Such pitfalls in the land of startups are not exclusive to the bright lights of the autonomous vehicle sector - but any new, tech-driven market is bound to attract an above-average share of problems for new businesses.
The Quanergy story should be seen as a good illustration of how many elements - marketing, partnerships, contracts, press, technology - need to align for a business to succeed, let along become a unicorn.
Quanergy Systems found itself in the center of a sudden frenzy over self-driving cars in 2014. It makes lidar, which bounces lasers off objects to help autonomous cars know what’s nearby.
That September, the fledgling company announced a partnership with Mercedes-Benz that would put its devices on cars the automaker was using to test autonomous driving features.
Other deals followed. Quanergy led the pack, as investors poured money into companies describing new techniques for lidar devices. It has raised $160 million to date at a peak valuation of more than $1.5 billion.
Last fall, Quanergy began talking to banks about a potential IPO, setting it up to be one of the first public companies to emerge from the wave of firms making tech for autonomous vehicles.
Then things started going awry.