Alarum Technologies Ltd. Q1 FY2025 Earnings Call

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Alarum Technologies' First Quarter 2025 Corporate Update Conference Call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following management's presentation, the conference will be open for questions. This conference call is being recorded today, May 29, 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 from historical facts. For example, when we discuss our second quarter of 2025 guidance, our future strategy and longer-term vision, our potential for continued sustainable growth, the potential of long-term collaborations, future opportunities and successes, 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, including those discussed under the heading Risk Factors in Alarum's annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 20, 2025 and any subsequent filing 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 and 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 first-quarter 2025 financial results press release, which is available on the investor lobby of our website, alarum.io/investor/lobby. I'll now turn the call over to Shachar Daniel, Alarum Technologies' Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Daniel, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, operator. Hi, everyone, and welcome to Alarum Technologies Q1 2025 results conference call. I'm joined today by Shai Avnit, our Chief Financial Officer. I will kick off today's call by reviewing our recent achievements, the main market trends we see shaping the data collection space, and how our strategic vision and outlook are coming to life. Shai will then walk through the detailed financials and provide our Q2 2025 guidance. I will come back with the summary before we open the call for the Q&A session. To highlight the top and bottom line results, first quarter 2025 revenue came in as guided at $7.1 million, net profit was $0.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA exceeded the high end of guidance at $1.3 million. The beginning of 2025 marks a turning point, one that we anticipated and prepared for. As the AI revolution reshapes every industry at an unmatched rate, Alarum's data collection offering is increasingly becoming a key enabler, a backbone, helping to power the global AI boom. The need for reliable, scalable, and accurate data is rising steeply. Models must be trained, retrained, and fine-tuned daily, and to do that, they need infrastructure like ours. We intend to grasp this momentum and opportunity. At the same time, it's important to acknowledge that the market we are operating in is still taking shape, and at this point, continues to be highly dynamic and unpredictable. Volatility may remain high and we are planning accordingly. With focused execution, a forward-thinking innovative approach, and growing interest from AI-driven customers, our goal is not just to participate in the AI evolution but to power, lead, and accelerate it. I would like to share that both major tech giants and emerging startups are turning to us to help them overcome the growing barriers to data access from compliance to geographical distribution and traffic unblocking. In fact, the momentum we have identified early on has carried into the beginning of 2025. Our offerings, from our flagship data collector and website unblocker to our robust proxy network, are quickly becoming foundational to how companies collect public web data. As AI use cases expand, so does the demand for fast, reliable, and high-quality data at scale. As we are seeing this shift starting to play out with more top-tier global companies, new logos are turning up to support their training and real-world data collection needs. Considering the tremendous opportunity we see ahead of us, we made a strategic decision to increase our investments by leveraging our profitability operation and reinvesting earnings back into the company. We are building the operational foundation to meet this unique moment. While investing in scale, we stay focused on efficiency, profitability, and disciplined execution, backed by strong balance sheets for sustained growth. We are moving forward and expanding our network and establishing infrastructure to serve the growing demand stemming from AI-related projects. We are also growing our high-quality talent pool and developing a comprehensive suite of data collection products designed for the AI era. As we are seeing strong momentum, not just in volume but in the depth and scale of customer engagements, we are accelerating the development of new products and capabilities for large-scale customer projects. We believe that first-mover advantage in this space will create significant long-term value. That said, we remain sharply focused on operational excellence. While gross margins are currently lower due to our ongoing investments in scale and capability, we are actively optimizing our network infrastructure and product delivery, with a clear roadmap to drive efficiency and maintain high margins and long-term profitability. One of the most important milestones we recently achieved is that several large-scale AI and e-commerce platforms, including one of the world's largest online marketplaces in Asia and a leading global consumer electronics brand, as well as a fast-growing European AI analytics company, have expanded their collaboration with us over the past quarter. These collaborations cover use cases such as large-scale data labeling and model fine-tuning with fresh public data. I would like to highlight that we will continue to expand our infrastructure to support these growing opportunities. To sum up, before I turn the call over to Shai to review our financial performance and Q2 2025 guidance, Alarum is integral in building the backbone of modern data collection for AI applications. We feel the demand, we feel the urgency, and we are executing on our long-term vision, one that is just now starting to bear real fruits. We kicked off 2025 with growing demand. We are very proud of the business we have built and even more excited about what's ahead. Now, I'm handing it over to you, Shai, please.

