Tag: arago GmbH

WISeKey Announces FY 2022 Preliminary Revenues of $25.6 Million, a 15% Increase from FY 2021, Despite the Divestiture of arago

WISeKey Announces FY 2022 Preliminary Revenues of $25.6 Million, a 15% Increase from FY 2021, Despite the Divestiture of arago

Semiconductor FY 2022 revenues increased to $23.2 million, or 38% as compared to FY 2021

WISeKey’s strong backlog of $36 million for IoT products stretches into 2024

Geneva, Switzerland, January 13, 2023 – Ad-Hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 of SIX Listing Rules– WISeKey International Holding Ltd (NASDAQ: WKEY / SIX: WIHN) (“WISeKey” or the “Company”), a leading Swiss cybersecurity, AI and IoT company announced today its preliminary unaudited revenues for the year ended December 31, 2022. Consolidated revenues for FY 2022 were $25.6 million, increasing by 15% as compared to $22.3 million reported for FY 2021. The increase was achieved despite the divestiture of arago and it was mainly due to higher revenues from our semiconductors segment, which reported revenues of $23.2 million for the year.

Carlos Moreira, WISeKey’s Founder and CEO noted, “Since the beginning of 2021, demand for our IoT semiconductor products has been unprecedented and has reached a point that we are now sitting on a solid backlog of purchase orders totaling $36 million. While supply chain shortages in the semiconductor sector are not expected to continue in this coming year, we are well positioned to continue our growth due to our healthy backlog and growing pipeline of new opportunities which is now over $100 million.”

Mr. Moreira continued, “Our strong backlog has given us a great building block that allows our sales team to focus on new opportunities to expand our customer base and geographic footprint. As a result, we expect to see a significant increase in the number of customers served by WISeKey in this sector by 2023 / 2024.”

About WISeKey

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey Microprocessors Secures the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.6 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

Press contacts:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd
Company Contact:  Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com		WISeKey Investor Relations (US)
Contact:  Lena Cati
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

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Disclaimer
All transaction are carrying out by SiLLC, a private portfolio management assembly. This document is not an offer of securities for sale or investment advisory services. This document contains general information only and is not intended to represent general or specific investment advice. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and targets are not guaranteed. Certain statements and forecasted data are based on current expectations, current market and economic conditions, estimates, projections, opinions and beliefs of SiLLC and/or its members. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements or in any of the case studies or forecasts. All references to SiLLC’s advisory activities relates to SiLLC Assembly International.

WISeKey Announces the Sale of its 51% Stake in ARAGO for EUR 25.5 Million

WISeKey Announces the Sale of its 51% Stake in ARAGO for EUR 25.5 Million

April 25, 2022 12:30 ET | Source: Wisekey International Holding SA

WISeKey Announces the Sale of its 51% Stake in ARAGO for EUR 25.5 Million

WISeKey Realizes More than 5x Return on Initial Cash Investment in Arago While Preserving Strategic Cooperation on AI for IoT Applications

Geneva, Switzerland – April 25, 2022 – Ad-Hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 of SIX Listing Rules – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (NASDAQ: WKEY / SIX: WIHN) (“WISeKey” or the “Company”), a leading global cybersecurity, AI, Blockchain and IoT company, today announced the sale of its 51% stake in arago, a German Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Platform company, after having received assurances about the source and the timing of the funding.

In August 2020, WISeKey and arago started a combined journey to conquer the application of AI in the IoT space. After a careful consideration, due to different business approaches and go to market strategies for WISeKey’s and arago’s Automation platform, a decision was made to separate the companies while keeping the strategic partnership and technology integration WISeAI intact.

WISeKey is selling its 51% stake in arago back to a German consortium of investors led by arago’s founder through his investment company, OGARA GmbH, for EUR 25.5 million, which is over 5 times the initial investment made by WISeKey to acquire its 51% stake. WISeKey signed a Share Purchase and Transfer Agreement on March 14, 2022 and, as stated in the Annual Report, this Agreement was only effective upon the Company receiving sufficient proof of the availability of the funding.

Since its acquisition, WISeKey has made significant investments to explore the integration of arago AI with WISeKey’s Trust and IoT applications. When taking into account these investments, the net cash proceeds from the sale to WISeKey is EUR 17 million.

The continuing partnership between WISeKey and arago will ensure that both companies can use each other’s technology to add to their businesses. For WISeKey this means having the license to use HIRO AI as part of the IoT solutions offered to its customer base. WISeKey’s certification ability and trust platform will make arago’s platform more secure and allow the application of enterprise AI with less pre-requirements of data. Both companies will continue working together on the increasing adoption of AI and IoT convergence as one of the primary factors that is driving the growth of the IoT market. Over the past five years, a rapid surge in the adoption of AI IoT cloud services has been witnessed. It is driven by its capabilities to provide enterprise-wide array of resources they can utilize to scale, orchestrate, and support their operations.

