908 Devices - Q2 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, and welcome to today's 908 Devices second quarter 2023 financial results conference call. My name is Jordan, and I'll be coordinating your call today. If you'd like to register an audio question, you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I'm now going to hand over to Kelly Gura, Investor Relations, to begin. Kelly, please go ahead.

Kelly Gura (Investor Relations)

Thank you. This morning, 908 Devices released financial results for the second quarter ended 30th June 2023. If you've not received this news release or if you'd like to be added to the company's distribution list, please send an email to [email protected]. Joining me today from 908 is Kevin Knopp, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, and Joe Griffith, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will make statements during this call that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements in the press release 908 Devices issued today.

For a more complete list and description, please see the Risk Factors section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31st, December 2022. In its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, 908 Devices disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast, August 8th, 2023. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Kevin.

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Thanks, Kelly. Good morning, and thank you for joining our second quarter 2023 earnings call. I'd like to start off by thanking our team for their continued dedication and commitment to serving our customers and for bringing our second quarter to a successful close. At 908, we have a broad technology platform with applications across diverse end markets. Our handheld devices are serving critical forensics market applications, including the devastating rise of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and our growing portfolio of desktop products is serving life science and biopharma applications, including the emergence of multi-omics research and the ascent of Bioprocessing 4.0 . We view our end market diversity as a key advantage, particularly in the current macro environment, and this was reflected in our financial results. Our second quarter revenue increased 9% year-over-year to $12.1 million.

We placed 122 devices, bringing our installed base to more than 2,500 devices globally. Once again, we saw continued strength in recurring revenue, which represented 39% growth over the prior year period and comprised one-third of our total revenue. This growth demonstrates that our customers, whether they be in law enforcement, the military, research institutions, or in biopharma, value point of need analysis. Overall, I'm really encouraged by these results. We continue to capture opportunities for handheld chemical detection, both in the US and increasingly more internationally. As Bioprocessing 4.0 begins to take hold with advanced modalities of therapeutics, there is a demonstrative need for robust analytics to monitor and control critical process parameters. We are building a solid foundation to take advantage of these developing opportunities.

At the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, or ASMS, conference in June, the need for our technology was abundantly clear. Key mass spec vendors launched large frame instruments with significantly faster processing speeds targeted for proteomics and other omics applications. Our prototype microfluidic chips are well suited to meet this need for warp speed processing. We have had a record presence at ASMS this year with 19 posters, the majority with collaborators and a key oral presentation on multi-omics. I'll share highlights later in this call. I'd like to provide a brief update on the progress we have made across our three focus areas for 2023. Starting with our first objective, penetrate and radiate across key accounts. Our focus is to penetrate new accounts, to create a foothold, and then radiate across these accounts to drive broader enterprise adoption.

In May, the CDC released preliminary data noting that 2022 was the second consecutive year, with more than 100,000 Americans dying from drug overdose. Nearly 7 out of 10 overdoses were attributed to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Another recent CDC report found that xylazine was detected in nearly 11% of fentanyl-involved deaths. In July, the Biden administration released a 6-point plan to combat the problem of fentanyl being laced with xylazine. That includes determining where the xylazine is coming from and disrupting the supply. Our MX908 handheld device provides trace chemical detection of fentanyl and its analogs, xylazine, and many other illicit drugs. Customs agencies use our device to prevent illegal narcotics from entering their borders.

In June, our work with the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Customs and Border Protection was highlighted in the To Catch a Smuggler on the National Geographic Channel. The episode showed one of our application specialists training agents on how to use the MX908 to support them with their investigations at a major metropolitan airport. We are proud of the work that our employees do every day in helping our customers stem the flow of counterfeit drugs from entering our country and into our communities. Previously, I have noted the successful MX908 pilot program in Ohio, in which 260 law enforcement officers in 60 counties have now been trained to use our device. As a result, the state central lab has seen a notable reduction in evidence backlogs.

Our goal is to replicate this program's success in other states, and I'm excited that we have begun a pilot program with several Tennessee law enforcement agencies and drug task forces to enhance the speed and efficiency of the state's drug identification process. This pilot program, with an initial seed of eight devices, will introduce the MX908 to law enforcement agencies across Tennessee, with the primary objective of decreasing the quantity of illicit drug samples sent to the central lab for testing, which will also lessen delays in the judicial process. In addition, law enforcement agencies using the MX908 device can now make faster and more informed decisions at the point of need, ultimately leading to safer communities and improved public health outcomes. This is the same playbook we used with success in Ohio.

