Metawave Closes $7 Million Initial Seed Funding to Accelerate Development of Automotive Radar

Khosla Ventures, Motus Ventures, Thyra Global Management Among Top Investors


Palo Alto, CA, Sept. 05, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Palo Alto, California – Speaking from the Guggenheim Autos Assembly in New York this week, Metawave Corporation announced its initial seed round of $7 Million from investors including Khosla Ventures, Motus Ventures, and Thyra Global Management, lead investor in the oversubscribed round. Metawave was spun out of PARC earlier this year.

CEO, Dr. Maha Achour and CTO, Dr. Bernard Casse, proven leaders in the fields of wireless and metamaterials technologies, are leading the company. Metawave builds wireless technology platforms using engineered metamaterials and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to change existing wireless systems and communication infrastructures. The company will initially focus on providing smart radar platforms for autonomous vehicles, including general Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), and will soon enable smart antenna platforms for 4G / 5G wireless communications.

“This significant influx in seed capital will allow us to attract world-class talent and enable access to significant resources to move quickly,” said Metawave’s CEO Dr. Maha Achour. “We are confident in our investors’ ability to help guide and work with us to build solutions to fulfill large market opportunities, and we feel fortunate to work with each of them as we grow our team and commercialize our products.”

Motus Ventures, focused on transportation, smart infrastructure, and IoT, has been with Metawave since the beginning, helping guide on strategic business decisions as well as funding. The firm’s managing director, Jim Disanto, said, “Clearly, the automotive industry is undergoing a big disruption, and innovative providers are in a position to make a big difference in that market alone. The radar and antenna technology being developed at Metawave is game changing in the auto industry and potentially many others. We’re enthused to be working with such a talented team.”

Lead investor Thyra Global focuses its tech fund on mobility, AI, and IoT. Founder and managing member Dennis Paul commented, “We’re pleased with the core team that Maha has put into place. The goal now is to build on that and find exceptional people with unique experience in RF, wireless, and intelligent AI in the commercial and defense sectors. We’re excited to work with high quality co-investors such as Khosla and Motus in helping Metawave achieve their goals.”

“The auto industry has gone through cycles to find the best camera and the best LIDAR, and now it’s the radar era - time to find the best and smartest radar platform,” said Metawave’s CTO Bernard Casse. "Metawave’s WARLORDTM† radar, powered by the WRATHTM, is automotive radar on steroids, built with unique 3D vision capability, unprecedented speed and intelligence, and it is poised to take the automotive radar market by storm.”

†WARLORD: W-band Advanced Radar for Long-range Object Recognition and Detection

WRATH: Warlord AI Thinking like Humans (www.metawave.ai)

For more information, please visit our website, follow us on Twitter @metawavecorp, on Facebook, or contact info@metawave.co.

About Metawave
Metawave is a wireless technology company that seeks to revolutionize the future of wireless communications and radar sensing. Leveraging adaptive metamaterials and AI, Metawave’s primary focus is to build intelligent beamsteering radars for autonomous driving. Changing the way automakers think about radar, Metawave is building high-performance radars capable of 3D imaging and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, making cars safer, smarter, and more connected. In parallel, Metawave is developing smart beamsteering antennas for 4G and 5G networks to provide faster networks and near-instant connectivity for billions of users. Metawave’s current flagship beamsteering technology platform was developed at PARC, a Xerox company. Founded in 2017, Metawave is located in PARC’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Visit the Metawave website at www.metawave.co, follow us on Twitter @metawavecorp, on Facebook, or contact us at info@metawave.co.

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