Israeli startup Innoviz Technologies Inc. has raised $65 million to move its self-driving car technology into mass production.

The Series B round was led by Delphi Automotive and Magna International Inc. and included existing investors Zohar Zisapel, Vertex Venture Capital, Magma Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures and Delek Motors. Other new investors were 360 Capital Partners, Glory Ventures and Naver.

Founded in 2016, Innoviz develops technologies for autonomous driving that includes smart 3D sensing, sensor fusion and accurate mapping and localization. The company’s first product to market, due to be released early next year, is a high-definition solid-state LiDAR that the company claim to deliver superior performance at a significantly lower cost and smaller size than existing solutions. The LiDAR platform leverages a combination of proprietary software, microelectromechanical systems and detector designs to deliver self-driving cars superior sensing capabilities even in challenging environments such as bright direct sunlight, varying weather conditions and multi-LiDAR environments.

The key to the technology is said to be “more precise and sophisticated sensing” using deep learning to turn 3D vision into critical driving insights. In combination with HD mapping and simultaneous localization and mapping, known as SLAM, the company claims that its LiDAR delivers “superior object detection and classification necessary to move the industry towards mass commercialization.”

With 75 employees, Innoviz has joined with a number of big names in the autonomous vehicle industry, including its lead investors. A deal with Magna International Inc. will see the companies jointly collaborating on various original equipment manufacturer programs. Delphi Automotive will integrate its LiDAR into Delphi’s systems in a bid to create an industry standard for LiDAR integration into autonomous driving systems.

“Today’s financing from strategic partners such as Magna and Delphi is further proof that we have moved into the next phase of our growth,” Omer Keilaf, co-founder and chief executive officer of Innoviz, said in a statement. “With their joint efforts, we will be able to scale more quickly and put autonomous driving technology on the road much faster.”

Including the new funding, Innoviz has raised $74 million to date. The company said it would use the new funding to increase its headcount, expand into new markets and to allow it to “take its technology to mass production while scaling its computer vision activity, forging new strategic collaborations and penetrating new areas of development.”

Image: Innoviz/screenshot