Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:GDYN) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So yes, if you judge from that perspective, I’m not going to throw numbers of $100 million account today. Again, it would be bit premature, but there is nothing stands between us and having a number of accounts, which are that $30 million to $50 million range now. And then time will tell how much we can go further. Having just one account been so much bigger than everything else, that’s another bit of a challenge. So we’ve seen others struggling. So we want to do not only diversification on the verticals and the skill set, but having large driven partners to be somewhat diversified as well.

Puneet Jain: Yes, and I totally agree. Multiple clients that are comparable in size. Like, I think we totally get it. That’s unique. Appreciate the comments. Thank you.

Anil Doradla: Thank you. Thank you, Puneet.

Leonard Livschitz: Thank you, Puneet.

Operator: Next question comes from Josh Siegler from Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Josh Siegler: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question today. Nice to see the strong KPIs in the quarter and business stabilization throughout this more difficult macro period. I wanted to touch on the partnerships specifically because they seem to be a big contributor over the past year. How are you thinking about how partnerships will contribute as we progress through 2024 with a more positive macro potentially at our tailwind? Thank you.

Leonard Livschitz: Well, I’m glad you pointed out that, I mean, we tried to repeat the favorite number 13, long enough for people to memorize. It would have been not as exciting. It was 12 or 14. But anyways, the factor what Anil mentioned of having just a few years behind the belt is not truly about the partnerships per se. I mean, we always have partnerships. I think there are a couple of fundamental changes happened a couple of years ago. The number one is we realized that sitting only on an open source is not enough to increase the breadth of the customer relationships. We need to become a bit of an advisory on a buy and build as a combination. It’s basically a stage of maturity, right. Everything required is investment.

So it’s not only about hyperscale, it’s also about the ability to stitch multiple software products. So we started with the areas where we have done most of the work, which is commerce. We’ve done major progress both in Europe and the U.S. And we’re expanding number of the products we are offering. So that part is very clear. So it’s not just open source, it’s a combination. The other one is going back to hyperscalers, right. The hyperscalers represent a very complex system, right. And you come in, knock on the door and ask them, give me the clients, typically, it goes backwards. You bring the clients, we’ll see, right. I’m happy to report that it goes two ways. When you do in two ways, on a top of building the capabilities and contributing to the hyperscalers themselves.

Then you start getting the tractions, because it’s a joint client effort. So not only understanding the systems, but understanding the customer ability to have us as a partner of choice, not just integration partner, that just added this number. Now, how big is the number going to be? We – honestly, I can’t tell because we’re going into new verticals. And again, it’s investment because you can’t just come with the open source and drop all these ideas on the lapse of the big decision maker in other verticals. But it’s certainly the model which we are expanding at this point.

Josh Siegler: Understood. Appreciate that color there. And then, Anil, real quickly, can you give us an update on how you’re thinking about capital allocation as we progress through the year? Thanks.

Anil Doradla: Well, look, I mean, the focus obviously is M&A internally, and I know this is a question that comes up very often. At any given point we’re evaluating. Obviously we will tell you when we actually get something done, but the priority obviously is our cash usage is going there. Beyond that, it’s all about cash generation. It’s all about ensuring that we get back to our 40:20 and we convert it, right. I mean, we as you know, we don’t have any debt on our balance sheet, but these are the two elements in terms of how we’re looking at our balance sheet.

Leonard Livschitz: And just to get a little bit of a colour on these. I know you’ve been patiently waiting for us. I mean, it’s been a long time since we collected enough funds, right? And our cash generation exists, but it’s not super large, but we sit on a nice pile of cash. So we completed all the conversions. Again if you look at our press release and reports, so we have no lingering issues or necessary investments into any of those four acquisitions we’ve done. It’s all integrated, knock on wood by now. And when I mean integrated, you need to integrate both sales and engineering. Engineering sometimes takes a little bit longer on the skill sets. So we are exploring deals across all these verticals and geographies.

Again, there is a range. Obviously, we’re not going to burn all the money in one swoop, but it has to be more focused on ill development. So we’re big enough to train people in what we know. Some customer acquisition obviously is good, but we really want to add the skills in an AI revolution part, right. So there are new areas which open up by building those skills. So it’s not about just the marketing this, we understand what we’re good at and what it makes sense for us to complement from acquisition. So that’s kind of a shift you may see from like six months ago.

Josh Siegler: Great. Thank you. I really appreciate the colour and thanks for taking my question today.

Anil Doradla: Thanks Josh.

Operator: Thank you, Josh. Next question comes from Sam [indiscernible] from Needham. Please go ahead.