Artificial Intelligence
Mohawk Group Furthers Execution of M&A Strategy Announcing Accretive Acquisition of Mueller, Pursteam, Pohl and Schmitt and Spiralizer E-Commerce Brands
Company Establishes Preliminary 2021 Net Revenue Outlook Range of $290-320 million
Conference Call to be Held Wednesday, December 2, 2020 at 8:30 am ET
NEW YORK, Dec. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mohawk Group Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: MWK) (“Mohawk” or the “Company”) today announced it acquired the assets of leading e-commerce business brands Mueller, Pursteam, Pohl and Schmitt, and Spiralizer (the “Acquired Brands”) from 9830 Macarthur LLC (“9830”), ZN Direct LLC, and Reliance Equities Group, LLC. The Acquired Brand’s unaudited trailing twelve month revenue and operating income as of September 30, 2020, were approximately $77.5 million and $13.1 million, respectively.
Yaniv Sarig, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented, “We are excited to announce this acquisition, which we are confident will achieve key strategic, financial and growth objectives for Mohawk and furthers our goal of building the consumer product platform of the future. By acquiring the assets of these four strong brands, we are demonstrating how our M&A strategy can be a powerful factor in our growth and profitability going forward. The 43 new products we are adding to our portfolio are mainly part of the home and kitchen small appliances category and will expand our existing large appliance product portfolio. In the last twelve months, private equity and venture capital backed companies have raised significant funding to fuel the acquisition of Amazon brands and we believe our technology platform and agile supply chain position Mohawk to be a leader in this space moving forward.”
As consideration for the Acquired Brands, Mohawk paid $25,000,000 in cash, issued 4,220,000 shares of Mohawk common stock and issued a promissory note in the amount of approximately $15.8 million related to inventory acquired from the sellers (such note amount subject to adjustment following a post closing physical inspection). Subject to the achievement of certain contribution margin thresholds during each of the 12 month periods ending December 31, 2021 and 2022, Mohawk also granted 9830 (for the benefit of all sellers) the right to certain earn out payments related to sales of products under the Acquired Brands. The cash and common stock payment reflect an approximate 4x multiple on the trailing twelve month operating income of the Acquired Brands as of September 30, 2020. In connection with the transaction, 9830 agreed to a six month lockup and to five year voting and standstill terms.
Refinancing of Term Loan
Mohawk today also announced the refinancing of its existing term loan credit facility through the issuance of a Senior Secured Note to an institutional lender. The Company received gross proceeds of $38 million in exchange for the Senior Secured Note with an aggregate principal amount of $43 million. The new loan will be repaid over 24 equal monthly cash payments of $1.8 million. In connection with the Senior Secured Note, the Company issued to the institutional lender warrants to purchase an aggregate of 2,864,133 shares of the Company’s common stock at a strike price of $9.01, which represents a 27.6% premium to the closing price on November 30, 2020.
A.G.P. / Alliance Global Partners acted as sole placement agent on the debt transaction.
Increased 2020 Outlook
For full year 2020, the Company expects net revenue to be in the range of $180.0 million to $190.0 million, up from $175.0 million to $185.0 million, reflecting the addition of the Acquired Brands. The Company continues to expect to generate positive Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2020, excluding one-time items for transaction-related costs of the acquisition, and for the full year basis 2020.
The most directly comparable GAAP financial measure for Adjusted EBITDA is net loss and we expect to report a net loss for the three months ending December 31, 2020, and for the twelve months ending December 31, 2020, due primarily to quarterly interest expense, net and stock-based compensation expense.
The historical revenue and operating income of the Acquired Brands are subject to the completion of the Company’s standard procedures for the preparation and completion of its financial statements and completion of an audit by the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm.
2021 Preliminary Outlook
For full year 2021, the Company expects net revenue to be in the range of $290.0 million to $320.0 million.
