Ventyx Biosciences Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
March 5, 2024

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day. My name is Shamali, and I will be your conference facilitator. I would like to welcome everyone to the AIVA Technologies' 4th Quarter and Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. During the opening remarks, all participants will be in a listen only mode. Following their opening remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session.

Operator

As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded and simultaneously webcast. I would now like to turn the call over to Andrew Fung, Director of Investor Relations. Andrew, please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and welcome everyone to AIVA's Q4 and full year 2023 earnings conference call. Joining on the call today are Soroush Salahyan, Aeva's Co Founder and CEO and Saurabh Sinha, Aeva's CFO. Ahead of this call, we issued our Q4 and full year 2023 press release and presentation, which we will refer to today and can be found on our Investor Relations website at investors. Ava.com. Please note that on this call, we will be making forward looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Speaker 1

These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representative of our views as of any subsequent dates. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For a further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our financial results, please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10 Q and Form 10 ks. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Avis' performance. These non GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results.

Speaker 1

The webcast replay of this call will be available on our company website under the Investor Relations link. And with that, let me turn the call over to Suresh.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. 2023 was a landmark year for AIVO. We reached a number of critical milestones that we believe puts us in a strong position to continue to lead in a growing adoption of FMCW LiDAR in automotive and beyond. I would like to highlight our key accomplishments. First, as we announced at CES, Daimler Truck selected AIVA to be the exclusive supplier of long range and ultra long range lidars for their series production vehicle program.

Speaker 2

As one of the world's largest commercial OEMs and a leader in deploying new technologies, Daimler Truck is very committed and well positioned to commercialize highway autonomy at scale. Our production agreement with Dynatruck as a Tier 1 supplier for series production is a massive validation of the performance, maturity and manufacturability of our unique 40 LIDAR. 2nd, we also secured production agreements elsewhere, such as with May Mobility, where AVA 40 LIDAR will be used to broaden the operational design domain of May vehicles. In industrial, we signed our first production agreement with Nikon, where we will leverage our LiDARON chip technology ability to deliver micron level precision to power Nikon's high precision industrial inspection products. 3rd, we announced and demonstrated ATLAS, which is the world's first automotive grade 4 d LiDAR designed for auto mass production.

Speaker 2

Atlas utilizes our latest silicon innovations, including Core Vision, our 4th generation LiDAR on chip module, which integrates all optical components onto an even smaller silicon photonics platform, as well as X1, Aeva's new powerhouse system on chip processor for signal processing and perception software. And 4th, we exited 2023 in a strong financial position With $346,000,000 in cash and facility and no debt, Aeva has significant capital to support both our existing customers beyond their SOPs and execute on additional program wins in our pipeline. Let's now discuss in more detail our recent business developments. The Diamond Truck Series production program is a breakthrough win for AVA and a significant positive development for the industry, not only for the size of the opportunity, but also the validation of our technology and maturity from 1 of the largest and most reputable commercial vehicle OEMs in the world. This is a clear indication of the industry's growing appreciation and shift towards FMCW technology to enable even more advanced ADAS and highway autonomy functionality in vehicles.

Speaker 2

In this multiyear production program, Aeva will act as a direct Tier 1 to Diamond Truck, supplying both long range and ultra long range 4 d LiDAR. This will enable highway seat autonomy for Dimatruck's first production launch, starting with Freightliner's Class 8 platform, which has volumes of around 100,000 vehicles annually. We will also work closely with Torq, Flat Mer Truck's independent subsidiary developing the AV stack to integrate AVOS sensors and perception soft. The multiple number of sensors per vehicle and the level of integration result in significant content per vehicle that is multiples higher than a typical passenger vehicle program. Together with a modest take rate that ramps over a multiyear period, we estimate a forward looking order book of $1,000,000,000 over the estimated lifetime of the program.

Speaker 2

We are working towards our production in 2026 to support Diamond Truck's production ramp by 2027. This win comes after multiple years of deep collaboration with Diamond Truck. As we enter the next phase, we are off to a strong start. In Q1, we have already shipped many EVA sensors for Diamond Truck and Torx fleet of vehicles and expect to increase product shipments over the course of this year. I would like to now elaborate more on why Dimitruck selected AIVA.

