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MicroVision
MicroVision, led by CEO Sumit Sharma, is a Redmond-based laser beam-scanning company with 500+ patents, a HoloLens partnership, and a pivot to automotive...
MicroVision
MicroVision was founded in 1993 in Redmond, Washington, and spent its first three decades as an intellectual-property shop, developing MEMS-based laser beam scanning technology for display and sensing. The firm became a fixture in augmented-reality supply chains when it licensed its engine to Microsoft, which shipped it inside HoloLens 2 beginning in 2019. A long-running patent-assertion campaign against automotive lidar rivals helped define the company's posture during lean years when revenue from display licensing barely covered operating costs. The company's pivot to automotive lidar began in earnest under Sharma, who closed the April 2021 acquisition of suitor-turned-acquisition-target Ibeo Automotive Systems' hardware assets. The resulting sensor — branded MAVIN — combines a 940-nanometer laser with custom ASICs and edge-computing software on a single module. MicroVision targets both automotive OEMs and industrial automation customers across North America, Europe, and Asia, competing against Luminar, Valeo, and Ouster for socket wins in vehicles expected to reach series production by 2026. The strategy rides the industry's move to consolidate stack components: lidar plus perception software plus a domain controller, which MicroVision argues it can deliver at lower channel-to-boards cost than rivals using off-the-shelf FPGA architectures. As of mid-2023, MicroVision employed fewer than 200 full-time staff, with engineering concentrated in Redmond and Hamburg. Sumit Sharma disclosed on the May 2023 earnings call that the company had engaged Ibeo's previously warmed-up OEM relationships for active RFQ rounds, naming a European OEM as a near-term target. Adjacent commercial activity remains limited to non-automotive industrial lidar modules for warehouse automation and traffic management — short-cycle revenue leads that Sharma frames as proof points while the larger automotive qualification cycles play out. The company lacks adjacent philanthropic vehicles or family-office capital structures; it funds operations through equity issuance, including a 2022 shelf registration and periodic at-the-market offerings that have historically pressured the public float. MicroVision's structural differentiator is its parallel-lane licensing model — a balance sheet that can survive the decade-long automotive qualification slog only if its HoloLens royalty stream continues to cover fixed engineering costs. That architecture resembles no other firm in the lidar sector, where most startups burn through pure-play hardware financing awaiting the first OEM production order. In effect, Sharma runs a royalty-supported hardware speculator that must convert its IP portfolio into a Tier-1 supply contract before the HoloLens agreement — subject to Microsoft's own hardware roadmap — renegotiates or expires.
General information
Firm type
other
Year founded
1993
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Redmond
Corporate office
Redmond, WA, United States
Principals
Sumit Sharma
Chief Executive Officer
Anubhav Verma
Chief Financial Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment and strategic decisions at MicroVision?
CEO Sumit Sharma leads strategic direction and capital allocation. Sharma joined MicroVision in 2015 as VP of Engineering before taking the CEO role in 2020, steering the pivot from an IP-licensing model into automotive lidar hardware. CFO Anubhav Verma oversees treasury and balance-sheet management, while the board's acquisitions committee — chaired by Robert Carlile — evaluates M&A and technology partnerships.
What is the nature of MicroVision's relationship with Microsoft?
MicroVision developed the laser-beam-scanning engine inside Microsoft HoloLens 2 under a licensing and component-supply agreement signed in 2017. The company earns royalties on each HoloLens unit shipped, plus payments for engineering services. The agreement provides a recurring revenue floor that subsidizes MicroVision's lidar R&D, though the duration and scope are not publicly disclosed beyond the 2017 announcement.
Does MicroVision operate as a family office or an asset manager?
No. MicroVision is a publicly traded technology company (NASDAQ: MVIS) that develops and sells hardware. It holds no allocator capital, does not invest in external funds, and has no family-office structure. The firm may appear in entity-classification databases alongside family offices simply because its low-headcount, high-IP model can superficially resemble a holding company, but its operations are purely those of an operating business selling to OEMs.
What investment stages does MicroVision target?
MicroVision does not make venture or growth-equity investments. As an operating company, it deploys its own R&D budget, acquires distressed or strategic technology assets (as it did with Ibeo Automotive in 2021), and issues equity to fund continued development. It is the target of investment, not an investor, and has historically traded among retail investors as a speculative lidar play.
Who are MicroVision's main competitors in automotive lidar?
The company competes against Luminar Technologies on the long-range sensor front, Valeo for integrated lidar-plus-software modules with existing OEM relationships, and Ouster for digital-lidar architectures. MicroVision's counter-positioning centers on its MEMS-based mirror approach, which it argues produces higher resolution at lower cost than mechanical-spinning alternatives like Velodyne's legacy products.
How does MicroVision source deal flow for commercial contracts?
Commercial pipeline comes through direct OEM RFQ processes, tier-1 supplier partnership discussions, and inbound inquiries from industrial automation integrators. MicroVision's automotive sales team in Germany — inherited partly from the Ibeo acquisition — maintains relationships with European OEM purchasing groups, while the Redmond engineering team hosts sensor evaluation partnerships directly with interested automakers.
What is MicroVision's known posture on co-investments?
MicroVision does not co-invest alongside external financial sponsors. It finances operations through periodic equity offerings and, as of its 2023 annual meeting, had authorized a share-increase proposal to provide flexibility for future capital raises. The firm has no private-capital partners or SPV co-investment vehicles; risk is entirely borne by public shareholders and its own balance sheet.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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