kplt-20241231
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024
OR
For the transition period from _____ to _____
Commission file number 001-39116
Katapult Holdings, Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(833) 528-2785
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share KPLT The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Redeemable Warrants KPLTW The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
Yes ☐No☒
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.
Yes☐ No☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).
Yes ☐No☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☒ Smaller reporting company ☒
Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. Yes ☐ No ☒
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b).☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
Based on the closing sale price of $16.81 for our common stock on The Nasdaq Capital Market on June 30, 2024, the aggregate market value of outstanding shares of common stock held by non-affiliates was approximately $43.7 million. This calculation excludes shares of the registrant's common stock held by current executive officers, directors and stockholders that the registrant has concluded are affiliates of the registrant. This determination of affiliate status is not a determination for other purposes.
The number of shares of the registrant's common stock outstanding as of March 24, 2025 was 4,461,243
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of our Definitive Proxy Statement for our 2024 Annual Meeting, expected to be filed within 120 days of our fiscal year end, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Table of Contents
KATAPULT HOLDINGS, INC.
2024 FORM 10-K ANNUAL REPORT
Table of Contents
Page
Part I 1
Item 1. Business 1
Item 1A. Risk Factors 9
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 39
Item 1C. Cybersecurity 39
Item 2. Properties 40
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 40
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 40
Item 6. [Reserved] 41
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 56
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 57
Consolidated Balance Sheets 61
Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss 62
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Deficit 63
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows 64
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 65
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 79
Item 9B. Other Information 80
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 80
Part III 80
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 80
Item 11. Executive Compensation 80
Item 14. Principal Accounting Accountant Fees and Services 80
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 81
Signatures 87
In this report, unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise indicates, the terms "we," "us," "our," the "Company," or "Katapult" refer to Katapult Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K, (“Annual Report” or “Form 10-K”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this report, including statements regarding our opportunity, our future results of operations and financial condition, business strategy, and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “anticipate,” “assume” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “design,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potentially,” “predict,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the following:
•our ability to refinance our indebtedness and continue as a going concern;
•executing on our business strategy, including expanding information and technology capabilities;
•our market opportunity, our ability to acquire and retain new and existing merchants and customers;
•customer adoption and continued growth of our mobile app featuring Katapult Pay;
•the timing and impact of our growth initiatives on our future financial performance and the impact of our business growth strategy;
•anticipating the occurrence and timing of prime lending tightening and impact on our results of operations;
•general economic conditions in the markets where we operate, the cyclical nature of consumer spending, and seasonal sales and spending patterns of consumers;
•factors affecting consumer spending that are not under our control, including, among others, levels of employment, disposable consumer income, inflation, prevailing interest rates, consumer debt and availability of credit, pandemics (such as COVID-19), consumer confidence in future economic conditions, political conditions, and consumer perceptions of personal well-being and security and willingness and ability of consumers to pay for the goods they lease through us when due;
•risks relating to uncertainty of our estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth, including the home furnishings and retail environment;
•risks related to the concentration of a significant portion of our transaction volume with a single merchant, or type of merchant or industry;
•the effects of competition on our future business;
•meeting future liquidity requirements and complying with restrictive covenants related to indebtedness;
•the impact of unstable market and economic conditions such as impact of tariffs, rising inflation and interest rates;
•reliability of our platform and effectiveness of our risk models;
•data security breaches or other information technology incidents or disruptions, including cyber-attacks, and the protection of confidential, proprietary, personal and other information, including personal data of consumers;
•attracting and retaining employees, executive officers or directors;
•obtaining additional capital, including equity or debt financing and servicing our indebtedness;
•enhancing future operating and financial results;
•anticipating rapid technological changes, including artificial intelligence and other new technologies;
•staying abreast of modified or new laws and regulations and complying with laws and regulations applicable to our business, including laws and regulations related to rental purchase transactions, U.S. federal income tax, and data privacy;
•responding to uncertainties associated with product and service developments and market acceptance;
•identifying material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting which, if not remediated, could affect the reliability of our financial statements;
•costs and effects of legal and administrative proceedings, settlements, investigations, and claims;
•litigation, regulatory matters, complaints, adverse publicity and/or misconduct by employees, vendors and/or service providers; and
•our ability to meet the minimum requirements for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Market ("Nasdaq").
Forward-looking statements are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including risks described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Form 10-K. Other sections of this Form 10-K may include additional factors that could harm our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for our management to predict all risk factors nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any
factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in, or implied by, any forward-looking statements.
You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, achievements, events, or circumstances. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this report or to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations. You should read this Form 10-K and the documents that we have filed as exhibits to this report with the understanding that our actual future results, levels of activity, performance, and achievements may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this report, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and you are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
Investors and others should note that we may announce material business and financial information to our investors using our investor relations website (ir.katapultholdings.com), our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, webcasts, press releases and conference calls. We use these mediums, including our website, to communicate with investors and the general public about our company, our products, and other issues. It is possible that the information that we make available on our website may be deemed to be material information. We therefore encourage investors and others interested in our company to review the information that we make available on our website. The contents of our website are not incorporated into this filing. We have included our investor relations website address only as an inactive textual reference and do not intend it to be an active link to our website.
Basis of Presentation
Katapult Holdings, Inc., formerly known as FinServ Acquisition Corp. (“FinServ”), was incorporated in the state of Delaware in August 2019 for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. On June 9, 2021, FinServ merged with Katapult Holdings, Inc. ("Legacy Katapult"). The merger and related transactions were completed and in connection with the closing of the merger, FinServ changed its name to Katapult Holdings, Inc.
Our wholly owned subsidiaries are Katapult Intermediate Holdings LLC, (formerly known as Keys Merger Sub 2, LLC) a Delaware limited liability company formed in December 2020, Katapult Group, Inc. (formerly known as Cognical, Inc.), a Delaware corporation incorporated in March 2012, Katapult SPV-1 LLC, a Delaware limited liability company formed in March 2019, and Katapult SPV-2 LLC, a Delaware limited liability company formed in January 2025.Legacy Katapult was incorporated in the state of Delaware in 2016.
Unless otherwise noted, “we”, “us”, “our”, “Katapult”, and the “Company” and similar terms refer to Legacy Katapult and its subsidiaries prior to the consummation of the merger, and Katapult Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries after the merger. The Katapult logo, “Katapult,” “Katapult Pay,” and our other registered and common law trade names, trademarks, and service marks are the property of Katapult Holdings, Inc. or our subsidiaries. Other trade names, trademarks, and service marks used in this report are the property of their respective owners.
Part I
Item 1. Business
Company Overview
We are a technology driven lease-to-own ("LTO") platform that integrates with omnichannel retailers and
e-commerce platforms to power the purchasing of everyday durable goods by underserved U.S. nonprime customers. We were founded and incorporated in Delaware in 2012. We primarily operate within the virtual LTO market, which is estimated to have a total addressable market opportunity of $50 - $60 billion. We operate exclusively in the U.S. and our platform is available for use by consumers in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Based on our 2024 gross originations, we believe that we currently capture less than 1% market share.
A lease-to-own transaction is a flexible alternative for consumers to obtain and enjoy merchandise with no long-term obligation. Goods are leased in exchange for a weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly payment, and customers have the option to purchase or return the items at any point during the duration of the lease-purchase agreement. These goods are available immediately to our customers upon the consummation of their lease-purchase agreement with Katapult. Our LTO platform offers consumers, particularly those with nonprime credit, an alternative path to ownership compared with traditional financing, which may not be accessible to them due to credit or other financial constraints. Many durable goods are eligible for lease-to-own, including home furnishings, automotive goods, computers, electronics, and appliances, among others.
We are mission-driven and focused on providing underserved, nonprime consumers, with a simple, quick, transparent and fair pathway to acquiring the durable goods they need, when they need them. We believe that seeing the good in people is good for business, humanizing the way underserved, non-prime customers are able to acquire the durable goods they need with payment solutions based on fairness and dignity. By valuing the potential in individual consumers and treating them with the dignity they deserve, we believe we are creating a more inclusive economy that can better meet the needs of nonprime consumers.
For customers, our process is built to be simple, fast, and transparent. Our platform is based on a quick three-step application and a fully automated approval process that generates a decision in five seconds or less. Our terms are flexible and transparent and we never charge our customers late fees. Katapult’s lease-to-own platform is differentiated from traditional installment loans, credit cards, and buy now, pay later options and we believe it can meet the needs of nonprime consumers in a way that traditional options cannot. Customers benefit from no long-term obligations, the flexibility to terminate their lease at any time without penalty, and they are only responsible for any outstanding balance up to the return date. Payment plans are convenient and tailored to suit individual needs. Our flexible terms include renewal periods of varying durations, including 12- and 18-months, and we also offer special pricing for early lease-purchase options (buyouts) within 90 days. In addition, based on our commitment to fairness and our customer-centric approach, Katapult does not increase the cash price of leased items and does not charge late or non-sufficient funds fees ("NSF fees"). We believe these principles distinguish our offering from many of our competitors. We believe we provide an affordable path to leasing or purchasing the durable goods that non-prime customers need at a total cost of ownership that is lower than many competing lease-to-own products or other financing options that are available to them.
For merchants, our LTO solution provides access to a new customer base that historically has not qualified for traditional prime financing. By helping merchants reach this customer segment, we believe we deliver incremental sales to merchants and lower their customer acquisition costs. Ultimately, we believe merchants that work with us and reach this underserved customer segment see higher retail conversion and greater marketing spend efficiency.
Currently, we offer four channels by which consumers can access our platform, and these products are our primary customer acquisition channels. These options are: direct integration, waterfall integration, mobile app and text-to-checkout. Some merchants can be accessed through more than one of our four acquisition channels. A direct integration is when we integrate with a merchant's digital point of sale ("POS") system to facilitate online transactions via Application Programming Interfaces or through third-party plug-ins such as Shopify, Magento and
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BigCommerce, among others. This option allows consumers to select a Katapult lease transaction as their method of payment at checkout. Our waterfall integration product allows us to partner with waterfall financing platforms. In a waterfall transaction, the potential customer completes a credit application, which then flows from the prime lender to other financing and lease-purchase options automatically. If our lease offer is the best match for the potential customer credit profile it will be presented to the consumer at the point of sale. If the consumer decides to accept our offer, they can utilize a Katapult lease to pay for their durable goods purchase at checkout. Both our direct and waterfall options involve some integration support from direct merchant partners.We refer to merchants with whom we have a contractual arrangement to provide either a direct integration or a waterfall integration as “direct merchants”.
In late 2022, we launched the Katapult mobile app, which includes a feature called Katapult PayTR ("KPay") that allows consumers to leverage our virtual credit card technology to shop with a variety of durable goods merchants featured in our app marketplace. This option does not require integration support from merchants and the consumer interaction begins and ends in the Katapult app. With the launch of this feature, customers can start and complete lease originations within our ecosystem. This functionality has allowed Katapult to create its app marketplace, where customers can go to shop with more than 250 merchants that have either a direct or waterfall integration with Katapult or that are available for checkout via KPay. We refer to merchants that are available for checkout via KPay as “KPay enabled merchants”.
Finally, we also offer an in-store POS integration option called text-to-checkout, which simplifies the in-store leasing experience for consumers while allowing Katapult to retain control of the customer journey and ensure adherence to regulatory requirements.