Thank you, Shachar. And hello, everyone. I will start by reviewing our key financial results for the first quarter of 2025, comparing them to the same period last year unless otherwise stated. Following that, I will provide you guidance for the second quarter of 2025. These definitions and reconciliations of our non-IFRS key business metrics can be found in our Q1 2025 financial results press release. And one final note before I begin, the figures I will be discussing are rounded for clarity and ease of reference. Turning now to our financial performance. In line with our guidance, revenues in the first quarter of 2025 reached $7.1 million, of which $7 million was attributed to data collection. This compared to $8.4 million in the first quarter of 2024, of which $8.1 million was from data collection. We made a strategic decision to reinvest earnings into scanning operations, expanding infrastructure, and strengthening our IP network to meet customers' stability, responsiveness, and speed expectations, thereby positioning Alarum to capture long-term value and meet the demand from AI-driven customers. During this phase of transition, we are dedicated to managing our operations efficiently while ensuring we progress toward our long-term goals. As a result of this move, our non-IFRS gross margin for the first quarter of 2025 reached 69.4% compared to 80.4% in the first quarter of 2024. Operating expenses in the first quarter of 2025 were $4.5 million compared to $4 million in the same period last year. The change was driven mainly by the increase in employee salary related costs, primarily as we diligently grew the team to accelerate product development, laying the foundation towards the new AI era. In the first quarter of 2025, we recorded a financial income of $200,000 compared to an expense of $800,000 in the same period last year. The shift to financial income was mainly driven by the fair value decrease of warrants issued in 2019 and 2020. Most of those warrants will expire during 2025. Bottom line, non-IFRS net profit was $1.1 million for the first quarter of 2025 compared to a net profit of $2.8 million in the first quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2025 topped out guidance, reaching $1.3 million compared to $3.2 million in the first quarter of 2024. Our current share count is 70 million ordinary shares or 7 million ADSs. On a fully diluted basis, the count is 79.3 million ordinary shares or 7.9 million ADSs. The first quarter of 2025 basic earnings per share was $0.16 per ADS on a non-IFRS basis compared to $0.45 in the first quarter of 2024. As of March 31, 2025, the company's shareholders' equity increased substantially to a record of $27.6 million, up from $17.1 million on March 31, 2024. The company's cash, cash equivalents, and long-term investments balance, including accrued interest at the end of March 2025, was $24 million, up nearly 60% from $15.1 million on March 31, 2024. Alarum's solid cash balance ensures we can invest strategically while maintaining a focus on sustainable value creation. Let's move on to our outlook for the second quarter of 2025. Our guidance considers favorable market movements we have seen recently along with our continued focus on execution. We anticipate that in the second quarter of 2025, revenue will range at $7.9 million plus/ minus 3%. The second quarter of 2025 adjusted EBITDA is expected to range from $0.5 million to $0.8 million. We started 2025 with strong momentum, a solid balance sheet, and growing market interest. In this unique period with some uncertainty as the market continues to reshape, the early impact of our vision, investments, and pipeline visibility support the continued guidance we are providing today. We remain focused on our commitment to generating long-term sustainable value for our stakeholders. With that, I will hand the call back over to Shachar.

