Hi everyone, and welcome. Today we're sharing the interim report for Q1 . My name is Erik Jivmark. I'm the CEO at Sleep Cycle, and with me I have Elisabeth Hedman, our CFO and Head of Investor Relations. We are Sleep Cycle. We are the world's leading sleep technology company. We have a mission to improve global health by helping people to take control of their sleep. We are used and loved by millions and available in more than 150 markets, in app stores, and as part of many wearables. At the core, our app helps people build healthy sleep habits, something that is more needed than ever. What sets us apart is that we're not just the world's largest sleep app; we have a proprietary technology platform as well.
Everything we do, from sleep tracking and smart alarms to audio features like sleep aids, snore detection, and sleep talking recording, helps users understand and improve their sleep. It is all built on proprietary audio and sleep science technology, engaging and powered by science. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right now, and the macroeconomic pressure is impacting markets across the board. During Q1, we saw a continued downward trend among many of our peers in terms of downloads. This is not new. We already saw signs of this in Q4, as shared at our year-end call. While we are still growing our subscriber base year -over -year, which shows our relevance and resilience, we are also impacted. The slowdown has also continued into April.
Now, despite the drop in downloads, which is affecting the entire industry, and as I said, many of our competitors are down much more, there are some bright spots. Our brand has a strong presence, and what I often said before, a true market fit. We see that our conversion rates and annual renewal rates are steady. That tells us that the users who do come in are highly engaged and sticking with us. Also, we have to remember, even though the sleep segment is down in the App Store right now, the societal interest for sleep has never been greater. That is why we are doubling down on expanding beyond the app. We stand by our financial targets, but it will not be a linear journey. We have continued to gain market share in a tough quarter.
That's a direct result of our focus on what we can control, like onboarding and win-back strategies, which are paying off. Churn is going down. We see that the release of Sleep Stages in December has improved data reliability, which was a strategic bet for decreasing churn. We're truly focusing on what we can control, and the team is doing it well. We're currently growing faster than our competitors, and that momentum is fueled by organic loops and a stronger brand presence, and we are only down around 10% in new downloads. This is thanks to our true product-market fit. We see that some competitors relying heavily on paid media and less on product development are down massively. Our efforts regarding new customers are taking shape with a newly formed team, as well as the launch of our refreshed brand.
On the partnership side, we have renewed our agreement with Wellhub under much better terms, locking in a guaranteed revenue for several years. Our collaboration with Revolut is also progressing well. MyFitnessPal, on the other hand, was something we were clear about that we did not really know what to expect given the new way of partnering and also the underlying technology. We can conclude that it has not performed, and we are closely evaluating the next steps there. Sleep and its benefits are as relevant as ever. Our basic human needs have not shifted. People still need quality sleep to function, to focus, and to feel well. If anything, the demand is growing. What we see is that sleep is also being consumed outside of pure sleep apps. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity.
It's pushing us to think more broadly about how and where our technology can add value. This is why Powered by Sleep Cycle was born. At the core of everything we do is our AI sound model. It's developed in-house. It's trained on over 3 billion nights of sleep, and it's continuously evolving. This technology is what powers the world's number one sleep app. I mean, it generates unique data insights. It enables smart features like full sleep staging and snore detection, and it creates real value for users night after night. We're no longer keeping that power just inside the app. With Powered by Sleep Cycle, we're opening up our technology to the world. That means others can license our SDK and integrate it into their own products and services, whether it's wellness, healthcare, wearables, or even physical products.
Whether it is enriching our own app, unlocking new revenue streams through data and integrations, or addressing global health challenges, this platform is designed to scale. We currently have multiple discussions underway with potential partners who are interested in exploring these kinds of integrations. These conversations are, of course, also helping us shape our offering. However, we are not only looking to use our platform and technology to power others, but also our own future. Sleep apnea is a massive global health issue and still dramatically underdiagnosed. Our technology and also the ability to understand breathing gives us a unique opportunity to address this at scale, directly from the phone. We are now starting the process for medical certification. It is a big step forward. It is still early days, but if successful, Sleep Cycle could become the first FDA and CE-approved app for large-scale sleep apnea screening.