(1)The total cost a customer may pay in connection with our lease-purchase transaction depends on certain factors, including, but not limited to: (1) total cost limitations, which vary across states and generally range between 2.0 and 2.75 times, depending on the duration of the renewal periods, the cash price, referred to as the Lease Multiple, (2) the maximum length of the renewal periods (typically 12-18 months), (3) whether the early purchase option is exercised, and (4) whether the customer exercises their right to terminate the lease, without penalty if current, thereby ending additional renewal payment obligations. In general, during the first ninety (90) days, our customers have the ability to purchase the good for the cash price of the item plus 5% and any applicable fees (including initial fees, where applicable) and taxes. After ninety (90) days, but prior to reaching the maximum renewal term, the customer may exercise the purchase option at a discount on the remaining lease renewal payments (typically 55–65% of the remaining renewal payments).
(2)Customers may renew through the maximum term at which point they will have paid approximately two times the cash price to own the item. Customers have the option to terminate the lease at any time with no penalty or further obligation (other than the lease cost already incurred). Upon termination, the customer must return the durable good that had been leased, which can be returned to us or the merchant if within the merchant's return period. Lease-purchase transactions, unlike credit or a loan, are not subject to variable interest rates and do not include finance charges.
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Our Strategy
Our strategy supports our mission to enable consumers to get the durable goods they need when they need them and connect retailers with a growing base of engaged and loyal consumers. To achieve this, we are focused on the following initiatives:
•Merchant Engagement: Within this initiative, we are focused on building new, and retaining existing, relationships with merchants and waterfall finance companies by continuing to enhance our innovative integrated products. We believe we have significant opportunity to grow gross origination volumes by increasing our transaction volume with merchants we currently work with and others that have yet to adopt our solution.
•Consumer Engagement: We are focused on using our app marketplace and disciplined marketing strategies to increase engagement with existing and potential customers, and grow our conversion and repeat purchase rates. Our app marketplace allows consumers to originate leases with merchants through direct or waterfall integrations on merchant websites or within the Katapult marketplace using KPay. Since we launched the app in late 2022, transactions that were completed using KPay have grown to represent 32% of our total gross originations for the year ended December 31, 2024. Approximately 54% of our 2024 gross originations started with an interaction in our mobile app, whereby the customer checked out either through Kpay or a waterfall transaction. We intend to continue to thoughtfully expand the breadth of merchants available in our marketplace as we continue to transform our Katapult app marketplace into a shopping destination. We believe this will allow us to grow gross originations even if merchants are not able to immediately integrate our LTO solution into their payment flows.
•Partnerships: We intend to enter new partnerships that deliver new customers, increase brand awareness and customer loyalty and enhance our product offering while requiring minimal technical investment. We believe we can leverage our technology to help partners monetize their customer bases and help Katapult grow gross originations and revenue.
•Unlock the power of our financial model: We are focused on maintaining fiscal discipline that enables us to invest in our growth opportunities while generating profitable growth. We do not incur costs associated with buying, storing and shipping inventory, which eliminates inventory risk. Over time as transaction volume grows, we are positioned to achieve operating leverage because our model is primarily driven by a technology platform that does not require significant increases in operating overhead to support sales growth. As we achieve revenue growth, we believe we can maintain and create operational efficiencies that will allow us to expand our operating margins, enhance profitability and grow cash and cash equivalents.
Operating Segments
We have one operating segment under which we report our total financial and operating performance.
Operations
We believe our LTO offerings are distinguished by the following core capabilities:
•Advanced underwriting. Katapult’s proprietary technology enables frictionless underwriting with minimal customer inputs (seven required fields) and real-time decision-making (five seconds or less). There are no credit checks or requirements for bank account or payroll data.
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Our proprietary, end-to-end technology platform has been designed and built to handle high volumes of data from e-commerce transactions. The system is non-FICO based, relying on internally developed scoring and analytics to identify appropriate customers for our LTO offering. Our behavioral learning-based risk models are designed to effectively price risk and provide customized recommendations. The platform considers data beyond traditional credit scores, such as lease history, behavioral biometrics and mobile device information to predict repayment ability, and leverages this with real-time response data
•Market-leading customer experience and service. Our customer experience is grounded in transparency, respect and fairness. We have built a large and growing customer base of engaged and loyal customers who value the LTO product we offer and the way we treat our customers. We believe our customer-centric model fosters trust and customer retention. We offer hardship programs, flexible repayment options and fair terms to meet the needs of customers throughout the US. Our net promoter score ("NPS") and our repeat purchase rate, defined as the percentage of in-quarter originations from existing customers were 58 and 61.5% respectively, as of December 31, 2024. NPS is a score that measures the likelihood of users to recommend a company’s products or services to others, and ranges from a low of negative 100 to high of positive 100, and benchmark scores can vary significantly by industry. A score greater than zero represents a company having more promoters than detractors.
•Proprietary technology that powers our scalable platform. Technology is at the core of everything we do - from simplifying the customer experience, to driving repeat transactions, to launching innovative new products that benefit our merchants and customers, to managing risk. We are an e-commerce solution for customers and we believe we are the only non-prime customer lease-purchase platform focused on e-commerce. We offer a fully-digital, seamless and differentiated platform driven by proprietary technology and risk models that have been developed over several years. We utilize modern, cutting-edge technology including sophisticated behavioral machine learning models and cloud-based computing designed to offer a seamless digital customer experience on the front end as well as continually evolving real-time decision engine on the back end.
Our proprietary technology drives the Katapult app and Katapult Pay by giving us the unique ability to quickly and reliably differentiate between leasable and non-leasable items in a customer's cart without a direct or waterfall integration with a merchant.
Our technology also creates many benefits for our merchant-partners. The process to integrate our direct and waterfall options is quick and easy and can be completed within as few as two days. In addition, we provide merchants with insightful analytics that help them understand payment activities and performance associated with non-prime applications. The platform also offers other key insights into customers’ shopping habits to help merchants optimize customer conversion and customer acquisition costs.
Our technology platform supports our advanced underwriting as well as our integration capabilities, decisioning, payment collection and other Katapult systems that allow us to achieve operational efficiencies and that we believe will drive economies of scale as we continue to grow.
•Marketing focused on enhancing the lifetime value of our customer base. As we continue to focus on growing our customer base, we have begun to strategically invest in marketing campaigns and initiatives. Currently, we promote our product primarily through digital marketing channels. Our efforts are focused on driving more traffic to the Katapult app, which we believe we can convert to new lease transactions. Our campaign content focuses on the strength of our product offering, including its ease-of-use, convenience and transparency, as well as our competitive pricing and access to a variety of durable goods sold by leading retailers. We believe there is a large untapped consumer base that could benefit from our LTO offering but are unfamiliar with our brand. Based on this we expect to continue scaling our marketing strategy while monitoring the return-on-investment (ROI) of our spending. We will do this by testing and learning from marketing campaigns before scaling our investment.
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Our largest merchant partner is Wayfair, Inc. ("Wayfair"). We have an agreement with Wayfair Inc., dated November 24, 2020, (the "Wayfair Agreement") whereby we provide Wayfair customers with lease-purchase options for certain Wayfair products directly on Wayfair’s customer website. Wayfair(1) represented 36% and 49%of our gross originations for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively through the Wayfair Agreement. The Wayfair Agreement continues for successive two-year terms and may be terminated by either party at any time and for any reason provided that the terminating party provides written notice sixty days prior to the date of termination. The Wayfair Agreement does not prohibit Wayfair from offering lease-to-own options from our competitors. The Wayfair Agreement allows us to benefit from Wayfair’s broad range of product offerings and market ourselves to a larger audience of customers who may seek alternative payment options.
As of December 31, 2024, we have integrated our leasing solution with more than 250 merchants and we offer customers the ability to shop with more than 30 merchants through our Katapult marketplace powered by Katapult Pay. Our top ten merchants in the aggregate represented approximately 78% and 81% of our total gross originations for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
(1) Wayfair gross originations exclude transactions through Katapult Pay and only include transactions directly through Wayfair's waterfall platform.
Industry Overview and Competition
According to a 2024 report from the Financial Health Network ("FHN") approximately 70% of Americans consider themselves to be either financially vulnerable or financially coping. These measurements are based on responses to eight financial health survey questions. A numerical value is assigned to each of the possible responses of the eight financial health survey questions. The responses to these questions are used to calculate a FinHealth Score, which ranges from 0 to 100. Those with scores between 0 and 39 are considered “Financially Vulnerable,” consumers and those with scores ranging between 40 and 79 are defined as “Financially Coping.”
In this same FHN report, 53% report that their spending is higher than their income and only 44% report having enough savings to cover 3 or more months of living expenses. In addition, only 29% report having a prime credit score. The lease-to-own industry provides this large base of underserved consumers with an opportunity to economically acquire durable goods that they may not have otherwise had the resources to obtain.
We compete with national, regional and local operators of LTO stores, virtual LTO companies, traditional and e-commerce retailers (including many that offer layaway programs and/or installment payment options), traditional and online sellers of new and used merchandise, and various types of consumer finance companies that may enable consumers to shop at traditional or online retailers, as well as with rental stores that do not offer their consumers a purchase option.
Seasonality
We experience seasonal fluctuations in our revenue as a result of consumer spending patterns. Historically, our revenue is moderately seasonal and strongest during the first quarter. This is primarily due to historically higher gross originations during the fourth quarter holiday season. Our first quarter revenue is also impacted by the receipt of our customers in the first quarter of federal and state income tax refunds which historically has led to our customers more frequently exercising the early purchase option on their existing lease agreements or purchasing durable goods during the first quarter of the year. Adverse events that occur during these months could have a disproportionate effect on our financial results for the year.
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Employees and Human Capital Resources
At Katapult, our people are our most valuable resource and critical to our success. We believe in an open and collaborative work environment which drives employee accountability and ownership in their performance and development. Our executive management team creates a culture and environment focused on high employee engagement and performance. The Compensation Committee of our board of directors is engaged in the oversight of our employees and compensation practices, and receives regular updates from management on progress and developments, and our executive management team and the Compensation Committee receive regular reports on progress against our people goals.
As of December 31, 2024, we had 94 employees located in the United States. We also engage consultants and contractors to supplement our permanent workforce. We have never experienced any work stoppages and maintain good working relationships with our employees. None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement or are represented by a labor union at this time.
Our proprietary technology platform is essential to our core operations. In order to build these proprietary, innovative and secure products, we place a significant emphasis on identifying and employing talented and driven technology-focused professionals and engineers.
We offer competitive compensation and benefits to attract and retain top talent. Our total compensation packages generally include market-competitive salary, bonus, sales commissions and equity awards. As a remote-first company, we are able to attract highly skilled and experienced employees from a broad geographic landscape and offer market competitive compensation packages. At least annually, we review our compensation practices internally and with the assistance of a third-party compensation consultant.
Regulatory
Government Regulation
Our operations are governed by the requirements of numerous federal and state laws, and by the agencies that interpret and enforce those laws.This summary is not intended to be a complete summary of the laws referred to below or of all the laws regulating our operations.
