Katapult Holdings Inc (KPLT) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Katapult Holdings fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jennifer Kull, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you, Jennifer. You may begin.

您好，歡迎參加 Katapult Holdings 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。現在我很高興向您介紹主持人，投資者關係副總裁 Jennifer Kull。謝謝你，詹妮弗。你可以開始了。

Thank you, and welcome to Katapult's fourth quarter 2023 conference call. On the call with me today are Orlando Zayas, Chief Executive Officer; Nancy Walsh, Chief Financial Officer; and Derek Medlin, Chief Operating Officer. For your reference, we have posted materials from today's call on the Investor Relations section of the Katapult website, which can be found at ir.katapultholdings.com.

謝謝，歡迎參加 Katapult 2023 年第四季電話會議。今天與我通話的是執行長 Orlando Zayas；南希‧沃爾什，財務長；和營運長德里克梅德林 (Derek Medlin)。為了供您參考，我們已在 Katapult 網站的投資者關係部分發布了今天電話會議的資料，您可以在 ir.katapultholdings.com 上找到這些資料。

I would like to remind everyone that this call will contain forward-looking statements based on our current assumptions, expectations, and beliefs, which are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, and which include our future financial performance and financial results for the quarter and year, our relationships with merchants, growth from new partnerships, and our ability to acquire and retain existing customers, and use of generative AI to optimize our processes. These forward-looking statements should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements contained in the earnings release and on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 that we intend to file in the coming days, as well as the subsequent periodic and current reports the company files with the SEC.

我想提醒大家，本次電話會議將包含基於我們當前的假設、預期和信念的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到重大風險和不確定性的影響，其中包括我們未來的財務業績以及季度和年度的財務業績、我們與商家的關係、新合作關係的成長、我們獲取和留住現有客戶的能力，以及使用生成式人工智慧來優化我們的流程。這些前瞻性陳述應與我們打算在未來幾天提交的收益報告和截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的年度 10-K 表格中包含的警示性陳述以及隨後的定期和當前報告結合起來考慮。公司文件。

These statements reflect management's current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations, and are subject to a number of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. Information contained in this call is accurate only as of the date discussed. Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these statements, whether as a result of any new information, future events, or otherwise.

這些陳述反映了管理層目前的信念、假設和期望，並受到許多因素的影響，這些因素可能導致實際結果與這些陳述有重大差異。本次電話會議所包含的資訊僅截至討論之日準確。除法律要求外，本公司不承擔公開更新或修改任何這些聲明的義務，無論是由於任何新資訊、未來事件或其他原因。

During today's discussion, the company will provide certain financial information that constitute non-GAAP financial measures under SEC rules. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered replacements for and should be read together with our GAAP results. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included with today's earnings release and is available on the Investor Relations section of the company's website. Finally, all comparisons are year-over-year unless stated otherwise. With that, I will turn the call over to Orlando.

在今天的討論中，該公司將提供構成 SEC 規則下的非 GAAP 財務指標的某些財務資訊。這些非公認會計原則財務指標不應被視為替代我們的公認會計原則結果，而應與我們的公認會計原則結果一起閱讀。非公認會計原則財務指標與最直接可比較的公認會計原則財務指標的調節表包含在今天的收益發布中，並且可以在公司網站的投資者關係部分找到。最後，除非另有說明，所有比較都是逐年比較。這樣，我會將電話轉給奧蘭多。

Thank you Jennifer, and thank you to everyone joining us this morning. We are excited to discuss our fourth quarter performance, which greatly exceeded our top line expectations. We achieved gross originations of $67.5 million, representing growth of 13% year over year; revenue of $56.7 million, which represented 16% growth and just below breakeven adjusted EBITDA. Not only did we record our second highest quarter for gross originations volume ever, we also delivered double-digit revenue growth and positive adjusted EBITDA that improved by $4.9 million year-over-year.

謝謝詹妮弗，也謝謝今天早上加入我們的所有人。我們很高興討論我們第四季度的業績，這大大超出了我們的頂線預期。我們的總收入達到 6,750 萬美元，年增 13%；營收為 5,670 萬美元，成長 16%，略低於盈虧平衡調整後 EBITDA。我們不僅創下了有史以來第二高的季度總發起量，還實現了兩位數的營收成長和正調整後的 EBITDA，比去年同期增加了 490 萬美元。

Today, my comments will focus on the drivers of our outperformance during the fourth quarter, progress on our merchant and customer strategies, and a brief update on our tech position. And finally, I'll give you a brief overview of our top focus areas for 2024 and the initiatives we intend to prioritize to drive growth this year. I'll then turn the call over to Nancy, who will provide you with more insights on our fourth quarter financial performance, our outlook for performance in the fourth quarter and full year 2024, and what we're seeing in the macro environment and our competitive landscape so far this year.

今天，我的評論將重點放在我們在第四季度表現出色的驅動因素、我們的商家和客戶策略的進展，以及我們技術地位的簡要更新。最後，我將向您簡要概述 2024 年我們的重點關注領域以及我們今年打算優先推動成長的舉措。然後我會將電話轉給 Nancy，她將為您提供有關我們第四季度財務業績、第四季度和 2024 年全年業績展望以及我們在宏觀環境和我們的業務中所看到的更多見解。今年迄今的競爭格局。

Before I jump into Q4 performance, I want to take a quick step back and reflect on the very strong year we've had. First, we delivered strong gross originations and revenue growth during the period in which most of our competitors saw their business contract. This underscores our belief that we are not only offering the right product to the market, but we are offering a highly differentiated for both merchants and consumers.

在開始討論第四季的表現之前，我想快速回顧一下我們這一年的強勁表現。首先，在我們的大多數競爭對手看到他們的業務合約期間，我們實現了強勁的總收入和收入成長。這強調了我們的信念：我們不僅為市場提供合適的產品，而且為商家和消費者提供高度差異化的產品。

Second, we changed the trajectory of our path forward by significantly enhancing Katapult Pay during 2023. Katapult Pay accounted for approximately 19% of our total gross originations in 2023, and we are very excited about the future of this game-changing application. Finally, we accomplished all this within the rigor of our disciplined expense strategy, which allows us to improve adjusted EBITDA substantially as we grew the top line.

其次，我們在 2023 年大幅增強了 Katapult Pay，改變了前進的軌跡。2023 年，Katapult Pay 約占我們總收入的 19%，我們對這個改變遊戲規則的應用程式的未來感到非常興奮。最後，我們在嚴格的支出策略下完成了這一切，這使我們能夠在收入成長的同時大幅提高調整後的 EBITDA。

We are proud of the strong year we had and of our future potential, neither of which would be possible without the hard work of our Katapult team. I am so grateful for their contributions and, on behalf of the entire management team, I want to thank them for their dedication to our success.

我們為我們過去的強勁表現和未來的潛力感到自豪，如果沒有我們 Katapult 團隊的辛勤工作，這一切都是不可能的。我非常感謝他們的貢獻，並代表整個管理團隊感謝他們為我們的成功所做的奉獻。

With that backdrop, let's talk about our strong performance during the quarter. As we entered the fourth quarter, we believe the uncertain macro environment could have an impact on our core, non-prime consumer. While inflation had come down, student loan repayments had resumed, savings rates were low, and credit card balances were high, creating an uncertain macro environment.

在此背景下，我們來談談我們在本季的強勁表現。隨著進入第四季度，我們認為不確定的宏觀環境可能會對我們的核心非主要消費者產生影響。雖然通貨膨脹有所下降，但學生貸款償還已經恢復，儲蓄率較低，信用卡餘額較高，造成了不確定的宏觀環境。

Despite this, we saw strong and steady growth in gross originations during the fourth quarter, and importantly, gross originations volume growth was achieved during a year in which our dynamic underwriting model risks and controls led to an approval rate that was more than 400 basis points below our 2022 approval rate. This strength was driven by originations coming from our direct integrations as well as Katapult Pay.

儘管如此，我們在第四季度看到了總發行量的強勁而穩定的增長，而且重要的是，在我們的動態承保模型風險和控制導致批准率超過400 個基點的一年中實現了總發行量的成長低於我們 2022 年的支持率。這種優勢是由我們的直接整合以及 Katapult Pay 的起源所推動的。

Within our direct channel, we believe we benefited from merchant advertising and discounting, which we leverage in our own marketing campaigns, driving better than expected increase in demand. This strength extended across our core retail categories, including automotive, electronics, furniture, and tires. In addition, we benefited from performance of new direct merchants such as Grown Brilliance and Xotic PC.

