10-K
1
f10k2020_olbgroup.htm
ANNUAL REPORT
UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON,
D.C. 20549
FORM
10-K
☒
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For
the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020
OR
☐
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For
the transition period from ____________ to ____________
Commission
file number 000-52994
THE
OLB GROUP, INC.
(Exact
Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
Delaware
13-4188568
(State or other
jurisdiction of
incorporation or organization)
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)
200
Park Avenue, Suite 1700, New York, NY 10166
(Address
of Principal Executive Offices with Zip Code)
Registrant’s
telephone number, including area code (212) 278-0900
Securities
registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None.
Securities
registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
Common
Stock, $.0001 par value
Title
of Class
Indicate
by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate
by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports),
and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant
to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that
the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting
company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,”
“smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large
accelerated filer
☐
Accelerated
filer
☐
Non-accelerated filer
☒
Smaller reporting company
☒
Emerging growth company
☒
If
an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for
complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes
☐ No ☒
State
the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates: $13,248,008 based on 1,261,715
non affiliate shares outstanding at $10.50 per share, which is the price at which the common shares were last sold on the last
business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter.
As
of March 22, 2021, there were 7,114,774 shares of the issuer’s common stock outstanding.
THE
OLB GROUP, INC.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Page
PART I
Item 1.
Business
1
Item 1A.
Risk Factors
12
Item 1B.
Unresolved Staff Comments
44
Item 2.
Property
44
Item 3.
Legal Proceedings
44
Item 4.
Mine Safety Disclosures
44
PART II
Item 5.
Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
45
Item 6.
Selected Financial Data
45
Item 7.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation
46
Item 7A.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risk
49
Item 8.
Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
F-1
Item 9.
Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
50
Item 9A.
Controls and Procedures
50
Item 9B.
Other Information
51
PART III
Item 10.
Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
52
Item 11.
Executive Compensation
57
Item 12.
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
59
Item 13.
Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
61
Item 14.
Principal Accountant Fees and Services
63
PART IV
Item 15.
Exhibits, and Financial Statement Schedules
64
Item 16
Form 10-K Summary
65
Signatures
66
i
PART
I
Item
1. Business.
Forward-Looking
Statements
Unless
the context indicates otherwise, as used in this Annual Report, the terms “OLB,” “we,” “us,”
“our,” “our company” and “our business” refer, to The OLB Group, Inc., including its subsidiaries
named herein. Certain statements, other than purely historical information, including estimates, projections, statements relating
to our business plans, objectives, and expected operating results, and the assumptions upon which those statements are based,
are “forward-looking statements.” These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believes,”
“project,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “intends,” “strategy,”
“plan,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,”
“will likely result,” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions
that are subject to risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.
Our ability to predict results or the actual effect of future plans or strategies is inherently uncertain. Factors which could
have a material adverse effect on our operations and future prospects include, but are not limited to: changes in economic conditions,
legislative/regulatory changes, availability of capital, interest rates, competition, and generally accepted accounting principles.
These risks and uncertainties should also be considered in evaluating forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not
be placed on such statements.
On
November 12, 2019, the Company effected a one-for-thirty reverse stock split of its common stock (the “Reverse Split”).
All shares, options and warrants throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K have been retroactively restated to reflect the Reverse
Split.
Overview
We
are a FinTech company and payment facilitator (“PayFac”) that focuses on a suite of products in the merchant services
and payment facilitator verticals and seeks to provide integrated business solutions to merchants throughout the United States.
We seek to provide merchants with a wide range of products and services through our various online platforms, including financial
and transaction processing services. We also have products that provide support for crowdfunding and other capital raising initiatives.
We supplement our online platforms with certain hardware solutions that are integrated with our online platforms. Our business
functions primarily through three wholly-owned subsidiaries, eVance, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“eVance”), OmniSoft.io,
Inc., a Delaware corporation (“OmniSoft”), and CrowdPay.Us, Inc., a New York corporation (“CrowdPay”).
1
OmniSoft
operates a cloud-based business management platform that provides turnkey solutions for merchants to enable them to build and
manage their retail businesses, whether online or at a “brick and mortar” location. The OmniSoft platform, which can
be accessed by merchants through any mobile and computing device, allows merchants to, among other features, manage and track
inventory, track sales and process customer transactions and can provide interactive data analysis concerning sales of products
and need for additional inventory. Merchants generally utilize the platform by uploading to the platform information about their
inventory (description of units, number of units, price per unit, and related information). Once such information has been uploaded,
merchants, either with their own device or with hardware that we sell directly to them, are able to utilize the platform to monitor
inventory and process and track sales of their products (including coordinating shipping of their products with third party logistics
companies). We manage and maintain the OmniSoft platform through a variety of domain names or a merchant can integrate our platform
with their own domain name. Using the OmniSoft platform, merchants can “check-out” their customers at their “brick
and mortar” stores or can sell products to customers online, in both cases accepting payment via a simple credit card or
debit card transaction (either swiping the credit card or entering the credit card number), a cash payment, or by use of a QR
code or loyalty and reward points, and then print or email receipts to the customer. For more information regarding our OmniSoft
platform, see “Business — Description of our OmniSoft Business.”
2
eVance
provides competitive payment processing solutions to merchants which enable merchants to process credit and debit card-based internet
payments for sales of their products at competitive prices (whether such sales occur online or at a “brick and mortar”
location). eVance is an independent sales organization (an “ISO”) that signs up new merchants on behalf of acquiring
banks and processors that provides financial and transaction processing solutions to merchants throughout the United States.
eVance differentiates itself from other ISOs by focusing on both obtaining and maintaining new merchant contracts for its own
account (including, but not limited to, merchants that utilize the OmniSoft platform) and also obtaining and maintaining merchant
contracts obtained by third-party ISOs (for which we negotiate a shared fee arrangement) and utilizing our own software and technology
to provide merchants and other ISOs differentiating products and software. In particular, we (i) own our own payments gateway,
(ii) have proprietary omni-commerce software platform, (iii) have in-house underwriting and customer service, (iv) have
in-house sub-ISO management system which offers sub-ISOs and agents tools for online boarding, account management, residual reports
among other tools, (v) utilize a Payment Facilitator model and (vi) offer a suite of products in the financial markets
(through CrowdPay). Leveraging our relationship with three of the top five merchant processors in the United States (representing
a majority of the merchant processing market) and with the use of our proprietary software, our payment gateway (which we call
“SecurePay”) enables merchants to reduce the cost of transacting with their customers by removing the need for a third-party
payment gateway solution. eVance operates as both a wholesale ISO and a retail ISO depending on the risk profile of the merchant
and the applicable merchant processor and acquiring bank. As a wholesale ISO, eVance underwrites the processing transactions for
merchants, establishing a direct relationship with the merchant and generating individual merchant processing contracts in exchange
for future residual payments. As a retail ISO, eVance primarily gathers the documents and information that our partners (acquiring
banks and acquiring processors) need to underwrite merchants’ transactions and as a result receives only residual income
as commission for merchants it places with our partners. For more information regarding the electronic payment industry, see “Business —
Description of our eVance Business — Our Industry.”
Substantially
all of our revenue has been generated from our eVance business (see our financial statements and related notes included in this
Annual Report and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for more information),
but began generating revenue from our OmniSoft and CrowdPay business during the second half of 2019. We expect to build out our
OmniSoft software business and to rely more on our PayFac model to transition away from our reliance on our eVance business but
there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so. See the section entitled “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report.
3
SecurePay
SecurePay
is a payment gateway and virtual terminal with proprietary business management tools that is in compliance with the Payment Card
Industry (PCI).
SecurePay
has been certified by Visa and MasterCard (certified Level II and Level III) and finalized implementation of “3D Secure”
in 2019 (a feature that is unique to what we offer in order to provide for more secure environment for E-commerce and mobile payments
in-store and online).
4
CrowdPay.us™
operates a white label capital raising platform that targets small and midsized businesses seeking to raise capital and registered
broker-dealers seeking to host capital raising campaigns for such businesses by integrating the platform onto such company’s
or broker-dealer’s website. Our CrowdPay platform is tailored for companies seeking to raise money through a crowdfunding
offering of between $1 million and $50 million pursuant to Regulation CF under Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups
(the “JOBS Act”), offerings pursuant to Rule 506(b) and Rule 506(c) under Regulation D of the Securities
Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and offerings pursuant to Regulation A+ of the Securities Act. Our
platform, which can be used for multiple offerings at once, provides companies and broker-dealers with an easy-to-use, turnkey
solution to support company offerings, allowing companies and broker-dealers to easily present online to potential investors relevant
marketing and offering materials and by aiding in the accreditation and background check processes to ensure investors meets the
applicable requirements under the rules and regulations of the Securities Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). CrowdPay
charges a fee to each company and broker-dealer for the use of its platform under a fee structure that is agreed to between CrowdPay
and the Company and/or broker-dealer prior to the initiation of the offering. CrowdPay also generates revenues by providing ancillary
services to the companies and broker-dealers utilizing our platform, including running background checks and providing anti-money
laundering and know-your-customer compliance. CrowdPay is not a registered funding portal or a registered broker-dealer.
5
Synergies
between the subsidiaries
The
success of our business model is dependent on the synergies between the business segments operated by our subsidiaries. We have
created and developed products which, we believe, form an ecosystem of e-commerce to provide a variety of clients, from online
equity financing companies or merchants selling online or in brick and mortar stores, with multiple product offerings and ancillary
services from underwriting with the banks and merchant billing from the cloud software. We expect that these synergies will create
additional revenue by charging transaction fees on each service provided to clients by our partnerships with Merchant Acquiring
Banks and PCI Compliance.
We
believe that our wholly-owned subsidiaries combine to create an ecosystem where each subsidiary benefits the other. Starting with
the services provided by eVance, we enable each of our products and platforms to communicate with each other and create an ecosystem
among our products and, potentially, third-party products.
The
product environment created with a new registered merchant or issuer enables all merchant information to be stored in a single,
centralized location but utilized by all subsidiaries. For example, merchant services utilizing eVance provide electronic payment
processing services that can be utilized for payments on the Crowdfunding platform. The platform is used by merchant services
to allow mobile and online processing to merchants.
The
Omni commerce platform will be offered to all of the merchant services clients. The offered Merchant Services products we provide
will enable all processing needs for the Omni-commerce system. The gateway will allow merchants that are using the platform to
accept online E-commerce transactions.
6
Competitive
Advantages
We
believe that our platform of services will provide the following key advantages.
● Time
to Market — we can create a customized website for retailers within days and have it fully operational in less than
2 weeks.
● Cost —
we believe that we are the only content service provider that does not charge a setup fee.
● Flexibility —
our platform has the flexibility to provide customized solutions for partners.
● Pricing —
we provide partners with a price comparison feature which they can utilize if they wish to set prices for products or run promotions.
● Payment
processing — we can provide financial service companies with the ability to have their customers’ accounts directly
debited for payment.
● We
can assist existing “brick & mortar” businesses that have inventory and fulfilment capability but do not
wish to create and maintain an e-commerce website and infrastructure to sell their products.
● We
can provide a platform for early-stage companies looking for an effective and less costly way to raise capital.
Risks
Associated with our Business
Our
business and ability to execute our business strategy are subject to a number of risks of which you should be aware before you
decide to buy our securities. In particular, you should consider the following risks, which are discussed more fully in the section
entitled “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report:
● Our
acquisition of eVance and share exchange with OmniSoft and CrowdPay has collectively formed a new business platform which we are
continuing to integrate into our overall operations, and which may create certain risks and may adversely affect our business,
financial condition or results of operations;
● Our
failure to pay our outstanding indebtedness will result in a substantial loss of our assets;
● We
operate in a regulatory environment that is evolving and uncertain and any changes to regulations could have a material impact
on our business and financial condition;
● We
rely on a combination of confidentiality clauses, assignment agreements and license agreements with employees and third parties,
trade secrets, copyrights and trademarks to protect our intellectual property and competitive advantage, all of which offer only
limited protection meaning that we may be unable to maintain and protect our intellectual property rights and proprietary information
or prevent third-parties from making unauthorized use of our technology;
● Our
growth may not be sustainable and depends on our ability to attract new merchants, retain existing merchants and increase sales
to both new and existing merchants; and
● While
we believe that we have sufficient capital to continue operations for a period of at least twelve months from the date of this
Annual Report, if there are unanticipated expenses, insufficient cash from operations or the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic results
in a larger than anticipated decline in transactions, we may require additional capital to continue our operations which may not
be available, or if available, may not be available on reasonable terms.
7
Impact
of COVID-19
On
January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak a “Public Health Emergency
of International Concern” and on March 11, 2020, declared it to be a pandemic. The virus and actions taken to mitigate its
spread have had and are expected to continue to have a broad adverse impact on the economies and financial markets of many countries,
including the geographical areas in which the Company operates. In response to the pandemic, the Company is working with merchants
to address potential changes to the purchase patterns of consumers. In addition, the Company is focusing on servicing merchants
that sell products with an extended delivery time frame, that have products that are paid for in advance, and that work in the
catering, ticketing, limo and travel related businesses which have been directly impacted by the social distancing requirement
of the pandemic. Further, for those of the Company’s employees that are able to perform their job remotely, the Company
has implemented a “remote work” policy and provided employees with the technology necessary to do continue to do their
jobs from home and for those employees that are unable to perform their job from a remote location, the Company has taken steps
to ensure appropriate distancing and added sanitizing stations along with requiring frequent hand washing and work station cleaning.
The
Company has experienced disruptions to its business and has observed disruptions for the Company’s customers and merchants
which has resulted in a decline in transaction volume. While the volume of processing transactions by merchants in March 2020
was relatively in-line with the Company’s expectations that the number of transactions during March would be below the prior
year because states in the United States began to implement stay-at-home orders, the number of transactions and resulting
revenue was approximately 15% lower in March than in February and 30% lower in April than in March. In May, the number of transactions
increased whereby they were 5% higher than in April, and in June, when some states began to reopen businesses, transactions were
7% higher than May. The Company’s revenue during the period of time decreased and then increased in the amount of similar
to the percentage of month-to-month transaction volume. The following is a summary of a comparison of the number of transactions
and transaction revenue for the second quarter, third quarter and fourth quarter of 2020.
Second Quarter 2020
Third Quarter 2020
Change
Change
Revenue
$ 2,000,035
$ 2,308,037
$ 308,002
15 %
Net Loss
$ (510,409 )
$ (657,358 )
$ (146,949 )
-29 %
Transaction Vol
171,589,645
200,759,845
29,170,200
17 %
Third Quarter 2020
Fourth Quarter 2020
Change
Change
Revenue
$ 2,308,037
$ 2,219,556
$ (88,481 )
-4 %
Net Loss
$ (657,358 )
$ (66,755 )
$ 590,603
90 %
Transaction Vol
200,759,845
196,744,648
(4,015,197 )
-2 %
We
do estimate that the number of transactions will continue to stay at a depressed level or further decline from the prior year,
along with revenues, until the response to the COVID-19 pandemic relaxes and allows customers to make more point of purchase transactions
for merchants and/or more merchants provide for additional contactless and online purchase options. The anticipated amount of
anticipated decline from prior year is unknown, but it will be impacted by when consumers return to the level of purchasing that
occurred in the prior year and before the pandemic. The Company does not anticipate that the pandemic will have a material impact
on the Company’s business or liquidity. However, additional closings and reopenings of businesses in the future will likely
result in a month over month volatility similar to what occurred in 2020.
Regulations
Various
aspects of our service areas are subject to U.S. federal, state, and local regulation. Certain of our services also are subject
to rules promulgated by various card networks and banking and other authorities as more fully described below.
8
The
Dodd-Frank Act
In
July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law in the United States. The Dodd-Frank Act has resulted in significant structural
and other changes to the regulation of the financial services industry. Among other things, Title X of the Dodd-Frank Act established
a new, independent regulatory agency known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) to regulate consumer
financial products and services (including some offered by our customers). The CFPB may also have authority over us as a provider
of services to regulated financial institutions in connection with consumer financial products. Separately, under the Dodd-Frank
Act, debit interchange transaction fees that a card issuer receives and are established by a payment card network for an electronic
debit transaction are now regulated by the Federal Reserve and must be “reasonable and proportional” to the cost incurred
by the card issuer in authorizing, clearing, and settling the transaction. Effective October 1, 2011, the Federal Reserve capped
debit interchange rates for card issuers operating in the United States with assets of $10 billion or more at the sum of $0.21
per transaction and an ad valorem component of 5 basis points to reflect a portion of the issuer’s fraud losses plus, for
qualifying issuers, an additional $0.01 per transaction in debit interchange for fraud prevention costs. In addition, the new
regulations contain non-exclusivity provisions that ban debit card networks from prohibiting an issuer from contracting with any
other card network that may process an electronic debit transaction involving an issuer’s debit cards and prohibit card
issuers and card networks from inhibiting the ability of merchants to direct the routing of debit card transactions over any network
that can process the transaction. Beginning April 1, 2012, all debit card issuers in the United States were required to participate
in at least two unaffiliated debit card networks. On April 1, 2013, the ban on network exclusivity arrangements became effective
for prepaid card and healthcare debit card issuers, with certain exceptions for prepaid cards issued before that date.
Effective
July 22, 2010, merchants were allowed to set minimum dollar amounts (not to exceed $10) for the acceptance of a credit card (while
federal governmental entities and institutions of higher education may set maximum amounts for the acceptance of credit cards).
They were also allowed to provide discounts or incentives to entice consumers to pay with an alternative payment method, such
as cash, checks or debit cards.
Association
and network rules
We
are subject to the rules of credit card associations and other credit and debit networks. In order to provide processing services,
a number of our subsidiaries are registered with Visa or Mastercard as service providers for member institutions. Various subsidiaries
of ours are also processor level members of numerous debit and electronic benefits transaction networks or are otherwise subject
to various network rules in connection with processing services and other services we provide. As such, we are subject to applicable
network rules. Card networks and their member financial institutions regularly update and generally expand security expectations
and requirements related to the security of cardholder data and environments. We are also subject to network operating rules promulgated
by the National Automated Clearing House Association relating to payment transactions processed by us using the Automated Clearing
House Network and to various state federal and foreign laws regarding such operations, including laws pertaining to electronic
benefits transactions.
Privacy
and information security regulations
We
provide services that may be subject to various state, federal, and foreign privacy laws and regulations, including, among others,
the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 (the “Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act”). These laws and their implementing
regulations restrict certain collection, processing, storage, use, and disclosure of personal information, require notice to individuals
of privacy practices, and provide individuals with certain rights to prevent use and disclosure of protected information. These
laws also impose requirements for the safeguarding and proper destruction of personal information through the issuance of data
security standards or guidelines. Certain federal, state and foreign laws and regulations impose similar privacy obligations and,
in certain circumstances, obligations to notify affected individuals, state officers or other governmental authorities, the media,
and consumer reporting agencies, as well as businesses and governmental agencies, of security breaches affecting personal information.
In addition, there are state and foreign laws restricting the ability to collect and utilize certain types of information such
as Social Security and driver’s license numbers.
9
Unfair
trade practice regulations
We
and our clients are subject to various federal and state laws prohibiting unfair or deceptive trade practices, such as Section
5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Various regulatory agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau, and state attorneys general, have authority to take action against parties that engage in unfair or deceptive
trade practices or violate other laws, rules, and regulations, and to the extent we are processing payments for a client that
may be in violation of laws, rules, and regulations, we may be subject to enforcement actions and incur losses and liabilities
that may impact our business.
Anti-money
laundering, anti-bribery, sanctions, and counter-terrorist regulations
We
are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including certain sections of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001. We are also
subject to anti-corruption laws and regulations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”) and
other laws, that prohibit the making or offering of improper payments to foreign government officials and political figures and
includes anti-bribery provisions enforced by the Department of Justice and accounting provisions enforced by the SEC. The FCPA
has a broad reach and requires maintenance of appropriate records and adequate internal controls to prevent and detect possible
FCPA violations. Many other jurisdictions where we conduct business also have similar anticorruption laws and regulations. We
have policies, procedures, systems, and controls designed to identify and address potentially impermissible transactions under
such laws and regulations.
We
are also subject to certain economic and trade sanctions programs that are administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control
(“OFAC”) which prohibit or restrict transactions to or from or dealings with specified countries, their governments,
and in certain circumstances, their nationals, and with individuals and entities that are specially-designated nationals of those
countries, narcotics traffickers, and terrorists or terrorist organizations. Other group entities may be subject to additional
local sanctions requirements in other relevant jurisdictions.
Securities
Act
Since
the JOBS Act was passed, Crowdfunding, Regulation D offerings and Regulation A and A+ offerings rapidly became a familiar concept
among investment firms, venture capitalists, real estate developers and small to medium sized businesses as a way to facilitate
and democratize financing. We believe it has created, and continues to create, a profound shift in the world of investments. Below
is a brief overview of the rules that permit the offer and sale of securities through such platforms. This overview is in no way
intended to be a comprehensive review of all the rules and regulations associated with the above mentioned offerings and should
not be relied upon by anyone.
Regulation
D under the Securities Act is the most common regulatory exemption used small businesses to raise capital through equity financing.
It exempts private placement offerings under Rule 506(b) and 506(c) when sold to accredited investors, as defined under Rule 501
of Regulation D. Companies relying on the Rule 506 exemptions can raise an unlimited amount of money, so long as they comply with
the rule’s requirements. Regulation A and Regulation A+ are more similar to a public offerings, and require filing
Form 1-A with the SEC. Regulation A and Regulation A+ offer two tiers of offerings; the first tier is for offerings of up to $20
million within any 12 month period and the second tier is for offerings of up to $50 million, within any 12 month period. Regulation
CF allows a company to raise up to $1.07 million from non-accredited investors.
Intellectual
property
Our
products and services utilize a combination of proprietary software and hardware that we own and license from third parties. Over
the last few years, we have developed a payment gateway, merchant boarding system, E-commerce platform, recurring billings and
a crowdfunding platform. We generally control access to and use of our proprietary software and other confidential information
through the use of internal and external controls, including entering into non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements with
both our employees and third parties. As of the date of this report, we have a patent pending on transferable QR codes on Omni
Commerce devices.
10
Employees
As
of December 31, 2020, we had six key employees as part of our overall staff of 24 full-time employees. Our risk, compliance, underwriting
and analyst’s accounting and customer service functions are located in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, we have operations
in India where we retain 15 to 35 developers at any given time depending on our requirements and scope of projects. None of our
employees are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We consider our relationship with
our employees to be good.
Corporate
Information
We
were incorporated in the State of Delaware on November 18, 2004 for the purpose of merging with OLB.com, Inc., a New York corporation
incorporated in 1993 (“OLB.com”). The merger was done for the purpose of changing our state of incorporation from
New York to Delaware. In April 2018, we completed an acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Excel Corporation and its
subsidiaries Payprotec Oregon, LLC, Excel Business Solutions, Inc. and eVance Processing, Inc. (such assets are the foundation
of our eVance business). In connection with the Asset Acquisition, in May 2018, we entered into share exchange agreements with
CrowdPay and OmniSoft, affiliate companies owned by Mr. Yakov and John Herzog, an affiliate of our company, pursuant to which
each of CrowdPay and OmniSoft became wholly owned subsidiaries of our company.
Our
Company’s headquarters is located at 200 Park Avenue, Suite 1700, New York, NY 10166. Our telephone number is (212) 278-0900.
Implications
of Being an Emerging Growth Company
We
qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined under the Securities Act. As a result, we are permitted to, and
intend to, rely on exemptions from certain disclosure requirements that are otherwise applicable to public companies. These provisions
include, but are not limited to:
●
not being required
to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as amended (or the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act);
●
reduced disclosure
obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports, proxy statements and registration statements; and
●
exemptions from
the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute
payments not previously approved.
In
addition, an emerging growth company can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting
standards. This provision allows an emerging growth company to delay the adoption of some accounting standards until those standards
would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to avail ourselves of this extended transition period. We will remain
an emerging growth company until the earliest to occur of: (i) our reporting $1.07 billion or more in annual gross revenues; (ii)
the end of fiscal year 2024; (iii) our issuance, in a three year period, of more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt; and
(iv) the end of the fiscal year in which the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeded $700 million on
the last business day of our second fiscal quarter.
11
Item
1A. Risk Factors
Investing
in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below,
together with all of the other information contained in this annual report, before deciding to invest in our common stock. If
any of the following risks materialize, our business, financial condition, results of operation and prospects will likely be materially
and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline and you could lose all or part of your
investment.
Risks
Related to Our Company
Our
acquisition of assets of Excel and its subsidiaries Payprotec Oregon, LLC, Excel Business Solutions, Inc. and eVance Processing,
Inc. and share exchange with OmniSoft and CrowdPay has collectively formed a new business platform which we are continuing to
integrate into our overall operations, and which may create certain risks and may adversely affect our business, financial condition
or results of operations.
On
April 9, 2018, we acquired substantially all of the assets of Excel and its subsidiaries Payprotec Oregon, LLC, Excel Business
Solutions, Inc. and eVance Processing, Inc. for $12.5 million through a foreclosure sale conducted under the Uniform Commercial
Code of the State of New York (“Asset Acquisition”). Since closing the Asset Acquisition, we have been in the process
of integrating our operations with the acquired assets.
On
May 9, 2018, we entered into separate share exchange agreements with the stockholders of OmniSoft and CrowdPay, affiliate companies
of our company’s majority stockholder. Pursuant to the share exchange agreement with OmniSoft, the stockholders of OmniSoft
transferred to us all of the issued and outstanding shares of OmniSoft common stock in exchange for an aggregate of 1,833,333
shares of our common stock. Pursuant to the share exchange agreement with CrowdPay, the stockholders of CrowdPay transferred to
us all of the issued and outstanding shares of CrowdPay common stock in exchange for an aggregate of 2,916,667 shares of our common
stock. The share exchange transactions closed on May 9, 2018, on which date OmniSoft and CrowdPay became wholly owned subsidiaries
of the Company (the “Share Exchange”).
Since
the consummation of the Asset Acquisition and the Share Exchange, we have a limited history upon which an evaluation of our performance
and future prospects can be made. Our current and proposed operations are subject to all the business risks associated with new
enterprises. These include likely fluctuations in operating results as we manage our growth and react to competitors and developments
in the markets in which we compete. As we can be considered an early stage company and have not yet generated any profits, there
is no assurance that we will be profitable in the near term or generate sufficient revenues to meet our capital requirements.
As
a result, we may experience interruptions of, or loss of momentum in, the activities of one or more of our combined businesses
and the possible loss of key personnel. The diversion of our management’s attention and any delays or difficulties encountered
in connection with the integration of Excel could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
The
substantial and continuing losses, and significant operating expenses incurred in the past few years may cause us to be unable
to pursue all of our operational objectives if sufficient financing and/or additional cash from revenues is not realized.
We
have limited cash resources and operating losses throughout our history. As of December 31, 2020 and, we had a working capital
of $3,205,807 and a net loss of $1,776,727. Our cash flow used by operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2020 was
$327,267. Notwithstanding the foregoing, management has concluded that it has sufficient liquidity to continue operations for
a period of at least twelve months from the date of this Annual Report, which conclusion would not have been possible without
the amendments to the Credit Agreement, cash on hand from the proceeds of a litigation settlement and close monitoring of the
Company’s projected cash flow and operating expenses for a period of at least the next twelve months.
12
Further,
in connection with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the Company has experienced disruptions to its
business and has observed disruptions for the Company’s customers and merchants which has resulted in a decline in transaction
volume. The Company estimates that the number of transactions will continue to stay at a depressed level or further decline from
the prior year, along with revenues, if the response to the COVID-19 pandemic reinstates stay-at-home restrictions and restricts
customers to make more point of purchase transactions for merchants and/or more merchants provide for additional contactless and
online purchase options. The anticipated amount of decline in revenue is unknown, but the Company would be negatively impacted
until consumers return to the level of purchasing that occurred
As
a result of these factors, the Company determined it was necessary to do a reforecast of its cash flow for 2021 and an overall
analysis of market trends to determine whether or not his has sufficient liquidity to continue as a going concern for a period
of at least twelve months from the date of filing this Annual Report. The Company also determined it was necessary to continue
to implement certain corporate actions, such as reducing discretionary expenses, in connection with its overall analysis to determine
whether or not it has sufficient liquidity to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from the date
its condensed consolidated financial statements were issued.
In
considering the anticipated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s business, the Company does not anticipate that
the pandemic will have a material impact on the Company’s business or liquidity and believes that it will be able fund future
liquidity and capital requirements through cash flows generated from its operating activities for a period of at least twelve
months from the date of this Annual Report (see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of Operations). However, any additional closings and reopenings of businesses in the future will likely result in a month over
month decline and then increase similar to what occurred in March through June 2020.
If
there are unanticipated expenses, insufficient cash from operations or the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including but not
limited to losses arising from a second wave of businesses closing in response to the ongoing pandemic, which results in a larger
than anticipated decline in transactions, we may not be able to attract financing as needed, or if available, on reasonable terms
as required and therefore may not be able to accomplish our business goals or repay certain of our debts. Further, the terms of
any such financing may be dilutive to existing stockholders or otherwise on terms not favorable to us or existing stockholders.
If we are unable to secure financing, as circumstances require, or do not succeed in meeting our sales objectives, we may be required
to change, significantly reduce our operations or ultimately may not be able to continue our operations and there will be substantial
doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.
We
have historically relied on related parties and affiliates to finance our operations, but there is no guarantee that these parties
will continue to finance our operations in the future.
While
we will be able to fund future liquidity and capital requirements through cash flows generated from our operating activities alone
for a period of twelve months, we previously have financed our operations from short-term loans from Ronny Yakov, our Chief Executive
Officer and John Herzog, a significant shareholder of the Company. It is not assured that Mr. Yakov or Mr. Herzog would continue
to provide such assistance if the Company were to require it in the future.
We
may be subject to liabilities arising prior to the Asset Acquisition under certain “successor liability” theories.
