AEye Announces Inducement Grant to Chief Revenue Officer Under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4)

PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AEye, Inc. (Nasdaq: LIDR), a global leader in software-defined, high-performance lidar solutions, today announced the grant of an inducement equity award to Laura Wrisley, the Company's newly appointed Chief Revenue Officer. The award was approved by the Compensation Committee of the Company's Board of Directors, composed entirely of independent directors, on July 28, 2026, and became effective on August 18, 2026, the date on which Ms. Wrisley commenced employment with the Company. The award was granted as a material inducement to Ms. Wrisley's entering into employment with the Company, in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).

Ms. Wrisley received an inducement award of 125,000 restricted stock units (the “RSUs”). These RSUs will vest as follows: one-third of the total grant will vest on November 15, 2027, and the remaining RSUs will vest in equal quarterly installments over the subsequent eight quarters, in each case subject to Ms. Wrisley's continued employment with the Company through each applicable vesting date. The RSUs were granted outside the Company's stockholder-approved equity incentive plans, under the Company's 2025 Employment Inducement Incentive Award Plan, which was adopted in reliance on the inducement grant exception under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4), and are subject to the terms and conditions of an RSU award agreement.

As previously announced on July 29, 2026, Ms. Wrisley joined AEye as Chief Revenue Officer effective August 18, 2026. She brings more than two decades of commercial leadership across lidar, data transport, and autonomous robotics, including senior revenue roles at Velodyne Lidar and Vayu Robotics, and leads AEye's Sales and Business Development organization, with responsibility for building and executing the Company's go-to-market strategy.

About AEye

AEye offers a suite of unique software-defined lidar solutions that address a wide range of real-world needs including advanced driver-assistance, vehicle autonomy, smart infrastructure, security, defense, and logistics applications. AEye’s flagship product, Apollo™, has been widely recognized for its small form factor and its ability to detect objects at up to one kilometer. In addition to Apollo™, AEye also offers STRATOS™ with the ability to detect objects at up to one-and-a-half kilometers as well as a full-stack solution through its OPTIS™ platform. OPTIS™ provides a complete system that captures a high-resolution 3D image of the world, interprets it, and provides direction to act upon what it sees in real-time.