indie Semiconductor buys Exalos in $65m LiDAR boost
indie Semiconductor is paying up to $65m to buy Swiss optoelectronic specialist Exalos for its high-performance optical semiconductors for its move into LiDAR laser ranging.
This follows a deal with SILC in Germany to link its chip to the SILC FMCW LiDAR optical system and the opening of a design centre in Dresden.
Exalos was founded in 2003 and is based in Zürich. It has developed superluminance LEDs, or SLEDs, for fibre optic gyroscope and Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOAs), backed by 59 global patents. These will complement indie’s laser and Silicon Photonics products in ADAS and self driving vehicles for both LiDAR and navigation with fibre optic gyroscopes (FOG).
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“The Exalos differentiated solutions immediately expand indie’s ADAS and User Experience product and technology offering to our global tier one and automotive OEM customer base,” said Donald McClymont, indie’s co-founder and CEO.
“Specifically, indie can now leverage EXALOS’ core Super luminescent LED, and SOA technologies to enable Head Up Display (HUD), high brightness visible lighting and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)-based navigational applications and, importantly, to extend our FMCW LiDAR portfolio. We are gaining a well-established team of 17 world class engineers, including the industry’s leading expertise in bright light sources based on a proprietary Gallium Nitride process.,” he said.
“We are excited to join forces with indie at this key juncture of Exalos’ evolution,” said Christian Velez, CEO and founder of EXALOS. “Given indie’s global sales channels and demonstrated scalability, I am confident that together we can take our business to the next level, capitalizing on clear product synergies between us and extending our customer reach while preserving the EXALOS innovation engine.”
indie paid approximately $45 million in shares to Exalos equity holders. An additional $20m will be paid if certain revenue-based performance targets are exceeded over the next two years.
www.indiesemi.com; www.exalos.com
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