SuperCom Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
April 28, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Supercom reported record 2024 revenue of $27.6 M, achieved its first full-year GAAP net income since 2015 at $0.7 M, and posted positive EBITDA for ten consecutive quarters, reflecting robust profitability and improved cash flow usage.
  • The company secured several high-profile contracts including the National Israeli Electronic Monitoring Project, over 20 U.S. state contracts since mid-2024, and major European wins in Romania, Finland, and Latvia, demonstrating strong market penetration.
  • Investment in R&D led to the launch of PureProtect (domestic violence monitoring) and PureOne (all-in-one GPS tracking), which have gained traction across the U.S. and Europe and are expected to drive future revenue growth.
  • Supercom strengthened its balance sheet by reducing debt by 32% to ~$23 M, extending loan maturity, cutting interest costs, and raising over $60 M in gross proceeds, enhancing financial flexibility for strategic expansion.
  • Despite full-year profitability, Q4 GAAP results showed a $1.9 M net loss due to revenue timing and $2 M of one-time write-downs, while potential U.S.-Israel tariffs and macro uncertainties pose execution risks.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
SuperCom Q4 2024
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to SuperCom's Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2024 Financial Results and Corporate Update Conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Participants of this call are advised that the audio of this conference call is being broadcast live over the internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. Joining me from SuperCom's leadership team is Ordan Trabelsi, SuperCom's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Operator

I'd like to remind you that during this call, SuperCom management may be making forward-looking statements, including statements that address SuperCom's expectations for future performance or operational results. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause SuperCom's actual results to differ materially from those statements. For more information about these risks, uncertainties, and factors, please refer to the risk factors described in SuperCom's most recently filed periodic reports on Form 20F and Form 6K, and SuperCom's press release that accompanies this call, particularly the cautionary statements in it. Today's conference call includes EBITDA and non-GAAP financial measures that SuperCom believes can be useful in evaluating its performance. You should not consider this additional information in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Operator

For reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure to net loss, a comparable GAAP financial measure, please see the reconciliation table located in SuperCom's earnings press release that accompanies this call. Reconciliations for other non-GAAP financial measures and comparable GAAP financial measures are available there as well. The content of this call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of today, April 28th, 2025. Except as required by law, SuperCom disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any information to reflect any of the circumstances that occur after this call. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to SuperCom's President and CEO, Ordan Trabelsi. Ordan, the floor is yours.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

All right. I'm here. Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Earlier this morning, we released our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31st, 2024. You can find a copy of the press release in the investor relations section of our website at supercom.com. We also filed our 2024 Annual Report on Form 20F earlier today. Today, I'll provide you a detailed overview of our 2024 performance, including financial highlights, recent business developments, and strategic direction, followed by a Q&A session. I'm pleased to share SuperCom's outstanding performance for 2024, a year marked by continued momentum across our financial and operating fronts. We achieved revenue of $27.6 million, a record over the past seven years, and a 134% increase from our 2020 revenue low, highlighting a four-year growth trajectory and successful execution across our markets.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Gross profit increased 31% year over year to $13.4 million, reflecting a favorable revenue mix of more later-stage projects and continued scale efficiencies. Gross margin expanded to 48.4%, up nearly 10% points from 2023 and our strongest level since 2021. We also reported positive GAAP net income of $661,000 compared to $4 million net loss in 2023, representing our first full year of GAAP profitability since 2015 and a nine-year record net income. In addition, EBITDA rose to $6.3 million, up 31% year-over-year, supported by strong margins and operational leverage. This marks our 10th consecutive quarter of positive EBITDA, underscoring the consistency of our core business.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

We've also made consistent progress to improve our operating cash flows year-over-year, from a use of $9.4 million in 2021 to $4.7 million in 2022, $2.4 million in 2023, and now just $1.3 million of operating cash use in 2024. This 85% reduction over the three years reflects strong execution across both new and legacy projects and positive change towards financial self-sufficiency. Together, with our growth in revenue and profitability, these improvements in cash flow underscore the success of our strategic initiatives and the operational leverage in our business model, whereby we see improved margins as revenues grow, especially when we're growing in regions where we have an existing project. The U.S. market is an excellent example of that, but we will get to that a bit later.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

