Softwate & IT Services P2

Company Profile 

MercadoLibre, Inc. is an e-commerce company. The Company enables commerce through its marketplace platform in Latin America, which is designed to provide users with a portfolio of services to facilitate commercial transactions. Its geographic segments are Brazil, Argentina, Mexico Venezuela and Other Countries (which includes Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and the United States of America). It also operates online commerce platforms in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador, Panama, Bolivia, Guatemala, Paraguay and Portugal. It offers an ecosystem of six integrated e-commerce services: the MercadoLibre Marketplace, the MercadoLibre Classifieds Service, the MercadoPago payments solution, the MercadoLibre advertising program, the MercadoShops online Webstores solution and the MercadoEnvios shipping service.

Headquarters

Pasaje Posta 4789, 6Th Floor
Buenos Aires,
C1430EKG 

Invested on 2/04/2021

@ 1,898.74

***Mercado Libre, Inc. First Quarter 2023 Letter to Shareholders

4:02 PM ET 5/3/23 | GlobeNewswire

 MercadoLibre, Inc. First Quarter 2023 Letter to Shareholders

Net Revenues of $3.0 billion, up 58.4% year-over-year on an FX neutral basis

Income from operations of $340 million, with a 11.2% margin

$37.0 billion Total Payment Volume, up 96.1% year-over-year on an FX neutral basis

$9.4 billion Gross Merchandise Volume, up 43.3% year-over-year on an FX neutral basis

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, May 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MercadoLibre, Inc. (Nasdaq: MELI) (http://www.mercadolibre.com), Latin America's leading e-commerce technology company, today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2023.

To our Shareholders

MercadoLibre has had a good start to the year, with encouraging performance across the business. Our Q1'23 results demonstrate once again our commitment to, and capacity to deliver, profit growth alongside rapid revenue expansion. 

We set a new Q1 record of $340mn for income from operations, with the margin over revenue expanding from 6.2% in Q1'22 to 11.2% in Q1'23. As the business continues to scale, we remain focused on strengthening operational efficiency so that our long term growth - which remains our top priority - is sustainably profitable. Our Q1'23 KPIs highlight that momentum is strong across geographies, and that we are executing well as we pursue the long-term growth opportunities offered by Latin America's commerce and financial services markets.

Commerce

We are particularly pleased with the performance of our Commerce business in Q1'23. Growth in items sold accelerated to almost 16% year-on-year (from 11% in Q4'22), contributing to FX-neutral GMV growth of 43% year-on-year (vs. 35% in Q4'22). Our three largest geographic segments - Brazil, Mexico and Argentina - all delivered faster growth in items sold and FX-neutral GMV when compared to the prior quarter.

Brazil's momentum continued to strengthen from an already solid base, with FX-neutral GMV growth accelerating to 28% year-on-year in Q1'23 from 22% in Q4'22. Growth was broad-based across most categories, and the acceleration was driven primarily by higher growth of items sold. The number of successful sellers rose by 23% year-on-year, well ahead of the MercadoLibre average. Strong execution and many quarters of consistent investment across all aspects of our value proposition have positioned us well to continue capturing more market share in Brazil, (at an accelerating pace during Q1'23). Logistics continues to play an important role in driving those share gains, so we are pleased that fulfillment penetration in Brazil rose by almost 4ppts year-on-year to reach a new high of 41%. This increase has been achieved with an improvement of the economics of our shipping operations in Brazil, alongside maintaining our leadership in delivery times.

Mexico continues to be the segment with the highest growth in items sold, hitting 29% year-on-year in Q1'23, broadly in-line with the country's FX-neutral GMV growth of 28.5%. Based on available industry data, we estimate that our market share continues to rise, and we also see our brand preference metrics improving, reaching higher levels than at any point during 2022. This shows that we continue to execute well, building on the strong momentum generated through 2022 and taking advantage of the structural growth opportunities offered by the Mexican market. Logistics is one of our strongest competitive advantages in Mexico, where our fulfillment penetration is most advanced and we continue to have the fastest delivery times in most major urban centers for millions of items.

