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Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the QuantumSci fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Juan Avendano, head of investor relations for QuantumSci.
Juan Avendano
Juan, please go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us.
Juan
Earlier today, QuantumSci released financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31st, 2022. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Joining me today are Jeff Hawkins, Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Schneider, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Claudia Creighton, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will be making certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in the section entitled forward-looking statements of our press release. For a more complete list and description of risk factors, please see the company's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, March 6, 2023. Except as required by law, the company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. During this call, we will also be referring to certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP, including adjusted EBITDA. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the press release filed earlier today. With that, I will turn the call over to Jeff.
Jeff Hawkins
Thank you, Juan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In today's call, we will provide a business update, present our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 financial performance, and provide an outlook for 2023. We will then open the line for questions. 2022 was a landmark year for Quantum SI. We achieved several major milestones during the year. To name a few, on the research and development front, we accelerated our product development efforts and successfully demonstrated the ability to recognize 15 out of the 20 amino acids. This represents a path to more than 70% coverage of the human proteome, identification of up to 90% of proteins, as well as a greater understanding of protein sequence variation and post-translational modifications. Our protein sequencing technology was published in the journal Science. As a reminder, QuantumSI's Next Generation single molecule protein sequencing features our proprietary time domain sequencing method that allows us to sequence peptides at the amino acid level in a massively parallel fashion using a semiconductor chip. The publication in Science is an important validation of our technology as this is the first peer reviewed paper from any company demonstrating next generation protein sequencing technology in a major journal. On the supply chain front, we worked closely with our suppliers and contract manufacturers to build up the supply of instruments, chips, and reagent kits in support of internal product development needs and commercial launch. In addition, we successfully completed technology transfer and capacity increase activities at our chip assembly and packaging facility in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania. On the commercial front, We increased our marketing efforts, including exhibiting our product at several industry trade shows in the fourth quarter of last year. We also added key sales and market development personnel and appointed Dr. Grace Johnston as Chief Commercial Officer in December. Grace brings the depth of experience in commercializing new technologies and developing new markets from companies such as Merck Millipore, Tartorius, and most recently, Fortis Life Sciences. We welcome Grace and are very pleased to have her on board to lead our global commercialization activities. Furthermore, and most notably, we concluded 2022 with the commercial launch of Platinum, the world's first next generation single molecule protein sequencing system for research use only. Lastly, on the financial front, we are able to achieve all of these milestones while increasing our fiscal discipline and rigor. Last year, we proactively implemented several cost rationalization initiatives that resulted in annual GAAP operating expenses increasing 28% year over year. This is well below our original guidance of a 70 to 80% increase when we entered 2022. 2022 was a landmark year for QuantumSI, but as I look forward to this year, I believe 2023 will be an even more significant year for the company. As I mentioned in our previous earnings call, one of the reasons I joined QuantumSI is because I am passionate about new technologies and enjoy the challenges of building companies and creating new markets. QuantumSI is now set to cross the chasm as the first company to commercialize next generation protein sequencing. To guide our execution through the year, QuantumSI has established three corporate priorities for 2023. Our first priority is to commercialize platinum Carbon, and the 2M chip. We completed the launch of the Platinum system last December, and in January, we announced that we began shipping against our initial orders. Overall, we are pleased with the market feedback so far. Customer demand is in line with our expectations, and we expect to book revenue in Q1 of 2023. In addition, as part of our product roadmap, we are on track to launch Carbon, our automated sample prep instrument, later this year. Patrick will provide more details on the timing of the activities related to carbon in his remarks. Our second priority is to lead with innovation. QuantumSI is the leader in the protein sequencing space, and we intend to leverage our deep technical expertise and novel technology to transform and democratize the field of proteomics. Our technology is also protected by a robust patent estate with over 1,000 issued and pending patent applications. That being said, we are not done innovating in this space. As Patrick will comment on later in the call, we continue to push forward with our research and development activities and we're optimistic about our ability to further improve the industry-leading proteome coverage capability of our technology in 2023. Our long-term goal is clear. We want to be the first company to enable de novo protein sequencing. Our third priority is to preserve financial strength. We have executed several cost improvement initiatives that have already yielded tangible cost savings. Claudia will share more details during the review of our financial results, but I am glad to report that we now project our current cash position supporting our operations into 2026. Our commitment to continuously improving our fiscal discipline has never been stronger. In summary, we believe QuantumSI is well positioned for an exciting and productive 2023. The company has strengthened its management team, and I am confident that we have the technical and financial resources to execute on our strategy. I would now like to turn the call over to Patrick, our President and Chief Operating Officer, to discuss additional business updates. Patrick?
