SenesTech, Inc. ($SNES)

Good afternoon, and welcome to the SenesTech Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Robert Blum with Lytham Partners. Please go ahead.

All right. Thank you very much, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to SenesTech's year-end 2025 financial results conference call. Joining us today are Dr. Jamie Bechtel, Interim Executive Chair; and Tom Chesterman, Chief Financial Officer. Joel Fruendt, the company's President and CEO, was unable to join us today. Earlier today, the company issued its financial results press release for the year ended December 31, 2025. As the operator indicated, at the conclusion of today's prepared remarks, we will open the call for a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described. Please refer to the company's SEC filings for a discussion of these risks. The company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law. All right. With that said, let me turn the call over to Dr. Jamie Bechtel. Jamie, please proceed.

Thanks, Robert. Thank you, operator. Thank you to everyone who's joining us today. I'm Dr. Jamie Bechtel, and I'm the Chair of SenesTech's Board. As we recently announced, Joel Fruendt is retiring following several years of leadership at SenesTech. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Joel for his contributions and for helping position the company for the next phase of growth. To support continuity during this transition, the Board created the role of Interim Executive Chair, and I was asked to step into that position to help ensure alignment between the Board and management while the CEO search is underway. The transition is planned and orderly, and the business continues to move forward without interruption. The Board has initiated a formal search process to identify the company's next CEO. Our focus is on finding the right leader to help scale the business and build on the progress that has been made. In the meantime, the Board remains closely engaged with management and focused on execution. Our directors bring experience across areas such as e-commerce, international markets, finance, strategic growth, which we believe will be valuable as the company continues to expand. Importantly, the company's core strategy remains consistent. We are focused on delivering our current initiatives, scaling the areas where we are seeing traction and maintaining discipline in how we allocate resources. We will continue to keep shareholders informed as the leadership transition progresses. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Tom Chesterman.

Thank you, Jamie. I'll begin with a summary of the year's performance and key developments before reviewing the financial results in more detail. Overall, 2025 reflected continued progress in expanding our commercial reach and strengthening our business model. For the year, revenue increased 20% to approximately $2.2 million compared with $1.86 million in 2024. It's important to note that the fourth quarter included an approximately $200,000 temporary revenue impact associated with the company's transition to directly managing the Evolve Rat and Evolve Mouse on Amazon. Excluding that transition effect, full year revenue growth would have been closer to 30%. That transition represents an important step in our e-commerce strategy. Directly managing Amazon allows us to improve product presentation, optimize marketing performance using platform data and retain a greater portion of the revenue generated through that channel. E-commerce continued to be our fastest-growing segment. For the year, e-commerce revenue increased 88%, driven by strong growth on Amazon and our direct-to-consumer website. Even with that temporary transition impact, e-commerce now represents more than 1/2 of our total revenue. And now that we have direct control of Amazon selling activity, we can better tailor the message and accelerate growth much, much further. Beyond e-commerce, we continue to expand activity across several additional verticals. In municipal markets, interest in fertility control approaches continue to grow as cities evaluate alternatives to traditional rodent control methods. Programs such as the rat contraception initiatives in New York City, Chicago and elsewhere reflect this broader shift towards integrated pest management strategies. The Chicago neighborhoods deploying Evolve continue to reorder and expand deployment. New York City will soon conclude their trial of Evolve, and we are already in discussions with potential deployment partners so as to be able to move quickly. Internationally, we expanded our footprint during the year with regulatory approvals and new distribution relationships. Evolve received regulatory approval in New Zealand, and we shipped the initial stocking order to our exclusive partner, Evicom. We've expanded distribution activity in Belize through the Belize Raptor Center. And we have other areas with potential regulatory approval pending as well. On the retail side, where decision-making is a longer process, we have made multiple presentations to some of the largest brick-and-mortar retailers about stocking Evolve on their shelves. I should point out that success on Amazon and the press around municipal deployment feeds well into the retail decision-making. We laid the groundwork last year. This is the year when we'll see the benefit of that work on the top line and the bottom line. Finally, I should mention some of you have been concerned about our legal dispute with Liphatech. I'm pleased to say that this dispute has been resolved in a manner satisfactory to all involved. All litigation has been dismissed and cannot be reinstated. Turning to the financial results in more detail. For 2025, gross margin improved to 62.5% compared with 54.1% in 2024. This reflects improved product mix and the growing contribution from e-commerce channels. The company reported a net loss of $6.4 million compared with $6.2 million in 2024. The 2025 results include approximately $631,000 in one-time legal expenses, some of which associated with Liphatech, and $135,000 in non-cash operating lease expense. Excluding these items, the adjusted net loss for the year would have been approximately $5.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA loss for the year improved to $5.3 million compared to $5.8 million in 2024. From a liquidity standpoint, the company ended the year with $8.6 million in cash and short-term investments, which we believe provides a solid operating runway as we continue executing our strategy. As we look towards 2026, our focus remains on maintaining financial discipline while investing in areas where we are seeing traction, including e-commerce expansion, municipal adoption and continued validation of our technology. At the same time, we are managing operating expenses carefully and prioritizing investments that support measurable commercial progress. And importantly, we're also maintaining the flexibility for the company's next CEO to help shape that longer-term strategy. With that, operator, we're ready to open the call for questions.

