Ryvyl Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 14, 2024

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Rival Inc. 1st Quarter 2024 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the management's remarks. The earnings press release accompanying this conference call was issued at the close of the market today.

Operator

The quarterly report, which includes the company's results of operations ended March 31, 2024, was filed with the SEC today. A replay of this call is available on the Investor Relations section of the Rival website in the Eventsquarterlyearnings section. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's call contains certain forward looking statements from our management concerning future events. These forward looking statements are based on the company's current beliefs, assumptions and expectations regarding future events, which in turn are based on information currently available to company and contain projections of future results of operations or financial condition or state other forward looking information.

Operator

By their nature, forward looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties. A variety of factors could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those expressed in or contemplated by the forward looking statements. Other risk factors affecting the company are discussed in detail in the company's filings with the SEC. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable laws. I will now hand the call over to Ben Erez, Chairman of Rival.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In the Q1 of 2024, we delivered solid growth with revenue increasing 49 percent over the same period in 2023, reflecting particularly strong international results, which grew 185% compared to Q1 of 2023. Processing volumes continued to grow, reaching $994,000,000 in the Q1 of 2020 4, up 5% compared to the Q4 of 2023 with our international segment increasing 28% to $755,000,000 However, as expected and reviewed in March, revenue declined sequentially due to near term issues affecting our North America business. I'll provide an update and review some of the actions we've taken to manage the situation.

Speaker 1

New regulations and the overall compliance environment related to some of the high risk verticals we service led us to change banking partners and begin a product transition in the North American Merchant Services segment. In addition to implementing cost control measures, we are accelerating business development efforts to drive volumes in new vertical markets such as insurance and online businesses. As we expand markets, we have built a sales pipeline in new verticals that we believe will begin to further ramp North American business volume in Q3 of 2024. Additionally, we are investing in engineering and development to enhance our product offering. One factor driving new business is the shift from terminal based processing to mobile app based processing.

Speaker 1

This transformative change will help us expand our customer base by reaching into new verticals and increase business retention by improving service and engagement with existing customers, both at the merchant level as well as the consumer level. Now I'll discuss some of our key growth initiatives and achievements. Expanding our international business is a strategic priority. As the 1st Visa partner in the Balkan region, we completed testing the new Visa Direct integrated services and are pleased to share that we are now activated in production to offer Visa Direct payouts for our business clients. The integration will enable rival EU to leverage Visa Direct's network capabilities, provide superior banking as a service and create new revenue streams.

Speaker 1

Our partnership will enable customers to send funds to authorized accounts, e wallets and debit cards in over 80 countries across multiple currencies. In February 2024, RivalEU formed a collaboration with ACI Worldwide, a global leader in mission critical real time payment software. We plan to onboard our e commerce merchant payment service provider customers onto the award winning ACI payment orchestration platform, enabling them to orchestrate payments using one solution, one platform and oneAPI integration for optimal conversion rates and minimal operational costs. This integration will allow merchants and PSPs to provide customers with a more seamless and secure customer journey. We are integrating the ACI solution into our offering and expect it to be released by early Q3.

Speaker 1

We retained our Coinny technology to leverage as part of our total suite of solutions for more efficient and highly scalable transaction processing in both North America and eventually in the EU. Koine provides an easy to use customer experience. We have been testing Koine's mobile based processing in the U. S. In the Q1 and expect to formally launch this summer and ramp volume over the course of 2024.

Speaker 1

In the EU market, we received service offering continued to gain traction this quarter as transactions service offering continued to gain traction this quarter as transaction volume exceeded an impressive $600,000,000 with the support of several institutional and banking partners. Our Banking as a Service platform offers API integrations and foreign exchange capabilities in more than 40 different real time electronic funds or direct deposit. In addition, our banking as a service readily traces transactions reduces fraud and maintains strict compliance requirement. We expect this strategic offering will be a long term growth driver in a lucrative market. And now to discuss the details of our financial results, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, George Oliver.

