Luminar Reports Strong First-Quarter 2023 Business Update and Financials

Revenue Exceeds High End of Guidance; High-Volume Factory Ahead of Guidance;
Automakers Expand with Luminar

ORLANDO, Fla.--()--Today Luminar (NASDAQ: LAZR), a leading global automotive technology company, provided its quarterly business update and financial results for the first quarter of 2023. The company is on track to meet or beat all of its company-level execution milestones and financial guidance for the year.

Luminar is firing on all cylinders and successfully proving our ability to execute, industrialize and capitalize on our business. Over the past quarter, leading automakers have continued to expand our technology across their vehicle lineups, betting the future of their ADAS and autonomous roadmaps in partnership with Luminar,” said Austin Russell, Luminar Founder and CEO. “The first production run of the Luminar-equipped Volvo EX90 has now sold out faster than even Volvo’s ambitious expectations. This demonstrates the sheer demand for the most advanced and safest technologies on the road, with growing excitement about Luminar not just from automakers but also consumers directly.”

In Q1, Luminar opportunistically expanded its technical talent, IP and R&D assets through targeted acquisitions and team hirings. The company announced today that it added core members of the former Argo AI lidar engineering team who will partner with Luminar Semiconductor to advance Luminar's high performance laser and photodetector roadmaps. Additionally, Luminar opened a technical development office in India, which welcomed a team formerly at Velodyne/Ouster. These additions follow the company’s January acquisition from Seagate of IP, equipment and other assets related to Seagate’s lidar development efforts as well as the hiring of the former Seagate lidar development team.

Major 2023 Milestone Targets and Financial Guidance:
Today, the company provided a progress report on its key business milestone targets and maintained financial guidance for the full year of 2023.

Top Three Critical Business Milestones to Achieve by Year-End 2023:
The company reported progress on its business milestones for 2023.

  1. Industrialization: Luminar successfully achieved its goal of bringing the high-volume automated manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico online, and did so ahead of guidance. More info:
    • The new factory, built in conjunction with and operated by Luminar’s contract manufacturing partner Celestica, is expected to complete a rigorous validation process and continue to be optimized leading up to Luminar’s first high-volume global production vehicle start of production (SOP).
    • In Q1, Luminar also brought online a new long-range testing facility, which is the largest and most advanced of its kind. The indoor, controlled facility was built for the highest automotive test and validation requirements of automotive OEMs for series production and engineered for Luminar’s leading lidar resolution-at-range capability.
    • In April, the company announced a partnership with TPK to build and operate an additional, even higher-volume automated factory driven by rapidly growing demand for Luminar in Asia. Yesterday, TPK entered into a definitive agreement to proceed with an investment in Luminar.
  2. Product and Technology: The company remains on track to meet or beat its 2023 goals for Iris+, software, and next-gen products:
    • Luminar began shipping Iris+ B-samples to its lead series production OEM.
    • Successfully completing software milestones for Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz series production programs, among others.
    • Expanded technical talent in Q1 with specialized engineering teams from Argo AI, Seagate, and Velodyne/Ouster to support additional series production programs and accelerate Luminar’s technology roadmap.
  3. Business Growth: Luminar is on track to meet or beat its goal of adding at least $1 billion to its forward-looking order book in 2023. Progress in Q1:
    • Luminar announced the expansion of its partnership with both Mercedes-Benz and Polestar across their next-generation vehicle lineups.
    • Pre-orders for the Luminar-equipped Volvo EX90 have now surpassed Volvo Cars’ “boldest and most ambitious internal projections,” according to the company.
    • Last month, Volvo Cars unveiled the new Luminar-equipped 4-seater EX90 Excellence, which will come standard with Luminar on every car.

Key Q1 2023 Financials:
Luminar exceeded its Q1 revenue guidance and maintains a strong balance sheet for accelerating business growth and reaching positive cash flow.

