Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2021, and the related notes thereto, which have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States.
Forward-Looking Statements
This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q including all exhibits hereto contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding future events or our future results of operations, financial condition, business, strategies, financial needs, and the plans and objectives of management. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “likely,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Forward-looking statements are based on information available to our management as of the date of this Quarterly Report and our management’s good faith belief as of such date with respect to future events and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements, in particular the substantial risks and uncertainties related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Important factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to:
| ● | our ability to sustain our revenue growth rate, to achieve or maintain profitability, and to effectively manage our anticipated growth; |
| ● | our short operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects; |
| ● | our dependence on the commercial success of our clients, the continued growth of the cannabis industry and the regulatory environment in which the cannabis industry operates |
| ● | our ability to attract new clients on a cost-effective basis and the extent to which existing clients renew and upgrade their subscriptions; |
| ● | the timing of our introduction of new solutions or updates to existing solutions; |
| ● | our ability to successfully diversify our solutions by developing or introducing new solutions or acquiring and integrating additional businesses, products, services, or content; |
| ● | our ability to respond to changes within the cannabis industry; |
| ● | the effects of adverse changes in, or the enforcement of, federal laws regarding our clients’ cannabis operations or our receipt of proceeds from such operations; |
| ● | our ability to manage unique risks and uncertainties related to government contracts; |
| ● | our ability to manage and protect our information technology systems; |
| ● | our ability to maintain and expand our strategic relationships with third parties; |
| ● | our ability to deliver our solutions to clients without disruption or delay; |
| ● | our exposure to liability from errors, delays, fraud, or system failures, which may not be covered by insurance; |
| ●
| our ability to expand our international reach; |
| ●
| our ability to retain or recruit officers, key employees, and directors; |
| ● | our ability to raise additional capital or obtain financing in the future; |
| ● | our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses with Akerna’s business within anticipated timelines and at their expected costs;
|
| ● | our ability to complete planned acquisitions on time or at all due to failure to obtain stockholder approval or governmental or regulatory clearances, or the failure to satisfy other conditions to completion, or the failure of completion for any other reason;
|
| ●
| our response to adverse developments in the general market, business, economic, labor, regulatory, and political conditions, including worldwide demand for cannabis and the spot price and long-term contract price of cannabis; |
| ● | our response to competitive risks; |
| ● | our ability to protect our intellectual property; |
| ● | the market reaction to negative publicity regarding cannabis; |
| ● | our ability to manage the requirements of being a public company; |
| ● | our ability to service our convertible debt; |
| ● | our ability to effectively manage any disruptions to our business and/or any negative impact to our financial performance caused by the economic and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken in response; and
|
| ● | other factors discussed in other sections of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including the sections of this report titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and under Part II, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, on March 31, 2021, under Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors.” |
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated, or expected. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. We disclaim any obligation to revise subsequently any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. We qualify all the forward-looking statements contained in this Quarterly Report by the foregoing cautionary statements.
Business Overview
Akerna is the leading provider of enterprise software solutions within the cannabis industry. By providing an integrated ecosystem of applications and services that enables compliance, regulation, consumer safety and taxation, Akerna is building the technology backbone of the cannabis industry. Our solutions provide clients with integrated security, transparency, and scalability capabilities, all while maintaining compliance with their governing regulations.
We intend to leverage our scale and capital markets access to pursue additional growth through organic initiatives and to pursue our ecosystem strategy which leverages integrations, partnerships, and inorganic growth. We believe having a scaled ecosystem gives us more opportunities to leverage our footprint and increase wallet share by providing more value to our clients through having what we believe is the most robust cannabis technology suite available. We intend to pursue additional growth through organic initiatives, including increased marketing personnel and resources, acquisitions, and strategic relationships. We will continue scaling our platform for continued growth, adding new features and functionality, supporting new products and content types, and improving the user experience.
We offer our software solutions to our customers as a subscription-based service. Subscription fees are based upon the chosen package which includes differentiated platform capabilities, support and user accounts. As customers recognize the value of our platform, we increasingly engage with them to facilitate broad adoption across other parts of their business.
In order to accelerate customer growth, we intend to pursue additional initiatives, including increased marketing personnel and resources, acquisitions, and strategic relationships. We believe we are underpenetrated in the overall market and have significant opportunity to expand our customer base over time.
