Robotruck Converter SafeAI Lands Millions In New Funding

A company that specializes in converting heavy construction and mining equipment from driver-operated to self-driving has landed millions in new investments to better serve its expanding roster of customers.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based SafeAI announced Wednesday it received $38 million in a Series B round of funding with key investors that include Builders VC, McKinley Management, George Kaiser Family Foundation and Energy Innovation Capital. Moog Inc. joined the round as a strategic investor.

ADVERTISEMENT

Existing investors Autotech Ventures, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Embark Ventures, Newlab and Vimson Group also participated in this latest round.

This new funding comes in the midst of a major growth for SafeAI including partnerships with leading contract mining company MACA, to deploy 100 mining trucks and to work with Siemens to build a fleet of autonomous and electric vehicles for Japan-based construction company Obayashi Corporation.

The company has also lined up an as yet to be announced U.S. customer, SafeAI founder and CEO Bibhrajit Halder told Forbes.com in an interview.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The money will really be going into deploying our solution and production starting early next year,” said Halder. We will looking to grow the team…software enginering and operations people. We’re looking to grow in next two years.”

Indeed this year SafeAI more than doubled its headcount to over 90 people. Along with its Santa Clara, Calif.- headquarters, SafeAI has offices in Perth, Australia, Tokyo, Japan and Delhi, India.

The combination of SafeAI’s growth potential and filling the needs of the mining and construction industries was key in the decision by one company to contribute to this latest funding round.

“We have chosen to double down on our investment with SafeAI, as the demand for off-road autonomy solutions has never been higher in both construction and mining,” said Mark Blackwell, General Partner at Builders VC in emailed remarks to Forbes.com. “Both sectors are under immense pressure to improve performance, efficiency and safety and the solution that SafeAI is developing is market ready and being deployed with key customers around the world. We are confident that with this financing that the company will be able to expand its footprint and fill a necessary gap in the sector.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Halder explains his company mainly retrofits vehicles that transport materials on a construction or mining site equipping them with drive-by-wire connectivity for issuing task instructions and adding sensors that include cameras, lidar and radar.

In terms of productivity, Halder calls autonomy “a game changer,” citing a 20% improvement in productivity by running autonomous truck on job sites.

“If it takes you $100 million to get a project done you can get that project done in $80 million,” said Halder. “Usually a construction project can be anywhere from $100 million to a couple of billion and mining can be from half a billion to $20, 30 billion operating cost. At 20% improvement it’s significant.”

Improved safety is another key consideration for using driverless vehicles on construction and mining sites, with Halder declaring safety “is the heart of our vision.” Those industries have been running about 1,000 autonomous vehicles around the clock seven days a week without incurring any fatal accidents, Halder said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Even so, adoption of autonomy has been especially slow in the mining industry. Citing data from the Australia Mining Consultancy and Parker Bay Mining, SafeAI asserts even though autonomy addresses productivity and safety issues fewer than 5% of mining vehicles are self-driving.

Halder points out autonomy has been present in the mining industry for many years but its use stalled, spurring him to create SafeAI to acclerate its adoption. Halder said his more than 20 years of experience that began in the mining industry and took him to heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar informed his strong advocacy for autonomy in those segments given its safety and productivity attributes.

Now, powered by this new multi-million dollar funding, Halder is looking to drive incremental growth in SafeAI by boosting use in the construction and mining industries of the company’s technology for retrofitting heavy trucks that drive themselves.

ADVERTISEMENT