NextNRG - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Executive Summary

• Q4 2024 delivered double-digit top-line and margin expansion: revenue rose 21% to $6.9M and gross profit nearly doubled to $0.65M, driven by higher gallons and improved margin-per-gallon.
• Headline KPIs strengthened: gallons delivered increased to 1.8M (+20% YoY) and average fuel margin per gallon improved to $0.71 vs. $0.65 a year ago.
• No formal quantitative guidance was issued; management indicated it expects to provide smart microgrid pipeline guidance next quarter.
• Near-term catalysts include the microgrid guidance update, progress on wireless EV charging, and continued momentum evidenced by record January/February 2025 monthly revenues and volumes.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Revenue and gross profit expanded materially: Q4 revenue rose 21% YoY to $6.9M and gross profit grew 97% YoY to $652K, reflecting improved pricing discipline and higher volumes.
• Operational KPIs strengthened: gallons delivered increased to 1.8M (from 1.5M), and average margin per gallon improved to $0.71 (from $0.65).
• Strategic roadmap reinforced: “We entered 2024 with the clear goal of laying the groundwork for long-term growth—and we believe we delivered on that vision… Our pipeline in microgrids and EV infrastructure is larger than ever” — CEO Michael D. Farkas.

What Went Wrong

• Profitability remains negative: EBITDA and net income for Q4 2024 stayed below breakeven despite margin gains, indicating continued scale-up and cost absorption pressures (see Financial Results table; values marked with asterisk)*.
• Year-end liquidity was thin ahead of capital actions, with cash at $438,299 for FY 2024, necessitating subsequent financing to support growth.
• Reliance on receivables financing and CEO guarantees in late March (Redstone and Mr. Advance agreements; Fee Agreement) underscores near-term funding needs despite February’s $15M offering.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, and welcome to the NextNRG fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal conference specialists by pressing the star key followed by zero. Please note this event is being recorded. You may submit questions throughout the event by clicking the word "questions" on your screen. Questions will be addressed after the formal presentation has ended. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jeff Ramson, CEO of PCG Advisory. Please go ahead, sir.

Jeff Ramson (CEO)

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Michael Farkas, Chief Executive Officer of NextNRG; Joel Kleiner, Chief Financial Officer; and Yehuda Levy, Founder and Manager of the Legacy EZFill Business Line, who served as CEO of EZFill in 2024. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

For a detailed discussion of these risks, please refer to our most recent filings with the SEC, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2024. With that, I'll turn the call over to CEO Michael Farkas.

Michael Farkas (CEO)

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. 2024 was a defining year for NextNRG. It marked the beginning of a new era as we transitioned from EzFill to a broader energy infrastructure platform under the NextNRG brand. We took bold steps to position the company at the intersection of AI, clean energy, and mobile fueling—three sectors driving the future of sustainable infrastructure. Let me walk you through a few key accomplishments from the year. We generated $27.8 million in revenue, up nearly 20% from 2023, driven by continued growth in our mobile fueling business.

We improved operating efficiency, increasing gross margin despite inflationary pressures on fuel costs. We made significant progress on our smart microgrid platform with approximately $750 million in planned deployments, including projects with municipalities, utilities, and tribal nations. We advanced testing our wireless EV charging systems, which now include bidirectional, static, and dynamic charging capabilities, technology we believe will be market-defining. As AI, data centers, EV adoption, and green energy initiatives surge, outdated infrastructure is struggling to keep up.

The need for smarter, site-specific, and scalable energy solutions has never been greater. Our platform delivers a comprehensive response to this shift: utility system upgrades that leverage AI and machine learning to modernize traditional grid management and improve resiliency, smart microgrid control management systems for new, flexible energy deployments agnostic to the fuel source, wireless EV charging to support the next generation of commercial fleet electrification, and EzFill mobile fueling for traditional combustion engine fleets of today, and a pathway to support their EV transition for tomorrow.

Our vision is clear. We are building an integrated ecosystem where AI-driven energy infrastructure microgrids, mobile fueling, and wireless EV charging together. These solutions create an integrated ecosystem meeting the demands of a rapidly electrifying, data-driven world. Let me now hand it off to our CFO, Joel Kleiner, for a deeper dive into our financial results.

Joel Kleiner (CFO)

Thank you, Michael. For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, total revenue was $27.8 million compared to $23.2 million in 2023, an increase of 19.6%. Growth was driven by higher average selling prices and increased fuel volumes in our mobile fueling segment. Cost of sales came in at $25.5 million, up from $21.9 million the year prior, resulting in an estimated gross profit of $2.3 million. Despite the increase of cost of sales, gross margin improved by 200 basis points from 6% to 8%. Gallons delivered grew to 7.2 million from 5.6 million, a growth of 1.4 million gallons, or 24%.

Operating expenses were $9.6 million, slightly down from $9.9 million in 2023. This includes $8.5 million in G&A expenses and $1.1 million in depreciation and amortization. Operating loss narrowed to $7.3 million from $8.5 million in 2023. However, we recorded $8.9 million in other expenses, including a $4.5 million charge related to a strategic default penalty interest and a $0.9 million non-cash loss from the extinguishment of related party debt and other finance-related expenses tied to the capital structure transition.

