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Certifications and Accreditations
As an independent ad server, Innovid is deeply invested in ensuring the accuracy of our ad delivery and measurement on behalf of our clients. Proactive publisher certification prior to campaign launch can significantly reduce the number of data discrepancies and/or errors with the rendering of tags.
Innovid’s publisher certification process is supported via a dedicated certification team that maintains a database of thousands of publishers, networks, and exchanges. The process is made up of both a functional and discrepancy test to ensure all ads are rendered at their highest possible quality, all pixels are firing correctly, and reporting is as expected. Our team certifies publishers pre-campaign, verifying compliance with Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and MRC standards. When ads are uploaded to our platform our system automatically references Innovid’s publisher certification database. Our automatic encoding engine then instantly resizes ads to individual publisher specs, from a single asset, to meet the requirements for each partner on a media plan.
Innovid also holds industry-leading MRC accreditations, a common standard for media transacting with leading advertisers, spanning CTV, video and display ad formats. The MRC establishes industry standards for valid, reliable and effective media measurement. Innovid has been accredited with the MRC since 2013 for impressions and viewable impressions on desktops, mobile webs, and mobile apps. In 2018, the MRC granted Innovid the first ever MRC accreditation for OTT video ad impression measurement, cementing an important milestone in the industry’s ongoing evolution in this space. As a result of this accreditation, Innovid’s accredited metrics and methodologies have been independently vetted by the MRC to confirm they are valid, reliable and effective.
Customers
During 2021 Innovid served as the ad delivery platform for over 50% of the top 200 TV advertisers in the US including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kellogg’s, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and many more, with such clients representing key verticals we serve and Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kellogg’s and Volvo each a core client (brand/advertiser). Our clients are comprised of the largest TV advertisers, with the majority of our customers typically coming from large global enterprises. We define a customer as an entity that generates revenue during a certain period of time. A single organization with multiple divisions, segments or subsidiaries is treated as a single customer, even though we may enter into commercial agreements with multiple parties within that organization.
We define a core client as an advertiser that generates at least $100,000 of annual revenue. Looking at our core clients on an annual basis and presenting related metrics only on an annual basis rather than also on an interim basis helps us avoid overstating or understating the importance of certain customers to our overall business based on their spending in any particular period. We also believe analyzing customers and revenue retention on an annual basis allows investors to better evaluate the long-term performance of our business.
We have a history of strong growth in our core client base. Together our core clients typically generated more than 80% of our annual revenue from 2019 through 2021, demonstrating our continued focus on large enterprise customers.
The number of advertisers that generated more than $100,000 of annual revenue has increased sequentially year-over-year, driven by our existing customers’ retention as a result of their continued success using our solutions and the growing adoption of our business platform by existing customers for additional use cases. Additionally, we experienced growth in the number of new advertiser customers that contributed more than $100,000 of revenue.
Our clients are diversified across all major industry verticals, including consumer packaged goods, pharmaceutical and healthcare, financial services, automotive and technology. No single advertiser accounted for more than 14% of our revenue in 2021, with such advertisers representing brands that contract with us directly, or through third party agencies and publishers, or some combination thereof.
Competition
We primarily compete with Google, specifically their technology platforms and digital content monetization services. While the markets we serve are highly competitive and rapidly evolving, most of our competitors offer point solutions that represent a subset of the solutions that are available on our business platform. Additional competitors include vendors focused on DCO; we also compete with advertising measurement point solutions.
Our industry faces the following competitive dynamics:
•the ability to reach and engage with viewers in CTV environments enabled through exclusive premium publisher partnerships and proprietary SDK technology;
•the ability to holistically manage the personalization and delivery of ads dynamically across all addressable formats and channels;
•the ability to automate the ad delivery workflow to reduce rejection rates and decrease manual resources required to deliver TV and other digital ads into addressable environments;
•the ability to provide unified and consistent MRC-accredited measurement of digital ads across all available formats and channels;
•the ability to innovate and adapt product offerings to emerging addressable media technologies and offer products that meet changing customer needs;
•the ability to support large, global customers and develop and maintain complex integrations with key partners across the advertising ecosystem;
•the ability to achieve and maintain industry accreditations; and
•the ability to collect advertising data across platforms and provide independent measurement to our customers.
Talent and Culture
Employees
As of December 31, 2021, we had 396 full time employees across 9 offices in 5 countries, with 138 employees in research and development and related activities. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented changes that we determined were in the best interest of our employees and the communities in which we operate, and which comply with government regulations. This includes enabling the vast majority of our employees to work from home, while implementing additional safety measures for employees continuing on-site work where legally possible.
Talent Acquisition and Development
We are focused on recruiting and retaining talented employees across the organization, with a particular focus on unique talent in CTV, product, analytics and many other areas that are critical to our success. We continue to invest to hire and retain top talent in all of our offices. We were named to Inc. magazine’s annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Innovid was also named by Inc. as a winner in the Established Excellence: 5-14 years in business category. Our strong reputation has contributed to over 10,000 candidates applying to work at Innovid in 2021. For new hires, we have a robust onboarding program tailored towards individual roles and responsibilities. On an ongoing basis, we invest in training and development programs that help our employees achieve their career goals and build management skills. We have two formal career feedback discussions per year where managers and their employees discuss progress and feedback for each other. We believe in developing and promoting top talent from within: in 2021, one out of every five of our employees was offered an opportunity for career advancement within the company.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Innovid is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.
Innovid’s policies are applicable, but not limited, to our practices and policies on recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, professional development and training, promotions, transfers, social and recreational programs, layoffs, terminations, and the ongoing development of a work environment built on the premise of diversity equity and inclusion that encourages and enforces:
•Respectful communication and cooperation among all employees;
•Teamwork and employee participation, permitting the representation of all individuals and employee perspectives;
•Work/life balance through flexible work schedules to accommodate employees’ varying needs; and
•Contributions to the communities we serve to promote a greater understanding and respect for diversity, equity and inclusion.
All employees of Innovid have a responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect at all times. All employees deserve a work environment free from all forms of discrimination. Innovid similarly prohibits retaliation against employees who file complaints under this policy or who participate in complaint investigations. Any employee found to have exhibited any inappropriate conduct or behavior against others may be subject to disciplinary action. Employees who believe they have been subjected to any kind of discrimination are required to advise HR, their department’s VP or a member of the management team.
Innovid’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion achieved measurable results in 2021. New U.S employees hired during 2021 were 49% BIPOC and 49% women. Existing employee promotions across 2021 were granted to women 49% of the time globally and Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) employees 30% of the time in the US. Additionally several other diversity-focused initiatives including behaviors of inclusion training, compensation audits and a paid internship program were implemented during calendar year 2021.
Regulatory Matters
Data Privacy and Data Protection Laws
Data privacy and data protection legislation and regulation play a significant role in our business. We and our clients use personal data about internet users collected through our platform to manage and execute digital advertising campaigns in a variety of ways, including delivering advertisements to internet users based on their particular geographic locations, the type of device they are using, or their interests as inferred from their web browsing or app usage activity. We do not use this data to further identify specific individuals, and we do not seek to associate this data with information that can be used to further identify specific individuals. We take all required steps to comply with applicable data protection and privacy laws, including encryption of personal data and deletion of personal data upon request and automatically after one year. The definitions of personally identifiable information, personal information, personal data and similar terms, however, vary by jurisdiction and are evolving. As a result, our platform and business practices must be assessed regularly in each jurisdiction where we do business to avoid violating applicable legislation and regulation.
Data Privacy Regulation in the US
In the United States, at both the federal and state level, there are laws that govern activities such as the collection and use of data by companies. At the federal level, online advertising activities are subject to regulation by the FTC, which has primarily relied upon Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits companies from engaging in “unfair” or “deceptive” trade practices, including alleged violations of representations concerning privacy protections and acts that allegedly violate individuals’ privacy interests. There are also other data privacy laws that apply. For example, we send marketing emails and are therefore subject to the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, or the CAN SPAM Act, which established specific requirements for commercial email messages, specifies penalties for the transmission of commercial email messages that are intended to deceive the recipient as to source or content, and obligates, among other things, the sender of commercial emails to provide recipients with the ability to opt out of receiving future commercial emails from the sender.
There has been increased regulation of data privacy and security in the United States, particularly at the state level. Some proposed and newly enacted legislation at state level has affected and will continue to affect, our operations and those of our industry partners. For example, the CCPA, which came into effect in January 2020, defines “personal information” broadly enough to include online identifiers provided by individuals’ devices, such as IP addresses, and establishes a new privacy framework for covered businesses. The CCPA expanded privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of California and imposes more stringent obligations on companies regarding the level of information and control they provide to users about the collection and sharing of their data. Moreover, the CPRA, was approved by California voters in November 2020 and will further modify and expand the CCPA, including by expanding consumers’ rights with respect to certain personal information and creating a new state agency to oversee implementation and enforcement efforts. The CPRA will come into effect on January 1, 2023. Further, Virginia has adopted a new state data protection act referred to as the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, which is also set to take effect on January 1, 2023. Additionally, Colorado has adopted a new state data protection act titled the Colorado Privacy Act, which is set to take effect on July 1, 2023.
Data Privacy Regulation in Europe
Our business activities are also subject to foreign legislation and regulation. In the EEA, separate laws and regulations (and member states’ implementations thereof) govern the processing of personal data, and these laws and regulations continue to impact us. Like the CCPA, the EEA GDPR, defines “personal data” broadly, and it significantly enhances data protection obligations for controllers of such data and for service providers, called “processors,” processing the data. It also provides certain rights, such as access and deletion, to the individuals about whom the personal data relates and we have adapted our services to accommodate such rights. We are subject to the EEA GDPR and also the UK GDPR, which, together with the amended UK Data Protection Act 2018, retains the GDPR in UK national law. The UK GDPR mirrors the fines under the GDPR, e.g. fines up to the greater of €20 million / £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover. The European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision in favor of the United Kingdom, enabling data transfers from EU member states to the United Kingdom without additional safeguards. However, the UK adequacy decision will automatically expire in June 2025 unless the European Commission re-assesses and renews/ extends that decision, and remains under review by the Commission during this period. The relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU in relation to certain aspects of data protection law remains unclear, and it is unclear how UK data protection laws and regulations will develop in the medium to longer term, and how data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated in the long term. These changes will lead to additional costs and increase our overall risk exposure.
In any event, we are subject to laws, rules, and regulations regarding cross-border transfers of personal data, including laws relating to the transfer of personal data outside the EEA and the UK. For the transfer of personal data from the EEA to the US, we rely upon direct contractual agreements between Innovid’s US corporate entity and our customers. These contractual agreements obligate Innovid’s US operations to uphold adequate data protection measures (appropriate safeguards, enforceable data subject rights, and effective legal remedies for data subjects) on all data that Innovid transfers to the US from the EEA or UK on its own behalf and on behalf of its clients and partners. Recent legal developments in the EEA and the UK have created complexity and uncertainty regarding transfers of personal information from the EEA and the UK to “third countries,” especially the United States. For example, a recent decision of the Court of Justice of the EU invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework (a mechanism for the transfer of personal information from the EEA to the US) and made clear that reliance on standard contractual clauses (another mechanism for the transfer of personal data outside the EEA) may not be sufficient, on their own, to provide appropriate safeguards for transfers of personal data from the EU to the United States (and other non-EEA countries). In addition, in June 2021, the European Commission implemented new versions of the Standard Contractual Clauses, under which parties transferring personal data from the EEA to third countries with “inadequate data protection” such as the US will have until December 27, 2022 to update any existing agreements, or any new agreements executed before September 27, 2021, that rely on Standard Contractual Clauses as the data transfer mechanism. The new Standard Contractual Clauses apply only to the transfer of data outside of the EEA and not the U.K., though in August 2021 the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Officer launched a public consultation on it proposals for its own form of agreement and addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses either of which could be used for transfers for data from the U.K. Companies that engage in these transfers, like Innovid, need to undertake data transfer risk assessments and implement any “supplementary measures” necessary to address any risks identified in order to ensure that the data they transfer continues to be protected to a standard that is essentially equivalent with the GDPR. We currently rely on standard contractual clauses and these changes are therefore causing us to review our current compliance approach and may result in additional compliance costs or the inability to transfer personal data outside of the EEA and/or the United Kingdom. As supervisory authorities issue further guidance on personal data transfer mechanisms, including circumstances where the standard contractual clauses cannot be used, and/or start taking enforcement action, we could suffer additional costs, complaints and/or regulatory investigations or fines, and/or injunctions against processing personal data from the EEA and U.K., and if we are otherwise unable to transfer personal data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services, the geographical location or segregation of our relevant systems and operations, and could adversely affect our financial results.
We are also subject to evolving EEA and UK privacy laws on cookies and e-marketing which require informed consent for the placement of most cookies or similar technologies on a user’s device and for direct electronic marketing. In the EEA and the UK, regulators are increasingly focusing on compliance with these requirements in the online behavioral advertising ecosystem and are increasingly taking action to enforce them. The EEA GDPR and UK GDPR also impose conditions on obtaining valid consent, such as a prohibition on pre-checked consents and a requirement to ensure separate consents are sought for each type of cookie or similar technology. In addition, the current national laws in the EEA that implement the e-Privacy Directive are highly likely to be replaced by an EU regulation known as the e-Privacy Regulation which will significantly increase fines for noncompliance. The text of the e-Privacy Regulation is still under development, and recent EU regulatory guidance and court decisions have created uncertainty about the level to which such laws and regulations will be enforced, which may require us to review our compliance approach and increase compliance costs.
Data Privacy Regulation in the Asia-Pacific Region
Our business activities are also subject to legislation and regulation in the Asia-Pacific region. Following the implementation of the GDPR, many jurisdictions have moved to amend, release, review and strengthen their existing data privacy and cyber-security laws, and there has been a progressive effort in the region to work towards coordinating their otherwise disparate laws. Many countries have also sought adequacy decisions from the EU. New Zealand’s updated Privacy Act and South Korea’s amendments to its Personal Information Protection Act, went into effect in 2020, largely aligning with requirements of the GDPR. Thailand’s and Japan’s new similar updates and regulations will also become effective in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Other jurisdictions, such as India, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, are reviewing their existing privacy regimes, with an eye toward similar data protection developments.
To address this range of developments, Innovid’s data protection program is largely rooted in the GDPR and SOC2 security standards, and any international data transfers from the Asia-Pacific region are governed by direct contractual agreements between the regional entities and Innovid’s US parent corporate entity, Innovid, Corp. Otherwise, our compliance team works to oversee compliance with these Asia-Pacific regional requirements and to address compliance with our region-specific clients and business teams.
Innovid’s General Data Protection and Consumer Privacy Practices
Innovid is dedicated to a high standard of consumer privacy and data protection, while maintaining quality online Advertising Services to various advertisers, agencies, publishers and other businesses across various third party websites and online media.
Innovid has restrictive policies for the collection, use and sharing of consumer data. We maintain membership with the NAI, a self-regulatory association dedicated to responsible data collection and its use for digital advertising, and the DAA, an independent organization led by advertising and marketing trade associations that has established self-regulatory principles enforcing responsible privacy practices for digital advertising and consumer transparency. Innovid also maintains accreditation with the MRC.
Innovid’s collection of consumer data generally consists of basic data elements associated with advertisements served or measured by Innovid, such as impressions, clicks, viewing duration, IP address, date and time of interaction, information about the general geographical location from which a consumer is viewing an advertisement, device type, and other generic identifiers made available by the browser or device. Innovid collects these data elements on behalf of its clients in a data privacy-compliant manner, in order to effectively measure and evaluate the performance of the client’s advertising campaigns, deliver, schedule and sequence ads, administer the client’s account, and provide the client with engagement analysis.
At a client’s request, Innovid may assist the client with targeting its ads based on the client’s first-party data or based on data from the client’s selected data management platform. Innovid also offers frequency and ad personalization features such as ad sequencing and creative decisioning based on factors such as general geographic location. Innovid receives user segments from its customers to conduct real-time ad decisioning, but does not create or retain such segments itself. Innovid also does not collect any categories of data deemed sensitive under applicable laws or NAI standards. In a limited number of use cases, the client also has the option to have Innovid collect consumer email addresses or phone numbers on its behalf from selected advertising formats; in these cases, such opt-in data is used solely to fulfill the client’s request.
Innovid upholds consumer choice. Innovid believes consumers should have the right to control how they are targeted across online media. Innovid respects the consumer’s choice to opt-out of interest-based advertising.
Data Security and Compliance with Applicable Laws and Regulations
Innovid is committed to data security and takes a variety of measures in line with industry practice to safeguard the data in its possession from unauthorized alteration, destruction, access or misuse. We maintain tight controls over all the data we collect, retaining it in firewalled and secured databases with strictly limited and controlled access rights, designed to ensure that the data is secure. Additional security measures include encryption of personal information at rest and in transit, maintaining a strict password policy, the use of multi-factor authentication for key systems, maintaining antivirus measures and vulnerability management policies, and the use of various security technologies designed to prevent unauthorized activity.
Innovid maintains compliance with the EU GDPR and UK GDPR. Innovid has in place the EU-approved Standard Contractual Clauses with data exporters from the EU. Innovid has appointed a data protection officer, has a process for responding in a timely manner to data subjects seeking to exercise their rights under GDPR, and takes a proactive approach to putting the necessary contractual provisions in place with its vendors and clients.
Innovid has taken a comprehensive approach to CCPA compliance and will continue to monitor and adjust its approach as the law continues to evolve, to ensure we maintain compliance with the latest regulations, requirements and best practices. As between Innovid and its clients, Innovid is a service provider and does not sell personal information as contemplated under CCPA.
Data policy and privacy regulations are dynamic and constantly changing. In addition to performing yearly internal audits, Innovid continues to monitor its compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
Intellectual Property
We consider our trademarks, trade dress, copyrights, trade secrets, patent and other intellectual property rights, including those in our know-how and the software code of our proprietary technology, to be important components of our success. We rely on intellectual property laws, including trade secret, copyright and trademark laws in the United States and abroad, and use contracts, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements and other contractual rights to protect our intellectual property.
As of July 16, 2021, we had 13 granted patents, two pending patent applications, and six trademark applications covering a variety of interactive and contextual analysis capabilities. We have also registered domain names for websites that we use in our business, such as www.innovid.com.
We design, test and update our products, services and websites regularly, and we have developed our proprietary solutions in-house. Our know-how is an important element of our intellectual property. The development and management of our platform requires sophisticated coordination among many specialized employees. We take steps to protect our know-how, trade secrets and other confidential information, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, developers and vendors who have access to our confidential information, and generally limiting access to and distribution of our confidential information. To protect our technology against unauthorized access, we also implement multiple layers of security. Access to our platform, other than to obtain basic information, requires system usernames and passwords.
