Item 1. Business
Overview
Heliogen is a leader in next generation concentrated solar energy (“CSE”). We are developing a modular, A.I.-enabled, concentrated solar energy plant that will use an array of mirrors to reflect sunlight and capture, concentrate, store and convert it into cost-effective energy on demand. Our unique system will have the ability to cost-effectively generate and store thermal energy at very high temperatures. The ability to produce high-temperature heat, and the inclusion of thermal energy storage, distinguishes our solution from clean energy provided by typical photovoltaic (“PV”) and wind installations which do not produce thermal energy and are only able to produce energy intermittently unless battery storage is added. The system will be configurable for several applications, including the carbon-free generation of clean power (electricity), industrial-grade heat (for use in industrial processes), and green hydrogen, based on a customer’s needs.
We have developed innovations in the process of concentrating sunlight which we believe fundamentally improve its potential to efficiently and cost effectively collect and deliver energy to industrial processes. We believe we will be the first technology provider with the ability to deliver cost-effective renewable energy capable of replacing fossil fuels used in industrial processes that require high temperature heat and/or nearly 24/7 operation. In addition, we believe our disruptive, patented design and A.I. technology will address a fundamental problem confronted by many renewable sources of energy: intermittency. An intermittent power supply does not match the continuous power demand of industry and the grid. Without storage, wind and PV-based renewable energy generation may rapidly fluctuate between over-supply and under-supply based on resource availability. As the grid penetration of intermittent resources increases, these fluctuations may become increasingly extreme. We believe our technology will contribute to solving this problem. Our solar plants will have the ability to store very high temperature energy in solid media. This energy will then be dispatchable, including during times without sunlight, to cost-effectively deliver near 24/7 carbon-free energy in the form of heat, electric power or green hydrogen fuel.
The three use categories will be configured as follows, forming the backbone of three business lines:
HelioHeat — The production of heat or steam for use in industrial processes will be enabled by the baseline system.
HelioPower — With the baseline system as the foundation, the addition of a turbine generator system will then enable power generation.
HelioFuel — Building on the power system described above, hydrogen fuel production will be enabled by further adding an electrolyzer system to the baseline system.
For the power and hydrogen systems, Heliogen is developing a supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle power block to enhance production efficiency. Using supercritical CO2 is predicted by the U.S. Department of Energy to have “significantly lower capital costs than equivalent steam-cycle components, due to their compact footprint stemming from the higher energy density of the supercritical fluid.”
Products & Services
Heliogen’s business focuses on the development and deployment of our innovative CSE technology. The main components of our CSE technology include heliostat fields and associated control systems, solar receivers, thermal energy storage, and heat engines. A heliostat is a mirror affixed to a two-axis tracking mechanism which allows it to move in a trajectory that places its reflected beam of sunlight onto a desired point. A heliostat field is a large array of many heliostats, all operating in coordination to focus their reflected beams onto a common location atop a tower located near or within the field. The solar receiver is the device mounted at that focal point which absorbs the highly concentrated solar energy and converts it to thermal energy in a heat transfer medium. The heat transfer medium then carries that thermal energy to the thermal energy storage (“TES”) system, where a large mass of material is brought to very high temperatures inside an insulated enclosure, acting as a thermal battery. When energy is needed, the heat transfer medium transfers thermal energy from the TES and delivers it to the thermal process being powered or, in the case of electricity generation, to the heat engine which converts thermal energy to electricity.
Because Heliogen’s technology is fundamentally a thermal energy source, we believe our products are particularly well-suited to meeting the thermal energy demand of industrial processes. As one example, many industrial facilities use steam to supply energy to their process. Heliogen’s technology, in the form of a HelioHeat plant, can supply this steam nearly 24/7 by collecting thermal energy while the sun is shining, storing it in the TES system, and using that thermal
energy to supply heat to a boiler when the industrial process needs heat. Similarly, HelioHeat systems can be configured to supply hot air or to directly heat other industrial processes.
Our technological innovations will enable the delivery of our HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel solutions to customers. HelioHeat plants will produce carbon-free heat (e.g. process steam or hot air) to support industrial processes. HelioPower plants will deliver solar thermal energy to a heat engine to produce electrical power. HelioFuel plants will couple a HelioPower plant with an electrolyzer to produce green Hydrogen fuel. All three solutions will be enabled by Heliogen’s proprietary heliostat design and artificial intelligence technology, and will integrate TES to enable operation nearly 24/7, overcoming the intermittency of other solar energy technologies.
For each of the three above solutions, we are offering multiple support models to customers looking to deploy Heliogen’s technology:
•Contracting with owner-operators to build turnkey facilities that deploy Heliogen’s technology (Heliogen will contract with engineering, procurement and construction (“EPC”) partners for constructing the facility);
•Selling heliostats (and associated software control systems) to owner-operators and/or EPC contractors;
•Providing asset maintenance support services during operation, for completed facilities that use Heliogen’s technology and;
•Providing project development support services to help customers advance readiness to break ground in advance of final investment decisions.
In the future, we will also be prepared to offer Heliogen’s IP through a licensing model to third parties interested in manufacturing and installing the hardware.
Raw Materials
The most important raw materials required for our CSE systems are steel (sheet, tube, bar, extrusions), stainless steel (pipe), glass (float glass), copper (wiring), aluminum (die castings, extrusions), commodity electrical & electronics components, ceramics & ceramic fibers, thermal insulation materials, bauxite particles and/or silica sand and concrete. Our components are produced by suppliers both domestically and internationally where most raw materials are readily available and purchased by those independent contractors and suppliers in the country of manufacture. Many major equipment and systems components are procured on a single or sole-source basis, but where multiple sources exist, we work to qualify multiple suppliers to minimize supply chain risk. We also mitigate risk by maintaining safety stock for key parts and assemblies with lengthy procurement lead times. We use a variety of agreements with suppliers to protect our intellectual property and processes to monitor and mitigate risks of the supply base causing a business disruption. The risks monitored include supplier financial viability, the ability to increase or decrease production levels, business continuity, quality and delivery.
Growth and Market Opportunity
Growth
Heliogen’s growth is tied to the global phenomenon commonly described as “the energy transition” – that is, the shift in energy supply from burning fossil fuels to harnessing low-carbon and renewable sources of energy. Data linking the role of carbon emissions in accelerating climate change has led to shareholders and activists applying pressure to companies and governments to take action. This trend has been on the rise since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, led largely by Europe. As a result, the energy transition has become a major focus of both private and public sector leaders around the world. Companies and governments have begun setting ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and to use renewable resources to sustainably power their operations.
Heliogen’s growth strategy is to harness the significant demand by delivering technology that enables scalable, distributed, solar-thermal energy plants that can create heat, steam, power, and “clean” hydrogen– i.e., without the carbon emissions produced by fossil fuel energy sources. Our solutions target the end markets with a need for heat, electric power, and hydrogen. Such markets include the oil & gas, power, cement, steel, and mining industries.
Heliogen’s technology platform allows modular plants for heat, steam, power, and/or hydrogen to be built at customer locations. The Company’s strategy to achieve scale is through modularity and repeatability, with minimal custom re-engineering compared to prior iterations of this technology. The majority of the plant will be built in a factory that can
be scaled to produce many plants per year. Heliogen will be able to further scale by replicating that factory in multiple regions as the company expands globally.
Leveraging the modularity of the system and repeatability of its implementation, in the near to medium term, Heliogen will partner with contractors and other supply chain participants to execute projects. In the long term, the Company expects to license its core, patent-protected technology to owner-operators and EPC companies who can each deploy many plants, to achieve a scale and growth trajectory that can take advantage of the size of the market opportunity. Licensing could enable Heliogen to improve the pace of our deployments, as well as increase our profit margins, beyond what could be achieved solely through our direct implementation.
In order to support Heliogen’s growth as described above, we will continue its dedication to research and development and to iterating on its novel combination and integration of hardware and software. We are working to harness our specialty of using more software, more automation, more robotics, and more algorithms to reduce the quantity of materials, the amount of human labor, and the duration of time required to deliver our projects at scale.
Geographically we are focused initially on the U.S., but plan to position the Company to respond to global demand in locations with strong solar resource such as Mexico, South America, Australia, Africa and parts of Europe in the future. Global energy demand is expected to increase by 35% in the next two decades, due to an increase in population and the economic growth of developing countries. Demand for carbon-free replacements for current energy sources will further increase the demand for Heliogen’s products.
Addressable Market
Capital expenditure investments for solar and on- and off-shore wind capacity between 2020 and 2030 are projected to be approximately $8.5 trillion globally in order to achieve the carbon emissions reductions that would support the 1.5 degree global warming target established by the Paris Agreement. The global renewable energy market was valued at $881.7 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $1,977.6 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of 8.4% between 2021 and 2030. The global renewable energy market is expected to continue its upward growth over the next years, reaching $1.1 trillion by 2027. At the same time, the global total addressable market for energy storage is predicted to reach approximately $56.0 billion by 2027 in comparison to $8.0 billion in 2020, representing a CAGR of approximately 33%. Growing at a CAGR of approximately 43% between 2020 and 2027, the cumulative requirement for global storage capacity is expected to become a 534 gigawatt-hour (“GWh”) opportunity in 2027.
We plan to also provide solutions for hydrogen production and industrial heat, so we believe our total addressable market is even larger. Our potential sales pipeline is diverse, ranging from utilities and independent power producers, oil and gas companies, mining and metals companies, and manufacturers of steel and cement. The worldwide energy industry generates annual revenues of approximately $8.6 trillion. In addition, the worldwide clean energy market is expected to reach $24 trillion by the end of the decade with industrial end use projected as the fastest growing end segment.
