Earnings Labs

Bandwidth Inc. (BAND)

Q2 2019 Earnings Call· Wed, Jul 31, 2019

$24.09

-0.15%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to Bandwidth Inc's Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host Mr. Marc Griffin, Investor Relations. Thank you, Marc. You may begin.

Marc Griffin

Analyst

Thank you, good afternoon and welcome to Bandwidth's second quarter 2019 earnings call. Today, we'll be discussing the results announced in our press release issued after the market close. With me on the call this afternoon is David Morken, Bandwidth's Chief Executive Officer; and Jeff Hoffman, Chief Financial Officer of Bandwidth. They will begin with prepared remarks and then we will open up the call for Q&A. During the call, we will make statements related to our business that may be considered forward-looking, including statements concerning our financial guidance for the third fiscal quarter of 2019 and the full year of 2019, our plans to execute on our growth strategy, our ability to maintain existing and acquire new customers, and other statements regarding our plans and prospects. Forward-looking statements may often be identified with words such as we expect, we anticipate or upcoming. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be considered our views as of any subsequent date. We undertake no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not promises or guarantees of future performance and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from our expectations. For a discussion of material risks and other important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to those contained in our 10-K filing on February 15, 2019, as updated by our other SEC filings, all of which are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at bandwidth.com and on the SEC's website at sec.gov. Finally, during the course of today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in our press release issued after the close of the market today, which is located on our website at bandwidth.com and on the SEC's website at sec.gov. With that, let me turn the call over to David.

David Morken

Analyst

Thank you, Marc, and thank you to everyone joining us on our second quarter earnings call. I am very pleased to report that our second quarter results exceeded our expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Our CPaaS revenue increased 20% year-over-year driving total revenue in the quarter of $56.8 million. The investments we have made in our sales and marketing teams continue to produce early indicators of success. We achieved a new best in the second quarter growing our active CPaaS customers 34% year-over-year. Additionally, we continue to deepen our relationships with existing customers as demonstrated by our 113% dollar base net retention rate. These results demonstrate the tremendous opportunity to capture an increased share of a growing $10.9 billion CPaaS market opportunity. We are excited to be serving some of the most innovative companies here are a few of the most notable customer success stories. We are pleased to announce a five-year multimillion dollar agreement in principal to provide CPaaS services for a Fortune 500 company that offers communications and technology solutions for residential small business and enterprises across the U.S. Under the terms of the agreement, this existing customer will use Bandwidth CPaaS platform and nationwide voice network to expand the engagement and collaboration services offered to its enterprise customers. Combining Bandwidth’s robust API platform with the company's existing network creates a powerful combination that supports the digital transformation efforts of the company’s large enterprise customers. The Company’s customers can now leverage the power of Bandwidth’s enterprise grade voice messaging, and 911 APIs as they adopt cloud-based [UCaaS and CPaaS] applications. We look forward to beginning a deeper relationship with this customer who will contribute meaningfully to our fourth quarter growth and will be among the largest customers of Bandwidth in 2020. Bandwidth has a track…

Jeff Hoffman

Analyst

Thanks David and good afternoon everyone. As David mentioned, our strong second quarter performance exceeded the high end of our guidance for both top and bottom lines. Our business continues to benefit from ongoing demand from enterprises across many different industries who are seeking to embed voice, messaging and 911 into their products and services. During the second quarter, our total revenue was $56.8 million, up 18% year-over-year and $1.5 million above the high-end of our guidance range. Within total revenue, CPaaS revenue was $48 million, up 20% year-over-year and $0.7 million above the high-end of our guidance range. Other revenue contributed the remaining $8.8 million of total revenue, which was $0.8 million above our implied guidance. As a comparison, other revenue was $8.5 million in the same period last year. Here are some key metrics in the second quarter that drove these results. Our expanded sales and marketing teams are attracting more new customers to our platform. We ended the second quarter with 1,467 active CPaaS customers, up 34% year-over-year, a record percentage increase for our business. Consistent with previous cohorts, we expect these newly onboarded customers to scale their usage over future periods as they become increasingly familiar with our platform, network and customer support. Our dollar-based net retention rate was 113% in the second quarter of 2019 as compared to 119% a year-ago and 111% in the first quarter of 2019. Before moving on to profitability metrics, I would like to call out that I will be discussing non-GAAP results going forward. Our GAAP financial results along with the full reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results can be found in our earnings release. Our second quarter 2019 non-GAAP gross profit, which excludes stock-based compensation and depreciation, was $28.2 million, yielding a gross margin of 50%. This compares…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Mark Murphy with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

