The verified answer
As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies Luminar Technologies: $1.1B raised. 3 sources back the record.
Funding
$1.1B
Employees
254
Overview
Luminar Technologies (NASDAQ: LAZR) is an automotive lidar company developing long-range lidar sensors for autonomous driving. Founded by Austin Russell at age 17. Products include the Iris lidar sensor for Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and other OEMs. HQ in Orlando, FL with R&D in Palo Alto.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- None on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Valuation of record
DEPLOY VERIFIEDPriced roundConvertible Notes post-money
Key facts
Public
Founded
Key products
Verified patents
Verified customers
Fundingsee investors →
Founder & CEO
Product
OEM customers
Data & sources
Press releases
2
Web sources
1
3 sources backing this record.View all →
Partnerships
Every company Luminar Technologies has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1ECARX1× joint3 total
Most recent
- ECARX x Luminar2024-01-01with ECARXjust announced
Luminar Technologies on the deployment map
View the global mapLuminar Technologies has no verified deployments on the DEPLOY registry yet. Explore the deployment map by place and type.
No verified deployments for Luminar Technologies on the DEPLOY record yet. Track Luminar Technologies to know the moment the first one is verified.
Relationships
Current leadership (4)
- Austin Russell Founder & CEOsecondary-verified
- Jason M. Eichenholz executiveSEC-verified
- Joseph G. LaChapelle executiveSEC-verified
- Alex Michael Sincore executiveSEC-verified
Founders (1)
- Austin Russellsolefounded 2012-01-01
Media (1)
Company-anchored media. Official assets the company has published at the company level, distinct from model-anchored media that lives on individual product pages.
Luminar Technologies' reveal of its Halo LiDAR, the successor to its Iris sensor targeting the automotive market. The form-factor (~1 inch thin), weight (~1 kg), power (~10 W), and performance comparisons with other LiDAR systems are Luminar's stated specifications.
Safety record
No incidents on record for Luminar Technologies.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Recent coverage
Luminar Technologies in third-party press
Supplies to (6)
Sensors
- Pony AILuminar Iris long-range LiDAR -- selected for Pony.ai mass-production-grade autonomous driving system (2021 announcement)supplies
- TeslaLuminar lidar units (Tesla is Luminar's largest lidar customer - validation/development fleet)supplies
- Embark Autonomous Truckby Embark TrucksLuminar long-range automotive-grade lidar (equips Embark truck fleet for commercial SaaS deployment; supports 14,200 non-binding truck reservations for 2024 commercial rollout; announced November 2021)suppliesended
- Plus SuperDrive Autonomous Truckby PlusLuminar mid-to-long range lidar (exclusive for PlusDrive factory-installed system)supplies
- Aurora Driver on Peterbilt 579 (PACCAR)by Aurora InnovationLuminar Iris long-range LiDAR -- primary forward-facing sensor on Aurora Driver commercial truckssupplies
- Volvo EX90by Volvo CarsLuminar Iris long-range LiDAR -- roof-mounted primary perception sensorsupplies
Outbound supply edges from this company. Each relationship appears here when verified with at least two strong sources (maker-official / IR / regulatory / standards-body / verified tier-2). Sources are append-only; corrections add new sources rather than rewrite history.
Financial state
- Total funding
- $1.1B
- Employees
- 254
- Reporting basis
- aggregator_estimate
- Lifecycle stage
- mature
- Counterparty risk class
- low
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
1 total · 1 just announced
Every company Luminar Technologies has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
- ECARX x Luminar2024-01-01with ECARXjust announced
Most-frequent partners
- 1ECARX1× joint3 total
Funding rounds (5)
Luminar Technologies’s 5 disclosed rounds, $1.1B in total, oldest to newest.
- Convertible Notes2021-12-14
$600M · $3.0B post
- SPAC2020-12-02
$184M(reported) · $920M post
Investors: Volvo Group Venture Capital (strategic)
- Series X2020-08-01
$184M(reported) · $920M post
- Series B2019-07-01
$100M(reported) · $800M post
Investors: Octave Ventures, Corning Incorporated (strategic investment arm), The Westly Group, Cornes and Company Ltd.
