Q4 2024 MeridianLink Inc Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Gianna Rotellini; Senior Director of Investor Relations & Strategic Initiatives; MeridianLink Inc

Nicolaas Vlok; Chief Executive Officer, Director; MeridianLink Inc

Larry Katz; Chief Financial Officer; MeridianLink Inc

Elias Olmeta; CFO; MeridianLink Inc

Cristopher Kennedy; Analyst; William Blair & Company L.L.C.

Andrew Smith; Analyst; Citi

Saket Kalia; Analyst; Barclays

Matthew Kikkert; Analyst; Stifel

Jessica Wang; Analyst; Raymond James & Associates, Inc.

Presentation

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to MeridianLink's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to first speaker today, Gianna Rotellini. Gianna, please go ahead.

Gianna Rotellini

Good afternoon, and welcome to MeridianLink's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 earnings call. We will be discussing the results announced in our press release issued after the market closed today. With me today are MeridianLink's Chief Executive Officer, Nicolaas Vlok; President, Larry Katz; and Chief Financial Officer, Elias Olmeta.
Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that today's conference call will include forward-looking statements based on the company's current expectations. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties, and our actual results may differ materially.
For a discussion of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that could affect our future financial results and business, please refer to the disclosure in today's earnings release and the periodic reports and filings we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of our statements are made based on information available to us as of today, and except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update any such statements.
Please note that other than revenue, all numbers in our remarks are on a non-GAAP basis, unless otherwise stated. A reconciliation to comparable GAAP metrics can be found in today's earnings presentation, which is available on our Investor Relations website and as an exhibit to the Form 8-K furnished with the SEC just before this call. Our earnings presentation is available for you to download and reference throughout our prepared remarks.
With that, let me turn the call over to Nicolaas.

Nicolaas Vlok

Thank you, Gianna. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. MeridianLink closed 2024 with a strong fourth quarter. We recorded revenue in excess of $79 million or 7% growth year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA above $33 million or a 42% adjusted EBITDA margin. I'm pleased with our results in a challenging and uncertain macro environment.
Most importantly, we continued our commitment to being the leading financial technology platform trusted by customers to execute winning lending strategies with MeridianLink One. Despite the headwinds of 2024, we executed well, controlling what we could control. Our sales team generated strong demand and delivered a second consecutive year of record bookings.
Our services team accelerated time to revenue and achieved a high watermark in our subscription revenue activations, which we've previously referred to as ACV release. Our product teams continue to innovate by adding capabilities that strengthen MeridianLink One's position as the leading digital lending platform for mid-market financial institutions.
We significantly improved our operating efficiency, delivering over 400 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion. and we continued our disciplined approach to capital allocation, completing several transactions that strengthened our balance sheet and diversified our shareholder base. Looking forward, I would like to frame 2025 by sharing some industry observations based on conversations with credit union and bank executives.
While economic uncertainty is high and consumer confidence is challenged, customers and prospects are increasingly prioritizing investment in lending technology. These investments are focused on platforms that enable omnichannel client acquisition, touchless lending and seamless integrations with best-of-breed solutions.
To compete for digitally native consumers, financial institutions are prepared to increase their technology spend in lending platforms, and we see a longer-term trend benefiting MeridianLink One, our market-leading platform. I'm excited about what's in store for MeridianLink. There is no other digital lending platform with the breadth and depth of MeridianLink One. While volumes have weighed on recent top line growth, we are focused on long-term growth, investing to meet our customers' needs and accelerating platform adoption. Go-to-market and service delivery investments have paid off with consecutive years of record bookings and activations.
Despite the current environment, we believe in our long-term opportunity and plan to deploy capital into sales and marketing, product and infrastructure, which will further position us to capture share and volume when the market returns. I have great confidence in our ability to scale the business in 2025 and beyond.
Before I turn it over to Larry, I want to update you on a change to our guiding practice. Going forward, we will provide quarterly updates to our annual guidance, and we will no longer provide guidance for the following quarter. We are making this change because we are focused on delivering long-term value, and we firmly believe that annual guidance is the best lens for investors to evaluate our business.
Elias will share more in his remarks. I'd like to thank the entire MeridianLink team for our solid performance this year. With your expertise and dedication, I'm proud that we ended another year delivering on our commitments to customers and shareholders.
Now I will turn it over to Larry to review our business highlights.