Neonode Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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November 9, 2023

There are 3 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hi, and a warm welcome to the Neonode Q3 2023 Earnings Call. So we'll start with a company presentation by the CEO and CFO of Neonode, followed by a Q and A session by the company's analysts. So with that said, I welcome Urban Vossel, CEO of Neuronur, please take us through.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jesper, and welcome to our Q3 earnings call. Today's presenters is myself, Urban Forssell and our CFO, Fredrik Nilian. Before we go into the main part of our presentation, please take a moment and read this legal disclaimer. I will read aloud a summary of the disclaimer. This presentation contains an oral Unwritten statements of Neonode Incorporated, the company and its management, may contain forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

Forward looking statements include information about current expectations, strategy, plans, potential financial performance or future events. They may also include statements about market opportunity and sales growth, financial results, use of cash, product development and introduction, regulatory matters and sales efforts. Forward looking statements are based on assumptions, expectations and The information available to the company and its management and involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors That may cause the company's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any expressed or implied by these forward looking statements. Prospective investors are advised to carefully consider these various risks, uncertainties and other factors. Any forward looking statements included in this presentation are made As of today's date, the company and its management undertake no duty to update or revise forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

This presentation has been prepared by the company based on its own information as well as information from public sources. Certain of the information contained herein may be derived from information provided by industry sources. The company believes such information is accurate and that the sources from which it has been obtained are reliable. However, The company has not independently verified such information and cannot guarantee the accuracy of such information. Thank you.

Speaker 1

And with this, we move into the main part of our presentation. Today, we have a fairly short agenda, and we will jump right into it with a summary of the key points of this Q3 and of today's presentation. After this, Fredrik will take us through the highlights of the financial results for the quarter. And After Fredrik's presentation, I will give a strategy and business update. And as Jesper mentioned in the introduction, He will join us again and share a short Q and A session.

Speaker 1

Summary of key points for the Q3 and also year to date. Our licensing revenues in the Q3 decreased somewhat, And this has to do with certain customers reporting lower sales volumes for this quarter. However, year to date, we are on par with the same period last year. So that's why we say that license revenues for the full year so far has been stable on the same level as last year. Product sales improved in the Q3, and this obviously we are grateful for and it proves that our Increased level of activity and focus on pushing through sales and closing deals is paying off.

Speaker 1

However, the slow start on the 1st two quarters this year has made that we are below targets for the 1st 9 months. And as we have discussed in previous earnings calls, we continue to adjust And sharpen our strategies and tactics to improve our sales performance. We are not satisfied with our performance to date, and we are working hard to improve on that. And we are also encouraged by the interest level we get from New and existing customers. So although this quarter was similar to the previous quarter, We have a very optimistic view of the future, and we continue to believe that we are on the right track and that we have a team in place that can Turn this business around and create growth and also improve our cash flow significantly in the coming years.

Speaker 1

So with these three points as a summary, I hand over to Fredrik, who will take us through the financial results summary for this Q3. Fredrik?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Urban. You can find our 10 Q and earnings release on our Web site, neon.com, under Investors section. I will just in this presentation, I'll just summarize the key points. Revenues for Q3 was SEK1 1,000,000. That is a decrease of 18% compared to the same quarter last year.

Speaker 2

License revenues was SEK 800,000 for the 3rd quarter. That is a decrease of 20%. And this is due to lower sales volumes at our customers. Year to date, license revenues are at the same level as 2022, as Urban said. Revenues from products was NOK2000000 in Q3, an increase of 5% compared to the same period last year.

Speaker 2

We maintain our focus on certain sectors and increased activities within sales and marketing. Gross margin For Q3 2023, for products was negative 39%. This is due to a onetime effect of costs In Q3 2023, due to some customer claims. If we adjust for that, We are at 48% in Q3 2023, which is at the same level as the quarter same quarter last year. Operating expenses was SEK2.2 million for Q3 2023.

Speaker 2

It's an increase of 6% compared to the same Here last year, it's mainly due to increased activities within marketing and sales. We had SEK1.8 million in net cash burn operating activities for Q3 2023, an increase of 2 72%. We have two explanations for this. In Q3 2023, We purchased components to our production unit, and we didn't do that in Q3 2022. And Q3 2022 is exceptionally low because of a currency effect we took in that quarter.

