Hesai specializes in designing and manufacturing laser sensors for different industries, including LiDARs (3D scanners for self-driving vehicles and robots) and gas leak remote sensors for the natural gas industry. Hesai was founded in 2013 in Silicon Valley and is now headquartered in Shanghai, with 350+ employees from world-renowned universities such as Stanford, MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley and Tsinghua, and industry-leading engineers from top companies such as Apple, Samsung, BMW, Delphi, Huawei, etc. Hesai currently owns one research center, two manufacturing centers, and offices in Shanghai and Silicon Valley. Hesai's LiDARs have served pioneering autonomous driving technology companies worldwide. Over 1/3 of the 62 companies in California that have autonomous-driving road-test permits are Hesai customers. Hesai has finished several rounds of financing (>$60m USD cumulatively) from top-tier strategic and financial investors such as Baidu Apollo, Lightspeed China Partners, Lighthouse Capital, Pagoda Investment and Zhenfund.