Thank you, everyone, for joining us today, and welcome to MineHub's investor webinar for the quarter ending October 31st, 2024. My name is Pardeep Sanga, and I will be the moderator for today's call. Joining me on the call today are Andrea Aranguren, CEO of MineHub, and Monika Russell, the company's CFO. This call is being recorded. There will be a question-and-answer session at the end of the call. I trust that everyone has received a copy of MineHub's financial results press release that was issued earlier today. Listeners are also encouraged to download a copy of the company's quarterly financial statements and management discussion analysis from SEDAR+. Please note, portions of today's call, other than historical performance, include statements of forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements are made under the safe harbor provisions of those laws.
We provide forward-looking statements solely for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. We do not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in adverse conditions, assumptions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except if it's required by law. Please refer to today's press release and our management discussion analysis filed on SEDAR+ for our disclosure of risks, uncertainties, and various factors that cause actual results to differ materially from our projections, and with that, let me turn the call over to Andrea Aranguren, CEO of MineHub. Go ahead, Andrea.
Thank you, Pardeep, and welcome, everyone. We really appreciate you joining us today. On today's call, I will provide an overview of MineHub, plus comment on our customer activity and product development efforts. After that, Monika will review our financial results for the quarter, and we will then conclude with the company's strategic goals and outlook for the year ahead. For new listeners on the call, I'll provide a little background on MineHub. We are the digital supply chain platform for the commodities market, making raw material supply chains more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. MineHub provides enterprise-grade digital solutions that connect buyers, sellers, laboratories, and financiers within the physical commodity supply chain in a digitally integrated workflow. It's powered by data that is usable, shareable, verifiable, and unforgeable.
Users of our solutions are in full control of their supply chains, enabling them to optimize their use of resources, respond better and faster to disruptions, and provide better customer service. Global enterprises are already using MineHub solutions as part of their logistics, compliance, trade management, and financing operations. There are several key highlights from the quarter that I'd like to mention. MineHub's year-to-date revenue has increased by nearly 20% year over year, driven by growth in SaaS revenue. The company is successfully transitioning to a recurring SaaS subscription revenue model rather than pursuing one-off professional services fees arrangements that we had seen in fiscal 2024. We are pleased to see our customers driving this year-over-year growth, demonstrating the value that we bring to the commodities market. We continue to experience growth from our existing customers while also onboarding new customers, leading to improved financial performance.
We are forging exciting new strategic partnerships, and we remain encouraged by our robust sales pipeline. Earlier this month, MineHub entered into a definitive agreement with Abaxx Technologies Inc., wherein Abaxx intends to increase its strategic ownership of MineHub to a 19.99% interest in the capital of the company. The partnership with Abaxx is an important milestone in our journey towards digitizing the commodities industry, and it positions us well for continued growth and innovation. Our expansion into Asian markets is a key strategic priority for us, and we're thrilled to have made significant strides in this area in the third quarter through our partnerships with prominent companies like Sumitomo Corporation and Elane Technology Co., Ltd. We are seeing accelerating customer activity that's leading to an increasing cumulative gross merchandise value, or GMV, transacted on the MineHub platform.
We achieved GMV of $11.5 billion of commodities transacted on our platform in the nine months ended October 31st, 2024, compared with $9.6 billion of commodities transacted on the platform in the nine months ended October 31st, 2023. As we move forward, we remain focused on executing our growth strategy and delivering value to our customers, shareholders, and partners. I'd like to provide a little bit more detail on our partnership with Abaxx. Abaxx develops digital infrastructure for financial exchanges with a focus on commodities, energy, and sustainable finance. Our partnership and integration with Abaxx will allow for a seamless user lifecycle from pre-trade operations managed by Abaxx to post-trade management handled by MineHub. The potential of the partnership is undeniable, as it significantly enhances the customer experience, opens up access to additional commodities markets, and drives long-term commercial success.
On August 1st, 2024, we announced a strategic partnership and share exchange with Abaxx, whereby the companies are partnering to explore a wide range of commercial and product collaboration opportunities to drive digitization more broadly within the commodities market. With this partnership, Abaxx acquired approximately 10.83% of MineHub on an outstanding share basis. On October 5th, 2024, we finalized a definitive agreement with Abaxx, wherein Abaxx intends to increase its strategic ownership in MineHub from 10.83% to 19.99%. Under the terms of the agreement, Abaxx plans to acquire 8.8 million MineHub common shares. The transaction is expected to close on or before December 31st, 2024. The collaboration with Abaxx is being rolled out in phases. The teams have been collaborating to evaluate leveraging Abaxx's secure chat functionality within the MineHub platform to improve communication and centralized collaboration.
