The U.S.-based LiDAR startup, AEye, announced the second close of its Series B financing, bringing the company’s total funding to over US$60 million. AEye Series B included global automotive OEM, Tier 1 and Tier 2 strategic investors Hella Ventures, SUBARU-SBI Innovation Fund, LG Electronics, and SK Hynix. AEye previously announced that the round was led by Taiwania Capital and other investors. Series B will be used to scale AEye’s operations to meet global demand for its artificial perception systems for both ADAS and Mobility solutions.

AEye takes a disruptive approach to vehicle perception by putting intelligence at the sensor layer and making it extensible and controllable via a software-driven architecture. AEye’s iDAR can easily scale from modular ADAS solutions to complete 360-degree vision for Mobility applications. iDAR physically fuses a 1550nm, solid-state, agile LiDAR with a hi-resolution camera to create a new data type called Dynamic Vixels. This real-time integration occurs in the IDAR sensor, rather than post fusing separate camera and LiDAR data after the scan. By capturing both geometric and true color data, Dynamic Vixels uniquely mimic the data structure of the human visual cortex, capturing better data for vastly superior performance and accuracy.

(Image: AEye)

“The support we have received from major players in the automotive industry validates that we are taking the right approach to addressing the challenges of artificial perception. Their confidence in AEye and iDAR will be borne out by the automotive specific products we'll be bringing to market at scale in Q2 of 2019. These products will help OEMs and Tier 1s accelerate their products and services by delivering market leading performance at the lowest cost,” said Luis Dussan, AEye founder and CEO.

Built on a robust and rapidly-growing patent portfolio, AEye’s iDAR recently set a new benchmark for solid state LiDAR range. In performance tests validated by VSI Labs, iDAR acquired and tracked targets at more than 1000 meters and at scan rates exceeding 100 Hz - a major breakthrough in speed and long-range threat detection.

AEye has also recently announced the appointment of Blair LaCorte as president. An accomplished executive and strategist, LaCorte brings extensive leadership experience to the company as it scales global operations.