Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(3)
File No. 333-262667

PROSPECTUS

CEPTON, INC.

Up to 14,700,000 Shares of Common Stock

This prospectus relates to the resale, from time to time, of up to 14,700,000 shares of our common stock, par value $0.00001 per share (the “Common Stock”), by the selling stockholder, Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC (“Lincoln Park” or the “selling stockholder”).

The shares of common stock to which this prospectus relates includes shares that have been or may be issued to Lincoln Park pursuant to a purchase agreement between us and Lincoln Park dated November 24, 2021 (the “Purchase Agreement”). On February 10, 2022, we issued 50,000 shares of our common stock to Lincoln Park, and we are obligated to issue an additional 150,000 shares of our common stock to Lincoln Park on August 9, 2022, in each case as consideration for its irrevocable commitment to purchase our common stock under the Purchase Agreement.

We may receive gross proceeds of up to $100,000,000 from the sale of shares to Lincoln Park under the Purchase Agreement, from time to time, in our discretion after the date of the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part is declared effective and after satisfaction of other conditions in the Purchase Agreement.

Lincoln Park is an “underwriter” within the meaning of Section 2(a)(11) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. See “Plan of Distribution” on page 125 for more information about how Lincoln Park may sell the shares of common stock being registered pursuant to this prospectus.

Lincoln Park may sell the shares of common stock described in this prospectus in a number of different ways and at varying prices. The price that Lincoln Park will pay for the shares to be resold pursuant to this prospectus will depend upon the timing of sales and will fluctuate based on the trading price of our common stock. While the Purchase Agreement limits the rate at which we can sell shares of common stock to Lincoln Park, due to the significant number of shares of our common stock that were redeemed in connection with the Business Combination, the number of shares of common stock that we can sell to Lincoln Park under the Purchase Agreement could constitute a considerable percentage of our public float at the time of such sales. As a result, the resale by Lincoln Park of shares of our common stock pursuant to this prospectus could have a significant negative impact on the trading price of our common stock. See “Lincoln Park Transaction” on page 127 for more information.

In addition, we have filed a separate registration statement registering the issuance to and resale by certain third parties unrelated to Lincoln Park of certain shares of common stock and/or warrants issued prior to, or in connection with, the Business Combination. Any sales of such shares into the public market by such certain third parties unrelated to Lincoln Park could similarly have a significant negative impact on the trading price of our common stock.

We have agreed to bear all of the expenses incurred in connection with the registration of the shares to which this prospectus relates. Lincoln Park will pay or assume discounts, commissions, and fees of underwriters, selling brokers or dealer managers, if any, incurred in connection with the sale of shares of our common stock.

Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “CPTN”. On March 31, 2022, the closing price of our common stock was $3.88.

We are an “emerging growth company” under applicable federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements.

INVESTING IN OUR SECURITIES INVOLVES RISKS THAT ARE DESCRIBED IN THE “RISK FACTORS” SECTION BEGINNING ON PAGE 9 OF THIS PROSPECTUS.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of the securities to be issued under this prospectus or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

The date of this prospectus is May 11, 2022.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus. No one has been authorized to provide you with information that is different from that contained in this prospectus. This prospectus is dated as of the date set forth on the cover hereof. You should not assume that the information contained in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than that date.

For investors outside the United States: We have not done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. You are required to inform yourselves about and to observe any restrictions relating to this offering and the distribution of this prospectus.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE AND FREQUENTLY USED TERMS

On February 10, 2022 (the “Closing” and such date the “Closing Date”), Growth Capital Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation (“GCAC”), and GCAC Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware corporation and newly formed wholly-owned subsidiary of GCAC (“Merger Sub”), consummated the previously announced Business Combination pursuant to the terms of the Business Combination Agreement.

On the Closing Date, (i) GCAC changed its name to “Cepton, Inc.” (“Cepton” or the “Company”), (ii) Merger Sub merged with and into Legacy Cepton (the “Merger”), with Legacy Cepton surviving the Merger as a direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, (iii) the Company issued 5,950,000 shares of common stock to certain investors in exchange for $59.5 million in consideration and (iv) the parties to the Business Combination Agreement consummated the other transactions contemplated thereby.

Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this prospectus to “Cepton,” the “Company,” “us,” “we,” “our” and any related terms prior to the closing of the Business Combination are intended to mean Cepton Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and after the closing of the Business Combination, Cepton, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

“Amended and Restated Charter” means the second amended and restated certificate of incorporation of Cepton, in effect as of the date of this prospectus.

“Business Combination” means the Merger and the other transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement.

“Business Combination Agreement” means the Business Combination Agreement, dated August 4, 2021, as amended by the Amendment to the Business Combination Agreement, dated as of January 21, 2022, by and among GCAC, Merger Sub and Cepton.

“Cepton” means Cepton, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

“Cepton Board” means the board of directors of Cepton.

“Closing” means the closing of the Business Combination.

“common stock” means the common stock, par value $0.00001 per share, of Cepton, Inc.

“DGCL” means the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, as amended.

“Earnout Shares” means the up to 13,000,000 shares of common stock that may be issued to Legacy Cepton securityholders if certain share prices of common stock are achieved and other conditions are satisfied.

“Founder Shares” means GCAC Class B common stock initially purchased by our Sponsor, Nautilus and HB Strategies LLC in private placement transactions prior to the GCAC IPO, and the shares of common stock issued upon the conversion thereof as provided herein.

“GCAC” means Growth Capital Acquisition Corp., a Delaware corporation, which was renamed “Cepton, Inc.” in connection with the Closing.

“GCAC Board” means the board of directors of GCAC prior to the Business Combination.

“GCAC Charter” means GCAC’s amended and restated certificate of incorporation as filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware on January 29, 2021.

“GCAC Class A common stock” means the Class A common stock, par value $0.0001, of GCAC.

“GCAC Class B common stock” means the Class B common stock, par value $0.0001, of GCAC.

“GCAC IPO” means GCAC’s initial public offering that was consummated by GCAC on February 2, 2021.

“Legacy Cepton” means Cepton Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and includes the surviving corporation after the Merger. References herein to Cepton will include its subsidiaries, including Legacy Cepton, to the extent reasonably applicable

“Legacy Cepton Board” means the board of directors of Legacy Cepton.

“Legacy Cepton Class F stock” means shares of Class F stock, par value of $0.00001 per share, of Legacy Cepton.

“Merger” means the merger of Merger Sub with and into Legacy Cepton, with Legacy Cepton continuing as the surviving corporation and as a wholly-owned subsidiary of GCAC (which changed its name to Cepton, Inc. upon the Closing), in accordance with the terms of the Business Combination Agreement.

“Merger Sub” means GCAC Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware corporation.

“Nautilus” means Nautilus Carriers LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, an affiliate of Prokopios “Akis” Tsirigakis and George Syllantavos, GCAC’s current co-Chief Executive Officers as of the date of this prospectus.

“Trust Account” means the trust account of GCAC, which holds the net proceeds of the GCAC IPO, including from overallotment securities sold by GCAC’s underwriters, and the sale of the Private Placement Warrants, together with interest earned thereon, less amounts released to pay franchise and income tax obligations and up to $100,000 for dissolution expenses, and amounts paid pursuant to redemptions.

“Units” means Units issued in the GCAC IPO, including any overallotment securities acquired by GCAC’s underwriters, consisting of one share of GCAC Class A common stock and one-half of one Public Warrant.

“Warrants” means any of the Private Placement Warrants and the Public Warrants.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements contained in this prospectus may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “estimate,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” “intend,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “seek,” “target,” “designed to” or other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. We caution readers of this prospectus that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control, that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding estimates and forecasts of financial and performance metrics, projections of market opportunity and market share, potential benefits and the commercial attractiveness to our customers of our products and services, the potential success of our marketing and expansion strategies, the potential for us to achieve design awards and potential benefits of the Business Combination (including with respect to shareholder value). These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this prospectus, and on the current expectations of our management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on by any investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including:

•        the conditions affecting the markets in which we operate;

•        the success of our strategic relationships, including with our Tier 1 partners, none of which are exclusive;

•        fluctuations in sales of our major customers;

•        fluctuations in capital spending in the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets;

•        the impact of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic on the global economy and financial markets, including any restrictions on our operations and the operations of our customers and suppliers resulting from public health requirements and government mandates;

•        changes in applicable laws or regulations;

•        the possibility that our business may be adversely affected by other economic, business and/or competitive factors;

•        the risk that current trends in the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets decelerate or do not continue;

•        estimates for the financial performance of our business may prove to be incorrect or materially different from actual results;

•        failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the Business Combination;

•        risks relating to the uncertainty of the projected financial and operating information, including whether we will be able to achieve our target milestones, our pricing and sales volume targets, and our proposed production timelines and win the engagements contemplated in our projected pipeline, and the ability of original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and other strategic partners to re-source or cancel vehicle or technology programs;

•        risks related to future market adoption of our offerings;

•        the final terms of our arrangement with our Tier 1 partner and, in turn, our Tier 1 partner’s award with OEM-B differing from our expectations, including with respect to volume and timing, or the arrangement can be terminated or may not materialize into a long-term contract partnership arrangement;

•        risks related to our marketing and growth strategies;

•        the effects of competition on our future business;

•        our ability to issue equity or equity-linked securities in the future;

•        expectations with respect to future operating and financial performance and growth, including when we will generate positive cash flow from operations;

•        our ability to raise funding on reasonable terms as necessary to develop our products in the timeframe contemplated by our business plan, and to comply with the terms of any restrictive, financial or other covenants included in the agreements governing such funding;

•        our ability to execute our business plans and strategy;

•        the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against us related to Business Combination; and

•        other risks and uncertainties described in this prospectus, including those under the section entitled “Risk Factors.”

If any of these risks materialize or any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that we presently do not know or that we currently believe are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect our expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this prospectus. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our assessments to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our assessment as of any date subsequent to the date of this prospectus. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements may, and are likely to, differ materially, and potentially adversely, from any projections and forward-looking statements and the assumptions on which those forward-looking statements were based. There can be no assurance that the data contained herein is reflective of future performance to any degree. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a predictor of future performance as projected financial information and other information are based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to various significant risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our control.

RISK FACTORS

Investment in our securities involves risk. You should carefully consider the following risk factors in addition to the other information included in this prospectus, including matters addressed in the section entitled “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statement.” Please see the section entitled “Where You Can Find More Information” in this prospectus. These risk factors are not exhaustive, and investors are encouraged to perform their own investigation with respect to our business, financial condition and prospects. We may face additional risks and uncertainties that are not presently known to us, or that we currently deem immaterial, which may also impair our business or financial condition. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with “Unaudited Pro Forma Condensed Combined Financial Information and Other Data,” the financial statements and notes to the financial statements included herein.

Risks Related to This Offering

The sale or issuance of our common stock to Lincoln Park may cause dilution and the sale of the shares of common stock by Lincoln Park that it acquires pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, or the perception that such sales may occur, could cause the price of our common stock to decrease.

On November 24, 2021, we entered into the Purchase Agreement with Lincoln Park, pursuant to which Lincoln Park has committed to purchase up to $100.0 million of our common stock. On February 10, 2022, we issued 50,000 shares of our common stock to Lincoln Park. In addition, we are obligated to issue Lincoln Park up to an additional 150,000 shares of our common stock as a commitment fee on August 9, 2022. Pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, Lincoln Park agreed to purchase from us a total of up to $100.0 million of our common stock from time to time over a 36-month period (any such shares, the “Purchased Shares”). The purchase price for the shares that we may sell to Lincoln Park under the Purchase Agreement will fluctuate based on the trading price of our common stock. We generally have the right to control the timing and amount of any future sales of our common stock to Lincoln Park. Additional sales of our common stock, if any, to Lincoln Park will depend upon market conditions and other factors to be determined by us. While the Purchase Agreement limits the rate at which we can sell shares of common stock to Lincoln Park, due to the significant number of shares of our common stock that were redeemed in connection with the Business Combination, the number of shares of common stock that we can sell to Lincoln Park under the Purchase Agreement could constitute a considerable percentage of our public float at the time of such sales. As a result, the resale by Lincoln Park of Purchased Shares pursuant to this prospectus could have a significant negative impact on the trading price of our common stock. The 14,700,000 shares that may be resold into the public markets pursuant to this prospectus represent approximately 9.5% of shares of our common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2022. We may ultimately decide to sell to Lincoln Park all, some or none of the shares of our common stock that may be available for us to sell pursuant to the Purchase Agreement. If and when we do sell shares of our common stock to Lincoln Park, after Lincoln Park has acquired such shares, Lincoln Park may resell all, some or none of such shares at any time or from time to time in its discretion, subject to compliance with securities laws. Therefore, sales to Lincoln Park by us could result in substantial dilution to the interests of other holders of its shares of our common stock. Additionally, the sale of a substantial number of shares of our common stock to Lincoln Park, or the anticipation of such sales, could make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and at a price that it might otherwise wish to effect sales. See “Lincoln Park Transaction” on page 127 for more information regarding the Purchase Agreement.

In addition, we have filed a separate registration statement registering the issuance to and resale by certain third parties unrelated to Lincoln Park of certain shares of common stock and/or warrants issued prior to, or in connection with, the Business Combination. The shares being registered for resale by certain third parties unrelated to Lincoln Park into the public markets pursuant to such separate registration statement represent a substantial majority of the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2022. Once such separate registration statement is effective, the shareholders selling pursuant to such separate registration statement will determine the timing, pricing and rate at which they sell such shares into the public market and such sales could have a significant negative impact on the trading price of our common stock. Although the current trading price or our common stock is significantly below $10.00 per share, which was the sales price for units in the Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. initial public offering, certain of the investors who have resale rights under such separate registration statement have an incentive to sell because they purchased shares and/or warrants at prices below the initial public offering price. Sales by such investors may prevent the trading price of our securities from exceeding the initial public offering price and may cause the trading prices of our securities to experience a further decline.

Our management team may invest or spend the proceeds of this offering in ways with which you may not agree or in ways which may not yield a significant return.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of proceeds from the sale of shares to Lincoln Park pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, if any. We intend to use the net proceeds from the sale of shares to Lincoln Park pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, if any, for general corporate purposes. Our management will have considerable discretion in the application of the proceeds from the sale of shares to Lincoln Park pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, if any, and you will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to assess whether such proceeds are being used appropriately. The proceeds from the sale of shares to Lincoln Park pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, if any, may be used for corporate purposes that do not increase our operating results or enhance the value of our common stock.

The terms of the Purchase Agreement limit the amount of shares of common stock we may issue to Lincoln Park, which may limit our ability to utilize the arrangement to enhance our cash resources.

The Purchase Agreement includes restrictions on our ability to sell shares of our common stock to Lincoln Park, including, subject to specified limitations, (x) if a sale would cause us to issue, in the aggregate, a number of shares in excess of 30,794,195 shares (including the Commitment Shares), which represents 19.99% of the shares of our common stock outstanding immediately following the closing of the Business Combination on February 10, 2022 (the “Exchange Cap”), or (y) if a sale would cause Lincoln Park and its affiliates to beneficially own more than 9.99% of our issued and outstanding common stock (the “Beneficial Ownership Cap”). Accordingly, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to sell all $100.0 million of shares of common stock in this offering. If we cannot sell the full amount of the shares that Lincoln Park has committed to purchase because of these limitations, we may be required to utilize more costly and time-consuming means of accessing the capital markets, which could materially adversely affect our liquidity and cash position.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We are an early stage company with a history of losses and expects to incur significant expenses and continuing losses for the foreseeable future.

We have incurred net losses on an annual basis since our inception. We incurred a net loss of approximately $19.6 million and $37.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2021, respectively. We believe that we will continue to incur operating and net losses each quarter until at least the first quarter of 2024. Even if we are able to successfully develop and sell our lidar solutions, there can be no assurance that we will be commercially successful. Our potential profitability is dependent upon the successful development and successful commercial introduction and acceptance of our lidar solutions, which may not occur.

We expect the rate at which we will incur losses to be significantly higher in future periods as we:

•        expand our production capabilities to produce our lidar solutions, including costs associated with outsourcing the production of our lidar solutions;

•        expand our design, development, installation and servicing capabilities;

•        build up inventories of parts and components for our lidar solutions;

•        produce an inventory of our lidar solutions;

•        increase our sales and marketing activities and develop our distribution infrastructure; and

•        continue to utilize our third-party partners for manufacturing, testing and commercialization.

Because we will incur the costs and expenses from these efforts before we receive incremental revenues with respect thereto, our losses in future periods will be significant. In addition, we may find that these efforts are more expensive than we currently anticipate or that these efforts may not result in revenues, which would further increase our losses.

Our limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter.

We have been focused on developing lidar products and perception software for mass-market ADAS and autonomous driving systems and Smart Infrastructure since 2016. This relatively limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter. Risks and challenges we have faced or expect to face include, but are not limited to, our ability to:

•        develop and commercialize our products;

•        produce and deliver lidar and software products of acceptable performance;

•        forecast our revenue and budget for and manage our expenses;

•        attract new customers, retain existing customers and expand existing commercial relationships;

•        comply with existing and new or modified laws and regulations applicable to our business;

•        plan for and manage capital expenditures for our current and future products, and manage our supply chain and supplier relationships related to our current and future products;

•        anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes and changes in the markets in which we operate;

•        maintain and enhance the value of our reputation and brand;

•        effectively manage our growth and business operations, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business;

•        develop and protect intellectual property;

•        hire, integrate and retain talented people at all levels of our organization; and

•        successfully develop new solutions to enhance the experience of customers.

If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above as well as those described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Further, because we have limited historical financial data and operate in a rapidly evolving market, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history or operated in a more predictable market. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories in rapidly changing industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our forecasts and projections are based upon assumptions, analyses and internal estimates developed by our management. If these assumptions, analyses or estimates prove to be incorrect or inaccurate, our actual operating results may differ materially from those forecasted or projected.

Our forecasts and projections included in this prospectus are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions, analyses and internal estimates developed by our management, any or all of which may not prove to be correct or accurate. If these assumptions, analyses or estimates prove to be incorrect or inaccurate, our actual operating results may differ materially from those forecasted or projected.

The forecasts and projections in this prospectus include forecasts and estimates relating to the expected size and growth of the markets for which we operate or seek to enter. Such markets may not develop or grow, or may develop and grow at a lower rate than expected, and even if these markets experience the forecasted growth described in this prospectus, we may not grow our business at similar rates, or at all. Our future growth is subject to many factors, including, among others, our ability to develop and commercialize our products and the market’s adoption of our products, both of which are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, the

forecasts and estimates of market size and growth described in this prospectus should not be taken as indicative of our future growth. In addition, these forecasts do not take into account the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic, and we cannot assure you that these forecasts will not be materially and adversely affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We continue to implement strategic initiatives designed to grow our business. These initiatives may prove more costly than we currently anticipate and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue in an amount sufficient to offset the costs of these initiatives and to achieve and maintain profitability.

We continue to make investments and implement initiatives designed to grow our business, including:

•        expanding our sales and marketing efforts to attract new customers in our target end markets;

•        investing in R&D;

•        investing in new applications and markets for our products by expanding relationships with existing customers and creating opportunities for new customers;

•        further enhancing our partnerships with third-parties to develop manufacturing processes; and

•        investing in legal, accounting, and other administrative functions necessary to support our operations as a public company.

These initiatives may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue, if at all, in an amount sufficient to offset these higher expenses and to achieve and maintain profitability. The market opportunities we are pursuing are at various stages of development, and it may be many years before the end markets we expect to serve in the Automotive market generate demand for our products at scale, if at all. In the Smart Infrastructure market, we have a number of active projects and multiple developing engagement opportunities, but some of these relationships and market opportunities are also still in the early stages of development. Our revenue may be adversely affected for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to (i) the development and/or market acceptance of new technology that competes with our lidar products and automotive software, (ii) if certain automotive OEMs, or other market participants change their autonomous vehicle technology, (iii) failure of our customers to commercialize autonomous systems that include our solutions, (iv) our inability to effectively manage our inventory or manufacture products at scale, (v) our inability to enter new markets or help our customers adapt our products for new applications or (vi) our failure to attract new customers or expand orders from existing customers or increasing competition. Furthermore, it is difficult to predict the size and growth rate of our target markets, customer demand for our products, commercialization timelines, developments in autonomous sensing and related technology, the entry of competitive products, or the success of existing competitive products and services. For these reasons, we do not expect to achieve profitability over the near term. If our revenue does not grow over the long term, our ability to achieve and maintain profitability may be adversely affected, and the value of our business may significantly decrease.

Our ability to effectively manage our anticipated growth and expansion of operations will also require us to enhance our operational, financial and management controls and infrastructure, human resources policies and reporting systems. These enhancements and improvements will require significant capital expenditures, investments in additional headcount and other operating expenditures and allocation of valuable management and employee resources. Our future financial performance and ability to execute on our business plan will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively manage any future growth and expansion. There are no guarantees that we will be able to do so in an efficient or timely manner, or at all.

If our lidar products are not selected for inclusion in ADAS and autonomous driving systems by automotive OEMs, automotive tier 1 companies, mobility or technology companies or their respective suppliers, our business will be materially and adversely affected.

Automotive OEMs, tier 1 suppliers to automotive OEMs, mobility or technology companies, and their respective suppliers design and develop autonomous driving and ADAS technology over several years. These automotive OEMs, tier 1 suppliers, mobility or technology companies, and their respective suppliers undertake extensive testing or qualification processes prior to selecting a product such as our lidar products for use in a particular system, product or vehicle model, because such products will function as part of a larger system or platform and must meet certain other specifications. We spend significant time and resources to have our products selected by our customers and

their suppliers for use in a particular system, product or vehicle model, which is known as a “series production win” or a “series production award.” In the case of autonomous driving and ADAS technology, a series production award means our lidar product has been selected for use in a particular vehicle model. However, if we do not achieve a series production award with respect to a particular vehicle model, we may not have an opportunity to supply our products to the automotive OEM for that vehicle model for a period of many years. In many cases, this period can be as long as five to seven or more years. If our products are not selected by an automotive OEM or our suppliers for one vehicle model or if our products are not successful in that vehicle model, it is unlikely that our product will be deployed in other vehicle models of that OEM. If we fail to win a significant number of vehicle models from one or more of automotive OEMs or their suppliers, our business, results of operations and financial condition will be materially and adversely affected. For more information about certain risks related to product selection, please see the risk factor in this prospectus captioned “The period of time from engagement to a series production award and then to implementation is long, typically spanning over several years, especially in the Automotive market, and our customer arrangements are subject to cancellation or postponement of contracts or unsuccessful implementation.”

We are reliant on key inputs and our inability to reduce and control the cost of such inputs could negatively impact the adoption of our products and our profitability.

The production of our sensors is dependent on producing or sourcing certain key components and raw materials at acceptable price levels. If we are unable to adequately reduce and control the costs of such key components, we will be unable to realize manufacturing costs targets, which could reduce the market adoption of our products, damage our reputation with current or prospective customers, and harm our brand, business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

Continued pricing pressures, automotive OEM cost reduction initiatives and the ability of automotive OEMs to re-source or cancel vehicle or technology programs may result in losses or lower than anticipated margins, which will adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Cost-cutting initiatives adopted by our customers often result in increased downward pressure on pricing. We expect that over the course of the terms of our arrangements with automotive OEMs, our customers may require step-downs in pricing. Automotive OEMs possess significant leverage over their suppliers, including us, because the automotive component supply industry is highly competitive, serves a limited number of customers and has a high fixed cost base. For example, our long-range lidars are currently in the low $1,000s range and, over the next five to six years, we expect that these prices could drop to the $500-600 range. For near-range lidars, we expect high volume ADAS target pricing to be in the $100 range within a few years. Accordingly, we expect to be subject to substantial continuing pressure from automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to reduce the price of our products. It is possible that pricing pressures beyond our expectations could intensify as automotive OEMs pursue restructuring, consolidation and cost-cutting initiatives. If we are unable to generate sufficient production cost savings in the future to offset price reductions, our gross margin and profitability would be adversely affected.

We expect to incur substantial R&D costs and devote significant resources to identifying and commercializing new products, which could significantly reduce our profitability and may never result in revenue to us.

Our future growth depends on penetrating new markets, adapting existing products to new applications and customer requirements, and introducing new products that achieve market acceptance. Our plans to incur substantial, and potentially increasing, R&D costs as part of our efforts to design, develop, manufacture and commercialize new products and enhance existing products. Our R&D expenses were approximately $11.7 million and $24.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021, respectively, and are likely to grow in the future. Because we account for R&D as an operating expense, these expenditures will adversely affect our results of operations in the future. Further, our R&D program may not produce successful results, and our new products may not achieve market acceptance, create additional revenue or become profitable.

Although we believe that lidar is likely to become an essential sensor for autonomous vehicles and other emerging markets, market adoption of lidar is uncertain. If market adoption of lidar does not continue to develop, or develops more slowly than we expect, our business will be adversely affected.

While our lidar solutions can be applied to different use cases across end markets, a significant portion of our revenue is currently primarily generated from product sales of lidar sensors to direct customers. Despite the

fact that the automotive industry has engaged in considerable effort to research and test lidar products for ADAS and autonomous driving applications, the automotive industry may not introduce lidar products in commercially available vehicles. However, lidar products remain relatively new and it is possible that other sensing modalities, or a new disruptive modality based on new or existing technology, including a combination of technology, will achieve acceptance or leadership in the ADAS and autonomous driving industries. Even if lidar products are used in initial generations of autonomous driving technology and certain ADAS applications, we cannot guarantee that lidar products will be designed into or included in subsequent generations of such commercialized technology. In addition, we expect that initial generations of autonomous vehicles will be focused on limited applications, such as robotaxis and delivery vehicles, and that mass market adoption of autonomous technology may lag behind these initial applications significantly. The speed of market growth for ADAS or autonomous vehicles is difficult if not impossible to predict, and it is more difficult to predict this market’s future growth in light of the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we currently believe we are a leader in lidar-based systems for the ADAS market, by the time mass market adoption of ADAS and autonomous vehicle technology is achieved, we expect competition among providers of sensing technology based on lidar and other modalities to increase substantially. If commercialization of lidar products is not successful, or not as successful as we or the market expects, or if other sensing modalities gain acceptance by developers of ADAS or autonomous driving systems, automotive OEMs, regulators and safety organizations or other market participants by the time autonomous vehicle technology achieves mass market adoption, our business, results of operations and financial condition will be materially and adversely affected.

