i3 Verticals, Inc.

And welcome to the I3 Vertical's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded, and a replay will be available starting today through February 16th. The number of the replay is 877-344-7529, and the code is 411. Again, for the replay, 877-344-7529 with the code 4184683. The replay may also be accessed for 30 days at the company's website. At this time, for opening remarks, I would like to turn the call over to Jeff Smith, Senior Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, and welcome to the first quarter 2024 conference call for I3 Verticals. Joining me on this call are Greg Daly, our Chairman and CEO, Clay Whitson, our CFO, Rick Stanford, our President, and Paul Christians, our COO. To the extent any non-GAAP financial measure is discussed in today's call, you will also find a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure by reviewing yesterday's earnings release. It is the company's intent to provide non-GAAP financial information to enhance understanding of its consolidated GAAP financial information. This non-GAAP financial information should be considered by each individual in addition to, but not instead of, the GAAP financial statements. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements, among others, regarding the company's expected financial and operating performance. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. We are hereby cautioned that these forward-looking statements may be affected by the important factors, among others, set forth in the company's earnings release and in reports that are filed or furnished to the SEC. Consequently, actual operations and results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Finally, the information shared on this call is valid as of today's date, and the company undertakes no obligation to update it, except as may be required under applicable law. I will now turn the call over to the company's chairman and CEO, Greg Daley.

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning to all of you on the call. We have some big and exciting things to discuss with you this morning, but first, I'd like to highlight the results of our first quarter of fiscal year 24. Revenue and EBITDA were both 7% higher in Q1 over the same quarter last year, and ARR grew at 9%. We're laser-focused on nurturing recurring revenue streams such as SaaS and transaction-based revenue. Sometimes these come at the expense of license revenue, which you will notice is much lower this quarter. I'm sure many of you saw our disclosure yesterday, as we are well along in the process to sell certain assets related to our merchant services business. Rick is going to give you a full rundown of the process, and first I want to make a few points. First, our roots lie deep in merchant services. We started this company and we knew the business well. We understood the power of consistent recurring revenue that could be unlocked when we add value to our customers and take care of them. We have built and acquired best-in-class technologies, attracted amazing customers, and most importantly, assembled an incredible team. I'm extremely proud of the i3 Merchant Services business and what we've accomplished together. Second, our merchant services capabilities have set the stage for us to build something very special in vertical market software. We've always believed in our scale and our expertise in payments gave us an edge. We're not just looking for any buyer of our merchant services business, but a long-term partner who wants to help us continue to unlock payment opportunities within our current software businesses. Third, we like the opportunity of the sale because we believe it is beneficial to our customers, our employees, and our shareholders if we focus. By this narrowing of our focus to our core markets of public sector, healthcare, and education, we will be better poised to capitalize on the expansive opportunities within each. Now I'll turn the call over to Rick, and he'll provide you more details on the ongoing process. And then when he finishes, Clay will discuss our financial performance. And then we'll open up the call for questions.