Ron Glibbery
Analyst · Benchmark Company. Please proceed
Thank you, Jim. Good afternoon, and welcome to everyone joining today on the phone and via webcast. As outlined in today’s press release, Peraso achieved strong growth for the fourth quarter and full year, highlighted by a number of accomplishments across the business. Both product and total revenue in the fourth quarter were up double-digits sequentially and over 100% year-over-year. Our strong top line growth for the quarter and year was driven by robust demand and higher shipments of our mmWave ICs for fixed wireless access as well as our memory IC products. We also achieved meaningful improvement in our gross margins throughout the year. Reflecting back in 2022, I’m proud of the team’s execution during what was and continues to be a challenging environment for not only the semiconductor industry, but many industries across the globe. All things considered, we had a productive full first year as a combined company following the completed merger transaction with MoSys in late 2021. Our strong year-over-year growth and expanded gross margin for the year are a testament to our differentiated technology and the team’s ability to deliver against customer demand despite wide-reaching supply chain challenges. Total revenue for the full year increased 162% over 2021, and we expanded non-GAAP gross margins to nearly 50%. Product revenue for 2022 grew 189% year-over-year, primarily reflecting the ramp in shipments from our mmWave and memory IC products. We also achieved significant business and product milestones during the year, including the launch of our PERSPECTUS product family for mmWave fixed wireless access and Peraso’s introduction of the world’s most integrated dual-band 5G mmWave beamformer IC. Also notable was the appointment of Mark Lunsford as the company’s first Chief Revenue Officer in support of expanding Peraso’s commercial reach. I would also highlight the strategic Technology License and Patent Agreement that we entered into with Intel Corporation, which added non-dilutive cash to the balance sheet, while also contributing to a reduction in operating expenses. Shifting to an update on our primary target market. We’ve been very pleased with the increase in validation and growth of the fixed wireless access market over the past year. In fact, this growth accelerated in 2022 as fixed wireless access continued to capture a growing share of the broadband market. According to a recent report published by Leichtman Research Group, fixed wireless services represented 90% of all broadband net adds in 2022. Together, T-Mobile and Verizon added nearly 3.2 million fixed wireless subscribers in 2022, which compared to approximately 720,000 net adds in 2021, representing year-over-year growth of more than 300%. To put these numbers in context, the longer-term market potential of T-Mobile’s home Internet and Verizon’s 5G fixed wireless service, are currently available to more than 40 million and roughly 30 million homes, respectively. The growing market momentum is derived from fixed wireless access being a natural extension of 5G deployments as carriers and service providers seek to maximize available bandwidth capacity while also delivering faster and lower latency connectivity to their customers. As I discussed on previous calls, there continues to be increased recognition across the industry, the mmWave technology will be required to address the challenges of continuously growing demand for wireless bandwidth. In addition to the fundamental benefits of mmWave technology, including incremental wireless bandwidth, fast multi-gigabit access speeds and low latency, service providers are also recognizing its ability to address uniquely challenging use cases such as high congestion environments. One high-profile example of this was a State Farm Stadium in February for the Super Bowl, where there were nearly 68,000 fans in attendance. For those of us that have attended large menu sporting events or concerts in recent years, you’ve likely experienced the frustration of either limited or effectively no wireless connectivity due to the density of the crowd. Specifically to the Super Bowl, an estimated 60% of the fans were Verizon customers, and they collectively used 47 terabytes of data, which was a 57% increase over Super Bowl 2022. Although Verizon acknowledged deployed supplemental C-band spectrum to bolster their service, Verizon’s VP of Device Technology named mmWave as the star of the show in terms of enabling the staggering demand and data traffic. The Super Bowl is only one example, however, where there continues to be a growing number of similar proof points that further emphasize the need for mmWave technology, which remains at the core of Peraso’s solution for both licensed 5G and unlicensed 60 GHz spectrum. For a broader perspective on markets, I want to share several takeaways from following my recent attendance of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as from our team’s participation in WISPAMERICA earlier this month. At a high level, one of the most striking observations is that mmWave has made significant strides in terms of acceptance for really accepting the exponential wireless demand in the carrier market. Specific to our own beamformer solution, it was clear based on our conversations and serving other vendors at the show that we offer the most highly integrated dual-brand device in the market. To that end, we engaged in multiple productive discussions relating to addressing the 5G consumer premise equipment, or CPE and help – Peraso’s 5G mmWave solution can enable more cost-effective and equipment as well as 5G mmWave deployments. We should remember that the cost of the CP equipment is the crucial aspect of the SaaS of mmWave in 5G fixed wireless access. In terms of carrier acceptance of mmWave technology, we believe mmWave will be eventually the go-to technology for 5G fixed wireless access. One of the industry analysts we spoke to indicated that the revenue per bit for mobile users in the carrier market is 20x the revenue per bit of fixed wireless access, which we expect will inevitably make mmWave the go-to solution for fixed wireless access in the carrier market. Over the last year, we further substantiated our technology leadership through expanded customer orders and design wins as well as growing traction for both mmWave IC and integrated antenna solutions for fixed wireless access. After meeting with a number of the leading players at WISPAMERICA, I’m even more convinced that Peraso is establishing itself as a leading go-to mmWave vendor for wireless ISPs. In fact, we are now evaluating multiple requests and have accepted multiple requests for direct engagement to align on respective product road maps with certain wireless ISPs. Another prominent takeaway was the recognition and one of the primary benefits of mmWave is minimal network interference. More specifically, industry participants are acknowledging that WiFi-based connectivity is becoming increasingly difficult due to the scale to use – from signal interference generated by the surging number of connected WiFi devices. Actually, recognition of this issue in a commercial setting was recently provided by a mmWave equipment supplier named Intracom, who announced the deployment of 300,000 mmWave subscribers in Italy, where they specifically cited immunity to interference as the primary benefit of their system. Finally, while acknowledging the current macroeconomic conditions and associated uncertainty, we remain optimistic about our compelling value proposition in the marketplace and ability to drive continued growth in 2023. We’re particularly encouraged by expanding opportunities in the fixed wireless market, both domestically and abroad as we further positioned Peraso to be a leading supplier of mmWave solutions across the licensed and unlicensed segments of the market. Our main focus in 2023 is to further capitalize on our existing leadership position in 60 GHz, while also advancing a select targeted development projects with key perspective customers and partners. Intermediate term, over the next 12 to 18 months, we aim to leverage our current momentum in the wireless ISP market to penetrate the emerging mmWave opportunity in the carrier market, which is anticipated to ramp later in 2023 and into the first half of 2024. As part of our recently implemented cost reduction initiatives, we’re emphasizing development projects with near-term path to achieving return on investment, even though we continue to closely monitor potential longer-term opportunities. These include next-generation mmWave applications such as AR/VR connectivity as well as the industry’s formal evaluation of incorporating 60 GHz in future standards such as WiFi 8. In closing, I am pleased with the momentum and expanding engagements that we’ve secured in 2022 and are extending into 2023 as we aim to build upon the strong first full year of combined operations. The recent actions we have taken to streamline the organization and reduce operating expenses position us to achieve improved operating results as we drive continued top line growth over the coming year. With that, I’ll turn the call back to Jim to review the fourth quarter and full year financials and provide our outlook for first quarter of 2023. Jim?