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spk08: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to today's Blink Charging Company first quarter 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, but we will open the floor for your questions after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Jennifer Bilodeau, IMS Investor Relations. Jennifer, the floor is yours.
spk01: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Blink Charging Company first quarter 2022 investor call. On the call today, we have Michael Farkas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brendan Jones, President, and Michael Rama, Chief Financial Officer. Please note that there is a live presentation accompanying today's earnings call where viewers can follow along. The slides can be accessed on the investor relations section of the Blink Charging website. I'll now take a moment to read the Safe Harbor Statement. This conference call contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. These forward-looking statements in terms such as anticipate, expect, intend, may, will, should, or other comparable terms involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief, or current expectations of Blink and members of its management, as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in Blink's periodic reports filed with the SEC that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by federal securities law, Blink undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed conditions. With that out of the way, I'll turn the call over to Michael Farkas, Chairman of Blink Charging. Go ahead, Michael.
spk10: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We delivered a strong start to 2022, highlighted by record revenue of $9.8 million, an increase of 339% over the first quarter of 2021, driven by exponential growth in both product sales and service revenues. Our record first quarter results are reflective of the solid platform and reputation that we've built in the EV charging industry. as partners and customers recognize Blink as a leading provider of charging technology and services. In the quarter, we contracted, sold, or deployed 3,174 commercial and residential chargers, an increase of 99% compared to the same quarter last year. We also continue to see success winning new grant and rebate awards from various government programs, receiving $3 million in awards in the first quarter of 2022. and $30 million since January of 2021. Federal and state grant and rebate programs have been an integral part of our growth, providing us with numerous opportunities outside of the traditional sale of our products to expand our charging footprint, which Brendan will speak more in depth about later on in the call. The legislative environment surrounding the EV industry is incredibly favorable, and we believe we are positioned to win many more grants and rebates as federal, state, and local governments allocate the $7.5 billion from the Biden administration for state-of-the-art EV charging infrastructure. Following the close of the first quarter, we announced our acquisition of Electric Blue, or EV charging, a leading provider of integrated EV charging and sustainable energy solutions in the United Kingdom. This acquisition both expands our European presence into the UK and adds over 1,150 chargers installed or committed to delivery. It's adding that to the Blink charging footprint. A key part of Blink's strategy is to make acquisitions and to establish multi-year exclusive partnerships that increase charge deployments and our market reach. With the acquisition of EB charging, we are now present in over 19 countries, including the US, Belgium, UK, Greece, and nine countries in Latin America, as well as others. Turning to slide five, as you can see, The EV industry is still in its early stages and poised for massive exponential growth over the next decade and beyond. As such, I'd like to take a moment to reiterate just how much we believe in the opportunity Blink sees for future growth as a leading provider of EV charging solutions. According to the International Energy Agency, global EV sales are projected to grow at a KGAR of 24% from 2021 to 2030. with the number of vehicles sold increasing from 3 million in 2020 to about 25 million in 2030. This projected increase in electric vehicles creates an immediate demand for robust EV charging infrastructure, with the need for over 120 million EV chargers globally by 2030, as compared to the only 2.8 million chargers available globally in 2021. The growth is massive. As a leading provider of EV charging technology, we believe this growth presents a tremendous opportunity for Blink to significantly expand our charging footprint over the next decade and beyond and exponentially increase our share of the market. Now looking at slide six, we highlight Blink's unique value proposition that differentiates us from our competitors as a leading provider of EV charging technology. Our innovative product portfolio offers our customers a variety of charging options to fit almost any location or environment. As I mentioned last quarter, we unveiled seven new next generation charging products at CES in January, including our Vision IQ200 charger targeting the 1 million plus retail locations across the United States. The H2200 residential charger that allows us to target the 10 million plus home charging market. And the Blink management software and Blink mobile app, connecting our charges across all fleet operators. We are constantly looking for new ways to improve our product offerings in order to remain at the forefront of the industry and to resist obsolescence. And we design our products with the future innovation in mind. Complementing our industry-leading product portfolio are our multiple business model options centered on providing flexible and fully integrated charging solutions to our customers. While we have several different deployment options to fit our customers' needs, our main focus is on our owner and operator model. As an owner operator, we're intimately involved in every step of the installation process and can facilitate upgrades and other maintenance as needed to provide the best technology for the location, while also benefiting from anticipated increased charge utilization