Wishpond Reports 41% YoY Growth in First Quarter 2022 and Provides Strong Outlook for the Rest of the Year

• Q1-2022 year over year (YoY) revenue growth driven by Wishpond's expanded sales team, new product introductions and acquisitions.
• Wishpond expects to achieve record MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) in the month of May after achieving record high MRR in April. 
• Wishpond expects revenue and earnings growth to accelerate in the second half of 2022 with the completed integration of its recent acquisitions, and an increase in cross-selling opportunities between products and solutions offered across all its product lines.

VANCOUVER, BC, May 26, 2022 /CNW/ - Wishpond Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: WISH) (OTCQX: WPNDF) (the "Company" or "Wishpond"), a provider of marketing-focused online business solutions, announces it has filed its interim consolidated financial statements (the "Interim Financial Statements") and management's discussion and analysis (the "MD&A") for Q1-2022, representing the three months ended March 31, 2022. Copies of the Interim Financial Statements and MD&A are available on the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

"We are proud of our results in the first quarter of 2022." said Ali Tajskandar, Wishpond's Chairman and CEO. "I am very pleased with our first quarter results in which we accomplished 41% year-over-year growth compared to the same period last year. The first quarter results were driven by organic growth as well as contributions from the acquisitions we completed in 2021. The Company's growth has not been materially impacted by the significant supply chain disruptions, inflation and other macroeconomic challenges currently affecting other industries around the globe.  Wishpond has a very diversified customer base of small-medium sized businesses and the demand for our products and services remains robust with organic growth over the past year largely due to investments we have made in our sales engine.  I am particularly encouraged with the record monthly recurring revenue (MRR) we achieved in April after the slower months in the beginning of the year.  Thus far in May we are on track to exceed April's performance with another record high for MRR, which sets the stage for strong financial performance for the second quarter and the year ahead." 

First Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights:

• Wishpond achieved quarterly revenue of $4,078,317 during Q1-2022, a 41% increase compared to revenue of $2,890,580 generated in the same period of 2021 (Q1-2021). The increase in revenue is attributable to the Company's expanded sales team, new product introductions and acquisitions.
• Wishpond achieved gross profit⁽¹⁾ of $2,536,195 in Q1-2022 compared to $1,796,936 in Q1-2021, representing a 41% increase from Q1-2021, driven by an increase in overall revenue. Wishpond achieved a gross margin⁽¹⁾ of 62% in Q1-2022 (62% in Q1-2021).
• Wishpond recorded an operating loss of $1,064,261 in Q1-2022 ($1,039,823 in Q1-2021). The operating loss reflects continued investment in sales and lead generation, as well as in product development.
• In Q1-2022, Wishpond had negative Adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ of $440,519 (negative $318,779 in Q1-2021). The decrease is primarily attributed to higher investment in both the sales and product development areas of the Company in preparation for strong anticipated growth in the second half of fiscal year 2022.
• As at March 31, 2022, Wishpond had $4,487,151 in cash and no debt (December 31, 2021: cash of $6,242,453 and no debt).  The reduction in cash balances were caused in part by payment of earnouts for businesses acquired in 2021, investment in the business and changes in working capital.

First Quarter 2022 Business Highlights:

• On January 10, 2022, the Company announced the appointment of David Pais as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mr. Pais has responsibility for all finance, accounting, financial reporting, audit, tax and capital planning functions.
• On January 20, 2022, Wishpond announced that it had completed the integration of Brax, and launched a Universal Ads Editor, providing customers with a faster way to create, launch and monitor campaign performance across multiple platforms – all from one product.
• On March 3, 2022, the Company announced its new email marketing platform to help small businesses achieve higher levels of engagement, increase email open rates, improve conversion rates and generate higher return on investment.  The new email marketing platform includes a new user-friendly interface, the ability to preview email text, support for Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and a new Email application programming interface (API).
• On March 17, 2022, the Company announced a partnership with J.P. Libros Ediciones Oklever, S.A. De C.V. ("LaLeo"), the largest medical eCommerce platform in Mexico and Latin America. Under the partnership, Wishpond and LaLeo will sell and support Invigo's Evergenius^TM software platform to its medical and dental customers in Latin America.  

Events Subsequent to March 31, 2022:

• On April 1, 2022, the Company completed the acquisition of certain assets and specific liabilities of Viral Loops Ltd. ("Viral Loops"). Viral Loops is a Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") company which helps its customers design, create and manage campaigns that result in higher referral visits and revenue for their eCommerce merchants. In consideration for the Viral Loops acquisition, Wishpond provided a cash payment of US$1,380,000 and a one-year performance earn-out that may be paid in cash or by the issuance of the Company's Shares, at the sole discretion of the Company. The one-year earn-out will be based on the projected revenue of the business and is payable on a quarterly basis.
• On April 20, 2022, the Company announced that the number of Winback's customer installations had increased by over 50%, including more than 180 Wishpond clients who are now trialing the platform under promotional pricing plans. Wishpond also developed and launched new innovative features to the Winback platform over the last quarter.
• On May 3, 2022, the Company announced it achieved record monthly recurring revenue in April 2022. Wishpond's PersistIQ subsidiary exceeded expectations, recording a record high for MRR in April 2022. The Company also saw a rebound in Brax's ad management revenue which was negatively affected by seasonality in Q1-2022. Winback has proven to be a strong solution for cross-selling to Wishpond's existing customers; increasing the stickiness of Wishpond's incumbent customers.  Meanwhile, Viral Loops also reported an excellent MRR in its first month as a Wishpond subsidiary in April.
• On May 3, 2022, the Company announced that it will pay earn-out payments of $544,388 and $189,921 by the issuance of 460,408 and 156,933 common shares in connection with the Company's PersistIQ and Brax acquisitions, respectively.

