Coda Octopus Group, Inc.: Form 10-K for the period ended Oct 31, 2023

Corporate Information

Our principal executive offices are located at 3300 S. Hiawassee Rd, Orlando, FL 32835. Our telephone number is +1 (407) 735-2406. We maintain a corporate website at www.codaoctopusgroup.com (http://www.codaoctopusgroup.com). (the Company’s website). The reference to the Company’s website address does not constitute incorporation by reference in this Form 10-K of the information contained on the Company’s website.

Overview

Coda Octopus Group, Inc. (“Coda” “the Company” or “we”), through its wholly owned subsidiaries, operates two distinct businesses:

• the Marine Technology Business (also referred to in this Form 10-K as “Products Business”, “Products Operations” or “Products Segment”); and
• the Marine Engineering Business (also referred to in this Form 10-K as “Engineering Business”, “Engineering Operations”, or “Services Segment”).

An overview organization chart showing the subsidiaries within each operating segment is set out in this Item 1 (Business) of the Form 10-K.

Throughout this Form10-K we use certain terminologies in the context of our Echoscope® underwater imaging technology such as 2D, 3D, 4D, 5D and 6D which have particular meaning. In this Form 10-K the meanings of these terminologies are set out below.

Conversely, a two-dimensional space (2D) is where all points are placed on a flat plane or surface and only comprise of two coordinates being X and Y with no knowledge of the depth of the point in 3D space.

Our Marine Technology Business is a technology solution provider to the subsea and underwater market. It owns key proprietary technology comprising its real time volumetric imaging sonar technology (Echoscope® technology) and diving technology (“DAVD” or Diver Augmented Vision Display), both of which are applicable to the underwater defense and commercial markets. All innovations, design, development and manufacturing of our technology and solutions are performed within the Company with the exception of sub-component assemblies. We endeavor to actively protect our innovations by seeking patent protection. This is a part of our strategy to maintain our competitive lead in the areas in which we specialize.

Our imaging sonar technology products and solutions marketed under the name of Echoscope® and Echoscope PIPE® are used primarily in the underwater construction market, offshore renewables, and offshore oil and gas, complex underwater mapping, salvage operations, dredging, bridge inspection, navigation of underwater hazard, port and harbor security, mining, fisheries, commercial and defense diving, marine sciences sectors and more broadly applications for real time 3D monitoring, inspection and visualization underwater. Uniquely, the Echoscope® technology is a single sensor for multiple underwater applications (which sets it apart from competing technologies). Our diving technology marketed under the name “CodaOctopus® DAVD” addresses the global defense and commercial diving markets. It has the potential to radically change how diving operations are performed globally because it delivers real time information simultaneously to the divers underwater and their surface-based dive supervisors. It also allows diving operations to be performed in zero visibility water conditions which is a safety challenge for many diving operations. DAVD’s concept of using a pair of glasses inside the face mask, helmet or other diving suits is protected by patent. The Company has an exclusive license to exploit this utility patent.

The Marine Technology Business operates thorough our wholly owned subsidiaries Coda Octopus Products, Inc (Orlando), Coda Octopus Products Ltd (UK), Coda Octopus Products A/S (Denmark and branch office Coda Octopus Products A/S in The Netherlands), and Coda Octopus Products (India) Private Limited (India).

Our Marine Engineering Businesses are suppliers of embedded solutions and sub-assemblies which they design and manufacture and sell into mission critical integrated defense systems. The Services Segment established its business in 1977 and has been supporting a number of significant defense programs of record for over 40 years, including Raytheon’s CIWS and Northrop Grumman’s Mine Hunting Systems Program. The Services Segment’s business model entails designing sub-assembly prototypes which are utilized in broader defense programs. These prototypes contracts typically lead to contracts for the manufacture, repair and upgrade of these sub-assemblies for the life of the program. We enjoy sole source status for the parts that we design and supply into these programs. This business model ensures recurring and long tail revenues since we continue to supply these parts, typically for the life of the program, which can span decades. Coda Octopus Colmek, Inc. and Coda Octopus Martech Ltd, qualify as small businesses. This opens opportunities under state requirements to collaborate with Prime Defense Contractors on these programs. A significant part of the revenues generated by the Marine Engineering Business is highly concentrated and are usually derived from a small number of prime defense contractors such as Raytheon or Northrop. In any one financial year, between 20% to 30% of our consolidated revenues may be derived from these customers either alone or collectively.

The Services Segment operates through our wholly owned subsidiaries, Coda Octopus Colmek, Inc (“Colmek”) which we acquired by the Company in 2007, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Coda Octopus Martech Limited (“Martech”) which was acquired by the Company in 2006, based in Portland, United Kingdom.

Cross-Group Synergies

Our Marine Technology Business and Marine Engineering Services Business have established synergies in terms of customers and specialized engineering skills for robust, rugged, and repeated engineering solutions relating to data acquisition, data computation and display of the data. Increasingly drawing on each part of the business strengths, the Marine Technology Business and Marine Engineering Business work jointly on projects including responding jointly for responding to invitations to tender for new projects with broader scope. We believe the Services Business is important to our overall growth strategy as it brings significant engineering depth for the development of the technology solutions offered by the Marine Technology Business. This also ensures tighter control over our intellectual property rights, which are important for our market position.

Key Pillars for our Growth Plans

Our Echoscope® and DAVD technologies are our most promising products and solutions for the Company’s near-term growth.

We believe that our real time 3D/4D/5D/6D imaging sonars are the only acoustic imaging sonars which are capable of providing real time 3D/4D/5D/6D imaging of moving objects in zero visibility water conditions and also providing users with the capability to make real time 3D physical measurements of objects underwater. Competing acoustic imaging sonars such as the multibeam sonars are primarily seabed mapping tools which are not designed to perform complex seabed mapping or imaging of moving objects in 3D underwater. The Echoscope® technology therefore is a key sensor for underwater inspection and monitoring in real time 3D. We also believe that our new generation of Echoscope PIPE® is the only sonar that can generate multiple real time 3D/4D/5D/6D acoustic images using different acoustic parameters in real time such as field of view, pulse length, filters, beam density and various beamforming modes. This has the potential to reduce the number of underwater sensors that are required on a project at any one time.

In our industry we are widely considered the leading solution providers for underwater real time 3D visualization.

We also believe that the DAVD tethered system is poised to radically change the way diving operations are performed globally by providing a fully integrated suite of sensor data shared in real time by the dive supervisor on the surface and the diver. Current diving is done largely by poor analog voice command missions from the topside using a disparate suite of systems for video data, communications, and positioning. Furthermore, by combining the DAVD with our real time 3D sonars it allows diving to be performed in difficult water conditions (turbidity or zero visibility issues) and thus addresses the common problem of underwater operations having to be aborted due to visibility issues.

The DAVD tethered version is now in early-stage adoption by different teams within the US Navy, such as the underwater construction and salvage teams and has been moved from the customer’s R&D phase to their operational phase. This means that the DAVD tethered version is now a standard item available for purchase and for which budget lines are established within the various user commands within the Navy. To support the continued transfer of the DAVD system to field operations, we are involved in training the users.

In the Current FY we continued our global marketing campaigns for the adoption of the DAVD tethered system outside of the US Navy. We believe we have made significant progress with these campaigns. For example, we completed successful field trials of the DAVD and our Echoscope® with a major European Offshore Service Provider, who is a part of the “Big Four” Dredging companies (these four account for approximately 80% of the global dredging capacity).

The major European Offshore Provider conclusion from their final trial assessment report provided to the Company is that:

“The advantage of the DAVD alone (compass, depth, taking snapshots and presenting graphical information for diver and supervisor) or combined with a 3D live sonar video stream is clear and increases safety and efficiency. The 3D sonar fits well within our scope of work and our survey division is aware of this. We think that the combination of DAVD and 3D sonar has potential within our organization….”.

We also completed successful trials with the Spanish Navy and a number of Japanese Offshore Service Providers.

We believe there is momentum around the DAVD solution, and we continue to work with our customer base on adoption plans, including models for adoption. Adoption is a process because it requires customers intending to take on the DAVD technology, to change their current method and workflow. These and other considerations will impact the pace at which the transition to the DAVD technology occurs.

The DAVD untethered prototype variant (“DUS)” was delivered to our Navy customer for evaluation during fiscal 2023. In the third quarter we received joint funding of $750,000 for the delivery of 8 DUS evaluation systems and further customization work for their application and workflow. We have delivered the 8 systems which will facilitate early customer trials. The total funding for this scope is expected to be $2m. This is the first time we have had firm commitment concerning an adoption path by a foreign NATO country. We believe the DUS variant represents the biggest market opportunity for the DAVD technology in the USA addressing the defense, law-enforcement, and first-responders market.

