Velodyne anticipates its multi-year agreements increasing to at least 34 by December 31, 2021.

For the full year of 2021,

• Revenue is expected to range between $77 and $94 million. Velodyne’s revenue comes from a global customer base, to whom the company is actively shipping product. Parts of the company’s served market, such as the US and China, is anticipated to come back and meet the expectations for the second half. Other geographies Velodyne serves, such as Europe, the rest of Asia, and India are impacted more negatively by the continued impact of COVID-19. This compares to full year 2020 revenue of $95.4 million, which included unique one-time items of $11 million in product revenue from a restocking fee and $17.5 million in License and services revenue that came from lump sum licensing activity.
• Non-GAAP Gross margins are expected to be between 16% to 24%. This reflects fewer units sold to cover remaining fixed overhead costs of the company’s factory in San Jose. On a GAAP basis, gross margins will include approximately $2 million of stock-based compensation expense.
• On a non-GAAP basis operating expenses are expected to range between $125 and $129 million. Based upon the visibility provided by the company’s multi-year agreement pipeline, Velodyne is increasing its spend in new product development by approximately 50% in 2021. General and administrative expenses will increase by approximately 30% in 2021 due to increased public company and legal expenses. On a GAAP basis, operating expense will include approximately $83 million of stock based compensation expense that reflect approximately $52 million to be charged against sales and marketing in the second quarter related to Velodyne’s 2020 merger with Graf Industrial.
• On a GAAP basis, income tax expense is anticipated to be approximately $600,000.
• Weighted average shares outstanding for the year are estimated to be 193.5 million.

Conference Call Information

Velodyne will host a conference call and live webcast for analysts and investors at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on May 10, 2021. Parties in the United States and Canada can access the call by 866-777-2509, using conference code 10154608. The webcast will be accessible on Velodyne’s investor relations website at https://investors.velodynelidar.com/. A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available through May 17, 2021. To access the replay, parties in the United States and Canada should call 877-344-7529 and enter conference code 10154608.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding our financial outlook and market positioning. Forward-looking statements give our current expectations and projections relating to our financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as "anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "project", "plan", "intend", "believe", "may", "will", "should", "can have", "likely" and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future operating or financial performance or other events. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those that we expected, including: the impact on our operations and financial condition from the effects of the current COVID-19 pandemic both on Velodyne’s business and those of its customers and suppliers; Velodyne’s ability to execute its business plan; the timing of revenue from existing customers, including uncertainties related to the ability of Velodyne’s customers to commercialize their products and the ultimate market acceptance of these products; uncertainties related to Velodyne Lidar’s estimates of the size of the markets for its products and future revenue opportunities; the rate and degree of market acceptance of Velodyne Lidar’s products; the success of other competing lidar and sensor-related products and services that exist or may become available; rising costs adversely affecting Velodyne’s profitability; uncertainties related to Velodyne Lidar’s current litigation and potential litigation involving Velodyne Lidar or the validity or enforceability of Velodyne Lidar’s intellectual property; Velodyne Lidar’s ability to partner with and rely on third party manufacturers; general economic and market conditions impacting demand for Velodyne Lidar’s products and services; and changes in applicable laws or regulations.

Given these factors, as well as other variables that may affect Velodyne Lidar’s operating results, you should not rely on forward-looking statements, assume that past financial performance will be a reliable indicator of future performance, or use historical trends to anticipate results or trends in future periods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release relate only to events as of the date hereof. Velodyne Lidar undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to our results determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”), we believe the non‑GAAP measures of non-GAAP gross profit (loss), non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating expenses, non‑GAAP operating loss, non-GAAP net loss, and non‑GAAP net loss per share are useful in evaluating our operating performance. Certain of these non-GAAP measures exclude stock-based compensation, RSU release tax expense, litigation settlements, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles assets, restructuring, and discrete tax items. We believe that non‑GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance and assists in comparisons with other companies, some of which use similar non‑GAAP information to supplement their GAAP results. The non‑GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, and should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from similarly‑titled non‑GAAP measures used by other companies. Reconciliation tables of the most comparable GAAP financial measures to the non-GAAP financial measures are used in this press release. The impact of these items in future periods is uncertain and depends on various factors. Accordingly, a reconciliation for forward-looking non-GAAP operating income is not available without unreasonable effort.

About Velodyne Lidar, Inc.

Velodyne Lidar (NASDAQ: VLDR, VLDRW) ushered in a new era of autonomous technology with the invention of real-time surround view lidar sensors. Velodyne is the first public pure-play lidar company and is known worldwide for its broad portfolio of breakthrough lidar technologies. Velodyne’s revolutionary sensor and software solutions provide flexibility, quality and performance to meet the needs of a wide range of industries, including autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), smart cities, and security. Through continuous innovation, Velodyne strives to transform lives and communities by advancing safer mobility for all. For more information, please visit: ir.velodynelidar.com and follow us on Twitter: @VelodyneLidar.