Quantum-Si Inc (QSI) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Quantum-Si first-quarter 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

女士們先生們，謝謝你們的支持。歡迎參加 Quantum-Si 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Katherine Atkinson from Quantum-Si. Katherine, please go ahead.

我現在想將會議轉交給來自 Quantum-Si 的 Katherine Atkinson。凱瑟琳，請繼續。

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Earlier today, Quantum-Si released financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Joining me today are Jeff Hawkins, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jeff Keyes, Chief Financial Officer.

大家下午好。感謝您加入我們。今天早些時候，Quantum-Si 發布了截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的第一季財務業績。該新聞稿的副本可在該公司網站上取得。今天與我一起出席的還有總裁兼執行長傑夫霍金斯 (Jeff Hawkins)；和財務長傑夫凱斯。

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that management will be making certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements of our press release.

在開始之前，我想提醒您，管理層將做出聯邦證券法含義範圍內的某些前瞻性聲明。這些陳述涉及重大風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果或事件與預期有重大差異。有關這些風險和不確定性的更多資訊請參閱我們新聞稿中標題為「前瞻性陳述」的部分。

For a more complete list and description of risk factors, please see the company's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, May 9, 2024. Except as required by law, the company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

有關風險因素的更完整清單和描述，請參閱該公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。本次電話會議包含時效性訊息，僅截至今天（2024 年 5 月 9 日）直播時準確。除法律要求外，本公司不承擔任何更新或修改任何前瞻性聲明的意圖或義務。

During this call, we will also be referring to certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the press release filed earlier today.

在本次電話會議中，我們也將提及某些未依照美國公認會計原則或公認會計準則制定的財務指標。今天稍早提交的新聞稿中包含了這些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。

With that, I will turn the call over to Jeff Hawkins.

這樣，我會將電話轉給傑夫霍金斯。

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. In today's call, we will provide a business update, present our first-quarter 2024 financial results, and provide an outlook for the remainder of 2024. We will then open the line for questions. As a reminder, the goal of Quantum-SI is to bring next-generation protein sequencing to every lab, everywhere.

大家下午好，感謝您加入我們。在今天的電話會議中，我們將提供業務更新、2024 年第一季財務業績，並提供 2024 年剩餘時間的展望。然後我們將開通提問熱線。提醒一下，Quantum-SI 的目標是將下一代蛋白質定序帶入世界各地的每個實驗室。

Our proprietary technology delivers deeper, unbiased proteomics insights that we believe will accelerate scientific research, enable the discovery of new biomarkers, and ultimately power the development of new therapies and diagnostic tests that will positively impact human health.

我們的專有技術提供了更深入、公正的蛋白質組學見解，我們相信這些見解將加速科學研究，促進新生物標記的發現，並最終推動新療法和診斷測試的開發，從而對人類健康產生正面影響。

With the full launch of Platinum now underway, I wanted to take this opportunity to share our corporate priorities for 2024. These priorities build upon what we accomplished in 2023 and will guide our execution throughout the year.

隨著 Platinum 的全面推出，我想藉此機會分享我們 2024 年的企業優先事項。這些優先事項建立在我們 2023 年所取得的成就的基礎上，並將指導我們全年的執行。

Our corporate priorities for 2024 are as follows. Accelerate commercial adoption, deliver on our innovation roadmap, and preserve financial strengths. With those priorities in mind, I would now like to provide an update on our progress during the first quarter as well as provide an updated outlook for 2024.

我們 2024 年的公司優先事項如下。加速商業採用，實現我們的創新路線圖，並維持財務優勢。考慮到這些優先事項，我現在想介紹第一季的最新進展以及 2024 年的最新展望。

Our first corporate priority is to accelerate commercial adoption. As I discussed on our last earnings call, we were finalizing our commercial readiness to support our full commercial launch. The preparations included training of the current and new members of our direct sales force and training of our distributor network.

我們公司的首要任務是加速商業採用。正如我在上次財報電話會議上所討論的那樣，我們正在完成商業準備工作，以支持我們的全面商業發布。準備工作包括我們直銷隊伍現有和新成員的培訓以及對我們經銷商網路的培訓。

The preparations also included the launch and initial rollout of the version 2 sequencing kit to customers, which we began executing on in early February. As of today, all customers have successfully migrated to the version 2 sequencing kit. Based on all these items being complete, I am pleased to announce that we have moved into the full commercial launch of Platinum as of the end of March 2024.

準備工作還包括向客戶推出並首次推出第 2 版定序套件，我們於 2 月初開始執行套件。截至今天，所有客戶均已成功遷移到版本 2 定序套件。在所有這些項目都完成的基礎上，我很高興地宣布，我們已於 2024 年 3 月底開始全面商業推出 Platinum。

Going forward, we expect to have steady quarter-over-quarter revenue growth as we progress through the remainder of 2024. We will continue to closely monitor our commercial performance and customer success rates and leverage that data to execute on a thoughtful scale-up of our commercial infrastructure, both direct and distribution throughout 2024.

展望未來，隨著 2024 年剩餘時間的進展，我們預期營收將實現季度環比穩定成長。我們將繼續密切監控我們的商業業績和客戶成功率，並利用這些數據在 2024 年期間深思熟慮地擴大我們的商業基礎設施（包括直接和分銷）。

In addition to gathering routine customer feedback, we will continue to work closely with key opinion leaders and early adopters of our technology to help define and develop future applications for our technology. As a reminder, our commercial strategy involves a mix of direct sales and distribution partners.

除了收集常規客戶回饋之外，我們將繼續與關鍵意見領袖和我們技術的早期採用者密切合作，以幫助定義和開發我們技術的未來應用。提醒一下，我們的商業策略涉及直接銷售和分銷合作夥伴的結合。

In the US market, we are currently operating with a direct sales and service model. In EMEA, our initial focus is the European market, where we will use a mix of direct and distribution approaches. In addition, we have a distributor partner in Japan, which we expect will serve as our strategic entry point into the broader APAC market.

