Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE:SPIR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Peter Platzer: Of course.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from Will Jackson with Credit Suisse. Please state your question.

Will Jackson: Hey guys, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the call.

Peter Platzer: Good afternoon.

Will Jackson: Tom, looking at adjusted EBITDA for the full year guide and Q1; it looks like we should expect a pretty sizable increase after Q1. I’m wondering if you can give any info on either the drivers behind that or maybe the cadence behind it. We should expect a steady progression for Q2 through Q4 or maybe a more discreet inflection after Q1.

Tom Krywe: Yes. No, we do expect the continual improvement as we go throughout the year. Q1 guidance, we did bake in what we know, and just like I was talking about the linearity all the consideration of what we know in the quarter has been built into the first quarter. The first quarter for many times for us and I’m not sure about the other companies can’t speak on their behalf, but we tend to find obviously that’s when everybody that it’s on a calendar year go through their budgeting processes. Not everybody gets done perfectly on December 31st and has their budgets. So we find that our customers tend to come out of that somewhere throughout the first quarter, and then they’ve got their budget and then they start working with us.

And that doesn’t always give us the perfect amount of time to close things in the first quarter, so that was built into the Q1 guidance. But then we expect some really strong movement as we go from the second to third and the fourth quarter. So you’re definitely going to get that progression as we go. And we saw that this year, right? You constantly saw the progression as we went throughout the year in 2022 and we expect that to continue because we can’t get to those bottom line results unless we have that path.

Will Jackson: Got it. Makes sense. That’s really helpful. And then one more if that’s okay, for you again, Tom. It looked like ARR for full year 2022 or at year end I should say was nearly $100 million, but your 2023 guidance is only about 4% to 9% above that. Can you maybe kind of just bridge the gap there? I would’ve thought that full year 2023 would be higher given your ARR number?

Tom Krywe: And so what, the ARR number actually guidance that we have, the range is 129 to 135. So 132 is the…

Will Jackson: Right, sorry, I’m comparing end of year 2022 where we are right now versus a full year 2023 guidance number for ARR right now and regular revenue for full year 2023. And if that’s the wrong way to think about this, let me know.

Tom Krywe: Yes. So you’re talking about the range. Well, yes, you got to remember just like we mentioned, if there is a building effect as you go on ARR throughout the quarters, you could €“ you can get additional ARR let’s just say in Q4 of 2023, you’re just not going to get a lot of revenue for that and that particular, right, because it’s a forward looking measurement rather than an instant output, right? So if you have a little bit more in the third and fourth quarter in our guidance, then that revenue’s going to really flow in more in 2024. Does that help explain the difference obviously from the recognized revenue compared to the ARR, because ARR is €“ you could book a fourth quarter deal that’s ARR but it’s not, it’s not going to generate a ton of revenue for you in the fourth quarter.

Will Jackson: Got it. Makes sense. Okay, thanks so much guys.

Peter Platzer: Of course.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from Stefanos Crist with CJS Securities. Thank you. Please state your question.

Stefanos Crist: Hi, I just want to ask about the inner satellite links. Any plans for progression there in 2023?