Nauto has secured $159m in its Series B funding round led by a SoftBank Group subsidiary and Greylock Partners.
Other backers contributing to the funding round included BMW iVentures, General Motors Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Allianz Group, investors Playground Global and Draper Nexus.
California-based Nauto is an AI camera device which monitors risky manoeuvres, detects collisions, and tracks driver behaviour. The platform uses the camera to analyse real-time risks, create a live map of car fleet locations and track driving performance to see who increases the fleet’s risk and liability level.
Nauto provides for company fleets and insurance industry customers, with the AI helping to cut collision claims by up to 80 per cent.
The capital injection will help Nauto develop its platform and expand its data platform in autonomous vehicle research and development to multiple auto manufactures.
Nauto founder and CEO Stefan Heck said, “At a time when traffic fatalities are climbing and distracted driving causes more than half of all crashes, we’re tackling that problem by putting Nauto’s safety features into more commercial fleet vehicles — from trucks and vans to buses and passenger cars — to warn drivers and coach them on how to stay focused.
“And, in pursuit of the profoundly transformational impact autonomous vehicle technology can have on business and society, we’ll now more rapidly be able to gather the billions more miles of real driving experience and data required to get a precise understanding of how the best drivers behave behind the wheel.”
As part of the deal, Greylock partner Reid Hoffman and SoftBank’s Shu Nyatta will join Nauto’s board of directors.
Last year the company picked up $12m in its Series A funding round led by Playground Global.
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