Yoshi Mobility has come a long way since gassing up cars on the side of the road

Nearly 10 years ago, Bryan Frist, Nick Alexander and Daniel Hunter had the idea of ​​injecting technology into the automotive industry. Using the initial gas entry point, they launched the Yoshi Mobility app to deliver gas to consumers in the San Francisco area on the day of their choosing for $20 per month.

“The auto industry was pretty untouched by innovation,” Frist told TechCrunch. “We had this idea, in the age of Amazon where everything was delivered, that we would never go to the gas station again.”

The trio brought Yoshi through Y Combinator in the summer of 2016 and began expanding, competing at the time with venture-backed companies like Filld, Screw, and Booster. By 2017, the company also had locations in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, and offered additional services including car washes, oil changes, and ordering supplies such as new wiper blades. ice.

Yoshi also raised $2.1 million from investors including ZhenFund, Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures and Ali Rowghani, former Twitter CFO and COO and founding managing director of YC’s Continuity Fund.

Over the years, it has raised an additional $36.7 million in Series A and B capital backed by strategic investors including ExxonMobil and General Motors Ventures, as well as DN Automotive and NBA All-Star Kevin Durant.

Expansion and new business

Today, Nashville-based Yoshi Mobility focuses on three business areas: preventative maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging. It has a field presence in 15 states, but can provide vehicle services to customers in all 50 states. To date, it has performed millions of vehicle services.

Yoshi Mobility has grown revenue 10 times per month since its Series B in late 2020, Frist said. The company still provides services to consumers, but has shifted more toward the commercial side of its business. It now offers a virtual vehicle inspection business for fleets, racking up corporate partnerships with Fortune 100 companies like Uber and Turo.

Its virtual vehicle inspections are also popular in the gig economy, particularly in states where drivers and small business owners must undergo an inspection. Yoshi completes an inspection in 10 minutes maximum.

In March, the company completed its first acquisition of Mobile Auto Concepts Inc., a mobile automotive service company offering preventative maintenance, tire care and replacement, multi-point inspections and eco-friendly washes.

“Mobile Auto is similar to many of our competitors who only offer services,” Frist said. “We think the whole package is what’s valuable. We work with fleets a lot now, and they always asked us that while we were filling the car, we could also change the tires or wash the car. Now we can do all of this with a single solution.

Yoshi Mobility’s third new business line, a mobile charging platform for electric vehicles, is taking on Tesla in a way. It addresses well-known current challenges in the electric vehicle industry, including costly repairs, and future challenges related to charging electric vehicle fleets. The platform will offer electric vehicle owners and business customers on-the-go charging, maintenance and support.

Frist, a Tesla driver for eight years, said the electric vehicle market “is just huge,” so there is room for many players. For Yoshi, that means reaching out to partners who don’t want to build an electric vehicle charging station on their properties or don’t have the space available.

“If adoption happens the way we and industry experts believe it will, solutions will have to be found,” Frist said.

Fueling future growth

The entry of all these lines of business is supported by new Series C funding of $26 million, valuing the company at more than $200 million, Frist said. General Motors Ventures is leading this round, joined by new strategic investor and popular tire brand Bridgestone Americas. International investors include Universal Motors Agencies and Shikra Limited. Yoshi Mobility’s total investment now stands at over $60 million.

Bridgestone liked the mobility aspect of what Yoshi is doing, Frist said. “They are investing in mobility companies,” he said. “They started Firestone Direct, where they have vans that come out and can change tires. That’s exactly what we’re doing now, and that’s how they got involved.

With these new funds, Yoshi Mobility will expand the business areas of preventive maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging. It works with GM’s OnStar and Toyota Connect, meaning its telematics system connects to about 34 percent of cars on the road, Frist said.

“There are a million touch points we can have, from physical contact with the car to virtual telematics, which is going to propel us to this next step,” Frist said. “We see ourselves as the ‘Amazon of car care,’ getting into automotive with gasoline the same way they got into delivery with books. We always saw ourselves doing a lot more, so in the next five to ten years we will be totally different than we are today.