Famous Dave's of America Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 8, 2025

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss DAVE's Financial Results for the First Quarter Ended 03/31/2025. Joining us today are DAVE's CEO, Mr. Jason Wilk and the company's CFO, Mr. Kyle Baumann. By now, everyone should have access to first quarter twenty twenty five earnings press release, which was issued this morning.

Operator

The release is available in the Investors Relations section of DAVE's website at investors.dave.com. In addition, this call will be available for webcast replay on the company's website. Following management's remarks, we'll open the call to answer your questions. Certain comments made during this conference call and webcast are considered forward looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements are subject to certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties as well as assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward looking statements.

Operator

These forward looking statements are also subject to other risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the company's filings with the SEC. Do not place undue reliance on any forward looking statements, which are made only as of the date of this call. Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward looking statements. The company's presentation also includes certain non GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, non GAAP variable profit, non GAAP variable margin and compensation expense, excluding stock based compensation as supplemental measures of performance of our business. All non GAAP measures have been reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with SEC rules.

Operator

You'll find reconciliation tables and other important information in the earnings press release and Form eight ks furnished to the SEC. I would now like to turn the call over to Dave's CEO, Mr. Jason Wilk. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you and good morning everyone. Building on the success of last year's results, we are pleased to report another record setting first quarter which outperformed expectations across key areas of our business. Top line growth accelerated on a year over year basis to its highest level since 2021. Thanks in large part to the strong double digit gains in ARPU and monthly transacting members. Adjusted EBITDA growth accelerated February to $44,200,000 representing a year over year increase of $31,000,000 which is the largest dollar increase in our company's history.

Speaker 1

This increase is mostly due to the operating leverage we continue to achieve on our fixed cost base as well as the variable margin expansion we continue to generate from Cash AI credit performance improvements. Given our results and the momentum we have in our business, we are raising our full year 2025 guidance for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. This is the seventh consecutive quarter we have either raised or exceeded our guidance. Before turning to our strategic growth pillars, I want to provide an update on our recent transition to the new fee structure for extra cash. As a reminder, on February 19, we fully transitioned to a new fee structure consisting of a flat five percent fee on all extra cash transactions with a $5 minimum and a $15 cap, removing optional tips as well as additional transfer fees to Dave checking.

Speaker 1

Consistent with the testing we performed at the end of last year and into early this year, results have been better than expected. With this change, we've unlocked enhanced member lifetime value through improvements in conversion, retention and monetization among new and existing members. Approximately 60% of total originations were on the new fee model in Q1. So we will receive the full benefit of the change in Q2 onwards. Turning now to our three strategic growth pillars, efficient member acquisition, enhanced member engagement through extra cash and deepening relationships via the Dave card.

Speaker 1

Starting with our first strategic growth pillar of efficient member acquisition, we continue to efficiently acquire members of scale, reflecting the power of our credit first value proposition and its synergies with our banking product suite. In Q1, total members grew 15% year over year ending the first quarter at 12,400,000 members. CAC in the first quarter increased 13% year over year as a result of strategic refinements in our marketing approach. We are increasingly optimizing our marketing investments by device platform and channel, prioritizing investments that yield the highest projected variable profit dollar returns rather than the lowest CAC. This recalibration is also closely tied to the higher member lifetime value we are observing following the transition to our new theme model.

Speaker 1

Based on these factors, the return on our Q1 marketing investments is expected to outpace that of prior periods. Importantly, our outlook for new member growth remains strong and we expect to continue to achieve strong LTV to CAC returns at scale moving forward. Our second strategic pillar centers around continuing to strengthen engagement with our members through credit. Extra cash remains the key entry point for building long term relationships with our members by addressing what is typically their primary need, short term liquidity for gas, groceries and bills. Our multi transacting member base continues to grow with MTMs up 13% year over year and 3% sequentially to a record 2,500,000.

Speaker 1

This growth was favorably impacted by higher new member conversion and dormant member reactivation in addition to continued strength in member retention. We saw strong engagement with extra cash originations exceeding $1,500,000,000 representing an increase of 46% year over year and 3% sequentially. We believe this sustained growth particularly during a seasonally softer quarter is a testament to the effectiveness of our Cash AI underwriting engine and new fee model, both of which allow us to more profitably underwrite larger numbers of day members for higher extra cash approval amounts. The average size of an extra cash origination in Q1 expanded 21% year over year to 192. In March, which was the first full month operating under our new fee model, the average extra cash size was just over $200 which we believe bodes well for origination volumes and corresponding monetization in Q2 and going forward.

