We are joined by CEO Steen Thygesen. Today's event, I think we will talk a lot about the news you sent out this morning, new strategic direction, looking to license your platform, but also a little bit update on what has happened since the Q3 report, I guess, will be the event to your takes today. So, exciting news about the new strategic direction. As always, you're very welcome to ask questions in the box down below. Do it during the presentation, I will see if it fits in, or else we will do it in Danish, do it in Swedish, do it in English, and I'll try and translate to the best of my ability. But for now, Steen, I think I will hand the call over to you, and you can present the news you sent out this morning. Yeah. Thank you, Michael, and welcome to everyone who sees this, either in real time or at later stage. Today is really an update around, you can say, a new strategic direction that we are pursuing in Audientes. And it's also an update on the current business we have and where we are going to take that during this year. We have a quite sort of comprehensive agenda put together here in the course of this session. So let's launch into it. And I would say that we have communicated something new today that we have actually sent out in both Danish and Swedish and English, just to sort of... Because it's a pretty condensed, you can say, direction that we are trying to describe. And I would like to, in this presentation, shed some more light on, you know, what is this really about? Where are we going with this, and why is this something that we're doing right now? But first of all, I want to really link back to the mission of Audientes. We were basically founded to help alleviate this sort of big gap that is between people who has a hearing loss, but who doesn't have a solution for that hearing loss in a good quality that really helps them. The number today, of course, is this number, around 500 million people in the world, according to the WHO, with disabling hearing loss. And the industry today sells possibly around 18 million devices per year. Since most people need to buy two classic hearing aids to address the hearing loss on kind of two years, you can see how few people, in reality, every year, who sort of gets a solution that they didn't have the year before. So this gap that we are seeing is continuing to expand in the many years to come. And WHO expects that we are really up towards a billion people with hearing loss in 2050. So this has been our focus in Audientes. Of course, from the outset, we have started with a vision and a mission to actually create hearing aids in a self-fitting kind of concept that we think can really help address people's loss by giving them a solution they can actually fit to their hearing loss themselves. We have developed a product, and we have launched it, and we have been working a few years now on actually getting in the market and really learning from that. This is kind of where we are currently. So what we have announced today is really, it's a new business area as such in the company that is complementary to what else we're doing with our own branded products. It's basically based on a lot of the sort of experience we have had from the last couple of years in introducing products on the market, starting to work with channels and end users on this, and really getting feedback as to, you can say, the good things, the things that would like to be sort of improved upon, and then also desired other offerings that we could bring into the market. We have had a constant focus on evolving our software, because that's really the heart of our products. We have been making a number of improvements that we have also announced to the market, increased gain, but also various things for the dealers, that they can go in and actually adjust and fit to a person's hearing, kind of, a loss diagram, the audiogram. We have done a lot of things that we have been trying to sort of, improve on, on what we basically came out with originally. So what we now are saying that, that we are stepping in this area to, to really try to pursue an adjacent opportunity by working with various actors in the whole industry, the value chain, who has either a brand or has an existing business in the hearing space that would like to basically partner with someone like us about, who has a, a great, versatile, modern platform that they can use to create a variety of different hearing products, either, as we say, regulated or non-regulated, like hearables and so on. So this is kind of what we have come out with today. We think this is a really interesting thing for us because it helps us address some of these dialogues we have had, where there has been not necessarily a need just to sell a product, but really figure out how can we work together on creating something for that partner's business. And we think that ultimately, this is gonna be beneficial to our shareholders because this help us pursue other revenue streams, and therefore, overall growth in the company as well. And, Steen, and maybe you will come into it, it's... Can we get a little bit understanding, is it other producers of those products or, or could it be like the Kirkland deal we know from the big one, that, that- Yeah ... one of the big U.S. chains wants you both to produce a product, and, put your software in packages, and sell it for, you know... But they do all the marketing, you know? You just sell, thousands of them. Is it that type of deals, or is it other, of you might say, your competitors, which you want to enhance their products by, by your knowledge, you know? You have always talked about how bad some of those, hearing aids are. Yeah. But they are maybe good at producing in masses and selling it in masses, where you're good at the software. So which places the- Well, I Are you looking at to make those deals? Yes. So I think you're really listing some of these opportunities that we are seeing out in the market. So