The concept of utilizing a pair of transparent glasses in the Head Up Display (HUD) underwater for this purpose, is protected by patent. All component parts of the DAVD system are proprietary to the Company and include software (4G USE® DAVD Edition), Diver Processing Pack – telemetry system (DPP), topside Supervisor Console Controller and real time 3D Sonar. The Company benefits from the exclusive license from the U.S. Department of the Navy at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division to utilize the utility patent covering the concept of using the pair of transparent glasses as a data hub underwater. The DAVD tethered variant is an “Approved Navy Use” item. The untethered variant is currently going through validation process.

Our corporate structure is as follows:

Corporate History

The Company began as Coda Technologies Limited. This company now operates under the name Coda Octopus Products Limited, a United Kingdom corporation formed in 1994 as a start-up company with its origins as a research group at Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. Initially, its operations consisted primarily of developing software for subsea mapping and visualization using sidescan sonar (a technology widely used in commercial offshore geophysical survey and naval mine-hunting to detect objects on, and textures of, the surface of the seabed).

In June 2002, we acquired Octopus Marine Systems Ltd, a UK corporation, and changed our name to Coda Octopus Limited. At the time of its acquisition, Octopus Marine Systems was producing geophysical products broadly similar to those of Coda, but targeted at the less sophisticated, easy-to-use, “work-horse” market. The Octopus Marine Systems acquisition led to the introduction of the Motion product (F180® series) into the Products Segment.

In December 2002, Coda Octopus Ltd acquired OmniTech AS, a Norwegian corporation, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, and which subsequently changed its name to Coda Octopus R&D AS. At the time of acquisition, this company had been engaged for over ten years in developing a revolutionary imaging sonar technology capable of producing real time three-dimensional (“3D”) underwater images for use in subsea activities. Coda Octopus Products Limited (Edinburgh based) then developed our visualization software (Underwater Survey Explorer) to control and display the images from the real time 3D sonar device. This patented technology is now marketed by us under the brand name “Echoscope®” and Echoscope PIPE®. All activities of this now-defunct Norwegian subsidiary, Coda Octopus R&D AS, have been transferred to Coda Octopus Products Limited (Edinburgh).

On July 13, 2004, the Company effected a reverse merger pursuant to the terms of a share exchange agreement between The Panda Project, Inc. (“Panda”), a Florida corporation, and a now defunct entity affiliated with Coda Octopus Ltd. (“Coda Parent”). Panda acquired the shares of Coda Octopus Limited, a UK corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coda Parent, in consideration for the issuance of a total of 1,432,143 shares of common stock to Coda Parent and other shareholders of Coda Octopus Limited. The shares issued represented approximately 90.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of Panda. The share exchange was accounted for as a reverse acquisition of Panda by Coda. Subsequently, Panda was reincorporated in Delaware and changed its name to Coda Octopus Group, Inc.

In June 2006, we acquired Coda Octopus Martech Limited which is part of our Services Segment or Marine Engineering Business. This is an English corporation.

In April 2007, we acquired Coda Octopus Colmek, Inc. which is part of our Services Segment or Marine Engineering Business. This is a Utah corporation.

Both Martech and Colmek largely have the same business model, provide similar engineering services and sell to a similar customer base (Martech is UK focused and Colmek is US focused).

In December 2013 Coda Octopus Products Limited established Coda Octopus Products Pty Ltd (Australia) to grow our presence in Australia and New Zealand. These activities were interrupted by the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020 and since then has been slow to regain momentum.

In 2017 Coda Octopus Products Limited established a subsidiary Coda Octopus Products A/S in Denmark as part of the mitigation strategy relating to the UK withdrawal from the European Union.

In November 2021 Coda Octopus Products Limited established a subsidiary Coda Octopus Products (India) Private Limited intended to gain access to this market and to recruit critical resources for software development.

Coda Octopus Group, Inc., is organized under the laws of the State of Delaware as a holding company that conducts its business through subsidiaries, several of which are organized under the laws of foreign jurisdictions, including England, Scotland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Australia and recently India. This may have an adverse impact on the ability of U.S. investors to enforce a judgment obtained in U.S. courts against these entities, or to effect service of process on the officers and directors managing the foreign subsidiaries. These companies’ operations must comply with the laws of the countries under which they are incorporated and are likely to be different from the equivalent laws of the United States.

Marine Technology Business (“Products Segment”)

Our Marine Technology Business develops proprietary solutions for both the commercial and defense subsea market. The range of our solutions are complementary and include:

These products are sold, leased or rented into various marine sectors and include:

• Marine geophysical survey
• Offshore Renewables (“Wind Energy”)
• Underwater construction, inspection and monitoring
• Diving Companies
• Commercial and Defense Diving
• Salvage and decommissioning
• Oil and Gas (“O&G”)
• Commercial fisheries
• Environmental, mammal and habitat monitoring
• Underwater Defense Applications
• Marine vehicles and robotics
• Port and Harbor Security, law enforcement and first responders
• Research and education

1. Geophysical Range of Products

Geophysical Hardware and Software

We started our business in 1994 designing and developing the GeoSurvey® software and hardware package for acquisition and processing of sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiler data. For over two decades, our GeoSurvey has been an industry leading software package in the market for data acquisition and interpretation and provides feature rich solutions and productivity enhancing tools for the most exacting survey requirements. Designed specifically for sidescan and sub-bottom data acquisition, GeoSurvey has been purchased by numerous leading survey companies throughout the world and has been for many years the workhorse for processing data for Oil & Gas companies.

The Geophysical range of products marketed under the brands DA4G and GeoSurvey® are important for both Offshore Renewables and O&G. We therefore believe that with the expansion of the markets into Offshore Renewables, we will see an increase in the take-up of this product suite, particularly in the global rental market. Our GeoSurvey® and DA4G ranges are strong brands in these markets and consists of a range of hardware and software products for acquisition and post-processing of sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiler data, which includes analog and digital interfaces compatible with all geophysical survey systems.

Our Survey Engine® software product offers a more advanced post-processing solution for sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiler data. Designed to streamline processing of very large data it offers comprehensive processing, interpretation, visualization, reporting and exporting functionality.

We continue to advance this range of products and in 2018 we launched our first product based on Artificial Intelligence techniques which allows us to automatically identify boulders on the seabed – SEADP – “Survey Engine Automatic Object Detection”. This new product presents a real opportunity to radically change workflow process for post-processing and analyzing side scan sonar data to assess, among other things, the suitability of an area for exploration and construction activities (O&G installations, pipeline and cable laying activities).

2. Inertial Positioning and Attitude Measurement Systems (“Motion Products”)

Our Motion Products are Global Navigational Satellite System (referred to in the industry as “GNSS” Aided Inertial Measurement Units) that provide measurement data on the position and attitude of a vessel (heading, pitch, roll and yaw of the vessel). This device provides real-time data on these measurements which are applied to compensate for vessel movement in order to align sonar data and remove motion blur. We have had our F180® series on the market for over 15 years and due to the advancement of technology and the increasing demand for more precise GNSS Aided instruments, we have now developed our new generation of Motion Products, our F280 Series®.

We have now completed the ground up development of our new generation of Motion Products F280 Series® for accurate position, heading, pitch, roll and yaw at sea. The new F280 Series® is based on more advanced technology and is more accurate than our previous generation of F180® products. The new technology is much more scalable towards future development of new product variants. The F280 Series® is highly complementary to our real time Echoscope® sonar series and they are packaged together to provide a more comprehensive solution. The F280® can be sold with or without our Echoscope®.

3. Real Time Volumetric Imaging Sonars (ranging from 3D/4D, 5D and 6D)

We design, develop and supply what we believe is the world’s most advanced series of real time volumetric imaging sonar. This is the culmination of over 25 years of research and development. This technology is protected by multiple patents. Furthermore, we continue to file patents relating to our new and revolutionary 5D and 6D real time volumetric imaging sonars (marketed under the name Echoscope PIPE® (Parallel Intelligent Processing Engine). Our sonar innovations are multi-tiered and extend to hardware, firmware and software, all of which co-exist and are co-dependent on each other. In other words, hardware, firmware and software operate as sub-systems to each other. We believe that the highly complex nature of this new technology will make it extremely difficult to reverse engineer our products. Pioneering this unique technology gives us a significant advantage over our competitors in the subsea real time 3D imaging sonar market sectors. We also believe that our three-tier product development capability of hardware, software and solution delivery adds to our competitive lead.

