Freightos Ltd Q2 FY2023 Earnings Call

Thank you, Eytan, and thanks to everyone who’s joined. And we’re pleased to report continued growth in Q2 and significant progress in our mission to digitalize global freight and to make buying and selling of freight services smoother and more efficient for importers, exporters, carriers, and freight forwarders. Total transactions booked across our platform grew 59% year-on-year in Q2, reaching 239,000 transactions, a run rate of almost 1 million transactions per year. This growth is driven by a number of factors. The first is persistent use by existing users who place the majority of our bookings. These cohorts of users continue to demonstrate strong retention and growth. In fact, the cohort of users who first placed bookings on Freightos’ platforms in early 2021 are now doing well over 10 times more bookings per month. Liquidity growth also comes from the supply side. For example, during Q2, both China Eastern Air and Wideroe went live, while LATAM, Qatar, Avianca, and Emirates expanded the range of air cargo services offered via WebCargo by Freightos. These ongoing expansions continue to grow platform transactions significantly. For example, one major airline partner who has worked with us for over a year still saw transactions grow by over 25% quarter-on-quarter. The second factor in the growth is unique buyer users. Over 16,400 unique business users booked shipments via the Freightos platforms in the quarter. The growth in demand continues to attract more sellers, who in turn attract new buyers, creating a sustainable flywheel growth dynamic. This network marketplace effect is core to our growth strategy and our ability to capture the vast market opportunity, which is still ahead of us. We believe that our ongoing investment in product development is also supporting the expanded usage by existing customers and the attraction of new customers. One example is our newly launched Airline Dashboard, which provides valuable analytics to carriers leveraging our vast market data, to help them optimize pricing, improve conversion rates, and to help them be more agile in updating their airline cargo services. Another important innovation is interlining booking, where one airline purchases cargo services from another. Interlining is similar to code sharing in passenger travel. It’s quite common in cargo but shockingly inefficient. We recently announced the world’s first digital cargo interlining booking on the third-party platform with the test shipment on WebCargo by Freightos, by Qatar Airways cargo on our ITA Airways flight. These are early days, but we are excited that using our interlining technology to combine cargo airlines in thousands of new permutations would unlock new unique supplies for our thousands of freight forwarders globally to improve aircraft capacity utilization, broaden the global coverage available on work cargo, and create all kinds of new business opportunities for us and our customers. As you all know, the freight market is going through a significant cyclical downturn this year. Let’s take a quick look at the industry conditions that form the backdrop to our results and projections. And we will do that using data from our own Freightos Terminal product. First, on a broader industry level, ocean freight rates from China to the North American West Coast tracked by our bellwether FBX01 index finally saw a small increase in the first half of August, but are still down more than 90% from their peak. At the same time, rates have begun to rebound since mid-July, up $500 per 40-foot container. As we get closer to the holidays and enter the typical shipping peak season months, volumes to the U.S. are projected by the National Retail Federation to increase by 6% between July and August and be slightly above 2019 levels through the peak season months. Asia to North Europe trade demand increased 3% for the year from June ‘22 to this June, though it was down year-on-year for the entire quarter. Despite sluggish demand, carriers were able to keep rates at about 2019 levels, which are $1,300 to $1,400 for a 40-foot container. Moving from ocean freight to air cargo, rates are being pushed down by the combination of lukewarm demand and an increase in capacity, and the increased capacity is largely due to passenger travel recovery. Many passenger planes do have cargo capacity as well. A significant rebound is not expected at least until air cargo’s typical peak season, which is in Q4. The latest IATA data from June does show volume improved slightly relative to May, but still 3% lower than last year. Air cargo rates have fallen. Our global Freightos Air Index, FAX, is down 55% from its peak. FAX for Asia to Europe is down 48% from a year ago, while Asia to North America rates are 43% lower. And transatlantic prices are 44% lower than last August. However, unlike the ocean, air cargo rates are still above pre-pandemic levels. All these market conditions were an important factor in our decision to initiate the organizational efficiency plan we announced in July, to ensure we are on track to reach profitability on our existing cash reserves. This plan saw a significantly reduced spend while barely compromising our investment in both high growth and profitable offerings. Just to recap, we regrettably reduced headcount by 50 employees, approximately 13% of the team, and focused our growth efforts on the platform business for carriers, freight forwarders, and enterprise importers and exporters, together with ongoing investment in our solutions business which comprises software and data subscriptions. As I mentioned, global freight rates in Q3 appear to recover slightly. Higher freight rates could positively impact our business in two ways. First, in the portion of our business where we’re paid a percentage of the transaction rather than a flat fee, higher rates do increase our revenue. Second, higher rates mean more revenue for freight forwarders, which should make it easier for our customers to spend money on new solutions. Having said that, despite the strong booking volumes, we’re still in the early days of digitalizing the freight industry and therefore measure our success by transaction growth more than by platform monetization. To summarize, we believe that we’re on track to digitalize one of the largest offline industries in the world. If we look at one of our core lanes, for example, European air cargo exports, while industry volumes in June dropped slightly year-over-year, our booking volumes on those lanes grew by over 40%. Similarly, June data shows a 6.5% dip in North American export air cargo compared to last year, while our bookings grew a strong 70% year-on-year. This shows that demand for our innovative solutions is strong, with the efficiency and transparency we offer, winning over cyclical industry conditions. As a pioneer in digital freight platforms, we come with strong market leadership and are well positioned to continue to benefit from this demand. And still only a fraction of the global freight industry is aligned. So, we’re only scratching the surface of this market’s potential. The team and I are excited to continue to scale Freightos as a sustainable and capital efficient business. We have a positive trajectory, outstanding growth signals, and the people and resources we need to deliver. Let me now hand it over to our CFO, Ran to discuss our Q2 results and Q3 guidance.

