BIRD Blackbird Plc

4 March 2025

Blackbird plc

(the "Company")

Audited results for the year ended 31 December 2024

Blackbird plc (AIM: BIRD), the technology licensor, developer and seller of market-leading cloud native video editing platform, Blackbird, and developer of the online collaborative video editing and content creation platform, elevate.io, announces its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2024.

Ian McDonough, CEO of Blackbird, commented:

"2024 was a year of great progress for elevate.io which went on general release at the end of March 2024. Subsequently we have added features and functionality at pace and continue to do so. In September 2024 we began our first marketing campaigns which gave us valuable customer acquisition and usage insights. In January 2025 we brought Nick Lisher onboard as a consultant to strengthen our marketing team ahead of the payment gateway launch. Nick is a performance marketeer with a track record of delivering exceptional revenue growth at previous SaaS companies. His experience will be invaluable as we look to scale elevate.io. On 11 February 2025 we introduced the first payment tier, Creator, on elevate.io.  For a company that has in recent years been entirely focused on B2B white glove sales, going direct to customer is a significant undertaking. The paid Creator tier was seamlessly launched.

"Whilst its early days and we have little data to analyze, we are encouraged by the early growth of Creator.  At the time of writing, 20 days in, the number of paying subscribers stands at circa 100 We have launched payments ahead of key features like vertical video editing in order to learn and optimize the search engine marketing algorithm.  We will ramp up more significant marketing initiatives on additional platforms to our target customer base of creator and corporate video editors as features drop. It is worth noting that since the launch of vertical video our Weekly Active users doubled to 1,337 for the week ended 2 March 2025. The Board are excited about the prospects for elevate.io.

"The structural changes that we made to our business has led to improved financial performance, with the Blackbird division delivering a positive EBITDA of c.£0.5 million in 2024. Blackbird continues to be used at the pinnacle of Sports and News video creation. During 2024, our platform was used at a number of major global sporting events, including at the summer games where the platform was used on 75 concurrent feeds, granting remote access to our full suite of tools to global broadcasters. In News, we extended our partnership with the global financial news organization by a further three years and, through our partnership with Blox Digital, Blackbird continues to provide fast-turnaround content for 72 local US news stations.  In an important election year, through our deal with the US Department of State, the US Secretary of State's press conferences were edited and pushed at speed to social media through our platform.

"I am incredibly excited about 2025 and growing elevate.io's user base and revenue. The size of the addressable market is significant and I look forward to working with our talented team to realise the value in our proven and patented technology."

Operational highlights (post year end)

o     elevate.io's first payment tier, Creator, was launched successfully on 11 February 2025, ahead of management's original plan, to gather further data and insights ahead of stepping up marketing activity

o     At 3^rd March 2025, elevate.io had circa 100 paid subscribers. Features continue to be added to the platform, such as vertical video on 25 February 2025, which will help drive further take up.  This more than doubled the weekly active users in the week ending 2 March 2025 to 1,337^ compared to the prior week. Monthly active users also doubled to 2,223^ in February 2025 compared to the prior month.  The Board are encouraged by these early signs. We are now enhancing our market initiatives to convert free users and drive further paid subscriptions and look forward to giving shareholders a further update on elevate.io take up at the AGM

o     Nick Lisher joined elevate.io as a consultant from the start of 2025, alongside his Non-Executive role, to assist with executing against our go to market strategy and to drive early paying customer growth

o     Multi-year renewal signed with CBS19, a Charlottesville-based local TV station

o     £960k* revenue secured for 2025, at end of February 2025, which is down 18% year on year (2024 comparative at end of February 2024: £1,169k).The fall was primarily driven by the one-off winter and summer games deal in the order book in prior year

o     Contracted but unrecognised revenue of £1,318k* at end of February 2025.  Of this, £338k* is to be recognised in 2025, a further £690k* in 2026, with the remainder in 2027

o     Selected to join Innovate UK's Global Business Innovation Programme which includes a fully-funded trip to attend the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas in March 2025

*Unaudited and subject to exchange rate fluctuations

^Figures are based on users whose accounts are at least one week old

Operational highlights (during the year)

·      elevate.io went on general release in March 2024 in accordance with the previously announced time frame

·      elevate.io is being continually enhanced via a rapid deployment method and during the period multiple features were added, including more transformations, transitions, text, team structure, editing controls and further general performance improvements

·      Placing announced on 29 February 2024:

o  raised approximately £1.05 million before expenses

o  brought onboard some engaged High Net Worth individuals who showed an interest in investing directly in our technology

o  proceeds used to bolster our investment in and grow elevate.io

·      Board changes to reflect the skillsets required to execute our elevate.io strategy

o  Anne de Kerckhove joined the Board on 6 March 2024 as Senior Independent Non-Executive Director and Audit Chair and became Chair of the Board following the Annual General Meeting held on 18 June 2024. Anne is an experienced Board member and executive with a background in technology, innovation and digital. Anne currently chairs the Board of Eagle Eye Solutions Group and is a Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Nominations and ESG committees of evoke plc

o  Youri Hazanov joined the Board on 15 August 2024 as a Non-Executive Director. Youri is an experienced international Creator Economy executive with a track record of growing businesses and a background in technology, partnerships and marketing. Youri is currently General Manager and Chief Partnerships Officer and member of the executive team at JellySmack and previously led partnerships, business & strategy at YouTube in EMEA, CEE, Russia, Israel and the Middle East

o  Nick Lisher joined the Board on 16 September 2024 as a Non-Executive Director. Nick is a growth marketeer who has driven performance marketing, community building, digital marketing, and innovative brand development at a number of ecommerce companies including Flo Health, Nextdoor and Depop

o  Andrew Bentley stepped down from the Board and from the Chair at the Annual General Meeting held on 18 June 2024.  The Board would like to thank Andrew for all his contributions over his tenure

