About Lightspeed Commerce

Lightspeed Commerce Inc. (Lightspeed) offers a cloud-based commerce platform that connects suppliers, merchants and consumers while enabling omni-channel experiences. The company’s software platform provides its customers with the critical functionality they need to engage with consumers, manage their operations, accept payments, and grow their businesses. The company serves customers globally, empowering single- and multi-location retailers, restaurants, golf course operators and other companies to compete successfully in an omni-channel market environment by engaging with consumers across online, mobile, social, and physical channels. The company primarily targets SMBs with its easy to use and solutions. The company’s cloud platform is designed around three interrelated elements: omni-channel consumer experience, a comprehensive back-office operations management suite to improve its customers’ efficiency and insight, and the facilitation of payments. Key functionalities of the company’s platform include full omni-channel capabilities, POS, product and menu management, employee and inventory management (including ordering), analytics and reporting, multi-location connectivity, order-ahead and curbside pickup functionality, loyalty, customer management and tailored financial solutions, such as Lightspeed Payments and Lightspeed Capital. By delivering its solutions through the cloud, the company enables merchants to reduce dependency on the brick and mortar channel and interact with customers anywhere (in store, online, mobile and social), gain a deeper understanding of their customers and operations by tracking activity and key metrics across all channels, and update inventory, run analytics, change menus, send promotions and otherwise manage their business operations from any location. The company’s flagship solutions include Lightspeed Restaurant, a unified hospitality commerce offering, and Lightspeed Retail, a groundbreaking retail commerce offering that unites advanced POS, payments, and eCommerce into one cohesive and powerful solution. In addition, Lightspeed eCommerce allows merchants to enhance omnichannel reach and increase selling flexibility, including through social media platforms and digital marketplaces. The company’s new flagship solutions are seeing strong reception from customers globally. NuORDER by Lightspeed, once fully integrated, will provide customers with greater supplier access and inventory visibility, automate manual ordering, consolidate supplier portals into the POS, streamline omni-channel operations by making it easy to import product details and photos into the POS, and ensure use of supplier approved brand names and images. Going deep into verticals will also create opportunities for the company to monetize its data up and down the supply chain. In Fiscal 2023, the company announced the initial launch of Lightspeed B2B, its B2B offering, to several key North American verticals: fashion, outdoor, bikes and sporting goods. The company’s platform is built to scale with its customers, supporting them as they open new locations, and offering increasingly sophisticated solutions as their business requirements become more complex. The company’s platform helps SMBs avoid having to piece together multiple, and often disjointed, applications from various providers to leverage the technology they need to run and grow their businesses. The company’s ecosystem of development, channel and installation partners further reinforces the scalability of its solutions, making them customizable and extensible. The company works alongside its customers through their business journey by providing industry-leading onboarding and support services, and fundamentally believe that its success is directly connected to their success. To further complement its core cloud solutions, the company offers a merchant cash advance program called Lightspeed Capital. This program provides cash advances to eligible merchants and is designed to help them with overall business growth and cash management. Merchants use these cash advances to manage their cash flows, to buy inventory, and to invest in marketing, amongst other things. The company sells its solutions primarily through its direct sales force in North America, Europe, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, supplemented by indirect channels in other countries around the world. The company’s platform is well-suited for various types of SMBs, particularly single- and multi-location retailers with complex operations, such as those with a high product count, diverse inventory needs or a service component, golf course operators and hospitality customers. The company generates revenue primarily from the sale of cloud-based software subscriptions and its payments solutions. The company’s subscription plans vary from monthly plans to one-year and multi-year terms. The company has also integrated its software with various third party payment processors who pay it a revenue share of the payment processing revenue for customers it refers to them. These arrangements generally predate the availability of the company’s payments solutions in the various markets it serves. The company plans to continue making deliberate investments to drive future growth. Seasonality The company’s transaction-based revenues will continue to represent an increasing proportion of its overall revenue mix over time as a result of the continued customer adoption of its payments solutions, and it expects seasonality of its quarterly (year ended March 31, 2023) results to continue to increase. The company expects its overall revenues to continue to become increasingly correlated with respect to the GTV processed by its customers through its platform. Growth Strategies The company strives to grow its business both organically and through strategic and value-enhancing acquisitions. The key elements of the company’s strategy are to expand customer location footprint within ideal customer profile; build on successes in payments and financial solutions; accelerate ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) expansion by introducing new modules; expand its presence within verticals; leading with its flagship solutions; and strategic and value-enhancing acquisitions. Value Proposition for the Entire Ecosystem The company is committed to driving value across the commerce