As filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on February 9, 2024.
Registration No. 333-276425
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
____________________
TO
FORM
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
____________________
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
____________________
| 3669 | 52-2160309 | ||
(State or Other Jurisdiction of | (Primary Standard Industrial | (I.R.S. Employer |
Actelis Networks, Inc.
4039 Clipper Court
Fremont, CA 94538
(510) 545-1045
(Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Registrant’s Principal Executive Offices)
____________________
Tuvia Barlev
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Actelis Networks, Inc.
4039 Clipper Court
Fremont, CA 94538
(510) 545-1045
(Name, Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Agent For Service)
____________________
Copies to:
Oded Kadosh, Esq.
Benjamin J. Waltuch, Esq.
Max Lindenfeld, Esq.
Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz LLP
Times Square Tower, 7 Times Square,
New York, New York 10036
Phone: (646) 878-0800
Fax: (646) 878-0801
____________________
Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.
If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933 check the following box. ☒
If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer | ☐ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | |||||
| ☒ | Smaller reporting company | | |||||
Emerging growth company | |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.
The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS |
SUBJECT TO COMPLETION DATED FEBRUARY 9, 2024 |
Actelis Networks, Inc.
2,631,357 Shares of Common Stock
This prospectus relates to the offer and sale from time to time of a total of 2,631,357 shares of Actelis Network, Inc.’s (the “Company”) common stock, par value $0.0001 (“Common Stock”) by the selling stockholders identified in this prospectus, consisting of (i) 301,000 shares of common stock of the Company, $0.0001 par value (the “Common Stock Shares”), (ii) 970,187 shares of Common Stock (the “Pre-Funded Warrant Shares”) underlying certain pre-funded warrants, exercisable at a price of $1.1799 (the “Pre-Funded Warrants”); (iii) 1,271,187 shares of Common Stock (“Common Warrant Shares”) underlying certain warrants, exercisable at a price of $1.18 (the “Common Warrants”); and (iv) 88,983 shares of Common Stock (the “Placement Agent Warrants Shares” and collectively with the Common Stock Shares, Pre-Funded Warrant Shares and Common Warrant Shares, the “Shares”) underlying certain warrants that we issued to certain designees of H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, with an exercise price of $1.475 (the “Placement Agent Warrants”, and together with the Pre-Funded Warrants and the Common Warrants, the “Warrants”, and together with the Shares, the “Securities”).
We are not selling any Common Stock under this prospectus and will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale or other disposition of shares by any of the selling stockholders, however, we will receive proceeds from the exercise of any Warrants for cash.
The selling stockholders or its transferees, pledgees, assignees, or successors-in-interest may offer and sell or otherwise dispose of the shares of Common Stock described in this prospectus from time to time through public or private transactions at prevailing market prices, at prices related to prevailing market prices or at privately negotiated prices. The selling stockholder will bear all commissions and discounts, if any, attributable to the sales of shares. We will bear all other costs, expenses, and fees in connection with the registration of the shares. See “Plan of Distribution” beginning on page 34 for more information about how a selling stockholder may sell or dispose of the shares of Common Stock.
Our Common Stock is traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “ASNS.” On February 5, 2024, the closing price of our Common Stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market was $1.17 per share.
Investing in our securities involves risk. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 9 of this prospectus.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
The date of this prospectus is , 2024.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Summary Consolidated Financial Data |
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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements |
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37 |
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48 |
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49 |
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65 |
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Executive Compensation |
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75 |
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Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations for Non-U.S. Holders |
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Underwriting |
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90 |
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F-1 |
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ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS
This prospectus is part of a registration statement that we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). The selling stockholders named in this prospectus may from time to time sell the securities described in the prospectus. You should read this prospectus together with the more detailed information regarding our company, our Common Stock, and our financial statements and notes to those statements that appear elsewhere in this prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement together with the additional information that we incorporate in this prospectus by reference, which we describe under the heading “Where You Can Find More Information.”
You should rely only on the information contained in, or incorporated by reference in, this prospectus and in any accompanying prospectus supplement. We have not authorized anyone to provide you with different information from that contained in, or incorporated by reference in, this prospectus. You should not assume that the information in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement is accurate as of any date other than the date on the front of those documents or that any document incorporated by reference is accurate as of any date other than its filing date. You should not consider this prospectus to be an offer or solicitation relating to the securities in any jurisdiction in which such an offer or solicitation relating to the securities is not authorized. Furthermore, you should not consider this prospectus to be an offer or solicitation relating to the securities if the person making the offer or solicitation is not qualified to do so, or if it is unlawful for you to receive such an offer or solicitation.
In this prospectus, we frequently use the terms “we,” “our,” “us,” “our company,” and the “Company” to refer to Actelis Networks, Inc.
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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference herein contain certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act”). We have tried, whenever possible, to identify these forward-looking statements using words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “continue,” “plan,” “predict,” “seek,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “potential,” “ongoing,” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements, whether in the negative or the affirmative. These statements reflect our current beliefs and are based on information currently available to us. Accordingly, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, such statements. Forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, statements about:
• our history of losses and need for additional capital to fund our operations and our ability to obtain additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all;
• our ability to protect our intellectual property and continue to innovate;
• our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors;
• the potential insufficiency of our disclosure controls and procedures to detect errors or acts of fraud;
• the accuracy of our estimates regarding expenses, future revenues, and capital requirements;
• the success of competing products or technologies that are or may become available;
• our ability to grow the business due to the uncertainty resulting from the recent COVID-19 pandemic or any future pandemic;
• our ability to comply with complex and increasing regulations by governmental authorities;
• our ability to successfully execute on our future operating plans as a going concern;
• our ability to have our securities listed on Nasdaq;
• our public securities’ potential liquidity and trading; and
• our expectations regarding the period during which we qualify as an emerging growth company under the JOBS Act.
Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate and our management’s beliefs and assumptions, and are not guarantees of future performance or development and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond our control. As a result, any or all of our forward-looking statements herein may turn out to be inaccurate. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those listed under “Risk Factors,” Use of Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Business” and elsewhere herein or by incorporation by reference. Potential investors are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements. You should read thoroughly this prospectus and the documents that we refer to with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from and worse than what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.
The forward-looking statements included in this prospectus speak only as of the date of this prospectus. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future. You should, however, review the factors and risks we describe in the reports we will file from time to time with the SEC after the date of this prospectus. See “Where You Can Find More Information.”
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INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA
This prospectus includes statistical, market and industry data and forecasts which we obtained from publicly available information and independent industry publications and reports that we believe to be reliable sources. These publicly available industry publications and reports generally state that they obtain their information from sources that they believe to be reliable, but they do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information. Although we are responsible for all of the disclosures contained in this prospectus, including such statistical, market and industry data, we have not independently verified any of the data from third-party sources, nor have we ascertained the underlying economic assumptions relied upon therein. In addition, while we believe the market opportunity information included in this prospectus is generally reliable and is based on reasonable assumptions, such data involves risks and uncertainties, including those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors.”
PRESENTATION OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Our financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or U.S. GAAP. We present our consolidated financial statements in U.S. dollars.
Our fiscal year ends on December 31 of each year. Our most recent fiscal year ended on December 31, 2023.
Certain figures included in this prospectus have been subject to rounding adjustments. Accordingly, figures shown as totals in certain tables may not be an arithmetic aggregation of the figures that precede them.
TRADEMARKS AND TRADENAMES
We own or have rights to trademarks, service marks and trade names that we use in connection with the operation of our business, including our corporate name, logos and website names. Other trademarks, service marks and trade names appearing in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, some of the trademarks, service marks and trade names referred to in this prospectus are listed without the ® and ™ symbols, but we will assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to our trademarks, service marks and trade names.
This prospectus includes trademarks, service marks and trade names owned by us or other companies. All trademarks, service marks and trade names included in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners.
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PROSPECTUS SUMMARY
This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this prospectus. Because this is only a summary, it does not contain all of the information that may be important to you. You should read this entire prospectus and should consider, among other things, the matters set forth under “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this prospectus before making your investment decision. This prospectus contains forward-looking statements and information relating to Actelis Networks, Inc. See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” on page [•].
Actelis Networks, Inc. (“we”, “the Company”, “Actelis”, “us”, “our”) is a market leader in cyber-hardened, rapid-deployment networking solutions for wide-area IoT applications including federal, state and local government, intelligent traffic systems, military, utility, rail, telecom and campus applications. Our unique portfolio of hybrid fiber, environmentally hardened aggregation switches, high density Ethernet devices, advanced management software and cyber-protection capabilities, unlocks the hidden value of essential networks, delivering safer connectivity for rapid, cost-effective deployment.
Our networking solutions use a combination of newly deployed fiber infrastructure and existing copper and coaxial lines which our patented technology can upgrade to Fiber-grade to jointly create what we believe to be a highly cost-effective, secure, and quick-to-deploy network. Our patent protected hybrid fiber networking solutions deliver excellent communication over fiber to locations that may be easy to reach with new fiber. However, for locations that are difficult, or too costly to reach with fiber, we can upgrade existing copper lines to deliver cyber-hardened, high-speed connectivity without needing to replace the existing copper infrastructure with new fiber. We believe that such hybrid fiber networking solution has distinct advantages in most real-life installations, while providing significant budget savings and accelerating deployment of modern IoT networks, as based on our experience, most IoT projects have challenging, hard to reach with Fiber locations which may explode such projects’ timeline and budgets. We believe that our solutions can provide connectivity over either fiber or copper with speeds of up to multi-Gigabit communication, while supporting Fiber-grade reliability and quality.
A primary focus of ours is to provide our customers with a cyber-secure network solution. We currently offer Triple-Shield protection of data delivered with coding, scrambling and encryption of the network traffic. We also provide secure, encrypted access to our network management software, and continue to further enhance system-level and device-level software protection. So far, in the past year, we achieved UL laboratories compliance with FIPS 140-2 cybersecurity standard required by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) labs approval of the Company’s products for cybersecurity and interoperability, allowing for Actelis’ solutions to be added to the DoD Approved Products List (APL). We believe that this is the only solution of its kind to gain this status, we continue to work to introduce additional capabilities for network-wide cyber protection software as an additional SW and license-based services.
When high speed, long reach, reliable and secure connectivity is required, network operators usually resort to using wireline communication over physical communication lines such as fiber, coax, and copper, rather than wireless communication that may be more limited in performance, reliability, reach and security. However, new fiber wireline infrastructure is costly to deploy, involves lengthy civil works to install, and, based on our internal calculations, often accounts for more than 50% of total cost of ownership (ToC) and time to deploy wide-area IoT projects.
Providing new fiber connectivity to hard-to-reach locations is especially costly and time-consuming, often requiring permits for boring, trenching, and right-of-way, sometimes done over many miles. Connecting such hard-to-reach locations may cause significant delays and budget overruns in IoT projects. Our solutions aim to solve these challenges by instantly enhancing performance of such existing copper and coax infrastructure to fiber-grade performance, through the use of advanced signal processing and unique, patented network architecture, without the need to install new fiber lines to hard-to-reach locations. Thus, effectively we can accelerate deployment of many IoT projects, as we estimate, sometimes from many months to only days. The result for the network owner is a hybrid network that optimizes the use of both new Fiber (where available) as well as upgraded, fiber-grade copper and coax that is now modernized, digitized and cyber-hardened. This unique hybrid network approach is making IoT projects often significantly more affordable, fast to deploy and predictable to plan and budget.
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In addition, our solutions can also provide power over existing copper and coax lines to remotely power up network elements and IoT components connected to them (like cameras, small cell and Wi-Fi base stations sensors etc.). Connecting power lines to millions of IoT locations can be costly and very time consuming as well (similar to data connectivity, for the same reason — need for civil works). By offering the ability to combine power delivery over the same existing copper and coax lines that we use for high-speed data, we believe our solutions are solving yet another important challenge in connecting hard-to-reach locations. We believe that combining communication and power over the same existing lines is particularly important to help connect many fifth generation, or 5G, small cells and Wi-Fi base stations, as high cost of connectivity and power is often slowing their deployment.
Since our inception, our business has been focused on serving telecommunication service providers, also known as Telcos, to provide connectivity for enterprises and residential customers. Our products and solutions have been deployed with more than 100 telecommunication service providers worldwide, in enterprise, residential and mobile base station connectivity applications. In recent years, as we have further developed our technology and introduced additional products, we have turned our focus on serving the wide-area IoT markets. Our operations are focused on our fast-growing IoT business, while maintaining our commitment to our existing Telco customers. In 2023, we introduced new product offerings, some of which could serve both the IoT markets and our Telco customers.
Private Placement
On December 17, 2023, we entered into a securities purchase agreement with an accredited investor (the “Investor”), pursuant to which we agreed to issue and sell to the Investor in a private placement (the “Offering”) (i) the Common Stock Shares; (ii) the Pre-Funded Warrants to purchase the Pre-Funded Warrant Shares; and (iii) Common Warrants to purchase the Common Warrant Shares, for a purchase price of $1.18 per share of Common Stock and related Common Warrant or $1.1799 per Pre-Funded Warrant and related Common Warrant, for a total aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $1.5 million. The Offering closed on December 20, 2023.
The Common Warrants have an exercise price of $1.18 per share, are exercisable immediately upon issuance and expire five and one-half years following the issuance. The Pre-Funded Warrants were sold in lieu of shares of Common Stock, are exercisable immediately upon issuance, have an exercise price of $0.0001 per share and expire when exercised in full. Under the terms of the Common Warrants and Pre-Funded Warrants, the Investor may not exercise the warrants to the extent such exercise would cause the Investor, together with its affiliates and attribution parties, to beneficially own a number of shares of common stock which would exceed 4.99% (or, at such Investor’s option upon issuance, 9.99%), of our then outstanding Common Stock following such exercise, excluding for purposes of such determination shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise of such warrants which have not been exercised.
