Earnings Call Transcript - BLNK Q1 2024

Operator, Operator

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Blink Charging Company's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode and we will open for questions following the presentation. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Vitalie Stelea, VP of Investor Relations. Vitalie, over to you.

Vitalie Stelea, VP of Investor Relations

Thank you, Jenny, and welcome to Blink's first quarter 2024 earnings call. On this call today, we have Brendan Jones, President and CEO; Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer; and Michael Battaglia, our Chief Operating Officer. The discussions today will include non-GAAP references. These are reconciled to the most comparable US 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 and the most significant factors that could cause actual results to differ are included on Page 2 of the first quarter 2024 earnings deck. Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons are year-over-year. And now, regarding the investor relations calendar. Blink and the team will be attending the B. Riley Institutional Conference in Beverly Hills, California on the 22nd of May, the Stifel 2024 Cross Sector Investor Conference on the 4th of June in Boston, and the JPMorgan Energy, Power & Renewables Conference on the 17th of June in New York City. We will be meeting with investors during all of these events. Please also follow our announcements and our website for additional events in the future. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Brendan Jones, our President and CEO. Please go ahead, Brendan.

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Sure. And thank you, Vitalie. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks again for joining us today. Let's just jump right into the presentation. So let's go to Slide 4. So, 2024 is off to a strong start with revenues for the quarter growing to 73% year-over-year. That is a first quarter record of $37.6 million for Blink. Blink service revenue increased by 72% to $88.2 million. Now, our charging service revenue increased by 74% to $5 million compared to $2.9 million in the first quarter of 2023, representing a $2.1 million increase in charging revenue. We also recorded a 27% increase in network services fees to $2.1 million for the quarter. And our network servicing fees are reoccurring in nature and they represent what we call a reliable and high-margin revenue stream for Blink. Blink's company-wide gross profit in the first quarter of 2024 was $13.4 million or 36% compared to $4.5 million or 21% of the first quarter of last year, representing a gross profit increase of $8.9 million or 195% in gross profit. We contracted, sold, or deployed 4,555 chargers globally in the first quarter of this year. Blink's chargers dispersed approximately 30 gigawatts of energy across all Blink networks globally in Q1 of 2024. As you can see from these numbers, our revenue is becoming increasingly diversified. We have a competitive advantage in our industry because we offer flexible business models and we can provide L2 and DC chargers as well as network and charging services. We can be nimble not only in our response to addressing customers’ needs but also in reacting to changes in the market which allows us to effectively manage revenue generation and profitability. Our first quarter was characterized by strong performance by the Blink team and is indicative of healthy customer demand. Furthermore, demonstrating our ability to leverage our manufacturing and logistical strengths to meet that demand, vertical integration is working for Blink. If we move to Slide 5, for 2024, we are keeping our full year 2024 revenue target unchanged at $165 million to $175 million. Now, while we had a strong Q1, which we are very, very excited about, we are also seeing some lower bookings in April. We are closely monitoring the market and it's too early to tell if we will see an impact on the full-year revenue targets. We regularly review our pipeline and will provide an update if necessary in the future. However, as a result of several companies exiting the charging space or reducing their presence along with the confirmation of some very strong orders in the Q3 and Q4 timeframe, we expect opportunities for additional growth in the second half of 2024. We are also maintaining our target of achieving positive EBITDA run rate by December of 2024, as well as our full-year 2024 gross margin target of 33%, which you've already seen that we've overachieved in the first quarter. If we jump to Slide 6, we have recently strengthened our balance sheet and are properly capitalized to achieve our adjusted EBITDA run rate target. Our cash and cash equivalents at March 31, 2024 were $93.5 million. Now let's move on to Slide 7...

