General
June 23, 2019
6 minutes read

Velodyne Has Reportedly Courted Banks For An IPO

A Ford engineer fits a Velodyne lidar sensor on a self-driving vehicle image: Ford If you’re familiar with self-driving cars,…

A Ford engineer fits a Velodyne lidar sensor on a self-driving vehicle

image: Ford

If you’re familiar with self-driving cars, you have likely taken note of the spinning objects mounted atop most self-driving vehicles and other autonomous robots, like Ford’s recently unveiled delivery robot. If you’re more familiar, you may have taken note of the name “Velodyne”, whose lidars are widely used in the self-driving vehicle industry. Velodyne is a top lidar manufacturer valued at $2 billion after a $150 million investment from automaker Ford and China’s Baidu in 2016.

Now, according to a Business Insider report (paywall) [citing unnamed sources familiar with the process], Velodyne has hired bankers for an IPO. The BI report says Velodyne is working with Citigroup, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, William Blair and the Royal Bank of Canada on a potential public float and is looking to surpass its last private valuation.

A Velodyne lidar sensor

image: Velodyne

Velodyne traces its roots back to 1983, the year its parent company Velodyne Acoustics was founded. Velodyne started working on lidar technology around 2005 and officially spun off its lidar unit from the audio division after the $150 million investment in 2016. In addition to the $150 million round, Velodyne also took a strategic $25 million investment — last year — from Japanese optics and imaging products manufacturer Nikon.

Velodyne — although a top player in the lidar industry — is facing increasing competition from other lidar manufacturers. For example, Quanergy, another lidar manufacturer was valued at more than $2 billion after a Series C funding last year. Another lidar startup, Israel-based Innoviz raised $132 million earlier this year.

Velodyne’s IPO news comes on the heels of another unicorn, Medallia filing for an IPO.

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