KLR Kaleyra Inc

First Quarter Revenue of $83.6 Million, Exceeds Upper Guidance Range,

Record Gross Margin of 25.2% and Adjusted Gross Margin of 26.0%

NEW YORK, May 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaleyra, Inc. (NYSE: KLR) (NYSE American: KLR WS) ("Kaleyra" or the "Company"), a growing omnichannel business communications platform, reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023. 

First Quarter 2023 Highlights

• Quarterly revenue of $83.6 million ($85.7 million on a constant currency basis), 94.8% of revenue is from customers on the platform for a minimum of one year
• Company record gross margin and adjusted gross margin of 25.2% and 26.0%, an increase from 22.0% and 24.0%, respectively, in the comparable year-ago period on improved product and geographic mix
• Quarterly gross profit and adjusted gross profit, a non-GAAP measurement of operating performance reconciled below, increased 19.0% to $21.1 million and 12.6% to $21.8 million from $17.7 million and $19.3 million, respectively, in the comparable year-ago period
• Quarterly operating expenses of $25.5 million decreased 7% or $1.9 million from $27.4 million in the comparable year-ago period
• Quarterly positive EBITDA of $83,000, the first-time since Q4 2021, Company has reported positive EBITDA
• Strong balance sheet with $75.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash and short-term investments
• Delivered 11.7 billion messages and connected 2.2 billion voice calls in the first quarter of 2023
• Launched its global messaging services on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Kaleyra Video in the US starting from April 2023

Management Commentary

"Our first quarter 2023 was highlighted by topline strength that exceeded the upper end of our guided range, record GAAP and adjusted gross margin and year over year growth in GAAP and adjusted gross profit. Our historic margins were a result of continued strength in our product mix coupled with improved efficiencies generated from the commencement of our value creation program," said Kaleyra Founder and CEO Dario Calogero. "We continue to show resilience, consistently growing our topline year over year with a focus on our higher margin businesses, and importantly generating positive EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. Our commitment to customer satisfaction and providing a trusted, transparent and high-quality service is evidenced by our low churn rate, including virtually zero churn among our top 10 customers.

During the quarter Kaleyra launched its global messaging services on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) accelerating innovation in the CPaaS space to drive the future of business communications and customer engagement. Looking ahead, we believe we are well positioned to deliver top line growth while increasing profitability and cash flows derived from ongoing enhanced efficiencies," concluded Calogero.

2023 "Value Creation Program"

Giacomo Dall'Aglio, Kaleyra CFO, commented, "As previously reported, we initiated a value creation program in the first quarter of 2023 focused on restructuring and cost reductions to position the Company to serve the demand from global businesses while driving labor and cost efficiencies."

The program seeks to achieve the following goals:

• Adjusted EBITDA to exceed 20% growth in FY2023 compared to FY2022, with additional growth in FY2024;
• Organizational streamlining aimed to reduce monthly cash payroll costs by more than 15% in FY2023;
• Increasing net cash provided by operating activities by FY2023 year end compared to FY2022;
• Continue the focus on R&D investments to provide high quality service standards and offer new products to our customers.

First Quarter 2023 Financial Results

Results compare the 2023 first quarter ended March 31, 2023, to the 2022 first quarter ended March 31, 2022, unless otherwise indicated.

• Total revenue was $83.6 million, an increase of 3.9% from $80.5 million in the comparable year-ago period ($85.7 million or 6.4% increase using Q12022 foreign exchange rates). This increase was mainly driven by the favorable product mix in the first quarter compared to the same period of the prior year.
• Gross profit was $21.1 million compared to $17.7 million in the comparable year-ago period, an increase of 19%. This was mainly driven by the improved product mix and geographies.
• Gross margin for the first quarter of 2023 was 25.2% compared to 22.0% for the first quarter of 2022. We expect this improvement will solidify as the improved product and geographic mix settles.
• Net loss totaled $10.0 million, or $0.76 per share based on 13.0 million weighted-average shares outstanding, compared to a net loss of $13.2 million, or $1.09 per share based on 12.1 million weighted-average shares outstanding, in the comparable year-ago period. The decrease in the net loss was predominantly due to higher margins and reduced costs throughout the business.
• Adjusted gross profit, a non-GAAP measurement of operating performance reconciled below, was $21.8 million, up from $19.3 million in the comparable year-ago period.
• Adjusted gross margin, also a non-GAAP measurement of operating performance reconciled below, was 26.0% for the first quarter of 2023 compared to 24.0% in the comparable year-ago period.
• Adjusted net income (loss), a non-GAAP measurement of operating performance reconciled below, was a loss of $1.0 million, or $0.08 per basic and diluted share based on 13.2 million weighted-average shares outstanding, from a net income of $2.4 million, or $0.20 and $0.18 per basic and diluted share based on 12.1 and 13.9 million weighted-average shares outstanding, respectively, in the comparable year-ago period.
• Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measurement of operating performance reconciled below, was $5.3 million, or 6.4% of total revenue, compared to $6.2 million, or 7.7% of total revenue, in the comparable year-ago period.
• At the end of the first quarter, cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments were $75.5 million, compared to $78.6 million as of December 31, 2022.
• Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate of 98.6% (137.7% within the top 30 customers, which account for almost 70% of total revenue).

Second Quarter Financial Outlook

Kaleyra's financial outlook takes into consideration broader geopolitical and macroeconomic factors such as the effects of the foreign exchange environment, the possibility of global recession, and the impact of inflationary economic conditions. Kaleyra remains confident in its growth strategy and ability to capture its multinational market opportunity. The Company is including financial projections for the second quarter 2023 as follows:

• Second Quarter 2023: Total revenue is expected to be in the range of $80 – $84 million.
• The Company will continue to provide guidance one quarter at a time, given the increasing difficulty of projecting forward global economic conditions, and continues to expect to see revenue growth in 2023 when compared to 2022.