There are currently 46 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have enacted lease-purchase statutes which set forth core requirements for our personal property lease-purchase transactions.These laws dictate our obligations with regard to consumer disclosures, pricing maximums, fees, and marketing, among other requirements. These laws may change, or the agencies charged with overseeing these laws may issue future guidance on the interpretation of these laws that is new, unforeseen, or otherwise conflicts with our current practices. Violations of these state lease-purchase laws can result in material penalties.We are unable to predict the nature or effect on our operations or earnings of unknown future legislation, regulations, agency interpretations and guidance, or judicial or administrative decisions concerning the laws governing our operations, and there can be no assurance that future laws, regulations, interpretations or decisions will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and earnings.
We are also required to be licensed in certain states in order to engage in lease-purchase transactions. While we hold required licenses, such licensing requirements could unexpectedly change which in turn could impact our results of operations, financial condition and earnings.
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Regarding federal law, at the present time, no federal law specifically regulates the core lease-purchase transaction offered by us. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) does not regulate leases with terms of less than 90 days. Katapult’s lease-purchase transactions carry terms of, at most, month-to-month, and therefore are less than 90 days, such that the transactions do not fall within the transactions specifically covered by Dodd-Frank. These issues notwithstanding, various aspects of our business are governed by federal laws and regulations. For example, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) oversees business practices that are unfair, deceptive or fraudulent to consumers, including within the lease-purchase industry. As such, we seek to ensure that we comply with FTC rules and regulations relating to our operations and we pursue compliance management practices to do so; however, any violation of such rules or regulations could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, financial condition and earnings.
Also, state and federal regulatory authorities, including state attorneys general offices, state agencies such as the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, and the FTC, are increasingly focused on the consumer financial marketplace and personal property leasing, generally.At any time, these agencies could initiate new investigations or otherwise take action that could result in significant adverse changes in the regulatory landscape for the lease-purchase industry in which we operate. We cannot predict whether any state attorneys general, state consumer protection agency, or federal regulatory agency will direct investigations or regulatory initiatives towards us or our industry in the future, or what the impact of any such future action(s) might be.
In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, store, transfer and otherwise process personal data, including sensitive personal data. Accordingly, we are, or may become, subject to numerous data privacy and security obligations, including federal, state, local, and foreign laws, regulations, rules, guidance and standards related to data privacy and security.Such obligations may include, without limitation, the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (collectively “CCPA”).
The CCPA is an example of the increasingly stringent and evolving regulatory frameworks related to personal data processing that may increase our compliance obligations and exposure for any noncompliance. The CCPA imposes obligations on covered businesses to provide certain disclosures related to a business’s collection, use and disclosure of personal data and gives California residents the right to, among other things, request disclosure of personal data collected about them and whether that data has been sold to others, request deletion of personal data (subject to certain exceptions), opt out of the sale of their personal data and not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. The CCPA provides for civil penalties and a private right of action for data breaches which may include an award of statutory damages. A number of other U.S. states also have enacted, or are considering enacting, comprehensive data privacy laws that share similarities with the CCPA. Certain state laws and regulations may be more stringent, broader in scope, or offer greater individual rights, with respect to personal information than federal or other state laws and regulations, and such laws and regulations may differ from each other, which may complicate compliance efforts and increase compliance costs. There are also discussions in Congress, from time-to-time, of new federal data privacy and security laws to which we may become subject if they are enacted. In addition, laws in all 50 U.S. states generally require businesses to provide notice under certain circumstances to consumers whose personal data has been disclosed as a result of a data breach. These laws are not consistent, and compliance in the event of a widespread data breach is difficult and may be costly. Furthermore, U.S. federal and state consumer protection laws require us to publish statements that accurately and fairly describe how we handle personal data and choices individuals may have about the way we handle their personal data.
As a company, we seek to ensure that all employees act in a legal, ethical and dignified manner and carry out the Company’s business consistent with such standards and consistent with the laws discussed above. See the section titled “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information about the laws and regulations to which we are, or may become subject and about the risks to our business associated with such laws and regulations.
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Intellectual Property
Intellectual property and proprietary rights are important to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws in the United States, as well as license agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, and other contractual protections, to establish and protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, including our proprietary technology, software, know-how, and brand. However, these laws, agreements, and procedures provide only limited protection. As of December 31, 2024, we have one non-provisional patent application filed covering our Katapult Pay technology and we own three registered trademarks.
Although we take steps to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will be sufficient or effective to prevent the unauthorized access, use, copying, reverse engineering, infringement, misappropriation or other violation of our intellectual property and proprietary technology and information, including by third parties who may use our intellectual property or proprietary technology or information to develop services that compete with ours.
See the section titled “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a more comprehensive description of risks related to our intellectual property and proprietary rights.
Corporate Information
Our principal executive offices are located at Katapult Holdings, Inc., 5360 Legacy Drive, Plano, TX 75024, and Katapult’s telephone number is (833) 528-2785. Our website address is www.katapult.com. Information contained on or accessible through our website is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and the inclusion of our website address in this Annual Report on Form 10-K is an inactive textual reference only.
Available Information
We make available on our website, free of charge, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). We also make available on our website our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, our corporate governance principles, and the charters for the Audit, Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees of our board of directors. The SEC maintains an internet site, www.sec.gov, containing reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers, including us, that file electronically with the SEC.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Our business is subject to a number of risks of which you should be aware before making a decision to invest in our securities. The summarized risks described below are not the only risks that we face. The following summarized risks as well as risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, earnings per share, cash flow or the trading price of our common stock. These summarized risks include, among others, the following:
Risks Related to Our Business, Strategy and Growth
•A meaningful percentage of our gross originations are concentrated with a single merchant, and any deterioration in the business of, or in our relationship with this merchant or any other key merchant relationship or partner could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
•If we are unable to attract additional direct merchants and retain and grow our relationships with our existing direct merchants, our results of operations, financial condition, and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.
•Unexpected changes to consumer behavior could cause our proprietary algorithms and decisioning tools used in approving customers to no longer be indicative of our customer's ability to perform.
•Our success depends on the effective implementation and continued execution of our strategies.
•If we fail to maintain customer satisfaction and trust in our brand, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects would bematerially and adverselyaffected.
•If we are unable to attract new customers and retain and grow our relationships with our existing customers, or if attracting or retaining customers is not cost-efficient, our results of operations, financial condition, and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.
•Our estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves its forecasted growth, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.
•The success and growth of our business depends upon our ability to continuously innovate and develop new products and technologies.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
•We have substantial indebtedness, which may reduce our capability to withstand adverse developments or business conditions.
•Wemay not be able to refinance our indebtedness on favorable terms, or at all. Our inability to refinance our indebtedness would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, andprospects.
•The Credit Agreement governing the total aggregate indebtedness under the Term Loan and Credit Facility includes restrictive covenants and financial maintenance covenants, which could restrict our operations or ability to pursue growth strategies or initiatives, including potential mergers and acquisitions opportunities. Failure to comply with these covenants could result in an acceleration of repayment of the indebtedness under the Credit Agreement, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
•A Change of Control as defined by our Credit Agreement could accelerate our obligation to pay our outstanding indebtedness, and we may not have sufficient liquid assets at that time to repay these amounts.
Financial Risks Related to Our Business
•We have a history of operating losses and may not be profitable in the future.
•We rely on card issuers and payment processors. If we fail to comply with the applicable requirements of Visa, Mastercard or other payment processors, those payment processors could seek to fine us, suspend us or terminate our registrations which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
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Risks Related to Our Technology and Our Platform
•Real or perceived software errors, failures, bugs, defects, or outages could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
•Our results depend on continued integration and support of our platforms, including our direct and/or waterfall integration technologies, by our merchant partners.
•Werely on KPay enabled merchants to allow access to their stores through our mobileapp and our desktop and mobile websites.
•We are subject to stringent and changing laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations related to data privacy and security, which could increase the cost of doing business, compliance risks and potential liability and otherwise negatively affect our operating results and business regulations.
•Any significant disruption in, or errors in, service on our platform or relating to vendors, including events beyond our control, could prevent us from processing transactions on our platform or posting payments and have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
•Data security breaches or other security incidents with respect to our information technology systems, networks or data, or those of third parties upon which we rely, could result in adverse consequences, including but not limited to regulatory investigations, litigation, fines and penalties, disruption of our business operations, reputational harm, loss of revenue or profits, and loss of customers.
•Failure to adequately obtain, maintain, protect, defend and enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Legal and Compliance Risks
•We are subject to sales, income and other taxes, which can be difficult and complex to calculate due to the nature of our businesses. A failure to correctly calculate and pay such taxes, or an unfavorable outcome on uncertain tax positions we may record from time to time, may result in substantial tax liabilities and a material adverse effect on several aspects of our performance.
•If we fail to establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial results could be adversely affected.
•Wehave previously identified control deficiencies that in the aggregate constituted materialweaknesses.
•Weface risks related to the restatement of our previously issued consolidated financial statements and financial information as of and for the fiscalyear ended December 31, 2022, as well as for the interim financial periods for 2022 and 2023, which may adversely impact ourbusiness.
•Delayed filing of our Annual Report on Form 10-K has made us currently ineligible to use certain registration statements to register the offer and sale of securities, which could adversely affect our ability to raise future capital or completeacquisitions.
•We have previously fallen out of compliance with Nasdaq’s requirements for continued listing, and any future failure to comply with Nasdaq’s listing requirements could result in our common stock being delisted from the Nasdaq Global Market, which could have a material adverse effect on us and our stockholders.
•Changes to tax laws or exposure to additional tax liabilities may have a negative impact on our operating results.
•We are subject to legal proceedings from time to time which seek material damages or otherwise may have a material adverse effect on our business.
Operational Risks Related to Our Business
•Uncertain market and economic conditions have had, and may in the future have, serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition and share price.
•Failure to effectively manage our costs could have a material adverse effect on our profitability.
•Misconduct and errors by our employees, vendors, and service providers could harm our business and reputation.
•Our business depends on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled employees.
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A description of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business is set forth below. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our securities could decline.
Risks Related to Our Business, Strategy and Growth
A meaningful percentage of our gross originations are concentrated with a single merchant, and any deterioration in the business of, or in our relationship with, this merchant or any other key merchant relationship or partner could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
We depend on continued relationships with Wayfair and other key merchants. Our top merchant, Wayfair, represented approximately 36% and 49% of our gross originations (which we define as the retail price of the merchandise associated with lease-purchase agreements entered into and do not represent revenue earned) for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Gross originations from Wayfair exclude transactions through Katapult Pay and only include transactions directly through the Wayfair waterfall platform. Our top ten direct merchants, which are merchants with whom we have a direct contractual arrangement, in the aggregate represented approximately 54% and 67% of our gross originations for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The loss of any of our significant merchant partners, and in particular the loss of Wayfair, would materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects. In addition, a material modification in the merchant agreement with Wayfair or another significant merchant or changes in the prominence of our solution on a significant merchant’s website or prioritization of our solution in a significant merchant’s waterfall could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
There can be no guarantee that these direct merchant relationships will continue or, if they do continue, that these relationships will continue to be successful. There is a risk that we may lose merchants for a variety of reasons, including a failure to meet key contractual or commercial requirements, or if merchants shift to in-house solutions (including providing a service competitive to us) or competitor providers.
If our relationship with Wayfair or another key merchant deteriorates, they choose to no longer partner with us, or choose to partner with a competitor, or their business is negatively impacted by one or more factors, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects will be materially and adversely affected.
