Mitek Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MITK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Max Carnecchia: Sure, thanks. Well, I think this is not some sudden change or anything like that. I mean, we’ve been working towards this for the better part of three years. It was the underpinning of the acquisition of ID R&D from a world-leading biometrics capability in liveness and then really the foundational associated with the HooYu acquisition and capturing a platform an end-to-end easy to manage no-code local platform for orchestrating multiple signals, not just for onboarding new customers and opening new accounts, but those in the life, the lifecycle use cases a persistent identity for knowing your customer and being able to do it [indiscernible] checks well after somebody signs up for a new account or a new card or something.

So that’s been the strategy here going back three years. I think we’ve been able to fine-tune it as we go. That’s where the market is. That’s where the market’s going. And I think we’re very fortunate to have not just capture the incredible capabilities or the talent and the teams that go with that. And you’ll see us continue to leverage that, continue to evolve that strategy so that it’s beyond it and not just beyond identity but identity and fraud and you’re starting to see that with the first signals that we’re getting as a result of our deposits business and being able to intersect our deposits business with Check Fraud Defender as a broad signal with our identity business.

Stephanie Moore: Great. Really appreciate the time. That’s all from me. Thank you.

Max Carnecchia: Thanks, Stephanie.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is from Allen Klee with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.

Allen Klee: Good afternoon. Can you give us some color on how you think about the relative growth rates of the deposits versus the identity business in fiscal 2023?

Max Carnecchia: Sure. Hey, Allen, we’re probably not going to break the guidance down by line of business, but I’m happy to give you a sense of it. We’ve expected that and I think we’re on record and it’s been a while since we’ve talked about it. But we are on record relative to the deposits with Check Fraud Defender and many of the new things that have been introduced and we see that business as being a high-single digit, low double-digit growth business. Obviously, we just talked about fiscal year 2022 and 14% growth, so very much on the high end of that range. But I think we stand behind that. We anticipate that the traditional Check business will slowly modulate relative to its growth and will continue to grow. Just maybe more gross fastest in 2021, 2022 and that will be offset by the continued uptake of Check Fraud Defender.

So that’s on the deposit side. And on the identity side, we definitely see the market for identity being a little different, not just for us but the market itself being looks different today than it was year, year-and-a-half ago. But the idea that we can deliver high-teens growth in that business in FY 2023. I think that’s a good number, maybe a good range to have in your mind.

Allen Klee: Thank you. And when we look at operating expenses, how do you think about to the extent that you’re kind of positioned that you’ve already spent for some future growth or do you think that this continues to kind of grow kind of in track with revenues?

Max Carnecchia: Yeah, I would say without getting into very specifics or maybe Fuad has something to add here but as we get bigger with scale, we should be able to increase our leverage. We’ve done a lot to integrate both the ID R&D and the HooYu teams, product, systems. So, starting to get some of the synergies and starting to see that kind of make its way through the P&L. But as we continue to grow the business, we expect that we’re going to be able to take more and more to the bottom line to be able to expand operating.