Good afternoon, and welcome to the TaskUs' Fiscal Third Quarter 2024 Conference Call. My name is Michelle, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to avoid background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to introduce Trent Thrash, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Trent, you may begin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for TaskUs' third quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me on today's call are Bryce Maddock, our Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Balaji Sekar, our Chief Financial Officer. Full details of our results and additional management commentary are available in our earnings release, which can be found on the investor relations section of our website at ir.taskus.com. We have also posted supplemental information on our website, including an investor presentation and an Excel-based financial metrics file. Please note that this call is being simultaneously webcast on the investor relations section of our website. Before we start, I would like to remind you that the following discussion contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our future financial results and management's expectations and plans for the business. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed here. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements can be found in our annual report on Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC on March 8th, 2024. This filing, which may be supplemented with subsequent periodic reports we file with the SEC, is accessible on the SEC's website and our Investor Relations website. Any forward-looking statements made on today's conference call, including responses to questions, are based on the current expectations as of today, and TaskUs assumes no obligation to update or revise them, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise, except as required by law. The discussions throughout today's call contain non-GAAP financial measures. For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP metric, please see our earnings press release, which is available in the IR section of our website. Now, I will turn the call over to Bryce Maddock, our co-founder and chief executive officer. Bryce?

Thank you, Trent. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. In the third quarter, we generated $255.3 million, outperforming the top end of our revenue guidance by $9.3 million. We delivered the most quarterly revenue in TaskUs history and returned to double-digit revenue growth of 13.2%. This was made possible by our team's relentless focus on our four strategic growth levers: taking share from competitors, cross-selling our specialized services, diversifying our client base and industry verticals, and leading in the deployment of AI and automation tools. While we are celebrating today's revenue milestone, we aren't done yet. We expect our growth rate to continue accelerating into the fourth quarter of the year for another record-setting quarter. We now expect revenue of $988 million to $990 million for the year, an increase of $24 million at the midpoint. Our team's tireless efforts have enabled us to increase the midpoint of our full year guidance by $64 million since our initial 2024 guide, putting us on pace to grow revenue by 7% for the year. On the back of our strong Q3 revenue, we delivered $54.2 million in adjusted EBITDA in the quarter. This exceeded the $52.7 million midpoint of our most recent guidance by $1.5 million or nearly 3%. This represents an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.2%, which was below our guidance of 21.5%. Consistent with last quarter, the acceleration in our growth rate requires additional investments in operations, facilities, hiring, and training, which impacts our margins and cash flow. In addition to this, we have made the decision to play offense and invest even more in developing our specialized service lines, deploying new technologies, and accelerating sales and marketing. This year, we've watched as many of our competitors have struggled to deliver growth and have reduced their guidance.…

Thank you, Bryce, and good afternoon, everyone. In the third quarter, we earned total revenues of $255.3 million, once again beating our Q3 guidance range of $244 million to $246 million. Revenues increased by 13.2% compared to the previous year, beating our expectation of approximately 8.6% growth at the midpoint of our guidance. We outperformed our guidance, primarily driven by stronger-than-expected volumes with existing and new client ramps. In the third quarter, our DCX offering generated $155.2 million for year-over-year growth of 6.3%. Sequential growth also accelerated from 3.4% in Q2 to 4.6% in Q3. As Bryce covered earlier, this service line growth was primarily attributable to strong new client revenue performance. Similar to Q2, we saw positive results from our strategic focus on clients in the fintech, BFSI, health tech, and generative AI industries. We also saw strength in our entertainment, gaming, and professional services verticals. These increases were partially offset by declines from a U.S. travel industry client and certain client cost optimization initiatives, which we have discussed on prior calls. Our trust and safety offering, which includes our content moderation and financial crime and compliance services grew by 30.8% compared to Q3 of 2023, resulting in $63.7 million of revenue. Sequential growth also accelerated from 6.9% in Q2 to 7.8% in Q3. As discussed earlier, we are excited about the progress in this service line, which included a continued acceleration of growth by our largest client and strong growth in our fintech vertical, where our financial crime and compliance services continue to align well with our clients' needs. We also saw growth for our trust and safety solutions across most of our verticals from a mix of new and existing clients. Our AI services service line grew by 17.8% year-over-year, delivering $36.5 million in revenue, primarily as…

