Aspen Aerogels, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Aspen Aerogels Q1 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants are listening on remote. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, John Fairbanks. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for the Aspen Aerogels conference call. I'm John Fairbanks, Aspen's Chief Financial Officer. There are a few housekeeping items that I would like to address before turning the call over to Don Young, Aspen's President and CEO. The press release announcing Aspen's financial results and business developments, as well as a reconciliation of management's use of non-GAAP financial measures compared to the most applicable GAAP measures, is available on the investor section of Aspen's website, www.arangel.com. Included in the press release is a summary statement of operations, a summary balance sheet, and a summary of statistics for the first quarter ended March 31st. The investor section of Aspen's website will contain an archived version of this webcast. Please note that our discussion today will include forward-looking statements. including any statement regarding outlook, expectations, beliefs, projections, estimates, targets, prospects, business plans, and any other statement is not a historical fact. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Aspen Aerogel's actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. A list of factors that could affect the company's actual results ...be found in Aspen's press release issued today and are discussed in more detail in the reports Aspen files with the SEC per recent annual report on Form 10-K. The company's press release issued today and filings with the SEC can also be found in the investor section of Aspen's website. The forward-looking statements made today represent the company's views as of today, April 29th, 2021. Aspen Aerogels disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances. During this call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA. These financial measures are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or to substitute the results prepared in accordance with GAAP. The definitions and reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures are the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, and a discussion of why we present these non-GAAP financial measures are included in today's press release. I'll now turn the call over to Don.

Thank you, John. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for our Q1 2021 earnings call. Today, I will describe the opportunities of creation over the next five years and will provide a progress report on our strategic initiatives. John will recap our Q1 performance and finish with our updated outlook for 2021. We will conclude today's call with a Q&A session. The key points from my comments today are, first, we are now developing and supplying prototype and production thermal barriers to five of the ten largest automotive OEMs. Second, Aston Battery Materials has received requests from five battery and automotive companies for evaluation samples of our carbon aerogel materials. And finally, our energy infrastructure business is showing early signs of a post-pandemic rebound, including a new LNG win. At the time of our last earnings call, we posted a new company presentation on our points captured in that deck to appreciate our full potential. It is important to understand our strategy, the scope of our opportunities, and the progress we're making to create value. Leveraging our Aerogel technology platform is at the core of our strategy to be a global technology leader in sustainability, with a focus on multibillion-dollar opportunities in high-growth, high-value markets, and on creating a proprietary, diverse, and valuable business. We have several opportunities currently in motion that fit this profile, with the spectrum being phased to those in full commercial mode. I will discuss three of them today. Pyro-thin thermal barriers, which we believe represent an opportunity through this decade of $30 billion. Acid battery materials, which we believe represents an opportunity through this decade of over $35 billion. And pyrogel and crowd gel products for energy infrastructure, which we believe represent an opportunity through this decade of over $30 billion. Our pyro-thin thermal barriers allow EV manufacturers to manage thermal runaway. Thermal runaway battery pack has a sudden release of energy that can result in a fire and is a challenge for all EV battery platforms. Pyro-thin thermal barriers are designed to impede the propagation of thermal runaway and to reduce the severity of the event. Aspen's technology offers a unique combination of performance attributes that enable critical safety goals without sacrificing drive range.