Yinson, SMRT Ventures co-invest in autonomous vehicle tech startup MooVita

Vivienne Tay

Published Tue, Jun 8, 2021 · 04:38 PM

YINSON Holdings has entered into an agreement with SMRT's corporate venture arm to co-invest an undisclosed "multi-million dollar" amount into MooVita as part of the autonomous vehicle tech startup's Series A funding.

The co-investment with SMRT Ventures is Yinson's first foray into mobility, the three parties said in a joint statement on Tuesday. Yinson is an energy infrastructure and technology group listed on Bursa Malaysia.

MooVita co-founder and chief operating officer Dilip Limbu said the company will focus on advancing its driverless technologies, building a fleet of driverless shuttle buses, as well as expedite the deployment of its driverless public transport solutions, starting from Singapore and Malaysia.

The startup was established in 2016 and is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Malaysia and India. It is developing a component-based driverless software solution that transforms various vehicle types into autonomous vehicles for various driving conditions and applications. This includes first or last-mile transportation, logistic transportation, agriculture and utility solutions.

Early investors include Pioneer Smart Sensing Innovations Corporation, Seeds Capital and GreenMeadows Accelerator.

Yinson group executive vice-president, new ventures and technology Eirik Barclay said: "We look forward to working closely with MooVita to develop and roll out technologies that can help to mitigate some of the most pressing issues faced by the transportation industry today - road accidents, carbon emissions and traffic congestion."