Item 1A.
Risk Factors
Summary of Risk Factors
The following is a summary of the principal risks and uncertainties that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations. You should read this summary together with the more detailed description of risk factors below under the heading “ Risk Factors .”
Risks related to the proposed merger with Thramann Holdings
The merger with Thramann Holdings and the resulting change in control from such merger must be approved by Auddia stockholders. Failure to obtain stockholder approval would prevent the closing of the Thramann Holdings merger.
Failure to complete the merger may result in Auddia paying a termination fee to Thramann Holdings, and could harm the common stock price and future business and operations of Auddia.
If the conditions to the merger are not satisfied or waived, the merger may not occur.
Auddia stockholders may not realize a benefit from the merger commensurate with the ownership dilution they will experience in connection with the merger.
Auddia’s stockholders will generally have a reduced ownership and voting interest in, and will exercise less influence over the management of, the holding company following the completion of the merger as compared to their current ownership and voting interests in Auddia.
Risks related to our financial position and need for additional capital
Our auditors have expressed substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, which may hinder our ability to obtain further financing.
We have incurred significant net losses since inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability.
We will need additional funding, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain this capital when needed may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development efforts or other operations.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies and product candidates.
We have generated historical revenue from our mobile app platform for radio stations, but future revenue growth is dependent on new software services.
Our limited operating history of our current business plan may make it difficult for investors to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.
We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the past. Failure to achieve and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in our failure to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and securities prices.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired, which would adversely affect our business.
Risks related to the development of our products
Our subscription revenue margins and our freedom to operate our faidr radio platform rely on continuity of the established music licensing framework.
Our faidr platform will rely on the established “personal use exemption” which allows individuals to record content for time-shifting purposes.
If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products and product candidates, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and product candidates similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our products and product candidates may be adversely affected.
Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our platform or products could materially and adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.
Risks related to our business operations
Our recently announced growth strategy includes seeking acquisitions of other companies or assets in our industry sector. We may not be successful in identifying, making and integrating business or asset acquisitions, if any, in the future.
Our future success depends on our ability to retain key employees, consultants and advisors and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.
If we are unable to manage expected growth in the scale and complexity of our operations, our performance may suffer.
Any cybersecurity-related attack, significant data breach or disruption of the information technology systems or networks on which we rely could negatively affect our business.
Changing regulations and increased awareness relating to privacy, information security and data protection could increase our costs, affect or limit how we collect and use personal information and harm our brand.
Our business depends on a strong brand, and if we are not able to develop, maintain and enhance our brand, our business and operating results may be harmed. Moreover, our brand and reputation could be harmed if we were to experience significant negative publicity.
Enacted and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to commercialize our product candidates and may affect the prices we may set.
We may be subject to litigation, disputes or regulatory inquiries for a variety of claims, which could adversely affect our results of operations, harm our reputation or otherwise negatively affect our business.
Risks related to our intellectual property
Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, floods and other natural catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as power disruptions, computer viruses, cyberattack, data security breaches or terrorism.
Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our business.
If third parties claim that we infringe upon or otherwise violate their intellectual property rights, our business could be adversely affected.
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.
Risks related to ownership of common stock
A significant portion of our total outstanding shares are eligible for sale into the public market. Substantial sales of our shares into the public market could cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly, even if our business is performing well.
The issuance of common stock pursuant to our equity line facility or our ATM facility may cause substantial dilution to our existing shareholders, and the sale of such shares in connection with our equity line or ATM facilities could cause the price of our common stock to decline.
The price of our common stock may be volatile and fluctuate substantially, which could result in substantial losses for investors in our securities.
If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they publish negative evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline.
We may not be able to continue our current listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market. A delisting of our common stock from Nasdaq could limit the liquidity of our stock, increase its volatility and hinder our ability to raise capital.
We are an “emerging growth company,” and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We continue to incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.
Failure to establish and maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.
Provisions in our corporate charter and our bylaws and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gain.
Our charter provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for certain litigation that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for such disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
RISK FACTORS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking information based on our current expectations. Because our business is subject to many risks and our actual results may differ materially from any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of us, this section includes a discussion of important factors that could affect our business, operating results, financial condition and the trading price of our securities. This discussion should be read in conjunction with the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our financial statements and the related notes and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, prospects and securities trading prices. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.
Risks Related to the proposed merger with Thramann Holdings
The merger with Thramann Holdings and the resulting change in control from such merger must be approved by Auddia stockholders. Failure to obtain stockholder approval would prevent the closing of the Thramann Holdings merger.
Before the Thramann Holdings merger can be completed, Auddia stockholders must approve, among other things, the exchange of Auddia common stock for holding company common stock pursuant to the Merger Agreement and the resulting change in control from the Thramann Holdings merger. Failure to obtain the required stockholder approval may result in a material delay in, or the abandonment of, the merger. Any delay in completing the merger may materially adversely affect the timing and benefits that are expected to be achieved from the Thramann Holdings merger.
Failure to complete the merger may result in Auddia paying a termination fee to Thramann Holdings, and could harm the common stock price and future business and operations of Auddia.
If the merger is not completed, Auddia is subject to the following risks: (i) if the Merger Agreement is terminated under specified circumstances, Auddia could be required to pay Thramann Holdings a termination fee of $600,000 and reimburse up to $200,000 for Thramann Holdings’ reasonable out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby; (ii) the price of Auddia common stock may decline and could fluctuate significantly; and (iii) Auddia will have to pay substantial costs related to the merger, such as financial advisor, legal and accounting fees, even if the merger is not completed. If the Merger Agreement is terminated and the board of directors of Auddia determines to seek another business combination, there can be no assurance that Auddia will be able to find another third party to transact a business combination with, yielding comparable or greater benefits.
If the conditions to the merger are not satisfied or waived, the merger may not occur.
Even if the merger is approved by the Auddia stockholders, specified conditions must be satisfied or, to the extent permitted by applicable law, waived to complete the merger. These conditions are set forth in the Merger Agreement. Auddia cannot assure you that all of the conditions to the consummation of the merger will be satisfied or waived. If the conditions are not satisfied or waived, the merger may not occur or the closing may be delayed.
