Blink Charging Co. Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call

Welcome to the Blink Charging Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. I will now hand the call over to your host, Vitalie Stelea, Vice President of Treasury and Finance. Please proceed.

Thank you, Jen, and welcome to Blink's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. With us today, we have Mike Battaglia, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Michael Bercovich, Chief Financial Officer. Today's discussions will include non-GAAP references. These are reconciled to the most comparable U.S. GAAP measures in the appendix of our earnings deck. You may find the deck along with the rest of our earnings materials and other important content on Blink's Investor Relations website. Today's discussions may also include forward-looking statements about our expectations. Actual results may be different from those stated. The most significant factors that could cause results to differ are included on Page 2 of the third quarter 2025 earnings deck. Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons are year-over-year. Now for our conference schedule, Blink management will be attending and holding investor meetings at the B. Riley Convergence Conference on December 4 in New York City and the Needham 28th Annual Growth Conference on January 15 and 16. For additional events, please follow our media releases in the Events section on Blink's Investor Relations website. And now I will turn the call over to Mike Battaglia, President and CEO of Blink Charging. Please go ahead, Mike.

All right. Great. Thanks, Vitalie. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Before we move into the quarterly numbers, I'd like to start with several key updates. First, I want to highlight the meaningful progress we've made under our Blink Forward initiative. As a reminder, we launched Blink Forward during our First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call in May. This program represents a comprehensive transformation plan designed to accelerate our path to profitability and sustainable long-term growth. Next, I'm pleased to report that year-to-date, we have identified and eliminated approximately $13 million of annualized operating expenses. Historically, our operations were organized regionally within our global markets, largely reflecting legacy structures from past acquisitions. We have now transitioned to a global functional model led by departmental global leaders and supported by global back-office functions. Our regional leaders maintain local market expertise, adapt to local demand patterns and incentive programs and are tasked with maximizing returns on local investments, all while operating under global functional guidance. This realignment is already driving efficiency, accountability and faster decision-making across the company. On Wednesday, we also announced another major step toward profitability, a strategic shift to acutely focus Blink on growth in service revenues. Specifically, we are stopping in-house manufacturing and instead will leverage our intellectual property and engineering expertise through partnerships with third-party manufacturers who operate at greater scale and efficiency. There is a clear path in place to exit manufacturing by early 2026. In fact, we have already exited some of our production facilities or sublet to other companies. To be clear, Blink will retain full ownership of all hardware, firmware and software design and development. We're simply outsourcing production to world-class manufacturing partners. This approach enables us to deploy capital efficiently and focus on growing charging services through expansion of our DC fast charging footprint and network services while benefiting from the cost, quality and supply chain advantages of partners with greater scale. Our sourcing strategy is intentionally diversified across geographies, including multiple manufacturing partners in both the United States and India, where we already maintain engineering talent and oversight to ensure quality, cost effectiveness and supply chain resilience. Some might ask, how does this differentiate Blink from competitors? Well, it's really pretty simple. First, we'll continue to offer flexible business models, selling charging station solutions to customers while also owning and operating charging sites ourselves. The common denominator across both models is our recurring and repeat service revenues anchored not only by our Blink network platform, but also high-quality hardware that is designed for commercial applications. Importantly, our DC fast charging portfolio remains the central pillar of Blink Forward as we expand our owned and operated footprint in high utilization locations that deliver predictable recurring cash flow. Even as we leverage contract manufacturing, the second differentiator is that our technology remains proprietary from hardware architecture to firmware and software development and integration. This ensures end-to-end compatibility, reliability and superior performance demanded by our customers to support charger uptime and the customer experience. So looking at Slide 5, we see that Blink has improved quarterly revenue substantially since Q1, demonstrating consistency and stability. And Q3 gross margin also bounced back from Q2 to nearly 36%. Other major achievements this quarter are our discipline in cash and working capital management and operating expense reductions, all key components of Blink Forward. As a result, we reduced cash burn in Q3 by 87% to $2.2 million sequentially, the lowest level in more than 3 years, even with a significantly higher revenue base. This cash efficiency underscores the financial resilience we are building into our everyday operations. These actions represent foundational steps in our pursuit of profitability and long-term resilience. They also position Blink to navigate near-term variability in EV sales, which we anticipate following the expiration of certain government incentive programs. While these market adjustments may temporarily impact EV sales demand, we continue to see strong momentum for dependable charging infrastructure across our global footprint. Looking ahead, we anticipate EV sales to stabilize by mid-2026 as the market recalibrates and a new wave of EV models enters the ecosystem, further reinforcing long-term demand for charging solutions. Now let's turn to the quarter on Slide 7. We view the third quarter as another example of progress as we transform Blink. Total revenue was $27 million, a 7.3% increase over the third quarter of 2024. In Q3 2025, we prioritized higher quality revenue, leading to stronger margins. And due to timing issues mainly in Europe, a number of projects and revenue shifted into Q4. Service revenue reached a record $11.9 million, up 36% year-over-year, reflecting the continued strength of our network and Blink-owned asset portfolio. Importantly, in Q3, we achieved gross margins of 35.8%, supported by services revenue growth and our focus on higher-margin product opportunities and disciplined pricing. As shown on Slide 8, our Blink-owned portfolio of chargers continues to perform, driving 48% growth in charging revenue and more than 300% year-over-year growth in DC fast charger revenue from Blink-owned sites. On Slide 9, we demonstrate continued progress in reducing our expense structure and cash burn since the beginning of this year. You can see that excluding certain noncash and nonrepeating items, our operating expenses came down from nearly $28 million in Q1 to $20.6 million in Q3. The contributing factors were significant reductions in both compensation and G&A expenses that both came down by about 35%. These items, combined with significantly improved working capital practices, have resulted in an 87% reduction in cash burn in Q3 compared to Q1. Equally important, through our transformation efforts, we eliminated another $5 million of annualized expenses this quarter, bringing the total to $13 million year-to-date. And as I've said in the past, we are not done yet. With that, I'll turn it over to Michael Bercovich, our Chief Financial Officer, to review financials in more detail, and then I'll circle back at the end of the call. Michael, go ahead.

