Munich, Germany — Blick­feld, a Munich-based provi­der of LiDAR sensor tech­no­logy and percep­tion soft­ware, announ­ced the expan­sion of its Series A finan­cing to $31 million. New Future Capi­tal (NFC), a private equity firm that provi­des growth capi­tal prima­rily in Asia, North America and Europe, was won as a new inves­tor. In addi­tion, all exis­ting inves­tors parti­ci­pa­ted in the round, inclu­ding Bayern Kapi­tal, Conti­nen­tal, Fluxu­nit — ams OSRAM Ventures, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds, Tengel­mann Ventures and UVC Partners.

New invest­ment supports the deve­lo­p­ment of new products for auto­no­mous driving and nume­rous indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons and the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of the busi­ness. The finan­cing expan­sion comes at a time when Blick­feld is growing signi­fi­cantly and expan­ding into new markets. The company plans to conti­nue deve­lo­ping sensors and soft­ware that will further advance the relia­ble acqui­si­tion and use of 3D data.

Foun­ded by Dr. Mathias Müller, Dr. sc. Florian Petit and Rolf Wojtech in 2017, Blick­feld deve­lops and produ­ces LiDAR sensors and percep­tion soft­ware. The solu­ti­ons provide high-reso­lu­tion three-dimen­sio­nal envi­ron­men­tal infor­ma­tion and enable nume­rous appli­ca­ti­ons ranging from auto­no­mous trans­por­ta­tion and mobi­lity to smart cities, indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons and secu­rity applications.

Since the last funding, Blick­feld has made signi­fi­cant progress in brin­ging products to market, inclu­ding the volume launch of the versa­tile Cube 1 and Cube Range 1 3D LiDAR sensors for nume­rous indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. In addi­tion, the company has rolled out seve­ral large-scale deploy­ment projects, such as passen­ger flow capture and analy­sis at airports and bulk mate­rial volume measu­re­ment in product warehouses.

In addi­tion to the company’s current distri­bu­tion part­ners in 13 count­ries, inclu­ding Germany, Canada, China and Japan, the new round of funding will support the opening of offices in the U.S. and Asia, furthe­ring Blickfeld’s inter­na­tio­nal presence. The new offices will serve to expand an inte­gra­tor network to make products available faster and in grea­ter quan­ti­ties for appli­ca­ti­ons world­wide and to serve growing demand in the key markets of the U.S. and Asia. In addi­tion to growth in new markets, the number of employees will also increase signi­fi­cantly, with a focus on the sales team.

In early 2022, Blick­feld will expand its product port­fo­lio to include new percep­tion soft­ware with features such as object reco­gni­tion, clas­si­fi­ca­tion, track­ing and coun­ting. Appli­ca­tion areas include indus­trial, smart traf­fic, secu­rity, drones and crowd analy­tics. The latter repres­ents a major oppor­tu­nity for the global appli­ca­tion of field-of-view tech­no­logy, provi­ding important data on conges­tion, crow­ding, waiting times, and more — all while main­tai­ning privacy.

“The addi­tio­nal funding in this invest­ment round confirms inves­tors’ contin­ued confi­dence in our vision to capture and analyze the world with a compre­hen­sive solu­tion. We are proud that our products are now used by compa­nies and orga­niza­ti­ons all over the world! The strong network of our new inves­tor NFC in Asia and the US will be of great value for Blick­feld to gain a fast and sustainable foot­hold in the US and Asia,” Dr. Mathias Müller, co-foun­der and CEO of Blickfeld

“As a long-time part­ner, we have supported Blick­feld from the begin­ning. By combi­ning Blickfeld’s proprie­tary MEMS tech­no­logy with our indus­try-leading 905 nm edge emit­ting laser compon­ents, Blickfeld’s sensors demons­trate the capa­bi­li­ties of LiDAR tech­no­logy in real-world use cases and at indus­trial scale. We look forward to conti­nuing to support Blickfeld’s growth trajec­tory in the future.” Jörg Strauß, Senior Vice Presi­dent & Gene­ral Mana­ger Busi­ness Line Visua­liza­tion & Laser at ams OSRAM.

