Natilus Selects ZeroAvia Hydrogen-Electric Engines for Zero-Emission Propulsion Cargo UAV

Natilus, an innovator in designing and developing new autonomous blended-wing body (BWB) cargo aircraft, and ZeroAvia, the leader in zero-emission commercial aviation, have announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop hydrogen-electric engines for the Natilus Kona cargo UAV.

ZeroAvia’s ZA600 will be the sole hydrogen-electric propulsion source offered for the novel Kona short-haul feeder UAV, with the partnership focused on delivering zero-emission and lower cost operations.

The Natilus Kona, with its revolutionary BWB design, offers increased volume for hydrogen storage, potentially transforming the air cargo delivery industry to one with low-cost, low carbon emissions, while also extending flight range. The partnership with ZeroAvia will leverage their expertise in hydrogen-electric powertrain technology with Natilus’ unique design to create a scalable, long-range, and zero-emission air cargo delivery solution for the entire industry.

Natilus recently validated the performance of the BWB design with flight testing of a quarter-scale Kona prototype aircraft, following three years of extensive wind-tunnel testing, while ZeroAvia has now conducted eight test flights of its prototype ZA600, 600kW engine in a 19-seat testbed aircraft.

Aleksey Matyushev, Co-founder and CEO of Natilus, said:

“Natilus has a long-term commitment to being a responsible steward of our environment, instituting practices that can protect the environment through continual improvements to save fuel and water, reduce waste, air emissions, noise, and material consumption. The Natilus-ZeroAvia partnership goes further, bringing the talents and innovations of the two companies together to deliver much needed innovation in the air cargo delivery industry and multiple solutions for our customers.”

Val Miftakhov, Founder and CEO of ZeroAvia, said:

“Given Natilus’ impressive order book and corresponding technology development, working together on integrating the ZA600 as a line-fit engine for Kona can multiply the emissions and costs benefits that are already interesting cargo operators. We all depend on air cargo operators, and some communities depend on them absolutely, so improving the economics and environmental impacts of these operations while increasing service levels is a massive opportunity.”

ZeroAvia has demonstrated a prototype of the ZA600 with world-first flight testing of a retrofitted 19-seat aircraft in flight. The company has twice held the record for demonstrating the largest hydrogen fuel cell aircraft and has struck several important agreements with airframe OEMs relevant to ZA600 – including Textron Aviation, manufacturer of the Cessna Caravan, and private aircraft manufacturer Otto Aviation.

Natilus currently has more than $6.8 billion in order commitments, and 460+ aircraft in pre-orders, from companies including major airlines and integrators: Ameriflight, Volatus Aerospace, Flexport, Astral, Aurora International, and Dymond. The company is now working on construction of a full-scale Kona technology demonstrator, which will have a wingspan of 85 feet (26 meters).

About ZeroAvia
​ZeroAvia is a leader in zero-emission aviation, focused on hydrogen-electric propulsion as the key to delivering clean aviation. The company is developing two engine classes initially, targeting a 300-mile range in 9–19 seat aircraft by 2025, and up to 700-mile range in 40–80 seat aircraft by 2027. Based in the US and the UK, ZeroAvia has already secured experimental certificates for three prototype aircraft from the CAA and FAA, passed significant flight test milestones, secured a number of key partnerships with major aircraft OEMs, secured $10B in pre-orders from a number of the major global airlines, and is on track for commercial operations in 2025. For more, please visit ZeroAvia.com, follow @ZeroAvia on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

​About Natilus
Natilus was co-founded by Aleksey Matyushev and Anatoly Star in 2016 to expand and democratize the air cargo transport industry by designing and manufacturing a new fleet of blended wing body (BWB) autonomous freight aircraft that will increase volume by 60% and lower costs by 60%, as well as help airline customers reach their sustainability goals. Natilus aircraft use existing ground infrastructure and standard air cargo containers, to produce an innovative turnkey solution for customers.