It is a condition of the consummation of the merger that Auddia have at least $12 million of net cash immediately prior to the closing. Auddia will need to raise significant additional financing prior to the closing in order to satisfy this closing condition. The need for Auddia to issue additional equity securities or additional debt may cause significant dilution to Auddia’s current stockholders.
It is a condition of the consummation of the merger that the holding company’s stock is approved for listing on Nasdaq. There can be no assurance such listing condition will be met and, there can be no assurance that the common stock of the holding company will be listed on Nasdaq following the completion of the merger.
Auddia stockholders may not realize a benefit from the merger commensurate with the ownership dilution they will experience in connection with the merger.
If the holding company is unable to realize the full strategic and financial benefits currently anticipated from the merger, Auddia stockholders will have experienced substantial dilution of their ownership interests without receiving any commensurate benefit, or only receiving part of the commensurate benefit to the extent the holding company is able to realize only part of the strategic and financial benefits currently anticipated from the merger.
Auddia’s stockholders will generally have a reduced ownership and voting interest in, and will exercise less influence over the management of, the holding company following the completion of the merger as compared to their current ownership and voting interests in Auddia.
After the completion of the merger, the current stockholders of Auddia will generally own a smaller percentage of the holding company than their ownership of their respective companies prior to the merger.
Risks related to our financial position and need for additional capital
Our auditors have expressed substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, which may hinder our ability to obtain further financing.
Our past working capital deficiency, stockholders’ deficit and recurring losses from operations raised substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. As a result, our independent registered public accounting firm has included an explanatory paragraph in its report on our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025 with respect to this uncertainty. Our existing cash was $3.2 million at December 31, 2025. We secured approximately $7.1 million in additional financing in 2025 and $0.9 million year-to-date through March 4, 2026, which will only be sufficient to fund our current operating plans into the second quarter of 2026. The Company has based these estimates, however, on assumptions that may prove to be wrong. We will need additional funding to complete the development of our full product line and scale products with a demonstrated market fit. Management has plans to secure such additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on acceptable terms, we would be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate our technology development and commercialization efforts.
We have incurred significant net losses since inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future and may never achieve or maintain profitability.
Since inception, we have incurred significant net losses. We expect to continue to incur net losses in the near term. Our net losses were $7,693,197 and $8,722,039 for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. For the year ended December 31, 2025, our cash used in operations was $5,636,386. At December 31, 2025, we had cash and cash equivalents on hand of $3,186,985. To date, we have devoted efforts towards securing financing, building, and evolving our technology platform, marketing our mobile app product for radio stations as well as initiating our marketing efforts for our music player. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses and operating losses for the foreseeable future. We anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially if, and as, we:
incur costs related to the national launch of our Discovr Radio platform and faidr App user acquisition as we continue obtaining market acceptance;
recruit and retain artists and labels on Discovr Radio and retain faidr listeners;
continue to develop and improve our technology;
effectively addressing any competing technological and market developments;
add operational, business development & marketing personnel; and
incur legal expenses related to avoiding and defending against intellectual property infringement, misappropriation and other claims.
To become profitable, we must develop and eventually commercialize the faidr product, with significant market potential. This will require us to be successful in a range of challenging activities, and our expenses will increase substantially as we acquire and retain users. We may never succeed in any or all of these activities and, even if we do, we may never generate revenue that is significant or large enough to achieve profitability. If we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to become and remain profitable would decrease the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, develop new products, expand our business or continue our operations. A decline in the value of our Company also could cause stockholders to lose all or part of their investment.
We will need additional funding, which may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Failure to obtain this capital when needed may force us to delay, limit or terminate our product development efforts or other operations.
We expect our expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we continue to invest in sales, marketing and engineering resources and bring our products to market. Furthermore, we continue to incur additional costs associated with operating as a public company. Our existing cash was $3.2 million at December 31, 2025. We secured approximately $7.1 million in additional financing in 2025 and $0.9 million year-to-date through March 4, 2026, which will only be sufficient to fund our current operating plans into the second quarter of 2026. The Company has based these estimates, however, on assumptions that may prove to be wrong. We will need additional funding to complete the development of our full product line and scale products with a demonstrated market fit. Management has plans to secure such additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on acceptable terms, we would be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate our technology development and commercialization efforts.
Building and scaling technology products is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes years to complete, and we may never generate the necessary user experience required to obtain market acceptance and achieve meaningful product sales. In addition, our product candidates, once developed, may not achieve commercial success. The majority of revenue will be derived from or based on sales of software products that may not be commercially available for many years, if at all. Accordingly, we will need to continue to rely on additional financing to achieve our business objectives. Adequate additional financing may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.
Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our existing stockholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies and product candidates.
We may seek additional capital through a combination of public and private equity offerings, debt financing, strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the ownership interest of stockholders will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of existing stockholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed payment obligations and could involve restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. If we raise additional funds through strategic partnerships and alliances and licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, or our other product candidates, or grant licenses on terms unfavorable to us.
We have generated historical revenue from our mobile app platform for radio stations, but future revenue growth is dependent on new software services.
Our ability to generate revenue from product sales and achieve profitability depends on our ability to successfully complete the development and commercialization of future software products. Our ability to generate meaningful revenue from product sales depends heavily on our success in:
obtaining market acceptance;
effectively addressing any competing technological and market developments;
negotiating favorable terms in any collaboration, licensing or other arrangements into which we may enter and performing our obligations under such arrangements;
maintaining, protecting, enforcing, and expanding our portfolio of intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks, trade secrets and know-how;
avoiding and defending against intellectual property infringement, misappropriation and other claims;
implementing additional internal systems and infrastructure, as needed; and
attracting, hiring and retaining qualified personnel.
Our limited operating history of our current business plan may make it difficult for investors to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.
