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Spire Global Announces Third Quarter 2021 Results, Net Loss of $32.7 Million

By Doug Messier
Parabolic Arc
November 11, 2021
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Company Reaffirms Revenue, ARR Guidance for 2021

VIENNA, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) (“Spire” or “the Company”) a leading provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, today announced results for its quarter ended September 30, 2021. [Full Results]

“Spire performed well during the quarter, as we continued to make solid progress on our fiscal 2021 plan and a number of our strategic initiatives,” said Peter Platzer, Spire’s CEO. “We reached a new record for the number of ARR customers under contract, we signed several new and significant Weather contracts, and we further advanced our technology with the launch of two new optical ISL satellites that will enhance our offering. Additionally, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire exactEarth, a leader in maritime data with a team that has deep domain expertise. We expect the transaction would bring quite meaningful ARR as well as 150 new customers to whom we can offer additional Spire products and services.”

“We continue to deliver solid growth in revenue, ARR and ARR Solutions Customers by relentlessly executing on our four growth pillars. Our technology leadership delivers innovative solutions that position us well for continued capture of market share,” said Thomas Krywe, Spire’s CFO.

Today, Spire already serves over 200 ARR customers with its fully deployed constellation of low earth multi-use receiver (LEMUR) nanosatellites and 31 ground stations positioned around the globe, processing, and shipping to customers terabytes of data, every single day.

Third Quarter 2021 Highlights

Financial:

  • Revenue was $9.6 million during the three months ended September 30, 2021, an increase of 33% from the three months ended September 30, 2020
  • ARR grew 51% year-over-year to $45.2 million
  • Spire had 225 ARR Solution Customers under contract, a 69% increase year-over-year

Business:

  • Spire completed the merger with NavSight Holdings on August 16, 2021 and received $237 million in net proceeds.
  • Spire signed a definitive agreement to acquire exactEarth, a leading provider of global maritime data. With this acquisition, Spire would strengthen its leadership in the Maritime data and analytics segment, adding up to 150 new customers and meaningful ARR.
  • Signed a number of significant new contracts for its Weather solution, including with EUMETSAT (European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). This data improves our customers’ weather prediction products that serve almost a billion people in countries that represent nearly half of the world’s GDP.
  • Achieved ARR growth across each of Spire’s four solutions – Maritime, Aviation, Weather and Space Services – with the highest growth coming from Weather and Space Services.

Technology:

  • Spire launched two LEMUR nanosatellites with new optical ISL (inter-satellite links) capabilities. We successfully completed the first stage of our testing program and look forward to rolling out the technology in 2022 and 2023. Optical Intersatellite Links are a cutting-edge technology, creating a mesh-like network of satellites, delivering lower latency and more secure data to customers.
  • Spire’s constellation increased its data production by around 66% for Weather Data, producing over 20,000 RO profiles per day, more than all other major satellites of the world combined.

Financial Outlook

Spire is providing guidance for its fiscal fourth quarter ending December 31, 2021, as follows:

  • Revenue between $11.6 million and $13.6 million
  • Non-GAAP gross profit between $6.8 million and $8.8 million
  • Non-GAAP operating loss between $15.9 million and $11.8 million
  • EBITDA between negative $15.4 million and negative $12.4 million
  • Adjusted EBITDA between negative $13.3 million and $10.3 million
  • Non-GAAP loss per share between negative $0.14 and $0.11 based on basic weighted average shares of approximately 133.7 million

Spire is reiterating its fiscal year ending December 31, 2021 guidance for revenue, non-GAAP operating loss, ARR, and ARR Solutions customers. As a consequence of higher than anticipated expenses associated with the NavSight merger, public company costs and the decision to accelerate certain investments into technology and business growth, we are lowering guidance for non-GAAP gross profit, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA.

Spire is providing guidance for its fiscal year ending December 31, 2021, as follows:

  • Revenue between $40.0 million and $42.0 million
  • ARR between $48.4 million and $52.0 million
  • ARR Solution Customers to range between 240 to 252
  • Non-GAAP gross profit between $22.9 million and $24.9 million
  • Non-GAAP operating loss between $48.5 million and $44.4 million
  • EBITDA between negative $79.8 million and negative $76.8 million
  • Adjusted EBITDA between negative $40.3 million and $37.3 million
  • Non-GAAP loss per share between negative $0.99 and $0.92 based on basic weighted average shares of approximately 61.7 million

The numbers above exclude any potential impact from the exactEarth transaction that is expected to close late in Q4 or early in Q1 2022. As mentioned in exactEarth’s 3Q 2021 earnings release, their LTM revenue was $18.2 million as of July 31. 2021, and their fiscal YTD year-over-year growth rate was 30.0%.