I'd like to take a moment to thank our incredible team for their tireless work and dedication, which made this success possible. We're proud of what we've accomplished together and look forward to the next chapters. During the past year, we won several important contracts in the U.S. and Europe, and we're excited about the opportunities we see ahead. I'll go into more details in a few moments. This year was particularly exciting as we further established our leadership position through a series of competitive wins, including the prestigious National Israeli Electronic Monitoring Project. This landmark contract not only displaced a long-standing incumbent of nearly 20 years but also validated our technology and operational capabilities on a national scale. In the U.S., we significantly expanded our footprint with more than 20 new contracts secured since mid-2024.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

This included strategic entries to West Virginia, Maryland, New York, South Dakota, Alabama, Ohio, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Kentucky. These contracts' wins continue to diversify our revenue base and support recurrent income streams across multiple jurisdictions. We are particularly proud of the successful integration and expansion of our tier-one solution across these regions. This positive reception underscores both the technical strength and adaptation of our platform. These strategic wins, coupled with our product-led growth model, have positioned us to accelerate our momentum and deliver sustained value to our customers and stakeholders. For those new to SuperCom, our mission is to revolutionize the public safety sector worldwide with our proprietary electronic monitoring technology, data intelligence, and suite of complementary services. With over 36 years of experience since our founding in 1988, we've been a trusted partner to dozens of national governments worldwide, providing cutting-edge electronic and digital security solutions.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Our strategic blueprint is straightforward yet powerful. Firstly, we lead with innovative technology. Our proprietary electronic monitoring technology scores highly in competitive government tenders towards various programs such as house arrest, GPS monitoring, rehabilitation services, domestic violence prevention, and more. Moreover, we have recently broadened our portfolio to include advanced AI-driven analytics, which are an integration into our electronic monitoring solutions. This addition enhances our ability to provide predictive insights and improve outcomes for our clients. Develop superior solutions is our second. Since 2018, SuperCom has secured over 50 new multi-year government projects. The third is to expand our global presence with a strong growing reputation as a premium provider of electronic monitoring solutions and services, enhance our market position with each new win. Our fourth pillar will be the delivering of outstanding service.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

We have a strategic focus on the IoT tracking business and develop markets with opportunities the greatest. With the electronic monitoring market projected to reach $2.3 billion by 2028, the U.S. and Europe constitute about 95% of these markets. We continue to amplify our technological leadership with significant R&D investments, leading to the launch of advanced solutions like PureProtect, also branded lately as PureShield, and PureOne. These offerings are already making headway in various markets, including the U.S., and are pivotal in SuperCom's expansion. PureProtect, or PureShield, is a lifesaving domestic violence monitoring solution, providing preventive measures to families suffering from domestic violence or stalking thereby increasing their safety. PureOne is an all-in-one GPS tracking ankle bracelet and monitoring solution, integrating comprehensive monitoring capabilities into a single device. Like many of our products, it offers top-notch features, placing it above the competition in most metrics.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Our cloud-based software-enabled PureSecurity product line has been particularly effective in monitoring offenders and managing real-time information. This real-time advantage is a game-changer, empowering authorities with actionable insights and timely intervention to mitigate potential risks and enhance public safety. Our investment in product innovation has directly translated into meaningful market expansion. The launch and successful adoption of PureSecurity by PureProtect and PureOne have significantly increased our addressable market, enabling us to penetrate new territories and deepen our presence in existing ones. We've been very pleased with the reception and traction and expect them to help facilitate the accelerated expansion of SuperCom into the U.S. market and further European countries. We've fortified our operational infrastructure to support our growth and have revamped our sales strategy with a proactive outreach approach. Our sales team, with deep industry expertise, has been instrumental in achieving new wins and driving growth.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

