Agrify Corp [AGFY] Filings

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from _________ to _________

Commission File Number: 001-39946

AGRIFY CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

2468 Industrial Row Dr.

Troy, Michigan 48084

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(855) 420-0020

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

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 Exchange 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 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.

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. ☐

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 ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant, computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of June 30, 2023, was approximately $5,643,188. Shares of the registrant’s common stock held by each officer and director and each person known to the registrant to own 10% or more of the outstanding voting power of the registrant have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not a determination for other purposes.

There were a total of 13,729,386 shares of the registrant’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, outstanding as of April 9, 2024.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This report contains forward-looking statements and information relating to Agrify Corporation. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this report, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include statements relating to:

We caution you that the foregoing list may not contain all of the forward-looking statements made in this report. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in “Risk Factors.” Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, 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 materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this report may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the 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 that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this report to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.

SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS

Below is a summary of the principal factors that make an investment in our Common Stock speculative or risky. This summary does not address all of the risks that we face. Additional discussion of the risks summarized in this risk factor summary, and other risks that we face, can be found below under the heading “Risk Factors”, and should be carefully considered, together with other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC before making an investment decision regarding our Common Stock.

MARKET, INDUSTRY AND OTHER DATA

Unless otherwise indicated, information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K concerning our industry and the markets in which we operate, including our general expectations and market position, market opportunity and market size, is based on information from various sources, on assumptions that we have made that are based on those data and other similar sources and on our knowledge of the markets for our services. These data involve a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such estimates. We have not independently verified any third-party information and cannot assure you of its accuracy or completeness. While we believe the market position, market opportunity and market size information included in this report is generally reliable, such information is inherently imprecise. In addition, projections, assumptions and estimates of our future performance and the future performance of the industry in which we operate is necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report. These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by the independent parties and by us.

In addition, we own or have rights to trademarks or trade names that we use in connection with the operation of our business, including our corporate names, logos, and website names. In addition, we own or have the rights to copyrights, trade secrets and other proprietary rights that protect the content of our products. This report may also contain trademarks, service marks and trade names of other companies, which are the property of their respective owners. Our use or display of third parties’ trademarks, service marks, trade names or products in this report is not intended to, and should not be read to, imply a relationship with or endorsement or sponsorship of us. Solely for convenience, some of the copyrights, trade names and trademarks referred to in this report are listed without their ©, ® and ™ symbols, but we will assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to our copyrights, trade names and trademarks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

PART I

Item 1. Business.

Unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires, references in this report to “Agrify”, the “Company,” “we,” “us,” “our,” or similar references mean Agrify Corporation and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis.

Business Overview

We are a leading provider of innovative cultivation and extraction solutions for the cannabis industry, bringing data, science, and technology to the forefront of the market. Our proprietary micro-environment-controlled Agrify Vertical Farming Units (“VFUs”) enable cultivators to produce high quality products with what we believe to be unmatched consistency, yield, and return investment at scale. Our comprehensive extraction product line, which includes hydrocarbon, alcohol, solventless, post-processing, and lab equipment, empowers producers to maximize the quantity and quality of extract required for premium concentrates.

Since our inception, we have gone from primarily developing, selling, and supporting our VFUs along with our fully integrated Agrify Insights™ cultivation software (“Agrify Insights™”) to being able to offer customers a far more complete set of solutions, products, and services across both cultivation and extraction. This has been a function of both our natural evolution and through a set of strategic mergers and acquisitions. Since 2020, we have integrated six new brands into Agrify’s broader organization. Our first acquisition, TriGrow Systems, Inc., was completed in January 2020. TriGrow Systems, Inc. was formerly the exclusive distributor of Agrify’s VFUs. We added Harbor Mountain Holdings, LLC to our portfolio on July 21, 2020, to help scale up our manufacturing strategy with engineering, prototyping, manufacturing, testing, warehousing, and installation services. Since October 2021, we have been strategically focused on establishing ourselves as a global leader in the cannabis and hemp extraction equipment industry, complementing our cutting-edge cannabis and hemp cultivation solutions. Over five months, we acquired four of the top brand names in the industry. On October 1, 2021, we acquired Precision Extraction Solutions, a market leader in developing and producing high-quality hydrocarbon and alcohol extraction solutions, and Cascade Sciences, LLC, a market leader in developing and producing high-quality vacuum purge ovens and decarboxylation ovens. On December 31, 2021, we acquired PurePressure, LLC, a market leader in developing and producing high-quality solventless extraction solutions and advanced ice-water hash processing equipment in the cannabis and hemp industry. On February 1, 2022, we completed our acquisition of LS Holdings Corp., a market leader in developing and producing high-quality distillation and solvent separation solutions for the cannabis and hemp industry.

We now offer our customers an extensive ecosystem of solutions, products, training, and service capabilities in what has historically been a highly fragmented market. Our offerings, which are described in more detail below, are compelling on their own. However, we believe what sets us apart is our ability to bring to the market the most comprehensive set of cultivation and extraction solutions from a single provider. As a result, we believe we are well-positioned to capture market share and create a dominant market position in the indoor cannabis sector. We currently have two primary areas of business focus:

Cultivation Solutions

While we do not cultivate, come in contact with, distribute, or dispense cannabis or any cannabis derivatives that are currently prohibited under U.S. federal law, our equipment and business solutions can be used within indoor grow facilities by fully licensed cannabis cultivators. We sell our proprietary cultivation solutions to independent licensed cultivators. The two primary products we sell are the VFUs and Agrify Insights™. We believe we are one of a limited number of companies offering a fully integrated cultivation solution optimized for precision growing with robust automation capabilities in the industry.

Agrify Vertical Farming Unit

Our proprietary VFU technology offers a modular, compartmentalized micro-climate growing system for indoor vertical farming. Our VFU system is designed for craft farmers, single-state operators, and multi-state operators who are looking to consistently produce higher-quality crops at scale. The VFUs are designed to line up horizontally in rows, and can be stacked vertically up to three units tall, taking advantage of unused indoor vertical space with the below benefits:

Agrify Insights™

The VFUs are designed to work in conjunction with our Agrify Insights™ software. Each VFU sold includes a license for Agrify Insights™ and a monthly Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) subscription fee is charged per VFU. The VFU cannot operate successfully without Agrify Insights™, and we typically charge between $1,500 to $2,400 per VFU sold annually. Agrify Insights™ license agreements are generally for a multi-year term, with an annual auto-renewal.

Agrify Insights™ is a SaaS-based solution that interfaces with our proprietary hardware to provide customers with real-time control and monitoring of facilities, growing conditions and insights into both production and profit optimization. The combination of precise environmental control and automation with data collection and actionable insights empowers our customers to be more efficient, more productive, and more intelligent about how they run their businesses. We believe that the robust data analytics capabilities from our Agrify Insights™ platform, coupled with our VFU system, is enabling our customers to transform their businesses and quality of the product they are cultivating.

Agrify Insights™ is focused on optimizing four key components:

When these key components are combined, they encompass the cultivation operations of an Agrify customer. By reducing human error and providing insights through data collection and analysis, Agrify Insights™ minimizes risk and increases operational efficiencies. Ultimately, our customers seek to produce end products with the highest level of consistency no matter where they are located.

Plant-Level Optimization

Central to our solution is granular control of the cultivation environment. A crop’s end-product is determined by the plant’s genetics and the environment in which the plants are grown. Control over the growing environment is accomplished through the integration of Agrify Insights™. Agrify Insights collects data from multiple sensors on a per plant basis between 4 and 60 times an hour. This can result in between 100,000 and 151 million data points annually, depending on the number of plants and fluctuations in the VFU microclimate. By recording data points and reproducing specific environments based on the data, cultivators can effectively minimize the variation in their crops and dial-in the maximum quality. Individual plant varietals can be optimized by tailoring the grow plan (recipe for cultivation) to enhance genetic traits; increasing the temperature can speed chemical processes and growth rates and adjusting the length of different phases of a plant’s lifecycle can maximize the crop’s yield. Additionally, when new varieties of plants are cultivated, having multiple controlled, compartmentalized, growth chambers allow for iterative experiments which offer real insight into how new varieties are best cultivated which is beneficial for research and development purposes.

Our “Grow Plans” are the templates or recipes that define the parameters for each lifecycle. Grow Plans define the environmental settings (light - photoperiod and intensity, temperature, humidity, VPD, CO2, irrigation, fertigation) for each crop variety and cultivator as well as the schedule for completing, as applicable, “plant touching” tasks such as bottoming, pruning, and harvesting. Agrify Insights™ ships to the customer with many pre-developed Grow Plans and customers can create their own Grow Plans, electing to share them with other customers or not.

Individual VFU Level Optimization

Our VFU hardware provides cultivation environmental control within the grow chamber. This hardware and its component valves, motors and sensors are directed and controlled by Agrify Insights™.

Facility Level Optimization

Our modular VFUs are deployed in scale at a customer’s facility with the smallest commercial operation deployment being 60 VFUs to date. Agrify Insights™ is designed to operate these individual VFUs as a combined facility. Agrify Insights™ features at the facility level include:

Optimization at the Business Level

Agrify Insights™ analysis features enable customers to understand how cultivation decisions impact their overall business. Understanding the data from the cultivation facility can help our customers better plan and make informed decisions that impact downstream parts of their business.

Cultivation Deployment Options

Rapid Deployment Pack (“RDP”) Program

The RDP program was established in 2022 to make it easier for a broader range of customers to access our award-winning cultivation technology. Featuring our flagship VFUs in a prepackaged, self-contained, and quick-to-deploy format, the thoughtfully designed and engineered RDPs offer an accelerated path to production, cash flow, and profitability for customers. By removing certain barriers and points of friction with the RDPs, we can provide customers who have properly equipped facilities with best-in-class cultivation capabilities in potentially as little as 90 days. Once installed, the modular nature of the RDPs allows for seamless expansion opportunities, enabling customers the flexibility to grow and scale.

TTK Solution

While we do not intend to enter into any new TTK Solutions for the foreseeable future, we have deployed this program with certain key customers. We also believe that our data-driven TTK Solution for cultivation solutions is unlike any other customer solution being offered and enables our customers to get to market faster by providing them with our seamlessly integrated hardware and software offerings as well as access to capital and a wide range of associated services from experts including consulting, training, design, engineering, and construction to form what we believe is the most complete solution available from a single provider. We engage qualified cannabis operators in the early phases of their business plans and provide critical support, typically over a 10-year period.

Our TTK Solution provides our valued customers with the benefit of working with a single, highly qualified provider in what has historically been a decentralized market full of piecemeal solutions that were not necessarily designed and engineered to work harmoniously with one another. Given the significant shortcomings associated with traditional indoor grow methods across all commercial agriculture segments, it was apparent that a new paradigm in indoor cultivation was needed, which is why we have brought a more modern, manufacturing style approach that is process driven through technology and measured via data and analytics. Overall, our holistic approach to addressing our customers’ cultivation needs treats their production facilities as an end-to-end ecosystem whose success depends on all components working together optimally. Despite the rapidly growing cannabis and hemp industry, many growers and processors face some significant obstacles to their operations that pose a serious threat to their long-term viability.

We believe Agrify’s proprietary TTK Solution is the key to resolving many of the challenges our customers encounter. We have set ourselves apart by bringing to market a horticulturist expertise, bundled solution of state-of-the-art equipment, software and services that is turn-key, end-to-end, fully integrated and optimized for precision growing and extraction. Agrify’s TTK Solution provides customers with the following bundled equipment and services:

Extraction Solutions

While we do not extract, come in contact with, distribute, process, or dispense cannabis or hemp or any cannabis or hemp derivatives that are currently prohibited under U.S. federal law, our extraction equipment and business solutions can be used within indoor processing facilities by fully licensed cannabis and hemp cultivators and processors or in some cases, by individual processors for individual use in compliance with applicable law. We sell our proprietary extraction solutions to independent, licensed cultivators and processing labs.

Cannabis represents a potential cornucopia of medicinal and pharmaceutical advancement. Cannabis produces over 550 different phytochemicals, over 120 of which are cannabinoids like tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) and cannabidiol (“CBD”). Other cannabinoids like varins, cannabigerivarin (“CBGV”), tetrahydrocannabivarin (“THCV”), and cannabidivarin (“CBDV”) are less well known and potentially offer significant value. As we continue to learn more about the complex chemical composition of cannabis, the need for distillation solutions is clear. Distillation enables the identification, isolation, and separation of valuable cannabis metabolites. The ability to take cannabis compounds distilled into their pure forms, and then recombine them into specific, purposeful end-products could have significant potential for the pharmaceutical industry in the future.

As stated previously, we strategically acquired four of the top brands in the extraction space in late 2021 and early 2022 in Precision Extraction, PurePressure, Lab Society, and Cascade Sciences. These iconic brands encompass everything from hydrocarbon, alcohol, and solventless extraction to distillation and post-processing and have supported and continue to support over 90% of legal operators in one fashion or another.

Combined, these four acquisitions provide what we believe to be the most comprehensive extraction solutions from a single provider, with over 7,000 customers, including over 30 Multi-State-Operators, and some of the best extraction labs in the industry. Our leading extraction brands provide equipment and solutions for extraction, post-processing, and testing for the cannabis and hemp industries. The extraction, post-processing and testing services are complementary and highly attractive areas of the supply chain.

Our extraction division now offers cutting-edge technologies and end-to-end service solutions. Solutions from the extraction division include equipment, technology, facility and lab design, training, and extensive research and development capabilities. By providing new hardware-as-a-service we intend to capture higher margin recurring revenue and supply chain optimization through streamlined product sourcing, purchasing, manufacturing, and warehousing.

These acquisitions have greatly expanded our product and service offerings in the post-harvest segment of the supply chain. We believe we are positioning Agrify as one of the most vertically integrated total solutions provider for our cannabis and hemp customers. According to a report published by Grand View Research in November 2022, the global cannabis extraction market is expected to potentially grow to $15.5 billion by 2030, and as the cannabis industry continues to experience rapid growth globally, we expect the sales of our extraction solutions to follow a similar growth trajectory.

Cannabis Market Opportunity

While we do not cultivate, come in contact with, distribute or dispense cannabis or any cannabis derivatives that are currently prohibited under U.S. federal law, our cultivation solutions can be used within state-licensed indoor grow facilities by cannabis cultivators if they choose to do so.

In the U.S., the development and growth of the regulated medical and recreational (adult-use) cannabis industry has generally been driven by state law and regulation, and accordingly, the market varies on a state-by-state basis. State laws that legalize and regulate cannabis for medicinal reasons allow patients to consume cannabis with a designated healthcare provider’s recommendation, subject to various requirements and limitations. As of January 2024, 39 states have passed laws allowing their citizens to use medical cannabis. On top of this medical condition growth trend, there has been a slow but steady increase in the number of states that have chosen to legalize cannabis for recreational use. As of January 2024, 24 states have passed laws allowing their citizens to use recreational cannabis. Shifting public attitudes and state law and legislative activity are driving this change as indicated by a 2019 poll by Quinnipiac University that found that 93% of Americans support patient access to medical-use cannabis if recommended by a doctor, which was the same level of support from a similar poll conducted by Quinnipiac University in 2018. Similarly, the trend toward further legalization and regulation of cannabis sales is spreading globally. As of the date of this report, over 70 countries outside the U.S. currently have medicinal cannabis regulation in force, and that number is expected to significantly increase over time.