​The Natilus family of cargo aircraft includes:

Kona — 3.8 ton payload (category) short-haul feeder domestic UAV
Alisio — 60 ton payload medium/long range UAV
Nordes — 100 ton payload long-range UAV

Source: Press Release

Cepton Strengthens Detroit Team with Addition of Former GM and Honda Industry Veteran

Cepton, Inc. (“Cepton” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: CPTN), a Silicon Valley innovator and leader in high-performance lidar solutions, announced today the addition of Luis Gonçalves to its Detroit team as Director of Customer Programs.

In his new role at Cepton, Gonçalves will lead the Company’s Detroit automotive customer programs, enabling volume production ramp through Cepton’ s flagship ADAS lidar program with lead OEM customer as well as future production awards from other automotive customers. He will oversee onsite support to ensure technical success, facilitate engineering change requests and implementation and drive cross-department collaboration to meet project execution goals.

Gonçalves has 14 years of engineering experience in the automotive industry. Before joining Cepton, he spent 9 years at General Motors working as a Senior Lidar Development Engineer, Lidar Performance Engineer for Ultra Cruise, and most recently Engineering Leader of User Experience and Connectivity within GM’s Autonomous Vehicle Technology Program. Prior to GM, Gonçalves was a Quality Engineering Coordinator at Honda North America.

“Cepton is pioneering the mass-market commercialization of lidar, and I am excited to become part of its vision of enabling safe and autonomous transportation for everyone,” said Gonçalves. “In my previous role at GM, I became very familiar with Cepton lidars through extensive benchmarking and testing efforts on real vehicles, in real-world scenarios. I hope to contribute to Cepton’s successful execution of its flagship lidar program through the production validation and volume production ramp phases this year. I also look forward to applying my learnings from the automotive industry to help solidify Cepton’s next series production award.”

“I’m pleased to welcome Luis to our team,” said Mitch Hourtienne, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Cepton. “Luis brings deep experience from his previous roles at GM and Honda supporting the safe deployment of innovative technologies for ADAS and autonomous vehicles. His integral role at GM validating Cepton lidar has helped to bring to market the cutting-edge technology in the reliability-oriented automotive industry.”

“With the addition of Luis to our Detroit team, we continue to expand our presence in the automotive heartland. I’m sure his contribution will help broaden our capabilities to secure and execute additional OEM programs, as we deepen our commitment to helping automakers seamlessly integrate lidar as an essential sensor for safety and autonomy.”

Gonçalves has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University and a M.S. in Automotive Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Michigan.

About Cepton, Inc.

Cepton is a Silicon Valley innovator of lidar-based solutions for automotive (ADAS/AV), smart cities, smart spaces and smart industrial applications. With its patented Micro Motion Technology (MMT®), Cepton aims to take lidar mainstream and achieve a balanced approach to performance, cost and reliability, while enabling scalable and intelligent 3D perception solutions across industries.

Cepton has been awarded the largest known ADAS lidar series production award in the industry to date, based on the number of vehicle models awarded, to support General Motors’ Ultra Cruise program. Cepton is also engaged with all other Top 10 global OEMs.

Founded in 2016 and led by industry veterans with decades of collective experience across a wide range of advanced lidar and imaging technologies, Cepton is focused on the mass market commercialization of high performance, high quality lidar solutions. Cepton is headquartered in San Jose, CA and has a center of excellence facility in Troy, MI to provide local support to automotive customers in the Metro Detroit area. Cepton also has a presence in Germany, Canada, Japan, India and China to serve a fast-growing global customer base. For more information, visit www.cepton.com and follow Cepton on Twitter and LinkedIn

Cepton to Unveil Award-Winning New Lidar and Showcase State-of-the-Art Automotive Integration at CES 2023

Cepton, Inc. (“Cepton”) (Nasdaq: CPTN), a Silicon Valley innovator of high-performance lidar solutions, announced today additional details around its plans for the upcoming CES 2023, held in Las Vegas, NV, from January 5-8, 2023.

