Near Intelligence, Inc. (NASDAQ:NIR) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Mark Zgutowicz : Just so I’m clear here. So initially on — specifically on your direct sales force, initially, you had targeted 25 and now you’re targeting 20. Is that a reduction based on your measures to stay closer to profitability? And how is that impacting your pipeline, if you will, because it looks like your guidance for 3Q at the low end implies flat sequentially. So just curious if that is a result of a change in your direct sales force count? I’ll start there.

Anil Matthews : Yes. Thanks, Mark, for the question. So the way to look at this is, obviously, we are realigning to market realities. These folks that we are — we spoke about the 25 to 20 is more a move from one focus to — they’re focusing more on channel approach, channel partner approach. So rather than going direct to market. And I think so that we have seen because — we have seen in the past the channel partner approach working really well for us, which I touched upon in detail as well because the channel partners are able to provide additional services on top of our offering, which becomes a lot more valuable and stickier for our customers. So we are, I would say, leaning a little bit more towards that channel approach than the direct approach in — based on where the market is shifting and how we are seeing that the sales cycles are getting longer and things like that.

The pipeline for our direct sales still remain strong. And like you’ve seen in the guidance is — for this quarter is primarily because we obviously have a big focus on profitability by next quarter, and that becomes a priority for us now. Rahul, do you want to add something to it?

Rahul Agarwal : No, I think that was it. So Mark, just reiterating, yes, there is some realignment on the overall growth expectations given the core focus on profitable and sustainable growth. So it will have some short-term impact. But overall, I think we are trying to make sure that we still grow at a healthy run rate while becoming profitable. So that will be the goal for the next 2 quarters.

Mark Zgutowicz : Okay. And are you still expecting — or do you expect, I should say, NRR to improve through the balance of the year? And then secondly, do you still expect adjusted breakeven — adjusted EBITDA breakeven by fourth quarter?

Rahul Agarwal : Yes. So the EBITDA breakeven is definitely going to be the most important aspect, but with respect to NRR, yes, we are not expecting it to go down. We — hopefully, we have seen some incremental NRR uplift in the second quarter over the first quarter. We expect that momentum to continue.

Mark Zgutowicz : Okay. Great. And maybe just one follow-up on the channel partner realignment. Is — are there new channel partners that you are utilizing now? Or are these existing channel partners?

Anil Matthews : No, we — there are new partner — there are new channel partners. Yes. So basically, there’s — it’s a combination of obviously working closely with the existing channel partners and adding new partners as well. So you would see that we have added another significant partner in Europe, and we continue to add new partners.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

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