We have invested in professional services, customer support and customer success functions to support our sales force by helping customers successfully deploy our platform. We actively engage with our customers to assess whether they are satisfied and fully realizing the benefits of our platform. While these efforts often require a substantial commitment and upfront costs, we believe our investment in product, customer support, customer success and professional services will create opportunities to expand our customer relationships over time.
We plan to continue to make investments in areas of our business to continue to expand our platform functionality to enhance current offerings and build new features.
In April 2021, we completed our acquisition of Viridian Sciences Inc. (“Viridian”), a cannabis business management software system built on SAP Business One.
Financial Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate revenue from two primary sources: (1) software and (2) consulting services. Revenue from software comprised approximately 94.5% and 76.4% of our revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Revenue from consulting services comprised approximately 4.3% and 22.6% of our revenue for three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Software. Our software revenue is generated from subscriptions and services related to the use of our commercial software platforms, MJ Platform, Ample and Trellis, our government regulatory platform, Leaf Data Systems, and the sale of business intelligence, data analytics and other software related services. Software contracts are generally annual contracts paid monthly in advance of service and cancellable upon 30 days’ notice after the first year, although we do have some multi-year commercial software contracts. Leaf Data Systems contracts are generally multi-year contracts payable annually or quarterly in advance of service. Commercial software and Leaf Data Systems contracts generally may only be terminated early for breach of contract as defined in the respective agreements. Amounts that have been invoiced are initially recorded as deferred revenue or contract liabilities. Subscription revenue is recognized on a straight-line basis over the service term of the arrangement beginning on the date that our solution is made available to the customer and ending at the expiration of the subscription term.
Consulting Services. Consulting services revenue is generated by providing solutions for operators in the pre-application of licensures and pre-operational phases of development. These services include application and business plan preparation as they seek licenses to be granted. Consulting projects completed during the pre-application phase generally solidify us as the software vendor of choice for subsequent operational phases once the operator is granted the license. As a result, our consulting revenue is driven as new emerging states pass legislation, and as our client-operators gain licenses. Accordingly, we expect our consulting services to continue to grow as more states emerge with legalization reforms.
Other Revenue. Our other revenue is derived primarily from point-of-sale hardware and other non-recurring revenue.
Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses
Cost of Revenue
Our cost of revenue is derived from direct costs associated with operating our commercial and government regulatory software platforms and providing consulting services. The cost of revenue for our commercial and government regulatory platforms relates primarily to hosting and infrastructure costs and subcontractor expenses incurred in connection with certain government contracts. Consulting cost of revenue relates primarily to our employees’ and consultants’ salaries and other related compensation expenses. We record the cost of revenue using the direct cost method. This method requires the allocation of direct costs including support services and materials to the cost of revenue.
Product Development Expenses
Our product development expenses include salaries and benefits, nearshore contractor expenses, technology expenses, and other overhead related to the ongoing maintenance of our commercial and government regulatory software platforms and planning for new software development. Product development costs, other than software development expenses qualifying for capitalization, are expensed as incurred. Capitalized software development costs consist primarily of employee-related costs. We devote substantial resources to enhancing and maintaining our technology infrastructure, developing new and enhancing existing solutions, conducting quality assurance testing, and improving our core technology.
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Sales and marketing expense is primarily salaries and related expenses, including commissions, for our sales, marketing, and client service staff. We also categorize payments to partners and marketing programs as sales and marketing expenses. Marketing programs consist of advertising, events, such as trade shows, corporate communications, brand building, and product marketing activities. We plan to continue to invest in marketing and sales by expanding our domestic and international selling and marketing activities, building brand awareness, attracting new clients, and sponsoring additional marketing events. The timing of these marketing events will affect our marketing costs in a particular quarter.
We defer the portion of sales commissions that is considered a cost of obtaining a new contract with a customer in accordance with the revenue recognition standard and amortize these deferred costs over the period of benefit, currently one year. We expense the remaining sales commissions as incurred. The rates at which sales commissions are earned varies depending on a variety of factors, including the nature of the sale (new, renewal, or add-on service offering), the type of service or solution sold, and the sales channel.
General and Administrative Expenses
Our general and administrative expenses include salaries and benefits and other costs of departments serving administrative functions, such as executives, finance and accounting, human resources, public relations and investor relations. In addition, general and administrative expense includes non-personnel costs, such as professional fees and other supporting corporate expenses not allocated to cost of revenue, product and development or sales and marketing. These expenses have grown over time, due to our investments in personnel, technology and other infrastructure as we continue to position ourselves for growth both organically and through strategic acquisitions. Additionally, there is a cost of compliance as a publicly traded company, which we expect to continue.