So great. Hi, gentlemen, this is Benjamin on behalf of Mark. Congrats on the quarter, seems like a pretty good one. I want to double-click on the large deal that you talked about. Could you maybe talk about how competitive was that deal? Who did you compete with? And what was the main reason behind choosing them versus some of the competitors? And is there any way to understand the scale of the time agreement in dollar terms. I mean, can it be a top 3 logo 2020?

David Morken

Analyst

Benjamin, thank you for joining. I appreciate your question. In regard to this opportunity that we have, you wouldn’t be surprise to understand that the competition we faced were the three large incumbent providers and we have one out based upon our platform and network combination, which is so unique. In addition to our extraordinary team that supports large enterprise. Most of the time when we’re engaging in the marketplace, we’re winning opportunities relative to the incumbents Verizon, AT&T, CenturyLink. And this is no different, this is simply an opportunity that we have with a very large enterprise with whom we’ve been working since 2013, and that’s also very consistent for us. We develop and grow with our customers. And this is another example, where we are reaching an inflection point with this customer, where we will be doing significantly more for them. And to answer your question, it remains to be seen, but they certainly could be within our top customers here in the near term.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Understood. Okay. So well, on a high level, just to follow up, as you add these large kind of logos, seems like you talked about two here. And we are seeing some good gross margin expansion as well. As you think about growing the company over the next few years. I mean, do you think it is possible to see a period, where your revenue accelerates any of the new reps later on the international kicks in and while gross margin expansion continues, maybe driven by the largest scale as well as more in network calls as a percentage of the mix increases? I mean, can – is it possible to see that kind of a period in the near term?

David Morken

Analyst

We certainly believe that it’s not only possible, but we expect to achieve both increase top line revenue as well as the continued margin expansion. And we’ve been successful at that throughout our history and we believe that that will remain possible going forward.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Awesome. And one last question for Jeff. It seems like the revenue guide kind of implies the revenue ramp incrementally more towards Q4. Maybe than what The Street was expecting. Was that mainly functional, when this deal closed – this large deal closed? Or is there anything to read from the linearity of the productivity ramp for the new reps, et cetera? Anything to know there?

Jeff Hoffman

Analyst

Yes. Sure. Thanks, Benjamin. There were a lot of puts and takes as there are each quarter when we update our guidance. This deal was certainly one of them. And we always just endeavor to give you our best view and best forecast, and it is a little bit more back weighted to the fourth quarter.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Understood. Thank you, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Brent Bracelin with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Parker Snook

Analyst · KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. this is Parker Snook on for Brent Bracelin. Once again, you guys have added a lot of customers this quarter. I was wondering you could provide some color on the profile of these new wins. Is it a mix of voice and messaging or how’s that with you?

David Morken

Analyst · KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

The mix of customers is consistent with our recent past weighted heavily toward our voice business, and the platform and network combination that we support. And that’s in terms of revenue approximately 93%, 94% of our overall revenue, and the new customers continue to come to us for the voice platform in the emergency services platform with messaging being an area that is growing, but the vast majority remains voice.

Parker Snook

Analyst · KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Richard Davis with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Richard Davis

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks very much. You guys have been a lot of success at the high end, but obviously, not every company needs an enterprise grade CPaaS. As an outsider, how should I think about the demarcation kind of between, I don’t know, hobbyist is not a negative, but people that don’t need enterprise class CPaaS and organizations that need enterprise grade CPaaS, because I’m just kind of thinking about the addressable market and who you can hit and stuff like that? Thanks.