在美國市場，我們目前採用直銷和服務模式營運。在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，我們最初的重點是歐洲市場，我們將採用直接和分銷相結合的方式。此外，我們在日本還有一個經銷商合作夥伴，我們預計該合作夥伴將成為我們進入更廣泛的亞太市場的策略切入點。

At the end of the first quarter, our direct commercial team, which consists of sales, marketing, service, and support personnel, encompassed approximately 24 individuals based in the United States and Western Europe. Customer interest in our uniquely differentiated technology has always been strong. From our initial launch in December of 2022 until now, we have observed consistent growth in our sales funnel in terms of the number of leads generated every month.

截至第一季末，我們的直接商業團隊由銷售、行銷、服務和支援人員組成，約有 24 名人員，分佈在美國和西歐。客戶對我們獨特的差異化技術一直很感興趣。從 2022 年 12 月首次推出到現在，我們觀察到我們的銷售漏斗每月產生的潛在客戶數量持續成長。

As we move forward with our full launch, the focus will be conversion of these leads into instrument placements and revenue. Our current commercial team size is in line with our expectations to support the early phases of the full commercial launch, and we will be closely monitoring a variety of commercial metrics as we look to shape and grow our team and approach going forward.

隨著我們全面推出，重點將是將這些潛在客戶轉化為工具投放和收入。我們目前的商業團隊規模符合我們支持全面商業發布的早期階段的預期，我們將密切關注各種商業指標，以塑造和發展我們的團隊和未來的方法。

From a market segment perspective, our customers to date have largely been academic research labs. In the first quarter, that changed in a positive way. We are pleased to report that we secured our first customers in both the government and pharma market segments.

從細分市場的角度來看，迄今為止我們的客戶主要是學術研究實驗室。在第一季度，情況發生了積極的變化。我們很高興地報告，我們在政府和製藥市場領域都獲得了第一批客戶。

These first two success stories underpin a broader interest we are seeing emerge in these two market segments in addition to biotech and other commercial applications. We continue to believe academic research labs will remain a key customer for us going forward but are pleased to see customers in these additional market segments adopting our technology as well.

除了生物技術和其他商業應用之外，前兩個成功案例支撐了我們在這兩個細分市場中出現的更廣泛的興趣。我們仍然相信學術研究實驗室仍將是我們未來的主要客戶，但很高興看到這些額外細分市場的客戶也採用我們的技術。

From an application standpoint, one application we are seeing increasing interest in is barcoding. For customers who need to generate and characterize large numbers of proteins, protein barcodes can be used to streamline screening and selection of proteins with the desired characteristics.

從應用程式的角度來看，我們發現人們越來越感興趣的應用程式是條碼。對於需要產生和表徵大量蛋白質的客戶，蛋白質條碼可用於簡化具有所需特性的蛋白質的篩選和選擇。

Barcoding applications could potentially span multiple market segments including biomedical research, pharma, biotech, and industrial. For these customers, Platinum offers a simple, cost-effective, and highly specific way to screen hundreds of proteins at once.

條碼應用可能跨越多個市場領域，包括生物醫學研究、製藥、生物技術和工業。對於這些客戶，Platinum 提供了一種簡單、經濟高效且高度特異性的方法來同時篩選數百種蛋白質。

While adoption of our technology is in the early stages in pharma, biotech, and government labs, it does highlight that with growing market awareness and an ever-increasing set of capabilities, our technology addresses an unmet need we believe will be of interest to customers across the broad range of market segments and lab types.

雖然我們的技術在製藥、生物技術和政府實驗室中的採用還處於早期階段，但它確實凸顯了隨著市場意識的不斷增強和功能的不斷增強，我們的技術解決了我們相信客戶會感興趣的未滿足的需求涵蓋廣泛的細分市場和實驗室類型。

On a macro basis, we closely monitor the information and themes being shared by companies across the broader life sciences market regarding sales cycles and capital sales process. Early evidence of our sales cycle indicates that it is approximately a three- to four-month process, with a slightly longer sales cycle in some segments as those customers may require a hands-on evaluation of our technology before making a buying decision. In general, we expect the sales cycle trend of three to four months to continue into the future.

從宏觀角度來看，我們密切關注更廣泛的生命科學市場上的公司共享的有關銷售週期和資本銷售流程的資訊和主題。我們銷售週期的早期證據表明，這大約是一個三到四個月的過程，某些細分市場的銷售週期稍長，因為這些客戶可能需要在做出購買決定之前對我們的技術進行實際評估。總體而言，我們預計三至四個月的銷售週期趨勢將持續到未來。

Another theme in the broader market has been challenges securing capital budgets in general and within the market in China specifically. To date, we have not seen these issues affect us given the price point of our Platinum device and the value the technology offers versus competitive instrumentation.

更廣泛市場的另一個主題是確保整體資本預算，特別是中國市場的資本預算的挑戰。到目前為止，考慮到我們的白金設備的價格點以及該技術相對於競爭儀器所提供的價值，我們還沒有看到這些問題對我們產生影響。

As a reminder, our Platinum instrument has a current list price of $85,000, whereas many of the other instrument offerings in our space carry list prices ranging from $500,000 up to $1 million or more. With respect to China, we do not currently sell Platinum in that market, so we are not exposed to any of the headwinds being discussed by other companies in the broader life science market.

提醒一下，我們的白金儀器目前標價為 85,000 美元，而我們領域的許多其他儀器產品的標價從 500,000 美元到 100 萬美元或更高不等。就中國而言，我們目前不在該市場銷售鉑金，因此我們不會面臨更廣泛的生命科學市場中其他公司所討論的任何不利因素。

With the full commercial launch underway, we are laser focused on our commercial execution to ensure consistent quarter-over-quarter growth. We will closely monitor commercial success metrics and look to expand our commercial footprint in a fiscally responsible way, while ensuring all our customers receive the highest level of service and support.

