Germany-based lidar technology developer Blickfeld secured a $5.7m seed extension on Tuesday from investors including lighting product maker Osram and retail group Tengelmann to bring the round’s total to $10m.
Unternehmertum Venture Capital (UVC) Partners, a venture capital firm affiliated with Unternehmertum, the tech transfer office of Technical University of Munich, also backed the round, as did public-private partnership High-Tech Gründerfonds.
Osram and Tengelmann backed the round through their respective corporate venturing units, Fluxunit Osram Ventures and Tengelmann Ventures. The same group of investors supplied the original $4.3m tranche in October 2017.
Founded in 2017, Blickfeld produces Lidar sensors, laser-operated devices with similar function to radar which delineate the field-of-view in applications such as autonomous driving, robotics and internet of things.
The products are designed to collect 3D high-resolution data to ensure dependent devices have precise locational information.
The additional seed funding will help Blickfeld pursue accelerated business growth on the back of strong international demand, as the company prepares to fully-launch its first product, aimed at R&D. The money will also drive recruitment across several teams.
Ulrich Eisele, managing director at Fluxunit Osram Ventures, said: “Results from the first customer projects speak for themselves.
“That is why we are expanding our activities at Blickfeld. We are convinced that Blickfeld’s Lidar technology can be a key building block for the future market of autonomous driving.”
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.