Korea autonomous driving tech supplier raises $20m
Morai, a Korean autonomous vehicle simulation technology supplier, has raised USD 20m in Series B funding from investors including Korea Investment Partners and Hyundai Motor Group.
KB Investment, Kakao Ventures, and Atinum Investment also invested. They were joined by Korea Development Bank and Naver's D2 Startup Factory. D2 has been an investor since 2019 and provided an approximately USD 2m Series A in 2020 alongside Kakao and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund. Total funding since inception in 2018 comes to USD 25m.
Hyundai participated via its mobility and logistic accelerator Zer01ne, highlighting an evolving financial-strategic dynamic between star-ups and traditional carmakers. The auto giant’s previous investments in the sector include regional ride-hailing companies Grab and Ola, as well as Motional, a $4 billion joint venture with Irish auto parts maker Aptiv.
Founded by three autonomous driving researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Morai claims to be the country’s Korea's sole provider of full-stack autonomous vehicle simulation technology. Its key differentiator is the ability to automatically convert high-definition map data into large-scale simulation environments.
The company’s latest innovation is a cloud system that allows for the creation of simulation environments without hardware restrictions and enables simultaneous testing. It serves more than 100 customers, including Hyundai, Naver, the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, and 42dot, a local autonomous driving start-up backed by Stic Ventures.
Having established its US office near San Francisco, Morai plans to use the new funding to further open offices in auto industry centres such as Germany and Japan, as well as in Singapore, where the company expects to benefit from digital technology development support. The capital will also be applied to bringing the company’s existing technology to urban air mobility.
“Morai’s simulator technology will play a key role in enhancing the safety and functionality of self-driving cars,” Geun-ho Kim, an executive director at Korea Investment Partners, said in a statement. “Morai has the potential to become one of the leading companies in the global autonomous driving sector, and we are looking forward to the company's future growth.”
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