H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC acted as the exclusive placement agent for the issuance and sale of the Securities. We have agreed to pay up to an aggregate cash fee equal to 7.0% of the gross proceeds received by us from the Offering. We also agreed to pay Wainwright $35,000 for non-accountable expenses and a management fee equal to 1.0% of the gross proceeds raised in the Offering. We also agreed to issue to Wainwright, or its designees, unregistered warrants to purchase up to 7.0% of the aggregate number of the Common Stock Shares and Pre-Funded Warrants sold to the Investor (or warrants to purchase up to 88,983 shares of Common Stock) at an exercise price per share of $1.475 and a term of five and one-half years.
The Common Stock Shares, the Pre-Funded Warrant Shares, the Common Warrant Shares and the Placement Agent Warrant Shares are being registered for resale hereunder.
JOBS Act and the Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and a Smaller Reporting Company
We qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, as amended, or the JOBS Act. As an “emerging growth company,” we may take advantage of specified reduced disclosure and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include, but are not limited to:
• requiring only two years of audited financial statements in addition to any required unaudited interim financial statements with correspondingly reduced “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations” in our Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, filings;
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• reduced disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements;
• no non-binding advisory votes on executive compensation or golden parachute arrangements; and
• exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirement in the assessment of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX.
We may take advantage of these exemptions for up to five years or such earlier time that we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” We will continue to remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest of the following: (i) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the completion of this offering; (ii) the last day of the fiscal year in which our total annual gross revenue is equal to or more than $1.07 billion; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC.
We are also a “smaller reporting company” as defined in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, and have elected to take advantage of certain of the scaled disclosures available to smaller reporting companies. To the extent that we continue to qualify as a “smaller reporting company” as such term is defined in Rule 12b-2 the Exchange Act, after we cease to qualify as an emerging growth company, certain of the exemptions available to us as an “emerging growth company” may continue to be available to us as a “smaller reporting company,” including exemption from compliance with the auditor attestation requirements pursuant to SOX and reduced disclosure about our executive compensation arrangements. We will continue to be a “smaller reporting company” until we have $250 million or more in public float (based on our common stock) measured as of the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter or, in the event we have no public float (based on our common stock) or a public float (based on our common stock) that is less than $700 million, annual revenues of $100 million or more during the most recently completed fiscal year.
We may choose to take advantage of some, but not all, of these exemptions. We have taken advantage of reduced reporting requirements in this prospectus. Accordingly, the information contained herein may be different from the information you receive from other public companies in which you hold stock. In addition, the JOBS Act provides that an emerging growth company may take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards, delaying the adoption of these accounting standards until they would apply to private companies. We have elected to avail ourselves of the extended transition period for complying with new or revised financial accounting standards. As a result of this accounting standards election, we will not be subject to the same implementation timing for new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies which may make comparison of our financials to those of other public companies more difficult.
Summary Risk Factors
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that you should consider before investing in our company. You should carefully consider all of the risks described more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” in this prospectus beginning on page 9, before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of these risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition and results of operations would likely be materially adversely affected. These key risks, include, but are not limited to, the following:
Risks Related to Our Business
• We have a history of net losses, may incur substantial net losses in the future, and may not achieve or sustain profitability or growth in future periods. If we cannot achieve and sustain profitability, our business, financial condition, and operating results will be adversely affected.
• We have negative cash flow from our operations and, given our projected funding needs, our ability to generate positive cash flow is uncertain.
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• Our shareholders’ equity does not meet the requirements for continued listing on Nasdaq. If we fail to regain compliance with the minimum shareholders’ equity requirements, our common stock will be subject to delisting.
• Our financial condition raises substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.
• Unfavorable global economic or political conditions prolonged and intensified throughout the second half of 2022 and in 2023 could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
• Prolonged inflation rates could negatively impact our revenues and profitability if increases in the prices of our products or a decrease in customer spending results in lower sales.
• We may need to raise additional capital to meet our business requirements in the future, and such capital raising may be costly or difficult to obtain and could dilute our stockholders’ ownership interests.
• Our indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund operations, limit our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry and prevent us from meeting our financial obligations.
• To support our business growth, in the past years we increased our focus on serving certain IoT verticals, while continuing to serve our existing Telco customers. This change in our strategy may make it more difficult to evaluate our business growth and future prospects, and may increase the risk that we will not be successful in our plans.
• We may have ineffective sales and marketing efforts.
• We outsource our product manufacturing and are dependent on our key manufacturers, and on our component and OEM suppliers. We are susceptible to problems, and have encountered problems in the past, in connection with procurement, decreasing quality, reliability, and protectability.
• Demand for our products and solutions may not grow or may decline.
• Our gross margins may not increase or may deteriorate.
• Changes in the price and availability of our raw materials and shipping could be detrimental to our profitability.
• Expanding our operations and marketing efforts to meet expected growth may impact profitability if actual growth is less than expected.
• If our internal Company cyber-security measures are breached or fail and unauthorized access is obtained to our IT environment, we may incur significant losses of data, which we may not be able to recover and may experience a delay in our ability to conduct our day-to-day business.
• We provide cyber security features as part of our products that may not completely prevent information security breaches, and our products are installed in live customer environments and may be compromised by cyber-attacks and damage customer assets.
• We depend on key information systems and third-party service providers.
• We depend on our management team and other key employees, and the loss of one or more of these employees or an inability to attract and retain highly skilled employees could adversely affect our business.
• We may face the effects of increased competition and rapid technological changes.
• Our results of operations are likely to fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year, which could adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.
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• The loss of one or more of our significant customers, or any other reduction in the amount of revenue we derive from any such customer, would adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
• We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine or any other geopolitical tensions.
Risks Related to Protecting Our Technology and Intellectual Property
• Claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property could force us to incur significant costs or revise the way we conduct our business.
• Our patents and proprietary technology may be challenged or disputed.
• Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand.
• The lives of our patents may not be sufficient to effectively protect our products and business.
Risks Related to Managing Our Business Operations in Israel
• Potential political, economic, and military instability in the State of Israel, where our research and development facilities are located, may adversely affect our results of operations.
• Actelis Israel received Israeli government grants for certain of our research and development activities, the terms of which require us to pay royalties and satisfy specified conditions in order to manufacture products and transfer technologies outside of Israel. If we fail to satisfy these conditions, we may be required to pay penalties and refund grants previously received.
• We may be adversely affected by fluctuations in the currency exchange rate of the Israeli Shekel.
• Unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate and additional tax liabilities, including those resulting from our international operations or the implementation of new tax rules, could harm our future results.
Risks Related to our Common Stock
• The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention, and affect our ability to attract and retain executive management and qualified board members.
• We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If we experience material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations which may adversely affect investor confidence in us, and as a result, the value of our common stock.
• If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, stockholders could lose confidence in our financial and other public reporting, which would harm our business and the trading price of our common stock.
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Risks Related to our Common Stock
• Sales of substantial amounts of our Common Stock by a selling stockholder, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the price of our Common Stock.
Corporate Information
We were incorporated in Delaware in 1998. We completed our initial public offering on May 17, 2022 and our common stock is currently listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “ASNS.” Our principal executive offices are located at 4039 Clipper Court, Fremont, CA 94538, and our telephone number is (510)-545-1040. The information contained on our website and available through our website is not incorporated by reference into and should not be considered a part of this prospectus, and the reference to our website in this prospectus is an inactive textual reference only.
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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
You should read the following summary consolidated financial data together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes appearing at the end of this prospectus and the “Cash and Capitalization,” “Selected Consolidated Financial Data” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of this prospectus. We have derived these summary consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2022, and December 31, 2021, from our audited consolidated financial statements appearing at the end of this prospectus and our unaudited consolidated financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023 and September 30, 2022. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of results that should be expected in any future period.
STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(U.S. dollars in thousands, except share and per share data) |
For the |
For the |
9 months |
9 months |
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Revenues |
8,831 |
|
8,545 |
|
4,589 |
|
6,297 |
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Cost of revenues |
4,721 |
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4,575 |
|
3,043 |
|
3,258 |
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Research and development, net |
2,766 |
|
2,443 |
|
2,117 |
|
2,049 |
|
||||
Sales and marketing, net |
3,282 |
|
2,204 |
|
2,332 |
|
2,357 |
|
||||
General and administrative, net |
4,163 |
|
1,183 |
|
2,805 |
|
2,730 |
|
||||
Financial income (expenses), net |
(4,881 |
) |
(3,391 |
) |
1,353 |
|
(4,403 |
) |
||||
Loss from operations |
(10,982 |
) |
(5,251 |
) |
(4,355 |
) |
(8,500 |
) |
||||
Income tax provision |
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
||||
Net loss |
(10,982 |
) |
(5,251 |
) |
(4,355 |
) |
(8,500 |
) |
||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
Loss per share of common stock attributable to the Company |
|
|
|
|
||||||||
Basic and diluted |
(*)(9.45) |
|
(*)(25.64) |
|
(1.93 |
) |
(8.77 |
) |
____________
(*) Adjusted to reflect reverse stock split, see note 3(f) in the Condensed consolidated financial statements
BALANCE SHEETS
(U.S. dollars in thousands) |
For the |
For the |
9 months |
9 months |
|||||
Current assets |
10,907 |
4,135 |
|
5,415 |
14,745 |
||||
Total assets |
14,819 |
4,684 |
|
11,158 |
16,325 |
||||
Current liabilities |
6,202 |
5,951 |
|
6,631 |
5,591 |
||||
Long term liabilities |
5,352 |
12,744 |
|
3,585 |
5,171 |
||||
Redeemable convertible Preferred Shares |
0 |
5,585 |
|
104 |
0 |
||||
Total shareholders’ equity (capital deficiency) |
3,265 |
(19,596 |
) |
838 |
5,563 |
7
THE OFFERING
Common stock by the Selling Stockholders |
2,631,357 shares of Common Stock, consisting of (i) 301,000 shares of Common Stock; (ii) 970,187 shares of Common Stock that are issuable upon the exercise of the Pre-Funded Warrants; (iii) 1,271,187 shares of Common Stock that are issuable upon the exercise of the Private Warrants, and (iv) 88,983 shares of Common Stock that are issuable upon exercise of the Placement Agent Warrants. |
|
Plan of Distribution |
The selling stockholders will determine when and how they will sell the common stock covered by this prospectus. See the “Plan of Distribution” section of this prospectus. |
|
Use of Proceeds |
We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of our common stock by the selling stockholders. However, we will receive proceeds from the exercise of the Warrants if exercised for cash. |
|
Risk factors |
See “Risk Factors” and other information appearing elsewhere in this prospectus for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before deciding whether to invest in our securities. |
|
Listing |
Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “ASNS.” |
8
RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, before deciding to invest in our common stock. The risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only ones we face. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects could be harmed. In that event, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.
Risks Related to Our Business
We have a history of net losses, may incur substantial net losses in the future, and may not achieve or sustain profitability or growth in future periods. If we cannot achieve and sustain profitability, our business, financial condition, and operating results will be adversely affected.
We have incurred net losses in recent years, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future. We experienced a net loss of $11 million and $5.3 million in the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. As a result, we had an accumulated deficit of $37.8 million as of September 30, 2023. We cannot predict when or whether we will reach or maintain profitability.
We also expect our operating expenses to increase in the future as we continue to invest for our future growth, including expanding our research and development function to drive further development of our platform, expanding our sales and marketing activities, developing the functionality to expand into adjacent markets, and reaching customers in new geographic locations, which will negatively affect our operating results if our total revenues do not increase. In addition to the anticipated costs to grow our business, we also expect to incur significant additional legal, accounting, and other expenses as a newly public company. These efforts and additional expenses may be more costly than we expect, and we cannot guarantee that we will be able to increase our revenues to offset our operating expenses. Any failure to increase our revenues or to manage our costs as we invest in our business would prevent us from achieving or maintaining profitability.
There is no guaranty that we will be able to generate the revenue necessary to support our cost structure or obtain the level of financing necessary for our operations.
We have incurred significant losses and negative cash flows from operations and incurred losses of $11 million and $5.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we had negative cash flows from operations of $7.8 million and $2.7 million, respectively. As of September 30, 2023, our accumulated deficit was $37.8 million. We have funded our operations to date through equity financing and has cash on hand (including short term deposits and restricted cash) of $6.0 million and long-term deposits and restricted cash of $2.4 million as of December 31, 2022. We monitor our cash flow projections on a current basis and take active measures to obtain the funding it requires to continue our operations. However, these cash flow projections are subject to various uncertainties concerning their fulfilment such as the ability to increase revenues by attracting and expanding its customer base or reducing cost structure. If we will not succeed in generating sufficient cash flow or completing additional financing, then it will need to execute a cost reduction plan that has been prepared. Our transition to profitable operations is dependent on generating a level of revenue adequate to support our cost structure. We expect to fund operations using cash on hand, through operational cash flows and raising additional proceeds. There are no assurances, however, we will be able to generate the revenue necessary to support our cost structure or that we will be successful in obtaining the level of financing necessary for its operations.
Furthermore, we may continue to incur negative cash flow from operating and investing activities for the foreseeable future as we expect to incur research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses and make capital expenditures in our efforts to increase our sales. Our business also will at times require significant amounts of working capital to support our growth of additional platforms. An inability to generate positive cash flow from operating activities for the near term may adversely affect our ability to raise needed capital for our business on reasonable terms, or at all, diminish supplier or customer willingness to enter into transactions with us, and have other adverse effects that may decrease our long-term viability. There can be no assurance that we will achieve positive cash flow in the near future or at all.
9
Our financial condition raises substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.
Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that we will continue to operate as a going concern. These events and conditions, along with other matters, indicate that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on our ability to continue as a going concern. This going concern determination could materially limit our ability to raise additional funds through the issuance of equity or debt securities or otherwise. Further financial statements may include an explanatory paragraph with respect to our ability to continue as a going concern. There can be no assurance that we will succeed in generating sufficient revenues from our product sales to continue our operations as a going concern. If funds are not available to us, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate research or development plans for, or commercialization efforts with respect to our products. This may raise substantial doubts about our ability to continue as a going concern.