Speaker 1

George, the floor is yours.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Ben. I'll review our Q1 of 2024 financial performance. Revenue increased 49% to $16,800,000 compared to $11,300,000 in the Q1 of 2023, reflecting growth in our acquired businesses and rival EU and our continued expansion of our independent sales organization known as an ISO and partnership network. North America revenue increased 10 percent to $9,700,000 for the Q1 of 2024 compared to the Q1 of 2023. International 1st quarter revenue increased 185 percent to $7,100,000 for the Q1 of 2024 compared to Q1 2023.

Speaker 2

Cost of revenue was $9,700,000 for the first quarter 2024 compared to $6,200,000 in Q1 of 2023. The increase is primarily attributable to growth in transaction volume, which resulted in higher processing fees paid to gateways and commission payments to ISOs in both North America and International segments. Operating expenses were $8,900,000 compared to 8 $800,000 for the Q1 of 2023. Other expenses totaled $600,000 for the Q1 of 2024, compared to other expense of $4,300,000 for the Q1 of 2023. Our debt reduction strategies resulted in a $1,700,000 decrease in interest expense and a $1,700,000 decrease in accretion of debt discount.

Speaker 2

Adjusted EBITDA was negative $800,000 in the Q1 of 2024 compared to negative 3 point $1,000,000 in the Q1 of 2023. Regarding liquidity, we are carefully managing our capital. Leveraging our strong growth in the EU, we repatriated $7,500,000 to date from Europe to shore up the U. S. Capital resources.

Speaker 2

At the corporate level, as of March 31, 2024, cash and restricted cash balance was $88,200,000 Unrestricted cash was $10,500,000 and working capital was $3,200,000 I will now turn the call over to Min Wei, our Chief Operating Officer, to provide a review of business operations and our outlook.

Speaker 3

Thank you, George. I'll detail the processing volumes for our verticals, discuss some first quarter highlights and then provide the outlook for the Q2 of 2024. Our Q1 processing volume across all channels was $994,000,000 versus our expected volume of $900,000,000 to $950,000,000 This is about a 5% increase sequentially and an increase of about 76% from our Q1 2023 volume. Our North American Merchant Services business, including RivoBloc, ChargeSavvy, American Samoa and other portfolios, processed $239,000,000 in the Q1 or about 33 percent lower than the 4th quarter's $356,000,000 volume and 21% lower than the same period a year ago. This is primarily attributable to the reduced processing volume for some of the high risk verticals we service and coincides with the product transition from terminal based processing, we expect North America volume recovery to pick up steam in the second half of this year.

Speaker 3

For our FX and international payments portfolio, including the acquired Transact Europe business, now rival EU, and our new banking as a service offering, we processed $755,000,000 in the first quarter compared to $590,000,000 in business volume in the 4th quarter, an increase of 28%. This represents a 140% increase from the first quarter of $315,000,000 in the Q1 2023. We are making major strides in technology development to augment our product offerings and drive new revenue streams. This communicated on the last call. We introduced our mobile app payment channel and MPOS capability for delivery businesses in the U.

Speaker 3

S. We are making rapid progress on PayFac as a service and independent software vendor partnerships that will further complement our existing sales channels. In the EU market, we are close to completing a revamp of our banking system software that connects with our partners and allows faster money movements for our business customers. We expect the EU growth momentum to continue at a faster pace than planned and help offset part of the near term slowdown in North America. Turning to our outlook for the Q2.

Speaker 3

We expect processing volume to be in the range of 850,000,000 dollars to $900,000,000 This is lower than in Q1 2024 volume due to compliance and regulatory changes in some of the U. S. High risk verticals we service and that has $5,000,000,000 For our 2nd quarter revenue outlook, we expect to be in the range of $12,000,000 to $14,000,000 a decrease of approximately 17% to 28% sequentially and a 5% to 19% decrease year over year. As we rebuild the business volume for the verticals we service in the U. S.