Speaker 2

We have SEK 19,400,000 in cash and accounts receivable as of September 30, 2023. It's an increase of SEK 3,500,000 from year end 2022. So we are still stable on the cash front. With that, I will hand the word back to you, Urban.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Fredrik. And just to continue our presentation here and give you New followers and also old followers, an update about our strategy and business. Let me first Talk about what we do with interactive kiosks and, in particular, holographic display applications Very, very interesting. Shown here in the picture is a type of queuing, kiosk Deployed in a government office in Seoul, South Korea. This kiosk is manufactured by our customer, Markiton.

Speaker 1

And they also have a whole range of similar products, allowing people to, in a touchless way, here Sign up for a queue and get a ticket while waiting for the next clerk to become available. This is just one example. But Why we want to highlight this is that interactive holographic displays is a very interesting application example where our Touch sensor modules fit very well, and the combination of a holographic display and our touch sensor module technology is a perfect one. And we make these type of holographic images interactive using our touch sensor module technology. So all kinds of holographic display applications are of interest, and we have a lot of customers, especially in Asia but also in France, that are very, very active in the space, and they work with information kiosks, ticketing kiosks, payment terminals, ordering terminals and other types of interactive kiosks.

Speaker 1

So we continue to be very, very active here and support our partners, As said, in China, South Korea, China, Japan and France. Another interesting area that we have some considerable efforts in is medtech And especially touchless interaction for medtech devices is something that we are pushing. And shown here is an example of a machine that we retrofitted with a touch sensor module unit to allow for touchless interaction with the control panel. And this for this type of industry, it's very interesting because it avoids any risk for cross contamination. The machine shown here in the picture is used for DNA testing, for instance, to check for different diseases or doping controls or similar.

Speaker 1

And in these laboratories, cross contamination is A huge problem, and it costs them considerable amounts every year to control that. Here, we offer them a totally different and Smart solution to avoid any risk for cross contamination with operators of these machines. We have presented this also at other events and with direct customer meetings, and it has been very well received. So we continue to push in the medtech sector, starting especially with analytical instruments, but we also see obviously other medtech Devices also can benefit from our touchless solutions. Our technology, Being an optical touch technology also supports rugged touch for gloved finger operation or even operation with stylus pens or other pointers, which is also very much appreciated in clinics and hospital settings.

Speaker 1

Our optical touch technology Z Force also supports touch on any surface. And the combination. If I combine Interactive Kiosk and MedTech with touch on displays, What we also can offer that is fairly unique is that we can offer then touch beside or outside of the display surface. Sometimes you want quick buttons on the side of the display, and we can cover that in a very simple and straightforward way using, say, software defined buttons, so called soft buttons. We can also create solutions where you can touch on any other surface being glass, plastic, wood, leather or so on.

Speaker 1

Shown here is an example in a vehicle, in the center console where you have A traditional infotainment screen above and then you have some kind of touch panel below. And our optical Touch technology fits very well for these type of applications that you can like here, for instance, use your finger to write Airport. And then the navigation system picks up this and guides you in the right way. So any kind of user machine interface solution where you have touch, You have touched on displays on other surfaces. And in our case also, we support obviously touchless interaction and mid air interaction through holographic displays or other means.

Speaker 1

We continue to be active in these areas, and we see potential for this technology still. And What's even more interesting for us is that the same basic technology can be used for, say, more passive or reactive Object detection. So a particular application area where we have some focus and where we spend a lot of time in the last year and will do so in the future is head up display obstruction detection. We see a trend in the market that more and more vehicle manufacturers We'll change the layouts of the interior of the vehicles and probably remove the traditional instrument cluster altogether and instead start to use the head up displays as their main information display, you can say. And head up display works in a way that it's a projector shining projecting an image onto the Windshield given like a picture that looks to sit in front of the vehicle, a few meters in front of the vehicle.

Speaker 1

And this has certain advantages in terms of safety because you can keep your eyes on the road and it's very clear for the driver. However, if you have this type of solution and no backup in the form of a normal instrument cluster, it's very important to avoid the risk of objects obscuring parts of the image or the whole image. So Without that backup of a traditional instrument cluster, you cannot have something blocking, for instance, the speed reading for the driver. So it's mandatory by law to always show the speed of the vehicle and also other warning symbols. So what we have been working on and discussing with both automotive OEMs and Tier 1s is a solution where we can help to detect foreign objects such as parking tickets, credit cards, keys and other things that may All on top of the head up display, which is normally Mounted at the front of the dashboard in the low position shown here in the picture.

