BlackSky Technology Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 8, 2023

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to BlackSky Technologies Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer Please note this conference call is being recorded. I would now like turn the call over to Ali Bonilla, BlackSky's Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Ali.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'm joined by our Chief Executive Officer, Brian O'Toole and our Chief Financial Officer, Henry DuBois. On today's call, Brian will provide some highlights on the quarter and give a strategic update on the business. Henry will then review the company's 3rd A replay of this conference call will be available from approximately 12:30 p. M.

Speaker 1

Eastern Time today through November 22. In the Investor Relations section of our website at www.blacksky.com. In conjunction with today's call, Before we begin, let me remind you that certain statements made during today's conference call regarding our future plans, objectives Actual results may differ materially as these statements are based on our current expectations as of today and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those stated in our Form 10 ks. We encourage you to review our press release, Form 10 ks and other recent SEC filings for a full discussion of the risks and uncertainties that pertain to these statements and that may affect future results or the market price of our BlackSky assumes no obligation to update forward looking statements except as may be required by applicable law. In addition, During today's call, we will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, which can be viewed and downloaded from our Investor Relations website.

Speaker 1

At this point, I'll turn the call over to Brian O'Toole. Brian?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Ali, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call. I'm pleased to report that BlackSky delivered another strong quarter with record revenues, continued expansion of our customer base And nearly breakeven adjusted EBITDA. We continue to see growing demand from government agencies around the world for BlackSky Space Based Intelligence capabilities and are capitalizing on this opportunity by successfully converting Our increasing sales pipeline into new and expanded contracts. The combination of our growing customer base, Effective cost management and the strong operating leverage of our business has us on a clear path toward long term profitable growth.

Speaker 2

Before I begin, I want to take a moment to express our empathy For those affected by the crisis in Israel and Gaza, this is a very difficult time for many And our hearts go out to the people who have lost loved ones and are living through this horrific conflict. From the conflict in the Middle East to this week's earthquake in Nepal or the ongoing war in Ukraine, Spacebase Intelligence is playing a critical role in supporting humanitarian, economic and national security interests, both here and abroad. Whether it's the delivery of humanitarian aid, providing transparency to crisis events For protecting the homeland, BlackSky is proud to be supporting our customers by reliably delivering thousands of images and analytic Every day on critical events all over the world. The demand for BlackSky's high frequency imagery and AI driven analytics Continues to accelerate as Defense and National Security Organizations worldwide seek to expand their capabilities and secure our capacity to meet their long term mission needs. Now let's turn to Slide 5 and our recent highlights, which continues to demonstrate strong quarter over quarter operating performance and growing customer demand for BlackSky's products and services.

Speaker 2

1st, We achieved record 3rd quarter revenue of over $21,000,000 a 26% increase over the prior year quarter. Demand for our products and services remains strong as we continue to meet our customer commitments through focused execution and reliable delivery of our space based capabilities. 2nd, we signed new contracts and renewal agreements with multiple U. S. And international government agencies valued at up to $20,000,000 These contract wins Demonstrate how BlackSky is increasingly relied upon by some of the most demanding customers around the world and brings our year to date contract bookings to over $220,000,000 3rd, For the 1st 9 months of the year, our imagery and analytics revenue grew $15,000,000 or 48% compared to the same period in 2022.

Speaker 2

This revenue increase delivered an incremental contribution margin of 98% and further illustrates the strong operating leverage of our business. This is a key driver and scaling our business to profitability. 4th, as a result of strong operating leverage and continued focus On responsible cost management, we reported nearly breakeven adjusted EBITDA in Q3. This quarter's performance keeps us on track toward achieving our goal of positive adjusted EBITDA in the 4th quarter. And finally, we're honored to have been named to the 2023 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list, joining many other fast growing companies.

Speaker 2

These highlights demonstrate strong focused execution and the ongoing momentum We are experiencing across all aspects of our business. We continue to see increasing interest from government agencies worldwide Looking to secure access to our high frequency satellite imagery and AI driven analytics. This growing market demand puts us in a strong position to capitalize on new sales opportunities and realize sustainable profitable growth. I would now like to share some operational highlights from the quarter. Turning to Slide 6.

