Innoviz closes $170 million Series C funding round for its solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software

Innoviz, an autonomous and IA startup that manufactures high-performance, solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software that enable the mass-production of autonomous vehicles, has secured $170 million in Series C funding round to support several key initiatives, including the enhancement of Innoviz’s perception software. In conjunction with the funding, Innoviz also announced it has secured two computer vision industry experts, Dr. Raja Giryes and Or Shimshi, to serve as strategic collaborators to the product and software team, leveraging their extensive experience, deep learning and machine learning techniques to grow Innoviz’s lead in providing unparalleled perception software as part of its holistic hardware and software stack.

The round, which brings Innoviz’s total funding to $252 million, is backed by strategic partners and investors, including Magna International, Samsung, Aptiv, Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures, SoftBank Ventures Asia, China Merchants Capital (SINO-BLR Industrial Investment Fund, L.P.), 360 Capital Partners, Glory Ventures, Naver, Shenzhen Capital Group, New Alliance Capital, Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services, Phoenix Insurance Company and others.

Founded in 2016 by Amit Steinberg, Omer David Keilaf, Oren Buskila, Oren Rosenzweig, Zohar Zisapel, the Kfar Saba, HaMerkaz, Israel-based Innoviz  develops the key technologies of Autonomous Driving, including Smart 3D Sensing, Sensor Fusion and accurate Mapping and Localization. Its first product is a High Definition Solid State LiDAR (HD-SSL) with best in class performance and significantly lower cost and smaller size than existing solutions. Its flagship product, InnovizPro, is a solid-state LiDAR that offers outstanding performance and value for automotive and other applications. InnovizOne is a cutting-edge, automotive-grade LiDAR sensor that provides superior 3D sensing for Level 3-Level 5 autonomous driving.

Innoviz’s perception software remains a significant differentiator for the company by providing vehicles with a deep understanding of the 3D driving scene, including superior object detection (with up to 50 times greater efficiency than industry and academic standards), classification, segmentation and tracking technology to complement Innoviz’s LiDAR hardware offerings.

Furthermore, Innoviz will leverage the latest funding to benefit broader business activities, including accelerating its path to mass production and commercialization of its leading LiDAR solutions and perception software to address growing demand for sensing solutions that enable autonomy. This will benefit Innoviz’s existing offerings, including its InnovizOne automotive-grade LiDAR solution, which is entering series production in 2021 for global automakers. The company’s high-performance, solid-state LiDAR solution InnovizPro is available now, offering outstanding value and performance for automotive, mapping and other applications.

“Innoviz’s track record is filled with forward momentum that is further reinforced by the new funding and these two valuable additions to our team,” said Omer Keilaf, CEO and co-founder of Innoviz. “In a short amount of time we have successfully created an industry-leading LiDAR solution from the ground up and secured partner and customer wins to push it into series production for one of the top automakers in the world. Now, to retain our leadership position, we can focus on what’s next for us and our customers – accelerating our path to mass production, commercializing our perception software offering and delivering next-generation solutions that set the bar even higher through further improvements in performance, size and cost. This solidifies our ability to support the enormous autonomy efforts underway across the globe; to enrich our product pipeline; to collaborate across automotive, mapping, robotics and drone/UAV industries and fully execute on our vision.”