“The business combination has now evolved into a strategic partnership to deploy WISeAI,” said Carlos Moreira, WISeKey’s CEO. “After finding good technical integration of assets, the challenges of and required investment in maintaining both WISeKey and arago operations under one roof neither justified the increased overhead nor allowed us to fully deploy the valuation potential in both companies.”

“The sale of arago whilst retaining a strategic partnership makes complete sense for both parties,” said Peter Ward, WISeKey’s CFO. “The immediate benefit to WISeKey will be a significant reduction in our cash burn, whilst providing us with an influx of funds to support future business development in the areas of Cybersecurity, IoT and NFT technologies. This sale will also reduce our operational losses and enable us to move faster towards profitability.”

Following the sale, all WISeKey options given to Hans-Christian Boos to exchange his remaining 49% in arago representing 12.3 million WISeKey Class B shares will be cancelled and returned back to WISeKey as part of the deal thus reducing substantially the dilution for WISeKey shareholders. Hans-Christian Boos will also step down as board member of WISeKey to be replaced by an industry expert focused on WISeKey’s IoT Cybersecurity solutions.

A separate announcement on the details of the future strategic cooperation between WISeKey and arago will follow in due time.

Mr. Moreira added, “With AI being the driver of the post-industrial world, we were able to make a great return on our investment and we are on track to making AI an important building block in our solutions though the strategic partnership with arago deploying the WISeAI solution.”

About arago

arago GmbH, (AG Frankfurt, HRB 100909) is a German technology leader providing the benefits of Artificial Intelligence to enterprise customers globally through Knowledge Automation. Founded in Frankfurt am Main 1995 the company uses cutting edge AI algorithms to automatically operate any business process.

 

About WISeKey:

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.6 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd
Company Contact: Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com

WISeKey Investor Relations (US)
Contact: Lena Cati
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (“FinSA”), the FInSa’s predecessor legislation or advertising within the meaning of the FinSA, or within the meaning of any other securities regulation. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

The securities offered will not be, and have not been, registered under the United States of America Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of said Act.

Disclaimer
This document contains forward-looking statements which are based on the current estimates and assumptions made by the assembly team of SiLLC. Forward-looking statements are characterized by the use of words such as expect, intend, plan, predict, assume, believe, estimate, anticipate, forecast and similar formulations. Such statements are not to be understood as in any way guaranteeing that those expectations will turn out to be accurate. Future performance and the results actually achieved by SiLLC and its affiliated groups depend on a number of risks and uncertainties and may therefore differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Many of these factors are outside SiLLC‘s control and cannot be accurately estimated in advance, such as the future economic environment and the actions of competitors and others involved in the marketplace. SiLLC neither plans nor undertakes to update forward-looking statements.

All transaction are carrying out by SiLLC, a private portfolio management assembly. This document is not an offer of securities for sale or investment advisory services. This document contains general information only and is not intended to represent general or specific investment advice. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and targets are not guaranteed.Certain statements and forecasted data are based on current expectations, current market and economic conditions, estimates, projections, opinions and beliefs of SiLLC and/or its members. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements or in any of the case studies or forecasts. All references to SiLLC’s advisory activities relates to SiLLC International.

WISeKey Acquires 51% of arago’s Share Capital and Signs a Binding Term Sheet to Acquire the 49% Remaining Minority Interest; the Combined Company Becomes a Leader in the Cybersecurity AI-Powered Knowledge Automation Market

WISeKey Acquires 51% of arago’s Share Capital and Signs a Binding Term Sheet to Acquire the 49% Remaining Minority Interest; the Combined Company Becomes a Leader in the Cybersecurity AI-Powered Knowledge Automation Market

 

Obtains Shareholders’ Approval on All Agenda Items of the Extraordinary General Meeting

Zug, Switzerland – February 01, 2021 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey” or “Company”) (SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a leading global cybersecurity and IoT company, announced today that its shareholders approved all items on the agenda of the 2021 Extraordinary General Meeting held at the offices of law firm Homburger AG, in Zurich, Switzerland, on January 28, 2021, thereby allowing the Company to move forward, in 2021, with its plan to fully acquire arago GmbH (“arago”).

Thus, following the shareholders’ approval, WISeKey will acquire a controlling 51% share of arago’s capital on or about February 01, 2021. Previous transactions involving shares in arago have determined arago’s net value at around CHF 100 million.

This strategic acquisition reinforces the WISeKey Platform as arago has a large and recurring customer base and its licensing revenue model is expected to bring significant revenue synergies and strengthen WISeKey’s position in the fast-growing Artificial Intelligence of Things (“AIoT”) market. Knowledge Automation and Data platform HIRO™, developed by arago, takes a unique approach to process automation by using AI to autonomously and independently determine how to complete and then automate end-to-end tasks based on real time contextual data. Fully auditable and only using steps defined and approved by the customer, Knowledge Automation delivers significantly higher automation rates at a much lower operational cost.