We
acquired our business by means of a foreclosure of the relevant secured lender’s security interest in the assets in the
Asset Acquisition through an auction under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Although the general rule in the context
of transactions such as the Asset Acquisition is that a purchaser of assets does not assume the seller’s liabilities, various
courts have established exceptions to this general rule, including where the purchaser is a ‘mere continuation’ of
the seller and there is a ‘continuity of enterprise.’ This is a highly fact specific inquiry, and there can be no
assurance that any interested creditor, the United States (through the Internal Revenue Service) or state or local taxing agencies
will not seek to hold us responsible for any existing liabilities at the time of the Asset Acquisition under one or more of these
successor liability theories, for which we have no indemnification protection under the agreements relating to the Asset Acquisition.
13
In
connection with our preparation of our financial statements, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial
reporting and concluded that our internal controls over financial reporting were not effective at December 31, 2020. Failure to
establish and maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could have a material
adverse effect on our business and stock price. If we cannot remediate our current internal control finding or if we cannot maintain
effective internal controls over financial reporting in the future, it could harm us.
Our
management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control
over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting
and the preparation of financial statements in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”).
During the preparation of our financial statements for both 2019 and 2020, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control
over financial reporting and concluded that our internal controls over financial reporting were not effective. Under the criteria
set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) in Internal Control —
Integrated Framework, a deficiency in internal control over financial reporting exists when the design or operation of a control
does not allow management or personnel, in the normal course of performing their assigned functions, to prevent or detect misstatements
on a timely basis. A material weakness as a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting,
such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of annual or interim financial statements will not be
prevented, or detected and corrected, on a timely basis.
We
carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive
officer and principal financial officer, of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange
Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)). Based upon that evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer
concluded that, as of the end of the period covered in our latest quarterly and annual report, our disclosure controls and procedures
were ineffective to ensure that information required to be disclosed in reports filed under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed,
summarized and reported within the required time periods specified in the Commission’s rules and forms and is accumulated
and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate
to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Our
independent registered public accounting firm is not required to, and did not, issue an attestation report regarding the effectiveness
of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020, in accordance with the provisions of Section 404 of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Our
principal executive officer and principal financial officer, do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our
internal controls will prevent all error or fraud. 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.
Due to the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control
issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected.
If
we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner or to assert that our internal control over financial
reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness
of our internal control over financial reporting (if required), investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness
of our financial reports and the market price of our common stock could be negatively affected, and we could become subject to
investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could
require additional financial and management resources.
We
operate in a complex regulatory environment, and failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could adversely affect
our business.
Our
operations are subject to a broad range of complex and evolving laws and regulations. As a result, we must perform our services
in compliance with the legal and regulatory requirements of multiple jurisdictions. Some of these laws and regulations may be
difficult to ascertain or interpret and may change from time to time. Violation of such laws and regulations could subject us
to fines and penalties, damage our reputation, constitute a breach of our client agreements, impair our ability to obtain and
renew required licenses, and decrease our profitability or competitiveness. If any of these effects were to occur, our operating
results and financial condition could be adversely affected.
14
We
may not be able to integrate new technologies and provide new services in a cost-efficient manner.
The
online E-commerce industry is subject to rapid and significant changes in technology, frequent new service introductions and evolving
industry standards. We cannot predict the effect of these changes on our competitive position, our profitability or the industry
generally. Technological developments may reduce the competitiveness of our networks and our software solutions and require additional
capital expenditures or the procurement of additional products that could be expensive and time consuming. In addition, new products
and services arising out of technological developments may reduce the attractiveness of our services. If we fail to adapt successfully
to technological advances or fail to obtain access to new technologies, we could lose customers and be limited in our ability
to attract new customers and/or sell new services to our existing customers. In addition, delivery of new services in a cost-efficient
manner depends upon many factors, and we may not generate anticipated revenue from such services.
Disruptions
in our networks and infrastructure may result in customer dissatisfaction, customer loss or both, which could materially and adversely
affect our reputation and business.
Our
systems are an integral part of our customers’ business operations. It is critical for our customers, that our systems provide
a continued and uninterrupted performance. Customers may be dissatisfied by any system failure that interrupts our ability to
provide services to them. Sustained or repeated system failures would reduce the attractiveness of our services significantly
and could result in decreased demand for our services.
We
face the following risks to our networks, infrastructure and software applications:
● our
territory can have significant weather events which physically damage access lines;
● power
surges and outages, computer viruses or hacking, earthquakes, terrorism attacks, vandalism and software or hardware defects which
are beyond our control; and
● Unusual
spikes in demand or capacity limitations in our or our suppliers’ networks.
Disruptions
may cause interruptions in service or reduced capacity for customers, either of which could cause us to lose customers and/or
incur expenses, and thereby adversely affect our business, revenue and cash flow.
Our
positioning in the marketplace as a smaller provider places a significant strain on our resources, and if not managed effectively,
could result in operational inefficiencies and other difficulties.
Our
positioning in the marketplace may place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources, and increase
demand on our systems and controls. To manage this position effectively, we must continue to implement and improve our operational
and financial systems and controls, invest in development & engineering, critical systems and network infrastructure to maintain
or improve our service quality levels, purchase and utilize other systems and solutions, and train and manage our employee base.
As we proceed with our development, operational difficulties could arise from additional demand placed on customer provisioning
and support, billing and management information systems, product delivery and fulfilment, sales and marketing and administrative
resources.
For
instance, we may encounter delays or cost overruns or suffer other adverse consequences in implementing new systems when required.
In addition, our operating and financial control systems and infrastructure could be inadequate to ensure timely and accurate
financial reporting.
15
We
must attract and retain skilled personnel. If we are unable to hire and retain technical, technical sales and operational employees,
our business could be harmed.
Our
ability to integrate our acquired assets and to grow will be particularly dependent on our ability to hire, develop and retain
an effective sales force and qualified technical and managerial personnel. We need software development specialists with in-depth
knowledge of a blend of IT and telecommunications or with a blend of security and telecom. We intend to hire additional necessary
employees, including software engineers, communication engineers, project managers, sales consultants, employees and operational
employees, on a permanent basis. The competition for qualified technical sales, technical, and managerial personnel in the communications
and software industry is intense in the markets where we operate, and we may not be able to hire and retain sufficient qualified
personnel. In addition, we may not be able to maintain the quality of our operations, control our costs, maintain compliance with
all applicable regulations, and expand our internal management, technical, information and accounting systems in order to support
our desired growth, which could have an adverse impact on our operations. Volatility in the stock market and other factors could
diminish our use, and the value, of our equity awards as incentives to employees, putting us at a competitive disadvantage or
forcing us to use more cash compensation.
We
are dependent on the continued services and performance of our senior management and other key employees, the loss of any of whom
could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our
future performance depends on the continued services and contributions of our senior management, including our Chief Executive
Officer, Ronny Yakov and other key employees to execute on our business plan and to identify and pursue new opportunities and
product innovations. The loss of services of senior management or other key employees could significantly delay or prevent the
achievement of our strategic objectives. In addition, some of the members of our current senior management team have only been
working together for a short period of time, which could adversely impact our ability to achieve our goals. From time to time,
there may be changes in our senior management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives, which could disrupt our
business. We do not maintain key person life insurance policies on any of our employees other than a policy providing limited
coverage on the life of our Chief Executive Officer. The loss of the services of one or more of our senior management or other
key employees for any reason could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results and require significant
amounts of time, training and resources to find suitable replacements and integrate them within our business, and could affect
our corporate culture.
Our
Chief Financial Officer is currently employed on a part-time basis.
Given
the size of the Company and our operational needs, we initially hired our Chief Financial Officer, Rachel Boulds, on a part-time
basis. While we have discussed with Ms. Boulds the possibility of becoming our full-time Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Boulds is
currently employed on a part-time basis. In addition to her role as Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Boulds is also operating her
solo accounting practice providing services for clients unrelated to the Company. While we believe that Ms. Boulds currently devotes
adequate time to the Company to perform the role and duties of our Chief Financial Officer, we cannot guarantee that she will
be able to continue to do so until she is with the Company on a fulltime basis. If Ms. Boulds cannot devote adequate time to our
Company to fulfil her role and duties as Chief Financial Officer or if any conflicts of interest arise during this time, it could
have a material adverse impact on our Company.
Our
success depends on our continued investment in research and development, the level and effectiveness of which could reduce our
profitability.
We
intend to continue to make investments in research and development and product development in seeking to sustain and improve our
competitive position and meet our customers’ needs. These investments currently include streamlining our suite of software
functionalities, including modularization and improving scalability of our integrated solutions. To maintain our competitive position,
we may need to increase our research and development investment, which could reduce our profitability and cash flows. In addition,
we cannot assure you that we will achieve a return on these investments, nor can we assure you that these investments will improve
our competitive position or meet our customers’ needs.
16
The
Company’s financial condition and results of operations for the fiscal year 2021 is very likely to be adversely affected
by the recent COVID-19 outbreak.
The
New York and Atlanta areas, including the location of the Company’s corporate headquarters and its operations business,
are currently experiencing significant impact of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. The Company is currently following the recommendations
of local health authorities to minimize exposure risk for its employees and visitors. However, the scale and scope of this pandemic
is unknown and the duration of the business disruption and related financial impact cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.
While the Company is currently implementing specific business continuity plans to reduce the potential impact of COVID-19, the
Company, has, as of the date of this Annual Report, suffered a negative impact during March through June 2020, when compared to
its prior year performance, while most states in the United States were under stay-at-home orders (though, as of the date of this
Annual Report, the Company has seen increases in transactions as most states in the United States have started to fully open businesses),
which the Company anticipates will reduce the overall negative impact on its business during 2021. However, there is no guarantee
that the Company’s continuity plan will be successful, that the relaxation of stay-at-home orders and opening of businesses
will positively impact the Company’s business or that the Company’s merchants in any case will meet the number of
forecasted transactions due to a change in consumer activity around point of sale purchasing resulting from the temporary closure
of businesses.
The
Company has already experienced certain disruptions to its business and disruptions may occur for the Company’s customers
and merchants that may materially affect the number of transactions processed by the Company. This has and would continue to result
in lost sales, additional costs, or penalties, or damage to the Company’s reputation. Similarly, COVID-19 has already and
could continue to impact the Company’s customers and/or merchants as a result of a health epidemic or other outbreak occurring
in other locations which could reduce their demand for Company products. The extent to which COVID-19 or any other health epidemic
may impact the Company’s results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted,
including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain COVID-19 or treat its
impact, among others. Accordingly, COVID-19 could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, results of operations,
financial condition and prospects.
Risks
Related to Our Business
CROWDPAY.US,
INC.
We
operate in a regulatory environment that is evolving and uncertain.
The
regulatory framework for online capital formation or crowdfunding is very new. The regulations that govern the companies and broker-dealers
that utilize our platform and the investors that find investment opportunities on our platform have been in existence for a very
few years. Further, there are constant discussions among legislators and regulators with respect to changing this regulatory environment.
New laws and regulations could be adopted in the United States and abroad. Further, existing laws and regulations may be interpreted
in ways that would impact our platform, including our ability to communicate and work with investors, broker-dealers and the companies
that use our platforms’ services. For instance over the past year, there have been several attempts to modify the current
regulatory regime. Some of those suggested reforms could make it easier for anyone to sell securities (without using our platform),
or could increase our regulatory burden, including requiring us to register as a broker-dealer or funding portal before we choose
to do so. Any such changes would have a negative impact on our business.
In
the event we are required or decide to register as a broker-dealer or funding portal, our current business model could be affected.
Under
our current structure, we believe we are not required to register as a broker-dealer or funding portal under federal and state
laws. Further, none of our officers or our chairman has previous experience in securities markets or regulations or has passed
any related examinations or holds any accreditations. We comply with the rules surrounding funding portals and restrict our activities
and services so as to not be deemed a broker-dealer under state and federal regulations. However, if we were deemed by a relevant
authority to be acting as a broker-dealer or a funding portal, we could be subject to a variety of penalties, including fines
and rescission offers. Further, we may decide for business reasons or we may be required to register as a broker-dealer or a funding
portal, which would increase our costs, especially our compliance costs. If we are required but decide not to register as a broker-dealer
or act in association with a broker-dealer in our transactions or to register as a funding portal, we may not be able to continue
to operate under our current business model.
17
We
may be liable for misstatements made by issuers on our platform.
Under
the Securities Act and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), issuers making offerings
through our platform may be liable for including untrue statements of material facts or for omitting information that could make
the statements made misleading. This liability may also extend in Regulation Crowdfunding offerings to funding portals. Even though
we are not a registered funding portal, there can be no assurance that if we were sued we would prevail. Further, even if we do
succeed, lawsuits are time consuming and expensive, and being a party to such actions may cause us reputational harm that would
negatively impact our business.
Our
compliance is focused on U.S. laws and we have not analyzed foreign laws regarding the participation of non-U.S. residents.
Some
of the investment opportunities posted on our platform are open to non-U.S. residents. We have not researched all the applicable
foreign laws and regulations, and therefore we have not set up our structure to be compliant with all those laws. It is possible
that we may be deemed in violation of those laws, which could result in fines or penalties as well as reputational harm. This
may limit our ability in the future to assist companies in accessing money from those investors, and compliance with those laws
and regulation may limit our business operations and plans for future expansion.
The
types of offerings that we expect to be posted on our platform are relatively new in an industry that is still quickly evolving .
The
principal types of offerings that are posted on our platform are pursuant to Regulation A and Regulation Crowdfunding which have
only been in effect in their current form since 2015 and 2016, respectively. Our ability to penetrate the market to host these
types of offerings remains uncertain as potential issuer companies may choose to use different platforms or providers (including,
in the case of Regulation A, using their own online platform), or determine alternative methods of financing. Investors may decide
to invest their money elsewhere. Further, our potential market may not be as large, or our industry may not grow as rapidly, as
anticipated. With a smaller market than expected, we may have fewer customers. Success will likely be a factor of investing in
the development and implementation of marketing campaigns, subsequent adoption by issuer companies as well as investors, and favorable
changes in the regulatory environment.
CrowdPay
and its providers are vulnerable to hackers and cyber-attacks.
As
an internet-based business, we may be vulnerable to hackers who may access the data of the investors and the issuer companies
that utilize our platform. Further, any significant disruption in service on our platform or in our computer systems could reduce
the attractiveness of the platform and result in a loss of investors and companies interested in using our platform. Further,
we rely on a third-party technology provider to provide some of our back-up technology as well as act as our escrow agent. Any
disruptions of services or cyber-attacks either on our technology provider or on our company could harm our reputation and materially
negatively impact our financial condition and business.
CrowdPay
currently relies on one escrow agent and technology service provider.
We
currently rely on Microsoft Azure to serve as our technology provider and all escrow accounts are held at MVB Bank, Inc. Any change
in these relationships will require us to find another technology service provider, escrow agent and escrow bank. This may cause
us delays as well as additional costs in transitioning our technology.
We
are dependent on general economic conditions.
Our
business model is dependent on investors investing in the companies presented on our platform. Investment dollars are disposable
income. Our business model is thus dependent on national and international economic conditions. Adverse national and international
economic conditions, including as a result of COVID-19, may reduce the future availability of investment dollars, which would
negatively impact revenues generated by CrowdPay and possibly our ability to continue operations at CrowdPay. It is not possible
to accurately predict the potential adverse impacts on us, if any, of current economic conditions on its financial condition,
operating results and cash flow.
18
We
face significant market competition.
We
facilitate online capital formation. Though this is a new market, we compete against a variety of entrants in the market as well
likely new entrants into the market. Some of these follow a regulatory model that is different from ours and might provide them
competitive advantages. New entrants could include those that may already have a foothold in the securities industry, including
some established broker-dealers. Further, online capital formation is not the only way to address helping start-ups raise capital,
and we have to compete with a number of other approaches, including traditional venture capital investments, loans and other traditional
methods of raising funds and companies conducting crowdfunding raises on their own websites. Additionally, some competitors and
future competitors may be better capitalized than us, which would give them a significant advantage in marketing and operations.
Our
revenues and profits are subject to fluctuations.
It
is difficult to accurately forecast our revenues and operating results, and these could fluctuate in the future due to a number
of factors. These factors may include adverse changes in: number of investors and amount of investors’ dollars that utilize
our platform to make investments, the success of world securities markets, general economic conditions, our ability to market
our platform to companies and investors, headcount and other operating costs, and general industry and regulatory conditions and
requirements. Our operating results may fluctuate from year to year due to the factors listed above and others not listed. At
times, these fluctuations may be significant and could impact our ability to operate our business.
EVANCE,
INC.
We
are substantially dependent on our eVance business for revenue. If we are unable to maintain our eVance business for any reason
(including the various reasons described in the risk factors herein) or for no reason it will have a material adverse effect on
our company.
Historically,
substantially all of our revenue has been generated from our eVance business, though we did begin generating revenue from our
OmniSoft and CrowdPay business during the second half of 2019. While we expect to build out our OmniSoft software business over
the next 12 to 18 months and to rely more heavily on our PayFac model to generate revenue and to transition away from our reliance
on our eVance business, there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so (particularly, giving effect to the impact of COVID-19).
Accordingly, if we are unable to maintain our eVance business it will have a material adverse effect on our company.
Our
ability to anticipate and respond to changing industry trends and the needs and preferences of our merchants and consumers may
adversely affect our competitiveness or the demand for our products and services.
The
financial services and payments technology industries are subject to rapid technological advancements, resulting in new products
and services, including mobile payment applications and customized integrated software payment solutions, and an evolving competitive
landscape, as well as changing industry standards and merchant and consumer needs and preferences. We expect that new services
and technologies applicable to the financial services and payment technology industries will continue to emerge. These changes
may limit the competitiveness of and demand for our services. Also, our merchants and consumers continue to adopt new technology
for business and personal uses. We must anticipate and respond to these changes in order to remain competitive within our relative
markets. In addition, failure to develop value-added services that meet the needs and preferences of our merchants could adversely
affect our ability to compete effectively in our industry. Furthermore, merchants’ or consumers’ potential negative
reaction to our products and services can spread quickly through social media and damage our reputation before we have the opportunity
to respond. If we are unable to anticipate or respond to technological or industry standard changes on a timely basis, our ability
to remain competitive could be adversely affected.
19
Substantial
and increasingly intense competition worldwide in the financial services and payment technology industries may adversely affect
our overall business and operations.
The
financial services and payment technology industries are highly competitive, and our payment services and solutions compete against
all forms of financial services and payment systems, including cash and checks, and electronic, mobile, E-commerce and integrated
payment platforms. If we are unable to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and drive value for our merchants, we may
not be able to compete effectively. Our competitors may introduce their own value-added or other innovative services or solutions
more effectively than we do, which could adversely impact our current competitive position and prospects for growth. They also
may be able to offer and provide services that we do not offer. In addition, in certain of our markets in which we operate, we
process “on-us” transactions whereby we receive fees as a merchant acquirer and for processing services for the issuing
bank. As competition in these markets grows, the number of transactions in which we receive fees for both of these roles may decrease,
which could reduce our revenue and margins in these jurisdictions. We also compete against new entrants that have developed alternative
payment systems, E-commerce payment systems, payment systems for mobile devices and customized integrated software payment solutions.
Failure to compete effectively against any of these competitive threats could adversely affect our business, financial condition
or results of operations. In addition, some of our competitors are larger and have greater financial resources than us, enabling
them to maintain a wider range of product offerings, mount extensive promotional campaigns and be more aggressive in offering
products and services at lower rates, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Potential
changes in the competitive landscape, including disintermediation from other participants in the payments chain, could harm our
business.
We
expect that the competitive landscape will continue to change, including:
● rapid
and significant changes in technology, resulting in new and innovative payment methods and programs, that could place us at a
competitive disadvantage and reduce the use of our products and services;
● competitors,
merchants, governments and other industry participants may develop products and services that compete with or replace our value-added
products and services, including products and services that enable card networks and banks to transact with consumers directly;
● participants
in the financial services and payment technology industries may merge, create joint ventures, or form other business combinations
that may strengthen their existing business services or create new payment services that compete with our services; and
● new
services and technologies that we develop may be impacted by industry-wide solutions and standards, including chip technology,
tokenization, Blockchain and other safety and security technologies.
Failure
to compete effectively against any of these or other competitive threats could adversely affect our business, financial condition
or results of operations.
Global
economic, political and other conditions may adversely affect trends in consumer, business and government spending, which may
adversely impact the demand for our services and our revenue and profitability.
The
financial services and payment technology industries in which we operate depend heavily upon the overall level of consumer, business
and government spending. A sustained deterioration in general economic conditions (including distress in financial markets, turmoil
in specific economies around the world, public health crises, and additional government intervention), particularly in the United
States, or increases in interest rates in key countries in which we operate, may adversely affect our financial performance by
reducing the number or average purchase amount of transactions we process. For example, as of the date of this Annual Report,
the recent COVID-19 pandemnic, has impacted and may continue to impact the global economy or negatively affect various aspects
of our business, including reductions in the amount of consumer spending and lending which could result in a decrease in our revenue
and profits. If our customers make fewer sales of products and services using electronic payments, or consumers spend less money
through electronic payments, whether due to the outbreak of COVID-19 or otherwise, we will have fewer transactions to process
at lower dollar amounts, resulting in lower revenue.
20
Adverse
economic trends whether a result of the global COVID-19 outbreak or otherwise, will and may continue to accelerate the timing,
or increase the impact of, risks to our financial performance. These trends could include:
● declining
economies, foreign currency fluctuations and the pace of economic recovery can change consumer spending behaviors, such as cross-border
travel patterns, on which the majority of our revenue is dependent;
● low
levels of consumer and business confidence typically associated with recessionary environments, and those markets experiencing
relatively high unemployment, may result in decreased spending by cardholders;
● budgetary
concerns in the United States and other countries around the world could affect the United States and other specific sovereign
credit ratings, impact consumer confidence and spending, and increase the risks of operating in those countries;
● emerging
market economies tend to be more volatile than the more established markets we serve in North America and Europe, and adverse
economic trends may be more pronounced in those emerging markets where we conduct business;
● financial
institutions may restrict credit lines to cardholders or limit the issuance of new cards to mitigate cardholder credit concerns;
● uncertainty
and volatility in the performance of our merchants’ businesses may make estimates of our revenues and financial performance
less predictable;
● cardholders
may decrease spending for value-added services we market and sell;
● a
weakening in the economy, either due to the global COVID-19 outbreak or otherwise, has forced, and could continue to force merchants
to close at higher than historical rates in part because many of them are not as well capitalized as larger organizations, which
could expose us to potential credit losses and future transaction declines; and
● government
intervention, including the effect of laws, regulations and government investments in our merchants, may have potential negative
effects on our business and our relationships with our merchants or otherwise alter their strategic direction away from our products
and services.
We
are subject to U.S. governmental regulation and other legal obligations, particularly related to privacy, data protection and
information security, and consumer protection laws across different markets where we conduct our business. Our actual or perceived
failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.
In
the United States, we are subject to various consumer protection laws (including laws on disputed transactions) and related regulations.
If we are found to have breached any consumer protection laws or regulations in any such market, we may be subject to enforcement
actions that require us to change our business practices in a manner which may negatively impact revenue, as well as litigation,
fines, penalties and adverse publicity that could cause our customers to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect
on our reputation and business in a manner that harms our financial position.
We
collect personally identifiable information and other data from our consumers and merchants. Laws and regulations in several countries
restrict certain collection, processing, storage, use, disclosure and security of personal information, require notice to individuals
of privacy practices, and provide individuals with certain rights to prevent use and disclosure of protected information.
Future
restrictions on the collection, use, sharing or disclosure of personally identifiable information or additional requirements and
liability for security and data integrity could require us to modify our solutions and features, possibly in a material manner,
and could limit our ability to develop new services and features. If our privacy or data security measures fail to comply with
applicable current or future laws and regulations, we may be subject to litigation, regulatory investigations, enforcement notices
requiring us to change the way we use personal data or our marketing practices, fines or other liabilities, as well as negative
publicity and a potential loss of business.
21
Our
inability to protect our systems and data from continually evolving cybersecurity risks or other technological risks could affect
our reputation among our merchants and consumers and may expose us to liability.
In
conducting our business, we process, transmit and store sensitive business information and personal information about our merchants,
consumers, sales and financial institution partners, vendors, and other parties. This information may include account access credentials,
credit and debit card numbers, bank account numbers, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, names and addresses
and other types of sensitive business or personal information. Some of this information is also processed and stored by our merchants,
sales and financial institution partners, third-party service providers to whom we outsource certain functions and other agents,
which we refer to collectively as our associated third parties. We have certain responsibilities to card networks and their member
financial institutions for any failure, including the failure of our associated third parties, to protect this information.
We
are a regular target of malicious third-party attempts to identify and exploit system vulnerabilities, and/or penetrate or bypass
our security measures, in order to gain unauthorized access to our networks and systems or those of our associated third parties.
Such access could lead to the compromise of sensitive, business, personal or confidential information. As a result, we proactively
employ multiple methods at different layers of our systems to defend our systems against intrusion and attack and to protect the
data we collect. However, we cannot be certain that these measures will be successful and will be sufficient to counter all current
and emerging technology threats that are designed to breach our systems in order to gain access to confidential information.
Our
computer systems and our associated third parties’ computer systems could be in the future, subject to breach, and our data
protection measures may not prevent unauthorized access. The techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade
service, or sabotage systems change frequently and are often difficult to detect. Threats to our systems and our associated third
parties’ systems can derive from human error, fraud or malice on the part of employees or third parties, or may result from
accidental technological failure. Computer viruses and other malware can be distributed and could infiltrate our systems or those
of our associated third parties. In addition, denial of service or other attacks could be launched against us for a variety of
purposes, including to interfere with our services or create a diversion for other malicious activities. Our defensive measures
may not prevent downtime, unauthorized access or use of sensitive data. While we maintain cyber errors and omissions insurance
coverage that may cover certain aspects of cyber risks, our insurance coverage may be insufficient to cover all losses. Further,
while we select our associated third parties carefully, we do not control their actions. Any problems experienced by these third
parties, including those resulting from breakdowns or other disruptions in the services provided by such parties or cyber-attacks
and security breaches, could adversely affect our ability to service our merchant customers or otherwise conduct our business.
We
could also be subject to liability for claims relating to misuse of personal information, such as unauthorized marketing purposes
and violation of data privacy laws. We cannot provide assurance that the contractual requirements related to security and privacy
that we impose on our service providers who have access to customer and consumer data will be followed or will be adequate to
prevent the unauthorized use or disclosure of data. In addition, we have agreed in certain agreements to take certain protective
measures to ensure the confidentiality of merchant and consumer data. The costs of systems and procedures associated with such
protective measures may increase and could adversely affect our ability to compete effectively. Any failure to adequately enforce
or provide these protective measures could result in liability, protracted and costly litigation, governmental and card network
intervention and fines and, with respect to misuse of personal information of our merchants and consumers, lost revenue and reputational
harm.
Any
type of security breach, attack or misuse of data described above or otherwise, whether experienced by us or an associated third
party, could harm our reputation and deter existing and prospective merchants from using our services or from making electronic
payments generally, increase our operating expenses in order to contain and remediate the incident, expose us to unbudgeted or
uninsured liability, disrupt our operations (including potential service interruptions), distract our management, increase our
risk of regulatory scrutiny, result in the imposition of penalties and fines under state, federal and foreign laws or by card
networks and adversely affect our continued card network registration and financial institution sponsorship. If we were to be
removed from networks’ lists of PCI DSS compliant service providers, our existing merchants, sales and financial institution
partners or other third parties may cease using or referring our services. Also, prospective merchants, sales partners, financial
institution partners or other third parties may choose to terminate their relationship with us, or delay or choose not to consider
us for their processing needs. In addition, card networks could refuse to allow us to process through their networks.
22
We
may experience failures in our processing systems due to software defects, computer viruses and development delays, which could
damage customer relations and expose us to liability.
Our
core business depends heavily on the reliability of our processing systems. A system outage or other failure could adversely affect
our business, financial condition or results of operations, including by damaging our reputation or exposing us to third-party
liability. Card network rules and certain governmental regulations allow for possible penalties if our systems do not meet certain
operating standards. To successfully operate our business, we must be able to protect our processing and other systems from interruption,
including from events that may be beyond our control. Events that could cause system interruptions include fire, natural disaster,
unauthorized entry, power loss, telecommunications failure, computer viruses, terrorist acts and war. Although we have taken steps
to protect against data loss and system failures, there is still risk that we may lose critical data or experience system failures.
To help protect against these events, we perform a significant portion of disaster recovery operations ourselves, as well as utilize
select third parties for certain operations, particularly outside of the United States. To the extent we outsource any disaster
recovery functions, we are at risk of the vendor’s unresponsiveness or other failures in the event of breakdowns in our
systems. In addition, our property and business interruption insurance may not be adequate to compensate us for all losses or
failures that may occur.
Our
products and services are based on sophisticated software and computing systems that are constantly evolving. We often encounter
delays and cost overruns in developing changes implemented to our systems. In addition, the underlying software may contain undetected
errors, viruses or defects. Defects in our software products and errors or delays in our processing of electronic transactions
could result in additional development costs, diversion of technical and other resources from our other development efforts, loss
of credibility with current or potential merchants, harm to our reputation or exposure to liability claims. In addition, we rely
on technologies supplied to us by third parties that may also contain undetected errors, viruses or defects that could adversely
affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. Although we attempt to limit our potential liability for warranty
claims through disclaimers in our software documentation and limitation of liability provisions in our licenses and other agreements
with our merchants and partners, we cannot assure that these measures will be successful in limiting our liability. Additionally,
we and our merchants and partners are subject to card network rules. If we do not comply with card network requirements or standards,
we may be subject fines or sanctions, including suspension or termination of our registrations and licenses necessary to conduct
business.
Degradation
of the quality of the products and services we offer, including support services, could adversely impact our ability to attract
and retain merchants and partners.
Our
merchants and partners expect a consistent level of quality in the provision of our products and services. The support services
we provide are a key element of the value proposition to our merchants and partners. If the reliability or functionality of our
products and services is compromised or the quality of those products or services is otherwise degraded, or if we fail to continue
to provide a high level of support, we could lose existing merchants and partners and find it harder to attract new merchants
and partners. If we are unable to scale our support functions to address the growth of our merchant and partner network, the quality
of our support may decrease, which could adversely affect our ability to attract and retain merchants and partners.