Renewables Growth
Governments, corporations, and investors are making concerted efforts and setting aggressive targets to reduce GHG emissions and phase out fossil fuel use. Such initiatives include setting timelines for zero-emission targets, establishing caps on CO2 emissions, and instituting certain other environmental sustainability initiatives. For example, in the U.S., the Biden Administration has declared the following key environmental targets: (i) a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035, (ii) a net-zero (i.e., carbon reduction is equal to or greater than carbon emissions) economy by 2050 and (iii) to achieve in 2030 a 50-52% reduction from 2005 levels in economy-wide net GHG pollution. In the private sector, companies have also committed to environmental sustainability initiatives. Leading financial and corporate institutions have requested that all boards of directors prepare and disclose a plan to be compatible with a net-zero economy and to commit to launching investment products aligned to a net-zero pathway. Individually and collectively, these initiatives support the increased demand for renewable fuels, transportation, energy storage, renewable power, low-carbon process heat, and energy efficiency.
The key driver for renewable energy generation and storage will be increased reliance on intermittent renewable energy resources like solar PV and wind. As penetration of these renewable sources increases, the intermittency of these resources can put strain on the grid if the operator is unable to fully match supply with demand. This strain can lead to an inability to supply power when it is needed and increased costs to consumers.
Energy storage can help reduce this strain. However, beyond a threshold level of renewable penetration, current solutions to energy storage, such as batteries, are insufficient to ensure grid reliability. Research from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, suggests that this threshold may be
around 30% renewable penetration based on its Eastern Renewable Generation Integration Study; which found that the Eastern Interconnection, one of the largest power systems in the world, can accommodate upwards of 30% of wind and solar photovoltaic power. California is already at this level and we expect other specific geographies both in the United States and abroad will be there soon. Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects that the United States as a whole will exceed this target by 2029. In order to maintain system stability and achieve mandated decarbonization goals, longer duration energy storage options must be deployed. We believe Heliogen’s technology will be among a small list of available technologies that will be able to respond to this energy storage need in order to maintain grid reliability.
Competition
We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, strong competition from a number of alternative providers of energy technology, particularly as the economy increasingly shifts towards low-emission, zero-emission or carbon neutral solutions.
The traditional energy technology provider market is highly competitive. The declining cost of renewable energy is also contributing to the shift in customer demand as customers seek carbon-free solutions to replace their fossil fuel-based consumption, causing the industry to evolve and expand. The main competitive factors include, but are not limited to:
•Upfront and ongoing cost;
•Safety and reliability;
•Duration;
•Performance and uptime;
•Operational flexibility;
•Asset life length and cyclability;
•Ease of integration;
•Operability in extreme weather conditions;
•Environmental sustainability;
•Historical track record; and
•Field-proven technology.
With the rising demand for clean energy solutions with lower GHG emissions, there has been a transition to renewable energy sources. This industry transformation has created an opportunity for an increased role for thermal energy and long-duration energy storage solutions like what Heliogen will provide. As a pioneer of solar energy technology solutions that are well-suited for long duration applications, we believe we have a significant edge over our competition in this rapidly evolving environment. Our competitors include traditional fossil-fueled alternatives; providers of solutions combining solar PV with battery storage; and other forms of renewable energy. Our competitors may have greater financial, marketing, personnel and other resources than we do. Although we are small and at an earlier stage of commercial maturity compared to many of our competitors, we believe we are well-positioned to compete successfully in the market — based on our innovative closed loop tracking system, our HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel solutions, our strategic partnerships, and our premier leadership team with a proven track record of success across the energy industry and other industries.
New technologies may enter the market that may have additional or superior advantages to our future offerings. A variety of newer and emerging companies have announced plans to develop heat, power, hydrogen, and energy storage products using a variety of technologies, including compressed air, thermal energy, and solid-state batteries among others. Although many of these companies are not in commercial production today, they may in the future offer solutions that become competitive with our expected offerings. We intend to continuously improve our product offerings and maintain robust research and development efforts in order to stay ahead of existing and emerging competitors.
Competitive Strengths and Differentiation
As a result of factors described below, we believe that we are positioned to become a market leader in renewable energy technology.
Significant Head Start with Proprietary Technology and Ongoing Research & Development
We believe we have a first-mover advantage over other industry competitors as we have been committed since our founding in 2013 to the development of solar energy solutions that enable decarbonization of our economy. This is evidenced by our rich portfolio of intellectual property. We have demonstrated capability to concentrate sunlight to produce heat at temperatures ranging from 150 to 1,000 degrees centigrade, made possible by our first-of-a-kind ability to achieve high mirror adjustment accuracy. We have patented the most valuable parts of our technology at each stage of development. Beyond the patents, our journey as a company and the deep bench of experience across our leadership team has provided and continues to provide invaluable learnings and technical know-how that we believe will be difficult to rival. We continue to develop and maintain our knowledge base, which we believe provides us with a substantial strategic head start and competitive advantage against competition in the concentrated solar energy and energy storage spaces. We also continue to target incremental and transformational improvements across all aspects of our technology in order to reduce costs and improve performance.
High-Temperature Thermal Energy Enabled by Closed-Loop Tracking System
Fundamental to Heliogen’s offering is our proprietary heliostat design and artificial intelligence technology. We use proprietary advanced computer vision software technology — a form of artificial intelligence — to identify and precisely align an array of mirrors to reflect sunlight to a target on the top of a tower, creating high-temperature, carbon-free thermal energy. Our tracking system makes automatic micro-adjustments of the mirrors over the course of the day to account for the movement of the sun in the sky. These automatic adjustments, using a unique closed-loop feedback system, maximize solar concentration and energy capture, resulting in higher temperature heat than what has previously been provided by other approaches to concentrated solar energy technology. This opens up new opportunities to provide industrial process heat across a greater range of temperatures, as well as flexibility for a broader duration range of thermal energy storage. This system also enables the elimination of the expensive slew drive gearbox used in similar applications, eliminates time consuming and costly calibration processes, as well as a host of other benefits.
Near Always-Available Renewable Energy
At current renewables penetration across the U.S. energy market, most of the energy storage solutions on the market provide two to four-hour energy storage. Without efficient and scalable energy storage that can exceed such two to four-hour energy storage timeframes, renewable energy generation cannot meet continuous power demands of industrial customers and the grid. The peak demand curve is essentially the opposite of the solar peak curve, which leads to curtailment during the middle of the day. Heliogen expects to be able to generate, store, and provide renewable energy to match the existing demand curve. In addition, because of its superior storage solution, we believe Heliogen will be able to provide near constant energy throughout the day to produce hydrogen with an electrolyzer through low-cost energy storage. Heliogen’s technology is designed to store the energy generated from concentrating the sun’s rays into solid media — such as rocks, sand or ceramic material — in the form of heat. This type of storage is expected to be a lower cost form of storage compared to what other solar energy companies use, and it will be made possible by the high temperatures enabled by Heliogen’s technology. Heliogen will store that energy, and then when it is needed, use a heat exchanger to bring that energy either to an engine, an industrial facility, or to an electrolyzer to make green hydrogen.
Modular and Scalable Plant Design
Heliogen’s modular and scalable plant design accommodates growth to compete with large scale renewable projects. One of Heliogen’s 5 MW modules can be replicated to meet larger customer demands. Depending on location, we expect to design each 5 MW module to high-capacity factor renewable power, with a future target of achieving less than 5 cents per kW-hour power cost, which would have the ability to ultimately generate over 850,000 kilograms of hydrogen year. Each module will be designed to occupy approximately a 1/6th square mile footprint (650m x 650m), which is smaller (on a per MWh basis) than existing large scale renewable energy projects. The plant’s small footprint allows it to be sited alongside energy-hungry industrial facilities rather than in remote deserts.
This modular system is also designed to utilize mirrors (heliostats) smaller than traditional CSE mirrors, enabling our heliostats to be manufactured at scale in a repeatable process. By building modularly and shifting more assembly work
from the construction field into the controlled conditions of a manufacturing facility, we expect to be able to scale more quickly and efficiently, while reducing overall costs compared to alternative approaches.
Competitive Forecast Economics
Historically, CSE companies have struggled to compete with PV solar due to high costs. However, while the cost of photovoltaic solar has decreased dramatically in the last decade, the issue of intermittency remains unresolved. In addition, PV does not offer an efficient solution for generating heat. As a result, PV solar may be uneconomical for many industrial processes that require heat and/or reliable delivery.
We believe our projected economics will be competitive with other prevalent sources of clean energy that include storage. For example, on a forward-looking basis, our future targets estimate a cost of less than 5 cents per MWh for power and less than $2.00 per kilogram of hydrogen, which is competitive with alternative sources. This analysis assumes subsidized economics with 60% debt at an 8% interest rate and 40% equity at a 12% cost over a 30-year projection period. Additionally, these projections are based on expected cost reductions associated with manufacturing production efficiencies, module-enabled economies of scale, and mechanical improvements such as elimination of an expensive slew-drive gearbox that is enabled by the closed-loop tracking system.
International Expansion
After our initial projects, we forecast international expansion, focusing on capital efficiency enabled by our proprietary applications and agile heliostat manufacturing approach. We are in various stages of negotiation and discussion with numerous companies in Australia, South America and elsewhere. We also intend to leverage our strategic and commercial relationships with international footprints to cross-sell to foreign markets.
Highly Experienced Management Team Complements Visionary Founder
We have built a world-class team composed of industry leaders with decades of experience from some of the most well-known and highly regarded companies in the energy, solar, technology, manufacturing, and construction industries. Our committed, entrepreneurial team has decades of industry leading technical, operational, development and commercial experience. Such honed experience combined with our founder’s solar energy expertise has positioned us to disrupt the current energy industry paradigms.
