The leader in millimeter-wave radar chips has received investment from a national industrial fund!

On July 2, Gatland Microelectronics Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Gatland") completed a round D financing of hundreds of millions of RMB.

This round of financing was participated by National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund II Co., Ltd., Shanghai Guoxin Venture Capital Co., Ltd., and Fujian Innovation Investment, with follow-up investments from old shareholders SDIC and Walden International Investment.

A leader in millimeter-wave radar chip development and design

Since its establishment in 2014, Caltland has become a leader in the development and design of millimeter-wave radar chips. It has the most comprehensive millimeter-wave radar chip product portfolio in the industry and has widely penetrated into the fields of automotive assisted driving and autonomous driving, such as corner radar, front radar, imaging radar, cabin radar, door radar, etc.

At the same time, it also shines in the industrial and consumer fields, covering smart homes, elderly care, security monitoring, smart transportation, security imaging, etc., truly achieving comprehensive "blossoming" in the two major fields of automobiles and industrial consumption.

In 2017, Calterah successfully mass-produced the world's first automotive-grade CMOS process 77/79 GHz millimeter-wave radar RF front-end chip;

Two years later (2019), Calterah once again led the trend by launching a SoC chip with an integrated radar signal processing baseband accelerator, bringing new "rules of the game" to the development and realization of high-performance, easy-to-develop, and miniaturized millimeter-wave radar sensors .

In addition, Calterah has also mass-produced the world's first 77 GHz and 60 GHz millimeter-wave radar packaged integrated antenna on chip (Antenna-in-Package, AiP) SoC chips, accelerating the popularization of millimeter-wave radar in the automotive and industrial consumer markets.

The person who led Gatland to achieve a breakthrough in product research and development from 0 to 1 was Chen Jiashu.

Chen Jiashu graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied under Professor Ali Niknejad, a leading figure in the field of wireless integrated circuits. He is recognized by the industry as one of the pioneers of CMOS millimeter-wave integrated circuit design.

In 2007, Chen Jiashu stood out from the fierce global Fulbright Science and Technology Award competition and won a prize of 2 million US dollars. He also became the only winner from China among the 27 winners worldwide that year.

In addition, he has been awarded many international honors and awards, including the IEEE Doctoral Achievement Award.

To date, Caltland, as a global leader in millimeter-wave radar chips, has widely served more than 20 well-known automobile manufacturers including BYD, Wenjie, Chery, SAIC, Zeekr, NIO, Changan, and Leapmotor, and has successfully installed them in more than 170 domestic and foreign models, with cumulative shipments exceeding 8.5 million units, accounting for approximately 20% of the domestic market share.

Millimeter-wave radar remains popular

In ten years, Gatland has completed eight rounds of financing.

In addition to the above-mentioned companies, first-tier VC\PEs such as Fosun Capital, China Merchants Capital, Gopher Asset Management, Yinggang Capital, Juntong Capital, China Merchants Investment, Everest Ventures, Bocom International, and Huaxing New Economy Fund also came, showing great interest and high attention to this.

In recent years, the field of millimeter-wave radar technology has been extremely hot, attracting widespread attention and investment.

This trend is due to the wide application potential and technological advantages of millimeter-wave radar in multiple industries.

It not only plays a core sensing role in the field of autonomous vehicles, improving driving safety and intelligence, but also plays an important role in diversified scenarios such as smart cities, aerospace, military defense and consumer electronics.

Millimeter-wave radar, with its high resolution, strong penetration and precise ranging capabilities, has become a key factor in promoting the upgrading of industries such as intelligent transportation, security monitoring, health management and industrial automation .

In January this year, Ousi Micro, which focuses on the design of automotive millimeter-wave radar SoC and automotive-grade ultra-wideband (UWB) chips, completed a Pre-A round of financing of nearly 100 million yuan. This round of financing was led by well-known industrial investors, followed by Hefei Hi-Tech Investment and Broadcom Integrated.

In the same month, MilliSense Technology, a developer of 4D high-resolution millimeter-wave radar, completed a Pre-A round of financing of tens of millions of yuan.

In February, Fosun's core company in the smart travel industry, Fosun Smart Travel, received hundreds of millions of yuan in Pre-A round of financing. This round of financing was led by Zhejiang Merchants Venture Capital, and participated by New Aviation City Fund, Zhongshan Venture Capital, Pinghu Xinyi Venture Capital, Kuashanwenhai Industrial Investment, Zhejiang Stock Group Kunxin Investment and New Bridge Capital.

Fu Rui Zhixing focuses on the independent research and development and implementation of intelligent driving technologies, including high-computing hardware platforms, key perception sensors such as 4D millimeter-wave radar and fusion perception technology.

Among these actively participating investment institutions, it is not difficult to find that many investment forces with state-owned backgrounds frequently appear, which reflects the high attention and active support of state capital for the development of millimeter wave radar, a high-tech field.

Last words

The continuous evolution and innovation of technology, especially the emergence of 4D imaging radar technology, as well as the trend of system integration and miniaturization design, are jointly driving the expansion of the boundaries of the millimeter-wave radar market, heralding a more prosperous future for the industry.

It is predicted that by 2028, the number of pre-installed automotive millimeter-wave radars in China will exceed 60 million, and the average annual compound growth rate will remain above 20%, demonstrating the strong growth momentum and broad development space in this field.