Innoviz Technologies - Q1 2023

Transcript

Rob Moffatt (VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations)

Good morning. This is Rob Moffatt, Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Innoviz, and I want to welcome you to our earnings conference call. Joining us today are Omer Keilaf, Chief Executive Officer, and Eldar Cegla, Chief Financial Officer. Following their opening remarks, we will open the call to your questions. I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and will be available on the Investor Relations section of our website at ir.innoviz.tech. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our discussion today will include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties relating to future events and the future financial performance of Innoviz. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements made today speak only to our expectations as of today, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise them.

For discussion of some important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements, please see the Risk Factors section of our Form 20-F filed with the SEC on March 9th, 2023. I will now turn the call over to Omer. Please go ahead.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Thank you, Rob. Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm excited to provide an update on the progress we've been making at Innoviz. This has been another fast-moving quarter with new programs, new partnerships, new product opportunities, and our steady march towards 2023 production with BMW and the Shuttle Program. Let's start off with what I believe is the biggest development, our new light commercial vehicle program. Last quarter, we told you that we were in the late stage discussions with one of our major existing customers for a new program. Today we're announcing that we have delivered on that promise. This program is for a Level 4 light commercial vehicle, and more specifically a commercial van, that will include three to four LiDARs per vehicle.

Perhaps what is most exciting here is that the expected program is on a very accelerated timeline. Due to the speed at which this program is moving, we are beginning our activity based on an agreed framework while working on the final requirements and commercial terms. This program is moving quickly, targeting a mid-decade SOP, with test vehicles on the road already this year, which you will be able to see. This means that this program can contribute nicely to the revenues in the back half of 2023, with sample shipments ramping and attractive levels of NRE expected to come on sooner than they typically do. The reason this program is moving so quickly is because we are displacing a development stage competitor.

This is a new milestone for Innoviz as a company, and I believe it is a very important indicator of the quality of our technology and the benefits of 905-nanometer solutions where we believe we are delivering. Another aspect of this deal that is very important is the autonomous compute platform provider that we will be working with. This is our second program with this OEM, and it is the second compute platform partner that we are integrating with for this automaker. This helps to expand our compute platform exposure and shows our flexibility to integrate with all of the major leading platform players. Ultimately, we believe that working with the top autonomy platform partner should enable a faster time to market, accelerate the customer evaluation process, and ease the overall customer decision process.

I believe this will help open doors to additional wins as they continue to work together going forward. While we are on the topic of compute platforms, we have an update on another major compute platform partner and that involves our work with NVIDIA. Investors often hear us speak about the top three autonomy platform players and why we think it is important to not only work with all three of them, but to eventually have vehicles on the road with each of them. Based on development this quarter, we think we are one step closer to making that happen. We are in discussion with NVIDIA about being integrated into serious production programs leveraging the Hyperion platform. These conversations span multiple major OEMs and could introduce RFI and RFQ activity that ultimately would be incremental to the NVIDIA-based programs that are already in our pipeline.

In order to help investors understand why this is such an important development, let me explain how OEM typically makes their decision around autonomy platform vendors. Conversations with OEM historically have progressed in one of two ways. Sometimes they run their compute platform and LiDAR supplier sourcing in parallel, making each of the decisions independently. Sometimes they will start by picking the compute platform first and then build a sensor suite around it. In scenarios like the second situations, already being integrated with the compute platform on another program can significantly reduce the time and cost that it takes for additional automaker to deploy the same system. You essentially become an off-the-shelf solution, significantly reducing the risk for a new OEM to choose you as their LiDAR supplier. Our goal here is to become embedded on all major compute platforms as quickly as possible.

We view this as potentially meaningful structural advantage. We are making excellent progress on this front every quarter. While we're discussing software, I'm excited to share some details on a new product that we are quoting in conjunction with an advanced discussion with a leading global OEM. During our evaluation process with this OEM, they were highly impressed with the capabilities that our LiDAR and perception software brings to the table. As a result, they expanded the scope of the RFQ to include what could be the first ever LiDAR-based Minimum Risk Maneuver or MRM system. First, let me give a little color of what an MRM does. The MRM system is software that sits on a dedicated compute box within a vehicle and operates as a backup system.

