Wishpond Provides Corporate Update on the Completed Integration of its Viral Loops Acquisition and Resulting Growth

Rhea-AI Summary

Wishpond Technologies Ltd. (OTCQX: WPNDF) announced growth in revenue and customer base following the integration of its subsidiary, Viral Loops Technologies Inc. Since the acquisition in April 2022, Viral Loops has utilized Wishpond's sales strategies and cross-selling opportunities, enhancing its marketing solutions. Wishpond granted 1.7 million incentive awards, including stock options and performance shares, to encourage growth. The company highlights a robust marketing stack through viral referral software, further improving customer acquisition and marketing efficiency.

Positive

• Viral Loops is witnessing revenue and customer growth since its acquisition.
• Integration allows greater sales potential through cross-selling and bundling.
• Viral Loops has expanded its offerings with new integrations like Adobe Marketo Engage.
• Wishpond's Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is expected to increase.

Negative

• Potential risks associated with the integration process may affect growth.
• Reliance on inbound traffic for customer acquisition remains a concern.

• Viral Loops is experiencing revenue growth due to expanding its sales capacity and from cross-selling and bundling opportunities with new and existing Wishpond customers.
• Wishpond also announces the grant of incentive stock options, restricted stock units and performance share units under the Company's Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan.

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Wishpond Technologies Ltd. (TSXV: WISH) (OTCQX: WPNDF) (the "Company" or "Wishpond"), a provider of marketing-focused online business solutions, is pleased to announce it has completed the integration of its recently acquired subsidiary, Viral Loops Technologies Inc. ("Viral Loops"), resulting in improving growth in the combined businesses due to greater cross selling and bundling opportunities with larger deal sizes. Viral Loops is witnessing increasing revenue and customer growth since being acquired by Wishpond in April 2022.

Ali Tajskandar, Chairman and CEO of Wishpond commented, "Integrating Viral Loops with Wishpond has been an incredibly exciting opportunity for us. Our ability to offer Viral Loops to our clients has been extremely valuable, as the platform offers a perfect synergy with Wishpond's existing solutions. We can't wait for more of our clients to start tapping into Viral Loops' potential to grow their businesses. We expect that incorporating Viral Loops products into Wishpond's already-proven sales strategy will allow us to maintain strong growth from the platform. Wishpond is well positioned to accelerate its future growth with the help of Viral Loops."

Viral Loops is a referral marketing software platform that helps companies acquire new customers and increase sales through the power of word-of-mouth and referral marketing. Viral Loops now helps more than 800 customers unlock their viral growth through powerful referral marketing solutions. It allows businesses to design, create and manage referral programs that reinforce customer loyalty, attract new customers and decrease customer acquisition costs. Viral Loops provides its customers with customizable templates for referral marketing campaigns where customers can refer various products within their network in exchange for rewards.

Wishpond now offers Viral Loops products to Wishpond's customers, allowing Viral Loops to reach a larger customer base while increasing the value of Wishpond's bundled packages and the Company's Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). Wishpond's customers benefit from having access to a wider range of solutions to grow their online business.

The completed integration of Viral Loops with the Wishpond platform allows contacts and data to be synchronized between Viral Loops and Wishpond, enabling Wishpond customers to grow their business with referrals and Viral Loops customers to use Wishpond's platform for their marketing activities. Hence, Viral Loops is able to offer sales packages that include Wishpond's products, providing a variety of online marketing solutions previously unavailable to Viral Loops' customers.

"Viral Loops has traditionally relied on inbound traffic to acquire new customers, but we've now been able to combine our strong organic inbound marketing channel with Wishpond's outbound sales engine to boost revenue growth", commented Dimitris Tzortzis, General Manager of Viral Loops. "Viral Loops is fortunate that it is able to tap into the sales processes and bench strength of Wishpond, adopting its proven sales practices for lead prospecting, sales development and sales pipeline management".

Viral Loops has completed additional new integrations and enhancements that have further contributed to its revenue growth. For example, Viral Loops released a new integration with the Adobe Marketo Engage email marketing automation platform. This allows Viral Loops to be seamlessly integrated in the marketing stack of customers who are using Adobe Marketo Engage and want to grow their subscriber base with referrals.

Viral Loops is also leveraging Wishpond's shared account management services that allow Wishpond to provide Viral Loops with an enhanced sales team and services which will provide more growth opportunities for small businesses. Viral Loops has also optimized its pricing plans, introduced new packages and optimized website sign up processes to increase inbound conversion rates.