Total Other (Income) Expense, Net
Total other (income) expense, net consists of interest income on cash and cash equivalents, quarterly remeasurement of the fair value of our convertible notes and derivative liability, foreign currency gains and losses, and other nonoperating gains and losses.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our critical accounting policies are disclosed in our Transition Report on Form 10-K for the six-month period ended December 31, 2020. Since the date of the Transition Report, there have been no material changes to our critical accounting policies.
Results of Operations for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2021 Compared to Three Months Ended March 31, 2020
The following table highlights the various sources of revenues and expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2021 as compared to the three months ended March 31, 2020:
| Three Months Ended March 31, | | Change | |
| 2021 | | | 2020 | | Period over Period | |
Revenues: | | | | | | | | | |
Software | $ | 3,795,153 | | | $ | 2,346,310 | | $ | 1,448,843 | | | 62 | % |
Consulting | | 172,747 | | | | 692,584 | | | (519,837 | ) | | (75) | % |
Other | | 46,124 | | | | 31,652 | | | 14,472 | | | 46 | % |
Total revenue | | 4,014,024 | | | | 3,070,546 | | | 943,478 | | | 31 | % |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Cost of revenues | | 1,454,167 | | | | 1,396,219 | | | 57,948 | | | 4 | % |
Gross profit | | 2,559,857 | | | | 1,674,327 | | | 885,530 | | | 53 | % |
Gross profit margin | | 64 | % | | | 55 | % | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Operating expenses: | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Product development: | | 1,424,100 | | | | 874,787 | | | 549,313 | | | 63 | % |
Sales and marketing |
| 1,735,915 |
|
|
| 2,040,751 |
|
| (304,836 | ) |
| (15) | % |
General and administrative | | 1,852,962 | | | | 3,457,262 | | | (1,604,300) | | | (46) | % |
Depreciation and amortization |
| 1,052,883 |
|
|
| 180,229 |
|
| 872,654 |
|
| nm |
|
Total operating expenses | | 6,065,860 | | | | 6,553,029 | | | (487,169 | ) | | (7) | % |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Loss from operations | $ | (3,506,003 | ) | | $ | (4,878,702 | ) | $ | (1,372,699) | | | 28 | % |
nm – percentage change not meaningful
Software Revenue
Our total software revenue increased to $3.8 million for the fiscal three months ended March 31, 2021 from $2.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020, for an increase of $1.4 million, or 62%. Software revenue accounted for 95% and 76% of total revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The increase in software revenue during the three months ended March 31, 2021 was primarily attributable to revenue generated from our acquisition of Ample and Trellis.
Software revenues generated from government clients totaled $1.1 million during the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Consulting Revenue
Our consulting revenue was $0.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021 compared to $0.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020, a decrease of $0.5 million, or 75%. This decrease is mainly due to the impact of COVID-19. Consulting services are correlated to state legalizations and other regulatory expansion activity. As a result, individual year-over-year comparisons experienced variability depending on the timing of recent legislative changes. During the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shut-down, state legislatures have turned their focus to the pandemic and tabled work on cannabis legislation, which resulted in delays in our providing consulting services. However, many state ballot initiatives were passed for new medical or adult-use marijuana laws in the November 2020 elections. We expect, despite the slowing of our consulting activity experienced during the pandemic, we expect increased demand for our services in the second half of calendar 2021.
Consulting revenue was 4% and 23% of total revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Due to the nature of consulting revenue, our dependence on emerging market activity as well as the ongoing pandemic as a driver of demand, the quarters in which we recognize consulting revenue has varied from year to year depending on whether state legislation has expanded to allow new market entrants or growth of existing market participant operations.
Other Revenue
Other revenue includes retail/resale revenue, which was generated from point-of-sale hardware. Other revenue was less than $0.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020. Other revenue was 1% and 1% of total revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020.
Cost of Revenue and Gross Profit
Our cost of revenue was $1.5 million,or 36.2% of total revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2021 compared to $1.4 million, or 45.5% of total revenue, for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The decrease in cost of revenue as a percentage of total revenue was primarily due to the acquisition of Ample, which has a higher gross margin.
