• Revenue increased by 36%,• Recurring
revenue up 23% via transition to Artificial Intelligence and
SaaS
VIQ Solutions Inc. (“VIQ” or the “Company”) (TSX Venture:VQS), a
global expert providing a cybersecurity protected technology and
service platform for digital evidence capture and content
management, today reported financial results for the year ended
December 31, 2017. Results are reported in US dollars and are
prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting
Standards (“IFRS”).
Consolidated annual revenue was approximately
$11.7M representing 36% growth over the previous year while the
Company accelerated its transition from a predominantly
product-based to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and
Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”).
“Fiscal 2017 was a transformational year for
VIQ,” stated Sebastien Paré, VIQ President and CEO, and “The
Company successfully established a strong foundation for our
transition to SaaS and artificial intelligence-based revenue from
its new products. We also protected an exceptional earnings growth
trajectory for recurring revenue and maintained our gross margins
while scaling up the transition.”
“Our 36% revenue growth, AI innovation
investments, intellectual property, sales and expanding customer
base yielded strong overall results consistent with our strategic
plan,” said Mr. Paré.
“Investments in research and development, sales,
cloud infrastructure and transcription services increased to
maintain our 2018 growth trajectory. Recurring revenue grew by 23%
over 2016 as the Company’s cloud platform continued to gain
traction. VIQ ended 2017 with a cash balance of approximately $4.1M
and no debt.”
“VIQ’s highest growth opportunity is in
artificial intelligence and digital content analytics of customer
content securely captured in the rapidly expanding SaaS and
government secured cloud markets,” continued Mr. Paré.
“The size, quality and high profile of our 2018
sales pipeline, new 2017 customer wins and paid pilots currently
underway, reinforces our belief that VIQ’S growth lies in extending
digital content capture. This includes management and mining of
highly secure content by new AI-based services through
voice-to-text, Natural Language Processing and video
analytics.“
Conference call to Discuss Full Year 2017 Results
The Company will hold a conference call to discuss the 2017 full
year results. The call will consist of a brief update by VIQ
President and CEO Sebastien Paré, followed by a question period.
Interested parties can participate in the conference call.
The call will be held on Thursday, April 26th at 16:00 ET.
Participants may join the conference call by dialing 1-855-223-2840
within North America or 1-647-788-4945 outside of North America
five to ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time. The
conference ID is 7779134 “VIQ Solutions Fourth Quarter Earnings
Call.”
A telephone replay will be available for two business days
beginning on April 26th. To access the replay, please dial in 1-
855-859-2056 and follow the prompt with the passcode number
7779134.
2017 Business Highlights
2017 was a year of significant growth for VIQ
Solutions, the start of an incremental transition to
Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) and technological innovation:
- Revenues increased 36% to $11.7 million from $8.6 million in
2016.
- Year over year, software revenue increased by 52% and services
by 29%.
- Recurring revenue reached $9.1M in 2017, up 23% from previous
year due to a combination of new wins, organic growth, transition
to Software-as-a-Service “SaaS” and convergence of integrated
technology and transcription services in Australia.
- Accelerated the transition to SaaS revenue model to increase
recurring revenue and drive VIQ’s future growth.
- Launched CyberCrypt as an ultra-secure extension in cloud
computing, with advanced cybersecurity and content protection for
the world's most security conscious organizations.
- CyberCrypt is being deployed in two large-scale paid pilots
with international agencies, which are anticipated to convert to
full SaaS deployments in 2018. These paid pilots have not been
announced at the request of our customers.
- Completed brokered and non-brokered, private placement of $3.9M
to accelerate the commercialization of aiAssistTM, the artificial
intelligence extension of VIQ’s existing platform.
- By year end, the contracted backlog of aiAssistTM orders
exceeded $400,000. These orders have not been announced. VIQ
expects to release the size of this contracted backlog in the
second half of 2018.
- Signed two strategic OEM agreements with Nuance: one in
Australia for Dragon Speech Recognition aimed at medical and legal
markets, and the second in North America for NTE, Nuance’s
multi-speaker speech recognition.
- Made several announcements throughout the year
including:• Several new wins with hospitals and medical
agencies around the world for ultra-secure digital evidence capture
and content management, leading edge VoIP dictation, and secure
cloud-based transcription workflows.• First customer on the
new SaaS platform, the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council, on a
monthly subscription basis.• First customer on SatCon Mobile
App integrated with speech recognition.• Several wins in
Australia for integrated technology and transcription
services.• Significant EMEA growth with multiple new wins in
Europe, Middle-East and Africa.• New wins with leading US
transcription providers for complete digital statement capture,
storage, and transcription workflows that emphasize client security
and privacy.
- Expanded our North American sales team to focus on growing
sales of aiAssistTM.
Financial Results for 2017
The Audited Consolidated Financial Statements
and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial
Condition and Results of Operations for the year ended December 31,
2017 will be posted on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. The
financial information included in this news release is qualified in
its entirety and should be read together with the audited
consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31,
2017, including the notes thereto.
Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements included in this news release
constitute forward looking statements or forward looking
information under applicable securities legislation. Such forward
looking statements or information are provided for the purpose of
providing information about management's current expectations and
plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance
on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.
Forward looking statements or information typically contain
statements with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect",
"plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "project" or similar words
suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook.
Forward looking statements or information in this news release
include, but are not limited to, management’s targets for the
Company’s growth in 2017, as well as the size, scope, and timing of
the implementation of projects currently in the pilot phase.
Forward looking statements or information is
based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used
to develop such statements and information, but which may prove to
be incorrect. Although VIQ believes that the expectations reflected
in such forward looking statements or information are reasonable,
undue reliance should not be placed on forward looking statements
because VIQ can give no assurance that such expectations will prove
to be correct. In addition to other factors and assumptions which
may be identified in this news release, assumptions have been made
regarding, among other things, the Company’s recent initiatives,
and that sales and prospects may provide incremental value for
shareholders. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not
exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which have been used.
Forward looking statements or information are
based on current expectations, estimates and projections that
involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause
actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by VIQ
and described in the forward looking statements or information.
These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ
materially from the forward looking statements or information.
Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of
all possible risks and uncertainties.
About VIQ Solutions Inc.
VIQ is the leading technology and service
platform provider for digital evidence capture and content
management. Our secure modular software allows customers to onboard
the VIQ platform at any stage of their organization's digitization,
from the digital capture of video and audio to online
collaboration, mobility, data analytics and integration with
sensors, facial recognition, speech recognition and case management
or patient record systems. VIQ's technology leads the industry in
security, meeting the highest international standards for
digital/cyber security and privacy, including military and medical
regulations.
Our solutions are used in over 20 countries with
tens of thousands of users in more than 200 government and private
agencies including law enforcement, immigration, medical, legal,
insurance, courts, transportation and transcription service
providers. VIQ also provides end-to-end transcription services to
several large government agencies through our Australia-based
reporting and transcription partners. VIQ operates worldwide with
partners like security integrators, audio-video specialists, and
hardware and data storage suppliers. For more information about
VIQ, please visit www.viqsolutions.com.
For further information: Peter Kostandenou,
Chief Marketing Officer, VIQ Solutions, (905) 948-8266 ext. 213,
email: peter@viqsolutions.com.
For more information about VIQ, please visit
www.viqsolutions.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy
or accuracy of this release.
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