We intend to pursue additional intellectual property protection to the extent we believe it would advance our business objectives and maintain our competitive position.
Seasonality
See Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Key Factors Affecting Our Performance”
Corporate History and Background
ION was initially incorporated on November 23, 2020, as a Cayman Islands exempted company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. Innovid Inc. was incorporated on June 21, 2007 as a Delaware corporation.
On June 24, 2021, ION, Innovid Inc., Merger Sub 1 and Merger Sub 2 entered into the Merger Agreement. On November 30, 2021, as contemplated by the Merger Agreement, ION consummated the merger transaction contemplated by the Merger Agreement.
As a result of the Transaction, ION changed its name to Innovid Corp. and we became an SEC-registered and NYSE-listed company.
Our Corporate Information
Our principal executive offices are located at 30 Irving Place, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10003 and our telephone number is +1 (212) 966-7555.
Our corporate website address is www.innovid.com. The information contained in, or accessible through, our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report and you should not consider information on our website to be a part of this Annual Report. We have included our website address in this Annual Report solely as an inactive textual reference.
Additional Information
We file electronically with the SEC our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and other information. Our SEC filings are available to the public over the Internet at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. We make available on our website at https://investors.innovid.com, free of charge, copies of these reports and any amendments as soon as reasonably practicable after filing or furnishing them with the SEC.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
An investment in Innovid involves a high degree of risk and uncertainty. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all of the other information contained in this prospectus, including the financial statements and the related notes appearing at the end of this prospectus, before deciding whether to purchase our common stock. Additional risks and uncertainties, that we do not presently consider to be material or of which we are not presently aware, may also become important factors that affect our business, results of operations or financial condition, that may materially and adversely affect the investment of Innovid stockholders. See the section titled “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”
Risks Relating to Innovid’s Business and Industry
Innovid’s business depends on its ability to maintain and expand relationships with advertisers and agencies and continued resilience of ad-spend among existing customers. If Innovid fails to grow its advertiser base or experience continued levels of ad-spend among existing customers, its business may be adversely affected. Similarly, if Innovid’s services or employees fail to perform as expected, it may lose advertisers and its business, results of operations, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
Innovid’s business depends on its ability to maintain and expand relationships with advertisers and agencies. Innovid depends on advertisers and agencies to specify and utilize its offering. Innovid currently relies on, and expects to continue to rely on, approximately 100 core clients (which may include multiple paying customers) which accounted for in excess of 90% of our 2021 revenue, with no single core client (brand/advertiser) accounting for more than 14% of our 2021 revenue. To support Innovid’s continued growth, it will seek to add additional advertisers to its platform and expand current utilization with its existing advertisers. However, there are no assurances it will be able to do so. Innovid has few advertising customers with minimum commitments so there is no guarantee that existing advertiser relationships will persist. Any disruptions in Innovid’s relationships with advertisers could adversely affect its business, results of operations and financial condition. If Innovid cannot retain or add individual advertisers, or if existing advertisers reduce their use of its offering, it could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition. Additionally, if Innovid’s offerings do not meet the current or future expectations of its advertisers or agencies or if Innovid’s services or employees fail to perform as expected, such advertisers or agencies may seek alternative options and Innovid’s results may suffer. Furthermore, if existing advertisers significantly reduce their ad-spend in response to continued supply change disruptions, labor shortages or other macroeconomic trends, Innovid’s results will suffer.
Innovid and Legacy Innovid have a history of net losses in the previous years, and it anticipates increasing operating expenses in the future, and may not be able to achieve and, if achieved, maintain profitability.
Innovid and Legacy Innovid incurred net losses of $11.5 million, $0.8 million and $7.3 million in fiscal years 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Innovid may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future. Because the market for CTV advertisement, and the management and analytics tools Innovid offers, is rapidly evolving, it is difficult for Innovid to predict its future results of operations or the limits of its market opportunity. Innovid expects its operating expenses to increase over the next several years as it hires additional personnel, particularly in research and development and sales and marketing, expands it partnerships, operations, and infrastructure, both domestically and internationally and continues to develop and expand its platform’s features and capabilities. Innovid also intends to continue to build and enhance its platform through both internal research and development as well as selectively pursuing acquisitions that can uniquely contribute to its platform’s features and capabilities. In addition, now that Innovid has become a public company, it will incur additional significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that it did not incur as a private company. If Innovid’s revenue does not increase to offset the expected increases in its operating expenses, it will not be profitable in future periods. In future periods, Innovid’s revenue growth could slow or its revenue could decline for a number of reasons, including any failure to increase the number of advertisers using its platform or to increase its volume of impressions or as a result of a decrease in the growth of its overall market, its failure, for any reason, to continue to capitalize on growth opportunities, slowing demand for CTV advertising or for its management and analytics tools, additional regulatory burdens, or increasing competition. As a result, Innovid’s and Legacy Innovid past financial performance may not be indicative of its future performance. Any failure by Innovid to achieve or sustain profitability on a consistent basis could cause the value of our common stock to decline.
Decrease and/or changes in CTV audience viewing behavior may adversely affect Innovid’s business and growth potential.
Technology and competition in Innovid’s industry continue to evolve rapidly. Changes to competitor’s products and solutions, which may differ from Innovid’s current offerings could have a material impact on Innovid. Also, consumer behavior relating to changes in content distribution and technological innovation may affect Innovid’s economic model and viewership in ways that are not entirely predictable. Innovid’s growth is dependent upon the continued growth of CTV, and to the extent consumer behavior regarding CTV were to change in ways that reduce the effectiveness of Innovid’s offering, its growth prospects would be significantly impacted.
If Innovid fails to make the right investment decisions, or if it fails to innovate and develop new solutions that are adopted by advertisers, it may not attract advertisers, which could have an adverse effect on Innovid’s business, results of operations and financial condition.
Innovid faces intense competition in the marketplace and is confronted by rapidly changing technology, industry standards, consumer preferences, and regulatory requirements, which require it to adapt and respond quickly. Innovid needs to continuously update its platform by investing and developing in new technology in order to attract advertisers and anticipate changes in technology, evolving industry standards and regulatory requirements. Innovid’s platform is complex and new solutions can require a significant investment of time and resources to develop, test, introduce, and enhance. These activities can take longer than expected. Moreover, Innovid may not make the right decisions regarding these investments. New formats and channels related to CTV advertising present unique challenges that Innovid must address in order to succeed. Innovid’s success depends upon its ability to integrate its platform with these new formats and channels. If Innovid’s solutions are not widely adopted by advertisers, it may not attract or retain advertisers. In addition, evolving demands from advertisers, superior offerings by competitors, changes in technology, and new industry standards or regulatory requirements could render Innovid’s platform or its existing solutions less effective and require Innovid to make unanticipated changes to its platform or business model. Innovid’s failure to adapt to a rapidly changing market or failure to anticipate advertiser demand and attract advertisers could cause its revenue or revenue growth rate to decline, and may adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
While Innovid is working on a number of innovations and enhancements designed to improve the value to its clients, these innovations may prove to be unsuccessful which could have a material impact on Innovid’s business. Also, Innovid may need to restructure or expand its sales efforts in order to maintain or increase revenues from new and existing customers and to further penetrate the market. If such efforts are ineffective, this may have a material impact on Innovid’s operations.
Innovid’s estimates of market opportunity, forecasts of market growth and projections of future financial performance may prove to be inaccurate. If such forecasts related to market growth and market opportunity prove inaccurate, Innovid may not hire or staff appropriately and its business, results of operations, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
Innovid operates in a rapidly evolving industry. Innovid’s ability to forecast its future operating results is subject to a number of uncertainties, including its ability to plan for and model future growth in both its business and the digital advertising market. The continued unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic on Innovid’s customers makes projecting growth and market opportunity particularly difficult. For example, certain industries served by Innovid have experienced growth during the COVID-19 pandemic while others have struggled. Furthermore the COVID-19 pandemic has recently led to supply chain disruptions across the globe - the impact of these disruptions on Innovid’s customers and, ultimately, their use of Innovid’s services is inherently difficult to predict and subject to rapid change. Innovid is subject to risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly evolving industries, including challenges in forecasting accuracy, determining the appropriate nature and levels of investments, assessing appropriate returns on investments, achieving market acceptance of its existing and future offerings, managing buyer implementations, and developing new solutions. If Innovid’s assumptions regarding these uncertainties, which it regularly uses to plan, are incorrect or fail to appropriately capture market changes, or if Innovid does not address these risks successfully, its operating and financial results could differ materially from its expectations and its business could suffer. Innovid’s past revenue growth is not indicative of its future performance. In future periods, Innovid’s revenue could decline or grow more slowly than it expects. Innovid believes the growth of its revenue depends on a number of factors, including its ability to:
•attract new advertisers, and retain and expand its relationships with existing advertisers;
•leverage the growth of OTT advertising and the proliferation of OTT advertising platforms, while remaining agile to advertisers’ needs or the possibility that OTT advertisers will revert to traditional advertising modes;
•hire or staff appropriately according to its growth needs;
•broaden its solutions portfolio to include additional marketing and monetization goals for advertisers;
•adapt its offering to meet evolving needs, including to address market trends such as (i) the migration of consumers from desktop to mobile and from websites to mobile applications, (ii) the increasing percentage of sales that involve multiple digital devices, (iii) the growing adoption by consumers of “ad-blocking” software on web browsers on desktop and/or on mobile devices and the use or consumption by consumers of advertising-free services, (iv) changes in the marketplace for and supply of advertising inventory, including the shift toward header bidding, (v) changes in the overall ecosystem such as Apple’s introduction of its Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature into its Safari browser, Microsoft’s Tracking Prevention feature in its Edge browser, and Mozilla’s introduction of Enhanced Tracking Protection into its Firefox browser; and (vi) changes in consumer acceptance of tracking technologies for targeted or behavioral advertising purposes; and
•continue to adapt to a changing regulatory landscape governing data protection and privacy matters.
Innovid’s sales and marketing efforts may require significant investments and, in certain cases, involve long sales cycles, and may not yield the results it seeks.
Innovid’s sales and marketing teams educate prospective advertisers about the use, technical capabilities, and benefits of its platform. Innovid’s sales cycle, from initial contact to contract execution and implementation, can take significant time with certain advertisers and agencies. Some of Innovid’s customers undertake an evaluation process that involves reviewing the offerings of Innovid’s competitors in addition to its platform. As a result, it is difficult to predict when a prospective customer will decide to execute an agreement and begin generating revenue for Innovid. Innovid is often required to explain how its platform can optimize the value of a premium publisher’s ad impressions or how a DSP can discover valuable ad impressions. Innovid may spend substantial time and resources searching for new business or responding to requests for proposals from potential advertisers and such efforts may not result in revenue. Following contract execution and implementation, ongoing sales cycles and account management can take significant time. Innovid is often required to explain how an additional platform integration can enhance incremental demand or engage multiple trading teams within an advertising agency to source ad campaigns and create additional demand. Innovid may not succeed in attracting new advertisers and agencies despite its significant investment in its business development, sales and marketing organizations. It may also be difficult to predict when new advertisers will begin generating revenue through Innovid’s platform, and the extent of that revenue. Innovid may not succeed in expanding relationships with existing advertisers, despite its significant investment in its sales, account management, and marketing organizations. Further, it may be difficult to predict when additional products will generate revenue through Innovid’s platform, and the extent of that revenue.
If Innovid does not manage its growth effectively, the quality of its platform and solutions may suffer, and its business, results of operations, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
The continued growth in Innovid’s business may place demands on its infrastructure and its operational, managerial, administrative, and financial resources. Innovid’s success will depend on the ability of its management to manage growth effectively. Among other things, this will require Innovid at various times to:
•strategically invest in the development and enhancement of its platform and data center infrastructure;
•improve coordination among Innovid’s engineering, product, operations, and other support organizations;
•manage multiple relationships with various partners, customers, and other third parties;
•manage international operations;
•develop its operating, administrative, legal, financial, and accounting systems and controls; and
•recruit, hire, train, and retain personnel.
If Innovid does not manage its growth well, the efficacy and performance of its platform may suffer, which could harm its reputation, reduce demand for its platform and solutions and have an adverse effect on its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Innovid’s revenue and results of operations are highly dependent on the overall demand for advertising. Factors that affect the amount of advertising spending, such as economic downturns and the COVID-19 pandemic, can make it difficult to predict Innovid’s revenue and could adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Innovid’s business depends on the overall demand for advertising and on the economic health of its current and prospective advertisers. The market for internet advertising solutions is highly competitive and rapidly changing. New technologies and methods of advertising present a dynamic competitive challenge as market participants develop and offer multiple new products and services aimed at facilitating and/or capturing advertising spending. With the introduction of new technologies and the influx of new entrants to the market, including large established companies and companies that Innovid does not yet know about or do not yet exist, Innovid expects competition to persist and intensify in the future, which could harm its ability to increase sales and maintain its profitability. Large and established internet and technology companies may have the power to significantly change the very nature of the digital advertising marketplaces in ways that could materially disadvantage Innovid. These companies could leverage their positions to make changes to their web browsers, mobile operating systems, platforms, exchanges, networks or other solutions or services that could be significantly harmful to Innovid’s business and results of operations. These companies also have significantly larger resources than Innovid does, and in many cases have advantageous competitive positions in popular products and services like Gmail, YouTube, Chrome, Facebook and Instagram, which they can use to their advantage.
Furthermore, Innovid’s competitors include large and established internet and technology companies that have invested substantial resources in innovation, which could lead to technological advancements that change the competitive dynamics of Innovid’s business in ways that it may not be able to predict. Competition could also hinder the success of new advertising solutions that Innovid offers in the future. If any of these risks were to materialize, Innovid’s ability to compete effectively could be significantly compromised and its results of operations could be harmed. Any of these developments would make it more difficult for Innovid to sell its offerings and could result in increased pricing pressure, reduced gross margins, increased sales and marketing expense and/or the loss of market share.
Also, various macroeconomic factors could cause advertisers to reduce the advertising budgets of Innovid’s customers, including adverse economic conditions, pandemics (including COVID-19), terrorism, and general uncertainty about economic recovery or growth, particularly in North America, Europe, and Asia, where Innovid does most of its business, instability in political or market conditions generally, and any changes in the tax treatment of advertising expenses and the deductibility thereof. Reductions in overall advertising spending as a result of these factors could make it difficult to predict Innovid’s revenue and could adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition. Recent supply chain disruptions and concerns regarding the continued pace of economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic have led some advertisers in certain industries, in particular the automotive industry, to reduce advertising spending. Any such reduction could negatively impact Innovid’s results of operations.
The extent to which the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including the resulting global economic uncertainty, and measures taken in response to the pandemic, could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and difficult to predict.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the economy and put unprecedented strains on governments, health care systems, educational institutions, businesses, and individuals around the world and resulted in regional quarantines, labor shortages or stoppages, changes in consumer purchasing patterns, disruptions to service providers to deliver data on a timely basis, or at all, and overall economic instability. The impact on the global population and the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to assess or predict. It is even more difficult to predict the impact on the global economic market, which will be highly dependent upon the actions of governments, businesses, and other enterprises in response to the pandemic and the effectiveness of those actions. The pandemic has already caused, and is likely to result in further, significant disruption of global financial markets and economic uncertainty. Initially, the advertising market and Innovid’s operations were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Innovid has since recovered from the economic effects of COVID-19, although the impact of future outbreaks or new variants of COVID-19 remains difficult to predict. Innovid continues to monitor its operations, the operations of advertisers and agencies, as well as government recommendations as the pandemic continues to impact the US and global economy. In light of the uncertain and rapidly evolving situation relating to the spread of COVID-19, Innovid took temporary precautionary measures intended to help minimize the risk of the virus to its employees, its customers, and the communities in which it participates, which could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, or financial condition. Innovid has implemented hybrid/flexible work schedules for its employees and continues to monitor and evaluate company policies for work, company travel and company events in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, Innovid has implemented a business travel optional policy where a member of its team must get pre-approval to travel from an executive. Although Innovid continues to monitor the situation and may adjust its current policies as more information and guidance become available, temporarily suspending travel and doing business in-person could negatively impact its marketing efforts, sales cycles, contract terms, recruiting efforts, and create operational or other challenges, any of which could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition. A recession, depression, or other sustained adverse market event resulting from the spread of COVID-19 or its variants could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition, as well as the value of our common stock. Innovid’s customers or potential customers, particularly in industries most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic including transportation, travel and hospitality, retail, and energy, may reduce their advertising spending or delay their advertising initiatives, which could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition. Innovid may also experience curtailed customer demand, reduced customer spending or contract duration, delayed collections, lengthened payment terms, and increased competition due to changes in the terms and conditions and pricing of its competitors’ products and services.
The COVID-19 pandemic also led to an increase in CTV viewership, which caused an increase in advertising spending and thus, Innovid’s financial results. Any increase to financial metrics such as revenues, operating margins, net income, net cash provided by operating activities and other financial and operating data, may not be indicative of results for future periods.
In addition to the potential direct impacts to Innovid’s business, the advertising industry is likely to be significantly affected as a result of the actions taken in response to COVID-19. The extent that such a response impacts consumers’ ability or willingness to pay for Innovid’s solution, could result negatively on Innovid’s business and results of operation.
Innovid’s business depends on a limited number of advertising agencies and advertisers.
Innovid derives a substantial portion of its revenue from a limited number of advertising agencies and advertisers. There are inherent risks whenever a large percentage of revenues within any specific market or solution are concentrated within a limited number of advertising agencies and advertisers. Innovid cannot predict the future level of demand for its services and products that will be generated by these advertising agencies and advertisers. In addition, revenue from these advertising agencies and advertisers may fluctuate from time to time. Further, some of Innovid’s contracts with key advertising holding groups may permit such groups to terminate use of its products at any time (subject to notice and certain other provisions). If any of these advertising agencies and advertisers terminate or reduce their use of Innovid’s products, its revenues or specific solutions may be negatively impacted.