Thank you, Balaji. Before we open for questions, I'd like to share another TaskUs teammate's story. George Pimendees is a TaskUs teammate based in Thessaloniki, Greece. His story is one of resilience. Born with dwarfism, George was always a talented and driven individual who dreamed of building a successful career. After earning his bachelor's degree, he was ready to join the workforce. However, a medical commission ruled that due to his condition, he was unfit for employment, a decision that would bar him from working for eight years. But George was not one to give up. Instead of letting this setback define him, he decided to make the most of his time. He returned to school, studied music production, and soon began composing and releasing his own songs. But George still felt something was missing. He wanted the chance to work and fulfill his career aspirations. For two years, George tirelessly advocated for his right to work. He took his case back to the medical commission determined to change their minds. Thanks to his perseverance, he succeeded. With this newfound opportunity, George wasted no time. He attended a career day event where he connected with the TaskUs team who immediately recognized his potential. He went on to join us, becoming a part of the trust and safety team for our biggest client in Thessaloniki. Today, George thrives in his role, bringing his unique perspective, passion, and commitment to each day's work. His story inspires us all to always reach for the opportunities we deserve. With that, I'll ask the operator to open our line for our question-and-answer session. Operator?

Thank you. [Operator instructions] And the first question will come from Jonathan Lee with Guggenheim. Your line is now open.

Great, thanks for taking our questions. Tremendous to see the return to double-digit growth here. What are some of the underlying drivers that give you confidence around continuing this pace of acceleration into 4Q? And while we understand it may be early days, you did highlight momentum into next year. So, are there any initial demand or budgeting trends you may be seeing that will shape how you think about growth in 2025?

Thanks for the question, Jonathan. In Q4, we expect revenue growth will again accelerate. This is being driven by expected double-digit revenue growth in both our trust and safety and AI services business. We expect the growth rates in both of these service lines are going to accelerate from Q3 due to our expanded strategic relationship with our largest client. We're also currently growing our operations with this client in five different countries to support their investments in Gen AI and trust and safety. Finally, we've made a lot of progress in expanding our AI service offerings with foundational model developers and our largest autonomous vehicle client. Excitingly, we're also seeing growth in our digital customer service business line. And there, our growth rate is also expected to accelerate in Q4 into the high single digits. We're continuing to take share from the competition, driven by our superior operating performance. And as simple and repeatable work is slated for automation, we believe a lot of clients are expanding their investments in the kind of premium support offerings that TaskUs is known for. As for 2025, consistent with prior years, we'll provide formal guidance on our Q4 earnings call, which will happen early next year. For now, what I want investors to know is that we're leaning into the opportunities we see in front of us. We're investing more in specialized service expertise and operational excellence to continue to take share from the competition and to sustain our growth rate. I think if we execute properly, our 2025 margin and growth rate will be among the best in the industry.

Thanks for that detail. And as a follow-up, I think you guys highlighted some pricing pressure in your prepared remarks. Can you help unpack some of those pricing and contract structure trends you may have seen with new signings in the quarter and whether you expect those dynamics to continue in the near to medium term?

Yes. We haven't seen an increase in competition since the time of our last call when we pointed out the trends and some pricing pressure from larger competitors who may not be growing as fast as TaskUs. We continue to fare a lot better than most of our direct competitors returning to double-digit revenue growth and sustaining above 21% adjusted EBITDA margins. And so, as we think about the environment currently, we really feel like the premium offerings that we're known for are sustaining demand for TaskUs services in a way that you're not seeing in traditional call center providers. We've always been a provider of specialized services. And I think that positioning is really paying off. As we look to 2025, the strategy is to lead on the deployment of AI and simple workflows while continuing to grow the more complex work types like trust and safety, AI services, financial crime and compliance, and more complex forms of customer support.

Appreciate the color there, Bryce.

And our next question comes from Puneet Jain with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Yes, hi, thanks for taking my question. Very strong results. So, if you take like a step back, look at your guidance change throughout this year, like the low end moved up by $90 million on revenue, high end moved up by about $40 million. So, what drove that increase? I know like it's probably many reasons. But is there anything that jumps out like maybe the fintech clients or adding more processes with existing clients or new clients or just more transaction volume at existing processes? What drove such a significant increase in guidance from when we started the year to now?