Intellectual Property
Our ability to protect our material intellectual property is important to our business. We rely upon a combination of foreign, federal, state, and common law protections afforded to owners of patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and trademarks, along with employee and third-party non-disclosure agreements and other contractual restrictions to establish and protect our intellectual property rights. In particular, unpatented trade secrets in the fields of research, development and engineering are an important aspect of our business by ensuring that our technology remains confidential. We also pursue patent protection when we believe we have developed a patentable invention and the benefits of obtaining a patent outweigh the risks of making the invention public through patent filings.
We hold a strong portfolio of patents and numerous trademarks covering key aspects of our plant and process, including our closed-loop tracking system, tracking based on radiance maps, intensity and polarization tracking, and receiver for capturing solar energy. As of December 31, 2021, we had a portfolio of six issued U.S. patents, six issued non-U.S. patents, eight patent applications pending for examination in the U.S., eight U.S. provisional patent applications pending, and three patent applications pending for examination in other countries as well as numerous trademarks. However, our portfolio of patents is expected to evolve as new patents are issued, older patents expire, and we continue to innovate. Our U.S. issued patents have expiration dates ranging from September 2027 through October 2039 We regularly review our development efforts to assess the existence and patentability of new inventions, and we are prepared to file additional patent applications when we determine it would benefit our business to do so.
Government, Programs, Incentives and Regulations
We operate in the heavily regulated energy sector, which is subject to a variety of federal, state and local regulations and agencies that impact our operations. As a participant in the renewable energy sector specifically, there are additional regulations, tax incentives and support mechanisms in place to promote growth.
On the U.S. federal level, tax credits are currently in place that incentivize the deployment of renewable energy. Projects generating renewable energy are eligible for Investment Tax Credits that, with proper structuring, lower the capital
requirements for renewables projects to be developed and open a new source of funding for these projects. The value of the tax credit varies depending on the year in which construction is deemed to begin. Under the current legislative framework, solar projects that were under construction by the end of 2019 qualify for a tax credit equal to 30% of the project’s cost. The value drops to 26% for projects starting construction in 2020 through 2022, and 22% for projects starting construction in 2023. The credit drops to a permanent 10% level for projects that begin construction in 2024 or later. Projects that begin construction before 2024, but are not placed in service until 2026 or later, are also limited to the 10% credit.
The possibility of additional federal incentives and investment from the Biden administration and Congress has garnered enthusiasm among renewable energy developers. The administration has announced goals of decarbonizing the electricity sector entirely by 2035, a goal that would necessitate billions in additional investment. Some of this money is likely to be invested in solar, hydrogen, and storage technologies, potentially a benefit for a company like Heliogen. For example, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $9.5 billion in funding for clean hydrogen, some of which will be applicable to companies which develop and install technology for clean hydrogen production.
In addition, in early 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office announced funding for innovative research and development projects to accelerate the large-scale development of solar technologies that can deliver high-temperature solar heat on demand due to integration with thermal energy storage.
State-level incentives have also driven growth in the deployment of renewable energy. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, as of July 31, 2021, thirty states, Washington, D.C., and two territories have active renewable or clean energy requirements, which mandate that a certain portion of electricity delivered to customers come from eligible renewal energy resources while an additional three states and one territory have set voluntary renewable energy goals. For example, California’s renewable portfolio standards require that 60% of the state’s electricity must come from renewable sources by 2030. States have created these standards to diversify their energy resources, promote domestic energy production and encourage economic development. Historically, unfavorable utility rate structures have been a barrier to increased deployment of renewable energy technologies. However, some states have recently mandated that a certain portion of that eligible renewable energy must be distributed generation.
Other Public Policy Considerations
Different public policy mechanisms have been used by governments to accelerate the adoption and use of solar power and energy storage. Examples of customer-focused financial mechanisms include capital cost rebates, performance-based incentives, feed-in tariffs, tax credits, and net energy metering. Some of these government mandates and economic incentives are scheduled to be reduced or to expire, or could be eliminated altogether, while others are scheduled to be extended or expanded. Capital cost rebates provide funds to customers based on the cost and size of a customer’s solar power or energy storage system. Performance-based incentives provide funding to a customer based on the energy produced by their solar power system or stored by their energy storage system. Feed-in tariffs pay customers for solar power system generation based on energy produced, at a rate generally guaranteed for a period of time. Tax credits reduce a customer’s taxes at the time the taxes are due. Net energy metering allows customers to deliver to the electric grid any excess electricity produced by their on-site solar power systems, and to be credited for that excess electricity at or near the full retail price of electricity. New market development mechanisms to encourage the use of renewable energy sources continue to emerge.
For more information about how we avail ourselves of the benefits of public policies and the risks related to public policies, please see the risk factors set forth under the caption “Item 1A. Risk Factors.”
Environmental and Other Regulations
We are subject to extensive environmental regulation, which has become more stringent over time. The laws and regulations to which we are subject govern, among others, vehicle emissions and the storage, handling, treatment, transportation and disposal of hazardous materials and the remediation of environmental contamination. Compliance with such laws and regulations at an international, regional, national, provincial and local level is an important aspect of our ability to continue our operations.
Environmental standards applicable to us are established by the laws and regulations of the countries in which we operate, standards adopted by regulatory agencies and the permits and licenses issued to us. Each of these sources is subject to periodic modifications and what we anticipate will be increasingly stringent requirements. Violations of these laws, regulations or permits and licenses may result in substantial administrative, civil or even criminal fines, penalties, and
possibly orders to cease any violating operations or to conduct or pay for corrective works. In some instances, violations may also result in the suspension or revocation of permits or licenses.
We use, generate, and discharge toxic, volatile, or otherwise hazardous chemicals and wastes in our research and development, and construction activities. We are subject to a variety of U.S. federal and state laws and regulations related to the purchase, storage, use, and disposal of hazardous materials. We believe that we have all environmental permits necessary to conduct our business and expect to obtain all necessary environmental permits for future activities. We believe that we have properly handled our hazardous materials and wastes and have appropriately remediated any contamination at any of our premises. We are currently not subject to any litigation pertaining to environment regulations and cost of compliance with applicable regulations is expected to be commensurate with our historical spend and other companies in the industry.
In addition to our existing environmental compliance initiatives, we will also be engaging additional resources to focus on a broader Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) program across our business. As part of our commitment to energy sustainability, our first step will be to complete an ESG assessment during 2022. This assessment will help the Company develop a baseline against which to prioritize its ESG strategies.
Finally, we are subject to federal, state, and local requirements on health, safety and employment. We are subject to the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, local wage regulations and rigorous health and safety regulations in the State of California.
Human Capital
We take pride in our innovative technology and consider our employees to be the foundation for our growth and continued success. More than 80% of our employees have extensive experience or backgrounds in engineering, energy, or manufacturing. More than half of our employees are involved in product development and manufacturing. As of December 31, 2021, we employed 150 full-time employees, based primarily in Southern California.
Our high-performance culture is based on our commitment to results and our values, which we expect everyone to model in their daily conduct:
•We are improving the world. We will deliver affordable renewable energy, more economically than fossil fuels, benefitting the entire global community
•We are bold. We are bold, persistent and challenge the status quo in order to achieve technological breakthroughs and a profitable business
•We treat everyone respectfully. We are respectful, transparent, and collaborative. We maintain a safe environment for the well-being and inclusion of everyone
•We value diversity. We value and pursue diversity in all its forms, and welcome ideas and input from everyone.
•We welcome feedback. We are committed to feedback, continuous improvement, and learning, so everyone can contribute their best work with passion and enjoyment
We believe that an equitable and inclusive environment with diverse teams is crucial to our efforts to attract and retain key talent, produce more creative solutions and innovative products and services, and foster a work culture that reflects our core values. We have established a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program, with the goal of developing a multi-year action plan to improve the diversity of our team and ensure every employee feels included and valued.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our human capital management strategies in 2021. We developed clear and effective worksite safety protocols, updated policies to add flexibility, and provided personal protective equipment to protect our essential employees working onsite in our manufacturing plant.
Available Information
Our website address is www.heliogen.com. We make available on our website, free of charge, our Annual Reports, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding our filings at www.sec.gov. The information found on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If any of the events or developments described below were to occur, our business, annual report, operating results and financial condition could suffer materially, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely affect our business.
Risks Relating to our Business
If demand for our concentrated solar energy solutions does not develop as we expect or our estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth prove to be inaccurate, our revenues may suffer, and our business may be harmed.
Capital expenditure investments for solar and on- and off-shore wind capacity between 2020 and 2030 are projected to be approximately $8.5 trillion globally in order to achieve the carbon emissions reductions that would support the 1.5 degree global warming target established by the Paris Agreement. At the same time, the global total addressable market for energy storage is predicted to reach approximately $56.0 billion by 2027 in comparison to $8.0 billion in 2020, representing a CAGR of approximately 33%. Growing at a CAGR of approximately 43% between 2020 and 2027, the cumulative requirement for global storage capacity is expected to become a 534 gigawatt-hour (“GWh”) opportunity in 2027. We believe, and our growth plans assume, that the market for solar energy solutions will continue to grow, that we will increase our penetration of this market and that our revenues from selling into this market will continue to increase over time. However, market opportunity estimates and growth and demand forecasts, whether obtained from third-party sources or developed internally, are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may prove to be inaccurate. The estimated addressable market may not materialize in the timeframe of the projections included herein, if ever, and even if the market meets the predicted size and growth estimates, our business could fail to grow at similar rates. If our expectations as to the size of this market or our ability to sell our products and services in this market are not correct, our revenues will suffer, and our business will be harmed.
Our modular, AI-enabled, concentrated solar energy plants may not generate expected output levels.
The modular, AI-enabled, concentrated solar energy plants that we plan to construct will be subject to various operating risks that may cause them to generate less than expected amounts of output. These risks include a failure or degradation of our equipment, the equipment of our customers or that of our vendors; an inability to find suitable replacement equipment or parts; or a less than expected supply of solar insolation. Any extended interruption in a plant’s operation, or the failure of a plant for any reason to generate the expected amount of output, could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results due to the damage to our reputation and the resulting dissatisfaction of the owner-operator.
