IDEX Biometrics ASA

Hello everyone and welcome to the first quarter presentation for IDEX Biometrics. Thank you all for joining. I'm Vince Graziani, CEO of IDEX Biometrics. Joining me once again today is Katerina Eklof, our Chief Commercial Officer. She will be reviewing all of the commercial and market activities for us again once today. Let's get going. Before we start, it's always a good idea to acknowledge the normal disclaimers this presentation will contain some forward-looking statements. Again, none of these are to be construed as guidance and everything is subject to change. With that normal disclaimer, let's move on. So before we start on the overall, I think it's good to review where we were at the end of last quarter when we talked about our strategy. IDEX is addressing a large market opportunity, multi-billion dollars for biometric smart cards worldwide. The company has a complete solution strategy driving market adoption. And this is a pivot for the company where we started out originally like others in the space as just a fingerprint sensor component company. Now, as we've talked about in the past, we have complete solutions, starting with the fingerprint sensor, full solutions for the entire card hardware, but then also solutions for enrollment, card operating system and applets to address various markets. So that's a core differentiation for IDEX. And that actually is what allows us to compete more aggressively in the market and go where the business is. And with this total solution now, we are opening up markets region by region and segment by segment. So our commercial team is able to identify the regions that are most ready in their digital journey to adopt biometric smart cards. And then we market there directly and open up with, in many cases, the regulators and then the issuers and banks and access control companies and lay the groundwork so that our car manufacturer partners can then sell biometric smart cards into these markets. And again, as part of our strategy, we continue to grow into new markets and new use cases. And again, the flexibility of our software platform allows us to develop new applets and new applications and new use cases for the biometric smart card. So why is there a huge demand growing for biometric adoption? I think we all recognize that there is a big threat from cyber criminals out there. And whether you're a large enterprise or a user on your smartphone, we are all threatened by the alarming increase in identity theft and the compromise of personal credentials. Personal credential compromise is how hackers are able to get into large enterprises, but also simple things like your banking app or your social media apps on your phone. So this is really the biggest issue and biometrics solves this problem because it's a secure method for identifying who we actually are. In the case of a biometrics card, it's something you are, your fingerprint, and something you have. So it's automatically two-factor authentication. So when you think about the biometric cards, we take advantage of the advantages of biometrics, but also we provide convenience, security, and data privacy, all built in by design into the card. With the biometric card, the consumer controls all of their own biometric data. When you get this card at home, you enroll your fingerprint in the privacy of your own home, either via your smartphone or via an enrollment sleeve. And when you're doing that, the biometric card captures an image of your fingerprint, immediately converts that to a digital template, and then that template is fully encrypted and stored only on the cloud I mean, only on the card and never in the cloud. So your data is protected. The consumer has the right to revoke that consent anytime because you physically have the card in your hand. It contains your biometric authentication, but that information is fully encrypted and cannot be reverse engineered. And you can just destroy that card anytime and therefore opt out from whatever services you're enabling with the biometric smart card. So the biometric card has great advantages. It's automatically two-factor authentication. And because of the way it's built, it's GDPR compliant by design. So significant advantages for the biometric card approach. And why IDEXX biometrics versus other biometric, fingerprint biometric cards out in the marketplace? So we differentiate by enabling the best user experience the best security and the best total solution that's offered out in the market. Our solution has the largest area capacitive sensor in the industry, so it enables to capture more of your fingerprint with every touch, therefore a better user experience, better acceptance rates. Our technology has fast processing built into the ASIC or the semiconductor device on our sensor, which enables the fastest transaction times, excuse me, in the industry with the lowest power designed for battery-free operation. We designed the IDEX solution from day one with the biometric smart card in mind, and therefore, we have built in all of the circuitry and technology for harvesting energy from near-field communications and optimized for that architecture, so no battery required. We have patented enrollment solutions that will enable people to enroll seamlessly and simply and most significantly is the recently deployed enrollment solution on your smartphone. Our devices also have end-to-end encryption and security. So not only is data encrypted and stored on the secure element on the chip, but all the communication channels between our fingerprint sensor and the secure element device are also encrypted. So there's no chance for somebody to take a card and somehow hack and get your data that's not encrypted. We have industry-leading biometric algorithms. Therefore, we get the best acceptance rates and the fastest matching. And then we have flexible end-to-end solution offerings that enable our car manufacturing partners in the industry. So now let's look at achievements and milestones for the first quarter of 2024. During the first quarter, we had several bank launches with IDEX Pay in Asia and Europe. First was Dennis Bank in Turkey. And we had a second bank launch in Bangladesh, Mutual Trust Bank. We have growing interest in that marketplace for biometric smart cards. And then we did issue with a UK issuer, the first biometric smart card solution for the visually impaired. And we believe that these government regulated solutions will be gravitating more and more for financial inclusion towards the