops advanced technology and components for nearly every vehicle make and model on the road today. With manufacturing at its core, DENSO invests in its 200 facilities to produce thermal, powertrain, mobility, electrification, & electronic systems, to create jobs that directly change how the world moves. The company’s 170,000+ employees are paving the way to a mobility future that improves lives, eliminates traffic accidents, and preserves the environment. Globally headquartered in Kariya, Japan, DENSO spent 9.9 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020. For more information about global DENSO, visit https://www.denso.com/global.

In North America, DENSO is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, and employs 27,000+ engineers, researchers and skilled workers across 51 sites in the U.S, Canada and Mexico. In the United States alone, DENSO employs 17,700+ employees across 14 states (and the District of Columbia) and 41 sites. In fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, DENSO in North America generated $10.9 billion in consolidated sales. DENSO is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion inside the company and beyond – a principle that brings unique perspectives together, bolsters innovation and pushes DENSO forward. Join us, and craft not only how the world moves, but also your career: densocareers.com. For more information, go to https://www.denso.com/us-ca/en/.