We may not be able to develop technologies and products to satisfy changes in customer demand or industry standards, and our competitors could develop products that decrease the demand for our products.
Rapidly changing technologies and industry standards, along with frequent new product introductions, characterize the industries of many of our customers and potential customers. Our financial performance depends, in part, on our ability to design, develop, manufacture, assemble, test, market and support new products and technology enhancements on a timely and cost-effective basis.
We have not yet commercialized any of our products. Our principal focus has been on research and development activities to improve our technology and make our product offerings more attractive to potential customers. These activities are subject to various risks and uncertainties we are not able to control, including changes in customer demand or industry standards and the introduction of new or superior technologies by others. Moreover, any failure by us in the future to develop new technologies or to timely react to changes in existing technologies could materially delay our development of new products, which could result in product obsolescence, decreased revenues and a loss of our market share to our competitors. In addition, products or technologies developed by others may render our products or technologies obsolete or non-competitive. Further, if our products are not in compliance with prevailing industry standards, such non-compliance could materially and adversely affect our financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.
If we fail to win new contracts and purchase orders, our business operations and financial results may be adversely affected.
Our business depends on our ability to win contracts and purchase orders with customers. Contract proposals and negotiations are complex and frequently involve a lengthy bidding and selection process, which is affected by a number of factors. These factors may include market conditions, financing arrangements, and required governmental approvals. For example, a client may require us to provide a bond or letter of credit to protect the client should we fail to perform under the terms of the contract. If negative market conditions arise, or if we fail to secure adequate financial arrangements or the required government approvals, we may not be able to pursue particular projects, which could adversely affect our profitability. If we fail to complete a project in a timely manner, miss a required performance standard, or otherwise fail to adequately perform on a project, we may incur a loss on that project, which may reduce or eliminate our overall profitability.
Our engagements will involve complex projects. The quality of our performance on such projects depends in large part upon our ability to manage the relationship with our clients and our ability to effectively manage the project and deploy appropriate resources, including third-party contractors and our own personnel, in a timely manner. If a project is not completed by the scheduled date or fails to meet required performance standards, we may either incur significant additional costs or be held responsible for the costs incurred by the client to rectify damages due to late completion or failure to achieve the required performance standards. The performance of projects can be affected by a number of factors including unavoidable delays from suppliers and subcontractors, government inaction, public opposition, inability to obtain financing, weather conditions, unavailability of vendor materials, changes in the project scope of services requested by our clients, industrial accidents, environmental hazards and labor disruptions. To the extent these events occur, the total costs of the project could exceed our estimates and we could experience reduced profits or, in some cases, incur a loss on a project, which may reduce or eliminate our overall profitability. Further, any defects or errors, or failures to meet our clients’ expectations, could result in claims for damages against us.
If we are not able to successfully manage our growth strategy, our business operations and financial results may be adversely affected.
Our expected future growth presents numerous managerial, administrative and operational challenges. Our ability to manage the growth of our operations will require us to continue to improve our management information systems and our other internal systems and controls. In addition, our growth will increase our need to attract, develop, motivate, and retain both our management and professional employees. The inability of our management to effectively manage our growth or the inability of our employees to achieve anticipated performance could have a material adverse effect on our business.
An increase in the prices or changes in the supply and demand of certain materials and commodities used in our business could adversely affect our business.
For certain contracts, we are exposed to market risk of increases in certain commodity prices of materials. We are dependent on the availability of essential materials, parts and subassemblies from our suppliers and subcontractors. The most important raw materials required for our CSE systems are steel, stainless steel, glass, copper, aluminum, commodity electrical & electronics components, ceramics & ceramic fibers, thermal insulation materials, bauxite particles and/or silica sand and concrete. Prices and availability of these raw materials are subject to substantial fluctuations that are beyond our control due to factors such as supply and demand trends, energy costs, transportation costs, inflation, government regulations, global trade relationships, duties and tariffs, changes in currency exchange rates, price controls, general economic conditions and other unforeseen circumstances.
Our components are produced by third-party suppliers both domestically and internationally where most raw materials are readily available and purchased by those independent contractors and suppliers in the country of manufacture. Many major equipment and systems components are procured on a single or sole-source basis, but where multiple sources exist, we work to qualify multiple suppliers to minimize supply chain risk. We also mitigate risk by maintaining safety stock for key parts and assemblies with lengthy procurement lead times. We use a variety of agreements with suppliers to monitor and mitigate risks of the supply base causing a business disruption. The risks monitored include supplier financial viability, the ability to increase or decrease production levels, business continuity, quality and delivery. Although we will continue to monitor and develop partial mitigation strategies, if existing vendors are unable to supply the raw materials we require, we cannot predict if we will be able to obtain alternative vendors within the time frames that we require and at a comparable cost. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant supply chain disruptions globally, and similar to other companies in our industry, we have observed significant commodity price inflation in recent months, in some cases by upwards of 30% to 100%. Russia’s invasion of and military attacks on Ukraine, including indirect impacts as a result of sanctions and economic disruption, may further complicate existing supply chain constraints. Shortages, price increases and/or delays in shipments of our raw materials and purchased component parts, have occurred and may continue to occur in the future which may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations if we are unable to successfully
mitigate the impact, such as steel, glass, concrete and adhesives, which are used as components of supplies or materials utilized in our operations.
In addition, our customers’ capital budgets may be impacted by the prices of certain materials, and reduced customer spending could lead to fewer project awards and more competition. These prices could be materially impacted by general market conditions and other factors, including U.S. trade relationships with other countries, the imposition of tariffs, or political conditions. While we believe we can increase our prices to adjust for some price increases in commodities, there can be no assurance that price increases of commodities, if they were to occur, would be recoverable. Additionally, we expect many of our contracts to be fixed price, which would not allow us to adjust our prices and, as a result, increases in material costs could reduce our profitability with respect to such projects.
We may be unable to complete or operate our projects on a profitable basis or as we have committed to our customers.
Development, installation, construction, and commissioning of our concentrated solar energy plants, and maintenance support of our concentrated solar energy plants, entails many risks, including:
•failure to receive critical components and equipment that meet our design specifications and can be delivered on schedule,
•failure to obtain all necessary rights to land access and use,
•failure to receive quality and timely performance of third-party services,
•increases in the cost of labor, equipment and commodities needed to construct or maintain projects,
•permitting and other regulatory issues, license revocation and changes in legal requirements,
•shortages of equipment or skilled labor,
•unforeseen engineering problems,
•failure of a customer to accept or pay for the HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel solutions that we supply,
•weather interferences, catastrophic events including fires, explosions, earthquakes, droughts and acts of terrorism,
•accidents involving personal injury or the loss of life,
•health or similar issues, such as a pandemic or epidemic, such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19),
•labor disputes and work stoppages,
•mishandling of hazardous substances and waste, and
•other events outside of our control.
Any of these factors could give rise to construction delays and construction and other costs in excess of our expectations. This could prevent us from completing construction of our projects, cause defaults under any then-existing financing agreements or under contracts that require completion of project construction by a certain time, cause projects to be unprofitable for us, or otherwise impair our business, financial condition and operating results.
The development of our modular, AI-enabled, concentrated solar energy plants will require significant capital, which our customers may finance through third parties, and such financing may not be available to our customers on favorable terms, if at all.
We expect that our projects for customers will typically be financed by third parties. For the modular, AI-enabled, concentrated solar energy plants that we develop, we expect our customers to rely on a combination of their balance sheets and project-finance debt to fund construction costs. If our customers are unable to raise funds on acceptable terms when needed, we may be unable to secure customer contracts, the size of contracts we do obtain may be smaller or we could be required to delay the development and construction of projects, reduce the scope of those projects or otherwise restrict our operations. Any inability by our customers to raise the funds necessary to finance our projects could materially harm our business, financial condition and operating results.
We may require significant additional capital to pursue our growth strategy, but we may not be able to obtain additional financing on acceptable terms or at all.
The growth of our business will depend on substantial amounts of additional capital for marketing and development of our HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel solutions, and posting financial assurances in order to enter into contracts with customers. Our capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the rate of our enhancements to our existing HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel solutions, and our expansion of sales and marketing and product development activities. In addition, we may consider strategic acquisitions of complementary businesses or technologies to grow our business, which could require significant capital and could increase our capital expenditures related to the future operation of acquired businesses or technologies. We may not be able to obtain loans or additional capital on acceptable terms or at all.
We expect our capital expenditures to continue to be significant in the foreseeable future as we expand our business, and that our level of capital expenditures will be significantly affected by customer demand for our HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel solutions. The fact that we have a limited operating history means we have limited historical data on the demand for our solutions. As a result, our future capital requirements may be uncertain and actual capital requirements may be different from those we currently anticipate. We may need to seek equity or debt financing to finance a portion of our capital expenditures. Such financing might not be available to us in a timely manner or on terms that are acceptable, or at all.
Our ability to obtain the necessary financing to carry out our business plan is subject to a number of factors, including general market conditions and investor acceptance of our business model. These factors may make the timing, amount, terms and conditions of such financing unattractive or unavailable to us. If we are unable to raise sufficient funds, we will have to significantly reduce our spending, delay or cancel our planned activities or substantially change our corporate structure. We might not be able to obtain any funding, and we might not have sufficient resources to conduct our business as projected, both of which could mean that we would be forced to curtail or discontinue our operations.
In addition, our future capital needs and other business reasons could require us to sell additional equity or debt securities or obtain a credit facility. The sale of additional equity or equity-linked securities could dilute our stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that may restrict our operations or our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders.
If we cannot raise additional funds when we need or want them, our operations and prospects could be negatively affected.
Project development or construction activities may not be successful, and we may make significant investments without first obtaining project financing, which could increase our costs and impair our ability to recover our investments.
