SKYX Platforms - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Executive Summary

• Q4 2024 revenue was $23.7M, up 6.8% year over year and 6.7% quarter over quarter; management highlighted four consecutive quarterly revenue increases in 2024 and reiterated expectations to be cash flow positive in H2 2025.
• Versus Wall Street consensus, revenue was a slight beat (+$0.08M, +0.3%), while EPS missed (actual -$0.1147 vs -$0.0775 consensus, a -$0.0372 delta); mix shifts and timing of higher-margin “blades” weighed on Q4 gross margin, which management expects to improve as the full assortment arrives by Q2 2025.
• Strategic execution advanced: deepening retail partnerships (Home Depot, Wayfair), builder and hotel channel traction, and leadership hires (Huey Long, Greg St. John) to accelerate e-commerce and retail rollout.
• Regulatory and supply chain positioning strengthened: code-standardization efforts gained momentum, and tariff risk mitigation via Vietnam/Cambodia/Taiwan sourcing was reaffirmed, reducing potential macro headwinds.
• Near-term stock catalysts: confirmation of margin recovery as “blade” products scale, additional builder/hotel orders, expanded Home Depot/Wayfair footprint, and updates on code standardization/licensing initiatives.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Four straight quarterly revenue increases in 2024 culminating in a Q4 record $23.7M; FY revenue +48% to $86.3M, with reduced G&A and lower net loss per share.
  • Channel expansion: collaborations with Home Depot and Wayfair for advanced and smart plug & play products; builder/hotel momentum including JIT distribution and luxury developments.
  • Management confidence and strategic clarity: “Razor & Blade” model with recurring revenue potential; quote: “We expect significant projects and order growth, resulting in becoming cash flow positive in the second half of 2025.”.

• What Went Wrong

  • Gross margin dipped in Q4; management attributed this to product mix and timing, with improvement expected once the full assortment and higher-margin “blades” are blended in by Q2.
  • EPS missed consensus despite revenue beat, reflecting margin pressure and operating mix in the quarter* [GetEstimates].
  • Cash used in operating activities increased year over year at FY level ($18.3M vs $13.0M), reflecting growth investments even as management reduced G&A and improved working capital dynamics.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Rani Kohen, Founder, Inventor, and Executive Chairman. Please go ahead, sir.

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

Thank you very much. Good afternoon. We will start our fourth quarter 2024 earnings call. With that, I will have Steve Schmidt, our President, start with the call. Thank you.

Steven Schmidt (President)

Rani, thank you very much. We have a lot to report, and, let's start. First of all, I'm very pleased to talk about the fact that we grew our revenue 48% in 2024, from $58.8 million in 2023 to $86.3 million in 2024. Next, sales of our advanced and smart home-related products surged over 1,000%. We expect our products to be in 20,000 units in homes by Q1 2025 and additional tens of thousands of units in homes in 2025. We expect significant projects and order growth, resulting in becoming cash flow positive in the second half of 2025. We also achieved revenue growth in four consecutive quarters for 2024, from Q1 of $19 million to over $23.7 million in Q4 for record sales.

Our Safety Code Standardization Team, which is led by Mark Earley, former head of the National Electrical Code and chief engineer of the NFPA, and still a member of the International Electrical Code, together with Eric Jacobson, former President and CEO of the American Lighting Association, we anticipate major support from additional safety organizations and leading members for our safety mandatory standardization of our electrical ceiling outlet receptacle technology. We have recently received some indications that, based on the significant safety aspects of our technology, we are being positively reviewed by leading personnel, including leading safety experts that are assisting us with our mandatory safety standardization process, as they strongly believe our technology has met all the criteria to become mandatory. A few, and as we kind of look at it, we generated a record $23.7 million in revenue in Q3 2024 compared to $22.2 million in Q4 2023.

