Today, Smartcar announced it has raised a $10 million Series A financing led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). This follows a $2 million round of seed financing from a16z, bringing the company's total financing raised to-date to $12 million. Forest Baskett from NEA and William Krause from a16z will join Smartcar's board of directors.
Though many cars are internet-connected, there has not been an easy way for developers to integrate with them. Cars didn't have documented APIs and each car manufacturer has proprietary cloud infrastructure. Some companies worked around these issues by using aftermarket hardware (like OBD dongles), but those devices came with severe limitations and a prohibitive upfront cost.
Today, Smartcar's connected car platform lets developers read vehicle data and send commands using HTTP requests to any vehicles in a single engineering effort. By taking advantage of embedded telematics hardware already present in vehicles, developers can use Smartcar's suite of SDKs and comprehensive API docs to get started easily and build apps to communicate with vehicles.
"We founded Smartcar in 2015 after we became frustrated trying to figure out how to get a mobile app to connect to a vehicle," says Sahas Katta, co-founder and CEO. "Today, innovation in the automotive world is accelerating. We're excited to be enabling both industry incumbents and startups to develop new apps and services for cars. From car sharing and fleet management, to smart parking and insurance, developers are using the Smartcar platform to pioneer a truly connected automotive world.
"As the prevalence of software applications for automobiles continues to increase, so does the need for a universal API," said Forest Baskett, General Partner, NEA. "Smartcar's solution removes the friction felt by both OEMs and app developers to allow faster integrations between web apps and digital vehicle systems. We're thrilled to partner with the Smartcar team to empower developers across the $50 billion connected car services market."
Smartcar platform provides developers with the APIs, SDKs, and documentation they need to build innovative connected car experiences. The recent round of funding will help to grow the team, iterate on the company's core platform, and build out the developer experience to support more vehicle brands.
About Smartcar Smartcar is a connected car technology platform that enables developers to build applications that communicate with vehicles. Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Smartcar is committed to removing barriers to entry into automotive telematics by making it safer and easier to connect to vehicles. The Smartcar team has built a developer-friendly experience with enterprise-grade reliability, empowering developers to build software that brings new connected car experiences to the world. Find more information at www.smartcar.com
About NEA New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With over $20 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm's founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 210 portfolio company IPOs and more than 360 acquisitions. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.