If the use of digital advertising is rejected by consumers, through opt-in, opt-out or ad-blocking technologies or other means, it could have an adverse effect on Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Consumers can, with increasing ease, implement technologies that limit Innovid’s ability to collect and use data to deliver advertisements, or otherwise limit the effectiveness of its platform. Cookies may be deleted or blocked by consumers. Cookies have not been available on iPhone, nor across Safari or Firefox browsers for several years and we anticipate that other browsers, including Google Chrome and others will follow suit. While such limitations have not, to date, impacted Innovid’s business as a result of Innovid’s cross-channel, cross-device dynamic creative campaigns, which are not solely reliant on cookies or device IDs, Innovid’s ability to continue to respond to changes in ad-blocking technologies will have an impact on its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
To the extent cookies remain relevant to Innovid’s business, most commonly used internet browsers allow consumers to modify their browser settings to block first-party cookies (placed directly by the publisher or website owner that the consumer intends to interact with) or third-party cookies (placed by parties, like us, that have no direct relationship with the consumer), and some browsers block third-party cookies by default. For example, Apple recently announced its intention to move to “opt-in” privacy models, requiring users to voluntarily choose to receive targeted ads, which may reduce the value of ad impressions on its iOS mobile application platform. Many applications and other devices allow consumers to avoid receiving advertisements by paying for subscriptions or other downloads. Mobile devices using Android and iOS operating systems limit the ability of cookies to track consumers while they are using applications other than their web browser on the device. As a consequence, fewer of Innovid’s cookies or publishers’ cookies may be set in browsers or be accessible in mobile devices, which may adversely affect Innovid’s business. Some consumers also download free or paid “ad blocking” software on their computers or mobile devices, not only for privacy reasons, but also to counteract the adverse effect advertisements can have on the consumer experience, including increased load times, data consumption, and screen overcrowding. Ad-blocking technologies and other global privacy controls may prevent some third-party cookies, or other tracking technologies, from being stored on a consumer’s computer or mobile device.
If more consumers adopt these measures, and Innovid’s alternative approaches prove unsuccessful, Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected. Ad-blocking technologies could have an adverse effect on Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition if they reduce the volume, effectiveness or value of advertising. In addition, some ad blocking technologies block only ads that are targeted through use of third-party data, while allowing ads based on first-party data (i.e., data owned by the publisher). Even if ad blockers do not ultimately have an adverse effect on Innovid’s business, investor concerns about ad blockers could cause Innovid’s stock price to decline.
If the ability to collect, use, and disclose data is limited by consumer tools, regulatory restrictions or technology limitations, certain advertising offerings could be impacted and Innovid’s business may be adversely affected.
As Innovid processes transactions through its platform, it collects large amounts of data about advertisements and where they are placed, such as advertiser preferences for media and advertising content. Innovid collects data on consumers that does not identify the individual, including browser, device location and characteristics, online browsing behavior, exposure to and interaction with advertisements, and inferential data about purchase intentions, and preferences. Innovid collects this data through various means, including from its own platform and measurement tracking capabilities. Innovid’s advertisers, publishers, and data providers may choose to provide Innovid with their proprietary data about consumers. Innovid aggregates this data and analyzes it in order to enhance its services, including the pricing, placement, and scheduling of advertisements.
As part of Innovid’s real-time analytics service offering, it also shares the data, or analyses based on it, with its advertisers. There are many technical challenges relating to Innovid’s ability to collect, aggregate and associate the data, and Innovid cannot assure that it will be able to do so effectively. Evolving regulatory standards could place restrictions on the collection, management, aggregation and use of information, which could result in a material increase in the cost of collecting or otherwise obtaining certain kinds of data and could limit the ways in which Innovid may use or disclose information. Internet users can, with increasing ease, implement practices or technologies that may limit Innovid’s ability to collect and use data to deliver advertisements, or otherwise inhibit the effectiveness of its platform. Although Innovid’s advertisers generally permit it to aggregate and use data from advertising placements, subject to certain restrictions, advertisers might decide to restrict Innovid’s collection or use of their data. Any limitations on this ability could impair Innovid’s ability to deliver certain advertising offerings, which could adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If the use of third-party “cookies,” mobile device IDs or other tracking technologies is restricted without similar or better alternatives, certain offerings could be impacted and Innovid’s business may be adversely affected.
Innovid uses “cookies,” or small text files placed on consumer devices when an internet browser is used, as well as mobile device identifiers, to gather data that enables its platform to be more effective. Innovid’s cookies and mobile device IDs do not identify consumers directly, but record information such as when a consumer views or clicks on an advertisement, when a consumer uses a mobile app, the consumer’s location, and browser or other device information. Publishers, advertisers and partners may also choose to share their information about consumers’ interests or give Innovid permission to use their cookies and mobile device IDs. Without cookies, mobile device IDs, and other tracking technology data, transactions processed through Innovid’s platform would be executed with less insight into consumer activity, reducing the precision of advertisers’ decisions about which impressions to purchase for an advertising campaign. This could make placement of advertising through Innovid’s platform less valuable, and harm its revenue. If Innovid’s ability to use cookies, mobile device IDs or other tracking technologies is limited, it may be required to develop or obtain additional applications and technologies to compensate for the lack of cookies, mobile device IDs and other tracking technology data, which could be time consuming or costly to develop, less effective, and subject to additional regulation.
Market pressure may reduce Innovid’s revenue per impression.
Innovid’s revenue may be affected by market changes, new demands by advertisers, and competitors. Innovid’s solutions may be priced too high or too low, either of which may carry adverse consequences. Innovid may receive requests from agencies and advertisers for volume discounts, fee revisions, and rebates. Any of these developments could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, or financial condition. Any failure of Innovid’s pricing approaches to gain acceptance could adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Innovid must scale its platform infrastructure to support anticipated growth and transaction volume. If Innovid fails to do so, it may limit its ability to process ad impressions, and it may lose revenue.
Innovid’s business depends on processing ad impressions in milliseconds, and it must handle an increasingly large volume of such transactions. The addition of new solutions, such as header bidding in mobile and the CTV and OTT formats, support for evolving advertising formats, handling, and use of increasing amounts of data, and overall growth in impressions, place growing demands upon Innovid’s platform infrastructure. If Innovid is unable to grow its platform to support substantial increases in the number of transactions and in the amount of data it processes, on a high-performance, cost-effective basis, its business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected. Innovid expects to continue to invest in its platform in order to meet these requirements, and that investment may adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If advertisers, publishers and data providers do not obtain the necessary and requisite consents from consumers for Innovid to process their personal data, Innovid could be subject to fines and liability.
Because Innovid does not have direct relationships with consumers, it relies on advertisers, publishers and data providers, as applicable, to obtain the consent of the consumer on its behalf to process their data and deliver interest-based advertisements, and to implement any notice or choice mechanisms required under applicable laws, but if advertisers, publishers, or data providers do not follow this process (including as the legal requirements in this area continue to evolve and develop), Innovid could be subject to fines and liability. Innovid may not have adequate insurance or contractual indemnity arrangements to protect itself against any such claims and losses.
Advertisements on websites, applications and other digital media properties of publishers serviced through Innovid’s platform are viewed by consumers visiting the publishers’ digital media properties. Publishers often have terms of use in place with their consumers that disclaim or limit their potential liabilities to consumers, or pursuant to which consumers waive rights to bring class actions against the publishers. Innovid generally does not have terms of use in place with such consumers, so it cannot disclaim or limit potential liabilities to them through terms of use, which may expose it to greater liabilities than certain of its competitors.
Innovid faces intense and increasing competition for employee talent, and if it does not retain and continue to attract highly skilled talent or retain its senior management team and other key employees, it may not be able to sustain its growth or achieve its business objectives.
Innovid is led by a strong management team that has extensive experience leading technology and digital marketing companies. Innovid’s success and future growth depends to a significant degree on the leadership, knowledge, skills and continued services of its senior management team and other key personnel. The loss of any of these persons could adversely affect Innovid’s business.
Innovid’s future success also depends on its ability to retain, attract and motivate highly skilled technical, managerial, marketing, and customer service personnel. Innovid expects to continue its growth in the near term. Innovid may incur significant costs to attract and retain qualified employees, including significant expenditures related to salaries and benefits and compensation expenses related to equity awards. New employees often require significant training and Innovid may lose new or existing employees to its competitors or other companies before it realizes the benefit of its investment in recruiting and training them. Competition for personnel is intense, particularly in the technology and software industries. A substantial majority of Innovid’s workforce are at-will employees, and Innovid may experience a loss of productivity due to the departure of key personnel and the associated loss of institutional knowledge. Innovid’s inability to retain and attract the necessary personnel could adversely affect its business, financial condition and results of operations.
Seasonal fluctuations in advertising activity could have a negative impact on Innovid’s revenue, cash flow and operating results.
Innovid’s revenue, cash flow, operating results and other key operating and performance metrics may vary from quarter to quarter due to the seasonal nature of its customers spending on advertising campaigns. For example, advertisers typically allocate the largest portion of their media budgets to the fourth quarter of the calendar year in order to coincide with increased holiday purchasing. As a result, the fourth quarter of the year typically reflects Innovid’s highest level of measurement activity while the first quarter reflects the lowest level of such activity. Innovid’s historical revenue growth has masked the impact of seasonality, but if its growth rate declines or seasonal spending becomes more pronounced, seasonality could have a more significant impact on its revenue, cash flow and operating results from period to period.
Innovid is subject to payment-related risks, and if its ability to accurately and timely collect payments is impaired, it’s business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.
Innovid has a large and diverse customer and integration partner base. At any given time, one or more of Innovid’s customers or partners may experience financial difficulty, file for bankruptcy protection or cease operations. Unfavorable economic and financial conditions could result in an increase in customer financial difficulties which could adversely affect Innovid. The direct impact on Innovid could include reduced revenues and write-offs of accounts receivable and expenditures billable to customers, and if these effects were severe enough, the indirect impact could include impairments of intangible assets and reduced liquidity. Furthermore, the payment risks Innovid faces are heightened since some of the media agencies with which Innovid deals collect payments from their advertiser customers and then remit to Innovid such amounts on behalf of those advertiser customers, each of whom is subject to independent billing and payment risks as well. Although no core client (brand/advertiser) accounted for more than 14% of Innovid’s revenue in 2021, our approximately 100 core clients accounted for in excess of 90% of Innovid’s total revenue in 2021.
Any interruptions or delays in services from third parties, including data center hosting facilities, cloud computing platform providers and other hardware and software vendors, or disruptions from Innovid’s inability to adequately plan for and manage service failures or infrastructure capacity requirements, could impair the delivery of Innovid’s services and harm its business.
Innovid currently serves its customers from third-party data center hosting facilities and cloud computing platform providers located in the United States. Innovid also relies on computer hardware purchased or leased, if any, from, software licensed from, and cloud computing platforms provided by, third parties in order to offer its services, including database software, hardware and data from a variety of vendors. Any disruption or damage to, or failure of Innovid’s systems generally, including the systems of its third-party platform providers, could result in interruptions in its services. Innovid has from time to time experienced interruptions in its services and such interruptions may occur in the future. Also, Innovid may contract with other third-party data centers outside of the United States, including China, which may carry risks that Innovid does not, or may not be able to, anticipate. In addition, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted and may continue to disrupt the supply chain of hardware needed to maintain these third-party systems or to run Innovid’s business. As Innovid increases its reliance on these third-party systems, particularly with respect to third-party cloud computing platforms, its exposure to damage from service interruptions may increase.
Innovid does not control the operation of any of these facilities, and it may be vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures and similar events. Innovid may also be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct, as well as local administrative actions (including shelter-in-place or similar orders), changes to legal or permitting requirements and litigation to stop, limit or delay operation. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, such as disaster recovery and business continuity arrangements, the occurrence of a natural disaster or pandemic (including the COVID-19 pandemic), an act of terrorism, a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in Innovid’s services.
These hardware, software, data and cloud computing platforms may not continue to be available at reasonable prices, on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Any loss of the right to use any of these hardware, software or cloud computing platforms could significantly increase Innovid’s expenses and otherwise result in delays of its services until equivalent technology is either developed by Innovid, or is obtained through purchase or license and integrated into Innovid’s services.
Additionally, improving Innovid’s platform’s infrastructure and expanding its capacity in anticipation of growth in new channels and formats, as well as implementing technological enhancements to its platform to improve its efficiency and cost-effectiveness are key components of its business strategy, and if Innovid’s data centers are unable to keep up with its growing needs for capacity, this could have an adverse effect on its business. Any changes in third-party service levels at Innovid’s data centers or any errors, defects, disruptions, or other performance problems could adversely affect its reputation, expose it to liability, cause it to lose customers, or otherwise adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition. Service interruptions might reduce Innovid’s revenue, trigger refunds, subject Innovid to potential liability, or adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If Innovid does not accurately plan for its infrastructure capacity requirements and it experiences significant strains on its data center capacity, its clients could experience performance degradation or service outages that may subject Innovid to financial liabilities, result in customer losses and harm its reputation and business. As Innovid adds data centers and capacity and continues to move to cloud computing platform providers, it may move or transfer its data and its customers’ data. Despite precautions taken during this process, any unsuccessful data transfers may impair the delivery of Innovid’s services, which may damage its business.
Innovid’s software platform could be susceptible to errors, defects, or unintended performance problems that could adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Innovid depends upon the sustained and uninterrupted performance of its platform to operate its business. Software bugs, faulty algorithms, technical or infrastructure problems, or system updates could lead to an inability to process data to place advertisements or price inventory effectively, or cause advertisements to display improperly or be placed in proximity to inappropriate content, which could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition. These risks are compounded by the complexity of Innovid’s technology and the large amounts of data Innovid utilizes. Because Innovid’s software is complex, undetected material defects, errors and failures may occur. Despite testing, errors or bugs in Innovid’s software may not be found until the software is in its live operating environment. Errors or failures in Innovid’s solution, even if caused by the implementation of changes by advertisers, publishers, or partners to their systems, could also result in negative publicity, damage to its reputation, loss of or delay in market acceptance of its solution, increased costs, loss of revenue or loss of competitive position. In such an event, Innovid may be required or choose to expend additional resources to help mitigate any problems resulting from defects, errors and failures in its software. As a result, defects or errors in Innovid’s products or services could harm its reputation, result in significant costs, impair the ability of advertisers to sell and impair its ability to fulfill obligations with its clients. Any significant interruptions could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If CTV, mobile devices or their operating systems and Internet browsers develop in ways that prevent advertisements from being delivered to consumers, Innovid’s business, results of operations and financial condition generally, could be adversely affected.
Innovid’s success in the mobile advertising industry depends upon the ability of its platform to provide advertising for mobile connected devices, the major operating systems or internet browsers that run on them, and the thousands of applications that are downloaded onto them. The design of mobile devices and operating systems or browsers is controlled by third parties that may also introduce new devices and operating systems or modify existing ones, and network carriers may affect Innovid’s ability to access specified content on mobile devices. For example, Apple recently announced its intent to eliminate the Identifier for advertisers, which Innovid and other advertising firms have used to deliver targeted advertisements to consumers.
While the effects of this development are uncertain and would not prevent Innovid from operating its header bidding technology on Apple products, it could reduce the value of the ad impressions it offers. If Innovid’s platform cannot operate effectively with popular devices, operating systems or Internet browsers, including Apple devices and iOS, its business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Also, as online video advertising continues to scale and evolve, the amount of online video advertising being bought and sold programmatically has increased dramatically. The online video advertising market continues to grow with the increased popularity of CTV. However, despite the opportunities created by programmatic advertising, programmatic solutions for CTV and OTT publishers are still nascent compared to desktop and mobile video solutions. Many CTV publishers have backgrounds in cable or broadcast television and have limited experience with digital advertising, and in particular programmatic advertising. For these publishers, it is extremely important to protect the quality of the viewer experience to maintain brand goodwill and ensure online advertising efforts do not create sales channel conflicts or otherwise detract from their direct sales force. In this regard, programmatic advertising presents a number of potential challenges, including the ability to ensure ads are brand safe, comply with business rules around competitive separation, are not overly repetitive, are played at the appropriate volume, and do not cause delays in load-time of content. Innovid believes its platform is well-positioned to allow publishers the opportunity to achieve these goals and also reliably achieve “ad potting,” or the placement of the desired number of advertisements in commercial breaks. While Innovid believes programmatic advertising will continue to grow as a percentage of overall CTV advertising, there can be no assurance that CTV publishers will adopt programmatic solutions such as Innovid’s, or the rate at which they may adopt such solutions, which could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition.
The market in which Innovid participates is intensely competitive, and it may not be able to compete successfully with its current or future competitors.
Innovid’s industry and business is subject to rapid and frequent changes in technology, evolving client demands and frequent competitors with new and enhanced offerings. Innovid competes for both supply and demand with larger, well-established companies that may have technological advantages stemming from their experience in the market. Innovid’s future success will depend on its ability to continuously enhance and improve its offerings to meet client needs and address technological and industry advancements. If Innovid is unable to enhance its solutions to meet market demand in a timely manner, it may not be able to maintain its existing clients or attract new clients. Innovid has made, and intends to continue to make, substantial investments in order to further advance its brand and scale its technology capabilities. However, these investments are inherently risky and may not be successful. Addressing broader marketing and monetization goals, is relatively new to Innovid and it has had to invest in substantial resources to adapt its model, pricing and organization to support this expansion. Similarly, Innovid does not have a long or established track record of competing successfully in this space. If Innovid is not successful in expanding its solutions along broader marketing goals, its results of operations could be adversely affected. Furthermore, Innovid believes the importance of brand recognition will increase as competition in its market increases. However, if Innovid is unable to continuously enhance and improve its offerings, it may be unable to respond effectively to changes in its industry, technology or user preferences, and its solutions may become less competitive or obsolete. Furthermore, brand promotion activities may not yield any increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses Innovid incurred in building its brand.
Innovid’s business depends on the overall demand for advertising and on the economic health of Innovid’s current and prospective advertisers. The market for internet advertising solutions is highly competitive and rapidly changing. New technologies and methods of advertising present a dynamic competitive challenge as market participants develop and offer multiple new products and services aimed at facilitating and/or capturing advertising spending. With the introduction of new technologies and the influx of new entrants to the market, including large established companies and companies that Innovid does not yet know about or do not yet exist, Innovid expects competition to persist and intensify in the future, which could harm its ability to increase sales and maintain its profitability. Large and established internet and technology companies may have the power to significantly change the very nature of the digital advertising marketplaces in ways that could materially disadvantage Innovid. These companies could leverage their positions to make changes to their web browsers, mobile operating systems, platforms, exchanges, networks or other solutions or services that could be significantly harmful to Innovid’s business and results of operations.