Because the applications and services available through the Leaf Data Systems are provided through relationships with third-party service providers at higher costs than those from our commercial software platform contracts, the gross profit margins from the government contracts are generally lower than those from our commercial software clients. Total costs of government revenues incurred by us, which are included in the cost of revenues on the statement of operations, were $0.4 million and $0.6 million during the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The decrease in the cost of government revenues incurred by us was due to the lower customer requests of our contracts with the state of Utah and Pennsylvania, and a higher volume of ongoing support and maintenance services provided by subcontractors in connection with the contracts with Pennsylvania and Washington.
Operating Expenses
Product development expense was $1.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021, compared to $0.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020, an increase of $0.5 million, or 63%. Product development expense increased primarily as a result of the acquisitions of Ample and Trellis and an increase in stock-based compensation expense, partially offset by reduced usage of third-party contractors associated with software development.
Sales and marketing expense was $1.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021, compared to $2.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020, a decrease of $0.3 million, or 15%. Sales and marketing decreased primarily due to a reduction in customer event spend due primarily to cancelling all in-person customer activities and events as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
General and administrative expense was $1.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021, compared to $3.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020, a decrease of $1.6 million, or 46%. This decrease was primarily due to $1.0 million in transactional costs we incurred during the three months ended March 31, 2020 in connection with our acquisition of Ample and Trellis. Bad debt expense also decreased by $0.2 million, during the three months ended March 31, 2021, as compared to 2020, due to our improvement in the overall quality of our revenue and client portfolio, enhancement of our sales and marketing team has resulted in a steady decline in the number and amount of delinquent accounts resulting in bad debt expense since the three months ended March 31, 2021. During the three months ended March 31, 2021, we also had a decrease of $0.3 million in salaries and overhead as a direct result of cost-saving measures placed into service during 2020.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to our results determined in accordance with GAAP, we believe the following non-GAAP measures are useful in evaluating our operating performance. We use the following non-GAAP financial information to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial information, when taken collectively, may be helpful to investors because it provides consistency and comparability with past financial performance. However, non-GAAP financial information is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, has limitations as an analytical tool, and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP.
Investors are cautioned that there are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures as an analytical tool. Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate similarly titled non-GAAP measures differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of our non-GAAP financial measures as tools for comparison. We attempt to compensate for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP items excluded from these non-GAAP financial measures.
Investors are encouraged to review the related GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and not rely on any single financial measure to evaluate our business.
EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA
We believe that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, when considered with the financial statements determined in accordance with GAAP, are helpful to investors in understanding our performance and allows for comparison of our performance and credit strength to our peers. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered alternatives to net loss as determined in accordance with GAAP as indicators of our performance or liquidity.
We define EBITDA as net loss before interest expense, interest income changes in fair value of convertible notes, provision for income taxes, depreciation and amortization. We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA further adjusted to exclude the effects of the following items for the reasons set forth below:
| ●
| share-based compensation expense, because this represents a non-cash charge and our mix of cash and share-based compensation may differ from other companies, which effects the comparability of results of operations and liquidity; |
| ● | cost incurred in connection with business combinations that are required to be expensed as incurred in accordance with GAAP, because business combination related costs are specific to the complexity and size of the underlying transactions as well as the frequency of our acquisition activity these costs are not reflective of our ongoing operations; |
| ● | costs incurred in connection with debt issuance when we elect the fair value option to account for the debt instrument because if we had not elected the fair value option such costs would be recognized as an adjustment to the effective interest and excluded from EBITDA; |
| ● | Changes in the fair value of derivative liability as the fair value of these instruments changes period over period on the basis of factors not reflective of operating results, which effects the comparability of results of operations and liquidity; |
| ● | restructuring costs because we believe these costs are not representative of operating performance; |
| ● | equity in earnings (losses) of investees because our share of the operations of investees is not representative of our own operating performance and may not be monetized for a number of years; and |
| ●
| other non-operating expenses which include a one-time gain on asset sale, which effects the comparability of results of operations and liquidity. |
The reconciliation of net loss to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA is as follows:
|
| Three Months Ended March 31, |
|
| | 2021 | |
| 2020 |
|
Net loss | | $ | (6,457,703 | ) |
| $ | (4,608,387 | ) |
Adjustments: | | | | |
|
|
|
|
Interest expense |
|
| 776,181 | |
|
| — |
|
Interest income | | | (1,801 | ) |
|
| (33,522 | ) |
Change in fair value of convertible notes |
|
| 1,991,272 |
|
|
| — |
|
Change in fair value of derivative liability |
|
| 175,996 |
|
|
| (236,917 | ) |
Income tax expense |
|
| 6,270 |
|
|
| — |
|
Depreciation and amortization | | | 1,052,883 | |
|
| 180,229 |
|
EBITDA | | $ | (2,456,902 | ) |
| $ | (4,698,597 | ) |
Stock-based compensation expense
| | | 503,379 | |
|
| 301,948 |
|
Business combination and merger related costs | | | 43,991 |
|
|
| 1,218,432 |
|
Non-recurring financing fees | | | 17,884 |
|
|
| — |
|
Restructuring charges |
|
| 47,187 |
|
|
| — |
|
Equity in losses of investee |
|
| 3,782 |
|
|
| — |
|
Adjusted EBITDA | | $
| (1,840,679 | ) |
| $ | (3,178,217 | ) |
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Since our inception, we have incurred recurring operating losses, used cash in operations, and relied on capital raising transactions to continue ongoing operations. During the three months ended March 31, 2021, we incurred a loss from operations of $3.5 million and used cash in operations of $1.4 million. As of March 31, 2021, we had cash of $15.4 million, excluding restricted cash, and working capital of $6.5 million.