Thank you, Mike, and a very good afternoon, everyone. With that said, let's turn to Slide 11. Our Q3 2025 revenues were $27 million compared to $25.2 million in the third quarter of the prior year. This represents a 7% increase. Product revenues for the third quarter of 2025 were $13 million compared to $13.5 million in the third quarter of 2024, which is relatively flat year-over-year. What's important here is that in this phase of Blink's turnaround, our priority is the quality of revenue, not just quantity. Growing the top line matters, but profitable, durable and strategically aligned growth matters more. Revenue must contribute to improving margins and long-term shareholder value. Building a company that generates predictable cash flow rather than one that simply grows for growth's sake is the key to sustainable success. This is further demonstrated by our product gross margin of 39% in Q3 of 2025, which is about 700 basis points higher than 32% product gross margin in Q3 of last year. It is worth noting that some of our revenue in Europe was impacted by delayed timing of revenue recognition, which shifted revenue for certain projects to Q4 of 2025. We made a conscious decision to focus on growth-oriented and disciplined revenue. And while we generated less total revenue versus Q2, we have increased the gross profit margins and repositioned our team on quality revenue in the future. Service revenue increased 36% to $11.9 million in Q3, consisting of repeat charging service revenues, recurring network fees and car sharing revenues. Other revenues, which consist of warranty fees, grants, rebates and other revenue items, were $2.1 million in the third quarter compared to nearly $3 million in Q3 of last year. The $1 million decrease in other revenues was primarily due to a change in how warranty sales are structured and recognized. At the beginning of this year, Blink outsourced its extended warranty program to a third party, and as a result, we now record only the net revenue earned from this contract rather than the full amount recognized in prior periods. Gross profit in Q3 was $9.7 million or 35.8% of revenues compared to gross profit of $9.1 million or 36.2% of revenues in the third quarter of 2024. Operating expenses in the third quarter of 2025 were $9.9 million compared to $97.4 million in the third quarter of 2024. Excluding the impact of the favorable noncash change in the fair value of consideration payable of $11.7 million and $2 million of favorable adjustment in the allowance of doubtful accounts receivable, the total operating expenses in the third quarter of 2025 were $23.6 million. When comparing to the third quarter of 2024 and excluding the noncash charges of $69.5 million for impairment of goodwill and noncash change in fair value of consideration payable, total operating expenses were $27.9 million. In summary, the adjusted operating expenses in Q3 2025 were $23.6 million compared to $27.9 million in Q3 2024. Excluding the above-mentioned charges, it represents a decrease in operating expenses of 15% year-over-year. Also, I would like to update you on the Blink Forward initiative and how it impacted our financials in Q3. In the third quarter of 2025, we incurred $3 million in operating expenses that have been eliminated on a go-forward basis and are not expected to recur in the future. Excluding those $3 million from the $23.6 million of operating expenses that I mentioned earlier, total operating expenses in the third quarter would have been $20.6 million, representing a year-over-year decrease of 26% and a sequential decrease of 15%. This is further exemplified by the significant decrease in both compensation and G&A expenses in Q3 of this year, which have been reduced by 24% and 32%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis. And as we just said, we expect another $3 million of these expenses that have been recorded in Q3 not to recur going forward due to cost optimization actions we have taken already. Loss per share for the quarter was almost $0 compared to a loss of $0.86 in the prior year period. Adjusted loss per share for the quarter was $0.10 compared to a loss of $0.16 in the third quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of '25 was a loss of $8.9 million compared to a loss of $14 million for the prior year. As of September 30, 2025, cash and cash equivalents totaled $23.1 million compared to $55 million as of December 31, 2024, and compared to $25.3 million as of June 30, 2025. If you do the math, in Q3 2025, Blink used only $2.2 million in cash. This is due to great liquidity optimization actions taken by our teams across all of Blink, resulting in significant improvement in working capital metrics. As we continue our journey of transformation, this quarter reflects meaningful progress in strengthening our foundation for sustainable and disciplined growth. While revenue came slightly lower compared to the previous quarter, our team has made substantial strides in controlling and reducing operating expenses, enhancing gross margins and managing cash burn. This discipline is not only visible in the numbers, but in the way we run the business every day. The decisive actions we have taken to streamline operations, rationalize costs and focus resources on the most accretive opportunities are showing tangible results. Our cash burn rate has materially improved and our operating efficiency is trending in the right direction. Both Mike and I mentioned this earlier, as we advance through the stage of our transformation, our focus remains on quality and sustainability of the growth, not just its pace. Expanding revenue is important, but even more essential is ensuring that the revenue contributes to profitability, margin improvement and long-term shareholder value. We are building a business designed for durable cash-generative performance, one that grows with purpose and discipline. Looking ahead, we expect to focus on the same three key factors I covered during the Q2 earnings call, and they are as follows: number one, revenue growth. Based on the current visibility, Blink expects revenue to show continued sequential growth in the second half of 2025. Number two, lower operating expenses, reflecting disciplined cost management and the benefit of efficiency initiatives we already put in place and that we are successfully delivering on. And the last one, number three, improved working capital practices, particularly around receivables management, where we have already implemented several practices to accelerate receivables collection and reduce aged balances. I will now turn it back over to Mike to wrap it up. Go ahead, Mike.