Acquisitions
create certain risks and may adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We
may make acquisitions of businesses or assets in the future. The acquisition and integration of businesses or assets involve a
number of risks. These risks include valuation (determining a fair price for the business or assets), integration (managing the
process of integrating the acquired business’ people, products, technology and other assets to extract the value and synergies
projected to be realized in connection with the acquisition), regulation (obtaining regulatory or other government approvals that
may be necessary to complete the acquisition) and due diligence (including identifying risks to the prospects of the business,
including undisclosed or unknown liabilities or restrictions to be assumed in the acquisition).
The
process of integrating operations could cause an interruption of, or loss of momentum in, the activities of one or more of our
combined businesses and the possible loss of key personnel. The diversion of management’s attention and any delays or difficulties
encountered in connection with acquisitions and their integration could adversely affect our business, financial condition or
results of operations.
23
Continued
consolidation in the banking industry could adversely affect our growth.
The
banking industry remains subject to consolidation regardless of overall economic conditions. In addition, in times of economic
distress, various regulators in the markets we serve have acquired and in the future may acquire financial institutions, including
banks with which we partner. If a current financial institution referral partner of ours is acquired by another bank, the acquiring
bank may seek to terminate our agreement and impose its own merchant services program on the acquired bank. If a financial institution
referral partner acquires another bank, our financial institution referral partner may take the opportunity to conduct a competitive
bidding process to determine whether to maintain our merchant acquiring services or switch to another provider. In either situation,
we may be unable to retain the relationship post-acquisition, or may have to offer financial concessions to do so, which could
adversely affect our results of operations or growth. If a current financial institution referral partner of ours is acquired
by a regulator, the regulator may seek to alter the terms or terminate our existing agreement with the acquired financial institution.
Increased
customer, referral partner or sales partner attrition could cause our financial results to decline.
We
experience attrition in merchant credit and debit card processing volume resulting from several factors, including business closures,
transfers of merchants’ accounts to our competitors, unsuccessful contract renewal negotiations and account closures that
we initiate for various reasons, such as heightened credit risks or contract breaches by merchants. In addition, if an existing
sales partner switches to another payment processor, terminates our services, internalizes payment processing functions that we
perform, merges with or is acquired by one of our competitors, or shuts down or becomes insolvent, we may no longer receive new
customer referrals from the sales partner, and we risk losing existing merchants that were originally enrolled by the sales partner.
We cannot predict the level of attrition in the future and it could increase. Our referral partners are a significant source of
new business. Higher than expected attrition could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
In addition, in certain of the markets in which we conduct business, a substantial portion of our revenue is derived from long-term
contracts. If we are unable to renew our referral partner and our merchant contracts on favorable terms, or at all, our business,
financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected.
We
incur chargeback liability when our merchants refuse to or cannot reimburse chargebacks resolved in favor of their customers.
Any increase in chargebacks not paid by our merchants may adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
In
the event a dispute between a cardholder and a merchant is not resolved in favor of the merchant, the transaction is normally
charged back to the merchant and the purchase price is credited or otherwise refunded to the cardholder. If we are unable to collect
such amounts from the merchant’s account or reserve account (if applicable), or if the merchant refuses or is unable, due
to closure, bankruptcy or other reasons, to reimburse us for a chargeback, we are responsible for the amount of the refund paid
to the cardholder. The risk of chargebacks is typically greater with those merchants that promise future delivery of goods and
services rather than delivering goods or rendering services at the time of payment, as well as “card not present”
transactions in which consumers do not physically present cards to merchants in connection with the purchase of goods and services,
such as E-commerce, telephonic and mobile transactions. We may experience significant losses from chargebacks in the future. Any
increase in chargebacks not paid by our merchants could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or
results of operations. We have policies and procedures to monitor and manage merchant-related credit risks and often mitigate
such risks by requiring collateral (such as cash reserves) and monitoring transaction activity. Notwithstanding our policies and
procedures for managing credit risk, it is possible that a default on such obligations by one or more of our merchants could adversely
affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Failure
to maintain or collect reimbursements from our financial institution referral partners could adversely affect our business.
Certain
of our long-term referral arrangements with our financial institution partners permit our bank partners to offer their merchant
customers lower rates for processing services than we typically provide to the general market. If a bank partner elects to offer
these lower rates, under our contract the partner is required to reimburse us for the full amount of the discount provided to
its merchant customers. Notwithstanding such contractual commitments, there can be no assurance that these contractual provisions
will fully protect us from potential losses should a bank partner default on its obligations to reimburse us or seek to discontinue
such reimbursement obligations in the future. If we are unable to collect the full amount of any such reimbursements for any reason,
we may incur losses. In addition, any discount provided by our financial institution partner may cause merchants in these markets
to demand lower rates for our services in the future, which could further reduce our margins or cause us to lose merchants, either
of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
24
Fraud
by merchants or others could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We
may be liable for certain fraudulent transactions and credits initiated by merchants or others. Examples of merchant fraud include
merchants or other parties knowingly using a stolen or counterfeit credit or debit card, card number, or other credentials to
record a false sales or credit transaction, processing an invalid card or intentionally failing to deliver the merchandise or
services sold in an otherwise valid transaction. Criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to engage in illegal activities
such as counterfeiting and fraud. Failure to effectively manage risk and prevent fraud could increase our chargeback liability
or cause us to incur other liabilities. It is possible that incidents of fraud could increase in the future. Increases in chargebacks
or other liabilities could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Because
we rely on third-party vendors to provide products and services, we could be adversely impacted if they fail to fulfill their
obligations.
We
depend on third-party vendors and partners to provide us with certain products and services, including components of our computer
systems, software, data centers and telecommunications networks, to conduct our business. For example, we rely on third parties
for services such as organizing and accumulating certain daily transaction data on a merchant-by-merchant and card issuer-by-card
issuer basis and forwarding the accumulated data to the relevant card network. We also rely on third parties for specific software
and hardware used in providing our products and services. Some of these organizations and service providers are our competitors
or provide similar services and technology to our competitors, and we do not have long-term or exclusive contracts with them.
Our
systems and operations or those of our third-party vendors and partners could be exposed to damage or interruption from, among
other things, fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure, unauthorized entry, computer viruses, denial-of-service
attacks, acts of terrorism, human error, vandalism or sabotage, financial insolvency, bankruptcy and similar events (including
events that are the result of the COVID-19 pandemic). In addition, we may be unable to renew our existing contracts with our most
significant vendors and partners or our vendors and partners may stop providing or otherwise supporting the products and services
we obtain from them, and we may not be able to obtain these or similar products or services on the same or similar terms as our
existing arrangements, if at all. The failure of our vendors and partners to perform their obligations and provide the products
and services we obtain from them in a timely manner for any reason could adversely affect our operations and profitability due
to, among other consequences:
● loss
of revenues;
● loss
of merchants and partners;
● loss
of merchant and cardholder data;
● fines
imposed by card networks;
● harm
to our business or reputation resulting from negative publicity;
● exposure
to fraud losses or other liabilities;
● additional
operating and development costs; or
● diversion
of management, technical and other resources.
25
Our
risk management policies and procedures may not be fully effective in mitigating our risk exposure in all market environments
or against all types of risk.
We
operate in a rapidly changing industry. Accordingly, our risk management policies and procedures may not be fully effective to
identify, monitor and manage all risks our business encounters. If our policies and procedures are not fully effective or we are
not successful in identifying and mitigating all risks to which we are or may be exposed, we may suffer uninsured liability, harm
to our reputation or be subject to litigation or regulatory actions that could adversely affect our business, financial condition
or results of operations.
A
significant number of our merchants are small- and medium-sized businesses and small affiliates of large companies, which can
be more difficult and costly to retain than larger enterprises and may increase the impact of economic fluctuations on us.
We
market and sell our products and services to, among others, small and midsized businesses (“SMBs”) and small affiliates
of large companies. To continue to grow our revenue, we must add merchants, sell additional services to existing merchants and
encourage existing merchants to continue doing business with us. However, retaining SMBs can be more difficult than retaining
large enterprises as SMB merchants:
● often
have higher rates of business failures and more limited resources;
● are
typically less sophisticated in their ability to make technology-related decisions based on factors other than price;
● may
have decisions related to the choice of payment processor dictated by their affiliated parent entity; and
● are
more able to change their payment processors than larger organizations dependent on our services.
SMBs
are typically more susceptible to the adverse effects of economic fluctuations (including as a result of epidemics and pandemics).
Adverse changes in the economic environment or business failures of our SMB merchants may have a greater impact on us than on
our competitors who do not focus on SMBs to the extent that we do. As a result, we may need to attract and retain new merchants
at an accelerated rate or decrease our expenses to reduce negative impacts on our business, financial condition and results of
operations.
Our
business depends on a strong and trusted brand, and damage to our reputation, or the reputation of our partners, could adversely
affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We
market our products and services under our brand or the brand of our partners, or both, and we must protect and grow the value
of our brand to continue to be successful in the future. If an incident were to occur that damages our reputation, or the reputation
of our partners, in any of our major markets, the value of our brand could be adversely affected and our business could be damaged.
Our
ability to recruit, retain and develop qualified personnel is critical to our success and growth.
All
of our businesses function at the intersection of rapidly changing technological, social, economic and regulatory environments
that require a wide range of expertise and intellectual capital. For us to successfully compete and grow, we must recruit, retain
and develop personnel who can provide the necessary expertise across a broad spectrum of intellectual capital needs. In addition,
we must develop, maintain and, as necessary, implement appropriate succession plans to assure we have the necessary human resources
capable of maintaining continuity in our business. The market for qualified personnel is competitive and we may not succeed in
recruiting additional personnel or may fail to effectively replace current personnel who depart with qualified or effective successors.
Our effort to retain and develop personnel may also result in significant additional expenses, which could adversely affect our
profitability. We cannot assure that key personnel, including our executive officers, will continue to be employed or that we
will be able to attract and retain qualified personnel in the future. Failure to recruit, retain or develop qualified personnel
could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
26
There
may be a decline in the use of cards as a payment mechanism for consumers or adverse developments with respect to the card industry
in general.
If
consumers do not continue to use credit or debit cards as a payment mechanism for their transactions or if there is a change in
the mix of payments between cash, credit cards and debit cards or newly emerging alternatives such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and
cryptocurrency, our business could be adversely affected. Consumer credit risk may make it more difficult or expensive for consumers
to gain access to credit facilities such as credit cards. Regulatory changes may result in financial institutions seeking to charge
their customers additional fees for use of credit or debit cards. Such fees may result in decreased use of credit or debit cards
by cardholders. Additionally, if market conditions lead to consumers spending less generally, for example, during an epidemic
or pandemic, there will be a decline in the use of credit or debit cards. We believe future growth in the use of credit and debit
cards and other electronic payments will be driven by the cost, ease-of-use and quality of services offered to consumers and businesses.
In order to consistently increase and maintain our profitability, consumers and businesses must continue to use electronic payment
methods that we process, including credit and debit cards.
Increases
in card network fees and other changes to fee arrangements may result in the loss of merchants or a reduction in our earnings.
From
time to time, card networks, including Visa and MasterCard, increase the fees that they charge processors. We could attempt to
pass these increases along to our merchants, but this strategy might result in the loss of merchants to our competitors who do
not pass along the increases. If competitive practices prevent us from passing along the higher fees to our merchants in the future,
we may have to absorb all or a portion of such increases, which may increase our operating costs and reduce our earnings.
In
addition, in certain of our markets, card issuers pay merchant acquirers such as us fees based on debit card usage in an effort
to encourage debit card use. If these card issuers discontinue this practice, our revenue and margins in these jurisdictions could
be adversely affected.
If
we fail to comply with the applicable requirements of card networks, they could seek to fine us, suspend us or terminate our registrations.
If our merchants or sales partners incur fines or penalties that we cannot collect from them, we may have to bear the cost of
such fines or penalties.
In
order to provide our transaction processing services, several of our subsidiaries are registered with Visa and MasterCard and
other card networks as members or service providers for member institutions. Visa, MasterCard, and other card networks, set the
rules and standards with which we must comply. The termination of our member registration or our status as a certified service
provider, or any changes in network rules or standards, including interpretation and implementation of the rules or standards,
that increase the cost of doing business or limit our ability to provide transaction processing services to or through our merchants
or partners, could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
As
such, we and our merchants are subject to card network rules that could subject us or our merchants to a variety of fines or penalties
that may be levied by card networks for certain acts or omissions by us. The rules of card networks are set by their boards, which
may be influenced by card issuers, and some of those issuers are our competitors with respect to these processing services. Many
banks directly or indirectly sell processing services to merchants in direct competition with us. These banks could attempt, by
virtue of their influence on the networks, to alter the networks’ rules or policies to the detriment of non-members including
certain of our businesses. The termination of our registrations or our status as a service provider or a merchant processor, or
any changes in network rules or standards, including interpretation and implementation of the rules or standards, that increase
the cost of doing business or limit our ability to provide transaction processing services to our merchants, could adversely affect
our business, financial condition or results of operations. If a merchant or sales partner fails to comply with the applicable
requirements of card networks, it could be subject to a variety of fines or penalties that may be levied by card networks. If
we cannot collect the amounts from the applicable merchant or sales partner, we may have to bear the cost of the fines or penalties,
resulting in lower earnings for us. The termination of our registration, or any changes in card network rules that would impair
our registration, could require us to stop providing payment processing services relating to the affected card network, which
would adversely affect our ability to conduct our business.
27
OMNISOFT.IO,
INC.
Our
growth may not be sustainable and depends on our ability to attract new merchants, retain existing merchants and increase sales
to both new and existing merchants.
Our
OmniSoft subsidiary principally generates revenues through the sale of subscriptions to our platform and the sale of additional
solutions to our merchants. Our subscription plans typically have a one-month term, although a small percentage of our merchants
have annual or multi-year subscription terms. Our merchants have no obligation to renew their subscriptions after their subscription
term expires. As a result, even though the number of merchants using our platform has grown rapidly in recent years, there can
be no assurance that we will be able to retain these merchants. We have historically experienced merchant turnover as a result
of many of our merchants being small- and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs, that are more susceptible than larger businesses to
general economic conditions and other risks affecting their businesses. Many of these SMBs are in the entrepreneurial stage of
their development and there is no guarantee that their businesses will succeed. Our costs associated with subscription renewals
are substantially lower than costs associated with generating revenue from new merchants or costs associated with generating sales
of additional solutions to existing merchants. Therefore, if we are unable to retain merchants or if we are unable to increase
revenues from existing merchants, even if such losses are offset by an increase in new merchants or an increase in other revenues,
our operating results could be adversely impacted.
We
may also fail to attract new merchants, retain existing merchants or increase sales to both new and existing merchants as a result
of a number of other factors, including: reductions in our current or potential merchants’ spending levels; competitive
factors affecting the software as a service, or SaaS, business software applications market, including the introduction of competing
platforms, discount pricing and other strategies that may be implemented by our competitors; our ability to execute on our growth
strategy and operating plans; a decline in our merchants’ level of satisfaction with our platform and merchants’ usage
of our platform; the difficulty and cost to switch to a competitor may not be significant for many of our merchants; changes in
our relationships with third parties, including our partners, app developers, theme designers, referral sources and payment processors;
the timeliness and success of new products and services we may offer in the future; the frequency and severity of any system outages;
technological change; and our focus on long-term value over short-term results, meaning that we may make strategic decisions that
may not maximize our short-term revenue or profitability if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our mission and
will improve our financial performance over the long-term.
Additionally,
we anticipate that our growth rate will decline over time to the extent that the number of merchants using our platform increases
and we achieve higher market penetration rates. To the extent our growth rate slows, our business performance will become increasingly
dependent on our ability to retain existing merchants and increase sales to existing merchants.
If
we fail to improve and enhance the functionality, performance, reliability, design, security and scalability of our platform in
a manner that responds to our merchants’ evolving needs, our business may be adversely affected.
The
markets in which we compete are characterized by constant change and innovation and we expect them to continue to evolve rapidly.
Our success has been based on our ability to identify and anticipate the needs of our merchants and design a platform that provides
them with the tools they need to operate their businesses. Our ability to attract new merchants, retain existing merchants and
increase sales to both new and existing merchants will depend in large part on our ability to continue to improve and enhance
the functionality, performance, reliability, design, security and scalability of our platform.
We
may experience difficulties with software development that could delay or prevent the development, introduction or implementation
of new solutions and enhancements. Software development involves a significant amount of time for our research and development
team, as it can take our developers months to update, code and test new and upgraded solutions and integrate them into our platform.
We must also continually update, test and enhance our software platform. For example, our design team spends a significant amount
of time and resources incorporating various design enhancements, such as customized colors, fonts, content and other features,
into our platform. The continual improvement and enhancement of our platform requires significant investment and we may not have
the resources to make such investment. Our improvements and enhancements may not result in our ability to recoup our investments
in a timely manner, or at all. To the extent we are not able to improve and enhance the functionality, performance, reliability,
design, security and scalability of our platform in a manner that responds to our merchants’ evolving needs, our business,
operating results and financial condition will be adversely affected.
28
We
store personally identifiable information of our merchants and their customers. If the security of this information is compromised
or otherwise subjected to unauthorized access, our reputation may be harmed and we may be exposed to liability.
We
store personally identifiable information, credit card information and other confidential information of our merchants and their
customers. The third-party apps sold on our platform may also store personally identifiable information, credit card information
and other confidential information of our merchants and their customers. We do not regularly monitor or review the content that
our merchants upload and store and, therefore, do not control the substance of the content on our servers, which may include personal
information. We may experience successful attempts by third parties to obtain unauthorized access to the personally identifiable
information of our merchants and their customers. This information could also be otherwise exposed through human error, malfeasance
or otherwise. The unauthorized access or compromise of this personally identifiable information could have a material adverse
effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Even if such a data breach were to affect one or more of
our competitors, the resulting consumer concern could negatively affect our merchants and our business.
We
are also subject to federal, state, provincial and foreign laws regarding privacy and protection of data. Some jurisdictions have
enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals of data security breaches involving certain types of personal data and
our agreements with certain merchants require us to notify them in the event of a security incident. We post on our website our
privacy policy and terms of service, which describe our practices concerning the use, transmission and disclosure of merchant
data and data relating to their customers. In addition, the interpretation of data protection laws in the United States, and elsewhere,
and their application to the internet, is unclear and in a state of flux. There is a risk that these laws may be interpreted and
applied in conflicting ways from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and in a manner that is not consistent with our current data protection
practices. Changes to such data protection laws may impose more stringent requirements for compliance and impose significant penalties
for non-compliance. Any such new laws or regulations, or changing interpretations of existing laws and regulations, may cause
us to incur significant costs and expend significant effort to ensure compliance. Because our services are accessible worldwide,
certain foreign jurisdictions may claim that we are required to comply with their laws, including in jurisdictions where we have
no local entity, employees or infrastructure.
Our
failure to comply with federal, state, provincial and foreign laws regarding privacy and protection of data could lead to significant
fines and penalties imposed by regulators, as well as claims by our merchants or their customers. These proceedings or violations
could force us to spend money in defense or settlement of these proceedings, result in the imposition of monetary liability, diversion
of management’s time and attention, increase our costs of doing business, and materially adversely affect our reputation
and the demand for our solutions. In addition, if our security measures fail to protect credit card information adequately, we
could be liable to both our merchants and their customers for their losses, as well as our payments processing partners under
our agreements with them. As a result, we could be subject to fines and higher transaction fees, we could face regulatory action,
and our merchants could end their relationships with us. There can be no assurance that the limitations of liability in our contracts
would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any particular
claim. We also cannot be sure that our existing insurance coverage and coverage for errors and omissions will continue to be available
on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims, or that our insurers will not
deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds our available
insurance coverage, or changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or
co-insurance requirements, could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If
our software contains serious errors or defects, we may lose revenue and market acceptance and may incur costs to defend or settle
claims with our merchants.
Software
such as ours often contains errors, defects, security vulnerabilities or software bugs that are difficult to detect and correct,
particularly when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released. Despite internal testing, our platform may
contain serious errors or defects, security vulnerabilities or software bugs that we may be unable to successfully correct in
a timely manner or at all, which could result in lost revenue, significant expenditures of capital, a delay or loss in market
acceptance and damage to our reputation and brand, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition
and results of operations. Furthermore, our platform is a multi-tenant cloud based system that allows us to deploy new versions
and enhancements to all of our merchants simultaneously. To the extent we deploy new versions or enhancements that contain errors,
defects, security vulnerabilities or software bugs to all of our merchants simultaneously, the consequences would be more severe
than if such versions or enhancements were only deployed to a smaller number of our merchants.
29
Since
our merchants use our services for processes that are critical to their businesses, errors, defects, security vulnerabilities,
service interruptions or software bugs in our platform could result in losses to our merchants. Our merchants may seek significant
compensation from us for any losses they suffer or cease conducting business with us altogether. Further, a merchant could share
information about bad experiences on social media, which could result in damage to our reputation and loss of future sales. There
can be no assurance that provisions typically included in our agreements with our merchants that attempt to limit our exposure
to claims would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from liabilities or damages with respect to any particular
claim. Even if not successful, a claim brought against us by any of our merchants would likely be time-consuming and costly to
defend and could seriously damage our reputation and brand, making it harder for us to sell our solutions.
We
may be unable to achieve or maintain data transmission capacity.
Our
merchants often draw significant numbers of consumers to their shops over short periods of time, including from events such as
new product releases, holiday shopping seasons and flash sales, which significantly increases the traffic on our servers and the
volume of transactions processed on our platform. Our servers may be unable to achieve or maintain data transmission capacity
high enough to handle increased traffic or process orders in a timely manner. Our failure to achieve or maintain high data transmission
capacity could significantly reduce demand for our solutions. In the future, we may be required to allocate resources, including
spending substantial amounts of money, to build, purchase or lease additional data centers and equipment and upgrade our technology
and network infrastructure in order to handle the increased load. Our ability to deliver our solutions also depends on the development
and maintenance of internet infrastructure by third-parties, including the maintenance of reliable networks with the necessary
speed, data capacity and bandwidth. If one of these third-parties suffers from capacity constraints, our business may be adversely
affected. In addition, because we and our merchants generate a disproportionate amount of revenue in the fourth quarter, any disruption
in our merchants’ ability to process and fulfill customer orders in the fourth quarter could have a disproportionately negative
effect on our operating results.
Our
growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties.
We
anticipate that the growth of our business will continue to depend on third-party relationships, including relationships with
our app developers, theme designers, referral sources, resellers, payment processors and other partners. In addition to growing
our third-party partner ecosystem, we intend to pursue additional relationships with other third-parties, such as technology and
content providers and implementation consultants. Identifying, negotiating and documenting relationships with third parties requires
significant time and resources as does integrating third-party content and technology. Some of the third parties that sell our
services have the direct contractual relationships with the merchants, and therefore we risk the loss of such merchants if the
third parties fail to perform their obligations. Our agreements with providers of cloud hosting, technology, content and consulting
services are typically non-exclusive and do not prohibit such service providers from working with our competitors or from offering
competing services. These third-party providers may choose to terminate their relationship with us or to make material changes
to their businesses, products or services. Our competitors may be effective in providing incentives to third parties to favor
their products or services or to prevent or reduce subscriptions to our platform. In addition, these providers may not perform
as expected under our agreements or under their agreements with our merchants, and we or our merchants may in the future have
disagreements or disputes with such providers. If we lose access to products or services from a particular supplier, or experience
a significant disruption in the supply of products or services from a current supplier, especially a single-source supplier, it
could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
If
we fail to maintain a consistently high level of customer service, our brand, business and financial results may be harmed.
We
believe our focus on customer service and support is critical to onboarding new merchants and retaining our existing merchants
and growing our business. As a result, we have invested heavily in the quality and training of our support team along with the
tools they use to provide this service. If we are unable to maintain a consistently high level of customer service, we may lose
existing merchants. In addition, our ability to attract new merchants is highly dependent on our reputation and on positive recommendations
from our existing merchants. Any failure to maintain a consistently high level of customer service, or a market perception that
we do not maintain high-quality customer service, could adversely affect our reputation and the number of positive merchant referrals
that we receive.
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We
use a limited number of data centers to deliver our services. Any disruption of service at these facilities could harm our business.
We
currently manage our services and serve all of our merchants from two third-party data center facilities. While we own the hardware
on which our platform runs and deploy this hardware to the data center facilities, we do not control the operation of these facilities.
We have experienced, and may in the future experience, failures at the third-party data centers where our hardware is deployed
from time to time. Data centers are vulnerable to damage or interruption from human error, intentional bad acts, earthquakes,
hurricanes, floods, fires, war, terrorist attacks, power losses, hardware failures, systems failures, telecommunications failures
and similar events. Any of these events could result in lengthy interruptions in our services. Changes in law or regulations applicable
to data centers in various jurisdictions could also cause a disruption in service. Interruptions in our services would reduce
our revenue, subject us to potential liability and adversely affect our ability to retain our merchants or attract new merchants.
The performance, reliability and availability of our platform is critical to our reputation and our ability to attract and retain
merchants. Merchants could share information about bad experiences on social media, which could result in damage to our reputation
and loss of future sales. The property and business interruption insurance coverage we carry may not be adequate to compensate
us fully for losses that may occur.
Mobile
devices are increasingly being used to conduct commerce, and if our solutions do not operate as effectively when accessed through
these devices, our merchants and their customers may not be satisfied with our services, which could harm our business.
We
are dependent on the interoperability of our platform with third-party mobile devices and mobile operating systems as well as
web browsers that we do not control. Any changes in such devices, systems or web browsers that degrade the functionality of our
platform or give preferential treatment to competitive services could adversely affect usage of our platform. Effective mobile
functionality is integral to our long-term development and growth strategy. In the event that our merchants and their customers
have difficulty accessing and using our platform on mobile devices, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.
Our
business and prospects would be harmed if changes to technologies used in our platform or new versions or upgrades of operating
systems and internet browsers adversely impact the process by which merchants and consumers interface with our platform.
We
believe the simple and straightforward interface for our platform has helped us to expand and offer our solutions to merchants
with limited technical expertise. In the future, providers of internet browsers could introduce new features that would make it
difficult for merchants to use our platform. In addition, internet browsers for desktop or mobile devices could introduce new
features, change existing browser specifications such that they would be incompatible with our platform, or prevent consumers
from accessing our merchants’ shops. Any changes to technologies used in our platform, to existing features that we rely
on, or to operating systems or internet browsers that make it difficult for merchants to access our platform or consumers to access
our merchants’ shops, may make it more difficult for us to maintain or increase our revenues and could adversely impact
our business and prospects.
The
impact of worldwide economic conditions (including, for example, from the COVID-19 pandemic), including the resulting effect on
spending by SMBs, may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
A
majority of the merchants that use our platform are SMBs and many of our merchants are in the entrepreneurial stage of their development.
Our performance is subject to worldwide economic conditions, which may be impacted by, among other things, epidemics and pandemics,
and their impact on levels of spending by SMBs and their customers. SMBs and entrepreneurs may be disproportionately affected
by economic downturns. SMBs and entrepreneurs frequently have limited budgets and may choose to allocate their spending to items
other than our platform, especially in times of economic uncertainty or recessions.
Economic
downturns, including as a result of epidemics and pandemics, may also adversely impact retail sales, which could result in merchants
who use our platform going out of business or deciding to stop using our services in order to conserve cash. Weakening economic
conditions may also adversely affect third-parties with whom we have entered into relationships and upon which we depend in order
to grow our business. Uncertain and adverse economic conditions may also lead to increased refunds and chargebacks, any of which
could adversely affect our business.
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We
may be subject to claims by third-parties of intellectual property infringement.
The
software industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents and frequent claims and related litigation regarding
patents and other intellectual property rights. Third parties have in the past asserted, and may in the future assert, that our
platform, solutions, technology, methods or practices infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate their intellectual property
or other proprietary rights. Such claims may be made by our competitors seeking to obtain a competitive advantage or by other
parties. Additionally, in recent years, non-practicing entities have begun purchasing intellectual property assets for the purpose
of making claims of infringement and attempting to extract settlements from companies like ours. The risk of claims may increase
as the number of solutions that we offer and competitors in our market increases and overlaps occur. In addition, to the extent
that we gain greater visibility and market exposure, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement
claims.
Any
such claims, regardless of merit, that result in litigation could result in substantial expenses, divert the attention of management,
cause significant delays in introducing new or enhanced services or technology, materially disrupt the conduct of our business
and have a material and adverse effect on our brand, business, financial condition and results of operations. Although we do not
believe that our proprietary technology, processes and methods have been patented by any third party, it is possible that patents
have been issued to third parties that cover all or a portion of our business. As a consequence of any patent or other intellectual
property claims, we could be required to pay substantial damages, develop non-infringing technology, enter into royalty-bearing
licensing agreements, stop selling or marketing some or all of our solutions or re-brand our solutions. We may also be obligated
to indemnify our merchants or partners or pay substantial settlement costs, including royalty payments, in connection with any
such claim or litigation and to obtain licenses, modify applications or refund fees, which could be costly. If it appears necessary,
we may seek to secure license rights to intellectual property that we are alleged to infringe at a significant cost, potentially
even if we believe such claims to be without merit. If required licenses cannot be obtained, or if existing licenses are not renewed,
litigation could result. Litigation is inherently uncertain and can cause us to expend significant money, time and attention to
it, even if we are ultimately successful. Any adverse decision could result in a loss of our proprietary rights, subject us to
significant liabilities, require us to seek licenses for alternative technologies from third-parties, prevent us from offering
all or a portion of our solutions and otherwise negatively affect our business and operating results.
We
may be unable to obtain, maintain and protect our intellectual property rights and proprietary information or prevent third-parties
from making unauthorized use of our technology.