as more EVs are on the road. We also have the discretion to add chargers to a particular location when we decide that this is necessary and obviously when demand requires. Additionally, we provide long-term exclusive contracts with automatic extensions, which allows Blink to establish a long-term presence and increase brand recognition in the locations where our chargers are Blink owned and operated. With our unique model, Blink remains the only fully vertically integrated EV charging infrastructure company in the USA today. Another part of our strategy is the expansion of our domestic and international charging footprint. In the United States, we've made progress by continuing to identify the best locations to deploy our chargers in areas that will maximize utilization rates and drive increased revenue. Internationally, we successfully expanded our European charging footprint through our acquisition of Blue Corner in May of 2021, which we've grown significantly since we've taken over the management of that business. And recently, we acquired EV Charging to establish a presence in the UK. To date, we are now present in over 19 countries, including the US, France, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Greece, Latin America, South America, as well as others. and we continue to expand our presence and visibility, we believe that we are well-positioned to capitalize on the numerous opportunities emerging from the increasing demand for reliably recharging infrastructure, both organically and through M&A activity. As you can see, we've made tremendous progress in the first quarter of 2022, and I'd like to extend my gratitude to all of our employees, members, and our partners with whom we deploy our charging infrastructure. and we commend them for their hard work and dedication to growing Blink into a leader in the EV charging industry. We are energized by the many opportunities we're seeing and look forward to driving strong results and momentum as we progress through 2022. Now, I'll turn the call over to Brendan Jones, president of Blink, to discuss some of our recent developments.
spk11: Thanks, Michael, and good afternoon, everyone. It is a pleasure to speak with everyone today. As you can see from the logos on slide eight, we are fostering partnerships and winning contracts to bring innovative EV charging solutions to a wide variety of verticals. We've won numerous multi-year contracts with a variety of well-respected commercial enterprises, healthcare facilities, plant communities, and municipalities. And we are seeing tremendous opportunities continue this trend in 2022, including two new partnerships with the state of Virginia, excuse me, with the state of Massachusetts and Virginia. These collaborations are an integral part of our business as entities in both the public and private sectors push for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and the establishment of a robust EV charging infrastructure. We are pleased to be providing our state-of-the-art charging solutions to our valued partners, and we look forward to teaming up with additional businesses and municipalities that want to offer innovative EV charging technology to their customers and residents. Turning to slide nine, within the last 12 months, Blink has contracted, sold, deployed, or acquired over 19,720 chargers both domestically and internationally, bringing the total charge account for the company to over 36,000 since Blink's inception. We have a healthy mix of deployments in the United States and abroad, with 57% of total Blink chargers deployed in the United States and 43% deployed internationally. In addition, As of the first quarter of 2022, Blink has provided service to over 270,000 registered members and unique users throughout the world. Consumer demand for electric vehicles is steadily increasing, meaning the need for a robust and reliable EV charging infrastructure has never been more necessary. Our global network of chargers has steadily expanded quarter over quarter and we expect this increase to continue as the demand for EVs increases. Slide 10 gives an overview of our charging station's deployment in key geographic locations throughout the United States and Europe. We strategically identify our locations based on several criteria, including EV concentration and driving habits, population and density figures, historic and forecasted traffic patterns, and future market growth potential. In the first quarter, we deployed charging stations across six countries and 40 U.S. states and territories, working with both local and state government agencies and numerous companies. Internationally, we are seeing experience momentum throughout Europe, which has provided us the foundation to expand our charging footprint in those markets. Turning now to slide 11, we believe Europe presents a tremendous growth opportunity, and we've aggressively increased our presence there. We believe our latest acquisition, EV Charging, is a valuable addition to our company and a complement to Blue Corner, which also recently received a 450,000 euro grant from Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the development of an energy management service. So, we are seeing solid progress in both our expansion efforts and the development of our products in international markets. And we remain focused on strategic M&A opportunities that will contribute to our growth. Moving on to slide 12, As Michael discussed, we are launching several exciting new products in 2022, including Blink's advanced fleet management software and accompanying mobile app designed to be used within the advanced MQ 200 hardware. Together, the hardware and software will provide a 360 degree fleet ecosystem. In addition, We are preparing the launch of an entirely redesigned Blink mobile app, making EV charging easier for drivers. Also planned for launch in the coming months is the innovative Vision IQ200 charger, which we believe our retail customers are going to appreciate. And also, we have the compact, powerful 50-kilowatt wall DC fast charger, which can fit in just about any location. Lastly, the HQ200. is a residential charger designed to satisfy the diverse needs of homeowners. Overall, we have a comprehensive portfolio of charging solutions to fit the needs of any customer, public