The concentration of a significant portion of our business and transaction volume with a single merchant or a limited number of merchants exposes us disproportionately to events, circumstances, or risks affecting such single merchant, such as Wayfair, or our other key merchants. For example, supply chain issues have in the past and may in the future negatively impact the sales of many of our merchants which in turn has contributed to a decline in our gross origination volume during the applicable periods. If our key merchant partners, in particular Wayfair, are unable to acquire new customers or retain existing customers or are otherwise negatively impacted by the macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions, our results of operations, financial condition and prospects will be negatively impacted.
We also depend on continued relationships with key partners that assist in obtaining and maintaining our relationships with merchants. There is a risk that e-commerce platforms with which we partner (such as Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magneto) may limit or prevent Katapult from being offered as a payment option at checkout. We also face the risk that our key partners could become competitors of our business.
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If we are unable to attract additional direct merchants and retain and grow our relationships with our existing direct merchants, our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.
Our strategy to grow gross originations partially depends on our ability to maintain and grow our relationships with current direct merchants, and to attract select new direct merchants that will stimulate consumer demand on our platform. The attractiveness of our platform to merchants depends on, among other things, our brand and reputation, our ability to sustain our value proposition to merchants for consumer acquisition, the attractiveness of our platform to merchants, the services, products and consumer decision standards offered by our competitors, and our ability to perform under, and maintain, our merchant agreements.
The success of our business is dependent on customers making payments on their leases when due and other factors affecting consumer spending and default behavior that are not under our control.
We generate substantially all of our revenue through payments on leases we provide to customers to obtain the merchandise of our merchants and we bear the risk of non-payment or late payments by our customers. As such, the success of our business is dependent on customers making payments on their leases when due. We primarily provide leases to non-prime customers who do not have sufficient cash or credit to obtain durable goods. The ability of these customers to make payments to us when due may be impacted by a variety of factors, such as loss of employment, deteriorating economic conditions and other factors including but not limited to disposable consumer income, inflation, consumer confidence in future economic conditions and political conditions, and consumer perceptions of personal well-being and security. Unfavorable changes in factors listed above could reduce demand for our products and services resulting in lower revenue and negatively impacting our business and our financial results. In addition to reducing demand for our products, these factors may unfavorably impact our customers' ability or willingness to make lease payments in a timely manner or at all, resulting in increased customer payment delinquencies and lease merchandise write-offs and decreased gross margins, which could also materially and adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Unexpected changes to consumer behavior could cause our proprietary algorithms and decisioning tools used in approving customers to no longer be indicative of our customer's ability to perform.
We believe our proprietary lease decisioning processes to be a key to the success of our business. The decisioning processes assume behavior and attributes observed for prior customers, among other factors, are indicative of performance by our future customers. Unexpected changes in consumer behavior caused by changing economic conditions and other factors may mean that our decisioning tools may not function as intended. As a result, we may approve customers that are not able to perform, which would lead to increased customer payment delinquencies, increased lease merchandise write-offs and decreased gross margins. When there are unexpected changes to consumer behavior, our decisioning process typically requires more frequent adjustments and the application of management analysis of the interpretation and adjustment of the results produced by our decisioning tools. If there is a challenging macro environment, we may need to make more frequent adjustments to our decisioning process in the near term. If our decisioning tools are unable to accurately predict and respond to changes to consumer behaviors as a result of general economic or other factors, our ability to manage risk and avoid charge-offs may be negatively affected, which may result in insufficient reserves and materially and adversely impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our success depends on the effective implementation and continued execution of our strategies.
We are focused on our mission to provide innovative lease financing solutions to non-prime customers and to enable essential transactions at the merchant point of sale.
Growth of our business, including through the launch of new product offerings, requires us to invest in or expand our customer data and technology capabilities, engage and retain experienced management, and otherwise incur additional costs. For example, since we launched the app in late 2022, transactions that were completed using KPay
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have grown to represent 32% of our total gross originations for the year ended December 31, 2024. Approximately 54% of our 2024 gross originations started with an interaction in our mobile app.
However, these product enhancements may not continue to generate the additional consumer and merchant engagement with our offerings that we expect. If these or other strategic initiatives are not successful longer-term, our competitiveness as well as our business and financial results may be materially and adversely affected. Our inability to address these concerns or otherwise to achieve targeted results associated with our initiatives could adversely affect our results of operations, or negatively impact our ability to successfully execute future strategies, which may result in an adverse impact on our business and financial results.
If we fail to maintain customer satisfaction and trust in our brand, our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.
We provide a lease-to-own financing option for qualified customers seeking to obtain durable goods from omnichannel and e-commerce merchants. If customers do not trust our brand or do not have a positive experience, they will not use our services. Consequently, our ability to retain customers and attract repeat business is highly dependent on our reputation among our existing customers and merchants. Any failure to maintain a consistently high level of customer service, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality customer service, would adversely affect our reputation and the number of positive customer referrals that we receive and the number of new and repeat customers. As a result, our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.
If we are unable to attract new customers and retain and grow our relationships with our existing customers, or if attracting or retaining customers is not cost-efficient, our results of operations, financial condition, and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.
Our continued success depends on our ability to generate repeat use and increased gross originations from existing customers and to attract new consumers to our platform. Our ability to retain and grow our relationships with our customers depends on the willingness of customers to use our products and services, including our mobile app and Katapult Pay. The attractiveness of our Katapult App to consumers depends upon, among other things, the number and variety of our merchants and the mix of products and services available through our platform, our brand and reputation, customer experience and satisfaction, trust and perception of the value we provide, technological innovation, and the services, products and customer decisioning standards offered by our competitors. If we fail to attract new customers to our platform, products and services, or if we do not continually expand usage, repeat customers and gross originations, our results of operations, financial condition, and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.
We operate in a highly competitive industry, and our inability to compete successfully would materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
We operate in a highly competitive industry. We face competition from a variety of businesses and new market entrants, including competitors with lease-to-own products for e-commerce goods and other types of digital payment platforms. We face competition from virtual lease-to-own companies, e-commerce retailers (including those that offer layaway programs, title or installment lending or buy now, pay later programs), online sellers of used merchandise, and various types of consumer finance companies that may enable our customers to shop at online retailers, as well as with online rental stores that do not offer their customers a purchase option. These competitors may have significantly greater financial and operating resources, greater name recognition and more developed products and services, which may allow them to grow faster. Greater name recognition, or better public perception of a competitor’s reputation, may help the competitor take market share. Some competitors may be willing to offer competing products on an unprofitable basis (or may have looser decisioning standards or be willing to relax their decisioning standards) in an effort to gain market share, which could compel us to match their pricing strategy or lose business. Moreover, prime lenders may loosen their underwriting standards and provide credit to non-prime consumers, which would impact our gross origination as well as the credit quality of our customers and our business and results of operations. In addition, some of our competitors may be willing to lease certain types of products that
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we will not agree to lease, enter into customer leases that have services, as opposed to goods, as a significant portion of the lease value, or engage in other practices related to pricing, compliance, and other areas that we will not, in an effort to gain market share. Our business relies heavily on relationships with our merchants. Competitors undertaking these tactics could cause our merchants to cease to offer Katapult products in favor of our competitors, or to offer our product and the products of our competitors simultaneously, which could slow growth in our business and limit or reduce profitability. Merchants could also develop their own in-house product that competes with our product. Furthermore, virtual lease-to-own competitors may deploy different business models, such as direct-to-consumer strategies, that forego reliance on merchant relationships that may prove to be more successful.
Our estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves its forecasted growth, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.
Our market opportunity estimates, including the size of the virtual lease-to-own market, and expectations about market growth are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate, including our expectation with respect to the retail environment for home furnishings and other categories offered by our top merchant partners. Even if the markets in which we compete meet our size estimates and growth expectations, our business could fail to grow for a variety of reasons, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
We rely on the accuracy of third-party data, and inaccuracies in such data could adversely impact our approval process.
We use data from third parties as part of our proprietary risk model to assess whether a customer qualifies for one of our lease-purchase options. We are reliant on these third parties to ensure that the data they provide is accurate. Inaccurate data could cause us to not approve transactions that otherwise would have been approved, or instead, approve transactions that would have otherwise been denied and may lead to a higher incidence of bad debts and could have an adverse impact on our results of operations and financial condition.
The success and growth of our business depends upon our ability to continuously innovate and develop new products and technologies.
Our solution is a technology-driven platform that relies on innovation to remain competitive. The process of developing new technologies and products is complex, and we build our own technology, using the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning ("AI/ML"), cloud-based technologies, and other tools to differentiate our products and technologies. See “—We utilize AI/ML, which could expose us to liability or adversely affect our business” in “Risks Related to Our Technology and Our Platform” for more information. In addition, our dedication to incorporating technological advancements into our platform requires significant financial and personnel resources. In addition, our investment of resources to develop new products and technologies and make changes or updates to our platform may be insufficient. Our development efforts for these initiatives could divert capital and other resources from other growth initiatives important to our business. In addition, the product and technological enhancements that we introduce may not function as we intend, or may not generate the benefits that we expect. We operate in an industry experiencing rapid technological change and frequent product introductions. We may not be able to make technological improvements as quickly as demanded by our customers and merchants, which could harm our ability to attract customers and merchants. In addition, we may not be able to effectively implement new technology-driven products and services as quickly as competitors or be successful in marketing these products and services to customers and merchants. If we are unable to successfully and timely innovate and continue to deliver a superior merchant and customer experience, the demand for our products and technologies may decrease and our growth, business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Our failure to accurately predict the demand or growth of our new products and technologies also could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects. New products and technologies are inherently risky, due to, among other things, risks associated with: the product or technology not working, or not working as expected; customer and merchant acceptance; technological outages or failures; and the failure to meet customer and merchant expectations. As a result of these risks, we could experience increased
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claims, reputational damage, or other adverse effects, which could be material. The profile of potential customers using our new products and technologies also may not be as attractive as the profile of the customers that we currently serve, which may lead to higher levels of delinquencies or defaults than we have historically experienced. Additionally, we can provide no assurance that we will be able to develop, commercially market, and achieve acceptance of our new products and technologies. Failure to accurately predict demand or growth with respect to our new products and technologies could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
To the extent that we seek to grow through future acquisitions, or other strategic investments or alliances, we may not be able to do so effectively.
We may in the future seek to grow our business by exploring potential acquisitions or other strategic investments or alliances. We may not be successful in identifying businesses or opportunities that meet our acquisition or expansion criteria. In addition, even if a potential acquisition target or other strategic investment is identified, we may not be successful in completing such acquisition or integrating such new business or other investment. We may face significant competition for acquisition and other strategic investment opportunities from other well-capitalized companies, many of which have greater financial resources and greater access to debt and equity capital to secure and complete acquisitions or other strategic investments, than we do. As a result of such competition, we may be unable to acquire certain assets or businesses, or take advantage of other strategic investment opportunities that we deem attractive; the purchase price for a given strategic opportunity may be significantly elevated; or certain other terms or circumstances may be substantially more onerous.
There is no assurance that we will be able to manage our growth effectively, and any failure to do so could adversely affect our ability to generate revenue and control our expenses. Furthermore, we may be responsible for any legacy liabilities of businesses we acquire or be subject to additional liability in connection with other strategic investments. The existence or amount of these liabilities may not be known at the time of acquisition, or other strategic investment, and may have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
We have substantial indebtedness, which may reduce our capability to withstand adverse developments or business conditions.
