Ionik Announces Record Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2024 Results

Rhea-AI Summary

Ionik reported strong financial results for Q4 and fiscal year 2024, with record annual revenue of $179.1 million, up 28% from 2023. The company achieved record Adjusted EBITDA of $23.1 million, marking 34% growth year-over-year.

Q4 2024 highlights include revenue of $48.4 million (10% increase) and Adjusted EBITDA of $7.3 million. However, the company recorded a net loss of $16.9 million, primarily due to a $14.0 million impairment charge.

Strategic achievements include two key acquisitions: Nimble5 in September and Rise4 in November 2024. The company maintains a strong cash position of $14.6 million and focuses on three core pillars: marketing automation, media strategy, and data management. 2025 priorities include platform integration, advanced targeting capabilities, and debt reduction.

Positive

• Record revenue of $179.1M in FY2024, up 28% YoY
• Record Adjusted EBITDA of $23.1M, growing 34% YoY
• Q4 revenue increased 10% QoQ to $48.4M
• Strong cash position of $14.6M with unused $10M revolving facility
• Positive operating cash flow of $12.2M in FY2024
• Strategic acquisitions of Nimble5 and Rise4 completed in 2024

Negative

• Net loss of $16.9M in Q4 2024, including $14M impairment charge
• Declining gross margin from 40% to 38% YoY
• High debt level of $126.5M including $88M senior lender debt
• Increasing senior debt net of cash to $73.4M in Q4 from $67.9M in Q3
• Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate declined to 65% from 92% QoQ
• Revenue growth primarily driven by acquisitions rather than organic growth

Record Fiscal 2024 Revenue of $179 million - Growth of 28% over previous 12 months

Record Fiscal 2024 Adjusted EBITDA¹ of $23 million - 34% growth compared to $17.2 million in the prior 12 months

Record Quarterly Adjusted EBITDA¹ of $7.3 million in Q4 - Year-over-year growth of 32% and quarter-over-quarter growth of 30%

(All figures in US dollars, unless otherwise indicated)

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 30, 2025) - Ionik Corporation (the "Company" or "Ionik") (TSXV: INIK, OTCQB: INIKF), a data and technology-driven marketing and advertising solutions company, announced its financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2024.

Fiscal 2024 Annual Financial Highlights

• Record revenue of $179.1 million during its fiscal year 2024, as compared to $140.4 million for the prior twelve months ended December 31, 2023, an increase of 28%. Revenue growth was primarily driven by the acquisitions of Shift44, Inc. ("SHIFT44") in Q4 2023 and Nimble5, LLC ("Nimble5") and Rise4 Inc. ("Rise4") in 2024.

• Record gross profit of $67.3 million in its fiscal year 2024 ($55.5 million for the prior twelve months), representing a 21% increase from the comparable period in the prior year, driven by the increase in revenue.

• Gross margin percentage of 38% in fiscal year 2024 (40% for the prior twelve months).

• Record Adjusted EBITDA¹ of $23.1 million ($17.2 million for the prior twelve months), an increase of 34%. Adjusted EBITDA growth was predominantly related to the three acquisitions as well as operating expense reductions.

Financial Highlights for the Fourth Quarter 2024

• Revenue of $48.4 million, an increase of 10% versus $44.0 million for the prior quarter with growth driven by the acquisitions of Nimble5 in September and Rise4 in November 2024.

• Gross profit of $19.2 million (40% margin), compared to $17.1 million (39% margin) for the prior quarter and $17.4 million (46% margin) for the same period of 2023 ("Q4 2023").

• Adjusted EBITDA¹ of $7.3. million, compared to $6.0 million for the prior quarter, with growth derived from 2024 acquisitions.

• Adjusted Free Cash Flow¹ of $4.8 million (65% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate¹), compared to $5.5 million (92% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate¹) for the prior quarter and $5.3 million (95% Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate¹) for Q4 2023.

• Net loss after tax from continuing operations of $16.9 million, versus $2.9 million net loss for the prior quarter and $44.7 million net loss for Q4 2023. The Q4 2024 net loss was primarily driven by $14.0 million impairment of intangible assets and goodwill recorded in fourth quarter 2024. The Q4 2023 net loss was primarily driven by a $41.3 million impairment of intangible assets and goodwill recorded in the fourth quarter 2023.