These companies also have significantly larger resources than Innovid does, and in many cases have advantageous competitive positions in popular products and services like Gmail, YouTube, Chrome, Facebook and Instagram, which they can use to their advantage. Furthermore, Innovid’s competitors include large and established internet and technology companies that have invested substantial resources in innovation, which could lead to technological advancements that change the competitive dynamics of Innovid’s business in ways that it may not be able to predict. Competition could also hinder the success of new advertising solutions that Innovid offers in the future. If any of these risks were to materialize, Innovid’s ability to compete effectively could be significantly compromised and its results of operations could be harmed. Any of these developments would make it more difficult for Innovid to sell its offerings and could result in increased pricing pressure, reduced gross margins, increased sales and marketing expense and/or the loss of market share.
Innovid relies on advertisers and publishers to abide by contractual requirements and relevant laws, rules, and regulations when using its platform. Legal claims or enforcement actions resulting from their actions could expose Innovid to liabilities, damage its reputation, and be costly to defend. In addition, in certain instances Innovid’s campaigns are dependent upon the performance of third-parties hired by its clients. Any failure of such parties to meet expected performance benchmarks could have a negative impact on the success of Innovid’s services.
The advertisers and publishers engaging in transactions through Innovid’s platform impose various requirements upon each other, and Innovid and the underlying advertisers are subject to regulatory requirements by governments and standards bodies applicable to their activities. Innovid may assume responsibility for satisfying or facilitating the satisfaction of some of these requirements through the contracts it enters into with advertisers or publishers transacting business through its platform under applicable laws, regulations or common law duties, even if Innovid has not assumed responsibility contractually. These responsibilities could expose Innovid to significant liabilities, perhaps without the ability to impose effective mitigating controls upon, or to recover from, advertisers and publishers.
Innovid contractually requires its advertisers, publishers and data providers to abide by relevant laws, rules and regulations, and restrictions by their counterparties, when transacting on Innovid’s platform, and it generally attempts to obtain representations from advertisers that the advertising they place through its platform complies with applicable laws and regulations and does not violate third-party intellectual property rights. Innovid also generally receives representations from advertisers, publishers and data providers about their data privacy practices and compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including their maintenance of adequate privacy policies that disclose and permit Innovid’s data collection practices. Nonetheless, there are many circumstances in which it is difficult or impossible for Innovid to monitor or evaluate its compliance. For example, Innovid cannot control the content of advertisers and/or publisher’s media properties.
If advertisers, publishers or data providers fail to abide by relevant laws, rules and regulations, or contract requirements when transacting over Innovid’s platform or after such a transaction is completed, or if such parties fail to provide proper notice to and obtain proper consent from individuals that permit Innovid’s data collection practices where applicable, Innovid could potentially face liability to consumers for such misuse. Further, Innovid could face potential liability to consumers in the event such parties engage in malicious activities, such as the introduction of malware into consumers’ computers through advertisements served through Innovid’s platform, and code that redirects consumers to sites other than the ones consumers sought to visit, potentially resulting in malware downloads or use charges from the redirect site. Advertisers often have terms of use in place with their consumers that disclaim or limit their potential liabilities to such consumers, or pursuant to which consumers waive rights to bring class-action lawsuits against the publishers related to advertisements, which could make Innovid a more likely target for certain lawsuits. Similarly, if such misconduct results in enforcement action by a regulatory body or other governmental authority, Innovid could become involved in a potentially time-consuming and costly investigation, or it could be subject to some form of sanction or penalty and face reputational damage. Innovid may not have adequate indemnities to protect itself against, and its policies of insurance may not cover, all such claims and losses.
If advertisers or publishers do not have sufficient rights to the content, technology, data or other material that they provide or make available to Innovid, Innovid’s business and reputation may be harmed.
If advertisers or publishers do not have sufficient rights to the content, technology, data, or other material that they provide or make available to Innovid, or if it infringes or is alleged to infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, Innovid could be subject to claims from those third parties, which could adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition. For example, channel partners may aggregate ad impressions across several publishers, and Innovid may not be able to verify that these aggregators own or have rights to all of their digital ad impressions. As a result, Innovid may face potential liability for copyright, patent, trademark or other intellectual property infringement, or other claims. Litigation to defend these claims could be costly and have an adverse effect on Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition. While Innovid does include indemnity provisions covering customer content in its service agreements, it can provide no assurance that it is adequately insured to cover claims related to customer content or that its indemnification provisions will be adequate to mitigate all liability that may be imposed on it as a result of claims related to customer content.
Innovid’s platform relies on third-party open source software components. Failure to comply with the terms of the underlying open source software licenses could expose Innovid to liabilities, and the combination of open source software with code that it develops could compromise the proprietary nature of its platform.
Innovid’s platform utilizes software licensed to it by third-party authors under “open source” licenses, and Innovid expects to continue to utilize open source software in the future. The use of open source software may entail greater risks than the use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. To the extent that Innovid’s platform depends upon the successful operation of the open source software it uses, any undetected errors or defects in this open source software could prevent the deployment or impair the functionality of Innovid’s platform, delay new solutions introductions, result in a failure of its platform, and injure its reputation. For example, undetected errors or defects in open source software could render Innovid vulnerable to breaches or security attacks, and, in conjunction, make its systems more vulnerable to data breaches. Furthermore, some open source licenses contain requirements that Innovid make available source code for modifications or derivative works Innovid creates based upon the type of open source software Innovid uses. If Innovid combines its proprietary software with open source software in a specific manner, it could, under some open source licenses, be required to release the source code of its proprietary software to the public. This would allow Innovid’s competitors to create similar solutions with lower development effort and time and ultimately put Innovid at a competitive disadvantage.
Although Innovid monitors its use of open source software, it cannot be sure that the process for controlling the use of open source software in its platform will be effective. If Innovid is held to have breached the terms of an open source software license, it could be required to seek licenses from third parties to continue operating using its solutions on terms that are not economically feasible, to re-engineer its solutions or the supporting computational infrastructure, to discontinue use of the code or to make generally available, in source code form, portions of its proprietary code.
Innovid’s business is subject to the risk of catastrophic events such as pandemics, earthquakes, flooding, fire, and power outages, and to interruption by man-made problems such as terrorism.
Innovid’s business is vulnerable to damage or interruption from pandemics, earthquakes, flooding, fire, power outages, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, acts of war, human errors, break-ins and similar events. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic, including the reactions of governments, markets, and the general public, may result in a number of adverse consequences for Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition, many of which are beyond Innovid’s control. A significant natural disaster could have a material adverse effect on Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition, and Innovid’s insurance coverage may be insufficient to compensate Innovid for losses that may occur. In addition, acts of terrorism, which may be targeted at metropolitan areas that have higher population density than rural areas, could cause disruptions in Innovid’s or its customers businesses or the economy as a whole. Innovid may also be subject to cyber security incidents – see “Risks Relating to Information Technology, Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property—System failures, security breaches, or cyberattacks could interrupt the operation of Innovid’s platform and data centers and significantly harm its business, financial condition and results of operations” below for more details. Innovid may not have sufficient protection or recovery plans in some circumstances, such as natural disasters affecting areas in which it operates. As Innovid relies heavily on technology such as computers, communications systems and the Internet to conduct its business and provide high-quality customer service, these disruptions could negatively impact Innovid’s ability to run its business and either directly or indirectly disrupt its customers businesses, which could have an adverse effect on Innovid’s business, results of operations and financial condition.
Innovid relies on integrations with demand- and supply-side advertising platforms, ad servers and social platforms. A decrease in demand for advertising and public criticism of digital advertising technology in the US and internationally, could adversely affect the demand for and use of Innovid’s solutions.
Innovid’s business depends, in part, on the demand for digital advertising technology. The digital advertising industry has been and may in the future be subject to reputational harm, negative media attention and public complaint relating to, among other things, the alleged lack of transparency and anti-competitive behavior among advertising technology companies. This public criticism could result in increased data privacy and anti-trust regulation in the digital advertising industry in the US and internationally. In addition, Innovid’s services are delivered in web browsers, mobile apps and other software environments where online advertising is displayed, and certain of these environments have announced future plans to phase out or end the use of cookies and other third-party tracking technology on their operating systems in order to provide more consumer data privacy. While Innovid’s technology and solutions do not rely on persistent identifiers or cookie-based or cross-site tracking, these changes and other updates to software functionality in these environments could hurt Innovid’s ability to effectively deliver its services.
Innovid may not be able to accurately predict changes in overall advertiser demand for the channels in which it operates, and cannot assure that its investment in formats will correspond to any such changes. Advertisers may change the fees they charge users or otherwise change their business model in a manner that slows the widespread acceptance of advertisements. In order for Innovid’s services to be successful, there must be a large base of advertisers to deliver content. Innovid has limited or no control over the availability or acceptance of those advertisements, and any change in the licensing terms, costs, availability or user acceptance of these advertisements could adversely affect its business. Any decrease in the use of mobile, display, and video advertising, whether due to customers losing confidence in the value or effectiveness of such channels, regulatory restrictions, public criticism or other causes, or any inability to further penetrate CTV or enter new and emerging advertising channels, could adversely affect Innovid’s business, results of operations, and financial condition. Any change or decrease in the demand for digital advertising, including on social media platforms as a result of avoidance campaigns or similar events, may negatively affect the demand for and use of Innovid’s solutions. If Innovid’s customers significantly reduce or eliminate their digital ad spend in response to the public criticism of the digital advertising industry or its related effects, its business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Innovid’s international operations and expansion expose it to several risks.
Innovid’s current global operations and future initiatives involve a variety of risks, including, in addition to risks described elsewhere in this section:
•operational and execution risk, including localization of the product interface and systems, translation into foreign languages, adaptation for local practices, adequate coordination of timing to onboard local clients and advertisers, difficulty of maintaining Innovid’s corporate culture, challenges inherent to hiring and efficiently managing an increased number of employees over large geographic distances, and the increasing complexity of the organizational structure required to support expansion and operations into multiple geographies and regulatory systems;
•insufficient, or insufficiently coordinated, demand for and supply of advertising inventory in specific geographic markets, which could impair Innovid’s ability to accurately predict user engagement in that market;
•compliance with (and liability for failure to comply with) applicable local laws and regulations, including, among other things, laws and regulations with respect to data protection, data/user privacy, tax and withholding, labor regulations, anti-corruption, consumer protection, spam and content, which laws and regulations may be inconsistent across jurisdictions;
•intensity of local competition for digital advertising budgets and internet display inventory;
•changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic conditions;
•risks related to pricing structure, payment and currency, including aligning Innovid’s pricing model and payment terms with local norms, higher levels of credit risk and payment fraud, difficulties in invoicing and collecting in foreign currencies and associated foreign currency exposure, restrictions on foreign ownership and investments, and difficulties in repatriating or transferring funds from or converting; currencies; and
•limited or unfavorable intellectual property protection.
Innovid currently operates in Europe through a subsidiary located in the United Kingdom and may expand to other global regions including China, other South Asian countries as well as Latin America. It remains unclear what impact the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU(“Brexit”) will have on Innovid’s business in the United Kingdom, EU and elsewhere globally. Brexit may adversely affect economic conditions in the United Kingdom, EU and elsewhere across the globe, and could contribute to volatility in foreign exchange markets with respect to the British Pound and Euro, which Innovid may not be able to effectively manage, and its financial results could be adversely affected. Further, Brexit may add additional complexity to potential European operations. Accordingly, Innovid cannot predict the additional expense, impact on revenue, or other business impact that may stem from Brexit. Additionally, operating in international markets also requires significant management attention and financial resources. Innovid cannot be certain that the investment and additional resources required in establishing operations in other countries will produce desired levels of revenue or profitability. Foreign currency exchange risk exposure also arises from intra-company transactions and financing with subsidiaries that have a functional currency different than the euro. While Innovid may engage in hedging transactions to minimize the impact of uncertainty in future exchange rates on intra-company transactions and financing, it may not hedge all of its foreign currency exchange rate risk. In addition, hedging transactions, to the extent Innovid may engage in hedging, carries its own risks and costs, and could expose it to additional risks that could harm its financial condition and operating results.
Changes in tax laws or tax rulings could materially affect Innovid’s effective tax rates, financial position and results of operations.
The tax regimes Innovid is subject to or operates under may be subject to significant change. Changes in tax laws (including in response to the COVID-19 pandemic) or changes in interpretations of existing laws could cause Innovid to be subject to additional income-based taxes and non-income based taxes (such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, digital services and excise, net worth, property, and goods and services taxes), which in turn could materially affect Innovid’s financial position and results of operations. For example, in December 2017, the US federal government enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the “2017 Tax Act”. The 2017 Tax Act significantly changed the existing US corporate income tax laws by, among other things, lowering the corporate tax rate, implementing a partially territorial tax system, and imposing a onetime deemed repatriation toll tax on cumulative undistributed foreign earnings. Many of the provisions of the 2017 Tax Act are highly complex and may be subject to further interpretive guidance from the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, or others. Some of the provisions of the 2017 Tax Act may be changed by a future Congress and may face future challenges by the WTO. Although Innovid cannot predict the nature or outcome of such future interpretive guidance, or actions by a future Congress or WTO, they could adversely impact the consolidated results of Innovid’s operations and financial position. In addition, many countries in the EU, as well as a number of other countries and organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, have recently proposed or recommended changes to existing tax laws or have enacted new laws that could impact Innovid’s tax obligations. Any significant changes to Innovid’s future effective tax rate may materially and adversely affect Innovid’s business, financial condition, results of operations, or cash flows.
Innovid could be required to collect additional sales, value added or similar taxes or be subject to other tax liabilities that may adversely affect its results of operations.
One or more countries or US states may seek to impose incremental or new sales, value added taxes or use or other tax collection obligations on Innovid. An increasing number of states have considered or adopted laws that impose sales tax collection obligations on out-of-state companies. This is also the case in respect of the EU, where value added taxes may be imposed on non-EU companies making digital sales to consumers within the EU. In addition, the US Supreme Court ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., or Wayfair, that online sellers can be required to collect sales and use tax despite not having a physical presence in the customer’s state. In response to Wayfair, or otherwise, state and local governments may adopt, or begin to enforce, laws requiring Innovid to calculate, collect and remit sales taxes in their jurisdictions. Similarly, many foreign jurisdictions have considered or adopted laws that impose value added, digital services or similar indirect taxes on companies despite not having a physical presence in the foreign jurisdiction.
A successful assertion by one or more states, or other countries or jurisdictions, requiring Innovid to collect taxes where it presently does not do so, or to collect more taxes in a jurisdiction in which it currently collects some taxes, could result in substantial liabilities, including taxes on past sales as well as penalties and interest. Innovid continually monitors the ever-evolving tax landscape in the jurisdictions in which it operates and those jurisdictions where its customers reside. The requirement to collect sales, value added or similar indirect taxes by foreign, state or local governments for sellers that do not have a physical presence in the jurisdiction could also create additional administrative burdens for Innovid, put it at a competitive disadvantage if they do not impose similar obligations on its competitors or decrease its future sales, which may materially and adversely affect its business and results of operations.
Innovid may have exposure to greater than anticipated tax liabilities.
Innovid’s income tax obligations are based in part on its corporate operating structure and intercompany arrangements. The tax laws applicable to Innovid’s business, including the laws of the US and other jurisdictions, are subject to interpretation, and certain jurisdictions are aggressively interpreting their laws in new ways in an effort to raise additional tax revenue. Innovid’s existing corporate structure and intercompany arrangements have been implemented in a manner Innovid believes is in compliance with current prevailing tax laws. However, the taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which Innovid operates may challenge Innovid’s methodologies for intercompany arrangements, which could impact Innovid’s worldwide effective tax rate and harm its financial position and results of operations. In addition, changes to Innovid’s corporate structure and intercompany agreements, including through acquisitions, could impact Innovid’s worldwide effective tax rate and harm its financial position and results of operation.
Innovid may not be able to effectively integrate the businesses it acquires, which may adversely affect its ability to achieve its growth and business objectives.
Innovid explores, on an ongoing basis, potential acquisitions of additional businesses, products, solutions, technologies or teams. If Innovid identifies an appropriate acquisition candidate, it may not be successful in negotiating the terms and/or financing of the acquisition, and its due diligence may fail to identify all of the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired business, product, solution or technology, including issues related to intellectual property, product quality or architecture, employees or clients, regulatory compliance practices or revenue recognition or other accounting practices. Any acquisition or investment may require Innovid to use significant amounts of cash, issue potentially dilutive equity securities or incur debt, contingent liabilities or amortization of expenses, or impairment of goodwill and/or purchased long-lived assets, and restructuring charges, any of which could harm its financial condition or results. In addition, acquisitions, including Innovid’s recent acquisitions, involve numerous risks, any of which could harm its business, including:
•difficulties in integrating the operations, technologies, services and personnel of acquired businesses, especially if those businesses operate outside of Innovid’s core competency;
•the need to integrate operations across different geographies, cultures and languages and to address the particular economic, currency, political and regulatory risks associated with specific countries;
•cultural challenges associated with integrating employees from the acquired company into Innovid’s organization;
•ineffectiveness, lack of scalability or incompatibility of acquired technologies or services;
•potential loss of key employees of acquired businesses;
•inability to maintain the key business relationships and the reputation of acquired businesses;
•failure to successfully further develop the acquired technology in order to recoup Innovid’s investment;
•unfavorable reputation and perception of the acquired product or technology by the general public;
•diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns;
•liability or litigation for activities of the acquired business, including claims from terminated employees, clients, former shareholders or other third parties;
•implementation or remediation of controls, practices, procedures and policies at acquired businesses, including the costs necessary to establish and maintain effective internal controls; and
•increased fixed costs.
There can be no assurance that Innovid will be able to successfully integrate the businesses that it acquires or that it will be able to leverage the acquired commercial relationships, products or technologies in the manner it anticipates. If Innovid is unable to successfully integrate the businesses it has acquired or any business, product, solution or technology it acquires in the future, its business and results of operations could suffer, and it may not be able to achieve its business and growth objectives.
Innovid has substantial client concentration in certain local markets and solutions, with a limited number of clients accounting for a substantial portion of its revenues in those areas.
Although Innovid’s overall customer base is well-diversified, in certain of its local markets and specific solutions, it derives a substantial portion of revenues from a limited number of clients. There are inherent risks whenever a large percentage of revenues within any specific market or solution are concentrated within a limited number of clients. Innovid cannot predict the future level of demand for its services and products that will be generated by these clients. In addition, revenues from these clients may fluctuate from time to time. Further, some of Innovid’s contracts with these clients may permit them to terminate use of its products at any time (subject to notice and certain other provisions). If any of these clients terminate or reduce use of Innovid’s products, its revenues within local markets or specific solutions may be negatively impacted.
Innovid experiences fluctuations in its results of operations due to a number of factors, which make Innovid’s future results difficult to predict and could cause its operating results to fall below expectations or guidance.