Turning to our desktops, approximately 70% of desktop revenue came from existing customers, including three customers that are in the top 20 list of pharmaceutical companies. Also of note, we renewed our OEM agreement with Sartorius, providing them with our online sampler and sensors for bioreactor monitoring and control. This is a long-standing OEM relationship between Sartorius and the former TRACE Analytics, and we are pleased to foster this key partnership. Further, to maximize the potential of each key account, we've developed a support strategy focused on our top pharma customers to drive routine workflows and use. Turning to our second objective, advancing and broadening our product portfolio, our core focus is to develop devices that are simple to use and connected for improved process understanding in order to provide customers with robust answers at the point of need.

In line with this focus, last week we introduced the MX908 Beacon for remote and continuous air monitoring of toxic aerosol and vapor hazards. Beacon leverages our MX908 device and Aero module and adds a cloud-based solution that enables first responders to gather intelligence remotely and continuously while ensuring public safety at large events and at key infrastructure. The MX908 Beacon can be used individually or seamlessly integrated with other beacons for widespread area coverage. The systems can be easily set up and monitored in real time through the MX908 Beacon portal, which can be accessed through any smartphone, laptop, or mobile device. With over 2,000 MX908 devices in the field, we have a large installed base to offer this additional capability, which is one of the only systems that can remotely and continuously detect and identify aerosol and vapor hazards.

For our desktops, we continued to partner with key organizations focused on developing innovative technologies that advance biopharmaceutical manufacturing. One such organization that we have formed an alliance with is the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, or NIBRT, based in Ireland. For the past 12 years, NIBRT's research focus is to make transformative discoveries that revolutionize the manufacturing of recombinant proteins, vaccines, and cell and gene therapies. At ASMS, we held a well-attended breakfast seminar that featured Doctor Jonathan Bones and Doctor Josh Smith from NIBRT. Dr. Bones highlighted the use of our ZipChip device for multi-characterization of proteins in different applications such as native, intact charge variant profiling, amino acid analysis of cell culture fluid, and a new peptide mapping workflow. He noted that ZipChip, coupled to a mass spectrometer, offers a versatile platform method for these applications that's ready to go out of the box.

Dr. Smith highlighted the successful use of ZipChip for rapid analysis of various serotypes of the adeno-associated virus, or AAVs, which are critical for gene therapy manufacturing. Both speakers touted ZipChip's high sensitivity, short analysis times compared to traditional LCMS, and the lack of method development. The results of these presentations were also highlighted in three posters at ASMS. In addition, in a recent article published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, scientists from NIBRT and Lonza Biologics used our ZipChip CE-MS device to characterize a monoclonal antibody for treatment of colorectal cancer. The authors noted that our technology enables fast and highly sensitive intact mass analysis while requiring minimal sample preparation, thus making it a powerful tool for reliable product characterization early in the bioprocessing pipeline. We continued to gain exposure and marketing momentum through speaking opportunities and poster presentations at conferences focused on bioprocessing.

After a nearly five-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the invitation-only Cell Culture Engineering Conference was finally held in person in April. In this forum, leaders and experts from academic, regulatory, and industrial backgrounds convened to discuss cell culture and related advancements that impact the growing spectrum of modalities, including recombinant biologics, cell and gene therapies, and viral vaccines. Three of our application scientists were invited to participate, and each presented a poster on research using our REBEL cell culture analyzer. We gained valuable insights and learnings from the conference presentations, along with the opportunity to network with key opinion leaders. Lastly, our team is preparing for the launch of our new desktop device next month at the BioProcess International Conference in Boston, just up the street from our headquarters.

We believe this device will further transform the monitoring of key process parameters and it is an exciting addition to our suite of bioprocess products that includes our REBEL and MAVEN devices. Finally, turning to our third objective, laying an omics foundation. We see a clear and emerging need for accelerating mass spec-based workflows to address proteomics and metabolomics opportunities. This was evident at this year's ASMS conference, where we had a strong technical showing with 1 oral presentation and 19 posters, the majority with collaborators from academic and research institutions, as well as industry partners. Dr. Will Thompson, Principal Scientist at 908 Devices, gave an oral presentation on his collaboration with Professor Matthew Foster from Duke University on unifying the multi-omics world with microchip capillary electrophoresis. Dr.