在我們的直接管道中，我們相信我們受益於商家廣告和折扣，我們在自己的行銷活動中利用了這些廣告和折扣，推動了需求的成長好於預期。這種優勢延伸到我們的核心零售類別，包括汽車、電子產品、家具和輪胎。此外，我們也受惠於Grown Brilliance 和Xotic PC 等新直營商家的表現。

Katapult Pay was an important business driver as well during the quarter. First, customers continued to leverage the feature to originate new leases with more than 20 merchants that were available in our marketplace heading into the fourth quarter. Second, this was a big driver of our performance, we added Walmart to our Katapult Pay marketplace sooner than we anticipated.

Katapult Pay 也是本季的重要業務驅動力。首先，進入第四季度，客戶繼續利用該功能與我們市場上的 20 多家商家簽訂新的租賃合約。其次，這是我們業績的一大推動力，我們將沃爾瑪加入 Katapult Pay 市場的時間比我們預期的要早。

We saw a very robust response from our customers and approximately 6% of the leases that originated in the fourth quarter were for durable goods from Walmart. We believe this demonstrated our ability to drive demand by offering merchants that our customers really want, and we are one step closer to transforming Katapult into a true shopping destination.

我們看到客戶的反應非常強烈，第四季產生的租賃中約有 6% 是來自沃爾瑪的耐用品。我們相信，這證明了我們有能力透過向客戶提供真正想要的商家來推動需求，而我們距離將 Katapult 轉變為真正的購物目的地又更近了一步。

Overall, we are reaping the benefits of our investments in our direct integration capabilities and Katapult Pay. Our goal is to leverage both these channels to grow our merchant base and overall consumer reach.

總體而言，我們正在從直接整合能力和 Katapult Pay 的投資中獲益。我們的目標是利用這兩個管道來擴大我們的商家基礎和整體消費者影響力。

Let's now dive into the progress we've made executing our merchant strategy, which are rooted in three key areas: one, growing gross originations by integrating with new merchants; two, growing our market share with our anchor merchants; and three, ensuring we offer the variety of durable goods our customers are looking to drive sustainable customer demand.

現在讓我們深入探討我們在執行商家策略方面的進展，這些策略植根於三個關鍵領域：一是透過與新商家整合來增加總收入；二是擴大主力商戶的市佔率；第三，確保我們提供客戶期望的各種耐用品，以推動永續的客戶需求。

I'll start with a few updates on direct integration. We are very pleased with the quality of the merchants that we've integrated during the quarter. To highlight a few merchants, first, Lenovo. While we've had the relationship with Lenovo since 2017, they opted to pursue a waterfall-only process in 2021. Since that time, we worked with them to demonstrate that having a direct LTO option, as well as the waterfall process, filled a meaningful gap for consumers.

我將從直接整合的一些更新開始。我們對本季整合的商家品質感到非常滿意。重點介紹幾家商家，首先是聯想。雖然我們自 2017 年起就與聯想建立了合作關係，但他們選擇在 2021 年採用瀑布式流程。從那時起，我們與他們合作，證明直接 LTO 選項以及瀑布流程可以為消費者填補一個有意義的空白。

As a result, we've added Lenovo back as a direct merchant during the fourth quarter. They are already supporting us with marketing on their financing page, which includes Katapult as their only LTO options.

因此，我們在第四季將聯想重新加入為直銷商。他們已經在融資頁面上為我們提供行銷支持，其中 Katapult 是他們唯一的 LTO 選擇。

We also launched Grown Brilliance during the quarter as we announced in November last year. Customers have been embracing the brand and we are excited to have them on board during the engagement season.

正如我們去年 11 月宣布的那樣，我們還在本季推出了 Grown Brilliance。客戶一直在擁抱這個品牌，我們很高興在訂婚季節讓他們加入。

While some of you may not be familiar with Xotic PC, they are a PC company that crafts custom PCs and laptops for creators, gamers, and professionals. They integrated our LTO option in the fourth quarter, and so far our customers have been very engaged with their goods.

雖然有些人可能不熟悉 Xotic PC，但他們是一家為創作者、遊戲玩家和專業人士打造客製化 PC 和筆記型電腦的 PC 公司。他們在第四季度整合了我們的 LTO 選項，到目前為止，我們的客戶對他們的產品非常感興趣。

And finally, we also kicked off a direct relationship with Med Mart, one of the most trusted names in medical equipment nationwide. Med Mart has both online presence, as well as brick-and-mortar stores, and we're excited to recognize them as one of our top 25 merchants during the fourth quarter.

最後，我們也與 Med Mart 建立了直接合作關係，Med Mart 是全國醫療設備領域最值得信賴的品牌之一。Med Mart 既有線上業務，也有實體店，我們很高興將他們評為第四季 25 強商家之一。

Beyond our fourth quarter success stories, we believe we have a robust pipeline of direct integration opportunities that we can continue to steadily convert throughout 2024. But bringing on new direct merchants is only one part of our merchant growth strategy. We are focused on leveraging ways in which we can deepen relationships with merchants that are already on our platform, and we've successfully done it with Lenovo and are working with other merchants to market Katapult on their websites and to get Katapult into the lead position versus other LTO operators.

除了第四季的成功故事之外，我們相信我們還擁有強大的直接整合機會管道，可以在 2024 年繼續穩步轉換。但引進新的直銷商戶只是我們商家成長策略的一部分。我們專注於利用各種方式加深與我們平台上已有商家的關係，我們已經與聯想成功做到了這一點，並且正在與其他商家合作在他們的網站上營銷 Katapult，並使 Katapult 處於領先地位與其他LTO 業者相比。

In addition, we're exploring new ways to leverage our data to help our merchants with their marketing efforts. For example, we are piloting ways in which we can share the lease amount that a customer has been pre-approved to spend with our merchants. While protecting the data privacy of our consumers, we believe we can allow merchants to create more targeted marketing effort to drive conversion.

此外，我們正在探索利用我們的數據來幫助我們的商家開展行銷工作的新方法。例如，我們正在嘗試與我們的商家分享客戶預先批准支出的租賃金額。在保護消費者資料隱私的同時，我們相信我們可以讓商家開展更有針對性的行銷活動來推動轉換。

We have already seen these types of initiatives work well with our largest merchant partner, Wayfair. Throughout 2023, we completed multiple rounds of testing to better understand how we can enhance the parts of our customer journey we directly control within the Wayfair's checkout flow. Our focus was on making sure we were doing a good job educating consumers about our product and trying to ensure, for example, that customers fully understand pricing and terms, and in an effort to remove friction, increase transparency, and make their customer journey an even better experience.

我們已經看到此類舉措與我們最大的商業合作夥伴 Wayfair 合作良好。2023 年全年，我們完成了多輪測試，以便更好地了解如何增強我們在 Wayfair 結帳流程中直接控制的客戶旅程部分。我們的重點是確保我們做好對消費者有關我們產品的教育，並努力確保客戶充分了解定價和條款，努力消除摩擦、提高透明度，讓他們的客戶旅程更加順暢。

Our hard work with Wayfair paid off in 2023. For the full year, we grew Wayfair gross originations by 5.6%, which was faster than Wayfair's US sales growth for the full year, indicating we are continuing to take share with this important merchant partner. During 2023, applications for Wayfair leases grew by more than [4%, 5%]. Further, same-day take rates increased by approximately 210 basis points in 2023, and overall take rates expanding by about 450 basis points.

我們與 Wayfair 的辛勤工作在 2023 年得到了回報。全年，我們的 Wayfair 總起始量增長了 5.6%，這比 Wayfair 全年的美國銷售額增長速度更快，這表明我們將繼續與這個重要的商業合作夥伴分享份額。2023 年，Wayfair 租賃申請成長超過[4%, 5%]。此外，2023 年當日採用率增加了約 210 個基點，整體採用率增加了約 450 個基點。

During our fourth quarter, however, we saw some softness in our Wayfair gross originations, and they were down slightly compared with 2022. We believe this softness was driven by a few factors, including seasonality

然而，在第四季度，我們發現 Wayfair 的總收入有些疲軟，與 2022 年相比略有下降。我們認為這種疲軟是由幾個因素驅動的，包括季節性

While furniture sales have not been historically a driver of Q4 holiday performance for us, we were able to improve our Wayfair business across several key metrics. Same day take rate at Wayfair grew 340 basis points in the fourth quarter and their overall take rate grew 370 basis points, which we believe shows that customers who receive a lease offer from us are engaged and ready to convert, and that our efforts to provide customers with even more transparency on their lease terms are bearing fruit.

雖然家具銷售歷來並不是我們第四季假期業績的驅動因素，但我們能夠在幾個關鍵指標上改善 Wayfair 業務。第四季 Wayfair 的當日入住率成長了 340 個基點，整體入住率成長了 370 個基點，我們相信這表明收到我們租賃報價的客戶已經參與並準備好轉換，並且我們努力提供租賃條款更加透明的客戶正在取得成果。

There is one more positive result that I'd like to highlight within our furniture category. Excluding Wayfair, gross originations grew 30% in the fourth quarter. This was driven in large part by the success we're seeing with 1StopBedrooms, which we launched as a direct merchant in December 2022.

