Hello, and welcome to this Q4 Financial Results presentation for Huddlestock Fintech. We have set this presentation for 30 minutes, and I will run through a slide deck for approximately, I would guess, 25 minutes. If you have questions, it could be typed into the button on the top, saying Q&A. If you do not have questions during the presentation but have questions afterwards or any time, please use the investorrelations@huddlestock.com, or you can also contact me directly. Let's just start with the presentation, and I'll share it with you right now. Let me see. Yes. Here it is. My name is Leif Arnold Thomas. I'm the Group CEO of Huddlestock, and I will run through this slide deck for you. First, let's take a summary of the quarter.
When it comes to the revenue side, I'm happy to announce that we have been able to increase our top-line revenues with 16% from Q3 to Q4. That is very good since that is supported by growth both in the Investment -as- a -Service area, growth of 8%, and also from the consulting business. In both revenue legs, we have seen increased revenues. Also, because growth on revenues is important, it is also important to have control of the cost side and to improve the profitability. The EBITDA is one of the areas that we are following quite closely. From Q3 to Q4, we were able to improve our EBITDA with approximately NOK 1 million, which I also think is a very good point and an important part of this report. At the cost side, we reduced the operational expenses with NOK 1.3 million.
I think that is also saying something about the cost focus internally in the business, and that is very important. On the personnel side, we have not been more employees, rather fewer. The cost of the personnel side is actually the same from Q3 to Q4, except for some one-offs. I will come back to that later on in the presentation. It is booked costs that have with the year-end to do. During Q4, we have, as we always do, worked a lot on clients and sales. We were able to announce an expansion of an existing customer with the contract, which is very good. Also, with a very solid basis of revenues from the consulting business. We have worked with an updated strategy for that business, and that was decided also during the last quarter of last year.
Outside the Nordics, you all know that Germany is the market we are focusing on. We worked with the basis of an LOI with AVL signed in April, now in January 2024, worked with how we should operate, how do you say it, to do it operational, to deliver on that opportunity. Through the year, we worked with different opportunities, and the signing of the partner agreement with Tradevest was an important part of the road and the path to the German market. After the quarter, we have seen some fruits from good work on the sales side during the whole autumn. We signed up two Norwegian new asset managers. Latest by this week, we announced also an extension of a contract with a Danish company, which is also very good and fits very well into the updated new growth strategy for the Visigon business.
A few weeks ago, I had my one-year anniversary in my role as the CEO of this group. When I took over this responsibility, we had just put behind a year or 2023 that had been quite intense. During 2023, Huddlestock acquired three businesses and divested one business, meaning that we saw a significant growth on revenues from 2022 to 2023 as a consequence of these acquisitions. End of 2023, we had a lot of technology and products and services that we needed to put together and make sure that it was all integrated in our platform. That was the basis, a lot of opportunities that have been very important to have focus on in 2024. That is my next point. During 2024, we said quite early that we had some focus areas.
Of course, the profitable consultancy business in Visigon, that was one of the objectives to make sure that we kept that business healthy, made it even more profitable, and also to invest and find out if and how we should develop that business even further. That is one of the objectives where I think we have met and have a good place, a very good place to be going forward. An important objective of all the acquisitions, and yeah, it could also be the divestment, is to be able to have an attractive Investment- as- a- Service suite to the market. With all the bases in place, the objective was for 2024 to grow that business as fast and soon as possible.
We have, as we have seen now the last few weeks, been able to now get new contracts, and a lot of these new contracts are also already starting to generate revenues. With the ambition of having a significant growth in that area during 2024, we are not there yet. That is still an area that needs focus. Outside the Nordics, Germany is definitely the market we would like to work in because of a lot of opportunities there. It is marked as checked, not because we are there yet, but during the year, we have transformed this LOI between two parties that really would like to have a good and solid service in place in the market.
We have, during that year, used a lot of time to discuss and investigate different ways of coming there as soon as possible at the lowest risk and shortest time as possible. The partner agreement with Tradevest is an important part of that journey. That is why I say that our way into the German market is definitely on the track, even though it takes longer time than we all anticipated before. As I've said before, growth is important, but to earn money is also important. Therefore, it has been very important for us to always look on how we can improve our profitability. We have had a short-term goal also to become EBITDA positive during 2024. The figures today show that we are not there yet, even though I mean that we are on our way.
