Paris-based Outsight bags €22.5M to develop LiDAR solutions for industrial edge, cloud applications

Paris-based Outsight, a company that develops LiDAR-based (Light Detection and Ranging) 3D software solutions, announced on Thursday that it has raised $22M (approximately €22.50M) in a fresh round of funding.

Outsight says it will use the funds to support the company’s expansion, its ambitious product roadmap that includes Edge and Cloud Processing, and strengthen its strategic position as the leading Software Pure Player.

Investors in this round

The round was co-led by Energy Innovation Capital (EIC) and the Defense Innovation Fund managed by Bpifrance, alongside Groupe ADP and historical investors BNP Paribas, SPDG, Demeter, Safran, and Faurecia.

Christopher Smith, MD at EIC, says, “The opportunity for 3D spatial intelligence and autonomy, beyond autonomous vehicles, is massive and untapped. Outsight’s technically elegant solution unlocks the power of LiDAR for mass adoption by solving complex, raw data problems and providing valuable insights across a broad range of applications. We are very excited to partner with the Outsight team to accelerate expansion in the US and global markets.”

Outsight: Everything you need to know

Founded in 2019 by Raul Bravo, Cédric Hutchings, Olivier Garcia, and Scott Buchter, Outsight develops real-time 3D LiDAR perception solutions. The company’s aim is to make LiDAR-based Spatial Intelligence become plug-and-play so that it can be used by application developers and integrators in any market. 

In a statement, the company mentions, “Using any LiDAR with our software processing capabilities allows smart machines and smart cities to achieve an unprecedented level of situational awareness. We believe that accelerating the adoption of LiDAR technology with easy-to-use and scalable software will highly contribute to creating transformative solutions that will make a smarter and safer world.”

The company applies its technology and software in many contexts and situations, and has helped companies in different sectors to work with LIDAR data.

Currently, the company has customers in many different markets and contexts:

• In the Automotive and Smart Vehicles market, automaker Stellantis uses Outsight’s technology to process massive amounts of 3D LiDAR data. Other similar customers are active in commercial and Industrial vehicles, for full automation and for vehicle safety.
• Groupe ADP is a company in the Smart Infrastructure sector that monitors passenger traffic via airports. Other applications include Smart Cities (Vulnerable road users identification, Highway monitoring, Parking) and Security.
• Mobile robotics is another significant family of applications, including clients like ECA Group. LiDAR technology is used by Outsight’s robotics clients for a variety of applications, such as explosive ordnance disposal, industrial autonomous mobile robots, and remote control.
• Industrial applications include volume measurement, with customers like Dunakontroll, that combine LiDAR with their own moisture sensing solution through Outsight. Other customers use Outsight’s software in warehouse stock assessment, agriculture and forestry management contexts.

The Software Brain of LiDAR

Outsight believes that the next paradigm shift to transform business will be the increasing mastery of 3D spatial intelligence technology. With 3D LiDAR, anything that moves, monitors moving objects, or measures volumes in complex dynamic environments can become more intelligent, efficient, and safe.

LiDAR hardware is now inexpensive and delivers high performance. However, only a few 3D specialists can effectively use the gear on its own. The enormous volumes of data it produces and the lack of uniformity across dozens of different hardware suppliers are also major issues.

Outsight’s real-time software solves these problems, allowing and speeding any new project looking for the quickest and simplest approach to utilise the potential of LiDAR hardware technology from any manufacturer.

One of the new clients Outsight has delivered solutions for recently is the largest airport LiDAR-based solution, which was successfully tested at Paris-Charles de Gaulle (ADP Group). Outsight’s software solutions have also been accepted widely in other areas around Europe, the US, Asia, and the Middle East.

Cloud-based LiDAR solution

Outsight is also advancing the first Cloud-based LiDAR processing solution of dynamic scenes, which is capable of processing enormous amounts of 3D data – on the order of tens of Petabytes – by integrating this technology after the first real-time solution that only required a web browser to function (Edge LiDAR processing software).

With this new solution, Outsight believes it is in a great position to influence this developing industry. It seeks to cover a variety of use cases, including Digital Twin applications and Automatic 3D Data Annotation.

According to Raul Bravo, President and co-founder of Outsight, “LiDAR is emancipating from its roots in self-driving car R&D to become the solution of choice in large-scale applications in mature markets, thanks to the new category of enabling software that we have created.”