Plurilock Security Inc. (TSX-V:PLUR) has published its results for the fourth quarter and 12 months to December 31, 2021, which revealed strong revenue growth boosted by the acquisition of ASC during the period.
Separately, the company also announced the appointment of Jennifer Swindell to its board of directors.
Plurilock said its full-year revenue totalled $36.62 million, compared to $479,329 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The sharp increase in revenue was primarily due to the solutions division revenue generated from the ASC acquisition on March 31, 2021, the company said.
"During the fourth quarter, Plurilock demonstrated strong sales growth, which resulted in the company ending fiscal 2021 with a total annual revenue of approximately C$36.6 million," said Ian L Paterson, CEO of Plurilock in a statement.
READ: Plurilock Security says Aurora Systems Consulting subsidiary wins purchase order from California pension fund for its DEFEND solution
"During the year, we executed on multiple growth initiatives, including expanding our product portfolio, completing our $4.6 million 'bought deal' financing and most notably, advancing our active M&A program. Into 2022, our focus will be to extend our sales pipeline further and complete more high-margin proprietary software sales. We aim to continue executing on our stated strategy of acquiring profitable cybersecurity companies with great customers, that can improve our operating margins and open new distribution channels for cross-selling our software products," Patterson added.
Plurilock noted that hardware sales totaled $33.54 million last year, accounting for 91.2% of total revenue. It is a new revenue stream that was added following the acquisition of ASC.
Adjusted EBITDA showed a loss of $4.32 million in 2021 compared to a loss of $2.21 million in the prior year.
Plurilock had cash and cash equivalents of $9.46 million as at end-2021, up from $1.72 million a year earlier.
The company highlighted that cyber attacks are already growing in 2022, with the first quarter marking the third consecutive year that data breaches increased when compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Phishing and ransomware attacks remain the top threats, it said.
"These growing numbers underscore the importance of organizations investing in innovative, zero trust identity solutions to protect networks and assets," Plurilock said.
It noted that the US federal government has taken "significant steps" toward bolstering its cybersecurity infrastructure, with a January 2022 memo from the Office of Management and Budget announcing that the government would be implementing a federal zero trust strategy, with implementation milestones taking effect by FY2024.
Board appointment
In a separate statement, Plurilock noted that new board member Swindell has over 25 years of strategic business development and risk assessment experience.
Swindell last served as the senior vice president and general manager of Perspecta’s Trusted Solutions Group, where she led corporate strategic initiatives and provided life-cycle security services support for US government agencies within the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.
Previously, she worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for 19 years, rising from Associate to Senior Vice President in increasingly larger roles serving Defense, Homeland Security and Law enforcement agencies.
Swindell also served in the US Navy as a Special Operations Officer and is currently an advisory board member for Toffler Associates, Inc.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wesleyan University, an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and attended Executive Education classes in Strategy and Innovation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Business.
“We are excited to announce that Jennifer Swindell, who is a seasoned business development executive that has worked with or served in the US government and military, has joined Plurilock’s board of directors,” said Robert Kiesman, chairman of Plurilock.
“Her extensive experience in scaling high impact teams at the intersection of government and commercial national security interests is a key addition to the Plurilock board. Jennifer brings a successful track record of more than 25 years of transformational leadership experience, and we will benefit from her guidance as we further grow the Plurilock family of companies to become a leader in the zero trust identity space," he added.
Plurilock has granted Swindell an option to purchase an aggregate of 300,000 common shares at an exercise price of $0.26 per share, which will vest over three years from the grant date. The stock options are granted for a ten-year term from April 29, 2022.
Non-binding Letter of Intent
Plurilock also announced that on April 4, 2022, its subsidiary, Aurora Systems Consulting Inc, entered into a non-binding letter of intent to acquire all net assets from a regional USA-based IT & cybersecurity company.
Closing of the acquisition is subject to the negotiation and entering into a definitive agreement, the receipt of all applicable approvals and the satisfaction or waiver of all closing conditions.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com