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Brendan, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to Slide 12, total revenue in the first quarter of 2024 grew 73% year-over-year to $37.6 million. Product sales in the first quarter of 2024 were $27.5 million, an increase of 68% over the same period in 2023. This was primarily due to customers purchasing greater volumes of our commercial chargers. First quarter 2024 service revenues, which consist of charging service revenues, network fees, and car-sharing revenues, were $8.2 million, an increase of 72% compared to the first quarter of 2023. The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by greater utilization of our chargers in the US and internationally. The increased number of chargers on Blink networks and revenues associated with our car-sharing programs. Our gross profit for the first quarter of 2024 was $13.4 million, an increase of 195% or $8.9 million over the same period last year. As a percentage of revenues, gross margin was 36% in Q1 2024 compared to 21% in the same period of the prior year. Importantly, we improved our gross margin in Q1 nearly 200% on revenue growth of 73%. This is primarily due to the shift to higher margin product, increased vertical integration of charger manufacturing, as well as higher gross margins from service revenues. Operating expenses in the first quarter of 2024 were $30.9 million, which is a decrease of 13% or an improvement of $4.5 million. This decrease is especially notable when compared to total operating expenses as a percentage of revenues, which showed nearly an 8,100 basis point improvement in operating expenses year-over-year. Within this number, compensation expense was down $7.8 million or 34% year-over-year and SG&A was down 8% or about $700,000 versus the same period last year. Excluding the impact of the non-cash charge related to a change in fair value of a consideration payable of $1.7 million, the actual reduction in overall operating expenses in Q1 would have been $6.2 million or 18% versus the prior year. This is the result of reductions in executive compensation and discipline, cost reductions, and cost avoidance actions achieved through continuous improvement efforts. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2024 was a loss of $10.2 million compared to a loss of $17.8 million in the prior year period. This is an improvement of $7.6 million year-over-year. Sequentially, Q1 adjusted EBITDA improved by $3.8 million compared to Q4 2023, and significant improvement from just one quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2024, excludes the impact of stock-based compensation, acquisition-related costs, estimated loss related to underperforming assets of a subsidiary, and the change in fair value related to a consideration payable. Now, earnings per share for the first quarter of 2024 was a loss of $0.17 per share, compared to a loss of $0.53 per share in the prior year period...

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Thanks, Michael. So now let's wrap this up. Obviously, you can all tell we are very pleased with our team's performance in Q1 of 2024. As you can see from the numbers Michael just reviewed, Blink continues its positive momentum in the marketplace. We showed again that we can deliver. We delivered 73% growth in revenues and 36% gross margin while improving adjusted EBITDA by $7.6 million. At the same time, we reduced our operating expense by 13%, which is a reduction of $4.5 million. Additionally, Blink now has zero cash debt. We paid off all of our cash debt obligations. Our number one priority right now is to continue to structurally adjust the company for future opportunities, as well as changes in the market conditions. Blink's synergy, cost cutting, and cost avoidance activities will continue throughout 2024. Our goal is profits and cash generation that will ensure that Blink can grow sustainably into the future. We fundamentally believe that this is achievable, especially with our culture of continuous improvement that is already showing positive results. Again, very proud of our team and the effort this past quarter. But we are even more excited about the future of Blink. We remain committed to making Blink more flexible, adaptable, and most importantly for this industry, financially sustainable, as we continue to charge towards profitability. Now, that concludes our formal remarks. I think we're ready to turn it over for some questions. Thanks.

Operator, Operator

Your first question is coming from Chris Pierce of Needham & Company. Chris, you can go ahead.

Chris Pierce, Analyst

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for your questions. Regarding the softness in April, I assume this occurred before the Tesla news, and the timing aligns with that. I'm curious, as we've been hearing a lot about Tesla's superchargers and Level 3 chargers, but they have also been moving into the Level 2 space and securing hospitality deals with Hilton and Best Western. Are you optimistic about those deals being reopened and creating a revenue opportunity for you? I just want to get a better understanding.

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Yeah, I mean, sure, we can't get into specifics. But, I think the thing that we can say factually is we've received quite a bit of inbound inquiries already when the news came out and we put ourselves in a position that we're poised to take advantage of them when they actually materialize into an offer order or an order. So yes, it has created some momentum for us and we have the products and services and chargers to take advantage of that and we intend to do so.

Chris Pierce, Analyst

Is that Level 2 momentum or just broad-based across Level 2 and Level 3?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

We've actually received inquiries on both.

Chris Pierce, Analyst

Okay, okay. Regarding cash burn and cash balance as we aim for positive adjusted EBITDA by the end of the year, I don't want to specifically mention 2025, but it appears there might be some tightness as we approach year-end due to losses in the first quarter. How should we view the remaining year and any potential financing needs from your perspective?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Yes. As we've stated, we have enough cash on the books to get through EBITDA positives. We're not going to make any statements just yet in terms of free cash flow for 2025, although we've said previously that is the goal. So it's that balance to when does that goal become achievable. We are investigating opportunities that we may have as we move into 2025. But as we said before, we will not be engaging in any equity raises or dilution-like activities throughout this year, but we will have more to come on that topic as we get into most likely Q3 and Q4 this year. Michael Rama, any additional follow-up questions on that?