Thanks, Zvi, and good to see everyone. I’m pleased to review our Q2 ‘23 quarterly results. Revenue for Q2 ‘23 was $5.1 million, down 1.3% compared to Q2 of ‘22 or 2.6% on a constant currency basis. Our IFRS gross margins remained excellent at 57.3% compared to 59.6% last year, with the non-IFRS gross margin stable at 65%. Gross margins reflect a mix of our very high solution segment margins, mixed with a somewhat lower margin in our platform business segment. Over the long run, we expect gross margins to increase as our transactional platform business matures. Adjusted EBITDA in Q2 ‘23 was negative $5.3 million compared to a negative $3.6 million in Q2 of ‘22, primarily due to the cost of being a public company. Perhaps a more meaningful comparison is to Q1 ‘23, our first quarter as a public company when adjusted EBITDA was negative $5.8 million as I mentioned in our last call. The quarter-over-quarter improvement reflects both the efficiency plan announcement in July, as well as our constant emphasis on efficiency. We believe we’ll grow transactions across our platforms to between 1 million transactions a year, structured particularly in dollars. As industry rates remain low with 5% and 13%, we are pleased to be able to achieve such growth rate on a lean cost structure, particularly in light of the broader market conditions. Combined with our operational efficiency plan, as well as our high and stable gross margins, we are anticipating adjusted EBITDA losses of $5.1 million to $4.5 million. As industry rates remain low, we anticipate gross bookings value between $146.5 million and $156.5 million. Marketplaces thrive on liquidity, so transactions are the North Star of our platform segment. We continue to expand our market share by growing both our supply and demand, while enhancing our underlying platform. The majority of our transactions are still monetized on a fixed fee basis, which we are increasing gradually as we increase the value delivered to our partners. The fixed fee structure may reduce our short-term revenue growth, but it also ensures that our revenue is less exposed to gross bookings value fluctuations. In our solutions business segment, revenue is typically recurring and has high gross margins. Beyond revenue we’ve also found that our software and data businesses strongly support acquisition and retention of users responsible for transactions. This powerful strategy is known as a SaaS enabled marketplace. As for our full year guidance, we are reiterating our previous expectations. The figures are presented in the press release and on this slide. Let me pass it back to Zvi for some remarks before we take some questions.

