CHICAGO, April 13, 2020 /CNW/ - Venzee Technologies Inc. (TSX-V:VENZ) ("Venzee" or the "Company") at the request of IIROC, has provided further details on the announcement that it has received an increase in revenue-generating work orders due to COVID-19 supply chain distress.
The Company's commercial Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology delivers accurate and automated product information for brands and manufacturers to retailers. The Company has previously disclosed that its AI distribution platform has completed functional integration to more than 250 of the world's largest retail destinations, as identified in Deloitte's annual retail ranking ("Global Powers of Retailing 2019", Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.)
The COVID-19 Pandemic has highlighted the inefficiency of manual Supply Chain processes and driven many brands, distributors, and retailers to search for alternatives to legacy processes. As a result, the pandemic has had a positive impact on the Venzee business.
The Company's growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic is supported by third-party analysis. An independent report published by the World Economic Forum underscores the value of moving from paper to the type of digital processes enabled by platforms, such as the Venzee AI platform. According to the report, "Protective measures for COVID-19 have made clear that operations dependent on physical assets, such as paper, can face serious disruption". ("Supply chains have been upended. Here's how to make them more resilient", Rebecca Liao, et al., April 6, 2020, World Economic Forum)
The Company has made previous disclosure of multiple channel partnership agreements. These channel partners are integrated with the Company's cloud-based platform and actively use Venzee AI distribution to automate and distribute product information to selected retailers. Venzee channel partners, as previously disclosed, actively promote the Company's services to brands and manufacturers who may benefit from the automation of broadly distributed and accurate product information to retailers.
The Company's announced increase in work orders is a result of channel partners that have completed functional integration and are marketing the use of Venzee AI to automate and accurately distribute product content information.
The Company - and its channel partners - actively market functional integration with global retailers to win revenue-generating business for Venzee. These retailers include - but are not limited to - Amazon, Costco, Home Depot, Kroger, Staples, Best Buy, Whole Foods, and others. A partial list of these retailers is available at venzee.com, published in its marketing material, and its corporate presentation. The list is not static and expands at the request of the Company's channel partners, brands, and manufacturers.
The Company previously disclosed that through announced channel partnerships, they had won the business of an international pharmaceutical company, a multinational energy company, a national health and wellness company, and a global power tools company, among others. The associated annual revenue of these companies - included in the previous press release - was provided to give full disclosure of the size of the companies now using the Venzee AI platform for product content distribution to retailers.
On March 24, 2020, the Company disclosed it is seeing accelerating growth in its client base and associated revenue. Further, the Company indicated it has additional financial reserves and is operating above its 24-month plan, which commenced in August 2019 with the appointment of Supply Chain veteran John Abrams to the role of CEO.
The Company also has previously disclosed it has hired other Supply Chain veterans to grow its partnerships and complete - in line with contracted Service Level Agreements - revenue-generating work orders for retail connections. The management team now consists of:
CEO John Abrams, a supply chain leader for global brands and distributors. Mr. Abrams' work for McDonald's Corporation led to the creation of Redbox, a non-stop revenue-producing Supply Chain asset built for McDonald's Corporation and later sold to Coinstar for US$200 million. At health care product distributor Cardinal Health, Mr. Abrams led the technical consolidation of various product lines to form CareFusion - as a public company - subsequently acquired for more than US$12 billion by Becton Dixon and Co. Before joining Venzee, Mr. Abrams led strategy and partner engagement for Shotfarm, LLC, a Product Information Distribution platform (PID) acquired by Syndigo, for undisclosed terms.
Peter Montross, Vice President of Enterprise Sales. Mr. Montross has more than 20 years of experience and success driving revenue growth for SaaS content exchange solutions, business intelligence products, and product information management software products and services in the retail industry. His experience in the PID industry includes leadership positions at Edgenet and Shotfarm - both acquired by Syndigo in 2019.
Dan Wilkinson who served as Chief Commercial Officer at content distribution service 1WorldSync. For nearly two decades, Mr. Wilkinson drove 1WorldSync (acquired by Battery Ventures) into new markets and industry verticals and became the dominant solution provider in grocery, consumer packaged goods (CPG) and non-regulated medical products.
Chad Kaczmarek was recruited in 2019 by Venzee specifically for his expertise delivering enterprise-class solutions for major manufacturers and retailers. Mr. Kaczmarek, now Senior Director of Integrations for the Company, has a work history that includes successful revenue growth and platform integration roles with Venzee competitors 1WorldSync (acquired by Battery Ventures) and Edgenet (acquired by Syndigo LLC).
The Company may make additional hires to expedite the completion of these work orders, which would be funded through its working capital or additional funding.
According to Mr. Abrams, "Our recurring revenue model and technology works. We continue to operate on plan and are witnessing accelerating growth and revenue from our clients. Since I've taken the helm as CEO and refocused our revenue model, we have drastically reduced our burn and are operating above our 24-month plan."
Venzee is a Supply Chain technology company and uses Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and other relevant tools to connect Brands to Retailers. These modern technical tools are the core of the Venzee value proposition and are significant improvements to manual, paper-based processes long used in the global Supply Chain.
About Venzee
We believe intelligent supply chain functionality is inevitable and will significantly benefit growers, makers, brands, sellers, regulators, and consumers.
At Venzee, we're building the foundation for a future where seamless, accurate, automated data flow simplifies process, removes friction, and creates value for all those that rely on the myriad of data and information surrounding any product, anywhere.
Venzee's mission is to unlock shareholder value by creating intelligent technology that removes friction from the global supply chain. Our products disrupt and displace inefficient manual processes in favor of integrated, machine-driven solutions.
To learn more about Venzee, visit https://venzee.com/
On Behalf of the Board,
John Sexton Abrams
President and CEO
Venzee Technologies, Inc.
john.abrams@venzee.com
Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the terms of the Offering, the completion of the Offering and the expected use of the net proceeds received by the Company. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; and regulatory risks. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained under "Risk Factors and Uncertainties" in the Company's management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2018 and the quarter ended August 29, 2019, which are available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and in other filings that the Company has made and may make with applicable securities authorities in the future.
Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement.
The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable securities laws.
Neither TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Venzee Technologies Inc.
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Venzee, Investor Relations, Caleb Jeffries, Kin Communications Inc., 1-866-684-6730, VENZ@kincommunications.comCopyright CNW Group 2020