VANCOUVER, BC, June 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fobi AI Inc. (FOBI:TSXV) (FOBIF:OTCQB) (the "Company" or "Fobi"), an industry leader in harnessing AI and data intelligence to enable digital transformation, is pleased to provide shareholders with the following mid-year corporate update regarding recent significant company initiatives.

FOBI RECEIVES OVER $1M IN INSIDER BUYING AND $300,000 IN RECENT WARRANT EXERCISES FROM EXECUTIVES’ AND SHAREHOLDERS’ CONTINUED CONFIDENCE

With Fobi’s success and growth continuing unabated in the first three quarters of its fiscal year, shareholder confidence led to the Company receiving several warrants and option exercises totaling over $300,000. The value of the warrant exercises aligns well with the Company’s current share price, indicating strong shareholder support for Fobi’s ability to execute its growth strategies. This is especially true given the challenging current capital markets environment for many small-cap companies.

Confidence in the Company’s corporate and capital markets growth also includes significant executive support, in which Fobi CEO Rob Anson has personally invested over $1 million in the Company year-to-date, and over $500,000 in the second quarter of 2023 alone.

STRONG Q3 FINANCIAL RESULTS AND RECURRING REVENUE INSTILL CONTINUED CONFIDENCE IN HITTING GUIDANCE FOR Q4 2023

Fobi reported record Q3 2023 revenues of $1,255,093, representing a 298% year-over-year increase and a 151% sequential increase, with a large focus on recurring revenue growth. This record revenue is attributable to:

• The signing of a $10,000,000 licensing agreement with BevWorks
• The successful commercial launch of the Company’s PulseIR solution
• Continued organic growth within Fobi’s acquired subsidiaries
  
  

The latter point demonstrates the great success of the Company’s prescient wallet pass M&A strategy, which began in 2021, as a complement to its strong organic growth, both of which are expected to accelerate with the appointment of Colby McKenzie as Chief Revenue Officer, a skilled senior executive with a proven track record of accelerating business growth and development. McKenzie brings expertise in corporate development and inorganic growth and will focus on advancing Fobi’s M&A, strategic licensing, and joint venture initiatives in 2023 and well beyond.

As such, the Company is confidently planning an even more aggressive growth plan for the remainder of the year, while exploring several other acquisition targets in the second half of 2023. With increasing revenues and continuous efforts to scale efficiently, Fobi continues to progress toward one of its key goals of being cash flow-positive operations by year-end.

FURTHER KEY ADDITIONS TO SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM STRENGTHEN COMPANY’S PLANS FOR GLOBAL GROWTH AND M&A ACTIVITY

Fobi recently welcomed Jason Tong as the new CFO as a part of its broader growth strategy to expand the Company’s team and better align with its evolving business trajectory. With Tong's extensive experience in finance and strong business acumen, the key addition comes at a crucial time to support Fobi as the Company experiences exponential growth in global markets through its commercialized tech stack and increasing M&A activity.

The addition of former Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) executive, David Nicholls, as VP of Liquor Beverage has also allowed Fobi to strengthen its growing senior management team, bringing immense credibility and depth of industry expertise to the Company's global liquor beverage strategy.

In a concerted effort to penetrate the market in the APAC region, Ian Cameron, who possesses extensive experience and expertise working in Japan, has transitioned into a consultancy role to exclusively focus on expanding Fobi’s business development endeavours in Asia. The Company has already seen significant interest following its recent expansion to the APAC region and is in discussions for promising partnership opportunities.

CONTINUED SUCCESS IN LIQUOR BEVERAGE INDUSTRY LEADS TO COMPANY’S LARGEST RECORDED REVENUE DEAL IN HISTORY AT $10,000,000

Proven to be an extremely lucrative vertical for Fobi, the Company has continued to rapidly scale and open new doors to provide advanced technologies for the alcohol industry, especially with the appointment of David Nicholls as VP of Liquor Beverage. Rapidly expanding and leveraging alcohol data through the Fobi Data Exchange has also contributed to the growth of the Company’s data monetization strategy, driving new-line revenue through data aggregation with partners such as Barnet Technologies Corporation and Ideal POS Ltd.

These efforts in increasing the value of the Company’s alcohol solutions have led to the signing of a $10 million license agreement with Canadian beverage manufacturing company BevWorks Brands, which marks the largest recorded revenue deal in Fobi’s history. Fobi’s technology solutions will help accelerate BevWorks’ growth strategy through a data-driven means to consolidate independent beverage manufacturers in alcohol and alcohol replacement markets.

INCREASED TRACTION OF WALLET PASSES LEADS TO KEY DEALS AND LARGE-SCALE ENTERPRISE OPPORTUNITIES IN 2023 AND 2024

As a critical component of the Company’s product roadmap, the success of Fobi’s wallet pass technologies has been a key revenue driver, as demonstrated by the strong growth of its German subsidiary, Passcreator.

Moreover, since the closing of the acquisition of Passworks on April 19, 2023, the Company’s most recent subsidiary has already secured extremely valuable customers for the Fobi brand, experiencing a 45.9% increase in cumulative revenue growth (January to May) year over year. Passworks recently signed an agreement with Canadian insurance company, Promutuel Insurance, which has helped Fobi rapidly expand its scale in the industry and develop its market presence closer to home in North America. While Fobi already works with four of the world’s largest insurance companies, the addition of key clients through Passworks has further enabled the Company’s growth in the insurance industry.