Thanks, Shai. To summarize, 2025 began with major shifts in the AI landscape. We are closely tracking these trends, which are driving increased demand for data and advanced AI solutions. Data is the engine behind it all, and this is precisely why we are fully committed to investing and pushing forward to capitalize on the momentum. We aim to create impact and long-term strategic advantages by strengthening and expanding our product portfolio, investing in innovation, growing our customer base, and deepening collaborations with some of the world's largest and most influential companies. 2025 has begun with growing demand and increasing recognition of Alarum towards empowering the AI data infrastructure. We are seeing strong momentum, deepening relationships with top-tier companies, and are expanding our operational capacity to meet this moment. While we continue to invest in scale, we remain committed to efficiency, long-term profitability, and disciplined execution, all supported by a strong balance sheet that positions us well for sustained growth. We are proud of what we've built and even more excited about what lies ahead. With that, we'll now open the call for the Q&A session. Operator, please.

Our first question today is from Brian Kinstlinger of Alliance Global Partners.

I'm curious, the second quarter revenue guidance suggests a more meaningful sequential pickup from usage from your customer base after what we saw was about three quarters of slower flatline demand trends. Is the stronger second quarter revenue guidance the result of one or two customers or is it a more broad-based pickup in demand?

So basically, more or less the same diversity, meaning it's not coming from one untypical customer or bigger than our current big customers. It's just growing its new customers, its current customers that are upselling and the usual business, not something unique.

I guess my follow-up is, we've discussed and you've been clear about the challenges that are becoming more difficult to scrape data. Is the increased guidance scraping from data or is it more the unblocker product? And then I guess a follow-up to that is, can you speak to the competitive landscape of website unblocking?

So basically, let's start with this. The demand and revenues generated in the last period, as well as looking ahead from the new products, specifically the data collectors and the unblocker, are increasing. They are growing, and even experiencing significant growth compared to two quarters ago. The revenue increase is coming from both products, although the ratio is still much stronger for the proxy. Therefore, according to this ratio, most of the growth is coming from data collection, specifically from the IP proxy network and its infrastructure. However, we do see a growing demand for our data collectors and the unblocker. Now, in response to your second question regarding the unblocker's competitive landscape, it is largely unchanged. As I've mentioned before, it is almost a technology product, with a lot of technological components. We developed it with a dedicated team that originated from a special unit of the Israeli army. On one hand, as the trend of data becomes more prevalent, it complicates things for those trying to collect data because websites are increasingly attempting to block this traffic. Consequently, the demand for unblocking solutions that can bypass website technologies is rising. On the other hand, maintaining and continuously revising this product is necessary since it resembles a cat and mouse game, which may play out daily or weekly. We don’t have precise data comparing features with our competitors, but feedback from our customers, particularly one major customer who is a Fortune 200 company, indicates that we have one of the best products on the market. This customer is currently growing and is very satisfied with our offerings.

Let me just make sure I understand – ask a follow-up on that piece. There are companies, several companies that are doing web scraping that also have unblocking products, or there's only a couple? I just didn't understand…

Yes, of course, our competitors, some of them have also done unblocking products. Yes, absolutely.

Is there a clear leader in the market in terms of revenue?

In the market of the unblocker or generally…

Yes, unblocker…

I don't have formal and accurate data, so I don't want to miss it…

My last question is you've got the second quarter that's stronger revenue than the first quarter but lower adjusted EBITDA. Does that reflect further investments compared to the first quarter that drive pressure on the gross margin? Maybe if not, you can speak to any more investments or incremental driving down EBITDA for Q2 compared to Q1.

As I mentioned earlier in the call, we made a strategic decision a few months ago when we began to notice the significant growth in demand, which is truly remarkable. We see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our company to be involved in a revolution and potentially play a major role. Establishing our leadership now could allow us to maintain a significant position in the market for years, as seen in previous revolutions. Therefore, we are investing in expanding our network, sometimes beyond the current revenue levels, to accommodate every large or medium-sized customer looking to scale with us. We don't want to lose customers by being overly cautious with our budget. We've been profitable for several quarters and have a robust balance sheet. To benefit the company and our investors, we believe it's essential to reinvest in the business to secure a promising future for the industry. This rationale informs our EBITDA projections for this quarter and potentially future quarters. However, I must note that if we prioritized profitability above all else, our EBITDA could change significantly, but that’s not our current focus. Our investments also extend beyond costs; we are hiring talents, investing in employee training, AI development, and engaging with customers globally, which all contribute to elevating the company to new levels.