Speaker 2

Global demand for our products and services continues to remain strong as many governments around the world are increasing their investments in space based intelligence in support of their country's critical national security and economic interests. We're seeing more international governments Engaging with BlackSky to secure immediate and long term access to our high frequency imaging and analytic capabilities. One example is a multiyear master services agreement we recently signed for a new International Ministry of Defense customer. This contract valued up to $8,000,000 provides the customer with on demand and assured access to our high frequency imagery and analytics services. Through our Spectra software platform, Customer end users will be able to directly task our satellite constellation to monitor critical areas of interest that matter most to them.

Speaker 2

This contract also enables the customer to access capacity from our upcoming Gen 3 constellation Once these new advanced satellites come online, we are proud to add this customer to our growing customer base, supporting major defense and intelligence organizations around the globe. Also during the quarter, We expanded a contract with an existing international defense customer for increased assured access to BlackSky's imaging capacity. In a supply constrained environment, governments are seeking multiyear agreements in order to secure capacity over their critical regions of interest. This contract also includes the development of a next generation architecture to support their long term tactical needs. Moving on to Slide 7.

Speaker 2

We continue to see strong demand for BlackSky's products and services from the U. S. Government. U. S.

Speaker 2

Intelligence agencies as well as Department of Defense customers continue to expand their interest We expanded some of our major existing contracts and closed on a number of new contracts. First, We were awarded over $9,000,000 in contract expansions with existing U. S. Government agencies for our Advanced Imaging and Analytics Services. We're pleased that many government agencies continue to rely on BlackSky for our space based capabilities, And we look forward to continuing to build our relationships with them.

Speaker 2

2nd, we won a contract with the U. S. Air Force Research Laboratory funded by the U. S. Space Development Agency to provide an automated target recognition service to track mobile assets in real time.

Speaker 2

This contract will leverage our proprietary AI capability, diffuse together multiple satellite data sources, This project will demonstrate secure dissemination of actionable intelligence to remote devices and analysts worldwide. This is another example of some of the advanced capabilities BlackSky is developing to support Department of Defense requirements for Space Based Intelligence. Turning to Slide 8. A major achievement during the quarter was the successful integration Of our high frequency imagery services with the NRO's commercial imagery architecture. The U.

Speaker 2

S. Government Has been designing and building a commercial imagery and data architecture to streamline the ordering and receipt of products. This capability enables commercial providers like BlackSky to integrate and scale the delivery of imagery via series of APIs and enterprise interfaces to government end users. BlackSky has been working with the NRO on the integration into this architecture Since the beginning of the EOCL contract. In Q3, we successfully completed the initial operating capability or IOC milestone required under the contract.

Speaker 2

BlackSky is the 1st Commercial imagery company to successfully integrate and validate performance of this architecture. This was an important milestone as it further improves access and utilization of BlackSky's imagery within the U. S. Government. As evidenced by some of the key wins this quarter, BlackSky continues to win new advanced R and D programs to support emerging mission requirements.

Speaker 2

Slide 9 shows some of our capabilities supporting recent contract awards. For example, earlier this year, we released our multi frame burst imagery capability, which takes multiple images in succession To achieve a near video collection, this burst capability can be used by our AI algorithms to identify moving targets And create 3 d models. Another example is the AI platform that we developed as part of The government's IARPA Smart program, which uses AI to provide broad area search capability and analytics on over 35,000,000 square kilometers of imagery. In anticipation of the U. S.

Speaker 2

Government's growing requirements for space situational awareness, We've been able to demonstrate the use of our satellites to capture non earth images of objects in space, showing the versatility of our satellite constellation. Customers have also taken advantage of our advanced AI enabled site monitoring Which provide automated detection and classification of objects of interest, such as airports, ports and ships around the world. And deliver innovative next generation technology solutions that can be instrumental in our customers' ability to leverage space based Turning to Slide 10. I'm happy to report that our Gen 3 satellite program remains on track for launch in 2024. We are now receiving critical and long lead components and are moving into the assembly and integration of the first units.

