Unlike some of the other companies in the unicorn club, Pivotal Software Inc. won’t have to worry about raising additional funds anytime soon. The EMC Corp. spin-off today announced that it’s secured a $253 million investment from a group of backers led by the Ford Motor Company, which contributed more than two thirds of the sum.

The cash infusion extends a partnership that the companies struck at the end of last year to develop automobile software using Pivotal’s popular middleware stack, Cloud Foundry. Their efforts have since produced a service called FordPass that allows drivers to reserve parking spots and schedule maintenance appointments using a mobile app. The collaboration is also set to see more advanced features like riding sharing support added in the future to counter the functionality offered by rivaling car makers.

In exchange for the new funding, Pivotal will help Ford hurry along the initiative by bringing its internal IT department up to speed on modern development methods and technologies. In conjunction, the companies plan on establishing joint software centers in the U.S. and Europe where their engineers will work side-by-side to produce new code. The collaboration is poised to benefit not only the FordPass project but also some of the auto giant’s longer-term plans, most notably its push to develop autonomous vehicles.

Ford has invested billions of dollars in the technology over the past few years and expects to have a trial fleet of 30 self-driving cars ready for testing by the end of the year, according to Reuters. The company didn’t specify exactly what role Pivotal will play in the undertaking, but did say both its cloud and analytics technologies will be drawn upon. That means the EMC spin-off will likely not only help with software development but also other aspects like processing vehicle diagnostics logs for potential safety issues.

As a result, the agreement should provide a big image boost for Pivotal, which is already a force to be reckoned with in the enterprise market thanks to its impressive client roster. The outfit works with more than three of world’s top five global auto manufacturers, seven of the biggest banks and about half of the Fortune 100 list. It was able to increase sales by 56 percent last quarter on the back of this success to $83 million.

Image via Ford