Self-driving tech startup May Mobility has added to its Series C funding spherical and now raised funding totaling $111 million. The cash will allow the corporate so as to add engineers and incorporate its system on a brand new automobile platform.
The contemporary funds will underpin the corporate’s ongoing work with Toyota Motor Corp., which has been a longtime backer of the Ann Arbor, Mich.- primarily based group. May Mobility’s work on autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans, referred to as the Autono-MaaS will proceed, with a industrial launch of service anticipated this yr.
Further, May Mobility says it’s going to start preliminary work integrating its self-driving methods on the Toyota e-Palette, a battery-electric automobile anticipated to sometime function in Toyota’s Woven City — a prototype metropolis of the long run — and past.
New funding comes from State Farm Ventures, a subsidiary of the auto insurance coverage firm of the identical title. Terms of its participation weren’t disclosed. May Mobility had mentioned in January it had raised $85 million as a part of the Series C spherical, which is now closed.
SoftBank, Next Century Ventures and 10x Group are amongst different firms to companion with May Mobility on this newest spherical. With its funding, State Farm will develop into one of many first U.S.-based insurers to spend money on autonomous automobiles. It is the second main insurer to spend money on May Mobility, after Tokyo-based Tokio Marine.
“The insurance industry sees the future of mobility and is recognizing the importance of helping to design the way insurance will support autonomous vehicles in the future,” Ryan Green, CFO of May Mobility, mentioned in a launch. “Having partners like Tokio Marine and State Farm Ventures helps expedite that vision for the future of mobility.”
Source: www.autonews.com
