Participated · Series C · Jan 2023

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Oxford, Oxa builds a modular autonomy platform that combines software, hardware and fleet-management tools to retrofit and operate driverless vehicles in controlled industrial environments. The company focuses on “industrial mobile autonomy,” avoiding the complexity of open-road passenger applications in favor of repetitive, predictable driving tasks at ports, airports, warehouses and manufacturing facilities. Oxa’s system can convert a heavy-duty port truck to autonomous operation in less than a day, demonstrating rapid deployment capabilities for customers like DHL, BP and Vantec. By integrating its own sensors, compute stack and remote management software, the startup delivers a full-stack solution that can be adapted to multiple vehicle types. The new financing lifts Oxa’s total funding to more than $250 million, providing fresh capital to expand existing deployments and support upcoming commercial projects. Management intends to use the funds to scale with current partners and enter additional industrial sites globally, positioning the company for broader commercial rollout.

Led · Series C · Aug 2022

StradVision develops AI-based vision processing software (SVNet) for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles, with deployments on various vehicle models in partnership with OEMs. The company intends to use its newly raised capital to accelerate growth and expand operations. Led by CEO Junhwan Kim, StradVision reports more than 300 employees across offices in Seoul, San Jose, Detroit, Tokyo, Shanghai, Friedrichshafen, and Dusseldorf. Financially, the company closed an $88M Series C and has $129M in cumulative funding from seed through Series C. Its technology powers ADAS and autonomous vehicle perception worldwide. The company is positioned as an automotive-industry pioneer in AI-based vision processing. StradVision builds deep learning–based vision processing software for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles. The company positions its camera software as an enabler of next-level vehicle autonomy and mainstream ADAS implementations. StradVision says its solution will support millions of SUVs, sedans, and buses on the road soon. Its software is reportedly attracting leading automakers and suppliers. To accelerate expansion and cooperation, StradVision entered a strategic partnership with AISIN Group via a Pegasus Tech Ventures–managed fund. The company intends to leverage that partnership to meet growing demand for driver-assistance technologies and broader deployment of its camera solutions. StradVision is a Seoul-based developer of vision processing software for autonomous vehicles and ADAS, led by CEO Junhwan Kim. Its core product is SVNet, a deep learning-based software suite that enables lane detection, traffic light and sign detection/recognition, object detection, and free-space detection. The company has multiple mass-production projects ongoing in China and Europe with global OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. StradVision expects millions of vehicles — including SUVs, sedans and buses — to run its software by 2021. It currently employs more than 105 people across the United States, Germany, Korea and Japan. The company intends to use the new funds to continue developing its products. StradVision develops deep learning–based camera image detection software that recognizes pedestrians and reads text on road signs. Its front-detection technology is described as top-notch, able to detect distant and overlapping objects and distinguish between vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles. The software can analyze movement patterns and pedestrian posture to predict situations in advance and is claimed to use a high-efficiency algorithm optimized for vehicles. The company holds 14 patents, including methods for rapidly reading text in images, fast parallel data processing, and detection-accuracy enhancements; 10 of those patents are registered in the U.S. Founded in 2014, StradVision is an ICT firm whose majority of employees hold master’s or doctoral degrees. The company recently received an equity investment of 8 billion KRW from Hyundai Mobis to collaborate on developing deep learning cameras and pursue commercialization (the article notes commercialization is expected in 4–5 years and Hyundai Mobis aimed to develop a deep learning–based camera by 2020).

