Energous Corp (WATT) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Energous Corporation full year 2023 financial results. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to Craig MacPhail, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎來到 Energous Corporation 2023 年全年財務業績。（操作員指示）我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係部門的 Craig MacPhail。請繼續。

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. Before we begin, I would like to remind participants that during today's call, the company will make forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that are detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as otherwise required by federal laws, Energous disclaims any obligation or undertaking to publicly release updates or revisions to the forward-looking statements contained herein or elsewhere to reflect changes in expectations with regard to those events, conditions and circumstances.

謝謝大家，也歡迎大家。在開始之前，我想提醒與會者，在今天的電話會議中，該公司將做出前瞻性聲明。這些陳述受到固有風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性在公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中詳細說明。除非聯邦法律另有要求，Energous 不承擔任何義務或承諾公開發布本文或其他地方所包含的前瞻性陳述的更新或修訂，以反映對這些事件、條件和情況的預期變化。

Also, please note that during this call, Energous will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press release, which is posted on the company's website.

另請注意，在本次電話會議中，Energous 將討論 SEC G 條例所定義的非 GAAP 財務指標。公司網站上。

Please note that we will not be making -- taking questions on this call. Investors are invited to submit any questions to ir@energous.com.

請注意，我們不會在本次電話會議上回答問題。歡迎投資者將任何問題提交至 ir@energous.com。

Now, I would like to turn the call over to Mallorie Burak, Principal Executive Officer and CFO of Energous Corporation, Please go ahead, Mallorie.

現在，我想將電話轉給 Energous Corporation 執行長兼財務長 Mallorie Burak，請繼續，Mallorie。

Thanks, Craig, and thank you all for joining us. I'm here with Giampaolo Marino, our Vice President and -- of Business Development and Marketing. I know our recent leadership change announcement is on your minds and I will say a few words about that before we get into the business update and review of the 2023 results.

謝謝克雷格，也謝謝大家加入我們。我和我們業務開發和行銷副總裁詹保羅·馬裡諾 (Giampaolo Marino) 一起來到這裡。我知道你們關心我們最近宣布的領導層變動，在我們進入業務更新和 2023 年業績回顧之前，我會就此說幾句話。

I want to start by reiterating that we are thankful to Cesar for his contributions to Energous, and we wish him well in the future. Our Board has initiated a search to identify a new CEO with the support of a search firm. While the search process is underway, the Board has established an office of the Chair composed of myself and Reynette, our Board Chair, to take on the CEO duties.

首先我想重申，我們感謝 Cesar 對 Energous 所做的貢獻，並祝他未來一切順利。我們的董事會已在一家獵人頭公司的支持下開始物色新執行長。在搜尋過程進行期間，董事會設立了一個由我本人和董事會主席 Reynette 組成的主席辦公室，以承擔執行長的職責。

Together, we will oversee strategic planning and execution. As our Interim Principal Executive Officer, I will take the lead on operational matters working closely with Giampaolo and our senior leaders. Reynette will provide oversight and support from a Board perspective.

我們將共同監督策略規劃和執行。作為我們的臨時首席執行官，我將與 Giampaolo 和我們的高級領導密切合作，領導營運事務。Reynette 將從董事會的角度提供監督和支持。

While I have been in my role as CFO of Energous for just a few months, I bring many years of experiences as CFO of high growth and publicly traded technology companies. Since joining in January, I've had the opportunity to collaborate closely with our Board and senior team, and I'm confident in our ability to continue to deliver on our mission and take advantage of the large market opportunities for us in wire-free, low-power charging at a distance.

雖然我擔任 Energous 財務長的時間只有幾個月，但我擁有多年在高成長和上市技術公司擔任財務長的經驗。自從一月加入以來，我有機會與我們的董事會和高級團隊密切合作，我對我們有能力繼續履行我們的使命並利用無線領域的巨大市場機會充滿信心，遠距離低功率充電。

We believe the important thing to take away from this announcement is that our Board, our leadership team, and our -- and the whole Energous team are excited to move forward and build our next phase of growth in a strategic deliberate way.

我們相信，從這項公告中我們可以了解到的重要一點是，我們的董事會、我們的領導團隊、我們的以及整個Energous 團隊都非常興奮地以戰略性、深思熟慮的方式繼續前進並構建我們下一階段的成長。

We are intently focused on capitalizing on our first-to-market advantage and prioritizing protection of our intellectual property portfolio while also improving operational efficiencies as we work toward enabling the next generation of wireless power networks.