or private, with the capability to penetrate numerous different markets. Slide 13 provides an overview of the historic 1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill that includes an estimated $7.5 billion to be used for building the nationwide infrastructure to support the anticipated growth in the adoption of electric vehicles. Since January 2021, Blink was awarded $30 million in grants from several different state organizations looking to strengthen their commitment to electric vehicles. With more and more states following this trend, we have a tremendous opportunity to capture valuable grant awards that will aid in the expansion of our footprint. Slide 14 details two recent examples of grants that Blink won in the first quarter of 2022. In March, we received a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection under the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Incentive Program to install our chargers at strategic locations across the state. Then in April, we received another grant from the Mid-Atlantic Electrification Partnership through Virginia Energies to build out their rural EV charging network by deploying Blink chargers in partnership with Virginia Clean Cities. These grants are valuable because they allow us to expand our charging footprint with limited deployment expense and enhance return on our investment. We've made strong progress partnering with industry leaders and government entities for the deployment of our chargers, and we're expanding our charging footprint globally through strategic accretive acquisitions. As a result, we've been able to deliver considerable growth highlighted by a 339% increase in year-over-year revenue driven by increased product sales and service revenues. We are excited about the numerous opportunities we're seeing in the industry, and we look forward to capturing additional grants and partnerships and strategically acquiring leading companies that can continue to grow our market share. I will now turn it over to our CFO, Michael Rama, to run through some specific results for the quarter. Here you go, Michael.
spk09: Thank you, Brendan, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to slide 16, total revenue in the first quarter of 2022 grew to $9.8 million, another record for the company, and an increase of 339% compared to the first quarter of 2021. Product sales in the first quarter of 2022 were $8.1 million, an increase of 382% over the same period in 2021. As customers purchased greater volumes of our commercial chargers, DC fast chargers and residential chargers, as well as revenues generated through our European subsidiary Blue Corner, which was acquired in May 2021. First quarter 2022 service revenues, which consists of charging service revenues, network fees, and ride sharing revenues, were $1.5 million, an increase of 346% compared to the first quarter of 2021. The year-over-year growth is primarily due to the increased utilization of our chargers, an increased number of chargers on our Blink network, and revenues from the Blue Corner acquisition. We believe it makes sense to combine these three service revenue line items into one amount to differentiate between the product and service aspects of our business, and this approach also aligns with our company's strategic goal of increasing the service component of our revenue mix and growing our recurring revenue base. In time, as EV adoption accelerates and utilization of our charging stations improve, we anticipate seeing a larger mix of revenues come from services. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2022 was approximately $1.6 million, an increase of over 1,500% over the same period in the prior year. We continue to look at ways to reduce our component costs, especially in light of the ongoing supply chain disruptions occurring globally. Operating expenses in the first quarter of 2022 were $16.6 million compared to $7.5 million in the prior year period. This increase reflects our longstanding commitment to investing in our business in anticipation of the domestic and international growth of our business. as well as operating expenses from Blue Corner, which was acquired in 2021. We continue to seek out and hire talented individuals that will contribute to our company's growth and success, and we're committed to the research and development of innovative new products that place our product line at the forefront of the EV charging industry. That said, we ensure that our expenses are closely monitored and are benefiting the growth of our company. In the third quarter of 2021, we began the practice of presenting adjusted EBITDA. Our manager believes this non-GAAP measure is useful in evaluating our company's core operating performance because it excludes items that are either significant non-cash or non-recurring expenses. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2022 was a loss of $12.4 million compared to a loss of $6.5 million in the prior year period due to the previously mentioned higher operating expenses. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenues for the first quarter of 2022 improved 162 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2021. Now turning to slide 17, our revenues and gross profit performed well in the first quarter of 2022, continuing the upward trend that we've seen over the past several quarters now. As we execute our own and operator strategy, and the demand for our reliable and convenient EV infrastructure increases, we believe that we are well positioned to continue driving increased revenues and gross profit moving forward. Moving to our cash position, at March 31st, 2022, the company had approximately $162 million of cash compared to $175 million at December 31st, 2021. We believe we have sufficient cash on hand to fund our operations. We're pleased to begin 2022 with a strong start, and we achieved record revenues for the second quarter in a row. These improvements in our operating results are a direct reflection of the solid foundation we've built over the past several years. And we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on the numerous opportunities and increased focus being placed on the EV industry. I will now turn the call back over to Michael Farkas for a few final comments. Go ahead, Michael.
