SeeThruEquity Issues Update on IZEA, Inc. (NASDAQ: IZEA)

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 16, 2016 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on small-cap and micro-cap public companies, today announced it has issued an update on IZEA, Inc. (NASDAQ: IZEA).

The report is available here: IZEA August 2016 Update.

Highlights from the update note are as follows:

On August 11, 2016, IZEA reported strong FY2Q16 results, with highlights as follows:

IZEA reported robust revenue growth of 49% to $6.9mn
Bookings rose by 36% YoY in to reach $14.3mn in 1H16.Trailing 12 month bookings grew 80% YoY to $28.3mn
IZEA estimates FY16 organic bookings to come in between $33mn – $35mn, suggesting annual growth of nearly 40%.
IZEA reiterated revenue guidance of $27mn – $30mn, which would represent 61% – 71% growth from 2015 levels

Revenue & Bookings rise in 1H16, IZEA reiterates guidance

IZEA grew revenue by 49% in 2Q16 to $6.9mn, led by 86% growth in sponsored social revenues and 9% growth in content revenues. Bookings also continued to grow for the company, with 2Q16 and 1H16 bookings rising 10% and 36%, respectively. Management attributed the modest sequential decline in 2Q16 bookings to large, complex deals which slipped into 3Q16, and reiterated its guidance for the year of revenues of $27mn-$30mn and 2016 organic bookings of $33mn – $35mn. With the guidance, IZEA continues to exhibit robust growth and appears on track for 39% topline growth in FY16, assuming the midpoint of its guidance at $28.5mn, versus $20.5mn in revenue in FY15.

Acquisition of ZenContent adds customers, bolsters offerings

We continue to see IZEA as a pure growth story in the social media market, which will only be augmented by the August 2, 2016 announcement that it will acquire ZenContent, a content marketing platform that is intended to strengthen the company’s offerings for e-commerce customers and publishers. In addition to bringing ZenContent’s existing stable of customers into the IZEA fold, the acquisition will also add new high quality content creation capabilities to IZEA’s flagship IZEAx platform. IZEA indicated that the deal was valued at $4.5mn in cash and stock, including potential performance based earn-outs. The deal is expected to be accretive to results.

Deals with Federated, Rakuten suggest continued activity

IZEA continues to invest in its sales team – which has now increased to 50 representatives – and deal flow appears to be following. IZEA’s new opportunity pipeline rose 13% to a record $37.6mn. The company has recently announced large deals including with Federated Media, a unit of General Media focused on community engagement and integrated media and content marketing, to expand its influencer marketing for top brands using IZEAx. At the end of June IZEA also announced a deal with Rakuten Affiliate Network, which the company expects will accelerate the uptake of its SocialLinks program with e-commerce partners. IZEA stated in the release that it has already launched SocialLinks support for a Top 10 US retailer, which is consistent with management commentary about driving sales an bookings with larger deals / partners.

Please review important disclosures at www.seethruequity.com.

About IZEA, Inc.

IZEA operates IZEAx, the premier online marketplace that connects brands with influential content creators. IZEA creators range from leading bloggers and social media personalities to A-list celebrities and professional journalists. Creators are compensated for developing and distributing unique content on behalf of brands including long form text, videos, photos and status updates. Brands receive influential consumer content and engaging, shareable stories that drive awareness. For more information about IZEA, visit http://corp.izea.com.

About SeeThruEquity

Since its founding in 2011, SeeThruEquity has been committed to its core mission: providing impactful, high quality research on underfollowed smallcap and microcap equities. SeeThruEquity has pioneered an innovative business model for equity research that is not paid for and is unbiased. SeeThruEquity is the host of acclaimed investor conferences that are the ultimate event for publicly traded companies with market capitalizations less than $1 billion.

SeeThruEquity is approved to contribute its research reports and estimates to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), the leading estimates platform on Wall Street, as well as Capital IQ and FactSet. SeeThruEquity maintains one of the industry’s most extensive databases of opt-in institutional and high net worth investors. The firm is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.

Contact:

Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
info@seethruequity.com

SOURCE: SeeThruEquity

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