We reported $15.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash as of December 2024, compared to $13 million as of September 30, 2024. In March 2025, we secured additional $1.45 million of funding, including from a strategic investor through our $2 million Series A1 preferred offering. As is common with companies such as ours, when sales are converted into cash rapidly, often referred to as the Dell Working Capital Model, we continue to leverage our trades payable to finance our operations, to enhance our cash position, and to lower our cost of capital. We reduced our G&A expenses by $5.7 million to $31.4 million in 2024, from $37 million as of December 31, 2023. We reported a $3.3 million decrease in total liabilities and a reduction of $3.9 million in net loss, comparing 2024 to 2023.

As I said before, we plan to become cash flow positive in the second half of 2025. As we previously announced, we secured $11 million of equity preferred stock investment led by the Shaner Group, a leading Marriott hotel owner with over 70 hotels, including significant insider investing by myself at $500,000, co-CEO Leon Sokolow and John Campi at $250,000, and a preferred investment representing the $2 per share of common stock with no warrants. We expect to grow increasingly units and growth to pro builders and retail segment. We continue to grow our market penetration of our advanced and Smart Plug & Play products, expecting our products to be in 20,000 U.S. and Canadian homes and units by the end of Q1 2025. We expect our products to be in tens of thousands of additional homes incrementally this year.

A big plus is our technology provides opportunities for recurring revenue through interchangeability, upgrades, monitoring, and subscriptions. We continue to focus on our Razor and Blade model, and our product range includes our advanced ceiling and electrical outlet, the Razor, our advanced and smart home plug-and-play products, the Blade, including lighting, chandeliers, pendants, ceiling fans, recessed lights, downlights, exit signs, emergency lights, holiday kits, themed lights, indoor-outdoor wall lights, among other smart products. We continue to utilize our e-commerce platform of over 60 websites for lighting and home decor to educate and enhance our market penetration to both the retail and professional segments. From a partnership and collaboration standpoint, we have significant collaborations and partners with Home Depot and Wayfair for our advanced and Smart Plug & Play products for both retail and professional segments.

Our product offerings will include a variety of our advanced and Smart Plug & Play products, including retrofit kits, smart light fixtures, smart ceiling fans, ceiling outlet receptacles, recessed lights, and more. We continue to collaborate with U.S. and world-leading lighting companies, including Kichler, Quoizel, European leading company EGLO, and world-leading manufacturer Ruee. We announced a collaboration with Cavco Homes, a leading U.S. prefabricated home manufacturer, on integrating our advanced and smart and plug-and-play technologies into Cavco's high-end premium homes shown at the Builders Show.

Cavco is a public company that has sold nearly 1 million homes and continues to deliver close to 20,000 annually. Three luxury developments by Forte Developments, including an 80-story high rise in Miami's Brickell District and projects in Clearwater Beach and Jupiter, Florida, will feature our technology. More than 12,000 Smart Plug & Play products, including ceiling outlets, lighting fans, and emergency fixtures, will be supplied across 400+ units.

A 1,000-unit mixed-use development by Jeremiah Baron Companies will incorporate Smart Plug & Play technologies with 140 units initial product supply. This product rollout will include ceiling outlets, lighting fans, and emergency fixtures, with deliveries continuing throughout construction. A strategic partnership with JIT Electrical Supply, a leading builder supplier, will expand SKYX's footprint in electrical lighting and ceiling fan markets. JIT, which has supplied over 100,000 U.S. homes, will distribute SKYX lighting solutions, ceiling fans, recessed lights, emergency lights, exit signs, and indoor-outdoor wall lights beginning early this year. On the people front, a couple of announcements.

First, Huey Long, former Amazon e-commerce Director and Executive at Walmart and Ashley Furniture, has joined as head of our SKYX e-platform. He will collaborate with the existing team to expand market penetration across our 60 lighting and home decor websites and other key e-commerce channels in the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, Greg St.

