Despite what seems to be a global downturn in the economy, such companies as PreAct Technologies are finding strong investments in their location technology. PreAct yesterday closed a $20 million Series B round led by Squared Capital, with participation from State Farm Ventures, Luminate and Traylor Capital.
The company, which opened a Barcelona European headquarters, offers software-definable flash lidar technology. The company plans to drive research and development of its AI-based computer vision systems and to expand into industrial and nonautomotive applications.
“This additional funding will allow PreAct to transform the short-range lidar industry and bring it to industries that could never before afford such highly accurate sensing,” said Paul Drysch, PreAct CEO.
Drysch said the company is seeing increased interest from such industries as robotics, agriculture and healthcare. To help grow into these markets, PreAct recently acquired Gestoos, an AI-driven computer vision and gesture recognition company.
Another company, Israel-based InfiniDome, which develops GPS protection and navigation systems, has grabbed $9 million in Series A funding led by South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace, with Honeywell Ventures HON 0.00, and Next Gear Ventures. The funding from this round will support the deployment of infiniDome’s GPSdome2 to the U.S. Defense Department, Israeli Defense prime, South Korean Army and Indian armed forces.
Because of the war in Ukraine and other world hot spots, GPS protection for UAVs is a top market. For its part, InfiniDome, founded in 2016, has grown to 26 employees.
Topcon Makes Strategic Investment in DDK Positioning
In other investment news, Topcon Positioning Systems recently announced it has made a strategic investment in major GNSS receiver and PPP correction services player DDK Positioning. Financial details were not disclosed.
DDK Positioning delivers services over the Iridium network to provide global precision positioning services that can augment GNSS constellations for to enhance accuracy for industrial applications.
“Topcon has been a supplier of core GNSS components to DDK Positioning to deliver their MAX services. With the expansion and growing success of this business, specifically in the marine sector, a closer cooperation will ensure optimal integration for the highest possible accuracies and performance in the most demanding applications,” said Ian Stilgoe, Topcon vice president of emerging business, in a statement.