All right. Thank you very much, Jamie and Tom. We'll go ahead and begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] First question here. Given that 2025 revenue growth would have been 30%, excluding the impact of transition to directly managing Amazon sales, should we expect similar growth rate in 2026 or could this be higher?

That's a great question. Yes, absolutely, it can be higher, and that is, in fact, what we're aiming for is we want to accelerate growth in the areas where we can and make sure that we maximize that growth as long as it remains profitable.

All right. Our next question here, what are likely to be the contributors to 2026 revenues? Amazon and D2C, pest management professionals networks, municipal orders or international expansion in New Zealand, Belize and beyond?

So it will definitely be a mixture of all of those. But let me walk through kind of how each of them looks as we're moving forward. I mentioned the e-commerce and Amazon, particularly. This is an area where, with Amazon, we were not managing it directly, we were using a third party. And so we were not really in full control of the message and the rate of spend. As we begin taking over Amazon and also working on improving our own website, we know that further investment in the messaging and in the ad campaign will drive sustainable and increasing growth. So definitely, we expect to see a strong growth in that area. Municipal certainly is an area of growth. There have been a number of successes in that area. All eyes are on New York right now, where we have a trial underway. We don't know exactly what their deployment plans will be. We'll see that when the request for proposals come out, but we do see that as a growth area. Retail is an area where it's -- we have not yet seen the growth that we would hope. But when you see growth in that area, you see it's a very, very explosive area. And to give you an example, we've made multiple pitches to brick-and-mortar retailers. We've worked with them on their website. We've worked on trials. And at some point, one of them is going to say, all right, let's go ahead and send 1 pallet to 200 stores, 1 pallet each. That's a $2 million order. So the growth there can be very, very explosive in that segment. International continues to look very good. There are a number of areas internationally where they have a similar need to improve their rodent management techniques, and they seek alternatives to traditional methods like Evolve, like ContraPest, et cetera. So we definitely do see some improvement there. We've mentioned before, Australia is nearing the conclusion of the regulatory review. So we're expecting an answer from them shortly. There are other jurisdictions as well. So in closing, it really is a combination of a variety of shots on goal, as Joel used to put it.

Right. Very good. Our next question here is what kind of follow-up should we expect from the 2 field validations in urban areas? What level of revenue should we expect from these 2 areas?

Well, I'm not quite sure what the second one is that they're talking about. The one right now with the trial has all eyes on it is in New York. And as I mentioned, that trial will be concluded sometime in the spring. We don't know what their deployment will be, so we can't give you a good sense of how much revenue or how quickly. In the other areas, such as Chicago, they've already begun the deployment in Chicago in a number of neighborhoods and areas. So that will expand as additional neighborhoods come on into the program.

All right. The next question here is why have all the social media accounts, Facebook, for example, been quiet since December of 2025? Talk about the marketing department employment there.

Yes. Jamie, actually, why don't you take this one?

Thanks, Tom. Robert, that's a great question. The marketing team is absolutely still in place. Over the past few months, we've been focused on strengthening our core commercial efforts, customer outreach, sales enablement, channel and partnership development rather than prioritizing social media. Social media will definitely pick back up as we roll out a couple of initiatives this year, but the team has actively been working on growth and brand positioning. So you'll see a more structured communication cadence as we launch our new milestones this year.

All right. Very good. Next question here. And I think, Tom, you've addressed this in your prepared remarks, but I'll see if there's anything to add on to it. What is the status of the court case of Liphatech versus SenesTech?

So that case has been settled. It's been settled as the lawyers put it to the satisfaction of all parties. The results were immaterial to our -- both financially and operationally. So at this point, we consider it a past issue.