In the event of a complication with the primary system, the MRM could take over control of the vehicle, offering a transition period for the driver to retake control of the vehicle and to offer the ability to safely pull the vehicle to the side of the road if the driver does not retake control within a specific time frame. MRM systems are not new. Historically, they have been camera-based. We believe that operating a LiDAR-based system offers key structural advantages over camera systems, including a true 3D image, along with reduced risk in low light and extreme sun situation, as well as environmental considerations like rain or snow.

Successfully building out this product category would be a natural extension of the success we have already demonstrated in perception software and will help us move further up the stack, potentially offering additional incremental opportunities down the road. The benefits of having a larger software offering are clear. First, they can build upon and further expand the value that our LiDAR hardware technology brings to the table. Second, the gross margin profile of software is much higher than the hardware. In end markets like automotive, where you have more than 90 million units of volume per year, we can generate meaningful leverage and stronger returns on invested capital. As part of this program, we are quoting a bundle that includes the LiDAR, the perception software, the compute box, and the MRM software. We are starting to explore this product with additional OEMs.

This could offer us incremental revenue that we believe would be positive to the gross margin profile. I want to give a quick update on our largest customer, Volkswagen. There have been several industry headlines lately regarding changes in the internal software company, CARIAD, and we're happy to say that we continue to work towards a mid-decade SOP for our existing series production. I'm also happy to announce that we continue to explore new ways to grow our relationship with the company. We are working with both Volkswagen and CARIAD on additional programs, including several that are in advanced stages of discussion. We are also working with other compute platform partners to build a wide area of LiDAR integration options that would give the OEM an almost modular approach to LiDAR development deployment that could allow integration into multiple platforms and sub-variants.

The key point here is that we are making good progress with Volkswagen. Because of that progress, we believe we have additional opportunities for growth with them. As a reminder, the long-term strategy of our business is to gain an initial foothold with major OEMs with one platform, and then over time, earn the right to be their LiDAR vendor for every additional future program they decide to deploy LiDAR on in the coming years. Given the amount of ongoing momentum we are seeing with our existing customers like Volkswagen, we believe we are well along the path to proving this important milestone of our business, and we look forward to continued growth with all of our existing customers. Our goal here is to further build upon our industry-leading $6.9 billion forward-looking order book, which will be updated on our fourth quarter 2023 earnings call.

Coming into the quarter, we had four series production awards, BMW, VW, the Shuttle Program, and the Asian EV-focused OEM. Two of those awards, BMW and Shuttle Program, are on target to SOP in the back half of this year. The Asian EV-focused OEM is targeting a late 2024 to 2025 SOP. Our current Volkswagen award is targeting a mid-decade SOP. The new light vehicle program we announced today is targeting a similar mid-decade timeline. While we have delivered on several major milestones this quarter, the progress we've seen in our pipeline during the last quarter is at least equally exciting, if not more so. We have had a record number of programs move from an RFI to the RFQ process in this quarter, with roughly half of the pipeline now at the RFQ stage, which is a first in the company's history.

We are now working on more than five RFQs in parallel. Between the programs we've already announced and the 10 to 15 in the RFI and RFQ pipeline, we either have already won business or are actively quoting new awards with eight out of the top 10 global automakers. Let that sink in for a minute. Eight of the top 10 largest car makers in the world are in our pipeline and are actively making sourcing decision for our LiDAR. We ultimately believe that it's likely going to be a winner-takes-most market. The technology is safety-critical. There are very high levels of tech differentiation, and the player that wins the most businesses is ultimately going to have the scale and cost leadership advantage which is likely going to be difficult to match.

Given the fact that most of these programs will be on the road for eight to 10 years, we believe that major portion of the industry market share is going to be determined in the next 12-18 months. Looking at our customer programs, you can already see some solid evidence that the pace of programs activity is accelerating. After winning BMW in 2018, it took us over three years to win our next production award. From there, it took us a one year to announce the next one. In the past year, we've already announced two production awards, along with today's new program. Looking forward, we think there are three to five programs that have the potential to make a decision before the end of the year. I believe this timeline shows some solid evidence that the pace of LiDAR decision-making is likely accelerating.

