Israeli startup TriEye on Wednesday announced that it has raised $17 million in a Series A funding round, led by Intel Capital, the global investment arm of US tech giant Intel Corporation.
Other investors who participated in the current round of funding include Marius Nacht, co-founder of Check Point Software Technologies, and TriEye’s existing backer Grove Ventures, headed by TriEye chairman Dov Moran, the inventor of the USB flash drive and co-founder of M-Systems.
TriEye, whose innovative Short-Wave-Infra-Red (SWIR) sensing technology is able to see in adverse weather and night-time conditions, will use the funding to expedite its product roadmap for HD SWIR solutions, including proprietary sensing algorithms.
According to a statement, this round brings the company’s total fundraising to $20 million, that includes a seed investment of $3 million led by Grove Ventures in November 2017.
TriEye was founded in 2016 by Avi Bakal, Omer Kapach and Uriel Levy, after nearly a decade of advanced nano-photonics research by Levy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
While TriEye’s primary target market is the automotive industry, its technology is highly applicable to a wide range of other sectors, including mobile, industrial, security and optical inspection. The company aims to address challenges and opportunities in these fields in the years to come.
As part of the investment, Yair Shoham, Intel Capital Israel’s Managing Director, will join TriEye’s board.
“As the automotive industry transitions to autonomous driving, demand for sensor technologies is expected to grow rapidly, said Shoham. “TriEye technology has the potential to enhance traditional camera functionalities by increasing performance in low visibility conditions in a way that complements vision-based camera sensor technologies.”
Intel Capital backs innovative technology startups and companies worldwide. It invests in a range of technology startups and companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. To date, Intel Capital has made 1,308 investments, according to Crunchbase data.