• Cash as at December 31, 2024 was $14.6 million compared to $15.3 million at September 30, 2024, and $7.4 million at December 31, 2023. During the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2024 the Company generated cash flow from operations of $7.2 million and $12.2 million respectively. At December 31, 2024, the Company had not drawn on its revolving facility of $10.0 million. Management believes that its current capital position is sufficient to execute its current business and operational strategies.

• Total undiscounted debt as at December 31, 2024 was $126.5 million, including $88.0 million of senior lender debt, $28.8 million of convertible debt, $6.8 million in a vendor take-back loan, and $3.0 million in a working capital note compared to $127.7 million in total debt as at September 30, 2024. The increase mainly resulted from the additional draw for the acquisition of Rise4 reduced by the principal payments of $3.7 million on the senior debt term facility in the quarter. Senior debt net of cash was $73.4 million at December 31, 2024, compared to $67.9 million at September 30, 2024 and $57.6 million at June 30, 2024.

¹Please refer to "Non-IFRS Measures" section of this press release

Ted Hastings, Ionik's CEO commented, "Fiscal 2024 was a successful year for Ionik with a focus on integration of our marketing platform and the completion of two acquisitions. We achieved record revenues and record Adjusted EBITDA while positioning ourselves with a strong platform heading into 2025. Our focus going forward is continuing our integration efforts to drive organic growth, increase gross profit margins and reduce our senior debt to EBITDA ratio below 2.5."

Significant developments for the three months ended December 31, 2024

• On November 19, 2024, the Company announced the acquisition of Rise4, a performance marketing company, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $19.9 million.

Corporate Update

Ionik continues to execute on its integration strategy and enhancement of the Ionik Marketing Cloud platform following the recent acquisitions of Nimble5 in September 2024 and Rise4 in November of 2024.

Today, Ionik's business is structured around three interconnected pillars that reflect its core capabilities and unify its acquired companies under a centralized strategy focused on the customer lifecycle: acquisition, engagement, and retention. These pillars consist of two customer acquisition platforms underpinned by a technology foundation that ensures data drives every decision.

1. Marketing Automation and Optimization

Focus: Streamlining and enhancing marketing efforts through automation, precision targeting, and performance optimization.

What It Does: Provides tools and platforms to automate workflows, improve customer acquisition, and maximize return on investment ("ROI") on marketing investments.

2. Media Strategy and Activation

Focus: Delivering impactful media campaigns across paid channels to acquire and engage audiences effectively.

What It Does: Combines creative strategy, media planning, and programmatic execution to reach customers through display, CTV, search, social, and more.

3. Data Management & Technology

Focus: Aggregating, organizing, and activating proprietary first-party data to power all aspects of Ionik's offerings.

What It Does: Unifies data from across the ecosystem into a scalable platform, enabling precise audience segmentation, targeting, and monetization.

Ionik helps brands find, engage, and retain customers with precision. Its proprietary data-driven solutions and full-funnel marketing technology empower businesses to optimize advertising spend, increase customer lifetime value, and maximize performance across digital channels. Whether through automated marketing, strategic media activation, or AI-powered customer insights, Ionik delivers efficiency and impact.

For the investor, Ionik's focus is on sustainable, profitable growth through data independence, operational integration, and technological innovation. By leveraging a unified marketing and advertising ecosystem, Ionik creates recurring revenue streams and long-term shareholder value.

Strategic priorities for 2025 include:

• Continued integration of acquired businesses into a unified platform providing integrated marketing solutions for customer acquisition, engagement, and retention to drive organic growth

• Delivering advanced audience targeting capabilities powered by first-party data, which drives competitive advantage

• AI-driven automation and optimization to reduce waste and increase ROI for customers

• Execute on our path to continued financial scale, profitability and sustainable free cash flow generation allowing us to reduce our senior lender debt

Non-IFRS Measures

The Company prepares its financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). However, the Company considers certain non-IFRS financial measures as useful additional information to assess its financial performance. These measures, which it believes are widely used by investors, securities analysts and other interested parties to evaluate its performance, do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other publicly traded companies, nor should they be construed as an alternative to financial measures determined in accordance with IFRS. Non-IFRS measures include "Adjusted EBITDA" and "Adjusted Free Cash Flow".