there are companies who are really good at manufacturing, but who are currently maybe not the right quality software platform to produce a really good kind of listening experience. We have really been perfecting that and have got a lot of positive feedback from the market, not just in India, but elsewhere, on the sound in a product in this price range that we are at. It's really, you can say it, it's actually very good, and it's something that we are seeing now we have an opportunity to build upon. So when you're mentioning, you know, companies like Costco in the U.S. Yeah ... they have been one of the companies that has been launching hearing aids under their own brand, and actually has derived a very large market share in the U.S. I think it's, like, in excess of 12% of the market, selling products that they are more or less specifying, but are made by existing OEMs. So of course, that model for us is very interesting. But there's also, as you say, companies that are doing products today, maybe not with the right sound quality. Yeah. We like to work with them as well. And then there's other, you can say, brands that has a, an idea that they would like to basically enter this space because they have either a customer base or, or a, a desire to do so. We have seen it in the mobile operator business, where kind of MVNOs, virtual network operators, have come in, been very good at capturing end users because they've been really good at, at marketing and, and selling kind of commodity services. But essentially, they've been really good at, at doing exactly that. And there are brands that has got that, you can say, alibi to actually do that. So we want to basically be open to partner with, with these different actors. I think our core competence is around doing kind of almost the vertically integrated product, sort of like concepting it, designing it, developing it, having it manufactured, and taking it to market. This is what we have been doing today. This is not necessarily what we need to do in the future, because for a small company, that is really time-consuming, it's capital intensive, and there's just a lot of things where you can say there are probably companies out there who can do certain things in the go-to-market much better than, than we would do because they have more resources and, and an existing position. That is what we want to basically allow ourselves to, to pursue, going forward. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So a hard question is: why didn't you start like that? Did you need to put a product in market and show your abilities, and still need to do that to be able to talk to OEMs? Yeah, well, it's a good question, and I think you're, you are learning as you move along. But I would also say having an actual offering in the market gives you the credibility that you actually have something, you are mastering creating a good solution. You can always discuss the design and the form factor, but the fact that we have a, a reference implementation that is in the market being used by people- Yeah ... that is, I think, what gives us the credibility to, to do that. So, you know, I think, and, and when you look at it from that point of view, this really will support our mission of helping more people in the future. We don't need to do everything ourselves, but we like to partner with companies that has, you can say, an, an intent to want to play in that space. And, so if I can just sort of continuing then, so, you know, now we're in a new year, 2024, we think this is the right timing for us to actually think about moving in that direction and, and starting to do it. Of course, we have been spending time last year looking into it, assessing various opportunities and directions we could take, but now we are in the market, going into market in China and Japan as well. And we are just getting a lot of, you can say, inquiries about different things that we can do. So this sort of fits well into where we are now, as an overall entity. So this we call software platform licensing. Now you've already opened up for what it is, and I think I've answered to some- Yeah ... of these things already. The benefit to our customers would be that we have an existing solution that can be tailored and basically brought to work pretty expediently, and you can say not with the years of development, but really as a reference implementation that can be customized and used to create an offering with short time to market. That is the essence of what we are able to do ourselves. So this platform that we are offering, what does it consist of? Well, essentially, the software that is in the product, you call it embedded or firmware, but software that is basically working inside the machine, handling all the different signal processing and computing functions that you need in a device that has got, you can say, an onboard user interface, but also corresponds with a smartphone app, as we do have also in across various platforms and in across various languages. We do something quite advanced that really we're not aware of many other ones that does it, but we are fitting in what we call runtime. So once the person that are using our product has done a hearing test, we fit using this industry-standard algorithm, immediately in the device, the amplification to the person's hearing loss. So this is something that is quite unique, doesn't require an external device. And in these days where you sort of think about over-the-counter sales, like in the U.S., this is what you need a really good solution for, and we have that. And I think we also have this ability to work with data in the cloud and really offer a lot of advanced services that companies can avail of. So what we're going to basically offer our partners is basically this, you can say, complete software solution, a reference design implementation when it comes to hardware. Of course, we can look into other kind of hardware platforms, but right now we