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Stock-Based Compensation and Employee Benefit Plans
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2024
Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]  
Stock-Based Compensation and Employee Benefit Plans Stock-Based Compensation and Employee Benefit Plans
2020 Equity Incentive Plan
In September 2020, the Company adopted the 2020 Stock Incentive Plan (the “2020 Plan”) which, as of the adoption date, replaced the 2016 Stock Incentive Plan. Under the 2020 Plan, the share reserve automatically increases on January 1st of each year beginning in 2021 and ending with a final increase on January 1, 2030 in an amount equal to 4% of the Company’s outstanding common stock on December 31st of the preceding calendar year. The Board may provide that there will be no increase in the share reserve for any such year or that the increase in the share reserve may be smaller than would otherwise occur. On January 1, 2024, the share reserve automatically increased by 1,890,404 shares. As of March 31, 2024, there were 3,645,422 shares available for future grants. The 2020 Plan permits the granting of options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), performance stock and performance cash awards. The terms of the agreements under the 2020 Plan are determined by the Board. The Company’s awards generally vest over four years and have a term of 10 years. The Company has also granted options that are subject to certain market-based vesting conditions.
2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan
The 2020 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “2020 ESPP”) became effective in October 2020. Eligible employees may purchase shares of common stock under the 2020 ESPP at 85% of the lower of the fair market value of the Company’s common stock as of the first or the last day of each offering period. Employees are limited to contributing 15% of the employee’s eligible compensation and may not purchase more than $25,000 of stock during any calendar year or more than 600 shares during any one purchase period. The 2020 ESPP share reserve automatically increases on January 1st of each calendar year, for ten years, commencing on January 1, 2021, in an amount equal to 1% of the total number of shares of common stock outstanding on December 31st of the preceding calendar year. The Board may act prior to January 1st of a given year to provide that there will be no January 1st increase of the share reserve for such year or that the increase in the share reserve for such year will be a smaller number of shares of common stock than would otherwise occur pursuant to the preceding sentence. On January 1, 2024, the share reserve increased by 472,601 shares of common stock. As of March 31, 2024, there were 1,670,189
shares available for future grants. During the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, the Company issued 7,286 and 11,171 shares of common stock for aggregate cash proceeds of less than $0.1 million.
The Company recorded stock-based compensation expense in the following expense categories of its accompanying unaudited interim condensed statements of operations and comprehensive loss (in thousands):

Three Months Ended March 31,
20242023
Research and development$1,255 $814 
General and administrative1,221 869 
Total stock-based compensation$2,476 $1,683 
The following table summarizes option activity under the 2020 Plan:
Options
Weighted
Average
Exercise Price
Weighted
Average
Remaining Life
(Years)
Balance at December 31, 20234,942,164 $7.21 7.62
Granted1,784,068 9.94 
Exercised(138,555)4.30 
Forfeited(118,818)10.48 
Balance at March 31, 20246,468,859 $7.96 7.86
Vested and expected to vest6,134,411 $7.93 7.78
Exercisable at the end of the period3,043,909 $7.89 6.47
Options granted during the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 had weighted-average grant-date fair values of $7.85 and $2.46 per share, respectively. As of March 31, 2024, the unrecognized compensation cost for options issued was $17.7 million and will be recognized over an estimated weighted-average amortization period of 2.65 years. The total intrinsic value of options exercised during the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 was $0.6 million and $0.1 million, respectively. The aggregate intrinsic value of options outstanding and exercisable as of March 31, 2024 was $12.4 million.
Restricted Stock Units
The following table summarizes employee RSU activity for the three months ended March 31, 2024:
Awards
Weighted
Average
Grant Date Fair Value
Unvested RSUs as of December 31, 2023
590,403 $4.80 
Granted638,476 10.09 
Released(156,803)5.16 
Forfeited(31,455)4.97 
Unvested RSUs as of March 31, 2024
1,040,621 $7.99 
The Company recognized $0.5 million and $0.2 million of stock-based compensation cost related to RSUs as of March 31, 2024 and 2023. As of March 31, 2024, the unrecognized compensation cost for RSUs issued was $6.8 million and will be recognized over an estimated weighted-average amortization period of 3.29 years. The fair values of RSUs are based on the fair value of the Company’s common stock on the date of the grant.
Fair Value of Stock Options and Shares Issued
The Company accounts for stock-based compensation by measuring and recognizing as compensation expense the fair value of all share-based payment awards made to employees, including employee stock options and restricted stock awards. The Company uses the Black-Scholes option pricing model to estimate the fair value of employee stock options that only have service or performance conditions. The Company uses the Monte Carlo pricing model to estimate the fair value of options that have market-based conditions. The inputs to both pricing models require a number of management estimates such as the expected term, volatility, risk-free interest rate and dividend yield. The fair value of stock options was determined using the methods and assumptions discussed below.
•The expected term of employee stock options with service-based vesting is determined using the “simplified” method, whereby the expected life equals the arithmetic average of the vesting term and the original contractual term of the option due to the Company’s lack of sufficient historical data.
•The expected stock price volatility assumption is based on the historical volatilities of the common stock of a peer group of publicly traded companies as well as the historical volatility of the Company’s common stock since the Company began trading subsequent to the Company’s initial public offering (“IPO”) in October 2020 over the period corresponding to the expected life as of the grant date. The historical volatility data was computed using the daily closing prices during the equivalent period of the calculated expected term of the stock-based awards. The Company will continue to apply this process until a sufficient amount of historical information regarding the volatility of the Company’s stock price becomes available, or until circumstances change, such that the identified entities are no longer comparable companies. In the latter case, other suitable, similar entities whose share prices are publicly available would be utilized in the calculation.
•The risk-free interest rate is based on the interest rate payable on U.S. Treasury securities in effect at the time of grant for a period that is commensurate with the expected term.
•The expected dividend yield is 0% because the Company has not historically paid, and does not expect, for the foreseeable future, to pay dividends on its common stock.
•Prior to the Company’s IPO, the Board periodically estimated the fair value of the Company’s common stock considering, among other things, contemporaneous valuations of its common stock prepared by an unrelated third-party valuation firm. Subsequent to the Company’s IPO, options are issued with a strike price no less than the market price on date of grant.
The grant-date fair value of options calculated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model granted under the Company’s 2020 Plan were estimated using the following weighted-average assumptions:
Three Months Ended March 31,
20242023
2020 Plan:
Expected term - years6.086.08
Expected volatility95.8%84.8%
Risk-free interest rate4.0%3.5%
Expected dividends——
The grant-date fair value of options calculated using the Monte Carlo option pricing model granted under the Company’s 2020 Plan were estimated using the following assumptions:
Three Months Ended March 31,
20242023
2020 Plan:
Expected term - years0.004.00
Expected volatility— %80.0 %
Risk-free interest rate— %3.6 %
Expected dividends— — 
The grant-date fair value of shares issued calculated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model under the Company’s 2020 ESPP were estimated using the following weighted-average assumptions:
Three Months Ended March 31,
20242023
2020 ESPP:
Expected term - years0.500.49
Expected volatility158.6 %84.8 %
Risk-free interest rate5.1 %3.5 %
Expected dividends— —