Couchbase Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2024 Financial Results

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Couchbase, Inc. (NASDAQ: BASE), the cloud database platform company, today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 31, 2024.

“We finished fiscal 2024 on a strong note, highlighted by 25% ARR growth, and marking a historical year for Couchbase,” said Matt Cain, Chair, President and CEO of Couchbase. “In addition to delivering results that exceeded the high end of our guidance range on all metrics, we achieved an important milestone with Capella, which now represents 11% of our ARR and over 25% of our customer base. As we look ahead towards fiscal 2025, I’m confident that we have the differentiated platform and operational rigor to achieve our next phase of growth.”

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2024 Financial Highlights

Revenue: Total revenue for the quarter was $50.1 million, an increase of 20% year-over-year. Subscription revenue for the quarter was $48.1 million, an increase of 26% year-over-year.
Annual recurring revenue (ARR): Total ARR as of January 31, 2024 was $204.2 million, an increase of 25% year-over-year as reported and on a constant currency basis. See the section titled “Key Business Metrics” below for details.
Gross margin: Gross margin for the quarter was 89.7%, compared to 85.7% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Non-GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 90.4%, compared to 86.3% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. See the section titled “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and the tables titled “Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Results” below for details.
Loss from operations: Loss from operations for the quarter was $22.6 million, compared to $18.5 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Non-GAAP operating loss for the quarter was $4.1 million, compared to $9.9 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023.
Cash flow: Cash flow used in operating activities for the quarter was $6.5 million, compared to $10.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Capital expenditures were $1.3 million during the quarter, leading to negative free cash flow of $7.7 million, compared to negative free cash flow of $11.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023.
Remaining performance obligations (RPO): RPO as of January 31, 2024 was $241.8 million, an increase of 46% year-over-year.

Full Year Fiscal 2024 Financial Highlights

Revenue: Total revenue for the year was $180.0 million, an increase of 16% year-over-year. Subscription revenue for the year was $171.6 million, an increase of 20% year-over-year.
Gross margin: Gross margin for the year was 87.7%, compared to 86.9% for fiscal 2023. Non-GAAP gross margin for the year was 88.5%, compared to 87.6% for fiscal 2023.
Loss from operations: Loss from operations for the year was $84.5 million, compared to $69.3 million for fiscal 2023. Non-GAAP operating loss for the year was $31.3 million, compared to $41.3 million for fiscal 2023.
Cash flow: Cash flows used in operating activities for the year were $26.9 million, compared to $41.2 million in fiscal 2023. Capital expenditures were $4.7 million during the year, leading to negative free cash flow of $31.6 million, compared to negative free cash flow of $46.8 million in fiscal 2023.

Recent Business Highlights

Announced vector search as a new feature in Couchbase Capella™ and Couchbase Server to help businesses bring to market a new class of AI-powered adaptive applications that engage users in a hyper-personalized and contextualized way. Couchbase is the first database company to announce it will offer vector search optimized for running onsite, across clouds and to mobile and IoT devices at the edge, paving the way for organizations to run adaptive applications anywhere, including offline.
Announced it is extending its AI partner ecosystem with LangChain and LlamaIndex support to further boost developer productivity. The integration with LangChain enables a common API interface to converse with a broad library of large language models (LLMs). Similarly, the integration with LlamaIndex will provide developers with even more choices for LLMs when building adaptive applications. These ecosystem integrations will accelerate query prompt assembly, improve response validation and facilitate retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) applications.
Announced new enterprise features, including new file-based index rebalancing, reducing times by up to 80%, one-step upgrade from Couchstore to Magma storage engine without stopping the front-end workloads, faster failover times and query simplification. Couchbase continues to invest at a rapid pace to enhance its platform with new enterprise and developer features.
Announced the general availability of Capella iQ, a co-pilot for coding. Capella iQ allows developers to interact with Couchbase Capella using natural language conversation, making database interactions more intuitive, efficient and accessible.
Couchbase Capella was named Best Cloud Data Management Solution at the 2023-2024 Cloud Awards for its performance, versatility and community.

