Alarum Technologies Ltd. Q4 FY2024 Earnings Call

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Alarum Technologies Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Corporate Update Conference Call. This conference is being recorded today, March 20, 2025. Before we get started, I will read a forward-looking statements disclaimer. 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 facts. For example, when we discussed our first quarter of 2025 guidance, our future strategy and long-term vision, our potential for continued sustainable future growth, the potential of long-term collaborations, future opportunities and success we are using forward-looking statements. 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 earlier today, March 20, 2025, and in 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, and we caution you not to place undue reliance on these. On the call, the company will also present non-IFRS key business metrics. The non-IFRS key business metrics the company uses are EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, non-IFRS gross margin, non-IFRS net profit or loss and non-IFRS basic earnings or loss per share or ADS. The exact definitions and reconciliations of these non-IFRS key business metrics are described in the company's fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results press release, which is available on the investor's lobby on our website, alarum.io/alarum-investors-lobby/. I will now turn the call over to Shachar Daniel, Alarum Technologies Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Daniel, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Good day, everyone, and welcome to Alarum Technologies Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results Conference Call. I'm joined today by Shai Avnit, our Chief Financial Officer. I will cover our progress, the trends we are seeing in the data collection market, our strategy and longer-term vision. Shai will review the financials and provide our quarter 1 2025 guidance. I will then come back for a short summary of our prepared remarks, and we will open the call for your questions. 2024 has been the most pivotal year for our company and which we believe will be one of the most transformative for the future of technology as the AI revolution is reshaping our role at an unparalleled pace. Despite market fluctuations, we continue to demonstrate financial resilience. In 2024, we fully executed the strategic vision introduced less than 2 years ago to focus solely on data collection while phasing out from other activities Alarum was engaged in. We launched cutting-edge products in the data collection domain and recognize initial revenues from those new products. We further solidified our financial position through operational profitability and cash flow generation. Annual revenue reached a record high of $31.8 million, of which 97% was attributed to data collection and adjusted EBITDA reached a record of $9.4 million. 2024 marked our shift to redefine our business with data collection. But more than anything, it was the year in which we began realizing the true impact of the AI revolution and our critical role in this exchange era. In today's world, data is the new oil. It's a key driver of innovation, decision-making, and gaining a competitive advantage. As data fuels AI, the companies that will lead this transformation are those that anticipate change, build the right foundation, and position themselves for a longer-term relationship. This is exactly what we are aiming for at Alarum step by step. With the foundation of information access being redefined, websites, data sources, and access restrictions are constantly being modified. We are witnessing a fundamental shift and intense battle between traditional websites, which have long served as the world's primary source of information and AI-driven platforms that are now threatened to replace them. In this new reality, data is increasingly becoming the most valuable asset in the competition between AI platforms and between AI and traditional web-based information sources. With that said, this evolving landscape is leading to a dynamic environment, higher volatility and revenue fluctuation across the industry. Alarum, too, is impacted by these trends, at times benefiting and at times challenged. Our strong financial position and strategic initiatives position us well for continued sustainable future growth. That said, we firmly believe we are at a once-in-a-generation inflection point. Looking ahead and preparing the company for its next steps, we substantially expanded coverage of our IP network in 2024, powering critical data access for our customers worldwide. We enhanced infrastructure and capacity building a scalable global network, which is essential to handle massive data traffic. We are reaping the fruits of our investment in our high-performance innovative products, with initial modest sales already recorded and growing interest underway. We continue to make inroads into the data collection and labeling market. The website and blocker drive entry into the multibillion-dollar data collection market, enhancing access and efficiency. Our AI data collection ensures continuous data flow with a no-growth setup and real-time AI adoption. Exiting 2024, we saw a spike in demand from AI-driven companies for high-quality, large-scale data extraction solutions. I'm very excited to share that in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, we started initial AI model training and analysis trial projects, including data and video by new customers, including one of the world's largest corporations, a global online marketplace company. We believe that this initial project could pave the way for a long-term collaboration with immense potential. As I've emphasized previously, our investment over the past years in growing our IP network was designed to prepare us for this moment, and the demand from AI-driven customers validates our decisions. As we enter 2025, we are in a prime position to serve as an enabler in today's evolving landscape. Yet, I would like to emphasize that capitalizing on massive long-standing potential requires patience and a long-term forward-looking approach. Fortunately, our profitability and operational efficiency have enabled us to build a strong cash-generating business that allows us to pursue relevant opportunities. At Alarum, we believe that success in a fast-moving market comes from vision, adaptability, and strategic positioning. We have the flexibility to focus on bold strategic moves that drive sustainable growth. With that, I will now turn the call over to Shai for a review of the financial highlights.