隨著全面商業啟動的進行，我們將專注於商業執行，以確保季度環比的持續成長。我們將密切監控商業成功指標，並尋求以對財務負責的方式擴大我們的商業足跡，同時確保所有客戶都能獲得最高水準的服務和支援。

As we have said before, our goal is not simply to place instruments, it is to secure customers who will utilize our technology to advance their research for years to come. As this process evolves, we will be nimble and adjust our approach to maximize our revenue growth while ensuring customer success.

正如我們之前所說，我們的目標不僅僅是放置儀器，而是確保客戶在未來幾年利用我們的技術來推進他們的研究。隨著這項流程的發展，我們將靈活調整我們的方法，以最大限度地提高收入成長，同時確保客戶成功。

Our second priority is to deliver on our innovation roadmap. In February, we launched our version 2 sequencing kit, which includes the introduction of a new amino acid recognizer, high reproducibility across runs, and an approximately threefold reduction in cost per amino acid. I am pleased to report that we have successfully transitioned all our existing customers to the version 2 kit. Overall, the customer feedback for the version 2 kit has been very positive.

我們的第二要務是實現我們的創新路線圖。今年 2 月，我們推出了第 2 版定序試劑盒，其中包括引入新的氨基酸識別器、運行的高重複性以及每個氨基酸成本大約降低三倍。我很高興地報告，我們已成功將所有現有客戶過渡到版本 2 套件。整體而言，客戶對版本 2 套件的回饋非常正面。

Last week, we announced the release of a new version of our Platinum analysis software. This new version of software offers customers an average of a 55% increase in the number of peptide alignments, a 9% increase in the precision of identifying unknown proteins present in a sample, and a 70% reduction in primary analysis time from 85 minutes to 25 minutes.

上週，我們宣布發布新版本的 Platinum 分析軟體。這個新版本的軟體為客戶提供的勝肽比對數量平均增加了 55%，辨識樣本中未知蛋白質的精確度提高了 9%，初級分析時間從 85 分鐘縮短到 70%。

As part of the analysis software launch, we also shared some details about our proprietary kinetic model and kinetic database, made up today of nearly 2 million parameters. The ability to continuously train the kinetic model on generated sequencing data represents a significant opportunity to unlock even deeper insights from our next-generation protein sequencing technology, further building upon the improvements we expect to continue to make to the sequencing chemistry.

作為分析軟體發布的一部分，我們還分享了有關我們專有的動力學模型和動力學數據庫的一些詳細信息，該模型和數據庫目前由近 200 萬個參數組成。根據產生的定序資料持續訓練動力學模型的能力代表了一個重要的機會，可以從我們的下一代蛋白質定序技術中獲得更深入的見解，進一步建立在我們期望繼續對定序化學的改進基礎上。

Turning now to our version 3 kit, our product development team is fully engaged in this program, and we expect to deliver this updated kit to our customers by the end of Q3 2024 as previously communicated. It is still too early to discuss full details of this latest kit update, but current development results are promising. And we are expecting a very meaningful performance improvement over the version 2 kit.

現在轉向我們的版本 3 套件，我們的產品開發團隊正在全力參與該計劃，我們預計將按照先前的溝通，在 2024 年第三季末之前向我們的客戶交付此更新的套件。現在討論這個最新套件更新的完整細節還為時過早，但目前的開發結果是有希望的。我們預計版本 2 套件的效能將會得到非常有意義的改進。

The level of innovation happening every day across our R&D teams is exciting to get to see. Equally important to our long-term success is the significant strides we have made in terms of project planning and execution. Delivering products our customers can use every day is the goal of our innovation pipeline, whether that be a new sequencing kit, new software, or a new instrument.

我們的研發團隊每天的創新水準令人興奮。對於我們的長期成功同樣重要的是我們在專案規劃和執行方面取得的重大進步。提供客戶每天可以使用的產品是我們創新管道的目標，無論是新的定序套件、新軟體或新儀器。

Looking back at the version 2 kit project and now more recently the version 3 kit project, it is impressive to see our R&D team build plans and execute them in such close alignment with the targets set out at the start of the programs.

回顧第 2 版套件項目以及最近的第 3 版套件項目，我們的研發團隊制定計劃並按照項目開始時設定的目標如此緊密地執行它們，令人印象深刻。

It is this level of planning and execution rigor that is critical to reliably delivering on a continuous flow of new products to customers. I'm confident we have that foundation in place and I'm personally grateful for the work our R&D teams are doing every day to advance the field of proteomics with next-generation protein sequencing.

正是這種嚴格的規劃和執行水準對於向客戶可靠地持續交付新產品至關重要。我相信我們已經具備了這樣的基礎，我個人非常感謝我們的研發團隊每天為透過下一代蛋白質定序推進蛋白質體學領域所做的工作。

Finally, we attended the US Human Proteome Organization Conference in March, where a Quantum-Si customer gave an oral presentation regarding their use of Platinum for PTM detection, and a second customer presented a poster describing their use of Platinum to develop alternative library prep applications for next-generation protein sequencing.

最後，我們參加了3 月的美國人類蛋白質組組織會議，其中一位Quantum-Si 客戶就他們使用Platinum 進行PTM 檢測進行了口頭演示，第二位客戶則展示了一張海報，描述了他們使用Platinum開發替代文庫製備應用的情況用於下一代蛋白質定序。

Furthermore, in late February, Dr. Chris Mason presented a webinar about using next-generation protein sequencing to characterize extremophiles, a historically difficult and understudied set of organisms that naturally exist in nature and are of interest in various industrial applications. We expect that customers will continue to present their work at industry conferences throughout 2024, further increasing awareness of the benefits of Platinum.

此外，2 月下旬，Chris Mason 博士舉辦了一場網路研討會，內容涉及使用下一代蛋白質定序來表徵嗜極微生物，這是一組歷史上很難且未被充分研究的生物體，它們自然存在於自然界中，並在各種工業應用中受到關注。我們預計客戶將在 2024 年繼續在行業會議上展示他們的工作，進一步提高對白金優勢的認識。

Our third priority is to preserve financial strength. As we state on each of our calls, we remain committed to continuously improving our fiscal discipline. Now that we have the first quarter of activity completed, the results are becoming clear. We have reduced our overall spend year over year while improving our ability to deliver new products to the market, all while funding our commercial operations ramp up.