Our
trade secrets, trademarks, trade dress, domain names, copyrights, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights are important
to our business. We rely on a combination of confidentiality clauses, assignment agreements and license agreements with employees
and third parties, trade secrets, copyrights and trademarks to protect our intellectual property and competitive advantage, all
of which offer only limited protection. The steps we take to protect our intellectual property require significant resources and
may be inadequate. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do
not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. We may be required to use significant resources to monitor and protect
these rights. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our platform and use information
that we regard as proprietary to create services that compete with ours. Some license provisions protecting against unauthorized
use, copying, transfer and disclosure of our proprietary information may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions
and foreign countries. Further, we hold no issued patents and thus would not be entitled to exclude or prevent our competitors
from using our proprietary technology, methods and processes to the extent independently developed by our competitors.
We
enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and enter into confidentiality
agreements with the parties with whom we have strategic relationships and business alliances. No assurance can be given that these
agreements will be effective in controlling access to our proprietary information and trade secrets. The confidentiality agreements
on which we rely to protect certain technologies may be breached, may not be adequate to protect our confidential information,
trade secrets and proprietary technologies and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure
of our confidential information, trade secrets or proprietary technology. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors
or others from independently developing software that is substantially equivalent or superior to our software. In addition, others
may independently discover our trade secrets and confidential information, and in such cases, we likely would not be able to assert
any trade secret rights against such parties. Additionally, we may from time to time be subject to opposition or similar proceedings
with respect to applications for registrations of our intellectual property, including our trademarks. While we aim to acquire
adequate protection of our brand through trademark registrations in key markets, occasionally third parties may have already registered
or otherwise acquired rights to identical or similar marks for services that also address our market. We rely on our brand and
trademarks to identify our platform and to differentiate our platform and services from those of our competitors, and if we are
unable to adequately protect our trademarks third parties may use our brand names or trademarks similar to ours in a manner that
may cause confusion in the market, which could decrease the value of our brand and adversely affect our business and competitive
advantages.
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Policing
unauthorized use of our intellectual property and misappropriation of our technology and trade secrets is difficult and we may
not always be aware of such unauthorized use or misappropriation. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights,
unauthorized third-parties may attempt to use, copy or otherwise obtain and market or distribute our intellectual property rights
or technology or otherwise develop services with the same or similar functionality as our platform. If our competitors infringe,
misappropriate or otherwise misuse our intellectual property rights and we are not adequately protected, or if our competitors
are able to develop a platform with the same or similar functionality as ours without infringing our intellectual property, our
competitive advantage and results of operations could be harmed. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property
rights could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of
our intellectual property. As a result, we may be aware of infringement by our competitors but may choose not to bring litigation
to enforce our intellectual property rights due to the cost, time and distraction of bringing such litigation. Furthermore, if
we do decide to bring litigation, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims
and countersuits challenging or opposing our right to use and otherwise exploit particular intellectual property, services and
technology or the enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against
unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources,
could delay further sales or the implementation of our solutions, impair the functionality of our platform, prevent or delay introductions
of new or enhanced solutions, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform or injure our
reputation. Furthermore, many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources
to developing and protecting their technology or intellectual property rights than we do.
Our
use of “open source” software could negatively affect our ability to sell our solutions and subject us to possible
litigation.
Our
solutions incorporate and are dependent to a significant extent on the use and development of “open source” software
and we intend to continue our use and development of open source software in the future. Such open source software is generally
licensed by its authors or other third-parties under open source licenses and is typically freely accessible, usable and modifiable.
Pursuant to such open source licenses, we may be subject to certain conditions, including requirements that we offer our proprietary
software that incorporates the open source software for no cost, that we make available source code for modifications or derivative
works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software and that we license such modifications or derivative
works under the terms of the particular open source license. If an author or other third party that uses or distributes such open
source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required
to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from
the sale of our solutions that contained or are dependent upon the open source software and required to comply with the foregoing
conditions, which could disrupt the distribution and sale of some of our solutions. Litigation could be costly for us to defend,
have a negative effect on our operating results and financial condition or require us to devote additional research and development
resources to change our platform. The terms of many open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by
U.S. or foreign courts. As there is little or no legal precedent governing the interpretation of many of the terms of certain
of these licenses, the potential impact of these terms on our business is uncertain and may result in unanticipated obligations
regarding our solutions and technologies. It is our view that we do not distribute our software, since no installation of our
software is necessary and our platform is accessible solely through the “cloud.” Nevertheless, this position could
be challenged. Any requirement to disclose our proprietary source code, termination of open source license rights or payments
of damages for breach of contract could be harmful to our business, results of operations or financial condition, and could help
our competitors develop products and services that are similar to or better than ours.
In
addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than the use of third-party
commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties, controls on the origin or development of the
software, or remedies against the licensors. Many of the risks associated with usage of open source software cannot be eliminated
and could adversely affect our business.
Although
we believe that we have complied with our obligations under the various applicable licenses for open source software, it is possible
that we may not be aware of all instances where open source software has been incorporated into our proprietary software or used
in connection with our solutions or our corresponding obligations under open source licenses. We do not have robust open source
software usage policies or monitoring procedures in place. We rely on multiple software programmers to design our proprietary
software and we cannot be certain that our programmers have not incorporated open source software into our proprietary software
that we intend to maintain as confidential or that they will not do so in the future. To the extent that we are required to disclose
the source code of certain of our proprietary software developments to third-parties, including our competitors, in order to comply
with applicable open source license terms, such disclosure could harm our intellectual property position, competitive advantage,
results of operations and financial condition. In addition, to the extent that we have failed to comply with our obligations under
particular licenses for open source software, we may lose the right to continue to use and exploit such open source software in
connection with our operations and solutions, which could disrupt and adversely affect our business.
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We
rely on search engines and social networking sites to attract a meaningful portion of our merchants. If we are not able to generate
traffic to our website through search engines and social networking sites, our ability to attract new merchants may be impaired.
In addition, if our merchants are not able to generate traffic to their shops through search engines and social networking sites,
their ability to attract consumers may be impaired.
Many
of our merchants locate our website through internet search engines, such as Google, and advertisements on social networking sites,
such as Facebook. The prominence of our website in response to internet searches is a critical factor in attracting potential
merchants to our platform. If we are listed less prominently or fail to appear in search results for any reason, visits to our
website could decline significantly, and we may not be able to replace this traffic.
Similarly,
many consumers locate our merchants’ shops through internet search engines and advertisements on social networking sites.
If our merchants’ shops are listed less prominently or fail to appear in search results for any reason, visits to our merchants’
shops could decline significantly. As a result, our merchants’ businesses may suffer, which would affect the ability of
such merchants to pay for our solutions.
Search
engines revise their algorithms from time to time in an attempt to optimize their search results. If search engines modify their
algorithms, our website and our merchants’ shops may appear less prominently or not at all in search results, which could
result in reduced traffic to our website and to our merchants’ shops.
Additionally,
if the price of marketing our solutions over search engines or social networking sites increases, we may incur additional marketing
expenses or may be required to allocate a larger portion of our marketing spend to search engine marketing and our business and
operating results could be adversely affected. Furthermore, competitors may in the future bid on the search terms that we use
to drive traffic to our website. Such actions could increase our marketing costs and result in decreased traffic to our website.
In addition, search engines or social networking sites may change their advertising policies from time to time. If any change
to these policies delays or prevents us from advertising through these channels, it could result in reduced traffic to our website
and sales of our solutions. As well, new search engines or social networking sites may develop, particularly in specific jurisdictions
that reduce traffic on existing search engines and social networking sites. And if we are not able to achieve awareness through
advertising or otherwise, we may not achieve significant traffic to our website through these new platforms. If we are unable
to continue to successfully promote and maintain our websites, or if we incur excessive expenses to do so, our business and operating
results could be adversely affected.
Activities
of merchants or the content of their shops could damage our brand, subject us to liability and harm our business and financial
results.
Our
terms of service prohibit our merchants from using our platform to engage in illegal activities and our terms of service permit
us to take down a merchant’s shop if we become aware of such illegal use. Merchants may nonetheless engage in prohibited
or illegal activities or upload store content in violation of applicable laws, which could subject us to liability. Furthermore,
our brand may be negatively impacted by the actions of merchants that are deemed to be hostile, offensive, inappropriate or illegal.
We do not proactively monitor or review the appropriateness of the content of our merchants’ shops and we do not have control
over merchant activities. The safeguards we have in place may not be sufficient for us to avoid liability or avoid harm to our
brand, especially if such hostile, offensive, inappropriate or illegal use is high profile, which could adversely affect our business
and financial results.
If
third-party apps and themes change such that we do not or cannot maintain the compatibility of our platform with these apps and
themes, or if we fail to provide third-party apps and themes that our merchants desire to add to their shops, demand for our platform
could decline.
The
success of our platform depends, in part, on our ability to integrate third-party apps, themes and other offerings into our third-party
ecosystem. Third-party developers may change the features of their offerings or alter the terms governing the use of their offerings
in a manner that is adverse to us. If we are unable to maintain technical interoperation, our merchants may not be able to effectively
integrate our platform with other systems and services they use. We may also be unable to maintain our relationships with certain
third-party vendors if we are unable to integrate our platform with their offerings. Further, third-party developers may refuse
to partner with us or limit or restrict our access to their offerings. Such changes could functionally limit or terminate our
ability to use these third-party offerings with our platform, which could negatively impact our solution offerings and harm our
business. If we fail to integrate our platform with new third-party offerings that our merchants need for their shops, or to adapt
to the data transfer requirements of such third-party offerings, we may not be able to offer the functionality that our merchants
and their customers expect, which would negatively impact our offerings and, as a result, harm our business.
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We
rely on computer hardware, purchased or leased, and software licensed from and services rendered by third parties in order to
provide our solutions and run our business, sometimes by a single-source supplier.
We
rely on computer hardware, purchased or leased, and software licensed from and services rendered by third-parties in order to
provide our solutions and run our business, sometimes by a single-source supplier. Third-party hardware, software and services
may not continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use or any failures of
third-party hardware, software or services could result in delays in our ability to provide our solutions or run our business
until equivalent hardware, software or services are developed by us or, if available, identified, obtained and integrated, which
could be costly and time-consuming and may not result in an equivalent solution, any of which could cause an adverse effect on
our business and operating results. Further, merchants could assert claims against us in connection with such service disruption
or cease conducting business with us altogether. Even if not successful, a claim brought against us by any of our merchants would
likely be time-consuming and costly to defend and could seriously damage our reputation and brand, making it harder for us to
sell our solutions.
We
may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors.
We
face competition in various aspects of our business and we expect such competition to intensify in the future, as existing and
new competitors introduce new services or enhance existing services. We have competitors with longer operating histories, larger
customer bases, greater brand recognition, greater experience and more extensive commercial relationships in certain jurisdictions,
and greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we do. As a result, our potential competitors may be able
to develop products and services better received by merchants or may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can
to new or changing opportunities, technologies, regulations or merchant requirements. In addition, some of our larger competitors
may be able to leverage a larger installed customer base and distribution network to adopt more aggressive pricing policies and
offer more attractive sales terms, which could cause us to lose potential sales or to sell our solutions at lower prices.
Competition
may intensify as our competitors enter into business combinations or alliances or raise additional capital, or as established
companies in other market segments or geographic markets expand into our market segments or geographic markets. For instance,
certain competitors could use strong or dominant positions in one or more markets to gain a competitive advantage against us in
areas where we operate including: by integrating competing platforms or features into products they control such as search engines,
web browsers, mobile device operating systems or social networks; by making acquisitions; or by making access to our platform
more difficult. Further, current and future competitors could choose to offer a different pricing model or to undercut prices
in an effort to increase their market share. We also expect new entrants to offer competitive services. If we cannot compete successfully
against current and future competitors, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be negatively impacted.
We
plan to make future acquisitions and investments, which could divert management’s attention, result in operating difficulties
and dilution to our stockholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business, operating results or
financial position.
From
time to time, we evaluate potential strategic acquisition or investment opportunities. Any transactions that we enter into could
be material to our financial condition and results of operations. The process of acquiring and integrating another company or
technology could create unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. Acquisitions and investments involve a number of risks,
such as:
● diversion
of management time and focus from operating our business;
● use
of resources that are needed in other areas of our business, including cash resources;
● in
the case of an acquisition, implementation or remediation of controls, procedures and policies of the acquired company;
● in
the case of an acquisition, difficulty integrating the accounting systems and operations of the acquired company, including potential
risks to our corporate culture;
● in
the case of an acquisition, coordination of product, engineering and selling and marketing functions, including difficulties and
additional expenses associated with supporting legacy services and products and hosting infrastructure of the acquired company
and difficulty converting the customers of the acquired company onto our platform and contract terms, including disparities in
the revenues, licensing, support or professional services model of the acquired company;
35
● in
the case of an acquisition, retention and integration of employees from the acquired company;
● unforeseen
costs or liabilities;
● adverse
effects to our existing business relationships with partners and merchants as a result of the acquisition or investment;
● the
possibility of adverse tax consequences; and
● litigation
or other claims arising in connection with the acquired company or investment.
In
addition, we may agree to grant to a lender under a credit facility warrants. Furthermore, a significant portion of the purchase
price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment
at least annually. In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges to our
operating results based on this impairment assessment process, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
Acquisitions
and investments may also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities, which could adversely affect our share price, or result
in the incurrence of debt with restrictive covenants that limit our future uses of capital in pursuit of business opportunities.
We
may not be able to identify acquisition or investment opportunities that meet our strategic objectives, or to the extent such
opportunities are identified, we may not be able to negotiate terms with respect to the acquisition or investment that are acceptable
to us. At this time we have made no commitments or agreements with respect to any such transaction.
New
tax laws could be enacted or existing laws could be applied to us or our merchants, which could increase the costs of our solutions
and adversely impact our business.
The
application of federal, state, provincial, local and foreign tax laws to solutions provided over the internet is evolving. New
income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, possibly with retroactive
effect, and could be applied solely or disproportionately to solutions provided over the internet. These enactments could adversely
affect our sales activity due to the inherent cost increase the taxes would represent, and could ultimately result in a negative
impact on our results of operations and cash flows.
State
tax authorities may seek to assess state and local business taxes and sales and use taxes. If we are required to collect sales
and use taxes in additional jurisdictions, we might be subject to tax liability for past sales.
There
is a risk that U.S. states could assert that we are liable for U.S. state and local business activity taxes, which are levied
upon income or gross receipts, or for the collection of U.S. local sales and use taxes. This risk exists regardless of whether
we are subject to U.S. federal income tax. States are becoming increasingly active in asserting nexus for business activity tax
purposes and imposing sales and use taxes on products and services provided over the internet. We may be subject to U.S. state
and local business activity taxes if a state tax authority asserts that our activities or the activities of our non-U.S. subsidiaries
are sufficient to establish nexus. We could also be liable for the collection of U.S. state and local sales and use taxes if a
state tax authority asserts that distribution of our solutions over the internet is subject to sales and use taxes. Each state
has different rules and regulations governing sales and use taxes, and these rules and regulations are subject to varying interpretations
that change over time. We review these rules and regulations periodically and, when we believe we are subject to sales and use
taxes in a particular state, voluntarily engage state tax authorities in order to determine how to comply with their rules and
regulations. If a state tax authority asserts that distribution of our solutions is subject to such sales and use taxes, the additional
cost may decrease the likelihood that such merchants would purchase our solutions or continue to renew their subscriptions.
A
successful assertion by one or more states requiring us to collect sales or other taxes on subscription service revenue could
result in substantial tax liabilities for past transactions and otherwise harm our business. We cannot assure you that we will
not be subject to sales and use taxes or related penalties for past sales in states where we currently believe no such taxes are
required. New obligations to collect or pay taxes of any kind could increase our cost of doing business.
36
We
are dependent upon consumers’ and merchants’ willingness to use the internet for commerce.
Our
success depends upon the general public’s continued willingness to use the internet as a means to pay for purchases, communicate,
access social media, research and conduct commercial transactions, including through mobile devices. If consumers or merchants
become unwilling or less willing to use the internet for commerce for any reason, including lack of access to high-speed communications
equipment, congestion of traffic on the internet, internet outages or delays, disruptions or other damage to merchants’
and consumers’ computers, increases in the cost of accessing the internet and security and privacy risks or the perception
of such risks, our business could be adversely affected.
We
may face challenges in expanding into new geographic regions.
Our
future success will depend in part upon our ability to expand into new geographic regions, and we will face risks entering markets
in which we have limited or no experience and in which we do not have any brand recognition. Expanding into new geographic regions
where the main language is not English will require substantial expenditures and take considerable time and attention, and we
may not be successful enough in these new markets to recoup our investments in a timely manner, or at all. Our efforts to expand
into new geographic regions may not be successful, which could limit our ability to grow our business.
Risks
Related to Laws and Regulations
Failure
to comply with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA, anti-money laundering, economic and trade sanctions regulations,
and similar laws could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.
We
currently operate our business only in the United States. We are subject to anti-corruption laws and regulations, including the
FCPA, and other laws that prohibit the making or offering of improper payments to foreign government officials and political figures,
including anti-bribery provisions enforced by the Department of Justice and accounting provisions enforced by the SEC. These laws
prohibit improper payments or offers of payments to foreign governments and their officials and political parties by the U.S.
and other business entities for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. We have implemented policies, procedures, systems,
and controls designed to identify and address potentially impermissible transactions under such laws and regulations; however,
there can be no assurance that all of our employees, consultants and agents, including those that may be based in or from countries
where practices that violate U.S. or other laws may be customary, will not take actions in violation of our policies, for which
we may be ultimately responsible.
In
addition, we are subject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act, as amended by the USA
PATRIOT Act of 2001, or the BSA. Among other things, the BSA requires money services businesses (such as money transmitters and
providers of prepaid access) to develop and implement risk-based anti-money laundering programs, report large cash transactions
and suspicious activity, and maintain transaction records.
We
are also subject to certain economic and trade sanctions programs that are administered by the Department of Treasury’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, which prohibit or restrict transactions to or from or dealings with specified countries,
their governments, and in certain circumstances, their nationals, and with individuals and entities that are specially-designated
nationals of those countries, narcotics traffickers, and terrorists or terrorist organizations. Other group entities may be subject
to additional foreign or local sanctions requirements in other relevant jurisdictions.
Similar
anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing and proceeds of crime laws apply to movements of currency and payments through
electronic transactions and to dealings with persons specified in lists maintained by the country equivalents to OFAC lists in
several other countries and require specific data retention obligations to be observed by intermediaries in the payment process.
Our businesses in those jurisdictions are subject to those data retention obligations.
Failure
to comply with any of these laws and regulations or changes in this regulatory environment, including changing interpretations
and the implementation of new or varying regulatory requirements by the government, may result in significant financial penalties,
reputational harm or change the manner in which we currently conduct some aspects of our business, which could adversely affect
our business, financial condition or results of operations.
37
Failure
to enforce and defend our intellectual property rights may diminish our competitive advantages or interfere with our ability to
market and promote our products and services.
Our
trademarks, trade names, trade secrets, know-how, proprietary technology and other intellectual property are important to our
future success. We have a pending trademark application for “CrowdPay.us Crowdfunding & Compliance Platform”.
We believe our trademarks and trade names are widely recognized and associated with quality and reliable service. While it is
our policy to protect and defend vigorously our rights to our intellectual property, we cannot predict whether steps taken by
us to protect our intellectual property will be adequate to prevent infringement, misappropriation or other violation of our rights.
We also cannot guarantee that others will not independently develop technology with the same or similar functions to any proprietary
technology we rely on to conduct our business and differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Furthermore, we may face claims
of infringement of third-party intellectual property that could interfere with our ability to market and promote our brands. Any
litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights or defend ourselves against claims of infringement of third-party intellectual
property rights could be costly, divert attention of management and may not ultimately be resolved in our favor. Moreover, if
we are unable to successfully defend against claims that we have infringed the intellectual property rights of others, we may
be prevented from using certain intellectual property and may be liable for damages, which in turn could materially adversely
affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In addition, the laws of certain non-U.S. countries where we
do business or may do business in the future may not recognize intellectual property rights or protect them to the same extent
as do the laws of the United States.
New
or revised tax regulations or their interpretations, or becoming subject to additional foreign or U.S. federal, state or local
taxes that cannot be passed through to our merchants or partners, could reduce our net income.
We
are subject to tax laws in each jurisdiction where we do business. Changes in tax laws or their interpretations could decrease
the amount of revenues we receive, the value of any tax loss carry-forwards and tax credits recorded on our balance sheet and
the amount of our cash flow, and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
On
December 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law H.R. 1, originally known as “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” which
significantly revised the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The new legislation has significantly changed the U.S. federal
income taxation of U.S. corporations, including by reducing the U.S. corporate income tax rate, limiting interest deductions,
permitting immediate expensing of certain capital expenditures, adopting elements of a territorial tax system, imposing a one-time
transition tax, or repatriation tax, on all undistributed earnings and profits of certain U.S.-owned foreign corporations, revising
the rules governing net operating losses and the rules governing foreign tax credits, and introducing new anti-base erosion provisions.
Many of these changes are effective immediately, without any transition periods or grandfathering for existing transactions. The
legislation is unclear in many respects and could be subject to potential amendments and technical corrections, as well as interpretations
and implementing regulations by the Internal Revenue Service, or the IRS, any of which could lessen or increase certain adverse
impacts of the legislation. In addition, it is unclear how these U.S. federal income tax changes will affect state and local taxation,
which often uses federal taxable income as a starting point for computing state and local tax liabilities.
On
March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”),
which, among other things, is intended to provide emergency assistance to qualifying businesses and individuals. There can be
no assurance that these interventions by the government will be successful, and the financial markets may experience significant
contractions in available liquidity. While the Company may receive financial, tax or other relief and other benefits under and
as a result of the CARES Act, it is not possible to estimate at this time the availability, extent or impact of any such relief.
While
some of the changes made by the tax legislation may adversely affect us in one or more reporting periods and prospectively, other
changes may be beneficial on a going forward basis. We continue to work with our tax advisors to determine the full impact that
the recent tax legislation as a whole will have on us.
Additionally,
companies in the electronic payments industry, including us, may become subject to incremental taxation in various tax jurisdictions.
Taxing jurisdictions have not yet adopted uniform positions on this topic. If we are required to pay additional taxes and are
unable to pass the tax expense through to our merchants, our costs would increase and our net income would be reduced.
38
Failure
to comply with, or changes in, laws, regulations and enforcement activities may adversely affect the products, services and markets
in which we operate.
We
and our merchants are subject to laws and regulations that affect the electronic payments industry in the many countries in which
our services are used. In particular, our merchants are subject to numerous laws and regulations applicable to banks, financial
institutions, and card issuers in the United States and abroad, and, consequently, we are at times affected by these foreign,
federal, state, and local laws and regulations. The U.S. government has increased its scrutiny of a number of credit card practices,
from which some of our merchants derive significant revenue. Regulation of the payments industry, including regulations applicable
to us and our merchants, has increased significantly in recent years. Failure to comply with laws and regulations applicable to
our business may result in the suspension or revocation of licenses or registrations, the limitation, suspension or termination
of services or the imposition of consent orders or civil and criminal penalties, including fines which could adversely affect
our business, financial condition or results of operations.
We
are also subject to U.S. financial services regulations, a myriad of consumer protection laws, including economic sanctions, laws
and regulations, anticorruption laws, escheat regulations and privacy and information security regulations. Changes to legal rules
and regulations, or interpretation or enforcement of them, could have a negative financial effect on us. Any lack of legal certainty
exposes our operations to increased risks, including increased difficulty in enforcing our agreements in those jurisdictions and
increased risks of adverse actions by local government authorities, such as expropriations. In addition, certain of our alliance
partners are subject to regulation by federal and state authority and, as a result, could pass through some of those compliance
obligations to us, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
In
particular, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), recently
significantly changed the U.S. financial regulatory system. Among other things, Title X of the Dodd-Frank Act established a new,
independent regulatory agency known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, to regulate consumer financial products
and services (including some offered by our merchants). The CFPB rules, examinations and enforcement actions may require us to
adjust our activities and may increase our compliance costs.
Separately,
under the Dodd-Frank Act, debit interchange transaction fees that a card issuer receives and are established by a payment card
network for an electronic debit transaction are now regulated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or the
Federal Reserve, and must be “reasonable and proportional” to the cost incurred by the card issuer in authorizing,
clearing, and settling the transaction. Effective October 1, 2011, the Federal Reserve capped debit interchange rates for card
issuers operating in the United States with assets of $10 billion or more at the sum of $0.21 per transaction and an ad valorem
component of 5 basis points to reflect a portion of the card issuer’s fraud losses plus, for qualifying card issuers,
an additional $0.01 per transaction in debit interchange for fraud prevention costs. Regulations such as these could result in
the need for us to make capital investments to modify our services to facilitate our existing merchants’ and potential merchants’
compliance and reduce the fees we are able to charge our merchants. These regulations also could result in greater pricing transparency
and increased price-based competition leading to lower margins and higher rates of merchant attrition. Furthermore, the requirements
of the regulations and the timing of their effective dates could result in changes in our merchants’ business practices,
which could change the demand for our services and alter the type or volume of transactions that we process on behalf of our merchants.
Risks
Related to Our Capital Stock
There
is a very limited existing market for our common stock and we do not know if a more liquid market for our common stock will develop
to provide you with adequate liquidity.
There
has been a very limited public market for our common stock. We cannot assure you that an active trading market for our common
stock will develop, or if it does develop, that will be maintained. You may not be able to sell your securities quickly or at
the market price if trading in our securities is not active. In the absence of a public trading market:
●
you may not be able
to liquidate your investment in our securities;
●
you may not be able
to resell your securities at or above the public offering price;
●
the market price
of our common stock may experience more price volatility; and
●
there may be less
efficiency in carrying out your purchase and sale orders.
39
The
market price of our common stock may be highly volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The
trading price of our common stock is likely to be volatile. This volatility may prevent you from being able to sell your shares
at or above the price you paid for your shares. Our stock price could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety
of factors, which include:
●
whether we achieve
our anticipated corporate objectives;
●
actual or anticipated
fluctuations in our quarterly or annual operating results;
●
changes in financial
or operational estimates or projections;
●
termination of the
lock-up agreement or other restrictions on the ability of our stockholders and other security holders to sell shares;
●
changes in the economic
performance or market valuations of companies similar to ours; and
●
general economic
or political conditions in the United States or elsewhere.
In
addition, the stock market in general, and the stock of companies that are competitive to us in particular, have experienced extreme
price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies.
Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating
performance.
If
our shares become subject to the penny stock rules, it would become more difficult to trade our shares.
The
SEC has adopted rules that regulate broker-dealer practices in connection with transactions in penny stocks. Penny stocks
are generally equity securities with a price of less than $5.00, other than securities registered on certain national securities
exchanges or authorized for quotation on certain automated quotation systems, provided that current price and volume information
with respect to transactions in such securities is provided by the exchange or system. If we do not obtain or retain a listing
on a national securities exchange and if the price of our common stock is less than $5.00, our common stock will be deemed a penny
stock. The penny stock rules require a broker-dealer, before a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from those rules,
to deliver a standardized risk disclosure document containing specified information. In addition, the penny stock rules require
that before effecting any transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from those rules, a broker-dealer must make a
special written determination that the penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser and receive (i) the purchaser’s
written acknowledgment of the receipt of a risk disclosure statement; (ii) a written agreement to transactions involving penny
stocks; and (iii) a signed and dated copy of a written suitability statement. These disclosure requirements may have the effect
of reducing the trading activity in the secondary market for our common stock, and therefore stockholders may have difficulty
selling their shares.
As
a “thinly-traded” stock, large sales can place downward pressure on our stock price.
Our
stock experiences periods when it could be considered “thinly traded”. Financing transactions resulting in a large
number of newly issued shares that become readily tradable, or other events that cause current stockholders to sell shares, could
place further downward pressure on the trading price of our stock. In addition, the lack of a robust resale market may require
a stockholder who desires to sell a large number of shares to sell the shares in increments over time to mitigate any adverse
impact of the sales on the market price of our stock.
We
could issue additional common stock, which might dilute the book value of our capital stock.
The
Company may issue all or a part of its authorized but unissued shares of common stock. Any such stock issuance could be made at
a price that reflects a discount or a premium to the then-current trading price of our common stock. In addition, in order
to raise future capital, we may need to issue securities that are convertible into or exchangeable for a significant amount of
our common stock. These issuances, if any, would dilute your percentage ownership interest in the Company, thereby having the
effect of reducing your influence on matters on which stockholders vote. You may incur additional dilution if holders of stock
options or warrants, whether currently outstanding or subsequently granted, exercise their options, or if warrant holders exercise
their warrants to purchase shares of our common stock. As a result, any such issuances or exercises would dilute your interest
in the Company and the per share book value of the common stock that you owned, either of which could negatively affect the trading
price of our common stock and the value of your investment.
40
Shares
eligible for future sale may adversely affect the market for our common stock.
As
of March 22, 2021, there are 2,333,978 warrants to purchase shares of our common stock outstanding and options to purchase 85,1732 shares
of our common stock outstanding. 1,922,678 warrants are exercisable at an exercise price of $9.00 per share and 341,300 warrants
are exercisable at an exercise price of $4.50 per share. The stock options have a weighted average exercise price of $0.0001 per
share. If and when these securities are exercised into shares of our common stock, the number of our shares of common stock outstanding
will increase. Such increase in our outstanding shares, and any sales of such shares, could have a material adverse effect on
the market for our common stock and the market price of our common stock.
In
addition, from time to time, all of our current stockholders are eligible to sell all or some of their shares of common stock
by means of ordinary brokerage transactions in the open market pursuant to Rule 144, promulgated under the Securities Act, subject
to certain limitations. In general, pursuant to Rule 144, after satisfying a six month holding period: (i) affiliated stockholders
(or stockholders whose shares are aggregated) may, under certain circumstances, sell within any three month period a number of
securities which does not exceed the greater of 1% of the then outstanding shares of common stock or the average weekly trading
volume of the class during the four calendar weeks prior to such sale and (ii) non-affiliated stockholders may sell without
such limitations, provided that we are current in our public reporting obligations. Rule 144 also permits the sale of securities
by non-affiliates that have satisfied a one year holding period without any limitation or restriction. Any substantial sale
of our common stock pursuant to Rule 144 or pursuant to any resale prospectus may have a material adverse effect on the market
price of our securities.
