Set a new record for a single round of financing in the lidar industry
Text/Poplar
On February 25, Daily Auto Watch learned from multiple channels that sagittarius Juchuang, a domestic lidar company, completed a round of financing of 2.4 billion yuan. This round of financing may be led by Xiaomi, and Yutong Bus, BYD and other car companies will participate in the investment.
Sources revealed that sagitar Juchuang's investors in this round of financing are mostly strategic investments, in addition to the known millet, Yutong, BYD, there will be a number of car giants and Tier 1 participation.
Set a new high for a single financing in the lidar industry
This round of financing exceeded 2.4 billion yuan, surpassing the previous $370 million Series D financing of Hesai Technology, setting a new high for a single round of financing in the field of in-vehicle lidar.
In this round of financing, car companies and Tier1 are the main investors, which is rare in previous financing. According to public information, Sagitar Juchuang has raised a total of 6 rounds of financing so far, counting the investors in this round of financing, the overall number is about 25, of which the industrial chain investors account for more than 60%.
At this stage, lidar has become one of the most important intelligent components on smart cars, due to the rapid expansion of smart cars, chips, millimeter-wave radar, etc. have encountered "supply cuts". In order to make up for the delay in delivery caused by the interruption of millimeter-wave radar supply, last year, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile also gave the owner a plan of "delivering the car first and then reloading the millimeter-wave radar later".
The "supply cut" of core components has led to the delay in the delivery of models, and car companies really "can't afford to hurt", so car companies and Tier1 have begun to make strategic investment in the choice of core parts manufacturers. Being able to take precautions and establish in-depth contacts with lidar manufacturers in advance in the form of strategic investment to ensure the stable supply of production capacity may be one of the reasons why car companies value high-quality lidar investment targets.
Among the many lidar manufacturers, Sagitar Juchuang is undoubtedly the most popular one at the moment, which is related to its main star product, the vehicle-grade MEMS lidar M1. The M1 is currently the only MEMS lidar product that has been validated at the vehicle level and can achieve stable delivery in large quantities.
The M1 uses the commonly used 905nm light source, which can achieve the farthest ranging distance of 150m at 10% reflectivity, with a horizontal FOV of 120° and a vertical FOV of 25°, which meets all the requirements of the vehicle specification level. In addition, the M1 also has an original "gaze" function, which can flexibly adjust the resolution and frame rate according to different scenes, ensuring real-time output of high-quality point cloud data that meets the needs of intelligent driving perception.
According to AutoLab, M1 shipments could exceed 300,000 units in 2022. By the end of 2021, Sagitar Juchuang M1 has obtained 40+ fixed-point models of domestic car companies, including Lotus, Extreme Kr, Lucid and other car companies. GAC Aeon's Aion LX Plus, WM M7, Xiaopeng G9 and other star products that will be delivered in 2022 will also be equipped with Sagitar Juchuang M1.
According to the report data of the analyst agency YOLO, Robosense has become the second largest vehicle-mounted lidar company in the world, after the veteran supplier Valeo.
Xiaomi expands its investment territory in smart cars
After Xiaomi laid out the car, it has invested in a number of intelligent electric vehicle industry chain enterprises, including hive energy, AVIC lithium battery, Ganfeng lithium battery, Weilan new energy and other power battery upstream and downstream enterprises, and intelligent driving solution providers such as Longitudinal Technology, DeepMotion, and Momenta.
Xiaomi's investment in the field of intelligent driving is particularly intensive, and has invested in intelligent driving high-computing chip Black Sesame Intelligence, millimeter wave radar supplier geometry partner, 8 million pixel vision sensor manufacturer Steway. In the field of lidar, Xiaomi has also previously invested in lidar manufacturers Tuduitone and Hesai Technology.
Picture transferred from Zhu Yulong, account number: "Automotive Electronic Design"
Xiaomi's strategic investment in Sagitar Juchuang has not yet been announced.