Cepton’s booth (No. 5553, LVCC – West Hall) will feature a Chevy Silverado and a Ford F-150 equipped with the company’s latest vehicle integration solutions. Both of Cepton’s near-range and long-range automotive lidars will be seamlessly embedded into multiple locations around the vehicles, including the headlamps, fog lamps, side mirrors, front grille and tailgate.

Booth visitors can expect to see one of the industry’s first full, in-vehicle integrations of lidar technology in automotive lighting systems. This groundbreaking solution features a combination of Cepton’s automotive lidars embedded within a vehicle’s headlamps and fog lamps to simultaneously enable near-range blind spot elimination and long-range obstacle detection. Combined with a fully integrated cleaning system from Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.(“Koito”) (TYO: 7276), the state-of-the-art automotive lidar integration enables a dual-light self-cleaning mechanism to address real-life driving needs.

“Developing cutting-edge lidar technology is one thing, but making it usable for consumer vehicles is another,” said Cepton’s Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Jun Pei. “Integrating lidars into everyday passenger cars is more challenging than it seems, with many factors that need to be taken into consideration, such as performance, sensor data fusion, system maintenance and vehicle design. This year at CES, we are thrilled to showcase the innovative solutions we’ve developed to address these challenges as we continue to build capable, reliable, embeddable and affordable lidar solutions for various assisted and automated driving scenarios.”

During CES, Cepton will also unveil its next-generation automotive lidar, Vista®-X120 Plus. With an unprecedented combination of ultra slim and compact design, top-end performance and real-time adaptive 3D perception, Vista-X120 Plus is designed for both today’s consumer vehicles as well as the next generation – intelligent, electrified and software-defined. Cepton has been recognized by the CES 2023 Innovation Award program in the Vehicle Tech & Advanced Mobility category for this groundbreaking product. Cepton representatives will be available at CES 2023 to share additional details about Vista-X120 Plus, with product demonstrations available upon request.

Cepton’s 3,000 sq ft booth will feature live demonstrations of its full suite of automotive lidar solutions as well as its collaborations with leading automotive partners. Two conference rooms are available to host meetings with Cepton CEO Dr. Pei, other members of the company’s leadership team, and a Koito delegation led by Mr. Takayuki Katsuda, Managing Corporate Officer of Koito. Mr. Katsuda is leading Koito’s automotive technology solutions and previously served as the Chief Engineer at Toyota / Lexus.

“I look forward to joining Cepton in celebration of our collaborative efforts at CES 2023,” said Mr. Katsuda. “Koito and Cepton have collaborated closely in both technology and manufacturing since 2018. Koito is proud to be a continued partner as Cepton expands its presence in the automotive industry to fulfill its vision of enabling safe and autonomous transportation for everyone.”

Dr. Pei adds: “For the past three years, Cepton and Koito have worked closely together to commercialize lidar for mass-market deployment through our joint flagship ADAS lidar program. In addition to being 100% dedicated to achieving every milestone in the execution of this program, we also continuously collaborate with Koito on new innovative solutions, which we are excited to showcase at CES 2023.”

Find Cepton at Booth No. 5553, LVCC – West Hall. Cepton representatives spearheading the company’s initiatives within the automotive and smart infrastructure markets will be available during the entire duration of CES to take product inquiries and discuss the company’s lidar roadmap. To schedule booth tours or private meetings, attendees are encouraged to get connected ahead of the event with the Cepton team for by submitting a meeting request form.

About Cepton

Cepton is a Silicon Valley innovator of lidar-based solutions for automotive (ADAS/AV), smart cities, smart spaces and smart industrial applications. With its patented lidar technology, Cepton aims to take lidar mainstream and achieve a balanced approach to performance, cost and reliability, while enabling scalable and intelligent 3D perception solutions across industries.

Cepton has been awarded a significant ADAS lidar series production award with Koito on the General Motors business. Cepton is also engaged with all other Top 10 global OEMs.

