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Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Estimates and Policies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Estimates and Policies

Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Estimates and Policies

1. Description of Business and Summary of Significant Accounting Estimates and Policies

Description of Business - Innodata Inc. (Nasdaq: INOD) (including its subsidiaries, the “Company”, “Innodata”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a leading data engineering company. The Company’s mission is to help the world’s most prestigious companies deliver the promise of ethical, high-performing artificial intelligence (“AI”), which the Company believes will contribute to a safer and more prosperous world.

The Company was founded on a simple idea: engineer the highest quality data so organizations across broad industry segments could make smarter decisions. Today, the Company believes it is delivering the highest quality data for some of the world’s most innovative technology companies to use to train the AI models of the future.

AI holds the promise that computers can perceive and understand the world, enabling products and services that would have been previously unimaginable and impossible with traditional coding. AI learns from data, and the highest-performing AI will have learned from the highest-quality data. The Company believes that it can contribute meaningfully by harnessing its capabilities, honed over 35+ years, in collecting and annotating data at scale with consistency and high accuracy.

The Company is also helping companies deploy and integrate AI into their operations and products and providing innovative AI-enabled industry platforms, helping ensure that its customers’ businesses are prepared for a world in which machines augment human activity in ways previously unimaginable.

The Company developed its capabilities and honed its approaches progressively over the last 35+ years creating high-quality data for many of the world’s most demanding information companies. Approximately nine years ago, the Company formed Innodata Labs, a research and development center, to research, develop and apply machine learning and emerging AI to its large-scale, human-intensive data operations. In 2019, the Company began packaging the capabilities that emerged from its R&D efforts in order to align with several fast-growing new markets and help companies use AI/ML to drive performance benefits and business insights.

The Company’s historical core competency in high-quality data, combined with these R&D efforts in applied AI, created the foundation for the evolution of the Company’s offerings, which include AI Data Preparation, AI Model Deployment and Integration, and AI-Enabled Industry Platforms.

AI Data Preparation

For several of the world’s large technology companies, the Company supports their efforts at building generative AI foundation models. For these companies, the Company provides or is poised to provide a range of scaled data solutions and services. The Company’s scaled data solutions include providing instruction data sets for fine-tuning LLMs to understand prompts, to accept instruction, to converse, to apparently reason, and to perform the myriad of incredible feats that many of us have now experienced. The Company also provides reinforcement learning and reward modeling, services which are critical to provide the guardrails against toxic, bias and harmful responses, and model evaluation services.

For social media companies, financial services companies, and many others, the Company collects or creates training data, annotates training data, and trains AI algorithms for working with images, text, video, audio, code and sensor data.

The Company utilizes a variety of leading third-party tools, proprietary tools and customer tools. For text annotation, the Company uses its proprietary data annotation platform that incorporates AI to reduce cost while improving consistency and quality of output. The Company’s proprietary data annotation platform features auto-tagging capabilities that apply to both classical and generative AI tasks. The platform encapsulates many of the innovations the Company has conceived of in the course of its 35-year history of creating high-quality data.

In addition, because collecting real-world data is often impracticable (due to data privacy regulations or rarity of cohorts and outliers), the Company creates high-quality synthetic data that maintains all of the statistical properties of real-world data, using a combination of domain specialists and machine technologies that leverage large language models (LLMs).

AI Model Deployment and Integration

The Company helps businesses leverage the latest AI technologies to achieve their goals. The Company develops custom AI models (where it selects the appropriate algorithms, tunes hyperparameters, trains and validates the models, and updates the models as required). The Company also helps businesses fine-tune their own custom versions of the Company’s proprietary models and third-party foundation models to address domain-specific and customer-specific use cases.

For the Company’s customers that provide products and solutions that require intensive text data processing and analytics, in addition to deploying and integrating AI models, the Company often provides a range of data engineering support services including data transformation, data curation, data hygiene, data consolidation, data extraction, data compliance, and master data management.

The Company’s customers span a diverse range of industries and a wide range of AI use cases, benefiting from the short time-to-value and high economic returns of the Company’s AI solutions and platforms.

AI-Enabled Industry Platforms

The Company’s AI-enabled industry platforms address specific, niche market requirements the Company believes it can innovate with AI/ML technologies. The Company deploys these industry platforms as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and as managed services. These platforms benefit from the Company’s technology infrastructure, its industry-specific knowledge, its strong customer relationships and experience merging technology with the business processes of its customers. To date, the Company has built an industry platform for medical records data extraction and transformation (which the Company brands as “Synodex^®”) and an industry platform for public relations (which the Company brands as “Agility PR Solutions”). The Company is in development with an additional AI-enabled industry platform to serve financial services institutions.