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

No, I think that’s not something for me.

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

All right.

Chris Pierce, Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Operator, Operator

Thank you very much. Your next question is coming from Craig Irwin of ROTH MKM. Craig, your line is live.

Craig Irwin, Analyst

Hi, good afternoon, congratulations on a really strong revenue quarter. So, Brendan, you guys are crushing it on the gross margin side, right? You're well above the guide for 33%, coming in almost 36% this quarter. Can you maybe talk a little bit about where this strength is coming from? And you maintained your guide for this year, so should we think about potential expenses or inefficiencies for gross margins as Bowie, Maryland starts to ramp? Are there other business mix items that you may be factoring in the guidance that has you give a number that's consistent with what you've guided before but lower than your recen…

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

We are continuously working to move past some of our legacy products, and we've been quite effective in that endeavor. There’s some progress still needed, but it’s not significant enough to impact our overall performance. We made some progress this quarter on this front too. Essentially, we are focusing on two key areas: enhancing vertical integration and reducing costs, both in our US production and in parts manufacturing and sub-assembly in India. Additionally, we are striving to improve efficiencies and cost savings in our European operations, particularly with the owner-operator model, which is yielding impressive margins from the revenue we generate from our owned and operated chargers. This revenue is not only growing significantly on a month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter, and year-over-year basis, but it is also becoming increasingly profitable. Compared to others in the market, we have the highest margins in the owner-operator sector, setting the standard for competitors. By combining these factors, including scalable networking fees from L2 to DC fast chargers and our upcoming software offerings in energy management and other services, we are enhancing our margins further. This is why we believe our flexible business model, along with our operations in Europe and the United States, encompassing the sales of hardware, services, networking services, and the owner-operator model, is allowing us to be flexible and adaptable as the market evolves.

Craig Irwin, Analyst

Excellent, thank you so much for that. My second question is about the progress towards positive EBITDA at the end of the year. So if we're thinking, you know, it's not really a positive EBITDA quarter, but positive EBITDA month, so that you're breakeven, you need a fairly substantial move on either lower costs or higher margins if we assume that you execute at the high end of your guidance for revenue. So can you maybe help us understand how we balance lower SG&A costs and salaries and comp as you consolidate these five facilities down to one and reposition the business? I guess there's probably outside expenses too that you're eliminating. Can you maybe just help us frame this out? Consensus is a long way from breakeven EBITDA, right?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

So where I can, there are certain activities we can't disclose yet because of the sensitivity of them, as you probably are aware. But we've announced that we are going to, and we'll have the spin-off completed this year, Blink Mobility, and that includes the BlueLA car service. So that is going to remove a large chunk of it in that simple action. Then also, we are engaged in cost reduction activities across a multiplicity of the businesses. That will be revealed more as we move into Q2 and indeed in Q3. Those include expense reductions. There is some structurally adjusting certain businesses and reorganizations that will result in savings on headcount, et cetera, in there, and there's also the closing of non-performing assets. We'll have an announcement shortly on one non-performing asset that we're eliminating. We've successfully sold it. It is below the line right now, but there's a significant net savings in terms of cash outlay on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis that will net. And we have at least one or two of those more to go. So when you add it all up, our team that monitors that, they have all these in the different slots and levers where they come in. We see ourselves right now at the current market rate and at the current revenue streams that are coming in, we see ourselves achieving the goal based on the cuts that we have planned, the spin-off, et cetera. So we still feel confident about that. Mr. Rama or Mr. Battaglia, any additional comments for Craig? It's a real good question that we expected.

Michael Battaglia, Chief Operating Officer

No, my only additional comment would be that we continue to be focused on expense reduction across the business. The goal of becoming EBITDA positive is the number one priority for Blink. As long as the market supports us on the top line, we have a plan in place to achieve this.

Craig Irwin, Analyst

Excellent. I really appreciate that answer. So just as a follow-up, it sounds like Blink Mobility is probably the biggest factor in the spin-off there. Can you maybe share with us what their expense burden was in ‘23 or what's a good sort of rough number for us to be thinking in ‘24 as we look at that? Maybe not the forward-looking number, but the historical number is probably the easier one to give.

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Michael?

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I'll jump in on that one. Yeah, historically, between the combination of Envoy as well as BlueLA, it was burning about $4 million in bottom line EBITDA. So there's a good chunk that we're looking at that's going to be, once that gets solved, resolved, and all that stuff, that will be a positive impact to that EBITDA goal. And as we've mentioned, it's really a look at these non-performing assets and really be able to position ourselves to really benefit from the strengths of what we do best. And that's an EV charging infrastructure.

