Q3 2023 PowerFleet Inc Earnings Call
Participants
Steve Towe; CEO; PowerFleet Inc,
David Wilson; CFO; PowerFleet Inc,
Scott Searle; Analyst; ROTH MKM Scott
Mike Walkley; Analyst; Canaccord Genuity
Jaeson Schmidt; Analyst; Lake Street
Gary Prestopino; Analyst; Barrington Research
Presentation
Operator
Good morning. Welcome to power fleet's Third Quarter 2023 conference call. Joining us for today's presentation is the Company's CEO, Steve Towe, and CFO, David Wilson. Following their remarks, we will open up the call for questions.
Before we begin the call, I would like to provide PowerFleet Safe Harbor statement that includes cautions regarding forward-looking statements made during this call. During the call, there will be forward-looking statements made regarding future events, including PowerFleet, future financial performance, all statements other than present and historical facts, which include any statements regarding the company's plans for future operations, anticipated future financial position, anticipated results of operation, business strategy, competitive position, company's expectations regarding opportunities for growth, demand for the Company's product offering and other industry trends are considered forward-looking statements.
Such statements include but are not limited to the Company's financial expectations for 2023 and beyond. All such forward-looking statements imply the presence of risks, uncertainties, and contingencies, many of which are beyond the Company's control. The company's actual results, performance or achievements may differ materially from those projected or assumed in any forward-looking statements.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially could include amongst others, SEC filings, overall economic and business conditions, demand for the Company's products and services, competitive factors, emergence of new technologies and the Company's cash position. The Company does not intend to undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
And finally, I would like to remind everyone that this call will be made available for replay in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.powerfleet.com.
Now I would like to turn the call over to PowerFleet, CEO, Mr. Steve Towe, sir, please proceed.
Steve Towe
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here today. In today's call, I will share an update on our Q3 performance as well as spending some time reviewing progress on the strategic pillars of the business.
Turning first to our Q3 performance, we're delighted to report a strong set of Q3 financial results our commitment to evolve into a high-quality SaaS business required us to take brave decisions to manage existing revenues in ways where our success will become clearer in quarters rather than months.
In essence, we've been executing a private equity style transformative playbook in the public markets. Central to this strategy is building a pipeline of high-margin product sales. The pull through sticky high-margin test revenue while shedding non-core and non-profitable product business, we have been clear that executing this transition would result in revenues coming down through early to mid-2023 before reaching an inflection point where higher product revenue will begin to flow through the P&L in the second half of 2023.
I'm pleased to report this inflection point is now evident in our numbers. Our Q3 total revenue performance was our best result in four quarters. Total revenue increased by 7% sequentially. Q3 product revenue increased quarter over quarter by an impressive 19% at a much improved gross margin at the same time as service revenue increased by 11% on a constant currency basis year-over-year.
Looking at adjusted EBITDA we made a commitment that we would take the necessary steps to absorb the cost and cash burn of our investments in engineering talent following our Q1 moving data acquisition, clear success here is evident in our Q3 numbers with sequential adjusted EBITDA increasing threefold to $2 million. David will dive into more details on our financial performance shortly, I view the quarterly earnings cycle as an opportunity to provide an overview of strategic and operational changes in the business and as a regular opportunity for our stakeholders to evaluate whether we are achieving the objectives we set at the revised business strategy following my appointment in January 2022.
The overriding reason I took the helm of PowerFleet was a conviction that it provided the starting foundation to build a world-class business and ultimately create a highly valued and appreciated SaaS assets in the industry to realize this vision, it was essential to execute a substantial transformation plan at pace to succeed. We took aggressive and decisive actions designed to enable PowerFleet to have a credible shot at being at the forefront of the data-led fashion revolution of the industry in the years to come.
This remains a bold and ambitious mission capacity, our investors and now our partners for mix. Telematics trust is a key currency and successfully navigating this kind of transition and is built by following through on your commitments, a common mantra. For those of you who have joined me on this journey so far is the commitment of the PowerFleet team to say what we do and do what we say to demonstrate that these words have substance.
I will now share proof points from the revolutionary change program, focusing on the three major areas we knew we would need to significantly transform in the first two years of my journey 1st scale, second technology and third, the shape and health of our P&L and balance sheet looking at scale, we're not here to be an also ran in the industry.
