Innoviz Technologies, a publicly listed laser radar company, has laid off approximately 9% of its workforce
On February 5, 2025, Innoviz Technologies, an Israeli laser radar listed company, announced operational optimization measures to extend the duration of the company's cash reserve usage and accelerate profitability and free cash flow generation. To maximize efficiency, the company will reduce investment in developing mature areas. These measures will result in a reduction of approximately 9% in the number of employees in the company; Taking into account other opportunities, the company expects this restructuring to result in cost savings of approximately $12 million by 2025.
Innoviz co-founder and CEO Omer Keilaf said, "Innoviz has made significant progress in consolidating its position as a market leader in the LiDAR industry. We recently announced partnerships with companies such as Mobileye and Nvidia, highlighting the progress we have made in developing and refining solutions aimed at meeting the current and future stringent demands of global OEMs. Today's action is the result of a thoughtful process aimed at aligning the company's development efforts more closely with customer needs, streamlining cost structures, and extending the duration of our cash reserves as we continue to aim for mass production for our customers by 2026. Looking ahead to the future, we are confident in our ability to achieve long-term goals and position Innoviz to achieve profitability and create significant value in the coming years.
In 2019, Israeli solid-state LiDAR manufacturer Innoviz Technologies announced a Series C financing of $132 million, with investment institutions including China Merchants Capital, Shenzhen Venture Capital, and Lianxin Capital, as well as Israeli investment institutions Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services and Phoenix Insurance Company. This round of financing will mainly be used to accelerate the production, research and development, and team expansion of solid-state LiDAR.
Innoviz stated that the Series C financing remains open and will announce the second delivery in the coming months.
Innoviz was founded in 2016, with core members and technology from the elite technical department of the Israeli Intelligence Corps. In 2017, we obtained certifications from automotive parts suppliers Delphi and Magna Naver、 Samsung Catalyst, the investment arm of Samsung Electronics, SoftBank Ventures Korea, the holding company of SoftBank in South Korea, and other companies and institutions such as Yaotu Capital raised $73 million in Series B financing. After this round of financing, Innoviz's cumulative financing amount has reached $214 million.
"We have experienced rapid growth in the past year to meet the growing demand of the market for solid state lidars. This round of financing ensures that Innoviz's solid state lidars can be delivered on time in 2021 according to the mass production scale required by vehicle manufacturers and tier one suppliers, so as to provide autonomous vehicle to the majority of users. We are very happy to successfully advance the production, manufacturing and research and development work to the next stage, and continue to provide a full stack of solid state lidar software and hardware solutions for the automated driving industry." Omer Keilaf, CEO and co-founder of Innoviz, said that this round of financing will also enable the solid state lidars to achieve the goal of meeting strict vehicle specification and level standards at the same time Mass production.
Data shows that the global LiDAR market is expected to reach a size of 36 billion US dollars by 2030. Therefore, in addition to the veteran LiDAR supplier Velodyne, rising stars such as Innoviz and LeddarTech are also committed to exploring more possibilities in the field of in vehicle LiDAR and stepping up their efforts to gain a foothold in the LiDAR industry.
At present, Innoviz has launched two solid-state LiDAR models, InnovizPro and InnovizOne, dedicated to reducing the cost for vehicle manufacturers to enter the L3 and L4 autonomous driving markets by designing and manufacturing high-performance and low-cost solid-state LiDAR. The new round of financing will further promote the commercialization of these two solid-state LiDAR solutions.
Among the dozens of LiDAR startups that have emerged in recent years, Innoviz is one of the few companies that have demonstrated their ability to mass produce and have received orders for new car front-end projects.
Unlike other competitors who pursue rapid solution launches, Innoviz has chosen a path of collaborating with OEMs and tier one suppliers (including Magna, Harman, Hengrun Technology, and Anbofu) to develop products and perception software that fully meet the highest automotive production standards.
Innoviz Development Path
By combining perception software with its advanced solid-state LiDAR technology, Innoviz has created a full stack perception layer solution that transforms LiDAR data into essential input signals for autonomous driving.
At present, except that Delphi, Magna, Harman and other Tier 1 have decided to use Innoviz's solid-state lidar technology to integrate into their auto drive system to provide commercial solutions that can be mass produced for their autopilot; Innoviz also won BMW's Design win in 2018, and will use InnovizOne, the first L3 autonomous vehicle launched by BMW in 2021, which is priced below 1000 dollars. Innoviz is the first solid state lidar manufacturer to obtain the order from the vehicle manufacturer. These approvals from Tier 1 and the vehicle manufacturer make Innoviz have good competitiveness in the field of front loading.
It can be seen that Innoviz is focusing its business growth on major automotive markets, including the United States, Europe, Japan, and China.
The investment from China Merchants Capital and Shenzhen Venture Capital, as well as the existing partnership between Innoviz and Hengrun Technology, have further consolidated Innoviz's business in China. It is reported that Innoviz also plans to increase investment in the research and development of next-generation solid-state LiDAR products, further reducing costs and improving performance.
Source: Yangtze River Delta Laser Alliance
