Hello, and welcome to today's webcast with Freemelt. With us presenting today, we have the CEO, Daniel Gidlund, and CFO, Martin Granlund. If you have any questions, please feel free to use the form located to the right, and we'll take that up during the Q&A. With that said, please go ahead with your presentation.
Thank you. Today's agenda is mainly about the Q1 result, but we always add a specific topic. As we have many new shareholders during 2025, we actually would like to zoom in and explain the revenue streams a bit more and when and how it's reported. Please raise any questions in the chat, and we will try to answer as many as possible after the presentation is done. Welcome. Just to start with a recap regarding Freemelt. Freemelt, we were founded in 2017. What we do is we develop advanced 3D printers for metal applications. The technology is called E-PBF, so electron-beam powder bed fusion. The focus area we have is really related to complex and high-performance materials and parts. This is where our technology is highly suitable. Areas that are typically after complex and high-performance components are in defense and in medtech.
That is our three main focus areas. Having that said, our technology is not dependent on any specific materials, but we focus on tungsten, which is mainly for defense, energy, to a certain point medtech as well. Titanium, which is mainly for orthopedic implants, but also could be related to defense. And then copper, which can actually be in defense, energy as main segments. Where we're trying to differentiate as a company within 3D printing is that we have a modular system. The key focus is really to shorten down cycle times, which means to increase the productivity. As 3D printing has mainly been successful in prototype printing, Freemelt really now tried to take this to the next level and outcompete the traditional manufacturing. Our customer base has so far mainly been academia, so focus really a lot on universities, research institutes.
The reason is also that they can enable the industry to really develop new materials and components that will drive value for AM. Also because of the fact that our first machine was really related to the academia side and research. Now we have an industrial machine, eMELT, in place that was launched during last year. We are number two in the world when it comes to E-PBF, and we have so far sold 32 machines globally. If we look into our three focus areas, sorry, defense and then energy and medtech, I would say all of them are really under growth. I would say due to the geopolitical turmoil that we're having, I would say that defense and also energy are more impacted in a, let's say, positive way.
I would even say that the numbers that you see on the screen here most probably are outdated. I think now with the EU also announcing huge ramp-up in defense, I would expect to see even bigger growth moving forward. Freemelt, at this moment, we are exposed in all these three areas, as you can see on the screen. These are publicly announced engagements, but we also have a few that we have not and cannot expose so far. During the end of last year, medtech, medtech is, and this is specifically orthopedic implants. This is the most mature industry that has adopted additive manufacturing mostly. Here, of course, it was really a great breakthrough when we signed the agreement with two orthopedic implant companies. If we zoom in then on Q1, and to summarize, I would do it in three bullets.
First, just to find cash for non-profitable tech companies, that has been a challenge over the past year. That is why I am very happy that we managed to close a rights issue in a successful way during Q1, SEK 90 million in gross, so before any cost deducted for the transaction. We also have a potential additional SEK 53 million in 2026 connected to this. The other part on a positive note is our commercial efforts over the past year are starting to pay off now as well. We ended this quarter with a record high order book.
Last but not least, as I mentioned on the previous slide as well, I mean, after having a positive development on medtech end of last year, we saw a strong demand in the first quarter now within our two other focus areas, energy and defense, both when it comes to paid projects, but also when it comes to machine sales as well. Since a few quarters back, we have started to report our paid customer projects as well. As you may recall from the previous webcast, we informed also that we have started 28 projects during 2024 until now in Q1 as well. What you can see here on the screen is a few of the active ones now that we have in Q1, and where we also can see some good progress as well.
If we start with the new projects in Q1, the first one is Fusion for Energy. This is the EU part in the largest fusion energy research project globally, ITER. Of course, we're extremely pleased with the fact that we were selected to lead this study. The other part is a successful phase one, now into phase two, and that is within defense and that is with Saab Bofors Dynamics. Also a similar situation when it comes to UKAEA, so the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, where we have had an engagement now for the past almost two years, very successful from starting with material qualification, and now we're actually in production scalability. I think this really demonstrates that Freemelt really provides a true value throughout the whole kind of process. On top of this, we also got the machine order from UKAEA.
If we then should zoom in, as I said initially, just to explain a bit more the revenue streams and how that works at Freemelt. First of all, when it comes to our academia customers, that's really, first of all, a transactional business. Their purpose is really to do material research. This is why it's quite rare that the university or research institute is purchasing a product from Freemelt. Typically, they buy a machine, and in some cases, we support them regarding their research as well. If we zoom in on the industrial side on the projects, we need to define this more in a client that has no additive operation or exposure at this moment. We typically start with a material qualification, and this we charge for.
Just to average, this is around EUR 25,000 up to maybe EUR 100,000 that we can charge. If it's successful, then it moves into application testing. Same kind of thing there. It's something we charge the client for. In some cases, also industrial clients like IHI that we have as a client, they would invest in a Freemelt One and do the research themselves. If we have a successful application testing, we move into proof of concept. Here, if we move into proof of concept, the customer can either purchase an eMELT and do the proof of concept themselves, or they purchase a project from Freemelt to do this. What's new during Q1 as well is that specifically for tungsten, we have got requests from project customers within tungsten.
