As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 20,September 23, 2021.

Registration No. 333-258046          

_________________________

          Shares

PRICE $         A SHARE

Through and including             , 2021 (25 days after the date of this prospectus), all dealers effecting transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This delivery is in addition to a dealer’s obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to an unsold allotment or subscription.

Neither we nor any of the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectuses we have prepared. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. This prospectus is an offer to sell only the shares offered hereby, but only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so.

The information contained in this prospectus is current only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of our common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.

Neither we nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside the United States.

This prospectus includes estimates regarding market and industry data. Unless otherwise indicated, information concerning our industry and the markets in which we operate, including our general expectations, market position, market opportunity and market size, are based on our management’s knowledge and experience in the markets in which we operate, together with currently available information obtained from various sources, including publicly available information, industry reports and publications, surveys, our customers, trade and business organizations and other contacts in the markets in which we operate. Certain information is based on management estimates, which have been derived from third-party sources, as well as data from our internal research, and are based on certain assumptions that we believe to be reasonable.

In presenting this information, we have made certain assumptions that we believe to be reasonable based on such data and other similar sources and on our knowledge of, and our experience to date in, the markets in which we operate. Market and industry data, which is derived in part from management’s estimates and beliefs, are subject to change and may be limited by the availability of raw data, the voluntary nature of the data gathering process and other limitations inherent in any statistical survey of such data. In addition, projections, assumptions and estimates of the future performance of the markets in which we operate and our future performance are necessarily subject to uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by third parties and by us.

We own or have rights to certain trademarks that we use in conjunction with the operations of our business, including IsoPlexis, IsoLight, IsoSpark, IsoCode, CodePlex, IsoSpeak and IsoSpeak.Duomic. Each trademark, trade name or service mark of any other company appearing or incorporated by reference in this prospectus belongs to its holder. Solely for convenience, trademarks and service marks referred to in this prospectus may appear with or without the “®” or “™” symbols, but the inclusion, or not, of such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent possible under applicable law, our rights to these trademarks and service marks. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ trademarks, trade names or service marks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, such other companies.

We have incurred significant net losses since our inception. For the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, we incurred net losses of $13.6 million and $23.3 million, respectively, and for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, we incurred net losses of $10.2 million and $36.1 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $52.4 million and as of June 30, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $88.5 million. We expect that our operating expenses will continue to increase as we develop, enhance and commercialize new products and incur additional operational costs associated with being a public company. Since our inception, we have financed our operations primarily from private placements of our redeemable convertible preferred stock, the incurrence of indebtedness and, to a lesser extent, grant income and revenue derived from sales of our instruments and chip consumables. We have devoted substantially all of our resources to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, conducting development activities, including development and commercialization of our IsoLight and IsoSpark instruments, IsoCode and CodePlex chip consumables, and IsoSpeak software and research and development activities related to advancing and expanding our scientific and technological capabilities, and filing patent applications. We will need to generate significant additional revenue to achieve and sustain profitability, and even if we achieve profitability, we cannot be sure that we will remain profitable for any substantial period of time. We may never be able to generate sufficient revenue to achieve or sustain profitability and our recent and historical growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. If we do not achieve or sustain profitability, it will be more difficult for us to finance our business and accomplish our strategic objectives, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects and cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

At the time of issuance of our unaudited consolidated interim financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2021, we concluded that there was substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for one year from the issuance of such unaudited consolidated interim financial statements. However, we believe that the anticipated net proceeds from this offering will alleviate such substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. As described in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Funding Requirements,” we believe that, based on our current business plan, the anticipated net proceeds for this offering, together with our existing cash, will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2024.

Our success will depend on our ability to grow market penetration in existing markets and our ability to identify new applications for our platform to capture a greater share of the research spend accelerating advanced medicines and additional markets in the future. Our ability to grow our market penetration in existing markets will depend on

If we are unable to drive new customer conversion to our platform, expand adoption of the IsoLight or IsoSpark and our related products in new industries and markets, or increase the usage and value of our workflows to our customers, then our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.

Additionally, as we continue to scale our business and the number of customers accessing our platform grows and our volume of installed platforms increases, we may find that certain of our products, certain customers or certain markets may require a dedicated sales force or sales personnel with different experience than those we currently employ. We may need to increase our capacity for customer service and support, for billing and general process improvements, and expand our internal quality assurance programs. Identifying, recruiting and training additional qualified personnel would require significant time, expense and attention. We may also need to purchase additional equipment, some of which can take several months or more to procure, setup and validate, and increase our personnel levels to meet increased demand. There is no assurance that any of these increases in scale, expansion of personnel, equipment, software and computing capacities or process enhancements will be successfully implemented, or that we will have adequate space, including in our manufacturing facilities, to accommodate such required expansion.

As we commercialize additional products, we will need to incorporate new equipment, implement new technology systems and laboratory processes, and hire new personnel, possibly with supplemental or different qualifications as compared to our current personnel. Failure to manage this growth or transition could result in turnaround time delays, higher product costs, declining product quality, deteriorating customer service and slower responses to competitive challenges. A failure in any one of these areas could make it difficult for us to meet market expectations for our products and could damage our reputation and the prospects for our business.

We completed our first sale of our instruments in June 2018 and have experienced significant revenue growth in recent periods. Revenue increased by 38% to $10.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 as compared to $7.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, and by 103% to $7.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 as compared to $3.7 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020. In addition, we operate in highly competitive markets characterized by rapid technological advances and we expect that our business will have to evolve over time to remain competitive. Our limited operating history, evolving business and rapid growth may make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter and may increase the risk that we will not continue to grow at or near historical rates.

If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those described elsewhere in this “Risk Factors” section, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected. We have encountered in the past, and expect to encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories in new and rapidly changing industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks and difficulties successfully, our results of operations could differ

We face significant competition in the life sciences technology market. We currently compete with many established technology companies in the flow cytometry, cellular analysis and single cell -omics businesses. This includes companies that design, manufacture and market systems, consumables and software for, among other applications, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, single cell analysis and immunology, and/or provide services related to the same. These companies include Becton, Dickinson and Company, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., each of which has products that compete to varying degrees with some but not all of our products.

Some of our current competitors are large publicly-traded companies, or are divisions of large publicly-traded companies, and may enjoy a number of competitive advantages over us, including:

As a result, our competitors and potential competitors may be able to respond more quickly to changes in customer requirements, devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their platforms or instruments than we can or sell their platforms or instruments, or offer services competitive with our platform and services, at prices designed to win significant levels of market share. We may not be able to compete effectively against these organizations.

In addition, competitors may be acquired by, receive investments from or enter into other commercial relationships with larger, well-established and well-financed companies. Certain of our competitors may be able to secure key inputs from vendors on more favorable terms, devote greater resources to marketing and promotional campaigns, adopt more aggressive pricing policies and devote substantially more resources to product development than we can. If we are unable to compete successfully against current and future competitors, we may be unable to increase market adoption and sales of our platform, which could prevent us from increasing our revenue or achieving profitability.

The market for our platform is evolving, making it difficult to predict with any accuracy the size of the markets for our current and future products. We use estimates and forecasts to calculate annual total addressable markets and market growth for our platform and for our technologies under development. These estimates and forecasts are based on a number of complex assumptions, internal and third party estimates and other business data, including assumptions and estimates relating to our ability to generate revenue from the development of new applications and products. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates are reasonable, there are inherent challenges in measuring or forecasting such information. As a result, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct and the conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors. As a result, our estimates of the annual total addressable market and

Products from our research and development programs will take time and considerable resources to develop, and may include improvements or changes to our instruments, chip consumables and software, and we may not be able to complete development and commercialize them on a timely basis, or at all. There can be no assurance that any of our applications and other products in development will produce commercial products and solutions and before we can commercialize any new products or workflows, we will need to expend significant funds in order to:

Our product and workflow development processes involve a high degree of risk, and these efforts may be delayed or fail for many reasons, including:

In addition, if we are unable to generate additional data and insights from our research and development programs, then we may not be able to advance these programs as quickly, or at all, or without significant additional investment, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our product and workflow development efforts.

Even if we are successful in developing new products or workflows, it will require us to make significant additional investments in marketing and selling resources in order to commercialize any such products or workflows. As a result, we may be unsuccessful in commercializing new products or workflows that we develop, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our quarterly and annual operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past and may fluctuate significantly in the future, which makes it difficult for us to predict our future operating results. These fluctuations may occur due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including, but not limited to:

The effect of one of the factors discussed above, or the cumulative effects of a combination of factors discussed above, could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Investors should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.

Our customers include biopharmaceutical companies and academic and research institutions. Many factors, including public policy spending priorities, available resources and product and economic cycles, have a significant effect on the capital spending policies of these entities. Fluctuations in the research and development budgets of our customers could have a significant effect on the demand for our products. Our customers determine their research and development budgets based on several factors, including the need to develop new products, continued availability of governmental and other funding, competition and the general availability of resources. If our customers’ research and development budgets are reduced, the impact could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We may not be able to market, sell or distribute our current products, or future products that we may develop, effectively enough to support our planned growth.

Competition for employees capable of selling expensive instruments and related products within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries is intense. As of June 30, 2021, we employed a commercial team of approximately 170 team members, but we may not be able to retain existing personnel or attract new personnel or be able to maintain, and continue to build, an efficient and effective sales organization, which could negatively impact sales and market acceptance of our products and limit our revenue growth and potential profitability. In addition, the time and cost of establishing and maintaining a specialized sales, marketing and service force for a particular product or service may be difficult to justify in light of the revenue generated or projected.

Our expected future growth will impose significant added responsibilities on members of management, including the need to identify, recruit, maintain and integrate additional employees. Our future financial performance and our ability to increase sales of our existing products, commercialize new products and to compete effectively will depend, in part, on our ability to manage this potential future growth effectively, without compromising quality.

In addition, we utilize twelve distributor relationships to market and sell our products in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific and we intend to leverage our distributor partnerships to expand into additional markets in the future. We exert limited control over these distributors under our agreements with them, and if their sales and marketing efforts for our products in any region are not successful, our business would be materially and adversely affected. Locating, qualifying and engaging distribution partners with local industry experience and knowledge will be necessary in at least the short to mid-term to effectively market and sell our products in certain countries outside the United States. We may not be successful in finding, attracting and retaining distribution partners, or we may not be able to enter into such arrangements on favorable terms. Even if we are successful in identifying distributors, such distributors may engage in sales practices that violate local laws or our internal policies, which could create civil or criminal liability for us. Furthermore, sales practices utilized by any such distribution parties that are locally acceptable may not comply with sales practices standards required under

Further development and commercialization of our current and future products are key elements of our growth strategy. For example, we completed our first sale of our IsoSpark instrument in the first quarter of 2021 and we intend to launch additional new products in the next six to twelve months. The expenses or losses associated with unsuccessful product development or launch activities, our inability to improve the functionality or reliability and robustness of our current products, or lack of market acceptance of our new products could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. This future growth could create strain on our organizational, administrative and operational infrastructure, including laboratory operations, quality control, customer service and sales organization management.

Ensuring high-quality customer service is important for the growth of our business and any failure to maintain such standards of customer service, or a related market perception, could affect our ability to sell products to existing and prospective customers. Additionally, we believe our customer service team has a positive influence on recurring chip consumables revenue. Providing an exceptional customer experience requires significant time and resources from our customer service team. Potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and safety of our customer service organization could reduce or eliminate the organization’s ability to provide an exceptional customer experience. Additionally, the organization’s ability to provide on-site, in-person customer service (including on-site installation of our instruments) has and may continue to be restricted or eliminated due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, failure to scale our customer service organization adequately or impacts on our organization’s ability to provide an exceptional customer experience may adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Customers utilize our service teams and online content for help with a variety of topics, including how to use our products efficiently, how to integrate our products into existing workflows, how to determine which of our other products may be needed for a given experiment and how to resolve technical, analysis and operational issues if and when they arise. As we introduce new products and enhance existing products, we expect utilization of our customer service teams to increase. In particular, the introduction of new or improved products may require additional customer service efforts to ensure customers use such products correctly and efficiently. While we have developed significant resources for remote training, including an extensive library of online videos, we may need to rely more on these resources for future customer training or we may experience increased expenses to enhance our online and remote solutions, particularly due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. If our customers do not adopt these resources, we may be required to increase the staffing of our customer service team, which would increase our costs. Also, as our business scales, we may need to engage third-party customer service providers, which could increase our costs and negatively impact the quality of the customer experience if such third parties are unable to provide service levels equivalent to ours.

The number of our customers has grown significantly and such growth, as well as any future growth, will put additional pressure on our customer service organization. We may be unable to hire qualified personnel quickly enough or to the extent necessary to accommodate increases in demand.

In addition, as we continue to grow our operations and reach a global customer base, we need to be able to provide efficient customer service that meets our customers’ needs globally at scale. In geographies where we sell through distributors, we rely on those distributors to provide customer service. If these third-party distributors do not provide a high-quality customer experience, our business operations and reputation may suffer.

We provide a one-year assurance-type warranty on our instruments. Existing and future warranties place us at the risk of incurring future repair and/or replacement costs. At the time revenue is recognized, we establish an accrual for estimated warranty expenses based on historical data and trends of product reliability and costs of repairing and replacing defective products. We exercise judgment in estimating the expected product warranty costs, using data such as the actual and projected product failure rates, estimated repair costs, freight, material, labor and overhead costs. While we believe that historical experience provides a reliable basis for estimating such warranty cost, unforeseen quality issues or component failure rates as well as significantly higher sales and the introduction of new products could result in future costs in excess of such estimates, or alternatively, improved quality and reliability in our products could result in actual expenses that are below those currently estimated. As of June 30, 2021, we had accrued expenses of $210,000 relating to product warranty accruals. Substantial amounts of warranty claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

On December 30, 2020, we entered into the Credit Agreement, which provides for senior secured financing of up to $50.0 million, consisting of (i) a $25.0 million Tranche A term loan, (ii) a $10.0 million Tranche B term loan and (iii) a $15.0 million Tranche C term loan. The full amount of the Tranche A term loan was drawn on December 30, 2020 and the full amount of the Tranche B term loan was drawn on May 27, 2021. Our ability to draw the Tranche C term loan is subject to several conditions, including that the Administrative Agent shall have received evidence that we achieved total revenue of at least $20.0 million for the twelve-month period then most recently ended. Unless accelerated prior to such date, all amounts outstanding under the Credit Agreement are due to be repaid on December 30, 2025. Until we have repaid such indebtedness, the Credit Agreement subjects us to various customary covenants, including requirements as to minimum liquidity and minimum total revenue and restrictions on our ability to incur indebtedness or guarantees, to subject our assets to any liens, to make investments and loans, to make capital expenditures, to engage in mergers, acquisitions and asset sales, to engage in new lines of business, to declare dividends, make payments or redeem or repurchase equity interests, to enter into agreements limiting restricted subsidiary distributions, to prepay, redeem or purchase certain indebtedness and to engage in certain transactions with affiliates. In particular, the Credit Agreement includes a quarterly minimum total revenue covenant for the applicable trailing twelve month period, which revenue threshold begins at approximately $15.02 million for the twelve months ending June 30, 2021 and increases over time. In June 2021, we obtained from the lenders a waiver of the quarterly minimum total revenue covenant for the twelve months ending June 30, 2021 and a waiver of any event of default resulting from non-compliance with the quarterly minimum total revenue covenant for such test period. There can be no assurance as to our future compliance with the covenants under the Credit Agreement or that our lenders will waive any failure to satisfy such covenants under the Credit Agreement in the future. Our business may be adversely affected by these restrictions on our ability to operate our business.

