Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today for the ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year-End 2024 Earnings Call. Today's call will be led by our CEO, Dr. Jennifer Bath, and our CFO, Kristin Taylor. Please note that a copy of today's presentation, along with our financial statements will be available on IPA's company website for your reference. We encourage you to review these materials to gain a deeper understanding of IPA's performance and strategic direction. Once again, thank you for joining us today. Before we proceed, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to various factors, including, but not limited to changes in market conditions, regulatory changes, and other unforeseen business risks. Please note that these forward-looking statements are made as of today and we undertake no obligation to update them as a result of new information or future events unless required by law. We strongly advise our participants to refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, including our most recent Form 20-F, and our other periodic reports for a more detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties and for a more complete understanding of the risks inherent in our business operations and the potential impact on our future performance. Thank you for understanding and we appreciate your continued interest in ImmunoPrecise Antibodies.

Thank you, Kayla, and thank you, everyone for joining us today. Over the past quarter, we have made significant strides in our strategic initiatives, positioning us for accelerated growth and operational efficiency. We look forward to sharing these updates and we will go into more detail this morning on our achievements and ongoing strategy, both in our wet labs, as well as within our subsidiary BioStrand. But first, I will provide an overview of the market and our foundational performance. The biopharmaceutical industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace, driven by advancements in technology, changing market dynamics, and an increased focus on personalized medicine. There is a strong and growing trend towards precision medicine, such as pharmacogenetics, where treatments are tailored to individual patients based on their genetic makeup. Additionally, consumer behavior continues to shift toward a demand for comprehensive solutions that can accelerate the drug discovery and development process. Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly seeking partners who can provide end-to-end solutions from initial discovery through characterization, manufacturing, and development of therapeutics. In addition, increasingly, these companies are also looking for a competitive edge with disruptive AI technologies. Amid significant industry changes, including budget reductions and vendor consolidation, ImmunoPrecise Antibodies has not only maintained, but strengthened its market position. Our deep understanding of the market landscape and foresight in recognizing the demand for end-to-end services with robust science and metadata analysis capabilities have enabled us to thrive during a period of market downturn. By anticipating these industry needs, we have successfully positioned ourselves to meet the evolving demands of our clients, demonstrating our industry expertise and resilience. This strategic insight has been pivotal in driving revenue growth and solidifying our leadership in the field. Our strategic initiatives, particularly in AI-driven drug discovery, have now positioned us at the forefront of…

Thank you, Jennifer. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and annual fiscal year 2024 earnings call. Following up on Jennifer's review of our progress in the market, I will provide an overview of our financial performance for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2024, along with further details of our financial strategy and outlook. As a reminder, all numbers I reference are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted. As you are aware, our company is at the forefront of custom antibody discovery, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to accelerate and enhance the development of novel antibody-based therapeutics. This year, we made significant strategic investments in building and integrating artificial intelligence capabilities into our drug discovery and development processes. We also achieved above market revenue growth on expanded wet lab capabilities, along with key validation of our AI technologies highlighted by Jennifer. This chart shows the quarter-over-quarter revenue growth we achieved through these efforts over the last three years, with recognizing $6.5 million of revenue in the fourth quarter for yet another quarter of record revenue growth. On to key financial highlights for the year. Our total revenue for fiscal year 2024, which largely represents our custom antibody project and product revenue, was $24.5 million. This represents a 19% increase in revenue compared to fiscal 2023. And previous year-over-year revenue growth was 7%. This increase in growth was driven by our abilities to deliver for our clients while providing additional capacity for a facility expansion in Europe. We also continued to increase our capabilities through investment in R&D and capital equipment. We will continue to target above market growth in fiscal 2025 with continuing our investments in R&D, including ongoing investments in LENSai. Our gross profit margin for the year was 49%, a decrease from 56% from the…

Now we will open the floor for a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Will McHale with Ingalls & Snyder. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning, Jennifer and Kristin. A couple questions from me. I wanted to start with a question on the milestones that we've talked about on previous calls. I think you hit on most of them during the script and said that we've achieved most of these except for the structured AI lab deal with licensee. But my question is more whether these are having any tangible impact on our current financials or whether these, sort of, initial partnerships are more early adopter type relationships without any real tangible financial impact to us.

