IZEA Reports Q4 2024 Revenue of $11.0 million, up 24%

ORLANDO, Fla., March 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: IZEA), a leading influencer marketing company that makes Creator Economy solutions for marketers, reported its financial and operational results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024.

Q4 2024 Financial Summary Compared to Q4 2023

• Total revenue increased 23.7% to $11.0 million, compared to $8.9 million
• Managed Services bookings increased 52.8% to $11.7 million, compared to $7.6 million
• Managed Services revenue increased 24.0% to $10.9 million, compared to $8.8 million
• Total costs and expenses increased 28.0% to $14.2 million, compared to $11.1 million
• Net loss was $4.6 million, including $2.7 million of one-time charges, compared to a net loss of $1.5 million
• Adjusted EBITDA* for the quarter was $(1.5) million, compared to $(1.1) million
• Cash, cash equivalents, and investments as of December 31, 2024 totaled $51.1 million

Q4 2024 Highlights

• Targeted workforce reductions save $5.1 million in full-time and contract labor annually
• Divestiture of Hoozu investment; $3.4 million in 2024 revenue, $0.7 million annual net loss, cash negative
• Won new business from Academy Sports, NHTSA, and Navy Federal Credit Union
• Produced new work for Warner Bros.' Superman film, Vital Proteins, and Danone, surpassing performance goals
• Recruited Kerry Griffin, Chief Talent Officer, to enhance talent programs to attract, retain and develop top talent

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FY 2024 Financial Summary Compared to FY 2023

• Total revenue was $35.9 million, compared to $36.2 million
• Net loss was $18.9 million, including $8 million in one-time charges, compared to a net loss of $7.4 million
• Adjusted EBITDA* was $(8.6) million, compared to $(5.5) million

* Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. Refer to the definition and reconciliation of this measure under "Use of Key Metrics and Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”

Management Commentary

"We saw another healthy increase in Managed Services bookings and revenue in Q4,” commented Patrick Venetucci, CEO. "A transformational change is happening at IZEA. We took swift action in Q4 to fortify, simplify and focus our operations. The changes that we made to our cost structure, go-to-market model and technologies are accelerating our path to profitability.”

Q4 2024 Financial Results

Total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024 increased 23.7% to $11.0 million, compared to $8.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. Revenue from Managed Services increased by 24.0% to $10.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Revenue from SaaS Services increased by 5.7% to $117,423 in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.

Cost of revenue increased to $6.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, or 62.2% of revenue, compared to $4.7 million, or 53.1%, in the prior-year quarter. The nominal cost increase is due to higher revenues in the recent quarter, while the percentage cost increase was driven by lower average margins from our ongoing customer base.

Costs and expenses other than the cost of revenue totaled $7.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, $1.0 million or 15.3% above the prior-year quarter. Sales and marketing costs were $3.0 million during the fourth quarter of 2024, $0.4 million or 14.2% higher than the prior-year quarter. This increase was primarily driven by higher compensation costs and increased spending on general contractors, partially offset by lower advertising expenses. General and administrative costs totaled $3.7 million during the quarter, remaining nearly flat with a $0.1 million, or 3.8%, increase compared to the prior-year quarter. Severance and contract cancellation costs of $1.3 million reflected in total costs and expenses is related to our targeted workforce reductions, which represent approximately $5.1 million in annualized cost savings.

Net loss in the fourth quarter of 2024 was $4.6 million, or $(0.27) per share, as compared to a net loss of $1.5 million, or $(0.09) per share in the fourth quarter of 2023, based on 17.0 million and 16.4 million average shares outstanding, respectively.

Adjusted EBITDA (as defined below, a non-GAAP measure management uses as a proxy for operating cash flow) totaled $(1.5) million in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with $(1.1) million in the comparative period. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024 was a loss of 13% compared to a loss of 12% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

As of December 31, 2024, our cash, cash equivalents, and investments totaled $51.1 million. The company has no outstanding long-term debt.

We previously announced our commitment to repurchase up to $10.0 million of our stock in the open market, subject to certain restrictions. During the fourth quarter of 2024, we purchased a total of 199,011 shares at an average share price of $2.71 under our program for an aggregate investment of $0.5 million. Through March 25th, 2025, we've purchased 385,947 shares, investing $1.0 million under the program.

