Aware, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to AWARE's first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Joining us today is the company's CEO and president, Robert Eckel, and CFO, David Barcelo. Following their remarks, we will open the call for questions. If you'd like to submit a question, you can do so at any time using the built-in ask a question feature in the webcast player. Before we begin today's call, I would like to remind everyone that the presentation today contains forward-looking statements that are based on the current expectations of AWARE's management and involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described. Listeners should please take note of the Safe Harbor paragraph that is included at the end of today's press release. This paragraph emphasizes the major uncertainties and risks inherent in forward-looking statements that management will be making today. aware wishes to caution you that the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results indicated by such statements. These risks and uncertainties are also outlined in the company's SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of these factors. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date made. Although it may voluntarily do so from time to time, aware undertakes no commitment to update or revise the four linking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Additionally, this call contains certain non-GAAP financial measures, as the term is defined by the SEC and Regulation G. Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information presented in compliance with GAAP. Accordingly, AWARE has provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most direct comparable GAAP measures in the company's earnings release issued today. I'd like to remind everyone that this presentation will be recorded and made available for replay via link available in the investor relations section of the company's website. Now with that, I'd like to turn the call over to AWARE's CEO and President, Bob Echol. Bob?

Thanks, Matt. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As you will soon hear, we have some very exciting news. After the market closed, we issued a press release announcing our results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2021. A copy of the press release is available in the Investor Relations section of our website. So let me start by saying it's a pleasure to join you all again for our second earnings call together. Just a few months ago, I had the chance to share a bit more about what AWARE has managed to accomplish throughout 2020 in the company's first earnings call in a long time. Today, I plan to discuss the progress we've made throughout the first quarter and why we're realistically optimistic about the remainder of the year and beyond. On this call, I'll provide you with a high-level overview of the quarter's operational results. Then I'll turn it over to our CFO, Dave Barcelo, so that he can review the financial results for the quarter. I will then take some time to discuss what we have on our near and long-term horizons. After that, we'll open a call for your questions. This quarter, we generated our third consecutive period of top-line growth. I'm excited about our increased subscription revenue, which shows our transformation is working. I'm also excited about entering the delivery phase on multiple federal government awards. These continue to bolster our reputation as a go-to U.S. company for their biometric needs. And of course, I'm excited about our record number of quarterly Nomi transactions. Dave and I will talk about the significance of this shortly, but for now, I'd like to highlight that there were more transactions protected by Nomi in the first quarter of 2021 than in any quarter previously, and they were also greater than half of all the transactions throughout 2020. We see these results as a testament to Nomi's value proposition as well as the potential for our transaction and consumption-based business models. Nomi has proven its versatility both geographically and within various sectors. Throughout the world, Nomi is providing a new way for institutions to interact with end users. We are realistically optimistic that the pandemic-related headwinds that we've all experienced will transform into tailwinds. In consideration of the continued impact of the pandemic and vaccine rollouts, we're staying in close contact with our customers and partners to ensure that implementations and service requests are attended to on a timely basis. Nevertheless, we're accounting for these risks in our modeling. To be clear, 2021 will be a period of continued transition and investment in our business. Quarterly revenue may fluctuate due to the timing of revenue recognition, and the lumpy revenues from perpetual license contracts that we are continuing to convert into subscription revenues will still exist. As such, we anticipate a degree in variability in our quarterly results as we progress through this phase. I'm looking forward to talking to you about what lies on the horizon in just a little bit but for now, I'll turn it over to Dave who will walk us through our financial results for the quarter. Over to you, Dave.

Thank you, Bob, and good afternoon to everyone on the call.