Baraja appoints ex-Intel, Google networking pioneer Craig Barratt to board of directors

Barratt brings decades of networking and corporate experience as the company expands global partnerships

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Baraja, creator of breakthrough Spectrum-Scan™ LiDAR technology, today appointed networking industry veteran Craig Barratt, PhD, to the Board of Directors, as the company expands commercial partnerships and deployments globally.

Barratt has decades of experience in pioneering networking, connectivity and open-source technologies, helping making Wi-Fi and fiber connectivity more accessible and ubiquitous to the world. Over the past 20 years, he has held senior executive positions at Google — where he managed the Google Fiber rollout initiative. He also managed the growth and acquisition of wireless connectivity innovator Atheros by Qualcomm in 2011, and oversaw Barefoot Networks through to acquisition by Intel in 2019.

“Over the past 20 years, Craig has been at the forefront of, and a major contributor to, some of the biggest leaps forward in wireless and fiber networking technologies,” said Federico Collarte, Co-founder and CEO of Baraja. “He is joining the Baraja board at a key moment in our journey, as the automotive industry looks for better LiDAR technology such as our breakthrough Spectrum-Scan™ products. We’re extremely excited to have Craig join the team and help advise us on the next stage in our journey.”

Baraja’s Spectrum-Scan™ technology was invented by Collarte and co-founder Cibby Pulikkaseril, telecommunications industry veterans who used their photonics expertise to create a LiDAR system capable of creating high-resolution, long-range point clouds without the shortcomings or mechanical components that hold back traditional systems.

“Baraja is the rare type of company that’s managed to create a simple solution to a complex problem,” Barratt said. “They have solved many of the fundamental problems other LiDAR companies have spent years trying to overcome, which makes their technology a better fit for autonomous vehicles in all settings. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together.”

It is the latest news to validate the relevance of Baraja’s breakthrough LiDAR technology for modern autonomous vehicles. Baraja recently signed a strategic partnership agreement with Taiwan’s renowned Industrial Technology Research Institute’s (ITRI) intelligent mobility division to help develop autonomous vehicle technologies for logistics and delivery settings, such as long-haul trucks and last-mile delivery vehicles.

About Baraja

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Sydney, Baraja began its work on a breakthrough LiDAR technique in the garage of Founder & CEO Federico Collarte. Federico and his Co-Founder & CTO Cibby Pulikkaseril created an elegant solution to the complex problems facing legacy LiDAR systems that give vision to self-driving vehicles. Their Spectrum-Scan™ approach address scalability, reliability, vehicle integration and performance issues that legacy LiDAR technologies cannot. Baraja, backed by Sequoia China, Blackbird Ventures and Main Sequence Ventures’ CSIRO Innovation Fund, has over 100 employees and has offices in Sydney, San Francisco and Shanghai.

Contacts

Media contact
Ty Gates

Sling & Stone for Baraja

press@baraja.com