Oxbotica, a UK-based autonomous vehicle software spinout from University of Oxford, has closed a £14m ($18.5m) funding round that included Axa XL, a specialty risk division of insurance firm Axa.
The round was led by commercialisation firm IP Group and also featured Parkwalk Advisors, IP Group’s fund management subsidiary.
Founded in 2014, Oxbotica is developing software for the autonomous vehicle industry that relies on computer vision and artificial intelligence to improve vehicle positioning and fleet management.
In addition to the automotive sector, Oxbotica’s technology is also being designed to be compatible with autonomous vehicles used in the aerospace, construction, logistics and mining industries.
The cash will aid Oxbotica’s business growth as the company looks to draw momentum from existing partnerships with autonomous vehicle developers. Jamie Vollbracht, a partner at IP Group who focuses on cleantech, has joined the company’s board of directors.
Oxbotica was co-founded by Ingmar Posner and Paul Newman, two professors at the Oxford Robotics Institute who specialise in information engineering.
The company had formed a partnership with XL Catlin, the insurance provider acquired by Axa earlier this month, in 2016 to explore the correlation between mobile robotics and risk management or insurance products.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
