Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Helbiz Full Year 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, today's program will be recorded. If anyone objects, please disconnect now. I'd like to introduce your host for today's call, Gary Dvorak, Managing Director with The Blueshirt Group. Mr. Dvorak, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Welcome to Helbiz Full Year 2022 Results Conference Call. We issued our financial results press release today after the market closed. It's available via Newswires and on our website at investors.helbiz.com. A replay of this conference call will be available later today on the investor relations page of our website. With us today are Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Salvatore Palella, Chief Financial Officer, Giulio Profumo, and Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Hannestad . The team will review our results for 2022. Investors with questions can send them to us via the link to Say Technologies, which is provided in our earnings press release. The Q&A function will be open until tomorrow, March 29th at 5:00 P.M. Eastern Time. We'll answer questions via the Say Technology reply function.
Please note that our press release and this conference call contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors. Helbiz can give no assurance that these statements will prove to be correct. We have no obligation to update these statements. I will now turn the call over to Salvatore to begin. Salvatore?
Thank you, Gary, and good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us to review our business performance and financial results for the full year of 2022. First, I will discuss our strategy transformation. Next, Jonathan will elaborate our change of operation. Finally, Giulio will give us the financial perspective. Over the past few months, we made the difficult decision, but necessary, to set Helbiz on a path to near-term profitability and sustainable growth. Since our founding and since going public, our ambition have been grand, matching the many large market opportunities we see out there. Building on our initial success in micromobility, our vision extend to be an enabler of the modern urban lifestyle. We still believe those opportunities are out there, but our experience in 2022 taught us that we also need to match our ambition to our size and resource.
We are not yet a larger company, and we can't do everything on day one. We have a fantastic opportunity in micromobility, and we need to focus on that. Our goal now is to build on our foundation to get Helbiz to scale to be profitability. Once micromobility is growing and generating cash flow, we will have the resource for other opportunities. Starting now, we are leaving many of those of those other opportunities for another day. These are the actions that we need over the past few months, and we are talking now to refocusing Helbiz on our core opportunity. First, we have to shut down most unprofitable cities. The other are either profitable or we have a plan to achieve profit very soon, quickly. We also have Wheels B2B2C operations in Wheels in several cities.
Jonathan will discuss this initiative in greater detail in a moment. Second, we complete the merge with Wheels, which extend our vehicle type and refine our business model. Helbiz is our share model. You can find a Helbiz vehicle on any street corner in which we operate. We can rent it for a few minutes to a few hours. In contrast, Wheels is a B2B2C model. A great example is in hospitality. A hotel can rent 20 vehicles at a flat monthly rate that have them available in the lobby for guests to use or rent the hour. Another example is in college campus, which we can rent fleets that are then available to students to use as needed to go around the campus. We have sustainably increased our revenue run rate and give us the ability to expand the model to other cities.
Today, we are operating in several cities and universities, including California, Hawaii, and Massachusetts, there is room to grow. Most important, become B2B is a direct lease to a business, no license is required. This save a huge amount of money and enable a very quick time to market. We intend to mostly pursue the Wheels B2B model as we grow in the U.S. Third, we have restructured how we are approaching food delivery, which is now an extension of our mobility business. Helbiz Kitchen got good early traction in Milan, leading to us operating other two facility with a partner. We extend our footprint into the U.S. by partnering with Kitchen United, a U.S. operator that share infrastructure kitchen. Kitchen United will provide the capital-intensive facility so that Helbiz can concentrate on menu innovation and the app interface for ordering.
An example, Santa Monica and Los Angeles are now the first two cities in the U.S. where you can order food and rent a vehicle using the Helbiz app. Jonathan will elaborate on this initiative as well. Finally, while media revenue is growing, we are seeking the right strategy partner to manage the business with us. Even take over the business. We love the idea to complementing go out mobility with stay in food and entertainment, but the capital required for media is better deployed in our mobility business. That is the main reason that we are looking for a partner in the media business. The new Helbiz you see today is very much focused on two things: achieve profitability operations and quickly, as quickly as possible, and refocusing our fantastic opportunity in our core business, mobility business.
Our ambition were large, market condition did not support the growth. Now we are concentrating our profitability. As the largest shareholder on Helbiz, I am painfully aware of this. We know how to ride the ship. We have a great market opportunity upon which we can build a large profitable business over the time. In fact, we are firmly convinced that the best is yet to come. In the next few days, we will unveil a major transformation that we believe will create an even stronger and more exciting company. This next initiative is going to bold and will mark a turning point in the life of our company. We are sure you will not be disappointed. Pay close attention. The unveiling is coming soon. Now I will turn the call over to Jonathan, our COO.
Jonathan will go over detail with our operation transformation today. Jonathan?
Thank you, Salvatore, and good day, everyone. As Salvatore described, Helbiz is transforming itself into a lean, focused organization with only two goals: get to profitability as quickly as possible, and focus on delivering the best customer experience in our core micromobility market. We are well on our the way to achieving those goals. I'll now give you more detail on how we're implementing the transformation that Salvatore described. First, our core micromobility business. In Helbiz scooter sharing, we have shut down operations in most unprofitable cities. During 2022, we shut down five cities and opened 10 new cities, including seven new cities and three campus communities by leveraging the Wheels network. At year-end 2022, we had 10 active licenses in the U.S. and 20 in Europe. Meanwhile, we closed the Wheels acquisition and have eliminated redundancies and rationalized operations. Most of the operational folks are still with us.