Juan
Thank you, Jeff. Starting with product development, we are making good progress on our protein engineering and directed evolution programs. We continue to advance our amino acid recognizer system Given this, we are well positioned to increase proteome coverage capabilities of our technology in 2023. As a reminder, by proteome, we mean not only the 20,000 canonical proteins, but also the millions of proteoforms, including post-translational modifications. As mentioned in our last earnings call, we're enhancing the customer-facing software. Since our last update, we added talent, including a very experienced leader, to our bioinformatics team. In a matter of weeks, they hit the ground running and have already made notable improvements in the software algorithms for high-quality pet-side calls. That being said, we expect improvements to our QuantumSI Cloud analytics to be continuous in nature in order to address ongoing customer feedback from the commercial rollout. We are also making inroads with our partnership strategy. Earlier this year, we announced that we entered into a partnership and licensing agreement with BioVista, an AI-driven bioscience firm, to integrate BioVista's VISIT database and visualization technology tool into QuantumSI's cloud analytics and help advance proteomics research, biomarker discovery, and drug development applications. At the same time, we announced a partnership with Aviva System Biology a leading provider of antibody, protein, and immunoassay reagent products, to co-develop sample preparation kits for protein sequencing research workflows with platinum, including targeted proteoform analysis. Staying on the subject of protein sample prep, we're on track to launch CARBON, our automated sample prep instrument, in 2023. CARBON will help streamline the end-to-end workflow of our platform Although not required, preliminary data suggests that carbon can enhance protein loading onto our platinum protein sequencer, particularly for those customers who might not be sophisticated in proteomic sample prep techniques. We plan to begin beta testing for carbon in Q2 2023 and then move to launch in the second half of the year. On the supply chain front, we remain confident in our supply chain and our ability to support both internal product development needs and external customer demand across instruments and sequencing consumables. In addition, in preparation for the carbon launch later this year, we're scaling up production and transfer the manufacturing of carbon consumables to our facility in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania. Moving on to commercialization. As previously disclosed, we've shipped instruments to our first set of customers. So far, we're pleased with the level of customer interest. As expected, most of the interest and focus has been in the academic research market. On one hand, we're seeing customers who want to be first, explore, and tinker with the technology. These customers are directly moving forward with buying our protein sequencing instrument. On the other hand, there are folks who are interested and have studies in mind but they want to ensure the technology can address their needs before committing to a purchase. As mentioned in investor conference earlier this year, in order to advance these interested folks through the sales process, we're offering a proof of concept testing service through which they can send us two or three samples and we can process those samples and show them data for a modest fee. If we succeed, we would expect them to buy and insource the technology. But we want to make it clear that we don't intend to run a high volume testing service business. This is not the business we're in. We only plan to do this to the extent that it will help us acquire those customers who may require more technology validation ahead of a purchase decision. Overall, we're pleased with the market feedback so far. Initial customer demand and the sales funnel are progressing in line with our expectations. Applications of interest include the analysis of proteoforms, PTMs, and protein barcoding. We're also encouraged by the fact that customers have been able to install and implement Platinum in their labs, mostly on their own. This was a key factor for us in the design of the platform and should prove to be advantageous as we scale our business model. So far, the majority of the demand has been from inbound activity, and this is sufficient to support our internal projections for the first half of the year. This week, we are attending the annual U.S. HUPO Conference in Chicago, where we have a booth and a poster presentation. In the second half of the year, we plan to increase our outbound sales and marketing activities. I will now turn the call over to Claudia to review our financial results.