Thank you, Shachar. Hello, everyone. I'll begin with a summary of our key financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024, comparing them to the corresponding periods in 2023 unless stated otherwise. After that, I will share our guidance for the first quarter of 2025. As noted at the beginning, the exact definitions and reconciliations of non-IFRS key business metrics are described in the company's fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results press release. The figures I will be presenting are rounded for simplicity. Now let's go to the results. Revenues in the fourth quarter of 2024 reached $7.4 million, up 3.7% from $7.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. The data collection portion increased to $7.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, 6.8% higher than the $6.7 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023. Full year 2024 revenues increased to a record of $31.8 million, up 20% from 2023. The data collection portion reached a record of $30.9 million in 2024, up 45.2% from $21.3 million in 2023. The data collection portion was 97% of the total revenues, both on a quarterly and annual basis, up from 80% in 2023 and about 45% in 2022, clearly representing our business shift in a short period of time since announcing our strategic shift to focusing on data collection. Non-IFRS gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2024 was 74.3% compared to 77.2% in the fourth quarter of 2023. Non-IFRS gross margin for the full year 2024 grew to 77% from 74.3% in 2023. The change in these gross margin metrics is related to our strategic decision to enhance our IT network so we can address our customers' demand for stability, responsiveness, and speed. Operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2024 were $5 million compared to $3.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. The quarterly change was driven mainly by the increase in operations, primarily employee salary-related costs. On an annual basis, 2024 operating expenses were down to $17.2 million from $24.3 million in 2023. This was mainly due to last year's impairment costs of goodwill and intangible assets and the strategic decision to scale down the company's consumer Internet access business operations. In the fourth quarter of 2024, we recorded financial income of $200,000 compared to an expense of $100,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023. For the full year 2024, we recorded financial income of $300,000 compared to a financial expense of $300,000 last year. The shift to financial income in the fourth quarter and full year 2024 was mainly driven by the higher interest income from cash deposits and lower financial expenses related to short- and long-term loans. IFRS net profit was $400,000 for the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to a net profit of $1.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, mainly correlated to the increase in operating expenses. 2024 IFRS net profit increased to a record of $5.8 million from a net loss of $5.6 million in 2023, mainly the result of revenue growth and last year's impairment costs of goodwill and intangible assets, partially offset by the increase in operating expenses. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2024 was $1.5 million compared to $2.2 million in the corresponding quarter last year. 2024 annual adjusted EBITDA was a record $9.4 million, up from $5.2 million in 2023. Our current share count is 69.3 million ordinary shares or 6.9 million ADSs. On a fully diluted basis, the count is 80 million ordinary shares or 8 million ADSs. The fourth quarter of 2024 basic earnings per share was $0.20 per ADS on a non-IFRS basis compared to $0.38 in the fourth quarter of 2023. On an annual basis, the 2024 basic earnings per ADS rose to $1.26 on a non-IFRS basis, up from a loss of $1.14 in 2023. As of December 31, 2024, the company's shareholders' equity doubled to a record of $26.4 million from $13.2 million on December 31, 2023. The annual net profit, together with warrants and auction exercises contributed to the $13.2 million increase. The company's cash, cash equivalents, and cash investments balance, including accrued interest at the end of December 2024 were up to $25 million from $10.9 million on December 31, 2023. Our solid cash position allows us to sustain strategic investments and drive responsible business growth. Now to our guidance for the first quarter of 2025. As we look ahead, our revenue guidance reflects the ongoing shift in our market. We anticipate that the first quarter of 2025 revenue will range at $7.3 million, plus/minus 3%. The first quarter of 2025 adjusted EBITDA is expected to range from $0.8 million to $1.2 million. We are navigating a period of adjustment as the industry evolves. And while short-term revenue growth may be lower than in previous quarters, we remain focused on the bigger picture and on generating long-term and sustainable value for the company's stakeholders. With that, I'll hand the call back over to Shachar.

