Potential Motors, the Fredericton maker of control software for off-road electric vehicles, has raised $2 million as CEO Sam Poirier looks to scale the company’s technical capacity in anticipation of major production deals with manufacturers.

The raise includes returning investors Brightspark Ventures of Toronto, Build Ventures of Halifax and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, as well as a new backer, Ontario’s Farpointe. In a statement, Potential said the funding is packaged as an extension of its 2020 seed round, which it previously added to in 2022. The total value of the round is now about $8.5 million.

In an interview Wednesday, Poirier said he is preparing for several existing testing deals with off-road vehicle manufacturers to transition into larger-scale agreements.

“We’re starting to have those conversations now with some of the companies,” said Poirier. “So that’s really what the financing is around — how do we set ourselves up to be successful in those?”

The answer to that question, for Poirier, is partly to onboard new employees with experience working with automotive mass production. Potential so far has 12 staff, and he plans to increase that figure to 14.

He cites the example of Scott Kunselman, who joined Potential as a strategic advisor in January and was formerly the Chief Engineer behind the popular Ram brand of pickup trucks, as well as Senior Vice President of Engineering at what was then called Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the truck’s maker.

Founded in 2018 by a team of engineering students from the University of New Brunswick, Potential is developing software that manages tasks like modulating how much power is sent to an off-road EV’s wheels, how the vehicle responds to steering input and the behaviour of adjustable suspension systems.

Road-going vehicles rely on similar technology, but the reduced traction and uneven terrain of off-road environments presents unique challenges. Potential’s core innovation is an AI solution that adjusts the vehicle's suspension and torque settings in response to conditions ahead, using data from sources such as the vehicle’s cameras.

In December, Potential announced a testing deal to integrate its technology into vehicles made by Minnesota-based CFMOTO Powersports, which sells ATVs and other off-road vehicles. And in April, the company said it had logged more than 3,000 hours of real-world testing of its system, much of it under the deal with CFMOTO.

An advantage for Potential in having positioned itself as a specialist in off-road technology, Poirier said, is the business is now well-positioned to capitalize on what he sees as a broader sea change in the automotive AI market.

Autonomous technology for public roads is not advancing as quickly as some industry leaders hoped. Tesla, for one, had planned to bring self-driving taxis to market by 2020. Poirier sees the success of all-terrain vehicle-makers like electric truck company Rivian and Tesla’s Cybertruck as evidence of consumer interest shifting to what some observers have called the “adventure market” — Jeep being one of the earliest examples of the category.

“As we talked to these different OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), we were finding more and more that … the autonomy side, they’re almost getting regulated towards it,” he said. “But the other side, which is what drives a lot of people to actually buy their vehicles, is this new set of capabilities that allow somebody to go out and adventure, and explore.”