Autonomous mobility and robotics solutions developer Robotic Research has announced a US$228m funding round—the first outside capital the company has raised. It will use the funding to expand its commercial division, RR.AI, which is focused on delivering comprehensive autonomous driving solutions for commercial truck, bus, drayage and logistics vehicles. Investors in the series A round include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Enlightenment Capital, Crescent Cove Advisors, Henry Crown and Company, and Luminar Technologies, Inc.
“This investment reflects our success in developing autonomous solutions for our US government customers, and will provide the resources needed to meet our growing commercial customer demand and the expansion of our commercial efforts,” said Alberto Lacaze, CEO, Robotic Research. “Our long history and experience has enabled us to develop a proven solution that is not only rugged, safe and reliable, but also versatile and ideal for operating across a variety of environments, weather conditions, and use cases.”
Robotic Research has successfully deployed autonomous and robotics solutions on roadways around the globe as well as in harsh, unstructured environments. The company’s vehicle-agnostic autonomy kit, AutoDrive, has already been integrated in a variety of vehicles including North America’s first automated heavy-duty transit bus, Class 8 trucks, and yard trucks.
“We believe that autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to reshape how goods and people are moved around,” said Akshay Naheta, senior vice president of SoftBank Group Corp and former managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “Robotic Research has a track record of operating in the commercial sector and has built a differentiated autonomy solution by focusing on tangible, revenue-generating opportunities. We are thrilled to be a financial partner and provide resources needed to accelerate the commercialization of Robotic Research’s solutions.”