Innovid’s quarterly and annual results of operations fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of its control. As a result, comparing Innovid’s results of operations on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. Fluctuations in Innovid’s results of operations could cause its performance to fall below the expectations of analysts and investors, and adversely affect the price of its services. Innovid’s past results are not an indication of its future performance. Factors that may affect Innovid’s quarterly results of operations include:
•the nature of Innovid’s clients’ products or services, including the seasonal nature of its clients’ advertising spending;
•lengthy implementation cycles resulting in substantial expenses incurred without any guarantee of revenue generation;
•demand for Innovid’s offering and the size, scope and timing of digital advertising campaigns;
•the relative lack of long-term agreements with Innovid’s clients and advertisers;
•client and advertisers retention rates;
•market acceptance of Innovid’s offering and future solutions and services (i) in current industry verticals and new industry verticals, (ii) in new geographic markets, (iii) in new advertising channels, or (iv) for broader marketing goals;
•the timing of large expenditures related to expansion into new solutions, new geographic markets, new industry verticals, acquisitions and/or capital projects;
•the timing of adding support for new digital devices, platforms and operating systems;
•Innovid’s clients’ budgeting cycles;
•changes in the competitive dynamics of Innovid’s industry, including consolidation among competitors;
•consumers’ response to Innovid’s clients’ advertisements, to online advertising in general and to tracking technologies for targeted or behavioral advertising purposes;
•Innovid’s ability to control costs, including its operating expenses;
•network outages, errors in Innovid’s technology or security breaches and any associated expense and collateral effects;
•foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, as some of Innovid’s foreign sales and costs are denominated in its local currencies;
•failure to successfully manage any acquisitions; and
•general economic and political conditions in Innovid’s domestic and international markets.
As a result, Innovid may have a limited ability to forecast the amount of future revenue and expense, and its results of operations may from time to time fall below its estimates or the expectations of public market analysts and investors.
Risks Relating to Compliance with Law, Government Regulation and Litigation
Innovid is subject to anti-bribery, anti-corruption, and similar laws and non-compliance with such laws can subject it to criminal penalties or significant fines and harm its business and reputation.
Innovid is subject to anti-bribery and similar laws, such as the FCPA, the US domestic bribery statute contained in 18 USC. § 201, the USA PATRIOT Act, US Travel Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and possibly other anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which it conducts activities. Anti-corruption laws have been enforced with great rigor in recent years and are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees and their agents from making or offering improper payments or other benefits to government officials and others in the private sector. The FCPA or other applicable anti-corruption laws may also hold Innovid liable for acts of corruption or bribery committed by its third-party business partners, representatives, and agents, even if Innovid does not authorize such activities. As Innovid increases its international sales and business, and increases its use of third parties, Innovid’s risks under these laws will increase.
Innovid operates in jurisdictions that present a high risk for bribery and corruption according to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, and Innovid’s current policies and procedures may not be sufficient to mitigate Innovid’s anti-corruption risks. As a public company, the FCPA separately requires that Innovid keep accurate books and records and maintain internal accounting controls sufficient to assure management’s control, authority, and responsibility over its assets. Innovid has adopted policies and procedures and conducted training designed to prevent improper payments and other corrupt practices prohibited by applicable laws, but cannot guarantee that improprieties will not occur. Noncompliance with these laws could subject Innovid to investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, other enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, suspension and/or debarment from contracting with specified persons, the loss of export privileges, reputational harm, adverse media coverage, and other collateral consequences. Any investigations, actions, and/or sanctions could have an adverse effect on Innovid’s business, results of operations and financial condition.
Innovid is subject to economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations and export and import controls that could impair its ability to compete in international markets or subject it to liability if it is not in compliance with applicable laws
Innovid is subject to various US export control laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations administered by the US Department of Commerce, and trade and economic sanctions laws and regulations, including those administered by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the US Department of State, and the US Department of Commerce (collectively, “Trade Controls”). US Trade Controls prohibit or restrict transactions and dealings, including the shipment of products and the provision of services to or involving certain countries, territories, governments, and persons. Although Innovid endeavors to conduct its business in compliance with Trade Controls, its failure to successfully comply may expose it to negative legal and business consequences, including civil or criminal penalties, governmental investigations, loss of export privileges, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, suspension and/or debarment from contracting with certain persons, adverse media coverage, and other reputational harm.
Furthermore, if Innovid exports its technology or software, such exports may require authorization from US regulators, including prior licensing from the US Department of Commerce or other appropriate government authorization. Obtaining such authorization and otherwise complying with Trade Controls may be time-consuming and may result in the delay or loss of opportunities.
In addition, various countries regulate the import of encryption technology, including the imposition of import permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit Innovid’s ability to offer its platform or could limit its customers’ ability to use Innovid’s platform in those countries. Changes in Innovid’s platform or future changes in export and import regulations may create delays in the introduction of Innovid’s platform in international markets or prevent Innovid’s customers with international operations from deploying its platform globally. Any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions or related legislation, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such regulations, could result in decreased use of Innovid’s platform by, or in its decreased ability to export its technology and services to, existing or potential customers. Any decreased use of Innovid’s platform or limitation on its ability to export its platform would likely adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Failure to comply with applicable legislation and regulation on data privacy and data protection and changes in laws and regulations that result in changes to Innovid’s data collection and storage practices may adversely affect its business.
There are a growing number of data privacy and protection laws and regulations in the digital advertising industry that apply to Innovid’s business. Innovid has dedicated, and expects to continue to dedicate, significant resources in its efforts to comply with such laws and regulations. For example, Innovid has implemented policies and procedures to comply with applicable data privacy laws and regulations, and relies on contractual representations made to it by customers and partners that the information they provide to it and their use of its solutions do not violate these laws and regulations or their own privacy policies. If Innovid’s customers’ and partners’ representations are false or inaccurate, or if its customers and partners do not otherwise comply with applicable privacy laws, Innovid could face adverse publicity and possible legal or regulatory action. Conversely, Innovid’s partners and communications services providers have adopted their own policies based on their own perceptions of legal requirements or other policy determinations, and these policies have in the past temporarily prevented Innovid, and may again in the future prevent it, from operating on their platforms and possibly result in loss of business or litigation. The application, interpretation and enforcement of data privacy and protection laws and regulations are often uncertain and continue to evolve, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which Innovid operates, and may be interpreted and applied inconsistently between states within a country or between countries, and Innovid’s current policies and practices may be found not to comply.
In the US, federal and state laws impose limits on, or requirements regarding the collection, distribution, use, security and storage of personal information of individuals. For example, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act applies to websites and other online services that collect personal information about children under 13 years of age. The FTC Act grants the FTC authority to enforce against unfair or deceptive practices, which the FTC has interpreted to require companies’ practices with respect to personal information comply with the commitments posted in their privacy policies. With respect to the use of personal information for direct marketing purposes, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, establishes specific requirements for commercial email messages and specifies penalties for the transmission of commercial email messages that are intended to deceive the recipient as to source or content, and obligates, among other things, the sender of commercial emails to provide recipients with the ability to opt out of receiving future commercial emails from the sender. Further, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act restricts telemarketing and the use of technologies that enable automatic calling and/or messaging without proper customer consent, and is a particularly highly litigated issue.
There has also been increased regulation of data privacy and security in the US particularly at the state level. For example, in 2018, California enacted the CPA, which came into effect in January 2020 and places increased obligations on businesses. The CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and delete their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. Further, in November 2020, California voters passed the CPRA, which significantly expands the CCPA. The CPRA, which takes effect January 1, 2023 (and applies to data collected during the prior year), introduces additional obligations such as data minimization and storage limitations, granting additional rights to consumers, such as correction of personal information and additional opt-out rights, and creates a new entity, the California Privacy Protection Agency, to implement and enforce the law. The CCPA has marked the beginning of a trend toward more stringent state data privacy legislation in the US, which could increase Innovid’s potential liability and adversely affect its business. For example, Virginia has adopted a new state data protection act referred to as the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, or CDPA, which is set to take effect on January 1, 2023. Further, Colorado has adopted a new state data protection act titled the Colorado Privacy Act, which is set to take effect on July 1, 2023. The potential effects of legislation are far-reaching and may require Innovid to modify its processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply.
Further, foreign data privacy laws are also rapidly changing and have become more stringent in recent years. In the EEA and the UK, the EEA GDPR, the UK General Data Protection Regulation, and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 impose strict obligations on the ability to collect, analyze, use, transfer and otherwise process personal data. This includes requirements with respect to accountability, transparency, obtaining individual consent, international data transfers, security and confidentiality and personal data breach notifications, which may restrict our processing activities. Separate, restrictive obligations relating to electronic marketing and the use of cookies which may limit our ability to advertise or analyze user behavior online. In the EU and UK, informed consent is required for the placement of most cookies or similar technologies on a user’s device and for direct electronic marketing. The EEA privacy laws on cookies and e-marketing are also subject to change as they are likely to be replaced by the European Commission’s Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications, or the ePrivacy Regulation. The ePrivacy Regulation may introduce more stringent requirements for using cookies and similar technologies for direct marketing and significantly increase fines for non-compliance in-line with the GDPR. In addition, there is an increasing regulatory focus on cookies in Europe recently following a recent court decision, privacy activists’ campaigns and various guidance issued by supervisory authorities, which has in some cases led to significant monetary penalties. If regulators start to enforce the strict approach in recent guidance, this could lead to substantial costs, require significant systems changes, limit the effectiveness of our marketing activities, divert the attention of our technology personnel, adversely affect our margins, increase costs, and subject us to additional liabilities.
Innovid expects that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations, and industry standards concerning data privacy, data protection, and information security in the United States and other jurisdictions at all levels of legislature, governance, and applicability. These federal, state and foreign laws and regulations, which in some cases can be enforced by private parties in addition to government entities, are increasingly restricting the collection, processing and use of personal data. Innovid continues to monitor changes in laws and regulations, and the costs of compliance with, and the other burdens imposed by, these and other new laws or regulatory actions increase our costs. Although Innovid takes reasonable efforts to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, laws are constantly evolving, can be subject to significant change or interpretive application, and may be inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another.
Any perception of Innovid’s practices, platform or solutions delivery as a violation of data privacy rights may subject it to public criticism, loss of customers or partners, loss of goodwill, class action lawsuits, reputational harm, or investigations or claims by regulators, industry groups or other third parties, any of which could significantly disrupt its business and expose it to liability in ways that negatively affect its business, results of operations and financial condition. Innovid or its third-party service providers could be adversely affected if legislation or regulations are expanded to require changes in Innovid’s or its third-party service providers’ business practices or if governing jurisdictions interpret or implement their legislation or regulations in ways that negatively affect Innovid’s or Innovid’s third-party service providers’ business, results of operations or financial condition.
In addition, failure to comply with these and other laws and regulations may result in, among other things, administrative enforcement actions and significant fines, individual or class action lawsuits, significant legal fees, and civil or criminal liability. Any regulatory or civil action that is brought against Innovid, even if unsuccessful, may distract its management’s attention, divert its resources, negatively affect its public image or reputation among its customers and partners and within its industry, and, consequently, harm its business, results of operations and financial condition.
Legal uncertainty and industry unpreparedness for new regulations may mean substantial disruption and inefficiency, demand constraints, and reduced value.
Some of Innovid’s advertisers may be unprepared to comply with evolving regulatory guidance under the CCPA, CPRA, CDPA, GDPR, or other new regulations, and may therefore remove personal data from their inventory before passing it into the bid stream, at least temporarily. This may lower customer inventory, resulting in loss of ad spend and revenue for Innovid. Further, since Innovid does not have direct relationships with end users, it relies on advertisers to obtain such consents as required. Even well-prepared advertisers may be confronted with difficult choices and administrative and technical hurdles as they implement their compliance programs and integrate with multiple other parties in the ecosystem. While Innovid can and does provide training and guidance on compliance, the nature of the ecosystem and technology does not support 100% verification that consent from end users has been obtained, when required, and it may unknowingly pass on consumer personal information when it should not. This exposes Innovid to potential regulatory scrutiny, investigations, fines, penalties, and other legal and financial exposure. Additionally, data privacy and data protection laws are evolving, and it is possible that these laws may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with Innovid’s safeguards and practices that could result in fines, lawsuits and other penalties, and significant changes to its client’s businesses practices and inventory.
Further, compliance program design and implementation will be an ongoing process as understanding of new regulations increase and industry compliance standards evolve. The resulting process friction could result in substantial inefficiency and loss of inventory and demand, as well as increased burdens upon Innovid’s organization as it seeks to assist customers and adapt its own technology and processes as necessary to comply with the law and industry practice. The uncertain regulatory environment may disadvantage Innovid in comparison to large, integrated competitors such as Google and Facebook, which have greater compliance resources and can take advantage of their direct relationships with end users to secure consents. Changes in the business practices of such large integrated competitors could impose additional requirements with respect to the retention and security of Innovid’s handling or ability to handle customer and end user data, could limit its marketing and core business activities, and have an adverse effect on its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Risks Relating to Information Technology, Cybersecurity and Intellectual Property
An assertion from a third party that Innovid is infringing its intellectual property rights, whether such assertion is valid or not, could subject it to costly and time-consuming litigation, expensive licenses or other impacts to its business.
There is significant intellectual property development activity in the measurement and authentication of digital ads. Third-party intellectual property rights may cover significant aspects of Innovid’s technologies or business methods or block Innovid from expanding its platform and delivering new solutions, and it cannot be certain that its current operations do not infringe the rights of a third party. Innovid has on one occasion received and may in the future receive allegations and/or claims from third parties that Innovid’s technology infringes or violates such third parties’ intellectual property rights. The cost of defending against such claims, whether or not the claims have merit, is significant and could divert the attention of management, technical personnel and other employees from Innovid’s business operations. Litigation regarding intellectual property rights is inherently uncertain due to the complex issues involved, and Innovid may not be successful in defending itself in such matters.
Additionally, Innovid may be obligated to indemnify its customers or partners in connection with any such litigation. Intellectual property claims could harm Innovid’s relationships with its customers and deter future customers from buying its solutions or expose Innovid to litigation. If Innovid is found to infringe intellectual property rights, it could potentially be subject to injunctive or other relief that could affect Innovid’s ability to provide its solutions. Innovid may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology and may be unable to do so, or such development may require significant time and expense and may not be successful. In addition, Innovid could be required to pay royalty payments, either as a one-time fee or ongoing, as well as damages for past use that was deemed to be infringing. If Innovid cannot license or develop technology for any allegedly infringing aspect of its business, this may limit its platform and solutions, and Innovid may be unable to compete effectively. Any of these results could adversely affect Innovid’s business, financial condition and results of operations.
Innovid’s intellectual property rights may be difficult to enforce and protect, which could enable others to copy or use aspects of its technology without compensation, thereby eroding its competitive advantages and having an adverse effect on its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Innovid relies upon a combination of trade secrets, third-party confidentiality, non-disclosure agreements, contractual restrictions on disclosure and use, and trademark, copyright, patent, and other intellectual property laws to establish and protect its proprietary technology and intellectual property rights. Innovid currently owns trademark registrations and applications for the “Innovid” name and variants thereof and other product-related marks in the United States and certain foreign countries. Innovid has also registered numerous Internet domain names related to its business.
Innovid also relies on copyright laws to protect computer programs related to its platform and its proprietary technologies, although to date Innovid has not registered for statutory copyright protection. In order to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States, the copyright must be registered. Accordingly, the remedies and damages available to Innovid for unauthorized use of its software may be limited. Some of Innovid’s proprietary technology, technology architecture, trade secrets and engineering roadmap have not been patented. As a result, Innovid cannot look to patent enforcement rights to protect some of Innovid’s proprietary technology. Furthermore, Innovid’s patent strategy is still in its early stages. Innovid may not be able to obtain any further patents, and Innovid’s pending application may not result in the issuance of a patent. Any issued patents may be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented, and any rights granted under these patents may not actually provide adequate defensive protection or competitive advantages to Innovid. Additionally, the process of obtaining patent protection is expensive and time-consuming, and Innovid may not be able to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner.
While it is Innovid’s policy to protect and defend its rights to its intellectual property, it cannot predict whether steps taken by it to protect its intellectual property will be adequate to prevent infringement, misappropriation, dilution, or other violations of its intellectual property rights. Third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe Innovid’s intellectual property rights, third parties may challenge intellectual property rights held by Innovid, and pending and future trademark and patent applications may not be approved. These claims may result in restrictions on Innovid’s use of its intellectual property or the conduct of its business. In any of these cases, Innovid may be required to expend significant time and expense to prevent infringement or to enforce its rights. Innovid also cannot guarantee that others will not independently develop technology with the same or similar functions to any proprietary technology Innovid relies on to conduct its business and differentiate itself from its competitors. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to copy or obtain and use Innovid’s technology to develop applications with the same functionality as its solutions, and policing unauthorized use of its technology and intellectual property rights is difficult and may not be effective. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those of the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of Innovid’s intellectual property rights in such countries may be inadequate. If Innovid is unable to protect its intellectual property rights (including in particular, the proprietary aspects of its platform) Innovid may find itself at a competitive disadvantage to others who have not incurred the same level of expense, time and effort to create, and protect their intellectual property.
Innovid’s customer agreements generally restrict the use of its confidential information solely to use in connection with the use of its services and restrict the reverse engineering of its technology. In spite of such limitations, reverse engineering Innovid’s software or the theft or misuse of Innovid’s confidential information could occur by customers or other third parties who have access to its technology. Innovid also endeavors to enter into agreements with its employees and contractors in order to limit access to and disclosure of its confidential information, as well as to clarify rights to intellectual property and technology associated with Innovid’s business. These agreements may not effectively grant all necessary rights to any inventions that may have been developed by the employees or consultants party thereto. In addition, these agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of Innovid’s confidential information, intellectual property or technology and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of Innovid’s confidential information, intellectual property, or technology.
Furthermore, protecting Innovid’s intellectual property is particularly challenging after its employees or its contractors end their relationship with Innovid, and, in some cases, decide to work for Innovid’s competitors. Also, enforceability of the non-compete agreements that Innovid has in place is not guaranteed, and contractual restrictions could be breached without discovery or adequate remedies.
Innovid relies on licenses to use the intellectual property rights of third parties to conduct its business.
