Lidwave raises $10M to improve machine vision with on-chip 4D LiDAR

Lidwave has raised $10 million to make machine vision better when it comes to spotting pedestrians in a busy landscape or a robot in a factory being able to see better.

The technology is dubbed 4D-LiDAR, and Lidwave is working taking complex LiDAR sensors and putting them on a chip, said Yehuda Vidal, Lidwave’s CEO, in an interview with GamesBeat.

Jumpspeed Ventures and Next Gear Ventures led the round, with strategic investment from a leading Swedish truck manufacturer.

The investment emphasizes the significance of Lidwave’s technology and approach in advancing the future of machine vision. Lidwave will use the new funding to further develop its optical chip, launch the industry’s first software-definable 4D LiDAR sensor, and expand its market presence.

“This investment marks a significant milestone for Lidwave, propelling us closer to our goal of revolutionizing machine vision,” said Vidal. “Our 4D LiDAR chip not only sets a new standard for sensor performance but also makes advanced perception technology accessible to the mass market. We are thrilled to have the support of visionary investors who share our mission to enhance safety and productivity across various industries.”

The challenge

Sensors with machine vision are critical across many industries. And there is a consensus that LiDAR sensors (Light Detection and Ranging) are essential for autonomous machines across various fields.

LiDAR is a remote sensing technology that uses a laser to measure distances and create 3D models of the space near the sensor. A LiDAR system emits a laser pulse, which reflects off objects and is detected by a receiver. The time it takes for the light to return is used to calculate the distance to the object. And so it can be used to map the space in front of a LiDAR-equipped car.

However, its full potential remains untapped due to high costs, complexity, and reliability issues. Legacy LiDAR systems are complicated, comprising dozens of elements including arrays of lasers, detectors, and optical components, assembled through a complex and costly process.

This results in high-end LiDAR units costing thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) of dollars, limiting widespread adoption across industries ranging from automotive, transportation, traffic management, industrial automation, ports to railways.

Lidwave’s answer

Lidwave addresses these challenges with its novel technology, marking a new era: LiDAR 2.0, an affordable system-on-chip LiDAR designed for the mass market.

Lidwave’s proprietary Finite Coherent Ranging (FCR) technology integrates all critical components onto a single chip, simplifying production and drastically reducing costs. FCR allows Lidwave to integrate key components onto a single chip by treating light as a wave, rather than using traditional photon counting. This approach allows for precise measurement of both range and velocity while offering high-resolution data that helps systems understand their surroundings with greater clarity and provide immunity to external interference.

By combining lasers, amplifiers, receivers, and optical routing onto one chip, Lidwave not only reduces production costs but also makes this powerful technology more accessible and reliable for a wide range of industries.

Moreover, unlike conventional LiDARs, Lidwave’s coherent sensing method provides Doppler (velocity) data at the pixel level alongside depth information, enabling machines to perceive and understand their surroundings with unmatched clarity, leading to better-informed decisions.

Origins

Vidal cofounded Lidwave in 2021 with Yossi Kabessa (CTO) and Uri Weiss (chief scientist) in Jerusalem. The company has less than 20 people.

“Our core knowledge is in coherent optics. It’s a regime of optics that utilizes quantum phenomena to use with light for imaging purposes. We saw that LiDAR is a very complex machine that costs tens of thousands of dollars for a high-end system,” Vidal said.

The variety of LiDAR sensors is wide, from small ones in smartphones for face recognition to long-range models that can detect more than 100 meters for cars. Since it’s based on a laser, it has optical components that are not so easily converted to silicon chips. Lidwave is a fabless chip company, meaning it designs chips and has them fabricated by contract chip manufacturers.

“We have more than 10 years expertise in the specific domain of coherent optics, which allows us to do this on a chip,” Vidal said.

The 4D refers to time, or the fourth dimension, which means capturing spatial data over time for something like a moving car. The sensor can thus use Doppler tech to capture information like velocity. With this additional data, the sensor can clean up an image. It is in higher resolution, and you can figure out with blue data if an object is coming toward you. If it’s red, it is moving away from you, based on a demo Vidal showed me. Lidwave’s own name means that it can focus on coherent light and measure the wave of light, as opposed to particles. That helps extract velocity and depth.

“This is the fourth dimension that we provide,” he said. “We still use the light, but we use it differently.”

The applications range from self-driving cars to industrial automation or smart cities, as it’s very useful to figure out the status of a moving object in many different scenarios.

Investor interest

“We recognized the potential of LiDAR technology many years ago, but only now, with Lidwave, there is a clear pathway to scalability and wide adoption,” said Ben Wiener, founding partner at Jumpspeed Ventures, in a statement. “Lidwave’s revolutionary 4D chip overcomes the barriers of legacy LiDARs, reducing the complexities and costs associated with their deployment. We pride ourselves on investing in cutting-edge technologies that are positioned to fundamentally transform industries, and with this in mind, we look forward to the impact Lidwave will make.”

Lidwave’s seed round also saw participation from additional investors, including Sapir Venture Partners, Teramips Technologies, Beyond-Electronics, Howard Morgan (MFCIF), and the Israel Innovation Authority (non-dilutive).

The company is collaborating with leading manufacturers, tier-1 suppliers, and major players in industrial automation and smart infrastructure to bring a new era of autonomy to the mass market. Lidwave seeks new partnerships to scale production and extend its technology to new fields, ultimately saving lives, enhancing safety, and boosting automation worldwide.

“We will have a fully functional system on a chip. We are offering a new solution to the mass market,” Vidal said. “This is the Holy Grail, and only in the last five years has there been a huge investment in the semiconductor industry that allows us to integrate active optical components like lasers and detectors into a silicon wafer, and that’s really game changing.”

There are enough foundries, or contract manufacturers, capable of this kind of manufacturing of chips based on Lidwave’s designs, he said. Ten years ago, that probably wasn’t the case.

Automotive manufacturers are one target for the tech, but it may take a few years for validation. So it’s more likely industrial automation and autonomous robots will be an earlier market.