ETF Leads a €7 Million Investment in Basemark
Basemark, a leading software company specialising in graphics and autonomous driving vehicle software, has successfully concluded a €7 million equity funding round by ETF Partners (Environmental Technologies Fund). The investment will be used to accelerate Basemark’s growth in the field of Autonomous Vehicles.
Founded in 2015, Basemark quickly gained a strong reputation for its Rocksolid Engine – a world-leading real-time graphics and compute software solution for mission-critical industrial applications. In just a few years and with no institutional money invested to date, Basemark grew its business to over $10m in revenue and achieved profitability. Its customer base includes world-class automotive OEM and SoC companies.
“We are thrilled to have ETF Partners on board,” said Basemark’s Founder and Chairman, Tero Sarkkinen. “Over the years we have worked hard on building a category-defining product and establishing strong international relationships across the automotive industry. This new capital injection will enable us to hit the gas and take us to the next level,” adds Mr. Sarkkinen.
“We are delighted to join the Basemark journey,” said Remy de Tonnac of ETF partners, who will also join the Board of the Company, together with Jarkko Virtanen, ETF’s Nordic venture partner, as Board Observer. “Road transportation is responsible for about 20% of total CO2 emissions and research has shown that the introduction of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) could help reduce transport emissions by as much as 80%, due to the advent of Transport as a Service and improved asset utilization. We believe Basemark’s critical AI and software technology are integral parts of the AV revolution,” he added.
For Basemark’s CEO, Keith Silverang, the timing of the investment is optimal. “My own focus since I started has been on building up mature business processes and a world-class team, so that we can accelerate our core product development and scale up rapidly. That team is now in place. We have had very strong and profitable growth to date, and our goal is to transform Basemark into a leading software product company in the space in the next couple of years. The ETF investment will enable us to do just that. ETF will bring us not only the fuel for growth, but we can benefit from their focus on sustainability, professionalism, experience and world-class network.”