Yeah. Good morning, everybody. Those in the audience and those following us from the web, welcome to poLight's fourth quarter presentation. Together with me today is the Board Chair, Grethe Viksaas , sitting on the right here, and also, of course, the CFO, Alf Henning Bekkevik. The agenda is the normal one: key events, introduction to poLight for those who are new, more details on the market side, financial review by the CFO, and then outlook, and then in the end, Q&A. There are normally quite a few questions on the Q&A. Sometimes we are not able to answer all. Please, when you're through the web, when you answer questions, leave your contact details so that we can reply afterwards if we're not able to answer right away. But we will try the best we can. A question coming from the audience.
Please wait till the board chair, Grethe, gives you the microphone so that those listening through the webcast also can hear the questions from the audience. Okay? So we had quite a good, I would say, momentum, continuing good momentum on the MR/AR space. We got an incremental order, follow-up order, from one customer, actually two. We also got a relatively big order from a company related to this display solution. So two follow-up orders on the augmented reality side. We also got a new Design-win from a high-end headset, MR headset, where poLight is used in the see-through camera. We are not allowed to announce the name of the company still. Hope that will happen closer to summer. But an important Design-win for us, which is the first application for that particular kind of C3 application.
Then we have this Mini2P, you remember this Kavli-developed microscope, two-photon microscope. So there we have actually lately seen some commercial players coming in. And we have one order, which is a good size, NOK 2.5 million, for lenses into a commercial player, selling to different labs. And actually, we have another order also from this PhenoSys, which happened after the quarter, which is for the same application. So then after the reporting date, we got a new customer in the industrial space, Action ProWave Technology, a Chinese barcode vendor, launching first case and launching two products. Coming back to that. Thorlabs, everybody who's involved in lab work knows Thorlabs very well. They're also famous for the snack they give to customers who are ordering equipment. So they are now actually distributing TLens to the science world, which is positive for us. I will show you some pictures.
Also, Sharp Technology Day, again displaying very actively poLight and our capability. And I also met them at CES, where they also had a quite sizable booth only addressing TLens and application for TLens. Finally, we had changes in the board. Marianne Bøe is a newcomer. She is head of IR at IDEX Biometrics. And Jean-Christophe Eloy , who is the CEO and founder, actually, of Yole So those are two very strong candidates who will add a significant amount of experience to the board. And sadly, Ann-Tove had to step down due to all the loads she has been having for a while and will have in the future. So thanks to Ann-Tove, and welcome to Marianne Bøe and Sjøren Christoff. Yeah. poLight, global player, one of the few in tunable optics, and of course, the best tunable optics. Been around since 2005, so it's been a long journey.
We have 22 worldwide patent families, two pending and four trademarks. We are now 43 employees all over the world, step by step increasing. As I mentioned many times, we have to increase the headcount because we are trying to do so many things, and we need to be equipped to be able to do that in a professional manner. We are headquartered in Horten. It's a beautiful city outside Oslo. We have employees in Finland, France, U.K., U.S., China, Taiwan, and Philippines. Very, very distributed. I think we are now, is it, 15 nationalities in the company. The working language is English or something close to it. Listed since 2018. Now it's five years on being listed. Our technology is very unique. We have an extreme speed, instant focus, no waiting.
There is absolutely no change of field of view, so no pumping, no breathing, that constant field of view. Can realize really compact solutions. The strength of our technology is to go small. And power consumption, very, very low, which is super important for everything being wearable, as an example. So short, and for many of you, this is extremely boring because you've seen it so many times. But to the benefit of those who see this for the first time, on the left side, you can see basically the principle of operation. The idea came from some researchers at SINTEF and poLight, when they did some improvement project on the polymer, the lens material, that they felt this is really a fantastic material to replicate the function of the human eye. So we have a lens. We have eye muscles.
Changing focus means that the eye muscles are squeezing the lens, changing the shape of it, changing the optical power. It's basically exactly what we do. But we need to find a way to realize the muscles. The polymer is the lens, so that's fine. That was the beginning of the company. It's key knowledge in the company. Everything of the polymer is happening internally, not being outsourced. That's the only thing we do manufacture. Eye muscles have been a big effort to be able to develop and to manufacture in a robust way. And that is basically based on a Piezo-MEMS fab activity, where there is a glass membrane being, and there is some piezo, which is kind of the muscles bending the glass membrane, as you can see from the illustration.
When they put voltage on that glass membrane, piezo membrane, it bends, shapes the lens, changes the optical power. So we have an ASIC driver, which we have developed ourselves, which is changing voltage between 0 and 50 volts. OK? Now, here you see on the top right, you see this is really small. And that's why we can be a perfect fit for small, compact cameras. And you can see that size compared to a tip of a pen. So you can see it's a really, really compact solution. On the other side of that coin is, of course, that for bigger sensors, this is where we have our limitation because of the size. So go small, that's what we like. And all application in this area is typically going for very small and compact things. So that's the future. So we are part of that future.
So as I said, on the bottom side is the supply chain. We keep that polymer very, very close to our chest. That's where we started. That's what we are extremely capable of tuning and manufacturing. One liter polymer is one million lenses, so extremely scalable. Wafers from ST Micro, 8-inch wafers, comprising 2,000+ of each of these dies, this membrane, which is bending on the top left side. And then this is being shipped to our assembly partner, which used to be both in the Philippines and Taiwan, now only in the Philippines. And t hey are then singulating, dicing the wafer. They are dispensing the polymer. They are dicing the back window and assembling everything, cure, and test. Test activity is a super important activity. All the test equipment, which are very highly advanced testing optomechanical performance parameters, is designed by us and owned by us.
