StradVision Nets $27M For Skeleton Detection And Emergency Braking Software For Autonomous Vehicles

Seoul, South Korea-based StradVision, which works on camera technology for autonomous cars, has raised a $27 million Series B funding round led by Posco Capital. Other investors in the round include: IDG Capital, Industrial Bank of Korea, Lighthouse Combined Investment, LSS Private Equity, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Neoplux, and Timefolio Asset Management.

Its total funding to date is $40 million.

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For most of us, we barely blink when we see dollar amounts with regard to autonomous vehicle companies. Let’s figure out what StradVision is actually all about.

What It Does

As I wrote back in June, lidar sensors have long been hailed as a necessary cog in the forever growing autonomous machine world. The sensors help detect and perceive surroundings, and one entrepreneur says there are about 70 to 80 companies looking to get into the lucrative market. Yet Elon Musk, for example, said anyone who thinks lidar sensors are the key for self driving cars is “doomed.” Those who agree say that cameras and radars do the trick just fine.

StradVision is using both cameras and lidar sensors for its camera perception software.

That data will translate into understanding objects on the road, and aid autonomous vehicle offerings like automatic emergency braking and blind-spot detection. Additionally, according to Sunny Lee, the company’s COO, StradVision is pursuing “skeleton detection, which will provide necessary data to predict pedestrian behaviors.”

In a release, CEO Junhwan Kim pointed to StadVision’s slew of automotive partners as a reason for the new financing. The startup claims that by 2021, it will have millions of vehicles on the road using its software for autonomous vehicles, from SUVs, to sedans and buses.

StradVision currently has more than 105 employees in the United States, Germany, Korea, and Japan.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias