Founded in 2016, the Munich-based startup Blickfeld builds LiDAR sensors, for example, for autonomous driving or IoT applications. Seed funding has already generated a €10 million investment. What's innovative about the technology and why it's currently generating such a buzz? We spoke with co-founder Dr. Florian Petit.
The Munich-based startup Blickfeld develops innovative LiDAR sensors. The founders have already filed 18 patents for their developments and have received numerous awards, including the Autonomous Traffic & Logistics Innovation Award 2018. The startup has also secured a Secure seed financing, which increased from $4.3 million to $10 million at the end of August became.
LiDAR stands for 'Light Detection and Ranging' and is a method for optical distance and speed measurement. The system isn't exactly new. LiDAR was actually invented in the 1960s, shortly after the introduction of lasers. Interestingly, the founder explains that astronauts used it to map the surface of the moon during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971.
However, especially in recent years, many experts have recognized that this technology is also ideally suited for self-driving cars and Industry 4.0. The young company recognized this early on. Florian Petit says:
"Now it's about making this complex technology robust, small, and cost-effective so that it's suitable for the mass market. The challenge isn't to build one, ten, or 100 LiDARs, but 100,000, one million, and ten million—that's the goal of Blickfeld."
LiDAR sensors give robots and autonomous vehicles eyes
The systems are now being used in autonomous vehicles, IoT applications, and robots. LiDARs are to intelligent machines what eyes are to us humans. However, existing LiDAR sensors are too complex in design and not robust enough. This leads to high prices and frequent failures, explains Florian Petit. He elaborates:
"We have significantly simplified the LiDAR design and reinvented a core component. Our innovation is based on a micromirror manufactured using semiconductor technology. This is manufactured entirely in silicon on wafers, making it scalable and allowing us to build a very small and powerful 'solid-state' LiDAR."
The serial entrepreneurs are in good spirits
Blickfeld was founded in 2016 by Mathias Müller (electrical engineer and physicist, 37), Rolf Wojtech (software engineer, 37), and Florian Petit (robotics engineer, 35). The three founders have all been friends for many years. Mathias and Rolf had already jointly developed a now very successful startup with 50 employees and breakeven in the field of optical precision measurement technology for wind turbines (read here our success story about fos4XTwo years ago, the founding trio joined forces to establish Blickfeld.
The three Munich-based developers are in good spirits. Blickfeld has grown to around 30 employees and now boasts several paying customers from the automotive and IoT industries who are testing the Blickfeld prototypes and developing them toward series production.
Will Blickfeld become a unicorn?
The young company builds its success on three factors, among others: idea, team, and timing. We asked how a good idea, the right timing, and a strong team could turn it into a Munich-based unicorn. Robotics expert Florian is optimistic. The target market is very large, and the technology, according to the founder, is unique. He explains:
"Especially in the field of autonomous driving, a real hype has erupted around LiDAR. But even in IoT applications that may not be so obvious at first, LiDAR has countless use cases, for example in the smart city sector, for security issues, or for maintaining industrial plants."
In the discussion about robotics or IoT The question of the right location for a startup always arises. Is a tech startup in this field better located in the US, or does Munich seem like a good place for it? The abundance of skilled workers is certainly a factor in Munich's favor. Blickfeld benefits particularly from the well-trained technicians at TUM. The founders are also impressed by the strong network and numerous good OEM contacts in the automotive sector. Florian also says:
"Some of the world's best roboticists and automotive companies come from Munich, Germany, and Europe. Of course, many people talk about Silicon Valley, where we also worked for some time. But even from there, we receive applications and many inquiries; many people are drawn back here. We think Munich is the perfect location for our field."