Founded in 2016 and led by industry veterans with decades of collective experience across a wide range of advanced lidar and imaging technologies, Cepton is focused on the mass market commercialization of high performance, high quality lidar solutions. Cepton is headquartered in San Jose, CA and has a center of excellence facility in Troy, MI to provide local support to automotive customers in the Metro Detroit area. Cepton also has a presence in Germany, Canada, Japan, India and China to serve a fast-growing global customer base. For more information, visit www.cepton.com

Drones Deliver Defibrillators – What’s Next? Everdrone Honored as Top Innovator [VIDEO]
Drones Deliver Defibrillators – What’s Next? Everdrone Honored as Top Innovator [VIDEO]

Everdrone Honored as Top Innovator for Third Time, Receives Gold Company Designation

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

For the third time, autonomous drone technology leader Everdrone has made the list of Ny Teknik’s Top 33 Most Promising Tech Companies in Sweden. Everdrone’s First on Scene AED Solution utilizes autonomous drones to deliver defibrillators (AED) to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. The solution currently sees use in Sweden and Denmark, where it has served a total of 340,000 people.

“We are truly honoured to have made it onto the list not once, but three times, alongside giants like Spotify and iZettle”, said Everdrone CEO Mats Sällström. “We also hope that this sort of recognition brings awareness of how drones in general can be used to save lives and provide safety in society.”

Companies that achieve placement on Ny Teknik’s list three times receive the honor of being designated a Gold Company. In order for a company to be in consideration for the list, it needs to have been founded no longer than seven years ago and demonstrate the aptitude for international success through its technological innovations developed inhouse. The UN Sustainable Development Goals has also served as a further assessment criterion in the selection process in recent years.

Drones Deliver Defibrillators – What’s Next?

“For us, AEDs are just the beginning. We are presently widening the scope to deliver other time-sensitive medical supplies such as epinephrine and tourniquets,” added Sällström. “We are also expanding our service portfolio beyond medical delivery and will soon be able to provide live view imagery to support time-critical decision-making in case of fires or traffic accidents.”

Read more about Everdrone:

Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.

ResilienX Announces Phase IIE / III SBIR Contract with NASA
LMT to attempt remote drone piloting across the continent in final Comp4Drones demonstration

Latvian mobile innovator, LMT, will attempt to pilot a drone located in Latvia from a 3500+ kilometers distance during the Comp4Drones final demonstration in Spain on October 19, 2022. This demonstration will be unique in the fact that a mobile network will be used as a communication channel for cross-country drone piloting, while network coverage forecasting and remote route validation will be ensured by AirborneRF.

The purpose of this demonstration is to test remote drone flights in areas where network coverage has not previously been measured on-site, instead relying on fully remote network forecasts. Such demonstrations are an attempt to explore future business possibilities for cellular network-connected drone technologies, as well as for network infrastructure providers, since these drones will become new equipment to use this infrastructure.

“Before the Comp4Drones demonstration in Spain, LMT has done extensive network measurements and compared the actual coverage data with the forecasted, validating the reliability and availability of the network in very-low level airspace (up to 120m). What we see from the findings is that the existing network configuration is sufficient for today’s needs, but the work on network capabilities must be continued as the number of drones and BVLOS (beyond the visual line of sight) flights will increase,” says Gints Jakovels, Innovation Lead at LMT.

The drone will be located in Latvia and piloted from the Rozas airport near Lugo, Spain. During the flight, those present will be able to observe the AirborneRF network forecast and actual network parameters during the flight, as well as follow the flight on the map on the LMT Drone Park platform.

The flight will be conducted during the final demonstration of the Comp4Drones project, which aims to provide a framework of key enabling technologies for safe and autonomous drones. The project brings together a consortium of 51 partners from 8 countries.

