Q1 2024 Revenue of $16.0 million Grows 13% Versus Q1 2023Generated $2.9 Million in Positive Free Cash FlowThinkific Commerce and Thinkific Plus Growth Remain Strong at 80% and 28% Respectively Thinkific reports in U.S. dollars and in accordance with IFRS VANCOUVER, BC, May 7, 2024 /CNW/ - Thinkific Labs Inc. ("Thinkific" or the "Company") (TSX:THNC), a leading cloud-based software platform that enables entrepreneurs and established businesses of all sizes to create, market, and sell digital learning products, today announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. We continue to execute against our strategy of profitable growth as evidenced by our solid Q1 results, and we saw strong growth in GMV representing the sales our customers are earning. We continue to see that customers who adopt Thinkific Commerce sell more. We're proud to deliver this suite of features to help them grow their businesses." said Greg Smith, CEO of Thinkific.  We also signed a partnership with Spotify to test a program in the United Kingdom that offers courses alongside music, podcasts and audiobooks in the Spotify app. Spotify's pursuit of this opportunity validates the size of the market we see ahead of us. It's also an extension of our unwavering commitment to the success of our customers and part of our strategy to deliver the best tools and partnerships to help them grow their businesses. When our customers succeed so does Thinkific". First Quarter Financial Highlights  Total revenue increased 13% to $16.0 million, compared with the first quarter of 2023, at the top end of our guided range of $15.8 million - $16.0 million. Commerce revenue increased 80% to $2.1 million, compared with the first quarter of 2023, building on the success of Thinkific Payments and other recently launched commerce tools. Subscription revenue increased 7% to $13.8 million, compared to the first quarter of 2023. On a customer group basis (inclusive of both subscription and commerce revenue), Self Service revenue grew 10% to $12.4 million and Thinkific Plus increased 28% to $3.6 million. Gross margin declined slightly to 74% for the first quarter of 2024 from 75% for the first quarter of 2023,  as we saw an increasing mix of Thinkific Commerce to our overall revenue. Net loss for the first quarter of 2024 was $1.1 million compared to a net loss of $7.0 million for the first quarter of 2023.   Adjusted EBITDA(1) of $0.2 million remained positive for the third consecutive quarter, and is an improvement of $3.3 million over the first quarter of 2023.   Total Paying Customers(2) grew 3% to 35.1 thousand in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period of the prior year.  ARPU(2) increased 10% to $152 per month compared with $139 per month in the first quarter of 2023 due to strong growth in Thinkific Plus, and higher adoption of Thinkific's own Commerce Solutions versus third-party payment vendors. ARR(2) grew 8% to $56.6 million in the first quarter of 2024 from $52.3 million in the first quarter of 2023, primarily driven by strong growth in our Thinkific Plus business. GPV(2) processed through Thinkific Commerce increased 54% to $44.7 million in the first quarter of 2024 compared to $29.0 million in the first quarter of the prior year. GPV represented 37% of GMV. GMV(2) in the first quarter of 2024 was $122.1 million, up 8% compared to the first quarter of 2023 reflecting customer success in growing their businesses and increasing adoption of the Thinkific Platform. Cash and cash equivalents were $87.3 million at March 31, 2024. Cash flow from operations in the first quarter of 2024 totaled $3.1 million. During the first quarter of 2024, Thinkific repurchased and cancelled 697,004 shares for a total of $1.8 million under our NCIB. (1)  Non-IFRS measure. See "Non-IFRS Measures" and the reconciliation to the most directly comparable IFRS measure. (2)  Key Performance Indicators. See definition in "Key Performance Indicators". "Our third consecutive quarter of double digit growth, positive cash flow from operations and adjusted EBITDA shows we are executing well against our strategy toward sustainable, profitable growth," said Corinne Hua, CFO of Thinkific. "We expect Thinkific Commerce and Thinkific Plus growth to remain strong, which along with our strategic investments into product innovation and go-to-market execution, puts us in a good position to accelerate growth in the second half of the year. First Quarter Operational Highlights Signed a partnership with Spotify to test a program in the United Kingdom that offers Thinkific courses alongside music, podcasts and audiobooks in the Spotify app. Added Group Buying to our Commerce Solutions, a buying option that allows a business to derive additional value through bulk purchases of courses that can then be shared with their learners for self-enrollment. The LEAP, a powerful AI tool for content creators and influencers that makes it easy to build, promote, and sell exceptional digital products in minutes has now seen new accounts grow to 20,000. Subsequent to Quarter End Announced the availability of "Digital Downloads", a feature that makes it easier for Creators to start their business. This is part of our continued strategy to allow Creators to offer a multitude of digital learning products to suit their needs. It also makes it easier to get started with simpler to create products such as eBooks, PDFs, and spreadsheets. Outlook  For the second quarter of 2024, the Company expects Revenue of $16.1 - 16.4 million.  