Israel-based light detection and radar (lidar) technology developer Innoviz Technologies secured $132m yesterday in a series C round featuring insurers Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services and Phoenix Insurance.
The round included investment firms New Alliance Capital and China Merchants Capital, the latter through its Sino-BLR Industrial Investment Fund, and venture capital firm Shenzhen Capital Group. The round will be left open for potential additional investment.
Innoviz is working on solid-state lidar and object perception technology that will be used in autonomous vehicles between levels three and five of autonomy, between allowing the system to primarily drive a car with human monitoring, and enabling it to fulfil all driving functions in all conditions.
The series C funds will support research and development in addition to the commercialisation of the company’s technology as it looks to expand in the US, Europe, China and Japan.
Omer Keilaf, co-founder and CEO of Innoviz, said: “We are excited to transition our production, manufacturing and research and development efforts into the next phase and continue to furnish the full stack of lidar hardware and software solutions to the industry.
“This round is a strong testament to the excellent progress we have made in cementing our technology as a true market leader capable of meeting the rigorous automotive standards at a cost that makes mass production realistic.”
Automotive vehicle distributor Delek Motors joined Vertex Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures and Zohar Zisapel to provide $9m of series A funding for the company in 2016.
Innoviz then closed a $73m series B round featuring Delek, internet group Naver, automotive component producers Magna International and Delphi Automotive, and Samsung Catalyst and SoftBank Ventures Korea, subsidiaries of electronics provider Samsung and telecommunications firm SoftBank, in late 2017.
The series B round also featured the rest of the company’s series A investors in addition to 360 Capital Partners and Glory Ventures.
Photo courtesy of Innoviz Technologies, Ltd.