Thompson described a workflow using our prototype microfluidic chips in our ZipChip device, which allowed independent metabolomic, peptidomics, top-down, and bottom-up proteomics from a single sample containing 20 microliters of dried blood. Speed was a definitive theme at ASMS. Scientists conducting proteomics, metabolomics, and other multi-omics research want to process a significantly large number of sample sets and are demanding mass spec instruments and tools for faster workflows. We believe our ZipChip device, along with our prototype chips, can meet this need for speed. This was exemplified by one of our poster collaborators, Ying Ge, Professor of Cell and Regenerative Biology and Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Ge's poster highlighted multi-omics analysis, specifically metabolomics and top-down and bottom-up proteomics of human heart protein extract.

She noted that traditional LC-MS has long separation times, but ZipChip can provide separation to minutes, so speed is significant advantage along with the device's ease of use. At ASMS, we also hosted a meeting of our Proteomics Scientific Advisory Board, where key opinion leaders provided enthusiastic support of our growing presence at this conference for customer and R&D-related content, as well as feedback on emerging R&D efforts in multi-omics. Our scientific advisory board members were particularly interested in the capability of ZipChip for multi-omics studies under unified analysis conditions, including using the developmental on-chip peptide pre-concentration approach for analysis of very large native peptides from biofluids. We are fortunate to have this remarkable group of thought leaders share their insights as we advance our development efforts in this area.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the progress we made during the second quarter on our stated objectives, and I look forward to an exciting product launch next month. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Joe for more details on our financials.

Joe Griffith (CFO)

Thanks, Kevin. Revenue for the second quarter 2023 was $12.1 million, increasing 9% compared to $11.1 million in the prior year period. Handheld revenue from our MX908 device was $8.8 million, an increase of 27% compared to $6.9 million in the prior year period. During the second quarter, we shipped 107 MX908 handheld devices. The increase in handheld revenue was primarily driven by an increase in device sales as well as service revenue. Desktop revenue, primarily from our REBEL, ZipChip Interface, and MAVEN products, was $3.1 million, decreasing $0.6 million from $3.7 million in the prior year period and in line with the first quarter of 2023 revenue. This year-over-year decline in desktop revenue was primarily due to a decrease in device placements.

During the second quarter, we shipped 15 desktop devices, including 5 REBEL, 4 ZipChip interfaces, and 6 MAVEN devices. As a reminder, we will continue to break out placements by device in the near term. However, as our portfolio broadens, we will focus more on overall revenue and combine desktop placements as the key metrics for growth. As Kevin mentioned, we had another strong quarter for recurring revenues, demonstrating the value that our devices bring to our customers. Recurring revenues, which consists of consumables, accessories, and service revenue, increased 39% - $4 million, compared to $2.9 million in the prior year period. The increase was primarily driven by a growth in service revenue, mainly from handhelds. Recurring revenue as a percent of total product and service revenue increased again this quarter to 33% in Q2 2023 from 27% in Q2 2022.

Notably, the third consecutive quarter, recurring revenue represented at least 1/3 of total revenue. Looking ahead, we expect recurring revenue to be around 30% for the full year. Gross profit was $5.8 million for the second quarter of 2023, compared to $6.6 million for the prior year period. Gross margin was 48% for the second quarter 2023, as compared to 60% for the prior year period. The decline in gross margin year-over-year was largely due to three factors. First, the timing of production levels for both our handheld and desktop devices, as the prior year period was our highest build quarter ever, resulting in approximately $0.5 million of impact. Second, higher material costs and warranty costs, resulting in a difference of approximately $0.5 million.

Third, to a lesser extent, higher non-cash charges for intangible amortization and stock compensation, impacting our gross margin by approximately $0.2 million. Looking ahead to the second half of 2023, we expect that higher product sales, a favorable shift in product mix, and higher device production levels will positively impact our gross margins and get us to the lower end of our target range of the mid-fifties that we stated earlier this year. We continue to expect that as our device mix shifts and we scale up on placements and consumables, we will be able to expand our gross margin further. Total operating expenses for the second quarter of 2023 were $16.7 million, compared- $15 million in the prior year period.

