Leonovus Inc. Announces Q3 2019 Financial Results and Business Update

OTTAWA, Nov. 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Leonovus Inc., (“Leonovus”) (TSXV: LTV) today announced its operating and financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2019. Amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.
The Company incurred a net loss of $1,038,000 in the third quarter of 2019 and a net loss of $3,955,000 for the nine months ended September 2019 compared to a net loss of $1,363,000 in the comparable quarter of 2018 and a net loss of $3,539,000 for the first nine-months of 2018. Total operating expenses decreased to $1,010,000 for the third quarter of 2019 compared to $1,557,000 in Q3 2018. For the nine months ended September 30, 2019, operating expenses decreased from $3,815,000 in 2018 to $3,363,000 in 2019.The Company had cash and cash equivalents of $1,177,000 as of September 30, 2019, as compared to $3,646,000 on December 31, 2018. Revenues from Smart Filer are expected to start in Q4 2019. The financing of the Galaxa project is currently under review with no funding raised to date. The Company continued its investment in Sales, Marketing, Product Development and G&A; however, at a reduced rate beginning in the second quarter of 2019.On November 5, 2019 we announced the official launch of the Smart Filer cold data management solution combined with Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage. Smart Filer addresses the greater than 50% compounded unstructured data growth problem (Gartner, 2018) facing many IT departments by taking current file server infrastructure and automatically extending it to lower-cost secondary or cloud storage.Smart Filer is an information lifecycle management (ILM) solution that analyzes existing file storage and extends its capacity automatically and transparently. According to customer-defined policies, infrequently accessed files are automatically removed from high-cost, high-performance primary storage, and placed in secondary or cloud storage, without any changes to how users and applications access them. When Leonovus Vault is deployed with Smart Filer, customers not only have lower data storage costs but enhanced data security and durability. On August 13, 2019 Leonovus launched the free ‘Data Discovery Tool’. Customers can visualize their file storage profile and create reports that include the number of files and the amount of storage they consume according to file type and the date they were last accessed. Since the launch date, 65 companies have downloaded the Data Discovery Tool, which provides a qualified sales funnel for Smart Filer. The partnership with Wasabi is the first product iteration of LeoCloud, which is the internal name used by Leonovus to aggregate several cloud data storage providers under one brand. LeoCloud is a precursor, or very basic facsimile, of the Galaxa project. LeoCloud has the potential to evolve and expand into our original vision of the Galaxa project. At this time, our primary focus is the launch of Smart Filer, LeoCloud, and leveraging our historical investment in the Vault technology. “Successful beta trials of Smart Filer with two customers provided the development team with excellent product feedback and the sales team with reference accounts for new sales.  We continue to build out sales channels and attended two Managed Service Provider (“MSP”) events in October and connected with over 60 MSP’s. Currently, we are working with a national telecom company, three major cloud providers, and several MSP’s to train them to sell Smart Filer. Regarding the BCIP project, the statement of work and testing agreements with the respective Government of Canada (“GoC”) departments are now complete. We will start final contract negotiation in the first quarter of 2020 and expect BCIP revenues to begin in Q2 2020. In addition to the BCIP program, which is Leonovus Vault technology, we have now engaged with several departments regarding Smart Filer which supports the GoC strategic initiative to leverage cloud storage resources. We expect a major GoC department as one of the early 2019 Smart Filer customers,” said Michael Gaffney, Chair and CEO. In Q4 2018 we announced the expectation of revenues in 2019 from a major Canadian bank for work on three projects. In Q1, we announced the cancellation of the first project and the delay of the remaining two projects until later in 2019. Given the turnover in staff at the bank, and internal technology changes, we have no information that the remaining two projects will proceed and hence no expectations of purchase orders from the bank in 2019. We are now in discussions with the bank regarding how they can use Smart Filer to address their on-premises storage growth by moving their cold data into the cloud. Our legacy Vault technology could also be part of the solution if the bank decides that it needs a secure multi-cloud storage solution. About LeonovusLeonovus is a software provider that offers storage solutions that untether your data, allowing you to embrace cloud storage securely, simply and cost-effectively while giving you the flexibility to deal with the ever-evolving cloud storage landscape.Leonovus Smart Filer is an information lifecycle management (ILM) solution that analyzes existing file storage and extends its capacity automatically and transparently. According to customer-defined policies, infrequently accessed files are automatically removed from high-cost, high-performance primary storage, and placed in secondary or cloud storage, without any changes to how users and applications access them.Designed with the IT manager in mind, Leonovus Vault uses patented algorithms to analyze, classify, encrypt, shred and spread data across a network of on-premises, hybrid or multi-cloud storage nodes – allowing for the most secure yet internally accessible form of object-based data storage across the entire solution. The advanced geo-distributed architecture minimizes latency, optimizes geo-availability, reduces remote backup costs and meets data sovereignty requirements. With its software and hardware agnostic design, Vault provides petabyte scalability. It allows the enterprise to use its existing idle storage resources, extend the useable lifespan of depreciated resources and improve the enterprise’s overall ROI.To learn more, please visit www.leonovus.com.This press release may contain forward-looking statements and information, which may involve risks and uncertainties.  The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, competitive developments, risks associated with Leonovus’ growth, the state of the financial markets, regulatory risks and other factors. There can be no assurance or guarantees that any statements of forward-looking information contained in this release will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.  These and all subsequent written and oral statements containing forward-looking information are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Leonovus disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.  Readers should not place undue reliance on any statements of forward-looking information that speak only as of the date of this release.  Further information on Leonovus’ public filings, including its most recent audited consolidated financial statements, are available at www.sedar.com.Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.For More Information, please contact:George Pretli
Chief Financial Officer
gpretli@leonovus.com