Bucking the trend of decreasing startup investment rounds over the past year, auto-tech company UVeye has secured $100 million in Series D funding.
The company said the money will be used to start producing UVeye’s automated car inspection systems in North America, support further sales growth in the United States and fuel new-market expansion.
The investment round was led by Hanaco VC, a venture-capital firm based in New York and Tel Aviv. Also participating in the round were GM Ventures, CarMax, W.R. Berkley Corporation, F.I.T. Ventures L.P. and Israeli institutional investors.
“The confidence that Hanaco VC and our other strategic investors have shown in UVeye will allow us to further scale our operations and introduce industry-first inspection technology at thousands of dealerships, used-car auctions and fleets throughout the United States within the next three years,” said UVeye cofounder and CEO Amir Hever.
“UVeye’s goal is to both revolutionize and standardize how the auto industry detects vehicle damage and mechanical issues. Our patent-protected technology provides automakers, dealers and fleet operators with unmatched solutions for quickly and accurately identifying vehicle problems while setting new quality standards for the industry,” Hever said.
Headquartered in Tel Aviv and in Teaneck, New Jersey, UVeye designed its system based on advanced artificial intelligence, computer-vision and machine-learning technologies. Founded in 2016, the company also has offices in Japan and Germany and has commercial agreements with General Motors, Volvo Cars USA and CarMax to introduce UVeye technology throughout their wholesale networks.
Another Tel Aviv-based auto-tech company, Foretellix, has just raised $43 million in the first closing of its Series C funding round.
The round, led by 83North and joined by Toyota’s growth fund as well as NVIDIA and existing investors including the Volvo Group, brings Foretellix’s total raised capital to over $93 million.
Foretellix’s safety-driven verification and validation platform, Foretify, is used by automotive, trucking and mining customers such as the Volvo Group and Torc (a Daimler Truck subsidiary) to accelerate the development and deployment of their automated driving systems.
“Foretellix is addressing the largest barrier for safe large-scale deployment of automated driving systems. The new funding will help us to address the growing demand for our solutions, extend our worldwide reach, and accelerate our vision for achieving safe autonomy,” said Foretellix CEO and cofounder Ziv Binyamini.