Let’s talk today about Hayden AI, as we have before here on Smart City Sentinel.
Hayden AI’s M.O. is to revolutionize problem-solving in smart city environments with an AI-powered perception platform; more specifically, through the clever harnessing of AI-powered geospatial analytics to advance intelligent mobile perception capabilities. Real-world applications for the company’s solutions already include capturing stop arm violations automatically for improved traffic safety, as well as transit bus lane and bus stop monitoring tools that keep streets safer for riders and other motorists alike. Hayden AI’s hardware is purpose-built for dynamic data collection and analysis, hence why its systems also provide value beyond smarter traffic enforcement; with edge processing and robust encryption, Hayden AI continues to carve out its place as a top provider of smart and secure mobility systems.
As mentioned, we’ve covered Hayden AI in the past; once last year when the company announced having signed a contract with Los Angeles Metro for the deployment of bus lane and bus stop camera systems, and once earlier this year in regard to Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) as part of the city’s “Test in Tallinn” smart tech implementation initiative.
Now, we’ve got more recent news to share:
Just last week, Hayden AI announced $90 million in new growth equity. This Series C round was led by TPG’s The Rise Fund as part of a multi-sector global investment strategy.
For context, The Rise Fund invests in teams that, quote, “drive measurable social and environmental impact, alongside business performance and strong returns.” Founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, The Rise Fund looks to expand the reach of commercial capital in order to help next-gen entrepreneurs build impactful, profitable and sustainable solutions.
In terms of Hayden AI, The Rise Fund was joined by existing investors like the Drawdown Fund and Autotech Ventures. Their combined support of Hayden AI comes as the latter has expanded its market leadership and customer base on its journey to provide incredibly powerful solutions (e.g. predicting traffic congestion, monitoring critical city assets, optimizing transportation networks) that benefit some of the biggest cities in the U.S.
“Large cities have a dual mandate of increasing operational performance and safety of their public transit systems while improving their energy efficiency,” said Steve Ellis, Managing Partner at The Rise Fund. “Hayden AI’s proprietary technology offers a solution that sits at the intersection of accessibility, safety and sustainability, and is well-aligned with The Rise Fund’s pursuit of rapidly growing businesses that deliver impact at scale. Leveraging Hayden AI’s industry-leading accuracy and adaptability, we look forward to building on their success as they scale their technology into additional use cases and new cities, both domestically and internationally.”
“With The Rise Fund,” stated Chris Carson, founder and CEO of Hayden AI, “we can develop our platform into a true urban operating system – processing data and generating actionable insights that help cities become more livable for everyone.”
“This new financing,” Carson added, “lets us invest in long-term technology development to explore new applications for our platform. TPG’s The Rise Fund has a long track record of successfully scaling renowned companies across the technology and climate sectors, and we are thrilled to partner with them to continue to empower cities to transform sustainability, road safety and accessibility.”
Learn more here.
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
