Algolux, a globally recognised computer vision software company, announced it has raised $18.4 million in Series B funding. This round was co-led by Forte Ventures and Drive Capital with additional funding from new investors Investissement Quebec, Castor Ventures, and Nikon-SBI Innovation Fund, as well as existing investors GM Ventures, Generation Ventures, and Intact Ventures.
Global automotive camera shipments are expected to surpass 300 million units by 2025, reaching $25 billion in revenue according to separate studies by Yole Developpement and Global Market Insights. Industry growth will continue to be fueled by increasing concerns regarding vehicle and passenger safety across the globe coupled with accelerating technological advancements in camera-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). In parallel, trucks are making great progress towards autonomy as their large size provides a better platform for computing and an improved field of view for sensors. Unfortunately, vision – the most widely deployed component of the overall perception stack – is still hampered by performance issues in low light and poor weather conditions making SAE Levels 2 and above more challenging to support. In fact, urban car crash fatalities and fatality rates have been rising for over a decade in the United States.
Algolux’s computer vision and image optimisation solutions address the mission-critical issue of safety for ADAS and autonomous vehicles. Algolux is the first company to use computational imaging to design algorithms that treat the camera as part of the overall perception stack; a bold departure from the traditional siloed approach. This leads to the resolution of harsh cases such as low-light, low contrast, and obstructions for object detection, imaging, and geometric estimation. In addition, using physical camera models reduces training data needs by an order of magnitude. This results in Algolux technologies outperforming commercial solutions by as much as 60 points in mean average precision (mAP).
“We are thrilled to be taking this next step in the company’s trajectory and to do so with the trust and support of outstanding investors. Algolux is actively engaged with leading OEMs, Tier 1s, and Tier 2s globally. The consistent theme is a desire from customers to significantly improve the performance of their driving and parking vision systems in even the most challenging real-world situations,” said Allan Benchetrit, Algolux CEO.
“We fully expect that computer vision systems will be an increasingly important part of the future safety and functionality of vehicles and a necessary complement to other sensors like LiDAR and Radar,” said Louis Rajczi, Partner at Forte Ventures. “We understand that these camera systems must function in extremely challenging environments (low light, poor weather, glare…) and believe Algolux has developed a world-class solution that provides exceptional performance in these types of conditions.”
Also Read: What’s Driving The Automotive Industry?
“We are proud to work with Algolux and to support its growth and innovation plans. Our participation demonstrates our desire to back Québec businesses in strategic industries that are ready to drive economic development. We are confident that Algolux, which already stands out as a leading AI provider in the advanced vehicle market, will succeed and make its mark, both here at home and around the globe,” said Guy Leblanc, President and CEO of Investissement Quebec.
Recently named to the 2021 CB Insights AI 100 List of the world’s most innovative artificial intelligence startups, Algolux will use this funding to achieve the following three goals:
- Accelerate adoption of Algolux’s award-winning products across mobility markets
- Grow its engineering and customer enabling teams to scale worldwide support
- Expand to additional vertical markets enabled by camera applications
As part of the funding round, Louis Rajczi, Partner at Forte Ventures, and Alistair Mitchell, President at Generation Ventures have joined the Algolux Board of Directors. Alan MacIntosh, the Board Partner at Real Ventures, will be moving to a Board Observer role.
Algolux is also announcing the appointment of Matthias Schulze as Vice President Europe and Asia. Schulze, an ADAS veteran with over 20 years of management experience, will help accelerate Algolux’s go-to-market strategy. Most recently, he served as VP, Technology Management at Visteon. Prior to that, he spent over 29 years at Daimler AG in leadership positions related to autonomous driving, ADAS, and telematics. Schulze’s long record of collaboration with the European Commission, the German Federal Ministries of Economics and Technology and of Education and Research, as well as the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport in Japan makes him the ideal fit to help Algolux expand its footprint in Europe and Asia.