The development and construction of modular, AI-enabled, concentrated solar energy plants involves numerous risks. We may be required to spend significant sums for preliminary engineering, permitting, legal and other expenses before we can determine whether a project is feasible, economically attractive or capable of being built. In addition, we may choose to bear the costs of such efforts prior to obtaining project financing, prior to getting final regulatory approval and/or prior to our final sale to a customer, if any.
Successful completion of a particular project may be adversely affected by numerous factors, including: failures or delays in obtaining desired or necessary land rights, including ownership, leases and/or easements; failures or delays in obtaining necessary permits, licenses or other governmental support or approvals, or in overcoming objections from members of the public or adjoining land owners; uncertainties relating to land costs for projects; unforeseen engineering problems; access to available transmission for energy generated by our modular, AI-enabled, concentrated solar energy plants; construction delays and contractor performance shortfalls; work stoppages or labor disruptions and compliance with labor regulations; cost over-runs; availability of products and components from suppliers; adverse weather conditions; environmental, archaeological and geological conditions; and availability of construction and permanent financing.
If we are unable to complete the development of one or more of our modular, AI-enabled, concentrated solar energy plants or fail to meet one or more agreed target construction milestone dates, we may incur losses or be liable for damages or penalties that we are not be able to offset, which would have an adverse impact on our net income in the period in which the loss is recognized. We expect that some projects will require working capital to develop and/or build projects. If we are unable to complete a project, the associated working capital would also be an exposure that may need to be written off, which would have an adverse impact on our net income in the period in which the loss is recognized.
We have a history of operating losses and expect to incur significant additional expenses and operating losses.
We are an early-stage company and have a history of operating losses and negative operating cash flows. We incurred a net loss of $142.2 million and $7.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. We expect that we will continue to incur operating and net losses for the medium term. The amount of future losses and when, if ever, we will achieve profitability are uncertain. In addition, even if we achieve profitability, there can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain profitability in the future. Our potential profitability is particularly dependent upon the growth of the market for renewable energy solutions, which may not occur at the levels we currently anticipate or at all.
Our revenue, expenses, and operating results may fluctuate significantly.
Our revenue, expenses, and operating results may fluctuate significantly because of numerous factors, some of which may contribute to more pronounced fluctuations in an uncertain global economic environment. In addition to the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, the following factors could cause our operating results to fluctuate:
•delays, increased costs, or other unanticipated changes in contract performance that may affect profitability, particularly with lumpsum contracts or contracts that have funding limits,
•spending patterns of our private and public sector clients,
•weather conditions
•budget constraints experienced by our federal, state, and local government clients,
•our ability to integrate any companies that we acquire,
•the number and significance of client contracts commenced and completed during a quarter,
•the continuing creditworthiness and solvency of clients,
•reductions in the prices of products or services offered by our competitors, and
•legislative and regulatory enforcement policy changes that may affect demand for our products or services.
As a consequence, operating results for a particular future period are difficult to predict and, therefore, prior results are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected in future periods. Any of the foregoing factors, or any other factors discussed elsewhere herein, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition that could adversely affect our stock price.
Failure of third parties to manufacture quality products or provide reliable services in a timely manner could cause delays in the delivery of our services and completion of our projects, which could damage our reputation, have a negative impact on our relationships with our customers and adversely affect our growth.
Our success depends on our ability to provide services and complete projects in a timely manner, which in part depends on the ability of third parties to provide us with timely and reliable products and services. In providing our services and completing our projects, we rely on products that meet our design specifications and components manufactured and supplied by third parties, as well as on services performed by subcontractors.
We will also rely on subcontractors to perform the majority of the construction work related to our projects; and we may need to engage subcontractors with whom we have no experience for our projects.
If any of our subcontractors are unable to provide services that meet or exceed our customers’ expectations or satisfy our contractual commitments, our reputation, business and operating results could be harmed. In addition, if we are unable to avail ourselves of warranty and other contractual protections with providers of products and services, we may incur liability to our customers or additional costs related to the affected products and components, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results. Moreover, any delays, malfunctions, inefficiencies or interruptions in these products or services could adversely affect the quality and performance of our solutions and require considerable expense to establish alternate sources for such products and services. This could cause us to experience difficulty retaining current customers and attracting new customers, and could harm our brand, reputation and growth.
Our business depends on experienced and skilled personnel and substantial specialty subcontractor resources, and if we lose key personnel or if we are unable to attract and integrate additional skilled personnel, it will be more difficult for us to manage our business and complete projects.
The success of our business and construction projects will depend in large part on the skill of our personnel and on trade labor resources, including those with certain specialty subcontractor skills. Competition for personnel, particularly those with expertise in the energy services and renewable energy industries, is high. In the event we are unable to attract, hire and retain the requisite personnel and subcontractors, we may experience delays in completing projects in accordance with project schedules and budgets.
Further, any increase in demand for personnel and specialty subcontractors may result in higher costs, causing us to exceed the budget on a project. Either of these circumstances may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results, harm our reputation among and relationships with our customers and cause us to curtail our pursuit of new projects.
Our future success is particularly dependent on the vision, skills, experience and effort of our senior management team, including our executive officers and our founder, director and chief executive officer, Bill Gross. If we were to lose the services of any of our executive officers or key employees, our ability to effectively manage our operations and implement our strategy could be harmed and our business may suffer.
We expect to operate in a highly competitive industry, and our current or future competitors may be able to compete more effectively than we do, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, revenues, growth rates and market share.
The markets and industries in which we expect to compete in are highly competitive, with many companies of varying size and business models, many of which have their own proprietary technologies, competing for the same business as we do. Many of our competitors have longer operating histories and greater resources than us and could focus their substantial financial resources to develop a competitive advantage. Our competitors may also offer energy solutions at prices below cost, devote significant sales forces to competing with us or attempt to recruit our key personnel by increasing compensation, any of which could improve their competitive positions. Additionally, we expect competition to intensify in the future as existing competitors and new market entrants introduce new products into our markets. Any of these competitive factors could make it more difficult for us to attract and retain customers, increase our sales and marketing expenses, reduce profit margins, cause us to lower our prices in order to compete, and reduce our market share and revenues, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results. We can provide no assurance that we will continue to effectively compete against our current competitors or additional companies that may enter our markets.
In addition, we may also face competition based on technological developments that compete with our products and services. Our competitors may develop technology that would make ours noncompetitive or obsolete. If we do not keep pace with product and technology advances and otherwise keep our product offerings competitive, there could be a material and adverse effect on our competitive position, revenue and prospects for growth. Some of our existing competitors, have, and some of our potential competitors could have, substantial competitive advantages such as:
•greater name recognition, longer operating histories and larger customer bases;
•larger sales and marketing budgets and resources;
•broader and deeper product lines;
•greater customer support resources;
•greater resources to make acquisitions;
•lower labor and research and development costs;
•substantially greater financial and other resources; and
•larger scale manufacturing operations.
Some of our expected larger competitors may have substantially broader product offerings and may be able to leverage their relationships with partners and customers based on other products to gain business in a manner that discourages potential customers from purchasing our concentrated solar energy plants, including by selling at zero or
negative margins or product bundling. In addition, innovative start-up companies, and larger companies that are making significant investments in research and development, may invent similar or superior technologies that compete with ours. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources. If we are unable to compete successfully, or if competing successfully requires us to take costly actions in response to the actions of our competitors, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
International expansion is one of our growth strategies, and our potential expansion into international markets may expose our business and operations to additional risks that we do not or will not face in the United States, which could have an adverse effect on our operating results.
As part of our business strategy, we intend to continue to consider the expansion of our addressable market by pursuing opportunities to provide our HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel solutions in international markets, and we expect to generate a material portion of our revenues from operations outside of the United States in the future. Operations in international markets may require us to respond to new and unanticipated regulatory, marketing, sales and other challenges. These efforts may be time-consuming and costly, and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in responding to these and other challenges we may face as we enter and attempt to expand in international markets, including:
•building and managing a highly experienced foreign workforce and overseeing and ensuring the performance of foreign subcontractors,
•difficulties in developing, staffing, and simultaneously managing a large number of varying foreign operations as a result of distance, language, and cultural differences,
•increased travel, infrastructure and legal and compliance costs associated with multiple international locations,
•additional withholding taxes or other taxes on our foreign income, and tariffs or other restrictions on foreign trade or investment,
•imposition of, or unexpected adverse changes in, foreign laws or regulatory requirements, many of which differ from those in the United States,
•increased exposure to foreign currency exchange rate risk,
•longer payment cycles for sales in some foreign countries and potential difficulties in enforcing contracts and collecting accounts receivable,
•difficulties in repatriating overseas earnings,
•compliance with numerous legislative, regulatory or market requirements of foreign countries,
•compliance with U.S. laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, and local laws prohibiting bribery and corrupt payments to government officials,
•laws and business practices that favor local competitors or prohibit foreign ownership of certain businesses,
•potentially adverse tax consequences,
•compliance with laws of foreign countries, international organizations, such as the European Commission, treaties, and other international laws,
•the inability to continue to benefit from local subsidies due to change in control,
•unfavorable labor regulations, and
•general economic conditions in the countries in which we operate.
Our future international operations will also be subject to general geopolitical risks, such as political, social and economic instability, war including the repercussions of the conflict in Ukraine), incidents of terrorism, changes in diplomatic and trade relations, or responses to such events. One or more of these factors could adversely affect any of our
international operations and result in lower revenue and/or greater operating expenses than we expect and could significantly affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Our overall success in international markets will depend, in part, on our ability to succeed in differing legal, regulatory, economic, social and political conditions. We may not be successful in developing and implementing policies and strategies that will be effective in managing these risks in each country where we do business. Our failure to manage these risks successfully could harm our international operations, reduce our international sales and increase our costs, thus adversely affecting our business, financial condition and operating results.