Speaker 1

Turning to credit performance, our twenty eight day delinquency rate improved 33 basis points or 18% year over year to 1.5% over which time Extra Cash originations expanded 46% as I mentioned. We believe this performance underscores the continued strength and scalability of our proprietary Cash AI underwriting engine and the inherent advantages of our Extra Cash product structure. Extra Cash's short duration has allowed us to originate over 136,000,000 transactions since inception, enabling continuous and dynamic credit risk evaluation. We believe the product's primary use cases covering essential needs such as gas, groceries and rent further enhance its resiliency across macroeconomic cycles. Cash AI enables near real time identification of credit risk through fully automated analysis of bank account transaction data.

Speaker 1

Combined with extra cash as short repayment cycle, this creates a rapid feedback loop for optimizing underwriting. This agile framework gives us strong confidence in our ability to manage credit risk across a range of economic scenarios. In uncertain macro environments, such as those influenced by tariffs or economic shocks, we believe most lenders need to tighten credit due to the slower feedback loop and lack of transaction level insights inherent in traditional loan products. In contrast, our short cycle model and real time risk identification enables us to adapt underwriting dynamically, a structural advantage that could provide a tailwind for Dave and a stress macro when there are fewer credit alternatives for consumers in the market. As we previously highlighted, tax refund season is typically the strongest period of credit performance as a result of the additional liquidity tax refunds provide to our members.

Speaker 1

As such, we expect our twenty eight day delinquency rate to normalize throughout the rest of the year. Cash AI is a sophisticated tool that allows us to manage delinquency and loss rates with considerable precision and optimize credit performance in order to maximize variable profit dollars. The third and final pillar of our growth strategy focuses on deepening member relationships by enhancing engagement with DaveCard. Our strategy leverages the power of our market leading extra cash offering to build deeper long term banking relationships with our members. Dave Card spending increased to a record $488,000,000 up 24% year over year and 7% sequentially.

Speaker 1

This growth was primarily driven by the growth in MTMs as well as the seasonal spending supported provided by tax refunds. Between the growing usage of the Dave Card and the continued momentum we are seeing in extra cash, we expanded ARPU by 29% year over year. This is our seventh consecutive quarter of double digit ARPU expansion on a year over year basis and the fastest pace of growth since early twenty twenty two. Much of this improvement in Q1 is attributable to the higher average revenue per origination, which came in at approximately $11.4 up 26% year over year and 12% sequentially due largely to the impact from our new fee model driving higher extra cash approval limits. In March, which is the first full month operating under our new fee model, average revenue per origination was over $13 which we believe bodes well for monetization in Q2 and beyond.

Speaker 1

Switching gears a bit, I'd like to provide an update on our strategic partnership with Coastal Community Bank, which will take over support of Dave's extra cash and banking products from our current partner. We've been busy planning the transition process and expect to begin onboarding new customers to the Coastal platform in early Q3 with existing customers beginning to transition later this year. We believe Coastal scale experience and strong compliance and risk management capabilities will best serve our members and our business as we continue to deliver on our growth and profitability objectives. The partnership is expected to also strengthen Dave's ability to launch new next generation products aligned with our mission of loving the playing field for everyday Americans. Before turning the call over to Kyle, I want to briefly touch on the litigation with the Department of Justice.

Speaker 1

As we discussed at our last earnings call on February 28, we filed our motion to dismiss the lawsuit, outline what we believe to be the technical deficiencies in the DOJ's amended complaint. We now expect a ruling on this motion in Q3 of this year. We remain confident in our legal position and are prepared to vigorously defend ourselves throughout the legal process. Going forward, we remain well positioned to execute against our strategic initiatives that we believe will unlock the full earnings potential of our business model. Q1 represented another step function change in our profitable growth trajectory attributed to solid performance across the business and amplified by the early success of our new fee structure.

Speaker 1

I want to thank our team for their tireless dedication to delivering outstanding value for our members and shareholders. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Kyle to discuss our detailed financial results. Kyle?

