Before Covid-19, the autonomous vehicle industry was the new Silicon Valley-BLACK. Top VCs were pouring billions of dollars into AV Startups. According to McKinsey’s 2019 report on mobility investments:
The investment in the tech players of the automotive domain has increased strongly and has outpaced the incumbents.
Even traditional automaker giants, who hardly prefer investing in inorganic moves, are investing in these startups to catch the tide. A few examples are Toyota Motors, General Motors, Volkswagen, Ford, etc. It’s very likely that soon our commute will be free of human drivers.
At that time, the prospect of AV had a positive connotation. Then Covid-19 happened, and now the world economy is going down quickly. We thought to check the condition of the AV startups.
In Sep 2022, we started by checking all these 100 AV startups that we collected in the past to figure out if any of these started got acquired or got more investment funding.
After the analysis, we found that out of 100, 17 startups have been acquired, including some big ones, such as Zoox’s acquisition by Amazon.
We still haven’t removed them, and you can find these startups in the list below, along with the company that acquired them.
Some other startups have got more investment. In the last two years, these startups collectively collected $13 billion in funding.
Can’t say that the autonomous vehicle industry is going forward with full force, but it is going forward. These startups are doing amazing work, though the progress is slow. There is still plenty of fish in the pond, and the list could help you get one or two.
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List of Autonomous Vehicle startups
| Sr. No. | Startup | Investment Funding | Top Investors | Total Patents | Established Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cruise (Acquired by General Motors) | $15.1 Billion | General Motors, Walmart, Softbank, Honda | 370 | 2013 |
| 2 | Lucid Motors (Acquired by Churchill Capital Corp IV) | $6.8 Billion | Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund | 406 | 2007 |
| 3 | NIO | $5.4 Billion | Tencent, Baidu, Hefei City Construction and Investment | 3940 | 2014 |
| 4 | Oxbotica | $89.5 Million | BP Ventures, Ocado Group, IP Group | 3 | 2014 |
| 5 | Luminar | $1 Billion | Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Daimler Trucks North America, Moore Strategic Ventures, Van Tuyl Group | 179 | 2012 |
| 6 | Voyage (Acquired by Cruise) | $51.2 Million | Franklin Templeton Investments | 0 | 2017 |
| 7 | Argo AI | $3.6 Billion | Ford, Volkswagen | 130 | 2016 |
| 8 | Arrival | $629.4 Million | Hyundai, BlackRock Innovation Capital | 200 | 2015 |
| 9 | Aeva | $368.5 Million | Sylebra Capital, Canaan Partners, Lux Capital | 25 | 2017 |
| 10 | Xpeng Motors | $5.7 Billion | Alibaba Group, Foxconn Technology Group, IDG Capital, UCAR, Primavera Capital Group, Xiaomi | 2232 | 2014 |
| 11 | TuSimple | $648.1 Million | SINA Corporation, CDH Investment, VectoIQ LLC, Navistar | 841 | 2005 |
| 12 | Plus | $520 Million | Guotai Junan International, CPE Capital, ClearVue Partners, FountainVest Partners | 250 | 2016 |
| 13 | Innoviz Technologies | $482 Million | Aptiv, Magna International, China Merchants Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group | 71 | 2016 |
| 14 | Zoox (Acquired by Amazon) | $1 Billion | Grok Ventures, Blackbird Ventures, Lux Capital | 656 | 2014 |
| 15 | Momenta | $1.2 Billion | Bosch, SAIC Motor, Toyota Motor, NIO Capital | 294 | 2016 |
| 16 | Otonomo | $231.5 Million | Aptiv, SK Holdings, NTT DOCOMO Ventures | 13 | 2015 |
| 17 | Baraja | $63.9 Million | Main Sequence Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, Blackbird Ventures | 65 | 2015 |
| 18 | Optimus Ride (Acquired by Magna International) | $76 Million | Greycroft, FirstMark, NextView Ventures | 9 | 2015 |
| 19 | Nuro | $2.1 Billion | SoftBank Vision Fund, T. Rowe Price, Gaorong Capital, Greylock | 135 | 2016 |
| 20 | Affectiva (Acquired by Smart Eye) | $62.6 Million | Aptiv, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Kleiner Perkins | 195 | 2009 |
| 21 | Superpedestrian | $136.7 Million | Spark Capital, General Catalyst, Edison Partners | 47 | 2012 |