All right. Great. Thanks, Michael. So to be clear, this quarter was one of profound transformation for Blink. We are exiting in-house manufacturing to refocus our efforts on growing our service revenue streams. Our goal is to grow recurring network fees and repeat charging revenue, primarily through a larger Blink-owned DC fast charger footprint. We eliminated an additional $5 million of annualized operating expenses that we do not expect to reoccur going forward. That puts us at $13 million per year of annualized expenses eliminated to date compared to an anticipated $11 million that we announced earlier in the year. And as I said earlier, we are not done yet. We reduced our cash burn and improved our working capital practices that resulted in cash burn of $2.2 million for the quarter, an 87% sequential reduction. We refocused our teams to invest in accretive sales opportunities and improve the quality of our revenue. This was evident in the product gross margin of 38.7% and overall company gross margin of 35.8%. We believe this is a key contributing factor on our path to profitability. And finally, we are on track to start shipping our value-focused Shasta chargers ahead of schedule in Q4. This is a product that fills a gap in our portfolio and is aimed at gaining share in the fleet and multifamily market segments. As we said earlier, regarding revenue and gross margins, we expect revenue in the second half of 2025 to exceed the first half, and we expect the same positive trends we saw in Q3 to continue into Q4. So I would like to extend a thank you to the Blink team for its resilience and focus, and I would like to say thank you to our customers and drivers who rely on Blink to provide energy to their vehicles every day. With that, let's move on to Q&A.