John, former head of office—excuse me, Home Depot Lighting, head and CEO of Eglo and Cordelia Lighting, has been appointed president of lighting fans and smart home products. With 30+ years of industry experience, he will lead expansion efforts in retail, home builder, and commercial markets, overseeing partnerships with Home Depot, Wayfair, and other major retailers. Hopefully, you can see that we have an awful lot going on that we feel very proud about that will provide significant momentum as we go forward. I thank you. All right. At this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Leon Sokolow, our co-CEO, and talk more about our financials and where we're going. Leon?

Leonard Sokolow (Co-CEO)

Thank you. Thank you very much, Steve. Appreciate it. Just to recap a little bit, besides the SKYX reporting the 48% growth in revenues from $58.8 million in 2023 to $86.3 million in 2024, we generated a record $23.7 million in revenue in Q4 compared to $22.2 million in Q4 of 2023. We reported, you know, as Steven mentioned, you know, we're reflecting the Dell Working Capital Model. So our cash conversion is very rapid, and we're leveraging our trade payables as we continue to grow our operations. We anticipate, as Steve mentioned, number one, the significance of projects and orders. In addition, and in light of that, you know, we anticipate that we'll become cash flow positive during the second half of 2025.

We reported a reduction in general and administrative expense by $5.7 million to $31.4 million as of December 31, 2024, from $37 million at the end of December 31, 2023. We reported, in addition, a $3.3 million decrease in total liabilities, from 2023 to 2024, and a 10% reduction, of approximately $3.9 million in net loss. Our adjusted EBITDA loss per share is a non-GAAP measured amount, amounted to $0.13 per share in 2024. That is compared to $0.17 loss per share in 2023. The company also reported a 14% decrease in loss to $13.1 million in 2024 from $15.2 million in 2023, before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization as adjusted for share-based payments or adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP measure. Of significance is that our gross profit increased 36% year-over-year by approximately $6.5 million. In light of those highlights, Rani, anything further?

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

Thank you very much, Steve, and thank you very much, Lenny. I just would like to emphasize that, as Steve mentioned, our leading code members, Mark Earley, former head of the National Electrical Code, and Eric Jacobson, former President and CEO of the American Lighting Association, are receiving great support now to the code efforts. There are several organizations that can help expedite that process, and we're working together, they're working together with those teams to expedite, as Steve mentioned, we feel we met all this criteria, and there are several organizations that can help expediting that product, process. We also got some leading members that are helping us on a national level, and the code team are, feel that they're very confident on their new path here, and that's something we're happy about.

We're obviously encouraged by quarter-to-quarter growth in revenues, and also very happy about the Razor and the Blade model, as Steve mentioned. Using this is really to start penetrating with more builders, as you saw. We start announcing some collaborations with builders, and, as Steven and Lenny mentioned, we anticipate to have to announce additional projects, additional builders on some leading projects that we have here. Overall, we feel that the Razor and the Blade model is really working for us, and as we said many times before, we're penetrating first and foremost, creating a new, I would say, way to enhance our sales by providing our ceiling outlets here.

You can see on the left, we had a 24-pack, we have a 24-pack, 8-pack, 4-pack, and 1-pack of the ceiling outlet related receptacle, what we call our Razor, and we anticipate enhancing and growing our market penetration with those Razors. As Steve mentioned, we expect those Razors to create, or those ceiling outlets to create, recurring revenues from different types of fixtures, intangibility, and then also down the road with smart products, with monitoring subscription, data aggregation, and AI and other features. We also are very proud that our members here, our leading members that are helping us with the code, in addition to our leading members in other areas.

We also have Paul Chernawsky, Entrepreneur of the Year, second from right here, former Entrepreneur of the Year by E&Y, is an insurance guy, and we are also encouraged with some initial discussions that we're having with insurance companies that are all waiting for our products, the entire assortment to arrive and to be accessible in several places, not only in our 60 websites, but also with Home Depot, with Wayfair, and with other places that we're working on. We are very happy from the progress that we're and feedback receiving, using, again, the Razor and the Blade model to penetrate, and we're getting great reaction from builders and also from hotels. We're working on with Shaner Group, that owns over 60 Marriott's and 20 other hotels.

