Autonomous Vehicle Mapping Company DeepMap Named One of the Most Innovative AI Startups by CB Insights

author: FutureCar Staff    

Silicon Valley-based mapping startup DeepMap Inc. has been named as one of the most innovative companies utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) by CB Insights, a National Science Foundation-backed big data company. 

As a big data company, CB Insights collects predictive intel each year into the health of private companies, their investors and the emerging industries they compete in. CB Insights compiles a list of 100 of the most innovative startups called the AI 100, based on its research each year.

Deepmap was selected from a pool of over 6,000 companies that are redefining industries.

"This is the fifth year CB Insights has recognized the most promising private artificial intelligence companies with the AI 100, and this is one of the most global groups we've ever seen. This year's cohort spans 18 industries, and is working on everything from climate risk to accelerating drug R&D," said CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal.

DeepMap is a developer of high-definition (HD) mapping and localization technology for autonomous vehicles. The company was founded in 2016 by James Wu and Mark Wheeler and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif with additional offices in Beijing and Guangzhou, China. Wu serves as DeepMap's CEO.

The company specializes in fusing images from digital cameras with data collected using LiDAR to build its highly detailed 3D maps. These HD maps are highly accurate down to centimeter level and are used by autonomous vehicles to navigate and localize.

Before co-founding DeepMap, Wu led the engineering efforts building the serving infrastructure of Google Earth and also helped launch Apple Maps. Wu also served as principal architect for Baidu's self-driving platform now called Apollo.

"We are honored to be named to CB Insights' AI 100 List as one of only seven companies in the transportation sector," said Wu. "My co-founder Mark Wheeler and I launched DeepMap in April 2016. From the beginning, our vision has been to offer a global map engine-as-a-service for a full range of autonomous driving, from hands off, to eyes off, to mind off."

Being named to the AI 100 gives companies like DeepMap additional exposure in the startup community.  

"Last year's AI 100 companies had a remarkable run after being named to the list, with more than 50% going on to raise additional financing (totaling $5.2B), including 16 $100 million+ mega-rounds," said Sanwal. Many also went on to exit via M&A, SPAC, or IPO. As industry after industry adopts AI, we expect this year's class will see similar levels of interest from investors, acquirers, and customers."

The AI 100 companies are choosen based on several factors including patent activity, investor quality, market potential, partnerships and tech novelty. 

DeepMap recently announced DeepMap HDR (High-Definition Reference), a service for companies who are building hands-free Level 2+ driving systems using crowd-sourced maps. 

DeepMap says its HDR solves a critical piece of the puzzle for companies seeking to validate and improve crowd-sourced mapping data. 

FutureCar Staff