10-K: Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)
Published on April 1, 2024
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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended
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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, and an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
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If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No
As of June 30, 2023, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the registrant's common stock held by non-affiliates was approximately $
As of March 25, 2024,
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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PART I |
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Item 1. |
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Item 1A. |
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Item 1B. |
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Item 1C. |
Cybersecurity |
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Item 2. |
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Item 3. |
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Item 4. |
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PART II |
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Item 5. |
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Item 6. |
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Item 7. |
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
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Item 7A. |
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Item 8. |
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Item 9. |
Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure |
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Item 9A. |
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Item 9B. |
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Item 9C. |
Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections |
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PART III |
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Item 10. |
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Item 11. |
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Item 12. |
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters |
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Item 13. |
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence |
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Item 14. |
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PART IV |
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Item 15. |
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Item 16. |
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and we intend that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. All statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “continue,” “can,” “may,” “plans,” “potential,” “projects,” “seeks,” “should,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions and the negatives of those expressions may identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, any statements that refer to projections of our future financial condition and results of operations, capital needs and financing plans, competitive position, industry environment, potential growth and market opportunities, acquisition plans and strategies, compensation plans, governance structure and policies and/or the price of our common stock.
The forward-looking statements included herein represent our management’s current expectations and assumptions based on information available as of the date of this report. These statements involve numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to:
All forward-looking statements are necessarily only estimates of future results, and there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from expectations. You should carefully review these risks, as well as the additional risks described in other documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). In light of the significant risks and uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking information included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that such results will be achieved, and
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readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date of this report.
Moreover, we operate in an evolving environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for our management to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual future results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements.
Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.
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SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Below is a summary of certain material factors that could harm our business, operating results and/or financial condition, impair our future prospects, and/or cause the price of our common stock to decline. Please refer to the additional discussion of the risks summarized below in Item 1A (Risk Factors) of Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which should be carefully considered, together with other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other filings with the SEC, before making an investment decision regarding our common stock.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Financial Condition
Risks Related to the Development and Operation of Our aiWARE Platform and other Products
Risks Related to our Indebtedness and Liquidity
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Risks Related to Target Markets, Competition and Customers
Risks Related to Intellectual Property
Risks Related to Regulatory Compliance
Risks Related to the Ownership of Our Securities and Our Public Company Operations
There are additional risks related to the ownership of our securities and our public company operations discussed in more detail in item “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of Part I, including, but not limited to, risks concerning the volatility of our stock price, our identification of a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, our anti-takeover provisions, stockholder dilution and analysts’ reports about the Company.
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PART I
Item 1. Business.
Overview
Veritone, Inc. (collectively with our subsidiaries, referred to as “Veritone,” “Company,” “we,” “our,” and “us”) is a provider of artificial intelligence (“AI”) computing solutions and services and certain advertising and licensing services. We are driven by the belief that AI is key to building a safer, more efficient, transparent and empowered society. Our mission is to be an active contributor to making the world better through AI. As creators of one of the world’s first AI operating systems, we are augmenting the human workforce by transforming use-case concepts into tangible, industry-leading applications and solutions.
Our proprietary AI operating system, aiWARETM, uses machine learning algorithms, or AI models, together with a suite of powerful applications, to reveal valuable insights from vast amounts of structured and unstructured data. aiWARE serves as the foundation for our AI solutions and bespoke applications and offers access to hundreds of cognitive engines through one common software infrastructure. Highly modular and customizable, aiWARE enables expansive scale with the flexibility to deploy in the cloud, at the edge or in hybrid environments. Our aiWARE platform offers capabilities that are designed to mimic human cognitive functions such as perception, prediction and problem solving, enabling users to quickly, efficiently and cost effectively transform unstructured data into structured data, and analyze and optimize data to drive business processes and insights. aiWARE is based on an open architecture that enables new AI models, applications and workflows to be added quickly and efficiently, resulting in a scalable and evolving solution that can be leveraged by organizations across a range of industries.
We also offer cloud-native digital content management solutions and content licensing services, primarily to customers in the media and entertainment market. These offerings utilize aiWARE, providing customers with unique capabilities to enrich and drive expanded revenue opportunities from their content.
In addition, we operate a full-service advertising agency that leverages aiWARE to provide differentiated managed services to our customers. Our advertising services include media planning and strategy, advertisement buying and placement, campaign messaging, clearance verification and attribution, and custom analytics, specializing in host-endorsed and influencer advertising across radio, podcasting, streaming audio, social media and other digital media channels. Our advertising services also include our VeriAds Network, which is comprised of programs that enable broadcasters, podcasters and social media influencers to generate incremental advertising revenue.
We generate revenue primarily through the delivery of our Software Products & Services (as defined below) across our Commercial Enterprise (“Commercial Enterprise”) and Government and Regulated Industries (“Government & Regulated Industries”) divisions, and secondarily from Managed Services (as defined below) that today include the delivery of advertising and content licensing services within Commercial Enterprise.
Our presence is primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Israel and India.
The Market Opportunity
Today, the existence of unstructured data is growing rapidly, creating significant challenges for companies and governments across the globe, including how to create systematic solutions to address the ever-increasing volume of unstructured data. Whether it is government or state and local law enforcement agencies trying to solve crimes through the analysis of unstructured video evidence, a media company searching years of television archives for specific images and video content, or global employers trying to operationalize high volumes of hiring data, we believe AI is the only efficient solution to these complex challenges.
To address the ever-growing challenges surrounding unstructured data, we developed aiWARE, our proprietary AI operating system. aiWARE orchestrates AI models, together with a suite of powerful applications, to reveal valuable insights
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from vast amounts of structured and unstructured data. aiWARE offers capabilities that are designed to mimic human cognitive functions such as perception, prediction, problem solving and optimization, enabling users to quickly, efficiently and cost effectively transform unstructured data into structured data, and analyze and optimize data to drive business processes and insights.
Our Solution
aiWARE is based on an open architecture that enables new AI models, applications and workflows to be added quickly and efficiently. This results in a scalable and evolving solution that can be easily leveraged by organizations in a broad range of industries that capture or use audio, video and other unstructured data, together with structured data, such as the media and entertainment, government, legal and compliance, and other vertical markets, driving down the cost, complexity and time to develop, deploy and distribute AI-enabled applications in their operations. Our aiWARE platform is offered primarily through a software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) delivery model and can be deployed in a number of environments and configurations to meet our customers’ needs.
Our aiWARE platform encompasses the following:
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aiWARE is available through multiple deployment models that can be configured to meet each customer’s specific requirements. These deployment models include fully cloud-based options hosted by us in Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) and Microsoft Azure (“Azure”) commercial and secure government cloud environments; on-premises options, which allow users to utilize aiWARE’s cognitive processing and certain other capabilities in their controlled environment; and hybrid cloud/on-premises options, which give users of our on-premises capabilities the option to also connect to our services in the cloud, either to provision additional services to run within their controlled environment, or to use our additional cloud-based services to process data, search and analyze the results. We currently hold an Authorization to Operate (“ATO”) under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (“FedRAMP”) for our AWS secure government cloud platform to support government customers.
Our current architecture gives us the flexibility to deploy many of aiWARE’s capabilities in virtually any environment, including select arm64 architectures. We are continuing to enhance the portability of aiWARE to provide substantially all of the features and functionality of the platform within any environment to meet our customers’ needs.
Markets in Which We Operate
We serve two distinct markets: Commercial Enterprise and Government & Regulated Industries. We have developed several applications and services addressing specific customer use cases within these target markets. We intend to leverage the capabilities that we have developed for these key markets to expand into other markets in the future. We have identified numerous ways in which our aiWARE platform and related AI technology may be used to extract valuable insights from large volumes of data to address real-world problems across a broad range of markets and applications.
Commercial Enterprise
Commercial Enterprise today consists of customers in the commercial sector, including media and entertainment, advertising, content licensing and our hiring solutions customers, which we now refer to as “Veritone Hire.” To date, the majority of our Software Products & Services and Managed Services revenue is generated from our Commercial Enterprise customers.
Software Products & Services
Software Products & Services used by our Commercial Enterprise customers include:
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Managed Services
Managed Services used by our Commercial Enterprise customers include:
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Government and Regulated Industries
Government & Regulated Industries consists of customers in government and regulated industries, including our state, local and federal government, legal and compliance customers. To date, Government & Regulated Industries represents a smaller portion of our consolidated revenue; however, in fiscal 2023, Government & Regulated Industries grew 56% as compared to fiscal 2022. We believe that there are near and long term opportunities in Government & Regulated Industries to further grow our business during fiscal 2024 and beyond.
Government & Regulated Industries markets include state and local government, legal and compliance markets, including law enforcement, legal and judicial professionals, and companies and regulatory bodies in highly regulated industries. Law enforcement and other government agencies regularly accumulate large amounts of unstructured audio and video data, including from police body cameras, police car recorders, interview room cameras, 911 audio tapes and surveillance cameras. Historically, in most cases, investigators have had to review audio and video data manually, a task that consumes huge amounts of time and delays investigations. In addition, public agencies are required to provide certain information, which may include audio and video files, in response to requests from the public. Reviewing video footage to identify and authenticate the appropriate footage to be disclosed, and to redact facial images and other sensitive information prior to disclosure, have historically been time-consuming and largely manual processes. Today, law enforcement and other government agencies can leverage our aiWARE platform and applications to organize, review, analyze and gain insight from their various data sources to enhance their investigative workflows and to support their public disclosure requirements.
Within the legal market, our AI technologies support eDiscovery, the process of identifying, collecting and producing electronically stored information, where audio and video content analysis is playing an increasingly important role in civil litigation and criminal proceedings. Our aiWARE platform’s applications and cognitive capabilities are designed to enable users to quickly search and analyze large volumes of audio files, video files, text-based documents and other electronically stored information to identify particular words, phrases, faces, objects and voices, and to redact sensitive information prior to production, increasing the speed, reducing the cost, and improving the results of discovery processes.
Software Products & Services used by our Government & Regulated Industries customers include:
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Sales and Marketing
Software Products & Services
We conduct sales and marketing activities related to our Software Products & Services through a combination of our direct sales force and indirect channel partners such as value-added resellers (“VARs”), distributors, system integrators, managed services providers and referral partners. Our direct sales organization is comprised of teams of business development managers, account executives and sales managers, who are supported by sales development representatives, sales engineers, solutions architects and other inside sales personnel. These sales teams are generally organized based on their specialized knowledge and expertise within each of our target markets. Our sales team collaborates closely with our product marketing, management and development teams to evaluate and develop solutions to address the needs of customers.
We have also established, and we intend to continue to expand, an indirect sales channel comprised of VARs, distributors and referral partners. We have entered into agreements with channel partners located in the United States and internationally. These agreements generally provide the channel partners with discounts below our standard prices, have terms of one year which automatically renew on an annual basis, and are generally terminable by either party for convenience following a specified notice period. Substantially all of our agreements with channel partners are nonexclusive; however, we allow channel partners to register sales opportunities through our deal registration program, in which case we may grant a channel partner priority to pursue an opportunity for a specified period of time, subject to certain conditions.
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Managed Services
We conduct sales and marketing activities relating to our digital content licensing Managed Services business through our direct sales representatives who identify, develop and manage our relationships with strategic Commercial Enterprise customers in the advertising, entertainment/documentary and network broadcasting industries. We maintain our commerce web portal, where stock content and select libraries can be licensed and downloaded directly, but the majority of our business is driven through high-value libraries that require an approval process to gain access. We also cross-sell additional products and services, including media management and aiWARE, to our content licensor partners.
We market and sell our advertising Managed Services through a combination of our direct sales and indirect channel sales. We primarily market and sell directly to advertisers through outbound sales networking and client and partner referrals. Our indirect sales channel consists of referral partners who are mainly advertising agencies or marketing consultants who are unable to provide certain services to their clients, such as radio, podcast and YouTube placements. In addition to our sales efforts for new clients, we further expand sales opportunities and upsell through our campaign strategists who work directly with our advertising clients to optimize and enhance media spending on advertising campaigns.
Customers
Software Products & Services
We market and sell our Software Products & Services to customers in the Commercial Enterprise and Government & Regulated Industries markets. During 2023, ten customers accounted for approximately 44% of the total revenues from our Software Products & Services, with one customer accounting for approximately 22% of the total revenues from Software Products & Services. As we continue to grow our revenues from our Software Products & Services across our markets, we believe that our dependence on any single customer or group of customers will be reduced.
Managed Services
We market and sell our advertising Managed Services to customers that make significant investments in advertising, particularly in native and spot-based advertising campaigns delivered over broadcast radio, satellite audio, streaming audio, podcasting, digital video services and other social media channels. During 2023, ten advertising customers accounted for approximately 50% of the total revenues from our Managed Services, with one advertising customer accounting for approximately 12% of the total Managed Services revenues. We market and sell our content licensing Managed Services to customers such as major sports networks, advertising agencies, and film production companies that require high value content for their broadcasts and projects. During 2023, ten content licensing customers accounted for approximately 12% of the total Managed Services revenues.
Competition
Software Products & Services
The market for AI-enabled solutions is rapidly evolving and highly competitive, and we face competition from various sources, including large, well-capitalized technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Palantir. In the case of our Veritone Hire solutions, the market for talent acquisition software and services is highly competitive, rapidly evolving and fragmented, and we face competition from programmatic job advertising software companies, traditional human capital management (HCM) companies, companies primarily focused on offering applicant tracking systems, and providers of point solutions for specific use cases such as for recruitment marketing, and these companies include, without limitation, Oracle and SAP.
Our large competitors may have better brand name recognition, greater financial and engineering resources and larger sales and marketing teams than we have. As a result, these competitors may be able to develop and introduce, or acquire companies that may be able to develop and introduce, competing solutions and technologies that may have greater capabilities than ours or that are able to achieve greater customer acceptance, and they may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. Some customers may also be hesitant to use a new platform and prefer to upgrade products offered by their incumbent platforms for reasons including price, quality, sophistication, familiarity and global presence. In addition, we may compete with smaller competitors, including developers of AI models, who may develop their own solutions that perform similar services as our
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platform for specific use cases, as well as with systems integrators that aggregate and integrate cognitive solutions from multiple providers for their clients.
We believe the following competitive attributes are necessary for us to successfully compete in the AI industry for Commercial Enterprise and Government & Regulated Industries customers for our Software Products & Services:
We believe that we compete favorably on the basis of the factors listed above. We believe that few of our competitors currently compete directly with us across all of our cognitive capabilities and vertical markets, and that none of our competitors currently deploy an AI operating system with an open ecosystem comprised of a comparable number of multiple proprietary and third party AI models that can be accessed by customers from a single integrated platform.
Competitors for our Software Products & Services fall into the following primary categories:
Managed Services
Competitors of our advertising Managed Services are mainly traditional advertising agencies that are either large full-service agencies or smaller niche agencies with a particular specialization or focus, such as radio media placement or podcast advertising, as well as large consulting firms in the media industry. We believe that we currently, and will continue to, compete successfully against our competitors on several key factors. We are a leader in endorsed radio and podcast advertising services, and we leverage our platform to provide our customers with innovative technology that we believe provides them with better analytics and insights into their advertising campaigns than our competitors for superior advertising performance and optimization.
We do not currently face significant competition from third parties for our content licensing Managed Services, particularly in North America; however, many content owners choose to manage the licensing of their content in-house, and content owners that we currently represent may choose to license their content directly in the future. We believe that we may face more competition in North America if new content licensing companies emerge or expand their business in the region.
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As we expand our content licensing services to international markets, we believe that we may face greater competition from established content licensing and talent management companies. We believe that our ability to use the cognitive capabilities of aiWARE to enrich and enhance the searchability of content, and to leverage relationships with existing customers and vendors across our Managed Services business, gives us a competitive advantage over other content licensing companies and allows us to achieve greater benefits for content owners than they can achieve through their own in-house efforts.
Research and Development
Our research and development organization is comprised of employees who are responsible for the design, development and testing of our AI and software solutions, including software engineers, quality engineers, data scientists, data engineers, product managers and user experience designers. Our research and development organization is generally organized in teams, with teams focused on our core aiWARE architecture and capabilities and other teams focused on solutions and applications that address specific use cases in our key markets. We focus our efforts on developing new features and expanding the core technologies that further enhance the usability, functionality, reliability, performance and flexibility of aiWARE, as well as allow us to operate in new vertical markets. In addition, we contract with select third-party engineering services to support development and quality assurance testing. We plan to continue to make significant investments in developing our AI technologies, expanding the functionality and capabilities of aiWARE and related solutions, and building new software capabilities.
