Alarum Technologies - Q1 2023
May 30, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Alarum Technologies First Quarter 2023 Corporate Update Conference Call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be opened for questions. If you have a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment, please lift the handset before making your selections. This conference is being recorded today, May thirtieth, 2023. Before we get started, I will read a disclaimer about forward-looking statements. This conference call may contain, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws.
Forward-looking statements include statements about plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events of performance and underlying assumptions, and other statements that are different than historical fact. These forward-looking statements are based on current management expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may result in expectations not being realized and may cause actual outcomes to differ materially from expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include those discussed under the heading Risk Factors in Alarum's Annual Report on Form 20-F, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 31st, 2023, and any subsequent filings with the SEC. All such forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, made on behalf of the company, are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements, and such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that we caution you not to place undue reliance on these.
At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Shachar Daniel, the company's CEO. The floor is yours.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Thank you very much. Welcome everyone to Alarum Technologies first quarter 2023 Earnings Results conference call. As is customary, with me is Shai Avnit, our Chief Financial Officer. Today, I will provide a brief review of our business operations, summarize our accomplishments, including the pivotal milestone of achieving positive Adjusted EBITDA for the first time in our history. Then I will turn the call over to Shai, who will discuss our first quarter financial results before we open the call to questions. Before we begin, I want to quickly note, the reconciliation tables for any non-GAAP or non-IFRS metrics referenced on this call are available in the press release we published earlier today.
With that said, I would like to start by saying I'm incredibly proud of the entire Alarum team for their contributions to our first ever positive cash flow from operating activities and positive Adjusted EBITDA quarter, alongside our ninth consecutive quarters of revenue growth. Reaching positive cash flow from operating activities and Adjusted EBITDA for the first time is a major milestone for Alarum, and achieving it while sustaining substantial growth is an extraordinary achievement. A key driver for this performance was our enterprise Internet access arm, NetNut, which operates in the fast-growing data access market and become profitable on an IFRS basis for the first time during the first quarter. After doubling NetNut network infrastructure last year, we now have the capacity to support and process billions of clients requests, which helped us drive rapid growth in the first quarter.
Our expanding global presence is being met with surging demand and rapid adoption, which helped drive monthly subscriptions. We are proud to see NetNut becoming one of the strongest and best-known brands in its field in North America and Europe. We are thrilled to witness similar access in the Asian market. To support our scaling efforts, we have expanded our original sales team and developed meaningful partnerships, investments that have already yielded new large customers. NetNut's performance can be further attributed to the high level of customer satisfaction with our network performance and offerings. As a result, we have seen increased customer retention, a spike in new directed traffic to our network, and a rise in our customer spending. As the data and Internet access solution market continues to develop and expand, we feel well positioned to capitalize on this growing interest.
One such development that we are capitalizing on can be seen in our first quarter entrance into the end-to-end retail AI market. Retail intelligence data vendors play a crucial role in providing retailers, brand owners, and e-commerce businesses with the ability to track and analyze the entire retail process, from product sourcing to consumer purchasing. These platforms offer valuable insight into pricing and availability, product reviews, inventory analytics, competitive pricing intelligence, store analytics, and more. By analyzing this data, businesses can uncover hidden opportunities and make better informed decisions, ultimately leading to the development of effective retail strategies. NetNut's cloud services empowers retail intelligence vendors to collect retail data at scale from multiple websites and data sources worldwide. By utilizing our service, vendor can access essential business-related data without the need to develop complex data collection solutions, allowing them to focus on their core business.
In today's data-driven world, accessing large amounts of data is imperative for businesses across various sectors, providing a wealth opportunity for us. NetNut's innovative platform, which combines data collection scale and anonymously, enable us to provide targeted data for retailers that help businesses make data-driven decisions such as understanding customer behavior, optimizing supply chain management, gaining insight into the competition, identifying new opportunities, and ultimately enhancing their business functions and profitability. On the consumer side, where we employ a more flexible business model, we launched a new white label internet access privacy solution after the quarter's end. Part of a multi-month effort to enhance our service portfolio, we believe the launch of our new white label internet access privacy solution for consumers is opening up new opportunities for us outside our traditional customer base and will further drive our growth in the quarters ahead.
