NERDWALLET, INC. (NRDS) FY 2023 MD&A

Overview

Our mission is to provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions.

Our vision is a world where everyone makes financial decisions with confidence.

At NerdWallet, we empower consumers—both individuals and SMBs—to make smarter financial decisions with confidence via our digital platform. Technology, paired with the dramatic growth in innovative financial products, has changed the way consumers manage their financial lives; consumers are more comfortable than ever comparing and shopping for financial products online. At NerdWallet, we are leveraging this transformation to democratize access to trustworthy financial guidance by incorporating our proprietary data science models into our platform—ultimately helping to improve the financial well-being of consumers and the financial services industry as a whole. As the financial services industry becomes more fragmented and complex, we believe the need for trustworthy and knowledgeable financial guidance increases. Our objective remains the same: serve as a trusted financial ecosystem that consumers and SMBs can rely on to learn about various financial topics, shop for products, connect their data and receive data-driven nudges.

We deliver guidance to consumers through educational content, tools and calculators, product marketplaces and our app. Our platform delivers unique value across many financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans. We expanded our guidance to the UK with our acquisition of Know Your Money (KYM) in 2020, and expanded organically into Canada during 2021 as well as Australia during 2022. Across every touchpoint, the cornerstone of our platform is consumers’ trust in the independent, objective and relevant guidance we provide, free of charge.

This trusted guidance has helped us build a large, loyal and well-informed audience of consumers who turn to us as a resource for many of their money questions and to shop for the best financial products for them. Due to this unique combination of a loyal audience, trusted guidance and tailored recommendations from our underlying machine learning technology, we have become an attractive partner for financial services providers wanting to access these high-value consumers—consumers who might not otherwise trust financial services providers’ recommendations.

By operating at the intersection of consumers and financial services providers, NerdWallet drives value for both. Through our platform, our financial services partners can reach a substantial audience, comprised of 23 million Monthly Unique Users (MUUs) on average in 2023 and 20 million on average in 2022. After doing research on our platform, consumers are better informed about the financial decision they’re about to make, which makes them primed and ready to transact. Consumers who visit NerdWallet tend to share a few other characteristics that make them attractive customers to our financial services partners: we have received feedback from our financial services partners that our users’ approval rates can be significantly higher than those applying through other channels and they are more eager to explore additional opportunities and products, driving demand for NerdWallet’s financial services partners.

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Our Financial Model

We built our business to provide unbiased and trusted guidance to consumers. Through this guidance, we attract users to our platform and use data science models to match them with relevant products from our financial services partners.

Given our mission is to provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions, we take actions that aim to prioritize user experience over revenue per user. We believe that taking a long-term view will increase our revenue and grow our business. In addition, we do not always look to maximize the number of our financial services partners on our platform; we instead aim to have products for consumers available on our platform that enable the best match.

We seek to increase the number of consumers who come to NerdWallet pursuing our financial content, guidance, and tech-driven recommendations. We generate revenue by successfully matching those consumers with our financial services partners, from whom we generate fees. These fees from which we recognize revenue include revenue per action, revenue per click, revenue per lead, and revenue per funded loan.

Initial Public Offering

On November 8, 2021, we completed our initial public offering (the IPO), in which we sold 8.3 million shares of our Class A common stock, which includes the exercise in full of the underwriters’ option to purchase 1.1 million shares of Class A common stock, at a public offering price of $18.00 per share. We received net proceeds from the IPO of $140.0 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions of $10.1 million.

Key Factors Affecting Our Performance

Ability to Generate High Quality, Engaging Consumer Resources

Delivering financial guidance and resources on a broad set of topics is core to our value proposition. In order to maintain our position as a trusted destination for personal and SMB financial guidance, we produce high-quality financial guidance, which is developed by our independent team of writers and editors. Our editorial and product teams continuously improve our content, tools and resources to ensure that our platform reflects the latest consumer finance trends and related products from our financial services partners. We plan to continue investing in our growing base of high-value content and tools, which enable us to generate more traffic and grow MUUs, enhancing monetizing activities with our financial services partners and ultimately, our financial performance.

Ability to Attract and Engage Consumers

Our ability to increase user engagement, whether by increasing the frequency with which MUUs visit our platform, or the amount of resources they consume on our platform, is critical to the growth of our business. We focus on attracting users to NerdWallet who are interested in multiple financial products that we review and then use machine learning to help them find financial products for their needs. For example, if an individual comes to our platform to learn more about credit cards, we hope to bring that individual back to NerdWallet at a later time to explore other financial products, often via automated contextual “nudges.” Our ability to attract and engage those visitors directly impacts our ability to earn revenue from financial services partners. As such, we plan to continue investing in content, technology and marketing in order to attract and engage consumers.