Speaker 3

In the coming few months, we will advise if we have any material change to the total revenue guidance of $90,000,000 to $100,000,000 We are maintaining our target for full year adjusted EBITDA at $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 This concludes my remarks. I'd like to now turn the call back to Ben Arias, our Chairman, to begin our Q and A.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Minh. Prior to this call, we have received a number of questions that are of interest to all shareholders. Before opening the Q and A to analysts, we'll address those. The first question, I'll direct to Freddie. Why are you confident that you'll be able to double the revenues in the second half of twenty twenty four compared to

Speaker 5

the first half?

Speaker 6

Thank you, Ben, and thank you for everyone listening. We expect it to continue a great momentum in Europe via our PSP, what we call, ISO, the agent portfolio in Europe and in the U. S. We are opening new verticals and especially very excited about the PayFac as a service solution and licensing model that we put in Europe and implementing as well in the U. S.

Speaker 6

For our revenue stream and growth. 2nd is our relationship with ACI. We announced it a few months back about our relationship with this new gateway and we are in the integration process and we hope to get it live in the beginning of Q3 and that will enable us to turn on the and move our customer into this platform to allow a faster integration and other solutions that exist with its relationship. For example, tokenization system with a new network of Visa and Mastercard, point of banking to offer a quick push to cards and Visa Direct, another great feature that they bring to the table. And the third one that we are very excited to announce is Visa Direct.

Speaker 6

We just finalized the integration and certification with Visa, and we can go live now and push money through that new network and relationship. And that will allow us to leverage the Visa Direct network to push money in 80 different countries. And we're starting with the first five and we already started pushing money in Canada. So I'm very excited about this and leveraging that solution and offer that to our businesses and banking as a service and of course our PayFac solution. So very, very excited and this is how we see the company grow.

Speaker 6

And in the second half of this year. So very excited. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Freddie. The next question is for Min. How did revenue trend in Q1? What is being done to rebuild momentum? And what is your forecast for profitability?

Speaker 5

Thank you, Ben. To answer the question, our Q1 was affected due to changes in technology and banking compliance issues impacting some of our high risk verticals, which have continued into Q2. As we reported, these issues have affected the U. S, while Europe continues on a stronger growth trajectory. In the U.

Speaker 5

S, we're expanding into new verticals to diversify and we're working on specific identified business opportunities in these new verticals. In addition, we started to monetize our platform as a service licensing business and that do not have the same constraints that affected the Q1 results. Although this new revenue streams will take time to materialize, we are building momentum in these new verticals. In terms of the question about profitability, based on our expected revenue and expense run rate, we expect adjusted EBITDA in the second half to be positive and the full year to be in the range of $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 As we have stated in the past, at $100,000,000 revenue, we should be positive EBITDA and at $120,000,000 revenue, we expect to be profitable. It is our plan to continue focusing on resources to accelerate revenue growth and reduce non critical spending to reach our profitability objectives.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Minh. The next question is for George. Are you comfortable that you have enough liquidity to sustain the path to profitability? Why did you pull the way? And what is your plan to manage the notes coming due in April of 2025?

Speaker 7

Thank you, Ben. First, regarding the proposed raise, we had started the process in Q1 when the stock price was higher. However, as it came closer to fruition, pricing was not attractive. We made the decision, the determination that it was not in the best interest of shareholders to accept the terms and so we canceled that raise. Rather than raising equity, we pursued a strategy to accelerate repatriating cash from Europe to the U.

Speaker 7

S. Fortunately, they are very profitable and are ahead of plan and we were able to repatriate $7,500,000 to date from EU to help subsidize the temporary loss of processing in processing in the U. S. Our cash and cash equivalents are challenging in North America segment. We are moving money between the other business units and we are being very aggressive in cost control to help manage the liquidity needs.