In the next phase, the teams will explore deeper data and platform integration between the two systems, bridging the pre-trade and post-trade experience and amplifying commercial traction. In future phases, Abaxx and MineHub may explore opportunities to improve the physical commodities' ability to meet evolving sustainability requirements, as well as to enable more efficient, secure hedging by providing a bridge between financial and physical commodities data while still preserving data privacy. Over the past quarter, we've started to accelerate our expansion into Asia with some really exciting developments. On September 26th, 2024, we announced an agreement with our first Chinese smelting company as a user of MineHub's trade management platform. This marks an important milestone in our expansion into the Chinese copper market. With the largest smelting capacity in the world and a robust domestic manufacturing supply chain, China is a critical market for the global copper ecosystem.
On October 16th, 2024, we announced the expansion of our commercial agreement with Sumitomo Corporation to include all of Sumitomo's non-ferrous metals business. This milestone solidifies the successful relationship between our companies and unlocks new opportunities for growth beyond copper markets, where we had been focused to date. Expansion into additional metals markets is expected to be a key driver in our potential for future revenue growth. On November 26th, 2024, we announced that we signed an agreement with Elane Technology Co., Ltd., a prominent logistics technology provider based in Beijing, China, and owner of CargoGo, a major visibility platform supporting supply chain efforts of 57 China-based Fortune 500 companies. This strategic partnership will leverage the strengths of both companies to unlock enhanced shipment tracking and visibility capabilities across the commodities market in Asia.
Along with the increase in customer activity, we strive to amplify the value delivered to customers by enhancing the offerings of features and functionality available on our platform. We added the following functionalities to the platform this quarter. First, we began phase one of our strategic partnership with Abaxx, which is aimed at exploring the use of Abaxx's secure chat functionality within our platform to enhance communication. On November 12th, 2024, we announced the release of our Assay Exchange Dashboard. This tool provides mining companies with a comprehensive overview of their concentrates deals, allowing customers to make real-time, data-driven decisions to optimize their concentrates operations. As mentioned earlier, we also partner with Elane Technology to provide best-in-class tracking and visibility for shipments in Asia, which is a key enhancement to our product offering for our Asian customers.
I will now turn the call over to Monika to go over the financial results for the quarter.
Thank you, Andrea. Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining the call today. Turning to our financial results, I'm pleased to report that we achieved strong results for the nine months ended October 31st, 2024, as we continue to successfully transition towards annually recurring SaaS subscription revenues. MineHub achieved revenue of $1.6 million in the first nine months of fiscal 2025, an increase of 19% as compared to revenue of $1.4 million generated in the prior year. SaaS revenue increased by $311,000, or 31%, as a result of both new customer growth and increasing revenue from existing customers. Growth in SaaS revenue was able to more than compensate for a decrease in non-recurring professional services revenue. Net loss for the nine months ended October 31st, 2024, was $4.7 million, compared to a net loss of $5.2 million in the prior year, which represents an 11% improvement.
This improvement in net loss is primarily due to better cost management and increased revenue. We are in close contact with Abaxx regarding its planned acquisition of an additional 8.8 million MineHub common shares, as announced on December 3rd. This transaction will be completed using either 3 million in cash or 237,000 Abaxx common shares and is anticipated to close by December 31st, 2024. The company had approximately 77 million shares outstanding as of October 31st, 2024. This concludes the financial update, so I'll turn the call back over to Andrea to provide an update on our goals and outlook for fiscal 2025.
Thank you, Monika. MineHub's growth trajectory is a testament to the value our platform brings our partners and customers alike. Management is confident of MineHub's long-term growth potential and is pleased to reiterate our key goals for fiscal 2025. One, increase the company's annual recurring revenue, or ARR, by executing new customer contracts and expanding volumes of commodities managed for existing customers. ARR, as of December 16th, was approximately $2.2 million. The sales pipeline remains robust, and more and more opportunities are advancing to the final stages of the sales cycle. We are especially encouraged by the growing level of commercial engagement in European and Asian markets, as this commercial interest has the potential to increase ARR with both existing and new customers. Regulatory forces in Europe are driving an increased need for transparency and reporting, and companies are relying on digital tools to meet regulatory reporting requirements.