We believe that this technology is superior to the other imaging sonars in the market as it generates real time 3D, 4D, 5D and 6D images of the underwater environment irrespective of low or zero visibility conditions and, unlike conventional sonars, can image a volume (as opposed to a slice of data) and provide real time 3D inspection and monitoring capability underwater. The capability of our volumetric imaging sonars covers a broad breadth of activities underwater particularly for any form of underwater construction, salvaging, placements, decommissioning, obstacle avoidance, complex underwater mapping and real time 3D navigation in zero visibility conditions. Uniquely also, using a single sensor (our Echoscope PIPE®) range we can provide different outputs to the various parts of the survey team, thus reducing the number of different sensors required on these underwater projects and thus the costs associated with these underwater operations.

About the Company’s 5D and 6D Sonars Innovations

5D and 6D imaging sonars are new to the subsea market and constitute an innovation by the Company. We have several patent applications pending for these innovations.

5D Sonars (Echoscope PIPE®)

The advancement that the Company has made with its 5D Sonars is the ability to process and utilize much more of the data that is acquired by our volumetric imaging sonars. Due to the state of the art of processing generally, there was an upper limit to the quantity of the acquired data that could be processed and displayed by our antecedent sonars. This meant that in the previous generation of sonars when a signal was emitted, it returned a single range and intensity value per beam. In the 5D Sonars we return multiple range and intensity values per beam (Full Time Series data). This new capability provides more information about the underwater environment. For example, it will give the user the ability to see multiple layers of soft target areas underwater such as gas leaks and suspended sediment above the seabed all concurrently (not one or the other) or concurrent imagery of marine life, sea growth on installations and the installations themselves. Our 5D capability is protected by recently granted patents.

6D Sonars (Echoscope PIPE®)

The Company’s 6D Sonars process and utilize much more of the data acquired by the sonar. 6D Sonars generate multiple real time 3D Full Time Series Images. In the previous generation of sonar, we could image and display one 3D Image in real time. Our PIPE technology generates multiple 3D images simultaneously in real time using different sonar/acoustic parameters (such as different beamforming methods, frequency, range, field of view, pulse length and other acoustic filters or shading). This allows for different data sets to be provided to different parts of the survey team in real time (thus consolidating the sensors and the associated costs and effectiveness of the solution). We are not aware of any sonars that offer either 5D or 6D Capability.

In summary, our previous generation of real time 3D sonar was capable of providing only single acoustic images of underwater objects in real time 3D whereas the PIPE family of sonars is capable of providing multiple acoustic images of underwater objects in real time 3D/4D thus providing significantly more benefits to our customers.

Echoscope® Sonar Hardware

During fiscal 2019, we completed critical innovation and advancement milestones around our core volumetric real time sonar technology. We have now introduced the world’s first 5D and 6D series of volumetric imaging sonar technology. This new series of sonars are marketed under the brand name Echoscope PIPE® (an acronym for Parallel Intelligent Processing Engine). We believe our 5D and 6D series of sonars herald a significant leap forward in real time subsea imaging as this inventive capability allows a single sonar to provide different parts of the survey operations with multiple real time data sets (as opposed to one 3D dataset) for each part of the survey teams’ requirements.

A summary of some of the differences between our standard Echoscope® sonar series and our newly launched Echoscope PIPE® series of sonars are set out below:

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We believe that our Echoscope® technology will shepherd in the new generation of underwater real time 3D imaging sonar which will evolve into a real time information platform and gain market share through the increased adoption of real time 3D volumetric imaging sonar technology. Current competing imaging technologies such as the single beam, multibeam and scanning sonars are either 2D real time imaging sonars or 3D imaging sonars which are not capable of real time 3D imaging, that is to generate a 3D image underwater of moving objects. The competing 3D technology, the multibeam, which is the current standard bearer for imaging sonars in the market is for mapping of the seabed. The Echoscope® technology can also map the seabed (and is superior to the multibeam for complex mapping and inspection of complex underwater structures) but can also image in real time 3D moving objects underwater. The Echoscope® is therefore the primary tool of choice for inspecting and monitoring in real time 3D all types of underwater operations and is the only choice in poor visibility conditions. In addition, the Echoscope® in many instances enables the user to monitor underwater operations from a surface vessel replacing the Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) thus bringing considerable cost savings to our customers.

Prior to January 2018, we were selling our third generation (3G) sonar series. In January 2018 we launched the first product within our fourth generation series of sonars (“4G sonar series”). The 4G sonar series was an important development milestone for the Company since it removed several barriers to market adoption. Since its introduction we have seen an increased number of units being sold or rented. Due to the form factor of our previous generation of 3G sonar series this limited the types of underwater vehicles this generation of sonar could be integrated on (and therefore be used for) due to (i) size; (ii) weight and (iii) power requirements (“form factor barriers”). With the launch of our 4G sonar series we have removed these form factor barriers and can now integrate on the majority of underwater vehicles in the market including the new and fast emerging smaller underwater vehicles such as autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) which are propelling growth in the underwater market, thus opening potentially new market opportunities for the Company’s technology. For example, we are now able to integrate on the Videoray Defender which is the US Navy selected platform for small manned portable vehicles. Our antecedent sonars due to their form factors would not be able to operate on this class of vehicles. The 4G sonar series development is therefore this is a very significant milestone in the Company’s progress and opens the potential to grow its market share of imaging sonars.

The 4G sonar series developments were largely form factor driven as opposed to being based on performance and capability advancements. In the fiscal years 2019 and 2020 we continued to build on our initial 4G innovations with a renewed focus on performance and capability advancements, particularly on the beamforming and the data processing capability of our sonar series. In the antecedent generation of our sonars, due to limitations in processing technology there were restrictions on how much of the captured Echoscope® sonar data could be processed by us. Our previous generations of sonar processed 16,384 pieces of data per sonar ping (compared to around 256 pieces of data per sonar ping for competing technology such as the multibeam). Under our new Echoscope PIPE® sonar series for each signal that is generated by the sonar we receive back up to 40 million pieces of information which we can now process. In this context, we have two recent patents which cover “a method of compressing beamforming sonar data” and “a method of compressing sonar data”. We believe that this allows us to deliver to the market the first 5-Dimensional (5D) sonar and 6-Dimensional (6D) sonar capabilities and significantly builds on our 4G sonar series which radically changed the form factor and power requirements which were previously barriers to increased adoption. We started selling Echoscope PIPE® in the market in March 2020. We are also seeing increased interest in Echoscope PIPE® technology in the market especially with OEM underwater vehicle manufacturers from the defense space.

The release of the Echoscope PIPE® hardware is a further significant milestone for the Company. We are now focused on delivering additional competitive value to our imaging sonar technology via firmware and software capability. The finalization of this development now gives the Company a real opportunity to pursue its strategy to standardize this technology in the underwater imaging sonar market. We believe that in order to make the subsea and underwater market more efficient, it is mandatory that the standard moves to a real time 3D information platform. Many underwater operations are stalled due to poor visibility water conditions, preventing the remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) from flying and also the lack of ability to utilize the sonar data immediately because it requires post processing, which represents a significant challenge and costs. The subsea market is experiencing high structural and technological transitional changes including the introduction of the new generation of smaller and lighter vessels (both surface and underwater). This creates a demand for new sensors and solutions for real time 3D imaging. We believe that our lead in this area gives us a real opportunity to increase our market share and we continue to see significant interest in the Defense/Naval market for our Echoscope PIPE® technology.

Echoscope® Software

The Echoscope® technology works in conjunction with our internally developed software (USE, Construction Monitoring System (CMS), 4G US® and 4G USE® DAVD Edition). The software is a critical component of the capabilities and features of our sonar series.

Our software development capability is an important part of our strategy to maintain our lead in designing, manufacturing, and selling state-of-the-art real time volumetric imaging sonars and our DAVD System. It also allows us to be responsive to our customers’ requirements for new features and capabilities around our solutions.

We have now launched our fourth-generation multi-sensor software platform which is marketed under the name “4G USE®”. We have also filed several provisional patents around our 4G USE® which is a multi-sensor platform allowing users to bring in and utilize a variety of sensor data including sonar, positioning, camera, lidar, video processing and other sources of point cloud data and seamlessly merging above and below the water data captured from the sonar and camera. It is also the platform for our DAVD software, and this module is marketed under the brand 4G USE® DAVD Edition.

Diver Augmented Vision Display (DAVD) System – Diving Technology

Funded by the Office of Naval Research (“ONR”) through its Future Naval Capabilities (FNC) program, and in close collaboration with NAVSEA 00C3 and Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Division (“NSWC PCD”) we have developed a diver see-through integrated information display system (DAVD).