Argentina's FX-neutral GMV growth hit 107% year-on-year, albeit with much of that growth driven by inflation; that said, there was also a reversal of last year's weakening trend in items sold growth, with a year-on-year expansion of 3% in Q1'23 after a contraction of 1% in Q4'22. This reflects the strength of our brand and value proposition despite an extremely challenging consumer environment. We have also seen improving trends in Chile - the largest market in our Other segment - with FX-neutral GMV growth returning to positive territory as we begin to lap particularly tough comparisons from 2022. Setting aside these 2021 driven distortions, we believe that we are well-positioned for long-term growth in Chile, with the widest assortment and a strong logistics network established that enables us to deliver faster than our principal competitors, both of which contribute to Chile having the highest conversion rate across the region.

Growth in our first party (1P) business reached a turning point in Q1'23, with FX-neutral GMV growth accelerating to 28% year-on-year from 8% in Q4'22. The adjustments made over the last few quarters aimed at strengthening our execution in 1P, particularly in certain key categories, are helping to put the business on a solid footing with higher gross margin, faster inventory turn and wider use of automatic pricing. That said, we have more work to do to continue to evolve the business so that we achieve the operational and financial targets that we have set for 1P - particularly in Brazil and Mexico - so we will continue to pursue a measured growth strategy while that work is ongoing.

Our advertising business continues to grow rapidly across geographies, with revenue as a percentage of GMV reaching 1.4% in Q1'23. This is up 30bps year-on-year on a much higher GMV base, which shows that Ads revenue growth - which remained consistent with prior quarters at 62% year-on-year in US dollars - continues to significantly outpace GMV growth. Deployment of technology remains a key driver of the business' expansion, and we are pleased to have launched the first version of our Ads Console in a test phase in Q1'23. Over time, this technology will help us to compete for marketing dollars that have historically been difficult for us to access, and it will help us to strengthen areas of the business that are already most advanced. More information on Mercado Ads' products and tech stack is available in the video that accompanies our Q1'23 earnings materials.

Fintech

In our Fintech business, TPV grew at 96% on an FX-neutral basis (46% in US dollars), reaching $37.0bn, of which $27.0bn came from off-platform volume. Off-platform TPV grew above 100% on an FX-neutral basis for the sixth successive quarter, with Argentina, Brazil and Mexico all showing faster growth rates than Q4'22.

Our Acquiring business is performing well across the region. In Brazil, our move upmarket - to serve larger merchants, including SMBs - with POS devices is still showing good results, despite decelerating. Brazil accounts for the majority of devices sold and in Q1'23, this number dropped below the 1mn mark as we focused on larger merchants and device activations, rather than just device sales. As a result, TPV per device continues to grow nicely, up 26% year-on-year in US dollars. In Mexico, Point continues to deliver triple-digit TPV growth as Mercado Pago acts as one of the leaders in the digitalization of money in the country. In Chile, the performance of Redelcom, a business that we acquired at the end of 2021, continues to surpass our expectations.

Digital Account TPV - which includes Wallet payments, peer-to-peer transfers within the ecosystem and transactions using Mercado Pago cards - grew at 164% on an FX-neutral basis, with Brazil and Mexico showing strong double-digit growth rates, whilst Argentina's growth was triple-digit and well ahead of inflation.

Following major product investments and launches in 2021 and 2022, in Q1'23 we took an important step in the positioning of Mercado Pago as a full-service digital account with the launch of a marketing campaign in Brazil that leverages the awareness of, and trust in, our commerce business to strengthen awareness and consideration of our fintech business. In April, the campaign also launched in Mexico. As we highlighted in our Q4'22 Shareholder Letter, we believe that we now have the critical mass of services necessary for users to be able to have their principal financial services relationship with Mercado Pago. The objective of this long-term strategy is to develop a deeper relationship with our 44mn quarterly unique active fintech users, a user base that continued to grow at almost 25% year-on-year in Q1'23. For example, our Insurtech and Savingstech services are showing some positive early signs (albeit still small scale) and if we succeed in our strategy, we expect that these products should gain further traction.

Mercado Pago's credit business delivered another solid performance in Q1'23. The portfolio of $3bn grew marginally on a sequential basis as we maintained a cautious posture regarding originations, particularly in Brazil. That said, demand remains robust and even with our cautious approach, we originated $2.7bn in the quarter. Interest Margin After Losses (IMAL), which encompasses credit revenue and provisions for doubtful accounts, reached 38.8% on an annualized basis, compared to 48.3% in Q4'22 and 24.7% in Q1'22. Limited growth in originations (compared to Q4'22) and a portfolio whose risk profile remains skewed towards lower risk cohorts contributed to the year-on-year improvement in IMAL; the sequential contraction in IMAL, from an exceptionally high level in Q4'22, was due to some negative seasonality in the online merchant book, and the pick-up in growth of the credit card. That said, our 1-90 day non-performing loan (NPL) ratio continued to fall, to 9.5%. Towards the end of the first quarter, we started to slowly accelerate new credit card issuance in Brazil from a low base after several months of improving performance. We are also pleased to have launched the credit card in Mexico in Q1'23, albeit with limited levels of issuance so far.
 