LMT has previously successfully demonstrated drone flights BVLOS on the mobile network. For the first time in the region, such a demonstration was conducted in 2019 during the 5G Techritory forum in Riga, when a drone located 30 kilometres away in Ādaži was piloted remotely and switched from one base station to another en route.

About LMT

LMT is a mobile telecommunications operator and market leader in Latvia, currently amongst the most efficient mobile data networks in the world. As a market leader, LMT brings its expertise to successful collaborations with international organizations, governmental, academic, and start-up ecosystem partners. LMT believes the future to be mobile-only and builds pioneering solutions based on cutting-edge wireless technology.

The World Economic Forum: Swoop Aero joins the invitation-only Global Innovators community

Swoop Aero joins the World Economic Forum as a ‘Global Innovator’. The Forum’s highly selective community of Global Innovators helps define and shape the global agenda on future innovations ranging from the fourth industrial revolution to digital care. In starting this new role, Swoop Aero will continue to shape the future of innovation, spearheading the creation of a new layer of infrastructure making access to the skies seamless.

“We are delighted to join the ‘Global Innovators’ community at the Forum, and to work alongside a group of like-minded, impact-driven organisations. As a Global Innovator, Swoop Aero will continue to pioneer the next giant leap in how essential supplies and services are delivered, and build a new infrastructure layer for society”, said Eric Peck, CEO of Swoop Aero.

The Global Innovators community is an invitation-only group of the world’s most promising start-ups and scale-ups at the forefront of technological and business model innovation. Swoop Aero’s unique global experience aligns with the community’s core mission.

Swoop Aero’s path from being the world’s first company in the world to deliver a vaccine by commercial drone to obtaining BVLOS approvals to fly in 14 countries is no small feat. Since 2017, their integrated drone platform has been scaled globally, with operations now spanning countries including UK, Malawi, DR Congo, Mozambique, Australia and New Zealand. Swoop Aero delivers a range of services in these countries – from medical deliveries and e-commerce, to emergency/ disaster management and wildlife conservation.

“We are pleased to have Swoop Aero join the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators community. Swoop Aero will work alongside other innovators and industry leaders to spur the advancement and acceleration of drone technology for the benefit of the global community. Swoop Aero will also contribute to the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Mobility on initiatives such as Medicines from the Sky and Aerospace and Drones, and also engage globally as part of the Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Network,” said Verena Kuhn, Head of the Global Innovators Community, World Economic Forum.

The regional training center (The RTC) and Reville Peak Ranch have partnered to provide training to local state, and federal government agencies
The regional training center (The RTC) and Reville Peak Ranch have partnered to provide training to local state, and federal government agencies

The RTC (formally the Los Angeles County Regional Training Center), America’s leading UAS innovator and California’s largest certified UAS trainer, is pleased to announce a partnership with the Reveille Peak Ranch and UAS proving grounds in Burnet Texas, to create the premier robotics and governmental training venue in the United States.

“This may be the perfect marriage. To aggregate the infinite training possibilities of Reveille Peak Ranch, with the curriculum and instruction of the RTC into one is an absolute game-changer in government training. This will make us all even better.” Kris Allshouse, Executive Director, the RTC.

“Reveille ranch gives us the ability to integrate every aspect of tactical operations into our specialized training programs. Having a beautiful new classroom and offices near Austin allows us to reach more clients with our entire training catalog. I’m just thrilled.” Chris Bouse, Chairman of the Board.

Reveille Peak Ranch enjoys the designation by NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, as the only facility in North America to support unmanned aerial, small ground tactical and underwater NIST robotic test methods, including embedded NIST storable scenario test methods. “Now with the
relocation of RTC‘s corporate headquarters to Reveille Peak, we are honored to support their endeavors to offer world-class robotics training to public safety, DoD, and the private sector here at Reveille Peak.”

Vol Montgomery CEO of Reveille Peak Ranch.

About Reveille Peak Ranch

Reveille Peak Ranch is a world-class destination balancing its heritage as a 100+ year working cattle ranch with outdoor adventure enthusiasts and public safety and DoD personnel.

