Software-defined radar company Neural Propulsion Systems (NPS) announced it raised a $17.5 million Series B funding round. Cota Capital led the funding round with contributions from GM Ventures (the venture capital arm of General Motors) and RTX Ventures (the venture capital arm of RTX). This partnership marks a major step in enhancing roadway safety (benefiting pedestrians, drivers, and all other traffic participants) and defense radar systems.
NPS will use the funding to advance and apply its Atomic Sensing Platform to automotive radar technology. And the platform provides significantly enhanced, reliable radar resolution and groundbreaking precision. This improved performance stems from a new mathematical framework known as the Atomic Norm (AN), revolutionizing how the raw sensor data is processed into relevant information.
The NPS software-defined radar, SDR, achieves near maximum likelihood performance in detection — meaning that the NPS proprietary software achieves close to what is theoretically possible with existing radar sensors. And this advancement in radar technology enables clearer and earlier detection.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) proposed rule changes last year aim to significantly reduce roadway fatalities by strengthening regulations around automatic emergency braking (AEB) and pedestrian AEB (PAEB). And NPS’s technology is poised to further assist companies and suppliers in meeting these new standards, using less complex and more reliable sensors.
KEY QUOTES:
“This investment confirms the value of our vision and technology. By harnessing the potential of our newly developed radar technology, we can potentially achieve performance enhancements that are over 10 times greater than current radar capabilities, putting us at the forefront of revolutionizing the $28 billion radar market. Our radar software works with all radar hardware and significantly improves the performance of existing sensing platforms with lower cost and more efficiency.”
– Dr. Behrooz Rezvani, Founder and CEO of NPS
“Behrooz and his team are achieving new benchmarks for advanced radar sensing technology. We recognize the significant impact NPS can have in the fields of mobility and defense systems, and our investment reflects Cota Capital’s commitment to ground-breaking innovation.”
– Bobby Yazdani, Founder and Partner of Cota Capital
“NPS’s continued focus on enhancing defense radar systems exemplifies the commitment that is needed to transform the aerospace and defense landscape. To protect against tomorrow’s threats, RTX Ventures looks to invest in companies working to solve the most complex challenges today and the NPS automotive radar technology does just that.”
– Dan Ateya, President and Managing Director at RTX Ventures
