Newtopia Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Newtopia Inc. First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Kimberly Estrican from Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good evening and welcome to Newtopia's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Jeff Ruby, founder and chief executive officer, Colin Swenson, chief financial officer, and Laura Dodo, chief growth and operating officer. Please note that today's call is being broadcast live over the internet and will also be archived for both telephone and online listening upon completion of the call. Details on how to access the replays are available in the company's first quarter press release issued this afternoon and can be found on the investor section of Newtopia's website at www.newtopia.com. Before we begin, let me remind you that certain matters discussed during today's call or answers that may be provided to questions during the Q&A portion of the call could constitute forward-looking statements which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties related to Newtopia's future financial and business performance. Actual results could therefore differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Newtopia is under no obligation to update any forward-looking statements discussed today, and investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon these statements. The risk factors that may affect results are detailed in Newtopia's periodical results and registration statements, which you can access via the CDAR database at www.cdar.com. Also, please note that all figures stated on today's call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Ruby, founder and CEO of Newtopia. Please go ahead, Jeff.

Thank you, Kimberly, and thanks to everyone for joining us today on our first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. I am delighted to welcome and be joined by our new CFO, Colin Swenson, for his first Newtopia earnings call. Newtopia achieved both sequential and year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter with revenues totaling $2.9 million and increased from $2.6 million in the year-ago period. In addition to revenue growth, we saw momentum in our participants' engagements for the quarter with the total number of engagements reaching 38,000, a new company record. Importantly, with churn rates low and client stickiness high, we are delivering some of the best engagement levels in our history to date. I am very proud of our team's accomplishments this past quarter and remain confident that our business is well positioned to achieve full-year revenue growth in 2022. With regards to our team, at the beginning of May, we strengthened our executive leadership and officially welcomed Colin Swenson as our new Chief Financial Officer. Colin has assumed the CFO role from Edmund Lem, who served as our Interim Chief Financial Officer and remains a key part of our team as our Senior Vice President of Finance. Colin brings to Nutopia over 15 years of experience managing financial operations for innovative public and private U.S. healthcare and technology companies. We are excited to leverage Colin's expertise in U.S. healthcare markets, in particular, as we continue to expand our presence across multiple client verticals. Importantly, Colin's background includes every element of Nutopia's client base. He's worked in financial planning and operations, for a large, fully insured employer, General Electric, led financial planning and data analytics for an integrated health plan, Select Health, and spearheaded the finance operations for a leading tech-enabled health service innovator, a private equity-backed home health company named Valeo. Colin's transition into his new role has been seamless, and I look forward to continuing to partner with him on Newtopia's strategic growth plans. As part of our growth strategy, at the end of April, we announced the successful completion of a $3.5 million private placement. This equity offering strengthens our balance sheet and provides us with the necessary capital to continue to invest in our long-term growth. We believe that the success of this offering is a testament to the confidence of our leadership team, Board of Directors, and the investment community in our ability to continue to deliver solid financial returns for our shareholders. while also providing sustainable clinical and economic outcomes for our health insurer clients. We plan to use the proceeds of this offering to continue making investments in sales and marketing to grow our clients and participants base, as well as for the implementation of our new engagement technology platform so that we can continue our focus on improved efficiency and operating margins. As we've strengthened our balance sheet, we've also continued to build our pipeline of new business which has grown largely as a result of the increasing prevalence of chronic disease risk factors. One of the most remarkable statistics published of late comes from a study in the New York Times, which found that up to 40% of the American population that tragically passed away from COVID-19 had type 2 diabetes. That's nearly 400,000 lives that were lost in part due to a lifestyle disease that is typically preventable with healthier habits. With higher rates of membership risk as a result of the pandemic, many employer and health plan prospects are exploring innovative options to lower their risk and cost. These options include partnering with Newtopia to prevent reverse and slow chronic disease in order to lower healthcare costs and optimize revenue from value-added services. Case in point, at the end of the first quarter, we expanded our relationship with a brand name apparel company and global leader in jeans wear to provide support to its employees who are self-identifying as struggling with mental health. Through this expanded partnership, we will now provide our whole person habit change experience to employees who are at risk of chronic disease and need physical health intervention, which we are currently providing, and also identify as needing mental health support. We are excited for the rollout of this expanded partnership this coming June and look forward to sharing our progress over time. We also just recently received the green light to expand our partnership with one of our long-standing Fortune 50 financial services clients into their employee base in the state of Florida. This expansion represents a big vote of confidence in Newtopia and follows the delivery of outstanding 24-month outcomes from a novel behavioral economic medical trial with this same client. Some outcome headlines from the trial include 71% conversion of at-risk employees into Newtopia participants, with 86% fully engaged through the end of 12 months and 83% fully engaged through the end of 24 months. These stats are well above our book of business average of 76% engagement at 12 months and 50% engagement at 24 months. Participants also lost an incredible 48,000 total pounds since the trial launch. What is most remarkable about these outcomes is that the 24 months of this trial took place over the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which over 60% of Americans gained weight and developed unhealthy habits. Both of these recent client expansions are great examples of our strong partnerships with industry innovators, Utopia's ability to grow organically with our current base of business, and our success at increasing our product density. As the risks of populations have increased, so too has the cost of healthcare. Addressing risk factors early on before they develop into obesity, diabetes, heart disease, musculoskeletal disorders, cancer, depression, anxiety, or other chronic health issues is by far the best course of action. Proactively preventing, reversing, and slowing chronic disease risk factors will not only improve the health of the general population, but it will also reduce costs and optimize value-added revenues for fully insured employers and health plans. Speaking of health plans, when we spoke on last quarter's earnings call, we had expected at the time to be in the near final stages of signing a Medicare Advantage contract with a leading regional health plan. However, the contracting cycle is proving longer than anticipated. Our partners and prospective clients have faced multiple challenges as a result of the pandemic, including the Great Resignation, where they have experienced high personnel turnover at all levels. even amongst the decision makers of their organizations. These circumstances are not unique to Nutopia, and we have seen the lengthening of contracting cycles and increased cautiousness to make strategic decisions across risk-bearing employers and health plans. Nevertheless, we are in advanced conversations with six leading MA innovators and continue to build relationships and sales momentum in this vertical. With that, I'll turn the call over to our new CFO, Colin Swenson, to speak to our first quarter results, as well as to provide some context on our outlook for the remainder of the calendar year. Colin, over to you.