SB Drive was created last year to develop autonomous vehicle technology for public transportation in Japan. The company focuses on making public transport smarter in rural areas and on fixed-route services, including buses and freighter trucks. It has run "social trials" and testing using fixed-route public buses and freighter trucks and has struck partnerships with four municipalities in Japan. SB Drive plans tests on public roads next year and has a target of launching a commercial service by 2020. Yahoo Japan led a 510 million JPY (~$4.6M) investment into the business, and Yahoo plans to act as a strategic partner by linking SB Drive with Yahoo Maps and using related data to help with planning and deployment. Post-investment ownership is split between SoftBank, Yahoo Japan, and founding partner Advanced Mobility.

Total raised

$5M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Mar 2017