This increase was driven primarily by a $0.6 million increase in personnel-related costs from the net impact of headcount added throughout 2022 and merit increases for existing personnel, as well as a $0.6 million increase in stock-based compensation and a $0.2 million increase in acquisition-related costs for intangible amortization and valuation of contingent milestones. We are committed to being prudent stewards of our cash. As you recall, we reduced headcount in Q1 by 6% to drive efficiency across our organization. We are continuing to tightly manage our headcount and be extremely thoughtful on any new additions in the second half of the year. Net loss for the second quarter of 2023 was $9.3 million, compared -$8.1 million in the prior year period.

We ended the second quarter of 2023 with approximately $153 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and had no debt outstanding. In August, we amended our loan and security agreement with SVB as part of our efforts to diversify our banking relationships. Looking ahead to the remainder of 2023, we now expect full year revenues to be in the range of $49 million-$52 million, representing growth of 4%-11% over full year 2022. This compares to our previous revenue expectations of $48 million-$52 million for full year 2023. Our guidance range contemplates a few key factors. The first is the ongoing pressures in the bioprocessing space. Like others in the industry, we are continuing to experience a challenging macro environment related to our bioprocessing customers.

This is especially impacting our REBEL placements, which is the highest ASP device of our offerings. We expect these pressures to persist for at least the remainder of 2023. Second, we have a key advantage with our diversified and broad technology platform, with applications across different end markets. While we are still seeing weakness in the bioprocessing market, this is being offset by strong demand for our handheld devices that serve the forensics market. We expect our revenue growth for the second half of the year to be centered around our handheld revenues, similar to what we experienced in the first half of 2023. At this point, I would like to turn the call back to Kevin for closing comments.

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Thanks, Joe. We are pleased with the result this quarter as we continue to execute against our strategy. We are revolutionizing chemical detection by bringing it out of the central lab and to the point of need across a diverse set of end markets. We continue to see significant opportunity as we do so for new classes of products. Thus, we remain focused on developing and broadening our product portfolio to address these opportunities with both our handhelds and desktops. We are very much looking forward to launching our new product next month. Following this launch, we are hosting an event at our headquarters in Boston on 20th, September where we will provide a deep dive on our bioprocessing product portfolio. Please reach out to [email protected] if you're interested in learning more about the event. It'd be great to see you there.

With that, we'll now open it up for questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to register questions, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind, please press star followed by two, please ensure you're unmuted when speaking. Our first question comes from Dan Arias of Stifel. Dan, please go ahead.

Dan Arias (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Morning, guys. Thanks for the questions. Kevin, maybe to start on the REBEL and to Joe's point on just the environment and the remainder of the year looking similar, I guess, to the first half of the year. I mean, I know it's a tough question, but if we were to try and look out to 2024, do you feel like you have some level of visibility into demand next year? The reason I ask that is because some of what it feels like is taking place in the industry is just related to project and purchase delays. Are you seeing that? Is there a portion of what you thought you might get this year that's maybe falling into next year as, as maybe somewhat of a relatively high confidence set of orders?

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah. Yeah, thanks, Dan, for the question. Yeah, I still think that, as you said, it's a bit muted here through the remainder of 2023 with the REBEL placements. If you look at Q2, the total number of desktops, 'cause we're starting to think about that broader portfolio beyond the REBEL, there's about 15 devices in Q2, desktop devices, and kind of on par with our Q1. You're right. I mean, I think it's clear we're seeing many of the same industry pressures that others have been reporting on and from the capital equipment sales cycle extending.

I think you are right that, that some of this does go with, with cycles of funding through our customers and, and the, the project pacing of it. We're having really strong conversations with our customers. We're kind of really focused on the, the value that the, the products are, are, are bringing them. With that, you know, we, we do see a, a, you know, positivity just over the, the long term for the whole desktop franchise we're building. We did raise the, the bottom of the guidance a, a bit by, by $1 million.