Ability to Deepen Our Relationships with Our Financial Services Partners

We worked with hundreds of financial services partners during 2023. These companies are essential to helping us serve consumers and grow our business. Having a broad range of financial services partners across all of our verticals is important in offering consumers a wide selection of attractive products. Furthermore, all of our revenue is generated from our financial services partners, and as such, relationships with new and existing financial services partners are critical to the success of our business. We continuously aim to selectively add new financial services partners to our platform and to add coverage for additional verticals from existing partners. That said, maximizing the number of our financial services partners on our platform isn’t our primary focus—our focus is quality, and we aim to offer all of the top financial products on our platform. The success of our relationships with financial services partners is in large part based on our ability to provide them with interested and qualified consumers.

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Economic Conditions and the Financial Well-Being of Consumers

Our business is reliant on economic conditions in the U.S. Any changes in the financial well-being of consumers, including as a result of inflation, economic recession, unemployment, government stimulus, or changes in monetary policy will affect the demand for various financial services products and therefore impact the number of individuals visiting our platform and our ability to earn revenue from matches completed on our platform. In particular, fluctuations in interest rates affect many of the products offered by our financial services partners, especially mortgages, personal loans, and banking products. Typically, when interest rates decline, we see accelerated consumer demand for loans which in turn leads to increased traffic to our platform. Conversely, when interest rates increase, we see slowed consumer demand for loans and accelerated demand for banking products.

Marketing

Our marketing strategy leverages multiple channels across brand marketing, performance marketing and organic marketing. Sales and marketing expense consists of: brand marketing, primarily advertising costs to increase brand awareness; performance marketing, primarily costs to drive traffic directly to our platform; and organic and other, primarily personnel-related costs for content and other marketing and sales teams. In 2023, approximately 21% of our total marketing expense was attributable to brand marketing, 51% to performance marketing, and the remainder to organic and other marketing expenses. In 2022, approximately 28% of our total marketing expense was attributable to brand marketing, 45% to performance marketing, and the remainder to organic and other marketing expenses. We evaluate the success of our brand marketing by measuring aided brand awareness, which has grown consistently on an annual basis since 2019.

We are able to adjust our marketing spend to reflect changes in external factors and consumer behavior. Performance marketing spend can be adjusted more quickly than brand marketing, which typically involves pre-committing to spend in future periods. We increased sales and marketing expense in 2022 by 38% compared to 2021, and in 2023 by 7% compared to 2022.

In 2023, over 70% of all traffic to NerdWallet came organically through direct or unpaid channels, reflecting the strength of our brand and organic marketing efforts. Our in-house, award-winning and experienced editorial team leverages search-engine optimization best practices and technology, and designs interfaces to help consumers easily find the information they are seeking. Our editorial team also optimizes page structure to increase visibility, not only for organic search results, but also for Google’s premium features such as FAQs, featured snippets, and video results. Personnel-related expenses within organic marketing reflect our continued investment in building a comprehensive set of skills and expertise across our editorial team. We will continue to invest in our marketing channels going forward, and believe that our marketing strategy will continue to position NerdWallet as the trusted brand of choice in personal finance, improve traffic acquisition at all levels of the funnel, drive engagement and enable us to scale quickly across new consumer finance verticals and geographies.

Acquisitions

We have made acquisitions to expand into new verticals; to enter new markets and geographies; and to grow our platform so that our users have better outcomes. Our recent acquisitions include:

•On the Barrelhead. In July 2022, we acquired On the Barrelhead, Inc. (OTB), a data-driven platform that provides consumers and SMBs with credit-driven product recommendations. Given the success of our Fundera acquisition within our SMB products verticals, we are leveraging our vertical integration playbook to fully integrate OTB’s technology and expertise within our Loans portfolio. By pairing OTB’s loan matching platform with NerdWallet’s trusted brand and massive reach, we can offer our users more personalized and compelling recommendations, leading to better customer experiences and improved monetization.

•Fundera. In October 2020, we acquired Fundera, Inc. (Fundera), an online platform which connects SMBs with lenders and other resources. Fundera’s SMB-focused advice and loan comparison offerings, together with its strong brand and consultative sales approach, enables us to better support SMBs. This acquisition is a first step to enable deeper integration within existing verticals, which couples our top of funnel strength with Fundera’s monetization strategy, including recurring revenue from loan renewals. Combining the strengths of each business will allow NerdWallet to accelerate our growth in the SMB market, and will also serve as a playbook for further vertical integrations.

•Know Your Money. In September 2020, we acquired Notice Media Ltd. (doing business as Know Your Money), an online provider of financial guidance and tools geared towards consumers and SMBs in the UK. KYM’s UK expertise and NerdWallet’s existing brand recognition have provided us a strong foothold in the UK region. We believe the acquisition will allow us to accelerate our international growth.

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Key Operating Metric and Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We collect, review and analyze operating and financial data of our business to assess our ongoing performance and compare our results to prior period results. In addition to revenue, net income and other results under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the following sets forth the key operating metric we use to evaluate our business.

