SOMERVILLE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GPR, the world’s only provider of Ground Positioning Radar, today announced it has secured an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by top technology investor Rhapsody Venture Partners.
GPR’s technology enables precise – centimeter level – vehicle localization in all visibility circumstances. Precise localization is an unresolved issue for vehicles in limited visibility environments such as snow, heavy rain and fog, and in unstructured environments such as mining sites, sidewalks, ports, tarmacs, etc. Currently, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) sensors are complimented with cameras and Lidar systems to overcome the GPS limitations, but these systems rely on clear above ground visibility. GPR is unique in its approach to look underground, scanning the ground below the road and creating a 3-D map of the road’s unique subsurface signatures. This map then allows reliable and precise localization, no matter the aboveground visibility conditions.
“Over the past months, we’ve seen an exciting influx of customer demand for our solution,” said Moran David, Chief Executive Officer of GPR. “Customers from all sectors are recognizing that the past approach to localization produces too many blackouts. There’s always been a great deal of curiosity for our solution and the recent completion of our MVP has now unlocked a swath of customer projects. Securing this Series-A allows GPR to serve its lighthouse customers and meet demand through the commercialization and industrialization of our technology. We are planning to be on thousands of vehicles in 2024.”
“GPR is fundamental to create safe advanced driving systems,” said Carsten Boers, Managing Partner at Rhapsody Venture Partners. “You can’t have reliable self-driving without knowing your precise location. The market was betting that localization would solve itself with enough computation of miles, but that bet is lost. The complexity of above ground data, paired with imperfect visibility conditions in the real world make the past approach not reliable enough. We’re excited about the potential for GPR’s first commercial deployment and for it eventually to become a safety standard.”
About GPR
Founded in 2017, GPR, formerly known as WaveSense, is pioneering the highest-performing localization solution for autonomous capabilities through its Ground Positioning Radar™. As the world’s most reliable vehicle positioning system, GPR allows vehicles to determine their precise location with centimeter-level accuracy, no matter how challenging road conditions become. Whether on-road in conditions such as unmarked roads, poor weather, urban canyons, off-road, or even underground, vehicles fitted with Ground Positioning Radar™ deliver a more robust, higher quality assisted, and autonomous driving experience that other sensors can’t. GPR works closely with OEMs and Tier 1 partners to help vehicles safely navigate where current ADAS sensors, including lidar and camera-based systems, fall short. For more information, visit www.GPR.com.
