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AEye

LidarUSA
New to Unitard
πŸ“‰ Public < $1B
PeakΒ $2 BillionToday
βˆ’98%
from peak
  1. πŸ¦„
    Became a unicorn
    2021
  2. πŸ“ˆ
    Peak valuation
    $2 Billion ’21
  3. πŸ’”
    Became a Unitard
    2022
  4. πŸ’Έ
    Last valuation
    ~$46.2M
Current status
Public (LIDR)
Live Β· LIDRΒ· NasdaqCM
as of 2026-10-23
$0.991β–² 15.48% today
β‰ˆΒ $46.2 Million market cap Β· βˆ’97.7% from peak

The rise & fall

5 moments Β· 2013–2026

The key moments.

2013
Founded in California
Luis Dussan applies aerospace targeting ideas to an adaptive lidar for self-driving cars.
Wikipedia
2021
The peak: a $2B SPAC debut$2B
Merges with a Cantor Fitzgerald SPAC to list on the Nasdaq at the top of the lidar boom β€” unicorn and public company at once.
SEC filing
2022
Slips out of the club
Shares collapse with the rest of the de-SPAC lidar cohort as autonomous-vehicle adoption lags and losses mount.
Google Finance
2022–26
The long lidar winter
The market cap grinds down to roughly $0.1B β€” about 5% of the debut.
Google Finance
Today
Still in the club β€” and still trading
Live Β· LIDR Β· NasdaqCMas of 2026-10-23
$0.991β–² 15.48% todayβ‰ˆ $46.2M cap Β· βˆ’97.7% from peak

How it happened

AEye is a lidar developer for autonomous vehicles that went public via SPAC in 2021 at a valuation of roughly $2B. Like most de-SPAC lidar companies, its shares collapsed amid slow adoption and heavy losses, with its market cap falling to around $0.1B (~-95% from peak), dropping it far below unicorn status.

Glassdoor reviews were generally positive but noted unclear direction and layoffs as the lidar market cooled.

Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor β†—. See our methodology.

Source: Google Finance June 2026

Founders & leadership

  • Matt Fisch
    current CEO & chairman
    Still there β€” CEO and ChairmanLinkedIn β†—
  • Luis Dussan
    founder & CTO (designed targeting systems at Northrop Grumman and Lockheed before founding it in 2013)
    Now CO-CEO & CO-Founder at ILLIUM AILinkedIn β†—

Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-20. See our methodology.

Disclosed investors (17)

Historical funding participation; lists may be incomplete and do not establish current ownership or investor losses.

* Lead in a funding round Β· Crunchbase β†— Β· 2026-10-13 Β· Methodology Β· Leaderboard

More from the club

Same sector Β· Lidar
Luminar Technologies$11BVelodyne Lidar$1.8BCepton$1.5BQuanergy Systems$1.4BInnoviz Technologies$1.4B
Same fate Β· post-SPAC market cap decline
Virgin Galactic$13BChargePoint$10BSkillz$10BGetty Images$5BNextdoor$5B
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