Participated · Equity · May 2022

Azumo develops LCD 2.0™, a next‑generation reflective display technology that targets sunlight readability and low power consumption. Its LCD 2.0 technology delivers up to 10x the energy savings versus traditional backlit LCDs while remaining extremely thin and eye safe. The company holds 47 patents and offers displays ranging from 1" to 17", combining high video‑rate capability with superior readability in bright sunlight to eliminate glare. Azumo targets consumer, medical, industrial, educational, and automotive markets and is positioning its technology for a variety of device form factors. The new financing is intended to accelerate international expansion, increase manufacturing capabilities, and support the launch of new products. Azumo also plans to expand sales and applications engineering support and grow its international team while leveraging a partnership with a global electronics manufacturer to scale supply chain and production. FLEx Lighting, founded in 2008 in Chicago, develops LCD 2.0™ — a next-generation reflective display technology that delivers full-color, video-rate capability with ultra-thin light transmission. The technology promises up to 10x battery power savings and best-in-class reflective color while providing superb sunlight readability without glare. FLEx targets consumer, educational, medical, industrial, and IoT markets with displays ranging from 1" to 21" diagonals. The company plans to commercialize tablet-sized reflective displays and expand its portfolio to include consumer and educational tablets as well as portable devices for industrial and medical use. FLEx is expanding its global footprint by opening an office in Changzhou, China to support partners and its growing customer base. The company recently raised $9 million to fund global growth and commercialization of its new displays. FLEx Lighting develops front-light systems for device displays that are power-efficient and sunlight-readable, targeting reflective LCDs used in mobile devices. Its core products provide front lighting solutions that improve readability while minimizing power consumption. The company plans to expand its product lineup into tablet-sized and 7-inch+ displays for consumer applications and larger personal information displays. FLEx also intends to widen distribution channels and increase global representation. Founded in 2004 and led by CEO Mike Casper, the company benefits from strategic supplier relationships, including investor SABIC, which can expand its supply chain and materials expertise. Financially, FLEx closed a $9M Series B to support product development and market expansion.

Participated · Series B · May 2021

Oculii develops AI software that significantly improves the imaging performance of low-cost, commercially available radar sensors, claiming up to a 100-fold increase in spatial resolution. The company intends to scale via software licensing to radar companies rather than building automotive hardware, though it does manufacture sensors for robotics clients. Oculii works with multiple OEMs and has an existing commercial relationship with General Motors; the article notes another OEM is on the company's cap table. CEO Steven Hong says the software approach scales with data and gets cheaper over time relative to hardware. The startup recently closed a $55 million Series B and shortly afterward received an additional investment from GM. Those financings are positioned to support wider adoption of Oculii's radar-improvement tech across the automotive supply chain. Oculii builds a smart software layer for existing radar systems and also sells its own high-resolution radar units (Eagle and Falcon) that it says enable far greater spatial detail. The company claims its AI-driven, adaptive waveform approach can improve radar spatial resolution by up to 100x and leverages temporal integration to produce “4D” sensing. Oculii works with Tier‑1 suppliers and OEMs (one of which, HELLA, is also an investor) and has commercial contracts targeting 2024–2025 deployment. It competes with other novel radar approaches but emphasizes software-driven resolution improvements and hardware-software synergy. The firm intends to use the new funding to scale operations, hire, and continue investing in technology to deliver higher resolution, longer range, more compact and cheaper sensors. The article frames Oculii as positioning radar for a larger role in autonomous vehicle perception stacks.

