Israeli lidar startup Innoviz raises $65M round backed by auto suppliers Delphi and Magna; Canadian lidar maker LeddarTech raises $101M from Delphi and Magneti
Israeli startup Innoviz Technologies closed a $65 million funding round with backing from Delphi and Magna …
Context & Ripple Effects
In 2017, lidar was still an open race among dozens of startups, and Innoviz's $65M round matters because of who wrote the checks: Delphi and Magna are tier-1 suppliers, meaning the companies that assemble cars for OEMs just took equity positions in a sensor startup rather than licensing its tech. The same week, Delphi and Magneti also backed Canadian rival LeddarTech's $101M round — one supplier family hedging across two lidar architectures.
That bet aged well on paper: Innoviz went on to raise a $132M Series C bringing total funding to $214M, listed via SPAC merger at a $1.4B valuation, and by 2022 had landed a BMW deal plus a ~$4B lidar order from Volkswagen's Cariad unit. This article is the origin point of the supplier-backed lidar playbook.
First-order effects
- Innoviz gains capital plus something rarer for a pre-production sensor startup: implied design-in credibility with the tier-1s that actually integrate components into vehicles, alongside its existing BMW relationship.
- Delphi and Magna convert acquisition risk into optionality — equity stakes give them early access to Innoviz's solid-state lidar without committing to a full buyout, while their parallel LeddarTech stake keeps a second architecture alive.
Second-order effects
- Competing lidar makers must now court strategic capital, not just venture money: Innovusion's subsequent Temasek-led rounds show the field repricing around who has an anchor backer with automotive reach.
- Suppliers backing multiple lidar vendors simultaneously (Delphi in both Innoviz and LeddarTech) forces startups to compete for the same patron's production slots, sharpening consolidation pressure on anyone without a tier-1 sponsor.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, tier-1 suppliers become the gatekeepers of which lidar designs reach vehicle platforms — shifting power in the autonomous-driving stack from sensor startups to the integrators financing them.
- Capital intensity of automotive-grade sensing pushes standalone lidar companies toward public listings or large OEM orders to survive, as Innoviz's SPAC exit and Cariad contract illustrate; unsponsored peers face absorption or irrelevance.
The trend: Auto suppliers are using minority stakes instead of acquisitions to lock up autonomous-vehicle sensor supply, turning lidar fundraising into a tier-1 land grab.