Earnings Call Transcript - IPWR Q1 2021

Operator, Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Ideal Power First Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. Following today's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Carolyn Capaccio. Please go ahead.

Operator, Operator

Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining Ideal Power’s first quarter 2021 conference call. With me on the call are Dan Brdar, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Burns, Chief Financial Officer. Ideal Power’s first quarter 2021 financial results press release is available on the company’s website at idealpower.com. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast, including those regarding future financial results and industry prospects are forward-looking, and may be subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the call. Please refer to the company’s SEC filings for a list of associated risks. We would also refer you to the company’s website for more supporting industry information. Now, I will turn the call over to Ideal Power’s President and CEO, Dan Brdar. Dan?

Dan Brdar, CEO

Thank you, Carolyn. Good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to our first quarter 2021 financial results conference call. I’ll begin by giving you an update on our progress and achievements on our strategy to commercialize our B-TRAN semiconductor power switch technology. I'll also update you on our objectives for 2021, which are to complete multiple fabrication runs for the NAVSEA program, leading to a final device demonstration in mid-2022 and to complete the steps in our B-TRAN strategy to enable commercialization. Then Tim Burns, our CFO, will take you through the numbers. During the first quarter, we made continued progress toward our 2021 B-TRAN commercialization objectives, and we're on track to make our prospects for B-TRAN, as a differentiated technology, addressing a large and growing market a reality. Let's begin with our work with the US Navy. For those of you who may be new to Ideal Power, we're working with the Naval Sea Systems Command or NAVSEA, in collaboration with Diversified Technologies or DTI on the development and demonstration of a B-TRAN enabled direct current medium voltage circuit breaker, as part of the US Navy's strategic focus on ship electrification. In the second quarter of 2020, we signed a $1.2 million subcontract with DTI and the contract is funded under the Department of Defense’s Rapid Innovation Fund. The purpose of which is to accelerate the commercialization of high-value high-impact technologies. Our project with DTI for NAVSEA is intended to develop and demonstrate a B-TRAN enabled high-efficiency 12-kilovolt medium voltage direct current circuit breaker for the US Navy, with a subsequent objective of introducing a family of medium voltage DC circuit breaker products, incorporating B-TRAN for sale to the military, industrial and utility markets...

Tim Burns, CFO

Thank you, Dan. I will review first quarter 2021 financial results. In the first quarter, we recorded approximately $242,000 in grant revenue with offsetting cost of grant revenue, as we continued our work on the Navy funded NAVSEA demonstration project under the DTI contract, which began in mid-2020. Operating expenses in our net loss were flat at $0.9 million in both the first quarters of 2021 and 2020. First quarter 2021 cash used in operating and investing activities was $0.9 million, compared to $0.8 million in the first quarter of 2020. Our first quarter cash burn was consistent with the guidance we provided on our year-end call in March. We expect our cash burn to increase throughout 2021 as we invest in both sales and marketing in research and development. We expect the cash burn of approximately $1 million to $1.1 million in the second quarter of 2021 with an expectation of a full year cash burn of approximately $4.5 million. As previously reported during the first quarter, we raised $21.2 million in net proceeds through an underwritten public offering of common stock. In the first quarter, we also raised $3.3 million from the exercise of options and warrants...

Shawn Severson, Analyst

Hello, thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to revisit the EV opportunity and elaborate on that a bit. Can you help me understand the value proposition you are offering? I'm trying to comprehend the enhanced performance you’re referring to and the impact it could have on EV performance.

Dan Brdar, CEO

Yeah, based on the discussions that we're having with the EV folks, the real interest is the fact that B-TRAN does two things for them. One, that it's bi-directional, so when you start looking at both traction drive and regenerative braking systems having bi-directional power flows is really attractive to them, but more importantly, it's the lower losses associated with B-TRAN. The losses in electric vehicles, a substantial part of it are due to semiconductor power switches. And if you look at the improvement that you can get with B-TRAN compared to a regular semiconductor, it directly translates into 7% to 10% more range out of the batteries on a vehicle...

Don Slowinski, Analyst

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. And congratulations on the progress you're making this quarter. Can you answer my auto range question, but I do have a couple of those if you don't mind. The additional government funding opportunities, if you could just go into a little bit more on the number of these opportunities, the timing and maybe the potential size?

Dan Brdar, CEO

Yeah, we have three that are in the multimillion-dollar range. One of which includes, it's basically a truck source inverter for wind energy. There's another one that is a UPS based incorporation of B-TRAN and a more advanced version of B-TRAN. And then the third one, I don't recall what is at the top of my head...

David Schneider, Private Investor

Hi. Just one question regarding the vehicle chargers. Out on highways and gas stations are currently installing chargers. So would your client go in a chargers that at people's homes and apartment buildings or where do you think they would go?

Dan Brdar, CEO

For our product because of the fact that it’s really well-suited for high voltage, you will most likely see them in the highway install chargers, particularly the fast charging installations where you really need to have the ability to also incorporate buffer batteries in case you are trying to charge a vehicle at times of peak demand on the grid.

Cody Acree, Analyst

Hey guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I guess, to the last discussion about to ask and I guess, with Low Burn now that you do have the balance sheet, could you, if you expand that your engineering base. Could you accelerate any of these programs or take on new programs that may get you toward commercialization faster?

Dan Brdar, CEO

Yeah. It's one of the things that gives us some flexibility. And I'll give you an example, some of the automobile makers that we're talking to, while we're bringing out a single package die, coupled with a driver for the Teledyne power module. Some of the automobile guys actually want a different configuration. They want a multi-dyed package. We have the capital now that if there was significant incentive on their part to go do something, we actually have the ability to tackle something, like that...

Operator, Operator

And that concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn it back to management for any additional or closing comments.

Dan Brdar, CEO

Well, thank you everyone for joining our call today. Later this month, we'll be presenting at the 16th Annual Meeting Virtual Technology and Media conference. Everyone have a good day, and we'll speak to you again when we report our second quarter results. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

And that does conclude today's conference. We'd like to thank everyone for their participation. You may now disconnect.