  • Revenue: better-than-guidance Q1 revenue was $14.5 million, up 112% year-over-year and 30% quarter-over-quarter
  • GAAP and Non-GAAP net loss: Q1 GAAP net loss was $146.8, or $(0.40) per share; Q1 Non-GAAP net loss was $88.7 million, or $(0.24) per share
  • Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities: maintained strong cash position, including marketable securities, of $422.3 million as of March 31, 2023. Net cash used in operating activities was $(64.7) million. Free cash flow (operating cash flow less capital expenditures) was $(76.4) million

2023 Financial Outlook:
Luminar maintained its full-year financial outlook.

  • Revenue Growth: Luminar expects at least 100% revenue growth in 2023.
  • Gross Margin: The company expects to reach positive gross margin on a non-GAAP basis by the fourth quarter.
  • Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities (including liquidity): The company expects to end the year with a balance of greater than $300 million, which is more than required to execute on its current plan for profitability. As Luminar’s business ramps up and launch costs ramp down throughout the year, the company expects to demonstrate solid progress towards its profitability goals with its free cash flow run rate expected to improve approximately 50% by year-end relative to Q1.

Webcast Details:
Founder and CEO Austin Russell and CFO Tom Fennimore will host a video webcast, featuring a business update followed by a live Q&A session.

  • What: video webcast featuring quarterly business update, Q1 financials and live Q&A
  • Date: today, May 9, 2023
  • Time: 2:00 p.m. PDT (5:00 p.m. EDT)

A live webcast of the event will be available on Luminar’s investor site at https://luminartech.com/quarterlyreview. A replay of the webcast will be available following the presentation. For additional information or to be added to Luminar's investor distribution list, please visit us at https://investors.luminartech.com/ir-resources/email-alerts.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to disclosing financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), this press release contains certain non-GAAP financial measures and certain other metrics. Non-GAAP financial measures and these other metrics do not have any standardized meaning and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similarly titled measures and metrics presented by other companies. Luminar considers these non-GAAP financial measures and metrics to be important because they provide useful measures of the operating performance of the Company, exclusive of factors that do not directly affect what we consider to be our core operating performance, as well as unusual events. The Company’s management uses these measures and metrics to (i) illustrate underlying trends in the Company’s business that could otherwise be masked by the effect of income or expenses that are excluded from non-GAAP measures, and (ii) establish budgets and operational goals for managing the Company’s business and evaluating its performance. In addition, investors often use similar measures to evaluate the operating performance of a company. Non-GAAP financial measures and metrics are presented only as supplemental information for purposes of understanding the Company’s operating results. The non-GAAP financial measures and metrics should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP.

This release includes non-GAAP financial measures, including non-GAAP cost of sales, gross loss, net loss and Free Cash Flow. Non-GAAP cost of sales is defined as GAAP cost of sales adjusted for stock-based compensation expense and amortization of intangible assets. Non-GAAP gross loss is defined as GAAP gross loss adjusted for stock-based compensation expense and amortization of intangible assets.Non-GAAP net loss is defined as GAAP net loss adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, amortization of intangible assets, transaction costs relating to acquisition activities, change in fair value of warrant liabilities, and provision for income taxes. Free Cash Flow is defined as operating cash flow less capital expenditures. We use “Order Book” as a metric to measure performance against anticipated achievement of planned key milestones of our business. Order Book is defined as the forward-looking cumulative billings estimate of Luminar’s hardware and software products over the lifetime of given vehicle production programs which Luminar’s technology is expected to be integrated into or provided for, based primarily on projected / actual contractual pricing terms and our good faith estimates of “take rate” of Luminar’s technology on vehicles. “Take rates” are the anticipated percentage of new vehicles to be equipped with Luminar’s technology based on a combination of original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) product offering decisions and predicted end consumer purchasing decisions. We include programs in our Order Book when (a) we have obtained a written agreement (e.g. non-binding expression of interest arrangement or an agreement for non-recurring engineering project) or public announcement with a major industry player, and (b) we expect to ultimately be awarded a significant commercial program. We believe Order Book provides useful information to investors as a supplemental performance metric as our products are currently in a pre-production stage and therefore there are currently no billings or revenues from commercial grade product sales. OEMs customarily place non-cancelable purchase orders with their automotive component suppliers only shortly before or during production. Consequently, we use Order Book to inform investors about the progress of expected adoption of our technologies by OEMs because there is, in our view, no other better metric available at our stage. The Order Book estimate may be impacted by various factors, as described in “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to the following: (i) None of our customers make contractual commitments to use our lidar sensors and software until all test and validation activities have been completed, they have finalized plans for integrating our systems, have a positive expectation of the market demand for our features, and unrelated to us, have determined that their vehicle is ready for market and there is appropriate consumer demand. Consequently, there is no assurance or guarantee that any of our customers, including any programs which we included in our Order Book estimates will ever complete such testing and validation or enter into a definitive volume production agreement with us or that we will receive any billings or revenues forecasted in connection with such programs; (ii) The development cycles of our products with new customers vary widely depending on the application, market, customer and the complexity of the product. In the automotive market, for example, this development cycle can be as long as seven or more years. Variability in development cycles make it difficult to reliably estimate the pricing, volume or timing of purchases of our products by our customers; (iii) Customers cancel or postpone implementation of our technology; (iv) We may not be able to integrate our technology successfully into a larger system with other sensing modalities; and (v) The product or vehicle model that is expected to include our lidar products may be unsuccessful, including for reasons unrelated to our technology. These risks and uncertainties may cause our future actual sales to be materially different than that implied by the Order Book metric.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “aims,” “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “set,” “continue,” “towards,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “would,” “forward,” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expected achievement and timing of manufacturing scale up, OEM production readiness, next-gen lidar prototype development, continued software development, program milestones and Order Book growth, and expectations for 2023 revenue growth, gross margin improvement, and year-end cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities (including liquidity) balance. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of Luminar’s management and are not guarantees of actual performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements, including the risks discussed in the “Risk Factors,” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Luminar’s most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, and other documents Luminar files with the SEC in the future. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made, and Luminar undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

