.Dev Clever (DEV), the developer of mobile and immersive educational and career training experiences, announced new funding arrangements alongside its annual results for 2021 which revealed losses widening on rising costs.
Losses before tax hit £2.54m, up from £1.06m in 2020, as administrative costs leapt to £7.0m from £1.6m last year. DEV invested heavily in expanding its workforce, as well as incurring share-based payments of £2.54m.
In fact, the adjusted Ebitda loss was a far more modest £1.3m, compared to a loss of £0.79m in the previous year as revenues leapt almost fivefold to £7.4m, thanks to a £3.6m contribution from its now terminated partnership with Dubai based Aldebaron. The group also ended the year with £7.5m in cash after raising a net £16.9m and spending £4.4m acquiring IP and distribution rights as well as £2.6m developing its core Educate platforms.
In particular, the company invested heavily customising its platforms for the Indian edtech market, which is expected to grow almost tenfold to be worth $30bn by 2022. The group reached several milestones in targeting the Indian market, including signing a five-year exclusive partnership with India’s National Independent Schools Alliance to offer career’s guidance across 70,000 private schools, and the proposed acquisition of Veative Labs Indian subsidiary, one of the country’s largest virtual and augmented reality education companies.
The group also announced its entry into the Chinese market, teaming up with Asia-based Question What’s Real, a VR hardware manufacturer and distributor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which will see its STEM learning library installed on an initial 20,000 devices, with an option to extent the partnership to a further 15-30,000 devices depending on its success.
Along with a $6.5m IP and distribution agreement with Veative Singapore that should offset the termination of its tactical partnership with Aldebaron signed in June 2021, which had been intended to accelerate its Asian rollout plan. The termination returns Asian distribution rights to Dev Clever.
To help fund its ambitious expansion plans, Dev Clever has obtained A three-year unsecured Convertible Funding Facility with Riverfort Global Opportunities for up to $30 Million. The facility will cost Dev Clever a 1% implementation fee and incur a 10% interest rate, and is dependent upon the group’s readmission to trading on London’s main market.
Dev Clever’s shares have been suspended since December after the FCA ruled that its proposed Veative acquisitions constituted a reverse takeover. The acquisition has now been completed, with Veative CEO Ankur Aggarwal joining Dev Clever’s board as joint CEO, and the company is planning the readmission of its shares as soon as a prospectus has been completed, excpected by January 2023.
Chris Jeffries, Joint Chief Executive Officer of Dev Clever, said: "FY 2021 has been another year of significant progress and, with minimal debt in the business, the Group now has the infrastructure, product offering and partnerships in place to drive considerable further growth. The global pandemic has focused attention on the education sector and the Group's innovative SaaS-based platform has attracted increased interest from educational institutions across public and private sectors."