It will be operated by our assembly partner, but we have the specialist maintaining. And that's why we're seeing so many new hires in the Philippines, is to take care of these machines, maintain, and further develop. So these are a key part. Every lens being produced is being tested. This is to secure quality to the customer. Then the TLens we can sell with or without clothes, with or without wrapping a package. The bottom version of what we call package TLens is some plastic surrounding the TLens. And the reason for that is easier for the customer to integrate. The TLens in itself is super, super sensitive. It's an optical component. Needs to be very careful how you integrate it, where you touch and don't touch. And that's why the package is meant to ease that integration.
Of course, it adds cost, but it also saves cost on the customer side. But that's not always the best solution. Because if you really would like to go small, you really would like to go compact, compact, then you don't want to have anything around that TLens. And you want to integrate it inside the lens stack, as an example. And then you don't want to build any extra micrometers in that stack. So that's why in the bottom camera module you see there, the TLens is a bare TLens being added into the lens stack, whereas easier is to the top camera module, which is adding a TLens in a package to a fixed focus camera. So different ways of integrating. And different camera modules are doing it in different ways.
We are heavily involved with supporting camera module partners when they started to design TLens into their cameras. But of course, the camera module guys, they are taking wishes and instructions from the OEM. So we spend a lot of time in convincing OEMs to use our technology. And then it will be the kind of the OEMs who's pushing the camera module ecosystem to start to use TLens as a technology. So that's, in short, poLight. So we have been focusing on there are three main markets: consumer, being smartphone, wearable accessories on the left side; industrial, more the barcode type application, but also others; and the AR/MR application area. Of course, the AR/MR we see will also add a significant opportunity to the consumer side. But it also will be AR application, MR application, which is more the enterprise, lower volume cases.
So these are the key focus areas. And as I said, we are a relatively small team, but growing. And we need to balance seeking opportunities with doing things right. And I've been managing tech companies for soon 30 years. And the recipe of disaster is to start with too much broader applications and not focusing. So we have been trying to balance that. But we have a lot of creative engineers and salespeople, so it's not easy. But that's what we try. Those three markets are definitely and then within those three markets, we're also very focused on particular accounts, which we think we fit. But then we have seen, and we do have incoming calls. One example is this Kavli team in Trondheim, which won this Nobel Prize for their brain research. They came to us and said, you know, we need a tunable lens having these characteristics.
We have tried liquid lenses. It doesn't work. So can you help us? Will you support us? And as a starting point, it was really we felt that we did it for contributing to the greater good, in a way, because they do super, super important research. But it turns out that now we are very famous in the labs around the world and starting more and more. Commercial companies are also looking to sell instruments using TLens into this market. But then also getting an establishing name. We have several companies who are looking into the endoscope side. We'll come back to that. But we see it as a very long-term development. Same with automotive. Also, incoming calls. Need AF, they think. But so far, also, something which will take a long time to develop. So still, the key focus area are these three areas.
Then we are opportunistic in other areas also, but not such a way that we destroy our effort in the key market areas. So I'm really looking forward when I have to split this into two slides and more. But I still kind of managed to have it in one slide, even though it's a little bit messy. So what I've added here compared to last time is, of course, the high-end MR HMD world-facing camera. That's new. And I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to display the name. And then also, which is new since last time, is this Action, which is a Chinese company who launched two products. And what I've also added is the name of the products, oh, sorry, the products which SuperLead has launched. They actually have now four products in the market. But it's listed as one Design-win.
Teledyne has two products using TLens, not only one. But it's listed as one Design-win in our tables. So Design-wins in all key markets. Remember, consumer, so the Design-wins on the left side with Meizu on top, smartphone. And we have the AR/MR space in the middle, which is also a key market. And on the right side, the more industrial. So in all key markets, step by step, we are building super important references. OK. Yeah? So we have been at CES. So busy, busy start of the year. We've been at CES. And we have been at Photonics West at CES. We were a team of four people from poLight. On the top picture is our GM in China. And in the middle there is me trying the Vuzix glasses, which was on the show.
And on the bottom right side there on the CES is Sharp's booth, sizable presentation of the they call it the what do they call it? They call it the polymer lens. So we had a lot of successful meetings and demonstrations at CES. We didn't have a booth. But we were running around like crazy, morning to evening, with a lot of meetings and demonstrations. We demonstrated TLens, our products, where we are used, like the OEM product, and also TWedge demo we showed to the customer. On the right side is our first-ever booth at Photonics West in San Francisco. It was a correct, appropriate level of investment. We didn't have a big, fancy booth, but a booth which attracted a lot of people. And we felt that we did it exactly at the right level. So we demonstrated TLens.
The white table is different TLenses and camera modules with TLens. We showed customer products. We demonstrated TWedge as a prototype. This is our young, promising guy, which is supporting Tristan in the U.S. market, called Spencer. Also, Photonics West, Thorlabs, had maybe one of the biggest booths, which tells everything about what Thorlabs is. And they showed this TLens system, which is a picture on the bottom there. Good visibility and good interest. OK. Definitely, poLight remains extremely persistent and focuses a lot on this segment, even though it is a challenging segment. I've said that many times. But it remains persistent. Focus in the quarter was definitely augmented and mixed reality cases, mind you, consumer. So we're involved in many, many consumer AR/MR cases. And also, of course, smartphone. But other also applications, such as webcams, laptops, smart home wearables in general, are on our list.
I think it's fair to say that if you look at the smartphone market, the current segment and our solution typically make us the best fit for the selfie camera, due to compactness, due to size, due to sensor formats. But it's also the fact that the selfie camera in this segment is having a relatively low budget. So ideally, we should be focusing or having a solution for the back camera structure, which is, of course, on our roadmap. So in a way, short-term wins in the selfie camera, I think, will be very tough. That doesn't mean that we don't work for it. But it will be tough. I've been mentioning this many times. As I said, when it comes to getting a bigger footprint in the smartphone area, we are doing different things.
