Next47, the venture capital firm formed by industrial technology producer Siemens, has led a $25m series B round for US-based ride hailing and transport mapping software provider RideOS.
ST Engineering Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of engineering firm ST, also took part in the round, along with VC firm Sequoia Capital, and Next47 will take a seat on the company’s board of directors.
RideOS has created a software platform that helps on-demand transport providers manage their businesses. It covers the positioning and dispatch of vehicles as well as organising single and multi-rider journeys, and can map the position of each vehicle in a fleet.
The series B capital will fund an international growth drive in which RideOS plans to leverage Siemens’ global partnerships as well as its infrastructure and industrial technology.
RideOS raised the funding having formed partnerships with ST Engineering and Autonomic, the transportation technology provider acquired by carmaker Ford in January 2018, in the past few weeks.
Lak Ananth, Next47’s CEO and managing partner, said: “RideOS represents an essential part of the next-generation mobility stack, connecting the software, hardware and infrastructure that are necessary to deploy self-driving technology at scale.
“Digital tools and resources like RideOS’ mobility platform will help transform the transportation landscape in cities across the globe, ushering in a new era of sustainability and efficiency. We believe our investment in RideOS, and the power of Siemens behind us, will help accelerate progress towards this goal.”
Sequoia had previously led the company’s $9m series A round, which was disclosed when it emerged from stealth in June this year, participating alongside early-stage investment group Graph Ventures and seed-stage VC fund SV Angel.