Intellectual Property
We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws in the United States and other jurisdictions, as well as license agreements and other contractual protections, to protect our proprietary technology. We also rely on a number of registered and unregistered trademarks to protect our brand.
As of March 25, 2024, in the United States, we have 33 issued patents, which expire between 2029 and 2042, and have 14 patent applications pending for examination. As of such date, we also had 20 issued patents and 5 patent applications pending for examination in foreign jurisdictions (including international PCT applications), all of which are based on counterpart U.S. patent applications pursued by us. In addition, we have registered, or have applied for registration of, numerous trademarks, including Veritone and aiWARE, in the United States and in several foreign jurisdictions. We seek to protect our intellectual property rights by implementing a policy that requires our employees and independent contractors involved in development of intellectual property on our behalf to enter into agreements acknowledging that all works or other intellectual property generated or conceived by them on our behalf are our property, and assigning to us any rights, including intellectual property rights, that they may claim or otherwise have in those works or property, to the extent allowable under applicable law.
Seasonality
We experience seasonal fluctuations in our revenue and operating performance as a result of the utilization of our platform and associated revenues from our Software Products & Services. In particular, our Veritone Hire revenues have historically been higher in the second half of each fiscal year, consistent with the hiring cycles of our larger customers. We also experience seasonality a result of factors such as the timing of large projects, the length and complexity of our sales cycles, trends impacting our target vertical markets and our revenue recognition policies and any changes we make to those policies. Within a given quarter, a higher proportion of our agreements are signed toward the end of such quarter. Although these seasonal factors are common in the technology industry, historical patterns should not be considered a reliable indicator of our future sales activity or performance.
Regulatory Environment
We are subject to a number of U.S. federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations, including within the United Kingdom, Israel and parts of Europe, that involve matters central to our business. These laws and regulations involve privacy, data protection, intellectual property, competition, consumer protection and other subjects.
Our customers utilize our products and services to process, analyze and store data in a manner which may cause us to carry out certain processing of personal data that is subject to data protection and privacy laws in various jurisdictions including the European Union and United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended (“CCPA”), laws regulating the use of AI, automated decision making, machine learning, and biometric technologies (including facial recognition), and similar laws and regulations in other jurisdictions, including states and localities within the United States. Under these data protection and privacy laws, we may be required to maintain certain technical and organizational measures designed to ensure the security and protection of personal data and information, and
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we may be required to comply (either directly or indirectly pursuant to requirements of our contracts with customers) with a number of requirements with respect to individuals whose personal data or information we collect and process, including, among others, notification requirements and requirements to comply with requests from individuals to (i) opt out of collection, processing and/or sale of their data or information, (ii) delete their data or information, and (iii) receive copies of and other information regarding our collection and processing of their data or information.
Moreover, governments, regulators and individuals are increasingly scrutinizing the use of AI and machine learning technologies (including the associated processing of personal data), automated decision making (including in an employment and/or recruitment context), and the processing of biometric data (including through facial recognition technologies). Numerous laws and regulations around the world have been enacted or proposed to regulate these areas, and several lawsuits have been filed, particularly in the United States, challenging the processing of biometric data, which may reduce our customers’ demand for our products.
Human Capital Resources
As of March 25, 2024, we had a total of 696 employees, 664 of whom were full-time employees. 196 of our U.S-based employees are located in California, with another 257 employees located in 36 other states. We also have 72 employees located in Israel and 171 employees located in other countries.
We believe that our employees are our greatest asset and our company culture is a critical component of our success. We strive to create a diverse and inclusive work environment in which all employees feel a strong sense of community and embody our core values. 39.6% of our employees are women, and 49.5% of our employees are members of ethnic or racial minorities and other legally protected classes. We have implemented a number of initiatives to ensure that our employees are engaged and motivated to work hard and have fun at the same time. We conduct employee engagement surveys to gauge employee satisfaction, identify areas for improvement and implement positive change to evolve and better our company culture.
We strive to hire, develop and retain the top talent in the industry. To attract top talent, we offer competitive salaries, incentives, equity compensation and benefits. We conduct an annual talent review process, in which we obtain employee feedback, evaluate performance and establish goals, objectives and development plans for all employees. We continuously monitor and evaluate employee turnover to identify and address areas of concern to improve employee retention.
Company Information
We were incorporated as a Delaware corporation on June 13, 2014. Our corporate headquarters are located at 1615 Platte Street, 2nd Floor, Denver, Colorado 80202. Our telephone number is (888) 507-1737. Our principal website address is www.veritone.com. The information provided on, or accessible through, our website is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, nor is such information incorporated by reference herein, and such information should not be relied upon in determining whether to make an investment in our common stock.
Available Information
This Annual Report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Exchange Act, are available free of charge on the investor relations section of our website at investors.veritone.com as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. We will also provide electronic or paper copies of such reports free of charge, upon request made to our Corporate Secretary at 1615 Platte Street, 2nd Floor, Denver, Colorado 80202. The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.
We use our investor relations website as a channel of distribution for important company information, including news and commentary about our business and financial performance, webcasts of our earnings calls and investor events, SEC filings, and corporate governance information, including information regarding our board of directors (our “Board”), our board committee charters and code of business conduct and ethics. The information provided on, or accessible through, our investor relations website is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, nor is such information incorporated by reference herein, and such information should not be relied upon in determining whether to make an investment in our common stock.
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Item 1A. Risk Factors.
The following describes the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those presented in our forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only risks we face but do represent those risk and uncertainties that we believe are material to our business. Additional risks that we do not yet know of or that we currently believe are immaterial may also harm our business operations.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Financial Condition
Our efforts to expand our aiWARE Software Products & Services may not be successful.
In order for us to grow our business and achieve profitability, we must expand our revenue base by expanding our customer base and increasing our business with existing customers. We may not be able to succeed with respect to these efforts. Many factors may adversely affect our ability to grow the business for our aiWARE platform, including but not limited to:
If we fail to develop a successful business for our aiWARE platform, our business, results of operations and financial condition will suffer.
The market for AI-based software applications is relatively new and unproven and may decline or experience limited growth. Concerns over the use of AI, including from regulators, the public and our customers, may hinder the adoption of AI technologies, which would adversely affect our ability to fully realize the potential of our Software Products & Services.
The market for AI-based software applications is still relatively new and evaluating the size and scope of the market is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. We believe that our future success will depend in large part on the growth of this market. The utilization of our platform and solutions by customers is also still relatively new, and customers may not recognize the need for, or benefits of, our platform and solutions, which may prompt them to cease use of our platform and solutions or decide to adopt alternative products and services to satisfy their cognitive computing, search and analytics requirements. Our ability to access and extend our position in the markets that our platform and solutions are designed to address depends upon a number of factors, including the cost, performance and perceived value of our platform and solutions, as well as regulatory scrutiny over our products and technologies. As AI technologies become increasingly incorporated into various mainstream products and offerings and these technologies advance and develop, regulatory scrutiny
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of AI technologies, potentially including our products, will likely increase. Market opportunity estimates are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates, including our internal analysis and industry experience. Assessing the market for our solutions is particularly difficult for several reasons, including limited available information and rapid evolution of the market.
In addition, AI presents risks and challenges that could hinder its further development, adoption and use in the markets that we serve. AI algorithms may be flawed, datasets may be insufficient or contain biased information, and the results and analyses that our AI solutions assist in producing may be deficient, inaccurate or biased. For example, biased datasets and results could produce results that are objectionable to customers using our Veritone Hire technologies. Further, use of AI technologies in certain scenarios present ethical concerns. If we enable or offer AI solutions that produce deficient or inaccurate results and analyses, or that are controversial due to human rights, privacy or other social issues, we may experience lower-than-expected demand for our products and services, or competitive, brand or reputational harm.
If the market for AI-based solutions does not experience significant growth, or if demand for our platform or solutions does not increase in line with our projections, then our business, results of operations and financial condition will be adversely affected.
Certain of our operating results and financial metrics are difficult to predict and subject to volatility, including as a result of seasonality.
We experience quarterly variations in the timing of revenues from our Software Products & Services as a result of numerous factors, such as the timing of large projects, the length and complexity of our sales cycles and trends impacting our target vertical markets. In particular, our Veritone Hire solutions have historically experienced seasonality in terms of when we enter into customer agreements for our products and services. Consistent with the hiring patterns of our customers, a higher percentage of related revenue is earned in the second half of each year. Within a given quarter, often a significant portion of our agreements are signed toward the end of the quarter. This seasonality is reflected to a lesser extent in our revenue due to the fact that we generally recognize subscription revenue over the term of the customer agreement. We expect this seasonality to continue, which may cause fluctuations in certain of our operating results and financial metrics, and thus difficulties in predictability of our operating results.
We have had a history of losses and we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability.
We experienced net losses of $58.6 million and $25.6 million in fiscal years 2023 and 2022, respectively. As of December 31, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of $429.9 million. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we generated a profit on a non-GAAP basis; however, we may not be able to sustain profitability throughout an entire fiscal year or in the future or at all. We expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on, among other things:
These investments may not result in increased revenue or growth of our business. We may not be able to generate net revenues sufficient to offset our expected cost increases and planned investments in our business and platform. As a result, we may incur significant losses for the foreseeable future, and may not be able to achieve and sustain profitability. If we fail to achieve and sustain profitability, then we may not be able to achieve our business plan, fund our business or continue as a going concern.
We intend to continue to pursue the opportunistic acquisition of other companies, businesses or technologies, which could be expensive, divert our management’s attention, fail to achieve the expected benefits and/or expose us to other risks or difficulties.
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As part of our growth strategy, we have acquired, and we intend to continue to acquire, businesses, services, technologies or intellectual property rights that we believe could complement, expand or enhance the features and functionality of our aiWARE platform and our technical capabilities, broaden our product and service offerings or offer growth opportunities for our business. For example, we closed on our acquisition of Broadbean in June 2023 and continue to work to integrate its business with our own. This acquisition strategy may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable acquisitions, whether or not such acquisitions are consummated. Acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses, impairment of goodwill and/or purchased long-lived assets, and restructuring charges, any of which could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition. In addition, we may face risks or experience difficulties successfully integrating acquired businesses, such as Broadbean, with our operations. These risks include:
We also may not achieve the anticipated benefits from the acquired business and may incur unanticipated costs and liabilities in connection with any such acquisitions. Additionally, if we are unable to complete an acquisition, we could lose market share to competitors who are able to make such an acquisition. Once an acquisition is closed, we may discover hidden costs, resource demands and potential liabilities that were not evident during the due diligence process, particularly when such process is undertaken on an accelerated timeline. Although we utilize representation and warranty insurance and standard indemnity provisions in these acquisition transactions, if we are unable to successfully assert a claim, if a claim is not covered by insurance or if these hidden costs prove greater than expected, our operations as a whole may be adversely affected. In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. If any of these results occurs, our business and financial results could be adversely affected.
We have expanded our international operations, including in the second half of 2023 as a result of our Broadbean acquisition, which exposes us to significant risks, and we intend to continue expanding international operations going forward.
In June 2023, and in conjunction with our acquisition of Broadbean, we expanded our operations into Europe and Asia Pacific. As part of our growth strategy, we may expand our operations further internationally. As of December 31, 2023, we had operations in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, Israel, Australia and India, and we expect, in the future, to open offices and hire employees in additional locations outside of the United States to service existing global customers, reach new customers and gain access to additional technical talent. Operating and expanding to new international markets requires significant resources and management attention and will subject us to uncertain regulatory, international tax, international conflicts, and economic and political risks. Because of our limited historical experience with expanded international operations, as well as developing and managing sales in international markets, our international expansion efforts may not be successful. In addition, we will face risks of doing business internationally that could adversely affect our business, including, but not limited to:
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Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our international operations, and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our business has been and may continue to be negatively affected by macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, including lingering economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the war in Israel, inflation rates and the responses by central banking authorities to control inflation, monetary supply shifts and the threat of recession in the United States and around the world.
Global economic and business activities continue to face widespread macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, including lingering economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the war in Israel, inflation rates and the responses by central banking authorities to control inflation, monetary supply shifts and the threat of recession in the United States and around the world. We continue to actively monitor the impact of these macroeconomic factors on our financial condition, liquidity, operations, suppliers, industry and workforce, and instituted certain cost saving measures during the second half of 2022 and during 2023 as a result of these factors. The extent of the impact of these factors on our operational and financial performance, including our ability to execute our business strategies and initiatives in the expected time frame, will depend on future developments, and the impact on our customers, partners and employees, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted. These and other global economic conditions, including any new disruptions, have and may again negatively impact our business. For example, we have operations and an office in Israel, and as a result of the war with Hamas there, a number of our employees and family members of our employees have been conscripted into military service. In addition, our Veritone Hire solutions are sold to businesses that experience performance fluctuations based on factors including the demand for labor and the economic health of current and prospective employers. To the extent that economic uncertainty or attenuated economic conditions cause our current and potential customers to freeze or reduce their headcount, demand for our products and services has been, and may continue to be negatively affected. Adverse economic conditions have also caused and could continue to result in reductions in sales of our applications, longer sales cycles, reductions in contract duration and value, slower adoption of new technologies and increased price competition. For instance, beginning in March 2022, we experienced a reduction in hiring consumption from our largest customer, Amazon, and found that advertisers reduced spending across our managed services when compared to the same periods in the prior year. In addition, economic recessions have historically resulted in overall reductions in spending on software and technology solutions as well as pressure from customers and potential customers for extended billing terms. If economic, political, or market conditions deteriorate, or if there is uncertainty around these conditions, our current and potential customers may elect to decrease their software and technology solutions budgets by deferring or reconsidering product purchases, which could limit our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our operating results. Any of these events would likely have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial position.
We depend on our executive officers and other key employees, and the loss of one or more of these executive officers or key employees or an inability to attract and retain highly skilled employees could adversely affect our business.
Our success depends largely upon the continued services of our President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our Board, Ryan Steelberg, and our other executive officers and senior management. We rely on our leadership team in the areas of strategy and implementation, research and development, operations, security, marketing, sales, support and general and administrative functions. We do not currently have any employment agreements with our executive officers or senior management team that require them to continue to work for us for any specified period, and, therefore, they could terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of Ryan Steelberg, or one or more of the members of our management team, could adversely impact our business and operations and disrupt our relationships with our key customers.
Our future success also depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain highly skilled personnel. We believe that there is, and will continue to be, intense competition for highly skilled management, engineering, data science, sales, marketing and other personnel with experience in the businesses in which we operate. We must provide competitive compensation packages and a high-quality work environment to hire, retain and motivate employees. If we are unable to retain and motivate our existing employees and attract qualified personnel to fill key positions, we may be unable to manage our business effectively, including the development, marketing, sale and delivery of our products and services, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
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Risks Related to the Development and Operation of Our aiWARE Platform and other Products
If we are not able to enhance our existing products or introduce new products that achieve market acceptance and keep pace with technological developments, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
Our ability to attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers depends in part on our ability to enhance and improve our aiWARE platform and applications and introduce new products and features, including enhancements necessary to provide substantially all of the features and functionality of the platform within a private cloud or on-premises environment, as well as new applications to address additional customer use cases. The success of any enhancements or new products depends on several factors, including timely development completion, adequate quality testing, actual performance quality, market-accepted pricing levels and overall market acceptance and demand. Enhancements and new products that we develop may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner, may contain defects, may have interoperability difficulties with our aiWARE platform, or may not achieve the market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenue. If we are unable to successfully enhance our aiWARE platform and applications to meet evolving customer requirements and develop new products and applications, or if our efforts to increase the usage of our aiWARE platform are more expensive than we expect, then our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
Our competitors, partners or others may acquire third party technologies used in our aiWARE platform, which could result in them blocking us from using the technology in our aiWARE platform, offering it for free to the public or making it cost prohibitive for us to continue to incorporate their technologies in our aiWARE platform, or these third party technology providers may otherwise terminate their relationships with us, which could adversely affect the functionality of our aiWARE platform.
Our success depends in part on our ability to attract, incorporate and maintain high performing AI models on our aiWARE platform. If any third party acquires an AI model that is on our platform, they may preclude us from using it as a component of our platform or make it more expensive for us to utilize. In addition, a third-party AI model provider may terminate its relationship with us or may otherwise cease to make its AI models available to us. In either case, if that AI model has unique capabilities or a significant performance advantage over other models and we are unable to identify a suitable replacement model, the interruption could cause us to lose customers. It is also possible that a third party acquirer of such technology could offer the AI models and technologies to the public as a free add-on capability, in which case certain of our customers would have less incentive to pay us for the use of our platform. If a key third party technology becomes unavailable to us or is impractical for us to continue to use, the functionality of our platform could be interrupted, and our expenses could increase as we search for an alternative technology. As a result, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected through the loss of customers and/or from increased operating costs.