ecosystem. To do so, the company is building a one-stop, commerce platform that will create value for merchants, suppliers and consumers. The company is creating localized networks to succeed in a number of winner-takes-most retail verticals, including apparel and footwear, pets, gift and books, bikes, sporting goods, outdoor, golf, home and garden, toys and hobbies, vape and smoke, health and beauty and jewelry, and hospitality verticals, including multi-location quick service, drinking establishments, full service, and hotels and multi-revenue centers. Solutions The company’s easy-to-use, omni-channel, commerce-enabling SaaS platform equips its customers with the critical functionality they need to engage with consumers online and offline, manage their operations, accept payments, leverage actionable insights from transactions, connect to suppliers and grow their businesses. The company’s customers can use a computer, tablet or mobile device to access front-office, back-office, and payments operational dashboards, enabling them to effectively manage their businesses. The company’s flagship solutions include Lightspeed Restaurant, a unified hospitality commerce offering, and Lightspeed Retail, a groundbreaking retail commerce offering that unites advanced POS, payments and eCommerce into one cohesive and powerful solution. Flagship Products Retail: In Fiscal 2023, the company announced the launch of its new flagship retail solution, Lightspeed Retail, in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the U.K. and South Africa. Lightspeed Retail unites advanced POS, payments and eCommerce solutions into one cohesive and powerful solution. Leveraging the power of headless commerce, complex multi-store inventory management, powerful integrations, and a completely reimagined interface, Lightspeed Retail helps business owners elevate their strategy while managing the complex challenges of the evolving retail landscape. In addition, Lightspeed eCommerce, the company’s flagship eCommerce solution, allows merchants to enhance omnichannel reach and increase selling flexibility, including through social media platforms and digital marketplaces. Lightspeed eCommerce offers a new starting point for merchants to join the Lightspeed ecosystem and grow their businesses with the help of sophisticated in-store and online commerce tools, advanced data, simple product ordering functionality and streamlined access to suppliers. By simplifying and unifying omni-channel operations, Lightspeed retail merchants can reduce the time spent on managing inventory, orders, and product details, as well as elevate the shopping experience with a suite of customer management features that help boost sales like abandoned cart recovery and customer communication tools. Hospitality: In Fiscal 2022, the company launched its flagship hospitality commerce platform, Lightspeed Restaurant, in North America and Europe. In Fiscal 2023, the company rolled out Lightspeed Restaurant in Australia to help power Australia's restaurant revival. Lightspeed Restaurant brings together an innovative POS, contactless payments, online ordering, advanced inventory, and advanced insights to create a powerful hospitality solution for running a smarter, more efficient restaurant. In Fiscal 2023 (year ended March 31, 2023), the company announced the expansion of Lightspeed Advanced Insights to Lightspeed Restaurant. Powered by the company’s payments solutions, Lightspeed Advanced Insights captures data from every transaction to deliver actionable insights, including menu intelligence to allow restaurateurs to determine, which menu items are driving sales and returning consumers, as well as server analytics which connects menu performance with server performance to enable customers to monitor and improve individual server performance. Through Lightspeed Restaurant, restaurant owners, chefs and managers receive a daily email detailing everything they need to know before doors open, and a shift prep email detailing reservations, VIP guests and notes for the service ahead. Additional key merchant resources include comprehensive integrated inventory, easy-to-use-and-learn work flows for staff and shifts, and contactless ordering and payments through Order Anywhere, which enables restaurateurs to upload their menus and sell their products on the company’s online ordering platform without commission fees or hidden charges. Lightspeed B2B: In 2022, the company acquired NuORDER (Lightspeed NuORDER Inc.), a transformative digital platform connecting brands and retailers. This acquisition established Lightspeed as a global distribution network for leading brands, accelerating the company’s supplier network offering to simplify product ordering for retailers and offers suppliers critical insights into how their products move. In Fiscal 2023, the company announced the initial launch of Lightspeed B2B, its B2B offering, to several key North American verticals: fashion, outdoor, bikes and sporting goods. The company’s B2B offering directly connects buyers and suppliers in real time to visualize and develop assortments, localize and cater to different markets, and complete orders that deliver the best product to consumers. Lightspeed will continue to invest in streamlining the supply chain with Lightspeed B2B, with the vision to give retailers direct access to suppliers, provide on-demand and endless inventory, and create sell-through data visibility and better control of distribution for the benefit of suppliers. Front-End Customer Experience Solutions Point of Sale: Accessible from a mobile device or computer, the company’s POS platforms are designed to allow merchants to create, manage and receive customer orders, sell their products and collect payments. Omni-Channel Engagement: The company’s retail platform enables retailers to create a fully-localized and secure online store that is an extension of the products and inventory they offer in-store. Retailers can choose from a collection of responsive themes offered in the company’s theme store, or use the built-in editor to customize their site, including adding additional pages or a built-in blog. Customers can use the company’s channel integrations, such as Facebook and Google to drive traffic to their site. The company’s flagship eCommerce solution, Lightspeed eCommerce, empowers retailers to sell directly on social media, online marketplaces, and search