Canadian LIDAR Company Raises $59 Million, Successfully Listed On Nasdaq

Recently, the Canadian LiDAR and sensor fusion software enterprise LeddarTech announced the completion of $59 million financing, and successfully listed on NASDAQ.
The company's deal with Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Prospector Capital was originally announced in June 2023 and closed in late December.
While the original agreement projected total proceeds of $66 million, LeddarTech CEO Charles Boulanger revealed that the final total was $58.6 million, of which $44 million was structured through a convertible Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE). Plus $14.6 million from the SPAC Trust.
The transaction closed with net proceeds of $37 million, meaning that LeddarTech shares now trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbols "LDTC" and "LDTCW".
Boulanger has stepped down as CEO and has been replaced by Frantz Saintellemy, the company's chief operating officer. The company's partnership with Prospector, combined with increased working capital, will help to further strengthen our position in the automotive software space," he said.
Endorsed by OSRAM
Founded in 2007 as a division of Canada's National Optics Institute, LeddarTech raised C$6.5 million in venture capital in 2010 to support its 3D detection and ranging technology, and in 2016 unveiled details of low-cost, solid-state LIDAR hardware that promises to be used in advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) applications and self-driving cars.
Lighting giant Osram subsequently purchased a 25% stake in the company before partnering with software specialist dSpace in December 2020, seeking to combine analog software with LeddarTech's lidar sensors.
After shifting its focus from hardware to software, LeddarTech announced in February 2022 that it had secured $140 million in a Series D round of funding, including a $24 million debt arrangement. Then in June 2022, it opened a development center dedicated to sensor fusion and perception development in Tel Aviv, Israel, to complement its Montreal and Toronto sites.
The company's "LeddarVision" product, which combines camera images with data from radar and Lidar sensors, is touted for a range of applications, including parking assistance, adaptive cruise control, collision warning systems, automatic emergency braking, blind spot detection and more.
Upon his promotion, new CEO Frantz Saintellemy said, "I am excited to take on the additional responsibility of becoming CEO of LeddarTech and leading our team into the future. The market opportunity is huge and our exciting automotive software continues to be popular with a variety of Tier 1 and OEM customers, which leads me to believe that LeddarTech will be a major automotive software provider in the future."
Former Qualcomm executive Derek Aberle, who has now moved from CEO of Prospector to Chairman of LeddarTech, added: "Based on my experience at Qualcomm, I believe that LeddarTech will be a disruptive leader in delivering safer, higher-performance, lower-cost ADAS and autonomous driving software-based solutions. I am excited about the opportunity to work closely with Frantz and the rest of the leadership team to establish LeddarTech as a global leader in ADAS and AD software as we seek to capture a significant share of this large and growing market."
Next week, the company will be attending CES 2024 in Las Vegas, where it will unveil its new "LeddarVision Surround" software, which it describes as an "advanced convergence and perception stack."