We're here to secure place at the very top table. I'm convinced there will be four to five consolidated global players that will dominate the space over time and we very much intend to be one of them to get there we need the depth of resources to invest at the level the market demands and have the breadth of data-led solution capability to feed, refine and evolve best-in-class engines, earning the right to be a mission-critical provider in an integrated fashion for a Jive customer base.
With the announcement of the mixed combination, both organizations have taken a massive step towards securing the necessary scale, anticipated achievements of the transaction to support the combined strategy include annual revenues increasing from $135 million to $280 million, adjusted EBITDA increasing from $7 million to $39 million.
The number of subscribers on our platforms increasing from 700,000 to $1.8 million. The engineering team going from 90 to over 230 colleagues and enterprise customers growing from 3,500 to more than 7.5 years.
Now of technology, where the Unity, AI and data platform strategy has been validated by customers and industry analysts alike. It was also pivotal to make this decision to combine forces with PowerFleet. Josh and his team have produced a successful incredibly well-run business has been steeped in the industry for over 25 years.
The fact that they believe wholeheartedly that the Unity vision is the right one to take a leading position in a fast-evolving industry is a compelling validation for the unique Unity data, highway and integrated ecosystem.
Another proud achievement this year remains the Q1 acquisition of moving dots, which secured some unique IP in the insurance space alongside a sizable team of data scientists and AI experts with deep domain knowledge, we believe that the combined engineering teams and data sets of PowerFleet and mix will provide the strategic pillars for us to be a technological and market leader in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence of things or IoT space driven through the Unity platform.
Now on to the evolution of our P&L and balance sheet. I shared at the start of this call our progress against the strategy to evolve the P&L to successfully build a pipeline of strategic product sales pull through sticky, high-margin SaaS revenue while shedding non-core and non-profitable product business and that we've reached the inflection point in our strong Q3 performance.
I would like to add some more color on the strategic evolution of our P&L and balance sheet. Looking at the geographical distribution of revenue, we've been very clear that we would directly address the mindshare and hidden cost drag of our subscale businesses in Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa.
That's a single stroke. Our announced combination with mix enables us to retain and scale these books of business particularly in South Africa, which will combine with mixes, powerful local operation and Brazil, where reaching critical mass on a combined basis now comes true.
With regards to the balance sheet, the mix combination provides an elegant and shareholder-friendly pathway to meet our commitments suggested challenging every preferred instrument based on any measure. These are major accomplishments across all three areas, and this is a testament to the ability of the team to deliver compelling results against ambitious targets.
As I approach my two-year anniversary, I'm proud to say that the prospects in the strategic potential of the business are transformed the right chess pieces are now in place for the next phase of Allergan, a phase that is centered on realizing significant enterprise value for our shareholders ahead of sharing insights and thoughts on this, I'll ask David to walk through our third quarter results in detail. David?
David Wilson
Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. Continuing the spirit of transparency and accountability. Of course, we provide an update on the key strategic priorities that I called out on our prior calls before providing additional insight on the numbers.
Strategic priority number one is to accelerate our business transformation while living within the limits of our current balance sheet. Our October 10th mixed business combination announcement is a game changer. While the realized results from our cut to cover activities are moving dots with adjusted EBITDA tripling sequentially demonstrate a team that can execute decisively and at pace.
While these initiatives are major wins, they naturally created some headwind in our short-term financial results with $1.4 million in one-time transaction rationalization expenses incurred in the quarter by a number two is to improve the underlying operating leverage of our business by implementing a common and scalable software platform across all geographies.
The central tenants of this initiative is the rollout of a global ERP system and as I'm sure you can appreciate our business combination with mix significantly increases the scale of this endeavor and presented us with alternative pathways.
Based on our initial review, we concluded that the most expeditious option to get the entire global business on a single ERP instance, is to standardize our mix dynamics three 65 solution that is actively being rolled out. It global ERP is of critical importance, both to realizing millions of dollars in spend efficiencies and building out a rich set of SaaS metrics that provide proof points on the durability of revenue and operating leverage inherent in our business model.
ERPs, a major work stream for integration planning and execution, and we will continue to provide regular insights and updates on future calls. Now on to our financial performance for the quarter.