Speaker 7

But it's a challenging operation to have multiple business units, some with increasing revenue, some with decreasing revenue. But we're managing working capital very tightly in centralized at the U. S. Regarding the note, we have extended the maturity of the note in the past and we are again in active discussion with the note holder to do so again. Next quarter, the note would be within would be due within 1 year and affect our current ratios.

Speaker 7

So we're going to get that hopefully extended and continue to classify it

Speaker 3

as a long term obligation.

Speaker 7

And with that, I'll hand it back to Ben.

Speaker 4

Thank you, George. I'm going to take the next question. How do you measure your success? Or another way of saying this, what are the most important key performance indices? Where are you doing better and what trends do you expect in 2024?

Speaker 4

So I do like data science. In fact, shout out to my son, who is a data scientist. The best way to measure the success is using key performance indicators. The most meaningful KPI for arrival include total volume of transactions, operating margins and revenue. Our company business grew 83 percent to $3,100,000,000 in 2023 and we expect 67% volume growth in 2024.

Speaker 4

In terms of operating margin, which is always a challenge in rapidly growing company, we continue to automate and streamline

Speaker 5

cost control.

Speaker 4

We are happy to report that our operating margin run rate is in the high-30s, low-40s in spite of the substantial growth in revenue. In terms of revenue growth, we finished 2023 with about $66,000,000 in revenue. Based on our robust pipeline and new offering, we anticipate that to grow in 2024 at approximately 35% to 50%. Based on the current environment, we're quite pleased with this progress. The last question is back to Chief Operating, Minh.

Speaker 4

Revenue growth is critical for the success of the company. What are the top three sources for revenues?

Speaker 5

Thank you, Ben. Our top three sources of revenue are as follows. Number 1 is our merchant acquiring service revenue. Number 2 is banking as service revenue and we are gaining significant momentum in the European market as mentioned earlier. And number 3, the revenues from the new verticals and the anticipated licensing revenue from PayFac as a service offering, which is due

Speaker 3

to go to

Speaker 5

market through the independent software vendor partnerships Freddie mentioned earlier. In addition, we recruited more specific resources with payments experience and the speed of onboarding is improving, giving us confidence in stronger growth in the second half of the year.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Ming. Operator, at this point, we would like to open the floor for analyst questions. We see that several analysts have registered for questions.

Operator

Sure. Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Kevin Dede with H. C.

Operator

Wainwright. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 8

Thank you for having me on Ben and Minh. It's good to talk to you again.

Speaker 4

Thank

Speaker 8

you. So exactly when was the Visa Direct integration complete? Was there any contribution to the March quarter? Or how far through the June quarter? What kind of results have you seen so far?

Speaker 4

I'm going to have Minh address that. Go ahead, Minh.

Speaker 5

Hey, Kevin. Thank you for the question. So, it just recently comes to the Q2, so it was after the Q1. And then we went live with services. As Freddie indicated, our initial currencies we cover in Phase 1 are 5 currencies including GPV, U.

Speaker 5

S. Dollars, euro and Canadian dollars. We already went live with business in Canada and shortly after that, we expect to launch into the rest of the Phase 1 currencies. So we expect to see some improved revenue coming from the banking at service part of our business as a result of that.

Speaker 8

Okay. Ben, I'm a little tripped up on the slowdown in the March quarter. On one hand and this is on me, right? I'm not sure that I heard everything correctly. On one hand, I heard about the transition from a terminal to mobile platform.

Speaker 8

And on the other hand, I heard about an issue with regulations. So if we could drill down on each of those issues, please, maybe I can come to understand how you see a stronger second half?

Speaker 5

Min? Kevin, I think that's a very specific, maybe multiple questions there. But at a high level, in Q1, we did run into the technology and compliance requirements change through our processing channel. We are adjusting for that right away. Really the recovery path we're referring to here Kevin is that in conjunction with our switch to mobile payment, mobile app process payment based processing payment processing excuse me, my apologies for that.