Our shareholders’ equity does not meet the requirements for continued listing on Nasdaq. If we fail to regain compliance with the minimum shareholders’ equity requirements, our common stock will be subject to delisting. Our ability to publicly or privately sell equity securities and the liquidity of our common stock could be adversely affected if our common stock is delisted.
On August 25, 2023, we received a notification letter (the “Notice”) from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (the “Nasdaq”) indicating that we were not in compliance with Nasdaq’s Listing Rule 5550(b)(1) because our shareholders’ equity for the quarter ended June 30, 2023 (the “Quarter”), as reported in the our Form 10-Q for the Quarter, was below the minimum shareholders’ equity requirement of $2,500,000 (the “Shareholders’ Equity Requirement”). The Notice had no immediate effect on our continued listing on Nasdaq, subject to our compliance with the other continued listing requirements. In accordance with Nasdaq rules, we submitted a plan to regain compliance with the Shareholders’ Equity Requirement (the “Compliance Plan”). Nasdaq may grant up to 180 calendar days from the date of the Notice for us to regain compliance with the Shareholders’ Equity Requirement.
If our common stock is delisted from Nasdaq, our common stock would likely then trade only in the over-the-counter market. If our common stock were to trade on the over-the-counter market, selling our common stock could be more difficult because smaller quantities of shares would likely be bought and sold, transactions could be delayed, and we could face significant material adverse consequences, including: a limited availability of market quotations for our securities; reduced liquidity with respect to our securities; a determination that our shares are a “penny stock,” which will require brokers trading in our securities to adhere to more stringent rules, possibly resulting in a reduced level of trading activity in the secondary trading market for our securities; a reduced amount of news and analyst coverage for us; and a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future. These factors could result in lower prices and larger spreads in the bid and ask prices for our common stock and would substantially impair our ability to raise additional funds and could result in a loss of institutional investor interest and fewer development opportunities for us.
Unfavorable global economic or political conditions prolonged and intensified throughout the second half of 2022 and in 2023 could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Our business is susceptible to general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets. A global financial crisis or a global or regional political disruption has caused, and could in the future cause, extreme volatility in the capital and credit markets. A severe or prolonged economic downturn, including a recession, the currently prolonged inflationary economic environment, continued rising interest rates, debt and equity market fluctuations, diminished liquidity and credit availability, increased unemployment rates, decreased investor and consumer confidence, supply chain challenges, natural catastrophes, the effects of climate change, regional and global conflicts and terrorist attacks or political disruption or turmoil could result in a variety of risks to our business, including weakened demand for our product candidates or any future product candidates, if approved, and our ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all. A weak or declining economy or political disruption could also strain our manufacturers or suppliers, possibly resulting in supply disruption, or cause our customers to delay making payments for our potential products. Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the political or economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.
10
Prolonged inflation rates could negatively impact our revenues and profitability if increases in the prices of our products or a decrease in customer spending results in lower sales which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Inflation rates, particularly in the United States and Israel, have increased in 2023 and are prolonged in the past months, at levels not seen in years in many countries where our customers reside. Continued and increased inflation may result in decreased demand for our products and services, increased operating costs (including our labor costs), reduced liquidity, and limitations on our ability to access credit or otherwise raise debt and equity capital. In addition, the United States Federal Reserve has raised, and may again raise, interest rates in response to concerns about inflation. Increases in interest rates, especially if coupled with reduced government spending and volatility in financial markets, may have the effect of further increasing economic uncertainty and heightening these risks. In an inflationary environment, we may be unable to raise the sales prices of our products at or above the rate at which our costs increase, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Accordingly, the U.S. dollar has strengthened against foreign currencies as a result of the United States Federal Reserve’s actions to lower inflation, which is affecting our business partners, where they sell local currency to the end-user of our products and services.
We may need to raise additional capital to meet our business requirements in the future, and such capital raising may be costly or difficult to obtain and could dilute our stockholders’ ownership interests.
In order for us to pursue our business objectives, we may need to raise additional capital, which additional capital may not be available on reasonable terms or at all. Any additional capital raised through the sale of equity or equity-backed securities may dilute our shareholders’ ownership percentages and could also result in a decrease in the market value of our equity securities. The terms of any securities issued by us in future capital transactions may be more favorable to new investors, and may include preferences, superior voting rights and the issuance of warrants or other derivative securities, which may have a further dilutive effect on the holders of any of our securities then outstanding. In addition, we may incur substantial costs in pursuing future capital financing, including investment banking fees, legal fees, accounting fees, securities law compliance fees, printing and distribution expenses and other costs. We may also be required to recognize non-cash expenses in connection with certain securities we issue, such as convertible notes and warrants, which may adversely impact our financial condition.
Our indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital to fund operations, limit our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry and prevent us from meeting our financial obligations.
We currently have one outstanding loan with Migdalor, in the original principal amount of approximately $6 million, of which approximately $5.0 million remains outstanding as of December 31, 2022, and which is secured by all our assets. If we cannot generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our debt, we may need to further refinance our debt, dispose of assets or issue equity to obtain necessary funds.
Furthermore, on December 21, 2022, pursuant to the terms of the Senior Loan Agreement between Migdalor and our wholly owned subsidiary, Actelis Networks Israel, Ltd., dated December 2, 2020, as amended (the “Loan Agreement”), to satisfy our obligation associated with the cover/debt ratio (as defined in the Loan Agreement), we deposited $2 million to a Company-owned interest bearing bank account, or the “designated account” (as defined in the Loan Agreement). An additional $2 million was deposited in the designated account on or about February 28, 2023, as agreed between Migdalor and us.
In 2024, we entered into a new credit line facility from an Israeli bank of up to $1.5 million that increases the Company’s operating liquidity while not increasing the Company’s total debt, as the Company will perform an early repayment of its existing debt using its restricted cash in a similar amount. The new credit line will be secured by customer invoices and will incur interest at a Federal SOFR rate plus 5.5% and is available until the end of 2024, with possible extension. At the same time, the Company plans to perform a partial early repayment of its existing debt facility with Migdalor under the Loan Agreement using its restricted cash at an amount equal to the amount of funding from the new credit line, therefore leaving the total debt amount at a similar level.
11
We do not know whether we will be able to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or raise additional capital to fund operating activities on a timely basis, on terms satisfactory to us, or at all. Our indebtedness could have important consequences, including:
• our ability to obtain additional debt or equity financing for working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions and general corporate or other purposes may be limited;
• a portion of our cash flows from operations will be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on the indebtedness and will not be available for other purposes, including operations, capital expenditures and future business opportunities;
• our ability to adjust to changing market conditions may be limited and may place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to less-leveraged competitors, if such exist; and
• we may be vulnerable during a downturn in general economic conditions or in our business, or may be unable to carry on capital spending that is important to our growth.
To support our business growth, in the past years we increased our focus on serving certain IoT verticals, while continuing to serve our existing Telco customers. This change in our strategy may make it more difficult to evaluate our business growth and future prospects, and may increase the risk that we will not be successful in our plans.
Since our inception, our business was focused on serving Telcos for enterprises and residential customers. Our products and solutions have been deployed with more than 100 telecommunication service providers worldwide, in enterprise, residential and mobile base station connectivity applications. In recent years, as we have further developed our technology and rolled out additional products, we turned our focus on serving the IoT markets. Our operations are focused on our fast-growing IoT business, while maintaining our commitment to our existing Telco customers. A significant portion of our revenue is from our existing Telco customers. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, our Telco customers in the aggregate accounted for approximately 35% and 48% of our revenues, respectively.
Our change in strategy and our efforts to serve the IoT verticals that we have focused on may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, or may require longer development and deployment times, and we may not succeed in fully penetrating such IoT verticals, or at all.
We may have ineffective sales and marketing efforts.
Our sales and marketing efforts to drive growth may be ineffective as we try to win new deals either directly with end-user customers, or indirectly through business partners, distributors, system integrators or value-add resellers. These ineffective efforts may cause us to miss our planned growth and harm our financial results.
We outsource our product manufacturing and are dependent on our key manufacturers, and on our component and OEM suppliers. We are susceptible to problems, and have encountered problems in the past, in connection with procurement, decreasing quality, reliability, and protectability.
Our devices are assembled by using fully manufactured parts, the manufacturing of which has been fully outsourced, and we have no direct control over the manufacturing processes of our products. We outsource procurement and manufacturing activities to certain key manufacturers and certain component and OEM suppliers.
We also purchase unique components and products from suppliers who are exclusively able to fulfill such supply. We may lose some or all of these relationships, or have a material weakness in negotiating favorable terms, or such unique components have or may be declared end-of-life which may require product design changes. Such circumstances have hurt our profitability in the past, and may hurt our profitability in the future, and negatively affect our ability to deliver our product on time to customers.
Our lack of control in our manufacturing process due to the fact that we outsource our product manufacturing may increase quality or reliability risks and could limit our ability to quickly increase or decrease production rates. If necessary, switching production to other or additional subcontractors will entail a material cost and a temporary decrease in our productivity. Our manufacturing process has been disrupted in the past, and may be disrupted in the future, by various factors, including but not limited to shipping delays, bottlenecks resulting from raw materials specific shortages, quality problems or a decrease in quality, manpower shortages by the manufacturers or political unease that would trigger the closure of a facility or financial insolvency.
12
Furthermore, a supplier may discontinue production of a particular part for any number of reasons, which may require us to purchase a large inventory of such discontinued parts in order to ensure that a continuous supply of such parts remains available to our customers. Such “end-of-life” parts purchases could result in significant expenditures by us in a particular period, and ultimately any unused parts may result in a significant inventory write-off, either of which could have an adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations for the applicable periods. Additionally, in case any part embedded in our products is no longer available, we may be required to redesign such product in order to enable usage of alternative parts, or be forced to announce end-of-life of such product. Refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” for additional information on supply constraints related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Demand for our products and solutions may not grow or may decline.
We may experience a reduction in customer demand as a result of either of competition from other companies, technological changes required by our target markets, or disruptions of existing and new customer relationships. Such demand reduction will prevent us from realizing our planned growth.
Our gross margins may not increase or may deteriorate.
If our gross margins do not increase as planned or deteriorate, it will be harder for us to achieve profitability, which could substantially impact our business and ability to carry on operations if other financing sources are not secured on satisfactory terms. Our gross margins may deteriorate as a result of either reductions of customers price points, increases in product component and manufacturing costs, or unfavorable changes in the mix between more and less profitable customers and/or products.
Changes in the price and availability of our raw materials and shipping could be detrimental to our profitability.
Chipsets, electronic and mechanical components are significant components of our products. Over the past two years, the prices and availability of electronic and mechanical components have been constantly increasing.
Furthermore, our products are assembled with various contract manufacturers located in Israel and in Taiwan. As a result of the of COVID-19 pandemic, the world is experiencing shortages of electronic components. We have already experienced instances of limited supply of certain raw materials and shipping delays, which resulted in extended lead times, increased shipping costs and higher-than-usual backlogs. If the prices of such components and shipping were to continue to increase, or if shipping delays continue to occur, such price changes and shipping delays could have a negative effect on our gross margin and have a negative effect on revenues and earnings.
We may have previously agreed to set prices with our customers and any changes in supply costs may decrease our margin and directly affect profitability. If prices increase, supply interruptions, shipping delays, or shortages of materials continue to occur, it could have a negative effect on revenues and earnings.
Expanding our operations and marketing efforts to meet expected growth may impact profitability if actual growth is less than expected.
To meet expected growth, we plan to expand operations, including additional hiring, advertising, and promotion. If actual growth is less than expected, it would negatively impact our ability to become profitable, which would require we raise additional capital if required, which may not be available on favorable terms, or at all, which would impact our ability to carry on operations.
If our internal company cyber-security measures are breached or fail and unauthorized access is obtained to our IT environment, we may incur significant losses of data, which we may not be able to recover and may experience a delay in our ability to conduct our day-to-day business.
As cybersecurity attacks continue to evolve and increase, our cyber-security measures and our IT environment could be penetrated or compromised by internal and external parties’ intent on extracting confidential information, disrupting business processes, corrupting information, or looking to force the Company to pay a ransom. These risks could arise from external parties or from acts or omissions of internal or service provider personnel. Such unauthorized access could disrupt our business and could result in the loss of assets, litigation, remediation costs, damage to our reputation and failure to retain or attract customers following such an event, which could adversely affect our business.
13
Cyber attackers update their methods frequently. Sometimes cyberattacks are unrecognizable at the time of their occurrence and even long after. In addition, cyber incidents can occur as a result of non-technological failures, like human error or malicious acts. In some cases, information security incidents at our customers or suppliers can also lead to information security incidents in our information systems. For these reasons, we cannot guarantee that the safeguards taken by us and the safeguards we will take in the future will completely prevent information security incidents or damages that may result from them as detailed above.
We provide cyber security features as part of our products that may not completely prevent information security breaches, and our products are installed in live customer environments and may be compromised by cyber-attacks and damage customer assets.
Our products include cyber-security features such as data-traffic encryption that are engineered to protect our customers’ data and environment. Cyber-attacks become more sophisticated and evolve quickly, and these features may fail to protect our customers as intended and fail at preventing information security breaches. We plan to offer new cyber security products and features which we will either develop internally, obtain from partnerships with third-parties, or through acquisitions in the future. These planned new cyber-security products and features may fail to protect our customers as intended and not prevent information security breaches.
Our products are installed in live customer network environments, and may be subject to cyber-attacks seeking access to our customers networks through our products. Those cyber-attack attempts may take advantage of vulnerabilities of our products within the networks, vulnerabilities that may be known or unknown to us.
Our products and services include information systems and digital data of various types, including data kept by our employees, suppliers, and customers (and their own customers). In recent years there has been an increase in the frequency and severity of cyber incidents (including cybercrime). This trend is expected to continue in the future and even worsen, despite all the defense mechanisms employed against it. Cyber events can lead to unauthorized access, unauthorized disclosure, misuse, disruption, deletion, or modification of the Company and its customer assets, data, and processing, as well as disrupting day-to-day operations, computing services, and significantly slowing them down and even disabling information systems.
