Japan’s Turing partners with Denso on self-driving cars after raising $63m
Japanese artificial intelligence startup Turing has partnered with auto parts giant Denso and is in talks with several major automakers to jointly develop fully autonomous vehicles, after securing 9.77 billion yen ($63 million) in fresh equity funding, its chief executive told Nikkei Asia. The Tokyo-based company completed the first close of its fundraising round led by state-backed Japan Investment Corp. and local venture capital firm Global Brain. Other participants included GMO Internet Group, Mitsui Fudosan and Denso. According to people familiar with the deal, this brings Turing’s post-money valuation to about 60 billion yen, roughly four times the size after the previous fundraising last year. Turing will now court overseas investors as it accelerates development of full self-driving software, targeting commercial deployment by 2030. The startup has also secured a 5.5 billion yen syndicated loan from Mizuho Bank, Resona Bank and several regional lenders.