Recently Completed Public Offering Bolsters Balance Sheet
TEL
AVIV, Israel, Aug. 16,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Innoviz Technologies Ltd.
(NASDAQ: INVZ) ("Innoviz"), a leading Tier-1 direct supplier of
high-performance, automotive grade LiDAR sensors and perception
software, today issued an open letter to its shareholders following
its recently-completed underwritten public offering of ordinary
shares, in which Co-Founder and CEO Omer
Keilaf highlights the Company's strong operational execution
and recent customer wins.
The full text of the letter follows:
Dear Fellow Shareholders,
Following our successful capital raise last week, I want to
offer additional color on the context and strategy behind the
follow-on offering and what it accomplishes for our investors.
Innoviz is currently participating in over five active RFQ
sourcing processes, all with major automotive OEMs. While our
previous cash balance was meaningful and gave us a substantial
financial runway, the Board and management team felt that adding
additional cash to the balance sheet would give us the best
possible odds of securing further customer wins – an important step
in the growth of our company. We believe we are in a
once-in-a-lifetime market share capture window for the automotive
LiDAR industry. We also believe that we have the technology that is
needed to be a market leader, and now I am confident that we have
the balance sheet that is needed as well.
Oren Buskila, my fellow
co-founder and our Chief R&D Officer, and I both invested in
last week's follow-on offering, and Amichai
Steimberg, our Chairman of the Board, increased his position
in the company this week as well. This reflects our strong belief
in the long-term success of the business and our confidence in our
ability to execute on the many catalysts that lie ahead of us this
year and next. Below I will outline a few key components of the
Innoviz story to give you a better sense of our vision for the
company and the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead.
- Winner Takes Most Market: At Innoviz, we believe the
automotive LiDAR industry is ultimately going to be a
winner-takes-most market. We expect that early leaders in the LiDAR
industry will be able to create high barriers to entry versus new
competitors, built upon technology leadership and volume-based cost
advantages. Establishing an early leadership position can be an
important component to long-term success.
- The Flywheel Effect: In the LiDAR industry, we believe
that wins can lead to more wins. Securing additional awards in the
near-term can further drive our technology leadership, capture
additional NRE funding, and enhance volume-based cost advantages,
leading to the potential for additional success thereafter.
- Significant Market Share Capture Window: On our first
quarter earnings call this year I spoke about how several programs
with major OEMs transitioned from RFIs to RFQs during the quarter,
and with roughly half of our pipeline now in the RFQ phase, we are
actively quoting on more than five RFQ's in parallel. OEMs are
planning for these programs now and there are a slew of decisions
that I expect to come in 2023-24. Since many of these programs are
8-10 years long, this is an opportunity to capture long-term market
share in an industry where growth is poised to move quickly.
- Cash Runway: The cash secured by the recent capital
raise extends our financial runway beyond the market share capture
window, and if we secure additional awards, we can push our cash
runway even further.
- NREs can Unlock Additional Cash Runway: Part of our
strategy to become a Tier 1 automotive supplier was predicated on
the fact that it is the only way to unlock meaningful non-recurring
engineering (NRE) bookings. We have previously disclosed that the
typical NRE quote within our RFI/RFQ pipeline is for
$20-40 million and we have some above
the high end of that range, closer to the $60 million mark. These pre-production income
streams represent a cash payment that can meaningfully offset our
cash burn.
- Strong Track Record of Execution: In 2022, we hinted at
a major new OEM customer and months later we delivered the
Volkswagen Group. Coming into this year we hinted at a program
expansion, and the next quarter we delivered the light commercial
vehicle announcement. In the first quarter of 2023 we said we were
working on a Minimum Risk Maneuver (MRM) solution for a customer,
and on our second quarter earnings call we announced the BMW
B-sample with MRM and our AI compute module. And for the last year,
we've been pointing to a 2023 start of production (SOP) with the
BMW 7 Series, and we began shipping the production units early in
the third quarter. We want investors to recognize that we are
delivering on the things that we say we are going to do. I am
confident that we can continue our track record of executing.
When combined, these factors point to a strong backdrop for
Innoviz in the programs that we are actively competing on. I
believe that the incremental capital that we raised will position
us more favorably to deliver these wins. Thank you for your
continued support and ongoing belief in the Innoviz mission.
Sincerely,
Omer Keilaf
Co-Founder and CEO
Innoviz Technologies
About Innoviz
Innoviz is a global leader in LiDAR technology, serving as a
Tier 1 supplier to the world's leading automotive manufacturers and
working towards a future with safe autonomous vehicles on the
world's roads. Innoviz's LiDAR and perception software "see" better
than a human driver and reduce the possibility of error, meeting
the automotive industry's strictest expectations for performance
and safety. Operating across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Innoviz has been selected by
internationally recognized premium car brands for use in consumer
vehicles as well as by other commercial and industrial leaders for
a wide range of use cases.
Forward Looking Statements
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including
statements regarding the services offered by Innoviz, the
anticipated technological capability of Innoviz's products, the
markets in which Innoviz operates and Innoviz's projected future
results. These forward-looking statements generally are identified
by the words "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate,"
"estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan,"
"may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will
likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements
are predictions, projections and other statements about future
events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and,
as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. NRE bookings
as described in the following sentence. "NRE (Non-recurring
Engineering) bookings" is booked services that may be ordered from
Innoviz usually as part of a program design win and includes, among
other things, application engineering, product adaptation services,
testing and validation services, standards and qualification work
and change requests (usually during the lifetime of a program). The
commitment for a certain NRE is usually provided around the design
win and may be paid based on milestones over the development phase
of the project which may take a few years. Many factors could cause
actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking
statements in this announcement including but not limited to, the
ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other
expectations, the ability to convert design wins into definitive
orders and the magnitude of such orders, the possibility that NRE
would be set off against liabilities and indemnities, the ability
to identify and realize additional opportunities, and potential
changes and developments in the highly competitive LiDAR technology
and related industries. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. You
should carefully consider such risk and the other risks and
uncertainties described in Innoviz's annual report on Form 20-F
filed with the SEC on March 9, 2023
and other documents filed by Innoviz from time to time with the
SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ
materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.
Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking
statements, and Innoviz assumes no obligation and does not intend
to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Innoviz
gives no assurance that it will achieve its
expectations.
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Media Contact
media@innoviz-tech.com
Investor Contact (US)
Rob Moffatt
VP, Corporate Development & IR
Innoviz Technologies
+1 (203) 665-8644
investors@innoviz-tech.com
Investor Contact (Israel)
Maya
Lustig
Director, Investor Relations
Innoviz Technologies
+972 54 677 8100
investors@innoviz-tech.com
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SOURCE Innoviz Technologies