driveblocks Raises €3.5 Million to Commercialize Safe & Scalable Off-Road Autonomy through AI-Based Perception Technology

driveblocks, unlocking off-road autonomy through advanced perception, led by Dr. Alexander Wischnewski, Dr. Stephan Matz, Leonhard Hermansdorfer, Dr. Thomas Herrmann, Dr. Felix Nobis, and Dr. Tim Stahl, has raised a 3.5M Pre-Series A investment led by FORWARD.one, a European industrial technology venture capital firm, and with strong participation of existing investors Bayern Kapital, rethink Ventures and angel investor Joachim Drees.

The funding will accelerate product development, advance safety certification, and support initial production deployments with OEMs and system integrators in agriculture, construction, and defense.

Off-road vehicles power infrastructure, agriculture, and defense, but autonomy in these environments remains largely unsolved due to unstructured terrain, harsh conditions, and unreliable mapping.

driveblocks addresses this with an application-agnostic autonomy layer built for off-road ground vehicles. Its system fuses camera and LiDAR data into real-time 3D environmental understanding with reactive navigation. Designed for safety-critical use, the hybrid approach combines AI-driven perception with explainable algorithms and can operate standalone or alongside existing GNSS-based autonomy stacks.

Dr. Alexander Wischnewski, CEO and Co-founder of driveblocks, said reliable perception, edge AI deployment, and safety-critical operation remain the key barriers to off-road autonomy. The new investment will support the shift from pilots to production and advance safety-certified autonomous solutions with customers.

Robotics and Physical AI: powering the next industrial shift

Agriculture, construction, mining, and defense face mounting pressure to adopt autonomy amid labor shortages, hazardous environments, and rapid AI advances. With significant workforce gaps ahead, autonomous systems are becoming both an economic and strategic priority.

This shift has accelerated demand for European-built solutions, strengthening driveblocks’ position across defense and civilian markets.

Prototype vehicles are already operating with their technology, supported by close OEM and system integrator partnerships aimed at scaling into long-term production.

With AI breakthroughs accelerating adoption, driveblocks is pursuing a software-first path to commercialization, starting with high-value, lower-safety use cases and expanding as field data improves performance. The off-road market’s diversity offers strong potential, with over €100B in estimated labor cost savings.

Cailin Greiner, Investment Manager at FORWARD.one, said driveblocks targets the core barriers to off-road autonomy, perception, edge cases, and certification. Its environment-agnostic approach runs on production-grade hardware, and customers progressing from integration to production highlight the technology’s commercial traction.

Monika Steger, Managing Director at Bayern Kapital, said the firm has backed driveblocks since seed, driven by the belief that off-road autonomy will grow across industries. She highlighted the company’s mapless environment detection as a key differentiator, enabling flexible deployment in unstructured terrain and greater robustness in adverse weather, positioning it as a strong Physical AI investment.

The founders’ blend of research and engineering excellence traces back to the Technical University of Munich, where they won a $1M autonomous racing competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with cars reaching 280 kph, followed by second place in one of the first autonomous multi-vehicle races in Las Vegas.

Dr. Stephan Matz said the Pre-Series A will support productionization, expand commercial and operations teams, and continue R&D investment as driveblocks strengthens its role in Europe’s robotics and defense tech ecosystem.