Lidar Supplier Quanergy Eyes IPO

Quanergy Systems Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer of lidar sensors, is evaluating a potential public stock offering next year, Bloomberg News reports.

Several banks currently are bidding to be Quanergy’s IPO consultants, according to the news agency, which didn’t cite its sources. Quanergy declined to comment.

Formed in 2012, Quanergy has raised more than $150 million in recent years. Its roster of investors includes Daimler, Delphi Automotive, Samsung Electronics and Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who previously invested in Alibaba and Facebook before their IPOs.

In February, CEO Louay Eldada said Quanergy was valued at about $1.5 billion in its 2016 private funding round. If the company goes public, Bloomberg says it would be the first autonomous driving technology firm to do so.

Quanergy claims its solid-state lidar technology is the industry leader in price, performance, reliability, size, weight and power consumption. The company aims to reduce costs from about $4,000 per sensor today to less than $100 by early next decade.