have been focusing on the Qualcomm family, and of course, Qualcomm is the market leader in the sense of being, you know, present in literally every smartphone that we're using, but they're also very strong in the audio space. This is kind of our platform offering as such today. Where we want to go with this is that we want to really partner with a few companies this year that has, you can say, the right alibi and rationale for why they want to do this, and who can work with us on creating something that has got a great potential in the market. So, we would like to focus on the software part of that and then leverage our network of design and development partners and manufacturers who are able to handle all the other things and make sure that we do this in the optimal way. The different products that we can envisage, of course, we are really looking towards the sort of broader market opportunity now, where we are. With all our experience, we can see that there is a market that is there today, which is basically the classic hearing aid market. We've talked a lot about this, but this is where 70%-80% of the market volume is, behind the ear, something that sits basically behind the ear and has a little wire into the ear canal. This is the big market opportunity, the classic market. We want to play there. We think this is where we can also bring in something new, and help create great offerings. But we also see these other form factors, like true wireless, like we know it from the Apple AirPods and so on. And there, there's many players in that field right now, and there's other good ideas as well around this. We have been pursuing the neckband design, and some people really like that, but other people want something more discreet. This is kind of the field that we are, you know, not gonna dictate what the form factor is, right? But we want to play where the opportunity is. The business model that we are looking at with this is ultimately a licensing opportunity, where we will essentially derive a fee for each product that will be sold. So that's why we are looking at products that has got a good potential to actually sell in large quantities. There's also the opportunity to get kind of paid on a, you can say, project fee, startup fee, special engineering charges, and so on. But this is sort of where you can say that's more in the consulting fee space. So those business models, we would be building into our own P&L, of course, and over time, we think this can be a substantial part of where we get our revenue from. So moving Audientes in the longer term towards software, kind of derived revenue, is definitely where we see us going. Um- You don't mention upfront payments here, you know? Is that a little bit too forward to be- No ... expecting that? No, I. a small amount upfront, you know, for assistance- No ... and selling your software, and a little bit less for the licensing fee. But I guess if you are capital restrained, it's also interesting to look into that. Yeah. Sorry, I thought I said that sort of indirectly. But no, project fees is also including setup fee, and kind of like, as I said, what you call non-recurring engineering charges, so basically something that is associated with doing project-specific work. Yeah. So yes, absolutely. There could be some upfront payment, you know. Yeah ... before starting, you know, and then, a little bit less on the license fee. That could also be a model. Is that correct? Absolutely. Yes. Yes. That is sort of, you can say, a commitment fee. It's also called so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So but essentially, the sort of interesting thing in this, I think, as a business like ours, is that we do not need to fundraise to cover all things in the, you can say, whole process, from the idea, the concept, to actually getting it in the market and start selling. I think that we have done that so far, but I think that has also been quite, you can say, challenging to do everything. We would like to partner with companies that has that, ability, capability already. Now I'm showing a few pictures as we are moving along from sort of where our product is in the market. The last one here was from in Japan, where we are... We're launching this Companion product in the early part of this year. So you can say, who is actually going to make this happen? Of course, Audientes, we are essentially, you can say, in the leadership team, Hossein and myself, we both have experience from Nokia. I've also been working with, you can say, licensing in Symbian, which was the leading smartphone platform for about 10 years prior to the advent of Android and the iOS. But essentially, it was a similar business opportunity, where a company called Psion PLC had developed some smart PDAs in the '90s, and they started licensing the software platform in that to companies like Nokia and Ericsson and so forth. And ultimately, Symbian was created as an industry-owned venture that really had almost 100% of the smartphone market for about 10 years. So this is, so you can say, a similar case that I've been involved in, and it gives me good belief in that we are able to do something similar with this, because we already have something that works, and now we are broadening the access to that to more than just us. And of course, with Hossein's work on developing the software platform for the past good number of years, we really have something that is now, we think, something we can take out to a broader audience. Yeah, but if we should go back a little bit, you are founded on Innovation Fund money, on this software side, and when you finally made something, you put on the capabilities to go out and selling it. But if you should see really on your foundation of your company- Yeah ... your strengths, your abilities, it is kind of this. Is that correct, correctly seen, Steen? You can say that. You can say that. I get what you're pointing at. Yeah. We were certainly funded by, I would