In addition to our marketing efforts, we are already in discussions with several vendors interested in offering this solution to their consumers under their own brands. Overall, we remain on a clear path to profitability, and our results showcase our ability to drive revenue growth while maintaining operational efficiency. Revenues increases to a record high of $5.7 million in the first quarter, up approximately 41% year-over-year and up nearly 10% sequentially. In addition to significantly growing revenues, as mentioned earlier, we generated our first-ever positive Adjusted EBITDA during the first quarter, a major milestone for us and a tremendous improvement over the Adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.2 million in the year-ago period. We believe that our ability to successfully manage our resources while maintaining growth positions us on the right path to accelerate journey to net profitability.
We recognize that reaching profitability is a critical milestone for our company, and we remain focused on achieving this goal while continuing to invest in our products and services. We also believe that our efforts to optimize our resources have contributed to our financial position and will facilitate our substantial growth in the future as we continue to deliver exceptional value to our customers while balancing our growth with financial stability. I would now like to turn the call over to Shai to discuss the financials for the quarter in more detail. Shai?
Shai Avnit (CFO)
Thank you, Shachar, and hello, everyone. As I discussed our first quarter 2023 financial results, I will be making comparisons to the first quarter of 2022, as well as for the fourth quarter of 2022. Revenue for the first quarter of 2023 totaled $5.7 million, up approximately 41% over the $4 million generated in the first quarter of 2022. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, which saw revenues of $5.2 million, revenues were up nearly 10%. The 2023 first quarter revenues were driven primarily by organic growth in the enterprise access business revenues.
Gross profit increased to $3.8 million, up 77% from $2.1 million in the year-ago period, driven primarily by increased efficiency of resources in the enterprise internet access business and lower user acquisition costs in the consumer internet access business, all resulting in minimal increase in our cost of revenues relative to our strong revenue growth. This resulted in gross margins as a percentage of revenue of 66%, compared to 53% in first quarter of 2022. Our Q1 2023 operating expenses decreased 36% year-over-year to $4.2 million, down from $6.7 million in the first quarter of 2022.
This tremendous improvement was driven primarily by a 56% drop in general and administrative expenses as a result of the resolved patent proceeding in May 2022, a 28% decrease in sales and marketing expenses, and lower R&D expenses. As a result of the above changes in revenues and expenses, net loss for the first quarter of 2023 was $0.7 million, or $0.02 per share, down significantly from a net loss of $4.7 million, or $0.16 per share in the first quarter of 2022. As of March 31st, 2023, shareholders' equity totaled $12.9 million, or approximately $3.93 per outstanding American Depositary Share, compared to shareholders' equity of $13.3 million on December 31st, 2022.
The reduction is due mainly to the company's net loss during the quarter on IFRS basis. As of March 31, 2023, the company's cash and cash equivalents balance totaled $3.7 million, compared to $3.3 million on December 31, 2022. The company's cash balance does not account for up to an additional $2.2 million in funds available under its credit facility and investment financing. Lastly, I wanted to touch base on our share count as it stands today. On an outstanding basis, we have around 33 million ordinary shares, representing 3.3 million ADSs. On a fully diluted basis, we currently have around 50 million shares or 5 million ADSs outstanding. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Shachar.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Thanks, Shai. I would like to take a moment to reflect on Alarum's accomplishments and share our aspirations for the future. Today, Alarum stands as a testament to the ambitious goals we set for ourselves in recent years. Our key growth engines have been realized, and our significant competitive advantages have been crystallized. Both our financial and non-financial key metrics are moving in the right direction and align perfectly with our strategic vision. Not only did we achieve record revenue in the first quarter, but we also marked our ninth consecutive quarters of revenue growth and achieving our first-ever quarter of positive Adjusted EBITDA is an important mindstone on our path to profitability. We remain agile and committed to paving our way to profitability in the quarters ahead, while maximizing our long-term business potential through focused growth initiatives.
