| Austin American-Statesman
Austin startup Uhnder, which makes digital radar technology, has raised $45 million to speed up production of its products and grow its team, the company said Tuesday.
The latest funding round was led by Sensata Technologies, a Massachusetts-based technology company that makes electronic components for a variety of industries. Sensata said it plans to use Uhnder’s digital imaging radar chip in applications for the mining, agriculture, aerospace and construction sectors.
Uhnder was founded in 2015 in Austin, and has quietly raised a combined $145 million over that time. Most of its employees work in Austin, although the company also has operations in India and China. Company executives declined to give a specific headcount, other that to say it was more than 100.
Uhnder has developed what is sometimes dubbed radar-on-a-chip technology. The company makes digital imaging radar chips and sensors that are able to detect and track objects and predict actions. Uhnder said its aim is to speed up the transition from analog radar to digital radar technology.
The chips and sensors can be used as part of autonomous technology systems, such as sensor systems in vehicles.
“We want to accelerate the automation of cars and bringing in the time when robo-taxis are fully autonomous. All those require much better perception and that is the heart of what we contribute,” CEO and founder Manju Hegde said.
Steven Beringhause, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Sensata Technologies, said: “Our perception systems will be deployed globally across a range of applications. It’s exciting to support the evolution to higher performance digital radar, enabling our customers to deliver increasing levels of safety in their end applications.”
Max Liberman, vice president of chips for Uhnder, said the company’s digital radar technology has vast potential.
“When cell phones were first available, just like analog radars right now, the cell phones back then were known as a bag phone in a big bag that you throw in your car,” Liberman said. “And what we’re enabling you to take that bag of a cell phone, and we’re going to get it to the smartphone of today.”
Uhnder said it makes the only digital radar product on the market, and that it builds everything from the chip through the full sensor and software.
“We have the knowledge down to the signal level, and then it’s the processing and ultimately the software, so ultimately the whole stack,” Liberman said. “We’re providing companies with the ability to see things they can’t see on their radars today.”
Hegde said this type of technology means the radar is better able to detect obstacles than analog radar. Vehicles using the chip will have increased capabilities for detection and resolution, which could lead to increased safety, he said.
The company is also looking at other potential markets, such as material handling, supply chain and delivery.
“Humans can’t compete with electronics in doing tedious painstaking jobs like driving and moving stuff from one point to another,” Hegde said.
