Cardlytics, Inc., a purchase intelligence platform that helps make marketing more relevant and measurable, announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018.
 
"We generated solid first quarter results, with 31% year-over-year growth in Cardlytics Direct revenue," said Scott Grimes, CEO & Co-Founder of Cardlytics. "Cardlytics Direct delivers growth by leveraging purchase intelligence to find valuable customers and understand precisely the return on a marketer's investment. This is especially critical in the rapidly changing retail environment, and we believe it positions us well as we continue to grow our base of marketers."
 
"We are pleased to announce the signing of an agreement for a national launch with JPMorgan Chase," said Lynne Laube, COO & Co-Founder of Cardlytics. "The addition of Chase to the Cardlytics purchase intelligence platform will further strengthen our ability to provide powerful, actionable insights for our marketer clients and then act on these insights at scale."
 
First Quarter 2018 Financial Results
 
Total revenue was $32.7 million, an increase of 22% year-over-year compared to $26.9 million in the first quarter of 2017.

Cardlytics Direct revenue was $32.1 million, an increase of 31% compared to $24.5 million in the first quarter of 2017.

GAAP net loss was $(20.1) million, or $(1.54) per share based on 13.1 million weighted-average common shares outstanding, compared to a loss of $(12.5) million, or $(4.80) per share based on 2.6 million weighted-average common shares outstanding in the first quarter of 2017.

Adjusted contribution, a non-GAAP metric, was $14.2 million compared to $10.6 million in the first quarter of 2017.

Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric, was a loss of $(3.1) million compared to a loss of $(4.9) million in the first quarter of 2017.

Non-GAAP net loss was $(6.1) million, or $(0.35) per share based on 17.6 million non-GAAP weighted-average common shares outstanding, compared to a loss of $(8.7) million, or $(0.75) per share based on 11.6 million non-GAAP weighted-average common shares outstanding in the first quarter of 2017.
 
"We had several important drivers impacting revenue growth. These include MAU growth, growth in new and existing marketers, and improved engagement enhancements with our banks," said David Evans, CFO of Cardlytics. "With the announcement that Chase will be coming onto our platform, we are very excited about the longer-term prospects for the business."
 
Key Metrics

FI MAUs were 58.7 million, an increase of 13% compared to 51.9 million in the first quarter of 2017.
ARPU was $0.55 compared to $0.47 in the first quarter of 2017.
 
Definitions of FI MAUs and ARPU are included below under the caption "Non-GAAP Measures and Other Performance Metrics."
 
2018 Financial Expectations
 
Cardlytics anticipates revenue and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA to be in the following ranges for the periods indicated (in millions):
 

 
(1) With respect to our expectations above under the caption "2018 Financial Expectations," a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net loss on a forward looking basis is not available without unreasonable efforts due to the high variability, complexity and low visibility with respect to the items excluded from this non-GAAP measure. We have provided a reconciliation of historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures in the financial statement tables included in this press release.

(2) The adjusted EBITDA expectations for the full year of 2018 includes the impact of an anticipated $2.0 million expense in the second half of 2018 related to an expected shortfall in meeting a minimum FI Share commitment.
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