Speaker 2

Thank you and good morning everyone. Building on the momentum from last year, our first quarter results set new records across nearly all key operating and financial metrics, further underscoring the strength and scalability of our business model. We continue to demonstrate substantial operating leverage by accelerating revenue growth through increased ARPU and transacting member growth while maintaining disciplined cost control. In Q1, total revenue reached a record high 108,000,000 representing year over year growth of 47%. This was driven by a 13% increase in MTMs and a 29% lift in ARPU, reflecting increased member engagement and stronger monetization.

Speaker 2

During the first quarter, non GAAP variable profit grew 67% year over year to $83,400,000 with variable margin reaching 77%, up nearly nine fifty basis points year over year. This improvement was primarily driven by reduced provision expense as a percentage of revenue, reflecting significant credit performance improvements delivered by Cash AI. Ongoing optimization of payment processing costs and renegotiations of key vendor contracts contributed as well. Looking ahead, we anticipate credit performance will normalize following the seasonally strong first quarter with variable margins expected to be in the upper 60s to low 70s range for the remainder of the year. Now turning to operating expenses.

Speaker 2

Our provision for credit losses increased by 7% year over year to $10,600,000 primarily due to increased origination volumes, which rose by 46%, partially offset by continued enhancements in credit risk management. As a percentage of originations, our provision for credit losses declined to 0.69% from 0.94% in the same quarter last year, demonstrating Cache AI's ongoing ability to leverage insights and performance data from the greater than $136,000,000 unique extra cash transactions originated to date. We believe this proprietary training dataset paired with Cache AI has allowed us to build a moat and flywheel for our business. With more training data, we're better able to identify and segment good risk, thereby maximizing approval and offer amounts for our members that are differentiated from competitors. On a sequential basis, our provision for credit losses improved 36% due to the favorable repayment trends we experienced in the first quarter as a result of tax refund season.

Speaker 2

We observed higher tax refunds per member in Q1 relative to Q1 of last year, which was a driver of lower charge offs and stronger recoveries than we anticipated. Going forward, we anticipate provision for credit losses as a percentage of originations will trend upward over the remainder of the year. This expectation primarily reflects the normalization coming out of tax refund season. As Jason referenced, we are leveraging Cash AI as part of our plan to strategically manage performance in order to achieve the greatest amount of variable profit dollars, which is consistent with the variable margin expectations I set a moment ago. We expect provision expense as a percentage of originations to reach its high point in Q3 since that quarter ends on a Tuesday, which is typically the intra week peak for receivables balances.

Speaker 2

Processing and servicing costs decreased 8% year over year to $7,100,000 driven primarily by efficiencies gained from two significant vendor contracts renegotiated last year. We also benefited from the scale economies inherent in most of our processing vendor contracts. As a percentage of extra cash origination volume, these costs improved to 0.5% from 0.7% in Q1 of last year. Advertising and marketing expenses increased 13% year over year to 10,300,000 As a reminder, we typically moderate our spend in Q1, which is historically the softest quarter for marketing efficiency given that tax refunds reduce liquidity needs within the market. We expect to opportunistically expand marketing investment over the remainder of the year with a moderate step up in spend during the summer months to capitalize on the higher levels of demand for extra cash during that period.

Speaker 2

Compensation related expenses increased 12% year over year to $27,500,000 primarily driven by stock based compensation tied to performance based restricted stock units and payroll taxes triggered by the vesting of these awards during the quarter. Looking ahead, we expect stock based compensation to normalize toward levels seen prior to Q3 of twenty twenty four. Excluding stock based compensation, compensation as a percentage of revenue fell to 19% from 25% a year ago, highlighting the inherent operating leverage provided by our technology platform and scalable cost structure. In terms of growth related investments, we remain committed to delivering profitability while also increasing member acquisition spend and pursuing disciplined investments in product development and data capabilities throughout the year. GAAP net income declined to $28,800,000 from $34,200,000 in Q1 of last year due to the $33,000,000 non recurring gain from the discounted convertible note repurchase during the first quarter of twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2

Our year to date effective tax rate was approximately 15% and we estimate our 2025 annual effective tax rate to range between 2123%. Adjusted net income excluding non recurring items, stock based compensation and non cash liabilities increased nearly 350% to $36,300,000 from $8,100,000 in the year ago period. Similarly, adjusted EBITDA reached $44,200,000 more than tripling the $13,200,000 generated in Q1 of last year, driven by our revenue growth, variable margin expansion and operating leverage with flow through from revenue growth to EBITDA growth of more than 90%. Now turning to the balance sheet. Our overall liquidity remains strong.