我們的第三個優先事項是保持財務實力。正如我們在每次呼籲中所聲明的那樣，我們仍然致力於不斷改進我們的財務紀律。現在我們已經完成了第一季的活動，結果正在變得清晰。我們逐年減少了整體支出，同時提高了向市場提供新產品的能力，同時為我們的商業營運提供了資金支持。

Jeff will go into more details on this, but we believe these results are excellent, and it shows how focused we are on utilizing our capital in the most effective way. We are confident that we are appropriately balancing the need to preserve capital with our goal to maximize commercial adoption of Platinum and deliver a steady cadence of new products to customers. Delivering on these two goals represents a significant strategic advantage that will be the foundation of our growth for years to come.

傑夫將對此進行更多詳細介紹，但我們相信這些結果非常出色，它表明我們非常注重以最有效的方式利用我們的資本。我們相信，我們能夠在保護資本的需求與最大限度地提高白金的商業採用率和向客戶提供穩定的新產品的目標之間取得適當的平衡。實現這兩個目標代表著重大的策略優勢，這將成為我們未來幾年成長的基礎。

I will now turn the call over to Jeff Keyes to review our financial results. Jeff?

我現在將把電話轉給傑夫凱斯，以審查我們的財務表現。傑夫？

Thank you, Jeff. Now, let's discuss the details of our first quarter of 2024 financial results. Revenue in the first quarter of 2024 was $457,000, which consisted of revenue from our Platinum instrument, consumable kits, and related services. Gross profit was $269,000, and gross margin was 59%.

謝謝你，傑夫。現在，讓我們討論 2024 年第一季財務業績的詳細資訊。2024 年第一季的收入為 457,000 美元，其中包括來自我們的白金儀器、耗材套件和相關服務的收入。毛利為269,000美元，毛利率為59%。

As I have stated before, our gross margin percentage will be somewhat variable in the near future as we work through our initial stages of commercialization and will also be impacted by the timing and mix to instruments versus consumable sales. Our margin will also be impacted in the near term by acquisition costs and any accounting adjustments to underlying inventory that dates back to the pre-commercial stage of Quantum-Si.

正如我之前所說，隨著我們進入商業化的初始階段，我們的毛利率在不久的將來將會有所變化，並且也會受到儀器與消耗品銷售的時機和組合的影響。我們的利潤率在短期內也將受到收購成本以及可追溯到量子矽預商業階段的基礎庫存的任何會計調整的影響。

As we are still working through these items, we have not provided a margin percentage guidance for 2024, but what I can say is the margin mix for the first quarter of 2024 includes approximately a 10% benefit for inventory utilized in the first quarter that were carried at lower or no value that dates back to prior to our initial commercialization. We expect more of these variances that will work through into our margin over the course of the year, both positive and negative, and I will point them out as these things evolve.

由於我們仍在研究這些項目，因此我們尚未提供 2024 年的利潤率指導，但我可以說的是 2024 年第一季的利潤率組合包括第一季度使用的庫存的約 10% 的收益，在我們在最初商業化之前，其價值較低或沒有價值。我們預計更多的這些差異將在這一年中影響到我們的利潤率，無論是積極的還是消極的，隨著這些事情的發展，我將指出它們。

GAAP total operating expenses in the first quarter of 2024 were $23.6 million compared to $29.3 million in the first quarter of 2023, while adjusted operating expenses were $21.9 million for the first quarter of 2024 compared to $24.6 million for the first quarter of 2023.

2024 年第一季的GAAP 總營運費用為2,360 萬美元，而2023 年第一季為2,930 萬美元，而2024 年第一季調整後的營運費用為2,190 萬美元，而2023 年第一季為2,460萬美元。

As we alluded to in our press release today, the year-over-year reduction in operating expenses was the result of several initiatives we put in place in 2023 to maximize our capital efficiency, including our R&D realignment efforts, while at the same time delivering a steady cadence of R&D enhancements to our customers.

正如我們在今天的新聞稿中提到的，營運費用的同比減少是我們在 2023 年為最大限度提高資本效率而採取的多項舉措的結果，包括我們的研發調整工作，同時提供為我們的客戶提供穩定的研發改進。

Specifically, this has resulted in lower spend in R&D by $6.1 million and effectively swapping G&A dollars to fund commercial operations, increasing overall SG&A by only $350,000. Net loss for the first quarter of 2024 was $19.5 million. compared to $23.6 million in the first quarter of 2023, a decrease of $4.1 million.

具體來說，這導致研發支出減少了 610 萬美元，並有效地將一般管理費用 (G&A) 資金用於商業運營，整體管理費用 (SG&A) 僅增加了 35 萬美元。2024 年第一季淨虧損為 1,950 萬美元。與 2023 年第一季的 2,360 萬美元相比，減少了 410 萬美元。

The decrease in net loss is primarily related to the operating expense reduction previously discussed, partially offset by changes in dividend income and unrealized gains on marginal securities.

淨虧損的減少主要與先前討論的營運費用減少有關，部分被股息收入和邊際證券未實現收益的變化所抵消。

Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2024 was negative $20.5 million. compared to negative $23.7 million in the first quarter of 2023, an improvement of $3.2 million. This improvement was primarily related to the aforementioned reduction in operating expenses, primarily in R&D-related costs.

2024 年第一季調整後 EBITDA 為負 2,050 萬美元。與 2023 年第一季的負 2,370 萬美元相比，增加了 320 萬美元。這項改善主要與上述營運費用（主要是研發相關成本）的減少有關。

Near the end of 2023, we made some structural changes to our investment holdings makeup to maximize yield while minimizing risk. These changes, along with the impact of rate increases, produced dividend and interest income of $3.6 million in the first quarter of 2024 compared to $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of $1.4 million.