say, angels from the outset, business angels who- Yeah ... came in and helped get this off the ground. And, yes, we did get some funding from the Market Development Fund in Denmark, amongst other. And I think we have certainly been developing the market, and we have been going, you can say, the whole way. So this is the core of what you can say Audientes probably has created, that is definitely unique in the software. Yes. Now, we have talked about, you can say, what we are going to do now. I thought it would also be appropriate in this session here to also give you an update, a quick one, on where we are with our own branded products. I believe many people who will be on this viewing this session here will know that we are in the business with two products today. So one is a hearing aid that we are selling in India and Nepal, actually, and that builds on this sort of neckband concept we have developed, and using our software platform, of course. We have also, last year... well, actually, in 2022, we launched this version of, you can say, this hardware design called Companion, which is a... we call it an advanced hearable, and that is aiming at consumer electronics markets where there's need for a situational hearing device. So these are the two offerings we currently have in the market. They're quite different markets, of course. Consumer electronics has very different dynamics from the classic hearing aid market. The Venn product is. I talked about this already, but essentially it is a quite comprehensive, you can say, combination of both a hearing device with built-in hearing test and fitting, so it has many functions in one device. We have made some improvements last year to increase the amplification, so we can support up to and kind of what is called a severe hearing loss. It also works very well with smartphones for audio streaming and so on. This is sort of, you can say, where we started with our foray into the market. Companion, we are now launching that in Japan and in China. We have spent some time last year on fully localizing this offering. So it's totally in, you can say, in Japanese packaging, user guide, firmware, language on the app and so on, and the same for the Chinese market. So now we are bringing them in and working with local partners on essentially bringing them out in the channels and starting to drive the business there. The thing that I would say, when you look at them, how they compare, it is the same hardware. The software has some variations, but essentially for us, it's a good example on how we can leverage our software platform to create these different offerings. And of course, the form factor is just one element that shouldn't really constrain the imagination. So business-wise, we are still at the point, I would say, where we are really working on seeking this optimal product-market fit. In India, we have been working a lot on figuring out what are the best approach in the market, and what are the channels that can really handle this well. We launched the product last year in Europe, and we are doing some, I would say, quite modest sales, but we are not really pushing it that hard in yet. We are actually intending on ramping up more on sales. It is, you can say, a bandwidth issue, really, you know, how much should we devote of our attention to that? But we think there's a credible opportunity, so we'd like to do more. In Japan and China, as I said, we are launching Companion here now with local partners. The recent business highlights that we sort of mentioned was really around in China. Back in December, we got the final type approval. Hengtong, our local partner there, is now, as you can see on the picture here to the right, doing pre-marketing at different events, working with channels, and we are really doing a lot of things so we can start actually putting the product in the market and starting to sell it. And the same is really the case in Japan. We have got all the sort of approvals now ready, and we are sort of preparing for the going to market there. And you can say the creation of all these localized product versions is something that is ongoing now. In India and Nepal, we are at a different stage. We have active products in the market. We have partners who are out daily selling. We are working very closely with EarCare and our partners in Nepal as well on this, and really trying to sort of get this upgraded version two of Venn in the market well in the existing channels, but also in the newer channels, including, in particular, I would say, opticians, which is a key focus of EarCare, as well as NGOs and e-commerce channels, is something we are also working on with them. The sort of thing I wanted to also lift the veil off right now is that, and I alluded to that earlier, we're going to pursue this form factor called behind-the-ear. This is not where we started, but we can see there is a desire from many people to have something that sits discreetly behind the ear. You need two devices, of course, for kind of addressing hearing loss on both ears. But this is where the kind of the key market that we also would like to play in is today. We think that with our technology and with the good partners we can work with, we can create something in a really high quality at a very, you can say, competitive price with our functionality around self-fitting and different solution elements that will really make this an outstanding offering. This is part of where we are seeking this partnering with other players that we think makes sense. The picture that I put in here is just a mock-up. Don't kind of take that for anything else than the form factor is just different than what we are looking at today. I would say with all the experience we have got, this is definitely something that for us also makes sense to add into the offering of what we have. So, just to clarify, will you- Yeah ... will you produce and sell this? You know, I know two partners, and you want the