(Bloomberg) – Applied Intuition Inc., which makes software development tools for automotive engineers, has raised $ 175 million as automakers pile more software into cars.
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Addition Capital, Coatue Management and serial entrepreneur Elad Gil led the funding round for the Mountain View, Calif., Now worth $ 3.6 billion, nearly triple the valuation from another cycle from last year.
Founders Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig, both Google veterans of Alphabet Inc., founded the company in 2017 and began selling software that allows autonomous vehicle startups to simulate driving on virtual streets to identify flaws in their code – a cheaper and safer alternative to real-world testing. Applied Intuition has since expanded to meet the broader software needs of global automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Co.
Led by the highly computerized cars of Tesla Inc., driving has become an increasingly digital experience. Tesla can send important updates to its cars overnight – a feature more similar to Apple Inc. than most automakers. Now the Detroit giants are taking similar action. “The supplier ecosystem is going to undergo a change,” Younis said.
As a handful of well-capitalized tech and automotive giants seek fully self-driving cars, Applied Intuition has gained traction by helping automakers develop more modest technology: driver assistance features in cars on the road today.
Companies like Nissan Motor Co. and Tesla have rolled out their own versions of driver assistance technology, which has become a hotly contested battleground as automakers seek to raise prices and their top rivals.
Applied Intuition has raised a total of $ 350 million from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins and Lux Capital. Marc Andreessen sits on the company’s board of directors.
As the business grows, it has extended its tools beyond mere simulation in the automotive industry and other areas like commercial trucking, defense and mining, Ludwig said. , chief technology officer of the company. “Because we are building this layer of tools, we are able to create a system that applies very broadly to all vehicle software,” he said.
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Younis, who grew up in Michigan, noted the current sparkling market for stand-alone startups. “In the autonomous driving space, in the pure vertical space, no one is making money today,” Younis said. “It’s a lot more our roots in Michigan, we wanted to build a business that generates income. “
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