Neural Propulsion Systems (NPS), a developer of software-defined radar secured a $17.5-million Series B funding round led by Cota Capital with contributions from GM Ventures, the venture capital arm of General Motors and RTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of RTX.

NPS will use the investment to further develop and apply its Atomic Sensing Platform to automotive radar technology. The platform provides significantly enhanced, reliable radar resolution and groundbreaking precision. The improved performance stems from a new mathematical framework called the Atomic Norm (AN), rooted in Caltech and MIT in 2012.

By harnessing the potential of our newly developed radar technology, we can potentially achieve performance enhancements that are over 10 times greater than current radar capabilities, putting us at the forefront of revolutionizing the $28 billion radar market. Our radar software works with all radar hardware and significantly improves the performance of existing sensing platforms with lower cost and more efficiency.

—Dr Behrooz Rezvani, Founder and CEO of NPS

The NPS software-defined radar, SDR, achieves near maximum likelihood performance in detection—meaning, the NPS proprietary software achieves close to what is theoretically possible with existing radar sensors. This advancement in radar technology enables clearer and earlier detection.

NPS radar image

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) proposed rule changes in May 2023 aim to reduce roadway fatalities significantly by strengthening regulations around automatic emergency braking (AEB) and pedestrian AEB (PAEB). NPS’s technology is poised to further assist companies and suppliers in meeting these new standards, using less complex and more reliable sensors.