The Lidar Startup, Luminar is going to be public. The company has entered into an agreement to merge with Gores Metropoulos, a special purpose acquisition company and upon completion of the transaction the company will be listed on Nasdaq under the new ticker symbol “LAZR.” The combined company will retain the Luminar Technologies.
The Orlando based company is one of the leading autonomous vehicle and lidar technology company for consumer cars and trucking. It has got partnerships with 7 of the top 10 global automakers.
Luminar also announced it has scaled its software team with the addition of 16 former members of Samsung’s Munich-based DRVLINE platform team that were previously responsible for delivering ADAS functionality to its mobility customers. The company plans to leverage this team to bring a full-stack lidar-based ADAS and Level 4 highway autonomy product offering to market.
Recently, another Lidar company Velodyne also was listed on the New York Stock Exchange after a reverse merger with a “blank check” company. Velodyne is backed by Ford, Baidu, Nikon Corp. and Hyundai Mobis. Luminar is backed by Volvo and supplies Lidar to Audi and Toyota Research Institute.