Speaker 2

Safety deploying highway autonomy at significant scale is a top strategic focus for Daimatruck and the OEM sees AIVA 40 LiDAR as a key enabler because of our technology opening up some of the most challenging highway driving use cases and the manufacturability of our technology. This determination comes after in-depth evaluation of ABA 40 Lidar's ability to meet Dimitruck's stringent performance requirements. Over the course of multiyear collaboration, ABAUD's combination of industry leading range, instant velocity for every point and immunity interference was instrumental in achieving a number of the OEMs challenging use cases that are viewed as critical for commercialization. For example, a highway merge scenario where the truck needs to know what is approaching from behind from a far distance given the amount of time it takes for the vehicle to accelerate highway speeds. AIVA 40 LIDAR consistently offered further and faster detection and classification of critical objects than one was possible before with the existing sensor set.

Speaker 2

With plans to ramp to significant volumes, Diamond Truck views AAVAS LiDAR on chip technology with a fiberless silicon based architecture and our manufacturing capability as key differentiators that will enable us to support their production ramp. As part of the RFP process, Diamond Truck also conducted extensive audits of our manufacturing line, internal processes and supply chain partners to ensure they meet the strict requirements of Diamond Truck standards. We are incredibly proud to have received the highest rating category for manufacturing readiness and the competence of Diamond Truck and Ava to act as a Tier 1 supplier for the CERUS production program. This is no small feat, especially for a company at our stage and points to the maturity and the quality of our organization. I want to end the section of the Imatraq with why we are thrilled to be partnered and going to market together.

Speaker 2

AIVA's strategy continues to be partnering with leaders in their respective markets who have a shared commitment as well as ability to scale deployments of LiDAR to mass volumes, and this strategy is starting to pay off. Daimler Truck is incredibly well positioned as a global leader in commercial vehicles with volumes north of 500,000 units annually. As mentioned earlier, our production program win starts with a Class 8 Freightliner platform, which is the top selling platform in its segments at around 100,000 vehicles annually and representing 40% of the Class 8 market share. And within this, Daimler Truck has 60% share of the large U. S.

Speaker 2

Fleet buyers of Class 8 trucks, the likely first adopters of autonomous trucks. Importantly, Daimler Truck is also a leader in commercializing new technology, being first to deploy Level 2 capabilities in series production in North America in 2019. They have a deep understanding of the needs of their customers and see highway autonomy as the next key strategic objective and logical step for the industry, because for fleet operators, it is all about total cost of ownership and enabling hub to hub autonomous operations that can meaningfully improve efficiency while reducing costs. As part of the path to commercialization, Dometruck's subsidiary Torque is already deploying pilot autonomous programs with leading logistics operators such as Schneider and CR England to capture real world insights and ensure critical requirements are met for serious production. As Diamond Truck's CEO reaffirmed on its earnings call last week, highway autonomy is a top strategic focus for the OEM.

Speaker 2

They continue to make strong progress from hardware, including sensors to the software stack, keeping them on track for serious production and commercialization by 2027. From there, Domitruck has publicly shared plans to reach significant volume scale with annual autonomy revenue contribution of $3,000,000,000 for Domitruck by 2,030, and we look forward to supporting the ramp. Let's now turn to Abo's growing commercial momentum. 2023 marked an inflection point as we began converting our engagements to multiple production awards in automotive and industrial. The adoption of FMCW technology is gaining traction and we expect to continue to drive this in 2024.

Speaker 2

Following our Diamond Truck production win, we have seen an uptick in our momentum in automotive. Aligned with our strategy, our focus is on winning large production programs with customers well positioned to commercialize at scale. We are currently engaged in multiple passenger vehicle RFQs, including with a new global top 10 passenger vehicle OEM and expect award decisions in the next 6 to 9 months. The growing adoption of FMCW is becoming clear starting with commercial vehicles and we expect the rest of automotive to move in the same direction. With down the truck selection to use AVA-forty LiDAR, 3 of the top 4 OEMs representing the vast majority of the North America Class 8 market are now implementing FMCW for highway autonomy.