We are doing short-term actions to enable many players to use TLens, even in an add-in. So we are doing some adaptation to the designs, which can make add-in designs more accessible for more players. Today, there are, say, three, four guys who can do that, particularly one who did this Meizu camera. It's relatively costly. They price it very high, this process of manufacturing and add-in TLens. What we are doing now to enable more of the ecosystem to be able to do that is to do new reference design and new ways of integrating TLens, which more people, more camera modules can do, to increase the awareness and to increase the availability and to reduce the cost. OK? So that's one of the, I would say, short, medium-term actions we are doing. Then we have designs both for selfie, but also for back camera.
For longer term, for back camera and for main camera, there's no doubt that we need a bigger TLens. And that's also a project we kicked off now to make a TLens with a big aperture. And that is a project which is not a short-term solution. That will take some time to develop. I will report on a regular basis on the status. But so far, we have kicked off the project and started a lot of, I would say, prototyping sorry, simulation to find the good design. So this is even though you can say that, yeah, after Meizu, what happened? Well, a lot of things have happened. But we haven't seen the result yet. So we keep being persistent. We keep being we would like to claim a part of that space. And we will not give up. And we have clear actions. OK?
So if you look at the consumer status, so I'm mixing a little bit, because in this slide, I'm showing also a consumer-related AR/MR. On the previous slide, it was only the consumer, not including AR/MR. So here you see there are four Design-wins. There are one Design-win. That Design-win is a consumer AR-related case. We have been talking about that for a long time. It's also the one which gave us a relatively significant PO recently. We are doing some NRE, developing a specialized package for TLens for that particular application. And it's related to a display solution. OK? So that's moving well. And then we have nine proof of concepts and look at how many are from the AR space. And we have 14 planning POCs and look at the size of the AR/MR.
So there's no doubt that we will have a big role, as we see today, in the consumer related to AR/MR. All we talk to is very enthusiastic about TLens. Also, this small, compact, low power consumption is key. In a way, you can say I had a good friend in one of the OEMs. He told me 14, 15 years ago. He said, "Øyvind, you're really key application area in the end of the day will be AR/MR." He may be right. It's definitely something we feel and everybody we talk to is mentioning. But there are other things. As I said, whatever we do on the tech side for AR/MR has a direct relevance for the smartphone area. We are not giving up smartphone. We would like to repeat the success.
The performance of the Meizu phone has been super well received. So it's all about the sentiment and where we position the TLens. And we need to get into the back camera, because there are better budgets. OK? AR, yeah, you know this, k ey selling points: compactness, ultra-low power consumption. You can think about all the wear glasses. Then power consumption becomes critical. Extremely fast focusing, constant field of view, no pumping, no breathing. You shake your head, no gravity impact, because no moving parts. And athermalisation, not to mention athermalisation, super important. In a glasses like this, the temperature will kind of increase. A fixed-focus camera will be in focus at a certain temperature, but it will be out of focus in other temperatures. And that's where the nice thing about TLens is, by design, basically, it has athermalisation compensate for the temperature.
So as I said, relevant for both world-facing camera application and display. We are used in three products on the right side: Magic Leap, which was one of the follow-up orders. LED Vision, very low volume, very highly specialized case, Chinese player. And this high-end head-mounted display, where we used in the see-through camera. One day, I hope I could display the name. But so those are the three. In addition to that, we have five design-ins. We have the assessment that two of these five will be launched this year. That's the latest information we have. I think one of them seems to have that is a very particular design, which we think seems like they have very soft demand for that particular product and seems to be used mainly for sampling customers and create interest. I don't think that will go into mass production.
So that's at least the status, how we see it today. The high-volume case, the consumer case, which is this display case, moving very well, super keen customer, big player. And yeah, we were invited to see a demonstration of this in actually a glass setup, a glass setup. And it was amazing. And without using TLens, it didn't work. So super, super interesting case. And the relationship we have with the customer is really good. And it seems to be established a very long-term relationship, not only for one product, but for a product family. OK? And then we have TWedge. So again, TWedge is based on the same technology platform, two glass membranes, polymer in between. Instead of bending, like TLens, it's tilting, so basically beam steering. And that beam steering is used to create a wobulation, which is used to enhance the AR micro-LED type display.
They're fighting against resolution, brightness. And if they go too high resolution, they lose brightness. So adding TWedge is a perfect solution without compromising any of these other important parameters. We have been displaying this now for quite some time. We had it at CES. We had it at Photonics West. And it does really create a lot of interest. We haven't yet formally decided to kick off a project, to develop a product. It's still, in our books, an R&D activity, meaning all costs related to this development, which is some millions NOK, is expensed, meaning not into the balance sheet. So we see it as an R&D with, at the moment, no firm decision to move the product. I think that's important to stress. But we are quite vocal about this. We do show it to a lot of customers.
And the reason for that, of course, is that we would like to have engagement from customers from the early beginning, so that when we really start a very focused product development, we know that we fit into that market well. And we sell technical samples to customers, not for small money, which also helps on the financial. So I think that within this year, we should be able to find a case where we are focusing. I believe, instead of that case being a standard TWedge product we sell to all, I think maybe the beginning will be a purpose made for a particular customer. And then after that, make a generic product, most likely. But let's see. But it really creates a lot of interest. Yeah? So definitely, this era keeps us busy: three Design-wins, five Design-wins.
