Korea autonomous driving tech supplier raises $25.5m
Korea’s Autocrypt, a connected mobility technology supplier targeting the autonomous driving sector, has raised a USD 25.5m Series B round featuring STIC Ventures and Hyundai Venture Investment.
Korea Asset Investment Securities, Ulmus Investment, BSK Investment, Shinhan Venture Investments, JB Asset Management, and Pathfinder H also participated. The deal values the company at USD 120m, post-money.
It follows a USD 15m Series A last year from Hyundai Venture, Korea Asset, Ulmus, KB, Pathfunder, and IBK Capital. A seed round of USD 2.5m came shortly after inception in 2019.
Autocrypto claims to take a multi-layered and holistic approach to auto tech development in areas such as in-vehicle systems and fleet management. Its core offering is a connected vehicle cybersecurity product called V2X, which it believes will be key to the wider adoption of autonomous driving.
"[T]his means implementing secure V2X connectivity in not just vehicles, but roads, infrastructure, but also pedestrian devices," CEO Daniel Kim said in a statement.
Autocrypt says its technology is used on every smart roadway and highway in Korea, which is amounts to about 5,000 kilometres of road. The company has more than 50 partners and customers globally, with subsidiaries having been established in Canada and Germany.
Additional projects include a software vulnerability analysis platform called Analyzer and software flaws detection system Security Fuzzer. There is also Plug&Charge, a cybersecurity tool designed specifically for electric vehicles and related charging infrastructure.
The plan is to establish a Singapore office later this year. Talks are also underway with several public agencies globally to implement V2X and related security technologies. At a demonstration event in Germany last month, Autocrypt said it expected to develop pilot projects led by European governments and equipment companies within the year.
Hyundai Motor Group is a key player in the traditional auto industry's increasing embrace of VC strategies. Earlier this year, it partipcated in a USD 20m Series B for Korean vehicle simulation systems supplier Morai. Large-scale autonomous driving simulations are considered crucial to safety development and adoption of the technology.
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