We are an early-stage company founded in 2012, with a limited operating history that has recently changed its business plan to develop and sell our new and potential products. There can be no assurance that any of our future products and services will be successfully developed, protected from competition by others, or marketed successfully. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that we will ever have positive net earnings.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired, which would adversely affect our business.
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of our financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Our management does not expect that our internal control over financial reporting will prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within our company will have been detected.
Risks related to the development of our products
Our subscription revenue margins and our freedom to operate our faidr radio platform rely on continuity of the established music licensing framework.
Present music licensing costs and general rights to play music are determined by an established statutory rate framework which could change in the future. Changes in licensing costs and general rights to play music content could impact our direct costs for content or even prohibit access to content that is fundamental to the platform. Changes could adversely impact our cost to operate the platform and/or our rights to deliver content to end users.
Our faidr platform will rely on the established “personal use exemption” which allows individuals to record content for time-shifting purposes.
The faidr platform will allow consumers to access broadcast audio content “live,” in real-time with a slight delay, and also enables consumers to buffer audio content on the user’s device for delayed playback, that can take advantage of the App’s intelligent listening capabilities. We believe that the limited buffering provided for within the faidr App is lawful and falls within the United States Supreme Court’s ruling allowing consumers the right to time shift programming for later consumption. The faidr App only permits buffering on the user’s mobile device in a manner that does not permit librarying of content by the consumer and no right to offload content from the faidr App to another device, other than through the exploitation of the “analog hole” (e.g., allowing another device to record audio while it is playing through the faidr App). While we believe that the functionality of the faidr App is protected under current law, there is a risk that one or more aspects of the faidr App may be found to violate the rights of third parties. If it is determined that we are not permitted to give consumers the right to buffer content locally and also control their listener experience by receiving alternative programming to what is included in an AM/FM station’s transmission, certain features of the faidr App may have to be disabled or discontinued, the costs to the Company for access to content could increase significantly, and result in an increase in the consumer price of the App, thus making the faidr App less desirable in the marketplace.
If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products and product candidates, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and product candidates similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our products and product candidates may be adversely affected.
Our commercial success will depend, in part, on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to our products and product candidates. We seek to protect our proprietary position by filing patent applications in the United States and abroad related to our products and product candidates that are important to our business.
We cannot be certain that additional patents will be issued or granted with respect to applications that are currently pending or that we may apply for in the future with respect to one or more of our products and product candidates, or that issued or granted patents will not later be found to be invalid and/or unenforceable.
The patent prosecution process is expensive and time-consuming. We may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Although we enter into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, collaboration partners, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection.
Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our platform or products could materially and adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.
The software underlying our platform and products is highly technical and complex. Our software has previously contained, and may now or in the future contain, undetected errors, bugs or vulnerabilities. In addition, errors, failures and bugs may be contained in open source software utilized in building and operating our products or may result from errors in the deployment or configuration of open source software. Some errors in our software may only be discovered after the software has been deployed or may never be generally known. Any errors, bugs or vulnerabilities discovered in our software after it has been deployed, or never generally discovered, could result in interruptions in platform availability, product malfunctioning or data breaches, and thereby result in damage to our reputation, adverse effects upon customers and users, loss of customers and relationships with third parties, including social media networks, loss of revenue or liability for damages. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these problems or risks within an acceptable period of time.
Risks related to our business operations
Risks related to our proposed merger with Thramann Holdings.
Our recently announced growth strategy includes seeking acquisitions of other companies or assets in our industry sector. We may not be successful in identifying, making and integrating business or asset acquisitions, if any, in the future.
As announced in April 2023, we anticipate that a component of our growth strategy may be to make strategically focused acquisitions of businesses or assets. Pursuit of this strategy may be restricted by the on-going volatility and uncertainty within the capital markets which may significantly limit the availability of funds for such acquisitions. Our ability to use shares of our common stock in an acquisition transaction may be adversely affected by the volatility in the price of our common stock and by the potential requirement of shareholder approval under applicable Nasdaq listing rules.
In addition to restricted funding availability, the success of our recently announced strategy will depend on our ability to identify suitable acquisition candidates and to negotiate acceptable financial and other terms. There is no assurance that we will be able to do so. The success of an acquisition also depends on our ability to perform adequate due diligence before the acquisition and on our ability to integrate the acquisition after it is completed. While we intend to commit significant resources to ensure that we conduct comprehensive due diligence, there can be no assurance that all potential risks and liabilities will be identified in connection with an acquisition. Similarly, while we expect to commit substantial resources, including management time and effort, to integrating acquired businesses into ours, there is no assurance that we will be successful in integrating these businesses. If we fail in performing adequate due diligence or in successfully integrating acquired businesses, our future operations would be negatively impacted.
Our future success depends on our ability to retain key employees, consultants and advisors and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.
We are highly dependent on members of our executive team; the loss of whose services may adversely impact the achievement of our objectives. While we have entered into employment agreements with certain of our executive officers, any of them could leave our employment at any time. We currently do not have “key person” insurance on any of our employees. The loss of the services of one or more of our current employees might impede the achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives.
Recruiting and retaining other qualified employees, consultants and advisors for our business, including scientific and technical personnel, will also be critical to our success. Competition for skilled personnel is intense and the turnover rate can be high. We may not be able to attract and retain personnel on acceptable terms given the competition among numerous technology companies for individuals with similar skill sets. The inability to recruit, or loss of services of certain executives, key employees, consultants or advisors, may impede the progress of our product development and commercialization objectives.
If we are unable to manage expected growth in the scale and complexity of our operations, our performance may suffer.
If we are successful in executing our business strategy, we will need to expand our managerial, operational, financial and other systems and resources to manage our operations, continue our technology development activities and, in the longer term, scale a commercial infrastructure to support our product roll out and end user projections. Future growth would impose significant added responsibilities on members of management. It is likely that our management, finance, sales, marketing and engineering systems and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to support this future growth. Our need to effectively manage our operations, growth and future product commercialization requires that we continue to develop more robust business processes and improve our systems and procedures in each of these areas and to attract and retain sufficient numbers of talented employees. We may be unable to successfully implement these tasks on a larger scale and, accordingly, may not achieve our product development and growth goals.