Financial Outlook

For the first quarter and full year of fiscal 2025, Couchbase expects:

Q1 FY2025 Outlook

FY2025 Outlook

Total Revenue

$48.1-48.9 million

$203.0-207.0 million

Total ARR

$206.5-209.5 million

$235.5-240.5 million

Non-GAAP Operating Loss

$8.5-7.5 million

$27.5-22.5 million

The guidance provided above is based on several assumptions that are subject to change and many of which are outside our control. If actual results vary from these assumptions, our expectations may change. There can be no assurance that we will achieve these results.

Couchbase is not able, at this time, to provide GAAP targets for operating loss for the first quarter or full year of fiscal 2025 because of the difficulty of estimating certain items excluded from non-GAAP operating loss that cannot be reasonably predicted, such as charges related to stock-based compensation expense. The effect of these excluded items may be significant.

Conference Call Information

Couchbase will host a live webcast at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (or 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, to discuss its financial results and business highlights. The conference call can be accessed by dialing 877-407-8029 from the United States, or +1 201-689-8029 from international locations. The live webcast and a webcast replay can be accessed from the investor relations page of Couchbase’s website at investors.couchbase.com.

About Couchbase

Modern customer experiences need a flexible database platform that can power applications spanning from cloud to edge and everything in between. Couchbase’s mission is to simplify how developers and architects develop, deploy and run modern applications wherever they are. We have reimagined the database with our fast, flexible and affordable cloud database platform Couchbase Capella, allowing organizations to quickly build applications that deliver premium experiences to their customers – all with best-in-class price performance. More than 30% of the Fortune 100 trust Couchbase to power their modern applications. For more information, visit www.couchbase.com and follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @couchbase.

Couchbase has used, and intends to continue using, its investor relations website and the corporate blog at blog.couchbase.com to disclose material non-public information and to comply with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, you should monitor our investor relations website and the corporate blog in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings and public conference calls and webcasts.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to our financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, we believe certain non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in evaluating our operating performance. We use certain non-GAAP financial measures, collectively, to evaluate our ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. We believe that non-GAAP financial measures, when taken together with the corresponding GAAP financial measures, may be helpful to investors because they provide consistency and comparability with past financial performance and meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our business, results of operations or outlook. Non-GAAP financial measures are presented for supplemental informational purposes only, have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from similarly-titled non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate similarly-titled non-GAAP financial measures differently or may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of our non-GAAP financial measures as tools for comparison. Investors are encouraged to review the related GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures (provided in the financial statement tables included in this press release), and not to rely on any single financial measure to evaluate our business.

Non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating loss, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net loss and non-GAAP net loss per share: We define these non-GAAP financial measures as their respective GAAP measures, excluding expenses related to stock-based compensation expense, employer payroll taxes on employee stock transactions, restructuring charges and impairment of capitalized internal-use software. We use these non-GAAP financial measures in conjunction with GAAP measures to assess our performance, including in the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance.

Beginning with the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, we have excluded the impairment of capitalized internal-use software, a non-cash operating expense, from our non-GAAP results as it is not reflective of ongoing operating results. This impairment charge relates to certain previously capitalized internal-use software that we determined would no longer be placed into service. Prior period non-GAAP financial measures have not been adjusted to reflect this change as we did not incur impairment of capitalized internal-use software in any prior period presented.

Free cash flow: We define free cash flow as cash used in operating activities less additions to property and equipment, which includes capitalized internal-use software costs. We believe free cash flow is a useful indicator of liquidity that provides our management, board of directors and investors with information about our future ability to generate or use cash to enhance the strength of our balance sheet and further invest in our business and pursue potential strategic initiatives. 

Please see the reconciliation tables at the end of this press release for the reconciliation of GAAP and non-GAAP results.

Key Business Metrics

We review a number of operating and financial metrics, including ARR, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans and make strategic decisions.

We define ARR as of a given date as the annualized recurring revenue that we would contractually receive from our customers in the month ending 12 months following such date. Based on historical experience with customers, we assume all contracts will be automatically renewed at the same levels unless we receive notification of non-renewal and are no longer in negotiations prior to the measurement date. ARR also includes revenue from consumption-based cloud credits of Couchbase Capella products. ARR for Couchbase Capella products in a customer’s initial year is calculated as described above; after a customer’s initial year it is calculated by annualizing the prior 90 days of actual consumption, assuming no increases or reductions in usage. ARR excludes revenue derived from the use of cloud products only based on on-demand arrangements and services revenue. ARR should be viewed independently of revenue, and does not represent our revenue under GAAP on an annualized basis, as it is an operating metric that can be impacted by contract start and end dates and renewal dates. ARR is not intended to be a replacement for forecasts of revenue. Although we seek to increase ARR as part of our strategy of targeting large enterprise customers, this metric may fluctuate from period to period based on our ability to acquire new customers and expand within our existing customers. We believe that our ARR is an important indicator of the growth and performance of our business.

