Key Takeaways
- • Assembly Ventures closed its inaugural $76 million fund on August 16, 2023, bringing total assets under management to $94 million, with backing from prominent investors including Rocket Mortgage founder Dan Gilbert and automotive manufacturer Stellantis NV.
- • The Detroit and Berlin-based venture capital firm, founded in 2020 by mobility operators Chris Thomas and Jessica Robinson alongside German investor Felix Scheuffelen, targets early-stage investments (Series Seed through Series B) in mobility innovation across land, air, sea, and space sectors.
- • Fund I prioritizes battery technology, clean energy solutions, climate tech, supply chain optimization, and automotive production, with explicit focus on de-risking Western economies' dependency on China and capitalizing on geopolitical reshaping of supply chains.
- • Assembly Ventures maintains dual offices in Detroit and Silicon Valley, positioning itself at the intersection of automotive heritage and venture capital infrastructure to support portfolio company scaling across North America and Europe.
- • Investor base includes Arbor Bancorp Inc. alongside tier-one automotive and financial services leaders, signaling institutional confidence in mobility technology as a critical investment thesis through the next decade.
Summary
Assembly Ventures, a venture capital platform founded in 2020 by Detroit and Berlin-based investors, announced the successful close of its inaugural fund at $76 million on August 16, 2023. The fundraising round brings the firm's total assets under management to $94 million and represents a significant institutional commitment to next-generation mobility technology innovation across multiple transportation vectors—land, air, sea, and space—spanning the United States and European markets.
The firm's founding team comprises Chris Thomas and Jessica Robinson, both seasoned mobility operators who previously established the Detroit Mobility Lab and Michigan Mobility Institute, alongside Felix Scheuffelen, a Germany-based investor and co-founder of innovation platform Beyond1435. This transatlantic composition reflects the fund's dual-office structure in Detroit and Silicon Valley, positioning Assembly at a strategic nexus between automotive manufacturing heritage and venture capital ecosystem depth.
Fund I concentrates on early-stage investment rounds, specifically Series Seed and Series A/B financings, with thematic emphasis on battery technology, clean energy infrastructure, climate technology, supply chain optimization, and automotive production methodologies. Institutional investors backing the fund include Rocket Mortgage founder Dan Gilbert and Stellantis NV, the multinational automotive manufacturer behind the Jeep brand, alongside Arbor Bancorp Inc. This investor composition underscores market conviction in mobility sector transformation.
Assembly's investment thesis is explicitly anchored in macrogeopolitical realignment. According to co-founder Chris Thomas, the firm views the coming decades as a period of "radical reshaping of economies, especially in automotive and mobility technology" driven by Western efforts to de-risk supply chain dependencies on China. The fund identifies technologies deemed "critical, unique, and capable of generating exceptional value" as primary deployment targets, with portfolio support designed to accelerate scaling and value creation while advancing efficiency, sustainability, and supply chain resilience objectives.
The firm's founding team comprises Chris Thomas and Jessica Robinson, both seasoned mobility operators who previously established the Detroit Mobility Lab and Michigan Mobility Institute, alongside Felix Scheuffelen, a Germany-based investor and co-founder of innovation platform Beyond1435. This transatlantic composition reflects the fund's dual-office structure in Detroit and Silicon Valley, positioning Assembly at a strategic nexus between automotive manufacturing heritage and venture capital ecosystem depth.
Fund I concentrates on early-stage investment rounds, specifically Series Seed and Series A/B financings, with thematic emphasis on battery technology, clean energy infrastructure, climate technology, supply chain optimization, and automotive production methodologies. Institutional investors backing the fund include Rocket Mortgage founder Dan Gilbert and Stellantis NV, the multinational automotive manufacturer behind the Jeep brand, alongside Arbor Bancorp Inc. This investor composition underscores market conviction in mobility sector transformation.
Assembly's investment thesis is explicitly anchored in macrogeopolitical realignment. According to co-founder Chris Thomas, the firm views the coming decades as a period of "radical reshaping of economies, especially in automotive and mobility technology" driven by Western efforts to de-risk supply chain dependencies on China. The fund identifies technologies deemed "critical, unique, and capable of generating exceptional value" as primary deployment targets, with portfolio support designed to accelerate scaling and value creation while advancing efficiency, sustainability, and supply chain resilience objectives.
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