Led · Equity · Dec 2020

TuSimple develops self‑driving truck systems and operates testing fleets with human safety operators for long‑haul highway routes. The company began public‑road testing in 2018, including a 120‑mile stretch between Tucson and Phoenix and segments in Shanghai. It maintains a global headquarters in San Diego, an engineering center and truck depot in Tucson, and additional operations and a facility in Texas to support autonomous trips; it also has operations in Beijing and Shanghai. TuSimple has expanded its commercial partnerships and investor base to include logistics and automotive players such as UPS, Mando, Traton Group and U.S. Xpress. The company continues to scale testing and operations in the U.S. while diversifying strategic investors and customers. Financially, TuSimple has raised $648 million since its 2015 founding, including a recent $350 million round. TuSimple develops autonomous driving systems and software for heavy commercial trucks. The company operates a fleet of 40 self-driving trucks in the U.S., used for testing and freight runs between Arizona and Texas. TuSimple was launched in 2015 and has operations in China, San Diego and Tucson, Arizona. It is backed by investors including Sina, Nvidia, UPS and Tier 1 supplier Mando Corporation. TuSimple is working with partners to move from retrofitting to purpose-built autonomous semis, including a 2024 production plan with Navistar. The new partnership with Traton will expand operations into Europe and aims to develop Level 4 autonomy on Scania trucks, beginning testing on a route between Södertälje and Jönköping in Sweden. TuSimple builds a full-stack Level 4 autonomous driving system for long-haul trucks. The company operates testing programs and fleets in China, San Diego and Tucson, Arizona, and reports more than 50 trucks and 18 contracted customers. TuSimple was founded in 2015. It plans to use new funding to continue developing its autonomous vehicle technology and to expand long-haul routes in Arizona and Texas. Financially, the company has raised $298 million in total funding to date. TuSimple has conducted public-road testing since 2018 and runs daily tests with partners such as UPS on routes between Phoenix and Tucson. TuSimple develops camera-centric Level 4 autonomous driving systems for commercial trucks and operates daily commercial routes in Arizona. The company runs three to five fully autonomous trips per day across three routes and has 12 contracted customers. TuSimple emphasizes a camera-based perception stack (claiming a 1,000-meter vision range) while using LiDAR for mapping and some data collection. On-road trips run with two safety engineers—one behind the wheel and one monitoring data—and the company says these paid runs both generate revenue and validate its system. TuSimple plans to scale its commercial fleet to more than 50 trucks by June and expand fully autonomous deliveries into Texas. It is also funding joint production programs and integrations with OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and sensor partners to enable commercial production and operation of self-driving trucks. TuSimple develops a full-stack autonomous driving system for line-haul trucking that integrates perception, localization, mapping, motion planning, control and actuation. The company uses advanced sensor fusion of cameras and radars to detect and track objects beyond 200 meters and its localization achieves consistent decimeter-level precision. Its decision-making system adapts to road conditions, including lane changes and speed adjustments, to maximize safety and efficiency. TuSimple demonstrated an SAE Level 4 self-driving system in Shanghai and is ramping up deployments in the U.S., starting in Tucson, Arizona. The company is focused on scaling testing to two full truck fleets—one in China and one in the U.S.—and is building a production engineering team in Tucson while maintaining R&D in San Diego and Beijing. TuSimple is led by CEO Mo Chen.

Participated · Series A · Jun 2019

GuardKnox develops a patented, end-to-end automotive cybersecurity platform that combines deterministic hardware and software components, including the Secure Network Orchestrator (SNO), secured domain controllers, and a service-oriented architecture. Its Communication Lockdown™ and zero-trust deterministic model routes and inspects messages, rejecting anything not explicitly designated as acceptable to provide real-time protection with zero false positives and no constant connectivity. The company adapted methodologies used to defend Israeli Air Force systems and fighter jets to vehicle security. GuardKnox was founded in 2016 in Ramla, Israel by Moshe Shlisel (CEO), Dionis Teshler (CTO) and Idan Nadav (VP R&D). Financially, it completed a $21 million Series A that brought total funding to $24 million. The company plans to use proceeds to expand its R&D team and open subsidiaries in strategic locations to support global expansion.

Participated · Seed · May 2019

Fleetonomy offers AI-based fleet monitoring and management platforms that use predictive analytics to forecast demand and rebalance vehicle supply in real time. In a trial with Audi, Fleetonomy used data from Germany and San Francisco to predict demand and move supply to improve availability, which Audi said improved efficiency and reduced costs. The company’s tools are positioned to help automakers and fleet operators automate, optimize and manage on-demand transportation services. CEO Israel Duanis said Fleetonomy can positively influence overall efficiency and enhance smart transportation management capabilities. Late last year Fleetonomy raised $3 million from investors including Vertex Ventures, with participation from Kardan Ventures and VectoIQ. Following the Audi trial, the company plans to expand to other automakers and deepen its relationship with Audi.