We may be required to repay the amounts outstanding under the Credit Agreement if an event of default occurs under the Credit Agreement. An event of default will occur if, among other things, we fail to make required payments under the Credit Agreement; we breach any of our covenants under the Credit Agreement, subject to specified cure periods with respect to certain breaches; the Administrative Agent determines that a material adverse change (as defined in the Credit Agreement) has occurred; we or our assets become subject to certain legal proceedings, such as bankruptcy proceedings; we are unable to pay our debts as they become due; or we default on certain material indebtedness which would permit the acceleration of maturity of such indebtedness. We may not have enough available cash or be able to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings to repay such indebtedness at the time any such event of default occurs. In the case where we may not have enough available cash or be able to raise additional funds to repay such indebtedness, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or operations or grant to others rights to develop and market products that we would otherwise prefer to develop and market ourselves. The Administrative Agent could also exercise its rights as secured lender to take possession of and to dispose of the collateral securing the term loans, which collateral

As of the date of this prospectus, we had approximately $35.0 million in aggregate principal amount of outstanding indebtedness, in addition to $15.0 million of unfunded delayed draw term loans available, subject to certain conditions, under the Credit Agreement. Despite our level of indebtedness, we may be able to incur significant additional indebtedness in the future, including in the event we refinance or replace our existing Credit Agreement. Although the Credit Agreement contains restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions. These restrictions also will not prevent us from incurring obligations that do not constitute indebtedness and, if we refinance existing indebtedness, such refinancing indebtedness may contain fewer restrictions on our activities. To the extent new indebtedness is added to our currently anticipated indebtedness levels, the related risks that we face could intensify. While the Credit Agreement also contains restrictions on making certain investments and loans, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions, and the investments and loans incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial.

Our Credit Agreement provides that interest may be indexed to the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”), which is a benchmark rate at which banks offer to lend funds to one another in the international interbank market for short term loans. On July 27, 2017, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, announced its intention to stop persuading or compelling banks to submit LIBOR quotations by the end of 2021. In 2020, ICE Benchmark Administration, which administers LIBOR publication, issued a consultation requesting feedback on its intention to continue publication of overnight and one-, three-, six- and 12-month USD LIBOR rates through June 30, 2023 (the “IBA Announcement”). There were concurrent announcements by the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority, U.S. bank regulators, the Federal Reserve Board and the Alternative Reference Rates Committee supporting the IBA Announcement and, among other things, encouraging banks to stop entering into new LIBOR-based contracts by the end of 2021. On March 5, 2021, ICE Benchmark Administration announced its intention to cease the publication of the one week and two month USD LIBOR rates after December 31, 2021 and the overnight and 12-month USD LIBOR rates after June 30, 2023. We cannot predict the impact of any changes in the methods by which LIBOR is determined or any regulatory activity related to a potential phase out of LIBOR on our Credit Agreement and interest rates. While our Credit Agreement provides for the use of an alternative rate to LIBOR in the event LIBOR is phased out, uncertainty remains as to any such replacement rate and any such replacement rate may be higher or lower than LIBOR may have been. At this time, no consensus exists as to what rate or rates will become accepted alternatives to LIBOR, although The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, is considering replacing LIBOR with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”), a newly created index, calculated with a broad set of short-term repurchase agreements backed by treasury securities. It is not possible to predict the effect of these changes, other reforms or the establishment of alternative reference rates in the United States or elsewhere. The establishment of alternative reference rates or implementation of any other potential changes may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Our future success depends upon our ability to recruit, train, retain and motivate key personnel. Our senior management team, including Sean Mackay, one of our co-founders and our Chief Executive Officer; John Strahley, our Chief Financial Officer; Jing Zhou, our Chief Scientific Officer; and Peter Siesel, our Chief Commercial Officer, is critical to our vision, strategic direction, product development and commercialization efforts. The departure of one or more of our executive officers, senior management team members, or other key employees could be disruptive to

Our continued growth depends, in part, on attracting, retaining and motivating qualified personnel, including highly-trained sales personnel with the necessary scientific background and ability to understand our platform at a technical level to effectively identify and sell to potential new customers. New hires require significant training and, in most cases, take significant time before they achieve full productivity. Our failure to successfully integrate these key personnel into our business could adversely affect our business. In addition, competition for qualified personnel in our industry is intense. We compete for qualified scientific and information technology personnel with other life science and information technology companies as well as academic institutions and research institutions. Some of our scientific personnel are qualified foreign nationals whose ability to live and work in the United States is contingent upon the continued availability of appropriate visas. As a result, changes to United States immigration policies could restrain the flow of technical and professional talent into the United States and may inhibit our ability to hire qualified personnel. The current United States rules, regulations, policies and mandates restricting immigration and reforming the work visa process may adversely affect our ability to retain and maintain qualified personnel.

We do not maintain fixed term employment contracts with any of our employees. As a result, our employees could leave our company with little or no prior notice and may be free to work for a competitor. Due to the complex and technical nature of our products and technology and the dynamic market in which we compete, any failure to attract, train, retain and motivate qualified personnel could materially harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

We depend on information technology and telecommunications systems for significant elements of our operations, including our laboratory information management system, our quality management system, our sales management system, and product lifecycle management system. We have installed, and expect to expand, a number of enterprise software systems that affect a broad range of business processes and functional areas, including for example, systems handling human resources, financial controls and reporting, contract management, regulatory compliance and other infrastructure operations. These information technology and telecommunications systems support a variety of functions, including manufacturing operations, laboratory operations, data analysis, quality control, customer service and support, billing, research and development activities, scientific and general administrative activities.

Information technology and telecommunications systems are vulnerable to damage from a variety of sources, including telecommunications or network failures, malicious software, bugs or viruses, human acts and natural disasters. Moreover, despite network security and back-up measures, some of our servers are potentially vulnerable to physical or electronic break-ins, computer viruses and similar disruptive problems. Any disruption or loss of information technology or telecommunications systems on which critical aspects of our operations depend could have an adverse effect on our business and our reputation, and we may be unable to regain or repair our reputation in the future.

We believe our platform has potential applications across a wide range of markets and we have targeted certain markets in which we believe our technology has significant advantages, or for which we believe we have a higher probability of success or revenue opportunity or for which the path to realizing or achieving revenue is shorter. For example, our initial focus has been on developing applications for cancer immunology and cell and gene therapy but we are expanding our capabilities to include applications for infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions and neurological disorders. We seek to maintain a process of prioritization and resource allocation to maintain a balance between advancing near-term opportunities and exploring additional markets for our technology. However, due to

We currently sell our products in several international markets, including in Australia, Canada, China, Italy, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and Switzerland, and we intend to expand into additional international markets. We currently maintain relationships with distributors outside of the United States and may in the future enter into new distributor relationships. Doing business internationally involves a number of risks, including:

Any of these factors could significantly harm our current operations and potential future international expansion and consequently, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, certain international markets are subject to significant political and economic uncertainty, including for example the effect of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Significant political and economic developments in international markets for which we operate or intend to operate, or the perception that any of them could occur, creates further challenges for operating in these markets in addition to creating instability in global economic conditions.

Our instruments, chip consumables and services utilize novel and complex technology and may develop or contain undetected defects or errors. We cannot assure you that material performance problems, defects, or errors will not arise, including as we commercialize additional products. We provide warranties that our instruments will meet performance expectations and will be free from defects. The costs incurred in correcting any defects or errors may be substantial and could adversely affect our operating margins.

In manufacturing our products, we depend upon third parties for the supply of various components, many of which require a significant degree of technical expertise to produce. If our suppliers fail to produce our components to specification or provide defective products to us and our quality control tests and procedures fail to detect such errors or defects, or if we or our suppliers use defective materials or workmanship in the manufacturing process, the reliability and performance of our products will be compromised.

If our products contain defects, we may experience:

The marketing, sale and use of our products could lead to the filing of product liability claims were someone to allege that our products identified inaccurate or incomplete information regarding the cells analyzed or otherwise failed to perform as designed. We may also be subject to liability for errors in, a misunderstanding of or inappropriate reliance upon, the information we provide in the ordinary course of our business activities. If we cannot successfully defend ourselves against product liability claims, we could incur substantial liabilities and reputational harm. In addition, regardless of the merit or eventual outcome, product liability claims may result in:

We maintain product liability insurance that we believe is adequate, but this insurance is subject to deductibles and coverage limitations. Our current product liability insurance may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all, and, if available, coverage may not fully protect us from the financial impact of defending against product liability claims. Any product liability claim brought against us, with or without merit, could increase our insurance rates or prevent us from securing insurance coverage in the future. A product liability lawsuit, recall or other claim with respect to uninsured liabilities or for amounts in excess of insured liabilities could impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We do not carry insurance for all categories of risk that our business may encounter and our policies have limits and significant deductibles. Some of the policies we currently maintain include general liability, property, umbrella and directors’ and officers’ insurance.

Any additional product liability insurance coverage we acquire in the future may not be sufficient to reimburse us for any expenses or losses we may suffer. Moreover, insurance coverage is becoming increasingly expensive and in the future we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses. A successful product liability claim or series of claims in which judgments exceed our insurance coverage could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, including preventing or limiting the commercialization of any products we develop.

We also expect that operating as a public company will make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified people to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as executive officers. We do not know, however, if we will be able to maintain existing insurance with adequate levels of coverage. Any significant uninsured liability may require us to pay substantial amounts, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In any event, we may consider raising additional capital in the future to expand our business, to pursue strategic investments, to take advantage of financing opportunities or for other reasons, including to:

Our present and future funding requirements will depend on many factors, including:

The various ways we could raise additional capital carry potential risks. If we raise funds by issuing equity securities, dilution to our stockholders could result. Any preferred equity securities issued also could provide for rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock. If we raise funds by borrowing debt, such debt would have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our common stock. The terms of such debt could impose significant restrictions on our operations. If we raise funds through collaborations or licensing arrangements, we might be required to relinquish significant rights to our platform technologies or products or grant licenses on terms that are not favorable to us or commit to future payment streams. Market volatility resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors may further adversely impact our ability to raise capital as and when needed.

If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, if we require it, our ability to continue to pursue our business objectives and to respond to business opportunities, challenges, or unforeseen circumstances could be significantly limited, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We are subject to taxes in the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions. Due to economic and political conditions, tax rates in various jurisdictions, including the United States, may be subject to change. Our future effective tax rates could be affected by changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and changes in tax laws or their interpretation. In addition, we may be subject to income tax audits by various tax jurisdictions. Although we believe our income tax liabilities are reasonably estimated and accounted for in accordance with applicable laws and principles, an adverse resolution by one or more taxing authorities could have a material impact on the results of our operations.

International tariffs, including tariffs applied to goods traded between the United States and China, may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Since the beginning of 2018, there has been increasing rhetoric, in some cases coupled with legislative or executive action, from several U.S. and foreign

While the potential economic impact brought by, and the duration of, the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to assess or predict, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in, and may continue to result in, extreme volatility and disruptions in the capital and credit markets, reducing our ability to raise additional capital through equity, equity-linked or debt financings, which could negatively impact our short-term and long-term liquidity and our ability to operate in accordance with our operating plan, or at all. Additionally, our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and financial markets. If the operations of our suppliers are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we may not be able to source the necessary components and materials to build our products in sufficient quantities to meet demand. If the operations of our customers are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including shutdowns of laboratories and delayed spending on instruments or chip consumables, we may not be able to sell our products or provide on-site, in-person customer service. A severe or prolonged economic downturn could result in a variety of risks to our business, including weakened demand for our products and our ability to raise additional capital when needed on favorable terms, if at all. A weak or declining economy could strain our customers’ budgets or cause delays in their payments to us. Any of the foregoing could harm our business, and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the current economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our ability to raise capital, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

If there is a disruption to our manufacturing operations, whether from COVID-19 or some other disruptions, we will have no other means of producing our products until we restore our facility or develop alternative manufacturing facilities. Additionally, any damage to or destruction of our facility or equipment may significantly impair our ability to manufacture our products on a timely basis.

If we are unable to produce our products in sufficient quantities to meet anticipated customer demand, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects would be harmed. The lack of experience we have in producing commercial quantities of our products may also result in quality issues, and could result in product defects or errors or recalls.

We work with materials, including chemicals, biological agents and compounds that could be hazardous to human health and safety or the environment. Our operations also produce hazardous and biological waste products. Federal, state and local laws and regulations govern the use, generation, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of these materials and wastes. We are subject to periodic inspections by federal, state and local authorities to ensure

In addition, we cannot eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from these materials or wastes, which could cause an interruption of our commercialization efforts, research and development programs and business operations, as well as environmental damage resulting in costly clean-up and liabilities under applicable laws and regulations. In the event of contamination or injury, we could be liable for damages or penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources and our operations could be suspended or otherwise adversely affected. Furthermore, environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent. We cannot predict the impact of such changes and cannot be certain of our future compliance.

Our products contain several critical components, including lasers, circuit boards, antibodies and reagents. Some of the suppliers of critical components or materials are single source suppliers. Although we believe there are suitable alternative suppliers for these components, the replacement of existing suppliers or the identification and qualification of suitable second sources may require significant time, effort and expense, and could result in delays in production, which could negatively impact our business operations and revenue. We do not have supply agreements with certain suppliers of these critical components and materials beyond purchase orders and, although we maintain a safety stock inventory at our facilities in Branford, Connecticut for certain critical components, forecasted amounts may be inaccurate and we may experience shortages as a result of serious supply problems with these suppliers. There can be no assurance that our supply of components will not be limited, interrupted, or of satisfactory quality or continue to be available at acceptable prices. In addition, loss of any critical component provided by a single source supplier could require us to change the design of our manufacturing process based on the functions, limitations, features and specifications of the replacement components.

In addition, several other non-critical components and materials that comprise our products are currently manufactured by a single supplier or a limited number of suppliers. In certain of these cases, we have not yet qualified alternate suppliers. A supply interruption or an increase in demand beyond our current suppliers’ capabilities could harm our ability to manufacture our products unless and until new sources of supply are identified and qualified. Our reliance on these suppliers subjects us to a number of risks that could harm our business, including:

Any interruption in the supply of components or materials, or our inability to obtain substitute components or materials from alternate sources at acceptable prices in a timely manner, could impair our ability to meet the demand of our customers, which would have an adverse effect on our business.

We keep limited materials, components and finished products on hand. To manage our operations with our third party suppliers, we forecast anticipated product orders and material requirements to predict our inventory needs and enter into purchase orders on the basis of these requirements. Several components of our products require an order lead time of 3 months to 6 months. Our limited historical commercial experience and rapid growth may not provide us with enough data to consistently and accurately predict future demand. If our business expands and our demand for components and materials increase beyond our estimates, our suppliers may be unable to meet our demand. In addition, if we underestimate our component and material requirements, we may have inadequate inventory, which could interrupt, delay, or prevent delivery of our products to our customers. By contrast, if we overestimate our component and material requirements, we may have excess inventory, which would increase our expenses. Any of these occurrences would negatively affect our financial performance and business results.