Any cybersecurity-related attack, significant data breach or disruption of the information technology systems or networks on which we rely could negatively affect our business.
Our operations rely on information technology systems for the use, storage and transmission of sensitive and confidential information with respect to our customers, our customers’ consumers or other social media audiences, the third-party technology platforms of other parties and our employees. A malicious cybersecurity-related attack, intrusion or disruption by either an internal or external source or other breach of the systems on which our platform and products operate, and on which our employees conduct business, could lead to unauthorized access to, use of, loss of or unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information, disruption of our services, and resulting regulatory enforcement actions, litigation, indemnity obligations and other possible liabilities, as well as negative publicity, which could damage our reputation, impair sales and harm our business. Cyberattacks and other malicious internet-based activity continue to increase, and cloud-based platform providers of products and services have been and are expected to continue to be targeted. In addition to traditional computer “hackers,” malicious code (such as viruses and worms), phishing, employee theft or misuse and denial-of-service attacks, sophisticated nation-state and nation-state supported actors now engage in attacks (including advanced persistent threat intrusions). Despite efforts to create security barriers to such threats, it is not feasible, as a practical matter, for us to entirely mitigate these risks. If our security measures are compromised as a result of third-party action, employee, customer, or user error, malfeasance, stolen or fraudulently obtained log-in credentials or otherwise, our reputation would be damaged, our data, information or intellectual property, or those of our customers, may be destroyed, stolen or otherwise compromised, our business may be harmed and we could incur significant liability. We have not always been able in the past and may be unable in the future to anticipate or prevent techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to or compromise of our systems because they change frequently and are generally not detected until after an incident has occurred. We also cannot be certain that we will be able to prevent vulnerabilities in our software or address vulnerabilities that we may become aware of in the future. Further, as we rely on third-party cloud infrastructure, we depend in part on third party security measures to protect against unauthorized access, cyberattacks and the mishandling of data and information. Any cybersecurity event, including any vulnerability in our software, cyberattack, intrusion or disruption, could result in significant increases in costs, including costs for remediating the effects of such an event, lost revenue due to network downtime, and a decrease in customer and user trust, increases in insurance premiums due to cybersecurity incidents, increased costs to address cybersecurity issues and attempts to prevent future incidents, and harm to our business and our reputation because of any such incident.
There can be no assurance that any limitation of liability provisions in our technical and/or subscription agreements would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any claim related to a cybersecurity incident. We also cannot be sure that our existing general liability insurance coverage and coverage for cyber liability or errors or omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, would harm our business.
Many governments have enacted laws requiring companies to provide notice of data security incidents involving certain types of personal data. In addition, some of our customers require us to notify them of data security breaches. Security compromises experienced by our competitors, by our customers or by us may lead to public disclosures, which may lead to widespread negative publicity. Any security compromise in our industry, whether actual or perceived, could harm our reputation, erode confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, negatively affect our ability to attract new customers, encourage consumers to restrict the sharing of their personal data with our customers or the social media networks, cause existing customers to elect not to renew their subscriptions or subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability, which could harm our business.
Changing regulations and increased awareness relating to privacy, information security and data protection could increase our costs, affect or limit how we collect and use personal information and harm our brand.
We receive, store and otherwise process personal information and other data from and about our customers and our employees. We also receive personal information and other data about our customers’ consumers or other social media audiences. There are numerous federal, state, local and international laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, information security and the storing, sharing, use, processing, transfer, disclosure, retention and protection of personal information and other content, the scope of which is rapidly changing, subject to differing interpretations and may be inconsistent among countries and states, or conflict with other rules. We are also subject to the terms of our privacy policies and contractual obligations to third parties related to privacy, data protection and information security. We strive to comply with applicable laws, regulations, policies and other legal obligations relating to privacy, data protection and information security. However, the regulatory framework for privacy, data protection and information security worldwide is, and is likely to remain, uncertain for the foreseeable future, and it is possible that these or other actual or alleged obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices.
We also expect that there will continue to be new laws, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security proposed and enacted in various jurisdictions. The United States, the European Union (“EU”), and other countries in which we currently or may operate are increasingly adopting or revising privacy, copyright, information security and data protection laws and regulations that could have a significant impact on our current and planned privacy, data protection and information security-related practices, our collection, use, sharing, retention and safeguarding of customer, consumer and/or employee information, as well as any other third-party information we receive, and some of our current or planned business activities. New and changing laws, regulations, and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security may also impact the social media platforms and data providers we utilize, and thereby indirectly impact our business. In the United States, this includes increased privacy-related regulations and enforcement activity at both the federal level and state levels that impose requirements on the personal information we collect in the course of our business activities. In the EU, this includes the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which came into effect in May 2018. While we have taken measures to comply with applicable requirements contained in the GDPR, we may need to continue to make adjustments as more clarification and guidance on the requirements of the GDPR and how to comply with such requirements becomes available. Further, following a referendum in June 2016 in which voters in the United Kingdom approved an exit from the EU, the United Kingdom government has initiated a process to leave the EU, known as Brexit. Brexit has created uncertainty with regard to the regulation of data protection in the United Kingdom. In particular, although the United Kingdom enacted a Data Protection Act in May 2018 that is designed to be consistent with the GDPR, uncertainty remains regarding how data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated. Additionally, although we have self-certified under the U.S.-EU and U.S.-Swiss Privacy Shield Frameworks with regard to our transfer of certain personal data from the EU and Switzerland to the United States, some regulatory uncertainty remains surrounding the future of data transfers from the EU and Switzerland to the United States, and we are monitoring regulatory developments in this area. California also recently enacted legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, (the “CCPA”), that will afford consumers expanded privacy protections and control over the collection, use and sharing of their personal information when it goes into effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA was recently amended, and it is possible that it will be amended again before it goes into effect. The potential effects of this legislation are far-reaching and may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply. For example, the CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and require deletion of their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA also provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that may increase data breach litigation.
