Applied Intuition raises $600 million as it pushes further into defense

Buzzy autonomous vehicle software company Applied Intuition has closed a $600 million Series F funding round, pushing its valuation up to $15 billion.

The round was co-led by BlackRock-managed funds and Kleiner Perkins, and included new investments from the Qatar Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Greycroft, and more. Existing investors General Catalyst, Lux, Elad Gil, and Mary Meeker’s growth fund Bond also participated.

Applied Intuition’s raise comes just one year after it completed a $250 million Series E, which put the company at a $6 billion valuation. The company makes software that helps companies and government agencies develop autonomous vehicle solutions. That includes simulation software and managing data.

“When they think like, ‘I have this software or AI problem,’ we generally want them to think about us,” CEO Qasar Younis told TechCrunch last year. “Like we want to be that first call.”

Applied Intuition works with most of the major automakers, as well as autonomous vehicle companies such as Gatik and Kodiak.

The company has also increasingly pushed into the defense space. In its newsletter announcing the funding round, Applied Intuition shared that it was asked by the U.S. Army to help bring autonomous tech to some of their vehicles. The company was able to take an infantry squad vehicle from “bare-bones” to autonomous in just 10 days. This included developing a “pedal-pushing robot to physically turn the wheel and press the throttle and brake pads.”