We currently rely on third party vendors for our shipping. If we are not able to negotiate acceptable pricing and other terms with these entities or they experience performance problems or other difficulties, it could negatively impact our operating results and our customers’ experience. In the past, some of our products have sustained serious damage in transit and were not repairable. Although we have taken steps to improve our shipping procedures, there is no guarantee our products will not become damaged or lost in transit in the future. If a product is damaged in transit, it may result in a substantial delay in the fulfillment of the customer’s order, and depending on the type and extent of the damage and whether the incident is covered by insurance, it may result in a substantial financial loss. If our products are not delivered in a timely fashion or are damaged or lost during the delivery process, our customers could become dissatisfied and cease using our products or services, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We do not have redundant facilities for the final assembly of our products. Our facilities and equipment would be costly to replace and could require substantial lead-time to repair or replace. Our facilities may be harmed or rendered inoperable by natural or man-made disasters, including, but not limited to, tornadoes, flooding, fire and power outages. Such disasters may render it difficult or impossible to manufacture our products and conduct our research and development activities for new products. The inability to perform those activities, combined with our limited materials, components and finished products, may result in the inability to continue manufacturing or supplying our products during such periods and the loss of customers or harm to our reputation. Although we

We are party to numerous contracts in the normal course of our business, including our supply and distribution agreements. In the aggregate, these contractual relationships are necessary for us to operate our business. From time to time, we amend, terminate or negotiate our contracts. We may also periodically be subject to, or make claims of breach of contract, or threaten legal action relating to our contracts. These actions may result in litigation. At any one time, we have a number of negotiations under way for new or amended commercial agreements. We devote substantial time, effort and expense to the administration and negotiation of contracts involved in our business. However, these contracts may not continue in effect past their current term or we may not be able to negotiate satisfactory contracts in the future with current or new business partners, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We make our platform, which includes our instruments, chip consumables and software, available to customers as research-use-only (“RUO”) products. While products which are marketed and sold for RUO are not generally subject to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”), regulatory requirements related to marketing, selling, and distribution of RUO products could change or be uncertain. Additionally, even if our products are labeled, promoted, and intended as RUO, the FDA or comparable agencies of other countries could disagree with our conclusion that our products are intended for research use only or deem our sales, marketing and promotional efforts as being inconsistent with RUO products. If the FDA or other regulatory authorities assert that any of our RUO products are subject to regulatory clearance or approval, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.

In the event that we decide in the future to develop medical device products or modify our existing products in a manner intended for clinical or diagnostic uses, or if our existing platform were ever to be deemed a medical device by the FDA, we would be required in the United States to either receive clearance under Section 510(k) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act or approval of a premarket approval application from the FDA, unless an exemption applies, prior to marketing any such product. The process of obtaining approval or clearance from the FDA for new products, or with respect to enhancements or modifications to existing products, could take a significant period of time, require the expenditure of substantial resources, involve rigorous preclinical and clinical testing, require changes to products or result in limitations on the indicated uses of products. There can be no assurance that we would receive the required approvals or clearances for any new products or for modifications to our existing products on a timely basis or that any approval or clearance would not be subsequently withdrawn or conditioned upon extensive post-market study requirements. Moreover, even if we were to receive FDA clearance or approval of new products or modifications to existing products, we would be required to comply with extensive regulations relating to the development, research, clearance, approval, distribution, marketing, advertising and promotion, manufacture, adverse event reporting, recordkeeping, import and export of such products, which could substantially increase our operating costs and have a material impact on our business, profits and results of operations. Failure to comply with applicable regulations could jeopardize our ability to sell our products and result in enforcement actions such as warning letters, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, termination of distribution, recalls or seizures of products, delays in the introduction of products into the market, total or partial suspension of production, refusal to grant future clearances or approvals, withdrawals or suspensions of current approvals, resulting in prohibitions on sales of our products, and in the most serious cases, criminal penalties. Occurrence of any of the foregoing could harm our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We are exposed to the risk of fraud or other misconduct by our employees, consultants, distributors and commercial partners. Misconduct by these parties could include intentional failures to comply with the applicable laws and regulations in the United States and abroad, report financial information or data accurately or disclose unauthorized activities to us. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting and other business arrangements. Such misconduct could result in legal or regulatory sanctions and cause serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and any other precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses, or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to comply with these laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, and we are not successful in defending ourselves or asserting our rights, those actions could result in the imposition of significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, which could have a significant impact on our business. Whether or not we are successful in defending against such actions or investigations, we could incur substantial costs, including legal fees and divert the attention of management in defending ourselves against any of these claims or investigations.

Even though we do not order healthcare services or bill directly to Medicare, Medicaid, or other third‑party payors, certain federal and state healthcare laws and regulations pertaining to fraud and abuse may be applicable to our business. We could be subject to healthcare fraud and abuse laws of both the federal government and the states in which we conduct our business. Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of available statutory and regulatory exceptions, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. If we or our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including administrative, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could materially adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.

We rely on patent protection as well as trademark, copyright, trade secret and other intellectual property rights protection and contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary products and technologies, all of which provide limited protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. If we fail to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property, third parties may be able to compete more effectively against us. In addition, we may incur substantial litigation costs in our attempts to recover or restrict use of our intellectual property.

To the extent our intellectual property offers inadequate protection, or is found to be invalid or unenforceable, we would be exposed to a greater risk of direct competition. If our intellectual property does not provide adequate coverage of our products, our competitive position could be adversely affected, as could our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Both the patent application process and the process of managing patent and other intellectual property disputes can be time-consuming and expensive.

Our success depends in large part on our and our licensors’ ability to obtain and maintain protection of the intellectual property we may own solely and jointly with, or license from, third parties, particularly patents, in the United States and other countries with respect to our products and technologies. We apply for patents covering our products and technologies and uses thereof, as we deem appropriate. However, obtaining and enforcing patents is costly, time-consuming and complex, and we may fail to apply for patents on important products and technologies in

In addition, the patent position of life sciences technology companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions, and has been the subject of much litigation in recent years. Changes in either the patent laws or in interpretations of patent laws in the United States or other countries or regions may diminish the value of our intellectual property. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability, and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. It is possible that none of our pending patent applications will result in issued patents in a timely fashion or at all, and even if patents are granted, they may not provide a basis for intellectual property protection of commercially viable products or services, may not provide us with any competitive advantages, or may be challenged, narrowed and invalidated by third parties. We cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be allowed or enforced in our patents or in third-party patents. It is possible that third parties will design around our current or future patents such that we cannot prevent such third parties from using similar technologies and commercializing similar products to compete with us. Some of our owned or licensed patents or patent applications may be challenged at a future point in time and we may not be successful in defending any such challenges made against our patents or patent applications. Any successful third-party challenge to our patents could result in the narrowing, unenforceability or invalidity of such patents and increased competition to our business. The outcome of patent litigation or other proceeding can be uncertain, and any attempt by us to enforce our patent rights against others or to challenge the patent rights of others may not be successful, or, regardless of success, may take substantial time and result in substantial cost, and may divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business. Any of the foregoing events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Further, while software and other of our proprietary works may be protected under copyright law, we have chosen not to register any copyrights in these works, and instead, we primarily rely on protecting our software as a trade secret. In order to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States, the copyright must be registered. Accordingly, the remedies and damages available to us for unauthorized use of our software may be limited.

Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States or in other jurisdictions could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. For instance, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the America Invents Act, enacted in September 2011, the United States transitioned to a first inventor to file system in which, assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application is entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether a third party was the first to invent the claimed invention. Since patent

In addition, the America Invents Act implemented changes that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted, redefine prior art and provide more efficient and cost-effective avenues for competitors or other third parties to challenge the validity of our patents. These changes include allowing third-party submission of prior art to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) during patent prosecution and additional procedures to challenge the validity of a patent by USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes review and derivation proceedings. Further, because of a lower evidentiary standard in these USPTO post-grant proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action. The America Invents Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have rendered decisions that impact the scope of patentability of certain inventions or discoveries relating to the life sciences technology. Specifically, these decisions stand for the proposition that patent claims that recite laws of nature are not themselves patentable unless those patent claims have sufficient additional features that provide practical assurance that the processes are genuine inventive applications of those laws rather than patent drafting efforts designed to monopolize the law of nature itself. What constitutes a “sufficient” additional feature is uncertain. Furthermore, in view of these decisions, since December 2014, the USPTO has published and continues to publish revised guidelines for patent examiners to apply when examining process claims for patent eligibility.

In addition, U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on decisions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that may have a material adverse effect on our ability to obtain new patents and to defend and enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future.

We cannot assure you that our patent portfolio will not be negatively impacted by the current uncertain state of the law, new court rulings or changes in guidance or procedures issued by the USPTO or other similar patent offices around the world. From time to time, the U.S. Supreme Court, other federal courts, the U.S. Congress or the USPTO may change the standards of patentability, scope and validity of patents within the life sciences technology and any such changes, or any similar adverse changes in the patent laws of other jurisdictions, could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations.

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on our products and technologies in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States.

The laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and we and our licensors may encounter difficulties in protecting and defending such rights in foreign jurisdictions. Consequently, we and our licensors may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of many other countries do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the misappropriation or other violations of our intellectual property rights including infringement of our patents in such countries. The legal systems in certain countries may also favor state-sponsored or companies headquartered in particular jurisdictions over our first-in-time patents and other intellectual property protection. The absence of harmonized intellectual property protection laws and effective enforcement makes it difficult to ensure consistent respect for patent, trade secret, and other intellectual property rights on a worldwide basis. As a result, it is possible that we will not be able to enforce our rights against third parties that misappropriate our proprietary technology in those countries.

Proceedings to enforce our or our licensors’ patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial cost and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our and our licensors’ patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our and our licensors’ patent applications at risk of not issuing, and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We and our licensors may not prevail in any lawsuits that we or any of our licensors initiate, or that are initiated against us or any of our licensors, and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. In addition, changes in the law and legal decisions by courts in the United States and foreign countries may affect our ability to obtain adequate protection for our products, services and other technologies and the enforcement of intellectual property. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license. Any of the foregoing events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our owned and licensed patents and patent applications may be subject to validity, enforceability and priority disputes. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability. Some of our patents or patent applications (including licensed patents and patent applications) may be challenged at a future point in time in opposition, derivation, reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review or interference or other similar proceedings. Any successful third-party challenge to our or our licensors’ patents in this or any other proceeding could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents, which may lead to increased competition to our business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. In addition, if we or our licensors initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering our products, the defendant could counterclaim that such patent covering our products, as applicable, is invalid and/or unenforceable. In patent litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity or unenforceability are commonplace. There are numerous grounds upon which a third party can assert invalidity or unenforceability of a patent. Grounds for a validity challenge could be an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness or non-enablement. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could be an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the relevant patent office, or made a misleading statement, during prosecution. A litigant or the USPTO itself could challenge our patents on this basis even if we believe that we have conducted our patent prosecution in accordance with the duty of candor and in good faith. The outcome following such a challenge is unpredictable. Third parties may also raise similar claims before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad, even outside the context of litigation. Such mechanisms include ex parte re-examination, inter partes review,

We may not be aware of all third-party intellectual property rights potentially relating to our products. Publications of discoveries in the scientific literature often lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until approximately 18 months after filing or, in some cases, not until such patent applications issue as patents. We might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by each of our pending patent applications and we might not have been the first to file patent applications for these inventions. To determine the priority of these inventions, we may have to participate in interference proceedings, derivation proceedings or other post-grant proceedings declared by the USPTO, or other similar proceedings in non-U.S. jurisdictions, that could result in substantial cost to us and the loss of valuable patent protection. The outcome of such proceedings is uncertain. No assurance can be given that other patent applications will not have priority over our patent applications. In addition, changes to the patent laws of the United States allow for various post-grant opposition proceedings that have not been extensively tested, and their outcome is therefore uncertain. Furthermore, if third parties bring these proceedings against our patents, regardless of the merit of such proceedings and regardless of whether we are successful, we could experience significant costs and our management may be distracted. Any of the foregoing events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We rely heavily on trade secrets and confidentiality agreements to protect our unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary information and to maintain our competitive position. Certain elements of our products and technologies, including components of our software and processes for manufacturing, may involve proprietary know-how, information or technology that is not covered by patents. As such, we may consider trade secrets and know-how to be our primary intellectual property with respect to such aspects of our products and technologies. However, trade secrets and know-how can be difficult to protect. In particular, we anticipate that with respect to our technologies, these trade secrets and know how will over time be disseminated within the industry through independent development, the publication of journal articles describing the methodology, and the movement of personnel from academic to industry scientific positions.

In addition to pursuing patents on our technology, we take steps to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology by entering into agreements, including confidentiality agreements, non-disclosure agreements and intellectual property assignment agreements, with our employees, consultants, academic institutions, corporate partners and, when needed, our advisers. However, we cannot be certain that such agreements have been entered into with all relevant parties that may have or have had access to our trade secrets or proprietary technology and processes, and we cannot be certain that our trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information will not be disclosed or that competitors or other third parties will not otherwise gain access (such as through cybersecurity breach) to our trade secrets or independently develop substantially equivalent information and techniques. For example, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information, including our trade secrets, and we may not be able to obtain adequate remedies for such breaches. Such agreements may not be enforceable or may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or other proprietary information in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure or other breaches of the agreements, and we may not be able to prevent such unauthorized disclosure, which could adversely impact our ability to establish or maintain a competitive advantage

Monitoring unauthorized disclosure is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to prevent such disclosure are, or will be, adequate. If we were to enforce a claim that a third party had wrongfully obtained and was using our trade secrets, it would be expensive and time-consuming, it could distract our personnel, and the outcome would be unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the United States may be less willing to protect trade secrets, if at all, and the damages and other remedies available for improper disclosure of proprietary information can differ substantially from those in the United States. We may need to share our proprietary information, including trade secrets, with future business partners, collaborators, contractors and other third parties located in countries with a heightened risk of theft of trade secrets, including through direct intrusion by private parties or foreign actors, and those affiliated with or controlled by state actors.

We also seek to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our confidential proprietary information by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical and electronic security of our information technology systems, but it is possible that these security measures could be breached and we may not have adequate remedies for such breach. If any of our confidential proprietary information were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, absent patent protection, we would have no right to prevent such competitor from using that technology or information to compete with us, which could harm our competitive position. Competitors or third parties could purchase our products and attempt to replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts, design around our protected technology, develop their own competitive technologies that fall outside the scope of our intellectual property rights or independently develop our technologies without reference to our trade secrets. If any of our trade secrets were to be disclosed to or independently discovered by a competitor or other third party, it could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We have employed and expect to employ individuals who were previously employed at universities or other companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants, advisors and independent contractors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that our employees, advisors, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers or other third parties, or to claims that we have improperly used or obtained such trade secrets. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel and face increased competition to our business. Any such litigation or the threat thereof may adversely affect our ability to hire employees or contract with advisors, contractors and consultants. A loss of key research personnel work product could hamper or prevent our ability to commercialize potential products, which could harm our business. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management. This type of litigation or proceeding could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce our resources available for development activities. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of this type of litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their substantially greater financial resources.

Furthermore, we or our licensors may in the future be subject to claims by former employees, consultants or other third parties asserting an ownership right in our owned or licensed patents or patent applications as an inventor or co-inventor. The failure to name the proper inventors on a patent application can result in the patents issuing thereon being unenforceable. Inventorship disputes may arise from conflicting views regarding the contributions of different individuals named as inventors, the effects of foreign laws where foreign nationals are involved in the development of the subject matter of the patent, conflicting obligations of third parties involved in developing our products or as a result of questions regarding co-ownership of potential joint inventions. Litigation may be necessary

In addition, while it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing, or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property. Furthermore, individuals executing agreements with us may have pre-existing or competing obligations to a third party, such as an academic institution, and thus an agreement with us may be ineffective in perfecting ownership of inventions developed by that individual, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

The registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names that we own may be challenged, infringed, circumvented, declared generic, lapsed or determined to be infringing on or dilutive of other marks. We may not be able to protect our rights in these trademarks and trade names, which we need in order to build name recognition. In addition, third parties have filed, and may in the future file, for registration of trademarks similar or identical to our trademarks, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. If they succeed in registering or developing common law rights in such trademark or any other trademarks that are similar or identical to our trademarks, and if we are not successful in challenging such rights and defending against challenges to our trademarks, we may not be able to use such trademarks to develop brand recognition of our technologies, products or services. In addition, there could be potential trade name or trademark infringement claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names. Further, we may in the future enter into agreements with owners of such third party trade names or trademarks to avoid potential trademark litigation which may limit our ability to use our trade names or trademarks in certain fields of business. We may also license our trademarks and trade names to third parties, such as distributors. Though these license agreements may provide guidelines for how our trademarks and trade names may be used, a breach of these agreements or misuse of our trademarks and trade names by our licensees may jeopardize our rights in or diminish the goodwill associated with our trademarks and trade names. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks and trade names, then we may not be able to compete effectively, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to trademarks, trade secrets, domain names, copyrights or other intellectual property may be ineffective and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources. Any of the foregoing events could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from its earliest U.S. non-provisional filing date. While extensions may be available, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. In the United States, a patent’s term may, in

Our commercial success depends in part on our ability and the ability of future collaborators to develop, manufacture, market and sell our products and use our products and technologies without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation involving patents and other intellectual property rights in the life sciences technology sector, as well as administrative proceedings for challenging patents, including interference, derivation, inter partes review, post grant review, and reexamination proceedings before the USPTO, or oppositions and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. We may be exposed to, or threatened with, future litigation by third parties having patent or other intellectual property rights alleging that our products, manufacturing methods, software and/or technologies infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate their intellectual property rights.