An inability to protect our intellectual property could negatively affect our ability to compete, our business and our results of operations.
Our ability to compete effectively depends in part upon the maintenance and protection of the intellectual property related to our HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel solutions. As of December 31, 2021, we had a portfolio of six issued U.S. patents, six issued non-U.S. patents, eight patent applications pending for examination in the U.S., eight U.S. provisional patent applications pending, and three patent applications pending for examination in other countries as well as numerous trademarks. However, our portfolio of patents is expected to evolve as new patents are issued and older patents expire, and the expiration of patents could have a negative effect on our ability to prevent competitors from duplicating certain or all of our products.
We might not succeed in obtaining patents from any of our pending applications. Even if we are awarded patents, they may not provide any meaningful protection or commercial advantage to us, as they may not be of sufficient scope or strength or may not be issued in all countries where our products can be sold. Patent protection is unavailable for certain aspects of the technology and operational processes that are important to our business. Any patent held by us or to be issued to us, or any of our pending patent applications, could be challenged, invalidated, unenforceable or circumvented. In addition, our competitors may be able to design around our patents. To date, we have relied principally on patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality and proprietary information agreements and licensing arrangements, to establish and protect our intellectual property. However, we have not obtained confidentiality and proprietary information agreements from our targeted customers and vendors, and although we have entered into confidentiality and proprietary information agreements with all of our employees, we cannot be certain that these agreements will be honored. Some customers are subject to laws and regulations that require them to disclose information that we would otherwise seek to keep confidential. Policing unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and expensive, as is enforcing our rights against unauthorized use.
The steps that we have taken or may take may not prevent misappropriation of the intellectual property on which we rely. In addition, effective protection may be unavailable or limited in jurisdictions outside the United States, as the intellectual property laws of foreign countries sometimes offer less protection or have onerous filing requirements. From time to time, third parties may infringe our intellectual property rights. Litigation may be necessary to enforce or protect our rights or to determine the validity and scope of the rights of others. Any litigation could be unsuccessful, cause us to incur substantial costs, divert resources away from our daily operations and result in the impairment of our intellectual property. Failure to adequately enforce our rights could cause us to lose rights in our intellectual property and may negatively affect our business.
In addition to patent protection, we rely significantly upon trade secret laws to protect our proprietary technologies. We regularly enter into confidentiality agreements with our key employees, customers, potential customers and other third parties and limit access to and distribution of our trade secrets and other proprietary information. However, these measures may not be adequate to prevent misappropriation of our technologies or to assure that our competitors will not independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our technologies. In addition, the laws of other countries in which we operate may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. We are also subject to the risk of adverse claims and litigation alleging infringement of intellectual property rights.
Certain of our facilities are or may be located in regions that may be affected by extreme weather conditions and natural disasters.
Our business is headquartered in Southern California and we expect to have multiple facilities in California. Historically, California has been susceptible to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, drought, floods and wildfires. Although we intend to maintain loss insurance where necessary, an earthquake, wildfire or other natural disaster in the geographic regions in which we operate could result in significant damage to our facilities, destruction or disruption of our critical business or information technology systems, recovery costs and interruption to certain of our operations. In addition, a catastrophic event could interrupt our operations or those of our customers and suppliers, which could result in delays or cancellation of customer orders, the loss of customers, and impediments to the manufacture or shipment of products or execution of projects, which could result in loss of business or an increase in expense, both of which may have
a material adverse effect on our business. Delays and other weather impacts could adversely affect our ability to meet project deadlines and may increase a project’s cost and decrease its profitability. In the specific case of wildfires, an accusation or ultimate determination that our operations were the cause of a wildfire may also have a material adverse effect on our business. Moreover, we expect to have multiple facilities in other domestic and international markets, which may be subject to similar risks as California.
Computer malware, viruses, ransomware, hacking, phishing attacks and other network disruptions could result in security and privacy breaches, loss of proprietary information and interruption in service, which would harm our business.
Computer malware, viruses, physical or electronic break-ins and similar disruptions could lead to interruption and delays in our services and operations and loss, misuse or theft of data. Computer malware, viruses, ransomware, hacking, phishing attacks or denial of service, against online networks have become more prevalent and may occur on our systems. Any attempts by cyber attackers to disrupt our services or systems, if successful, could harm our business, introduce liability to data subjects, result in the misappropriation of funds, be expensive to remedy and damage our reputation or brand. Insurance may not be sufficient to cover significant expenses and losses related to cyber-attacks. Notwithstanding the security measures we have implemented, such as managed security services, that are designed to detect and protect against cyber-attacks, and any additional measures we may implement or adopt in the future, our facilities and systems, and those of our third-party service providers, could be vulnerable to security breaches, computer viruses, lost or misplaced data, programming errors, scams, burglary, human errors, acts of vandalism, or other events. The risk of such cyber-attacks may be heightened as a result of the Russian conflict with Ukraine. Efforts to prevent cyber attackers from entering computer systems are expensive to implement, and we may not be able to cause the implementation or enforcement of such preventions with respect to our third-party vendors. Though it is difficult to determine what, if any, harm may directly result from any specific interruption or attack, any failure to maintain performance, reliability, security and availability of systems and technical infrastructure may, in addition to other losses, harm our reputation, brand and ability to attract customers.
There are several factors ranging from human error to data corruption that could materially impact the efficacy of any processes and procedures designed to enable us to recover from a disaster or catastrophe, including by lengthening the time services are partially or fully unavailable to customers and users. It may be difficult or impossible to perform some or all recovery steps and continue normal business operations due to the nature of a particular cyber-attack, disaster or catastrophe or other disruption, especially during peak periods, which could cause additional reputational damages, or loss of revenues, any of which would adversely affect our business and financial results.
If we fail to introduce or acquire new products or services that achieve broad market acceptance on a timely basis, or if our products or services are not adopted as expected, we will not be able to compete effectively.
We operate in a highly competitive, quickly changing environment, and our future success depends on our ability to develop or acquire and market products and services that are recognized and accepted as reliable, enabling and cost-effective and that achieve broad market acceptance. Some of our potential customers may already use products or services similar to what we currently offer or what we may offer in the future and may be reluctant to replace those products or services. Market acceptance of our products, services and technology will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to, market demand costs, timely completion and introduction of these products, prompt resolution of any defects or bugs in these products, our ability to support these products, market acceptance of these products, delays and quality issues in releasing new products and services and our ability to convince potential customers that our products, services and technology are an attractive alternative to existing products, services and technology. Prior to adopting our products, services and technology, some potential customers may need to devote time and effort to testing and validating our systems. Any failure of our systems to meet these customer benchmarks could result in potential customers choosing to retain their existing systems or to purchase systems other than ours. The occurrence of one or more of the foregoing factors may result in lower quarterly revenue than expected, and we may in the future experience product or service introductions that fall short of their projected rates of market adoption.
Our ability to successfully introduce and market new products is unproven. Because we have a limited operating history and the market for our products, including newly acquired or developed products, is rapidly evolving, it is difficult to predict our operating results, particularly with respect to any new products that we may introduce. Our future success will depend in large part upon our ability to identify demand trends in the market in which we operate and quickly develop or acquire, and design, manufacture and sell, products and services that satisfy these demands in a cost-effective manner. Also, we may not be able to respond effectively to new product or service announcements by competitors by quickly introducing competitive products and services.
In order to differentiate our products and services from competitors’ products, we will need to increase focus and capital investment in research and development, including software development. If any products currently sold by, and
services offered by, us do not continue, or if our new products or services fail to achieve widespread market acceptance, or if we are unsuccessful in capitalizing on opportunities in the market in which we operate, our future growth may be slowed and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and any failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting may have a material and adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.
As discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we completed the Business Combination on December 30, 2021. Prior to the closing of the Business Combination, we were a special purpose acquisition company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or other similar business combination with one or more operating businesses. As a result of the Business Combination, previously existing internal controls are no longer applicable or comprehensive enough as of the assessment date as our operations prior to the Business Combination were insignificant compared to those of the post-combination Company. The design of internal control over financial reporting for the post-combination Company has required and will continue to require significant time and resources from management and other personnel. As a result, management was unable, without incurring unreasonable effort or expense to conduct an assessment of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021. Accordingly, we are excluding management's report on internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 215.02 of the SEC Division of Corporation Finance's Regulation S-K Compliance & Disclosure Interpretations.
Although management did not conduct a formal assessment of internal control over financial reporting, in connection with the preparation and audit of our financial statements as of and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, we identified material weaknesses, as described below, in our internal control over financial reporting, which is an integral component of our disclosure controls and procedures. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. If we are unable to remediate these material weaknesses, or if we identify additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, our stock price.
Our material weaknesses related to Heliogen not designing or maintaining an effective control environment specific to the areas of financial reporting and its close process, including effective review of technical accounting matters, and proper segregation of duties, including separate review and approval of journal entries and access within our accounting system.
We are currently taking actions to remediate the deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting and are implementing additional processes and controls designed to address the underlying causes associated with the above-mentioned deficiencies. We are committed to remediating the deficiencies described above and commenced remediation efforts during 2021 that will continue into fiscal year 2022. Our efforts to implement measures designed to improve our internal control over financial reporting to remediate these deficiencies include the following steps taken in 2021:
•We added additional accounting resources, including a Chief Accounting Officer and head of SEC Reporting, who have the requisite background and knowledge in the application of GAAP and SEC rules and regulations.
•We engaged external experts to complement internal resources and to provide support related to more complex applications of GAAP, tax and internal controls. We will continue to utilize outside resources, as necessary, to supplement our internal team.
•We began the implementation of a new company-wide enterprise resource planning system. On October 1, 2021, we transitioned to our new enterprise resource planning system with improved information technology general controls, including segregated review and approval of journal entries. For 2022 and beyond, we have continued and will continue to implement incremental components of the enterprise resource planning system and other applications.