Monthly Unique Users

We define a Monthly Unique User (MUU) as a unique user with at least one session in a given month as determined by a unique device identifier. We measure MUUs during a time period longer than one month by averaging the MUUs of each month within that period. We track MUUs to frame the number of users who may transact with our financial services partners on our platform during a given period. During 2023, we grew average MUUs to 23 million, which was up 15% compared to 2022, as we saw strong engagement in areas such as travel, banking, and insurance, and also began incorporating our acquisition of OTB in July 2022. Partially offsetting growth were declines from a continued challenging macroeconomic environment in both mortgages and investing. During 2022, we grew average MUUs to 20 million, which was up 4% compared to 2021, as we increased our sales and marketing expenditures in light of the continued economic recovery we experienced. While we expect MUUs to grow over time, the metric may fluctuate from period to period based on economic conditions and our strategic marketing decisions.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We use non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our Board of Directors concerning our financial performance.

Non-GAAP operating income (loss): We define non-GAAP operating income (loss) as income (loss) from operations adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, and further exclude (1) impairment of right-of-use asset, (2) losses (gains) on disposals of assets, (3) change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts, (4) deferred compensation related to earnouts, and (5) acquisition-related costs. We also reduce income from operations, or increase loss from operations, for capitalized internally developed software costs.

Adjusted EBITDA: We define adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) from continuing operations adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, interest income (expense), net, provision (benefit) for income taxes, and further exclude (1) impairment of right-of-use asset, (2) losses (gains) on disposals of assets, (3) change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts, (4) deferred compensation related to earnouts, (5) stock-based compensation, and (6) acquisition-related costs.

The above items are excluded from our non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA measures because these items are non-cash in nature, or because the amounts are not driven by core operating results and renders comparisons with prior periods less meaningful. We deduct capitalized internally developed software costs in our non-GAAP operating income (loss) measure to reflect the cash impact of personnel costs incurred within the time period.

We believe that non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results and in comparing operating results across periods. Moreover, non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA are key measurements used by our management internally to make operating decisions, including those related to analyzing operating expenses, evaluating performance, and performing strategic planning and annual budgeting. However, the use of these non-GAAP measures have certain limitations because they do not reflect all items of income and expense that affect our operations. Non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA have limitations as financial measures, should be considered as supplemental in nature, and are not meant as substitutes for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. These limitations include the following:

•Non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA exclude certain recurring, non-cash charges, such as amortization of software, depreciation of property and equipment, amortization of intangible assets, impairment of right-of-use asset, and (losses) gains on disposals of assets. Although these are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA do not reflect all cash requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;

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•Non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA exclude acquisition-related costs, including acquisition-related retention compensation under compensatory retention agreements with certain key employees, acquisition-related transaction expenses, contingent consideration fair value adjustments related to earnouts, and deferred compensation related to earnouts;

•Adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation, including for acquisition-related inducement awards, which has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring expense in our business and an important part of our compensation strategy; and

•Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect interest income (expense) and other gains (losses), net, which include unrealized and realized gains and losses on foreign currency exchange, as well as certain nonrecurring gains (losses).

In addition, non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA as we define them may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Because of these limitations, you should consider non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including income (loss) from operations, net loss and our other GAAP results.

See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Components of Our Results of Operations—Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for reconciliations of non-GAAP operating income (loss) to income (loss) from operations, and adjusted EBITDA to net loss, the most directly comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP.

Key Components of Our Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate substantially all of our revenue through fees paid by our financial services partners in the form of either revenue per action, revenue per click, revenue per lead, and revenue per funded loan arrangements. For these revenue arrangements, in which a partner pays only when a consumer satisfies the criteria set forth within the arrangement, revenue is recognized generally when we match the consumer with the financial services partner. For some of our arrangements, the transaction price is considered variable and an estimate of the constrained transaction price is recorded when the match occurs. Our revenue generally includes four product categories: Credit cards, Loans, SMB products and Emerging verticals. Credit cards revenue includes revenue from consumer credit cards. Loans revenue includes revenue from personal loans, home mortgages, student loans and auto loans. SMB products revenue includes revenue from loans, credit cards and other financial products and services intended for small and mid-sized businesses. Emerging verticals revenue includes revenue from other product sources, including banking, insurance, investing and international.

Cost of revenue

Cost of revenue consists primarily of amortization expense associated with capitalized software development costs and developed technology intangible assets related to our acquisitions, credit scoring fees, account linking fees, and third-party data center costs. We expect our cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future to the extent that our business continues to grow. We expect our cost of revenue to vary as a percentage of revenue in the near term, and it may eventually decrease over time as a percentage of revenue as our business grows and recognizes economies of scale. However, this percentage may fluctuate from year to year depending on the timing and extent of our investments in experiences requiring third-party data, credit scoring and account linking fees.

