By Jan Becker
Today I am excited to announce Volvo Group Venture Capital, HELLA Ventures, and Jaguar Land Rover’s venture capital arm InMotion Ventures as new investors in Apex.AI. We are eager to leverage their deep expertise in the mobility industry to move Apex.AI forward. Volvo Group is one of the largest manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles, trucks, buses, and construction equipment and Jaguar Land Rover brings decades of experience as a beloved high-end car manufacturer. HELLA is a leading international supplier of automotive electronics and lighting. This builds on our bench of existing backers, which include Toyota AI Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Canaan Partners, Lightspeed Ventures and others.
The investment comes at a time of massive change for the mobility industry. As the development of autonomous systems advances, companies need software that is safe and reliable to run them—a critical element as the industry moves from research to commercialization. Dejan and I founded Apex.AI on the premise of developing technology that can launch into products within 3 years to make mobility safer and more reliable. Apex.OS*—our flagship product—will launch to the automotive market early 2020 and subsequently expand to other safety-critical autonomous systems, such as industrial robotics and aerospace. The new strategic investments are evidence of Apex.OS*’s broad applicability from traditional automotive to off-highway sectors (e.g. construction, mining, agriculture), industrial robotics, and aerospace.
Anna Westerberg, acting CEO of Volvo Group Venture Capital and SVP Volvo Group Connected Solutions: “We are excited to invest in a company that enables easier development of safety-certified systems.”
Marco Marinucci, Partner at HELLA Ventures: “We believe that Apex.AI is uniquely positioned in the autonomous vehicle space. With L4/5 autonomy taking longer and costing more than initially anticipated, Apex.AI enables the automotive industry to shorten the time from R&D to development. Apex.OS*, a software development environment that is based on ROS 2 and meets the highest functional safety standards, solves a real need in the industry and we are excited to be along for the ride.”
Sebastian Peck, Managing Director at InMotion Ventures: “InMotion Ventures is excited to back Apex.AI. Jan and Dejan have assembled a highly experienced team to deliver safe and certified software for autonomous mobility. We look forward to supporting Apex.AI alongside other leading strategic investors on their journey.”
With our new and existing investors, we are pleased to see so many in the industry join us in our vision of providing safe and certified software for autonomous mobility.
Exciting times are ahead for Apex.AI!
Stay tuned for more.
*As of January 2023 we renamed our products: Apex.Grace was formerly known as Apex.OS, and Apex.Ida was formerly known as Apex.Middleware.