Hi, Will, this is Jennifer. Thank you for that question and very reasonable question at that. So first of all, with early access rollout, obviously internally no financial impact there. Externally, with one of the partners who signed early access for LENSai, I believe it will be in API format, that has begun to bring in some initial early-stage revenues. That's actually a phased approach to that partnership, whereas the program moves on, each step will be determined depending on the output of the first step. So we already have actually provided a financial quote for the first phase of that program for that early access adopter. So we began to see some early stage revenue. With the majority of them, however, and I think most notably as well, the large pharmaceutical client, this is one we've referred to previously where they've moved all of their internal wet lab work now specifically just to BioStrand because of their being so impressed with the outputs of BioStrand. This group who has indicated that interest in moving into the full, not only partnership, but early access to LENSai API is where I think we'll see also more significant revenues. We have not started to see those revenues yet. We are really just ramping in those conversations. The major push for LENSai API is the marketing has been ongoing with InterSystems and has really, really started a ramp and hit the ground running over the last two weeks. So we anticipate probably the majority of that to start its ramp, I would say probably around Q2 as these groups move into a model where we intend to see and expect to see subscription model revenues beginning to roll in.

So it was -- so the focus was sort of more on driving initial adoption and then the sort of financial benefit was more of a fiscal 2025 type impact.

Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Got it. That’s helpful. I wanted to ask another one on BioStrand. So it seems like you guys have made a lot of progress from a technical standpoint, but perhaps the commercialization side has been a little bit more challenging than anticipated. And that's what led to the big write-down. Could you just kind of give us a little bit of more color on kind of what went different than you anticipated when you made that acquisition? And what the path forward looks like to earn a return on that capital that was spent?

Yes, absolutely. So first of all, what went different? I think one of the major differences, or at least one of the things that became clear during the development of LENSai was really kind of the stretch between the multiple initiatives that we had. When we first onboarded BioStrand, we knew those capabilities they had with LENSai were broadly applicable, and they had been applied toward some drug discovery and some agricultural work. We asked them to make the full shift into the antibody discovery and development space. That took longer-than-expected to really bring that platform on board and complete the training overall with regard to very specifically the tool that we knew were tools that would be leveraged with our current client base, what we knew about biotech and pharma. So that's the first thing that took a little longer than expected. And then in addition to that, because we're still focused on the SaaS model and the ability to do data management. What we also found is with the investments that we were making, which are obviously significantly more reduced than what you would typically see in a company that has these types of grand ambitions, we found that we had a tug and a pull between investing in the data management and then investing in the LENSai BioIntelligence suite in the sense that when we put more into one, it took away more from another. And so, as we continue to invest and to put person hours into both of those capabilities, it just slowed things down overall. I think we're now at a point where we see that the LENSai BioIntelligence Suite is not only bringing in trendingly increasing revenues for BioStrand gaining traction, and also, really being adopted and favored by many of our clients, we feel that we really kind of reached to that place where we're able to put the pedal to the metal with LENSai BioIntelligence Suite. And then obviously the full SaaS model rollout is still on the further trajectory. But again, we're very pleased with the LENSai API's ability to leapfrog some of those timelines and get those potentially recurring revenues. So overall, it was that shift more specifically into the therapeutic antibody space, which was new application for LENSai. Really getting LENSai to a point where we had a minimal viable product and it could be accessed. Getting pharmaceutical companies over their kind of hesitation to use AI, I think many of them had been duped before into thinking something was special. And as I said, as our partners begin to using this and getting access to it, they've been very surprised and have been able to validate our results in vitro. That's begun that ramp. But yes, those are a lot of the initial hurdles that we faced.

Got it. So there was sort of a period of time to really build the product before you could start to put more resources in the commercialization side of it. Is that sort of a…