Research and development

Research and development activities primarily relate to engineering, product management, data enhancement, and improved functionality related to our platform. Research and development expenses primarily consist of personnel related costs, including stock-based compensation, technology and facility-related expenses and contractor expense for our engineering, product management, data and other personnel engaged in maintaining and enhancing the functionality of our platform.

We expect our research and development expenses to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future, primarily for increased headcount costs to further develop and innovate our platform. Over time, we expect research and development expenses to decrease as a percentage of revenue as our business grows and recognizes economies of scale. However, this percentage may fluctuate from period to period depending on the timing and extent of our research and development expenses.

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Sales and marketing

Sales and marketing expenses include advertising and promotion costs, costs related to brand campaign fees, marketing, business operations team, and editorial personnel and related costs, including stock-based compensation.

We expect our sales and marketing expenses to continue to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future, primarily to support the growth of our existing business and expansion into new verticals. Over time, we expect sales and marketing expenses to decrease as a percentage of revenue as our business grows and recognizes economies of scale. However, this percentage may fluctuate from period to period depending on the timing and extent of our sales and marketing expenses.

General and administrative

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel related costs, including stock-based compensation, for certain of our executives as well as our legal, finance, human resources, and other administrative employees; and professional services fees.

We expect our general and administrative expenses to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future primarily to support the growth of our business. Additional expenses may include increased headcount, enhanced systems, processes, and controls as well as increased expenses in the areas of insurance, compliance, investor relations, and professional services. For these reasons, we expect general and administrative expenses to vary as a percentage of revenue in the near term, but eventually to decrease as a percentage of revenue as our business grows and recognizes economies of scale. This percentage may fluctuate from period to period depending on the timing and extent of our general and administrative expenses.

Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts

Our acquisitions of Fundera and KYM included earn-out provisions which required us to pay additional consideration based on the achievement of certain performance measures for a stated period after the acquisition date. We measured this contingent consideration at fair value as of the acquisition date and record it as a liability on our consolidated balance sheet. The fair value of each contingent consideration liability is remeasured at the end of each reporting period, with any changes in fair value recognized as income or expense from operations in our consolidated income statement. As of December 31, 2022, Fundera Inc.’s revenue and profitability milestones for 2022 were achieved and the contingent consideration liability was recorded at the full payout amount, with the contingent consideration liability paid in full during 2023.

Other income (expense), net

Other income (expense), net is comprised of interest income, interest expense, and other gains (losses), net. Interest income consists primarily of interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents. Interest expense consists of interest costs related to our revolving credit facility and long-term debt, including amortization of the debt premium on our long-term debt. Other gains (losses), net is primarily related to changes in the fair value of the embedded derivative in our previously outstanding long-term debt, as well as realized and unrealized gains and losses on foreign currency transactions and balances. Other gains (losses), net for 2021 includes a gain on extinguishment of debt as well as a nonrecurring gain.

Income tax provision (benefit)

Our income tax provision (benefit) consists of federal and state income taxes. We have federal and state net operating loss carryforwards (NOLs), and federal and California research and development credit carryforwards, certain of which are subject to expiration dates if not utilized. Utilization of our NOLs and tax credit carryforwards, as well as of our other temporary differences, is dependent upon the generation of sufficient future taxable income during the periods in which those temporary differences become deductible. Based on our ongoing assessment of all available evidence, both positive and negative, including consideration of our historical profitability and the estimated impact of our operating model on future profitability, we concluded that it is more likely than not that our U.S. deferred tax assets in excess of deferred tax liabilities would not be realized and recorded a valuation allowance against these net U.S. deferred tax assets as of December 31, 2023. Our judgment regarding the likelihood of realization of these deferred tax assets could change in future periods, which could result in a material impact to our income tax provision in the period of change.

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Comparison of Results of Operations

The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods presented. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Results of Operations

______________

(1)Includes stock-based compensation as follows:

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The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations as a percentage of revenue:

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022

Revenue

Revenue increased $60.5 million, or 11%, for 2023 compared to 2022, driven by strong growth in Emerging verticals and SMB products revenues, partially offset by lower Loans revenue.

Credit cards revenue decreased $0.6 million for 2023 compared to 2022, as strong growth in the first quarter of 2023, reflecting our ability to capitalize on higher consumer intent through improved user experiences combined with our deep alignment with our financial services partners to deliver quality matches, was offset by reduced marketing spending by our financial services partners during the remainder of 2023 amidst a combination of increasingly cautious underwriting and heightened balance sheet conservatism following the regional banking crisis.

Loans revenue decreased $7.5 million, or 7%, for 2023 compared to 2022, primarily due to decreases of 41% in mortgages revenue and 23% in student loans revenue, mainly attributable to higher interest rates driving lower demand for refinancing and continuing macroeconomic headwinds, partially offset by a 29% increase in personal loans revenue driven by both organic growth as well as incorporating our acquisition of OTB in July 2022.

