Sabio Delivers Record Q4-2021 Results with 96% YoY Revenue Growth and Positive Adjusted EBITDA

• Revenues of US$10.6 million in Q4-2021 compared to US$5.4 million in Q4-2020, an increase of 96% driven by a 664% growth in Connected TV ("CTV").
• Gross Profit of US$6.25 million in Q4-2021 compared to US$3.1 million in Q4-2020, an increase of 102%.
• Positive Adjusted EBITDA (see "Use of Non-IFRS Measures" below) of US$1.7 million for Q4-2021 compared to US$1.6 million in Q4-2020.
• Robust sales momentum has continued into 2022 with a strong sales pipeline and increased interest from major brands and agencies for annual and multi-year deals.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. THIS NEWS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY ANY SECURITIES IN THE UNITED STATES. ANY SECURITIES REFERRED TO HEREIN HAVE NOT BEEN AND WILL NOT BE REGISTERED UNDER THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED (THE "U.S. SECURITIES ACT") OR ANY STATE SECURITIES LAWS AND MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD WITHIN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS UNLESS REGISTERED UNDER THE U.S. SECURITIES ACT AND APPLICABLE STATE SECURITIES LAWS OR AN EXEMPTION FROM SUCH REGISTRATION IS AVAILABLE.

TORONTO, April 20, 2022 /CNW/ -- Sabio Holdings Inc. (TSXV: SBIO) (the "Company" or "Sabio"), a leading provider of CTV/OTT advertising platforms validated by performance, is pleased to announce its audited consolidated annual results and results for the fiscal fourth quarter ended December 31, 2021.  Unless otherwise indicated, all amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars.

Aziz Rahimtoola, Founder & CEO of the Company, stated, "our outstanding fourth quarter results demonstrate the strong product/market fit of our CTV powered by Mobile Data solutions with major Fortune 100 customers.  The strong revenue growth is being driven by our success with major brands across multiple verticals.  We are seeing this strength across key business metrics: average deal size grew 70% year-over-year, from approximately US$59K in 2020 to US$100K in 2021; over 80% of CTV brands who had over US$100K in spend with the company in 2020 renewed in 2021, as did 100% of the brands who spent over US$1 million with Sabio in the prior year.  Moreover, we are starting to sign annual and multi-year deals with some of the world's biggest brands".    

Jon Stimmel, Chief Growth Officer of the Company, commented, "the market opportunity being created by the shift from traditional TV to CTV/OTT is in the early stages and we believe it is poised for major expansion over the coming years.  We recognized this potential pending shift early and made strategic investments in technology.  We believe that these investments, coupled with our recent acquisition of Vidillion and our strengthening relationships with Fortune 100 brands, puts us in a strong position to take advantage of this expanding market.  We are seeing the strong sales momentum of the second half of 2021 continue into 2022, with increasing deal sizes and a greater number of opportunities turning into annual or multi-year deals.  This is a testament to the hard work and resilience of our team".

Fiscal 2021 Annual Financial Highlights:

• Sabio delivered record revenues of US$24.2 million in fiscal 2021 up 84% over fiscal 2020, led by a 10x growth in CTV revenues
• CTV generated revenues of US$10.2 million in fiscal 2021 compared to US$1.1 million in fiscal 2020
• Record gross profit of US$14.6 million, up 84% over fiscal 2020 with gross margin of 60% in 2021, same as 2020
• Positive Adjusted EBITDA¹ of US$1.85 million up from US$1.75 million in 2020

¹ See "Use of Non-IFRS Measures" below

Fourth Quarter 2021 Financial Highlights:

• Fourth quarter 2021 revenues were US$10.6 million, up 96% from US$5.4 million in Q4-2020
• CTV revenues of US$5.2 million in Q4-2021, up 664% from US$0.68 million in Q4-2020
• Mobile revenues of US$5.3 million in Q4-2021, up 13% from US$4.7 million in Q4-2020
• Gross Profit of US$6.25 million in Q4-2021, an increase of 102% from US$3.1 million in Q4-2020
• Fourth quarter 2021 gross margin of 59% compared to 58% in Q4-2020
• Positive Adjusted EBITDA¹ of US$1.7 million for Q4-2021 compared to $1.6 million in Q4-2020

