Self-driving car software company Applied Intuition has raised $250 million in a round that values the startup at $6 billion to advance the adoption of artificial intelligence in the automotive, defense, construction, and agriculture sectors.
This impressive funding round is the latest example of investors' enthusiasm for AI. Applied Intuition seems to have hit a particularly sweet spot for VCs looking for AI product startups with big budgets to break into large-scale industries (one area of focus is defense). There seem to be endless opportunities.
The Series E round was led by Lux Capital's Bilal Zuberi, investor Elad Gil, and Porsche Investment Management, the sports car maker's independent venture arm. Other participants in the round included Andreessen Horowitz, Mary Meeker's growth fund Bond and even F1 world champion Nico Rosberg. Lux Capital, Elad Gil, and Andreessen Horowitz all previously led Applied Intuition's funding round.
The new capital, all equity, will be used to fund “the most ambitious projects we have without flooding the company or destroying our culture,” the co-founder and chief executive said. (CEO) Kasar Younis said in an interview with TechCrunch.
Founded in 2017, Applied Intuition develops software used by automakers and others to develop self-driving vehicle solutions. Some of that work includes creating simulations that allow customers to test and retest their perception and vehicle behavior systems, as well as helping them manage the large amounts of data involved in AV development.
“When they think, ‘I have a problem with this software or AI,’ we usually want them to think of themselves,” Yunis says. “We want to be that first caller.”
That approach appears to be working. The company owns 18 of the top 20 automakers, including General Motors (where Younis worked before going to Google and Y Combinator), Toyota, Volkswagen, and self-driving car startups. claims to be affiliated with. Gatik, Motional, Kodiak, etc. The company also has contracts with the Army and Defense Innovation Unit.
“The reason automakers don't partner with us in some way is because some of the technologies we're working on are very complex and impactful,” co-founder and CTO Peter Ludwig told TechCrunch. “I think it's dangerous just because it gives people a lot of money,” he said.
This new round of funding comes as GM's Cruise Corp. is embroiled in multiple investigations into a pedestrian crash late last year, Waymo's first-ever software recall (and a recent minor collision with a bicycle). It comes at a time when the development of driving vehicles is under new scrutiny. ), as well as job cuts and other changes to the scope of some of the sector's most ambitious projects.
But the desire for artificial intelligence is greater than ever. In his statement, Younis said further incorporating AI technology into his company's products will “dramatically accelerate the production of next-generation vehicles.”
That can mean a variety of things, Younis told TechCrunch. For example, companies are leveraging AI to generate more dynamic simulated environments for testing self-driving cars. “The simulator, it's very complex,” he says. “We have several teams of PhDs who sweat this problem all day long.” Applied Intuition will also work on some of the more topical technologies, such as large-scale language models. , which will also feature “more speculative stuff that approaches more areas of research,” Yunis says.
“If a world-class AI team could solve all the problems in the automotive industry, there are a lot of low-hanging fruit,” Younis says.