First Quarter Revenue increased to $57.5 million representing growth of 40% year-over-year
IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 4, 2022– WM Technology, Inc. (“WM Technology” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: MAPS), a leading technology and software infrastructure provider to the cannabis industry, today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.
“Our first quarter results demonstrate how we’re playing offense and continuing to drive outsized growth as well as creating distance from the pack as the leading cannabis technology provider and commerce-driven marketplace. We grew our revenue 40% year-over-year to reach $57.5 million for the quarter, which was above the top end of our guidance, as we continued to grow our user and client base,” said Chris Beals, CEO of WM Technology.
We continue to deliver what we believe is outsized value to our clients and this allows us to grow faster than our end markets as businesses rely on our marketplace and solutions to grow their own businesses. At the same time, we are accelerating the pace of new features and integrations throughout our WM Business software platform.
Chris Beals, CEO of WM Technology
We are driving innovation in ways that will be more visible over the course of this year as we invest in large opportunities designed to accelerate growth. Our team remains hard at work and focused on executing against driving deep client engagement, establishing Weedmaps as the center of commerce for Cannabis consumers and expanding the adoption of our products.
First Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights
- Revenue increased to $57.5 million, up 40% from the first quarter of 2021.
- Monthly active users (“MAUs”)(1)(2) increased to 16.4 million at March 31, 2022, up 52% compared to the prior year period.
- MAU growth of 73% when adjusting the current period to exclude the MAUs attributed to the Learn section of weedmaps.com that we were not able to track during the prior period.
- Average monthly revenue per paying client(1)(3) increased to $3,810, a 9% increase compared to the prior year period.
- Average monthly paying clients(1)(4) increased to 5,026, a 28% increase compared to the prior year period.
- Monthly active users (“MAUs”)(1)(2) increased to 16.4 million at March 31, 2022, up 52% compared to the prior year period.
- Gross Profit was $53.7 million implying a 93% margin rate, which reflects a 200bps margin reduction from the prior year given previously discussed growth investments and initiatives.
- Net loss was $(31.2) million as compared to net income of $7.7 million from the prior year period.
- Adjusted EBITDA(5) was $(1.0) million as compared to $9.0 million from the prior year period.
- Basic and diluted net loss per share was $(0.19) based on 72.5 million of Class A Common Stock weighted average shares outstanding.
- Total shares outstanding across Class A and Class V Common Stock is 144.3 million.
- Cash totaled $55.9 million as of March 31, 2022 and the Company remains debt-free.
Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures have been provided in the tables included in this release.
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(1) We have modified the definition and calculation of three of our Key Operating and Financial Metrics: (a) average monthly revenue per paying client, (b) average monthly paying clients, and (c) MAUs. We made these modifications in order to better reflect our performance during a reporting period and to make these key metrics more easily comparable on a period-to-period basis. For comparison of these metrics to previous calculations see “Selected Current and Previous Operating Key Metrics” below.
(2) MAUs are defined as the number of unique users opening our Weedmaps mobile app or accessing our weedmaps.com website over the course of a calendar month. This metric previously excluded the MAUs attributed to the Learn section of weedmaps.com, which we began tracking in March 2021. See “Selected Current and Previous Operating Metrics” below for a description of how we used to calculate MAUs and what our MAUs would have been using our prior definition for the applicable periods.
(3) Average monthly revenue per paying client is defined as the average monthly revenue for any particular period divided by the average monthly paying clients in the same respective period. See “Selected Current and Previous Operating Metrics” below for a description of how we used to calculate average monthly revenue per paying client and what our average monthly revenue per paying client would have been using our prior definition for the applicable periods.
(4) Average monthly paying clients are defined as the average of the number of paying clients billed in a month across a particular period (and for which services were provided). See “Selected Current and Previous Operating Metrics” below for a description of how we used to calculate average monthly paying clients and what our average monthly paying clients would have been using our prior definition for the applicable periods.
(5) For further information about how we calculate EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as well as limitations of their use and a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), see “Reconciliation of Net (Loss) Income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA” below.
First Quarter 2022 Operational Highlights
- Added over 250 Average Monthly Paying clients in the quarter including in new states like Montana, which opened for recreational sales in January.
- Completed the roll-out of our Admin 2.0 portal. This surface includes a data and analytics dashboard to help our paying clients understand the significant value they derive from their spending on Weedmaps as well as local market trends. Admin 2.0 also lays the groundwork for future updates like our self-serve toolset, which will automate onboarding of new clients onto our marketplace and enable cross-product adoption and purchase upsell opportunities.
- Continued to improve our Deals offering with new enablement features to allow clients to publish deals at scale across their listings. We also created a new “Promotions Hub” within Admin 2.0, allowing clients to create and manage all promotions including online promo codes, in-store deals, and online deals from one place. We also rolled out new Promotions features within our WM Store eCom embed allowing clients to showcase promotions more easily on their own channels powered by WM Store.
- Completed the acquisition of Eyechronic, LLC (“Enlighten”). Enlighten’s ‘SmartHub’ subscription offering powers in-store digital menus and kiosks, and its ‘AdSuite’ in-store digital solution allows brands to reach consumers at the point of purchase. Enlighten adds to the value included in our WM Business platform.