spk10: Hello. We started 2022 by delivering tremendous results. highlighted by an increase in year-over-year revenue of almost 340%. And we believe that with our strategy and product offerings, we are well positioned to drive growth throughout the balance of the year. We're energized by what's ahead for Blink and capitalizing on many of the opportunities that the EV industry is providing. With that, we will now open the call for questions.
spk08: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. Should you wish to remove yourself from queue, you may press star two. If listening on speakerphone this afternoon, we ask that you please pick up your handset while asking your question to provide optimal sound quality. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, you may press star one on your telephone keypad now to enter the queue to ask a question. Please hold a moment while we poll for questions. And your first question is coming from Steven Jengaro from CFO. Steven, your line is live. Please go ahead.
spk05: Thanks, and good afternoon, everybody. So thanks for taking the question. So what I would start with is curious about the electric blue acquisition. Can you just give us a sense for, like, when we think about the 1,150 chargers, I know some are either installed or plan to be installed. Given the maturity or higher maturity of the European market versus U.S., how do we think about sort of the revenue content that that brings on the charging side?
spk10: I think it's important to note not only, obviously, the revenues that are going to be derived off the utilization of the charging stations, and I'll let Michael Rahm up, address that in more detail, you have to look at the transaction itself. You're talking about a total potential cost of $23 million. The acquisition at first before potential earnouts and so on was about $13 million. And we bought a company that has about $16 million in order book. So it's actually more than what we're paying for the company. In addition, today they buy hardware from a third party. We're now going to fill those orders using Blink equipment. Instead of them using a third party network company, we're going to put all of those chargers and all future chargers that they have on our network. So it's, again, there's a lot of cost savings. In addition, it gives us a tremendous footprint, you know, in the UK. They've won over 40 different municipal contracts throughout the UK. So it's not only just the pipeline that they have, of units for today, but each and every one of those locations have additional parking spots in them that now become ours for the future. I'll let Michael address the revenue side in more detail.
spk09: Yeah, you know, right now they're still, you know, still fairly heavily on product sale, but obviously as we start building out the the footprint and additional blink model, if you will, we'll start to see a little bit more on the charging side of the equation. But as Michael said, you know, they had an order book of over 16 million. It's entrance into UK, into that market. So this was really what was the driving factors and the government participation that's also involved. So really encouraged with this acquisition.
spk05: Great. Thank you. And then just a quick follow-up. When we think about, if we exclude acquisitions, any guidance for how we should think about full-year 22 CapEx?
spk09: You know, obviously, we're continuing to proceed. You know, we're monitoring, obviously, the inventory procurement. We're obviously with the supply chain, so we're aggressive in obtaining inventory. So, you know, absent the you know, any acquisition. We see the profile being fairly similar to what we've done in the first quarter, you know, moving forward.
spk08: Thank you. Thank you. Your next question is coming from Matt Somerville from DA Davidson. Matt, your line is live. Please go ahead.
spk02: Good afternoon. This is Will Jellison on for Matt Somerville. I want to start with a follow-up on the EB charging question just as Can you talk a little bit more about the process you went through in buying the business in terms of how long ago you were introduced to them, whether or not you were considering any other UK chargers as part of thinking about buying your way into that market, and then if any other firms were involved in bidding for the asset?
spk07: Brendan?
spk11: Yeah, I'll take the question. No problem. So, yeah, it's been... a nine-month endeavor. We started thinking about it even further back than that. We went through an analysis, of course, of organic growth and establishing a presence just as a blink company in the UK, and then we looked at growth through acquisition. Ultimately, we decided on purchasing a company that operated and was fully accepted with both in the UK business community as well within the municipal community as well. We went through several different companies before we landed on EB, and what we liked about EB was, A, the owner-operator model that they're operating now, and the expansive ability of moving them from not just owner-operator, but in-home sales of chargers that we have, so another product avenue for us, and then hybrid models like we focus on as well. But the big takeaway is they're fully embedded within the UK community for all the grants and RPs that are out there. And they're one of the biggest tender winners out there today. So we believe with the additions we'll provide, as Mike alliterated too, about the new network, new hardware that we can get a return on that and a margin, and then all the new software that we're going to bring to the table, we're really going to take EB to the next level.