We are investing in and pursuing market opportunities outside of the Automotive markets, including in the Smart Infrastructure market. We believe that our future revenue growth, if any, will depend in part on our ability to expand within new markets such as these and to enter new markets as they emerge. Each of these markets presents distinct risks and, in many cases, requires us to address the particular requirements of that market.

Addressing these requirements can be time-consuming and costly. The market for lidar technology outside of automotive applications is relatively new, rapidly developing and unproven in many markets or industries. Many of our customers outside of the automotive industry are still in the testing and development phases and we cannot be certain that they will commercialize products or systems with our lidar products or at all. We cannot be certain that lidar will be sold into these markets, or any market outside of Automotive market, at scale. Adoption of lidar products, including our products, outside of the automotive industry will depend on numerous factors, including: whether the technological capabilities of lidar and lidar-based products meet users’ current or anticipated needs, whether the benefits of designing lidar into larger sensing systems outweigh the costs, complexity and time needed to deploy such technology or replace or modify existing systems that may have used other modalities such as cameras and radar, whether users in other applications can move beyond the testing and development phases and proceed to commercializing systems supported by lidar technology and whether lidar developers such as us can keep pace with rapid technological change in certain developing markets and the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the length of any associated work stoppages. If lidar technology does not achieve commercial success outside of the automotive industry, or if the market develops at a pace slower than we expect, our business, results of operation and financial condition will be materially and adversely affected.

We are substantially dependent on our series production award from OEM-B and our relationship with Koito, and our business and prospects will be materially and adversely affected if OEM-B’s development or launch plans for the multiple vehicle models in which our products are expected to be deployed are significantly scaled back or terminated.

Our growth plans are substantially dependent on our series production award from OEM-B. We are the supplier of lidar to OEM-B’s next generation ADAS program, through Koito. Sales to Koito accounted for over 68% of our total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2021. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain our relationship with OEM-B or Koito and secure orders from Koito for OEM-B programs. If OEM-B terminates or significantly alters or delays its next generation ADAS program and/or alters its relationship with us or with Koito in a manner that is adverse to us, our business would be materially adversely affected. Similarly, if we are unable to maintain our relationship with Koito, or the terms of our arrangement with Koito with respect to the OEM-B series production award differ from our expectations, including with respect to volume, pricing and timing, then our business and prospects would be materially adversely affected.

The period of time from engagement to a series production award and then to implementation is long, typically spanning over several years, especially in the Automotive market, and our customer arrangements are subject to cancellation or postponement of contracts or unsuccessful implementation.

Our customers generally must make significant commitments of resources to test and validate our products and confirm that they can integrate with other technologies before including them in any particular system, product or vehicle model. We, in turn, spends significant time and resources to have our products selected by our customers and their suppliers for use in a particular system, product or vehicle model, which is known as a series production award. The development cycles of our products with new customers varies widely depending on the application, market, customer and the complexity of the product. In the Automotive market, this development cycle can be five to seven years, including the period from series production award to production, which can be three to four years. In the Smart Infrastructure market, this development cycle can be one to two years. Further, even after obtaining a series production award with a customer, we are subject to the risk that such customer cancels or postpones implementation of our technology, as well as that we will not be able to integrate our technology successfully into a larger system with other sensing modalities. Further, our revenue could be less than forecasted if the system, product or vehicle model that includes our lidar products is unsuccessful, including for reasons unrelated to our technology. Long development cycles and product cancellations or postponements may adversely affect our business, prospects, results of operations and financial condition.

We may experience difficulties in managing our growth and expanding our operations.

We expect to experience significant growth in the scope and nature of our operations. Our ability to manage our operations and future growth will require us to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls, compliance programs and reporting systems. We are currently in the process of strengthening our compliance programs, including our compliance programs related to export controls, privacy and cybersecurity and anti-corruption. We may not be able to implement improvements in an efficient or timely manner and may discover deficiencies in existing controls, programs, systems and procedures, which could have an adverse effect on our business, reputation and financial results.

We rely on third-party suppliers and, because some of the raw materials and key components in our products come from limited or single-source suppliers, we are susceptible to supply shortages, long lead times for components, and supply changes, any of which could disrupt our supply chain and could delay deliveries of our products to customers.

While the components that go into the manufacture of our solutions are generally built from modular, commonly available materials, they are sourced from third-party suppliers. To date, we have produced our products in relatively limited quantities. Although we have limited experience in managing our supply chain to manufacture and deliver our products at scale, our future success will depend on our ability to manage our supply chain to manufacture and deliver our products at scale. Some of the key components used to manufacture our products come from limited or single source suppliers. We are therefore subject to the risk of shortages and long lead times in the supply of these components and the risk that our suppliers discontinue or modify components used in our products. We have a global supply chain and the COVID-19 pandemic and other health epidemics and outbreaks have and may in the future adversely affect our ability to source components in a timely or cost effective manner from our third-party suppliers due to, among other things, work stoppages or interruptions. For example, some of our key suppliers were affected by the pandemic resulting in supply chain disruptions. These issues further delayed order fulfillment and revenue recognition but were largely resolved in the third quarter of 2020. Additionally, our MMT®-based lidar uses laser diodes. Any shortage of these laser diodes could materially and adversely affect our ability to manufacture our solutions. In addition, the lead times associated with certain components are lengthy and preclude rapid changes in quantities and delivery schedules. We may in the future experience component shortages and price fluctuations of certain key components and materials, and the predictability of the availability and pricing of these components may be limited. Component shortages or pricing fluctuations could be material in the future. In the event of a component shortage, supply interruption or material pricing change from suppliers of these components, we may not be able to develop alternate sources in a timely manner or at all in the case of sole or limited sources. Developing alternate sources of supply for these components may be time-consuming, difficult, and costly and we may not be able to source these components on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, which may undermine our ability to meet our requirements or to fill customer orders in a timely manner. Any interruption or delay in the supply of any of these parts or components, or the inability to obtain these parts or components from alternate sources at acceptable prices and within a reasonable amount of time, would adversely affect our ability to meet our scheduled product deliveries to our customers. This could adversely

affect our relationships with our customers and channel partners and could cause delays in shipment of our products and adversely affect our operating results. In addition, increased component costs could result in lower gross margins. Even where we are able to pass increased component costs along to our customers, there may be a lapse of time before we are able to do so such that we must absorb the increased cost. If we are unable to buy these components in quantities sufficient to meet our requirements on a timely basis, we will not be able to deliver products to our customers, which may result in such customers using competitive products instead of ours.

Because our sales have been primarily to customers engaged in development of ADAS deployments in consumer vehicles and pilot projects in the Smart Infrastructure segment and ours orders are project-based, we expect our results of operations to fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis.

Our quarterly results of operations have fluctuated in the past and may vary significantly in the future. As such, historical comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. In particular, because our sales to date have primarily been to customers making purchases for development of ADAS deployments in consumer vehicles, sales in any given quarter can fluctuate based on the timing and success of our customers’ projects. Accordingly, the results of any one quarter should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Our quarterly financial results may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. These fluctuations could adversely affect our ability to meet our expectations or those of securities analysts, ratings agencies or investors. If we do not meet these expectations for any period, the value of our business and our securities could decline significantly. Factors that may cause these quarterly fluctuations include, but are not limited to, those listed below:

•        the timing and magnitude of orders and shipments of our products in any quarter;

•        the timing and magnitude of sales returns and warranty claims of our products in any quarter;

•        the timing and magnitude of non-recurring engineering services revenue in any quarter;

•        pricing changes we may adopt to drive market adoption or in response to competitive pressure;

•        the ability to retain our existing customers and attract new customers;

•        the ability to develop, introduce, manufacture and ship in a timely manner products that meet customer requirements;

•        disruptions in our sales channels or termination of our relationship with important channel partners;

•        delays in customers’ purchasing cycles or deferments of customers’ purchases in anticipation of new products or updates from us or our competitors;

•        fluctuations in demand pressures for our products;

•        the mix of products sold in any quarter;

•        the duration of COVID-19 and the time it takes for economic recovery;

•        the timing and rate of broader market adoption of autonomous systems utilizing our solutions across the automotive and other market sectors;

•        market acceptance of lidar and further technological advancements by our competitors and other market participants;

•        the ability of our customers to commercialize systems that incorporate our products;

•        any change in the competitive dynamics of our markets, including consolidation of competitors, regulatory developments and new market entrants;

•        the ability to effectively manage our inventory;

•        changes in the source, cost, availability of and regulations pertaining to materials we use;

•        adverse litigation, judgments, settlements or other litigation-related costs, or claims that may give rise to such costs; and

•        general economic, industry and market conditions, including trade disputes.

Our transition to an outsourced manufacturing business model may not be successful, which could harm our ability to deliver products and recognize revenue.

We are transitioning from a manufacturing model in which we primarily manufactured and assembled our products at our San Jose, California location, to one where we rely on third-party manufacturers and tier 1 partners in Japan and potentially other foreign and domestic locations. We currently have an agreement with one such manufacturer of key components and is in negotiations with other third parties to provide contract manufacturing of certain of our products. As we transition manufacturing to third-party manufacturers and tier 1 partners, we plan to maintain certain levels of in-house manufacturing capabilities for new product introduction, prototyping, and small quantity order fulfillment. We believe the use of third-party manufacturers and tier 1 partners will have benefits, but in the near term, while we begin manufacturing with new partners, we may lose revenue, incur increased costs and potentially harm our customer relationships.

Reliance on third-party manufacturers reduces our control over the manufacturing process, including reduced control over quality, product costs and product supply and timing. We may experience delays in shipments or issues concerning product quality from our third-party manufacturers. If any of our third-party manufacturers experience interruptions, delays or disruptions in supplying our products, including by natural disasters, COVID-19, other health epidemics and outbreaks, or work stoppages or capacity constraints, our ability to ship products to distributors and customers would be delayed. In addition, unfavorable economic conditions could result in financial distress among third-party manufacturers upon which we rely, thereby increasing the risk of disruption of supplies necessary to fulfill our production requirements and meet customer demands. Additionally, if any of our third-party manufacturers experience quality control problems in their manufacturing operations and our products do not meet customer or regulatory requirements, it could be required to cover the cost of repair or replacement of any defective products. These delays or product quality issues could have an immediate and material adverse effect on our ability to fulfill orders and could have a negative effect on our operating results. In addition, such delays or issues with product quality could adversely affect our reputation and our relationship with our channel partners. If third-party manufacturers experience financial, operational, manufacturing capacity or other difficulties, or experience shortages in required components, or if they are otherwise unable or unwilling to continue to manufacture our products in required volumes or at all, our supply may be disrupted, we may be required to seek alternate manufacturers and we may be required to re-design our products. It would be time-consuming, and could be costly and impracticable, to begin to use new manufacturers and designs, and such changes could cause significant interruptions in supply and could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet our scheduled product deliveries and may subsequently lead to the loss of sales. While we take measures to protect our trade secrets, the use of third-party manufacturers may also risk disclosure of our innovative and proprietary manufacturing methodologies, which could adversely affect our business.

If we further expand our international manufacturing operations, we may face risks associated with manufacturing operations outside the United States.

We expect to maintain manufacturing at our headquarters in San Jose, California for product development and small amounts of fulfillment. If we were to begin manufacturing on our own outside the United States, such activity would be subject to several inherent risks, including:

•        foreign currency fluctuations;

•        local economic conditions;

•        political instability;

•        import or export requirements;

•        failure by us, our collaborators or our distributors to obtain regulatory clearance, authorization or approval for the use of our products and services in various countries;

•        foreign government regulatory requirements;

Changes in our product mix may impact our financial performance.

Our financial performance can be affected by the mix of products we sell during a given period. If our sales include more of the lower gross margin products than higher gross margin products, our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected. There can be no guarantees that we will be able to successfully alter our product mix so that we are selling more of our high gross margin products. If actual results vary from this projected product mix of sales, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our sales and operations in international markets expose us to operational, financial and regulatory risks.

International sales comprise a significant amount of our overall revenue. Sales to international customers accounted for 84% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 and 65% of our revenue in 2020. We are committed to growing our international sales, and while we have committed resources to expanding our international operations and sales channels, these efforts may not be successful. International operations are subject to a number of other risks, including, but not limited to:

•        exchange rate fluctuations;

•        political and economic instability, international terrorism and anti-American sentiment, particularly in emerging markets;

•        global or regional health crises, such as COVID-19 or other health epidemics and outbreaks;

•        potential for violations of anti-corruption laws and regulations, such as those related to bribery and fraud;

•        preference for locally branded products, and laws and business practices favoring local competition;

•        increased difficulty in managing inventory;

•        delayed revenue recognition;

•        less effective protection of intellectual property;

•        stringent regulation of the autonomous or other systems or products using our products and stringent consumer protection and product compliance regulations, including but not limited to General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, European competition law, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive and the European Ecodesign Directive that are costly to comply with and may vary from country to country;

•        difficulties and costs of staffing and managing foreign operations;

•        import and export laws and the impact of tariffs;

•        changes in local tax and customs duty laws or changes in the enforcement, application or interpretation of such laws; and

•        U.S. government restrictions on certain technology transfer to certain countries of concern.

The occurrence of any of these risks could negatively affect our international business and consequently our business, operating results and financial condition.

The complexity of our products and the limited visibility into the various environmental and other conditions under which our customers use the products could result in unforeseen delays or expenses from undetected defects, errors or reliability issues in hardware or software which could reduce the market adoption of our new products, damage our reputation with current or prospective customers, expose us to product liability and other claims and adversely affect our operating costs.

Our products are highly technical and very complex and require high standards to manufacture and have in the past and will likely in the future experience defects, errors or reliability issues at various stages of development. We may be unable to timely release new products, manufacture existing products, correct problems that have arisen or correct such problems to our customers’ satisfaction. Additionally, undetected errors, defects or security vulnerabilities,

especially as new products are introduced or as new versions are released, could result in serious injury to the end users of technology incorporating our products, or those in the surrounding area, our customers never being able to commercialize technology incorporating our products, litigation against us, negative publicity and other consequences. These risks are particularly prevalent in the highly competitive autonomous driving and ADAS markets. Some errors or defects in our products may only be discovered after they have been tested, commercialized and deployed by customers. If that is the case, we may incur significant additional development costs and product recall, repair or replacement costs. These problems may also result in claims, including class actions, against us by our customers or others. Our reputation or brand may be damaged as a result of these problems and customers may be reluctant to buy our products, which could adversely affect our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers and could adversely affect our financial results.

In addition, we could face material legal claims for breach of contract, product liability, fraud, tort or breach of warranty as a result of these problems. Defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and may divert management’s attention and adversely affect the market’s perception of us and our products. In addition, our business liability insurance coverage could prove inadequate with respect to a claim and future coverage may be unavailable on acceptable terms or at all. These product-related issues could result in claims against us and our business could be adversely affected.

We may be subject to product liability or warranty claims that could result in significant direct or indirect costs, which could adversely affect our business and operating results.

Our customers use our solutions in autonomous driving, ADAS and other automotive applications, which present the risk of significant injury, including fatalities. We may be subject to claims if a product using our lidar technology is involved in an accident and persons are injured or purport to be injured. Any insurance that we carry may not be sufficient or it may not apply to all situations. Similarly, our customers could be subjected to claims as a result of such accidents and bring legal claims against us to attempt to hold us liable. In addition, if lawmakers or governmental agencies were to determine that the use of our products or autonomous driving or certain ADAS applications increased the risk of injury to all or a subset of our customers, they may pass laws or adopt regulations that limit the use of our products or increase our liability associated with the use of our products or that regulate the use of or delay the deployment of autonomous driving and ADAS technology. Any of these events could adversely affect our brand, relationships with customers, operating results or financial condition.

We typically provide a limited-time warranty on our products. The occurrence of any material defects in our products could make us liable for damages and warranty claims. In addition, we could incur significant costs to correct any defects, warranty claims or other problems, including costs related to product recalls. Any negative publicity related to the perceived quality of our products could affect our brand image, partner and customer demand, and adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. Also, warranty, recall and product liability claims may result in litigation, including class actions, the occurrence of which could be costly, lengthy and distracting and adversely affect our business and operating results.

If we or our suppliers do not maintain sufficient inventory or if they do not adequately manage their respective inventory, we could lose sales or incur higher inventory-related expenses, which could negatively affect our operating results.

To ensure adequate inventory supply, we and our suppliers must forecast inventory needs and expenses, place orders sufficiently in advance with their respective suppliers and manufacturing partners and manufacture products based on our estimates of future demand for particular products. Fluctuations in the adoption of lidar products may affect our ability to forecast our future operating results, including revenue, gross margins, cash flows and profitability. Our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products could be affected by many factors, including the rapidly changing nature of the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets in which we operate, the uncertainty surrounding the market acceptance and commercialization of lidar technology, the emergence of new markets, an increase or decrease in customer demand for our products or for products and services of our competitors, product introductions by competitors, COVID-19, other health epidemics and outbreaks, and any associated work stoppages or interruptions, unanticipated changes in general market conditions and the weakening of economic conditions or consumer confidence in future economic conditions. If our lidar products are commercialized in industries that are quickly growing, including autonomous driving and ADAS applications, both of which are currently experiencing rapid growth in demand, we may face challenges acquiring adequate supplies to manufacture our products and/or we

and our manufacturing partners may not be able to manufacture our products at a rate necessary to satisfy the levels of demand, which would negatively affect our revenue. This risk may be exacerbated by the fact that we may not carry or be able to obtain for our manufacturers a significant amount of inventory to satisfy short-term demand increases. If we fail to accurately forecast customer demand, we may experience excess inventory levels or a shortage of products available for sale.

Inventory levels in excess of customer demand may result in inventory write-downs or write-offs and the sale of excess inventory at discounted prices, which would adversely affect our financial results, including our gross margin, and have a negative effect on our brand. Conversely, if we underestimate customer demand for our products, we, or our manufacturing partners, may not be able to deliver products to meet our requirements, and this could result in damage to our brand and customer relationships and adversely affect our revenue and operating results.

The average selling prices of our products could decrease rapidly over the life of the product, which may negatively affect our revenue and gross margin. In addition, the selling prices we are able to ultimately charge in the future for the products we are currently developing or commercializing may be less than what we currently project, which may cause our actual operating results to differ materially from our projections.

We may experience declines in the average selling prices of our products generally as our customers seek to commercialize autonomous systems at prices low enough to achieve market acceptance. In order to sell products that have a falling average unit selling price and maintain margins at the same time, we will need to continually reduce product and manufacturing costs. To manage manufacturing costs, we must engineer the most cost-effective design for our products. In addition, we continuously drive initiatives to reduce labor cost, improve worker efficiency, reduce the cost of materials, use fewer materials and further lower overall product costs by carefully managing component prices, inventory and shipping cost. We also need to continually introduce new products with higher sales prices and gross margin in order to maintain our overall gross margin. If we are unable to manage the cost of older products or successfully introduce new products with higher gross margin, our revenue and overall gross margin would likely decline. In addition, the selling prices we are able to ultimately charge in the future for the products we are currently developing or commercializing may be less than what we currently project, which may cause our actual operating results to differ materially from our forecasts and projections.

Adverse conditions in the automotive industry or the global economy more generally could have adverse effects on our results of operations.

While we make our strategic planning decisions based on the assumption that the markets we are targeting will grow, our business is dependent, in large part on, and directly affected by, business cycles and other factors affecting the global automobile industry and global economy generally. Automotive production and sales are highly cyclical and depend on general economic conditions and other factors, including consumer spending and preferences, changes in interest rates and credit availability, consumer confidence, fuel costs, fuel availability, environmental impact, governmental incentives and regulatory requirements, and political volatility, especially in energy-producing countries and growth markets. In addition, automotive production and sales can be affected by our automotive OEM customers’ ability to continue operating in response to challenging economic conditions and in response to labor relations issues, regulatory requirements, trade agreements and other factors. The volume of automotive production in North America, Europe and the rest of the world has fluctuated, sometimes significantly, from year to year, and we expect such fluctuations to give rise to fluctuations in the demand for our products. Any significant adverse change in any of these factors may result in a reduction in automotive sales and production by our automotive OEM customers and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The discontinuation, lack of commercial success, or loss of business with respect to a particular vehicle model or other customer solution for which we are a significant supplier to, could reduce our sales and adversely affect our profitability.

If we are able to secure series production awards and our solutions are included in these autonomous driving and ADAS products, we expect to enter into supply agreements with the relevant customer. Market practice dictates that these supply agreements typically require us to supply a customer’s requirements for a particular vehicle model or autonomous driving or ADAS product, rather than supply a set number of products. These contracts can have short terms and/or can be subject to renegotiation, sometimes as frequently as annually, all of which may affect product pricing, and may be terminated by our customers at any time. Therefore, even if we are successful in obtaining series

production awards and the systems into which our products are built are commercialized, the discontinuation of, the loss of business with respect to, or a lack of commercial success of a particular vehicle model or technology package for which we are a significant supplier could mean that the expected sales of our products will not materialize, materially and adversely affecting our business.

Since many of the markets in which we compete are new to lidar and rapidly evolving, it is difficult to forecast mid-to-long-term end-customer adoption rates and demand for our products.

We are pursuing opportunities in markets that are undergoing rapid changes, including technological and regulatory changes, and it is difficult to predict the timing and size of the opportunities. For example, autonomous driving and lidar-based ADAS applications require complex technology. Because these automotive systems depend on technology from many companies, commercialization of autonomous driving or ADAS products could be delayed or impaired on account of certain technological components of ours or others not being ready to be deployed in vehicles. Although OEM-B has planned to release several vehicles using our products, others may not be able to commercialize this technology immediately, or at all. Regulatory, safety or reliability developments, many of which are outside of our control, could also cause delays or otherwise impair commercial adoption of these new technologies, which will adversely affect our growth. Our future financial performance will depend on our ability to make timely investments in the correct market opportunities. If one or more of these markets experience a shift in customer or prospective customer demand, our products may not compete as effectively, if at all, and they may not be designed into commercialized products. Given the evolving nature of the markets in which we operate, it is difficult to predict customer demand or adoption rates for our products or the future growth of the markets in which we operate. As a result, the financial projections in this prospectus necessarily reflect various estimates and assumptions that may not prove accurate and these projections could differ materially from actual results due to the risks included in this “Risk Factors” section, among others. If demand does not develop or if we cannot accurately forecast customer demand, the size of our markets, inventory requirements or our future financial results, our business, results of operations and financial condition will be adversely affected.

We target many customers that are large companies with substantial negotiating power and potentially competitive internal solutions. If we are unable to sell our products to these customers, our prospects and results of operations will be adversely affected.

Many of our customers and potential customers are large, multinational companies with substantial negotiating power relative to us and, in some instances, may have internal solutions that are competitive to our products. These large, multinational companies also have significant resources, which may allow them to acquire or develop competitive technologies either independently or in partnership with others. Accordingly, even after investing significant resources to develop a product, we may not secure a series production award or, even after securing a series production award, may not be able to commercialize a product on profitable terms. If our products are not selected by these large companies or if these companies develop or acquire competitive technology or negotiate terms that are disadvantageous to us, it will have an adverse effect on our business and prospects.

Our business could be materially and adversely affected if we lost any of our largest customers or if they were unable to pay their invoices.

Although we have and continue to pursue a broad customer base, we are dependent on a collection of large customers with strong purchasing power. In the year ended December 31, 2021, our top ten customers represented 92% of our revenue. In 2020, our top ten customers represented 84% of our revenue. In the year ended December 31, 2021, one customer accounted for more than 10% of our revenue. In 2020, three customers accounted for more than 10% of our annual revenue. The loss of business from any of our major customers (whether by lower overall demand for our products, cancellation of existing contracts or product orders or the failure to design in our products or award us new business) could have a material adverse effect on our business.

To the extent autonomous vehicle and ADAS systems become accepted by major automotive OEMs, we expects that we will rely increasingly on Tier 1 suppliers through which automotive OEMs procure components for our revenue. We expect that these Tier 1 suppliers will be responsible for certain hardware and software configuration activities specific to each OEM, and they may not exclusively carry our solutions.

There is also a risk that one or more of our major customers could be unable to pay our invoices as they become due or that a customer will simply refuse to make such payments if we experience financial difficulties. If a major customer were to enter into bankruptcy proceedings or similar proceedings whereby contractual commitments are subject to stay of execution and the possibility of legal or other modification, we could be forced to record a substantial loss.

If we are unable to establish and maintain confidence in our long-term business prospects among customers and analysts and within our industry or is subject to negative publicity, then our financial condition, operating results, business prospects and access to capital may suffer materially.

Customers may be less likely to purchase our lidar solutions if they are not convinced that our business will succeed or that our service and support and other operations will continue in the long term. Similarly, suppliers and other third parties will be less likely to invest time and resources in developing business relationships with us if they are not convinced that our business will succeed. Accordingly, in order to build and maintain our business, we must maintain confidence among customers, suppliers, analysts, ratings agencies and other parties in our products, long-term financial viability and business prospects. Maintaining such confidence may be particularly complicated by certain factors including those that are largely outside of our control, such as customer unfamiliarity with our lidar solutions, any delays in scaling production, delivery and service operations to meet demand, competition and uncertainty regarding the future of autonomous vehicles or our other services and our production and sales performance compared with market expectations.

Our investments in educating our customers and potential customers about the advantages of lidar and our applications may not result in sales of our products.

Educating our prospective customers, and to a lesser extent, our existing customers, about lidar, our advantages over other sensing technologies and lidar’s ability to convey value in different industries and deployments is an integral part of developing new business and the lidar market generally. If prospective customers have a negative perception of, or experience with, lidar or a competitor’s lidar products they may be reluctant to adopt lidar in general or specifically our products. Adverse statements about lidar by influential market participants may also deter adoption. Some of our competitors have significant financial or marketing resources that may allow them to engage in public marketing campaigns about their alternative technology, lidar or our solutions. Our efforts to educate potential customers and the market generally and to counter any adverse statements made by competitors or other market participants will require significant financial and personnel resources. These educational efforts may not be successful and we may not offset the costs of such efforts with revenue from the new customers. If we are unable to acquire new customers to offset these expenses or if the market accepts such adverse statements, our financial condition will be adversely affected.

