DLA Piper advises AEye Inc from Series A through SPAC Closing with CF Finance Acquisition Corp. III

DLA Piper represented AEye, Inc, the global leader in adaptive, high-performance LiDAR solutions, from its Series A investment through the recent closing and public listing on the NASDAQ via a business combination with CF Finance Acquisition Corp. III, a special purpose acquisition company that valued AEye pre-closing at over US$1.5 billion. The combined company will retain the AEye name.

AEye is the premier provider of intelligent, next generation, adaptive LiDAR for vehicle autonomy, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and robotic vision applications. AEye’s iDAR™ (Intelligent Detection and Ranging) has been independently verified to have significant range, resolution, and speed performance advantages, and is software-configurable to serve multiple markets, including automotive, industrial, and mobility, with the same platform and supply chain.

The DLA Piper team representing AEye was led by partners Jonathan Axelrad, Jeff Selman and John Maselli (all of San Francisco) with assistance from Andrew Ledbetter (Seattle), Sang Kim, Victoria Lee, Jennifer Lee, David Priebe, SeoJung Park and William Hoffman (all of Palo Alto), Michael Fluhr (San Francisco), Ben Gipson (Los Angeles), Paolo Morante (New York), and Danish Hamid (Washington, DC). Associates Sougol Shooshtarian (San Francisco), Nathalie Hoegger and Adyasha Das (both of Palo Alto), Melissa Lucar (Los Angeles), and attorney Eileen Rhein (San Francisco) also assisted.

With more than 1,000 corporate lawyers globally, DLA Piper helps clients execute complex cross-border transactions seamlessly while supporting clients across all stages of development. The firm has been rated number one in global M&A volume for 11 consecutive years, according to Mergermarket. The firm advises on all elements of complex SPAC and other public M&A transactions, including M&A, tax and securities. DLA Piper has advised on more than 30 SPAC transactions, with an aggregate value of over US$20 billion, in the past three years.