We feel very confident about how we are positioned in the process, and we hope that we will have much more to share in the coming quarters, and this outlook is embedded in our 2023 targets. As you can see, we are now targeting one to three additional programs with existing customers. Since we have announced new program today, and we have a line of sight into potentially two to three more decisions with existing customers before the end of the year, we are raising our guidance from one to two programs to one to three. On the new customer front, we are still targeting two series production awards with new customers. We have a few RFQs that we believe can advance into final commercial negotiations in mid-summer, and I'm hoping we will have something to share by late summer to early fall.

In terms of financial targets, we are introducing a very important new metric, cash collection from customers, which we target to be $20 million-$30 million this year. This is a metric we consider to be even more important than the reported revenue because we target to collect large amounts of NREs that are not always counted as revenues, $20 million-$30 million this year. The purpose of this new metric is to more accurately communicate the powerful contribution of NREs to our financial picture and to encourage investors to take NREs into considerations along with revenue. Let's pause for a moment and make sure everyone understand what NRE is because it's critical to our cash flow and the funding strategy of the business.

Most investors we speak with understand our income profile once the detail is in production, they often do not understand the drivers of revenue in the two to three years before production starts. During that period of time, we have three sources of income of cash. Sample unit shipments, non-automotive shipments, and NREs. Sample unit shipments are important because they carry much higher gross margins than production pricing. For instance, sample units typically sell in the $5,000-$15,000 range compared to automotive production ASP, which is under $1,000 and can eventually approach $500 per unit at extreme volumes. These sample units are not priced on gross margins, they are priced to recover fixed costs like R&D investments.

For each customer program we can bring in from our pipeline, we could typically sell several hundred units per year during the pre-production phase of their program. This could potentially translate into millions of dollars per year for each award and potentially tens of millions of dollars per year across multiple awards. Here, we are also starting to ship units into the non-automotive market. This effort began in late 2022 and is starting to ramp up as we go through 2023. As you can see, ASP for non-automotive sales are basically in line with samples unit sales ranging from $5,000-$15,000. Here you have the potential for a very high gross margin that can help absorb your fixed cost.

While our efforts in non-automotive are still in the early stages, we think this is a market that could be in the tens of thousands of units per year for us in the next years, and the addition of the Innoviz360 is expected to be a meaningful catalyst here. You have NREs. NRE stands for Non-Recurring Engineering. Basically, it's a phrase of wide range of services that we provide to customer that center mostly around engineering of the product as it works towards SOP. At a very high level, I will encourage you to think of NREs essentially as services revenues. The communication challenge that we have, however, is that they cannot always be recognized as revenues, depending on their accounting treatment. Sometimes they can be recognized as revenue, and sometimes they have to be recognized as a contra item to expense, such as R&D.

You don't always know upfront how you will be able to classify them, since it can often depend on terms and milestones that require input from the customer. I won't go into all the factors that play into the accounting details. What's important here is that whether it's classified as revenue or contra expense, it doesn't really matter. Either way, it's a cash payment made by the customer and received by us, and it's a critical part of our funding strategy. Last quarter, we looked across 10-15 programs that are in our pipeline, and we calculated the total amount of NRE that we are quoting to those customers, and the number is in the range of $150 million-$250 million, with most programs falling into the $10 million-$50 million range, depending on their size.

Yes, there are programs that could contribute as much as $40 million-$50 million each. Here too, we have the potential to bring in tens of millions of dollars per year if we can convert several of the programs from our pipelines. One last important point here is that the NRE are usually only available to Tier 1s, typically the total pool of NREs allocated to the Tier 1. If anything is allocated to the Tier 2, it is a tiny amount at best. This was a key part of our decision to invest the time and effort to become a Tier 1, so we could collect NRE as part of our funding strategy in a meaningful way.

We've been getting an increasing number of questions lately on our funding strategy. My response to it is, the most important step in funding our activity, our business, is growth. We have tremendous amount of opportunity in our pipeline. Each deal we win has the potential to bring in tens of millions of dollars of NREs and sample shipments. Both of these items offer high gross profit through our flow through. We are specifically intended to help absorb fixed cost. We don't assume that we can win every single program. If we can continue to show the momentum that we have demonstrated lately and continue to bring in several programs per year, these things will start to build up upon themselves.

With the potential for each of these automotive sample units, non-automotive sales and NREs offering the potential to contribute tens of millions of dollars each structurally lower our burn rate. Extend our cash runway and bring us one step closer to break even. With that, I'll turn it over to Eldar to go over the financials.

