🎉 Announcing our Series F round at $15B valuation
Bringing vehicle intelligence to every moving machine.
Welcome back to the Nexus Newsletter, Applied Intuition’s newsletter covering the latest in autonomy, AI, and vehicle intelligence.
Today’s newsletter is a big one—we just closed a $600 million Series F fundraise and tender offer at a $15 billion valuation. Read on to find out what this means for the company. Plus, our autonomous ISV work with the U.S. Army.
Eight years ago, we set out to accelerate the world’s adoption of safe, intelligent machines. Since then, we’ve become a global force in autonomy. Our dual-use approach has enabled us to become the trusted partner for industry leaders in automotive and defense to solve their toughest challenges.
This funding round will help us accelerate our efforts to lead the shift to vehicle intelligence — a vehicle’s ability to learn and adapt to its users. What exactly is vehicle intelligence?
For OEMs: It enables deeply customized user experiences, rich data intelligence across fleets, and the ability to continually improve products.
For defense customers: It delivers mission-ready reliability, enhanced operational efficiency, and the ability to adapt to new challenges rapidly.
For people and society: It makes mobility safer, smarter, and more helpful by understanding individual needs and delivering tailored experiences. We are enabling vehicles to understand, anticipate, and proactively serve people and businesses everywhere.
Our CEO and Co-founder Qasar Younis recently spoke with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan about our mission to bring vehicle intelligence to moving machines.
Our Series F funding comes a little over a year after our $250 million Series E financing round at a $6 billion valuation. This round, co-led by BlackRock-managed funds and accounts and Kleiner Perkins, positions Applied Intuition for the next phase of vehicle intelligence, deeper product expansion, and global team growth. Other new investors in the round include Franklin Templeton, Qatar Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Premji Invest, Stripes, Greycroft, BAM Elevate, and 137 Ventures. Existing investors participating in the round include Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Lux, BOND, Elad Gil, Addition, and Tribe Capital.
Check out the following stories about our Series F announcement:
Turning an Infantry Squad Vehicle autonomous in 10 days 🇺🇸
Earlier this year, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Randy George visited our Mountain View headquarters and left us with a challenge: Bring our commercial technologies to the Army fast. We got to work.
Ten days later, we delivered a fully autonomous ISV paired with a Humvee mobile command post.
As detailed in our blog, retrofitting the ISV didn’t come without challenges. When the team got the vehicle, it was essentially a bare-bones structure. We developed protective hardware solutions, installed a pedal-pushing robot to physically turn the wheel and press the throttle and brake pads. Once the hardware was ready, we deployed our vehicle intelligence software — our off-road autonomy solution and Vehicle OS products — to the ISV.
After we delivered the autonomous ISV to the service, the team arrived at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Johnson, Louisiana, to stay in the field with soldiers as they tested the ISV. The Applied Intuition team ran multiple missions with the ISV over the course of two weeks.
We’re grateful to Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Randy George for trusting our team to deliver critical technology to our warfighters. As Sec. Driscoll said on Bloomberg TV, “These are the types of things that we have to be doing as an Army.” Our work with the U.S. Army shows what can happen when the Department of Defense taps into the Silicon Valley ecosystem — working hand-in-hand with dual-use companies allows our military to move faster and build smarter.
We’re ready for the next challenge.