biometric smart cards. We're opening a new market in South Asia, another country there that is ready for biometric smart cards. And this is going to be opened with the first bank there launching with a challenger bank. So a digital challenger bank in Asia. And that was just announced recently. During the quarter, we did launch our mobile enrollment SDK solution to the market. I have used that myself. It's quite convenient and easy to use on your smartphone. Market expansion with IDEXX access, this is our full solution for access, including our card operating system. And then partners can build applications for access and digital authentication on top of that application card operating system. We've expanded with Authentrend, a Taiwanese authentication company, and our partner in the U.S., Sentry Enterprises. We've also announced a large South Asian card manufacturing partner for IDEXX Pay and IDEXX Access. This is one of the largest card manufacturers in Southern Asia, and it will be helping to supply for us, not only in the regions in South Asia where we're getting traction, but also this manufacturer can help supply globally. And then we also, during the quarter, have biometric cards coming out with our partner, Composecure, the industry leader in Metal contactless payment cards will be very soon launching with IDEX biometrics on a metal card with fingerprint biometrics built in. Upcoming for 2024, later in the year, we'll have continued bank launches in Asia and Europe. We'll continue to expand for access with our partners in the access market space. And then our card manufacturers will be out there completing their LOAs with MasterCard, their letters of approval. This is what allows them to go out and start marketing to banks saying that MasterCard has fully certified their solution. And just as a reminder, the IDEX Pay solution is fully certified with MasterCard for all the software and applets. What the card manufacturers then need to complete is the physical card structural integrity piece of that certification. And this testing is pretty rigorous, very rigorous with MasterCard. So once this is fully complete, the card manufacturing partners can go out and market into their customer base with full peace of mind and the backing of MasterCard. We're also working on our certification for IDEX Pay together with Visa, our partner for the Visa certification. Again, a reminder there for Visa, we will be one of the first companies, I think we might be the first company to use the Visa developed applet for payment on biometrics. So we're working together with Visa to get through that certification process. It's good to remind people that these certification processes do not have a defined timeline. The certification process is designed to Make sure the card works flawlessly when it's out in the market at scale. So together we work with Visa to get these cards through certification, through third-party compliance testing. And when issues come up in that third-party testing that might identify a corner case that would be, something detrimental to the user experience. We're working together with Visa to solve those issues and then get through that certification process so that when this card comes out at scale, we can go to scale with peace of mind and a good user experience for all of our customers. So we are working together with Visa to get through this certification process just as quickly as possible. We will launch also this year our crypto cold wallet platform built on our same IDEX platform and card operating system that will be coming to market very shortly with some partners. And we're also working with STMicroelectronics to have another solution offering for issuers and partners that would prefer to have choice when it comes to secure element partners. We should have that platform launched also during 2024. And we're also working on constantly improving our operational efficiencies. And you'll see that coming into effect as we go through the year as our operating expenses will continue to decrease throughout the year. Okay, now let's switch over and review the financial summary for the first quarter. So revenues in the quarter continue to reflect the transition from our component business to solution sales. And by that, I mean, we had almost zero revenue in the quarter from our legacy customers that were just buying components. And we'd rather have revenue increasing from our new customers, more than 20, who we've had design wins over the last year, who are using the IDEX full solution. And you see that mix has changed. We're also increasing revenue in our new regions, in APAC and in the US, the US in particular for access. Gross margins on the quarter were 36%. Those margins also reflect the change over to more of a solution sale as we anticipate to have better margins on our full solution than we had on the component sales going forward. Operating expenses in the quarter were 6.1 million. This is compared to 7.7 in the same quarter last year. This is up slightly from the fourth quarter of 2023. That is due primarily to the seasonal change that we get every fourth quarter. We get full credit for all our research and development tax credits and initiatives from various countries. But overall, we have implemented our changes to reduce OPEX, and you will see that, as we've discussed, by the end of the second quarter of 24, we should be exiting well below 4 million a quarter of OPEX run rate. and we will continue further reductions and exit the third quarter at a number well below 3 million in quarterly operating expenses. We're continuing on execution side, our focus on commercial activities and cost optimization issues while we continue to execute on the software and technology solutions we need to address this market opportunity. We also just completed a a private placement of shares in the company. We sold, we placed just over 28 million shares at a price of 1.65 NOC with net proceeds to the company of about 55 million NOC or 5.1 million US dollars. At the same time, subscribers in this placement will also receive warrants with the equivalent of one warrant per every share in the subscription. And those warrants will have the same price as the shares, 1.65. The warrants have a duration of 12 months and can be exercised quarterly after the publication of the interim report each quarter. So that's a summary for where we are on our financials for the first quarter. And now let's turn it over to Katharina as she moves on into the commercial update.