Joe Griffith (CFO)

Yep

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

And that's really on the strength of the handhelds, but that also gives you maybe an indication of, of, of where we, we feel overall. If we start to think about kind of the top end of the, the range that we provided today, you know, one of the, the drivers of that would be the bioprocessing market and, and some of the return coming maybe before 2024, right? That, that could maybe take us to the top end of that, that range. We, we haven't really been assuming a, a dramatic recovery in, in 2023, more of a, a line or more of a run rate to, to approach that top end of the, the guidance. Hopefully, that was helpful as we start to-think about future projects in 2024 and, and our run rate coming off the end of this year.

Dan Arias (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, that was helpful. Thank you for that. Maybe on the handheld side, can you just add some color to new business generation overall? How are you feeling as we head towards the end of the government fiscal year here and think about a new budget cycle in the US? Then outside the US, last call, I was reading the transcript, you had highlighted, some pretty good international demand in the first quarter. I'm just curious about whether some of that showed up here, and whether you think you start to see some ex-US demand be something that you can kind of reliably count on in the quarters going forward.

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah, for sure. Go handhelds. I mean, the handhelds have been really strong for us, over the year, and as you know, it's really a diversified set, by having that same platform, but we can bring it out to the handheld and those forensics customers. They've been really strong. The forensics team has been doing really well in H1. International, definitely a driver of that, for sure in the first half. We talked about NATO, we talked about some other opportunities over time, and we do see that international will continue to be a driver over H2. If you think of, you're right, the end of the US government fiscal year, right, is in the end of September.

We are tracking a handful of enterprise deals across the US federal, international, some of which those are tied with the end of the fiscal year. I think we've got a meaningful set of opportunities and we're pretty happy with where things stand today and the position we see them in various stages of identification, pipeline approval, and the contracting process as we get close to the US year-end.

Dan Arias (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Appreciate it, Kevin. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Steven Mah of TD Cowen. Steven, please go ahead.

Steven Mah (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks for the questions. Maybe just a follow-up question from, from, from Dan's line of questionings. You know, given the color or given the delays on the, the purchasing cycles and, and, you know, potential for, you know, unclear budget recovery timing, have you guys, thought of or, or been thinking about plans for a potential reagent rental or, or leasing of, of desktop instruments to get, to get the instruments out there, given the slowdown in the capital purchasing cycles?

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah, Steven, thanks. It's something that we think about, but definitely not changing our focus, right, of selling capital and the opportunity of placements, whether it's on the handheld or the desktop side. I think specifically on the desktop side, the value, you know, over the, the short and the longer term. I think to the extent that, you know, we see an opportunity to secure some operating funds, we'll look at that with some customers.

Steven Mah (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Right.

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

It's definitely not a focus, of, of driving the growth. It's the longer term placement and broadening the portfolio, across multiple products, to be able to tap into the, the budgets. Different price points, everything from the REBEL at the high end, to the MAVEN at the low end of our US selling prices.

Steven Mah (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, thanks for that color. Then, one more for me. Could you give us some color on, on the market for, REBEL, for, you know, biologics manufacturing? You know, given the, you know, the press release you had, given, you know, National Resilience got very good results using REBEL, has there been any kind of pull-through, you know, from, you know, the marketing side on, o- on that? You know, can you give us some color on how, you know, emerging BD opportunities, you know, from that, that National Resilience opportunity?

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah, sure thing. Yeah, we're really pleased that we were able to, to showcase that work. We, we really have a, a key account strategy across our, our desktop devices and, and with a big focus on, on REBEL, really to drive such success. Some we can talk about in the public, some we can't. We certainly are working very closely with customers as they kind of evaluate, look how they could put this into their routine workflows, look how they can- they can kind of change what they're doing by having this point of need analysis, and now being able to run a, a full panel assay right next to the, to the bioreactor.

We've got customers using it for things like media fingerprinting, which is really just a check before they start time point zero in a bioreactor. Then we have more advanced customers, like you pointed out with National Resilience, that are looking to actually change on how they feed and what they do in the bioreactor, which ultimately is a lot of the value we see with our, with our PAT offerings as we build them out. Yeah, we're always trying to get out there and be vocal about successes with customers.

We do have a Bioprocessing Summit coming up here next week in Boston, and then we have BPI in September, which we'll be launching a new product in that PAT space. Yeah, we're trying to, like ASMS that we highlighted in the script, you know, really get a lot of collaborators and speaking about the values and virtues of the tech.