Thank you, Shai. Opportunity is unfolding, and we are strategically positioning Alarum to be at the heart of this new world. As demand for data and scale increases and as AI continues to evolve, those who choose the right path, those who look beyond the immediate horizon will emerge as the industry's true leaders, and we are determined to be among them. Success will require bold long-term strategic decisions, and we are channeling our resources toward the development of cutting-edge solutions as we aim to analyze and anticipate the industry's needs with a clear vision, stamina, solid execution, and a talented driving team. We are building a company poised for long-term success. We will now open the call for the Q&A session. Operator?

Our first question comes from Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners.

You mentioned you are navigating a period of adjustment as the industry evolves and so revenue growth may be slower. Can you describe what you're referring to? And I guess I'm trying to reconcile that with comments such as once-in-a-generation opportunity and a spike in demand that we've seen in the fourth quarter for large-scale data extraction?

Thank you. I will split my answer into two parts, which are interconnected. We are beginning to see large companies entering the AI space reach out to us for collaboration because our solution serves as a data enabler and can address their challenges. Additionally, there is significant competition between AI platforms and websites. The reason for this competition is that AI platforms can attract traffic away from websites, as users can get all their needs met directly through AI. This has led to a sort of technology conflict between websites and AI platforms. Consequently, we are observing fluctuations and volatility in the market as websites implement measures to block or limit AI access. Websites are increasingly modifying their structures to complicate things for AI platforms. As a result, both AI companies and websites are restructuring to adapt to this new environment. In the short term, this leads to fluctuations in demand, but we believe the long-term outlook remains favorable. The major players need vast amounts of data to train their AI models and stay current. Thus, while there may be short-term spikes that can fluctuate revenues up or down, we see this trend as beneficial for us in the long run, as we are positioned as data enablers and our product is designed to meet this demand.

So if I say it another way, your customer set is essentially in a period of determining their strategy given these changes with websites. And so they're not necessarily purchasing your product as quickly because they have to figure out where the landscape is headed. Is that right?

Yes. Yes. Sorry to interrupt you. Sometimes it's not that they are not purchasing our kind of product; sometimes they are going down for a limited period in order to restructure the business opportunity, to restructure the direction they are going to. So we see that they might decrease usage, might stop, or others might increase because they find their paths and direction. And with our products, they can basically overcome these challenges. So it goes here and there.

Got it. And so the net retention rate declined for the third straight quarter. Is that a function of your customers, like you're saying here, may have some less usage essentially?

Absolutely. Still, by the way, I still think it's a very good NRR. But yes, you see also the volatility in the NRR, but basically, it comes directly from what we discussed now.

Okay. And then in December, you highlighted a Fortune 200 company began to use your Website Unblocker for almost 6 months, maybe more. I can't remember from that announcement. Can you tell us about the evolution of the volume of that? I'm curious, did it start small? Did it get bigger? Has it remained small? Just kind of want to understand how a big customer is thinking about using this?

Okay. So basically, they are very satisfied. They increased usage. And small or big, it's an individual case. At this point in time, it's in 6 digits in U.S. dollars, and ARR, meaning the run rate, the annual run rate, comes to more than $500,000 a year for this customer.

I guess, where do you see the opportunity 18, 24 months out with a large customer like this? Can you get twice that? Can you get 5x that? I mean, what is the opportunity for a large customer like that?

I will outline the opportunity in two parts. The first part involves regular customers, who can significantly impact our business by using our product to meet their needs. We expect that our relationship with these customers will enhance both revenue and customer retention, as they tend to be long-term clients. This presents a considerable opportunity for us. The second part, which might be more strategic, involves partnering with major players aiming to become significant competitors in the AI sector. They require a strategic alliance with a company like ours to integrate our products into their offerings, positioning us as key data enablers within their AI solutions and platforms for their customers. Both of these opportunities are incredibly exciting at this stage. However, it’s important to note that engaging these customers typically requires more time than dealing with regular ones, although the progress may be quicker than anticipated. My perspective, shared by the company's management, is that we are dedicating our resources, talent, and focus to this remarkable opportunity, one that may only come around once in a lifetime.