For more information on outdoor adventure please go to www.rprtexas.com

www.thertc.org www.rprtexas.com

For more information about our public safety and military support please email [email protected] or visit our soon to be launched Reveille Proving Ground’s website www.reveillepg.com

About the RTC

The Regional Training Center (www.thertc.org/) is an ideologically driven non-profit that was expressly created to enable public safety agencies to be the absolute best in the world at a cost true to taxpayers. We are mission-centered and apply intelligent innovation and flexibility to bring consultation and course presentation that is precisely focused with measurable outcomes. All our training is built upon our proprietary 85% Rule© of course design and classroom facilitation with material deeply embedded in students by using our RRAC Positive Coaching Model©. Each instructor is vetted and brings the experience of having been sought by public and private sector entities because of their training prowess. RTC flight training courses are on the Khepra GSA Contractor Catalog. For more information on The RTC, please visit www.thertc.org/gsa

Federal agencies can access RTC courses through the U.S. General Services Administration
(GSA) Federal Supply Schedule under Contract Number 47QTCA1800KZ. The RTC’s courses are
available in Special Item Numbers 611512 (flight training) through Khepra Inc.

LACRTC Training Now Available on GSA Through Khepra Inc - sUAS News - The Business of Drones
LACRTC Training Now Available on GSA Through Khepra Inc – sUAS News – The Business of Drones

LACRTC, America’s leading Unmanned Aircraft Systems training innovator and largest certified California public safety trainer, is pleased to announce that they have partnered with Khepra Inc. to present their training courses through the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule under Contract Number 47QTCA1800KZ. LACRTC courses will now be available in Special Item Numbers 611512 (flight training).

“We were very excited to offer our proprietary training methods and favorable pricing to the federal government through our partnership with Khepra and their GSA contract,” says LACRTC’s Executive Director, Kris Allshouse. “This partnership will improve our ability to service new, and existing, Federal clients with effective, outcome-based training.”

LACRTC Board Chair, Chris Bouse added, “We now have the opportunity to better focus on our federal clients, particularly in the UAS sector. Our curriculum design staff are among the most proven in the industry, so it is terrific to see these courses broadly shared to enhance our safety across the United States and beyond.”

LACRTC flight training courses can be found on the Khepra GSA Contractor Catalog. For more information on LACRTC, please visit www.lacrtc.org/gsa

About LACRTC
LACRTC (www.lacrtc.org) is an ideologically driven non-profit that was expressly created to enable public safety agencies to be the absolute best in the world at a cost true to taxpayers. We are mission-centered and apply intelligent innovation and flexibility to bring consultation and course presentation that is precisely focused with measurable outcomes. All our training is built upon our proprietary 85% Rule© of course design and classroom facilitation with material deeply embedded in students by using our RRAC Positive Coaching Model©. Each instructor is vetted and brings the experience of having been sought by public and private sector entities because of their training prowess.

About KHEPRA
Khepra® (www.khepra.com) provides end-to-end distribution solutions for emerging & highly innovative safety and anti-disaster technologies. Additionally, we provide specialized technology consultancy, project management, digital strategy design, and comprehensive solutions to facilitate and maintain the integration of this technology into your organization. Along with our partner community, we support clients worldwide. We help manufacturers to control their brand and expand their business across new partner channels and new markets. Partnership goals are met through our deeply embedded network within federal, state, local government agencies, and private organizations across the United States, European Union, and the Middle East. Khepra can help import and export products to and from anywhere with expertise in assembly, warehousing, freight forwarding, and customs requirements and regulations. For more information, call 805.914.5800.

r/drones - Drone Speak vol. 2
Cepton, Inc. Announces Chief Financial Officer Transition

Cepton, Inc. (“Cepton”) (Nasdaq: CPTN), a Silicon Valley innovator and leader in high-performance MMT® lidar solutions, today announced the appointment of Hull Xu, the Company’s Vice President of Finance and Strategy, to the position of Chief Financial Officer, effective today. Mr. Xu will succeed Dr. Winston Fu, Ph.D., who will remain with the Company as an advisor on strategic projects. Dr. Fu will also remain on the board of directors and become Vice Chairman.