With laws and regulations such as the GDPR in the EU and the CCPA in the United States imposing new and relatively burdensome obligations, and with substantial uncertainty over the interpretation and application of these and other laws and regulations, we may face challenges in addressing their requirements and making necessary changes to our policies and practices, and may incur significant costs and expenses in an effort to do so. For example, the increased consumer control over the sharing of their personal information afforded by CCPA may affect our customers’ ability to share such personal information with us or may require us to delete or remove consumer information from our records or data sets, which may create considerable costs for our organization. In addition, any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies, our privacy-, data protection- or information security-related obligations to customers, users or other third parties or any of our other legal obligations relating to privacy, data protection or information security may result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, litigation, claims or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others, and could result in significant liability, loss of relationships with key third parties including social media networks and other data providers, or cause our users to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our users may limit the adoption and use of, and reduce the overall demand for, our platform.
Additionally, if the third parties we work with, such as vendors or developers, violate applicable laws or regulations or our policies, such violations may also put our customers’ and their users’ and consumers’ or other social media audiences’ content at risk and could in turn have an adverse effect on our business. Any significant change to applicable laws, regulations or industry practices regarding the collection, use, retention, security or disclosure of such content, or regarding the manner in which the express or implied consent of such persons for the collection, use, retention or disclosure of such content is obtained, could increase our costs and require us to modify our services and features, possibly in a material manner, which we may be unable to complete and may limit our ability to store and process user data or develop new services and features. All of these implications could adversely affect our revenue, results of operations, business and financial condition.
We may also face different obligations in foreign jurisdictions when providing access to AM/FM radio station simulcasts through the faidr App. In the United States, we will generally not be liable for monetary damages for copyright infringement arising from a radio station’s transmissions made accessible through the faidr App even if the owner of the station has failed to obtain all necessary licenses to simulcast music over the Internet. In the UK and the EU, the laws differ from those in the United States for companies that operate directory services and we may either have to disable access to stations that have failed to obtain the necessary licenses for accessibility through the faidr App in different jurisdictions or obtain licenses to cover the communications to the public made by such stations and accessed through the faidr App. The costs for such licenses could be excessive and negatively impact our business, operations and financial condition.
Our business depends on a strong brand, and if we are not able to develop, maintain and enhance our brand, our business and operating results may be harmed. Moreover, our brand and reputation could be harmed if we were to experience significant negative publicity.
We believe that developing, maintaining and enhancing our brand is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our platform and products, attracting new customers, retaining existing customers, persuading existing customers to adopt additional products and use-cases, and hiring and retaining our employees. We believe that the importance of our brand will increase as competition in our market further intensifies. Successful promotion of our brand will depend on a number of factors, including the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, including thought leadership, our ability to provide a high-quality, reliable and cost-effective platform, the perceived value of our platform and products and our ability to provide quality customer success and support experience. Brand promotion activities require us to make substantial expenditures. To date, we have made significant investments in the promotion of our brand. The promotion of our brand, however, may not generate customer awareness or increase revenue, and any increase in revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building and maintaining our brand.
We operate in a public-facing industry in which every aspect of our business is impacted by social media. Negative publicity, whether or not justified, can spread rapidly through social media. To the extent that we are unable to respond timely and appropriately to negative publicity, our reputation and brand could be harmed. Moreover, even if we are able to respond in a timely and appropriate manner, we cannot predict how negative publicity may affect our reputation and business. We and our employees also use social media to communicate externally. There is risk that the use of social media by us or our employees to communicate about our business may give rise to liability or result in public exposure of personal information of our employees or customers, each of which could affect our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition.
Enacted and future legislation may increase the difficulty and cost for us to commercialize our product candidates and may affect the prices we may set.
Our business and financial prospects could be affected by changes in laws, regulations, and policies in the United States and abroad. We operate in a highly regulated industry and new laws or judicial decisions, or new interpretations of existing laws or decisions, including those related to copyright, and the amount of payment for content rights could negatively impact our business, operations and financial condition.
We may be subject to litigation, disputes or regulatory inquiries for a variety of claims, which could adversely affect our results of operations, harm our reputation or otherwise negatively affect our business.
From time to time, we may be involved in litigation, disputes or regulatory inquiries that arise in the ordinary course of business. These may include claims, lawsuits and proceedings involving labor, and employment, wage and hour, commercial, alleged securities law violations or other investor claims, claims for trademark or copyright infringement and other matters. We expect that the number and significance of these potential disputes may increase as our business expands, our company grows larger and more users listen to streaming audio through our faidr App. While our agreements with customers limit our liability for damages arising from our platform, we cannot assure you that these contractual provisions will protect us from liability for damages in the event we are sued or protect us from claims against third parties with whom we do not have agreements. Radio station owners may object to our providing access to their simulcast streams through the faidr App in a manner that gives the consumer the ability to control whether the consumer listens to audio advertisements included in the station’s transmissions. The copyright owners of musical works and sound recordings may object to our providing users with the ability to buffer audio content for time shifting purposes. Although we carry general liability insurance coverage, our insurance may not cover all potential claims to which we are exposed or may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed. Any claims against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time consuming, result in costly litigation, require significant amounts of management time, adversely affect our reputation and result in the diversion of significant operational resources. Because litigation is inherently unpredictable, we cannot assure you that the results of any of these actions will not have a material adverse effect on our revenue, business, brand, results of operations and financial condition.
Risks related to our intellectual property
Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, floods and other natural catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as power disruptions, computer viruses, cyberattack, data security breaches or terrorism.
A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or a flood, occurring where a business partner is located could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, if a natural disaster or man-made problem were to affect our network service providers or Internet service providers, this could adversely affect the ability of our customers to use our products and platform. In addition, natural disasters and acts of terrorism could cause disruptions in our or our customers’ businesses, national economies, or the world economy. We also rely on our network and third-party infrastructure and enterprise applications and internal technology systems for our engineering, sales and marketing and operations activities. If a major disruption is caused by a natural disaster or man-made problem, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in our development activities, lengthy interruptions in service, breaches of data security and loss of critical data, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our business.