我想在我們的家具類別中強調一個更積極的結果。不包括 Wayfair，第四季總創作量成長了 30%。這在很大程度上得益於 1StopBedrooms 的成功，我們於 2022 年 12 月作為直銷商推出了 1StopBedrooms。

Since then, we've also added key user features such as a price calculator, which allow our customers to not only see the full price for the durable good they are viewing, but also what their weekly, monthly, et cetera payments would be if they use the LTO product. This tool also shows customers pricing should they choose to exercise an early purchase option. This has had a meaningful impact on volumes in the fourth quarter.

從那時起，我們還添加了關鍵的用戶功能，例如價格計算器，這使我們的客戶不僅可以看到他們正在查看的耐用品的完整價格，還可以看到他們每週、每月等的付款情況，如果他們使用 LTO 產品。如果客戶選擇行使提前購買選項，該工具還可以顯示他們的定價。這對第四季的銷量產生了重大影響。

We are pleased with our traction in the furniture category generally and with our Wayfair partnership specifically. Wayfair and Katapult have a mutually valued partnership and we're working hard to grow together by improving marketing and take rates while enhancing the technology behind our product to deliver an even better customer journey.

我們對我們在家具類別中的整體吸引力以及我們與 Wayfair 的合作關係感到非常滿意。Wayfair 和 Katapult 擁有互惠互利的合作夥伴關係，我們正在努力透過改善行銷和轉換率來共同成長，同時增強我們產品背後的技術，以提供更好的客戶旅程。

As we look out into 2024, we believe we can leverage the lessons we learned from tailoring our product to fit the needs of Wayfair and its customers to drive growth again this year. And equally as important, we can take these lessons and continue to deploy them across the rest of our merchant base to drive growth.

展望 2024 年，我們相信我們可以利用在客製化產品以滿足 Wayfair 及其客戶的需求中學到的經驗教訓，再次推動今年的成長。同樣重要的是，我們可以汲取這些經驗教訓，並繼續將其部署到我們的其他商業基礎中，以推動成長。

To complement the work we are doing with our merchants, we are also focused on attracting new customers and enhancing our product experience so we can capture more wallet share from our existing customer. I'll talk about how we are doing this in a moment. The bottom line is, our strategy is working.

為了補充我們與商家所做的工作，我們還專注於吸引新客戶並增強我們的產品體驗，以便我們能夠從現有客戶那裡獲得更多的錢包份額。稍後我將討論我們是如何做到這一點的。最重要的是，我們的策略正在發揮作用。

During 2023, total application volume grew 13% and we approved more than 600,000 new leases. This translated into about a 23% increase in the number of lease originations, approximately 15% growth in new customers, and as of December 31, 2023, we had approximately 19% more active customers than we did the same time in 2022.

2023 年，申請總量增加了 13%，我們批准了超過 60 萬個新租約。這意味著租賃發起數量增加了約 23%，新客戶成長了約 15%，截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日，我們的活躍客戶比 2022 年同期增加了約 19%。

At the same time, we continued to offer an experience that our customers love, resulting in fourth quarter customer repeat rate of almost 60%, which is an all-time high for us. And with an NPS score of 52 as of December 31, we feel confident these data points underscore we are delivering a lease-to-own product that meets the needs of our customers across the US.

同時，我們繼續提供客戶喜愛的體驗，第四季度客戶重複率接近 60%，這是我們的歷史最高水準。截至 12 月 31 日，NPS 得分為 52，我們相信這些數據點強調我們正在提供滿足美國客戶需求的先租後買產品。

So how are we doing this? We've already talked about how our robust portfolio of directly integrated merchants is driving customer demand and how this is a steady part of our business that we expect to continue to grow. But let's also talk about Katapult Pay.

那我們該怎麼做呢？我們已經討論過我們強大的直接整合商家組合如何推動客戶需求，以及這如何成為我們業務的穩定部分，我們預計將繼續成長。但我們也來談談 Katapult Pay。

Katapult Pay is a feature in our app that leverages our virtual credit card technology, which is fueled by our proprietary AI and machine learning that allow us to determine what is leasable and what is not. This unique capability allows us to use Katapult to conveniently shop for more than 20 merchants directly from our marketplace.

Katapult Pay 是我們應用程式中的一項功能，它利用了我們的虛擬信用卡技術，該技術由我們專有的人工智慧和機器學習推動，使我們能夠確定什麼是可租賃的，以及什麼是不可租賃的。這種獨特的功能使我們能夠使用 Katapult 直接從我們的市場方便地為 20 多家商家購物。

Like our direct integrations, Katapult Pay is a great business driver for merchants that gives them access to a new non-prime customer population who, if not for our lease-to-own solution, might not have had the financial resources to purchase their durable good. But unlike our direct integrations, Katapult Pay allows us to onboard new merchants like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Target, among others, without requiring merchants to invest in a direct integration.

與我們的直接整合一樣，Katapult Pay 對商家來說是一個巨大的業務驅動力，使他們能夠接觸新的非主要客戶群體，如果沒有我們的先租後買解決方案，這些客戶可能沒有財力來購買他們的耐用產品好的。但與我們的直接整合不同，Katapult Pay 允許我們加入亞馬遜、沃爾瑪、百思買、家得寶和塔吉特等新商家，而無需商家投資直接整合。

In addition, Katapult Pay has allowed us to create a consumer journey that starts in the Katapult mobile app. This means that consumers can start their transaction with Katapult specifically and we have more visibility into our customers' shopping habits and more control over our destiny.

此外，Katapult Pay 使我們能夠創建從 Katapult 行動應用程式開始的消費者旅程。這意味著消費者可以專門透過 Katapult 開始交易，我們可以更清楚地了解客戶的購物習慣並更好地掌控我們的命運。

Currently, it's a tool that our existing customers are using most, but we can envision a future where Katapult Pay becomes a low-cost, customer acquisition channel for us. Our confidence is driven by several data points. First, Katapult Pay has become a trusted channel for customers to start a lease with us. As of December 31, more than 15% of our current leases were initiated through Katapult Pay.

目前，它是我們現有客戶使用最多的工具，但我們可以預見，Katapult Pay 未來將成為我們的低成本客戶獲取管道。我們的信心是由幾個數據點所驅動的。首先，Katapult Pay 已成為客戶與我們開始租賃的值得信賴的管道。截至 12 月 31 日，我們目前超過 15% 的租賃是透過 Katapult Pay 發起的。

Second, this strong usage led to December being the best month ever for Katapult Pay. Nearly $10 million in gross originations came through the feature during the month and $20 million in gross originations came through Katapult Pay for the fourth quarter, representing 30% of our total originations for the quarter. For the full year 2023, $42 million of gross originations were generated through Katapult Pay.

其次，這種強烈的使用率導致 12 月成為 Katapult Pay 有史以來最好的月份。當月透過該功能產生的總收入接近 1,000 萬美元，第四季度透過 Katapult Pay 產生的總收入為 2,000 萬美元，佔本季總收入的 30%。2023 年全年，Katapult Pay 產生了 4,200 萬美元的總收入。

Third, 14% of the leases that were initiated through Katapult Pay were from actually brand new customers in 2023. And finally, our app itself has become a terrific engagement tool and is the most used channel for our customers to access their lease information. In December, 63% of customer interactions with Katapult began in the app. Whether through a Katapult Pay merchant or a directly integrated merchant, these interactions started in our app.

第三，2023 年透過 Katapult Pay 發起的租賃中有 14% 實際上來自全新客戶。最後，我們的應用程式本身已成為一個出色的參與工具，並且是我們的客戶存取其租賃資訊最常用的管道。12 月，63% 的客戶與 Katapult 的互動都是在該應用程式中開始的。無論是透過 Katapult Pay 商家還是直接整合的商家，這些互動都是在我們的應用程式中開始的。

We ended 2023 with more than 500,000 app downloads, up from roughly 125,000 downloads in 2022. And we also had more than 200,000 unique users interact with the app. In short, we believe our app has created a customer experience that sets us apart from the competitive landscape.

截至 2023 年，我們的應用程式下載量超過 50 萬次，高於 2022 年的約 12.5 萬次下載量。我們還有超過 20 萬名獨立用戶與該應用程式互動。簡而言之，我們相信我們的應用程式創造了一種客戶體驗，使我們在競爭格局中脫穎而出。

In addition to Katapult Pay, we continued to do a lot of testing and learning within marketing during the fourth quarter. Similar to Katapult Pay, we believe marketing can help us drive customer demand independent of and in concert with our merchants.