During 2020 we implemented a number of cost reduction initiatives reducing costs and identifying cost savings that we expect to result in annual savings of an additional $3.0 million to $4.0 million, primarily a result of a reduction in workforce. On December 23, 2020, we entered into waivers with all the holders of our outstanding senior secured convertible notes. We may now elect, to pay installment amounts under the Notes prior to April 1, 2021, by issuing shares of common stock pursuant to installment conversions or by paying cash. On February 2, 2021, we agreed, in connection with the Company’s installment notice for the February 1, 2021 installment amount, to increase the installment amount for February 1, 2021, in the aggregate, by $4,400,000. From February 11, 2021 through March 10, 2021, we issued shares of common stock of Akerna to the holders of Akerna’s convertible notes upon conversion of installment amounts. As of March 31, 2021, the principal balance of the senior secured convertible notes was $7.5 million, which we can continue to pay by issuing shares.
During the three months ended March 31, 2021, the Company incurred a number of one-time, non-recurring expenses of approximately $0.1 million. These expenses include business combination expenses, restructuring, and other non-recurring charges. We expect that our current working capital is sufficient to fund our operations and commitments for a period of at least twelve months from the date these financial statements are issued.
In the event the Company requires additional liquidity, the Company can further reduce or defer expenses. More specifically, the Company could implement certain discretionary cost reduction initiatives relating to our spending on employee travel and entertainment, consulting costs and marketing expenses, negotiate deferred salary arrangements, furlough employees or reduce headcount or negotiate extensions of payments of rent and utilities. The Company also believes it has access to capital through future debt or equity offerings and could be successful in renegotiating the maturity dates or conversion option relating to its current outstanding notes payable, although no assurance can be provided that we would be successful in these efforts. Further, the potential continues to exist that our $2 million PPP loan could be forgiven. Management will continue to evaluate our liquidity and capital resources.
After considering all available evidence, we determined that, due to our current positive working capital, our ability to repay our senior secured convertible note with shares of our common stock, and our initiatives to reduce operating expenditures, that we have sufficient working capital to sustain operations for a period of at least twelve months from the date that our March 31, 2021 financial statements were issued. Management will continue to evaluate our liquidity and capital resources.
Cash Flows
Our cash and restricted cash balances were $15.9 million and $14.8 million as of March 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Cash flow information for the three months ended March 31, 2021, and 2020 is as follows:
| | Three Months Ended March 31, | |
| | 2021 | | | 2020 | |
Cash (used in) provided by: | | | | | | |
Operating activities | | $ | (1,373,818 | ) | | $ | (3,913,769 | ) |
Investing activities | | | (704,637 | ) | | | (557,132 | ) |
Financing activities | | | (333,847 | ) | | | — | |
Effect of change in exchange rates on cash and restricted cash |
|
| (1,579 | ) |
|
| — |
|
Net decrease in cash and restricted cash | | $ | (2,413,881 | ) | | $ | (4,470,901 | ) |
Sources and Uses of Cash for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020
Net cash used in operating activities decreased to $1.4 million during the three months ended March 31, 2021, from $3.9 million during the three months ended March 31, 2020, a decrease of $2.5 million. The decrease in cash used in operating activities was primarily due to improvements in cash flows from working capital changes.