我們專注於利用我們的率先進入市場的優勢，優先保護我們的智慧財產權組合，同時在努力實現下一代無線充電網路的同時提高營運效率。

And with that, I will turn it over to Giampaolo to provide the business update.

然後，我會將其轉交給 Giampaolo，以提供業務更新資訊。

Thank you, Mallorie. Energous continues to successfully execute its smart IoT centric strategy initiated in early 2022 when we reposition and retargeted the company to develop IoT power charging product at a distance using the intellectual property, regulatory knowledge, and market experience developed over the years and backed by our 200-plus patent portfolio, providing Energous with a significant competitive advantage as we work to develop and build end market for a new generation of technology.

謝謝你，馬洛里。Energous 繼續成功執行其於2022 年初啟動的以智慧物聯網為中心的策略，當時我們對公司進行了重新定位和重新定位，利用多年來開發的知識產權、監管知識和市場經驗，並得到我們200 名員工的支持，開發遠距離物聯網充電產品-加上專利組合，在我們致力於開發和建立新一代技術的終端市場時，為 Energous 提供了顯著的競爭優勢。

Our strategy has been focused on enabling new high-value IoT markets such as transportation and logistics and retail IoT with the introduction of Energous wireless power networks. These networks allow our customer greater placement freedom, mobility and lower installation costs by removing wires and batteries across RF Tags and sensor applications, typically within a cloud enabled environment.

我們的策略重點是透過引進Energous無線充電網路來實現新的高價值物聯網市場，例如運輸和物流以及零售物聯網。這些網路透過消除射頻標籤和感測器應用中的電線和電池（通常在雲端支援的環境中），為我們的客戶提供更大的放置自由度、移動性和更低的安裝成本。

As is common when adopting a new technology our customer initiated wireless power network technology evaluation and then a proof-of-concept installation, or we typically call POC. This engagement not only allowed business to understand and test the application of the technology to their specific use cases, but also one seeing it deployed in validating the effectiveness of the technology often time leads to discussion about expansion opportunities and additional application within the large companies with whom we are currently working.

正如採用新技術時常見的那樣，我們的客戶啟動了無線充電網路技術評估，然後進行概念驗證安裝，或者我們通常稱之為 POC。這種參與不僅使企業能夠了解和測試該技術在其特定用例中的應用，而且看到該技術在驗證技術有效性時的部署，常常會導致大公司內關於擴展機會和其他應用程式的討論我們目前正在工作的人。

Understanding our Energous is progressing with its current customers and its addition of new strategic customers through these POC or trial installation phases is an important indicator of our global adoption of Energous technology and the timing of future revenue. This is why we believe that quarterly updates on the number of POC customers are an important part of our story and good indicator of our growth.

了解我們的 Energous 正在與現有客戶一起取得進展，並透過這些 POC 或試安裝階段增加新的策略客戶，這是我們在全球採用 Energous 技術和未來收入時機的重要指標。這就是為什麼我們相信 POC 客戶數量的季度更新是我們故事的重要組成部分，也是我們成長的良好指標。

Energous 1W PowerBridge we typically call Eagle is the only advance and regulatory certified product for wireless power network installation available on the market today worldwide. We will also be launching our new introduced 2W PowerBridge Condor product in early Q2.

我們通常稱之為 Eagle 的高能量 1W PowerBridge 是當今全球市場上唯一一款經過監管認證的無線充電網路安裝產品。我們也將在第二季初推出新推出的 2W PowerBridge Condor 產品。

At the end of Q3 2023, we announced roughly 30 POC trials with multiple customers worldwide across a range of industries. At the conclusion of 2023, customer interest in our product accelerated as the number of company in our focus market increasingly understand the value proposition of Energous wireless power network, which are designed to help business team implement more cost effective solution that also serve to solve operational bottlenecks due to the high cost of service and maintenance by enabling battery-less BLE tags and center solution, and drive automation improvements, improve visibility and improve control throughout global supply chain where even incremental improvements can generate significant value.

