Energous Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 10, 2023

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Energous Corporation Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results Earnings Conference

Speaker 1

Call.

Operator

Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Craig MacPhail of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. Before we begin, I would like to remind participants that during today's call, the company will make forward looking statements. These statements, whether in prepared remarks or during the Q and A session, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that are detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as otherwise required by federal laws, Energous disclaims any obligation or undertaking to publicly release updates or revisions to the forward looking statements contained herein or elsewhere to reflect changes in expectations with regard to those events, conditions and circumstances. Also, please note that during this call, Energous will be discussing non GAAP financial as defined by SEC Regulation G.

Speaker 2

Reconciliations of these non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press release, which is posted on the company's website. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Cesar Johnson, CEO of Energous. Please go ahead, Cesar.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Greg. Good afternoon and welcome to the Energous 2023 2nd quarter conference call. Joining me today is Susan Kim Van Dongen, our Interim Chief Financial Officer. For those of you unfamiliar with our technology, Energous develops IoT wireless charging or wireless power networks through its advanced semiconductor and PowerBridge products based on its proprietary technologies. Our strategy is to energize IoT devices in RF tags, electronic shelf labels and sensor applications across the smart home, smart office, industrial, retail and healthcare markets.

Speaker 3

Energous Power IoT devices operate without depending on large and costly replaceable batteries and the related operations replacement maintenance overhead. We aim to enable smart IoT devices with placement freedom, Mobility and lower installation costs by removing wires and electrical outlet requirements. Additionally, wireless power networks provide energy and connectivity to smart IoT devices, enabling control, Monitoring and tracking of the IoT device in its environment. For example, a warehouse or a shell label or medical equipment in a hospital environment. Since the beginning of 2022, Energous has focused on developing differentiated and optimized RF products to build IoT wireless power networks and then to put the correct strategic partnerships in place to create a cloud enabled end to end smart IoT market ecosystem for our customers.

Speaker 3

We are focused on selected markets, namely IoT devices in RF tags, electronic chip labels and sensor applications Across the smart home, smart office, industrial, retail and healthcare markets, we aim to work with leading customers or those emerging customers with the highest potential in these markets. In a typical rollout Of a wireless power network, our customers conduct a wireless power network technology evaluation and then a proof of concept installation or POC for their particular application. This is then followed by a proof of validation phase and a final production phase. Understanding how Energous is progressing with its current customers and the addition of new customers through this POC and POV implementation phases is in our review an important indicator of increased interest in Energous Technology and potential revenue in future quarters. On that note, I am incredibly pleased to report that Energous continues progressing on a positive POC trend from when we first reported 2 PLCs in the Q3 of 2022.

Speaker 3

This grew to 10 PLCs in Q4, 2022 and 14 POCs in the Q1 of 2023. And we are now glad to report That the total number of active POCs has grown to 20. We are really in early discussions or early implementation phases with additional POCs. We have achieved 10 times POC growth since we started our IoT wireless power efforts in Q3 2022. From the 20 POCs, we have now 8 systems in the proof of validation phase.

Speaker 3

So remember that's the 2nd phase or awaiting to move into this phase. We are also happy to report that one of One of the wireless power network installations has entered the production phase with a Fortune 100 company in partnership with Thin Air. We are proud of Energous progress in developing cloud enabled end to end smart IoT wireless power networks ecosystems. Let me provide a live example of one of our customers to give you an appreciation of how the Energous technology is being deployed. In this example, our technologies are applied to the transportation and logistics supply chain markets.

Speaker 3

Power bridges are installed in multiple areas, energizing warehouses as the power bridges are mounted on the ceiling in multiple corridor walls and inside merchandise shelves. Power bridges energize BLE based RF tags and collect digitized information from smart IoT devices, which are attached to the customer's products sitting at a warehouse. As the customer products are moved inside and outside of the warehouse, The power bridges at the corridor walls or doors provide expanded coverage compared to all technologies and offer complete product mapping visibility as components enter or leave the storage area. As the customer products leave the storage area, forklifts can load the merchandise into trucks, which are also equipped with power bridges to track the products for distribution as trucks are loaded and unloaded. Finally, in this example, Using our system integration partners cloud software, IoT devices with real time visibility and transparency can now be analyzed using predictive capability for self optimization, resulting in cost efficiency improvements and full automation.

