Irisitys CEO Marcus Bäcklund and stock analyst Rickard Engberg from Erik Penser Bank discuss Irisitys fourth quarter 2021
Summary of the fourth quarter
“We are very happy with this latest quarter. It has been quite an intense time with a focus on the integration of AgentVi to Irisity and merging the different parts of the two companies. This is a full integration where we merge everything from sales, marketing, and product, to development. We have landed in continued strong growth and improved margins. We also have a record strong EBITDA.“
– Can you go into detail regarding the new record in monthly recurring revenue?
“Yes, this is due to a combination of our expected organic growth and the acquisition of AgentVi. We want to have a growth of around 40-50% for MRR per quarter, so this is in line with that.”
– During the fourth quarter you have announced quite a few new orders, to the total sum of $4.4M. What is your take on this?
“We see a clear trend in this quarter that we are landing bigger and bigger deals with more licenses sold, and more sites connected. This is done mostly through existing partner deals. It also explains the strengthening of our margins, since an extended deal on an existing partner agreement will incur fewer costs. Our partnership strategy is definitely working and we can now start reaping the benefits of many years of hard work, establishing many large global international partnerships.“
– Something that really pops to me in the last report is the increase in profitability and gross margin. Can you describe what drives this strong development?
“We have a clear goal of gradually being able to improve our margins to very strong levels. The software model traditionally has very strong margins. However, I believe we can add another ambition level than just a traditional software company, due to our partner strategy. It takes a lot of time and energy to connect a global partner but when the work is done added sales and extensions result in high margins.“
– How has the Covid situation affected you?
“It has of course not been positive. Hopefully, now we see the light at the end of the tunnel. As a company, we have managed surprisingly well through the pandemic, where we have managed to handle most work over long-distance and online with a limited amount of travel. When we now can add physical meetings to that equation I believe this could have a turbo effect for us. During the fourth quarter, after the acquisition of AgentVi, we have gone from presence in only one country to seven countries, over four continents. This means that we are present in all important markets. “
– What recruitments have you done lately?
“We have been very successful in our recruitments of late. We have added to our leadership team on C-level to complete top-level management. At VP-level have strengthened the team in sales, product, marketing, and operations with experienced individuals. Particularly within the sales force where we now have a very experienced international key account team, with VP-sales divided over Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. They both have impressive experience, but most importantly industry knowledge from many years of selling advanced software to the security sector. This is not easy to find.
We have surpassed 100 employees, with about half located in Sweden, 35% in Israel, and the rest in US, UAE, Mexico, and Singapore. ”