Turing Secures ¥1 Billion Funding from Government-Backed Fund ‘JIC VGI,’ etc.,Raising a Total of ¥5.5 Billion in Pre-Series A Round
Turing Inc. (Shinagawa, Tokyo; CEO: Issei Yamamoto, hereafter referred to as “Turing”) has announced that they have secured ¥1.02 billion at the completion of an additional Pre-Series A funding round. This includes ¥820 million in equity financing from JIC Venture Growth Investments, JR West Innovations, NCB Venture Capital, Turing CFO Masato Morishima, and a ¥200 million loan from Mizuho Bank. The total amount raised in the Pre-Series A round has reached ¥5.558 billion.。
Turing is a startup dedicated to the development of fully autonomous driving technology. The company is creating an End-to-End (E2E) autonomous driving system in which AI makes all the decisions—such as steering, acceleration, and braking—using data obtained exclusively from cameras.
Turing drives innovation in the autonomous driving field by developing advanced technologies such as the multimodal generative AI “Heron,” which makes sophisticated decisions using multiple types of data; the generative world model “Terra,” capable of creating realistic driving scenario videos for autonomous driving; and the “CoVLA Dataset,” a VLA model dataset for autonomous driving that provides detailed natural language descriptions of driving environments and generates optimal route plans. The company’s goal is to develop fully autonomous vehicles without steering wheels by 2030.
The funds raised in this round will be used to execute the “Tokyo30” project, which will develop an autonomous driving system capable of operating in Tokyo for 30 minutes without human intervention by 2025. The funds will also support the recruitment of talent, particularly machine learning engineers, to accelerate these initiatives.
Comments from Investors (in Alphabetical Order)
Toshiya Kishimura, Venture Capitalist at JIC Venture Growth Investments Co., Ltd.
AI technology is moving into a new stage of real-world interaction, following innovations in computer vision and natural language processing. Turing’s challenge to achieve fully autonomous driving through E2E (End-to-End) approach stands at the forefront of this advancement. Their proprietary technologies, including the multimodal generative AI ‘Heron’ and the generative world model ‘Terra,’ hold the potential to bring us closer to fully autonomous driving – one of humanity’s grand challenges. We highly value Turing’s innovative approach and technical capabilities, and will support their challenge toward realizing next-generation mobility. We expect this to bring about a new paradigm shift in the mobility industry.
Ryo Kawamoto, President of JR West Innovations
Autonomous driving is a challenging endeavor, and I am confident that Turing, with its outstanding leadership team and talented engineers, has the capability to achieve it. JR West Group is honored to be part of this groundbreaking project, and we believe that this challenge will bring new value to local communities and to the mobility experience. Together with Turing, we are committed to creating an exciting future.
Hiroki Hayashi, President of NCB Venture Capital Co., Ltd.
We are honored to have the opportunity to invest in Turing, a Japanese company that leads the way in fully autonomous driving. Turing is at the forefront of the domestic development of End-to-End (E2E) fully autonomous driving AI and has established itself as a top-tier player globally. We were impressed by the company’s vision, technological expertise, and the passion of its talented leadership team, which led us to make this investment. We look forward to seeing Turing contribute to Japan’s world-renowned automotive industry and make a significant impact on the growth of the domestic economy.
Recruitment Event Announcement
We will be holding a recruitment event at Turing’s headquarters on January 15 (Wed) and January 16 (Thu). Our executive team and engineers will be present to share insights on our development approach, strategies, and ongoing projects. The event will also feature team and project introductions, roundtable discussions, and networking opportunities. We invite you to join us and look forward to meeting you!
Event Name: Engineer Recruitment Online Information Session
Date and Time: January 15 (Wed), 18:00 – 18:45
Location: Online (No participant limit)
Target Audience: Mid-career engineers and engineering students interested in joining Turing
For more details: https://turing.connpass.com/event/336615/
Event Name: Open Office
Date and Time: January 16 (Thu), 18:30 – 20:00
Location: Turing Headquarters Office
Address: 1-11-2 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Gate City Osaki East Tower, 4th Floor
Number of Participants: 12 people
For more details: https://turing.connpass.com/event/339230/
About Turing
Company Name: Turing Inc.
Location: 1-11-2 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Gate City Osaki East Tower, 4th Floor
CEO: Issei Yamamoto
Founded: August 2021
Business: Development of fully autonomous driving systems
URL: https://tur.ing/
Career Information
We are seeking individuals who want to change the world by achieving fully autonomous driving technology in Japan. We frequently hold company introduction events and autonomous driving experience sessions, so feel free to contact us for more information.
Recruitment Page: https://tur.ing/en/jobs
Media Contact
PR Contact (Hiraku Abe): pr@turing-motors.com