Because
certain principal stockholders own a large percentage of our voting stock, other stockholders’ voting power may be limited.
As
of March 22, 2021, Ronny Yakov, our chief executive officer, owned or controlled approximately 51.7% of our outstanding common
stock. Accordingly, Mr. Yakov has the ability to have a substantial influence on matters submitted to our stockholders for
approval, including the election and removal of directors and the approval of any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially
all of our assets. As a result, our other stockholders may have little or no influence over matters submitted for stockholder
approval. In addition, the ownership of Mr. Yakov could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of us, and consequently, adversely
affect the price of our common stock. These stockholders may make decisions that are adverse to your interests.
As
an “emerging growth company” under applicable law, we will be subject to lessened disclosure requirements, which could
leave our stockholders without information or rights available to stockholders of more mature companies.
For
as long as we remain an “emerging growth company”, we have elected to take advantage of certain exemptions from various
reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including,
but not limited to:
●
not being required
to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act;
●
taking advantage
of an extension of time to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards;
●
reduced disclosure
obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements; and
●
exemptions from
the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute
payments not previously approved.
We
expect to take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” Because
of these lessened regulatory requirements, our stockholders would be left without information or rights available to stockholders
of more mature companies.
41
Because
we have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards for an “emerging
growth company” our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with public company effective dates.
We
have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards for an emerging growth
company. This election allows us to delay the adoption of new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates
for public and private companies until those standards apply to private companies. As a result of this election, our financial
statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with public company effective dates, and thus investors may have difficulty
evaluating or comparing our business, performance or prospects in comparison to other public companies, which may have a negative
impact on the value and liquidity of our common stock.
Anti-takeover provisions
in our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company and may affect
the trading price of our common stock.
The
anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control by
prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person
becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change in control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition,
our certificate of incorporation, as amended (which we refer to as the certificate of incorporation), and bylaws, as amended (which
we refer to as the bylaws), may discourage, delay or prevent a change in our management or control over us that stockholders may
consider favorable. Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws:
●
provide that vacancies
on our board of directors, including newly created directorships, may be filled only by a majority vote of directors then
in office;
●
provide that special
meetings of stockholders may be called by a majority vote of our board of directors or at least 25% of shares held by our
stockholders;
●
not provide stockholders
with the ability to cumulate their votes; and
●
provide that a majority
of our stockholders (over 50%) and a vote by the majority of our board may amend our bylaws.
We
do not expect to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We
do not expect to pay dividends on our common stock offered in this transaction for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, any potential
investor who anticipates the need for current dividends should not purchase our securities.
Risks
Related to Public Companies
We
could be delisted from NASDAQ, which could seriously harm the liquidity of our stock and our ability to raise capital.
If
we cease to be eligible to trade on the NASDAQ Capital Market:
●
We may have to pursue
trading on a less recognized or accepted market, such as the OTC Bulletin Board or the “pink sheets.”
●
The trading price
of our common stock could suffer, including an increased spread between the “bid” and “asked” prices
quoted by market makers.
●
Shares of our common
stock could be less liquid and marketable, thereby reducing the ability of stockholders to purchase or sell our shares as
quickly and as inexpensively as they have done historically. If our stock is traded as a “penny stock,” transactions
in our stock would be more difficult and cumbersome.
●
We may be unable
to access capital on favorable terms or at all, as companies trading on alternative markets may be viewed as less attractive
investments with higher associated risks, such that existing or prospective institutional investors may be less interested
in, or prohibited from, investing in our common stock. This may also cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
42
We
incur substantial costs as a result of being a public company and our management expects to devote substantial time to public
company compliance programs.
As
a public company, we incur significant legal, insurance, accounting and other expenses, including costs associated with public
company reporting. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment
will result in increased general and administrative expenses and may divert management’s time and attention from product
development and commercialization activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the
activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate
legal proceedings against us, and our business may be harmed. These laws and regulations could make it more difficult and costlier
for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance for our directors and officers, and we may be required to accept reduced
coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract
and retain qualified executive officers and qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit and
compensation committees. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet the legal, regulatory and other requirements related
to being a public company, we may not be able to maintain the listing of our common stock on The NASDAQ Capital Market, which
would likely have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.
Securities
analysts may not continue to provide coverage of our common stock or may issue negative reports, which may have a negative impact
on the market price of our common stock.
Since
completing our public offering of shares of our common stock in August 2020, a limited number of securities analysts have been
providing research coverage of our common stock. If securities analysts do not continue to cover our common stock, the lack of
research coverage may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. The trading market for our common stock may be affected
in part by the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about our business. If one or more of the analysts
who elect to cover us downgrade our stock, our stock price could decline rapidly. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage
of us, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline. In addition, under the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and a global settlement among the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, other
regulatory agencies and a number of investment banks, which was reached in 2003, many investment banking firms are required to
contract with independent financial analysts for their stock research. It may be difficult for a company such as ours, with a
smaller market capitalization, to attract independent financial analysts that will cover our common stock. This could have a negative
effect on the market price of our stock.
43
Item
1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
Not
applicable.
Item
2. Property
For
our corporate headquarters we currently rent shared office space at 200 Park Avenue, Suite 1700, New York, New York which can
be 150 square feet or more and for which we currently pay rent of between $500-1,500 per month, inclusive of administrative services.
The monthly rent that we pay has historically varied and will continue to vary based upon the time we physically utilize the office
space, the size of the size we use and the cost of the office services consumed.
On
June 24, 2020, eVance, Inc. entered into a lease relating to approximately 4,277 square feet of property located at 960 Northpoint
Parkway, Alpharetta, Georgia, Suite 400. The term of the Lease is for thirty-nine (39) months commencing September 1, 2020.
The monthly base rent is $8,019 for the first twelve (12) months increasing thereafter to $8,768. The total rent for the entire
lease term is $315,044 and $8,768 is payable as a security deposit. The first three months of rent was abated.
Item
3. Legal Proceedings
There
are no material claims, actions, suits, proceedings, or investigations that are currently pending or, to the Company’s knowledge,
threatened by or against the Company or respecting its operations or assets, or by or against any of the Company’s officers,
directors, or affiliates.
Item
4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not
applicable.
44
PART
II.
Item
5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market
Information
After
August 11, 2020, our common stock was trading under the symbol “OLB” on the NASDAQ Capital Market (“NASDAQ”).
Prior to August 11, 2020, our common stock was quoted under the symbol “OLBG” on the Pink Open Market (f/k/a OTC Pink)
published by OTC Markets Group, Inc. (“OTC Pink”), where an established public trading market for our common stock
did not exist. The range of reported high and reported low sales prices per share for our common stock for each fiscal quarter
during 2020 and 2019, as reported by NASDAQ and the OTC Markets Group, is set forth below.
Quarterly
common stock Price Ranges
Fiscal Year 2020, Quarter Ended:
High
Low
March 31, 2020
$ 15.00
$ 15.00
June 30, 2020
$ 10.50
$ 7.75
September 30, 2020
$ 10.50
$ 3.53
December 31, 2020
$ 6.53
$ 3.26
Fiscal Year 2019, Quarter Ended:
High
Low
March 31, 2019
$ 8.10
$ 0.14
June 30, 2019
$ 13.50
$ 4.05
September 30, 2019
$ 12.00
$ 9.00
December 31, 2019
$ 15.00
$ 5.40
At
March 22, 2021 there were approximately 367 holders of record of our common stock, although we believe that there are other persons
who are beneficial owners of our common stock held in street name. The transfer agent and registrar for our common stock is Transfer
Online, Inc., 317 SW Alder Street, 2nd Floor Portland, OR 97204. Their telephone number is (503) 227-2950.
Dividend
Policy
We
have never paid any cash dividends and intend, for the foreseeable future, to retain any future earnings for the development of
our business. Our Board of Directors will determine our future dividend policy on the basis of various factors, including our
results of operations, financial condition, capital requirements and investment opportunities.
Recent
Issuance of Unregistered Securities
None.
Securities
Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
None.
Item
6. Selected Financial data
We
are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are not required to provide
the information under this item.
45
Item
7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation
The
following discussion and analysis of our consolidated financial condition and results of operations for years ended December 31,
2020 and 2019 should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes related thereto included
elsewhere in this report and with the unaudited pro forma condensed combined financial information included in this Item 7.
Overview
We
are a FinTech company and PayFac that focuses on a suite of products in the merchant services and payment facilitator verticals
that seeks to provide integrated business solutions to merchants throughout the United States. We seek to accomplish this
by providing merchants with a wide range of products and services through our various online platforms, including financial and
transaction processing services. We also have products that provide support for crowdfunding and other capital raising initiatives.
We supplement our online platforms with certain hardware solutions that are integrated with our online platforms. Our business
functions primarily through three wholly-owned subsidiaries, eVance, OmniSoft, and CrowdPay, though substantially all of
our revenue has been generated from our eVance business (we began generating revenue from our OmniSoft and CrowdPay businesses
in the second half of 2019). We expect to build out our OmniSoft software business and to rely more on our PayFac model for revenue
so that we are not dependent on our revenue from our eVance business but there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so.
With
respect to our eVance business, our merchants are currently processing over $82,000,000 in gross transactions monthly and average
approximately 1,400,000 transactions a month. These transactions come from a variety of sources including direct accounts and
ISO channels. The accounts consist of businesses across the United States with no concentration of industries or merchants.
We
have integrated all the applications for OmniSoft and the ShopFast Omnicommerce solution with the eVance mobile payment gateway,
SecurePay.comTM. SecurePay.comTM, is currently used by approximately 3,000 merchants processing over 32,000 transactions and approximately
$9,000,000 of monthly gross transactions (though our revenue from these transactions is limited). In July 2019, we launched a
new merchant and ISO boarding system that will be able to onboard merchants instantly. This will provide the merchant with an
automated approval and ISOs will have the ability to see all their merchants and their residuals as they load to the system.
On
May 22, 2020, the Company purchased certain assets from POSaBIT Inc. (“POSaBIT”), including its contracts and
arrangements with the Doublebeam merchant payment processing platform (the “POSaBIT Asset Acquisition”). The assets
included, but were not limited to, software source codes, customer lists, customer contracts, hardware and website domains.
Results
of Operations
Year
Ended December 31, 2020 Compared to the Year Ended December 31, 2019
For
the year ended December 31, 2020, we had total revenue of $9,766,621 compared to $10,291,524 of revenue for the year ended December
31, 2019, a decrease of $524,903 or 5.1%. We earned $8,358,459 in transaction and processing fees, $88,538 in merchant equipment
sales and $1,319,624 in other revenue from monthly recurring subscriptions, compared to $10,177,931 in transaction and processing
fees, $88,797 in merchant equipment sales and $24,796 in other revenue during the prior year.
Our
transaction and processing fee revenue decreased $1,819,475 in the current year primarily due to merchant attrition and the initial
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the reduction in transactions processed while businesses were closed and customers stayed
home. While the volume of processing transactions by merchants in March 2020 was relatively in-line with the Company’s
expectations that the number of transactions during March would be below the prior year because states in the United States began
to implement stay-at-home orders, the number of transactions and resulting revenue was approximately 15% lower in March than
in February and 30% lower in April than in March. In May, when some states began to reopen businesses and relax stay-at-home orders,
the number of transactions increased whereby they were 5% higher than in April, and in June, transactions were 7% higher than
May. July, August and September have shown month over month increases of 3%, 3% and 7% respectively. This trend continued through
the year-end with the three months ended December 31, 2020 increasing 4% compered to the three months ended September 30, 2020.
46
For
the year ended December 31, 2020, we had processing and servicing costs of $6,003,931 compared to $6,723,666 of processing and
servicing costs for the year ended December 31, 2019. Processing and servicing costs decreased by $719,735 or 10.7% because of
the decrease in the number of transactions processed during the period and the reasons discussed above relating to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Amortization
expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $844,423 compared to $812,857 for the year ended December 31, 2019, an increase
of $31,566 or 3.9%. We record amortization expense on our merchant portfolio and trademarks.
Salary
and wage expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $1,363,451 compared to $1,490,762 for the year ended December 31, 2019,
a decrease of $127,311 or 8.5%. Salary and wage expense decreased in the current period due to the reductions in our sales force,
and other personnel made during 2019 and 2020 and not replaced in 2020.
General
and Administrative (“G&A”) expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $2,289,521 compared to $1,533,102
for the year ended December 31, 2019, an increase of $756,419 or 49.3%. Some of our larger G&A expenses included rent, stock-based
compensation, professional fees and computer and internet expense. In the current period we incurred additional professional fees
related to the completions of our public offering and amendments to our senior and subordinated loans. Audit fees were increased
by approximately $39,000 and legal and other professional fees increased by approximately $123,000. We also recognized an additional
$237,000 of stock-based compensation in the current year.
For
the year ended December 31, 2020, we incurred $1,043,933 of interest expense, compared to $1,249,154 for the year ended December
31, 2019, a decrease of $205,221 or 45.1%. The decrease in interest expense is primarily due the conversion of all related party
debt during the third quarter of 2020.
Our
net loss for year ended December 31, 2020 was $1,776,727 compared to $1,343,412 for year ended December 31, 2019. We had an increase
in our net loss of $428,332 for the reasons discussed above.
Trends
and Uncertainties
The
Company’s financial condition and results of operations for the next fiscal year 2021 may be adversely affected
by the recent COVID-19 outbreak.
The
New York and Atlanta areas, including the location of the Company’s corporate headquarters and its operations business,
continue to experience significant impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. The Company is currently following the recommendations
of local health authorities to minimize exposure risk for its employees and visitors. However, the scale and duration of this
pandemic is unknown, and the duration of the business disruption and related financial impact cannot be reasonably estimated at
this time. While the Company is currently implementing specific business continuity plans to reduce the potential impact of COVID-19
during 2021 and believe that its business being principally operated using digital platforms, in the long-term, will suffer minimal
ongoing negative impact, there is no guarantee that the Company’s continuity plan will be successful, that the Company’s
merchants will meet the number of forecasted transactions due to a change in consumer activity around point of sale purchasing
resulting from the temporary closure of businesses.
In
2020, the Company experienced certain disruptions to its business and disruptions for the Company’s customers and merchants
that may materially affect the number of transactions processed by the Company. The extent to which COVID-19 or any other health
epidemic may impact the Company’s results for 2021 and beyond will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain
and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the economic impact of the response
to the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, COVID-19 could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, results
of operations, financial condition and prospects during 2021 and beyond.
47
Liquidity
and Capital Resources
Changes
in Cash Flows
For
the year ended December 31, 2020, we used $327,267 of cash in operating activities, which included our net loss offset by $861,269
for amortization and depreciation expense, $502,105 for stock-based compensation, and net changes in operating assets and liabilities
of $84,952.
For
the year ended December 31, 2019, $244,868 in cash was provided by operating activities, which included our net loss offset by
$842,149 for amortization and depreciation expense, $265,050 for stock-based compensation and net changes in operating assets
and liabilities of $481,081.
For
the year ended December 31, 2020 we used $150,000 of cash used for investing activities. The $150,000 represents the purchase
price in connection with the POSaBIT Asset Acquisition. For the year ended December 31, 2019, no cash was used for investing activities.
For
the year ended December 31, 2020, we received net cash of $3,794,142 from financing activities. $1,845,155 was repaid on our loan
to GACP. We received $236,231 from the Paycheck Protection Program loan under the CARES Act and a total of $5,192,761 from the
sale of stock and warrants. For the year ended December 31, 2019, $151,616 in cash was provided by financing activities. We received
$361,467 from related party loans which was offset by $210,305 of deferred offering costs.
Liquidity
and Capital Resources
At
December 31, 2020, the Company had cash of $3,824,491 and working capital of $3,205,807.
In
connection with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the Company has experienced disruptions to its business
and has observed disruptions with its customers and merchants, which has resulted in a decline in transaction volume. While the
volume of processing transactions by merchants in March was relatively in-line with the Company’s expectations that
the number of transactions during March would be below the prior year because states in the United States began to implement stay-at-home orders,
the number of transactions and resulting revenue was approximately 15% lower in March than in February and 30% lower in April
than in March. In May, when some states began to reopen businesses and relax stay-at-home orders, the number of transactions increased
whereby they were 5% higher than in April, and in June, transactions were 7% higher than May. July, August and September have
shown month over month increases of 3%, 3% and 7%, respectively. The Company’s revenue during the period of time decreased
and then increased in the amount of similar to the percentage of month-to-month transaction volume.
The
Company’s revenue during the period of time decreased and then increased in the amount similar to the percentage of month-to-month
transaction volume. Despite recent increases in volume, the Company estimates that the number of transactions will continue to
stay at a depressed level, along with revenues, until the economic impact of and response to the COVID-19 pandemic allows
customers to make more point of purchase transactions for merchants, customers become more comfortable shopping in stores and/or
more merchants provide for additional contactless and online purchase options. The anticipated amount of decline from prior year
is unknown, but it will be impacted by when consumers return to the level of purchasing that occurred in the prior year and before
the pandemic. However, additional closings and reopenings of businesses or if additional businesses cease to operate in the future
will likely result in a month over month decline and then increase similar to what occurred in March through June 2020.
On
August 11, 2020, the Company closed an offering of its securities (the “Offering”) for gross proceeds of $6.45 million.
The Company sold 700,000 units consisting of (a) one share of our common stock; (b) two Series A Warrants, and (c) one-half of
one Series B warrant. In addition, the underwriter fully exercised its option to purchase 210,000 Series A warrants and 52,500
Series B warrants. While 20% of the net proceeds of $5.5 million was used to repay a portion of our outstanding Term Loan, immediately
following the Offering, the Company had cash of $5.6 million on hand. As such, the Company believes it will be able fund future
liquidity and capital requirements through cash flows generated from its operating activities for a period of at least twelve
months from the date its condensed consolidated financial statements are issued.
48
On
August 11, 2020, Mr. Herzog converted $3,612,940 of indebtedness into 3,612 shares of Series A Preferred Stock (the terms of which
are described below) and 802,875 Series A Conversion Warrants with an exercise price of $9.00 and 200,719 Series B Conversion
Warrants with an exercise price of $4.50.
Also,
on August 11, 2020, Mr. Yakov converted $1,021,512 of indebtedness into 1,021 shares of Series A Preferred Stock (the terms of
which are described below) and 227,003 Series A Conversion Warrants with an exercise price of $9.00 and 56,751 Series B Conversion
Warrants with an exercise price of $4.50.
On
March 2, 2021, the Company, utilizing a portion of funds received upon the exercise of outstanding warrants, paid approximately
$7.7 million to the Agent under the Credit Agreement (the “Prepayment”). This Prepayment resulted in the discharge
in full of all of the obligations under the Credit Agreement. In connection with the extinguishment of the obligations under the
Credit Agreement, 40,000 warrants to purchase Common Stock were cancelled.
Following
the payment and discharge of the Term Loan and conversion of indebtedness held by Messrs. Herzog and Yakov, the Company has approximately
$549,200 of outstanding liabilities.
In
addition, the Company has received a Paycheck Protection Program loan under the CARES Act for approximately $236,000 (the “PPP
Loan”). The Paycheck Protection Program provides that the use of PPP Loan proceeds was limited to certain
qualifying expenses and may be partially or wholly forgiven in accordance with the requirements set forth in the CARES Act. The
Company believes it has used the PPP Loan for permitted uses whereby it will be forgiven in full, although no assurance
can be given that the Company will obtain forgiveness of all or any portion of amounts due under the PPP Loan.
The
Company has reviewed its cash flow for 2020, projected operating cash flows for 2021 and an overall analysis of market trends
to determine whether or not it has sufficient liquidity to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months
from the date of this Annual Report. As a result of the improved transaction volume trends the Company experienced in the
six month period ended December 31, 2020, as well as the funds received from the capital raises discussedabove, the Company believes
it has sufficient liquidity in order to sustain operations for at least of the following twelve months.
Off-Balance
Sheet Arrangements
As
of December 31, 2020, there were no off-balance sheet arrangements that have or are reasonably likely to have a current or future
effect on its financial condition, changes in financial condition, and results of operations, liquidity or capital resources.
Critical
Accounting Policies
Refer
to Note 2 of our financial statements contained elsewhere in this Form 10-K for a summary of our critical accounting policies
and recently adopting and issued accounting standards.
Item
7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
We
are a smaller reporting company as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are not required to provide
the information under this item.
49
Item
8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
The
OLB Group, Inc.
December
31, 2020 and 2019 Consolidated Financial Statements
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
F-2
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
F-3
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2020 and 2019
F-4
Consolidated Statements of Operations for the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019
F-5
Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Deficit for the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019
F-6
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019
F-7
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
F-8
F- 1
Report
of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders
The OLB Group, Inc.
New York, New York
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance
sheet of The OLB Group, Inc. (the “Company”) at December 31, 2020, and the related consolidated statements operations, stockholders’
equity and cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2020, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the financial statements).
In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31,
2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2020, in conformity with accounting principles
generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for Opinion
These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility
of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our
audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are
required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and
regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards
of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated
financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we
engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits, we are required to obtain an understanding
of internal control over financial reporting, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s
internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material
misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those
risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial
statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as
evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for
our opinion.
Critical Audit Matter
The critical audit matter communicated below are matters
arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee
and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging,
subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements,
taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit
matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
Intangible Assets Impairment
Assessments
As described in Notes 2 and
4 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company has goodwill and intangible assets of $9.5 million at December 31, 2020. In most
cases, no directly observable market inputs are available to measure the fair value to determine if the asset is impaired. Therefore,
an estimate is derived indirectly and is based on net present value techniques utilizing post-tax cash flows and discount rates. The estimates
that management used in calculating the net present values depend on assumptions specific to the nature of the service activities with
regard to the amount and timing of projected future cash flows; long-term forecasts; actions of competitors (competing services), future
tax and discount rates.
The principal considerations
for our determination that performing procedures relating to the intangible assets impairment assessment is a critical audit matter are
the significant judgment by management when developing the net present value of the intangible assets. This in turn led to a high degree
of auditor judgment, subjectivity, and effort in performing procedures and evaluating management’s significant assumptions related
to the amount and timing of projected future cash flows and the discount rate.
Addressing the matter involved
performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence in connection with forming our overall opinion on the consolidated financial statements.
These procedures included testing management’s process for developing the fair value estimate; evaluating the appropriateness of
the net present value techniques; testing the completeness and accuracy of underlying data used in the model; and evaluating the significant
assumptions used by management, including the amount and timing of projected future cash flows and the discount rate. Evaluating management’s
assumptions related to the amount and timing of projected future cash flows and the discount rate involved evaluating whether the assumptions
used by management were reasonable considering the current and past performance of the intangible assets, the consistency with external
market and industry data, and whether these assumptions were consistent with evidence obtained in other areas of the audit.
/s/ Daszkal Bolton LLP
Daszkal Bolton LLP
We have served as the Company’s
auditor since 2020
Boca Raton, Florida
March 29, 2021
F- 2
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC
ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Shareholders and Board of Directors
of
The OLB Group, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated
balance sheet of The OLB Group, Inc. and Subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2019, and the related consolidated
statements of operations, changes in stockholders’ deficit and cash flows for the year then ended, and the related notes
(collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly,
in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2019, and the results of its operations and
its cash flows for the year then ended, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility
of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audit.
We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB")
and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable
rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit in accordance with
the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether
the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have,
nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audit we are required
to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the
effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.
Our audit included performing procedures
to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures
that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures
in the financial statements. Our audit also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by
management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable
basis for our opinion.
/s/ Marcum llp
Marcum
llp
We served as the Company’s auditor from 2019 to 2020.
New York, NY
April 29, 2020
F- 3
The
OLB Group, Inc. and Subsidiaries
Consolidated
Balance Sheets
December 31,
2020
December 31,
2019
ASSETS
Current Assets:
Cash
$ 3,824,491
$ 507,616
Accounts receivable, net
355,994
479,404
Prepaid expenses
15,754
16,706
Other current assets
8,768
108,278
Total Current Assets
4,205,007
1,112,004
Other Assets:
Property and equipment, net
19,807
36,653
Intangible assets, net
2,640,816
3,335,239
Deferred offering costs
-
210,305
Goodwill
6,858,216
6,858,216
Operating lease right-of-use asset
269,508
-
Other long-term assets
384,148
316,512
TOTAL ASSETS
$ 14,377,502
$ 11,868,929
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (DEFICIT)
Current Liabilities:
Accounts payable
$ 359,968
$ 592,853
Accrued expenses – related party
-
1,012,023
Accrued expenses
103,634
78,392
Operating lease liability – current portion
85,598
-
Deferred revenue
-
99,594
Note payable – current portion
450,000
325,000
Note payable – related parties – current portion
-
386,467
Total Current Liabilities
999,200
2,494,329
Long Term Liabilities:
Note payable – related party
-
3,000,000
Notes payable, net of current portion
7,441,076
9,175,000
Operating lease liability – net of current portion
185,045
-
Total Liabilities
8,625,321
14,669,329
Commitments and contingencies (Note 9)
Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit):
Preferred stock, $0.01 par value, 50,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding
-
-
Series A Preferred stock, $0.01 par value, 10,000 shares authorized, 4,633 and no shares issued and outstanding, respectively
46
-
Common stock, $0.0001 par value; 200,000,000 shares authorized, 6,170,054 and 5,411,905 shares issued and outstanding, respectively
617
541
Additional paid-in capital
26,380,124
16,050,938
Accumulated deficit
(20,628,606 )
(18,851,879 )
Total Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit)
5,752,181
(2,800,400 )
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY (DEFICIT)
$ 14,377,502
$ 11,868,929
The
accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F- 4
The
OLB Group, Inc. and Subsidiaries
Consolidated
Statements of Operations
For the Years Ended
December 31,
2020
2019
Revenue:
Transaction and processing fees
$ 8,358,459
$ 10,177,931
Merchant equipment rental and sales
88,538
88,797
Other revenue from monthly recurring subscriptions
1,319,624
24,796
Total revenue
9,766,621
10,291,524
Operating expenses:
Processing and servicing costs, excluding merchant portfolio amortization
6,003,931
6,723,666
Amortization expense
844,423
812,857
Salaries and wages
1,363,451
1,490,762
General and administrative expenses
2,289,521
1,533,102
Total operating expenses
10,501,326
10,560,387
Loss from operations
(734,705 )
(268,863 )
Other Income (Expense):
Interest expense
(807,982 )
(866,875 )
Interest expense, related party
(235,951 )
(382,279 )
Gain on settlement of payables
-
172,390
Other income
1,911
2,215
Total other expense
(1,042,022 )
(1,074,549 )
Net Loss
$ (1,776,727 )
$ (1,343,412 )
Net loss per share, basic and diluted
$ (0.31 )
$ (0.25 )
Weighted average shares outstanding, basic and diluted
5,711,266
5,452,626
The
accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F- 5
The
OLB Group, Inc. and Subsidiaries
Consolidated
Statements of Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit)
For
the Years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019
Preferred Stock
Common Stock
Additional
Paid
Accumulated
Shares
Amount
Shares
Amount
In Capital
Deficit
Total
Balance at December 31, 2018
-
$ -
5,411,905
$ 541
$ 15,785,888
$ (17,508,467 )
$ (1,722,038 )
Stock based compensation
-
-
-
-
265,050
-
265,050
Net loss
-
-
-
-
-
(1,343,412 )
(1,343,412 )
Balance at December 31, 2019
-
-
5,411,905
541
16,050,938
(18,851,879 )
(2,800,400 )
Stock based compensation
-
-
-
-
298,381
-
298,381
Conversion of debt – related party
4,633
46
-
-
4,634,396
-
4,634,442
Common stock units issued for cash
-
-
700,000
70
4,942,811
-
4,942,881
Warrants sold for cash
-
-
-
-
155,380
-
155,380
Common stock issued exercise of Warrants
-
-
21,150
2
94,498
-
94,500
Common stock issued for services – related party
-
-
36,999
4
203,720
-
203,724
Net loss
-
-
-
-
-
(1,776,727 )
(1,776,727 )
Balance at December 31, 2020
4,633
$ 46
6,170,054
$ 617
$ 26,380,124
$ (20,628,606 )
$ 5,752,181
The
accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F- 6
The
OLB Group, Inc. and Subsidiaries
Consolidated
Statements of Cash Flows
For the Years Ended
December 31,
2020
2019
CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES:
Net loss
$ (1,776,727 )
$ (1,343,412 )
Adjustments to Reconcile Net Loss to Net Cash Used in Operations:
Depreciation and amortization
861,269
842,149
Stock based compensation
298,381
265,050
Common stock issued for services – related party
203,724
-
Operating lease expense
1,134
-
Changes in assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable
123,410
(73,294 )
Prepaid expenses and other current assets
101,068
(95,571 )
Other long-term assets
(67,635 )
63,396
Accounts payable
(232,885 )
125,327
Accrued expenses – related party
235,952
372,014
Other accrued liabilities
25,242
(10,385 )
Deferred revenue
(99,594 )
99,594
Net Cash (used in) provided by Operating Activities
(326,661 )
244,868
CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
Acquisition of intangible assets
(150,000 )
-
Net Cash used in Investing Activities
(150,000 )
-
CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES:
Proceeds from notes payable – related party
361,467
Proceeds from note payable
236,231
-
Payments on note payable
(1,845,155 )
-
Proceeds from exercise of warrants
94,500
-
Proceeds from sale of common stock units
5,446,000
-
Proceeds from sale of warrants
154,775
-
Payment of deferred offering costs
(292,815 )
(210,305 )
Net Cash provided by Financing Activities
3,793,536
151,162
Net Change in Cash
3,316,875
396,030
Cash – Beginning of Year
507,616
111,586
Cash – End of Year
$ 3,824,491
$ 507,616
Cash Paid For:
Interest
$ 813,483
$ 876,875
Income taxes
$ -
$ -
Supplemental non-cash disclosure:
Establishment of ROU operating lease asset and related liability
$ 323,812
$ -
Conversion of debt – related party
$ 4,634,442
$ -
The
accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F- 7
The
OLB Group, Inc. and Subsidiaries
Notes
to the Consolidated Financial Statements
December
31, 2020
NOTE
1 – BACKGROUND
Background
The
OLB Group, Inc. (“OLB” the “Company”) was incorporated in the State of Delaware on November 18, 2004 and
provides services through its wholly-owned subsidiaries.