Speaker 2

As of quarter end, we had approximately $89,700,000 of cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, investments and restricted cash compared to $91,900,000 as of the end of twenty twenty four. This decrease was primarily driven by two factors. First, we invested over $20,000,000 of cash to reduce our share count through share repurchases and the RSU net settlement transaction we discussed on our last call. Second, net receivables grew by roughly $19,000,000 quarter over quarter, which we chose to self fund with existing cash as we believe it represents an attractive use of capital at this time. As a whole, we invested upwards of $40,000,000 of balance sheet cash in these two areas, while total cash, cash equivalents and investments was down just over $2,000,000 versus prior quarter end.

Speaker 2

I bring this up to highlight the significant amount of free cash flow that we're generating and our high conversion of earnings to free cash flow. Additionally, as of quarter end, we had approximately $100,000,000 of borrowing capacity under our credit facility resulting from our decision to use balance sheet cash to fund portfolio growth over the past several years. We have the ongoing ability to tap this source of capital, providing us with additional flexibility to pursue capital allocation opportunities such as M and A and capital return to drive value creation. On the topic of capital return, in March, our Board of Directors authorized a $50,000,000 share repurchase program reflecting our confidence in the company's financial strength, long term growth trajectory and expanding free cash flow profile. We view this program as a strategic capital allocation tool and a compelling way to drive shareholder value.

Speaker 2

We began executing against this program in March, repurchasing approximately $7,000,000 of common stock. Looking ahead, we intend to be opportunistic and execute repurchases when returns are attractive and they represent the most efficient use of our excess cash. Finally, turning to guidance. For the full year of 2025, we are raising our revenue outlook to a range of $460,000,000 to $475,000,000 representing 33% to 37% growth year over year and a $42,500,000 increase at the midpoint compared to our prior guidance. We are also raising our adjusted EBITDA guidance to 155,000,000 to $165,000,000 reflecting approximately 79 percent to 91% growth versus 2024 and a $45,000,000 increase from our previous outlook.

Speaker 2

In closing, our strong momentum and positive results underscore the essential role we play in our members' financial lives. We remain confident in our strategy, encouraged by the demand for our products and energized by the opportunities ahead. We look forward to continue to deliver meaningful value to both our members and shareholders throughout 2025 and beyond. And with that, we can now open up the line for questions. Thank you.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Devin Ryan with Citizens. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Hey, Jason. Hey, Kyle. Good morning. How are you?

Speaker 2

Hey, good morning, Devin. How are you? Hey, Devin. How are you? Thanks for your

Speaker 3

Doing great. Yes, really impressive results here. I want to start with a two part question on extra cash. So 12.4 members today, it's more than doubled over the past three years. Heard the positive outlook on member acquisition.

Speaker 3

But just as we think about kind of where this product specifically is going, can you give us an update on your thoughts of where you are on market share of people that are likely or would potentially consider a product like Extra Cash? And then I'm not sure if there's a good way to frame this, but on average, as the advances go up in size, is there a point where that will lead to fewer advances per member? So you kind of hit a tipping point there where maybe becomes a drag, I don't know, but I'm just curious on both of those.

Speaker 1

Hey, Devin. So on the first question, I'd say we're at 2,500,000 MTMs at this point. We feel the TAM is still massive of that half of America, roughly 150,000,000 people that could use a product like Extra Cash and or our free checking account. So we feel like there's just still a model room to run and it's another impressive quarter of acquiring over 500,000 new members at a very efficient CAC. On the advanced origination size going up per member, it wouldn't reduce the amount of advances people would take because effectively it's still due on your next paycheck date.

Speaker 1

And so all we're doing is I think with the increase giving people more flexibility of how they can utilize extra cash, they can use it more for things like rent or for larger purchases versus our previous limits were lower. Tended to only be used for gas and groceries. As far as where we go from here, we do believe our members aspire for more duration on extra cash. And so that's where sort of new products could enter the market for us, which we're excited to talk about at future quarters.

Speaker 3

Yes. Got it. Okay. Got it. Thanks, Jason.