Numerous issued patents and pending patent applications that are owned by third parties exist in the fields in which we are developing our products and technologies. It is not always clear to industry participants, including us, the claim scope that may issue from pending patent applications owned by third parties or which patents cover various types of products, technologies or their methods of use or manufacture. Thus, because of the large number of patents issued and patent applications filed in our fields, it is difficult to conclusively assess our freedom to operate without infringing on third party rights and there may be a risk that third parties, including our competitors, may allege they have patent rights encompassing our products, technologies or methods and that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. We cannot guarantee that any of our patent searches or analyses, including the identification of relevant patents, the scope of patent claims or the expiration of relevant patents, are complete or thorough, nor can we be certain that we have identified each and every third-party patent and pending application in the United States and abroad that is relevant to or necessary for the commercialization of our products in any jurisdiction. The scope of a patent claim is determined by an interpretation of the law, the written disclosure in a patent and the patent’s prosecution history. Our interpretation of the relevance or the scope of a patent or a pending application may be incorrect. For example, we may incorrectly determine that our products are not covered by a third-party patent or may incorrectly predict whether a third-party’s pending application will issue with claims of relevant scope. Our determination of the expiration date of any patent in the United States or abroad that we consider relevant may be incorrect. Our failure to identify and correctly interpret relevant patents may negatively impact our ability to develop and market our products.

If third parties, including our competitors, believe that our products or technologies infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate their intellectual property, such third parties may seek to enforce their intellectual property, including patents, by filing an intellectual property-related lawsuit, including patent infringement lawsuit, against us. Even if we believe third-party intellectual property claims are without merit, there is no assurance that a court would find in our favor on questions of infringement, validity, enforceability, or priority. The patents and patent applications such third parties seek to enforce could be construed to cover our products and technologies. If any of these third parties were to assert these patents against us and we are unable to successfully defend against any such assertion, we may be required, including by court order, to cease the development and commercialization of the infringing products or technology and we may be required to redesign such products and technologies so they do not infringe such patents, which may not be possible or may require substantial monetary expenditures and time. We could also be required to pay damages, which could be significant, including treble damages and attorneys’ fees if

We may choose to challenge, including in connection with any allegation of patent infringement by a third party, the patentability, validity or enforceability of any third-party patent that we believe may have applicability in our field, and any other third-party patent that may be asserted against us. Such challenges may be brought either in court or by requesting that the USPTO, European Patent Office (EPO), or other foreign patent offices review the patent claims, such as in an ex-parte reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review proceeding or opposition proceeding. However, there can be no assurance that any such challenge by us or any third party will be successful. Even if such proceedings are successful, these proceedings are expensive and may consume our time or other resources, distract our management and technical personnel. There can be no assurance that our defenses of non-infringement, invalidity or unenforceability will succeed.

Third parties, including our competitors, could be infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating our owned and in-licensed intellectual property rights. Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly. We may not be able to detect unauthorized use of, or take appropriate steps to enforce, our intellectual property rights. From time to time, we seek to analyze our competitors’ products and services, and may in the future seek to enforce our rights against potential infringement, misappropriation or violation of our intellectual property. However, the steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property rights may not be adequate to enforce our rights as against such infringement, misappropriation or violation of our intellectual property. Any inability to meaningfully enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our ability to compete and reduce demand for our products and technologies.

Litigation proceedings may be necessary for us to enforce our patent and other intellectual property rights. In any such proceedings, a court may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our owned and in-licensed patents do not cover the technology in question. Further, in such proceedings, the defendant could counterclaim that our intellectual property is invalid or unenforceable and the court may agree, in which case we could lose valuable intellectual property rights, which could allow third parties to commercialize technology or products similar to ours and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or could require us to obtain license rights from the prevailing party in order to be able to manufacture or commercialize our products without infringing such party’s intellectual property rights, and if we are unable to obtain such a license, we may be required to cease commercialization of our products and technologies, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The outcome in any such proceedings are unpredictable.

Regardless of whether we are defending against or asserting any intellectual property-related proceeding, any such intellectual property-related proceeding that may be necessary in the future, regardless of outcome, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions, or other interim proceedings or developments, and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Some of our competitors and other third parties may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings

Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various governmental patent agencies outside of the United States at several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications. The USPTO and various non-U.S. governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar provisions during the patent application process. In certain circumstances, we rely on our licensors to pay these fees due to the U.S. and non-U.S. patent agencies and to take the necessary action to comply with these requirements with respect to our licensed intellectual property. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse, including due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on us, our licensors or our and our licensors’ patent maintenance vendors, can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Non-compliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees and failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents. In such an event, our competitors and other third parties may be able to enter the market without infringing our patents, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We are, and may in the future become, a party to license agreements that grant us rights to use certain intellectual property, including patents and patent applications, typically in certain specified fields of use. Currently, we rely on an in-license from certain third parties with respect to certain patent rights relating to multiplexed detection and high throughput single cell polyomics, certain patent rights relating to methods and compositions for quantifying metabolites and certain patent rights relating to the detection of target molecules. We may in the future rely on licenses from other third parties with respect to our technology. Our rights to use licensed technology in our business are subject to the continuation of and compliance with the terms of these licenses and any licenses we may enter into in the future. Some of these licensed rights provide us with freedom to operate for aspects of our products and technologies. As a result, any termination of these licenses could result in the loss of significant rights and could harm our ability to develop, manufacture and commercialize our products. We may need to obtain additional licenses from others to advance our research, development and commercialization activities. For instance, to the extent any additional intellectual property developed by our licensors is not included under our existing license agreements are necessary or useful for our products, we would need to negotiate for additional licenses to such additional intellectual property. Such licenses may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or may be non-exclusive.

Our success may depend in part on the ability of our licensors and any future licensors to obtain, maintain and enforce patent protection for our licensed intellectual property. Under our current license agreements and under any licenses we may enter into in the future, we may not have the right to control the prosecution, maintenance or enforcement of patents and patent applications that are licensed to us. Our licensors or any future licensors may not successfully prosecute the patent applications we license or prosecute such patent applications in our best interest. Even if patents issue in respect of these patent applications, our licensors and any future licensors may fail to maintain these patents, may determine not to pursue litigation against other companies that are infringing these

Certain of our current license agreements impose, and future agreements may impose, various diligence, commercialization, milestone payment, royalty, insurance and other obligations on us and require us to meet development timelines, or to exercise commercially reasonable efforts to develop and commercialize licensed products, in order to maintain the licenses. If we fail to comply with these obligations (including as a result of COVID-19 impacting our operations), we use the licensed intellectual property in an unauthorized manner or we are subject to bankruptcy-related proceedings, the terms of these license agreements may be materially modified, such as by rendering currently exclusive licenses non-exclusive, or by giving our licensors the right to terminate their respective agreement with us, in which event we would not be able to develop or market products or technology covered by the licensed intellectual property. With respect to any license agreement under which we are a sublicensee, if our current or future sublicensor fails to comply with its obligations under its upstream license agreement with its licensor, such licensor may have the right to terminate the upstream license, which may terminate our sublicense. If this were to occur, we would no longer have rights to the applicable intellectual property unless we are able to secure our own direct license with the owner of the relevant rights, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations and prospects.

Moreover, disputes may also arise between us and our licensors regarding intellectual property subject to a license agreement, including:

If we do not prevail in such disputes, we may lose any or all of our rights under such license agreements, experience significant delays in the development and commercialization of our products and technologies, or incur liability for damages, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. In addition, we may seek to obtain additional licenses from our licensors, and, in connection with obtaining such licenses, we may agree to amend our existing licenses in a manner that may be more favorable to the applicable licensor, including by agreeing to terms that could enable third parties, including our competitors, to receive licenses to a portion of the intellectual property that is subject to our existing licenses and to compete with our products.

Further, certain of our future agreements with third parties may limit or delay our ability to consummate certain transactions, may impact the value of those transactions, or may limit our ability to pursue certain activities. For example, we may in the future enter into license agreements that are not assignable or transferable, or that require the licensor’s express consent in order for an assignment or transfer to take place.

In addition, the agreements under which we currently and in the future license intellectual property or technology from third parties are complex and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Moreover, if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize any affected products or services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Absent the license agreements, we may infringe patents subject to those agreements, and if the license agreements are terminated, we may be subject to litigation by the licensor. Litigation could result in substantial costs to us and distract our management. If we do not prevail, we may be required to pay damages, including treble damages, attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses and royalties or be enjoined from selling our products, which could adversely affect our ability to offer products or services, our ability to continue operations and our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We may identify third-party technology that we may need to license or acquire in order to develop or commercialize our products or technologies. However, we may be unable to secure such licenses or acquisitions. The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and several more established companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us.

We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment or at all. In return for the use of a third party’s technology, we may agree to pay the licensor royalties based on sales of our products or services. Royalties are a component of cost of products or technologies and affect the margins on our products. We may also need to negotiate licenses to patents or patent applications before or after introducing a commercial product. We may not be able to obtain necessary licenses to patents or patent applications, and our business may suffer if we are unable to enter into the necessary licenses on acceptable terms or at all, if any necessary licenses are subsequently terminated, if the licensor fails to abide by the terms of the license or fails to prevent infringement by third parties, or if the licensed intellectual property rights are found to be invalid or unenforceable.

Our owned and in-licensed patents may be subject to a reservation of rights by one or more third parties. For example, the U.S. government may have certain rights, including march-in rights, to patent rights and technology funded by the U.S. government under the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act, or the Bayh-Dole Act (“Bayh-Dole Act”). The U.S. government may have these rights in certain technologies licensed to us from certain third parties, including, to the extent any invention included within the following licensed patents has been funded by the U.S. government, certain patent rights relating to multiplexed detection and high throughput single cell polyomics, methods and compositions for quantifying metabolites and the detection of target molecules. We utilize these technologies in various products, including our IsoCode and CodePlex chips consumables.

Under the Bayh-Dole Act, when new technologies are developed with government funding, in order to secure ownership of such patent rights, the recipient of such funding is required to comply with certain government regulations, including timely disclosing the inventions claimed in such patent rights to the U.S. government and

In addition, our current and future licensors may retain certain rights under their agreements with us, including the right to use the underlying technology for non-commercial academic and research use, to publish general scientific findings from research related to the technology, and to make customary scientific and scholarly disclosures of information relating to the technology. It is difficult to monitor whether our licensors limit their use of the technology to these uses, and we could incur substantial expenses to enforce our rights to our licensed technology in the event of misuse, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our products contain software licensed by third parties under open source software licenses. Use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source software licensors generally do not provide support, warranties, indemnification or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. Some open source software licenses contain requirements that the licensee make its source code publicly available if the licensee creates modifications or derivative works using the open source software, depending on the type of open source software the licensee uses and how the licensee uses it. If we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source software licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary software to the public for free. This would allow our competitors and other third parties to create similar products with less development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of our product sales and revenue, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. Alternatively, to avoid the public release of the affected portions of our source code, we could be required to expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software. In addition, some companies that use third-party open source software have faced claims challenging their use of such open source software and their compliance with the terms of the applicable open source license. We may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software, or claiming non-compliance with the applicable open source licensing terms, including claims that demand release of source code for the open source software, derivative works or our proprietary source code that was developed using, or that is distributed with, such open source software. These claims could also result in litigation and could require us to make our proprietary software source code freely available, devote additional research and development resources to re-engineer our platform, seek costly licenses from third parties or otherwise incur additional costs and expenses, any of which could result in reputational harm and would have a negative effect on our business and operating results. Use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to compromise or attempt to compromise our platform.

Although we review our use of open source software to avoid subjecting our proprietary software to conditions we do not intend, the terms of many open source software licenses have not been interpreted by United States courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our products and proprietary software. Moreover, we cannot assure investors that our processes for monitoring and controlling our use of open source software in our products will be effective. If we are held to have breached the terms of an open source software license, we could be subject to damages, required to seek licenses from third parties to continue offering our products on terms that are not economically feasible, to re-engineer our products, to discontinue the sale of our products if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis, or to make generally available, in source code form, our proprietary code, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations, and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example:

Should any of these events occur, they could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for shares of our common stock. Although we have applied to list our common stock on Nasdaq, an active trading market for shares of our common stock may never develop or be sustained following this offering. If an active trading market does not develop, you may have difficulty selling your shares of our common stock at an attractive price, or at all. The price for shares of our common stock in this offering will be determined by negotiations among us and representatives of the underwriters, and it may not be indicative of prices that will prevail in the open market following the completion of this offering. Consequently, you may not be able to sell your shares of our common stock at or above the initial public offering price or at any other price, or at the time that you would like to sell. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares of our common stock, our ability to motivate our employees through equity incentive awards, and our ability to acquire other companies, products or technologies by using our common stock as consideration for such acquisitions.

We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, research and development, sales and marketing activities, general administrative matters, operating expenses and capital expenditures. See “Use of Proceeds.” At this time, we cannot specify with certainty the particular uses for the net proceeds from this offering. Our management has broad discretion over how these proceeds are to be used and could spend the proceeds in ways with which you may not agree. In addition, we might not use the proceeds of this offering effectively or in a manner that increases our market value or enhances our profitability. We have not established a timetable for the effective deployment of the proceeds, and we cannot predict how long it will take to deploy the proceeds.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that, subject to limited exceptions, the Court of Chancery for the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for:

As described below, this provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or Exchange Act, or rules and regulations thereunder, or any other claim for which there is exclusive federal or concurrent federal and state jurisdiction.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will also provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action

Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to these provisions. These provisions may impose additional litigation costs on stockholders in pursuing any such claims, particularly if the stockholders do not reside in or near the State of Delaware, or limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business or financial condition.

Certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and of state law may have anti-takeover effects and may delay, deter or prevent a takeover attempt that our stockholders might consider in their best interests. For example, such provisions or laws may prevent our stockholders from receiving the benefit from any premium to the market price of our common stock offered by a bidder in a takeover context. These anti-takeover provisions and laws may also make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing. Even in the absence of a takeover attempt, the existence of these anti-takeover provisions may adversely affect the prevailing market price of our common stock if they are viewed as discouraging takeover attempts in the future. See “Description of Capital Stock—Certain Anti-Takeover Provisions of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, our Amended and Restated Bylaws and Delaware Law.”

