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Nearly 10 years ago, Brian Frist, Nick Alexander and Daniel Hunter had an idea to introduce some technology into the automotive industry. Using the gas’s initial entry point, they began a process Yoshi Mobility An app that delivers gas to consumers in the San Francisco area on the day of their choosing for $20 per month.
“The auto industry has been immune to innovation,” Frist told TechCrunch. “We had this idea, in the age of Amazon where everything was delivered, that you would never go to a gas station again.”
The trio sourced Yoshi via Y Combinator in the summer of 2016 and began expanding, at the time competing with venture-backed companies like filld, Wrench, and Booster. By 2017, the company was also present in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, offering additional services, including car washes, oil changes and ordering supplies such as new windshield wiper blades.
Yoshi also raised $2.1 million from investors including ZhenFund, Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures, and Ali Roghani, the former CFO and COO of Twitter, and founding managing director of YC’s Continuity Fund.
Over the years, it has continued to raise an additional $36.7 million in Series A and B capital with support from strategic investors including Exxon Mobil And General Motors projects Plus DN Automotive and NBA All-Star Kevin Durant.
Expansion and new business
Today, Nashville-based Yoshi Mobility is divided into three business lines: preventive maintenance, virtual vehicle inspection, and electric vehicle charging. It has ground operations in 15 states, but can provide vehicle services to customers in all 50 states. We have completed millions of vehicle services to date.
Frist said Yoshi Mobility has increased its revenue 10 times per month since its Series B in late 2020. The company still provides services to consumers, but has pivoted more toward the commercial side of its business. It now offers virtual vehicle inspection work for fleets, and has corporate partnerships with Fortune 100 companies like Uber and Turo.
Virtual vehicle inspections are also very popular in the gig economy, especially in states where drivers and small business owners are required to undergo an inspection. Yoshi provides a scan in up to 10 minutes.
Brian Frist, co-founder and CEO of Yoshi Mobility. Image credits: Yoshi Mobility
In March, the company completed its first acquisition of Mobile Auto Concepts Inc., a mobile auto service company that offers preventative maintenance, tire care and replacement, multi-point inspections and eco-washes.
“Mobile Auto is similar to many of our service-only competitors,” Frist said. “We think the comprehensive package is what’s valuable. We work a lot with fleets now, and they always ask us that while we’re filling up the car, can we also change the tires or wash the car. Now we can do it all with a one-stop solution.”
Yoshi Mobility’s third new business line, a mobile electric vehicle charging platform, follows Tesla in some way. It addresses known current challenges in the electric vehicle industry, including costly repairs, and future challenges related to charging electric vehicle fleets. The platform will provide EV owners and enterprise customers with on-the-go charging, maintenance and support.
The electric vehicle market is “pretty huge,” so there’s room for a lot of players, said Frist, who has been a Tesla driver for the past eight years. For Yoshi, this means pursuing partners who don’t want to set up an electric vehicle charging station on their property — or don’t have the space available.
“If adoption goes the way we and industry experts believe it will, there must be solutions,” Frist said.
Nourish future growth
The entry into all of these business lines is supported by $26 million in new Series C financing, valuing the company at more than $200 million, Frist said. The round is led by General Motors Ventures and joined by a new strategic investor, the iconic tire brand Bridgestone Americas. International investors include Universal Motors Agens and Shikra Limited. Yoshi Mobility’s total investment now stands at more than $60 million.
Frist said Bridgestone liked the mobility aspect of what Yoshi does. “They are investing in mobility companies,” he said. “They started Firestone Direct, where they have pickup trucks that can change their tires. We’re doing just that now, and that’s how they got involved.”
Armed with the new funds, Yoshi Mobility will expand its preventive maintenance, virtual vehicle inspection and electric vehicle charging business lines. Frist said it works with OnStar and GM’s Toyota Connect, which means its IT connects to about 34% of cars on the road.
“There are a million touchpoints we can have from physically touching the car to virtual IT that will propel us to this next stage,” Frist said. “We consider ourselves the ‘Amazon of car care’, treating cars with fuel the same way they used to treat books. We’ve always seen ourselves doing much more than that, so in the next five to 10 years, we’ll look very different than we do even today.” .
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