Of course, a medical certification would also help us in many of the partnership dialogues and build increased trust in our product also outside sleep apnea. We're confident in our technology and in the value it can bring. The potential market is big, and the need is real. Our goal is to kick off the clinical trials in Q2, marking the beginning of a long-term opportunity to help millions of people sleep and live better. With that, I'm handing over to Elisabeth to take us through the financial developments for Q1.
Thank you, Erik. Let's begin with a summary of the quarter's key financial metrics. On the subscription side, we reached 904,000 subscriptions, which is up 1.2% year over year, but it is a decrease compared to last quarter. The ARPU amounted to SEK 272, representing a slight year-over-year decrease of 1.5%, mainly driven by weaker new sales that is also negatively affected by the weaker US dollar and efforts to convert free users to paying subscribers. We have had more customers coming in at a lower ARPU. During the first quarter, we recorded a 2.3% year-over-year increase in net revenue, reaching SEK 64.9 million, and the EBIT came in at SEK 17.1 million, corresponding to a solid EBIT margin of 26.3%, a reflection of continued cost discipline and operational efficiency. Despite some short-term headwinds, the long-term development has been stable, and we're staying on course.
The number of paying subscribers decreased by 14,000 during the quarter, but is still 11,000 higher than last year, reaching 904,000. While we faced around 10% fewer downloads compared to Q1 last year, driven by the tougher market conditions, both our conversion rate and renewal rate remained steady. In a volatile market environment, we are strengthening our position and gaining market share as we see that competitors are hit even harder. This demonstrates the underlying strength of our product and our ability to retain and engage the users over time. Net sales totaled at SEK 64.9 million, and the growth rate for the quarter was somewhat impacted by a lower ARPU and a lower sales to new customers, but we are maintaining our long-term growth trajectory and strong margins. Let's move on to profitability.
As previously mentioned, we reported an EBIT of SEK 17.1 million for the quarter, which corresponds to a 26.3% EBIT margin. It's a solid result. The margin is slightly down compared to previous quarters, and that's mainly due to higher marketing costs and some additional investments we've made to explore new revenue streams, intentional steps aligned with our long-term strategy. If we look at the adjusted EBIT, excluding non-recurring items, our margin has stayed above 25% for five quarters in a row. For this quarter, we did not have any non-recurring items. Before diving into the P&L for the quarter, I want to take a moment to highlight the impact of currency fluctuations that we have seen more of recently. Around 40% of our revenue is generated in US dollars. When the Swedish krona strengthens against the dollar, it reduces the SEK value of those sales.
Since much of our revenue is recognized over a 12-month period, the figures for this quarter reflect sales and exchange rates over the past year. If the current FX trends and softer market conditions persist, they may continue to affect revenue development going forward. We are also affected by FX in another way. Although the majority of our sales is made in foreign currencies, the payments we receive from platforms like Apple are settled in Swedish krona. There is a delay of up to two months between the time of sales and the time of payments, and if exchange rates shift during that period, it impacts the value of our transactions when it is recorded and, in turn, our profit. We did, however, record a net revenue growth of 2.3% or 1.6% currency adjusted.
The net revenue growth was driven by a higher number of paying subscribers compared to previous year and successful partnerships, although ARPU declined slightly due to a lower intake of new customers as well as our strategic premium and win-back campaigns. On the cost side, we had slightly lower distribution costs thanks to a more favorable mix between new and renewed subscriptions. The other external costs increased by 19.7%, somewhat due to higher marketing spend, in line with our plan to support future growth. Note that last year's figure included a rise of SEK 800,000. The staff costs were lower compared to Q1 last year, but that's explained by non-recurring items in Q1 2024 of SEK 5 million related to the reorganization and consolidation of offices. The average number of employees were 33 during Q1 this year compared to 37 last year.
