SiLC Secures Another $25 Million in Financing To Advance FMCW Lidar Production

SiLC Technologies, a Los Angeles-based startup that develops chip-scale frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar sensors, said recently that it has attracted another $25 million in investment.
The company's seed and Series A rounds totaled $56 million, with the latest backing coming from Japan's Hokuyo Automatic and ROHM Semiconductor, as well as new investors such as South Korean tire giant Hankook.
Founded in 2018 by CEO Mehdi Asghari, SiLC has previously raised $12 million in seed support and in May 2021 announced a $17 million funding round.
Commenting on the newly secured $25 million financing, Mehdi Asghari said, "This demonstrates that SiLC's FMCW Lidar is a truly differentiated technology offering, and the financing reaffirms the value of our technology, which will be supported by our investor and customer base. Even in today's economic climate, we have nearly doubled the total amount of capital raised. We are thrilled to have such distinguished industry leaders join us on our journey."
The company said the new funds will be used to expand production to support its "Eyeonic" machine vision solutions, as well as product development for deployment in mobile, robotics, smart camera and security applications.
Sumio Utsunomiya, chief operating officer of Epson X Investment, added in SiLC's funding statement: "SiLC's on-chip FMCW Lidar is very competitive in terms of sensor performance,integration and manufacturing technology. We expect this technology to be used in various industries such as industrial robotics, self-driving cars, ADAS, AR/VR wearable consumer devices, etc. in the future."
Manufacturing Partners
SiLC is one of the few lidar sensor developers focusing on the more technically challenging FMCW approach, which requires a high degree of photonic integration at thescale, as well as wavelength-tunable laser diode sources.
But the higher complexity yields a major performance advantage, as FMCW lidar sensors are able to capture position and velocity information from surrounding objects - something SiLC has previously said elevates the capabilities of machine vision to a realm closer to human visual perception.
The company has previously claimed that they are the first to utilize silicon photonics and automated assembly technology to reduce the basic components required for coherent FMCW systems to a single, mass-produced chip.
Last year, SiLC established a manufacturing partnership with Hong Kong-based Cloud Light Technology to mass produce its "Eyeonic" vision sensors. And earlier this month Cloud Light completed a $750 million deal and is now part of Lumentum's portfolio.
SiLC has also partnered with automotive-focusedcompany Indie Semiconductor to integrate Indie's "Surya" system-on-chip for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving capabilities with SiLC's FMCW lidar.
Sensor Detection Expanded
While SiLC initially focused on Eyeonic's industrial machine vision applications with partners including Hokuyo, the company previously claimed that the sensor has a detection range of more than one kilometer for high-speed vehicles.
Eyeonic is currently available in four different versions, each with a different range: short, medium, long and ultra-long.
- The short-range iteration is designed to provide vision inspection at distances up to 50 meters and is targeted at high-precision machine vision tasks, including pallet and truck loading.
- The mid-range version operates up to 150 meters and is suitable for home security and factory automation applications.
- The long-range version is scalable to 300 meters and is tailored for ADAS and self-driving cars.
- The ultra-remote version, with performance currently exceeding 1,250 meters, is targeted for deployments such astracking, perimeter security and aircraft ground control.