Fintech PR

Appier reports accelerated operating profit growth and record-high revenue in Q2

Published

3 months ago

August 14, 2024

appier-reports-accelerated-operating-profit-growth-and-record-high-revenue-in-q2

Operating profit increased by 4.4 times year-on-year and by 6.4 times on an FX-neutral basis, demonstrating strong revenue outperformance in key regions

TOKYO, Aug. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ —

Highlights and achievements of Q2 FY24

Achieved a record-high revenue of JPY 8.2 billion, with a 32% YoY growth, driven by strong outperformance in key regions. NEA grew by 35%, while the US & EMEA grew by 65%, exceeding projections.
Profitability surpasses plan. Operating profit surged 4.4 times YoY (6.4 times YoY on an FX-neutral basis), elevating the operating margin to 4.3% (6.7% on an FX-neutral basis).
Initiated the first shareholder return through a share buyback, driven by the positive outlook for the second half of the year with improved profitability.

Profitability exceeded projections with the first-time shareholder return

Appier Group Inc (TSE: 4180), henceforth referred to as Appier, today announced its earnings results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2024. This quarter, Appier achieved a record-high revenue of JPY 8.2 billion, which grew 32% YoY, and a record-high gross profit of JPY 4.2 billion. Strong outperformance in NEA and US & EMEA highlights robust business momentum across key regions and verticals as the company heads into the second half of the year. Operating profit surpassed projections and quadrupled to JPY 351 million, with an operating margin of 4.3%. (6.4 times operating profit growth with an operating margin of 6.7% on an FX-neutral basis), reflecting Appier’s ongoing strong operating leverage, productivity improvements, and disciplined cost management.

Driven by a positive outlook in the second half of 2024, Appier has initiated its first-ever share buyback, demonstrating its commitment to shareholder returns while maintaining a solid foundation for future growth.

Strong outperformance in key regions, NEA and US & EMEA

NEA’s growth accelerated to 35% YoY, which was attributed to the expansion of existing key accounts in E-commerce through focused upsell strategies and new accounts from diversified verticals. US & EMEA achieved a high growth rate of 65% YoY on top of last year’s high growth, driven by the robust expansion of large enterprise customers in Digital Content and Other Internet Services. Appier continues its positive growth across the E-commerce and Digital Content sectors and expects continued business momentum in the second half of the year due to the higher seasonality^{^[1]} in these verticals. This positions the company on the right track for further profitable growth due to increased revenue scale, improved productivity, and continuous, disciplined expense control towards the end of the year.

Driving growth and profitability through strategic R&D and GenAI investment

Appier’s strategic investments in return-oriented R&D, including advancements in AI technology such as new Generative AI modules, enhance operating leverage in S&M and G&A, improve customers’ ROI, and drive sustainable business expansion. Generative AI has begun to deliver tangible business value. These early successes underscore its potential to drive long-lasting growth and solidify Appier’s competitive advantage.

Appier continuously expands its customer base with its historically lowest churn rate of 0.574%, demonstrating strong customer traction and stickiness to Appier’s solutions, ensuring robust and highly sustainable growth. Quarterly gross profit per headcount hit a record high of 5.82M with 23% YoY growth, further enhancing its productivity gains.

“Appier is a technology-focused company at the forefront of AI innovation, where relentless advancement in AI technology enables us to deliver ROI-driven solutions that generate better returns for customers. As a result, our business performance exceeded projections this quarter, showcasing the strength of our operating leverage as we scale effectively,” said Dr. Chih-han Yu, Appier’s CEO and Co-Founder.

A true AI organization: driving innovation, maximizing ROI, and leading the industry

Appier is uniquely positioned in the AI stack’s application layer, with its key strengths lying in a robust data moat, differentiated algorithm, and deep domain knowledge. Appier has innovated its products with GenAI capabilities across various directions to empower business growth, such as leveraging AI as an ROI driver, facilitating interaction by utilizing AI as the new UI, and boosting productivity through no-code, AI-enabled software. Internally, Appier strives to become a true AI-driven organization by integrating AI as a key driver in product development, improving customer management, and streamlining the operation process by standardizing workflows.

Appier continually invests in generative AI and has made technological breakthroughs with its pioneering work, such as inventing a framework for multiple Large Language Model (LLM) collaboration, incorporating real-time feedback data training to streamline processing capabilities and shorten the learning cycle, featuring self-reflection capabilities to seek human clarification and ensure more accurate answers. These strategic innovations not only reinforce Appier’s leadership in AI but also solidify its position as a frontrunner in the AI industry.

