Indian autonomous-vehicle maker drives away with $1.7 million raise

Minus Zero, an India-based maker of self-driving vehicles, has raised US$1.7 million in a seed funding round led by Chiratae Ventures, a technology VC firm that mainly focuses on the growth-stage startups in India.

Minus Zero co-founders Gagandeep Reehal (left) and Gursimran Kalra

JITO Angel Network, a few angel investors, and professionals from the autonomous-vehicle industry participated in the round. Senior executives from Silicon Valley-based firms Nvidia and Lyft also joined the fundraise.

Founded in 2021 by Gagandeep Reehal and Gursimran Kalra, Minus Zero had raised an undisclosed sum in a pre-seed round last September. It aims to produce fully autonomous vehicles similar to what global tech companies such as Tesla and Google’s Waymo make.

In April 2021, Minus Zero came into the spotlight when it did a demo of its prototype vehicle navigating Indian roads, which are considered unpredictable in terms of traffic and overall quality.

The company also leverages AI to resolve bottlenecks faced by tech companies that are trying to manufacture autonomous vehicles for Indian roads.

Minus Zero said it has several patents in the pipeline and that its proprietary approach can help self-driving technology mimic human intuition while driving.

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“This enables robust decision-making, which is crucial for safe navigation in scenarios where extrinsic factors like poor traffic infrastructure, rash driving, harsh weather, etc. would have otherwise compromised with the safety of the vehicle,” the company said in a statement.

Minus Zero also pointed out that its software can make decisions based on camera-only sensors and doesn’t require expensive LiDAR sensors or high-fidelity maps.

The startup plans to use the capital to build an R&D infrastructure focused on autonomous vehicles. It’s also  looking to expand its team to help expedite the launch of its products, which is slated for late 2022 or early 2023.

Co-founder Reehal told Tech in Asia that the first batch of Minus Zero’s vehicles will be a fleet of fully driverless shuttles, which can be deployed at places like university campuses, airports, and tourist destinations, among others.

Reehal says that the next phase will involve robo-taxis, which the company expects to roll out between late 2023 and early 2024 as it works on getting regulatory clearances.

“We are primarily a technology company. We are bringing together some amazing OEM collaborators in sensing, manufacturing, and compute. We will be making announcements regarding such partnerships once they are matured,” he adds.