You can see the different logos represent, like the greenish is the enterprise. The orange is brown is consumer. So three Design-wins, five Design-wins, eight POC, and 17 planning POC. So every month, there's coming a few new ones into this. I should say that this is also including TWedge. Of course, not in Design-win, but in POC and planning POC, it also includes TWedge. I think in the report, I have mentioned that with numbers. Industrial, yeah, action, very nice to see that customer coming. So that's good. So now there are six companies, six companies using TLens in 11 commercially available products. So not bad, step by step, very low volume, you know that. And I'm saying that I'll say it again, that I think before we see big volumes here, I think we need to build that reference bank more.
I think we need to get people to dare to take it into higher volume application, which is typically point of sales. That takes time. We feel that we are building the foundation for that to happen. Also, in this segment, there are other things. I'm just mentioning this Thorlabs activity. As you can see here, if you go into their web page, they are selling this kind of kit, which they sell to labs and scientists, researchers, using the TLens. This is in a laser application, I think. Of course, when researchers, scientists are getting trained and educated and doing research, a little bit heavily based on a TLens, what do they do when they come out in the commercial world? Well, they have that education. They have that knowledge.
This will be, of course, in the longer term, super important for us to spread the word and to get people to know the technology and how to use it. So super, super nice examples, we feel. Yeah, here you can see the same overview: seven Design-wins, one Design-win, 13 POCs. Most of them related to barcode. But there are also some other activities. Eight planning POC, half of it being related to barcode and machine vision, sorry. Health care, remember, we talked about Xenacor. They had some problems. They need to go back to the lab and redesign. The way we see it, we don't think they're going to include AF. So that's sorry to say. But that happened. Nothing to do with the TLens.
It's all about them using a relatively low-resolution sensor and also getting needed to get fast into market after those problems. So that case has been removed from the Design-win. It was never a Design-win, even though many people had in direct contact with Xenacor classified it as a Design-win. But we never did. It was a Design-win, always a risk that that disappeared. But that disappeared not due to TLens, but due to strategic decision and time to market. Kavli Institute has been super important for us. On the right side is PhenoSys, a company in Germany. And the Professor York Winter, CEO of PhenoSys, is making this statement that we have been instrumental for realizing this instrument. He is basically a commercial company who is building complete systems.
So he's not only selling the microscope, which you see on the picture, but everything surrounding it. So it's kind of a big system costing a few hundred thousand EUR. So it's a big, big thing. But also, he has a company called LabMaker, which is selling only the Mini2P microscope. So this is starting now, we are engaged with three commercial companies who are selling this to the labs. And look what he's saying here on the bottom right. He says that by offering the Mini2P innovative technology as a turnkey solution, we believe that hundreds of research labs around the world can implement a complete system within hours. Today, we have direct interfacing in many of these labs. And they themselves have to build a system. So what PhenoSys wants to do is to release them from that pain and give them a complete system.
And of course, he says, "The low-power, fast, autofocus capability of the TLens enables a rapid shift in focal plane scanning, enables deeper 3D recording of brain tissue. poLight tunable optics technology has been instrumental in the Mini2P solution. And we look forward to future collaboration." So here, we really make a difference. And I think this is, in addition to being a fantastic brand building, it is also something which, step by step, has meant relatively sizable contracts. When it comes to a little bit back to endoscopes, there are still a lot of POCs in the endoscope side. But we do feel, and the latest understanding we have, that there seems to be sticking with relatively low-resolution sensors. And we are not so sure that the AF will really be so important for them.
So I would say that we then there is a path towards, say, from 2-5 mega. Then things are changing. Also, when they have a platform which can enable them maybe all-in-focus functionality, then yeah, things will maybe change. But I think, in the short-medium term, I don't expect any of these POCs to bring Design-wins as we see today. We may be wrong, but that's how we see it today. But definitely, there is a lot of POCs ongoing. And remember, I've talked about a relatively big company who is doing a POC in this high-end endoscope. And that will be a very long-term POC going into advanced research. So it's not that it's not happening. But I'm just saying that don't expect anything short-medium term when it comes to the Design-win. It's something which has to come over many, many years. OK?
Which is also why we have said what we always said: the focus area, consumer, industrial, AR/MR. The other ones are things we explore for the long future. OK? So nothing new, in a way. The new thing is that the Xenacor, which has themselves been extremely vocal about this laparoscope, is that that case had to go back to fixed focus, to time to market, and also due to resolution issues. OK? Automotive, yeah, I kept the same title: Automotive and Non-Trivial Volume Opportunity. And I think that that Non-Trivial part is definitely true. It is, again, a market where we see that, yes, we have POCs ongoing. Yes, those POCs are based on existing TLens. Yes, we have started to do reliability testing with the temperature spec and what have you they demand. And yes, we see a solution.
But also, we see that probably, as we say that for back camera, main camera, smartphone, we probably need a bigger TLens. I think this is also very often the case for automotive. So it has to be something which is coming along when that is in place. Having said that, I think, as we always said, this market is minimum five years ahead of us. So don't forget that. It's minimum five years ahead of us. And in that point of time, we will have bigger TLenses, according to our current roadmap, at least. So still activity, but it is a non-trivial. And what we have ongoing, what we do see, and which may be a fit for the existing TLens, is in-cabin systems.
So like on the picture here, that there is a need to monitor what's happening inside the cabin, both the back seats and the driver. There may be application for existing-size TLens. But most of the cases we so far are looking at will need a bigger TLens, as we see today. OK? Yeah, still, I would say, a promising pipeline. We have 15 Design-wins now, which is up from 12. We have nine Design-wins, which is up from eight. We have 95 completed POC. My board chair is telling me, "How can you cope with all these projects?" And of course, completed POC is something, in a way, we don't need to attempt to when they are completed. But what's happening then is that then we really start to push on the commercial side to see, OK, where are the Design-win opportunities?
