Five AI

Five AI is a British unmanned vehicle software developer founded in 2016. The company is developing autonomous driving technology for mixed-type urban roads.

History

2022: Purchase by Bosch

The Bosch company buys Five.ai among which investors there was rossiyskayaafk "System". Information about this appeared on April 12, 2022.

AFK Sistema has sold Bosch a stake in a British drone software developer Five.ai
Photo: venturebeat.com

Five.ai is engaged in the development of unmanned vehicles. Initially, the company aimed at the robotaxis market, but then reoriented to the B2B sector.

The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Five executives have been looking for a buyer for the entire firm for some time, and Bosch has offered the highest price. Five.ai will be fully absorbed, all 140 employees of the company will be re-registered at Bosch.

Five.ai was founded in 2015 (according to other sources, in 2016). The stated goal was to create an extensive fleet of fully autonomous robotaxis that would serve the inhabitants of London. In March 2020, however, the company announced a change in its main goal: instead of creating its own fleet of robotaxis, it decided to license its software development to other manufacturers of unmanned vehicles. The company realized that they did not fulfill the initial task.

During its existence, the Five.ai attracted investments totaling 78 million. As dollars part of investment round B, which took place just in March 2020 venture division the Russian , AFK Sistema entered the stake in the company. How much the Russians invested is unknown. In general, in the framework of round B, investors, which, in addition to Sistema, included investment companies Direct Link, Notion, Lakestar and UK Government invested $41 million in Five.ai.

Sistema shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange, however, due to the Russian law prohibiting the placement of depositary receipts on securities of Russian companies on foreign exchanges, Sistema may soon delist. The company said that Bosch plans to redeem all Five shares, which means that the minority stake of Sistema will change owners.^[1]

Bosch in 2017 entered into a partnership agreement with Daimler with the intention of launching fully autonomous cars into the series in five years - that is, just in 2022. As in the case of Five.ai, it was not possible to solve this problem on time.

Current political events are reflected in the entire world order, affecting the most unexpected things, "says Dmitry Gvozdev, CEO of Information Technologies of the Future. - The old world order will be rebuilt, including in the field of high technology. And not only from the point of view of the structure of ownership of an asset, but also from the point of view of assessing the development prospects of a particular direction of development. The attitude towards ambitious technology projects will have to be revised, and the results will not be achieved in the most obvious ways at the moment.

Bosch and Five.ai 's deal is awaiting regulatory approval. Its closure is expected within two months.

2020: Attracting $41 million of investments, including from AFK Sistema

On March 4, 2020, it became known that the Sistema VC venture fund (one of the funds) AFK "Sistema" and a group of international investors invested $41 million in Five AI. Those who invested in British startup included Trustridge Partners, Direct Line Group, Lakestar,, Amadeus Capital Partners Kindred Capital and Notion Capital.

Taking into account this round of financing, Five AI has attracted a total of $77 million in investments since its inception. This fact makes the company one of the leaders in the segment of technologies for unmanned vehicles in Europe in terms of funding.

Sistema VC Venture Fund (one of the funds of AFK Sistema) and a group of international investors invested $41 million in Five AI

The funds raised will be used to develop development tools ON for unmanned, transport as well as software components working in real-time machines. This combination will allow Five partners to improve the quality and performance of their unmanned programs, including system security audits, which is a prerequisite for the mass commercialization of unmanned technologies and the introduction of transport to public roads, the press release said.

The round was preceded by a grant from the British government to support the development of a full-featured system for unmanned vehicles. Five demonstrated their system on London's public roads. In 2019, technology for unmanned vehicles was tested on hundreds of trips along a 19-kilometer route in the British capital.

Autonomous and auxiliary driving technologies will play a huge role in the future of cars. We worked closely with Five in the StreetWise project, and we have a common interest in solving difficult problems for putting safe drones on the market. Insurance companies should create opportunities to measure and justify new types of risks, "said Guus Park, managing director of the auto insurance group at Direct Line Group.[2]

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