Steven Mah (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks so much.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Matt Larew of William Blair. Matt, the line is yours.

Matt Larew (Partner and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, good morning, guys. In light of, you know, the MAVEN launch earlier this year and the upcoming launch of a new product next month, just only curious how you're thinking about balancing commercial resources. You know, obviously, all of the products in the bioprocessing portfolio are still under-penetrated relative to the potential TAM. Particularly given that, you know, customers are having longer capital purchase cycles, you know, just kind of, you know, well, five different products with your sales force, how do you think about, you know, kind of managing, driving penetration of the legacy, to use that word, products like REBEL or ZipChip, versus, you know, educating, evangelizing, the newer product set?

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah, I mean, we're excited that, that we now can have a, a, a growing sales force that has more than one thing to be engaging and talking to the customers about, that, that span a set of, of ASPs. On, on the low end are, are MAVEN, and then our, our REBEL on, on the higher end of that, and with the new product on its way. I, I think it's all around having the, the conversation with the customer and, and enable to keep that continued engagement and figure out what they need, right? These, these products are all very complementary, so that they're not overlapping in that sense.

It enables us to really speak to the customers about their process, where they're going, and there are some customers that maybe MAVEN is a, a better jumping-off point than REBEL, right? Because if they haven't been doing much online monitoring or haven't been doing much at-line monitoring, something like MAVEN could be a lower lift of, of adoption and could be a feeder, as we see it, into REBEL. Certainly seen some examples of, of that. And we've also seen some examples where REBEL customers now are engaging on MAVEN. I, I think it's a really positive thing, and, and we don't have a, a focus issue really, because we're, we're really just addressing what the, the, the customer's needs are at this point, and it's a very synergistic portfolio we're, we're developing.

Matt Larew (Partner and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Then, you know, last quarter you gave us some data points around material transfer agreement as sort of a leading indicator. Just curious, as the bioprocessing market has remained, you know, kind of stagnant, hasn't bounced back yet, if there are any other, you know, kind of leading indicator data you can share with us, you know, just to get a sense for what that funnel looks like into the back half of the year.

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah, for sure. You know, I, I think we remain convinced, right, that these PAT tools are, are needed and growing in importance, and it's really just fundamental if you look at that pipeline of therapeutics getting more advanced. The conversations are all very positive and just thinking of where customers are going. As you, as you noted, right, things are just drawn out. You're right. Last quarter, we did highlight that we saw a measurable kind of uptick on those material transfer agreements. We saw that starting to pick up in Q2 when we had this call at the beginning of the quarter. Yeah, we're happy to report that that really continued throughout the quarter.

If you look at the total number of material transfer agreements we did in, in Q2, that was 2x what we did in, in Q1. There's definitely engagement there. There's definitely opportunity. Obviously, that isn't a direct corollary into what closes in, in fiscal year 2023, because this is a often part of the process where someone will put in a, a demo sample, as we've discussed before, and, and look to evaluate the technology, but it is a sign of, of positive engagement.

Matt Larew (Partner and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, that's great. Thanks, Kevin.

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Thanks. Thanks, Matt.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Jacob Johnson of Stephens. Jacob, please go ahead.

Hannah Hefley (Equity Research Associate)

Hi, good morning. This is Hannah on for Jacob. Thanks for the questions. To start, how has the initial customer reception of MX908 Beacon been? Is this driving additional MX908 sales, and is this an add-on offering, or can customers buy these standalone?

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah. Thanks, Hannah, for the question. Yeah, we're Beacon is another great launch for us connected to our handheld product line. It can be bought by itself to an existing MX customer. It's about a $9,000-$9,900 add-in for it, a little bit more like an accessory, a little bit more like our Aero. We really see that there's an opportunity to take this Beacon to the 2,000 MX908s that are out there and really kind of leverage that installed base and give those customers more capability. On the flip side, we also see that they could drive additional MX908 placements over time as well, because this is really set up as an area monitoring solution.

