Foresight, a leading developer of advanced systems for road traffic accident prevention (TASE: FRST), today announced a $ 3M investment round for its subsidiary Rail Vision. Rail Vision announced that investors have already committed to invest $ 2M at a market cap of $ 20M.
In September 2016, Foresight completed a $ 1.42M investment in Rail Vision, at a market cap of $ 2.4M. Foresight holds 32% of Rail Vision’s outstanding capital stock, and about 48% of its fully diluted capital stock, before this upcoming investment.
The funds raised will be used to support the company’s ongoing operations and to accelerate its research and development processes. Recently, Rail Vision performed several field tests with leading train operators around the world and it intends to carry out additional experiments. The company reported successful field tests with Israel Railways and with the national Italian and German train companies. Moreover, the company had been accepted into the largest accelerator in Europe.
The offering will be led by the Shrem-Zilberman group.
Rail Vision was founded in January 2015, and, like Foresight, it focuses on the development of a unique, first-of-its-kind system based on image processing technologies. Rail Vision’s system is designed to timely alert engine drivers to obstacles on the railway tracks, in any weather and any lighting conditions, by using designated cameras for object identification. Since the average stopping distance of a train traveling at a high speed is around 800 meters, long-distance obstacle identification is required. Rail Vision’s high-resolution cameras use advanced image processing algorithms to enable the system to locate obstructions from a distance of over 1,500 meters.
Rail Vision has patents pending in European countries, as well as Japan, China and the United States, for technological solutions addressing trains’ collision with obstructions on tracks. In Europe alone, the market Rail Vision targets is estimated at $ 30B.
Foresight was established upon the foundation of an advanced technology developed by Magna B.S.P, designed for the vehicle industry, to be used in systems developed by the company for accident prevention. The technology is based on advanced algorithms and 3D technologies, which will provide a better, more accurate solution compared to currently available systems, according to the company’s estimation.