Speaker 2

This is a strong validation of the fundamental advantages of FMCW, where long range, instant velocity and immunity to interference can enable safe autonomous operations at highway speeds. At Aeva, we continue to progress on multiple opportunities for additional commercial vehicle programs. In passenger vehicles, a growing number of industry participants are publicly pursuing FMCW for next generation solutions. Based on our engagements with OEMs, a number of the opportunities we are seeing the most traction are with OEMs experienced with LiDAR that see FMCW as a key enabler to future proof their plans to achieve highway autonomy at highway speeds. In the start of the year, this now includes multiple passenger vehicle OEM RFQs and a new top 10 passenger vehicle OEM.

Speaker 2

We expect these programs to start being awarded in the next 6 to 9 months. While we continue to work on additional production program wins, we are also on track to begin commercialization by the end of this year for our 1st industrial launch with Nikon. We will follow this with automotive SOPs starting in 2025 and reaching scale by 2027. Moving now to our latest product development. At CES earlier this year, we introduced and demonstrated ATLAS, which is the world's 1st automotive grade 40 LIDAR designed for automotive production.

Speaker 2

We believe ATLAS will unlock the industry's ability to adopt FMCW for highway speed automation at scale. Atlas is powered by our latest proprietary silicon innovations, including Core Vision, our 4th generation lidar arm chip module, which continues to integrate all optical components onto an even smaller module. Compared to conventional high performance time of flight LIDAR, Abo's solution is completely fiberless and leverages a silicon photonics architecture to enable automated assembly for mass manufacturability at affordable costs. In addition, Atlas utilizes AVA X1, our new powerful FMCW LiDAR system on chip that seamlessly integrates data acquisition, going cloud processing, scanning and application software. To our knowledge, this is a first in the industry and comes after multiple years of investments in house silicon development and validation.

Speaker 2

As a result of these enhancements, Atlas is over 70% smaller and consumes a quarter of the power of the previous generation, which enables passive cooling and new OEM integration options such as behind the windshield. Diamond Truck is the 1st major OEM to go to production with Atlas. I would now like to discuss our key goals for 2024. At a high level, our focus remains on converting our growing commercial momentum to production awards while preparing for our first SOP. First, we target winning 2 additional production programs in 2024.

Speaker 2

We are engaged in a number of automotive RFQs for production, including with a new global top 10 passenger vehicle OEM. In industrial, we also see opportunity to convert current engagements to wins with leading companies looking to leverage our unique FMCW for the next generation solutions. 2nd, we plan to complete Atlas qualification ahead of deployments starting in 2025. This includes final iteration on our X1 SoC and completing the evaluation of our Atlas product. 3rd, we plan to finalize our supply chain and complete the design of our automated and automotive qualified production line as we approach our first SOPs.

Speaker 2

And 4th, as we have demonstrated over the past years, we plan to accomplish these objectives while maintaining a strong financial position and discipline with spend. As Saurabh will discuss next, we target maintaining OpEx similar to levels in 2023. With our strong balance sheet and strategic approach investing, we are well positioned to execute on our plan and deliver on the growing momentum around FMCW. With that, let me turn the call over to Saurabh.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Suraj, and good afternoon, everyone. Let's move to Slide 15 to review Aeva's full year 2023 financial results. Revenue for the full year 2023 was $4,300,000 driven by growing Ares II shipments. Non GAAP operating loss for the full year 2023 was 124,100,000 dollars We continue to be disciplined and effective in managing operating expenses, which came in slightly lower year over year and better than our 2023 annual outlook. In 2023, gross cash used, which we define as operating cash flow less capital expenditures, totaled 124,900,000 Aeva ended 2023 with $346,000,000 in cash and facility comprising $221,000,000 of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and $125,000,000 of facility.

