Israeli Innoviz which develops sensors for autonomous vehicles: will be listed on NASDAQ - 2021

The Israeli start-up Innoviz, which develops Lidar sensors that help autonomous vehicles identify their surroundings, announced today (Friday) that it will be listed for trading on NASDAQ in early 2021. The registration will be done by a merger with SPAC called Collective Grot. (Collective Growth) Collective is a content public company that has raised $ 150 million for one purpose - locating a private merger company.
In such a merger process, Invis is expected to gain access to the Spock funds and another $ 200 million from investors, including institutional entities such as the Phoenix company, which already owns shares in the company. In about three months with the approval of the merger by the shareholders of the company Spac - Invis will start trading under the ticker INVZ at a value of $ 1.4 billion, without it submitting a prospectus for public review, or giving it explanations about its performance, growth strategy or management. The value is 1.3 times higher than the value it received in its last raising in June 2019 - about $ 600 million.
The choice of the spock process saves Invis the underwriting costs and gives it certainty about the value determined already at the signing stage of the merger transaction, compared to the value determined in the traditional IPO according to demand. Invis is joining a growing trend against the backdrop of the epidemic of rapid and silent 'back door' issues. In 2020, an unusual number - 229 companies - managed to sign up for trading in the form of Spock - four times as much as in 2019, and after years of several single-digit Spack issues. These companies raised a total of $ 77.2 billion in 2020.
Invis was founded in early 2016 by Omar Kilf, Amit Steinberg (who is no longer with the company), Oren Rosenzweig and Oren Busquila, who served together in '81 - the technological unit of the Intelligence Corps. The company made it clear that the management team will remain in place, and Omar Kilf will continue in the position of CEO.
Invis has raised about $ 252 million to date, from investor Zohar Zispel and from the Vertex, Trend, Amitai and Orkrud funds. The company employs 280 people, most of them about 260 in Israel. It is considered one of the most prominent companies in the field of Israeli automotive technologies, and a major player in the global lidar industry.
The company developed LiDAR (short for Light Detection and Ranging) for autonomous vehicles. It is a sensor that scans its surroundings and uses a laser to measure the distance from the various objects, thus creating a three-dimensional map. It stands on the vehicle, and alongside radar cameras, it is perceived as a key component that allows the autonomous vehicle to "see" its surroundings and identify obstacles and objects in its surroundings, from pedestrians to other cars.
Earlier this year, Invis launched the new generation of its lidar, called InnovizTwo, which will be available in the third quarter of 2021. The company claims to be about 70% cheaper than the previous generation, and includes a significant improvement in performance. Due to the delay in forecasts for the entry of autonomous vehicles into the market, Invis is trying to make it relevant for vehicles with a lower degree of autonomous driving (2+, in which the driver is fully involved in driving but the vehicle assists in navigation and acceleration), which will mature in the coming years.
Invis' main partner is Magna, a technology provider to automakers; And it has partnerships with other providers such as Herman, Chinese HiRain and Aptiv. Invis' big customer of Invis is the car giant BMW. Invis provides it with the lidar sensor technology through its partnership with Magna.
Invis estimates that its revenues this year will total $ 5 million and it will record an operating loss (EBITDA) of $ 65 million. It forecasts that it will move to operating profitability in 2024, when its revenues, according to the optimistic forecast it provided, will reach $ 220 million.
There are industry insiders who believe that in the long run Lidar will prove to be an expensive and unnecessary solution for an autonomous vehicle, and that it is best to rely on software and cameras only. The loudest and most prominent of them is Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla who said last year: “Anyone who relies on Lidar, his fate is doomed. These are expensive and unnecessary sensors. It's ridiculous, you'll see. "However, apart from Tesla, most of the autonomous car market companies intend to use Lidar in the foreseeable future.