Phantom AI raises $22 million in Series A funding

​Phantom AI​, developer of a vehicle-agnostic autonomous driving platform, announced that it has raised $22 million in Series A financing led by Celeres Investments and joined by Ford Motor Company and KT (Korea’s largest telco).

Existing investors Millennium Technology Value Partners​ and DSC Investment also participated in the round. The company previously raised $5 million in seed funding, bringing the total capital raised to date to $27 million.

Founded in 2016 by lead engineers from Tesla's and Hyundai's ADAS teams, Phantom AI is on a mission to democratise the use of driver assistance and safety technologies to reduce crashes, save lives and make driving more enjoyable. The company is working with several automakers, a truck OEM and multiple European and Asian tier 1 suppliers, and will use the new financing to accelerate product development while scaling operations in Europe and Asia.

“With over 1.3 million fatalities resulting from traffic accidents every year, we believe a lot more can be done with computer vision and ADAS technologies to help protect drivers, pedestrians and cyclists and property,” said Ray Cheng, partner at Millennium, an investment firm that has also backed Aurora Innovation, Blackmore Sensor & Analytics and May Mobility. “Phantom AI's deep domain expertise in AI and mission-critical automotive systems has led them to building an advanced computer vision sensing platform with industry-leading performance. Phantom AI is able to commercialize its platform at compelling price points that can drive mass market adoption as OEMs look to add new safety features to their new designs.”

New regulations in the European Union and the United States require vehicles to be equipped with Automatic Emergency Braking systems and forward-warning systems. By delivering ADAS features for cars at all price points, Phantom AI is filling a big void in the market as car manufacturers are looking to add ​Level 1 - Level 3​ of automation capabilities to their new designs now.

“We founded Phantom AI to fundamentally change the economics of ADAS by developing modern software-based solutions that are high performing, cost effective, and infinitely flexible and customizable,” said Hyunggi Cho, co-founder and CEO of Phantom AI. “To the automakers frustrated with the lack of options in computer vision technologies—Phantom AI is here to help. We are thrilled to bring our AI-based perception technology, including computer vision, sensor fusion and control capabilities to market, and to have the support of our new investors to help us accelerate production globally.”