This paper presents an optimized space vector pulse-width modulation (OSVPWM) technique for a five-level cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter. The space vector diagram of the five-level CHB inverter is optimized by resolving it into inner and outer two-level space vector hexagons. Unlike conventional space vector topology, the proposed technique significantly reduces the involved computational time and efforts without compromising the performance of the five-level CHB inverter. A further optimized (FOSVPWM) technique is also presented in this paper, which significantly reduces the complexity and computational efforts. The developed techniques are verified through MATLAB/SIMULINK. Results are compared with sinusoidal pulse-width modulation (SPWM) to prove the validity of the proposed technique. The proposed simulation system is realized by using an XC3S400 field-programmable gate array from Xilinx, Inc. The experiment results are then presented for verification.