DAYTON, Ohio, May 6, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Oculii, the leading provider of advanced AI software for radar perception, today announced a $ 55 million Series B funding round. The round was co-led by Catapult Ventures and Conductive Ventures, with participation from Taiwania Capital, Susquehanna Investment Group (SIG), HELLA Ventures, PHI-Zoyi Capital, R7 Partners, VectoIQ, ACVC Partners, Mesh Ventures, SV Tech Ventures, Schox Ventures and Signature Bank. The new round of funding brings Oculii’s total funding amount to $ 75 million.

The new funding follows Oculii’s launch of the world’s highest resolution radars, the EAGLE and the FALCON. Both products, powered by Oculii’s AI Virtual Aperture Imaging ™ (VAI) software, deliver unmatched resolution and performance for stand-alone systems and are already being used in commercial deployments by some of the world’s largest autonomous robotics companies. .

Oculii’s AI-powered Virtual Aperture Imaging ™ (VAI) software platform redefines radar performance, enabling up to a 100-fold increase in resolution on any radar hardware platform – enabling High performance all-weather perception using existing radar sensors that have been proven in the market and widely deployed. Oculii’s artificial intelligence software technology has been licensed by some of the world’s leading Tier 1 and OEM automotive radars, providing them with a scalable solution that dramatically improves Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). ) commercial automobiles today and unlocks fully autonomous driving in the future.

A software solution to a hardware problem

With its low cost, high reliability and all-weather vision, Radar has transformed the automotive industry. It powers innovations such as emergency braking, blind spot detection and park assist systems. However, due to the limited resolution of the radar, it did not meet the autonomy needs of the automotive industry. Improving radar performance is possible by adding more antennas to the sensors, but this approach significantly increases the cost, size, and power consumption.

Oculii’s revolutionary approach uses AI software to solve this hardware problem.

Its AI-powered Virtual Aperture Imaging platform dynamically sends an adaptive phase-modulated waveform that changes in real time with the environment, then encodes that data over time, increasing the resolution of everything. radar equipment up to 100X.

This enhanced resolution and sensitivity unlocks the potential of low cost, mass-produced, market proven commercial radars, enabling all-weather perception with horizontal and elevation resolution of less than 1 ° up to 350 meters around. a full 360 ° field of view.

“Our vision is to make radar a vital part of any autonomy solution, leveraging its inherent strengths with unmatched resolution, and the market is responding,” said Steven Hong, CEO and co-founder of Oculii. “We work with 14 of the top 20 Tier 1 / Tier 2 suppliers and have business development contracts with the largest OEM and AV companies in North America, Europe and Asia. This new round of funding will accelerate Oculii’s growth as the leading AI software radar solution in the market. Oculii will continue to exploit business opportunities with automotive, robotics and audiovisual companies while growing its teams and customer base globally. “

“For the past 20 years, autonomous systems have waited for high-resolution, weather-resistant, low-cost sensors to enable a new level of automation,” said Darren Liccardo, CEO of Catapult Ventures, former director of autopilot at Tesla and vice president of engineering at DJI. “Finally, the industry has a scalable solution, as Oculii’s Virtual Aperture Imaging (VAI) technology provides these metrics for short-term ADAS functionality and longer-term autonomous vehicles.”

“Dr. Lang Hong and his world-class team have developed an affordable software solution that brings LiDAR resolution into the radar sensor, ”said Paul Yeh, Managing Director of Conductive Ventures. “Coming from the automotive industry, I saw first-hand the complexities of adopting new technologies, as the existing automotive supply chain is so well established that any changes to the existing structure will add time to the schedule. deployment. As for Oculii’s VAI software, it leverages existing and proven radar hardware in the market without adding any steps to the supply chain. This allows Oculii to deploy its technology much faster than that of other sensors such as LiDAR. ”

About Oculii

Oculii creates a next-generation artificial intelligence software platform for radar that delivers exponentially higher resolution, longer range, more accuracy and less cost than conventional solutions – increasing safety and reliability. The promise of autonomous vehicles depends on high-performance, all-weather, inexpensive, and scalable perception technology, and Oculii is bringing it to life. The company has raised more than $ 75 million from leading investors and strategic partners and is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Silicon Valley and Beijing. For more information, please visit www.oculii.com.

About Conductive Ventures

Conductive Ventures invests in growing companies with a focus on software, hardware and technology services. The team is led by institutional investors and operators with unparalleled experience in the sector. Conductive Ventures focuses on post-product ventures with early customer success. The team works closely with the companies in its portfolio to deliver demonstrable revenue acceleration through targeted introductions and partnerships. For more information, please visit www.conductive.vc.

About Catapult Ventures

Catapult Ventures specializes in investing at the cutting edge of automation, robotics, AI and IoT. Founded by Rouz Jazayeri and Darren Liccardo, the team has more than three decades of operational experience. Catapult Ventures approaches investing from the perspective of having been in the trenches and with an appreciation of the practicalities of building technology in an income-generating business. For more information, please visit www.catapult.vc.

Media contact: Jillian Smith, [email protected]

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