Applied Intuition, Inc., the Mountain View, CA-based vehicle software supplier, has raised a $250 million Series E financing round at a $6 billion valuation. The round was led by Bilal Zuberi at Lux Capital, Elad Gil, and strategic investor Porsche Investments Management S.A. Among other new and existing investors in Applied Intuition are Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Mary Meeker at BOND, Human Capital, Henry Kravis, Mustafa Suleyman, Ray Dalio, John Quinn, and Nico Rosberg.
Applied Intuition says it has maintained sustainable triple-digit percentage growth year-over-year, profitably. Founded in 2017, the Tier 1 vehicle software supplier is aiming to accelerate the adoption of safe and intelligent machines, providing an ADAS (advanced driving assistance system) and AD (automated driving) toolchain to deliver high-quality systems and shorten time to market. It has expanded beyond its Silicon Valley headquarters to Detroit, Washington, D.C., Germany, Korea, and Japan and has customers including 18 of the top 20 automotive OEMs.
“Applied Intuition benefits from generational megatrends including generative AI, autonomous systems, and software-defined vehicles,” said Zuberi, General Partner at Lux Capital. “It is no wonder the company has built a scalable business and become an indispensable partner to top automotive OEMs and the U.S. military.”
Besides automotive, Applied Intuition targets the trucking, construction, mining, agriculture, and defense industries.
“Within the last few years, we’ve seen massive advances in artificial intelligence that will have groundbreaking impacts on the industries that Applied Intuition serves,” said Qasar Younis, CEO and Co-Founder of Applied Intuition. “Our role as a leader in the ecosystem is to bring the best of what Silicon Valley has to offer to our global customer base. Our industry-leading vehicle software products will infuse AI technology to expand beyond our definitive ADAS and AD toolchain, which will exponentially accelerate the production of next-generation vehicles.”
Applied Intuition said it will use the financing to make significant investments in generative AI to unlock substantial value for customers and partners. With recent advancements in LLMs (large language models), the company is positioning itself to help its customers revolutionize the vehicle software development process. It said it will continue to recruit the best software and AI engineers to further expand its offerings that enable its customers to have the world’s most advanced ADAS and AD solutions.
“More than ever, consumers expect exclusive and seamless software integration in their cars,” said Lutz Meschke, CFO at Porsche AG. “With this strategic investment and partnership, we want to further strengthen Porsche’s expertise in the field of software and customer experience.”
In the first quarter of 2024, Porsche announced at its annual financial review, that it has invested massively in digital and software partnerships, including with Applied Intuition. Porsche is looking to the company to strengthen its expertise in Car IT (information technology) and customer experience with the development partnership.
Lutz Meschke, CFO at Porsche AG, and Qasar Younis, CEO and Co-Founder of Applied Intuition.
