Slate Auto, which came out of stealth mode earlier this year, has raised $700 million so far with amazing, and surprisingly affordable customizable electric trucks.
But it quietly raised a $100 million Series A round in 2023 long before the EV startup broke the cover. And Jeff Bezos was involved in that round, but as TechCrunch originally reported, he was not alone. Regulatory filings filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that as many as 16 investors are involved.
Slauson & Co is a Los Angeles venture company that was launched five years ago. is one of the few investors in Slate's Series A and has spoken publicly about why they supported the company.
Slauson & Co. Ajay Relan, a partner at the company, said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch that his company is well aware of the bankruptcies of many EV startups that have occurred in recent years, as well as the headwinds that come from the Trump administration due to everything related to green energy.
Anyway, Relan said he and his partner Austin Clements believe in the startup's mission to “produce more affordable, reliable, customizable vehicles domestically.”
Relan and Clements will be Slauson & Co in 2020. has begun. My friends have both grown up from Slauson Avenue, south of Los Angeles since high school.
“But it is definitely a source of cultural capital that is repackaged and distributed in more developed regions and other parts of the world,” Relan said. Slauson & Co. The mission is to bridge the gap between these two worlds by funding and empowering people who “historically do not represent their perspective in the innovation economy.”
Relan said the slate was turned on by Jeff Wilkie, former Amazon Consumer Division CEO, who co-founded Re:Build Manufacturing, a slate incubator. Wilkie, whom Relan knew before founding Slauson & Co, first introduced her secret project in 2023.
Relan admits that investment in EV startups is a bit outside of his company's “major themes.” However, the duo was intrigued by Slate's mission to create more affordable and friendly cars.
Wilkie is Slauson & Co. After introducing him to the Slate team, he was sold in a venture.
The startup was still dozens of people in early 2023, but those people had decades of experience in the automotive industry. CEO Chris Berman spent more than 20 years at Chrysler, running the vehicle line program, leading Android Automotive Integration, and even collaborating with Waymo. Chairman Rodney Pape and Chief Financial Officer Ryan Green spent years with Harley Davidson and Libian.
Berman is especially Slauson & Co. I was impressed by Partners.
“She has a great vision. She has a great reputation at the company she previously worked for,” Clements said. “She's not a hype, she's not a ruffle. She's really about delivering.”
Clements said he and Lelan also rely heavily on taste when it comes to early investments.
“Do you think this resonates with what people are looking for at this point?” he said. “The idea that there are no affordable cars, especially for young people, was actually not meaningful for everyone and only the discrepancy between the affordable and available vehicles.”
Slate's trucks won't hit the market until late 2026, but Relan and Clements already have a bit of verification that the taste-tasting eye has been attracting attention in the slate.
Of course, it's not harmful to stand with serious financial and industrial firepower. Not only did Bezos invest in that first funding round, but Slate also sought big money from Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and the general catalist at the VC company. (“The partner they could bring in for our trip before and after us was putting cakes on ice,” Lemann said in an email.
These backers have helped slate's financial resources fall into a slate's roughly $700 million, and the company told TechCrunch that it has already begun in the Series C funding round. Slauson & Co. has also invested in Series B. The company refused to share how much it has invested in slate so far.
This combination – slate teams, key backers, and opportunities at the entry level in the automotive market – believed that Lilaan and Clements believed their investments would bring good profits, even in the infamous, low-margin automotive business.
“We need to have a deep confidence that this is something that can drive a very realistic return in a fund,” Clements added with a laugh.