Thanks, Ran. We’re pleased to see indications that the global freight industry may be heading towards a gradual recovery. That said, we’re building a digital platform business that can thrive in all market conditions. We continue to invest in research and development and expect to see in the coming months a number of exciting AI-driven features, new carrier launches, more integrations with the leading supply chain software providers, and other innovations which will roll out with our carrier, freight forwarder, and importer and exporter partners. Okay. I think Eytan may have dropped off. So, I’m going to take some questions. Eytan, are you there? Okay. Good. So, question from Greg Pendy. Hi, Greg. Can you help us understand how to think about the new carriers you are adding in Q3 versus guidance for transactions? How much, if any, more new carriers are being added, or is that mostly growth with existing carriers? Yes, we didn’t have any major new carrier announcements during the summer, but those tend to be unpredictable and happen from time to time. It’s natural that we won’t have a major carrier joining every quarter. However, we are in contact with several significant carriers who are not yet on our network, particularly in Asia, and a few others in the West as well. We're actively communicating with all the carriers, and I hope that in Q3 we’ll be able to get a couple of them onboard, which could lead to a significant increase. We can still grow a little without new carriers, but the substantial growth comes when new carriers join. I believe we have a solid pipeline of carriers ready to join. Good. Any other questions? Okay. Hold on a sec.

Okay. Here we go. I can see there’s a question from, Jason. Jason, I’m going to unmute you right now. Your line should be open.

Thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Good morning, everybody else. So, two questions. One, the full year guidance implies an acceleration in transactions. Just maybe talk about the risks of this outlook or the puts and takes. So, how conservative could this be versus what are the risks? And then the second question, on the solutions segment, talk about how you think about contract terms, your ability to raise prices or upsell more services? Why did revenue growth start to basically slow in the first quarter and what could be the catalyst to accelerate growth in solutions revenue? And by the way, Jason Helfstein from Oppenheimer. Thank you.

Thank you, Jason. Our ability to predict transaction growth has been quite reliable, though it's not without its imperfections. We believe we have a solid track record in this area. In response to Greg's question, we anticipate some acceleration in growth. We've welcomed a few small carriers in Q2 and are hoping to add larger carriers in the latter half of the year. Additionally, we continue to onboard new freight forwarders every day. The slower transaction growth can be attributed to the lack of major new carriers and the overall market decline, particularly with reduced air volumes. The financial results from cargo airlines in Q2 reflect this downturn. However, we are optimistic that the market will stabilize, and we look forward to potential improvements in Q4, which is traditionally a peak season for air transport, as it becomes too late for retailers to ship by ocean. With the peak season approaching, our ongoing addition of forwarders, and the expectation of more significant carriers joining us later this year, we are confident in our projections for increased transactions in the second half. Does that address your first question?

Yes. I mean, it’s really more about the fourth quarter, just the guide implies an acceleration in the fourth quarter with the third quarter being the bottom, I think, if you look at the number of transactions.

Yes, we consider the seasonality and typically, most of our bookings in Q4 are air, which is usually strong. By then, we hope to have a few more carriers onboard. While we can't guarantee anything absolutely, we feel optimistic about a robust Q4 in terms of transaction numbers and have good confidence in that. Regarding solutions, we're selling software to an industry facing challenges. The financial performance of freight forwarders and ocean carriers has declined significantly year-over-year. We've managed to raise prices slightly this year, and our retention rate remains strong. However, selling larger new contracts in the current market with our customers experiencing difficulties has proven more challenging than we would prefer. The industry is cyclical, and we hope next year will be easier. Overall, despite the tough conditions, we've successfully maintained our revenue, increased prices modestly, and achieved a customer retention rate well over 90%. Therefore, I believe we're in a good position, and we will likely be able to expand our solutions as the market begins to recover.

Thank you.

Okay. Our next question is from Brian Dobson of Chardan. Brian, your line is open.

Thanks very much. So, you had some positive commentary in your release regarding signs of life in global freight indices in the third quarter as you are heading to the peak period. Do you have any additional color on where that strength or relative strength is stemming from in terms of industry or geography?

