November 28, 2023
Veecle closed 2.6m € seed round
Veecle Raises 2.6m € Seed Round to Bring Software-Defined-Cars to Automakers
Berlin, Nov 2023 – Berlin-based Veecle, a start-up enabling legacy automakers to build software-defined vehicles, has closed a 2.6m € seed round led by Relay Ventures and joined by F-LOG Ventures, IBB Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures.
The automotive industry is at a crossroads having fallen behind in software integration and development and remaining reliant on supplier-provided software. Manufacturers face scalability issues and exponential costs when adding new features due to complex automotive supply-chains and they have limited software control over the full potential of their own vehicles. Adding new features is a complex task making it difficult for car companies to respond to customer demand for feature-rich vehicles and continuous updates. Veecle offers the industry a fundamentally new approach to software architecture. The company’s NOS operating system, developed with Rust for industry standard safety, security, and efficiency, drastically cuts down development time from years to months.
Veecle CEO Stefan Nürnberger says “Veecle empowers car companies to directly design and integrate their own features into car functions, to break supplier dependencies and fast-track development processes. Veecle allows manufacturers to painlessly add new features to existing architectures and to open the door to new business models through connectivity. And, with this financing round we are continuing to expand our pilots and enter production with our automotive partners.”
“Faster software development is vital for incumbent vehicle manufacturers to be able to keep up with new market entrants and established leaders like Tesla”, said Kevin Talbot, Managing Partner at Relay Ventures. “The Veecle founders are world experts in software-defined vehicles, and we believe their platform is a game changer for the industry.”
The syndicate in this round combines investors with Silicon Valley software experience and German industrial networks. They include:
Relay Ventures, a North American early-stage venture capital firm with offices in Toronto and San Francisco. Relay invests in ideas that go beyond conventional wisdom and solve major pain points within large markets with potential for rapid growth.
F-LOG Ventures, a venture capital fund specializing in start-ups in the fields of logistics and supply chain and focused on founding teams that pursue a technology-driven approach. The firm’s anchor investor is FIEGE Logistik.
IBB Ventures is one of the most active early-stage venture capital firms in Germany, has invested into more than 260 innovative Berlin-based companies since 1997. The current funds with a combined volume of € 120 million are backed by Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Plug and Play Ventures is a leading innovation platform and one of the most active early-stage VC firms globally with 30+ unicorns in the portfolio, including PayPal, Honey, N26 and Einride. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Plug and Play invests across more than 20 industries. Their European mobility offices are located in Stuttgart, London, Modena and Gothenburg.