Vayyar

From distance radar to radar that maps the space

For years radar was considered a crude technology: it can tell you that there is an object and how far away it is, but it cannot draw it. Vayyar, founded in December 2011 by Raviv Melamed, Miri Ratner and Naftali Chayat, built a single chip that transmits and receives on hundreds of channels at once, and processes the reflections into a 3D image of the space, including movement over time, hence the nickname "4D radar." It is the AI layer that turns the raw collection of reflections into an interpretation: a person, a chair, a fall, breathing.

No light, no camera, no identifying image

The practical advantage is that the sensor does not need light and is not limited to a clear line of sight. It works in total darkness, through steam and smoke, and sometimes through thin partitions. And unlike a camera, it does not produce an identifying image of the people in the room. This last feature is the main reason it has been adopted in privacy-sensitive fields, such as elder care or monitoring a car's passenger cabin.

Two markets: cars and health

The two main target markets are cars and health. In cars, the sensor is used to detect passengers in the cabin, including finding a child left behind in the back seat (an emerging regulatory requirement in several markets), and for safety assistance and parking. In care, the Vayyar Care product is mounted on the wall and detects a fall by an elderly resident without a camera and without the resident having to wear a device. Sensi.AI, founded in 2020, works in the same field with a different sensor, a microphone: it analyzes audio in the older person's home and gives care teams a continuous picture of their physical, emotional and cognitive state. According to the company, in October 2025 it served 80% of the large home care networks in North America.

A volatile funding path: from unicorn to a falling valuation

The company's funding path shows how fast valuations change in this field. In November 2019 it raised $109 million, and in June 2022 it raised $108 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion and became a unicorn. In September 2024, by contrast, it raised only $25 million from its existing investors, at a post-money valuation of $55 million, a sharp drop. As of 2026 the company continues to operate, with a much smaller structure than in its peak years.

Regulation, not consumer demand, drives the car market

What drives the car market in this field is regulation, not consumer demand: safety standards in Europe and the United States are gradually adding a requirement to detect presence in the passenger cabin, and in doing so they create a mandatory market for an in-cabin sensor. Here too, a sensor that is not a camera has an advantage: a manufacturer that installs a camera in the passenger cabin has to deal with privacy questions that radar, which does not produce an identifying image, does not raise at all.