Speaker 2

We are also scaling our satellite manufacturing production line and will provide more details on specific timing of the program as we progress in 2024. In summary, we're pleased with the record revenues achieved in Q3, Demonstrating the strong customer demand in the market and the ongoing momentum in winning new contracts and renewal agreements that position us for continued revenue growth. I'll now turn it over to Henry to go through the quarterly financial results in more detail. Henry?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased with the progress we've made across many aspects of our business and especially with our Q3 financial results. Beginning with Slide 12, total revenue for the Q3 of 2023 was $21,300,000 a new company record. This was an increase of $4,300,000 or 26 percent over the prior year quarter. Imagery and analytics revenue grew $15,300,000 an 11% increase over the prior year period, primarily driven by greater volumes of imagery delivered New and existing customers worldwide.

Speaker 3

Professional and engineering services revenue was $6,000,000 in the Q3 of 2023 compared to $3,200,000 in the prior year quarter. The increase of $2,800,000 was primarily driven by higher professional service fees from the ramp up of new customer programs won this year. As you may recall, We won a $150 plus 1,000,000 contract with an International Ministry of Defense customer in Q1 of this year. The initial development work on this contract is contributing to the increased revenues and includes professional fees to set up and integrate these services prior to when the multiyear As shown on Slide 13. Excluding stock based compensation, depreciation and amortization expenses, Imagery and analytics cost of sales for the 1st 9 months of 2023 was $10,400,000 a $300,000 increase or 3% increase compared to $10,100,000 in the same period of 2022.

Speaker 3

If we look at the same 9 month periods For our imagery and analytics revenue, we grew revenues this year to $46,400,000 compared to 31 point $2,000,000 last year, an increase of $15,200,000 or 48% year over year. When comparing the $300,000 increase in cost of sales to the $15,200,000 increase in revenue, the resulting incremental margin on this revenue was 98% for the 1st 9 months of this year, further validating our strong operating leverage in our core imagery and analytics services business. This is a key factor driving our adjusted EBITDA improvement and how we anticipate scaling our business efficiently and achieving profitability. Let's move to Slide 14 and talk about operating expenses. For this discussion, I will refer Cash operating expenses, which excludes stock based compensation and depreciation and amortization expenses.

Speaker 3

This approach enables us to more effectively compare our year over year costs for the business without the impact from non cash items. For the Q3 of 2023, cash operating expenses were $15,400,000 compared to $16,100,000 in Q3 of last year. The year over year decrease in cash operating expenses of $700,000 or 4% was primarily driven by reductions And general corporate costs, including insurance premiums, rent expense and professional fees that more than offset Investments in our go to market initiatives. We remain highly focused on managing our costs responsibly, which is another key factor driving our improving Adjusted EBITDA performance. Turning to Slide 15.

Speaker 3

For the Q3 of 2023, We reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of roughly $400,000 or essentially breakeven. This is a 93% year over year improvement over the $6,600,000 loss in the prior year period and was primarily driven by a few key factors. 1st, strong revenue growth driven by increased customer demand worldwide. 2nd, High incremental contribution margins in our imagery and analytics services business as well as higher professional services revenue with better margins from new programs this year That also contributed to increased gross profits. And 3rd, prudent cost management.

Speaker 3

We're very Pleased with the adjusted EBITDA performance in the Q3 and these results give us further confidence that we will achieve our goal of realizing positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4. As you will note, we are also reporting a positive net income for the quarter of $675,000 The primary driver for the positive net income was the accounting treatment of our warrant liability exposure. If you net warrant gains and losses out, Our quarterly net loss in Q3 2023 was a $3,900,000 improvement over the net loss in Q3 2022. Moving on to our balance sheet. We ended the Q3 of 2023 with $51,500,000 of cash, restricted cash short term investments.

Speaker 3

Our capital expenditures in the Q3 of 2023 were $7,500,000 which is down about $5,000,000 from Q2 this year due to the timing of some payments on our Gen 3 satellites. As you know, the timing of our CapEx spend can be lumpy from quarter to quarter and is more milestone driven than timeline driven. This brings our total CapEx spend for the 1st 9 months of this year to $35,900,000 With a cash balance of over $51,000,000 Prudent cost management and our drive to profitable adjusted EBITDA, we believe we have sufficient cash and liquidity to meet our needs for the foreseeable future. Now let's move on to our 2023 outlook as shown on Slide 16. As I mentioned earlier, we had a strong EBITDA performance in Q3, achieving nearly breakeven as a result of our double digit revenue growth and consistent operating leverage in our business.

