Minus Zero, a self-driving car company located in India, has secured US $1.7 million in a seed fundraising round headed by Chiratae Ventures, a technology VC firm focused on India’s growth-stage firms.
The round included JITO Angel Network, a few angel investors, and autonomous-vehicle industry specialists. Nvidia and Lyft, both located in Silicon Valley, sent senior executives to the fundraiser.
Minus Zero, which was founded in 2021 by Gagandeep Reehal and Gursimran Kalra, raised an unknown amount in a pre-seed round in September. It aspires to develop completely autonomous vehicles in the same way as global tech giants like Tesla and Google’s Waymo do.
Minus Zero made headlines in April 2021 when it demonstrated its prototype vehicle traversing Indian roads, which are notorious for their erratic traffic and general condition.
The business also uses AI to help tech companies who are seeking to build autonomous vehicles for Indian roads overcome roadblocks.
Minus Zero claims it is working on multiple patents and that its exclusive technique can assist self-driving cars resemble human intuition while driving.
“This enables robust decision-making, which is crucial for safe navigation in scenarios where extrinsic factors like poor traffic infrastructure, rash driving, harsh weather, etc. would have otherwise compromised the safety of the vehicle,” the company said in a statement.
Minus Zero also stated that their software can make choices using simply cameras and does not require pricey LiDAR sensors or high-fidelity maps.
The funds will be utilized to establish an autonomous vehicle research and development infrastructure. It’s also trying to grow its workforce in order to speed up the introduction of its products, which is expected to happen in late 2022 or early 2023.
