Car cloud gets $9m backing

Upstream Security, a pioneer of the cloud-based cybersecurity platform for connected cars and autonomous vehicles, has secured $9m in Series A funding, led by CRV (Charles River Ventures).

The round included expanded investments from Israeli-based Glilot Capital Partners and Maniv Mobility. Following a $2m seed funding round in June, the company will use the latest investment to expand its R&D programme and continue building out its world-class engineering and security research teams, and open marketing and sales offices in the United States and Europe.

The company is well-resourced to secure the 60 million connected cars on the road today that include commercial trucks, vans, buses and private vehicles, as well as take advantage of the imminent explosion in connected vehicles-Gartner expects there will be 250 million connected vehicles by 2020.

‘Connected and semi-autonomous cars are already a reality, so it’s a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ these self-driving technologies will be deployed at scale. Upstream’s engineers were the first to solve how to protect connected cars and autonomous vehicles using the cloud, crucial for near-term and future deployment of automotive cybersecurity at the fleet level,’ said Izhar Armony, general partner at CRV. ‘We believe in Upstream’s groundbreaking approach to secure connected and autonomous vehicles and in the abilities of cybersecurity veterans, Yoav Levy and Yonatan Appel, to build a rapidly growing business in this hot, emerging space.’

As connected and autonomous driving technologies become mainstream, security attacks on vehicle fleets – groups of motor vehicles owned or leased by a business, government agency or other entity -are likely to increase drastically. Upstream’s cloud-based approach to automotive cybersecurity leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning that is applied to the tremendous data sets continuously produced by vehicles. This provides customers with data protection, anomaly detection and real-time analytics of cyber attacks and vehicle fleet health. By centralizing cybersecurity in the cloud instead of in-vehicle, threats are detected and prevented before they even reach a vehicle’s network.

‘The automotive industry is going through a massive disruption. Consequently, security solutions for the car are undergoing rapid advances at an unprecedented rate. We’re using emerging technologies like AI and machine learning to carry out an evolutionary leap in cybersecurity for passenger and commercial vehicles,’ said Upstream CEO and cofounder, Yoav Levy.

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