Absolutely. When we purchased BioStrand, we talked about its capabilities based on, foundationally, the HYFT, right? That's intuitively applicable, but those capabilities still needed to be built. We now have over 80 different applications that have been directly of 80, like, put -- I hope people can comprehend that 80 applications that have been built in the past two years that are directly applicable to drug discovery and development, many of which have been validated in the lab. That's an incredible amount of building these algorithms to address drug discovery in a short period of time. And it's really at the point that that we've been applying these to our pharmaceutical client program -- pharmaceutical partners and client programs that we filled the gap with everything else we needed to build to get to that 80. And that's where we stand today. Having used that multiple times for pharma partners and pharma clients, noting its success out there in its direct application, being able to validate that in the lab, being able to demonstrate to them that it works and they can validate it too. That was a huge lift. And it wasn't something they had when we bought them. So while it seems slow, it's certainly for sure. This has been a tremendous amount of work and a tremendous amount of validation that they've accomplished in the last two years. And that's what we're leveraging now. Now we have that data, now we can put it into marketing sell sheets, we can legally talk about what we have done, we can showcase studies. And that's turning heads, that's changing minds. And now having the API where people are able to directly access this, we don't need to any longer worry about putting the additional capital and time into building that user interface. And to having those data management capabilities, people can access this right away. So these are really pivotal shifts in not only our ability to showcase what we can now provide evidence for, but also for people to be able to do this direct access and to begin paying for subscription models, which previously it relied on them trusting us to do that work for them behind closed doors.

Got it. Got it. I was going to ask also just how the -- how conversations with potential partners have changed since you've completed some of the end-to-end programs entirely in silico using LENSai. But it sounds like that, yes, it's had a positive effect in terms of proving that this is a real legitimate technology that works as opposed to some of the other bluffs that's out there.

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. It's really transformed our ability to provide evidence to be able to walk them through workflows we've done that have been successful, to be able to demonstrate firsthand our capabilities, which if we talk about the pharmaceutical side of the world, that's imperative. They're not going to take anything without -- on our word, they want evidence. Yes, and then when they can validate themselves, that's great. Our more recent move into the technology and AI industry is slightly different. It's not the same type of evidence they want. They can oftentimes very quickly graph through demonstrations what we're able to do. And that push on our part over the last quarter into the technology area talking directly to these large technology companies has also changed those conversations because we get much more rapid buy-in and they really immediately understand the value of multimodal integration in drug discovery. So we can help bring them along to the drug discovery world and also access to pharmaceutical partners, which is what we're finding is their pain point.

Got it. That’s goof to hear. Last one from me, so it's been a long sort of difficult stretch in the small microcap space for healthcare companies, and obviously we're -- we have some funding needs. And at the same time, the market's clearly not giving you any credit for the growth at the CRO if you look at our multiples relative to comps or to where private marks have been. And I appreciate the steps you guys are taking in investor relations outreach. But does there come a point where it makes sense to consider strategic alternatives, whether that's seeing if value can be realized from a private market standpoint or from a strategic acquisition?

Well, I appreciate that question, Will, because that is something that comes up from time-to-time, and sometimes we hear different things out there. We see them occurring with our partners or our peers, no doubt about it. And we're always open to actions that would maximize shareholder value. And we leave no stone unturned. But that said, and kind of referencing back to some of the things that I mentioned in the script, in terms of shareholder value and the disc in the market. As a management team, we have visibility into our own pipeline of opportunities and communications. And we believe that our current value obviously in no way reflects those opportunities. So we are -- if there's one thing that that's clear while we're open to opportunities that maximize shareholder value we are in no way interested in giving away the upside from our investments that we have made over the past several years.

Got it. That's good to hear and that's all from me. I'll get back in the queue. Thanks.

And the next question comes from the line of Swayampakula Ramakanth with H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open.

Thank you. Good morning Jennifer. Thank you for this call. Just looking at the revenue generating part of the business. And just -- and also trying to think about your guidance of continued growth for fiscal '25. So in terms of the contributions itself, I'm assuming most of the contributions obviously have come from the expanded facilities in the Netherlands? How much of that is sustainable? And when you say you're expecting better than market growth in fiscal '25, what are we talking about? Are we talking about like mid-teens or just low-teens and I'm trying to get a feel for that. And also any commentary on expenses would be helpful?

