2023 Nasdaq Listing Strategically Positions Company to Accelerate Growth and Revenue, and Product Launches Drive Strong Demand Across Entire Product Set Reflected in $10.9 Million Award from Department of Homeland Security

2024 $11.8 Million Backlog Plus Pipeline of $140 million Expected to Drive Triple-Digit Revenue Growth and Positive EBIDTA

Expanding Footprint Driven by Demand from Fortune 500 Customers, and U.S. Federal Government and Department of Defense Agencies with Strong Focus on Advanced Technologies for Enhanced Border Protection

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Airship AI Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:AISP) ("Airship AI" or the "Company"), a leader in AI-driven video, sensor, and data management surveillance solutions, today issued a letter to stockholders from Paul Allen, Airship AI President, providing a reflection on the performance and achievements of the Company throughout 2023. Additionally, it shares guidance for a robust performance in 2024, highlighting the avenues for continued growth and success.

Dear Fellow Stockholders,

2023 was a transformative year in many ways for Airship AI and for our technology and business, highlighted by our Nasdaq listing in December through a business combination with BYTE Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:BYTS), a special purpose acquisition company. Our entry into the public markets serves multiple purposes, including the ability to raise capital for expansion and growth and, more importantly, financial transparency, a frequent discussion point with many larger government agencies with whom Airship is engaged.

Throughout calendar year 2023 we saw robust demand across our entire product set, including our newly announced AI driven edge appliance (Outpost AI). Significant progress was made across many customer fronts in the law enforcement space, both at the federal and state / local levels, as was our expansion into new solution areas within existing commercial accounts. 2023 also highlighted significant investments in our internal capabilities to handle future growth responsibly, including the tools and processes needed to forecast and report on a timely basis.

2023 Initiatives Accomplished:

Next generation release of our Outpost AI edge appliance utilizing Nvidia Jetson Orin module
Multiple new Airship trained AI models released supporting advanced AI processing at the edge
Transition to new cloud business management suite for all our CRM, ERP, Accounting processes
New product launch of turn-key solutions for government customers leveraging Outpost AI
Federal Government agency expansion from on-premises to the FedRAMP Cloud environment
New customer acquisition with several U.S. Federal Government agencies
New customer acquisition with several major state and local law enforcement agencies
Improved delivery and gross margin with transition of hardware product line to new supplier

Nevertheless, 2023 was also a challenging year given the heavy lift of the activities associated with the transition to the public markets as an employee-owned company. Additionally, supply chain challenges with large orders received in Q3 impacted our Q4 and full year numbers. Rising to meet these challenges, we are carrying significant momentum into 2024 and look forward to building sustainable value for the long-term.

2024 Outlook

We believe 2024 will be a milestone year for Airship AI, getting back to a trajectory of triple-digit revenue growth and positive EBITDA. Our momentum is supported in part by the $10.9 million award of the combined orders from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which include our edge Outpost AI appliance. These, combined with other orders received late in the second half of 2023, represent an approximate $11.8 million backlog that will be delivered and invoiced across Q1 and Q2 of 2024.

In addition to this strong backlog of orders, we are carrying a validated pipeline of approximately $140 million into 2024, including opportunities that rolled over from 2023. This pipeline consists of single and multi-year opportunities for our AI-driven edge, video, and sensor and data management platform across all our customer verticals. We additionally believe the intense focus on the crisis along the U.S. borders will continue to heighten demand for AI driven border surveillance solutions, an area of significant focus for Airship both tactically and strategically going into the new year.

In addition to our visible and robust pipeline, we intend to further leverage our new position as a public company to make additional tactical and strategic investments across our sales, marketing and development organizations. These investments should allow us to further capitalize on the explosive growth that we see across the $7.0 billion edge AI hardware and software addressable markets1 today, leveraging our existing Outpost AI hardware and software platform offering as well as expanding our core software offerings in support of existing customers and opportunities.

We also see significant expansionary opportunities in the commercial and retail markets, especially around those companies involved in fighting Organized Retail Crime (ORC), a space we view as the perfect nexus opportunity between public and private sector organizations tackling a common challenge. We believe by leveraging our existing relationships and technical solutions with both public and private sector organizations, we are uniquely positioned to help solve some of the challenges associated with ORC.

Finally, many of the back-office investments made in 2023 will help drive the continued expansion of margins through improved sourcing, supply chain management and production-based process efficiencies. These efforts along with a continued focus on improving development cycles and time to market for new solutions complement the aggressive growth forecasted.

We thank all our stockholders for your ongoing support as we diligently work to build on the short- and long-term value of our Company and look forward to seeing some of you at our on-site investor day planned to take place in the coming months.

1) Edge AI Hardware Market by Component, Valuates Reports