Opsys Tech, one of several startups developing automotive lidar technology in Israel, says they have raised an additional USD $36.5m in their latest venture funding round. The additional cash, which brought total series C funding to $51.5m, will be used to ramp up production of commercial devices built around their solid-state platform.
Eitan Gertel, the former CEO of major VCSEL manufacturer Finisar, cofounded the startup and now is their executive chairman. He says, “With the closing of this financing round, we can complete the full production ramp of our True Solid-State Scanning lidar product line, and we are looking forward to supplying our customers with production quantities of our lidar sensors”.
Opsys says theirs is a lidar sensor uniquely capable of high performance and reliability at low cost, which can meet all user requirements, and has no moving parts. Opsys also claims a detection range of 300 metres at 10-per-cent object reflectivity, which are based around an array of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) operating at 850-980 nm and single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detectors.
During CES, Hasco—a major Chinese tier-1 supplier—announced that they’ve chosen Opsys Tech as their lidar sensor supplier for their automotive ADAS. The two companies will be deepening their collaboration in the design; development, and manufacturing of pure solid-state lidar-enabled automotive ADAS; mass production of lidars could start in 2024.
Opsys CEO Rafi Harel, who was the general manager of Finisar Israel for several years, says the Hasco tie-in “marks our entrance into the market for mass production quantities of automotive lidar systems in Asia. The use of Opsys lidar technology will increase the safety of vehicles on the road while enabling the evolution of autonomous functionality at all levels, including L5 “.
DVN comment
Opsys was founded in 2016 by an integrated team with proven track record in electric optical systems. Their experience in scalable production and automation manufacturing helped them design their first sensors so as to preserve at any step of design, a real adaption to volume production.
