FiveAI has secured a £14m Series A from lead investor Lakestar Capital, plus existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Notion Capital and Kindred.
This funding adds to a £12.8m government grant the Cambridge-based startup received for the StreetWise driverless vehicle project.
The StreetWise project involves several major parties, such as Direct Line Group and McLaren Applied Technologies, with the shared aim of delivering a trial driverless car service in London towards the end of 2019.
Stan Boland, FiveAI co-founder and CEO, said that while London has “one of the best public transport systems in the world”, a lot of people do not use shared transport for all their journeys around the city.
“Initially we’ll target these journeys with our shared mobility solution which will also pave the way for potential large-scale autonomous public transport in the future. In the short term, from day one of service launch, the StreetWise project will increase public transport usage, reduce congestion and emissions, and make our urban areas more liveable for all,” he explained
Lakestar Capital’s Dharmash Mistry, who is to join the FiveAI board, said: “FiveAI is a fantastic example where the UK has the talent, ambition and market to build a truly successful technology-led company.
“By assembling its talented team in the UK and seeking to support London’s transport objectives in partnership with the city itself, FiveAI can play a vital role in reducing congestion, emissions, costs, accidents and journey times, boosting the city economy at the same time.”
FiveAI was founded in September 2015 with the aim of using artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the UK’s transport sector. It now has teams in Cambridge, Bristol, Edinburgh and Oxford. The startup received $2.7m in Seed funding in July 2016.