This week, San Diego’s Netradyne, a developer of subscription-based artificial intelligence (AI) and edge computing for the transportation industry, announced that it has received a $150 million Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Existing investors Point72 Ventures, started by hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, and Microsoft‘s venture capital fund M12 also re-upped their participation in the round, which brings Netradyne’s total capital raised to date to over $197 million.
Netradyne says it will use the funds to advance its core technology, an advanced vision-based driver recognition and fleet safety solution called Driveri, expand into new geographies, and grow its headcount.
Founded in 2015, Netradyne has developed Driveri to provide fleets of all sizes with an AI, edge-powered video safety camera and fleet performance analytics tracker, along with driver awareness tools designed to reduce risky driving behavior and reward decisions that support safe driving. Netradyne says Driveri is the only fleet safety solution that can capture the complete driving day with accurate object detection, event causality, and full visibility as to what’s occurring on the road in real time, as opposed to legacy platforms, which only capture video after an incident has occurred.
According to Netradyne, some Driveri clients have seen a reduction of up to 82 percent in insurance claims. Overall, they say, fleets have demonstrated an average 90 percent improvement in STOP sign compliance, a 60 percent improvement in distracted driving, and a 76 percent improvement in following distance. Today, Netradyne’s technology is used in more than 1,000 commercial fleets across multiple industries, and the company has grown its annual recurring revenue by over 300 percent in each of the past two years.
“We believe Netradyne is an industry leader who is poised to profoundly impact the entire transportation ecosystem by creating safer roads,” said Nagraj Kashyap, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “Through its advanced vision-based technology, Netradyne is helping to improve the commercial driver experience and performance to help reduce transportation-related deaths and injuries on the roadways. We are pleased to partner with Avneesh and the Netradyne team as they harness the power of computer vision and edge computing to revolutionize modern-day transportation.”
“This investment by SoftBank solidifies our global marketplace leadership position in fleet safety technology,” said Netradyne CEO Avneesh Agrawal. “With this new infusion of capital, we will invest even more deeply into advanced AI technology and accelerate our international expansion – all in support of furthering our mission to create safer roadways for all.”
