Metawave, a US-based wireless technology developer spun out from IT research and development company Parc, obtained $7m in seed funding yesterday from investors led by Thyra Global Management.
Khosla Ventures and Motus Ventures also participated in the oversubscribed round.
Parc, itself a subsidiary of document technology company Xerox, set up Metawave last month to commercialise wireless communications and radar sensing technology that combines metamaterials and artificial intelligence to manipulate radio frequency waves.
Metawave will initially focus on producing smart radars for self-driving cars based on its Warlord platform, a long-range object detection and recognition technology that offers 3D imaging and vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
Beyond this, the company has also set its sights on smart antenna platforms for 4G and 5G networks.
Maha Achour, chief executive of Metawave, said: “This significant influx in seed capital will allow us to attract world-class talent and enable access to significant resources to move quickly.
“We are confident in our investors’ ability to help guide and work with us to build solutions to fulfil large market opportunities, and we feel fortunate to work with each of them as we grow our team and commercialize our products.”