Overview
Cepton is a San Jose-based lidar technology company pioneering mass-market commercialization of lidar for ADAS and autonomous vehicles. The company received a $50M investment from Koito Manufacturing and went public via a SPAC merger with Growth Capital. Cepton's lidar technology enables safe, autonomous mobility for consumer vehicles and commercial applications.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- None on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
Founded
Founders
Product
Acquisition
Status
Koito investment
Public
Technology
Data & sources
Web sources
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Cepton on the deployment map
Where Cepton's robots are verified operating. Explore the deployment map by place and type.
Relationships
Founders (2)
- Jun Peicofounderfounded 2016-01-01no longer at company
- Mark McCordcofounderfounded 2016-01-01no longer at company
Former / Previously (2)
- Jun Pei Co-founder & CEO2016 to 2023secondary-verified
- Mark McCord Co-founder & CTO2016 to 2023secondary-verified
Safety record
No incidents on record for Cepton.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Recent coverage
Cepton in third-party press
Peer companies
- DJI7 models
- Boston Dynamics5 models
- Robotphoenix5 models
- Lightwheel3 models
- ATI Industrial Automation2 models
- Anvil Robotics2 models
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- aggregator_estimate
- Lifecycle stage
- growth
- Counterparty risk class
- moderate
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Funding rounds (2)
- Acquisition (Koito Manufacturing)2022-04-04
$200M(reported)
Investors: Koito Manufacturing (strategic) (lead)
- Series A2018-01-01
Acquisitions (1)
- acquired by Koito Manufacturingfull acquisition2024-07-29
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Review status verifiedVerifiedJun 19, 2026
unreviewed -> reverified
- Record createdJun 7, 2026
Added to the verified registry
Sources (1)
Common questions
- What is Cepton?
- Cepton is a San Jose-based lidar technology company pioneering mass-market commercialization of lidar for ADAS and autonomous vehicles. The company received a $50M investment from Koito Manufacturing and went public via a SPAC merger with Growth Capital. Cepton's lidar technology enables safe, autonomous mobility for consumer vehicles and commercial applications.
- What does Cepton make?
- Cepton has 1 robot model on the DEPLOY registry: Nova (Cepton builds physical robots).
- Is Cepton publicly traded?
- Cepton is not yet publicly traded but is in the process of going public, per the DEPLOY registry.
- Who competes with Cepton?
- On the DEPLOY registry, peer companies to Cepton building in the same form factors include DJI, Boston Dynamics, Robotphoenix, Lightwheel.
- Who is the CEO of Cepton?
- Jun Pei is the ceo of Cepton, per the DEPLOY registry.
- How can I invest in Cepton?
- Cepton is going public via a SPAC merger; its shares become buyable once it begins trading.
- Where is Cepton headquartered?
- Cepton is headquartered in San Jose, CA, USA.
- Where does Cepton operate robots?
- Cepton is a robot manufacturer and does not directly operate deployments on the DEPLOY registry. Its products are deployed by customer operators; see the company page for the verified deployment record.
- Is Cepton a top robotics company?
- On DEPLOY's intelligence score, which blends verified deployments, funding, hiring, media, safety, and IP signals, Cepton ranks in roughly the top 64% of companies tracked by the registry.
- When was Cepton founded?
- Cepton was founded in 2016.
- Is Cepton safe?
- Cepton has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-22
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-07-22
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Cepton.Peer companies
- DJI7 models
- Boston Dynamics5 models
- Robotphoenix5 models
- Lightwheel3 models
- ATI Industrial Automation2 models
- Anvil Robotics2 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Cepton from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/cepton.md
- RSS feed: /companies/cepton/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/7a6806a5-ca28-46b2-b0bd-201c151775cc
- Revision history: /companies/cepton/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- DJI7 models
- Boston Dynamics5 models
- Robotphoenix5 models
- Lightwheel3 models
- ATI Industrial Automation2 models
- Anvil Robotics2 models
Reality vs attention
Cepton draws attention at the 6th percentile but verifies reality at the insufficient-data level among other robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Limited public visibility and press coverage relative to peers.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Jul 23, 2026