This market research report was originally published at Woodside Capital Partners’ website. It is reprinted here with the permission of Woodside Capital Partners.
Palo Alto – July 12, 2021 – Woodside Capital Partners is proud to share our Corporate Finance Newsletter: Vision Technology, authored by our own Founder and Managing Partner, Rudy Burger.
This edition of the Vision Technology newsletter covers observed trends in industry direction, notable events in the industry, market performance, and key investments and M&A transactions.
Thoughts and Observations
- According to a recent report published by published by MarketsandMarkets , the AI in Computer Vision Market is estimated to be valued at USD $15.9 billion in 2021 and reach USD $51.3 billion by 2026 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 26.3% during this period. Computer vision software is expected to experience the highest growth within the enabling technologies sector. See here for a full market map of the embedded vision and visual AI market.
- Vision Technology in the retail sector continued to grow rapidly in 1H 2021. Trigo raised $10M for its CV based checkout systems; Trax raised a whopping $640M for its CV based inventory management; Standard Cognition raised $150M from Softbank and others for its autonomous checkout solution. Meanwhile, Walmart acquired Zeekit to bring a virtual try on fitting room to its customers. Last year Bossa Nova Robotics raised an estimated $34.5 million of Series B1 venture funding putting the company’s pre money valuation at $179 million. Overall, CV is well positioned to help brick and mortar retailers address several problems including long checkout lines, out of stock inventory, and theft.
- Vision Technology in the mobility sector continued to attract significant investment although consolidation has started. In the LiDAR sector six LiDAR companies have managed to go public via SPACs (Velodyne, Ouster, Luminar, Aeva, Innoviz, Aeye). These public LiDAR companies are
trading at EV/Forward Revenue multiples anywhere from 18x (Velodyne) to 234x (Luminar). The ever slipping schedule for fully autonomous cars, coupled with the emergence of these six well funded public LiDAR companies, is forcing the other 70+ LiDAR companies that have been funded over the last few years to look for market opportunities outside of automotive or face extinction. For the time being, Tesla continues to bet on camera technology being able to replace both LiDAR and Radar in its vehicles. My rule is to never bet that mass produced incumbent technologies (CMOS cameras in this case) will be unable to evolve to meet new challenges and new market opportunities. - The SPAC market went from red hot to ice cold almost overnight during 1H 2021. In March of this year a total of 116 SPACs listed. In April the number dropped to 18. SPAC activity ballooned in 2020 and the beginning of 2021 as the Federal Reserve’s easy money policies pumped liquidity into the market. Now, concerns over inflation and increased regulatory scrutiny has dramatically slowed the market for new SPAC listings. Despite this, there are still over 300 SPACs in the market looking for targets.
- We continue to be amazed by the incredible application diversity of vision technology. Vision Tech funding in 1H 2021 include companies focused on mobility, retail, health & safety, robotics, and AR/VR. It has truly become a horizontal pervasive technology. To quote Arthur C. Clarke “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” (1973).
In The News
- Tesla is replacing Radar with Computer Vision in FSD Beta V9.0
- Postal Service turns to computer vision AI, edge computing to improve delivery
- Computer vision inches toward ‘common sense’ with Facebook’s latest research
- Amazon launches computer vision service to detect defects in manufactured products
- Trigo bags $10M for computer vision based checkout tech to rival Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’
- Orca AI, which puts computer vision onto cargo ships, raises $13M Series A funding
- Facebook AI’s Latest Computer Vision Model SEER Teaches Itself To Classify A Billion Images Accurately With No Human Annotations
- How Computer Vision Technology Will Redefine the Shopping Experience
- Israel’s Elbit Systems eyes growth from night vision tech
- Theator raises $15.5 million to analyze surgical footage with computer vision
- Trax Raises $640M for its Computer Vision based Grocery Inventory Management
- Intenseye raises $4M to boost workplace safety through computer vision
- Top 10 Computer Vision Startups Shaping the Future of Healthcare
- Augmented Reality & Computer Vision Company StradVision to Supply its Technology to a Leading German OEM and Tier 1 Supplier
- Intel RealSense increases flexibility for computer vision developers with SDK upgrade
- Computer Vision Solutions in 2021: Background Removal and Real Time Video Blur
- Camera processor Chip Brings Computer Vision Closer to Natural Perception
- Cox Automotive acquires computer vision company Fyusion
- Blue Hill Brings Computer Vision to Its Coffee Robot to Recreate the Barista Experience
- Veo raises $25M for AI based cameras that record and analyze football and other team sports
- Standard Raises $150M from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Others to Usher in the Computer Vision Revolution
The remainder of Woodside Capital Partner’s report, covering the following topics:
- Vision Technology Stock Market Performance
- Unicorn Watchlist
- Vision Sector Snapshot
- Computer Vision Investment Trends
- Vision Tech Key Investments
- Vision Tech Key Acquisitions
- Vision Tech Key IPO / SPAC Transactions
can be found in the PDF linked to from this page.
About the Author
Rudy Burger, Managing Partner and Managing Director, is a leading expert on M&A transactions within the technology sector. As the founder of Woodside Capital, he focuses on computer vision and imaging companies within the autotech, security, retail, consumer electronics, and digital health sectors. Prior to Woodside Capital Partners, Rudy was the founding CEO of the MIT Media Lab Europe, a joint venture between MIT and the Irish government. Rudy has founded five imaging and computer vision companies during his career and currently serves on a number of public and private boards. Rudy holds degrees from Yale (BSc and MSc in EE) and Cambridge (PhD in Digital Imaging).
About Woodside Capital Partners
Woodside Capital Partners is the leading corporate finance advisory firm for tech companies in M&A and financings in the $30M-$500M segment. The firm has worked with the best entrepreneurs and investors since 2001, providing ultra-personalized service to select clients. Our team has global vision and reach, and has completed hundreds of successful engagements. We have deep industry knowledge and extensive domain experience in the following sectors: Autonomous Vehicles and ADAS, Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud/Enterprise Software, Cybersecurity, Digital Entertainment & Lifestyle, Health Tech, Internet of Things, Marketing Technology, Networking / Infrastructure, and Robotics. Woodside Capital Partners is a specialist in cross-border transactions, with extensive relationships among venture capitalists, private equity investors, and corporate executives from global 1000 companies.