DAVD is a complete end-to-end diver management solution incorporating as a key element a high-resolution, fully transparent glass head-up display (HUD) integrated directly inside the diving helmet (for hard hat surface air supply diving) or full-facemask (for tethered and untethered defense, commercial and recreational diving applications) or diving suits. The DAVD HUD is currently deployed in the world leading and most widely used Kirby Morgan® range of dive helmets and is currently being released in the industry standard Interspiro “AGA”, OTS Guardian and the Divator and Dräger Panorama Nova Dive full-face masks. However, the DAVD HUD technology is not limited to these products and/or applications.

Problem In Context

The concept of using a pair of transparent glasses in the HUD to render real time information for underwater applications is protected by patent and Coda Octopus has an exclusive license from United States Department of the Navy at NSWC PCD to exploit this patent for all underwater diving activities.

The US Government as represented by Secretary of the Navy (Arlington, VA), describes the challenge for divers in their patent application as follows:

“By their very nature, underwater dive missions are difficult and inherently dangerous. Furthermore, the complexity of underwater missions can make it difficult or impossible for a diver to retain all pre-mission briefing information. For these reasons, it is critical for underwater divers to have access to environmental data and mission data while in the water. However, in low visibility water environments, divers can rarely see handheld displays or gauges. Accordingly, divers are generally supplied with audio-communicated information from a topside location. The topside-supplied information can include descriptions of sonar images, blueprints, maps, pictures, etc. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult and confusing for a diver to interpret a topside personnel’s audio description of the topside personnel’s visual interpretation. Combining this with unreliable audio communication can lead to mission failures or disasters.”

It further describes the objective of the Invention as:

“Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an underwater diver with real-time visual information available to topside personnel.

Another object of the present invention is to provide real-time visual information to an underwater diver for viewing in water environments irrespective of water visibility levels.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious hereinafter in the specification and drawings.”

How does DAVD Change this?

The DAVD system addresses all the challenges described above including removing the interpretation of the underwater scene to the topside by providing the diver with real time data and first-person interpretation. The DAVD technology benefits not only the diver and direct supervisor on the surface, but also engineers, end-clients, rescue workers and support personnel who all have vested interest in a successful and safe mission. DAVD provides the location of the diver, the dive support vessel, work site assets and any hazards that are known or discovered in real-time. Real-time compass and depth are also displayed to the diver to reduce disorientation. Visibility for diver and team is significantly enhanced with both real-time camera and 3D sonar data (providing underwater night-vision) and also high-resolution maps and models of the entire work site and surroundings. Communication is transformed from low quality audio speech to high quality digital audio and video, text messaging, visual alerts and automated navigation guidance. The safety of the diver and team is paramount. DAVD ensures the Diver and Supervisor are visually synchronized and can safely coordinate movement, tasks and instructions with full health monitoring and logging of the entire mission. Data and information sharing traditionally ends when the diver leaves the surface.

The DAVD is a significant technology for both defense and commercial underwater diving applications, and we believe that Coda Octopus has the opportunity to standardize this technology globally. The DAVD comprises both hardware comprising the HUD, Diver Processing Pack (DPP), Cables and Topside Control Unit along with 4G USE® DAVD Edition real time visualization software. All these developments and products have been performed by the Company.

The DAVD is currently in early-stage adoption with the US Navy and enjoys the benefit of an Approved Navy Use (ANU) product. DAVD also is certified for CE markings for compliance with the European Union and the United Kingdom health and environmental requirements.

We are marketing the DAVD (through live demonstrations) to Navies globally and also to the commercial diving market. We have significant interest from a number of reputable global commercial offshore service providers and are working with them for early adoption of the technology and also a number of European friendly Navies including the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD).

Sales and Marketing

We market our products primarily through our internal sales team, website, industry events such as trade shows, webinars, industry relationships and agents in foreign countries such as Japan, China and Korea. In addition, we have a network of non-exclusive independent global sales agents.

Coda Octopus Products Limited has the requisite accreditations for its business including being Lloyds Register accredited to ISO 9001:2015 and Cyber Essentials certification.

Marine Engineering Businesses (“Services Segment”)

Our Marine Engineering Businesses comprise Coda Octopus Colmek, Inc. based in Salt Lake City and Coda Octopus Martech Limited based in the United Kingdom.

They supply engineered sub-assembly solutions which typically form part of broader mission critical integrated defense systems, test equipment, instrumentation, and the like. They largely operate as sub-contractors to prime defense contractors, and their engineering solutions are typically designed for integration into broader defense programs of record where high levels of reliability and quality are essential pre-requisites for securing and maintaining these agreements with their customers. Typically, they prototype subassemblies for their customers and after going through various acceptance tests, including first article inspection approvals, they are then awarded the manufacturing contracts. Many of these manufacturing contracts have a repeat orders profile which typically follows the life cycle of the defense program that is using the subassembly.

These arrangements often give the Marine Engineering Business long term preferred/sole supplier status for the parts they supply into these programs, technology refresh and obsolescence management opportunities with these customers and they generally use these long-standing relationships to win more contracts with these customers.

In order to grow, the Marine Engineering Business relies on increasing the number of new programs it attracts annually.

In addition, we are increasingly combining our engineering capabilities with our product offerings. This enables us to offer systems which are complete with installation and support to maximize the utilization of our collective expertise to advance our technologies.

Coda Octopus Martech Limited (“Martech”)

Martech which is UK-based, operates in the specialized niche of bespoke design and manufacturing services mainly to the United Kingdom defense and subsea industries. Its services are provided on a custom subcontract basis where high quality and high integrity devices are required in small quantities. Their skills set includes both hardware and software design.

Martech enjoys pre-approvals to allow it to be short-listed for certain types of government contracts. Much of the more significant business secured by Martech is through the formal government or government contractor tendering process. Martech has the requisite accreditations for its business including being Lloyds Register accredited to ISO 9001:2015 and Cyber Essentials certification.

Coda Octopus Colmek, Inc. (“Colmek”)

Colmek, which is USA-based, are suppliers of embedded solutions and sub-assemblies which they design and manufacture and sell into mission critical integrated defense systems such as the Close-In-Weapons System (CIWS). This business was established 1977 and has been supporting several significant US defense programs for over 40 years, including Raytheon’s CIWS and Northrop Grumman’s Mine Hunting Systems Program (AQS-24). Colmek’s business model entails designing sub-assembly prototypes for defense programs which typically lead to contracts for the manufacture, repair and upgrade of these sub-assemblies. Colmek are the sole source for the parts that they supply into these programs. This business model ensures recurring and long tail revenues since we continue to supply parts, typically for the life of the program, which can span decades. Their skills set includes both hardware and software design.

Colmek has the requisite accreditations for its business including being Lloyds Register accredited to ISO 9001:2015 and Cyber Essentials certification.

Competition

In our Marine Technology Business (Products Business), we are exposed to the following competitive challenges:

Data Acquisition Products (GEO Products)

The industry for data acquisition and processing systems for sidescan and sub-bottom profiler data is fragmented with several companies occupying niche areas, and we face competition from different companies with respect to our different products.

In the field of geophysical products, Triton Imaging Inc., a US-based company, now part of the ECA Group (Toulon, France), Chesapeake, a US-based company, and Oceanic Imaging Consultants, Hawaii, USA, dominate the market.

GNSS Aided Inertial Positioning and Attitude Measurement Systems (“Motion Products”)

In the field of GNSS-aided inertial positioning and attitude sensing equipment, where our product addresses a small segment of the overall market, we believe that we have several principal competitors: Teledyne Technologies Inc.; Kongsberg Gruppen, iXblue, Applanix and SBG Systems. We believe that our market share in this market segment of motion sensing equipment is relatively small. We sell our MOTION range as part of our equipment suite to complement our Echoscope® real time 3D sonar range as well as supplying it individually. The development and introduction of our F280 Series® of GNSS Aided Inertial Positioning and Attitude Measurement System® constitutes our new generation of Motion Products and gives us the opportunity to increase our market share.

Real Time 3D/4D/5D and 6D Volumetric Sonar

In the field of Real Time 3D/4D/5D imaging, we are unaware of other companies offering a similar product. In this context it is important to understand some of the intellectual property including know how and capabilities we bring to this field include:

• Acoustic Projector/Transmitter design, manufacturing, and testing
• Acoustic Receiver Array design, manufacturing, and testing
• Acoustic encapsulation and sensitivity measurement
• Acoustic Projector/Transmitter beam pattern and sensitivity measurement
• Pressure housing Design and Manufacture (sonar systems)
• 3D/5D/6D Real-Time digital beamforming (on-device)
• 1D and 2D Digital Beamforming
• Broadband Beamforming
• Signal Processing
• Active High Frequency Sonar Systems
• Passive Mid Frequency Sonar Systems
• Data acquisition and recording hardware and software
• Real-time 2D and 3D sonar visualization rendering and processing software

Any entry into this market depends upon specialized marine electronics, acoustic and software development skills. The learning curve, which has resulted in the advancement of our real time 3D sonar device, is the culmination of two decades of research and development in this field.

