Innovusion, a developer of LiDAR technology for the autonomous vehicle markets, raised about US $30 million in Series A funding, co-led by NIO Capital and Eight Roads Ventures in China, and F-Prime Capital in the US, in addition to seed round from Gaorong Capital and other strategic investors.

On the heels of the funding, the company’s LiDAR system, the Innovusion Cheetah, is now available for ordering by customers worldwide. Innovusion Cheetah is the first image-grade LiDAR system to support level 4+ (fully autonomous under certain operating conditions) autonomous driving solutions.

With the autonomous vehicle market expected to reach US$80 billion by 2035, LiDAR is seen as essential for reliable, safe Level 4+ autonomous vehicles. Innovusion Cheetah LiDAR detects objects more than 200 meters away and generates an exceptionally dense point cloud (300 lines), more than double of that of other providers in the space, while maintaining a high frame rate and achieving low-cost in high-volume production. Innovusion is ramping production to meet worldwide demand starting in Q4 2018.

Innovusion was founded in November 2016 and began shipping samples of Innovusion Cheetah LiDAR in the second quarter of 2018. Innovusion Cheetah is the first LiDAR technology to feature the combination of image-grade resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio required for long-distance detection.