Luminar Technologies Inc., a LiDAR technology company, was listed on the Nasdaq (stock code "LAZR") in the United States a few days ago, with a valuation of US$3.4 billion at the time of listing.
Since then, Luminar's valuation has risen further, reaching a valuation of US$8.1 billion.
Luminar produces lidar sensors, which can provide vehicles with a three-dimensional view of the road. In the merger transaction with Gores Metropoulos, Luminar received US$590 million.
Luminar also reached an agreement with Volvo, a subsidiary of Geely, to provide lidar devices for consumer cars. Vehicles with the sensor will be put into production in 2022.
Volvo has revealed that LiDAR (bright light radar) technology has been introduced in Volvo cars. LiDAR uses laser light to illuminate the interval of stagnant objects before moving forward, and uses sensors to identify their approach level.
Volvo's very new SPA 2 architecture will be well equipped with this technology, and will be equipped with new cars manufactured in this field in 2022. LiDAR will be integrated on the roof of the car. If the customer chooses this construction, the application will undergo a wireless method to update and enable active driving.
Luminar also has partnerships with Daimler Trucks and Intel's Mobileye.
The founder of Luminar, Austin Russell, is only 25 years old and has a keen interest in electronic components, especially optoelectronic components, since he was a child.
Austin Russell was a 17-year-old Thiel Fellow who dropped out of the Ph.D. program at Stanford University to start his own business. His vision is to make his lidar become standard equipment in all commercial vehicles in the world and reduce traffic accident rates.
Up to now, three lidar manufacturers have chosen to go public through SPAC. The first is Velodyne Lidar Inc., which will merge and go public in September 2020.
After the merger, Velodyne was able to raise $150 million in financing from new institutional investors and existing Graf Industrial shareholders. Velodyne became the world's first lidar.
Today, going public through the SPAC model has become the main way for lidar companies to go public. In November 2020, Aeva said it plans to go public through a merger with InterPrivate Acquisition Corp.