If Freemelt also can support in manufacturing tungsten parts as well, which we have decided as a company to add as an additional business model on top of selling equipment and services. If your industrial client is in additive already, then most of the time you have already been through all material qualification, you have designed your product, then you move more into the proof of concept to really qualify the Freemelt system in regards to productivity, etc. Here, typically, you purchase a machine and do your proof of concept before you then go into volume machine orders, which in the end will start to generate aftermarket and recurring business as well. I hope that at least explains a bit better the different kind of revenue streams that we're having. With that said, I would like to hand over to you, Martin.
Thank you, Daniel. Let's have a look at the top line of SEK 2.9 million in the first quarter of 2025. The main drivers were projects and aftermarket. We continue to see a strong development in the project pipeline. The aftermarket is solid. Over time, it increases, but it increases slowly. This is, of course, in line with the increased footprint that we have with the Freemelt machines in North America and in Europe. There were no machine deliveries in the quarter, which, of course, negatively impacts net sales. One machine order has quite a big impact, as you know. The small amount of machine revenue that was recognized in the first quarter is related to rental machines, where the customer actually rents the machine on-premise.
Looking at the order book, we were at an all-time high, SEK 19.3 million in the order book, and the order book represents revenues, sorry, received POs, which we have not yet invoiced. The mix is to the larger part machine orders and to a smaller extent projects, which we expect to then convert to sales in the near future. On the next slide, we are having a look at the operating cash flow, the black line, and also the inventory, which are the dark green bars. We have also mapped this towards the order book, which you saw on the previous slide. I see the timeline has fallen off, but it is Q1 2025 to the right and then six quarters back, of course. The operating cash flow is decreasing. We saw a minus of SEK 13 million approximately. The drivers for this are, of course, the increased inventory.
We are building in anticipation of POs, and we are building on the back of received POs, and that increases our inventory and negatively impacts our operating cash flow in the short term. We also see that account receivables are increasing. That is invoices sent, but we have not converted those to cash yet. Cash conversion will happen in the near future for those invoices. The receivables increased quite a lot at the end of the first quarter. Looking at the payment schedule, I will talk more about it in a second, but we have 30-60-10. 30% is typically paid at order of a machine, 60% at delivery of the machine, and 10% at a successful site acceptance test.
Then we have occasional rentals, which are also a drag on the operating cash flow as it costs a lot to build a machine, but the revenue is then stretched out over time. Inventory, as I mentioned, is at an all-time high of SEK 17 million. It locks up cash, but of course, the positive is that the high inventory should be seen in relation to the order book that the company has. We need to deliver on those orders. I'd like to go into a little bit on the purchase order to revenue recognition, have a closer look at the order book conversion. How does the order book convert into P&L, and how does the order book convert into cash? Typically, you've probably seen we press release some of the orders, the bigger ones, the machine orders, and that's when we create the order book.
At order, we typically invoice 30%, as I just mentioned. That sort of hits the order book, but then goes right out, and then we have 70% left in the order book. We have a 30% down payment. This is industry practice. The idea is to cover the costs of manufacturing the machine. For some machine types, it does. For some machine types, it does not, but almost, but it is an approximation. 60% is invoiced at delivery, which can be two to six months later. It varies a lot, and I think there are mainly three factors behind the varying timeline. The first one is the machine type. The Freemelt ONE, which we have sold since 2019, is fairly quick from order to delivery. We have fairly quick turnaround times on those. The new machine, the eMELT-i D, we have longer delivery times. It is a more complex machine to buy.
There are longer lead times for purchases, procurement for this machine, which makes the lead times extend. Then we have the third variable, which is the customer site preparations. The customer needs to do preparations on their site to be able to handle the machine and to install the machine at their site. We're a little bit dependent on the customer how soon they will get the premises prepared. When we have done the last part, the SAT, site acceptance test, only when we have a successful site acceptance test, that's when we recognize the revenues in the P&L. Even if everything has been invoiced or 90% has been invoiced before, it's only at the very last invoice where the net sales is recognized in the P&L together with the cost of goods.
There is quite a lag, and I think this should be the expectation looking at the order book, how soon the order book will be converted into sales. We should bear in mind that the order book also includes some odd items like rentals, which can be extended over a longer period of time, which blurs the picture a little bit. This is a typical example. Just mentioning something about projects as well. The projects that Daniel spoke about before, they have very differing payment schedules, very different deliverables agreed, milestones, etc. There is no typical example of a project how it's invoiced. It's very much case by case depending on what is agreed. No sort of typical example when it comes to those. Machine sales, you should expect what you see on this picture. Thanks.
Excellent. Thank you, Martin. Let's wrap up Q1, which was one of the most intensive, but also I would say most positive quarters for me personally since I joined Freemelt a bit more than two years ago. I think the geopolitical situation is really changing the winds for AM and also for Freemelt. Especially, I would say in two of our focus areas, which is defense and energy. Here, AM, so additive manufacturing, can actually play a critical role both when it comes to innovative manufacturing, so new type of materials, new type of applications that are really demanded at this moment, but also from a distributed manufacturing point of view. One of the key risks that sensitive parts are exposed to at this moment is that you need to source different kinds of parts, subassemblies, etc., for getting the component together.