Given that the market size of legal cannabis in the U.S. in 2022 was estimated to be $33.6 billion according to MJBiz Daily, and 88% of legal U.S. cannabis cultivators grow indoors (Fluence 2022 Industry lighting report), we estimate that the indoor segment of the legal U.S. cannabis sector is a $30 billion market with the expectation that there will be even more growth on the horizon. A recent report from Fortune Business Insights projected global cannabis revenue to reach $57.18 billion in 2023, with annual growth rate of 34.03%, with a projected global market volume of $444.34 billion by 2030.

The different cultivation environments for cannabis each have advantages and disadvantages, and this leads to a variance in price points based on quality, actual and perceived, and process. Based on the Fluence 2022 state of the cannabis industry lighting report, 88% of cultivators have some or all of their facilities growing indoors, up 9% over 2021.

Competitive Landscape

We believe our full suite of product offerings forms an unmatched ecosystem for indoor growing and extraction. At this time, our VFUs, Agrify Insights™, extraction solutions, our facility design and build services, and our engineering/installation services are highly differentiated from anything else on the market.

At the same time, our customers are actively being approached by a variety of companies who do offer compelling standalone products and services, so we recognize that our customers do have choices and alternatives, and they also need to factor in opportunity costs whenever they make purchasing decisions. Consequently, we more broadly define our competition as any other company going after the same finite budget dollars as us in the indoor agriculture space. We have highlighted below the most notable players that operate across some of the same functional, highly fragmented areas of agriculture technology that we operate.

Despite the presence of some well-funded and well-established competitors who offer pieces of what we do, we are able to compete on the basis of several defensible factors including our industry experience, our technical expertise, the differentiated value proposition of our individual offerings, and our positioning as a single-source provider. However, we believe above all else, it is our ability to offer an unrivaled level of precision through a total end-to-end turnkey solution that sets us apart from existing competitors and potential new market entrants.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe our business has, and our future success will be driven by, the following competitive strengths:

Our Customers

We primarily market and sell our products to newly licensed, well-funded producers in a single market as well as multi-state operators. Our customers choose us for several reasons, including the breadth and availability of the products we offer, our extensive expertise, and the quality of our customer service. For large multi-state operators, our solutions allow operators to produce consistent high-quality products regardless of the geographic locations where they are licensed to operate. Our system removes the variations of local grow environments, and also provides consistent standard operating procedures across different facilities, helping every facility to achieve the highest Good Manufacturing Processes standards. Our ability to provide a “one-stop shop” experience allows us to be the preferred vendor to many of these customers by streamlining their entry or expansion of their cultivation capabilities. In addition, we believe our customers find great value in the advice and recommendations provided by our knowledgeable sales and service associates, which further increases demand for our products.

We believe the nature of our solutions and our high-touch customer service model strengthens relationships, builds loyalty and drives repeat business as our customers’ businesses expand. In addition, we feel as if our premium product lines and comprehensive product portfolio position us well to meet our customers’ needs. Furthermore, we fully anticipate that we will be able to leverage all the data that we are collecting from our existing customer base to make continuous improvements to our offerings and better serve our current and new customers in the future.

To date, we have customers across the U.S. and internationally in the cannabis and hemp industry and are of all sizes, ranging from small, single location businesses to multi-state enterprise operations that use Agrify’s solutions. For the year ended December 31, 2023, no customer represented more than 10% of revenues; however, for the year ended December 31, 2022, we had two customers that represented more than 10% of total revenues at 13% and 15% respectively.

Our Growth Strategy

We have developed a multi-pronged growth strategy as described below to help us capitalize on the sizable opportunity at hand. Through methodical sales and marketing efforts, cultivation and extraction solutions, and scale-up manufacturing, we believe we have implemented several key initiatives we can use to grow our business more effectively. We also intend to opportunistically pursue the strategies described below to continue our upward trajectory and enhance shareholder value. We believe we have significantly improved our new bookings and qualified pipeline. With our expanded product line that includes quality extraction solutions, we have become more attractive to our prospects and customers, enhancing our overall appeal and the scope of opportunities we are able to pursue. We expect our qualified pipeline and new bookings of opportunities to continue to grow.

Sales and Marketing

Rigorous Sales Process and Strong Infrastructure in Place to Drive Revenue Growth

We utilize a highly structured sales process to evaluate potential new opportunities and then advance vetted prospects through the different phases of our qualified pipeline. Our salespeople spend most of their time building relationships and qualifying opportunities to make closing new business more streamlined, collaborative, and organic in nature. There are specific requirements, milestones, and events that we have identified along the sales process that must be met to move prospects through and convert them from vetted opportunities into committed sales orders within a 12-month period. At each phase of the pipeline, a prospect opportunity is assigned a probability value for closing, providing management production forecast ability.

Our sales team works to convert our qualified pipeline of opportunities into confirmed contractual bookings. At the time of this report, our sales team was comprised of one Director of Business Development, Account Managers, Customer Support and Success Manager, Customer Service Support Reps, and a Sales Support Admin. Additionally, we take measures to ensure that all members of the sales organization are cross-trained on cultivation and extraction products. 

We believe our business has, and our future success will be driven by, the following sales and marketing strategy:

Scale-Up Manufacturing Capabilities in Order to Meet the Increasing Demand for Our Grow Solutions

We currently use both internal and external manufacturing to support our increasing demand. Internal production is primarily at our Michigan and Colorado facilities. Externally, we use a variety of contract manufacturers (“CMs”) in the U.S. and in Asia for prototyping and volume manufacturing, and we plan to expand our capabilities to meet the increasing demand for our grow solutions. We design the systems internally, and then work with our CMs and suppliers to refine, prototype, and test the designs. The designs are documented at a level that allows us to have our products manufactured at multiple CMs, both in the U.S. and abroad. As demand increases beyond our internal capacities additional volume can be shifted to external manufacturing to ensure market demands are met.

Overall, our approach to manufacturing is to use both internal and external manufacturing capabilities to prototype, iterate, and begin initial production, then transition to volume production. As volumes increase, this will also include increasing production in lower-cost geographies, which results in both rapid time-to-market and low production costs. As we grow, we intend to continually analyze and evolve our manufacturing capabilities to best meet our customers’ needs while always focusing on ways to maximize operating margins.

Intellectual Property

We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret, including federal, state and common law rights in the U.S. and other countries, nondisclosure agreements, and other measures to protect our intellectual property. We require our employees, consultants, and advisors to execute confidentiality agreements and to agree to disclose and assign to us all inventions conceived under their respective employment, consultant, or advisor agreement, using our property, or which relate to our business. Despite any measures taken to protect our intellectual property, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products or to obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary. Our business is affected by our ability to protect against misappropriation and infringement of our intellectual property, including our trademarks, service marks, patents, domain names, copyrights and other proprietary rights.

Patents

We hold 20 patents in the U.S. We also have one pending patent application. These patents and patents applications are directed to, among other things, extraction and processing of botanicals and particular compounds.

Trademarks and Copyrights

We own or have applications for numerous national and state trademarks which are essential to our businesses, including Agrify, Precision, PurePressure, PressWare, Lab Society and Elitelab, among others. In addition, we recognize common-law trademark rights AGRIFY INSIGHTS and AGRINAMICS for SaaS products.

Our subsidiary, Agrify Brands, LLC is the owner of certain common-law trademarks that it licenses to third parties. Marks covered by the license include, DAWG STAR (including multiple logo designs), WESTERN CULTURED (including multiple logo designs), TWISTED LEGION (logo), WAXTRONAUT (including multiple logo designs) and WAXTRONAUT COSMICALLY CURATED EXTRACTS.

Although we have not sought copyright registration for our technology or works to date, we rely on common law copyright and trade secret protections in relation to our TechOps/ Agrify Insights™ computer program for indoor agriculture management. We have registered our Internet domain names related to our business. We license software from third parties and utilize open-source software for integration into our applications.

In addition, while we know that our current product and service capabilities are highly novel and compelling, we do not intend to be complacent. We will continue to learn from our customers and from the market, and if there is an opportunity to deploy a new and improved version of one of our offerings or if we decide there is room in the market for a new type of solution, we fully intend to diligently explore those possibilities to augment our existing business and grow our reach.

Human Capital Resources

As of March 31st, 2024, we had a total of 39 employees, of which 39 are full-time employees. None of our employees are subject to collective bargaining agreements. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

We strive to attract and retain diverse, high-caliber employees who raise the talent bar by offering competitive compensation and benefit packages, regardless of their gender, race, or other personal characteristics. We regularly review and survey our compensation and benefit programs against the market to ensure we remain competitive in our hiring practices. We provide employee salaries that are competitive and consider factors such as an employee’s role and experience, the location of their job and their performance. In addition to our competitive salaries, to enhance our employees’ sense of participation in the company and to further align their interests with those of our stockholders, we offer equity packages to a majority of our employees. The principal purposes of our equity incentive plan are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of stock-based compensation awards, in order to increase stockholder value and the success of our company by motivating such individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives.

We strive to hire, develop, and retain talent that continuously raises the performance bar. We encourage, support, and compensate our employees based on our philosophy of recognizing and rewarding exceptional performance. We believe that performance and development is an ongoing process in which all employees should be active participants. Individual and company key performance goals are linked to employee compensation.

Regulatory Implications of Providing Equipment and Services in the Cannabis and Hemp Industry

We sell products and services that end users may purchase for use in industries or segments, including the growing and processing of cannabis and hemp, which are subject to varying, inconsistent, and rapidly changing laws, regulations, administrative practices, enforcement approaches, judicial interpretations, and consumer perceptions. For example, certain countries and 36 U.S. states have adopted frameworks that authorize, regulate, and tax the cultivation, processing, sale, and use of cannabis for medicinal and/or non-medicinal use, while the U.S. Controlled Substances Act and the laws of other U.S. states prohibit growing cannabis. In addition, with the passage of the Farm Bill in December 2018, hemp cultivation is now broadly permitted. The Farm Bill explicitly allows the transfer of hemp-derived products across state lines for commercial or other purposes. It also removes restrictions on the sale, transport, or possession of hemp-derived products, so long as those items are produced in a manner consistent with the law. Our products are multi-purpose products and may be used on a wide range of plants and are purchased by cultivators who may grow any variety of plants, including cannabis and hemp.

Although the majority of states now have laws that regulate or decriminalize various types of cannabis use, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal under federal law in the U.S. to, among other things, cultivate, distribute or possess cannabis in the U.S. In those states in which the use of marijuana has been legalized, its use remains a violation of federal law pursuant to the Controlled Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, and as such, medical and adult cannabis use is illegal under U.S. federal law. Unless and until the U.S. Congress amends the Controlled Substances Act with respect to marijuana (and the President approves such amendment), there is a risk that federal authorities may enforce current federal law. Financial transactions involving proceeds generated by, or intended to promote, cannabis-related business activities in the U.S. may form the basis for prosecution under applicable U.S. federal money laundering legislation. The approach to enforcement of such laws by the federal government in the U.S. has trended toward non-enforcement against individuals and businesses that comply with medical or adult-use cannabis regulatory programs in states where such programs are legal, strict compliance with state laws with respect to cannabis.

In most states that have legalized medical- and recreational-use cannabis in some form, the growing, processing and/or dispensing of cannabis generally requires that the operator obtain one or more licenses in accordance with applicable state requirements. In addition, many states regulate various aspects of the growing, processing and/or dispensing of cannabis and hemp. Local governments in some cases also impose rules and regulations on the manner of operating cannabis and hemp businesses. As a result, applicable state and local laws and regulations vary widely, including, but not limited to, regulations governing the medical cannabis program, product testing, the level of enforcement by state and local authorities on non-licensed cannabis operators, state and local taxation of regulated cannabis products, local municipality bans on operations and operator licensing processes and renewals.

As part of its rigorous due diligence policy on all potential customers, the Company carefully reviews the appropriate licensure of each potential customer in the cannabis and hemp industry for compliance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. The Company is not involved in the cultivation, processing, or retail of cannabis products and never takes a controlling interest in any of the operations of its cannabis customers as a matter of state law.

Environmental Regulations

We are not aware of any environmental laws that have been enacted, nor are we aware of any such laws being contemplated for the future, that directly impact our business. 

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company and Smaller Reporting Company

We qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, which we refer to as the JOBS Act. As a result, we are permitted to, and intend to, rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are applicable to other companies that are not emerging growth companies. Accordingly, for so long as we are an “emerging growth company,” we will not be required to:

In addition, the JOBS Act provides that an “emerging growth company” can use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards.

We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest to occur of:

We cannot predict if investors will find our securities less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions, which could result in a less active trading market for our securities and increased volatility in the price of our securities.

Finally, we are a “smaller reporting company” (and may continue to qualify as such even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company) and accordingly may provide less public disclosure than larger public companies, including the inclusion of only two years of audited financial statements and only two years of management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations disclosure. As a result, the information that we provide to our stockholders may be different than you might receive from other public reporting companies in which you hold equity interests.

Corporate Information

Our executive offices are located at 2468 Industrial Row, Dr., Troy, Michigan 48084. Our telephone number at our executive offices is (855) 420-0020.

Agrify Corporation was incorporated in the state of Nevada on June 6, 2016, originally incorporated as Agrinamics, Inc. (“Agrinamics”). On September 16, 2019, Agrinamics amended its articles of incorporation to reflect a name change to Agrify Corporation.

Available Information

The Company’s Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are filed with the SEC. We are subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act and file or furnish reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. Such reports and other information filed by us with the SEC are available free of charge at https://ir.agrify.com/financials-and-filings/sec-filings when such reports are available on the SEC’s website. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov. We periodically provide other information for investors on our corporate website, www.agrify.com, and our investor relations website, investor.gnln.com. This includes press releases and other information about financial performance, information on corporate governance and details related to our annual meeting of shareholders. The information contained on the websites referenced in this Form 10-K is not incorporated by reference into this filing. Further, our references to website URLs are intended to be inactive textual references only.

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Investing in our Common Stock involves a high degree of risk. 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 the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making a decision to invest in our Common Stock. The risks and uncertainties described below may not be the only ones we face. 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 market price of our Common Stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We have a history of losses, expect to continue to incur losses in the near term and may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future, and as a result, our management has identified, and our auditors agreed that there is a substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming we will continue as a going concern. Since inception, we have experienced recurring net losses which losses caused an accumulated deficit of approximately $265.8 million as of December 31, 2023. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Our consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty.

We have a relatively short operating history, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects.

We have a relatively short operating history, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects. We have been in existence since June 2016 and much of our revenue growth occurred during 2021 and 2022, with a decrease of revenues noted in 2023. We have encountered, and will continue to encounter, risks and difficulties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, including those related to:

If we do not manage these risks successfully, our business and financial performance will be adversely affected.

Potential risk of loss associated with our TTK Solution Offerings

During 2021, we introduced our TTK Solution, which among other things, includes financing arrangements related to both facility design and build services and equipment. These arrangements require a significant upfront investment over multiple years, before we start to receive repayment on the upfront construction advances and on our recurring monthly SaaS fees and production fees.

During 2022, a significant amount of working capital was invested in funding our TTK Solution’s construction and equipment commitments. In 2023, a limited amount was invested in funding the remaining TTK Solution construction and equipment commitments, but we do not intend to enter into any new TTK Solutions in the foreseeable future.