Okay. And a bit of a follow-up on that. You guys mentioned in the prior quarter that you had incurred $100,000 of one-time legal costs due to the Liphatech IP infringement and NDA violations. It says here, I noticed that the one-time legal fees in this quarter came to $275,000. Let's see here, can you, I guess, expand upon and clarify this cost and whether it's expected to recur going forward?

So let me take the last part first. No, it should not recur now that we have successfully concluded that litigation issue. It's -- litigation is very expensive these days. And so it takes quite a bit to defend oneself from charges or allegations. So unfortunately, it did end up costing us quite a bit in terms of legal expense. But it was an investment well worth it given the positive outcome.

Okay. Following up on a question on legal fees. Could you provide more granularity and how much of those fees during this last year related to financing?

The legal fees which were expensed do not have anything to do -- are not classified as operating expense. Those would be part of the cost of the financing. So you would not see any legal cost of financing in the income statement.

Okay. Next question here is, what is the status of product registration in Australia?

Yes. As I mentioned, we with our partner, have submitted all the necessary information. The regulatory authorities have gone through it. They expect to be able to produce an answer to us as our partner says, in the spring. I don't have any more precise dates than that, but we are expecting a response from them. We're expecting a positive response.

Okay. Our next question here is how much revenue do you expect from Belgium during the coming 2 years?

We actually do not have any direct input or insight into Belgium. We have no partner that's in Belgium. So it really is more a matter of as we look at the European market and our distributors there, what are we selling to them? And whether it's in Belgium or somewhere else, I really don't have a whole lot of insight into that.

Okay. Next question. Can you break out the SG&A, which is up? How much is sales and how much of the G&A? And there will be a follow-up to that.

So the -- we are at the conclusion of this call scheduled to file our 10-K. So all of the detail of the SG&A and R&D expenses will be in the 10-K. So I would encourage you to -- our investors to look at that, read that. And if you have any questions on that, follow-up with us. We'd be glad to go into it as much as we need.

Next question here is what are the new international opportunities?

Well, unfortunately, I can't really comment on them until we have signed agreements in place. So I'm going to have to let you wait for our press releases. As we sign them, we will let our investors know.

Okay. Very good. Next question here is, how likely is it that Evolve Bait gets to brick-and-mortar during the first half of 2026?

So we are already in some of brick-and-mortar, but not much. I think that given the time frame in which they make their decisions that it may not be likely until at least the end of the second quarter, but it's more likely in the second half of the year for retail in a big way.

Okay. Our next question here is what municipalities besides New York City are evaluating Evolve?

Well, that's the biggest trial that's been out there. Baltimore concluded their study and has been deploying Evolve there. Chicago didn't. They went right past the study, at least in the neighborhoods, but they're -- the City of Chicago continues to be assessing fertility control. I don't know of -- there are I'm sure others that are doing trials that are not necessarily formal trials, but that would be a level of detail that I wouldn't have readily available right now.

All right. The next question here is on how is the agricultural sector working out?

It's working out quite well. There are -- we've talked about some of the successes in the past in the almond groves in the West. Those deployments go well. They're expanding those as well. We continue to work on some of the crop issues like sugarcane. We continue to see actually some expansion as well into poultry. That's another area of growth. And we're beginning to see actually some -- an interesting area, irrigation. It turns out that rats are very destructive to irrigation equipment. So we're seeing some progress in that area as well. So it's going well, very well.

All right. Another follow-up here, and I'm not sure if there's anything that could be added here, but how soon will you know about the trials in the New York City program? And what's the potential market for that?

Yes. Unfortunately, as I've mentioned, the trial will be ending this spring. I believe it's the middle of the second quarter. We don't know what they're going to be doing immediately after that. But we have begun discussions with some people that are expecting to bid on whatever comes out. These are large pest management organizations that would like to be able to respond to New York's requirements. So we've already begun those discussions as to how to best be flexible and nimble when the information does come out.

Okay. Our next question here. How has the e-commerce business been when it comes to Home Depot and Lowe's?

So these are areas where they're really almost trials before they make their decisions about their shelf placement. We are focusing, as has been mentioned before, our own e-commerce program on Amazon now and on our website. So these programs have not been a huge e-commerce per se push, but rather are ways of continuing the discussions with them. So at this point, they're nowhere near the size of what we're seeing in Amazon or on our own website.

Okay. Our next question here. Are there any new species you anticipate in 2026 or 2027, such as ground squirrels, gophers, et cetera?

