Ex-Apple engineers launch startup to improve robots' vision

Top members of the team behind Apple Inc.'s Face ID are launching a startup to develop technology to help robots see better and move more safely in the world around them.

- BY SAMANTHA KELLY

The company, Lyte, emerged from stealth on Monday after raising about $107 million to date from investors including Fidelity Management & Research, Atreides Management, Exor Ventures, Keyl Capital, VentureTech Alliance and a group of private investors led by the Israeli entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Lyte was founded in 2021 by three former Apple employees — Alexander Shpunt, Arman Hajati and Yuval Gerson — who played a major role in building the depth-sensing and perception technology that Face ID uses to capture faces. Earlier, Shpunt co-founded and served as chief technology officer of the 3-D-sensing technology provider PrimeSense, which was acquired by Apple in 2013 for $350 million and was the genesis for what would become Face ID. Gerson also worked at PrimeSense before the Apple takeover.