spk02: Understood. Thank you. And then Can you talk a little bit more about what, if any, supply chain challenges you might have encountered during the quarter and what kind of impacts they might have exerted on product sales or procuring certain chargers or parts during the quarter and how you were able to navigate that?
spk11: Michael, you want me to take this one?
spk07: Yes, please.
spk11: Yes, so we put a lot of effort in 2021 into making sure that we had secured our product lines for 2022. So thus far, in particular on the L2 chargers both in Europe and the United States, we had limited issues because we had already previously secured the components leading into 2021. We continue to do that for leading into 2023. As everyone knows, it's a challenging market right now. So if you're not way out in front, you're going to find yourself way behind. So the same tactics we engaged in in 2021 to secure 2022, we're engaging in right now to secure 2023. So we're seeing that all the products we have for current sales on the books and future sales throughout this year, we have indeed secured.
spk07: Understood. Thank you. Thank you.
spk08: As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, the queue remains open. You may press star 1 on your telephone keypad now if you'd like to enter the queue to ask a question. Your next question is coming from Samir Joshi from HC Wainwright. Samir, your line is live. Please go ahead.
spk06: Thank you. Congratulations all for a very successful quarter. I just had a few questions on the new product launch, the products that were introduced in the beginning of the year. When and what is the timeline for actual deployment of these products, any product that may already be in field and how it is performing? If you have any data, that would be great.
spk11: Michael, you want me to take it?
spk07: Go ahead.
spk11: So for the MQ, which is the fleet charger and the supporting software and fleet network and fleet portal, that's all launching within the next 30 days. Right behind that, you'll find that the HQ200 is launching, almost simultaneously, but just a little behind on that. Then as we move through the summer into the end of Q2 moving into Q3, we'll see the new wall box we plan on launching that in the late summer and then as we move into the end of q3 we'll have the iq vision product out there then also all the new network enhancements or i should say the new network that will support all of our global networks and global products that launches at the end of q2 so we have successive launches planned throughout this quarter we're in, at the end and the beginning of next quarter, and then into the end of Q3, moving into Q4 to round out the year. So a lot of hot activity with a lot of new, exciting stuff. Got it.
spk06: Thanks for that. And are these products going in new locations, or is there demand for change of some of the current locations with upgraded products?
spk11: Well, there's always going to be opportunities where somebody needs to upgrade. But what we see most is first additionality to existing charging as we expand. As we've just recently seen in Massachusetts, they now want 10% in every parking lot that's out there of EV chargers. So we're going to be focusing there for additionality. And then this is all new business. Fleet, we have the fleet software, the fleet portal, and the MQ along with the fleet DC fast chargers. These are brand new, exciting products to enter this segment. And we were going to get new penetration, new growth, new revenue out of that segment. So a little bit replacement, but that's the minor. The most additionality and new business.
spk06: Got it. So next question is probably for Michael Drama. Can you remind us how you treat the owned products? They go directly on the balance sheet or do they go to any other financial statement?
spk09: Well, actually when we buy the chargers, right? Just when we acquire them or procure them through our, you know, our contract manufacturer, they come in as inventory on our balance sheet. Now if they get, sold as part of a hardware sale, they get written off as part of cost of sales. But then if they are, they turn into an owner operate that they get transferred into fixed assets, along with the any installation costs, if we're if we're paying for it, we'll get out will be put in on the fixed assets or property plan equipment and get depreciated over the seven year period. Five to seven years on average.
spk06: Understood. Thanks for that clarification. And then on the costs front, when we compare the sequential quarters from 4Q to 1Q, we see that the G and A line has gone up whereas the compensation line has gone down. Has there been any changes in resources or reclassification of resources from one to other or any other reason for this to happen?
spk09: No. What you're seeing in Q1, and we've noted this in previous quarters, in 2021, starting around May, there was a performance, special performance equity option award that significantly, about $13 million of it got expensed in 2021. So you saw that bleed through into 21. We only had a million dollars of that left to expense in 2022 in the first quarter. So that's where you're seeing the decline. It's related to share-based compensation that the expensing of that got taken care of majority in 2021.