That is a balance between to give some push on the speed button and also on the brake button. That is 2024. What about 2025? Because now the background from 2023, some of the main objectives from 2024, and now going forward in 2025 to succeed with the business we are in. We still would like to be and focus on the market from the old traditional businesses out there, but also to the new startups and ones that have great ideas where they would need Huddlestock's services and competence to succeed. On the business side, we have three areas divided into three, and that is because we have experienced and seen during the year that we need to make sure that the activities and the strategy are well fitted for the different purposes.
Meaning that, for example, Visigon with its business, it will have now a growth opportunity through a separate strategy. I will come back to that. When it comes to the German market and to succeed together with AVL, hopefully, we need to work through local partners. In the Nordics and the Investment- as- a-S ervice area, it is very much about doing what we have done so far to focus on our technological platform and working with sales and delivery. I have explained many times, and I have worked in this industry for many years, that sales cycles are long within this industry. It typically takes three months if you are lucky from your startup sales process until it's signed. The normal, I would say, is six months, perhaps nine months, and it's not uncommon that the sales cycle takes 12 months to 18 months.
The sales cycle is long, and then when you have signed an agreement, it typically also will take some time before the revenue starts to come. That means that the revenue growth we see now in Q4 compared to Q3 is results from work that was done last summer and early autumn. This growth is now going in the right direction, so that is good, but it grows slow, even though 8% is definitely good if you see it from a quarter to another . That is still my impatience. I would like to see that revenue grows even faster. The good thing is that the business is quite sticky because most of the customers that choose to use our services typically move out something else.
It goes slow up and slow down, but what we see now, if we start to turn this development, it's very sticky. That's very good. It is sticky, and it is recurring business. On the right side, we have some KPIs that we normally or always focus on because these are KPIs that are important for us. Not extremely one by one, but as a part of many KPIs, these are important. During Q1, Q2, and Q3, we reported a growth in all these areas. In Q4, you can see that the assets under administration that we'll see capital under our account has declined a little bit, and the same with the number of end client accounts.
The reason for that is that one of our customers has taken out some of their assets and put it in some other place because they would like to offer products and services that are not within our area. The customer is still our customer, and as you can see, the number of end clients is still growing. My point here is that even though some of the KPIs and areas are moving in the wrong, if I can say that, wrong direction, this picture also demonstrates that our business and revenue model is quite steady and solid. Germany and the market outside the Nordics. Nothing especially new on this slide, nevertheless, Huddlestock's home market is in the Nordics. We have the expertise, we have the skills, we have the knowledge. We are within a legal framework.
We have support from government about doing things as automated as possible. This is where we come from. What we expect and what we see is that also the rest of Europe are coming after us. That means that is a perfect place with that background to position ourselves as a supplier in the German market. The experience from the Nordics and the experience from acquisition of different systems, for example, Bricknode, and make it to work in Norway, for example, tax reporting is one example, is that such take time. With the experience from the Nordics, where it takes time to roll out the technology, even though in the same region of Europe, we believe that it will take too long time, be too costly, and too risky to do that by ourselves only as step number one.
Both Huddlestock and AVL have the same ambition to launch a modern, attractive service and products to the German market. During that discussions and along the way, we have identified Tradevest as one local company that would perfectly fit in the pieces in the total package so that AVL are able to launch something in the German market together with Huddlestock. Use our partners and local partners when you go out of your home market is some takeaway that we have experienced and which is our strategy now for the German business. Discussions and dialogue with AVL goes very good. That is also why I have this slide about it. They plan to actually launch a separate brand in the market, which would be the brand where the products and services within trading of securities will happen.
I think it is I would like to spend a few minutes also on the consultancy business. We have always mentioned the business, not used that much time on the business, but I think it's time to do that now. Visigon is one of the revenue streams of Huddlestock, which is profitable over the year. It has been growing. The Visigon business is a company that has been in the market for more than 20 years. Their customers are typically big banks and financial institutions. Contracts are long, and the relationship is also long. It is a business that is slow, steady, profitable.
Even though you see that revenues of 2024 went a little bit down from 2023, if you had looked at all the staples from the years going back, you would see a business that is steadily growing, some years up, some years down, but it is steady, growing, and profitable. That is a perfect place to be when you look forward because then you have a very good basis on their competence and relationships to do something more. That is exactly what we did last autumn within the Visigon business. We have been working with a strategy to see how we could improve growth and take the next step with a very solid business as a foundation. In Q4, we decided, and we have already started to deliver on a new and updated growth strategy for that business. What does it mean?
