Aeva Reports Record Revenue After Multi-Thousand Sensor Order

Aeva Technologies reported record third quarter revenue of $6.7 million and said it has signed a multi-year supply agreement with Micro-Epsilon that includes a first order for several thousand sensors. The Mountain View, California company released its results on Nov. 4, a day after announcing the Micro-Epsilon deal. 

Revenue almost doubled compared with a year ago, when Aeva made $3.6 million in the same quarter. It came from two places. Product sales hit $3.5 million, up from $1.7 million, and professional services added $3.2 million, up from $1.9 million. Gross profit landed at $2.2 million, a big step up from about $0.4 million. Salehian pointed to record volumes of 4D LiDAR and optical products, plus manufacturing that keeps scaling up. 

Profit is a different story. The GAAP operating loss grew to $39.1 million, up from $33.2 million. Strip out stock compensation and the non-GAAP loss barely moved: $27.7 million against $27.2 million. So why does the company show net income of $4.4 million? Blame a $43.3 million gain tied to a change in the value of its warrant liabilities. That's an accounting item, not money earned from selling sensors. On the cash side, Aeva finished September with $272.5 million in available liquidity. That's $147.5 million in cash and securities, plus a $125 million facility. 

The Micro-Epsilon agreement matters because it takes Aeva's technology into a different world from the car industry. Micro-Epsilon ships more than 100,000 precision sensors a year for factory automation and quality control, measuring things like distance and thickness across automotive, robotics, electronics and semiconductor work. It plans to build Aeva's Eve high-precision technology into its next-generation sensing products. 

Aeva's sensors use frequency-modulated continuous-wave, or FMCW, technology. The two companies say that lets Micro-Epsilon do co-axial measurement at top speed and accuracy regardless of materials, stand-off distance and lighting. Micro-Epsilon CEO Thomas Wisspeintner said the move will help customers automate and control processes more reliably across a broader range of uses. 

Factory work wasn't the only bright spot in the quarter. Aeva delivered its first optical connectivity revenue, shipping ultra-high-power chipsets to a customer under a joint development agreement. It kept sending production-intent Atlas sensors to Daimler Truck, passed a VDA audit for a top 10 European passenger car maker and finished an ADAS development program with Bendix. The US Air Force and Navy also picked Aeva to develop airborne autonomy using 4D LiDAR. 

A few things are missing. The companies haven't disclosed the order's value, the delivery schedule or when Micro-Epsilon's new products will reach customers, and the phrase plans to integrate suggests they aren't on the market yet. Aeva's own filings warn that order timing is outside its control and that new contracts may not turn into commercial-scale shipments. And a record quarter is still a $6.7 million quarter, set against $41.4 million in operating expenses.