Industrial technology manufacturer Robert Bosch agreed on Tuesday to acquire UK-based autonomous driving technology developer Five for an undisclosed sum, providing exits for conglomerate Sistema and insurance provider Direct Line.
Founded in 2015, Five has developed software for use in testing Level 4 autonomous driving systems, where the vehicle can drive itself but a passenger can manually intervene.
Bosch said its bid was preferred over unnamed other takeover bids, and TechCrunch has reported that, due to sanctions, the sale proceeds for Russia-based Sistema would be put into a holding account if necessary.
The deal is part of Bosch’s strategy to consolidate its market position in software and autonomous driving. It recently acquired Atlantec, a developer of 3D mapping software provider for autonomous driving, and it claims it will be the only company that can offer all necessary parts of an autonomous driving system from a single source.
Direct Line invested in Five’s $41m series B round in early 2020 alongside Sistema unit Sistema VC, Trustbridge Partners, Lakestar, Amadeus Capital Partners, Kindred Capital and Notion Capital.
Lakestar Capital led a $35m series A round for the company in 2017 that also featured Kindred and existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners and Notion Capital to take its total funding to $37.7m. Its earlier backers include Spring Partners.
Stan Boland, Five’s chief executive, said; “Scale matters in building automated driving technology. Bosch is a global leader in driving assistance technologies, with core technologies and vast data lakes that will be essential in bringing safe self-driving systems to market.”
Photo courtesy of Five AI Limited.