And our first question today will come from Craig Irwin with ROTH Capital.

Congratulations on another strong quarter of execution. It's difficult to know where to begin, but if we take a step back and consider the future, the most significant change looking ahead is likely the shift in manufacturing. There seems to be more to explore regarding how this will impact margins, resources, and the frictional costs needed to support the business. Can you discuss how this change in manufacturing will transition for Blink? I understand you have had relationships with contract manufacturers, especially in India, for several years and have considerable experience with CMs globally. What cash costs might be involved in exiting different manufacturing facilities? Any additional insights you could provide to help us understand how this contributes to your goal of profitability, which I know is a priority for you?

Yes. I will start, and I'm sure Michael Bercovich will have a couple of comments as well. This decision was not made recently; we have been planning for it for quite some time and have been moving in this direction all year. To clarify, Blink has owned its manufacturing and production in India and has not historically used contract manufacturers there. We have assembled products in the U.S. and sourced some third-party chargers externally, which we will continue to do. This new direction allows us to simplify our product procurement strategy. Instead of managing a complex supply chain with various components for different SKUs in our charging lineup, we can now manage finished goods inventory. This change simplifies the company, streamlines operations, and allows us to focus on fewer things, which we believe reduces risks in our supply chain. Additionally, it enables us to cut costs, including compensation and facility expenses, which is significant as we move towards profitability. Concurrently, we are redesigning some of our chargers to further reduce costs, and we are confident our product margins will remain consistent with our current levels. Michael, do you have anything to add?

Yes, absolutely, Mike. We are treating the capital as we raise it today. The discipline is now embedded in how we build, price and operate our product and services. We intend to protect our margins, especially because we will continue to own our IP going forward. We're aligning costs with revenues in everything we do. And we believe that this is actually a very positive move in the direction of going to profitability. And as Mike said, we intend to sublease the premises. We exited it with minimal cost. That is not going to take an impact on us, on our ongoing operation. And this is a very positive move.

Understood. The second, I guess, question that kind of hits the top of my list is the throughputs on your networks have been really impressive, right, 49 gigawatt hours, 66% increase on the Blink networks in the quarter. That is just really impressive. Investors have generally been bearish on EVs, but 66% growth in utilization means that customers are comfortable with Blink and the profitability of this network is clearly increasing. Can you talk about anything that's maybe changed that's allowed you to see this growth acceleration? And how much follow-through do we have on the existing network? Can we see utilizations go 20, 30 points higher on the assets you already have in place?

Yes, that's a good question. The main factor driving the increased volume of energy through the network is the significant growth in our DC fast chargers over the past 12 to 18 months. To clarify, this includes not only Blink-owned chargers but also those owned by customer hosts. We currently have around 1,800 DC fast chargers in the United States, with additional units in our global markets, particularly in Europe. This expansion of the DC fast charger network is a key contributor to the increased volume. Regarding your second question about whether we can maintain this growth and achieve higher utilization rates, we certainly expect to. We have confidence in two areas of our DC fast charging business. First, we are seeing positive sales of units into the market, some of which are publicly accessible and some are not. Second, we are optimistic about our Blink-owned DC charger footprint. As we become more strategic in choosing locations for our chargers, we can enhance the chances of success and see meaningful utilization at those sites. Overall, I believe we still have significant growth potential.

