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Cepton nails major funding from Koito
Lidar technology specialist Cepton Technologies Inc. has secured USD 50 million in Series C funding from Koito Manufacturing Co. Ltd., a Tier 1 provider of automotive lighting systems.
The latest round of funding brings Cepton’s total funding haul to USD 100 million, which will bolster R&D efforts and allow the company to expand its reach into the global automotive market, the company said in a press release.
Under terms of the transaction, Koito will gain non-exclusive rights to manufacture and sell Cepton’s lidar sensor design for automotive applications, using specific components supplied by Cepton. In turn, Cepton will funnel the proceeds into development and deployment of its lidar technology for advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), and autonomous vehicle applications, and additional markets including smart cities/intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and security.
Cepton's patented Micro Motion Technology (MMT) diverges from traditional beam-steering technologies by enabling a mirrorless, frictionless and rotation-free lidar experience that increases reliability and manufacturability of the product.
Cepton Co-founder and CEO Dr. Jun Pei said, “Since Cepton was founded in 2016, we have made great strides in advancing the state-of-the-art in lidar technology and bringing the benefits of lidar-based solutions to a variety of markets. With this latest investment round, the year 2020 is poised to be truly transformational for Cepton’s future, and we are excited to welcome Koito not just as an investor but also as a technology and manufacturing partner. Combining Koito’s world leadership in automotive lighting and their world-class quality, reliability and manufacturing with Cepton’s award-winning lidar solutions presents a tremendous opportunity to make deep inroads into the automotive market.”
Founded in 2016, Cepton is headquartered in San Jose, California, with registered offices in Germany, Canada and UK.