We believe that there is a potential risk of loss associated with our ability to receive anticipated future payments that are in line with our projected financial unit metrics due to a host of variables including, but not limited to the following:

During 2022, we established a reserve of approximately $12.5 million specifically related to Greenstone Holdings (“Greenstone”) TTK Solution. Greenstone is a related party because one of our former Agrify Brands employees and our VP of Engineering had a minority ownership. We established the reserve based upon our review of Greenstone’s financial stability, which would impact collectability, which is primarily the result of unfavorable market conditions within the Colorado market. On April 6, 2023, Denver Greens, LLC (“Denver Greens”) acquired certain interests in the Greenstone project through various transactions so that Denver Greens is now the operator of this TTK Solution. The Company wrote off the entire Greenstone loan receivable in 2022.

On September 15, 2022, we provided a notice of default under the Bud & Mary’s TTK Agreement between us and Bud & Mary’s. On October 5, 2022, Bud & Mary’s filed a complaint in the Superior Court of Massachusetts in Suffolk County naming us as the defendant. Bud & Mary’s is seeking, among other relief, monetary damages in connection with alleged unfair or deceptive trade practices, breach of contract, and conversion arising from the Bud & Mary’s TTK Agreement. In response, we established a reserve of $14.7 million specifically related to Bud & Mary’s. We deemed it necessary to fully reserve the $14.7 million outstanding balance in the third quarter of 2022 due to the current litigation and the uncertainty of the customer’s ability to repay the outstanding balance. If we are unable to realize revenue from our TTK Solution offerings on a timely basis, or at all, or if we incur additional losses as a result of the Bud & Mary’s claim, our business and financial performance will be adversely affected.

As of December 31, 2023 the remaining balance for the TTK allowance for doubtful accounts is at $14.7 million for Bud and Mary and $4.5 million for Hannah - as the facility is approximately 75% built and won’t be operational until the remaining 25% of the construction is completed.

We may require additional financing to achieve our goals, and a failure to obtain this necessary capital when needed on acceptable terms, or at all, may force us to delay, limit, reduce, or terminate our product manufacturing and development, and other operations.

At December 31, 2023, we had approximately $430,000 of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash. Our restricted cash of $10 million as of December 31, 2022 was associated with a senior secured promissory note in an aggregate principal amount of $65 million (the “SPA Note”) which was exchanged for a new senior secured note (the “Exchange Note”) as of December 31, 2022. There was no restricted cash as of December 31, 2023. Our operating plan may change because of factors currently unknown to us, and we may need to seek additional funds sooner than planned. Even if we are able to substantially increase revenue and reduce operational expenditures, we may need to raise additional capital, either through borrowings, private offerings, public offerings, or some type of business combination, such as a merger or buyout, and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in such pursuits. Accordingly, if we are unable to generate adequate cash from operations, and if we are unable to find sources of funding, it may be necessary for us to sell one or more lines of business or all or a portion of our assets, enter into a business combination, or reduce or eliminate operations. These possibilities, to the extent available, may be on terms that result in significant dilution to our shareholders or that result in our investors losing all of their investment in our company.

As of April 1, 2023, after which time the ATM program was discontinued, we sold 629,710 shares of Common Stock, under the ATM at an average price of $27.29 per share, resulting in gross proceeds to us of $17.2 million, and net proceeds of $16.7 million after commissions and fees to the Agent totaling $516,000. $3.0 million of the proceeds under the ATM Program were used to repay amounts due to High Trail Special Situations LLC (the “Former Lender”) under the Exchange Note.

If we are able to raise additional capital, we do not know what the terms of any such capital raising would be. In addition, any future sale of our equity securities would dilute the ownership and control of your shares and could be at prices substantially below prices at which our shares currently trade. Our inability to raise capital could require us to significantly curtail or terminate our operations. We may seek to increase our cash reserves through the sale of additional equity or debt securities. The sale of convertible debt securities or additional equity securities could result in additional and potentially substantial dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations and liquidity, and ability to pay dividends. In addition, our ability to obtain additional capital on acceptable terms is subject to a variety of uncertainties. We cannot assure you that financing will be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Any failure to raise additional funds on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and financial condition.

We face risks associated with strategic acquisitions.

Since our inception, we have strategically acquired several businesses, and plan to continue to make strategic acquisitions, some of which may be material. These acquisitions may involve a number of financial, accounting, managerial, operational, legal, compliance, and other risks and challenges, including the following, any of which could adversely affect our results of operations:

Additionally, following any business acquisition, we could experience difficulty in integrating personnel, operations, financial and other systems, and in retaining key employees and customers.

We may record goodwill and other intangible assets on our consolidated balance sheet in connection with our acquisitions. If we are not able to realize the value of these assets, we may be required to incur charges relating to the impairment of these assets, which could materially impact our results of operations.

Potential future divestitures or other transactions could adversely affect our costs, revenues, profitability and financial position.

In order to position our business to take advantage of particular future growth opportunities and/or consolidate our more capable businesses, we may in the future pursue a strategy of less product and service integration and/or focus on one or more specialized facets of our products and services. These actions may require that we abandon or divest certain assets or businesses that no longer fit within our evolving strategic direction. Abandoning or divesting certain assets or businesses may entail engaging in discussions, evaluating opportunities and entering into agreements, potentially resulting in transactions involving significant risks and uncertainties that could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We may not be able to find potential buyers on favorable terms, we may experience disruption to our business and/or we may divert management attention from other business concerns, lose key employees and possibly retain certain liabilities related to these potential transactions.

We have substantial debt and other financial obligations, and we may incur even more debt. Any failure to meet our debt and other financial obligations or maintain compliance with related covenants could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

On March 14, 2022, we entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement with the Former Lender (the “Securities Purchase Agreement”), pursuant to which we agreed to issue and sell to the Former Lender a senior secured promissory note (the “SPA Note”), in a private placement transaction, in exchange for the payment by the Former Lender of $65 million, less applicable expenses as set forth in the Securities Purchase Agreement, and a warrant (the “SPA Warrant”) to purchase up to an aggregate of 34,406 shares of Common Stock.

On August 18, 2022, we reached an agreement with the Former Lender to amend the existing SPA Note and entered into a Securities Exchange Agreement (the “August 2022 Exchange Agreement”). Pursuant to the August 2022 Exchange Agreement, we partially paid $35.2 million along with approximately $300,000 in repayments for other fees under the SPA Note and exchanged the remaining balance of the SPA Note for the Exchange Note with an aggregate original principal amount of $35.0 million and a new warrant to purchase 71,139 shares of Common Stock (the “Note Exchange Warrant”). Additionally, we exchanged the SPA Warrant for a new warrant for the same number of underlying shares but with a reduced exercise price (the “Modified Warrant” and, collectively with the Note Exchange Warrant, the “August 2022 Warrants”). The Exchange Note will mature on the three-year anniversary of its issuance.

On March 8, 2023, we entered into a second Securities Exchange Agreement with the Former Lender (the “March 2023 Exchange Agreement” and together with the August 2022 Exchange Agreement, the “Exchange Agreements”), pursuant to which we paid approximately $10.3 million in principal under the Exchange Note and exchanged $10.0 million in principal amount under the Exchange Note for a new senior convertible note (the “Convertible Note” and, together with the Exchange Note, the “Notes”) with an original principal amount of $10.0 million. The Convertible Note will mature on August 19, 2025.

On October 27, 2023, CP Acquisitions LLC (the “New Lender”), an entity affiliated with and controlled by Raymond Chang, our Chief Executive Officer, and I-Tseng Jenny Chan, who subsequently joined our Board of Directors, acquired the Notes from the Former Lender.

On January 25, 2024, following stockholder approval at an annual meeting of stockholders on January 8, 2024, we and the New Lender consolidated the outstanding principal and interest due under the Junior Secured Note and the Exchange Note into the Convertible Note and amended and restated the Convertible Note (as amended and restated, the “Restated Note”), with an outstanding principal amount of approximately $18.9 million at the time of issuance of the Restated Note. The Restated Note amended the terms of the Convertible Note by, among other things, (i) reducing the conversion price to $1.46 per share of common stock, (ii) increasing the beneficial ownership limitation to 49.99% with respect to any individual or group, provided that the New Lender may assign its right to receive shares upon conversion to Mr. Chang and/or Ms. Chan or their affiliates, in which case the 49.99% beneficial ownership limitation will apply to each of them individually, (iii) extending the maturity date to December 31, 2025, (iv) increasing the interest rate from 9% to 10% per annum, (v) increasing the default interest from 15% to 18% per annum, and (vi) providing for the payment of interest every six months, or in lieu of cash interest payments, we may issue shares as payments-in-kind at a conversion price equal to the higher of (i) $1.46 or (ii) a 20% discount to our trailing seven-day volume weighted average price as of the date of interest payment. Immediately following the execution of the Restated Note, the New Lender immediately elected to convert approximately $3.9 million of outstanding principal into an aggregate of 2,671,633 shares of common stock, and assigned its rights to receive such shares to entities affiliated with Mr. Chang and Ms. Chan. Following the conversion, there was $15.0 million in principal amount outstanding under the Restated Note.

Pursuant to the terms of the Notes, we are subject to various covenants, including negative covenants that restrict our ability to engage in certain transactions, which may limit our ability to respond to changing business and economic conditions. Such negative covenants include, among other things, limitations on our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries to:

In addition, the Notes impose certain customary affirmative and negative covenants upon us, as well as covenants that restrict us and our subsidiaries from incurring any additional indebtedness or suffering any liens, subject to specified exceptions, restrict the ability of us and our subsidiaries from making certain investments, subject to specified exceptions, and restrict the declaration of any dividends or other distributions, subject to specified exceptions.

If we are not in compliance with certain of these covenants, in addition to other actions the New Lender may require, the amounts outstanding under the Exchange Agreements may become immediately due and payable. This immediate payment may negatively impact our financial condition. In addition, any failure to make scheduled payments of interest and principal on our outstanding indebtedness would likely harm our ability to incur additional indebtedness on acceptable terms. Our cash flow and capital resources may be insufficient to pay interest and principal on our debt in the future. If that should occur, our capital raising or debt restructuring measures may be unsuccessful or inadequate to meet our scheduled debt service obligations, which could cause us to default on our obligations and further impair our liquidity.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on our debt and other financial obligations and comply with financial covenants depends on our financial and operating performance. Our financial and operating performance will continue to be subject to prevailing economic conditions and to financial, business, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control. Failure within any applicable grace or cure periods to make such payments, comply with the financial covenants, or any other non-financial or restrictive covenant, would create a default under the Notes. Our cash flow and existing capital resources may be insufficient to repay our debt at maturity, in which case we would have to extend such maturity date, or otherwise repay, refinance, and/or restructure the obligations under the Notes, including with proceeds from the sale of assets, and additional equity or debt capital. If we are unsuccessful in obtaining such extension, or entering into such repayment, refinance, or restructure prior to maturity, or any other default existed under the Notes, the New Lender could accelerate the indebtedness under the Notes, foreclose against its collateral, or seek other remedies, which would jeopardize our ability to continue our current operations. 

We may be required to record impairment charges against the carrying value of our goodwill and other intangible assets in the future.

During the three-month period ended June 30, 2022, we identified an impairment-triggering event associated with both a sustained decline in our stock price and associated market capitalization, as well as a second-quarter slowdown in the cannabis industry as a whole. Due to these factors, we deemed that there was an impairment to the carrying value of our property and equipment and accordingly performed interim testing as of June 30, 2022.

Based on its interim testing, we noted that the carrying value of equity exceeded the calculated fair value by an amount greater than the aggregate value of our goodwill and intangible assets. Accordingly, we concluded that the entire carrying value of our goodwill and intangible assets were impaired, resulting in a second-quarter impairment charge of $69.9 million. Additional information regarding the interim testing on goodwill may be found in Note 7 - Goodwill and Intangible Assets, Net, included in the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

During the year ended December 31, 2023, our top four customers accounted for 17.4% of our total revenue. In the event of any material decrease in revenue from these customers, or if we are unable to replace the revenue through the sale of our products to additional customers, our financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

This concentration of customers leaves us exposed to the risks associated with the loss of one or both of these significant customers, which would materially and adversely affect our revenues and results of operations. In addition, some customers have experienced and may continue to experience construction delays in building out their facilities and we have been assisting these customers in addressing these delays, including in certain cases extending their payment terms. Any continued delays will likely result in a negative impact on our revenues. Further, if these customers were to significantly reduce their relationship with us, or in the event that we are unable to replace the revenue through the sale of our products to additional customers, our financial condition and results of operations could be negatively impacted, and such impact would likely be significant.

Our reliance on a limited base of suppliers for our products may result in disruptions to our supply chain and business and adversely affect our financial results.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers for our products and other supplies. If we are unable to maintain supplier arrangements and relationships, if we are unable to contract with suppliers at the quantity and quality levels needed for our business, if any of our key suppliers becomes insolvent or experiences other financial distress or if any of our key suppliers is negatively impacted with respect to staffing and shipping of products, we could experience disruptions in our supply chain, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

Many of our suppliers are experiencing operational difficulties, which in turn may have an adverse effect on our ability to provide products to our customers.

Although the ability of our suppliers to timely ship their goods has affected some of our deliveries, currently the difficulties experienced by our suppliers have not yet materially impacted our ability to deliver products to our customers and we do not significantly depend on any one supplier; however, if this continues, it may negatively affect any inventory we may have and more significantly delay the delivery of merchandise to our customers, which in turn will adversely affect our revenues and results of operations. If the difficulties experienced by our suppliers continue, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to locate alternative sources of supply for our merchandise on acceptable terms, or at all. If we are unable to adequately purchase appropriate amounts of supplies for our products, our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. 

As a company with clients operating in the cannabis industry, we face many particular and evolving risks associated with that industry.

We currently serve private clients as they operate in the growing cannabis industry. Any risks related to the cannabis industry that may adversely affect our clients and potential clients may, in turn, adversely affect demand for our products. Specific risks faced by companies operating in the cannabis industry include, but are not limited to, the following:

Marijuana remains illegal under U.S. federal law

Marijuana is a Schedule-I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act and is illegal under federal law. It remains illegal under U.S. Federal law to grow, cultivate, sell, or possess marijuana for any purpose or to assist or conspire with those who do so. Additionally, 21 U.S.C. 856 makes it illegal to “knowingly open, lease, rent, use, or maintain any place, whether permanently or temporarily, for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing, or using any controlled substance.” Even in those states in which the use of marijuana has been authorized, its use remains a violation of federal law. Since federal law criminalizing the use of marijuana is not preempted by state laws that legalize its use, strict enforcement of federal law regarding marijuana would likely result in our clients’ inability to proceed with their operations, which would adversely affect demands for our products.

Uncertainty of federal enforcement and the need to renew temporary safeguards

On January 4, 2018, former Attorney General Sessions rescinded the previously issued memoranda (known as the Cole Memorandum) from the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) that had de-prioritized the enforcement of federal law against marijuana users and businesses that comply with state marijuana laws, adding uncertainty to the question of how the federal government will choose to enforce federal laws regarding marijuana. Attorney General Sessions issued a memorandum to all U.S. Attorneys in which the DOJ affirmatively rescinded the previous guidance as to marijuana enforcement, calling such guidance “unnecessary.” This one-page memorandum was vague in nature, stating that federal prosecutors should use established principles in setting their law enforcement priorities. Under previous administrations, the DOJ indicated that those users and suppliers of medical marijuana who complied with state laws, which required compliance with certain criteria, would not be prosecuted. As a result, it is now unclear if the DOJ will seek to enforce the Controlled Substances Act against those users and suppliers who comply with state marijuana laws.

