Innoviz and Ouster have raised a total of nearly USD $200m to support development and production of lidar sensors for automated vehicles.
Israeli company Innoviz have raised $132m, bringing their total funding to $214m and surpassing the money raised by $2bn/ea sector leaders Velodyne and Quanergy. And San Francisco-based Ouster, whose founders include a former Quanergy executive, have raised $60m, which boosts their total funding to $90m. These two outfits are competing in a crowded field of more than 50 lidar startups vying to supply vehicle manufacturers and their key suppliers with the sensors.
More than $1bn in corporate and private investment has poured into the sector over the past three years, including a record $420m in 2018, according to a Reuters analysis of publicly available investment data. Automakers and large suppliers have begun to place bets on different lidar startups and competing technologies. Eventually, analysts expect the lidar sector could be squeezed down to five or six major suppliers by sometime after 2025.