Sure, absolutely. So first, RK, thank you so much for joining the call. Always nice to hear from you and receive your questions. So first of all, with regard to sustainable growth going forward, definitely some of it, and the growth we have received here historically over this past year, definitely some of that is the expanded capabilities in the Netherlands with regard to manufacturing. Over the fourth quarter, we saw even more of a contribution from the expenditures that we made in the Oss site, in particular in antibody development, as well as the discovery on their phage display, and the new technology they're offering in B-Cell, which is distinctly different than what we offer in Canada. Although also important to note that the B-Cell technology revenue coming out of Canada continues to grow and continues to take on a very disproportionate amount of the revenue coming in from there. And this is in particular because we have capabilities there in the B-Cell realm that very few companies have, not only are they known to be very, very efficient in producing quality outputs, including clinical products, products that go on into the clinic for our partners. But we work in particular with a species where we are only aware of one other company in the world being able to provide that output. And I believe that company is in China. And so we have also cornered the market in a way with regard to that activity and with over 15 years of experience in it, quite frankly, we're nailing it. And so we have really kind of a diversified revenue base there that's helping us to continue to expand and to grow. So going forward with regard to your question on whether or not that growth is sustainable, we do believe that it is sustainable. And in part, we believe that's due to our innovation. We never provide, even with the manufacturing facility, it's never just manufacturing. We're always looking for other foyers into the market, other areas where we can expand and grow. What are the needs of our current clients that we're currently serving there? There's multiple things that we're capable of doing with our existing personnel and equipment to expand that market reach. We continue to take on additional capabilities there too. So there's different types of protein manufacturing, different types of modifications on proteins. We expand on those. We listen to the market. And now in particular with protein manufacturing, that is one of the areas where we saw a lot of people going to China for. And we definitely have heard directly from large pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies alike that they need to move those capabilities outside of China. And so we've definitely been fortunate to be the recipients of some of those changes. RK, you might need to help me with the other portions of your questions. I believe one of them was with regard to expenditure.

One was expenses. And the other is when you say better than market, what are we talking about? Are we talking about low-teens, mid-teens, high-teens?

Yes. So historically, our market intel on the market growth has been low-double-digits historically, but also significantly turning around and changing with regard to what occurred in the CRO market post-COVID. We saw people beginning to shorten their actual budget for vendors. We saw more of an enforcement of vendor consolidation post-COVID. And then as the market began a downturn, we really saw pharmaceutical and biotech companies being much more cautious about their expenditure in that market. And so what we -- what has been indicated by the market is even that low-double-digit growth has decreased significantly in the last two years with multiples of our peers actually indicating that their revenue is decreasing in the other direction. And that's part of why we have been, in particular, very proud of our continued growing revenue over the course of the last five quarters, because it's not just above market trend, it's in the exact opposite direction of where most of our peers have been going in the CRO antibody discovery and development market. And we believe that's directly attributable to some of the things we talked about here. We knew vendor consolidation was important multiple years ago, and that is evident in the sense that as the market tightens and gets more difficult, that is one of the things that enables us to continue to capture that work instead of losing the clients. But it's also our reputation for excellence and our reputation for taking on difficult targets. As many people know, the targets today are much more difficult than they were previously. We've exacerbated most of the easy targets for drug discovery and now, the ability to conquer those most difficult targets with innovative technologies has become more and more important. So being able to do that type of robust science, turn out good outputs, and then being able to do it under one roof so that we are able to meet some of the procurement requirements for these large pharma, who are only able to work with sometimes three vendors, sometimes five vendors is what left up in the mix instead of on the chopping block, which also meant when they consolidated, we got more of their revenue. And then with regard to expenditures, the vast majority of our R&D expenditure actually goes into BioStrand. So while that's still significantly less than what other companies in the drug discovery space with regard to AI technologies and in silico technologies are putting into those companies, it is still for us, the majority of our R&D spend. Very little going into Talem, very little going into the sites, except when they're expanding out a commercial R&D opportunity. But usually, they do that in conjunction with a partner to have their costs covered. So it's mostly entirely BioStrand.

Thank you. Thanks for taking my question, and I'll talk to you guys soon.

Thank you.

Thank you for your insightful questions. I will now hand the call back over to Dr. Jennifer Bath, our CEO, to conclude the call.

Great. Thank you, Kayla. So as we conclude today's earnings call, I would like to express our gratitude to each of you for taking the time to join us and for your support. Your interest and your engagement in our progress and our future plans are appreciated. Finally, we'd like to express our gratitude not only to our shareholders, but also to our clients and to our valued employees. Your continued support and loyalty are the driving force behind our success. We are committed to delivering value, value to our shareholders, and looking forward to sharing our continued progress in upcoming quarters. Thank you once again for joining us today. We appreciate your time, and we look forward to our next earnings call.