Despite former Attorney General Sessions’ rescission of the Cole Memorandum, the Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, has not rescinded the “FinCEN Memo” dated February 14, 2014, which de-prioritizes enforcement of the Bank Secrecy Act against financial institutions and marijuana-related businesses which utilize them. This memo appears to be a standalone document and is presumptively still in effect. At any time, however, the Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, could elect to rescind the FinCEN Memo. This would make it more difficult for our clients and potential clients to access the U.S. banking systems and conduct financial transactions, which would adversely affect our operations.

In 2014, Congress passed a spending bill (“2015 Appropriations Bill”) containing a provision (“Appropriations Rider”) blocking federal funds and resources allocated under the 2015 Appropriations Bill from being used to “prevent such States from implementing their own State medical marijuana law.” The Appropriations Rider seemed to have prohibited the federal government from interfering with the ability of states to administer their medical marijuana laws, although it did not codify federal protections for medical marijuana patients and producers. Moreover, despite the Appropriations Rider, the Justice Department maintains that it can still prosecute violations of the federal marijuana ban and continue cases already in the courts. Additionally, the Appropriations Rider must be re-enacted every year. While it was continued in subsequent years and remains in effect, continued re-authorization of the Appropriations Rider cannot be guaranteed. If the Appropriations Rider is no longer in effect, the risk of federal enforcement and override of state marijuana laws would increase.

Further legislative development beneficial to our operations is not guaranteed

One aspect of our business involves selling goods and services to state-licensed cannabis cultivators. The success of our business may partly depend on the continued development of the cannabis industry and the activity of commercial business within the industry. The continued development of the cannabis industry is dependent upon continued legislative and regulatory authorization of cannabis at the state level and a continued laissez-faire approach by federal enforcement agencies. Any number of factors could slow or halt progress in this area. Further regulatory progress beneficial to the industry cannot be assured. While there may be ample public support for legislative action, numerous factors impact the legislative and regulatory process, including election results, scientific findings, or general public events. Any one of these factors could slow or halt progressive legislation relating to cannabis and the current tolerance for the use of cannabis by consumers, which could adversely affect demand for our products and operations.

The cannabis industry could face strong opposition from other industries

We believe that established businesses in other industries may have a strong economic interest in opposing the development of the cannabis industry. Cannabis may be seen by companies in other industries as an attractive alternative to their products, including recreational marijuana as an alternative to alcohol, and medical marijuana as an alternative to various commercial pharmaceuticals. Many industries that could view the emerging cannabis industry as an economic threat are well established, with vast economic and federal and state lobbying resources. It is possible that companies within these industries could use their resources to attempt to slow or reverse legislation legalizing cannabis. Any inroads these companies make in halting or impeding legislative initiatives that would be beneficial to the cannabis industry could have a detrimental impact on some of our clients and, in turn, on our operations.

The legality of marijuana could be reversed in one or more states

The voters or legislatures of states in which marijuana has already been legalized could potentially repeal applicable laws which permit the operation of both medical and retail marijuana businesses. These actions might force businesses, including those that are our clients, to cease operations in one or more states entirely.

Changing legislation and evolving interpretations of law

Laws and regulations affecting the medical and adult-use marijuana industry are constantly changing, which could detrimentally affect some of our clients and, in turn, our operations. Local, state, and federal marijuana laws and regulations are broad in scope and subject to evolving interpretations, which could require our clients and thus us to incur substantial costs associated with modification of operations to ensure such clients’ compliance. In addition, violations of these laws, or allegations of such violations, could disrupt our clients’ businesses and result in a material adverse effect on our operations. In addition, it is possible that regulations may be enacted in the future that will limit the amount of cannabis growth, or related products that our commercial clients are authorized to produce. We cannot predict the nature of any future laws, regulations, interpretations, or applications, nor can we determine what effect additional governmental regulations or administrative policies and procedures, when and if promulgated, could have on our operations.

Our business depends in part on client licensing

Our business is partly dependent on certain of our customers obtaining various licenses from various municipalities and state licensing agencies. There can be no assurance that any or all licenses necessary for our clients to operate their businesses will be obtained, retained, or renewed. If a licensing body were to determine that a client of ours had violated applicable rules and regulations, there is a risk the license granted to that client could be revoked, which could adversely affect our operations. There can be no assurance that our existing clients will be able to retain their licenses going forward, or that new licenses will be granted to existing and new market entrants.

Banking regulations could limit access to banking services

Since the use of marijuana is illegal under federal law, there is a compelling argument that banks cannot lawfully accept for deposit funds from businesses involved with marijuana. Consequently, businesses involved in the cannabis industry often have trouble finding a bank willing to accept their business. The inability to open bank accounts may make it difficult for some of our clients to operate and their reliance on cash can result in a heightened risk of theft, which could harm their businesses and, in turn, harm our business. Although the proposal of the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, also referred to as the SAFE Banking Act, would allow banks to work with cannabis businesses and prevent federal banking regulators from intervening or punishing those banks, the legislation still requires the approval of the U.S. Senate. There can be no assurance that the SAFE Banking Act will become law in the U.S. Additionally, most courts have denied marijuana-related businesses bankruptcy protection, thus making it very difficult for lenders to recoup their investments, which may limit the willingness of banks to lend to our clients and to us.

We may face insurance risks

In the U.S., many marijuana-related businesses are subject to a lack of adequate insurance coverage. In addition, many insurance companies may deny claims for any loss relating to marijuana or marijuana-related operations based on their illegality under federal law, noting that a contract for an illegal transaction is unenforceable.

We participate in an evolving industry

The cannabis industry is not yet well-developed, and many aspects of this industry’s development and evolution cannot be accurately predicted. While we have attempted to identify many risks specific to the cannabis industry, you should carefully consider that there are other risks that cannot be foreseen or are not described in this report, which could materially and adversely affect our business and financial performance. We expect that the cannabis market and our business will evolve in ways that are difficult to predict. Our long-term success may depend on our ability to successfully adjust our strategy to meet the changing market dynamics. If we are unable to successfully adapt to changes in the cannabis industry, our operations could be adversely affected.

The inability of our customers to meet their financial or contractual obligations to us may result in disruption to our results of operations and could result in financial losses.

We have exposure to several customers and certain of these customers are experiencing financial difficulties. We have in the past, and may in the future, need to take allowances against and need to write off receivables due to the creditworthiness of these customers. Further, the inability of these customers to purchase our products could materially adversely affect our results of operations.

Changes in our credit profile may affect our relationship with our suppliers, which could have a material adverse effect on our liquidity.

Changes in our credit profile may affect the way our suppliers view our ability to make payments and may induce them to shorten the payment terms of their invoices. Given the large dollar amounts and volume of our purchases from suppliers, a change in payment terms may have a material adverse effect on our liquidity and our ability to make payments to our suppliers and, consequently, may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Although we believe our current sales backlog, which consists of purchase orders or purchase commitments, and our qualified pipeline of carefully vetted potential sales opportunities, will translate into future revenue, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in such pursuit.

Although we conduct a detailed due diligence investigation on our current and potential customers and place a heavy emphasis on the qualification process to ensure that all active customer purchase orders and commitments relating to our backlog and all active opportunities in our qualified pipeline have been meticulously vetted, the criteria we rely on and the internal analysis we undertake is subjective. Furthermore, we have a relatively short operating history and do not have significant data relating to the conversion of our backlog into revenue and the conversion of our qualified pipeline into customer contracts. Accordingly, although we believe that a portion of our backlog and qualified pipeline will translate into bookings over the next 12 months, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in such pursuit. In the event our backlog and qualified pipeline do not translate into bookings as projected, it could materially and adversely affect our business and financial performance.

We rely on third parties for certain services made available to our customers, which could limit our control over the quality of the user experience and our cost of providing services.

Some of the applications and services available through our proprietary Agrify cultivation solution, including our flagship hardware product, the Agrify Vertical Farming Unit (“VFU”), and our proprietary SaaS product, Agrify Insights™, are provided through relationships with third party service providers. We do not typically have any direct control over these third-party service providers. These third-party service providers could experience service outages, data loss, privacy breaches, including cyber-attacks, and other events relating to the applications and services they provide that could diminish the utility of these services and which could harm users thereof. Our platform is currently hosted by a third-party service provider. There are readily available alternative hosting services available should we desire or need to move to a different web host. Certain ancillary services provided by us also uses the services of third-party providers, for which, we believe, there are readily available alternatives on comparable economic terms. Offering integrated platforms which rely, in part, on the services of other providers lessens the control that we have over the total client experience. Should the third-party service providers we rely upon not deliver at standards we expect and desire, acceptance of our platforms could suffer, which would have an adverse effect on our business and financial performance. Further, we cannot be assured of entering into agreements with such third-party service providers on economically favorable terms.

The growth and success of our business depends on the continued contributions of Raymond Chang, as our key executive officer, as well as our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel.

Our growth and success are dependent upon the continued contributions made by our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Raymond Chang. We rely on Mr. Chang’s expertise in business operations when we are developing new products and services. If Mr. Chang cannot serve us or is no longer willing to do so, we may not be able to find alternatives in a timely manner or at all. This may have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, our growth and success will depend to a significant extent on our ability to identify, attract, hire, train and retain qualified professional, creative, technical and managerial personnel. Timothy R. Oakes, our Chief Financial Officer, notified us on January 2, 2023 that he intended to resign from his role with us effective as of February 28, 2023 to pursue other opportunities. While we are conducting a search for Mr. Oakes’ successor, there is no assurance that we will be able to identify, attract or hire a replacement in a timely manner. Competition for experience and qualified talent in the indoor agriculture marketplace can be intense. We may not be successful in identifying, attracting, hiring, training and retaining such personnel in the future. If we are unable to hire, assimilate and retain qualified personnel in the future, such inability could adversely affect our operations.

We face intense competition that could prohibit us from developing or increasing our customer base.

The indoor agriculture industry is highly competitive. We may compete with companies that have greater capital resources and facilities. More established companies with much greater financial resources which do not currently compete with us may be able to adapt their existing operations more easily to our line of business. In addition, the continued growth of the cannabis industry will likely attract some of these existing companies and incentivize them to produce solutions that are competitive with those offered by us. Our competitors may also introduce new and improved products, and manufacturers may sell equipment direct to consumers. We may not be able to successfully compete with larger enterprises devoting significant resources to compete in our target market space. Due to this competition, there is no assurance that we will not encounter difficulties in increasing revenues and maintaining and/or increasing market share. In addition, increased competition may lead to reduced prices and/or margins for products we sell.

Protecting and defending against intellectual property claims may have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our ability to compete depends, in part, upon the successful protection of our intellectual property relating to our proprietary Agrify cultivation solution, including our flagship hardware product, the VFU, and our proprietary SaaS product, Agrify Insights™. We seek to protect our proprietary and intellectual property rights through patent applications, common law copyright and trademark laws, nondisclosure agreements, and non-disclosure provisions within our licensing and distribution arrangements with reputable companies in our target markets. Enforcement of our intellectual property rights would be costly, and there can be no assurance that we will have the resources to undertake all necessary action to protect our intellectual property rights or that we will be successful. Any infringement of our material intellectual property rights could require us to redirect resources to actions necessary to protect same and could distract management from our underlying business operations. An infringement of our material intellectual property rights and resulting actions could adversely affect our operations.

We cannot assure investors that we will continue to innovate and file new patent applications, or that any current or future patent applications will result in granted patents. Further, we cannot predict how long it will take for such patents to issue, if at all. It is possible that, for any of our patents that may issue in the future, our competitors may design their products around our patented technologies. Further, we cannot assure investors that other parties will not challenge any patents granted to us, or that courts or regulatory agencies will hold our patents to be valid, enforceable, and/or infringed. We cannot guarantee investors that we will be successful in defending challenges made against our patents and patent applications. Any successful third-party challenge or challenges to our patents could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents, or such patents being interpreted narrowly and/or in a manner adverse to our interests. Our ability to establish or maintain a technological or competitive advantage over our competitors and/or market entrants may be diminished because of these uncertainties. For these and other reasons, our intellectual property may not provide us with any competitive advantage. For example:

To the extent our intellectual property offers inadequate protection, or is found to be invalid or unenforceable, we would be exposed to a greater risk of direct or indirect competition. If our intellectual property does not provide adequate coverage over our competitors’ products, our competitive position could be adversely affected, as could our business.

Our success depends in part upon our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property.

Our success depends in part upon our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To establish and protect our proprietary rights, we rely on a combination of trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret and unfair competition laws of the U.S. and other countries, as well as contract provisions, license agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements with third parties, employee disclosure and invention assignment agreements, and other contractual rights, as well as procedures governing internet/domain name registrations. However, there can be no assurance that these measures will be successful in any given case. We may be unable to prevent the misappropriation, infringement or violation of our intellectual property rights, breach of any contractual obligations to us, or independent development of intellectual property that is similar to ours, any of which could reduce or eliminate any competitive advantage we have developed, adversely affecting our revenues or otherwise harming our business.

We generally control access to and use of our proprietary technology and other confidential information through the use of internal and external controls, including contractual protections with employees, contractors, customers, and partners, and our software is protected by U.S. copyright laws.

Despite efforts to protect our proprietary rights through intellectual property laws, licenses, and confidentiality agreements, unauthorized parties may still copy or otherwise obtain and use our software and technology. Companies in the Internet, technology, and software industries frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or violations of intellectual property rights or other laws. From time to time, we may face allegations that we have infringed the trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights of third parties, including competitors. If it became necessary for us to resort to litigation to protect these rights, any proceedings could be burdensome, costly and divert the attention of our personnel, and we may not prevail. In addition, any repeal or weakening of laws or enforcement in the U.S. or internationally intended to protect intellectual property rights could make it more difficult for us to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, negatively impacting their value and increasing the cost of enforcing our rights.

We have obtained and applied for U.S. trademark and service mark registrations and will continue to evaluate the registration of additional trademarks and service marks or, as appropriate. We cannot guarantee that any of our pending trademark applications will be approved by the applicable governmental authorities. Moreover, even if the trademark applications are approved, third parties may seek to oppose or otherwise challenge these registrations. A failure to obtain registrations for our trademarks could limit and impede our marketing efforts.

We may need to enter into intellectual property license agreements in the future, and if we are unable to obtain these licenses, our business could be harmed.

We may need or may choose to obtain licenses and/or acquire intellectual property rights from third parties to advance our research or commercialization of our current or future products. We also cannot provide any assurances that third-party patents do not exist that might be enforced against our current or future products in the absence of such a license or acquisition. We may fail to obtain any of these licenses or intellectual property rights on commercially reasonable terms. Even if we are able to obtain a license, it may be non-exclusive, thereby giving our competitors access to the same technologies licensed to us. In that event, we may be required to expend significant time and resources to develop or license replacement technology. If we are unable to do so, we may be unable to develop or commercialize the affected products, which could materially harm our business and the third parties owning such intellectual property rights could seek either an injunction prohibiting our sales, or, with respect to our sales, an obligation on our part to pay royalties and/or other forms of compensation.

Others may assert intellectual property infringement claims against us.

Companies in the software and technology industries can own patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property or other rights. In addition, various “non-practicing entities” that own patents (colloquially known as “patent trolls”) often attempt to aggressively assert their rights to extract value from technology companies. It is possible that, from time to time, third parties may claim that our products misappropriate or infringe their intellectual property rights. Irrespective of the validity or the successful assertion of any such claims, we could incur significant costs and diversion of resources in defending against these claims, which could adversely affect our operations. We may receive unfavorable preliminary or interim rulings in the course of litigation, and there can be no assurances that favorable final outcomes will be obtained in all cases. We may decide to settle such lawsuits and disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. As a result, we may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology or practices or discontinue the practices. The development of alternative non-infringing technology or practices could require significant effort and expense or may not be feasible. In addition, to the extent claims against us are successful, we may have to pay substantial money damages or discontinue, modify, or rename certain products or services that are found to be in violation of another party’s rights. We may have to seek a license (if available on acceptable terms, or at all) to continue offering products and services, which may significantly increase our operating expenses.