co- Yeah ... co-partners in from the start on to help finance the product development, but it will not only be license fees from, from this one, will it? Could it also be, Yeah ... be product fees and thereby also maybe a little of your spent in investment to go this way? Just to- Yeah ... to be 100% clarified. Yeah. I mean, we would like to have this as an Audientes's branded offering that we can put in the market. We also think that it also could make sense to a high degree to have this as something that also can be branded by a partner and sold in their existing channels. That makes some sense. Yes. That is what is happening. You know, Costco is buying products from the leading brands and putting their name on it. That's an established model. We think that's obvious, something we should do as well. So again, it's a little bit back to the business model. You need to put this to market and show you can have it behind-the-ear, and maybe not, you don't need to sell millions of it, but you need to go out and show that you can actually have something they can white label on. Is that correctly understood? It is. And I also think it also comes back to this sort of thing, that when you are talking to a retailer, they typically would like more products on the shelf. And they typically have already an existing range of products. So when you come in with one product, it's, you know, that's one thing. If you come in with a range, that is different, then they look at it in a different way. And I would say when you talk about a range, when you have a product like this, what you actually do to cure, to cater for higher hearing loss, you basically replace the actual kind of loudspeaker that is attached to the device. It's called a driver. But basically you put something else onto it, and then you can suddenly address up to, like, profound hearing loss, for example. And you can make a less costly version if you are catering for a lower degree of hearing loss. Mm. And that will allow us to sort of play in that range model that is also known in the industry. Yeah, perfect. So this is something you can say we're a bit forward-looking on this, but essentially this is where we are... we want to go. And I think I sort of often talk about, you know, why Audientes, when you're considering investment, and I think it comes back to this significant untapped opportunity that we can address in different ways. And we have been, we're working on it currently with our current offerings, and we are rolling them out from, you can say, from India to other countries, and really trying to leverage what we have created in smart ways. And now we're adding this, you can say other leg to it, that we can also partner with companies that has a desire to use their brand and channels to sell products. And this is something that I believe is a logical evolution, and I think we are in a good position to do that. So with those words, I just wanted to also you can say mentioned that of course we have a financial calendar that we've published some time ago. We're gonna also add an AGM to this calendar soon. We just need to figure out the right date. But otherwise, this is where we are. You can say maybe next time talking in February the 22nd, when we are announcing the Q4 end of year results. So otherwise I don't have any more you can say prepared. Perfect. Should we jump to some questions? Yeah. Um- Yes ... there's a question here: Which types of OEM could software platforms licensing be relevant? I think we have covered that, but there's more directly. Do you expect to announce a deal or deals in 2024 on this one? Yes, I do, and that's what we're also saying in our announcement, that we have currently dialogues ongoing. And you can say it's important for us to also bring this out, and say we are going in that direction, so when we are announcing that, it doesn't come as a complete surprise. Yep. There's a question: If, when are you guiding for 2024? Yeah. So the guidance, I know that there's many people who would like us to guide, and we have been really cautious on that. It's not something that spotlight our marketplace require, that we provide guidance, and we have felt that we are at this stage with our business, we are going into new markets. We don't yet know the actual, you can say, direction these markets are gonna take, how fast, how slow it's gonna go. So we have really chosen not to provide a guidance from that at this current stage. And we like to get a few, you can say, further quarters into, into this before we will start doing that. Then there's, with the software platform, would you not harm your prospect for own Companion? How, how do you keep them out of the markets where you are competing, or can you not do that? Any thoughts about, you cannibalizing your own possibilities with your own products? Yeah. Yes, that is also a good point. I would say that the consumer markets and hearing aid markets are quite diverse. The solution we have developed is one thing. The solutions that our different partners may be conceiving is going to be quite different. So I don't think there's any major risk in cannibalizing this. The people have their views on what they like to wear to address their hearing. And there's really a multitude of offerings. I would say the bigger issue is when you get into the sort of classic hearing aid market, there is many, many, you can say, vendors offering products that are looking the same. So it comes down to, you can say, price, functionality, ease of use, and then you can say, who are the people taking it to market? How well are they positioned to address, you can say, the commercial opportunity? Yeah. We would like to partner with companies that has something unique or an existing, you can say, way of bringing it out, and really getting in touch with customers. Are there any comments on risk and cost associated with this new strategy? We talked a little about the cannibalization. Do you see other risk by