Robert Bosch Venture Capital invests in ABAX Sensing

Innovative full solid-state chip Lidar design technology. Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC), the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch group, completed a follow-on investment in ABAX Sensing. ABAX is developing a full solid-state chip Lidar for consumer and automotive applications, in particular for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles. RBVC and Orbbec, a Chinese high-tech company focusing on 3D sensor technology, led the Pre-Series A financing round followed by GSR Capital and other investors.

“The follow-on investment underlines our excitement in the disruptive approach of ABAX for the next generation Lidar and strengthens the growing Robert Bosch Venture Capital portfolio of companies in the field of sensors and software for autonomous vehicles,” says RBVC Managing Director Dr. Ingo Ramesohl.

ABAX to develop next generation Lidar for autonomous driving
The continuous development of autonomous driving puts forward higher expectations towards hardware technologies like Lidar – one of the key sensors to support autonomous vehicles in perceiving complex traffic environments. “The integration and cost reduction of Lidar technology is inevitable to realize large-scale applications”, explains Dr. Hongquan Jiang, Investment Partner at RBVC. “Lidar is one of the few hardware components that has huge potential for technological development. Therefore, RBVC is investing in ABAX´s full solid state technology for the next sensor generation.” ABAX’s enhanced chip-level solution intrinsically enables low costs and small product design, combined with functional requirements and safety. Its proprietary anti-interference technology eliminates mutual interferences among different Lidar devices and disturbance problems caused by ambient light very effectively.

“ABAX continues to increase its research and development efforts in automotive Lidar technology, in particular the key components of a Lidar – the transmitter and receiver chip – to provide the most optimized solution for autonomous driving. We are glad to have RBVC as a act investor and partner, providing access to their expertise and knowledge of all the key players across the automotive ecosystem,” says Dr. Shuyu Lei, founder and CEO of ABAX.

ABAX is starting to conduct small-scale production testing and relevant customer trials on its first-generation Lidar products.

Source: https://www.bosch-presse.de/