We also attempt to represent the changes in the underlying business operations by eliminating fluctuations caused by changes in foreign currency exchange rates within the current period. We calculate constant currency growth rates by applying the applicable prior period exchange rates to current period results.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, quotations of management, the section titled “Financial Outlook” above and statements about Couchbase’s market position, strategies and potential market opportunities. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and, in some cases, can be identified by terms such as “anticipate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “potential,” “remain,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including factors beyond our control, which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to: our history of net losses and ability to achieve or maintain profitability in the future; our ability to continue to grow on pace with historical rates; our ability to manage our growth effectively; intense competition and our ability to compete effectively; cost-effectively acquiring new customers or obtaining renewals, upgrades or expansions from our existing customers; the market for our products and services being relatively new and evolving, and our future success depending on the growth and expansion of this market; our ability to innovate in response to changing customer needs, new technologies or other market requirements, including new capabilities, programs and partnerships and their impact on our customers and our business; our limited operating history, which makes it difficult to predict our future results of operations; the significant fluctuation of our future results of operations and ability to meet the expectations of analysts or investors; our significant reliance on revenue from subscriptions, which may decline and, the recognition of a significant portion of revenue from subscriptions over the term of the relevant subscription period, which means downturns or upturns in sales are not immediately reflected in full in our results of operations; and the impact of geopolitical and macroeconomic factors. Further information on risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from forecasted results are included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that we may file from time to time, including those more fully described in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2023. Additional information will be made available in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2024 that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which should be read in conjunction with this press release and the financial results included herein. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons if actual results differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements.

Couchbase, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(in thousands, except per share data)

(unaudited)

Three Months Ended January 31,

Year Ended January 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

Revenue:

License

$                7,196

$               4,977

$             21,514

$             19,885

Support and other

40,865

33,158

150,040

123,010

Total subscription revenue

48,061

38,135

171,554

142,895

Services

2,028

3,488

8,483

11,929

Total revenue

50,089

41,623

180,037

154,824

Cost of revenue:

Subscription(1)

3,580

3,214

14,647

10,762

Services(1)

1,560

2,738

7,435

9,497

Total cost of revenue

5,140

5,952

22,082

20,259

Gross profit

44,949

35,671

157,955

134,565

Operating expenses:

Research and development(1)

16,491

15,000

64,069

57,760

Sales and marketing(1)

34,055

29,303

130,558

111,067

General and administrative(1)

11,840

8,207

42,663

33,390

Impairment of capitalized internal-use software

5,156

5,156

Restructuring(1)

1,663

46

1,663

Total operating expenses

67,542

54,173

242,492

203,880

Loss from operations

(22,593)

(18,502)

(84,537)

(69,315)

Interest expense

(25)

(43)

(101)

Other income (expense), net

1,766

1,938

5,752

1,960

Loss before income taxes

(20,827)

(16,589)

(78,828)

(67,456)

Provision for income taxes

575

25

1,355

1,038

Net loss

$            (21,402)

$           (16,614)

$            (80,183)

$           (68,494)

Net loss per share, basic and diluted

$                (0.44)

$               (0.37)

$                (1.70)

$                (1.53)

Weighted-average shares used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted

48,513

45,281

47,175

44,787

_______________________________

(1)

Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

Three Months Ended January 31,

Year Ended January 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

Cost of revenue—subscription

$                     148

$                     144

$                     707

$                     535

Cost of revenue—services

116

116

529

433

Research and development

3,422

2,046

12,920

7,937

Sales and marketing

4,310

2,563

15,771

9,426

General and administrative

4,630

1,922

15,846

7,390

Restructuring

65

1

65

Total stock-based compensation expense

$                12,626

$                  6,856

$                45,774

$                25,786

Couchbase, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(in thousands)

(unaudited)