截至 2023 年第三季末，我們宣布與全球多個產業的多個客戶進行約 30 項 POC 試驗。到2023 年底，隨著我們重點市場中的公司數量越來越多地了解Energous 無線充電網路的價值主張，客戶對我們產品的興趣加速增加，該網路旨在幫助業務團隊實施更具成本效益的解決方案，同時也有助於解決營運問題透過啟用無電池BLE 標籤和中心解決方案，解決因服務和維護成本高昂而造成的瓶頸，並推動自動化改進、提高可視性並改善整個全球供應鏈的控制，即使是漸進式改進也可以產生巨大的價值。

Through this engagement, we are also becoming highly efficient on IoT wireless power network installation as we gained significant experience and knowledge of the technology system capabilities and related markets. These capabilities enable Energous to provide our customer with insight and recommendation on best installation practices for our technology to yield best results.

透過這次合作，我們在技術系統功能和相關市場方面獲得了豐富的經驗和知識，在物聯網無線充電網路安裝方面也變得非常有效率。這些功能使 Energous 能夠為我們的客戶提供有關最佳安裝實務的見解和建議，使我們的技術產生最佳效果。

As such, we recently announced our partnership with the global installer, Velociti, as a preferred system integrator partner and worldwide value-added reseller for our technology. Velociti will deploy advanced enterprise technology solution to some of the largest brand in the world, provide expansion opportunity into new markets, application and customer for Energous wireless power technology across retail, healthcare, logistics, warehousing and more.

因此，我們最近宣布與全球安裝商 Velociti 建立合作夥伴關係，作為我們技術的首選系統整合商合作夥伴和全球增值經銷商。Velociti 將向全球一些最大的品牌部署先進的企業技術解決方案，為 Energous 無線充電技術在零售、醫療保健、物流、倉儲等領域的新市場、應用和客戶提供擴展機會。

Velociti has installed Energous wireless power technology, including 1W and 2W PowerBridges transmitter systems and also installed Wiliot's IoT Pixel Tags at its innovation lab in Riverside, Missouri, to showcase advanced use cases across multiple markets and applications.

Velociti 安裝了 Energous 無線電源技術，包括 1W 和 2W PowerBridges 發射器系統，還在密蘇裡州里弗賽德的創新實驗室安裝了 Wiliot 的物聯網像素標籤，以展示跨多個市場和應用的先進用例。

We continue to build momentum in our market and sales development since pivoting to an IoT strategy in 2022. We started with two POC in Q3 2022, we grew to 10, 14 and 20 from Q4 2022 through Q2 2023, respectively. As of Q4 2023, I'm pleased to report that we have 38 POC across the US, Europe and Asia across multiple market covering retail, industrial, logistic and supply chain applications. It is important to note that few of these POC are now successfully completed, and we are now moving into a deployment sale phase.

自 2022 年轉向物聯網策略以來，我們繼續在市場和銷售發展方面建立動力。我們從 2022 年第三季開始有兩個 POC，從 2022 年第四季到 2023 年第二季分別成長到 10、14 和 20 個。截至 2023 年第四季度，我很高興地報告，我們在美國、歐洲和亞洲擁有 38 個 POC，涵蓋零售、工業、物流和供應鏈應用等多個市場。值得注意的是，這些 POC 目前很少成功完成，我們現在正進入部署銷售階段。

Based upon our growing operational need, we find that many of our customer trials are focused on delivering real-time asset tracking and supply chain visibility in cold chain application for large Fortune 500 organizations, enabling their ability to monitor perishable assets in real-time across their supply chain operation. This is a tremendous technology improvement compared to the conventional RFID technology, where we can now enable full traceability in an automated labor efficient way.

基於我們不斷增長的營運需求，我們發現我們的許多客戶試驗都專注於為大型財富500 強組織提供冷鏈應用中的即時資產追蹤和供應鏈可視性，使他們能夠即時監控跨領域的易腐資產。與傳統的 RFID 技術相比，這是一項巨大的技術進步，我們現在可以以自動化、勞動力高效的方式實現全面的可追溯性。

With its robust intellectual property portfolio and proprietary technology, Energous is ideally positioned to be the emerging leader to support and execute our smart IoT strategy across wireless power network with a solution that we believe addresses key operational pain point from many large organizations. We remain encouraged by the growth in POC trials, which validate these leadership position and attractiveness of our technology across different markets.

憑藉其強大的智慧財產權組合和專有技術，Energous 完全有能力成為新興領導者，透過我們相信能夠解決許多大型組織關鍵營運難題的解決方案來支援和執行我們跨無線充電網路的智慧物聯網策略。POC 試驗的成長仍然令我們感到鼓舞，這驗證了我們技術在不同市場的領先地位和吸引力。

Our product roadmap supports both 1W and 2W PowerBridges with a family of advanced proprietary EN4100, EN3210, and EN2223 semiconductor devices. Additionally, as we move forward, we will evolve our road map to support the future 15-watt regulatory certified market in the US, which will open more market for our wireless power technology.