In the event of damage caused by such cyber-attacks, we may suffer negative consequences, such as disruption of the Company’s and/or our customers’ activities, disruption of or disabling information systems, theft of our and/or our customers’ data, or damage to its reputation thus affecting clients’ trust in the Company, and potentially exposing it to lawsuits. In such cases, our business results may be severely harmed.
We depend on key information systems and third-party service providers.
We depend on key information systems to transact our business accurately and efficiently. These systems and services are vulnerable to interruptions or other failures resulting from, among other things, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, software, equipment or digital failures, processing errors, computer viruses, other security issues or supplier defaults. Security, backup, and disaster recovery measures may not be adequate or implemented properly to avoid such disruptions or failures. Any disruption or failure of these systems or services could cause substantial errors, processing inefficiencies, security breaches, inability to use the systems or process transactions, loss of customers or other business disruptions, all of which could negatively affect our business and financial performance.
We depend on our management team and other key employees, and the loss of one or more of these employees or an inability to attract and retain highly skilled employees could adversely affect our business.
Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain highly skilled personnel. The loss of the services of any of our key personnel, the inability to attract or retain qualified personnel, or delays in hiring required personnel, particularly in engineering and sales, may seriously and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Although we have entered into employment or consulting agreements with our personnel, their employment is generally for no specific duration.
Our future performance also depends on the continued services and continuing contributions of our senior management team, which includes Tuvia Barlev, our Chief Executive Officer, to execute on our business plan and to identify and pursue new opportunities and product innovations. The loss of services of our senior management team, particularly our Chief Executive Officer, could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our development and strategic objectives, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
14
We may face the effects of increased competition and rapid technological changes.
The industry in which we are engaged is subject to rapid and significant technological change. There can be no assurance that our systems can be upgraded to meet future innovations which will be required to meet our customer’s requirements, or that new technologies will be adopted successfully by us, or existing technologies will not be improved, which would render the offerings obsolete or non-competitive. Companies we compete with enjoy significant competitive advantages, including greater name recognition; greater financial, technical, and service resources; established networks; additional product offerings; and greater resources for product development and sales and marketing.
There can be no assurance that other established networking technology companies, any of which would likely have greater resources than us, will not enter the market. In addition, new competitors may enter the marketplace and/or begin offering networking technology products and solutions and in channels similar to or competing with ours. Such competition may reduce demand for our products and impact the growth prospects and ability to achieve profitability, which may require us to raise new capital, which may not be available on favorable terms, or at all, and that would impair our ability to carry on operations.
We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against any of these competitors. Our failure to compete successfully with our competitors could harm our business.
We are dependent on skilled human capital.
Our ability to innovate and execute its business plans is dependent on the ability to hire, replace, and train skilled personnel. The employment market suffers from shortages of candidates, and such shortages may continue in future years, causing delays and preventing us from executing our plans.
Our results of operations are likely to fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year, which could adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.
Our results of operations, including our revenue, cost of revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, cash flow, and deferred revenue, have fluctuated from quarter to quarter and year to year in the past and may continue to vary significantly in the future so that period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations may not be meaningful. Accordingly, our financial results in any one quarter should not be relied upon as indicative of future performance. Our quarterly financial results may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, may be difficult to predict, and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly financial results include:
• our ability to attract new customers and increase revenue from our existing customers;
• the loss of existing customers;
• customer satisfaction with our products, solutions, platform capabilities and customer support;
• mergers and acquisitions or other factors resulting in the consolidation of our customer base;
• mix of our revenue;
• our ability to gain new partners and retain existing partners;
• fluctuations in share-based compensation expense;
• decisions by potential customers to purchase competing offerings or develop in-house technologies and solutions as alternatives to our offerings;
• changes in the spending patterns of our customers;
• the amount and timing of operating expenses related to the maintenance and expansion of our business and operations, including investments in research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative resources;
• network outages;
15
• developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or proprietary rights, our products and services, or third-party intellectual property or proprietary rights;
• negative publicity about our company, our offerings or our partners, including as a result of actual or perceived breaches of, or failures relating to, privacy, data protection or data security;
• the timing of expenses related to the development or acquisition of technologies or businesses and potential future charges for impairment of goodwill from acquired companies;
• general economic, industry, and market conditions;
• the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, or any other pandemic, epidemic, outbreak of infectious disease or other global health crises on our business, the businesses of our customers and partners and general economic conditions;
• the impact of political uncertainty or unrest;
• changes in our pricing policies or those of our competitors;
• fluctuations in the growth rate of the markets that our offerings address;
• seasonality in the underlying businesses of our customers, including budgeting cycles, purchasing practices and usage patterns;
• the business strengths or weakness of our customers;
• our ability to collect timely on invoices or receivables;
• the cost and potential outcomes of future litigation or other disputes;
• future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies;
• our overall effective tax rate, including impacts caused by any reorganization in our corporate tax structure and any new legislation or regulatory developments;
• our ability to successfully expand our business in the United States and internationally;
• fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and
• the timing and success of new products and solutions introduced by us or our competitors, or any other change in the competitive dynamics of our industry, including consolidation among competitors, customers or partners.
The impact of one or more of the foregoing or other factors may cause our results of operations to vary significantly. Such fluctuations make forecasting more difficult and could cause us to fail to meet the expectations of investors and securities analysts, which could cause the trading price of our common stock to fall substantially, resulting in the loss of all or part of your investment, and subject us to costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits.
The loss of one or more of our significant customers, or any other reduction in the amount of revenue we derive from any such customer, would adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Our future success is dependent on our ability to establish and maintain successful relationships with a diverse set of customers.
We currently derive a significant portion of our revenue from a limited number of our customers. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, our top ten customers in the aggregate accounted for approximately 82% and 78% of our revenues.
16
We expect to continue to derive a significant portion of our revenue from a limited number of customers in the future and, in some cases, the portion of our revenue attributable to individual customers may increase. The loss of one or more significant customers or a reduction in the amount of revenue we derive from any such customer could significantly and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Customers may choose not to renew their contracts or may otherwise reduce the breadth of the offerings which they purchase for any number of reasons. We are also subject to the risk that any such customer will experience financial difficulties that prevent them from making payments to us on a timely basis or at all.
We are currently operating in a period of economic uncertainty and capital markets disruption, which has been significantly impacted by geopolitical instability due to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected by any negative impact on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the conflict in Ukraine or any other geopolitical tensions.
U.S. and global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption following the escalation of geopolitical tensions and the start of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops was reported. Although the length and impact of the ongoing military conflict is highly unpredictable, and although we currently have no operations or sales in either Russia or Ukraine, the conflict in Ukraine could lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, credit and capital markets, as well as supply chain interruptions for some of our components. Additionally, this conflict could lead to sanctions, embargoes, regional instability, geopolitical shifts, cyberattacks, other retaliatory actions, and adverse effects on macroeconomic conditions, currency exchange rates, and financial markets, which could adversely impact our operations and financial results, as well as those of third parties with whom we conduct business. Our operations would be particularly vulnerable to potential interruptions in the supply of certain critical materials and metals, such as neon gas and palladium, which are used in semiconductor manufacturing. Any interruption to semiconductor chip supply could significantly impact our ability to receive the components and timely roll-out of our operations. Furthermore, any potential increase in geopolitical tensions in Asia, particularly in the Taiwan Strait, could also significantly disrupt existing semiconductor chip manufacturing and increase the prospect of an interruption to the semiconductor chip supply across the world. A significant portion of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing is in Taiwan, and similar geopolitical tensions there could create further supply chain disruptions, which could result in further delays for our products’ components.
The world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer is located in Taiwan and a large part of equipment and materials, is manufactured in, and imported from, Taiwan. A setback to the current state of relative peace and stability in the region could compromise existing semiconductor chip production and have downstream implications for our company. We are continuing to monitor the situation in Ukraine and globally and assessing its potential impact on our business.
Governments in the United States and many other countries, or the Sanctioning Bodies, have imposed economic sanctions on certain Russian individuals, including politicians, and Russian corporate and banking entities. The Sanctioning Bodies, or others, could also institute broader sanctions on Russia, including banning Russia from global payments systems that facilitate cross-border payments. These sanctions, or even the threat of further sanctions, may result in the decline of the value and liquidity of Russian securities, a weakening of the ruble or other adverse consequences to the global economy.
The current war in Ukraine, and geopolitical events stemming from such conflicts, could cause consumer confidence and spending to decrease or result in increased volatility in the United States and worldwide financial markets and economy. The extent and duration of the military action, resulting sanctions and resulting future market disruptions in the region are impossible to predict, but could be significant and have a severe adverse effect worldwide financial markets and economy.
The effects of health pandemics, such as the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, have had, and could in the future have, an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, was first reported and on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. The widespread health crisis is adversely affecting the broader economies, financial markets and overall demand environment for many of our products.
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Our operations and the operations of our suppliers, channel partners and customers were disrupted to varying degrees by a range of external factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of which are not within our control. Many governments imposed, and may yet impose, a wide range of restrictions on the physical movement of people in order to limit the spread of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and likely will continue to have, an impact on the attendance and productivity of our employees, and those of our channel partners or customers, resulting in negative impacts to our results of operations and overall financial performance. We suffered delays in realization of certain new orders from our customers, delay in testing of some of our new technologies in customer premises and difficulty conducting business development activities in an effective way (face-to-face). In addition, we had to increase our credit lines by $2.0 million to support the loss of revenue and profit. Additionally, COVID-19 has resulted, and likely will continue to result, in delays in non-residential construction, non-crisis-related IT purchases and project completion schedules in general, all of which can negatively impact our results in both current and future periods.
The duration and extent of the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic or any future epidemic or pandemic depends on future developments that cannot be accurately predicted at this time, such as the severity and transmission rate of the virus, the extent and effectiveness of containment actions, the effects of measures enacted by policy makers and central banks around the globe, and the impact of these and other factors on our employees, customers, channel partners and suppliers. If we are not able to respond to and manage the impact of such events effectively, our business will be affected.
Our performance is affected by general economic and political conditions and taxation policies.
The success of our activities may be affected by general economic and market conditions, like interest rates, currency exchange rate fluctuations, availability of credit, inflation rates, economic uncertainty, changes in laws, and United States and international political circumstances. Unexpected volatility or illiquidity could impair profitability or result in losses.
We may be adversely affected by the political and economic situation in the U.S., Europe and a number of countries in Asia.
The U.S. communications market is directly affected by economic developments in the U.S. economy. The European and Asian communications market is similarly reliant on political and economic stability in those regions. Changing trends in these markets may lead to a decrease in investments and a delay in projects, which could harm our business. To reduce our sensitivity to market changes, we operate in a large number of different vertical markets and territories.
Our business could be adversely impacted by changes in laws and regulations related to government contracts.
Federal or state government bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, laws or regulations affecting the use of the Internet as a commercial medium. Legislators, regulators, or government bodies or agencies may also make legal or regulatory changes or interpret or apply existing laws or regulations that relate to government contracts. Changes in these laws, regulations or interpretations could require us to modify our platform in order to comply with these changes, to incur substantial additional costs or divert resources that could otherwise be deployed to grow our business, or expose us to unanticipated civil or criminal liability, among other things.
We are subject to laws and regulations worldwide, changes to which could increase our costs and individually or in the aggregate adversely affect our business.
We are subject to laws and regulations affecting our domestic and international operations in a number of areas. These U.S. and foreign laws and regulations affect our activities including, but not limited to, in areas of labor, health and safety, tax, import and export requirements, foreign exchange controls and cash repatriation restrictions, data privacy requirements, anti-competition, and environmental.
Compliance with these laws, regulations and similar requirements may be onerous and expensive, and they may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, further increasing the cost of compliance and doing business. Any such costs, which may rise in the future as a result of changes in these laws and regulations or in their interpretation, could individually or in the aggregate make our products and services less attractive to our customers, delay the introduction of new products in one or more regions, or cause us to change or limit our business practices. We have implemented policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, but there can be no assurance that our employees, contractors, or agents will not violate such laws and regulations or our policies and procedures.
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Risks Related to Protecting Our Technology and Intellectual Property
Claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property could force us to incur significant costs or revise the way we conduct our business.
Our competitors protect their proprietary rights by means of patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property. We have not conducted an independent review of patents and other intellectual property issued to third parties, who may have patents or patent applications relating to our proprietary technology. We may receive letters from third parties alleging, or inquiring about, possible infringement, misappropriation, or violation of their intellectual property rights. Any party asserting that we infringe, misappropriate, or violate proprietary rights may force us to defend ourselves, and potentially our customers, against the alleged claim. These claims and any resulting lawsuit, if successful, could subject us to significant liability for damages or interruption or cessation of our operations. Any such claims or lawsuit could:
• be time-consuming and expensive to defend, whether meritorious or not;
• require us to stop providing products or services that use the technology that infringes the other party’s intellectual property;
• divert the attention of our technical and managerial resources;
• require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements with third-parties, which may not be available on terms that we deem acceptable;
• prevent us from operating all or a portion of our business or force us to redesign our products, services or technology, which could be difficult and expensive and may make the performance or value of our product or service offerings less attractive;
• subject us to significant liability for damages or result in significant settlement payments; or
• require us to indemnify our customers.
Furthermore, during the course of litigation, confidential information may be disclosed in the form of documents or testimony in connection with discovery requests, depositions or trial testimony. Disclosure of our confidential information and our involvement in intellectual property litigation could materially adversely affect our business. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of intellectual property litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources. In addition, any litigation could significantly harm our relationships with current and prospective customers. Any of the foregoing could disrupt our business and have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our patents and proprietary technology may be challenged or disputed.