SMB products revenue increased $9.8 million, or 11%, for 2023 compared to 2022, reflecting our ability to drive diversified revenue growth across SMB products such as business credit cards, despite macroeconomic headwinds for the loans industry broadly.

Emerging verticals revenue increased $58.8 million, or 46%, for 2023 compared to 2022, primarily driven by increases of 74% in banking revenue mainly due to the higher interest rate environment and 30% in insurance products mainly driven by auto insurance.

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Costs and Expenses

Cost of revenue

Cost of revenue increased $14.2 million, or 36%, for 2023 compared to 2022. The increase was primarily attributable to an $11.0 million increase in amortization expense related to capitalized software development costs and intangible assets from our acquisition of OTB in July 2022, as well as a $2.2 million increase primarily related to third-party service charges.

Research and development expense

Research and development expenses increased $2.9 million, or 4%, for 2023 compared to 2022. The increase was primarily attributable to increases of $1.6 million in personnel-related costs for our engineering, data, and product management personnel and contractors to support our continued growth, and $1.5 million in software and technology costs related to our platform.

Sales and marketing expense

For 2023 and 2022, our total sales and marketing expense was comprised of approximately 51% and 45% for performance marketing, respectively, and 21% and 28% for brand marketing, respectively, with the remainder for organic and other marketing expenses. We are able to adjust our marketing spend to reflect changes in external factors and consumer behavior.

Sales and marketing expenses increased $25.9 million, or 7%, for 2023 compared to 2022. The increase was primarily attributable to increases of $38.1 million in performance marketing expenses and $9.7 million in organic and other marketing expenses primarily due to higher personnel-related costs due to our efforts to grow and increase our user base, partially offset by a $21.9 million decrease in brand marketing expenses.

General and administrative expense

General and administrative expenses increased $1.6 million, or 3%, for 2023 compared to 2022, primarily attributable to a $5.7 million increase in personnel-related costs mainly due to higher stock-based compensation, and a $1.4 million impairment of right-of-use asset, partially offset by decreases of $3.4 million in acquisition-related costs primarily related to our acquisition of OTB in July 2022, and $1.8 million primarily related to director and officer liability insurance costs.

Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts

The change in fair value of contingent consideration relates to our acquisitions of Fundera and KYM in the second half of 2020. The fair value of the contingent considerations was subject to remeasurement at each reporting date until the payments were made. See Note 1–The Company and its Significant Accounting Policies and Note 3–Fair Value Measurements in the notes to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion on these contingent considerations.

Other income (expense), net

The change in other income (expense), net for 2023 compared to 2022 was primarily attributable to higher interest income reflecting higher interest rates and average cash balances, and lower interest expense related to debt activity.

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Income tax provision (benefit)

We had an income tax provision of $18.1 million for 2023, as compared to an income tax benefit of $9.8 million in 2022. Our effective tax rate was 286.7% and 49.2% for 2023 and 2022, respectively, as compared to the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 21%. Our effective tax rate for 2023 differs from the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 21% primarily due to the valuation allowance maintained against our net U.S. deferred tax assets and state taxes, partially offset by research and development credits. Our tax provision for 2023 primarily resulted from the requirement for us to capitalize and amortize research and development expenses, and an overall increase in our profitability before taxes. As a result, we recorded a significant U.S. current tax provision in 2023 with no corresponding deferred tax benefit for such capitalized expenses due to the valuation allowance maintained against our net U.S. deferred tax assets. During 2022, we recognized a nonrecurring tax benefit of $12.1 million related to the change in our existing full valuation allowance on deferred tax assets resulting from our acquisition of OTB in July 2022, which was partially offset by higher capitalization of research and development expenses under new tax regulations effective in 2022.

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Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA as we define them may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Because of these limitations, you should consider non-GAAP operating income (loss) and adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including income (loss) from operations, net loss and our other GAAP results.

We compensate for these limitations by reconciling non-GAAP operating income (loss) to income (loss) from operations, and adjusted EBITDA to net loss, the most comparable GAAP financial measures, as follows:

______________

(1)Represents non-GAAP operating income (loss) as a percentage of revenue.

(2)Represents adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

We had income from operations of $3.6 million for 2023, as compared to a loss from operations of $19.0 million for 2022, The change was driven by a $60.5 million increase in revenues, partially offset by a $37.9 million increase in operating expenses primarily due to increases of $25.9 million in sales and marketing expenses and $14.2 million in cost of revenue.

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Our loss from operations decreased $20.0 million or 51% for 2022 compared to 2021. The decrease was driven by a $159.3 million increase in revenues, largely offset by a $139.3 million increase in operating expenses primarily due to increases of $104.3 million in sales and marketing expenses, $19.7 million in general and administrative expenses, and $15.4 million in research and development expenses.

