Innoviz raises $132M in funding to accelerate its production

This significant raise will support Innoviz's commercialisation of its InnovizPro and InnovizOne solid-state LiDAR solutions. The company is focusing expansion efforts in key automotive markets including the U.S., Europe, Japan and China. Innoviz also plans to expand its research and development efforts by investing in the buildout of next-gen products and software that will feature more cost reductions and improved performance, the company states in a press release. "We've experienced significant growth over the past year to meet increased demand for solid-state LiDAR. This fundraising enables many of the substantial commitments it takes to bring this technology to market at a massive scale — the scale required by Tier 1 suppliers and automakers leveraging LiDAR to deliver autonomous vehicles to the masses by 2021. We're 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," says Omer Keilaf, CEO and co-founder of Innoviz. Rather than focusing on bringing quick solutions to the market, Innoviz has chosen the path of developing a product and perception software through partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers, including Magna, HARMAN, HiRain Technologies and Aptiv, to assure full compliance with the highest automotive-grade production standards. "Among the dozens of LiDAR startups that have popped up in recent years, only a small handful have progressed far enough and demonstrated the capability to get to volume production and be selected for new vehicle programs including Innoviz," says Sam Abuelsamid, Navigant Research Principal Analyst, Mobility, in the release. "Sensor companies that can develop partnerships with established automotive suppliers that understand the integration, validation and production requirements to ensure automotive levels of product reliability and safety will also have an advantage in achieving scale." A partnership with Magna International, which also participated in the round, resulted in Innoviz's automotive-grade LiDAR, InnovizOne, and its computer vision software being selected by BMW for series production of vehicles starting in 2021 – an industry-first design win for solid-state LiDAR. Innoviz's new funding will assist in bringing this program, as well as additional automotive OEM design wins, to production at scale, as well as provide overall support for the expected company growth. The company will also ramp up production to meet demand for InnovizPro, its commercially available solid-state LiDAR that offers outstanding performance and value for automotive, mapping and other applications.