在 2023 年底，我們對投資控股的組成進行了一些結構性調整，以最大限度地提高收益，同時最大限度地降低風險。這些變化加上升息的影響，2024 年第一季的股息和利息收入為 360 萬美元，而 2023 年第一季為 220 萬美元，增加了 140 萬美元。

As of March 31, 2024, we had $235.4 million in cash and cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities. We are also reaffirming our 2024 financial guidance, which includes revenues to range between $3.7 million and $4.2 million, adjusted operating expenses to be less than $103 million, and net cash usage less than $100 million. Finally, we still expect that our existing cash and cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities will provide runway into 2026.

截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日，我們擁有 2.354 億美元的現金和現金等價物以及有價證券投資。我們也重申了 2024 年的財務指導，其中包括收入在 370 萬美元至 420 萬美元之間，調整後的營運費用低於 1.03 億美元，淨現金使用量低於 1 億美元。最後，我們仍然預計現有的現金和現金等價物以及有價證券投資將為 2026 年提供支撐。

Now I will turn the call over to the operator to open the line for questions.

現在我將把電話轉給接線員以打開提問線路。

(Operator Instructions) Swayampakula Ramakanth, HCW.

（操作員說明）Swayampakula Ramakanth，HCW。

Thank you. This is RK from H.C. Wainwright. Good afternoon, Jeff and Jeff. I hope you folks are doing good. It looks like it was a great quarter. There was a lot of progress on all fronts, which is excellent to hear.

謝謝。我是 H.C. 的 RK。溫賴特。下午好，傑夫和傑夫。我希望你們一切都好。看起來這是一個很棒的季度。各方面都取得了很大進展，這真是太好了。

So starting off from the top line, in terms of the commercial launch, I know you said you did the full launch only in late quarter, but I'm just trying to understand how are you seeing the launch progress since then -- since the end of March to now. It's also good to see that you're holding to your full-year guidance on the revenue side. So if you can kind of give us a little bit of color as to what gives you the confidence that you would reach that guidance level.

因此，從最重要的方面開始，就商業發布而言，我知道您說過您只在季度末才進行了全面發布，但我只是想了解您如何看待自那時以來的發布進度 - 自從三月底至今。很高興看到您堅持全年收入指引。因此，如果您能給我們一些訊息，說明是什麼讓您有信心達到該指導水平。

Yes, thanks for that question, RK. I think the first part of that is you are correct. The full commercial launch started right at the tail end of March 2024. So we're in the early innings of that. As we had talked about on our last call and mentioned here today, we had a series of new sales reps and distribution partners that were trained in the first quarter. So those folks are coming up to speed. We're satisfied with the rate of that coming up to speed.

是的，謝謝你提出這個問題，RK。我認為第一部分是你是對的。全面的商業發佈於 2024 年 3 月底開始。所以我們正處於早期階段。正如我們在上次電話會議中談到的以及今天在這裡提到的，我們有一系列新的銷售代表和分銷合作夥伴在第一季接受了培訓。所以這些人正在加快腳步。我們對進展速度感到滿意。

But given many of them are in their first three or four months with the company, we do view Q2 as sort of a more modest step up from Q1 in terms of the revenue. And then really with those folks fully in and executing the back half of the year, then able to accelerate more. And in total, that general shape of the curve gives us confidence we'll be where we need to be in terms of delivering on our revenue, a guidance of $3.7 million to $4.2 million.

但考慮到他們中的許多人都剛在公司工作三、四個月，我們確實認為第二季的收入比第一季略有提升。然後，真正讓這些人在下半年全力投入並執行，然後能夠加速更多。總的來說，曲線的整體形狀讓我們有信心實現收入目標，即 370 萬至 420 萬美元。

The other thing I'd add, RK, that's relevant to that is we will look at options to scale up the commercial team as we go throughout the year. And we'll do that more based on some of those early signs we see here throughout Q2 and into Q3 in the beginning of this full commercial launch.

我要補充的另一件事是，RK，與此相關的是，我們將在全年中考慮擴大商業團隊規模的選項。我們將更多地根據我們在第二季和第三季全面商業發布之初看到的一些早期跡象來做到這一點。

Perfect. And then just in terms of the segments where you're selling in the press release and also in the prepared remarks, you talked about government and industry being also the areas where you're selling. So when you say government, are we talking about government labs, or is it some sort of regulatory institutions that we are talking about? I'm just trying to get a feel for it. And how easy was it to penetrate that segment in itself?

完美的。然後，就您在新聞稿和準備好的發言中所銷售的細分市場而言，您談到政府和行業也是您所銷售的領域。那麼，當你說政府時，我們是在談論政府實驗室，還是我們在談論某種監管機構？我只是想感受一下。滲透該細分市場本身有多容易？

And in terms of pharmaceutical industry, is this something of a one-off? Because I know you are putting in a lot of focus on the academic labs. So I'm just trying to understand, how should we think about this? Or should we wait to get overly excited and get you guys into trouble?

對於醫藥產業來說，這是一次性的嗎？因為我知道您非常關注學術實驗室。所以我只是想了解，我們該如何思考這個問題？或者我們應該等到太興奮而給你們帶來麻煩？

Yes, it's probably too early to get overly excited. We certainly are optimistic about the long-term potential in these segments. So I think if I unpack your question into a couple parts, so when we say government accounts, what we mean by that are labs that are being run by government entities. We don't mean regulatory agencies. So that could be various branches of the military. It could be national labs. It could be other facilities like that. But they are -- they fit into that mold of a government-funded and a government-run entity.

是的，現在過度興奮可能還為時過早。我們當然對這些領域的長期潛力感到樂觀。所以我想如果我把你的問題分解成幾個部分，那麼當我們說政府帳戶時，我們的意思是由政府實體運營的實驗室。我們指的不是監管機構。所以這可能是軍隊的各部門。它可能是國家實驗室。也可能是其他類似的設施。但它們確實符合政府資助和政府運作的實體模式。

To answer your question on how hard is it to penetrate, I think the way I would characterize it, RK, is similar to pharma and biotech. We talked in the very early days of our controlled launch that academic was going to be the primary focus, because that's where you had some of the KOLs and those real innovators who would adopt technology and really work with you to see what it was capable of and how they could apply it.