We had non-GAAP operating income of $26.4 million for 2023, as compared to a non-GAAP operating loss of $1.0 million for 2022. The change was primarily driven by $3.6 million of income from operations in 2023, as compared to a loss from operations of $19.0 million in 2022, as well as increases in adjustments to reconcile income (loss) from operations to non-GAAP operating income (loss), including $11.2 million for depreciation and amortization and $2.5 million for acquisition-related retention, partially offset by decreases of $6.7 million for the change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts and $3.4 million for acquisition-related expenses, as well as $2.8 million of net interest income in 2023 as compared to net interest expense of $1.0 million in 2022.

Non-GAAP operating loss decreased $13.8 million, or 93%, for 2022 compared to 2021. The decrease was primarily driven by a $20.0 million decrease in loss from operations, partially offset by decreases in adjustments to reconcile loss from operations to non-GAAP operating loss, including $11.4 million for the change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts and $9.7 million for capitalized internally developed software costs, partially offset by increases of $9.9 million for depreciation and amortization, and $3.4 million for acquisition-related expenses and $2.8 million for acquisition-related retention.

Our net loss increased $1.6 million or 16% for 2023 compared to 2022. The increase reflects $3.6 million of income from operations for 2023 as compared to a loss from operations of $19.0 million for 2022, and $2.7 million of other income, net in 2023 as compared to other expense, net of $1.0 million in 2022, which were more than offset by an $18.1 million income tax provision in 2023 as compared to an income tax benefit of $9.8 million in 2022.

Adjusted EBITDA increased $30.5 million, or 45%, for 2023 compared to 2022. The increase was primarily attributable to increases in adjustments to reconcile adjusted EBITDA to net loss, including$27.9 million for income taxes, $11.2 million for depreciation and amortization, and $4.4 million for stock-based compensation, partially offset by decreases of $6.7 million for the change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts, $3.4 million for acquisition-related expenses, and $3.8 million for interest income (expense), net.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Overview

Our principal sources of liquidity to meet our business requirements and plans, both in the short-term (i.e., the next twelve months from December 31, 2023) and long-term (i.e., beyond the next twelve months), have historically been cash generated from operations and, more recently, sales of our common stock, and borrowings under our credit facilities. Our primary liquidity needs are related to the funding of general business requirements, including working capital requirements, research and development, and capital expenditures, as well as other liquidity requirements including, but not limited to, business combinations.

On November 8, 2021, we completed our IPO, in which we sold 8.3 million shares of our Class A common stock, which includes the exercise in full of the underwriters’ option to purchase 1.1 million shares of Class A common stock, at a public offering price of $18.00 per share. We received net proceeds from our IPO of $140.0 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions of $10.1 million.

As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, we had cash and cash equivalents of $100.4 million and $83.9 million, respectively.

Known Contractual and Other Obligations

A description of contractual commitments as of December 31, 2023 is included in Note 8–Commitments and Contingencies in the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

More broadly, we also have purchase obligations under contractual arrangements with vendors and service providers, including for certain web-hosting and cloud computing services, which do not qualify for recognition on our consolidated balance sheet but which we consider non-cancellable. As of December 31, 2023, amounts to be spent under non-cancellable purchase obligations were $6.8 million over the next twelve months, and approximately $6 million in 2025 and $5 million in 2026.

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Trends, Uncertainties and Anticipated Sources of Funds

In order to grow our business, we intend to make significant investments in our business, which may result in increases in our personnel and related expenses. The timing and amount of these investments will vary based on our financial condition, the rate at which we add new personnel and the scale of our development, as well as the macro-economic environment. Many of these investments will occur in advance of our experiencing any direct benefit from them, which could negatively impact our liquidity and cash flows during any particular period and may make it difficult to determine if we are effectively allocating our resources. However, we expect to fund our operations, capital expenditures and other investments principally with cash flows from operations, and to the extent that our liquidity needs exceed our cash from operations, we would look to our cash on hand to satisfy those needs.

We announced on May 2, 2023 that our Board of Directors authorized a plan under which we may repurchase up to $20 million of our Class A common stock and, following our utilization of that share repurchase authorization, we announced on October 26, 2023 that our Board of Directors approved a new share repurchase authorization under which we may repurchase up to an additional $30 million of our Class A common stock (collectively, the Repurchase Plans). Subject to market conditions and other factors, the Repurchase Plans are intended to make opportunistic repurchases of our Class A common stock to reduce our outstanding share count. Under the Repurchase Plans, shares of Class A common stock may be repurchased in the open market through privately negotiated transactions or otherwise, in accordance with applicable securities laws and other restrictions. The Repurchase Plans do not have fixed expiration dates and do not obligate us to acquire any specific number of shares. The timing and terms of any repurchases under the Repurchase Plans are at management’s discretion and depend on a variety of factors, including business, economic and market conditions, regulatory requirements, prevailing stock prices and other considerations. Additionally, we may, from time to time, enter into Rule 10b-5 trading plans to facilitate repurchases. Shares repurchased under the Repurchase Plans are retired. We expect to fund repurchases with existing cash and cash equivalents. During 2023, we repurchased 2.3 million shares of Class A common stock for $20.0 million, including costs associated with the repurchases.