spk06: Got it. Just one last bookkeeping question. What is the number of employees now following the EB acquisition?
spk09: Brendan, you got the number probably closer than me. Do you?
spk11: Yeah, including me, B, we're just north of 230. Great, thanks.
spk06: Congrats for all the progress and good luck.
spk07: Thank you.
spk06: Thank you.
spk08: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Oliver Huang from Tudor Pickering Holt. Oliver, your line is live. Please go ahead.
spk04: Good afternoon, everybody, and thanks for taking my questions. On the charging service segment, just wanted to see if there was any incremental color with respect to a couple of quarter-over-quarter trends versus Q421 that we're seeing with respect to the charging service revenue and gross margins, especially kind of given a growing absolute charger base, or if it's just kind of due to some sort of one-off.
spk09: So what you're seeing – I'm sorry. Obviously, we're seeing increases in charging, but do you have a specific question to the abnormality you're seeing?
spk04: It's more so the quarter-over-quarter decrease in this charging service revenue and just on the gross margin side of things, how the cost – Yeah, we looked at that, and it's really not – it's interesting.
spk09: What we're seeing is there were actually – And it starts to matter when you look at it. There was actually, I think, 92 or 93 days in Q4, and only 90. And so each day does make a difference when you look at it on the kilowatts sold. So we looked at that, and we actually had a little bit less kilowatts sold in an absolute amount, but it was because you had less days. So you have a little bit of a factor, a number of days that are sitting in the quarter. So you might see some abnormalities from time to time with that. And there was, let's say, we also, we did experience a little bit probably of some, you know, weather plays a factor in charging in the winter seasonality and a little bit of pullback probably from the, from the, the Omicron virus that reflected in the first quarter.
spk04: Perfect. That makes sense. And for a follow-up, just kind of bigger picture, given the significant owner-operated structure that leverages to utilization, is there any color on how you all see trajectory of gross margins on the charging electricity services segment tracking over time when we kind of consider the potential for increased competition in future years potentially kind of coming into play?
spk09: Well, I'll answer that simply from we expect to see some increases. Obviously, more usage, you're going to see more scale as it relates to some of the fixed components of electricity. I'm not sure if Michael or Brendan want to jump in, I think, or somebody jumping in.
spk10: Yes. The good thing about our business is as we acquire more customers and as we have more volume, it impacts all of our costs. our cost of electricity go down considerably as we buy more and more throughout the country. Similarly with hardware. From the actual installation perspective, maybe not as much. But we're going to be able to increase margins even while we reduce prices because of our cost of electricity should go down considerably as we're able to negotiate bigger contracts on a nationwide basis. Today, we typically use the meter of the property owner or we bring in our own meter and we're not aggregating energy at this point in time. But as volume increases, we will.
spk07: Awesome. Thanks for the call. Thank you.
spk08: Your next question is coming from Noel Park from Tootie Brothers. Noel, your line is live. Please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon.
spk03: I wanted to follow up on the product launches. It was good to get the detail about the timeframes for when they're going to be rolled out. I'm just curious about the marketing effort behind those. Is that for these different product lines, are they essentially just bolt-ons to the existing marketing spend, or are there sort of new separate efforts as far as maybe establishing the brand in these different markets?
spk11: So I'll address first the fleet side. So it's going to be a new effort, but it plays over the strength of the overall Blink brand. So we've increased our ground game already, hired new staff, et cetera. At all, fleet is very event intensive. You'd be surprised at the amount of fleet shows that happen in the United States. We began to sign up for them in Q4 of last year, and we're indeed attending them. We've already won one of our first fleet contracts from attending one of those conferences. We'll increase to direct publications in the fleet space, our spend in media, and also geo-target other online and digital ads to where the fleet companies live and breathe. And then the other part that it may be one of the biggest Tributors is your lobbying effort and your boots on the ground towards governments who have a lot of mandates on the fleet side. You have to have strong relationships with them to be in contention for their fleet bids as they transition their fleets. So both private through a lot of ESG initiatives and both public, the fleet space is booming. I mean, it's a huge market.
spk03: Great. And, for example, also the home charger line, any differences there?