We rely on third parties to develop AI models for our platform and in some cases to integrate them with our platform.
A key element of our aiWARE platform is the ability to incorporate and integrate AI models developed by multiple third-party vendors, and we plan to continue to increase the number of third-party AI models incorporated into our aiWARE platform to enhance the performance and power of our platform. As we work to add new AI models to our platform, we may encounter difficulties in identifying additional high-quality AI models (particularly high performing, specialized models), entering into agreements for their inclusion in our ecosystem on acceptable terms or at all and/or in coordinating and integrating their technologies into our system. We may incur additional costs to modify and adjust existing functionalities of our platform to accommodate multiple classes of AI models, without the assurance that such costs can be recouped by the additional revenues generated by the new capabilities. As aiWARE becomes more complex and as we release enhancements to our platform that require changes to AI models, we may not be able to integrate third-party AI models in a seamless or timely manner due to a number of factors, including incompatible software, lack of cooperation from developers, insufficient internal technical resources, platform security constraints, and the inability to secure the necessary licenses or legal authorizations required. In addition, we have established a self-service development environment in which such third party developers integrate their AI models onto our platform, and we will be dependent in part upon their ability to do so effectively and quickly. We may not have full control over the quality and performance of third-party providers, and therefore, any unexpected deficiencies or problems arising from these third-party providers may cause significant interruptions in the operation of our platform. The failure of third party developers to integrate their AI models seamlessly into our platform and/or provide reliable, scalable services may impact the reliability of our platform and harm our reputation and business, results of operations and financial condition.
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If we are not able to develop a strong brand for our aiWARE platform and other products and increase market awareness of our company, platform and other products, then our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We believe that the success of our platform will depend in part on our ability to develop a strong brand identity for our “Veritone”, “aiWARE” and other service marks, and to increase the market awareness of our platform and its capabilities. We are still in the early development stage of our business and, as such, our brand is not yet well established. The successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on our continued marketing efforts and our ability to ensure that our technology provides the expected benefits to our customers. We also believe that it is important for us to be thought leaders in the AI-based cognitive computing market. Our brand promotion and thought leadership activities may not be successful or produce increased revenue. In addition, independent industry analysts often provide reviews of our platform and of competing products and services, which may significantly influence the perception of our aiWARE platform in the marketplace. If these reviews are negative or not as positive as reviews of our competitors’ products and services, then our brand may be harmed.
The promotion of our brand also requires us to make substantial expenditures, and we anticipate that these expenditures will increase as our industry becomes more competitive and as we seek to expand into new markets. These higher expenditures may not result in any increased revenue or in revenue that is sufficient to offset the higher expense levels. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand, then our business may not grow, we may see our pricing power reduced relative to competitors and we may lose customers, all of which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure, or that of our third party service providers, including AWS and Azure, may adversely affect our business and operating results.
Our business success depends in part on the ability of customers to access our Software Products & Services and Managed Services at any time and within an acceptable amount of time. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, outages and other performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, introductions of new applications and functionality, software errors and defects, capacity constraints due to an increasing number of users accessing our platform or initiating large volumes of processing simultaneously, or security related incidents. In addition, we rely on third parties, including AWS and Azure, to operate critical business systems and process sensitive information in a variety of contexts, including for hosting, storage and other critical services, required to operate our Software Products & Services and Managed Services. Our ability to monitor these third parties’ information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. As such, we are vulnerable to service interruptions, delays and outages experienced or caused by these third parties, and we may experience adverse consequences in the event these third-party service providers experience a security incident or other service interruption, delay or outage. While we may be entitled to damages if our third-party service providers fail to satisfy their privacy or security-related obligations to us, any award may be insufficient to cover our damages, or we may be unable to recover such award. Because we also incorporate diverse software and hosted services from many third-party vendors, we may encounter difficulties and delays in integrating and synthesizing these applications and programs, which may cause downtimes or other performance problems. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve the performance of our platform, especially during peak usage times and as our platform becomes more complex or usage increases. Additionally, our reliance on third parties could introduce new cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, including supply-chain attacks. Such supply-chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties’ infrastructure in our supply chain or our third-party partners’ supply chains have not been compromised.
Certain of our customer contracts include service level obligations, including system uptime commitments and/or required response times in the case of technical issues. If our Software Products & Services and Managed Services are unavailable or if our users are unable to access them within a reasonable amount of time or at all, we may be in breach of our contractual obligations, we may be required to issue credits or refunds to customers, and/or our customers may be entitled to terminate their contracts with us.
AWS and Azure provide us with hosting, computing and storage services pursuant to agreements that may be canceled under certain circumstances. If any of our agreements with AWS or Azure is terminated, we could experience interruptions on our platform and in our ability to make our platform available to customers, as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging alternative cloud infrastructure services.
Any of the above circumstances or events may harm our reputation, cause customers to stop using our platform, impair our ability to increase revenue from existing customers, impair our ability to grow our customer base, subject us to financial
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penalties and liabilities under our service level agreements and otherwise harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The security or operation of our platform, networks, computer systems or data, or those of third parties upon which we rely, may be breached or otherwise disrupted, and any such breach or other disruption could have an adverse effect on our business and reputation.
In the ordinary course of business, we process proprietary, confidential, and sensitive data, including proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, sensitive third-party data, business plans, transactions, financial information, and biometric data (collectively, sensitive information). Certain data privacy and security obligations may require us to implement and maintain specific security measures or industry-standard or reasonable security measures to protect our information technology systems and sensitive information. In particular, the data processed and stored in our platform, networks, and computer systems by customers in the government market may contain highly sensitive data that is subject to protection under government regulations, and we are obligated to comply with stringent requirements related to the security of such data, such as FedRAMP and Criminal Justice Information Services (“CJIS”) security requirements.
Individuals or entities may attempt to penetrate our network, computer system or platform security, or that of our third-party hosting and storage providers and other third parties upon which we rely, and could gain access to our sensitive information, including customer data. Some actors now engage and are expected to continue to engage in cyber-attacks, including without limitation, nation-state actors for geopolitical reasons and in conjunction with military conflicts and defense activities. During times of war and other major conflicts, we, the third parties upon which we rely, and our customers may be vulnerable to a heightened risk of these attacks, including retaliatory cyber-attacks, that could materially disrupt our systems and operations, supply chain, and ability to produce, sell and distribute our services. For example, we have operations and third parties upon which we rely to support our business located in unstable regions and regions experiencing (or expected to experience) geopolitical or other conflicts, including in the Middle East, where businesses have experienced an increase in cyberattacks in relation to the Israel/Hamas conflict.
In addition, our network, computer system or platform may be subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to computer malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions), viruses, worms and computer hacking, fraudulent use attempts, phishing and other social engineering attacks (including through deep fakes, which may be increasingly more difficult to identify as fake), denial-of-service attacks, credential stuffing attacks, credential harvesting, personnel misconduct or error, ransomware attacks, supply-chain attacks, adware, attacks enhanced or facilitated by AI, and other similar threats, all of which have become more prevalent in our industry. In particular, severe ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly prevalent and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, loss of sensitive information and income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack, but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting such payments. Our data and information systems may also fail for reasons other than malicious activity, including but not limited to software bugs, server malfunctions, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other information technology assets, telecommunications failures, earthquakes, fires, and floods.
Remote work has become more common and has increased risks to our platform, network, computer systems, and data, as more of our employees utilize network connections, computers and devices outside our premises or network, including working at home, while in transit and in public locations. Additionally, future or past business transactions (such as acquisitions or integrations) could expose us to additional cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, as our platform, network, or computer systems could be negatively affected by vulnerabilities present in acquired or integrated entities’ systems and technologies. Furthermore, we may discover security issues that were not found during due diligence, and it may be difficult to integrate companies into our information technology environment and security program.
These and other threats, attacks, disruptions, or accidents could result in the unauthorized, unlawful, or accidental acquisition, modification, destruction, loss, alteration, encryption, disclosure, access or misappropriation of our proprietary or confidential information, including of our customers and their employees or third parties, and/or damage to our or our third party service providers’ platform, network, or computer systems.
While we have implemented security measures designed to protect against security incidents, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective. We take steps designed to detect, mitigate and remediate vulnerabilities in our information systems (such as our hardware and/or software, including that of third parties upon which we rely). However, we may not be able to detect and remediate all vulnerabilities because the threats and techniques used to exploit a vulnerability may change frequently and are often sophisticated in nature, and as a result, such vulnerabilities could be exploited but may
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not be detected until after a security incident has occurred. Further, we may experience delays in developing and deploying remedial measures and patches designed to address identified vulnerabilities. Even if we have issued or otherwise made patches or information for vulnerabilities in our software applications, products or services, our customers may be unwilling or unable to deploy such patches and use such information effectively and in a timely manner. These vulnerabilities could be exploited and result in a security incident.
Applicable data privacy and security obligations may require us to notify relevant stakeholders of security incidents. Such disclosures are costly, and the disclosure or the failure to comply with such requirements could lead to adverse consequences. An actual or perceived security breach of our platform, network or computer systems, or those of our technology service providers or third party vendors, could result in adverse consequences such as the loss of business, financial losses, reputational damage, negative publicity, government enforcement actions (for example, regulatory investigations, orders, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections), additional reporting requirements and/or oversight, litigation (including class claims), indemnity obligations, damages for contract breach, civil and criminal penalties (including for violation of applicable laws, regulations or contractual obligations), restrictions on processing sensitive data (including personal data), diversion of management attention, interruptions in our operations (including availability of data), significant costs, fees and other monetary payments for remediation, and other similar harms.
Our contracts may not contain limitations of liability, and even where they do, there can be no assurance that limitations of liability in our contracts are sufficient to protect us from liabilities, damages, or claims related to our data privacy and security obligations. We cannot be sure that our insurance coverage will be adequate or sufficient to protect us from or to mitigate liabilities arising out of our privacy and security practices, that such coverage will continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that such coverage will pay future claims.
If we fail or are perceived to have failed to maintain the reliability, security and availability of our platform, network, or computer systems, or if customers believe that our platform does not provide adequate security for the storage of sensitive information or its transmission over the Internet, we may lose existing customers and we may not be able to attract new customers, negatively impacting our ability to grow and operate our business. If we experience security breaches or cyber-attacks or fail to comply with security requirements related to our secure government cloud environment, we may lose our ability to obtain or maintain a FedRAMP certification, which could result in the loss of business from customers in the government market. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial position and negatively impact our ability to grow and operate our business.
The reliability and continuous availability of our platform and services is critical to our success. However, software such as ours can contain errors, defects, security vulnerabilities or software bugs that are difficult to detect and correct, particularly when such vulnerabilities are first introduced or when new versions or enhancements of our product are released. Additionally, even if we are able to develop a patch or other fix to address such vulnerabilities, such fix may be difficult to push out to our customers or otherwise be delayed. Furthermore, our business depends upon the appropriate and successful implementation of our platform and services by our customers. If our customers fail to use our platform or services according to our specifications, our customers may suffer a security incident on their own systems or other adverse consequences. Even if such an incident is unrelated to our security practices, it could result in our incurring significant economic and operational costs in investigating, remediating, and implementing additional measures to further protect our customers from their own vulnerabilities, and could result in reputational harm. In addition to security breaches, third parties may gather, collect, or infer sensitive information about us from public sources, data brokers, or other means that reveal competitively sensitive details about our organization and could be used to undermine our competitive advantage or market position. Additionally, our sensitive information or sensitive information of our customers could be leaked, disclosed, or revealed as a result of or in connection with the use of generative AI technologies by our employees, personnel, or vendors.
Our ability to use our loss carryforwards may be limited.
As of December 31, 2023, we had U.S. federal, state and foreign loss carryforwards totaling approximately $181.2 million, $127.0 million and $25.0 million, respectively. These U.S. federal and state net operating loss carryforwards are projected to expire beginning in 2036 and 2028, respectively, unless previously utilized. The foreign loss carryforwards can be carried forward indefinitely. Under current law, U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards arising in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, may be carried forward indefinitely, but our use of such net operating loss carryforwards in a tax year generally may not exceed 80% of such year’s taxable income. In addition, our U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards may be subject to limitations under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if we have undergone or undergo an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in our equity ownership by certain stockholders over a rolling three-year period. We may have experienced such ownership
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changes in the past and may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of shifts in our stock ownership, some of which are outside our control. Our net operating loss carryforwards may also be impaired or restricted under state law. There is also a risk that due to other future regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of net operating losses, or other unforeseen reasons, our existing loss carryforwards could expire or otherwise be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. If we earn taxable income, such limitations could result in increased future income tax liability and our future cash flows or results of operations could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to our Indebtedness and Liquidity
Servicing our debt requires a significant amount of cash, and we may not have sufficient cash flow from our operations to pay our debt obligations.
As of December 31, 2023, we had $77.5 million principal amount outstanding of senior secured indebtedness under the Term Loan (as defined below), maturing in December 2027, and $91.2 million aggregate principal amount outstanding of convertible senior notes maturing in November 2026. Our ability to make scheduled payments of the principal of, to pay interest on and to refinance our indebtedness depends on our future performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors beyond our control. Our business may not generate cash flow from operations in the future sufficient to service our debt and make necessary capital expenditures. If we are unable to generate such cash flow, we may be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as selling assets, restructuring our debt or obtaining additional equity capital on terms that may be onerous or highly dilutive to our stockholders. Our ability to refinance our indebtedness will depend on the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. We may not be able to engage in any of these activities or engage in these activities on desirable terms, which could result in a default on our debt obligations.
If we are not able to achieve certain cost synergies from our prior acquisitions and cost savings from our planned cost reduction measures, we will need additional liquidity to continue our operations over the next twelve months.
As of December 31, 2023, we had liquidity of $79.4 million comprised of cash and cash equivalents, and we had debt consisting of $77.5 million principal amount outstanding under the Term Loan maturing in December 2027 and $91.2 million aggregate principal amount outstanding under our convertible senior notes maturing in November 2026. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred a net loss of $58.6 million and used cash in operations of $76.4 million. As of December 31, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of $429.9 million. We have a history of operating losses and negative operating cash flows. The amount of future losses and when, if ever, we will achieve profitability are uncertain. In addition, even if we achieve profitability, there can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain profitability in the future. Based on our liquidity position as of December 31, 2023 and our current forecast of operating results and cash flows, absent any other action, management determined that we will need additional liquidity to continue our operations for the foreseeable future, including over the next twelve months.
We may require additional capital to grow our business, service our debt obligations or refinance our maturing debt obligations, the amount of which will depend upon the size, timing, and structure of future working capital and general corporate needs and / or acquisitions, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
As noted above, if we are not able to achieve certain cost synergies from our prior acquisitions and cost savings from our planned cost reduction measures, we will need additional liquidity to continue our operations for the foreseeable future, including over the next twelve months. We may also require additional capital to service our debt obligations or refinance our debt obligations as they come due. We have in the past and may again in the future engage in equity and/or debt financings to secure any needed additional funds. For example, in December 2023, we and certain of our subsidiaries, as guarantors, entered into a Credit and Guaranty Agreement (the “Credit Agreement”) with certain lenders and Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, as administrative agent and collateral agent. The Credit Agreement provides for the $77.5 million senior secured term loan (the “Term Loan”), which was fully drawn by us on closing of the Term Loan. As of December 31, 2023, $77.5 million was outstanding under the Term Loan.
Any borrowings, including borrowings made to finance future strategic initiatives, could make us more vulnerable to a downturn in our operating results, a downturn in economic conditions, or increases in interest rates on borrowings that are subject to interest rate fluctuations. If our cash flow from operations is insufficient to meet our debt service requirements, we could then be required to sell additional equity securities, refinance our obligations or dispose of assets in order to meet our debt service requirements. Adequate financing may not be available if and when we need it or may not be available on terms acceptable to us. The failure to obtain sufficient financing on favorable terms and conditions could have a material adverse effect on our growth prospects.
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Further, if we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our common stock. If we do so, existing stockholders will experience dilution in the voting power of their common stock and earnings per share could be negatively impacted. The extent to which we will be able and willing to use issuances of equity or convertible debt securities for acquisitions and other strategic initiatives will depend on the market value of our common stock and the willingness of potential third parties to accept any such securities as full or partial consideration. Our inability to use issuances of our equity securities or convertible debt securities as consideration, to generate cash from operations, or to obtain additional funding through debt or equity financings in order to pursue our strategic initiatives could materially limit our growth.