Speaker 3

This positions us well to support both our existing production programs beyond their SOPs and secure additional production wins. We are excited to build on our commercial momentum in 2024 with expectations to increase product sales and add new programs. In line with Aeva's strategy, we will continue to prioritize large scale production opportunities with leading players such as the multiple automotive RFQs we are currently engaged in. We also expect to remain disciplined with our spend, targeting non GAAP operating expenses, which excludes stock based compensation and other potential non recurring charges to be similar to 2023. As a result, our significant level of capital provides Aeva a multiyear runway and we expect to maintain a solid balance sheet as we continue executing on our plan.

Speaker 3

With that, let me turn the call back to Suraj for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Saurabh. I am incredibly proud of what Aeva accomplished in 2023. We successfully transitioned from the development phase to multiple production awards for automotive and industrial, including our 1st major automotive production program with 1 of the world's largest commercial vehicle OEMs. We're off to a strong start in 2024 with even more commercial momentum driven by the unique performance and maturity of AVA 40 LIDAR, combined with our financial strength to win and support additional customers. As OEMs start to deploy even more advanced functionality, such as highway autonomy, we expect FMCW to play a central role to enabling the OEMs to achieve highway autonomy at highway speeds.

Speaker 2

We aim to continue to lead the growing adoption of FMCW in automotive and industrial with additional wins in the coming months and as we execute towards our first SOP. I would like to finish by thanking really the tremendous team at Aeva. I am excited for what we have in store for 2024 and anticipate another pivotal year for AIVA and hopefully the industry. With that, we'll now open the line up for questions.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 4

Thanks so much guys. As you look at the kind of tone of these customer conversations, which seems like they've taken a fundamental shift with the downward agreement and you look at the kind of practicality of trying to scale up as a sole source or a real clear leader in FMCW. Can you talk a little bit about the strategy around licensing and enabling multiple suppliers to really allow these customers to adopt the technology and build their platforms on FMCW on a go forward basis?

Speaker 2

Sure. Colin, happy to answer that. Yes. So first of all, we're really excited with the momentum that we're seeing in automotive, especially with an uptick increasing since our win with Diamond Truck, as we start the year strong. As I mentioned on the call, a majority of the commercial vehicle OEMs are already moving now to SMTW, complementing that for their highway autonomy.

Speaker 2

3 of the top 4 have probably talked about that better percent over 85% already of the market share, right? So that's we've been talking about this for some time and now this is starting to actually show up in the market and also our strategy of really aligning with large customers focused on winning additional programs and leaders in the markets, especially folks that have the ability to scale to significant volumes, we think is starting to pay off. We're also expecting this kind of similar trend to happen in passenger vehicle side, right? So as you mentioned, I put on the call that we are currently engaged in multiple passenger RFQs, including with this new global top 10 passenger OEM. And we're seeing OEMs increasingly view FMCW as really a key enabler to future proof their plans, especially folks who have had some experience with LiDAR initially bringing that forward.

Speaker 2

Now really going at how they tackle the next phase at mass scale to achieve that highway autonomy at highway speeds. So we're in the current market, we're seeing an increase in that interest. We are fully intended to capitalize on that and we have the resources, we have the team, we have the financial backing and the strength of the financial of our balance sheet to support that. And as I mentioned, we're expecting a number of these award decisions to already happen soon, right? So I think this Diamond Truck win has really allowed us to come on to the field with being a Tier 1 supplier.

Speaker 2

And these decisions happening in the next 6 to 9 months is kind of what we start to expect to see. So, but generally the focus for us this year as I mentioned on the call, we've already announced and demonstrated Atlas at CES. This is our final architecture with final production intent. It has our final chip products with the core vision, which is the 4th gen lidar chip module. It has the world's first FMCW lidar SoC, right?

Speaker 2

So that is what's allowing us to achieve to kind of mass scale and having the right power size, all that envelope. So we're making progress across fronts. And obviously, as we progress throughout the year and working towards the manufacturing line and getting all that ready, we'll also share more as we can.