Conference Call Details
Management will host a conference call on Wednesday, December 2, 2020 at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the acquisition. Investors and analysts interested in participating in the call are invited to dial (877) 295-1077 (domestic) or (470) 495-9485 (international) and provide the conference ID: 7385844. The conference call will also be available to interested parties through a live webcast at https://ir.mohawkgp.com.
About Mohawk Group Holdings, Inc.
Mohawk Group Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries (“Mohawk”), is a rapidly growing technology-enabled consumer products company that uses machine learning, natural language processing, and data analytics to design, develop, market and sell products. Mohawk predominantly operates through online retail channels such as Amazon and Walmart. In addition to the Acquired Brands, Mohawk has seven owned and operated brands: hOme, Vremi, Xtava, Truweo, Holonix, Aussie Health and RIF6. Mohawk sells products in multiple categories, including home and kitchen appliances, kitchenware, environmental appliances (i.e., dehumidifiers and air conditioners), beauty-related products and, to a lesser extent, consumer electronics. Mohawk was founded on the premise that if a company selling consumer packaged goods was founded today, it would apply artificial intelligence and machine learning, the synthesis of massive quantities of data and the use of social proof to validate high caliber product offerings as opposed to over-reliance on brand value and other traditional marketing tactics.
Forward Looking Statements
All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements including, in particular, the statements regarding this acquisition, our M&A strategy, our goal of building the consumer products company of the future, the potential for our company to be a leader in the acquisition of Amazon businesses, the potential acquisition of additional businesses in the future, our ability to create significant operating leverage and efficiency when integrating companies that we acquire, including through the use of our team’s expertise, the economies of scale of our supply chain and automation driven by our platform, our expectations regarding future growth through the launch of products under our brands and the acquisition of additional brands, our expected 2020 net revenue and preliminary 2021 outlook, including any expected impact that this acquisition may have thereon, and the statements about our expected Adjusted EBITDA and net loss for the fourth quarter of 2020 and full year 2020. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to uncertainties and factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control and could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to, those related to this acquisition; those related to our ability to create operating leverage and efficiency when integrating companies that we acquire, including through the use of our team’s expertise, the economies of scale of our supply chain and automation driven by our platform; those related to our ability to grow through the launch of products under our brands and the acquisition of additional brands; those related to the impact of COVID-19, including its impact on consumer demand, our cash flows, financial condition and revenue growth rate; our supply chain including sourcing, manufacturing, warehousing and fulfillment; our ability to manage expenses, working capital and capital expenditures efficiently; our business model and our technology platform; our ability to disrupt the consumer products industry; our ability to grow market share in existing and new product categories, including PPE; our ability to generate profitability and stockholder value; international tariffs and trade measures; inventory management, product liability claims, recalls or other safety and regulatory concerns; reliance on third party online marketplaces; seasonal and quarterly variations in our revenue; acquisitions of other companies and technologies and other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of our most recent periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), all of which you may obtain for free on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.
Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we do not know whether our expectations will prove correct. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, even if subsequently made available by us on our website or otherwise. We do not undertake any obligation to update, amend or clarify these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
Investor Contact: Ilya Grozovsky, Mohawk Group 917-905-1699
Artificial Intelligence
VIVOTEK Launches Successful Make Tomorrow Easier, Today! Vision During ISC West 2024
TAIPEI, April 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — VIVOTEK (3454-TW), the global leading IP security solution provider, announces that last week’s 2024 ISC West trade show in Las Vegas was a tremendous success as it unveiled the 2024 theme Make Tomorrow Easier, Today! to partners, attendees, and the media. Make Analytics Easier, Make Cloud Easier, Make Search Easier, and Make Integration Easier were the core essential components of the 2024 theme, and both the booth staff and visitors were very busy discussing its vision throughout the show. This also demonstrates that VIVOTEK’s AI security solutions and cloud-based service VORTEX attracted interests by many customers for their rich versatility in applications.