We hold certain patent and trade secret rights relating to various aspects of our technologies, which are of material importance to the Company and its future prospects. Any patents we have obtained or do obtain may be challenged by re-examination or otherwise invalidated or eventually found unenforceable. Both the patent application process and the process of managing patent disputes can be time consuming and expensive. Competitors may attempt to challenge or invalidate our patents or may be able to design alternative techniques or devices that avoid infringement of our patents or develop products with functionalities that are comparable to ours. In the event a competitor infringes upon our patent or other intellectual property rights, litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights or to defend our patents against challenge, even if successful, could be expensive and time consuming and could require significant time and attention from our management. We may not have sufficient resources to enforce our intellectual property rights or to defend our patents against challenges from others.
Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand.
Our success and ability to compete depend largely upon our intellectual property. To date, we have 17 registered patents in the United States; 5 registered patents in Europe, one registered patent in Mexico, , one registered patent in Indonesia, and one patent application pending in WIPO, all of which in the general area of high-speed carrier class
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Ethernet service and transport over bonded VDSL2, G.SHDSL as well as Fiber. We take reasonable steps to protect our intellectual property, especially when working with third parties. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate. For example, other parties, including our competitors, may independently develop similar technology, duplicate our services, or design around our intellectual property and, in such cases, we may not be able to assert our intellectual property rights against such parties. Further, our contractual arrangements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our confidential information or provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of our confidential information, and we may be unable to detect the unauthorized use of, or take appropriate steps to enforce, our intellectual property rights.
We make business decisions about when to seek patent protection for a particular technology and when to rely upon trade secret protection, and the approach we select may ultimately prove to be inadequate. Even in cases where we seek patent protection, there is no assurance that the resulting patents will effectively protect every significant feature of our technology or provide us with any competitive advantages. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that any of our pending patent application will issue or be approved. The United States Patent and Trademark Office and various foreign governmental patent agencies also require compliance with a number of procedurals, documentary, fee payment, and other similar provisions during the patent application process and after a patent has issued. There are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent, or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If this occurs, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would have a material adverse effect on our business. Effective trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret protection may not be available in every country in which we conduct business. Further, intellectual property law, including statutory and case law, in the United States and other countries, is constantly developing, and any changes in the law could make it harder for us to enforce our rights.
In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming, and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. An adverse determination of any litigation proceedings could put our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and could put our related pending patent applications at risk of not issuing. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation particularly in the US, there is a risk that some of our confidential or sensitive information could be compromised by disclosure in the event of litigation. In addition, during the course of litigation, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock. Negative publicity related to a decision by us to initiate such enforcement actions against a client or former client, regardless of its accuracy, may adversely impact our other client relationships or prospective client relationships, harm our brand and business, and could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. Our failure to secure, protect, and enforce our intellectual property rights could adversely affect our brand and our business.
The lives of our patents may not be sufficient to effectively protect our products and business.
Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are paid timely, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its first effective nonprovisional filing date. Although various extensions may be available, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such product candidates are commercialized. Even if patents covering our product candidates are obtained, once the patent life has expired for a product, we may be open to competition from biosimilar or generic medications. As a result, our patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing product candidates similar or identical to ours. Our patents issued as of February 6, 2024 will expire on dates ranging from September 25, 2024 to October 31, 2038, subject to any patent extensions that may be available for such patents. More specifically, the following patents will expire over the next three years: EP02250273.6, US7606315, US7613235, EP1943827, EP1964377, GB2556826, MX279453, US7587042, IDP0030744.
In addition, although upon issuance in the United States a patent’s life can be increased based on certain delays caused by the USPTO, this increase can be reduced or eliminated based on certain delays caused by the patent applicant during patent prosecution. A patent term extension based on regulatory delay may be available in the United States.
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However, only a single patent can be extended for each marketing approval, and any patent can be extended only once, for a single product. Moreover, the scope of protection during the period of the patent term extension does not extend to the full scope of the claim, but instead only to the scope of the product as approved. Laws governing analogous patent term extensions in foreign jurisdictions vary widely, as do laws governing the ability to obtain multiple patents from a single patent family. Additionally, we may not receive an extension if we fail to exercise due diligence during the testing phase or regulatory review process, apply within applicable deadlines, fail to apply prior to expiration of relevant patents or otherwise fail to satisfy applicable requirements. If we are unable to obtain patent term extension or restoration, or the term of any such extension is less than we request, the period during which we will have the right to exclusively market our product will be shortened and our competitors may obtain approval of competing products following our patent expiration and may take advantage of our investment in development and clinical trials by referencing our clinical and preclinical data to launch their product earlier than might otherwise be the case, and our revenue could be reduced, possibly materially. If we do not have sufficient patent life to protect our products, our business and results of operations will be adversely affected.
We may not be able to adequately defend against piracy of intellectual property in foreign jurisdictions.
Considerable research is being performed in countries outside of the United States, and a number of potential competitors are located in these countries. The laws protecting intellectual property in some of those countries may not provide adequate protection to prevent our competitors from misappropriating our intellectual property. Several of these potential competitors may be further along in the process of product development and also operate large, company-funded research and development programs. As a result, our competitors may develop more competitive or affordable products, or achieve earlier patent protection or product commercialization than we are able to achieve. Competitive products may render any products that we develop obsolete.
Risks Related to Managing Our Business Operations in Israel
Potential political, economic, and military instability in the State of Israel, where our research and development facilities are located, may adversely affect our results of operations.
Our office where we conduct our research and development, operations, sales outside the Americas, and administration activities, is located in Israel. Many of our employees are residents of Israel.
Our employees and consultants in Israel, including members of our senior management, may be obligated to perform one month, and in some cases longer periods, of military reserve duty until they reach the age of 40 (or older, for citizens who hold certain positions in the Israeli armed forces reserves) and, in the event of a military conflict or emergency circumstances, may be called to immediate and unlimited active duty. In the event of severe unrest or other conflict, individuals could be required to serve in the military for extended periods of time. In response to increases in terrorist activity, there have been periods of significant call-ups of military reservists. It is possible that there will be similar large-scale military reserve duty call-ups in the future. Our operations could be disrupted by the absence of a significant number of our officers, directors, employees and consultants related to military service. Such disruption could materially adversely affect our business and operations. Additionally, the absence of a significant number of the employees of our Israeli suppliers and contractors related to military service or the absence for extended periods of one or more of their key employees for military service may disrupt their operations.
Our insurance does not cover losses that may occur as a result of an event associated with the security situation in the Middle East or for any resulting disruption in our operations. Although the Israeli government has in the past covered the reinstatement value of direct damages that were caused by terrorist attacks or acts of war, we cannot assure you that this government coverage will be maintained or, if maintained, will be sufficient to compensate us fully for damages incurred and the government may cease providing such coverage or the coverage might not suffice to cover potential damages. Any losses or damages incurred by us could have a material adverse effect on our business. Any armed conflicts or political instability in the region would likely negatively affect business conditions generally and could harm our results of operations and product development.
Further, in the past, the State of Israel and Israeli companies have been subjected to economic boycotts. Several countries still restrict business with the State of Israel and with Israeli companies. These restrictive laws and policies may have an adverse impact on our operating results, financial conditions or the expansion of our business. Similarly, Israeli corporations are limited in conducting business with entities from several countries.
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The Israeli government is currently pursuing changes to Israel’s judicial system, which, if adopted, may have an adverse effect on the macroeconomic conditions in Israel and consequently on our business and our results of operations.
Potential political, economic and military instability in the State of Israel, where our offices, members of our management team, our production and research and development facilities are located, may adversely affect our results of operations.
Several of our executive offices and research and development facilities are located in Israel. In addition, several of our employees, officers and directors are residents of Israel. Accordingly, political, economic and military conditions in Israel may directly affect our business. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a number of armed conflicts have taken place between Israel and groups in its neighboring countries, Hamas (an Islamist militia and political group that has historically controlled the Gaza Strip) and Hezbollah (an Islamist militia and political group based in Lebanon). In addition, several countries, principally in the Middle East, restrict doing business with Israel, and additional countries may impose restrictions on doing business with Israel and Israeli companies whether as a result of hostilities in the region or otherwise. Any hostilities involving Israel, terrorist activities, political instability or violence in the region or the interruption or curtailment of trade or transport between Israel and its trading partners could adversely affect our operations and results of operations and the market price of our common stock.
Our commercial insurance does not cover losses that may occur as a result of an event associated with the security situation in the Middle East. Although the Israeli government is currently committed to covering the reinstatement value of direct damages that are caused by terrorist attacks or acts of war, we cannot assure you that this government coverage will be maintained or, if maintained, will be sufficient to compensate us fully for damages incurred. Any losses or damages incurred by us could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Further, many Israeli citizens are obligated to perform several days, and in some cases more, of annual military reserve duty each year until they reach the age of 40 (or older for certain reservists) and, in the event of a military conflict, may be called to active duty. In response to increases in terrorist activity, there have been periods of significant call-ups of military reservists.
Additionally, having already passed into law a bill that removes the power of the Israeli judiciary to strike down legislation it deems unreasonable, the Israeli government also announced its plans to pass into legislation other judicial reforms that would, for example, increase political influence over the selection of judges. These plans have been met with mass protests in Israel and criticism from leading Israeli business leaders and certain foreign leaders. If such government plans are eventually enacted, they may cause operational challenges for us since we are headquartered in Israel and the majority of our employees are located in Israel. In addition, if foreign policy is negatively impacted with regard to Israel, this could impact our business with suppliers and customers which could in turn adversely impact our reputation, results of operations or financial condition.
In October 2023, Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel’s southern border from the Gaza Strip and conducted an orchestrated series of attacks on civilian and military targets, resulting in the mass death, maiming and kidnapping of civilians and soldiers. Hamas also launched extensive rocket attacks on Israeli population and industrial centers in Israel. Following the attack, Israel’s security cabinet declared war against Hamas and a military campaign against these terrorist organizations commenced in parallel to their continued rocket and terror attacks.
Following the attack, the Israeli government declared that the country was at war and the Israeli military began to call up reservists for active duty, including one of our employees, in anticipation of an active military campaign. While none of our facilities or infrastructure have been damaged nor have our supply chains been impacted since the war broke out on October 7, 2023, the import and export of goods may experience disruptions in and out of Israel as a result of such military conflict. A prolonged war could result in further military reserve duty call-ups in the future as well as irregularities to our supply chain and the movement of components and raw material into Israel and our finished products exported from Israel, which could disrupt our operations. Such disruption could materially adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
The intensity and duration of Israel’s current war against Hamas is difficult to predict, as are its economic implications on the Company’s business and operations and on Israel’s economy in general.
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Any hostilities involving Israel or the interruption or curtailment of trade between Israel and its present trading partners could have a material adverse effect on our business. The political and security situation in Israel may result in parties, with whom we have contracts, claiming that they have been discharged from performance, based on force majeure provisions. Political and economic implications of these hostilities, therefore, could harm our operations and product development.
Any hostilities involving Israel and the potential interruption and curtailment of trade between Israel and its trading partners could adversely affect our operations and make it more difficult for us to raise capital. We may experience disruptions if acts associated with such hostilities result in serious damage to our business and manufacturing facilities. Our business interruption insurance may not adequately compensate us for potential losses that may occur as a result of events associated with the security situation in the Middle East. Any losses or damages incurred by us could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Actelis Israel received Israeli government grants for certain of our research and development activities, the terms of which require us to pay royalties and satisfy specified conditions in order to manufacture products and transfer technologies outside of Israel. If we fail to satisfy these conditions, we may be required to pay penalties and refund grants previously received.
Our wholly owned subsidiary, Actelis Israel, which manages our research and development efforts, has been financed in part through royalty-bearing grants in an aggregate amount of approximately $14 million (plus accrued interest), received from the Israeli Innovation Authority (formerly known as the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Economy), or the IIA, as of December 31, 2022. We are committed to pay royalties at a rate of 3.0% on revenues up to the total amount of grants received, linked to the U.S. dollar and bearing interest at an annual rate of LIBOR applicable to U.S. dollar deposits.
We are further required to comply with the requirements of the Israeli Encouragement of Industrial Research, Development and Technological Innovation Law, 5744-1984 (formerly known as the Law for Encouragement of Research and Development in the Industry, 1984), as amended, and related regulations, or the Research Law, with respect to those past grants. When a grantee company develops know-how, technology or products using IIA grants, the terms of these grants and the Research Law restrict the transfer or license of such know-how, and the transfer of manufacturing or manufacturing rights of such products, technologies or know-how outside of Israel, without the prior approval of the IIA. Therefore, the discretionary approval of an IIA committee would be required for any transfer or license to third parties inside or outside of Israel of Actelis Israel’s know how or for the transfer outside of Israel of manufacturing or manufacturing rights related to those aspects of such technologies. We may not receive those approvals. Furthermore, the IIA may impose certain conditions on any arrangement under which it permits us to transfer technology or development outside of Israel.
The transfer or license of IIA-supported technology or know-how outside of Israel and the transfer of manufacturing of IIA-supported products, technology or know-how outside of Israel may involve the payment of significant amounts, depending upon the value of the transferred or licensed technology or know-how, our research and development expenses, the amount of IIA support, the time of completion of the IIA-supported research project and other factors. These restrictions and requirements for payment may impair our ability to sell, license or otherwise transfer our technology assets outside of Israel or to outsource or transfer development or manufacturing activities with respect to any product or technology outside of Israel. Furthermore, the consideration available to our shareholders in a transaction involving the transfer outside of Israel of technology or know-how developed with IIA funding (such as a merger or similar transaction) may be reduced by any amounts that we are required to pay to the IIA.
There are costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations.
Managing a business, operations, personnel or assets in another country is challenging and costly. Any management that we may have (whether based abroad or in the United States) may be inexperienced in cross-border business practices and unaware of significant differences in accounting rules, legal regimes, and labor practices. Even with a seasoned and experienced management team, the costs and difficulties inherent in managing cross-border business operations, personnel, and assets can be significant (and much higher than in a purely domestic business) and may negatively impact our financial and operational performance.