Certain of our strategic, development, production partner and supply arrangements could be terminated or may not materialize into long-term contract partnership arrangements.

We have arrangements with strategic, development, production partner and supply partners and collaborators. Some of these arrangements are evidenced by memorandums of understandings and others like our arrangement with Koito with respect to the OEM-B series production program are supplier onboarding arrangements, both of which will require further negotiation at later stages of development to include additional terms relating to pricing, volume and payment terms, or replacement by production or master agreements that have yet to be implemented under separately negotiated statements of work, each of which could be terminated or may not materialize into next-stage contracts or long-term contract partnership arrangements. If these arrangements are terminated or if we are unable to enter into next-stage contracts or long-term operational contracts, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results may be materially adversely affected. Additionally, market practice dictates that contracts with auto OEMs typically require suppliers to fulfill a customer’s requirements for a particular vehicle model’s autonomous driving or ADAS features, rather than supply a set number of products. These contracts can be subject to renegotiation, which may affect product pricing, and may be terminated by our customers at any time. Therefore, even if we are successful in obtaining series production awards and the systems into which our products are built are commercialized, the discontinuation of, the loss of business with respect to, or a lack of commercial success of a particular vehicle model or technology package for which we are a significant supplier could mean that the expected sales of our products will not materialize, materially and adversely affecting our business and prospects.

We operate in a highly competitive market and some market participants have substantially greater resources. We compete against a large number of both established competitors and new market entrants.

The markets for sensing technology applicable to autonomous solutions in the automobile industry are highly competitive. Our future success will depend on our ability to remain a leader in our targeted markets by continuing to develop and protect from infringement advanced lidar technology in a timely manner and to stay ahead of existing and new competitors. Our competitors are numerous and they compete with us directly by offering lidar products and indirectly by attempting to solve some of the same challenges with different technology. We face competition from camera and radar companies, other developers of lidar products, Tier 1 suppliers and other technology and automotive supply companies, some of which have significantly greater resources than us. Some examples of our competitors include Velodyne Lidar Inc. (Nasdaq: VLDR), Aeva Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AEVA), Ouster, Inc. (Nasdaq: OUST), Luminar Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: LAZR) and Innoviz Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: INVZ). In the Automotive market, our competitors have attempted to commercialize both lidar and non-lidar-based ADAS technology that may achieve market adoption, strong brand recognition and may continue to improve. Other competitors are working towards commercializing autonomous driving technology and either by themselves, or with a publicly announced partner, have substantial financial, marketing, R&D and other resources. Some of our customers in the autonomous vehicle and ADAS markets have announced development efforts or made acquisitions directed at creating their own lidar-based or other sensing technologies, which would compete with our solutions. In markets outside of the automotive industry, our competitors, like us, seek to develop new sensing applications across industries. Even in these emerging markets, we face substantial competition from numerous competitors seeking to prove the value of their technology.

Additionally, increased competition may result in pricing pressure and reduced margins and may impede our ability to increase the sales of our products or cause us to lose market share, any of which will adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The markets in which we compete are characterized by rapid technological change, which requires us to continue to develop new products and product innovations and could adversely affect market adoption of our products.

While we intend to invest substantial resources to remain on the forefront of technological development, continuing technological changes in sensing technology, lidar and the markets for these products, including the ADAS and autonomous driving industries, could adversely affect adoption of lidar and/or our products, either generally or for particular applications. Our future success will depend upon our ability to develop and introduce a variety of new capabilities and innovations to our existing product offerings, as well as introduce a variety of new product offerings, to address the changing needs of the markets in which we offer our products. We are currently working on developing our directional lidar and perception software for both the Automotive and non-Automotive markets. We cannot guarantee that such products will be released in a timely manner, or at all, or achieve market acceptance. For example, some of our key suppliers were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in supply chain disruptions and a delay in customers’ orders and production schedules. These issues were largely resolved in the third quarter of 2020 but any delays in delivering new products that meet customer requirements could damage our relationships with customers and lead them to seek alternative sources of supply.

In addition, our success to date has been based on the delivery of our solutions to R&D programs in which developers are investing substantial capital to develop new systems. Our continued success relies on the success of the development phase of these customers as they expand their market share through the commercialization of new products. As ADAS and autonomous technology reaches the stage of large-scale commercialization, we will be required to develop and deliver solutions at price points that enable wider and ultimately mass-market adoption. Delays in introducing products and innovations, the failure to choose correctly among technical alternatives or the failure to offer innovative products or configurations at competitive prices may cause existing and potential customers to purchase our competitors’ products or turn to alternative sensing technology.

If we are unable to devote adequate resources to develop products or cannot otherwise successfully develop products or system configurations that meet customer requirements on a timely basis or that remain competitive with technological alternatives, our products could lose market share, our revenue will decline, we may experience operating losses and our business and prospects will be adversely affected.

Developments in alternative technology may adversely affect the demand for our lidar technology.

Significant developments in alternative technologies, such as cameras and radar, may materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results in ways we do not currently anticipate. Existing and other camera and radar technologies may emerge as customers’ preferred alternative to our solutions. Any failure by us to develop new or enhanced technologies or processes, or to react to changes in existing technologies, could materially delay our development and introduction of new and enhanced products in the autonomous vehicle industry, which could result in the loss of competitiveness of our lidar solutions, decreased revenue and a loss of market share to competitors. Our R&D efforts may not be sufficient to adapt to changes in technology. As technologies change, we plan to upgrade or adapt our lidar solutions with the latest technology. However, our solutions may not compete effectively with alternative systems if we are not able to source and integrate the latest technology into our existing lidar solutions.

Because lidar is new in most of the markets we are seeking to enter, forecasts of market growth and our growth in this prospectus may not materialize as anticipated.

Market opportunity estimates and growth forecasts included in this prospectus are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not materialize as anticipated. The forecasts and estimates in this prospectus relating to the expected size and growth of the markets for lidar-based technology may prove to be inaccurate. Even if these markets experience the forecasted growth described in this prospectus, we may not grow our business at similar rates, or at all. Our future growth is subject to many factors, including market adoption of our products, which is subject to many risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, the forecasts and estimates of market size and growth described in this prospectus, including our estimates that the size of our total addressable market is expected to grow from approximately $19 billion in 2020 to $59 billion by 2030, should not be taken as indicative of our future growth. In addition, these forecasts do not take into account the impact of the current global COVID-19 pandemic, and we cannot assure you that these forecasts will not be materially and adversely affected as a result.

We may need to raise additional capital in the future in order to execute our business plan, which may not be available on terms acceptable to us, or at all.

In the future, we may require additional capital to respond to technological advancements, competitive dynamics or technologies, customer demands, business opportunities, challenges, acquisitions or unforeseen circumstances and we may determine to engage in equity or debt financings or enter into credit facilities for other reasons. In order to further business relationships with current or potential customers or partners, we may issue equity or equity-linked securities to such current or potential customers or partners. We may not be able to timely secure additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms, or at all. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity or convertible debt or other equity-linked securities or if we issue equity or equity-linked securities to current or potential customers to further business relationships, our existing stockholders could experience significant dilution. Any debt financing obtained by us in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be adversely affected.

As a result of the Business Combination, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”) and the rules and regulations of Nasdaq. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems and resources.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls, internal control over financial reporting and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information

required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers.

Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may be inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, additional weaknesses in our internal controls may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could adversely affect our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal controls also could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting that we are required to include in our periodic reports we will file with the SEC under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information.

In order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, we have expended and anticipate that we will continue to expend significant resources, including accounting-related costs, and provide significant management oversight. Any failure to maintain the adequacy of our internal controls, or consequent inability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis, could increase our operating costs and could materially and adversely affect our ability to operate our business. If our internal controls are perceived as inadequate or as unable to produce timely or accurate financial statements, investors may lose confidence in our operating results and our stock price could decline.

Our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until after we are no longer an emerging growth company. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our controls are documented, designed or operating. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have a material and adverse effect on our business and operating results.

Changes in tax laws or exposure to additional income tax liabilities could affect our future profitability.

Factors that could materially affect our future effective tax rates include but are not limited to:

•        changes in tax laws or the regulatory environment;

•        changes in accounting and tax standards or practices;

•        changes in the composition of operating income by tax jurisdiction; and

•        our operating results before taxes.

Because we do not have a long history of operating at our present scale and we have significant expansion plans, our effective tax rate may fluctuate in the future. Future effective tax rates could be affected by operating losses in jurisdictions where no tax benefit can be recorded under GAAP, changes in the composition of earnings in countries with differing tax rates, changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities, or changes in tax laws.

On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Act”), was signed into law making significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). In particular, sweeping changes were made to the U.S. taxation of foreign operations. Changes include, but are not limited to, a permanent reduction to the corporate income tax rate, limiting interest deductions, adopting elements of a territorial tax system, assessing a repatriation tax or “toll-charge” on undistributed earnings and profits of U.S.-owned foreign corporations, and introducing certain anti-base erosion provisions, including a new minimum tax on global intangible low-taxed income and base erosion and anti-abuse tax. The new legislation had no effect on our 2018 and 2019 or 2020 provision for income taxes because we incurred losses in the U.S. in these years, and the management set up a full valuation allowance against our U.S. federal and states deferred tax assets.

In addition to the impact of the Tax Act on our federal taxes, the Tax Act may impact our taxation in other jurisdictions, including with respect to state income taxes. State legislatures have not had sufficient time to respond to the Tax Act. Accordingly, there is uncertainty as to how the laws will apply in the various state jurisdictions. Additionally, other foreign governing bodies may enact changes to their tax laws that could result in changes to our global tax position and materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, the IRS and several foreign tax authorities have increasingly focused attention on intercompany transfer pricing with respect to sales of products and services and the use of intangibles. Tax authorities could disagree with our future intercompany charges, cross-jurisdictional transfer pricing or other matters and assess additional taxes. If we do not prevail in any such disagreements, our profitability may be affected.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

As of December 31, 2021, we had $83.4 million of U.S. federal and $33.3 million of state net operating loss carryforwards available to reduce future taxable income. Of the $83.4 million in U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards, $81.3 million will be carried forward indefinitely for U.S. federal tax purposes and $2.1 million will begin to expire in 2037. $33.3 million of our U.S. state net operating loss carryforwards will begin to expire in 2037. It is possible that we will not generate taxable income in time to use these net operating loss carryforwards before their expiration or at all. Under legislative changes made in December 2017, U.S. federal net operating losses incurred in 2018 and in future years may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such net operating losses is limited. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the newly enacted federal tax law. In addition, the federal and state net operating loss carryforwards and certain tax credits may be subject to significant limitations under Section 382 and Section 383 of the Code, respectively, and similar provisions of state law. Under those sections of the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income or tax may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” will occur if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5-percent shareholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. We have not yet undertaken an analysis of whether the Business Combination constituted an “ownership change” for purposes of Section 382 and Section 383 of the Code. In addition, certain U.S. states have imposed additional limitations on the use of net operating loss carryforwards not otherwise imposed on the use of U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards and may impose additional limitations in the future.

Our business depends substantially on the efforts of our co-founders, Dr. Jun Pei and Dr. Mark McCord, our executive officers and highly skilled personnel, and our operations may be severely disrupted if we lost their services.

We are highly dependent on Dr. Jun Pei and Dr. Mark McCord, our Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Chief Technology Officer (“CTO”), respectively. Dr. Pei and Dr. McCord are deeply involved in our business. The loss of Dr. Pei or Dr. McCord would adversely affect our business because the loss could make it more difficult to, among other things, compete with other market participants, manage our R&D activities and retain existing customers or cultivate new ones. Negative public perception of, or negative news related, to Dr. Pei or Dr. McCord may adversely affect our brand, relationship with customers or standing in the industry.

Further, competition for highly-skilled personnel is often intense, especially in San Jose, California, where we are headquartered, and we may incur significant costs to attract highly-skilled personnel. We may not be successful in attracting, integrating, or retaining qualified personnel to fulfill our current or future needs. We have, from time-to-time, experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. In addition, job candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the perceived value of our equity or equity awards declines, we may adversely affect our ability to retain highly skilled employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business and future growth prospects could be adversely affected.

Unanticipated changes in effective tax rates or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income or other tax returns could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and other jurisdictions, and our tax liabilities will be subject to the allocation of expenses in differing jurisdictions. Our future effective tax rates could be subject to volatility or adversely affected by a number of factors, including:

•        changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities;

•        expected timing and amount of the release of any tax valuation allowances;

•        tax effects of stock-based compensation;

•        costs related to intercompany restructurings;

•        changes in tax laws, regulations or interpretations thereof; or

•        lower than anticipated future earnings in jurisdictions where we have lower statutory tax rates and higher than anticipated future earnings in jurisdictions where we have higher statutory tax rates.

In addition, we may be subject to audits of our income, sales and other transaction taxes by taxing authorities. Outcomes from these audits could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Our business has been and may continue to be materially and adversely affected by the current global COVID-19 pandemic or other health epidemics and outbreaks.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as other possible health epidemics and outbreaks could result in a material adverse impact on our or our customers’ business operations including reduction or suspension of operations in the U.S. or certain parts of the world. During the second and third quarters of 2020, we slowed our operating and capital spending with the expectation that our revenue would be impacted by the global pandemic. While we believe that the pandemic will act as a long-term catalyst for vehicle sales and wider adoption of ADAS programs, our overall growth rate during 2020 and 2021 has been impacted by the pandemic.

Our engineering and manufacturing operations, among others, cannot all be conducted in a remote working structure and often require on-site access to materials and equipment. We have customers with international operations in varying industries. We also depend on suppliers and manufacturers worldwide. As a Silicon Valley based company, we were affected by the “shelter in place” order starting from the first quarter of 2020 until the second quarter of 2021. While the majority of our employees were able to work from home, some employees, especially manufacturing technicians, were not able to work from home. The “shelter in place” order delayed order fulfillment and revenue recognition during 2020 and the first half of 2021. Additionally, we continued to pay employees during the “shelter in place” order if they did not choose to take unpaid leave. Manufacturing and order fulfillment employees were able to return to work in the second quarter of 2020; however, the number of employees allowed on premises at one time was greatly reduced which also affected our ability to fulfill orders and recognize revenue. Additionally, some of our key suppliers were affected by the pandemic resulting in supply chain disruptions. These issues further delayed order fulfillment and revenue recognition but were largely resolved in the third quarter of 2020. Some customers have delayed orders and production schedules due to COVID-19.

Depending upon the duration of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the associated business interruptions, our customers, suppliers, manufacturers and partners may suspend or delay their engagement with us, which could result in a material adverse effect on our financial condition. If the pandemic worsens, if the economic recovery is delayed or if there are further business interruptions or changes in customer purchasing behavior, our business, results of operations and ability to raise capital may be materially and adversely affected. Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic may prove to be inadequate and we may be unable to continue our operations in the manner we had prior to the outbreak, and may endure interruptions, reputational harm, delays in our product development and shipments, all of which could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. In addition, when the pandemic subsides, we cannot assure you as to the timing of any economic recovery, which could continue to have a material adverse effect on our target markets and our business.

Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, floods and other natural catastrophic events, global pandemics, and interruptions by man-made problems, such as terrorism. Material disruptions of our business or information systems resulting from these events could adversely affect our operating results.

A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire, flood, hurricane or significant power outage or other similar events, such as infectious disease outbreaks or pandemic events, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, such as the demand for our products, our ability to achieve or maintain profitability and our ability to raise additional capital in the future. Our corporate headquarters and R&D and manufacturing base are located in California. We are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area California, a region known for seismic activity. In addition, natural disasters, acts of terrorism or war could cause disruptions in our remaining manufacturing operations, our or our customers’ or channel partners’ businesses, our suppliers’ or the economy as a whole. We also rely on information technology systems to communicate among our workforce and with third parties. Any disruption to our communications, whether caused by a natural disaster or by manmade problems, such as power disruptions, could adversely affect our business. We do not have a formal disaster recovery plan or policy in place and does not currently require that our suppliers’ partners have such plans or policies in place. To the extent that any such disruptions result in delays or cancellations of orders or impede our suppliers’ ability to timely deliver product components, or the deployment of our products, our business, operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected.

Interruption or failure of our information technology and communications systems could impact our ability to effectively provide our services.

We plan to include in-vehicle services and functionality that utilize data connectivity to monitor performance and timely capture opportunities to enhance performance and functionality. The availability and effectiveness of our services depend on the continued operation of information technology and communications systems. Our systems will be vulnerable to damage or interruption from, among others, physical theft, fire, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, power loss, war, telecommunications failures, viruses, denial or degradation of service attacks, ransomware, social engineering schemes, insider theft or misuse or other attempts to harm our systems. We utilize reputable third-party service providers or vendors for all of our data other than our source code, and these providers could also be vulnerable to harms similar to those that could damage our systems, including sabotage and intentional acts of vandalism causing potential disruptions. Some of our systems will not be fully redundant, and our disaster recovery planning cannot account for all eventualities. Any problems with our third-party cloud hosting providers could result in lengthy interruptions in our business. In addition, our in-vehicle services and functionality are highly technical and complex technology which may contain errors or vulnerabilities that could result in interruptions in our business or the failure of our systems.

We are subject to cybersecurity risks to operational systems, security systems, infrastructure, integrated software in our lidar solutions and customer data processed by us or third-party vendors or suppliers and any material failure, weakness, interruption, cyber event, incident or breach of security could prevent us from effectively operating our business and subject us to regulatory actions or litigation.

We are at risk for interruptions, outages and breaches of: operational systems, including business, financial, accounting, product development, data processing or production processes, owned by us or our third-party vendors or suppliers; facility security systems, owned by us or our third-party vendors or suppliers; in-product technology owned by us or our third-party vendors or suppliers; the integrated software in our lidar solutions; or customer or driver data that we process or our third-party vendors or suppliers process on our behalf. Such cyber incidents could materially disrupt operational systems; result in loss of intellectual property, trade secrets or other proprietary or competitively sensitive information; compromise certain information of customers, employees, suppliers, drivers or others; jeopardize the security of our facilities; or affect the performance of in-product technology and the integrated software in our lidar solutions. A cyber incident could be caused by disasters, insiders (through inadvertence or with malicious intent) or malicious third parties (including nation-states or nation-state supported actors) using sophisticated, targeted methods to circumvent firewalls, encryption and other security defenses, including hacking, fraud, trickery or other forms of

deception. The techniques used by cyber attackers change frequently and may be difficult to detect for long periods of time. Although we maintain information technology measures designed to protect us against intellectual property theft, data breaches and other cyber incidents, such measures will require updates and improvements, and we cannot guarantee that such measures will be adequate to detect, prevent or mitigate cyber incidents. The implementation, maintenance, segregation and improvement of these systems requires significant management time, support and cost. Moreover, there are inherent risks associated with developing, improving, expanding and updating current systems, including the disruption of our data management, procurement, production execution, finance, supply chain and sales and service processes. These risks may affect our ability to manage our data and inventory, procure parts or supplies or produce, sell, deliver and service our solutions, adequately protect our intellectual property or achieve and maintain compliance with, or realize available benefits under, applicable laws, regulations and contracts. We cannot be sure that the systems upon which we rely, including those of our third-party vendors or suppliers, will be effectively implemented, maintained or expanded as planned. If we do not successfully implement, maintain or expand these systems as planned, our operations may be disrupted, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial results could be impaired, and deficiencies may arise in our internal control over financial reporting, which may impact our ability to certify our financial results. Moreover, our proprietary information or intellectual property could be compromised or misappropriated and our reputation may be adversely affected. If these systems do not operate as we expect them to, we may be required to expend significant resources to make corrections or find alternative sources for performing these functions.

A significant cyber incident could impact production capability, harm our reputation, cause us to breach our contracts with other parties or subject us to regulatory actions or litigation, any of which could materially affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results. In addition, our insurance coverage for cyber-attacks may not be sufficient to cover all the losses we may experience as a result of a cyber incident.

We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If our remediation of this material weakness is not effective, or if we experience additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock.

Prior to the consummation of the Business Combination, we were a private company with limited accounting personnel and other resources with which to address our internal control over financial reporting. In connection with the audits of our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2021, and for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2021, we identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting:

•        we did not maintain a sufficient complement of resources with an appropriate level of accounting knowledge and experience commensurate with the financial reporting requirements for a public company, in particular with respect to technical accounting knowledge regarding the accounting for certain non-standard transactions.

We cannot assure you that additional significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting will not be identified in the future. Any failure to maintain or implement required new or improved controls, or to implement our remediation plans or any difficulties we encounter in our implementation thereof, could result in additional significant deficiencies or material weaknesses or result in material misstatements in our financial statements. If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting when required, lenders and investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports.

This material weakness, if not remediated, could result in misstatements of accounts or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.

Our management anticipates that our internal control over financial reporting will not be effective until the above material weakness is remediated. If our remediation of this material weakness is not effective, or we experience additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting in the future, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in

addition to the Nasdaq listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting, and the price of our common stock may decline as a result. In addition, we may be unable to sell shares of common stock to Lincoln Park pursuant to the Purchase Agreement at prices we consider to be reasonable or at all, unable to borrow additional funds under our Loan Agreement with Trinity Capital Inc. and we may face restricted access to various sources of financing in the future.

As part of our transition to a public company, we planned to hire additional personnel with accounting knowledge and experience. We recently hired a new Director of Finance and Accounting and we will continue to evaluate our accounting and financial needs in light of the material weakness described above. We expect the hiring of additional personnel with accounting knowledge and experience will allow us to remediate the material weakness described above well in advance of December 31, 2022; however, there is no guarantee that we will be successful in hiring personnel with the necessary knowledge and experience or that our remediation efforts will be completed prior to the audit of our 2022 financial statements.

Legal and Regulatory Risks Related to Our Business

We are subject to governmental export and import control laws and regulations. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could have an adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Our products and solutions are subject to export control and import laws and regulations, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, U.S. Customs regulations and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls. U.S. export control laws and regulations and economic sanctions prohibit the shipment of certain products and services to U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments and persons. In addition, complying with export control and sanctions regulations for a particular sale may be time-consuming and result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities. Exports of our products and technology must be made in compliance with these laws and regulations. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to substantial civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export or import privileges, fines, which may be imposed on us and responsible employees or managers and, in extreme cases, the incarceration of responsible employees or managers.

Changes to trade policy, tariffs and import/export regulations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Changes in global political, regulatory and economic conditions or in laws and policies governing foreign trade, manufacturing, development and investment in the territories or countries where we may purchase our components, sells our products or conducts our business could adversely affect our business. The U.S. has recently instituted or proposed changes in trade policies that include the negotiation or termination of trade agreements, the imposition of higher tariffs on imports into the U.S., economic sanctions on individuals, corporations or countries, and other government regulations affecting trade between the U.S. and other countries where we conduct our business.

A number of other nations have proposed or instituted similar measures directed at trade with the United States in response. As a result of these developments, there may be greater restrictions and economic disincentives on international trade that could adversely affect our business. For example, such changes could adversely affect the Automotive market, our ability to access key components or raw materials needed to manufacture our products (including, but not limited to, rare-earth metals), our ability to sell our products to customers outside of the U.S. and the demand for our products. It may be time-consuming and expensive for us to alter our business operations to adapt to or comply with any such changes, and any failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have in the past and may become involved in legal and regulatory proceedings and commercial or contractual disputes, which could have an adverse effect on our profitability and consolidated financial position.

We may be, from time to time, involved in litigation, regulatory proceedings and commercial or contractual disputes that may be significant. These matters may include, without limitation, disputes with our suppliers and customers, intellectual property claims, stockholder litigation, government investigations, class action lawsuits, personal injury claims, environmental issues, customs and value-added tax disputes and employment and tax issues.

In addition, we could face in the future a variety of labor and employment claims against us, which could include but is not limited to general discrimination, wage and hour, privacy, ERISA or disability claims. In such matters, government agencies or private parties may seek to recover from us very large, indeterminate amounts in penalties or monetary damages (including, in some cases, treble or punitive damages) or seek to limit our operations in some way. These types of lawsuits could require significant management time and attention or could involve substantial legal liability, adverse regulatory outcomes, and/or substantial expenses to defend. Often these cases raise complex factual and legal issues and create risks and uncertainties. No assurances can be given that any proceedings and claims will not have a material adverse impact on our operating results and consolidated financial position or that our established reserves or our available insurance will mitigate this impact.

We are subject to, and must remain in compliance with, numerous laws and governmental regulations across various jurisdictions concerning the manufacturing, use, distribution and sale of our products. Some of our customers also require that we comply with their own unique requirements relating to these matters. These could impose substantial costs upon us and materially impact our ability to fulfil certain business opportunities.

We manufacture and sell products that contain electronic components, and such components may contain materials that are subject to government regulation in both the locations where we manufacture and assemble our products, as well as the locations where we sell our products. For example, certain regulations limit the use of lead in electronic components. Since we operate on a global basis, this is a complex process which requires continual monitoring of regulations and an ongoing compliance process to ensure that we and our suppliers and distributors are in compliance with existing regulations in each market where we operate. If there is an unanticipated new regulation that significantly impacts our use and sourcing of various components or requires more expensive components, that regulation could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition by subjecting substantial costs upon us and impeding our ability to fulfil certain business opportunities. Our products are used for autonomous driving and ADAS applications, which are subject to complicated regulatory schemes that vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. These are rapidly evolving areas where new regulations could impose limitations on the use of lidar generally or our products specifically. If we fail to adhere to these new regulations or fails to continually monitor the updates, we may be subject to litigation, loss of customers or negative publicity and our business, results of operations and financial condition will be adversely affected.

We are subject to various environmental laws and regulations that could impose substantial costs upon us.