Our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

As of December 31, 2023, we had net operating loss (“NOL”) carryforwards for federal and state income tax purposes which may be available to offset taxable income in future years. Approximately $675,000 of federal NOLs will expire if not utilized by 2036 and approximately $143.5 million of federal NOLs carryforward indefinitely but are only available to offset 80% of taxable income per year. The $82.3 million state NOLs will begin to expire by 2039. A lack of future taxable income would adversely affect our ability to utilize these NOLs before they expire. The utilization of our NOLs could be subject to annual limitations under Section 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC” or the “Code”) of 1986, and similar state tax provisions due to ownership change limitations that may have occurred previously or that could occur in the future. In general, under Section 382, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” (as defined under Section 382 of the Code and applicable Treasury Regulations) is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs to offset its future taxable income. As of December 31, 2023, we have not conducted an analysis of an ownership change under Section 382. To the extent that a study is completed, and an ownership change is deemed to occur, in the past or future, our NOLs and any NOLs of companies that we have acquired could be limited to offset any future taxable income.

There is also a risk that due to regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of NOLs or other unforeseen reasons, our existing NOLs could expire or otherwise be unavailable to reduce future income tax liabilities for federal and state income tax purposes. For these reasons, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of our NOLs, even if we attain profitability, which could result in increased future tax liability to us and could adversely affect the results of our operations and overall financial condition.

There are no assurances that our outstanding loans will be forgivable in whole or in part.

In May 2020, we entered into a Loan Agreement and Promissory Note with Bank of America pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP”) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (the “SBA”). We received total proceeds of approximately $779,000 from the unsecured PPP loan which was originally scheduled to mature in May 2022. We applied for forgiveness on the $779,000 of our PPP loan, but forgiveness was denied by the SBA. On June 23, 2022, we received a letter from Bank of America agreeing to extend the maturity date to May 7, 2025 with interest at a rate of 1.00% per year. The PPP loan is payable in 34 equal combined monthly principal and interest payments of approximately $24,000 that commenced on August 7, 2022.

Risks Related to Ownership of our Common Stock

Concentration of ownership among our existing executive officers, directors and their affiliates may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.

Our executive officers, directors and their affiliates beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 52.57% of our outstanding shares of Common Stock. In particular, Raymond Chang, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, beneficially owns approximately 49.99% of our outstanding shares of Common Stock, and I-Tseng Jenny Chan, a member of our Board of Directors, beneficially owns approximately 49.99% of our outstanding shares of common stock, primarily as a result of a convertible note that is currently convertible into 10,273,973 shares of common stock that is held by an entity owned and controlled by Mr. Chang and Ms. Chan, which is subject to a 49.99% beneficial ownership limitation. As a result, these stockholders will be able to exercise a significant level of control over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, amendment of our articles of incorporation and approval of significant corporate transactions. This control could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company or changes in management and will make the approval of certain transactions difficult or impossible without the support of these stockholders.

The large number of shares eligible for public sale could depress the market price of our Common Stock.

We have filed a registration statement to register the shares of Common Stock underlying outstanding options and shares reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans. Upon effectiveness of that registration statement, subject to the satisfaction of applicable exercise periods and subject to our insider trading policy, the shares of Common Stock issued upon exercise of outstanding options will be available for immediate resale in the U.S. in the open market.

Sales of our Common Stock as restrictions end or pursuant to registration rights may make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. These sales also could cause our stock price to fall and make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our Common Stock.

Our failure to meet the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq could result in a de-listing of our Common Stock.

If we fail to continue to satisfy the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq, such as the corporate governance requirements or the minimum closing bid price requirement, Nasdaq will take steps to delist our common stock. Such a de-listing would likely have a negative effect on the price of our common stock and would impair stockholders’ ability to sell or purchase our common stock when they wish to do so, as well as adversely affect our ability to issue additional securities and obtain additional financing in the future.

On April 18, 2023, we received a notice from Nasdaq (the “April Nasdaq Notice”) that we were noncompliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) as a result of our failure to file our Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Form 10-K”) with the SEC by the required due date.

On May 17, 2023, we received a second notice from Nasdaq (the “May Nasdaq Notice”) that we remained noncompliant with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) as a result of our failure to file our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 (the “First Quarter Form 10-Q”) with the SEC by the required due date.

On August 16, 2023, we received a third notice from Nasdaq that we remain noncompliant with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) as a result of our failure to file our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2023 (the “Second Quarter Form 10-Q”) with the SEC by the required filing date (the “August Nasdaq Notice” and, together with the April Nasdaq Notice and the May Nasdaq Notice, the “Nasdaq Notices”).

On October 17, 2023, we received a Staff Delisting Determination (the “Staff Determination”) from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq notifying us that we were not in compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements under the Listing Rule as a result of our failure to file the First Quarter Form 10-Q, the Second Quarter Form 10-Q and the Form 10-K (collectively, the “Delinquent Reports”) in a timely manner. We filed each of the Delinquent Reports between November 28, 2023 and January 3, 2024.

On December 1, 2023, we received a notice Nasdaq stating that because we reported stockholders’ equity of $(17.17) million in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, we are no longer in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1), which requires that listed companies maintain a minimum of $2.5 million in stockholders’ equity.

We timely requested a hearing before the Nasdaq Hearings Panel (the “Panel”), which hearing was held on January 11, 2024. At the hearing, we presented a plan to regain compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1). On January 30, 2024, we received formal notice that the Panel had granted our request for an exception through April 15, 2024 to evidence compliance with Rule 5550(b)(1), which represents the full extent of the Panel’s discretion to grant continued listing. As a result, there can be no assurance that we can regain compliance by the end of the extension period.

Additionally, on March 5, 2024, we received a deficiency letter from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq notifying us that, for the last 30 consecutive business days, the bid price for our common stock had closed below $1.00 per share, which is the minimum closing price required to maintain continued listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) (the “Minimum Bid Requirement”). The Notice had no immediate effect on the listing of our common stock on Nasdaq. In accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), we have 180 calendar days to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Requirement. To regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Requirement, the closing bid price of our common stock must be at least $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days during this 180-day compliance period, unless the Staff exercises its discretion to extend this period pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(H). The compliance period for us will expire on September 3, 2024.

We will take all possible actions to restore our compliance with Nasdaq, but we can provide no assurances that the listing of our common stock will be restored or that we otherwise will remain listed on Nasdaq.

The exercise of all or any number of outstanding warrants or the issuance of stock-based awards may dilute your holding of shares of our Common Stock.

We have issued several securities providing for the right to purchase our common stock. Investors could be subject to increased dilution upon the exercise of our warrants. A total of 3,765,932 warrants were issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2024.

Additionally, 14,865 shares of Common Stock were reserved for issuance of currently outstanding equity-based awards to employees, directors and certain other individuals under our 2022 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan. The exercise of equity awards, including any restricted stock units that we may grant in the future, and the exercise of warrants and the subsequent sale of shares of Common Stock issued thereby, could have an adverse effect on the market for our Common Stock, including the price that an investor could obtain for their shares.

Investors may experience dilution in the value of their investment upon the exercise of the warrants and any equity awards that may be granted or issued pursuant to the 2022 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan.

Provisions in our articles of incorporation, our by-laws and Nevada law might discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the trading price of our Common Stock.

Provisions of our articles of incorporation, our by-laws and Nevada law may have the effect of deterring unsolicited takeovers or delaying or preventing a change in control of our company or changes in our management, including transactions in which our stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares over then current market prices. In addition, these provisions may limit the ability of stockholders to approve transactions that they may deem to be in their best interests. These provisions include:

The existence of the forgoing provisions and anti-takeover measures could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Common Stock. They could also deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby reducing the likelihood that you could receive a premium for your Common Stock in an acquisition.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and a “smaller reporting company” within the meaning of the Securities Act, and we cannot be certain if the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies or smaller reporting companies will make our Common Stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including (1) not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (2) reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in this report and our periodic reports and proxy statements and (3) exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. In addition, as an emerging growth company, we are only required to provide two years of audited consolidated financial statements and two years of selected financial data in this report. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier, including if the market value of our Common Stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of any March 31 before that time or if we have total annual gross revenue of $1.0 billion or more during any fiscal year before that time, after which, in each case, we would no longer be an emerging growth company as of the following December 31 or, if we issue more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during any three-year period before that time, we would cease to be an emerging growth company immediately.

Additionally, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K. Smaller reporting companies may take advantage of certain reduced disclosure obligations, including, among other things, providing only two years of audited consolidated financial statements. We will remain a smaller reporting company until the last day of the fiscal year in which (1) the market value of our shares of Common Stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $250 million as of the prior June 30, or (2) our annual revenues exceeded $100 million during such completed fiscal year and the market value of our ordinary shares held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our consolidated financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.

After we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we expect to incur additional management time and cost to comply with the more stringent reporting requirements applicable to companies that are deemed accelerated filers or large accelerated filers, including complying with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.

We have not and do not expect to declare any dividends to our shareholders in the foreseeable future.

We have not and do not anticipate declaring any cash dividends to holders of our Common Stock in the foreseeable future. Consequently, investors may need to rely on sales of their Common Stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase our Common Stock.

General Risk Factors

Increases in costs, disruption of supply or shortage of raw materials could harm our business.

We may experience increases in the cost or a sustained interruption in the supply or shortage of raw materials. For example, the tariffs currently imposed for importing goods from China has significantly increased. Any such an increase or supply interruption could materially negatively impact our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results. We use various raw materials in our business including aluminum. The prices for these raw materials fluctuate depending on market conditions and global demand for these materials and could adversely affect our business and operating results. Substantial increases in the prices for our raw materials increase our operating costs and could reduce our margins if we cannot recoup the increased costs through increased prices for our products and services.

Matters relating to the employment market and prevailing wage standards may adversely affect our business.

Our ability to meet our labor needs on a cost-effective basis is subject to numerous external factors, including the availability of qualified personnel in the workforce in the markets in which we operate, unemployment levels within those markets, prevailing wage rates, which have increased significantly, health and other insurance costs and changes in employment and labor laws. In the event prevailing wage rates continue to increase in the markets in which we operate, we may be required to concurrently increase the wages paid to our employees to maintain the quality of our workforce. To the extent such increases are not offset by price increases, our business and operating results could be adversely affected. If we are unable to hire and retain employees capable of meeting our business needs and expectations, our business and reputation may be impaired. Any failure to meet our staffing needs or any material increase in turnover rates of our employees may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Further, we rely on the ability to attract and retain employees on a cost-effective basis. The availability of employees in the markets in which we operate has declined in recent years and competition for such personnel has increased and has provided the obstacle of our ability to attract and retain a sufficient workforce on a cost-effective basis. We may not be able to attract and retain a sufficient workforce on a cost-effective basis in the future. In the event of increased costs of attracting and retaining a workforce, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

Litigation may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

From time to time in the normal course of our business operations, we may become subject to litigation involving intellectual property, data privacy and security, consumer protection, commercial disputes and other matters that may negatively affect our operating results if changes to our business operation are required. Due to our manufacturing and sale of our products, including hardware and software, we may also be subject to a variety of claims including product warranty, product liability, and consumer protection claims related to product defects, among other litigation. We may also be subject to claims involving health and safety, hazardous materials usage, other environmental impacts, or service disruptions or failures. The cost to defend such litigation may be significant and may require a diversion of our resources. There also may be adverse publicity associated with litigation that could negatively affect customer perception of our business, regardless of whether the allegations are valid or whether we are ultimately found liable. As a result, litigation may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, insurance may not cover existing or future claims, be sufficient to fully compensate us for one or more of such claims or continue to be available on terms acceptable to us. A claim brought against us that is uninsured or underinsured could result in unanticipated costs, thereby adversely affecting our results of operations and resulting in a reduction in the trading price of our stock.

An active, liquid, and orderly trading market for our Common Stock may not develop, the price of our stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

The trading price of our Common Stock may be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. Our stock price could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety of factors, which include:

In addition, the stock market in general, and the market for technology companies, has experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Broad market and industry factors may seriously affect the market price of companies’ stock, including ours, regardless of actual operating performance. In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

We incur increased costs and demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies, which could adversely affect our operating results.

As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company, including costs associated with public company reporting and corporate governance requirements. These requirements include compliance with Section 404 and other provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as rules implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or (“SEC”), and Nasdaq. In addition, our management team also has to adapt to the requirements of being a public company. We expect complying with these rules and regulations will substantially increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly.

The increased costs associated with operating as a public company will decrease our net income or increase our net loss and may require us to reduce costs in other areas of our business or increase the prices of our products or services. Additionally, if these requirements divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, they could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.

As a public company, we also expect that it may be more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified individuals to serve on our board of directors or as our executive officers.

As a public company, we are obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting. These internal controls may not be determined to be effective, which may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our Common Stock.

We are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to annually furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment includes disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting, as well as a statement that our auditors have issued an attestation report on effectiveness of our internal controls.

We are in the very early stages of the costly and challenging process of compiling the system and processing the documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404. We may not be able to remediate future material weaknesses, or to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion. During the evaluation and testing process, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal controls are effective. If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our auditors are unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal controls, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which would have a material adverse effect on the price of our Common Stock.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to remediate these material weaknesses, or if we experience additional material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately or timely requirements applicable to public companies, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us, and, as a result, the market price of our common stock.

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of consolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. Our management is likewise required, on a quarterly basis, to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal controls and to disclose any changes and material weaknesses identified through such evaluation in those internal controls. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our consolidated financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

As described elsewhere in this Report, we have identified the following material weaknesses:

As a result of these material weaknesses, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2023.

To respond to these material weaknesses, we have devoted, and plan to continue to devote, significant effort and resources to the remediation and improvement of our internal control over financial reporting. Our plans currently include rebuild of the internal finance function and engagement of external financial consultants. The elements of our remediation plan can only be accomplished over time, and we can offer no assurance that these initiatives will ultimately have the intended effects.

Any failure to maintain such internal control could adversely impact our ability to report our financial position and results from operations on a timely and accurate basis. If our consolidated financial statements are not accurate, investors may not have a complete understanding of our operations. Likewise, if our consolidated financial statements are not filed on a timely basis, we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. In either case, there could result a material adverse effect on our business. Ineffective internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our stock.

We can give no assurance that the measures we have taken and plan to take in the future will remediate the material weaknesses identified or that any additional material weaknesses or restatements of financial results will not arise in the future due to a failure to implement and maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting or circumvention of these controls. In addition, even if we are successful in strengthening our controls and procedures, in the future those controls, and procedures may not be adequate to prevent or identify irregularities or errors or to facilitate the fair presentation of our consolidated financial statements.

Data privacy and security concerns relating to our technology and our practices could damage our reputation, cause us to incur significant liability, and deter current and potential users or customers from using our products and services. Software bugs or defects, security breaches, and attacks on our systems could result in the improper disclosure and use of user data and interference with our users and customers’ ability to use our products and services, harming our business operations and reputation.

