BestMile, the Lausanne-based startup providing a cloud- based fleet management platform designed to connect, operate and optimize any fleet of autonomous vehicles, announced a second closing at $3.5M for its Seed round. It is one of the largest Seed Round ever achieved in Switzerland. In addition, the company was awarded a $500K FIT Early Loan from the FIT Foundation.

Bestmile_Team©TinaSturzenegger_3

In July, BestMile announced the closing of its first round of funding at $2.5M. Today, the Swiss startup unveiled a second closing of $1M for the Seed round boosting it to $3.5M. Secured during the summer, the additional funds to power BestMile’s growth were brought by private investors from Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United State and Japan.

In addition to the $3.5M Seed round, BestMile is benefiting from a $500K FIT Early Loan from the Foundation for Technological Innovation (FIT). The support of the prestigious organization is a testimony of BestMile’s rapidevolution and establishment as a reliable and promising company. Over the past 22 years, the Foundation has provided loans to 162 rigorously chosen innovative projects for a total amount of more than $23M.

“The funds will be used to accelerate even more BestMile’s growth and international expansion. It also allows the company to benefit from an extend international support and network and put us in an ideal position for the Serie A, which is already in progress.” explains Raphaël Gindrat, BestMile’s CEO. Gindrat and his startup continue to successfully grow as a global company. He was part of the venture leaders USA program last year and BestMile was ranked #13 in the TOP100 of Swiss startups past September. Last month Trapeze announced that they were entering the autonomous mobility revolution in partnering with BestMile to offer public transport agencies the world’s first solution for managing hybrid fleets with both autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles.

Learn more about Gindrat in this clip right before he took off to venture leaders USA:

Autonomous mobility is no longer science fiction
The company is currently scaling both in Switzerland and in the US to match the increasing number of requests and projects as well as the market’s unfolding. BestMile already has impressive portfolio of strategic partners such as Trapeze, the leading software provider for public transport and the autonomous shuttles manufacturers Local Motors, Navya, Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz and Next Future Transportation. BestMile’s project “SmartShuttle” in partnership with PostBus, leading the first instance of electric autonomous shuttles circulating through a city center and servicing the public on a daily basis, recently reached the milestone of 10’000 passengers.

Autonomous mobility is no longer science fiction. It’s here today, and BestMile is the first company allowing autonomous vehicles to be managed as a fleet. BestMile posits that in the long run, and at the scale required to support thousands of autonomous vehicles, there is an even greater need for a global fleet management solution to optimize real-time dispatching and routing, network between fleets, and reduce the ecological footprint. The cloud platform is operating as the backbone for various mobility providers – both public and private – to integrate and offer effective mobility services for wide-ranging applications, including public bus and shuttle services, taxi fleets, ride-sharing and car-sharing services, among others.