Yes. If we look back over the last two years, we had a really challenging 18-month period where we were dealing with large volume shifts from onshore to offshore and a real focus on cost reduction across our client base. This year, our clients feel more confident. They're making investments, particularly in generative AI and other initiatives, and we've been a beneficiary of those investments. If I look at our fastest-growing service line, which is trust and safety, here, we are continuing to expand our relationship with our largest client. We've had massive success in growing a financial crimes and compliance business across many different clients, which was a service offering that really only got introduced at TaskUs in the last few years. In AI services, we were really suffering for the better part of the year at a time in which both our largest autonomous vehicle client and our largest client had reprioritized some of their investment efforts and moved some work offshore. Again, there, our largest client is investing huge amounts of money in generative AI. And so, our AI services with them are growing. Our largest autonomous vehicle client is scaling, rolling out autonomous vehicles across the country, and that's driving a return to growth at that customer as well. So, it's really a multifaceted picture. But I would say that the biggest thing we're seeing is our clients have returned to a phase of investing in growth rather than simply looking to cost reduce. And TaskUs is really well-positioned to provide the specialized services that these customers are demanding.

Got it. And thanks for the explanation. And then in trust and safety, specifically for what you provide to your largest customer, was there any election-related benefit to that segment in 3Q, potentially in 4Q as well?

Yes. We do provide election-related trust and safety work at our largest customer. And this year has been a very busy year with a huge number of countries going to the polls. Fortunately, we don't expect that the end of the U.S. Presidential election will impact revenues at that client. We are continuing to see a ramp-up in trust and safety investments from them across the globe, largely in response, I think, to regulatory pressure. So, we are going to continue to grow trust and safety revenue at our largest client into 2025.

Thank you.

And our next question comes from Maggie Nolan with William Blair. Your line is open.

Hi. Are you prioritizing vertical diversification or growth outside the top account in particular, as we enter 2025? And do you have any targets there that you can share with us?

Yes. We have been focused on expanding our presence in the enterprise, particularly in banking and financial services and healthcare. And in 2024, we've successfully landed a banking and financial service customer, and we just got verbally awarded in Q4, expect to sign a contract with a very large healthcare payer. The reason we're doing this is our experience in 2022 in which almost all of our clients who are high-growth technology clients began to focus on cost reduction. I think that really exposed us to how risky it can be to be so concentrated in one area. And so, we sat down as a leadership team and strategically planned which areas we felt would be countercyclical. And we see really nice trends in the growth of healthcare and more traditional banking and financial services. We also felt like our experience with fintech, and health tech customers would give us the credibility to call upon these larger enterprises. And so that strategy is paying off. It's beginning to work. It has been a longer sales cycle than we're used to because you're dealing with larger enterprise clients versus kind of the fast-growing, fast-decision-making start-ups that we've dealt with in the past. But we feel very confident that the strategy will continue to work, and we should see growth in both of those verticals in 2025.

Thank you. And the pricing commentary, I know you said it wasn't necessarily incrementally worse or better or different this quarter. But could you give a little bit of color on how that was across the different segments?

Yes. So, if we're talking about service lines, we have seen a willingness to invest in specialized expertise in AI services and in the mission-critical trust and safety workflows that our clients rely on TaskUs for. Also, I think inside digital customer experience, we're really seeing a bifurcation of the business. On the one side, you have simple Tier 1 support that is likely to be very easily automated. There, the pricing pressure is significant. But the vast majority of work we do at TaskUs is more complex white glove interactions, customer success, customer acquisition sales. And there, interestingly, as clients are beginning their automation journey, they're actually all talking about how they want to invest more in the premium side of support. And so, I think we stand to benefit from that as well.

Thank you.

And the next question comes from Jim Schneider with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe sort of stepping back a little bit, thinking about your philosophy in terms of investments as you grow. I mean clearly, you've highlighted that as you're growing now, you're investing for that growth and investing ahead of that growth. I'm sort of wondering, as we think about heading into 2025, do you expect those investments to sort of continue a pace as you continue to grow? In other words, margins might be under a little bit of pressure as that happens. And is there a point at which you feel that you sort of put in enough investment dollars on an absolute basis that you can sort of stabilize the amount on either the cost of revenue line or the SG&A line that you invest?

Yes, it's a great question. So, as we look at 2025, our focus is on sustaining the accelerating double-digit growth rates we've been able to achieve this year. In order to do that, we do plan to continue to expand our investments in operational excellence, sales and marketing, and the specialized service line expertise that we think will continue to drive growth. With that being said, we recognize that our North Star has to be our adjusted EBITDA dollar growth. And so our focus is on making sure that we're driving significant adjusted EBITDA dollar growth in 2025, which we expect to do. I think that the real key for our business over the next few years is going to be to continue to get better leverage over our SG&A. And that will simply come by growing top-line revenue faster than we're growing SG&A. Whether that is going to happen in 2025 or 2026, I'm not going to be able to say right now. But I will say that we expect to continue to invest heavily into 2025. We expect that the growth rates that we've seen this quarter will be sustained into 2025 based on those investments. We will absolutely look to get better leverage over our SG&A in the next few years and make sure we're getting back to the adjusted EBITDA margins we've seen historically.