We believe our current cash and cash equivalents and future cash flow from operations, as well as access to our credit facility with JPMorgan Chase Bank and a syndicate of other lenders, subject to customary borrowing conditions, will be sufficient to meet our ongoing working capital, capital expenditure and other liquidity requirements for the next twelve months and beyond.

On September 26, 2023, we, including three of our wholly-owned subsidiaries, entered into a credit agreement (the Credit Agreement) with JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association. as Administrative Agent, and a syndicate of lenders. The Credit Agreement provides for a $125.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the Credit Facility), with the option to increase up to an additional $75.0 million, and is available to be used by us and certain of our domestic subsidiaries for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions. The Credit Facility matures on September 26, 2028. See Note 7–Debt in the notes to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion.

The Credit Facility replaced our prior credit facility under the Amended and Restated Senior Secured Credit Facilities Credit Agreement dated February 19, 2021 between us and Silicon Valley Bank, as administrative agent (the Prior Credit Agreement), which was terminated substantially concurrently with the Company’s entering into the Credit Agreement. Under the terms of our Prior Credit Agreement, we could have borrowed up to $100.0 million, subject to borrowing conditions.

We had no outstanding balance on our credit facility as of December 31, 2023 or 2022. Our credit facility contains certain financial and non-financial covenants. We were in compliance with all covenants as of December 31, 2023 and 2022. For additional information on these covenants, see Note 7–Debt in the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

Our future capital requirements may vary materially from those planned and will depend on certain factors, such as our growth and our operating results. If we require additional capital resources to grow our business or to acquire complementary technologies and businesses in the future, we may seek to sell additional equity or raise funds through debt financing or other sources. We cannot provide assurance that additional financing will be available at all or on terms favorable to us.

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Sources and Uses of Capital Resources

The following table summarizes our cash flows:

A discussion and analysis of our changes in cash flows for 2023 compared to 2022 is presented below. For a discussion of our cash flows for 2022 and 2021, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations–Liquidity and Capital Resources” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Operating activities

Net cash provided by operating activities increased $47.1 million in 2023 compared to 2022 driven by a $25.9 million decrease in net cash outflow from changes in operating assets and liabilities and a $22.8 million increase in non-cash charges, partially offset by a $1.6 million increase in net loss. The decrease in net cash outflow from changes in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to decreases of $29.4 million for accounts receivable, and $7.8 million for other liabilities, partially offset by an $8.2 million increase for accrued expenses and other current liabilities. The increase in non-cash charges was primarily due to increases of $12.1 million in deferred taxes, $11.2 million in depreciation and amortization, and $4.4 million in stock-based compensation, partially offset by a $6.7 million decrease in change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts.

Investing activities

Net cash used in investing activities decreased $70.8 million in 2023 compared to 2022, primarily due to $68.1 million of cash paid, net of cash acquired, for our acquisition of OTB in 2022, as well as a $3.9 million decrease in purchases of property and equipment.

Financing activities

Net cash used in financing activities increased $17.8 million in 2023, primarily due to $20.0 million for repurchases of Class A common stock, partially offset a $2.5 million increase from exercises of stock options and a $2.1 million decrease in payments for contingent consideration recorded at the acquisition date. Additionally, in 2022, we had $70.0 million of proceeds from our line of credit to finance the cash portion of the purchase consideration for our acquisition of OTB in 2022, with a $70.0 million repayment in full in December 2022.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting policies as provided within U.S. GAAP. The preparation of these financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses and related disclosures. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

The accounting policies we believe to be most critical to understanding our financial condition and results of operations are discussed below. For a comprehensive list of all significant accounting policies, see Note 1–The Company and its Significant Accounting Policies in the notes to consolidated financial statements in Item 8 of Part II of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenue from fees paid by our financial services partners in the form of either revenue per action, revenue per click, revenue per lead and revenue per funded loan arrangements. Services are generally transferred to the customer at a point in time and the performance obligation is a series of distinct actions, leads or clicks.

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For some of our arrangements, under ASC 606 (Revenue from Contracts with Customers) our contractual right to fees is not contemporaneous with the satisfaction of the performance obligation to match the consumer with the customer. As a result, the transaction price is considered variable and an estimate of the constrained transaction price is recorded as revenue when the match occurs, subject to a constraint. Constrained revenue is recognized to the extent that it is probable that a significant reversal in the amount of cumulative revenue recognized will not occur. After our initial estimate and constraints are made, we reassess our estimates and constraints at the end of each reporting period. Various factors are analyzed to estimate the constrained revenue, including historical approval rates and historical time between when a consumer request for a financial product is delivered to a financial services partner and when the financial product is approved by such financial services partner.

