Canada-based autonomous car technology developer Clearpath Robotics closed a $30m funding round featuring power and automation technology producer General Electric and construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar.
The round, led by venture capital firm iNovia Capital, included Eclipse Ventures, RRE Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. The corporates participated through their Caterpillar Ventures and GE Ventures units respectively.
Founded in 2009, Clearpath supplies self-driving technology, products and services to businesses. It established an industrial division known as Otto Motors in 2015 to focus on developing vehicles for use in manufacturing and warehouse buiildings.
The funding will be used to expand Otto Motors, which already provides material handling equipment to customers including GE and agricultural and construction equipment manufacturer John Deere.
Matt Rendall, co-founder and CEO of Clearpath, said: “The market for self-driving passenger vehicles will be over $80bn by 2030. We believe the market for self-driving materials handling vehicles will be equally significant.
“Clearpath has a big head start, and this new funding will allow us to further accelerate the development of the best self-driving software in the industry – and bring more Ottos into the world faster.”
Clearpath graduated from the Canadian province of Waterloo’s Accelerator Centre with $300,000 in angel funding in 2010, and added $11.2m in a March 2015 round led by RRE Ventures and backed by iNovia Capital.
– Image courtesy of Clearpath Robotics, Inc.