AI-powered AR Navigation Company Phiar Announces Nasser Iravani as Vice President of Strategy and Business Development

Phiar, artificial intelligence and augmented reality navigation innovator, announced the addition of Nasser Iravani to its executive team as the strategy and business development leader.

Iravani brings more than 20 years of business development experience in creating new market opportunities and strategic partnerships, spanning location-based services, mobile ecosystems and IoT developments in consumer, automotive, transport and logistics, and telecommunications industries while working at HERE Technologies, Nokia, and Sun Microsystems.

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“Nasser has been at the center of many of the most impactful collaborations in the location services and mobility markets over the past several years,” Phiar CEO and Co-Founder Chen-Ping Yu said of the appointment. “We’re excited to leverage his strategic mindset as we prepare to bring our AI-powered AR navigation to the market.”

The addition to their leadership team comes as Phiar, which raised $3M in seed funding co-led by Venture Reality Fund and Norwest Venture Partners in 2018, prepares to release its computer vision and deep learning-based AR navigation app for smartphones, as well as into vehicles.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Phiar at this early stage, at a time when developments in hardware, AI/AR, computer vision, and automotive automation are gaining maturity industry wide,” says Iravani. “These developments are creating an opportunity for Phiar to make a real impact in both consumer and enterprise domains.”

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Most recently as the global head of IoT & Platform Partnerships, Iravani spent the past decade at HERE Technologies in Berlin, Germany — the firm owned by Mercedes, BMW, and Audi that powers location cloud services for several major automotive and enterprise customers. Prior to joining HERE, Iravani oversaw Strategic Partnerships at Nokia, based in Silicon Valley. Iravani also previously held multiple business and market development positions at Sun Microsystems.

“Not only does Nasser have a track record of building strategic deals and partnerships, but he has an extensive background in bringing automotive, mobile AR, and navigation solutions to market,” said Scott Beechuk, Partner at Norwest Venture Partners.

“Nasser’s ability to create innovative channel alliances will help Phiar change the way people navigate the world,” says Marco DeMiroz, General Partner of the Venture Reality Fund. “We look forward to seeing how he expands market opportunity for intelligent, visual navigation.”

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