In the fourth quarter, together with our prime partner, Electric Security, we were awarded a high-profile multi-year contract in the Israeli Prison Service IPS to deploy our PureSecurity electronic monitoring suite, including PureCom, PureTrack, PureTag, and PureBeacon. The nationwide program is expected to cover all EM offender monitoring in the country, with an estimated 1,500 enrollees and potential for expansion. The five-year contract is already in effect, with hundreds of units already deployed, and includes the option for up to four one-year extensions for a total of nine potential year contract terms. This project was secured through a highly competitive bidding process involving multiple valuation rounds, demonstrations, and technical reviews supervised by the IPS, which displaced an Israeli incumbent, as I said before, that held the contract for nearly 20 years. The win exemplifies our commitment to excellence, technology, leadership, and strong partnership.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Our comprehensive set of offerings positions us well to win multifaceted national projects, which is the one that is set to encompass all electronic monitoring programs in the country. Across Europe and the United States, we continue to gain traction in competitive tenders, often displacing incumbent vendors. Our strong track record, supported by our proven technology and operational excellence, continues to be a key driver of new project awards and long-term partnerships. In Europe, we continue to execute on a strategy that is delivering tangible growth and long-term opportunity. Over the past several years, we have expanded our footprint into many countries in Europe, winning over 15 national electronic monitoring programs through competitive tenders. These include large-scale domestic violence tracking initiatives that align with growing public safety priority across the region.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

A standout example is our success in Romania, where we secured the largest industry award of 2022, a national electronic monitoring project valued at approximately $33 million, designed to serve up to 15,000 monitoring individuals simultaneously for over a period of six years. The program is actively running and shows the scalability of the PureSecurity Suite. The program is actively running and shows the scalability of our PureSecurity Suite in managing complex deployments such as this one. We also strengthened our presence in Finland with a national-level deployment of our domestic violence monitoring solution. This contract builds on our growing reputation in the region and reflects the confidence our European government partners have in our technology and support infrastructure. Most recently, we launched a new national project in Latvia, our third in the country, focusing again on domestic violence offender monitoring.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Ordered following a competitive tender, this initiative leverages the PureSecurity platform to support the Latvian state police with enhanced offender compliance and victim protection tools. In parallel, we are actively receiving additional orders from current partners across Europe, demonstrating the strength and stickiness of our solution. As more governments transition to our proactive monitoring approaches, we believe a strong European foundation and proven delivery model position us for continued success in the region. While Europe remains an important growth driver, the U.S. market presents an even greater long-term opportunity, estimated to reach up to six times the size of the European market in the coming years. With the introduction of the PureOne electronic monitoring product, now available in the U.S., and the expansion of our domestic violence tracking solutions, we believe SuperCom is well-positioned to unlock substantial growth potential in its untapped market.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

In line with this, our expansion strategy in the U.S. has accelerated meaningfully over the past 18 months. Although SuperCom already does business in multiple U.S. states, we're actively focused on further expanding our presence in the U.S. Our wholly-owned subsidiary, LCA, located in California, is actively expanding the size and scope of its existing programs, winning rebates with existing customers and winning new programs with new customers. The company strategically prioritizes PureOne's expansion into new markets and geographies. PureOne has already received high praise during its introduction into various regions of the U.S., where it has been successfully deployed and is actively utilized to monitor live offenders. Moreover, sales activities for PureOne have commenced in promising new markets outside Europe and North America. Despite our long-standing presence in parts of California, the U.S. market remains largely untapped.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Since we began investing in outbound sales efforts, we have secured numerous contract wins across the U.S., with over 20 new contracts since mid-2024. The recent launch of PureOne, coupled with the positive feedback from initial deployments, positions us to accelerate market capture in the U.S., unlocking significant growth opportunities. Our newly expanded strategic sales team has already delivered tangible results. Beyond contract wins, we've seen a significant uptick in demos, pilot programs, and qualified leads, all of which are contributing to a sharp increase in our U.S. pipeline. Launching our PureOne solution in the U.S. market was a defining milestone in our North America expansion strategy. Since our last earnings call, we were discussing new wins in West Virginia, Maryland, and New York. SuperCom has continued its rapid expansion with several notable contracts.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

