The deal makes Aeva the third lidar technology developer to agree to go public this year through a deal with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), following Velodyne Lidar Inc
VLDR.Oand Luminar Technologies Inc.
The merger with InterPrivate, which values Aeva at more than $2.1 billion, will give it a cash injection of more than $300 million to develop sensors for phones, tablets and other consumer devices.
InterPrivate is a SPAC led by private equity investor Ahmed Fattouh. It raised $210 million in an initial public offering in February.
Founded by ex-Apple Inc
AAPL.Oengineers Soroush Salehian and Mina Rezk, Aeva makes a lidar unit that competes with Velodyne, Luminar and others to give self-driving cars a three-dimensional view of the road.
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Aeva’s sensors also detect the speed of distant objects to help distinguish pedestrians from stationary features.
Aeva says its sensor does not rely on powerful lasers or exotic materials, which has helped it to shrink the cost and size of the device.<----! Different!!
The company has signed a sensor-system deal with an Audi-owned unit that is working on self-driving technology for Volkswagen AG
VOWG_p.DEand is working with German automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG to have its sensors in mass production by 2024.
Aeva intends to use the proceeds from the InterPrivate deal to expand its sensor development to consumer electronics, Salehian told Reuters in an interview.
“We want Aeva inside not just highly assisted or autonomous vehicles, but across a number of applications,” he said.
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