Jeff
Thank you, Patrick. Hello, everyone. Let's discuss the details of our Q4 and fiscal year 2022 financial performance. Research and development expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were 18.2 million compared to 14.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. The increase was primarily due to higher internal and external product development activities and higher personnel costs as a result of increased headcount. Selling, general, and administrative expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were 11.2 million compared to 13.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. The decrease was primarily the result of lower stock-based compensation expense associated with the business combination that took place last year, a reduction in consulting services, insurance, and other professional fees, partially offset by an increase in compensation costs as a result of higher headcount. In aggregate, total operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were $38.8 million compared to $27.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Operating expenses included a $9.5 million non-cash impairment charge in the fourth quarter of 2022 for goodwill recorded as part of the matchlock acquisition in 2021. Net loss for the quarter was $33.1 million compared to $29.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Total year net loss was $132.4 million in 2022 compared to a loss of $95 million in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $24.5 million compared to a loss of $20.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. For the year, adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $100.6 million in 2022 compared to a loss of $64 million in 2021. A reconciliation table of adjusted EBITDA to GAAP net loss is provided in a press release filed earlier today. As of December 31, 2022, we had $351.3 million in cash and cash equivalents in investments in marketable securities. As previously disclosed at an investor conference early this year, we began shipping orders of platinum in Q1 2023. As a result, we expect to book revenue in Q1. That being said, given the early stage of commercialization, we do not plan on providing revenue guidance until we have a few quarters of commercial activity under our belt. With regards to operating expenses, we continue to increase our efforts to optimize costs and improve efficiencies despite ongoing investments in R&D and higher investment needs in commercialization activities. As Jeff mentioned earlier, preserving our financial strength is one of our three corporate priorities for 2023. To this end, we expect non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately flat in 2023 relative to the prior year in addition thanks to our cost improvement initiative we now project that our current cash position can support our operations into the year 2026. i would now like to turn the call back over to jeff for closing remarks thank you claudia we are excited about commercializing platinum and look forward to partnering with our customers to demonstrate the capabilities of our next generation
Jeff Hawkins
protein sequencing technology. The launch of platinum is an important milestone and turning point, not only for QuantumSI, but also for the industry, as we believe that our unique ability to sequence amino acids and characterize proteoforms and post-translational modifications can lead to novel proteomic insights, better diagnostics, improved drug development, and truly transform the future of healthcare. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or a comment at this time, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. If your question has been answered or you wish to move yourself from the queue, please press star 1-1 again.
Juan Avendano
One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from Alex with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.
Alex
Hi, this is Alex. I'm for Kyle Nixon. Thanks for the update call, guys. Just a quick question. So in terms of the current order volume. I was wondering if you could provide some background on that. And additionally, if you could provide any color on the number of platinums you expect to ship or will be shipped in 2023, as well as just some more color on the timing of carbon, that'd be appreciated. Thanks.
Jeff Hawkins
Yeah, thanks, Alex, for that question. I'll take the first two and then hand it over to Patrick, who can give you a little more color on carbon. With respect to the rollout, as Claudia mentioned in her remarks, we're not giving quantitative guidance yet today. We're really using this initial rollout to measure sort of the implementation timeframe, how quickly people ramp to full utilization, the types of questions that we know will be asked as we start to give out quantitative guidance. But to reiterate what we said, the demand for the machine, the implementation, being able to be done by the customer, these things are all moving in line with our expectations, and we're very pleased with the feedback we're getting, as well as the funnel building to support the demand throughout the year. Patrick, would you like to provide a little more guidance around carbon?
Juan
Sure. And thank you for that question. I mean, just to reiterate, you know, obviously we're focused on platinum right now, and so that's a big push. You know, for carbon, you know, it's basically an end-to-end. It really brings our end-to-end solution together as a sample prep for automated sample prep. The intention is for us to do beta testing in Q2, and if all goes well with that, to launch at the end of 2023. Got it.
