TriEye secures $74 million for Short-Wave Infrared sensing solution

Israeli startup TriEye, which has developed a CMOS-based Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) sensing solution for mass-market applications, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $74 million of new capital. The round was led by M&G Investments and Varana Capital, with the participation of Samsung Ventures, Tawazun SDF, Deep Insight, Allied Group, and Discount Capital along with follow-on investors Intel Capital, Porsche Ventures, Marius Nacht, and Grove Ventures. The round brings TriEye’s total funding to $96 million.

TriEye, founded by Avi Bakal (CEO), Prof. Uriel Levy (CTO), and Omer Kapach (VP R&D) in 2017, employs over 80 people and plans to recruit several dozen others to support its growth. The company's previous round was in 2019 and its valuation has risen dramatically since, reaching an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars.

"This is only the beginning of the road for us," said Avi Bakal. "We have developed sensors that are aimed at collecting data that is as accurate as possible. Current sensing platforms don't provide the important data at the required timeframes when there are difficult conditions like bad weather. Our sensor has the ability to provide the data whether it is night, misty or there's a sandstorm and overcomes the current sensing gaps.”

TriEye is collaborating with major manufacturers based in Europe, Asia, and the U.S., including Porsche, Continental, DENSO, and Trimble. Moreover, TriEye is working closely with leading players in additional mass-market applications, including automotive, biometrics, industrial imaging, agriculture, and heavy machinery, that until recently could not harness the benefits of SWIR sensing.

"I see us already registering sales in 2022," added Bakal. "With the help of the new money, we will support the growth of our team and the launch of a new product we are building for the auto industry that is a tenth of the price of Lidar."

TriEye's SEDAR (Spectrum-Enhanced Detection And Ranging), its imaging and ranging solution for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicles (AV), leverages the advantages of the SWIR spectrum along with the company’s proprietary low-cost design. SEDAR is capable of producing both HD image data and a detailed depth map in all visibility conditions. The company said that the SEDAR has generated significant interest from global OEMs in a variety of industries.

Dr. Eyal Kishon from Deep Insight, an Israeli deep tech dedicated fund, will be joining TriEye’s Board as an Observer. Ophir Shoham, who leads Marius Nacht’s high-tech investments and serves as TriEye’s Board Member, added: "It is exciting to see the incredible progress the team has made with an innovative approach that dramatically improves visibility while reducing costs and enabling diverse SWIR applications.”