AEye,
a world leader in artificial perception systems and the developer of
iDAR™, today announced a strategic investment from Japanese components
and systems manufacturer Aisin
through their corporate venture capital fund managed by Pegasus
Tech Ventures. Aisin is ranked
the sixth largest Tier 1 OEM parts supplier globally, and a premier
developer of information and communications technology and electronics
for the automotive market. Aisin’s investment paves the way for
collaboration and expansion as the companies scale to meet the demands
of OEMs deploying ADAS and mobility solutions.
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“AEye is a breakthrough automotive technology startup with a world-class
management and technical team,” said Anis Uzzaman, General Partner & CEO
at Pegasus Tech Ventures. “Their AI-based perception solution, iDAR, is
a superior technology, rendering the other LiDAR approaches obsolete and
creating what we believe is a new standard for ADAS and autonomous
solutions in the Japanese market and beyond.”
“We are delighted that Aisin and Pegasus Tech Ventures have joined as
partners and as investors,” said Blair LaCorte, president of AEye. “The
addition of Aisin as an investor, makes AEye uniquely positioned as the
only LiDAR company to have both multiple OEMs and multiple Tier 1s as
investors. This validation from automotive companies that are seeking to
deploy solutions in the mobility and ADAS markets is a great honor and
responsibility.”
Pegasus Tech Ventures, as the manager of Aisin’s corporate venture
capital fund, has its global headquarters in Silicon Valley and invests
in promising technology companies that align with Aisin’s mission to
respond swiftly to the increasingly sophisticated and diverse needs of
OEM customers with best-in-class products.
AEye’s iDAR combines software extensibility, artificial intelligence and
smart, agile sensors to deliver intelligent data collection at the
sensor level. The company’s AE110 product features the industry’s only
software-definable LiDAR, creating an open platform for perception
innovation that lets software engineers optimize data collection to best
meet their needs. The AE200 system is designed to address the needs of
modular, high-performance sensors, and is optimized for size, weight,
power, and cost. Both will be available commercially during the second
half of this year.
About AEye
AEye
is an artificial perception pioneer and creator of iDAR™, a perception
system that acts as the eyes and visual cortex of autonomous vehicles.
Since its demonstration of its solid-state LiDAR scanner in 2013, AEye
has pioneered breakthroughs in intelligent sensing. The company is based
in the San Francisco Bay Area, and backed by world-renowned investors
including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Taiwania Capital, Hella
Ventures, LG Electronics, Subaru-SBI, Aisin/Pegasus Tech Ventures, Intel
Capital, Airbus Ventures, and others. For more information, please visit www.aeye.ai
About Pegasus Tech Ventures
Pegasus Tech Ventures is a global venture capital firm based in Silicon
Valley. Pegasus manages over 20 parallel investment funds for its
corporate limited partners, which include some of the largest
multinational technology companies. With eight offices around the world,
Pegasus invests in emerging technology companies of strategic interest
to its limited partners and facilitates connections between its
portfolio companies and its global corporate partners to accelerate the
growth and competitiveness of both portfolio companies and corporate
partners.
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