Aurora Labs, an Israel-based remote software management service for car makers, has raised $23m in its series B round from a consortium including automotive manufacturers, electronics and technology corporations and venture capitalists.
The B round was jointly led by LG Technology Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of South Korea-based LG Group, and Marius Nacht, co-founder of Check Point Software Technologies.
Porsche SE, majority owner of the VW group which includes Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat among its brands, invested $2.5m while other corporations in the round included Toyota Tsusho, the auto parts member of Toyota Group, and UL Ventures, the investment unit of global safety certification company UL, and existing investors participated in the latest round.
Founded in 2016, Aurora Labs has raised $34m in total, including $11.1m raised previously from investors including Fraser McCombs Capital and MizMaa Ventures.
New global regulations (UNECE WP.29) require traceable and secure software updates for the hundreds of millions of lines of automotive software code already in passenger cars, vans, trucks and buses today and expected to triple by 2030.
Mitsuhiro Tsubakimoto, CEO for Chemicals & Electronics Division from Toyota Tsusho, said: “With the recent adoption of the UNECE WP.29 regulation for over-the-air updates, which goes into effect in Japan in 2021, Toyota Tsusho will work with Aurora Labs to reduce the costs of updates to the entire vehicle and to validate changes in the lines-of-code for our vehicles to remain compliant as over-the-air updates are delivered to cars.”
Anshul Agarwal, managing director of LG Technology Ventures, said: “The Aurora Labs’ team has proven that its innovative and cost-effective approach to remote software management has a unique proposition enabling self-healing devices.”
“In the future software will be the major differentiating factor in cars and efficient software updates will play an increasingly important role,” added Lutz Meschke, member of the board of management of Porsche SE.
Chris Park, investment director of UL Ventures, said: “Aurora Labs’ unique ability to create, manage and monitor a digital record of all certified updates and functionalities will be a critical building block ensuring digital compliance to the industry standards and the safety of drivers and passengers.”