Valuation of Goodwill and Intangible Assets

Goodwill represents the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of net assets acquired in a business combination. We have one reporting unit. We test goodwill for impairment annually or more frequently when an event occurs or circumstances change that indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. As a result of the goodwill impairment assessments in 2023, 2022 and 2021, we determined that it was not more likely than not that the fair value of its single reporting unit was less than its carrying amount. As such, goodwill was not impaired during 2023, 2022 and 2021.

We evaluate intangible assets and other long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or circumstances indicate that they may not be recoverable. Recoverability is assessed by comparing the carrying amount of an asset group to future undiscounted net cash flows expected to be generated. If the carrying amount of an asset group is not recoverable, an impairment loss is recognized if the carrying amount exceeds the fair value of the asset group. We group assets for purposes of such review at the lowest level for which identifiable cash flows of the asset group are largely independent of the cash flows of the other groups of assets and liabilities. Unforeseen events, changes in circumstances and market conditions and material differences in estimates of future cash flows could adversely affect the fair value of our assets and could result in future impairment charges.

Deferred Tax Asset Valuation Allowances

As part of fulfilling the requirement to reduce the measurement of deferred tax assets that are not expected to be realized, we consider all available evidence, both positive and negative, to determine whether, based on the weight of that evidence, a valuation allowance for deferred tax assets is needed. In assessing the adequacy of recognized valuation allowances, we consider all available evidence to estimate if sufficient taxable income will be generated in the future to utilize the existing deferred tax assets by jurisdiction. This consideration includes a variety of factors such as historical and projected future taxable income and prudent and feasible tax planning strategies.

Based on our ongoing assessment of all available evidence, both positive and negative, including consideration of our historical profitability and the estimated impact of our operating model on future profitability, we concluded that it was more likely than not that our U.S. deferred tax assets in excess of deferred tax liabilities would not be realized and recorded a valuation allowance against these net U.S. deferred tax assets as of December 31, 2023. Our judgment regarding the likelihood of realization of these deferred tax assets could change in future periods, which could result in a material impact to our income tax provision in the period of change. Given our current earnings projections, sufficient positive evidence may become available for us to release all, or a portion, of the valuation allowance within the next twelve months. However, the timing and amounts of such valuation allowance releases are subject to change based on the level of profitability achieved in future periods.

Stock-Based Compensation

Prior to our IPO, as our common shares were not listed on a public marketplace, the calculation of the fair value of our common shares was subject to a greater degree of estimation in determining the basis for share-based awards that were issued. Given the absence of a public market, we were required to estimate the fair value of the common shares at the time of each grant.

Stock Options

We have granted stock-based awards consisting primarily of stock options and RSUs to employees and non-employees. We estimate the grant date fair value of stock options granted to employees and nonemployees using the Black-Scholes-Merton option-pricing model. The fair value of stock options that is expected to vest is recognized as compensation expense on a straight-line basis over the requisite service period, which is typically the vesting period of the respective awards. We recognize forfeitures as they occur for equity awards with only a service condition, rather than estimate expected forfeitures.

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The Black-Scholes-Merton option-pricing model considers several variables and assumptions in estimating the grant date fair value of stock-based awards. These assumptions include:

•Fair Value of Class A Common Stock—For periods over which our Class A common stock was not yet publicly traded, we were required to estimate the fair value of our Class A common stock. Our Board of Directors considered numerous objective and subjective factors to determine the fair value of our Class A common stock as discussed in “Common Stock Valuations” below. Subsequent to our IPO in November 2021, the fair value of our Class A common stock is determined on the grant date using the closing price of our Class A common stock.

•Expected Term—The expected term represents the period that the stock-based awards are expected to be outstanding. We estimate the expected term based on the simplified method.

•Expected Volatility—Expected volatility is a measure of the amount by which the stock price is expected to fluctuate. Since we do not have sufficient trading history of our Class A common stock, we estimate the expected volatility by taking the average historical volatility of a group of comparable publicly traded companies over a period equal to the expected term of the awards.

•Risk-Free Interest Rate—The risk-free interest rate is based on the U.S. Treasury yield in effect at the time of grant for zero-coupon U.S. Treasury notes with maturities approximately equal to the expected term of the stock option award.

•Expected Dividend—We utilize a dividend yield of zero, as we do not currently issue dividends, nor do we expect to do so in the future.

Restricted Stock Units

The fair value of RSUs is estimated based on the fair value of our Class A common stock on the date of grant. The fair value of RSUs that are expected to vest is recognized as compensation expense over the requisite service period.

ESPP

The fair value of purchase rights granted under our employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) is estimated using the component measurement approach with valuations of the components based on the Company’s stock price on the date of the grant and/or the Black-Scholes-Merton option-pricing model, as appropriate for the applicable components. The fair value of the purchase rights is recognized over the requisite service period. We recognize forfeitures as they occur, rather than estimate expected forfeitures.

Recently Issued and Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

For information on recent accounting pronouncements, see Note 1–The Company and its Significant Accounting Policies in the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

JOBS Act Accounting Election

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates.

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