Concerns about our practices with regard to the collection, use, disclosure, or security of personal information or other data-privacy-related matters, even if unfounded, could harm our reputation, financial condition, and operating results. Our policies and practices may change over time as expectations regarding privacy and data change. Our products and services involve the storage and transmission of proprietary information, and bugs, theft, misuse, defects, vulnerabilities in our products and services, and security breaches expose us to a risk of loss of this information, improper use and disclosure of such information, litigation, and other potential liability. Systems and control failures, security breaches and/or inadvertent disclosure of user data could result in government and legal exposure, seriously harm our reputation and brand and, therefore, our business, and impair our ability to attract and retain customers.

We may experience cyber-attacks and other attempts to gain unauthorized access to our systems. We may experience future security issues, whether due to employee error or malfeasance or system errors or vulnerabilities in our or other parties’ systems, which could result in significant legal and financial exposure. We may be unable to anticipate or detect attacks or vulnerabilities or implement adequate preventative measures. Attacks and security issues could also compromise trade secrets and other sensitive information, harming our business. As a result, we may suffer significant legal, reputational, or financial exposure, which could harm our business, financial condition, and operating results.

Our operations may be impaired if our information technology systems fail to perform adequately or if we are the subject of a data breach or cyber-attack.

We rely on information technology systems to conduct business, including communicating with employees and our key commercial customers, ordering and managing materials from suppliers, shipping products and providing SaaS services to our customers and analyzing and reporting results of operations. While we have taken steps to ensure the security of our information technology systems, our systems may nevertheless be vulnerable to computer viruses, security breaches and other disruptions from unauthorized users. If our information technology systems are damaged or cease to function properly for an extended period of time, whether as a result of a significant cyber incident or otherwise, our ability to communicate internally as well as with our customers could be significantly impaired, which may adversely impact our business.

Additionally, in the normal course of our business, we collect, store and transmit proprietary and confidential information regarding our customers, employees, suppliers and others, including personally identifiable information. An operational failure or breach of security from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats could lead to loss, misuse or unauthorized disclosure of this information about our employees or customers, which may result in regulatory or other legal proceedings, and have a material adverse effect on our business and reputation. We also may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate or prevent rapidly evolving types of cyber-attacks. Any such attacks or precautionary measures taken to prevent anticipated attacks may result in increasing costs, including costs for additional technologies, training, and third-party consultants. The losses incurred from a breach of data security and operational failures as well as the precautionary measures required to address this evolving risk may adversely impact our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Privacy regulation is an evolving area and compliance with applicable privacy regulations may increase our operating costs or adversely impact our ability to service our clients and market our products and services.

Because we store, process, and use data, some of which contains personal information, we are subject to complex and evolving federal, state, and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and other matters. While we believe we are currently in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in investigations, claims, changes to our business practices, increased cost of operations, and declines in user growth, retention, or engagement, any of which could seriously harm our business.

If our shares of Common Stock become subject to the penny stock rules, it would become more difficult to trade our shares.

The SEC has adopted rules that regulate broker-dealer practices in connection with transactions in penny stocks. Penny stocks are generally equity securities with a price of less than $5.00, other than securities registered on certain national securities exchanges or authorized for quotation on certain automated quotation systems, provided that current price and volume information with respect to transactions in such securities is provided by the exchange or system. If we do not retain a listing on Nasdaq and if the price of our Common Stock is less than $5.00, our Common Stock will be deemed a penny stock. The penny stock rules require a broker-dealer, before a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from those rules, to deliver a standardized risk disclosure document containing specified information. In addition, the penny stock rules require that before effecting any transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from those rules, a broker-dealer must make a special written determination that the penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser and receive (i) the purchaser’s written acknowledgment of the receipt of a risk disclosure statement; (ii) a written agreement to transactions involving penny stocks; and (iii) a signed and dated copy of a written suitability statement. These disclosure requirements may have the effect of reducing the trading activity in the secondary market for our Common Stock, and therefore stockholders may have difficulty selling their shares.

The financial and operational projections that we may make from time to time are subject to inherent risks.

The projections that our management may provide from time to time (including, but not limited to, those relating to potential peak sales amounts, production, and supply dates, and other financial or operational matters) reflect numerous assumptions made by management, including assumptions with respect to our specific as well as general business, economic, market and financial conditions and other matters, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Accordingly, there is a risk that the assumptions made in preparing the projections, or the projections themselves, will prove inaccurate. There will be differences between actual and projected results, and actual results may be materially different from those contained in the projections. The inclusion of the projections in this report should not be regarded as an indication that we or our management or representatives considered or consider the projections to be a reliable prediction of future events, and the projections should not be relied upon as such.

If we were to dissolve, the holders of our securities may lose all or substantial amounts of their investments.

If we were to dissolve as a corporation, as part of ceasing to do business or otherwise, we may be required to pay all amounts owed to any creditors before distributing any assets to the investors. There is a risk that in the event of such a dissolution, there will be insufficient funds to repay amounts owed to holders of any of our indebtedness and insufficient assets to distribute to our other investors, in which case investors could lose their entire investment.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Common Stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.

None

Item 1C. Cybersecurity

Risk Management

We have implemented best-practices to assess risks from cybersecurity threats; monitor our information systems for potential vulnerabilities; and test those systems pursuant to our cybersecurity policies, processes, and practices, which are integrated into our overall risk management program (see section “Services Overview” for details on each service we use). To protect our information systems from cybersecurity threats, we rely on various security tools that are designed to help identify, escalate, investigate, resolve, and recover from security incidents in a timely manner. We have chosen Microsoft as our main provider for Cybersecurity and Governance services. Our Technology Risk Management Committee, currently including our Vice President of Information Technology, In-house General Counsel, General Manager, Director of Operations and Vice President of Technical Operations, assesses risks based on probability and potential impact to key business systems and processes. Risks that are considered high are addressed promptly and documented to be incorporated into our overall risk management program. A mitigation plan is developed for each identified high risk, with progress reported to the Technology Risk Management Committee and tracked as part of our overall risk management program overseen by the Audit Committee of our board of directors.

To date, cybersecurity threats, including those resulting from any previous cybersecurity incidents, have not materially affected our Company, including our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. We do not believe that cybersecurity threats resulting from any previous cybersecurity incidents of which we are aware are reasonably likely to materially affect our Company.

Governance

Our board of directors oversees our risk management process, including as it pertains to cybersecurity risks, directly and through its committees. The Audit Committee of the board oversees our risk management program, which focuses on the most significant risks we face in the short-, intermediate-, and long-term timeframe. The Audit Committee reviews our cybersecurity risk profile with management on a periodic basis using key performance and/or risk indicators. These key performance indicators are metrics and measurements designed to assess the effectiveness of our cybersecurity program in the prevention, detection, mitigation, and remediation of cybersecurity incidents.

We take a risk-based approach to cybersecurity and have implemented cybersecurity policies throughout our operations that are designed to address cybersecurity threats and incidents.

Services Overview

The following section outlines the services we utilize to facilitate Cyber Security Risk Management:

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

Description of Service

AWS, short for Amazon Web Services, is a comprehensive cloud computing platform offered by Amazon. It provides on-demand access to various computing resources like servers, storage, networking, databases, analytics, machine learning, and more. AWS eliminates the need for physical hardware investments and gives organizations flexibility and scalability.

Key Services

Amazon S3 (scalable object storage), Amazon EC2 (virtual servers), Amazon RDS (managed databases), Amazon CloudFront (Content Delivery Network)

Use Case

Hosting websites/applications, scaling infrastructure, storing/analyzing data, deploying machine learning models, managing databases

Microsoft Azure/EntraID

Description of Service

A cloud computing platform offered by Microsoft, delivering a range of services for building, deploying, and managing applications. Azure supports various programming languages, tools, and frameworks for efficient development and scaling of applications.

Key Services

Virtual machines, Storage, Databases, Networking, Analytics, AI/ML, IoT, DevOps tools

Use Case

Scaling applications, hybrid cloud solutions, data analysis, building predictive models, continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD)

Microsoft 365

Description of Service

A suite of productivity and collaboration tools combining familiar Office apps, cloud-based services, and robust security features.

Key Services

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive), SharePoint, Teams

Use Case

Collaboration, email, document creation, cloud storage, security & compliance, mobile productivity, automation (Power Automate)

Zendesk

Description of Service

Customer service software centralizing and automating customer support for seamless interactions across email, live chat, social media, and self-service portals. Provides ticketing, reporting, analytics, and integrations.

Key Services

Ticketing system, Knowledge base, Live chat, Reporting & analytics

Use Case

Efficient customer support, tracking support performance, self-service options, improving the overall customer experience

Microsoft Defender & Microsoft Defender for O365

Description of Service

Microsoft Defender ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) is a comprehensive security solution developed by Microsoft to protect businesses against advanced cyber threats. It combines endpoint security capabilities, advanced analytics, and cloud-based intelligence to provide real-time threat detection, prevention, and response.

Key Services

Advanced threat detection, Endpoint visibility, Threat hunting, Incident response, Integrates with security tools

Use Case

Proactive cybersecurity, real-time alerts, endpoint analysis

ConnectWise ScreenConnect

Description of Service

Remote support, access, and meeting software for efficient IT troubleshooting, user assistance, presentations, and collaboration.

Key Features

Secure remote connections, Screen sharing, Remote control, File transfer, Chat, Session recording

Use Case

Streamline IT support, troubleshoot remotely, reduce on-site visits

SolidWorks Server

Description of Service

Central storage/collaboration system for managing SolidWorks CAD files within an organization. Provides a secure, scalable, and efficient environment for teams.

Key Features

Centralized storage, Collaboration, Version control, Secure access, Replication, Backup, SolidWorks integration

Use Case

Securely storing design files, efficient collaboration, managing versions/history, streamlining workflows.

Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine (UDM)

Description of Service

All-in-one network device for small-to-medium businesses, combining a router, firewall, switch, and wireless access point.

Key Features

UniFi Network Controller (manage network), Wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi 5/6), Firewall & security, Performance optimization, Scalability, Remote management.

Item 2. Properties.

Our corporate headquarters is in Troy, Michigan where we occupy approximately 15,825 square feet of office, warehousing, and light industrial space under a lease that expires in 2026. We lease properties located within various geographic regions in which we conduct business, including Colorado, Georgia, and Michigan. Our properties include office spaces, showrooms, and warehouses used for research and development, operational, sales, management, and administrative purposes. All of our facilities are leased.

We believe our facilities are adequate for our needs and believe that we should be able to renew any of our existing leases or secure similar property without an adverse impact on our operations.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings.

From time to time, we are a party to various legal proceedings or claims arising in the ordinary course of business. For information related to significant legal proceedings in which we are involved, see the discussion under the caption Legal Matters in Note 16 - Commitments and Contingencies and Note 18 - Subsequent Events to our consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10K, which information is incorporated by reference into this Item 3.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Market Information

Our Common Stock is traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “AGFY.”

Holders of Record

As of March 24, 2024, there were 62 holders of record of our Common Stock. Such numbers do not include beneficial owners holding shares of our Common Stock in nominee or “street” name through various brokerage firms.

Dividends

We have never paid cash dividends on any of our capital stock and currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business.

Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans

For information concerning our equity compensation plan, see Part III, Item 12 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Equity Repurchases

None.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

There were no sales of unregistered securities during the year ended December 31, 2023 that were not previously disclosed in a Current Report on Form 8-k or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

Item 6. [Reserved].

Not applicable.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of our operations together with our consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this report. This discussion contains forward-looking statements reflecting our current expectations, whose actual outcomes involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from those stated in or implied by these forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in the sections entitled “Risk Factors,” “Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and elsewhere in this report.

Overview

We are one of the most innovative providers of advanced cultivation and extraction solutions for the cannabis industry, bringing data, science, and technology to the forefront of the market. Our proprietary micro-environment-controlled Agrify VFUs enable cultivators to produce the highest quality products with what we believe to be an unmatched consistency, yield, and Return on Investment at scale. Our comprehensive extraction product line, which includes hydrocarbon, ethanol, solventless, post-processing, and lab equipment, empowers producers to maximize the quantity and quality of extract required for premium concentrates.

Our cultivation and extraction solutions seamlessly combine our integrated hardware and software offerings with a broad range of associated services including consulting, engineering, and construction and are designed to deliver the most complete commercial indoor farming solution available from a single provider. The totality of our product offerings and service capabilities forms an unrivaled ecosystem in what has historically been a highly

fragmented market. As a result, we believe we are well situated to create a dominant market position in the indoor agriculture sector.

Agrify Corporation was incorporated in the state of Nevada on June 6, 2016, originally incorporated as Agrinamics, Inc. (“Agrinamics”). On September 16, 2019, Agrinamics amended its articles of incorporation to reflect a name change to Agrify Corporation.

Our corporate headquarters are located in Troy, Michigan. We also lease properties located within various geographic regions in which we conduct business, including Colorado, Georgia and Michigan.

Reverse Stock Splits

On October 18, 2022, we effected a 1-for-10 reverse stock split on our Common Stock.

On July 5th, 2023, we effected a 1-for-20 reverse stock split on our Common Stock. All share and per information has been retroactively adjusted to give effect to the reverse stock splits for all periods presented, unless otherwise indicated.

Recent Business Developments

At the beginning of 2023, we announced a strategic plan to foster sustainable long-term growth through cost efficiencies and enhanced sales and growth initiatives. We have been focused on growing our cultivation business by helping our existing Agrify Total Turn-Key customers to bring their facilities online and driving additional sales through our RDP. As a result, we have successfully installed and commenced our Las Vegas customer, Nevada Holistic Medicine, our Denver Colorado customer, Denver Greens, and signed several new customers such as Golden Lake Business Park in California, and Harvest Works in New Jersey. As a testimony to the Vertical Farming Unit’s (“VFU”) ability to produce high quality flower, Nevada Holistic Medicine is already consistently harvesting 9 pounds of A-grade flower per VFU, or roughly 64 grams per canopy square foot, and seeing 90%+ A-grade flower produced with exceptional color, trichome, and terpene levels.

Similarly, since we have streamlined our expansive extraction portfolio of technologies, we have successfully supported the deployment of several turnkey solvent-based and solventless extraction packages to customers in California, Michigan, and the East Coast. In addition, we have released several new technologies and products into the market based on customer feedback, including our first peer-reviewed Cannabeast 13 Distillation Unit, a Diamond Miner, Stitch-less Double Filtration Rosin Bags, and the revamped PX30 Hydrocarbon Extractor. We have also made significant strides to receive UL Compliance for Precision Extractions’ EXP Explosion Proof Rooms in an effort to continue our commitment to safety and quality within cannabis extraction facilities.

These industry developments illustrate the continuous innovation, and commitment to safety within the cannabis sector as our company adapts to evolving market demands. More importantly, our growing partnership across the Country is a strong testimony to operators’ continued trust in Agrify’s team and technologies in the most competitive markets.

Recent Developments

Note Acquisition and Warrant Issuance

On October 27, 2023, following the execution of the Modification Agreement (as defined below), CP Acquisitions LLC (the “New Lender”), an entity affiliated with and controlled by Raymond Chang, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and I-Tseng Jenny Chan, a member of our Board of Directors, purchased from the Former Lender the Senior Secured Note issued by us to the Former Lender on August 19, 2022 (the “Exchange Note”) and the Senior Secured Convertible Note issued by us to the Former Lender on March 10, 2023 (the “Convertible Note”). As a condition to the Note Purchase, we and the New Lender entered into an acknowledgment and release (the “Release Agreement”) with the Former Lender, pursuant to which we and the New Lender released the Former Lender from any claims, demands, actions, suits, obligations and causes of action arising on or before the date thereof.

