Emesent has secured US$17 million in new funding to support development of its autonomy software, cloud platform and manufacturing operations. The Brisbane-based autonomous mapping and robotics company plans to use the capital to scale manufacturing at its Wacol production facility in Queensland and advance two software initiatives. Cortex AI is Emesent’s onboard autonomy platform for operations in GPS-denied and hazardous environments, while Aura is its cloud-based software for 3D data processing, visualization and analytics.
The financing comprises a US$7 million venture debt facility from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation and a US$10 million equity round backed by Main Sequence, QIC Ventures, Orion Resource Partners, Hostplus and NGS Super. Emesent employs 109 people in Australia and plans to expand to meet demand from overseas markets. Its products are used across mining, defense, architecture, engineering and construction, and critical infrastructure.
“This investment accelerates everything we’re building at Emesent,” CEO Charles Miller said. “Our clients operate in some of the most demanding environments on the planet, and they rely on our technology to make those environments understood.”
The NRFC financing is the organization’s first venture debt deployment to a deep technology company, according to the source material. Emesent was spun out of the CSIRO in 2018 and has since commercialized autonomous mapping technology for industrial environments.
Emesent’s Hovermap product is deployed at more than 200 mine sites globally, including operations associated with Rio Tinto, BHP and Glencore. Its portfolio also includes the Hovermap STX LiDAR payload for drone, vehicle and backpack deployments, the GX1 scanner with SLAM, RTK and 360-degree imagery capabilities, Aura software and Cortex AI autonomous flight software.
NRFC CEO David Gall said the investment would support the commercialization of Australian-developed intellectual property and help retain robotics and autonomous systems capabilities in Australia.
Main Sequence, which backed Emesent in its Seed and Series A rounds, participated again alongside QIC Ventures, Orion Resource Partners, Hostplus and NGS Super.
The funding follows the commercial rollout of Emesent GX1, including an AEC-focused roadshow across the Americas, Europe and Asia. The company is positioning Cortex AI and Aura as software platforms intended to extend the use of its hardware deployments through autonomous operation, data processing and cloud-based services.