As of January
31, 2024

As of January
31, 2023

Assets

Current assets

Cash and cash equivalents

$               41,351

$               40,446

Short-term investments

112,281

127,856

Accounts receivable, net

44,848

39,847

Deferred commissions

15,421

13,096

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

10,385

8,234

Total current assets

224,286

229,479

Property and equipment, net

5,327

7,430

Operating lease right-of-use assets

4,848

6,940

Deferred commissions, noncurrent

11,400

7,524

Other assets

1,891

1,666

Total assets

$             247,752

$             253,039

Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity

Current liabilities

Accounts payable

$                 4,865

$                  1,407

Accrued compensation and benefits

18,116

12,641

Other accrued expenses

4,581

6,076

Operating lease liabilities

3,208

3,117

Deferred revenue

81,736

71,716

Total current liabilities

112,506

94,957

Operating lease liabilities, noncurrent

2,078

4,543

Deferred revenue, noncurrent

2,747

3,275

Total liabilities

117,331

102,775

Stockholders’ equity

Preferred stock

Common stock

Additional paid-in capital

621,024

561,547

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

56

(807)

Accumulated deficit

(490,659)

(410,476)

Total stockholders’ equity

130,421

150,264

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity

$             247,752

$             253,039

Couchbase, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(in thousands)

(unaudited)

Three Months Ended
January 31,

Year Ended January 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

Cash flows from operating activities

Net loss

$      (21,402)

$      (16,614)

$      (80,183)

$      (68,494)

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities

Depreciation and amortization

390

867

2,424

3,171

Stock-based compensation, net of amounts capitalized

12,626

6,856

45,774

25,786

Amortization of deferred commissions

4,886

4,447

18,628

16,996

Non-cash lease expense

762

757

3,075

2,909

Impairment of capitalized internal-use software

5,156

5,156

Foreign currency transaction (gains) losses

116

(774)

765

524

Other

(973)

(593)

(3,553)

(416)

Changes in operating assets and liabilities

Accounts receivable

(14,496)

(16,941)

(5,382)

(3,537)

Deferred commissions

(10,937)

(5,321)

(24,829)

(17,590)

Prepaid expenses and other assets

(3,111)

(850)

(2,274)

(159)

Accounts payable

1,712

(1,971)

3,447

(495)

Accrued compensation and benefits

8,989

3,579

5,472

(3,497)

Other accrued expenses

1,481

2,803

(1,516)

3,103

Operating lease liabilities

(828)

(824)

(3,389)

(2,754)

Deferred revenue

9,179

14,376

9,492

3,268

Net cash used in operating activities

(6,450)

(10,203)

(26,893)

(41,185)

Cash flows from investing activities

Purchases of short-term investments

(40,704)

(33,976)

(131,160)

(144,613)

Maturities of short-term investments

39,322

45,750

151,296

126,893

Additions to property and equipment

(1,285)

(1,553)

(4,710)

(5,646)

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities

(2,667)

10,221

15,426

(23,366)

Cash flows from financing activities

Proceeds from exercise of stock options

3,580

1,189

10,933

5,222

Proceeds from issuance of common stock under ESPP

2,000

4,484

Net cash provided by financing activities

3,580

1,189

12,933

9,706

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

(19)

458

(561)

(397)

Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

(5,556)

1,665

905

(55,242)

Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at beginning of period

47,450

39,324

40,989

96,231

Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at end of period

$       41,894

$        40,989

$        41,894

$       40,989

Reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash within the consolidated balance sheets to the amounts shown above:

Cash and cash equivalents

$       41,351

$        40,446

$        41,351

$       40,446

Restricted cash included in other assets

543

543

543

543

Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

$       41,894

$        40,989

$        41,894

$       40,989

Couchbase, Inc.

Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Results

(in thousands, except per share data)

(unaudited)

Three Months Ended January 31,

Year Ended January 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

Reconciliation of GAAP gross profit to non-GAAP gross profit:

Total revenue

$               50,089

$               41,623

$            180,037

$            154,824

Gross profit

$               44,949

$               35,671

$            157,955

$            134,565

Add: Stock-based compensation expense

264

260

1,236

968

Add: Employer taxes on employee stock transactions

61

5

147

41

Non-GAAP gross profit

$               45,274

$               35,936

$            159,338

$            135,574

Gross margin

89.7 %

85.7 %

87.7 %

86.9 %

Non-GAAP gross margin

90.4 %

86.3 %

88.5 %

87.6 %

Three Months Ended January 31,

Year Ended January 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

Reconciliation of GAAP operating expenses to non-GAAP operating expenses:

