SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hayden AI Technologies, Inc (“Hayden AI”), the leader in vision AI solutions for smart cities, today announced $90 million in new growth equity financing. The Series C round was led by The Rise Fund, the multi-sector strategy of TPG’s global impact investing platform, and was supported by existing investors such as the Drawdown Fund and Autotech Ventures, among others. This investment will accelerate the company’s research, development and growth.
The funding comes as Hayden AI has expanded its market leadership and customer base both domestically and internationally in the $748 billion smart city market. Hayden AI’s vision AI platform leverages geospatial data collection sensor systems to provide comprehensive smart city intelligence and is trusted by some of the nation’s largest cities and transit agencies, including New York’s MTA, Washington DC’s Metro, Los Angeles Metro, the East Bay’s AC Transit, and others, to detect and enforce parking and moving violations that obstruct public transportation and road safety. Hayden AI’s platform can be mounted on virtually any vehicle type – providing a level of insight and situational awareness that cities can use to make better decisions to achieve both their operational and sustainability goals.
The Rise Funds invest in companies that drive environmental and social impact alongside strong business returns. In addition to enforcing parking and moving violations, Hayden AI’s vision AI platform can detect and predict traffic congestion, monitor city assets, and optimize transportation networks, which helps cities improve public safety, sustainability, and efficiency.
“With The Rise Fund, we can develop our platform into a true urban operating system – processing data and generating actionable insights that help cities become more livable for everyone,” said Chris Carson, founder and CEO of Hayden AI. “This new financing lets us invest in long-term technology development to explore new applications for our platform. TPG’s The Rise Fund has a long track record of successfully scaling socially impactful companies across the technology and climate sectors and we are thrilled to partner with them to continue to empower cities to transform sustainability, road safety, and accessibility.”
“Large cities have a dual mandate of increasing operational performance and safety of their public transit systems while improving their energy efficiency,” said Steve Ellis, a Managing Partner of The Rise Funds. “Hayden AI’s proprietary technology offers a solution that sits at the intersection of accessibility, safety, and sustainability and is well aligned with The Rise Fund’s pursuit of rapidly growing businesses that deliver social and environmental impact at scale. Leveraging Hayden AI’s industry-leading accuracy and adaptability, we look forward to building on their success with the largest US cities to scale their technology into additional use-cases and new cities domestically and internationally.”
In New York City, automated camera enforcement has resulted in 5% faster buses along enforced routes and 20% fewer vehicle collisions. Additionally, the MTA estimates that automated camera enforcement has contributed to a 5% to 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The MTA recently announced that the program is being expanded to bus stop and double parking enforcement.
Hayden AI’s technology has not only helped cities realize meaningful gains in safety and efficiency, but it has also earned the company accolades, including recognition on the GovTech100 list for four consecutive years, and recognition by TIME Magazine as one of America’s Top GreenTech Companies of 2024.
About Hayden AI: At Hayden AI, we’re transforming how cities leverage infrastructure with AI. Our market-leading vision AI platform utilizes geospatial data collection sensor systems to create an urban operating system, giving cities actionable insights and situational awareness to improve sustainability, traffic safety, and accessibility. Cities across the globe use Hayden AI’s platform to make urban life more livable for everyone. Learn more at www.hayden.ai
About The Rise Funds: The Rise Funds are a core pillar of TPG Rise, TPG's global impact investing platform. Founded in 2016 by TPG in partnership with Bono and Jeff Skoll, The Rise Funds invest behind impact entrepreneurs and growth-stage, high potential, mission-driven companies that are focused on achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The Rise Funds deliver capabilities and expertise across a wide variety of sectors and countries at scale, focusing on opportunities in climate and conservation, education, food and agriculture, financial inclusion, healthcare, and impact services.
With approximately $19 billion in assets across The Rise Funds, TPG Rise Climate, and the Evercare Health Fund, the TPG Rise platform is one of the world's largest private markets impact investing platforms committed to achieving measurable, positive social and environmental outcomes alongside competitive financial returns.
For more information, visit therisefund.com.
