Almost 10 years ago, Bryan Frist, Nick Alexander and Daniel Hunter came up with the idea of introducing new technologies to the automotive industry. Leveraging the first gas entry point, they launched the Yoshi Mobility app to deliver gas to San Francisco area consumers on the day of their choosing for $20 per month.
“The automotive industry has been largely untouched by innovation,” Frist told TechCrunch. “We had this idea in the age of Amazon, where everything was delivered, that you would never go to the gas station again.”
The trio took Yoshi through Y Combinator in the summer of 2016 and began expanding, competing at the time with venture capital firms like Filld, Wrench and Booster. By 2017, the company also had a presence in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, offering additional services including car washes, oil changes, and ordered 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 Rowghani, former CFO and COO of Twitter and founding managing director of YC’s Continuity Fund.
It raised an additional $36.7 million in Series A and B capital over the years, 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 is divided into three divisions: preventive maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging. The company is located in 15 states but can provide vehicle services to customers in all 50 states. Millions of vehicle services have been performed to date.
Yoshi Mobility has grown its revenue 10-fold each month since its Series B in late 2020, Frist said. The company still offers services to consumers, but has focused more on the commercial part of its business. The company now offers virtual vehicle inspections for fleets and is building corporate partnerships with Fortune 100 companies like Uber and Turo.
Virtual vehicle inspections are also popular in the gig economy, particularly in states where drivers and small business owners are required to undergo an inspection. Yoshi completes an inspection in up to 10 minutes.
Bryan Frist, co-founder and CEO of Yoshi Mobility. Photo credit: Yoshi mobility
In March, the company completed its first acquisition of Mobile Auto Concepts Inc., a mobile automotive services company that provides preventive maintenance, tire care and replacement, multi-point inspections and environmentally friendly washes.
“Mobile Auto is similar to many of our competitors that only provide services,” Frist said. “The overall package is valuable for us. We work a lot with fleets now and they always asked us if we could change the tires or wash the car while filling up. Now we can do all of this with a one-stop solution.”
Yoshi Mobility’s third new business unit, a mobile charging platform for electric vehicles, is somewhat modeled on Tesla. It addresses known current challenges facing the electric vehicle industry, including costly repairs, and future challenges related to charging electric vehicle fleets. The platform provides mobile charging, maintenance and support to electric vehicle owners and enterprise customers.
Frist, a Tesla driver for eight years, said the electric vehicle market is “just huge,” so there is room for many players. For Yoshi, this means reaching out to partners who don’t want to build electric vehicle charging stations on their properties – or don’t have the available space.
“If the rollout goes as we and industry experts expect, solutions must be found,” said Frist.
Fuel for future growth
The entry of all of these businesses will be fueled by a new $26 million Series C financing, valuing the company at over $200 million, Frist said. General Motors Ventures is leading this round, along with new strategic investor and well-known tire brand Bridgestone Americas. International investors include Universal Motors Agencies and Shikra Limited. Yoshi Mobility’s total investment is now over $60 million.
Bridgestone liked the mobility aspect of Yoshi’s work, Frist said. “They are investing in mobility companies,” he said. “They started Firestone Direct where they have vans that can go out and change tires. That’s what we’re doing now, and that’s how they got involved.”
Equipped with the new funds, Yoshi Mobility will expand its preventative maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging businesses. It works with GM’s OnStar and Toyota Connect, meaning its telematics are connected to about 34% of the cars on the road, Frist said.
“There are a million touchpoints we can have, from the physical touch of the car to the virtual telematics that will propel us into this next phase,” Frist said. “We see ourselves as the ‘Amazon of car care’, entering the automotive space with gasoline in the same way they entered the delivery service with books. We’ve always envisioned doing a lot more, so in the next five to 10 years we’re going to look very different than we do today.”