As of December 31, 2020, we had net operating loss carryforward (NOLs) for federal purposes of approximately $12.7 million, which expire at various dates through 2033 and approximately $38.0 million which have no expiration. As of December 31, 2020, we also had state NOLs of approximately $44.2 million, which expire at various dates through 2042. We may use these NOLs to offset against taxable income for U.S. federal and state income tax purposes. However, Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, may limit the NOLs we may use in any year for U.S. federal income tax purposes in the event of certain changes in ownership of our company. A Section 382 “ownership change” generally occurs if one or more stockholders or groups of stockholders who own at least 5% of a company’s stock increase their ownership by more than 50 percentage points over their lowest ownership percentage within a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. We have not conducted a 382 study to determine whether the use of our NOLs is impaired. We may have previously undergone multiple “ownership changes.” In addition, future issuances or sales of our stock, including certain transactions involving our stock that are outside of our control, could result in future “ownership changes.” “Ownership changes” that have occurred in the past or that may occur in the future could result in the imposition of an annual limit on the amount of pre-ownership change NOLs and other tax attributes we can use to reduce our taxable income, potentially increasing and accelerating our liability for income taxes, and also potentially causing those tax attributes to expire unused. States may impose other limitations on the use of our NOLs. Any limitation on using NOLs could, depending on the extent of such limitation and the NOLs previously used, result in our retaining less cash after payment of U.S. federal and state income taxes during any year in which we have taxable income, rather than losses, than we would be entitled to retain if such NOLs were available as an offset against such income for U.S. federal and state income tax reporting purposes, which could adversely impact our operating results.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. For so long as we remain an emerging growth company, we are permitted by SEC rules and plan to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are applicable to other SEC registered public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

These exemptions include not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the SOX, not being required to comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the consolidated financial statements, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved, and being permitted to provide only two years of audited financial statements, in addition to any required unaudited interim financial statements, with correspondingly reduced “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” disclosure in this prospectus. As a result, the information we provide stockholders will be different than the information that is available with respect to other public companies. In this prospectus, we have not included all of the executive compensation related information that would be required if we were not an emerging growth company. To the extent that we continue to qualify as a “smaller reporting company,” as such term is defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, after we cease to qualify as an emerging growth company, we will continue to be permitted to make certain reduced disclosures in our periodic reports and other documents that we file with the SEC. We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less attractive if we rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

In addition, the JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. This allows an emerging growth company to delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will not be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.

The initial public offering price of our common stock is substantially higher than the net tangible book deficit per share of our common stock. Therefore, if you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will pay a price per share that substantially exceeds our net tangible book deficit per share after this offering. Based on the initial public offering price of $          per share, you will experience immediate dilution of $          per share, representing the difference between our pro forma net tangible book deficit per share after giving effect to this offering and the initial public offering price. In addition, purchasers of common stock in this offering will have contributed          % of the aggregate price paid by all purchasers of our stock but will own only approximately          % of our common stock outstanding after this offering. See “Dilution” for more detail.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares, could result in a decrease in the market price of our common stock. Immediately after this offering, we will have           outstanding shares of common stock based on the number of shares outstanding as of          , 2021. This

Pursuant to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws as will be in effect upon the completion of this offering, our board of directors has the authority, without action or vote of our stockholders, to issue all or any part of our authorized but unissued shares of common stock, including shares issuable upon the exercise of options, or shares of our authorized but unissued redeemable convertible preferred stock. Issuances of shares of common stock or shares of voting preferred stock would reduce your influence over matters on which our stockholders vote and, in the case of issuances of shares of preferred stock, would likely result in your interest in us being subject to the prior rights of holders of that preferred stock.

After this offering, our officers, directors and principal stockholders each holding more than 5% of our common stock will collectively control approximately          % of our outstanding common stock. As a result, these stockholders, if they act together, may be able to exert significant influence over the management and affairs of our company and most matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. This concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control and might adversely affect the market price of our common stock. This concentration of ownership may not be in the best interests of our other stockholders.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our equity securities. We do not currently anticipate declaring or paying regular cash dividends on our common stock in the near term and you should not rely on an investment in our common stock to provide dividend income. We currently intend to use our future earnings, if any, to pay debt obligations, to fund our growth and develop our business and for general corporate purposes. Therefore, you are not likely to receive any cash dividends on your common stock in the near term, and the success of an investment in shares of our common stock will depend upon any future appreciation in their value. There is no guarantee that shares of our common stock will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which they are initially offered. Any future declaration and payment of cash dividends or other distributions of capital will be at the discretion of our board of directors and the payment of any future cash dividends or other distributions of capital will depend on many factors, including our financial condition, earnings, cash needs, regulatory constraints, capital requirements (including requirements of our subsidiaries) and any other factors that our board of directors deems relevant in making such a determination. The agreement governing the indebtedness of our subsidiaries imposes restrictions on our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends or other distributions to us, and future agreements governing debt our subsidiaries may enter into may impose similar restrictions. For more information, see “Dividend Policy.” In addition, any future credit facility that we enter into may contain terms prohibiting or limiting the amount of dividends that may be declared or paid on our common stock. We cannot assure you that we will establish a

We may pursue acquisitions of businesses and assets. We also may pursue strategic alliances and joint ventures that leverage our technologies and industry experience to expand our offerings or distribution. We have no experience with acquiring other companies and limited experience with forming strategic partnerships. We may not be able to find suitable partners or acquisition candidates, and we may not be able to complete such transactions on favorable terms, if at all. The competition for partners or acquisition candidates may be intense, and the negotiation process will be time-consuming and complex. If we make any acquisitions, we may not be able to integrate these acquisitions successfully into our existing business, these acquisitions may not strengthen our competitive position, the transactions may be viewed negatively by customers or investors, we may be unable to retain key employees of any acquired business, relationships with key suppliers, manufacturers or customers of any acquired business may be impaired due to changes in management and ownership, and we could assume unknown or contingent liabilities. Any future acquisitions also could result in the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities or future write-offs of intangible assets or goodwill, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. If we were to issue additional equity in connection with such acquisitions, this may dilute our stockholders. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to fully recover the costs of any acquisition. Integration of an acquired company also may disrupt ongoing operations and require management resources that we would otherwise focus on developing our existing business. We may not realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, technology license, strategic alliance or joint venture. We also may experience losses related to investments in other companies, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

To finance any acquisitions or joint ventures, we may choose to issue shares of our common stock as consideration, which would dilute the ownership of our stockholders. Additional funds may not be available on terms that are favorable to us, or at all. If the price of our common stock is low or volatile, we may not be able to acquire companies or fund a joint venture project using our stock as consideration.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weakness we identified related to the lack of maintaining a sufficient complement of personnel commensurate with the accounting and financial reporting requirements in order to have adequate segregation of key duties and responsibilities, which affected the operation of controls over the recording of journal entries and the reconciliation of key accounts. This material weakness did not result in a material misstatement to the financial statements. We are in the process of implementing measures designed to improve internal control over financial reporting to remediate the control deficiencies that led to our material weakness by, among other things, hiring qualified personnel with appropriate expertise to perform specific functions, and designing and implementing improved processes and internal controls.

While we believe the remedial efforts we are taking and will take will improve our internal controls and address the underlying causes of the material weakness, we cannot be certain that these steps will be sufficient to remediate the control deficiencies that led to our material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting or prevent future material weaknesses or control deficiencies from occurring. While we will work to remediate the material weakness as timely and efficiently as possible, at this time we cannot provide an estimate of costs expected to be incurred in connection with the implementation of our remediation actions, nor can we provide an estimate of the

If we fail to effectively remediate the material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting described above, we may be unable to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations. Such failure may adversely affect our business, investor confidence in our company, our financial condition and the market value of our common stock.

We are not currently required to comply with SEC rules that implement Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and are therefore not required to make a formal assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting for that purpose. Upon becoming a public company, we will be required to comply with the SEC’s rules implementing Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which will require management to certify financial and other information in our quarterly and annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting. Although we will be required to disclose changes that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal controls over financial reporting on a quarterly basis, we will not be required to make our first annual assessment of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 until at least our second annual report required to be filed with the SEC, and we will not be required to have our independent registered public accounting firm formally assess our internal controls for as long as we remain an “emerging growth company” as defined in the JOBS Act.

When formally evaluating our internal controls over financial reporting, we may identify material weaknesses that we may not be able to remediate in time to meet the applicable deadline imposed upon us for compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In addition, if we fail to achieve and maintain the adequacy of our internal controls, as such standards are modified, supplemented or amended from time to time, we may not be able to ensure that we can conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We cannot be certain as to the timing of completion of our evaluation, testing and any remediation actions or the impact of the same on our operations. If we are not able to implement the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner or with adequate compliance, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue an adverse opinion due to ineffective internal controls over financial reporting, and we may be subject to sanctions or investigation by regulatory authorities, such as the SEC. As a result, there could be a negative reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of confidence in the reliability of our financial statements. Any such action could have a significant and adverse effect on our business and reputation, which could negatively affect our results of operations or cash flows. In addition, we may be required to incur additional costs in improving our internal control system and the hiring of additional personnel.

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and estimates and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, equity, revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. For example, in connection with the implementation of the new revenue accounting standard, management makes judgments and assumptions based on our interpretation of the new standard. The new revenue standard is principle-based and interpretation of those principles may vary from company to company based on their unique circumstances. It is possible that interpretation, industry practice and guidance may evolve as we apply the new standard. If our assumptions underlying our estimates and judgements relating to our critical accounting policies change or if actual circumstances differ from our assumptions, estimates or judgements, our operating results may be adversely affected and could fall below our publicly announced guidance or the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our common stock.

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting, compliance and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company and these expenses may increase even more after we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time and incur significant expense in connection with compliance initiatives. For example, in anticipation of becoming a public company, we will need to adopt additional internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures, retain a transfer agent and adopt an insider trading policy. As a public company, we will bear all of the internal and external costs of preparing and distributing periodic public reports in compliance with our obligations under the securities laws.

In addition, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including SOX, and the related rules and regulations implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq, have increased legal and financial compliance costs and will make some compliance activities more time-consuming. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment will result in increased general and administrative expenses and may divert management’s time and attention from our other business activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, and our business may be harmed. In connection with this offering, we intend to increase our directors’ and officers’ insurance coverage, which will increase our insurance cost. In the future, it may be more expensive or more difficult for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.

Our quarterly results of operations are likely to fluctuate in the future as a publicly traded company. In addition, securities markets worldwide have experienced, and are likely to continue to experience, significant price and volume fluctuations. This market volatility, as well as general economic, market or political conditions, could subject the market price of our shares of common stock to wide price fluctuations regardless of our operating performance, which could cause a decline in the value of your investment. You should also be aware that price volatility may be greater if the public float and trading volume of shares of our common stock is low. Some factors that may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate, in addition to the other risks mentioned in this section of the prospectus, include:

These and other factors may cause the market price for shares of our common stock to fluctuate substantially, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their shares of our common stock and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of our common stock. In addition, in the past, when the market price of a stock has been volatile, holders of that stock sometimes have instituted securities class action litigation against the company that issued the stock. Securities litigation against us, regardless of the merits or outcome, could result in substantial costs and divert the time and attention of our management from the business, which could significantly harm our business, results of operation, financial condition or reputation.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts publish about us or our business. We do not currently have and may never obtain research coverage by industry or securities analysts. If no or few analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price of our common stock could decrease. Even if we do obtain analyst coverage, if one or more of the analysts covering our business downgrade their evaluations of our common stock, the price of our common stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover our common stock, we could lose visibility in the market for our common stock, which in turn could cause the price of our common stock to decline.

In the ordinary course of our business, we collect and store sensitive data, including personally identifiable information, intellectual property and proprietary business information owned or controlled by ourselves or our employees, customers and other parties. We manage and maintain our applications and data utilizing a combination of on-site systems and cloud-based data centers. We utilize external security and infrastructure vendors to manage parts of our data centers. These applications and data encompass a wide variety of business-critical information, including research and development information, commercial information and business and financial information. We face a number of risks relative to protecting this critical information, including loss of access risk, inappropriate use or disclosure, unauthorized access, inappropriate modification and the risk of our being unable to adequately monitor and audit and modify our controls over our critical information. This risk extends to the third party vendors and subcontractors we use to manage this sensitive data or otherwise process it on our behalf. The secure processing, storage, maintenance and transmission of this critical information are vital to our operations and business strategy, and we devote significant resources to protecting such information. Although we take reasonable measures to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access, use or disclosure, no security measures can be perfect and our information technology and infrastructure may be vulnerable to attacks by hackers or viruses or breached due to employee error, malfeasance or other malicious or inadvertent disruptions. Any such breach or interruption could compromise our networks and the information stored there could be accessed by unauthorized parties, publicly disclosed, lost or stolen. Any such access, breach, or other loss of information could result in legal claims or proceedings, and liability under federal or state laws that protect the privacy of personal information, and regulatory penalties. Notice of breaches may be required to affected individuals or state, federal or foreign regulators, and for extensive breaches, notice may need to be made to the media or State Attorneys General. Such a notice could harm our reputation and our ability to compete.

We are, and may increasingly become, subject to various laws and regulations, as well as contractual obligations, relating to data privacy and security in the jurisdictions in which we operate. The regulatory environment related to data privacy and security is increasingly rigorous, with new and constantly changing requirements applicable to our business, and enforcement practices are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. These laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied differently over time and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is possible that they will be interpreted and applied in ways that may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In the United States, various federal and state regulators, including governmental agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, have adopted, or are considering adopting, laws and regulations concerning personal information and data security. Certain state laws may be more stringent or broader in scope, or offer greater individual rights, with respect to personal information than federal, international or other state laws, and such laws may differ from each other, all of which may complicate compliance efforts. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which increases privacy rights for California residents and imposes obligations on companies that process their personal information, came into effect on January 1, 2020. Among other things, the CCPA requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers and provide such consumers new data protection and privacy rights, including the ability to opt-out of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for certain data breaches that result in the loss of personal information. This private right of action may increase the likelihood of, and risks associated with, data breach litigation. In November 2020, California voters passed the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), which will become effective in most material respects beginning on January 1, 2023. The CPRA further expands the CCPA with additional data privacy compliance requirements and obligations and establishes a regulatory agency dedicated to enforcing the CCPA and CPRA. In addition, laws in all 50 U.S. states require businesses to provide notice to consumers whose personal information has been disclosed as a result of a data breach. State laws are changing rapidly and there is discussion in the U.S. Congress of a new comprehensive federal data privacy law to which we would become subject if it is enacted.

Internationally, laws, regulations and standards in many jurisdictions apply broadly to the collection, use, retention, security, disclosure, transfer and other processing of personal information. For example, the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which became effective in May 2018, greatly increased the European Commission’s jurisdictional reach of its data privacy and security laws and added a broad array of requirements for handling personal data. EU member states are tasked under the GDPR to enact, and have enacted, certain implementing legislation that adds to and/or further interprets the GDPR requirements and potentially extends our obligations and potential liability for failing to meet such obligations. The GDPR, together with national legislation, regulations and guidelines of the EU member states governing the processing of personal data, impose strict obligations and restrictions on the ability to collect, use, retain, protect, disclose, transfer and otherwise process personal data. In particular, the GDPR includes requirements to establish a legal basis for processing, higher standards for obtaining consent from individuals to process their personal data, more robust disclosures to individuals, a strengthened individual data rights regime, requirements to implement safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of personal data, data breach notification obligations to appropriate data protection authorities or individuals, limitations on retention and secondary use of information and additional obligations when entities contract with third-party processors to process personal data. The GDPR authorizes fines for certain violations of up to 4% of global annual revenue or €20 million, whichever is greater. Following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, data privacy and security laws that are substantially similar to the GDPR are in effect in the United Kingdom, which carry similar risks and authorize similar fines for certain violations.

All of these evolving compliance and operational requirements impose significant costs, such as costs related to organizational changes, implementing additional protection technologies, training employees and engaging

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies and other future conditions. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “potential,” “seek,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “continue,” “contemplate,” “plan,” and other words and terms of similar meaning.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which may be beyond our control. We caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or outcomes and that actual performance and outcomes may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. In addition, even if our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows, and the development of the markets in which we operate, are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods. New factors emerge from time to time that may cause our business not to develop as we expect, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. Factors that could cause actual results and outcomes to differ from those reflected in forward-looking statements include, among others, the following:

We discuss many of these risks in greater detail under the section titled “Risk Factors.” Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed as exhibits to the registration statement, of which this prospectus is a part, completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of the forward-looking statements in this prospectus by these cautionary statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

We estimate that the net proceeds we will receive from the issuance and sale of the shares of common stock offered by us in this offering will be approximately $          million, assuming an initial public offering price of $          per share, which is the midpoint of the range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

A $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of our common stock of $          per share would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $           , assuming that the number of shares offered, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. An increase or decrease of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares of common stock offered by us in this offering, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, as applicable, the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $           , assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price per share and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, research and development, sales and marketing activities, general administrative matters, operating expenses and capital expenditures. At this time we cannot specify with certainty the particular uses for the net proceeds from this offering. We will have broad discretion over how to use the net proceeds from this offering, and our investors will be relying on the judgment of our management regarding the application of the net proceeds from this offering. Pending these uses, we intend to invest the net proceeds in short-term, investment-grade interest-bearing securities, such as money market accounts, certificates of deposit, commercial paper and guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government. The principal purposes of this offering are to create a public market for our common stock, obtain additional capital, facilitate future access to public equity markets, increase awareness of the Company in the market, facilitate the use of our common stock as a means of attracting and retaining key employees and provide liquidity to our current stockholders.