Speaker 4

Thanks so much. And then just a follow-up. Can you talk about how you're derisking the cost structure and manufacturing as you move through this process this year with smaller volumes, but just making sure that as you get into higher volume production, there isn't a period of time where you end up with a certain amount of scrap and some heavy lifting on the cost side?

Speaker 2

Yes, sure. Happy to. So first of all, we started with Ares II a couple of years ago and we have shipped significant already volumes of those products. With Ares II, we already used the BOM since the first time we released it by over 30% already in terms of the BOM cost. With AVEST, that's when we have taken that last remaining step in terms of significant cost reductions that really sets us up on the right architecture to get us to where we need to go from a target sample for our SOPs.

Speaker 2

And as I mentioned at CES, we already demonstrated Atlas, which is the final architecture with our final chip solutions. And this is the result of multiple years of efforts, significant amounts of investments and multiple iterations of the silicon chip, both on the optical side of the core vision as well as now the SoC, right. So these are things that you can now shortcut. It's taken us close now this 7 plus years now to get here. So from here on, the Atlas system design is fixed.

Speaker 2

We have now this the next 12 to 18 months or so where we're focused on the qualification of the Atlas product, getting that ready for the first SOPs. As I mentioned on the call, we start in automotive next year with SOP and then from there with Diamond Truck in 26 and reaching scale by 27. So really the work here that we have in front of us is beyond the qualification I mentioned. It's also bringing up the manufacturing line, getting that design ready for our automated assembly line for automotive qualified mass production. And we have the support of our strong team that's been doing this already for the past couple of years.

Speaker 2

So we feel pretty good about this. We have a clear plan that we are executing on of the timelines that I just mentioned.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Richard Shannon with Craig Hallum. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 5

Thanks guys for taking my question here. Maybe I'll ask a much simpler one, just kind of a tactical one here looking at 2024. You gave us a sense of what to think about for OpEx here, but love to get your sense of thinking about sales here. It seems like we're not going to see leaps and bounds here with Nikon probably starting late this year. It doesn't sound like much of anything from May Mobility.

Speaker 5

We have consensus estimates look at look like around $15,000,000 for the year compared to $4,000,000 last year. I wonder if you could just give us a sense of what you're thinking on just in broad brushstrokes here about what 2024 sales look like?

Speaker 3

Yes, this is Saurabh. Yes, so on the revenue front, we are seeing strong momentum in both industrial and automotive. We are seeing increasing number of shipments in 2024 and we expect full year revenue in 2024 to grow by at least 100%. On top of that, we are seeing increasing number of opportunities to expand from there. That being said, our focus continues to be on executing on large production opportunities in automotive and other applications.

Speaker 3

As we discussed earlier on the call, we are in multiple RFQs, including the top 10 passenger car OEM and we will continue to work towards that.

Speaker 6

Okay. And

Speaker 5

with that detail, my follow on question here is just hitting on NiKhan and the general industrial opportunity here. You said you're going to be ramping up or starting to ramp late this year. I just want to get a general sense of how we see that ramp with Nikon over time here. I assume this is going to take many years to get to a perceived kind of peak level here. I have no idea what you're thinking of, but maybe we characterize kind of that ramp and eventual peak there would be very helpful.

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Sure. Yes, happy to.

Speaker 5

This is Urooj.

Speaker 2

So, Nikon, as you have mentioned in the past, is a multiyear program on the production side through 2028. And the agreement includes minimum volume commitments and obviously, a key differentiation with the industrial side of convert to automotive is that it has strong ASPs that are significantly higher. Here is about an order of 9 higher than a typical auto program, right? So on the kind of the volume side, Nikon has a significant share, I think the double digits of the metrology market. So that's something that they have publicly talked about.

Speaker 2

There is in the metrology market, volumes obviously is not in the same scale as mass production automotive, but it's in the multiple thousands of units. So that combined with ASPs, this is a considerable obviously, we expect revenue ramp up through 2025 and expand from there. I think already by, I would say, 25 or a year to 18 months after, we expect to reach a peak period. But to add to that, this is just the first program that we're doing with Nikon, right, which is focused on metrology for auto applications, aerospace, others. But also we see a number of opportunities industrial that we are working on that really has the potential to grow this industrial business significantly.

