Eatron lands German Tier-1 Hirschvogel Automotive Group as a Strategic Partner
July 13, 2020 – Warwick, UK – Eatron®, a leading developer of AI-powered software products for autonomy and e-mobility, has secured €1M+ investment from Hirschvogel Ventures – the strategic investment arm of the Hirschvogel Automotive Group. It also announced a strategic collaboration agreement with Hirschvogel – solidifying a common vision to innovate for a safe, clean, and sustainable future in mobility, autonomy, and electrification.
The investment will be used to accelerate further product development of existing and new autonomy and e-mobility products as well as to support further sales growth in Europe and globally of Eatron which already has customer engagements in 3 continents. Through the newly established partnership, Eatron will get access to the Hirschvogel New Mobility Ecosystem, consisting of highly-specialised companies within the new mobility sector. Together with these companies, Eatron will increase its ability to supply ready-for-assembly software-hardware solutions.
Founded by automotive industry veterans, Eatron has an expert team with a very long history in automotive software and electronics. “We are living through a historical shift in the industry where now software is the main driver for innovation” said Dr Umut Genc, co-founder and CEO of Eatron. “Software in this industry has remained static and rule based for far too long. Our mission is to speed up the transformation by providing intelligent, yet safe, AI powered software building blocks for any vehicle needing BMS or autonomy. We are therefore delighted to have Hirschvogel join us in this exciting and challenging journey.”
Via the investment and the strategic partnership Hirschvogel further emphasises its ambitions to develop highly innovative products and solutions for the automotive industry in a world where the digitization of the car has become ever more important. Hirschvogel Ventures Co-CEO Dr. Thomas Brücher said “we are convinced that Eatron’s exceptional combination of decades of combined experience in the automotive industry together with their leading expertise in automotive-grade software and AI supports us on our way to further position Hirschvogel at the top of the race to highly innovative mobility products. We are very happy to welcome Eatron as part of our New Mobility Ecosystem.”
Eatron’s offerings include full-stack battery management software (BMSTAR®) featuring AI powered functions and diagnostics to support faster and dependable transition to e-mobility. It also provides a reference hardware specification which can be manufactured by its partners. In a related vertical, Eatron offers an L2+ ADAS software platform (L2STAR®), which includes AI powered features like automated lane-change and valet parking. The company believes L2+ ADAS will be the main growth driver in consumer cars for the foreseeable future (as opposed to full autonomy which is still years from mass adoption).
About Eatron
Eatron Technologies is a rapidly growing technology start-up head-quartered in Warwick (UK) with a strong R&D centre in Istanbul (Turkey). Eatron develops and offers licenses for its unique software components to OEMs and Tier-1s worldwide who need production-ready automotive-grade software solutions in their journey to electrification and autonomy for any kind of vehicle.
Founded by automotive industry veterans in 2018, the company has received over €2M of seed funding to date from ACT Venture Partners and Hirschvogel Ventures. Eatron currently has customer engagements in 3 continents. The company offers a unique platform to OEMs and Tier-1s who can license software components they need from Eatron for their autonomy and e-mobility applications. Unlike many other offerings, Eatron’s software components are designed from the ground-up in strict conformance to automotive software standards, which make them suitable for serial production programs.
About Hirschvogel
To cater for the transition of today’s mobility to become increasingly shared, assisted, electric and connected German automotive supplier Hirschvogel Automotive Group shareholders established the Hirschvogel Ventures division in 2017. Since, Hirschvogel Ventures has created a New Mobility Ecosystem of complementary companies that each and all contribute to the transition of the mobility sector.
With more than 6,000 employees the Hirschvogel Automotive Group is one of the largest international automotive suppliers in the area of steel and aluminium forging as well as subsequent machining. Besides Hirschvogel’s expertise and enthusiasm for cost- and process-optimized high-performance forged and machined products, the group’s core competences include the industrialization of products and production as well as the development and operation of highly automated and optimized manufacturing and assembly processes.