Eldar Cegla (CFO)

Thank you, Omer. Good morning, everybody. Starting with cash, we ended Q1 2023 with approximately $156.5 million in cash, short-term restricted cash, and marketable security on the balance sheet. Our largely matured cost structure and our operating cash outlays remained mostly stable during the quarter and were in line with our 2023 budget. Moving to the income statement, revenues in Q1 2023 came in at $1 million compared to Q1 2022 revenues of $1.8 million. Revenue were impacted by our pivot towards SOP with BMW and the Shuttle Program, which will weigh on the first half of the year before revenues begin to grow in the back half of the year.

The biggest factor involved here is the lower sales price as we transition from selling larger sample units to selling just the components to Magna, who is the Tier 1 for the BMW program. As we think about revenues cadence for the year, we expect the second quarter to look largely similar to the first quarter, for the same reasons. Looking to the back half of the year, we expect revenues to step up modestly in the third quarter and then step up to a large extent in the fourth quarter, with tailwinds from improving production volumes, growing InnovizTwo volumes, revenue-based NREs, and increased sample shipments to new programs. Moving forward down to the income statement.

On the cost side, operating expenses for Q1, 2023 were $33.3 million, an increase from $31.1 million in Q1, 2022. Q1, 2023 operating expenses included $5.2 million of share-based compensation compared to $4.7 million in Q1, 2022. The increase in quarterly operating expenses compared to last year Q1 operating expenses was primarily due to the higher R&D expenses, mainly on InnovizTwo costs, a general increase in headcount, associated share-based compensation expenses, and facility costs. Research and development expenses for Q1, 2023 were $26.1 million, an increase from $22.8 million in Q1, 2022. The quarter included $3.5 million attributable to share-based compensation compared to $2.7 million in Q1, 2022.

In conclusion, 2023 is an important year of growth for Innoviz. We are launching our first series production vehicles, ramping our InnovizTwo volumes, expanding in the non-automotive market, and diligently going after all of the programs in our robust pipeline. We expect to finish the year on a very strong note with lots of momentum heading into 2024. With that, I will turn the call back to Omer. Thank you.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Thanks, Eldar. You've heard us talk a lot about existing customers today, including Volkswagen. I wanted to take the opportunity to offer a reminder for my upcoming fireside chat with Gero Kempf, the head of ADAS over at Audi. Usually, it's Gero asking me all the questions. This time I will get to turn the table around and ask him about Audi autonomy strategy and some of the lessons he learned along the way during his years of experience in the field. I'll probably also fit in one or two questions on what led Audi to choose Innoviz as its Tier 1 LiDAR supplier. Investors should be able to stream along at the website on this slide. Before turning the call to Q&A, I wanted to offer a few final remarks.

We covered a lot of ground today and shared a lot of positive news, so I just wanted to offer a quick recap of everything that was said. We announced a new light commercial vehicle program that is on an advanced timeline and is expected to already begin contributing financially in 2023. As part of that process, we're displacing a development stage competitor, and we believe we can do it again in the future. We also talked about being integrated into a second compute platform with this OEM customer, and we said that working with this compute platform player can lead to additional opportunities for growth going forward, including with other OEMs.

We also talked about our discussion with another top three compute platform player, which is NVIDIA, exploring a deeper integration with the Iberia platform that could bring further programs into our pipeline, in addition to the ones that are already working on NVIDIA base. On the RFQ front, our pipeline is the biggest it has ever been, and even more importantly, we have a record number of programs in the RFQ stage with more than five programs running in parallel. We believe that there could be as many as three to five decisions by the end of this year.

For one of those programs in the RFQ process, we disclosed that we're actively quoting a new MRM product that can increase our revenue and profit per vehicle through a bundled system, while allowing us to move further up the software stack, and we are starting to explore offering this bundle to additional OEMs. After updating our 2023 targets to include, you know, to include a solid outlook for cash collection from customers, we outlined how strong growth could serve as the primary building block of our long-term funding strategy. I'm incredibly proud of the progress the team has made this quarter. I know it can be exhausting working at the company where things are moving this fast, and we know that things are only going to get busier.

