2022 has brought incredible progress for Sonatus. We’re accelerating vehicle software innovation and seeing the results of that hard work pay off. In this special year-end post I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on 2022 and share what we are looking forward to in 2023.
Production deployment and strong recognition
The automotive industry, historically hardware-centric, is accelerating at a rapid pace to software-focused technologies. As automakers look to scale technologies to meet demand and speed time-to-market, it will require new skills and new ways of thinking, where traditional automakers will act more like software developers. We are working to help speed this transition and prove that Sonatus can be a strong partner with our customers.
Technology in production.
Perhaps the most important thing a small company can do is demonstrate their technology is real, and in 2022 we delivered! Sonatus technology is now in production in four car models from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis with many more models to come in 2023. We’re gratified to see our hard work literally rolling down the road. I can’t help but smile as I see one of them drive past!
Strong industry accolades.
It has also been a strong year of recognition for Sonatus. We’ve received many accolades, ranging from a CES 2022 Innovation Award, two different AutoTech awards including Connected Solution of the Year, an Informa Tech Automotive Award for Software Supplier of the Year, a finalist for a PACE Award, a finalist for a PACEPilot Innovation to Watch and others.
Successful collaboration with Hyundai.
While we are gratified with all the recognition this year, perhaps the one we’re most proud of is the PACE Innovation Partnership Award, received jointly with Hyundai Motor Group, for our collaboration to deploy our technology into production. At Sonatus we’ve been working hard to bridge Silicon Valley software innovation and automotive design methodology, working elbow to elbow with customers to take a more agile approach to design. Recently our CEO Jeff Chou spoke on a panel at Automotive News Congress: Detroit with HATCI President John Robb about the successful relationship between Sonatus and Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) that resulted in this collaboration award and the potential future opportunities it unlocks. The takeaway was that redefining traditional OEM/supplier relationships when it comes to software is vital if both sides are to mutually benefit. Going into 2023 we look forward to bringing our agile development and collaborative approach to more customers in order to accelerate automotive innovation through software.
New funding and growth in 2023
After an amazing year of growth and innovation at Sonatus, we look forward to an exciting year ahead for our team and for the automotive industry as a whole. To close out the year and launch us into 2023 with strong momentum, we were proud to recently announce a $75 million fundraising round that was led by industry electronics manufacturing leader Foxconn and joined by other key investors. This is a significant milestone that will make a big impact in supporting Sonatus’s mission.
This round brings our total fundraising to over $110 million, which is especially gratifying to achieve during this tough economic climate. This investment and our production deployment progress will continue to drive our expansion into new regions, new customers and new product areas. We are growing, hiring, delivering on our milestones, and making rapid progress on many fronts. In 2022, we added a dedicated presence in France, we have a growing footprint in China, and are working to expand into other regions in early 2023.
Finally, the investment by a massive global player like Foxconn lends significant credibility to the work we have accomplished. As they continue to rapidly expand their focus into serving the automotive market, we’re excited for the chance to collaborate with them in new ways.
Come visit us at CES
To kick off the new year, we’ll be showcasing key technologies at CES 2023 that will demonstrate how Sonatus’ software-defined platform enables automotive companies to define and deliver the vehicles of the future:
- Vehicle Data Collector, the winner of multiple prestigious industry awards, running on the Genesis GV60 all-electric compact luxury SUV: Witness dynamic data in action with configurability and real-time availability that enables a wide variety of advanced capabilities, including customized data capture, remote problem diagnosis, connected vehicle services, and more.
- Vehicle Automation Manager, Automotive News PACEpilot 2022 finalist, running on a prototype Genesis vehicle: Experience how automation can enable several advanced software-defined vehicle use cases, including vehicle feature creation, automated vehicle testing and remote diagnostics.
- Vehicle Zonal Architecture Solution, that anticipates future vehicle configurations to address several critical zonal vehicle architecture design challenges.
- In-Vehicle Network Security, we will be simulating a network attack and demonstrating how our vehicle security platform can detect, mitigate, and prevent attacks from infecting other vehicles in a fleet, and complement other industry solutions.
- Automotive Gateway Reference Design, through collaboration with an automotive industry partner, we will demonstrate a reference design platform that can form the foundation of vehicle gateways all the way to future zonal architectures.
- …and a few surprises you won’t want to miss!
Interested in more? Book a meeting with us at CES or visit us in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center at booth #4467.
So it truly has been a phenomenal year and we’re looking forward to an even bigger 2023. To all of our staff, partners and customers, we thank you for making this all possible. We wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and look forward to seeing you at CES!
John
ABOUT SONATUS
Sonatus is accelerating vehicle software innovation, helping automakers build software-defined vehicles that can evolve and adapt over their lifetimes. Leveraging extensive automotive and data center experience, the company compresses decades of digital innovation into scalable vehicle and cloud software solutions, empowering OEMs to innovate faster, become more agile and reduce complexity and costs. Sonatus’ award-winning Digital Dynamics™ platform is currently in-market in Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis, and will be on the road in millions more vehicles in 2023. The company has raised more than $35 million USD with world-class automotive, technology, and venture investors including Hyundai Motor Group’s Kia Corporation, LG Electronics, Marvell, SAIC Capital, Translink Capital, UMC Capital and Wanxiang Group Company. Sonatus is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, with offices in Paris, France and Seoul, Korea. For more information visit www.sonatus.com.
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For more information contact:
Dr. John Heinlein
Chief Marketing Officer
Sonatus
contact@sonatus.com