Sompo Light Vortex backs Wejo
Mobility data company Wejo announced completion of a self-arranged $15.9 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) investment in Wejo, anchored by Sompo Light Vortex, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sompo Holdings – one of its major commercial partners as well as current investors and certain members of Wejo’s Board of Directors.
Under the PIPE, Wejo has agreed to issue and sell in a private placement an aggregate of approximately 11.3 million of the company’s units, each consisting of one of the company’s common shares and one third of one warrant per unit purchased. The additional liquidity raised through this initiative, combined with Wejo’s significant expense reduction initiatives discussed below, and with further draw downs on the company’s existing debt and equity facilities previously announced, is intended to extend Wejo’s capital runway through late 2023 under current capital market conditions.
Wejo’s cost saving initiatives implemented in 2022 reduce our cash burn from $10 million per month at the start of 2022 to a projected $5-6 million per month by the fourth quarter of 2022. As a result of these reduced expenses, Wejo is updating its 2022 financial outlook with respect to Adjusted EBITDA. The company now expects its 2022 Adjusted EBITDA loss to be in the range of $85 million to $95 million for 2022, a significant improvement versus previous expectations in the range of $110 million to $120 million.
“Executing a successful capital raise in this economic environment is a major achievement for Wejo and reflects our investors’, partners’, and directors’ confidence in the Company’s ability to improve business fundamentals as we focus our portfolio of solutions around the traffic and insurance product lines. Sompo recognizes Wejo’s significant value proposition, and its new investment will help us continue to advance our Smart Mobility platform. Additionally, our continued commercial partnership will allow the Company to accelerate its entry into the Japanese market. Our proprietary platform and products aim to transform the end-to-end insurance market and help Sompo realize cost synergies and additional revenue opportunities.” – Richard Barlow, Wejo Founder and CEO.
“To work through these challenging times in the capital markets, we have taken measurable actions to accelerate our path to profitability, prioritizing growth in the marketplaces and SaaS offerings with the highest near-term revenue opportunities. Our long-term plans have not changed other than timing of when other marketplaces will be launched. In addition to successfully raising additional capital through the PIPE offering, we have implemented a hiring freeze, eliminated non-revenue projects, and prioritized workflows to more squarely focus on revenue generation in the current year and into 2023. We will continue to pursue additional cost reduction initiatives, which will help us get to profitability sooner.” – John Maxwell, Chief Financial Officer.