Concerns over environmental pollution and climate change have produced significant legislative and regulatory efforts on a global basis, and we believe this will continue both in scope and in the number of countries participating. In addition, as climate change issues become more prevalent, foreign, federal, state and local governments and our customers have been responding to these issues. The increased focus on environmental sustainability may result in new regulations and customer requirements, or changes in current regulations and customer requirements, which could materially adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition. If we are unable to effectively manage real or perceived issues, including concerns about environmental impacts or similar matters, sentiments toward us or our products could be negatively impacted, and our business, results of operations or financial condition could suffer.

Our operations are and will be subject to international, federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations, and such laws and regulations could directly increase the cost of energy, which may have an effect on the way we manufacture products or utilizes energy to produce our products. In addition, any new regulations or laws in the environmental area might increase the cost of raw materials or key components we use in our products. Environmental regulations require us to reduce product energy usage, monitor and exclude an expanding list of restricted substances and to participate in required recovery and recycling of our products. Environmental and health and safety laws and regulations can be complex, and we have limited experience complying with them. Capital and operating expenses needed to comply with environmental laws and regulations can be significant, and violations may result in substantial fines and penalties, third-party damages, suspension of production or a cessation of our operations.

Contamination at properties we operate, we formerly operated or to which hazardous substances were sent by us, may result in liability for us under environmental laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which can impose liability for the full amount of remediation-related costs without regard to fault, for the investigation and cleanup of contaminated soil and ground water, for building contamination and impacts to human health and for damages to natural resources. The costs of complying with environmental laws and regulations and any claims concerning noncompliance, or liability with respect to contamination in the future, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or operating results. We may face unexpected delays in obtaining the required permits and approvals in connection with our planned production facilities that could require significant time and financial resources and delay our ability to operate these facilities, which would adversely impact our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

We are subject to U.S. and foreign anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws and regulations. We can face criminal liability and other serious consequences for violations, which can harm our business.

We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act and possibly other anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption laws are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees, agents, contractors and other collaborators from authorizing, promising, offering or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or anything else of value to recipients in the public or private sector. We can be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our employees, agents, contractors and other collaborators, even if we do not explicitly authorize or have actual knowledge of such activities. Any violations of the laws and regulations described above may result in substantial civil and criminal fines and penalties, imprisonment, the loss of export or import privileges, debarment, tax reassessments, breach of contract and fraud litigation, reputational harm and other consequences.

Our business may be adversely affected by changes in automotive and laser safety regulations or concerns that drive further regulation of the automotive and laser markets.

Government product safety regulations are an important factor for our business. Historically, these regulations have imposed ever-more stringent safety regulations for vehicles and laser products. These safety regulations often require, or customers demand that, vehicles have more safety features per vehicle and more advanced safety products.

While we believe increasing automotive and laser safety standards will present a market opportunity for our products, government safety regulations are subject to change based on a number of factors that are not within our control, including, among others, new scientific or technological data, adverse publicity regarding the industry recalls and safety risks of autonomous driving and ADAS, accidents involving our products, domestic and foreign political developments or considerations, and litigation relating to our products and our competitors’ products. Changes in automotive, lidar sensor and safety government regulations, especially in the autonomous driving and ADAS industries, could adversely affect our business. If government priorities shift and we are unable to adapt to changing regulations, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

Federal and local regulators impose more stringent compliance and reporting requirements in response to product recalls and safety issues in the automotive and laser industry. We are subject to existing stringent requirements under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (the “Vehicle Safety Act”), including a duty to report, subject to strict timing requirements, safety defects with our products. The Vehicle Safety Act imposes potentially significant civil penalties for violations including the failure to comply with such reporting actions. We are also subject to the existing U.S. Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act (“TREAD”), which requires equipment manufacturers, such as us, to comply with “Early Warning” requirements by reporting certain information to the NHTSA, such as information related to defects or reports of injury related to our products. TREAD imposes criminal liability for violating such requirements if a defect subsequently causes death or bodily injury. In addition, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act authorizes NHTSA to require a manufacturer to recall and repair vehicles that contain safety defects or fail to comply with U.S. federal motor vehicle safety standards. Sales into foreign countries may be subject to similar regulations. If we cannot rapidly address any safety concerns or defects with our products, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

adopt may prove ineffective. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with current and future regulatory or customer-driven privacy, data protection, and information security requirements, or to prevent or mitigate security breaches, cyber-attacks, or improper access to, use of, or disclosure of data, or any security issues or cyber-attacks affecting us, could result in significant liability, costs (including the costs of mitigation and recovery), and a material loss of revenue resulting from the adverse impact on our reputation and brand, loss of proprietary information and data, disruption to our business and relationships, and diminished ability to retain or attract customers and business partners. Such events may result in governmental enforcement actions and prosecutions, private litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity, and could cause customers and business partners to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business.

Regulations related to conflict minerals may cause us to incur additional expenses and could limit the supply and increase the costs of certain metals used in the manufacturing of our products.

We are subject to the requirements under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) that will require us to determine, disclose and report whether our products contain conflict minerals. The implementation of these requirements could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of the materials used in the manufacture of components used in our products. In addition, we will incur additional costs to comply with the disclosure requirements, including costs related to conducting diligence procedures to determine the sources of conflict minerals that may be used in or necessary to the production of our products and, if applicable, potential changes to products, processes or sources of supply as a consequence of such verification activities. It is also possible that our reputation may be adversely affected if we determine that certain of our products contain minerals not determined to be conflict-free or if we are unable to alter our products, processes or sources of supply to avoid use of such materials.

Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Despite the actions we are taking to defend and protect our intellectual property, we may not be able to adequately protect or enforce our intellectual property rights or prevent unauthorized parties from copying or reverse engineering our solutions. Our efforts to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights and prevent third parties from violating our rights may be costly.

The success of our products and our business depend in part on our ability to obtain patents and other intellectual property rights and maintain adequate legal protection for our products in the United States and other international jurisdictions. We rely on a combination of patent, service mark, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual restrictions, to establish and protect our proprietary rights, all of which provide only limited protection.

We cannot assure you that any patents will be issued with respect to our currently pending patent applications or that any trademarks will be registered with respect to our currently pending applications in a manner that gives us adequate defensive protection or competitive advantages, if at all, or that any patents issued to us or any trademarks registered by us will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented. We have filed for patents and trademarks in the United States and in certain international jurisdictions, but such protections may not be available in all countries in which we operate or in which we seek to enforce our intellectual property rights, or may be difficult to enforce in practice. Our currently-issued patents and trademarks and any patents and trademarks that may be issued or registered, as applicable, in the future with respect to pending or future applications may not provide sufficiently broad protection or may not prove to be enforceable in actions against alleged infringers. Our foreign intellectual property portfolio is not as comprehensive as our U.S. intellectual property portfolio and may not protect our intellectual property in some countries where our products are sold or may be sold in the future. We cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will prevent unauthorized use of our technology or the reverse engineering of our technology. Moreover, others may independently develop technologies that are competitive to us or infringe our intellectual property.

Protecting against the unauthorized use of our intellectual property, products and other proprietary rights is expensive and difficult, particularly internationally. We believe that our patents are foundational in the area of lidar products and intends to enforce the intellectual property portfolio we haves built over the years. Unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or reverse engineer our lidar technology or certain aspects of our solutions that we consider

proprietary. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce or defend our intellectual property rights, to prevent unauthorized parties from copying or reverse engineering our solutions, to determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others or to block the importation of infringing products into the United States.

Any such litigation, whether initiated by us or a third party, could result in substantial costs and diversion of management resources, either of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. Even if we obtain favorable outcomes in litigation, we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies, especially in the context of unauthorized parties copying or reverse engineering our solutions.

Further, many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to defending intellectual property infringement claims and to enforcing their intellectual property rights than we have. Attempts to enforce our rights against third parties could also provoke these third parties to assert their own intellectual property or other rights against us or result in a holding that invalidates or narrows the scope of our rights, in whole or in part. Effective patent, trademark, service mark, copyright and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which our products are available and competitors based in other countries may sell infringing products in one or more markets. Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property rights could result in our competitors offering similar products, potentially resulting in the loss of some of our competitive advantage and a decrease in our revenue, which would adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.

Third-party claims that we are infringing intellectual property, whether successful or not, could subject us to costly and time-consuming litigation or expensive licenses, and our business could be adversely affected.

Although we hold key patents related to our products, a number of companies, both within and outside of the lidar industry, hold other patents covering aspects of lidar products. In addition to these patents, participants in this industry typically also protect their technology, especially embedded software, through copyrights and trade secrets.

As a result, there is frequent litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights. We have received, and in the future may receive, inquiries from other intellectual property holders and may become subject to claims that we infringe their intellectual property rights, particularly as we expand our presence in the market, expands to new use cases and faces increasing competition. In addition, parties may claim that the names and branding of our products infringe their trademark rights in certain countries or territories. If such a claim were to prevail, we may have to change the names and branding of our products in the affected territories and we could incur other costs.

We currently have a number of agreements in effect pursuant to which we have agreed to defend, indemnify and hold harmless our customers, suppliers, and channel partners and other partners from damages and costs which may arise from the infringement by our products of third-party patents or other intellectual property rights. The scope of these indemnity obligations varies, but may, in some instances, include indemnification for damages and expenses, including attorneys’ fees. Our insurance may not cover all intellectual property infringement claims. A claim that our products infringe a third party’s intellectual property rights, even if untrue, could adversely affect our relationships with our customers, may deter future customers from purchasing our products and could expose us to costly litigation and settlement expenses. Even if we are not a party to any litigation between a customer and a third party relating to infringement by our products, an adverse outcome in any such litigation could make us more difficult for us to defend our products against intellectual property infringement claims in any subsequent litigation in which we are a named party. Any of these results could adversely affect our brand and operating results.

We may in the future need to initiate infringement claims or litigation in order to try to protect our intellectual property rights. In addition to litigation where we are a plaintiff, our defense of intellectual property rights claims brought against us or our customers, suppliers and channel partners, with or without merit, could be time-consuming, expensive to litigate or settle, divert management resources and attention and force us to acquire intellectual property rights and licenses, which may involve substantial royalty or other payments and may not be available on acceptable terms or at all. Further, a party making such a claim, if successful, could secure a judgment that requires us to pay substantial damages or obtain an injunction, and we may also lose the opportunity to license our technology to others or to collect royalty payments. An adverse determination also could invalidate or narrow our intellectual property rights and adversely affect our ability to offer our products to our customers and may require that we procure or develop substitute products that do not infringe, which could require significant effort and expense. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, reputation, operating results, financial condition and prospects.

Our intellectual property applications for registration may not issue or be registered, which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from commercially exploiting products similar to ours.

We cannot be certain that we are the first inventor of the subject matter to which we have filed a particular patent application, or if we are the first party to file such a patent application. If another party has filed a patent application to the same subject matter as we have, we may not be entitled to the protection sought by the patent application. We also cannot be certain whether the claims included in a patent application will ultimately be allowed in the applicable issued patent or the timing of any approval or grant of a patent application. Further, the scope of protection of issued patent claims is often difficult to determine. As a result, we cannot be certain that the patent applications that we file will issue, or that our issued patents will afford protection against competitors with similar technology. In addition, our competitors may design around our issued patents, which may adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

In addition to patented technology, we rely on our unpatented proprietary technology, trade secrets, designs, experiences, work flows, data, processes, software and know-how.

We rely on proprietary information (such as trade secrets, designs, experiences, work flows, data, know-how and confidential information) to protect intellectual property that may not be patentable or subject to copyright, trademark, trade dress or service mark protection, or that we believe is best protected by means that do not require public disclosure. We generally seek to protect this proprietary information by entering into confidentiality agreements, or consulting, services or employment agreements that contain non-disclosure and non-use provisions with our employees, consultants, contractors and third parties. However, we may fail to enter into the necessary agreements, and even if entered into, these agreements may be breached or may otherwise fail to prevent disclosure, third-party infringement or misappropriation of our proprietary information, may be limited as to their term and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure or use of proprietary information. We have limited control over the protection of trade secrets used by our current or future manufacturing partners and suppliers and could lose future trade secret protection if any unauthorized disclosure of such information occurs. In addition, our proprietary information may otherwise become known or be independently developed by our competitors or other third parties. To the extent that our employees, consultants, contractors, advisors and other third parties use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights in related or resulting know-how and inventions. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain protection for our proprietary information could adversely affect our competitive business position. Furthermore, laws regarding trade secret rights in certain markets where we operate may afford little or no protection to our trade secrets.

We also rely on physical and electronic security measures to protect our proprietary information, but we cannot provide assurance that these security measures will not be breached or provide adequate protection for our property. There is a risk that third parties may obtain and improperly utilize our proprietary information to our competitive disadvantage. We may not be able to detect or prevent the unauthorized use of such information or take appropriate and timely steps to enforce our intellectual property rights.

We may be subject to damages resulting from claims that we or our current or former employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of our employees’ former employers. We may be subject to damages if our current or former employees wrongfully use or disclose our trade secrets.

We may be subject to claims that we or our current or former employees have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of a current or former employee’s former employers. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. A loss of key personnel or their work product could hamper or prevent our ability to commercialize our products, which could severely harm our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and demand on management resources.

Risks Related to Being a Public Company

We will incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will devote substantial time to compliance with our public company responsibilities and corporate governance practices.

We will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company, and these expenses may increase even more after we are no longer an emerging growth company, as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act. As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the Dodd-Frank Act, as well as rules adopted, and to be adopted, by the SEC and Nasdaq, and other applicable securities rules and regulations, which impose various requirements on public companies, including the establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and changes in corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these public company requirements. Moreover, we expect these rules and regulations to substantially increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly. The increased costs will increase our net loss. We may need to hire additional legal, accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge and maintain an internal audit function.

In addition, changing laws, regulations, and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs, and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations, and standards are subject to varying interpretations and may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations, and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations, and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be adversely affected.

The rules and regulations applicable to public companies make it more expensive for us to obtain and maintain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.

We cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to these requirements. The impact of these requirements could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers.

Our management team has limited experience managing a public company.

Most of the members of our management team have limited to no experience managing a publicly traded company, interacting with public company investors and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Additionally, certain members of our management team were recently hired, including Hull Xu, who began serving as CFO in April 2022 and Paul Anawalt, who began serving as General Counsel and Secretary in April 2022. Our management team has not worked together at prior companies that were publicly traded. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage their new roles and responsibilities.

Our transition to being a public company subjects us to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from our senior management and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Shares

The Amended and Restated Charter requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders for breach of fiduciary duty and other similar actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware, which may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders, as applicable.

The Amended and Restated Charter requires, to the fullest extent permitted by law, that derivative actions brought in our name against our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders for breach of fiduciary duty and other similar actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware or, if the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction, in the federal district court of the State of Delaware. This exclusive forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us, or any of our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims, although our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived their compliance with federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. However, there is no assurance that a court would enforce the choice of forum provision contained in the Amended and Restated Charter. If a court were to find such provision to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm their business, operating results and financial condition.

The Amended and Restated Charter provides that the exclusive forum provision will be applicable to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. The Amended and Restated Charter also provides that to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.

The exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, federal courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. As noted above, the Amended and Restated Charter provides that the federal district courts of the United States will be, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action under the Securities Act. Due to the concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts created by Section 22 of the Securities Act over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce the exclusive form provision. Investors also cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

Anti-takeover provisions contained in the Amended and Restated Charter and the Bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.

The Amended and Restated Charter and the Bylaws contain provisions that could have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in control or changes in our management without the consent of our board of directors. These provisions include:

•        no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;

•        the exclusive right of our board of directors to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death, or removal of a director with or without cause by stockholders, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our board of directors;

•        the ability of our board of directors to determine whether to issue shares of our preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;

•        a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders;

•        the requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by the board of directors, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors;

•        limiting the liability of, and providing indemnification to, our directors and officers;

•        controlling the procedures for the conduct and scheduling of stockholder meetings;

•        providing for a staggered board, in which the members of the board of directors are divided into three classes to serve for a period of three years from the date of their respective appointment or election;

•        granting the ability to remove directors with cause by the affirmative vote of 66 ⅔% in voting power of the outstanding shares of common stock entitled to vote thereon;

•        requiring the affirmative vote of at least 66 ⅔% of the voting power of the outstanding shares of our capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, voting together as a single class, to amend the Bylaws or Articles V, VI, VII, VIII, IX and X of the Amended and Restated Charter; and

•        advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to the our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.

These provisions, alone or together, could delay hostile takeovers and changes in control of us or changes in our board of directors and our management.

As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the DGCL, which prevents some stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding common stock from engaging in certain business combinations without approval of the holders of substantially all of common stock. Any provision of Amended and Restated Charter, the Bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for common stock. For more information, see the section of this prospectus captioned “Description of Securities — Certain Anti-Takeover Provisions of Delaware Law and the Amended and Restated Charter and Bylaws.”

Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.

The Bylaws provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. In addition, as permitted by Section 145 of the DGCL, the Bylaws and the indemnification agreements that we have entered into or will enter into with our directors and officers provide that:

•        we will indemnify our directors and officers for serving the Company in those capacities or for serving other business enterprises at our request, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that a corporation may indemnify such person if such person acted in good faith and in a manner such person reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the registrant and, with respect to any criminal proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe such person’s conduct was unlawful;

•        we may, in our discretion, indemnify employees and agents in those circumstances where indemnification is permitted by applicable law;

•        we are required to advance expenses, as incurred, to our directors and officers in connection with defending a proceeding, except that such directors or officers shall undertake to repay such advances if it is ultimately determined that such person is not entitled to indemnification;

•        we are not obligated pursuant to the Bylaws to indemnify a person with respect to proceedings initiated by that person against us or our other indemnitees, except with respect to proceedings authorized by our board of directors or brought to enforce a right to indemnification; and

•        the rights conferred in the Bylaws are not exclusive, and we are authorized to enter into indemnification agreements with our directors, officers, employees and agents and to obtain insurance to indemnify such persons.

Our only significant asset is the ownership of 100% of Legacy Cepton’s common stock, and we do not currently intend to pay dividends on our common stock and, consequently, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of the common stock.

We have no direct operations and no significant assets other than the ownership of 100% of Legacy Cepton’s common stock. We depend on Legacy Cepton’s distributions, loans and other payments to generate the funds necessary to meet our financial obligations, including our expenses as a publicly-traded company, and to pay any dividends with respect to the common stock. Applicable state law and contractual restrictions, including in agreements governing our and/or Legacy Cepton’s current and future indebtedness, as well as the financial condition and operating requirements of Legacy Cepton, may limit our ability to obtain cash from Legacy Cepton. Thus, we do not expect to pay cash dividends on the common stock. Any future dividend payments are within the absolute discretion of our board of directors and will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, working capital requirements, capital expenditure requirements, financial condition, level of indebtedness, contractual restrictions with respect to payment of dividends, business opportunities, anticipated cash needs, provisions of applicable law and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in the common stock or warrants unless you sell those securities, as applicable, for a price greater than that which you paid for it. In addition, in the event that our board of directors and stockholders were to approve a sale of all of the common stock holdings of Legacy Cepton, your equity interest would be in a holding company with no material assets other than those assets and other consideration received in such transaction.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our securities adversely, the price and trading volume of our securities could decline.

The trading market for our securities will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, market or competitors. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on us. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, our share price and trading volume would likely be negatively impacted. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding the common stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of shares of the common stock would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on it, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

Future issuances of debt securities and equity securities may adversely affect us, including the market price of the common stock and may be dilutive to existing stockholders.

In the future, we may incur debt or issue equity securities ranking senior to the common stock. Those securities will generally have priority upon liquidation. Such securities also may be governed by an indenture or other instrument containing covenants restricting our operating flexibility. Additionally, any convertible or exchangeable securities that we issue in the future, including the shares initially reserved under the 2022 Plan, the shares initially reserved under the ESPP, the Earnout Shares, the shares underlying outstanding options and the Commitment Shares, may have rights, preferences and privileges more favorable than those of the common stock. Because our decision to issue debt or equity in the future will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, nature or success of our future capital raising efforts. As a result, future capital raising efforts may reduce the market price of the common stock and be dilutive to existing stockholders.

There can be no assurance we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of Nasdaq.

Our common stock and Public Warrants are currently listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “CPTN” and “CPTNW,” respectively. Our continued eligibility for listing may depend on the number of GCAC’s shares that are redeemed. If Nasdaq delists our shares from trading on its exchange for failure to meet the listing standards, we and our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including, but not limited to:

•        a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;

•        reduced liquidity for our securities;

•        a determination that the common stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in the common stock to adhere to more stringent rules and possibly result in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for the common stock;

•        a limited amount of analyst coverage; and

•        a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.

The National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, which is a federal statute, prevents or preempts the states from regulating the sale of certain securities, which are referred to as “covered securities.” Because the common stock and warrants are listed on Nasdaq, they are covered securities. Although the states are preempted from regulating the sale of our securities, the federal statute does allow the states to investigate companies if there is a suspicion of fraud, and, if there is a finding of fraudulent activity, then the states can regulate or bar the sale of covered securities in a particular case. While we are not aware of a state, other than the State of Idaho, having used these powers to prohibit or restrict the sale of securities issued by blank check companies, certain state securities regulators view blank check companies unfavorably and might use these powers, or threaten to use these powers, to hinder the sale of securities of blank check companies in their states. Further, if we are no longer listed on Nasdaq, our securities would not be covered securities and we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities.

An active market for our securities may not develop, which would adversely affect the liquidity and price of our securities.

The price of our securities may vary significantly due to factors specific to us as well as to general market or economic conditions. Furthermore, an active trading market for our securities may never develop or, if developed, it may not be sustained. Holders of our securities may be unable to sell their securities unless a market can be established and sustained.

The market price of our common stock may decline as a result of the Business Combination or other market factors.

The market values of our securities may vary significantly from their prices on the date the Business Combination Agreement was executed, or the date on which GCAC’s stockholders vote on the Business Combination and the Closing Date.

In addition, fluctuations in the price of our securities could contribute to the loss of all or part of your investment. Prior to the Business Combination, there has not been a public market for our common stock. Accordingly, the valuation ascribed to us may not be indicative of the price that will prevail in the trading market. If an active market for our securities develops and continues, the trading price of our securities could be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. Any of the factors listed below could have a material adverse effect on your investment in our securities and our securities may trade at prices significantly below the price you paid for them. In such circumstances, the trading price of our securities may not recover and may experience a further decline.

The market price of our common stock may decline as a result of the Business Combination and for a number of other reasons including if:

•        investors react negatively to the prospects of our business and the prospects of the Business Combination;

•        the effect of the Business Combination on our business and prospects is not consistent with the expectations of financial or industry analysts;

•        we do not achieve the perceived benefits of the Business Combination as rapidly or to the extent anticipated by financial or industry analysts;

•        actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly financial results or the quarterly financial results of companies perceived to be similar to us;

•        changes in the market’s expectations about our operating results;

•        success of competitors;

•        changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts concerning us or the transportation industry in general;

•        operating and share price performance of other companies that investors deem comparable to us;

•        our ability to market new and enhanced products and technologies on a timely basis;

•        changes in laws and regulations affecting our business;

•        our ability to meet compliance requirements;

•        commencement of, or involvement in, litigation involving us;

•        changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of securities or the incurrence of additional debt;

•        the volume of our shares of common stock available for public sale; or

•        any major change in our Board or management.

Future sales, or the perception of future sales, by us or our stockholders in the public market could cause the market price for the common stock to decline.

The sale of shares of the common stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales could occur, could harm the prevailing market price of shares of the common stock. These sales, or the possibility that these sales may occur, also might make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate.

All shares issued in the Business Combination to Legacy Cepton stockholders are freely tradable without registration under the Securities Act, and without restriction by persons other than our “affiliates” (as defined under Rule 144 of the Securities Act, “Rule 144”), including our directors, executive officers and other affiliates.

In connection with the Business Combination, certain Legacy Cepton stockholders, who collectively own 127,613,704 shares of the common stock have agreed, subject to certain exceptions, not to dispose of or hedge any of their shares of the common stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of the common stock during the period from February 10, 2022 continuing through the earliest of: (i) February 10, 2023, (ii) the last trading day when the last reported sale price of the common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 60 days after February 10, 2022, or (iii) such date on which we complete a liquidation, merger, stock exchange, reorganization or other similar transaction that results in all of the our stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of the common stock for cash, securities or other property.

Any Purchased Shares will also be registered under a registration statement and become eligible for sale in the public market. In addition, the 15,123,142 shares of the common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2022 Plan and 3,080,960 shares reserved for further issuance under the ESPP will become eligible for sale in the public market once those shares are issued, subject to any applicable vesting requirements, lockup agreements and other restrictions imposed by law. We are expected to file one or more registration statements on Form S-8 under the Securities Act to register shares of the common stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of the common stock issued pursuant to the 2022 Plan and ESPP. Any such Form S-8 registration statements will automatically become effective upon filing. Accordingly, shares registered under such registration statements will be available for sale in the open market. The initial registration statement on Form S-8 is also expected to cover shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding Legacy Cepton equity awards that were outstanding and assumed by Cepton in connection with the Closing.

In the future, we may also issue our securities in connection with investments or acquisitions. The amount of shares of the common stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition could constitute a material portion of the then-outstanding shares of the common stock. Any issuance of additional securities in connection with investments or acquisitions may result in additional dilution to our stockholders.

Our failure to meet the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq could result in a delisting of our securities.

If, after listing, we fail to satisfy the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq such as the corporate governance requirements or the minimum closing bid price requirement, Nasdaq may take steps to delist our securities. Such a delisting would likely have a negative effect on the price of the securities and would impair your ability to sell or purchase the securities when you wish to do so. In the event of a delisting, we can provide no assurance that any action taken by it to restore compliance with listing requirements would allow our securities to become listed again, stabilize the market price or improve the liquidity of our securities, prevent our securities from dropping below the Nasdaq minimum bid price requirement or prevent future non-compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements. Additionally, if our securities are not listed on, or become delisted from, Nasdaq for any reason, and are quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board, an inter-dealer automated quotation system for equity securities that is not a national securities exchange, the liquidity and price of our securities may be more limited than if we were quoted or listed on Nasdaq or another national securities exchange. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established or sustained.

