Why Toyota Ventures: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

Toyota Ventures Overview

Toyota Ventures is Toyota’s venture capital arm which focuses on early-stage investing.

The firm primarily supports companies in the following sectors:

• Artificial intelligence
• Mobility
• Robotics
• Cloud technology
• Digital health
• Fintech
• Materials
• Autonomy
• Smart cities

Toyota has an ongoing effort to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emission, and Toyota Ventures also takes part in this initiative by investing in climate technologies which provide solutions for reducing carbon emission.

Jim Adler founded Toyota Ventures in 2017. The firm is based in Los Altos, California.

Toyota Ventures AUM

According to Toyota Newsroom, the additional two funds in April 2024, Toyota Ventures Climate Fund II (TVCF II) and Toyota Ventures Frontier Fund II (TVFF II), brought the total assets under management of Toyota Ventures to over $800 million.

Toyota Ventures Interview Process & Questions

The interview process for investment firms typically changes for each candidate. But if you interview at Toyota Ventures, get ready to go through a series of interviews, usually 4 to 6 rounds.

For the initial rounds, the junior investment professionals or the HR team will handle the interview, while the more senior staff take over in the later rounds. The interview questions you’ll encounter will be a combination of behavioral, fit, and technical / investing-related questions.

Expect the whole interview process to take several weeks – unless it is “on-cycle” or “on-campus” recruiting.

I’ve created an interview preparation course – Growth Equity Interview Guide – to help candidates ace interviews.

Why Toyota Ventures

One of the questions you’ll most likely get and is critical for you to answer properly is “Why this firm?”

To avoid providing generic answers, make sure to mention whoever you’ve met at the firm and tell the interviewer how their stories of professional growth motivated you to join their team.

It is also advisable to do some research about the firm before interviews. You can listen to interviews with its founders and investors. For starters, here’s a quick interview with Jim Adler, Founder & General Partner at Toyota Ventures:

Toyota Ventures Case Study

Most, if not all, investment firms prefer candidates who have good communication skills and a high level of technical knowledge. To evaluate these traits during interviews, they use case studies.

Most case studies at firms like Toyota Ventures often involve having candidates perform financial modeling and recommend investments. But candidates applying for junior roles may be required to do a cold calling case study as well.

To prepare for case study in your next interview, I would recommend checking out my Growth Equity Interview Guide.

Toyota Ventures Salary & Compensation

According to Glassdoor, interns at Toyota Ventures have a median salary of $27 per hour, while senior associates make $142K per year. There is no recent salary data for investment analysts and associates.

Figures may vary based on several factors that the firm considers such as work experience, level of education, skills, and more.

Intern

Senior Associate

Toyota Ventures Careers, Jobs, & Internships

To see what open roles are available at Toyota Ventures, go to our job board where we feature all investing roles for them and other similar firms.

Toyota Ventures Portfolio & Investments

According to Crunchbase, Toyota Ventures has made 103 investments across six funds. Some of their notable deals include Orbital Materials, Relectrify, and River.

Notable Transaction: e-Zinc

e-Zinc is a Toronto-based company which manufactures zinc-air batteries which provides long-duration and sustainable energy storage.

Their energy storage systems are about 80% less expensive than lithium-ions. Plus, their batteries can operate both in hot and cold climates, and are also made of recyclable materials.

In April 2022, e-Zinc secured $25 million from a Series A funding round led by Anzu Partners. Toyota Ventures, BDC Capital, and Eni Next also participated.

e-Zinc plans to use the new capital to start the production of their first commercial energy storage system.

The Company also aims to replace diesel generators in providing backup power for 0.5 to 5 days. They also want to replace the need for fossil fuels in off-grid areas.

Next Steps

If you ever decide to apply at Toyota Ventures and become one of their professional investors, I would advise you to check out my interview preparation course – Growth Equity Interview Guide.

It’s a self-paced course that can help you fully prepare for topics that often show up during interviews such as valuation, financial modeling, case studies, and more.

Take a look at the course and start learning today!