The Company’s Synodex industry platform transforms medical records into useable digital data organized in accordance with its proprietary data models or customer data models.

The Company’s Agility industry platform provides marketing communications and public relations professionals with the ability to target and distribute content to journalists and social media influencers world-wide and to monitor and analyze global news (print, web, radio and TV) and social media.

The Company’s operations are presently classified and reported in three reporting segments: Digital Data Solutions (DDS), Synodex and Agility.

Significant Accounting Policies and Estimates

Principles of Consolidation - The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Innodata Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries, and Innodata docGenix, LLC, a limited liability company that was majority-owned by the Company during the year ended December 31, 2024. The minority interests of Innodata docGenix, LLC were redeemed by the Company on December 31, 2024.

The non-controlling interests in the docGenix limited liability company at December 31, 2023 had call and put options that can be settled in cash or stock. Accordingly, this is presented in temporary equity in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) non-controlling interest guidance. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.

Use of Estimates - In preparing consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP, management is required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the consolidated financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Management believes that the estimates and assumptions used in the preparation of the consolidated financial statements are reasonable. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant estimates include those related to the allowance for credit losses and billing adjustments, useful life of long-lived assets, useful life of intangible assets, impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, valuation of deferred tax assets, valuation of stock-based compensation, pension benefit plan assumptions, litigation accruals and estimated accruals for various tax exposures.

Revenue Recognition - The Company’s revenue is recognized when services are rendered or goods are delivered to a customer, in an amount that reflects the consideration that the Company expects to receive in exchange for those services or goods as per the agreement with the customer. In cases where there are agreements with multiple performance obligations, the Company identifies each performance obligation and evaluates whether the performance obligations are distinct within the context of the agreement at the agreement’s inception. Performance obligations that are not distinct at agreement inception are combined. For agreements with distinct performance obligations, the Company allocates the transaction price to each distinct performance obligation proportionately based on the estimated standalone selling price for each performance obligation, if any, and then evaluates how the services are performed for the customer to determine the timing of revenue recognition.

For the Digital Data Solutions (DDS) segment, revenue is recognized primarily based on the quantity delivered or resources utilized in the period in which services are performed and performance conditions are satisfied as per the agreement. Revenue from agreements billed on a time-and-materials basis is recognized as services are performed. Revenue from fixed-fee agreements, which is not significant to overall revenues, is recognized based on the proportional performance method of accounting, as services are performed, or milestones are achieved.

For the Synodex segment, revenue is recognized primarily based on the quantity delivered in the period in which services are performed and performance conditions are satisfied as per the agreement. A portion of the Synodex segment revenue is derived from licensing the Company’s functional software and providing access to the Company’s hosted software platform. Revenue from such services is recognized monthly when all parties to the agreement have agreed to the agreement; each party’s rights are identifiable; the payment terms are identifiable; the agreement has commercial substance; access to the service is provided to the end user; and collection is probable.

The Agility segment derives its revenue primarily from subscription arrangements and provision of enriched media analysis services. It also derives revenue as a reseller of corporate communication solutions. Revenue from subscriptions is recognized monthly when access to the service is provided to the end user; all parties to the agreement have agreed to the agreement; each party’s rights are identifiable; the payment terms are identifiable; the agreement has commercial substance; and collection is probable. Revenue from enriched media analysis services is recognized when the services are performed, and performance conditions are satisfied. Revenue from the reseller agreements is recognized at the gross amount received for the goods in accordance with the Company functioning as a principal due to the Company meeting the following criteria: the Company acts as the primary obligor in the sales transaction; assumes the credit risk; sets the price; can select suppliers; and is involved in the execution of the services, including after sales service.

Revenue associated with the services provided in one period and billed in a subsequent period is commonly referred to as unbilled revenues and is included under Accounts receivable.

The Company considers U.S. GAAP criteria for determining whether to report gross revenue as a principal versus net revenue as an agent. The Company evaluates whether it is in control of the services before the same are transferred to the customer to assess whether it is principal or agent in the arrangement.

Contract acquisition costs, which are included in prepaid expenses and other current assets, are amortized over the term of a subscription agreement or contract that normally has a duration of 12 months or less. The Company reviews these prepaid acquisition costs on a periodic basis to determine the need to adjust the carrying values for early terminated contracts. Included in prepaid expenses and other current assets on the accompanying consolidated balance sheets are contract acquisition costs amounting to $1.1 million and $0.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 , respectively. These acquisition costs relate to our Agility segment and are amortized using the straight-line method over the term of the subscription agreement.