Net cash used in investing activities totaled $0.7 million during the three months ended March 31, 2021, as a result of amounts invested in the development of our software products. Net cash used by investing activities during the three months ended March 31, 2020, was $0.6 million as a result of amounts invested in the development of our software products.
Net cash used in financing activities totaled $0.3 million during the three months ended March 31, 2021 and represents cash paid for the value of shares withheld for tax withholdings on restricted stock units that vested. We did not have any cash financing activities during the three months ended March 31, 2020.
Warrant Liability and Financial Statement Revisions
As discussed in Note 9 to the accompanying financial statements, during the course of preparing this report, we determined that our Private Warrants, previously recorded in stockholders’ equity, were not properly classified as derivative liabilities, which resulted in primarily the overstatement of net losses attributable to Akerna’s shareholders for each of the reporting periods identified in that note. We assessed the materiality of these errors on prior periods’ financial statements and concluded that the errors were not material to any prior annual or interim periods, but the cumulative adjustments necessary to correct the errors would be material if we recorded the corrections in the period in which the errors were identified. In accordance with GAAP, we are revising the prior periods’ financial statements when they are next issued.
As a result of the revisions to prior period financial statements, certain items discussed in “Item 7 Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our previously filed Form 10-KT for the six-month transition period ended December 31, 2020 have been revised. Our net loss for the year ended June 30, 2019 was revised from $12,403,215 to $14,419,027. Our net loss for the year ended June 30, 2020 was revised from $15,534,345 to $13,572,311. Our net loss for the six-month period ended December 31, 2020 was revised from $16,957,334 to $16,210,482. In each case, the revision was due solely to the inclusion of the fair value of derivative liability for the Private Warrants. The revisions had no impact on revenue, gross profit, operating expenses or losses from operations.
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
Not applicable.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
We maintain disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) or Rule 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, (the “Exchange Act”)) that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed pursuant to the Exchange Act is processed, recorded, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the Security and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
We have evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) and Rule 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of March 31, 2021 with the participation, and under the supervision, of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Based upon this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that, as of March 31, 2021, our disclosure controls and procedures were ineffective in ensuring that: (i) information required to be disclosed by us in reports that we file or submit to the SEC under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in applicable rules and forms and (ii) material information required to be disclosed in our reports filed under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow for accurate and timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Material Weaknesses
A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Pursuant to our management’s review of disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, management determined that the following material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and prevented management from determining that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting were effective as of the end of the period covered by this report:
| 1) | We lacked formally documented system policies and procedures to demonstrate that our system of internal control over financial reporting is designed effectively, including a lack of documentation surrounding our information technology policies and procedures. |
| 2) | We lacked documentation necessary to demonstrate the controls in place are operating effectively, including controls related to the enforcement of segregation of duties in key areas of financial reporting. |
On April 12, 2021, the staff of the SEC (the “SEC Staff”) issued a public statement entitled “Staff Statement on Accounting and Reporting Considerations for Warrants issued by Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”)” (the “SEC Staff Statement”). In the SEC Staff Statement, the SEC Staff expressed its view that certain terms and conditions common to SPAC warrants may require the warrants to be classified as liabilities on the SPAC’s balance sheet as opposed to equity. In light of the SEC Staff Statement, the Company’s management reevaluated the terms of the Public Warrants and Private Warrants and determined that the Private Warrants should be classified as liabilities measured at fair value upon issuance, with subsequent changes in fair value reported in earnings each reporting period. As a result of this reevaluation, management identified a new material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to our improper evaluation of accounting for complex instruments.
Remediation:
We have hired additional experienced resources to fill accounting functions and expects to add further resources, including those to assist in evaluating the appropriate accounting for complex financial instruments. In addition, we have identified upgraded IT, accounting and finance systems, which we expect will automate critical control functions and improve operational effectiveness and efficiencies.
We have contracted an outside consultant to assist in the overall evaluation and documentation of the design and operating effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting.
We believe these actions will remediate the control weaknesses. However, the weaknesses will not be considered fully remediated until the applicable controls operate for a sufficient period of time for management to test the results for operating effectiveness. Once implemented, we intend to continue periodic testing and reporting of the internal controls to ensure continuity of compliance.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
During the most recently completed fiscal quarter, there have been changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting, as described above in our remediation efforts. Further, subsequent to the end of the fiscal quarter we determined we had an additional material weakness related to the improper evaluation of accounting for complex instruments, as described above.
Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls
Management recognizes that a control system, no matter how well-conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud or error, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people, or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving our stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.