Innoviz Technologies, the Israel-headquartered lidar technology developer that counts a range of corporates among its investors, has agreed a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Collective Growth Corporation.
The merged business will be valued at a combined $1.4bn and will take the listing secured by Collective Growth when it floated on the Nasdaq Capital Market in a $150m initial public offering in May this year.
Hedge fund manager Antara Capital is co-leading a $200m private investment in public equity (PIPE) investment also featuring automotive component manufacturer Magna International and insurance firm Phoenix Insurance that will take place in conjunction with the deal.
Innoviz produces solid-state lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors for use in autonomous vehicles, as well as the artificial intelligence and machine learning software used to detect, classify and track surrounding objects using data from the sensors.
The transaction comes in the wake of $252m in funding including a $170m series C round closed in June 2019 with backing from Magna, Phoenix Insurance and fellow insurer Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services.
China Merchants Capital’s Sino-BLR Industrial Investment Fund also took part in the 2019 round, as did New Alliance Capital and Shenzhen Capital Group.
The company had secured $73m in a 2017 series B round featuring Samsung Catalyst and SoftBank Ventures Asia – on behalf of electronics producer Samsung and telecoms firm SoftBank – as well as internet group Naver, vehicle distributor Delek Motors, Magna and its peer Delphi Automotive.
The series B round also featured Glory Ventures, Vertex Ventures, 360 Capital Partners, Amiti Ventures and Zohar Zisapel. It came after $9m in series A funding from Delek, Vertex Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures and Zisapel the previous year.
Swamy Kotagiri, president of Magna International, said: “Working with companies like Innoviz to transform innovative technologies into game-changing automotive-grade products is a win for our customers and the industry as we tackle challenges that come with autonomous vehicle development.
“Innoviz lidar technology, along with Magna’s [advanced driver-assistance systems] expertise, software integration and manufacturing excellence is meeting the need by bringing a high-performance, first-to-market solution.”