Companies such as Kongsberg Gruppen, R2Sonic, LLC, Tritech International Ltd., United Kingdom, BlueView Technologies Inc., USA (now a part of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated), and Norbit Group AS Norway are examples of companies offering imaging sonar solutions (such as multibeam sonars and/or 2D scanning sonars), but none of these sonar offerings are directly comparable or competitors to our real time volumetric 3D/4D/5D and 6D sonar solutions as their scanning sonar, single beam or multibeam sonars are not real time 3D imaging sonars and therefore cannot image moving targets underwater.

Specifically, we believe that they do not have the same capabilities as our Echoscope® technology in terms of real time inspection and monitoring by generating 3D, 4D, 5D and 6D images of moving objects underwater including in environments in low or zero visibility conditions. Nor do they have the ability to use a single sonar for multiple real time 3D/4D images simultaneously. Notwithstanding it should be noted that Teledyne has acquired a significant number of substantial subsea companies (examples are Reson and BlueView). Teledyne has much greater resources, liquidity and market reach than our Company and has many operating verticals. We therefore can give no assurance that companies such as these will not enter this market. Furthermore, companies such as Kongsberg Gruppen and Teledyne can expend significantly more in any one fiscal year on R&D and Business Development, key pillars for increasing market share of underwater imaging sonars, than the Company. Notwithstanding, we believe that our recent development and introduction of 5D/6D - Echoscope PIPE®) sonar capability in conjunction with our software (4G USE® a multi-sensor platform) further distinguishes our volumetric sonars and significantly extends our lead in real time 3D/4D/5D and 6D Imaging of moving objects underwater over competitors in the subsea imaging market. We are not aware of any other imaging sonars in the market capable of generating real time 5D and 6D imagery underwater, which are Coda Octopus inventions. The innovations around Echoscope PIPE® are the subject of numerous patent applications. We have been awarded US 10,718,865 and US 10,816,652 which concerns a method of compressing beamformed data and method of compressing sonar data, respectively.

We seek to compete on the basis of producing high quality products employing cutting edge technology that is easy to use by the operators without specialized skills in sonar technology. We intend to continue our research and development activities to continually improve our products, seek new applications for our existing products, develop new innovative products and grow the market for our products and expertise.

Diver Augmented Vision Display System (“DAVD”)

There are various diving systems in the market that provide a combination of different aspects of our DAVD system but no systems that directly compete in the form of embedded fully transparent glasses mounted internally within the diver helmet or mask and on which various types of images, data and augmented reality information can be displayed. This concept is protected by US Patent 10,877,282.

The DAVD system provides a unique diver centric system with localized and external sensors to provide increased safety, scene awareness and vital communication in the form of Digital Audio, Ultra-Low-Light Video, Text and technical instruction and access to a complete media hub for effective communication between diver and supervisor. The DAVD system provides the following capabilities:

• Fully Transparent High-Definition Head-Up Display mounted internally within supported Dive Helmets and Dive Masks, including Kirby Morgan KM37, KM37SS, KM97 and SL17 Helmets, as well as the Interspiro Divator MK II, OTS Guardian and Dräger Panorama Nova Dive
• Fully integrated 1st person perspective digital low-light camera with advanced video processing and real-time edge enhancement for Diver and Dive Supervisor
• Fully integrated noise-cancelling Digital Audio at source, replacing legacy communications
• Integrated Diver Head Tracking for accurate 3D scene visualization with full support for subsea positioning systems for accurate Diver positioning
• Telemetry Information on demand including Dive Timers, Depth and Compass Heading, Live position Lat/Long (when connected to external diving positioning system), Waypoint Range and Bearing as well as external Dive Computer data
• Instant Digital Voice and Text Communication between Dive Supervisor and Diver, including auto and pre-defined messaging
• Transmit unlimited on-demand media to Diver including Images, Instructional Videos, Technical Drawings and other assets to assist in live operations
• Creation and transfer of unlimited step-by-step mission instructions with text, video and image support for common diver tasks and operations
• Full Mixed-Reality 3D Display for Diver using live Sonar, pre-surveyed Sonar data and 3D models
• Divers HUD Display fully adjustable between 2D Mode, and 3D Mode with 1st person and 3rd person perspective

There are several diver related products and sensors that can be worn by the diver such as telemetry systems, navigational aids, dive computers, video and sonar systems and probes and sensors such as magnetic and thickness. Each of these systems typically have an independent display, typically on the device or wrist worn.

Video systems generally provide no direct benefit to the diver and are intended for top-side visualization. The DAVD provides video data to the diver directly.

More recent advances in technology have introduced head mounted display (HMD) as either replacement or as additional display close to the divers’ eyes. These are typically presented in the form of a monocular display mounted externally to the divers’ mask in which the diver must look at this display through a single eye. These are not intended for long term use and more for occasional glance at data for reference. Dual HMDs are also provided in certain products to replace what the diver can see through the mask with a computer display.

The drawback of such HMD is that the diver loses all sense of the natural surrounding and the real environment is placed using the computer display. Examples of monocular and dual lens HMD include Shearwater Nerd 2, Tritech DMD (Diver Mounted Display) and Blueprint Subsea Artemis HMD.

Furthermore, a significant challenge for diving is the operating environment where zero visibility conditions typically prevail. Combining our DAVD with our Echoscope® removes this barrier for diving operations.

In our Services Segment, we are exposed to the following competitive challenges:

Marine Engineering Businesses

Through our marine engineering operations, Coda Octopus Colmek, Inc. and Coda Octopus Martech Limited, we are involved in custom engineering for the defense industry in the United States and in the United Kingdom and are dependent on subcontract from the major prime contractors. Martech and Colmek compete with larger contractors, such as the primes, in the defense industry. Typical among these are Ultra Electronics, BAE Systems, Thales, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, all of whom are also partners on various projects. The strongest competitors are often the prime contractors themselves as they predominantly have the option to execute the work package internally as opposed to subcontracting these.

Intellectual Property

We operate in an industry in which innovation, investment in new ideas and protection of our intellectual property rights are critical for our continued success. When we can we protect our innovations and inventions through a variety of means, including, but not limited to, applying for patent, copyright, and trademark protection domestically and internationally, and protecting our trade secrets. We incentive our employees to innovate through our Patent Reward Scheme. In the last 3 years we have advanced our existing sonar technology and have filed several significant patents applications pertaining to these inventions including covering our newly innovated 5D and 6D sonars. Furthermore, we have recently been awarded a patent which concerns a method of predicting and adjusting the laying of cable using sonar imaging. This is a significant patent for the Offshore Renewables Market, which as the world makes the energy transition is set to expand globally. The Offshore Renewables sector is important for our growth strategy. Our Echoscope® technology is used for real time monitoring of cable installations for some of these offshore renewable projects. This recent patent covers a method which automatically predicts the cable touchdown point and removes the need for the Echoscope® operator to manually determine and log the cable touchdown point.

Patents

Our patented inventions along with our strategy to enhance these inventions are at the heart of the Company’s strategy for growth and development. We expend a material part of our cash resources in building our Patent Portfolio. We also incentivize our staff to contribute to our Patent Portfolio by having in place a competitive Patent Reward Scheme. In the 2023 FY we added four new patents to our portfolio.

Our patent portfolio consists of the following:

Trademarks

We own the registered trademarks listed below and they are used in conjunction with the products that we market and sell:

Coda®, Octopus®, CodaOctopus®, CodaOctopus & Design®, Octopus & Design®, F180®, F280®, F280 Series®, Echoscope®, Echoscope 4G®, Echoscope 5D®, 5D Echoscope®, Echoscope 6D®, 6D Echoscope®, Echoscope PIPE® Ping-Pong Echoscope Sonar®, Ping-Pong Echoscope®, Ping-Pong Sonar®, Echoscope Sequencer® 4G Underwater Survey Explorer®, 4G USE®, Echoscope Sequencer®, Survey Engine®, Dimension®, DAseries®, GeoSurvey® CodaOctopus® Air, CodaOctopus® Vantage®; CodaOctopus® UIS; CodaOctopus® USE, Sentiris® and Thermite®.