·      Blackbird deployed at the 2024 summer games through an OEM partner with up to 75 live concurrent feeds being used for fast turnaround content for global broadcasters

·      Successful renewals on Blackbird with:

o  Global financial news organisation for a further three years

o  FIFA for an additional 25 months

o  US Department of State, CBS Sports, Televisa Univision, Arsenal

·      Deal signed with CBS19, a Charlottesville-based local TV station, for collaborative and scalable video editing and publishing for its broadcast and digital workflow

·      New deal, through an OEM partner, with a South Korean TV station for fast turnaround of sports content to their OTT platform

Financial highlights

·      In line with previous guidance, the structural changes made to the Blackbird division led to that division making a positive Adjusted EBITDA (pre LTIP and share option costs) of £492k in 2024 (2023: £365k Adjusted EBITDA loss pre LTIP and share option cost) and a net profit of £22k (2023: £966k loss)

·      Placing and management subscription raised c. £1.05 million (net of expenses) to bring onboard some engaged high net worth investors and assist with elevate.io's growth

·      Revenues of £1,608k for the 12 months to 31 December 2024, down 17% year-on-year (12 months to 31 December 2023: £1,937k) with the main reasons being the loss of the A+E Network deal in 2023 and some smaller customer churn

·      Contracted but unrecognised revenue of £1,831k up 3% year-on-year (as at 31 December 2023: £1,770k):

o  £891k of this balance is to be recognised in 2025 (as at 31 December 2023: £1,151k to be recognised in 2024)

o  £678k in 2026 (as at 31 December 2023: £325k to be recognised in 2025)

o  £262k in 2027 (as at 31 December 2023: £294k to be recognised in 2026)

·      Operating costs during the year to 31 December 2024 were £3,604k compared to £4,114k in 2023. Operating costs pre-capitalisation and LTIP provision decreased to £5,300k from £5,744k due to tight cost control and a restructuring of the Blackbird business. Capitalisation costs were higher than prior year at £1,696k (2023: £1,631k) with increased investment on the elevate.io platform in 2024 compared to prior year

·      Total adjusted EBITDA loss (pre LTIP and share option costs), decreased to a loss of £2,137k (2023: a loss of £2,301k). This was due to lower revenues partially more than offset by lower operating costs

·      The net loss for the year was £2,347k compared to a net loss of £2,493k in 2023 due to a lower Adjusted EBITDA loss pre LTIP provision and lower amortisation and depreciation charges partially offset by lower net financial income and a lower tax credit

·      Net cash outflow, ignoring proceeds from share issues and transfers into short-term deposits, decreased to £3,748k (12 months to 31 December 2023: £3,786k) as improved performance in the Blackbird division offset higher costs on developing elevate.io

·     At 31 December 2024 the Company had cash and short-term deposits of £3,770k (2023: £6,468k) and no debt.

  Enquiries:

Chair's statement

I am delighted to have joined Blackbird's board in March 2024 and subsequently taken over the Chair from Andrew Bentley in August 2024. The Company has had award-winning patented scalable technology for the professional broadcast market for media and entertainment for many years. We are delighted to have powered the coverage of key sporting and news events during 2024.

Our underlying technology is now allowing us to disrupt the much larger market of collaborative video editing for the Creator Economy. We have all witnessed in the last five years the proliferation of video content and the shift from traditional media produced content to independent creators globally across all walks of society. Athletes, designers, professional sports teams, artists, influencers, chefs, musicians have all taken video to reach and engage with their fanbase and drive revenue. The quality of video content has substantially increased in the last two years with creators focusing on longer-form content. Direct to Consumer brands now also leverage video as the main tool to drive sales and consumer engagement. Small businesses use video to engage with prospects every day. Large corporates also leverage video as their main employee engagement tool as well as brand engagement. This growing market offers a massive opportunity to introduce new faster, simpler, collaborative tools to create and edit video.

elevate.io, our online collaborative video editor is the perfect tool for this new Creator Economy as it is accessible to all and allows creators to produce videos much faster with teams that can be dispersed across the world. elevate.io was released in Q1 2024 and new functionality has been added continuously to the platform. With very limited marketing spend, we have reached users in multiple verticals within the Creator Economy. We are now focusing on deploying our payment gateway and converting our consumers to enhanced paid packages.

Governance

Over the last year we have made changes to the composition and skill mix of the board to better reflect the requirements of our focus on the Creator Economy, on product-led growth and on SaaS Go to market. To this end, we were delighted to welcome two new non-executive board members, Youri Hazanov and Nick Lisher. Youri Hazanov, a highly experienced executive in technology and in the video space, brings a wealth of expertise in developing and scaling international businesses, with a proven track record of revenue growth and extensive knowledge and skill in partnerships across both B2C and B2B sectors. During a career spanning over two decades, Nick Lisher has demonstrated the power of marketing to connect consumers, build engaged communities and drive growth across various industries, from music and fashion to technology, education and health.

Regarding governance policies, we continue to adopt the guidance from the Quoted Companies Alliance (the QCA code). Our updated policy statement is available to view on our website at www.blackbird.video/aim-rule-26-information/.

On behalf of the board, we thank you for your continued support and we look forward to sharing the growth in deployment of elevate.io globally whilst also retaining our key broadcast clients.

Anne de Kerckhove

Chair