Mr. Xu is a seasoned investment banker and electrical engineer by training. He has advised many public and private technology companies on capital markets and strategic transactions during his 13-year tenure at the Royal Bank of Canada and at Barclays Investment Bank. As Vice President of Finance and Strategy at Cepton, Mr. Xu led the merger transaction between Cepton Technologies, Inc. and Growth Capital Acquisition Corp, currently known as Cepton, Inc. Mr. Xu holds an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Jun Pei, Cepton’s Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, said: “Hull has demonstrated tremendous leadership and experience in finance and strategic matters since he joined Cepton. We look forward to Hull’s continued contribution as he takes on the expanded role of CFO. We also thank Winston for his many contributions and look forward to continuing our work together on strategic projects. We will benefit from Winston’s guidance and experience as a member of Cepton’s board.”

Hull Xu said: “I am grateful for the opportunity to lead the finance and accounting organizations of Cepton and thrilled to help drive Cepton’s growth strategy. Cepton has the largest series production award in the lidar industry to date, and I am excited be part of Cepton’s journey that will shape the entire lidar industry.”

Dr. Winston Fu said: “Hull is an example of the great team members that Dr. Pei has attracted to Cepton. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with Dr. Pei, Mr. Xu and the exemplary team since the Series A financing in 2016, and I’m very pleased to continue my commitment to help Cepton extend our leadership position in lidar and enable safe and autonomous transportation for everyone.”

About Cepton, Inc.

Cepton is a Silicon Valley innovator of lidar-based solutions for automotive (ADAS/AV), smart cities, smart spaces and smart industrial applications. With its patented Micro Motion Technology (MMT®), Cepton aims to take lidar mainstream and achieve a balanced approach to performance, cost and reliability, while enabling scalable and intelligent 3D perception solutions across industries.

Cepton has been awarded the largest known ADAS lidar series production award in the industry to date, based on the number of vehicle models awarded, to support General Motors’ Ultra Cruise program. Cepton is also engaged with all other Top 10 global OEMs.

Founded in 2016 and led by industry veterans with decades of collective experience across a wide range of advanced lidar and imaging technologies, Cepton is focused on the mass market commercialization of high performance, high quality lidar solutions. Cepton is headquartered in San Jose, CA and has a center of excellence facility in Troy, MI to provide local support to the OEM and Tier 1-studded Metro Detroit area. Cepton also has a presence in Germany, Canada, Japan, India and China to serve a fast-growing global customer base. For more information, visit www.cepton.com and follow Cepton on Twitter and LinkedIn. Information on or that can be accessed through our website, our Twitter account, our LinkedIn account, or that is contained in any website to which a hyperlink is provided herein is not part of this press release.

Exodigo digs up $29 Million in seed funding to make underground mapping nonintrusive - sUAS News - The Business of Drones
Exodigo digs up $29 Million in seed funding to make underground mapping nonintrusive – sUAS News – The Business of Drones

 Exodigo, a technology innovator combining the power of proprietary advances in 3D imaging, sensors and artificial intelligence (AI), today announced the commercial availability of its groundbreaking nonintrusive subterranean mapping platform for construction, mining and utility companies in the United States and Israel. The company also announced raising $29M in seed funding led by Zeev Ventures and 10D Ventures, with participation from SquarePeg Capital and JIBE Ventures. Strategic industry leaders Tidhar Construction, Israel Canada and WXG Ltd. also joined the round.

“Traditional underground discovery techniques are grossly outdated and incredibly inaccurate. Exodigo is the future of underground mapping. Led by a team with unequaled experience, Exodigo will solve costly, and at times devastatingly catastrophic, problems that have plagued developers and engineers for decades,” said Gil Geva, CEO of Tidhar Construction.