Starting with revenue, the underlying quality is radically improved versus the prior year, while total revenue for the quarter ended September 30 23, of $34.2 million was in line with last year. Approximately $2 million of low value product revenue has been actively shed from the business and replaced with high margin service revenue up 4% on an absolute basis and over 11% on a constant currency basis.
Additionally, our product sales are increasingly high margin differentiated and centered on pulling through sticky SaaS revenue success here is evident in sequential performance where product margins increased from 22% to over 30%.
Total gross profit margin for the quarter of 50% was in line with the prior year. Product gross margin of 33% benefited from $400,000 in out-of-period import duty recovery on an adjusted basis, product margin was 30%.
Meanwhile, service gross margin of 61% was hindered by $400,000 in out of period infrastructure expense and $300,000 in utility depreciation expense. Adjusting for these items, service gross margin was in line with the 64% posted in the prior year on to operating expenses, which increased by $2 million to $20.4 million compared to the same ago period with the current year impacted by onetime deal and rationalization costs of $1.4 million.
Net loss attributed to common shareholders totaled $5 million or $0.14 per basic and diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA was $2 million, three times higher than the prior quarter following cut to cover activities for moving dirt. Our balance sheet remained strong at quarter-end with $19.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and a working capital position of $34.5 million.
Looking to the future. We recognize that the macro environment poses certain challenges in specific markets and regions. Specifically, the ongoing conflict in Israel has understandably brought about temporary fluctuations in product demand and foreign currency challenges.
It is worthy to note that over 80% of our book of business in Israel is recurring subscription revenue that is centered on transportation, safety, and security and essential versus discretionary needs. Most importantly, I'm relieved to report that despite the horrific ongoing effects from related strain to all those impacted, our Israeli team members are currently safe, and our facilities remain unaffected.
While we continue to closely monitor the situation, this assurance of safety is paramount. We have also enacted our business continuity plan to ensure we have redundant capabilities for the services our Israeli team provides to our global business, particularly around supply chain and distribution. That concludes my remarks. Steve?
Steve Towe
Thanks, David. Our Q3 financial results are a testament to the exceptional execution by our global team. These on-plan results are particularly impressive when you take it into consideration, they were achieved in the midst of an immense effort to sign our transformative business combination with mix.
Moving back to the overall view of the business, we continue to gain strong traction. This is especially true as we witnessed the resounding success of Unity our safety driven Industrial Solutions and our Connected Car offerings. In Q3.
We are delighted to announce new logo wins in North America with the likes of Valvoline Summit construction and development our glass and CMC and major account expansion projects with the likes of netback, Brink's General Motors, Georgia-Pacific and Samson.
From a market development perspective, safety remains at the very heart of what we do here are some examples of what we achieved in Q3. PowerFleet expanded its existing relationship with Mitsubishi lodging, next America, MLA., the fourth largest forklift manufacturer in the world, we signed a white-label agreement, creating a competitive advantage for MLA.
As an additional revenue stream for PowerFleet, the US Department of Transportation launch initiative and subsequent campaign to reduce the rising number of serious injuries and deaths on America's highway roads and streets. After an extensive review process, how fleets now Unity platform was selected as a partner to join the US Department of Transportation's efforts to improve road safety.
ABI Research, a leading analyst in the IoT industry released a competitive report that compared vendors of video safety solutions to provide a third party assessment and ranking after full assessment process, which include innovation, criteria like solution options, user experience and use cases, PowerFleet was named as a top innovator and ranked within the top five providers in the world to close off our prepared remarks on their expectations on what the combined PowerFleet and mix team is committed to deliver over the coming quarters.
In a similar fashion to my initial commitments I made for the business at the beginning of 2022, delivery will be across the following three vectors technology, financial performance and realizing shareholder value.
Starting with technology, we will continue to strengthen and broaden the capabilities of Unity and demonstrate. This is a true software platform capable of expanding wallet share with our existing customers as well as acting as a powerful magnet for new ones.
Unity's on the path to become a platform, an ecosystem that in the future will go well beyond traditional telematics, scaling our device agnostic and data ingestion capabilities, harnessing our IR lead insights for customers and providing flexibility on how they consume those insights, whether through our advanced applications or other integration points positions. Unity is a true data highway and ecosystem hub for broader IoT use case.
