Kubient, Inc. (NasdaqCM: KBNT, KBNTW) (“Kubient” or the “Company”), a cloud-based software platform for digital advertising, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021.
First Quarter 2021 and Recent Operational Highlights
- Onboarded Kim Kahn as VP of People Operations
- Appointed former MediaMath and DoubleVerify executive Leon Zemel as Chief Product Officer
- Selected by TronTV, the AVOD streaming service reaching 85 million monthly viewers, as the platform’s first premiere programmatic partner to detect and prevent ad fraud
- Engaged Lake Street Capital Markets to provide Merger and Acquisition (“M&A”) services within the advertising technology (“ad tech”) ecosystem
- Revealed that digital advertising executives are seeking more insights for their advertising spend and identified that over 50% of advertising professionals believe the industry has not done enough to stop ad fraud
- Publisher inventory that Kubient can monetize, or ad impression opportunities, for the Audience Cloud, Kubient’s flexible open marketplace for advertisers and publishers to reach, monetize and connect their audiences, increased 28% from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021. This increase was driven by a combination of new partnerships and an overall increase in web activity due to COVID-19
- The number of total publisher partnerships increased 5% to 3,568 as of May 11, 2021 from 3,400 in the previous quarter
- The number of KAI audits, or trials, being scheduled by prospective customers is currently 14
Management Commentary
“The first quarter was a solid start to the year, as we renewed our partnership with The Associated Press, augmented the amount of publishers plugged into our Audience Cloud, and witnessed an increase in the number of KAI audits being scheduled by prospective customers,” said Kubient Founder, Chairman, CSO, and Interim CEO Paul Roberts. “In conjunction with the early success garnered in the front-end of our business, we also onboarded a number of key seasoned senior level executives to our team. We have been deliberate in our hiring process by only appointing executives that have demonstrated success in their prior companies and look forward to the direct impact they will be making with their respective abilities. As we strategically position ourselves for scale and growth within the next chapter of our operating history, we are confident that 2021 will be a transformative year for Kubient.”
First Quarter 2021 Financial Results
Net revenues decreased to $708,000 compared to $1.4 million in the same period last year. The year-over-year decrease in net revenue was primarily due to the one-time recognition of $1.3 million in revenue during the three months ended March 31, 2020 in connection with the beta test of KAI. As a result of the successful KAI beta tests conducted in the first quarter of 2020, the Company has been increasing the number of KAI audits being scheduled by prospective customers.
Technology expenses increased to $520,000 from $479,000 in the same period last year. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to an increase in amortization of software expense and an increase in cloud hosting costs.
General and administrative expenses increased to $1.3 million compared to $517,000 in the same period last year. The year-over-year increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to increases in salary expense due to an increase in headcount, professional fees, insurance expense, all partially offset by a reduction in rent and office expense.
GAAP net loss was $1.8 million, or $(0.14) loss per share, compared to a net loss of $58,000, or $(0.02) loss per share, in the same year-ago period. The year-over-year increase in net loss was primarily due to reduced net revenues and an increase in operating expenses.
Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, decreased to $(1.5) million, compared to an adjusted EBITDA of $548,000 in the same period last year. The year-over-year decrease in adjusted EBITDA was due to a decrease in net revenues and an increase in operating expenses.
As of March 31, 2021, the Company had a cash balance of $32.5 million.
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