Israeli lidar startup Innoviz raises $65M round backed by auto suppliers Delphi and Magna; Canadian lidar maker LeddarTech raises $101M from Delphi and Magneti
Context & Ripple Effects
In September 2017, two of the biggest auto parts makers put money directly into lidar startups rather than waiting to buy sensors off the shelf: Delphi and Magna backed Israeli firm Innoviz's $65M round, while the same names (Delphi again, plus Magneti) funded Canada's LeddarTech at $101M. The move reads as tier-1 suppliers hedging their positions in the sensor layer that autonomous driving was expected to need.
The bet paid out along a visible arc: Innoviz went on to a $132M Series C in 2019, a SPAC merger valuing it at $1.4B announced in late 2020 with Aptiv alongside Magna as a backer, and eventually a BMW program plus a ~$4B lidar order from Volkswagen's Cariad unit in 2022.
First-order effects
- Delphi and Magna convert supplier relationships into equity positions, gaining early access to Innoviz's solid-state sensors while Innoviz gains balance-sheet credibility and a path into OEM design cycles.
- LeddarTech's larger $101M raise, backed by overlapping investors, means the same tier-1s are funding two competing lidar approaches simultaneously rather than picking a winner.
Second-order effects
- Rival lidar developers respond with their own large rounds — Innovusion raised a Temasek-led $64M Series B in 2021 followed by a $66M extension, pushing its total past $180M — as strategic and sovereign money chases the same automotive sensor slot.
- Magna's willingness to pay premiums for driver-assistance assets elsewhere (its $3.8B Veoneer bid, later topped by Qualcomm's $4.6B offer) shows the same suppliers treating ADAS capability as something worth acquiring outright when equity stakes aren't enough.
Third-order effects
- Tier-1 suppliers are becoming kingmakers in the lidar market: their capital and design-in influence decide which startups survive to production contracts, concentrating the industry around a few supplier-backed winners.
- If the pattern holds, autonomous-vehicle sensing consolidates into vertically aligned blocs — supplier-investor pairs like Magna-Innoviz — leaving unbacked sensor startups dependent on SPAC exits or OEM orders to stay alive.
The trend: Auto suppliers are using early equity stakes in lidar startups to lock in the sensor supply chain for autonomous driving, turning venture investing into a procurement strategy.