Looking at financial performance, we expect to deliver accelerated revenue growth. we expect to realize readily available revenue synergies from the combination source from compelling cross-sell and upsell opportunities through the combined complementary product portfolios.
PowerFleet solutions will also benefit from the global reach of mixing the 120 indirect channel partners expect Unity to be an engine driving a steady quarterly decline of net dollar retention, best-in-class levels through the following areas.
The device agnostic capabilities of Unity expand the rich set of revenue generating subscribers well beyond those, we directly supply, high-value added modules and integration points provides significant headroom on the amount of revenue we can generate per subscriber.
And finally, our solutions become increasingly sticky as the value of the data that we provide reaches well beyond the underlying asset owner in organizations expect rapidly expanding adjusted EBITDA, the opportunities coming out of the combination of both substantial and readily accessible, and we expect adjusted EBITDA to more than double from a trailing 12 months starting point.
And finally, expect best-in-class Rule of 40 financial performance within two years of close, Noah, on to shareholder value creation, where we expect to take major strides in recalibrating the way PowerFleet is viewed and valued by the market. Areas of focus include the following.
The mix combination provides size and scale that will enable us to attract a much broader set of investors. The steady release of Unity IoT powered offerings will enable us to break away from the markets traditional view of telematics devices.
The rollout of our global ERP for the combined company will allow us to report an increasingly rich set of SaaS metrics, which will provide clarity and transparency on the quality and durability of our recurring revenue book of business with a specific focus on net dollar retention and finally, securing an enterprise value that is underpinned by a Rule of 40 revenue multiple.
We clearly now have a compelling short to midterm value proposition to present to the markets and as a result, we will be intensifying our investor outreach. This starts next week where the joint PowerFleet and mixed team will attend the ROTH Investor Conference in midtown Manhattan.
On November 15th, we will host our joint investor day with mix at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel in midtown Manhattan at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on November the 16th. David will be joining the mix team at the Raymond James TMT Conference in New York on December 5th. And finally, we plan to execute an investor roadshow early in the new year. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at these events.
I will now turn it back over to the operator for Q&A. Operator?
Question and Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions)
And our first question this morning is coming from Scott Searle from ROTH MKM Scott, your line is live. Please go ahead.
Scott Searle
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions and nice job on the quarter, guys. I know it's a difficult macro backdrop, David, maybe just quickly for clarification on my audio was a little choppy. I wanted to clarify if there was $1.4 million of transformation costs in the quarter. Wanted to confirm that it sounds like the ERP systems that you're going to use going forward are going to be mix.
Wanted to just clarify that as well. And then immediately in the December quarter, how are you expecting things to trend sequentially? I know there's some macro headwinds out there, particularly in markets like Israel, but just wondering if you could quickly comment on how, you see things progressing in the intermediate term or near term before we start to see the combination impact from mix?
David Wilson
Thanks, Scott. So, in terms of the choppy audio, the $1.4 million that referred to one-time costs incurred in the quarter, both in terms of the transaction costs for the mixed deals, in addition to certain rationalization costs attached to the ongoing cost reduction to cover moving data. So that was the $1.4 million that was referred to in the prepared remarks.
Yes. In terms of the Pay, we have obviously evaluated both the Net Suite path that we will run as well as the dynamics 365 past that the next time we're on. And as we have looked at it, the most expeditious and the quickest way for us to go in a common platform is actually to move with the dynamic's platform. So again, that will be a very important piece of work that we'll be planning for between now and close and aggressively executing post-close.
And so with that in terms of that piece and then in terms of looking forward to future financial performance. The key issue is obviously Israel, and it is obviously a very important piece of our business. As I referred to in the prepared remarks, the vast majority that revenue is recurring in nature. It is also an essential need as opposed to a discretionary need. And so last quarter, Israeli business was just north of sort of $10 million.
So round about $2 million in product tightening recurring services we expect the recurring services piece to hold up very well. And so other than FX issues. And obviously the FX rate has actually improved over the last week or so, but it was clearly weaker earlier in the quarter. There will be some exposure there.
