One Million Units on Tap
As Cepton's first major production client, GM gets Silicon Valley-based Cepton moving in the right direction to meet its goal to be the world's first LiDAR company to go mass market across multiple vehicle platforms. The Koito relationship paid strong dividends as the Tokyo-based company made the new GM contract possible. Cepton has provided a nonexclusive license to Koito to manufacture a version of Cepton's MMT-based, Vista(R)-X90 automotive grade LiDAR, using key components and technologies from Cepton. These are the sensors that GM will be using in vehicles equipped with its ADAS platform.
"We founded Cepton in 2016 with an emphasis on ADAS and centered our LiDAR innovation around the goal of making LiDAR an essential automotive safety sensor in everyday passenger cars. We are now focused on delivering a safer and more enjoyable driving experience to consumers within the next few years," said Cepton CEO and cofounder Dr. Jun Pei.
Owing to its robust properties and solid price point, Cepton anticipates strong market adoption from auto OEMs and others where LiDAR is becoming prominent. The company says it expects to ship more than one million of its LiDAR units in 2025 as momentum builds and a flywheel effect results, where the technology becomes embedded in different manufacturing infrastructures, which in turn fuels volume production and lower costs, which leads to more uptake and a repeat of the cycle.
The SPAC Terms
Growth Capital Acquisition Corp. is a SPAC with approximately $231 million of pro forma cash on the balance sheet, broken down into $172.5 million in cash and $58.5 million raised via a private investment in public entity (PIPE) anchored by the Koito investment. The SPAC was assembled with the purpose of targeting a company valued at up to $1.5 billion, and Cepton tracks essentially at that based upon these figures, which equate to a pro forma firm value of $1.50 billion. That's roughly 1.8 times estimated 2025 revenue of $861 million.
Existing shareholders have the lion's share (~85%) of the shareholding, while SPAC IPO and founder shares account for about 12% and PIPE investors make up the other 3%. Cepton currently employs 116 people, including 51 engineers and 21 PhDs focused on developing state-of-the-art, intelligent, LiDAR-based solutions for a range of markets, such as automotive, smart cities, smart spaces and smart industrial applications. The initial emphasis is on ADAS, the largest-end market for LiDAR.
Autonomous Vehicles in Sight
Safe to say that the world is speeding towards a day when roads feature more autonomous vehicles than those where a driver is facing forward intently gripping the steering wheel. The world is getting small doses of hands-free driving, but full autonomy is definitely in the cards eventually. Those that have read a report from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute understand that the group is extremely bullish on the notion, calling for safe, reliable autonomous cars in as few as three years. It's certainly imaginable that once the ball gets rolling, the acceleration will be at lighting speed, shepherded along by a diverse group of companies that are already headlong into the space.
Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) announced at CES 2022 its Snapdragon Ride Vision System, an expansion to the product portfolio featuring an open, scalable and modular computer vision software stack built on an industry-leading four-nanometer (4nm) processing node. The company also announced a collaboration to bring the latest advancements in driver assistance technologies along with products of its Snapdragon Ride Platform to BMW Group's next generation of ADAS and automated driving (AD) platforms.
Toyota Motor Corporation's (NYSE: TM) development philosophy for automated driving is the Mobility Teammate Concept (MTC), an approach built on the belief that people and vehicles can work together in the service of safe, convenient and efficient mobility. Rather than removing humans from any engagement with their mobility, MTC allows them to enjoy the freedom and joy of driving if they choose, while also benefiting from the capabilities of automated driving when they need or wish.
Stellantis N.V. (NYSE: STLA) is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed in 2021 on the basis of a 50-50 cross-border merger between the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group. The company owns an iconic brand portfolio and had a presence at CES 2022 where demonstrations of its advanced electrification, cockpit technology, autonomy and connectivity displays provided tangible examples of Stellantis' transition to a sustainable tech mobility company.
For Baby Boomers, self-driving cars seems like something straight out of the Jetsons, an idea will likely take some serious getting used to. For babies being born today, however, autonomous vehicles will be like the internet for Gen Xers. They will look to the older generations and wonder how the world ever functioned without them.
For more information about Growth Capital Acquisition Corp., please visit Growth Capital Acquisition Corp.
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