Shareholders of WISeKey approved all proposals submitted by the Board as follows:

§  The election of Mr. Hans-Christian Boos, arago’s Managing Director and Founder, as a new member of WISeKey’s Board of Directors. Mr. Boos’ strategic input on the AIoT industry will be extremely helpful in completing the business combination of WISeKey and arago and supporting WISeKey in building a strong, integrated, Cybersecure Automation business model.

  • The creation of a special authorized share capital for the issuance of up to 12,327,506 new registered shares, par value CHF 0.05 each (“Class B Shares“), to Mr. Boos, arago’s sole shareholder apart from WISeKey, or companies controlled by him, in exchange for all arago shares directly or indirectly held by Mr. Boos.

Per the binding agreement for the acquisition of arago’s remaining minority interest, the combination of the businesses of WISeKey and arago will be completed through the issuance of WISeKey Class B Shares to arago’s remaining minority shareholder against contribution to WISeKey of all arago shares not yet held by WISeKey. The Board of Directors would only make use of its authority if binding agreements are executed and all conditions precedent to closing are satisfied.

  • An increase of the Board of Directors’ general authority to issue shares out of authorized share capital, in addition to the above-mentioned special authorized share capital for arago’s sole shareholder. The Board of Directors does not currently have specific plans to issue new shares under the proposed general authorization. The Board of Directors believes, however, that providing the flexibility to issue shares quickly strategically benefits the Company and funds any integration costs deriving from the combination of WISeKey and arago.
  • An increase of the Company’s conditional share capital for the issuance of Class B Shares in connection with convertible, exchangeable or exercisable bonds or similar financial instruments and for the issuance of Class B Shares to employees, members of its Board of Directors, consultants and other persons providing services to the Company or one of its group companies under the Company’s existing stock option plan.

The increase in the conditional share capital relating to convertible, exchangeable or exercisable bonds or similar financial instruments is a continuation of the Company’s practice to seek third party equity-linked financing. In the transition and integration period that will follow the acquisition of arago, the Company is likely to require additional external financing to fund integration costs. The ability to issue shares quickly is of strategic importance to negotiate financing facilities.

  • The creation of a conditional share capital on the basis of which the Company would have authority to issue registered shares, par value CHF 0.01, i.e. the Company’s shares not listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (“Class A Shares“), to members of its Board of Directors and executive management under a new “Class A Share WISeKey Stock Option Plan.” The Board of Directors believes that issuing Class A Shares, which are non-tradeable, will be beneficial to the Company, as it will require directors and executive management members to focus on the long-term strategy and development of the Company.

Carlos Moreira, Founder, Chairman of the Board and CEO of WISeKey, stated: “I would like to thank our valued shareholders for their continued support and the confidence they have placed in us. I trust that the acquisition of arago and the election of Chris to our Board of Directors will allow a quick and efficient combination of our businesses and reinforce our position in the emerging Cybersecure Automation for the AIoT market.”

Hans-Christian Boos, arago’s Managing Director and Founder, and newly-elected member of WISeKey’s Board of Directors, stated: “I am delighted to join WISeKey’s Board and closely work with the team to unlock the significant potentials of Cybersecure Automation following the combination of our businesses. I believe that, together, we will build a broader and stronger foundation for future growth in the AIoT market.”

Peter Ward, member of the Board and CFO of WISeKey, stated: “The combination of WISeKey and arago should fuel revenue growth of the WISeKey group and help us attain higher gross margins. We will dedicate the next few months to the integration of the two businesses in order to rationalize our cost base. This will be a resource-intensive exercise but is essential for our goal to increase profitability.”

About arago:

arago GmbH, Frankfurt am Main (AG Frankfurt, HRB 100909), is a German technology private company which aim is to provide the benefits of Artificial Intelligence to enterprise customers globally through Knowledge Automation. Founded in 1995, the company develops and uses modern technologies such as inference and machine learning in order to automatically operate any business process.

About WISeKey:
WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.).  WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd 
Company Contact:  Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com		WISeKey Investor Relations (US) 
Contact:  Lena Cati
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (“FinSA”), the FinSa’s predecessor legislation or advertising within the meaning of the FinSA, or within the meaning of any other securities regulation. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

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Disclaimer
All transaction are carrying out by SiLLC, a private portfolio management assembly. This document is not an offer of securities for sale or investment advisory services. This document contains general information only and is not intended to represent general or specific investment advice. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and targets are not guaranteed. Certain statements and forecasted data are based on current expectations, current market and economic conditions, estimates, projections, opinions and beliefs of SiLLC and/or its members. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements or in any of the case studies or forecasts. All references to SiLLC’s advisory activities relates to SiLLC Assembly International.

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