我們的產品路線圖透過一系列先進的專有 EN4100、EN3210 和 EN2223 半導體裝置支援 1W 和 2W PowerBridge。此外，隨著我們的前進，我們將不斷完善路線圖，以支援美國未來的 15 瓦監管認證市場，這將為我們的無線充電技術打開更多市場。

Strategic partnership within the wireless power ecosystem play an important role in facilitating rapid and more expensive deployments. Today, we are working closely with 18 technology partners, two distribution partners, and four IoT system integrators partners, all leaders in their respective segments. We expect to engage additional partner as we progress through 2024.

無線充電生態系統內的策略合作夥伴關係在促進快速且更昂貴的部署方面發揮著重要作用。如今，我們正在與 18 家技術合作夥伴、2 家分銷合作夥伴和 4 家物聯網系統整合商合作夥伴密切合作，他們都是各自領域的領導者。隨著 2024 年的進展，我們預計將吸引更多合作夥伴。

On December 13, 2023, we announced our partnership with Identiv, a global system integrator with a specific objective of targeting real-time asset tracking and inventory control for industrial, logistic, and retail application. In January of this year, we attended NRF Show in New York. This conference brings together key companies embarked at varying field of retail IoT and its ecosystem.

2023 年 12 月 13 日，我們宣布與全球系統整合商 Identiv 建立合作夥伴關係，其具體目標是針對工業、物流和零售應用的即時資產追蹤和庫存控制。今年1月，我們參加了紐約NRF Show。這次會議匯集了涉足零售物聯網及其生態系統不同領域的主要公司。

In summary, Energous continues to execute on its new go-to-market strategy and is making clear progress as we work to reposition and retarget the company on smart IoT applications. Energous smart IoT strategy is generating a great deal of interest as evidenced by our 38 POC trial installation where our customers have communicated back to us that they understand the clear value offered by our IoT wireless power network.

總之，Energous 繼續執行其新的上市策略，並在我們努力重新定位公司的智慧物聯網應用方面取得了明顯進展。充滿活力的智慧物聯網策略正在引起人們的極大興趣，我們的 38 個 POC 試驗安裝證明了這一點，我們的客戶向我們反饋，他們了解我們的物聯網無線充電網路提供的明確價值。

Thanks, Giampaolo. Earlier today, we issued our earnings release announcing the operating and financial results for the year ended December 31, 2023. Focusing on the GAAP financial statements, our 2023 recognized revenue was approximately $0.5 million versus $0.9 million reported in 2022, representing a decrease of approximately 44% versus the prior year.

謝謝，詹保羅。今天早些時候，我們發布了收益報告，公佈了截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的年度營運和財務表現。關注 GAAP 財務報表，我們 2023 年確認的收入約為 50 萬美元，而 2022 年報告的收入為 90 萬美元，比前一年減少約 44%。

Although revenue declined, our cost of revenue in 2023 was approximately $0.3 million, yielding a positive 41% gross margin versus the negative 50% gross margin reported in 2022. The 2023 cost of revenue includes an inventory write-down similar to that recorded in 2022. And despite these additional recorded costs, the year-over-year change represents a significant improvement in gross margins versus last year.

儘管收入下降，但我們 2023 年的收入成本約為 30 萬美元，毛利率為 41%，而 2022 年毛利率為負 50%。2023 年的收入成本包括與 2022 年記錄類似的庫存減記。儘管有這些額外的記錄成本，但同比變化表明毛利率與去年顯著提高。

Total 2023 operating expense, excluding severance, decreased by approximately $3.5 million to $21.9 million from the $25.5 million in 2022. Research and development expense decreased by approximately $1.7 million in 2023 to $10.8 million versus $12.5 million incurred in 2022, primarily attributable to a reduction in stock-based compensation of $0.5 million; a decrease of $0.5 million related to lower consulting, third-party and professional service fees; a $0.4 million reduction in engineering supplies, components, and chip development due to project timing; a $0.2 million related to reduced regulatory testing and fees; and $0.1 million of lower postage related costs.