Speaker 2

So beyond just simple assembly for automated assembly, also precision assembly. There are other applications that as we able to talk more about, we will share, which we see as an opportunity to expand.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Suji Desilva ROTH Capital Partners. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 6

Hi, Suresh. Hi, Surab. Congratulations on the progress here. So the passenger opportunity including the new global top 10, I'm just curious how far along those guys are, if you could contrast it with maybe Daimler, I think you talked about Cal23 working on the software integration through the year. If that's happening already with the guys in the pipeline, if it's already happened and how much different that effort is when you go from trucking across to passenger?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks for the question, Suji. So first of all, obviously, a lot of the work that we have done on the core platform side that led us to the win with Daimler Truck is what we are leveraging for additional opportunities and programs that we are engaged. And that's also part of the reason why we see a faster progress on programs. We're seeing increased momentum in the space.

Speaker 2

Now we see a number of passenger programs that are looking to future proof their stack, which means how they get the next level of functionality on the highway with highway autonomy speeds working. And you bet that we are leveraging all the effort that we have done already that led us to winning Diamond Truck to also make progress on those programs. So we have been engaged with this OEM for some time already. We are going through the RFQ process. This is a significant OEM, one of the largest in this in the world, with global scale.

Speaker 2

And we see this opportunity, something that is considerable, quite significant, at least in the size similar to Dimitruck, if not more, with production timing that is around the same timeframe. So I think pretty exciting opportunity for us. Obviously, we're going through a number of activities quite intensely that's increasing over time. So as we go through this process and we can share more, we definitely will do so. But we're pretty excited about it.

Speaker 2

It's not the only passenger programs that we're working on. We're engaged on multiple RFQs. And to be clear, the feedback that we're getting from the OEMs is that this is no longer a matter of if there will be a transition to FMCW to enable next generation technologies, but actually it's a matter of when. And this is really exciting for us. And I think with some of the timelines of OEM shifting also towards timing that actually aligns further and better with our time line, the 20 26 SOP and further, we see this as quite positive for us.

Speaker 2

And so folks are really looking to make sure that they have that right next gen technology as they scale to mass volumes for the high bay autonomy application. And the important thing is the feedback that we're seeing is this is also not something that's being decided in years from now, it's in the months from now, right? 6 to 9 months from now, we expect some of these decisions start to happen. And the SOPs to be similar time frames that we see also with Diamond Truck. So it's quite encouraging.

Speaker 6

Okay. And then my follow-up is about the same RF in the pipeline. You talked about it being similar or larger than maybe the time opportunity. Can you put some color around these programs you're targeting if they're mainstream or if they're premium initially for passenger? Is it L2 plus, L3, L4?

Speaker 6

Where are you intercepting them? And are they EV, hybrid? Any color there in terms of where you're drawing kind of attention from the OEMs would be helpful?

Speaker 2

Yes, absolutely. I think in this next phase, the focus of the OEMs for mass scale, which is going to be across platforms. And it's really becoming more and more table stakes to provide kind of autonomy functionality on the highway, almost more or less similar to what a seat belt was. So that's what we're seeing. This is not something that's like a super high level 5 that is going to take many years to come and it's a super small portion.

Speaker 2

It is instead of talking about levels, it is really highway autonomy. So that's how we see it. That's the feedback that we're getting. It is completely powertrain agnostic, so both combustion engines and EVs. So as I mentioned, this is the technology to provide safer highway speed automation is becoming more increasingly viewed as table stakes for many of the premium OEMs And the scale for the car lines is across many car lines and across different platforms.

Speaker 2

So it's not something that is perceived as just, let's say, as some super high end.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kevin Garrigan with Westpark Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 7

Yes. Hey, guys. Thanks for letting me ask a question. So I know you have Nikon launching later this year and you talked about other opportunities in the industrial market. But it seems like automotive is really about to ramp just based on commentary from you and a few other LiDAR companies.

Speaker 7

Does your focus now switch away from the trying to win some other industrial awards? Or I guess, would you need to add resources in order to go after both markets?