Conference Call

Kaleyra will hold a conference call today, Wednesday, May 10, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time (1:30 p.m. Pacific time) to discuss these results. A question-and-answer session will follow the management's presentation.

U.S. dial-in: 1-855-327-6837
International dial-in: 1-631-891-4304

Please call the conference telephone number 10 minutes prior to the start time. An operator will register your name and organization. If you have any difficulty connecting with the conference call, please contact Kalerya's investor relations at KLR@mzgroup.us.

The conference call will be broadcast live and available for replay here and via the Investor Relations section of Kaleyra's website.

A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available after 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on the same day through May 17, 2023.

Toll-free replay number: 1-844-512-2921
International replay number: 1-412-317-6671
Replay ID: 10021747

About Kaleyra

Kaleyra, Inc. (NYSE: KLR) (NYSE American: KLR WS) is a global group providing mobile communication services to financial institutions, e-commerce players, OTTs, software companies, logistic enablers, healthcare providers, retailers, and other large organizations worldwide. Through its proprietary platform and robust APIs, Kaleyra manages multi-channel integrated communication services, consisting of messaging, rich messaging and instant messaging, video, push notifications, e-mail, voice services, and chatbots. Kaleyra's technology makes it possible to safely and securely manage billions of messages monthly with over 1,600 operator connections in 190+ countries, including all tier-1 US carriers. For more information, please visit www.kaleyra.com.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Related Information

To provide investors and others with additional information regarding Kaleyra's results, the following non-GAAP financial measures, not prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP"), are disclosed:

• Non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Profit and Non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin. For the periods presented, Kaleyra defines non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Profit and non-GAAP Gross Margin as GAAP gross profit and GAAP gross margin, respectively, adjusted to exclude, as applicable, certain expenses as presented in the table below;
• Adjusted EBITDA is defined as of any date of calculation, as the consolidated earnings/(loss) of Kaleyra and its subsidiaries, before finance income and finance cost (including bank charges), tax, depreciation and amortization, plus (i) transaction and one-off expenses, (ii) without duplication of clause (i), severance or change of control payments, (iii) any expenses related to company restructuring, (iv) any compensation expenses relating to stock options, restricted stock units, restricted stock or similar equity interests as may be issued by Kaleyra or any of its subsidiaries to its or their employees and (v) any provision for the write-down of assets;
• Non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income (Loss) Per Share, Basic and Diluted. For the periods presented, Kaleyra defines non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share, basic and diluted, as GAAP net loss and GAAP net loss per share, basic and diluted, respectively, adjusted to exclude, as applicable, certain expenses presented in the table below.

Management uses the foregoing non-GAAP financial information, collectively, to evaluate its ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. Kaleyra's management believes that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance, facilitates period-to-period comparisons of results of operations, and assists in comparisons with other companies, many of which use similar non-GAAP financial information to supplement their GAAP results. Non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from similarly-titled non-GAAP measures used by other companies. Whenever Kaleyra uses a non-GAAP financial measure, a reconciliation is provided to the most closely applicable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP. Investors are encouraged to review the related GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

Operating Metrics

Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate. Kaleyra's ability to drive growth and generate incremental revenue depends, in part, on the Company's ability to maintain and grow its relationships with Active Existing Customer Accounts and to increase their use of the platform. An important way in which Kaleyra has historically tracked performance in this area is by measuring the Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate for those customer accounts. Kaleyra's Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate increases when such customer accounts increase their usage of a product, extend their usage of a product to new applications or adopt a new product. Kaleyra's Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate decreases when such customer accounts cease or reduce their usage of a product or when the Company lowers usage prices on a product. Kaleyra believes that measuring Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate provides a more meaningful indication of the performance of the Company's efforts to increase revenue from existing customers. To calculate the Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate, the Company first identifies the cohort of customer accounts that were customer accounts in the same quarter of the prior year. The Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate is the quotient obtained by dividing the revenue generated from that cohort in a quarter, by the revenue generated from that same cohort in the corresponding quarter in the prior year. 

Active Existing Customer Accounts. Kaleyra believes that the number of Active Customer Accounts is an important indicator of the growth of its business, the market acceptance of its platform and future revenue trends. Kaleyra defines an Active Customer Account at the end of any reporting period as an individual account, as identified by a unique account identifier, for which Kaleyra has recognized revenue in the period.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the financial statements of Kaleyra, its omnichannel and other product and global customer developments, its expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans, prospects or strategies regarding the future revenue (including revenue guidance) and the business plans of Kaleyra's management team, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and any anticipated lessening of such impact, and the broader market volatility and geopolitical and macroeconomic factors on its business and financial performance. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intends," "may," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by Kaleyra in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments and their potential effects on Kaleyra as well as other factors they believe are appropriate in the circumstances. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Kaleyra will be those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of the parties) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including the mix of services utilized by Kaleyra's customers and such customers' needs for these services, including any variability by geography, market acceptance of new service offerings, the ability of Kaleyra to expand what it does for existing customers as well as to add new customers, the ability of Kaleyra to achieve the goals of its 2023 "Value Creation Program", that Kaleyra will have sufficient capital to operate as anticipated, and the impact that the novel coronavirus and the illness, COVID-19, that it causes, , and the impact of other geopolitical and macroeconomic factors such as the global inflation and the war in Ukraine, may have on Kaleyra's operations, the demand for Kaleyra's products, global supply chains and economic activity in general. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of the assumptions being made prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

Investor Contacts:

MZ North America
Shannon Devine/ Mark Schwalenberg
203-741-8811
KLR@mzgroup.us

-Financial Tables to Follow-

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SOURCE Kaleyra US