Ongoing POCs are 40, down from 46, because some of it has been completed. Of course, here, we have to attend and do a lot of support. And then planning POC is more a sales activity, which is 40, down from 41. Yeah, this is Øyvind's slide. I'm still updating that, Øyvind, on a regular basis. So we can see still in some very decent activity. So, my dear CFO, will you do the financial?
Sure. Good morning to you guys. Revenue came to NOK 5.1 million in the quarter, compared with NOK 4.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. The revenue reflects sales of TLens and ASICs of NOK 3 million and NOK 2.1 million in revenue from NRE relating to customer development projects. EBITDA loss of NOK 26.3 million, compared with a loss of NOK 50 million the same quarter in 2022. There are several reasons for the increased loss. The most significant is that we have increased the number of employees by approximately five. Also, that due to the share price increase during the fourth quarter, it has been recognized NOK 7 million in share option expense, compared with NOK 1.4 million in 2022, which is not a cash-driven item. So because it's included but it could potentially be cash, because it includes the Social Security. A little bit technical, that one.
But balance, we had NOK 114.8 million in cash at the end of the quarter, compared with NOK 84.2 million at the beginning of the year. The inventory was NOK 70 million at the end of the fourth quarter, compared with NOK 45.6 million at the end of last year or 2022. The inventory has increased with approximately NOK 500,000 in the quarter. The increase during the year last year is mainly wafers from ST Microelectronics, which is the long lead time component in the TLens. On the cash flow, we started the quarter with NOK 132.8 million in cash. We used NOK 17.8 million in operating activities, compared with NOK 15.2 million in operating activities in the fourth quarter of 2022. We ended the quarter with NOK 114.8 million in cash. According to the current plans that we have, the group cash deposits will fund activities throughout the fourth quarter of 2024 and into 2025.
Thereafter, additional capital will be required to continue the planned commercialization. So the company has planned accordingly. OK, thank you.
OK, last slide, Outlook, before Q&A. So as I tried to convey, poLight remains persistent in a challenging consumer market sentiment. We will continue to address this market with smart solutions, of course, capitalizing on the first Design-win for smartphone, and make a solution and modifications and a completely new solution, which will position us nicely also in this market going forward. AR/MR is key for poLight. We will build a strong position in the enterprise. We are already involved in many, many consumer-related activities, as you have seen, one being already Design-win. So key to push that forward. Other high-potential markets we have been talking about, which is not key focus at the moment, but which is there: health care and automotive, yes, but no short-term, medium-term opportunities, as we see it today.
Except what we do more on the science and health care side, like Kavli. We need to continue to strengthen the organization to do what we to perform in a robust way all these important activities we do have. And as Alf Bekkevik said, the funding we have will take us through this year and into next quarter next year. And we will plan accordingly. OK, Alf Bekkevik, would you like to join me for the Q&A?
OK, first question. Sharp Tech-Day was incredibly exciting with poLight's. Can you say a little bit more about the way forward for Sharp? Will they be able to use TLens in their own products? Or will it most likely be selling camera models to others?
Yeah, Sharp will also in a Tech Day that's mine.
I think it's mine.
Is it?
That's fine. That's fine. Grethe can give you a new one. Yes, I think Sharp is key for us. They invest a lot in what they call the polymer lens. And they devote to their own activity. Yes, it could be own products for Sharp. That's our clear understanding. They will use a TLens-based camera module in Sharp products. That's the plan they have today. But also, over and above that, they also sell their camera module capability to other OEMs. So it will be both.
How do you feel about adding camera modules for AR/VR and smartphones? Are there many CMMs or camera model makers that now have models ready for production? Should the order come?
Yeah, I think we answered that already.
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Yeah.
In the consumer market, the trend has reversed globally, especially in smartphones. Q4 was the first quarter with increasing sales of smartphones again. Is this something poLight registered throughout interest from OEMs and camera module makers?
Not really. Somewhat. I mean, it's easy to get meetings. It's easy to get enthusiasm around showing the Meizu phone. But as I said in the presentation, this selfie camera, even though it's kind of starting to see somewhat better in the scene from poLight addressing the selfie camera, we don't see a big difference from last quarter. So that's why it's so important, step by step, to address the back camera with new solutions. So that's how we do.
The Meizu phone got a lot of positive feedback. Has it triggered interest from other OEMs?
Definitely. I think that is a super important phone. We are showing it to everybody we can. We have many phones around the world, which we do demonstration. It's definitely a door opener. Everybody is really impressed by the performance.
What effect has Apple's launch of Vision Pro had on other customers?
I think Apple is a trendsetter. I think that when and if they are successful with this kind of equipment, I think it will have a huge impact on all other players in that market. So positive, I would say.
poLight was in the U.S. and presented TWedge. What feedback did you get from customers? And is this a product you will continue with?
Yeah, I guess I answered that already. But yes, the way we see it today, yes. But we will try to find lead customer first.
The display project that is a Design-in, is this a customer who is thinking of using this in their own products? Or is it about a customer who can sell the solution to many other OEMs?
I would say I don't want to comment on that specifically. I just wanted to say that it is a consumer case. It is a display case. And it is also related to an all-day wear glass, meaning a glass you wear all the day. So it's a potentially relatively high-volume case. But I don't want to comment specifically on that, because that can lead you to speculate who it is.
Which needs does this display solution solve? Will it be for consumer-grade or professional?
Consumer-grade.
Design-win announced in VR just before Christmas. Is this about the single version or all the glasses in the series of this actor?
Again, I'd prefer not to answer that, because of the risk of making it too easy to guess who it is. Sorry.
We see that there are many, both small and large players, who say that they are going to come out with AR/MR glasses in 2024. How does poLight stand when it comes to opportunities for some of these?
As I presented, I think we have a lot of cases in the AR/MR space. We see a few to be released in 2024. But I think the main activity, specifically related to the consumer cases we are involved in, is more like kind of late 2025 or 2026, the way we see it. But we may be surprised. But that's how we see it today.
