Why this LA-based VC firm was an early investor in Slate Auto

Yahoo

a day ago

Slate Auto, which came out of stealth mode earlier this year with a surprising – and surprisingly affordable – customizable electric truck, has raised $700 million to date.
But long before the EV startup broke cover, it quietly raised a Series A round of more than $100 million in 2023. And while Jeff Bezos was involved in that round, as TechCrunch originally reported, he was not alone. A regulatory filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission shows as many as 16 investors were involved.
Slauson & Co., a Los Angeles venture firm that launched five years ago, is one of the few investors in Slate's Series A to speak publicly about why they backed the company.
Slauson & Co. partner Ajay Relan told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview his firm is well aware of the many EV startup bankruptcies that have occurred in recent years, as well as the headwinds coming from the Trump administration for anything green energy-related.
Regardless, Relan said he and his partner Austin Clements believe in the startup's mission of providing 'more affordable, reliable, and customizable vehicles that are domestically manufactured.'
Relan and Clements started Slauson & Co. in 2020. Friends since high school, they both grew up off of Slauson Avenue in South Central Los Angeles, which Relan wryly categorized as being 'not necessarily known for its tech and venture capital innovation.'
'But it definitely is a source of cultural capital that gets repackaged and distributed to more developed areas and other parts of the world,' Relan said. Slauson & Co.'s mission is to bridge the gap between those two worlds by funding and empowering people who have 'historically just not had their perspective represented in the innovation economy.'
Relan said they got turned on to Slate by Jeff Wilkie, the former Amazon consumer division CEO who co-founded Re:Build Manufacturing, an incubator that Slate spun out of. Wilkie, who Relan has known since before founding Slauson & Co, first introduced them to the secretive project in 2023.
Relan admits investing in an EV startup is a bit outside of his firm's 'primary themes.' But the duo was intrigued by Slate's mission to make a more affordable and approachable car.
He was sold on the venture after Wilkie introduced Slauson & Co. to the Slate team.
Slauson & Co. raises $100M Fund II proving appetite for inclusion persists
The startup was still just a few dozen people in early 2023. But those people had decades of experience in the automotive industry. CEO Chris Barman spent more than 20 years at Chrysler, running vehicle line programs, leading the Android Automotive integration, and even collaborating with Waymo. Chairman Rodney Copes and chief financial officer Ryan Green spent years at Harley-Davidson and Rivian.
Barman particularly impressed the Slauson & Co. partners.
'She has great vision. She has a great reputation within the company she's worked for before,' Clements said. 'She's no frills, not about the hype. She's really about delivering.'
Clements said he and Relan also rely heavily on taste when it comes to early-stage investing.
'Do we think that this is something that resonates with what people are looking for at this point?' he said. 'The idea that there are no affordable cars, particularly for young people, but really for everybody, and just the mismatch between affordability of vehicles and what's available just didn't make sense.'
Slate's truck won't hit the market until late 2026, but Relan and Clements already have a little validation that their eye for taste was spot on with Slate: The company passed 100,000 refundable reservations in just two weeks.
Of course, it doesn't hurt to be standing alongside some serious financial and industrial firepower. Not only did Bezos invest in that initial funding round, but Slate also courted big money from Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter as well as VC firm General Catalyst. ('The partners they were able to bring along for the journey before and after us were icing on the cake,' Reman said in an email.)
Those backers have helped fill Slate's coffers to the tune of around $700 million, and the company told TechCrunch that it's already started on a Series C funding round. Slauson & Co. also invested in the Series B; the firm declined to share how much it has invested in Slate to date.
This combination – the Slate team, the major backers, and the opportunity at the entry level of the car market – left Relan and Clements believing their investment can generate a good return, even in the notoriously low-margin auto business.
'We have to have some deep conviction that this is something that could drive very real returns in the fund,' Clements said, before adding with a laugh: 'You know, we're not just a purely philanthropic organization.'