Osram acquires 25.1% of solid-state lidar company LeddarTech

July 27, 2017

To strengthen its position in the autonomous driving sector, Osram acquired a strategic share in LeddarTech.

Osram is investing in LeddarTech and its solid-state lidar technology, which uses IR light to sense distances and location of objects for autonomous driving applications.

To strengthen its position in the autonomous driving sector, Osram (Munich, Germany) acquired a strategic 25.1% share in LeddarTech (Quebec City, QC, Canada), a company that develops proprietary light detection and ranging (lidar) technology integrated into semiconductors and sensor modules for self-driving cars and driver assistance systems. LeddarTech specializes in solid-state lidar systems that use infrared (IR) light to monitor the area around them and says that its optical sensing technology is highly complementary with Osram's semiconductor products. The two companies already work together and Osram has now made an investment in LeddarTech in the mid double-digit millions of dollars.

"Osram is already the world's leading provider of sensor lights for autonomous vehicles and is experiencing steadily rising demand in this field. We see the investment in LeddarTech as a logical step on the way to becoming the leading provider of solutions in this area," said Stefan Kampmann, CTO at Osram Licht.

"We see a great natural fit between our two companies and are pleased to welcome Osram as a strategic investor," said Charles Boulanger, LeddarTech's CEO. "LeddarTech is on its way to becoming the reference in solid-state LiDARs for the automotive industry, and we believe our association with the market leader in automotive lighting represents an important milestone in that direction. This investment from Osram is part of a larger financing round currently under way by LeddarTech and expected to be finalized shortly. Further details will be provided after the closing of the round."

SOURCE: Osram; http://www.osram-group.de/en/media/press-releases/pr-2017/27-07-2017b

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.