Spire Posts Record Revenue in Q1, Pursuing Reverse Stock Split to Boost Share Price  

Artist rendition of Spire’s Lemur-2 satellite. Photo: Spire

Spire Global reported a record $24.2 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 34% year-over-year. New customer additions and increased adoption by existing customers drove the revenue growth. 

Despite the growth, Spire is currently in a cure period and at risk of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange due to its share price, which has been less than $1 since early March. 

Spire recently said in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is pursuing a reverse stock split to increase its share price and regain compliance. This action would consolidate the number of shares of stock into fewer shares, with a higher price. 

CFO Tom Krywe said on a call with investors this week that the reverse stock split is up for a vote at the annual shareholder meeting set for June 13. Spire has outlined it would split the stock anywhere between 1-for-2 and 1-for-50. “It’s a range in there because the price is changing at different times,” Krywe commented. 

Spire added 48 new annual recurring revenue (ARR) solution customers during the first quarter, ending the quarter with 781 ARR solution customers under contract. This is a 25% increase over its number of customers last year. 

Net loss was $17.7 million, compared to $11.8 million in the first quarter last year. 

However, the company said it is improving margins as it works toward profitability and posted its best operating margin since going public. First quarter GAAP gross margin increased 11 points year-over-year and 5 points quarter-over-quarter to 57%. 

“While we are pleased with our continued growth during the first quarter, we are even more proud of our progression to its profitability in this very difficult macro environment. We exceeded our expectations on operating loss, adjusted EBITDA and loss per share as we continued our pursuit of profitability. This strong execution came against the backdrop of challenging macro headwinds on multiple fronts,” CEO Peter Platzer told investors. 

Platzer said the company has a goal to achieve GAAP gross margins above 70% within the next two years, which he said is average for software as a service (SaaS) companies. 

The company ended the quarter with cash on hand of $73 million.

For the second quarter, Spire gave guidance of revenue between $24 million to $25 million, and total ARR customers of 800 to 810.