We have incurred substantial indebtedness. As of December 31, 2024, the total aggregate indebtedness under the senior secured Term Loan and RLOC of Katapult SPV-1 LLC (the “Borrower”) was approximately $114.5 million of principal outstanding with Midtown Madison Management LLC, as agent for various funds of Atalaya Capital Management (the "Lender"). On March 6, 2023, in connection with the 15th amendment of our Credit Agreement, we refinanced our indebtedness with the Lender and repaid $25.0 million of principal on our outstanding term loan. On November 21, 2024, in connection with the 17th amendment of our Credit Agreement, the total facility amount increased from $75 million to $100 million. We, together with our wholly-owned subsidiary, Katapult Group, Inc., have guaranteed the obligations of the Borrower under the Credit Agreement. Our payments on our outstanding indebtedness are significant in relation to our revenue and cash flow, which exposes us to significant risk in the event of downturns in our business (whether through competitive pressures or otherwise), our industry or the economy generally, since our cash flows would decrease but our required payments under our indebtedness would not. Economic downturns may impact our ability to comply with the covenants and restrictions in our Credit Agreement and to make payments on our indebtedness as they become due.
Our overall leverage and the terms of our Credit Agreement could also:
•make it more difficult for us to satisfy obligations;
•limit our ability to obtain additional financing in the future for working capital, capital expenditures or acquisitions;
•limit our ability to service our indebtedness;
•limit our ability to adapt to changing market conditions;
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•restrict us from making strategic acquisitions or cause us to make non-strategic divestitures;
•require us to dedicate a significant portion of our cash flow from operations to paying the principal and interest on our indebtedness, thereby limiting our ability to reach profitability and the availability of our cash flow to fund future capital expenditures, working capital and other corporate purposes;
•limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and in our industry generally; and
•place us at a competitive disadvantage compared with competitors that have a less significant debt burden.
In addition, the Credit Agreement, secured by a pledge over all of the assets of the Borrower is guaranteed by us and our wholly-owned subsidiary, Katapult Group, Inc., which in turn is secured by a pledge over all of our assets and the assets of Katapult Group, Inc.
We may not be able to refinance our indebtedness on favorable terms, or at all. Our inability to refinance our indebtedness would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
Our indebtedness matures on June 4, 2025. We are currently negotiating the refinancing of our indebtedness which may include extending the maturity date of the RLOC and Term Loan. Our ability to refinance indebtedness will depend in part on our operating and financial performance, which, in turn, is subject to prevailing economic conditions and to financial, business, legislative, regulatory and other factors beyond our control. In addition, prevailing interest rates or other factors at the time of refinancing could increase our interest expense. A refinancing of our indebtedness could also require us to comply with more onerous covenants and further restrict our business operations. Our inability to refinance our indebtedness or to do so upon attractive terms could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
The Credit Agreement governing the Term Loan and Credit Facility includes restrictive covenants and financial maintenance covenants, which could restrict our operations or ability to pursue growth strategies or initiatives, including potential mergers and acquisitions opportunities. Failure to comply with these covenants could result in an acceleration of repayment of the indebtedness under the Credit Agreement, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The Credit Agreement contains customary representations and warranties and customary affirmative and negative covenants that restrict some of our activities. The negative covenants limit our ability to: incur additional indebtedness; pay dividends, redeem stock or make other distributions; amend our material agreements; make investments; create liens; transfer or sell the collateral for the Credit Agreement; make negative pledges; consolidate, merge, sell or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of our assets; and enter into certain transactions with affiliates. Non-scheduled repayments of certain amounts under the Credit Agreement are subject to prepayment penalties, which would limit our ability to pay or refinance the Credit Agreement. Our ability to meet these covenants could be affected by events beyond our control, and we may be unable to satisfy them which would prevent us from pursuing certain growth strategies or initiatives due to this limitation. These or other limitations could decrease our operating flexibility and our ability to achieve our operating objectives. The Credit Agreement contains certain financial covenants. In particular, as of the end of each month, (1) we must maintain certain minimum Adjusted EBITDA levels and certain minimum Tangible Net Worth representing our total assets less certain capital expenses, prepaid expenses, intangible assets and total liabilities and (2) our Total Advance Rate (as defined in the Credit Agreement) may not exceed certain thresholds. We must also maintain minimum liquidity of at least $10.0 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents as of any date of determination. These financial covenants are restrictive and failure to comply with these covenants would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
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We have been in the past and may in the future be unable to comply with our financial covenants. In such event, if we are unable to negotiate with our Lender for a waiver or dispensation under the agreement, we would not be able to borrow under the Credit Agreement and our Lender would have the right to terminate the loan commitments under the Credit Agreement and accelerate repayment of all obligations under the Credit Agreement that would become due and payable immediately, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial position. If we do not have sufficient liquid assets to repay amounts outstanding under the Credit Agreement, the Lender has the right to foreclose their liens against all of our assets and take possession and sell any such assets to reduce any such obligations.
A Change of Control as defined by our Credit Agreement could accelerate our obligation to pay our outstanding indebtedness, and we may not have sufficient liquid assets at that time to repay these amounts.
Under our Credit Agreement, all of the outstanding loans are required to be prepaid in full (together with accrued and unpaid interest and prepayment premium) and the revolving line of credit ("RLOC") will terminate if a Change of Control (as defined in the Credit Agreement) occurs that is not approved by the Lender. A Change of Control includes the occurrence of the following: (i) any “person” or “group” (as such terms are used in Sections 13(d) and 14(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, but excluding any employee benefit plan of such person or its subsidiaries, and any person or entity acting in its capacity as trustee, agent or other fiduciary or administrator of any such plan) becomes the “beneficial owner” (as defined in Rules 13d-3 and 13d-5 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, except that a person or group shall be deemed to have “beneficial ownership” of all securities that such person or group has the right to acquire (such right, an “option right”), whether such right is exercisable immediately or only after the passage of time), directly or indirectly, of 35% or more of the equity securities of Katapult Holdings, Inc. entitled to vote for members of the board of directors (on a fully-diluted basis (and taking into account all such securities that such person or group has the right to acquire pursuant to any option right), and (ii) certain changes in the composition of our board of directors occurs during a twenty-four month period which were not recommended or approved by at least a majority of directors who were directors at the beginning of such twenty-four month period.
In connection with the 15th amendment of our Credit Agreement, we repaid $25.0 million of principal on our outstanding Term Loan. As of December 31, 2024, we had $82.8 million of principal outstanding under the RLOC. In addition, we had borrowings under our Term Loan of $31.8 million (including capitalized PIK interest) as of December 31, 2024.
If any specified Change of Control occurs and the Lender accelerates these obligations, we may not have sufficient liquid assets to repay amounts outstanding under the Credit Agreement.
Financial Risks Related to Our Business
We have a history of operating losses and may not be profitable in the future.
We incurred a net loss of $25.9 million and $36.7 million during the fiscal years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. As of December 31, 2024, our accumulated deficit was approximately $148.5 million. While our operating expenses decreased for the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the prior year, we may need to further increase our operating expenses in the future in order to continue growing our business, attracting customers, merchants and funding sources, and further enhancing and developing our products and platforms. As we expand our offerings to additional markets, our offerings in these markets may be less profitable than the markets in which we currently operate. These efforts may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue sufficiently to offset these higher expenses. We may incur net losses in the future and may not be profitable on a quarterly or annual basis.
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Our ability to timely raise capital in the future may be limited, or may be unavailable on acceptable terms, if at all.
The failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business, operating results and financial condition. Debt or equity issued to raise additional capital may reduce the value of our common stock. We cannot be certain when or if the operations of our business will generate sufficient cash to fund our ongoing operations or the growth of our business. We intend to make investments to support and grow our business and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop or enhance our technology, expand our sales and marketing efforts or develop new products. Additional financing may not be available on favorable terms, if at all. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms, we may be unable to invest in future growth opportunities, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition. If we incur additional debt, the debt holders could have rights senior to holders of our common stock and/or existing debt to make claims on our assets. The terms of any additional debt could have covenants which restrict our operations, including our ability to pay dividends on our common stock, take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, or make capital expenditures. If we issue additional equity securities, stockholders will experience dilution, and the new equity securities could have rights senior to those of our common stock including liquidation or other preferences. Because the decision to issue securities in the future offering will depend on numerous considerations, including factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing or nature of any future issuances of debt or equity securities. As a result, stockholders will bear the risk of future issuances of debt or equity securities reducing the value of their common stock and diluting their interest.
Our revenue and operating results may fluctuate, which could result in a decline in our profitability and make it more difficult for us to grow our business.
Our revenue and operating results have varied, and may in the future vary, from quarter to quarter and by season. Periods of decline have resulted, and could in the future result, in an overall decline in profitability and make it more difficult for us to make payments on our indebtedness and grow our business. We expect our quarterly results to fluctuate in the future due to a number of factors, including general economic conditions in the markets where we operate, and customer spending patterns, including the impact of holiday and seasonal sales and tax refunds.
Any significant disruption or errors relating to our loan providers and loan processor, could delay the processing of transactions on our platform or cause temporary fluctuations in cash use and have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
Pursuant to our Credit Agreement, we are required to use a designated loan processor to validate customer purchases for funding our RLOC and, thus, in the operation of our platform. The performance and accuracy of said loan processor is essential to our operations and is critical to ensuring that loans are appropriately and timely funded. We rely on the designated loan processor to ensure their systems, internal procedures, verification processes and facilities are protected against service interruptions, power or telecommunications failures, criminal acts, and similar events. We may be harmed if there is a delay, disruption, or error in loan validation. Further, if our arrangements with the designated loan processor is terminated, or if there is a lapse in service due to errors, we could experience interruptions in the provision of our leases. We may also experience increased costs and difficulties in funding leases or finding replacement loan providers or processors on commercially reasonable terms, on a timely basis, or at all.
In addition, in the event of error or interruption, we may be required to use cash to cover for any losses or uncovered leases that might occur, albeit temporarily. This could reduce our available cash or cause reputational harm, any of which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
In December 2023, the processor for our loan provider experienced a timing error in their validation processes. We alerted them to the error, temporarily covering the approved leases with our cash and the issue was resolved in January 2024. Both our loan provider and processor have since instituted changes to correct against similar interruptions in service, but there can be no assurance that a similar error will not occur in the future.
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We rely on card issuers and payment processors. If we fail to comply with the applicable requirements of Visa, Mastercard or other payment processors, those payment processors could seek to fine us, suspend us or terminate our registrations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
We rely on card issuers and payment processors, and must pay a fee for this service. From time to time, payment processors such as Visa or Mastercard may increase the interchange fees that they charge for each transaction using one of their cards. The payment processors routinely update and modify their requirements. Changes in the requirements, including changes to risk management and collateral requirements, may impact our ongoing cost of doing business and we may not, in every circumstance, be able to pass through such costs to our merchants or associated participants. Furthermore, if we do not comply with the payment processors’ requirements (e.g., their rules, bylaws, and charter documentation), the payment processors could seek to fine us, suspend us or terminate our registrations that allow us to process transactions on their networks. The termination of our registration due to failure to comply with the applicable requirements of our payment processors, or any changes in the payment processors’ rules that would impair our registration, could require us to stop utilizing payment services from our payment processors, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carry forwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change",generally defined as a greater than 50.0% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income may be limited or potentially significantly deferred compared to such ability in the absence of an “ownership change”. The completion of the merger of FinServ and Legacy Katapult and related transactions may have triggered an “ownership change” limitation. We have not completed a formal study to determine if any “ownership changes” within the meaning of IRC Section 382 have occurred. If “ownership changes” within the meaning of Section 382 of the Code have occurred, and if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and other tax credits generated since inception to offset U.S. federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us and could require us to pay U.S. federal income taxes earlier than would be required if such limitations were not in effect. Similar rules and limitations may apply for state income tax purposes.
