Innoviz Technologies raises $132 million in Series C funding

Innoviz Technologies, a leading provider of high-performance, solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software, announced that it has raised $132 million in Series C funding.

The round was marked by the entrance of new major investors China Merchants Capital (SINO-BLR Industrial Investment Fund, L.P.), Shenzhen Capital Group and New Alliance Capital; and Israeli institutional investors Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services and Phoenix Insurance Company. Given demand from additional investors, the Series C round will remain open for a second closing to be announced in the coming months.

This significant raise will support Innoviz's commercialisation of its leading InnovizPro and InnovizOne solid-state LiDAR solutions and address growing demand for cutting-edge autonomous vehicles (AV) technologies worldwide. The company is focussing expansion efforts in key automotive markets including the US, Europe, Japan and China. Innoviz also plans to expand its research and development efforts by investing in the buildout of next-generation products and software that will feature more cost reductions and improved performance.

“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,” said Omer Keilaf, CEO and Co-Founder of Innoviz.

Innoviz's perception software coupled with its advanced LiDAR technology creates a holistic hardware and software stack that turns LiDAR data into an indispensable input for autonomous driving. Rather than focusing on bringing quick solutions to the market, Innoviz has chosen an ambitious 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.

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 that was instrumental in defining a path for LiDAR to enter the automotive industry.

Innoviz's new funding will assist in bringing this programme, as well as additional automotive OEM design wins, to production at scale, as well as provide overall support for the expected company growth.