Arbe Robotics to raise USD 50m for autonomous driving radar system production – CEO
12 JUN 2018
Arbe Robotics, an Israeli startup developing ultra-high-resolution radar for autonomous vehicles, is raising USD 50m in a Series B round, CEO Kobi Marenko said. The funding already received commitments of USD 10m in early 2018 and will close at the end of this year, he added.
The company has not yet selected an advisory firm for the process and is examining several options, the CEO said.
The majority of Arbe Robotics’ existing investors are based in Israel, and the company is now seeking investment from US and Chinese companies, Marenko said. The startup will avoid strategic investment, preferring pure financial injections, as the management believes this comes with “less problems, less issues.”
The majority of the Series B proceeds will be funneled into R&D and initial production expenses, Marenko said. Some will go towards sales and marketing but as the company is predominantly R&D-focused, this is not a priority, Marenko added.
Arbe Robotics will begin production in 1H19 and aims to break even by 2021, Marenko said. He declined to comment on the company’s cash burn, but said that it employs more than 50 people.
Arbe has raised over USD 13m in three separate rounds. Its investors include O.G. Tech Ventures and crowd funding platform OurCrowd, both companies led Arbe’s USD 10m raise in 2H17, Tel Aviv-based angel group iAngels, US VC Canaan Partners and Taya Ventures, an Israeli VC co-founded by Marenko.
Having previously sold two companies, Taptica and Logia Group, Marenko initially self-funded Arbe Robotics with USD 0.1m, keeping the company running until it received seed funding in early 2016.
The majority of the company’s team is based in Israel and it has staff in the US as well as a manager in China, Marenko said.
Arbe Robotics’ technology uses radar to generate a picture of the environment in front of a vehicle with granularity close to that of a camera, but with sensors that have a 300m range and are unaffected by weather conditions, Marenko said. The company was established in 2015.