Well, I'll let Jamie comment on this, but I will also kind of mention that from my perspective, I think the rodent market is the rat and mouse market has enough potential that we could be quite successful maximizing those opportunities. But Jamie, you're one of our lead scientific types. Any comment there?

I'll just add that the technology is really exciting because it's broadly applicable, especially to mammalian species. And while there's a lot of opportunity out there, I second Tom with the idea that we're going to remain very focused and deliver what's in front of us with extraordinary discipline.

All right. Thank you for that, both. Our next question here is, will evolverodentbirthcontrol.com be available in the future? Someone noticed that the site was down.

I will have to look into that to understand why it's down. I wasn't aware of that, but I'll look into that immediately. We own it. It should be up.

All right. Very good. Our next question here, what qualities is the Board looking for in the next CEO to improve profitability or the -- I'm sorry, the probability of successful commercialization?

Jamie, that sounds like a question for you.

It does, doesn't it, Tom? Robert, thanks for that. That's a great question. We're looking for a leader who can take the company through its next phase of growth. That means someone who has a strong commercial instinct, experience scaling a business, the ability to build and lead high-performance teams. Just as important is operational discipline, someone who can translate strategy into consistent execution. The opportunity in front of us is significant, exciting and significant. So we want a CEO who can bring both that strategic vision and the day-to-day rigor necessary to capture that vision.

All right. A question here discussing cash runway implies, obviously, losses at its current revenue levels. Is there any reason why improvement should not be expected?

There's no reason why improvement should not be expected and sought after. But the attorneys tell us to be very conservative in how we disclose things in the 10-K and on the press releases about such matters. So we take the most conservative approach in terms of that disclosure. But yes, improvement should be expected.

Okay. Next question here is on inventory. Inventory grew 25% year-over-year, which is relatively high compared with the quarterly revenue. Is the current inventory reflecting anticipated demand from newly expanded locations or slower than expected inventory turnover?

It is the former. It's trying to make sure that we are ready for that surge demand I mentioned. If we do get a call from a retailer saying we want the pallets in every store, we want to make sure that we have that inventory available to fulfill.

All right. Next question here is, why was Joel not able to be on the call today?

Robert, thanks -- sorry, go ahead, Tom.

I was just going to say, Jamie, you probably should take this one.

That's exactly how aligned we are, Tom, and that's the answer to the question, right? We have a really strong leadership team in place. As I mentioned earlier, there's continuity in this transition, and we're all fully engaged in communicating progress and executing on the strategy. So while Joel wasn't on today's call, the team is completely aligned, and we're moving forward.

All right. The next question here is what other target markets will SenesTech focus on this year? Will there be increased focus on the agricultural sector, for instance?

Yes. To some extent, I've already answered that. It's going to be all of the markets that we've talked about before. We're going to be going after all of them. They each have a different strategic approach identified as to how we will address them, what the pacing will be. But there's -- these are the markets that we're focused on now, the specific verticals that we've talked about in past calls. Until we have sufficiently hit our targets, our own internal targets and external targets in these markets, we don't think that there's a need to expand to other verticals. These are the ones that look like they have the highest potential in the shortest amount of time. And so that's why we've chosen them to focus on.

All right. Our next question here, I think you've addressed some of this, but have there been any new trials or deployments in major cities, specifically on the West Coast, San Francisco, Los Angeles, for instance?

Well, San Francisco has a trial ongoing. We've talked about it before. It's being done with a local pest management company there using some state funding. I'm not aware of any other West Coast formal trials, although there certainly are a number of the smaller municipalities that tend to look at it first before they make their decisions, but those are more informal. We did have an interesting trial that we did produce some data on at the UC Irvine Housing project, where they have quite a bit of interest in looking at innovative ways of controlling pests. And so that trial did conclude quite successfully. We put out a press release on it earlier, but they were very pleased with the approach and have continued to deploy and expand in that. But I'm not aware of any others that are as formal as that.

Okay. Next question here is, does management attend any -- I guess, this would relate to industry conferences to showcase Evolve?

Well management doesn't necessarily, but the sales department certainly does. Sales is responsible for identifying those conferences and those meetings that have the highest potential for return. They tend to be very, very focused on that return. Is it really going to be something where we get a lot of orders? And these can be both professional organizations, but we also attend some of the, I'll call them, retail or other shows. For example, we were very recently at the Bradley Caldwell show, where they bring in all of their potential customers into one place and presents different companies like ourselves. We've also been to the ACE show. So we're at both kinds of shows. We're also at Pest World. We have had a booth there for a couple of years now. So yes, the answer is yes, we do.