Innovid relies on products, technologies, and intellectual property that it licenses from third parties, for use in operating its business. Innovid cannot assure that these third-party licenses, or support for such licensed products and technologies, will continue to be available to Innovid on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Innovid cannot be certain that its licensors are not infringing the intellectual property rights of others or that its suppliers and licensors have sufficient rights to the technology in all jurisdictions in which Innovid may operate. Some of Innovid’s license agreements may be terminated by its licensors for convenience. If Innovid is unable to obtain or maintain rights to any of this technology because of intellectual property infringement claims brought by third parties against its suppliers and licensors or against it, or if Innovid is unable to continue to obtain the technology or enter into new agreements on commercially reasonable terms, its ability to operate and expand its business could be harmed.
If Innovid fails to adequately maintain the security of and prevent unauthorized access into its systems or devices, advertisers could lose confidence in its platform, and Innovid could face legal claims that could adversely affect its business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Innovid may be subject to fraudulent or malicious activities undertaken by persons seeking to use its platform for improper purposes. For example, someone may attempt to divert or artificially inflate advertiser purchases through Innovid’s platform, or to disrupt or divert the operation of the systems, and devices of its advertisers, and their consumers in order to misappropriate information, generate fraudulent billings or stage cyberattacks, or for other illicit purposes. For example, sophisticated bot-nets and other complex forms of click fraud might be used to generate fraudulent impressions and divert advertising revenue from legitimate websites of publishers. Those activities could also introduce malware through Innovid’s platform in order to commandeer or gain access to information on consumers’ computers. Innovid uses third-party tools and proprietary technology to identify non-human traffic and malware, and it may reduce or terminate relationships with advertisers that Innovid finds to be engaging in such activities. Although Innovid continuously assesses the quality and performance of advertising on digital media properties, it may be difficult to detect fraudulent or malicious activity, and Innovid relies on its own and third-party tools, as well as the controls of advertisers. Further, perpetrators of fraudulent impressions and malware frequently change their tactics and may become more sophisticated over time, requiring both Innovid and third parties to improve processes for assessing the quality of advertiser inventory and controlling fraudulent activity. If Innovid fails to detect fraudulent or malicious activity of this sort, its reputation could be damaged, advertisers may contest payment, demand refunds, or fail to give Innovid future business, or Innovid could face legal claims from advertisers. Even if Innovid is not directly involved in fraud or malicious activity, any sustained failures of others in its industry to adequately detect and prevent fraud could generate the perception that programmatic trading is unsafe, harm its reputation, and lead its advertisers to avoid programmatic advertising.
System failures, security breaches or cyberattacks could interrupt the operation of Innovid’s platform and data centers and significantly harm its business, financial condition and results of operations.
Innovid’s success depends on the efficient and uninterrupted operation of its platform. In delivering Innovid’s solutions, it is dependent on the operation of third-party data and cloud computing platforms centers, which are vulnerable to damage or interruption from computer viruses, computer denial of service attacks, unidentified security vulnerabilities, exploitation of encryption technology, or other attempts to harm Innovid’s system and similar events. In the future, in particular due to the increasingly evolving methods of bad actors, Innovid may need to expand its systems at a significant cost and at a more rapid pace than Innovid has to date. Innovid may be unable to provide its solutions on a timely basis or experience performance issues with its platform if Innovid fails to adequately expand or maintain its system capabilities to meet future requirements and address future threats. Some of Innovid’s systems are not fully redundant, and its disaster recovery planning cannot account for all eventualities. The occurrence of any issues or failures at Innovid’s data centers could result in interruptions in the delivery of its solutions to its customers. Additionally, certain of Innovid’s third-party service providers and other vendors have access to portions of its IT system. Performance failures or acts of negligence by these service providers may cause material disruptions to Innovid’s IT systems. A failure or disruption of Innovid’s computer systems, or those of its demand-side integration partners, could impede access to its platform, interfere with its data analytics and prevent the timely delivery of Innovid’s solutions.
The techniques used by criminals to obtain unauthorized access to systems or proprietary information or sensitive, personal or confidential data change frequently and often are not recognized until after being launched against a target, and accordingly, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventative measures and there may be a significant delay between the initiation of an attack on our systems and our recognition of the attack. The occurrence of inadvertent or intentional acts of our employees, third-party service providers and other vendors, or business partners may result in a compromise or breach of our networks, or those of third parties with whom we do business. Outside parties may also attempt in the future to fraudulently induce Innovid’s employees or users of its platform to disclose sensitive information via illegal electronic spamming, phishing, or other tactics. Any actual or perceived breach of Innovid’s security measures or Innovid’s third party service providers and other vendors with access to Innovid’s IT system, or the accidental loss, inadvertent disclosure or unauthorized dissemination of proprietary information or sensitive, personal or confidential data about us, our employees, customers or integration partners, or our advertisers and their consumers, including the potential loss or disclosure of such information or data as a result of hacking, fraud, trickery or other forms of deception, could expose Innovid, our employees, our customers or integration partners, or our advertisers and their consumers to risks of loss or misuse of this information.
Any such breach, loss, disclosure or dissemination may also result in potential liability or fines, governmental inquiry or oversight, enforcement actions, injunctive relief, litigation, public statements against us by advocacy groups or others, or a loss of customer confidence, any of which could harm Innovid’s business and damage its reputation, possibly impeding its ability to retain and attract new customers, and cause a material adverse effect on Innovid’s operations and financial condition. The cost of investigating, mitigating and responding to potential security breaches and complying with applicable breach notification obligations to individuals, regulators, partners and others can be significant and the risk of legal claims in the event of a security breach is increasing. For example, the CCPA creates a private right of action for certain data breaches. Further, defending a suit, regardless of its merit, could be costly, divert management attention and harm Innovid’s reputation. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against Innovid that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in its insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductibles or co-insurance requirements, could adversely affect Innovid’s reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Any material disruption or slowdown of Innovid’s systems or those of its third-party vendors or business partners, could have a material adverse effect on Innovid’s business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
Risks Relating to Innovid’s Capital Resources
In the future, Innovid may need to obtain additional financing that may not be available or may reduce its profitability or result in dilution to its stockholders.
Innovid may require additional capital in the future to develop and execute Innovid’s long-term growth strategy. Innovid may need to raise additional funds in the future in order to, among other things:
•finance working capital requirements, capital investments, or refinance existing or future indebtedness;
•acquire complementary businesses, technologies, or products;
•develop or enhance its technological infrastructure and its existing platform and solutions;
•fund strategic relationships; and
•respond to competitive pressures.
If Innovid incurs additional indebtedness, its profitability may be reduced. Any future indebtedness could be at higher interest rates and may require Innovid to comply with restrictive covenants, which could place limitations on its business operations. Further, Innovid may not be able to maintain sufficient cash flows from its operating activities to service its existing and any future indebtedness. If Innovid’s operating results are not sufficient to service any future indebtedness, it will be forced to take actions such as reducing or delaying its business activities, investments or capital expenditures, selling assets or issuing equity. If Innovid issues additional equity securities, its stockholders may experience significant dilution and the price of our common stock may decline. Alternatively, if adequate funds are not available or are not available on acceptable terms, Innovid’s ability to fund its strategic initiatives, take advantage of unanticipated opportunities, develop or enhance its technology or services, or otherwise respond to competitive pressures could be significantly limited.
Additional Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock
The price of our common stock and warrants was and may be volatile in the future.
The price of our common stock, as well as our warrants, fluctuated in the past and may continue to fluctuate due to a variety of factors, including:
•changes in the industries in which we and our customers operate;
•developments involving our competitors;
•changes in laws and regulations affecting our business;
•variations in our operating performance and the performance of our competitors in general;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly or annual operating results;
•publication of research reports by securities analysts about us or our competitors or our industry;
•the public’s reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements and our filings with the SEC;
•actions by stockholders, including the sale by the PIPE Investors of any of their shares of our common stock;
•additions and departures of key personnel;
•commencement of, or involvement in, litigation involving our company;
•changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of securities or the incurrence of additional debt;
•the volume of shares of our common stock available for public sale; and
•general economic and political conditions, such as the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, recessions, interest rates, local and national elections, fuel prices, international currency fluctuations, corruption, political instability and acts of war or terrorism including the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
These market and industry factors may materially reduce the market price of our common stock and warrants regardless of our operating performance.
We do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future.
We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to finance the further development and expansion of our business and do not intend to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, restrictions contained in future agreements and financing instruments, business prospects and such other factors as our board of directors deems relevant.
If analysts do not publish research about our business or if they publish inaccurate or unfavorable research, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that analysts publish about our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our common stock would likely decline. If few analysts cover us, demand for our common stock could decrease and our common stock price and trading volume may decline. Similar results may occur if one or more of these analysts stop covering us in the future or fail to publish reports on us regularly.
We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management attention.
The market price of our common stock may be volatile and, in the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.
Future resales of common stock may cause the market price of our securities to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.
Pursuant to the Sponsor Support Agreement, the Sponsor and its permitted transferees who agree to be bound by the applicable provisions of the Sponsor Support Agreement, and pursuant to the Investor Support Agreements, certain holders of shares of common stock issued as consideration in the First Merger are, subject to certain limited exceptions, in each case, contractually restricted from selling or transferring any of such Founder Shares or such shares of common stock issued as consideration in the First Merger (the Founder Shares and such shares issued as consideration in the First Merger, the “Lock-up Shares”). With respect to the Sponsor and its permitted transferees who agree to be bound by the applicable provisions of the Sponsor Support Agreement, such lock-up ends on the earlier of (A) one year after November 30, 2021 or (B) (x) the date on which the last volume-weighted average price of the common stock equals or exceeds $12.00 per share (as adjusted for share sub-divisions, share capitalizations, reorganizations, recapitalizations and the like) for any 20 trading days within any 30-trading day period commencing at least 150 days after November 30, 2021, or (y) the date on which Innovid Corp. completes a liquidation, merger, capital stock exchange, reorganization or similar transaction that results in Innovid Corp. stockholders having the right to exchange their shares of common stock for cash, securities or other property (the “Lock-up Termination Date”).
With respect to the Lock-up Shares issued as consideration in the First Merger (including, common stock issued to directors, officers and employees of Innovid upon the settlement or exercise of stock options or other equity awards outstanding as of immediately following the closing of the First Merger in respect of Innovid stock options outstanding immediately prior to the closing of the First Merger), such lock-up ends on the earlier of (x) the date that is 180 days after November 30, 2021 and (y) the Lock-Up Termination Date.
Following the expiration of such lock-up, the parties subject to such lock-up will not be restricted from selling shares of our common stock held by them, other than by applicable securities laws. As such, sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could have the effect of increasing the volatility in our share price or could reduce the market price of our common stock. Upon the Closing, the Sponsor and the Innovid stockholders collectively owned approximately 81% of our outstanding common stock, and are subject to such lockup.
General Risk Factors
We may have to constrain our business activities to avoid being deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act.
In general, a company that is or holds itself out as being engaged primarily in the business of investing, reinvesting, or trading in securities may be deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act. The Investment Company Act contains substantive legal requirements that regulate the manner in which “investment companies” are permitted to conduct their business activities. The Company believes it has conducted, and intends to continue to conduct, its business in a manner that does not result in the Company being characterized as an investment company. To avoid being deemed an investment company, the Company may decide not to broaden its offerings, which could require the Company to forgo attractive opportunities. If the Company is deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, it may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and its activities may be restricted, which would adversely affect the Company’s business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, the Company may be forced to make changes to its management team if it is required to register as an investment company under the Investment Company Act.
Our business and operations could be negatively affected if we become subject to any securities litigation or shareholder activism, which could cause us to incur significant expense, hinder execution of business and growth strategy and impact our stock price.
In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. Shareholder activism, which could take many forms or arise in a variety of situations, has been increasing recently. Volatility in the stock price of our common stock or other reasons may in the future cause it to become the target of securities litigation or shareholder activism. Securities litigation and shareholder activism, including potential proxy contests, could result in substantial costs and divert management’s and the Board’s attention and resources from the Company’s business. Additionally, such securities litigation and shareholder activism could give rise to perceived uncertainties as to the Company’s future, adversely affect its relationships with service providers and make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified personnel. Also, the Company may be required to incur significant legal fees and other expenses related to any securities litigation and activist shareholder matters.
Further, our stock price could be subject to significant fluctuation or otherwise be adversely affected by the events, risks and uncertainties of any securities litigation and shareholder activism.
Part III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Name | | Age | | Position |
Zvika Netter | | 49 | | Chief Executive Officer; Director |
Tal Chalozin | | 40 | | Chief Technology Officer |
Tanya Andreev-Kaspin | | 44 | | Chief Financial Officer |
Gilad Shany(2)(3) | | 45 | | Director |
Steven Cakebread(1) | | 70 | | Director |
Michael DiPiano(1)(2) | | 63 | | Director |
Rachel Lam(1)(3) | | 54 | | Director |
Jonathan Saacks(3) | | 53 | | Director |
(1) Member of the audit committee
(2) Member of the compensation committee
(3) Member of the nominating and corporate governance committee
Zvika Netter. Mr. Netter serves as CEO of the Company and as a member of the Company’s Board. Mr. Netter has served as the Company’s CEO since the inception of Innovid Inc., and was selected by TIME as one of the “Tech Pioneers Who Will Change Your Life.” Mr. Netter was also named as a World Economic Forum “Technology Pioneer,” as one of “Europe’s Young Entrepreneurs” by Businessweek, and as a 2016 SmartCEO Magazine Fast 50 CEO and he was featured in Business Insider’s 19 Most Interesting Ad-Tech Startups of 2017. Prior to co-founding Innovid, Inc. in 2007, Mr. Netter served in an elite computer unit in the Israeli Defense Forces, and co-founded the non-profit organization GarageGeeks, an innovation hub with more than 8,000 members. Mr. Netter has authored several patents, and has spoken on stage at several industry events including IAB Innovation Days at Internet Week, IAB Digital Video Marketplace, The Israel Conference, and ILovation. Mr. Netter is well qualified to serve on the Company’s Board because of his experience as a co-founder and the CEO of Innovid Inc. and the Company.
Tal Chalozin. Mr. Chalozin serves as Chief Technology Officer of the Company. Mr. Chalozin is a co-founder of Innovid Inc. and has served as the Innovid Inc.’s Chief Technology Officer since inception. Mr. Chalozin also serves as a board member for the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Digital Video Center of Excellence and for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Additionally, Mr. Chalozin was named a 2018 inductee in the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement for his significant impact on the industry via mentorship, inspiration, volunteerism and training, a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum, one of the “Best Young European Entrepreneurs” by Businessweek, a member of Multichannel News’ “40 Under 40” Class of 2016, and to Cynopsis Digital’s 2016 “It List.” Prior to co-founding Innovid, Inc. in 2007, Mr. Chalozin served as an officer in an elite computer unit in the Israeli Air Force, and co-founded GarageGeeks, an innovation hub with more than 8,000 members. Mr. Chalozin owns several global patents in digital video technology, and he is a regular speaker at global events, including Cannes Lion, CES, The Drum’s Programmatic Punch, IAB, MWC, NAB, TVOT, AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O, Broadcasting & Cable’s Advanced TV, Wired Magazine’s NEXTFEST, Le Web’s Digital Innovation Conference, Ars Electronica, and eConsultancy’s Creative Programmatic.
Tanya Andreev-Kaspin. Ms. Andreev-Kaspin serves as CFO of the Company. Ms. Andreev-Kaspin has served as the CFO of Innovid Inc. since January 2020 and prior to that served as Senior Vice President of Global Finance from 2016 through 2019 and as Vice President of Finance from 2012 through 2015. Prior to joining Legacy Innovid, Ms. Andreev-Kaspin held finance leadership positions in a number of tech startup companies, and also served as a Public Auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Andreev-Kaspin received an MBA, Finance Management from Tel Aviv University and BA, Economics and Accounting from Tel Aviv University.
Gilad Shany. Mr. Shany co-founded ION Crossover Partners, an Israeli-based crossover fund, where he currently serves as the Managing Partner. Prior to co-founding ION Crossover Partners, Mr. Shany served as General Partner of Magma Venture Partners. Mr. Shany previously served as Vice President of Baron Capital, where he gained more than 10 years of experience investing in innovative growth companies in public and private markets. Mr. Shany led investments with various international companies, including Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), Mobileye N.V. (NYSE: MBLY) (acquired by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) $15.3BN), Mellanox Technologies (acquired by Nvidia $6.9BN), Varonis Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNS), Fiverr (NYSE: FVRR), BlueVine Capital Inc. and Monday.com Ltd, among others. Prior to that Mr. Shany spent 14 years with the Israel Air Force and served as Head of Aerial Defense in the Israel Air Force from 2007 to 2008. Mr. Shany holds a B.S. in Physics, Astronomy and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University in Israel and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Steven Cakebread. Mr. Cakebread has served as the CFO of Yext, Inc. since October 2014. Prior to joining Yext, Mr. Cakebread served in various senior executive roles, including as CFO and Chief Accounting Officer of D-Wave Systems, a quantum computing company, from March 2013 to September 2014 and as CFO of Pandora Media Inc., a provider of personalized internet radio and music discovery service, from March 2010 to December 2012. From February 2009 to December 2009, Mr. Cakebread served as Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, and CFO of Xactly Corporation, a provider of on-demand sales performance management software. Mr. Cakebread also served as President and Chief Strategy Officer of Salesforce, a customer relationship management service provider, from March 2008 to February 2009, and as CFO of Salesforce from May 2002 to March 2008. Mr. Cakebread currently serves on the board of directors of Bill.com and Tunein.com. He previously served as a member of the board of directors of Service Source, Solar Winds, and eHealth.com. Mr. Cakebread holds a B.S. in Business from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Indiana University.
Michael DiPiano. Since December 2001, Mr. DiPiano has been the Chairman of NewSpring Capital where he manages the firm’s investment decisions. Mr. DiPiano currently serves as a director for a number of private companies, including aPriori, Dstillery, Energage, and Interactions where he provides oversight for corporate governance and other business matters. Previously, Mr. DiPiano also served on the Governance and Compensation Committees of NutriSystems. Mr. DiPiano holds a B.S. in Marketing from Penn State University and an MBA from New York University.
Rachel Lam. Ms. Lam is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Imagination Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2017. From 2003 to 2017, Ms. Lam served as SVP and Group Managing Director of the Time Warner Investments Group, the strategic investing arm of Time Warner Inc. Ms. Lam managed Time Warner’s investments in numerous digital media companies and served on the board of directors of privately held Maker Studios and Bluefin Labs prior to their sales to the Walt Disney Company and Twitter, respectively. Ms. Lam has previously served on 20 boards of directors over the years and currently serves on the board of Magnite (NASDAQ: MGNI), the leading, independent omni-channel sell-side software platform, empowering programmatic ad sales at a truly global scale, as well as on the non-profit board of The Center for Reproductive Rights. Ms. Lam also spent several years in investment banking within the M&A group at Morgan Stanley and the Media and Telecommunications group at Credit Suisse. Ms. Lam received a B.S. in industrial engineering and operations research from U.C. Berkeley in 1989 and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1994.