Thank you, Vince, and very nice to meet you all again. Want to share our first quarter of 2024. So we have been laying the foundation for actually bringing biometric smart cards at scale to market and want to take the time to actually share what we have done. So first of all, as you all know, we used to have a fingerprint sensor system. meaning starting with the biometric sensor together with our biometric algorithm. This is how we brought to market. We have since shifted. Over the years 22-23, we have brought on a full biometric card solution. So starting with our patented high-performance sensing system, which is essential for driving high performance. With this, we have integrated a modular card software platform, which actually gives us two solutions. We can bring out payment solutions across multiple payment technologies, and we can build access and authentication solutions on the access solution platform, which means that we have two dimensions, two modular approaches that allows us flexibility and reach. The other key thing that Vince mentioned was around fingerprint registration solutions. We have learned working with banks that there is not one solution that fits a bank. Depending on geography, depending on customer segment, banks are looking for choice. Some of them are looking for mobile enrollment, like Vince was saying. Others want to do in-branch enrollment. Others want to just use the biometric card directly. So today we're offering a suite of solutions which are proving to be successful and where the banks are actually deploying multiple solutions in order to meet the different customer needs. The other key area is manufacturing support. So IDEX has built a streamlined implementation support structure around the manufacturers to actually support them getting as soon as possible through the process of the letter of approval and actually to optimize the production and facilitate so the yields of the results for the manufacturers is as efficient as possible. We're also, we've shared with you previously our market entry strategy where we go in and assess the market context. We work with the ecosystem partners before we launch. And most important of all is our issuer implementation programs. which actually covers dimensions such as compliance, technology and IT, card management systems, all the way out to the consumer experience. So with these six elements or modules, the banks are taking this on in a faster, so it helps accelerate the process to onboard banks. So in summary, we also, of course, focus on removing market entry barriers. Vince has spoken about the mobile enrollments and so on. It's one of the most important critical elements to actually create mass adoption. Cost optimization is critical for both manufacturers and banks and a segmented approach in certain markets where the metal card that we're bringing out together with three manufacturers and it resonates well with banks in across geographies. Once the metal card is introduced, following plastic and PVC cards is seen as a natural evolution by the banks we're working with. And moving over to IDEX Biometric Card Platform actually enables both payment and enterprise authentication solutions. So with the platform, Based on the two softwares we have, we have one software that operates across payments, which enables us to take this out across Visa and MasterCard. And on the access side, we are enabling applications such as crypto wallet, passwordless, multi-factor authentication, and digital ID. With these, we have our solution partners such as Authentrend from Taiwan, Sentry Enterprises from America, and Mnovate in America. All are coming with new access solutions for both physical and digital and are being introduced across the world, especially relevant in markets such as Japan, America, Taiwan, Korea. And the use of multi-factor authentication continues to accelerate among enterprises worldwide, And governments are promoting the adoption and have even instituted that FIDO should be, in certain countries such as Japan, a governing standard. It's actually becoming the de facto standard for passwordless multi-factor authentication. And the new dimension of FIDO is something called CTAP2. It's a completely pin-free, meaning that fingerprint biometrics can be enforced without an automatic fallback to PIN. And therefore, this solution is expected to propel the adaptation of fingerprint biometrics. And if we look at the enablement, the distribution, so IDEX is now in commercialization with more than 20 manufacturers and partners globally, and we have a healthy growth. We came out of 23 with 26 new partners and manufacturers. well spread across the world. And we are very pleased to have this manufacturing trusting our new software. And I will say it's an unprecedented acceptance. It's a market recognition and a manufacturer uptake. It's in a very trust centric and very regulated and institutional ecosystem that IDEX has actually placed its solution. And many of these manufacturers actually work in exclusivity on IDEXX pay and IDEXX assets. And as an end, Composecure now is bringing out their solution and it's being showcased in the Middle East in Dubai this week. Sentry is also in the Middle East and showcasing both in the Middle East and America. And Vince mentioned Dennis