The
Company provides integrated financial and transaction processing services to businesses throughout the United States. Through
its eVance Capital, Inc. subsidiary (“eVance”), the Company provides an integrated suite of third-party merchant payment
processing services and related proprietary software enabling products that deliver credit and debit card-based internet payment
processing solutions primarily to small and mid-sized merchants operating in physical “brick and mortar” business
environments, on the internet and in retail settings requiring both wired and wireless mobile payment solutions. eVance operates
as an independent sales organization (“ISO”) generating individual merchant processing contracts in exchange for future
residual payments. As a wholesale ISO, eVance has a direct contractual relationship with the merchants and takes greater responsibility
in the approval and monitoring of merchants than do retail ISOs and as a result, receives additional consideration for this service
and risk. The Company’s Securus365, Inc. subsidiary operates as a retail ISO and receives residual income as commission
for merchants it places with third party processors.
CrowdPay.us,
Inc. (“CrowdPay”) is a Crowdfunding platform used to facilitate a capital raise anywhere from $1,000,0000 -$50,000,000
of various types of securities under Regulation D, Regulation Crowdfunding, Regulation A and the Securities Act of 1933. To date,
the activities of this subsidiary have been nominal.
OmniSoft.io,
Inc. (“OmniSoft”) operates a software platform for small merchants. The Omnicommerce applications work on an iPad,
mobile device and the web and allows you to sell a store’s products in a physical, retail setting. To date, the activities
of this subsidiary have been nominal when compared to the overall business.
The
Company also provides ecommerce development and consulting services on a project by project basis.
COVID-19
Impact
On
January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak a “Public Health Emergency
of International Concern” and on March 10, 2020, declared it to be a pandemic. The virus and actions taken to mitigate its
spread have had and are expected to continue to have a broad adverse impact on the economies and financial markets of many countries,
including the geographical areas in which the Company operates. In response to the pandemic, the Company is working with merchants
to address potential changes to the purchase patterns of consumers. In addition, it is focusing on servicing merchants that sell
products with an extended delivery time frame, that have products that are paid for in advance, and that work in the catering,
ticketing, limo and travel related businesses which have been directly impacted by the social distancing requirement of the pandemic.
Further, for those of the Company’s employees that are able to perform their job remotely, the Company has implemented a
“remote work” policy and provided employees with the technology necessary to continue to do their jobs from home and
for those employees that are unable to perform their job from a remote location, the Company has taken steps to ensure appropriate
distancing and added sanitizing stations along with requiring frequent hand washing and work station cleaning. At December 31,
2020, most employees were no longer working remotely. However, the Company continues to monitor and follow the advice of federal
and state authorities.
NOTE
2 – SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis
of Presentation
The
Company’s consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted
in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”).
F- 8
Use
of Estimates
The
preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect
the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial
statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from
those estimates. The Company’s accounting estimates include the collectability of receivables, useful lives of long lived
assets and recoverability of those assets, impairment in fair value of goodwill, valuation allowances for income taxes, stock
based compensation.
Principles
of Consolidation
The
accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, eVance,
Securus, CrowdPay, and OMNISOFT. All significant intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated.
Reclassifications
Certain
reclassifications have been made to the prior period financial information to conform to the presentation used in the financial
statements for the year ended December 31, 2020.
Segments
Operating
segments are defined as components of an enterprise about which separate financial information is available that is evaluated
regularly by the chief operating decision maker, or decision–making group in deciding how to allocate resources and in assessing
performance. Our chief operating decision–making group is composed of the chief executive officer. We currently operate
in one segment surrounding our ISO operations.
Cash
and Cash Equivalents
The
Company considers all cash accounts, which are not subject to withdrawal restrictions or penalties, and all highly liquid debt
instruments purchased with a maturity of three months or less as cash and cash equivalents. The carrying amount of financial instruments
included in cash and cash equivalents approximates fair value because of the short maturities for the instruments held. The Company
had no cash equivalents as of December 31, 2020 and 2019.
Concentration
of Credit Risk
Financial
instruments that potentially expose the Company to concentration of credit risk consist primarily of cash and accounts receivable.
The Company’s cash is deposited with major financial institutions. At times, such deposits may be in excess of the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation insurable amount (“FDIC”). As of December 31, 2020, the Company had $3,573,882 of cash
above the FDIC’s $250,000 coverage limit.
Net
Loss per Share
Basic
net loss per common share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding
during the period. Diluted net loss per common share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted average number of shares
of common stock and potentially outstanding shares of common stock during the period. The weighted average number of common shares
for the year ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 does not include warrants to acquire 3,353,698 and 40,000 shares of common stock,
respectively, because of their anti-dilutive effect. The weighted average number of common shares for the year ended December
31, 2019 and 2018 does not include 172,438 and 223,249 options, respectively, to purchase common stock because of their anti-dilutive
effect.
F- 9
Accounts
Receivable
Accounts
receivable represent contractual residual payments due from the Company’s processing partners or other customers. Residual
payments are determined based on transaction fees and revenues from the credit and debit card processing activity of merchants
for which the Company’s processing partners pay the Company. Based on collection experience and periodic reviews of outstanding
receivables, management considers all accounts receivable for our residual payments to be fully collectible and accordingly, no
allowance for doubtful accounts is required; however, CrowdPay has a recorded an allowance of approximately $38,000 as of both
December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Reserve
for Chargeback Losses
Disputes
between a cardholder and a merchant periodically arise as a result of, among other things, cardholder dissatisfaction with merchandise
quality or merchant services. Such disputes may not be resolved in the merchant’s favor. In these cases, the transaction
is “charged back” to the merchant, which means the purchase price is refunded to the customer through the merchant’s
bank and charged to the merchant. If the merchant has inadequate funds, the Company must bear the credit risk for the full amount
of the transaction. The Company evaluates the risk for such transactions and estimates the potential loss for chargebacks based
primarily on historical experience and records a loss reserve accordingly. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, we
had losses related to chargebacks of approximately $5,000 and $111,500, respectively.
Property
and Equipment
Property
and equipment is stated at cost less accumulated depreciation and amortization. Depreciation of property and equipment is calculated
using the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the assets, which range from three to seven years. Leasehold
improvements are amortized over the lesser of the remaining term of the lease or the estimated useful life of the asset. Expenditures
for repairs and maintenance are expensed as incurred.
Impairment
of Long-Lived Assets
The
Company periodically reviews the carrying value of its long-lived assets held and used at least annually or when events and circumstances
warrant such a review. If significant events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of an asset or asset
group may not be recoverable, the Company performs a test of recoverability by comparing the carrying value of the asset or asset
group to its undiscounted expected future cash flows. Cash flow projections are sometimes based on a group of assets, rather than
a single asset. If cash flows cannot be separately and independently identified for a single asset, the Company determines whether
impairment has occurred for the group of assets for which it can identify the projected cash flows. If the carrying values are
in excess of undiscounted expected future cash flows, it measures any impairment by comparing the fair value of the asset group
to its carrying value. If the fair value of an asset or asset group is determined to be less than the carrying amount of the asset
or asset group, impairment in the amount of the difference is recorded.
Merchant
Portfolios
Merchant
portfolios are valued at fair value of merchant customers on the date of acquisition and are amortized over their estimated useful
lives (7 years).
Goodwill
The
Company accounts for business combinations under the acquisition method of accounting in accordance with Accounting Standards
Codification (“ASC”) 805, “Business Combinations,” where the total purchase price is allocated to the
tangible and identified intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values. The purchase
price is allocated using the information currently available, and may be adjusted, up to one year from acquisition date, after
obtaining more information regarding, among other things, asset valuations, liabilities assumed and revisions to preliminary estimates.
The purchase price in excess of the fair value of the tangible and identified intangible assets acquired less liabilities assumed
is recognized as goodwill.
F- 10
The
Company tests for indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill impairment in the fourth quarter of each year and whenever events
or circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the asset exceeds its fair value and may not be recoverable. In accordance
with ASU 2017-04, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment ., the
Company performed a quantitative assessment of indefinite lived intangibles and goodwill and determined there was no impairment
as of at December 31, 2020 and 2019.
Business
Combinations
Acquisitions
are accounted for using the acquisition method of accounting. The purchase price of an acquisition is allocated to the assets
acquired and liabilities assumed using the estimated fair values at the acquisition date. Transaction costs are expensed as incurred.
The
Company allocates the fair value of purchase consideration to the tangible assets acquired, liabilities assumed and intangible
assets acquired and identified based on their estimated fair values. The excess of the fair value of purchase consideration over
the fair values of these identifiable assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. Such valuations require management to make
significant estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Significant estimates in valuing certain
intangible assets include, but are not limited to, future expected cash flows from acquired customer lists, acquired technology,
and trade names from a market participant perspective, useful lives and discount rates. Management’s estimates of fair value
are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable and, as a result, actual
results may differ from estimates. During the measurement period, which is one year from the acquisition date, we may record adjustments
to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill. Upon the conclusion of the measurement
period, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to earnings.
Stock-based
Compensation
We
account for equity-based transactions with nonemployees under the provisions of ASC Topic No. 505-50, Equity-Based Payments
to Non-Employees (“ASC 505-50”). ASC 505-50 establishes that equity-based payment transactions with nonemployees
shall be measured at the fair value of the consideration received or the fair value of the equity instruments issued, whichever
is more reliably measurable. The fair value of common stock issued for payments to nonemployees is measured at the market price
on the date of grant. The fair value of equity instruments, other than common stock, is estimated using the Black-Scholes option
valuation model. In general, we recognize the fair value of the equity instruments issued as deferred stock compensation and amortize
the cost over the term of the contract.
We
account for employee stock-based compensation in accordance with the guidance of Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”)
ASC Topic 718, Compensation — Stock Compensation, which requires all share-based payments to employees, including
grants of employee stock options, to be recognized in the financial statements based on their fair values. The fair value of the
equity instrument is charged directly to compensation expense and credited to additional paid-in capital over the period during
which services are rendered.
Revenue
Recognition and Cost of Revenues
The
Company receives a percentage of recurring monthly transaction related fees comprised of credit and debit card fees charged to
merchants, net of association fees, otherwise known as Interchange, as well as certain service charges and convenience fees, for
payment processing services, including authorization, capture, clearing, settlement and information reporting of electronic transactions.
Fees are calculated on either a percentage of the dollar volume of the transaction or a fixed fee or a hybrid of the two and are
recognized at the time of the transaction. In the case of “wholesale” residual revenue in which the Company has a
direct contractual relationship with the merchant, bears risk of chargebacks and performs underwriting on the merchants, the Company
records the full discount charged to the merchant as revenue and the related interchange and other processing fees as expenses.
In cases of residual revenue where the Company is not responsible for merchant underwriting and has no chargeback liability and
has no or limited contractual relationship with the merchant, the Company records the amount it receives from the processor net
of interchange and other processing fees as revenue.
F- 11
Disaggregation
of Revenue
The
following table presents the Company’s revenue disaggregated by revenue source:
For the Years Ended
December 31,
2020
2019
Revenue from contracts with customers:
Wholesale contracts
$ 5,106,588
$ 6,202,083
Retail contracts
$ 2,242,164
$ 2,689,506
Other transaction and processing fees
$ 2,417,869
$ 1,399,935
Total Revenue
$ 9,766,621
$ 10,291,524
The
Company recognizes revenue under ASC 606, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (“ASC 606”). The Company
determines revenue recognition through the following steps:
●
Identification of
a contract with a customer;
●
Identification of
the performance obligations in the contract;
●
Determination of
the transaction price;
●
Allocation of the
transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and
●
Recognition of revenue
when or as the performance obligations are satisfied.
Revenue
is recognized when control of the promised goods or services is transferred to customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration
the Company expects to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. Shipping and handling activities associated with
outbound freight after control over a product has transferred to a customer are accounted for as a fulfillment activity and recognized
as revenue at the point in time at which control of the goods transfers to the customer. As a practical expedient, the Company
does not adjust the transaction price for the effects of a significant financing component if, at contract inception, the period
between customer payment and the transfer of goods or services is expected to be one year or less.
Transaction
and processing fees
Fees
for the Company’s transaction and processing arrangements are typically billed and paid on a monthly basis. The Company
receives a percentage of recurring monthly transaction related fees comprised of credit and debit card fees charged to merchants,
net of association fees, otherwise known as Interchange, as well as certain service charges and convenience fees, for payment
processing services, including authorization, capture, clearing, settlement and information reporting of electronic transactions.
Fees are calculated on either a percentage of the dollar, volume of the transaction or a fixed fee or a hybrid of the two and
are recognized at the time of the transaction. These merchant services represent a single performance obligation satisfied over
time and that the same measure of progress should be used to measure the Company’s progress toward complete satisfaction
of the performance obligation. The Company will recognize revenue on a monthly basis as the services are transferred to the customer
in short daily increments that qualify for series guidance as the best measure of the transfer of control.
In
wholesale contracts, the Company recognizes transaction and processing fees on a gross basis as the Company is the principal in
the merchant services. The Company has concluded it is the principal because it has a direct contractual relationship with the
merchant, is primarily responsible for the delivery of services to the merchants, including performing underwriting, has discretion
in setting prices, and bears risk of chargebacks and other merchant losses. The Company also has the unilateral ability to accept
or reject a transaction based on criteria established by the Company. As the principal, the Company records the full discount
charged to the merchant as revenue and the related interchange and other processing fees within cost of revenues.
F- 12
In
retail contracts, the Company is not responsible for merchant underwriting, has no chargeback liability and has no or limited
contractual relationship with the merchant. As such, the Company records the net amount it receives from the processor, after
interchange and other interchange and other processing fees, as revenue.
Merchant
equipment sales and other
The
Company generates revenue through the sale and rental of merchant equipment. The Company satisfies its performance obligation
upon delivery of equipment to merchants and recognizes revenue at a point in time. The Company allows for customer returns which
are accounted for as variable consideration. The Company estimates these amounts based on historical experience and reduces revenue
recognized. The Company invoices customers upon delivery of the equipment to merchants, and payments from such customers are due
upon invoicing. The Company offers hardware installment sales to customers with terms ranging from three to forty-eight months. The
Company allocates a portion of the consideration received from these arrangements to a financing component when it determines
that a significant financing component exists. The financing component is subsequently recognized as financing revenue separate
from hardware revenue, within subscription and services-based revenue, over the terms of the arrangement with the customer. Pursuant
to practical expedients afforded under ASC 606, the Company does not recognize a financing component for hardware installment
sales that have a term of one year or less.
Deferred
Revenue
From time to time the Company may launch
new products or services to its merchants. In the event step 1 under ASC 606 is not met, the Company will record deferred revenue
upon receipt of the payment by the customer. In November 2019, the Company began billing existing merchants for its cloud-based
omni-channels software, ShopFast. Merchants are billed monthly with the ability to opt out and receive a refund for up to 30 days
after they are billed. Due to the lack of historical data related to these services, customer activity and the associated billings
and refunds, $99,594 was recorded as deferred revenue as of December 31, 2019. During the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company
determined it had sufficient information to determine Step 1 was achieved, and therefore recognized all revenue that was previously
deferred. As such, $99,594 of revenue recognized during the year ended December 31, 2020 pertained to services provided in the
prior period. As of December 31, 2020, there was no revenue that required deferment.
During the year ended December 31, 2019,
$223,670 of revenue was recognized from performance obligations satisfied (or partially satisfied) in previous periods in connection
with a legal settlement.
Recently
Adopted Accounting Standards
In
February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842) . The ASU requires that a lessee recognize the assets and
liabilities that arise from operating leases. A lessee should recognize in the statement of financial position a liability to
make lease payments (the lease liability) and a right-of-use asset representing its right to use the underlying asset for the
lease term. For leases with a term of 12 months or less, a lessee is permitted to make an accounting policy election by class
of underlying asset not to recognize lease assets and lease liabilities. The Company adopted the ASU effective January 1, 2020,
using the modified retrospective transition method. Under this method, there was no cumulative impact adjustment necessary with
the adoption to our accumulated deficit on January 1, 2020. Our consolidated financial statements for periods ending after January
1, 2020 are presented in accordance with the requirements of Topic 842, while comparative prior period amounts have not been adjusted
and continue to be reported in accordance with Topic 840.
In
November 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-10, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326), Derivative and Hedging (Topic
815), and Leases (Topic 842). This new guidance became effective for us on January 1, 2020. The adoption of this guidance
did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
On
January 1, 2020 the Company adopted ASU 2017-04, Intangibles - Goodwill and Other (Topic 350): Simplifying the Test for
Goodwill Impairment . The ASU eliminates Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test and the qualitative assessment for any reporting
unit with a zero or negative carrying amount. The ASU also requires an entity to disclose the amount of goodwill allocated to
each reporting unit with a zero or negative carrying amount. The adoption did not have an impact on the Company’s consolidated
financial statements.
F- 13
NOTE
3 – LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES
At
December 31, 2019, the Company had liabilities in excess of assets in the amount of approximately $2.8 million. During 2020, the
Company incurred a net loss of approximately $1.8 million and consumed cash in operating activities of approximately $0.3 million.
During 2020, the Company received proceeds of approximately $4.9 million from the sale of common stock units, and extinguished
approximately $4.6 million of indebtedness from the conversion of related party debt.
At
December 31, 2020, the Company had cash of approximately $3.8 million and working capital of approximately $3.2 million. As such,
the Company believes it has sufficient liquidity to fund its future operations and capital requirements for a period of at least
twelve months from the date its consolidated financial statements are issued.
NOTE
4 – INTANGIBLE ASSETS
Intangible
assets, net, consist of the following as of:
December 31,
2020
December 31,
2019
Merchant Portfolios
$ 2,340,000
$ 2,190,000
Less Accumulated Amortization
(1,199,184 )
(854,761 )
Net residual portfolios
$ 1,140,816
$ 1,335,239
December 31,
2020
December 31,
2019
Trade name
$ 2,500,000
$ 2,500,000
Less Accumulated Amortization
(1,000,000 )
(500,000 )
Net trade name
$ 1,500,000
$ 2,000,000
Amortization
expense for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 was $844,423 and $812,857, respectively.
The
Company’s merchant portfolios and tradename are being amortized over respective useful lives of 7 and 5 years.
The
following sets forth the estimated amortization expense related to amortizing intangible assets for the years ended December 31:
2021
$ 863,615
2022
863,615
2023
496,443
2024
312,857
2025
104,286
Total
$ 2,640,816
The
weighted average remaining useful life of amortizing intangible assets was 3.08 years at December 31, 2020.
F- 14
NOTE
5 – NOTE PAYABLE
On
April 8, 2018, eVance, Omnisoft, and CrowdPay, (collectively, the “Borrowers”), entered into a term loan of $12,500,000
with GACP (the “Term Loan”) to the which obligations are guaranteed by the Company (collectively with the Borrowers,
the “Loan Parties”), under the Loan and Security Agreement (the “Credit Agreement”).
On
April 24, 2020, the Company entered into Amendment No. 4 to Loan and Security Agreement amending the Credit Agreement. The purpose
of Amendment No. 4 was to extend the Maturity Date of the indebtedness and to waive certain outstanding events of default. Specifically,
the Maturity Date of the indebtedness was extended for one year to April 9, 2022. The lenders also waived the Company’s
existing default under the Credit Agreement from the date the default occurred until the date of Amendment No. 4. These defaults
were: (i) failure to notify the Agent that one or more of the Loan Parties received proceeds from litigation above $99,999.99
and use the proceeds to make a prepayment of the Loans, (ii) one or more of the Loan Parties incurred indebtedness in an aggregate
amount of $386,467 during fiscal year 2019 as a result of not reimbursing business expenses paid by Mr. Yakov in the ordinary
course, which indebtedness is not permitted under Section 5.23(f) of the Credit Agreement (“ Debt Default ”)
and (iii) Lender had not received financial statements and covenant compliance certificate of the Company as parent guarantor
and the Borrowers for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 within 90-days of such fiscal year end as required by Section 5.15(a)
of the Credit Agreement. In addition, Amendment No. 4 provides the Company with a limited waiver permitting the Company to incur
government funded indebtedness from the United States CARES Act loan programs. Further, the financial covenants were amended whereby
Consolidated Net Revenue for any rolling 12-month period shall not be less than $9,000,000 until June 30, 2021 and $10,000,000
from and after July 1, 2021. Further, Amendment No. 4 requires that the Company pay 100% of the proceeds from any favorable judgments
from ongoing litigation and 20% of the net proceeds from any future equity offering completed by the Company to reduce the principal
of the Term Loan and such payment was made following the closing of the Offering.
The
Term Loan matures in full on April 9, 2022, the third anniversary of the Closing. $1,000,000 of the principal amount under the
Term Loan was repaid on to July 31, 2018, and an additional $2,000,000 in principal was paid on November 14, 2018. Additionally,
the Company paid $125,000 of the Term Loan upon execution of Amendment No. 4 in April 2020 and the Company agreed to make a monthly
payment of $25,000 per month, commencing May 1, 2020 and on the first business day of each calendar month thereafter, with the
remaining principal due upon maturity. The Term Loan can be prepaid without penalty in part by the Loan Parties with ten
days’ prior written notice to the Agent, and in full within thirty days’ prior written notice. The Term Loan is subject
to an interest rate of 9.0% per annum, payable monthly in arrears.
The
obligations of the Loan Parties under the Credit Agreement are secured by all of their respective assets and the Loan Parties
pledged all of their assets as collateral for their obligations under the Credit Agreement. Additionally, the Company pledged
its ownership interests in the Purchasers and any of its other subsidiaries that it may form or acquire from time to time.
The
Credit Agreement includes customary representations, warranties and financial and other covenants of the Loan Parties for the
benefit of the Lenders and the Agent. The obligations of the Loan Parties under the Credit Agreement are subject to customary
events of default for a secured term loan. Each Loan Party is jointly and severally liable for the obligations under the Credit
Agreement.
Although,
following the execution of Amendment No. 4, we are in compliance, we have been out of compliance at certain times with these obligations
since the Credit Agreement was entered into, including at June 30, 2020, and were obligated to obtain certain waivers and modifications
of these provisions to avoid an acceleration event under the Credit Agreement. Total interest expense for the GACP loan incurred
during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 was $807,982 and $866,875, respectively. Accrued interest as of December 31,
2020 and 2019 was $59,325 and $73,625, respectively.
F- 15
Amendment
No. 5 to Loan and Security Agreement
On
October 23, 2020, the Company entered into Amendment No. 5 to Loan and Security Agreement (“Amendment No. 5”) amending
the Loan and Security Agreement (as amended by Amendment No. 1 to Loan and Security Agreement dated July 30, 2018, Amendment
No. 3 to Loan and Security Agreement dated February 5, 2019, Amendment No. 4 to Loan and Security Agreement dated April 24,
2020, the “Credit Agreement”), dated as of April 9, 2018, by and among the Company’s subsidiaries Securus365,
Inc., eVance Capital, Inc., and eVance Inc., (the “Purchasers”) and GACP Finance Co., LLC, a Delaware limited liability
company (“GACP”), as administrative agent and collateral agent (“Agent”), and as the initial sole lender
thereunder. The purpose of Amendment No. 5 was to remove the financial covenant whereby the Company’s was required to have
a Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio not be less than 1.20:1.00, measured in each case on a trailing twelve-month basis.
In
consideration for the removal of the financial covenant requirement, the Credit Agreement was amended to include a requirement
that the Company maintain a cash balance in its controlled operating bank account of not less than $1,000,000. Further, the repayment
schedule under the note was amended whereby the Company paid an amount equal to $450,000 upon execution of Amendment No. 5.
On
May 6, 2020, the Company received a Paycheck Protection Program loan under the CARES Act for $236,231 (the “PPP Loan”).
The PPP Loan matures on May 7, 2022 and bears interest at 1% per annum. Monthly amortized principal and interest
payments are deferred for 6 months after the date of the agreement. The Paycheck Protection Program provides that the use of PPP Loan proceeds
were limited to certain qualifying expenses and may be partially or wholly forgiven in accordance with the requirements set forth
in the CARES Act. The Company believes it has used the PPP Loan for permitted uses, although no assurance can be
given that the Company will obtain forgiveness of all or any portion of amounts due under the PPP Loan. The loan has
been accounted for as long-term debt, which, if forgiven will result in a gain on forgiveness of debt in the period forgiveness
is obtained.
NOTE
6 – STOCK OPTIONS
On January 1, 2019, pursuant to the terms
on the employment agreement with Mr. Yakov he was granted 6,667 common stock options. The grant shall vest at the rate of 1/3 beginning
on each anniversary of the effective date of grant. The options have an exercise price of $0.03 and expire in three years after
each vest date. The aggregate fair value of the options totaled $39,814 based on the Black Scholes Merton pricing model using the
following estimates: exercise price of $0.03, 2.47% risk free rate, 104.8% volatility and expected life of the options of 3 years.
The fair value is being amortized over the applicable vesting period and credited to additional paid in capital.
On November 13, 2019, the Company entered
into an agreement with the above holder of 265,172 common stock options and on November 25, 2019, the Company entered into an agreement
with the holder of 13,334 common stock options, whereby the Company and option holders each agreed that the exercise price pertaining
to those options would not be adjusted for the effects of the Reverse Stock Split. As are result, the exercise price of $0.03 associated
with the options granted to the VP of Finance was modified to be $0.0001, and the exercise price of $0.03 associated with the options
granted to Mr. Yakov was modified to be $0.001. The Company evaluated the impact of the option modification and concluded that
there was no material impact to the consolidated financial statements.
On
January 1, 2020, the Company granted stock options to purchase 6,667 shares of common stock pursuant to the terms on the Company’s
employment agreement with Mr. Yakov. The grant shall vest at the rate of 1/3 beginning on each anniversary of the effective date
of grant. The options have an exercise price of $0.001 and expire in three years after each vest date. The aggregate fair value
of the options totaled $99,994 based on the Black Scholes Merton pricing model using the following estimates: exercise price of
$0.001, 1.63% risk free rate, 95.3% volatility and expected life of the options of 3 years. The fair value is being amortized
over the applicable vesting period and credited to additional paid in capital.
A
summary of the status of the Company’s outstanding stock options and changes during the year ended December 31, 2020 is
presented below:
Stock Options
Options
Weighted
Average
Exercise Price
Aggregate Intrinsic
Value
Options outstanding at January 1, 2019
271,839
$ 0.0001
-
Granted
6,667
$ 0.001
-
Exercised
-
$ -
Forfeited
-
$ -
-
Options outstanding at January 1, 2020
278,506
$ 0.0001
-
Granted
6,667
$ 0.001
-
Exercised
-
$ -
-
Forfeited
-
$ -
-
Options outstanding December 31, 2020
285,173
$ 0.0001
$ 1,408,755
Shares exercisable at December 31, 2020
112,735
$ 0.0001
$ 556,866
F- 16
NOTE
7 – WARRANTS
On
August 6, 2020, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement (the “Underwriting Agreement”) with Aegis Capital
Corp., acting as representative of the underwriters (“Aegis”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to sell to the
underwriters in a firm commitment underwritten public offering (the “Offering”) an aggregate of 700,000 units (the
“Units”), with each Unit consisting of: (a) one share of our common stock; (b) two Series A warrants (the “Series
A Warrants”), with each Series A Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one share of our common stock at an exercise
price equal to $9.00 per share, exercisable until the fifth anniversary of the issuance date, subject to their earlier redemption
as described therein; and (c) one-half of one Series B warrant (the “Series B Warrants,” and together with the Series
A Warrants, the “Warrants”), with each whole Series B Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one share of
common stock at an exercise price equal to $4.50 per share, exercisable until the fifth anniversary of the issuance date and subject
to their earlier redemption as described therein. The Company also granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to
an additional 105,000 shares of common stock, and/or an additional 210,000 Class A Warrants to purchase shares of common stock
and/or an additional 52,500 Class B Warrants to purchase shares of common stock as may be necessary to cover over-allotments in
connection with the Offering. The Offering, including the exercise in full of the over-allotment option for the Warrants, closed
on August 11, 2020.
The
Units and the securities underlying the Units were offered by the Company pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1, as
amended (File No. 333-232368), filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”), which was declared
effective by the Commission on August 6, 2020 (the “Registration Statement”).
The
net proceeds to the Company from the Offering, after deducting the underwriting discount, the underwriters’ fees and expenses
and the Company’s Offering expenses, was approximately $4.9 million. The Company utilized $1,120,155 of the net proceeds
to repay a portion of the Company’s long-term indebtedness (the “Term Loan”) and anticipates using the remainder
of the net proceeds from the Offering to invest in or acquire companies or technologies that are synergistic with or complimentary
to our business, expand and market our current products and for working capital and other general corporate purposes (including
payment of outstanding accounts payable).
Warrants
The
Warrants were issued in registered form under separate warrant agent agreements (each a “Warrant Agent Agreement”)
between us and our warrant agent, Transfer Online, Inc. (the “Warrant Agent”).
Each
Series A Warrant entitles the registered holder to purchase one share of our common stock at a price equal to $9.00 per share,
subject to adjustment as discussed below, terminating at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on the fifth (5th) anniversary of the
date of issuance. No fractional warrants will be issued and only whole warrants are exercisable. The exercise price and number
of shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the Series A Warrants may be adjusted in certain circumstances, including
in the event of a stock dividend, extraordinary dividend on or recapitalization, reorganization, merger or consolidation. If we
fail to maintain a current prospectus or prospectus relating to the common stock issuable upon the exercise of the Series A Warrants,
such holders may exercise their Series A warrants on a “cashless” basis pursuant to a formula set forth in the terms
of the Series A Warrants.
Each
whole Series B Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one share of our common stock at an exercise price of $4.50 per
share, subject to adjustment as discussed below, terminating at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on the fifth (5th) anniversary
of the date of issuance. No fractional warrants will be issued and only whole warrants are exercisable. The exercise price and
number of shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of a whole Series B Warrant may be adjusted in certain circumstances,
including in the event of a stock dividend, extraordinary dividend on or recapitalization, reorganization, merger or consolidation.