Risks Related to Our Technology and Our Platform
We utilize AI/ML, which could expose us to liability or adversely affect our business.
We use AI/ML in many aspects of our business. In particular, we use AI/ML to create models which provide data to assist in key aspects of our business, including fraud analysis, credit risk analysis, and product personalization. There are significant risks involved in utilizing AI/ML and no assurance can be provided that our use of such AI/ML will enhance our products or services or produce the intended results. The AI/ML models that we use are trained using various data sets. If the AI/ML models are incorrectly designed, the data we use to train them is incomplete, inadequate, or biased in some way, or we do not have sufficient rights to use the data on which our AI/ML models rely, the performance of our products, services, and business, as well as our reputation, could suffer or we could incur liability through the violation of laws and regulations, third-party intellectual property, privacy, or other rights, or contracts to which we are a party. AI/ML can present ethical issues and may subject us to new or heightened legal, regulatory, ethical, or other challenges; and inappropriate or controversial data practices by developers and end-users, or other factors adversely affecting public opinion of AI/ML, could impair the acceptance of AI/ML solutions, including those incorporated in our products and services. If the AI/ML tools that we use are deficient, inaccurate or controversial, we could incur operational inefficiencies, competitive harm, legal liability, brand or reputational harm, or other adverse impacts on our business and financial results.
In addition, regulation of AI/ML is rapidly evolving worldwide as legislators and regulators are increasingly focused on these powerful emerging technologies. The technologies underlying AI/ML and its uses are subject to a variety of
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laws and regulations, including intellectual property, data privacy and security, consumer protection, competition, and equal opportunity laws, and are expected to be subject to increased regulation and new laws or new applications of existing laws and regulations. AI/ML is the subject of ongoing review by various U.S. governmental and regulatory agencies, and various U.S. states and other foreign jurisdictions are applying, or are considering applying, their platform moderation, cybersecurity, and data protection laws and regulations to AI/ML or are considering general legal frameworks for AI/ML. We may not be able to anticipate how to respond to these rapidly evolving frameworks, and we may need to expend resources to adjust our operations or offerings in certain jurisdictions if the legal frameworks are inconsistent across jurisdictions. Furthermore, because AI/ML technology itself is highly complex and rapidly developing, it is not possible to predict all of the legal, operational or technological risks that may arise relating to the use of AI/ML.
Real or perceived software errors, failures, bugs, defects, or outages could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
Our platform and our internal systems rely on software that is highly technical and complex. In addition, our platform and our internal systems depend on the ability of such software to store, retrieve, manage and otherwise process immense amounts of data, including personal data. As a result, undetected errors, failures, bugs, or defects may be present in such software or occur in the future in such software, including open source software and other software we license in from third parties, especially when updates or new products or services are released.
Any real or perceived errors, failures, bugs, defects, or outages in such software could result in outages or degraded quality of service on our platform or errors in our financial reporting or charges to our customers that could adversely impact our business (including through causing us not to meet contractually required service levels), as well as negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our products and services, and harm to our brand or weakening of our competitive position. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, to expend significant additional resources in order to correct the error, failure, bug or defect. Any real or perceived errors, failures, bugs, defects, or outages in the software we rely on could also subject us to liability claims, result in data security breaches or other security incidents, impair our ability to attract new customers, retain existing customers, or expand their use of our products and services, which would adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
Our results depend on continued integration and support of our platforms, including our integration with direct merchants.
We depend on our merchant partners, which generally accept most major credit cards and other forms of payment, to present our platform as a payment option and to integrate our platform into their website or in their store, such as by featuring our platform on their websites or in their stores and at checkout. The failure by our merchants to effectively present, integrate, and support our platform, or to effectively explain lease-to-own transactions to potential customers, would have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
In addition, as a result of user interface or design choices, a direct merchant could modify how our platform is presented as a payment option, including adjustment of the priority of positioning. The presentation and positioning of our platform by a direct merchant is up to the discretion of the merchant. A direct/waterfall may choose to position a competitor ahead of us, reduce the prominence or positioning of our platform, or remove our platform as a payment option. We may not have visibility that a change has been made until after the fact. Any change in our presentation or positioning with a direct merchant could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
We rely on KPay enabled merchants to allow access to their stores through our mobile app and our desktop and mobile websites.
We depend on KPay enabled merchants to continue to allow our customers to utilize our platform, including our websites and mobile app, to access and buy goods at their stores. As a result, there can be no assurance that we will
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be able to continue to offer our customers access to any particular KPay enabled merchant. The loss of our ability to offer our customers access to KPay enabled merchants would have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
We are subject to stringent and changing laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations related to data privacy and security, which could increase the cost of doing business, compliance risks and potential liability and otherwise negatively affect our operating results and business regulations.
In the ordinary course of business, we collect, receive, store, generate, use, transfer, disclose, make accessible, protect, secure, dispose of, transmit, share and otherwise process a wide variety of data and information, including personal data and sensitive personal data, proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, and intellectual property. For example, we process the personal data, including sensitive personal data, of customers, including Social Security numbers. We are subject to numerous data privacy and security obligations, such as various laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations that govern the processing of personal data by us or by third parties on our behalf.
In the United States, federal, state, and local governments have enacted numerous data privacy and security laws, regulations and rules including data breach notification laws, personal data privacy laws, and consumer protection laws. For example, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) imposes specific requirements relating to marketing to individuals using technology such as telephones, mobile devices, and text messages. TCPA violations can result in significant financial penalties, including penalties or criminal fines imposed by the Federal Communications Commission or fines of up to $1,500 per violation imposed through private litigation or by state authorities. Class action suits are the most common method for private enforcement. We are also subject to the rules and regulations promulgated under the authority of the FTC, which regulates unfair or deceptive acts or practices, including with respect to data privacy and security. Moreover, the United States Congress has recently considered, and is currently considering, various proposals for more comprehensive data privacy and security legislation, to which we may be subject if passed.
Data privacy and security are also areas of increasing state legislative focus and we are, or may in the future become, subject to various state laws and regulations regarding data privacy and security. For example, the CCPA broadly defines personal information, gives California residents expanded privacy rights and protections, and provides for civil penalties for violations and a private right of action for certain data breaches. The CCPA is indicative of a trend towards greater state-level regulation of data privacy and security in the U.S. A number of other states have enacted, or are considering enacting, comprehensive data privacy laws that share similarities with the CCPA. In addition, laws in all 50 U.S. states generally require businesses to provide notice under certain circumstances to customers whose personal data has been disclosed as a result of a data breach. For additional information on data privacy and security laws, regulations and rules we are, or may in the future become, subject to, see the section titled “Business—Government Regulation.”
In addition, privacy advocates and industry groups have proposed, and may propose, data privacy and security standards with which we are legally or contractually bound to comply. For example, we may also be subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (“PCI DSS”), which requires companies that process payment card data to adopt certain measures to ensure the security of cardholder information, including using and maintaining firewalls, adopting proper password protections for certain devices and software, and restricting data access.Noncompliance with PCI-DSS can result in significant penalties or liability, litigation, loss of access to major payment card systems, damage to our reputation, and revenue losses. We may also rely on vendors to process payment card data, and those vendors may be subject to PCI DSS, and our business may be negatively affected if our vendors are fined or suffer other consequences as a result of PCI DSS noncompliance.
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We also make public statements about our use and disclosure of personal data through our privacy policies, information on our website and press statements. Although we endeavor to comply with our public statements and documentation, we may at times fail to do so or be alleged to have failed to do so. The publication of our privacy policies and other statements that provide promises and assurances about data privacy and security can subject us to potential government or legal action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair or misrepresentative of our actual practices. Any concerns about our data privacy and security practices, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation and adversely affect our business.
Increasingly, some aspects of our business may be reliant on our ability to have our products and services be accepted by or compatible with a third-party platform, and any inability to do so could negatively impact our business. As a result, we may be required to change the way we market our products.Any of these developments could impair our ability to reach new or existing customers or otherwise negatively affect our operations. In addition, the CCPA grants California residents the right to opt-out of a business's sharing of their personal information for targeted advertising purposes.
Our obligations related to data privacy and security are quickly changing in an increasingly stringent fashion, creating some uncertainty as to the effective future legal framework.Additionally, these obligations may be subject to differing applications and interpretations, which may be inconsistent or conflict among jurisdictions.Preparing for and complying with these obligations requires significant resources and may necessitate changes to our information technologies, systems, and practices and to those of any third parties that process personal data on our behalf.In addition, these obligations may require us to change our business model. Our business model materially depends on our ability to process personal data, so we are particularly exposed to the risks associated with the rapidly changing legal landscape.For example, we may be at heightened risk of regulatory scrutiny, and any changes in the regulatory framework could require us to fundamentally change our business model.
Although we endeavor to comply with all applicable data privacy and security laws, regulations, rules, standards, and contractual obligations, we may at times fail (or be perceived to have failed) to do so. Moreover, despite our efforts, our personnel or third parties upon whom we rely may fail to comply with such obligations, which could negatively impact our business operations and compliance posture. For example, any failure by a third-party service provider to comply with applicable laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations could result in adverse effects, including inability to or interruption in our ability to operate our business and proceedings against us by governmental entities or others. If we fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with data privacy and security obligations, we could face significant consequences.These consequences may include, but are not limited to, government enforcement actions (e.g., investigations, fines, penalties, audits, inspections, and similar); litigation (including class claims; damages); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; bans on processing personal data; and orders to destroy or not use personal data.
Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition, including but not limited to: loss of customers; interruptions or stoppages in our business operations; interruptions or stoppages of data collection needed to train our algorithms; inability to process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions; limited ability to develop or commercialize our products; expenditure of time and resources to defend any claim or inquiry; adverse publicity; or revision or restructuring of our operations.
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Any significant disruption in, or errors in, service on our platform or relating to vendors, including events beyond our control, could prevent us from processing transactions on our platform or posting payments and have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
We use vendors, such as our cloud computing web services provider, virtual card processing companies, and third-party software providers, in the operation of our platform. The satisfactory performance, reliability, and availability of our technology and our underlying network and infrastructure are critical to our operations and reputation and the ability of our platform to attract new and retain existing merchants and customers. For example, Katapult Pay utilizes a third-party payment processor, the interruption of which could cause a decrease in the performance, reliability and availability of Katapult Pay.
