“SPAC mergers are like a bank loan, they are given to those who do not need it”

Gideon Ben Zvi, Valens CEO Photo: Orel Cohen

"Some SPACs approached us and at first we rejected them all until we said 'let's continue'."

"At first my romantic idea was to go public through “the front door”. From the moment I took over as CEO, I knew I wanted to take Valens to an IPO and I kept saying that we will go through one in 2022. But the company was ready faster than we thought. When they started knocking on our door with SPAC companies, we decided to listen. As things progressed, we realized that we were already ready for the IPO, but because we were already in the process, we decided to continue, and that was the right decision."

"Certainly. One of the reasons we stayed in the process was the specific SPAC. These are exceptional people, who bring value and I know personally. They did not just show up for the deal. They have a real understanding of the semiconductor world and a very non-opportunistic approach. I can give you a scoop - we did not take the highest offer we had.”

"Not significantly, but higher."

"Because we know PTK well from the semiconductor industry. They are educated, knowledgeable and ethical, three Americans, two of them Taiwanese-born. In addition, it was important for us to act responsibly and think about the long-term. We see what happens when a company goes public with an excessive value."

"Answering that today and answering that almost a year ago is different. There is a matter of trends. I am not a capital market person, I come from the industry side. Companies that are not ready, that cannot do an IPO by any means, a SPAC merger could be a double-edged sword for them. It's like a bank loan, it is given to those who do not need it.

"At the end of the SPAC process, the company is de-facto public, the process by which it entered the stock market does not matter. It should be a company with real volume, sales and the ability to predict results. It is a muscle that is better to train as a private company and not a public one. Being a public company is very challenging and if a company has to be traded while also learning to sell and produce results, it can be difficult."

"I cannot talk about it."

"We are a company that interests the industry, and we will make sure to continue to interest everyone."

"In 2015 we decided to enter the field, and after a year we had already signed our first contract. Our product is in vehicles from 2020, Mercedes cars are already traveling with our chips."

"Chip companies never sell directly to the manufacturer."

"The big names, Herman, Molex, Bush and Continental."

"This is an aggressive but realistic jump, which is based mainly on our new generation of automotive products entering vehicles. Our predictions are based on things happening today, most of which are linear, and not based on a fantasy that a miracle will happen. It takes time until the chips are embedded in the cars and hit the road, and our newest products will go into cars in 2025-2026. There we have an amazing opportunity in terms of market size."

"Twice in its life Valens was able to lead a global standard. The first is the HDBaseT standard, which you encounter daily in conference rooms without knowing it. It is the name of our technology in the audio-video world, which has also entered the automotive world. The second standard is a much greater leap. MIPI standards organization, which all our phones are filled with components manufactured according to it, decided in the middle of last year to enter the automotive field. It conducted a global tender that lasted a year and a half and all the big names competed for it. Our technology was chosen by MIPI to be used in the automotive market, a huge achievement. Furthermore, the IEEE standards organization adopted, for the first time, a standard of another organization - MIPI, as its standard for connecting sensors in a vehicle based on our technology. It further grows the market and our opportunities."

"One of them. It is a very big achievement, but we are not a company based on one miracle, rather on many steps. Some take time, and it takes patience and modesty to produce the entire framework. Our industry is not the “ponytail in the hair and e-scooter” industry of Rothschild Boulevard. It is a much more solid high-tech, with a slower pace, with a much higher cost for mistakes, but when it succeeds - serious companies are built, for many years. And that is where we are."

"Not true. Every company has its bumps, and I do not believe those who claim they did not have any. If someone says he did not have any obstacles, I am more concerned about him than about his company. We passed ours.”

"The car market is bigger and the slope there is steeper. But in the audio-video market, we grew from zero revenue in 2010 to $60 million in this sector by 2020."

"No. Every company, without exception, doesn’t realize all its dreams. That means changes have to be made. Not all of Valens' fantasies have come true either but the vast majority certainly did, and we produce new dreams all the time."

"We produce smart chips for fast communication, and among other things allow a significant reduction in the amount of cables in the vehicle - an advantage in cost and weight. But the main thing is the chips we develop, which know how to transmit large amounts of data at high speeds and optimal quality. The inside of a vehicle is a challenging environment for fast communication, and the quality requirements for autonomous vehicle systems, whose job is to take care of passenger safety, are very strict. Beyond cost savings, it gives car manufacturers freedom and flexibility in planning, and peace of mind in terms of safety. Without us things in the car will not work, or will be too expensive or complicated. Nobody wants to take risks."

"Absolutely. In audio-video, our traditional customers are video distribution companies, such as Crestron and Extron or the Israeli company Kramer. The coronavirus has boosted sales of video calls equipment for small meeting rooms, home offices or classrooms that need to prepare for new models of learning, and an actor like Logitech has become one of our significant customers. In addition, we have clients in the medical field, for cases where patients need to be kept away from the medical staff. Our product is installed in ventilators, whose sales increased during the pandemic, or in X-ray machines, where the radiation is great. Wherever there is a long cable system or a challenging infrastructure that needs to transmit fast, high-quality video data, that is where our technology meets a need that no one else can."

"No one lives in a vacuum, but our market share is large and in terms of technological capabilities we have an advantage, and spend a huge amount of money to protect it. Working for us is like being in a semiconductor school."

"To build a great company that sells millions of chips a month - and we'll get to that. There are 100 million cars produced a year across the world, with an average of 4.5 sensors per car, that's two chips per link, that is 900 million chips. In the automotive industry the challenge is to get your foot in the door. Once you are in you are always there. We are in Mercedes and we have another deal in trucks, we will soon announce a product that does not exist in any truck and it is a game changer for the driver."

"First of all, Mobileye has announced that it supports the MIPI standard based on our technology, so we are working with it to promote this architecture. Apart from Mobileye and Valens, there are not many Israeli companies that can say they are on the road, and our chips are."

"There are many excellent, known Israeli companies and technologies in the market that are on the way to go public. The success of every Israeli company in this field is a source of pride. We are a long-standing company, selling at millions of dollars a month. We have a dream of becoming the communication infrastructure for all the vehicles in the world - and we will get there."