![]() It has already signed a widely publicized supply agreement to supply lidar units for Volvo consumer vehicles, starting in 2022, and also has inked partnership agreements with Daimler Truck and other partners. The company believes that this technology stack gives it a level of integration that allows it to provide a turnkey solution to automakers. The company’s core system involves a compact package combining a 1550-nm fiber laser source, an integrated InGaAs sensor and dual-axis scanning mirrors, married to proprietary perception software. Luminar is one of a number of technology firms seeking to provide lidar systems to empower the long-promised era of fully autonomous vehicles (see “ Lidar for Self-Driving Cars,” OPN, January 2018). On 2 December, the firm announced that the business combination had been officially completed, and that the LAZR stock, under the business name of Luminar Technologies, Inc., would succeed GHMI and begin trading on the following day. Since the announcement, while the proposed business combination was undergoing shareholder approval, the SPAC shares, embodying the value of the combined companies, have traded on the NASDAQ under the Gores Metroupolos ticker symbol GMHI. Such “blank check” companies are publicly traded shell companies formed specifically to invest in private firms and provide a less fraught, smoother road to public ownership than a traditional initial public offering (IPO). Strictly speaking, Luminar entered the path to go public with its 24 August 2020 announcement of the merger with Gores Metropoulos, a SPAC sponsored by The Gores Group, a global investment firm. ![]() And the stock’s conspicuously successful maiden voyage made the company’s 25-year-old founder, Austin Russell, one of the youngest persons in history to attain billionaire status. That was some 26% above the price fetched by shares of Gores Metroupolus, the predecessor stock to LAZR, only one day before. The company’s shares-trading publicly for the first time on the NASDAQ exchange, under the ticker symbol LAZR-ended their first trading day at a price of US$22.98 apiece as of 4:00 p.m. On 3 December 2020, a bit more than three months after announcing its merger with the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Gores Metroupolus Inc., the solid-state lidar developer Luminar Technologies made its debut on Wall Street in spectacular style. The first-day performance of Luminar’s new stock issue made Russell one of the youngest people ever to attain billionaire status. “We worked relentlessly to build the tech from the ground up to solve it and partnered directly with the leading global automakers to show the world what’s possible.Reason to smile: Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell, in a vehicle equipped with one of the lidar company’s test systems. “Eight years ago, we took on a problem to which most thought there would be no technically or commercially viable solution,” he said. Luminar has since become one of the top firms building self-driving tech for consumer cars and trucks. In fact, Volvo plans to roll out Luminar technology in its entire catalog starting in 2022. That is, a system that works like radar but uses light from a laser rather than radio waves.Įver since it emerged from self-imposed stealth in 2017, the company has partnered with major automakers, including Volvo and Toyota. Luminar’s system of self-driving software relies on lidar-based technology. Palo Alto, Calif.,-based Luminar Technologies employs more than 300, including about half in Central Florida. “The milestone is pivotal not just for us, but also for the larger automotive industry,” CEO Austin Russell said. The company will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol LAZR.Ī press release that announced the deal placed its value at $3.4 billion. The autonomous vehicle firm Luminar Technologies will merge with special purpose acquisition company Gores Metropoulos. The lidar technology being developed by Luminar Technologies just landed it a merger. Luminar Technologies dropped a bombshell on Aug.
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