FOBI EXPANDS BEYOND DIY PLATFORM AND SCALES TOWARD ENTERPRISE-SIZE CLIENTS

The Company is expanding beyond its traditional DIY-focused platform and is seeing increased interest from larger-scale enterprise customers. The success of this strategic decision to increase focus on enterprise clients is demonstrated by the growing number of clients, the size of deals, and the satisfaction and renewal of contracts from some of the largest global insurance providers, membership groups, airports, and sports associations in Europe.

Given the Company’s global reach, Fobi has been able to see many of its successes in North America translate to similar use cases abroad, very much in the same way that the Company continues to bring industry-specific successes in Europe back to its domestic market in North America.

Fobi is also seeing growing demand with another key revenue driver within its broader digital wallet technologies: its digital verification and credential management platforms that offer safe and secure ID solutions. The expansion of the Fobi solution includes multiple industries, including airports, insurance, automotive, and regulated sectors such as liquor and gaming.

QPLES SEES 350% CLIENT GROWTH SINCE LAUNCH IN LATE 2022 AS UNIVERSAL DIGITAL COUPONS GO MAINSTREAM

Qples by Fobi also continues to enhance its suite of coupon-based solutions, announcing in a webinar with The Coupon Bureau that AI-8112 Universal Digital Coupons are now live in select retail locations. This development marks a significant milestone regarding the highly anticipated digital coupons as many retailers and CPG brands look to transition toward the new verified standard of 8112.

Providing in-store mobile advertising solutions to several top CPG brands and retailers in North America, Qples has also experienced significant traction through the Qples digital media solution, seeing a 350% increase in client growth since its launch in late 2022.

Colby McKenzie, CRO of Fobi, states: “We continue to see market excitement with our nimble, enabling technologies being able to solve expensive pain points for enterprise customers as they prioritize their digital transformation strategies. We have structured our organization to take a consultative approach to solve the challenges of these enterprise clients and help them architect solutions that solve not only their problems of today, but future-proof their organizations against the rapid technical advancements of an AI-enabled world.”

Rob Anson, CEO of Fobi, states: “I believe that in order for founders to be successful in scaling their business, they need to hire highly driven, credible, and competent individuals that I then can turn to empower, support, and trust in the responsibilities being delegated. I have never feared change, and back in January, I recognized that we were at crossroads and a pivotal inflection point in the company’s future.

As a result, I began to make key strategic changes and additions to our team. I now have a tremendous amount of confidence in my supporting team, which is by far the strongest and most unified our team has been to date. It’s very exciting to witness the transformation on a daily basis, as well as the efforts and success of the company’s next evolution in our growth cycle.”

FOBI GAINS GLOBAL BRAND EXPOSURE FROM EPIC FINISH AT RBC CANADIAN OPEN

Finally, the Company was pleasantly surprised to receive significant brand exposure from the epic finish at the RBC Canadian Open this past weekend. Specifically, during the celebrations that followed the 72-foot eagle putt of tournament champion Nick Taylor, the first Canadian winner of the tournament since 1954, fellow Canadian player and Fobi partner Adam Hadwin rushed the green with a champagne celebration, only to be tackled by a security guard in front of a global audience of millions, followed by tens of millions of social media views in the following 48 hours.

The whimsical mixup led to multiple interviews of Hadwin with Fobi branding in full sight, leading to the two highest download days of the Company’s investor presentation on Sunday and Monday.

Fobi congratulates Nick Taylor on his historical victory and wishes Adam Hadwin the same success at the U.S. Open this upcoming weekend.

Click here to hear from Fobi CEO Rob Anson as he discusses the Company’s mid-year corporate update on the Fobi Insider podcast.

This press release is available on the Fobi website.

To download the Fobi Investor Experience Wallet Pass to get enhanced access to investor information about Fobi, please visit our Investor Experience page.

About Fobi
Founded in 2017 in Vancouver, Canada, Fobi is a leading AI and data intelligence company that provides businesses with real-time applications to digitally transform and future-proof their organizations. Fobi enables businesses to action, leverage, and monetize their customer data by powering personalized and data-driven customer experiences, and drives digital sustainability by eliminating the need for paper and reducing unnecessary plastic waste at scale.

Fobi works with some of the largest global organizations across retail & CPG, insurance, sports & entertainment, casino gaming, and more. Fobi is a recognized technology and data intelligence leader across North America and Europe, and is the largest data aggregator in Canada's hospitality & tourism industry.

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This news release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking statements or information, including statements regarding Fobi's business and technology; the ability of Fobi to engage with industry participants to achieve its goals; the development of Fobi's technology; and the viability of Fobi's business model. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Fobi's control, including the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, competition from other industry participants, stock market volatility, and the ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources. Although Fobi believes that the expectations in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, they are based on factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate. Those factors and assumptions are based upon currently available information. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could influence actual results or events and cause actual results or events to differ materially from those stated, anticipated, or implied in the forward-looking statements. As such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, as no assurance can be provided as to future results, levels of activity, or achievements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and, except as required by applicable law, Fobi does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking statements contained in this document are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Trading in the securities of Fobi should be considered highly speculative. There can be no assurance that Fobi will be able to achieve all or any of its proposed objectives.

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