Visigon is a traditional consultancy business. Their focus is in the Nordics. It is very much based on a treasury system, and it is very much about to sell hours. The hours sold to the customers typically become the customer's property. What we do now, and the strategy is about, is to take a more clear place within that market. Yes, Visigon will still deliver hours and consultancy business to both software providers and their customers, but also take a bigger part of the value chain. They will focus more outside the Nordics. We investigate European opportunities.
As part of delivering products and services, which they have also built themselves, they will be able to increase the share of recurring revenues, meaning that Visigon going forward will not only be hourly-based revenues, but also recurring revenues, more of the same as we have on the Investment- as- a- Service area. Their strategy is, yeah, it's built in by three pillars. It's about to take care of applications that is, for example, installed at the customers and make sure that it works well and performance is well and everything. The next area is hosting, where they would like to take more responsibility for the software at the customers. That takes away risk and complexity from the customers, which is something they would like to pay for. Also, last but not least, also to offer more operational responsibilities.
It's some sort of outsourcing so the customers can fully focus on their business and that everything else could be taken care of by Visigon. The contract that was announced this week with EIFO is one example of the first of these blocks. The good thing with EIFO is that, number one, it's a very solid and healthy and well-known organization in Denmark, that's for sure. What is important also is that the revenues from that contract are very much about recurring revenues, which is exactly what we are looking for. We can still, of course, and will, of course, deliver hours on top of that contract, but we have a good delivery model in bottom when it comes to revenues. This is a way for the consultancy business to grow on top of their existing business.
That means going forward, we have three business areas, we could say. It's Visigon, where it's very much now to deliver on the new revised growth strategy. We have the German expansion, which is very much based on also cooperate with the local partner. We have the Investment- as- a-S ervice area, where it is about to roll out and to adjust and to sell more of what we already have. The signals of the last weeks is that it now seems to materialize some of the work being done the last half year. To sum up, growth on top line by 16% from Q3 to Q4. Personnel costs in line with Q3, except from a few year-end things. NOK 1.5 million of the NOK 2.7 million is something that follows accounting principles in Sweden and then have no cash effect.
We also have some year-end effects in the U.K. and Germany that is included. We are no more employees, and we are working even more efficient now than we did just a few months ago. We have a very strong focus on all costs. That is important, and that is why I am also very pleased to be able to report that our operating expenses has also been reduced quite a lot from Q3 to Q4. EBITDA still negative. We work for a positive EBITDA, of course, but it is improved with NOK 1 million since last quarter, which I think is quite good to see when it comes to all the effort that is done every day on all the areas within the company. A little bit about cash flow. Start of the quarter, NOK 10.5 million. End of the quarter, NOK 10.9 million, so that is almost the same.
If you start from the financing side, we did have a capital increase in September last year. It was September/October, so some of the payments came into us in October. That is why some of this NOK 5.4 million, NOK 4.5 million is also a part of that capital increase. What is very good to see, I would like to emphasize that, is to see the cash flow from operations. If you look back to the quarterly presentations last year, first, second, and third quarter, the cash flow from operations has been negative between NOK 5 million-NOK 7 million-NOK 9 million per quarter. This quarter, we report NOK 1.8 million. That means that our daily operations and deliveries and obligations to the clients are not losing money here. We include both the German business and include the Investment- as- a- Service business.
Investments is an area which we, of course, could just cut away, but we do not want to do that because that is about to make sure that we take care of the existing revenues and that we are prepared for taking on board new revenues. That is why we try to have a good balance on how much we should invest. That is, I think, the most takeaway. I think, as I said, the cash flow from operations is significantly improved compared to the last quarters. With that, I'm finished with my presentation. If you have questions, you can, of course, type them in. As always, please contact either me or use our website to ask. I must say that to have dialogue with investors is very valuable for me.
It is both to get a mirror from our investors if there is something that we should explain better, if there is something that is explained or very good. It is a big and good input for me and the rest of the management group as well and the board. I really appreciate the communication I have with a lot of you investors. Please continue with doing that. Okay. Seems like no questions. I would like to say thank you very much for participating and thank you for being interested in Huddlestock Fintech. I'm sure that you will hear more from me and Huddlestock going forward. Thank you very much, everybody.