These are then different nodes to cover a particular geography and area. As we can get people successful with their Beacon, they may then wanna have two or three more so that they can have a wider area of coverage. Initial feedback has been good. It's very early days for us on that, it's a very practical solution that we have high hopes for here. It probably will start out in the US, given that about 80% of our sales there are in the US for that product and probably more on the state and local side as well as the first adopters for it across local towns, municipalities, events, monitoring, and things.

Yeah, we're excited for where that, that stands today.

Hannah Hefley (Equity Research Associate)

Great. Does the potential for bringing REBEL online next year impact current REBEL sales? If you buy the REBEL now, can they upgrade it to the online version once that's available?

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah, I think, I don't think it's disrupting anything that we're working on, today. In, in fact, the development is, is probably, actually helping us a bit. Absolutely, the, the REBEL and the roadmap of REBEL is incredibly important, and, and as we've been trying to articulate, it's really the, the strategy of a, a complete portfolio of products rather than just a, a single product, really with that ultimate vision that we've articulated in the past of, you know, can we take a, make a tricorder that's just connected to each and every bioreactor that just streams off process and product analytics? We're already on that journey with our, our TRACE technology in MAVEN, which is an online device, absolutely a, a precursor to REBEL Online, because that technology we anticipate to be incorporated within our, our REBEL.

As we've also said in the past, we really don't see the, the REBEL Online as a, a discrete event gating our progress or, or customer adoption. We're really working hard, constantly to just make everything easier and easier, with our current REBEL offering, and releasing improvements, enhancements, make everything more robust, easier to consume the data, just really trying to knock down any barrier, to routine workflow and, and usage. REBEL Online's important. We're gonna update as we enter 2024 and, and evaluate where everything stands in our, in our Stage-Gate process at that moment. We'll have a nice, clear picture then.

What I can say is that we're, we're really not waiting, there are things that are moving from that, that development into the current generation REBEL, again, just to break down any barriers to routine use. That could be software enhancements, hardware enhancements. Those really are kind of more continuously flowing out there into the market. Yeah, lots of innovation underway. I, I don't think the, the new technologies that they're in the roadmap are, are hindering our, our, our sales at this moment.

Hannah Hefley (Equity Research Associate)

Great, thanks. I'll leave it there.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from Puneet Souda of Leerink Partners. Puneet, please go ahead.

Philip Song (Equity Research Associate)

Hey, thanks for the question. This is Philip on for Puneet. Maybe just a, a quick question. Can you remind us of your exposure to China, and if you're seeing anything there, and, kind of what are your expectations there for the, for the rest of the year?

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah, on the China front, in APAC, it's not a big piece of the pie today. As you look at our geographic sales, you know, we're 80% or thereabout in the Americas, you know, followed by EMEA. I think China is, you know, less than 5% of our sales. You know, we have some folks there, you know, working through the opportunity, but really, Americas and Europe focus not only on our handheld, but also on their desktop side. Limited exposure.

Philip Song (Equity Research Associate)

Gotcha. That makes sense. Then maybe a question on MX908. You kind of talked about previously, kind of these large enterprise opportunities in the sales funnel. Because I'm wondering, how is that kind of tracking, and is there any risk there, and do you have any updated thoughts on kind of where you see the total for, for handhelds ultimately getting to this year?

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Yeah. From we don't necessarily give guidance based upon our, our placements for the year, but coming into the year, we had the headwind around the US Army, and you know, we've had some nice traction in the progress of our LDOs as we've progressed the year to help offset that. You saw that in the strength of our year-to-date Q2 and year-to-date here in the first half of performance. We expect that to continue, you know, in the back half. You know, there are, you know, opportunities, and we need to execute on the government year-end here at 9/30 and the pipeline of opportunities to deliver on our updated, you know, full-year guide, which is relying on handheld.

Still a few that we need to secure to deliver on the unit growth, but excited about how that has progressed throughout the year, both, you know, on the US side, but also international, enterprise-wide accounts. Good, good momentum, and we do kind of once a year around our 10-K, give a status on the overall pipeline as we update. Probably in March will be the next formal update.

Philip Song (Equity Research Associate)

Perfect. Super helpful. Thank you.

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Welcome.

Operator (participant)

With that, we have no further questions on the line, so I'll hand back to the team for any closing remarks.

Kevin Knopp (CEO and Co- Founder)

Okay. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in to this and for the thoughtful questions, and, have a great day.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.