PowerFleet, Inc. (NASDAQ:PWFL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Gary Prestopino: Yeah. I mean is it basically a sales SaaS subscription-based revenue model?

Steve Towe: Yes. Yes. It is.

Gary Prestopino: Okay. All right. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Max Michaelis with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Max Michaelis: Hey, guys. Nice quarter. Just want to touch on the Q1 guide. I know you guys noted in your press release that double-digit growth from U.S. Industrial Solutions. I was wondering if you could lay out some other strengths you’re seeing and then maybe potential weaknesses going into Q1?

David Wilson: Yeah. So I’ll pick that one up, Max. So, obviously, U.S. Industrial increase as we look at that set of assets that we have, the differentiation that we have and also that ability to really sell it outside the U.S. where that revenue is coming concentrated today. Obviously, we feel really good about that as being a good source of future growth and a key sort of growth engine for us. We, obviously, when Steve said in the pared remarks, Mexico continues to perform incredibly well, so good movement there. So, there would be a couple of the sort of the main areas in terms of continued sort of high-digit growth. In terms of some of the headwinds, we’re definitely going to see some FX impact in Q1. So obviously, there’s the political toy mall happening in Israel today.

We obviously have a significant portion of our business there. So there’ll be some FX headwinds there. There’s also been a sort of a stretching out of decisions there as well, just given some of the uncertainties. So in terms of things that will be less rosy we would wish, I would say, there would be that — would be the key comment there.

Max Michaelis: Okay. Thanks. And then just final one for me. I know you guys didn’t guide or give an outlook on the full year, but just given your expectations from U.S. Industrial that grew double digits throughout 2023. Could — would it be safe to say you guys expect sequential growth throughout the year?

David Wilson: Yeah. We expect to grow year-over-year. Obviously, putting aside and setting aside all the comments we said earlier in terms of some of our non-core territories. So you need to put that to one side.

Max Michaelis: Okay. That’s it for me guys. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Scott Searle with ROTH. Please proceed with your question.

Scott Searle: Hey. Thanks for taking my follow-up. I apologize I’ve been having some phone issues. But I just wanted to clarify, did you quantify the Brazil and South African operations just in terms of size and then I have a couple of other follow-ups.

Steve Towe: Yeah. It’s about $13 million of revenue in 2022.

Scott Searle: 13?

Steve Towe: 13, yes.

Scott Searle: 13. Perfect. And going back to Movingdots, I’m wondering if you could provide a little bit more color in terms of the number of data scientists that you get. And looking at your past presentations, when you talk about the Unity Platform, it’s basically an evolution to analytics and AI, right? And so this really seems to accelerate the platform and investment on that front by multiple years. So I’m wondering if you could translate that into maybe revenue expectations if we start to look out two years of the total TAM now that it starts to creep into in terms of what you can address now with Movingdots incorporate into a Unity type platform.

Steve Towe: Yeah. I think that’s a tough question to ask until we get the other side of closing the deal. But what I would say, in terms of data science, there’s a high level of capability. If you look at the insurance space, it’s that AI very, very complex algorithms that are built in order to build risk and insurance propositions that is incorporating technology. That has advanced us dramatically versus what we’re able to provide. And as I said, this is no exaggeration, these guys have spent almost a decade putting this together. So the speed to market, the ability for us to drive further growth and credibility in that space, I think, there’s a tenfold increase in where we were without doing this acquisition. So I think over the next two years, we look to very much dominate the space.

We feel that both from a talent perspective, credibility with insurance market perspective, the channels that we have available to us and the strength that Unity has today and is going to bring leads us to a place where we feel very confident about the opportunity in front of us.

Scott Searle: Great. And lastly, if I could, just to bring the OpEx into perspective, right? You’ve taken $5 million out in terms of annualized costs. You’re talking about another $3 million coming out, so $8 million in total. Basically bringing in this team kind of gets you back to where you were before, but basically, what you’ve been able to do is really jump start your data science capabilities without really changing your cost structure if I look back to the middle of 2022. Is that the right way to be, I guess, quantifying that impact?