HELLA Ventures

HELLA Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Forvia HELLA (formerly HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA, now part of the FORVIA group following the Faurecia-HELLA merger), founded in 2015. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco with an additional presence in Northville Township, Michigan. Co-founded and led by Marco Marinucci as Lead Partner, HELLA Ventures is a multi-stage corporate venture capital fund focused on mobility, deep tech, and industrial manufacturing, investing in companies aligned with the corporate vision across automated driving, electrification, lighting technologies, connected car, Industry 4.0, and logistics. HELLA Ventures invests primarily at Seed, Series A, and Series B in companies across the United States, Canada, and Germany, with check sizes in the $1 to $10 million range. The first fund achieved a 40% net IRR and returned close to $50 million to LPs, with five exits ranging from $200 million to $1.5 billion at transaction value. Notable portfolio companies and exits include AEye (lidar technology, Nasdaq IPO August 2021), Oculii (radar AI, acquired by Ambarella), and Wejo (connected vehicle data). ZaiNar emerged from stealth with more than $100 million invested and a valuation exceeding $1 billion. Other active portfolio companies include actnano ($21.75 million Series B participant), Light Field Lab, CarForce, and Bright View Technologies (invested February 2025). Brighter AI was acquired by Milestone Systems in April 2025. HELLA Ventures provides portfolio companies with access to Forvia HELLA's global automotive customer base, manufacturing expertise, and technology development infrastructure — an asset particularly valuable for deep tech and mobility startups that need to prove their technology at automotive-grade scale and demonstrate it to major OEM customers.