Regarding our share price, we acknowledge that there is a gap between the company's true performance and the market's perception of our business and achievements. Bridging this gap is one of our primary goals for 2023. We are dedicated to raising awareness about our sustainable growth and development, both in the U.S. and beyond. I also want to reiterate an important point made by Shai a moment ago. Our cash balance increased to $3.7 million during the first quarter, up from $3.3 million at the year-end of 2022. This does not account for up an additional $2.2 million in non-dilutive financing we have available to us. As such, we are in great position to continue executing and see no near-term scenario requiring us to raise additional funds.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to our shareholders for their trust, confidence, and ongoing support. As we look ahead, we have a well-defined strategic roadmap that encompasses technological innovation, continuous growth, and near-term profitability. We are optimistic about the future of Alarum and are diligently building our business plans to support our efforts for improved financial results. In closing, thank you for joining us today, and we look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming quarters. Now, I would like to open the call for any questions. Operator, please go ahead.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question as a reminder, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. Our first question comes from the line of Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed with your question.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Great. Thanks so much. Nice numbers. Can you quantify roughly what percentage of revenue comes from consumer versus enterprise and the year-over-year growth rates you saw during the first quarter? I'm interested in what drove also the best sequential quarter in revenue dollars in quite some time. Thanks.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Hi, Brian. Thank you. Regarding the split of the revenues, so around 60% for NetNut and 40% for our CyberKick, meaning around 60% for the enterprise business and around 40% for the consumer business. Brian, if you can repeat the other questions?
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Yeah, I'm curious, kind of the year-over-year growth rate, it sounds like NetNut's growing faster. It's maybe if you can roughly give us kind of year-over-year, you know, how these two businesses are growing?
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
year-over-year, meaning the split between, and, the enterprise-...
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Yeah. Did NetNut grow, 50%?
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Yeah, yeah.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
CyberKick grew 30%?
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Yeah, yeah. No problem. Shai, you want to take it? Shai? Shai, you are muted.
Shai Avnit (CFO)
Yes. Brian, do you mean, the ratio that we experienced during 2022?
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
No, no.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
In the first quarter of 2023, what were the year-over-year growth rates of enterprise versus consumer?
Shai Avnit (CFO)
the growth of enterprise versus consumer.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Shai.
Shai Avnit (CFO)
Each one of them?
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Shai, if you will take only the enterprise in the first quarter of 2022 versus the enterprise in the first quarter of 2023.
Shai Avnit (CFO)
Okay. It's not one against the other?
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
No, not against the other. Against the current.
Shai Avnit (CFO)
With respect to the enterprise or the consumer business, it was basically stable without the growth and the enterprise access for businesses or enterprises, it was almost double. It was about 90% growth year-over-year.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Yeah. Then as you think about the macro, you certainly did fantastic sequentially. Can you talk about the impact, if any, on both businesses, enterprise and consumer, and how these growth rates might change or not change?
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Okay, the impact of what, Brian?
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
The challenging macro.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
I think we discussed about it a few times in the last year because the challenging macro is here with us, I think that at least a year. At this point of time, we don't see any significant impact on the current situation. If the situation will become worse, you know, now we can never know, but if it will stay stable or even better for sure.
We didn't experience any real impact on the business, unless from the positive aspect, if things will start to get better in the world and we will see that the growth has become better and better, then we know that the potential is even higher, and due to the economic, the market situation, it was in this situation till now.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Okay. I think it'd be helpful now that NetNut's doubling and it's all organic. Maybe remind investors the benefit that enterprises get from choosing NetNut over other solutions.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Okay. I will split my answer for 2 in general and over other solutions. In general, in today's world, especially due to the penetration of the AI to our life, data is the blood of... It is everything. Everybody needs data, everybody needs to collect data. Due to the competitive environment, everybody needs to know on a every minute, every hour, what's going on in each and every... I'm inviting everybody, by the way, to watch our presentation in the website. You'll see the amount of use cases and the industries that are using these kind of solutions. In order to collect data and scale anonymously and to get transparent and real data, companies are using set of products.