Speaker 3

Really helpful. And then a follow-up here just on kind of the theme of deepening relationships with members. Obviously, new products would be one way. But you saw nice growth in Dave Card. Can you just talk about some of the things you were doing on that front to kind of drive more engagement, whether it's things you're experimenting with on the cross sell or just even how we should think about what's coming here in the coming quarters?

Speaker 3

It feels like there's still a fair amount of due and there's some good momentum there. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Yes. Look, I'd say there's still a lot of upside in that product because we're not doing a lot of both historically, not a lot of product development around the bank. There's not been a lot of new features introduced there. The real growth here is just sort of an organic extension of how much synergy there is between Extra Cash and the Dave card where it's faster and cheaper to access credit using our own card. But we do plan to spend more resources on that product to find new ways to drive further cross attach and ultimately more direct deposit.

Speaker 3

Got it. Okay. Really appreciate it guys and congrats on the great quarter.

Speaker 1

Thanks a lot.

Operator

And the next question comes from Joseph Vafi with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hey guys, good morning. Terrific results, congrats. Is there any have you I mean I know it's a little early on the new price structure and I know that Q1 does have a tax season effect to it. You've seen any correlation between the new price structure and credit performance? The new price structure have any effect on that that you can see?

Speaker 4

And then I have a quick follow-up after that.

Speaker 2

Thanks for joining Joe. This is Kyle. To answer the question about the relationship between credit performance and our new pricing model, we just haven't seen any changes there in terms of like something like adverse selection or anything like that that might occur. It's been all positive. I think as we've mentioned, our conversion rates are up for new customers and existing customers have adapted to the new pricing structure as well and we're seeing no negative impact.

Speaker 2

It's all been upside from a customer orientation standpoint and I think the upside on the size per origination as well as the average revenue per origination speak to the business benefits. So credit performance in Q1 hit an all time low and we're feeling really good about managing credit performance from here.

Speaker 4

That's great. That's great feedback. And then, I mean, guide looks great and impressive increase there. If we kind of double click on that a little bit more, should we assume or is the guy assuming further ARPU increases or are you really just holding the line on the run rate on the newer guide? Then I guess any kind of changes to MTM growth that we should be thinking about moving forward?

Speaker 4

Thanks a lot.

Speaker 2

Certainly, would expect to continue to grow MTMs throughout the year. I think naturally we'll get some benefit on the ARPU side just by virtue of having a full quarter's benefit in Q2 onward on new pricing structure. So that should support some ARPU expansion from here as well. But we're going to continue to focus on the other ARPU levers at our disposal, namely kind of continuing to pull good risk up the limit spectrum by increasing offer amounts and that should drive overall monetization higher as well. So I'd say both on the MTMs and ARPU side feeling like there's opportunities to continue to kind of pull levers on both those dimensions.

Speaker 4

Sure. That's great. Congrats guys. Really good results.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Josh.

Operator

And the next question comes from Hal Gottesche with B. Riley. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning, guys. Terrific results. Thank you very much on that. You mentioned a reengagement of many former customers that are coming back. I imagine you always have a few.

Speaker 6

Are you seeing like an acceleration of that? And then wanted to get your thoughts on these average extra cash origination sizes are getting larger year over year? And are you engaging maybe a different kind of customer now that maybe has higher W2 income? Or is it just that the Cash AI is just granting through repeat borrowing, people have promoted themselves to higher amounts if they wish to take them? What are your thoughts on those couple of items?

Speaker 6

Thanks.

Speaker 1

So I'd say no changes on the reactivation of customers. I mean, we're doing a great job there per usual, but nothing out of the ordinary, I would say, Hal, sort of business as As far as the origination amounts going up, I think it's a combo of we have a significant amount of our base as repeat customers. And so the longer time on book, we will increase limits there. But I'd say we are doing a better job of offering better credit for new customers as well and that's also supported by the new fee structure allowing us to have larger limits for customers given the durability of the new monetization. So I'd say it's a combination of those things.

Speaker 1

I'd say lastly, I touched on this a little bit in the script, but we just think our credit class of how short duration, how fast the repayment cycles are just puts us in a different category than a longer duration lender. So with macro uncertainties out there, some traditional lenders would pull back on credit and this is actually a great environment for us. So we think it's a good opportunity to keep growing.