Speaker 5

And we have fine tuned the way we process payments for our customers, our merchants in a more compliant manner. So we're able to switch gear, adjust for that and roll out a more compliant solution. But even with that, it does take time for us to rebuild the user base because as we mentioned in the last earnings call, we expect it for the consumers to change their behavior and adopt a new payment experience. It's going to take time and we're working very hard to put together the communication material training program so that as we fully rolled out the mobile case payment solution, we can ensure that we provide not only the training, but also the incentive to the end users to adopt. So as a result of that, Kevin, we have updated and adjusted our revenue forecast.

Speaker 5

Hence, we made the comment earlier, we expect to rebuild momentum towards in the later part of the second quarter, but then we expect Extreme to be picked up starting in the early part of Q3.

Speaker 4

Yes, I would add to that Kevin. That we like this transition out of hardware into software. It's better for the company, easier to manage inventory, updates are much faster and all of that leads to better margin. We like that trend. We our customers like it.

Speaker 4

They have no expenses on hardware. This is a good trend. It just takes a little bit of time transitioning and onboarding the old playbook portfolio onto the new platform.

Speaker 8

Okay. Maybe, Ben, you could offer a little color just on the regulatory side of things, because I'm still a little confused by that.

Speaker 4

To say that we are not confused by it would be an issue. We work in an environment that is an ecosystem that is fed by a lot of different contributors. And a lot of time, we see trends that are influenced by perception. Sometimes it's a perception of risk by association, sometimes it's perception of risk for verticals, and sometimes it's an interpretation of regulation that otherwise are not very clear. So a lot of our partners are telling us, if you do business this way, we will have to reduce your bandwidth.

Speaker 4

And if you do it in another way, then you'll have full roaming ground. It's better for us to listen and follow these guidelines, even if they're not always mandated from the regulatory perspective.

Speaker 6

And maybe add one more thing just for what Ben just mentioned, I think it's important. Banking and acquiring processing, the whole industry is changing. FDIC is pushing hard on the banking, on the lease, on capacity. Visa just lost a lawsuit, need to pay $30,000,000,000 for fees. The whole industry, the whole ecosystem is changing and we are just part of that ecosystem.

Speaker 6

And we are following the guidance of the partners and we have to adjust to those requirements. And part of it is moving into a technology that is more secure, more transparent, as like for example, mobile apps. In Europe, they have new set of rules as well that are going into certain areas, especially in the crypto area, in licensing. So the whole world is changing and we're just adjusting with it. So that's kind of a high level.

Speaker 8

If I look at revenue as a percentage of transaction volume, I get to about 1.7% in the March quarter, which is down from I think over 2% in December. So can you help me understand that trend and how you think it goes? Obviously, it's a function of volume, but given there's only a 5% change in volume, it's hard to see that much of a change in revenue versus as a percentage of transaction volume?

Speaker 5

Okay. Min? Kevin, I'll address that question. That's a good observation, right? That means you really are into the detailed data analytics of our business.

Speaker 5

And at a high level, as I mentioned earlier, our top three revenue driver, 1 is merchant acquiring service revenue, number 2 is banking and service revenue, right. So what happened is sequentially between the last quarter of 2023 and the Q1 of this year, even though when we have reduced volume for North America, acquiring and processing revenue and seems to reduce volume in process. That said, we more than offset that by having increased, margin increased Banking as a Service revenue and volume Europe. So that's one of the things. 2 is, this is dependent.

Speaker 5

I think that's basically what you're looking at is the rate between revenue compared against volume. The residual percentage for banking as a service revenue is lower than the acquiring business we have. So as a result of that, when you have increased volume for banking and service revenue, but then has a lower residual percentage compared to higher residual percentage for the acquiring business. That's why you see even though we have improved volume overall, but then the residual percentage probably declined quarter over quarter because of that. Okay.

Speaker 5

Hopefully that makes sense to you. So I would add, so that is basically a mix between Europe and the U. S. As Europe is a larger percentage of our business. That's why that overall rate declined.