^[1] On the quarterly seasonality characteristics, Q2 and Q3 are high seasons for Digital Content, while Q3 and Q4 are high seasons for E-commerce.

About Appier

Appier (TSE: 4180) is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses artificial intelligence to power business decision-making. Founded in 2012 with a vision of democratizing AI, Appier’s mission is turning AI into ROI by making software intelligent. Appier has 17 offices across APAC, Europe and US and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Visit www.appier.com for more company information, and visit ir.appier.com/en/ for more IR information.

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Fintech PR

Protecht launches advanced controls management solution

Published

9 minutes ago

November 25, 2024

CISION (PR Newswire)

SYDNEY, Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Protecht Group, a global leader in enterprise risk management solutions, has released its innovative controls management solution. This cutting-edge tool empowers organizations to design, implement, and maintain a robust controls framework, streamlining compliance and enhancing operational efficiency.

Protecht’s controls management solution addresses the challenges faced by risk and compliance leaders in managing controls across complex regulatory environments. By integrating controls management into the organization’s broader ERM framework, the solution provides a centralized approach to mitigate risks, achieve compliance, and enable organizations to focus on strategic growth.

As organizations face increasing regulatory pressures, the need for a unified, efficient approach to controls management has never been greater. Many businesses struggle with fragmented processes, duplicated efforts across frameworks, and limited visibility into controls effectiveness. Protecht’s controls management solution simplifies these complexities by providing a single source of truth for controls assurance activities.

Key features of Protecht’s controls management solution

Centralized controls library: Offers a single repository for all control data, tailored to align with organizational needs and regulatory frameworks.
Simplified control testing: Streamlines the testing process with pre-built templates, automated scheduling, and real-time tracking of progress and results.
Framework library: Enables seamless mapping between controls and multiple regulatory standards to eliminate redundancies and simplify compliance efforts.
Advanced reporting and dashboards: Provides real-time insights into control effectiveness and areas requiring improvement, ensuring confidence in decision-making and risk management strategies.

“Protecht’s Controls Management solution simplifies the way organizations handle compliance and risk assurance,” says Damien Stevens, Chief Product & Marketing Officer at Protecht. “By integrating controls into the broader enterprise risk framework, we provide our customers with the tools they need to mitigate risks, optimize efficiency, and align their control environments with their strategic objectives.”

Supporting resources

To help organizations maximize the benefits of the new solution, Protecht offers a range of resources, including:

Live webinars showcasing the solution’s capabilities for risk and IT professionals alike
Product tours showing how the solution lets you solve specific controls-related problems
A comprehensive eBook on building effective controls frameworks
Opportunities to book a demo and see the solution in action

Find out more and download a brochure at www.protechtgroup.com/solutions/controls-management

About Protecht Group

Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with offices in London and Los Angeles, Protecht Group provides innovative risk management solutions, including the Protecht ERM platform. Trusted by organizations across government, financial services, education, and other industries, Protecht empowers businesses to manage risk holistically, transitioning from spreadsheets and manual processes to efficient, integrated systems.

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Fintech PR

Robert Rahman Joins Dinosaur Group Holdings to Head its New Global Corporate Credit Securities Market Unit in the US, Europe & Asia

Published

1 hour ago

November 25, 2024

CISION (PR Newswire)

robert-rahman-joins-dinosaur-group-holdings-to-head-its-new-global-corporate-credit-securities-market-unit-in-the-us,-europe-&-asia

NEW YORK, Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Dinosaur Financial Group LLC. (DFG), a New York based Investment Firm and Dinosaur Merchant Bank Ltd. (DMBL), a London based Institutional Brokerage announced the joining of Robert Rahman as the Global Head of the newly created Global Corporate Credit Securities (GCCS) unit.

Dinosaur Group’s new GCCS initiative seeks to provide clients with an alternative to the bulge bracket that will not compete with clients and seeks to offer those clients, a partner that can deliver reliable and trustworthy execution capabilities in a difficult liquidity backdrop. Robert’s new unit will complement the firm’s existing global footprint in Fixed Income.

Robert will oversee the sales, trading, and research business globally for Corporate Investment Grade, High Yield, Distressed, Stressed, Special Situations, Levered Loans, Re-Org Equities, Trade Claims, Private Credit and Converts within the GCCS unit.