In addition, we have registered several internet domain names including www.codaoctopus.com (http://www.codaoctopus.com); www.codaoctopusgroup.com (http://www.codaoctopusgroup.com); www.colmek.com (http://www.colmek.com) and www.martechsystems.co.uk (http://www.martechsystems.co.uk).

Research and Development (“R&D”)

Research and Development is foundational to our business strategy to ensure our growth strategy and maintain our competitiveness. The main costs that are incurred in this area are wages and salaries and prototyping. The recent crystallization of several significant hardware development projects by the Company, has seen R&D expenditures decreasing.

Our products are complex and therefore we can give no assurance that even with spending a significant part of our resources on R&D, we will be successful in our development goals or realize significant monetization of these developments. Furthermore, even following the launch of any product we may not succeed. Moreover, we may incur significant research and development expenditures without realizing viable products.

Government Regulation

Because of the nature of some of our products, they may be subject to export control regimes including in the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, and Australia where we conduct business operations. Where our products are subject to such export control requirements, they may only be exported to our customers if there is a valid export license granted by the relevant government body. Moreover, these regulations may change from time to time in these jurisdictions, including the United States, depending on the existing relationship with the country to which the goods are exported.

We are also required to maintain certain accreditations such as ISO 900 accreditation, cyber security certifications including Cyber Essentials and NIST, approvals to hold government items or materials and/or certain personnel or facility clearances.

In addition, as a provider for the US Government, we may be subject to numerous laws and regulations relating to the award, administration, Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (“DFARS”) and performance of US Government contracts, including the False Claims Act. Non-compliance found by any one agency could result in fines, penalties, debarment, or suspension from receiving additional contracts with all US Government agencies. Given our dependence on US Government business, suspension or debarment could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, the costs of complying with some of the regulations including DFARS may be prohibitive.

Employees

As of the date hereof, we employ approximately 83 employees worldwide, of which 10 hold management positions. A large majority of our employees have a background in science, technology, software and hardware engineering, with a substantial part being educated to a degree level. None of our employees are employed under a collective agreement and we have not experienced any organized labor difficulties in the past.

Available Information

Our internet address is www.codaoctopusgroup.com (http://www.codaoctopusgroup.com), where we make available, free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our SEC reports can be accessed through the investor relations section of our website. With the exception of our annual and periodic reports (Form 10-K and Form 10-Q), the information found on the Company’s website is not intended to be incorporated by reference into this or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC and are expressly excluded from any such form or reporting.

Orlando, Florida

Our corporate offices are co-located with our subsidiary Coda Octopus Products, Inc. in Orlando. We own these business premises comprising 3,000 square feet, that includes office space, training center and light manufacturing facilities.

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Coda Octopus Colmek operates from its premises which comprises 16,000 square feet and includes manufacturing, R&D Facilities, and office space. These premises are owned by Coda Octopus Colmek.

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Coda Octopus Products Limited (Edinburgh based) operates from its premises comprising 21,313 square feet of internal space and includes office space, R&D Facilities, and manufacturing. These premises are owned by Coda Octopus Products Limited.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Coda Octopus Products A/S, a Danish Subsidiary was established as as a mitigation strategy in relation to the UK leaving the European Union which has limited trade relations with EU member states. These premises are used as our European Offices. The lease is subject to six (6) months’ notice to terminate.

Annual rent is DKK 142,893 plus Value Added Tax (being an equivalent of $20,472) per annum) with an annual increase of 3%.

Portland, Dorset, UK

Martech uses premises owned by Coda Octopus Products Limited. These premises are located in the Marine Center in Portland, Dorset, United Kingdom, and comprise 9,890 square feet. The building comprises both office space and manufacturing and testing facilities. The rent paid to Coda Octopus Products Limited is $53,803 per annum.

All non-US Dollar denominated rents are stated according to prevailing exchange rates as of the date of each respective lease agreement.

From time to time, we may become involved in various lawsuits and legal proceedings which arise in the ordinary course of business. However, litigation is subject to inherent uncertainties, and an adverse result in these or other matters may arise from time to time that may harm our business. We are currently not aware of any such legal proceedings that we believe will have, individually or in the aggregate, a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results.

Forward-Looking Statements

The following discussion is intended to promote understanding of the results of operations and financial condition and should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto. This discussion may contain forward-looking statements that reflect the plans, estimates and beliefs of Coda. The words “plans,” “expects,” “will,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “projects,” “estimates” or other words of similar meaning and similar expressions, among others, generally identify “forward-looking statements,” which speak only as of the date the statements were made. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors and we disclaim and do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, except as required by applicable law.

This section of this Form 10-K generally discusses fiscal 2023 and 2022 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2023 and 2022. Discussions of 2021 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2022 and 2021 that are not included in this Form 10-K can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on January 30, 2023, which is available free of charge on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov (http://www.sec.gov) and our Investor Relations website at codaoctopusgroup.com.

General Overview

The Company operates two distinct businesses. These are:

• the Marine Technology Business (also referred to in this Form 10-K as “Products Business”, or “Products Segment”); and
• the Marine Engineering Business (also referred to in this Form 10-K as “Engineering Business”, or “Services Business” or “Services Segment”).

Our Marine Technology Business has operations in the USA, UK and Denmark – see organization chart set out in the Section Item 1 (Business). This business is an established technology solution provider to the subsea and underwater imaging, surveying and diving market. It has been operating as a supplier of solutions comprising both hardware and software products for close to 30 years to this market and it owns key proprietary technology including its Echoscope® and DAVD technology, that are used in both the underwater defense and commercial markets. All design, development and manufacturing of our technology and solutions are performed within the Company. We sell our products and solutions globally and have a combination of direct sales and indirect sales (via our agents’ network). In Asia and Africa, we largely sell via agents, in the USA, Europe and the Middle East we sell directly. We also rent our products and solutions, particularly to tier-one offshore service providers who prefer accounting for offshore equipment as an operating expense rather than capital expense.

Our imaging sonar technology products and solutions marketed under the name of Echoscope® and Echoscope PIPE® are used primarily in the underwater construction market, offshore renewables, offshore oil and gas, forward looking obstacle avoidance, complex underwater mapping, salvage operations, dredging, bridge inspection, underwater hazard detection, port and harbor security, mining, mine counter measures, ship hull scanning, real time threat detection, fisheries, commercial and defense diving, and marine sciences sectors. Uniquely the Echoscope® technology is a single sensor for multiple underwater applications which allows the market operators to consolidate their underwater sensor requirements.

Our novel diving technology is distributed under the name “CodaOctopus® DAVD” to the global defense and commercial diving markets and is relatively new to the market. The DAVD system which embeds a pair of transparent glasses in the Head up Display (HUD) is used as the data hub for displaying comprehensive real time data to the diver underwater. This also allows both the diver and the dive supervisor to visualize in real time the same underwater scene and data. We believe that the DAVD system has the potential to radically transform how diving operations are performed globally because it provides a fully integrated singular system for topside control and a fully connected HUD system for the diver allowing both the topside and diver to share a range of critical information including depth (pressure and temperature), compass and head tracking, real time dive timers and alerts, diver position and navigation, ultra-low light enhanced video system and enhanced digital voice communications. Limitations of current diving operations are that the diver only shares analog voice communications with the topside, is subject to the topside verbally describing information, and there is no real time information including real time navigation, tracking and mapping of the dive area available to the diver. The topside must also manage several independent systems for video, communications, and positioning. The Company’s solution addresses these deficiencies. Another critical part of our solution is that by using the Company’s Echoscope® technology, diving can be performed in zero visibility conditions, a common problem which besets these operations and can result in significant costs to the offshore service provider.

Although we generate most of our revenues from our real time 3D sonar which includes both proprietary hardware and software and the DAVD, we have a number of other products which we supply to the marine offshore market such as our inertial navigation systems (F280 Series®) and our geophysical hardware (DA4G) and software solutions (GeoSurvey which is widely used in the Oil & Gas sector and Survey Engine®, which include artificial intelligence based automatic detection systems). Our customers include offshore service providers to major oil and gas companies, renewable energy companies, underwater construction companies, law enforcement agencies, ports, mining companies, defense bodies, prime defense contractors, navies, research institutes and universities and diving companies. We also provide customization of services of our technology, particularly in the defense market and around our DAVD solutions where this is tailored for particular applications.

The Services Business has operations in the USA and UK. It is a trusted long-term Department of Defense (DoD) supplier. Its central business model consists of working with Prime Defense Contractors to design and manufacture sub-assemblies for utilization into larger defense mission critical integrated systems (“MCIS”). An example of such MCIS is the US Close-In-Weapons Support (CIWS) Program for the Phalanx radar-guided cannon used on combat ships. These proprietary sub-assemblies, once approved within the MCIS program, afford the Services Business the status of preferred supplier. Such status permits it to supply these sub-assemblies and upgrades in the event of obsolescence or advancement of technology for the life of the MCIS program. Customers include prime defense contractors such as Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Thales Underwater and BAE Systems. The typical scope of services provided by this business extends to concept, design, prototype, manufacture, and post-sale support including maintenance and obsolescence management.