Speaker 5

Even though Europe is very profitable, but the residual rate is lower on the transactions than we had in the U. S. So I do think 2% is still a good ballpark metric long term.

Speaker 4

Right. And this is Ben again. This is the area where we anticipate the stabilized performance to go back to the regional performance. I would also Kevin direct your attention to what I said before to a previous question about the KPIs. Our gross operating margins have not changed.

Speaker 4

Even though our percent of revenue out of volume maybe shrunk at the So that's a very important distinction.

Speaker 8

Thank you for highlighting that Ben. I appreciate it. Thank you very much for your explanations, gentlemen. I'll hop back in the queue.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Kevin. We always appreciate your support. Operator, back to you.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Kevin Deed with A. C. Wainwright. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 8

Thank you very much. I thought I'd just take a back seat for someone else, but help me understand the evolution of banking as a service, blockchain as a service and rivals block offering and how you're positioning Koine within the realm?

Speaker 4

Okay. On that strategic question, back to CEO, Freddie.

Speaker 6

Thank you. So, let's start with the Banking as a Service. Banking as a Service in New York is a license for other financial with the company, banks to utilize our backbone, our licenses to be able to offer their customer different services, step up payments, wire payment, and payment solution. And now we're going to open up these are direct as part of the on and off ramp solution. All of that now been implemented and been utilized in a variety of ways.

Speaker 6

So we see the volume already. We see how the solution can help other banks and companies. Through that process, we see a huge growth and opportunity in that space. So that's 1. U.

Speaker 6

S. Cloud blockchain service. We are testing that solution. We're working with CorDA directly on a few opportunities that we're trying to understand how we're going to go live with them. But the set of it is up and running, but in testing still this big lift.

Speaker 6

But we are very still very excited about the opportunity and we're going to share more hopefully in Q2. That's in regards to the Blockchain as a Service. How Koinny benefit from that? Corning is the payment software that makes PayFac service and other services available, especially in the U. S.

Speaker 6

We're still working on deploying Koin in Europe. We did mention before that we have Koin just received its licenses in Europe to operate as a payment facilitator. I believe that's the correct license. It allow us to do payments, all the assets, renewal and in the U. S.

Speaker 6

We are working with our partners. First Data, we have seen with First Data, which is going to be as a payback to our partners. So we have a lot on our plate that we're trying turn on as quick as possible and start to generate revenue as quick as possible. But all of those projects are working for a long time. It's heavy on compliance regulation, but we're now there.

Speaker 6

We arrived at the point of turning everything on. So I hope I answered the question. I didn't miss anything, I hope. But through all of those tools and solutions, that's how we see recovery in Q in the second half of the year.

Speaker 8

Yes. Freddie, just to add on that, how should I look at rival block versus rival within the context of banking as a service and Koine's functionality?

Speaker 6

So Rival Block is a separate product. Rival Block was designed, I would say this way, Blockchain for Tommy. It's a product for companies that want to go through what we call digital transformation. They want to get into blockchain infrastructure allows, for example, a bank or a Fintech company to implement blockchain services without going through a year or 2 of implementation and they should collide with it and not in months or years. So that's kind of the main goal of the blockchain as a service basically is transformation and getting banks and other financial institutions into that new technology as quick as possible.

Speaker 6

Koine using the same backbone Coini offer the front end of it is offering the functionality, the ability to process payment, the ability to onboard compliance, but the infrastructure underlying infrastructure is the same block. We're utilizing quota infrastructure. Hopefully that helps.

Speaker 8

Yes. Okay. So if I were to summarize it, their Rival Block is basically the name that you've given blockchain as a service?

Speaker 6

That's correct. It's an internal name. Yes, Rival Block, correct.

Speaker 8

Okay. Okay. Apologies. It was just you guys have to your point, Freddie, you have a lot on your plate. And it's hard for a simpleton like me to sort it all out.

Speaker 8

So I apologize. But I do really appreciate the hand holding.

