Pitch Deck Teardown: WayRay’s $80M Collection C deck

We now have fairly a singular pitch deck on our palms right now.

A number of years in the past, AR automobile {hardware} firm WayRay raised $80 million at a half-a-billion valuation in a Collection C spherical led by Porsche, and I’m tremendous excited to indicate off their pitch deck right now! Sure, it’s just a little bit older than a few of the decks we normally tear down, however it’s uncommon that I get my palms on a 100% unedited, unabridged deck that resulted in a half-unicorn valuation.

WayRay’s deck consists of a whopping 75 slides — round 50 greater than I’d sometimes suggest for a deck like this — and it’s clear that the founders took a distinct tack than what we’re used to seeing as of late. Nonetheless, you may’t argue with a profitable fundraise of this caliber.

We’re in search of extra distinctive pitch decks to tear down, so if you wish to submit your individual, here’s how you can do that.

Slides within the deck

Usually, I record all the slides in a deck right here so you will get an summary. However as I discussed above, this deck incorporates 75 slides, and lots of of them aren’t notably clear when it comes to what they’re truly for. Simply flicking by means of the deck leaves me actually confused normally, however I’ll get to why that’s a nasty factor in a bit.

Let’s begin by outlining what’s within the deck, after which check out the way it all comes collectively, what works and what wants enchancment.

Cowl slide
“What makes us stand out” — USP slide
Our Mission — Mission slide
Graphic slide
Previous investor slide
“Management in holography” — Platform description slide
Cowl slide — “Our Essential Focus”
“We consider that the automobile windshield is essentially the most pure medium for delivering AR content material.”
Expertise layers — Tech stack
Expertise layers — Tech implementation
AR Market — Instance use case 1
AR Market — Instance use case 2
AR Market — Instance use case 3
AR Market — For the driving force
AR Market — For the passenger
Expertise benefits
“Benefits of WayRay’s AR HUD” product options slide
“Expertise comparability” — Evaluate head-up shows with opponents
“Expertise comparability” — Evaluate head-up shows with opponents
“For us, standard HUDs are not any competitors” — Positioning slide
“Deep Actuality Show” — Product overview slide
“Typical HUD” — Exhibits what the competitors does
“Breakthrough in Quantity” — Exhibits how WayRay HUDs take up a smaller footprint in vehicles
Cowl slide — “The place we are actually”
“We’re set as much as signal industrial contracts” — Traction slide
“True AR HUD: from the idea to commercialization” — Product roadmap slide
“When launched right into a car mannequin” — Explains “stickiness” of the product between mannequin years
Enterprise Mannequin slide
Cowl slide — “How we work”
Graphic slide: “Do Deep Tech”
Graphic slide: “Do Deep Tech”
“Vertical Integration” — Aggressive benefit slide
Graphic slide: “Holography”
Graphic slide: “Holography”
“Groundbreaking developments in holography” — Tech overview
Graphic slide: “Customized Lasers”
“PGU optical design” — Exhibits how the HUD is designed
“Superior engineering strategies” — Exhibits how the merchandise are designed
“AR Rendering Engine” — Product slide
“True AR SDK” — Third-party app developer slide
Cowl slide — “WayRay Overview”
WayRay Staff — Staff slide 1
WayRay Staff — Staff slide 2
WayRay Staff — Staff slide 3
WayRay Staff — R&D departments org chart
WayRay Staff — Chemistry workforce slide
WayRay Staff — Design workforce slide
WayRay Staff — Electronics Engineering workforce slide
WayRay Staff — {Hardware} Engineering workforce slide
WayRay Staff — Optics & Holography workforce slide
WayRay Staff — Platform Options workforce slide
WayRay Staff — High quality Assurance workforce slide
WayRay Staff — Software program Engineering slide
WayRay Staff — Swiss Expertise Middle workforce slide
WayRay Labs — Laser Lab slide
WayRay Labs — Holography Lab slide
WayRay Labs — Experimental manufacturing slide
WayRay Labs — PCB meeting facility slide
WayRay Labs — Check lab slide
WayRay Labs — CNC workshop slide
WayRay Labs — Metrology gear slide
Cowl slide — “The place we’re headed”
New Markets/Radical Improvements — Positioning slide
Add-on holographic AR show — Future product slide
“Software throughout a number of industries” — Go-to-market brainstorm
Development Gear — Instance use case slide
“AR Facet Window Options in trains” — Instance use case slide
“AR Facet Window Options in Cabs” — Instance use case slide
“AR good glass” — Instance use case slide
Awards — Awards obtained slide
Occasions — CES 2017
Occasions — CES 2018
Occasions — CES Asia 2018
Media Protection slide
Thanks slide

Three issues to like

There’s quite a lot of unbelievable stuff to get my tooth into with these many slides. To start out off, these slides have been designed terribly effectively.

