Berkeley Lights Reports Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results

Second quarter revenue grew 82% year over year

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Aug. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Berkeley Lights, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLI), a leader in Digital Cell Biology, today reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2021.

Recent Highlights

  • Grew total revenue to $19.3 million for the second quarter of 2021, representing an 82% year over year growth and bringing first half revenue to $37.9 million, a 56% increase over the first half of 2020
  • Expanded the installed base to 92 platforms, with seven new direct placements shipped in the quarter
  • Launched TechAccess subscription model expanding customer access to the Berkeley Lights platform
  • Released Opto Plasma B Discovery 4.0, an industry-leading functional antibody discovery workflow, which significantly increases recovered sequence diversity and reduces the cost and labor associated with DNA synthesis, cloning, and re-expression
  • Announced partnership with Bayer to screen individual variants of bioactives with massively high throughput using the Berkeley Lights Platform:
    • Near-term, multi-year revenue opportunity followed by additional service and backend milestone payment opportunities.
    • Marks the first application of Berkeley Lights’ technology in the agricultural sector.
    • Launches Berkeley Lights’ technology as a high throughput functional screening service.

“During the second quarter, we made important progress across our business and saw growing demand for the Berkeley Lights platform,” said Berkeley Lights Chief Executive Officer Eric Hobbs, Ph.D. “We continue to focus on business development partnerships, with industry leaders like Thermo Fisher and Bayer, to develop disruptive workflows and services. These partnerships not only expand the market opportunities for our platform, but also help us to achieve our mission by accelerating cell and gene therapy products into the clinic and helping to drive world-class innovation and standards in sustainability for farmers, consumers, and the environment. Berkeley Lights is uniquely positioned to do this as we provide unprecedented functional information at scale that can unlock revolutionary improvements to human health.”

Quarterly 2021 Financial Results

  Three Months Ended June 30,
(in thousands, except per share data) 2021 2020
  (unaudited) (unaudited)
Revenue $ 19,250    $ 10,569  
Gross profit 12,728   6,962  
Gross margin % 66  % 66  %
Operating expenses 30,577   19,112  
Loss from operations (17,849 ) (12,150 )
Net loss and net comprehensive loss (18,154 ) (12,430 )
Net loss attributable to common stockholders per share, basic and diluted (0.27 ) (4.25 )
Total stock-based compensation 5,629   1,352  

2021 Outlook Reaffirmed

Berkeley Lights continues to expect full year 2021 revenue to be in the range of $90 million to $100 million, representing 40% to 56% growth over the full year of 2020.

Webcast and Conference Call Information

Berkeley Lights will host a conference call to discuss the second quarter 2021 financial results before market open on Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 5:30 a.m Pacific Time/8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. A webcast of the conference call can be accessed at http://investors.berkeleylights.com. The webcast will be archived and available for replay for at least 90 days after the event.

About Berkeley Lights

Berkeley Lights is a leading Digital Cell Biology company focused on enabling and accelerating the rapid development and commercialization of biotherapeutics and other cell-based products for our customers. The Berkeley Lights Platform captures deep phenotypic, functional, and genotypic information for thousands of single cells in parallel and can also deliver the live biology customers desire in the form of the best cells. Our platform is a fully integrated, end-to-end solution, comprising proprietary consumables, including our OptoSelect chips and reagent kits, advanced automation systems, and application software. We developed the Berkeley Lights Platform to provide the most advanced environment for rapid functional characterization of single cells at scale, the goal of which is to establish an industry standard for our customers throughout their cell-based product value chain.

Berkeley Lights’ Beacon and Lightning systems and Culture Station instrument are: FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. All statements contained in this release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our ability to develop, commercialize and achieve market acceptance of our current and planned products and services, our research and development efforts, and other matters regarding our business strategies, use of capital, results of operations and financial position, and plans and objectives for future operations.

In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the words “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors are described under “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and elsewhere in the documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. We caution you that forward-looking statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. As a result, the forward-looking statements may not prove to be accurate. The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by law.

Press Contact
christy.nguyen@berkeleylights.com

Investor Contact
ir@berkeleylights.com

Berkeley Lights, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss (Unaudited)
(In thousands, except share and per share data)

  Three months ended June 30,   Six months ended June 30,
  2021   2020   2021   2020
               
Revenue:              
Product revenue $ 13,021     $ 9,107     $ 26,554     $ 19,790  
Service revenue 6,229     1,462     11,324     4,557  
Total revenue 19,250     10,569     37,878     24,347  
Cost of sales:              
Product cost of sales 3,332     2,384     7,035     5,004  
Service cost of sales 3,190     1,223     5,664     2,402  
Total cost of sales 6,522     3,607     12,699     7,406  
Gross profit 12,728     6,962     25,179     16,941  
Operating expenses:              
Research and development 13,535     11,843     26,562     22,819  
General and administrative 11,725     4,193     20,692     8,190  
Sales and marketing 5,317     3,076     10,923     6,310  
Total operating expenses 30,577     19,112     58,177     37,319  
Loss from operations (17,849 )   (12,150 )   (32,998 )   (20,378 )
Other income (expense):              
Interest expense (356 )   (356 )   (710 )   (713 )
Interest income 43     47     109     198  
Other income (expense), net 34     37     53     62  
Loss before income taxes (18,128 )   (12,422 )   (33,546 )   (20,831 )
Provision for income taxes 26     8     43     24  
Net loss and net comprehensive loss $ (18,154 )   $ (12,430 )   $ (33,589 )   $ (20,855 )
               
Net loss attributable to common stockholders per share, basic and diluted $ (0.27 )   $ (4.25 )   $ (0.51 )   $ (7.29 )
Weighted-average shares used in calculating net loss per share, basic and diluted 66,790,755     3,109,545     66,029,307     3,078,756  

Berkeley Lights, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
(In thousands, except share and per share data)

Assets June 30,
2021
  December 31,
2020
  (unaudited)    
Current assets:      
Cash and cash equivalents $ 215,077     $ 233,408  
Trade accounts receivable 19,760     12,939  
Inventory 12,572     11,047  
Prepaid expenses and other current assets 8,115     8,175  
Total current assets 255,524     265,569  
Restricted cash 270     270  
Property and equipment, net 20,839     14,544  
Operating lease right-of-use assets 15,724     16,718  
Other assets 3,357     2,557  
Total assets $ 295,714     $ 299,658  
Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity      
Current liabilities:      
Trade accounts payable $ 8,727     $ 3,491  
Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 10,501     8,401  
Current portion of notes payable     11,594  
Deferred revenue 8,258     5,482  
Total current liabilities 27,486     28,968  
Notes payable, net of current portion 19,673     8,301  
Deferred revenue, net of current portion 1,875     1,709  
Operating lease liability, noncurrent 14,841     15,899  
Total liabilities 63,875     54,877  
Stockholders’ equity:      
Convertible preferred stock      
Common stock 4     3  
Additional paid-in capital 457,308     436,662  
Accumulated deficit (225,473 )   (191,884 )
Total stockholders’ equity 231,839     244,781  
  Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 295,714     $ 299,658