Orion Digital Corp

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MOGO Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, May 11, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Craig Armitage. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Just a few notes before we get started, that today's call will contain forward-looking statements that are based on current assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. The company undertakes no obligation to update these statements except as required by law. Information about the risks and uncertainties are included in our Q1 filings, as well as periodic filings with regulators in Canada and the U.S., which you'll find on CDAR, EDGAR, and through the Investor Relations website. Second, today's discussion will include some adjusted financial measures and non-IFRS measures. You should consider these as a supplement to and not as a substitute for the IFRS measures, and we included reconciliations both in our filings and the investor deck for those measures. Lastly, the amounts today are discussed in Canadian dollars unless we indicate otherwise. I'll now turn it over to Dave Beller to get us started. Dave?

Thanks, Craig. Thank you. Good afternoon. Welcome to MoGo's first quarter 2023 results call. I'm joined today by Greg Feller, our president and CFO. I can't emphasize enough how pleased I am with the progress our team made in Q1 as we continue to re-engineer MoGo into a leaner and more profitable company. The level of engagement and focus that we're seeing from our team is truly amazing, and it's been reflected in our results. When the macro picture began to look worse in early 2022, we took quick and decisive action to accelerate our path to profitability with the stated goal of achieving adjusted EBITDA positive in Q4 of 2023. As we discussed in March, we managed to achieve this goal in Q4 of 2022, one year earlier than planned. It's hard to overstate the level of transformation we have made in the last 12 months, going from negative $5.5 million adjusted EBITDA to positive $1 million in just four quarters. This progress gives us confidence in our ability to get to our targeted EBITDA run rate by the end of the year, which Greg will discuss in the outlook. We introduced our three key pillars last quarter and this continues to be our goal. The elimination of products like CARD will allow us to put more focus on three areas that we believe there's significant growth opportunities in each of these areas and perhaps more importantly, profitable growth. These are also segments where we believe there's a much higher barrier to entry and where we believe we can offer more differentiated value proposition. Lean and mean and getting to profitability as quickly as possible continues to be our number one priority across the organization. We are looking at every part of the business to identify areas where we can reduce costs and ensure we have the lowest possible costs. We are creating a more efficient operating platform that supports our strategy to be the low-cost provider in the marketplace. Again, key areas of focus include elevating the performance of the team, reducing vendor costs, eliminating unprofitable products, and improving profitability by focusing on operational excellence and efficiencies. Although in many of these ways, these times are challenging, I couldn't be more impressed with the level of intensity and focus of our team that's driving our improved results. Although we still have a lot of work to do, the momentum is there. Although our primary focus in the near term is on the efficiency and profitability initiatives, we also continue to advance mogul trade and its disruptive value proposition in the Canadian market. When you enter a large market like DIY trading with a new product, the key is making sure that you truly have something that meaningfully differentiates you from the existing players, and that's what we're doing with trade. Canadians continue to spend billions a year in fees related to investing, and our goal is to eliminate this. Our value proposition is simple and compelling. Mogul trade is the simplest, lowest cost, and most sustainable way to invest in Canada. Now, what does that really mean? We are the first and only stock trading app in Canada that doesn't charge commission or FX fees, and the first and only where every investment you make also helps reduce your CO2. When looking at the space, surveys show that the number one reason users switch is for lower fees, and Mogotrade now has the lowest fees in Canada. Arguably the most successful trading app in Canada is well simple in terms of the speed at which they have attracted millions of users with a lower cost and simpler experience than the existing incumbents. In fact, they also took the top spot for market share gain in 2022. Mogul Trade is not only significantly cheaper given our zero FX fee, but we believe a much simpler and we continue to get feedback from our users supporting this. All you need to do is check it out for yourself and compare it with any trading app in Canada in terms of cost and simplicity. Seeing is believing. It's also important to note that we're building this in a way that enables us to be a low-cost leader. Without the constraints of a higher-priced model, along with modern architecture and automation, we are hyper-focused on building a platform that enables us to offer this disruptive value proposition profitably. We are now on a weekly release cycle for this product, and every week we are releasing improvements to the experience, and with each new release, we continue to see improved metrics. Once we complete some of our key initiatives, we will be able to spend even more time on improving and growing this product. Our goal remains to achieve strong product market fit this year and set the stage for more meaningful revenue impact next year. Obviously, there's a lot of discussion around AI, and there's no doubt it will have a big impact on our business. There are two key areas where this will be happening. The first is internally and how we leverage it to drive operational efficiencies and productivity improvements. We've been using AI in our lending and underwriting for a while, and now we're looking at every other part of the business. Customer service is going to be a big one, and AI will enable us to cost-effectively scale customer support for trade, and we're also leveraging it in marketing and engineering as well. The efficiency gains we have made to date are without any real impact from AI, and we expect AI will continue to drive our costs down for years to come. The other big area of impact with AI will be in the wealth space itself, and in fact, we believe will help drive more users to a platform like Mobotrade. AI will make it easier for the average investor to make better decisions without the need of high-priced financial advisors. But the one thing that will always be constant is needing the lowest-cost way to execute the trade itself. We are building Mogotrade for a world with AI, and we think it will be a powerful combination that will help accelerate the move away from traditional wealth solutions. Building a brand-new platform with a business model designed for a world with AI is a big advantage compared to the existing players. With that, I will turn the call over to Greg.