Speaker 3

Energy's efforts in developing and identifying new POCs and technical collaboration with our customers in our focused applications and markets continue. As we identify and onboard new system integrators and distributors, we will continue to update you. Today, we stand at 14 technology partners, 2 distribution partners and 4 IoT system integrator partners with more expected to be added in the second half of twenty twenty three. Let's now move our discussion to update the first half of twenty twenty three specific progress. Earlier this week, We announced the next phase of our partnership with WIGL, sponsored by the Air Force Research Lab at the US Department of Defense, DoD.

Speaker 3

Energous Power Bridges will continue to provide radio frequency based wireless power over distance for WIGL's WPT Networks in this second phase. Also, As we close our first half of twenty twenty three, we would like to give an update of our 2023 goals as presented in our Q4 2022 earnings call. 1st, maintain our technical and growing market leadership through innovative IoT, WPN product development. In the first half of twenty twenty three, We completed the 1 watt power bridge certification in the world's largest markets and we introduced our 2 watt power bridge. The new 2 watt power transmitter provides extended range, better coverage and RF signal penetration than the 1 watt power bridge transmitter.

Speaker 3

We also offer evaluation kits featuring our technologies for RF sensors as well as connectivity and PMIC devices for our customers to evaluate our technologies. 2nd, work closely with our power bridge production partners to optimize the cost Gross margin as we move to higher volume production. In the first half of twenty twenty three, we identify and enable production lines with a well known Asia based contract manufacturer supporting our power bridge assembly for low cost and large volume execution. 3rd, continue to identify key technology and systems partners to expand our potential markets and facilitate access to new potential customers through our industry leading technologies. As of the end of Q2, we have 14 technology partners, 2 distribution partners We continue our efforts to find new potential partners to support or develop new market applications.

Speaker 3

Move our current and future customers steadily along the path to commercialization from POC to proof of validation and then to full production. As of first half twenty twenty three, we now have 20 POCs, a proof of validation and one customer at the production installation phase from just 2 POCs in Q3 2022, a 10 times increase since our first early installations. And finally, support the rollout of PowerBridge production ramps with our key customers and partners and achieve expected annual revenue growth over 2020 2. As part of the POC efforts, we now have several IoT wireless power networks installed across multiple markets in the U. S, Europe and APAC regions.

Speaker 3

We expect POCs to result in production installations to bring revenue generation with a target to Annual revenue growth over 2022. Given these assumptions we currently anticipate year over year growth of 20,000 or 20% or more, which will be weighted towards the second half of the year. On the financial side, We continue to make efficiency improvements and achieve a 7% reduction compared to Q2, 2022 in our non GAAP costs and expenses. We recognized revenue of $117,000 for Q2 2023, representing a growth of 21% over the prior quarter, in addition to adding 6 new proof of concept installations in this quarter. The number of proof of concept customers moving along the path to final production has increased compared with the prior quarter, which we view as an important indicator of future revenue potential.

Speaker 3

We have made good progress in the last year with 20 POC installations as of today and we're working to secure additional POC installations and higher production volumes in the future. I will now turn the call to Susan.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Cesar. Earlier today, we issued our Q2 earnings press release announcing the operation and financial results of our Q2 of fiscal year 2023, which ended June 30. Revenue in the second quarter was approximately from prior quarter and 50% increase from $233,000 we reported in Q2 of 2022. Year to date revenue was about $214,000 as of June 30, a decrease of 52% compared to 2022. Cost of revenue was about 83 totaled $1,000 in Q2, a decrease of $56,000 compared to the prior quarter and a $189,000 decrease compared to Q2 of 2022.