| 22 | Ouster | $232 Million | Cox Enterprises, Runway Growth Capital | 145 | 2015 |
| 23 | Nauto | $173.9 Million | General Motors Ventures, Playground Global, Greylock, SoftBank Vision Fund | 60 | 2015 |
| 24 | Mobileye (Acquired by Intel) | $515 Million | Goldman Sachs | 808 | 1999 |
| 25 | Ridecell | $134.8 Million | BMW i Ventures, Cox Automotive, FortRoss Ventures | 3 | 2009 |
| 26 | Waymo | $5.5 Billion | Alphabet, Silver Lake, Tiger Global Management | 2588 | 2009 |
| 27 | Ghost | $157 Million | Sutter Hill Ventures | 17 | 2017 |
| 28 | AirMap (Acquired by DroneUp) | $78.7 Million | M12, US Department of Defense | 8 | 2014 |
| 29 | Embark Trucks | $117.1 Million | Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management | 0 | 2015 |
| 30 | AutoX | $160.1 Million | Dongfeng Motor Group, Hongzhao Fund | 6 | 2016 |
| 31 | DeepMap (Acquired by NVIDIA) | $92 Million | Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Accel | 127 | 2016 |
| 32 | May Mobility | $194.6 Million | Toyota Motor, BMW i Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures | 11 | 2017 |
| 33 | Zendrive | $57 Million | BMW i Venture, ACME Capital, XL Innovate | 36 | 2013 |
| 34 | Nexar | $149.5 Million | Ibex Investors, Corner Ventures | 7 | 2015 |
| 35 | Quanergy Systems | $175.3 Million | Aptiv, Rising Tide, Samsung Ventures | 52 | 2012 |
| 36 | Arbe | $54.7 Million | Catalyst Fund LP, 360 Capital, O.G. Tech, OurCrowd | 45 | 2015 |
| 37 | Brain Corp | $161 Million | SoftBank Vision Fund, Qualcomm Ventures | 300 | 2009 |
| 38 | Swift Navigation | $98.8 Million | Forest Baskett, Greg Papadopoulos, New Enterprise Associates, Eclipse Ventures | 14 | 2012 |
| 39 | Aurora | $2.1 Billion | Sequoia Capita, Uber | 164 | 2017 |
| 40 | Outrider | $118 Million | 8VC, Koch Disruptive Technologies | 36 | 2017 |
| 41 | PrecisionHawk | $136 Million | Third Point Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Millennium Technology Value Partners | 23 | 2010 |
| 42 | BYTON | $1.2 Billion | FAW Group, Fullshare Holdings, Suning.com, Marubeni, Tencent | 575 | 2016 |
| 43 | Wheels | $96.3 Million | DBL Partners, TDK Ventures | 0 | 2018 |
| 44 | Bossa Nova Robotics | $97.6 Million | WRVI Capital, Paxion Capital Partners, Cota Capital | 43 | 2015 |
| 45 | WM Motor | $4.9 Billion | Baidu Capital, Tencent, SAIC Motor, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank | 639 | 2015 |
| 46 | Ike (Acquired by Nuro) | $52 Million | Bain Capital Ventures | 0 | 2018 |
| 47 | Cepton Technologies | $179.5 Million | Koito | 48 | 2016 |
| 48 | FiveAI (Acquired by Bosch) | $78.7 Million | Lakestar, Direct Line Insurance, Sistema_VC, Trustbridge Partners | 112 | 2015 |
| 49 | ClearMotion | $317.8 Million | JP Morgan, Franklin Templeton Investments | 306 | 2009 |
| 50 | Pony.ai | $1.1 Billion | Toyota Motor, ClearVue Partners, Eight Roads Ventures | 307 | 2016 |
| 51 | Starsky Robotics | $20.3 Million | Shasta Ventures | 5 | 2016 |
| 52 | CARMERA (Acquired by Woven Planet) | $27.1 Million | GV, Matrix Partners | 5 | 2015 |
| 53 | AImotive | $67.6 Million | B Capital Group, Lead Ventures, Prime Ventures | 45 | 2015 |
| 54 | Local Motors | $15.3 Million | Airbus Ventures, Mirai Creation Fund | 32 | 2007 |
| 55 | SEEVA Technologies | $2.1 Million | Trucks Venture Capital | 17 | 2016 |
| 56 | Oryx Vision | $67 Million | Bessemer Venture Partners, Third Point Ventures, Walden Riverwood Ventures | 26 | 2009 |
| 57 | Humanising Autonomy | $17.2 Million | Anthemis Group | 6 | 2017 |
| 58 | Wayve | $456.6 Million | Eclipse Ventures, Balderton Capital | 2 | 2017 |
| 59 | Kodiak Robotics | $165 Million | Battery Ventures, CRV | 2 | 2018 |
| 60 | Einride | $152.3 Million | EQT Ventures, NordicNinja VC, Norrsken VC | 22 | 2016 |
| 61 | WeRide | $1.4 Billion | Zhengzhou Yutong Bus, Alliance Ventures, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, ABC International, SenseTime | 130 | 2017 |
| 62 | Enway (Acquired by Bucher Municipal) | $6.6 Million | Redalpine | 5 | 2017 |
| 63 | Innovusion | $278 Million | Eight Roads Ventures, F-Prime Capital, NIO Capital | 73 | 2016 |
| 64 | Velodyne Lidar | $575.2 Million | Baidu, Ford Motor Company, Hyundai Mobis | 241 | 1983 |