•We developed and improved recurring accounting processes providing more timely and detailed review of complex and routine areas.
•We formalized documentation of certain policies throughout the year.
•We enhanced our process in accounting for, and documenting our positions related to, complex accounting topics throughout the year, including, but not limited to, new controls in the areas of management review, segregation of duties, journal entry approval, and documentation and review of complex accounting matters.
These additional resources and policies and procedures are designed to enable us to broaden the scope and quality of our internal review of underlying information related to financial reporting and to formalize and enhance our internal control over financial reporting environment. We are committed to continue to take steps to address the underlying causes of the material weaknesses in a timely manner. While we are undertaking efforts to remediate these material weaknesses, the material weaknesses will not be considered remediated until our remediation plan has been fully implemented, the applicable controls operate for a sufficient period of time, and we have concluded, through testing, that the newly implemented and enhanced controls are operating effectively.
Although the Company has made significant progress in remediating the aforementioned deficiencies as outlined above, the material weaknesses continued to exist as of December 31, 2021 due to identification of adjustments during the year ended December 31, 2021.
In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to formally attest to the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting until after the Company is no longer an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting is documented, designed or operating. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect the business and operating results after the Business Combination and could cause a decline in the price of our shares.
Regulatory Risks
Our business benefits in part from federal, state, provincial and local government support for renewable energy, and a decline in such support could harm our business.
We benefit in part from legislation and government policies that support renewable energy, and energy storage projects that enhance the economic feasibility of our solar energy projects. This support includes legislation and regulations that encourage or in some cases require other customers to procure power from renewable or low-emission sources or otherwise to procure our services; and provide us or our customers with tax and other incentives that reduce our costs or increase our revenues. Without this support our ability obtain project commitments could be adversely affected.
Legislative or regulatory actions relating to renewable energy may impact demand for our services, our ability to remain in compliance with applicable laws, and our cost of operations.
We are subject to laws, regulations and rules enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC, New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) and other legal or regulatory requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws, regulations and rules may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws, regulations and rules and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations and rules, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Current and potential legislative or regulatory actions may also impact demand for our services. However, it is unclear whether these initiatives will create sufficient incentives for projects or result in increased demand for our services. Because most of our revenue is expected to be derived from the energy and industrials market sectors, regulatory and environmental requirements affecting those industries could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Customers in the industries we serve, including oil & gas companies and power providers, face stringent regulatory and environmental requirements, as well as permitting processes, as they implement plans for their projects, which may result in delays, reductions and cancellations of some of their projects. These regulatory factors may result in decreased demand for our services, potentially impacting our operations and our ability to grow.
In addition, the locations of renewable energy projects, including the expected locations of our concentrated solar energy plants, are often remote and may not be viable unless new or expanded transmission infrastructure to transport the energy to demand centers is economically feasible. Furthermore, funding for renewable energy initiatives may not be available. These factors could result in fewer renewable energy projects and a delay in the construction of these projects and the related infrastructure, which could negatively impact our business.
Opportunities associated with government contracts could lead to increased governmental regulation applicable to us.
Most government contracts are awarded through a regulated competitive bidding process, including the award we received from the U.S. Department of Energy to deploy our renewable energy technology in California. We may incur
significant costs associated with bidding for government contracts before we realize any revenues from these contracts. Government agencies may review a contractor’s performance, cost structure and compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards. If government agencies determine through these reviews that costs were improperly allocated to specific contracts, they will not reimburse the contractor for those costs or may require the contractor to refund previously reimbursed costs. If government agencies determine that we engaged in improper activity, we may be subject to civil and criminal penalties. Government contracts are also subject to renegotiation of profit and termination by the government prior to the expiration of the term.
Risks Related to Ownership of Shares and Warrants
There can be no assurance that we will be able to comply with the continued listing standards of the NYSE.
If we fail to satisfy the continued listing requirements of NYSE (“NYSE Listing Rules”), such as the corporate governance requirements or the minimum share price requirement, NYSE may take steps to delist our securities. If the NYSE delists our common stock from trading on its exchange for failure to meet the listing standards, we and our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including:
•a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;
•a determination that our common stock is a “penny stock” which will require brokers trading in our common stock to adhere to more stringent rules, possibly resulting in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our common stock;
•a limited amount of analyst coverage; and
•a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.
Additionally, if our securities are not listed on, or become delisted from, the NYSE for any reason, and are quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board, an inter-dealer automated quotation system for equity securities that is not a national securities exchange, the liquidity and price of our securities may be more limited than if we were quoted or listed on NYSE or another national securities exchange. You may be unable to sell your securities unless a market can be established or sustained.
Because we have no current plans to pay cash dividends on shares of common stock for the foreseeable future, you may not receive any return on investment unless you sell your shares of common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.
We currently intend to retain future earnings, if any, to finance the further development and expansion of its business and does not intend to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any decision to declare and pay dividends as a public company in the future will be made at the discretion of our Board and will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, financial condition, capital requirements, restrictions contained in future agreements and financing instruments, business prospects and such other factors as our Board may deem relevant. In addition, our ability to pay dividends may be limited by covenants of any existing and future outstanding indebtedness we or our subsidiaries incur. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in our common stock unless you sell your common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.
Our stock price could be extremely volatile, and, as a result, you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you paid for them.
In recent years the stock market in general has been highly volatile. As a result, the market price and trading volume of our securities is likely to be similarly volatile, and investors in our securities may experience a decrease, which could be substantial, in the value of their stock, including decreases unrelated to our results of operations or prospects, and could lose part or all of their investment. The price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a number of factors, including those described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and others such as:
•variations in operating performance and the performance of our competitors or alternative energy companies in general;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly or annual operating results;
•publication of research reports by securities analysts about us or our competitors or its industry;
•the public’s reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements and our filings with SEC;
•our failure or the failure of our competitors to meet analysts’ projections or guidance that we or our competitors may give to the market;
•additions and departures of key personnel;
•strategic decisions by us or our competitors, such as acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, joint ventures, strategic investments or changes in business strategy;
•the passage of legislation or other regulatory developments affecting us or our industry;
•speculation in the press or investment community;
•changes in accounting principles;
•terrorist acts, acts of war, periods of widespread civil unrest, geopolitical uncertainties, trade policies and sanctions;
•natural disasters, widespread pandemics, and other calamities; and
•changes in general market and economic conditions.
A significant portion of our total outstanding shares of common stock are restricted from immediate resale but may be sold into the market in the near future. This could cause the market price of common stock to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.
Shares of our common stock that are currently restricted from immediate resale may be sold into the market in the near future. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of common stock. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock and the public warrants originally issued in Athena’s initial public offering (the “Public Warrants”).
To the extent our Public Warrants or the private placement warrants issued to Athena Technology Sponsor LLC in a private placement prior to Athena’s initial public offering (the “Private Warrants” and, together with the Public Warrants, the “Warrants”) are exercised, additional shares of common stock will be issued, which will result in dilution to the holders of common stock and increase the number of shares eligible for resale in the public market. Sales, or the potential sales, of substantial numbers of shares in the public market, subject to certain restrictions on transfer until the termination of applicable lock-up periods, could increase the volatility of the market price of common stock or adversely affect the market price of common stock.
There is no guarantee that the Warrants will ever be in the money, and they may expire worthless and the terms of Warrants may be amended.
The exercise price for the Warrants is $11.50 per share of common stock. There is no guarantee that the Warrants will ever be in the money prior to their expiration, and as such, the Warrants may expire worthless.
Our Warrants are issued in registered form under a warrant agreement between us and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent (the “Warrant Agreement”). The Warrant Agreement provides that the terms of the Warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding Public Warrants to make any other change. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the Warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least a majority of the then outstanding Warrants approve of such amendment. Although our ability to amend the terms of the Warrants with the consent of at least a majority of the then outstanding Warrants is unlimited, examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the Warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares and their respective affiliates and associates have of common stock purchasable upon exercise of a Warrant.
We may redeem the unexpired Warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to warrant holders, thereby making such Warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding Public Warrants, commencing 90 days after March 18, 2022, the date the Public Warrants become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at a price of $0.01 per warrant, provided that the last reported sales price of the common stock equals or exceeds $18.00 per share for any 20 trading days within a 30 trading-day period ending on the third trading day prior to the date we send the notice of redemption to the warrant holders. If and when the Public Warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise our redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws.
In addition, we have the ability to redeem all (but not less than all) of the outstanding Warrants, including Private Warrants, at a price of $0.10 per Warrant if the following conditions are satisfied: (i) the last reported sale prices of our common stock equals or exceeds $10.00 (as may be adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations, recapitalizations or the like) on the trading day prior to the date of the notice; (ii) the Private Warrants are also concurrently exchanged at the same price as the outstanding Public Warrants; and (iii) there is an effective registration statement covering the issuance of the shares of our common stock issuable upon exercise of the Warrants and a current prospectus relating thereto available throughout the 30-day period after written notice of redemption is given. In either case, redemption of the outstanding Warrants could force you (i) to exercise your Warrants and pay the exercise price therefor at a time when it may be disadvantageous for you to do so, (ii) to sell your Warrants at the then-current market price when you might otherwise wish to hold your Warrants or (iii) to accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding Warrants are called for redemption, is likely to be substantially less than the market value of your Warrants. The value received upon exercise of the Warrants (i) may be less than the value the holders would have received if they had exercised their Warrants at a later time where the underlying share price is higher and (ii) may not compensate the holders for the value of the Warrants, including because the number of shares of common stock received is capped at 0.361 shares of our common stock per Warrant (subject to adjustment) irrespective of the remaining life of the Warrants.