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Employment and other material contracts we have with our Israeli employees are governed by Israeli laws. Our inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under these agreements could adversely affect our business and financial condition.
All employees were asked to sign employment agreements that contain confidentiality, non-compete and assignment of intellectual property provisions. The employment agreements with our employees in Israel are governed by Israeli laws. The system of laws and the enforcement of existing laws and contracts in Israel may not be as certain in implementation and interpretation as in the United States, leading to a higher than usual degree of uncertainty as to the outcome of any litigation. Our inability to enforce or obtain a remedy under any of these or future agreements could adversely affect our business and financial condition. Delay with respect to the enforcement of particular rules and regulations, including those relating to intellectual property, customs, tax, and labor, could also cause serious disruption to operations abroad and negatively impact our results.
Israeli courts have required employers seeking to enforce non-compete undertakings of a former employee to demonstrate that the competitive activities of the former employee will harm one of a limited number of material interests of the employer which have been recognized by the courts, such as the secrecy of a company’s confidential commercial information or the protection of its intellectual property. If we cannot demonstrate that such interests will be harmed, we may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of our former employees or consultants and our ability to remain competitive may be diminished.
In addition, Chapter 8 of the Israeli Patents Law, 5727-1967, or the Patents Law, deals with inventions made in the course of an employee’s service and during his or her term of employment, whether or not the invention is patentable, or service inventions. Section 134 of the Patents Law sets forth that if there is no agreement which explicitly determines whether the employee is entitled to compensation for the service inventions and the extent and terms of such compensation, such determination will be made by the Compensation and Rewards Committee, a statutory committee of the Israeli Patents Office. As a result, it is unclear if, and to what extent, our research and development employees may be able to claim compensation with respect to our future revenues. Such claims, if successfully asserted, could adversely affect our results of operations and profitability.
We may be adversely affected by fluctuations in the currency exchange rate of the Israeli Shekel.
We compute a significant number of expenses in Israeli Shekels, both expenses from employees and suppliers. Our customers buy our products priced in US dollars or Euros. The strengthening of the shekel against the dollar and the euro could erode our profitability.
Unanticipated changes in our effective tax rate and additional tax liabilities, including those resulting from our international operations or the implementation of new tax rules, could harm our future results.
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and Israel. Our domestic and international tax liabilities are subject to the allocation of expenses in differing jurisdictions and complex transfer pricing regulations administered by taxing authorities in various jurisdictions. Tax rates in the jurisdictions in which we operate may change as a result of factors outside of our control or relevant taxing authorities may disagree with our determinations as to the income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. In addition, changes in tax and trade laws, treaties or regulations, or their interpretation or enforcement, have become more unpredictable and may become more stringent, which could materially adversely affect our tax position.
Forecasting our estimated annual effective tax rate is complex and subject to uncertainty, and there may be material differences between our forecasted and actual effective tax rate. Our effective tax rate could be adversely affected by changes in the mix of earnings and losses in countries with differing statutory tax rates, certain non-deductible expenses, the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, adjustments to income taxes upon finalization of tax returns, changes in available tax attributes, decision to repatriate non-U.S. earnings for which we have not previously provided for U.S. taxes, and changes in federal, state, or international tax laws and accounting principles.
Finally, we may be subject to income tax audits throughout the world. An adverse resolution of one or more uncertain tax positions in any period could have a material impact on our results of operations or financial condition for that period.
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Risks Related to our Common Stock
The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention, and affect our ability to attract and retain executive management and qualified board members.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the listing standards of Nasdaq and other applicable securities rules and regulations. The requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems, and resources. For example, the Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and results of operations. As a result of the complexity involved in complying with the rules and regulations applicable to public companies, our management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We also expect that being a public company and these new rules and regulations will make it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.
As a result of disclosure of information in filings required of a public company, our business and financial condition is more visible, which may result in an increased risk of threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business and results of operations could be harmed, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
The individuals who now constitute our senior management team have limited experience managing a publicly-traded company and limited experience complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Our senior management team may not successfully or efficiently manage our transition to a public company that is subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations.
We are an “emerging growth company,” and our compliance with the reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to “emerging growth companies” may make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we have elected to take advantage of certain exemptions and relief from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies.” These provisions include, but are not limited to: requiring only two years of audited financial statements and only two years of related selected financial data and management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations disclosures; being exempt from compliance with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; being exempt from any rules that could be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board requiring mandatory audit firm rotations or a supplement to the auditor’s report on financial statements; being subject to reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements; and not being required to hold nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation or on any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
In addition, while we are an “emerging growth company,” we will not be required to comply with any new financial accounting standard until such standard is generally applicable to private companies. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that are not “emerging growth companies” or elect not to avail themselves of this provision.
We may remain an “emerging growth company” until as late as December 31, 2027, the fiscal year-end following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our IPO, though we may cease to be an “emerging growth company” earlier under certain circumstances, including if (1) we have more than $1.07 billion in annual net revenues in any fiscal year, (2) we become a “large accelerated filer,” with at least $700 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates as of the end of the second quarter of that fiscal year or (3) we issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt over a three-year period.
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The exact implications of the JOBS Act are still subject to interpretations and guidance by the SEC and other regulatory agencies, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to take advantage of all of the benefits of the JOBS Act. In addition, investors may find our common stock less attractive to the extent we rely on the exemptions and relief granted by the JOBS Act. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may decline or become more volatile.
We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. If we experience material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations which may adversely affect investor confidence in us, and as a result, the value of our common stock.
As a public company, we are subject to significant requirements for enhanced financial reporting and internal controls. The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environments and to expend significant resources to maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company. In addition, we are required, pursuant to Section 404, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in the second annual report following the completion of our IPO. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency or combination of deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of a company’s annual and interim financial statements will not be detected or prevented on a timely basis.
The rules governing the standards that must be met for our management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing, and possible remediation. Testing and maintaining internal controls may divert our management’s attention from other matters that are important to our business. Once we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” or a “smaller reporting company”, our auditors will be required to issue an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal controls on an annual basis.
In the course of preparing the financial statements that are included in this Form S-1, management has determined that a material weakness exists within the internal control over financial reporting. The material weakness identified relates to lack of a sufficient number of finance personnel to allow for adequate segregation of duties. We concluded that the material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting occurs because as a newly public company, we do not have the necessary business processes, systems, personnel, and related internal controls necessary to satisfy the accounting and financial reporting requirements of a public company.
In order to remediate the material weakness, we expect to hire additional accounting and finance resources with public company experience or to provide the necessary training for such new hires without public company experience, and to nominate board members with the required financial literacy.
We may not be able to fully remediate the identified material weakness until the steps described above have been completed and our internal controls have been operating effectively for a sufficient period of time. We believe we will make significant progress in our remediation plan within fiscal year 2023, but cannot assure that we will be able to fully remediate the material weakness by such time. We also may incur significant costs to execute various aspects of our remediation plan but cannot provide a reasonable estimate of such costs at this time.
In accordance with the provisions of the JOBS Act, we and our independent registered public accounting firm were not required to, and did not, perform an evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022 nor any period subsequent in accordance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that we have identified all material weaknesses that may exist. Material weaknesses may still exist when we report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act after the completion of the IPO.
In the future, it is possible that additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies may be identified that we may be unable to remedy before the requisite deadline for these reports. Our ability to comply with the annual internal control reporting requirements will depend on the effectiveness of our financial reporting and data systems and controls across our company. Any weaknesses or deficiencies or any failure to implement new or improved controls,
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or difficulties encountered in the implementation or operation of these controls, could harm our operating results and cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, or result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements, which could adversely affect our business and reduce our stock price.
If we are unable to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404, our independent registered public accounting firm may not issue an unqualified opinion. If we are unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud. As a result, stockholders could lose confidence in our financial and other public reporting, which would harm our business and the trading price of our common stock.
Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. In addition, any testing by us conducted in connection with Section 404, or any subsequent testing by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal controls over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses or that may require prospective or retroactive changes to our financial statements or identify other areas for further attention or improvement. Inferior internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our stock.
We will be required to disclose changes made in our internal controls and procedures on a quarterly basis and our management will be required to assess the effectiveness of these controls annually, beginning with our second annual report on Form 10-K. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404, however they will not be required to do so for so long as we are an emerging growth company. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years (i.e., until December 31, 2027). An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting could lead to restatements of our financial statements and require us to incur the expense of remediation.
Our disclosure controls and procedures may not prevent or detect all errors or acts of fraud.
We are subject to certain reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to reasonably assure that information required to be disclosed by us in reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to management, recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC. We believe that any disclosure controls and procedures or internal controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by an unauthorized override of the controls. Accordingly, because of the inherent limitations in our control system, misstatements or insufficient disclosures due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.
An active trading market may not develop for our securities.
Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. However, we cannot predict the extent to which investor interest in our Company will lead to the development of an active trading market in our common stock or how liquid that market might become. If such a market does not develop or is not sustained, it may be difficult for you to sell your shares of common stock at the time you wish to sell them, at a price that is attractive to you, or at all.
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The trading market for our common stock in the future could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to several factors, including, but not limited to:
• actual or anticipated variations in our results of operations;
• our ability or inability to generate revenues or profit;
• the number of shares in our public float; and
• increased competition.
Furthermore, our stock price may be impacted by factors that are unrelated or disproportionate to our operating performance. These market fluctuations, as well as general economic, political, and market conditions, such as recessions, interest rates or international currency fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock. Additionally, moving forward we anticipate having a limited number of shares in our public float, and as a result, there could be extreme fluctuations in the price of our common stock.
Our issuance of additional capital stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our 2015 Equity Incentive Plan, or otherwise will dilute all other stockholders.
In the future, we may need to raise additional capital through equity and debt financings in order to fund our operations. If we raise capital through equity financings in the future, that will result in dilution to all other stockholders. We also expect to grant equity awards to employees, directors, and consultants under our 2015 Equity Incentive Plan. As part of our business strategy, we may acquire or make investments in complementary companies, products, or technologies and issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition or investment. Any such issuances of additional capital stock may cause stockholders to experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the per-share value of our common stock to decline.
We do not intend to pay dividends on our common stock and, consequently, the ability of common stockholders to achieve a return on investment will depend on appreciation, if any, in the price of our common stock.
You should not rely on an investment in our common stock to provide dividend income. We do not plan to declare or pay any dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future. Instead, we intend to retain any earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business. Any credit agreements, which we may enter into with institutional lenders, may restrict our ability to pay dividends. Whether we pay cash dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will be dependent upon our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements and any other factors that the board of directors decides is relevant. Therefore, any return on your investment in our capital stock must come from increases in the fair market value and trading price of the capital stock.
Future sales of our common stock, or the perception that future sales may occur, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline, even if our business is doing well.
Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after our IPO, or the perception that these sales may occur, could materially and adversely affect the price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. Those shares of common stock sold in our IPO will be freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market, except for any shares sold to our affiliates.
After the date of the IPO, when 4,212,500 shares of common stock became publicly tradable, approximately 13,105,075 additional shares of common stock subject to “lock-up” agreements entered into in connection with the IPO, are or will become eligible to be sold in the public market by existing stockholders by May 13, 2023 as a result of Rule 144 of the Securities Act, subject to volume and other limitations imposed under the federal securities laws. Furthermore, additional shares of our common stock may be publicly tradable as a result of exercises of stock options and restricted stock units (RSUs) under the 2015 Equity Incentive Plan. Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market after the completion of the IPO, or the perception that such sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock and could materially impair our ability to raise capital through offerings of our common stock.
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The market price of our common stock may be volatile and may decline regardless of our operating performance, and you may lose all or part of your investments.
The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
• overall performance of the equity markets and/or publicly listed technology companies;
• actual or anticipated fluctuations in our net revenues or other operating metrics;
• changes in the financial projections we provide to the public or our failure to meet these projections;
• failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet the estimates or the expectations of investors;
• the economy as a whole and market conditions in our industry;
• political and economic stability in Israel;
• exchange rate fluctuations between U.S. dollars and Israeli New Shekel;
• rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
• announcements by us or our competitors of significant innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;
• new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;
• lawsuits threatened or filed against us;
• recruitment or departure of key personnel;
• other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, or responses to these events; and
• the expiration of contractual lock-up or market standoff agreements.
In addition, extreme price and volume fluctuations in the stock markets have affected and continue to affect many technology companies’ stock prices. Often, their stock prices have fluctuated in ways unrelated or disproportionate to the companies’ operating performance. In the past, securities action litigation has often been brought against a Company following a decline in the market price of its securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because technology companies have experienced significant stock price volatility in recent years. If we face such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business.
A possible “short squeeze” due to a sudden increase in demand of our common stock that largely exceeds supply may lead to price volatility in our common stock.
Investors may purchase our common stock to hedge existing exposure in our common stock or to speculate on the price of our common stock. Speculation on the price of our common stock may involve long and short exposures. To the extent aggregate short exposure exceeds the number of shares of our common stock available for purchase in the open market, investors with short exposure may have to pay a premium to repurchase our common stock for delivery to lenders of our common stock. Those repurchases may in turn, dramatically increase the price of our common stock until investors with short exposure are able to purchase additional common stock to cover their short position. This is often referred to as a “short squeeze.” A short squeeze could lead to volatile price movements in our common stock that are not directly correlated to the performance or prospects of our common stock and once investors purchase the shares of common stock necessary to cover their short position the price of our common stock may decline.
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If securities or industry analysts do not publish research, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research, about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will depend, in part, on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on our company. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price for our common stock would likely be negatively impacted. In the event securities or industry analysts initiate coverage, if one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price would likely decline. In addition, if our operating results fail to meet the forecast of analysts, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our common stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.
Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current board of directors and limit the market price of our common stock.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or the Charter, and bylaws, or the Bylaws, may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our Charter and Bylaws, include provisions that:
• permit the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly-created directorships;
• classify our board of directors is classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms and stockholders will only be able to remove directors from office for cause; and
• provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter, or repeal our Bylaws.