Bank, which claims more than 20 million customers. So it's a big bank in Turkey that is coming out here with the biometric card. And then we have Eastern Bank Limited, which is one of the most innovative banks in Bangladesh, which will be coming out with the biometric metal card for their affluent. And then just now also in Bangladesh, the second bank, which is called Mutual Trust Bank, will be bringing this out across their full portfolio. As a last touch point here on the markets, the market opportunity for biometric cards in Bangladesh is significant. It's a large population of more than 170 million people. Smart Bangladesh is the biometric, or I would say the initiative to actually focus on digital payments. And it's growing at 20%. And the banks in the country see the step of using biometrics as the first step of consumers becoming digital. Combining the use of a biometric card with communication in their mobile gives a reassurance and an assertiveness that when they use their cards, they will not be stolen, they cannot be misused. And this country is showing strong interest across multiple banks. The other segment that the banks are aiming for is the 60 million unbanked and where women are overrepresented. Today in the Bangladeshi banks, only 30% of the customer base are women. So there is a big opportunity for women to actually come onto the financial system. And there is also a huge need for the digital ID solution. So here, Both private and public sectors are collaborating to bring both ID and payment cards and IDEX has the benefit of being part of this ecosystem approach. Lastly, we can say that payment card is a well-known dimension to drive financial inclusion and IDEX is supporting the mission of moving from cash to cards because we know that by building your own financial history, you come into the system and it enables you to build up your wealth and your financial stability. Biometric cards is of course part of this journey because it brings enhanced security and a seamless experience. It also removes the barriers of entry and actually facilitates the usage of contactless cards. And regulators and governments are actually requesting social responsibility from banks and financial institutions. And today, as an overall, why IDEX is focusing on Asia here is because today it represents more than 75% of all payment transactions and has a significant compounded aggregated growth rate at 21%. And we take a step forward and look at the market outlook. So IDEX is a biometric card solution. We have since inception of the company had the vision of making a card that can have multiple functionalities and serve as multiple purposes and needs in society. Payment cards, as Vince mentioned, is of course the largest and most important opportunity, but quickly coming into, and as Vince mentioned, the cybersecurity and the need for protection is now a significant issue globally So the cybersecurity and digital access is coming up fast as enterprises and governments are depending on new solutions. Digital currency wallets have been introduced in Asia Pacific and are now being introduced in Europe. Public transportations in Asia, IDEX is participating in a project for retired people. Healthcare ID, multiple countries are struggling with multiple people using the same cards, too many cards and a lack of proof of life. Here again, biometric cards are seen as a good strong solution to verify that the right person is actually carrying out the right health benefits. And then lastly, government security. Governments today are under strong pressure from cyber crimes. So ensuring that physical and digital access are combined is something that's already being implemented in countries such as Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. As it comes to consumer devices, it's something that we want to come back and talk to in a future session. So altogether, when these different factors can be combined onto one card, this card will drive top of wallet behavior and also a safe experience for consumers. So as a last point, we at IDEX are focusing on flawless execution and looking to drive the market with a profitable growth for IDEX. We do see that there is a clear exponential market growth that is enabled by the 20 plus manufacturers that are now getting ready to scale IDEX pay and IDEX access. onto their customers. So we're looking to drive complete solutions because that's driving market adoption. We're taking the very cautious approach that we assess each market and decide the markets that have the need and where the biometric solution fits into the strategic government agenda as well as banks' agendas. And we are just starting on expanding into new markets and bringing out use cases. And these three dimensions would actually help accelerate into mass adoption of biometric cards. So with that, I want to say thank you from IDEX and Vince. Close in word.

Thank you, Katarina, for that very good presentation of the markets and our commercial progress. And thank you all for tuning in to the IDEX Biometrics Q4 report. I hope it's clear to you now that IDEX is uniquely positioned to drive market expansion and take advantage of this large market opportunity for biometric smart cards. We look forward to talking to you again next quarter. Thank you very much.