- Recent Coverage -

World War II fighter pilot John Gillespie Magee Jr. only lived to be 19 years old but immortalized his name with a well-known sonnet about the joys of airplane flight, writing in 1941 that he had “slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings,” and in the “high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out (his) hand, and touched the face of God” (https://ibn.fm/CKTFm).

The poem evokes the love of flying many aviators and would-be aviators continue to feel nearly a century later, driving them “Up, up the long, delirious burning blue” on wings of aerospace-grade aluminum alloy.

Yakima, Washington based aircraft manufacturer CubCrafters, is helping to inspire a new generation of aviators by participating as a sponsor in the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (“GAMA”) 2022 Aviation Design Challenge. In this program, high school students from across the country competed in modifying the design of a CubCrafters NXCub to fly from Seattle to Packwood, Wash., to efficiently deliver a maximum payload.

• Yakima, Wash.-based CubCrafters Inc. has proven its brand over 42 years of designing, building and testing light aircraft inspired by the legacy of the classic Piper PA-18 Super Cub
• The company also produces experimental aircraft with DIY optional kits for pilots who want the thrill of building their own aircraft
• CubCrafters recently announced its application make a public stock offering under a Regulation A exemption, aiming to raise $50 million
• The company reported reservations for $5 million worth of shares within just the first 48 hours, pending qualification with the SEC

Cepton Inc.
(NASDAQ: CPTN)

Cepton Inc. (CPTN) is a developer of lidar-based solutions that help enable ADAS, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, smart spaces, and smart industrial applications. The company’s products are currently used in a variety of use cases including monitoring airport terminals, enhancing efficiency at highway tolling stations / railways, and securing high value infrastructure. In 2021, Cepton announced it was awarded the largest known ADAS lidar series production award^[1] to support General Motors’ (NYSE: GM) Ultra Cruise program and expects to have its lidars in select GM models starting next year. In addition, Cepton is currently engaged with all other top 10 global automotive OEMs.

Cepton was established in 2016 by Co-Founders Dr. Jun Pei and Dr. Mark McCord and has 151 employees. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, with a newly opened Center of Excellence in Metro Detroit, Michigan, and an international presence spanning North America, Germany, Japan, India, and China.

Patented Micro Motion Technology (MMT®)

Cepton was built from the ground up to address key lidar industry challenges for mass market adoption. The company’s portfolio of proprietary technology is uniquely aimed at facilitating this industry growth through a combination of performance, reliability, affordability, and design integration.

Key among its innovations is MMT®, a mirrorless, frictionless, rotation-free 3D imaging platform designed specifically for lidars. Its benefits for OEMs and system integrators include:

• Reliability – The durable design uses common, easily attainable materials
• Versatility – The platform is capable of achieving near- to ultra-long range with a wide field of view
• Efficiency – MMT® features a compact form factor, low power usage, and inexpensive components
• Scalability – Its simple design means that scaling-up to high manufacturing volumes is easily attainable

Due to their compact form factor, Cepton lidars are embeddable and ideally suited for advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) integration, whether behind windshield, in headlamp, or in fascia.

Strong Partnership with Koito, a Leading Tier 1 Supplier

Koito Manufacturing Co. Ltd., the world’s premier Tier 1 auto lighting supplier, originally started an evaluation of Cepton’s MMT® based lidars in 2018. In 2020, Koito made a $50 million Series C investment in Cepton aimed at accelerating the company’s development and enabling Koito’s industrialization of high-performance and high reliability lidar sensors for ADAS and autonomous vehicle (AV) applications.

Through this collaboration, Cepton and Koito were able to secure the largest ADAS lidar series production award^[1] with General Motors as a sole source in the automotive space. The award covers GM vehicles for the initial period of 2023-2027.

The two companies deepened their relationship in August 2021 when Koito committed to invest an additional $50 million in Cepton’s business through a Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) transaction in support of Cepton’s business combination with Growth Capital Acquisition Corp.

On June 27, 2022, Cepton and Koito jointly announced their intention to expand their existing collaboration efforts to include select future Cepton lidar products and go-to-market activities.

Investment Considerations

• Cepton provides highly competitive price-for-performance lidar solutions based on its proprietary Micro Motion Technology (MMT®)
• The company was awarded the industry’s largest ADAS lidar series production award to support General Motors’ Ultra Cruise program, with an anticipated start of production set for 2023
• Cepton has partnered with Koito, the world’s premier Tier 1 auto lighting supplier, to accelerate product development and enable economies of scale
• The company boasts a compelling financial profile supported by a capital efficient model, leveraging relationships with Tier 1s, systems integrators, and contract manufacturers
• Cepton is founder-led and guided by a management team with a proven track record in advanced lidar and imaging technology

- Recent Coverage -

Cepton (NASDAQ: CPTN), a Silicon Valley innovator of lidar-based solutions for autonomous vehicles (“AV”), advanced driver assistance systems (“ADAS”) and smart technology spaces, is leading the way with Nova, an award-winning short-range lidar solution that’s lightweight, flexible, energy-efficient, and easy to integrate into passenger and commercial vehicles. “CPTN recently announced the company’s collaboration with ZKW Group GmbH to demonstrate Nova at the IAA Transportation Conference… Cepton’s exhibit demonstrated how Nova helps eliminate blind spots and create a ‘safety cocoon’ around the vehicle by combining high-resolution, superior field of view coverage in all directions. Nova’s super-compact form additionally features flexible options to integrate discretely in various locations around the vehicle to provide complete 360-degree perception that accurately detects objects from every direction, including pedestrians, bicycles and low-proximity obstacles on the road surface,” a recent article reads. “Being able to be seamlessly integrated into locations like headlamps is a key factor of the outstanding scalability of Cepton lidar. With that, we aim to bring lidar’s safety benefits to everyone on the road – drivers, passengers and road users alike – while helping advance the future of autonomous mobility,” Cepton CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Jun Pei is quoted as saying.