Speaker 6

Do you think if your AI model allows for slightly higher initial first time advances to people, the user experience goes up, like imagine if you only grab someone $30 or $40 you're like, what did that didn't do me a whole lot? Oh, yes, I got $120 That's a whole different matter that really helped me out. I mean, and that was worth it. Is that part of it? You're getting

Speaker 1

Yes, there is absolutely correlation between better first time limit and better first time conversion.

Speaker 6

Excellent. Okay. Excellent. That makes it totally makes sense, right? You got more bank.

Speaker 2

I mean, that's why the increased limits is such a business and customer win win, right? As we move people up the limit curve, even for first time customers, just the value proposition increases. We obviously, as a business benefit from that incremental monetization. And so, yes, it's just a win win. That's where I feel like I made some remarks about this in the script as well, where we've just built this positive flywheel for the business as we continue to improve on credit performance and have more training data because we can just offer more differentiated amounts, which is just a better value proposition for our customers.

Speaker 2

So, definitely seeing the benefits of that play out.

Speaker 6

Yes. Last one on the on coastal opportunity to do a little bit longer duration, you mentioned that on the Q4 call. Are those products really a 2026 event? Or can we see the first maybe rollout of those later in the year?

Speaker 1

I don't think you'll hear us talk about results until next year.

Speaker 6

Okay. Terrific guys. Thank you

Speaker 5

very much. Thank you, Al.

Operator

And the next question comes from Jacob Steven with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hey, guys. Appreciate you taking the questions and I'll echo the congratulations on the great quarter. I just wanted to touch on the customer acquisition cost, up $2 sequentially. Maybe you could kind of highlight what are you doing differently? Why the increase?

Speaker 7

And how is it different from before?

Speaker 1

Jacob, good to hear from you. We are very focused on channel optimization and continue to drive our channels based on just LTV. And so if you look at our CAC to LTV, our ratios are have never been better from that perspective as LTV has been increasing through business performance and the new fee structure. So as we just, again, continue to focus on LTV optimization on channels, we're not as focused on driving the lowest CAC, it's whatever is driving the best returns. And so we still view that $18 CAC in the quarter to be incredibly efficient in light of how well the company is doing.

Speaker 7

Yes. And maybe you could just kind of touch on what some of those channels are that you're actually seeing a better return on?

Speaker 1

Nothing really to share there, although anything to point to, a little bit more spending towards iOS devices versus Android, seeing some better conversion and lifetime value there at a little higher CAC.

Speaker 7

Okay. Interesting. Maybe last one for me then. The Dave credit product, I know you guys have talked about that in the past. Maybe any update on that?

Speaker 7

Do you expect kind of a later launch this year or maybe that's pushed out till 2026?

Speaker 1

I'd say we're still targeting friends and family for later this year and we'll hopefully talk about some results starting next year.

Speaker 7

Okay, got it. Appreciate the questions. Good luck.

Speaker 1

Thanks so much.

Operator

And the next question comes from Jeff Cantwell with Seaport Research. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Thank you. First of on the results. You maybe drill down a little more about On the Dave card, what are you seeing from customers right now on that front? It looks like you're seeing greater engagement on that product. Spend volumes were up there by 24% year over year to $488,000,000 So there's a lot of traction.

Speaker 1

How are you thinking about

Speaker 8

that over the balance of the year? And maybe just on a related note, ARPU is now 171,000,000 That was up 29%. Do you mind just walk us through the puts and takes there as far as growth as you think about balancing driving new member acquisition against also this ongoing deepening engagement that we're seeing and so forth? Very much.

Speaker 1

Yes. Sorry, the first question was around Dave Carden and what exactly?

Speaker 8

Just trying to get a sense of what you're seeing in terms of traction and how you're thinking about that going forward over the balance of the year in terms of growth?

Speaker 1

Yes. As I mentioned at the first question, we are seeing just really nice organic synergy between Extra Cash and the Dave Card. We're not really doing a lot there historically on incentives to drive that adoption other than the fact it's faster and cheaper to access Extra Cash with the Dave Card. But we are testing some ideas right now around rewards that drive further incentives as we do have increased margin with the new fee structure. And so excited to see how we can play around with the further incentive to get more adoption there and ultimately direct deposit.

Speaker 1

But as you pointed out, nice growth, nearly $500,000,000 of card spend and still excited about that product opportunity.

Speaker 8

Got it. And maybe can you just give us your thoughts on ARPU as well? That was 171,000,000 that was up 29%. So might just walk us through the puts and takes there as you're thinking about the remainder of the year? Thanks.

