Three developers of light, detection and ranging (lidar) technology have raised funding over the past weeks in rounds backed by corporates, while others could have an edge having been developed with state backing.
Quanergy Systems, a US-based company working on solid state lidar sensors and smart sensing software, raised about $90m in series B funding last week at a valuation “well over $1bn”.
The round featured sensor and control equipment maker Sensata, auto parts manufacturer Delphi and electronics manufacturer Samsung, among others. Quanergy builds solid-state lidar sensors and software used to capture and process high-definition 3D mapping data in real time for object detection.
Automotive manufacturer Ford and internet company Baidu jointly invested $150m in Velodyne, another US-based producer of lidar 3D mapping technology, earlier this month. Velodyne has specialised in developing lidar sensor technology for self-driving cars and 3D mapping since the mid-2000s.
This month, Germany-based automotive technology developer ZF acquired 40% of Ibeo Automotive Systems, a local peer specialising in lidar technology and recognition software for autonomous driving.
In March, Germany-based tire maker Continental acquired the lidar division of US-based Advanced Scientific Concepts to speed up its development in this area, just a few months after equipment maker Caterpillar’s corporate venturing unit invested in TriLumina. (The Spetember issue of GCV will include Gaule’s Question Time with Caterpillar Ventures where they discuss how the company was first to autonomous vehicles for its mining equipment.)
Corporates are certainly the only kind of investors interested by lidar either. Also this week, Israel-based sensor developer Innoviz Technologies raised $9m in a series A round featuring Singapore’s state-backed Vertex Venture Capital, while back in 2007 LeddarTech spun out from Canada’s main optics and photonics research institute and raised $7m in November 2014 from the state-owned Business Development Bank of Canada’s BDC Capital and Go Capital fund managers.
Research agency Technavio said the global automotive lidar sensors market was expected to grow by 34% per year until 2020, with Continental, LeddarTech, Quanergy and Velodyne as the big four vendors.
Jayson Pankin, president and CEO of Detroit, Michigan-based intellectual property non-profit AutoHarvest, said for many in the industry, lidar was becoming one of four “essential ingredients” in the infrastructure behind autonomous vehicles – the others being radar, sound and camera.
Pankin added that five years ago lidar was only mentioned by the US Army – its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiative held a challenge in this field 10 years ago – but now original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) were increasingly investing in their supply chains because multiple technology domains were more important and there was now an “astronomical” need for more sensors and software.
Global Corporate Venturing is preparing a Future of the Car report as part of its partnership with the Corporate Venturing in Brasil which will be published on October 26 in Sao Paulo. To apply to join the delegation or contribute to the report please let me know.
These have not been the only deals in such technology that corporate and other VC investors have backed, though research firm Gartner this month warned autonomous vehicles generally were just past the “peak of inflated expectations” and about to slip into the “trough of disillusionment” before reaching mainstream adoption in about a decade.
Ford Motor Company took part in a $6.6m seed round for Civil Maps in July. Civil Maps builds artificial intelligence software that combines raw 3D data from lidar, cameras and other sensors on board autonomous vehicles to create machine-readable maps that can be used by the vehicles.
The chart provides a list of corporate-backed companies from the broad connected and autonomous vehicle fields and their subcategories. Lidar technology and its application in 3D mapping for autonomous driving are clearly beginning to take a noticeable position there.