About Luminar

Luminar is a global automotive technology company ushering in a new era of vehicle safety and autonomy. For the past decade, Luminar has built an advanced hardware and software platform to enable its more than 50 industry partners, including the majority of global automotive OEMs. From Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz for consumer vehicles and Daimler Trucks for commercial trucks, to tech partners NVIDIA and Intel’s Mobileye, Luminar is poised to be the first automotive technology company to enable next-generation safety and autonomous capabilities for production vehicles. For more information please visit www.luminartech.com.

 

LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(In thousands)

 

 

March 31, 2023

 

December 31, 2022

 

(Unaudited)

 

 

ASSETS

 

 

 

Current Assets:

 

 

 

Cash and cash equivalents

$

89,933

 

 

$

69,552

 

Restricted cash

 

2,226

 

 

 

1,553

 

Marketable securities

 

332,363

 

 

 

419,314

 

Accounts receivable

 

21,051

 

 

 

11,172

 

Inventory

 

14,918

 

 

 

8,792

 

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

 

33,859

 

 

 

44,203

 

Total current assets

 

494,350

 

 

 

554,586

 

Property and equipment, net

 

78,395

 

 

 

30,260

 

Operating lease right-of-use assets

 

20,986

 

 

 

21,244

 

Intangible assets, net

 

29,255

 

 

 

22,077

 

Goodwill

 

19,879

 

 

 

18,816

 

Other non-current assets

 

15,486

 

 

 

40,344

 

Total assets

$

658,351

 

 

$

687,327

 

 

 

 

 

LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ DEFICIT

 

 

 

Current liabilities:

 

 

 

Accounts payable

$

29,916

 

 

$

18,626

 

Accrued and other current liabilities

 

64,662

 

 

 

52,962

 

Operating lease liabilities

 

5,906

 

 

 

5,953

 

Total current liabilities

 

100,484

 

 

 

77,541

 

Warrant liabilities

 

4,059

 

 

 

3,005

 

Convertible senior notes

 

613,001

 

 

 

612,192

 

Operating lease liabilities, non-current

 

17,061

 

 

 

16,989

 

Other non-current liabilities

 

6,026

 

 

 

4,005

 

Total liabilities

 

740,631

 

 

 

713,732

 

Stockholders’ deficit:

 

 

 

Class A common stock

 

30

 

 

 

29

 

Class B common stock

 

10

 

 

 

10

 

Additional paid-in capital

 

1,647,357

 

 

 

1,558,685

 

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

 

(2,000

)

 

 