We did need to eliminate redundant corporate positions and took the remaining Wheels employees into our corporate operation. As Salvatore Palella pointed out, the Wheels B2B2C model does not require licensing, which is a huge cost savings. Since we're no longer pursuing vehicle-sharing licenses in unprofitable cities, we do not need to carry the expense of our government relations teams. We have eliminated most positions while shifting some to B2B sales, which are extremely cost-effective. To keep our micromobility offering fresh, valuable, and growing, we're expanding it through low cost, low capital partnerships with industry leaders. For example, we partner with Wetaxi, a top taxi hailing app in Italy. Our users can easily get a ride from their smartphone and transition from a Helbiz vehicle to a taxi.
Another example is a partnership with Google Maps, which allows users to easily find Helbiz vehicles in their area. Furthermore, we plan to move into public transit. We'll kick off with a pilot program that integrates third-party public transit options into the Helbiz platform. This will enable users to easily purchase, store, and redeem train tickets through the Helbiz app. This initiative will enable our users to use different modes of transportation within one single journey. Let me turn the call over to our CFO, Giulio, to discuss our financial performance.
Thank you, Jonathan. Our detailed financials can be found in our earnings release and Form 10-K filings. We will concentrate on discussing the drivers of financial performance. Keep in mind that all figures given are for the full year 2022, and all comparisons are with full year 2021, unless I note otherwise. Revenue was $15.5 million, up 21%, primarily driven by mobility revenue of $8.4 million and media revenue of $6.5 million. The combined pro forma full year revenue of Helbiz and Wheels Labs, Inc. would have amounted to $21.2 million. In 2022, we had over 460,000 annual active platform users, up 15%. Trips slipped in 2022 due to the decrease in operating cities.
This was partially offset by the addition of cities in which Wheels operates, although Wheels only contributed from November 18th onwards. Beyond lower trips, a stronger dollar versus the EUR contributed to the decrease in mobility revenue. Constant currency mobility revenue would have been 9% higher. Mobility was 50% of revenue, with 77% from pay-per-ride and 16% from the growing subscription offering. Mobility cost of revenue decreased 10%. As we rely more on the Wheels model that doesn't require licenses, we expect less licensing impact to mobility cost of sales. Looking at Helbiz Kitchen, 2022 was the first full year of operations, and revenue tripled. While Helbiz Kitchen was a smaller contributed to revenue, we're confident it can grow rapidly in the U.S. Our strategic partnership with Kitchen United will help drive that growth.
Let's shift gears to operating expenses, which increased 24%. The rise was in part due to the impairment charge against the fair value of mobility assets that occurred in Q3 of 2022, which was about 12% of the total OpEx. The impairment was due to the cutback on operating e-mopeds and the adverse macroeconomic environment. Without the impairment, OpEx would have been lower this year. Beyond that, non-cash equity-based compensation expense was $3.3 million in 2022, another 4% of total OpEx. Looking ahead, we anticipate COGS to decline and thus gross margin to increase. A big part of that would be the reduction coming from media, which was 46% of COGS and 22% of OpEx. We expect mobility costs to become more efficient by leveraging Wheels B2B2C model, thus reducing vehicle sharing licensing expense.
Additionally, we are constantly cutting operating costs and optimizing cost structure, particularly in general administrative expenses. Ultimately, we are optimistic that our efforts to reduce operating expenses will yield a decrease across all areas of our business. This will bring us one step closer to achieving bottom-line profitability, an intense focus for us right now. Regarding our balance sheet and liquidity, as of December 31st, 2022, cash and equivalents were $429,000. Cash used in 2022 was primarily for the acquisition of the Wheels, as well as expansion in first half that we are now rationalizing. Since year-end, we raised $4.5 million. We're okay with cash in the near term. That cash came from the issuance of a convertible promissory note.
We also entered into equity lines of credit in which we can sell up to $70 million of common stock. These lines provide us with the option but not an obligation. We can do any issuance at the time of our choosing during the term of the agreement. During 2023, we plan to fund operations and expansion through more debt and equity financing as needed. Let me now touch on our stock, in particular, compliance with the listing requirements. On March 8th, 2023, we received a letter from Nasdaq confirming our regained compliance with the market value of listed securities requirements. We still need to resolve the requirement of a share price above $1. We will soon announce our plan to resolve that issue. Looking ahead, we're optimistic.
Wheels brings in significant new revenue, new city coverage, and an innovative lower cost B2B2C model that we can use nationwide. Our aggressive cost rationalization is setting us up to reach profitable operations quickly. As Salvatore mentioned, we have some big news coming in a few days that will cement our progress in transforming Helbiz into an even stronger leader in micromobility. Please stay tuned. Let me turn the call back to Salvatore to wrap up. Salvatore?
Thank you, Giulio. We are grateful for the dedication of our team and the support of our shareholders. Over the past few months, we have taken aggressive and painful action to rationalize our business and set it on a path for sustainability, profitability growth. Our initiatives were extensive, and they are not over yet. In fact, the best is yet to come. In the next few days, we will unveil some major change that we believe will accelerate our transformation and build an even stronger and more exciting company. Please keep an eye on us. This next initiative is going to be bold and will mark a turning point in the life of our company. We are sure we will not be disappointed. Now I will turn the call over to Gary for some financial structure regarding our Q&A. Gary, go ahead.
Thanks, Salvatore. As a reminder, Helbiz partnered with Say Technologies to allow verified retail and institutional shareholders to submit and upvote questions, a selection of which will be answered by Helbiz management after the earnings call. The platform is open from Monday, March 27th at 12:00 P.M. Eastern Time and will close on Wednesday, March 29th at 5:00 P.M. Eastern Time. To submit questions, please refer to the link we shared in our press release right after the market closed today. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may all now disconnect.