Great. Last question I have is if you can update us on any planned product launches as you built up the balance sheet. How do you think about M&A versus developing your own new products?

Okay, so the first part of your question is about M&A. Can you repeat the second part?

Yes, I'm curious about planned new products and then how are you going to develop your own products? Or how do you think about that versus acquiring companies that have complementary products?

We are currently focused on developing unique products in data collection, such as AI scrapers and unblockers. Our approach is centered on internal development, and we have brought in skilled professionals from the Israeli tech and intelligence sectors to build our own offerings. The market feedback has been extremely positive after testing our products. If we identify a unique opportunity, we may consider acquiring an asset or a small company to advance our efforts, but this is not our primary strategy at the moment. Our main goal is to enhance our analysis capabilities with AI and data insights. We have explored numerous opportunities in the past year and are still weighing our options. Currently, there is nothing concrete on the table, and we do not have a specific company in mind as an immediate opportunity. However, we believe that acquiring a company could ultimately help us integrate data collection, scraping, and analysis into a comprehensive solution.

Our next question comes from the line of Kingsley Crane with Canaccord Genuity.

A couple of questions. So big picture, on paper, it makes sense that data collection should become more important, lower-cost model services, more models are using domain-specific data. It also seems that a lot of the new growth in data collection and labeling could be indexed to data types like audio and video. So I just wanted to dive deeper into what you're hearing from these AI-driven customer conversations. How important are alternative data types to their model building strategy? And how do you feel about your positioning there?

Okay. So basically, a very good question because we feel that we are now in a period where everybody is now restructuring their path in this AI world. So we see that these big players that are coming all into AI, instead of being huge retail or marketplace companies, in a few years, want to become AI companies. They need data and scale, including video, audio, and other kinds of data. They can do it through internal developments, but they must have solutions like our scrapers and unblockers as well as our IP proxy network to avoid being blocked and to obtain qualified and transparent data in order to train their models on large scales of data; they need enormous data sets to stay up to date. We see our industry and ourselves as significant players, enabling them to collect data while they focus on their business, technology, or intellectual property, which is the intelligence itself, the insights, and the algorithms that analyze data and provide insights.

That's really helpful. So, to explore this further, regarding some of the fluctuations in demand in the near term, if websites are making it harder to collect data due to certain tactics they are using, and customers require more data, it seems like being more adept at navigating those tactics than your competitors would provide you with a stronger position and possibly attract more customers. I'm trying to understand better what customers are indicating when they scale back in the near term and reassess their strategies.

Okay. So here, when we're talking about the short term, let's defer from the AI players for a second and go back to the regular customers, those who are scraping and need to collect data for many purposes. If a website is investing more these days to block or to sort those that are coming in, then it can become more challenging than in the past for them, and they need to pause and figure out how to proceed. Of course, with our product, it's beneficial; we are a solution that helps in these situations. If there isn't a problem, they don't need a solution. So when the problem increases, it's advantageous for us. But in the short term, we see that customers are getting feedback that the popular websites for scrapping are making massive changes. They need to pause and redesign their product and rethink their business opportunities because it becomes a question of profitability. If they were previously investing a certain amount in an IP proxy or other solutions to facilitate data collection, they now need to spend more and need to rethink and restructure their business plan and pricing. So we see this period, when I mention fluctuations, can go up and down, but companies are uncertain about the immediate future and are trying to find the best direction to stay in the game, which is critical as the world inevitably moves that way. Data truly is the new oil; everyone needs data. Without data, you are worth nothing in this world. That's the issue.

That helps. I appreciate that. And so last, I just want to confirm. The AI-related customer engagement that was largely conversations in Q4, right? That was not materially impacting Q4 revenue? Or how much did that impact Q4?

No. Okay. So materially impacted Q4 revenue, no. But it's not just discussions; we are working together, and it's progressing quite well, okay? I want to keep it at this stage, but it's more than just discussions.

Thank you. We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And therefore, I will now turn the call back over to Shachar Daniel for closing comments.

Okay. So thank you for your time today. We look forward to hosting you on Alarum Technologies First Quarter of 2025 Results Call. Thanks.

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.