That's a great question. We do not have a breakdown by industry because we focus on the volume of containers shipped and the tons shipped by air. We don't always know which industry it pertains to, as it relies on specific circumstances. Typically, a freight forwarder will book a certain amount of tons, but they don't usually inform us about the contents unless they require special handling. Therefore, I can't provide an industry breakdown. However, we are observing an increase across the board. I hesitate to label it a recovery just yet, but there’s a rise in ocean rates, particularly between Asia-Europe and Asia-North America, which are the largest trade routes. This is likely tied to the approaching ocean peak season, when retailers begin shipping goods from Asia to stock up for Thanksgiving and Christmas. While this uptick appears to be seasonal, it's encouraging to see it happen even in a softer market. Some were concerned there wouldn’t be any increase. Additionally, retail spending is holding up decently, despite inflation and other concerns. Consumer spending hasn’t decreased significantly, contrary to some fears. Overall, there's a sense within the industry, especially on the ocean freight side, that we may have seen the worst. That said, there are still challenges, including a backlog of orders for ships and incoming planes, which could exert more downward pressure on prices, even with stable volumes.

Yes. Thanks. That’s very helpful color. And last month, you rolled out digital interlining on WebCargo. How’s the early feedback been? Has that been positive?

The early feedback has been outstanding. However, I want to be clear that we are still in the testing phase, and there isn’t any significant volume yet; it will take several months to reach real volumes. Nonetheless, the responses have been very positive. Several airlines have either signed agreements or are in negotiations to participate. It's hard to describe just how challenging it currently is for airlines trying to manage interlining of cargo. They often spend a day or two exchanging emails and making phone calls just to coordinate. In reality, there is far less interlining occurring than should be, even though it is a logical approach for transporting cargo globally. No airline covers every route, so interlining should be a crucial method for cargo movement. Unfortunately, the existing manual process makes it extremely cumbersome. Overall, the sentiment has been overwhelmingly positive. That said, progress with airlines does take time. While we are making good strides and receiving great feedback, it will be a while before this makes a meaningful impact on our financial results.

Our next caller is George Sutton from Craig-Hallum.

So, Zvi, you very quickly went through the new carriers added in the quarter and certain carriers that had expanded. Could you just go through those again real quick?

Yes, of course. Let me refer to my notes to ensure accuracy. We introduced two new carriers. One is China Eastern, a significant airline in Asia. Although we do not have access to the entire network yet, it will be launched in phases. I might have been unclear earlier, as there is one major airline that is new. The integration will be gradual. The second carrier is Wideroe, a smaller regional airline from Scandinavia, which we are also pleased to add. Having niche airlines is crucial for us as it allows us to offer comprehensive coverage that appeals to freight forwarders. So, those are the two new additions. We are actively working to onboard more well-known carriers that we are currently missing out on, and we have many to consider. We are seeing growth with airlines like Qatar, LATAM, Avianca, and Emirates. To remind you, Qatar and Emirates are the largest cargo airlines globally, and they have both broadened their service offerings. While I cannot disclose specific details, they have provided us with access to new countries, products, or better weight breaks. It's encouraging to see progress with both new and existing airlines, as they recognize us as a valuable channel and return to us, expressing their desire to expand their network with WebCargo by Freightos.

So, I thought the most meaningful comment you made was that you saw 40% growth in your air cargo exports from Europe at a time that the market fell. And I wondered if you could just talk about the digitization of the market, what you are seeing relative to what the market overall is seeing, and I’m looking at sort of a competitive landscape comment from that.

If you're asking about competition, our competitors for airline bookings are private companies, so we don't have direct visibility into their numbers. However, we often receive feedback from airlines regarding our size compared to other platforms. Sometimes they choose to share that information with us, and we've received some very positive indications. We believe we have a significant market lead—at least five times larger than the nearest competitor—which is considerable for a marketplace and suggests we have more liquidity. This lead appears to have remained consistent compared to a year ago. I'm very encouraged by our strong leadership position. In a marketplace, having liquidity is crucial because it attracts both buyers and sellers. Overall, I'm feeling optimistic about our position.

Perfect. Thank you.

Thanks, George. Well, seeing there are no more questions here, I’d like to thank everybody for joining. A reminder that a recording of this webcast will be available on our website at freightos.com/investors. Thank you everybody for attending. That concludes this call.