The Credit Agreement governing our Term Loan contains debt service obligations and restrictive covenants that may impair our ability to access sufficient capital and operate our business.
The Credit Agreement governing our Term Loan contains various provisions that limit our ability, and certain of our subsidiaries’ abilities to, among other things, maintain unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of less than $15.0 million at any given time; create, incur, assume or guaranty certain indebtedness, liens, encumbrances and/or restrictions on our subsidiaries; make certain investments; make payments or distributions; undergo certain fundamental changes, including certain mergers, consolidations, liquidations, wind-ups and dissolutions; make sales, transfers and dispositions of certain property; sell, assign, pledge, encumber or dispose of interests in our subsidiaries; guarantee certain leases of real property; enter into certain transactions with certain stockholders and their affiliates; engage in certain lines of business; change our fiscal year-end or the fiscal year-end of our subsidiaries; make any changes in our or our subsidiaries’ accounting policies that are not required under GAAP; and make certain material amendments to, or permit certain material terminations or waivers of certain of our existing agreements. These covenants may impact our ability to operate and finance our business as we deem appropriate and may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and pursue other business opportunities.
Our failure to meet our obligations as they become due or to comply with various financial covenants contained in the instruments governing our current or future indebtedness could constitute an event of default under the instruments governing our indebtedness, including the Credit Agreement. In such event, the holders of the affected indebtedness could declare all of that indebtedness immediately due and payable, which, in turn, could cause the acceleration of the maturity of all or part of our other indebtedness. We may not have sufficient funds available, or we may not have access to sufficient capital from other sources, to repay any accelerated debt. Even if we could obtain additional financing, the terms of the financing may not be favorable to us. In addition, substantially all of our assets are subject to liens securing the Term Loan. If amounts outstanding under the Term Loan were accelerated, our lenders could foreclose on these liens and we could lose substantially all of our assets. Any event of default under the instruments governing our indebtedness could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Any adverse change in market interest rates could increase our interest costs on existing and future debt and could adversely affect our stock price.
Our Term Loan accrues interest at a rate of Term SOFR plus 8.50% per annum, with a 3.00% floor for Term SOFR, payable quarterly. We anticipate that federal reserve rates will remain elevated and volatile in fiscal 2024, and that we will continue to experience higher interest rates accordingly. If interest rates increase, our interest costs could increase under our Credit Agreement and Term Loan. In addition, we may in the future incur additional indebtedness at increased interest rates in connection with entry into new credit facilities or financing other transactions. Increased cost associated with increased interest rates could make the financing of any acquisition more costly, as well as lower our current period earnings. Rising interest rates could limit our ability to refinance existing debt when it matures or cause us to pay higher interest rates upon refinancing.
Risks Related to Target Markets, Competition and Customers
The success of our business depends on our ability to expand into new vertical markets and attract new customers in a cost-effective manner.
To grow our business, we plan to drive greater awareness and adoption of our aiWARE platform, applications and services from enterprises across new vertical markets, including the Government & Regulated Industries markets. We intend to continue to invest in sales and marketing, as well as in technological development, to meet evolving customer needs in these and other markets. We may not be successful in gaining new customers in any or all of these markets. Some markets
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may present unique and unexpected challenges and difficulties. For example, for us to offer our Software Products & Services to certain government customers, we are required to operate our aiWARE platform in a secure government cloud environment, and in some cases, in a private cloud environment or an on-premises environment, in order to meet these customers’ requirements and to enable them to maintain compliance with applicable regulations that govern the use, storage and transfer of certain government data. However, due to the secure nature of these environments, at this time, not all of the functionalities, features and cognitive processing capabilities of our aiWARE platform are available in these environments, which may limit or reduce the performance of our services. Furthermore, we may incur additional costs to modify our current platform to conform to customers’ or cloud providers’ requirements, and we may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to offset these costs. We are also required to comply with certain regulations required by government customers, such as FedRAMP and CJIS, which require us to incur significant costs, devote management time and modify our current platform and operations. If we are unable to comply with those regulations effectively and in a cost-effective manner, our financial results could be adversely affected.
As part of our strategy to penetrate new vertical markets, we will incur marketing expenses before we are able to recognize any revenue in such markets, and these expenses may not result in increased revenue or brand awareness. We have made in the past, and may make in the future, significant expenditures and investments in new marketing campaigns, and these investments may not lead to the cost-effective acquisition of additional customers. If we are unable to maintain effective marketing programs, then our ability to attract new customers or enter new vertical markets could be adversely affected.
We generate substantial revenue from a single customer and the loss of such customer may harm our business, results of operations and financial results.
We generate substantial revenue from a single customer, Amazon, for which there is no long-term contract with us. Given Amazon’s high concentration of revenue on our consolidated results, our revenue results may fluctuate significantly year over year based upon their hiring patterns. For example, during the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2022, we experienced a slowdown in our Average Annual Revenue (“AAR”) per customer which was almost entirely driven by a reduction in hiring consumption from Amazon. In addition, in May 2023, Amazon notified us that it made a decision to reduce its consumption of our human resources products and services, which reduction resulted in a reduction in our revenue of $10.0 million and $12.0 million for the quarters ended September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2023. In the event Amazon decides to terminate its contract with us, further reduce its budget for our Veritone Hire solutions, or develop a competing solution or otherwise take its recruitment and hiring needs in-house, and we are unable to obtain additional customers or increase our revenue from existing customers to offset the reduction of these revenues, we could experience a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and reported revenue and results of operation.
We currently generate significant revenue from a limited number of key customers and the loss of one or more of those customers or a significant reduction in the revenues generated from those customers may harm our business, results of operations and financial results.
Our ten largest customers by revenue accounted for approximately 39% and 55% of our net revenues in fiscal years 2023 and 2022, respectively. One customer accounted for approximately 12% of net revenues in fiscal year 2023 and 25% in 2022.
Ten customers accounted for approximately 44% of our total Software Products & Services revenues in 2023, with one customer accounting for approximately 22% of our total Software Products & Services revenues. Ten customers accounted for approximately 50% of our total Managed Services revenues in 2023, with one customer accounting for approximately 12% of our total Managed Services revenues.
If any of our key customers, particularly our key advertising customers which have the ability to terminate our agreements on short notice, decides to terminate or not to renew its contract with us, renews on less favorable terms, or suffers downturns in its business leading to a reduction in its marketing spending, and we are not able to gain additional customers or increase our revenue from other customers to offset the reduction of revenues, our business, results of operations and financial condition would be harmed.
Technological advances may significantly disrupt the labor market and weaken demand for human capital at a rapid rate.
The success of our Veritone Hire solutions is dependent on our customers’ demands for talent. As technology continues to evolve, more tasks currently performed by people may be replaced by automation, robotics, machine learning, artificial
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intelligence and other technological advances outside of our control. This trend poses a risk to the talent acquisition industry as a whole, particularly in lower-skill job categories that may be more susceptible to such replacement.
Significant segments of the market for talent acquisition software and services may have hiring needs and service preferences that are subject to greater volatility than the overall economy.
The target customer segment for our Veritone Hire solutions spans a wide range of company characteristics, including company size, geography, and industry, among other factors. Hiring activity may vary significantly among businesses with different characteristics and accordingly, any concentration we may have among businesses with certain characteristics may subject us to high volatility in our financial results. Smaller businesses, for example, typically have less persistent hiring needs and may experience greater volatility in their need for talent acquisition software and services and preferences among providers of such services. Along with a relatively short sales cycle, smaller businesses may be more likely to change platforms based on short-term differences in perceived price, value, service level, or other factors. Difficulty in acquiring and/or retaining these businesses as customers may adversely affect our operating results.
Our sales efforts related to our Software Products & Services involve considerable time and expense and our sales cycle is often long and unpredictable.
Our results of operations may fluctuate, in part, because of the length and unpredictability of our sales cycle, particularly in our Government & Regulated Industries markets. As part of our sales efforts, we invest considerable time and expense evaluating the specific organizational needs of our potential customers and educating these potential customers about the technical capabilities and value of our Software Products & Services. Potential customers often require evaluation licenses at no charge or for nominal fees to evaluate our solutions before making a purchase decision. Sales to government customers may also be subject to lengthy and complex procurement processes, including technology and security assessments, budget approvals and competitive bidding requirements. Due to these factors, our sales cycle often lasts several months or more for some customers. Our sales efforts typically require a significant investment of human resources expense and time, including efforts by sales engineers, solution architects, product development and senior management, and we may not be successful in making a sale to a potential customer. If our sales efforts to a potential customer do not result in sufficient revenue to justify our investments, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Advertising customers periodically review and change their advertising requirements and relationships. If we are unable to remain competitive or retain key customers, our business, results of operations and financial position may be adversely affected.
The media placement industry is highly competitive, and certain advertising customers periodically put their advertising and marketing business up for competitive review. Customers also review the cost and benefit of servicing all or a portion of their advertising and marketing needs in-house. We have won and lost accounts in the past as a result of these reviews. Because our advertising contracts generally can be canceled by our customers upon 30 to 90 days’ prior written notice, clients can easily change media providers on short notice without any penalty. In addition, from time to time, customers cancel media campaigns for their internal business reasons. If we are not able to retain key customers, or if any of our key customers significantly reduce their advertising spend, our revenue may be adversely affected, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial position.
Acquiring and retaining advertising customers depends on our ability to avoid and manage conflicts of interest arising from other customer relationships and attracting and retaining key personnel.
Our ability to acquire new advertising customers and to retain existing customers may, in some cases, be limited by customers’ perceptions of, or policies concerning, conflicts of interest arising from other customer relationships. If we are unable to manage these customer relationships and avoid potential conflicts of interest, our business, results of operations and financial position may be adversely affected.
Our ability to acquire new advertising customers and to retain existing customers is dependent in large part upon our ability to attract and retain our key personnel in that business, who are an important aspect of our competitiveness. If we are unable to attract and retain key personnel, our ability to provide our services in the manner customers have come to expect may be adversely affected, which could harm our reputation and result in a loss of customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial position.
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Risks Related to Intellectual Property
We face risks arising from our digital content licensing services, including potential liability resulting from claims by third parties for infringement or violation of copyrights, publicity or other rights, as well as indemnification claims by rights holders and customers.
We manage and license digital content on behalf of leading rights holders in the film, television, sports and advertising industries. We enter into agreements with rights holders under which they grant us the right to distribute and license their content to third parties, subject to certain restrictions and requirements, such as limitations on the type and/or duration of use and requirements to obtain clearances and consents from third parties related to the content. Under these agreements, the rights holders generally represent and warrant that they have the right to license the content to us and that the authorized use of the content will not infringe any third party copyrights and agree to indemnify us for claims arising from breach of such representations and warranties. However, we, and/or our customers to which we sublicense the content, are generally responsible for obtaining all required clearances, permissions and consents with respect to any specific person, place, property or subject matter depicted in the content, each of which may be subject to trademarks, rights of publicity, property rights or other rights belonging to third parties, and we generally agree to indemnify the right holders with respect to claims arising from any failure to do so. In many cases, our agreements with rights holders also require that we include specific terms, conditions, covenants and obligations in our agreements with our customers.
In our license agreements with customers, we represent and warrant that we have the right to sublicense the content to them and that their authorized use of the content will not infringe any third party copyrights, and we agree to indemnify our customers for claims arising from breach of such representations and warranties. However, our customers are generally responsible for obtaining all necessary clearances, permissions and consents from third parties, unless we have expressly agreed to provide clearance services with respect to the content, and our customers generally agree to indemnify us for claims arising from their failure to do so. If we or our customers fail to obtain all clearances, permissions and consents from third parties required for the customers’ use of licensed content, or if our customers otherwise use content in a manner not authorized by the terms of our agreements with the rights holders, then third parties may bring claims against us and the rights holders, and the rights holders may seek indemnification from us related to such claims. In some cases, we may not be entitled to a supporting indemnification by our customers, or we may not be successful in enforcing our rights to indemnification by our customers. In addition, third parties may bring claims against us and our customers for copyright infringement, and we may be required to indemnify our customers for such claims. Similarly, we may not be entitled to indemnification by the rights holders, or we may not be able to enforce our rights to indemnification by the rights holders.
We may incur significant liabilities and costs in the event of claims for infringement or violation of copyrights, publicity or other rights, and/or indemnification claims by third-party rights holders and customers. Regardless of their merit and outcome, intellectual property and indemnification claims are time consuming, expensive to litigate or settle and cause significant diversion of management attention and could severely harm our financial condition and reputation, and adversely affect our business.
We maintain insurance policies to cover potential intellectual property disputes. However, if an intellectual property claim or related indemnification claim, or a series of claims, is brought against us in excess of our insurance coverage or for uninsured liabilities, our business could suffer. In addition, we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts or scope to protect us against all losses.
We may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
There has been considerable patent and other intellectual property development activity in the AI industry, which has resulted in litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. Our future success depends, in part, on not infringing the intellectual property rights of others. In the future, we may receive claims from third parties, including our competitors, alleging that our platform and underlying technology infringe or violate such third party’s intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing upon such rights. We may be unaware of the intellectual property rights of others that may cover some or all of our technology. In addition, in operating our platform, we rely significantly on software provided by third parties, including without limitation, generative AI models and applications, and we may become subject to similar infringement claims related to such third party software. We may not have adequate indemnities from, or we may not be successful in enforcing our rights to indemnification by, such third party software providers.
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Any such claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty payments, prevent us from offering some portion of our platform, or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners in connection with any such litigation and to obtain licenses or modify our platform, which could further exhaust our resources. Patent infringement, trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation and other intellectual property claims and proceedings brought against us, whether successful or not, could harm our brand, business, results of operations and financial condition. Litigation is inherently uncertain, and any judgment or injunctive relief entered against us or any adverse settlement could negatively affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, litigation can involve significant management time and attention and be expensive, regardless of the outcome.
We could incur substantial costs in protecting or defending our intellectual property rights, and any failure to protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our brand and the proprietary methods and technologies that we develop under patent and other intellectual property laws of the United States and foreign jurisdictions so that we can prevent others from using our inventions and proprietary information. As of March 25, 2024, in the United States, we have 33 issued patents, which expire between 2029 and 2042, and have 14 patent applications pending for examination. As of such date, we also had 20 issued patents and 5 patent applications pending for examination in foreign jurisdictions (including international PCT applications), all of which are based on counterpart U.S. patent applications pursued by us. We may not be issued any additional patents and any patents that have been issued or that may be issued in the future may not provide significant protection for our intellectual property. In addition, we have registered, or have applied for registration of, numerous trademarks, including Veritone and aiWARE, in the United States and in several foreign jurisdictions. If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights adequately, our competitors might gain access to our technology and our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
The particular forms of intellectual property protection that we seek, or our business decisions about when to file patent applications and trademark applications, may not be adequate to protect our business. We could be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights, determine the validity and scope of our proprietary rights or those of others, or defend against claims of infringement or invalidity. Such litigation could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management, result in a diversion of significant resources, lead to the narrowing or invalidation of portions of our intellectual property and have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We also rely, in part, on confidentiality agreements with our business partners, employees, consultants, advisors, customers and others in our efforts to protect our proprietary technology, processes and methods. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our confidential information, and it may be possible for unauthorized parties to copy our software or other proprietary technology or information, or to develop similar software independently without our having an adequate remedy for unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information, and in these cases, we would not be able to assert any trade secret rights against those parties. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and the failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property and other proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. To the extent we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying, transfer and use of our proprietary technology or information may increase.
Our means of protecting our intellectual property and proprietary rights may not be adequate or our competitors could independently develop similar technology. If we fail to meaningfully protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our use of open source software could negatively affect our ability to sell our products and subject us to possible litigation.
Our aiWARE platform incorporates select open source software, and we expect to continue to incorporate open source software in our aiWARE platform in the future. Few of the licenses applicable to open source software have been interpreted by courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our products and platform. Moreover, although we have implemented policies to
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regulate the use and incorporation of open source software into our aiWARE platform, we cannot be certain that we have not incorporated open source software in our aiWARE platform in a manner that is inconsistent with such policies. If we fail to comply with open source licenses, we may be subject to certain requirements, including requirements that we offer our products that incorporate the open source software for no cost, that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software and that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of applicable open source licenses. If an author or other third party that distributes such open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from generating revenue from customers using products that contained the open source software and required to comply with onerous conditions or restrictions on these products. In any of these events, we and our customers could be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to continue offering our Software Products & Services and to re-engineer or discontinue offering our products to customers in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis. Any of the foregoing could require us to devote additional research and development resources to re-engineer our products, could result in customer dissatisfaction and may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Risks Related to Regulatory Compliance
We are subject to stringent and evolving U.S. and foreign laws, regulations, and rules, contractual obligations, industry standards, policies and other obligations related to data privacy and security. These legal and other obligations could require us to make changes to our business, impose additional costs on us and reduce the demand for our software products and solutions. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could also lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation (including class claims) and mass arbitration demands; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; and other adverse business consequences.