Conference Call

IZEA will hold a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter 2024 results on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. IZEA's CEO Patrick Venetucci and CFO Peter Biere will host the call, followed by a question and answer period.

Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025

Time: 5:00 p.m. EDT

Toll-free dial-in number: 1-877-407-4018

International dial-in number: 1-201-689-8471

Please call the conference telephone number five (5) minutes before the start time. An operator will register your name and organization. A call replay will be made available approximately 3 hours after the conference ends until Thursday, April 3, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Toll-free replay number: 1-844-512-2921

International replay number: 1-412-317-6671

Replay ID: 13751682

About IZEA Worldwide, Inc.

IZEA Worldwide, Inc. ("IZEA”), is an influencer marketing company with a mission to make creator economy solutions for marketers. We do this by lighting up the Creator Economy with IZEAs-our strategies, campaigns, and solutions that build brands and drive demand. Since launching the industry's first-ever influencer marketing platform in 2006, IZEA has facilitated nearly 4 million collaborations between brands and creators.

Use of Key Metrics and Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Managed Services bookings measure all sales orders received during a period less cancellations received, or refunds given during the same period. Sales order contracts vary in complexity with each customer and range from custom content delivery to integrated marketing services; our contracts generally run from several months for smaller contracts to twelve months for larger contracts. We recognize revenue from our Managed Services contracts based on a percentage of completion basis as we deliver the content or services over time, which can vary greatly from a few weeks to a year. For this reason, Managed Services bookings, while an overall indicator of the health of our business, may not be used to predict quarterly revenues and could be subject to future adjustments.

Managed Services bookings is a useful metric as it reflects the amount of orders received in one period, even though revenue may be reflected over time. Management uses the Managed Services bookings metric to plan its operating staff, identify key customer group trends, enlighten go-to-market activities, and inform its product development efforts.

"Adjusted EBITDA" is a non-GAAP financial measure under the Securities and Exchange Commission rules. EBITDA is commonly defined as "earnings before interest income and expense, taxes, depreciation, and amortization." IZEA defines "Adjusted EBITDA” as earnings or loss before interest expense, interest income, taxes, depreciation and amortization, non-cash stock-based compensation, gain or loss on asset disposals or impairment, and certain other unusual or non-cash income and expense items such as gains or losses on settlement of liabilities and exchanges, and changes in the fair value of derivatives, if applicable.

We believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors as it primarily excludes non-cash and non-operating transactions, and it provides consistency to facilitate period-to-period comparisons.

All companies do not calculate bookings and Adjusted EBITDA in the same manner. These metrics and financial measures, as presented by IZEA, may not be comparable to those presented by other companies. Moreover, these metrics and financial measures have limitations as analytical tools. You should not consider them in isolation or as a substitute for an analysis of our results of operations or, with respect to non-GAAP financial measures, as reported under GAAP. A reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is presented in the financial tables included in this press release.

Safe Harbor Statement

All statements in this release that are not based on historical fact are "forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies, and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "may,” "will,” "would,” "could,” "should,” "expect,” "anticipate,” "hope,” "estimate,” "optimistic,” "believe,” "intend,” "ought to,” "likely," "projects," "plans,” "pursue," "strategy" or "future," or the negative of these words or other words or expressions of similar meaning. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding expectations concerning product development and platform launches, future financial performance and operating results, including regarding recognition of bookings as revenues, the share repurchase authorization and any use of such authorization, growth, or maintenance of customer relationships, and expectations concerning IZEA's business strategy. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, among others, the following: competitive conditions in the content and social sponsorship segment in which IZEA operates; failure to popularize one or more of the marketplace platforms of IZEA; our ability to maintain disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting; our ability to satisfy the requirements for continued listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market; changing economic conditions that are less favorable than expected; and other risks and uncertainties described in IZEA's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements made in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and IZEA assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results or changes in expectations, except as otherwise required by law.

Press Contact

Matt Gray

IZEA Worldwide, Inc.

Phone: 407-674-6911

Email: [email protected]