Samsung and Softbank invests in Israeli LiDAR company

Back in early September Innoviz raised USD 65 million in Series B funding as the company was taking its LiDAR solution into mass production. Investors participating in the round included; Delphi Automotive, Magna International, 360 Capital Partners, Glory Ventures, and Naver. The extension now brings the round to USD 73 million in total, the new funding comes from strategic investors Samsung Catalyst, Samsung’s early stage venture capital fund, and from SoftBank Ventures Korea. “Innoviz shares our passion for changing the world through innovative technologies,” said JP Lee, Managing Director and Partner of SoftBank Ventures Korea. “LiDAR is a crucial technology for enabling autonomous vehicles to sense their surroundings, and Innoviz has proven that it is much farther ahead than other LiDAR developers in bringing powerful, dependable LiDAR to mass market.” Innoviz’s LiDAR technology leverages the company’s proprietary System, MEMS and Detector designs to deliver highly accurate and long ranging autonomous vehicle sensing capabilities. The company’s solid-state design enables it to deliver LiDAR in a more compact device that offering a lower cost. “We were excited to see such a high level of interest in our Series B round from such an impressive list of top-tier investors and strategic partners,” said Omer Keilaf, Co-founder and CEO of Innoviz. This latest financing brings Innoviz’s total funding to USD 82 million.