With more than five RFQs running in parallel with customers all around the world, there is a lot of travel and time away from the family, a lot of late nights and early mornings. I just wanted to finish by saying thank you for everyone on the team for your contribution this quarter and going forward. We have a lot to be proud of with more to come soon. Let's keep up the momentum. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator to take us into the Q&A. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. In order to ask a question, please raise your hand using your mobile or desktop application and wait for your name to be announced. Once again, please raise your hand using your mobile or desktop application and wait for your name to be announced. Our first question today comes from the line of Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Yes, thank you very much for taking the questions. Omer, you spoke about integrating with a major compute platform for the new commercial vehicle program and also about being in discussions with NVIDIA for its Hyperion platform. Can you speak more on what work needs to be done in order to be successful with those integrations and then the timeframe that you expect to be integrated with Qualcomm, Mobileye, and NVIDIA?

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

On the light commercial vehicle, we already kicked off the activity, so we're already in. There are two deployments or there are two fleets that are going to be equipped with our LiDARs this year. Some of them in the next month or two, and another one later in the year. The work has already started. This is going to be, you know, several years of work that the eventual SOP is in the middle of the decade, but we already started to work. With NVIDIA, the discussion is around several programs that are still in RFQ stage. Basically, you know, following the RFQ process, we hope that we will be able to win this contract.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Then Innoviz has a goal of series production awards with two new customers this year, I believe. How many shots on goal do you have specifically with new customers this year, so we can get a sense of the win rate you're expecting? Maybe you can comment a bit more on your confidence on being successful with these awards in 2023 with the two new customers. Thank you.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Sure. We talked about having more than five RFQs in parallel right now. And we said that there are additional one to two programs that are with existing customers. You can get a sense. We said more than five, so you get a sense of how many programs are with new customers. I believe that we're in a very good position. Generally, I think that what Innoviz is offering today is very, I would say, very attractive. Beyond the fact that the product is great, pricing, et cetera, I think the fact that we are already awarded with several programs today is giving us a huge advantage. In talking with these customers, you can see that those are not the first customers who made a decision for the LiDAR sourcing.

The fact that they can rely on us having already customers that are going to make sure that we'll be on time and working with very credible customers like Volkswagen is giving them a lot of confidence. I believe that with the great product that we offer, the price point that we offer, the automotive experience that we have, guaranteed volume from customers is giving us a huge advantage. I would say that I'm confident that we will be able to get to those at least two new awards.

Mark Delaney (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Thank you. I'll turn it over.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jared Maymon from Berenberg. Please go ahead.

Jared Maymon (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Obviously, congratulations, by the way. Eight of the top 10 global OEMs is very meaningful. That's pretty exciting. Obviously exciting for you because even if one of those is one that could be dozens of millions or hundreds of millions of revenue in the out years. Pretty exciting stuff, and then also obviously shows the kind of motivation of OEMs to design in LiDAR. First question I had, I know there was a large silicon platform provider that recently announced an expansion of their supply and development agreement with Volkswagen for Level 2+ and Level 3 vehicles. That same platform provider has been kind of increasingly discussing the need for radar and LiDAR subsystems in recent years.

It sounds like that award is for a vision-only system, but that same provider is in talks with it sounds like all of their customers for that system to eventually add LiDAR and radar subsystems. Just curious if you can tell us about your work with that platform provider and then how meaningful it could be if they partner with Innoviz for that redundant system that they're creating.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Sure. What I can say, as we discussed during our talk earlier, the discussions with Volkswagen in regards to expansion on additional platforms is also with additional compute platforms. Basically any program that will go with the LiDAR will be with Innoviz LiDAR. That means that if the decision to kick off a program based on a Mobileye platform or that silicon company, that will be with Innoviz, and we will work with them together.

Jared Maymon (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. Okay.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Of course, sorry, just to add, of course, it will have a nice impact on additional opportunities that they are part of. If that would be the case.

Jared Maymon (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Right. Obviously a lot of opportunities that they're kind of a part of there. That's great to hear. Then just on the light commercial vehicle award this morning. Curious if there's any kind of read across here for potential expansion into passenger light vehicles with that OEM. It sounds like if that's the case, both on this kind of commercial vehicle award and potentially on passenger light vehicle awards, you could be displacing kind of a key competitor. I guess also just curious, anything you could share on that OEM strategy with LiDAR, for example. You know, is this an OEM that's similar to Nissan where they're hoping to install LiDAR on all of their vehicles by 2030 or something like that?