In South Dakota, we secured multiple contracts and county sheriff agencies, along with the agency sheriff agencies, marking our official entry into the state. These deployments leverage our PureOne technology, known for its dependable performance in both urban and rural environments, and are already contributing recurring revenue. In Alabama, we signed a new government contract to deliver GPS tracking and monitoring violence monitoring solutions, domestic violence monitoring solutions, expanding our public safety footprint in the south-eastern U.S. and advancing victim protection initiatives. In Ohio, we secured a contract with a juvenile probation agency, successfully displacing the incumbent provider. The project utilizes our discreet and compliance-driven PureOne solution, tailored specifically for juvenile justice programs. In Arizona, we partnered with a prominent statewide service provider, marking our seventh new U.S. state entry since mid-2024. This partnership broadens our reach across the state's justice system and accelerates market penetration.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Through a strategic regional partnership, we also expanded into Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, where our GPS domestic violence monitoring technologies are being introduced by an established provider network. In Canada, we launched a new project with a long-standing tracking solutions partner, transitioning from RF-based to GPS technologies using our advanced PureOne devices. This unit began generating revenue in early 2024. As I mentioned earlier, introducing the PureOne solution was a game-changer in securing these contracts, underscoring our competitive edge and commitment to developing innovative and superior technology solutions. This momentum highlights the strong market demand for our PureOne and PureProtect solutions and reinforces our trajectory for continued growth in various regions of the market. Now, despite macroeconomic uncertainties and ongoing global challenges, including those in Israel, SuperCom's solutions are becoming increasingly relevant.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

We continue to see growth driven by high recidivism rates, the escalating cost of incarceration, and the surge in adoption of victim protection solutions worldwide. The company's PureSecurity technology solutions have been designed to address these trends, offering an effective way for institutions to enforce home confinement, ease prison overcrowding, and lower costs significantly. For example, monitoring an offender on home confinement or GPS costs about $10-$35 a day, which is 90% less than the $100-$140 daily costs at a correctional facility. Moreover, home confinement helps reduce repeat offenses, highlighting its effectiveness in helping offenders improve their lives and communities. As we mentioned on previous calls, we believe there's also an opportunity to enhance our U.S. growth through strategic acquisitions of local electronic monitoring service providers with a strong reputation and customer base in their local markets.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

We constantly monitor the market for potential acquisitions that could generate significant value by immediately expanding market presence and providing vertical integration synergies. Our acquisition of LCA in 2016 for $3 million is a great example of that. The successful acquisition has proven to be of great strategic value through the over $35 million in new project wins it has generated since then in California alone. I'll now turn over to the financials. Considering this quarter, Q4 and full year 2024 in comparison to the same period last year, note that our multi-year projects do not run on a quarterly scale and thus can have fluctuating effects when analyzed quarterly. We'll start with the full year performance, which helps neutralize some of the fluctuation.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Full year performance of 2024, we achieved our fourth consecutive year of revenue growth, with revenues increasing to $27.6 million. This represents our highest revenue since 2017 and a 134% increase from 2020 of $11.8 million, underscoring the strength of our multi-year recovery. Gross profit surged to $13.4 million, a 31% increase over the prior year, driven by continued scaling of our operations and favorable project mix. This resulted in gross margin expansion to 48.4%, up from 38.5% in 2023, a nearly 10% improvement in our strongest margin level since 2021. We reported positive net income of $661,000, a significant turnaround from net loss of $4 million in 2023. As I've said, this marks our first full year of GAAP profitability since 2015 and highlights the durability of our operation model.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