We qualify as an “emerging growth company” as well as a smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.

We qualify as an “emerging growth company” within the meaning of the Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, including, but not limited to, (i) not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (ii) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and (iii) exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. As a result, our stockholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of: (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) ending December 31, 2026, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of the prior fiscal year’s second fiscal quarter; and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. Investors may find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exceptions. We cannot predict whether investors will find our securities less attractive because we will rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our securities less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions, the trading prices of our securities may be lower than they otherwise would be, there may be a less active trading market for our securities and the trading prices of our securities may be more volatile.

Further, Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies (that is, those that have not had a Securities Act registration statement declared effective or do not have a class of securities registered under the Exchange Act) are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies but any such an election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected not to opt out of such extended transition period, which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company which is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company which has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.

Additionally, we qualify as a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (i) the market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30, or (ii) our annual revenues exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, we may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.

We may redeem your unexpired Public Warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your Public Warrants worthless.

We have the ability to redeem outstanding Public Warrants at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the last reported sales price of our common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30-trading day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date we gives notice of redemption. If and when the Public Warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if it is unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding Public Warrants could force you to: (i) exercise your Public Warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) sell your Public Warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your Public Warrants or (iii) accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding Public Warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your Public Warrants. Because the $18.00 trading price referred to above substantially exceeds the current trading price of our common stock and we have registered for resale a substantial number of shares of our common stock, the sale of which could cause the price of our common stock to decrease, we may be unable to redeem the Public Warrants and the Public Warrants may expire worthless.

The unaudited pro forma financial information included herein may not be indicative of what our actual financial position or results of operations would have been.

The unaudited pro forma financial information included herein is presented for illustrative purposes only and is not necessarily indicative of what our actual financial position or results of operations would have been had the Business Combination been completed on the dates indicated.

UNAUDITED PRO FORMA CONDENSED COMBINED FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Defined terms included below shall have the same meaning as terms defined and included elsewhere in this prospectus. Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this prospectus to “Legacy Cepton” and the “Company” prior to the closing of the Business Combination are intended to mean Cepton Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation and “GCAC” refers to Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. prior to the Closing. References in this prospectus to “Cepton” and the “Company” after the closing of the Business Combination are intended to mean Cepton, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

Introduction

The following unaudited pro forma condensed combined financial information has been prepared in accordance with Article 11 of Regulation S-X as amended by the final rule, Release No. 33-10786 “Amendments to Financial Disclosures about Acquired and Disposed Businesses.”

GCAC was formed as a blank check company under the laws of the State of Delaware on January 4, 2010 under the name PinstripesNYS, Inc., and subsequently submitted a registration statement under the name Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. on February 27, 2020 for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses.

Cepton provides state-of-the-art, intelligent, lidar-based solutions for a range of markets such as automotive (ADAS/AV), smart cities, smart spaces, and smart industrial applications. Cepton’s patented MMT®-based lidar technology enables reliable, scalable, and cost-effective solutions that deliver long range, high resolution 3D perception for smart applications.

The unaudited pro forma condensed combined balance sheet as of December 31, 2021 combines the historical balance sheet of GCAC as of December 31, 2021 with the historical balance sheet of Legacy Cepton as of December 31, 2021 on a pro forma basis as if the Business Combination and related transactions, summarized below, had been consummated on December 31, 2021.

GCAC and Legacy Cepton have different fiscal years. GCAC’s fiscal year ends on March 31, whereas Legacy Cepton’s fiscal year ends on December 31. The unaudited pro forma condensed combined statement of operations for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 combines the historical statement of operations of GCAC and Legacy Cepton for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021. The historical statement of operations of GCAC for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, was derived from GCAC’s unaudited condensed statement of operations for the nine months ended December 31, 2020 (as restated), audited condensed statement of operations for the year ended March 31, 2021 (as restated), and unaudited condensed statement of operations for the nine months ended December 31, 2021. The unaudited pro forma condensed combined statement of operations for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 combines the historical statements of operations of GCAC and Legacy Cepton for such period on a pro forma basis as if the Business Combination and related transactions, summarized below, had been consummated on January 1, 2021.

The unaudited pro forma condensed combined balance sheet as of December 31, 2021 and the unaudited pro forma condensed combined statement of operations for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 are presented after giving effect to the Business Combination. In connection with the consummation of the Business Combination, the following occurred:

•        Merger Sub, the wholly owned subsidiary of GCAC, merged with and into Legacy Cepton, with Legacy Cepton surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of Cepton;

•        the issuance of 141,614,344 shares of common stock as Consideration Shares based on the Per Share Stock Consideration Rate of 2.451 shares and 57,768,478 Legacy Cepton Outstanding Shares (reflecting Legacy Cepton outstanding common stock inclusive of converted and exercised preferred stock, Cepton Class F stock, and warrants).

•        the conversion of all 21,671,491 outstanding shares of Legacy Cepton preferred stock and 8,372,143 shares of Legacy Cepton Class F stock into 30,043,634 shares of Legacy Cepton common stock that rolled over into 73,649,326 shares of Cepton common stock based on the Per Share Stock Consideration Rate;

•        the redesignation of GCAC’s outstanding 1,660,460 Public Shares (net of redemptions of 15,589,540 Public Shares) and 4,312,500 Sponsor Shares as Cepton common stock;

•        the exercise of warrants to purchase an aggregate of 60,000 shares of Legacy Cepton common stock for shares of Cepton common stock that rolled over into 137,125 shares of Cepton common stock based on the Per Share Stock Consideration Rate, calculated in accordance with the treasury method of accounting;

•        the conversion of all 3,420,746 outstanding vested Legacy Cepton options and all 2,082,611 outstanding unvested Legacy Cepton options into 8,385,658 vested options and 5,105,337 unvested options in Cepton, respectively, based on the Per Share Stock Consideration Rate (the “Converted Options”). In accordance with the Business Combination Agreement, the exercise price per share of all outstanding vested and unvested Legacy Cepton options will be adjusted by dividing the applicable exercise price per share immediately prior to the Business Combination by the Per Share Stock Consideration Rate. The Converted Options are presented on a diluted basis, calculated in accordance with the treasury stock method of accounting;

•        the issuance of 5,950,000 shares of Cepton common stock to the PIPE Investors in exchange for $59.5 million, or $10.00 per share, in consideration;

•        the recognition of a liability related to the issuance of up to 13,000,000 Earnout Shares contingently issuable to holders of Cepton common stock based upon achievement of the Share Price Milestones. Share Price Milestones are met if the share price of Cepton common stock equals or exceeds $15.00 per share (first Share Price Milestone) and/or $17.50 per share (second Share Price Milestone) for any 20 trading days within any consecutive 30-trading day period that occurs after the Closing, and on or prior to the three-year anniversary of the Closing. Upon achievement of the first Share Price Milestone, 7,000,000 Earnout Shares shall be deemed earned and issued and 6,000,000 Earnout Shares shall be deemed earned and issued upon achievement of the second Share Price Milestone. The Earnout Shares will not be issued if none of the Share Price Milestones are met as of the three-year anniversary of the Closing; and

•        the issuance of 50,000 shares of Cepton common stock to Lincoln Park as consideration for entering into the Purchase Agreement.

The historical financial information of GCAC was derived from the unaudited financial statements of GCAC as of and for the nine months ended December 31, 2021 and from the audited financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2021 (as restated), included or incorporated by reference in this prospectus. The historical financial information of Legacy Cepton was derived from the audited consolidated financial statements of Legacy Cepton as of and for the year ended December 31, 2021 included or incorporated by reference in this prospectus. This information should be read together with GCAC’s and Legacy Cepton’s audited and unaudited financial statements and related notes, the sections titled “Other Information Related to GCAC — GCAC’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and “Cepton’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and other financial information included or incorporated by reference in this prospectus.

The pro forma combined financial statements have been presented for informational purposes only and are not necessarily indicative of what Cepton’s financial position or results of operations actually would have been had the transactions been completed as of the dates indicated. In addition, the pro forma data do not purport to project the future financial position or operating results of Cepton. The actual financial position and results of operations may differ significantly from the pro forma amounts reflected herein due to a variety of factors.

Accounting for the Business Combination

The Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse recapitalization in accordance with GAAP. Under this method of accounting, GCAC, who is the legal acquirer, will be treated as the “acquired” company for financial reporting purposes and Legacy Cepton will be treated as the accounting acquirer. Legacy Cepton has been determined to be the accounting acquirer based on evaluation of the following facts and circumstances:

•        Legacy Cepton’s existing stockholders have more than 90% of the voting interest of Cepton;

•        Legacy Cepton’s senior management comprise the senior management of Cepton;

•        the directors nominated by Legacy Cepton represent the majority of the board of directors of Cepton;

•        Legacy Cepton is the larger entity based on historical revenues and business operations;

•        Legacy Cepton’s operations comprise the ongoing operations of Cepton; and

•        GCAC assumed the name Cepton, Inc.

Accordingly, for accounting purposes, the Business Combination was treated as the equivalent of a capital transaction in which Legacy Cepton is issuing stock for the net assets of GCAC. The net assets of GCAC will be stated at historical cost, with no goodwill or other intangible assets recorded. Operations prior to the Business Combination will be those of Legacy Cepton.

Description of the Business Combination

Pursuant to the Business Combination Agreement, the aggregate stock consideration issued by Cepton in the Business Combination was $1.535 billion, consisting of 153,537,304 newly issued shares of Cepton common stock valued at $10.00 per share. Legacy Cepton shareholders received $1.416 billion in the form of 141,614,344 newly issued shares of Cepton common stock. GCAC public shareholders received $16.6 million in the form of 1,660,460 newly issued shares of Cepton common stock, the PIPE Investors received $59.5 million in the form of 5,950,000 newly issued shares of Cepton common stock, and the Sponsor received $43.1 million in the form of 4,312,500 newly issued shares of Cepton common stock in exchange for GCAC’s existing Class B common stock. The issuance of 50,000 shares of Cepton common stock to Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC as consideration for entering into the Purchase Agreement is not considered as part of the aggregate stock consideration as the Purchase Agreement was entered into separately from the Business Combination Agreement. The following represents the consideration at closing of the Business Combination:

The value of share consideration issuable at the Closing was determined by application of the Exchange Ratio of 2.451, which is based on the implied value of $10.00 per share prior to the Business Combination.

The following tables summarize the pro forma Cepton shares of common stock issued and outstanding immediately after the Business Combination both on an issued and outstanding share and diluted basis:

____________

(1)      Diluted Basis is equal to the issued and outstanding share basis plus the 7,979,544 vested Converted Options.

UNAUDITED PRO FORMA CONDENSED COMBINED BALANCE SHEET
AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2021 — (Continued)
(In thousands)

____________

(A)     Obtained from the audited consolidated balance sheet of Legacy Cepton as of December 31, 2021.

(B)     Obtained from the unaudited balance sheet of GCAC as of December 31, 2021.

(C)     Authorized, issued and outstanding shares for each class of common stock and preferred stock as of December 31, 2021 and on a pro forma basis is as follows:

See accompanying notes to unaudited pro forma condensed combined financial information.

The unaudited pro forma condensed combined financial information is not necessarily indicative of what the actual results of operations and financial position would have been had the Business Combination taken place on the dates indicated, nor are they indicative of the future consolidated results of operations or financial position of Cepton. They should be read in conjunction with the historical financial statements and notes thereto of GCAC and Legacy Cepton.

2.      Adjustments to Unaudited Pro Forma Condensed Combined Financial Information

The unaudited pro forma condensed combined financial information has been prepared to illustrate the effect of the Business Combination and has been prepared for informational purposes only.

The historical financial statements have been adjusted in the unaudited pro forma condensed combined financial information to give pro forma effect to events that are directly attributable to the Business Combination. Legacy Cepton and GCAC have not had any historical relationship prior to the Business Combination. Accordingly, no pro forma adjustments were required to eliminate activities between the companies.

The pro forma combined provision for income taxes does not necessarily reflect the amounts that would have resulted had Cepton filed consolidated income tax returns during the periods presented.

The pro forma basic and diluted earnings per share amounts presented in the unaudited pro forma condensed combined statement of operations are based upon the number of Cepton’s shares outstanding, assuming the Business Combination had been completed on January 1, 2021.

Adjustments to Unaudited Pro Forma Condensed Combined Balance Sheet

The adjustments included in the unaudited pro forma condensed combined balance sheet as of December 31, 2021 are as follows:

(1)    Reflects the release of cash currently invested in U.S. treasuries or money market funds held in the Trust Account.

(2)    Reflects the proceeds received from the PIPE Investment with the corresponding issuance of 5,950,000 shares of Cepton common stock at $10.00 per share.

(3)    Represents preliminary estimated direct and incremental transaction costs incurred by GCAC and Legacy Cepton related to the Business Combination. Total transaction costs are estimated to be $40.4 million related to underwriting/banking, legal, accounting and other miscellaneous fees, including $4.4 million in deferred transaction costs incurred by Legacy Cepton. Of the $4.4 million in deferred transaction costs incurred by Legacy Cepton, approximately $1.6 million is reflected in accrued expenses and will be paid in cash upon the closing of the Business Combination. The remaining $2.8 million of deferred transaction costs were previously paid for in cash by Legacy Cepton. Of the remaining $36.0 million in total transaction costs, $27.0 million is reflected in the unaudited pro forma condensed combined balance sheet as a reduction to Cepton’s additional paid-in capital as they are incremental costs directly attributable to a proposed offering of securities and thus charged against the gross proceeds of the proposed offering, which includes the Business Combination and PIPE Investment. Additionally, this adjustment reflects the recognition of prepaid assets of $6.3 million associated with directors’ and officers’ liability insurance for the Post-Combination Company. Approximately $4.0 million of the directors’ and officers’ liability insurance relates to the first year of the policy and was recorded to prepaid expenses and other current assets. The remaining $2.3 million relates to the second year of the insurance policy and was recorded to other assets. This adjustment also reflects the payment of $1.4 million in accrued expenses recognized by GCAC related to the contemplated business combination. The remaining $1.3 million are reflected in the unaudited pro forma condensed combined balance sheet as an increase to Cepton’s accumulated deficit. These relate to the transaction costs incurred by GCAC during the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2021 including, but not limited to, advisory fees, legal fees and registration fees.

(4)    Reflects the reclassification of GCAC class A common stock previously subject to possible redemption to permanent equity immediately prior to the consummation of the Business Combination.

(5)    Reflects the recapitalization of Legacy Cepton through (a) the contribution of all the share capital in Legacy Cepton to GCAC in the amount of $7.5 million and (b) the issuance of 141,614,344 shares of Cepton common stock at par value of $0.00001.

The unaudited pro forma condensed combined financial information has been prepared using actual redemption amounts:

____________

(1)      This total is based on the Legacy Cepton cap table as of December 31, 2021.

This total represents Cepton shares of common stock issued to the following stockholders:

—      67,827,892 shares to Legacy Cepton common stockholders (27,668,907 shares prior to conversion);

—      20,523,572 shares to Legacy Cepton Class F stockholders (8,372,143 shares prior to conversion);

—      53,125,754 shares to Legacy Cepton preferred stockholders (21,671,491 shares prior to conversion); and

—      137,125 shares to Legacy Cepton warrant holders (55,937 shares prior to conversion).

(2)      This amount excludes: (i) 8,385,656 shares reserved for vested Converted Options using the treasury stock method which will not be legally outstanding following the Business Combination and which are allocated from the 150,000,000 shares issuable to existing Legacy Cepton stockholders per the Business Combination Agreement.

(3)      As a result of the pro forma net loss, the net loss per share amounts exclude the anti-dilutive impact from 16,660,074 Converted Options, 8,625,000 Public Warrants to purchase 8,625,000 shares of Cepton common stock, 5,175,000 Private Warrants to purchase 5,175,000 shares of Cepton common stock, and 122,570 unvested restricted shares of Cepton common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2021 on a pro forma basis.

4.      Earnout Shares

The Earnout Shares are expected to be accounted for as liability classified equity instruments that are earned upon achievement of the Share Price Milestones, which provide for settlement provisions that are not indexed to Cepton common stock. The estimated fair value of the Earnout Shares is $75.0 million.

The estimated fair value of the Earnout Shares was determined by a Monte Carlo simulation valuation model using a distribution of potential outcomes on a monthly basis over the three-year earnout period. The estimated fair value of the Earnout Shares was determined using information available at the Closing. Assumptions used in the valuation were as follows:

Current stock price:    the current stock price was set at the current value of $7.99 per share for GCAC Class A common stock.

Expected volatility:    the volatility rate of 77.5% was determined using an average of historical volatilities of selected industry peers deemed to be comparable to Legacy Cepton’s business, corresponding to the expected term of the awards.

Risk-free interest rate:    the risk-free interest rate of 1.8036% is based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of issuance for zero-coupon U.S. Treasury notes with maturities corresponding to the expected three-year term of the earnout period.

Expected term:    the expected term is the three-year term of the earnout period.

Expected dividend yield:    the expected dividend yield is zero as Legacy Cepton has never declared or paid cash dividends and Cepton has no current plans to do so during the expected term.

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF
FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

References in this section to “we,” “our,” “us,” and “Cepton” generally refer to Cepton Technologies, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries prior to the Business Combination and to Cepton and its consolidated subsidiaries after giving effect to the Business Combination. The following discussion and analysis of our results of operations and financial condition should be read in conjunction with the sections entitled “Business,” “Unaudited Pro Forma Condensed Combined Financial Information,” and our financial statements and related notes and other information included elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon our current expectations, estimates and projections that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements due to, among other considerations, the matters discussed under “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements”.

Percentage amounts included in this prospectus have not in all cases been calculated on the basis of such rounded figures, but on the basis of such amounts prior to rounding. For this reason, percentage amounts in this prospectus may vary from those obtained by performing the same calculations using the figures in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Certain other amounts that appear in this prospectus may not sum due to rounding.

Introduction

This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) is a supplement to the accompanying consolidated financial statements and provides additional information on our business, recent developments, financial condition, liquidity and capital resources, cash flows and results of operations. MD&A is organized as follows:

•        Business Overview:    This section provides a general description of our business, and a discussion of management’s general outlook regarding market demand, our competitive position and product innovation, as well as recent developments we believe are important to understanding our results of operations and financial condition or in understanding anticipated future trends.

•        Results of Operations:    This section provides an analysis of our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020.

•        Liquidity and Capital Resources:    This section provides a discussion of our financial condition and an analysis of our cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020. This section also provides a discussion of our contractual obligations, other purchase commitments and customer credit risk that existed at December 31, 2021, as well as a discussion of our ability to fund our future commitments and ongoing operating activities through internal and external sources of capital.

•        Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates:    This section identifies and summarizes those accounting policies that significantly impact our reported results of operations and financial condition and require significant judgment or estimates on the part of management in their application.

Business Overview

Cepton is focused on the deployment of high performance, mass-market lidars to deliver safety and autonomy across the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets. By adopting our solutions, our customers can enable safety and autonomy applications across a broad range of end-markets including our primary market, ADAS in consumer and commercial vehicles, which we believe represents not just the largest market opportunity for lidar applications over the next decade, but also the market with the best potential for near term mass-market commercialization.

Since the inception of our company in 2016, building lidars for broad market adoption has been our guiding principle. Mass-market deployment guided not just our end-market focus, but also our product design choices, our areas of technological innovation, and our approach to manufacturing, and our go-to-market strategy and partnerships. To pursue mass-market adoption, our value proposition has focused on developing a lidar that achieves high performance with automotive grade reliability at competitive prices. Our thesis was that lidar would gain broad based adoption only when solutions strike the right balance across three key facets of performance, cost and reliability.

Based on this approach, we have gained acceptance for our technology in the Automotive market. In 2019, following approximately three years of rigorous engagement and working alongside our automotive Tier 1 partner, Koito, we were awarded the largest known ADAS lidar series production award in the industry to date by OEM-B. This award includes multiple platforms and vehicle models, with an estimated production start in 2023.

As a Silicon Valley-based company led by recognized technical experts in the optical field, technology innovation is at the core of our company. We developed a comprehensive lidar platform consisting of proprietary components including our breakthrough MMT® imaging technology and our SoC ASIC lidar engine, a portfolio of automotive-grade and industrial-grade long-range and near-range lidars, a software layer enabling the integration of automotive functions, and feature rich perception software capabilities.

Business Combination

Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. (“GCAC”), our legal predecessor, was originally incorporated in Delaware as a special purpose acquisition company. On February 9, 2022, GCAC stockholders approved the Business Combination and other transactions and proposal presented within the proxy statement/consent solicitation statement/prospectus.

On February 10, 2022, the parties to the Business Combination Agreement consummated the Business Combination. Immediately upon the consummation of the Business Combination, Legacy Cepton became a wholly owned subsidiary of GCAC, GCAC changed its name to Cepton, Inc., and the Company is now listed on Nasdaq under the symbol “CPTN”. Cepton is deemed the accounting predecessor and Cepton is the successor SEC registrant, which means that Legacy Cepton’s financial statements for previous periods will be disclosed in Cepton, Inc.’s future periodic reports filed with the SEC.

The Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse recapitalization. Under this method of accounting, GCAC is treated as the acquired company for financial statement reporting purposes. See “Unaudited Pro Forma Condensed Combined Financial Information.”

The aggregate consideration for the Business Combination and related transactions was approximately $1.5 billion, consisting of (i) $5.7 million in cash at the closing of the Business Combination, net of transaction expenses, (ii) $42.0 million in proceeds from the PIPE, net of transaction expenses, and (iii) 142,075,041 shares of common stock valued at $10.00 per share, totaling $1.4 billion.

In connection with the Business Combination, approximately 15.6 million shares of GCAC Class A Common Stock were redeemed which represented a significant portion of the publicly traded shares outstanding immediately prior to the Business Combination and resulted in only $16.6 million of cash from the GCAC trust account becoming available to Cepton in connection with the closing of the Business Combination. As discussed within the section entitled “Liquidity and Capital Resources” below, we have entered into the Lincoln Park Purchase Agreement (as defined below) pursuant to which Lincoln Park has agreed to purchase up to $100.0 million of common stock (subject to certain limitations contained in the Purchase Agreement) from time to time over a 36-month period. Further, we have entered into a Loan Agreement with Trinity Capital Inc. to borrow up to $25.0 million at a rate of 10.75%. These sources of liquidity, together with the cash on hand, are sufficient to meet our capital requirements. In considering our capital requirements and sources of liquidity, we have not relied on the receipt of proceeds from the exercise of our warrants and, since the exercise price of our warrants exceeds the recent trading prices for shares of our common stock, it is unlikely that we will receive significant proceeds, if any, from the exercise of warrants in the near future.

The 14,700,000 shares that may be resold into the public markets pursuant to this prospectus represent approximately 9.5% of the shares of our common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2022. Any sales of such shares into the public market could have a significant negative impact on the trading price of our common stock.

In addition, we have filed a separate registration statement registering the issuance to and resale by certain third parties unrelated to Lincoln Park of certain shares of common stock and/or warrants issued prior to, or in connection with, the Business Combination. The shares being registered for resale by certain third parties unrelated to Lincoln Park into the public markets pursuant to such separate registration statement represent a substantial majority of the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2022. Once such separate registration statement is effective, the shareholders selling pursuant to such separate registration statement will determine the timing, pricing and rate at which they sell such shares into the public market and such sales could have a significant negative impact on the trading price of our common stock. Although the current trading price or our common stock is significantly

below $10.00 per share, which was the sales price for units in the Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. initial public offering, certain of the investors who have resale rights under such separate registration statement have an incentive to sell because they purchased shares and/or warrants at prices below the initial public offering price. Sales by such investors may prevent the trading price of our securities from exceeding the initial public offering price and may cause the trading prices of our securities to experience a further decline. If the trading price of our common stock does not recover or experiences a further decline, sales of shares of common stock to Lincoln Park pursuant to the Purchase Agreement may be a less attractive source of capital and/or may not allow us to raise capital at rates that would be possible if the trading price of our common stock were higher.

As a result of becoming a publicly traded company, we will need to hire additional personnel and implement procedures and processes to address public company regulatory requirements and customary practices. We expect to incur additional annual expenses as a public company for, among other things, directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, director fees and additional internal and external accounting and legal and administrative resources, including increased audit and legal fees.

Impact of COVID-19

Throughout 2020 the worldwide spread of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and the measures intended to contain the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in a global slowdown of economic activity and caused disruptions to our business. In particular, our headquarters are based in the Silicon Valley, which has been subject to ongoing government measures and orders such as quarantines and social distancing. During the second and third quarters of 2020, we slowed our operating and capital spending with the expectation that our revenue would be impacted by the global pandemic. We believe that the pandemic will act as a long-term catalyst for vehicle sales and wider adoption of ADAS programs, and our overall growth rate during 2020 and 2021 has been impacted by the pandemic.

As a Silicon Valley based company, we were affected by the “shelter in place” order starting from the first quarter of 2020 until the second quarter of 2021. While the majority of our employees were able to work from home, some employees, especially manufacturing technicians, were not able to work from home. The “shelter in place” order delayed order fulfillment and revenue recognition during 2020 and the first half of 2021. Additionally, we continued to pay employees during the “shelter in place” order if they did not choose to take unpaid leave. Manufacturing and order fulfillment employees were able to return to work in the second quarter of 2020; however, the number of employees allowed on premises at one time was greatly reduced which also affected our ability to fulfill orders and recognize revenue. We had to separate our manufacturing technicians into two shifts to keep social distancing requirements. We increased the hourly rate for technicians who worked during the second shift, and the increased pay combined with underutilized employee pay increased our employee overhead and decreased gross margins in 2020 and the first half of 2021.

Our suppliers are located worldwide, and the suppliers in the Asia Pacific geographical region were especially affected by the pandemic in 2020, especially in the first half of 2020. Some of our key suppliers were affected by the pandemic resulting in supply chain disruptions. These issues further delayed order fulfillment and revenue recognition but were largely resolved in the third quarter of 2020. Some customers have delayed orders and production schedules due to COVID-19. The pandemic continues to evolve, and the full extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will directly or indirectly impact our business, results of operations and financial condition, including sales, expenses, reserves and allowances, manufacturing, research and development costs and personnel-related costs, will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain, including as a result of new information that may emerge concerning COVID-19 and the actions taken to contain or treat COVID-19, any resurgence of the pandemic in areas where we or our suppliers operate, and the economic impact on local, regional, national and international customers and markets.

