Appier delivers strong performance in second quarter and revises upward full-year forecast

Significant gains in profitability growth fueled by AI-enabled transformation from customers across APAC and US

Appier delivered the following results for second quarter of
fiscal year of 2021:

• Revenue growth up 50% YoY to a historical high of 2.8 billion JPY
• Gross profit increased 77%
  YoY
• Annual Recurring Revenue
  (ARR) growth up to a historical high of 10.8 billion JPY, up 38% YoY
• Significant profitability improvement with EBITDA up 24
  percentage point comparing with same period of last year and hit historical
  high
• Approached EBITDA break even for the whole quarter (-1%)
• June delivered first-time ever operating profit on a monthly basis since 2013 when Appier invested for growth
• Operating income improved by 22 percentage points YoY
• Upward revision of full year
  forecast from 10.9 billion JPY to 11.7 billion JPY with 7% of increase
• Gained new customers with an
  increase of 29.4% YoY and 7.5% QoQ, which is the highest quarterly organic
  increase

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Media OutReach – 5 August 2021 – Appier
Group Inc (TSE: 4180), henceforth referred to as Appier, today announced
its Q2 earnings results for its second quarter ended 30 June 2021, which saw
strong growth in revenue and profit as its customer base expanded and deepened
across Asia-Pacific and the US. Appier’s gross profit increased 77%
year-on-year (YoY), with revenue up 50% to hit a historical high of 2.8 billion
JPY.  Annual recurring revenue (ARR) hit
a historical high of 10.8 billion JPY, up 38% YoY.

Appier completed its listing on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange on March
30, 2021 and turned a monthly operating profit in June for the first time since
2013 when they started to invest for growth. Appier’s gross margin climbed from
42% to 50% YoY, while its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation
and amortization) margin rose 24 percentage points from -25% to -1% YoY.
Existing customers and new customer acceleration were instrumental for
this upward trend as the LTM NRR (last twelve months net revenue retention
rate) shot up to historical high of 120.2% in Q2.

“We attribute our substantial growth
this quarter to our ability to help our customers capitalize on opportunities
in the new digital economy as the global pandemic continues to accelerate
digital growth across Asia. Our customers are recognising the benefits brought
about by elevating their business performance with artificial intelligence (AI)
technologies,” said Dr. Chih-Han Yu, Appier’s CEO and co-founder. “Many
companies are still at the start of their AI-powered digitization and we help
them make sense of the entire customer journey, from prospecting and
acquisition to retention using AI-informed analytics. The post-pandemic
digital-first environment is only going to become more complex but technology
allows business leaders to cut through that complexity and make informed
decisions. Appier is well-positioned to help customers continue their
AI-enabled digitization as demonstrated by this quarter’s strong results.”

Enterprise demand for sharper insights fuels growth

Increased customer demand for services
that support transformation efforts has driven Appier’s strong results, with
customer growth at 29.4% YoY. The ecommerce sector continues to see accelerated
growth in the face of the global pandemic. Geographically, Appier posted
revenue gains in each region across Asia-Pacific with more than 40% increase.
In the US, Appier is witnessing a steady growth trajectory as revenue grew 100%
QoQ, having established its presence only a year ago.

Appier witnessed strong customer
growth at 29.4% YoY and 7.5% QoQ with the highest organic increase in number of
customers. The need for businesses to elevate their marketing performance and
improve customer satisfaction in a digital-first environment, which is
especially dynamic in Asia Pacific, gave Appier a boost this quarter. The
AI-native SaaS company is uniquely positioned to help enterprises tackle the
customer journey from end to end with the aid of machine-learning and advanced
analytics.

Conversational marketing play seen as key strategic move

Appier made its debut into the
conversational commerce and marketing space in June, following the acquisition
of BotBonnie, an omnichannel chatbot platform announced in May. Conversational
commerce is a global phenomenon that will continue to accelerate as total spend
over conversational commerce channels will reach $290 billion by 2025 globally
(rising from $41 billion in 2021). This is a 590% increase over the next four
years. With the addition of BotBonnie to Appier’s suite of AI solutions,
customers can now add conversational marketing to their commerce and stay on
top of the ever-evolving customer expectations underpinned by the need for
instantaneous service, answers and information. Gartner expects that by 2023,
40% of enterprise applications will have conversational AI embedded in their
functionality, up from a current 5%.

Market-driven innovation continues to
play a big part in Appier’s product strategy as witnessed in the number of
product updates during Q2. These include the addition of a predictive actions
feature to AIQUA, which helps businesses deliver personalized messages to their
customers; the launch of Creative Studio, which enables easy, coding-free
online store creation and website tailoring; and the acquisition of BotBonnie
in May, an omnichannel chatbot platform, which it is combining with its own
solutions such as AIDEAL, a tool to predict purchase intent and motivate
hesitant buyers. Appier’s AI-native products support customer engagement and
acquisition, deliver customer insights and drive purchase.

With its uniquely Asia-first approach
in the competitive SaaS industry, Appier sees large enterprises and small
businesses competing on an increasingly level playing field where customers are
won and lost based on quality of service, and customer experience.