Excellent. Then last question, if I may. You've been pretty clear in your remarks that you're emphasizing DC fast chargers as a real opportunity over the next few years. And I assume there's still a healthy portion of mix. I don't know if you'd like to break that out for us today. But with the emphasis on DC fast chargers, I probably would have expected a contraction of gross profit margins. Something is working for you in there. Can you maybe help us understand if the profitability of DC fast charger sales is changing for Blink? And is this something that would weigh on future margins if it does become an outsized portion of mix? Or have margins there come up to the corporate average?

Yes. Again, a great question. So first of all, while the emphasis on Blink Forward and our owned and operated footprint is DC, Level 2 is still a huge part of our business, and it's a big part of our business both through the channel as well as the owner-operator model. The shift is that, when we look at our capital expenditures, we want more of those dollars in the future going to DC fast charging than to Level 2 because we think that the revenue and the profit opportunity will just accelerate through those sites rather than the owned and operated L2. From a procurement perspective, we've also done a better job. So we're procuring DC fast chargers at a more favorable cost. Our margins are improving in that space. But to be clear, you're right, the L2 margins are historically a bit higher than DC. So when you look at our quarters, depending on the mix of those two things, gross margins could move one way or another within a reasonably narrow band, we think. So I think as we continue to do a better job of procuring DC, as our volume goes up, we're going to see those gross margins either stay steady or perhaps improve a bit.

Congrats on this substantial progress with the path to future profitability.

And our next question will come from Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright.

It was a very good presentation. A lot of things were highlighted during the call. I would like to just dig a little bit deeper into working capital improvements that you have already made and are making on the AR front. We can see that. Is there any concerted effort towards improving the inventory situation here?

Yes. Michael, do you want to take that?

Yes, absolutely. You're absolutely right, we have improved the working capital through several measures. One of them was the way that we approach our receivables, the way we manage, the way we collect, the way we even contract. The other piece, if you see on our balance sheet, we're also managing the inventory more carefully. We deploy based on the needs on both short term and long term. We're managing this way more tightly because the cost of capital is top of our mind. And we will continue doing so. As you see, we will be moving to the cost of manufacturing, and this will help us even further to realign between the needs of the business at every single stage and also the cost of that revenue. We are focusing now on a more disciplined, more focused approach of quality of revenue, as I mentioned before in my readout of the results. And this is where you see through all facets of working capital deployment, inventory and the receivables.

Understood. I have a related question regarding the new contract manufacturing model. How can we expect this inventory to decrease over the next few quarters as you shift to contract manufacturing? What dynamics should we be aware of in this situation?

We expect our inventories to decrease. However, it's important to note that this is also influenced by the mix of our business. As we engage more in DC fast charging, the inventory costs tend to be higher. We usually manage these costs very efficiently, operating on a build-to-order model, which means the products don't remain in inventory for long periods. As we transition to contract manufacturing, we anticipate that our overall inventory costs will decline.

Yes, that makes sense. I have one last question about utilization. I want to clarify whether the throughput is increasing, along with the number of electrons delivered. Is the improvement in utilization happening on a per unit basis, or are you seeing more throughput based on the installed base? I just wanted to understand that.

It's both, Sameer. It's both.

Okay, it's both.

So we're seeing more volume go through because of additional chargers in the ground, and then we're also seeing better utilization of the chargers that are installed.

And it appears there are no further questions at this time. Mr. Stelea, I'll turn the conference back to you.

We thank you all for joining Blink on our quarterly earnings call as we announced another strong quarter with a significant reduction in cash flow burn and a reduction in operating expenses. We are happy to connect you with our management team for additional questions. In order to do so, please send us an e-mail at [email protected]. And we'll look forward to updating you as we progress over the next quarter and in the future. With that, we're going to conclude our presentation. Thank you.

And this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for attending.