Oxbotica raises £14 million to accelerate deployment of self-driving vehicles

Oxbotica, the autonomous vehicle software company has raised £14 million investment to support the next stage of its growth strategy. Funds have been secured from three leading investors: IP Group plc, Parkwalk Advisors and AXA XL (formerly XL Catlin).

The investment will be used to further accelerate Oxbotica’s sustained growth, which has already seen it generate significant revenues from an international customer base. Oxbotica’s customers include some of the world’s most prominent businesses in sectors including aerospace, automotive, construction, logistics and mining.

Its software has been deployed across multiple industry-leading projects where the future application of autonomy is being trialled, such as with Ocado, at Heathrow Airport and on major city streets.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority and RACE (Remote Handling in Challenging Environments) have also welcomed the investment in Oxbotica, which uses the Culham Science Centre site as a testing base.

Paul Newman, Co-Founder of Oxbotica, said: “The domain-agnostic design of our technology, as well as its independence from external infrastructure such as GPS, makes it uniquely versatile across a range of industries. This has allowed us to trade from day one, attracting a significant blue-chip customer base.

“Together with our customers and partners, my fellow founder Ingmar Posner and I look forward to taking our technology – and our products – to the next level.”

Founded in 2014 on research from Oxford University’s Robotics Institute, Oxbotica’s software uses the latest in computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence to enable vehicles to operate autonomously in any environment and on any terrain. This has made it an attractive solution for many enterprises looking to increase efficiency, productivity and safety.

Its control system, Selenium, allows vehicles to sense their surroundings, while Caesium, Oxbotica’s cloud-based fleet management system, can schedule and co-ordinate fleets of vehicles.

Graeme Smith, CEO of Oxbotica, said: “We are on a mission to bring autonomous software to the world’s biggest markets. We have already seen extraordinary demand from a range of sectors and markets, with the successful deployment of our technology across a strong customer base over the previous four years.

“This injection of funds comes as we move the business into its next growth phase, enabling us to deliver our ambitious plans to scale our capabilities and international presence. To help us achieve this, we are very pleased to welcome our investors to the company and Jamie Vollbracht from IP Group on to our board.”

Jamie Vollbracht, Cleantech Partner at IP Group, said: “IP Group is extremely excited about Oxbotica; the company’s highly differentiated approach unlocks a wealth of opportunities. Impressively, by winning substantial contracts with major customers, Oxbotica has been able to fund activities to date without the need for investment. IP Group is therefore delighted to have been selected by Oxbotica as its investment partner as it looks to capitalise on the next phase of growth. I’m very much looking forward to working with the rest of the board and wider team to help capture the many benefits of this technology for all stakeholders.”

Jesse Norman MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport, added: “Oxbotica is a terrific example of great British innovation, developing smart solutions to some of the biggest challenges of the future.

“As outlined in the Government’s Industrial Strategy, we see major potential for autonomous vehicles, and I salute cutting edge companies like Oxbotica that help to put Britain not just at the forefront of innovation, but innovation with global potential.”