Speaker 1

Yes. Look, I'd say that's largely driven by the new fee structure. I mean, we're seeing tremendous results there. I mean, it's a more durable monetization than our previous model of instant transfer fees and tips, especially as customers stay longer on book. We had not an insignificant amount of customers that were no longer tipping and no longer using the instant transfer feature and therefore moving people to the mandatory fee structure.

Speaker 1

It just gives us a lot more ability to forecast the business and it's really showing its teeth in the higher ARPU growth. And as Kyle pointed out, we only had the new fee model rolled out for 60% of the base. And so Q2 will be our first quarter of 100% rollout in the fees. So we should expect to see further ARPU expansion, but it's all fee related. Yes.

Speaker 1

And I'll

Speaker 2

just add to that, as we continue to try and drive further adoption of the Dave card among the base, that's another lever for ARPU expansion. And then outside of that, the other levers that I talked about, which is continued sort of optimization of Cache AI to move people up the limit spectrum to higher average origination sizes, also a tailwind and a lever for ARPU expansion. We're feeling good about our ability to continue to make improvements there, especially in light of the new fee model, as Jason alluded to. The great thing about the new structure is that we're fully incentivized from a monetization standpoint to take incremental risk by moving people up the limit curve because we're getting paid for that for those incremental risk dollars. So it's, again, kind of a nice alignment of the business and customer need and relationship.

Speaker 8

Got it. Great. Thanks very much. Congrats on the results.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jeff.

Operator

And the next question comes from Gary Prestopino with Barrington. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Good morning, Jason and Kyle. How are you guys doing? Doing well. How are you? Just great.

Speaker 5

Thanks. Hey, couple of questions here. First of all, Jason, you did mention something about repeat users of the product. And I think you're allowed two extra cash originations per month. Is that correct?

Speaker 5

Or am I wrong there?

Speaker 1

That's correct.

Speaker 5

Well, I

Speaker 2

guess just to like clarify, Gary, it could be higher if you're on a weekly pay cycle. So it really is aligned to the pay cycle. People do get paid every two weeks, but we do have segment of the base who gets paid weekly and so they would be able to use extra cash more than twice.

Speaker 5

Okay. What I'm getting at here is, with your 2,500,000 monthly transacting members, is it I'm trying to get an idea of like say the lifetime value of the account and all that. How many of those people that are on there do multiple transactions on extra cash and the Dave card and have really done multiple transactions over a six month period. I guess what I'm getting at is that, are you seeing in your at least the majority of your monthly transaction member bases maybe using your product as more or less their bank, a standard bank product versus using a traditional brick and mortar bank?

Speaker 1

I would say we talk about our direct deposit penetration, like the true customers that would think of Dave as our primary account, still sub-ten percent. But if you think about the customers that are taking extra cash a couple of times per month, they're spending it on their gas and groceries, we're winning a good amount of their sort of essential spending and that's a, we think a big win and a good sign of us taking more market share away from the larger banks.

Speaker 6

Okay.

Speaker 2

And then just to add maybe a little bit of color there, Gary, in terms of kind of the repeat usage and the type of engagement that we see amongst the base, call it, between 9798% of dollar value originations go to repeat customers in any given month or quarter. And that number just continues to go up and up as we make improvements to retention and the overall base continues this season. And so amongst that kind of 97% to 98%, many of those customers or the median have transacted with Dave on extra cash 20 to 30 times. And so, it's just a strong sort of repeat usage and I'd say rarely a significant type of relationship that we have with these customers and we're seeing them all the time. It has us feeling really good about sort of the proximity that we have to these users and our ability to kind of cross sell them things over time just based on the nature of the relationship.

Speaker 5

Okay. That's helpful. And then just on your guidance in terms of what you've given here, are you contemplating some increased expenditures for product development, adding people, anything of that nature as we go forward throughout the year?

Speaker 2

Yes. As I mentioned in my remarks, we are going to be making some very disciplined investments in product development and data capabilities throughout the year. I mean, these are not large numbers, I think, but we are continuing to add capabilities on those teams to support strategy and key initiatives. Additionally, we do plan to ramp marketing spend over the subsequent quarters, which if you look at Q1 over Q1 of last year, think is a good indication of where marketing should fall on a relative basis year over year.

Speaker 5

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Famous Dave's of America Q1 2025
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