There is a very large player who has a project with poLight in medical. Can you say something about the progress in this project?
Yeah, they're still doing POC. Very active. But as I mentioned in my presentation, is that we don't see anything short, medium-term ending up in the product. It will be a long-term research and advanced research. And that's yeah, we will keep you updated. But that's how we see it today, a long-term potential need.
Mini2P is being discussed internally now, not internationally now.
Also internally.
Yeah, also internally. What can you say about the possibilities for Mini2P going forward?
I think it's quite promising. I still can't say you saw Professor Winter saying that there are so many labs, and he can sell turnkey solutions, which all will, of course, include TLens. So there is a potential there. But it's not going to be a big volume. But I think it's interesting to see that, relatively few months, we have now received, say, NOK 3.5 million PO for that application. So it's not insignificant compared to our revenue. So it seems like it's getting a lot of interest around the world. And as I said, there are three commercial players who are investing in making instruments they want to sell. So let's see.
Xiaomi, MaxHub, and Meizu, why is there no TLens in subsequent products when good feedback? Can you give a reason?
Good question. Xiaomi smartwatch was launched when corona was detected. That collapsed the whole market for that kind of device, because everybody was together and didn't the kids were not allowed to move without parents. So that was unfortunate. After, when they started to produce again, it was all about cost. And in this case, we were too expensive. MaxHub, a little bit the same. It's a cost issue. Meizu, well, again, selfie camera cost. The Meizu 21 doesn't even have AF in the selfie camera. So they decided to remove the AF function in the selfie camera with Meizu 21. So Meizu 20 Infinity is still the high-end phone, and it's still shipping.
Why couldn't you sell TLens to the many already released products in AR/VR/MR when you have been participating from the start in the segment and have been super busy for several years? What is the reason you give?
I think the best reason I can the best way I can try to explain it is that to get into these major players with new technology in new products, it basically takes a lot of time. You have to educate them. They have to test. They have to understand how to drive it. They have to understand how to use cases. So it's not that we are not trying. And it's not that we are not willing, of course. But it's basically that those guys who take decisions, they are extremely risk-averse. And they want to do a lot of testing. And you look at the POCs list we have and planning POC, they really, really need to understand that this is something which they think they can implement in a robust manner. So it's basically new hardware in new markets basically takes a lot of time.
But the good thing is that we are there. We have established references now. So it's something which helps a lot for the future. And you look at the activity on POCs and planning POCs, they don't do this for fun. They have an intention, of course.
Having Design-win, with example Honeywell, Teledyne, Kavli, Magic Leap, there is no doubt about the quality of TLens. So what is the primary reason for sluggish sales?
Yeah, I think it's time. I think it's basically the same answer I gave in the last questions. I think things take time. We just need to be persistent and keep pushing and improving what we have. One day, we will be there. That's definitely how we feel it today. But yes, things take time. That's, in a way, unfortunate, but also not unnormal.
Varjo, who you have not recognized, registered with Design-win by name, has themselves mentioned several suppliers. Other suppliers have mentioned themselves that they supply to Varjo. Why can't poLight?
I don't have any specific comment to Varjo . Some customers allow us to announce. Some customers do not. In the end of the day, this unnamed customer in the MR space will be announced also from our side. At the moment, we are not allowed to do it, without specifically referring to Varjo .
Do you still have the same belief that a?
I just wanted to say one thing. One thing which the customer sometimes is thinking, and I'm not referring specifically to [Maurio], is that they don't want to if they think they've done something smart, they don't want to broadcast that to the whole world immediately. That's a little bit the thinking.
Do you still have the same belief that AR/VR/MR products can become significant volumes and when?
Yes, that's clearly key for poLight, in addition to the other consumer markets. I think that the way we understand the cases we are exposed to from the consumer side, I would say, is probably kicking off in 2026 around. That's our understanding.
Is TLens best suited for stationary devices, such as microscopes, machine vision, and barcode scanners?
No. Any case with needing compact cameras is, and I would say wearable is maybe an extremely good example. Also, what you're mentioning here, but also of everything wearable, everything compact, I think we have a super good fit.
When does poLight expect any significant income from one of the verticals?
I think what I've said before is that the profitability in poLight and significantly revenue in poLight, even though it's increased from NOK 0 to NOK 20+, don't forget that, still a significant increase in that is some years ahead of us, which I've also been saying before. So that's nothing new.
Is the AR vertical developing in line with poLight's vision of becoming a key component player in the field?
Yeah, I would say so. What we feel today is that, definitely, that is the case.
From your point of view, is it realistic that poLight will appear in any selfie camera in the smartphone vertical in 2024?
I think, as I said, this selfie where today we fit very well in the selfie space. That is something which has a very low budget, which makes that an uphill battle. As I say, we remain persistent. We will come with a new solution. But it is a challenging era with the existing portfolio.
poLight has previously stated that they only announce stock market announcements that have a value-creating influence on the stock price. Considering the Photonics West and other presentations announcements, does the same principle still apply?
Yeah, when we do send press releases, some press releases you would say is kind of we say that we send out because it's classified as insider information. New Design-win as an example. Then we see it as very important that everybody knows. We classify it as insider information. Then we give the same information to all players. That's what we are supposed to do. I would say that the level of news flow Design-wins for that to trigger is relatively low, since we are in the phase we are. When we send other press releases, they are not insider information-type press releases. It's more like to inform the market that we are at SBI. We are doing a presentation there. So those are different press releases.
It seems like you have a competent team in the Philippines for assembly. How has the yield developed since the fourth quarter? And what are the production capacity goals for this year?