Craig Irwin, Analyst

Great, and then last question if I could squeeze another one in, is the Post Office. You guys did a great job winning that contract. It looks like the two other vendors, well, they both outsourced, I guess. It depends on how you look at it. But it doesn't look like either one of them has Buy in America compliant product. I think the Post Office is talking about 14,000 chargers this year. How ready are you to serve demand from the post office? Do you believe it's accurate that the others do not have Buy in America compliant products to offer the Post Office at this time? Is there anything else we should probably look at to understand the potential in there?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

So I'll say this. We can't comment on the other manufacturers and where they stand, right? We can say that we are in good standing in our relationship with the Post Office. We're in contact with them and they're in contact with us about what the future looks like for 2024. We have a lot of confidence in the communications that they're delivering to us and what we need to do to fulfill the orders that will come in in 2024. The details of it, we haven't got permission from the Post Office to release yet. So we have to kind of lay a little bit low on that. Mike Battaglia, any additional insight onto that other than what I just said?

Michael Battaglia, Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, the only thing I would add is, Craig, you asked about production capacity and to answer your question directly, yes, we have the production capacity to fulfill what they're looking for.

Craig Irwin, Analyst

Perfect. Thank you, gentlemen. Congrats on another really solid quarter. Impressive.

Operator, Operator

Thank you very much. Your next question is coming from Stephen Gengaro of Stifel. Stephen, your line is live.

Stephen Gengaro, Analyst

Thanks, good afternoon everybody.

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Hey, Stephen.

Stephen Gengaro, Analyst

So a couple things for me. The first is when we think about the different pieces of revenue. I'm going to think of product sales, but then the charging service revenue. How should we think about the relative growth of those pieces as we go forward? And I'm talking about multiple quarters or even the next couple of years. Like, should we think about products outgrowing that piece? Or do you think you'll start to see the charging service revenue, because of EV density picking up, start to kind of accelerate?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

I'll give it a try, and then the team can add their insights as well, Stephen. In our trend analysis, particularly focusing on service revenue, we observe that utilization in Europe is rising significantly month after month, quarter after quarter, and year after year. We are also winning awards in Europe, which helps us install more chargers under that model. This growth in revenue is expected to continue, especially as we reach maximum utilization at certain stations and need to expand. However, when looking specifically at the US market and evaluating the current players offering comprehensive solutions, we stand out as one of the best-positioned providers. Our vertical integration enables us to maintain high margins while delivering a full-service offering that includes network installation, chargers, and a flexible model. We anticipate that product revenue will continue to be significant, with growth expected to be higher in the owner-operator model compared to the product model over time. The challenge lies in predicting when that inflection point will occur. While we have conducted some internal analysis, we do not yet have substantial findings to determine when the growth of this model will surpass the other. Michael and Michael, do you have any thoughts?

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

This is Michael Rama. I would add that in the first quarter of this year, we have observed a slight shift in our sales mix, with hardware or product sales making up about 70% now, down from the previous 75% to 80% on the product side, while service has risen to approximately 30%. So, we are beginning to see an upward trend in the service segment as a percentage of our overall revenue.

Stephen Gengaro, Analyst

Okay, that's helpful. And then the one other question, and this is probably a sort of three-year view plus, I mean, should we think about the growth in your business kind of just paralleling EV sales growth? I mean, is that a reasonable way to think about the North American business? Or do you think there are parts that either outpace or underperform that?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

I believe it's a reasonable assumption that some, but not all, of the growth will correlate with EV sales. However, as we expand into energy services and SaaS options like load management, building management, load curtailment, and integration into microgrids, these services will generate independent revenue as part of our overall network services. Therefore, the SaaS portion of the business will keep growing. We are currently focused on projects I just mentioned, but we anticipate introducing new offerings in energy management in the future. Internally, we have a dedicated task force and strategy group concentrating on energy management as a distinct category, and we expect this channel to yield more in the coming years. Additionally, there will be other SaaS offerings. Since we operate our own network and provide various software services from our development centers in the US, Europe, and India, the SaaS applications will continue to expand. Michael Battaglia, do you have any further comments on this?