Depreciation and amortization also decreased, mainly since the previous year's figure included the lease for two offices, both one in Gothenburg and one in Stockholm. Now we only have one. The other operating expenses include negative FX effects of SEK 1.3 million related to the time gap between point of sales and point of payment from Apple. Normally, these impacts are fairly limited, but due to the recent volatility in the US dollar and other currencies, the effect was more pronounced this quarter. The EBIT margin of 26.3% is in line with our long-term target of at least 25% annually. Finally, our liquidity remains strong at SEK 157 million at the end of the quarter. Now over to you, Erik, to wrap it up.
Thanks, Elisabeth. Our new strategy was designed with this in mind, and we stand firm by our financial targets. We're focusing on upper funnel. We're bringing product improvements to the app, and we see the results with decreasing churn and also new possibilities. We are taking market shares, and we're also accelerating our future bets, opening up our technology to the world with Powered by Sleep Cycle. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new bets will materialize, capturing the general interest around sleep and the growth beyond our current market reach. Thank you for your continued trust and support, and with that, we are happy to take the questions you might have.
All right, first, we have a question regarding what the main focus for management is to achieve the financial targets to increase the revenue since subscribers have been flat for the last years. Do you want to elaborate on that one, Erik?
Yeah, the strategy speaks about a couple of things. One is the upper funnel, and in this quarter, we have invested in a dedicated team working more diligently with the upper funnel activities. I think that is part of the reason why we are also seeing that we can take market shares in the current market. The other thing is obviously that we're continuing to invest in the product. We are a product company, and we see that when we make the right investments, such as sleep staging and allowing us to be able to track breathing, it also helps our renewal rate, mitigating churn. The third thing, which is one of the bigger things that we talked about today, is the fact that we are opening up our technology platform.
What has made us the most successful sleep app in the world, that underlying proprietary technology, is now something that we are opening up to partners to be able to leverage and to build, either integrate in their current experiences or to build on top. I mean, we are an authority within sleep science, but also sleep technology. We are starting the discussions with some very well-known brands across relevant segments, but also devices, and we have high hopes on that. All of this, we believe, will help us to generate the growth that we have set out in the financial targets.
There is a question regarding if we can elaborate on the item capitalized work for own account in the P&L and why it differs from the line in the cash flow statement? What we have in the P&L is the work from our own staff. So it is SEK 400,000 capitalized from our own staff. The difference between that one and the figure SEK 3.8 million in the cash flow statement is external costs. Currently, we have three projects that we are capitalizing on. One is obviously sleep apnea. That is the main project. We have also launched a new web that will improve the web to app process and hopefully leading to more customers joining us from the web instead of through the app stores. We have also been working on a Cough Radar site that will show and visualize our data that we possess.
What would be a realistic timeline for the sleep apnea certification? Well, as you know, getting a medical approval, it's going through some different steps. For us, this is a mid to long-term effort, and we are currently progressing through all the regulatory process. We have had meetings with some regulatory bodies, and it is on the back of those meetings that we have decided to start our clinical trial now in the second quarter. After that, after we see the outcome of the clinical trial, that is when we will decide to go for the formal application or not.
Yes, we have a question also regarding the sleep apnea project, what the cost will be per quarter? As I previously mentioned, we are capitalizing this as we see it as quite an investment for us. The amounts that will be invested will differ from quarter to quarter. We will be working on this the full year and somewhat into next year as well.
We also got a question on the marketing. You previously said you're waiting to find traction before starting increasing in marketing. Why did you start to increase in marketing? We see traction in marketing. That's why we have started to increase the spend. We are always keeping a close eye on cost per install, cost per trial, but also the CAC, LTV. As soon as we see that, that's when we started to invest. I think we're still investing moderately. You mentioned in the CEO letter that the sleep health segment has seen a decline in the App Store, c ould you elaborate on your thoughts on the key drivers in this trend? I think first of all, we have to remember that health is a super popular and growing category. I mean, it's very clear that people are willing to invest in their well-being.
