Ettifos selected to supply retrofit V2X hardware for Arizona deployment

Why it matters

Ettifos is using retrofit hardware to enter connected transportation before factory-installed V2X is widespread, turning a federal deployment into a test of its U.S. expansion strategy.

Hojun Kim has spent eight years building Ettifos around a stubborn infrastructure problem: connected roads are of limited use when most vehicles lack the hardware to speak to them. Arizona is giving his answer a large public test.

Ettifos said on September 1 that it was selected through a competitive procurement to supply its V2X-AIR onboard device for the Maricopa County Department of Transportation's Connected Vehicle Acceleration Zone, or CVAZ. The 2024-to-2028 program will link emergency, transit and freight vehicles with traffic signals, roadside equipment and other road users across Phoenix, Tolleson, Avondale, unincorporated Maricopa County and parts of U.S. 60.

The selection puts the South Korean hardware maker inside a $19.6 million federal program meant to show that vehicle-to-everything, or V2X, systems from different vendors can work together outside a closed test track. Maricopa County rounds the cooperative agreement to $20 million.

Kim, Ettifos's co-founder and CEO, studied electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota and worked on CPU and communications-semiconductor design at Intel and GlobeSpan, according to Korean technology publication KIPOST. He initially served as Ettifos's chief technology officer and became CEO in September 2023. Ettifos says its founders started the business in 2018 after concluding that electric and autonomous vehicles were advancing faster than the road infrastructure around them.

That thesis led Ettifos toward the less glamorous side of connected mobility: radios, modems and boxes that transportation agencies can procure, install and maintain. CVAZ now gives Kim a chance to prove that approach in one of the larger federally backed U.S. deployments.

The retrofit wedge

Ettifos will provide V2X-AIR, a pocket-sized aftermarket onboard unit that adds a vehicle-to-infrastructure radio without waiting for an automaker to build one into a new model. The device connects with a smartphone over Bluetooth and can deliver road warnings or other applications through software supplied by Ettifos or an integrator.

Ettifos lists C-V2X and older DSRC radio variants, an NXP i.MX 8XL processor, Linux, USB-C power and support for the IEEE 1609.2 and 1609.3 networking and security standards. The Arizona deployment will use C-V2X direct communications, which allows nearby vehicles and roadside units to exchange information without sending every message through a cellular network.

The retrofit design is the commercial wedge. Public agencies cannot replace whole fleets simply to participate in a connected-road program. Emergency vehicles, buses and trucks also remain in service for years, leaving a gap between newly installed roadside infrastructure and the vehicles expected to use it. V2X-AIR is designed to close that gap with an add-on unit.

Federal procurement rules matter almost as much as the radio. Ettifos said in October 2025 that V2X-AIR had become compliant with Build America, Buy America requirements.

Kim described CVAZ in the announcement as "an important step toward real-world, scalable V2X deployments in the U.S." The scale will depend on Ettifos's eventual share of the vehicle hardware. The program consistently calls for about 400 connected vehicles, while the supplier mix and unit allocation will determine whether Ettifos gains a broad reference deployment or a narrower place in the stack.

Arizona is testing the vendors, too

CVAZ is designed as a multi-vendor environment. That makes interoperability the point of the procurement rather than a feature listed near the bottom of a data sheet.

Maricopa County says the system will cover 750 signalized intersections and 400 connected emergency, freight and transit vehicles. Ettifos's announcement refers to up to 650 roadside units. The Federal Highway Administration's June 21, 2024 award notice used another formulation: 750 physical and virtual roadside units connected to roughly 400 onboard units. The differing infrastructure counts make the vehicle total the cleanest consistent measure of the planned deployment.

The applications are concrete. Traffic signals will be able to give emergency vehicles preemption, prioritize buses and freight traffic, and warn connected drivers about pedestrians and cyclists. Maricopa County has worked on connected-vehicle systems since 2008 and operates an 11-intersection test corridor in Anthem, Arizona. CVAZ expands that work across several jurisdictions, suppliers and fleet types.

This is also a better test than a vendor-controlled pilot. A device that performs well with its maker's own roadside unit proves less than one that reliably exchanges safety messages across equipment from competing suppliers. Procurement compliance, security, radio interference and software integration all become visible when several vendors share the same corridors.

The regulatory direction is favorable to Ettifos. The Federal Communications Commission has made C-V2X the sole connected-vehicle technology authorized for new operations in the upper 30 MHz of the U.S. 5.9 GHz intelligent transportation band. The rule reduces a long-running standards split with DSRC, although it does not solve the practical work of installing equipment, coordinating agencies and demonstrating measurable safety gains.

Capital for the U.S. push

Ettifos raised a $6 million Series A in April 2024 led by LB Investment, with Korea Development Bank participating. Kim said at the time that Ettifos planned to pursue revenue from infrastructure and aftermarket vehicle deployments before selling semiconductor intellectual property into the automotive manufacturing market.

On July 2, 2025, Ettifos announced an $11 million Series B, with $6 million closed as of June 30 and another $5 million expected by the end of July. LB Investment led the initial $6 million financing, with L&S Venture Capital, Kyobo Securities and KR Ventures participating. Ettifos later reported that the round ultimately closed at $12 million in late July and listed LB Investment among the participants. The company tied the financing to U.S. and European operations, hardware-accelerator production and a third generation of V2X-AIR.

The Arizona selection fits the sequencing Kim laid out after the Series A. Ettifos is using aftermarket hardware to enter deployments before factory-installed V2X becomes common, collecting the integration experience and public-sector references that can support a later move deeper into automotive silicon.

CVAZ will provide a clearer answer than another demonstration. Ettifos must make a compact retrofit box function across existing fleets, multiple jurisdictions and other suppliers' infrastructure. If Kim's hardware holds up, Arizona becomes evidence that a small communications specialist can earn a place in a transportation network assembled by government procurement rather than controlled by a single automaker or chip vendor.