Cognata Raises $18.5M in Series B Round to Accelerate Expansion of its Autonomous Vehicles Simulation Platform Business

REHOVOT, Israel, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cognata, Ltd., announced today that it has closed an $18.5 million funding 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 United States, 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.

Cognata recently announced that Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH (AID), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AUDI AG, selected Cognata as its autonomous vehicle simulation partner. Cognata provides AID with its full product lifecycle simulation solution as part of a multi-year partnership.

"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," says Danny Atsmon, CEO and Founder of Cognata. "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 funding round, Partner at Scale Venture Partners Rory O'Driscoll will be joining the Cognata board of directors."As autonomous vehicles get closer to market, automakers must have a comprehensive simulation solution in place to meet the stringent training demands," says O'Driscoll.  "Cognata's simulation platform is a critical component for the development of self-driving vehicles and the future of the industry."

About Cognata

Cognata provides a fast lane to autonomous driving with its testing and evaluation solution for self-driving vehicles?a realistic automotive simulation platform where virtual cars travel virtual roads in virtual cities, all remarkably true to real-world conditions. Led by CEO Danny Atsmon, a widely respected expert in ADAS and deep learning, Cognata brings the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence, deep learning, and computer vision to the autonomous driving simulation world. Cognata's simulated testing and evaluation environment shaves years off the validation time by generating fast, highly accurate results, and eliminates the safety concerns, high costs, and limited scalability of road-testing in the physical world. Cognata was founded in 2016 by a team of experts in deep learning, autonomous vehicles and computer vision. The company is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel, close to the Weizmann Institute of Science. For more information, visit http://www.cognata.com.

About Scale Venture Partners

Scale Venture Partners (@scalevp) invests in software companies that are transforming the future of work. Investments include: Box (BOX), Chef, Cloudhealth, DataStax, Demandbase, DocuSign (DOCU), ExactTarget (ET), HubSpot (HUBS), JFrog, Lever, and WalkMe. ScaleVP partners with entrepreneurs to support accelerated growth from the first customer to market leadership. Founded in 2000, ScaleVP has over $1.7 billion under management and is located in Silicon Valley. For more information visit www.scalevp.com.

About Emerge 

Emerge is a Tel Aviv based venture capital firm investing primarily in early stage start-ups that operate in diverse verticals and powered by deep technology. The fund's investors and advisors are founders of leading global technology companies, creating a strong and unique network. A significant part of this network is based in Asia in order to assist portfolio companies in opening new possibilities in this region. For more information, visit www.emerge.co.il

About Maniv Mobility

Maniv Mobility, Israel's first venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to the new mobility future, has deep connections throughout the global automotive industry, as well as the policy and technology communities. Investing primarily in early-stage startups, it seeks out ideas around automotive connectivity and data, autonomous vehicle technologies such as sensors and software, and novel business models. With 23 startups already part of its portfolio, Maniv actively uses its experience, networks and resources to help its founders turn their ideas into great companies. For more information, visit www.maniv.com

About Airbus Ventures

Airbus Ventures is a fast-moving, intensely curious early-stage investment group that seeks exceptional, inspired founders from around the world who will set the course for ground-breaking innovation in mobility, security, and the future of flight. Its vision is to continuously ignite interest in the wonder that is aerospace. Airbus is in its DNA, from a legacy of innovation and industry expertise to a global network. Yet Airbus Ventures operates with autonomy and trust, from the investments it makes to the technologies they develop; it independently supports entrepreneurs with unique ideas, plans, and structures. The Airbus Ventures Fund is deploying capital in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. For more information, visit http://www.airbusventures.vc/.

Global IoT Technology Ventures

GiTV is a Japanese venture fund with a broad and unique robust network in promoting co-innovation among disruptive technology startups, open innovation-driven corporations and global industry leaders, including from the Japanese automotive industry. It invests in deep tech early stage startups mainly in the fields of IoT, Industry 4.0, AI, Robotics, AR and Digitalization solutions. Visit https://www.gitv.vc/

Contact:
DeeDee Rudenstein
267-5219654
[email protected]

SOURCE Cognata