Speaker 1

For the Q2, total GAAP costs and expenses increased by $145,000 compared to the prior quarter, down to $6,200,000 This is primarily due to a decrease of $210,000 of R and D and chips development costs and $100,000 in trade show expenses, offset by an increase of 2 and $8,000 in annual meeting expenses. Year over year, total GAAP costs and expenses for Q2 decreased by approximately $1,100,000 compared to same quarter last year. This was primarily due to decrease of $543,000 in severance pay, $289,000 in recruiting expenses, dollars 189,000 in cost of revenue and $125,000 in chip development and engineering supplies. Net loss for the quarter 2nd quarter on GAAP basis was approximately $4,900,000 or a $0.04 loss per share on approximately 91,200,000 weighted average shares outstanding. This amount includes $1,900,000 in our other income from a change in the fair value of our warrants.

Speaker 1

Q2 net loss compares to a $6,700,000 net loss in prior quarter or and $0.08 per share on 81,400,000 weighted average shares outstanding at a $7,000,000 net loss or a $0.09 loss per share loss in Q2 2 of last year on a 77,100,000 weighted average shares outstanding. Our year over year net loss trending downwards is primarily due to our efforts in aligning our operations for the IoT vertical strategy and terming access expenses from our legacy go to market strategy. Well, let me now give you a non GAAP view of our numbers for the Q2. As we believe our non GAAP information provides a useful comparison for our investors, especially for a company at our stage when used with GAAP numbers. Okay.

Speaker 1

Non GAAP costs and expenses for Q2 excludes approximately $504,000 of stock compensation, $45,000 of depreciation and amortization and $90,000 of severance expenses from our total Q2 GAAP costs and expenses of 6,200,000 Non GAAP costs and expenses totaled approximately $5,600,000 which was approximately 2 were $116,000 less than the $5,800,000 of total non GAAP costs and expenses in Q2 and approximately $424,000 less compared to Q2 of 2022. Our non GAAP net loss for Q2 was $5,300,000 or a $0.06 loss per share, which includes a non GAAP adjustment for the $1,900,000 of other income for the fair value adjustment of our warrants in Q2. This is a decrease in non GAAP net loss of $240,000 compared to the prior quarter and $498,000 compared to Q2 of 2022. We saw minor expense fluctuation across all areas in line of our expectations. Notably, in non GAAP research and development expenses was $2,600,000 which was approximately 199,000 decrease compared to the prior quarter and approximately $258,000 decrease compared to Q2 of 2022.

Speaker 1

On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter $20,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents and we still stay set free. As mentioned earlier, we realized $1,900,000 change in fair value of our warrant liability, which was accounted for as other income in Q2 of this year. To conclude, we expect our GAAP and non GAAP cash operating expenses for the full year to trend downwards as we continue to find savings in costs and expenses to align our financial operations with our market strategy. And I'll give the call back to the operator for a question and answer session. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from Suji Desilva with ROTH MKM. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi, Cesar. Hi, Susan. Thanks So, first of all, Susan, on the POCs, 20 of them, I know You said one of them is into production. What portion of the remaining 20 you think are relatively close to the validation Production stage versus maybe earlier, if you could kind of rank order those and maybe segregate them from which of the 20 might be kind of nearest Or near to the

Speaker 3

Hi, Suji. How are you?

Speaker 4

Good. Thanks.

Speaker 3

Yes. So we reported 20 POCs. We went from 14 to 20. So 6 of them are kind of early. But if you recall during the conversation, the presentation I mentioned, there's 8 of them that are now in proof of validation.

Speaker 3

So we're already in the second stage. I would expect Some of those, if not all of them, will eventually become production. And if you're going to ask me how it takes to production, it is dependent on the industry and the applications. Certainly, at least the one production that we have went pretty fast from a time perspective and went into production within, I would say, 6 to 9 months.

Speaker 4

Okay, that helps. I didn't realize the 20 was inclusive of the validation 8 and the production one that absolutely helps more. So, for the one that's in production, Cesar, how should we think about the ramp up here? What kind of Maybe what end market is it in? What's the opportunity here?

Speaker 4

And what's the timing? Is there an initial kind of ramp period or is it phase in by sites or still going to be the first one?