And then from a product standpoint, a fair amount of that product revenue is actually sold to the consumer at through dealerships. And you can appreciate that's a piece of the market that will be definitely sort of softened in terms of demand just given what's going on in the country. So that's the sort of key headwind.
But in terms of the fundamentals of the business, we're performing well, obviously, very clear in our Q3 numbers, and we're building up a very nice head of steam. So, the fundamentals are very, very strong, and we think we can absorb these ready headwinds.
Scott Searle
Very good. And Steve, if I could, from a high level, it seems like you continue to add more logos. You get add-ons with existing customers, and you had 11%, I think growth in the services side year-over-year in constant currency. Could you comment a little bit in terms of what the total TCV opportunity pipeline looks like?
I think over the last couple of quarters, you had some relatively big growth on a sequential basis. How is that trending on also kind of the initial count when you start to look at the combination with mix and upsell opportunities. What does that look like?
And also just competitively now you're a different company. Would you had to make scale in terms of reach and product breadth? How are you doing in terms of getting to the table now with some sort of Geotab? Is it changing the dialogue out in the marketplace in terms of how you guys are perceived? Thanks.
David Wilson
So, and firstly, Scott, I don't think we've ever given a full TCV pipeline number. We've talked about the growth sequentially. It's continued so round about net around $35 to $40 million of new pipeline has been added, which is great. And I think in terms of customer sentiment towards the business, it's extremely strong.
So, both this pathway to a loan you've seen every quarter we come out with the new logos and the account expansions, you see the broader market and appreciation that we're starting to receive now and that kind of links in as well to the positioning with mix in terms of being a business at scale.
So, we've already seen more inbound interest. I think, Ken, this takes us to almost the very top table. And I think, you know, we are now seeing ourselves in a position where we will fight more business against the biggest boys in the industry. And we're confident about chances in those interactions as well.
Scott Searle
Great. Thanks so much. I'll get back in the queue and look forward to seeing you guys' next week at our conference in the Analyst Day, all the best.
David Wilson
Thank you, Scott.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question is coming from Mike Walkley from Canaccord Genuity. Mike, your line is live. Please go ahead.
Mike Walkley
Thank you. And congratulations on the strong results and our prayers and best wishes to your Israel employee base. And I guess to start off very strong quarter in gross margin on which has been part of your strategy, I guess, David, on the hardware side, is 30% kind of a good number to think about going forward? Or are there anything we should think about on a mix for your stand-alone business in terms of gross margin trends?
David Wilson
Yes. So, in terms of the 30%, that is definitely a target that we've spoken about in the past in terms of the quarter itself. So clearly very. rong centered in North America, which is sort of at the forefront in terms of gaining traction in terms of the yearly stories. So that's an important piece of it.
So, I would say 30% is reflective of expectations on a go forward basis there's always some and that when you use with mix. Obviously, mix is a challenging word to use. But within our business, there's often sort of mix issues in terms of things that are highly differentiated.
For example, like our Industrial Solutions, we have more pricing power there than maybe the logistics side of things. So, there's always some sort of fluctuations, but I think on a blended basis at 30% and then growing from there is a good expectation to have.
And just coming out with the top of that. And yes, as we signaled in terms of taking out the lower product margin business and unprofitable product lines. That was the reason that we were down where we were. So this is a great proof point in terms of the new pipeline that we've built the execution of that new pipeline and our commitment to do higher margin profitable business.
Mike Walkley
No, great that's good explanation. Congrats on that execution. As you're coming out the other side. I guess just a follow-up question, building on some of Scott's questions just and the pipeline of business. Sounds like Israel, as expected, the products could be a little soft North America has been a strong business year to date. Have you seen kind of the pipeline and trends feel different to regions?
David Wilson
And so I mean if you look at the North American year to date and quarterly results. That was our number one focus. It's our number one, strategic and arena that we think we can get to a very high level in terms of market leadership. And I think that is playing out well and the pipeline strength there is growing, as is our reputation. It took a while for us to be known in the market.
And I think now to kind of Scott's earlier question as well, we're starting to see pharma inbound interest into the business as we go. So that's very strong. Europe will be a big growth area for us in 2024. So and as you're aware, we've invested in Europe and we've got a nice pipeline building there I'm very competent in terms of our abilities to execute and considering particularly in the background and experience that I and others that I bought into the business, half of that market.
