We met Jake Hillard and Rebecca Wong 4 years ago when they shared with us an ambitious vision: building a new approach to 3D Vision that makes sensing 100x more powerful.
This is no easy task: companies have spent billions of dollars over the past five years building large teams to push the boundaries of computer vision. "Hardware is hard" as the saying goes. But Jake and Rebecca are both persistent and brilliant. They literally invented mathematical theory and signal processing techniques that previously didn't exist, and spent years perfecting the technology.
This became Red Leader, and the results are revolutionary.
The story of Red Leader has been one of stealthy grit until now. I'll never forget how the specific configuration of cloud formations on a dreary day in Palo Alto was the deciding factor as to whether or not an early Red Leader demo unit worked properly. But with time, the hardware and software were ironed out, top executives from world-class companies joined Red Leader, and the product became ready to market.
The Red Leader difference can look like the difference between having your eyes open and closed. Look at this example -- one the current industry standard, and one using Red Leader -- moving down a street:
There's nothing else like it in the world. With this degree of 3D perception, problems such as autonomous driving will become far easier and safer.
Jake and Rebecca are wonderful humans, stunningly smart, and their tech speaks for itself. This is why we're so excited to finally announce our pre-seed investment in Red Leader and publicly share that they have raised a $10M Series A.
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