Velodyne developed and manufactured the first high-performance 3D lidar and spawned an entire industry. With
our broad portfolio, Velodyne has shipped well over 73,000 sensors to date. We also recently augmented our sensors with AI, software and analytics capabilities to provide full solutions to accelerate our customers development of autonomous
systems.
Meanwhile, Ouster has made significant advancements in chip and sensor technologies to lower the cost of lidar, making it more affordable across
a broad range of applications. As a result, Ouster enjoys among the highest gross margins in the lidar industry today, and has quickly scaled the adoption of their technology with approximately 16,000 sensors shipped to date.
The combination of Ouster and Velodyne is highly complementary. Through anticipated operational synergies, technological innovation, and streamlined
organizational best practices, we expect the Combined Company to significantly improve its financial performance and product development faster than either of the two companies could achieve independently.
We are excited to be part of the first major merger in the lidar industry. I look forward to Veldoyne combining forces with Ouster to continue to serve our
customers with innovative and affordable lidar solutions as they transition to high-volume commercial production, and to pursue the addressable opportunities for lidar within the vast and expanding market for sensing technologies.
Ill now turn the call back over to Angus to walk through our deal rationale in more detail.
Commercial and Competitive Rational
Thanks, Ted.
I am excited for the opportunity to leverage both of our companies strengths to create a solid business foundation with more expansive commercial reach and an innovative technology roadmap.
Together, Ouster and Velodyne will hold one of the most attractive IP positions in and around 3D lidar with 173 granted and 504 pending patents, all backed by
over 20 years of combined experience in lidar.
With best-in-class
hardware and verticalized software solutions, our Combined Company will be able to provide greater value to customers across a wide range of fast-growing end markets, and drive accelerated innovation as our teams collaborate to build a lidar product
roadmap that will provide tremendous benefits to customers.
Building a software ecosystem will continue to be an important part of our product roadmap to
catalyze growth. This software ecosystem will include best-in-class tools to simplify development for customers, accelerate their time to market, and lower the barrier
of entry for new target markets.
With an expanded global commercial footprint and distribution network, we expect the Combined Company will also drive
increased volumes, and subsequently reduce product costs more rapidly. Further, our unified global success team will be able to provide top-tier support to our many customers, distributors, and partners.