David Morken

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

You bet, Richard. Many of our great customers start small. I’m thinking of folks, who have fewer headcounts than you might imagine relative to the top-line revenue. But as they scale, enterprise CPaaS becomes essential to them for two primary reasons. One, economies of scale so that they can continue to deploy their capital, where they should to grow their business, not on exorbitantly-priced communications platform and network. And so as a function of top-line revenue scale that’s often what drives people to us in Raleigh, North Carolina to join our platform and network. Our second one however, is reliability and quality. Because we own and operate the underlying voice network, we are able to deliver visibility into that network. So, if you are an enterprise business communications application or user experience, our quality and reliability become essential. And then last, Richard, I would just add if you are doing an emergency response service, the 911 of things, think smart doorbells or thermostats or otherwise, it goes without saying that the reliability and quality of enterprise, CPaaS is critical. And since we are also in command and control of those elements underneath our platform, enterprises that rely on those functions, we appeal to them very greatly.

Richard Davis

Analyst · Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Great. Okay. Thank you so much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Charlie Erlikh with Baird. Please go ahead.

Charlie Erlikh

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks for taking the question and congrats on a solid quarter. it’s really interesting to hear about these new 911 APIs and capabilities. Would you mind giving us a little bit more detail on what those APIs do and maybe what the expectations are for the 911 business in general? Could that actually grow as a percent of the CPaaS revenue?

David Morken

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

It certainly is an area we intend to grow as a percentage of our CPaaS revenue and the appeal and value that the API provide are directly related to the creativity of folks developing apps that pull data from your handset that are more granular than simply your street address fixed to a handset that is on a traditional phone in the living room. They’re pulling information from your mobile handset that has to do with your actual location in the real time. And our API are able to support some of these really creative apps and teams that are frankly providing a better set of data for emergency responders. And so the appeal to them is really using next generation 911 and all of its functionality, but doing so by just coding to our API. And that’s a very rich area for innovation and we’re supporting it and I’m really proud of what the team launched in this last period.

Charlie Erlikh

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

That really sounds great. And then I just wanted to ask another question about the Q4 ramp. As part of the reason why we’re expecting that ramp, because we had such a strong customer ad quarter – this quarter and just in terms of the timing of when those actually start to hit revenue, I mean, I guess the question is when do these new customers actually start to hit the revenue? Is it on a three to six-month delay as you get deployed or how does that timing work?

Jeff Hoffman

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Hi, Charlie. this is Jeff. yes is the short answer to that. And then I’ll elaborate that, when we have customer ads, usually in quarter, there’s not typically a lot of revenue. They start small as David had said, but as we get into the second and third quarter of them onboarding customer, you usually see a pretty significant ramp there, where they’re starting to add a meaningful revenue contribution. So certainly, the last couple of quarters we’ve had an uptick in net customer ads and now we’re starting to see the revenue follow as expected in the second half of 2019.

Charlie Erlikh

Analyst · Baird. Please go ahead.

Great, that makes sense. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Meta Marshall with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Lee

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi guys. It's Jonathan Lee on for Meta. Thanks for taking my question. On international build out, can you give us a sense of any hurdles that you may be facing that are different than those in the U.S? And how does that impact your thinking on expanding to other region?

David Morken

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

You bet. The European and UK opportunity that we're executing in the ends right now is certainly a higher hurdle than what we're used to in the United States. My son is a steeplechaser, and I think that's an apt analogy. These are hurdles that we know how to get over and there may be water hazards beyond there, but we know how to navigate that and has learned. In particular in these two areas this year, how do we get in front of the appropriate regulators to be able to do business or provide service in each of these countries. And so while they are hurdles, they are not insurmountable, they're navigable, and team is doing an excellent job launching and supporting our current customer base use cases already in the UK and we anticipate that we'll continue to launch and support services in both the EU and UK throughout the rest of this year. But to your point, it is a learning curve and we have spent adequate time learning and now this year building and we anticipate significant revenue contribution won't come until 2020 and beyond. But this has been a great building year so far.

