2021 Q3_Earning Release_ENG_Final_Clean
Quarterly Report July to September 2021
JULY TO SEPTEMBER 2021
- Net sales amounted to 11.0 MSEK (13.3)
- Net sales adjusted*1 amounted to 11.9 MSEK (11.5)
- Recurring revenues adjusted* amounted to 9.5 MSEK (9.0)
- Rolling 12 months recurring revenues adjusted* amounted to 35.3 MSEK (32.7)
- Usage revenues adjusted* amounted to 4.2 MSEK (2.5)
- Gross margin decreased to 69% (71)
- EBITDA adjusted amounted to -13.9 MSEK (-17.9)
- Earnings per share amounted to -0.4 SEK (-0.7)
JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER 2021
- Net sales amounted to 29.1 MSEK (44.1)
- Net sales adjusted*1 amounted to 34.9 MSEK (37.0)
- Recurring revenues adjusted* amounted to 27.2 MSEK (25.8)
- Usage revenues adjusted* amounted to 12.2 MSEK (6.9)
- Gross margin increased to 69% (67)
- EBITDA adjusted amounted to -45.6 MSEK (-62.8)
- Earnings per share amounted to -0.8 SEK (-2.2)
EVENTS DURING THE QUARTER
- Joined the Azure IP Co-Sell, incentivized partnership with Microsoft
- Signed a LUIS^Teneo SaaS deal together with our partner Microsoft with telecom operator A1 Bulgaria
- A large system integrator and partner signed up for and deploys LUIS^Teneo for its business
- Large Multinational US Tech company ordered continued expansion in US and Japan from our partner
- Signed renewal agreement with a US Government and Circle K
- Appointment of Nicolas Köllerstedt as Chief Revenue Officer
- Appointment of Gavriella Schuster, former Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, One Commercial Partner, as Advisory Board Chair
EVENTS AFTER THE QUARTER
- Successfully secured 250 MSEK in new 5-year credit facility to refinance existing debt and support continued growth
- Signed renewal agreement with Scania, a world-leading provider of transport solutions
- Repayment of 52 MSEK bond
KEY FIGURES (For definitions please see page 18 * for adjusted revenues clarification on pages 4-5)
| MSEK | JUL–SEP 2021 |
JUL–SEP 2020 |
JAN-SEP 2021 |
JAN-SEP 2020 |
JAN-DEC 2020 |
| Net sales adjusted* | 11.9 | 11.5 | 34.9 | 37.0 | 47.3 |
| Recurring revenues adjusted* | 9.5 | 9.0 | 27.2 | 25.8 | 33.9 |
| Rolling 12 months recurring revenues adjusted* | 35.3 | 32.7 | 35.3 | 32.7 | 33.9 |
| Usage revenues adjusted* | 4.2 | 2.5 | 12.2 | 6.9 | 10.4 |
| Net sales reported | 11.0 | 13.3 | 29.1 | 44.1 | 53.8 |
| Gross margin % | 69% | 71% | 69% | 67% | 66% |
| Adjusted EBITDA | -13.9 | -17.9 | -45.6 | -62.8 | -78.3 |
| Earnings per share, SEK | -0.4 | -0.7 | -0.8 | -2.2 | -3.2 |
| Cash flow from Operations | -16.8 | -28.3 | -47.1 | -57.5 | -75.9 |
[1] The company has recalculated its Usage revenues to be aligned with the new SaaS model’s “pay as you consume” principles. Please see pages 4-5 for adjusted revenues clarification.
CEO STATEMENT
Dear shareholders, colleagues, customers, and partners,
As I write this I am on a flight to Munich where one of our customers have gone live in record time. This is symbolic. Our Transformation is complete. The world is almost back to something that resembles normal, and we have great customers.
Transformation
In less than nine months, we have moved from a License + Professional Service model to a Kubernetes based SaaS model. We have achieved our first customer milestones with some of the best references in the market and we have moved our partnership with Microsoft into high gear. On top of that we have restructured the cost base as well as refinanced the balance sheet.
I am incredibly proud of what the team has achieved in such record time. It has been blood, sweat and tears. It has been late nights and go-lives in weekends. The timeline is always tight - but we made it. The market turned around and to capture the demand we needed a new base to grow from and we are there.
Our Customers
The proof that we are on the right track is that as of the end of the third quarter, we have signed up six new customers and extended contract with four existing customers. These were all highly competitive bids that we won. And many of these customers are references both for us and Microsoft.
A1 Bulgaria is a great example of where Microsoft´s trusted Cloud Azure and our Development Environment and Engine in LUIS^Teneo makes it possible to build cutting edge solutions. Recently Scania extended its relationship with us and Circle K not only signed an extension with us, but also went on stage with us at the London AI Summit to talk about how they will continue to rollout in new countries across their company. A large Nordic retailer made the decision to roll out our technology across all brands and businesses. And two of the new large customers signed in the second quarter went live three months before schedule thanks to the new scalable SaaS platform.
Continued Growth
Our adjusted net sales keep growing and this now mainly consists of recurring revenues as we are focusing on product sales to create long-term value for shareholders. The new customers we see will be our base clients on our SaaS platform are yet to contribute in any meaningful way to revenues as they have only just started to ramp-up. Overall, we are on a positive revenue trajectory despite little revenue impact from the new customer inflow during the year. We experienced quarter over quarter (q-o-q) growth on all our revenue metrics and the q-o-q adjusted net sales grew with 11%. In the third quarter, recurring revenues derived from SaaS customers constituted 14% of total adjusted recurring revenue. This number is expected to grow as we add more customers to the SaaS model and as they are ramping up on API call volumes.
Investments
We are now making careful investments to expand from the base we have built. We started with Marketing and kicked off in the quarter with two strong campaigns - one in the US and one in EMEA and the US. Our new Chief Revenue Officer Nicolas Köllerstedt joined us from Snowflake in September to take on the task to build a strong sales team. Nicolas built Snowflake Nordics and Baltics from scratch and can’t wait to do the same expansion with our sales. Another route to market we are now investing in is making it easy for our customers to start building solutions in our platform. Today anyone can start using LUIS^Teneo and access resources and documentation for free. Only when going into production you need to contract with us. All thanks to the SaaS model.
Financing
As an early starter in the Conversational AI space, we have the technological foundations that many of our competitors and partners build on today. And we have patented these. These patents have increased in importance in the last two years where the forward citations have grown several hundreds of percent – the most forward citations of any patents in the field. This means two things: the patents have a value in themselves but also the fact that our technology is at the center of what the industry is building on is validating our approach.
We have used the value of these patents as a platform for securing our finances with an equity injection of 120 MSEK in the second quarter of 2021 and a new 5-year credit facility of 250 MSEK carrying a PIK interest (no cash interest costs before the end of the tenure) in October 2021. This means that financing our deficit as we grow revenues from the new customers on SaaS is no longer an issue. Our cash position end of September 2021 of 96 MSEK will be added with approximately 50 MSEK excluding transactional costs (net of repayment of our debt of approximately 200 MSEK). This means that we in the company can focus even more on executing on our strategy and it is also great news for customers.
Time is now
There has never been a better time for Conversational AI. Swisscom´s Roger Dill took stage with us in London at AI Summit and showed how Swisscom’s Net Promoter Scores increased as their system built on our software Teneo responded to 1.8 million phone calls. Imagine the ROI on such a solution! Great partners and customers are building great solutions on our technology and that is what makes me really excited for the future!
Per Ottosson, CEO