On a non-GAAP basis, where we excluded non-cash items like amortization of intangibles from prior acquisitions, among other things, net income rose to $6.33 million, up from $3.19 million, a 99% increase, driven by core business strength, excluding non-recurring and non-cash items. Non-GAAP EPS reached $3.66 for the full year of 2024. EBITDA reached $6.3 million, reflecting 31% year-over-year growth, supported by strong gross margins and operating efficiencies. This marks our 10th consecutive quarter of positive EBITDA. Operating cash flow improved materially, with usage reduction to $1.3 million in 2024, continuing the positive trend from $9.4 million, $4.7 million, $2.4 million in 2021, 2022, and 2023. This marks an 85% reduction in cash over the last few years, highlighting enhanced cash generation for both new and legacy projects. Quarterly performance, we'll look at currently.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Revenue increased in the fourth quarter to $6.33 million, up from $5.7 million in the prior year period. This growth was driven by new project wins and the expansion of existing programs both in the U.S. and Europe. Gross profit increased to $2.7 million, up from $2.35 million, with margins improving to 42.7%, up from 41% in the prior year period. This margin expansion reflects improved scale and favorable project dynamics. Importantly, our EBITDA increased to $1.6 million from $1.09 million achieved in Q4 last year, marking our 10th consecutive quarter, as you said, of positive EBITDA. While GAAP net loss for the quarter was $1.86 million compared to loss of $1.56 million last year, this was primarily driven by timing of revenue recognition and certain operating items, such as $2 million in one-time items, including doubtful debt write-down.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

In addition to strong year-over-year results, it's worth at this moment to take a step back and look at how SuperCom has come over the past four years. Following the placement of a new management team and business strategy in 2021, SuperCom executed a transformation that drove substantial improvements across key financial and operating metrics over the four-year period. While navigating global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, rising interest rates, changes in various policies, supply chain disruptions, and volatile capital markets. Between 2020 and 2024, we achieved remarkable transformation in our financial operation performance. Revenue more than doubled, rising from $11.8 million in 2020 to $27.6 million in 2024. Gross profit also grew from $5.6 million to $13 million. Operating losses narrowed substantially, improving by 90%.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

On a GAAP basis, net income improved from $7.4 million loss to $661,000 profit, our first full year since 2015 of GAAP profitability. EBITDA more than doubled from $2.8 million to $6.3 million, reflecting 125% growth. On a non-GAAP basis, net income improved from a loss of $1.7 million in 2020 to $6.3 million in 2024, an $8 million turnaround over this four-year period in non-GAAP net income. Operating cash flow usage was reduced by 86% from $9.4 million to $1.3 million, reflecting enhanced cash efficiency across project deployments and operational usage. This four-year turnaround demonstrates the success of our strategic roadmap, the scalability of our core solutions, and the strength of our global operations. We've shifted from financial recovery to consistent, profitable execution. We remain focused on building on this momentum into 2025 and beyond.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Moreover, we achieved our longer-term goal of transitioning away from the legacy business of identification in Africa to the IoT business in developing countries. In 2024, over 97% of our revenues were from developed countries. In comparison to 2015, where over 89% of the revenues were from Africa alone, IoT revenues over this period of time grew from 1% of the company revenues in 2015 to 91% of company revenues in 2024 regarding IoT revenues. Furthermore, in recent months, we have made substantial progress in strengthening our financial position. Since the end of 2023, we've reduced our total outstanding debt by 32%, from over $34 million to approximately $23 million, a reduction of more than $11 million in just over a year.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

This was achieved in part through strategic exchanges of debt to equity and negotiated premiums up to 100% or more of market price, as well as an amendment of our senior debt extending maturity to December 31, 2028, as well as an interest rate reduction that is expected to save the company more than $1 million in interest and fees per the current loan term. Following the reduction in debt, we raised over $60 million in gross proceeds, $6 million through a registered direct offering, and an additional approximately $10.2 million from the cash exercise of investor warrants that were outstanding. These combined initiatives have strengthened our balance sheet and provided the resources necessary to continue executing our strategy. In closing, I'd like to thank our global teams for the hard tireless work to achieve our company's record-setting performance in 2024.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