- Expanded our available Menu and Order integrations. We now have Menu integrations in live or beta state with the key point-of-sale systems serving Cannabis and are continuing to roll-out Orders integrations with these same partners.
- Piloted several promising new user enhancements, including ‘express reorder’ and ‘order again’ features, along with ‘order-type’ preferences, allowing users to more easily filter through available delivery versus pickup options. We also continue to test menu personalization leveraging our first-party user affinity data.
- As part of our efforts to stitch our solutions more closely together, we launched an in-app messaging feature beta where businesses using our Sprout CRM solution are able to directly reach and message their followers on the Weedmaps marketplace.
- Continued to invest in headcount, with over 150 new hires in Q1, mostly in our Engineering, Product & Design teams as well as across our regional go-to-market teams.
Second Quarter Business Outlook
Based on current business trends and conditions, our outlook for the second quarter ending June 30, 2022, is as follows:
- Revenue is estimated to be between $60 million and $63 million, which represents 28-34% growth over the second quarter of 2021
- We continue to expect our Adj. EBITDA margins for the First Half will be breakeven to slightly positive as we front-load previously discussed investments against growth opportunities for the back half of this year and FY23 strategic opportunities
The guidance provided above is only an estimate of what we believe is realizable as of the date of this release. We are not readily able to provide a reconciliation of projected Adjusted EBITDA to projected net income without unreasonable effort. This guidance assumes that no business acquisitions, investments, restructurings, or legal settlements are concluded in the quarter. Our results are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date, but may be materially affected by many factors, as discussed below in “Forward-Looking Statements.” Actual results may vary from the guidance and the variations may be material. We undertake no intent or obligation to publicly update or revise any of these projections, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Investor Conference Call and Webcasts
The Company will host a conference call and webcast today, Wednesday, May 4, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) by dialing (833) 855-0799 (United States and Canada) or (409) 937-8921 (International) and providing Conference ID 9292726. A live webcast of the call will also be available on the WM Technology investor relations website at ir.weedmaps.com.
About WM Technology
Founded in 2008, WM Technology operates a leading online marketplace with a comprehensive set of eCommerce and compliance software solutions sold to retailers and brands in the U.S. state-legal and Canadian cannabis markets. The Company’s mission is to power a transparent and inclusive global cannabis economy. We address the challenges facing both consumers seeking to understand cannabis products and businesses who serve cannabis users in a legally compliant fashion with our Weedmaps marketplace and WM Business software solutions. Over the past 13 years, we have grown the Weedmaps marketplace to become a premier destination for cannabis consumers to discover and browse information regarding cannabis and cannabis products, permitting product discovery and order-ahead for pickup or delivery by participating retailers. WM Business is a set of eCommerce-enablement tools designed to help our retailer and brand clients get the best out of their Weedmaps experience, while creating labor efficiency and managing their compliance needs.
WM Technology holds a strong belief in the power of cannabis and the importance of enabling safe, legal access to consumers worldwide. Since inception, WM Technology has worked tirelessly, not only to become the most comprehensive platform for consumers, but to build the software solutions that power businesses compliantly in the space, to advocate for legalization, social equity, and licensing in many jurisdictions, and to facilitate further learning through partnering with subject matter experts on providing detailed, accurate information about the plant.
Headquartered in Irvine, California, WM Technology supports remote work for all eligible employees. Visit us at www.weedmaps.com.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we have disclosed EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, both of which are non-GAAP financial measures that we calculate as net income (loss) before interest, taxes and depreciation and amortization in the case of EBITDA and further adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation, change in fair value of warrant liability, transaction related bonuses, transaction costs, legal settlements and other non-cash, unusual and/or infrequent costs in the case of Adjusted EBITDA. Below we have provided a reconciliation of net (loss) income (the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure) to EBITDA and from EBITDA to Adjusted EBITDA.
We present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because these metrics are a key measure used by our management to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of investment capacity. Accordingly, we believe that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management.
EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are as follows:
- although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and both EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;
- EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; and
- EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us.
Because of these limitations, you should consider EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including net income (loss) and our other GAAP results.
Definition of Key Operating and Financial Metrics
- MAUs: We define MAUs as the number of unique users opening our Weedmaps mobile app or accessing our weedmaps.com website over the course of a calendar month. In any particular period, we determine our number of MAUs by counting the total number of users who have engaged with the weedmaps.com site during the final calendar month of the given period.
- Average Monthly Revenue Per Paying Client: Average monthly revenue per paying client measures how much clients, for the period of measurement, are willing to pay us for our subscription and additional offerings and the efficiency of the bid-auction process for our featured listings placements. We calculate this metric by dividing the average monthly revenue for any particular period by the average monthly number of paying clients in the same respective period. The calculation of monthly revenue includes revenue from any clients that cease to be paying clients during the applicable month.
- Average Monthly Paying Clients: We define average monthly paying clients as the monthly average of clients billed each month over a particular period (and for which services were provided).