In the ordinary course of business, we process sensitive information. Our customers also utilize our Software Products & Services and Managed Services to process data, which may contain personal data that is subject to data protection and privacy laws in various jurisdictions.
Our data processing activities subject us to numerous data privacy and security obligations. Federal, state, local and foreign government bodies and agencies have adopted, or may in the future adopt, laws, regulations and guidance regarding the processing of personal data. These include, but are not limited to, the GDPR, the CCPA (as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (the "CPRA") and other data protection and privacy laws, regulations and guidance adopted in other jurisdictions, including other states within the United States. In addition to government laws, regulations and guidance, privacy advocates and industry groups may propose various self-regulatory standards that may legally or contractually apply to our business. We may also be subject to other data protection and privacy obligations, such as external and internal privacy and security policies, other public representations and contractual requirements.
The regulatory framework relating to privacy and data protection issues worldwide is evolving rapidly and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. Consumers’ data privacy expectations are also quickly changing, becoming increasingly stringent, and creating uncertainty. Because the interpretation and application of many privacy and data protection obligations are uncertain, it is possible that these obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner inconsistent with our existing privacy and data management practices. Preparing for and complying with these obligations requires us to devote significant resources, which may necessitate changes to our services, information technologies, systems, and practices and to those of any third parties that process personal data on our behalf. In addition, these obligations may require us to change our business model. Our business model materially depends on our ability to process personal data, including sensitive and highly regulated types of data such as biometric information, so we are particularly exposed to the risks associated with the rapidly changing legal landscape. For example, we may be at heightened risk of regulatory scrutiny, and any changes in the regulatory framework could require us to fundamentally change our business model.
As we expand into new jurisdictions or markets, we will be required to understand and comply with various new requirements applicable in those jurisdictions or markets. For example, we have entered into agreements and are actively pursuing opportunities to provide our Software Products & Services and Managed Services to customers in Europe, which involve processing of personal data. Europe and other jurisdictions have enacted or proposed laws with stringent obligations and significant penalties. For example, the EU GDPR imposes financial penalties for non-compliance, which can be up to four percent of global revenue or 20 million Euros, whichever is greater.
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In particular, in the ordinary course of business, we may transfer personal data from Europe and other jurisdictions to the United States or other countries. Europe and other jurisdictions have enacted laws limiting the transfer of personal data to other countries or, in some cases, requiring data to be localized. In particular, the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK have significantly restricted the transfer of personal data to the United States and other countries whose privacy laws they generally believe are inadequate. Other jurisdictions may adopt similarly stringent interpretations of their data localization and cross-border data transfer laws. Although there are currently various mechanisms that may be used to transfer personal data from the EEA and UK to the United States in compliance with law, these mechanisms are subject to potential legal challenges, and there is no assurance that we can satisfy or rely on these measures to lawfully transfer personal data to the United States. If there is no lawful manner for us to transfer personal data from the EEA and the UK or other jurisdictions to the United States, or if the requirements for a legally-compliant transfer are too onerous, we could face significant adverse consequences, including the interruption or degradation of our operations, the need to relocate part of or all of our business or data processing activities to other jurisdictions at significant expense, increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines and penalties, the inability to transfer data and work with partners, vendors and other third parties, and injunctions against our processing or transferring of personal data necessary to operate our business. Furthermore, companies that transfer personal data out of the EEA and UK to other jurisdictions, particularly to the United States, are subject to increased scrutiny from regulators, individual litigants, and activist groups. Some European regulators have ordered certain companies to suspend or permanently cease certain transfers of personal data out of Europe for allegedly violating the GDPR’s cross-border data transfer limitations.
In the United States, federal, state, and local governments have enacted numerous data privacy and security laws, including data breach notification laws, personal data privacy laws, consumer protection laws (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act), and other similar laws (e.g., wiretapping laws). In the past few years, numerous U.S. states—including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah—have enacted comprehensive privacy laws that impose certain obligations on covered businesses, including providing specific disclosures in privacy notices and affording residents with certain rights concerning their personal data. As applicable, such rights may include the right to access, correct, or delete certain personal data, and to opt-out of certain data processing activities, such as targeted advertising, profiling, and automated decision-making. The exercise of these rights may impact our business and ability to provide our products and services. Certain states also impose stricter requirements for processing certain personal data, including sensitive information, such as conducting data privacy impact assessments. These state laws allow for statutory fines for noncompliance. For example, the CCPA applies to personal data of consumers, business representatives, and employees who are California residents, and requires businesses to provide specific disclosures in privacy notices and honor requests of such individuals to exercise certain privacy rights. The CCPA provides for fines of up to $7,500 per intentional violation and allows private litigants affected by certain data breaches to recover significant statutory damages.
We are also bound by contractual obligations related to data privacy and security, and our efforts to comply with such obligations may not be successful. For example, certain privacy laws, such as the GDPR and the CCPA, require our customers to impose specific contractual restrictions on their service providers. Additionally, some of our customer contracts require us to host personal data locally. We also publish privacy policies, marketing materials and other statements, such as compliance with certain certifications or self-regulatory principles, regarding data privacy and security. If these policies, materials or statements are found to be deficient, lacking in transparency, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our practices, we may be subject to investigation, enforcement actions by regulators or other adverse consequences.
To the extent applicable to our business or the businesses of our customers, these obligations could have negative effects on our business, including by increasing our costs and operating expenses, and delaying or impeding our deployment of new core functionality and products. Compliance with these obligations requires significant management time and attention, and actual or perceived failure to comply could result in government enforcement actions (e.g., investigations, inspections, etc.), negative publicity, litigation (including class action claims) and mass arbitration demands, subject us to contractual liability, fines or penalties, additional reporting requirements and/or oversight or result in demands that we modify or cease existing business practices (including bans on processing personal data or orders to destroy personal data). In addition, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, such laws, regulations and industry standards may adversely affect our customers’ ability or desire to collect, use, process and store personal information using our software solutions, which could reduce overall demand for them. Even the perception of privacy and data security concerns, whether or not valid, may inhibit market acceptance of our software solutions in certain markets. Furthermore, privacy and data security concerns may cause our customers’ customers, vendors, employees and other industry participants to resist providing the personal information necessary to allow our customers to use our products and services effectively. Additionally, plaintiffs have become increasingly more active in bringing privacy-related claims, including class claims and mass arbitration demands. Some of these claims allow for the recovery of statutory damages on a per violation basis, and, if
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viable, carry the potential for monumental statutory damages, depending on the volume of data and the number of violations. Any of these outcomes could adversely affect our business and operating results.
Additionally, under various privacy laws and other obligations, we may be required to obtain certain consents to process personal data. For example, some of our data processing practices may be challenged under wiretapping laws, if we obtain consumer information from third parties through various methods, including chatbot and session replay providers, or via third-party marketing pixels. These practices may be subject to increased challenges by class action plaintiffs. Our inability or failure to obtain consent for these practices could result in adverse consequences, including class action litigation and mass arbitration demands.
Our employees and personnel use generative AI technologies to perform their work, and the disclosure and use of personal data in generative AI technologies is subject to various privacy laws and other privacy obligations. Governments have passed and are likely to pass additional laws regulating generative AI. Our use of this technology could result in additional compliance costs, regulatory investigations and actions, and lawsuits. If we are unable to use generative AI, it could make our business less efficient and result in competitive disadvantages.
Finally, governments and regulators in certain jurisdictions, including Europe, are increasingly seeking to regulate the use, transfer and other processing of non-personal data, an area which has typically been the subject of very limited or no specific regulation. This means that, if and to the extent such regulations are relevant to our operations or those of our customers, certain of the risks and considerations outlined herein may apply equally to our processing of both personal and non-personal data. For example, we may become subject to certain parts of the European Union’s Data Act, which imposes certain data and cloud service interoperability and switching obligations to enable users to switch between service providers without undue delay or cost, as well as certain requirements concerning cross-border international transfers of, and governmental access to, non-personal data outside the EEA. Depending on how these laws are interpreted, we may have to adapt our business practices, contractual arrangements and products to comply with such obligations.
Tax authorities in the United States and in foreign jurisdictions may successfully assert that we, including our acquired companies, should have collected, or in the future should collect, sales, use, value added, or similar taxes, and we could be subject to substantial liabilities with respect to past or future transactions, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
We conduct operations in multiple tax jurisdictions throughout the United States. In many of these jurisdictions, non-income-based taxes, such as sales and use taxes, are assessed on our operations. Our customers agree to pay the use taxes in the states and other jurisdictions where our services are subject to sales or use tax. As a result, we have not billed or collected these taxes and, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, we have not recorded a provision for our tax exposure in these jurisdictions. In the event these jurisdictions challenge our approach or our customers do not satisfy the sales or use tax obligation, such jurisdictions may assert tax assessments, penalties and/or interest against us, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
In addition, we conduct operations outside of the United States, including in Israel and parts of Europe. These foreign jurisdictions have complex tax laws and regulations, and we may be subject to future uncertainties as a result of historical tax positions taken by us or our acquired companies. While we believe we have taken proper tax positions, as reflected in our financial statements herein, foreign tax authorities may challenge certain tax positions we or our acquired companies have taken historically, or may take in the future. For example, Veritone, Inc. acquired PandoLogic, Inc., the United States subsidiary of PandoLogic Ltd., in 2022, and as a result, created certain tax liabilities within Israel associated with the deemed tax attributes of this transaction. While we believe we have properly accrued for estimated tax obligations due to Israel and the United States, we cannot be certain the Israeli or the U.S. tax authorities will agree with our calculated tax impact. As a result, our tax positions may be challenged in the future, and subject to local-, state- and country-specific audits and inquiries, the outcomes of which could differ materially from our estimates. Incurring any such tax liabilities (including related penalties and interest) could materially adversely affect our business and financial condition.
We currently benefit from certain tax incentives extended by the government of Israel that are designed to encourage investment and development of technology in Israel but which require recipients to meet certain conditions, including development milestones and other requirements. If we fail to satisfy such requirements, we may lose certain tax incentives, resulting in additional income tax expenses.
Recent and proposed laws regarding the use of facial recognition technology, the processing of biometric data, and the use of AI, automated decision-making and machine learning technologies could increase compliance costs or otherwise make it harder for us to conduct our business, require us to change our business practices, lead to regulatory investigations or actions, and have a material adverse effect on demand for certain of our products.
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Certain of our Software Products & Services, particularly our IDentify face matching application for law enforcement agencies, utilize facial recognition technology. Facial recognition technology has been the subject of increasing concern and criticism, including over the potential for the technology to misidentify individuals as criminal suspects, and to be used in ways that infringe on individual rights. Numerous legislative proposals have been introduced to ban or restrict the use of the technology by certain governmental agencies, and several U.S. cities, including San Francisco, California, Oakland, California and Somerville, Massachusetts, have enacted such bans. Although some jurisdictions are re-evaluating the breadth of such bans, where any ban or restriction on the use of facial recognition technologies by governmental agencies have been or may be enacted, potential government customers for our IDentify solution may be prohibited from or restricted in using the technology. If such bans or restrictions are enacted in a significant number of jurisdictions, it would have a material adverse effect on the market for software solutions that utilize facial recognition technology, including our IDentify solution.
We also offer facial recognition technologies to non-governmental customers. Data privacy laws have been enacted or introduced in a number of jurisdictions that regulate the processing of biometric data, including facial images in facial recognition systems, by non-governmental actors. For example, the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) regulates the collection, use, safeguarding, and storage of biometric information. BIPA provides for substantial penalties and statutory damages and have generated significant class action activity; the cost of litigating and settling any claims that we have violated the BIPA or similar laws could be significant. As another example, certain comprehensive U.S. state privacy laws, such as Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act, require covered businesses to obtain affirmative consumer consent before processing biometric data and other sensitive data. Additionally, under the GDPR, use of biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person constitutes the processing of a special category of personal data, to which heightened standards, requirements and regulatory and individual scrutiny apply. The processing of biometric data for such purposes is prohibited unless one of a very limited and specific set of conditions is satisfied (such as explicit consent of the data subject). Effective compliance in this area (including in the context of use of certain of our products) can be highly challenging, and we are reliant on our customers to ensure that such a condition is satisfied when they use our products to identify someone. We may be unable to provide certain of our products in certain jurisdictions, in particular in Europe where provision of such technologies in compliance with the GDPR is highly challenging. Such laws may limit the demand for our aiWARE platform for non-governmental use cases that utilize facial recognition technology, which could adversely impact our ability to grow our business in those areas.
In addition, AI, automated decision making, and ML technologies are increasingly subject to regulatory scrutiny and oversight, for example, under the comprehensive legal framework governing the use of artificial intelligence adopted by the European Parliament in the European Union (the “EU AI Act”). The EU AI Act imposes onerous obligations related to the development, deployment and use of AI/ML-related systems. In particular, the EU AI Act is likely to designate certain AI technologies, including technologies used in an employment-related context (such as in relation to recruitment, placement of targeted job advertisements, and decision-making concerning promotion, termination and task allocation), as ‘high risk’ and subject to numerous onerous compliance obligations, including various transparency, conformity and risk assessment, monitoring and human oversight requirements; the EU AI Act is also likely to impose a prohibition of the use of ‘real-time’ biometric identification systems in publicly accessible spaces by law enforcement authorities or on their behalf unless very limited exceptions apply. Certain of our products and services are likely to fall within one or more of these categories. Under the EU AI Act, non-compliant companies may be subject to administrative fines of up to 35 million Euros or 7% of a company’s total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is the higher. The EU AI Act has a phased implementation process and is likely to be fully effective by Spring 2026, with an initial ban on prohibited AI systems applying from Autumn 2024. Moreover, in the United Kingdom, the government has confirmed its position that existing regulators are to implement certain specific principles (safety, security and robustness; transparency and explainability; fairness; accountability and governance; contestability and redress), within those regulators’ existing remits, to guide and inform the responsible development and use of AI/ML within their relevant sectors / competences. Additionally, several U.S. jurisdictions have enacted measures related to the use of AI in products and services for their potentially discriminatory effects. For example, New York City passed a law to regulate the use of automated employment decision tools by employers and employment agencies. Certain of these laws may be materially unfavorable to our interests and/or inconsistent with our existing operations, policies, practices or plans (or may be interpreted as such). We expect other jurisdictions will adopt similar laws.
Additionally, certain privacy laws extend rights to consumers (such as the right to delete certain personal data) and regulate automated decision making, which may be incompatible with our use of AI (including generative AI) and ML technologies in our products and services. These obligations may make it harder for us to conduct our business using AI/ML, lead to regulatory fines or penalties, require us to change our business practices, retrain our AI/ML, or prevent or limit our use of AI/ML. For example, the FTC has required other companies to turn over (or disgorge) valuable insights or trainings
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generated through the use of AI/ML where they allege the company has violated privacy and consumer protection laws. If we cannot use AI/ML or that use is restricted, our business may be less efficient, or we may be at a competitive disadvantage.
Moreover, AI/ML models may create flawed, incomplete, or inaccurate outputs, some of which may appear correct. This may happen if the inputs that the model relied on were inaccurate, incomplete or flawed (including if a bad actor “poisons” the AI/ML with bad inputs or logic), or if the logic of the AI/ML is flawed (a so-called “hallucination”). We may use AI/ML outputs to make certain decisions. Due to these potential inaccuracies or flaws, the model could be biased and could lead us to make decisions that could bias certain individuals (or classes of individuals), and adversely impact their rights, employment, and ability to obtain certain pricing, products, services, or benefits. For example, our platform uses (and allows our customers to use) AI/ML for recruitment, screening, and other employment-related tasks, and if such AI/ML-based outputs or decisions are deemed to be biased, we could face adverse consequences, including exposure to reputational and competitive harm, customer loss, and legal liability.
Furthermore, any sensitive information (including confidential, competitive, proprietary, or personal data) that we input into a third-party generative AI/machine learning platform could be leaked or disclosed to others, including if sensitive information is used to train the third party’s AI/machine learning model. Additionally, where such a model ingests personal data and makes connections using such data, those technologies may reveal other personal or sensitive information generated by the model.