In addition, via Katapult Pay, certain leases are originated by our issuing bank partner and then disbursed to merchants via single-use virtual cards facilitated through our partnership with an issuer processor. This issuer processor issues single-use virtual cards through Sutton Bank, its issuing bank partner, which allow leases facilitated through our platform to be processed over the card network. Such leases facilitated through our platform can be used at merchants where we are not integrated at checkout, allowing consumers to complete purchases with virtual cards just as they would with a standard credit or debit card. In the event that our issuer processor or the issuing bank partner become unable or unwilling to facilitate the disbursements to merchants and we are unable to reach an agreement with another third-party partner, such loans would no longer be able to be facilitated through our Katapult Pay platform.
We also rely on these vendors to protect their systems, networks and facilities against damage or service interruptions from natural disasters, power or telecommunications failures, air quality issues, environmental conditions, computer viruses, cyber-attacks or other attempts to harm these systems, data security breaches or other security incidents, criminal acts, and similar events. If our arrangement with a vendor is terminated or if there is a lapse of service or damage to its systems, networks or facilities, we could experience interruptions in our ability to operate our platform. We also may experience increased costs and difficulties in replacing that vendor and replacement services may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, on a timely basis, or at all. Any interruptions or delays in our platform availability, whether as a result of a failure to perform on the part of a vendor, any damage to one of our vendor’s systems, networks or facilities, the termination of any of our third-party vendor agreements, software bugs or failures, our or our vendor’s error, natural disasters, terrorism, other man-made problems, or data security breaches or other security incidents, whether accidental or willful, or other factors, could harm our relationships with our merchants and customers and also harm our reputation.
In addition, we source certain information from third parties. For example, our risk scoring model is based on algorithms that evaluate a number of factors and currently depend on sourcing certain information from third parties. In the event that any third-party from which we source information experiences a service disruption, whether as a result of maintenance, software bugs or failures, natural disasters, terrorism, other man-made problems, or data security breaches or other security incidents whether accidental or willful, or other factors, the ability to score and decision lease-to-own applications through our platform may be adversely impacted. Additionally, there may be errors contained in the information provided by third parties. This may result in the inability to approve otherwise qualified applicants through our platform, which may adversely impact our business by negatively impacting our reputation and reducing our transaction volume.
To the extent we use or are dependent on any particular third-party data, technology, or software, we may also be harmed if such data, technology, or software becomes non-compliant with existing laws, regulations, rules or standards, becomes subject to third-party claims of intellectual property infringement, misappropriation, or other violation, or malfunctions or functions in a way we did not anticipate. Any loss of the right to use any of this data, technology, or software could result in delays in the provisioning of our products and services until equivalent or replacement data, technology, or software is either developed by us, or, if available, is identified, obtained, and integrated, and there is no guarantee that we would be successful in developing, identifying, obtaining, or integrating equivalent or similar data, technology, or software, which could result in the loss or limiting of our products, services, or features available in our products or services.
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In addition, in the event of damage or interruption, our insurance policies may not adequately compensate us for any losses that we may incur. Our disaster recovery plan has not been tested under actual disaster conditions, and we may not have sufficient capacity to recover all data and services in the event of an outage. These factors could prevent us from processing transactions or posting payments on our platform, damage our brand and reputation, divert the attention of our employees, reduce our revenue, subject us to liability, and cause customers or merchants to abandon our platform, any of which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and prospects.
If major mobile application distribution channels change their standard terms and conditions in a manner that is detrimental to us, or suspend or terminate their existing relationship with us, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
We currently cooperate with Apple’s app store and major PRC-based Android app store to distribute the Katapult app to users. As such, the promotion, distribution and operation of our application are subject to such distribution platforms’ standard terms and policies for application developers, which are subject to the interpretation of, and frequent changes by, these distribution channels. If these third-party distribution platforms change their terms and conditions in a manner that is detrimental to us, or refuse to distribute our application, or if any other major distribution channel with which we would like to seek collaboration refuses to collaborate with us in the future on commercially favorable terms, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
Data security breaches or other security incidents with respect to our information technology systems, networks or data, or those of third parties upon which we rely, could result in adverse consequences, including but not limited to regulatory investigations or actions, litigation, fines and penalties, disruptions of our business operations, reputational harm, loss of revenue or profits, and loss of customers.
Cyber-attacks, malicious internet-based activity, and online and offline fraud are prevalent and continue to increase. These threats are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. These threats come from a variety of sources, including traditional computer “hackers,” threat actors, personnel (such as through theft or misuse), sophisticated nation states, and nation-state-supported actors. Some actors now engage and are expected to continue to engage in cyber-attacks, including without limitation nation-state actors for geopolitical reasons and in conjunction with military conflicts and defense activities. During times of war and other major conflicts, we and the third parties upon which we rely may be vulnerable to a heightened risk of these attacks, including cyber-attacks, that could materially disrupt our systems, networks and operations, supply chain, and ability to produce, sell and distribute our goods and services. The automated nature of our business and our reliance on digital technologies may make us an attractive target for, and potentially vulnerable to cyber-attacks. We and the third parties upon which we rely may be subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to: computer malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions), malicious code (such as viruses and worms), social engineering (including phishing attacks), ransomware attacks, denial-of-service attacks (such as credential stuffing), personnel misconduct or error, supply-chain attacks, software bugs, server malfunctions, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other information technology assets, adware, telecommunication failures, earthquakes, fires, floods, and other similar threats.
Ransomware attacks, including by organized criminal threat actors, nation-states, and nation-state-supported actors, are becoming increasingly prevalent and severe and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, loss of data and income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack, but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting such payments. Similarly, supply-chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties and infrastructure in our supply chain or our third-party partners’ supply chains have not been compromised or that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in a breach of or disruption to our information technology systems and networks (including our products or services) or the third-party information technology systems and networks that support us and our services. We are incorporated into the supply chain of a large number of companies worldwide and, as a result, if our products are compromised, a significant number of companies could be simultaneously affected. The potential liability and associated
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consequences we could suffer as a result of such a large-scale event could be catastrophic and result in irreparable harm.
Cybersecurity risks may be heightened as a result of ongoing military conflicts such as military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the related sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries or the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Furthermore, future or past business transactions (such as acquisitions or integrations) could expose us to additional cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, as our systems and networks could be negatively affected by vulnerabilities present in acquired or integrated entities’ systems, networks and technologies.
Any of the above identified or similar threats could cause a data security breach or other security incident. A data security breach or other security incident could result in unauthorized, unlawful, or accidental acquisition, modification, destruction, loss, alteration, encryption, disclosure, transfer, use or other processing of, or access to our, our customers’, our vendors’ or our merchants’ confidential, proprietary, personal or other information. A data security breach or other security incident could disrupt our ability (and that of third parties upon whom we rely) to provide our platform, products, or services. We may expend significant resources in connection with investigating, mitigating or remediating, or modifying our business activities to protect against, actual or perceived data security breaches or other security incidents. Certain data privacy and security obligations may require us to implement and maintain specific security measures, as well as maintain industry-standard or reasonable security measures to protect our information technology systems and networks which contain confidential, proprietary, personal and other information.
While we have implemented security measures designed to protect against data security breaches and other security incidents, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective. We may be unable in the future to detect vulnerabilities in our information technology systems and networks (including our products or services) because such threats and techniques change frequently, are often sophisticated in nature, may not be detected until after a security incident has occurred, and may see their frequency increased and effectiveness enhanced, by the use of AI/ML. Despite our efforts to identify and remediate vulnerabilities, if any, in our information technology systems and networks(including our products or services), our efforts may not be successful.Further, we may experience delays in developing and deploying remedial measures designed to address any such identified vulnerabilities.
We rely upon third-party service providers and technologies to operate critical business systems to process confidential, proprietary, personal and other information in a variety of contexts, including, without limitation, third-party providers of cloud-based infrastructure, virtual card processing, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, and other functions. We may share or receive confidential, proprietary, personal or other information with or from third parties. Our ability to monitor these third parties’ information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. Due to applicable laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations, we may be held responsible for data security breaches or other security incidents attributed to our third-party service providers as they relate to the information we share with them.
Any actual or perceived failure to comply with legal and regulatory requirements applicable to us, including those relating to data privacy and security, or any failure to protect the information that we collect from our customers and merchants, including personal information, from cyber-attacks, data security breaches or other security incidents, or any such actual or perceived failure by our originating bank partners, may result in, among other things, revocation of required licenses or registrations, loss of approved status, private litigation, regulatory or governmental investigations, administrative enforcement actions, sanctions, civil and criminal liability, and constraints on our ability to continue to operate.
Applicable data privacy and security laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations may require us to notify relevant stakeholders of data security breaches and other security incidents. Such disclosures are costly, and the disclosure or the failure to comply with such requirements could lead to adverse consequences. If we (or a third party upon whom we rely) experience, or are perceived to have experienced, a data security breach or other security incident, or fail to make adequate or timely disclosures to the public, regulators or law enforcement agencies following any such event, we may experience adverse consequences. These consequences may include: interruptions
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to our operations (including availability of data), violation of applicable data privacy and security laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations; litigation (including class claims), damages, an obligation to notify regulators and affected individuals, the triggering of indemnification and other contractual obligations, government enforcement actions (for example, investigations, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; restrictions on processing personal and other sensitive data; negative publicity; reputational damage; loss of customers and ecosystem partners; monetary fund diversions; financial loss; and other similar harms. Additionally, our originating bank partners also operate in a highly regulated environment, and many laws and regulations that apply directly to our originating bank partners are indirectly applicable to us through our arrangements with our originating bank partners. Our contracts may not contain limitations of liability, and even where they do, there can be no assurance that limitations of liability in our contracts are sufficient to protect us from liabilities, damages, or claims related to our data privacy and security obligations. We cannot be sure that our insurance coverage will be adequate or sufficient to protect us from or to mitigate liabilities arising out of our data privacy and security practices, that such coverage will continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, or that such coverage will pay future claims.
While we take precautions to prevent customer identity fraud, it is possible that identity fraud may still occur or has occurred, which may adversely affect the performance of the lease-to-own transactions facilitated through our platform.
There is risk of fraudulent activity associated with our platform, customers, and third parties handling customer information. Our resources, technologies, and fraud prevention tools may be insufficient to accurately detect and prevent fraud. We bear the risk of loss for lease-to-own transactions facilitated through our platform. The level of fraud related charge-offs on the lease-to-own transactions facilitated through our platform could be adversely affected if fraudulent activity were to significantly increase.
We bear the risk of customer fraud in a transaction involving us, a customer, and a merchant, and we generally have no recourse to the merchant to collect the amount owed by the customer. Significant amounts of fraudulent cancellations or chargebacks and the potential cost of remediation could adversely affect our business or financial condition. High profile fraudulent activity or significant increases in fraudulent activity could also lead to regulatory intervention, negative publicity, and the erosion of trust from our customers and merchants, and could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, prospects, and cash flows.
Failure to adequately obtain, maintain, protect, defend and enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our business depends on intellectual property and proprietary technology and information, the protection of which is crucial to the success of our business. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws in the United States, as well as license agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, and other contractual protections, to establish and protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, including our proprietary technology, software, know-how, and brand.
Although we take steps to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will be sufficient or effective to prevent the unauthorized access, use, copying, reverse engineering, infringement, misappropriation or other violation of our intellectual property and proprietary technology and information, including by third parties who may use our intellectual property or proprietary technology or information to develop services that compete with ours. We may not be able to register or enforce all of our trademarks and any of our trademarks or other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others.