Now, as we said before, the yield is something which takes stable volumes over time to fully understand. But what we have said is that we definitely have proven that we have a very nice yield capability when we produce. Then we are still in the debugging phase. We're still optimizing test equipment and processes. So the yield per production batch is still kind of varying. But it's varying around a higher number, without being specific. Capacity, we have said that we have different capacity numbers. But if you typically say, per month, between 500,000 and 1,000,000, depending on which part of capacity which part of the value chain we're talking about is what we have. So that's already kind of in place. But of course, we don't push material. So you have installed capacity when it comes to equipment.
And then you have what you feed off material. And as long as we see that the volumes are as they are today, we are very careful by committing to new material into the line. So that's the answer to that.
In the quarterly presentation for the first quarter of 2023, you said that a mobile project was moved from Design-win to Proof of Concept, because the project was far ahead in time. Is this still an active project? And when can we expect to hear more about it?
I'm not completely sure which project we're referring to. I think I know. That project is now, I would say, in a completed POC stage. They are exploring different potential projects to use it.
The company is constantly running at a loss and has been dependent on raising fresh capital to maintain operations. Has the company experienced being disqualified from some products due to concerns about their financial situation?
It's a very good question. It's extremely important. Our kind of finance is extremely important for our customer. On a regular basis, I need to explain our strategy and our thinking regarding this. I would say, so far, we have not been disqualified. Definitely, this is something which I need to use time to explain our strategy and how we manage this. Of course, our funding situation is important for not kind of being disqualified. So far, we have not been disqualified. It is an important topic.
How does Xanderglass utilize the advantage of the TLens?
Yeah, I think Xanderglass is the glasses company who's actually using WISIC's shield glasses to pick up sound and transfer that to text for people who cannot hear. I actually tried it at CES. It's quite nice. That is not using TLens as such, because TLens is in the camera side. So that's basically using the audio and some processing capability.
Has there been any progress in AG2's Iris model with TLens since last quarter?
Yes, they're still working on it. A small company, of course, limited resources. But we're still following them up.
Are current processors on the market good enough to use TLens as a pass-through camera feed in standalone MR/XR glasses? Or do they currently have to have external processing power via a computer to achieve this?
Yeah, as for the TLens itself, I'm a little bit uncertain what the question is about. But the TLens itself is being sold by us, including a driver. That doesn't need any specific kind of processing power. Then, of course, the different customers drive it in different ways. So in a way, yeah, I'm not sure what you mean. But TLens and the driver doesn't need a lot of power.
Smartphones have been important to get a foothold in the short term due to opportunities for large volume cases. The company has said in recent years that smartphones have taken a large part of their capacity. Do you spend less time in this market now and in the future? Has the company changed direction in relation to resource use towards the various market areas?
Not really. And what I'm trying to emphasize every time and also today, that whatever we do having relevance for smartphone and vice versa, AR/MR, has a relevance of cross these two application areas. So smartphone, AR/ MR, they are basically having very similar needs. So it's not like what we do only have relevance for this or that. That's the nice thing about what we do. It is a platform which has application in different areas. So both are super important.
Can you say something about the prospects for a new round of fundraising and how this might plan out another issue?
What I can say is basically that we have the board and management is continuously, as I said before, evaluating what to do when, in what structure. When a decision is there, it will be announced.
If not already done, will you make a pipeline chart also for TWedge?
Yes, good question. I think that's in a way, since we are telling the market that this is a prototyping and not a formalized product, we haven't done it yet. But I guess at the point in time, we should.
Can you expand on the price sensitivity and how you cope with it? Do you think it will soften up a bit when TLens is more established and hopefully more recognized as a must-have?
Yeah, I think the main dynamic here will be that I think, yes, there is if you take the AR/MR space, where we think we have an extremely good case. I think that, of course, when you must have, there is more possibility of having an attractive price. But I think also AR/MR, we really would like to be a part of the consumer part of AR/MR. And I think we just have to admit that consumer means very price competitive. And we need to adapt to that. And then again, pricing costing of the TLens or TWedge, for that matter, is directly dependent on the volume. So it's a chicken and egg. We need to kind of we need to have an attractive price to get the volumes. And when the volumes come, the cost will go down. So we need to be flexible in a way.
We need to look at it in the longer term. I think that consumer application will put a pressure on pricing regarding if it's a must-have or not. Then also, customers don't like must-have and only one solution. They like to have different options. We need to be competitive.
Athermalisation is one advantage when using TLens polymer as a fixed focus lens. Do you see this approach being competitive to the standard fixed lens used today? Also, since this approach is fixed and the lens will not need piezo driving, would it be feasible to make the TLens bigger? And if so, would there be an Athermalisation market for them?
Again, a very good question, which we have been discussing and which is kind of in our potential roadmap. So yes, it's a potential. And it's something we are considering. But so far, we haven't took the decision to move that direction. And we are selling this Athermalisation functionality as a part of a TLens, which can be activated. But yes, it is possible.
It has been relatively few announcements from poLight in the last months compared with what could be expected from the pipeline. Could we anticipate a catch-up effect during the first quarter or second quarter of this year?
It's very difficult to predict. I think some of the cases we are. I think it's what's not so slow in the fourth quarter, to be honest, when it comes to news flow. It's relatively decent. But I think if you look at the pipeline, some of the pipeline activities, they are more longer term. And as I said, take AR/MR as a case. They are and the consumer in specific, we see them coming ±2026 . And so that's how we see it. So when I think the catch-up effect I don't see any short-term catch-up effect. But I see a long-term catch-up effect.
The pipeline seems to be building a bit slower than before. Is this due to poLight capacity, priorities, constraints, or what?
No, of course, it's something to do with our focus. And also, we are spending a lot of time on the key market areas. And also, it's also a little bit, I think, reflecting the consumer sentiment and where we fit. Yeah.