Foreign Currency Translation - The functional currency of the Company’s subsidiaries in the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Israel, Hong Kong, the U.K. and Canada (other than the Agility subsidiaries) is the U.S. dollar. Transactions denominated in Philippine pesos, Indian and Sri Lankan rupees, Israeli shekels, U.K. pound sterling and Canadian dollars are translated to U.S. dollars at rates which approximate those in effect on the transaction dates. Monetary assets and all liabilities denominated in foreign currencies on December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023 are translated at the exchange rate in effect as of those dates. Non-monetary assets and stockholders’ equity are translated at the appropriate historical rates. Included in direct operating costs were foreign exchange (gains) losses resulting from such translations of approximately ($0.2) million and $0.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

The functional currency for the Company’s subsidiary in Germany is the Euro. The functional currencies for the Company’s Agility subsidiaries in the U.K. and Canada are the Pound Sterling and the Canadian dollar, respectively. The financial statements of these subsidiaries are prepared in their respective currencies. Financial information is translated from the applicable functional currency to the U.S. dollar (the reporting currency) for inclusion in the Company’s consolidated financial statements. Income, expenses, and cash flows are translated at weighted-average exchange rates prevailing during the fiscal period, and assets and liabilities are translated at fiscal period-end exchange rates. Resulting translation adjustments are included as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income loss in stockholders’ equity. Foreign exchange transaction gains or losses are included in direct operating costs in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income.

Derivative Instruments - The Company accounts for derivative transactions in accordance with the FASB’s Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 825, “Financial Instruments”. For derivative instruments that are designated and qualify as cash flow hedges, the entire change in fair value of the hedging instrument is recorded in Other comprehensive income (loss). When the amounts recorded in Other comprehensive income (loss) are reclassified to earnings, they are included as part of Direct operating costs. For derivative instruments that are not designated as hedges, any change in fair value is recorded directly in earnings as part of Direct operating costs. The total notional value of designated outstanding foreign currency forward contracts was $22.5 million and $10.5 million as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

Cash Equivalents - For financial statement purposes, the Company considers all highly liquid instruments purchased with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents.

Short term Investments-other - For financial statement purposes, the Company considers investments made in time deposits and treasury bills having an original maturity of more than three months but less than one year from the balance sheet date under short term investments.

Concentration of Credit Risk - The Company maintains its cash with highly rated financial institutions, located in the United States and in foreign locations where the Company has its operations. At December 31, 2024, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $46.9 million, of which $17.9 million was held by its foreign subsidiaries and $29.0 million was held in the United States. To the extent that such cash exceeds the maximum insurance levels, the Company is uninsured. The Company has not experienced any losses in such accounts.

Accounts Receivable - Accounts receivable is generally recorded at the invoiced amounts, net of an allowance for expected losses. The Company establishes credit terms for new customers based upon management’s review of their credit information and project terms, and performs ongoing credit evaluations of its customers, adjusting credit terms when management believes appropriate based upon payment history and an assessment of the customer’s current creditworthiness.

We record an allowance for credit losses for estimated losses resulting from the failure of our customers to make the required payments and provisions for billing adjustments relating to quality issues on delivered services. The allowance for credit losses is based on a review of specifically identified accounts and an overall aging analysis applied to accounts pooled based on similar risk characteristics. Judgments are made with respect to the collectability of accounts receivable within each pool based on historical experience, current payment practices, and current economic trends based on our expectations over the expected life of the receivables, generally ninety days or less. Actual credit losses could differ from those estimates.

Property and Equipment - Property and equipment are stated at cost and are depreciated on the straight-line method over the estimated useful lives of the related assets, which is generally two to ten years. Leasehold improvements are amortized on a straight-line basis over the shorter of their estimated useful lives or the terms of the leases. Certain assets under capital leases are amortized over the lives of the respective leases or the estimated useful lives of the assets, whichever is shorter.

Capitalized Developed Software - The Company incurs development costs related to software it develops for its internal use. Qualifying costs incurred during the application development stage are capitalized. These costs primarily consist of internal labor and third-party development costs and are amortized using the straight-line method over the estimated useful life of the capitalized developed software, which generally ranges from three to ten years. All other research and maintenance costs are expensed as incurred. Capitalized developed software in progress as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 were $3.6 million and $3.5 million, respectively. The cumulative completed capitalized developed software as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 was $19.8 million and $15.2 million, respectively.

