Steve Rizzone
Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead
Thank you, Mike. Good afternoon and welcome to the Energous second quarter conference call and update. With me today is Brian Sereda, our Chief Financial Officer. I will begin the call commenting on the solid overall performance Energous achieved in the second quarter, including our first royalty payment from our partner dialogue for the sale of WattUp chipsets during the quarter. I will then turn the call over to Brian for the details on our financial performance. I will close with a comment of traction and momentum as the company continues to press forward with the launch of the Wireless Charging 2.0 ecosystem. We will then open the call to questions. As noted, Energous had a strong operational quarter. First, progress with our key strategic partner continued to advance towards an opportunity for commercialization of our technology in one or more of their product lines. During the quarter, we completed specific deliverables resulting in an increase in engineering services revenue and the likelihood of additional payments in the third and fourth quarters. Consistent with prior statements, there is no guarantee that this relationship will ever result in the WattUp technology being integrated into this partner’s consumer electronics products. However, our progress with this key account is significant and the relationship continues to move forward. Also, in the quarter, the first WattUp-enabled hearing aid product was announced by the Korean company, Delight, working in conjunction with our long-standing partner SK Telesys. General availability is expected within the next 90 days as the fully commercialized WattUp-enabled hearing aid winds its way through the regulatory approval process in target launch countries. We believe the Delight hearing aid is the first of a number of WattUp-enabled hearing aids that will come to market in the next few quarter along with a new product category referred to as personal sound amplification devices or PSADs. For those of you who are not familiar with PSADs, unlike hearing aids, which in the United States require FDA approval, PSADs are hearing assistance devices that do not require either FDA approval to distribute or a prescription to buy. This is a whole new emerging medical device category that is ideally suited to the Wireless Charging 2.0 capabilities of WattUp and will likely be a major revenue opportunity for the company. The release of the first WattUp-enabled hearing aid is indicative of the traction Energous is gaining in the wearables, hearables, and hearing aid vertical markets where we currently have multiple top tier customers in various stages of integration. The progress of our experienced team of engineers has made in terms of receiver and transmitter size, efficiency, and cost reduction has created a first mover advantage for Energous. To our knowledge, there are no other wireless charging solutions available in any stage of development that have a receiver capable of fitting into these devices coupled with a transmitter that has the price, performance, power and efficiency necessary to be commercially viable. The recently announced general availability of the WattUp Near Field transmitter from IDT is another major forward in brining Wireless Charging 2.0 technology to these markets. Working with our partner IDT, the combined engineering teams developed a low power WattUp transmitter that meets regulatory requirements and has the price and performance necessary to be bundled as a white-label transmitter, with each receiving device without significantly impacting the average selling price. The system replaces the cable and contact points on current wearable and hearable offerings, while allowing these devices to be hermetically sealed, eliminating classic moisture, dust, and mechanical problems. In the case of hearing-aids, this system eliminates the task of changing batteries two or three times a week, which is not only expensive, but can be challenging, especially for the elderly who are the primary users of these devices. The key is that all of these benefits are derived at a price that will be attractive to the consumer, which we believe will accelerate adoption considering the utility offered. One final comment on the momentum the company has developed in these verticals. Every one of our top customers in these verticals either had or previously attempted to integrate the inductive or Qi technology into one or more of their earlier products without success. The primary reasons for these failures were cost, the size of the receiving coils, concerns with foreign object detection, interference complications, and strict positioning requirements, which reduce the convenience of wireless charging. The fact that these top tier customers are moving away from Qi further validates our belief that Wireless Charging 2.0 technology from Energous represents the future of wireless power. WattUp meets or exceeds the power and efficiency of the first-generation inductive solution, but also brings the required cost, size, and performance necessary for mass adoption, along with the solution for foreign object detection issues that has plagued the technology, the inductive technology for some time. The Wireless Charging 2.0 technology also delivers the very important utility benefit derived from WattUp’s inherent position independence or freedom of placement on charging