Digital signage provider, Creative Realities, amended its second amended and restated loan and security agreement with its lender, Slipstream Communications. The amendment provides the borrowers with a $2 million term loan, the net proceeds of which are being used by the company to accelerate an active software development project with the potential to expand SaaS revenues associated with an existing customer by up to $5 million annually beginning in 2024.
The term loan has an annual interest rate of 12.5% and matures on Sept. 1, 2023. Commencing on Feb. 1, 2023, the borrowers will make monthly installment payments of approximately $270 thousand until the maturity date, consisting of principal and interest sufficient to fully amortize the term loan through the maturity date.
The company has secured this loan to fund an unplanned and extraordinary growth opportunity associated with its automotive and vehicular dealership software platform. The company intends to utilize the proceeds to expand and enhance this existing platform in conjunction with a global expansion opportunity with one of the premier OEM dealership networks in the world.
“We believe that this investment will catapult the Company’s industry-leading platform to the global stage, with sales ultimately in a number of domestic and international markets,” Rick Mills, CEO of Creative Realities, said. “This expansion is further testament to the multi-faceted suite of solutions offered by Creative Realities Inc., which already go well beyond digital signage infrastructure plays with its omni-channel marketing and ad-trafficking platforms.”
The additional development of the platform is already underway and expanded commercialization is projected for the latter half of 2023 with a full implementation of the internationalized product beginning in 2024. The expanded commercialization is projected to generate incremental subscription (SaaS)-based annual recurring revenue (ARR) of up to $5 million in 2024.
“This investment will significantly increase the Company’s high-margin SaaS revenue in 2024. It is a transformational opportunity that we simply had to seize. As this opportunity and the related funding were not part of our initial capital plan for 2022, we secured the loan under favorable terms, especially given current market conditions, from a primary investor in the Company, to expedite related value creation,” Mills said. “Clearly, the support that we received from that investor is representative of the confidence it has in the company. As we have communicated to investors, the company has a number of significant growth initiatives and this incremental funding permits us to allocate resources accordingly without seeking incremental financing via equity instruments or derivatives at valuations which are disconnected from the intrinsic value of our business and would be dilutive to our investor base.”