We are one of the layer in this world, of the world of the data collection. We are the infrastructures layer, meaning without the infrastructure, you cannot collect data. Next stage is the collectors, the data collection tools, and the scrapers. Next stage is the AI tools that can analyze the data and get you more accurate data. This is the layer that we are now. We have plans, and we are already starting to think how we are going to get into the next layers, meaning next layers in the space of in our industry, in the data industry.
Regarding the competition, as I mentioned, we are one of the biggest brands, and I think our biggest competitive advantage in this space is the fact that we have a very solid network. We have a global coverage, more than 1,000 locations, and it gives our customers a very good success rate when they are trying to collect data. Besides of the features and the support and everything, this is what makes our customers to be very satisfied. This is what increase the retention. This is what makes our brand to be one of the best brands in this space, and this is why our biggest competitive advantage about most of the players in this space.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Great, that's helpful. You mentioned in your prepared remarks, a stronger retention rate for NetNut. Is there any way to quantify today what it is versus a year ago? If you can't give numbers, kind of, is it, has it improved, maybe how much? Just trying to get a little bit of wrap my arms around what we're talking about.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Okay. Brian, to be totally transparent and honest with you, we just started a few months ago to use a third-party kind of products in order to start and have an accurate and very clear KPIs for our.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Got it.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
retention, churn, lifetime value, et cetera. I don't have the accurate numbers yet. We are still in process, but I can tell you that at least it's the retention at least double themselves.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Got it. You recently launched a new white label enabled privacy application. How do you expect it's gonna open new opportunities? If I read the press release right, is your primary target channel partners or resellers, or are you selling-
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
No.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Just a direct white label? Just help me understand.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
No, no. Okay. It's not a strategy change, meaning our main target is our direct approach, meaning we are selling directly to our consumers. We just opened a new opportunity for not resellers, but other consumers, consumer vendors to white label our products. We believe we are still checking the economics behind, but we believe that if it goes well and the economics make sense, it can be a very nice revenue channel, additional very nice revenue channel for our product.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Okay. Last question I have is, well done on expenses. Lastly, as revenue grows from the first quarter, should we expect Adjusted EBITDA will increase, or will management choose to increase expenses for customer acquisition?
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
You mean in this quarter?
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
No, I'm talking about in general. you know-
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Yes.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
Management teams have different strategies on capital deployment. Do you hope that as revenue grows 20%, EBITDA will grow 20%, or will it grow much slower as you increase-
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Okay.
Brian Kinstlinger (Managing Director and Head of Technology Research)
your expenses on capital? Sorry, on customer acquisition.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Yeah, I understand. I understand your question. If you remember, we are already talking, I'm already talking with audience for years, and I said all the time that at the end of the day, it's a game, kind of a game between EBITDA and growth, okay? As we already stated last year, we started our journey to profitability, but from the other side. We don't want to hit our growth, to hit our innovation and our customers. We are, let's say we will stay in this mode, as you see this report and these financials in this quarter.
We are not looking only to be profitable, because to be honest, if it was our only target, we can see even better numbers this quarter and the next quarters. As I mentioned, for example, a few minutes ago, for your question, we want to penetrate and to leverage the fact that we have already hundreds of customers that are using our platform, and to start and release new products to get into a new market and to cross-sell our customers, which is the most beneficial consumer acquisition. We will try to keep on the balance and on the ratio between revenues and profitability.
I cannot be very clear about, if you will see 20% growth in revenues, you will see 20% growth in the Adjusted EBITDA, but, more or less, this is the target.
Operator (participant)
Okay, thank you.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Thank you very much, Brian.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to join the question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause a moment to allow for any other questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question and answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Daniel for any final comments.
Shachar Daniel (CEO and Co-Founder)
Okay. Thank you very much for joining us today. We look forward to continue to update you on our progress. Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.