Outlook: 

Management believes that Wishpond's outlook remains positive with strong revenue growth expected in 2022 driven by increased capacity in the Company's sales team, positive contributions from its acquisitions and new product related revenues. Wishpond expects revenue and earnings growth to accelerate in the second half of 2022 with the integration of its recent acquisitions, and an increase in cross-selling opportunities between products and solutions offered across all of its product lines. 

Despite the current turbulent macroeconomic backdrop highlighted by high inflation and increasing interest rates, Wishpond believes it remains well positioned for continued growth with increasing revenue and improving cash flows in each successive quarter in 2022. In line with the Company's focus on profitable growth, Wishpond is scrutinizing all discretionary expenditures across the organization, with the intent of optimizing operations, achieving cost-saving synergies and becoming cash flow positive in the second half of the year. Wishpond's acquisition strategy of acquiring cash flow generating companies is working to the Company's advantage in the current economic environment, as the Company has a clean balance sheet and is able to continue to fund the growth of its sales team and new product launches from cash flows from operations, and without having to raise any additional equity or debt capital.

Wishpond's goals for 2022 are to: (i) increase the Company's MRR through organic growth and opportunistic acquisitions; (ii) accelerate organic growth with investments in the Company's sales and marketing teams functions; (iii) achieve positive Adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ for the full year at levels exceeding 2021 results; (iv) pursue a disciplined acquisition and capital allocation plan; (v) invest in research and development to expand the Company's product offerings and intellectual property; and (vi) gain synergistic benefits from acquisitions through cross-selling the Company's products and services across the different parts of the growing organization.

David Pais, Wishpond's Chief Financial Officer commented, "This was a busy quarter as we closed the acquisition of Viral Loops on April 1, 2022, while we worked on the integration of the Winback acquisition.  Wishpond is in a very strong financial position with cash on its balance sheet, improving cash flows and solid performance across its businesses. Based on current MRR trends, we are very optimistic about the outlook for 2022 and beyond."

As previously disclosed in the Company's press release dated May 17, 2022, the Company expects to hold a conference call to discuss its results for Q1-2022 today at 10:00 AM (PST) / 1:00 PM (EST). The conference call may be accessed using the following dial in details.

Conference Call Details:

Date:	May 26, 2022
Time:	1:00 PM EST (10:00 AM PST)
Dial-in:	[phone] (Vancouver local)
	[phone] (Toronto local)
Meeting ID #:	822 0925 5841

To register for the webinar, please visit the following URL:

https://bit.ly/WISHwebinarQ1_2022

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

Selected Financial Highlights: 

The tables below set out selected financial information relating to Wishpond and should be read in conjunction with Wishpond's Interim Financial Statements and MD&A.

	Three months ended
	March 31, 2022		March 31, 2021
Revenue	4,078,317	2,890,580
Gross profit^(1)	2,536,195	1,796,936
Gross margin^(1)	62%	62%
Adjusted EBITDA^(1)	(440,519)	(318,779)
Net (decrease) increase in cash during the period	(1,755,302)	3,902,559
Cash - end of the period	4,487,151	11,208,105

Reconciliation to Adjusted EBITDA

	Three months ended
	March 31, 2022		March 31, 2021
Loss before income taxes		(1,148,729)		(1,194,769)
Depreciation and amortization		267,297		159,101
Interest expense		-		3,584
Stock based compensation expense		356,445		561,943
Remeasurement of contingent consideration liability		(64,908)		-
Foreign currency losses (gains)		63,568		(64)
Filing fees, credit facility setup fees, and other expenses		37,403		45,176
Acquisition related expenses		48,405		106,250
Adjusted EBITDA^(1)		(440,519)		(318,779)

Footnotes:

1. EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, MRR, annualized run rate, gross profit and gross margin are not financial measures recognized by generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"), do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by GAAP and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other entities. See "Cautionary Statements and Non-GAAP Financial Measures".

2022 Annual General and Special Meeting

Wishpond will host its Annual General and Special Meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") virtually on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, at 11:00 AM Pacific Time.

Shareholder access:
Dial in: [phone] (Toll Free - North America)
Please join "the Wishpond 2022 Annual General and Special Meeting"
Webcast (audio only): http://momentum.adobeconnect.com/wishpond/

In order to streamline the virtual meeting process, Wishpond encourages shareholders to vote in advance of the Meeting using the voting instruction form or the form of proxy that has been mailed to them with the Meeting materials. Please join 10 minutes before the start of the call.