Further, we license certain technology, software, data and other intellectual property from third parties that are important to our business. Our business may suffer if any current or future licenses or other grants of rights to us terminate, if the licensors (or other applicable counterparties) fail to abide by the terms of the license or other applicable agreement, if the licensors fail to enforce the licensed intellectual property against infringing third parties or if the licensed intellectual property rights are found to be invalid or unenforceable.
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We have in the past, and may in the future, be accused of infringing intellectual property rights of third parties which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Third parties may claim that the technology used in the operation of our business infringes upon their intellectual property rights. For example, on September 30, 2024, FlexShopper filed a complaint against us in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Marshall Division. The complaint alleges infringement of certain patents referenced in the complaint, and seeks, among other relief, injunctive relief and monetary damages (including attorneys’ fees) and we cannot be certain of the ultimate outcome of these legal proceedings. If FlexShopper prevails in this ongoing litigation, we could be enjoined or be ordered to pay significant damages, either of which would have a material and adverse impact on our business. Even if we ultimately prevail in the FlexShopper litigation or other such litigation, this type of litigation is time-consuming and costly to defend, resulting in the diversion of significant operational resources and potential changes to our business model. Our involvement in intellectual property disputes and any failure to adequately protect our intellectual property rights may cause our business, operating results and financial condition to suffer. In addition, during the course of this kind of litigation, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our common stock.
The possibility of intellectual property claims against us increases as we continue to grow. Such claims, with or without merit, may result in our expenditure of significant financial and management resources, injunctions against us or payment of damages. We may need to obtain licenses from third parties who allege that we have infringed their rights, but such licenses may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all. Even if a license is available, we could be required to pay significant royalties, which would increase our operating expenses. As a result, we may be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort and expense. These risks have been amplified by the increase in third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims.
The outcome of any claims, investigations and proceedings is inherently uncertain, and in any event, defending against these claims could be both costly and time-consuming and could significantly divert the efforts and resources of our management and other personnel. An adverse determination in any such litigation or proceedings could cause us to pay damages, as well as legal and other costs, limit our ability to conduct business or require us to change the manner in which we operate.
Legal and Compliance Risks
Our business is subject to the requirements of various federal, stateand local laws and regulations, which can require significant compliance costs and expose us to government investigations, significant additional costs, fines or other monetary penalties or settlements, and compliance-related burdens.
Our business is subject to extensive federal, state and local laws and regulations and an increased risk of regulatory actions as a result of the highly regulated nature of our industry and the focus of state and federal enforcement agencies on the lease-to-own industry in particular. Any adverse change in applicable laws or regulations, the passage of unfavorable new laws or regulations, or the manner in which any applicable laws and regulations are interpreted or enforced could dictate changes to our business practices that may be materially adverse to the Company.Further, our transactions are subject to various federal and state laws and regulations which may result in significant compliance costs as well as expose us to litigation. In particular, our rental-purchase transactions and the customer-facing operations related thereto, such as collections and marketing, are subject to various other federal, state and/or local consumer protection laws. These laws, as well as the rental-purchase statutes under which we operate, provide various remedies in connection with violations, including restitution and other monetary penalties and sanctions which in certain circumstances can be significant.
We cannot determine with any degree of certainty whether any new laws or regulations will be enacted, or whether government agencies will initiate new or different interpretations of existing laws. The impact of new laws and
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regulations, or modifications by regulators concerning the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws, on our business is not known; however, any such changes could materially and adversely impact our business.
The laws and regulations applicable to our operations are subject to agency, administrative and/or judicial interpretation. Some of these laws and regulations have been enacted only recently and/or may not yet have been interpreted or may be interpreted infrequently. As a result of non-existent or sparse interpretations, ambiguities in these laws and regulations may create uncertainty with respect to the requirements of any applicable laws and regulations. Any ambiguity under a law or regulation to which we are subject may lead to regulatory investigations, governmental enforcement actions and private causes of action, such as class action lawsuits, with respect to our compliance with such laws or regulations.
Federal and state agencies have increased their focus on consumer financial products and services. State law enforcement agencies and regulators appear to have increased their scrutiny of entities operating within the personal property rental-purchase, or “lease-to-own”, industry. For example, in July 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a case in federal district court in Utah again Snap Finance alleging, in summary, that certain rent-to-own transactions were credit transactions falling under federal law. Further, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”) has issued subpoenas and is conducting investigations into practices of entities operating within the personal property rental-purchase industry. Similarly, state attorneys general also appear to have increased their scrutiny of the industry.As of the date of this filing, the Company has not received investigatory demands from California DFPI or state attorneys general. However, there can be no assurance that the Company will not be included in future actions of the same or similar nature and, if it is, that it would not lead to an enforcement action, consent order, or substantial costs, including legal fees, fines, penalties, and remediation expenses.
For information on data privacy and security laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations we are, or may in the future become, subject to, and the associated risks to our business, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Technology and Our Platform—We are subject to stringent and changing laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations related to data privacy and security, which could increase the cost of doing business, compliance risks and potential liability and otherwise negatively affect our operating results and business.”
We are subject to sales, income and other taxes, which can be difficult and complex to calculate due to the nature of our businesses. A failure to correctly calculate and pay such taxes, or an unfavorable outcome on uncertain tax positions we may record from time to time, may result in substantial tax liabilities and a material adverse effect on several aspects of our performance.
The application of indirect taxes, such as sales tax, continues to be a complex and evolving issue, particularly with respect to the lease-to-own industry generally and our virtual lease-to-own business more specifically. Many of the fundamental statutes and regulations that impose these taxes were established before the growth of the lease-to-own industry and e-commerce and, therefore, in many cases it is not clear how existing statutes apply to our business. In addition, governments are increasingly looking for ways to increase revenues, which has resulted in discussions about tax reform and other legislative action to increase tax revenues, including through indirect taxes. This also may result in other adverse changes in or interpretations of existing sales, income and other tax regulations. Further, we may fail to allocate sales tax correctly which could result in over-reporting or under-reporting revenue and sales tax expense.
Our auditors have issued a going concern opinion, and we will not be able to achieve our objectives and will have to cease operations if we cannot refinance our indebtedness and adequately fund our operations.
We believe that we will not have sufficient cash available to pay off our existing indebtedness upon maturity. As a result, our auditors issued a going concern opinion in connection with the audit of our financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, which means that there is substantial doubt that we can continue as an ongoing business for the next 12 months. The inclusion of an explanatory paragraph in the audit opinion regarding substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern and our lack of cash resources may materially
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adversely affect our share price and our ability to raise new capital or to enter into critical contractual relationships with third parties.
While we intend to refinance our indebtedness, there can be no assurance that we will be able to secure such financing or adequately fund our operations, and we may be forced to liquidate our assets or discontinue our operations. The values we receive for our assets in liquidation or dissolution could be significantly lower than the values reflected in our financial statements. Our financial statements do not include any adjustments to the amounts and classifications of assets and liabilities that might be necessary should we be unable to continue as a going concern. If we cannot continue as a going concern, our stockholders would likely lose most, if not all, of their investment in us.
If we fail to establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial results could be adversely affected.
We are required to comply with a variety of reporting, accounting and other rules and regulations. As a public reporting company subject to the rules and regulations established from time to time by the SEC and Nasdaq, we are required to, among other things, establish and periodically evaluate procedures with respect to our disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, as a public company, we are required to document and test our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 so that our management can certify, on an annual basis, that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. As such, we maintain a system of internal control over financial reporting, but there are limitations inherent in internal control systems. A control system can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. In addition, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and the benefit of controls must be appropriate relative to their costs. Furthermore, compliance with existing requirements is expensive and we may need to implement additional finance and accounting and other systems, procedures and controls to satisfy our reporting requirements. If our internal control over financial reporting is determined to be ineffective, such failure could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, negatively affect the market price of our common stock, subject us to regulatory investigations and penalties, and adversely impact our business and financial condition.
We previously identified control deficiencies that in the aggregate constituted material weaknesses, for which we implemented certain remediation measures. This remediation is now complete. However, we may identify additional material weaknesses in the future that may cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations or result in material misstatements of our financial statements. If we fail to remediate any material weaknesses or if we otherwise fail to establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial results could be adversely affected.
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
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Our control deficiencies related to (1) an insufficient number of personnel with an appropriate level of generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") knowledge and experience to create the proper control environment for effective internal control over financial reporting and to ensure that oversight processes and procedures in applying nuanced guidance to complex accounting transactions for financial reporting are adequate, and (2) a lack of controls in place to review journal entries and account reconciliations, reconcile journal entries to underlying support and evaluate if journal entries are in compliance with GAAP before the entries are manually posted, were initially identified in 2020 and in the aggregate constituted material weaknesses. In connection with the audit of our financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, our independent registered public accounting firm noted these control deficiencies in the design and implementation of our internal control over financial reporting.
Additional control issues were discovered during the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023, which resulted in material misstatements of our revenue and sales tax payable in certain prior periods. As a result, we determined that our previously issued financial statements included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 and the relevant quarterly periods and filings discussed below in the risk factor “—We face risks related to the restatement of our previously issued consolidated financial statements and financial information as of and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, as well as for the interim financial periods for 2022 and 2023, which may adversely impact our business” should no longer be relied upon and have been restated.
We subsequently designed and implemented controls to remediate the material weaknesses, including controls to ensure journal entries and reconciliations are reviewed by the appropriate person with the necessary knowledge of U.S. GAAP to ensure reconciliations have been properly performed, reconciliations and journal entries have appropriate supporting documentation, and journal entries are properly recorded. Although management has determined that we have remediated such material weaknesses as of December 31, 2024, there can be no assurance that the measures that we have taken or will take will be entirely sufficient to prevent additional material weaknesses from occurring in the future or that we will not experience deficiencies in our internal controls and procedures.
If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, we could fail to meet our reporting obligations or they could result in material misstatements of our financial statements, and we could also be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results, and cause a decline in the price of our common stock.
We face risks related to the restatement of our previously issued consolidated financial statements and financial information as of and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, as well as for the interim financial periods for 2022 and 2023, which may adversely impact our business.
As described in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on April 2, 2024, during the preparation of our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023, we determined that due to the adjustment required to rental revenue and sales tax payable included in accrued liabilities, our previously issued financial statements described below were materially misstated.
As a result of the above, we determined that our previously issued financial statements included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included in the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly periods within that year, as well as the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included in the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly periods within the year ended December 31, 2023 should no longer be relied upon and have beenrestated.
As a result of the restatement, we are subject to a number of additional risks and uncertainties which may affect investor confidence in the accuracy of our financial disclosures and may raise reputational issues for our business. We may discover additional errors and our financial statements remain subject to the risk of future restatement. We are also at risk of potential litigation or other disputes which may include, among others, claims invoking the federal
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and state securities laws, or other claims arising from the restatement. As of the date of this Annual Report, we are not aware of any such disputes arising out of the restatement.
We cannot ensure that all of the risks described above will be eliminated or that general reputational harm will not be caused due to the restatement. If one or more of the foregoing risks or challenges persist, our business, operations and financial condition are likely to be materially and adversely affected.
Delayed filing of our Annual Report on Form 10-K has made us currently ineligible to use certain registration statements to register the offer and sale of securities, which could adversely affect our ability to raise future capital or complete acquisitions.