除了 Katapult Pay 之外，我們在第四季度繼續在行銷方面進行了大量測試和學習。與 Katapult Pay 類似，我們相信行銷可以幫助我們獨立於商家並與商家共同推動客戶需求。

Throughout 2023, we put the structure and resources in place to allow us to begin scaling a marketing strategy focused on ROI-positive consumer acquisition and reactivation. We grew our communication volume significantly with a 500% increase in the number of emails we sent and the addition of SMS and push notification capabilities. As we increased our touch points with consumers, we also saw our open rates and click rates increase, and we believe this indicates that our marketing campaigns are resonating.

在整個 2023 年，我們將結構和資源到位，使我們能夠開始擴大行銷策略，並專注於投資回報率積極的消費者獲取和重新激活。我們發送的電子郵件數量增加了 500%，並且添加了簡訊和推播通知功能，通訊量顯著增加。隨著我們增加與消費者的接觸點，我們的開啟率和點擊率也有所增加，我們相信這表明我們的行銷活動正在產生共鳴。

While we are being very prudent with our marketing spend, we continue to believe that our opportunity to build our market share within the underserved LTO industry is considerable. We will continue to test and learn and tie our marketing investment to strict ROI requirements.

雖然我們對行銷支出非常謹慎，但我們仍然相信，我們在服務不足的 LTO 行業中建立市場份額的機會是巨大的。我們將繼續測試和學習，並將我們的行銷投資與嚴格的投資回報率要求聯繫起來。

As a summary about our opportunity to grow our customer base, we feel good about the strong ecosystem we've built. We have direct merchant partners that deliver a steady stream of new and repeat customers; Katapult Pay is an important contributor to our strong repeat customer rates and has the potential to blossom into a reliable, low-cost customer acquisition channel; and finally, we have an emerging market strategy that can prudently scale to amplify growth in both of these channels over time.

作為對我們擴大客戶群機會的總結，我們對我們建立的強大生態系統感到滿意。我們擁有直接的商家合作夥伴，可以提供源源不絕的新客戶和回頭客； Katapult Pay 是我們強大的回頭客率的重要貢獻者，並且有潛力發展成為可靠、低成本的客戶獲取管道；最後，我們有一個新興市場策略，可以審慎地擴大規模，以隨著時間的推移擴大這兩個管道的成長。

All this progress we're making is supported by the fundamental strength of our technology platform. From our seamless direct integrations that get a decision back to a customer in an average of five seconds or less to our underwriting algorithms that use personal information that a customer has top-of-mind, to our ability to autonomously onboard new merchants into Katapult Pay, to testing and learning we're doing within our marketing strategy, all of this progress sits on the bedrock of our technology.

我們所取得的所有這些進步都得到了我們技術平台的基礎力量的支持。從我們的無縫直接整合（平均在五秒或更短的時間內向客戶返回決策）到我們使用客戶最關心的個人資訊的核保演算法，再到我們自動將新商家納入 Katapult Pay 的能力，為了測試和學習我們在行銷策略中所做的事情，所有這些進步都是我們技術的基石。

We believe that our direct LTO option and Katapult Pay are creating sustainable competitive advantage that will help support our continued growth and keep us at the forefront of technology in our industry. In addition, our tech advantage has been built upon low-cost, lean, nimble tech infrastructure that allows us to move quickly to scale new solutions and capitalize on growth opportunities that require tech ingenuity.

我們相信，我們的直接 LTO 選項和 Katapult Pay 正在創造可持續的競爭優勢，這將有助於支持我們的持續成長，並使我們保持在行業技術的前沿。此外，我們的技術優勢建立在低成本、精實、靈活的技術基礎設施之上，使我們能夠快速擴展新的解決方案，並利用需要技術獨創性的成長機會。

For example, Katapult Pay is powered by proprietary models that determine if a durable good is leasable. These models allow us to onboard retailers like Walmart, which has a broad spectrum of products available for purchase, including many that are not eligible for an LTO transaction.

例如，Katapult Pay 由專有模型提供支持，該模型確定耐用品是否可租賃。這些模型使我們能夠加入像沃爾瑪這樣的零售商，該零售商擁有廣泛的可供購買的產品，包括許多不符合 LTO 交易條件的產品。

Given the breadth and depth of their SKUs, without these technology-driven models, it would be very difficult, if not impossible to bring market-leading retailers like this to our customers. Looking across our competitive landscape, we believe our technology is unique and cutting-edge.

考慮到其 SKU 的廣度和深度，如果沒有這些技術驅動的模型，將這樣的市場領先零售商帶到我們的客戶手中，即使不是不可能，也會非常困難。縱觀我們的競爭格局，我們相信我們的技術是獨特且前沿的。

Last quarter, we talked a bit about generative AI and our opportunities to deploy it within our tech stack. We are excited to launch our first use case of generative AI in the fourth quarter to help us automate address validation. We've created this tool to address the friction some customers were experiencing if there were minor differences in the addresses they provided and what was listed in the merchant database.

上個季度，我們討論了生成式人工智慧以及我們在技術堆疊中部署它的機會。我們很高興在第四季度推出我們的第一個產生人工智慧用例，以幫助我們自動化地址驗證。我們創建此工具是為了解決一些客戶在提供的地址與商家資料庫中列出的地址存在細微差異時所遇到的摩擦。

We can now use generative AI to quickly address what was previously a manual process to update, eliminating a source of customer frustration. Beyond this, we are exploring ways to integrate generative AI further in Katapult Pay, marketing, and other areas.

我們現在可以使用生成式人工智慧來快速解決以前需要手動進行更新的問題，從而消除客戶沮喪的根源。除此之外，我們正在探索將生成式人工智慧進一步整合到 Katapult Pay、行銷和其他領域的方法。

Before I turn it over to Nancy, I want to provide a few thoughts on our focus areas for 2024. On the customer front, we understand that our customers are deal seekers, which is why we continue to focus on offering the best and transparent pricing and passing those savings onto our customers. We believe we offer the lowest pricing in the industry and we will remain focused on giving our customers the value they need and the experience they deserve.

在交給 Nancy 之前，我想就 2024 年的重點領域提供一些想法。在客戶方面，我們知道我們的客戶是交易尋求者，這就是為什麼我們繼續專注於提供最佳和透明的定價並將這些節省的費用轉嫁給我們的客戶。我們相信我們提供業內最低的價格，我們將繼續專注於為客戶提供他們需要的價值和他們應得的體驗。

As you know by now, our application process is the best in our competitive landscape. We make it easy for the customers to apply. We don't require bank account information, a lengthy credit history, and we never charge late fees ever. So in 2024, expect to see our strategy continue to reflect our commitment to delivering value while fostering long-term customer relationships.

如您所知，我們的申請流程是我們競爭格局中最好的。我們使客戶可以輕鬆申請。我們不需要銀行帳戶資訊、漫長的信用記錄，而且我們從不收取滯納金。因此，到 2024 年，預計我們的策略將繼續反映我們在培養長期客戶關係的同時提供價值的承諾。

This approach not only sets us apart in the market, it also drives better performance for our business and significantly increases our retention rates. We are also dedicating effort to making it easier for customers to shop with us. We think that enhancing the shopping journey in our marketplace is another way we can control our destiny and help drive demand.

這種方法不僅使我們在市場上脫穎而出，還提高了我們的業務績效，並顯著提高了我們的保留率。我們也致力於讓顧客更輕鬆地在我們這裡購物。我們認為，增強市場中的購物體驗是我們控制命運並幫助推動需求的另一種方式。

One big area we're exploring is product-based search. Right now, customers have to start their searches at the retail level, and we believe if we can create options for consumers to shop directly for the actual durable good they'd like to lease. We can make their experiences even better. In turn, this will help us better understand where the customer is in their journey, and what they're shopping for, and eventually unlock our ability to do more targeted marketing.

我們正在探索的一大領域是基於產品的搜尋。目前，客戶必須從零售層面開始搜索，我們相信，如果我們能夠為消費者創造直接購買他們想要租賃的實際耐用品的選擇。我們可以讓他們的體驗變得更好。反過來，這將幫助我們更好地了解客戶在他們的旅程中的位置以及他們正在購買什麼，並最終釋放我們進行更有針對性的行銷的能力。

Regarding Katapult Pay, we are very pleased with the adoption rates and customer engagement. In 2024 we'll be exploring opportunities to both bring our new merchants that our customers want and further personalize the user experience with the aim of increasing conversion.

關於 Katapult Pay，我們對採用率和客戶參與感到非常滿意。2024 年，我們將探索機會，引入客戶想要的新商家，並進一步個人化使用者體驗，以提高轉換率。

To round out our customer focus in 2024, we believe we are well positioned to grow our customer base. There are multiple levers we believe we can pull, including continuing to execute our ROI-focused marketing strategy, build out our other customer referral channels including strategic partnerships, and sustaining high customer repeat rates.