Warrants will become exercisable for our common stock, which would increase the number of shares eligible for future resale in the public market and result in dilution to our stockholders.
Outstanding Warrants to purchase an aggregate of 8,566,666 shares of our common stock became exercisable on March 18, 2022 in accordance with the terms of the Warrant Agreement governing those securities. The exercise price of these Warrants will be $11.50 per share, or approximately $98.5 million in the aggregate for all shares underlying these Warrants, assuming none of the Warrants are exercised through “cashless” exercise. To the extent such Warrants are exercised, additional shares of our common stock will be issued, which will result in dilution to holders of our common stock and increase the number of shares eligible for resale in the public market. Sales of substantial numbers of such shares in the public market or the fact that such Warrants may be exercised could adversely affect the market price of our common stock. However, there is no guarantee that the Public Warrants will ever be in the money prior to their expiration, and as such, the Warrants may expire worthless.
We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management attention.
The market price of our common stock may be volatile and, in the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention and resources from other business concerns, and could also require us to make substantial payments to satisfy judgments or to settle litigation either of which could seriously harm our business.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our securities adversely, the price and trading volume of our securities could decline.
The trading market for our securities will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on us. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, our stock price and trading volume would likely be negatively impacted. If any of the analysts who may cover us, change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our securities would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
General Risk Factors
The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources and divert management’s attention.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”), the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, NYSE Listing Rules and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations increase our legal and financial compliance costs, makes some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and increases demand on our systems and resources, particularly after we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” The SOX requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight may be required. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations will significantly increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. Among other things, we are required to:
•maintain and evaluate a system of internal controls over financial reporting in compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the SOX and the related rules and regulations of the SEC and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board;
•maintain policies relating to disclosure controls and procedures;
•prepare and distribute periodic reports in compliance with our obligations under federal securities laws;
•institute a more comprehensive compliance function, including with respect to corporate governance; and
•involve, to a greater degree, our outside legal counsel and accountants in the above activities.
The costs of preparing and filing annual and quarterly reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC and furnishing audited reports to stockholders is expensive and much greater than that of a privately-held company, and compliance with these rules and regulations will require us to hire additional financial reporting, internal controls and other finance personnel, and will involve a material increase in regulatory, legal and accounting expenses and the attention of our Board and management. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could adversely affect our business and operating results. We may need to hire more employees in the future or engage outside consultants to comply with these requirements, which will increase our costs and expenses.
In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If its efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, and our business may be adversely affected. In addition, the costs to maintain our director and officer liability insurance may continue to rise. In the future, we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain this coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified executives and members of our Board.
Our internal control over financial reporting may not become effective and our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to certify as to their effectiveness, which could have a significant and adverse effect on our business and reputation.
As a public company, we are required to comply with the SEC’s rules implementing Sections 302 and 404 of SOX, which require management to certify financial and other information in our quarterly and annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. Although the Company has made significant progress in remediating the aforementioned deficiencies as outlined above, the control deficiencies continued to exist as of December 31, 2021 due to identification of adjustments during the year ended December 31, 2021. Additionally, management did not perform sufficient control testing to conclude that the material weaknesses were remediated. As a result, this Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include a report of management’s assessment
regarding internal control over financial reporting pursuant to guidance furnished by the staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance that, with respect to a reverse acquisition between an issuer and a private operating company where the private operating company is the accounting survivor, the issuer may exclude management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting in the Form 10-K covering the fiscal year in which the transaction was consummated. Due to the timing of the consummation of the Merger and Business Combination, management did not have adequate time to conduct a full assessment of our internal control over financial reporting and, in reliance on the staff’s guidance, has excluded its assessment in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
We will be required to provide management’s assessment on internal controls commencing with the annual report for fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. In connection with these assessments and to address deficiencies such as the material weaknesses referenced above, we have and may need to undertake further actions, such as implementing additional internal controls and procedures and hiring additional accounting or internal audit staff, to ensure the proper development and operation of an effective internal control over financial reporting environment. The standards required for a public company under Section 404 of SOX are significantly more stringent than those that were required of us as a privately-held company and management may not be able to effectively and timely implement controls and procedures that adequately respond to the increased regulatory compliance and reporting requirements that will be applicable. Further, as an emerging growth company, our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to formally attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 until the date we are no longer an emerging growth company. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event that it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting is documented, designed or operating. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect our business and operating results and could cause a decline in the price of our shares.
Our stockholders may not be able to enforce judgments entered by United States courts against certain of our officers and directors.
We are incorporated in the State of Delaware. However, some of our directors and executive officers may reside outside of the U.S. As a result, our stockholders may not be able to effect service of process upon those persons within the U.S. or enforce against those persons judgments obtained in U.S. courts.
Anti-takeover provisions contained in our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.
The second amended and restated certificate of incorporation (“Certificate of Incorporation”) contains provisions that may discourage unsolicited takeover proposals that stockholders may consider to be in their best interests. We are also subject to anti-takeover provisions under Delaware law, which could delay or prevent a change of control. Together these provisions may make more difficult the removal of management and may discourage transactions that otherwise could involve payment of a premium over prevailing market prices for our securities. These provisions include:
•no cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
•a classified Board with three-year staggered terms, which could delay the ability of stockholders to change the membership of a majority of our Board;
•the right of our Board to elect a director to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of our Board or the resignation, death or removal of a director in certain circumstances, which prevents stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on our Board;
•a prohibition on stockholder action by written consent, which forces stockholder action to be taken at an annual or special meeting of our stockholders; and
•the requirement that a meeting of stockholders may only be called by members of our Board or the stockholders holding a majority of our shares, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors.
These provisions, alone or together, could delay hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our Board or our management.
As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), which prevents some stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding common stock from engaging in certain business combinations without approval of the holders of substantially
all of our common stock. Any provision of our Certificate of Incorporation or bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.
The JOBS Act permits “emerging growth companies” like us to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.
We currently qualify as an emerging growth company as defined in Section 2(a)(19) of the Securities Act, as modified by the JOBS Act. As such, we take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, including: (i) the exemption from the auditor attestation requirements with respect to internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of SOX; (ii) the exemptions from say-on-pay, say-on-frequency and say-on-golden parachute voting requirements; and (iii) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements. As a result, our stockholders may not have access to certain information they deem important. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year: (a) following March 19, 2026, the fifth anniversary of our IPO; (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion; or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (ii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.
In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of the exemption from complying with new or revised accounting standards provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act as long as we are an emerging growth company. An emerging growth company can therefore delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. The JOBS Act provides that a company can elect to opt out of the extended transition period and comply with the requirements that apply to non-emerging growth companies, but any such election to opt out is irrevocable. We have elected to avail ourselves of such extended transition period, which means that when a standard is issued or revised and it has different application dates for public or private companies, we, as an emerging growth company, can adopt the new or revised standard at the time private companies adopt the new or revised standard. This may make comparison of our financial statements with another public company that is neither an emerging growth company nor an emerging growth company that has opted out of using the extended transition period difficult or impossible because of the potential differences in accounting standards used.
We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.
Our Certificate of Incorporation provides, subject to limited exceptions, that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the sole and exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, stockholders or employees.
Our Certificate of Incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware shall be the sole and exclusive forum for any stockholder (including a beneficial owner) to bring (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or our Certificate of Incorporation or bylaws, or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us, our directors, officers or employees governed by the internal affairs doctrine and, if brought outside of Delaware, the stockholder bringing the suit will be deemed to have consented to service of process on such stockholder’s counsel, except any action (A) as to which the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware determines that there is an indispensable party not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery (and the indispensable party does not consent to the personal jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery within ten days following such determination), (B) which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery, or (C) for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction.
Our Certificate of Incorporation also provides that the exclusive forum provision will be applicable to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act establishes concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over Securities Act claims. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to hear such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our Certificate of Incorporation
also provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States will be the sole and exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.
While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid and several state trial courts have enforced such provisions and required that suits asserting Securities Act claims be filed in federal court, there is no guarantee that courts of appeal will affirm the enforceability of such provisions and a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our Certificate of Incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. If a court were to find either exclusive forum provision in our Certificate of Incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with litigating Securities Act claims in state court, or both state and federal court, which could seriously harm our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding or owning (or continuing to hold or own) any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the forum provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation. Although we believe these exclusive forum provisions benefit us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law and federal securities laws in the types of lawsuits to which each applies, the exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our current or former directors, officers, stockholders or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits with respect to such claims. Our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder as a result of our exclusive forum provisions.
The Warrant Agreement designates the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by holders of the Warrants, which could limit the ability of warrant holders to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with our company.
Our Warrants are issued in registered form under a Warrant Agreement between us and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent. The Warrant Agreement provides that, subject to applicable law, (i) any action, proceeding or claim against us arising out of or relating in any way to the Warrant Agreement, including under the Securities Act, will be brought and enforced in the courts of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and (ii) that we irrevocably submit to such jurisdiction, which jurisdiction shall be the exclusive forum for any such action, proceeding or claim. We will waive any objection to such exclusive jurisdiction and that such courts represent an inconvenient forum.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, these provisions of the Warrant Agreement will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal district courts of the United States of America are the sole and exclusive forum. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our Warrants shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to the forum provisions in our Warrant Agreement. If any action, the subject matter of which is within the scope the forum provisions of the Warrant Agreement, is filed in a court other than a court of the State of New York or the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (a “foreign action”) in the name of any holder of our Warrants, such holder shall be deemed to have consented to: (x) the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of New York in connection with any action brought in any such court to enforce the forum provisions (an “enforcement action”), and (y) having service of process made upon such warrant holder in any such enforcement action by service upon such warrant holder’s counsel in the foreign action as agent for such warrant holder.
This choice-of-forum provision may limit a warrant holder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us, which may discourage such lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our Warrant Agreement inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and Board.