surfaces. All of these factors have been major contributors to the continued expansion of our customer prospect base, as well as the acceleration of the development efforts within these prospects, which leads us to believe that wearables, hearables, and hearing aids could be significant sources of revenue in 2019, 2020, and beyond. Speaking of revenue, Energous received orders and chipsets to multiple customers in the quarter. As I noted at the beginning of the call, Energous achieved another major milestone when we received notification from dialogue of the release of our first royalty payment for chips shipped during the quarter. While the revenue ramp is slower than we anticipated at the beginning of the year, we are beginning to build the backlog. We expect to begin realizing the revenue benefits of the backlog over the next two quarters to three quarters as the launch status for a number of customer changes from preproduction to production. This being the case, our current view of chip revenue for the remainder of the year consistent with what we communicated last quarter is that revenues will likely be flat for Q3, depending on pre-production rollout schedules, while there is a reasonable probability of a significant increase in revenue from chip sales in the fourth quarter in conjunction with anticipated WattUp enabled product releases to the market from multiple top tier customers in the first half of 2019. In addition, engineering services revenues are expected to continue in the third quarter with the opportunity for increasing revenues from this category in the fourth quarter. One comment on revenue versus expenses. Consistent with the goals and expectations we said at the beginning of the year, expenses quarter-to-quarter will vary largely depending on our silicon tape-out schedule. Based on significant continued development advantages, especially in the key areas of efficiency and integration, as well as strong customer demand, we intend to accelerate the expansion of our silicon product portfolio. In the third quarter, we will be taping out a number of new chips that will provide higher power options for our customers as well as improved efficiency. The new generation of chips will also integrate a number of external components, which will increase our percentage of the bill of materials in WattUp-enabled products. We expect to see the full impact of this next generation of chips towards the middle of next year, when we anticipate the first product releases to the consumer using our high power WattUp technology for quick charging and applications requiring 5 to 15 watts of charging power. It is expected, future generation of chips will extend this specification to even higher levels of power as the WattUp product portfolio continues to evolve and expand. Moreover, the next generation of chips we are taping out will further expand the vertical markets we can target, as well as be able to offer our customers a broad spectrum of different price points, power, efficiency, footprint, and integration. Accordingly, the financial investments in these new tape-outs is expected to have an impact on expenses for the next two quarters. Given our strong cash position, impending revenue ramp, and customer demand for higher power solution we are launching these products now as we position the company to increase the pace of customer acquisition, expand our [top tier] verticals, capture market share, and build ever increasing barriers to competition. While the main focus of the company last quarter was on the first phase of Wireless Charging 2.0, specifically Near Field or contact-based transmitters, significant advancements were also made in the planned second phase of our ecosystem launch, which is made field charging or over the air charging at a distance. The prime application for this technology this technology span 3 verticals: consumer electronics, medical devices, and industrial applications with multiple customers engaged in each vertical. Top candidates for initial launch of the first distance transmitters are smart speakers, Bluetooth speakers, medical sensors, and industrial applications involving battery charging and sensors. These products are in various stages of development. However, the actual release dates will be more likely influenced by the global regulatory approvals in three key regions: North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Approvals for all three regions for distance transmitting RF power could happen as early as the end of this year but will more likely extend in the first half of next year. Regardless of the launch schedule we do expect to see customers showcasing the first WattUp-enabled distance transmitters at trade shows in the coming months. There is also progress to report on Far Field transmitters designed to send power 15 feet out or greater. The primary focus of these development efforts has been in the area of antenna enhancement, which is key to delivering greater-focused power at a distance. Multiple patent applications have been submitted as a result of these efforts and we believe the full-size transmitters, which represents Phase 3 of the Wireless Charging 2.0 rollout will begin coming into the market in the first half of 2020. As noted above, a key requirement in the launch of all three phases of Wireless Charging 2.0 is regulatory certification. As we communicated, the majority of our customers are top tier. Typically, in