Given that AI, automated decision making and ML technologies are core to our business, any increased regulation over these technologies, including the EU AI Act, could make it harder for us to conduct our business, significantly complicate our compliance efforts, increase legal risk and compliance costs for us, the third parties upon whom we rely, and our customers, increase our cost of doing business, impede or prevent our growth plans (including into Europe), require us to change our business operations at significant cost (such as retaining or rebuilding our AI/ML models), and reduce demand for our products.
Risks Related to the Ownership of Our Securities and Our Public Company Operations
Our common stock price has been extremely volatile and could continue to fluctuate widely in price, which could result in substantial losses for investors.
The market price of our common stock has been, and we expect will continue to be, subject to extreme fluctuations over short periods of time. For example, the closing price of our common stock has ranged from a low of $1.49 to a high of $7.78 during the 12-month period ended February 29, 2024. Prior to that, from the completion of our initial public offering (“IPO”) on May 12, 2017 through February 28, 2023, the closing price of our common stock has ranged from a low of $1.52 to a high of $65.91.
These fluctuations may be due to various factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
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In recent years, the stock markets generally have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the listed companies. Broad market and industry factors may significantly affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. These fluctuations have been, and may continue to be, even more pronounced in the trading market for our common stock.
Further, on some occasions, our stock price may be, or may be purported to be, subject to “short squeeze” activity. A “short squeeze” is a technical market condition that occurs when the price of a stock increases substantially, forcing market participants who had taken a position that its price would fall (i.e., who had sold the stock “short”), to buy it, which in turn may create significant, short-term demand for the stock not for fundamental reasons, but rather due to the need for such market participants to acquire the stock in order to forestall the risk of even greater losses. A “short squeeze” condition in the market for a stock can lead to short-term conditions involving very high volatility and trading that may or may not track fundamental valuation models.
In addition, in the past, class action litigation has often been instituted against companies whose securities have experienced periods of volatility in market price. Securities litigation brought against us following volatility in our stock price, regardless of the merit or ultimate results of such litigation, could result in substantial costs, which would hurt our financial condition and operating results and divert management’s attention and resources from our business.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.
As a public company, we are required to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and related rules implemented by the SEC. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. In particular, we must perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This report must contain, among other things, an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the end of our fiscal year, including a statement as to whether or not our internal control over financial reporting is effective. This assessment must include disclosure of any material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting identified by management. In addition, we are required to have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in this annual report on Form 10-K.
Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting have been identified in the past and may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement could harm our results of operations or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting also could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information and could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition and could cause a decline in the trading price of our common stock. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on NASDAQ.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to develop and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results in a timely manner, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us, materially and adversely affect our business and operating results and expose us to potential litigation.
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis. We have previously identified multiple material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting.
During management’s review of our results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, management identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting relating to the consolidation process and review of financial statements specifically pertaining to the Company’s design of controls to determine proper accounting for certain
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foreign exchange transactions and translation between Veritone, Inc. and certain of our foreign subsidiaries. This material weakness did not result in any identified material misstatements to the financial statements. However, this material weakness could have resulted in a material misstatement to the Company’s annual or interim condensed consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis.
During management’s review of our results for the year ended December 31, 2022, management identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting relating to information technology general controls (“ITGCs”) in the areas of user access and change-management over certain information technology (“IT”) systems that support our financial reporting processes. Our business process automated and manual controls that are dependent on the affected ITGCs were also deemed ineffective because they could have been adversely impacted. These control deficiencies were a result of user access and change management processes over certain IT systems. Although this material weakness did not result in any identified misstatements to the financial statements and there were no changes to previously released financial results, this material weakness could have resulted in a material misstatement to our annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis. Related to these findings, management concluded that during the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company did not maintain appropriately designed entity-level controls impacting the control environment or monitoring controls to prevent or detect material misstatements to the consolidated financial statements. Specifically, these deficiencies were attributed to (i) a lack of a sufficient number of qualified resources to perform control activities and (ii) insufficient risk assessment and monitoring activities as a result of untimely or ineffective identification of internal control risks to properly design, test, implement and assess effective internal controls over financial reporting.
Management is taking remediation actions with respect to this material weakness including: (i) developing and enhancing IT compliance oversight capabilities with specific focus over identification and execution of appropriate ITGCs; (ii) developing a training program addressing ITGCs and policies, including educating control owners concerning the principles and requirements of each control, with a focus on those related to user access and change management over IT systems impacting financial reporting; (iii) developing and maintaining documentation of underlying ITGCs to promote knowledge transfer upon personnel and function changes; (iv) implementing an IT management review and testing plan to monitor ITGCs with a specific focus on systems supporting our financial reporting processes; (v) implementing financial reporting control changes to address foreign currency and consolidation matters, evaluating the adequacy of resources surrounding its consolidation process and training individuals in the proper accounting treatment for foreign currency transactions and consolidation under US GAAP, which training was completed in the fourth quarter of 2023; and (vi) hiring additional staff to oversee the implementation and testing of these remediation actions.
Although management is implementing procedures designed to remediate the material weaknesses identified herein, the implementation of these procedures is ongoing and will require validation and testing of the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls over a sustained period of financial reporting cycles. We cannot be certain that these measures will successfully remediate the material weaknesses or that other material weaknesses and control deficiencies will not be discovered in the future. If we are not able to remediate the existing material weaknesses, or if we identify any new material weaknesses in the future, we may be unable to maintain compliance with the requirements of securities laws, stock exchange listing rules, or debt instrument covenants regarding timely filing of information; we could lose access to sources of capital or liquidity; and investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and our stock price may decline as a result. Though we are taking steps to remediate the existing material weaknesses, we cannot be assured that the measures we have taken to date, or any measures we may take in the future, will be sufficient to remediate the material weakness or avoid potential future material weaknesses.
As a result of the material weaknesses described above and other related matters raised or that may in the future be identified, we face potential for adverse regulatory consequences, including investigations, penalties or suspensions by the SEC or NASDAQ, litigation or other disputes which may include, among others, claims invoking the federal and state securities laws, contractual claims or other claims arising from the restatement and material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting and the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. As of the date of this filing, we have no knowledge of any such regulatory consequences, litigation, claim or dispute. However, we can provide no assurance that such regulatory consequences, litigation, claim or dispute will not arise in the future. Any such regulatory consequences, litigation, claim or dispute, whether successful or not, could subject us to additional costs, divert the attention of our management, or impair our reputation. Each of these consequences could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are a “smaller reporting company” under the U.S. federal securities laws, and the reduced reporting requirements applicable to smaller reporting companies could make our common stock less attractive to investors.
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We are a “smaller reporting company,” and prior to December 31, 2022, we were an “emerging growth company” under U.S. federal securities laws. For as long as we continue to be a smaller reporting company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not smaller reporting companies, including reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements. Furthermore, in prior years, as an emerging growth company, we took advantage of exemptions from further reporting requirements including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation. Investors may not find our common stock attractive because we may rely on these exemptions and reduced disclosures. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.
Our anti-takeover provisions could prevent or delay a change in control of our company, even if such change in control would be beneficial to our stockholders.
Provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws as well as provisions of Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control of our company, even if such change in control would be beneficial to our stockholders. These include:
In addition, the Delaware General Corporation Law prohibits us, except under specified circumstances, from engaging in any mergers, significant sales of stock or assets or business combinations with any stockholder or group of stockholders who owns at least 15% of our common stock.
Additionally, certain provisions in the indenture governing our convertible senior notes may make it more difficult or expensive for a third party to acquire us. For example, the indenture will generally require us to repurchase the convertible senior notes for cash upon the occurrence of a fundamental change of us and, in certain circumstances, to increase the conversion rate for a holder that converts its convertible senior notes in connection with a make-whole fundamental change. A takeover of us may trigger the requirement that we repurchase the convertible senior notes and/or increase the conversion rate, which could make it more costly for a potential acquiror to engage in such takeover. Such additional costs may have the effect of delaying or preventing a takeover of us that would otherwise be beneficial to stockholders.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware shall be the sole and exclusive forum for:
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Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to this provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This choice-of-forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable or convenient for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find these provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Conversion or exercise of outstanding equity-linked securities may dilute the ownership interest of our stockholders or may otherwise depress the price of our common stock.
We have a substantial number of shares of our common stock reserved for issuance upon the exercise of stock options, settlement of restricted stock units and upon conversion of our convertible senior notes. The exercise or conversion of some or all of these securities may dilute the ownership interests of our stockholders. Upon conversion of our convertible senior notes, we have the option to pay or deliver, as the case may be, cash, shares of our common stock, or a combination of cash and shares of our common stock. If we elect to settle our conversion obligation in shares of our common stock or a combination of cash and shares of our common stock, any sales in the public market of our common stock issuable upon such conversion could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock. In addition, the existence of the convertible senior notes may encourage short selling by market participants because the conversion of the notes could be used to satisfy short positions, or anticipated conversion of the notes into shares of our common stock could depress the price of our common stock.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will rely in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us and our business. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrades our common stock or issues other unfavorable commentary or research the price of our common stock may decline. If one or more analysts ceases coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which in turn could cause the trading price or trading volume of our common stock to decline and could result in the loss of all or part of your investment in us.
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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
Item 1C. Cybersecurity.
Risk management and strategy
We have implemented and maintain various information security processes designed to identify, assess and manage material risks from cybersecurity threats to our critical computer networks, third party hosted services, communications systems, hardware and software, and our critical data, including, without limitation, intellectual property, confidential information that is proprietary, strategic or competitive in nature, and personal data (including sensitive personal data such as biometric data and employment-related data) (“Information Systems and Data”).
Our Chief Information Officer (“CIO”), our Vice President of Information Security (who serves as our Chief Information Security Officer (“CISO”)), and the Company’s information security function help identify, assess and manage the Company’s cybersecurity threats and risks. This team identifies and assesses risks from cybersecurity by monitoring and evaluating our threat landscape and the Company's risk profile using various methods, including, for example, manual and automated tools in certain environments and systems, subscribing to threat intelligence reports and services, scanning our environment for certain threats, evaluating our risk exposure, evaluating and analyzing certain reported threats, collaborating with law enforcement on certain threat intelligence, conducting internal and external cybersecurity audits, performing threat assessments in certain environments and systems, conducting vulnerability assessments in certain environments and systems, and engaging third-party experts for red/blue team testing and tabletop incident response exercises.
Depending on the environment and system, we implement and maintain various technical, physical, and organizational measures, processes, standards and policies designed to manage and mitigate material risks from cybersecurity threats to our Information Systems and Data, including, for example: an incident response plan, vulnerability management, disaster recovery and business continuity planning, risk assessments, encryption of certain data, network security controls in certain environments and systems, data segregation of certain data, access controls for certain environments and systems, physical security, asset management, vendor risk management, employee cybersecurity training, cybersecurity insurance, and dedicated cybersecurity staff.
Our assessment and management of material risks from cybersecurity threats are integrated into the Company’s overall risk management processes. For example, the information security team works with management to prioritize our risk management processes and mitigate cybersecurity threats that are more likely to lead to a material impact to our business.
We use third-party service providers to assist us from time to time to identify, assess, and manage material risks from cybersecurity threats, including, for example, professional services firms (including legal counsel), cybersecurity consultants, cybersecurity software providers, managed cybersecurity service providers, forensic investigators, and penetration testing firms.
We use third-party service providers to perform a variety of functions throughout our business, such as application providers and hosting and cloud-hosting companies. We have a vendor management program to manage cybersecurity risks associated with our use of certain of these providers. The program includes the administration of a security questionnaire for certain providers, evaluation of certain provider’s written security program, and review of security assessments and reports from certain providers. Depending on the nature of the services provided, the sensitivity of the Information Systems and Data at issue, and the identity of the provider, our vendor management process may involve different levels of assessment designed to help identify cybersecurity risks associated with a provider and impose contractual obligations related to cybersecurity on the provider.
For a description of the risks from cybersecurity threats that may materially affect the Company and how they may do so, see our risk factors under Part 1. Item 1A. Risk Factors in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the risk factors captioned “Risk Factors—Risks Related to the Development and Operation of Our aiWARE Platform and other Products—The security or operation of our platform, networks, computer systems or data, or those of third parties upon which we rely, may be breached or otherwise disrupted, and any such breach or other disruption could have an adverse effect on our business and reputation” and “Risk Factors—Risks Related to the Development and Operation of Our aiWARE Platform and other Products—Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure, or that of our third party service providers, including AWS and Azure, may adversely affect our business and operating results.”
Governance
Our board of directors addresses the Company’s cybersecurity risk management as part of its general oversight function. The board of directors is responsible for overseeing the Company’s cybersecurity risk management processes, including oversight of mitigation of risks from cybersecurity threats.
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Our cybersecurity risk assessment and management processes are implemented and maintained by certain members of our management team, including our CIO, who has over 20 years of expertise in overseeing corporate information technology functions, and our CISO, who has 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry.
Our CIO and CISO are responsible for hiring appropriate personnel, helping to integrate cybersecurity risk considerations into the Company’s overall risk management strategy, and communicating key priorities to relevant personnel.
Our CIO and CISO are also responsible for approving cybersecurity budgets, helping prepare for cybersecurity incidents, approving cybersecurity processes, and reviewing security assessments and other security-related reports.
Our incident response plan is designed to escalate certain cybersecurity incidents to members of management depending on the circumstances, including the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, CIO, security management team, and our legal team (including privacy). These stakeholders work with the Company’s incident response team to help the Company mitigate and remediate cybersecurity incidents of which they are notified. In addition, the Company’s incident response plan includes reporting to the board of directors for certain cybersecurity incidents.
The board of directors receives periodic reports, summaries or presentations from the CISO concerning the Company’s significant cybersecurity threats and risks, as well as the processes the Company has implemented to address them.
Item 2. Properties.
Our principal executive offices are located at 1615 Platte Street, 2nd Floor, Denver, Colorado 80202.
In addition to our principal executive offices, we lease office space in Irvine, California; London, England; Sydney, Australia; and Herzliya, Israel. We also maintain shared office spaces in New York, New York, Paris, France and Noida, India. We lease all of our facilities and do not own any real property. We believe our facilities are adequate and suitable for our current needs and that, should it be needed, suitable additional or alternative space will be available to accommodate our operations.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
From time to time, we may be involved in litigation relating to claims arising out of our operations in the normal course of business. We currently are not a party to any legal proceedings, the adverse outcome of which, in management’s opinion, individually or in the aggregate, would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position or cash flows. Regardless of the outcome, any litigation may have an adverse impact on us due to defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
Not applicable.
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PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.
Market Information and Holders
Our common stock is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “VERI.” As of March 25, 2024, we had 51 holders of record of our common stock based upon the records of our transfer agent, which do not include beneficial owners of common stock whose shares are held in the names of various securities brokers, dealers and registered clearing agencies.
Dividend Policy
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation of our business. Therefore, we do not currently expect to pay any cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay cash dividends will be at the discretion of our Board and will depend upon our results of operations, financial condition, capital requirements, general business conditions, and other factors that our Board deems relevant. Our ability to pay dividends may also be restricted by the terms of any future credit agreement or any future debt or preferred equity securities.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Equity Securities
None.
Purchases of Equity Securities
None.
Performance Graph
As a smaller reporting company, we are not required to provide the performance graph required by Item 201(e) of Regulation S-K.
Item 6. Reserved.
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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Forward-Looking Statements
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with, and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the consolidated financial statements and related notes that are included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” set forth in Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC, including future SEC filings. See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”
Overview
We are a provider of AI solutions, powered by our proprietary AI operating system, aiWARE, to deliver differentiated products and solutions to our Commercial Enterprise and Government & Regulated Industries customers.
During the year ended December 31, 2023, we generated revenue of $127.6 million as compared to $149.7 million during the year ended December 31, 2022. Our Software Products & Services revenue was $68.4 million and $84.8 million during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, and represented 54% and 56% of our consolidated revenue during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Our Managed Services revenue was $59.2 million and $65.0 million during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, and represented 46% and 44% of our consolidated revenue in the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, our largest customer represented approximately 12% and 25% of our consolidated revenue, respectively.
Recent Developments
Broadbean Acquisition. On June 13, 2023, we completed the acquisition of Broadbean (as defined herein) for a total purchase price of $53.3 million, subject to certain post-closing adjustments. Broadbean is a global leader of talent acquisition software-as-a-service technology, and the acquisition of Broadbean is intended to strengthen our AI-driven human resources product suite and build on our previous acquisition of PandoLogic. A portion of the purchase consideration, consisting of $1.3 million in cash, was deposited into a third-party escrow account at closing and will be held in such account for the purposes of satisfying any post-closing indemnification claims and certain post-closing adjustments. We also obtained a representation and warranty insurance policy at closing.