Our success and ability to compete depend in part upon our intellectual property. We attempt to protect our intellectual property rights, both in the United States and in foreign countries, through a combination of patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws, as well as licensing agreements and third-party nondisclosure and assignment agreements. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate. Because of the differences in foreign trademark, patent and other laws concerning proprietary rights, our intellectual property rights may not receive the same degree of protection in foreign countries as they would in the United States. Our failure to obtain or maintain adequate protection of our intellectual property rights for any reason could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We have applied for patent protection in the United States relating to certain existing and proposed systems, methods and processes. We cannot assure that any of our patent applications will result in an issued patent. Any patent(s) we own could be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by others and may not be of sufficient scope or strength to provide us with any meaningful protection or commercial advantage. Further, we cannot assure you that competitors will not infringe our patent(s), or that we will have adequate resources to enforce our patent(s).
We also rely on unpatented proprietary technology. It is possible that others will independently develop the same or similar technology or otherwise obtain access to our unpatented technology. To protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information, we have entered into confidentiality agreements with most of our employees and consultants. We cannot assure you that these agreements will provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information in the event of any unauthorized use, misappropriation or disclosure of such trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information. If we are unable to maintain the proprietary nature of our technologies, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.
We rely on our trademarks, service marks, trade names, and brand names to distinguish our products and services from the products and services of our competitors and have registered or applied to register many of these trademarks in the United States and other jurisdictions. We cannot assure you that our trademark applications will be approved. Third parties may also oppose our trademark applications, or otherwise challenge our use of the trademarks, or use and register confusingly similar trademarks in these or other jurisdictions. In the event that our trademarks are successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our products and services, which could result in loss of brand recognition, and could require us to devote resources advertising and marketing new brands. Further, we cannot assure you that third parties will not infringe our trademarks, or that we will have adequate resources to enforce our trademarks.
Although we rely on copyright laws to protect the works of authorship (including software) created by us, we do not register the copyrights in any of our copyrightable works. Copyrights of U.S. origin must be registered before the copyright owner may bring an infringement suit in the United States. Furthermore, if a copyright of U.S. origin is not registered within three months of publication of the underlying work, the copyright owner is precluded from seeking statutory damages or attorney’s fees in any United States enforcement action and is limited to seeking actual damages and lost profits. Accordingly, if one of our unregistered copyrights of U.S. origin is infringed by a third party, we will need to register the copyright before we can file an infringement suit in the United States, and our remedies in any such infringement suit may be limited.
In order to protect our intellectual property, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our rights. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management, and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could adversely affect our brand and adversely affect our business.
If third parties claim that we infringe upon or otherwise violate their intellectual property rights, our business could be adversely affected.
We face the risk of claims that we have infringed or otherwise violated third parties’ intellectual property rights. There is considerable patent and other intellectual property development activity in our industry. Our future success depends in part on not infringing upon or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of others. From time to time, our competitors or other third parties may claim that we are infringing upon or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing upon or otherwise violating such rights. We may be unaware of the intellectual property rights of others that may cover some or all of our technology or conflict with our trademark rights. Any claims of intellectual property infringement or other intellectual property violations, even those without merit, could:
be expensive and time consuming to defend;
cause us to cease making, licensing or using our platform or products that incorporate the challenged intellectual property;
require us to modify, redesign, reengineer or rebrand our platform or products, if feasible;
divert management’s attention and resources; and/or
require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements in order to obtain the right to use a third party’s intellectual property.
Any royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. A successful claim of infringement against us could result in our being required to pay significant damages, enter into costly settlement agreements, or prevent us from offering our platform or products, any of which could have a negative impact on our operating profits and harm our future prospects. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners in connection with any such litigation and to obtain licenses, modify our platform or products, or refund subscription fees, which could further exhaust our resources. Such disputes could also disrupt our platform or products, adversely affecting our customer satisfaction and ability to attract customers.
Our use of “open source” software could negatively affect our ability to offer and sell access to our platform and products and subject us to possible litigation.
We use open source software in our platform and products and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. There are uncertainties regarding the proper interpretation of and compliance with open source licenses, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to use such open source software, and consequently to provide or distribute our platform and products. Although use of open source software has historically been free, recently several open source providers have begun to charge license fees for use of their software. If our current open source providers were to begin to charge for these licenses or increase their license fees significantly, this would increase our research and development costs and have a negative impact on our results of operations and financial condition.
Additionally, we may from time-to-time face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or seeking to enforce the terms of, an open source license, including by demanding release of source code for the open source software, derivative works or our proprietary source code that was developed using or that is distributed with such open source software. These claims could also result in litigation and could require us to make our proprietary software source code freely available or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our platform or incur additional costs and expenses, any of which could result in reputational harm and would have a negative effect on our business and operating results. In addition, if the license terms for the open source software we utilize change, we may be forced to reengineer our platform or incur additional costs to comply with the changed license terms or to replace the affected open source software. Further, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of software or indemnification for third party infringement claims. Although we have implemented policies to regulate the use and incorporation of open source software into our platform and products, we cannot be certain that we have not incorporated open source software in our platform and products in a manner that is inconsistent with such policies.
In addition, any intellectual property litigation to which we become a party may require us to do one or more of the following:
cease selling, licensing, or using products or features that incorporate the intellectual property rights that we allegedly infringe, misappropriate, or violate;
make substantial payments for legal fees, settlement payments, or other costs or damages, including indemnification of third parties;
obtain a license or enter into a royalty agreement, either of which may not be available on reasonable terms or at all, in order to obtain the right to sell or use the relevant intellectual property; or
redesign the allegedly infringing products to avoid infringement, misappropriation, or violation, which could be costly, time-consuming, or impossible.
Intellectual property litigation is typically complex, time consuming, and expensive to resolve and would divert the time and attention of our management and technical personnel. It may also result in adverse publicity, which could harm our reputation and ability to attract or retain customers. As we grow, we may experience a heightened risk of allegations of intellectual property infringement. An adverse result in any litigation claims against us could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.
