HAMILTON, Ontario, Jan. 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ackroo Inc. (TSX-V: AKR; OTC: AKRFF) (the “Company”), a gift card, loyalty marketing, payments and point-of-sale technology consolidator and services provider, is pleased to report unaudited annual revenues of $6,825,670 for the year ended December 31^st, 2023 including $5,935,055 of annual recurring revenue. This represents a 9% increase in total revenue and an 11% increase in recurring revenue over the same period in 2022. The Company completed its thirteenth acquisition, divested of a non-core point-of-sale product, paid down approximately $524,000 of debt, bought back 6,068,681 shares, finished the year with a strong treasury, and expects to announce their sixth consecutive positive adjusted EBITDA year, once year end audit is complete, delivering growth in this area as well. The Company delivered these results while also continuing to streamline and optimize general operations in order to set the Company up for bigger success in 2024 and beyond.

The complete financial results for the year ended December 31, 2023 will be available under the profile for Ackroo on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com. Highlights include:

2023 (unaudited) vs. 2022 (audited) annual results:

2023 quarterly results (unaudited):

“We are very happy with the continued progress we are having consolidating, simplifying and improving our industry and our business” said Steve Levely, CEO of Ackroo. “We started the year normalizing a US based acquisition in the loyalty marketing space while also divesting of a point-of-sale business that became a non-core asset. We used the proceeds from the divesture along with the earnings generated from the business over the first few quarters to pay off the balance owed for our Simpliconnect acquisition and to clear a debt settlement we had. We then used the remaining cash generated to do share buy backs as we believed this was the best use of capital based on the share price of Ackroo. We then finished the year using our Q4 generated cash to close our 13^th acquisition to date in the gift card space once again in the US market. All of these actions led to another year of solid revenue growth while also improving our balance sheet in the process. We continued our focus on improving retention and expansion of our inorganically and organically acquired merchants while also better streamlining our operations to simplify processes and maximize cash generation for the business. We are very encouraged by the many decisions we made and the results we achieved in 2023 and are excited for what lies ahead in 2024.”

The Company cautions that figures for revenue have not been audited and are based upon calculations prepared by management. Actual results may differ from those reported in this release once these figures have been audited. The Company expects to complete its 2023 audit in April to confirm revenue figures, along with other financial results.

Ackroo has also granted incentive stock options to purchase 5,800,000 common shares to certain directors, officers and employees of the Company, exercisable at a price of $0.07, until January 26, 2027.

About Ackroo

As an industry consolidator, Ackroo acquires, integrates and manages gift card, loyalty marketing, payment and point-of-sale solutions used by merchants of all sizes. Ackroo’s self-serve, data driven, cloud-based marketing platform helps merchants in-store and online process and manage loyalty, gift card and promotional transactions at the point of sale. Ackroo’s acquisition of payment ISO’s affords Ackroo the ability to resell payment processing solutions to their growing merchant base through some of the world’s largest payment technology and service providers. As a third revenue stream Ackroo has acquired certain custom software products including hybrid management and point-of-sale solutions that help manage and optimize the general operations for niche industry’s including automotive dealers and more. All solutions are focused on helping to consolidate, simplify and improve the merchant marketing, payments and point-of sale ecosystem for their clients. Ackroo is headquartered in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. For more information, visit: www.ackroo.com.

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The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements
This release contains forecasts and forward-looking statements that are not guarantees of future performance and activities and are subject to risks and uncertainties. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on assumptions and assessments made by its management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. Important factors that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: the Company’s ability to raise enough capital to support the Company’s go forward plans; the overall global economic environment; the impact of competition and new technologies; general market, political and economic conditions in the countries in which the Company operates; projected capital expenditures and liquidity; changes in the Company’s strategy; government regulations and approvals; changes in customers’ budgeting priorities; plus other factors that may arise. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.