These factors led to a loss of $16.2 million, or $4.66 per share, compared to $10.5 million, or $6.98 per share in 2023. While the net loss increased, it's important to note that much of this was driven by one-time non-operational expenses. In the beginning of this year, NextNRG's mobile fueling solution expanded into an additional five states through the acquisition of Shell Oil Fleets, more than doubling our operational capacity. This January marked the initiation of fuel deliveries to the world's leading e-commerce company under a substantial long-term agreement.

Additionally, we are experiencing consistent revenue growth across our key markets and fleet accounts nationwide. As of February 2025 year to date, we approximately delivered more than 2.8 million gallons compared to 1.1 million gallons in that same period in 2024. That translates to growth in revenues of $10.1 million compared to $4.2 million.

On a go-forward basis, we are focused on achieving operating leverage as we expand into SaaS licensing and smart microgrid deployments, which we expect to carry significantly higher margins than fuel distribution. We are actively evaluating different financing options and strategic partnerships to support our 2025 growth plan. Back to you, Michael.

Michael Farkas (CEO)

Thank you, Joel. We believe 2025 will be a breakout year for NextNRG. We're laser-focused on, number one, executing our first utility-scale smart microgrid deployment in Northern Florida, two, launching wireless EV charging pilots with strategic partners and municipalities, three, expanding our mobile fueling network both organically and through acquisitions, and four, generating new recurring revenue through licensing and SaaS agreements for our AI-driven microgrid technology.

We are transforming from a last-mile fuel company into a comprehensive energy technology company. Thank you to our shareholders, our employees, and our partners for believing in this mission. Operator, let's now open the line for questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. You may submit questions throughout the event by clicking the word "questions" on your screen. At this time, I'll pass it back to management to answer any questions.

Jeff Ramson (CEO)

Thank you. While we're waiting to see if anything else comes in, I've got a couple of questions that were emailed in, Michael.

Michael Farkas (CEO)

Okay.

Jeff Ramson (CEO)

You talked about a 20% year-over-year revenue increase. Can you talk a bit more about what drove that increase?

Michael Farkas (CEO)

Expanded client base. In 2024, we were growing our business just by going out there and cultivating new relationships. As you could see, what happened in early 2025, we were able to acquire Shell Oil's fleet of trucks. We entered a bunch of other states. We also acquired another business, Yoshi's mobile fueling business. Whatever growth rate we saw in 2024 is nothing compared to what we are now seeing in 2025. As we posted even just a couple of days ago, the amazing growth that we had in February of 2025 versus even January, which was a longer month, and we killed it compared to February of 2024.

We are going to see consistent growth. We are expanding. Even some of the newer customers that we were able to bring on, they are bringing us even more business. They are happy with how we are taking care of them. We are seeing a really nice upward trend in our fueling business.

Jeff Ramson (CEO)

Okay. Another one I've got here is, when do you expect to recognize revenue from the smart microgrid projects?

Michael Farkas (CEO)

We're actually expecting to see some of that here this year. It's very interesting the way we deploy these projects. We do own and operate these facilities. We have partners typically in deploying them. We have landowners that we lease the property from. We have those that we sell the energy to under long-term contracts. We are expecting to see our first project breaking ground in 2025. Because we add technology to the equation, because we add project management, we're actually able to take money off the table while we're in the construction phase of the project.

There is one component of it where we procure equipment and hardware, provide project management, our technology, and we're able to monetize that in the project phase. Once the project is deployed and operational, we then have a revenue stream that's derived from those assets for the northern Florida projects of roughly about 35 years of clearly defined revenues. We know exactly what we're getting paid for 35 years.

Jeff Ramson (CEO)

Got it. Okay, great. Thank you. Another question I've got is, what's the current stage of your wireless EV charging tech, and when do you expect commercial adoption?

Michael Farkas (CEO)

Great question. Again, it's really the industry taking up the technology. We are working along with that. Most people don't realize, but the Tesla Cybertaxi that was previewed a couple of months ago, there is no way to charge that car with a plug. There is only a way to wirelessly charge that vehicle. You are going to start seeing more and more vehicles on the road. We are planning on deploying our first wireless charging road and starting that project this year.

We are looking at a project down here in southern Florida that will be the largest of its kind, deploying technology, bidirectional wireless charging that has not been deployed anywhere. It is something that we have patented technology on. We should start seeing it in a pilot phase here during this year. As the industry takes the technology and commercializes it, we'll be standing them side by side doing so.

Jeff Ramson (CEO)

Got it. Okay. The last question I have here is, will M&A be part of your strategy moving forward?

Michael Farkas (CEO)

Yes. Everyone who knows me historically in my past, yes, a large part of growth in my plan is through M&A. As you could see in the tail part of last year, we bought the Yoshi assets, the mobile fueling assets. In addition, we bought the Shell truck asset, the Shell fleet of trucks. Yes, we are very inquisitive by nature, and we plan on growing both organically as well as through M&A activity.

Jeff Ramson (CEO)

Those are all the questions I've got, Michael. That's it.

Michael Farkas (CEO)

Excellent. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure, everybody. Looking forward to doing this quarterly and keeping our stakeholders up to date and really aware of exactly what we're working on. Thank you, everybody.

Operator (participant)

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.