Moreover, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or the DGCL, may discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control of our company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on mergers, business combinations, and other transactions between us and holders of 15% or more of our common stock.
Our Charter provides that derivative actions brought on our behalf, actions against our directors, officers, employees or agent for breach of fiduciary duty and certain other actions may be brought only in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware and the stockholders shall be deemed to have consented to this choice of forum provision, which may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors, officers, other employees or agents.
Our Charter provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for (a) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (b) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by, or other wrongdoing by, any current or former director, officer, stockholder, employee or agent of the Company to the Company or the Company’s stockholders, (c) any action asserting a claim against us or any current or former director, officer, stockholder, employee or agent of the Corporation arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, or our Company’s Certificate of Incorporation or Bylaws, (d) any action to interpret, apply, enforce or determine the validity of the Company’s Certificate of Incorporation or Bylaws, (e) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine or (f) any action asserting an “internal corporate claim” as that term is defined in Section 115 of the General Corporation Law. The federal district courts of the United States of America shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint, claim or proceeding asserting a cause of action arising under the Exchange Act or the Securities Act. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder.
Stockholders cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to the forum provision in our Charter.
The choice-of-forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with the Company or its directors, officers or other employees, and may result in increased costs to a stockholder who has to bring a claim in a forum that is not convenient to the stockholder, which may
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discourage such lawsuits. Although under Section 115 of the DGCL, exclusive forum provisions may be included in a company’s certificate of incorporation, the enforceability of similar forum provisions in other companies’ certificates or incorporation or bylaws has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable. If a court were to find the exclusive forum provision of our Charter inapplicable or unenforceable with respect to one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and result in a diversion of the time and resources of our management and board of directors.
Our financial condition raises substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.
Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that we will continue to operate as a going concern. These events and conditions, along with other matters, indicate that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on our ability to continue as a going concern. This going concern determination could materially limit our ability to raise additional funds through the issuance of equity or debt securities or otherwise. Further financial statements may include an explanatory paragraph with respect to our ability to continue as a going concern. There can be no assurance that we will succeed in generating sufficient revenues from our product sales to continue our operations as a going concern. If funds are not available to us, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of, or eliminate research or development plans for, or commercialization efforts with respect to our products. This may raise substantial doubts about our ability to continue as a going concern.
Risks Related to the Offering
Sales of substantial amounts of our Common Stock by a selling stockholder, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the price of our Common Stock.
The sale by the selling stockholders of a significant number of shares of Common Stock could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our Common Stock. In addition, the perception in the public markets that the selling stockholder may sell all or a portion of its shares as a result of the registration of such shares for resale pursuant to this prospectus could also in and of itself have a material adverse effect on the market price of our Common Stock. We cannot predict the effect, if any, that market sales of those shares of Common Stock or the availability of those shares of Common Stock for sale will have on the market price of our Common Stock.
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SELLING STOCKHOLDERS
The Common Stock being offered by each of the selling stockholders are those previously issued to the selling stockholders, and those issuable to the selling stockholders, upon exercise of either the Placement Agent Warrants, Common Warrants or Pre-Funded Warrants. For additional information regarding the issuances of those shares of Common Stock and Placement Agent Warrants, Common Stock Warrants and Pre-Funded Warrants, see the description of the Private Placement in “Prospectus Summary — Private Placement” above. We are registering the shares of Shares in order to permit the selling stockholders to offer the shares for resale from time to time. None of the selling stockholders have had any material relationship with us within the past three years.
The table below lists the selling stockholders and other information regarding the beneficial ownership of the shares of Common Stock by each of the selling stockholders. The second column lists the number of shares of Common Stock beneficially owned by each selling stockholder, based on its ownership of the shares of Common Stock and the warrants, as of January 8, 2024, assuming exercise of the warrants (either the Common Stock Warrants or the Placement Agent Warrants) held by the selling stockholders on that date, without regard to any limitations on exercises.
The third column lists the shares of Common Stock being offered by this prospectus by each of the selling stockholders.
In accordance with the terms of a Registration Rights Agreement with the Investor, this prospectus generally covers the resale of the sum of (i) Shares; (ii) Pre-Funded Warrant Shares and (iii) Common Warrant Shares. The table below assumes that the outstanding Pre-Funded Warrants, Common Warrants and the Placement Agent Warrants were exercised in full as of the trading day immediately preceding the date this registration statement was initially filed with the SEC, each as of the trading day immediately preceding the applicable date of determination, without regard to any limitations on the exercise thereof. The fourth column assumes the sale of all of the shares of common stock offered by the selling stockholders pursuant to this prospectus. The fifth column lists the percentages of shares of common stock owned by each selling stockholders after this offering, taking account of any limitations on exercise set forth in the applicable Securities.
Under the terms of the Private Placement Warrants, a selling stockholder may not exercise the Private Placement Warrants to the extent such exercise would cause such selling stockholder, together with its affiliates and attribution parties, to beneficially own a number of shares of common stock which would exceed 4.99% or 9.99% of our then outstanding common stock following such exercise, excluding for purposes of such determination shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the Private Placement Warrants which have not been exercised. The number of shares in the second column does not reflect this limitation. The selling stockholders may sell all, some or none of their shares in this offering. See “Plan of Distribution.” The total number of outstanding shares of common stock as of February 1, 2024 was 3,018,435.
Name of selling stockholder |
Number of shares of Common Stock Owned Prior to Offering |
Shares |
|
||||||
Number |
Percentage |
||||||||
Armistice Capital, LLC(2) |
2,542,374 |
(3) |
2,542,374 |
— |
— |
||||
Charles Worthman(4) |
890 |
(5) |
890 |
— |
— |
||||
Craig Schwabe(4) |
3,003 |
(6) |
3,003 |
— |
— |
||||
Michael Vasinkevich(4) |
57,060 |
(7) |
57,060 |
— |
— |
||||
Noam Rubinstein(4) |
28,030 |
(8) |
28,030 |
— |
— |
____________
(1) Assumes the sale of all shares of Common Stock offered pursuant to this prospectus.
(2) The securities are directly held by Armistice Capital Master Fund Ltd., a Cayman Islands exempted company (the “Master Fund”), and may be deemed to be beneficially owned by: (i) Armistice Capital, LLC (“Armistice Capital”), as the investment manager of the Master Fund; and (ii) Steven Boyd, as the Managing Member of Armistice Capital. The warrants are subject to a beneficial ownership limitation of 4.99%, which such limitation restricts the Selling Stockholder from exercising that portion of the warrants that would result in the Selling Stockholder and its affiliates owning, after exercise, a number of shares of common stock in excess of the beneficial ownership limitation. The address of Armistice Capital Master Fund Ltd. is c/o Armistice Capital, LLC, 510 Madison Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022.
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(3) Consists of (i) the Common Stock Shares; (ii) the Pre-Funded Warrant Shares upon the exercise of outstanding Pre-Funded Warrants and (iii) the Common Warrant Shares upon the exercise of outstanding Common Warrants.
(4) Each of the selling stockholders is affiliated with H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, a registered broker dealer with a registered address of H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, 430 Park Ave, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10022, and has sole voting and dispositive power over the securities held. The number of shares beneficially owned prior to this offering consist of shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of placement agent warrants, which were received as compensation. The selling stockholder acquired the placement agent warrants in the ordinary course of business and, at the time the placement agent warrants were acquired, the selling stockholder had no agreement or understanding, directly or indirectly, with any person to distribute such securities.
(5) Consists of 890 Placement Agent Warrant Shares underlying certain outstanding Placement Agent Warrants.
(6) Consists of 3,003 Placement Agent Warrant Shares underlying certain outstanding Placement Agent Warrants.
(7) Consists of 57,060 Placement Agent Warrant Shares underlying certain outstanding Placement Agent Warrants.
(8) Consists of 28,030 Placement Agent Warrant Shares underlying certain outstanding Placement Agent Warrants.
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PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION
The selling stockholders of the Shares and any of its pledgees, assignees and successors-in-interest may, from time to time, sell any or all of their securities covered hereby on the Nasdaq Capital Market or any other stock exchange, market or trading facility on which the securities are traded or in private transactions. These sales may be at fixed or negotiated prices. The selling stockholders may use any one or more of the following methods when selling securities:
• ordinary brokerage transactions and transactions in which the broker-dealer solicits purchasers;
• block trades in which the broker-dealer will attempt to sell the securities as agent but may position and resell a portion of the block as principal to facilitate the transaction;
• purchases by a broker-dealer as principal and resale by the broker-dealer for its account;
• an exchange distribution in accordance with the rules of the applicable exchange;
• privately negotiated transactions;
• settlement of short sales;
• in transactions through broker-dealers that agree with the selling stockholder to sell a specified number of such securities at a stipulated price per security;
• through the writing or settlement of options or other hedging transactions, whether through an options exchange or otherwise;
• a combination of any such methods of sale; or
• any other method permitted pursuant to applicable law.
The selling stockholders may also sell securities under Rule 144 or any other exemption from registration under the Securities Act, if available, rather than under this prospectus.
Broker-dealers engaged by the selling stockholders may arrange for other brokers-dealers to participate in sales. Broker-dealers may receive commissions or discounts from each selling stockholder (or, if any broker-dealer acts as agent for the purchaser of securities, from the purchaser) in amounts to be negotiated, but, except as set forth in a supplement to this prospectus, in the case of an agency transaction not in excess of a customary brokerage commission in compliance with FINRA Rule 2121; and in the case of a principal transaction a markup or markdown in compliance with FINRA Rule 2121.
In connection with the sale of the securities or interests therein, the selling stockholders may enter into hedging transactions with broker-dealers or other financial institutions, which may in turn engage in short sales of the securities in the course of hedging the positions they assume. The selling stockholders may also sell securities short and deliver these securities to close out their short positions, or loan or pledge the securities to broker-dealers that in turn may sell these securities. The selling stockholders may also enter into option or other transactions with broker-dealers or other financial institutions or create one or more derivative securities which require the delivery to such broker-dealer or other financial institution of securities offered by this prospectus, which securities such broker-dealer or other financial institution may resell pursuant to this prospectus (as supplemented or amended to reflect such transaction).
The selling stockholders and any broker-dealers or agents that are involved in selling the securities may be deemed to be “underwriters” within the meaning of the Securities Act in connection with such sales. In such event, any commissions received by such broker-dealers or agents and any profit on the resale of the securities purchased by them may be deemed to be underwriting commissions or discounts under the Securities Act. The selling stockholders have informed the Company that it does not have any written or oral agreement or understanding, directly or indirectly, with any person to distribute the securities.
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The resale securities will be sold only through registered or licensed brokers or dealers if required under applicable state securities laws. In addition, in certain states, the resale securities covered hereby may not be sold unless they have been registered or qualified for sale in the applicable state or an exemption from the registration or qualification requirement is available and is complied with.
Under applicable rules and regulations under the Exchange Act, any person engaged in the distribution of the resale securities may not simultaneously engage in market making activities with respect to the common stock for the applicable restricted period, as defined in Regulation M, prior to the commencement of the distribution. In addition, the selling stockholders will be subject to applicable provisions of the Exchange Act and the rules and regulations thereunder, including Regulation M, which may limit the timing of purchases and sales of the common stock by the selling stockholder or any other person. We will make copies of this prospectus available to the selling stockholders and have informed them of the need to deliver a copy of this prospectus to each purchaser at or prior to the time of the sale (including by compliance with Rule 172 under the Securities Act).
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USE OF PROCEEDS
We are not selling any Common Stock under this prospectus and will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale or other disposition of shares by the selling stockholders, however, we will receive proceeds from the exercise of any Warrants for cash.
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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF
FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes and other financial information appearing elsewhere in Form S-1. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Form S-1, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth in “Risk Factors” section of this Form S-1, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.
Overview
Actelis Networks, Inc. (“we,” “the Company”, “Actelis”, “us”, “our”) is a market leader in cyber-hardened, rapid-deployment networking solutions for wide-area IoT applications including federal, state and local government, intelligent traffic systems (“ITS”), military, utility, rail, telecom and campus applications. Our unique portfolio of hybrid fiber-copper, environmentally hardened aggregation switches, high density Ethernet devices, advanced management software and cyber-protection capabilities, unlocks the hidden value of essential networks, delivering safer connectivity for rapid, cost-effective deployment.
A primary focus of ours is to provide our customers with a cyber-secure network solution. We currently provide Triple-Shield protection of coding, scrambling and encryption of the network traffic.
When high speed, long reach, reliable and secure connectivity is required, network operators usually resort to using wireline communication over physical communication lines rather than wireless communication that is more limited in performance, reliability and security. However, wireline communication infrastructure is costly, and, based on our internal calculations, often accounts for more than 50% of total cost of ownership (ToC) and time to deploy wide-area IoT projects.
Typically, providing new fiber connectivity to hard-to-reach locations is costly and time-consuming, often requiring permits for boring, trenching, and right-of-way. Connecting such hard-to-reach locations may cause significant delays and budget overruns in IoT projects. Our solutions aim to solve these challenges effectively accelerating deployment of IoT projects, and making IoT projects more affordable and predictable to plan and budget.
Our solutions can also provide remote power over existing copper lines to power up network elements and IoT components connected to them (like cameras and meters). Connecting power lines to millions of IoT locations can be costly and very time consuming (similar to data connectivity). By offering the ability to combine power delivery over the same existing copper lines that we use for high-speed data, we believe our solutions are solving yet another important challenge in connecting hard-to-reach locations. We believe that combining communication and power over the same existing lines is particularly important to help connect many fifth generation, or 5G, small cells and Wi-Fi base stations, as high cost of connectivity and power is often slowing their deployment. Our solutions have been tested for performance and security by the U.S. DoD laboratories, and approved for deployment with U.S. Federal Government and U.S. defense forces as part of APL (Approved Product List) in 2019.
