Korea Development Bank Invests in Series B of MORAI
Posted on 02/13/2022
Seoul-based MORAI is a developer of full-stack autonomous vehicle simulation technology, announced today that it has successfully secured a USD 20 million Series B funding round. The round includes investment from new investors Korea Investment Partners, KB Investment Co., Ltd. (KB Financial Group Inc.), and the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), as well as from existing investors Naver’s D2 Startup Factory, Hyundai Motor Group’s ZERO1NE, Kakao Ventures, and Atinum Investment, bringing MORAI’s total funding to date to US$ 25 million.
MORAI was co-founded in 2018 by three autonomous driving researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Ever since, the company has established itself as South Korea’s sole provider of full-stack autonomous vehicle simulation solutions. MORAI’s competitive edge comes from its technology to automatically convert HD map data into digital twins, thereby providing large-scale simulation environments. At this year’s CES, the company also unveiled a cloud-based autonomous vehicle simulation technology, which uses the cloud to build a myriad of simulation environments without hardware restrictions and enables simultaneous testing.
Having established its U.S. office in the San Francisco Bay Area, MORAI plans to further expand its global presence by establishing offices in Germany and Japan, known for well-established automotive industries, as well as in Singapore, for the company’s digital twin technology efforts. The funding will also be used to apply its autonomous vehicle simulation technology to other verticals such as urban air mobility (UAM), one of the leading technologies of future mobility.
The company serves over 100 customers, which includes corporate clients like Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai AutoEver, Naver Labs, and 42dot and educational and research institutions like KAIST and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. It has also formed partnerships with a variety of global players such as NVIDIA, Ansys, and dSPACE.
