VC Cafe: Primesense has raised a $50M round from French investment bank Lazard Group, based on a valuation of $300M. This unusually high valuation for an imaging company just starting its mass production reflects the perceived need in a good depth-sensing 3D technology.
Wow. That is amazing. About 1/4 the market cap of Omnivision. And the bank must be expecting at least 5-10x return on its investment.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what happens when the big image sensor companies release 3D imaging chips at well under $10 a pop. It is not like the underlying IP is owned by Primesense, is it?
The beauty of Primesense solution is that it uses cheap off-the-shelf sensors. I was told that its whole BOM is in $10-20 range, including sensor, light source, lenses, processor, plastics, connectors, everything. Kinect also includes extra stuff, like microphone array and webcam, but pure Primesense portion of Kinect is cheap.
ReplyDeleteI understand why the average yield of French VCs is only 1%. They are too romantic!
ReplyDeleteThe power of a relationship with Microsoft for a mainstream consumer UI system...
ReplyDeletebut this relationship can not last and the MS is a rich but not a fidel husband :)
ReplyDelete