Outsight Raises $22 Million to Accelerate the Deployment of LiDAR Across All Industries

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Outsight, leader in the development of LiDAR-based 3D Software solutions, has announced that it has received funding totaling $22 million in a round that was co-led by Energy Innovation Capital (EIC) and the Defense Innovation Fund managed by Bpifrance, alongside Groupe ADP and historical investors BNP Paribas, SPDG, Demeter, Safran, and Faurecia. The funding underscores the growing significance of software integration in the quickly developing field of LiDAR beyond self-driving cars. It is also a resounding endorsement of Outsight's industry-leading work in deploying 3D Software Solutions across a number of industries, including Smart Cities, Aviation, Robotics, Industry and Logistics.

The largest airport LiDAR-based solution, successfully tested in Paris-Charles de Gaulle (ADP Group), is just one among dozens of new customers Outsight has deployed solutions for and supported in recent months. The software solutions of the company have also been widely embraced in a number of other markets throughout Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East.

The Software Brain of LiDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) 

The increasing mastery of this 3D Spatial Intelligence technology is the next paradigm shift which will revolutionize business as we know it: with 3D LiDAR, anything that moves, monitors moving objects, or measures volumes in complex dynamic environments can become more intelligent, efficient, and safe.

LiDAR hardware is now inexpensive and delivers high performance. However, the hardware alone can only be efficiently used by a small number of 3D experts. There are also many problems associated with the massive amounts of data it generates and the lack of standardization across dozens of different hardware vendors.

Outsight’s Real-time Software solves these problems, enabling and accelerating any new project seeking to harness the potential of LiDAR hardware technology from any vendor in the quickest and easiest way.

Accelerating a steady growth trajectory

This new round of funding is intended to further support the company's expansion, its ambitious product roadmap including Edge and Cloud Processing, and to strengthen its strategic position as the leading Software Pure Player.

The company has customers in many different markets and contexts:

• In the Automotive and Smart Vehicles market, Stellantis is using Outsight technology to process massive amounts of 3D LiDAR data. Other similar customers are active in Commercial and Industrial vehicles, not only for full automation but also vehicle safety.
• In the Smart Infrastructure market, Groupe ADP is a good example for airports’ people flow monitoring. Outsight is also very active in other applications like Smart Cities (Vulnerable road users detection, Highway monitoring, Parking) and Security.
• Another important family of applications is mobile robotics, with customers like ECA Group. Robotics’ customers of Outsight use LiDAR technology for several cases including Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Industrial Autonomous Mobile Robots and remote operation.
• Industrial Applications include Volume Measurement, with customers like Dunakontroll, that combine LiDAR with their own moisture sensing solution thanks to Outsight. Other customers use Outsight’s software in warehouse stock assessment, agriculture and forestry management contexts.

LiDAR goes to the Cloud

After the first real-time solution that only needed a web browser to function (Edge LiDAR processing software) now Outsight is going a step further and integrating this technology with the first Cloud-based LiDAR processing solution of dynamic scenes, which is able to effectively process enormous amounts of 3D data - on the order of tens of Petabytes.

This new product aims to address various use cases, such as Digital Twin applications and Automatic 3D Data Annotation and it puts Outsight in a prime position to shape this emerging market.

According to Raul Bravo, President & Cofounder of Outsight, “LiDAR is emancipating from its roots in self-driving car R&D to become the solution of choice in large-scale applications in mature markets, thanks to the new category of enabling software that we have created”.

Adrien Muller, Principal at Bpifrance states: “After supporting Outsight's early stages of development through our innovation funding, we are delighted to support this new stage of growth by acquiring a stake in the company. Our investment reflects our collective ambition to widely disseminate the benefits of LiDAR technologies thanks to Outsight's unique software-based approach which simplifies their use and reduces their deployment costs.”

“The opportunity for 3D spatial intelligence and autonomy, beyond autonomous vehicles, is massive and untapped.” said Christopher Smith, Managing Director, Energy Innovation Capital. “Outsight’s technically elegant solution unlocks the power of LiDAR for mass adoption by solving the complex, raw data problem and providing valuable insights across a broad range of applications. We are very excited to partner with the Outsight team to accelerate expansion in the US and global markets.”

According to Edward Arkwright, Deputy CEO of Groupe ADP, “Outsight's development ambitions are in line with our strategy of increasing integration of LiDAR to improve our airport operations, as part of our smart airport ambition. By supporting Outsight in this funding round, we have a key alliance to innovate together around the deployment of LiDAR technology, which is extremely promising, both in Paris and internationally in our network of airports."

Legal counsel and investment bank:

• Joffe & Associés represented by Thomas SALTIEL, Camille MALBEZIN and Rudy DIAMANT
• Gide represented by David-James SEBAG; Julien NEGRONI ; Bastien DUCLOS
• Woodside Capital Partners, Investment Bank, represented by Rudy Burger and Nishant Jadhav.