Nio Capital, the strategic investment arm of smart electric vehicle producer Nio, has co-led a $30m series A round for US-based light detection and ranging (lidar) technology developer Innovusion.
The round was co-led by two subsidiaries of investment and financial services group Fidelity, with Eight Roads Ventures investing in China and sister unit F-Prime Capital in the US.
Founded in late 2016, Innovusion has created a lidar system known as Cheetah that can support level four-plus autonomous driving software, the level where vehicles can drive completely autonomously under some conditions.
The systems are capable of detecting objects that are more than 200 metres away and the funding will support an increase in production as Innovusion, which has introduced its product in the US and China, looks to expand internationally.
Ian Zhu, managing partner at Nio Capital, said: “Cheetah is one of the most advanced lidar sensors we have seen in the market. When looking at the robo-taxi market and the amount of testing needed, we see a strong immediate need for high performance lidar sensors.
“As for the [original equipment manufacturer] market, we see automakers putting more and more efforts on testing and integrating sensors for autonomous driving with more strict requirements related to cost, auto-gradability as well as performance. We strongly believe Innovusion will lead and greatly benefit from these booming markets.”
The series A round came after Innovusion had previously raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from venture capital firm Gaorong Capital and undisclosed angel investors, the company said.