When it comes to additive manufacturing, you place the 3D printer where the part is needed, and you can manufacture it locally. During the quarter, I think we also then managed to demonstrate that Freemelt is in a good position both in energy but also in defense, where we got additional orders from Saab from a successful phase one, but also where we expanded our collaboration with UKAEA. UKAEA is one of the leading parties when it comes to development of fusion energy. In the end, even they also purchased an eMELT machine, which, of course, was very rewarding. Also the fact that we managed to get a product order through Fusion for Energy, which is related then to ITER, which is the largest fusion research project globally, was, of course, highly rewarding as well.
All of this led to that we ended up the quarter strong with a record high order book, as we mentioned, of SEK 19 million. Last but not least, I think this year is Freemelt's eighth year as a company. Our ambition is to continue to execute on our strategic growth journey towards being a successful commercial company. With that said, we open up for questions.
Thank you very much, Daniel and Martin, for that presentation. Yes, let's open up the Q&A section here. Starting with the first one. With SEK 12 million in the 2024 order book, plus UKAEA of roughly SEK 8 million and two Freemelt One, should not the order book be closer to SEK 25 million instead of SEK 19 million, even after the Q1 revenue?
Thanks. I'll answer to this one. It's a good question, right? To again explain from receiving the purchase order to recognizing revenues in the P&L. When we receive the purchase order, that's one moment where we recognize the future revenue in the order book. Up until recognizing the net sales, we actually do send invoices, but we don't recognize them. You see them in account receivables or in prepaid income at the later stage. That's when you see them in the balance sheet, and they will be converted into net sales when we have completed the site acceptance test. Look at order book plus account receivables, prepaid income, and net sales.
Thank you very much, Martin, for clarifying that. How do you approach communication with the market regarding ongoing and future collaborations and business opportunities? How do you decide what level of details to share, particularly concerning the phases of various partnerships, but also projects?
Also a very good question. I think we have tried to be more and more transparent with that said. We try to not, of course, overcommunicate as well. We really try to zoom in and communicate on all the paid customer projects that we receive, but also, as we show today, try to also show progress, not on all, but on the major ones that start to progress through the different kinds of phases. As we know that this is important to be informed about, to be aware of, as the intention is to it should lead to sales of machines, and especially the industrial machine. It is a balance, and we try to keep it as much into the most interesting projects as possible.
Thank you for that answer. In Q1, you strengthened your collaboration with Saab Dynamics through a second project order on defense applications. Have you observed increased interest in your technology as a result of the current geopolitical climate?
Yes, I can answer that. I would say yes. Our technology is, as I mentioned initially, really suitable for more complex applications and high-performing parts. Not only, I mean, defense, also energy is two industries that really have a high demand and an urgent demand of this as well. During this geopolitical situation, those two specifically are really in focus. I would definitely say that the geopolitical is turning from a headwind that we had to educate our customers about the value of additive manufacturing into more tailwind as well.
Speaking of geopolitics, have you noticed any impact from the U.S. tariffs yet?
Not at this moment, no.
In Q1, you also made significant progress in fusion energy through an eMELT order from UKAEA and project orders from UKAEA and Oxford Sigma. Could you elaborate on how these orders are strategically important for Freemelt?
Sure. I think as energy is one of our key focus areas, and also UKAEA is one of the leading parties when it comes to fusion energy development, it's, of course, I mean, really of strategic importance for us as a company to have a client like UKAEA. I think it has already proven that due to the successful collaboration with UKAEA over the past two years, it has also generated more interest from other parties. I would say that some of the other product orders that we have received as well have been a lot thanks to UKAEA. Customer references in our key focus areas are definitely of strategic importance.
Thank you for that answer. We'll take one final question here before wrapping up the Q&A section. After the end of Q1, you announced a new project order and a collaboration with Fusion for Energy, the EU organization supporting ITER. Could you share more details about this exciting initiative and the specific role that Freemelt will play here?
Sure. Yeah. Fusion for Energy is the, I mean, let's turn around. Actually, ITER is the largest R&D project within fusion globally. Actually, the whole world is contributing. The European part is actually hosted by Fusion for Energy. This specific project we will lead. It's about qualifying tungsten as a material. Again, just to make a short recap, tungsten is the material with the highest melting point in the periodic system. Of course, one of the key features is that it can resist heat. If you look into a fusion reactor, we're talking hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius in there and also a lot of radiation. That's why tungsten is really suitable for that type of application.
Secondly, what also will be tested in this product is that you can also get copper on the back of the tungsten plate. You can also then transfer the heat out to the cooling system through copper. Really, to join the tungsten and the copper part is also part of this project, which we also do with our partner Fraunhofer. The project will be running for approximately 15 months, and Freemelt is leading it from that perspective.
Okay. Thank you very much, Daniel and Martin, for presenting today and answering all of our questions. Thank everyone who tuned in to this presentation with Freemelt. I wish you all a great rest of the day. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.