Q1 23: Freightos announces record transactions

PRESS RELEASE 

Freightos Announces Record Q1 2023 Transactions and Achieves High End of Guidance

May 23, 2023 – Jerusalem – Freightos Limited (Nasdaq: CRGO), a leading vendor-neutral booking and payment platform for the international freight industry, today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2023.

“The first quarter of 2023 set yet another record number of Transactions on the Freightos platform. Growth continued despite the headwinds from a contracting global freight market. There are indications that this contraction has bottomed out with Freightos Baltic Index FBX01, which tracks container shipping costs from China to the West Coast of the United States, now up 50% from the first quarter low,” said Zvi Schreiber, founder and CEO. “We continue to see strong profit margins and positive unit economics as our ecosystem encompasses more buyers and freight service providers than ever, including a 29% year-over-year increase in the number of unique buyer users.”

“We’re pleased to reaffirm our 2023 guidance as it relates to Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and Transactions, while the ultimate Gross Bookings Value (GBV) of the Transactions will depend on freight market price levels,” said Ran Shalev, CFO. “Taking into account market conditions, we continue to invest in growth while carefully monitoring spending, both in terms of hirings and expenses, and have already taken actions to reduce full-year spending. Our Adjusted EBITDA losses primarily reflect our investments in R&D and new customer acquisition which we believe will pay off handsomely given our strong retention and high-margin positive unit economics. Despite increased public company expenses in the second quarter relative to the first quarter, our cash burn is expected to stay roughly flat and we expect to see cash burn decline as revenues increase.”

“Global freight’s digitalization is continuing at the rapid pace we’ve been witnessing since 2019,” continued Zvi Schreiber. “We’re seeing strong, persistent adoption of instant digital bookings that span the entire freight procurement lifecycle, from manufacturers to forwarders to carriers, as well as indicators that our market share in our fastest growing segment, air cargo eBookings, continues to expand. In addition, we’re seeing positive initial growth in both our payment and data solutions, which help us to continue to grow revenue. I’m proud that we’re continuously innovating in areas like our Transportation Management Systems integrations, which makes our platform stickier, while introducing new sales channels, such as Freightos Terminal, which is being well received and generates high profit margins.”

FY Q1 2023 financial highlights

– Revenue of $4.8 million for Q1 2023, an increase of 9.9% compared to Q1 2022, or 11.3% on a constant currency basis.

– IFRS Gross Margin of 58.3%, compared to 61.7% in Q1 2022. Non-IFRS Adjusted Gross Margin of 65.0%, compared to 66.5% in Q1 2022

– IFRS operating loss of $58.0 million, compared to a loss of $4.2 million in Q1 2022, primarily due to a  one-time non-cash share listing charge of $46.7 million incurred upon the business combination with Gesher I Acquisition Corp (see Adjusted EBITDA below).

– IFRS loss per basic and diluted share of $1.38 compared to IFRS net loss per basic and diluted share of $0.86 in Q1 2022, while non-IFRS net loss per basic and diluted share of $0.17, compared to non-IFRS net loss per basic and diluted share of $0.73 in Q1 2022.

– Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 2023 of negative $5.8 million, compared to negative $3.3 million in Q1 2022 due to public company costs and increased investment in growth…