WayRay operates within the OEM automobile house. In different phrases, for its merchandise to be seen out on the planet, they need to be examined and accepted by automobile producers, who then have so as to add the product to a future model of the automobile.

It’s a frightening prospect as a result of most of these offers can drag on endlessly. I’ve labored with startups which have needed to anticipate greater than a decade from their first conversations with a automobile producer till the tech turned accessible in a automobile you should buy. It stands to motive that such an endeavor is capital-intensive, but it surely additionally signifies that when you recover from sure hurdles, you’re on a reasonably clear path to market.

There’s proof of each on this deck.

Tremendous clear street map

[Slide 26] The WayRay street map reveals its plans clearly. Picture Credit: WayRay (opens in a brand new window)

I beloved the way in which the corporate presents its plans and its milestones to this point in a extremely easy street map (pun supposed). The corporate attracts a transparent image of the place it’s and what it’s making an attempt to do.

I’d have quite a lot of questions on this timeline (a Q2 2022 RFQ to manufacturing in 2023 doesn’t appear life like in my expertise), however I do respect the readability and the outlined targets the corporate has set.

One of many deepest moats I’ve seen shortly

[Slide 32] Vertical integration all the way in which. Picture Credit: WayRay

I typically suggest younger firms do solely what is totally core to their enterprise and outsource or use platforms for the whole lot else. WayRay takes a distinct strategy — it has in-house personnel for each side of its product improvement and manufacturing course of.

The corporate particularly lists Optics and Holography, {Hardware}, Software program and Electronics Engineering, High quality Assurance, Design and Chemistry. For some {hardware} firms, I wouldn’t have anticipated anything, however on this case, it’s useful to spell out that WayRay is taking fairly a broad strategy. Each right here, and elsewhere within the deck, it turns into unwaveringly clear that the corporate has an actual curiosity in, and penchant for, analysis and improvement.

WayRay does a fantastic job at displaying off the world it desires to stay in.

Notably, the corporate doesn’t say if it has a military of IP legal professionals ensuring that its belongings are protected. In actual fact, the phrase “patent” doesn’t seem anyplace within the pitch deck, which appears like an oversight.

Nonetheless, the corporate says: “The underlying mental property of our deep tech improvements is well-protected and onerous to breed.” As an investor, I’d have beloved to listen to a bit extra about what number of patents the corporate is producing, through which elements of the world and what number of patents have been accredited.

Portray an image of a really completely different world

[Slide 67] One factor the founders received very proper: They assist buyers think about a distinct world. Picture Credit: WayRay (opens in a brand new window)

Being a founder is a lonely, wild journey right into a future which you could see clearly however doesn’t exist but. Storytelling is a vital a part of turning that story into actuality, and WayRay does a fantastic job at displaying off the world it desires to stay in.

This deck has a lot of slides displaying potential use circumstances — such because the augmented actuality practice window mockup above — like vacationer locations with overlays of roads and cities you is perhaps seeing that add data. Is it essential? Who is aware of. But it surely’s so cool that it makes me excited to think about what it is perhaps wish to stay on this world.

As a founder, should you’re in a position to encourage daydreams of the world you’re describing, you’re doing an unbelievable job. I wouldn’t be in any respect stunned if these visions — fantastically rendered and proven off all through the pitch deck — are some nice alternatives for that to occur.

In the remainder of this teardown, we’ll take a look at three issues WayRay might have improved or carried out otherwise, together with its full, 75-slide, unedited, unabridged pitch deck.

Three issues that might be improved

Ho boy! OK, so let’s get this out of the way in which: 75 slides is approach, approach, approach, approach too many slides.

What’s worse, a few of these slides make me surprise who they’re for. It appears as if whoever put these slides collectively was actually excited by the expertise (and that’s great), however then they shout about a few of the improper issues from the rooftops, which throws the pitch off the observe, one way or the other.

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