Pivotal Investment

BusinessmenFord's self-imposed injunction to play disruptor to its own sector is gaining momentum, and a new major investment suggests that big auto finance actors are not afraid of making the switch from hunted to hunter.

In another disruptor-disrupted role-inversion, Ford announced a investment $182.2 in Pivotal today, a San Francisco-headquartered and cloud-based software platform firm, in a bid to enhance its software development capabilities to quicken the return on innovative projects.

This represents Ford's concerted efforts to bifurcate into a bi-functional auto and mobility company. Ford will of course maintain its focus on core auto sectors, e.g., manufacturing, designing, marketing, servicing cars like SUVs, trucks and electric
"Our investment in Pivotal will help strengthen our ability to deliver these customer experiences at the speed of Silicon Valley, including continually expanding Fordpass -- our digital, physical and personal mobility experience platform."

Last month, Ford teamed up with Pivotal to launch FordPass, an innovative consumer experience platform providing new customer services, e.g., mobility solutions such as parking and car-sharing, and remote access to vehicles through a smartphone app. Building on this growing relationship, Ford is integrating Pivotal's innovative impetus across its IT efforts, research and engineering teams, and product development. In the future, Ford will transfer Pivotal's next-gen cloud platform and analytics prowess to work on Ford's new mobility projects, e.g., the Dynamic Shuttle pilot
"We are collaborating with iconic companies like Ford to help transform their businesses with our unique software development methodology and modern cloud platform and analytics tools. We are thrilled to create a deeper partnership with FOrd through this investment as we drive its evolution to becoming both an auto and mobility company -- reinventing yet again how the world