Our agreements with customers and other third parties may include indemnification or other provisions under which we agree to indemnify or otherwise be liable to them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of intellectual property infringement, damages caused by us to property or persons, or other liabilities relating to or arising from our platform, products or other acts or omissions. The term of these contractual provisions often survives termination or expiration of the applicable agreement. Large indemnity payments or damage claims from contractual breach could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
From time to time, customers may require us to indemnify or otherwise be liable to them for breach of confidentiality or failure to implement adequate security measures with respect to their data stored, transmitted or processed by our employees, platform or products. Although we normally contractually limit our liability with respect to such obligations, we may still incur substantial liability related to them. Any dispute with a customer with respect to such obligations could have adverse effects on our relationship with that customer and other current and prospective customers, reduce demand for our platform or products, and harm our revenue, business and operating results.
Risks related to ownership of our common stock
A significant portion of our total outstanding shares are eligible for sale into the public market. Substantial sales of our shares into the public market could cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly, even if our business is performing well.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time, subject to certain restrictions described below. These sales, or the perception in the market that holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our common stock. We have 3,856,348 shares of common stock issued and outstanding as of March 4, 2026. Substantially all of these shares, unless held by our affiliates, may be resold in the public market immediately without restriction. Shares held by our affiliates may be resold into the public market subject to compliance with the requirements of the SEC’s Rule 144.
The issuance of common stock pursuant to our equity line facility or our ATM facility may cause substantial dilution to our existing shareholders, and the sale of such shares in connection with our equity line or ATM facilities could cause the price of our common stock to decline.
We have an equity line facility with White Lion. During 2025, the Company has sold 995,000 shares to White Lion for total proceeds of approximately $3.7 million.
On November 25, 2024, we entered into a new equity line and a related registration rights agreement with White Lion. Pursuant to the new Common Stock Purchase Agreement, we have the right, but not the obligation to require White Lion to purchase, from time to time until December 31, 2025, up to $10,000,000 in aggregate gross purchase price of newly issued shares of our common stock, subject to certain limitations and conditions set forth in the Common Stock Purchase Agreement. On July 30, 2025, we amended the equity line Common Stock Purchase Agreement from $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 and extended the commitment period to December 31, 2027.
We also have an At-the-Market (“ATM”) facility with Ascendiant Capital Markets, LLC, as sales agent (the “Agent”). Under the ATM facility, we may sell shares of our common stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $10,000,000 from time to time, through an “at the market offering” (the “ATM Offering”).
During the year ended December 31, 2025, we issued 1,007,761 shares for aggregate proceeds of approximately $2.7 million pursuant to our ATM facility. Subsequent to December 31, 2025, and as of the date of this filing, we have sold 754,925 shares under our ATM facility for proceeds of $0.9 million
Shares issued by us through our equity line or ATM facilities may result in substantial dilution to the interests of holders of our common stock.
The sale of a substantial number of shares through our equity line and ATM facilities, or anticipation of such sales, could make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and at a price that we might otherwise desire. The number of shares of our common stock issued by us through our equity line or ATM facilities and sold into the public markets depends on a variety of factors, including market liquidity of our common stock. The issuance of shares through our equity line and ATM facilities may cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.
The price of our common stock may be volatile and fluctuate substantially, which could result in substantial losses for investors in our securities.
Our common stock price and Series A Warrant price are likely to be volatile. The stock market in general and the market for technology companies has experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. As a result of this volatility, you may not be able to sell your common stock at or above your investment price. The market price for our common stock may be influenced by many factors, including:
the success of competitive products or technologies;
regulatory or legal developments in the United States,
the recruitment or departure of key personnel;
the level of expenses related to any of our product candidates, and our commercialization efforts;
actual or anticipated changes in our development timelines;
our ability to raise additional capital;
disputes or other developments relating to proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters and our ability to obtain patent protection for our product candidates;
significant lawsuits, including patent or stockholder litigation;
variations in our financial results or those of companies that are perceived to be similar to us;
general economic, industry and market conditions; and
the other factors described in this “Risk Factors” section.
If our quarterly operating results fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Furthermore, any quarterly fluctuations in our operating results may, in turn, cause the price of our stock to fluctuate substantially. We believe that quarterly comparisons of our financial results are not necessarily meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of our future performance.
In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class-action litigation often has been instituted against that company. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could cause us to incur substantial costs to defend such claims and divert management’s attention and resources.
If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they publish negative evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline.
The trading market for our common stock will rely, in part, on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not currently have, and may never obtain, research coverage by industry or financial analysts. If no, or few, analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price of our stock would likely decrease. Even if we do obtain analyst coverage, if one or more of the analysts covering our business downgrade their evaluations of our stock, the price of our stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover our stock, we could lose visibility in the market for our stock, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.
We may not be able to continue our current listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market. A delisting of our common stock from Nasdaq could limit the liquidity of our stock, increase its volatility and hinder our ability to raise capital.
We may not be able to satisfy the requirements for the continued listing of our common stock on Nasdaq.
During 2022, 2023 and 2024, the Company received notices from Nasdaq indicating that the Company was not in compliance with (i) Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1), which requires companies listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market to maintain a minimum of $2,500,000 in stockholders’ equity for continued listing or (ii) Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) which requires companies listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market to maintain a minimum of a $1.00 bid price for continued listing.
On May 24, 2024, we received a letter from Nasdaq indicating that we had regained compliance with the equity requirement in Listing rule 5550(b)(1) (the Equity Rule”.) We will be subject to a Mandatory Panel Monitor for a period of one year from the date of the letter in accordance with application of Listing Rule 5815(d)(4)(B).
On October 16, 2024, we received a written notice from Nasdaq indicating that we were not in compliance with the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement set forth in Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) for continued listing. The bid price notice does not result in the immediate delisting of our common stock from the Nasdaq Capital Market. The bid price notice indicated that we have 180 calendar days (or until April 14, 2025) in which to regain compliance. If at any time during this 180 calendar day period the bid price of our common stock closes at or above $1.00 per share for a minimum of ten consecutive business days, the Nasdaq staff will provide us with a written confirmation of compliance and the matter will be closed.