Energy Group Divestiture. On June 30, 2023, we completed the sale of our energy group (the “Energy Divestiture”) to GridBeyond Limited, an Ireland-based privately held company (“GridBeyond”) that delivers AI-powered energy solutions, pursuant to an asset purchase agreement. We received 4,160,644 shares of Series B Preference Shares in GridBeyond valued at approximately $2.0 million, plus $0.5 million in cash. The Energy Divestiture did not meet the criteria of discontinued operations because the disposal did not have a major effect on our operations or financial results.
Senior Secured Term Loan and Warrants. On December 13, 2023 (the “Closing Date”), we entered into a Credit and Guaranty Agreement (the “Credit Agreement”) with certain funds managed by Highbridge Capital Management, LLC and with certain other lenders (collectively, the “Lenders”) and Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, as administrative agent and collateral agent. The Credit Agreement provides for a $77.5 million senior secured term loan (the “Term Loan”), which was fully drawn by us on the Closing Date. A portion of the proceeds of the Term Loan were used to repurchase $50.0 million aggregate principal amount of our 1.75% convertible senior notes due 2026 (the “Convertible Notes”) held by the Lenders at a purchase price of $37.5 million plus accrued and unpaid interest through the repurchase date. The Term Loan accrues interest at a rate of Term SOFR plus 8.50% per annum, with a 3.00% floor for Term SOFR, payable quarterly. The Term Loan matures on December 13, 2027, with quarterly amortization payments of 2.50% of the original principal amount, commencing in June 2024. In connection with the Credit Agreement, we issued warrants (the “Warrants”) to the Lenders (in such capacity, the “Warrant Holders”) to purchase up to 3,008,540 shares of our common stock (the “Common Stock”) at an exercise price of $2.576 per share with a termination date of December 12, 2028.
Appointment of Ryan Steelberg as Chairman. Ryan Steelberg, our Chief Executive Officer, was appointed Chairman of the Board, effective January 22, 2024, replacing Chad Steelberg who resigned as Chairman of the Board on the same date. Chad Steelberg continues to serve as a member of our Board.
37
Opportunities, Challenges and Risks
In 2023 and 2022, we derived our revenue primarily through our Commercial Enterprise customers, and secondarily, through our Government & Regulated Industries customers.
We are a leader in AI-based Software Products & Services. Our proprietary AI operating system, aiWARE, uses machine learning algorithms, or AI models, together with a suite of powerful applications, to reveal valuable insights from vast amounts of structured and unstructured data. Historically, we have derived a large portion of our Software Product & Services revenue from applications we internally developed from our aiWARE platform and actively sold across various customers. While management believes there is a substantial opportunity to increase revenue longer term, current economic conditions have negatively impacted parts of our consumption-based operations and financial results, and there is no certainty that any future investments, which could be significant and include future potential acquisitions, will result in significant enterprise revenue realization or revenue growth when compared with historical revenue. Nevertheless, we continue to see significant opportunities for growth in Software Products & Services and our aiWARE platform sales to existing and newly acquired customers, and where our AI solutions could add near and long-term value in the government and regulated industries and content creation and distribution across the global media and entertainment industry.
We believe there are significant near and long-term revenue and growth opportunities from our Software Products & Services. In June 2023, we completed the acquisition of Broadbean, a leader in subscription-based talent acquisition software-as-a-service which has approximately 3,000 subscription-based customers based throughout the world, integrated with over 100 applicant tracking systems (“ATS”) and has direct access to over 2,500 job boards globally. The acquisition of Broadbean was strategic to our growth across our hiring applications, as we plan in the near term to offer our existing product offerings to Broadbean’s 3,000 customers, including programmatic advertising capabilities. Over the long term, we plan to utilize our AI capabilities to analyze complex data sets through direct access to these ATS, including future integration with aiWARE. In Government & Regulated Industries markets, we see growth opportunities with customer adoption of our products and services related to AI technologies and with our official Authorization to Operate, of our aiWARE platform across the entire U.S. Department of Justice and progress with the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer and Department of Defense, including our recently announced iDEMS platform. However, many enterprise-level opportunities with Government & Regulated Industries customers can involve long sales cycles, during which we must invest significant time and resources without a guarantee of success.
Growing our existing and new Software Products & Services customer base is critical for our success. Software Products & Services revenue declined 19.1% year over year as a result of lower consumption across our Veritone Hire customer base, offset by the addition of Broadbean in the second quarter of 2023, and the decline of certain non-recurring, one-time software revenue in 2023 versus 2022. Since the second quarter of 2022, we have experienced large variances from the consumption use of our Veritone Hire solutions from our customers, including our largest customer Amazon, when compared to the prior year periods. In May 2023, Amazon informed us that they planned to reduce their consumption of our Veritone Hire solutions further. Overall, our revenues from Amazon during the year ended December 31, 2023 declined as compared to the prior year and represented 12% of our consolidated revenue during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to 25% of our consolidated revenue in the comparable prior year. As we continue to grow and diversify our customer base over the near and long term, we expect that Amazon's share of our revenue will continue to decline, and will represent less than 5% of our consolidated revenue in fiscal 2024. Offsetting this decline was non-Amazon Software Products & Services revenue, which grew as compared to the prior year, driven in part by Government & Regulated Industries revenue growth of 56% during the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to the prior year.
As a result of the recent pullback in the macroeconomic environment caused by high inflation, rising interest rates, and geopolitical factors including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the war in Israel, some of our customers reduced consumption-based and advertising spending across our Commercial Enterprise customer base across parts of our Veritone Hire solutions and Managed Services, in the year ended December 31, 2023 when compared to the prior year. As of December 31, 2023, our total Software Products & Services customers declined to 3,460, which was a decrease of 10% compared to the prior year on a pro forma basis, giving effect to the acquisition of Broadbean as if it occurred on January 1, 2022. The decrease in customers was largely driven by planned migration of legacy CareerBuilder customers off the Broadbean software platform, which did not have a significant impact on our financial results in 2023. While we anticipate these trends to continue in the first quarter of 2024, we expect the overall impact will not be significant to our financial results in 2024. To continue our effort to grow our customer base and overall revenue, we have been investing aggressively in existing customers and acquiring new customers. In addition, in January 2023, November 2023 and February 2024, we announced certain cost reduction and restructuring initiatives and through February 2024, we had executed over $34.0 million of net annualized strategic cost reductions. As a result of our efforts to diversify our customer base and increase sales within our existing customer base, as well as the June 2023 acquisition of Broadbean, we increased our sales and marketing spending in the near
38
term as compared to the trailing twelve months; however, these increased investments were partially offset by our 2023 and 2024 cost-reduction initiatives.
We believe our Software Products & Services will extend the capabilities of many third-party software platforms and products that are widely used today. For example, we believe that, when integrated with aiWARE, our Veritone Hire solutions customers will be given greater visibility and transparency in their hiring processes. Further and with the recently announced iDEMs launch, we now offer a suite of aiWARE applications to address the growing issue of unstructured digital data management faced by public safety and federal government sectors today. In addition, we have historically integrated aiWARE across many platforms, including Alteryx, Snowflake and the NVIDIA® CUDA® GPU-based platform, enabling dramatic increases in aiWARE’s processing speed and providing a wide range of new use cases for our technology. We are in the process of developing and marketing more specific use cases for these and future integrations, which we believe will open up new markets for our products and accelerate our long-term revenue growth opportunities.
Our non-GAAP gross margin is impacted significantly by the mix of our Software Products & Services and our Managed Services revenue in any given period because our Managed Services revenue typically has a lower overall non-GAAP gross margin than our Software Products & Services revenue. Our non-GAAP gross profit (see “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below) is also dependent upon our ability to grow our revenue by expanding our customer base and increasing business with existing customers, and to manage our costs by negotiating favorable economic terms with cloud computing providers such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. While we are focused on continuing to improve our non-GAAP gross profit, our ability to attract and retain customers to grow our revenue will be highly dependent on our ability to implement and continually improve upon our technology and services and improve our technology infrastructure and operations as we experience increased network capacity constraints due to our growth.
We believe our operating results and performance are, and will continue to be, driven by various factors that affect our industry. Our ability to attract, grow and retain customers for our aiWARE platform is highly sensitive to rapidly changing technology and is dependent on our ability to maintain the attractiveness of our platform, content and services to our customers. Our future revenue and operating growth will rely heavily on our ability to grow and retain our Software Products & Services customer base, continue to develop and deploy quality and innovative AI-driven applications and enterprise-level offerings, provide unique and attractive content and advertising services to our customers, continue to grow in newer markets such as Government & Regulated Industries, expand aiWARE into larger and more expansive enterprise engagements and manage our corporate overhead costs. While we believe we will be successful in these endeavors, we cannot guarantee that we will succeed in generating substantial long term operating growth and profitability.
Historically, we have pursued an opportunistic strategy of acquiring companies to help accelerate our organic growth. Our acquisition strategy has been threefold: (i) to increase the scale of our business in markets we are in today, (ii) to accelerate growth in new markets and product categories, including expanding our existing engineering and sales resources, and (iii) to accelerate the adoption of aiWARE as the universal AI operating system through venture or market-driven opportunities. While we believe there are strategic acquisition targets that can accelerate our entry into and expand our existing market share in key strategic markets, as well as our ability to grow our business, there is no certainty our historical or future acquisitions will achieve these objectives. Conversely, we have pursued and may continue to pursue opportunistic sales of certain business operations that are not strategic to us long-term, such as the divestiture of our energy group in the second quarter of 2023.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, our total revenues were $127.6 million as compared to $149.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, a decrease of 15%. For the year ended December 31, 2023, our total loss from operations was $92.3 million as compared to $38.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, an increase of 143%. For the year ended December 31, 2023, our non-GAAP gross margin (calculated as described in “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below) declined to approximately 78% as compared to 82% for the year ended December 31, 2022, driven in large part by the mix of revenue as compared to 2022. Our non-GAAP gross margin is impacted significantly by the mix of our Software Products & Services and our Managed Services revenue in any given period because our Managed Services revenue typically has a lower overall non-GAAP gross margin than our Software Products & Services revenue. Our non-GAAP gross profit (see “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below) is also dependent upon our ability to grow our revenue by expanding our customer base and increasing business with existing customers, and to manage our costs by negotiating favorable economic terms with cloud computing providers such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. While we are focused on continuing to improve our non-GAAP gross profit, our ability to attract and retain customers to grow our revenue will be highly dependent on our ability to implement and continually improve upon our technology and services and improve our technology infrastructure and operations as we experience increased network capacity constraints due to our growth.
39
During the year ended December 31, 2023, we reported a net loss of $58.6 million as compared to a net loss of $25.6 million during the year ended December 31, 2022. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we reported a non-GAAP net loss of $37.3 million as compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $15.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2022. To continue to grow our revenue, we will continue to make targeted investments in people, namely software engineers and sales personnel. For example, our net headcount grew approximately 8% since the beginning of 2023. In addition, during the year ended December 31, 2023 we made substantial investments in our existing employee base, including higher annual raises and increased benefits, in order to compete in a challenging and constrained labor environment. Lastly, we made investments in our corporate infrastructure, including new ERP and workforce systems to help us better manage the scale and growth of our business. However, considering the current challenging macro-economic environment in the first half of 2023, we have made and are continuing to make significant cost reductions to our operating structure to better streamline our business and prioritization around our growth and corresponding investments. These cost reduction initiatives began in the latter half of 2022 and will continue through the first half of 2024, and include reductions in workforce and certain legacy operating costs, as well as the divestiture of our energy group. As a result of these initiatives, we believe we will be able to accelerate our pathway toward long term profitability.
In the year ended December 31, 2022, substantially all of our revenue was derived from customers located in the United States. With the June 2023 acquisition of Broadbean, we expanded our customer base throughout Europe and Asia Pacific. In 2023, 13% of our consolidated revenue was from customers outside of the U.S., as compared to less than 10% in 2022. We believe that there is a substantial opportunity for us to continue expanding our service offerings and customer base in countries outside of the United States. In the long term, we plan to expand our business further internationally in places such as Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America, and as a result, we expect to continue to incur significant incremental upfront expenses associated with these expansion opportunities.
Impact of Current Global Economic Conditions
Global economic and business activities continue to face uncertainty as a result of macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, lingering economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, labor shortages, inflation rates and the responses by central banking authorities to control inflation, monetary supply shifts, recession risks, disruptions from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the war in Israel. In particular, business operations at our Tel Aviv office location where we do development work on our Veritone Hire solutions products have been, and may continue to be, impacted by the war in Israel. A small portion of our Israel-based employees, and a number of their family members, have been conscripted into military service. The extent of the impact of these factors on our operational and financial performance, including our ability to execute our business strategies and initiatives in the expected time frame, will depend on future developments, and the impact on our customers, partners and employees, all of which have uncertainty and cannot be predicted. These global economic conditions and any continued or new disruptions caused by these conditions may negatively impact our business in a number of ways. For example, our Veritone Hire solutions are sold to businesses whose financial conditions fluctuate based on general economic and business conditions, particularly the overall demand for labor and the economic health of current and prospective employers.
To the extent that economic uncertainty or attenuated economic conditions cause our customers and potential customers to freeze or reduce their headcount, and reduce their advertising spending, demand for our products and services may be negatively affected. These adverse economic conditions could also result in reductions in sales of our applications, longer sales cycles, reductions in contract duration and value, slower adoption of new technologies and increased price competition. In addition, economic recessions have historically resulted in overall reductions in spending on software and technology solutions as well as pressure from customers and potential customers for extended billing terms. If economic, political, or market conditions deteriorate, or if there is uncertainty around these conditions, our customers and potential customers may elect to decrease their software and technology solutions budgets by deferring or reconsidering product purchases, which would limit our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our operating results. Any of these events would likely have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial position.
Due to the nature of our business, the effect of these macroeconomic conditions may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. We have assessed the potential credit deterioration of our customers due to changes in the macroeconomic environment and have determined that no additional allowance for credit losses was necessary due to credit deterioration as of December 31, 2023. The most significant risks to our business and results of operations are discussed in Part I, Item 1A (Risk Factors) in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
40
Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Key Performance Indicators
In evaluating our cash flows and financial performance, we use certain non-GAAP financial measures, including Pro Forma Software Revenue, non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP net income (loss), and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share. We also provide certain key performance indicators (“KPIs”), including Total Software Products & Services Customers, Annual Recurring Revenue, Annual Recurring Revenue (SaaS), Annual Recurring Revenue (Consumption), Total New Bookings and Gross Revenue Retention.
“Pro Forma” information provided in this annual report on Form 10-K represents our historical information combined with the historical information of Broadbean (as defined below) for the applicable period on a pro forma basis as if we had acquired Broadbean on January 1, 2022.
Pro Forma Software Revenue represents Software Products & Services revenue on a Pro Forma basis. Non-GAAP gross margin is defined as Non-GAAP gross profit divided by revenue. Non-GAAP net loss (pro forma) is the Company’s net loss excluding the items set forth below. Non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share is the Company’s net income (loss) and net income (loss) per share, adjusted to exclude provision for income taxes, depreciation expense, amortization expense, stock-based compensation expense, changes in fair value of contingent consideration, interest income, interest expense, foreign currency gains and losses, acquisition and due diligence costs, gain on sale of energy group, loss from business held for sale, variable consultant performance bonus expense, and severance and executive transition costs. The results for non-GAAP net income (loss), are presented below for the year ended December 31, 2023 and 2022. The items excluded from these non-GAAP financial measures, as well as a breakdown of GAAP net loss, non-GAAP net income (loss) and these excluded items between our Core Operations and Corporate, are detailed in the reconciliation below. In addition, we have provided supplemental non-GAAP measures of gross profit, operating expenses, loss from operations, other (expense) income, net, and loss before income taxes, excluding the items excluded from non-GAAP net loss as noted above, and reconciling such non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.
We present these non-GAAP financial measures because management believes such information to be important supplemental measures of performance that are commonly used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. Management also uses this information internally for forecasting and budgeting. These non-GAAP financial measures are not calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss), operating income (loss) or any other financial measures so calculated and presented, nor as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of liquidity. Other companies (including our competitors) may define these non-GAAP financial measures differently. These non-GAAP measures may not be indicative of our historical operating results or predictive of potential future results. Investors should not consider this supplemental non-GAAP financial information in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported in accordance with GAAP.