We're working on some of their renovations, that once we have some products in the market, the entire assortment, we believe we can start working towards, hopefully, hotel renovations, and definitely grow our builder and our pro segments that we have. In addition to this, as Steve mentioned, we have been blessed to join the company, Huey Long, that is e-commerce, leading U.S. leading member, was one of directors for Amazon when they started, was also head of e-commerce and marketing for Walmart, and also was Ashley Furniture, grew their business substantially when it comes to e-commerce. Joining him, he anticipates to deliver real strong numbers with our e-commerce platform, and we'll share more about this in the coming months.

But one of his main goals is also to enhance our B2B, towards the pro and the builders through our e-commerce, as currently, high 90% is retail and really single digit, small single digit is pro. Now bringing all this assortment, he sees a great opportunity to grow the B2B with the plug-and-play products. We also had the former lighting head of Home Depot join us to accommodate our growth with Home Depot, and we hope to share more news on other companies and other growth opportunities, including the existing one with Home Depot and others, but also with hopefully new accounts. In general, we're happy and we're working very hard. We're growing our business and we're optimistic. Our code team is very optimistic on some things that help and assistance we're getting here.

With that being said, thank you everyone, and we're probably going to open up to Q&A.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster.

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

Okay, so maybe, Pat from Noble.

Hey, Rani, thanks for taking my questions and congrats on the, on the strong quarter and the strong year. First, I just wanted to ask about, you know, I think, it's almost a mandatory question probably is about the tariffs. Could you just touch on your partnership with Ruee and how you may be able to avoid some of the impacts, you know, how, how that might be, how you might be able to mitigate some of those risks?

Yes, thank you. Pat, in the last call, we also were asked the same questions and we didn't know those new tariffs would happen, but the good news is even last call we answered that we're already working with factories in Vietnam, in Taiwan, and now in Cambodia, and even Ruee since last year, way before those tariffs came, has opened other options, including Cambodia and Vietnam, that he can supply products from there. I must say the first two years of the tariffs, with COVID and everything else that happened, I think a lot of people didn't take it seriously, but I must say that in the past two years, the Chinese manufacturers are taking those tariffs very seriously as they saw the tremendous business that was lost in China and until it didn't hurt them, they didn't find choices.

The good news is they're already working for two years on those solutions and happens to be that, that really serves us well with the new tariffs that no one expected, but really that should not affect us as we already have in place. I said in the last earning call the same, so we already had it there that time and we definitely are utilizing it for now, so it won't affect our business here. Thank you for the question.

Great. If I could squeeze in one more, I was just also wondering if, you know, you mentioned earlier about the mandatory approval process and that there are some organizations that could sort of help expedite that process. I was wondering if you could give any more insight into, you know, what sorts of organizations those would be, if you had any examples in mind or, you know, any more color you could give there.

On the standardization?

Yes.

Yeah. What we're finding out, and I don't want to mention names at that point, but what we're finding out working with very high level people that, working with our code team that, you know, between Mark Earley and Eric Jacobson, they actually created more, or influenced more standardizations in the electrical and the lighting industry than anyone else in the past 35 years in the U.S. Getting support from them or they feel very confident that there's several other paths of safety organizations that have a criteria to help in situations like this.

As we are starting our process in the last several weeks, the team, the code team are very optimistic on several options and organizations that are looking into it, and some people that understand that type of business really think that we, A, we met, as Steve mentioned, all the criteria to become mandatory. It's very obvious, you know, there's hundreds of millions of times people go here in the U.S. on ceilings and touching hazardous wires, staying a long time on ladders, which, you know, creates electrocutions, ladder fall, fires, and many other hazardous incidents. Now that that brought to attention of leading, very high level leading members, they're kind of, quote unquote, in a state of shock and how long it's taking.