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Yeah. If you allow me, maybe before I answer that, maybe just to kind of comment on why we're not mentioning the name of the customer.

Jared Maymon (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Sure.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

You know, generally speaking, you know, when we're in discussion with the different OEMs, the topic of marketing, following, illumination, is something that we decided, not to have as part of the negotiation, which we learned it's becoming, I would say, annoying, to the customer. That specific customer told us from the beginning that they expect that the marketing, element would not be even raised, during the process. They told us that some other companies talk with their marketing team more than they talk with them. They asked us, not to push for that at this point. We want to respect it.

I mean, we want to act as a traditional, as a Tier 1 in this manner, and they expect us to act in that manner. Since this is a program that you actually see on the road in a few months, then, you know, we didn't see a good reason to push for it. For sure not to add friction in the process in order to make things move faster. As we did last year when we announced on our VW Group, eventually without naming them and following that, we did. We, we, that will be possible in the following months.

To your question about whether this OEM has experience with the LiDARs and also with passenger vehicle, it's an expansion that this is an existing customer that is using our LiDARs already on other platforms that is using for passenger vehicle.

Jared Maymon (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. Okay. loud and clear. One more for me, if I can. Just on the MRM software, obviously that's pretty exciting. You guys have a big software team. Sounds like this is maybe one of the things that they've been working on. Just curious, on an ASP basis, is this kind of, you know, single digits or low double digits or could it be more meaningful? Just clarifying, is this kind of, drive policy or application level? Anything you can tell us there?

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Well, I think it's too early to kind of name the pricing we give to it. I mean, we were still quoting it. I think it's a very interesting direction where the market is going, understanding that they see the LiDAR as a more resilient sensor in order to provide the backup for a compute box that will eventually drive the vehicle for safety and needs to make a decision on which sensor it wants to rely on. The fact that our sensor has the ability to see very clearly in the different weather conditions and light conditions, and with the ability to see lane markings, et cetera, I think is a very interesting, I would say, development that we're seeing.

We hope that will be successful and that will become a product that we'll be able also to offer to others. In terms of the pricing, I would rather not mention right now.

Jared Maymon (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. Fair enough. Thank you, guys.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. As a reminder, in order to ask a question, please raise your hand using your mobile or desktop application and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question comes from the line of Samik Chatterjee, JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Samik Chatterjee (Executive Director)

Hi. Hope you can hear me. Thank you for taking my question. Congrats on the win you announced this morning. I guess a question on that, maybe if you can help us size the sort of impact that has on the order book. I know you're waiting to sort of frame up the parameters around it, any sort of ballpark numbers of how it impacts your overall order book, the magnitude of the win you're expecting there. You mentioned three to four LiDARs per vehicle is the opportunity. Are you really thinking about sort of all of them being a similar sort of spec InnovizTwo, or are there more sort of diverse opportunity where you have InnovizTwo and Innoviz360 sort of all on the same vehicle?

How are you thinking about that? I have a follow-up. Thank you.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Yeah, sure. We didn't yet communicate the volume of the program, but it is only based on InnovizTwo. There's three to four LiDARs per vehicle. I wish at this point not to disclose additional figures until things, you know, maybe will be also shared with the customer because also that's something that we want to be a bit more cautious with in respect to the customer. We said that we will update our order book by the end of the year, so we don't need to talk specifically on every program and its size, having that it does reflect a lot of information that our customer not necessarily want us to disclose.

Samik Chatterjee (Executive Director)

Okay. Sorry. Quick one for Eldar here. The difference between the NRE bookings and the cash collection guidance is, maybe just explain the difference there. Does the gap between cash collection and NRE bookings expand as your NRE expands over time? Is there any sort of thing to keep in mind there?