All forward-looking financial measures contained in this section contain non-GAAP measures. Please see Non-GAAP Financial Measures for definitions. Spire has provided a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures in the financial statement tables included in this press release for its third quarter of 2020 and 2021.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), this press release and the accompanying tables contain, and the conference call will contain, non-GAAP financial measures, including non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP operating loss, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP loss per share. Spire’s management uses these non-GAAP financial measures internally in analyzing its financial results and believes they are useful to investors, as a supplement to the corresponding GAAP financial measures, in evaluating its ongoing operational performance and trends and in comparing its financial measures with other companies in the same industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures to help investors understand the operational performance of their businesses. However, it is important to note that the particular items Spire excludes from, or includes in, its non-GAAP financial measures may differ from the items excluded from, or included in, similar non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies in the same industry. In addition, other companies may utilize metrics that are not similar to Spire’s. The non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only and is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. There are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures since they exclude significant expenses and income that are required by GAAP to be recorded in Spire’s financial statements. Please see the reconciliation tables at the end of this release for the reconciliation of GAAP and non-GAAP results. Management encourages investors and others to review Spire’s financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure.

Spire adjusts the following items from one or more of its non-GAAP financial measures:

Loss on satellite deorbit and launch failure. Spire excludes loss on satellite deorbit and launch failure because if there was no loss, the expense would be accounted for as depreciation and would also be excluded as part of its EBITDA calculation.

Change in fair value of warrant liabilities. Spire excludes this as it does not reflect the underlying cash flows or operational results of the business.

Other expense, net. Spire excludes other expense, net because it includes one-time and other items that do not reflect the underlying operational results of the business.

Stock-based compensation. Spire excludes stock-based compensation expenses primarily because they are non-cash expenses that it excludes from its internal management reporting processes. Spire also finds it useful to exclude these expenses when management assesses the appropriate level of various operating expenses and resource allocations when budgeting, planning, and forecasting future periods. Moreover, because of varying available valuation methodologies, subjective assumptions and the variety of award types that companies can use under FASB ASC Topic 718, Stock Compensation, Spire believes excluding stock-based compensation expenses allows investors to make meaningful comparisons between its recurring core business operating results and those of other companies.

Mergers and acquisition related expenses. Spire excludes these expenses as these are associated with transaction costs that are generally one time in nature and not reflective of the underlying operational results of its business.

Other unusual one-time costs. Spire excludes these as these are generally non-recurring items that do not reflect the on-going operational results of its business.

Our non-GAAP measures include:

EBITDA. We define EBITDA as net income (loss), plus depreciation and amortization expense, plus interest expense, and plus the provision for (or minus benefit from) income taxes.

Adjusted EBITDA. We define Adjusted EBITDA as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, further adjusted for loss on satellite deorbit and launch failure, change in fair value of warrant liabilities, other income (expense), net, stock- based compensation, mergers and acquisition- related costs and expenses, and other unusual one-time costs. We believe Adjusted EBITDA can be useful in providing an understanding of the underlying operating results and trends and an enhanced overall understanding of our financial performance and prospects for the future. While Adjusted EBITDA is not a recognized measure under GAAP, management uses this financial measure to evaluate and forecast business performance. Adjusted EBITDA is not intended to be a measure of liquidity or cash flows from operations or a measure comparable to net income as it does not take into account certain requirements, such as capital expenditures and related depreciation, principal and interest payments, and tax payments. Adjusted EBITDA is not a presentation made in accordance with GAAP, and our use of the term Adjusted EBITDA may vary from the use of similarly titled measures by others in our industry due to the potential inconsistencies in the method of calculation and differences due to items subject to interpretation.

Other Definitions

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). We define ARR as our expected annualized revenue from customers that are under contract with us at the end of the reporting period with a binding and renewable agreement for our subscription solutions, or a customer that has a binding multi-year contract that can range from components of our Space Services solution to a bespoke customer solution. These customers are considered recurring when they have signed a multi-year binding agreement that has a renewable component in the contract or a customer that has multiple contracts that we continue to have under contract over multiple years.

ARR Customers. We define an ARR Customer as an entity that has a contract with us, that is either a binding and renewable agreement for our subscription solutions, or a binding multi-year contract as of the measurement date independent of the number of solutions the entity has under contract. All entities that have customer contracts for data trials are excluded from the calculation of ARR Customers. A single organization with separate subsidiaries, segments, or divisions may represent multiple customers, as we treat each entity that is invoiced separately as an individual customer. In cases where customers subscribe to our platform through our reseller partners, each end customer that meets the above definition is counted separately as an ARR Customer.

ARR Solution Customers. We define an ARR Solution Customer similarly to an ARR Customer, but we count every solution the customer has with us separately. As a result, the count of ARR Solution Customers exceeds the count of ARR Customers in each year as some customers contract with us for multiple solutions. Our multiple solutions customers are those customers that are under contract for at least two of our solutions: Maritime, Aviation, Weather, and Space Services.

Conference Call

Spire will webcast a conference call to discuss the results at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. The webcast is available on Spire’s Investor Relations website at https://ir.spire.com. A replay of the call will be available on the site for three months.

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