Since our inception, our business was focused on serving telecommunication service providers, also known as Telcos, providing connectivity for enterprises and residential customers. Our products and solutions have been deployed with more than 100 telecommunication service providers worldwide, in enterprise, residential and mobile base station connectivity applications. In recent years, as we have further developed our technology and rolled out additional products, we turned our focus on serving the wide-area IoT markets. Our operations are focused on our fast-growing IoT business, while maintaining our commitment to our existing Telco customers.
We currently derive a significant portion of our revenue from our existing Telco customers. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, our Telco customers in the aggregate accounted for approximately 35% and 48% of our revenues, respectively.
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from a limited number of our customers. For the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, our top ten customers in the aggregate accounted for approximately 82% and 78% of our revenues.
37
We currently have one outstanding loan with Migdalor Business Investments Fund, or Migdalor, in the original principal amount of approximately $6 million which is secured by all our assets, which remains outstanding as of December 31, 2022 of which approximately $5 million remains outstanding. In December 2022, we deposited $2 million to a Company-owned interest bearing bank account, or the “designated account” and an additional $2 million was deposited on or about February 28, 2023. If we cannot generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our debt, we may need to further refinance our debt, dispose of assets or issue equity to obtain necessary funds. Migdalor consented to allow us to seek additional accounts receivable financing which would be used to partially repay the Migdalor Loan, which would reduce or eliminate the Additional Deposit (as defined in our agreement with Migdalor). We expect to continue repaying the principal and interest of the Migdalor Loan from our operating cash flow. Please refer to the “Liquidity and Financial Condition” section below for further discussion.
Three and Nine Months Ended September 30, 2023, Compared to Three and Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022
Results of Operations
The table below provides our results of operations for the periods indicated.
Three months ended |
Nine months ended |
|||||||||||
2023 |
2022 |
2023 |
2022 |
|||||||||
(dollars in thousands) |
(dollars in thousands) |
|||||||||||
Revenues |
845 |
|
1,348 |
|
4,589 |
|
6,297 |
|
||||
Cost of revenues |
619 |
|
813 |
|
3,043 |
|
3,258 |
|
||||
Gross profit |
226 |
|
535 |
|
1,546 |
|
3,039 |
|
||||
Research and development expenses, net |
691 |
|
723 |
|
2,117 |
|
2,049 |
|
||||
Sales and marketing, net |
691 |
|
790 |
|
2,332 |
|
2,357 |
|
||||
General and administrative, net |
971 |
|
1,028 |
|
2,805 |
|
2,730 |
|
||||
Operating loss |
(2,127 |
) |
(2,006 |
) |
(5,708 |
) |
(4,097 |
) |
||||
Interest expenses |
(161 |
) |
(198 |
) |
(512 |
) |
(622 |
) |
||||
Other Financial income (expenses), net |
1,421 |
|
(3 |
) |
1,865 |
|
(3,781 |
) |
||||
Net Comprehensive Loss for the period |
(867 |
) |
(2,207 |
) |
(4,355 |
) |
(8,500 |
) |
Revenues
Our revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2023 amounted to $0.85 million compared to $1.35 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The decrease from the corresponding period was primarily attributable to a decrease of $0.2 million of revenues generated from North America and a decrease of $0.3 of revenues generated from Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Our revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 amounted to $4.6 compared to $6.3 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The decrease from the corresponding period was primarily attributable to a decrease of $1.4 million in revenues generated from North America and a decrease of $0.4 million in revenues generated from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, offset by an increase of $0.1 million in revenues generated from Asia Pacific.
Cost of Revenues
Our cost of revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $0.6 million compared to $0.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The decrease from the corresponding period was primarily attributable to the decrease in revenues as well as change in the product mix.
Our cost of revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $3.0 million compared to $3.3 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The decrease from the corresponding period was mainly due to the decrease in revenues as well as change in the product mix, partially offset by the higher effect of fixed costs as the percent of the lower revenues.
38
Research and Development Expenses
Our research and development expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $0.7 million compared to $0.7 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022.
Our research and development expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $2.1 million compared to $2.0 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The increase was mainly due to an increase in professional services related to research and development.
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Our sales and marketing expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $0.7 million compared to $0.8 for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The decrease was mainly due to a decrease in commission and travel expenses.
Our sales and marketing expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 amounted to $2.3 million compared to $2.4 for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The decrease was mainly due to a decrease in commission and travel expenses.
General and Administrative Expenses
Our general and administrative expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $1.0 million compared to $1.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. There was a decrease driven by cost reduction measures, offset by one time financing related expenses.
Our general and administrative expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, amounted to $2.8 million compared to $2.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022.The increase was driven by financing related expenses, partially offset by cost reduction measures.
Operating Loss
Our operating loss for the three months ended September 30, 2023, was $2.1 million, compared to an operating loss of $2.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The increase was mainly due to the decreases in revenues and gross margin.
Our operating loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, was $5.7 million, compared to an operating loss of $4.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The increase was mainly due to the decreases in revenues and gross margin while continuing to invest in Sales and Marketing.
Financial Expenses, Net
Our financial income, net for the three months ended September 30, 2023, was $1.3 million (including $0.2 million interest expenses) compared to financial expenses, net of $0.2 million (including $0.2 million interest expenses) for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The increase in financial income was due to the decrease in fair value of warrants in the amount of $1.3 million, as well as exchange rate differences in the amount of $0.2 for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $0.05 in the three months ended September 30, 2022.
Our financial income, net for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, was $1.3 million (including $0.5 million interest expenses) compared to financial expenses, net of $4.4 million (including $0.6 million interest expenses) for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. During the nine months ended September 30, 2023, the Company recorded financial income in connection with a decrease in fair value of warrants in the amount of $1.7 million, compared to an increase in fair value of various financial instruments prior to the IPO completed in May 2022, such as a convertible loan, note and warrants in the amount of $4.5 million. In addition, the Company recorded income in the amount of $0.4 million from exchange rate differences, compared to $0.7 during the nine months ended September 30, 2022.
Net Loss
Our net loss for the three months ended September 30, 2023, was $0.9 million, compared to net loss of $2.2 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. This decrease was primarily due to the increase in financial income, net related to the decrease in fair value of warrants.
39
Our net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, was $4.4 million, compared to net loss of $8.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. This decrease was primarily due to the decrease in revenues and gross margin offset by a decrease in financial expenses, net resulting from the conversion of the financial instruments the Company had such as a convertible loan, note and warrants from the IPO completed in May 2022.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
(U.S. dollars in thousands) |
Three months |
Three months |
Nine months |
Nine months |
||||||||||||
Revenues |
$ |
845 |
|
$ |
1,348 |
|
$ |
4,589 |
|
$ |
6,297 |
|
||||
GAAP net loss |
|
(867 |
) |
|
(2,207 |
) |
|
(4,355 |
) |
|
(8,500 |
) |
||||
Interest Expense |
|
161 |
|
|
198 |
|
|
512 |
|
|
622 |
|
||||
Other Financial expenses (income), net |
|
(1,421 |
) |
|
3 |
|
|
(1,865 |
) |
|
3,781 |
|
||||
Tax Expense |
|
18 |
|
|
28 |
|
|
58 |
|
|
102 |
|
||||
Fixed asset depreciation expense |
|
7 |
|
|
9 |
|
|
20 |
|
|
29 |
|
||||
Stock based compensation |
|
106 |
|
|
13 |
|
|
298 |
|
|
41 |
|
||||
Research and development, capitalization |
|
113 |
|
|
143 |
|
|
371 |
|
|
423 |
|
||||
Other one-time costs and expenses |
|
120 |
|
|
115 |
|
|
343 |
|
|
916 |
|
||||
Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA |
|
(1,763 |
) |
|
(1,698 |
) |
|
(4,618 |
) |
|
(2,586 |
) |
||||
GAAP net loss margin |
|
(102.60 |
)% |
|
(163.72 |
)% |
|
(94.90 |
)% |
|
(134.98 |
)% |
||||
Adjusted EBITDA margin |
|
(208.64 |
)% |
|
(125.96 |
)% |
|
(100.63 |
)% |
|
(41.07 |
)% |
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information
Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are Non-GAAP financial measures. In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with GAAP, we provide Non-GAAP supplemental operating results adjusted for certain items, including: financial expenses, which are interest, financial instrument fair value adjustments, exchange rate differences of assets and liabilities, stock based compensation expenses, depreciation and amortization expense, tax expense, and impact of development expenses ahead of product launch. We adjust for the items listed above and show non-GAAP financial measures in all periods presented, unless the impact is clearly immaterial to our financial statements. When we calculate the tax effect of the adjustments, we include all current and deferred income tax expense commensurate with the adjusted measure of pre-tax profitability.
We utilize the adjusted results to review our ongoing operations without the effect of these adjustments but not for comparison to budgeted operating results.. We believe the supplemental adjusted results are useful to investors because they help them compare our results to previous periods and provide important insights into underlying trends in the business and how management oversees and optimizes our business operations on a day-to-day basis. We exclude the costs in calculating adjusted results to allow us and investors to evaluate the performance of the business based upon its expected ongoing operating structure. We believe the adjusted measures, accompanied by the disclosure of the costs of these programs, provides valuable insight to our financial performance. Adjusted results should be considered only in conjunction with results reported according to GAAP.
(U.S. dollars in thousands) |
For the three months |
For the nine months |
||||||||||||||
2023 |
2022 |
2023 |
2022 |
|||||||||||||
Revenues |
$ |
845 |
|
$ |
1,348 |
|
$ |
4,589 |
|
$ |
6,297 |
|
||||
Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA |
|
(1,763 |
) |
|
(1,698 |
) |
|
(4,618 |
) |
|
(2,586 |
) |
||||
As a percentage of revenues |
|
(208.64 |
)% |
|
(125.96 |
)% |
|
(100.63 |
)% |
|
(41.07 |
)% |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Since our inception, we have financed our operations primarily through the sale of equity securities, debt financing, convertible loans and royalty-bearing grants that we received from the Israel Innovation Authority. Our primary requirements for liquidity and capital are to finance working capital, capital expenditures and general corporate purposes.
40
Our future capital requirements will be affected by many factors, including our revenue growth, the timing and extent of investments to support such growth, the expansion of sales and marketing activities, increases in general and administrative costs, repayment of principal of our existing credit line, working capital to support securing raw material supply and many other factors as described under “Risk Factors.”
To the extent additional funds are necessary to meet our long-term liquidity needs as we continue to execute our business strategy, we anticipate that they will be obtained through the incurrence of additional indebtedness, additional equity financings or a combination of these potential sources of funds; however, such financing may not be available on favorable terms, or at all. In particular, the repercussions from the COVID 19 pandemic, as well as the war in Israel and the war between Russia and the Ukraine, has resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption of global financial markets, reducing our ability to access capital.
As discussed in Note 1(c) to the condensed consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Quarterly report on Form 10-Q, we have incurred significant losses and negative cash flows from operations and incurred losses of $4,355 and $10,982 for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and the year ended December 31, 2022, respectively. During the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and the year ended December 31, 2022, we had negative cash flows from operations of $5,194 and $7,768, respectively. As of September 30, 2023, we had negative working capital and an accumulated deficit of $37,757.
As of September 30, 2023, we had cash on hand (including short term deposits and restricted bank deposits) of $1,386 and long-term deposits, restricted bank deposits and restricted cash of $4,457. We monitor our cash flow projections on a current basis and take active measures to obtain the funding we require to continue our operations, as well as make adjustments to our cost structure that were done year to date. However, these cash flow projections are subject to various uncertainties concerning their fulfilment, such as the ability to increase revenues by attracting and expanding our customer base or reducing cost structure. If we are not successful in generating sufficient cash flow or completing additional financing, then we will need to execute additional cost reduction actions that have been planned. Our transition to profitable operations is dependent on generating a level of revenue adequate to support our cost structure. We expect to fund operations using cash on hand, through operational cash flows and raising additional proceeds. There are no assurances, however, that we will be able to generate the revenue necessary to support our cost structure or that we will be successful in obtaining the level of financing necessary for our operations. Management has evaluated the significance of these conditions and has determined that we do not have sufficient resources to meet our operating obligations for at least one year from the issuance date of these condensed consolidated financial statements. These factors raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. These condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business, and do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.
Cash Flows
The table below, for the periods indicated, provides selected cash flow information:
(U.S. dollars in thousands) |
Nine Months |
Nine Months |
||||||
Net cash used in operating activities |
$ |
(5,194 |
) |
$ |
(5,776 |
) |
||
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities |
|
1,430 |
|
|
(102 |
) |
||
Net cash provided by financing activities |
|
2,586 |
|
|
16,028 |
|
||
Net change in cash |
$ |
(1,190 |
) |
$ |
10,150 |
|
As of September 30, 2023, we had cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash of $3.1 million compared to $10.9 million of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash as of September 30, 2022.
Cash used in operating activities amounted to $5.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $5.8 for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The decrease in cash used in operating activities was mainly due to decrease in trade receivables.
Net cash provided by investing activities was $1.4 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, compared to cash used in investing activities of $0.1 for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The increase from the corresponding period was mainly due to changes in short term deposits.
41
Net cash provided by financing activities was $2.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $16.0 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The cash flow from financing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, resulted from proceeds from a private placement which closed on May 4, 2023 — see note 11(d) to the condensed consolidated financial statements. The cash flow from financing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, resulted from proceeds from the Company’s IPO in the amount of $15.4, net of underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering costs of $1.0 million. In addition, the increase is related to the private placement first and second closing. See notes 2 to the condensed consolidated financial statements.
Year Ended December 31, 2022, Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2021
Results of Operations
The table below provides our results of operations for the periods indicated.
Year ended |
||||||
2022 |
2021 |
|||||
(dollars in thousands) |
||||||
Revenues |
8,831 |
|
8,545 |
|
||
Cost of revenues |
4,721 |
|
4,575 |
|
||
Gross profit |
4,110 |
|
3,970 |
|
||