- Series A2017-04-01
$36M(reported) · $216M post
Investors: Peter Thiel, Volvo Cars Tech Fund
Timeline
Every recorded move in Luminar Technologies’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
Started supplyingBecame supplier to Embark Trucks
2026-08-23Supply: Luminar LiDAR for Embark to Embark Trucks
Started supplyingBecame supplier to Kodiak Robotics
2026-08-23Supply: Luminar Iris LiDAR for Kodiak to Kodiak Robotics
Started supplyingBecame supplier to Pony AI
2026-06-27Supply: Luminar Iris long-range LiDAR -- selected for Pony.ai mass-production-grade autonomous driving system (2021 announcement) to Pony AI
Started supplyingBecame supplier to Tesla
2026-06-25Supply: Luminar lidar units (Tesla is Luminar's largest lidar customer - validation/development fleet) to Tesla
PartnershipECARX x Luminar
2024-01-01ECARX partnered with Luminar Technologies to integrate LiDAR-based safety and autonomous driving hardware and software systems for series production vehicles. ECARX works on hardware and software integration while Luminar provides its LiDAR sensing technology.
Funding roundConvertible Notes funding round
2021-12-14Convertible Notes raising $600000000
Funding roundSPAC funding round
2020-12-02SPAC raising $184000000
Funding roundSeries X funding round
2020-08-01Series X raising $183900000
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Verified media addedVerifiedJun 6, 2026
Luminar Halo LiDAR
- Record createdJun 6, 2026
Added to the verified registry
Sources (3)
- Luminar Technologies · https://www.luminartech.com/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminar_Technologies
- Luminar Investor Relations · https://ir.luminartech.com/
Common questions
What is Luminar Technologies?
What does Luminar Technologies make?
Is Luminar Technologies publicly traded?
Who is the CEO of Luminar Technologies?
How can I invest in Luminar Technologies?
Where is Luminar Technologies headquartered?
How much funding has Luminar Technologies raised?
Who owns Luminar Technologies?
Is Luminar Technologies a top robotics company?
When was Luminar Technologies founded?
Is Luminar Technologies safe?
Methodology: Verified · 3 sources (2 primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-22
Verification posture
Verified
High confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-22
Sources by quality tier
- 2
- primary-company-ir
- Company IR disclosure
- 1
- knowledge-base
- Knowledge base
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Luminar Technologies.In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Luminar Technologies from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Future imperfect: Five predictions for the next decade | Opinion
A lot of minds around the industry currently seem focused on one thing: the future. Whether it was Amir Satvat's Gamescom Dev keynote , or the plethora of industry luminaries who…
Busan Film Festival to Honor Its Founder Kim Dong-ho with Korean Cinema Award
The 88-year-old Korean industry luminary, who founded the festival in 1996 and made his own feature directorial debut last year, will accept the prize at the Oct. 6 opening…
Volvo drops lidar for good on EX90 and ES90, pays owner compensation
Volvo has confirmed it’s dropping lidar for good on the EX90 and ES90, and it’s paying owners compensation for a feature they were promised but will never get. In Norway, that…
Connected Car News: STMicroelectronics, Lyft, Curb, Uber, Ford, BMW, OpenAI, HERE , Esri, Honda, Google, MicroVision, Luminar Technologies & Bosch
In connected car news are FocalPoint, STMicroelectronics, LightPath Technologies, Lyft, Curb, Uber, Delivery Hero, Ford, BMW, OpenAI, HERE Technologies, Esri, Honda, Google,…
Illuminare Biotechnologies Closes Series B, Names New CEO
Fundraise Insider tracks newly funded startups each week and delivers verified B2B leads list of C-suite contacts straight to your inbox, so you reach the right people while the…
Mobileye vs. Luminar: Two Autonomous Driving Visions, One Brutal Reality - 24/7 Wall St.
<a…
MicroVision buys assets of troubled lidar maker Luminar for $33M - WardsAuto
<a…
Luminar Technologies Proposes Liquidation Through $143 Million Asset Sale to Quantum Computing and MicroVision - chapter11cases.com
<a…
Luminar Technologies Files Disclosure Statement for Chapter 11 Liquida - chapter11cases.com
<a…
Luminar files for bankruptcy - Orlando Shine
<a…
Sensor maker Luminar Technologies files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, pursues chip business sale - Manufacturing Dive
<a…
Lidar maker Luminar declares bankruptcy; Quantum Computing to buy subsidiary - The Robot Report
<a…
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/luminar.md
- RSS feed: /companies/luminar/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/fdc8609e-6e0d-468c-9b45-b82fe9b8d846
- Revision history: /companies/luminar/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Heat Index
Category contender77/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Not enough verified signal yet to place Luminar Technologies against peers. Reality and attention percentiles publish once the underlying record clears its data floor.
6-month trend
Analysis
Limited public visibility and press coverage relative to peers.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Sep 5, 2026