Our code team feels quite confident with that, and we hope we can announce some things in the next coming months to give some more colors. I think some doors have opened to us that we were not aware of or we did not have ways to explore in the past few weeks, and we hope that that's going to lead to some things we can share in the near future.

Great. I appreciate the additional commentary, Rani. I'll pass the floor.

Thank you. Jack from Maxim. Hi, Jack. How are you?

Hey, Ronnie. Doing well. Thanks for taking my questions, guys. It's great to see the continued momentum behind the scenes, and definitely see a good control over the operating expenses. I do want to touch on the fourth quarter gross margin. That did dip down a bit. Just wondering if there's anything you could touch on there. Is this a blip? Is this seasonality? What can we expect for gross margin in the first half of the year, which might be seasonally slower? Thanks.

Yeah. With the gross margins, as you know, we're starting to, and I showed it, we showed it on our slides earlier today. We're starting to bring all our products in with several joint ventures that we announced, and those products have really much higher gross margins than our standard e-commerce products have. We're blending, we're starting to blend in great products in. What we have is just to put more and more products. We're going to start ceiling fans, it looks like very soon towards this summer with high margins. We're going to start some wall sconces, recessed lights, indoor and outdoor wall sconces, including a variety of chandeliers and downlights, among exit signs, emergency lights. We anticipate very high, high gross margins.

Our goal is just to blend them more in our system, and that's in the process. Once we have the entire assortment, and we anticipate Q2 will be, we probably can announce the entire assortment is in place, to see that affecting our gross margins. In addition to that, as we're doing the Razor and the Blade model, we currently, going with our razors, receptacles into the market. Once the blades hit with the ceiling, smart ceiling fans, smart light fixtures, and other light fixtures, that also will help our gross margins. We also mentioned that we're working and anticipating some major projects and major, hopefully significant orders to come. All of this together, we anticipate will significantly improve our gross margins as we keep on coming with more products from our joint ventures and collaboration.

Okay. No, that's very helpful. Can I zero in maybe on, you have tons of recent new announcements, obviously. There's so much to talk about, but just to not take up everyone's time, let me just drill down on the Home Depot and Wayfair collaborations real quick. Can I get an update just kind of how those relationships are performing or moving along? I think you were expected to be in 100 initial Home Depot stores or online locations. Can you just give an update on how that's been going, and what you expect in 2025 from maybe Home Depot and Wayfair just in general? Thanks.

Yes, sure. As we, you know, for our e-commerce 60 websites, we're using the same products, plug-and-play products, including ceiling fans and smart ceiling fans, smart lighting, a recessed light, and all the emergency lights and exit signs and indoor, outdoor wall lanterns to arrive. As they're arriving, we're also enhancing our product assortment in both Home Depot and in Wayfair. In Home Depot, we're also getting into stores, and we hope that the more stores, the more products we have online, the percentage of products going to store will grow. We're working on some in-store programs that we can't disclose yet, but it's really for us, it's all about to have more and more products coming in.

We very encourage that the last several months since our last call, every month, I would say products, more and more products are coming into the country, and we're continuing that train of products and that supply chain to grow. The more we grow it, it's going to influence positively both our programs in Home Depot and in Wayfair.

Okay, great. I appreciate the color. Look forward to watching you guys execute. I'll hop back in the queue.

Thank you. And then we have Gerry from Roth Capital.

Hello, this is Brandon Rogers on for Gerry Sweeney. Can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Brandon Rogers (Equity Research Associate)

Hello? Yes. Thanks for taking my call. I just had a question about bringing on Mr. Long. Given his background, does this have any impact to your strategy? Any changes you guys are looking to implement in FY2025 and any challenges on this front?

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

Related to tariffs, you mean?

Brandon Rogers (Equity Research Associate)

No, in terms of just given his e-commerce background, is there any differences?

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

with Huey Long?