We do not currently anticipate declaring or paying regular cash dividends on our common stock in the near term. Any future declaration and payment of cash dividends or other distributions of capital will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our financial condition, earnings, cash needs, capital requirements (including requirements of our subsidiaries), contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions, and any other factors that our board of directors deems relevant in making such a determination. Therefore, we cannot assure you that we will pay any cash dividends or other distributions to holders of our common stock, or as to the amount of any such cash dividends or other distributions.

The following table sets forth our cash and capitalization as of June 30, 2021:

The pro forma as adjusted information set forth in the table below is illustrative only and our cash and capitalization following the completion of this offering will adjust based on the actual initial public offering price, the number of common shares issued and sold in this offering and other terms of this offering determined when the initial public offering price is determined. You should read the following table in conjunction with the sections titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Description of Capital Stock” and our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

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capital, total stockholders’ equity and total capitalization on a pro forma as adjusted basis by approximately $          , assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price per share of our common stock of $          per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The pro forma and pro forma as adjusted columns in the table above are based on the number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding after this offering, which in turn is based on          shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of          , which gives effect to the Assumed Share Events set forth under the section titled “The Offering” and excludes:

If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock in this offering and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately after this offering.

Our historical net tangible book value (deficit) as of June 30, 2021 was $          , or $           per share of common stock. Our historical net tangible book value (deficit) represents our total tangible assets less our total liabilities, which is not included within our stockholders’ equity. Historical net tangible book value (deficit) per share represents historical net tangible book value divided by the          shares of common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021.

Our pro forma net tangible book value (deficit) as of June 30, 2021 was $          , or $          per share of common stock. Pro forma net tangible book value represents the amount of our total tangible assets less total liabilities. Pro forma net tangible book value (deficit) per share represents our pro forma net tangible book value (deficit) divided by          , the total number of shares of common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021, after giving effect to (i) the Preferred Stock Conversion (based on an assumed initial public offering price of $          per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) and (ii) the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, which will be in effect at the closing of this offering.

After giving further effect to the sale of          shares of our common stock in this offering at the initial public offering price of $          per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, less the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value (deficit) as of            would have been approximately $          million, or $           per share of common stock. This amount represents an immediate increase (decrease) in the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value (deficit) of $           per share to the existing stockholders and immediate dilution of $          per share to investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering.

Dilution per share to new investors is calculated by subtracting pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value (deficit) per share of our common stock from the initial public offering price per share of our common stock paid by new investors. The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share basis:

The dilution information discussed above is illustrative only and will change based on the actual initial public offering price, the number of shares of common stock sold by us in this offering and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price of our common stock of $          per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase or decrease, as applicable, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by approximately $          and the dilution per share to new investors by $            , assuming that the number of shares of common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Each increase of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares of common stock offered by us would increase our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by $            and decrease the dilution per share to new investors by $           , assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price per

If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of common stock from us in this offering, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value (deficit) per share after the offering would be $             , and the dilution per share to new investors would be $             , in each case assuming an initial public offering price of $             per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The following table summarizes, as of June 30, 2021, on the pro forma as adjusted basis described above, the total number of shares of our common stock purchased from us, the total consideration paid to us, and the average price per share of our common stock paid by purchasers of such shares and by new investors purchasing shares of our common stock in this offering:

The number of shares of our common stock that will be outstanding after this offering is based on           shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of                , which gives effect to the Assumed Share Events set forth under the section titled “The Offering” and excludes:

We currently market and sell our technology with an in-house commercial team in the United States and Europe. We are also utilizing our distribution network to market and sell across multiple countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Italy, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and Switzerland. We intend to further expand our international presence by growing our distribution networks in Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and beyond.

Since our inception in March 2013, we have devoted substantially all of our resources to organizing and staffing our company, business planning, raising capital, conducting research and development activities, and filing patent applications. To date, we have financed our operations primarily through the private placement of our securities, the incurrence of indebtedness and, to a lesser extent, grant income and revenue derived from sales of our instruments and chip consumables. As of June 30, 2021, our principal source of liquidity was cash, which totaled $68.9 million.

We completed our first sale of our systems in June 2018 and have experienced significant revenue growth in recent periods. Revenue increased to $10.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, as compared to $7.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, and $7.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021, as compared to $3.7 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020. Nevertheless, we have incurred recurring losses since inception. Our net losses were $13.6 million and $23.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and

Furthermore, following the completion of this offering, we expect to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company, including significant legal, accounting, compliance, investor relations and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company.

As a result of these anticipated expenditures, we will need substantial additional financing to support our continuing operations and pursue our growth strategy. Until such time as we can generate positive cash flows from operations, if ever, we expect to finance our operations through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings and, to a lesser extent, grant income. We may be unable to raise additional funds when needed on favorable terms or at all. Our inability to raise capital as and when needed would have a negative impact on our financial condition and our ability to pursue our business strategy. We will need to generate significant revenue to achieve profitability, and we may never do so.

As of June 30, 2021, we had cash of $68.9 million. At the time of issuance of our unaudited consolidated interim financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2021, we concluded that there was substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for one year from the issuance of such unaudited consolidated interim financial statements. However, we believe that, based on our current business plan, the anticipated net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash, will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2024. Our future viability beyond that point is dependent on our ability to raise additional capital to finance our operations. We have based this estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, and we could exhaust our available capital resources sooner than we expect. See “—Liquidity and Capital Resources.”

Patent Acquisition

On May 12, 2021, we entered into a Patent Purchase Agreement with the Sellers to purchase a collection of 86 patents related to DNA and RNA sequencing for an aggregate purchase price of $20.0 million. We closed the acquisition on May 15, 2021, and funded the $20.0 million purchase price with cash on hand. We believe that the acquired patents will enable integration of our existing proprietary proteomics technologies with new proprietary sequencing-based technologies. For more information about the purchased patents, see “Business—Intellectual Property.” In connection with entering into the Patent Purchase Agreement, we also entered into an Assumption Agreement with the Sellers to assume the Sellers’ rights and obligations under a covenant not to sue with a separate third party related to certain patents purchased pursuant to the Patent Purchase Agreement. In addition, in connection with entering into the Patent Purchase Agreement, we entered into a Supply Agreement with one of the Sellers pursuant to which they have agreed to supply certain reagents to us.

Amendment to Credit Agreement

On May 27, 2021, we entered into the First Amendment to the Credit Agreement to, among other things, split the previously remaining $25.0 million delayed draw term loan commitments under the Credit Agreement into a $10.0 million Tranche B term loan, available to be drawn upon the effectiveness of the First Amendment, and a $15.0 million Tranche C term loan, available to be drawn subject to achievement of a revenue milestone set forth in

We believe that our financial performance has been, and in the foreseeable future will continue to be, primarily driven by the following factors. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for our business, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address in order to pursue our growth strategy and improve our results of operations. Our ability to successfully address the factors below is subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those factors set forth in the “Risk Factors” section of this prospectus.

Our financial performance has been, and in the foreseeable future will continue to be, driven by our ability to increase the adoption of our platform and the installed base of our instruments. We plan to drive new customer adoption through a direct sales and marketing organization in the United States and parts of Europe and third party distributors in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. We currently market and sell our technology with an in-house commercial team of approximately 170 team members and also utilize our distribution network to market and sell across multiple countries.

Our IsoCode and CodePlex chip consumables represent a source of recurring revenue from customers using our platform across a wide range of applications. Our instruments and consumables are designed to work together exclusively. As we expand our installed base of instruments, we expect consumable revenues to increase on an absolute basis and become an increasingly important contributor to our overall revenues.

There is an opportunity to grow our installed base and expand the number of instruments within organizations that are already utilizing our platform to advance their research and therapeutic development by their purchasing of additional instruments to support multiple locations or to increase capacity.

We founded our company to help solve critical challenges to accelerating advanced medicines and since our inception, we have developed multiple applications spanning cancer immunology, cell and gene therapy, infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases. As we continue to deploy our platform, we intend to concurrently expand the breadth of applications for our technologies to encourage increased use of our platform across our addressable markets. We expect our investments in these efforts to increase as we develop and market new applications, including a diagnostic.

The Company’s cost of product revenue primarily consists of manufacturing related costs incurred in the production process, including personnel and related costs, costs of components and materials, labor and overhead,

Research and development expenses include:

We expense research and development costs as incurred. We do not track research and development expenses by product candidate. Research and development activities are central to our business model. We expect research and development costs to increase significantly for the foreseeable future as our current development programs progress and new programs are added.

Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development, we cannot determine with certainty the duration and completion costs of our current or future research and development efforts.

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of employee-related expenses, including salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation, for personnel in executive, finance, business development, facility and administrative functions. Other significant costs include facility costs not otherwise included in research and development expenses, legal fees relating to patent and corporate matters and fees for accounting, tax and consulting services.

We anticipate that our general and administrative expenses will increase in the future to support continued research and development activities and increased costs of operating as a public company. These increases will likely include increased costs related to the hiring of additional personnel and fees to outside consultants, lawyers and accountants, among other expenses. Additionally, we anticipate increased costs associated with being a public company, including services associated with maintaining compliance with exchange listing and SEC requirements, director and officer insurance costs and investor and public relations costs.

Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of compensation related expenses, including salaries, bonuses, benefits, non-cash stock-based compensation, for sales and marketing personnel, advertising and promotion expenses, consulting and subcontractor fees, sales commissions, recruiting fees, and various other selling expenses. We anticipate that our sales and marketing expenses will increase in the future as we pursue our growth mission, including the hiring of consultants to help us identify and expand into new markets, including worldwide markets.

We are engaged in various Small Business Innovation Research (“SBIR”) grants with the federal government to help fund the costs of certain research and development activities. We believe that we have complied with all contractual requirements of the SBIR grants through the date of the financial statements. We do not currently expect future grant income to be a material source of funding for the Company.

Research and development (“R&D”) tax credits exchanged for cash pursuant to the Connecticut R&D Tax Credit Exchange Program, which permits qualified small businesses engaged in R&D activities within Connecticut to exchange their unused R&D tax credits for a cash amount equal to 65% of the value of exchanged credits, are recorded as a receivable and other income in the year the R&D tax credits relate to, as it is reasonably assured that the R&D tax credits will be received, based upon our history of filing for and receiving the tax credits. R&D tax credits receivable where cash is expected to be received by us more than one year after the balance sheet date are classified as noncurrent in the consolidated balance sheets.

Warrants and loan commitments are freestanding financial instruments that qualify as liabilities and assets, respectively, required to be recorded at their estimated fair value at the inception date and remeasured at each reported balance sheet date thereafter until settlement, with gains and losses arising from changes in fair value recognized in the statement of operations during each period.

Comparisons of the Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 and 2021

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, together with the dollar change in those items:

The increase in instruments revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2021 was driven by an increase in unit sales generated from a larger commercial team, primarily hired in the second half of 2020, and new executive leadership with the addition of our Chief Commercial Officer in the second quarter of 2020. The increase in consumable revenue in 2021 was driven by an increase in the number of units at customer locations.

Gross profit as a percentage of total revenues was 57% in 2019 compared to 52% in 2020. The decrease was driven primarily by a shift in our revenue mix and decreased service revenue, which generate higher margins. Production costs increased as we expanded capacity to plan for future growth. In addition, we experienced inefficiencies attributable to the launch of new products as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research and development expenses increased by $1.0 million, or 10%, for the year ended December 31 2020 compared to the prior year, primarily due to increases in compensation related expenses of $1.2 million, a $0.8 million increase in prototyping, $0.5 million of which related to a new product, our IsoSpark instrument, released in March 2021, an increase of $0.5 million in lab materials used, and an increase of $0.1 million of depreciation and amortization. These increases were partially offset by a $1.6 million decrease in professional and sub-contractor fees. Our increased headcount in 2020 partially reduced the need for outside labor. In addition, the cost of outside labor was considerably higher in 2019 as a result of project timing.

General and administrative expenses increased by $3.2 million, or 67%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the prior year, primarily due to increases in compensation related expenses of $2.8 million, including increased salary, bonus, benefits, and non-cash stock-based compensation, for additional personnel due to an increase in headcount from 24 at December 31, 2019 to 44 at December 31, 2020, including several executives, to support increased activities, an increase of $0.2 million of professional fees, including legal, consulting, accounting, audit and recruiting expenses, an increase in state sales and use tax of $0.1 million, and an increase in depreciation, amortization, office and facility expenses of $0.1 million. A large portion of our headcount increase at the executive level occurred in the second half of 2019.

Sales and marketing expenses increased by $6.0 million, or 79%, for the year ended December 31, 2020, compared to the prior year, primarily due to increases in compensation related expenses of $2.8 million, including increased salary, bonus, benefits, non-cash stock-based compensation, for additional personnel due to an increase in headcount from 30 at December 31, 2019 to 94 at December 31, 2020 to support increased activities, advertising and promotion expenses of $1.5 million, consulting and subcontractor fees of $1.0 million, sales commissions of $0.6 million, recruiting fees of $0.5 million, and various other selling expenses of $0.4 million, partially offset by a decrease in travel and entertainment of $0.8 million resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the increase was driven by the increase in headcount to support our growth mission and the hiring of consultants to help us

We recognized $0.4 million of research and development tax credits in 2019 under the Connecticut R&D Tax Credit Exchange Program. The credit is incremental in nature and focuses on increasing research activities or costs. Given the small increase in overall R&D spend in 2020 we do not anticipate there being a significant available benefit in 2020. Therefore, we recognized no income related to research and development tax credits in 2020.

At June 30, 2021, we had $68.9 million in cash. Cash as of June 30, 2021 decreased by $37.7 million compared to December 31, 2020, primarily due to the factors described under the heading “—Cash Flows” below. Our primary source of liquidity, other than cash on hand, has been cash flows from issuances of preferred stock, debt financings and, to a lesser extent, grant income.

Comparisons of the Six Months Ended June 30, 2020 and 2021

The following table provides information regarding our cash flows for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021:

Net cash used by operating activities in the six months ended June 30, 2021 primarily consisted of net loss of $(36.1) million, partially offset by net non-cash adjustments of $5.6 million, plus net changes in operating assets and liabilities of $(3.3) million. The primary non-cash adjustments to net income included share-based compensation of $0.3 million, depreciation and amortization expenses of $0.8 million, change in fair value of warrants and loan commitment of $4.0 million, amortization of debt discount of $0.3 million and provision for warranty costs of $0.1 million. Cash flow impact from changes in net operating assets and liabilities were primarily driven by an increase in account receivables, inventories and prepaid expenses and other current assets and partially offset by increases in accounts payable, accrued liabilities, deferred revenue and a decrease in other assets.

Net cash used in investing activities totaled $1.4 million in the six months ended June 30, 2020. We purchased $0.7 million of property and equipment. We paid $0.2 million related to patent costs that were capitalized, and we also purchased a license for $0.5 million.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $5.0 million in the six months ended June 30, 2020. We raised cash through the issuance of Series C-2 redeemable convertible preferred stock, with net proceeds of $5.0 million.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $18.2 million in the six months ended June 30, 2021. We raised cash through the issuance of Series D redeemable convertible preferred stock, with net proceeds of $10.0 million. We also borrowed the Tranche B term loan under our Credit Agreement, with net proceeds of $10.0 million. We paid $1.8 million in costs related to this offering.