Jonathan Lee

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Understood. And separately, can you articulate the steps you're currently taking it to prevent robocalling. Is there are any enhancements that you see as necessary as their potential for regulation picture.

David Morken

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

We are active with the FCC as one of the pioneers in the vanguard of stir shaking and the establishment of those standards to present robocalling, for years, we have traced and trapped and removed from our network offenders. We have cooperated with law enforcement and we are extremely aggressive in cutting out anyone who happens to get access to our network who does robocalling. So we're proud of the leadership position, we've had historically, both with the FCC and with the industry leading the charge, really as an early warning participant to what we are seeing now. And we are hopeful that we will continue to lead and be effective in getting rid of robocalling in the years to come. But if I had to describe our posture in leadership role relative to others in the space, it’s clearly as a leader.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Got it. And one more, if I could. So dollar based net retention improved after a slight deceleration last quarter. Are there any active initiatives that you’re taking a circle back with existing customers or what do you attribute the increase to?

David Morken

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

So we consistently engage with our customers to understand what their business plans are for current products as well as new product needs. And that’s part of our normal daily business to better serve those customers. And that’s really what drives this business to dollar based net retention.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Got it. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Jacob Barrie with Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

Jacob Barrie

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

Hi. This is Jacob. I’m actually online for Catharine Trebnick. One question I have kind of follow up on the international scale that you guys have been doing. Catharine wants to know if, well I guess you hinted at some infrastructure being built over in Europe, is that correct? And can you confirm where that’s at?

David Morken

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

Hey Jacob, certainly that is in London and Frankfurt to support the UK and the broader EU and that infrastructure – the physical infrastructure, the servers, the hardware is in place, the software is configured, the routing is live. We are ahead of or on schedule in every regard in terms of the build out for that theater, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Jacob Barrie

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

That's awesome. If you can just confirm, I know you've probably – you've hinted at it as well, but are you – are you planning on continuing with more infrastructure in the EU and or Africa?

David Morken

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

We have a list of jurisdictions we've prioritized based upon our current customer partners and where they do service and business today. And so we're pursuing that path of following demand where it leads us. And so the short answer is, yes. It is part and parcel our international plans to deploy behind the demand that already exists in countries from our existing customer base.

Jacob Barrie

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for that. Another question I have is – so Catharine actually explained to me that you recently did a fairly large hiring of sales force and she's curious to know if they are at full capacity and from what I've heard, it sounds like they probably are based on the new customers that you've – that you've brought in this quarter?

David Morken

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

We have definitely grown the sales teams significantly, Jacob. And as those sales teams are hired, they go through orientation and training and on boarding and then they have a ramp to full quota carrying capacity. And depending upon the cohort, full capacity is either reached or not based upon a period of time to get up to full quota carrying capacity. And that depends upon the length of time for a junior salesperson or more senior or even a strategic salesperson. There's different length of ramps. So to specifically answer your question, you're never at a 100% capacity because you always have people who are still coming up to speed and that's certainly the case with us right now as we're in the middle of this year and we've hired so significantly looking back over the last six, nine, and 12 months.

Jacob Barrie

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

Awesome. Thank you for that. One other question I have is we're kind of – we're trying to get a better understanding of the competitive landscape, and wanting to know really with these new customers that you're gaining, you know if you're pulling some customers over from current – from direct competitors of yours. And if so, do you know which company they are mostly coming from?

David Morken

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

We are winning customers that currently do business with folks like Verizon, AT&T and CenturyLink and that is who we primarily win business from. So yes, we're aware of that, but we also support and serve emerging technology teams that are just getting to market where enterprise CPaaS is important to them. Does that answer your question?

Jacob Barrie

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you very much. I believe that is all the questions that I have. So thank you very much for that.

David Morken

Analyst · Dougherty & Company. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jacob.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today’s teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for your participation.