On October 27, 2023, as a condition precedent to the Note Purchase, we entered into a letter agreement (the “Letter Agreement”) with the Former Lender. Pursuant to the Letter Agreement, we agreed, immediately prior to the note purchase transaction, to exchange $3.0 million in principal and approximately $1.1 million in accrued but unpaid interest outstanding under the Exchange Note for a warrant (the “Exchange Warrant”) to purchase 2,809,669 shares of common stock. Additionally, we agreed to exchange the 375,629 shares of common stock held in abeyance for the Former Lender under the terms of the letter agreement between us and the Former Lender dated as of April 26, 2023 for a warrant to purchase 375,629 shares of common stock (the “Abeyance Warrant”).

Each of the Exchange Warrant and the Abeyance Warrant has an exercise price of $0.001 per share, became exercisable upon issuance, has a term of five years from the date of issuance and is exercisable on a cash basis or on a cashless exercise basis at the Former Lender’s election. The Former Lender exercised the Exchange Warrant and Abeyance Warrant in full during January and February 2024.

Note Amendment and Secured Promissory Note

On July 12, 2023, we issued an unsecured promissory note in favor of GIC Acquisition, LLC (“GIC”), an entity that is owned and managed by Raymond Chang, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. On October 27, 2023, we and GIC amended and restated the Note (the “GIC Note”). Pursuant to the terms of the GIC Note, as restated, the maturity date was extended until December 31, 2023 and we granted a junior security interest in our assets. On January 25, 2024, we and GIC amended and restated the GIC Note to increase the principal amount thereunder to $1.0 million, all of which is currently outstanding under the GIC Note, and to extend the maturity date until June 30, 2024.

Concurrently with the restatement of the GIC Note, we issued a junior secured promissory note (the “Junior Secured Note”) to the New Lender. Pursuant to the Junior Secured Note, the New Lender loaned an aggregate of approximately $4.0 million to us. The Junior Secured Note bore interest at a rate of 10% per annum, had a maturity date of December 31, 2023, and could be prepaid without any fee or penalty. The Junior Secured Note was a junior secured obligation.

Note Amendment, Consolidation and Conversion

On January 25, 2024, following stockholder approval at an annual meeting of stockholders on January 8, 2024, we and the New Lender consolidated the outstanding principal and interest due under the Junior Secured Note and the Exchange Note into the Convertible Note and amended and restated the Convertible Note (as amended and restated, the “Restated Note”), with an outstanding principal amount of approximately $18.9 million at the time of issuance of the Restated Note. The Restated Note amended the terms of the Convertible Note by, among other things, (i) reducing the conversion price to $1.46 per share of common stock, (ii) increasing the beneficial ownership limitation to 49.99% with respect to any individual or group, provided that the New Lender may assign its right to receive shares upon conversion to Mr. Chang and/or Ms. Chan or their affiliates, in which case the 49.99% beneficial ownership limitation will apply to each of them individually, (iii) extending the maturity date to December 31, 2025, (iv) increasing the interest rate from 9% to 10% per annum, (v) increasing the default interest from 15% to 18% per annum, and (vi) providing for the payment of interest every six months, or in lieu of cash interest payments, we may issue shares as payments-in-kind at a conversion price equal to the higher of (i) $1.46 or (ii) a 20% discount to our trailing seven-day volume weighted average price as of the date of interest payment. Immediately following the execution of the Restated Note, the New Lender immediately elected to convert approximately $3.9 million of outstanding principal into an aggregate of 2,671,633 shares of common stock, and assigned its rights to receive such shares to entities affiliated with Mr. Chang and Ms. Chan. Following the conversion, there was $15.0 million in principal amount outstanding under the Restated Note.

Mack Molding Settlement and Warrant Issuance

Immediately prior to the note purchase described above on October 27, 2023, and with an effective date as of October 18, 2023, we entered into a Modification and Settlement Agreement (the “Modification Agreement”) with Mack Molding Company (“Mack”). Pursuant to the Modification Agreement, we and Mack agreed to settle an outstanding dispute of approximately $8.24 million under a Supply Agreement between the parties dated December 7, 2020 (the “Supply Agreement”) by reducing the aggregate amount due to Mack and extending the timeline for payment. The Modification Agreement requires us to make payments of $500,000 and $250,000 to Mack on or before November 1, 2023 and February 15, 2024, respectively. Following the November 1, 2023 payment, we will be entitled to take possession of certain Vertical Farming Units (“VFUs”) that were assembled under the Supply Agreement. The Modification Agreement also requires us to purchase from Mack a minimum of 25 VFUs per quarter for each quarter during 2024 and a minimum of 50 VFUs per quarter for the six quarters beginning with the first quarter of 2025. We are required to pay a storage fee of $25,000 per month for VFUs subject to the Modification Agreement.

Additionally, as part of the Modification Agreement, we agreed to issue to Mack a warrant (the “Mack Warrant”) to purchase 750,000 shares of common stock. The Mack Warrant has an exercise price of $4.00 per share, was exercisable upon issuance, has a term of three years from the date of issuance and is exercisable on a cash basis unless at the time of exercise there is no effective registration statement for the resale of the underlying shares, in which case the Mack Warrant may be exercised on a cashless exercise basis at Mack’s election.

Nasdaq Notices and Hearing

On April 18, 2023, we received a notice (the “April Nasdaq Notice”) from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) that we were noncompliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) as a result of our failure to file our Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Form 10-K”) with the SEC by the required due date.

On May 17, 2023, we received a second notice from Nasdaq (the “May Nasdaq Notice”) that we remained noncompliant with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) as a result of our failure to file our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 (the “First Quarter Form 10-Q”) with the SEC by the required due date.

On August 16, 2023, we received a third notice from Nasdaq that we remain noncompliant with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) as a result of our failure to file our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2023 (the “Second Quarter Form 10-Q”) with the SEC by the required filing date (the “August Nasdaq Notice” and, together with the April Nasdaq Notice and the May Nasdaq Notice, the “Nasdaq Notices”).

On October 17, 2023, we received a Staff Delisting Determination (the “Staff Determination”) from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq notifying us that we were not in compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements under the Listing Rule as a result of our failure to file the First Quarter Form 10-Q, the Second Quarter Form 10-Q and the Form 10-K (collectively, the “Delinquent Reports”) in a timely manner. We filed each of the Delinquent Reports between November 28, 2023 and January 3, 2024.

On December 1, 2023, we received a notice Nasdaq stating that because we reported stockholders’ equity of $(17.17) million in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, we were no longer in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1), which requires that listed companies maintain a minimum of $2.5 million in stockholders’ equity.

We timely requested a hearing before the Nasdaq Hearings Panel (the “Panel”), which hearing was held on January 11, 2024. At the hearing, we presented a plan to regain compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1). On January 30, 2024, we received formal notice that the Panel had granted our request for an exception through April 15, 2024 to evidence compliance with Rule 5550(b)(1), which represents the full extent of the Panel’s discretion to grant continued listing. As a result, there can be no assurance that we can regain compliance by the end of the extension period.

Additionally, on March 5, 2024, we received a deficiency letter from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq notifying us that, for the last 30 consecutive business days, the bid price for our common stock had closed below $1.00 per share, which is the minimum closing price required to maintain continued listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) (the “Minimum Bid Requirement”). The Notice had no immediate effect on the listing of our common stock on Nasdaq. In accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), we have 180 calendar days to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Requirement. To regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Requirement, the closing bid price of our common stock must be at least $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days during this 180-day compliance period, unless the Staff exercises its discretion to extend this period pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(H). The compliance period for us will expire on September 3, 2024.

We will take all possible actions to restore our compliance with Nasdaq, but we can provide no assurances that the listing of our common stock will be restored or that we otherwise will remain listed on Nasdaq. If we fail to continue to satisfy the continued listing requirements of Nasdaq, such as the corporate governance requirements or the minimum closing bid price requirement, Nasdaq will take steps to delist our common stock. Such a de-listing would likely have a negative effect on the price of our common stock and would impair stockholders’ ability to sell or purchase our common stock when they wish to do so, as well as adversely affect our ability to issue additional securities and obtain additional financing in the future.

Public Offering

On February 27, 2024, we entered into a placement agency agreement with Alexander Capital, LP as placement agent, pursuant to which we agreed to issue and sell an aggregate of 2,760,000 shares of common stock, and, in lieu of common stock to certain investors that so chose, pre-funded warrants to purchase 3,963,684 shares of common stock. The public offering price for each share of common stock was $0.38, and the offering price for each pre-funded warrant was $0.379, which equals the public offering price per share of the common stock, less the $0.001 per share exercise price of each pre-funded warrant. The Offering was made pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 that we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 26, 2024 and was declared effective on February 14, 2024. Raymond Chang, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, participated in the offering on the same terms as other investors. The net proceeds from the public offering were approximately $2.2 million, after deducting placement agent fees and commissions and expenses. The public offering closed on February 28, 2024.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“GAAP”) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant estimates include assumptions about collection of accounts and notes receivable, the valuation and recognition of stock-based compensation expense, valuation allowance for deferred tax assets, the valuation of inventory, and useful life of fixed assets and intangible assets.

Financial Overview

Critical Accounting Estimates

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial position and results of operations is based on our financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate estimates, which include estimates related to accruals, stock-based compensation expense, reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reported period, fair value of warrant liabilities, sales tax liabilities, and net realizable value of inventory and collectibility of trade accounts and loans receivable. We base our estimates on historical experience and other market-specific or other relevant assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those estimates or assumptions. See below for detail on how certain accounting estimates are determined.

Revenue Recognition

We enter into contracts that may include various combinations of equipment, services and construction, which are generally capable of being distinct and accounted for as separate performance obligations. Contracts with customers often include promises to transfer multiple products and services to a customer. Determining whether products and services are considered distinct performance obligations that should be accounted for separately versus together may require significant judgment. Once we determine the performance obligations, it determines the transaction price, which includes estimating the amount of variable consideration to be included in the transaction price, if any. We then allocate the transaction price to each performance obligation in the contract based on the SSP. The corresponding revenue is recognized as the related performance obligations are satisfied.

Judgment is required to determine the SSP for each distinct performance obligation. We determine SSP based on the price at which the performance obligation is sold separately and the methods of estimating SSP under the guidance of ASC 606-10-32-33. If the SSP is not observable through past transactions, we estimate the SSP, considering available information such as market conditions, expected margins, and internally approved pricing guidelines related to the performance obligations. We license our software as a Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) type subscription license, whereby the customer only has a right to access the software over a specified time period. The full value of the contract is recognized ratably over the contractual term of the SaaS subscription, adjusted monthly if tiered pricing is relevant. We typically satisfy our performance obligations for equipment sales when equipment is made available for shipment to the customer; for services sales as services are rendered to the customer and for construction contracts both as services are rendered and when contract is completed.

We utilize the cost-plus margin method to determine the SSP for equipment and build-out services. This method is based on the cost of the services from third parties, plus a reasonable markup that we believe is reflective of a market-based reseller margin.

We determine the SSP for services in time and materials contracts by observable prices in standalone services arrangements.

We estimate variable consideration in the form of royalties, revenue share, monthly fees, and service credits are estimated at contract inception and updated at the end of each reporting period if additional information becomes available. Variable consideration is typically not subject to constraint. Changes to variable consideration were not material for the periods presented.

If a contract has payment terms that differ from the timing of revenue recognition, we will assess whether the transaction price for those contracts includes a significant financing component. We have elected the practical expedient that permits an entity to not adjust for the effects of a significant financing component if we expect that at the contract inception, the period between when the entity transfers a promised good or service to a customer and when the customer pays for that good or service, will be one year or less. For those contracts in which the period exceeds the one-year threshold, this assessment, as well as the quantitative estimate of the financing component and its relative significance, requires judgment. Accordingly, we impute interest on such contracts at an agreed-upon interest rate and will present the financing components separately as financial income. For the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, we did not have any such financial income.

Payment terms with customers typically require payment 30 days from the invoice date. Our agreements with customers do not provide for any refunds for services or products and therefore no specific reserve for such is maintained. In the infrequent instances where customers raise a concern over delivered products or services, we have endeavored to remedy the concern and all costs related to such matters have been insignificant in all periods presented.

We have elected to treat shipping and handling activities after the customer obtains control of the goods as a fulfillment cost and not as a promised good or service. Accordingly, we will accrue all fulfillment costs related to the shipping and handling of consumer goods at the time of shipment. We have payment terms with its customers of one year or less and has elected the practical expedient applicable to such contracts not to consider the time value of money. Sales, value add, and other taxes we collect concurrent with revenue-producing activities are excluded from revenue.

We receive payment from customers based on specified terms that are generally less than 30 days from the satisfaction of performance obligations. There are no contract assets related to performance under the contract. The difference in the opening and closing balances of our deferred revenue primarily results from the timing difference between our performance and the customer’s payment. We fulfill obligations under a contract with a customer by transferring products and services in exchange for consideration from the customer. Accounts receivables are recorded when the customer has been billed or the right to consideration is unconditional. We recognize deferred revenue when consideration has been received or an amount of consideration is due from the customer, and we have a future obligation to transfer certain proprietary products.

In accordance with ASC 606-10-50-13, we are required to include disclosure on its remaining performance obligations as of the end of the current reporting period. Due to the nature of our contracts, these reporting requirements are not applicable. The majority of our remaining contracts meet certain exemptions as defined in ASC 606-10-50-14 through 606-10-50-14A, including (i) performance obligation is part of a contract that has an original

expected duration of one year or less and (ii) the right to invoice practical expedient.

We generally provide a one-year warranty on our products for materials and workmanship but may provide multiple-year warranties as negotiated, and will pass on the warranties from its vendors, if any, which generally covers this one-year period. In accordance with ASC 450-20-25, we accrue for product warranties when the loss is probable and can be reasonably estimated. The reserve for warranty returns is included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities in our consolidated balance sheets.

Stock Compensation

The fair value of each option is estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model. This model incorporates certain assumptions for inputs including a risk-free market interest rate, expected dividend yield of the underlying Common Stock, expected option life, and expected volatility in the market value of the underlying Common Stock. The Black-Scholes option-pricing model was developed for use in estimating the fair value of traded options, which have no vesting restrictions and are fully transferable. In addition, option valuation models require the input of highly subjective assumptions including the expected stock price volatility. Because our stock options and warrants have characteristics different from those of our traded stock, and because changes in the subjective input assumptions can materially affect the fair value estimate, in management’s opinion, the existing models do not necessarily provide a reliable single measure of the fair value of such stock options. The risk-free interest rate is based upon quoted market yields for United States Treasury debt securities with a term similar to the expected term. The expected dividend yield is based upon our history of having never issued a dividend and management’s current expectation of future action surrounding dividends. We calculate the expected volatility of the stock price based on the corresponding volatility of our peer group stock price for a period consistent with the underlying instrument’s expected term. The expected lives for such grants were based on the simplified method for employees and directors.

In arriving at stock-based compensation expense, we estimate the number of stock-based awards that will be forfeited due to employee turnover. Our forfeiture assumption is based primarily on its turn-over historical experience. If the actual forfeiture rate is higher than the estimated forfeiture rate, then an adjustment will be made to increase the estimated forfeiture rate, which will result in a decrease to the expense recognized in our consolidated financial statements. If the actual forfeiture rate is lower than the estimated forfeiture rate, then an adjustment will be made to lower the estimated forfeiture rate, which will result in an increase to expense recognized in our consolidated financial statements. The expense we recognize in future periods will be affected by changes in the estimated forfeiture rate and may differ significantly from amounts recognized in the current period.