On Behalf of the Board of Wishpond 
"Ali Tajskandar"
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

About Wishpond Technologies Ltd.

Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Wishpond is a provider of marketing-focused online business solutions. Wishpond's vision is to become the leading provider of digital marketing solutions that empower entrepreneurs to achieve success online. The Company offers an "all-in-one" marketing suite that provides companies with marketing, promotion, lead generation, and sales conversion capabilities on one integrated platform. Wishpond replaces disparate marketing solutions with an easy-to-use product, for a fraction of the cost. Wishpond serves over 3,700 customers who are primarily small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in a wide variety of industries. The Company has developed cutting-edge marketing technology solutions and continues to add new features and applications with great velocity. The Company employs a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model where substantially all the Company's revenue is subscription-based recurring revenue which provides excellent revenue predictability and cash flow visibility. Wishpond is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker "WISH", and on the OTCQX Best Market under the ticker "WPNDF". For further information, visit:  www.wishpond.com.

Cautionary Statements

Summary Information

Information presented in this press release may be only a summary of all available information and does not purport to be a full representation of all figures, notes and discussions provided for in the Interim Financial Statements and MD&A. Readers are cautioned to read the entirety of the Interim Financial Statements and MD&A, and to not rely only on the information presented in this press release. In the event of conflict between the information in this press release on the one hand, and the Interim Financial Statements and MD&A on the other hand, the information in the Interim Financial Statements and MD&A shall govern.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In this press release, Wishpond has used the following terms ("Non-GAAP Financial Measures") that are not defined by International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"), but are used by management to evaluate the performance of Wishpond and its business: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA"), adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA"), gross profit and gross margin. These measures may also be used by investors, financial institutions and credit rating agencies to assess Wishpond's performance and ability to service debt. Non-GAAP Financial Measures do not have standardized meanings prescribed by GAAP and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Securities regulations require that Non-GAAP Financial Measures are clearly defined, qualified and reconciled to their most comparable GAAP financial measures. Except as otherwise indicated, these Non-GAAP Financial Measures are calculated and disclosed on a consistent basis from period to period. Specific items may only be relevant in certain periods. See the disclosure under the heading "Additional GAAP and Non-GAAP Measures" in Wishpond's MD&A for a discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures and certain reconciliations to GAAP financial measures. The intent of Non-GAAP Financial Measures is to provide additional useful information to investors and analysts, and the measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS. The measures should not, therefore, be considered in isolation or used as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. Other issuers may calculate Non-GAAP Financial Measures differently. Non-GAAP Financial Measures are identified and defined as follows:

• Gross profit and Gross margin: The Company defines "gross profit" as revenue less cost of sales and "gross margin" as gross profit as a percentage of revenue. Gross profit and gross margin should not be construed as an alternative for revenue or net loss determined in accordance with IFRS. The Company believes that gross profit and gross margin are meaningful metrics in assessing the Company's financial performance and operational efficiency.
  
  
• Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an alternative to net earnings, cash flow from operating activities or other measures of financial results determined in accordance with GAAP as an indicator of Wishpond's performance. The Company defines "Adjusted EBITDA" as Loss before income taxes less interest, depreciation and amortization, remeasurement of contingent consideration liability, filing fees, credit facility setup fees, earn-out remuneration, foreign currency losses (gains), acquisition related expenses, net other expenditures (income), reverse takeover listing expense, and stock-based compensation. The Company believes that Adjusted EBITDA is a meaningful financial metric as it measures cash generated from operations which the Company can use to fund working capital requirements, service future interest and principal debt repayments and fund future growth initiatives.
  
  
• Annualized revenue run-rate: Annualized revenue run rate considers revenue over a number of specified recent months during the year and projects them over a 12-month period to estimate the annual revenues of the company based on recent performance.  
  
  
• Monthly recurring revenue: Normalized measure of predictable monthly revenue. 

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements that are not reported financial results or other historical information are forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding the Company, its subsidiaries and the industries in which they operate, including statements about, among other things, all information contained under the heading "Outlook" herein, expectations, beliefs, plans, future operations, origination of additional targets in which the Company may hold an interest and acquisition opportunities for the Company, business and acquisition strategies, opportunities, objectives, prospects, assumptions, including those related to trends and prospects, and future events and performance. Sentences and phrases containing or modified by words such as "expect", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "intend", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "predict", "potential", "targets", "projects", "is designed to", "strategy", "should", "believe", "contemplate" and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions, are not historical facts and are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable and are based on, among other things, the expectations and analysis of current market trends and opportunities of management of the Company, such forward-looking statements has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control, including, but not limited to, economic uncertainty and instability as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, instability in global commodity and securities markets, shifts in consumer and institutional spending and marketing strategies, the changing global market and competition for the products and services supplied by the Company, and the additional risk factors discussed in the continuous disclosure materials of the Company which are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are 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 statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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

SOURCE Wishpond Technologies Ltd.

Pardeep S. Sangha, Investor Relations, Wishpond Technologies Ltd., Email: [email protected], Phone: [phone]