Apex.AI, the developer of safety-certified software for mobility and autonomous applications, announced today that it has raised $56.5 million in a Series B fundraising round, significantly adding to its total of $74 million raised to date. The round was led by Orillion and included new participation from ZF, Continental, AGCO, Canaan, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Airbus Ventures, and Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures. This adds to investments previously announced from Volvo Group Venture Capital, Toyota Ventures, and Hella Ventures.
The software developer has shown significant progress in 2021, having announced its Apex.OS meta-operating system is certified by the TÜV Nord for functional safety according to the highest ASIL-D level of ISO 26262, making the technology verified production vehicle ready. Futurride covered that here. This core software for high-performance automotive computers, including the associated software development kits, offers OEMs the option of deploying scarce human resources in other areas that offer significant differentiation for the end customer.
Earlier this year, Apex.AI opened new offices in Stuttgart, Germany, and Palo Alto, CA. The Palo Alto office is a Silicon Valley Historical Landmark and the former Fairchild building where Dr. Robert Noyce invented the first commercially integrated circuit inside small silicon chips in 1959.
Apex.AI will use the funds to scale its business and expand into markets adjacent to the automotive industry including agriculture, mining, industrial automation, and IoT (Internet of Things). The company will hire across all of its four global offices, more than doubling its team. As part of this growth, the company will expand into Asia, which will be led by former Panasonic executive Tavis Szeto, Vice President of Asia-Pacific (APAC).
“Disruptions in mobility such as self-driving, connected vehicles, e-mobility, and shared mobility all rely on software but lack a unified platform, which prevents integrated development across the vehicle,” said Jan Becker, CEO & Co-founder. “We introduced Apex.OS as the first mobility software platform that can integrate across all in-vehicle domains and extend into the cloud to solve this challenge.”
Apex.AI will add two new board members as a result of the Series B round: Ahmed Sallam, Partner at Orillion, and Paul Balciunas, Chief Financial Officer, Apex.AI.
“Apex.AI has cornered a unique market by making it easier for manufacturers to implement safety-critical software into mobility systems,” said Sallam. “We also invested in Apex.AI because we see significant potential to expand the market for their operating system beyond the automotive industry and into other markets such as agriculture, robotics, and Internet of Things.”
ZF says it acquired a 5% stake in Apex.AI to speed up its software business. In addition to the financial support, the automotive mega-supplier will develop software solutions based on the Apex.OS meta-operating system.
Apex.OS is written in the C++ programming language, which enables the high reusability of individual building blocks. This approach is an alternative communication framework to the AUTOSAR Adaptive standards widely used in the automotive industry. ZF can supply its customers with both approaches, depending on which variant its customers prefer.
“Based on the Apex.OS, we can offer our customers an additional ZF Middleware option,” said Nico Hartmann, head of the ZF Global Software Center. “This solution is certified to the highest standards of functional safety for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Thus, we offer our customers an alternative to AUTOSAR Adaptive.”
Among its solutions for the software-defined vehicle, ZF says that high-performance computers and software play a central role. In the electric and electronic architectures of next-generation vehicles, they will control all important functions and connect them with both the vehicle systems and the outside world.
ZF’s Middleware open-software platform acts as a “mediator” between a vehicle computer’s operating system and its software applications. Key functions of the middleware are the abstraction of the computer hardware from software applications and the communication between these applications. The actual software functions, such as autonomous driving functions, can then in turn be built on top of this middleware.
Since 2020, Continental and Apex.AI have been cooperating on the industrialization of an innovative operating system for vehicles. With the new stake, the two companies are intensifying their collaboration to rapidly provide a near-series solution.
“The complexity of vehicle software and electronics architectures is increasing rapidly, and the number of digital functionalities is rising,” said Frank Petznick, head of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems business unit at Continental. “With the help of the already certified meta operating system Apex.OS, we will significantly shorten the development cycles of new mobility functions, especially for automated and autonomous driving, in line with the highest safety standards.”
In addition to powerful hardware, Continental says that the vehicle of the future will be defined by intelligent and innovative software, it will be comprehensively networked, and its functions will be improved and expanded via continual updates. This requires a completely new architecture for vehicle electronics—and for software systems connected to the cloud. A key approach is to reduce the complexity of the systems with flexible, scalable, and user-friendly software solutions are the code for the future of the automotive industry as well as the key to tomorrow’s safe, efficient, and sustainable mobility.
Demonstrating the flexibility of the Apex.AI offering into markets adjacent to the automotive industry, agricultural machinery company AGCO is a part of the new equity investment.
“AGCO’s investment in Apex.AI further demonstrates our commitment to developing value-adding solutions for our customers that adhere to the most stringent standards and reliability requirements,” said Eric Hansotia, AGCO’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited to invest in Apex.AI’s team as it paves the way for driverless vehicles throughout the agriculture and automotive industries.”
AGCO’s full line of equipment and services helps farmers sustainably feed the world powered by smart farming solutions. Its Fuse global open platform for digital farming products supports AGCO‘s brands and the aftermarket with a comprehensive and customizable suite of non-proprietary digital solutions, empowering farmers to make their best business decisions to maximize yields and profitability.