We have long-standing relationships with prime defense contractors, and we use these credentials to secure more business. We support some significant defense programs of record by supplying and maintaining proprietary parts (or parts for which we are preferred suppliers) through obsolescence management programs. These services provide recurring stream of revenues for our Services segment.

Both the Marine Technology Business and Marine Engineering Business have established synergies in terms of customers and specialized engineering skill sets (hardware, firmware, and software) encompassing capturing, computing, processing and displaying data in harsh environments.

Factors Affecting our Business.

Our business is affected by a number of factors including those set out below:

A. United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) – Commonly referred to as “Brexit”

This has affected our Business in several important areas:

• It has reduced the availability of the pool of highly skilled workers in the fields in which we operate. This has made recruitment for skills challenging and constrains our ability to innovate rapidly.
• Our Technology requires training and support of customers deployments. UK employees are unable to freely work in the European Union and they now require work permits which are only available in limited circumstances including demonstrating that no other European national is available to perform the services. This is virtually impossible to demonstrate and therefore this impacts our ability to service our European Union customer requirements and directly impacts on revenue.
• Our shipments from the UK to the EU member states are subject to custom process. This results in increased costs and delays in the processing of shipments. This is a further impediment for our customers and makes selling into these markets more challenging.
• Because we have to set up various offices in the European Union member state countries to gain seamless access to these markets, it increases the cost of our operations and therefore our overheads without any corollary increase in sales to defray these costs.

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B. Currency Risks:

The Company’s operations are split between the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Item 1 (Business) of this Form 10-K sets out an overview of the entities within the Company’s group and their location. A significant proportion of our consolidated revenues (51.4% in 2023 FY compared to 53.9% in the 2022 FY) are generated outside of the United States by our foreign subsidiaries in the United Kingdom (“UK”) and Denmark. In addition, a significant part of our assets and liabilities (both current and fixed) is held in British Pounds, Danish Kroner and Euros by these foreign subsidiaries. Foreign Currency Translations as they pertain to our assets and liabilities are translated at the prevailing exchange rate at the balance sheet date and related revenue and expenses are translated at weighted average exchange rates in effect during the 12-month reporting period. Significant currency fluctuations (particularly the British Pound and/or the Danish Kroner, Euros, versus the US Dollar) may affect our financial results including our profit and loss account and the value of our assets and therefore we are subject to foreign currency fluctuation risks. In the Current 2023 FY, there were less adverse movements of these foreign currencies against the USD and therefore our foreign subsidiaries revenues when translated into USD were only marginally impacted when applying the Constant Rate (which is the 12-month period in the previous financial year exchange rate).

C. Inflation

Inflation measured as the Consumer Price Index has since calendar year 2022 been volatile in the countries in which we operate. Recently inflation has been falling in these countries and in the twelve months to October 31, 2023, these were:

• Denmark 0.1% - source: Statistics Denmark,
• UK 4.7% - source: Office of National Statistics (ONS); and
• USA 3.2% - source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite the decrease in inflation, the geopolitical landscape (such as the war in Ukraine which impacts on the price of commodities including oil) makes it highly probable that inflation will continue to be volatile in the countries in which we operate and therefore is likely to impact the costs of our operations. Inflation affects our business in several areas including the costs of our operations (such as wages and salaries, which has seen an average increase of 10% in the reporting period) and the costs of raw materials for our products. The increase in the bill of materials (“BOM”) costs of our products is not easily transferable to our customers and therefore there is a risk that our margins may be adversely impacted and/or that we become less competitive. Furthermore, inflation has a knock-on effect on revenue, since in a high inflation environment our customers are less likely to invest in technology.

D. Political Landscape/Exporting to China

We sell our products globally and increasingly to Asia. Asia is the fastest growing economies for our technology and solutions. The recent change in both the US and UK Governments’ political stance (and to a lesser extent the European Union Member States) towards trade with China, directly affects the sale of our products to customers based in China. Our real time 3D sonars which are depth rated above 300 meters along with our inertial navigation and attitude measurement sensors (F280® series) are subject to export control for certain countries, including China and therefore requires an export license. Although DAVD is not subject to export control under Export Administration Regulation (EAR) or International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR), we are not allowed to promote our DAVD technology in China.

On March 2023, the US Government Department of Commerce (Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to add a significant number of entities “determined ….to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”. The amended EAR in general states that there is a “presumption of denial” of grant of export licenses to these entities and their affiliates. This is another indication that the US Government policy and disposition towards China continues to harden and companies in the technology space will increasingly find it difficult to sell to China due to government restrictions.

The UK Government is generally in lock step with the US Government’s position and has refused to grant export licenses for several of the Company’s applications for end users in China for the first time in 25 years of our dealing with the UK Export Control Organization. The curtailment of access to this market due to refusal to issue export licenses is likely to significantly impact our revenues from Asia.

Furthermore, even though our sonars which are depth rated at 250m or less do not require export licenses for China, and our other products such as our geophysical products and Pan & Tilt devices, the recent change in the UK Export Control Regulations vis-à-vis China now encompasses an “all catch” provision under which any item intended for export to China may be seized by UK Border Control “if there is a risk that an item may be intended or diverted for purposes connected with weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery”. The interpretation of this provision has seen almost all exports to China from the UK being detained by UK Border Control. In 2023 FY we realized significantly less in sales to China, and we believe a direct result of the political environment.

The removal of China as a trading partner is likely to have a significant negative impact on our revenues and growth strategy. China has one of the largest planned and funded investment programs for offshore renewables, the market for which most of our technology is used for in China. After significant business development in China, we had started to see persistent and credible growth for our products in this market. However, with the ongoing geopolitical climate, we do not expect to see increased sale in China.

E. Significant Increase in the Price of Raw Materials

While there have been improvements in lead time for supply of raw materials and components in the Supply Chain during the reporting period, there is significant inflation which impacts the costs of raw materials which we are unlikely to be able to pass on to our customers due to the extent of these increases. These increases may make the cost of making our products uncompetitive and may also affect our margins.

F. Shortage of Key Skills/Resourcing Levels and significant increase in cost of operations due to inflation

We are experiencing skill shortages in areas that are critical to our growth strategy including experienced sales and marketing personnel, software developers and skilled electronic technicians. The inflationary conditions and shortage of skilled workers in the countries in which we operate (US, the UK, Denmark, and India) make it difficult for us to compete for these skills as there is extreme pressure on wages. It was widely reported in the UK press recently that “annual average total pay growth for the private sector was 7.9% in April to June 2023, the largest annual total growth rate since comparable records began in 2001 [The Economist August 19th-25th 2023 Edition]”. Furthermore, as a small business, we do not have resilience built into our workforce. As a result, there is a risk in the face of global skills shortages coupled with a higher demand for skills that we could lose skills that are essential for our business including the manufacture of our products or continuation of our engineering services. For our engineering business, it is crucial that they can offer competitive pricing to their Prime Defense Contractors who generally have the option to retain the subcontract inhouse with their engineering teams and therefore pricing is an important deciding factor for being awarded a subcontract by these customers.

As a small business, we are hindered in our ability to compete for certain specialized electronic engineering skills or technology skills, as our remuneration package is not as competitive as those offered by bigger companies which are competing for the same skills.

G. Government Spending for Defense

We are dependent on the timely allocation of funds to defense procurement by governments in the United States and the United Kingdom. A large part of our revenues in the Services Segment derives from government funding in the defense sector. In general, where there is a change of government, spending priorities may change from those priorities of the previous Administration. This may adversely impact on our revenues. Furthermore, during calendar year 2024, the US Federal Defense Budget is dependent on the New Administration being able to secure approval in Congress for the defense budget. The slim majority on which the current Administration operates is likely to hinder future spending on new defense projects. Currently with the US Election season almost open, the Federal Government is using continuing resolutions to fund existing programs as there is no agreement on budget. This is likely to further postpone approval of budgets and apportionments of funds, which is likely to affect our business.

H. Technological Advancement

A significant part of our growth strategy is predicated on our flagship real time volumetric imaging sonar technology, the Echoscope® and our Diver Augmented Vision Display (DAVD) solution. The technology space is inherently uncertain due to the fast pace of innovations and therefore we can give no assurance that we can maintain our leading position in these areas or that innovations in other areas may not surpass our solutions that we currently supply to the subsea market. An example of new technology entering the subsea market is LIDAR technology. However, unlike our sonar technology, LIDAR technology cannot be employed in zero visibility conditions and cannot generate a volume pulse or image moving objects required for real time inspection and monitoring underwater.