spk11: Yeah, so on the home charger, you know, we predominantly retail the home chargers through online resources, so we're going to continue to do that while we're simultaneously exploring other options, some marketplace options, some direct-to-blank options, and then we'll continue to advertise that through our standard marketing products whether it's online or direct-to-consumer advertising of various different natures. But we're exploring some options to get better reach and frequency on sales on that.
spk03: Great, thanks. And then just the other thing I wanted to touch on is an area where you've had a lot of success over time is certainly domestically on the grants side. And so I was interested to hear with the UK acquisition that your new company also has been very active in grants and tenders. So any insight you can give on just how that's going domestically would be great as well.
spk11: Sure. So we're doing good as we announced. We're still increasing. We're at 30 million since January last year. on that. The bulk of the money coming from the Biden administration, the 7.5 is broken up into two different sections, $5 billion for federal and then for state money that they're going to dole out, and then 2.5 stays with the Fed for low-income, rural, and other charging services. The states are just getting a hold of the rules now. They're going to start rolling out their RFIs first, their request for information, then there are rfps in about q2 i mean excuse me q3 q4 we'll see some awards roll in this year and then we'll see some rolling next year now blink after getting the 30 million last year we've increased and doubled the size of our rfps and grants team who are active right now on responding to all sorts of other opportunities that are still coming in as a matter of fact we just got another opportunity That was still aligned with the Volkswagen Mitigation Trust from the Dieselgate scandal, where another state, Illinois, is just allocating a couple million dollars of funding there. So everything is popping right now. There's a little bit of a pause because they're waiting for the Fed money to roll out. But both state, municipal, and federal, the money is going to roll in, and we have the team to take advantage of it. We will get our unfair share.
spk07: Terrific. Thanks a lot. Thank you.
spk08: And we have a follow-up question from Steven Jungaro from Stiefel. Steven, your line is live. Please go ahead.
spk05: Thanks, and thank you for taking the follow-up. So just when I think about, and you started to touch on this, I think, Michael, the way the operating expenses should evolve as we kind of move forward here over the next, say, one to two years, can you give us any
spk09: additional color on how we should think about the even if it's even if it's operating expenses in aggregate as it as revenues rise and how those how that percentage kind of evolves you know yeah and obviously um you know we're continuously still investing in the growth as we mentioned domestically and internationally you know there's uh we're still rounding out areas uh you know as we move but we don't know that timeliness right so we're still We're still encountering the resource needs that we have and we're seeing it in other areas. So as a percent, we definitely will experience some scale. We definitely expect to see scale in those operating expenses, especially in the compensation and the salary area. So we do over the next couple of years expect that percentage for sure to improve from where it's at now to overtime. So we'll still see a little bit of a ramp up in the short term, but we'll see that moderate over the next, I'll call it 24 months, 18, but maybe 18 months to 24 months.
spk05: Okay, great. That's helpful. And then the second one, when you think about acquisitions and maybe EB Blue is a good example, How do you how do you weigh the acquisition versus sort of organic growth? I mean, I imagine it's, it's just value per dollar spent and a more rapid penetration into the market. Is that is that how we should be thinking about it?
spk07: Let's say so. Yeah.
spk05: Okay. Okay. Great. No, that's all I have. Thanks for the call, gentlemen.
spk10: It's very important to note that when we do our acquisitions, they're strategic from many vantage points. It's not only about the portfolio of charging stations that they have in the ground. It's not only the locations that they have rights to. It's also about having the infrastructure available for us to expand immediately if we have customers that we work with on a global basis that are also present in those areas. In addition, obviously, with the EV transaction, when we paid $13 million down and we have a $16 million pipeline, obviously that makes sense additionally, especially now we're going to be replacing it with the equipment that EV bought from a third party with Blink-manufactured, designed, networked equipment. So, again, it's looking at it from many different vantage points. And if you look at what we did with Blue Corner, we bought the business. I think we were pretty creative in expanding this business, and now it's much, much larger than it was prior to us purchasing it. And that's kind of our strategy and focus when we buy these companies. It's not only the natural growth that they have, it's what we could add to the picture as well.
spk05: Excellent. Thank you.
spk08: Thank you. And there are no further questions in queue at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back to management for closing remarks.
spk10: Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We are extremely energized by the progress that we've made this past quarter, and we're excited by the many opportunities on the horizon as a leader in the EV charging industry. We look forward to speaking with you again very soon.
spk07: Thank you, everybody.
spk08: Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.
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