On April 14, 2025, Nasdaq notified us that we were in compliance with the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement.
If our common stock is delisted by Nasdaq, our common stock may be eligible for quotation on an over-the-counter quotation system or on the pink sheets. Upon any such delisting, our common stock would become subject to the regulations of the SEC relating to the market for penny stocks. A penny stock is any equity security not traded on a national securities exchange that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share. The regulations applicable to penny stocks may severely affect the market liquidity for our common stock and could limit the ability of shareholders to sell securities in the secondary market. In such a case, an investor may find it more difficult to dispose of or obtain accurate quotations as to the market value of our common stock, and there can be no assurance that our common stock will be eligible for trading or quotation on any alternative exchanges or markets.
Delisting from Nasdaq could adversely affect our ability to raise additional financing through public or private sales of equity securities, would significantly affect the ability of investors to trade our securities and would negatively affect the value and liquidity of our common stock. Delisting could also have other negative results, including the potential loss of confidence by employees, the loss of institutional investor interest and fewer business development opportunities.
We are an “emerging growth company,” and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an “emerging growth company” (“EGC”), as defined in the JOBS Act. We will remain an EGC until the earliest of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.07 billion or more; (ii) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the completion of our IPO; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; and (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the rules of the SEC. For so long as we remain an EGC, we are permitted and intend to rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies. These exemptions include:
not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404;
not being required to comply with any requirement that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board regarding mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor’s report providing additional information about the audit and the financial statements;
being permitted to present only two years of audited financial statements, in addition to any required unaudited interim financial statements, and only two years of related “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in this Annual Report;
reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports, proxy statements and registration statements; and
an exemption from the requirement to seek nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.
We may choose to take advantage of some, but not all, of the available exemptions. We have taken advantage of reduced reporting burdens in this Annual Report. In particular, we have not included all of the executive compensation information that would be required if we were not an EGC. We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less attractive if we rely on certain or all of these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.
We continue to incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.
As a public company, and particularly after we are no longer an EGC, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company.
In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq have imposed various requirements on public companies, including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, we expect that these rules and regulations may make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance.
Failure to establish and maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.
We are not currently required to comply with the rules of the SEC implementing Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and therefore are not required to make a formal assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for that purpose. Upon becoming a publicly traded company, we will be required to comply with the SEC’s rules implementing Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which will require management to certify financial and other information in our quarterly and annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of controls over financial reporting. Though we will be required to disclose changes made in our internal controls and procedures on a quarterly basis, we will not be required to make our first annual assessment of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 until the year following our first annual report required to be filed with the SEC. Our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until the later of the year following our first annual report required to be filed with the SEC or the date we are no longer an emerging growth company and are an accelerated or large accelerated filer.
To comply with the requirements of being a public company, we may need to undertake various actions, such as implementing new internal controls and procedures and hiring additional accounting or internal audit staff. In this regard, we will need to continue to dedicate internal resources, engage outside consultants and adopt a detailed work plan to assess and document the adequacy of internal control over financial reporting, continue steps to improve control processes, validate through testing that controls are functioning as documented and implement a continuous reporting and improvement process for internal control over financial reporting. In addition, we have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and may identify further such material weaknesses, either of which we may not be able to remediate in time to meet the applicable deadline imposed upon us for compliance with the requirements of Section 404.
If unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 to address and remediate in a timely manner material weaknesses identified in our internal control over financial reporting, or to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our common stock could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to investigations by the Nasdaq Capital Market on which our securities are listed, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.
Pursuant to Section 404, we will be required to furnish a report by our management on our internal control over financial reporting, including, once we are no longer an EGC, an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. To achieve compliance with Section 404 within the prescribed period, we will be engaged in a process to document and evaluate our internal control over financial reporting, which is both costly and challenging. Despite our efforts, there is a risk that neither we nor our independent registered public accounting firm will be able to conclude within the prescribed timeframe that our internal control over financial reporting is effective as required by Section 404. This could result in an adverse reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of confidence in the reliability of our financial statements.
Provisions in our corporate charter and our bylaws and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
We are a Delaware corporation. The anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”) may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change in control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders.
Provisions in our corporate charter and our bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control of us that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your shares. These provisions also could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, thereby depressing the market price of our common stock. In addition, because our board of directors is responsible for appointing the members of our management team, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors. Among other things, these provisions:
allow the authorized number of our directors to be changed only by resolution of our board of directors;
limit the manner in which stockholders can remove directors from the board;
establish advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals that can be acted on at stockholder meetings and nominations to our board of directors;
require that stockholder actions must be effected at a duly called stockholder meeting and prohibit actions by our stockholders by written consent;
limit who may call stockholder meetings; and
authorize our board of directors to issue preferred stock without stockholder approval, which could be used to institute a stockholder rights plan, or so-called “poison pill,” that would work to dilute the stock ownership of a potential hostile acquirer, effectively preventing acquisitions that have not been approved by our board of directors.
Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the DGCL, which prohibits a person who owns in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner.
Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gain.
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain all of our future earnings, if any, to finance the growth and development of our business. In addition, the terms of any future debt agreements may preclude us from paying dividends. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future.
Our charter provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for certain litigation that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for such disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.
Our certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings: any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of the Company, any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee of the Company to the Company or the Company’s stockholders, any action asserting a claim against the Company arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or the Company’s certificate of incorporation or bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against the Company governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Our certificate of incorporation also provides that unless the Company consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America shall be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), as amended. Despite the fact that the certificate of incorporation provides for these exclusive forum provisions to be applicable to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Section 27 of the Exchange Act, creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder and Section 22 of the Securities Act , creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. As a result, this provision of the Company’s certificate of incorporation would not apply to claims brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act, or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. However, there is uncertainty as to whether a Delaware court would enforce the exclusive Federal forum provisions for Securities Act claims and that investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and rules and regulations thereunder.
The choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provisions contained in our charter to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions.