If we fail to maintain a current prospectus or prospectus relating to the common stock issuable upon the exercise of the Series
B Warrants, such holders may exercise their Series B warrants on a “cashless” basis pursuant to a formula set forth
in the terms of the Series B Warrants.
Each
holder of the Warrants will be subject to a requirement that they will not have the right to exercise the Warrants to the extent
that, after giving effect to such exercise, such holder (together with its affiliates) would beneficially own in excess of 4.99%
(subject to increase to 9.99%) of the shares of our common stock outstanding immediately after giving effect to such exercise.
F- 17
The
Warrants are callable in the event that the last sales price of our common stock for any twenty (20) consecutive trading day period
on or after the date of issuance (the “Measurement Period”) exceeds $9.00. The Company may, within ten (10) trading
days of the end of such Measurement Period, call for the redemption of all or any portion of the outstanding and unexercised Warrants
for consideration equal to the Black Scholes Value (as defined therein) of the remaining unexercised portion of the Warrants called
for redemption on such date.
Pursuant
to the Underwriting Agreement, the Company issued to Aegis a warrant (the “Representative’s Warrants”) to purchase
35,000 shares of common stock. The Representative’s Warrants will be exercisable at a per share exercise price equal to
$11.25 and is exercisable at any time and from time to time, in whole or in part, during the four-year period commencing twelve
months from the effective date of the Registration Statement. The Representative’s Warrants also provide for one demand
registration right of the shares underlying the Representative’s Warrants, and unlimited “piggyback” registration
rights with respect to the registration of the shares of common stock underlying the Representative’s Warrants and customary
anti-dilution provisions.
The
aggregate fair value of the 35,000 warrants, totaled $363,958 based on the Black Scholes Merton pricing model using the following
estimates: exercise price of $11.25, 0.21% risk free rate, 315.6% volatility and expected life of the warrants of 6 years. The
value of the warrants has been netted against the proceeds of the offering proceeds and accounted for in additional paid in capital.
Pursuant to and as additional consideration
for the Term Loan under the Credit Agreement, on April 9, 2018 the Company issued to GACP a Warrant to purchase 40,000 shares of
common stock of the Company The warrants have an exercise price of $7.50 and expire in three years. The aggregate fair value of
the warrants, which was charged to interest expense, totaled $7,660 based on the Black Scholes Merton pricing model using the following
estimates: exercise price of $7.50, 2.28% risk free rate, 114.11% volatility and expected life of the warrants of 3 years.
Number of Warrants
Weighted Average
Exercise Price
Weighted Average Remaining Contract Term
Outstanding, December 31, 2018
40,000
$ 7.50
2.27
Granted
-
$ -
-
Outstanding, December 31, 2019
40,000
$ 7.50
1.27
Warrant A Granted (1)
2,639,848
$ 9.00
9.00
Expired
-
$ -
-
Warrant B Granted (2)
659,970
$ 4.50
4.50
Warrant B Exercised
(21,150 )
$ 4.50
-
Underwriter Warrant
35,000
$ 11.25
11.25
Underwriter Warrant Exercised
-
-
-
Outstanding, December 31, 2020
3,353,698
4.61
4.81
(1)
Includes 210,000
Warrant A granted to Underwriters upon exercise of overallotment in connection with the Offering
(2)
Includes 52,5000
Warrant B granted to Underwriters upon exercise of overallotment in connection with the Offering
NOTE
8 – RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS
On
July 30, 2018, pursuant to the terms of the Amendment, the Company issued to Mr. John Herzog, a significant stockholder of the
Company a subordinated promissory note in the principal amount of $1,000,000 (the “Note”) for cash proceeds of $1,000,000.
The Note initially matured on March 31, 2019 (though the Company had the right to prepay the Note, in whole or in part, at any
time prior to maturity) and bears interest at a rate of 12% per annum, compounding annually. The Note is subordinated to the Credit
Agreement. The Company used the proceeds received to make the initial payment under the Credit Agreement.
On
November 14, 2018, the Company issued to John Herzog, a subordinated promissory note in the principal amount of $2,000,000 for
cash proceeds of $2,000,000.
F- 18
On
March 1, 2019, the Company entered into Amendment No. 1 to Subordinated Promissory Note (the “Subordinated Note Amendment”)
with Mr. Herzog. The purpose of the Subordinated Note Amendment was to amend that certain subordinated promissory note issued
on July 26, 2018 in the principal amount of $1,000,000 to reflect an increase in the amount of principal due under the note from
$1,000,000 to $3,000,000 reflecting a payment made by the payee to the Company of $2,000,000 on November 14, 2018 (the proceeds
of which were used by the Company to make a second required payment under the Credit Agreement) and to extend the maturity date
of the Note from March 31, 2019 to September 30, 2020. On June 25, 2019, the Company entered into Amendment No. 2 to the subordinated
promissory note with Mr. Herzog. The purpose of the amendment was to amend the maturity date of such subordinated promissory note
such that it will be extended until September 30, 2022.
Total
interest expense on the loans from Mr. Herzog for the years ended December 31, 2020 was $33,321 and $360,000, respectively. Total
accrued interest as of December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019 was $0 and $402,849, respectively.
On
May 13, 2020, Mr. Herzog agreed to convert, concurrently with the public offering of the Company’s securities,
$3,522,191 in principal amount of indebtedness (plus any additional accrued interest and other fees thereon that accrues prior
to the offering) into shares of convertible Series A Preferred Stock to be designated concurrently with the offering. On July 24,
2020, the terms of such conversion were amended such that Mr. Herzog agreed to convert such an aggregate of $3,582,355 of
indebtedness and accrued interest into Series A Preferred Stock and warrants to purchase common stock at an exercise price determined
by the public offering (“Conversion Warrants”), which Series A Preferred Stock and conversion warrants would
be issued concurrently with the closing of the public offering. The Company has determined Mr. Herzog’s debt is being extinguished
in order to protect his equity investment in the Company. Mr. Herzog is considered a principal owner with 10.3% of voting interests
of the Company prior a conversion. The Company believes the equity investment in the Company is significant and indicates that
Mr. Herzog entered into the exchange to protect his equity investment. In accordance with ASC 470-50-40-2, an extinguishment transaction
between related entities may be capital transactions. If the extinguishment accounting is applied, any gain or loss that results
should be reflected in equity. As a result, we believe the extinguishment did not and will not have any impact to the Company’s
future financial statements.
As
of December 31, 2019, the Company had total accrued compensation due, and advances to be repaid, to Mr. Yakov in the amounts of
$568,027 and $17,684, respectively. No similar amounts were owed to Mr. Yakov at December 31, 2020.
Mr. Yakov, CEO has loaned funds to the
Company for working capital purposes. As of December 31, 2019 the balance on these loans was $386,467. The loans were unsecured,
bear interest at 12% and were due on demand. As of December 31, 2019 there was $22,279 of interest accrued on these loans. No similar
loan amounts were owed to Mr. Yakov at or during the year ended December 31, 2020.
Interest
expense for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 was $23,125 and $21,096, respectively.
On
May 13, 2020, Mr. Yakov agreed to convert, concurrently with the public offering of the Company’s securities,
$1,011,016 in principal amount of indebtedness and accrued interest, which includes deferred salary and unreimbursed expenses,
most of which was outstanding for more than one year, (plus any additional accrued interest and other fees thereon that accrues
prior to the offering), into shares of convertible Series A Preferred Stock to be designated concurrently with the offering. On
July 24, 2020, the terms of such conversion were amended such that Mr. Yakov agreed to convert an aggregate of $1,017,573
of accrued salary, indebtedness and accrued interest into Series A Preferred Stock and Conversion Warrants, which Series A Preferred
Stock and conversion warrants were issued concurrently with the closing of the offering. In accordance with ASC 470-50-40-2,
an extinguishment transaction between related entities may be a capital transaction. As the extinguishment accounting is applied,
any gain or loss that results will be reflected in equity.
On
July 24, 2020, the terms of the agreement whereby Mr. Herzog agreed to convert, concurrently with the public offering of
the Company’s securities, $3,522,191 in principal amount of indebtedness (plus any additional accrued interest and other
fees thereon that accrues prior to the offering) into shares of convertible Series A Preferred were amended such that Mr. Herzog
agreed to convert such an aggregate of $3,582,355 of indebtedness and accrued interest into Series A Preferred Stock and Conversion
Warrants, which Series A Preferred Stock and Conversion Warrants would be issued concurrently with the closing of the public
offering. On August 11, 2020, Mr. Herzog converted $3,612,940 of indebtedness into 3,612 shares of Series A Preferred Stock (the
terms of which are described below) and 802,875 Series A Conversion Warrants with an exercise price of $9.00 and 200,719 Series
B Conversion Warrants with an exercise price of $4.50.
F- 19
On
July 24, 2020, the terms of the agreement whereby Mr. Yakov agreed to convert, concurrently with the public offering of the
Company’s securities, $1,017,753 in principal amount of indebtedness and accrued interest, which includes deferred salary
and unreimbursed expenses (plus any additional accrued interest and other fees thereon that accrues prior to the offering), into
shares of convertible Series A Preferred Stock to be designated concurrently with the offering such conversion were amended such
that Mr. Yakov agreed to convert an aggregate of $1,017,573 of accrued salary, indebtedness and accrued interest into Series
A Preferred Stock and conversion warrants, which Series A Preferred Stock and conversion warrants would be issued concurrently
with the closing of the offering. On August 11, 2020, Mr. Yakov converted $1,021,512 of indebtedness into 1,021 shares of
Series A Preferred Stock (the terms of which are described in Note 10 below) and 227,003 Series A Conversion Warrants with an
exercise price of $9.00 and 56,751 Series B Conversion Warrants with an exercise price of $4.50.
NOTE
9 – OPERATING LEASE
On
June 24, 2020, eVance, Inc. (“eVance”), a Delaware corporation and an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of The
OLB Group, Inc. (the “Company”), entered into a Lease Agreement dated June 24, 2020 (the “Lease”)
with Pergament Lodi, LLC (the “Lessor”) relating to approximately 4,277 square feet of property located at 960 Northpoint
Parkway, Alpharetta, Georgia, Suite 400. The term of the Lease is for thirty-nine (39) months commencing September 1, 2020.
The monthly base rent is $8,019 for the first twelve (12) months increasing thereafter to $8,768. The total rent for the entire
lease term is $315,044 and $8,768 is payable as a security deposit. The first three months of rent will be abated so long
as eVance is not in default of any portion of the Lease.
Balance Sheet Classification
December 31,
2020
Asset
Operating lease asset
Right of use asset
$ 269,508
Total lease asset
$ 269,508
Liability
Operating lease liability – current portion
Current operating lease liability
$ 85,598
Operating lease liability – noncurrent portion
Long-term operating lease liability
185,045
Total lease liability
$ 270,643
Lease
obligations at December 31, 2020 consisted of the following:
For the year ended December 31 :
2021
$ 97,202
2022
100,139
2023
94,393
Total payments
$ 291,734
Amount representing interest
$ (21,091 )
Lease obligation, net
270,643
Less current portion
(85,598 )
Lease obligation – long term
$ 185,045
Rent
expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $91,052 and $97,488, respectively.
At
December 31, 2020, the weighted average remaining lease term is 2.92 years and the weighted average discount rate is 5%.
F- 20
NOTE
10 – PREFERRED STOCK
Our
certificate of incorporation authorizes the issuance of 50,000,000 shares of blank check preferred stock with such designation,
rights and preferences as may be determined from time to time by our board of directors. No shares of preferred stock are currently
issued or outstanding.
Series
A Preferred Stock
On
August 7, 2020, we filed a Certificate of Designations, Preferences and Rights of Series A Preferred Stock (the “Certificate
of Designations”) with the Secretary of State of Delaware. The Certificate of Designations will provide that the Company
may issue up to 10,000 shares of Series A Preferred Stock at a stated value (the “Stated Value”) of $1,000.00 per
share. Holders of Series A Preferred Stock are entitled to the following rights and preferences:
Dividends
The
Series A Preferred Stockholders are entitled to receive cash dividends at a rate per share (as a percentage of the Stated Value
per share) of 12% per annum. Dividends accrue quarterly. Dividends are to be paid to the holders from funds legally available
for payment and as approved for payment by the Board of Directors of the Company.
Conversion
The
Series A Preferred Stock holders may convert, at their option, on or after the date on which the Term Loan is repaid in full,
each share of Series A Preferred Stock (along with accrued but unpaid dividends thereon) into such number of shares of common
stock as determined by dividing the Stated Value by the conversion price. The conversion price for the Series A Preferred Stock
will be equal to the offering price per Unit in this offering and will be subject to adjustment for splits and the like. The holders
of Series A Preferred Stock will only be permitted to convert their shares of Series A Preferred Stock into shares of common stock
at such time as the Term Loan has been repaid in full and there is no further outstanding obligations regarding such indebtedness.
Voting
Each
holder of a share of Series A Preferred Stock will have the right to vote its shares of Series A Preferred Stock with the common
stock on an as-converted basis, and with respect to such votes, such holder shall have full voting rights and powers equal to
the voting rights and powers of the holders of common stock, and shall be entitled, to notice of any stockholders’ meeting
in accordance with the Company’s bylaws, and shall be entitled to vote, together with holders of common stock, with respect
to any question upon which holders of common stock have the right to vote. Fractional votes shall not be permitted, and such shares
shall be rounded up.
Liquidation
Preference
Each
share of Series A Preferred Stock will have a liquidation preference equal to the Stated Value plus any accrued but unpaid dividends
thereon. In the event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of the Company (which includes any merger, reorganization, sale
of assets in which control of the Company is transferred or event which results in all or substantially all of the Company’s
assets being transferred), the holders of Series A Preferred Stock shall be entitled to receive out of the assets of the Company,
before any payment is made to the holders of the Company’s common stock and either in preference to or pari pasu
with the holders of any other series of preferred stock that may be issued in the future, a per share amount equal to the liquidation
preference.
F- 21
NOTE
11 – COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
In
the normal course of business, the Company may be involved in legal proceedings, claims and assessments arising in the ordinary
course of business. The Company records legal costs associated with loss contingencies as incurred and accrues for all probable
and estimable settlements.
On
October 20, 2017, the Company entered into a 7-year term employment agreement with its founder and president, effective January
1, 2018 through December 31, 2024. The agreement provides for an annual salary of $375,000, fringe benefits ($2,500 monthly automobile
allowance, any benefit plans of the Company and 4 weeks paid vacation), an incentive bonus of $200,000 based on the achievement
of certain performance criteria and an acquisition bonus equal to two (2%) percent of the gross purchase price paid in connection
therewith upon the closing of any acquisition directly or indirectly by the Company or its subsidiaries during the Employment
Period of any company or business (including purchases of all or substantially all of the assets of any such entity) having then
existing sales of not less than three million five hundred thousand dollars ($3,500,000). During the year ended December 31, 2020,
Mr. Yakov was paid a $400,000 bonus ($200,000 per year for 2019 and 2020).
On December 11, 2019, the Company
entered into a settlement agreement to resolve disputes in ongoing litigation it initiated, relating to a portfolio of merchants
acquired by the Company when it acquired Payprotec Oregon, LLC (the “Portfolio”), whereby it received the sum of $734,250.
The Company recorded $172,390 of the settlement to a gain in other income. This was the portion of the settlement allocated to
the period prior to April 9, 2018. The remaining $561,860 has been recognized in revenue for the year ended December 31, 2019,
out of which $223,670 are performance obligations relating to the prior year.
NOTE
12 — INCOME TAX
Deferred
taxes are provided on a liability method whereby deferred tax assets are recognized for deductible temporary differences and operating
loss and tax credit carry forwards and deferred tax liabilities are recognized for taxable temporary differences. Temporary differences
are the differences between the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and their tax bases. Deferred tax assets are reduced
by a valuation allowance when, in the opinion of management, it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred
tax assets will not be realized.
Net
deferred tax assets consist of the following components as of December 31:
2020
2019
Deferred Tax Assets:
NOL Carryover
$ 1,790,700
$ 1,195,800
Payroll accrual
-
7,500
Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
10,300
10,300
Related party accrual
-
145,900
Depreciation and amortization
467,658
253,327
Less valuation allowance
(2,268,658 )
(1,612,827 )
Net deferred tax assets
$ —
$ —
The
income tax provision differs from the amount of income tax determined by applying the U.S. federal income tax rate to pre-tax
income from continuing operations for the period ended December 31, due to the following:
2020
2019
Book loss
$ (373,000 )
$ (282,000 )
State taxes
(107,000 )
(81,000 )
Meals and entertainment
800
1,200
Stock based compensation
135,600
71,600
Other adjustments
(368,891 )
53,481
Adjustment to deferred tax asset
(198,108 )
Valuation allowance
712,491
434,827
$ —
$ —
F- 22
At
December 31, 2020, the Company had operating loss carry forwards of approximately $6,630,000, $3,415,000 of which expire from
2021 – 2040, and no expiration on the remaining amount. In accordance with Section 382 of the Internal Revenue code, the
usage of the Company’s net operating loss carryforwards may be limited in the event of a change in ownership. A full Section
382 analysis has not been prepared and NOLs could be subject to limitation under Section 382.
The
Company’s policy is to record interest and penalties on uncertain tax positions as a component of income tax expense. No
interest or penalties were recorded during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019. The Company is currently not aware of any
issues under review that could result in significant payments, accruals or material deviation from its position in the next twelve
months.
The
Company files income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction, New York and Georgia which remain subject to examination by
the various taxing authorities beginning with the tax year ended December 31, 2017 (or the tax year ended December 31, 2001 if
the Company were to utilize its NOLs). No tax audits were commenced or were in process during the years ended December 31, 2020
and 2019.
NOTE
13 – SUBSEQUENT EVENTS
On
March 2, 2021, the Company transferred cash in the amount of $7,712,256.28 to the Agent under the Credit Agreement (the “Prepayment”).
The Prepayment facilitated the discharge in full of all of the obligations under the Credit Agreement.
F- 23
Item
9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
None.
Item
9A. Controls and Procedures.
Management’s
Report Disclosure Controls and Procedures
During
the fourth quarter of the year ended December 31, 2020, we carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation
of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, of the effectiveness of our disclosure
controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)). Based upon that evaluation, our
principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that, as of the end of the period covered in this report,
our disclosure controls and procedures were ineffective to ensure that information required to be disclosed in reports filed under
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the required time periods
specified in the Commission’s rules and forms and is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal
executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Our
principal executive officer and principal financial officer, do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our
internal controls will prevent all error or fraud. 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. Due to the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide
absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected.
To
address the material weaknesses, we performed additional analysis and other post-closing procedures in an effort to ensure our
financial statements included in this annual report have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. In
addition, we engaged accounting consultants to assist in the preparation of our financial statements. Accordingly, management
believes that the financial statements included in this report fairly present in all material respects our financial condition,
results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented.
Management’s
Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
Internal
control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) is a process designed by,
or under the supervision of, our principal executive and principal financial officers, and effected by our board of directors,
management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation
of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The management is responsible
for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over our financial reporting. Under the supervision and with the participation
of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, we conducted an evaluation of the
effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting using the Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013)
developed by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive
Officer and Interim Financial Officer have concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of
December 31, 2020.
We
are aware of the following material weaknesses in internal control that could adversely affect the Company’s ability to
record, process, summarize and report financial data:
●
Due to our size
and limited resources, we currently do not employ the appropriate accounting personnel to ensure (a) we maintain proper segregation
of duties, (b) that all transactions are entered timely and accurately, and (c) we properly account for complex or unusual
transactions
●
Due to our size
and scope of operations, we currently do not have an independent audit committee in place
●
Due to our size
and limited resources, we have not properly documented a complete assessment of the effectiveness of the design and operation
of our internal control over financial reporting.
50
Inherent
limitations on effectiveness of controls
Internal
control over financial reporting has inherent limitations, which include but is not limited to the use of independent professionals
for advice and guidance, interpretation of existing and/or changing rules and principles, segregation of management duties, scale
of organization, and personnel factors. Internal control over financial reporting is a process, which involves human diligence
and compliance and is subject to lapses in judgment and breakdowns resulting from human failures. Internal control over financial
reporting also can be circumvented by collusion or improper management override. Because of its inherent limitations, internal
control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements on a timely basis, however these inherent limitations
are known features of the financial reporting process and it is possible to design into the process safeguards to reduce, though
not eliminate, this risk. Therefore, even those systems determined to be effective can provide only reasonable assurance with
respect to financial statement preparation and presentation. Projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods
are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance
with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Changes
in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There
have been no changes in our internal controls over financial reporting that occurred during the fourth quarter of the year ended
December 31, 2020, that have materially or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal controls over financial reporting.
Item
9B. Other Information
None .
51
Part
III
Item
10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
The
following table sets forth the names, ages, and titles of our executive officers and directors.
Name
Age
Position(s)
Ronny Yakov
61
Chief Executive
Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors
Rachel Boulds
51
Chief Financial
Officer
Patrick Smith
48
Vice President
George Katsiaunis
60
Director and Chairman
of the Audit Committee
Ehud Ernst
61
Director Nominee
Amir Sternhell
59
Director Nominee
Ronny
Yakov is Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board of Directors, founder and majority shareholder of the Company. Mr.
Yakov has over 25 years of experience of concept-to-print, software and e-commerce marketing experience with Fortune 500 and 1,000
companies and a proven track record of helping clients adapt their businesses to technological developments. In 1996, Mr. Yakov
entered into the electronic mail-order catalog business with Playboy Enterprises, creating and hosting two e-commerce sites: Critics’
Choice Video and Collectors’ Choice Music. As founder of the Company, Mr. Yakov has since developed a number of other branded
e-commerce sites for clients, selling a variety of products including sporting goods, chocolates and cosmetics, with which the
company now partners to provide ongoing hosting and maintenance. Other significant accomplishments of Mr. Yakov have included
establishing an AT&T wholesale e-commerce platform for 180,000 employees and working with high-profile clients such as Disney,
Cisco Systems, Pfizer, Motorola, and Microsoft, among many others. Mr. Yakov also developed and maintains a complex extranet/intranet
infrastructure that allows Doremus, an Omnicom Communication subsidiary, to provide its advertising services to 50 of the top
financial institutions on a real-time basis.
Rachel
Boulds is Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Ms. Boulds currently works for the Company on a part-time basis (spending
approximately 80% of her time working for the Company) while also operating her sole accounting practice which she has led since
2009 and which provides all aspects of consulting and accounting services to clients, including the preparation of full disclosure
financial statements for public companies to comply with GAAP and SEC requirements. Ms. Boulds also currently provides outsourced
chief financial officer services for two other companies. From August 2004 through July 2009, she was employed as a Senior Auditor
for HJ & Associates, LLC, where she performed audits and reviews of public and private companies, including the preparation
of financial statements to comply with GAAP and SEC requirements. From 2003 through 2004, Ms. Boulds was employed as a Senior
Auditor at Mohler, Nixon and Williams. From September 2001 through July 2003, Ms. Boulds worked as an ABAS Associate for PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
From April 2000 through February 2001, Ms. Boulds was employed as an e-commerce Accountant for the Walt Disney Group’s GO.com.
Ms. Boulds earned a B.S. in Accounting from San Jose University in 2001 and is licensed as a CPA in the state of Utah.
Patrick
Smith is Vice President of the Company. Mr. Smith has over 20 years of finance, accounting and operational experience
in the merchant services industry. Mr. Smith joined eVance (Formerly Calpian Commerce) in 2014 as Director of Finance.
Prior to eVance, Mr. Smith spent 2 years as Director of Financial Planning and Analysis at Cynergy Data, an ISO with over
75,000 merchants. He worked with Pay by Touch, a biometric payments start-up company based in San Francisco, and was part of
the financial team that raised over $300M in its capital funding. From 1996 to 2004, Mr. Smith worked for Concord EFS, a
large merchant acquirer. His titles at Concord included Internal Audit, Financial Analyst and Vice President/Controller.
While at Concord EFS, he was part of the diligence team that worked on several large acquisitions, including those of
Star and EPS Debit networks.
52
George
Kastisiaunis is one of our independent directors. Mr. Kastisiaunis currently serves as a self-employed consultant. Mr. Kastisiaunis
has over 25 years of experience in the banking industry. From 2017 to 2018, Mr. Kastisiaunis served as a director of Mariner Bank
where he served on the Audit, Governance and Nominating Committees. Previously, Mr. Kastisiaunis was president and chief executive
officer of Alma Bank where he served from 2011 to 2017. From 2004 to 2011, Mr. Kastisiaunis served in several roles at Marathon
National Bank, including executive vice president and chief banking officer. Mr. Kastisiaunis earned a BA in Computer Science
and MA in Management from City University of New York. Mr. Kastisiaunis is also a member of the New York Bankers Association,
Hellenic Bankers Association and The 200 CLUB of Bergen County.
Ehud
Ernst is one of our independent directors. Since 2015, Mr. Ernst has been the chief executive officer of HyperTail.es. From
2007 to 2017, Mr. Ernst founded and was the chief executive officer of Feelternet, a creative digital agency, which served some
of the largest brands in the Israeli market. From 2004 to 2007, Mr. Ernst served as division manager at Data-Pro Proximity/BBDO,
a large direct marketing and analytics agency in Israel. From 1985 to 1999, Mr. Ernst founded and was the chief executive officer
of Ernst Meron studios, one of the largest commercial photography production studio in Israel. Mr. Ernst also co-founded Impressia.com,
a marketing technology start-up venture enabling product displays at e-commerce stores. Mr. Ernst graduated from ICP New York
with a degree in Photography and Art.
Amir
Sternhell is one of our independent directors. Since 2016, Mr. Sternhell has served as chief strategy officer of Sertainty,
a data optimization company. Mr. Sternhell has 24 years of experience in the IT and Corporate Learning industries, including two-decades
at .2013, where he was head of a business intelligence unit representing Microstrategy, and, chief learning officer, representing
Harvard Business Publishing. Mr. Sternhell was the founder of the first Non-Profit Organization that assisted Israel’s
Incubator System, in which he hand-held over 100 high-tech companies. Mr. Sternhell was the vice chairman of the American-Israel
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, overseeing its initiatives, and a recipient of its Business Leadership Award. Mr. Sternhell
served in the Directorate of Military Intelligence for the Israel Defense Forces, and was awarded the Most Outstanding Soldier
of the Corp. in 1981. Mr. Sternhell holds an AB in Political Science and Psychology from Tel Aviv University, an MIA in International
Economics from Columbia University and an MBA from the ‘Grand Ecole’ EDHEC ‘92 specializing in IT and Management
where he graduated first in his class.
None
of our directors or officers are related to each other. There are no arrangements or understandings with any of our principal
stockholders, customers, suppliers, or any other person, pursuant to which any of our directors or executive officers were appointed.
No
officer or director has, during the past five years, been involved in (a) any bankruptcy petition filed by or against any business
of which such person was a general partner or executive officer either at the time of the bankruptcy or within two years prior
to that time, (b) any conviction in a criminal proceeding or being subject to a pending criminal proceeding (excluding traffic
violations and other minor offenses), (c) any order, judgment, or decree, not subsequently reversed, suspended or vacated, of
any court of competent jurisdiction, permanently or temporarily enjoining, barring, suspending or otherwise limiting his involvement
in any type of business, securities or banking activities or (d) a finding by a court of competent jurisdiction (in a civil action),
the Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to have violated a federal or state securities or commodities law,
and the judgment has not been reversed, suspended, or vacated.
Due
to the early stage nature of our business, we do not have an audit committee, nor have our board of directors deemed it necessary
to have an audit committee financial expert. Insofar that we are not a listed security, we are not required to have an audit committee. Within
the next 12 months, however, we expect to have several committees in place, including a compensation, budget and audit committee. At
such time, we intend to have a member of the Board of Directors that meets the qualifications for an audit committee financial
expert.
Director
Independence
Our
Board of Directors may establish the authorized number of directors from time to time by resolution. Our Board of Directors is
currently comprised of one member. We hae three (3) independent directors on the Board of Directors. The directors will be elected
annually by our stockholders.
53
Becuase
our common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market, the listing rules of this stock exchange generally require that a majority
of the members of a listed company’s board of directors, and each member of a listed company’s audit, compensation
and nominating and corporate governance committees, be independent (see “— Controlled Company Status” below).
Our Board of Directors has determined that George Katsiaunis, Ehud Ernst and Amir Sternhell do not have any relationships that
would interfere with the exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director and such directors
are “independent” as that term is defined under the rules of the stock market.
Audit
committee members must also satisfy the independence criteria set forth in Rule 10A-3 under the Exchange Act, subject to the transition
rule that is applicable to a newly public company. In order to be considered independent for purposes of Rule 10A-3, a member
of an audit committee of a listed company may not, other than in his or her capacity as a member of the audit committee, the Board
of Directors, or any other board committee accept, directly or indirectly, any consulting, advisory, or other compensatory fee
from the listed company or any of its subsidiaries; or be an affiliated person of the listed company or any of its subsidiaries.
Controlled
Company Status
Our
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Ronny Yakov, controls 50.7% of the voting power of our outstanding common stock prior to
the exercise of any conversion warrants, Series A Warrants or Series B Warrants. Such voting power is based on Mr. Yakov’s
direct ownership of Company securities. As a result, Mr. Yakov will have the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted
to our stockholders for approval, including the election of our directors, as well as the overall management and direction of
our company.
Because
Mr. Yakov controls a majority of our outstanding voting power, we are, and will continue to be, a “controlled company”
under the corporate governance rules for NASDAQ-listed companies. Therefore, we are not required to have a majority of our board
of directors be independent, nor are we required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function.
While
we have determined to have a majority of our directors be independent for NASDAQ purposes, to have a nominating committee composed
solely of independent directors and a compensation committee composed solely of independent directors, there is no assurance that
we will continue to maintain these corporate governance measures.
We
expect our company will continue to qualify as a controlled company until such time as Mr. Yakov controls less than 50% of our
outstanding common stock, whether by future issuances of Company securities, the exercise of Warrants or other convertible securities,
or otherwise. For example, if all of the outstanding Warrants are exercised, Mr. Yakov would control only 42.8% of the voting
power of our outstanding common stock. In such case, Mr. Yakov would cease to control a majority of our outstanding voting power,
and we will no longer be entitled to rely on the NASDAQ corporate governance exemptions afforded to controlled companies.
