Israel-based vehicle communication technology developer Nexar has completed a $30m financing round that included insurance group Nationwide and Alibaba Innovation Ventures, a subsidiary of e-commerce group Alibaba.
Investment firm Ibex Investors led the round, which included venture capital firms Aleph, Mosaic Ventures, Slow Ventures, True Ventures and Tusk Ventures.
Nexar has created a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system that uses connected smartphones, car-mounted cameras and sensors to crowdsource information and provide drivers with real-time information on road hazards through an app on a car’s dashcam.
The funding was announced alongside the appointments of Yoad Shraybom as chief financial officer and Marc Gaffan as chief business officer.
Aleph led a $4m round for Nexar in 2015 that included Slow Ventures. Both returned for the company’s $10.5m series A round in June 2016, which was co-led by Mosaic Ventures and True Ventures.
Eran Shir, co-founder and CEO of Nexar, said: “Our primary goal has always been to use AI-based systems to make driving smarter and safer, and we are enthusiastic about the progress we’ve made so far towards our goal of eliminating collisions on the roads.
“This new infusion of funding and the addition of Yoad and Marc to our team will allow us to continue to grow our network and create accessible, data-driven solutions to help make vehicle collisions a thing of the past.”