Speaker 1

So as a driver is sitting down in the driver's seat, it may be invisible to you if there is a parking ticket, for instance, sitting on this surface. And then you will never know if there's a warning sign coming on that you don't see. So this is a very interesting application area for us, and we have good resonance with several Tier 1s offering head up displays to OEMs and also from OEMs, especially here in Europe and I would say also premium Manufacturers of more advanced and exclusive vehicles. So probably, this is where it will start, but we see that in the future, More and more OEMs will follow the trend to move into head up display as the main information projector, so to say, for the driver in their vehicles. And we are super excited about our opportunities here, and We continue to work with customers in Asia, in Europe and North America to promote this and work with them to develop different solutions.

Speaker 1

Also, we continue to be very optimistic about our chances to break in through the expanding driver monitoring market. Our solution is very Generic, and it's both a driver and an in cabin monitoring solution. And we offer a very flexible and scalable platform here that also has very efficient algorithms to do this. With our customers today that we are Talking to and we are in advanced stages of negotiations with some. They may have.

Speaker 1

In some cases, we know for sure that they have in sort of the first wave here Chose another DMS solutions, but they have now refocused and they are very interested in Our flexible and scalable platform, and we feel that we have a good chance now to come into sort of a second wave here and offer our solution to both customers that have DMS solutions in their vehicles today And those that are new and planning also for further features in the vehicles based on cameras inside the cabin. That could be comfort features, could be safety features and it could also be combination features such as special control of the augmented reality Head up display system or there could be identification systems for fleet management and control, alchemeters. There could be also automatic adjustments of seats and rearview mirrors and so on based on the head positions of the drivers and so on. So a lot of different features are being contemplated and will surely be launched in the coming years. And our platform is Ideally suited for this type of scalable architecture and also continuous feature growth and over the air updates.

Speaker 1

So we believe that this is the most modern and most flexible platform there is, and it's also very, very efficient and require very little system resources for its implementation. In the last 2 years, especially this year, we have increased levels of activity in our marketing and sales. And I repeat We continue to adjust this, and we are not happy with our sales performance to date. So hence, we work more and more Focused on marketing and demand creation. And one way is through different types of events.

Speaker 1

And only in the Q3, we joined several events, automotive events, medtech events and also some other events shown here. Some we participated ourselves and some with partners. And shown in the picture here is a solution from our French customer, MZ Technology, that we co exhibited with at the VENTRA show in Munich and met with different types of kiosk manufacturers and vending machine And this touchless solution for displays and buttons was very well received there, as one example. And upcoming events, in November, December, we have a few events, and then we are also working hard now to prepare, and we will join the CES show in Las Vegas in January and also the big World NRF show in New York for the retail industry. So if you are around, please join us and visit our booth at these events.

Speaker 1

And otherwise, stay tuned for also our online Content sharing from the events. And in general, please follow us. We have a lot of exciting things in the making, and we hope that we can announce some new business win in the near future. This takes me to the end of the presentation. And now, as

Operator

Great. Thank you so much for that presentation. All right. So we'll start with the automotive industry and what's happening in the procurements around DMS and the HUD offering. And in the last a conference call that we had, you didn't promise, but you sounded very optimistic about already before the end of Q3 being able to announce perhaps a design win.

Operator

Could you just talk about the development and what you see?

Speaker 1

We are still optimistic. To be honest, we have in a couple of these cases, we have experienced a slight delay. It's not our fault, But it's very complex deals and it's also multiyear. And in some cases, we deal with Large OEMs with multiple brands and like global operations, and there are many interested parties that should have their say. So sometimes these processes take longer than expected also for them.

Speaker 1

In other cases, we are dealing with even bigger Tier 1 system suppliers. Then probably the main decisions are centralized to Germany or Japan or wherever they have their headquarters. But still, there are some of them very large corporations and takes time to process. But Okay.

Operator

So we shouldn't like we shouldn't interpret this as it has been won by any other player?

Speaker 1

No. So the our main opportunities in this space, We are still in the race. We think we are in a good position. And I want to explain to you and also the listeners here that we are addressing both passenger car OEMs and commercial vehicle OEMs and third, also Tier 1 system suppliers. And we have a global reach.

Speaker 1

And indeed, we have interesting dialogues here in Europe and in North America and in some cases also in these Three countries I have talked about before: Japan, South Korea and China. And It's in different stages, but we are very optimistic to break in first into this market, which is Quite dynamic, and I know you are somewhat of an expert following different companies active here. And we are doing Things in a slightly different way. And like I tried to explain in the presentation, we see now that some customers are into their sort of 2nd round of sourcing. And then they have experiences from their first projects.