Speaker 3

With continuing revenue growth and a laser focus on responsible cost management, we remain on track to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4 of this year. On revenue, there is some degree of uncertainty surrounding the timing of revenue from expected new contracts, which may include large initial deliveries. Considering this variability, we are narrowing the range of our 2023 revenue outlook to be between $84,000,000 $90,000,000 Even at the low end of this revenue range, we expect to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4 this year. For capital expenditures, we are raising our expectation for 2023 spend to be between $48,000,000 $54,000,000 This increase is primarily related to the timing of milestone based CapEx payments on our Gen 3 satellite constellation and launch down payments initially anticipated for 2024. In summary, we're pleased with our financial performance in the Q3 and the progress we've made across our business.

Speaker 3

With that, I'll now turn it back over to Brian for some closing remarks. Brian?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Henry. In closing, we're pleased with our Q3 results and the strong momentum we are continuing to experience across all aspects of our business. Our focus on the global defense and intelligence market is paying dividends as we continue to capture new customers, grow existing accounts And deliver new and innovative technology solutions to support the long term needs of our customers. We are seeing a clear and growing demand for Space Based Intelligence, which is evidenced by a growing sales pipeline and conversion of that into sizable multiyear contract backlog. Our focused execution is delivering strong incremental revenue growth And when coupled with responsible cost management, enables us to achieve strong operating leverage in our business.

Speaker 2

This is clearly evidenced by our adjusted EBITDA performance in the Q3 and keeps us on track to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4. At the same time, we continue to invest in expanding our AI capabilities and advancing our space architecture to deliver additional value to customers now and in the future. We look forward to a strong finish in the 4th quarter that will carry our momentum into 2024. This concludes our remarks for the call, and we'll now take your questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. And we'll take our first question from Jaeson Schmidt with Lake Street. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I'm sorry if I missed it, but do you guys give a backlog number?

Speaker 3

Jason, this is Henry. Thank you for joining the call. We will have that in our Q and the backlog at the end of September 30 was about $252,000,000

Speaker 4

Okay, perfect. And I know timing is always the wildcard here, but have you seen any order cancellations?

Speaker 3

No, it's just a matter of timings.

Speaker 4

Got it. And then final one from me and I'll jump back into queue. The slight adjustment to the midpoint of the full year outlook, Is that being driven by 1 or 2 push outs? Or is it just more broad based across your customer base?

Speaker 2

Yes. Good morning, Jason. As I mentioned last quarter, we had a number we have a number of contracts That we're expecting to close and it's the timing of those contracts and then the ramp of those revenues, which is Driving our slight refinement of our guidance.

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Edison Yu with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Hey, thanks for taking our questions. First, on the professional services Margin upside, is that something that we're going to see going forward? Do you expect it to normalize? How do we think about that trajectory?

Speaker 3

Yes, as you take a look at our professional services, as you may recall in the past, we were doing a lot of what we were calling funded R and D work In which we're contributing as well. So we had very fairly low margins. As we move more into this integration type support For these new projects before they become subscription based services, yes, we would expect to have a higher more Commercial type margins on those.

Speaker 4

Okay. And then just high level question on the, I guess, Closing of some of these big contracts, can you maybe go over in these discussions with the various governments, Why it appears to be taking, I guess, so long? Is it simply complexity, adoption Carver something, just a little bit more color there would be helpful.

Speaker 2

Yes, I think there is a typically Longer sales cycles with government customers and that as you can imagine varies Around the world and as contracts get moved through their internal processes, sometimes they can take longer. But as also you're seeing in our business, once we establish those contracts, we're seeing Incremental expansion of those on a regular basis. So it's usually the initial contracts that take longer. But once those are in place, it gives us very good visibility looking forward.

Speaker 4

Got you. And just if I can sneak one more in, if I look at the implied 4Q guide, even at the midpoint, it's a pretty decent growth acceleration. Do we think the 4th quarter will represent kind of a more normalized pace of growth going forward? And if so, I'm not trying to get guidance for next year, but is that something that you could see could think could continue?

Speaker 2

Well, I think, Edison, as we've outlined in our revised outlook, we are expecting a very strong Q4. At the lower end of that guidance, we've secured the backlog to support that and then we're anticipating Some additional contracts that would contribute to, I'll call non subscription initial payments. And so but I think you'll also See that we typically have had very strong Q3 and Q3 Q4 performance and we're delivering on that.