From the outset, it was clear that this year’s ISC West was going to surpass previous editions. There were more engagements, and these engagements lasted longer than the past as attendees and the media were hyper-focused on VORTEX, its new camera solutions, AI integration, re-launch of VIVOTEK Premium Partner Program, additional technology solutions, and the roll-out of the 2024 theme.
AI has quickly become a priority in the security industry, and it was a focal point of VIVOTEK’s strategy during the show as well. During its many sales and marketing meetings at ISC West, discussions primarily revolved around how to integrate AI into the product lines and software platforms, much to the gratification of its partners who are seeing a quickly growing need for this technology to satisfy their customers’ needs.
As many of its customers may know by now, VIVOTEK recently entered into an integration partnership with Kisi, a modern cloud-based access control solution based in Brooklyn, New York. This partnership aims to secure physical spaces dedicated to providing a seamless and efficient user experience, making Kisi ideally suited as a VIVOTEK partner. During ISC West, VIVOTEK provided Kisi with a station in the booth to perform demonstrations, which proved to be very popular during the show.
Throughout the event, VORTEX remained a central focal point and rapidly gained popularity among partners since its launch. This was evident throughout the show as the VORTEX station was continuously used for strategic demonstrations. As for the theme, attendees commended on how much they liked this year’s booth layout, how the message of “Making Tomorrow Easier, Today” was delivered in every stations, how accessible the staff was in meeting with them, and how much they enjoyed the partner reception party.
VIVOTEK’s commitment to innovation and customer-centric solutions shone brightly at ISC West, as evident in the overwhelmingly positive feedbacks it received from partners, end users, media, and even other exhibit manufacturers. VIVOTEK extends heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to making this year’s ISC West a tremendous success. We look forward to making next year’s ISC West even better!
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2390930/1.jpg
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/vivotek-launches-successful-make-tomorrow-easier-today-vision-during-isc-west-2024-302121042.html
Artificial Intelligence
aiOla’s Speech AI Technology Outperforms OpenAI’s Whisper in Recognizing Jargon
aiOla’s model automates the creation of customized processes and workflows for conducting reports and inspections across industries such as manufacturing, supply chain and logistics, pharma, and more
TEL AVIV, Israel, April 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — aiOla, an AI-powered technology that automates business workflows by capturing spoken data, has announced a major milestone in speech recognition. aiOla’s solution, powered by a novel keyword spotting model, has advanced to match human proficiency in understanding industry-specific jargon. The patented AdaKWS model achieved 95% accuracy in keyword spotting, surpassing OpenAI’s industry-leading Whisper model which reached 88% accuracy.
Keyword spotting is an essential aspect of speech recognition that tackles the problem of identifying jargon by detecting predefined words and phrases. “Think about a courier delivery where your package arrives damaged. The courier needs to file a report using specific codes and acronyms that describe the situation — those codes and acronyms are keywords. Industry jargon is everywhere and in many fields, it dominates communication, comprising up to half of workers’ speech,” said aiOla’s CEO and co-founder, Amir Haramaty. “The ability to spot keywords enables automation of everyday processes across a wide range of industries, from filing a parcel damage report to completing a safety inspection in a food manufacturing plant, transforming speech into actions.”
aiOla’s process automation applications can accurately understand speech, jargon and acronyms across over 100 languages, regardless of accents and background noises. aiOla achieves this by combining its state-of-the-art keyword spotting model with a speech recognition model. The onboarding process takes mere hours: clients provide examples of their checklists or forms, and aiOla automatically generates custom language models for the use case. Workers are then able to complete their operations verbally using the aiOla app while keeping their eyes and hands on the equipment. aiOla’s exceptional ability to spot rare industry terms with high accuracy allows the platform to easily distinguish between speech related to work processes and everyday conversation.
The app leverages a proprietary model that was developed by aiOla’s team of scientists to recognize a predefined list of keywords within speech. This enables aiOla’s solution to be instantly adapted to the jargon of any industry without needing to retrain its AI model. On a benchmark of keyword and jargon detection that includes 16 languages, Whisper’s largest model yields 88% accuracy compared to aiOla’s model achieving 95% accuracy. Additionally, in a recent benchmark which is composed of hard-to-detect keywords taken from English language audiobooks, the CED model from a team of Apple researchers yields 92.7% whereas aiOla’s AdaKWS reaches 95.1% accuracy.
