Aviva Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of insurance firm Aviva, led a $12m series B round yesterday for Savari, a US-based developer of wireless sensors for the automotive industry.
SAIC Capital, an investment vehicle for carmaker SAIC Motors, also participated in the round, as did supply chain services provider Flex and an unnamed additional strategic investor.
Savari is developing wireless sensors and software that uses V2X, or vehicle-to-vehicle, radio technology, enabling vehicles to communicate with each other as well as mobile devices and pedestrians. Aviva plans to integrate Savari’s V2X analytics with its data platform.
Fernand Lendoye, managing director of Aviva Ventures, said: “The rapid development of connected and autonomous vehicles will have a fundamental impact on the insurance industry.
Although in its early stage, we see tremendous opportunity which aligns well with the momentum – we are seeing with smart cities and smart mobility solutions. Our partnership with Savari provides the opportunity to leverage their leading V2X platform to develop insurance use cases to promote vehicle safety worldwide.”
SAIC Capital had previously invested in Savari as part of an $8m series A round in early 2016 that also featured Delta Electronics Capital, the corporate venture capital arm of automation technology manufacturer Delta Electronics.