Eldar Cegla (CFO)

The NRE is a very important factor in our business, and it's meaningful to our cash flows. When we talk about NRE booking, usually at when we approach a program, we quote for a few tens of millions of dollars of NRE typically. This is for the first part, the development part, the first two to three years of the program as of the win. We have the collection. The collection is done over the period of the development process. The collection is being done. If we book $30 million and it goes over three years, it may be collected $10 million every year, just as an example. It's very meaningful and incremental. Each program adds additional collection opportunities for each year. It's aggregating.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Maybe just to add. You know, last year we announced our first win with Volkswagen, and we stated that we're acting as a Tier 1. I know there were a lot of concerns whether Innoviz will have to increase its burn rate in order to act as a direct supplier. I think that the proof behind us now, over the last year, we did not increase our burn rate, for sure, not significantly, in order to maintain our position as a direct supplier. That's our plan also going forward. The product that we're offering to the different customers is the same one, the InnovizTwo. Ideally, the NREs are going to offset the spending that we have.

We expect to have more wins this year, which will allow us to offset, significantly, I would say more significantly, the spending that we have by those NREs. Some of those programs are quite meaningful. The NREs can, between $40 million and $50 million each.

Samik Chatterjee (Executive Director)

Thank you. Thanks for taking my questions.

Eldar Cegla (CFO)

Thank you.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next call comes from the line of Andres Sheppard of Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Andres Sheppard (Senior Equity Analyst)

Hey, good morning, or good afternoon, guys. Congratulations on the quarter, and thanks for taking our question. I wanted to maybe follow-up on the NREs. Just to better understand, do we have a sense of when the NREs might be recognized? Just to clarify, if they are recognized as revenue, then is it safe to assume that that would result in additional revenues than the guidance that's provided? In other words, would that be upside to the revenue guidance? Thank you.

Eldar Cegla (CFO)

New, newer NRE booking, which fall into which are paid, we meet certain milestones already this year, this potentially is expected, might be an upside if recognized as revenue. This might be on top of the revenue target of between $12 million-$15 million. Again, this is something that we need to see further down this year. Definitely it can be very meaningful.

Andres Sheppard (Senior Equity Analyst)

Got it. Thank you, Eldar. In regards to the revenue cadence that you provided, it looks like Q2 will be similar to Q1, and then with revenue stepping up in Q3 and Q4. I'm wondering, can you give us a little bit more color in terms of the second half of the year? Is it, you know, safe to assume a gradual increase in revenue in Q3 and then a meaningful, kinda heavier loaded Q4? Or should we assume perhaps a more gradual between Q3 and Q4? Thank you.

Eldar Cegla (CFO)

No, it's exactly the first part. Yes. Q3, we would expect a gradual growth, and then Q4 being more meaningful with the full impact of reaching the start of production of different programs for this year, the Shuttle Program and BMW. The impact will be there. The more meaningful.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

There is also a delivery towards the last quarter, which is related to the new program that we announced today, which will equip a large amount of vehicles, and there is activity that includes an NRE in that regard in order to expedite the process. That's part of it as well.

Andres Sheppard (Senior Equity Analyst)

I see. Okay. Thank you. Maybe one more, if I could squeeze in. In regards to the liquidity, with the let's call it $157 million in liquidity, can you remind us, sorry, what is the kind of expected runway with that? I mean, I presume that's sufficient through at least start of production in the second half of the year. Just remind us what the runway expected is with the current liquidity. Thank you.

Eldar Cegla (CFO)

For this year, we are we have funding needed to execute our strategy, definitely. This definitely impacts also next year. In terms of our expenses, as Omer mentioned before, we are not planning to increase expenses significantly, while we do expect on the back half of this year or the second half of this year to see more and more revenues, and more importantly, more and more collection from the NREs, which will balance off some of our burn.

Andres Sheppard (Senior Equity Analyst)

Wonderful. Okay. Thank you, guys. Congratulations on the quarter again. I'll pass it on.

Eldar Cegla (CFO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kevin Garrigan from WestPark Capital. Please go ahead.

Kevin Garrigan (Equity Research Analyst)

Hey guys, thanks for letting me ask a question, and congrats on the announcement this morning. Just I guess kind of a quick clarification. Your, your pipeline is estimated to be over 20 million LiDAR units in total with NRE bookings in a $20 million-$40 million range. In your press release, you had said that you added a new RFQ to the pipeline. Does this addition kind of change the number of LiDAR units significantly or NRE bookings, or was this RFQ kind of already baked into the estimates?