Juan Avendano
Thank you very much. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from you inside with B. Riley. Your line is open.
spk13
Good morning. Thank you for taking our questions. I have a couple of them. Just curious, when you share the progress related to commercial launch of Platinum, can you clarify what metrics would you share there, in addition to units shipped and the top-line revenue?
Jeff Hawkins
Thanks for that question. As we said, we're measuring metrics such as placements. We're measuring the pull-through that those placements generate. you know, really looking at the timeframe from when somebody receives a platinum instrument to when they begin to run their studies and get to that utilization rate. And then obviously the top line metric all rolled up, you know, would be revenue. So those are the sort of internal metrics we're using today. Again, early data is, you know, in line with our internal models. So quite pleased with the early progress.
spk13
Got it. Thank you for that, Tyler. And a follow-up here. Can you provide an update of the interaction with customers? Thank you for the color around the test runs that you are conducting for potential customers. In your view, what's holding them back after test runs?
Jeff Hawkins
So today, there's nothing holding the customers back after test runs. I think what maybe to build upon what Patrick had mentioned in his remarks. There are customers today who are in academic research centers, people that those of us in industry would consider key opinion leaders. They're acquiring the platform and the technology and going straight into various studies they're looking to perform. There are some other customers, though, who, as Patrick mentioned, want to have a small number of samples tested to demonstrate that the technology is going to address sort of the study design they have in mind. And that's where really the proof of concept testing service comes in. It's really a method to enable people to move through the sales funnel more quickly and get that sort of early technology demonstration and then ultimately move to acquire the platform and insource the work. So that's sort of how the two different types of customers are progressing today.
Patrick
Got it. Thank you for taking our questions.
Operator
I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Juan for any closing remarks.
Juan
Thank you all for your participation today. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the next quarterly earnings call. Have a good day.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.
Juan
The conference will begin shortly. To raise and lower your hand during Q&A, you can dial star 1 1. Thank you. Hello. Thank you. you
spk06
Thank you. Thank you.
Juan Avendano
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by.
Operator
Welcome to the QuantumSci Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Juan Abundano, Head of Investor Relations for QuantumSci.
Juan Avendano
Juan, please go ahead. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us.
Juan
Earlier today, QuantumSci released financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31st, 2022. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Joining me today are Jeff Hawkins, Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Schneider, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Claudia Creighton, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will be making certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in the section entitled forward-looking statements of our press release. For a more complete list and description of risk factors, please see the company's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, March 6, 2023. Except as required by law, the company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. During this call, we will also be referring to certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP, including adjusted EBITDA. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the press release filed earlier today. With that, I will turn the call over to Jeff.
Jeff Hawkins
Thank you, Juan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In today's call, we will provide a business update, present our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 financial performance, and provide an outlook for 2023. We will then open the line for questions. 2022 was a landmark year for Quantum SI. We achieved several major milestones during the year. To name a few, on the research and development front, we accelerated our product development efforts and successfully demonstrated the ability to recognize 15 out of the 20 amino acids. This represents a path to more than 70% coverage of the human proteome, identification of up to 90% of proteins, as well as a greater understanding of protein sequence variation and post-translational modifications. Our protein sequencing technology was published in the journal Science. As a reminder, QuantumSI's Next Generation single molecule protein sequencing features our proprietary time domain sequencing method that allows us to sequence peptides at the amino acid level in a massively parallel fashion using a semiconductor chip. The publication in Science is an important validation of our technology as this is the first peer reviewed paper from any company demonstrating next generation protein sequencing technology in a major journal. On the supply chain front, we worked closely with our suppliers and contract manufacturers to build up the supply of instruments, chips, and reagent kits in support of internal product development needs and commercial launch. In addition, we successfully completed technology transfer and capacity increase activities at our chip assembly and packaging facility in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania. On