What part of health we're willing to invest in shifts over time, and we see right now, which we believe is temporary and probably also connected to some of the uncertainty in the world, that our peers and our segment is slightly down. It also makes us aware that we need to be able to keep more than one thing in our head at the same time. We can focus on our app business, which we have done during the quarter. We have taken market shares, but we also need to diversify and broaden our offers with Powered by Sleep Cycle, selling the technology, but also building new products on top of our technology, such as sleep apnea. Sleep as a topic, it's growing, and we need to think about it more broadly.
We have another question regarding FX, how we should think about that going forward, particularly in the light of the recent SEK strength, and how balanced is our FX profile in terms of revenues and costs. The majority of our costs are in Swedish krona, and as I said, we get our payments in Swedish Krona as well. The FX translation is made on the partnership side. Obviously, we are looking at what we can do to make the effects smaller.
We have a question around 80% of new users come from recommendation. Does it include recommendation from app stores? Yes, I mean, 80% of our new users are organic, and that could come through word of mouth, but also the fact that we are organically surfaced by app stores, so i t is both. Any other questions? Any measurable effects in customer acquisition retention of the new branding launched in March? We have not rolled it out to current users yet, so it is too early to say. We have obviously done tests on the current user base. We launched it during the later part of March for new users, and we rolled it out gradually. We see some promising signs in terms of onboarding and conversion rates, but since we went live fairly late in March, it is too early to draw any significant conclusions.
All right, we have a question regarding how we work with the excess of cash if we focus on receiving a good interest rate from the bank? Yes, obviously, we do have a large cash at our hand, and we work with banks to make sure that we get the best interest we can, given our strategy for it. There is also a question regarding buybacks and why it is not used as a tool? This is something that is a question for the board and the AGM, of course. I know it has been looked into, and due to the lower liquidity in the share as well as the way the cap table looks, it was deemed to be a better solution to give a higher dividend this year, at least.
We have a question about the eNPS. My view is that people at Sleep Cycle are quite happy to be here. We have to remember that we have done quite significant changes during the last year, and of course, being a small team, that impacts the feelings that people have. I feel we're in a good place as a team, and we are aligned on the things we are achieving going forward. We got a question on the medical certification for sleep apnea screening. How do you expect this to influence your commercial strategy and revenue model? I think it's too early to say. We will come back on the revenue assumptions that we've made. Obviously, we have a strong business case in the background. That's the reason why we're investing in this. At the same time, we will conduct some tests in parallel.
We're doing that already now with users where we do fake door tests, etc., to see click-through rates and so forth. We do not expect any sales or revenue connected to sleep apnea in 2025. Could you comment on subscriber retention and churn during the quarter? Yeah, both subscriber retention or churn developed positively during the quarter. I think that speaks about the fact that the product we have is loved. The challenge is that right now, the last couple of months, it has been fewer people in the upper funnel. That is the reason why we saw a bit of a decline in Q1.
Again, our product stands strong compared to the competitors, and we are also, of course, converting a lot of new people, but there are fewer people in the funnel right now, and that is what we are actively working with to ensure that we convert as many of them as possible and also broadening our reach through the partnership strategies, etc.
When you now found traction in marketing, when do you expect to return to growth? Is it necessary for the market to turn before you can grow again? No, I do not think we need the market to turn. I think we are in charge of our own destiny. I think, again, we have proven that during the quarter, we have been growing or taking market shares quite significantly. I do not see that as being the problem. Good. Thank you very much, everyone, for the questions and for listening in.
As I said, we have an exciting quarter ahead of us. We are putting a lot of new things in the market, both short-term to make sure that we continue to take the market shares and that we can continue to grow. But also, we are also putting in quite some substantial efforts in the medium to long-term bets that we have. I am really excited to see how these will start to materialize during the next couple of months. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you so much. Bye.