Innoviz raises $132M for solid-state lidar commercialization
Solid-state lidar sensors and perception software company Innoviz Technologies (Rosh Haayin, Israel) has raised $132 million in Series C funding. The round is marked by the entrance of new major investors China Merchants Capital (SINO-BLR Industrial Investment Fund), Shenzhen Capital Group and New Alliance Capital; and Israeli institutional investors Harel Insurance Investments and Phoenix Insurance Company. Given demand from additional investors, the Series C round will remain open for a second closing to be announced in the coming months.
This significant raise will support Innoviz's commercialization of its InnovizPro and InnovizOne solid-state lidar solutions and address growing demand for autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies worldwide. The company is focusing expansion efforts in key automotive markets including the US, Europe, Japan, and China. Innoviz also plans to expand its research and development efforts by investing in the buildout of next-generation products and software that will feature more cost reductions and improved performance.
Rather than focusing on bringing quick solutions to the market, Innoviz has chosen an ambitious path of developing a product and perception software through partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers, including Magna, HARMAN, HiRain Technologies, and Aptiv to assure full compliance with the highest automotive-grade production standards.
"Among the dozens of LiDAR startups that have popped up in recent years, only a small handful have progressed far enough and demonstrated the capability to get to volume production and be selected for new vehicle programs including Innoviz," said Sam Abuelsamid, Navigant Research Principal Analyst, Mobility. "Sensor companies that can develop partnerships with established automotive suppliers that understand the integration, validation and production requirements to ensure automotive levels of product reliability and safety will also have an advantage in achieving scale."
A partnership with Magna International, which also participated in the round, resulted in Innoviz's automotive-grade lidar, InnovizOne, and its computer vision software being selected by BMW for series production of vehicles starting in 2021--an industry-first design win for solid-state lidar that was instrumental in defining a path for lidar to enter the automotive industry. Innoviz's new funding will assist in bringing this program, as well as additional automotive OEM design wins, to production at scale, as well as provide overall support for the expected company growth.
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.