the commercial front, We increased our marketing efforts, including exhibiting our product at several industry trade shows in the fourth quarter of last year. We also added key sales and market development personnel and appointed Dr. Grace Johnston as Chief Commercial Officer in December. Grace brings the depth of experience in commercializing new technologies and developing new markets from companies such as Merck Millipore, Tartorius, and most recently, Fortis Life Sciences. We welcome Grace and are very pleased to have her on board to lead our global commercialization activities. Furthermore, and most notably, we concluded 2022 with the commercial launch of Platinum, the world's first next generation single molecule protein sequencing system for research use only. Lastly, on the financial front, we are able to achieve all of these milestones while increasing our fiscal discipline and rigor. Last year, we proactively implemented several cost rationalization initiatives that resulted in annual GAAP operating expenses increasing 28% year over year. This is well below our original guidance of a 70 to 80% increase when we entered 2022. 2022 was a landmark year for QuantumSI, but as I look forward to this year, I believe 2023 will be an even more significant year for the company. As I mentioned in our previous earnings call, one of the reasons I joined QuantumSI is because I am passionate about new technologies and enjoy the challenges of building companies and creating new markets. QuantumSI is now set to cross the chasm as the first company to commercialize next-generation protein sequencing. To guide our execution through the year, QuantumSI has established three corporate priorities for 2023. Our first priority is to commercialize platinum Carbon, and the 2M chip. We completed the launch of the Platinum system last December, and in January, we announced that we began shipping against our initial orders. Overall, we are pleased with the market feedback so far. Customer demand is in line with our expectations, and we expect to book revenue in Q1 of 2023. In addition, as part of our product roadmap, we are on track to launch Carbon, our automated sample prep instrument, later this year. Patrick will provide more details on the timing of the activities related to carbon in his remarks. Our second priority is to lead with innovation. QuantumSI is the leader in the protein sequencing space, and we intend to leverage our deep technical expertise and novel technology to transform and democratize the field of proteomics. Our technology is also protected by a robust patent estate with over 1,000 issued and pending patent applications. That being said, we are not done innovating in this space. As Patrick will comment on later in the call, we continue to push forward with our research and development activities and we're optimistic about our ability to further improve the industry-leading proteome coverage capability of our technology in 2023. Our long-term goal is clear. We want to be the first company to enable de novo protein sequencing. Our third priority is to preserve financial strength. we have executed several cost improvement initiatives that have already yielded tangible cost savings. Claudia will share more details during the review of our financial results, but I am glad to report that we now project our current cash position supporting our operations into 2026. Our commitment to continuously improving our fiscal discipline has never been stronger. In summary, we believe QuantumSI is well positioned for an exciting and productive 2023. The company has strengthened its management team, and I am confident that we have the technical and financial resources to execute on our strategy. I would now like to turn the call over to Patrick, our President and Chief Operating Officer, to discuss additional business updates. Patrick?
Juan
Thank you, Jeff. Starting with product development, we are making good progress on our protein engineering and directed evolution programs. We continue to advance our amino acid recognizer system, Given this, we are well positioned to increase proteome coverage capabilities of our technology in 2023. As a reminder, by proteome, we mean not only the 20,000 canonical proteins, but also the millions of proteoforms, including post-translational modifications. As mentioned in our last earnings call, we're enhancing the customer-facing software. Since our last update, we added talent, including a very experienced leader, to our bioinformatics team. In a matter of weeks, they hit the ground running and have already made notable improvements in the software algorithms for high-quality pet-side calls. That being said, we expect improvements to our QuantumSI Cloud analytics to be continuous in nature in order to address ongoing customer feedback from the commercial rollout. We are also making inroads with our partnership strategy. Earlier this year, we announced that we entered into a partnership and licensing agreement with BioVista, an AI-driven bioscience firm, to integrate BioVista's VISIT database and visualization technology tool into QuantumSI's cloud analytics and help advance proteomics research, biomarker discovery, and drug development applications. At the same time, we announced a partnership with Aviva System Biology a leading provider of antibody, protein, and immunoassay reagent products, to co-develop sample preparation kits for protein sequencing research workflows with platinum, including targeted proteoform analysis. Staying on the subject of protein sample prep, we're on track to launch CARBON, our automated sample prep instrument, in 2023. CARBON will help streamline the end-to-end workflow of our platform Although not required, preliminary data suggests that carbon can enhance protein loading onto our platinum protein