Speaker 4

Thank you.

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Josh

Speaker 4

Just as far as CapEx being milestone driven, anything we should note driving the milestone push out this quarter, supply chain or anything else

Speaker 2

No, Josh, I think building and launching satellites Just has typical variability as you move through that process and that's being reflected in the timing of these milestone payments.

Speaker 4

Got it. And then on the AI project, you mentioned tracking moving targets. Is that a resource heavy commitment or is that a capability where you can track

Speaker 2

It's all fully automated through AI and gets processed in our scalable cloud platform Spectra, and we're able to do that as part of our real time capability in our platform. So It scales pretty significantly across the world.

Speaker 4

Got it. And then just one last one just on EOCL. How is it ramped Relative to your initial expectations?

Speaker 2

It's right in line. As you'll recall, we're in year 2. And they originally funded 2 years of subscription and so we're right on track with expectations. The IOC milestone on integrating with the NRL's commercial imagery and data architecture was a very big milestone As that accelerates access to a much broader customer base within the U. S.

Speaker 2

Government than we were experiencing in the first Part of the contract. So that program is progressing as we expected and we're excited about this milestone. It's Really important to the next phase of the program.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you for the time.

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Jeff Van Rhee with Craig Hallum. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Great. Thanks and congrats guys on the progress to EBITDA, real good incremental margins here. A couple of questions for me on the subscription Component of the big Ministry of Defense win, understanding there's some variability there, but when does that subscription part really start to layer in? That's my first question. And the second was Q4 kind of back to the expected progression because to go up roughly 50% Sequentially being a possibility based on what you see in the pipeline, I'm definitely curious to understand more about that.

Speaker 5

Specifically on the imagery and software line, that's been relatively And I'm just wondering how much of that possible spike in Q4 do you think could fall in that imagery and software line? I know you want to give precise guidance there, but At least a sense of the magnitude of it coming on imagery and software versus professional and engineering. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes, Jeff, I think the answer is related to both Questions. We typically see in the 3rd and 4th quarter uptick And imagery and analytics subscription revenue tied to certain contracts. So we're to your question on our new Ministry of Defense contract or Expansion of that, that's driving incremental revenue from that from Imbrenal Analytics in the 4th quarter. And then as Henry outlined, we're also seeing a strong contribution from professional services for some of the Larger programs we won earlier in the year.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Greg Maffeiff with Westpark Capital. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Yes. Thank you for taking my question. When you look at some of your most recent contracts, Can you comment on any changes in terms that you're seeing, any trends, in other words, timelines and The kind of deliverables that customers are asking for? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Yes. Good morning, Greg. Yes, we're not seeing anything change relative to With the kind of capability that customers are interested in getting from BlackSky, the As you recall, our high frequency monitoring and analytic capability is unique in the market And customers are looking to secure that capability, especially in a supply constrained market. So We have been highly focused on new customers, particularly in the international Defense and Intelligence Sector and those customers are buying our baseline set of services around the types of Consistent pricing, which is enabling us to drive this high margin element of our business. Thank you.

Operator

We'll take our next question from Griffin Bose with B. Riley Securities, your line is open.

Speaker 6

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. Appreciate it. I just wanted to jump back to a question that Edison Earlier, on the Professional and Engineering Services that strong 45% margin is really nice to see. I'm just curious if you could elaborate Your expectations sort of going forward about the mix between imagery and analytics and then professional engineering services, do you expect us to continue Ramping as a percentage of overall revenue?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Griffin. I think we're anticipating A fairly consistent mix, continuing growth in imagery and analytics. There will always be some element of Professional services is part of our business, which includes integration of our capabilities into customer environments To drive subscription revenue, but also some of the R and D programs that we outlined, which are Funding advanced technology capabilities for future type of services from the company. We're going to continue to grow the imagery element of the business, but there will always remain some element in professional services.

Speaker 6

Got it. Okay, great. Thanks. Thanks, Brian. And then, just jumping back to the critical integration milestone with the NRO.

