AEye Continues to Expand Global Footprint With Opening of Korea Office
Former Valeo Group Korea President and Hyundai-Kia Executive Sung-Ho Kim Named as AEye Korea Country Manager
AEye, Inc. (NASDAQ:LIDR), the global leader in adaptive, high-performance LiDAR solutions, today announced the opening of its Korea office to support and grow AEye's business in the automotive, mobility and industrial markets in East Asia. The company also announced the appointment of Sung-Ho Kim as country manager of AEye's new office in Korea.
Sung-Ho Kim, a 33-year automotive and defense industry executive, most recently served as president of Valeo Korea. In that role, he oversaw $2 billion in revenue, five manufacturing plants, four R&D centers and more than 4,000 employees and drove OEM sales and business development, including LiDAR, camera and radar sales with customers including Hyundai-Kia Global, GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and Ssangyong Motors. Previous to Valeo, Kim served as Korea president of IEE Sensing, and held managerial positions at Varian Semiconductor and Samsung Motors (Renault), after beginning his career as an engineer with Agency for Defense Development, the Korean national agency for R&D in defense technology. Kim holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University.
"It's vital for us to have a strong presence in Korea, a major global driver of innovation and one of the leading manufacturing nations in the world," said Jordan Greene, co-founder and general manager at AEye. "This office opening reflects the explosive global interest we are seeing in AEye's adaptive LiDAR system. We couldn't be more pleased to have Sung-Ho Kim, a highly respected automotive and technology veteran, at the helm of our Korea initiatives, and we look forward to working closely with our partners, suppliers, customers and system integrators in the region on successful rollouts across automotive, mobility and industrial markets."
"I am excited to join AEye at this important transformation point and to help commercialize AEye's cutting-edge technology across the automotive, industrial, and mobility markets," said Kim. "AEye's LiDAR system is unique in its software-driven intelligence, and has shown world-class performance that scales for speed, safety and cost. I'm delighted to take the lead in bringing AEye's game-changing technology to market in East Asia, and to build the team that can best support our partners and customers on-the-ground as they move toward productization and mass production of AEye LiDAR systems."
Value of Adaptive LiDAR
AEye's LiDAR system, termed iDAR™, has achieved groundbreaking, independently verified performance metrics that top the LiDAR industry. The company has a two-tiered go-to-market approach: it is working alongside manufacturing and automotive go-to-market partner, Continental AG to jointly develop an ultra-long range, high performance LiDAR for automotive and commercial vehicle applications. For non-automotive markets, AEye is working with global integrated manufacturing solutions leader, Sanmina, as well as engineering, design, and manufacturing services provider Benchmark to produce AEye's 4Sight M and manufacture critical optical components and modules in AEye's sensors targeted for a broad range of industrial markets.
AEye uses a single product platform and single supply chain across markets to drive cost efficiencies and accelerate adoption in automotive, mobility and industrial markets. The company is engaged with an ecosystem of more than 75 partners globally across industries. In each case, AEye's adaptive, low cost, high performance LIDAR can be configured by software to meet the needs of specific applications per market. AEye Korea will provide the company's innovative, adaptive LiDAR products and support services to Korean OEMs, as well as customers in other vertical industries, including trucking and ITS.
To see what a software-configurable sensor can do, and to experience iDAR's record-breaking performance in real-time, visit aeye.ai/demo-the-4sight-m.
About AEye
AEye is the premier provider of intelligent, next generation, adaptive LiDAR for vehicle autonomy, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and robotic vision applications. AEye's iDAR™ (Intelligent Detection and Ranging) system leverages biomimicry and principles from automated targeting applications used by the military to scan the environment, intelligently focusing on what matters most, enabling faster, more accurate, and more reliable perception. iDAR is the only software configurable LiDAR with integrated deterministic artificial intelligence, delivering industry-leading performance in range, resolution, and speed. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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