Okay. Next question here. Will the new CEO have incentives built around the price of the company's stock?

I am sure that Jamie is ready to answer this one.

Robert, the short answer is yes. As with most public companies, the CEO's compensation structure, we expect a meaningful portion of that to be equity-based and aligned with long-term shareholder value. The Board's Compensation Committee will finalize the specific structure, of course, but alignment with stock performance will absolutely be a key component.

Okay. The next one, I'm not sure if there's a question in here, but maybe more of a comment. The top agricultural production state California would greatly benefit from expansion of the label for use in ground squirrels with ever-increasing regulations on pesticides, 25B products have incredible potential. So this circles back to expansion into adjacent species.

Yes, I would agree. It's very definitely -- California is not the only area that would benefit from an expansion. There are lots of different pest species that need some work, need better solutions. When we have -- again, when we've managed to demonstrate success in rat and mouse, we certainly would look at that. I will tell you that there is an issue around ground squirrels. They're not considered the same kind of pest as rodents are. So they have a different regulatory approach that's required there. So there are a few complexities that would need to be worked out before we could really consider that kind of an expansion.

Okay. The next question here is, will you be expanding your sales team?

The short answer is yes, we will. We actually had the sales team in for a kind of a beginning of the year conference not that long ago. We're going to have another one coming up shortly where we're really focused on exactly what resources do we need to maximize the B2B sales effort and whether it be more people. And if so, where and what, how are they focused, what materials are needed, what -- again, all the resources that are necessary to really expand and drive the B2B growth to its maximum potential.

And Robert, before we move on, I just want to add to Tom's answer there that because we brought e-commerce in-house, not only are we going to see a bigger sales force, but we're going to see -- both in the B2C and the B2B profile, but we're going to see a higher ROI on that because we're going to be able to collaborate across those 2 verticals.

All right, fantastic. Our next question here. Can you clarify when the New Zealand order was shipped? And if it was in Q1, how much of the inventory did that eat up? And has it been replaced?

Yes, that shipment was in Q1. And yes, it's been replaced. I think that was all the questions.

I think you hit it there. Next question here is sales working with UC Davis regarding Kern County and other California counties being overrun by rats?

The short answer is, yes, we're focused on that in general. But that is also one of the areas where we think some additional resources might very well be useful. And so as they've been -- one of the things that came out of that sales meeting was looking specifically at different opportunities in California being not only a large market, but also a market which has taken the step to ban or limit the use of certain rodenticides. So there are definitely -- the problem now is fewer solutions, and so even more opportunity for rat birth control.

All right. Tom, a quick asking of clarification on the New Zealand order. Was that revenue recognized in Q1 or was that revenue recognized in Q4 for the New Zealand order?

Q1.

Q1, all right. And as a follow-up to that, how frequently do you expect follow-up orders from New Zealand and for how long?

Well, New Zealand has an initiative, which we've talked about before, to rid itself of predators and other pests, invasive pests. So -- and their target is I think 2050 to complete that. That is a massive, massive multi-billion-dollar undertaking. How exactly they're going to be going through that may change now with fertility control being added. The -- I think the -- I know Evicom is working with the authorities in New Zealand to really focus on how to best now incorporate rat birth control with the other methods that have been used. So I don't have a forecast for you yet, but it's -- the opportunity there, the need there is tremendous.

All right. Coming back to California here with the question is, do you have any other distributors in California outside of ACE Hardware?

Well, ACE Hardware, we don't consider a distributor. We consider that a retail. But in terms of other distributors, yes, we do. As a matter of fact, with Agricom, Agri-Turf, a couple of the ones that have come across my desk recently. They're focused more in on the agricultural side, particularly poultry. So yes, we do have other distributors there. And of course 2 top distributors in the pest management industry, Veseris and Target Specialty, both of them have a solid presence in California.

All right. Very good. I am showing no further questions. So with that, I will turn it back over to you both for any closing remarks.

Great. Well, thank you all for joining us, and we certainly look forward to being able to update you as frequently as we can on our progress. This is -- as I said in my prepared remarks, last year was a year of preparation of setting the groundwork, setting the foundations. This year is undoubtedly going to be the most exciting year that we have. And you don't usually hear CFOs saying things like that, but I am truly excited for the potential in the coming year. So thank you very much.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you. That concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.