Oryx Vision saises $50M to build LiDAR for autonomous vehicles

The automotive LiDAR innovator Oryx Vision has announced a USD 50 million Series B funding round. Third Point Ventures and WRV led the round, which was joined by Union Tech Ventures, and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Maniv Mobility and Trucks VC. This happened just 15 months after the company’s first funding round, this fundraise brings the total investment in Oryx to USD 67 million, the company says in a press release. Oryx builds an automotive LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), based on a radically innovative light sensing technology. A coherent flash system with no moving parts, which achieves the depth vision performance required for autonomous driving – with the simplicity and robustness of a digital camera – as the company puts it. Autonomous vehicles use LiDAR to create a 3D view of their surroundings by sending laser pulses and detecting their returning signals. Whereas all other LiDARs do that by tracing the energy of light particles with photodetectors, Oryx uses silicon-made microscopic antennas to detect light wave frequencies. This enables a low-cost system that’s – according to the company is – a million times more sensitive, is resistant to interference from the sun and other LiDARs, and produces both range and velocity data for every point in its field of view. Oryx will use the new funds to accelerate its development activities and to intensify its commercial engagements with car OEMs, tier-1 supplier and technology players. The company expects to ship units for car-mounted testing in the second half of 2018.