Taking the Lidar Industry to the Next Level: How Cepton is Poised for Growth
Four months into his new role as CFO of Cepton, Bob Brown took some time to reflect on the lidar industry and share his perspective on why Cepton stands out. Bob has more than 30 years of experience, primarily in the technology industry, most recently serving as CFO at Velodyne and EVP and CFO at VeriSilicon Holdings prior to that. Read on to find out more about why Bob chose to join Cepton and how he envisions the company growing.
The lidar space is getting more and more crowded every year. It’s become clear that there are a few key factors that will determine the winners in this market: technology, manufacturability, cost and business model. Lidar solutions need to be high performance and reliable to be viable for most applications. Lidar also needs to be affordable for mainstream adoption, so products must be manufacturable at scale to drive down costs. Finally, lidar companies need to be strategic about their business model –picking the right markets, partners and go-to-market models is necessary to be successful in such a competitive industry.
I joined Cepton this past May because I saw the company’s potential to establish a leadership position in the fast-growing lidar market with a truly unique product. Having extensive experience in the lidar industry, I’m familiar with the traditional approaches such as mechanical or spinning lidar, MEMS, flash and optical phased arrays, but Cepton impressed me with something entirely different. The team here developed our proprietary Micro Motion Technology (MMT™), which enables Cepton’s sensors to deliver superior performance, free of rotation and friction. Cepton’s MMT-powered lidar solutions strike the right balance between high performance and long-term reliability — without the use of costly materials or processes — so we can take lidar to mass adoption. In fact, earlier this year Cepton partnered with Celestica to meet our goal of being ready for high volume production for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1s by 2020.
Cepton is also extremely strategic about the markets the company is targeting. Automotive is certainly one of the most exciting areas for lidar and will continue to be a big focus for Cepton’s business. But we’re also actively pursuing opportunities in other fast-growing markets that fit well with our unique capabilities and our sensor roadmap. Cepton’s innovations have given the company a major advantage in being able to ship affordable lidar products in volume. Using a common technology platform, we can also easily create small product variations that address different use cases. Some of the key markets we’re targeting beyond automotive are security, transport infrastructure and smart cities.
For the security industry, lidar enables robust detection, tracking and classification of targets, minimizes false positives, provides security systems with 24/7 monitoring, works in any lighting condition, and reduces the burden of data storage and network bandwidth requirements. What’s also important is that lidar protects people’s privacy because lidar data is anonymous. Cepton recently introduced our HeliusTM smart lidar system that couples our high performance sensors with a powerful edge computing device and the state-of-the-art Helius perception software. With the introduction of Helius, Cepton is committed to helping strike the right balance between security and privacy — paving the way for the era of anonymized surveillance.
Lidar also has the potential to reshape the transportation industry, going beyond the typical on-vehicle use cases that are widely known. For instance, Cepton sensors are ideally suited for automated road tolling applications. The SoraTM series of lidar sensors from Cepton enables very high speed scanning, which when coupled with our software intelligence, enables high resolution, highly accurate vehicle and object classification at highway speeds. This technology will enable customers that operate road tolling systems to create new revenue generation opportunities. Cities are also beginning to integrate our lidar into smart intersections to help reduce accidents and manage traffic flow.
Offering best-in-class performance and affordable solutions, we think we’ve solved the biggest challenges that have been facing lidar customers historically. Cepton’s solutions have already achieved significant market traction in a short period of time, and we’re proud to highlight these achievements. Today Cepton has more than 70 customers worldwide, including self-driving shuttle pioneer May Mobility and leading global tier-one supplier of automotive lighting Koito Manufacturing.
To meet the industry’s rising demand for lidar-based solutions, Cepton has continued to expand its international operations and footprint. This year we opened an office in Derby, UK to support Cepton’s customers and partners in the UK and mainland Europe, India, the Middle East and Africa. Cepton will also continue to establish the business processes and financial infrastructure required to build a large, global company.
Finally, having been in the tech industry for almost 30 years, I have seen the important role teamwork plays in the growth of a company as well as the success of a venture. The level of productivity and teamwork at Cepton is truly impressive. Cepton is made up of an outstanding team that works extremely well together, which has enabled the company to be very prolific on everything from product development to manufacturing to customer engagement. I’ve been amazed at the incredible output of this team, and the contagious can-do attitude of everyone here. I’m excited to be working with this remarkable team to help drive the company’s next phase of growth and development.
By Bob Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Cepton Technologies