For more information on our operations and risks related to health epidemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, please see the section of this prospectus entitled “Risk Factors.”

Key Factors Affecting Our Operating Results

We believe that our future performance and success depends, to a substantial extent, on our ability to capitalize on the following opportunities, which in turn is subject to significant risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section of this prospectus entitled “Risk Factors.”

Series production awards in the Automotive market

An important part of our mission is to deploy high performance, mass-market lidar in the automotive market. Within the automotive market, we believe that passenger car ADAS applications represent the largest opportunity but also have the most stringent requirements for reliability, cost, and performance. Major automotive OEMs typically undergo several years of planning, technology selection, and vehicle integration work before introducing new and important technologies in their vehicle offerings. We anticipate that lidar, as a new sensor that improves safety and enhances autonomy, will undergo the same technology introduction and validation process as similar technologies in the past, such as anti-lock braking systems or stability control systems. The number of vehicle platforms and vehicle models that will be equipped with lidar will depend on OEM product planning, vehicle integration, and marketing schedules. Once a lidar supplier is chosen, the number of awarded vehicle platforms and vehicle models is likely to increase over time. This is because the development efforts of integrating lidar into the OEM’s product offerings is leveraged across multiple vehicle classes and platforms in order to maximize the OEM’s return on investment.

For example, our series production award from OEM-B initially included four vehicle models and was subsequently updated to include nine vehicle models spanning different classes of vehicles from luxury sedans to mid-level passenger cars to SUVs and trucks. These vehicles include traditional internal combustion engine types as well as electric drive train types. We expect additional vehicle models to be added to this series production award over time, with an anticipated start of production in 2023 and significant volume increase anticipated in the following years. However, if the targets of this series production award are not realized, or if OEM-B were to terminate or significantly alter or delay its OEM-B series production award and/or alter its relationship with Cepton or with Koito in a manner that is adverse to Cepton or OEM-B would delay the introduction of the vehicle models that are part of the series production award, Cepton’s business would be materially adversely affected. Similarly, if Cepton is unable to maintain its relationship with Koito, or the terms of Cepton’s arrangement with Koito with respect to the OEM-B program differs from Cepton’s expectations, including with respect to volume, pricing and timing, then Cepton’s business and prospects would be materially adversely affected.

Adoption of lidar solutions in Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets

In an endless pursuit of safety and product differentiation, many leading automotive OEMs have decided to include lidar in their next generation of vehicles for increased safety and higher levels of autonomy. The speed of lidar adoption depends on many factors, including sensor performance, reliability, and cost, as well as the time it takes to win large series production awards. Large automotive series production awards usually take a number of years to secure but once awarded, the production award typically covers the entire duration of a typical vehicle model period of five to seven years for consumer vehicles. In the case of trucking applications, the production period of a typical model may exceed seven years in many cases. We are currently engaged in discussions with all of the top 10 global automotive OEMs (by ADAS and AV program volumes). We believe that our current series production award from OEM-B is a validation of our technology leadership, product maturity, and potential for scalability that favorably positions us for additional series production awards at other large global OEMs.

While lidar adoption in the automotive market may take multiple years to materialize, smart infrastructure end markets could adopt lidar solutions at a more rapid pace. Applications within smart infrastructure vary widely from tolling to security, to delivery and logistics. These applications are typically project based and require certain levels of customization to deliver an end-to-end solution. To address opportunities in the smart infrastructure space, we partner with system integrators who leverage our lidar hardware as well as our Helius perception software to provide solutions unique to each opportunity. We expect to grow our system integrator partnership network to further drive the adoption of lidar in smart infrastructure applications.

We expect our revenue to increase as adoption increases in the automotive and smart infrastructure markets, however, the rate of deployment may vary and our revenue will fluctuate as a result.

Product Cost and Margins

To drive mass-market adoption of lidar in automotive applications, product cost must be controlled. As such, cost is one of the primary design criteria that we focused on from the very beginning. Design choices were carefully evaluated to create products with the best overall balance between performance, reliability, and cost. Working with our partners, we expect to continue driving costs down as volumes increase and we achieve high margin unit economics in the future.

In the case of our series production award from OEM-B, we are working with our Tier 1 partner, Koito, on manufacturing in order to effectively manage supply chain, component costs, and manufacturing costs to meet margin expectations at scale. Pursuant to our arrangement with Koito, we license our technology and sell components to Koito, who can manufacture and sell lidars using our technology. We expect our gross margin to rapidly increase as material costs decrease and fixed manufacturing overhead costs are absorbed over larger production volumes and as other economies of scale are achieved.

In the smart infrastructure space, average selling price of a lidar solution may be higher than that in the automotive space due to a number of reasons, such as unit volume, level of customization, and additional software content. At the same time, the cost of production is also higher due to lower levels of economies of scale and higher levels of system integration requirements.

If we cannot generate our expected margins, we may be required to raise additional debt or equity capital, which may not be available or may only be available on terms that are onerous to our stockholders.

End Market Concentration

We believe that the automotive market represents a large portion of the total addressable market and large global automotive OEMs represent the majority of unit volume demand as well as leaders in active safety and autonomy. To drive mass-market commercialization of our lidar solutions, we have focused on top automotive OEMs and are currently engaged with all of the top 10 global automotive OEMs based on vehicle production volume rankings for 2019. Series production awards from top OEMs tend to be large and long-term in nature. While we continue to expand our system integrator partnership network to address opportunities in the smart infrastructure markets, program awards tend to be smaller and short-term in nature as compared to those in the automotive end-markets. As such, we expect a large portion of our future revenue to come from the automotive end-market.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We categorize our revenue as (1) lidar sensor and prototype revenue and (2) development revenue.

Lidar sensor and prototype revenue is primarily derived from the sale of components and license of technologies to tier 1 suppliers for mass market ADAS applications in the automotive market and the sale of lidar sensors directly to end-user customers in the Smart Infrastructure markets. Our lidar sensors are used in applications such as advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicles, and intelligent transportation systems. Our customers include leading original equipment manufacturers and suppliers within the automotive and smart infrastructure industries. We anticipate strong revenue growth in the foreseeable future as we continue to form strategic partnerships and as the primary source of revenue shifts from prototype sales to sales of commercialized production-ready lidar sensors.

Development revenue represents arrangements with tier 1 suppliers focused on the specific customization of our proprietary lidar capabilities to the customers’ applications, typically involving development of customized lidar sensor prototypes for those customers. The timing of revenue recognition for development contracts is determined for each performance obligation based on the unique facts and circumstances within each development arrangement, which generally results in recognition at a point in time. This assessment is made at the outset of the arrangement for each performance obligation.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue includes the manufacturing cost of our lidar sensors and components, which primarily consists of personnel-related costs directly associated with our manufacturing organization, and amounts paid to our third-party contract manufacturers and vendors. Our cost of revenue also includes cost of component inventory, product testing costs, an allocated portion of overhead costs, warranty expense, excess and obsolete inventory, and shipping costs. We expect cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars in future periods.

Gross Margin

Our gross margin in future periods will depend on a variety of factors including market conditions that may impact our pricing; product mix changes between established products and new products; excess and obsolete inventories; our cost structure for manufacturing operations, including third-party manufacturers, relative to volume. Our gross margin varies by product. We expect our gross margins to fluctuate over time, depending on the factors described above.

Operating Expenses

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel-related costs, material expenses, permits, licenses, and professional services directly associated with our research and development activities. The remainder primarily relates to the allocated portion of overhead costs. Our research and development efforts are focused on enhancing and developing additional functionality for our existing products and on new product development, including new releases and upgrades to our lidar sensors. We expense research and development costs as incurred. We expect our research and development expenses to increase in absolute dollars as we increase our investment in software development to broaden the capabilities of our solutions and introduce new products and features.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Our selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel-related costs, professional services, and advertising expenses directly associated with our sales and general and administrative activities. The remainder primarily relates to the allocated portion of overhead costs. We expect our selling expenses will increase in absolute dollars over time as we hire additional sales personnel, increase our marketing activities, grow our domestic and international operations, and build brand awareness. We expect to incur additional general and administrative expenses as a result of operating as a public company, including expenses related to compliance with rules and regulations of the SEC and stock exchange listing standards, additional insurance expenses (including directors’ and officers’ insurance), investor relations activities, and other administrative and professional services. We also expect to increase the size of our general and administrative function to support the growth of our business.

Other Income (Expense), Net

Other income (expense), net consists primarily of foreign currency transaction gains and losses related to the impact of transactions denominated in a foreign currency other than the U.S. Dollar and gains or losses related to the extinguishment of debt. As of December 31, 2021, other income (expense), net is comprised primarily of the gain from the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loan forgiveness.

Interest Income, Net

Interest income, net consists primarily of interest earned on our cash equivalents and short-term investments in commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and available-for-sale securities. These amounts will vary based on our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investment balances, and also with market rates. Our interest income is partially offset by accretion expense from our short-term investments and debt financings.

Provision for Income Taxes

Our provision for income taxes consists of federal, state, and foreign current and deferred income taxes. As we expand the scale and scope of our international business activities, any changes in the United States and foreign taxation of such activities may increase our overall provision for income taxes in the future.

We have a full valuation allowance for net deferred tax assets, including federal and state net operating loss carryforwards and research and development credit carryforwards. We expect to maintain this valuation allowance until it becomes more likely than not that the benefit of our federal and state deferred tax assets will be realized by way of expected future taxable income.

We believe that we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions, although we can provide no assurance that the final outcome of these matters will not be materially different. To the extent that the final outcome

of these matters is different than the amounts recorded, such differences will affect the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made and could have a material impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

Results of Operations for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020

The results of operations presented below should be reviewed in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. The following table sets forth our consolidated results of operations data for the periods presented:

Comparison of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020

Revenue

Lidar sensor and prototype revenue increased by approximately $0.9 million, or 46%, to $2.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, from $2.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. Approximately $0.2 million of the increase related to an increase in lidar sensor average sales price and approximately $1.0 million related to new products sold during the period. The increase was partially offset by a $0.3 million decrease driven by decreased lidar sensor sales volume.

Development revenue increased by approximately $1.6 million to 1.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, from $0 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase relates to the Work Order issued by Koito to Cepton during 2021. As of December 31, 2021, the first four development milestones of the agreement were satisfied and as such, the Company recognized development revenue of $1.6 million.

Cost of Revenue

Lidar Sensor and Prototype Cost of Revenue increased by $0.2 million, or 5%, to $4.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, from $3.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in Lidar Sensor and Prototype Cost of Revenue resulted primarily from a net increase in excess and obsolete inventory expense of $0.3 million and standard costing adjustments of $0.6 million. The increase was partially offset by a decrease in scrap expense and lower-of-cost-or-net-realizable-value adjustments of $0.7 million.

Development Cost of Revenue increased by $0.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, from $0 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase in Development Cost of Revenue resulted from the Work Order described above.

Operating expense

Research and development expense increased by $12.5 million, or 107%, to $24.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, from $11.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, resulting primarily from a $5.5 million increase in expensed materials for research and development projects and a $7.0 million increase in personnel expenses mainly due to increased headcount in research and development departments.

Sales, general, and administrative expense increased by $8.1 million, or 132%, to $14.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, from $6.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, resulting primarily from an increase in professional services of $2.8 million driven by the anticipation of a business combination, a $3.6 million increase in personnel related costs, a $1.0 million increase in rent due to the new office space lease beginning in June 2021, and a $0.7 million increase in other general administrative costs.

Other Income (expense)

Other income (expense), decreased by $1.3 million, or (707)%, resulting primarily from the forgiveness of the PPP loan of $1.1 million and a loss on extinguishment of debt of $0.2 million that occurred during the year ended December 31, 2020.

Interest income decreased by $0.1 million, or 90%, resulting primarily from a significant decrease in the short-term investments balance as of December 30, 2021 compared to December 30, 2020.

Income Taxes

We provided a full valuation allowance on our net U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets for the year ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. As for the year ended December 31, 2021, we had U.S. federal and state tax-effected net operating loss carryforwards available to reduce future taxable income, which will be carried forward indefinitely for U.S. federal tax purposes and will expire on varying dates for state tax purposes.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Sources of Liquidity

As of December 31, 2021, we had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaling $6.5 million, which were held for working capital purposes. Our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $6.5 million are comprised of money market funds, commercial paper, corporate debt securities, and available-for-sale securities.

In August 2019, we entered into a loan and security agreement with a financial institution which provided for borrowings of up to $5.0 million under a term loan through July 3, 2020 (the “Term Loan”). On December 5, 2019, we borrowed the full amount of $5.0 million with a stated interest rate of 5%. In February 2020, we repaid the Term Loan in full using proceeds received from the Series C Financing.

On February 4, 2020, we received $53.0 million of gross proceeds as consideration for the issuance of Series C convertible preferred stock to three investors.

On April 24, 2020, we received loan proceeds of $1.1 million from JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (“JPM”) under the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”). The PPP Loan had a maturity date of April 24, 2022, and had a fixed interest rate of 0.98% per annum. The entirety of the loan was eligible for forgiveness to the extent it was used towards qualifying expenses as described in the CARES Act. On August 25, 2021, the Company received notice from the U.S. Small Business Association that the entire PPP Loan balance and accrued interest were forgiven in full on such date. The Company recorded the loan forgiveness as other income, net in the Company’s condensed consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive loss during year ended December 31, 2021.

On November 24, 2021, the Company entered into a Purchase Agreement with Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC (“Lincoln Park”), pursuant to which Lincoln Park has agreed to purchase up to $100.0 million of common stock (subject to certain limitations contained in the Purchase Agreement) from time to time over a 36-month period (the “Purchase Agreement”) after the consummation of the Merger and certain other conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement. On February 11, 2022, Cepton filed an S-1 registration statement related to the Lincoln Park Purchase Agreement and upon its effectiveness and the satisfaction of the other terms and conditions of the Purchase Agreement, Cepton will be able to sell up to $100.0 million of common stock to Lincoln Park as a source of funds.

On January 4, 2022, the Company entered into the Loan Agreement with Trinity Capital Inc. to borrow up to $25.0 million at a rate of 10.75%. In connection with the Loan Agreement, the Company issued a warrant to purchase 96,998 shares of common stock with an exercise price of $16.89 per share. On January 4, 2022, the Company borrowed $10.0 million (the “Initial Advance”) under the terms of the Loan Agreement. In 2021, the Company incurred approximately $0.2 million of issuance costs related to the Loan Agreement. Given the Company had not yet executed the term loan under the Loan Agreement as of December 31, 2021, the Company recorded the issuance costs as a deferred asset.

Following the approval of the Merger, on February 10, 2022, the Company received net cash proceeds of $47.7 million from the Business Combination and PIPE, net of certain transaction costs.

We have incurred negative cash flows from operating activities and significant losses from operations in the past as reflected in our accumulated deficit of $95.4 million as of December 31, 2021. During the year ended December 31, 2021, we incurred a net loss of $37.2 million and had negative cash flows from operating activities of $36.8 million. Although much of the negative cash flow resulted from an increase in engineering services and expensed materials for research and development, and administrative expenses related to our plan to become a publicly traded company, we expect to continue to invest in research and development and generate operating losses in the future. In addition, our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our lidar sales volume, the timing and extent of spending to support our research and development efforts in smart vision technology, the expansion of sales and marketing activities, and market adoption of new and enhanced products and features. If we are required to raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, dilution to stockholders would result. Any equity securities issued may also provide for rights, preferences, or privileges senior to those of common stockholders. If we raise funds by issuing debt securities, these debt securities would have rights, preferences, and privileges senior to those of common stockholders.

We are subject to risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by early-stage companies including, but not limited to, the uncertainty of successfully developing products, securing certain contracts, building a customer base, successfully executing business and marketing strategies, and hiring appropriate personnel.

To date, we have been funded primarily by equity financings, convertible promissory notes, and the net proceeds we received through the Business Combination, PIPE offering and private placements of the pre-combination Cepton convertible preferred stock. Failure to generate sufficient revenues, achieve planned gross margins and operating profitability, control operating costs, or secure additional funding may require us to modify, delay, or abandon some of our planned future expansion or development, or to otherwise enact operating cost reductions available to management, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition, and ability to achieve our intended business objectives.

Intended Use of Proceeds

As indicated above, we intend to use the net proceeds of the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement for general corporate purposes which may include, among other things, continuing investments in our various long-term goals. This includes continuing to execute on the series production award from OEM-B, accelerating engagement with other automotive OEMs to secure series production awards, driving adoption of Cepton’s lidar solutions in the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets, investing in research and development to strengthen our product offerings, and securing supplier commitments in anticipation of future production needs. We intend to prioritize executing on the series production award from OEM-B and accelerating engagement with other automotive OEMs to secure series production awards. Pending any specific application, we may temporarily invest funds in short-term investments, including marketable securities.

Cash Flow Summary — Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020

Operating Activities

During 2021, our operating activities used $36.8 million in cash resulting primarily from our net loss of $37.2 million, which was partially offset by $4.4 million of non-cash expenses consisting primarily of $5.0 million of stock-based compensation expense, $0.3 million of amortization and accretion of short-term investments, and $0.2 million of depreciation related to fixed assets. These amounts were partially offset by a gain of $1.1 million related to the PPP loan forgiveness. During the year ended December 31, 2021, we used net cash of $3.9 million from changes in our operating assets and liabilities resulting primarily from a $5.8 million increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets, a $1.1 million decrease in other long-term liabilities, a $0.2 million increase in other long-term assets, and a $0.2 million increase in accounts receivable. This was partially offset by a $1.2 million increase in accrued expenses due to timing of payments, a $0.9 million decrease in inventories due to increased sales volume of lidar sensors, and a $1.3 million increase in accounts payable due to timing of payments.

During 2020, our operating activities used $17.0 million in cash resulting primarily from our net loss of $19.6 million, which was partially offset by $1.1 million of non-cash expenses consisting primarily of $0.7 million of stock-based compensation expense, $0.2 million of depreciation and amortization, and a $0.2 million loss on debt extinguishment. During 2020, we received $1.5 million net cash from changes in our operating assets and liabilities resulting primarily from an increase of $1.2 million in other long-term liabilities due to deposit payments received from a customer.

Investing Activities

During 2021, our investing activities provided $28.7 million of cash, resulting primarily from the sales and maturities of short-term investments of $37.4 million, which was partially offset by purchases of short-term investments of $8.5 million and purchases of property and equipment of $0.3 million.

During 2020, we used $32.3 million of cash for investing activities, resulting primarily from the purchase of short-term investments of $33.7 million, which was partially offset by proceeds from the sale of short-term investments of $1.5 million.

Financing Activities

During 2021, our financing activities provided $0.4 million of cash consisting primarily of proceeds from exercises of common stock options.

During 2020, our financing activities provided $49.2 million of cash consisting primarily of net proceeds from the issuance of Series C Preferred Stock in the amount of $52.6 million and proceeds from the PPP loan of $1.1 million. The proceeds were partially offset by payments on the Term Loan of $5.0 million.

Operating Activities

During 2020, our operating activities used $17.0 million in cash resulting primarily from our net loss of $19.6 million, which was partially offset by $1.1 million of non-cash expenses consisting primarily of $0.7 million of stock-based compensation expense, $0.2 million of depreciation and amortization, and a $0.2 million loss on debt extinguishment. During 2020, we received $1.5 million net cash from changes in our operating assets and liabilities resulting primarily from an increase of $1.2 million in other long-term liabilities due to deposit payments received from a customer.

During 2019, our operating activities used $17.6 million in cash resulting primarily from our net loss of $16.8 million, which was partially offset by $0.9 million non-cash expenses consisting primarily of $0.7 million of stock-based compensation expense. During 2019 we used net cash of $1.7 million from changes in our operating assets and liabilities resulting primarily from a $1.7 million increase in inventories due to increased sales volume of lidar sensors.

Investing Activities

During 2020, we used $32.3 million of cash for investing activities, resulting primarily from the purchase of short-term investments of $33.7 million, which was partially offset by proceeds from the sale of short-term investments of $1.5 million.

During 2019, we used $0.1 million of cash for investing activities, primarily for the purchase of property and equipment.

Financing Activities

During 2020, our financing activities provided $49.2 million of cash consisting primarily of net proceeds from the issuance of Series C Preferred Stock in the amount of $52.6 million and proceeds from the PPP loan of $1.1 million. The proceeds were partially offset by payments on the Term Loan of $5.0 million.

During 2019, our financing activities provided $5.0 million of cash consisting primarily of net proceeds from the Term Loan.

Contractual Obligations

The following table summarizes our non-cancellable contractual obligations as of December 31, 2021:

____________

(1)      Does not include the Initial Advance under the Loan Agreement entered into with Trinity Capital Inc., which was borrowed subsequent to December 31, 2021.

(2)      Consists of future non-cancelable minimum rental payments under operating leases for our offices.

On April 15, 2021, we entered into an office lease agreement for our new headquarters located in San Jose, California. The lease began on June 1, 2021 and is set to expire on January 31, 2023. See Note 14, Commitments and Contingencies, of the notes to our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021, included elsewhere in this prospectus for further discussion of our contractual obligations.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

We are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business. Market risk represents the risk of loss that may impact our financial position due to adverse changes in financial market rates and prices. Our market risk exposure is primarily the result of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates.

We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition. Nonetheless, if our costs were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Interest Rate Risk

As of December 31, 2021, we had short-term investments of $2.8 million, which consisted of commercial paper and corporate debt securities which carry a degree of interest rate risk. A hypothetical 10% change in interest rates would not have a material impact on our financial condition or results of operations due to the short-term nature of our investment portfolio.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

Our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. Substantially all of our revenue is generated in U.S. dollars. Our expenses are generally denominated in the currencies of the jurisdictions in which we conduct our operations, which are primarily in the U.S. and to a lesser extent in Canada and Germany. Our results of operations and cash flows are, therefore, subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates and may be adversely affected in the future due to changes in foreign exchange rates. The effect of a hypothetical 10% change in foreign currency exchange rates applicable to our business would not have a material impact on our historical consolidated financial statements. To date, we have not engaged in any hedging strategies. As our international operations grow, we will continue to reassess our approach to manage our risk relating to fluctuations in currency rates.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangement

We did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements as of December 31, 2021.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

We prepare our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates, assumptions and judgments that can significantly impact the amounts we report as assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses and the related disclosures. We base our estimates on historical experience and other assumptions that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results could differ significantly from these estimates under different assumptions and conditions. We believe that the accounting policies discussed below are critical to understanding our historical and future performance as these policies involve a greater degree of judgment and complexity.

Revenue Recognition

Our revenue is derived from product sales of lidar sensors to direct customers as well as revenue associated with the development of customized lidar sensor prototypes. Revenue is recognized at a point in time when control of the products is transferred to the customer, generally occurring upon shipment in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to receive in exchange for those products.

The application of revenue accounting requirements related to the measurement and recognition of revenue requires us to make judgments and estimates. Specifically, arrangements with nonstandard terms and conditions may require significant judgment to determine the appropriate accounting treatment, including whether the promised goods and services specified in a multiple element arrangement should be treated as separate performance obligations. When a contract includes multiple performance obligations, the Company accounts for individual products and services separately if the customer can benefit from the product or service on its own or with other resources that are readily available to the customer and the product or service is separately identifiable from other promises in the arrangement.

Transaction price is allocated to each performance obligation on a relative standalone selling price (“SSP”) basis. Judgment is required to determine SSP for each distinct performance obligation. We use a range of amounts to estimate SSP when products and services are sold separately. In instances where SSP is not directly observable, we determine SSP using information that may include other observable inputs available to us.

Changes in judgments with respect to these assumptions and estimates could impact the timing or amount of revenue recognition.

Inventory Valuation

Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or estimated net realizable value. Costs are computed under the standard cost method, which approximates actual costs determined on the first in, first out basis. We record write-downs of inventories which are obsolete or in excess of anticipated demand. Significant judgment is used in establishing our forecasts of future demand and obsolete material exposures. We consider marketability and product life cycle stage, product development plans, component cost trends, demand forecasts, historical revenue, and assumptions about future demand and market conditions in establishing our estimates. If the actual component usage and product demand are significantly lower than forecast, which may be caused by factors within and outside of our control, or if there were a higher incidence of inventory obsolescence because of rapidly changing technology and our customer requirements, we may be required to increase our inventory write-downs. A change in our estimates could have a significant impact on the value of our inventory and our results of operations.

Stock-Based Compensation

We grant stock options to employees and non-employees with an exercise price equal to the fair value of the shares at the date of grant. All stock option grants are accounted for using the fair value method and compensation is recognized as the underlying options vest. We use the Black-Scholes option pricing model to determine the fair value of stock option awards. The Black-Scholes model considers several variables and assumptions in estimating the fair value of the stock-based awards. These variables include the fair market value of common stock, stock-price volatility, expected term, expected dividends, risk-free interest rates, and forfeitures.

Fair Value of Common Stock — Given the absence of a public trading market, we considered numerous objective and subjective factors to determine the fair market value of common stock. These factors included but were not limited to (i) contemporaneous third-party valuations of common stock; (ii) the rights and preferences of preferred stock relative to common stock; (iii) the lack of marketability of common stock; (iv) developments in the business; and (v) the likelihood of achieving a liquidity event, such as an initial public offering or sale of the Company, given prevailing market conditions.

In valuing our common stock at various dates, the third-party valuation specialists determined the equity value of our business using a mix of the income and market approaches. The income approach focuses on the income-producing capability of the business, while the market approach measures the value of the business through an analysis of recent sales or offerings of comparable investments.

Application of these approaches involves the use of estimates, judgment, and assumptions that are highly complex and subjective, such as those regarding our expected future revenue, expenses, and future cash flows, discount rates, market multiples, the selection of comparable companies, and the probability of possible future events. Changes in any or all of these estimates and assumptions or the relationships between those assumptions impact our valuations as of each valuation date and may have a material impact on the valuation of our common stock.