sequencer, particularly for those customers who might not be sophisticated in proteomic sample prep techniques. We plan to begin beta testing for carbon in Q2 2023 and then move to launch in the second half of the year. On the supply chain front, we remain confident in our supply chain and our ability to support both internal product development needs and external customer demand across instruments and sequencing consumables. In addition, in preparation for the carbon launch later this year, we're scaling up production and transfer the manufacturing of carbon consumables to our facility in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania. Moving on to commercialization, as previously disclosed, we've shipped instruments to our first set of customers. So far, we're pleased with the level of customer interest. As expected, most of the interest and focus has been in the academic research market. On one hand, we're seeing customers who want to be first to explore and tinker with the technology. These customers are directly moving forward with buying our protein sequencing instrument. On the other hand, there are folks who are interested and have studies in mind but they want to ensure the technology can address their needs before committing to a purchase. As mentioned in investor conference earlier this year, in order to advance these interested folks through the sales process, we're offering a proof of concept testing service through which they can send us two or three samples and we can process those samples and show them data for a modest fee. If we succeed, we would expect them to buy and insource the technology. But we want to make it clear that we don't intend to run a high volume testing service business. This is not the business we're in. We only plan to do this to the extent that it will help us acquire those customers who may require more technology validation ahead of a purchase decision. Overall, we're pleased with the market feedback so far. Initial customer demand and the sales funnel are progressing in line with our expectations. Applications of interest include the analysis of proteoforms, PTMs, and protein barcoding. We're also encouraged by the fact that customers have been able to install and implement Platinum in their labs, mostly on their own. This was a key factor for us in the design of the platform and should prove to be advantageous as we scale our business model. So far, the majority of the demand has been from inbound activity, and this is sufficient to support our internal projections for the first half of the year. This week, we are attending the annual U.S. HUPO Conference in Chicago, where we have a booth and a poster presentation. In the second half of the year, we plan to increase our outbound sales and marketing activities. I will now turn the call over to Claudia to review our financial results.
Jeff
Thank you, Patrick. Hello, everyone. Let's discuss the details of our Q4 and fiscal year 2022 financial performance. Research and development expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were 18.2 million compared to 14.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. The increase was primarily due to higher internal and external product development activities and higher personnel costs as a result of increased headcount. Selling, general, and administrative expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were 11.2 million compared to 13.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. The decrease was primarily the result of lower stock-based compensation expense associated with the business combination that took place last year, a reduction in consulting services, insurance, and other professional fees, partially offset by an increase in compensation costs as a result of higher headcount. In aggregate, total operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2022 were $38.8 million compared to $27.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Operating expenses included a $9.5 million non-cash impairment charge in the fourth quarter of 2022 for goodwill recorded as part of the matchlock acquisition in 2021. Net loss for the quarter was $33.1 million compared to $29.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Total year net loss was $132.4 million in 2022 compared to a loss of $95 million in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $24.5 million compared to a loss of $20.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. For the year, adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $100.6 million in 2022 compared to a loss of $64 million in 2021. A reconciliation table of adjusted EBITDA to GAAP net loss is provided in a press release filed earlier today. As of December 31, 2022, we had $351.3 million in cash and cash equivalents in investments in marketable securities. As previously disclosed at an investor conference early this year, we began shipping orders of platinum in Q1 2023. As a result, we expect to book revenue in Q1. That being said, given the early stage of commercialization, we do not plan on providing revenue guidance until we have a few quarters of commercial activity under our belt. With regards to operating expenses, we continue to increase our efforts to optimize costs and improve efficiencies despite ongoing investments in R&D and higher investment needs in commercialization activities. As Jeff mentioned earlier, preserving our financial strength is one of our three corporate priorities for 2023. To this end, we expect non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately flat in 2023 relative to the prior year. In addition, thanks to our cost improvement initiative, we now project that our current cash position can support our operations into the year 2026. I would now like to turn the call back over to Jeff for closing remarks.
