Cepton raises $100M for LiDAR sensors

-
cepton

Cepton’s Helius smart LiDAR system. | Source: Cepton

Cepton, a Silicon Valley-based developer of LiDAR products, has raised $100 million from Koito Manufacturing Co., its automotive Tier 1 partner and current shareholder.

The investment comes in the form of convertible preferred stock and was approved during a special meeting of Cepton stockholders. The investment will be convertible starting on the first anniversary of the issue date and can be converted into shares of Capton’s common stock at an initial conversion price of $2.585 per share.

Cepton offers a range of LiDAR products that include the Vista-X family of automotive-grade LiDARs and its Sora-X family of industrial-grade LiDARs. The company also offers a smart LiDAR system called Helius. Helius combines Ception’s LiDAR technology with edge computing and perception software to provide 3D perception. It can be used for smart cities, smart spaces and other applications to provide object detection, tracking and classification.

“We’re happy to announce the closing of the preferred stock investment as we deepen our partnership with Koito,” said Cepton co-founder Jun Pei. “We plan to deploy the additional capital to help fund our next stage of growth, continue series production execution, and expand our collaboration efforts towards winning additional automotive OEM programs.”

Cepton was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. The company also has a presence in Germany, Canada, Japan, India and China. With the latest round of funding, Cepton has raised over $270 million, according to Crunchbase. 

Koito has been working in automotive lighting since it started in 1915. The Koito Group consists of 31 companies spread across 13 countries worldwide.

“We’re excited to have completed our third investment in Cepton, which solidifies our commitment to lidar and increasing automotive safety for drivers worldwide,” said Koiot president Michiaki Kato. “This is an important year for us as we work towards commercialization and scale manufacturing of our LiDAR products. We have a strong track record with Cepton as a partner and look forward to achieving our mutual goal of becoming the leader within LiDAR.”

The post Cepton raises $100M for LiDAR sensors appeared first on The Robot Report.



from The Robot Report - Robotics News, Analysis & Research https://ift.tt/vYQOTp7
via artificialconference

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Valiant TMS and Realtime Robotics partner to cut programming, cycle times

-
Image
Valiant TMS is integrating robot motion optimization as a service. Source: Realtime Robotics Realtime Robotics today announced that Valiant TMS will integrate its Optimization-as-a-Service offering with customers’ manufacturing operations. The companies said the combination of Realtime’s proprietary software and engineering expertise with Valiant TMS’s manufacturing industry experience will improve the efficiency and productivity of automated operations. With Optimization-as-a-Service, companies can identify and eliminate production bottlenecks, significantly reducing cycle time and programming time, said Realtime Robotics. “Manufacturers are always looking for ways to improve their production processes, but few have the time or resources to spend on such a lengthy, involved task,” said Peter Howard, CEO of Realtime Robotics, in a release . “We’re thrilled that our optimization solution has struck a chord with so many, automating the task of generating and testing potential layou...
Read more

Ocado wins UK patent lawsuit over Autostore

-
Image
On the left, Autostore’s ASRS, and on the right, Ocado’s ASRS. | Source: Autostore, Ocado Yesterday, the UK High Court ruled that Autostore’s patents, which have been the subject of a patent infringement case against Ocado , were invalid, and that Ocado did not infringe upon them. Both Autostore and Ocado operate automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) that operate on similar principles. Autostore filed the lawsuit in October 2020, when it asserted that Ocado infringed upon six of its patents. The European Patent Office invalidated two of these patents before judgment was made on the case, and two other patents were withdrawn by Autostore before the hearing started.  Judge Hacon invalidated the remaining two patents because AutoStore had disclosed its technology publically in a business deal with the Central Bank of Russia before the company filed its patents. Halcon ruled that even if the patents were valid, the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) did not infringe on the...
Read more

Update on AgTech automation at CNHI

-
Image
The Robot Report Podcast · Update on AgTech automation at CNHI The Robot Report Podcast · 2023 year in review: GenAI, humanoids dominate robotics industry   In Episode 138 of The Robot Report Podcast, co-hosts Mike Oitzman and Eugene Demaitre catch up with Marc Kermisch, global chief digital and information officer at CNH Industrial, or CNHI. Kermisch takes us through the latest developments at CNHI in agriculture autonomy and digitization, explaining how robots and data can help farmers and growers improve yields and efficiency. We also recap the latest robotics news and walk through an update from robotics and automation companies that attended this month’s 2024 CES show. News of the week Locus Robotics layoffs The mobile robot maker last week confirmed that it had a “small, targeted RIF,” or reduction in force. North American robot orders dropped last year, according to the Association for Advancing Automation ( A3 ). Warehouse construction also declined by 2...
Read more