UL Ventures has announced that it has made an investment in Aurora Labs, a developer of an embedded software management platform for connected vehicles and the Internet of Things (IoT). The UL Ventures investment was part of a $23 million Series B funding round that also included LG Technology Ventures, Marius Nacht, Porsche SE and Toyota Tsusho.
Zohar Fox, co-founder and CEO, Aurora Labs said "There is a growing need to continuously improve the quality of software, keep it safe, secure and updated in all devices, with particular emphasis on vehicles as the car becomes electrified and connected and the amount of vehicle software grows exponentially," said Fox.
Modern vehicles have up to 150 electronic control units and 100 million lines of software code that are expected to increase to 300 million lines of code by 2030. Aurora Labs offers technology that has the ability automatically to detect bugs in car codebases – key to the security of today’s connected cars.
"The automotive industry is in the midst of a massive paradigm shift. Increasing consumer expectations for connectivity, interoperability, transparency and safety paired with rapid advancements in autonomous vehicles are pressing manufacturers to increase the speed of innovation that enhance functionality and usability but also provide possible new points of entry for the risk of breaches and cyberattacks," said Mary Joyce, general manager and vice president of UL's Mobility and Automotive division. "We applaud Aurora Labs for their connected vehicles work to accelerate innovation with safety and security as top priorities."
In addition to heightened consumer expectations, new global regulations require traceable and secure software updates for passenger cars, vans, trucks and buses. This includes requirements put in place by the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), a working party of the Sustainable Transport Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), for Cybersecurity and Software Update of Motor Vehicles. The global adoption of the regulations will require auto manufacturers to have a deep understanding of software behavior in order to obtain the data and evidence required for certification. Aurora Labs' technology supports this by allowing manufacturers to collect actionable data and obtain a deep understanding of line-of-code software behavior with the ability to predict and fix software problems – all key to helping ensure safety in dynamic systems, vehicle type approval and certification processes.
The Aurora Labs investment further signals UL Ventures' commitment to the incubation of innovative and safety-related technologies that support advances in mobility and automotive. In addition to Aurora Labs, other UL Ventures portfolio companies include Metamoto, a developer of simulation software for autonomous vehicle system training and testing, Brodmann17, a developer of perception software for autonomous systems, and Voltaiq, the developer of a battery analytics software platform for battery manufacturers, automotive manufacturers and energy project developers.
"As investors, we look for entrepreneurs who truly believe in the problem they are solving," said Chris Park, investment director of UL Ventures. "We are excited to support Aurora Labs on their journey to ensure safety in complex dynamic systems. Their robust remote software management solution solves a fundamental challenge of managing and monitoring the DNA of connected cars while advancing safety and security within the automotive and IoT sectors."
