US-based autonomous vehicle software developer Drive.ai has secured $15m in funding from ride hailing service Grab and undisclosed additional investors.
Founded in 2015, Drive.ai is using deep learning to help develop artificial intelligence (AI) software for use in driverless vehicles. The company is also working on a retrofit kit that will allow businesses to convert existing commercial vehicles into autonomous fleets.
Drive.ai has raised more than $77m to date. It closed a $50m series B round in June 2017 led by New Enterprise Associates with participation from fellow venture capital firms GGV Capital and Northern Light Capital.
Northern Light had already led the company’s $12m series A round in January 2016, which included VC fund Oriza Ventures, and Drive.ai’s other backers include investment firm Maniv Mobility and VC firms InnoSpring and HOF Capital.
The latest funding will be used to open a Singapore office where Drive.ai will explore the possibility of deploying its technology in government and business-operated fleets.
Sameep Tandon, Drive.ai’s CEO, told Forbes last week: “Singapore is a technological juggernaut that has very high population density and an existential threat about what is going to happen to infrastructure as it continues to grow.
“It is not a matter of if self-driving cars will happen there, but when. Because of that, there is a lot of government support.”