(4,226

)

Treasury stock

 

(312,477

)

 

 

(312,477

)

Accumulated deficit

 

(1,415,200

)

 

 

(1,268,426

)

Total stockholders’ deficit

 

(82,280

)

 

 

(26,405

)

Total liabilities and stockholders’ deficit

$

658,351

 

 

$

687,327

 

LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(In thousands, except share and per share data)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Three Months Ended March 31,

 

 

2023

 

 

 

2022

 

Revenue:

 

 

 

Products

$

7,367

 

 

$

1,541

 

Services

 

7,142

 

 

 

5,314

 

Total revenue

 

14,509

 

 

 

6,855

 

Cost of sales:

 

 

 

Products

 

19,203

 

 

 

11,818

 

Services

 

9,930

 

 

 

4,836

 

Total cost of sales

 

29,133

 

 

 

16,654

 

Gross loss

 

(14,624

)

 

 

(9,799

)

Operating expenses:

 

 

 

Research and development

 

69,052

 

 

 

33,109

 

Sales and marketing

 

13,729

 

 

 

9,398

 

General and administrative

 

44,490

 

 

 

30,025

 

Total operating expenses

 

127,271

 

 

 

72,532

 

Loss from operations

 

(141,895

)

 

 

(82,331

)

Other income (expense), net:

 

 

 

Change in fair value of warrant liabilities

 

(1,054

)

 

 

(3,857

)

Interest expense

 

(1,665

)

 

 

(3,280

)

Interest income

 

1,905

 

 

 

1,071

 

Other income (expense)

 

(4,065

)

 

 

468

 

Total other income (expense), net

 

(4,879

)

 

 

(5,598

)

Loss before provision for income taxes

 

(146,774

)

 

 

(87,929

)

Provision for income taxes

 

 

 

 

404

 

Net loss

$

(146,774

)

 

$

(88,333

)

Net loss per share:

 

 

 

Basic and diluted

$

(0.40

)

 

$

(0.25

)

Shares used in computing net loss per share:

 

 

 

Basic and diluted

370,742,917

348,683,836

 

LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Three months ended March 31,

 

 

2023

 

 

 

2022

 

Cash flows from operating activities:

 

 

 

Net loss

$

(146,774

)

 

$

(88,333

)

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:

 

 

 

Depreciation and amortization

 

2,987

 

 

 

805

 

Amortization of operating lease right-of-use assets

 

1,610

 

 

 

885

 

Amortization of premium (discount) on marketable securities

 

(743

)

 

 

444

 

Loss on marketable securities

 

3,033

 

 

 

 

Change in fair value of private warrants

 

1,054

 

 

 

3,857

 

Vendor stock-in lieu of cash program

 

5,684

 

 

 

7,848

 

Amortization of debt discount and issuance costs

 

809

 

 

 

809

 

Inventory write-offs and write downs

 

5,451

 

 

 

1,356

 

Share-based compensation

 

55,954

 

 

 

26,698

 

Product warranty and other

 

586

 

 

 

107

 

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

 

 

 

Accounts receivable

 

(9,877

)

 

 

9,757

 

Inventories

 

(11,578

)

 

 

(768

)

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

 

9,932

 

 

 

(3,300

)

Other non-current assets

 

(4,156

)

 

 

158

 

Accounts payable

 

11,191

 

 

 

5,983

 

Accrued and other current liabilities

 

11,651

 

 

 

1,200

 

Other non-current liabilities

 

(1,488

)

 

 

(343

)

Net cash used in operating activities

 

(64,674

)

 

 

(32,837

)

Cash flows from investing activities:

 

 

 

Acquisition of certain assets from Seagate

 

(12,608

)

 

 

 

Purchases of marketable securities

 

(81,623

)

 

 

(193,687

)

Proceeds from maturities of marketable securities

 

148,345

 

 

 

91,454

 

Proceeds from sales/redemptions of marketable securities

 

20,165

 

 

 

12,842

 

Purchases of property and equipment

 

(11,680

)

 

 

(5,004

)

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities

 

62,599

 

 

 

(94,395

)

Cash flows from financing activities:

 

 

 

Proceeds from issuance of Class A common stock under the Equity Financing Program

