John Schroyer
WM Technology Inc.’s (Nasdaq: MAPS) staff cuts and other pivots apparently weren’t enough to become profitable for the calendar year. The company lost a total of $82.7 million in 2022, it revealed in its fourth-quarter earnings report, a stark contrast from 2021, when the cannabis advertising giant raked in $152.2 million in net income.
Weedmaps.com, a leading dispensary finder website and advertising platform for marijuana brands, lost $60.8 million in the fourth quarter alone, according to the report.
That’s despite at least two rounds of layoffs last year. The company reported that a good bit of the losses can be chalked up to severance payments to former staffers.
Executive Chairman Doug Francis, who stepped in to take over for ousted chief Chris Beals in November, said in a press release that the numbers “reflect both the continued importance of WM Technology to our clients and users as well as the challenging operating environment that exists today in cannabis.”
Revenues were also in the fourth quarter, though full-year sales were up overall, WM Technology reported. In Q4, revenues fell to $49.3 million from $54.2 million in the same period a year before. But for the entire year, revenues increased to $215.5 million from $193.1 million in 2021.
That’s in part because of changes in the client base, the company reported. While there are more paying cannabis company clients, those clients are spending less apiece than they did in 2021. The average number of paying clients in 2022 was 5,457, up from 4,337 in 2021. But average monthly spending was down to $3,291 from $3,711 in 2021.
The company ended the year with $28.6 million in the bank, and its outlook for 2023 isn’t immediately rosier than last year’s outcome.
WM Technology is projecting $47 million in revenue for the first quarter, which would be a sequential decrease, but Francis described it as “a financial outlook that returns us to our roots of top-line growth.”
Francis said in the release that he’s spent the past four months formulating a new business plan for WM Technology, that he hopes will “enable Weedmaps to expand our leadership role, help drive market stability, and allow our clients to experience profitable and sustainable growth.”