The estimates will not be necessary to determine the fair value of new awards once the underlying shares begin trading.

Expected Volatility — Expected volatility is estimated based on historical volatilities of comparable public companies operating in our industry.

Expected Term — The expected term of the options represents the period the options are expected to be outstanding and is estimated using the simplified method. We believe it is appropriate to use the simplified method in determining the expected life of options because we do not have sufficient historical exercise data to provide a reasonable basis upon which to estimate the expected term for options.

Dividend Yield — We have historically not issued dividends and do not expect to in the future.

Risk-free Interest Rate — The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of grant.

Forfeitures — Forfeitures are recognized as they occur.

We use the same inputs to estimate the fair value of awards granted to nonemployees.

Changes in the Estimated Fair Value of Cepton Common Stock During the Periods Presented

Below we present a discussion regarding material differences between the valuations used to determine the fair value of Cepton common stock relative to the fair value implied by the Business Combination.

Valuation History — The December 2019 and April 2020 common stock valuations were determined to be $2.48 per share and $2.02 per share, respectively. The primary driver behind the decline in common stock fair value between those dates was the significant uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic during the first half of 2020.

During the second half of 2020, Cepton’s management team and Board of Directors reviewed and evaluated potential strategic opportunities and alternatives with a view of enhancing stockholder value and accelerating growth. Such opportunities and alternatives included, among other things, private financing transactions, capital market transactions, and possible acquisitions. Specifically, in September 2020, Cepton’s management had internal discussions regarding a SPAC transaction and as a result, Cepton’s management believed that an update to its common stock valuation assumptions was necessary. The September 2020 409A valuation reflects the possibility of a SPAC transaction occurring as of September 30, 2021. This assumption led to an increase in Cepton’s common stock valuation, resulting in a value per share of $3.07.

In April 2021, we began negotiations with a SPAC regarding a business combination and in May 2021, Cepton received a non-binding letter of intent (“LOI”) from the SPAC. The LOI indicated a pre-transaction enterprise value of $1.5 billion and a price per common share upon de-SPAC of approximately $24.69. The May 2021 409A valuation incorporated the preliminary terms of this LOI as well as assigning a higher probability to a SPAC transaction occurring in the near-term future. These changes in valuation assumptions resulted in a common stock fair value per share of $13.06.

On August 4, 2021, Cepton entered into the Business Combination Agreement with the SPAC. As a result, on August 6, 2021, we updated our valuation assumptions, assigning a higher probability to a SPAC transaction occurring in the near-term future. This change resulted in a common stock fair value per share of $16.89.

Beginning in September 2021, GCAC filed a proxy statement/consent solicitation statement/prospectus relating to the Business Combination in a registration statement on Form S-4 (the “Form S-4”) and subsequent amendments thereto. Given the existence of the Form S-4 filing, which became effective on January 24, 2022, as well as the progression and status of the overall Business Combination, we felt it was appropriate to assign a higher probability to a SPAC transaction occurring in the near term future relative to the previous valuation. The December 2021 409A valuation reflected the increased probability which led to another increase in Cepton’s common stock valuation, resulting in a value per share of $23.29.

Below is the summary of 409A valuations performed during 2021 and 2020.

For the December 2019 and April 2020 409A valuations, we applied a combination of both the income approach and the public company market multiple method (“PCMMM”) market approach to determine the enterprise value of Cepton. Each approach was assigned an equal weighting of 50 percent. To arrive at the fair value of common stock, we utilized the option pricing method (“OPM”) to allocate the equity value.

For the September 2020 409A valuation, we adjusted our valuation approach as we had begun internal discussions surrounding the possibility of a SPAC or IPO transaction which had not occurred previously. As of this date, no specific SPAC had been identified and no formal negotiations had been undertaken. Due to these facts, we selected the probability weighted expected return method (“PWERM”) to allocate the enterprise value. The PWERM

approach involves the estimation of future potential outcomes as well as values and probabilities associated with each potential outcome or scenario. Under the PWERM approach, we utilized a combination of (1) an “IPO/SPAC” and (2) a “Remain Private” scenarios to value our common stock.

The May 13, 2021 409A valuation incorporated our receipt of a non-binding LOI related to a potential SPAC transaction. The preliminary terms of the LOI indicated a pre-transaction enterprise value of $1.5 billion and an expected price per common share upon de-SPAC of approximately $24.69 based on our then-current fully diluted capitalization. Given this information, we again utilized the PWERM approach to allocate the enterprise value for purposes of the May 13, 2021 409A valuation. Under the PWERM approach, we utilized a combination of (1) the SPAC and (2) the “Remain Private” scenarios to value our common stock. The weighting applied to the SPAC scenario as compared to the “Remain Private” scenario was adjusted upwards given the signed LOI and the Company’s consideration of the likelihood of completion of a SPAC transaction.

The August 6, 2021 409A valuation incorporated our public announcement of our entering into a Business Combination Agreement with a SPAC. Based on the terms of the Business Combination Agreement, our shares will be exchanged for shares of the SPAC at a rate of 2.465x. Given the SPAC’s common shares were valued at $9.86 as of our 409A valuation date, the implied value per common share upon de-SPAC was equal to $25.89. Given this information, we again utilized the PWERM approach to allocate the enterprise value for purposes of the August 6, 2021 409A valuation. Under the PWERM approach, we utilized a combination of (1) the SPAC and (2) the “Remain Private” scenarios to value our common stock. The weighting applied to the SPAC scenario as compared to previous valuations was adjusted upwards given the signed Business Combination Agreement and the increased likelihood of the SPAC transaction completing.

The December 31, 2021 409A valuation incorporated our filing on Form S-4, signalling an increased probability of completing the proposed SPAC transaction. Given the SPAC’s common shares were valued at $9.93 as of our 409A valuation date, the implied value per common share upon de-SPAC was equal to $26.10. Given this information, we again utilized the PWERM approach to allocate the enterprise value for purposes of the December 31, 2021 409A valuation. Under the PWERM approach, we utilized a combination of (1) the SPAC and (2) the “Remain Private” scenarios to value our common stock. The weighting applied to the SPAC scenario as compared to previous valuations was adjusted upwards given the filed Form S-4 and overall progression of the Business Combination.

A summary of the equity awards granted during 2020 and 2021 is as follows:

Income Taxes

We record valuation allowances to reduce deferred tax assets to the amount that is more likely than not to be realized. In making this assessment, we analyze future taxable income, reversing temporary differences and ongoing tax planning strategies. Should a change in circumstances lead to a change in judgment about the realizability of deferred tax assets in future years, we would adjust related valuation allowances in the period that the change in circumstances occurs, along with a corresponding increase or charge to income.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted as of the date of this prospectus.

Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

In connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2021, a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting was identified. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. For more information concerning the material weakness identified, see the risk factor titled “We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If our remediation of this material weakness is not effective, or if we experience additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock”.

Emerging Growth Company Status

Section 102(b)(1) of the JOBS Act exempts emerging growth companies from being required to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards until private companies are required to comply with the new or revised financial accounting standards. The JOBS Act provides that a company can choose not to take advantage of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies, and any such election to not take advantage of the extended transition period is irrevocable.

Cepton is an “emerging growth company” as defined in Section 2(a) of the Securities Act and has elected to take advantage of the benefits of the extended transition period for new or revised financial accounting standards. Following the consummation of the Business Combination, Cepton expects to remain an emerging growth company at least through the end of the 2022 fiscal year and to continue to take advantage of the benefits of the extended transition period, although it may decide to early adopt such new or revised accounting standards to the extent permitted by such standards. This may make it difficult or impossible to compare Cepton’s financial results with the financial results of another public company that is either not an emerging growth company or is an emerging growth company that has chosen not to take advantage of the extended transition period exemptions because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.

Subject to certain conditions set forth in the JOBS Act, if, as an emerging growth company, we intend to rely on such exemptions, we are not required to, among other things: (i) provide an auditor’s attestation report on our system of internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; (ii) provide all of the compensation disclosure that may be required of non-emerging growth public companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; (iii) comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements (auditor discussion and analysis); and (iv) disclose certain executive compensation-related items such as the correlation between executive compensation and performance and comparisons of the Chief Executive Officer’s compensation to median employee compensation.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of: (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) ending December 31, 2026, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the end of the prior fiscal year’s second fiscal quarter; and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. References herein to “emerging growth company” shall have the meaning associated with it in the JOBS Act.

BUSINESS

Company Overview

Cepton’s mission is to deploy high performance, mass-market lidars to deliver safety and autonomy across the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure (each as defined below) markets.

Cepton is focused on the mass-market commercialization of high performance, high quality lidar solutions. By adopting our solutions, our customers can deliver safety and autonomy applications across a broad range of end-markets, including our primary market — advanced driver assistance systems (“ADAS”) in consumer and commercial vehicles. We believe that ADAS in consumer and commercial vehicles represents the largest market opportunity for lidar applications over the next decade as well as the market with the best potential for near term mass-market commercialization.

Since the inception of our company in 2016, building lidars for broad market adoption has been our guiding principle. Mass-market deployment guided not just our end market focus, but also our product design choices, our areas of technological innovation, our approach to manufacturing and our go-to-market strategy and partnerships. Consequently, our value proposition has focused on developing a lidar that appropriately balances performance, cost and reliability. Our original thesis was that lidar would gain broad based adoption only when solutions strike the right balance across these three key facets.

Based on this approach, Cepton has gained acceptance for its technology in the Automotive market. In 2019, following approximately two years of rigorous engagement and working alongside our Automotive Tier 1 partner, Koito, we were awarded the largest known ADAS lidar series production award in the industry to date by General Motors (“OEM-B”). This award includes multiple platforms and vehicle models, with an estimated production start in 2023.

As a Silicon Valley-based company led by technical experts in optoelectronics, technology innovation is at the core of our company. Cepton developed a comprehensive end-to-end lidar platform consisting of:

•        proprietary hardware building blocks, including our breakthrough patented Micro Motion Technology (“MMT®”) 3D lidar imaging technology and our system-on-a-chip (“SoC”) lidar engine application-specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”);

•        a portfolio of industrial-grade and automotive-grade (“autograde”) near-range to ultra-long range lidars;

•        automotive software enabling safe, secure and efficient integration in vehicles; and

•        feature rich perception software capabilities.

Industry Background

We believe we are at the center of major shifts in technology, consumer preferences and industry trends that are catalyzing the adoption of lidar solutions across our target markets.

ADAS is one of the fastest growing segments in the automotive industry.

Automotive original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) currently offer a range of Society of Automotive Engineers (“SAE”) L1/L2 (“L1/L2”) ADAS technologies such as lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking, which have helped improve vehicle safety while adding comfort features that consumers value. Many OEMs and their Tier 1 suppliers are actively working to improve their ADAS offerings on new vehicle models. This might involve enhancing the capability and usability of existing SAE Level 2 (“L2”) features or offering additional features which do not meet the requirements of SAE Level 3 (“L3”) systems, where the responsibilities of driving start to shift from the driver to the vehicle. The interim stage between SAE L2 and SAE L3 is commonly referred to as Level 2+ (“L2+”). While L2+ ADAS features are included in a select number of vehicles today, over the next five to ten years, such advanced ADAS features are expected to become mainstream and achieve wide-spread adoption. In a 2019 report, Frost and Sullivan estimates that by 2030, 67% of vehicles sold globally will have at least L2 and L3 autonomous driving (“AD”) capability.

Multiple factors are driving demand for ADAS functionality in modern consumer vehicles.

Demand for L2+ ADAS features are likely to be driven by multiple factors:

•        Growing consumer demand for enhanced safety and autonomous features in consumer vehicles: According to the American Automobile Association’s 2021 annual automated vehicle survey, 80% of drivers said that they want current vehicle safety systems, such as automatic emergency braking and lane keeping assistance, to work better, and 58% of drivers said they want these systems in their next vehicle.

•        Continued emphasis by regulators on reducing traffic accidents and fatalities, which increases the likelihood that ADAS features considered optional today might become mandatory in the future.

•        The shift towards software-based subscription models for ADAS features, which are expected to increase the availability of ADAS-related hardware in consumer vehicles.

Lidar technologies are proliferating and enabling ADAS functions with higher levels of safety and autonomy.

Highly dynamic environments around a moving vehicle require extensive sensor data to enable safety and autonomy features. To date, the industry has adopted a combination of sensors, primarily cameras and radars, to enable L1 and L2 functions. Vehicles equipped with L1/L2 capabilities face a number of deficiencies, such as the inability to detect pedestrians and bikes under certain conditions, including when under direct exposure to sunlight and in poor lighting conditions, and incomplete lane, road-edge and barrier detection. As a result, achieving L2+ and higher levels (i.e., L3-L5) of autonomy coupled with vehicle safety requires enhanced sensing capabilities and complementary sensor data for faster, more accurate and more reliable perception and to meet redundancy requirements for functional safety. Lidar addresses many of these challenges and offers key benefits due to its high resolution combined with high accuracy in measuring distances to objects and its own independent and integrated light source. Many lidar capabilities cannot be easily replaced by other sensors, making lidar an essential sensor for L2+ ADAS applications.

Continual innovation is driving down lidar costs and enabling large scale adoption.

We believe that lidar adoption in mass-market consumer vehicles has been limited due to two major factors. First, lidars that have been able to achieve high performance levels have not been able to achieve autograde reliability and low cost. Second, lidars that were able to demonstrate a path towards autograde reliability and low cost have been unable to meet adequate performance requirements to achieve L2+ ADAS vehicle safety and autonomy goals. Lidar innovation is changing this landscape by combining high performance with high reliability and low cost, with Cepton being in a prime position to drive this transformation using our patented, mirrorless and frictionless MMT® imaging method.

Cost reductions may be enabled by the use of lower cost components, component integration (e.g., in the form of proprietary ASICs and lidar modules) and economies of scale accompanying larger scale deployments, especially in the ADAS market. Our view is that the path to autograde reliability is paved by using mainstream, proven components and technology architectures that are less vulnerable to reliability concerns. In addition, we believe that collaboration between lidar companies and Automotive Tier 1 suppliers that have high volume manufacturing capabilities further enhances lidar quality and autograde reliability.

Multiple industrial and infrastructure sectors are undergoing digital transformation and are expected to benefit from high performance, lidar-based perception solutions.

Numerous market applications are adopting new solutions and modernizing their operations and infrastructure to improve safety and security, while driving higher efficiency and privacy. As many sectors transform in this manner, they are leveraging technologies that combine physical infrastructure and sensors with advanced digital technologies including the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and cloud and edge computing. Per the World Economic Forum, emerging technologies are projected to increase efficiency and reduce costs by up to 30% across all operations. Both public and private sectors are embracing these new technologies to reap the benefits of digital transformation in order to develop applications for Smart Cities, Smart Spaces, Smart Industrials and other market segments. Advanced sensing and perception solutions are increasingly at the foundation of such digital transformation, as they enable the capture, transmission, processing and real-time analysis of data at unprecedented levels of accuracy. For instance, many industries have previously adopted technologies such as video cameras and thermal cameras for

perception-based applications. However, modern applications are requiring a level of accuracy, uptime, and privacy not currently achievable with those sensors. Lidars provide accurate and anonymized 3D information under a variety of lighting and environmental conditions, and offer the solutions needed across a wide range of smart applications. Lidars can supplement cameras and other sensors in vision-critical applications and provide a compelling alternative to cameras in privacy-critical or vision-agnostic applications, for example, analysis of foot traffic at retail outlets without identifying personal information.

Our Market Focus

Our lidars enable safety features and L2 to SAE Level 4 (“L4”) autonomy in ADAS and autonomous vehicles (“AV”) applications (the “Automotive” market). We set a goal since day one to target the consumer vehicle ADAS market, anticipating the need to serve the largest automotive OEMs in the world with sensors that would play an important role in enabling enhanced L2+ ADAS applications, with enhanced safety and autonomy features. ADAS is one of the fastest growing segments within the Automotive industry. According to a 2019 Frost and Sullivan report, it is estimated that by 2030, 67% of vehicles sold globally will have at least L2 and L3 AD capability. This is supported by growing consumer demand for enhanced safety and autonomous features in vehicles. We estimate that the ADAS market for lidar solutions will represent a $50 billion market opportunity by 2030.

While our main focus within the Automotive market has been the L2+ ADAS market, we have naturally extended our reach to L4 AVs. Level 4 AVs such as robotaxis typically operate for a prolonged period of time, which requires highly reliable sensors that can maintain high levels of performance. In addition, as AV technologies become more mature, cost and efficiency will become important design criteria to drive widespread adoption. The fundamental functions of lidars being used in ADAS and AV are similar and, based on our discussions with customers in the L4 AV market, we believe that the AD industry will adopt lidars optimized for ADAS to drive widespread adoption of AVs. This places Cepton in a strong position to capture a significant share in the AV market as that market matures.

As an additional area of focus, Cepton has established a strong presence in the Smart Infrastructure market. We believe our strength in this market is that our lidar sensors and perception solutions provide an attractive value proposition and high suitability for applications in market segments such as Smart Cities, Smart Spaces and Smart Industrials (each defined below), which together comprise the “Smart Infrastructure” market. This enables us to build a diversified business with an additional pillar of growth opportunities outside of the Automotive space.

•        “Smart Cities” includes applications such as: (i) pedestrian safety, vehicle safety, wrong-way driving detection, emergency vehicle guidance, and traffic flow management for smart roads; (ii) vehicle profiling/classification, vehicle speed and dimension estimation, axle classification, and container scanning for smart tolling; and (iii) obstacle detection, pedestrian detection, track health monitoring and intersection monitoring for smart rail.

•        “Smart Spaces” includes applications such as: (i) foot traffic analysis, safe zones, and social distancing for crowd analytics; (ii) securing critical infrastructure, area/zone access, gateway entry monitoring and anonymized surveillance for security; and (iii) injury prevention, accident avoidance, workplace safety and early warning/alerts for safety.

•        “Smart Industrials” includes applications such as: (i) container scanning, free space detection, object detection and object classification for industrial applications; and (ii) 3D mapping, object detection, object classification and autonomous navigation for autonomous ground vehicles.

Differentiated Value Proposition

Cepton’s lidar solutions enable high performance and autograde reliability at competitive prices. Our lidars are able to achieve this because our designs use robust, low-cost components coupled with a proprietary lidar engine ASIC and a frictionless, mirrorless 3D-imaging technology referred to as MMT®. Our design choices coupled with our proprietary technology results in Cepton lidars having high performance, low power consumption, compact form factor and high manufacturability for large scale deployment.

Designing a lidar for mass market adoption in the Automotive market requires balancing performance (e.g., range, resolution and field of view), reliability (e.g., automotive certifications), price, vehicle integration (e.g., size and power) and volume manufacturability. For example, a lidar might have high performance but compromise on reliability, size, power and price. On the other end of the spectrum, a lidar could achieve low cost and good reliability but fail to meet minimum performance requirements. According to a leading independent consulting firm that conducted a market study commissioned by Cepton, as of January 2021, Cepton is the only provider with products that fulfill all major OEM requirements across key criteria for L2+ ADAS applications by providing high performance combined with autograde reliability and attractive pricing. Our differentiated value proposition is further validated by our series production award from OEM-B, which is the largest known ADAS lidar series production award to-date, based on number of vehicle models awarded.

Largest Series Production Award at OEM-B Positions Cepton as Lidar Market Share Leader

In 2017, we started a journey of rigorous engagement with OEM-B to enable their next generation L2+ ADAS program, for vehicle models expected to commence production in 2023. Following approximately two years of engagement including design, testing, validation and integration workstreams, Cepton, alongside our Tier 1 partner, Koito, was selected as the sole lidar provider to support the ADAS program with a series production award covering multiple vehicle platforms and models through 2027. To date, this represents the largest known ADAS lidar series production award based on number of vehicle models, and we believe it represents a significant validation of the superiority of Cepton’s products and our ability to develop innovative lidar solutions for the Automotive industry in partnership with leading Tier 1 suppliers. This award positions Cepton as one of the key suppliers of OEM-B as well as a potential supplier to OEM-B’s affiliates worldwide.

We have gained significant commercial traction across our target markets. In total, we shipped products to over 100 paying customers since 2018 and have over 160 engagements in our pipeline. In the Automotive market we have engagements with varying maturities, with many Tier 1s and OEMs, including all 10 of the top 10 OEMs based on IHS Markit, a leading independent third-party industry analytics and information provider, vehicle production volume rankings for 2019. In the Smart Infrastructure market, we have many projects across the Smart Cities, Smart Spaces and Smart Industrials segments, often in partnership with system integrators and large customers. We believe our series production award from OEM-B and the extent of our current engagements position Cepton to be a market share leader in the lidar industry.

Proprietary Technologies Combined With A Comprehensive Offering Enables Sustainable Competitive Advantage

We developed our lidars with technologies, hardware building blocks and design principles that are highly synergistic. We combine proven, widely available materials and components with proprietary designs to achieve high performance, small form factor, low power, high reliability and low cost, which we believe are all key aspects of a mass-market lidar. Some of our most important lidar sensor innovations include our proprietary single-chip ASIC lidar engine, our multi-chip lidar transceiver modules and our patented MMT® for 3D imaging. Cepton’s integrated lidar engine ASIC is a powerful data processing SoC that combines illumination control and high-sensitivity detection functions, with embedded proprietary algorithms and trade secrets to enable key lidar functions. Our MMT® architecture integrates our multi-chip lidar transceiver module with an elegant mirrorless, frictionless and rotation-free imaging technique to increase the reliability and manufacturability of the product while delivering high performance and low power at affordable price points. Our MMT® architecture is also flexible to accommodate other illumination and detection methods as these design options become proven and cost competitive in the future. We are also innovating in automotive software, having developed key automotive integration capabilities to enable seamless vehicle communication, cybersecurity, automotive safety integrity level (“ASIL”)-B functional safety and over-the-air update capabilities. Finally, our full stack perception solutions integrate our lidars with edge computing and powerful lidar perception software to deliver intelligent 3D perception for a range of applications. We believe that our comprehensive end-to-end lidar solution platform including lidar building blocks, lidar systems for near range, long-range and ultra-long-range applications, automotive software and perception software provide us the technology advantages and allow us to address demanding requirements in ADAS, AV and Smart Infrastructure applications. We expect that our technology advantages coupled with our commercial success, as evidenced by the largest known ADAS lidar series production award based on number of vehicle models, will provide a sustainable competitive advantage.

Strategic Relationship With Global Automotive Tier 1 Koito

In February 2020, we announced a strategic partnership with Koito, the number one supplier of automotive lighting systems globally (based on 2019 sales). At the same time, Koito participated in our Series C funding round. Koito is also the anchor investor for the PIPE Investment. As part of our collaboration, Koito obtained rights to manufacture and sell lidars based on Cepton’s MMT® lidar sensor design for an automotive application, using key components supplied by Cepton. In 2019, Koito and Cepton jointly won an ADAS lidar series production award, which is the largest known award of its kind to-date based on the number of vehicle models awarded, from OEM-B. We believe the combination of Koito’s leadership in automotive lighting and its expertise in high volume manufacturing provides us with the capabilities to jointly compete for the largest automotive programs in the industry with global auto OEMs.

Visionary, Founder-Led Team

Cepton is led by industry veterans with decades of collective experience across a range of lidar, imaging, optoelectronics and semiconductor technologies. Our co-founders Dr. Jun Pei (CEO) and Dr. Mark McCord (CTO) both hold Ph.Ds. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and have been working together for over a decade. Dr. Jun Pei was one of Dr. McCord’s top students during Dr. McCord’s tenure as an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford. The founding team has focused on building an engineering team with deep expertise in technical specialties required to build and sustain breakthrough lidar innovations. Our history of innovation is evident from the four generations of directional lidars and two generations of perception software solutions we have launched since 2016. We have also attracted accomplished business veterans with substantial experience across finance, lidar and automotive supply chain industries. As of March 31, 2022, the Cepton team included 151 team members including 65 engineers and 22 PhDs.

Our Market Opportunity

We have built our lidar solutions to serve a range of markets globally, including the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets. Our primary focus has been the ADAS market segment, which we believe represents the largest market opportunity for lidar solutions.

We address key parts of a large and rapidly growing market. From our analysis of third party reports and our own assumptions on the evolution of the lidar market, we estimate our market opportunity, or total accessible market, to be around $19 billion in 2020, growing to $49 billion in 2025 and $59 billion in 2030, representing a 12% compound annual growth rate. Our lidar solutions address many cases across the following markets:

Automotive

•        ADAS:    We estimate that total new vehicles with L2+ ADAS functionality represented approximately seven million units in 2020, growing to a projected 25 million in 2025 and 35 million in 2030. Based on our assumptions, we estimate the corresponding L2+ ADAS lidar market opportunity to increase from around $13 billion in 2020 to $41 billion in 2025 and $50 billion by 2030. Our estimates include both long-range and near-range lidars.

•        AV:    We estimate that total new vehicles with fully AD functions (L4 and above) represented approximately four thousand units in 2020, growing to 120 thousand in 2025 and 250 thousand in 2030. Based on our assumptions, we estimate the corresponding L4/L5 AV lidar market opportunity to increase from around $110 million in 2020 to $1.1 billion in 2025 and $1.4 billion by 2030. Our estimates include both long-range and near-range lidars.

Smart Infrastructure:    Based on our analysis of industry data and customer feedback, we estimate the Smart Infrastructure lidar market — including Smart Cities, Smart Spaces and Smart Industrials — to represent a potential market size of around $6.6 billion in 2020, growing to $7.0 billion in 2025 and $7.6 billion in 2030.

Our Approach and Value Proposition

Our lidar value proposition stems from a balanced design that addresses three key foundational pillars that we believe are essential to serve the ADAS market, namely, performance, cost and reliability. We believe that lidar solutions that only satisfy one or two of those pillars will have difficulty securing large scale market deployments. To truly become a mass-market solution, we believe that lidars need to meet all three key requirements, which requires a focused and highly innovative approach to lidar design, encompassing system architecture, technology and component choices, supply chain strategy and Tier 1 partnerships for enhancing manufacturability and achieving economies of scale. We believe our value proposition derived from this approach is highly differentiated in the market and positions Cepton to become one of the leaders in the lidar industry.