I think our kind of Latin American business was naturally in a place of uncertainty. And since we've now been able to settle the future of that business and we're going to have businesses of scale and with a mixed combination, then we're starting to see pipeline grow again.
And from Israel perspective, despite the fact that we naturally in the short term, have some headwinds the development of pipeline, particularly in the B2B space is still remains strong for the medium term. So I think if you look overall, we're getting traction now we're getting the proof point in terms of the new strategy units is really coming out of the top in terms of being able to get incremental and opportunities for revenue.
And then if you take the mix combination then of in terms of the solutions that mix have that we don't have particularly the strong in-cab and logistic stuff that we're not so no cotton and then vice versa. In terms of the industrial solutions that will be available to all mix territories. We can definitely see the path to the incremental growth rates that we're alluding to.
Mike Walkley
Great. Well, congrats on all that you've accomplished to date in our past life.
David Wilson
Thanks, Mike.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is coming from Jaeson Schmidt from Lake Street. Jaeson, your line is live.
Please go ahead.
Jaeson Schmidt
I guess thanks for taking my questions. Just given the macro backdrop, curious what you're seeing from a pricing standpoint, if you've seen it get a lot more competitive. I know the telematics space is always fairly competitive, but have you seen any significant changes just given the current macro?
David Wilson
I think we're seeing some competitor desperation is how I would describe it. So business is trying to be one and at very low rates, we're not going there. I mean, you've seen from our strategy over the last year, for us, we would rather take small selective over revenue in terms of maintaining and growing profitability.
And I think we're selling far more value. So particularly in the North American market we have hired a very good set of enterprise software sales folks who concentrate very much on the value proposition across the C-suite, and that's allowing us to hold pricing.
So no doubt the pressures out there. And but again, we're very have very strong conviction in terms of the growth of EBITDA and the growth of revenue alongside it based on the quality of pipeline that we're delivering, and we think there's more than enough out there for us to be comfortable.
Jaeson Schmidt
Okay. That's really helpful. And then just as a follow up, are you seeing any meaningful headwinds from the supply chain.
David Wilson
In terms of component supply for ourselves?
Jaeson Schmidt
Correct.
David Wilson
Now, we are we have we've done an awful lot of work in terms of dual and triple sourcing capabilities. And again, a big shout out to the Israeli supply chain distribution team in terms of how they go about sourcing and making sure that we've got enough inventory to fulfill. So very confident, again, that as long as our sales team can deliver them, we'll be able to supply effectively in the coming quarter.
Jaeson Schmidt
All right. Perfect. Thanks a lot guys as to.
Operator
Thank you. Your next question is coming from Gary Prestopino, from Barrington Research. Gary, your line is live. Please go ahead.
Gary Prestopino
Thanks. Good morning, Steve and David, a couple of questions.
First of all, David, you called out a couple of one-time are expenses related to the gross profit on services and I couldn't write them down. Could you just go through that again, please?
David Wilson
Yes, absolutely. So, there's two that offset each other. One is a $400,000 pickup in terms of just import duty from prior periods. Sort of a rebate there that benefited the product margin side of things. And we've also been very active in terms of just working the infrastructure side of things as we transform things.
And there was a catch-up billing that came through to the tune of $400,000 that sort of offset the benefit from the duty standpoint. So again, from a total gross margin standpoint, this thing is neutral, but that was the pickup that sort of hindered service margins in the quarter?
Gary Prestopino
Well, you're saying one thing for product, one things for service. I'm trying to I'm trying to understand what you said that there was there was something that impacted the services margins because it was down year over year. So that's what I'm trying to get at was that yet, although on one-time issue or is that something that's going to be ongoing?
David Wilson
It is two issues. So one is a one-time issue, which is this $400,000 out of period infrastructure costs that impacted margins.
The other thing that has happened and is more prominent this quarter is an increase, a significant step up in terms of the amount of depreciation we're taking on the Unity platform after that was about a $300,000 hit. That will be something that will obviously continue on a go forward basis.