為了在 2024 年完善我們的客戶關注點，我們相信我們已做好充分準備來擴大客戶群。我們相信可以利用多種手段，包括繼續執行以投資回報率為中心的行銷策略、建立其他客戶推薦管道（包括策略合作夥伴關係）以及維持高客戶重複率。

Within our marketing strategy, we will continue to focus on making sure our customers can use our market-leading LTO product to shop for all of the durable goods they want and need. This means we'll focus on onboarding direct merchants that can help round out our shopping experience. We believe that our high repeat rate is the hallmark of a loyal and engaged customer base, and we will continue to look for ways to sustain this differentiator, which is a compelling piece of our merchant value proposition.

在我們的行銷策略中，我們將繼續致力於確保我們的客戶能夠使用我們市場領先的 LTO 產品來購買他們想要和需要的所有耐用品。這意味著我們將專注於引入可以幫助完善我們的購物體驗的直接商家。我們相信，我們的高重複率是忠誠且積極參與的客戶群的標誌，我們將繼續尋找維持這種差異化優勢的方法，這是我們商業價值主張中引人注目的一部分。

In 2024, we'll continue to look for opportunities to leverage our unique platform, to solve merchant problems, opening up new growth channels for both Katapult and our merchant partners. We will also continue to look for opportunities to build new merchant referral pipelines, such as the one we created in 2023 with Synchrony.

2024年，我們將繼續尋找機會利用我們獨特的平台來解決商家問題，為 Katapult 和我們的商家合作夥伴開闢新的成長管道。我們也將繼續尋找機會建立新的商家推薦管道，例如我們在 2023 年與 Synchrony 合作創建的管道。

And finally, we will also be looking at opportunities to further leverage our technology and proprietary data to grow our business. First, our technology and data insights will continue to be fundamental drivers of the customer and merchant focus areas I've outlined. Second, we want to look for ways that we can extend our data lead by integrating new resources that will allow us to capture even more underwriting and fraud signals that allow us to offer even more leases to underserved customers.

最後，我們還將尋找機會進一步利用我們的技術和專有數據來發展我們的業務。首先，我們的技術和數據洞察力將繼續成為我概述的客戶和商家重點領域的基本驅動力。其次，我們希望尋找方法，透過整合新資源來擴大我們的數據領先優勢，這將使我們能夠捕獲更多的承保和詐欺訊號，從而使我們能夠為服務不足的客戶提供更多的租賃。

While I won't go into too many specifics today, from a big picture perspective, we are also exploring ways to leverage these competitive advantages to better monetize our growing customer base and create new revenue streams. With that, I'll turn it over to Nancy to discuss our fourth quarter results. Nancy.

雖然我今天不會透露太多細節，但從大局來看，我們也在探索如何利用這些競爭優勢，更好地利用我們不斷增長的客戶群貨幣化並創造新的收入來源。接下來，我將把它交給南希討論我們第四季的業績。南希。

Thank you, Orlando. I'm excited to talk to you today about our strong fourth-quarter results, which have added to our track record of growth. For five consecutive quarters, we have grown our gross originations year over year, and in the fourth quarter, our revenue growth was 16.1%, which accelerated from the revenue growth rate we achieved in the third quarter.

謝謝你，奧蘭多。我很高興今天與您談論我們強勁的第四季度業績，這些業績增加了我們的成長記錄。連續五個季度，我們的總營收年增，第四季的營收成長率為 16.1%，比第三季的營收成長率加快。

We also reduced our write-offs as a percent of revenue, and with our focus on disciplined expense management, we delivered a $4.9 million year over year improvement to adjusted EBITDA during the fourth quarter. With that as context, let me provide you with some financial highlights for the fourth quarter and full year 2023.

我們還減少了沖銷佔收入的百分比，並且由於我們專注於嚴格的費用管理，第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 同比增長了 490 萬美元。以此為背景，讓我為您提供 2023 年第四季和全年的一些財務亮點。

Before I discuss the rest of our P&L, I wanted to mention that we made out-of-period adjustments to correct immaterial errors related to cost of revenues and rental revenue in our P&L. This also impacted property held for lease and sales tax payable on our balance sheet. There will also be a $1.2 million cash impact associated with sales tax payable.

在討論損益表的其餘部分之前，我想提一下，我們進行了期外調整，以糾正損益表中與收入成本和租金收入相關的非重大錯誤。這也影響了我們資產負債表上的租賃財產和應付銷售稅。應付銷售稅還將產生 120 萬美元的現金影響。

We have reflected these out-of-period adjustments in the adjusted EBITDA reconciliation table in our press release for your reference. The revenue write-offs as a percent of revenue and adjusted EBITDA data that I'm about to present also reflect these adjustments.

我們已在新聞稿中的調整後 EBITDA 調整表中反映了這些期外調整，供您參考。我即將介紹的收入沖銷佔收入的百分比和調整後的 EBITDA 數據也反映了這些調整。

As I mentioned, we have now grown gross originations for five consecutive quarters, and as Orlando touched upon, our fourth-quarter results came in significantly better than we were expecting. Gross originations increased 13% to $67.5 million.

正如我所提到的，我們現在已經連續五個季度實現總收入成長，正如奧蘭多所說，我們第四季的業績明顯好於我們的預期。總營收成長 13%，達到 6,750 萬美元。

Our performance was driven by strength with our existing merchants and our ability to onboard Walmart into Katapult Pay during the fourth quarter sooner than we expected. New and existing customers engaged with Walmart through Katapult Pay during the quarter, resulting in higher than expected gross originations.

我們的業績是由我們現有商家的實力以及我們在第四季度比我們預期更早將沃爾瑪納入 Katapult Pay 的能力所推動的。本季新舊客戶透過 Katapult Pay 與沃爾瑪互動，導致總收入高於預期。

In addition to this driver, we also saw strong performance during the Cyber Five period of the holiday season. Gross originations during this period grew double digits compared with the same period of 2022, and Katapult Pay was a key driver of this growth.

除了這個驅動力之外，我們還看到了假日季「網五」期間的強勁表現。與 2022 年同期相比，這段時期的總營收成長了兩位數，而 Katapult Pay 是這段成長的關鍵驅動力。

For the full year 2023, we achieved gross originations of $226.6 million, up approximately 15%. While this headline number is a result we are very proud of, our business excluding Wayfair grew even faster during 2023. Excluding Wayfair, gross originations grew nearly 28%.

2023 年全年，我們的總收入達到 2.266 億美元，成長約 15%。雖然我們對這一重要數字感到非常自豪，但我們（不包括 Wayfair）業務在 2023 年增長得更快。不包括 Wayfair，總發起量成長了近 28%。

While we are very pleased with our partnership with Wayfair, we are also pleased with our progress toward diversifying our sources of gross originations and revenue. For 2023, non-Wayfair gross originations were 48% of our base, up from 43% in 2022. We believe this demonstrates that we can continue to leverage Wayfair to drive growth even as we diversify our gross originations base.

雖然我們對與 Wayfair 的合作關係感到非常滿意，但我們也對我們在總來源和收入來源多元化方面取得的進展感到高興。2023 年，非 Wayfair 總發起量占我們基數的 48%，高於 2022 年的 43%。我們相信，這表明我們可以繼續利用 Wayfair 來推動成長，即使我們的總來源基礎多樣化。

During the quarter, 59.9% of our originations came from existing customers. This is an all-time high for us, and we believe this reflects our obsession with striving to give our customers the best experience we can at all times.

本季度，我們 59.9% 的來源來自現有客戶。這對我們來說是歷史新高，我們相信這反映了我們致力於始終為客戶提供最佳體驗的執著。

For the full year, 54.2% of our originations came from existing customers. As we have discussed, we are continuing to see a large number of repeat customers come back to us through Katapult Pay.

全年，我們 54.2% 的來源來自現有客戶。正如我們所討論的，我們不斷看到大量回頭客透過 Katapult Pay 回到我們這裡。

In fact, those customers who generate a lease through Katapult Pay, be it their first, second or third, approximately 29% of the time, these customers will generate another lease within 60 days. We continue to believe that engagement with the app and our targeted marketing efforts are helping us drive our very strong repeat customer growth rates.

事實上，那些透過 Katapult Pay 產生租賃的客戶，無論是第一次、第二次還是第三次，大約 29% 的情況下，這些客戶將在 60 天內產生另一個租賃。我們仍然相信，對該應用程式的參與以及我們有針對性的行銷工作正在幫助我們推動非常強勁的回頭客成長率。

Q4 revenue increased 16.1% to $56.7 million, exceeding the 13% to 15% growth outlook we provided last quarter. This performance reflects the trends driving gross originations, the volume performance we saw in the first three quarters of the year, and strong collection efforts.

第四季營收成長 16.1% 至 5,670 萬美元，超過我們上季提供的 13% 至 15% 成長預期。這一表現反映了推動總收入的趨勢、我們在今年前三個季度看到的銷售表現以及強勁的催收工作。

For full year 2023, revenue grew about 5% compared with 2022. Write-offs as a percent of lease revenue continued to improve and remained within our 8% to 10% target range. For the fourth quarter, this metric was 9.6%, 10 basis points lower compared with 9.7% in Q4 2022.