The next question is coming from Kingsley Crane of Canaccord Genuity.

Just a couple from my side. So I believe last quarter you were talking about being in active discussions with a handful of larger customers that were looking at some AI model training trial projects. Just curious how those conversations progressed in Q1, and maybe that's related to your plans to try to increase capacity for some of these larger customers?

So yes, I mentioned it, and I will say it now again. Yes, it's not just discussions. Some of them are current customers. But not just customers, there are customers that are growing and upselling over this quarter, last quarter. So these discussions converted for customers and even for partnerships, which is more strategic than just being a customer. But a partner that together we will sell data maybe to other companies or we will embed ourselves in the infrastructure of these customers in order to be their only or major data enabler that allows them to collect data and scale and basically to provide insights and AI outcomes for their customers. So for your second question, so not just for this because we have many other customers, but the answer is absolutely yes. We are investing in our infrastructure, in our network, and in bringing more and more employees and talents in order to support the requirements. These customers, they have their own requirements. They expect to get a level of service, a level of professionalism. And we want to fulfill all their requirements because we believe it's a major milestone for our future. So yes, this is one of the major reasons why we are investing more.

Specifically regarding the network and infrastructure, where do you currently stand in terms of capacity compared to your goals? Is this something you expect to evaluate quarterly, or do you anticipate needing to significantly increase capacity over the next few years? I’m interested in your thoughts on this.

The line was broken for one second, so just I will repeat to make sure I understand your question. So you are asking from the aspect of the investment, our investment in the network. So what was the question again? Can you repeat?

So specifically, regarding the network, are you planning to significantly increase your investments in the next few years, or do you see it as a matter of gradually adding capacity on a quarterly basis?

So we are investing in our network based on two main factors. One is the current demand, our current customer base, the amount of traffic, and the needs in order to meet these traffic requirements. And the second is the projection. Meaning, how do we see the market in one or two points? How we can, it's a projection at the end of the day. Maybe it will not come to reality, but we have analysts that are trying to project all the time the trends in the market. So based on these two factors, we take a decision quarter-by-quarter, not just quarterly, it's a day-by-day decision. If we want, for example, to increase our investment in geographical coverage, more servers, more endpoints, etc. So we can't even predict this market now. It's a market that is defining itself in these days, and we are together in this market. So we don't have even – I think, we don't have the – or nobody has accurate data to project where we'll be one or two years from now. So we are doing it day-by-day and ongoing process.

It would be helpful to learn more about the types of roles and locations where you are hiring, as well as your perspective on the talent market. Given some of the AI developments, there are currently only a limited number of individuals globally who are truly knowledgeable in this area.

At this moment, over 95% of our employees are based in our headquarters in Israel. A quarter ago, I would have stated that number was around 98%, but we're currently in the process of scaling our operations and expanding our team to various locations globally. Despite this shift, we are still able to support our customers and maintain operations effectively. We provide assistance to our larger clients primarily through online means, complemented by occasional visits to stay engaged. Our professional services team, particularly the solution architects, plays a crucial role in supporting customers during the proof of concept phase and continues to assist them daily after they become clients. This ongoing support helps us meet their needs, enhances customer retention, and increases their usage of our systems, providing opportunities for upselling. Currently, a significant portion of our hiring focus is on professional services and pre-sales solution architects who possess both technical and business expertise. Additionally, our research and development efforts are vital, as we have an extensive roadmap filled with features and products that our customers are anticipating. Thus, our strategy involves a blend of professional services, solution architecture, and R&D to drive product development and innovation.

Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Daniel for closing comments.

Okay. So thank you very much, operator. Thank you all for your time today. We look forward to hosting you on Alarum Technologies' second quarter of 2025 results call. Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This concludes today's event. You may disconnect your lines or log off the webcast at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.