We've developed the right technology and products to help criminal justice system clients overcome challenges and make better use of over $80 billion spent annually in the U.S.A. on operating rehabilitation centers and prisons. With research showing that approximately 75% recidivism rate in the U.S., there is significant room for improvement when effective programs and technology are deployed. We're excited about the growth we've been experiencing and about the demand for our products. After several years through which we transitioned from our legacy business to the IoT tracking of offenders' business, we're happy to show the shift to strong growth in revenue and profit in recent years. We believe that we're well-positioned for continued expansion of our solutions to more locations, geographies, as we capitalize on opportunities that lay before us.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

These are being driven by multiple factors, including a strong presence, reputation in the U.S. and European markets, the countercyclical nature of the electronic monitoring industry, the growing public policy shift to monitoring instead of incarceration, and the growing adaptation of domestic violence prevention solutions. We anticipate continued expansion in the U.S. and Europe and potential other regions. Our commitment to preserving our technological advantage and our robust growth foundation remains steadfast as we continue to invest in these areas. With that, I'll turn the call over to Operator for opening questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question on today's call, you will need to press star, then the number one on your telephone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before entering your request and speaking on the call.

Operator

If your question has been answered and you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing star and two. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. The first question today is coming from Matthew Galinko from Maxim Group. Matthew, your line is live.

Matthew Galinko
Matthew Galinko
SVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Maxim Group

Hey, congrats on the strong 2024, and thanks for taking my questions. I think my first one is, it seems like I think it's six consecutive quarters above 40% gross margin now. Would you be comfortable calling 40% the floor at this point, just relative to where we were a couple of years ago, or do you think there's room for more volatility in the gross margin line ahead?

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Great question. As you know, our gross margin comes with a factor of numerous projects at the same time from different regions.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

We have shared, and we continue to experience, and we add more and more bracelets of monitoring into the same region. Margins improve significantly because you have the fixed cost per project of the inventory management, of the deployment, of the support, of the training and the technology know-how, the servers. All that is fixed, and you add more and more bracelets, you get higher margins. We have some very nice projects with the growing numbers currently, and they're contributing to this higher gross margin. As we plan to the U.S. market, since a lot of it is on the same platform, centralized through the cloud, we hope to see improved margins as numbers grow there. Currently, it's still hard to say how things will unfold as there's a lot of volatility depending on what happens with different projects.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

It is hard for us to know how things will move. They can trend up and down, but over time, as our business plan unfolds, we believe that we will have larger and larger unit numbers per customer and per region, and that will drive higher gross margins, actually, than even what we have today.

Matthew Galinko
Matthew Galinko
SVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Maxim Group

Got it. Thank you. I guess as a follow-up, can we maybe focus a little bit more on the U.S. market? You have obviously had some pretty good success in that evolving strategy. Maybe give us an idea of what is next. Is it kind of more quota-carrying sales reps and acceleration in new customers and larger customers in the U.S. market, or do you start competing for kind of bigger contracts with bigger governments, or just kind of what do you expect to what should we expect to see from the U.S. market in 2025?

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Okay. The U.S. market, which we've started expanding significantly into as of last year, and since the middle of last year till now, we've already had over 20 new contracts, and we're continuously signing more contracts and more partnerships to help us expand together with a local partner, which is also a very good thing. These partnerships, and so far, the deployments are going well. We're getting good feedback, and technology is a great fit. We didn't expand as much early in previous years because our technology is more focused on the European market, and now we adapted some of it, like the tier one, to the U.S. market. All that is going well. As we continue to expand into more locations and bring on more partners, we're going to grow also the size of the projects.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

As you remember, probably in Europe, we started with small projects over $100,000, $200,000, $400,000, and then we grew to $2 million, $4 million, and now one of our latest ones is over $33 million. The same thing in the U.S. We're starting with small and going up to mediocre, and then over time to larger and larger. We will see that continue to progress over the coming years. We had a passive bidding strategy in Europe. We did not have as much of a big sales team. In the U.S., it is more fragmented, so we actually have more people that are quota-carrying, as you mentioned before, together with sales support. We are actively in pilots and demos, and the pipeline continues to evolve as we are doing that throughout the U.S. market.

Matthew Galinko
Matthew Galinko
SVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Maxim Group

All right. Thank you.