“Keyword spotting poses significant challenges due to the scarcity of training data, especially across diverse languages and dialects. It typically requires industry-specific fine-tuning to enable models to recognize jargon not commonly found in everyday speech,” said aiOla’s Chief Scientist, Professor Joseph Keshet. “Our model consistently surpassed the OpenAI Whisper baselines by a significant margin, achieving a substantial improvement compared to the top-performing baseline. Furthermore, our model is far more efficient, using 15x fewer parameters.”
To learn more about aiOla’s technology visit: https://aiola.com
Explore aiOla’s keyword spotting research: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2309.08561.pdf
About aiOla:
aiOla’s patented technology comprehends over 100 languages, and discerns jargon, abbreviations and acronyms, demonstrating a low error rate even in noisy environments. aiOla’s technology converts manual processes in critical industries into data-driven, paperless, AI-powered workflows through cutting-edge speech recognition.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/aiolas-speech-ai-technology-outperforms-openais-whisper-in-recognizing-jargon-302121082.html
Artificial Intelligence
AMN utilises SpaceX’s Starlink Constellation to Connect Rural Villages in Nigeria
LONDON, April 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — AMN is pleased to announce that the first AMN base station is now live using LEO backhaul from SpaceX’s Starlink. In 2023, AMN announced a commercial agreement to use Starlink, SpaceX’s constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, to connect AMN’s mobile network base stations with high-speed, low-latency broadband services.
By utilising Starlink terminals to provide low-latency satellite backhaul, we are able to deliver the full capability of AMN’s unique multi-carrier radio access node (the ARN) with 3G and 4G as well as 2G, with ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth and data volumes demanded by subscribers whilst remaining economically sustainable. The LEO backhaul also paves the way for AMN to deliver 5G services, targeted before the end of 2024.
AMN began rolling out rural base stations in Nigeria in 2018, and the company now owns and operates 1600 base stations across the country. Yebu was the first rural community to be connected using AMN’s ubiquitous solar powered base station. The village is located approximately 80km from Abuja, but can take four hours to reach due to road conditions. Yebu is predominantly an agricultural community, with a market offering local farmers the opportunity to sell their goods.
Since connecting the community in November 2018, AMN has processed more than 9 million voice minutes in Yebu, with significant growth in 2022 and 2023 following the BTS upgrade to AMN’s own radio node (ARN). AMN became an OEM for RAN equipment in 2020 following the acquisition of Range Networks, and now operates more than 1200 ARN across Africa and Latin America. The impact of this strategic move is clear in Yebu. In 2023, the site processed almost three times the amount of traffic than it did in 2020.
“Yebu community was left behind and blind but the coming of Africa Mobile Networks in 2018 has made us to achieve a lot of things like police division station, 24 hours solar light and steady communication all over the world. Before then there was nothing like those things listed.” – Salihu, on behalf of the Yebu community
AMN believes that all communities of any significant size should have access to telecommunication services to benefit the population educationally, economically and socially. AMN has deployed over 4000 base stations across Africa and Latin America. Installation of new sites continues throughout 2024 in Nigeria, DRC, Cameroon, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Benin and Rwanda. At AMN, we appreciate that any solution to close the digital divide must be economically sustainable and offer a service of the same quality as in urban areas. From designing and manufacturing our own BTS, uniquely developed for the solar-powered rural site, to offering cutting-edge backhaul solutions, we are committed to bringing high quality connectivity to those living in rural and ultra-rural areas.
CONTACT: Jennifer Darcy, [email protected], +44 1908 394482
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/amn-utilises-spacexs-starlink-constellation-to-connect-rural-villages-in-nigeria-302121059.html
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