Ambarella, Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Ohio-based Oculii Corporation. The acquisition expands Ambarella’s addressable market into radar perception and fusion with its existing edge AI CV perception SoCs for automotive and other IoT endpoint applications, including mobile robotics and security. Fusion is one of the key phrases of the definitive agreement. According to the companies, Ambarella’s camera technology and Oculii’s radar software stack will create a capable and scalable perception solution for automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.
Efficient Radar Perception
As described by Oculii, the company’s adaptive AI software algorithms utilize current production radar chips to achieve higher resolution, greater accuracy, and a range of up to 400 meters with a wide field of view. By using chips already in production, Oculii does not rely on high-resolution radar chips. According to the company, this means cost and power consumption concerns are minimized. Oculii’s software can be deployed on Ambarella’s existing CVflow SoCs, alongside leading radar RF solutions to increase the safety and reliability of ADAS applications.
“The Oculii team brings great synergies with Ambarella’s algorithm-first approach and our ongoing initiatives to intelligently fuse sensor data in edge AI systems,” explained Fermi Wang, president and CEO of Ambarella. “We expect Oculii’s unique adaptive radar perception algorithms, combined with Ambarella’s vision and AI processing, to unlock greater levels of perception accuracy than previously attainable with discrete camera and radar solutions.”
“Joining Ambarella will enable Oculii to expand the development of our radar technology while leveraging our synergies as part of this leading vision and AI processor company,” added Steven Hong, CEO of Oculii.
Terms & Conditions
The boards of directors at both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and expected to close during Ambarella’s Q4 FY2022 (ending January 31st, 2022). Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati served as legal advisor to Ambarella, and Goodwin Procter served as legal advisor to Oculii. Greenhill & Co. served as financial advisor to Ambarella.
“We look forward to working with our customers and silicon partners to deliver complete AI perception solutions, based on the combined strengths of our innovative engineering teams and advanced radar and computer vision technologies,” Hong said.