Before Dinosaur, he was the Head of High Yield, Distressed and Loans within the capital markets division of Oppenheimer and Co (OPY) where he worked for the last 16 years. He has also been a senior member of Morgan Stanley’s High Yield sales team and has over 30 years of experience in all aspects of Institutional Credit. Robert started his career as a Credit Analyst within Salmon Brothers revered “Corporate Bond Research” team and at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette’s “Leveraged Finance Research” team.

Announcing his appointment, Glenn Grossman, CEO, Dinosaur Group said, “Robert’s deep client and issuer relationships along with his previous success in leading and building global credit teams will help the group to provide institutional clients with an additional liquidity platform for one stop credit trading across the world. We are very excited to see the new business grow under his leadership.”

Elliot Grossman, Managing Director added, “With Robert’s leadership, the group seeks to help institutional investors by providing capital to help facilitate trades versus being another riskless agency credit shop.”

Speaking about joining the Dinosaur group and his plans for the new business, Robert said, “I was attracted to the group given its established track record of providing client solutions in Fixed Income, globally for the past 25 years. My focus will be to provide institutional investors with an enhanced global liquidity platform for the US, European and Asian markets. I look forward to building this business at DFG.”

He also stated, “Sourcing trading block paper is nuanced and requires deep and long-standing client relationships from the trader, analyst, PM and CIO level. The new team will look to gain Fixed Income clients’ trust, add value and provide liquidity while so many competitors retrench.”

About Dinosaur Group Holdings

Dinosaur Group Holdings (DGH) is the holding company for Dinosaur Financial Group LLC. (DFG), an investment firm registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC, Dinosaur Merchant Bank Ltd. (regulated by the FCA) and New York-based SEC-registered investment firm DCM Advisors, LLC.

Deploying a team of approximately 150 professionals, the overall organization provides global execution services, financing and advisory expertise/insights for equities, fixed income, commodities and derivatives, investment management as well as a suite of investment banking services providing financial solutions and capital markets execution to the middle market client base, both domestically and globally. Clients and counterparties spanning six continents are primarily institutions, family offices, asset managers, hedge funds, and corporations. Dinosaur Group takes pride in the business’ stable management, strong compliance, solid operations, and diverse talent.

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Fintech PR

New GitLaw platform makes creating legal documents free and fast

Published

2 hours ago

November 25, 2024

CISION (PR Newswire)

BIRMINGHAM, England, Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Each year 32% of small businesses experience a legal issue but only 25% of these are able to access professional help. Of those who did engage lawyers, many had to draw on personal savings just to meet fees. The current legal system is unaffordable with the balance tipped against those without vast financial resources.

GitLaw.co, launching this week, is looking to change that. GitLaw has published hundreds of legal document templates which are entirely free to download or customize through its platform. GitLaw is built by a group of tech entrepreneurs including Nick Holzherr who previously founded Whisk.com, a software platform acquired by Samsung in 2019.

GitLaw’s name is inspired by Git technology and open source software development. This collaborative model allows legal documents to be freely available to use, modify or share, with complete version history transparency. GitLaw’s vision is to create a collaborative open source community for legal documents. GitLaw’s specialized features help users efficiently customize and finalize legal templates. Users can submit templates as well as suggest changes to existing documents, resulting in free community-driven standards for legal documents.

The service is initially targeted at small businesses in the US and UK. “As a startup founder I have first hand experience of having to navigate legal battles without budgets for lawyers and I wish I’d had something like GitLaw – a reliable repository of free legal documents” said Nick Holzherr, one of the founders of GitLaw. “We already have 300 documents that cover key contract types like NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements), Employment Agreements and Privacy Policies, and we hope the community will continue to provide more documents”. Most of the documents on GitLaw today are created and contributed by reputable law firms, lawyers, investors and organizations.

While the platform targets the 400m global small businesses first, the company has a mission to bring GitLaw to wider audiences. “In the medium term I hope we’ll be able to cover a lot more areas of law like civil law.
Longer term, I can envision GitLaw being used to support the creation of national laws, enabling citizens to contribute, provide feedback, and transparently track every change made to their legislation.” said Holzherr.

GitLaw is free to use and available at www.gitlaw.co

Pictures available at https://gitlaw.co/press

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/new-gitlaw-platform-makes-creating-legal-documents-free-and-fast-302315630.html