engines. The company’s Order Anywhere solution for its restaurant users allows its restaurateurs to transition their businesses online and integrate new revenue streams. Home Delivery: Hospitality customers can reach consumers by easily integrating to many of the market-leading home delivery platforms and manage these orders in a single system. In addition, with Order Ahead in North America, the company provides an online ordering management system designed to facilitate takeout, enabling restaurants to provide customers with a completely contactless dining experience. Curbside Pick-Up enables the company’s retailers' consumers to shop curbside for convenience and flexibility. Order Management: Lightspeed Restaurant enables consumers to place orders directly from a mobile tablet in a restaurant. Orders are then automatically sent to the kitchen for processing. The company’s kitchen display system allows orders to be sent to a mobile tablet or display screen in the restaurant kitchen for immediate processing in a quick-service environment. Restaurants are also able to accept and manage takeout and delivery orders. Consumers can make orders in person, on the phone, or from several integrated online ordering services. Through Order Anywhere, consumers can browse the company’s customers' menu, order, and pay all by simply scanning a QR code, providing a secure, contactless dining experience. Discounts, Price Rules and Gift Cards: Customers are able to offer discounts at the POS, as well as sell and manage gift cards. The company’s retail customers can set price rules, while restaurant customers can configure when, and to whom, discounts are offered. Loyalty: Lightspeed enables retailers and restaurants to offer a fully-integrated loyalty program allowing consumers to accumulate points through retailer or restaurant purchases and redeem points when they visit the retailer or restaurant. Hardware: The company also offers a suite of sleek third-party hardware products to complement its software solutions for both its retail and hospitality customers, such as its customer facing display, stands, barcode scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers, payment terminals and an assortment of other accessories. Back-End Operations Management Solutions Product and Menu Management: Retailers can add and manage the products they sell, including updating descriptions, categories and images. Retailers can use the company’s public catalogues to save them time creating products. Restaurants can configure their menus, by adding products, organizing them into categories and creating combo products. Inventory Management: The company’s inventory management system allows retailers and restaurateurs to keep track of the available inventory, access vendor product catalogues, create and receive orders from vendors and track costs, and transfer inventory between multiple stores. Lightspeed Restaurant's automatic inventory feature in particular provides real-time tracking down to the ounce as menu items are sold, offering automatic replenishment when inventory is received. Supplier Network: NuORDER by Lightspeed, once fully integrated, will provide customers with greater supplier access and inventory visibility, automate manual ordering, consolidate supplier portals into the POS, streamline omni-channel operations by making it easy to import product details and photos into the POS, and ensure use of supplier approved brand names and images. Suppliers will benefit from greater access to real-time data on goods sold by merchants and enhanced brand presence with merchants. NuORDER by Lightspeed offers Virtual Showroom technology, visual assortment and merchandising tools, payments and data integration for businesses of all sizes. Bookings and Membership Management: Golf course operators can book reservations online, manage tee-time schedules and administer membership billing. Customer Management: The company’s customers can keep track of consumer information and sales history, which enables them to individually customize the consumer experience. Employee Management: With the support of partner apps the company integrates, its customers can seamlessly coordinate and schedule employees to help enable a high-performing work environment. Accounting: The company’s platform helps enable retailers and restaurants to automatically sync their sales, payments and tax data from multiple locations with accounting software from a variety of leading accounting platforms. Floor and Table Management: Restaurants can create floor plans to organize their tables into groups. Fine dining establishments can organize floors to reflect the actual layout of their restaurant, while quick-service establishments can organize for ease of use. Through the company’s partnership with OpenTable, its customers can increase table turnover and improve the overall customer experience, all integrated within the Lightspeed platform. Complex Workflows: Many of the company’s features are equipped to handle advanced workflows that are common for established physical location businesses. These include putting products on layaway and adding a deposit, special orders of products from a vendor, credit accounts for customers, managing physical inventory counts, tracking orders and transfer requests across multiple retail locations. Reporting and Analytics: Retailers can view real-time reports on sales, inventory, payments, customers, employee performance and many other aspects of their businesses. The company’s restaurant platform allows owners to view real-time reports on revenue, tips, payments, employees, and other facets of their business. Additionally, the company provides a retail business intelligence analytics tool with built-in and customizable reports that help retailers identify opportunities to improve their business. Powered by the company’s payments solutions, Lightspeed Advanced Insights captures data from every transaction to deliver actionable insights, including menu intelligence to allow restaurateurs to determine which menu items are driving sales and returning consumers, as well as server analytics which connects menu performance with server performance to enable customers to monitor and improve individual server performance. Real-Time Dashboard: The company’s real-time dashboard equips SMBs with data-driven insights into the performance of their business, including sales