Speaker 3

Very good question, Suji. First of all, we're very Vlad, we're very happy to report that that one production is done with our partner, Thin Air and that's already been deployed with a Fortune 100 company. Reality is that due to NDA constraints, we cannot at this point in time discuss who that Fortune 100 company is, okay. But what we can say about that company and what the deployment has been, which is in the hundreds of number of transmitters Is the fact that it is in the logistics area. It's in the warehousing area and it's looking into Components that are extremely expensive that need to be tracked and they need to be stored and need to be known where they are at a given time.

Speaker 3

And in those particular installations that we had in warehouses and I want to stress this, when we deploy our wireless power networks, we deploy the networks On the ceiling, on the walls and in many cases inside the shelves to provide more and more coverage. So Having a very strong background on WiFi in my previous life before joining Energous, typically in the case of WiFi, we have, Let's say 1 APE every 10 meters or so. But in certain applications that we've seen so far, in particular this one, in many cases we see Maybe up to 10x the number of transmitters that we actually provide to be able to cover 1 WiFi That gives you kind of an idea of where this technology is gearing towards, right?

Speaker 4

Right. No, that's very helpful, Cesar. I appreciate that color. Maybe my last question is on the calendar 2023 outlook guidance. I I guess the revenue, I think you're saying up 20% year over year from last year, obviously implies a ramp in the second half.

Speaker 4

Any sense of sort of how that plays out 3Q versus 4Q just to understand at least qualitatively perhaps? And what's your visibility into Achieving that second half ramp.

Speaker 3

So we're still guiding in that direction. We are loaded towards the second Half of the year. We have those validation proof of validation systems. Some of Those are moving really, really well. So we will be updating you in the next Quarter on where we are with those.

Speaker 5

Okay. Can

Speaker 4

I just ask one last question there? Will there be

Speaker 5

more than one production system contributing Revenue in 4Q, is that the expectation built into your guidance?

Speaker 3

That is the expectation based on what we have right now and It's about this point in time a function of the customer's decision making. And some of those are, by the way, Related to the Fortune 100 company we've been working with.

Operator

Our next question comes from Jon Hickman with Ladenburg. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey. Most of my questions were already asked and answered, but I do could you maybe speak to The fact that now you have 20 of these proof of concept programs and some are farther along than that. Is it getting easier for the Customers do their validation because of previous work?

Speaker 3

Yes, definitely. We are way much more experienced on the requirements and the installations. We've done a number of them by now. So in many cases, we are able to go and set them up way much faster We have situations where within 24 hours, 48 hours, we can actually set them and show the Capability and the feasibility of our technology, which by the way compared to other old technologies is far superior when it comes to visibility and coverage.

Speaker 4

And do

Speaker 5

you have the manpower for like if proof of concept to double by the end of the year to 40? Could

Speaker 4

you handle that?

Speaker 3

Yes, we can. In fact, as you pointed out, as we move forward, What we've done as part of the strategy is try to focus ourselves into a very limited number of products and that includes our 1 watt, 2 watt systems. They're all the same. They're not changed pretty much. We just step and repeat that.

Speaker 3

And how we install and how we deploy the technology is something where we have developed internal Tools that are unique to our industry and allow us to pretty much know what the best places and what the best locations are And working with those customers, we have very, very clear technical guidelines that actually have saved tremendous amount of time. And yes, I mean, if we had to double, We are prepared for that, yes. Okay.

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you, John. Appreciate it.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Cesar Johnston for any closing remarks.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Energous continues progressing as we lead in the emergence of IoT wireless power networks and towards removing the need for batteries and cables. We continue to innovate in developing novel solutions using our advanced technologies and robust intellectual property resulting this quarter in the 2 watt PowerBridge transmitter announcements, which positions the company as a leader in power charging solutions. Finally, I was pleased to see a 21% increase in revenue over the prior quarter I believe that a key progress indicator for potential revenue in future quarters is the number of IoT wireless powered network proof of concept installations, which has grown by 43% over the past quarter, now totaling 20%. Thank you to all our shareholders, stakeholders and Energous team members and we look forward to updating you on the company's progress again.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks,

Remove Ads
Powered by Quartr
Earnings Conference Call
Energous Q2 2023
00:00 / 00:00
Remove Ads