Cepton’s value proposition is centered on the following elements:

Proven design and technology.    Cepton lidars were designed from the ground up to achieve a balanced approach to performance, cost and reliability. Our lidar design uses a breakthrough, patented innovation in 3D imaging technology that we refer to as Micro Motion Technology. The MMT® architecture is capable of high resolution and long-range 3D-imaging, while enabling sensor robustness and reliability to meet the stringent requirements of automotive applications. Our design has been evaluated for mass-market lidar applications by many Tier 1 partners and customers across ADAS, AV and Smart Infrastructure markets. OEM-B awarded us a large ADAS lidar series production award after going through a rigorous selection process comparing our sensors to those of numerous competitors.

Superior performance.    Cepton lidars offer strong performance combining long range, high resolution and low power consumption enabled by our proprietary design. An independent market study conducted by a leading consulting firm commissioned by Cepton compared the performance specifications of Cepton to those of other major competitors across a set of characteristics. Their conclusion was that Cepton was the only lidar provider able to meet all key OEM requirements defined by the consulting firm for long-range ADAS applications.

Cost advantage.    We have designed our lidars to support attractive pricing at automotive production volumes, which is an important driver of lidar adoption for mass-market ADAS applications. Our lidars use proprietary micro-optical modules built with proven, low cost, 905 nm wavelength lasers (edge-emitting laser diodes) and silicon detectors (avalanche photo diodes or “APDs”). Our low cost, proprietary, lidar engine ASIC chips, which are integrated in our optical modules, enable high performance with a small footprint. Our patented MMT® assembly also uses low cost, widely available materials. Our manufacturing strategy leverages contract manufacturers for key components used in our lidars. We further anticipate using contract manufacturers to also manufacture lidars using our technology for sales to Smart Infrastructure customers and low volume Automotive customers. For Automotive series production, we partner with leading Automotive Tier 1 suppliers for high volume manufacturing and to drive economies of scale. In this case, we expect to license our technology to Tier 1 partners and sell lidar components to them, to enable Tier 1 partners to assemble and manufacture lidars in high volume. In collaboration with our Tier 1 partner, Koito, our series production award from OEM-B is expected to allow us to drive down cost as our lidar production scales in 2023 and beyond.

Compact form factor and low power consumption.    One of the biggest benefits of our lidars is their compact form factor, allowing for multiple options for vehicle integration. The low power consumption of our lidars combined with their compact form factor makes it possible to integrate our lidars behind the windshield, inside headlamps and in vehicle fascia, allowing for multiple integration options. These integration options facilitate embeddability in the vehicle, minimizing disruption to the vehicle’s natural styling — an important consideration for automotive OEMs.

Volume scalability and manufacturing.    Cepton builds its lidars with widely available, proven and inexpensive components using a manufacturable, modular and scalable architecture, making them ideally suited for high volume production. To enable high volume production, Cepton is able to license its technology and sell components to Automotive Tier 1 suppliers, who can manufacture and sell lidars using Cepton’s technology.

Autograde reliability and integration.    With respect to autograde applications, the design of Cepton’s lidars is enabled by Cepton’s material and component choices as well as the use of MMT®, a mirrorless, frictionless, rotation-free approach to 3D imaging. Cepton has also developed significant expertise in automotive software, such as AUTOSAR, cybersecurity, functional safety (ASIL-B), over-the-air update capability and more, which enables lidar deployment in vehicles and significantly increases Cepton’s competitive advantage.

Leading Tier 1 partner.    One of the most critical factors that enables lidar suppliers to win and deliver on ADAS programs is the ability to bring an experienced Automotive Tier 1 partner into the OEM engagement. Cepton has partnered with Koito, the world’s largest Automotive lighting Tier 1 supplier, based on auto lighting revenue for the year 2019. Koito is a development and manufacturing partner to Cepton as well as an investor in Cepton. Koito has a global footprint and customer base and has established a manufacturing line in Japan to make lidars using Cepton’s technology with components produced by Cepton. In addition to Koito, Cepton continues to work with other Tier 1 partners as needed based on specific customer engagements.

Cepton’s Technology Advantage

Lidar Design Principles and Cepton’s Technology Choices

We believe that selecting the right mix of technologies is a fundamental aspect to developing a lidar solution suitable for mass-market ADAS applications. We have developed our lidars focused on using technologies, components and design principles that are synergistic when combined, with the goal of achieving our three key pillars for success: performance, cost and reliability.

To understand different lidar technologies and choices, it is important to break down the core functions of the lidar. One of the three significant functions of lidar is to transmit light into the environment (transmission) using a source. When the light falls on objects, part of the light is reflected back. The second key function of the lidar is to detect the light that is reflected back (detection) using a detector (also known as receiver). Light has a well-known speed of transmission, and by measuring the time between when the light is transmitted from the source and when it is received by the detector (time of flight), we can accurately measure the three-dimensional distance (range) of the object from the lidar. At the same time, the lidar can capture data not just from a single point source and detector but cover a 2D field of view either by scanning or other methods. This third function of lidar is referred to as “imaging,” with different techniques offering varying image resolution. Choices of lidar technologies can therefore be evaluated based on how these three functions are achieved and how they balance the three key pillars for mass market deployment — namely, performance, cost and reliability.

The principles around lidar illumination and detection have been researched extensively over many decades. To achieve high reliability and low cost, maximizing the use of commonly available and proven materials and components is important. This is especially true when those choices adequately achieve the performance level required for the targeted applications. We believe this is the case when it comes to illumination and detection, as a result of which we chose proven, mature technologies and low cost components, such as 905 nm wavelength edge-emitting laser diodes for illumination and silicon based APDs for detection. We therefore chose to focus on innovation that enables the highest performance using mainstream technologies — namely, our powerful lidar engine ASIC for illumination control and detection, as well as our proprietary micro-optical lidar modules that combine the laser diodes, the APDs and our ASICs.

We believe that the key area of differentiation in lidar design today is how to form a 3D image efficiently — namely imaging, with high reliability and low cost. To achieve this objective, Cepton invented and patented an imaging mechanism called MMT®. MMT® is frictionless, mirrorless and rotation-free, which enables autograde reliability, high performance, low power and compact form factor lidars. Our MMT® lidars use durable, inexpensive and commonly available materials, with the ability to scale up to high manufacturing volumes to achieve low cost.

We believe that our technology choices in system design and our focus on combining mature and proven solutions with state of the art innovation led us to overcome what we believe is the hardest challenge in developing lidar, thereby allowing us to offer lidar solutions with high performance and autograde reliability at competitive prices and obtain the largest known ADAS lidar series production award to-date in the industry, from OEM-B.

Advantages of Cepton’s Lidar Technology Choices

We focused our technology innovation on what we believe are the most important areas of differentiation to deliver lidar solutions that meet or exceed our customers’ requirements for mass-market deployment. We believe our current technology choices achieve the balance between performance, cost and reliability and will enable high volume production to accelerate adoption in ADAS and other market segments. At the same time, our core innovations in imaging are complementary with emerging technologies and components in illumination and detection, which we continue to monitor and evaluate.

Illumination

Cepton adopted 905nm wavelength infrared laser diodes, which combine the commonly used illumination wavelength with low cost, autograde laser components that enable us to meet Class 1 eye safety requirements. Alternative illumination solutions available in the market include less mature 1550 nm fiber and tunable lasers, which have higher cost, require substantially more power to operate and are not easily qualified for automotive applications. Yet another market option involves ~850 nm wavelength lasers (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, or “VCSELs”), which have significantly lower range performance. If these alternative illumination technologies were to mature to the point where they can meet long range ADAS performance requirements, reliability and cost objectives, Cepton has the option to integrate such technologies in its MMT® lidars.

Detection

Cepton selected direct time of flight based measurement of object distances using mature and commonly available receiver technologies such as silicon APDs. The simplicity and accuracy of this approach is well established, along with the low cost and ease of mass production. Coupled with the APDs, Cepton uses a proprietary custom ASIC, designed using proven silicon technologies and cost competitively manufactured with automotive qualified wafer fabs to implement advanced detection algorithms that are key to our performance advantages. Alternative detection modalities available in the market include those used with 1550 nm illumination, such as boutique components like InGaAs APDs which are more expensive and not proven for automotive applications. VCSEL-based illumination systems typically use a specialized detector technology called single photon avalanche diodes that are new to automotive applications and have limitations such as noise and range. Finally, a more recent emerging technology used for detection is frequency modulated continuous wave, which is a significantly more complex system with higher cost, frame rate limitations and unproven automotive reliability. If some of these alternative technologies can meet long range ADAS performance requirements, reliability and cost goals in the future, Cepton has the option to integrate such technologies in our MMT® lidars.

Imaging

Lidar imaging is an important area of innovation and differentiation for Cepton. Cepton’s MMT® provides an elegant and efficient solution for lidar imaging. Alternative lidar imaging methods commonly involve the use of mirrors, whereas MMT® is mirrorless, thereby increasing the optical efficiency and performance of the system, while reducing cost and eliminating mirror-related reliability problems. MMT® is a frictionless and rotation-free design that creates a dense 2-D image using sparse point measurements obtained from the receiver array. For ADAS applications, we believe that MMT® based lidars therefore offer the desired balance between performance, cost and reliability. In addition, our core MMT® design is compatible with various illumination and detection technologies; should some emerging solutions in transmission and detection become proven for automotive applications and achieve cost competitiveness, Cepton has the option to incorporate these solutions.

Cepton’s Lidar Platform

Cepton offers a comprehensive lidar solutions platform comprised of both hardware and software. Our innovation and product development has focused on every layer of the lidar stack, including (a) key proprietary building block hardware components that are used in our lidars, (b) a suite of MMT® lidar products for automotive and industrial applications covering near-range, long-range and ultra-long range detection, (c) software to enable seamless automotive integration, and (d) perception solutions for a variety of end markets applications, including ADAS.

Proprietary Hardware Building Blocks

We have developed multiple proprietary hardware building blocks supporting our lidar products. We combine widely available materials and components with proprietary or patented intellectual property to deliver lidars optimized for their intended application by balancing performance, cost and reliability. In the following, we highlight two of our key proprietary building blocks:

•        MMT® Core Assembly.    Cepton’s patented MMT® is a frictionless, mirrorless, rotation-free architecture that enables high resolution, long range 3D imaging, while maximizing the sensor robustness and reliability to meet the stringent requirements of automotive applications. Cepton developed MMT® in-house, and we consider it a breakthrough innovation in the lidar industry due to its following qualities:

•        Reliable:    Design using durable materials

•        Versatile:    Ability to achieve near range to ultra-long-range and wide field of view

•        Innovative:    Simplicity combined with high precision, with patents covering all key aspects

•        Efficient:    Enables compact form factor with low power consumption and uses low-cost components

•        Scalable:    Modular design approach that can be easily scaled up for high volume manufacturing

•        Lidar engine ASIC for signal processing.    Cepton’s proprietary single chip lidar engine ASIC is a powerful data processing SoC that combines illumination control and advanced detection functions. Our ASIC chip was developed in-house and features the processing power equivalent to a multi-core computer with embedded proprietary algorithms and intelligence to enable lidar illumination control and detection. The ASIC is:

•        Reliable.    Uses mature silicon process technology and is manufactured by an automotive certified leading silicon foundry

•        Powerful.    Features include lidar illumination control combined with a sophisticated detection engine and signal processing capabilities

•        Innovative.    State-of-the-art lidar signal processing maximizes range and minimizes noise

•        Inexpensive.    Low cost and low power attributes stem from the size of our ASIC chip, which also enables seamless integration into Cepton’s proprietary micro-optical arrays

•        Available.    Currently shipping in B-sample lidars

Comprehensive Portfolio of Lidar Solutions

We offer multiple product families of lidars that are used in industrial and automotive applications.

•        Autograde lidar sensors

•        Vista-X:    Compact lidar solutions with a range of up to 200m for long-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5 and suitable for Smart Infrastructure applications

•        Vista-T:    Lidar solutions with a range of up to 300m for ultra-long-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3 and AV L4/L5

•        Nova:    Ultra small form factor lidar solution with a range of up to 30m for near-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5 and also suitable for Smart Infrastructure applications, with a wide horizontal and vertical field of view

•        Industrial grade lidar sensors

•        Vista-P:    Compact lidar solutions with a range of up to 200m for long-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5 and Smart Infrastructure

•        Sora-P:    Ultra-high scan rate, compact, quasi line-scanning lidar solutions that deliver high-fidelity profiling of objects moving at high speeds, for free flow tolling and other industrial applications

Automotive Software

Cepton has developed capabilities to provide automotive software to support efficient automotive integration for ADAS applications. Software features that fall in this category include, but are not limited to, supporting AUTOSAR compatibility, extrinsic and dynamic calibration, ASIL-B functional safety, diagnostics, cybersecurity, and over-the-air update capability.

Lidar Perception Solutions

Cepton offers intelligent, smart lidar perception solutions by combining lidar sensors with our advanced Helius® perception software and edge processing computers or servers. The Helius® software transforms 3D lidar point clouds (i.e., a set of individual points in 3D) into smart lidar data, also known as “objects,” that indicates which collection of points belongs to a specific object, what the object’s size, location and velocity are, as well as what type of object it is (e.g., vehicle, person). The process by which point cloud data is converted to actionable information is referred to as object detection, classification and tracking. At the same time, since lidar does not capture biometric information,

Cepton’s lidar-based intelligent perception solutions are anonymized and therefore privacy-sensitive. This actionable information offers real-time, 3D perception to support various “smart” applications for our partners and customers. Helius® is currently offered for Smart Cities and Smart Spaces applications, with support for ADAS applications expected in the future.

The key value proposition of Cepton’s intelligent lidar perception solutions is the fact that they offer real-time, accurate, 3D object detection, classification, velocity and tracking in various lighting and weather conditions. The perception system is easy to integrate and offers comprehensive, scalable coverage by interconnecting multiple lidar sensors and combining data together seamlessly. For instance, as was demonstrated in a pilot project at Orlando International Airport, Florida, in partnership with The Indoor Lab, anonymized individuals could be tracked seamlessly from one end of a major airline terminal to the other end using our lidars and perception software, requiring no cameras or human intervention. This makes our system highly versatile for a wide variety of applications.

We anticipate that our perception software will continue to be offered through a license model adaptable to different industry needs — ranging from Smart Infrastructure to Automotive. For ADAS applications, our perception system is expected to provide a range of specialized features that go beyond object detection, classification, velocity and tracking to include features such as lane mark extraction, free space and curb detection.

Commercial Traction Overview

We sell our products globally across the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets. Our primary market focus is ADAS within automotive, with AV being an adjacent market. We define the ADAS market as including passenger cars, consumer vehicles and other commercial road vehicles that require an attentive driver. We define the AV market as including driverless vehicles, such as those used for delivery and taxi services, and are not owned by consumers. It is possible that many AVs might still require a safety driver for the foreseeable future, but they are nominally considered driverless vehicles and owned not by everyday consumers but as part of a commercial fleet. In Smart Infrastructure, we target a broad range of applications across Smart Cities, Smart Spaces and Smart Industrials market segments. In total, we have sold sensors to over 100 companies since 2018 across these various end markets.

Automotive — ADAS

Our primary market focus is the L2+ ADAS market where we target lidar programs for OEM series production vehicles. Our target customer ecosystem includes traditional passenger vehicle automotive OEMs and electric vehicle (“EV”) OEMs, as well as OEMs that sell commercial vehicles and trucks.

We target the ADAS industry by developing direct relationships with the OEMs globally and partnering with automotive Tier 1 suppliers who have existing relationships with the OEMs and play an important role in sourcing of automotive systems and components for the OEMs. Since the early days of our company, we have engaged automotive Tier 1s and OEM customers to develop relationships that enabled us to participate in some of the early lidar evaluations by the largest automotive OEMs in the world.

In 2017, we started a journey of rigorous engagement with OEM-B to enable their next generation L2+ ADAS program for vehicle models commencing production in 2023. Following approximately two years of engagement including demos, evaluation and vehicle integration workstreams, Cepton, alongside its Tier 1 partner, Koito, was selected as sole source lidar provider over numerous competitors to support OEM-B’s ADAS program with a series production award covering multiple vehicle platforms and models through 2027. To date, this represents the largest known ADAS lidar program awarded in the industry based on number of vehicle models.

Across the industry, we typically employ a three-way engagement model with automotive OEMs and Tier 1s. Upon engagement with an OEM prior to a program award, we develop an understanding of their product requirements, define the optimal product configuration for the OEM and then deliver prototypes and product for Tier 1 and OEM evaluation and feedback. When an OEM engagement successfully advances to a series production award, we engage more extensively with our Tier 1 partner to incorporate their feedback on design for manufacturing and support the Tier 1 partner’s validation and packaging of the lidar for the OEM vehicle system. As the engagement matures into the pre-production stage, we facilitate the flow of technology and process transfer to the Tier 1 partner and support the Tier 1 partner’s manufacturing ramp. Koito, a leading global provider of automotive lighting systems, is currently Cepton’s

key manufacturing partner. In February 2020, Koito invested in and led Cepton’s Series C financing and is the anchor investor in the PIPE Investment. As part of the Series C financing, Koito obtained non-exclusive rights to manufacture and sell Cepton’s lidars to OEM-B, using key components and technologies from Cepton.

We are currently engaged in discussions with all Top 10 global automotive OEMs , based on vehicle production volume rankings for 2019, as well with four new EV OEMs, with varying maturities. For example, Ford Motor Company (“OEM-A”) recently announced an ongoing collaboration with Cepton on ADAS related research and development as well as on Smart City deployments. Separately, we continue to work with a number of automotive Tier 1 suppliers, with eight engagements on proof of concept or OEM related projects. We believe that our robust pipeline of engagements across OEMs and Tier 1s will enable us to win additional series production programs in the future.

Automotive — AV

As an adjacency to our primary market focus, we target AV OEMs in segments such as robotaxis and delivery vehicles, who seek both long-range and near-range lidars for their applications. Given our positive evaluations and progress at key automotive OEMs in the ADAS market, as well as our attractive price points, we have experienced significant interest in evaluating Cepton lidars from AV OEMs, consistent with our belief that the AD market will require and source autograde components as it matures. We have 13 engagements in our pipeline with AV customers in early or evaluation stages. Given the market and technology leadership of our AV customers and the direct transferability of ADAS lidar technology into the AV market, we believe our products will gain momentum in AV applications.

Smart Infrastructure

In Smart Infrastructure, our main go-to-market strategy is through partnership with system integrators, enabling them to offer complete solutions to their end customers using Cepton’s lidar solutions. We consider system integrators who have selected our products to deploy as part of their solutions to their end customers as our partners. We currently have over 10 system integrator partners and several active projects with these partners. Our system integration partners significantly expand our sales and marketing reach and complement our direct customer engagements in these segments. We also directly engage with large customers, such as large industrial players. Similar to the Automotive market, we expect to leverage Tier 1 partnerships to manufacture lidars sold into the Smart Infrastructure market.

We have established 126 engagements with Smart Infrastructure customers, ranging from early engagement, evaluation stage, advanced engagement and production partners, including nine production partner engagements with planned production ramps or partnership contracts. We typically establish and prove-out pilot projects for end customers with system integration partners before advancing into production.

Our Growth Strategies

We intend to drive the growth of our business by executing on the following strategies:

Grow our footprint with existing production customers.    As customers realize the benefits of our lidar solutions, we expect to grow our relationship by expanding our footprint to more platforms over time. We plan to continue targeted investments intended to expand within our existing customer base. We also plan to invest in growing our relationship with AV divisions of OEM customers. Additionally, we will leverage our Tier 1 and system integrator partnerships to deepen and broaden product adoption across our existing customers.

Convert existing customer engagements from evaluation to production.    Many of our existing customer engagements are in early stages, and we believe there is substantial opportunity to develop our engagements to advanced stages and convert these engagements to production awards. To drive customer acquisition, we intend to invest in strengthening our product offering, dedicate additional resources to expanding our sales, marketing and customer support efforts and grow our partner ecosystem including Tier 1 and system integrators.

Expand our ability to generate opportunities with new customers.    We plan to continue investing in our own sales and marketing organization and expand go-to-market efforts to build relationships with new industry partners, including Tier 1 suppliers, systems integrators and other technology partners, as well as establish and grow new distribution channels, in order to secure new opportunities.

Innovate and advance our platform and technology.    We have a history of technological innovation having developed innovative technologies such as MMT® and our lidar engine ASIC. We intend to continue making substantial investments in research and development (“R&D”) and hiring top technical talent to develop new technologies, strengthen the technical aspects of our products and expand our ability to serve more opportunities and customers in our target end markets.

Competition

The market for lidar solutions is competitive and rapidly evolving. We believe the market is in its early phases of maturity as many companies in the Automotive and Smart Infrastructure markets are evaluating the adoption of lidar technologies. At the same time, the barrier to entry in the Automotive market is extremely high due to the stringent performance, cost and reliability requirements, leading us to believe that a majority of current lidar suppliers are unlikely to be successful in creating a meaningful footprint in that market. We expect a situation where a small number of lidar suppliers are likely to compete in the Automotive market, with a number of lidar suppliers mainly competing in other end markets. However, as the size of other end markets is not large enough to sustain a large number of players in the long term, we believe that lidar suppliers focused primarily in non-automotive end markets are also likely to dwindle considerably over time.

We believe our competition primarily exists across the following categories:

•        Lidars internally developed or acquired and owned by automotive Tier 1 suppliers such as Denso Corporation, Valeo S.A., Bosch LLC and ZF Group

•        Pureplay lidar companies developing lidar technologies in partnership with Tier 1 suppliers such as Velodyne Lidar, Inc., AEye, Inc., Aeva Technologies, Inc. and Innoviz Technologies Ltd.

•        Pureplay lidar companies developing lidar technologies in partnership with contract manufacturers such as Ouster, Inc. and Luminar Technologies, Inc.

•        Automotive companies including OEMs who might have internally developed lidar solutions

•        Industrial companies that develop their own internal lidar systems, primarily targeted at industrial applications such as Sick AG

We believe that major Tier 1 suppliers with in-house lidar programs have experienced performance or cost challenges for mass market lidar deployment in L2+ ADAS applications. In contrast, pureplay lidar companies have been more successful in developing high performance lidars, but we believe that most have faced significant challenges in achieving autograde reliability, even with Tier 1 partners, due to inherent limitations of their technologies. Lidar suppliers without Tier 1 partners face an even greater hurdle to successfully translate the promise of their technology or a series production award into high volume production. As a result, although the number of lidar competitors is large, we believe that the number of competitors in a position to win substantial automotive series production awards is very limited. However, as lidar suppliers realize that the only way to create a sizable long term business is to enter the ADAS sector, we expect intense near-term competition from suppliers with greater financial resources.

Although certain of our competitors have greater financial resources, longer operating histories, greater brand recognition and may offer their products at lower price points today or in the future, we believe we compete favorably in the market on the basis of the following competitive factors:

•        Commercial traction, including the industry’s largest known ADAS lidar series production award from OEM-B

•        Ongoing engagement with other top 10 OEMs, including but not limited to OEM-A

•        Depth of partnership and relationship with Koito, a major global Tier 1 supplier that has built a manufacturing line to produce lidars using Cepton’s technology and key components

•        A licensable and manufacturable lidar technology that enables multiple Tier 1 partners to work with us and potentially manufacture lidars using Cepton’s technology

•        A mirrorless, frictionless MMT® lidar architecture that is capable of high performance with autograde reliability and low cost for mass market adoption

•        The compact size and low power consumption of our lidar sensors that enables elegant integration in consumer vehicles at OEM-preferred locations without impacting vehicle styling and promotes ease of deployment across many vehicle models

•        The breadth and depth of our end-to-end lidar platform ranging from building blocks to lidars to automotive software to perception solutions

•        Our high performance, cost scaling from our ADAS business and high reliability and attractively priced lidars, which are suitable to be used in AV and Smart Infrastructure markets, with the benefit of volume

We believe that we are positioned favorably against our competitors based on these principal competitive factors.

Research and Development

The markets in which Cepton competes are rapidly evolving across hardware and software applications. We invest significant resources in ongoing research and development programs because we believe our ability to grow our market position depends, in part, on innovative technologies that offer a unique value proposition for our customers and differentiation from our competitors.

The majority of our R&D activities occur in San Jose, CA. Our engineering team is responsible for developing and enhancing our lidar hardware and software technology, with a focus on design for manufacturability and ease of system integration. Our engineering and validation teams conduct the required verification and validation activities, sometimes in collaboration with Tier 1 partners. The R&D team also partners with our operations and supply chain teams with the goal of developing scalable and reliable manufacturing processes and deploying those processes at key manufacturing partners.

Our R&D team consists of engineers, technicians, scientists, technical operators and professionals with experience from a wide variety of leading semiconductor, sensing, engineering, consumer electronics and automotive organizations.

Intellectual Property Advantage

Our success and competitive advantage in the lidar market depends in part upon our ability to protect and use our core technology and intellectual property rights. We rely on a combination of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, know-how, our experience working with customers and potential customers, contractual provisions and confidentiality procedures to protect our intellectual property rights. Additionally, we protect our proprietary rights through agreements with our commercial partners, supply-chain vendors, employees and consultants, as well as close monitoring of the developments and products in the industry.

Our patents and patent applications cover a broad range of system level and component level aspects of our key technology including, among other things, lidar system, laser, imaging mechanism, receiver and perception technology. On October 22, 2019, we were granted a patent for our MMT® imaging technology, covering all key aspects of our proprietary MMT® architecture. We believe the extent of our MMT® patent will enable us to sustain a durable competitive advantage.

As of February 2, 2022, we have nine issued U.S. patents, one allowed U.S. patent application, two issued foreign patents and 17 pending U.S. patent applications. These issued patents begin expiring in October 2038. We also have in the aggregate five pending Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, applications, and 26 non-U.S. national stage applications corresponding to various U.S. patent applications described above. In addition, we have five registered U.S. trademarks, 12 registered foreign trademarks and three pending trademark applications.