TEL AVIV, Israel – Innoviz Technologies, an Israeli LiDAR company founded by former officers of Israel’s Defence Forces elite technology division, known as “Unit 81”, which recently announced its intention to go public through a SPAC merger with Collective Growth Corporation (Nasdaq: CGRO), based in Texas, at a market value of $1.4B, has partnered with Macnica, Japan’s largest distribution company and a global technology solutions distribution company, to sell its flagship product, InnovizOne, in Japan for the first time. InnovizOne has been selected by BMW for use in its fully electric iX autonomous car program.
Macnica announced their intention to sell InnovizOne in the Japanese market last month, and have since been inundated with purchase orders for Innoviz’s solid-state 3D MEMS-based long-range LiDAR, which leads the high-spec LiDAR market by dint of its maturity and Innoviz’s long-standing and very close relationship with the Tier1 company Magna and customer BMW.
Mr. Atsushi Sato, GM of Macnica Strategic Innovation Group, had this to say: “We have been partnering with Innoviz for some three years, starting with detailed technical training at Innoviz’s R&D center in Israel, and we have already achieved good sales of InnovizPro, Innoviz’s first product. InnovizOne, first demonstrated by Macnica at our booth at the Automotive World show in Tokyo in January 2020, is already recognized as the most mature LiDAR in the market, with the best technology and the highest specifications. InnovizOne uses only automotive-grade components and will soon finish certification as an Automotive-Grade LiDAR. This market recognition is helping Macnica to achieve quick sales of the InnovizOne, and we have every intention of expanding these sales exponentially into many new markets beside those that we have already penetrated with this product.”
Among the customers who have already bought InnovizOne from Macnica: Japanese automotive manufacturers, for use in Advanced Development Programs leading to car and truck series production programs, their Tier1 partners and many leading industrial companies from various fields, from construction to space travel.
David Oberman, Innoviz’s VP Asia commented: “At Innoviz, we are constantly learning from our customers about new use cases and applications for our LiDAR sensors, including but not limited to: construction, industrial automation, security, trains, marine, agricultural, robotics, wind turbines, drones, mining, mapping and smart city applications. I am thrilled that customers in the Japanese market are using our LiDAR in their projects for various applications and look forward to seeing our cooperation with Macnica continue to grow and diversify in the future.”
About Innoviz Technologies
Innoviz is a leading manufacturer of high-performance, solid-state LiDAR sensors and perception software that enable the mass production of autonomous vehicles. Innoviz’s offerings include InnovizOne, an automotive-grade, mass-producible LiDAR sensor, InnovizTwo, a next generation high-performance automotive-grade LiDAR sensor, and Innoviz’s perception software, designed to complement its hardware offerings with advanced AI and machine learning-based classification, detection and tracking features. Innoviz is backed by top-tier strategic partners and investors, including SoftBank Ventures Asia, Samsung, Magna International, Aptiv, Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures, China Merchants Capital (SINO-BLR Industrial Investment Fund, L.P.), 360 Capital Partners, Glory Ventures, Naver, Shenzhen Capital Group, New Alliance Capital, Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services, Phoenix Insurance Company and others. For more information, visit www.innoviz.tech.