SNOW Company Overview

Snowflake Inc. is a cloud data platform provider. The Company's platform enables customers to consolidate data into a single source to drive business insights, build data-driven applications and share data. Its cloud data platform supports a multi-cloud strategy, including a cross-cloud approach to mix and match clouds. Its multi-cluster shared data architecture enables governed and secure data sharing in real-time. It enables to create own private data exchange to share and collaborate with business partners, suppliers, and employees in a centrally managed data hub. The Company, by leveraging the performance of the public cloud, its platform enables customers to unify and query data to support a variety of use cases. It also provides frictionless and governed data access so users can securely share data inside and outside of their organizations, generally without copying or moving the underlying data.

Company Contact

Headquarters

450 Concar Drive
San Mateo, CA 94402.

Invested 9/16/2020 I.P.O.

@ 245.00

**Snowflake agrees to acquire open data integration platform, Datavolo; financial terms were not disclosed

4:14 PM ET 11/20/24 | Briefing.com

**Acquisition will supercharge data engineering on Snowflake's platform with simple, scalable, and cost-effective unstructured data ingestion in the AI Data Cloud. 

***MW Snowflake stock soars 18% after large revenue beat

8:51 PM ET 8/24/22 | MarketWatch

By Emily Bary

CEO says company's consumption-based model is 'an advantage in the type of times we're living in'

Shares of Snowflake Inc. surged in Wednesday's aftermarket action after the data-software company easily topped revenue expectations for its latest quarter.

The company posted a fiscal second-quarter net loss of $223 million, or 70 cents a share, whereas it lost $190 million, or 64 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts tracked by FactSet were expecting Snowflake (SNOW) to post a per-share GAAP loss of 56 cents.

Snowflake's revenue rose to $497 million from $272 million, while the FactSet consensus was for $467 million. The company logged $466 million in product revenue, above the $439 million that analysts had been modeling.

The company disclosed that it had 6,808 total customers, including 246 customers with trailing 12-month product revenue upwards of $1 million.

Chief Executive Frank Slootman highlighted that Snowflake operates under a consumption model rather than a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, meaning that customers can "throttle" how much they use Snowflake after signing a contract.

"We think it's an advantage in the type of times we're living in," he said on the company's earnings call.

The stock gained 18% in after-hours trading.

For the fiscal third quarter, executives at Snowflake expect $500 million to $505 million in product revenue, whereas the FactSet consensus called for $502 million.

Chief Financial Officer Mike Scarpelli said on the company's earnings called that amid macroeconomic uncertainty, "the guidance is prudent that we put out."

Looking at the full fiscal year, Snowflake's management anticipates $1.905 billion to $1.915 billion in product revenue, while analysts were forecasting $1.897 billion. The company's prior outlook called for $1.885 billion to $1.900 billion.

"We believe taking a conservative view is rewarded in this tape, and that's reflected in the stock in the after-market," Evercore ISI analyst Kirk Materne wrote following the report.

The earnings come as several analysts have taken more cautious views of Snowflake's stock this month, with at least two downgrading the shares amid concerns about competition from privately held Databricks as well as the potential for macroeconomic pressure to impact customer spending.

Analysts were more upbeat earlier in the summer, as at least three upgraded Snowflake shares during the month of June.

-Emily Bary 

OKTA Company Overview   

Okta, Inc., is an independent provider of identity for the enterprise. The Company's Okta Identity Cloud platform provides identity management solutions that enable customers to secure their users and connect them to technology and applications. It also connects enterprises to their customers, employees, contractors, and partners. It allows users to access a range of cloud applications, Websites, mobile applications and service from various devices. Its platform is used by information technology (IT) organizations to secure their enterprise and by developers to build customer-facing Websites and applications. Okta Identity Cloud consists of a suite of products to manage and secure identities. It offers a range of products, such as Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication, Universal Directory, Lifecycle Management products, Single Sign-On, application program interface (API) Access Management and Mobility Management.   