We will continue to invest in the business to accelerate topline growth; however, we are committed to maintaining positive Adjusted EBITDA.  Actual results may differ materially from Thinkific's financial outlook as a result of, among other things, the factors described under "Forward-Looking Statements" below. Quarterly Conference Call and Webcast Information A conference call will be held at 5:00 PM ET (2:00 PM PT) on May 7 to discuss Thinkific's first quarter financial and operational results. To participate in the call, please dial 1.888.664.6383 (US/Canada toll-free) or 1.416.764.8650 (International/Toronto). For those unable to participate, a replay will be available an hour after the event by dialing 1.888.390.0541 (US/Canada toll-free) or 1.416.764.8677 (International/Toronto). The passcode is 409502 #. The replay will expire at midnight ET on May 14, 2024. The conference call will also be available via webcast on the Investor Relations section of Thinkific's website at investors.thinkific.com/events-and-presentations. Thinkific's audited consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes, and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2023 are available on the Company's website at www.thinkific.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. About Thinkific Thinkific (TSX:THNC) makes it simple for Creator Educators and established businesses of any size to scale and generate revenue by teaching what they know. Our Platform gives businesses everything they need to build, market, and sell digital learning products - from courses to communities -  and to run their business seamlessly under their own brand, on their own site. Thinkific's 50,000+ active customers earn hundreds of millions of dollars in direct course, membership and community sales while teaching tens of millions of students. Thinkific is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with a distributed team. For more information, please visit www.thinkific.com. Non-IFRS Measures The information presented within this press release includes "Adjusted EBITDA" and certain industry metrics. The "Adjusted EBITDA" is not a recognized measure under International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS, and is therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Rather, this measure is provided as additional information to complement those IFRS measures by providing further understanding of our results of operations from management's perspective. Accordingly, it should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for analysis of our financial information reported under IFRS. We also use certain industry metrics: "Annual Recurring Revenue", "Paying Customers", "Average Revenue per User", "Gross Merchandise Volume" and "Gross Payments Volume". These industry metrics are unaudited and are not directly derived from our financial statements. The non-IFRS measure and industry metrics are used to provide investors with supplemental measures of our operating performance and thus highlight trends in our core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS measures. We also believe that securities analysts, investors and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS measures and industry metrics in the evaluation of issuers. Our management also uses the non-IFRS measure and industry metrics in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period, to prepare annual operating budgets and forecasts and to determine components of management compensation. "Adjusted EBITDA" is defined as net loss excluding taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (or EBITDA), as adjusted for stock-based compensation, foreign exchange (gain) loss, finance income, restructuring costs, and (gain) loss on disposal of property and equipment. Adjusted EBITDA does not have a standardized meaning under IFRS and is not a measure of operating income, operating performance or liquidity presented in accordance with IFRS, and is subject to important limitations. Please refer to "Reconciliation to IFRS from Non-IFRS measures" in this press release for more information. Key Performance Indicators We monitor the following industry metrics to help us evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans and make strategic decisions: "Annual Recurring Revenue" or "ARR", "Average Revenue per User" or "ARPU", "Gross Merchandise Volume" or "GMV",  "Paying Customers" and "Gross Payments Volume" or "GPV". Our key performance indicators may be calculated in a manner different than similar key performance indicators used by other companies. "Paying Customers" is the count of unique Thinkific subscribers on paid plans as of period end, excluding all trial and free customers, and including both monthly and annual subscribers. "ARPU" is the average monthly Revenue per Paying Customer in the quarter. ARPU is calculated by taking the average Revenue for each month in the quarter and dividing this by the average number of Paying Customers for the same quarter. "ARR" is the annual ...