Long-lived Assets - Management assesses the recoverability of its long-lived assets, whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. The following factors, if present, may trigger an impairment review: (i) significant underperformance relative to expected historical or projected future operating results; (ii) significant negative industry or economic trends; (iii) significant decline in the Company’s stock price for a sustained period; and (iv) a change in the Company’s market capitalization relative to net book value. If the recoverability of these assets is unlikely because of the existence of one or more of the above-mentioned factors, an impairment analysis is performed, using undiscounted cash flow projections. Management makes assumptions regarding estimated future cash flows and other factors to determine the fair value of these respective assets. An impairment loss will be recognized only if the carrying value of a long-lived asset is not recoverable and exceeds its fair value and is measured as the amount by which the carrying amount of a long-lived asset exceeds its fair value.

Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets - The Company performs a valuation of assets acquired and liabilities assumed on each acquisition accounted for as a business combination and allocates the purchase price of each acquired business to its respective net tangible and intangible assets and liabilities. Acquired intangible assets principally consist of technology, customer relationships, backlog and trademarks, having useful lives which range from ten to twelve years. The Company determines the appropriate useful life by performing an analysis of expected cash flows based on projected financial information of the acquired businesses. Intangible assets are amortized over their estimated useful lives using the straight-line method, which approximates the pattern in which the majority of the economic benefits are expected to be consumed. Intangible assets are amortized into direct operating costs ratably over their expected related revenue streams over their useful lives.

Goodwill represents the excess of the cost of an acquired entity over the fair value of the acquired net assets. The Company does not amortize goodwill but evaluates it for impairment at the reporting unit level annually during the third quarter of each fiscal year (as of September 30 of that year) or when an event occurs, or circumstances change, that indicates the carrying value may not be recoverable.

The Company performed its annual goodwill assessment for the Agility segment as of September 30, 2024 for impairment. The impairment test involves estimating the fair value based on a combination of income (estimates of future discounted cash flows) and the market approach (market multiples for similar companies) using unobservable inputs (Level 3). The Company concluded that there is no impairment of goodwill for the Agility segment.

Income Taxes - Estimated deferred taxes are determined based on the difference between the financial statement and tax basis of assets and liabilities, using enacted tax rates, as well as any net operating loss or tax credit carryforwards expected to reduce taxes payable in future years. A valuation allowance is provided when it is more likely than not that all or some portion of the estimated deferred tax assets will not be realized. While the Company considers future taxable income in assessing the need for the valuation allowance, in the event that the Company anticipates that it will be able to realize the estimated deferred tax assets in the future in excess of its net recorded amount, an adjustment to the provision for deferred tax assets would increase income in the period such determination was made. Similarly, in the event that the Company anticipates that it will not be able to realize the estimated deferred tax assets in the future considering future taxable income, an adjustment to the provision for deferred tax assets would decrease income in the period such determination was made. Changes in the valuation allowance from period to period are included in the Company’s tax provision in the period of change. The Company indefinitely reinvests the foreign earnings in its foreign subsidiaries. If such earnings are repatriated in the future, or are no longer deemed to be indefinitely reinvested, the Company would have to accrue as a liability the applicable amount of foreign jurisdiction withholding taxes associated with such remittances.

In assessing the realization of deferred tax assets, management considered whether it is more likely than not that all or some portion of the deferred tax assets of entities in the U.S., Canada, Germany and the U.K. will be realizable or not.

The Company’s assessment for the U.S. and the U.K. entities during the year ended December 31, 2024 yielded positive evidence enabling the release of the valuation allowance for the U.S. and the U.K. deferred tax assets under “ASC Topic 740-10-30-22 – Accounting for Income Taxes”.

As the expectation of future taxable income of the Canadian and German entities cannot be predicted with reasonable accuracy, the Company maintains a valuation allowance against the deferred tax assets of these entities.

The Company accounts for income taxes regarding uncertain tax positions, and recognizes interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions in income tax expense in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income.

Accounting for Leases - Accounting Standards for Codifications (ASC 842 “Accounting for Leases”) requires lessees to recognize most leases on their balance sheets as liabilities, with corresponding “right-of-use” assets. The Company recognizes a right-of-use asset and corresponding lease liability for all its operating leases. See Note 8, Operating Leases.

The determination of whether an arrangement is, or contains, a lease is based on the substance of the arrangement at the inception date and requires an assessment of whether the fulfillment of the arrangement is dependent on the use of a specific asset or assets, or the arrangement conveys a right to use the asset. A reassessment is made after inception of the lease only if one of the following applies:

there is a change in contractual terms, other than a renewal or extension of the arrangement;

a renewal option is exercised, or extension granted, unless the term of the renewal or extension was initially included in the lease term;

there is a change in the determination of whether fulfillment is dependent on a specified asset; or

there is a substantial change to the asset.

