Austria: Schoenherr advises indie Semiconductor on acquisition of automotive perception software pioneer emotion3D

By adding software to its chip offering, indie enhances its vision and radar portfolio, boosting high-margin revenue and strengthening its position in the growing ADAS market. Under the terms of the agreement, indie will pay USD 20m in cash at closing, with up to USD 10m in performance-based earnouts if certain revenue targets are exceeded by February 2027. With the transaction now being signed, the acquisition's closing is subject to customary conditions, including regulatory clearance, and is expected in Q4 2025.

"We are pleased to have supported indie on this strategic acquisition," said Schoenherr partner Thomas Kulnigg. "Founded on the 'Vision Zero' initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries, emotion3D's software combined with indie's hardware brings the automotive industry closer to important safety milestones."

Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, CA, indie is driving the automotive revolution with next-generation semiconductors, photonics and software platforms. The company develops innovative, high-performance, energy-efficient mixed-signal SoCs and system solutions for ADAS and related industrial applications. Its sensors span all major modalities – radar, LiDAR, ultrasound and computer vision – while its embedded control, power management and interfacing solutions accelerate the adoption of automated vehicle safety features. As a global innovator, indie is an approved Tier 1 vendor, with its solutions used by leading automotive OEMs worldwide.

emotion3D has developed an AI-based perception solution for embedded automotive vision and radar sensing, with proven in-cabin sensing deployments such as driver and occupant monitoring (DMS/OMS) for leading global Tier 1 integrators and OEMs. Its external sensing solutions – including nighttime forward vision and camera-radar sensor fusion – are in advanced development and customer testing. Using a low-compute multi-task neural network and extensive synthetic data and simulation, emotion3D reduces reliance on real-world data and streamlines innovation.

The Schoenherr team was led by Thomas Kulnigg (partner) and Dominik Tyrybon (attorney at law), supported by Maximilian Czernin (associate). Christoph Haid (partner), Maha Zöhrer (attorney at law) and Theresa Dabsch (associate) advised on antitrust and FDI matters, Karin Pusch (counsel) and Daniel Komarek (attorney at law) covered employment law, and Alexander Pabst (attorney at law) advised on intellectual property aspects. 

The sellers were advised by DKFE Rechtsanwälte and Petsch Frosch Klein Arturo Rechtsanwälte.