Michael Battaglia, Chief Operating Officer

No, I would just add that one of the beautiful things about Blink is that we approach the market where the market is and where the customer is and what the customer wants. And we keep going back to this, but our business models enable us to do that. So when we think about the mix between product sales versus owner operator, things like that, that's largely going to follow the market opportunities. That said, the focus of the organization is on repeatable, high-margin, recurring revenue. So that, as we know, is more directed towards things like service, it's things like Blink-owned owner-operator chargers out in the field. So our focus always is that. But we will continue to deliver to the market what the market's asking of us.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Great, thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Just if you could give us a little bit more insight into your developments on the energy management solutions. I know you referenced it for the previous question, but should we expect these to be standalone or grid-adjacent applications or charging-adjacent applications?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

I'll start by giving a high-level overview. We're approaching this with two main focuses: European energy management services and US energy management services, which have different needs at this time. Our team is already working on developing these features and benefits, but I won't provide a release date since it’s too early. Some of these features are already in place. Additionally, we're enhancing our fleet management services. These will generally require a network for activation, but they will fit into any of our operational models, whether it’s owner-operator, hybrid, or sales. Both models will benefit Blink and our customers, although they won't be standalone software that can be purchased outright. Initially, these enhancements will support the network and drive business results. We're finding that to win contracts, especially in full-service RFPs, having these capabilities is essential. These RFPs encompass all aspects, including chargers, network, installation, and energy management. Mike, do you have any further comments on this?

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

No, Brendan, I think you covered it nicely.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

All right, thanks.

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Occasionally, the CEO is smart, right? Occasionally.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Just another question, and this was also referenced earlier, but it seems the product margins are nearly 40% this quarter. Are there further efforts to improve these margins going forward and is that part of your goal to achieve a positive adjusted EBITDA by the end of this year?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

I hope we can make improvements, but I'm not ready to commit to anything at this time. We're maintaining a conservative approach to ensure we meet our expectations as a company. Currently, we have some assigned resources, and while there isn't much commoditization in the commercial sector yet, we're noticing an increased demand for quality products. However, we also need to balance this with the variable demands for DC fast chargers. Higher orders for DC chargers can lower some of our margins. We've made progress in protecting our margins, such as by introducing our DC 9 charger, which we manufacture in-house and has a higher margin. We're also developing our own DC fast charger, which will be produced by a third-party manufacturer. If our focus is primarily on Level 2 chargers, which we excel at producing, we should see improvements. Overall, we need to remain cautious. As we transition European Level 2 chargers to Blink manufacturing, we expect to achieve about 80% vertical integration, but we'll still have a significant volume of high-revenue DC fast chargers, which will not carry the same high margins as the Level 2 chargers. Michael, I may have complicated that a bit. Do you have any comments or clarifications?

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

I could jump in, Brendan. Actually, I have just a couple of quick comments on that. So one is we have a couple of different levers that we can pull in terms of margin expansion. One of them is SKU consolidation which we're working on. So simplifying in order to sell more of fewer SKUs for economies of scale, purchasing power, things like that. The second is, while we have our manufacturing facility in Bowie, Maryland that's providing Buy America compliant chargers, we also have the ability to produce finished goods in India. And that represents another lever we haven't pulled yet for margin expansion of our L2 product line. So there are a couple of different things that we can do to continue to work on that. I think as Brendan indicated, we're holding to our guidance. We had a good Q1, and so we'll see where that takes us.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Understood, thanks for that. And then one last one on costs. Will you remind us what constitutes other operating expenses? I think they were slightly elevated this quarter. How should we look at it if we are projecting it for the rest of the year?

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

Sure, I can address that. We accounted for over $2 million, including $1.7 million that went through operating expenses as an adjustment to bring our liability for consideration payable to Envoy in stock up to fair value. This adjustment increased our liability, which is why we excluded that $1.7 million from adjusted EBITDA since it’s more of a GAAP adjustment rather than an operational one. Additionally, we had to account for another $0.5 million related to underperforming assets in a subsidiary. Combined, these items totaled about $2.2 million for the quarter and are considered non-recurring expenses.

Sameer Joshi, Analyst

Okay. And the $6.4 million other operating expenses likely elevated related to like $3 million to $4 million in the previous quarters?

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

It could be a matter of timing regarding certain activities. We likely had additional travel and entertainment expenses, as well as some trade shows we participated in during the first quarter. However, the significant factors are the ones I just mentioned.

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Thanks, Sameer.

Operator, Operator

Thank you very much. And your last question is coming from Noel Parks of Tuohy Brothers. Noel, your line is live.