How about competition? Increasing new players, incumbent improving their alternatives, or cutting their prices?
No, I think there's nothing new, I feel, during the quarter when it comes to competition. Still, I would say the biggest competition is the conventional type VCM.
How is the CFO recruitment progressing?
What will you say, CFO?
No, you can tell them.
I have a CFO. That works very well. But of course, we are adding, we want to add a CFO to strengthen what we are lacking: the kind of financing, strategic yeah, so that dimension, IR. So many, many of these things are on my shoulder, in addition to many, many other things. So we need to strengthen that capacity and to do that. We have been searching for a while. There have been some good candidates. But we are still not in the process of conclude. So we will continue the search. For now, I have a CFO, which is doing a very good job and very reliable, keeps the numbers right. So we are not in any kind of extreme hurry.
Do you foresee?
[Foreign language] .
Thank you. Thank you, Ivan. Very nice. Do you foresee new equity financing? Or will you be able to utilize other financing facilities, like debt factoring or government export credit facilities?
I think what I said, that the board and the management, on a regular basis, are discussing this to find out what to do and when to do. So debt financing, I think, is not a really good case for poLight. But whenever there is a decision, it will be, of course, announced.
In the AR/MR market, you state that key selling points for TLens is hand gesture recognition and that fixed focus lenses drift out of focus. Still, Apple Vision Pro seemingly copes relatively well without autofocus. Did Apple consider TLens in case? Why did they choose not to use TLens?
I don't have a comment to that, Gunnar . Sorry.
You state that only two of five design-ins in AR/MR are likely to launch this year. I understand one of them to be Vuzix. How consumer-related is the other design-ins?
Yeah, there, and I think I mentioned that. But there is one of the five design-ins I have to take off the top of my head. Of the five design-ins, only one is consumer-related. And that is still a few years ahead of us for launch. I think we need to.
We do?
Yeah, let's take one more.
Meta, Sony, and Samsung are all expected to come up against Apple Vision Pro this year. Is the consumer segment being established without the need of TLens?
So, as I said, we are involved with many players, also planning to have a consumer focus. But of course, there may be releases where the first version is without AF. And that's what the POCs they're having are more for the later version. So this, of course, could happen. Let me just now quickly see.
It's 12 more.
12 more that we don't have time for. I think Gareth has a question. I think we answered that. Yeah. Yeah, let me just, sorry, give me a few minutes to scan through them. Yeah, we have one from here. That one, if you take that one.
OK. Investors following poLight knows the company name of the high-end MR HMD. Do you believe their competitors also know that they use TLens in the autofocus world-facing camera?
Yeah, as I said, I don't have any more comment to that. The one we are designed into, we are not allowed to say who it is. I see I understand that there are some speculation who it is. And I guess that speculation also is among competitors. But I cannot say. And when I can say it, I will be very glad to say it. But I cannot comment more on that. Sorry.
OK. Can OEMs stop you from sending out press releases because of NDA? Or do you have to press release PO Design-win and new contracts as they happen?
Yeah, so no NDA can stop us to do what we legally are obliged to do. But they can refuse us to use the name. So then we have to announce it on no-name basis. Can you show me the overview of the question? I'm trying to screen so that I don't answer those who already have been kind of somehow covered. Yeah, here. Let's try to take the critical questions.
OK, critical ones.
Critical ones.
What do you tell the investors to ensure them that poLight is a company that will succeed and worth investing in? Over the years, the company has addressed good interest for the technology. Why is that so few actually use it when it's described as the best? Can you understand why investors start to lose patience when quarter after quarter shows nothing else than a few more projects?
So I think it reflects an understandable frustration within some investor forums and areas and people. So I think that's fine. We need to accept that. That's how it is. But I also feel that we always try to communicate in a balanced manner. We always try to show the opportunity. We always also try to be realistic. We could choose a different communication profile. So I would say that I feel that we have highlighted the risks and the downsides. We have highlighted the opportunity. I think that we are standing here. We are working crazy hard to develop this company. We strongly believe that we will be a successful company. Yes, it takes time. This is not the first time a hardware tech company it takes time to develop. We have a unique technology.
We have, after all, established some extremely important Design-wins. From 0 in 2020, we have now how many Design-wins? Those are Design-wins with key players within key market areas. Yes, I also could love things to move faster. But there is no reason, as I say from Horten, panicking with a blip. This is a fantastic technology. It's a fantastic company. We will be successful.
Good answer.
Yes and true. Let me see more.
Oh, you're not finished.
Yeah, I think we need to stop there, because I see people start watching. We have been going on for a long time. I will try to reply to these questions offline. Let me take this one, last one, then.
OK, last one. Does the commercial success of TWedge depend upon the mass production of microLED displays? Also, do you regard the emergence of nanoLED displays as a threat to business? Or can TWedge enhance this technology as well?
I think TWedge can be used in different applications, different display solutions. So microLED, for sure, but also others. So the other I don't have a good answer to the other one. But what we have seen so far is all the display technology which is out there see some benefits in using TWedge. So we believe strongly that this is a good case. But as I said, we would like to clearly understand that market and need before we push full product development. And we would like to find the first customer and more like a purpose-made design for that customer before we go into more general product release. OK, I think we need to sorry, guys. There were so many questions today. I tried to answer what I saw as I haven't addressed. Yeah, so I think we need to stop there.
Everybody, thanks a lot for you coming, meeting us face to face. Always an enormous boost of motivation to meet you and to talk to you. Super interesting to get all your questions. That really makes the presentation so much more dynamic. Thanks for the audience following us through the webcast and sending in questions. Ultimately, we need to make sure that we scan those questions again and try to reply to those we didn't manage to do. Super thanks. See you next time. Thanks a lot.