Every year, Exodigo estimates that more than $100B is spent on unnecessary excavation and drilling to discover what lies underground in an attempt to avoid hitting gas pipelines, water sources, oil, and other potential hazards hidden beneath the surface. The constant use of heavy equipment creates avoidable greenhouse gas emissions, wastes billions of dollars per year, damages our planet, and causes spills and explosions that can cost lives. As an example, the Common Ground Alliance estimates $30B in societal costs resulting from damages to critical U.S. underground infrastructure each year. Carried by drones or small carts, the Exodigo sensor system effectively provides 3D subsurface imaging that eliminates the need for exploratory excavation and powers smart drilling and sustainable operations by derisking the discovery process across industries. Watch the video here.

“Offering next-generation noninvasive subsurface imaging, Exodigo delivers precise and complete data faster than other solutions,” noted Asaf Touchmair, owner and chairman of the board, Israel Canada, the leading development group in Israel. “Exodigo can help businesses avoid unexpected consequences like spills and explosions that cost millions of dollars each year and lost time accidents.” 

Exodigo can rapidly create a digital geolocated, 3D map of buried assets – from man-made pipes and cables to soil layers, rocks, minerals, and even groundwater across any terrain. In its first live demonstration, Exodigo proved its ability to safely and accurately identify underground utilities, abandoned lines, and ground layers in a remote, unmapped area. Watch the video for an inside look at feedback from strategic partners and utilities in Israel about how this revolution in underground mapping can inform better business decisions.

“It is time to finally break ground on a safer, more sustainable and infinitely more precise method for subterranean discovery. Our powerful combination of advanced sensor technologies and proprietary AI platform provides users with a safe, fast way to get a complete view of what lies beneath the surface with unprecedented precision,” added Jeremy Suard, co-founder and CEO of Exodigo. “Ending the era of blind digs, Exodigo gives companies an accurate, easy-to-understand map of what lies beneath the surface – empowering their teams to save time, money, and lives. Think of it like combining the scanning power of an MRI, CT scan and ultrasound all into one image of what is beneath the ground.”

Exodigo will commence pilot projects in California, Florida and Texas in the weeks ahead. The company plans to use the funding to accelerate its expansion, with a focus on building a California-based team to support the commercial rollout in the United States. Yahal Zilka of 10D and Oren Zeev of Zeev Ventures have joined the Board of Directors to provide continued support and speed Exodigo’s market penetration by making critical connections throughout their extensive industry networks.

Additional Investor Commentary:

–  “The Exodigo team has a huge potential and the right passion and background to solve the complicated problem ahead of them. They are building a great company with elite personnel, and that is why I chose to co-lead their seed investment,” said Oren Zeev, founding partner, Zeev Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm.
–  “Upon meeting the exceptional Exodigo team, we quickly realized and understood their unique domain expertise that to the best of our knowledge is non-existent anywhere in the world. The company is positioned to create a totally new category with its nonintrusive subsurface mapping,” said Yahal Zilka, managing partner at 10D. “This was clearly a competitive deal, and we are privileged to have been chosen alongside Zeev Ventures as their investment partner.”
–  “Opening up visibility to what’s underground is a new superpower that will help organizations save billions, while also significantly reducing environmental damage. The combination of the two makes Exodigo a fascinating company, and I’m so excited to support such a powerful team on this kind of journey,” added Philippe Schwartz, managing partner at SquarePeg.

About Exodigo
Creating a new gold standard for nonintrusive discovery, Exodigo gives construction, mining and utility companies a better way to know exactly what is underground. Its subsurface mapping solution combines advanced sensors, 3D imaging and AI technologies to give a clear picture of the underground so companies can make more informed decisions before they start design, construction or resource excavation. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Exodigo is led by a team with unparalleled experience in AI and signal processing from the elite Israeli intelligence units and backed by top industry partners. Learn more at www.exodigo.com.