Germany-based Scantinel Photonics, a startup developing next-gen Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology for autonomous vehicles, announced that it has raised €10M in its extended Series A round of funding.
The investment came from Netherlands-based PhotonDelta and current investors Scania Growth Capital and ZEISS Ventures.
Based out of Ulm, Germany, Scantinel Photonics is a Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) sensing technology company offering next-gen LiDAR solutions for autonomous mobility.
Founded in 2019 by Andy Zott, Vladimir Davydenko, and Dr.-Ing. Jan Horn, the company aims to make mobility safe by offering “outstanding” FMCW LiDAR technologies.
In order to detect and avoid obstacles, track objects, and perform Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM), Scantinel’s method of using FMCW LiDAR sensors is a crucial part of autonomous driving.
The company’s Optical Enhanced Array (OEA) system delivers scanning results, with an effective detection range of more than 300 meters.
Scantinel’s LiDAR system can effectively deal with bad weather conditions, such as fog, rain, snow, etc., and coherent ranging is not interfered with by other LiDAR systems or external light sources (sunlight).
In addition, direct velocity information is acquired instantly for every single measured pixel.
Scantinel will use the funds to roll out its FMCW LiDAR devices to customers.
According to the company, LiDAR is more accurate and precise than other technologies like RADAR and RGB cameras in mapping and object detection.
It also has greater resistance to interference. LiDAR devices, however, have not yet proven a realistic replacement due to their size, cost, or production challenges.
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