Berlin-based Xavveo, a startup focused on advancing autonomous vehicle sensor technology, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $8.6M (approximately €8M) in a seed funding round.
The round was co-led by Vsquared Ventures and imec.xpand, two funds specialised in deep tech.
The German startup will use the funds to develop its distributed Photonic Radar system, expand the engineering team, and support key partnerships with automakers and technology integrators.
“Autonomous vehicles (AVs) represent one of the most complex engineering challenges of our time,” says Dr. Sven Otte, CEO of Xavveo.
“Once fully deployed, AVs will democratise mobility and significantly reduce carbon emissions. We are thrilled to have Vsquared and imec.xpand, two funds with a lot of expertise in the deep tech sphere, on board.”
Xavveo: Revolutionising autonomous vehicle industry
Led by the founders of Sicoya –Dr. Sven Otte, Dr. Stefan Meister, and a key industry veteran from Intel, Dr. Ulrich Keil, Xavveo focuses on revolutionising the autonomous vehicle and other industries through its proprietary distributed photonic radar system.
By providing superior perception capabilities, the German company aims to enhance the safety, reliability, and efficiency of autonomous driving systems.
The company’s Photonic Radar uses advanced Silicon Photonics technology to place RADAR sensors around the vehicle. This setup delivers a very accurate angular resolution <0.1°.
It can reliably detect obstacles and navigate complex environments in all weather conditions, including fog and heavy rain.
Xavveo is becoming a major player in helping automotive manufacturers improve their technology and competitiveness.
The company’s breakthrough addresses the problems with current autonomous vehicle sensors, like LIDAR and vision sensors.
These limitations restrict autonomous vehicles to certain environments, making them less reliable and safe than human-driven cars.
The investor
Vsquared Ventures backs bold entrepreneurs who are engineering groundbreaking technologies that address some of the world’s most pressing challenges to becoming global leaders.
Investing in deep tech companies, Vsquared Ventures focuses on new space, new computing, energy transition, robotics and manufacturing, new computing and sensing, AI and next-gen software and tech-bio.
The company has built one of Europe’s strongest deep tech portfolios,
including industry disruptors Isar Aerospace, IQM Quantum Computing, Zama.ai, Customcells, Neura Robotics, and The Exploration Company.
“We are thrilled to back Xavveo and their game-changing approach to autonomous driving,” says Michael Jobst, Director Principal at Vsquared Ventures.
“Their distributed photonic radar system is set to become a critical enabler of the future of mobility, and we believe they have the talent and vision to bring this to the forefront of the industry,” adds Jobst.
imec.xpand is the largest independent venture capital fund focused on early-stage semiconductor innovation.
It supports ambitious deep-tech startups by using the expertise and resources of imec, a well-known research centre in semiconductor and nanotechnology, to help them grow.
Jonathan Fajardo Cortes, Principal at imec.xpand, adds, “Xavveo’s technology represents a monumental leap forward for autonomous vehicle perception, and we’re excited to support them as they scale this innovation. The combination of an exceptional team and groundbreaking technology is precisely what we look for in our investments.”
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