Israeli startup Innoviz Technologies secures $9M in Series A funding

Israeli startup Innoviz Technologies that designs, builds and provides 3D sensing, sensor fusion and mapping and localization tools for vehicles is just out of beta and has raised $9 million in Series A financing round led by investors including Zohar Zisapel, Vertex Venture Capital, Magma Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures and Delek Investments. The company’s first product, a Solid State LiDAR (HD-SSL) that provides a laser based sensor providing an accurate scan of the vehicle’s surrounding, and according to Innoviz, it is a lower cost and smaller in size than the existing solutions. It also provides key Autonomous Vehicles technologies that rely on LiDAR such as Object Identification & Tracking, Sensor Fusion and Mapping & Localization products. With this funding Innoviz plans to present its prototype product by the end of 2016. Omer Keilaf, Co-Founder and CEO of Innoviz said:

“The car industry is gearing up towards a revolution by the introduction of autonomous vehicles. “The ability to transform this vision into a reality depends on performance and cost. Current approaches compromise passenger safety by failing to include LiDAR sensors as part of the system, due to cost and performance limitations. Our groundbreaking technology will make our HD-SSL accessible to mass market, positioning Innoviz as a leading force in the manifestation and acceleration of this revolution.”

“We are very excited to partner with our investors for the deep knowledge and experience they demonstrate in the automotive industry and we are certain than Innoviz will benefit from their support,” added Keilaf. Innoviz’ HD-SSL serves as the cornerstone for the sensing required for fully autonomous driving. Innoviz aims to take part in the development of the full sensing system required for this emerging industry and overtake technological challenges such as sensor fusion, 3D mapping and localization. According to a report in Techcrunch, Innoviz says it’s aiming for a price-point below $100 for its solid state Lidar by reducing components to shrink costs. Size wise, it could be smaller than 5cm x 5cm x 5cm. Zohar Zisapel, investor, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board at Innoviz stated, “Innoviz introduces a solution that solves a major performance and cost issue in existing technologies for Autonomous Driving. I always look to invest in companies leveraging advanced technologies to solve real pains for their customers and the lack of cost effective LiDAR is definitely a pain point for the Autonomous Vehicles industry. The company was established by a group of extraordinary talented founders who are building an exceptionally strong R&D team and I am confident in their ability to revolutionize this space.”