Autonomous military vehicle crossing a stream.
Self-driving technology company Forterra announced today that it is raising a $75 million Series B, which was more than 2.5 times oversubscribed. The round was led by Moore Strategic Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital and Hedosophia Venture Capital with participation from Standard Investments and existing investors including Crescent Cove Advisors, Enlightenment Capital and Four More Capital.
Forterra said the new funding will allow it to accelerate and scale development of its autonomous driving system (ADS), AutoDrive®, with defense and industrial customers.
“Forterra has proven that autonomous driving technology can be used today to solve real-world challenges in demanding environments,” said Josh Araujo, CEO of Forterra. “We are committed to improving the lives and safety of soldiers, marines and industry workers by moving people out of harm’s way with AutoDrive. This funding allows us to further develop, test and deploy autonomous driving platforms with ever-increasing capabilities for both defense and industrial applications.”
“We can’t think of a team better suited to these challenges – of anyone in the market, they have the right to win given their first-hand experience on the battlefield and interacting with government buyers,” said Ross Fubini, Managing Partner of XYZ. Venture Capital, which concluded this round. “They know exactly what these machines need to be able to do, and they have the acumen and connections to move quickly and create the best solutions. We see a lot of defense technology at XYZ and Forterra is uniquely built to fit the product market.”
Logan Ashcraft, Principal of Standard Investments, said: “We believe in the potential of autonomous technology to disrupt many high-cost, low-margin business models. In its approach to both industrial and off-road autonomy, Forterra sets a new standard of excellence in logistics, industry and defense. We are excited to partner with the company in its next stage of growth.”
Recent milestones
The funding follows a number of significant milestones for Forterra over the past 12 months.
This includes the first successful deployment of autonomous driving systems (ADS) in the first production program in the Department of Defense (DoD), namely the Remotely Operated Ground Unit for Expeditions (ROGUE). Although the ROUGE is “remotely operated” as its name suggests, Forterra said the ROUGE can be remotely operated or operate fully autonomously with AutoDrive.
Also during this period, on the commercial side, Forterra formed a strategic partnership with Kalmar to produce self-driving yard trucks for global distribution.
Ongoing DOD work
Forterra is actively providing additional ground autonomy capabilities to DoD operational units, including the Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV), Ground Expeditionary Autonomous Retrofit System (GEARS) and Small Multi-purpose Equipment Transport (SMET).
These efforts allow the DoD to scale logistics capabilities and firepower without adding people to combat units. The company said “the Forterra team is committed to continuing to build innovative self-driving systems that prioritize safety, efficiency and scale, and we’re excited to continue that mission.”
Off-Road A Growth Market
The market for off-road autonomy has been gaining momentum lately.
Together with Forterra, providers of yard automation ISEE and Outrider have initially placed systems systems this year.
Kodiak, another ADS developer active in military programs, recently launched unmanned operations that haul sand in the Permian Basin.
Disclosure: Richard Bishop is a consultant and/or owns stock in the following companies mentioned in this article: Forterra, Outrider.
