Oxbotica, the UK autonomous vehicle software company, has announced the completion of a £14m (US$18.5m) investment to support the next stage of its growth strategy, with the funding used to expand its activities in Europe, Asia and the USA.
The Oxford-based company has secured funding from lead investor IP Group, alongside Parkwalk Advisors and long-term commercial partner AXA XL (formerly XL Catlin). The investment will be used to further accelerate Oxbotica’s sustained growth, which has already seen it generate significant revenues from an international customer base, which include some of the world’s most prominent businesses in the aerospace, automotive, construction, logistics and mining sectors.
Its software has been deployed across multiple government-backed and industry-leading projects where the future application of autonomy is being trialled, such as with grocery delivery company Ocado, at Heathrow Airport, and on major UK city streets.
Founded in 2014 on research from Oxford University’s Robotics Institute, Oxbotica’s software uses the latest in computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to enable vehicles to operate autonomously in any environment and on any terrain. This has made it an attractive solution for many enterprises looking to increase efficiency, productivity and safety. The company’s control system, Selenium, enables vehicles to sense their surroundings, while Caesium, Oxbotica’s cloud-based fleet management system, can schedule and coordinate fleets of vehicles.
“The domain-agnostic design of our technology, as well as its independence from external infrastructure such as GPS, makes it uniquely versatile across a range of industries. This has allowed us to trade from day one, attracting a significant blue-chip customer base,” noted Paul Newman, co-founder of Oxbotica. “Together with our customers and partners, my fellow founder Ingmar Posner and I look forward to taking our technology, and our products, to the next level.”
Graeme Smith, CEO of Oxbotica, said, “We are on a mission to bring autonomous software to the world’s biggest markets. We have already seen extraordinary demand from a range of sectors and markets, with the successful deployment of our technology across a strong customer base over the previous four years.
“This injection of funds comes as we move the business into its next growth phase, enabling us to deliver our ambitious plans to scale our capabilities and international presence. To help us achieve this, we are very pleased to welcome our investors to the company and Jamie Vollbracht from IP Group on to our board.”
Jesse Norman, UK Under Secretary of State for Transport, added, “Oxbotica is a terrific example of great British innovation, developing smart solutions to some of the biggest challenges of the future. As outlined in the government’s Industrial Strategy, we see major potential for autonomous vehicles, and I salute cutting-edge companies like Oxbotica that help to put Britain not just at the forefront of innovation, but innovation with global potential.”
