Cepton, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPTN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Mitch Hourtienne: Yes. I mean, GM revealed publicly the first Celestiq last July on stage. But you know that’s not at a dealership. So, the target is before the end of the year that these vehicles will be at dealerships. Of course, we’re relying on General Motors on hitting their own internal milestones. But I believe that’s already what they’ve revealed. This is a model year €˜24 vehicle.

Hull Xu: Yes. And I’ll just refer back to the numbers in the PO that we have in hand, over 10,000 units that we have in hand that we need to ship this year. Actually, the final number will be well over 10,000. So, if you put two together, they wouldn’t be ordering that many units if only a handful of Celestiqs are on the road.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Thanks. That gives a lot of color. The other thing I wanted to ask is regarding the latest share price pressure. Can you comment at all if this was related at all to the SVB situation or the Signature Bank situation? Can you comment at all?

Hull Xu: We can’t really comment on our own share price. But with regards to SVB, we could share some information. So, SVB has been the Company’s operating bank ever since we were a private company. And several years back, the company did have a small loan with SVB, which was paid back a long time ago. But that was in the filing when we went through the process. So, not sure if that’s really related or not. But, as of now, it shouldn’t be of a concern. SVB is probably the safest place to put our funds. But we already have other bank accounts open with national banks that can take over in terms of operating — operational needs and we’re doing that already.

Operator: The next question comes from Matthew Galinko with Maxim.

Matthew Galinko: Maybe if we could start with the — I guess the guidance, you talked about having about six-month visibility with your primary customer. So, how do you think about fourth quarter and sort of 2023 beyond the six-month window? How are you constructing or thinking about how that factors into the guidance provided?

Hull Xu: Sure. So what we have visibility into is until September, right, so, in terms of the POs that we have received. And we expect the second half to be — to have more volume than the first half. So we expect right now the last quarter will be higher volume than the previous quarters.

Mitch Hourtienne: Yes. That’s right. And one of the OEM checkpoints is demonstrating capacity for the capacity we’re putting in place is obviously much larger than the actual units shipments we’re making this year.

Matthew Galinko: And then, I think you mentioned the potential to expand within your current tolling system wins. What’s the timeline for potential expansion? I think you mentioned that most of the revenue in that deal or at least the initial phases in 2023. So, when and how would we see expansion within that win?

Mitch Hourtienne: Yes. That tolling win covers, I believe, three or four highway sections across a couple of different states. It’s roughly an 18-month long project, if you look at from first install to final install. But we already have the customer, right? So the next acquisition should be quicker. Those should be on the order to three to six months to win additional projects there.

Hull Xu: Yes. To add that this initial order probably covers 10% of the highways that this operator has. So, there’s quite a bit of potential once this launches and this follow on projects to do.

Matthew Galinko: And is there a sense that there’s a period of sort of performance that they’re going to want to — want to sort of see how it works at that scale before moving through more of that portfolio, or, I guess what’s stopping them from moving, more quickly through the next 10% or more?