About field of view

Blick­feld, foun­ded in Munich in 2017, is a provi­der of 3D LiDAR products and percep­tion soft­ware for auto­no­mous vehic­les and IoT appli­ca­ti­ons. Blick­feld LiDAR products meet the highest perfor­mance requi­re­ments in terms of power, cost and size needed for the mass market. The company is finan­ci­ally supported by Bayern Kapi­tal, Conti­nen­tal, Fluxu­nit — ams OSRAM Ventures, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds, New Future Capi­tal, Tengel­mann Ventures and UVC Part­ners. — www.blickfeld.com

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Lands­hut, was estab­lished in 1995 as a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern on the initia­tive of the Bava­rian state govern­ment. As the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, Bayern Kapi­tal provi­des equity capi­tal to the foun­ders of inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies and inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in Bava­ria. Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 700 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted over 350 million euros of venture capi­tal in around 300 inno­va­tive, tech­no­logy-orien­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, inclu­ding life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. Bayern Kapi­tal has supported the compa­nies EOS Elec­tro Opti­cal Systems, conga­tec, Morpho­Sys, voxel­jet, parcel­Lab, SimS­cale and many others, some of which are listed on the stock exch­ange and are now market leaders in their sectors, from an early stage in the realiza­tion of their projects and also in large-volume finan­cing rounds. As a result, more than 8,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. www.bayernkapital.de

About Conti­nen­tal
Conti­nen­tal deve­lops pionee­ring tech­no­lo­gies and services for the sustainable and connec­ted mobi­lity of people and their goods. Foun­ded in 1871, the tech­no­logy company provi­des safe, effi­ci­ent, intel­li­gent and afforda­ble solu­ti­ons for vehic­les, machi­nery, traf­fic and trans­por­ta­tion. Conti­nen­tal gene­ra­ted sales of €37.7 billion in 2020 and curr­ently employs more than 192,000 people in 58 count­ries and markets. The company cele­bra­ted its 150th anni­ver­sary on Octo­ber 8, 2021. www.continental.com/de/

About Fluxu­nit — ams OSRAM Ventures
Fluxu­nit — ams OSRAM Ventures is the inde­pen­dent venture capi­tal unit of OSRAM. Buil­ding on OSRAM’s market leader­ship, the Fluxu­nit invests in start-ups in future tech­no­lo­gies that go beyond OSRAM’s core busi­ness and bring with them the poten­tial to open up new appli­ca­ti­ons and signi­fi­cantly change busi­ness models. The goal of the Fluxu­nit is to provide start­ups with signi­fi­cant support, both in terms of capi­tal and access to OSRAM’s resour­ces and network, in order to acce­le­rate their growth.
www.fluxunit.de

About New Future Capi­tal (NFC)
New Future Capi­tal is one of the best known inves­tors in Grea­ter China and focu­ses on the auto­mo­tive sector with offices in Taipei and Shang­hai. Lever­aging its indus­try exper­tise and opera­tio­nal capa­bi­li­ties, the company aims to part­ner with busi­nesses to trans­form and grow toge­ther amid rapid inno­va­tion. With a hands-on approach at stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal levels, NFC supports busi­ness values and stri­ves for long-term success. www.newfuturecapital.com

About Tengel­mann Ventures
Tengel­mann Ventures has been inves­t­ing in start-ups in the consu­mer inter­net, digi­tal services and emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies sectors since 2009. With around 50 invest­ments, Tengel­mann Ventures is one of the most important venture capi­tal inves­tors in Germany. Its best-known invest­ments include compa­nies such as Zalando (IPO), Deli­very Hero (IPO), Klarna, Scalable Capi­tal and data Artisans.
www.tengelmann-ventures.com

About UVC Partners
UVC Part­ners is a Munich and Berlin based early-stage venture capi­tal firm inves­t­ing in Euro­pean B2B start­ups within the enter­prise soft­ware, indus­trial tech­no­lo­gies and mobi­lity sectors. The fund usually invests between €0.5 million and €5 million at the outset and up to €20 million in total per company. The port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit from the exten­sive invest­ment and exit expe­ri­ence of the manage­ment team as well as from the close coope­ra­tion with Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Europe’s leading center for inno­va­tion and busi­ness crea­tion. With over 300 employees and more than 100 indus­try part­ners, Unter­neh­mer­TUM can draw on many years of expe­ri­ence in buil­ding young compa­nies. This colla­bo­ra­tion allows UVC Part­ners to provide start­ups with unique access to talent, indus­try clients and other finan­cial part­ners. www.uvcpartners.com

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported more than 650 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than EUR 3.5 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,800 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 140 companies.