Net Realizable Value of Inventory

The Company values all its inventories, which consist primarily of significant raw material hardware components, at the lower of cost or net realizable value, with cost principally determined by the weighted-average cost method on a first-in, first-out basis. Write-offs of potentially slow-moving or damaged inventory are recorded through specific identification of obsolete or damaged material. The Company takes physical inventory at least once annually at all inventory locations.

Fair Value of Warrant Liabilities

The estimated fair value of the warrant liabilities on December 31, 2023 and 2022 is determined using Level 3 inputs. Inherent in a Black-Scholes option-pricing model are assumptions used in calculating the estimated fair values that represent the Company’s best estimate. The volatility rate is determined utilizing the Company’s own share price and the share price of competitors over time.

Collectibility of Trade Accounts and Loans Receivable

Accounts receivable, net, primarily consists of amounts for goods and services that are billed and currently due from customers. Accounts receivable and loan receivable balances are presented net of an allowance for credit losses, which is an estimate of billed or borrowed amounts that may not be collectible. In determining the amount of the allowance at each reporting date, management makes judgments about general economic conditions, historical write-off experience, and any specific risks identified in customer or counterparty collection matters, including the aging of unpaid accounts receivable and changes in customer financial conditions. Accounts and loans receivable balances are written off after all means of collection are exhausted and the potential for non-recovery is determined to be probable. Adjustments to the allowance for credit losses are recorded as general and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations.

Sales Tax Liabilities

Prior to acquisition, Precision Extraction NewCo had an unrecorded liability for uncollected sales taxes for sales made in 18 states where state sales tax filings were not submitted, leaving the entity with a potential sales tax liability. To assess Precision Extraction NewCo’s potential liability, the company analyzed invoice data encompassing customer details, their location, product/service taxability, and sales prices. Through this analysis, Precision NewCo determined its nexus across various states and estimated the corresponding sales tax liabilities. Of the 18 states identified with tax obligations, sales to tax-exempt customers were excluded from liability calculations. In Q1 2022, Precision NewCo’s taxable revenue stood at approximately $4 million, with an associated sales tax liability of around $190,000, equivalent to 4.7% of the taxable revenue for that period. This ratio served as the basis for projecting the sales tax liability for the remainder of 2022. For the assessment of penalties and interest, the company adhered to the guidelines outlined by the State of Michigan. As per Michigan’s Sales Tax Return Form 5080, penalties are capped at 25%, while interest is calculated based on the prevailing rates provided on the official.gov website. These penalties and interest charges were factored into the overall sales tax liability in accordance with Michigan’s guidelines. Starting from November 1, 2022, all Precision Extraction NewCo customers have been transitioned to Agrify. All sales from November 1, 2022, until today are accounted for under Agrify. Sales tax is accrued and paid under Agrify.

Revenue Recognition

Overview

We generate revenue from the following sources: (1) equipment sales, (2) providing services and (3) construction contracts.

In accordance with ASC 606 “Revenue Recognition”, we recognize revenue from contracts with customers using a five-step model, which is described below:

Identify the customer contract

A customer contract is generally identified when there is approval and commitment from both us and its customer, the rights have been identified, payment terms are identified, the contract has commercial substance and collectability, and consideration is probable. Specifically, we obtain written/electronic signatures on contracts and a purchase order, if said purchase orders are issued in the normal course of business by the customer.

Identify performance obligations that are distinct

A performance obligation is a promise by us to provide a distinct good or service or a series of distinct goods or services. A good or service that is promised to a customer is distinct if the customer can benefit from the good or service either on its own or together with other resources that are readily available to the customer, and our promise to transfer the good or service to the customer is separately identifiable from other promises in the contract.

Determine the transaction price

The transaction price is the amount of consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for transferring goods or services to a customer, excluding sales taxes that are collected on behalf of government agencies.

Allocate the transaction price to distinct performance obligations

The transaction price is allocated to each performance obligation based on the relative standalone selling prices (“SSP”) of the goods or services being provided to the customer. Our contracts typically contain multiple performance obligations, for which we account for individual performance obligations separately, if they are distinct. The standalone selling price reflects the price we would charge for a specific piece of equipment or service if it was sold separately in similar circumstances and to similar customers.

Recognize revenue as the performance obligations are satisfied

Revenue is recognized when, or as, performance obligations are satisfied by transferring control of a promised product or service to a customer.

Accounting for Business Combinations

We allocated the purchase price of acquired companies to the tangible and intangible assets acquired, including in-process research and development assets, and liabilities assumed, based upon their estimated fair values at the acquisition date. These fair values are typically estimated with assistance from independent valuation specialists. The purchase price allocation process requires us to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially at the acquisition date with respect to intangible assets, contractual support obligations assumed, contingent consideration arrangements, and pre-acquisition contingencies.

Although we believe the assumptions and estimates we have made in the past have been reasonable and appropriate, they are based in part on historical experience and information obtained from the management of the acquired companies and are inherently uncertain.

Examples of critical estimates in valuing certain of the intangible assets we have acquired or may acquire in the future include but are not limited to:

The fair value estimates related to the various identified intangible assets were determined under various valuation approaches including the Income Approach, Relief-from-Royalty Method, and Discounted Cash Flow Method. These valuation methods require management to project revenues, operating expenses, working capital investment, capital spending and cash flows for the reporting unit over a multiyear period, as well as determine the weighted average cost of capital to be used as a discount rate.

Goodwill and Intangible Assets

Amortization of acquired intangible assets is the result of the acquisition of TriGrow Systems, LLC (“TriGrow”), which occurred in 2020, the acquisition of Precision Extraction NewCo, LLC (“Precision”) and Cascade Sciences, LLC (“Cascade”) which occurred in 2021, the acquisition of PurePressure, LLC (“PurePressure”), which also occurred in 2021, and the acquisition of Lab Society, which occurred in 2022. As a result of these transactions, customer relationships, acquired developed technology, non-compete agreements and trade names were identified as intangible assets, and are amortized over their estimated useful lives.

We recognize the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of identifiable net assets acquired as goodwill. Goodwill is not amortized but is tested for impairment at least annually in the fourth quarter of the year, or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the goodwill may not be recoverable. We have determined that we are a single reporting unit for the purpose of conducting the goodwill impairment assessment. A goodwill impairment charge is recorded if the amount by which our carrying value exceeds its fair value, not to exceed the carrying amount of goodwill.

Factors that could lead to a future impairment include material uncertainties such as a significant reduction in projected revenues, a deterioration of projected financial performance, future acquisitions and/or mergers, and a decline in our market value as a result of a significant decline in our stock price.

During the three-month ended June 30, 2022, we identified an impairment-triggering event associated with both a sustained decline in our stock price and associated market capitalization, as well as a second-quarter slowdown in the cannabis industry as a whole. Due to these factors, we deemed that there was an impairment to the carrying value of our property and equipment and accordingly performed interim testing as of June 30, 2022. Based on our interim testing, we noted that the entire carrying value of our goodwill and intangible assets should be impaired. Additional information regarding our interim testing on goodwill and intangible assets may be found in Note 7 – Goodwill and Intangible Assets, Net, included elsewhere in the notes to the consolidated financial statements.

Convertible Notes Payable

We evaluate our convertible instruments to determine if those contracts or embedded components of those contracts qualify as derivative financial instruments to be separately accounted for in accordance with ASC Topic 815 Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”). The accounting treatment of derivative financial instruments requires that we identify and record certain embedded conversion options (“ECOs”), certain variable-share settlement features, and any related freestanding instruments at their fair values as of the inception date of the agreement and at fair value as of each subsequent balance sheet date. Any change in fair value is recorded as non-operating, non-cash income or expense for each reporting period at each balance sheet date. We reassess the classification of our derivative instruments at each balance sheet date. If the classification changes as a result of events during the period, the contract is reclassified as of the date of the event that caused the reclassification. Bifurcated embedded conversion options, variable-share settlement features and any related freestanding instruments are recorded as a discount to the host instrument which is amortized to interest expense over the life of the respective note using the effective interest method.

If we determine that an instrument is not a derivative liability, we then evaluate whether there is a beneficial conversion feature (“BCF”), by comparing the commitment date fair value to the effective current conversion price of the instrument. We record a BCF as a debt discount which is amortized to interest expense over the life of the respective note using the effective interest method. BCFs that are contingent upon the occurrence of a future event are recognized when the contingency is resolved.

Warrant Liabilities

We do not use derivative instruments to hedge exposures to cash flow, market, or foreign currency risks. We evaluate all of our financial instruments, including issued private placement stock purchase warrants, to determine if such instruments are derivatives or contain features that qualify as embedded derivatives, pursuant to ASC Topic 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity (“ASC 480”) and ASC 815. We account for warrants as either equity-classified or liability-classified instruments based on an assessment of the warrant’s specific terms and applicable authoritative guidance in ASC 480 and ASC 815. Our assessment considers whether the warrants are freestanding financial instruments pursuant to ASC 480, whether they meet the definition of a liability pursuant to ASC 480, and whether the warrants meet all of the requirements for equity classification under ASC 815, including whether the warrants are indexed to our own Common Stock among other conditions for equity classification.

For issued or modified warrants that meet all of the criteria for equity classification, they are recorded as a component of additional paid-in capital at the time of issuance. For issued or modified warrants that are precluded from equity classification, they are recorded as a liability at their initial fair value on the date of issuance and subject to remeasurement on each balance sheet date with changes in the estimated fair value of the warrants to be recognized as an unrealized gain or loss in the consolidated statements of operations.

Capitalization of Internal Software Development Costs

We capitalize on certain software engineering efforts related to the continued development of Agrify Insights™ cultivation software (“Agrify Insights™”) under ASC 985-20. Costs incurred during the application development phase are only capitalized once technical feasibility has been established and the work performed will result in new or additional functionality. The types of costs capitalized during the application development phase include employee compensation, as well as consulting fees for third-party software developers working on these projects. Costs related to the research and development are expensed as incurred until technical feasibility is established as well as post-implementation activities. Internal-use software is amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful life of the asset, which ranges from two to five years.

Income Taxes

We account for income taxes pursuant to the provisions of ASC Topic 740, “Income Taxes,” which requires, among other things, an asset and liability approach to calculating deferred income taxes. The asset and liability approach requires the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the carrying amounts and the tax bases of assets and liabilities. A valuation allowance is provided to offset any net deferred tax assets for which management believes it is more likely than not that the net deferred asset will not be realized.

We follow the provisions of ASC 740-10-25-5, “Basic Recognition Threshold.” When tax returns are filed, it is highly certain that some positions taken would be sustained upon examination by the taxing authorities, while others are subject to uncertainty about the merits of the position taken or the amount of the position that would be ultimately sustained. In accordance with the guidance of ASC 740-10-25-6, the benefit of a tax position is recognized in the consolidated financial statements in the period during which, based on all available evidence, management believes it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained upon examination, including the resolution of appeals or litigation processes, if any. Tax positions taken are not offset or aggregated with other positions. Tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold are measured as the largest amount of tax benefit that is more than 50 percent likely of being realized upon settlement with the applicable taxing authority. The portion of the benefits associated with tax positions taken that exceeds the amount measured as described above should be reflected as a liability for unrecognized tax benefits in the accompanying balance sheets along with any associated interest and penalties that would be payable to the taxing authorities upon examination. We believe our tax positions are all highly certain of being upheld upon examination. As such, we have not recorded a liability for unrecognized tax benefits.

We recognize the benefit of a tax position when it is effectively settled. ASC 740-10-25-10, “Basic Recognition Threshold” provides guidance on how an entity should determine whether a tax position is effectively settled for the purpose of recognizing previously unrecognized tax benefits. ASC 740-10- 25-10 clarifies that a tax position can be effectively settled upon the completion of an examination by a taxing authority. For tax positions considered effectively settled, we recognize the full amount of the tax benefit.

Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation

We follow the provisions of ASC Topic 718, Compensation-Stock Compensation (“ASC 718”) which establishes standards surrounding the accounting for transactions in which an entity exchanges our equity instruments for goods or services. ASC 718 focuses primarily on accounting for transactions in which an entity obtains employee services in share-based payment transactions, such as options issued under our Stock Option Plans. Refer to the Critical Accounting Estimates section above for further detail on accounting for stock compensation.

It is important that the discussion of our operating results that follows be read in conjunction with the critical accounting policies disclosed above.

Results of Operations

We have incurred recurring losses to date. Our consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that we will continue as a going concern and, accordingly, do not include adjustments relating to the recoverability and realization of assets and classification of liabilities that might be necessary should we be unable to continue in operation.

Our continuation as a going concern is dependent upon our ability to obtain the necessary debt or equity financing to continue operations until we begin generating sufficient cash flows from operations to meet our obligations. If we are unable raise additional funds, we may be forced to cease operations.

Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022

The following table summarizes our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022:

Revenues

Our goal is to provide our customers with a variety of products to address their entire indoor agriculture needs. Our core product offering includes our VFUs and Agrify Integrated Grow Racks with our Agrify Insights™, which are supplemented with environmental control products, grow lights, facility build-out services, and extraction equipment.

We generate revenue from sales of cultivation solutions, including ancillary products and services, Agrify Insights™, facility build-outs, and extraction equipment and solutions. We believe that our product mix forms an integrated ecosystem that allows us to be engaged with our potential customers from the early stages of the grow cycle - first during the facility build-out, to the choice of cultivation solutions, running the grow business with our Agrify Insights™ and finally, our extraction, post-processing, and testing services to transform harvest into a sellable product. We believe that the delivery of each solution in the various stages of the process will generate sales of additional solutions and services.

The following table provides a breakdown of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022:

Revenues decreased by $41.4 million, or 71%, for the year ended December 31, 2023, as compared to the same period in 2022. The comparative decrease in revenue was primarily driven by a $22.2 million reduction in facility build-outs due to winding down TTK solutions Facility build-outs at the end of 2022. Additionally, there was a $19.6 million reduction in Extraction solutions due to an overall down-turn in the cannabis industry and the difficulty of integrating four acquired extraction companies, which was offset by $0.5 million increase in cultivation solutions and Agrify Insights software combined.

Cost of Goods Sold

Cost of goods sold represents a combination of the following: construction-related costs associated with our facility build-outs, internal and outsourced labor and material costs associated with the assembly of both cultivation equipment (primarily VFUs), and extraction equipment, as well as labor and parts costs associated with the sale or provision of other products and services.

The following table provides a breakdown of our cost of goods sold for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022:

Cost of goods sold decreased by $78 million, or 87%, for the year ended December 31, 2023, as compared to the same period in 2022. The year-over-year decrease in cost of goods sold is associated with the decreased amount of subcontractor construction costs related to our facility build-outs, the decline in sales of Extraction solutions, internal and outsourced labor and materials costs for the extraction solutions sales, and cultivation solutions, including ancillary products and services.

Gross (Loss) Profit

Gross profit totaled $5.3 million, or 31%, of total revenue during the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to a gross loss of $32 million, or 55% of total revenue during the year ended December 31, 2022. The comparative $37.1 million year-over-year increase in gross profit, as well as the comparative increase in gross profit margin, is primarily attributable to reduction in facility build-outs. Although sales of Extraction Solutions decreased, they have higher margins. Additionally, there was a $114 thousand increase in revenue from Agrify insight software which has 90% plus gross profit.

Operating Expenses