| 65 | LeddarTech | $347.5 Million | OSRAM | 125 | 2007 |
| 66 | Aeye | $314.1 Million | Taiwania Capital | 84 | 2013 |
| 67 | Sense Photonics (Acquired by Ouster) | $48.1 Million | Acadia Woods Partners, Congruent Ventures | 76 | 2016 |
| 68 | Brightway Vision | $25 Million | Koito, Magenta Venture Partners | 89 | 2010 |
| 69 | Foresight Automotive | $25.2 Million | Meitav Investment House, Psagot Investment House | 28 | 2001 |
| 70 | SmarterEye | $62 Million | Baidu’s Apollo Fund | 138 | 2014 |
| 71 | Blickfeld | $56 Million | Continental, Wachstumsfonds Bayern | 99 | 2017 |
| 72 | Seoul Robotics | $18.1 Million | KB Investment, KDB Capital | 10 | 2017 |
| 73 | Mirada Technologies | $1.7 Million | National Science Foundation | 5 | 2017 |
| 74 | Newsight Imaging | $7 Million | Infinity Equity | 10 | 2016 |
| 75 | TetraVue | $10 Million | Nautilus Venture Partners, Robert Bosch Venture Capital | 30 | 2008 |
| 76 | Autotalks | $100 Million | Israeli institutions, Nuvoton Technology | 34 | 2008 |
| 77 | Valerann | $22.8 Million | 2B Angels, Rio Ventures | 14 | 2016 |
| 78 | Commsignia | $11 Million | Karma Ventures, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Credo Ventures | 0 | 2012 |
| 79 | Derq | $3.6 Million | Techstars Mobility Accelerator, Wadi Makkah Ventures | 16 | 2016 |
| 80 | Cohda Wireless | $1.8 Million | SciVentures Investments | 121 | 2004 |
| 81 | Savari (Acquired by Harman International) | $20 Million | Aviva Ventures, SAIC Venture Capital | 0 | 2008 |
| 82 | HAAS Alert | $8.4 Million | U.S. Department of Homeland Security, TechNexus Venture Collaborative | 0 | 2015 |
| 83 | Veniam (Acquired by Nexar) | $26.9 Million | True Ventures, Verizon Ventures | 236 | 2012 |
| 84 | RoboCV | $3.7 Million | LETA Capital, GVA Capital | 1 | 2012 |
| 85 | Sinoits | $7.1 Million | Seashell Capital, Qualcomm Ventures | 20 | 2010 |
| 86 | Dynamic Map Platform | ¥24.7 Billion | Mitsubishi Electric, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Hino Motors | 19 | 2016 |
| 87 | Tier IV | $309.3 Million | Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance, Quanta Computer | 0 | 2015 |
| 88 | Ascent Robotics | $11.1 Million | SBI Investment | 5 | 2016 |
| 89 | Ficha | $3.5 Million | Desay SV Automotive, Nippon Venture Capital | 4 | 2005 |
| 90 | ZMP | $22.9 Million | Hisashi Taniguchi, Sony | 87 | 2001 |
| 91 | Lumotive LLC | – | Gates Ventures, Quan Technology Fund | 9 | 2018 |
| 92 | TriLumina Corp. (Acquired by Lumentum) | $9 Million | Kickstart | 87 | 2011 |
| 93 | Nodar | $12 Million | MassChallenge, Rhapsody Venture Partners | 0 | 2018 |
| 94 | RideFlux | ₩29.2 Billion | – | 17 | 2018 |
| 95 | Speareye | – | – | 0 | 2017 |
| 96 | Traffica | – | – | 0 | 2017 |
| 97 | Chorus Mobility | – | – | 0 | 2017 |
| 98 | Kingwaytek Technology | – | – | 65 | 1998 |
| 99 | Turing Drive | – | – | 0 | 2018 |
| 100 | Scantinel Photonics | €7.5 Million | – | 1 | 2019 |
Conclusion
It’s time to stop guessing which company will come out on top regarding self-driving car technology. McKinsey estimates that securing a strong position in the four trends (AV, CV2X, EV, and Smart Mobility)of this area would cost a single player an estimated $70 billion through 2030.
It’s doubtful for any individual startup or company to shoulder this level of investment alone. This is why partnerships and targeted acquisitions offer an attractive strategy for staying ahead of competitors. Plus, analyzing their patents offers another lens on the market dynamics with a whole new perspective.
Startup scouting is not as straightforward as going through a list of names. Many factors come into play before you start looking for research partners or find ways to acquire innovation from other companies to solve your challenges.
Are you in a similar position where you need help in solving your technical challenges or finding research inspiration? Let’s get in touch, and we’ll help you find the answers.
Further, want to download the list for later use, just fill out the form below, and it’s all yours. (Trust me, it’s worth saving; you can thank us later.)
Authored By: Vipin Singh and Nidhi, Market research