2023 年全年營收較 2022 年成長約 5%。核銷佔租賃收入的百分比持續改善，並維持在我們 8% 至 10% 的目標範圍內。第四季該指標為 9.6%，比 2022 年第四季的 9.7% 低 10 個基點。

Moving on to profitability, our disciplined approach to expense management coupled with our top line growth allowed us to deliver another quarter of substantial adjusted EBITDA growth. As a reminder, late in 2022, we instituted a number of cost savings measures, and we are now at the tail end of anniversarying these benefits.

談到獲利能力，我們嚴格的費用管理方法加上我們的營收成長，使我們能夠在另一個季度實現調整後 EBITDA 的大幅成長。謹此提醒，我們在 2022 年末制定了多項成本節約措施，現在正處於這些福利週年慶的尾聲。

Our fourth quarter total operating expenses were impacted by a $7-million net expense we recorded in connection with our negotiation to settle the two class action lawsuits that have been pending in New York and Delaware since 2021 and 2022, respectively. This may be satisfied with a combination of cash and shares.

我們第四季的總營運費用受到700 萬美元淨費用的影響，該淨費用與我們為解決自2021 年和2022 年以來分別在紐約和特拉華州懸而未決的兩起集體訴訟而進行的談判有關。這可以透過現金和股票的組合來滿足。

In addition, we have recorded a $5-million receivable for our insurance policy payment. In total, we recorded a $12-million liability in connection with the potential settlement.

此外，我們也記錄了 500 萬美元的保單付款應收帳款。總共，我們記錄了與潛在和解相關的 1200 萬美元負債。

I should note that we have not yet and may not reach a settlement for these parties on these terms or at all. Further, any settlement agreement is subject to court approval by the Delaware and New York courts.

我應該指出，我們尚未也可能不會根據這些條款或根本無法為這些各方達成和解。此外，任何和解協議均須經特拉華州和紐約法院批准。

Although the settlement negotiations are ongoing and not final, given the status of settlement talks, we are required under GAAP to accrue for the potential settlement. We will provide additional updates as appropriate in the future.

儘管和解談判仍在進行中，且尚未最終確定，但考慮到和解談判的現狀，根據公認會計原則，我們需要為潛在的和解提列利息。我們將在未來酌情提供更多更新。

During the fourth quarter, our total operating expenses increased by 14.5%, primarily driven by the $7-million net one-time estimated litigation settlement expense. Excluding this expense, total OpEx for Q4 would have decreased by 27.8% year over year.

第四季度，我們的總營運費用增加了 14.5%，主要是因為一次性估計淨額 700 萬美元的訴訟和解費用。剔除這筆費用，第四季的總營運支出將年減 27.8%。

For the full year, we reduced our total operating expenses by 8.5% year over year and, excluding the one-time estimated litigation settlement expense, full year 2023 OpEx would have decreased by 19%. Excluding underwriting fees and servicing costs, which are variable, the one-time expenses related to our estimated legal settlement and depreciation and non-cash stock-based compensation expense, our fixed cash operating expenses were $8.5 million, down 35.6% compared to last year.

就全年而言，我們的總營運支出較去年同期減少了 8.5%，不包括一次性預估的訴訟和解費用，2023 年全年營運支出將減少 19%。不包括可變的承銷費和服務成本、與我們估計的法律和解和折舊相關的一次性費用以及非現金股票補償費用，我們的固定現金運營費用為 850 萬美元，比去年下降 35.6% 。

Based on our top line performance and the structural and sustainable benefits we are realizing from our operating efficiencies, we were able to improve our year-over-year adjusted EBITDA performance for the fourth consecutive quarter. For the fourth quarter, we recorded just below breakeven adjusted EBITDA, an increase of $4.9 million compared to the $5 million loss we reported in the fourth quarter of last year. As a reminder, expenses related to our estimated legal settlement are an add-back to our adjusted EBITDA.

基於我們的營收業績以及我們從營運效率中實現的結構性和永續效益，我們能夠連續第四個季度改善同比調整後 EBITDA 業績。第四季度，我們的調整後 EBITDA 略低於損益平衡點，與去年第四季報告的 500 萬美元虧損相比，增加了 490 萬美元。提醒一下，與我們估計的法律和解相關的費用是我們調整後的 EBITDA 的回加。

For the full year 2023, our Adjusted EBITDA loss was approximately $1.9 million. Excluding approximately $1.8 million for immaterial out-of-period adjustments, we delivered adjusted EBITDA that was slightly below breakeven. This means that we delivered approximately $16.6 million more in adjusted EBITDA compared to full year 2022.

2023 年全年，我們的調整後 EBITDA 損失約為 190 萬美元。排除約 180 萬美元的無關緊要的期外調整，我們的調整後 EBITDA 略低於盈虧平衡點。這意味著與 2022 年全年相比，我們的調整後 EBITDA 增加了約 1,660 萬美元。

As of December 1, 2023, we had total cash and cash equivalents of $28.8 million, which includes $7.4 million of restricted cash. We also had $60.7 million of credit facility debt.

截至 2023 年 12 月 1 日，我們的現金及現金等價物總額為 2,880 萬美元，其中包括 740 萬美元的限制性現金。我們還有 6,070 萬美元的信貸額度債務。

During the fourth quarter, we identified an issue with our third-party lease verification vendor. This issue led to Katapult overfunding $9.6 million in leases during the fourth quarter that should have been funded by our lending partner. This meant that our cash to use should have been about $9.6 million lower during the quarter and our debt should have been $9.6 million higher.

在第四季度，我們發現了第三方租賃驗證供應商的問題。這個問題導致 Katapult 在第四季度為租賃提供了 960 萬美元的過多資金，而這些資金本應由我們的貸款合作夥伴提供。這意味著本季我們的可用現金應減少約 960 萬美元，而我們的債務應增加 960 萬美元。

We corrected the issue in early 2024, recovered the cash, and normalized our cash and debt levels. On an adjusted basis excluding this issue, we would have ended the quarter with total cash and cash equivalents of $38.4 million, which includes $7.4 million of restricted cash. We would also have reflected $70.4 million in outstanding debt on our credit facility on an adjusted basis.

我們在 2024 年初糾正了這個問題，收回了現金，並使我們的現金和債務水準正常化。如果排除此問題，調整後的基礎上，本季末我們的現金和現金等價物總額將為 3,840 萬美元，其中包括 740 萬美元的限制性現金。我們也將在調整後的信貸安排中反映 7,040 萬美元的未償債務。

Let me explain the issue in more detail. We have a third-party lease verification vendor that verifies and then approves the new leases to be included in our borrowing base. In December 2023, this vendor had a timing error in their validation processes. This created a situation where a number of new leases each day were not validated and therefore were not added to our borrowing base. This in turn led to us funding these specific leases at 100% with our own cash instead of at 10%, which is our normal practice. Our credit facility provides a 90% advance rate for funding each valid lease.

讓我更詳細地解釋一下這個問題。我們有一個第三方租賃驗證供應商，負責驗證並批准新租賃納入我們的借款基礎。2023 年 12 月，該供應商在驗證過程中出現計時錯誤。這就造成了每天都有大量新租約未經驗證，因此沒有添加到我們的借貸基礎中的情況。這反過來導致我們用自有現金 100% 為這些特定租賃提供資金，而不是我們通常的做法 10%。我們的信貸額度為每個有效租賃提供 90% 的預付款。

This issue only impacted Q4 and, as I mentioned, we have already received the cash from the underfunding. In addition, once we alerted our lease verification vendor, together we implemented enhanced controls and processes to prevent this from recurring in the future.

這個問題只影響第四季度，正如我所提到的，我們已經收到了資金不足的現金。此外，一旦我們通知了租賃驗證供應商，我們就共同實施了增強的控制和流程，以防止將來再次發生這種情況。

We are continuing to navigate an evolving macro environment. While inflation remains stable, it is still having an impact on the spending habits and budgets of our core target consumers. US retail traffic is down. Interest rates, while stable, remain elevated. Savings rates are low and credit card usage is high.

我們正在繼續應對不斷變化的宏觀環境。儘管通膨保持穩定，但仍對我們核心目標消費者的消費習慣和預算產生影響。美國零售客流量下降。利率雖然穩定，但仍處於高點。儲蓄率低，信用卡使用率高。

Currently, it is unclear what impact these dynamics will have on prime lending standards and how they will affect the US consumers' access to credit. We continue to believe that we have a large addressable market of underserved non-prime consumers, and it's important to note that lease-to-own solutions have historically benefited when prime credit options become less available.

