Kitchener's Clearpath Robotics will use $30M US investment to build self-driving vehicles
CBC News | Posted: October 5, 2016 2:05 PM | Last Updated: October 5, 2016
Clearpath's self-driving vehicles already on the market, CEO says
Kitchener's Clearpath Robotics has secured nearly $40 million ($30 million US) in funding from investors to expand its OTTO Motors division, which focuses on self-driving vehicles used inside manufacturing and warehouse operations.
- Clearpath Robotics raises $14M in venture capital
- Kitchener startup Clearpath robotics to open Silicon Valley office
"Unlike city streets, a factory floor is a controlled environment, which makes it an ideal place to introduce self-driving vehicles at scale. Companies like Google, Tesla and Uber are still testing, whereas our self-driving vehicles are commercially available today," Clearpath co-founder and CEO Matt Rendall said in a release.
The company made the announcement Wednesday morning. The funding comes from iNovia Capital with participation from Caterpillar Ventures, GE Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, RRE Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.
Self-driving materials handling vehicles
Rendall said the market for self-driving passenger vehicles is anticipated to be more than $80 billion US by 2030.
"We believe the market for self-driving materials handling vehicles will be equally significant," he said. "Clearpath has a big head start, and this new funding will allow us to further accelerate the development of the best self-driving software in the industry – and bring more OTTOs into the world faster."
Michael Young, a director at Caterpillar Ventures, said his company looks forward to collaborating with Clearpath Robotics "to drive efficiency gains in Caterpillar facilities."