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Maybe just to make sure I understood your question because I, the pipeline that we have are programs that we are in an RFI and RFQ stages with, which we said that more than half of it is actually at the RFQ stage, which is quite amazing. The total, I would say NRE opportunity, is $150 million-$250 million. I heard you say $20 million-$40 million. The $20 million-$40 million is just our, I would say, target for the booking that we have this year. As I said, our programs that are beyond that figure for each. Your question was whether the new announcement today changes the figure in the pipeline. Is that the question?

Kevin Garrigan (Equity Research Analyst)

In your press release, you had said that you added an additional program to the pipeline by bypassing the RFI stage and moving directly to the RFQ stage. Was that already kind of booked into these numbers?

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those were customers that were in an RFI stage and moved into the RFQ stage. They were in the booking on that figure earlier. The RFQ stage is a very meaningful one because it's the last stage of the process. RFI can, you know, can linger and could be also several times. An RFQ is a more focused, I would say, where you down-select the different suppliers and you work with generally two to three suppliers in order to conclude the process. The figures, the numbers of the different program is the same, only that they're at a more mature stage in the funnel.

Kevin Garrigan (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Got it. Thank you for that clarification. Just as a follow-up. you know, you guys are really starting to gain momentum with platforms in the late stages with many platforms. Do you feel comfortable with kinda your current manufacturing capacity, or is there kinda any plans to expand capacity at any point?

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Of course. By the way, just to maybe add something. We did add, been one or two new programs added to the order book. I don't know how it changes the overall number, but the funnel is continue to grow. To your second question, obviously yes, of course. I mean, we have two production lines today that are building InnovizOne today. One in Germany, but that's a small scale, I would say, production line. The other bigger one is in the States, and it's actually owned by Magna in Michigan. That's the production line that is producing LiDARs for BMW today. InnovizTwo, today we're building it at Innoviz.

We have our own MTI line. We're designing the production line for automation that will eventually provide significantly higher capacity. The plan of record is to reach a capacity of 200,000 per machine. The idea is that we will be able to duplicate those machines in order to get to a rather flexible volume. For sure, we eventually need to support millions of LiDARs. It won't be at Innoviz facility. It will be based on contract manufacturers that we work with. Our production strategy is possibly different than others. I mean, by the time the market would grow for volume, you know, we want to leverage on existing factories.

We don't want to spend money on building factories, and we want to leverage on existing factories by contract manufacturers that can operate our production line. We are designing the production line. Contract manufacturers will operate it for us. I mean, at the time that we were audited by Audi, more than a year ago, you know, in order for them to nominate us, they had to qualify and feel comfortable with the production line that eventually will serve them. It can't be based on one day, we'll have a production line, one day which will be automotive grade, and one day we will meet, you know, all of the requirements they need. We had to point at a production line that can already prove that meets their standards.

Obviously, you know, one year and a half ago when we had that process with them, we couldn't show it because we don't have a production line that is automotive-grade, and they couldn't nominate us based on that. We had to point on an existing facility by a contract manufacturer that meets their standards and actually works with them already. They nominated us based on that production line that will serve them eventually. That production line is a high volume production line that will eventually, you know, serve Audi and others in our others of our customers.

You know, maybe one day, you know, we will have our own factory, as we became our own Tier 1, and possibly one day we'll do the same on the production, but I think it's too early, and I think it's not right at this point. We benefit from the fact that we have a simple production process and automated, and we don't need to have our own dedicated factory for that.

Kevin Garrigan (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Yeah. That makes a ton of sense. Okay, perfect. Thanks, guys.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We now have a follow-up question from the line of Jared Maymon from Berenberg. Please go ahead.

Jared Maymon (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, thanks for taking the other question, guys. Sorry if there's a little bit of background noise here. Just a quick one on the model. With the BMW program, starting production soon, hoping you just get a bit more color on the kinda recent developments and expectations for that agreement. Can you just remind us if this is an SOP that coincides with the SOP of new BMW models, or does that scope include some mid-cycle refreshes? Then anything you can update us on how many platforms or models that's across now?

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Yeah. As we said before, the first launch is with the i7 and the design fits also the 5 Series and the iX, but we cannot disclose right now on when BMW decide to launch them at this point.

Jared Maymon (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. That does conclude our call for today. Thank you very much for attending, and have a good day. You may now disconnect.

Omer Keilaf (CEO)

Okay. Thank you.