Berlin-based Mobility Startup MOTOR Ai Secures €17.1 Million In Seed Round

The round was led by Segenia Capital and eCAPITAL, along with several mobility-focused angel investors. The funding will help the company grow its team, roll out its technology commercially, and expand operations.

“This type of AI enables the highest safety standard in autonomous driving – as is already legally standardised in Europe,” says MOTOR Ai CEO and Co-founder Roy Uhlmann.

Founded in 2017 by Roy Uhlmann (CEO) and Adam Bahlke (CTO), MOTOR Ai has developed a Level 4 autonomous driving system based on cognitive intelligence. Unlike typical machine learning systems that rely on pre-trained data, MOTOR Ai’s technology claims to make smart, transparent decisions—even in new or complex traffic situations.

This gives the system two big advantages: it can be certified under international safety standards, and it doesn’t require training for every possible driving scenario thanks to its ability to generalize.

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At the core of MOTOR Ai’s system is a cognitive architecture inspired by active inference, a neuroscience model that helps the vehicle make structured, understandable decisions.

While many companies depend on huge datasets and black-box AI models, MOTOR Ai is taking a different route—one that prioritizes explainability and certifiability, aiming for the highest levels of safety in autonomous mobility.

“This ‘Made in Germany’ in-house development reduces inter-dependencies while strengthening Europe’s ability to operate in critical innovative technology”, says Lucas Merle, Principal at eCAPITAL.

This year, MOTOR Ai will begin deploying vehicles equipped with its Level 4 autonomous driving system in several German districts. These vehicles will initially have onboard safety drivers, who are expected to be phased out by 2026. Each deployment includes the full autonomy stack and the required legal supervision, giving local transit authorities a clear and safe path to adopting autonomous transport.

According to the company, these deployments are the result of years of technical development and regulatory work. Since its founding in 2017, MOTOR Ai has built its entire autonomy system in-house from its Berlin base, working closely with certification bodies and federal authorities to meet the highest safety and compliance standards.

“Our solution meets key requirements for transparency and traceability of autonomous driving decisions, as required by authorities,” added Roy Uhlmann. “That clearly distinguishes us from US providers and at the same time optimally complies with European regulatory requirements.”

“In a regulated environment like Europe, trust and compliance are non-negotiable,” said Michael Janßen, General Partner, Segenia Capital. “MOTOR Ai has built a solution that is not only technologically differentiated, but fundamentally aligned with how Europe thinks about infrastructure and public safety. This is how autonomy will scale in future.”

Looking ahead, MOTOR Ai aims to expand its engineering, safety, and type approval teams, strengthen partnerships with local municipalities for deployments, and begin working on cross-border regulatory entry into other European markets.

“We don’t think the future of autonomy in Europe should be a mystery,” added Uhlmann, explaining the different approach Germany and the EU takes in comparison to other markets. “It should be measurable, inspectable, and designed to earn public trust. That’s what we’ve been building, and now we’re ready to scale it.”

About MOTOR Ai

Founded in 2017, MOTOR Ai is Germany’s only autonomous driving startup focused on meeting EU safety and legal standards. Its cognitive intelligence system powers Level 4 and 5 vehicles, making explainable decisions in complex traffic without needing training for every scenario. The team includes experts in AI, vision, and neuroscience.