41
Reconciliation of GAAP net loss to Non-GAAP net loss
(in thousands) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
Year Ended December 31, |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
2023 |
|
|
2022 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Core Operations(1) |
|
|
Corporate(2) |
|
|
Total |
|
|
Core Operations(1) |
|
|
Corporate(2) |
|
|
Total |
|
||||||
Net loss |
|
$ |
(46,133 |
) |
|
$ |
(12,492 |
) |
|
$ |
(58,625 |
) |
|
$ |
(19,027 |
) |
|
$ |
(6,530 |
) |
|
$ |
(25,557 |
) |
(Benefit from) provision for income taxes |
|
|
(4,022 |
) |
|
|
974 |
|
|
|
(3,048 |
) |
|
|
1,805 |
|
|
|
504 |
|
|
|
2,309 |
|
Depreciation and amortization |
|
|
25,216 |
|
|
|
885 |
|
|
|
26,101 |
|
|
|
21,936 |
|
|
|
557 |
|
|
|
22,493 |
|
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
7,259 |
|
|
|
3,567 |
|
|
|
10,826 |
|
|
|
10,138 |
|
|
|
8,977 |
|
|
|
19,115 |
|
Change in fair value of contingent consideration |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
2,284 |
|
|
|
2,284 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
(22,721 |
) |
|
|
(22,721 |
) |
Interest expense, net |
|
|
10 |
|
|
|
2,438 |
|
|
|
2,448 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
4,350 |
|
|
|
4,350 |
|
Foreign currency impact |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
(133 |
) |
|
|
(133 |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
Gain on debt extinguishment |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
(30,023 |
) |
|
|
(30,023 |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
(19,097 |
) |
|
|
(19,097 |
) |
Acquisition and due diligence costs |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
9,125 |
|
|
|
9,125 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
2,688 |
|
|
|
2,688 |
|
Gain on sale of energy group |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
(2,572 |
) |
|
|
(2,572 |
) |
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
Loss from business held for sale (3) |
|
|
1,691 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
1,691 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
Variable consultant performance bonus expense (4) |
|
|
951 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
951 |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
|
|
— |
|
Severance and executive transition costs |
|
|
2,676 |
|
|
|
968 |
|
|
|
3,644 |
|
|
|
512 |
|
|
|
28 |
|
|
|
540 |
|
Non-GAAP Net (Loss) Income |
|
$ |
(12,352 |
) |
|
$ |
(24,979 |
) |
|
$ |
(37,331 |
) |
|
$ |
15,364 |
|
|
$ |
(31,244 |
) |
|
$ |
(15,880 |
) |
(1) Core operations consists of our consolidated Software Products & Services and Managed Services that include our content licensing and advertising services, and their supporting operations, including direct costs of sales as well as operating expenses for sales, marketing, and product development and certain general and administrative costs dedicated to these operations.
(2) Corporate consists of general and administrative functions such as executive, finance, legal, people operations, fixed overhead expenses (including facilities and information technology expenses), other income (expenses) and taxes, and other expenses that support the entire company, including public company driven costs.
(3) Loss from business held for sale relates to the net loss for the periods presented for our energy group that we divested during the second quarter of 2023. We have not recast Non-GAAP Net Loss for periods ended prior to March 31, 2023 because the change in business strategy to divest the business occurred in the first quarter of 2023 and the prior period contributions were costs to operate the continuing business when incurred in the prior periods. The historical amounts would not have a major effect on prior period results.
(4) Variable consultant performance bonus expense represents the bonus payments paid to Mr. Chad Steelberg as a result of his achievement of the performance goals pursuant to his consulting agreement with us.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, our total loss from operations decreased to $92.3 million compared to $38.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The following tables set forth the calculation of our non-GAAP gross profit and non-GAAP gross margin, followed by a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial information presented in our consolidated financial statements for years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022.
(dollars in thousands) |
|
Year Ended |
|
|
|||||
|
|
2023 |
|
|
2022 |
|
|
||
Revenue |
|
$ |
127,560 |
|
|
$ |
149,728 |
|
|
Cost of revenue |
|
|
28,256 |
|
|
|
27,432 |
|
|
Non-GAAP gross profit |
|
|
99,304 |
|
|
|
122,296 |
|
|
Non-GAAP gross margin |
|
|
77.8 |
% |
|
|
81.7 |
% |
|
42
|
|
Year Ended |
|
|||||
|
|
2023 |
|
|
2022 |
|
||
Revenue |
|
$ |
127,560 |
|
|
$ |
149,728 |
|
Cost of revenue |
|
|
28,256 |
|
|
|
27,432 |
|
Non-GAAP gross profit |
|
|
99,304 |
|
|
|
122,296 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP cost of revenue |
|
|
28,256 |
|
|
|
27,432 |
|
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
(52 |
) |
|
|
(116 |
) |
Non-GAAP cost of revenue |
|
|
28,204 |
|
|
|
27,316 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP sales and marketing expenses |
|
|
52,024 |
|
|
|
51,345 |
|
Depreciation |
|
|
(60 |
) |
|
|
— |
|
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
(1,301 |
) |
|
|
(2,263 |
) |
Severance and executive transition costs |
|
|
(831 |
) |
|
|
(86 |
) |
Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses |
|
|
49,832 |
|
|
|
48,996 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP research and development expenses |
|
|
42,090 |
|
|
|
43,589 |
|
Depreciation |
|
|
(1,499 |
) |
|
|
— |
|
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
(4,445 |
) |
|
|
(5,056 |
) |
Variable consultant performance bonus expense |
|
|
(951 |
) |
|
|
— |
|
Severance and executive transition costs |
|
|
(1,034 |
) |
|
|
(198 |
) |
Non-GAAP research and development expenses |
|
|
34,161 |
|
|
|
38,335 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP general and administrative expenses |
|
|
73,811 |
|
|
|
44,177 |
|
Depreciation |
|
|
(827 |
) |
|
|
(1,313 |
) |
Stock-based compensation expense |
|
|
(5,028 |
) |
|
|
(11,680 |
) |
Change in fair value of contingent consideration |
|
|
(2,284 |
) |
|
|
22,721 |
|
Acquisition and due diligence costs |
|
|
(9,125 |
) |
|
|
(2,688 |
) |
Severance and executive transition costs |
|
|
(1,779 |
) |
|
|
(256 |
) |
Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses |
|
|
54,768 |
|
|
|
50,961 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP amortization |
|
|
(23,715 |
) |
|
|
(21,180 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP loss from operations |
|
|
(92,336 |
) |
|
|
(37,995 |
) |
Total non-GAAP adjustments (1) |
|
|
52,931 |
|
|
|
22,115 |
|
Non-GAAP loss from operations |
|
|
(39,405 |
) |
|
|
(15,880 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP other income (expense), net |
|
|
30,663 |
|
|
|
14,747 |
|
Loss from business held for sale (2) |
|
|
1,691 |
|
|
|
— |
|
Gain on debt extinguishment |
|
|
(30,023 |
) |
|
|
(19,097 |
) |
Gain on sale of energy group |
|
|
(2,572 |
) |
|
|
— |
|
Foreign currency impact |
|
|
(133 |
) |
|
|
(575 |
) |
Interest expense, net |
|
|
2,448 |
|
|
|
4,925 |
|
Non-GAAP other expense, net |
|
|
2,074 |
|
|
|
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP loss before income taxes |
|
|
(61,673 |
) |
|
|
(23,248 |
) |
Total non-GAAP adjustments (1) |
|
|
24,342 |
|
|
|
7,368 |
|
Non-GAAP loss before income taxes |
|
|
(37,331 |
) |
|
|
(15,880 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
(Benefit from) provision for income taxes |
|
|
(3,048 |
) |
|
|
2,309 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
GAAP net loss |
|
|
(58,625 |
) |
|
|
(25,557 |
) |
Total non-GAAP adjustments (1) |
|
|
21,294 |
|
|
|
9,677 |
|
Non-GAAP net loss |
|
$ |
(37,331 |
) |
|
$ |
(15,880 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Shares used in computing non-GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share |
|
|
36,910 |
|
|
|
36,034 |
|
Shares used in computing non-GAAP diluted net loss per share |
|
|
36,910 |
|
|
|
36,034 |
|
Non-GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share |
|
$ |
(1.01 |
) |
|
$ |
(0.44 |
) |
Non-GAAP diluted net loss per share |
|
$ |
(1.01 |
) |
|
$ |
(0.44 |
) |
(1) Adjustments are comprised of the adjustments to GAAP cost of revenue, sales and marketing expenses, research and development expenses and general and administrative expenses and other (expense) income, net (where applicable) listed above.
(2) Loss from business held for sale relates to the net loss for the periods presented for our energy group that we divested during Q2 2023. We have not recast Non-GAAP Net Loss for periods ended prior to March 31, 2023 because the change in business strategy to divest the business occurred in Q1 2023 and the prior period contributions were costs to operate the continuing business when incurred in the prior periods. The historical amounts would not have a major effect on prior period results.
43
Supplemental Financial Information
We are providing the following unaudited supplemental financial information regarding our Software Products & Services and Managed Services as a lookback of the prior year to explain our recent historical and year-over-year performance.
The supplemental financial information for our Software Products & Services includes: (i) Pro Forma Software Revenue, (ii) Total Software Products & Services Customers, (iii) Annual Recurring Revenue, (iv) Total New Bookings, and (iv) Gross Revenue Retention, in each case as defined in the footnotes to the table below. The supplemental financial information for our Managed Services includes: (i) average gross billings per active Managed Services client, and (ii) revenue.
Software Products & Services Supplemental Financial Information
The following table sets forth the results for each of our Software Products & Services supplemental financial information.
|
|
Quarter Ended |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Mar 31, |
|
|
Jun 30, |
|
|
Sept 30, |
|
|
Dec 31, |
|
|
Mar 31, |
|
|
Jun 30, |
|
|
Sept 30, |
|
|
Dec 31, |
|
||||||||
|
|
2022 (1) |
|
|
2022 (1) |
|
|
2022 (1) |
|
|
2022 (1) |
|
|
2023 (1) |
|
|
2023 (1) |
|
|
2023 |
|
|
2023 |
|
||||||||
Pro Forma Software Revenue (in 000’s) (2) |
|
$ |
26,319 |
|
|
$ |
26,650 |
|
|
$ |
28,603 |
|
|
$ |
35,612 |
|
|
$ |
22,423 |
|
|
$ |
20,860 |
|
|
$ |
20,361 |
|
|
$ |
19,820 |
|
Total Software Products & Services Customers (3) |
|
|
3,673 |
|
|
|
3,718 |
|
|
|
3,787 |
|
|
|
3,824 |
|
|
|
3,773 |
|
|
|
3,705 |
|
|
|
3,536 |
|
|
|
3,460 |
|
Annual Recurring Revenue (SaaS) (in 000’s) (4) |
|
$ |
48,392 |
|
|
$ |
44,465 |
|
|
$ |
43,925 |
|
|
$ |
46,248 |
|
|
$ |
45,453 |
|
|
$ |
47,720 |
|
|
$ |
47,756 |
|
|
$ |
48,026 |
|
Annual Recurring Revenue (Consumption) (in 000’s) (5) |
|
$ |
87,445 |
|
|
$ |
85,901 |
|
|
$ |
85,091 |
|
|
$ |
71,754 |
|
|
$ |
67,242 |
|
|
$ |
60,229 |
|
|
$ |
50,803 |
|
|
$ |
34,102 |
|
Total New Bookings (in 000’s) (6) |
|
$ |
16,643 |
|
|
$ |
22,009 |
|
|
$ |
23,793 |
|
|
$ |
26,342 |
|
|
$ |
22,794 |
|
|
$ |
8,388 |
|
|
$ |
15,501 |
|
|
$ |
17,457 |
|
Gross Revenue Retention (7) |
|
>90% |
|
|
>90% |
|
|
>90% |
|
|
>90% |
|
|
>90% |
|
|
>90% |
|
|
>90% |
|
|
>90% |
|
(1) All of the supplemental financial information for this period is presented on a Pro Forma basis inclusive of Broadbean.
(2) “Pro Forma Software Revenue” is a non-GAAP measure that represents Software Products & Services revenue on a Pro Forma basis.
(3) “Total Software Products & Services Customers” includes Software Products & Services customers as of the end of each respective quarter set forth above with net revenues in excess of $10 and also excludes any customers categorized by us as trial or pilot status. In prior periods, we provided “Ending Software Customers,” which represented Software Products & Services customers as of the end of each fiscal quarter with trailing twelve-month revenues in excess of $2,400 for both Veritone, Inc. and PandoLogic Ltd. and/or deemed by the Company to be under an active contract for the applicable periods. Total Software Products & Services Customers is not comparable to Ending Software Customers. Total Software Products & Services Customers includes customers based on revenues in the last month of the quarter rather than on a trailing twelve-month basis. Total Software Products & Services Customers includes customers based on revenues in the last month of the quarter rather than on a trailing twelve-month basis and excludes any customers that are on trial or pilot status with us rather than including customers with active contracts. Management uses Total Software Products & Services Customers and we believe Total Software Products & Services Customers are useful to investors because it more accurately reflects our total customers for our Software Products & Services customers inclusive of Broadbean.
(4) “Annual Recurring Revenue (SaaS)” represents an annualized calculation of monthly recurring revenue during the last month of the applicable quarter for all Total Software Products & Services customers, in each case on a Pro Forma basis. In prior periods, we provided “Average Annual Revenue,” which was calculated as the aggregate of trailing twelve-month Software Products & Services revenue divided by the average number of customers over the same period for both Veritone, Inc. and PandoLogic Ltd. Annual Recurring Revenue is not comparable to Average Annual Revenue (SaaS). Annual Recurring Revenue (SaaS) includes only subscription-based SaaS revenue, is not averaged among active customers and uses a calculation of recurring revenue as described above instead of annual revenue. Management uses “Annual Recurring Revenue (SaaS)” and we believe Annual Recurring Revenue (SaaS) is useful to investors because Broadbean significantly increases our mix of subscription-based SaaS revenues as compared to Consumption revenues and the split between the two allows the reader to delineate between predictable recurring SaaS revenues and more volatile Consumption revenues.
(5) “Annual Recurring Revenue (Consumption)” represents the trailing twelve months of all non-recurring and/or consumption-based revenue for all active Total Software Products & Services customers, in each case, on a Pro Forma basis. In prior periods, we provided “Average Annual Revenue,” which was calculated as the aggregate of trailing twelve-month Software Products & Services revenue divided by the average number of customers over the same period for both Veritone, Inc. and PandoLogic Ltd. Annual Recurring Revenue (Consumption) is not comparable to Average Annual Revenue. Annual Recurring Revenue (Consumption) includes only non-recurring and/or consumption-based revenue, is not averaged among active customers and uses a calculation of recurring revenue as described above instead of annual revenue. Management uses “Annual Recurring Revenue (Consumption)” and we believe Annual Recurring Revenue (Consumption) is useful to investors because Broadbean significantly increases our mix of subscription-based SaaS revenues as compared to Consumption revenues and the split between the two allows the reader to delineate between predictable recurring SaaS revenues and more volatile Consumption revenues.
44
(6) “Total New Bookings” represents the total fees payable during the full contract term for new contracts received in the quarter (including fees payable during any cancellable portion and an estimate of license fees that may fluctuate over the term), excluding any variable fees under the contract (e.g., fees for cognitive processing, storage, professional services and other variable services), in each case on a Pro Forma basis.
(7) “Gross Revenue Retention” represents a calculation of our dollar-based gross revenue retention rate as of the period end by starting with the revenue from Software Products & Services Customers as of the 3 months in the prior year quarter to such period, or Prior Year Quarter Revenue. We then deduct from the Prior Year Quarter Revenue any revenue from Software Products & Services Customers who are no longer customers as of the current period end, or Current Period Ending Software Customer Revenue. We then divide the total Current Period Ending Software Customer Revenue by the total Prior Year Quarter Revenue to arrive at our dollar-based gross retention rate, which is the percentage of revenue from all Software Products & Services Customers from our Software Products & Services as of the year prior that is not lost to customer churn. All numbers used to determine Gross Revenue Retention are calculated on a Pro Forma basis.
The following table sets forth the reconciliation of revenue to pro forma revenue and the calculation of pro forma annual recurring revenue.
|
|
Quarter Ended |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Mar 31, |
|
|
Jun 30, |
|
|
Sept 30, |
|
|
Dec 31, |
|
|
Mar 31, |
|
|
Jun 30, |
|
|
Sept 30, |
|
|
Dec 31, |
|
||||||||
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2022 |
|
|
2023 |
|
|
2023 |
|
|
2023 |