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow

Consolidated adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA") is a non-IFRS measure of financial performance. Company management defines Adjusted EBITDA as IFRS Net income (loss) adding back finance costs, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, gain/loss on disposal of assets and extinguishment of loans, fair value gain/loss on financial liabilities and modification/extinguishment on loans, and excludes discontinued operations and the effects of significant items of income and expenditure which may have an impact on the quality of earnings, such as impairments where the impairment is the result of an isolated, non-recurring event. It also excludes the effects of equity-settled share-based payments, foreign exchange gains/losses, and other extraordinary one-time expenses, such as transaction costs and other severance and restructuring costs. See reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA in the table below.

Company management defines "Adjusted Free Cash Flow" as Adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures, such as acquisition of property and equipment and additions to intangibles for capitalized development costs, and income taxes paid during the period. Similarly, Company management defines "Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion rate" as Adjusted Free Cash Flow divided by Adjusted EBITDA. See reconciliation of Adjusted Free Cash Flow in the table below.

The presentation of these non-IFRS financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation from, as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with IFRS and may be different from non-IFRS financial measures used by other companies.

Management believes Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow are useful financial metrics to assess its operating performance on a cash basis before the impact of non-cash and extraordinary one-time items.

The following tables presents the Company's calculation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow for each period:

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Financial Statements and MD&A

Ionik's Financial Statements for the three months and twelve months ended December 31, 2024, and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the same period, are posted on its corporate website at www.ionikgroup.com and available on the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

About Ionik

Ionik, a Tier 1 Issuer on the TSX Venture Exchange, with shares also trading on the OTCQB Venture Market, is a technology-driven marketing and advertising solutions company that helps brands, advertisers, and publishers connect with their audiences through data-driven insights and advanced automation. By leveraging its extensive suite of technology, creative expertise, and proprietary first-party data, Ionik optimizes the entire customer acquisition and retention journey.

Ionik's platform unifies marketing automation, media activation, and data management to create a seamless advertising ecosystem, helping businesses efficiently source, retain, and monetize their customers.

Additional information about the Company is available at www.sedarplus.ca.

Ionik Corporation

Sean Peasgood
Investor Relations
(647) 777-7564
Sean@SophicCapital.com

Jeff Collins
CFO
(416) 583-5918
invest@ionikgroup.com

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

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements and forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Forward-looking information is often identified by the words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the business, financials and operations of the Company. Forward-looking information in this press release includes statements with respect to the Company's sufficiency of its capital position to execute on business and operational strategies, successful integration of acquisitions, operational and financial growth strategy, ability to make debt repayments, expected Adjusted Free Cash Flow and anticipated success in customer adoption of the Ionik Marketing Cloud platform. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. Forward looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements and future events to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to the factors described in greater detail in the public documents of the Company available at www.sedarplus.ca. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Investors are cautioned that undue reliance should not be placed on any such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the Company. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update this forward-looking information except as otherwise required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/250350

FAQ

What is Ionik's (INIKF) revenue growth in fiscal 2024?

Ionik (INIKF) achieved record revenue of $179.1 million in fiscal 2024, representing a 28% increase from $140.4 million in 2023. This growth was primarily driven by the acquisitions of Shift44, Nimble5, and Rise4.

How much debt does Ionik (INIKF) have as of December 2024?

As of December 31, 2024, Ionik's total undiscounted debt was $126.5 million, consisting of $88.0 million in senior lender debt, $28.8 million in convertible debt, $6.8 million in vendor take-back loan, and $3.0 million in working capital note.

What acquisitions did Ionik (INIKF) complete in 2024?

In 2024, Ionik completed two major acquisitions: Nimble5 in September 2024 and Rise4 in November 2024 for approximately $19.9 million, expanding their marketing and technology capabilities.

What is Ionik's (INIKF) Q4 2024 EBITDA performance?

Ionik achieved record quarterly Adjusted EBITDA of $7.3 million in Q4 2024, showing 32% year-over-year growth and 30% quarter-over-quarter growth, driven by recent acquisitions.

What are Ionik's (INIKF) strategic priorities for 2025?

Ionik's 2025 priorities include integrating acquired businesses into a unified platform, developing advanced audience targeting with first-party data, implementing AI-driven optimization, and reducing senior lender debt while generating sustainable free cash flow.