Brandon Rogers (Equity Research Associate)

Yes, correct.

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

Yes. Yes. Yeah, Huey is really a veteran and, and well known, actually, was a director in Amazon and created Amazon's main brand, Amazon Basics. That was their first brand out there. Today they have a hundred, and he's, really, U.S. leading e-commerce expert. To bring a level, high level talent in his level, he probably saw something into what we have. I'll take his word. He started his career as a, as a buyer in Circuit City, and then he opened his own sourcing company, grew it up from zero to $800 million at that time, and then sold it to the CEO of Circuit City. We announced to Amazon and Jeff Bezos that he sold his company. They grabbed him.

I'm saying that because his Circuit City experience is saying we're going to have 60 websites and hopefully, a lot of them soon, starting to do plug and play and down the road, plug and play only. That's going to give us, and we can still have competitive pricing that we don't need to significantly, if at all, to increase costs. That's kind of, he said with the Circuit City days, it's like selling TVs, that Circuit City would sell TVs with remote controls when the competitors would send them without. I think he's very optimistic and we're very happy to have a guy in that caliber come and explore, and also some software options that can increase our conversion rates and competitive edge that he's working on. We're quite excited.

As I answered earlier, I think on another question, I think we'll have some announcements together with him in the coming months.

Brandon Rogers (Equity Research Associate)

Thank you. If I could just ask another one, can you give me any updates on the continued expansion into the residential home builders channel? I know you said that you expect 20,000 homes by end of 1Q and additional tens of thousands of units in 2025. Any additional color on this front?

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

Yeah. As we announced, we believe this quarter is, we're going to be around 20,000 units slash homes, with our products. We have indications and started, and we'll supply, we believe tens of thousands, hopefully on the higher side of tens of thousands, but additional pipelines that we have here. That's with a variety of projects. We hope to be able to announce some of them in the coming months. We really have great feedback from builders, pro segment hotel owners. You know, I don't know if we mentioned this, but not only the Shaner Group with 60 hotels invested with us, and 60 Marriott and probably 20 Hiltons and Intercontinentals that they own globally. We hope to grow with them globally.

We also have, one of our, that round, another leading investor that owns Waldorf Astoria and, several maybe 10 or more Hiltons that's also very excited. For us, it's just to get the products here, and it's coming. It's, you know, slowly but surely. Again, I want to remind everyone it's a Razor and the Blade model. The Razor always goes first, the ceiling receptacle. Sometimes it can take, you know, three to six to nine months until the blades come in, and that's where the revenue growth is anticipated. We're very encouraged and on our Razor and the Blade model. We think that this program is really a great success for us. We just need to get more, more blades, as we say, more products down here, to accommodate demand.

Brandon Rogers (Equity Research Associate)

Thank you. If I could just ask one more, you mentioned the cash flow positive during the second half of 2025. Can you just walk me through what you need to accomplish to get cash flow positive? You mentioned significant projects and orders. Any more to add there?

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

It is a combination of orders that we anticipate and the Razor and Blade model, to more blades, more fixtures into the market and growing our collaborations with, that we announced on higher gross margins and getting more products here. Our management is confident that we have, you know, in the second half of the year, a path to get cash flow positive as we are going to get more products and more projects out there and anticipate announcing some projects and orders, in combination with our collaborations that all are in the direction of increasing gross margins with, we anticipate and expect that that can bring us to cash flow positive in the second half of 2025.

Brandon Rogers (Equity Research Associate)

Awesome. Thank you, Rani. Appreciate it. Thanks for taking my call.

Rani Kohen (Founder and Executive Chairman)

Sure. Okay. Thank you very much, everyone. We're looking forward to talk to you more and, hopefully we can share more things that we're doing, once they come to fruition. We're quite confident on the company's direction. We'd like to say thank you, Steve Schmidt, our President, and our Co-CEO, Leon Sokolow. Thank you for participating in that call. Looking forward for our next call. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

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