Matthew Galinko
Matthew Galinko
SVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Maxim Group

Last question for me is on the opportunity to consolidate some of the partners in the U.S. market. Is that something that you see as being more of a possibility, especially with your debt starting to come down and break-even cash getting pretty close? What do you think the likelihood of deals closing in the next 18 months looks like, or what are the biggest barriers to executing on that?

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Great question. Thank you. We've mentioned in the past, just to give everyone context, some of these partnerships with local value-added resellers, they'll provide the services. They'll take our technology or our competitor technology and provide the services, and they'll aggregate maybe 10-30 counties. Because some of these small counties, it's hard for them to do everything themselves, and they go to a local player who does that for them.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

We sell to these partners already, and there's interesting opportunities with acquiring them. We did it once in California in 2016, and it worked very well because you replace their technology with our technology, which is newer and also creates a lot of synergies and significant profit quickly. It also opens up your ability to grow that business with the newest technology in that region. There are certainly opportunities, and we have been discussing this at some level over the past, over the recent years. As you've seen, we also had a big focus on trying to grow our organic operations, reduce our debt, strengthen our balance sheet. We've been doing that, and that, of course, makes it easier for us to complete these deals. It makes it more likely. We're still dependent on the price and fit, and we have to see that due diligence.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

We see that everything makes sense for us, and it's a good synergistic fit for us. It does certainly, the stronger balance sheet makes it easier. It also makes it easier to win larger projects because when you're looking at the very large projects, when you have a small cash base and a lot of debt, it was harder in the past, and now it's becoming easier together with a positive net income. That's also going to help us on various opportunities. The general direction, the financial direction of the company, and the balance sheet is helping us on multiple fronts.

Matthew Galinko
Matthew Galinko
SVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Maxim Group

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you. The next question is coming from Greg Mesniaeff from Kingswood Capital Partners. Greg, your line is live. Yes.

Greg Mesniaeff
Research Analyst at Kingswood Capital Partners

Thank you. Question on your entry into the U.S. market. Obviously, that's a key cornerstone of your strategy now.

Greg Mesniaeff
Research Analyst at Kingswood Capital Partners

I'm wondering how you're addressing the recent tariff situation as far as supply chain, product mix, hardware versus software. Just kind of give us an overview of that. Thanks.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Okay. Great. It's a great question. I just said that our manufacturing for our products is done currently. The manufacturing is done in Israel. We supply from various regions, and we have actually production here. We changed that throughout COVID. We know how to produce in other places as well, but throughout COVID, when we're requested to create a lot of bracelets also for COVID confinement, we developed that ability here in Israel. We are doing it from Israel. Israel and the U.S., it's still to be seen what the tariffs will be like. We also have abilities to do some of the manufacturing in the U.S.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

As things evolve in the coming, let's say, weeks and months, we'll have more updates as we see how things resolve on tariffs between Israel and the U.S. and our strategies around that. Currently, a big portion of our operations is in the U.S., and the rest will be from Israel in that regard. We don't expect something very high, but we'll see how that folds out.

Greg Mesniaeff
Research Analyst at Kingswood Capital Partners

Thank you.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

Also on that, to remind you, a big part of our service is software as a service. We have the monitoring software, and that's what they're paying for. A lot of them lease the bracelets rather than just selling hardware components. That will help as well.

Greg Mesniaeff
Research Analyst at Kingswood Capital Partners

Good point. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today's Q&A session. At this time, I will pass the call back to Ordan for closing remarks.

Ordan Trabelsi
Ordan Trabelsi
President and CEO at SuperCom

I want to thank you all for your participation in today's call, for your interest in SuperCom. Please contact us directly if you have any additional questions. We look forward to sharing our progress with you on our next conference calls, filings, and press releases. Thank you, and have a good day.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Executives
    • Ordan Trabelsi
      Ordan Trabelsi
      President and CEO
Analysts
    • Matthew Galinko
      SVP and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Maxim Group
    • Greg Mesniaeff
      Research Analyst at Kingswood Capital Partners
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