RoboSense receives more than $45M funding from China for lidar R&D and marketing
RoboSense (Shenzhen, China), anautonomous driving light detection and ranging (lidar) perception solution provider, announced the completion of financing from China for a combined investment of more than $45 million dollars. The strategic fundingis provided by technology and industry leaders, including Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, the logistics arm of the Alibaba Group, SAIC Motor Group (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation--the largest publicly traded auto manufacturer in China), and BAIC Group (Beijing Automotive Industry Holding)electric vehicle company.
With what it says is more than 50% market share of all lidar sold in Asia, RoboSense already has secured backing from auto manufacturing, financial brokerage, and artificial intelligence (AI) companies, including Haitong Securities, Fosun Group, Oriental Fortune Capital, Kinzon Capital, and Guangdong Investment.
The funding will be used to increase RoboSense's market share and the R&D of autonomous vehicle technologies, including its solid-state lidar, AI sensing algorithms, and other advanced technologies, as well as accelerating product development, long-term manufacturing and market penetration.
IHS Markit predicts that by 2035, global sales of self-driving cars will reach 21 million vehicles, up from nearly 600,000 vehicles in 2025. IHS believes that by 2035, nearly 76 million vehicles with some level of autonomy will be sold globally.
"The rapid development of autonomous driving has ignited a huge demand for LiDAR," said Mark Qiu, co-founder of RoboSense. "RoboSense is embracing this market demand through partnerships with multiple industry leaders. It is our great pleasure to be endorsed and funded by industry giants from many different fields. This round of funding is not only for capital assistance, but also for strategic resources. We are looking forward to continuously working with our partners to lead the large-scale commercialization era of the autonomous driving industry."
Cainiao and the world's leading automotive OEMs, SAIC and BAIC, will jointly promote the rapid development of autonomous vehicles with RoboSense. The strategic partners will not only financially invest in RoboSense, but will also collaborate to lead the autonomous driving industry into production and commercialization.
In the past two years, RoboSense has had explosive growth. In April 2017, the company completed mass production of its 16-beam automotive lidar. In September 2017, the company mass-produced its 32-beam lidar, released a lidar-based autonomous driving environmental sensing AI system, and provided a software and hardware combined lidar environment sensing solution. In October 2017, RoboSense launched its breakthrough product--the MEMS solid-state lidar, publicly exhibited for the first time at CES 2018 in January 2018. Four months after CES 2018, RoboSense partnered with the Cainiao Network to launch the world's first MEMS lidar autonomous logistics vehicle called the G Plus.
SOURCE: RoboSense via Thomas PR; http://www.thomas-pr.com/robosense/robosensefinancingrelease.html
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.