為了回答你關於滲透有多難的問題，我認為我對它的描述方式，RK，類似於製藥和生物技術。我們在受控發布的早期就談到，學術將成為主要關注點，因為在那裡你有一些 KOL 和那些真正的創新者，他們會採用技術並真正與你合作，看看它的能力。如何應用它。

But at that same time, we were beginning that process of building relationships and momentum in these other segments. At the end of the day, they just take a bit longer to get that initial traction. We mentioned a little bit in our remarks that some customer segments will want to do a hands-on evaluation. I would say that that's reasonably common in the pharma biotech segment.

但同時，我們開始在其他領域建立關係和勢頭。歸根結底，他們只是需要更長的時間才能獲得最初的吸引力。我們在評論中提到，有些客戶群希望進行實際評估。我想說這在製藥生物技術領域相當普遍。

So while it's a bit of a longer sales cycle than, say, an academic lab, we're definitely pleased to have gotten these first two. And we don't believe that this is a one-off. This is not going to be sort of the only pharma customer that we have. But I think there's a time scale to penetrate, and then there'll be a time scale also to those customers ramping up to apply the technology in more areas over time.

因此，雖然它的銷售週期比學術實驗室等要長一些，但我們絕對很高興獲得前兩個。我們不相信這是一次性的。這不會是我們唯一的製藥客戶。但我認為滲透需要一個時間尺度，隨著時間的推移，這些客戶也會有一個時間尺度在更多領域應用這項技術。

So I think it's sort of a two-stage adoption. Get in the door and get the first instrument sold, and then work with them to scale the number of applications they run. But we're feeling very good about where we are. I think we've really learned what matters and what they're interested in doing, and we're now trying to replicate that success in other accounts and continue to build the momentum and diversify our segment reach.

所以我認為這是一個兩階段的採用。上門銷售第一台儀器，然後與他們合作擴大他們運行的應用程式數量。但我們對自己所處的位置感覺非常好。我認為我們已經真正了解了什麼是重要的以及他們有興趣做什麼，我們現在正在嘗試在其他客戶中複製這種成功，並繼續建立勢頭並使我們的細分市場多元化。

Perfect. One last question from me. On the presentations that -- I believe it's Human Proteome Conference. What was the kind of feedback, not only from what was being presented there, but also in terms of getting additional leads and people getting excited and your phone's going off the hook.

完美的。我的最後一個問題。關於演講——我相信這是人類蛋白質體會議。什麼樣的回饋，不僅來自那裡所呈現的內容，而且還包括獲得更多線索、人們變得興奮以及你的手機沒電了。

Yes, it's a good question. I think the feedback consistently is positive. I think, obviously, when customers begin talking about the technology, there's always an added benefit of peers who are -- peer to peer, right? The customer talking about their experience resonates with another customer. So I think that's a net positive.

是的，這是一個好問題。我認為反饋始終是正面的。我認為，顯然，當客戶開始談論這項技術時，同行總是會帶來額外的好處——點對點，對嗎？客戶談論他們的經歷會引起另一位客戶的共鳴。所以我認為這是一個淨積極的結果。

We're still so early in our commercial phase as a company. We're not a big multi-billion-dollar entity that has been in business for decades where you just have a natural name brand recognition. So I think trade shows for us, those conferences, the presentations, webinars that our customers present on, all of these marketing activities or events are still very high value for us.

作為一家公司，我們仍處於商業階段的早期階段。我們不是營業數十年、價值數十億美元的大型實體，只是擁有自然的品牌知名度。因此，我認為對我們來說，貿易展覽、客戶參加的會議、演示、網路研討會以及所有這些行銷活動或活動對我們來說仍然具有很高的價值。

We get we get to meet a lot of people in face to face. We're able to generate leads and find people who are interested in learning more, perhaps demoing the technology. So I think for the foreseeable future, trade shows, webinars, these various tools that we're sharing with you, that we're doing will continue to be very fruitful in terms of our ability to meet new people, find new opportunities, and pursue those towards placements and utilization.

我們可以面對面地見到很多人。我們能夠產生潛在客戶並找到有興趣了解更多資訊（也許是演示技術）的人。因此，我認為在可預見的未來，貿易展覽、網路研討會以及我們正在與您分享的各種工具將繼續在我們結識新朋友、尋找新機會和追求這些目標以實現安置和利用。

Perfect. Thank you very much for taking all my questions.

完美的。非常感謝您回答我所有的問題。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Kyle Mikson, Canaccord Genuity.

凱爾米克森，Canaccord Genuity。

Hey, guys. Thanks for the questions. Congrats on the quarter. So Jeff, can you kind of walk through or maybe like parse out the components of product revenue. At this point, it's been a year or so since the soft launch was commenced. Maybe you have some sense of instruments and consumable mix and pull-through things like that.

大家好。感謝您的提問。恭喜本季。傑夫，你能介紹一下或解析一下產品收入的組成部分嗎？到目前為止，距離軟啟動已經過了一年左右的時間。也許你對儀器和消耗品的混合以及諸如此類的事情有一定的了解。

And then if you could, I mean, the service revenue really increased a ton. I mean, possibly, you went through that already, but could you just talk about some of the dynamics here that we're seeing with the certain product-level segments and stuff in services? Thanks.

然後，如果可以的話，我的意思是，服務收入確實增加了很多。我的意思是，您可能已經經歷過這一點，但是您能否談談我們在某些​​產品級細分市場和服務中看到的一些動態？謝謝。

Yes, I'll start and talk a little bit about the services. And then perhaps, Jeff, you can pick it up and talk about overall revenue and the mix to the extent we break that out. I think on the services front, Kyle, it's a mix of a couple different things in there.

是的，我將首先談論服務。然後，傑夫，也許你可以拿起它並討論總體收入和組合，直到我們打破這一點。我認為在服務方面，凱爾，它是幾種不同事物的混合體。

Obviously, we placed some instruments throughout 2023, and some of those instruments are now coming off of their initial warranty and moving into service contracts. So that is one source of service revenue that comes through.

