The Foresight Group has announced that Edinburgh-based Codeplay will receive a £1.05 million investment from the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund.

The investment represents 50% of a £2.1m co-investment commitment from Foresight funds, the balance of which is expected to complete from Foresight VCTs in the next few days.

The company will be using the investment to fund the creation of safety-certified Artificial Intelligence (AI) development for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and self-driving cars.

ADAS systems provide surround monitoring around the car features such as adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance, self-parking and driver monitoring.

Since starting in 2012, Codeplay has grown to a 70-strong team of safety specialist engineers and software developers. Last year, it announced a partnership with Renesas, a leading Japanese semiconductor company, to enable their next generation of advanced automotive processors.

Chris Wardle, the Investment Manager of Foresight, said:

“We are very excited to partner with Codeplay, an established leader in heterogenous processor systems and support their expansion into safety-certified Artificial Intelligence products for the automotive industry as well as other verticals.”

Andrew Richards, the Founder and CEO of Codeplay, added:

“We are delighted to receive investment through the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund. We have been working hard on the technologies and partnerships to enable AI everywhere, from intelligent smartphones to making cars safer. ”

“This is a great new partnership that will provide us with both funding and specialist expertise. Williams Advanced Engineering is renowned for the provision of world-class technology innovation and Foresight has the proven track record to help grow Codeplay into a world leading company.”