Growens S p A : The Board of Directors reviewed certain financial data concerning the first quarter of 2024

The Board of Directors reviewed certain financial data concerning the first quarter of 2024

Revenues 16.9M EUR

Gross Profit 3.2M EUR

EBITDA - 0.7M EUR for Beefree's investment plan

Beefree, the Business Unit on which future investment will focus, posts highest top line growth (+17%)

Update of Internal Dealing Procedure

Milan, 7 May, 2024 - Growens S.p.A. -GROW (the "Company" or the "Issuer" or "Growens"), a company admitted to trading on the multilateral trading facility Euronext Growth Milan and operating in the cloud marketing technology field, announces that today the Board of Directors examined certain consolidated financial data concerning the first quarter of 2024.

Consolidated figures show a slight decrease, -2% for Q1 2024 revenues at 16.9M EUR vs. 17.3M EUR in Q1 2023; and a decreasing EBITDA for Q1 2024 at -0.7M EUR vs. 0.1M EUR in Q1 2023, mainly due to S&M and R&D investments for the acceleration of Beefree.

"Q1 2024 results confirm a profitable business, with a healthy Gross Profit. In detail, Beefree's revenues keep growing double-digit with a focus on the future supported by material S&M and R&D investments, which affect EBITDA margin."

Matteo Monfredini, Chairman and founder of Growens

"The first quarter does not yet include positive effects from the acquisition of RGE's business closed in AprilFuture strategy will be centered on both innovation and growth, both organic and via M&A, with a view at accelerating the development of Beefree, the fastest growing Business Unit."

Nazzareno Gorni, CEO and founder of Growens

Summary of Q1 2024 results

The main results for the quarter ended 31 March 2024 are as follows:

Item (EUR)	Q1 2024	%	Q1 2023	%	Change	Ch.%
SaaS Revenues	2,765,520	16.4%	2,356,669	13.6%	408,851	17.3%
CPaaS Revenues	13,852,226	82.0%	14,839,264	85.7%	(987,038)	(6.7%)
Other Revenues	276,613	1.6%	119,113	0.7%	157,500	n.m.
TOTAL REVENUES	16,894,359	100.0%	17,315,047	100.0%	(420,687)	(2.4%)
Gross Profit	3,201,327	18.9%	2,936,186	17.0%	265,141	9.0%
EBITDA	(654,316)	(3.9%)	(127,525)	(0.7%)	(526,791)	n.m.
EBT	(1,133,669)	(6.7%)	(987,547)	(5.7%)	(146,121)	(14.8%)

The SaaS business line (Software-as-a-Service) includes services supplied to clients via cloud platforms, sold through mostly recurring multi-period contracts / c.d. subscriptions by the Business Unit Beefree. The CPaaS business line (Communication-Platform-as-a-Service) covers the messaging services provided on a wholesale basisusing APIs, especially supplied by the Agile Telecom Business Unit.

As a result of the sales closed in 2023, namely of (i) Growens' business unit MailUp and stakes in Contactlab S.p.A. (now MailUp S.p.A), Acumbamail S.L., MailUp Nordics A/S and its subsidiary Globase International A.p.S. (collectively, the "Email Service Provider" or "ESP" activities) to TeamSystem S.p.A. for a total consideration of 76.6M EUR, as well as (ii) 100% of the share capital of Dutch-incorporated subsidiary Datatrics BV ("Datatrics") to Squeezely BV, a subsidiary of Spotler group, for a total consideration of 1.6M EUR, in Growens' consolidated P&L report, the ESP business, considering its significance and uniqueness, and Datatrics have not been included, in accordance with the IFRS 5 accounting standard. According to the same accounting standard, P&L for Q1 2024 and comparative Q1 2023 only covers the current group perimeter which includes the parent company Growens S.p.A. and the subsidiaries Bee Content Design Inc. and Agile Telecom S.p.A.

Here follow quarterly results by Business Unit:

in Euro	REVENUES			EBITDA
	31/03/2024	31/03/2023	%	31/03/2024		31/03/2023	%
Agile Telecom	13,852,226	14,839,264	(6.7%)		81,771	514,316	(84.1%)
Beefree	2,765,520	2,356,669	17.3%		(697,601)	203,182	n.m.
Holding	3,217,819	2,641,536	21.8%		(46,341)	(26,680)	(73.7%)
Consol. Adj.	(2,941,206)	(2,522,423)			7,855	(818,344)
TOTAL	16,894,359	17,315,047	(2.4%)		(654,316)	(127,525)	n.m.