Company Contact

Headquarters

100 1st St Ste 600
San Francisco, CA 94105-4687

Invested 7/17/20119

@ 138.2898

*Okta beats by $0.09, beats on revs; guides Q3 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus; guides FY24 EPS above consensus, revs above consensus

4:05 PM ET 8/30/23 | Briefing.com

Reports Q2 (Jul) earnings of $0.31 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.09 better than the FactSet Consensus of $0.22;

- revenues rose 23.0% year/year to $556 mln vs the $534.67 mln FactSet Consensus.Current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) grew 18% year-over-year to $1.77 billion.

-Co issues upside guidance for Q3 (Oct), sees EPS of 0.29-0.30, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.20 FactSet Consensus;

- sees Q3 revs of 558-560 vs. $552.86 mln FactSet Consensus.

- Co issues upside guidance for FY24 (Jan), sees EPS of 1.17-1.20 (up from $0.88-0.93), excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.91 FactSet Consensus;

- sees FY24 revs of 2.207-2.215 (up from $2.175-2.185 bln) vs. $2.18 bln FactSet Consensus. 

Block Company Overview

Block, Inc. is a commerce ecosystem. The Company enables its sellers start, run and grow their businesses. It combines software with hardware to enable sellers to turn mobile devices and computing devices into payments and point-of-sale solutions. Once a seller downloads the Square Point of Sale mobile application, they can take their first payment. With its offering, a seller can accept payments in person via magnetic stripe (a swipe), Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) (a dip), or Near Field Communication (NFC) (a tap); or online via Square Invoices, Square Virtual Terminal, or the seller's Website. Once on its system, sellers gain access to technology and features, such as reporting and analytics, next-day settlements, digital receipts, payment dispute management and chargeback protection, and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. On the consumer (buyer) side, Square Cash offers individuals access to a way to send and receive money.

Company Contact

Headquarters

1455 Market Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94103

Invested 7/22/2019

@ 78.75

 (2nd Portfolio JPM CHASE IRA) 

Up + 162.23% in 2nd portfolio.

*DJ Square Acquires Australias Afterpay for $29 Billion -- Barrons.com

6:51 PM ET 8/1/21 | Dow Jones

MULN Company Overview

Mullen Automotive, Inc., formerly Net Element, Inc., incorporated on February 10, 2012, electric vehicle company. The Company is engaged in providing electric vehicle (EV) options built in the United States and made to fit perfectly into the American consumer’s life. The Company operates in various verticals of businesses focused within the automotive industry. The Company owns some synergistic businesses including CarHub, a digital platform that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to offer an interactive solution for buying, selling and owning a car and Mullen Energy, a division focused on advancing battery technology and emergency point-of-care solutions. The Company's products and services includes Mullen 5 and 3D10. Mullen 5 represents Mullen Automotive entry into the full-electric, mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle (SUV) market. 3D10 is expected to be the second vehicle for Mullen Automotive. 3D10 will be offered as a full-electric and will be in the full-size SUV segment.

Headquarters

3363 NE 163rd St Ste 705
North Miami Beach, FL
33160-4436

Invested 6/15/2020

@ 9.603

DATI Company Overview

Digital Asset Monetary Network Inc., formerly Digital Arts Media Network, Inc., establishes, develops and acquires both disruptive and sustainable innovations that solve global problems in the digital communications space. The Company leverages solutions that focus on the use, delivery, and access of communications in mobile, media and online technological platforms. The Company is engaged in investing in entrepreneurial teams that develop disruptive innovations. The Company provides early development-stage companies with professional advice from industry leaders, functional coaching, venture capital readiness and other mentorship opportunities. The Company aligns with private accelerators and incubators to provide execution on business models, establish traction from launch, create and meet deliverable time tables, and organize funding pools.

Company Contact

Headquarters

3265 Johnson Ave Ste 213
Bronx, NY 10463-3539.

Invested 7/22/2020

@ .11995

Added to investment 6/30/2021

@.2799 

*DigitalAMN Finalizes Onboarding of Mail-In Ballot Specialist, Global Election Services Inc.

8:11 AM ET 8/18/20 | Dow Jones

 -- Roughly $10B in virtually untapped market potential for vote by mail

("Universal Mail-In Voting" or "VBM") and In-Person voting in

governmental elections in both the U.S. and across the globe.