Valens Semiconductor Ltd., an Israeli semiconductor startup focusing on connected cars, has just landed $60 million in a late-stage funding round.

The Series D financing was led by Israel Growth Partners, with participation from Delphi, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Goldman Sachs and MediaTek, as well as previous investors. The company, based in the city of Hod Hasharon, said it aims to use the money to make further inroads in the automotive sector with its HDBaseT technology, which is a standard for the transmission of uncompressed high-definition video, audio, power, home networking, Ethernet, USB, and some control signals.

More specifically, what Valens is doing is building microchips based on the HDBaseT standard for tomorrow’s connected cars. In an interview with the Israeli website Globes, Valens’ cofounder and chief executive officer Dror Jerushalmi boasted that the company’s communications chips will be integrated with all Mercedes Benz vehicles sold from 2020 onwards.

“The objective is to take the technology we have developed and make it the communications infrastructure in the car of the future – in other words, to connect all the cameras, sensors, and radar, and transmit the data from them, which is a very high-speed stream of data, to the same central processor in the car, and which is slated to make the driving decisions, such as warning against a road hazard,” Jerushalmi told Globes.

With $60 million in the bank there’s every reason to believe the company can achieve this goal. Valens, which was founded back in 2006, already boasts some 250 employees at its offices in Hod Hasharon. The company first made its name in the audio-video market, where it established itself as a leader in HDBaseT technology. Because of the competitiveness of the audio-video market, Valens has since branched out into connected cars, where its HDBaseT technology can be put to use distributing uncompressed Ultra HD multimedia content over long distances.

The company will invest its cash in developing new connectivity technologies for automobiles based on the HDBaseT standard, while simultaneously working to consolidate its position as the leading standard for vehicle to vehicle connectivity.

“Valens is committed to the auto market, which constitutes a key growth engine for it,” Jerushalmi said in a statement. “Samsung recently announced its acquisition of Harman, Delphi, and Mediatek (Jerushalmi is referring to the new investors in Valens). These are leading players in this industry, and their investment in Valens indicates the importance of HDBaseT Automotive technology to progress in achieving the vision of an autonomous car.”

Valens claimed it has already made substantial progress with its HDBaseT Automotive technology, including increasing the amount of bandwidth needed to cater for both modern infotainment and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. Meanwhile, German automaker Daimler AG last year selected Valens’ HDBaseT Automotive as its chosen communications standard for its vehicles.

Moshe Lichtman, co-founder and general partner of Israel Growth Partners, will join Valen’s board of directors as part of the investment round.

Image: Martin Louis/Flickr.com