Jeff Hawkins
Thank you, Claudia. We are excited about commercializing Platinum and look forward to partnering with our customers to demonstrate the capabilities of our next generation protein sequencing technology. The launch of platinum is an important milestone and turning point, not only for quantum SI, but also for the industry, as we believe that our unique ability to sequence amino acids and characterize proteoforms and post-translational modifications can lead to novel proteomic insights, better diagnostics, improved drug development, and truly transform the future of healthcare. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or a comment at this time, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. If your question has been answered or you're still with yourself in the queue, please press star 1-1 again.
Juan Avendano
One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from Alex with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.
Alex
Hi, this is Alex. I'm for Kyle Nixon. Thanks for the update call, guys. Just a quick question. So in terms of the current order volume. I was wondering if you could provide some background on that. And additionally, if you could provide any color on the number of platinums you expect to ship or will be shipped in 2023, as well as just some more color on the timing of carbon, that'd be appreciated. Thanks.
Jeff Hawkins
Yeah, thanks, Alex, for that question. I'll take the first two and then hand it over to Patrick, who can give you a little more color on carbon. With respect to the rollout, as Claudia mentioned in her remarks, we're not giving quantitative guidance yet today. We're really using this initial rollout to measure sort of the implementation timeframe, how quickly people ramp to full utilization, the types of questions that we know will be asked as we start to give out quantitative guidance. But to reiterate what we said, the demand for the machine, the implementation, being able to be done by the customer, these things are all moving in line with our expectations, and we're very pleased with the feedback we're getting, as well as the funnel building to support the demand throughout the year. Patrick, would you like to provide a little more guidance around carbon?
Juan
Sure. And thank you for that question. I mean, just to reiterate, you know, obviously we're focused on platinum right now, and so that's a big push. You know, for carbon, you know, it's basically an end-to-end. It really brings our end-to-end solution together as a sample prep for automated sample prep. The intention is for us to do beta testing in Q2, and if all goes well with that, to launch at the end of 2023. Got it.
Juan Avendano
Thank you very much. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from you inside with B. Riley. Your line is open.
spk13
Good morning. Thank you for taking our questions. I have a couple of them. Just curious, when you share the progress related to commercial launch of Platinum, can you clarify what metrics would you share there in addition to units shipped and the top-line revenue?
Jeff Hawkins
Thanks for that question. As we said, we're measuring metrics such as placements. We're measuring the pull-through that those placements generate. you know, really looking at the timeframe from when somebody receives a platinum instrument to when they begin to run their studies and get to that utilization rate. And then obviously the top line metric all rolled up, you know, would be revenue. So those are the sort of internal metrics we're using today. Again, early data is, you know, in line with our internal models. So quite pleased with the early progress.
spk13
Got it. Thank you for that, Tyler. And a follow-up here. Can you provide an update of the interaction with customers? Thank you for the color around the test runs that you are conducting for potential customers. In your view, what's holding them back after test runs?
Jeff Hawkins
So today, there's nothing holding the customers back after test runs. I think what maybe to build upon what Patrick had mentioned in his remarks. There are customers today who are in academic research centers, people that those of us in industry would consider key opinion leaders. They're acquiring the platform and the technology and going straight into various studies they're looking to perform. There are some other customers, though, who, as Patrick mentioned, want to have a small number of samples tested to demonstrate that the technology is going to address sort of the study design they have in mind. And that's where really the proof of concept testing service comes in. It's really a method to enable people to move through the sales funnel more quickly and get that sort of early technology demonstration and then ultimately move to acquire the platform and in source the work. So that's sort of how the two different types of customers are progressing today.
Patrick
Got it. Thank you for taking our questions.
Operator
I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Juan for any closing remarks.
Juan
Thank you all for your participation today. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the next quarterly earnings call. Have a good day.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.
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