Speaker 4

No problem. Thanks for your continued support, Kevin.

Speaker 8

Oh, yes. No. My pleasure. Ben, you've talked a lot about your international expansion and you focused a lot on Europe. But I it just seems to me that there are other maybe not necessarily 1st world countries, but other countries that might deserve or might offer a similar opportunity that some of the Eastern Europeans want offer, such as maybe South Africa or Nigeria, maybe even Egypt?

Speaker 8

How are you looking sort of beyond Europe and expanding your international opportunity? Yes. So

Speaker 4

that's a good question and demonstrate that someone is paying attention. So this game is a lot about efficiency of revenue. We have more business that we can onboard in a reasonable time. And what we do now is pick the lowest hanging fruit still. Even though the company is growing year over year 80%, 100%, and as we issued guidance before on this call, we anticipate overall volume of business to grow from the $3,000,000,000 range to the $5,000,000,000 range.

Speaker 4

We're still in pursuit of the most efficient revenue that we can take. American Samoa was an interesting case study for us and where we entered the market and now control the majority of transactions supporting that GDP in that nation. And we're very happy about that case study. It's proving a point. However, looking at the quality of revenues that we currently accumulate in the European market, just tells us that this is where we need to be picking up food for the moment.

Speaker 4

Obviously, at the end of the day, we'll go where business is. However, we'll first play on our strength. And then even though we may be leaving some money on the table, but we have to first address the most efficient revenue growth before we look to more exotic markets.

Speaker 8

This is a great segue, Ben. You mentioned America Samoa. I remember on multiple calls last year, you referenced what you thought would be opportunities for other sort of closed systems such as that in other potential verticals.

Speaker 4

Yes.

Speaker 8

And I understand, obviously, there's a lot in your plate and you're looking for the low hanging fruit. It totally makes a ton of sense. I get it. I'm just wondering if you still see that opportunity or if your experience more recently in American Samoa has left you feeling that you want to dedicate less time and resources to exploiting that?

Speaker 3

So Kevin, I'll answer that question.

Speaker 5

This is Naehan. So America Samoa continue to be very strategic in the business opportunity for us in our portfolio. We continue to process the volume as we indicated previously servicing more than 6% of the business days. On the island, we have a quick reminder, we have a 5 year exclusive partnership for the island and we are continuing our conversation with our partner there for additional processing needs. We're not in a position to share more details, but we're in a dialogue for that.

Speaker 5

Now secondly, for smaller contained ecosystem such as American Samoa. We continue to manage all the major business opportunities in our sales pipeline. As Ben mentioned, we prioritize based on the level of effort involved, alignment with our product roadmap as well as resource utilization. We do have adequate major big ticket opportunities in the pipeline in the near term that we prioritize on rather than pursuing other island business even though we do have some potential within the longer term. Oliver.

Speaker 4

Let me add a couple of words on that. This is Ben again. Remember that we because of the technology migration, we experienced a little bit of a drop in

Speaker 6

the revenues onshore for Q1.

Speaker 4

I think it's prudent of the company to first backfill that with the most efficient way that we can before venturing out to other opportunities that are more fringe at this point. I hope that message is clear.

Speaker 8

Yes, yes. No, absolutely. But just to be clear, Min, I guess I was thinking of closed ecosystems sort of beyond geographic implementation, maybe something more akin to Square's payment processing. And thank you very much for the explanation. I appreciate it.

Speaker 8

I'll cede the floor at this point. Thank you very much, gentlemen.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Kevin. Thank

Operator

you. And we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Ben Arias for closing remarks.

Speaker 4

Thanks, operator. Thank you all for joining us today and for your thoughtful questions and participation. On a personal note, Freddie and I are the 2 largest shareholders at Thrival. And we are excited about our 2024 growth plan to diversify revenues and hope to see everyone on our next update for the Q2 results in August. Have a great day everybody.

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Ryvyl Q1 2024
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