Noel Parks, Analyst

I just had a couple. I wanted to just touch back on maybe a little bit of what's happening on sort of the grants function. And I just wondered if you had any updates you could share around NEVI funding and just maybe where that's showing up in your business, what sort of visibility you might have there.

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Yeah, we've won a couple NEVI sites already. But there's a key thing as a covering statement that we should use. All of our forecasting and data analysis right now that we're looking at, it's devoid of winning grants in the future. We believe that to become a sustainable company, we can't rely on government funding because it may or may not be there. And there may be less opportunities or more opportunities depending on how we fit into particular programs and RFPs that the states or the federal government put out there. So with that said, we do look for NEVI opportunities that really fit Blink. And what I mean by that is we will not be a plant, a flag company. And what that means is we win an award and we put a station there just because we won the award. If the site doesn't have positive station economics and we don't get a positive return for our shareholder in a set amount of time, we will pass on the NEVI opportunity regardless of the state and the amount of funding provided. The ones that we have won and there's only a few of them that we've won, they already passed that litmus test, meaning that we're going to get a return on that investment and we can show positive growth in revenue over a period of time to our stakeholders. Now, we do participate and we're already heavily involved in the second part of, it's not the NEVI, but $7.5 million and there's another $2.5 million set aside for other projects and we're already fully engaged. Thanks, Mike. And Mike, actually you're better to answer the CFI part. So you want to follow up there?

Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer

There are two components to NEVI. One is the DC fast charging aspect, and the other is the $2.5 billion allocated for CFI, which is intended for Level 2 community charging. Unlike the DC funds, the CFI funding is not distributed in the same manner. Local governments and states apply for these funds with specific projects in mind. Once they receive approval, they secure funding and then issue requests for proposals to companies like Blink to undertake those projects. This process is just beginning, and since we are primarily focused on Level 2 charging, our aim is to actively pursue these opportunities as the funds are released and RFPs are issued. While we will continue to engage with the DC side, we are also putting significant effort into the CFI side.

Noel Parks, Analyst

Great. Thanks for that detail. And, I was just wondering, thinking about the network and sort of the, as you have more time operating a broader set of networks, as far as the customer charging experience, just wondering what sort of feedback you might have had in recent quarters. And were there any goals or enhancements on the horizon, I don't know, either for the app or the onsite software that you have in mind?

Brendan Jones, President and CEO

Yeah, continuous improvement. We're analyzing feedback from everywhere. We've analyzed equipment that we may need to sunset because it's not functioning properly due to firmware or software issues. We just launched Blink Care which is a preventative maintenance program that helps improve the quality of stations out in the field that just launched the other day. We're also working on an effort to consolidate platforms as Mike spoke to earlier, and what that does, it limits your problems with points of connection between software, firmware, and a multiplicity of platforms, vertical integration is helping with that. So we have a plan that is both operational and technology-minded to day over day, week over week, year over year, improve our quality scores. We're already signing them to tick up, but we're paying attention to the industry, the feedback. We're very, very active in the space. Mike is leading that effort. So, Mike, any comments from you on quality and quality improvement initiatives?

Michael Battaglia, Chief Operating Officer

One of the major issues in the industry is charger uptime and customer experience with charging, specifically addressing and eliminating broken chargers. As Brendan mentioned, this is part of my responsibility, and it is something we constantly review and analyze every day. We assess the status of our chargers to identify which are functioning well and which are not. We conduct in-depth investigations into the reasons why a charger might be down or offline. This is a complex issue that is often underestimated, especially considering the challenges when another party owns the charging stations. We maintain a high level of control over the charging stations we own, and they have excellent uptime. However, when we sell a charging station to someone else and they do not keep it maintained, it becomes challenging to enforce any accountability. Therefore, we are implementing various strategies from both marketing and field services to ensure that all Blink chargers available in the market perform reliably.

Noel Parks, Analyst

Great, thanks. Sounds perfect.

Operator, Operator

Thank you very much. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I will now hand back over to Vitalie for any closing remarks.

Vitalie Stelea, VP of Investor Relations

Thank you, Jenny, and thank you all for joining us on the call today and for your interest in Blink, especially as we announced our another record first quarter. To summarize the quarter in a few numbers, our Q1 revenue was up 73%, our gross profit was up nearly 200%, and we did all of that while reducing total operating expenses by 13% and making significant progress towards our adjusted EBITDA profitability run rate target. So for additional questions or requests to meet with management, please email us at [email protected] and we'll look forward to engaging with you in the future. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Thank you very much. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines and have a wonderful rest of the day. Thank you for your participation.