顯然，我們在 2023 年放置了一些儀器，其中一些儀器現已結束其初始保固並轉入服務合約。因此，這是服務收入的來源之一。

The other source of service revenue is some of our customers are electing to engage us in more of an advanced training to really come in and train a large number of operators across their laboratory and give them sort of deeper hands-on training and interactions. Then maybe they can get on their own by setting the machine up.

服務收入的另一個來源是我們的一些客戶選擇讓我們參加更多的高級培訓，以便真正參與並培訓他們實驗室中的大量操作員，並為他們提供更深入的實踐培訓和互動。然後也許他們可以透過設定機器來自己完成。

So there's a cost associated with that advanced training. It's not a significantly large number, but when multiple customers choose to take on that advanced training, it can certainly add to that services line. So those advanced trainings and service contracts are the two primary drivers there on the services line. Jeff Keyes, how about you go into the rest of it?

因此，高級培訓是有成本的。雖然這個數字並不是很大，但是當多個客戶選擇接受高級培訓時，它肯定可以增加該服務線。因此，這些高級培訓和服務合約是服務線上的兩個主要驅動力。傑夫凱斯（Jeff Keyes），你能談談剩下的部分嗎？

Yes. Kyle, on mix, we don't break that out in our financials. But what I can say is that it's primarily driven by instruments as you would expect in early commercial days for the company. We're focused on instrument placements and also pull through for sure. But it's really about instrument placements and getting those out in the field. So our general mix is high percentage on instrument placements.

是的。凱爾，關於混合，我們不會在財務數據中對此進行詳細說明。但我可以說的是，它主要是由工具驅動的，正如您在公司商業早期所期望的那樣。我們專注於樂器的放置，並且肯定會成功。但這實際上是關於儀器的放置以及將它們帶到現場。因此，我們的整體組合在樂器放置上所佔的比例很高。

And then on pull through from a kit's standpoint, we're still watching that as we go through the commercialization phase. I mean, we have an evolution of what we think that the consumable pull through will be long term. And there's going to be a little difference between the academic labs and the commercial customers, biopharma and pharma, that we're going to watch closely as we go through this ramp process. And then we can provide potentially more information in the future.

然後從套件的角度來看，我們仍在觀察商業化階段的情況。我的意思是，我們認為消費品的發展將是長期的，我們已經有了一個演變。學術實驗室和商業客戶、生物製藥和製藥之間會有一些差異，我們將在經歷這個斜坡過程時密切關注。然後我們將來可以提供更多資訊。

Okay. That was great, guys. Thanks so much. And then going back to Jeff Hawkins, all these versions, these new version kits, I guess 3 is coming out pretty soon. When we think about which kits or consumables are kind of ready for primetime, was the version 2 sort of the -- you consider that to be the legitimate first product for the company, and then these incremental versions are iterations upon that?

好的。太棒了，夥計們。非常感謝。然後回到 Jeff Hawkins，所有這些版本，這些新版本套件，我想 3 很快就會推出。當我們考慮哪些套件或消耗品已為黃金時段做好準備時，版本 2 是否屬於 - 您認為這是公司合法的第一個產品，然後這些增量版本是在此基礎上的迭代？

Or when do we see an inflection in terms of what a customer can really do with Platinum and in terms of capabilities and this robustness of what you can get to do with sequencing peptides?

或者我們什麼時候會看到客戶真正可以用 Platinum 做什麼以及測序勝肽的功能和穩健性方面發生變化？

Sure, yes. So I would tell you that the version 2 kit really did represent a pretty significant increase in terms of both the output, how much sequencing information a customer could get from their sample but also a very meaningful improvement in the reproducibility of those sequencing results, right? The ability to put a sample in and run it across multiple chips or multiple days and get a very reproducible set of results.

當然，是的。因此，我想告訴您，第2 版試劑盒確實在輸出、客戶可以從樣品中獲得多少測序資訊方面確實代表了相當顯著的增加，而且在這些測序結果的可重複性方面也有非常有意義的改進，對吧？能夠將樣品放入多個晶片或幾天內運行並獲得一組非常可重複的結果。

So I think that version 2 kit was that first big step up in improvement over the initial version 1 kit. I think the way I would think about version 3 is I wouldn't view it as incremental in terms of it's going to be a very modest improvement.

因此，我認為第 2 版套件是對最初第 1 版套件的改進的第一個重大進步。我認為我對版本 3 的看法是，我不會將其視為增量，因為它將是一個非常適度的改進。

I still think we are in a stage of our innovation that we're really seeing great inflection points in terms of the technology evolution, the output, the coverage and our performance, broader sample type compatibility, various things improving each time we rev it.

我仍然認為我們正處於創新階段，我們確實在技術演變、輸出、覆蓋範圍和性能、更廣泛的樣本類型兼容性、每次改進時的各種改進方面看到了巨大的拐點。

So I think, in general, when we version the kit, Kyle, we're versioning it when we think the totality of the improvements made is a very meaningful increase in performance such that customers will be able to do things they haven't been doing before. And then on a future version 4 kit, it would be something similar.

所以我認為，總的來說，當我們對套件進行版本控制時，Kyle，當我們認為所做的改進的總體效果是非常有意義的性能提升時，我們就會對其進行版本控制，這樣客戶將能夠做他們從未做過的事情之前所做的。在未來的版本 4 套件中，也會有類似的情況。

We don't really intend at this point to do very small iterative changes that might be seen as like a 2.5 or something. So really think of these changes, V2 to V3 and so on, as really unlocking more and more capabilities and application space for customers.

我們目前並不打算進行非常小的迭代更改，這些更改可能會被視為 2.5 或其他版本。因此，真正考慮這些變化，從 V2 到 V3 等等，真正為客戶釋放越來越多的功能和應用空間。

Okay, that was perfect. Let me ask another one before I hop off. On the platinum analysis software, that was an interesting launch. Jeff, just given your background experience, I'm curious where that kind of stands in the world of the software ecosystem when you think about life science tools research in the research world. You think about DRAGEN or the BaseSpace, things like that, secondary analysis, tertiary analysis.