Jonathan Saacks. Mr. Saacks is currently Managing Partner of F2 Venture Capital. Mr. Saacks was Managing Partner at Genesis Partners and brings extensive early stage investment experience from his roles at operational companies and venture capital funds. Mr. Saacks invested and served on the boards of many successful Israeli companies including Monday.com, PrimeSense and Neebula. Mr. Saacks also served for 10 years in the Intelligence Corps of the Israeli Defense Forces where he commanded large operational teams. Mr. Saacks was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces and holds an MBA from Oxford University and a BA in Economics and Management from Tel Aviv University.
Corporate Governance Guidelines and Code of Business Conduct
The Board adopted corporate governance guidelines that address items such as the qualifications and responsibilities of its directors and director candidates and corporate governance policies and standards applicable. In addition, the Board adopted a code of business conduct and ethics that applies to all of its employees, officers and directors, including its CEO, CFO and other executive and senior financial officers. The full text of the Company’s corporate governance guidelines and its code of business conduct and ethics has been posted on the corporate governance portion of the Company’s website. The Company will post amendments to its code of business conduct and ethics or waivers of its code of business conduct and ethics for directors and officers on the same website.
Board Composition
The Company’s business affairs are managed under the direction of the Board. The Bylaws provide that the total number of directors constituting the Board shall be determined from time to time by resolution of the Board.
The majority of the Company’s directors qualify as “independent directors” under NYSE listing rules.
The Board is divided into three staggered classes of directors. At each annual meeting of its stockholders, a class of directors will be elected for a three-year term to succeed the same class whose term is then expiring, as follows:
•the Class I directors, whose terms will expire at the annual meeting of stockholders to be held in 2022;
•the Class II directors, whose terms will expire at the annual meeting of stockholders to be held in 2023; and
•the Class III directors whose terms will expire at the annual meeting of stockholders to be held in 2024.
The Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws provide that the Board will consist of one or more members, and the number of directors may be increased or decreased from time to time by a resolution of the Board. Each director’s term will continue until the election and qualification of his or her successor, or his or her earlier death, resignation, or removal. Any increase or decrease in the number of directors will be distributed among the three classes so that, as nearly as possible, each class will consist of one-third of the total number of directors. This classification of the Board may have the effect of delaying or preventing changes in control of the Company.
Each of the Company’s officers serve at the discretion of the Board and will hold office until his or her successor is duly appointed and qualified or until his or her earlier resignation or removal. There are no family relationships among any of the directors or officers of the Company.
Director Independence
Our common stock is listed on the NYSE. Under the rules of the NYSE, independent directors must comprise a majority of a listed company’s board of directors. In addition, the rules of the NYSE require that, subject to specified exceptions, each member of a listed company’s audit, compensation and nominating and corporate governance committees be independent. Under the rules of the NYSE, a director will only qualify as an “independent director” if in the opinion of that company’s board of directors, that person does not have a relationship that would interfere with the exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. Audit committee members must also satisfy the additional independence criteria set forth in Rule 10A-3 under the Exchange Act and the rules of the NYSE. Compensation committee members must also satisfy the additional independence criteria set forth in Rule 10C-1 under the Exchange Act and the rules of the NYSE.
In order to be considered independent for purposes of Rule 10A-3 under the Exchange Act and under the rules of the NYSE, a member of an audit committee of a listed company may not, other than in his or her capacity as a member of the committee, the board of directors, or any other board committee: (1) accept, directly or indirectly, any consulting, advisory, or other compensatory fee from the listed company or any of its subsidiaries; or (2) be an affiliated person of the listed company or any of its subsidiaries.
To be considered independent for purposes of Rule 10C-1 under the Exchange Act and under the rules of the NYSE, the board of directors must affirmatively determine that the member of the compensation committee is independent, including a consideration of all factors specifically relevant to determining whether the director has a relationship to the company which is material to that director’s ability to be independent from management in connection with the duties of a compensation committee member, including, but not limited to:
(i)the source of compensation of such director, including any consulting, advisory or other compensatory fee paid by the company to such director; and
(ii)whether such director is affiliated with the company, a subsidiary of the company or an affiliate of a subsidiary of the company.
The Board has undertaken a review of the independence of each director and considered whether each director of the Company has a material relationship with the Company that could compromise his or her ability to exercise independent judgment in carrying out his or her responsibilities. As a result of this review, the Board has determined that Gilad Shany, Steven Cakebread, Michael DiPiano, Rachel Lam, and Jonathan Saacks are considered “independent directors” as defined under the listing requirements and rules of the NYSE and the applicable rules of the Exchange Act.
Board Leadership Structure
We believe that the structure of the Board and its committees provides strong overall management of the Company.
Committees of the Board
The Board has an audit committee, compensation committee and nominating and corporate governance committee. The composition and responsibilities of each of the committees of the Board is described below. Members will serve on these committees until their resignation or until as otherwise determined by the Board.
Audit Committee
Each of the members of the Company’s audit committee satisfies the requirements for independence and financial literacy under the applicable rules and regulations of the SEC and rules of the NYSE. The Company has determined that Steven Cakebread qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined in the SEC rules and satisfies the accounting or related financial management expertise requirements of the NYSE. The Company’s audit committee is responsible for, among other things:
•selecting a qualified firm to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm to audit the Company’s financial statements;
•helping to ensure the independence and performance of the independent registered public accounting firm;
•discussing the scope and results of the audit with the independent registered public accounting firm and reviewing, with management and the independent registered public accounting firm, the Company’s interim and year-end financial statements;
•developing procedures for employees to submit concerns anonymously about questionable accounting or audit matters;
•reviewing the Company’s policies on and overseeings risk assessment and risk management, including enterprise risk management;
•reviewing related person transactions;
•reviewing the adequacy and effectiveness of internal control policies and procedures and the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures; and
•approving or, as required, pre-approving, all audit and all permissible non-audit services, other than de minimis non-audit services, to be performed by the independent registered public accounting firm.
The Board has adopted a written charter for the audit committee, which is available on the Company’s website.
Compensation Committee
Each of the members of the Company’s compensation committee meets the requirements for independence under the applicable rules and regulations of the SEC and rules of the NYSE. The Company’s compensation committee is responsible for, among other things:
•reviewing, approving, and determining the compensation of the Company’s officers and key employees;
•reviewing, approving, and determining compensation and benefits, including equity awards, to directors for service on the Board or any committee thereof;
•administering the Company’s equity compensation plans;
•reviewing, approving and making recommendations to the Board regarding incentive compensation and equity compensation plans; and
•establishing and reviewing general policies relating to compensation and benefits of the Company’s employees.
The Board has adopted a written charter for the compensation committee which is available on its website.
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
Each of the members of the nominating and corporate governance committee meets the requirements for independence under the applicable rules and regulations of the SEC and rules of the NYSE. The nominating and corporate governance committee is responsible for, among other things:
•identifying, evaluating, and selecting, or making recommendations to the Board regarding, nominees for election to the Board and its committees;
•evaluating the performance of the Board and of individual directors;
•considering, and making recommendations to the Board regarding, the composition of the Board and its committees;
•reviewing developments in corporate governance practices;
•evaluating the adequacy of the corporate governance practices and reporting; and
•developing, and making recommendations to the Board regarding, corporate governance guidelines and matters.
The Board has adopted a written charter for the nominating and corporate governance committee which is available on its website.
Code of Conduct and Ethics
The Company has posted its code of conduct and ethics and intends to post any amendments to or any waivers from a provision of its code of conduct and ethics on its website, and also intends to disclose any amendments to or waivers of certain provisions of its code of conduct and ethics in a Form 8-K.
Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None of the Company’s officers currently serves, and in the past year has not served, (a) as a member of the compensation committee or the board of directors of another entity, one of whose officers served on the Company’s compensation committee, or (b) as a member of the compensation committee of another entity, one of whose officers served on the Board.
Related Person Policy of the Company
The Company has adopted a formal written policy providing that the Company’s officers, directors, nominees for election as directors, beneficial owners of more than 5% of any class of the Company’s capital stock, any member of the immediate family of any of the foregoing persons and any firm, corporation or other entity in which any of the foregoing persons is employed or is a general partner or principal or in a similar position or in which such person has a 5% or greater beneficial ownership interest, are not permitted to enter into a related party transaction with the Company without the approval of the Company’s audit committee, subject to the exceptions described below.
A related person transaction is a transaction, arrangement or relationship, or any series of similar transactions, arrangements or relationships, in which the Company and any related person are, were or will be participants in which the amount involved exceeds $120,000. Transactions involving compensation for services provided to the Company as an employee or director are not covered by this policy.
Under the policy, the Company will collect information that the Company deems reasonably necessary from each director, executive officer and, to the extent feasible, significant stockholder, to enable the Company to identify any existing or potential related-person transactions and to effectuate the terms of the policy. In addition, under the Company’s code of conduct and ethics, employees and directors have an affirmative responsibility to disclose any transaction or relationship that reasonably could be expected to give rise to a conflict of interest.
The policy requires that, in determining whether to approve, ratify or reject a related person transaction, the Company’s audit committee, or other independent body of the Board, must consider, in light of known circumstances, whether the transaction is in, or is not inconsistent with, the Company’s best interests and those of the Company’s stockholders, as the Company’s audit committee, or other independent body of the Board, determines in the good faith exercise of its discretion.
The Company’s audit committee has determined that certain transactions will not require the approval of the audit committee, including certain employment arrangements of officers, director compensation, transactions with another company at which a related party’s only relationship is as a director, non-executive employee or beneficial owner of less than 10% of that company’s outstanding capital stock, transactions where a related party’s interest arises solely from the ownership of our common stock and all holders of our common stock received the same benefit on a pro rata basis and transactions available to all employees generally.
Item 11. Executive Compensation
The following sets forth information about the compensation paid to or accrued by Innovid’s principal executive officer and its two other most highly compensated persons serving as executive officers as of December 31, 2021 (“Fiscal 2021”). These executives are referred to as the “named executive officers.”
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Name and Principal Position | | Year | | Salary ($) | | Bonus ($)(1) (5) | | Option Awards ($)(2) | | Non-equity Incentive Plan Compensation ($)(3) | | All Other Compensation ($)(4) | | Total ($) |
Zvika Netter | | 2021 | | 320,000 | | | 3,076,250 | | | 726,364 | | | 177,613 | | | 11,600 | | | 4,311,827 | |
CEO | | 2020 | | 305,600 | | | 14,400 | | | 1,242,500 | | | 225,000 | | | 11,400 | | | 1,798,900 | |
Tanya Andreev-Kaspin | | 2021 | | 305,910 | | | 815,606 | | | 355,689 | | | 135,566 | | | 11,600 | | | 1,624,371 | |
CFO | | 2020 | | 257,850 | | | 12,150 | | | 106,500 | | | 110,502 | | | 11,400 | | | 498,402 | |
Tal Chalozin | | 2021 | | 250,000 | | | 2,123,000 | | | 247,470 | | | 148,508 | | | 11,600 | | | 2,780,578 | |
Chief Technology Officer | | 2020 | | 214,875 | | | 10,125 | | | 142,000 | | | 127,277 | | | 1,155 | | | 495,432 | |
_________________
(1)Amounts represent one-time special bonuses and similar amounts paid to our named executive officers in connection with the Transaction during 2021, inclusive of forgiveness of loans previously extended to our named executive officers.
(2)Amounts represent the aggregate grant date fair value of stock options granted to our named executive officers computed in accordance with ASC Topic 718. Assumptions used to calculate these amounts are included in Note 12 to our consolidated financial statements included in our 2021 annual report on Form 10-K. For additional information, see the section titled “—Narrative to Summary Compensation Table – Equity-based compensation” below.
(3)Amounts represent bonuses earned by each named executive officer under our annual bonus plan and paid in cash. For additional information on these payments, see “—Narrative to Summary Compensation Table – Annual Bonus” below.
(4)Amount represents employer matching contributions under our 401(k) plan.
(5)Amount includes a one-time special bonus paid to Ms. Andreev-Kaspin in October 2021 ($65,606).
Narrative Disclosure to Summary Compensation Table
Base Salary
Base salaries are intended to provide a level of compensation sufficient to attract and retain an effective management team, when considered in combination with the other components of our executive compensation program. The relative levels of base salary for Innovid named executive officers are designed to reflect each named executive officer’s scope of responsibility and accountability to Innovid. The base salary amounts shown in the “Summary Compensation Table” above reflect the salary amounts earned by our named executive officers for 2021.
In January 2021, we increased Mr. Chalozin’s base salary from $225,000 to $250,000. In March 2021, we increased Ms. Andreev-Kaspin’s base salary from $290,000 to $310,000. Our named executive officers’ base salaries as of December 31, 2021 were as follows:
| | | | | |
Name | 2021 Annual Base Salary |
Zvika Netter | $ | 320,000 | |
Tanya Andreev-Kaspin | $ | 310,000 | |
Tal Chalozin | $ | 250,000 | |
Annual Bonus
Innovid provides annual bonuses to its executive officers, including the named executive officers, based on performance for the completed fiscal year based on the Company financial performance for the year, primarily measured based on attainment of metrics relating to revenue and adjusted EBITDA, and individual performance considerations. At the end of each fiscal quarter, the Board reviews and assesses Company and individual performance, including performance relative to the established revenue and EBITDA metrics and determines the earned amount of each executive’s bonus, which is paid on a quarterly basis. The target level annual bonus for each named executive officer for 2021 is set forth in the table below. The aggregate amount of bonuses earned for 2021 are provided in the “Summary Compensation Table” above.
| | | | | |
Name | 2021 Target Annual Bonus |
Zvika Netter | $ | 180,000 | |
Tanya Andreev-Kaspin | $ | 140,000 | |
Tal Chalozin | $ | 150,000 | |
Equity-based compensation
Prior to the consummation of the Transaction, Innovid granted stock options to certain of its employees under Innovid’s Global Share Incentive Plan (the “Prior Plan”). In connection with the Transaction, the Board adopted, and our stockholders approved, the Innovid Corp. 2021 Incentive Plan in order to facilitate the grant of cash and equity incentives to directors, employees (including our named executive officers) and consultants of our Company and certain of our affiliates and to enable Innovid and certain of its affiliates to obtain and retain services of these individuals, which is essential to our long-term success. These awards of stock options are at-risk compensation and are designed to provide our executives with a continuing stake in our long-term success. No further awards have been or will be made under our Prior Plan following the effectiveness of the Innovid Corp. 2021 Incentive Plan.
In 2021, prior to the consummation of the Transaction, the Board granted stock options under the Innovid Corp. 2021 Incentive Plan to each of our named executive officers under the Prior Plan. The options granted to our named executive officers in 2021 generally vest as to 25% of the underlying shares after one year, and as to the remaining 75% of the underlying shares in equal quarterly installments thereafter over the following three years, subject to the applicable executive’s continued employment through each applicable vesting date.
| | | | | |
Name | 2021 Stock Options Granted |
Zvika Netter | 314,254 | |
Tanya Andreev-Kaspin | 153,784 | |
Tal Chalozin | 106,980 | |
In addition, in April 2021, we amended certain stock options previously granted to Messrs. Netter and Chalozin in 2020 in order to provide that such options would vest as to 75% of the underlying shares in April 2021, and the remaining 25% of the underlying shares would vest and become exercisable in equal quarterly installments thereafter over the following two years, subject to the applicable executive’s continued employment through each applicable vesting date.
Other Elements of Compensation
Retirement Plan
Innovid maintains a 401(k) retirement savings plan for its employees, including the named executive officers, who satisfy certain eligibility requirements. The named executive officers are eligible to participate in the 401(k) plan on the same terms as other full-time employees. Under this plan, Innovid matches 100% of the participants’ first 3% of eligible contributions and 50% on the next 2% of eligible contributions. Innovid believes that providing a vehicle for tax-deferred retirement savings though our 401(k) plan adds to the overall desirability of Innovid’s executive compensation package and further incentivizes our employees, including the named executive officers, in accordance with Innovid’s compensation policies.
Health and Welfare Plans
During their employment, the named executive officers are eligible to participate in Innovid’s employee benefit plans and programs, including medical and dental benefits, to the same extent as other full-time employees, subject to the terms and eligibility requirements of those plans.
Outstanding Equity Awards as of December 31, 2021
The following table sets forth certain information about outstanding equity awards granted to Innovid’s named executive officers that remain outstanding as of December 31, 2021.
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| | Option Awards |
Name | | Grant Date | | Number of securities underlying unexercised options exercisable | | Number of securities underlying unexercised options unexercisable | | Option exercise price ($) | | Option expiration date |
Zvika Netter | | 11-16-2020(1)(2) | | 895,861 | | | 438,783 | | | $ | 0.61 | | | 11/15/2030 |
| | 4-30-2021(1) | | 39,281 | | | 274,973 | | | $ | 2.81 | | | 4/29/2031 |
Tanya Andreev-Kaspin | | 7-14-2016(1) | | 50,369 | | | — | | | $ | 0.46 | | | 7/13/2026 |
| | 11-16-2020(1) | | 75,221 | | | 125,367 | | | $ | 0.61 | | | 11/15/2030 |
| | 4-30-2021(1) | | 19,222 | | | 134,562 | | | $ | 2.81 | | | 4/29/2031 |
Tal Chalozin | | 11-16-2020(1)(2) | | 16,716 | | | 50,147 | | | $ | 0.61 | | | 11/15/2030 |
| | 4-30-2021(1) | | 13,373 | | | 93,607 | | | $ | 2.81 | | | 4/29/2031 |
__________________
(1)Represents options that vest as to 25% of the underlying shares after one year and in equal (1/12) quarterly installments thereafter over three years, in each case, subject to the executive’s continued employment through each applicable vesting date.
(2)In April 2021, the Board approved an amendment to the vesting schedule applicable to the options granted to Messrs. Netter and Chalozin on November 16, 2020. Pursuant to the amendment, such options shall will vest as to 75% of the underlying shares on April 1, 2021 and in equal (1/8) quarterly installments thereafter over the following two years, in each case, subject to the applicable executive’s continued employment through each applicable vesting date.