Comparisons of the Years Ended December 31, 2019 and 2020

The following table provides information regarding our cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020:

Net cash used by operating activities in 2019 primarily consisted of net loss of $(13.6) million, partially offset by net non-cash adjustments of $0.9 million, plus net changes in operating assets and liabilities of $(2.2) million. The primary non-cash adjustments to net income included share-based compensation of $0.1 million, depreciation and amortization expenses of $0.5 million, and provision for warranty costs of $0.1 million. Cash flow impact from changes in net operating assets and liabilities were primarily driven by increases in accounts receivable, inventories and other assets, partially offset by increases in accounts payable and accrued liabilities, and a decrease in grants receivable.

Net cash used by operating activities in 2020 primarily consisted of net loss of $(23.3) million, partially offset by net non-cash adjustments of $1.6 million, plus net changes in operating assets and liabilities of $(0.7) million. The primary non-cash adjustments to net income included share-based compensation of $0.5 million, depreciation and amortization expenses of $0.9 million, change in fair value of warrants of $0.1 million, and provision for warranty costs of $0.1 million. Cash flow impact from changes in net operating assets and liabilities were primarily driven by an increase in inventories and prepaid expenses and other current assets and partially offset by increases in accounts payable and accrued liabilities.

Net cash used in investing activities totaled $2.2 million in 2019. We purchased $1.8 million of property and equipment. We paid $0.3 million related to patent costs that were capitalized. We also purchased licenses for $0.1 million.

Net cash used in investing activities totaled $2.3 million in 2020. We purchased $1.5 million of property and equipment. We paid $0.3 million related to patent costs that were capitalized. We also purchased licenses for $0.5 million.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $22.5 million in 2019. We raised cash through the issuance of Series C and Series C-2 redeemable convertible preferred stock, with net proceeds of $22.5 million.

Net cash provided by financing activities was $104.0 million in 2020. We raised cash through the issuance of Series C-2 and Series D redeemable convertible preferred stock, with net proceeds of $79.9 million. In addition, we received $24.1 million in net proceeds under the Credit Agreement.

We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we continue our research and development efforts and expand our business efforts. Furthermore, following the completion of this offering, we expect to incur additional costs as a result of being a public company. Accordingly, we will need to obtain additional funding in connection with our continuing operations. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on attractive terms, we would be forced to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or future commercialization efforts.

At the time of issuance of our unaudited consolidated interim financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2021, we concluded that there was substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for one year from the issuance of such unaudited consolidated interim financial statements. However, we believe that, based on our current business plan, the anticipated net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash as of June 30, 2021, will enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the second half of 2024.

We have based our projections of operating capital requirements on assumptions that may prove to be incorrect and we may use all of our available capital resources sooner than we expect. Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with our research and development efforts, we are unable to estimate the exact amount of our operating capital requirements. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

Until such time, if ever, as we can generate positive cash flows from operations, we expect to finance our cash needs through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings, and, to a lesser extent, grants. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms of those securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a holder of common stock. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends.

If we raise funds through additional strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies or future revenue streams or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. If we are unable to raise additional funds through equity offerings, debt financings or grants when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, or reduce our expansion efforts.

Contractual obligations represent future cash commitments and liabilities under agreements with third parties and exclude orders for goods and services entered into in the normal course of business that are not enforceable or legally binding.

On December 30, 2020, we entered into the Credit Agreement, which provides for senior secured financing of up to $50.0 million, consisting of a $25.0 million Tranche A term loan and a $25.0 million Tranche B term loan. The Tranche A term loan of $25.0 million was drawn at the initial closing of the Credit Agreement on December 30, 2020. The Credit Agreement was amended on May 27, 2021 to split the previously remaining $25.0 million delayed draw term loan commitments under the Credit Agreement into a $10.0 million Tranche B term loan and a $15.0 million Tranche C term loan. The Tranche B term loan of $10.0 million was drawn on May 27, 2021. Our ability to draw the $15.0 million Tranche C term loan remains available through March 31, 2022 subject to several conditions, including achieving total revenue of at least $20.0 million for the twelve month period then most recently ended. Borrowings under the Credit Agreement bears interest at a rate per annum equal to the one-month LIBOR rate (with a minimum LIBOR rate for such purposes of 1.75%) plus a margin of 9.50% (11.25% at December 31, 2020). Monthly payments of interest only are due over the term of the Credit Agreement with no scheduled loan amortization. Unless accelerated prior to such date, all amounts outstanding under the Credit Agreement are due to be repaid on December 30, 2025. In addition, the Credit Agreement includes a quarterly minimum total revenue covenant for the applicable trailing twelve month period, which revenue threshold begins at approximately $15.02 million for the twelve months ending June 30, 2021 and increases over time. In June 2021, we obtained from the lenders a waiver of the quarterly minimum total revenue covenant for the twelve months ending June 30, 2021 and a waiver of any event of default resulting from non-compliance with the quarterly minimum total revenue covenant for such test period.

We have multiple operating lease commitments for office and manufacturing space and equipment, which expire through 2026. The future rental payments required to be made by us under such operating leases are approximately $664,000 for the remainder of 2021, $1,090,000 in 2022, $941,000 in 2023, $871,000 in 2024, $716,000 in 2025 and $292,000 thereafter.

The preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Management bases its estimates on historical experience, market and other conditions, and various other assumptions it believes to be reasonable. Although these estimates are based on management’s best knowledge of current events and actions that may impact us in the future, the estimation process is, by its nature, uncertain given that estimates depend on events over which we may not have control. Though the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to our business and operating results presents additional uncertainty, we continue to use the best information available to inform our critical accounting estimates. If market and other conditions change from those that we anticipate, our consolidated financial statements may be materially affected. In addition, if our assumptions change, we may need to revise our estimates, or take other corrective actions, either of which may also have a material effect on our consolidated financial statements.

While our significant accounting policies are described in more detail in the notes to our financial statements appearing elsewhere in this prospectus, we believe that the following critical accounting policies and estimates have a higher degree of inherent uncertainty and require our most significant judgments.

Our revenue is generated primarily from the sale of products and services. Product revenue primarily consists of sales of instruments and chip consumables. Service revenue primarily consists of revenue generated from measuring immune responses using the Company’s technology.

The Company recognizes revenue when control of products and services is transferred to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration the Company expects to receive from the customers in exchange for those products and services. This process involves identifying the contract with a customer, determining the performance obligations in the contract, determining the contract price, allocating the contract prices to distinct performance obligations in the contract, and recognizing revenue when the performance obligations have been satisfied. Revenue recognition for contracts with multiple deliverables is based on the separate satisfaction of each distinct performance obligation within the contract. A performance obligation is considered distinct from other obligations in a contract when it provides a benefit to the customer either on its own or together with other resources that are readily available to the customer and is separately identified in the contract. The Company considers a performance obligation satisfied once the Company has transferred control of a good or service to the customer, meaning the customer has the ability to use and obtain the benefit of the good or service. The contract price is allocated to each performance obligation in proportion to its standalone selling price. If the product or service has no history of sales or if the sales volume is not sufficient, the Company relies upon prices set by management, adjusted for applicable discounts.

The Company records revenue from product sales when performance obligations under the terms of a contract with customers are satisfied. Generally, this occurs with the transfer of control of the goods to customers at the time of shipment. The Company also generates service revenues by measuring immune responses using the Company’s technology. The Company recognizes service revenue when performance obligations under the terms of a contract with customers are satisfied, which is generally at the time the analysis data is made available to the customer or agreed-upon milestones are reached. The Company makes judgments as to its ability to collect outstanding receivables and provides allowances when collection becomes doubtful.

Revenue is recorded net of discounts and sales taxes collected on behalf of governmental authorities. Employee sales commissions are recorded as sales and marketing expenses when incurred as the amortization period for such costs, if capitalized, would have been one year or less.

Our determination of the fair value of stock options with time-based vesting on the date of grant utilizes the Black-Scholes option pricing model, and is impacted by our common stock price as well as other variables including, but not limited to, expected term that options will remain outstanding, expected common stock price volatility over the term of the option awards, risk-free interest rates and expected dividends.

The fair value of a stock-based award is recognized over the period during which an optionee is required to provide services in exchange for the option award, known as the requisite service period (usually the vesting period) on a straight-line basis. Stock-based compensation expense is recognized based on the fair value determined on the date of grant and is reduced for forfeitures as they occur. Estimating the fair value of equity-settled awards as of the grant date using valuation models, such as the Black-Scholes option pricing model, is affected by assumptions regarding a number of complex variables. Changes in the assumptions can materially affect the fair value and ultimately how much stock-based compensation expense is recognized. These inputs are subjective and generally require significant analysis and judgment to develop.

As there has been no public market for our common stock to date, the estimated fair value of our common stock has been determined by our board of directors as of the date of each option grant, with input from management, considering our most recently available third-party valuations of common stock, and our board of directors’ assessment of additional objective and subjective factors that it believed were relevant and which may have changed

In addition to considering the results of these third-party valuations, our board of directors considered both objective and subjective factors, including:

The following table presents the grant dates of shares subject to awards from January 1, 2019 through the date of this prospectus, along with the corresponding exercise price for each option grant and our estimate of the fair

Expected Term—We have opted to use the “simplified method” for estimating the expected term of options, whereby the expected term equals the arithmetic average of the vesting term and the original contractual term of the option (10 years).

Expected Volatility—Due to our limited operating history and a lack of company specific historical and implied volatility data, we have based our estimate of expected volatility on the historical volatility of a group of similar companies that are publicly traded. The historical volatility data was computed using the daily closing prices for the selected companies’ shares during the equivalent period of the calculated expected term of the stock-based awards.

Risk-Free Interest Rate—The risk-free rate assumption is based on the U.S. Treasury instruments with maturities similar to the expected term of our stock options.

Expected Dividend—We have not issued any dividends in our history and do not expect to issue dividends over the life of the options and therefore have estimated the dividend yield to be zero.

The assumptions underlying these valuations represented management’s best estimate, which involved inherent uncertainties and the application of management’s judgment. As a result, if we had used significantly different

Estimates of the fair value of common stock will not be necessary to determine the fair value of new awards once the underlying shares begin trading publicly.

We have issued warrants exercisable into Series A-2 redeemable convertible preferred stock and Series D redeemable convertible preferred stock in connection with debt issuances. These warrants are classified as liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets as we determined that they meet the definition of a freestanding financial instrument since they are legally detachable and also determined that such instruments represent forward sale contracts on redeemable shares and, accordingly, the instruments should be accounted for as a liability separate from the redeemable convertible preferred stock. They are reported at fair value at inception with an allocation of the proceeds from the debt issued. We remeasure these liabilities to fair value at each reporting date, and immediately prior to exercise or settlement, and recognize changes in the fair value of the liabilities in our consolidated statements of operations recorded as “change in fair value of warrants.” The Series A-2 Preferred Stock Warrant was exercised on May 11, 2021, at an exercise price of $12.58608 per share for 3,178 shares of Series A-2 redeemable convertible preferred stock.

The fair value of the liabilities was determined using a Black-Scholes option pricing model, which considered inputs including, but not limited to, exercise price, estimated fair value of the applicable redeemable convertible preferred stock, volatility, expected term, and risk-free interest rate.

Refer to Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” in the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements.

The JOBS Act permits an emerging growth company such as us to take advantage of an extended transition period to comply with new or revised accounting standards applicable to public companies until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to avail ourselves of this exemption and, therefore, we will not be subject to new or revised accounting standards at the same time that they become applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies until such time that we either (i) irrevocably elect to “opt out” of such extended transition period or (ii) no longer qualify as an emerging growth company. See “Prospectus Summary—Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company.”

We are also a smaller reporting company meaning that the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates plus the proposed aggregate amount of gross proceeds to us as a result of this offering is less than $700.0 million and our annual revenue was less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company after this offering if either (i) the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250.0 million or (ii) our annual revenue was less than $100.0 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700.0 million. To the extent we continue to qualify as a smaller reporting company after we cease to qualify as an emerging growth company, we will

We believe that traditional bulk methods of proteomics analysis, which analyze proteins in bulk samples made up of many different types of cells, lack quality single cell resolution. Single cell biology has become highly valuable to the life sciences industry because individual core cell types underlying a specific disease (for example, tumor cells, immune cells, and cells of the central nervous system) look and act very differently. Single cell biology provides deep insights into variations among each individual cell’s behavior, such as underlying disease activity and therapeutic response. Traditional bulk proteomic analyses fail to provide these insights as they focus on average cell activity in the aggregate. For example, in cell therapy, where heterogeneous populations of immune cells are engineered to combat tumors, traditional bulk proteomic methods are not designed to identify the unique immune cell subsets that contribute most significantly to effective treatment responses. At the same time, while the genome of single cells has been explored in depth, genomics has limitations on accurately predicting treatment resistance, which often results from tumor protein signaling adaptations rather than genetic aberrations. In oncology, while genomics has been used to reveal mutations that reside along druggable pathways, therapeutics targeting these pathways have only marginally improved patient outcomes, with almost universal and rapid development of drug resistance. We believe that our platform can capture a more complete view of the functional biological drivers of disease and therapeutic response.

We designed our platform to reveal functional protein biology and cellular signaling networks at single cell resolution to accelerate the development of advanced medicines. The drivers of efficacy and toxicity are heavily impacted by cytokines, or extracellular functional proteins, through which certain individual cells send and receive signals. Additionally, disease progression and treatment resistance are heavily impacted by the intracellular signaling proteins, in particular phosphoproteins, which dictate the functional state of any cell. We believe that directly capturing the full range of intracellular and extracellular functional proteins is critical to analyzing the efficacy of therapies, identifying biomarkers suitable for druggable targets, and modifying therapeutics that are not generating the intended result. In contrast to traditional bulk methods of proteomics, which can only produce estimates of aggregated levels of functional proteins, our technology fills a critical knowledge gap by directly detecting the full range of intracellular and extracellular functional proteins within a sample.

Our platform is an end-to-end solution comprised of our proprietary IsoLight and IsoSpark instruments, IsoCode and CodePlex chip consumables, and IsoSpeak software. Our IsoLight and IsoSpark instruments are designed to be fully-automated benchtop proteomic hubs. Our IsoCode chips utilize our core technology leveraging our proteomic barcoding to capture single cell protein information. Our recently introduced CodePlex chips leverage our core technology to assay multiplexed bulk proteins from very low volumes. Our IsoSpeak software interprets this data and is capable of rapidly returning comprehensive data figures in a format that would be suitable for inclusion in a research publication submission and is also capable of producing advanced visualizations to reveal key insights. We believe that our platform overcomes many of the limitations of traditional bulk proteomic workflows, which can be capital intensive, time consuming and laborious, require multiple instruments and many manual steps, and may only be capable of analyzing small numbers of functional proteins at a time. Our platform supports multiple applications, including in cancer immunology, cell and gene therapy, infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases.

Our current product offering supports a variety of applications that are broadly used for translational, preclinical and clinical development of advanced medicines, representing an initial $12 billion addressable market opportunity based on management estimates. This cumulative market spend accounts for an installed base of approximately 55,000 instruments, in line with mature protein and cell biology technologies such as flow cytometry and multiplexed proteomics. Our relevant end users span the range of biopharmaceutical companies and academic and research institutions worldwide, which in the aggregate cover approximately 5,500 advanced medicines programs in both preclinical and clinical stages. In addition to our currently targeted addressable market opportunity in advanced medicines, we have recently expanded our capabilities with intracellular protein detection IsoCode chip products, which are designed to improve discovery biology as a bridge to the earlier development of advanced medicines. We believe this represents an incremental $12 billion addressable market opportunity. Expanding our chip solution portfolio is a key factor in enabling us to expand our capabilities into applications for infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases.