好吧，那太完美了。在我下車之前讓我再問一個。在鉑金分析軟體方面，這是一個有趣的發布。傑夫，根據您的背景經驗，我很好奇當您考慮研究領域的生命科學工具研究時，這種情況在軟體生態系統的世界中處於什麼位置。你會想到 DRAGEN 或 BaseSpace 之類的東西，二級分析，三級分析。

Given that you're dealing with proteomic information, which is super complex, just coming from mass spec, I mean, that's definitely pretty complicated. What's the future of the -- I guess, two questions. Why was this such a bottleneck or an unmet need for customers like the software? And then number two, what's the future of monetizing data from the platform over time?

鑑於您正在處理非常複雜的蛋白質組信息，僅來自質譜，我的意思是，這絕對非常複雜。我猜，未來會怎樣，有兩個問題。為什麼這對像軟體這樣的客戶來說是一個瓶頸或未滿足的需求？第二，隨著時間的推移，透過平台數據貨幣化的未來是什麼？

Sure, yes, good question. I think, obviously, in the proteomic space, software or analysis of data has always been a very challenging thing. I think if you go into a large proteomics core lab that's running mass spec, they'll often have some number of bioinformatics staff or data science type of staff that has created custom pipelines or analysis tools that make it easier for them to analyze data as it comes off of the mass spec.

當然，是的，好問題。我認為，顯然，在蛋白質體學領域，軟體或數據分析一直是一件非常具有挑戰性的事情。我認為，如果你進入一個運行質譜的大型蛋白質組學核心實驗室，他們通常會有一些生物資訊學人員或數據科學類型的人員，他們創建了自訂管道或分析工具，使他們更容易分析數據它來自質譜。

That's great when you're in the types of institutions that have those resources and capabilities. But that's not the majority of research labs in the world, right? That's a small number of labs that have that level of sophistication. So I think automating of data analysis was always sort of a core tenet of the strategy to ensure that over time, we could distribute this technology as broadly as possible.

當您所在的機構擁有這些資源和能力時，這非常棒。但這並不是世界上大多數研究實驗室，對嗎？具有這種複雜程度的實驗室數量很少。因此，我認為數據分析自動化始終是該策略的核心原則，以確保隨著時間的推移，我們可以盡可能廣泛地分發這項技術。

Now flipping more to the question of sort of what is the future, I think that software launch, Kyle, the way I would think about it is there is the core analysis software, right? There's this -- as we talked about, there's a kinetic model and a kinetic database that underpins the general detection and calling of amino acids and alignment of peptides, and then ultimately protein and identification if that's the type of work you're doing.

現在更多地轉向未來是什麼的問題，我認為軟體的發布，凱爾，我思考它的方式是有核心分析軟體，對吧？正如我們所討論的，有一個動力學模型和一個動力學資料庫，它支援氨基酸的一般檢測和調用以及勝肽的比對，然後最終是蛋白質和識別（如果這就是您正在做的工作類型）。

So some of these are going to just be improvements we make to keep making those databases more and more accurate, more and more capable. Seeing real-world sequencing data is a very powerful source of data to be able to fine-tune those. But then other aspects are more about purpose-built tools. And I think that's maybe where the analogy starts to align a little bit closer with some of the analogs you're giving from the DNA world, DRAGEN or a BaseSpace.

因此，其中一些只是我們所做的改進，以不斷使這些資料庫變得越來越準確、越來越強大。查看真實世界的定序資料是一個非常強大的資料來源，可以對這些資料進行微調。但其他方面更多的是關於專用工具。我認為這可能是類比開始與您從 DNA 世界、DRAGEN 或 BaseSpace 中給出的一些類比更加接近的地方。

I think you'll see us think about the problem in a similar way and that there will be core tools that exist that get used on every run, and we'll seek to continue to improve those tools and make them more accurate and make them able to detect events we haven't been able to detect before.

我想你會看到我們以類似的方式思考這個問題，並且會存在每次運行時都會使用的核心工具，我們將尋求繼續改進這些工具，使它們更加準確，並使它們更加準確。我們以前無法偵測到的事件。

But I think you'll also see us think about customized workflows that maybe help do a very specific type of analysis the customers are looking to do in a very purpose-built way and perhaps be very tuned and tailored for that rather than using a more -- the more generic or general software tool.

但我認為您還會看到我們考慮定制工作流程，這些工作流程可能有助於以專門的方式進行客戶希望進行的非常特定類型的分析，並且可能會為此進行非常調整和定制，而不是使用更多－更通用或通用的軟體工具。

So I think you'll see us do a little bit of both. It's a tremendous opportunity to expand the technology capability and application space and improve the customer's ability to really apply the tech. And it can be done on its own cycle, almost independent of the cycles we are operating here to make new sequencing kits like the version 3 kit.

所以我想你會看到我們兩者兼而有之。這是拓展技術能力和應用空間、提高客戶真正應用技術的能力的巨大機會。它可以在自己的週期中完成​​，幾乎獨立於我們在這裡操作的用於製作新定序試劑盒（如版本 3 試劑盒）的週期。

Okay. That's great, Jeff. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

好的。太好了，傑夫。非常感謝。欣賞它。

You're welcome.

不客氣。

This concludes our question-and-answer period. I would now like to turn it back over to Jeff Hawkins for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我現在想把它轉回給傑夫霍金斯做總結發言。

Thank you, everyone, for attending today. We believe the progress we've made during the first quarter was outstanding. We are excited to be executing on our full commercial launch, and we remain on track for our version 3 sequencing kit delivery by the end of Q3 2024. We look forward to providing an update on our next call. Thank you.

謝謝大家今天出席。我們相信第一季的進展非常出色。我們很高興能夠執行全面的商業發布，並且我們仍有望在 2024 年第三季末交付第 3 版定序套件。我們期待在下次通話中提供最新資訊。謝謝。

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

感謝您參加今天的會議。這確實結束了該程式。您現在可以斷開連線。