for the ongoing period compared to historical periods, and an overview of back-of-house operations. APIs: The company and its development partners leverage each other’s APIs to connect its respective solutions, thereby extending the breadth of its platform even further through integrations with accounting software solutions and property management platforms, as well as niche applications across a variety of verticals and use cases. Embedded Payments and Financing Solutions Lightspeed Payments: The company’s embedded payment processing solution allows its customers to accept electronic payments in-store, through connected terminals, curbside and online. The company’s customers can manage their payments directly in the Lightspeed back-office, giving them a single view of their cash flow to their bank account. The company’s payments processing solutions capture data from every transaction to deliver actionable insights to its customers, such as through its Advanced Insights solution. Through its partnerships the company supports digital wallet to deliver a frictionless shopping experience for consumers. The company also supports localized payment methods in the different countries in which its customers operate. Integrated Payment Gateways: Although the company is selling its POS and payments solution together as one unified offering as of the beginning of Fiscal 2024, it still permits customers to connect to several payments partners in the United States, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom and the Asia Pacific if they are ineligible for its embedded payments offering, if they pay it a third party payments processing fee or in certain other instances specific to the customer's circumstances. Lightspeed Capital: To further complement its core cloud solutions, the company offers a merchant cash advance program called Lightspeed Capital. This program provides cash advances to eligible merchants and is designed to help them with overall business growth and cash management. Merchants use these cash advances to manage their cash flows, to buy inventory, and to invest in marketing, amongst other things. Strong Partner Network The company’s customer acquisition strategy also involves channel partners in certain geographies and industry verticals. The Lightspeed Experts Network is the company’s network of certified local channel partners and focuses on in-person interactions with customers as an extension of the internal Lightspeed sales and support teams. These partners are trained and certified on the company’s platform and provide it with a local presence in a variety of markets. The company’s channel partners typically earn a percentage of the monthly revenue from the customers they bring on board. These percentages vary based on the volumes and breadth of services provided by those partners. In addition, some of the company’s value-add channel partners enable it to access industry verticals outside of traditional retail and hospitality or new geographies and continue to be an important part of its partner network. Sales and Distribution The company’s structured go-to-market approach begins with marketing outreach, targeting potential customers throughout their entire journey on the path to purchase through online channels (paid and organic search, social media, video and content marketing) and offline channels (trade shows and local events). The company also utilizes outbound lead generation strategies through account-based marketing, particularly for high GTV merchants and restaurateurs, to supplement its marketing outreach through online channels. Based on user data and actions, the company is able to ascertain with a high degree of certainty the stage of the marketing funnel into which a prospect should be grouped and it delivers targeted advertising, informative content and tools relevant to that particular stage of the purchase journey in an effort to push them further down the funnel. The company’s additional modules, such as Lightspeed eCommerce, Lightspeed Analytics, Lightspeed Subscriptions, Lightspeed Loyalty, Lightspeed Accounting, Lightspeed Order Anywhere and Lightspeed Delivery may come with an additional monthly charge per Customer Location and are sold either by business development team, or by its account management team after the initial sale. Trademarks The company’s trademarks include Lightspeed, Flame Design, NuORDER and other trademarks. Government Regulation The company is also subject to various anti-corruption, economic sanctions, export control and anti-money laundering laws, including the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (Canada) and its regulations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (U.S.), the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA Patriot Act, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 and Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, economic sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, export controls administered by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, and other anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws, economic sanctions and export control laws in countries in which it conducts activities. As a result of its international operations, the company is subject to a number of Canadian, the U.S. and foreign laws and regulations relating to economic sanctions and to export and import controls which govern or restrict its business and activities in certain countries or regions and with certain persons, including sanctions regulations administered or enforced by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions in Canada, the economic sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, economic sanctions regulations administered by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation in the U.K., and the export control laws administered by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, the U.S. State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, and the Canadian Export and Import Controls Bureau. History The company was founded in 2005. It was incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA) in 2005 as Xsilva Systems Inc. The company filed articles of amendment in 2012 to change its name to Lightspeed Retail Inc. and again in 2014 to change its name to Lightspeed POS Inc. Further, the company changed its name to Lightspeed Commerce Inc. in 2021.