As of June 30, 2021, we have placed 150 systems globally, including at each of the top 15 global biopharmaceutical companies by revenue and nearly half of the comprehensive cancer centers in the United States. As of June 30, 2021, we employed a commercial team of approximately 170 team members. We market and sell our platform, which is currently marketed to customers as research use only, through a direct sales channel in North America and specific regions in Europe. Additionally, we utilize twelve distributor relationships to market and sell our products in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

We designed our platform to reveal functional protein biology and cellular signaling networks at single cell resolution to accelerate the development of advanced medicines and improve patient outcomes by revealing treatment response and disease progression. Use of our platform has generated approximately 55 predictive data sets and our technology has been referenced in approximately 81 publications. We believe that our platform offers several advantages over existing proteomic and cellular analysis technologies, including:

Our platform is an end-to-end solution comprised of our proprietary IsoLight and IsoSpark instruments, IsoCode and CodePlex chip consumables, and IsoSpeak software, spanning multiple applications. Once a sample is loaded onto our proprietary “proteomic barcoded” IsoCode or CodePlex chips, highly sensitive software-enabled

Our platform leverages a series of chambers that capture single cells, where each separate chamber enables multiplexed protein detection reactions simultaneously, or in a parallelized fashion. The highly multiplexed number of functional proteins per cell quantified by our platform’s proteomic barcoding has led to correlative insights in cancer immunology, cell and gene therapy, infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases.

Our IsoLight and IsoSpark instruments, both Red Dot Design Award winners, run our IsoCode and CodePlex chips, enabling high-throughput analysis of functional proteins from single cells and low sample volume bulk with a fully-automated workflow. The IsoLight has a footprint of 28.5 inches while the IsoSpark is a compact 18 inches. Both instruments are comprised of four modules:

Our IsoCode single cell chip solutions provide highly multiplexed applications to capture the functional extracellular and intracellular proteome.

Our single cell extracellular protein detection chip solution, which we also refer to as our single cell extracellular proteome solution, works through a series of steps:

Similarly, our single cell intracellular protein detection chip solution, which we also refer to as our single cell intracellular proteome solution, works through a series of similar steps:

In each case, our IsoLight or IsoSpark then detects the concentration of these proteins per cell and determines the protein profile of each single cell.

Our CodePlex chip solutions provide highly multiplexed applications to capture the functional extracellular and intracellular proteome from low volume of bulk protein samples, rather than from single cells. These extracellular and intracellular proteome solutions work through a series of steps:

Our IsoLight or IsoSpark then detects the concentration of these proteins in bulk and determines the protein profile of each sample.

Our IsoSpeak software, an Edison Award winner, takes complex high dimensional data and automates analysis with an intuitive push button user interface to deliver same day single cell and bulk proteome visualizations without the need for highly specialized informatics professionals. The software works by retaining the images of the proteins detected on the IsoLight or IsoSpark, analyzing the images for concentrations of those proteins using fluorescence and then converting the information into actionable insights through various data visualizations.

Our Services

In addition to selling our products, we leverage our platform to provide research support and services to our customers. We process samples from certain of our customers using our platform and return to these customers the immune response data generated from their samples. We also provide post-warranty services to our customers who have purchased our instruments.

Our IsoCode single cell intracellular proteome solution simultaneously measures multiple intracellular protein signaling networks at the single cell level, allowing for detection of critical protein-to-protein interactions and signaling networks in rare cells and cell subsets. These various protein signaling networks form the basis of both functional and dysfunctional activity in a wide variety of cell types. Our single cell intracellular proteome solution enables a better understanding of these signaling networks, which can then be applied to treat dysfunction in tumor cells and to facilitate activation of key immune cell types earlier in the therapeutic discovery process. The ability to target these signaling networks provides access to serve a discovery-focused market, enabling us to address opportunities in the fields of infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases.

Our CodePlex bulk extracellular proteome and intracellular proteome solutions provide means to achieve highly multiplexed, low sample volume proteomics. CodePlex requires up to 10 times less sample volume versus other comparable methods of analyses, opening up opportunities for precious sample analysis in preclinical and clinical studies. The CodePlex solution enables automated proteomic analyses on customers’ benchtops within one IsoLight or IsoSpark system, eliminating the need for multi-instrument workflows that require technician expertise to run. Our CodePlex solution is used across multiple applications for assaying proteins from blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and tracheal samples in both preclinical and clinical studies in the fields of cancer immunology and cell and gene

Each of the case studies described below leveraged our IsoCode single cell extracellular proteome solution by detecting immune cell protein responses within our IsoCode chip and detecting unique extracellular protein signatures from subsets of these immune cells that predicted or correlated with treatment response or disease progression. The unique extracellular protein signature in each case study was defined by the ability of the cells to produce multiple proteins simultaneously, which we refer to as a sample having polyfunctional strength, or PSI.

Additional studies have shown correlations between biomarkers identified using our platform and the ability to predict responses across different types of immunotherapy studies.

Our current product offering supports a variety of applications which are broadly used for translational, preclinical and clinical development of advanced medicines, representing an initial $12 billion addressable market opportunity based on management estimates. This cumulative market spend accounts for an installed base of approximately 55,000 instruments, in line with mature protein and cell biology technologies such as flow cytometry and multiplexed proteomics. Within this addressable market, our relevant end users span the range of biopharmaceutical companies and academic and research institutions worldwide, which cover approximately 5,500 advanced medicines programs in both preclinical and clinical stages.

In addition to our currently targeted addressable market opportunity in advanced medicines, we have recently expanded our capabilities with our intracellular protein detection IsoCode chip products, which are designed to improve discovery biology as a bridge to earlier development of advanced medicines. We believe this represents an incremental $12 billion addressable market opportunity. Additionally, we are pursuing a range of integrated applications around sequencing and proteomic analytes from single cells, which will enable further applications for discovery biology. Expanding our chip solution portfolio is a key factor in enabling us to expand our capabilities into applications for infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases. Furthermore, our long term strategy is ultimately to add additional applications serving clinical diagnostics research that will allow us to serve additional markets we believe to be worth approximately $10 billion. We expect that our initial entry into the clinical diagnostics market will start with our CodePlex solution for low volume bulk proteomics as it provides accessibility to end users through automation. We believe investments in these areas will provide access to a potential $34 billion total addressable market.

Our goal is to establish our platform as a leading proteomic workflow solution in the life sciences industry. In pursuit of that goal, the key elements of our growth strategy include:

We believe that our platform is a critical tool that provides new and accessible layers of biological data at the single cell level, and the ability to capture the functional extracellular and intracellular proteome from single cells for the first time. We believe that our platform is well positioned to fundamentally advance therapeutic discovery

As of June 30, 2021, we have placed 150 systems worldwide within leading biopharmaceutical companies and academic and research institutions in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Utilizing our multi-channel sales and distribution network, we intend to continue engaging with the global life sciences community to grow our installed base and expand the number of instruments within organizations that are already utilizing our technology to advance their research and therapeutic development. Outside of North America, we intend to leverage our distributor partnerships across four continents to expand our presence, with an emphasis on the China market.

We founded our company to help solve critical challenges to accelerating advanced medicines and since our inception, we have developed multiple applications spanning cancer immunology, cell and gene therapy, infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases. We intend to continue promoting our platform to help

As we continue to deploy our platform, we intend to concurrently expand the breadth of applications for our technologies to encourage increased use of our platform across our addressable markets. At present, we believe we have the ability to reveal insights in functional proteomics in new therapeutic classes and indications, such as infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases. Our goal is to continue innovating and bringing new products to market as new areas of therapeutic development emerge.

We currently market and sell our technology with an in-house commercial team in the United States and Europe. We are also utilizing our distribution network to market and sell across multiple countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Italy, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and Switzerland. We intend to further expand our international presence by growing our distribution networks in Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and beyond.

We intend to further develop our product roadmap to integrate sequencing and functional proteomic biology from single cells to enable novel applications in discovery biology.biology through our newest product, Duomic. Currently, single cell solutions are limited in their ability to detect genomic and transcriptomic information and functional proteins concurrently from single cells. Based on our core technology leveraging our proteomic barcoding, Duomic utilizes our existing instrumentation to give researchers the ability to simultaneously measure functional protein and gene expression levels from the same cell. We believe that the ability to modulate and modify genomic activity in cells and detect genomic impacts can be enhanced by verifying the proteomic, or functional, impacts concurrently from the same cell. Our technology’s ability to reveal this multi-omic connectivity across cellular pathways may be able to provide earlier therapeutic insights for developers of advanced medicines.

We launched our first product in June 2018 and have sold our products primarily to biopharmaceutical companies and academic and research institutions. Market adoption has accelerated since our initial commercial launch with 35 instruments sold in 2019 and 58 instruments in 2020, and as of June 30, 2021, we have sold a total of 150 systems. We have a global customer base with 115 systems placed in North America, 14 in EMEA and 21 in Asia-Pacific, in each case as of June 30, 2021.

We continue to invest in our commercial team of approximately 170 people as of June 30, 2021, including approximately 30 sales representatives. We also intend to build a direct salesforce in China that leverages our distributor relationships and other third parties. Beyond our direct salesforce, we have relationships with twelve distributors covering countries including Australia, Canada, China, Italy, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and Switzerland.

Continued investment in research and development is critical to the commercialization of our future products. Our deep product and application roadmap represents one of the key growth drivers of instrument and consumable sales. We intend to expand our intellectual property and research capabilities through internally developed efforts, in conjunction with strategic partners and by acquiring technology.

Our research and development teams, located in Branford, Connecticut, design and develop our proprietary products utilizing and combining expertise in single cell biology, fluidics, optics, informatics, hardware and software engineering. Our collaborative approach across disciplines helps lead to advancements in technology development

We intend to focus our research and development efforts on developing new high value, highly differentiated applications that unlock new proteomically driven biology and drive the future of disease understanding and development of advanced medicines. Our focus in the near term includes new applications for infectious diseases, inflammatory conditions, and neurological diseases.

We intend to focus on developing new panels, protocols, and analyte targets for each application family to cover the full range of our customers biological needs. Our research and development efforts in this area are centered on expanding our menu of test panels for single cell extracellular proteomics, single cell intracellular proteomics and low volume bulk proteomics to include, for example, tumor metabolome panels for single cell and low volume bulk analysis. Our focus in the near term also includes releasing protocols for additional types of immune cells, tumor cells and neural cells.

We also intend to focus on integrating proteomics technologies with sequencing-based technologies to extend existing capacities in single cell biology.biology through our newest product, Duomic. Based on our core technology leveraging our proteomic barcoding, Duomic utilizes our existing instrumentation to give researchers the ability to simultaneously measure functional protein and gene expression levels from the same cell. We believe that this integration will enable a better understanding of the connections between the genome, transcriptome and the proteome, and will have applications for cancer immunology, cell and gene therapy and neurological diseases.

Additionally, we also intend to focus on developing software that automates and streamlines advanced analytics, enabling immediate insights, and working with clinical partners to put in place validated tests that build a long-term path to clinical usage of our solutions.

Our research and development costs were $10.1 million and $11.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively, and $5.0 million and $9.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively. As of June 30, 2021, we employed 90 employees in research and development. We will continue investing in efforts to support the ongoing development of our instruments, chip consumables and software, as well as enhance the overall performance of our solutions.

As of June 30, 2021, we employed 386 employees. Of these employees, 90 were engaged in research and development activities, and we employed a commercial team of approximately 170 team members. 354 of these employees are located in the United States and 32 of these employees are located across Europe and Asia. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or are party to a collective bargaining agreement, and we have had no labor-related work stoppages.

Our human capital resources objectives include, as applicable, identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors and consultants. The principal purposes of our equity incentive plans are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of stock-based and compensation awards, in order to increase stockholder value and the success of our company by motivating such individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives.

We have assembled a highly qualified scientific advisory board composed of advisors who have deep expertise in the fields of nanotechnology, biomedical engineering and medicine. Our scientific advisory board is composed of Rong Fan, Ph.D. (our co-founder and chair of the scientific advisory board), James R. Heath, Ph.D., David Ho, M.D., Arnold Levine, Ph.D., Ross Levine, M.D., and Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D.

Our principal executive offices are located in Branford, Connecticut, where we lease approximately 14,674 square feet of office and manufacturing space. The lease for our principal executive offices is currently scheduled to terminate on July 31, 2025. In addition to our principal executive offices, we lease additional offices and manufacturing space in Branford, Connecticut and additional offices in Campbell, California, Kent, England and Shanghai, China.

We do not currently own any real property. We believe that our current facilities are adequate to meet our immediate needs and believe that we should be able to renew each of our leases without an adverse impact on our operations. In addition, we believe that if we require additional office space or manufacturing facilities, we will be able to obtain additional facilities on commercially reasonable terms.

We face significant competition in the life sciences technology market. We currently compete with many established technology companies in the flow cytometry, cellular analysis and single cell -omics businesses. This includes companies that design, manufacture and market systems, consumables and software for, among other applications, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, single cell analysis and immunology, and/or provide services related to the same. These companies include Becton, Dickinson and Company, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., each of which has products that compete to varying degrees with some but not all of our products. Growing understanding of the importance of single cell information is leading to more companies offering services related to collecting such information. Our target customers may also elect to develop their workflows on legacy systems or using traditional methods, rather than implementing our platform, and they may also decide to stop using our platform. In addition, there are many large established players in the life sciences technology market that we do not currently compete with but that could develop systems, tools or other products that will compete with us in the future. These large established companies have substantially greater financial and other resources than us, including larger research and development staff or more established marketing and sales forces.

Pursuant to the Patent Purchase Agreement described in the section titled “Prospectus Summary—Recent Developments,” we purchased a collection of issued patents and patent applications. The issued patents and patent applications purchased that are material to our business include the following:

We expect to utilize the patents purchased pursuant to the Patent Purchase Agreement to develop new products integrating our proprietary proteomics technologies with sequencing-based technologies to expand our existing capacities in single cell biology.

Our owned issued patents that are material to our business are summarized in tabular form below:

We intend to pursue additional intellectual property protection to the extent we believe it would be beneficial and cost-effective. Our ability to stop third parties from making, using or commercializing any of our patented inventions will depend in part on our success in obtaining, defending and enforcing patent claims that cover our technology, inventions, and improvements. With respect to both our owned and in-licensed intellectual property, we cannot provide any assurance that any of our current or future patent applications will result in the issuance of patents in any particular jurisdiction, or that any of our current or future issued patents will effectively protect any of our products or technology from infringement or prevent others from commercializing infringing products or technology.

In addition to our reliance on patent protection for our inventions, products and technologies, we also seek to protect our brand through the procurement of trademark rights. We own registered trademarks and pending trademark applications for “IsoPlexis,” “IsoLight,” “IsoSpark” and other product related brand names in the United

Yale University

In April 2014, we entered into a license agreement (as amended and restated in July 2014 and November 2015, and as further amended in December 2016, January 2018 and July 2021, the “Yale Agreement”) with Yale University (“Yale”). Pursuant to the Yale Agreement, we obtained an exclusive, royalty-bearing, sublicensable (subject to certain restrictions), worldwide license to certain patent rights and certain information related to (i) multiplexed detection to manufacture, use and commercialize products in all fields of use and (ii) high-throughput single-cell polyomics to manufacture, use and commercialize products in all fields of use except in the field of spatial biomolecular analysis. We also obtained a non-exclusive license to certain patent rights and certain information related to high-throughput single-cell polyomics to manufacture, use and commercialize products in the field of spatial biomolecular analysis. The license granted pursuant to the Yale Agreement is subject to certain rights retained by (i) the United States government under the Bayh-Dole Act and (ii) Yale (on behalf of itself and other non-profit academic and/or research institutions) to make, practice and use the licensed patent rights and licensed products for research, clinical, teaching and other non-commercial purposes. Such rights retained by the United States government and Yale are typical for a license from a U.S. university or research institution, and we believe