2023 年總營運費用（不含遣散費）從 2022 年的 2,550 萬美元減少約 350 萬美元至 2,190 萬美元。研發費用從 2022 年的 1,250 萬美元減少到 2023 年的 1,080 萬美元，減少約 170 萬美元，主要是因為股票薪資減少了 50 萬美元；由於諮詢、第三方和專業服務費用降低，減少了 50 萬美元；由於專案時間安排，工程供應、組件和晶片開發費用減少了 40 萬美元； 20 萬美元用於減少監管測試和費用；以及 10 萬美元的郵資相關費用降低。

Sales and marketing, general and administrative SG&A expenses for 2023 and 2022 were $11.1 million and $12.9 million, respectively. The reduction of approximately $1.8 million is primarily due to a $1.5 million reduction in personnel related and stock-based compensation costs, a $0.4 million decrease in sales and marketing related expenses, an approximate $0.2 million reduction in general and administrative costs, and a decrease in insurance premiums and Board fees of$ 0.2 million, partially offset by increased costs relating to legal fees, investor relations and corporate expenses of approximately $0.5 million. Severance expenses decreased by approximately $0.4 million to $0.4 million in 2023.

2023 年和 2022 年的銷售和行銷、一般和行政管理費用分別為 1,110 萬美元和 1,290 萬美元。減少約 180 萬美元主要是由於人事相關和股票薪酬成本減少 150 萬美元、銷售和營銷相關費用減少 40 萬美元、一般和管理成本減少約 20 萬美元以及保險費和董事會費用為20 萬美元，部分被與法律費用、投資者關係和公司開支相關的成本增加約50 萬美元所抵消。2023 年遣散費減少約 40 萬美元，達到 40 萬美元。

The GAAP reported net loss for 2023 was $19.4 million versus a loss of $26.3 million in 2022. We feel it's valuable to share an adjusted net non-GAAP loss for 2023, given the level of non-cash related and extraordinary expenses incurred by the company.

根據 GAAP 報告，2023 年淨虧損為 1,940 萬美元，而 2022 年淨虧損為 2,630 萬美元。考慮到公司產生的非現金相關費用和非常費用的水平，我們認為分擔 2023 年調整後的非公認會計原則淨虧損是有價值的。

After adjusting the 2023 GAAP net loss by noncash related expenses such as depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation totalling approximately $1.8 million as well as extraordinary expenses such as severance expense of $0.4 million, which includes the associated stock-based compensation expense, and by $0.6 million, representing the offering costs related to the warrant liability, offset by the change in fair value of the warrant liability of $2.5 million, the 2023 adjusted net loss was approximately $19.1 million as compared to the adjusted non-GAAP loss reported in 2022 of $22.6 million, reflecting a $3.5 million improvement year over year.

調整 2023 年 GAAP 淨虧損後，折舊、攤銷和股票薪酬等非現金相關費用總計約 180 萬美元，以及 40 萬美元的遣散費等非常費用，其中包括相關的股票薪酬費用， 60 萬美元，代表與認股權證負債相關的發行成本，被認股權證負債公允價值變動250 萬美元所抵消，與2022 年報告的調整後非GAAP 虧損相比，2023 年調整後淨虧損約為1,910 萬美元。萬美元，年增350 萬美元。

Shifting over to the balance sheet and cash flow. We ended 2023 with $13.9 million in cash and remain debt-free. During 2023, we raised approximately $4.2 million through the ATM to supplement our working capital. In addition, we generated approximately $2.8 million in net proceeds through the sale of common stock and prepaid warrants, and approximately $0.5 million from the collection of accounts receivable. And we continue to focus on opportunities to improve cash flow through sales, improving gross margins and as well as reductions in spending.

轉向資產負債表和現金流量。截至 2023 年，我們擁有 1,390 萬美元現金，並且保持無債務狀態。2023 年，我們透過 ATM 籌集了約 420 萬美元，以補充我們的營運資金。此外，我們還透過出售普通股和預付認股權證獲得了約 280 萬美元的淨收益，並透過應收帳款催收獲得了約 50 萬美元的淨收益。我們繼續關注透過銷售改善現金流、提高毛利率以及減少支出的機會。

In closing, I would like to say thank you to all our shareholders, stakeholders and the Energous team members. We look forward to updating you on the company's progress again next quarter. And this concludes our year-end 2023 update.

最後，我要向我們所有的股東、利害關係人和 Energous 團隊成員表示感謝。我們期待下個季度再次向您通報公司的進展。我們的 2023 年底更新到此結束。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。