Speaker 6

Can you elaborate That all more quantitatively sort of the value that that milestone unlocks above the $72,000,000 allocated in the 2 years or I guess, I mean, if you can't give a view on that, when might you expect the NRO to make an announcement for additional rounds of funding, guaranteed funding?

Speaker 2

Well, as I mentioned, that was a significant milestone. And BlackSky was the 1st commercial provider to achieve that milestone and validate their new commercial provider architecture. What that means is that streamlines the distribution of Black Sky S. Government Systems, which at the end of the day enables higher utilization and Stronger demand. And so we're excited about getting to that point.

Speaker 2

We anticipate that In 2024, we will be working with NRO on the next phase of the EOCL Subscription.

Speaker 6

Okay. Got it. And then last one for me, if I could. Do you disclose the average length of contract represented under that $252,000,000 backlog? Just trying to better understand sort of when that revenue is expected to be recognized?

Speaker 2

No, we don't disclose that. But What you're seeing is a number of multiyear agreements and Different agreements have various elements of the timing, but Henry, do you want to add to that?

Speaker 3

Sure. And Griffin, when you see the Q that File after close of business today, there is a breakdown of how much of that $252,000,000 we expect to receive this year, which is about $24,000,000 And then we have the remainder is kind of about $52,000,000 of that is in 2024 and the rest is 2025 and beyond.

Speaker 6

Got it. Great. That's super helpful. Thanks again. Appreciate it.

Speaker 6

Congrats on the progress.

Speaker 2

Thanks.

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Bea Pranali with Quality Analytics. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Hi, everyone. I just have two questions. Since the announcement of commercial deals with CIMAX and Spire this year, how has the commercial Based on all of BlackSky and is there any plan in motion for diversification on the bupeptime side? Also, can you shed some light on the nature of your relationship with Bayer for Nutrane Solutions and how is it progressing?

Speaker 2

Could you repeat the first part of your question, please? We're having a hard time hearing you.

Speaker 7

Yes. So it was about the announcement of the commercial deals with Cimax and Spire this year. So how has the commercial space evolved for BlackSky? And is there any planning motion for diversification on the commercial front?

Speaker 2

Yes, thank you. Yes, we are continuing to work with Spire. We're seeing quite a bit of interest in the market for maritime domain Awareness Solutions, so combining Spire's capability to track ships with their constellation with our ability to Provide high frequency monitoring Is a significant value proposition. On the commercial side of that, we are working with Spire and other partners to bring that capability to market through different channels.

Speaker 7

Okay. That helps. And my last question is actually about Gen Z launch. So has the recent in flight anomaly of Rocket Lab anyway affected the last guys Gen 3 timeline or is it still on track?

Speaker 2

Gen 3 remains on track as we've outlined. We As we mentioned earlier, we signed a multi year agreement with Rocket Lab. We are we've had Rocket Lab has been a very good partner with us and we've been with them on with events and things like this before. So we're confident they're going to get to root cause and we don't see any impact to our launch plans next year.

Speaker 7

Okay.

Operator

And at this time, there are no further questions. I'll turn it back over to Ali Bonilla, BlackSky's Vice President of Investor Relations. Go ahead, Ali.

Speaker 1

All right. I want to thank everybody for joining us on the call this morning. We will be participating in several upcoming investor conferences over the next several weeks, and we hope to see you at one of these. We look forward to speaking to you again soon. Have a great day.

Operator

That concludes today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Powered by Quartr

Key Takeaways

  • BlackSky delivered record Q3 revenue of $21.3 million (26% YoY) and reported a nearly breakeven adjusted EBITDA, staying on track to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4.
  • Year-to-date imagery and analytics revenue grew by 48% to $46.4 million, with an incremental contribution margin of 98%, highlighting the strong operating leverage of the core business.
  • In Q3, the company signed new and renewal contracts valued up to $20 million, bringing year-to-date bookings to over $220 million, including an $8 million multi-year master services agreement with an international Ministry of Defense customer.
  • BlackSky became the first commercial imagery provider to complete initial operating capability integration with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office’s commercial imagery architecture, improving government access to its data via APIs.
  • The Gen 3 satellite program remains on track for a 2024 launch, with assembly, integration, and manufacturing scale-up underway to expand high-frequency imaging and AI-driven analytics capabilities.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
BlackSky Technology Q3 2023
00:00 / 00:00