目前，尚不清楚這些動態將對主要貸款標準產生什麼影響，以及它們將如何影響美國消費者獲得信貸的機會。我們仍然相信，我們擁有一個龐大的潛在市場，其中包括服務不足的非優質消費者，而且值得注意的是，從歷史上看，當優質信貸選擇變得越來越少時，先租後買的解決方案就會受益。

Based on these dynamics and the operating plan in place for the full year 2024, we expect the following for the first quarter: year-over-year gross originations growth that is about flat compared with the first quarter of 2023; a 12% to 14% year-over-year increase in revenue; meaningful improvement in our adjusted EBITDA performance compared with the first quarter of last year, reflecting our revenue growth expectation and a sustained reduction of fixed cash operating expenses. Fixed cash operating expenses are expected to be down approximately 15% year-over-year in the first quarter. As I mentioned earlier, we will anniversary the cost reduction activities we put in place last year and see a full year benefit in Q1 2024 versus only a partial benefit in Q1 2023.

根據這些動態和 2024 年全年的營運計劃，我們預計第一季將出現以下情況： 與 2023 年第一季相比，總發起量同比增長基本持平；營收年增12%至14%；與去年第一季相比，我們調整後的 EBITDA 業績顯著改善，反映了我們的營收成長預期和固定現金營運費用的持續減少。第一季固定現金營運支出預計將年減約 15%。正如我之前提到的，我們將慶祝去年實施的成本削減活動，並在 2024 年第一季實現全年效益，而 2023 年第一季僅實現部分效益。

For full-year 2024, we expect to continue to expand our customer base and acquire new customers, another year of gross originations growth. For the full year, we expect gross originations to grow at a rate of at least 10% and our first quarter performance should be the low point for the year.

2024 年全年，我們預計將繼續擴大客戶群並獲取新客戶，這是總發起量成長的另一年。就全年而言，我們預計總收入將以至少 10% 的速度成長，而我們第一季的業績應該是今年的最低點。

We also expect gross originations to improve sequentially in the second half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2024, driven by growth in direct merchant originations and originations coming through Katapult Pay. Our outlook does not include any material impact from prime creditors tightening or loosening above us, and it assumes that the macro environment does not change significantly.

我們也預計，在直接商家發起和透過 Katapult Pay 發起的成長的推動下，2024 年下半年的發起總額將比 2024 年上半年連續改善。我們的展望不包括主要債權人緊縮或寬鬆的任何重大影響，並假設宏觀環境不會發生重大變化。

We also expect to maintain strong credit quality in our portfolio. This will be driven by ongoing enhancements to our risk modeling, onboarding high quality new merchants through direct integrations, and repeat customers engaging with Katapult Pay. Revenue growth is expected to be 10% -- at least 10%.

我們也希望我們的投資組合保持良好的信用品質。這將由我們風險模型的持續增強、透過直接整合吸引高品質新商家以及與 Katapult Pay 互動的回頭客來推動。收入成長預計為 10%——至少 10%。

Finally, with the continued execution of our disciplined expense strategy combined with our growing top line, we expect to deliver another year of adjusted EBITDA growth. We also expect adjusted EBITDA to follow the seasonal patterns that we have seen historically.

最後，隨著我們嚴格的費用策略的持續執行以及我們不斷增長的收入，我們預計將實現另一年的調整後 EBITDA 成長。我們也預計調整後的 EBITDA 將遵循我們歷史上看到的季節性模式。

We delivered strong results during 2023 and we believe we are positioning the company for sustainable and profitable growth. We have multiple levers that we can pull to drive both gross originations and revenue, and we have built a lean infrastructure that does not require significant investment to support continued growth.

我們在 2023 年取得了強勁的業績，我們相信我們正在為公司做好可持續和獲利成長的準備。我們擁有多種槓桿來推動總收入和收入，我們建立了精實基礎設施，不需要大量投資來支持持續成長。

Our strategy is clear and we believe our focus on providing our customers with a best-in-class LTO experience, where terms are transparent and fair and our approach is human and compassionate, will allow us to build market share and continue to expand the business. We are very proud of our 2023 performance, and with that, I'll turn it over to the operator for Q&A. Operator.

我們的策略很明確，我們相信我們專注於為客戶提供一流的 LTO 體驗，其中條款透明公平，我們的方法人性化且富有同情心，這將使我們能夠建立市場份額並繼續擴大業務。我們對 2023 年的表現感到非常自豪，因此，我將把它交給運營商進行問答。操作員。

(Operator Instructions) Josh Sigler, Cantor Fitzgerald.

（操作員說明）喬許·西格勒（Josh Sigler）、坎托·菲茨杰拉德（Cantor Fitzgerald）。

Yeah, hi, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Nice to see the strong gross originations this quarter. I would first want to touch on your guidance. So your guidance implies acceleration in originations as we progress through 2024. So to that end, I was wondering if you could comment a bit on your merchant pipeline and if you expect that acceleration to really be driven by new merchant adds or deepening penetration with existing merchants? Thanks.

是的，嗨，夥計們。早安.感謝您提出我的問題。很高興看到本季強勁的總收入。我首先想談談您的指導。因此，您的指導意味著隨著 2024 年的進展，創新將加速。為此，我想知道您是否可以對您的商家管道發表一些評論，以及您是否預計這種加速真正是由新商家的增加或現有商家的加深滲透推動的？謝謝。

Hi, Josh, thanks for the question. Yeah, our merchant pipeline continues to be robust. We're looking and we're having more meaningful conversations, obviously, with the retail environment, especially in January being what it was. Obviously bringing incremental customers to these merchants is becoming more and more important, and some of the issues that we had in the past, like shipping constraints and things like that, have gone away, so I would say we're in more of a normal operating standpoint with our merchant.

嗨，喬什，謝謝你的提問。是的，我們的商業通路仍然強勁。顯然，我們正在尋找並與零售環境進行更有意義的對話，尤其是在一月的情況下。顯然，為這些商家帶來增量客戶變得越來越重要，我們過去遇到的一些問題，例如運輸限制等，已經消失，所以我想說我們處於更正常的狀態與我們商家的經營立場。

The issue with the merchants is really getting through their tech stack and getting the integration completed, so we expect that some of the growth is going to come from new merchants that we've already identified in the pipeline. And -- but that -- most of the growth is coming from the growth in Katapult Pay, as well as our current merchants, and really continuing to do what we've done with Wayfair with our other merchants to grow the business.

商家的問題實際上是透過他們的技術堆疊並完成集成，因此我們預計部分成長將來自我們已經在管道中確定的新商家。而且 - 但 - 大部分成長來自 Katapult Pay 以及我們現有商家的成長，並且真正繼續與其他商家一起做我們在 Wayfair 上所做的事情來發展業務。

Got it, that's helpful color. Thank you. And then I wanted to talk a little bit about reinvestment. So as we're progressing through 2024, how are you thinking about allocating incremental dollars towards either the Katapult Pay app or your more traditional lease-to-own model, either integrated into a company's website or in-store?

明白了，這個顏色很有用。謝謝。然後我想談談再投資。因此，隨著 2024 年的進展，您如何考慮將增量資金分配給 Katapult Pay 應用程式或更傳統的先租後買模式（整合到公司網站或店內）？

So we continue to evaluate all investments based on the return that it's going to provide and deploying those investments where we think it will have the biggest and quickest impact. So whether that be continuing our marketing testing, whether that means continuing to invest in our technology, all of those are things that we're incorporating into the plan, but really using on the return on investment as our basis for what we do and how quickly. We do have a scalable, low-cost tech stack that really gives us an advantage to be able to not have to make huge investments to continue to drive the business forward.

因此，我們繼續根據它將提供的回報來評估所有投資，並將這些投資部署在我們認為會產生最大和最快影響的地方。因此，無論是繼續我們的行銷測試，還是意味著繼續投資我們的技術，所有這些都是我們正在納入計劃的內容，但真正將投資回報作為我們所做的事情和方式的基礎迅速地。我們確實擁有可擴展、低成本的技術堆疊，這確實為我們提供了優勢，使我們無需進行巨額投資即可繼續推動業務發展。

And Josh, it's Orlando. I'll add, one of the things that we see Katapult Pay is a strong customer performance from a returns perspective. And so obviously that, we want to continue to grow that business. Doesn't mean we're not going to focus on direct, we really want to do both, and we think that we'll put investment dollars where we think it's important, but what's going to bring us the best return.

喬什，這是奧蘭多。我要補充一點，我們看到 Katapult Pay 的特色之一是從退貨角度來看，顧客表現強勁。顯然，我們希望繼續發展這項業務。這並不意味著我們不會專注於直接投資，我們真的想兩者兼而有之，我們認為我們會將投資資金投入到我們認為重要的地方，但什麼會為我們帶來最好的回報。

Got it, makes sense. Thank you.