GAAP research and development

$                16,491

$                15,000

$                64,069

$                57,760

Less: Stock-based compensation expense

(3,422)

(2,046)

(12,920)

(7,937)

Less: Employer taxes on employee stock transactions

(181)

(27)

(611)

(165)

Non-GAAP research and development

$                12,888

$                12,927

$                50,538

$                49,658

GAAP sales and marketing

$                34,055

$                29,303

$              130,558

$              111,067

Less: Stock-based compensation expense

(4,310)

(2,563)

(15,771)

(9,426)

Less: Employer taxes on employee stock transactions

(377)

(76)

(1,154)

(294)

Non-GAAP sales and marketing

$                29,368

$                26,664

$              113,633

$              101,347

GAAP general and administrative

$                11,840

$                  8,207

$                42,663

$                33,390

Less: Stock-based compensation expense

(4,630)

(1,922)

(15,846)

(7,390)

Less: Employer taxes on employee stock transactions

(77)

(8)

(341)

(106)

Non-GAAP general and administrative

$                  7,133

$                  6,277

$                26,476

$                25,894

Three Months Ended January 31,

Year Ended January 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

Reconciliation of GAAP operating loss to non-GAAP operating loss:

Total revenue

$            50,089

$            41,623

$          180,037

$          154,824

Loss from operations

$           (22,593)

$           (18,502)

$           (84,537)

$           (69,315)

Add: Stock-based compensation expense

12,626

6,791

45,773

25,721

Add: Employer taxes on employee stock transactions

696

116

2,253

606

Add: Impairment of capitalized internal-use software

5,156

5,156

Add: Restructuring(2)

1,663

46

1,663

Non-GAAP operating loss

$             (4,115)

$             (9,932)

$           (31,309)

$           (41,325)

Operating margin

(45) %

(44) %

(47) %

(45) %

Non-GAAP operating margin

(8) %

(24) %

(17) %

(27) %

Three Months Ended January 31,

Year Ended January 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

Reconciliation of GAAP net loss to non-GAAP net loss:

Net loss

$              (21,402)

$              (16,614)

$              (80,183)

$              (68,494)

Add: Stock-based compensation expense

12,626

6,791

45,773

25,721

Add: Employer taxes on employee stock transactions

696

116

2,253

606

Add: Impairment of capitalized internal-use software

5,156

5,156

Add: Restructuring(2)

1,663

46

1,663

Non-GAAP net loss

$                (2,924)

$                (8,044)

$              (26,955)

$              (40,504)

GAAP net loss per share

$                  (0.44)

$                  (0.37)

$                  (1.70)

$                  (1.53)

Non-GAAP net loss per share

$                  (0.06)

$                  (0.18)

$                  (0.57)

$                  (0.90)

Weighted average shares outstanding, basic and diluted

48,513

45,281

47,175

44,787

_______________________________

(2)

For the twelve months ended January 31, 2024 and the three and twelve months ended January 31, 2023, an immaterial amount of stock-based compensation expense related to restructuring charges was included in the restructuring expense line.

The following table presents a reconciliation of free cash flow to net cash used in operating activities, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, for each of the periods indicated (in thousands, unaudited):

Three Months Ended January 31,

Year Ended January 31,

2024

2023

2024

2023

Net cash used in operating activities

$                (6,450)

$              (10,203)

$              (26,893)

$             (41,185)

Less: Additions to property and equipment

(1,285)

(1,553)

(4,710)

(5,646)

Free cash flow

$                (7,735)

$               (11,756)

$              (31,603)

$             (46,831)

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities

$                (2,667)

$                10,221

$               15,426

$             (23,366)

Net cash provided by financing activities

$                 3,580

$                  1,189

$               12,933

$                9,706

Couchbase, Inc.

Key Business Metrics

(in millions)

(unaudited)

As of

April 30,

July 31,

Oct. 31,

Jan. 31,

April 30,

July 31,

Oct. 31,

Jan. 31,

2022

2022

2022

2023

2023

2023

2023

2024

Annual Recurring Revenue

$     139.7

$     145.2

$     151.7

$     163.7

$     172.2

$     180.7

$     188.7

$     204.2

SOURCE Couchbase, Inc.

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