Eye-tracking and facial recognition specialist Seeing Machines Limited (LON:SEE) has told investors it expects to beat market expectations when it reports its full-year results next month.
For the 12 months ended 30 June, the Australia-based, London-listed group generated total revenues “in excess of” A$13mln. That’s more than double what it posted last year on a like-for-like basis.
Pleasingly for investors, revenue momentum had accelerated throughout the year with second half sales more than 250% ahead of those achieved in the first six months of the year.
Cash and cash equivalents totalled A$22mln at the end of June, which was also ahead of expectations.
Guardian fleet business the key driver
The key growth driver was its Guardian fleet business – an in-cab driver fatigue monitoring technology – which grew sales by more than 250% year-on-year.
That sizeable increase at the top line was due in part to several new distributor agreements signed in the period, including ones with companies in the US, Asia Pacific and New Zealand.
Seeing added that it had booked more new multi-year contracts during the year, taking the tally of total contract value – “a key metric for fleet growth” – to AU$36.5mln at the end of the period (2016: A$7.9mln).
‘Robust growth’ in automotive
The company’s automotive business – home to its Fovio driver monitoring system (DMS) – also enjoyed “robust growth” last year.
Sales grew by 50% year-on-year, with revenues coming from both development payments from awarded programs, as well as from ‘leading’ original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 firms.
In fact, Seeing Machines has a deal with a ‘major’ original equipment manufacturer (OEM) which is due to launch the world’s first ‘hands-free’ semi-autonomous car with integrated DMS later this year.
The company is also “deeply engaged” with several other OEMs as well as expanding ecosystem of Tier 1 partners.
To date Seeing has secured sourcing contracts for eight production vehicle models with a “strong and growing” pipeline of OEM program opportunities in the next 12 to 18 months for mass production starts in 2019/2020.
Boss hails 'strong year'
“We are confident that our leading technology platform being adopted by our rapidly growing customer base will continue to fuel our growth,” said chief executive Mike McAuliffe, who was appointed to the role last September.
“It has been a break-through growth year for the fleet business which achieved widespread market recognition of the effectiveness of our pioneering Guardian solution.
“We are excited by our product progress and market reception to our leading Fovio DMS platform in the rapidly developing automotive market and the developing engagements with market leaders in aviation and rail.”
McAuliffe added: “We are building the Go-To company for full-stack DMS solutions, eye-tracking solutions and more broadly vision AI (artificial intelligence) human sensing and assistance solutions - which we believe will deliver exceptional growth and long-term value creation.”
Big markets for Seeing Machines to attack
US carmaker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been working on semi-autonomous vehicles – cars that can, to a greater or lesser extent, drive themselves – for a little while now and other big players are also entering the fray.
Seeing Machines expects this shift towards driverless cars over the coming years to drive demand for its Fovio DMS technology.
Market projections are for the automotive DMS (OEM and Aftermarket) addressable market opportunity for Seeing Machines to exceed A$1bn a year by 2024.
There’s a sizeable potential market for the group to attack in the fleet side of its business, too.
Market studies project the annual addressable market opportunity for fleet will exceed A$1.5bn within five years, with Seeing Machines “recognised as the pioneer in this market”.
Unsurprisingly, shares soared at the opening bell on Tuesday; up 8.3% to 3.2p.
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