Creative Realities Gets $2M Loan To Speed Up Software Development Tuned To Automaker And Dealers

November 4, 2022 by Dave Haynes

Digital signage solutions firm Creative Realities, Inc. has tweaked its deal with a main lender to secure a $2 million term loan it says will be used to speed up an “active software development project” expected to spin out as much as $5 million in annuals revenues within a couple of years.

That timeline would be good because the wobbly economy has boosted interest rates, and Creative Realities will be paying 12.5% on this one to lender Slipstream Communications.

The Company has secured this loan to fund an unplanned and extraordinary growth opportunity associated with its automotive and vehicular dealership software platform. The Company intends to utilize the proceeds to expand and enhance this existing platform in conjunction with a global expansion opportunity with one of the premier OEM dealership networks in the world. From the Internet to the actual dealership, the platform features fully integrated sales’ tools for automotive and vehicular dealers and car-buyers, and will be an integral part of the ordering, inventory and delivery process for dealers and their customers.

“We believe that this investment will catapult the Company’s industry-leading platform to the global stage, with sales ultimately in a number of domestic and international markets,” says Rick Mills, CEO. “This expansion is further testament to the multi-faceted suite of solutions offered by Creative Realities Inc., which already go well beyond digital signage infrastructure plays with its omni-channel marketing and ad-trafficking platforms.”

The additional development of the platform is already underway and expanded commercialization is projected for the latter half of 2023 with a full implementation of the internationalized product beginning in 2024. The expanded commercialization is projected to generate incremental subscription (SaaS)-based annual recurring revenue (ARR) of up to $5 million in 2024.

“This investment will significantly increase the Company’s high-margin SaaS revenue in 2024,” adds Mills. “It is a transformational opportunity that we simply had to seize.”

Regarding the new funding: “As this opportunity and the related funding were not part of our initial capital plan for 2022, we secured the loan under favorable terms, especially given current market conditions, from a primary investor in the Company, to expedite related value creation.”

“Clearly, the support that we received from that investor is representative of the confidence it has in the Company. As we have communicated to investors, the Company has a number of significant growth initiatives and this incremental funding permits us to allocate resources accordingly without seeking incremental financing via equity instruments or derivatives at valuations which are disconnected from the intrinsic value of our business and would be dilutive to our investor base.”

Not sure who the automaker is, but the company has Jeep and Alfa-Romeo listed in its Work section, and one of the companies Creative Realities acquired in the past – Wireless Ronin – worked with Chrysler.