Based out of London, Five is a self-driving technology company that began its first on-street driverless vehicle testing in the UK in August 2018. In the latest development, the UK company has raised $41 million (approx €37 million) in a Series B round of equity funding.
New & existing investors participated!
The round was led by new investors – Trustbridge Partners, Direct Line Group, and Sistema VC. Other existing investors, including Lakestar, Amadeus Capital Partners, Kindred Capital, and Notion Capital, also participated.
One of Europe’s best-funded self-driving startups!
To date, the company has raised $77 million (approx €69 million), making it one of Europe’s best-funded self-driving startups. This latest round of funding will be used to productize these vital offline cloud-based development platforms alongside high-value components of Five’s online vehicle software.
Self-driving technology!
For the uninitiated, Five (Five AI Inc.) began developing its approach to self-driving technology in 2016, and a year later, secured the lead role in StreetWise, a UK government-aided development program in which Direct Line Group also contributed.
Tested on world’s most complex testing environments!
Over three years, Five’s expert team developed a high functionality self-driving system for mixed-use urban public roads. In 2019, that technology was demonstrated over hundreds of rides driving autonomously over a 19km route in London, one of the world’s most complex testing environments.
Addressed the most complex challenges through cloud platform!
Also, the company began building cloud-based platforms alongside its software to address the most complex challenges it encountered in the process of development and assurance.
Together, these will provide global partners with the means to bring needed performance and engineering certainty to their self-driving programs and deliver the assurance evidence required for their safety cases.
Stan Boland, Five’s CEO, said:
This funding round is a validation of the work we are doing and the role our technology is set to contribute to developing and assuring self-driving. We’re excited to be able to accelerate development and engagements with partners. Our shareholders have large and complementary contributions to make to that progress, and we are delighted to welcome Trustbridge, Direct Line Group, and Sistema VC to our cap table. We look forward to their support on the next stage of our journey.
Five’s founding team has collectively built businesses that have sold for more than $1bn, and the company has established close ties with some of the world’s leading academic institutions.
Main image picture credits: FIVE
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