Innovusion, the supplier of the LiDAR that powers Nio's ET7 sedan, has closed a $64 million Series B round of funding, 36kr reported on Tuesday, without disclosing its valuation.
The round was co-financed by Temasek, BAI Capital, and Joy Capital, with participation from long-time shareholders Nio Capital, Fidelity International's Eight Roads Ventures, and F Prime, the report said.
"We will continue to invest in our R&D centers in Silicon Valley and China, and will strongly support our supply chain partners to work together to build the world's leading mass production supply chain system for high-performance LiDAR," the report quoted Innovusion co-founder and CEO Bao Junwei as saying.
One of Innovusion's most important customers is Nio. At the Nio Day 2020 in January, Nio unveiled its first smart electric sedan, the ET7, which is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022 and is powered by an ultra-long-range LiDAR developed by Innovusion in partnership with Nio.
(Source: CnEVPost)
The LiDAR has a 120-degree ultra-wide viewing angle and ultra-high-resolution and can detect distances up to 500 meters.
William Li, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Nio has said that the company has no plan B on the LiDAR option, implying that Nio is fully supporting the development of Innovusion.
Innovusion LiDAR's unique "fixed-eye gaze" feature allows for more accurate 3D information to better track vehicles and pedestrians, according to the 36kr report, and Innovusion says it is ready for the continued evolution of Nio's NAD full-stack autonomous driving technology.
Founded in November 2016, Innovusion co-founder and CEO Bao graduated from Peking University with a degree in physics and received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Bao joined Baidu's Autonomous Driving Division, where he was in charge of the on-board computing systems and sensors team and contributed to defining the technology path for LiDAR.
In 2018, Innovusion received a Series A funding round of $30 million, co-led by Nio Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, and F-Prime Capital.
If Innovusion's product quality proves reliable, not only its sedan ET7 will use its LiDAR, but also existing ES8, ES6 and EC6 models will be equipped with its products, according to media reports in late February.
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