The only thing I'd add there is the amount of operating leverage on Unity is massive just because that's essentially a fixed cost and versus the revenue growth that we'll be enjoying on the back of that investment. So, there is a pickup in terms of non-cash, costs that have impacted gross margin this quarter and that will be an impact next quarter, too.
Gary Prestopino
Okay. And then is it safe to assume that most of the impact on the currency dealt with the Israel shekel?
David Wilson
Yes,
Gary Prestopino
Ok and then David, can you? I'm sorry, Steve, could you maybe talk about the Unity platform? How much is that helping to drive new logos as well as where are you with trying to get the, you know, your base business, your base customer base to accept or adopt the platform. I assume it's very early stages at this point.
Steve Towe
And so it's significantly helping us in the race to win new business and Unisys a consolidation platform. So, a lot of our customers have multiple providers because this is a fragmented market. So we hope to be able to see their data and harmonize in one single place is too protracted to them.
They also have too much data too many operating systems, and they are looking for someone to help them simplify that to integrate those data sources into the different ways that people want to consume it, which is, you know, fairly unique in this market.
So that simplification that ease of use. The ability for us to really kind of take people on a digital transformation journey also is helping us to win new business plus then the value-added modules with, you know, better more predictive AI insights on top and making the business benefit case a lot smarter for customers.
So that's all-in terms of and the reasons why we are winning more new logos and why people are now seeing us as a differentiated solution. That's number one and then number two and number two, in terms of people adopting Unity.
So, the way that we put units together is everyone sees their existing functionality that they previously saw in a heritage platform on Unity today. So, in fact, you the customers on Unity. What they then have the ability to do is take on top of that, the value-added services of more device and data ingestion, more integration and the value-added modules that are kind of premium modules on top of the feature functions that they have today. So, it's a very easy path.
We are fairly early still in kind of the upsell process of that. So, we have put together an inside sales team that is now just going out and kind of and really kind of having those good conversations. And this is all kind of RPU uplift that we will see continue in the future. So that that's all part of the strategy.
And as I said, the competence and proof points are very strong today.
Gary Prestopino
Okay, thank you, and then just briefly comment on your markets, industrial logistics. I believe the third one was transport transportation was done. How did they perform in the quarter and what would be the outlook going into Q4 for those market segments?
Steve Towe
So as well as our safety solutions across the board, whether that's safety in the warehouse or safety on the road. And so we looked at not just by vertical, but and kind of are we are we in the warehouse or are we a truck or are we a light commercial or are we a car, we look at it as kind of the solutions we're delivering.
So safety solutions across the piece, we're seeing extremely strong traction pool and a lock-in low in the warehouse in terms of the pedestrian proximity alert solutions that we have and a strong kind of and I think sway towards video solutions, you know, as we talked about the ABI research piece and the logistics kind of, I would say more commoditized stuff is still the clunky area for us.
And I think, you know, people are still weighing up their overall needs following the post pandemic and rationalizing their assets estate. So, we don't see huge growth at that end, but that is more kind of as I say the lower of our per revenue that we enjoy today. And but it's not kind of the key growth area for us moving forward.
So moving into Q4, moving into Q1, we are seeing pipelines around safety, insurance, sustainability, and compliance. It's really strong. And that's where we focused our efforts in terms of solution design, in terms of marketing and in terms of being the best of the best because we truly believe that if we win the race in that space, then web where customers want to consolidate, have fewer suppliers than we will we will win the traditional telematics business alongside it.
And so far, the early signs of that strategy are coming through nicely.
Gary Prestopino
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And there are no further questions in queue at this time and the Q&A session has now concluded. I would now like to turn the floor back to Steve Towe for closing remarks.
Sorry, Steve, to start turning the floor back to Steve for closing remarks at this time.
Steve Towe
Thank you. Sorry, I had a slight audio problem there. So, everyone, thank you for the insightful questions, and thanks again to everyone joining us this morning. As I mentioned, we'll be hosting an Investor Day alongside the mixed team next Thursday, November 16th at 2 p.m. Eastern time in New York City.
If you're interested in attending this event, please get in touch with our Investor Relations representative, Matt Glover from Gateway group who can provide you with all the necessary information. We look forward to seeing many of you next week until then, take care and talk to you soon.
Operator
Thank you for joining us today for our presentation. You may now disconnect.