Viral Loops' proprietary technology tracks and manages the effectiveness and results of the referral program and enables customers to manage the distribution of the rewards and discounts arising from the campaign. Most recently, a financial services company successfully launched its new fintech mobile app in the US market by using Viral Loops, achieving 30% growth through referrals from early adopters.

Grant of Incentive Awards

Wishpond also announced the grant of 75,000 incentive stock options ("Options"), 475,000 restricted stock units ("RSUs") and 1,150,000 performance share units ("PSUs") (together, the "Awards") under the Company's Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan ("Plan") to certain directors and officers, employees, contractors and investor relations advisors to purchase an aggregate of up to 1,700,000 shares in the capital of the Company. The Options were granted effective September 30, 2022 and the RSUs and PSUs were granted effective October 1, 2022 ("Grant Date").  A summary of the Awards granted is as follows:

• An aggregate of 200,000 RSUs were granted to certain directors and officers of the Company, with the balance 275,000 RSUs granted to employees and contractors of the Company. The RSUs vest over two years, with 50% of the RSUs vesting on the first anniversary of the Grant Date and the remaining RSUs vesting in four equal installments over the next four quarters.
• An aggregate of 1,150,000 PSUs were granted to certain officers of the Company. The PSUs vest on the one-year anniversary of the Grant Date based on the achievement of certain specific performance metrics approved by the board of directors of the Company (the "Board").
• An aggregate of 75,000 Options were granted to Angad Capital Inc., a provider of corporate strategy, capital markets advisory and investor relations services to Wishpond, to purchase an aggregate of 75,000 common shares in the capital of the Company at an exercise price of $0.70 per share. The Options are granted pursuant to the Plan and will vest quarterly over twelve months in accordance with the provisions therein and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange.

WISHPOND TECHNOLOGIES LTD. 
On Behalf of the Board
Per: "Ali Tajskandar"
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

About Wishpond Technologies Ltd.

Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Wishpond is a provider of marketing-focused online business solutions. Wishpond's vision is to become the leading provider of digital marketing solutions that empower entrepreneurs to achieve success online. The Company offers an "all-in-one" marketing suite that provides companies with marketing, promotion, lead generation, and sales conversion capabilities on one integrated platform. Wishpond replaces disparate marketing solutions with an easy-to-use product, for a fraction of the cost. Wishpond serves over 4,000 customers who are primarily small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in a wide variety of industries. The Company has developed cutting-edge marketing technology solutions and continues to add new features and applications with great velocity. The Company employs a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model where substantially all the Company's revenue is subscription-based recurring revenue which provides excellent revenue predictability and cash flow visibility. Wishpond is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker "WISH", and on the OTCQX Best Market under the ticker "WPNDF". For further information, visit:  www.wishpond.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements ("forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "intends", "will", "should", "expects", "continue", "estimate", "forecasts" and other similar expressions. Forward looking statements in this news release include statements about Wishpond's expected growth from the acquisition and integration of Viral Loops, statements regarding the business, operations, financial outlook and performance and operations of Viral Loops, and statements regarding anticipated financial results. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and Wishpond's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information, including: (i) geopolitical risks; (ii) macroeconomic, inflationary and interest rate risks; (iii) COVID-19 and related pandemic risks; (iv) difficulties and delays associated with integrating and growing the Viral Loops business; (v) foreign operations risks; (vi) other factors beyond the control of the Company; and (vii) risks outlined in Wishpond's publicly filed documents available on SEDAR. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.  Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to comment analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of the Company, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking information in this press release are reasonable,  such forward-looking information has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control, including, but not limited to, the risk factors discussed in the public disclosure documents of the Company which such risk factors are incorporated herein by reference and are available through SEDAR  at  www.sedar.com.  The forward-looking information contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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SOURCE Wishpond Technologies Ltd.

FAQ

What is the significance of the Viral Loops acquisition for Wishpond?

The acquisition enhances Wishpond's revenue growth through improved sales strategies and cross-selling opportunities.

How much revenue growth has Viral Loops achieved since being acquired by Wishpond?

Viral Loops has reported increasing revenue since its acquisition in April 2022.

What incentive stock options has Wishpond granted following the acquisition?

Wishpond granted 1.7 million incentive stock options, including RSUs and PSUs, to align employee performance with company growth.

What is the impact of Viral Loops on Wishpond's Average Revenue Per User?

The integration with Viral Loops is expected to increase Wishpond's Average Revenue Per User due to bundled offerings.

What challenges does Wishpond face after integrating Viral Loops?

Challenges include potential integration risks and reliance on inbound traffic for new customer acquisition.