Chinese MEMS LiDAR company Zvision announced Friday that it has closed RMB hundreds of millions of yuan in Series B funding, led by Intel Capital and Chinese investment house and startup platform Sinovation Ventures in Series B1 and Series B2, respectively.
Zvision is currently valued at around RMB 1 billion ($155 million), Chedongxi.com said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The funds raised in this round will be used to automate production lines and increase production capacity at Zvision's Changshu plant, and to increase investment in product and core chip research and development.
The company will also accelerate the development of new products such as long-range LiDAR, promoting mass production for front-loading passenger cars and increasing marketing of the full range of products.
Zvision has developed a full set of MEMS LiDAR solutions covering long-range and short- and medium-range applications since its establishment in 2017. Among them, the ML-30s, a short-range blindness filler radar, was in mass production in 2020.
Since 2017, the total number of Zvision LiDAR products shipped has exceeded one thousand units. By the end of this year, its total LiDAR shipments can reach thousands of units, and annual production is expected to reach tens of thousands of units next year alone.
Shi Tuo, CEO and founder of Zvision, believes that this estimated figure is conservative and the actual order quantity and production volume will be higher.
Intel has made a lot of moves in the automotive industry in recent years. In 2017, Intel spent $15.3 billion to acquire Mobileye, a company that has been the leader in ADAS cameras to date.
Intel also launched a car chip and is investing heavily in companies related to the global automotive industry.
Shi believes that Intel Capital bullish on Zvision's innovation in technology, especially its innovative LiDAR solutions, and the underlying chip's R&D capabilities, which were the key to the decision to invest.
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(Source: Zvision)
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