The consolidated net financial position as of 31 March 2024 is the following:

Consolidated Net Financial Position	31/03/2024	31/12/2023	Change	Ch. %
A. Cash	10,372,653	20,488,030	(10,115,377)	(49.4%)
B. Cash equivalents	24,000,080	20,000,060	4,000,020	20.0%
C. Other current financial assets	5,073,212	4,891,561	181,651	3.7%
D. Cash and cash equivalents (A) + (B) + (C)	39,445,944	45,379,650	(5,933,706)	(13.1%)
E Financial debt	415,811	467,161	(51,351)	(11.0%)
F. Current financial debt	974,316	1,085,516	(111,201)	(10.2%)
G. Current financial position (E) + (F)	1,390,126	1,552,678	(162,551)	(10.5%)
H. Net short term financial position (G) - (D)	(38,055,818)	(43,826,973)	5,771,155	(13.2%)
I. Due to banks medium/long term	1,746,056	1,734,029	12,027	0.7%
J. Bonds issued
K.Other financial liabilities medium/long term
L. Non current financial position (I) + (J) + (K)	1,746,056	1,734,029	12,027	0.7%
M. Net financial position (H) + (L)	(36,309,762)	(42,092,944)	5,783,182	(13.7%)
	(4,654,978)	(4,646,600)	(8,378)	0.2%
o/w Current financial liabilities Rights of Use IFRS 16	260,139	354,384	(94,244)	(26.6%)
o/w Non current financial liabilities Rights of Use IFRS 16	987,440	919,315	68,125	7.4%
Net financial position without IFRS 16 effect	(42,212,320)	(48,013,242)	5,800,922	(12.1%)

ESMA 32-382-1138 del 04/03/2021 par. 175 orient. 39

The above-mentioned results are unaudited.

Comments to the results

Consolidated Q1 2024 P&L posts total Revenues around 16.9M EUR, showing a -2% decrease versus 17.3M EUR in the same period of 2023: such growth is mainly driven by the 17% growth of the SaaS component, for a 16+% incidence on total revenues. CPaaS decreases by 7% for an 82% incidence on total revenues.

The Agile Telecom Business Unit posted the biggest sales of ca. 13.9M EUR, decreasing -71% over the same period of the previous year, following the strategy of focus on profitability.

The fastest organically growing Business Unit is Beefree, with a 17% increase, or +19% at constant FX rate, at 2.8M EUR turnover, driven by increasing volumes. ARR (Annual Recurring Revenues, a very popular key performance indicator for a subscription business, showing the average annual recurring value of existing contracts) equals 13M USD as of March 2024.

Consolidated recurring revenues (SaaS subscriptions), representing 17% of total sales at 2.8M EUR, grew by 17% vs. the same period of the previous year.

Foreign revenues amount to 13.5M EUR, representing 81% of total sales, substantially stable.

New clients include Moët Hennessy (LVMH group), Lush, Drexel University, Cedarville University, EA Collective, Rakuten, and Delinian.

Consolidated EBITDA amounts to -0.7M EUR in Q1 2024, decreasing versus Q1 2023, with a 3+% margin on sales. The decrease of this figure is due to accelerated investments in S&M (+49%) and R&D (+25%, of which opex +24%) in view of Beefree's development. Agile Telecom's margin decreased due to increased intercompany costs and slowed-down activity of a relevant customer.

Gross Profit grows by 9% to 3.2M EUR, with a 19% margin on sales, whereas EBT is negative for 1.1M EUR.

The consolidated Net Financial Position as of 31 March 2024 amounts to ca. 36.9M EUR cash, decreasing versus the previously recorded net cash amount of 42.1M EUR as of 31 December 2023, mainly due to cash-outs for certain Agile Telecom net working capital items, the increase of Beefree investments and certain payments made by Growens at the beginning of 2024 but inherent to 2023 fiscal year. Figurative debt from IFRS 16's adoption amounts to ca. 1.2M EUR. Short term available cash amounts to 39.4M EUR. The Adjusted Net Financial Position also shows escrowed sums as customary in the settlement of comparable extraordinary operations (in particular, as a guarantee of certain obligations related to the sale of the ESP business to TeamSystem).

Summary of KPI's

SAAS

KPI	BEE	Date
ARR	13,116,381$	March 2024
ARR growth	+23%	March 2024
Gross margin	75%	Q1 2024
EBITDA margin	n.m.	Q1 2024
Net Revenue Retention	8%	March 2024

Data from management accounts, not subject to a BoD resolution, unaudited

Update of Internal Dealing Procedure

The Board of Directors resolved to approve the updated Internal Dealing Procedure.

According to applicable rules, the procedure and this press release are online on www.emarketstorage.com and on the Issuer website www.growens.io, Section "Corporate Governance/Corporate Documents".

Investor Relations

Growens Chairman and CEO will comment Q1 2024 results in a conference call to be held on 10 May 2024 at 4 pm CET. Registration at this link : https://my.demio.com/ref/VrqfJ82AaA6bm1Wg.

Download the press release