Lumotive raises $13 million

Lumotive, the maker of Light Control Metasurface beam steering chips “enabling the next generation of 3D sensors,” has closed a $13 million funding round led by Samsung Ventures, with participation from USAA and Uniquest, bringing its total funding to date to $56 million.

Founded in 2018, the Bellevue-based startup claims that its devices reduce the complexity, cost, and size of lidar systems while improving performance and reliability. Over two dozen “world-class companies” are currently engaged with Lumotive to utilize the company’s LCM chips to develop next-generation lidar systems for autonomy, automation, and augmented reality markets.

“Disruptive approaches to enabling next generation lidar capabilities are imperative for important applications such as automotive safety. Lumotive’s all-silicon LCM solutions make lidar affordable and deployable for a wide range of uses, and we’re excited to help accelerate their product development and deployment efforts through this investment.” – Michael Smith, AVP, corporate development at USAA.

“We believe Lumotive’s innovative optical semiconductor chips will disrupt the consumer and industrial segments of the 3D sensor market. We are very excited to form a long term partnership with Lumotive as an investor, and to represent the company and promote its products in South Korea.” – Andrew Kim, president and CEO of Uniquest.

“We are very pleased to have USAA and Uniquest join our family of brand name investors as we ramp up to deliver disruptive semiconductors enabling Lidar 2.0 — a crucial 3D sensing technology for diverse, consumer, automotive, and industrial markets. Our LCM chips are uniquely positioned to address the broad range of perception and safety requirements across those sectors. This additional funding will accelerate the deployment of the current generation of LCM chips and the development of the next generation of our product.” – Dr. Sam Heidari, CEO of Lumotive.