Speaker 1

And they are in some cases where we obviously have the greatest interest. They have had perhaps not the perfect experience with other solutions or other suppliers, And that's why we have a chance now to enter sort of in the second phase here. Quite interesting.

Operator

All right. Good. And How would you compare the I mean the meanings from the OEMs and the or the interest from the OEMs and the Tier 1s about like the HUD offering versus the MS? Do you see Yes, do you see any difference or

Speaker 1

Yes, so one big difference at DMS is driven by Regulatory requirements in Europe, but in other markets, it's not. So then it's more comfort driven or branding driven. But we expect that this type of DMS regulations will come also in the U. S. And in China, for instance.

Speaker 1

May not be exactly the same as in Europe, but something will come. And some manufacturers in these markets, they want to sort of preclude this by starting to offering A good solution even before, for instance, in North America, before NHTSA releases a new Feder v Motor Vehicle Safety Standard on this topic. Head up display is not Directly driven by any legislation. But as I tried to explain also, if you remove any kind of backup and only rely on the head up display, You cannot sell your vehicles without this type of safety guard because you must Show all important information to the driver or turn on another warning sign that something is wrong. Please stop the vehicle.

Speaker 1

So there's where we see our chance. And indeed, some OEMs are going in this direction. And It's because it's they want to achieve a different look and feel of the interior of the vehicle. They want to use the space differently. And of course, it has to do with Electrification.

Speaker 1

So when you go to a fully electric vehicle, they want to also experiment. And there is this Company, Tesla, that has sort of triggered a little bit this. So now everyone is thinking about the interior. We don't need to do in the same way as we always done it. And I believe that this is also very much driven by cost.

Speaker 1

So I give you this as a final comment that there's been a trend for 10, 15 years towards bigger and bigger screens. You talk about pillar to pillar displays in front of the driver and passengers. And we have some examples from Chinese OEMs and so on, massive curved displays and high resolution color displays with touch features. They are very, very costly. So a way to break that cost spiral and complexity is to simply move into head up displays altogether.

Speaker 1

And obviously, that is much more cost effective for the manufacturers than competing with bigger and bigger screens. So let's see how this plays out. But automotive is a very dynamic industry, but In the end, everything takes quite a long time. So we have long sales cycles. Then you have a development phase of 2, 3 years.

Speaker 1

And then the new solutions are launched into production, and this is where we can then start to get royalties. But automotive is a very important, say, industry or sector for us. And We have been active there for at least 11 years, since 2012. It was the first automotive Product developed with Neonode Technology. And to date, we have licensed our technology more than 7,500,000 vehicles, Closing up to SEK 8,000,000.

Speaker 1

And going forward, we hope to increase that significantly with the DMS offering And also other offerings like this head up display obstruction detection. All

Operator

right. Sounds promising. And then also one question for you, Fredrik. I mean, you are kind of like well, it seems that you're changing focus more and more towards The automotive industry perhaps less so in the product sales. How does this affect your cost space like part of now, but also going forward?

Operator

Like what do you see?

Speaker 2

Well, we see that we're focusing our current business towards automotive. So it's not that we are growing our cost base. It's that we are refocusing our cost base and looking for that in the future. So but of course, if we get some good news out there, we need to also expand on that sense.

Operator

For the engineering part of the implementation. Yes. Okay. Good. That's all of my questions.

Operator

Do we have any other questions from other analysts? No, we have no other questions. All right. Thank you so much for coming here, and good luck going forward.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Thank you.

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Key Takeaways

  • Q3 revenues declined 18% to SEK 11 M with license revenues down 20%, although year-to-date licensing remains on par with 2022, and product sales rose 5% despite first-half shortfalls leaving nine-month results below target.
  • Product gross margin was dragged to –39% by a one-time customer claim but adjusted to 48%, matching last year’s level, while net cash burn jumped 272% on component purchases, yet cash and receivables grew to SEK 19.4 M.
  • Neonode is intensifying efforts in interactive kiosks with holographic displays and in medtech touchless controls—targeting cross-contamination prevention and rugged glove-compatible interfaces.
  • In automotive, the company is advancing head-up display obstruction detection and driver monitoring systems, positioning its scalable optical touch and sensing platform in ongoing design-win negotiations with OEMs and Tier 1s.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Neonode Q3 2023
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