Moreover, we're leveraging our partnerships with Sumitomo Corporation and Elane Technology to better penetrate Asian metals markets. As a result, the company is seeing a sharp increase in interest in the MineHub platform in the Asia region, particularly in Japan and in China. Two, improve profitability with cost containment strategies while increasing revenue and cash flow. We have a demonstrated track record of cost containment, with operating costs trending lower throughout the last 12 months. Management plans to continue to manage costs tightly while also driving revenue growth. Three, expand volumes of commodities managed by customers. As we mentioned earlier, accelerating customer activity is leading to increasing cumulative gross merchandise value, or GMV, transacted on our platform. Given our volumetric pricing model, we expect an increase in GMV to be somewhat correlated with an increase in revenue in the future.
Four, leveraging MineHub's successful implementations with industry leaders to continue to grow the ecosystem of companies on our network. We continue to pursue growth by selling into parties who are currently using the platform as a counterparty to an existing MineHub customer. The new arrangements and the new agreements with Sumitomo and the Chinese smelter are both successful examples of this strategy. The outlook for MineHub is exceptionally promising with the continued enhancement of our offerings and the ongoing onboarding of new customers and their ecosystem partners. MineHub's achievements and progress for the year to date have provided a very solid foundation for the year ahead. Management believes that the platform enhancements, cost containment strategies, and recent ecosystem growth have laid the foundation for growth in ARR and progress towards profitability.
MineHub strives to amplify the value delivered to customers by enhancing the offerings of features and functionality available on its platform. The company also continues to explore longer-term opportunities to launch the MineHub platform into adjacent markets such as steel and scrap metals. We are very excited about the future of MineHub. We believe MineHub is a favorable investment opportunity for the following reasons. MineHub's customer base includes some of the largest resource companies in the world. We have a very diversified B2B revenue base with customers in different sectors. There's a very large greenfield opportunity to digitize the commodity supply chain ecosystem. MineHub has validated its industry-leading SaaS platform built with significant domain expertise and IP. We have a strong management team that has a proven ability to execute. And finally, there is a massive market opportunity with an addressable market of 7.5 billion.
MineHub is emerging as the market leader within the physical commodity supply chain market. The company is providing solutions in a massive greenfield opportunity where there is low penetration of digital solutions. MineHub is benefiting from increasing tailwinds such as regulation and increasing compliance requirements that are driving a recognized need for digitization throughout the entire industry. Finally, I want to thank the entire MineHub team, including the employees whose hard work continues to support the company's growth. We also want to thank our customers who trust and rely on us. And I'd like to thank all of you for joining us today. And with that, I will hand it back to Pardeep for questions.
Thank you, Andrea. Just a reminder, we'll open the call to questions. To submit your questions, please use the Q&A button at the bottom of the screen. Priority will be given to equity analyst questions from equity analysts first. We have a question from Gianluca Tucci from Haywood Securities. Can you please comment on the growth from new versus existing customers in the quarter?
Yes, I would be happy to talk about that. Just to have it clear, it's my view though. Our revenue growth for the year to date was 19% year over year. If I split out the components of that growth, new SaaS customer growth was 29% year over year, which more than offset a 13% reduction due to our decision to pivot away from non-recurring professional services. I'm also encouraged by what we're seeing from our existing customers. We had 3% growth from existing customers year to date, and we've seen a 100% renewal rate on customer accounts that have come up for renewal in the quarter.
Another question from Gianluca Tucci of Haywood Securities. Last quarter, you mentioned the longer sales cycles. Just wondering how things have advanced during the quarter and if you're seeing any improvement from last quarter?
I can take that one. We are seeing more and more companies and more accounts entering the last stages of the sales pipeline or the sales cycle, specifically in the proposal and the contract negotiation stages, which we're very encouraged by. And we're also seeing more and more opportunities continuing to be added to the sales funnel.
A third question from Gianluca Tucci. With regards to the strengthening of the Abaxx partnership, can you give us any additional details to the product integration or development roadmap and how things are rolling out thus far?
Sure, I'm happy to. Both the technical and the commercial teams at Abaxx and MineHub are meeting regularly to collaborate on, first, refining requirements for the chat integration, so a key goal will be finalizing those requirements, as well as beginning to explore requirements for broader product integration. We're really excited about Abaxx's launch early next year of their nickel and their lithium contracts, and we think that will open up new commercial opportunities in markets that we're very keen to enter.
Questions here from Gabriel Leung of Beacon Securities. Can you offer some color around the signing of the Chinese smelter? Was it a competitive bid?
I can take that as well. No, it wasn't a competitive bid. Our commercial team in Asia has a very strong relationship with a variety of different leading Chinese companies within copper, as well as other markets. This, coupled with the onboarding of Sumitomo's refined copper business, is really what enabled us to bring this Chinese smelter over the line. Given the smelter's high data security standards, this represents a significant validation in the high level of security and adaptability of our capabilities.
