Auddia Announces Completion of faidr 3.0 and Provides M&A Update

Auddia Inc. (NASDAQ:AUUD) (NASDAQ:AUUDW) (“Auddia” or the “Company”), developer of a proprietary AI platform for audio and innovative technologies for podcasts that is reinventing how consumers engage with audio, announced today that it has achieved the key milestone of fully integrating podcasts, exclusive content in the form of Music Casts, exclusive playlists under the faidrRadio brand, and a new user interface across both iOS and Android. Referred to as faidr 3.0, this milestone positions the Company to accelerate direct-to-consumer advertising to grow the user base and report on full funnel metrics for faidr 3.0 for the first time upon filing the third quarter 10Q.

Michael Lawless, CEO, stated, “The entire Auddia team has been aimed at building faidr 3.0 across both the iOS and Android platforms all year. This focus has led to a significant expansion of Music Cast exclusive content and a much-improved user interface that we expect will greatly increase the likelihood of meeting or exceeding our previously announced targets for full funnel metrics. We have also advanced our AI work aimed at adding an automated, consumer driven, commercial free podcast listening experience to faidr. This is another industry first listening experience being introduced by Auddia that we are very excited about and believe holds the potential to drive a viral adoption moment for faidr. Although some additional development remains, integrating this capability into faidr has now been prioritized and we will announce the expected release of ad-free podcast listening with the filing of our next 10Q.”

Chief Marketing Officer, Theo Romeo, added, “Completion of faidr 3.0 is super exciting for the team. We focused our marketing spend in Q2 to gather preliminary subscription conversion insights on the impact of 3.0 improvements in iOS, which was released in mid-June. We continue to see subscription conversion rates averaging 10% over the last three months. With the release of faidr 3.0 on Android, we will be increasing our ad spend in Q3 and reporting on full funnel metrics across both iOS and Android in mid-November.”

With the release of faidr 3.0, the Company believes it has the best free streaming AM/FM listening platform in the market as faidr’s free tier is the only streaming platform that allows manual skipping of commercials and replicates the full radio dial with all stations. With market reports showing over 76 million monthly AM/FM streaming listeners in the U.S. with streaming representing the fastest growing segment of AM/FM listening, the Company believes faidr 3.0 is well positioned to gain market share on the free tier. As the only streaming platform able to leverage a proprietary, internally built AI to provide a commercial free premium listening experience on every station and the growing library of exclusive Music Cast content and faidrRadio playlists available on the paid tier, the Company believes there is a large opportunity for subscription conversions off the free tier.

M&A Update

Jeff Thramann, Executive Chairman, stated, “We are making steady progress with our M&A strategy and plan to stagger the two acquisitions currently under LOI. Binding purchase agreements for both targets are currently in active negotiation. Subject to favorable financing, we are aiming to close our first target in early Q4, which represents the acquisition of over $2 million in high margin TTM revenue and 4.6 million mobile MAUs listening to AM/FM radio on a free tier. Almost 650 thousand of these listeners are English & Spanish speaking and will be candidates for subscription conversion in Q1 of 2024. The acquisition will expand the number of stations on faidr’s free tier from just over 5,000 in the United States to over 50,000 internationally. Although we have a very attractive opportunity in front of us to drive de novo users through DTC advertising at favorable cost-per-install rates, when you apply ad spend to our targeted metrics, the cost to acquire a user on our free tier is $14.34. At our targeted subscription conversion rate of 12%, this provides a compelling ROI on ad spend. The power of our acquisition strategy is that at the currently proposed purchase price, our cost to acquire a user on the free tier goes all the way down to $2.67. This makes it crystal clear why we are aggressively pursuing this strategy and why we believe it completely enhances the trajectory of the company.”