Severance Arrangements with the Named Executive Officers of Innovid
Severance and Change in Control Plan
Innovid has adopted the Innovid Executive Severance Plan and Executive Change in Control Severance Plan (the “Change in Control Plan”), pursuant to which Innovid’s named executive officers would be entitled to severance payments and benefits in the event their employment is involuntarily terminated without cause (as defined in the applicable plan) or, in the case of a termination within two years following a change in control transaction, the named executive officer resigns employment for a good reason (as defined in the applicable plan). For a qualifying termination not in connection with a change in control transaction, severance generally consists of a lump sum cash payment equal to six months of base salary and healthcare premium costs (12 months for the CEO). In the case of a qualifying termination within 24 months following a change in control transaction, severance consists of (i) a lump sum cash payment equal to six months of base salary and healthcare premium costs (12 months for the CEO), (ii) a lump sum cash payment equal to 50% of the named executive officer’s target annual bonus amount (100% for the CEO), and (iii) accelerated vesting of outstanding equity awards.
Stock Options
Pursuant to the Change in Control plan, as described above, the outstanding stock options held by Innovid’s named executive officers as of December 31, 2021 are subject to a “double trigger” vesting provision under which unvested options would vest and become exercisable if the named executive officer is terminated without cause or resigns for good reason in connection with a change in control transaction. In addition, 50% of stock options granted to the CEO in 2020 will accelerate and vest in the event that his employment is terminated by Innovid without cause not in connection with a change in control transaction.
Director Compensation
In connection with the Transaction, we adopted a non-employee director compensation program which provides for annual cash retainer fees and long-term equity awards for our eligible non-employee directors. However, none of our non-employee directors received any annual cash retainer fees or long-term equity awards in 2021. Our CEO, Zvika Netter, does not receive additional compensation for his participation on our board of directors.
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
Securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans
The following table presents information as of December 31, 2021 about the Company's equity compensation plans under which Innovid Corp. common stock has been authorized for issuance:
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Plan Category | (a) Number of securities to be issued upon exercise of outstanding options, warrants and rights | (b) Weighted-average price of outstanding options, warrants and rights | (c) Number of securities remaining available for future issuance under equity compensation plans (excluding securities reflected in column (a)) |
Equity compensation plans approved by security holders | — | | | 18,485,487(1) |
Equity compensation plans not approved by security holders | 11,302,275 (2) | 0.81 | — | |
Total | 11,302,275 | | 0.81 | 18,485,487 | |
(1) Represents shares available for issuance under the Innovid Corp. 2021 Incentive Plan and the Innovid Corp. ESPP. As of December 31, 2021, there have been no grants of awards pursuant to the Innovid Corp. ESPP.
(2) Represents shares underlying stock options previously granted under Innovid’s Global Share Incentive Plan and assumed by Innovid Corp in connection with the Transaction. Following the consummation of the Transaction, we no longer grant awards under the Global Share Incentive Plan.
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management
The following table sets forth information known to the Company regarding the beneficial ownership of our common stock as of December 31, 2021:
(a)each person who is a named executive officer or director of Company;
(b)all executive officers and directors of Company as a group; and
(c)each person who is a beneficial owner of more than 5% of our common stock.
Beneficial ownership is determined according to the rules of the SEC, which generally provide that a person has beneficial ownership of a security if he, she or it possesses sole or shared voting or investment power over that security, including options and warrants that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days. Unless otherwise indicated, Company believes that all persons named in the table below have sole voting and investment power with respect to the voting securities beneficially owned by them.
The beneficial ownership of our common stock is based on 119,017,380 shares of our common stock and 10,222,500 warrants to purchase shares of our common stock issued and outstanding as of the December 31. 2021.
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Name and Address of Beneficial Owner(1) | Number of Shares of Common Stock | % |
5% Holders | | |
Genesis Partners III L.P.(1) | 19,350,638 | | 16.3 | % |
Sequoia Capital Israel IV Holdings L.P.(2) | 17,697,224 | | 14.9 | % |
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (3) | 9,878,693 | | 8.3 | % |
Lauderdale GmbH & Co. KG(4) | 7,277,981 | | 6.1 | % |
ION Holdings 2, LP(5) | 13,310,000 | | 11.2 | % |
Directors and Executive Officers | | |
Gilad Shany | — | | — | |
Rachel Lam | — | | — | |
Jonathan Saacks | — | | — | |
Steven Cakebread | — | | — | |
Michael DiPiano | — | | — | |
Zvika Netter(6) | 6,374,090 | | 5.3 | % |
Tal Chalozin(7) | 4,701,860 | | 3.9 | % |
Tanya Andreev-Kaspin | 434,410 | | * |
All directors and officers as a group (eight individuals) | 11,510,360 | | 9.6 | % |
*Less than one percent
(1)Genesis Partners III L.P. is controlled by Eyal Kishon and Eddy Shalev. Kishon and Shalev otherwise disclaim beneficial ownership over the shares beneficially owned by Genesis Partners III L.P. The address for Genesis Partners III L.P. is 13 Basel st., Herzeliya, Israel, 4666013.
(2)SC ISRAEL IV GENPAR, LTD is the general partner of SC ISRAEL IV MANAGEMENT, L.P., which is the general partner of SEQUOIA CAPITAL ISRAEL IV L.P., which owns 100% of SEQUOIA CAPITAL ISRAEL IV HOLDINGS, L.P. As such, SC ISRAEL IV GENPAR, LTD shares voting and dispositive power with respect to the shares held by SEQUOIA CAPITAL ISRAEL IV HOLDINGS, L.P. The directors and stockholders of SC ISRAEL IV GENPAR, LTD. who exercise voting and investment discretion with respect to the shares held by SEQUOIA CAPITAL ISRAEL IV HOLDINGS, L.P. are Shmuel Levy and Haim Sadger. As a result, and by virtue of the relationship described in this footnote, each such person may be deemed to share voting and dispositive power with respect to the shares held by the Sequoia Capital Israel IV Holdings, L.P. The address for these entities is 50 Eli Landau Blvd, Herzelia, Israel 4685150.
(3)Based solely on the Schedule 13G/A filed by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. on February 11, 2022, includes (i) 9,876,359 shares are held of record by Special Situations Investing Group II, LLC, which is an affiliate of Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, a New York limited liability company and a broker-dealer, and (ii) an additional 2,334 shares over which Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC may deemed to share voting and dispositive power. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is a member of the New York Stock Exchange and other national exchanges. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is a direct and indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (“GS Group”). GS Group is a public entity and its common stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and it is managed by its board of directors. GS Group may be deemed to beneficially own the securities held by Special Situations Investing Group II, LLC.
(4)Lauderdale GmbH & Co. KG, a German limited partnership (“Lauderdale”), is the record holder of such shares. All investment and disposition decisions for Lauderdale are made by an investment committee comprised of Mr. Vicente Vento Bosch (chair) and Mr. Raphael Kuebler. As a result, Mr. Kuebler and Mr. Bosch may be deemed to share dispositive power with respect to the shares held by Lauderdale and thus to have beneficial ownership of such shares. Each of Mr. Kubler and Mr. Bosch otherwise disclaims beneficial ownership of such shares other than to the extent of any pecuniary interest therein.
Lauderdale is managed by its managing limited partner, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners Management GmbH, a German limited liability company (“DTCP-M”). As the managing limited partner, DTCP-M has voting power with respect to the shares held by Lauderdale and therefore may be deemed to have beneficial ownership of such shares. None of the members of DTCP-M’s investment committee (Beirat) is deemed a beneficial owner of the Shares under Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act due to the approval standard for committee action. Thus, each such committee member disclaims any beneficial ownership of the shares held by Lauderdale other than to the extent of any pecuniary interest therein.
DTCP-M is controlled by Deutsche Telekom AG, a publicly traded company organized under the laws of Germany (“DTAG”), and Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners Executive Pool GmbH & Co. KG, a German limited liability company (“DTCP Executive Partner”). Each of DTAG and DTCP Executive Partner may be deemed to share voting and dispositive power over the shares held directly by Lauderdale and therefore to have beneficial ownership of such shares. DTAG’s stock is traded on seven stock exchanges in Germany, Including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and OTCQX, and it is managed by its board of directors. DTCP Executive Partner is controlled by Mr. Bosch. DTAG and Mr. Bosch otherwise disclaim beneficial ownership of the shares owned by Lauderdale except to the extent of any pecuniary interest therein. The mailing address for Lauderdale, DTCP-M, DTCP Executive Partner, Mr. Kubler and Mr. Bosch is Am Sandtorpark 2, 20457 Hamburg, Germany,. The mailing address for DTAG is Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 140, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
(5)ION Holdings 2, LP is the record holder of such shares. As the general partner of ION 2 LP, ION Acquisition Corp GP Ltd. (“ION GP”) has voting and investment discretion with respect to the ordinary shares held by ION 2 LP. An investment committee comprised of five individuals — Jonathan Kolber, Gilad Shany, Avrom Gilbert, Stephen Levey and Jonathan Half — makes voting and investment decisions in the ordinary shares indirectly owned by ION GP. As a result, ION GP may be deemed to have beneficial ownership of the shares held directly by ION 2 LP. However, none of the ION GP investment committee’s members is deemed a beneficial owner of the shares held by ION 2 LP under Section 13(d) of the Exchange Act, due to the approval standard for committee action. Thus, each such investment committee member disclaims any beneficial ownership of the shares held by ION 2 LP, other than to the extent of any pecuniary interest therein. Includes 7,060,000 Private Placement Warrants held by ION Holdings 2, LP.
(6)Consists of 3,441,910 shares held directly by Mr. Netter (including 1,027,910 shares underlying vested options) and 977,394 shares held by each of the Zvika Netter 2021 Family Trust #1, the Zvika Netter 2021 Family Trust #2 and the Zvika Netter 2021 Family Trust #3, respectively.
(7)Consists of 2,294,810 shares held directly by Mr. Chalozin (including 45,130 shares underlying vested options) and 1,203,528 shares held by each of the Tal Chalozin 2021 Family Trust #1 and the Tal Chalozin 2021 Family Trust #2, respectively.
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
Promissory Note
In April 2021, the Innovid Board approved the entry into of that certain Secured Full Recourse Promissory Note in the total aggregate amount of $1,199,250, with Mr. Zvika Netter, and Mr. Tal Chalozin (the “Founders Promissory Note”). On June 7, 2021, Innovid granted Mr. Netter a loan in the amount of $1,076,250 pursuant to the Founder Promissory Note (“Zvika Netter Loan”). On June 23, 2021, Innovid granted Mr. Chalozin a loan in the amount of $123,000 pursuant to the Found Promissory Note (the “Tal Chalozin Loan”). $740,000 of the Founders Promissory Note principal amount was used to exercise fully vested options held by the founders on the date of the grant of the Founders Promissory Note and the remainder in the amount of $459,000 was used for other purposes. The Founders Promissory Note was forgiven in November 2021. For additional information, see the audited consolidated financial statement presented in Item 8. “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data”.
Investor Support Agreements
Concurrently with the execution and delivery of the Merger Agreement, Innovid, ION and certain Innovid stockholders entered into company stockholder support agreements (“Innovid Equity Holders Support Agreements”), pursuant to which each of those Innovid stockholders generally agreed, among other things, to:
a.vote all shares of common stock and preferred stock (all such shares, “Innovid Covered Shares”) that it owns, in favor of the Transaction;
b.appear at any Innovid stockholder meeting to establish a quorum;
c.vote (or execute and return an action by written consent, and cause such consent to be granted with respect to) all Innovid Covered Shares against any other business combination transaction other than the Transaction contemplated by the Merger Agreement or any other action or agreement that would reasonably be expected to materially frustrate the purposes of, impede or adversely affect, or delay the Transaction, or result in a breach of any covenant, representation, or warranty of Innovid or such Innovid stockholder under the Merger Agreement or cause certain conditions to closing set forth in the Merger Agreement to not be fulfilled and against any change in business, management or board of directors of Innovid or any recapitalization, reorganization, liquidation or winding up of Innovid (other than in connection with the Transaction); and
d.not redeem any Innovid Covered Shares in connection with the approval of the Transaction by the stockholders of Innovid.
The Innovid Equity Holders Support Agreement entered into with Special Situations Investing Group II, LLC, which is a related party of one of the investors (the “Additional Stockholder Support Agreement”) further provides for:
a.a limited right to terminate the agreement in the case of a material modification, amendment, or waiver of the Merger Agreement that reduced or altered the consideration payable to such Innovid stockholder, violated the termination provisions in the Merger Agreement, was adverse to such Innovid stockholder (or its Innovid Covered Shares) relative to other Innovid stockholders (or the Innovid Covered Shares held by such other Innovid stockholders), or resulted in the consummation of the Transaction even if there was less than $250,000,000 of Available Cash as of the Closing;
b.certain rights to receive an allocation schedule setting forth the consideration payable to such Innovid stockholder;
c.restrictions on certain amendments to the Merger Agreement that has any of the effects described above as it relates to such Innovid stockholder (or its Innovid Covered Shares); and
d.rights to secondary sale amounts in favor of such Innovid stockholder or in accordance with a mutually agreed upon schedule attached to the Additional Stockholder Support Agreement based on the Available Cash.
The Innovid Equity Holders Support Agreements also provide that the equity securities of ION held by such Innovid stockholders immediately following the consummation of the Closing will be locked-up for the earlier of (i) one hundred eighty (180) days after the Closing Date; or (ii) the Lock-Up Termination Date (as defined above) except that the Additional Stockholder Support Agreement provides for a lock-up period solely of one hundred eighty (180) days following the Closing Date. The lock-up obligations in the Innovid Equity Holders Support Agreements described above are subject to certain customary exceptions (including transfer to any affiliates). Further, Innovid and the Innovid stockholders that are parties to the Innovid Equity Holders Support Agreements generally agreed not to solicit or engage in discussions or negotiations or other agreement concerning any alternative business transaction (other than the Transaction).
The foregoing descriptions of the Innovid Equity Holders Support Agreements do not purport to be complete and are qualified in their entirety by the terms and conditions of the applicable Innovid Equity Holders Support Agreements.
Rights Agreement
The Company has entered into an Investor Rights Agreement with ION and various other equity and warrant holders pursuant to which such parties have specified rights to require the Company to register all or a portion of their shares under the Securities Act.
Statement of Policy Regarding Transactions with Related Persons
The Company has adopted a formal written policy providing that the Company’s officers, directors, nominees for election as directors, beneficial owners of more than 5% of any class of the Company’s capital stock, any member of the immediate family of any of the foregoing persons and any firm, corporation or other entity in which any of the foregoing persons is employed or is a general partner or principal or in a similar position or in which such person has a 5% or greater beneficial ownership interest, are not permitted to enter into a related party transaction with the Company without the approval of the Company’s nominating and corporate governance committee, subject to certain exceptions. For more information, see the section titled Item 10. “Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance”.
Director and Officer Indemnification
The current Innovid organizational documents and the indemnification agreements with current directors and officers provide for indemnification and advancement of expenses for its directors and officers to the fullest extent permitted by DGCL, subject to customary exceptions.
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services
The following table summarizes the fees of KOST FORER GABBAY & KASIERER, a member of Ernst & Young Global, our independent registered public accounting firm, billed to us during the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019 (in thousands):
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Year ended December 31, |
| | 2021 | | 2020 | | 2019 |
Fee Category | | | | | | |
Audit Fees (1.) | | $ | 1,090 | | | $ | 60 | | | $ | 41 | |
Audit-Related Fees (2.) | | 23 | | | — | | | — | |
Tax Fees (3.) | | 86 | | | — | | | 5 | |
Transaction-Related Fees (4.) | | 400 | | | — | | | — | |
Other Fees (5.) | | 103 | | | — | | | 88 | |
Total Fees | | $ | 1,702 | | | $ | 60 | | | $ | 134 | |
1.Audit fees consist of fees for the audit of our consolidated financial statements, the review of the interim financial statements included in our SEC filings, and other professional services provided in connection with statutory and regulatory filings or engagements.
2.Audit-related fees consist of other audit and attest services not required by statute or regulation.
3.Tax fees consist of fees for tax-related services, including tax compliance and tax advice related to transactions.
4.Transaction-related fees consist of fees related to our SPAC transaction.
5.Other fees consist of fees related to due-diligence and IPO readiness assessment.
These fees are not representative of the fees to be billed to us as a public company and are presented solely to provide our stockholders with a basis to understand our historical relationship with KOST FORER GABBAY & KASIERER, a member of Ernst & Young Global.
Pre-Approval Policies and Procedures
The Audit Committee has adopted a policy (the “Pre-Approval Policy”) that sets forth the procedures and conditions pursuant to which audit and non-audit services proposed to be performed by the independent auditor may be pre-approved. The Pre-Approval Policy generally provides that we will not engage KOST FORER GABBAY & KASIERER, member of Ernst & Young Global, to render any audit, audit-related, tax or permissible non-audit service unless the service is either (i) explicitly approved by the Audit Committee (“specific pre-approval”) or (ii) entered into pursuant to the pre-approval policies and procedures described in the Pre-Approval Policy (“general pre-approval”). Unless a type of service to be provided by KOST FORER GABBAY & KASIERER, member of Ernst & Young Global, has received general pre-approval under the Pre-Approval Policy, it requires specific pre-approval by the Audit Committee or by a designated member of the Audit Committee to whom the committee has delegated the authority to grant pre-approvals. Any proposed services exceeding pre-approved cost levels or budgeted amounts will also require specific pre-approval. For both types of pre-approval, the Audit Committee will consider whether such services are consistent with the SEC's rules on auditor independence. The Audit Committee will also consider whether the independent auditor is best positioned to provide the most effective and efficient service, for reasons such as its familiarity with the Company's business, people, culture, accounting systems, risk profile and other factors, and whether the service might enhance the Company's ability to manage or control risk or improve audit quality. All such factors will be considered as a whole, and no one factor should necessarily be determinative. The Audit Committee periodically reviews and generally pre-approves any services (and related fee levels or budgeted amounts) that may be provided by KOST FORER GABBAY & KASIERER, member of Ernst & Young Global, without first obtaining specific pre-approvals from the Audit Committee or the Chair of the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee may revise the list of general pre-approved services from time to time, based on subsequent determinations.
Rule 2-01(c)(7)(i)(C) of Regulation S-X provides a “de minimis” exception which waives the pre-approval requirements for non-audit services provided that: (1) all such services do not aggregate to more than five percent of total revenues paid by the audit client to its accountant in the fiscal year when services are provided, (2) such services were not recognized by the issuer to be non-audit services at the time of the engagement, and (3) such services are promptly brought to the attention of the audit committee of the issuer and approved prior to the completion of the audit by the audit committee or one or more designated representatives. During the year ended December 31, 2021 this exception was applied in relation to tax services performed at a subsidiary. Fees for such services represent less than 0.1% of fees paid during 2021 to KOST FORER GABBAY & KASIERER, member of Ernst & Young Global.