Innovusion Closes $66 Million B+ Round to Accelerate LiDAR Mass Production
Building world-leading mass-production supply chains and production lines for LiDAR, jointly advancing the development of autonomous vehicles.
On August 13, following its Series B round completed in May this year, Innovusion, a global leading LiDAR manufacturer, announced it had secured $66 million in a Series B+ round. The round was led by Guotai Junan International Private Equity, with Shunwei Capital participating as a co-investor. Existing investors NIO Capital, Temasek, and Eight Roads also joined the round. Gaorong Ventures had led Innovusion's angel round in 2016 and participated in its subsequent Series A round.
The proceeds will primarily fund the mass production and delivery of LiDAR units for NIO's ET7 sedan, which is designed for front-loaded OEM deployment, as well as Innovusion's ongoing commitment to proprietary R&D and technological innovation.
Founded in November 2016, Innovusion is dedicated to exploring and advancing LiDAR technology. LiDAR serves as the core technology enabling autonomous driving — essentially the "eyes" of a self-driving vehicle. Innovusion builds its perception systems around this technology, with its competitive edge rooted in seeing farther and more clearly, while meeting customer requirements.
Innovusion stated that its next-generation high-performance LiDAR, co-developed with NIO, will provide premium mass-production standard equipment for the ET7, NIO's flagship intelligent sedan. Beyond its close and efficient collaboration with NIO, Innovusion is actively engaging with additional automakers to prepare for the arrival of large-scale LiDAR commercialization.
Innovusion's Falcon-architecture Aquila LiDAR became the standard configuration for NIO ET7's autonomous driving super-sensing system
Regarding this funding round, Junwei Bao, co-founder and CEO of Innovusion, commented: "We're honored to have continued to attract such keen interest from investors following our Series B, allowing us to complete this B+ round so quickly. With recognition from the industry, support from capital, and our aligned new and veteran team members who bring strong technical capabilities and execution power, we're fully confident that together with partners across the supply chain, we can successfully build a world-leading mass production supply chain system and production lines, and jointly drive the coming explosion of autonomous vehicles. At the same time, Innovusion will continue to increase R&D investment to provide products and solutions suited to diverse scenarios for the future of mobility."
Innovusion's founders and core R&D team members hail from world-class institutions including Peking University, Tsinghua University, MIT, and UC Berkeley, and bring deep industry experience. The company maintains a research team in Silicon Valley, with its China operations centered in Suzhou High-Speed Rail New City covering East, North, and South China regions. Its manufacturing center is located in Wuhan's Auto Valley. Innovusion possesses leading technology R&D capabilities, excellent safety assurance, and controllable costs.
The company's professional team is expanding at a considerable pace to better serve customers, adapt to robust market growth, and become a sustained driving force in the development of autonomous driving and intelligent transportation.
Junwei Bao brings many years of extensive R&D experience and holds forward-looking, deeply informed perspectives on LiDAR product design and industry evolution that have earned broad recognition across the industry. On the prospects of LiDAR mass production and intelligent vehicles, Bao further noted: "LiDAR is an indispensable component for the mass deployment of autonomous vehicles. Innovusion will lead the intelligent vehicle industry to break new ground and continue to drive market development."
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