明白了，有道理。謝謝。

Anthony Chukumba, Loop Capital Markets.

安東尼·楚昆巴 (Anthony Chukumba)，Loop 資本市場。

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the strong end to the year as well. I guess my first question, I was just a little confused, I thought you had preannounced your revenues and the revenue number that I saw today was, I mean, unless I'm going crazy, which is entirely possible, was different from what I saw in your preannouncement. So I was just wondering if you can reconcile that.

早安.感謝您提出我的問題。也祝賀今年的強勁表現。我想我的第一個問題，我只是有點困惑，我以為你已經預先宣布了你的收入，而我今天看到的收入數字是，我的意思是，除非我發瘋了，這是完全有可能的，與我的不同在你的預告裡看到了。所以我只是想知道你是否可以調和這一點。

Sure, hi, Anthony. It's Nancy. Thank you for the question. You are absolutely correct. We did preannounce 19% as a result of those one-time, out-of-period adjustments we needed to make. That impacted revenue as we indicated, and that's purely the difference between what we preannounced and what we announced today, but still very pleased overall with not only the gross origination growth but the revenue growth and with our continued outlook into 2024.

當然，嗨，安東尼。是南希。感謝你的提問。你是完全正確的。由於我們需要一次性、期外調整，我們確實預先宣告了 19%。正如我們所指出的，這影響了收入，這純粹是我們預先宣布的內容與今天宣布的內容之間的差異，但總體而言，我們仍然對總起源增長、收入增長以及我們對2024 年的持續展望感到非常滿意。

Okay, great to hear that I'm not crazy.

好吧，很高興聽到我沒有瘋。

No, you're not crazy.

不，你沒有瘋。

Okay. Second thing, so obviously there's this CFPB, with the reduction in late fees on credit cards. Would love your thoughts in terms of -- first off, do you think that there's going to be litigation? Are you building into your guidance at all? And I guess, most importantly, if -- let's just say that it holds up and late fees do get reduced, what would be the impact on you, if any?

好的。第二件事，顯然是 CFPB，減少了信用卡的滯納金。我想聽聽您的想法—首先，您認為會發生訴訟嗎？您是否正在將其納入您的指導中？我想，最重要的是，如果——我們只是說它成立並且滯納金確實減少了，這會對你產生什麼影響（如果有的話）？

Nothing.

沒有什麼。

Hi, yeah, hi, Anthony. This is Derek. I'll take that question. So what we see in terms of those changes to what's happening in the credit stack above us with prime credit cards and near prime credit cards and other financial products is that any time that there's a reduction in their financial returns, that could create opportunity for us in terms of a change in their underwriting criteria or a change in their approval rates. So there is a potential there. However, we have not built that into any of our planning.

嗨，是的，嗨，安東尼。這是德里克。我來回答這個問題。因此，我們看到，我們上方的信用堆疊中優質信用卡、近優質信用卡和其他金融產品所發生的變化是，只要它們的財務回報減少，就可能為我們創造機會承保標準的變化或批准率的變化。所以那裡有潛力。然而，我們還沒有將其納入我們的任何計劃中。

In general, what we see is that consumers are savvy. They are looking for financial products and payment plans that are very transparent to them, that they can understand the total cost. And so, we take all these insights and learnings as to what's happening and we implement them into our stance in terms of how we serve our customers. And we think we stand up well in terms of being very transparent and clear. And in general, we'll have to see how this all settles out.

總的來說，我們看到的是消費者是精明的。他們正在尋找對他們來說非常透明的金融產品和付款計劃，以便他們能夠了解總成本。因此，我們將所有這些關於正在發生的事情的見解和學習納入我們如何服務客戶的立場。我們認為我們在非常透明和清晰方面表現得很好。總的來說，我們必須看看這一切如何解決。

The last thing I'd say, though, is that these partnerships, in the prime space that we have, have certainly heightened as different credit providers are looking for ways to increase their overall approval rates by having a waterfall partnership with someone like Katapult. So we saw that last year with different partnerships that we already announced, and we think that there is continued interest in partnering with Katapult to improve the overall options for merchants.

不過，我要說的最後一件事是，隨著不同的信貸提供者正在尋找透過與Katapult 等公司建立瀑布式合作夥伴關係來提高其整體支持率的方法，我們擁有的黃金領域的這些合作夥伴關係肯定得到了加強。因此，去年我們已經宣布了不同的合作夥伴關係，我們認為人們仍然有興趣與 Katapult 合作，以改善商家的整體選擇。

And, Anthony, this is Orlando, thanks for the question. I just want to reiterate, we don't and we haven't, for a number of years -- we don't charge late fees. And so we're pretty proud of that because we're trying to work with our customers and they see that as advantage. I think that helps our repeat rate. But we're kind of ahead of the curve from a regulatory perspective if they start going down to lease-to-own.

安東尼，這裡是奧蘭多，謝謝你的提問。我只是想重申一下，我們不收取滯納金，多年來我們也沒有收取滯納金。因此，我們對此感到非常自豪，因為我們正在努力與客戶合作，他們認為這是一種優勢。我認為這有助於我們的重複率。但從監管角度來看，如果他們開始轉向從租賃到擁有，我們就處於領先地位。

Right, yeah, and I was aware you guys didn't charge late fees. I was just thinking more about the impact on the guys above you, but that's helpful. And then I guess this is my last question. I just want to make sure I heard that Walmart number correctly. You said Walmart accounted for 6% of your fourth quarter - was that total leases, that gross originations? What was that number exactly?

是的，是的，我知道你們不收取滯納金。我只是更多地考慮了對你上面的人的影響，但這很有幫助。然後我想這是我的最後一個問題。我只是想確保我聽到的沃爾瑪號碼正確無誤。您說沃爾瑪佔您第四季銷售額的 6% - 這是總租賃量還是總起始量？這個數字到底是多少？

It's total leases, not the gross origination dollars. Total leases.

這是租賃總額，而不是總初始金額。總租賃量。

Got it. Okay. Well, I mean, that is a very impressive number. I mean, when exactly in the quarter did you onboard them?

知道了。好的。嗯，我的意思是，這是一個非常令人印象深刻的數字。我的意思是，您在本季具體什麼時候加入了他們？

The week before Cyber Five. We had expected -- the tech team was trying to get it done before. They were anticipating getting it done after Cyber Five. They exceeded expectations and got it done right before Cyber Five, and so, really, it's about six weeks' worth of business in the fourth quarter. And we were very, very happily surprised at the response by our customers.

網路五號的前一週。我們已經預料到——技術團隊之前就試圖完成它。他們預計在「網路五號」之後完成這項任務。他們超出了預期，並在網路五號之前完成了這項工作，因此，實際上，第四季度的業務量約為六週。我們對客戶的反應感到非常非常高興。

Okay. And, Orlando, just one last thing, because I am a boomer -- Cyber Five, we're talking about the week before Thanksgiving, right?

好的。奧蘭多，最後一件事，因為我是嬰兒潮世代——網路五號，我們談論的是感恩節前一周，對嗎？

You're a boomer, really?

你真的是嬰兒潮世代嗎？

Yeah, the Thanksgiving, the five days.

是的，感恩節，這五天。

Starting Thanksgiving, so it's Thursday, Friday, going through Cyber Monday.

從感恩節開始，週四、週五，一直到網路星期一。

Got it. You learn something new every day, even when you're a boomer. Okay, thanks, guys.

知道了。即使您是嬰兒潮世代，您每天都會學到新東西。好的，謝謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to CEO, Orlando Zayas, for closing comments.

謝謝。目前沒有其他問題。我想請執行長奧蘭多·扎亞斯 (Orlando Zayas) 發表結束評論。

Thanks, operator. I just wanted to reiterate how proud I am of our team. We had a great year. We delivered top line growth during a time when our competitors declined. We grew while adhering to our disciplined expense management philosophy. We believe we are well positioned to build on the success of 2023, and we are looking forward to extending our track record of growth this year.

謝謝，接線生。我只是想重申我為我們的團隊感到多麼自豪。我們度過了美好的一年。在競爭對手下滑的時期，我們實現了營收成長。我們在堅持嚴格的費用管理理念的同時不斷成長。我們相信，我們已做好準備，能夠在 2023 年的成功基礎上再接再厲，並期待今年繼續擴大我們的成長記錄。

To everyone listening, thank you very much for tuning in to hear about the progress we've made over the past year. We are proving our ability to grow while providing our customers with fair, transparent, and accessible lease-to-own products, and our merchants with a growth channel that has much potential. Thank you again for your support and the interest in our story.

對於每一位聽眾，非常感謝您收聽我們在過去一年中的進展。我們正在證明我們的成長能力，同時為我們的客戶提供公平、透明、易於使用的先租後買產品，並為我們的商家提供具有巨大潛力的成長管道。再次感謝您對我們故事的支持與興趣。

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。