¹ See "Use of Non-IFRS Measures" below

Fourth Quarter 2021 Business Highlights:

• On October 15, 2021, Sabio announced the closing of the previously announced private placement of subscription receipts for aggregate gross proceeds of C$6,559,316 by Sabio Canada Finco, Inc. ("Finco"), an Ontario corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sabio. On October 22, 2021, Finco closed a second tranche of the concurrent financing for aggregate gross proceeds of C$89,374. Including both tranches, the concurrent financing was comprised of an aggregate of 3,799,252 subscription receipts at a price of C$1.75 per subscription receipt for aggregate gross proceeds of C$6,648,691.
  
  
• The Company (previously, Spirit Banner II Capital Corp. ("Spirit")) entered into a business combination agreement effective October 13, 2021 with Sabio, among others, to effect the proposed reverse-takeover transaction of Sabio by the Company. On November 19, 2021, in connection with the completion of the Qualifying Transaction (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) of the Company, Finco and 2872484 Ontario Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spirit, amalgamated pursuant to the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario), and all of the issued and outstanding shares of Finco were exchanged for securities of the resulting issuer, being the Company, on a one-for-one basis. Effective November 19, 2021, Sabio also consolidated its share capital on the basis of approximately 0.2735 common shares (old) for 1 common share (new), and Spirit consolidated its share capital on the basis of approximately 15.9091 common shares (old) for 1 common share (new). The resulting issuer of the transaction was the Company, and was renamed "Sabio Holdings Inc." (TSXV: SBIO), and its U.S. operating subsidiary "Sabio Mobile, Inc." changed its name to "Sabio, Inc.". Trading in the Company's common shares on the TSXV commenced on November 26, 2021.
  
  
• On November 23, 2021, Sabio closed on a new credit facility pursuant to the terms of a credit agreement between Sabio and Avidbank. The facility is secured against assets of the [Company] including, but not limited to, its accounts receivable and provides for a US$4 million accounts receivable line of credit at an interest rate of the greater of (i) the Wall Street Journal prime rate plus 1.00% and (ii) 4.25%. On November 24, 2021, Sabio drew on the facility to refinance US$2,685,000 in high-interest promissory notes, which bore stated interest rates ranging from 10% to 15%. The refinance is expected to result in significant cost savings to Sabio.

Events Subsequent to December 31, 2021:

• On February 22, 2022, Sabio announced the signing of definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Vidillion Inc. ("Vidillion") a U.S based CTV/OTTT supply side platform in a combined stock and cash transaction.
• On April 1, 2022, Sabio completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Vidillion through its wholly-owned subsidiary Vidillion Corp.

Sabio's annual consolidated financial statements, including the notes thereto, and management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 and December 31, 2020, can be found under Sabio's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Outlook

Sabio experienced significant revenue expansion in 2021, driven by both the addition of new Fortune® 100 brands and deepening relationships with existing clientele. Sabio expects to continue to deliver robust organic revenue growth in 2022 as it aims to exploit its unique value proposition in the burgeoning CTV/OTT streaming advertisement market.  Sabio believes with the Vidillion acquisition it has one of the most complete technology stacks in the industry, and is continuing to invest in its sales, operations, and technology with the aim of ensuring it remains at the forefront to take advantage of the growth opportunities as the markets and verticals it serves continue to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.  Sabio continues to earn the trust of some of its leading customers by delivering compelling return on their investments in Sabio's products and services.  Sabio is seeing increasing interest in these customers signing annual or multi-year deals further solidifying its growth prospects.

