Israeli car simulation platform developer Cognata Ltd. announced today that it has closed an $18.5 million financing round led by Scale Venture Partners with the participation of existing investors, Emerge, Maniv Mobility, and Airbus Ventures and also the addition of Global IoT Technology Ventures. The company will use the funding to grow its engineering group and rapidly expand commercial operations in the US, Europe and Asia.
Cognata's automotive simulation platform combines artificial intelligence, deep learning, and computer vision to provide a realistic virtual environment that accurately simulates real-world test driving, allowing for fast and highly realistic results. The method of validating autonomous vehicle safety via simulation has proven to be a critical component of autonomous vehicle development. Simulation accelerates autonomous vehicle innovation and development by allowing the testing of a broad range of scenarios in a safe and controlled environment.
The Ness Ziona based company recently announced that Audi unit Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH (AID) has chosen Cognata as its autonomous vehicle simulation partner. Cognata provides AID with its full product lifecycle simulation solution as part of a multi-year partnership.
Cognata founder and CEO Danny Atsmon said "Simulation is critical to driving autonomous vehicle technology forward by validating the technology in a virtual environment, where the AI software can be trained before getting deployed on the road. Simulation is the solution that will speed up the innovation process while providing safety to the public. We are building the market-leader in this space. Our primary challenge is keeping up with the exploding demand for simulation." As part of this financing round, Scale Venture Partners partner Rory O'Driscoll will be joining the Cognata board of directors. He said, "As autonomous vehicles get closer to market, automakers must have a comprehensive simulation solution in place to meet the stringent training demands. Cognata's simulation platform is a critical component for the development of self-driving vehicles and the future of the industry."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 17, 2018
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