the top three in terms of market share in each vertical we are targeting. Customers of this stature and scope launch multiple skews of the same product on a global basis. These launches may be faced regionally, but virtually all of our customers have a global presence and will require global regulatory certification. Thus, regulatory certifications are a top priority for Energous as we are essentially paving the way for these approvals by establishing precedents in each targeted international regulatory agency. On average, global launches in the consumer electronics industry encompass over 100 countries. In the second quarter, our regulatory team made very significant headway in establishing a global path for certification of the WattUp Near Field technology. As you may recall in May, we reported that the WattUp Near Field technology had been certified in 38 countries, including the European Union. As of yesterday, WattUp is now approved to ship in a total of 92 countries, including certifications in two key markets for us, India and Canada, as well as our first certification in the Asia-Pacific region Thailand. In total, the Energous regulatory team has launched certifications in well over 125 countries, and the momentum is clearly building for a global recognition and certification of the first phase of Wireless Charging 2.0 rollout, the contact transmitter. At the same time, our regulatory team is actively working to build a similar path for regulatory certification of our at-distance transmitter technology, which marks the second and third phase of Wireless Charging 2.0 rollout. Intellectual property continues to be a priority for Energous as the momentum for wireless charging builds with the consumer. Because of the increased consumer awareness of wireless power solutions, we are starting to see a few new entrants in the market with different technologies and approaches. While virtually all of these new entrants are little more than early stage prototype used for funding purposes, the increasing presence of wireless power in the media and at consume of venues is positive and that it stimulates consumer awareness and in alternative to Qi, which we believe will ultimately drive the pace of adoption. Based on third party and customer market intelligence, Energous continues to maintain a clear first mover advantage in consumer electronics in IOT markets. Despite this advantage, we are ever vigilant of potential threats to our leadership position and believe it is prudent to continue to expand and extend barriers to any head-to-head competition, including strengthening and expanding our patent portfolio. To this end, the number of awarded patterns and allowed patent applications for the WattUp technology currently stands at 167, up from 135 noted in our last quarter call. There are also more than 150 additional patent applications in various stages of review and approval with the U.S. patent office and other foreign patent offices. On a side note, as an indication of the significant presence we are building with the USPTO, an Energous technical and marketing team was recently invited to present at the USPTO to patent examiners from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. We will continue to invest in IP and expand our portfolio as needed to make it easier for potential players in this space to work with us rather than trying to work around us. One final point on intellectual property. While our go-to-market strategy is that of a fabless semiconductor company, Energous has also become a powerful systems house in that our engineers continue to develop very advanced reference design that include antenna designs, hardware designs, and enabling software, which we license to our customers. Despite our small size and early stage in the market, we own all of our intellectual property. This is very important when considering and determining the overall value of the company. Another strategic advantage is our partnership with dialogue semiconductor, which continues to pay dividends. Dialog is a great partner. We benefit from the support of Dialog sales team who has increased introduced our technical and business development personnel into the majority of their key customers in the verticals of hearing aids, hearables, wearables, and smart phones where they have a market leading presence. Additionally, we continue to leverage Dialog's global presence as a top tier fabless semiconductor company. When dealing with the largest consumer electronics companies in the world, partnering with a company like Dialog allows us to ensure the quality and dependability of the supply chain for our customers. We are very fortunate to have a partner like Dialog, as the pace of adoption and customer acquisition we are experiencing with top CE companies would likely be much slower without their support. In summary, Energous execution in the second quarter was solid, exceeding our tactical goals for the period. We executed across all functional departments, especially in the key areas of regulatory, customer acquisition, and development. All of this points to our goal of exiting the fourth quarter with significantly ramping revenues, customer launches to consumers in multiple verticals, and a path to global regulatory certification insight, clear market leadership, and the vision of a global Wireless Charging 2.0 ecosystem in a position to become a reality. Brian, I will now turn the call over to you.