Conference Call:

The Company will host an investor conference call for the fourth quarter and year-ended December 31, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.  The webinar details are below:

Date:  April 20, 2022

Time: 5:00 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. PT)

Webinar Registration:  https://bit.ly/SBIOQ4_FisacalYear2021

Or dial:

For higher quality, dial a number based on your current location.
Canada:
+1 778 907 2071 (Vancouver local)
+1 647 374 4685 (Toronto local)

Webinar ID:

829 5139 0671

Please connect 5 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure time for any software download that may be required.

About Sabio

Sabio Holdings Inc. is a technology provider in the high-growth advertising areas of connected TV ("CTV") and over-the-top ("OTT") streaming, where viewership in 2022 is expected to rise to over 221 million users in the United States CTV market alone[1]. Sabio's full CTV/OTT technology stack and services enables global distribution, monetizes, and provides analytics for content creator CTV/OTT apps and the brands and agencies that want to partner with them. Sabio's wholly owned subsidiaries include Vidillion Corp. ("Vidillion"), a CTV/OTT technology pioneer (whose business was acquired subsequent to year-end) that creates and distributes ad-supported CTV/OTT apps on platforms such as Roku, Vizio, Amazon Fire, Disney + and others. In addition, the Company's wholly owned Sabio, Inc. subsidiary works with major brands and agencies, through its propriety Demand Side Platform (DSP) and ad server, to provide targeted campaign solutions to top agencies and the brands they represent by filling the ad slots in Vidillion and other non-Vidillion CTV/OTT apps. Lastly, its wholly owned AppScience, Inc. ("App Science") subsidiary, powered by its App Science™ Data Management Platform ("DMP"), has pioneered a privacy compliant, non-cookie cross screen household graph of 55 million validated homes that connects insights between mobile apps, CTV/OTT apps, podcast data, along with other data points to better understand consumer behaviors at scale.

For more information, visit: sabioholding.com and/or AppSci.io.  

Use of Non-IFRS Measures

This press release makes reference to certain non-IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) measures including, but not limited to Adjusted EBITDA.  These measures do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies and should not be construed as an alternative to other financial measures determined in accordance with IFRS.  Rather, these non-IFRS measures are provided as additional information to complement IFRS measures by providing a further understanding of operations from management's perspective. Accordingly, non-IFRS measures should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for analysis of financial information reported under IFRS. Management believes that these non-IFRS measures provide useful information to investors in measuring the financial performance of Sabio for the reasons outlined below.

Management uses Adjusted earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation, and amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA") as a key financial metric to evaluate Sabio's operating performance as a complement to results provided in accordance with IFRS. The term "Adjusted EBITDA", as defined by management, refers to net income (loss) before adjusting earnings for finance costs, income taxes, stock-based compensation, amortization, non-recurring items, and severance costs.

Management believes that the items excluded from Adjusted EBITDA are not connected to and do not represent the operating performance of Sabio. Management believes that Adjusted EBITDA is useful supplemental information as it provides an indication of the results generated by Sabio's main business activities prior to taking into consideration how those activities are financed and taxed as well as expenses related to stock-based compensation, depreciation, amortization, restructuring costs, other expense (income), and foreign exchange (gain) loss. Accordingly, management believes that this measure may also be useful to investors in enhancing their understanding of Sabio's operating performance. It is a key measure used by Sabio's management and board of directors to understand and evaluate Sabio's operating performance, to prepare annual budgets and to help develop operating plans.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements ("forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, including but not limited to the Company's operations, growth and sales expectations and business plans, that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "intends", "will", "should", "expects", "continue", "estimate", "forecasts"  and other similar expressions. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of the Company, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking information in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking information has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events that may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control, including the risk factors disclosed in the Filing Statement which is publicly available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and is made as of the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in any jurisdiction.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

¹ eMarketer, September 2021

‍

For further information: Sabio Holdings Inc., Joe Camacho, Chief Global Expansion Officer - investor@sabio.inc, Phone: 1.844.974.2662

‍