OUST

Ouster, Inc.

A maker of digital lidar sensors and perception software that let robots, self-driving vehicles, and smart infrastructure "see" and map their surroundings in 3D. Founded in 2015 by two Stanford classmates, Angus Pacala and Mark Frichtl, the San Francisco company merged with longtime rival Velodyne in 2023 and kept the Ouster name. The name is a fun quirk: "ouster" is the English word for ejecting someone from a position — fitting for a company that set out to shake up the lidar market.