going this strategy, and is there any cost associated with it, the increased cost or anything else? I don't know if I can express the risk. I would say we are at a stage now where we have developed and launched two products, brought them to market. We have a platform that is, you can say, quite mature in that sense. What we are needing to do now anyway is to take the next step, and that is to sort of look at the future products. I think for us, it's a good time now to sort of make that, you can say, decision on how we would do that. We will, of course, need to launch new offerings in the market. That's a given. So I think this helps us decide on where to invest and where to spend our kind of scarce resources and what we can do best. So I think in that sense, it's removing some things from our plate, and instead we can focus more on, you can say, succeeding with our current offerings, and then working with partners on future offerings. Right? So I think again, from us, of course, we will need to balance things, but I think it's a sensible direction to take. But so, so let me take an example, you know, on the cost side. You know, you might need to do some hires, but in the new strategy, that would already... You will do the hire if you have gotten a project with someone developing that, and they will pay some of that cost. Is that correctly understood, you know? This is- Yeah ... this is risk mitigating- Yeah ... on your cost side, that you actually have something before you need to do more hiring. Is that correctly understood? Absolutely. And I would also say we have managed to build a really good network of experts who are, you can say, yeah, in their fields, like in audio, in digital signal processing. We really have access to the right people to do a variety of different complex tasks. So we don't need to staff up right now around all these things. We would like to, over time, build up audio, digital signal processing, all these capabilities. We'd like to build that up so we become more of a software, you can say, company over time with those skills. But right now, it's not that we need to start, you know, hiring to do this. This is something we can do because we already have the platform, and we will dig in. We have got some really good development and product creation partners in Europe and in Asia, as we also wrote in the announcement. We will work with those partners on realizing this, and I think that again is something we don't need to staff up to do. And maybe I'm a little bit nerdy now, but we're going with this strategy, and building on it, then your IP rights needs to be very, very strong. Are you still convinced in your IP rights? Because that is now your, you might say, your bread and butter, that they will hold up your IP rights, your software and everything. So are you still confident on that side? Yes. We are. Yes. I would also say we have also been really good at integrating kind of IP from, like, NAL, the National Acoustic Laboratories. So, you know, we have been doing these things and making the right, you can say, trade-offs on what we're gonna build ourselves and what we're not gonna build. So, yeah. So- Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. Then there's two questions. I will end with them. You have already indicated you will not guide, so I almost know your answer, but they are here, Steen, so I need to ask them. Right. Financially, one, were you in the black in 2024? And secondly, how much sales do you expect from Japan and China in 2024? I have asked them, so I will see what your answer will be, Steen. Yeah. And so all of these are questions that I really can't really sort of elaborate further on. We have been during last year, you know, we have been really sort of quite focused on constantly pursuing kind of funding opportunities and doing it in a way where we to the, you know, as much as possible take the money in when we need it, because we need to sort of build this kind of trajectory, and that's what we are going to do this year. We have also thought about that, that we would like to also go out and actually offer, you can say, the opportunity to our existing shareholders to come in and invest in a round, and I think that's also in the cards for this year. Black numbers for 2024. It is certainly something that we would like to entertain. We have been really reducing our burn rate during last year, and of course, we have a core team. We are working otherwise very lean. So, I won't rule that out, but we need to see how this will progress in the coming months. Perfect, Steen. That was the- Yeah. There's a question here coming in: "How do the growth look in India and Nepal right now?" I don't know whether you can comment on specific markets. You don't need to give numbers, but, how does it look, the growth? Yeah, well, I would say, as I also kind of commented on one of the slides, that this market, India and Nepal, it takes time, we can see. It takes time, but when you're working with partners and you are continuing to do so, you are getting progress. So I would say now we have the right offering in the market in both countries. So I would say I expect a lot more from this year than we were able to do last year. Last year was really, for us, I could say, a very difficult situation, where we sort of had to really, you can say, take products back from dealers that hadn't paid, and then instead launching a new direction with EarCare and so on. So that whole direction is something we have been really working on getting to sort of perform well. So I think this year, now, you can say we have a longer outlook now before the year is over, so I really hope that we can kind of do what we want to do there. Perfect. That was the last question. Thank you, Steen, for taking us through your new strategy direction and answering questions, and thank you for the audience listening in and asking a lot of questions. May everybody have a nice weekend. Thank you very much.