Follow-up question from Gabriel Leung of Beacon Securities. What were some of the key requirements that the Chinese smelter customer was looking for that led them to choose MineHub? How big of a supply chain network will this customer bring to MineHub?
Thank you. The smelter was focused primarily on improving visibility into shipments, as well as enabling traceability for imports and exports from China. They were also keen, of course, to drive operational efficiencies by leveraging our contract management and digital document capabilities to help facilitate sharing of data and the management of their orders and logistical operations. From a network perspective, given how large and important the smelter's position is in the market, we expect this to open up considerable ecosystem opportunities for us in the Asia copper market.
And final question from Gabriel Leung of Beacon Securities. Has the signing of the Chinese smelter customer led to additional referrals in the region?
Yes, it has, and our commercial team based in Shanghai is actively pursuing those opportunities.
Just a reminder, listeners can send a question in by using the Q&A button on the screen. Here's a question from a listener. What macro factors, if any, do you see on the horizon that could cause a step function increase in the level of urgency for customers to work with MineHub?
I can take that, and Monika, feel free to add anything that I've missed. The regulations that we're seeing, particularly out of Europe, CBAM regulations specifically, are certainly impacting and creating a sense of urgency in aluminum markets for improving access to digital data, improving proof around data, and reporting capabilities associated with that. Regulatory forces continue to be a really key driver for commercial momentum, especially for anybody interacting with Europe. In the U.S., given the political transition and uncertainty around different regulations, having better access to data and visibility and proof around data becomes relevant there as well, and in the Asia region, we've seen a huge increase in momentum, frankly, from leveraging the Sumitomo onboarding. That's been really amazing to watch as well.
Here's another question. What impact did Trump's planned tariffs have on MineHub? Will that impact the movement of goods or costs of goods or commodities?
Based on what I've read, there's a lot of uncertainty around that. Still, I think what is for sure is that it will sort of force this increased recognition for a digital platform in order to manage all of this data and to really keep track of the origin and the source of data, and particularly as material moves throughout the supply chain. So regardless of what happens, I do think it will likely impact costs and trade flows. And if anything, will only help MineHub as we provide a platform that provides centralized and consolidated access to third-party validated data and provides traceability as raw materials move throughout the world.
Another question from a listener. Great presentation. Can you explain how most companies currently deal with the regulatory and compliance obligations and how MineHub's tech provides a better platform for companies to address these issues?
Sure. I can actually provide a representative example, so we have a customer, and we've been working with them on refining the reporting requirements because they export into Europe, and so right now, they had an entire team of operators that were aggregating data, calling suppliers, asking for validation around emissions information and the quality of production. There's also certificates now that need to be requested from every supplier and centralized onto a secure platform, and all of that was done completely manually. They were actually looking at hiring additional people to manage just the huge amount of administrative work around a very broad supply chain, and we were able to centralize and automate all of that, creating really tremendous operational efficiencies for their team, mitigating risk as the reports are also more accurate, given that all the data flows automatically rather than being manually entered.
A question here about Abaxx. Regarding the partnership with Abaxx, what are some near-term milestones from this partnership?
Sure. I can take that as well. I would say, first and foremost, finalizing the chat integration requirements so that the teams can begin work. And then once the nickel and lithium contracts are launched earlier next year, developing a joint commercial pipeline.
This is a financial-related question. With regards to the year-to-date revenue growth, can you provide some more color on the decrease in quarterly revenue due to the transition to SaaS revenues?
Yeah, I can take that. This quarter is a great example of why we made the decision to transition our revenue strategy from professional services to SaaS revenues. We had strong professional services revenue in Q3 of last year, but non-recurring projects just bring a lot of uncertainty and lumpiness to our results, so instead, we're building up a base of stable recurring SaaS revenue to bring more predictability to our revenue over time, so we had a negative variance this quarter on revenue because of the shift away from professional services, but I'm really encouraged by the year-to-date SaaS growth, which more than offset the year-to-date professional services decrease, and also, obviously, our existing customer renewals in the quarter are very encouraging in terms of our future growth.
It's a follow-up question here, financial as well. So SaaS-related, when do you see SaaS revenue beginning to ramp up more quickly?
We are hoping to see that ramp up in calendar 2025 as we close on the opportunities that are at the later stage of our pipeline.
Just a reminder, if anybody has questions coming in, press the Q&A button. I don't see any additional questions here. I'm just giving it a minute here. It looks like that's it. I will now turn the call back over to Andrea, and Andrea, you can get any closing comments.
Thank you, Pardeep. In closing, I just want to thank everyone again for joining us. Thank you for your questions. We look forward to providing more updates in the future. Happy holidays, and thank you.