That's helpful. Thanks. And then relative to the large healthcare payer win that you cited in the quarter, good to see the diversification. But to follow up on the earlier question, I wanted to sort of ask what are the ambitions for your scale either with that customer or with that vertical in the future, basically, another way of asking it is, could that customer over time represent something sort of in your sort of top 10 or top 20 customers by size?

Yes. There's certainly the potential for that customer to become one of our top customers. They aren't now. But if we are successful in our operational execution, and I expect we will be, they certainly have the potential to become one of our largest clients. I think healthcare is a massive opportunity. It's a heavily regulated industry that will grow materially in the years to come. And we've got really great credentials working with a number of leading health tech clients. And so, we're using those credentials to go and speak to traditional enterprise healthcare companies about how we can help them to redesign their customer journey and apply some of the best practices that we've been successful in deploying for our health tech clients. That offering seems to be resonating, and I'm excited to see what healthcare, enterprise healthcare, in particular, can become for TaskUs in the next few years.

Thank you.

And our next question comes from Jacob Haggarty with Baird. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Congrats on a great quarter here. So, just a question on margins again. So, kind of like what levers do you guys have to pull to increase margins or at least keep them level in 2025? You talked about pricing pressure and the shift to offshore could potentially be done here with the U.S. being pretty much as low as you guys have said it's going to get. So, I'm just kind of wondering like what levers you have to pull as we go into the New Year here?

Well, the biggest leverage we have to pull is continuing to move up the value chain in the service offerings we deliver to our clients. Ultimately, clients are going to pay based on the sophistication and reliability of the service that we provide them. And so, our investments in specialized services are directly aimed at continuing to sustain our growth rate and be able to expand the margin profile of the work that we're doing. Over the last few years, we have been helped by an onshore-to-offshore shift of work outside of the U.S. It's also important to note though that we've seen significant growth in Europe and Latin America. And in those geographies, you tend to have margins that are slightly higher than U.S. delivery, but significantly lower than the margins that we've seen in places like India and the Philippines over the history of the business, which are our largest geographies. I think on the topic of margin, I want to have a few items called out for consideration as we head into 2025. And I'll hand it over to Balaji to just outline a couple of those items that I want everyone to be aware of, particularly as we look at Q1 of 2025.

Awesome. Thanks, Bryce. So, like Bryce mentioned, as we kind of -- while we're not providing guidance for 2025 right now, but as we kind of look at Q1, consistent with last year, Q4 has about $6 million in seasonal revenues, which predominantly comes from our healthcare and retail clients that will not recur in Q1 of 2025. So, that is consistent with what we saw in 2024, too. And then the second item, which is a little bit different unlike last year, is compared to Q4 of 2024, Q1 of 2025 has two fewer working days. So, while Q4 revenue was driven by about 66 working days, Q1 will be driven by about 64 days. And given that much of our costs are fixed, which, as an example, if you look at salaries, we pay monthly or on a periodic basis, but we often bill our clients on a per hour basis. So, this will have a negative impact on our reported revenues and margins in Q1. And to be clear, the negative impact of working day on revenues and margins is isolated to Q1 of 2025.

Got you. That's very helpful. And then just kind of thinking about sequentials as well. Obviously, when you're saying that about 2025, that implies maybe some -- a lower sequential revenue growth rate in Q1, but should we expect that to maybe ramp throughout the year? Just kind of thinking on a quarter-to-quarter basis here because obviously, year over year, you had a tougher comp in the second half.

Yes. So, on that point, at this stage, our sales in Q3 and into the beginning of Q4 have been very strong. And so, I don't want what Balaji said to be read as revenue is going to decline from Q4 to Q1 necessarily. While we're not providing formal guidance, we just want everyone to know that there's this really 3% drag that you're going to see from having two fewer working days and $6 million in seasonal revenue that won't recur. So, in order to continue to grow sequentially, we're going to have to sell over both of those things. And our team is hard at work to make that happen. As we look to the rest of 2025, there definitely are more challenging comps in the back half of 2025, given the success we've had in 2024. We do feel very confident about our ability to continue to sustain our growth into 2025. And what that means for the back half of the year, it's a little hard to say with precision at the moment, but the trends that we're seeing have us feeling very confident.

I show no further questions at this time. This will conclude today’s conference call. Thank you so much for participating and you may now disconnect.