Whenever a reassessment is made, lease accounting shall commence or cease from the date when the change in circumstances gave rise to the reassessment for scenarios (a), (c) or (d) and at the date of renewal or extension period for scenario (b).

Leases where the lessor retains substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership are classified as operating leases. As of December 31, 2024, all of the Company’s leases are classified under operating leases. Operating lease payments are recognized as an operating expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation - The Company measures and recognizes stock-based compensation expense for all share-based payment awards made to employees and directors based on the estimated fair value at the grant date. The stock-based compensation expense is recognized over the requisite service period. The fair value of stock option grants is determined using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and the fair value of restricted stock units is determined using the Binomial option pricing model. For restricted stock units which are time vested, the fair value is determined based on the grant date fair value.

The stock-based compensation expense related to the Company’s stock plans were allocated as follows (in thousands):


	Year Ended December 31,
	2024		2023
Direct operating costs	$	281	$	294
Selling and administrative expenses		3,717		3,733
Total stock-based compensation	$	3,998	$	4,027

Fair Value of Financial Instruments - The carrying amounts of financial instruments approximated their fair value as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, because of the relatively short maturity of these instruments. See Note 16, Derivatives.

Fair value measurements and disclosures define fair value as the price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date.

The accounting standard establishes a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs used to measure fair value into three levels. The three levels are defined as follows:

●

Level 1: Unadjusted quoted price in active market for identical assets and liabilities.

●

Level 2: Inputs other than those included in Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly, such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices in markets that are not active; or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities.

●

Level 3: Unobservable inputs reflecting management’s own assumptions about the inputs used in pricing the asset or liability.

The Company’s forward contracts are at level 2 in the fair value hierarchy.

Income (Loss) per Share - Income (loss) per share is computed using the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the year. Diluted income (loss) per share is computed by considering the impact of the potential issuance of common shares, using the treasury stock method, on the weighted average number of shares outstanding. For those securities that are not convertible into a class of common stock, the “two class” method of computing income (loss) per share is used.

Pension - The Company records annual pension costs based on calculations, which include various actuarial assumptions including discount rates, compensation increases and other assumptions involving demographic factors. The Company reviews its actuarial assumptions on an annual basis and makes modifications to the assumptions based on current rates and trends. The Company believes that the assumptions used in recording its pension obligations are reasonable based on its experience, market conditions and inputs from its actuaries.

Deferred Revenue - Deferred revenue represents payments received from customers in advance of providing services and amounts deferred if conditions for revenue recognition have not been met. We expect to recognize substantially all of these performance obligations over the next 12 months. The balance of deferred revenues in the consolidated balance sheets amounted to $8.0 million and $3.5 million as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.

The table below provides information about contract liabilities (deferred revenue) and the significant changes in the balance for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively (in thousands):


	December 31,
	2024		2023
Balance at the beginning of year	$	3,523	$	4,366
Net deferred revenue in the period		27,577		21,619
Revenue recognized		(22,896)		(22,586)
Currency translations and other adjustments		(194)		124
Balance at the end of year	$	8,010	$	3,523

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements - On November 27, 2023, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2023-07, “Improvements to Reportable Segment Disclosures,”. The ASU’s effective date is for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2023. The adoption of the ASU 2023-07 will enhance expense disclosures in segment reporting and other qualitative disclosures and allows for disclosing multiple measures of segment profit or loss. The Company has adopted this standard and complied with the required disclosures. See Note 14, Segment reporting and concentrations.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted - On December 14, 2023, the FASB issued ASU No. 2023-09, “Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures”. The ASU’s effective date is for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2024 with early adoption permitted. The adoption of the ASU 2023-09 will enhance quantitative and qualitative disclosures related to rate reconciliation of significant components and income tax paid. We are currently evaluating the impact of the ASU on our disclosures within the consolidated financial statements.

In November 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, “Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income - Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Subtopic 220-40): Disaggregation of Income Statement Expenses”. ASU No. 2024-03 does not change or remove existing expense disclosure requirements but requires disaggregated disclosures about certain expense categories and captions, including but not limited to, purchases of inventory, employee compensation, depreciation, amortization and selling expenses. ASU No. 2024-03 will become effective for us in fiscal 2027 and in the first quarter of fiscal 2028 for interim reporting. Early adoption is permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact of the ASU on our disclosures within the consolidated financial statements.