Startup Seoul Robotics aims to go public by 2025

[Source : Seoul Robotics]

Seoul Robotics, a mobility solution startup founded in 2017, is aiming for an initial public offering by 2025, said HanBin Lee, the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder.

The company recently completed a $25 million Series B funding led by KB Investment Co. “With this funding, we will continue developing industry-transforming solutions that will drive the future of mobility and deliver beyond what we can even conceptualize today,” said Lee.

Seoul Robotics provides the mobility industry with the most advanced computer vision for 3D sensors and a new approach to automating vehicles called Autonomy Through Infrastructure (ATI). ATI involves placing autonomous driving systems on infrastructure, rather than cars, to capture the holistic view required to achieve vehicle autonomy.

Seoul Robotics has gained strong recognition over the past few years for pioneering this innovative, infrastructure-based approach to autonomous mobility.

The company is pioneering a new way to leverage infrastructure that enables autonomous robots and cars to reach their full potential. This novel approach enhances the scalability and financial viability of intelligent transportation networks by removing the prohibitive costs of equipping individual vehicles with cameras and sensors, while overcoming safety barriers by creating a shared vision without blind spots.

[Source : Seoul Robotics Youtube]

Seoul Robotics’ proprietary ATI solution, Level 5 Control Tower (LV5 CTRL TWR), consists of a mesh network of sensors and computers that are installed on infrastructure and uses V2X communication to turn non-autonomous cars into self-driving vehicles. LV5 CTRL TWR utilizes the connectivity already built into today‘s modern vehicles to autonomously maneuver them without requiring any hardware adjustments. LV5 CTRL TWR is powered by Seoul Robotics’ core technology, SENSR™, an industry-leading, patented 3D perception software using deep learning and weather-filtering capabilities to provide high-resolution environmental insights. The first-of-its-kind, scalable solution achieves full Level 5 autonomy and can drive hundreds of vehicles simultaneously.

LV5 CTRL TWR is currently being used to automate finished vehicle logistics at a BMW facility in Germany. Automating this historically manual process makes it safer and more efficient, while also enabling companies to overcome the industry-wide shortage of drivers.

Lee said his company is focusing on automotive logistics. “The moment the car is manufactured until it gets delivered to you, many people need to drive them within the yard,” he said. “But there is global shortage of drivers. And I think we can automate any type of parking lot and last mile logistics with infrastructure. Whether that be trucking yards, or ports, wherever the shortage of drivers are in logistics.”

Touching on his new role model, Lee picked AutoStore, a company that provides a modular and flexible automated storage and retrieval system. “It retrofits an entire warehouse to be sorted by fleets of robotic carts. Like Autostore, Seoul Robotics lands on a factory or logistics yard, we retrofit the ground with our Autonomy Through Infrastructure system, and all the vehicles connected to our system can be driven autonomously.”

“We are an infrastructure solution company that uses LiDAR. And our smart infrastructure is making non-autonomous cars into self-driving cars through telematics connectivity.”