 

22,665

 

 

 

 

Proceeds from exercise of stock options

 

1,036

 

 

 

1,092

 

Payments of employee taxes related to stock-based awards

 

(572

)

 

 

(516

)

Repurchase of common stock

 

 

 

 

(43,920

)

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

 

23,129

 

 

 

(43,344

)

Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

 

21,054

 

 

 

(170,576

)

Beginning cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

 

71,105

 

 

 

330,702

 

Ending cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

$

92,159

 

$

160,126 

 

LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Reconciliation of GAAP Cost of Sales to Non-GAAP Cost of Sales

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Three Months Ended March 31,

 

 

2023

 

 

 

2022

 

GAAP cost of sales

$

29,133

 

 

$

16,654

 

Non-GAAP adjustments:

 

 

 

Stock-based compensation

 

(2,662

)

 

 

(1,786

)

Amortization of intangible assets

 

(165

)

 

 

(44

)

Non-GAAP cost of sales

$

26,306

 

 

$

14,824 

 

LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Reconciliation of GAAP Gross Loss to Non-GAAP Gross Loss

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Three Months Ended March 31,

 

 

2023

 

 

 

2022

 

GAAP gross loss

$

(14,624

)

 

$

(9,799

)

Non-GAAP adjustments:

 

 

 

Stock-based compensation

 

2,662

 

 

 

1,786

 

Amortization of intangible assets

 

165

 

 

 

44

 

Non-GAAP gross loss

$

(11,797

)

 

$

(7,969 

)

LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Reconciliation of GAAP Net Loss to Non-GAAP Net Loss

(In thousands, except share and per share data)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Three Months Ended March 31,

 

 

2023

 

 

 

2022

 

GAAP net loss

$

(146,774

)

 

$

(88,333

)

Non-GAAP adjustments:

 

 

 

Stock-based compensation

 

55,954

 

 

 

26,698

 

Amortization of intangible assets

 

1,062

 

 

 

63

 

Transaction costs relating to acquisition activities

 

33

 

 

 

1,513

 

Change in fair value of warrant liabilities

 

1,054

 

 

 

3,857

 

Provision for income taxes

 

 

 

 

165

 

Non-GAAP net loss

$

(88,671

)

 

$

(56,037

)

GAAP net loss per share:

 

 

 

Basic and diluted

$

(0.40

)

 

$

(0.25

)

Non-GAAP net loss per share:

 

 

 

Basic and diluted

$

(0.24

)

 

$

(0.16

)

Shares used in computing GAAP net loss per share:

 

 

 

Basic and diluted

 

370,742,917

 

 

 

348,683,836

 

Shares used in computing Non-GAAP net loss per share:

 

 

 

Basic and diluted

 

370,742,917

 

 

348,683,836 

 

LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Reconciliation of GAAP Operating Cash Flow to Non-GAAP Free Cash Flow

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

 

Three Months Ended March 31,

 

 

2023

 

 

 

2022

 

GAAP operating cash flow

$

(64,674

)

 

$

(32,837

)

Non-GAAP adjustments:

 

 

 

Capital expenditure

 

(11,680

)

 

 

(5,004

)

Non-GAAP free cash flow

$

(76,354

)

 

$

(37,841 

)

 

LUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES

Summary of Stock-Based Compensation and Intangibles Amortization

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

Three Months Ended March 31,

 

2023

 

2022

 

Stock-Based
Compensation

 

Intangibles
Amortization

 

Stock-Based
Compensation

 

Intangibles
Amortization

Cost of Sales

$

2,662

 

$

165

 

$

1,786

 

$

44

Research and development

 

17,471

 

 

564

 

 

7,102

 

 

Sales and marketing

 

5,828

 

 

333

 

 

2,868

 

 

19

General and administrative

 

29,993

 

 

 

 

14,942

 

 

Total

$

55,954

 

$

1,062

$

26,698

 

$

63 

 

Contacts

Information
Media Relations:
Press@luminartech.com

Investor Relations:
Aileen Smith
Investors@luminartech.com

Contacts

Information
Media Relations:
Press@luminartech.com

Investor Relations:
Aileen Smith
Investors@luminartech.com