Lidar startup Innovusion Inc. today announced it has raised $66 million in new funding to increase the production capabilities of its automotive-grade lidars, expand its global footprint and broaden its research and development efforts.

Guotai Junan International Private Equity Fund led the Series B round. Other investors included Shunwei Capital, Nio Capital, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures and Temasek.

Founded in 2016, Innovusion develops image-grade lidar sensor systems for levels 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles and advanced driver-assistance systems. The company pitches its lidar sensors as offering a combination of range, resolution, hardware-accelerated sensor fusion, ease of integration and cost-effectiveness.

Although Innovusion’s products are primarily used in self-driving cars, the company’s lidar technology is also used in rail transit, intelligent highways and unmanned mining. Autonomous vehicles may get most of the attention in the self-driving field, but unmanned mines could quickly become a defining technology of the 21st century.

A paper in 2017 described the concept and the advantages of unmanned mines and how they could deal with problems caused by the complication of mining and areas such as labor safety and health protection.

Innovusion has offices in both Sunnyvale, California, and Suzhou, China. Its most notable deal to date is providing lidar for the NIO ET7 sedan. Nio Ltd. is a Chinese electric car maker with the ET7 sedan described by some as a “Tesla killer” in mainland China. The ET7 is also the company’s first autonomous driving model.

“Lidar is an essential technology enabling the development and global adoption of new autonomous vehicles,” Yuen Chiu, head of Private Equity at Guotai Junan International, said in a statement. “As more lidar companies enter the market and the technology develops, we will start to see a loop forming: mass-production leading to exponential market development, better design and new vehicle sales.”

Including the new funding, Innovusion has raised $160 million to date, according to data from Crunchbase. Previous investors include NIO Capital, Gaorong Capital, Bertelsmann Asia Investments and Joy Capital.

Photo: Jenftingchen/Wikimedia Commons