Role
of the Board of Directors in Risk Oversight
The
Board of Directors is responsible for assessing the risks facing our company and considers risk in every business decision and
as part of our business strategy. The Board of Directors recognizes that it is neither possible nor prudent to eliminate all risk,
and that strategic and appropriate risk-taking is essential for us to compete in our industry and in the global market and to
achieve our growth and profitability objectives. Effective risk oversight, therefore, is an important priority of the Board of
Directors.
While
the Board of Directors oversees our risk management, management is responsible for day-to-day risk management processes. Our Board
of Directors expects management to consider risk and risk management in each business decision, to proactively develop and monitor
risk management strategies and processes for day-to-day activities and to effectively implement risk management strategies that
are adopted by the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors expects to review and adjust our risk management strategies at regular
intervals or as needed.
54
Code
of Business Conduct
Our
Board of Directors has adopted a code of business conduct and ethics, the “Code of Business Conduct,” to ensure that
our business is conducted in a consistently legal and ethical manner. Our policies and procedures cover all major areas of professional
conduct, including employee policies, conflicts of interest, protection of confidential information, and compliance with applicable
laws and regulations. The Code of Business Conduct is available at our website at http://www.olb.com/code-of-conduct/ .
The reference to our website address in this Annual Report does not include or incorporate by reference the information on our
website into this Annual Report. We intend to disclose future amendments to certain provisions of our code of conduct, or waivers
of these provisions, on our website or in public filings.
Board
Committees
Our
Board of Directors has an Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and a Nominating and Corporate Committee.
Audit
Committee
The
Audit Committee consists of George Katsiaunis, Ehud Ernst and Amir Sternhell with Mr. Katsiaunis serving as Chairman. The Audit
Committee assists the Board of Directors in discharging its responsibilities relating to the financial management of our Company
and oversight of our accounting and financial reporting, our independent registered public accounting firm and their audits, our
internal financial controls and the continuous improvement of our financial policies and practices. In addition, the Audit Committee
is responsible for reviewing and discussing with management our policies with respect to risk assessment and risk management.
The responsibilities of the Audit Committee, as set forth in its charter, includes:
● appointing,
approving the compensation of, and assessing the independence of our independent registered public accounting firm;
● pre-approving
audit and permissible non-audit services, and the terms of such services, to be provided by our independent registered public
accounting firm;
● reviewing
and discussing with management and the independent registered public accounting firm our annual and quarterly financial statements
and related disclosures;
● coordinating
the oversight and reviewing the adequacy of our internal control over financial reporting;
● establishing
policies and procedures for the receipt and retention of accounting-related complaints, whistleblowers, and concerns; and
● reviewing
and approving any related party transactions.
The
expected composition of our Audit Committee will comply with all applicable requirements of the SEC and the listing requirements
of the Nasdaq Capital Market. We intend to comply with future requirements to the extent they become applicable to us.
Compensation
Committee
The
Compensation Committee consists of George Katsiaunis, Ehud Ernst and Amir Sternhell with Mr. Ernst serving as Chairman. The Compensation
Committee assists the Board of Directors in setting and maintaining the Company’s compensation philosophy and in discharging
its responsibilities relating to executive and other human resources hiring, assessment and compensation, and succession planning.
The responsibilities of the Compensation Committee, as set forth in its charter, includes:
55
● reviewing
and approving corporate goals and objectives relevant to compensation of our chief executive officer;
● evaluating
the performance of our chief executive officer in light of such corporate goals and objectives and determining the compensation
of our chief executive officer;
● determining
the compensation of all our other officers and reviewing periodically the aggregate amount of compensation payable to such officers;
● overseeing
and making recommendations to the Board of Directors with respect to our incentive-based compensation and equity plans; and
● reviewing
and making recommendations to the Board of Directors with respect to director compensation.
Nominating
and Corporate Governance Committee
The
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee consists of George Katsiaunis, Ehud Ernst and Amir Sternhell with Mr. Sternhell
serving as Chairman. The responsibilities of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, as set forth in its charter, includes:
● making
recommendations to the Board of Directors regarding the size and composition of the Board of Directors;
● recommending
qualified individuals as nominees for election as directors;
● reviewing
the appropriate skills and characteristics required of director nominees;
● establishing
and administering a periodic assessment procedure relating to the performance of the Board of Directors as a whole and its individual
members; and
● periodically
reviewing the corporate governance guidelines and supervising the management representative charged with implementing the Company’s
corporate governance procedures.
Compensation
Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation
None
of the members of the Compensation Committee is (or was at any time previously) an officer or employee. None of our executive
officers serve or in the past fiscal year has served as a member of the Board of Directors or Compensation Committee of any other
entity that has one or more executive officers serving as a member of our Board of Directors or expected to serve on the Compensation
Committee.
56
Item
11. Executive Compensation
The
table below summarizes all compensation awarded to, earned by, or paid to each named executive officer for our last two completed
fiscal years for all services rendered to us.
Summary
Compensation Table
Name and Principal Position
Year
Salary
($)
Bonus
($)
Stock Awards
($) (4)
Option Awards
($) (3)
Non-Equity Incentive Plan Compensation
($)
Nonqualified
Deferred
Compensation
Earnings
($)
All Other Compensation
($) (2)
Total
Ronny Yakov,
2020
$ 375,000
$ 0
$ 0
$ 59,874
$ 0
$ 0
$ 30,000
$ 434,874
CEO, (1) Chairman
2019
$ 375,000
$ 0
$ 0
$ 26,554
$ 0
$ 0
$ 30,000
$ 431,544
Patrick Smith,
2020
$ 175,000
$ 90,000
$ 0
$ 238,506
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 503,506
Vice President
2019
$ 175,000
$ 0
$ 0
$ 238,506
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 413,509
Rachel Boulds,
2020
$ 36,000
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 36,000
CFO
2019
$ 36,000
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 36,000
(1)
Partially accrued
but not paid.
(2)
Car allowance
(3)
Stock based compensation
of options granted during the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.
Employment
Agreements
On
October 20, 2017, the Company entered into a new employment agreement with Ronny Yakov for 7 years effective January 1, 2018 through
December 31, 2024. The agreement provides for an annual salary of $375,000, fringe benefits ($2,500 monthly automobile allowance,
any benefit plans of the Company and 4 weeks paid vacation), an incentive bonus of $200,000 based on the achievement of certain
performance criteria and an annual stock option grant as described under “Outstanding Equity Awards at Fiscal Year-End”
below. As of December 31, 2020, no bonuses have been accrued or paid. Further, the agreement provides for an acquisition bonus
equal to two (2%) percent of the gross purchase price paid in connection therewith upon the closing of any acquisition directly
or indirectly by the Company or its subsidiaries during the Employment Period.
On
April 10, 2018, the Company entered into an employment agreement with Patrick Smith until either party terminates the agreement.
The agreement provides for an annual salary of $175,000, an annual bonus of up to $45,000. As of December 31, 2020, no bonuses
have been accrued or paid.
Outstanding
Equity Awards at Fiscal Year-End
As
of December 31, 2020, the following equity awards were outstanding:
Per
the terms of Mr. Smith’s employment agreement, he was granted stock options to purchase up to 265,172 shares of common stock
at an exercise price of $0.003 per share. The grant vests at the rate of 1/5 beginning on each anniversary of the effective date
of grant (April 10, 2018). The stock options will cease vesting after the termination of Mr. Smith’s employment and any
unvested options shall be forfeited upon the termination of employment.
Per
the terms of Mr. Yakov’s employment agreement, effective on January 1, 2018, and on each anniversary thereafter during the
term of his employment agreement, the Company will grant to him options to purchase up to 6,667 shares of common stock with a
per share exercise price equal $0.03 per share. Each stock option shall become exercisable in increments of one-third upon each
anniversary of the date on which it is granted.
57
On
November 13, 2019, the Company entered into an agreement with Mr. Smith and on November 25, 2019, the Company entered into an
agreement Mr. Yakov, whereby the Company and option holders each agreed that the exercise price pertaining to those options only
would not be adjusted for the effects of the Reverse Stock Split.
2020
Equity Incentive Plan
The
Board of Directors have adopted a 2020 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Plan”) for the Company and the holders of majority
of our outstanding shares of common stock have approved such plan. An aggregate number of shares of our common stock equal to
approximately 5% of our issued and outstanding common stock are reserved for issuance under the Plan. A grant of 10,000 restricted
shares of common stock has been issued under the Plan as of December 31, 2020. In general, awards under the Plan shall vest ratably
over a period of three years (on the first, second and third anniversaries of the agreement) subject to accelerated vesting upon
a change of control of our company (although awards may be granted with different vesting terms).
The
purpose of our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan is to attract and retain directors, officers, consultants, advisors and employees whose
services are considered valuable, to encourage a sense of proprietorship and to stimulate an active interest of such persons in
our development and financial achievements. The 2020 Equity Incentive Plan is administered by the Compensation Committee of our
Board of Directors or by the full Board, which may determine, among other things, the (a) terms and conditions of any option or
stock purchase right granted, including the exercise price and the vesting schedule, (b) persons who are to receive options and
stock purchase rights and (c) the number of shares to be subject to each option and stock purchase right. The Plan will provide
for the grant of (i) “incentive” options (qualified under section 422 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended)
to employees of our company and (ii) non-qualified options to directors and consultants of our company.
In
connection with the administration of our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan, our Compensation Committee will:
● determine
which employees and other persons will be granted awards under our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan;
● grant
the awards to those selected to participate;
● determine
the exercise price for options; and
● prescribe
any limitations, restrictions and conditions upon any awards, including the vesting conditions of awards.
Any
grant of awards to any of directors under our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan must be approved by the Compensation Committee of our
Board of Directors. In addition, our Compensation Committee will: (i) interpret our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan; and (ii) make
all other determinations and take all other action that may be necessary or advisable to implement and administer our 2020 Equity
Incentive Plan.
The
2020 Equity Incentive Plan provides that in the event of a change of control, the Compensation Committee or our Board of Directors
shall have the discretion to determine whether and to what extent to accelerate the vesting, exercise or payment of an award.
In
addition, our Board of Directors may amend our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan at any time. However, without stockholder approval,
our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan may not be amended in a manner that would:
● increase
the number of shares that may be issued under our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan;
● materially
modify the requirements for eligibility for participation in our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan;
● materially
increase the benefits to participants provided by our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan; or
● otherwise
disqualify our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan for coverage under Rule 16b-3 promulgated under the Exchange Act.
Awards
previously granted under our 2020 Equity Incentive Plan may not be impaired or affected by any amendment of our 2020 Equity Incentive
Plan, without the consent of the affected grantees.
58
Director
Compensation
Our
directors received the following fixed compensation for their services as directors during the fiscal year ended December 31,
2020.
Name and Principal Position
Fees Earned or Paid in Cash
($)
Stock Awards
($) (4)
Option Awards
($) (3)
Non-Equity Incentive Plan Compensation
($)
Nonqualified
Deferred
Compensation
Earnings
($)
All Other Compensation
($) (2)
Total
Geroge Kastisiaunis
$ 0
$ 103,895
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 103,895
Ehud Erst
$ 0
$ 49,915
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 49,915
Amir Sternhell
$ 0
$ 49,915
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
$ 49,915
Directors
were reimbursed for their reasonable out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with their duties. On an annual basis, each
independent director will earn compensation in the form of shares of our Common Stock with a fair market value equal to $50,000
as of the date of issuance and they will be reimbursed for their reasonable out-of-pocket expenses incurred in connection with
their duties. The Chairman of the Audit Committee shall receive additional shares of Common Stock with a fair market value equal
to $15,000 as of the date of issuance. All shares of Common Stock shall be issued no later than January 31 of each year.
Item
12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
The
following table sets forth, as of March 22, 2021, information regarding the beneficial ownership of each class of our voting
securities by: (i) our officers and directors; (ii) all of our officers and directors as a group; and (iii) each person known
by us to beneficially own 5% or more of any class of our outstanding voting securities. Generally, a person is deemed to be a
“beneficial owner” of a security if that person has or shares the power to dispose or to direct the disposition of
such security. A person is also deemed to be a beneficial owner of any securities of which the person has the right to acquire
beneficial ownership within 60 days.
The
address of each holder listed below, except as otherwise indicated, is c/o The OLB Group, Inc., 200 Park Avenue, Suite 1700, New
York, NY.
Name of Beneficial Owner
Shares of
Common
Stock Beneficially
Owned (1) **
Percent of
Common
Stock
Beneficially
Owned
(1) **
Shares of
Series A
Preferred
Stock
Beneficially
Owned
(2) **
Percent of
Series A
Preferred
Stock
Beneficially
Owned
(2) **
Number of
Voting Stock
Beneficially
Owned (3) **
Percent of
Voting Stock
Beneficially
Owned (4) **
5% Beneficial Owners
John Herzog (4)
2,308,211
27.1 %
398,039
77.7 %
1,304,616
18.3 %
Directors and Officers
Ronny Yakov (5)
3,888,620
51.7 %
113,064
22.3 %
3,604,886
50.7 %
Rachel Boulds
833
*
—
—
833
*
Patrick Smith (6)
106,068
1.5 %
—
—
106,068
1.5 %
All directors and executive officers as a group (3 persons)
3,987,323
53.2 %
113,064
22.3 %
3,704,664
52.1 %
* Less
than 1%.
** Under
SEC rules, beneficial ownership includes shares over which the individual or entity has voting or investment power and any shares
which the individual or entity has the right to acquire within sixty days.
59
1) Percentage
ownership of common stock is based on 7,114,774 shares of our common stock plus 511,103 shares of common stock underlying Series
A Preferred Stock for which holders will exercise voting power on an as-converted basis.
(2) Percentage
ownership of Series A Preferred Stock is based on 4,600 shares of Series A Preferred Stock outstanding (which such shares of Series
A Preferred Stock are convertible into 511,103 shares of common stock accordance with the Certificate of Designations (as hereinafter
defined). The holders of the Series A Preferred Stock have the right to vote their shares of Series A Preferred Stock with the
holders of common stock on an as-converted basis.
(3) Percentage
of voting stock is based on 7,114,774 shares of our common stock and 4,600 shares of Series A Preferred Stock (convertible into
511,103 shares of common stock) outstanding.
(4) Includes
49,751 shares of common stock owned by Herzog & Co. and 28,524 shares of common stock held by John E Herzog TTEE John E Herzog
REV Trust U/A/D 02/07/2014. John Herzog is the Chairman of Herzog & Co. and the trustee of the trust. Includes (i) 401,333
shares of common stock underlying Series A Preferred Stock, and (ii) shares of common stock underlying 802,875 Series A Warrants
and 200,719 Series B Warrants, which warrants are exercisable within 60 days of this Annual Report.
(5) Includes
13,332 vested options. Includes (i) 113,501 shares of common stock underlying Series A Preferred Stock, and (ii) shares of common
stock underlying 226,127 Series A Warrants and 56,532 Series B Warrants, which warrants are exercisable within 60 days of
this Annual Report.
(6) Includes
106,068 vested options.
60
Item
13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence
We
are a party to certain related party transactions, as described below.
OmniSoft
and CrowdPay
In
accordance with the requirements of the Term Loan, on May 9, 2018, we entered into separate share exchange agreements with the
stockholders of OmniSoft (the “OmniSoft Share Exchange Agreement”) and CrowdPay (the “CrowdPay Share Exchange
Agreement” and together with the OmniSoft Share Exchange Agreement, the “Share Exchange Agreements”). Pursuant
to the terms of the OmniSoft Share Exchange Agreement, the stockholders of OmniSoft (Ronny Yakov, our Chief Executive Officer
and director, and Mr. Herzog, an affiliate of the Company) transferred to us all of the issued and outstanding shares of OmniSoft
common stock in exchange for an aggregate of 1,833,333 shares of our common stock. Pursuant to the terms of the CrowdPay Share
Exchange Agreement, the stockholders of CrowdPay (Mr. Yakov and Mr. Herzog) transferred to us all of the issued and outstanding
shares of CrowdPay common stock in exchange for an aggregate of 2,916,667 shares of the Company’s common stock. The transactions
contemplated by the Share Exchange Agreements closed on May 9, 2018. Mr. Yakov, our sole director, determined the appropriate
valuation of each of our common stock and the common stock of OmniSoft and CrowdPay in reliance upon, among other matters, a third
party independent valuation report prepared by Corporate Valuation Advisors, Inc.
John
Herzog
During
2017, Mr. Herzog loaned $53,500 to the Company pursuant to a promissory note (which, along with a loan of $163,000 from Mr. Herzog
pursuant to a promissory note dated July 12, 2016, brought the total amount loaned from Mr. Herzog to $216,500). On November 20,
2017, the $216,500 of principal and $35,105 of accrued interest was converted into 83,868 shares of the Company’s common
stock.
On
March 12, 2018, the Company received $30,000 from John Herzog. The advance was used for operating expenses, is unsecured, bore
no interest was due on demand. This loan was repaid in full as of September 30, 2018.
In
July 2018, the Company issued to Mr. Herzog a subordinated promissory note in the principal amount of $1,000,000 for cash proceeds
of $1,000,000. At the time of issuance, the note was to mature on March 31, 2019 (though the Company has the right to prepay the
note, in whole or in part, at any time prior to maturity) and bears interest at a rate of 12% per annum, compounding annually.
The note is secured by shares of common stock of a publicly traded company held by the Company (the “Note Collateral Shares”).
The note is subordinated to the Credit Agreement, other than the Note Collateral Shares. The Company used the proceeds received
by the Mr. Herzog to make the initial payment under the Credit Agreement.
On
March 1, 2019, the Company entered into Amendment No. 1 to the subordinated promissory note with Mr. Herzog. The purpose of the
amendment was to amend the subordinated promissory note issued in July 2018 to reflect an increase in the amount of principal
due under the note from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 reflecting a payment made by Mr. Herzog to the Company of $2,000,000 on November
14, 2018 (the proceeds of which were used by the Company to make a second required payment under the Credit Agreement) and to
extend the maturity date of the subordinated promissory note from March 31, 2019 to September 30, 2020. On June 25, 2019, the
Company entered into Amendment No. 2 to the subordinated promissory note with Mr. Herzog.
On
December 10, 2019, Mr. Herzog provided a letter to the Company whereby he addressed his prior commitments to provide financial
assistance to the Company and agreed to provide us with financial support, that may be needed, to assist with our ongoing working
capital needs (other than our obligations to pay principal or interest with respect to the Excel Loan and Credit Agreement).
On
May 13, 2020, Mr. Herzog agreed to convert concurrently with the Company’s public offering $3,522,191 in principal amount
of indebtedness into shares of convertible Series A Preferred Stock to be designated concurrently with the offering. On July 24,
2020, the terms of such conversion were amended such that Mr. Herzog agreed to convert such an aggregate of $3,582,355 of indebtedness
and accrued interest into Series A Preferred Stock and conversion warrants, which Series A Preferred Stock and conversion
warrants would be issued concurrently with the closing of the public offering.
61
Ronny
Yakov
On
August 10, 2018, Ronny Yakov, the Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and majority stockholder, loaned the Company $25,000, in order
to pay for audit services. The loan is unsecured, bears interest at 12% and is due on demand. Mr. Yakov loaned the Company an
additional $361,467 to the Company during the year ended December 31, 2019. The loans are unsecured, bear interest at 12% and
are due on demand.
The
accrued compensation due to Mr. Yakov and the advances to be repaid to Mr. Yakov do not bear any interest or have any term.
On
May 13, 2020, Mr. Yakov agreed to convert $1,011,016 in principal amount of indebtedness and accrued interest, which includes
deferred salary and unreimbursed expenses (plus any additional accrued interest and other fees thereon that accrued), into shares
of convertible Series A Preferred Stock to be designated concurrently with the public offering. On July 24, 2020, the terms of
such conversion were amended such that Mr. Yakov agreed to convert an aggregate of $1,017,573 of deferred salary, indebtedness
and accrued interest into Series A Preferred Stock and conversion warrants, which Series A Preferred Stock and conversion warrants
would be issued concurrently with the closing of the offering.
On
July 24, 2020, the terms of the agreement whereby Mr. Herzog agreed to convert, concurrently with the public offering of
the Company’s securities, $3,522,191 in principal amount of indebtedness (plus any additional accrued interest and other
fees thereon that accrues prior to the offering) into shares of convertible Series A Preferred were amended such that Mr. Herzog
agreed to convert such an aggregate of $3,582,355 of indebtedness and accrued interest into Series A Preferred Stock and Conversion
Warrants, which Series A Preferred Stock and Conversion Warrants would be issued concurrently with the closing of the public
offering. On August 11, 2020, Mr. Herzog converted $3,612,940 of indebtedness into 3,612 shares of Series A Preferred Stock (the
terms of which are described below) and 802,875 Series A Conversion Warrants with an exercise price of $9.00 and 200,719 Series
B Conversion Warrants with an exercise price of $4.50.
On
July 24, 2020, the terms of the agreement whereby Mr. Yakov agreed to convert, concurrently with the public offering of the
Company’s securities, $1,017,753 in principal amount of indebtedness and accrued interest, which includes deferred salary
and unreimbursed expenses (plus any additional accrued interest and other fees thereon that accrues prior to the offering), into
shares of convertible Series A Preferred Stock to be designated concurrently with the offering such conversion were amended such
that Mr. Yakov agreed to convert an aggregate of $1,017,573 of accrued salary, indebtedness and accrued interest into Series
A Preferred Stock and conversion warrants, which Series A Preferred Stock and conversion warrants would be issued concurrently
with the closing of the offering. On August 11, 2020, Mr. Yakov converted $1,021,512 of indebtedness into 1,021 shares of
Series A Preferred Stock (the terms of which are described in Note 10 below) and 227,003 Series A Conversion Warrants with an
exercise price of $9.00 and 56,751 Series B Conversion Warrants with an exercise price of $4.50.
Statement
of Policy
All
future transactions between us and our officers, directors or five percent stockholders, and respective affiliates will be on
terms no less favorable than could be obtained from unaffiliated third parties and will be approved by a majority of our independent
directors who do not have an interest in the transactions and who had access, at our expense, to our legal counsel or independent
legal counsel.
To
the best of our knowledge, during the past three fiscal years, other than as set forth above, there were no material transactions,
or series of similar transactions, or any currently proposed transactions, or series of similar transactions, to which we were
or are to be a party, in which the amount involved exceeds $120,000, and in which any director or executive officer, or any security
holder who is known by us to own of record or beneficially more than 5% of any class of our common stock, or any member of the
immediate family of any of the foregoing persons, has an interest (other than compensation to our officers and directors in the
ordinary course of business).
62
Item
14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services
Below
is the aggregate amount of fees billed for professional services rendered by our principal accountants with respect to our last
two fiscal years.
2020
2019
Audit fees
$ 237,942
$ 230,874
Audit related fees
$ -
$ -
Tax fees
$ -
$ -
All other fees
$ -
$ -
Total
$ 237,942
$ 230,874
All
of the professional services rendered by principal accountants for the audit of our annual financial statements that are normally
provided by the accountant in connection with statutory and regulatory filings or engagements for last two fiscal years were approved
by our board of directors.
Audit
Fees
Consist
of fees billed for professional services rendered for the audit of our financial statements and review of interim consolidated
financial statements included in quarterly reports and services that are normally provided by the principal accountants in connection
with statutory and regulatory filings or engagements.
Audit
Related Fees
Consist
of fees billed for assurance and related services that are reasonably related to the performance of the audit or review of our
consolidated financial statements and are not reported under “Audit Fees”.
Tax
Fees
Consist
of fees billed for professional services for tax compliance, tax advice and tax planning. These services include preparation of
federal and state income tax returns for the year ended December 31, 2019.
All
Other Fees
Consist
of fees for product and services other than the services reported above.
Policy
for Approval of Audit and Permitted Non-Audit Services
The
Audit Committee charter provides that the Audit Committee will pre-approve audit services and non-audit services to be provided
by our independent auditors before the accountant is engaged to render these services. The Audit Committee may consult with management
in the decision-making process, but may not delegate this authority to management. The Audit Committee may delegate its authority
to pre-approve services to one or more committee members, provided that the designees present the pre-approvals to the full committee
at the next committee meeting.
63
PART
IV
Item
15. Exhibits
Exhibit
Number
Description
2.1
Memorandum
of Sale, dated as of April 9, 2018, by and among eVance, Inc., eVance Capital, Inc., Securus365, Inc. and GACP (1)
3.1
Certificate
of Incorporation, as amended (6)
3.2
Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Company (14)
3.3
Certificate of Designations, Preferences and Rights of Series A Preferred Stock (14)
4.1
Warrant,
dated April 9, 2018, issued by the Company to GACP (1)
4.2
Representative’s Warrant (14)
4.3
Series A Warrant Agency Agreement (including the terms of the Series A Warrant) (14)
4.4
Series B Warrant Agency Agreement (including the terms of the Series B Warrant) (14)
10.1
Loan
and Security Agreement, dated as of April 9, 2018, by and among GACP, the lenders from time to time party thereto, the Company,
as parent guarantor, and the Borrowers (1)
10.2
Amendment
No. 1 to Loan and Security Agreement, dated as of July 30, 2018, by and among GACP Finance Co., LLC, as administrative agent
and collateral agent, the lenders party thereto, Securus365, Inc., eVance, Inc., eVance Capital, Inc., OMNISOFT, Inc., and
CrowdPay.us, Inc., as borrowers, and the Company, as parent guarantor (3)
10.3
Amendment
No. 3 to Loan and Security Agreement, dated as of February 5, 2019, by and among GACP Finance Co., LLC, as administrative
agent and collateral agent, the lenders party thereto, Securus365, Inc., eVance, Inc., eVance Capital, Inc., OMNISOFT, Inc.,
and CrowdPay.us, Inc., as borrowers, and the Company, as parent guarantor (4)
10.4
Agreement
Regarding Additional Warrants, dated April 9, 2018, by and between the Company and GACP (1)
10.5
Share
Exchange Agreement, dated May 9, 2018, by and between The OLB Group, Inc. and the stockholders of CrowdPay.US, Inc. (2)
10.6
Share
Exchange Agreement, dated May 9, 2018, by and between The OLB Group, Inc. and the stockholders of OmniSoft, Inc. (2)
10.7
Subordinated
Promissory Note, dated July 30, 2018, by and between the Company and John Herzog (3)
10.8
Amendment
No. 1 to Subordinated Promissory Note, dated as of November 14, 2019, by and between the Company and John Herzog (4)
10.9
Amendment
No. 2 to Subordinated Promissory Note, dated June 25, 2019, by and between the Company and John Herzog (5)
10.10
Employment
Agreement with Ronny Yakov (5)
10.11
Employment
Agreement with Patrick Smith (5)
10.12
Commitment
Letter from John Herzog dated December 10, 2019 (6)
10.13
Amendment
No. 4 to Loan and Security Agreement, dated as of April 24, 2020, by and among GACP Finance Co., LLC, as administrative agent
and collateral agent, the lenders party thereto, Securus365, Inc., eVance, Inc., eVance Capital, Inc., OMNISOFT, Inc., and
CrowdPay.us, Inc., as borrowers, and the Company, as parent guarantor (8)
10.14
Debt
Conversion Agreement, dated as of May 13, 2020 by and between the Company and. John Herzog (9)
10.15
Debt
Conversion Agreement, dated as of May 13, 2020 by and between the Company and. Ronny Yakov (9)
10.16
First
Amended and Restated Debt Conversion Agreement, dated as of July 24, 2020, by and between the Company and Ronny Yakov (12)
10.17
First
Amended and Restated Debt Conversion Agreement, dated as of July 24, 2020, by and between the Company and John Herzog (12)
10.18
Form
of 2020 Equity Incentive Plan (10)
10.19
Lease
Agreement dated June 24, 2020 between Pergament Lodi, LLC and Evance, Inc. (11)
10.20
Underwriting Agreement with Aegis Capital Corp. dated August 6, 2020. (14)
64
31.1
Certification of Chief Executive Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (*)
31.2
Certification of Chief Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (*)
32.1
Certification of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (*)
101
Interactive
Data Files for The OLB Group, Inc. Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2020 (*)
* Filed
herewith
(1) Incorporated
by reference to Current Report on Form 8-K filed April 13, 2018.
(2) Incorporated
by reference to Form 8-K filed May 15, 2018.
(3) Incorporated
by reference to Form 8-K filed August 3, 2018.
(4) Incorporated
by reference to Form 8-K filed March 12, 2019.
(5) Previously
filed with Form S-1 on June 26, 2019.
(6) Previously
filed with Form S-1 on December 18, 2019.
(7) Previously
filed with Form S-1 on January 17, 2019.
(8) Previously
filed with Form 10-K on April 29, 2020.
(9) Previously
filed with Form S-1 on May 20, 2020.
(10) Previously
filed with Form S-1 on June 8, 2020.
(11) Incorporated
by reference to Form 8-K filed July 2, 2020.
(12) Previously
filed with Form S-1 on July 27, 2020.
(13) Previously
filed with Form S-1 on July 31, 2020.
(14) Previously
file with Form 8-K filed August 12, 2020.
Item
16. Form 10-K Summary
None.
65
SIGNATURES
In
accordance with Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, the registrant caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned,
thereunto duly authorized.
The
OLB Group, Inc.
Date:
March 29, 2021
BY:
/s/
Ronny Yakov
Ronny Yakov
Chief Executive
Officer
BY:
/s/
Rachel Boulds
Rachel Boulds
Chief Financial
Officer
In
accordance with the Exchange Act, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant in the
capacities and on the dates indicated.
Signature
Title
Date
/s/
Ronny Yakov
Chief
Executive Officer and Chairman
March
29, 2021
Ronny Yakov
/s/
George Katsiaunis
Director
and Chairman of the Audit Committee
March
29, 2021
George Katsiaunis
/s/
Ehud Ernst
Director
March
29, 2021
Ehud Ernst
/s/
Amir Sternhell
Director
March
29, 2021
Amir Sternhell
66
Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.