Innoviz Technologies

Innoviz Technologies

Innoviz Technologies was established in 2016 by Omer Keilaf and former members of Israel's elite Unit 81 technology intelligence corps. The company develops solid-state lidar sensors and perception software designed to give autonomous vehicles high-resolution 3D vision. Its early anchor was a supply agreement with BMW, a rare Tier-1 contract for a startup that signaled industrial credibility. Innoviz specializes in MEMS-based solid-state lidar, targeting Level 3 to Level 5 autonomous driving systems. The company's revenue model is hardware unit sales plus perception software licensing, and it produces two main products: InnovizOne (automotive-grade, for series production) and InnovizTwo (a cost-reduced follow-on with improved performance). Beyond automotive, it supplies lidar to non-automotive sectors including logistics, smart cities, and industrial automation. Confirmed customers include BMW, Volkswagen, and Magment, a wireless EV-charging infrastructure firm. Innoviz went public on Nasdaq in April 2021 through a merger with Collective Growth Corporation, a SPAC, raising approximately $350 million in gross proceeds. As of the de-SPAC transaction, the company reported 353 employees with R&D and manufacturing facilities in Israel and an office in Munich, Germany. The firm disclosed a forward order book of $2.4 billion at the time of listing, although revenue recognition is back-end-loaded to the start of series vehicle production by automotive OEMs. The firm's structural differentiator is its dual-hardware-and-software approach, selling a full-stack perception system rather than just a commodity sensor. It competes directly with Luminar, Velodyne, and Aeva, but its bet on MEMS-based solid-state architecture—with no moving parts—separates it from older mechanical lidar designs. The company operates as a fabless semiconductor model, outsourcing manufacturing to tier-1 automotive contract manufacturers, a capital-light structure that shifts risk to supply-chain partners.