Applied Intuition Partners Archives

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The automotive industry is witnessing rapid changes in how it provides mobility to a massive proportion of the population. The need for minimizing emissions, increasing levels of autonomous functionality, and providing a more connected experience pressures engineers to develop simulation software rather than physical prototypes.

As the number of electrified autonomous vehicles rises, simulation allows firms to test integrated hardware for ultrasonic sensors, cameras, or lidar for automated systems. Applied Intuition is one of the prominent companies offering world-class simulation solutions for autonomous vehicles.

This article sheds light on essential details of Applied Intuition- its founders, startup story, funding, investors, growth, competitors, and more.

Applied Intuition: Company Highlights

Company Name	Applied Intuition
Headquarters	Mountain View, California, United States
Sector	Software Development
Founders	Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig
Founded In	2017
Website	Appliedintuition.com

Applied Intuition – About

Applied Intuition is involved in developing simulation software for autonomous vehicles (AV). The company has made it faster, safer, and easier to bring autonomy to the automotive industry by offering a suite of simulation, validation, and drive log management software.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, it has offices located in LA, Washington, Stockholm, Detroit, Munich, Tokyo, and Seoul. Applied Intuition provides custom solutions for small to large-sized companies across industries, from automotive, aerial, and trucking to agriculture and defense. Out of 20 global OEMs, 17 rely on the company’s solutions to develop, test, and deploy autonomous systems at scale.

Applied Intuition – Founders and Team

Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig founded Applied Intuition in 2017.

Qasar Younis

Qasar Younis attended Kettering University for a a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and Harvard Business School for an an MBA. He is the ex-founder and ex-CEO of TalkBin. Moreover, he worked at Google as Group Product Manager, Google Maps.

Before co-founding Applied Intuition, he was Y Combinator’s general partner and chief operating officer. Currently, he is the CEO of Applied Intuition.

Qasar Younis - Co-founder and CEO, Applied Intuition — Qasar Younis – Co-founder and CEO, Applied Intuition

Peter Ludwig

Peter Ludwig attended the University of Michigan for a a BSc and MSc in Engineering and Computer Science. He has been a software engineer intern at NVIDIA and Microsoft.

He also worked as a product manager and SWE at Google; in 2017, he co-founded Applied Intuition and is the company’s CTO.

Peter Ludwig - Co-founder and CTO, Applied Intuition — Peter Ludwig – Co-founder and CTO, Applied Intuition

Applied Intuition currently employs 201–500 employees.

Applied Intuition – Startup Story

Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig grew up in the backyard of American automotive giant General Motors in Detroit and crossed paths when working as product managers at Google. Peter was planning to start his third company. When making the list of potential co-founders, he thought of approaching Qasar.

First, they planned to start an Autonomous Vehicles (AV) company, but in 2013, they, they concluded that it was not a good business idea. In 2016, Peter and Qasar had a casual conversation and came up with the idea of starting a software business. They figured out if they could run a business in software in the automotive industry. In 2017, they developed the idea of inventing software for autonomous vehicle simulation and set up Applied Intuition.

In 2022, the company started helping manufacturers simulate and test the mechanical parts of their automobiles in different environments.

Applied Intuition – Logo

Applied Intuition Logo

The caret ^ in the Applied Intuition logo signifies the company’s ability to assist its clients in being significantly more efficient in introducing autonomy to the market in a timely and secure manner.

Applied Intuition – Mission and Vision

Applied Intuition aims to accelerate the world’s adoption of safe and intelligent machines.

Applied Intuition – Business Model

Applied Intuition provides software, Simian, for autonomous vehicle simulation. The software imports maps and the behavioral objects for each region of those maps and creates real-world scenarios. Moreover, it has a scenario editor, enabling clients to test thousands of scenarios on the vehicle and debug their autonomous vehicle software if an error occurs.

Applied Intuition also offers analytics software to allow clients to evaluate their autonomous vehicle metrics and view the data that is collected during scenario testing. This data lets clients plan for future test drives. Additionally, the company provides consulting and support services to help businesses implement and integrate their software tools into the customer’s development process.

Applied Intuition – Products and Services

Applied Intuition classifies its product offerings into four categories:

Simulation: Simian, Spectral, Logstream, and Orbis
Vehicle Dynamics: carSIM, truckSIM, suspensionSIM, and bikeSIM
Data & Maps: Strada, Synthetic Datasets, Traffic Sign Datasets, and Meridian
Validation: Basis and Applied Test Suites

Virtual Simulator

Virtual Simulator was launched on October 28, 2018.Developers may access driverless simulators from businesses like Applied Intuition, a startup financed by Marc Andreessen. The Sunnyvale, California-based facility provides over 100,000 distinct driving scenarios for evaluation.

Applied Development Platform

In 2019, the company unveiled its Microsoft Azure-optimized Applied Development Platform.

Applied Intuition significantly shortens time to market and speeds up the development of autonomous driving features for companies worldwide by utilizing Azure’s cloud and edge capabilities.

Applied Intuition - Products — Applied Intuition – Products

The company provides solutions, including Perception & Localization, Planning & Control, Map Creation, Scenario Creation, Log Visualization & Triage, Vehicle Dynamics, and more.

Applied Intuition - Solutions — Applied Intuition – Solutions

Applied Intuition – Funding and Investors

Applied Intuition has undertaken five funding rounds and raised a total of $351.5 million. Its latest funding round, the Series D Round, was conducted on November 11, 2021, and raised $175 million. The company is backed by prominent investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Hemant Taneja, Mike Maples, Eld Gil, Bilal Zuberi, Lee Fixel, Semil Shah, and Jeannette Zu Furstenberg.

Date	Round	Number of Investors	Money Raised	Lead Investor
November 11, 2021	Series D	7	$175 million	Addition, Coatue
October 22, 2020	Series C	4	$125 million	Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Lux Capital
September 12, 2019	Series B	12	$40 million	General Catalyst
September 12, 2018	Series A	7	$11.5 million	Andreessen Horowitz
September 5, 2017	Seed Round	2	–	–

Applied Intuition – Mergers and Acquisitions

Applied Intuition has acquired three companies to date:

Company Name	Date	Price
Embark Trucks	May 25, 2023	$71M
SceneBox	March 21, 2023	–
Mechanical Simulation Corporation	March 14, 2022	–

Applied Intuition – Patents and Trademarks

The intellectual property of Applied Intuition comprises 2 registered patents with ‘Computing; Calculating’ as the primary category and 21 registered trademarks with ‘Scientific and Electric Apparatus and Instruments’ as the most popular class.

Applied Intuition – Growth

The estimated annual revenue of Applied Intuition in 2020 was $60.1 million ($186,635 revenue per employee), with its valuation standing at $3.6 billion. The company’s employee count rose 75% last year, and the monthly web visits rate increased to 6.19% with 33,166 visits.

Life at Applied Intuition