Led · Series A · Dec 2021

Embotech is a Zurich, Switzerland–based company developing autonomous driving solutions for industrial logistics, with a focus on Automated Vehicle Marshalling (AVM) for car factories and Autonomous Terminal Tractors (ATT) for ports and yards. The company leverages real-time optimization technology developed since 2013 and offers a Level 4 AV kit using LIDAR, cameras and GPS with localization accuracy under 5 cm. Embotech has secured multi-year rollout contracts, notably with BMW to install its AVM solution in six passenger car factories worldwide by the end of 2025; the rollout began in late 2023 and is already operational in Dingolfing and Leipzig, with Regensburg in progress and Spartanburg planned. The AVM solution is currently driving hundreds of cars per day and is expected to scale to several thousands per day in early 2025. For port logistics, Embotech validated its ATT technology in a 24/7 port environment and is preparing a major rollout in the port of Rotterdam, with 30 electric ATTs slated for deployment over the next two years. The company intends to use recent funding to scale its AVM and ATT offerings across Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. Embotech builds optimization and virtual-driver software (FORCESPRO and PRODRIVER) to enable L4 autonomy for vehicles and robotics on private grounds such as distribution centers, ports, car factories and mines. Its stack supports autonomous, fully electric vehicles that can perform all driving tasks and autonomously charge, and the company says few rivals combine L4 systems with autonomous charging robotics. Embotech’s technology has won multiple awards, most recently the Swiss Technology Award 2021. The team has grown to about 45 people while developing its core products. The company is deploying L4 systems into serial production for car OEM factory logistics starting mid-2022, has run 24/7 autonomous mining operations since late 2020, and plans logistics-yard production by end of 2022. Embotech plans to grow its team by 50% over the next two years and use the new capital to robustify products and accelerate deployments on private grounds. A partnership with ZF aims to develop complementary products, a global TaaS solution and an intelligent automated cruise control with predictive energy management.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2021

Apex.AI builds Apex.OS, a scalable operating system and SDK that lets OEMs implement complex AI and autonomous driving functionality across vehicles and robots. Its platform is positioned as analogous to Apple’s iOS SDK for vehicle software, intended to shorten development cycles for customers. Apex.OS has earned high safety certifications, including TÜV Nord product certification and ISO 26262 ASIL‑D. The company has attracted strategic OEM partners and investors, including a partnership with Toyota’s Woven Planet. Apex.AI is based in Palo Alto, CA, and targets safety‑critical automotive applications. Financially, the company accrued over $56 million in Series B funding as of last December and continues to draw OEM investments. Apex.ai develops safety-certified software tooling for automakers and other mobility customers, notably an ISO 26262–certified software development kit called Apex.OS for autonomous driving and safety-critical applications. The company also offers Apex.middleware, an enterprise middleware product that integrates protocols to improve communication between software applications. Apex.ai was founded by Bosch veterans Jan Becker and Dejan Pangercic and maintains offices in Palo Alto, Berlin, Stuttgart and Munich. The team recently secured TÜV NORD certification for Apex.OS at the highest ISO 26262 functional safety level, enabling use in production vehicles. Financially, Apex.ai has raised $74 million to date and plans to commercialize its existing products while developing new offerings for adjacent markets such as agriculture, mining, industrial automation and IoT. The company intends to double its workforce from about 70 to roughly 140 by the end of next year and to expand into Asia under the leadership of former Panasonic executive Tavis Szeto. Apex.AI is a Palo Alto-based startup founded by automated systems engineers Jan Becker and Dejan Pangercic that is building a robotic operating system qualified for use in production automobiles. The company focuses on an enterprise-focused version of the Robot Operating System open-source middleware. It lists two products, Apex.OS — providing simple-to-integrate APIs to give automakers access to fully certified autonomous mobility technology — and Apex.Autonomy, which supplies specific autonomy components such as perception, localization and path planning. Apex.AI positions its technology to help speed the process of getting autonomous driving systems into production vehicles across commercial and consumer offerings by enabling easier development of safety-certified systems, per Volvo Group Venture Capital's comments. Last November the two-year-old startup raised $15.5 million in a Series A. Volvo Group Venture Capital has made an investment via Volvo's VC arm; financial details were not disclosed and Volvo said the investment "has no significant impact" on its earnings or financial position. Apex.AI develops an enterprise-grade operating system for autonomous vehicles designed to never fail. Its software stack is positioned as an enterprise version of the Robot Operating System (ROS) and is built to integrate into existing systems. The company has engineered redundancies and schedules compute to guarantee safety-critical processes receive required execution time. Apex.AI is application-agnostic and targets a range of autonomous mobility platforms, including cars, drones, and flying taxis. The founders emphasize moving beyond R&D toward mass production as autonomy scales. Financially, the company emerged from stealth while announcing a new financing round to support these efforts.