Speaker 2

Yes. Look, I would say, I think one of the key differentiators for AIVA is that we have had a consistent strategy from day 1, right? We are building the perception platform of the future that's now coming to materialize in the near term here. Last year, we secured multiple production wins, 3 to be specific. Each year now, we are seeing now a program starting to take place and ramp up.

Speaker 2

Nikon, as you mentioned, end of this year into 2025, May 2025, Diamond Truck in 2026 and multiple other programs on automotive that are in a similar time frame SOP deciding this year, right? So, our the beauty of our platform, what we call it protection platform is that it's all the same core technology, the same core components. The core vision chip module, which have now been finalized with what we have released with Atlas, is the same that goes into automotive for Diamond Truck and our Atlas product and the same that goes into what we do with Nikon and others in industrial. So same manufacturing line with different software on our processing chip allows us to achieve these different performance points, which really points to the massive flexibility of our platform, software defined, software enabled and the same hardware, right? So that's something that I think is a big differentiation for AIVA.

Speaker 2

This means that we do not need to add additional resources to be able to support those other programs. The team that we have already is sufficiently staffed to be able to support industrial launch that we have already with Nikon and others, but also to continue to support on our automotive OEM programs. Of course, we continue to building our team for future growth and next generation platforms. But because of our technology innovation and the fact that we have already done all the heavy lifting of the core platform development, now the application of this technology to multiple industries is much, much easier compared to, I would say, many others in this space. And that's because of the fact that it's based in 4 d RFMCW technology.

Speaker 6

And the

Speaker 2

second thing I would say is, we obviously are fabless. We have a Centimeters model with light CapEx. And this has also been a strategic move from day 1 that we really thought about that as we go through in terms of production, we work with partners that are qualified that help us from some of those critical aspects of design rules or design for manufacturing for automotive and making sure also that that is sufficient for industrial applications. So and on top of all that, I think having going into production with somebody like Diamond Truck, which is the leader, one of the largest, if not the largest OEMs in the commercial vehicle space with such a significant scale and the fact that they have stringent requirements even more so than passenger OEM in terms of reliability, lifetime durability and that they have that expectation of quality that makes them Daimler is something that we see as a perfect kind of lead customer in the automotive space because it kind of covers a superset of the requirements that allow us to get to that support additional program wins based on the qualification work, based on the certification and all the work that the team has been doing and will continue to do for the 1st program.

Speaker 2

So long how long did the answer saying is, no, we believe in both of these applications, both are going to continue ramping up and we have sufficient resources to support that for all the reasons that I mentioned. Yes, got it.

Speaker 7

Got it. Okay. That makes perfect sense. Thank you for that. And then just a quick follow-up.

Speaker 7

If you were to win another 1 or 2 kind of RFQs, I know you just talked about your partnerships with manufacturing partners, but are your current manufacturing lines that you have with them, are they enough for an additional 1 or 2 RFQs? Or would you have to ask them to add capacity or add a new manufacturing line?

Speaker 2

Yes, absolutely. So that is exactly part of all the manufacturing line planning that we have been doing and we are increasing our efforts now this year. We are including already the capacity that's needed to support not just the existing wins, but also a number of the additional program wins that we plan to close out in our key average. Obviously, we don't go and build a bunch of capacity years in advance, but when we work with our partners, we ensure that one, the sufficient space is available, the line is replicable, so that both of those can happen in time ahead of these SOPs. And obviously, as you know, timing usually is a couple of years or so, you have a best notice, which gives us enough time to be able to actually build that additional capacity.

Speaker 2

But again, we are already building that capacity for additional customer support because we see that huge pull from the market for transitioning to FMCW, right? As I said, this is not the feedback at least that we're seeing from seeing from the customers is it's no longer a matter of if, it's a matter of when and with some of the timings kind of shifting on the passenger side is aligning to where we are headed. And our existing SOPs, which we see as a key positive sign for the industry.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we have reached the end of the question and answer session. And this also concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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Ventyx Biosciences Q4 2023
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