Israel’s LiDar Sensor Tech Startup Innoviz Raises $132M

Innoviz Technologies, a leading Israel-based provider of solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software, announced that it raised $132 million in a Series C funding led by China Merchants Capital (SINO-BLR Industrial Investment Fund, L.P.), Shenzhen Capital Group and New Alliance Capital, with participation from Israeli institutional investors Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services, and Phoenix Insurance Company. The company said the round will remain open for a second closing to be announced in the coming months “given demand.”

Innoviz recently launched a massive expansion plan, opening new offices across the world, including the US, China, Japan, and Germany, and new headquarters in the central Israeli city of Rosh Ha’ayin.

“We’ve experienced significant growth over the past year to meet increased demand for solid-state LiDAR,” said Omer Keilaf, CEO and co-founder of Innoviz. “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.”

Innoviz has partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers, including Magna, HARMAN, HiRain Technologies, and Aptiv.

Last year, Innoviz entered into an agreement to supply German auto giant BMW Group with its automotive-grade LiDAR InnovizOne and computer vision software for its autonomous vehicle production.

Innoviz was founded in January 2016 by Keilaf, Oren Rosenzweig, Oren Buskila, and Amit Steinberg. The latest funding round brings the total capital to date raised by Innoviz to $214 million. Previous investors included Delphi Automotive and Magna International.