I. Concentration of Business Opportunities Where the Sales Cycle is Long and Unpredictable

The Services Business revenues are highly concentrated and are largely generated from subcontracts with a small number of Prime Defense Contractors. The sales cycle is generally protracted which may affect our revenues. It is also dependent on the US federal government appropriating budget for defense projects and where the federal government is unable to find consensus in the US Congress, this affects the timely award of sub-contracts from Prime Defense Contractors to our Services Business, which is reliant on these awards. Furthermore, the Marine Technology Business key opportunities which are critical to its growth strategy are in the Defense Market for both its imaging sonars and the DAVD, both of which are key pillars of the Company’s growth strategy. Due to the protracted nature of the government procurement process and cycle for defense spending under federal and/or state budgets, the sales cycle can be long and unpredictable, thus affecting timing of orders and thus revenues and our overall growth plans.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The Management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements. These financial statements have been prepared in conformity with GAAP in the United States which requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. By their nature, these estimates and judgments are subject to an inherent degree of uncertainty. We evaluate our estimates based on our historical experience and various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. These estimates relate to revenue recognition, the assessment of recoverability of goodwill and intangible assets, recognition and measurement of deferred income tax assets and liabilities, the assessment of unrecognized tax benefits, and others. Actual results could differ from those estimates, and material effects on our operating results and financial position may result.

We believe the following accounting estimates are most critical to understanding our consolidated financial statements. See “Note 2 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a full description of our accounting policies.

Revenue Recognition

Revenues are earned under formal contracts with our customers and are derived from both sales and rental of underwater technologies and equipment for imaging, mapping, defense and survey applications, diving technology and from the engineering services that we provide. Our contracts do not include the possibility for additional contingent consideration so that our determination of the contract price does not involve having to consider potential variable additional consideration. Our product sales do not include a right of return by the customer.

Regarding our Products Segment, all our products are sold on a stand-alone basis and those market prices are evidence of the value of the products. To the extent that we also provide services (e.g., installation, training, etc.), those services are either included as part of the product or are subject to written contracts based on the stand-alone value of those services. Revenue from the sale of services is recognized when those services have been provided to the customer and evidence of the provision of those services exists.

For further discussion of our revenue recognition accounting policies, refer to “Note 4 Revenue Recognition” in our Consolidated Financial Statements.

Stock-based Compensation

We recognize the expense related to the fair value of stock-based compensation awards within the consolidated statements of income and comprehensive income. The fair value of stock-based compensation is determined as of the date of the grant or the date at which the performance of the services is completed (measurement date) and is recognized over the periods in which the related services are rendered.

Income Taxes

The Company accounts for income taxes in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification Topic 740, Income Taxes (ASC 740). Under ASC 740, deferred income tax assets and liabilities are recorded for the income tax effects of differences between the bases of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and their bases for income tax reporting. The Company’s differences arise principally from the use of various accelerated and modified accelerated cost recovery system lives for income tax purposes versus straight line depreciation used for book purposes and from the utilization of net operating loss carry-forwards.

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are the amounts by which the Company’s future income taxes are expected to be impacted by these differences as they reverse. Deferred tax assets are based on differences that are expected to decrease future income taxes as they reverse. Correspondingly, deferred tax liabilities are based on differences that are expected to increase future income taxes as they reverse. “Note 10 Income Taxes” to the Consolidated Financial Statements discusses the amounts of deferred tax assets and liabilities, and also presents the impact of significant differences between financial reporting income and taxable income.

For income tax purposes, the Company uses the percentage of completion method of recognizing revenues on long-term contracts which is consistent with the Company’s financial reporting under U.S. GAAP.

Goodwill and Intangible Assets

Goodwill and intangible assets consist principally of the excess of cost over the fair value of net assets acquired (i.e., goodwill), customer relationships, non-compete agreements and licenses. Goodwill was allocated to our reporting units based on the original purchase price allocation. Goodwill is not amortized and is evaluated for impairment annually or more often if circumstances indicate impairment may exist. Customer relationships, non-compete agreements, patents and licenses are being amortized on a straight-line basis over periods of 2 to 15 years. The Company amortizes its intangible assets using the straight-line method over their estimated period of benefit. We annually evaluate the recoverability of goodwill and intangible assets and carefully consider events or circumstances that warrant revised estimates of useful lives or that indicate that impairment exists.

Step 1 of the goodwill impairment test used to identify potential impairment compares the fair value of the reporting unit with its’ carrying amount, including goodwill. If the fair value, which is based on future discounted cash flows, exceeds the carrying amount, goodwill is not considered impaired. The Company has adopted Accounting Standards Codification 2017 – 04, Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment, which permits the Company to impair the difference between the carrying amount in excess of the fair value of the reporting unit as the reduction in goodwill.

At the end of each year, we evaluate goodwill on a separate reporting unit basis to assess recoverability, and impairments, if any, are recognized in earnings. An impairment loss would be recognized in an amount equal to the excess of the carrying amount of the reporting unit compared to the fair value of the reporting unit. To date, the Company has not had any goodwill impairments.

Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Results of Operations

In this Form 10-K, the following meanings are ascribed to the terminologies set out immediately below:

In the Current FY our overall consolidated financial results were down when compared to the Previous FY. Our consolidated results include the results of the Company’s foreign subsidiaries. Our Foreign subsidiaries’ results are translated from their respective functional currencies into United States Dollar (USD) for reporting purposes. Currency fluctuations can therefore impact on our consolidated results including revenue and our profitability. In the Current FY our consolidated revenue was $19,352,088 compared to $22,225,803 in the Previous FY, representing a decrease of 12.9%. The foreign currency impact in the Current FY was immaterial and when applying the Constant Rate (Previous FY exchange rate), our revenue would have been marginally higher in the Current FY by 0.4% or $84,901. During the Current FY Gross Profit Margins moderately decreased by 1.0%. Total operating expenses increased by 1.0% and were $10,291,503 compared to $10,186,624 in the Previous FY. Income from operations decreased by 45.3% and was $2,739,552 compared to $5,004,064 in the 2022 FY. Net income before taxes decreased by 33.3% and was $3,421,228 compared to $5,132,335 in the Previous FY.

The main factors for the decrease in our overall financial results are global economic factors including inflation which has directly resulted in some significant offshore projects stalling in the Current FY. Many offshore operators (which constitute our customers) have existing fixed priced contracts that were entered into several years prior and which are now substantially “out-of-the-money” due to inflation. Some reports indicate that some of these offshore projects saw costs rising in excess of 40% against a backdrop of fixed price contracts previously agreed. Consequently, many of these projects were not executed in the Current FY. Many of the prime contractors (Orsted, Vattenfall, Siemens) have announced either project costs write down or shelving of projects until further notice. These factors have affected our Marine Technology Business and was further compounded by slower order-take in the 2023 FY from key strategic markets in Asia due to macro-economic factors. The UK Engineering Operations have also been affected by slow order take as during the 2023 FY their defense customers prioritize land-based applications relating to supporting the Ukraine efforts over naval-based solutions, relevant for this business.

Segment Summary

Marine Technology Business

In the 2023 FY, the Marine Technology Business generated $12,119,066 or 62.6% of our consolidated revenues compared to $14,724,688 or 66.3% in the 2022 FY, representing a decrease of 17.7%. Gross Profit Margin was lower at 76.7% in the 2023 FY compared to 80.0% in the 2022 FY, representing a decrease of 3.3%. The decrease in gross profit margin is attributed to a combination of factors including higher agents’ commission costs of $794,427 compared to $596,426, in the 2022 FY, representing an increase of 33.2%, and less units of rentals, software and customization services sold, all of which yield a higher gross profit margin. Total operating expenses increased in the Marine Technology Business by 8.0% and were $5,153,456, compared to $4,771,054 in the 2022 FY. This is largely due to exchange rate variance (a non-cash item within SG&A). Income from operations in the Marine Technology Business was $4,145,814.

The overall decrease in the Marine Technology Business financial results is due to the decrease in revenue caused by weak demand from key strategic markets such as offshore renewables and construction projects in Asia.

The business model for our Marine Technology Business includes both outright sales of our technology and rentals with associated services. Rentals requirements and usage emanate mainly from Europe and are largely used by Tier One Offshore Service Providers. Rentals and associated services are a significant part of our business model and growth strategy, since these Tier One Service Providers generally rent equipment as opposed to purchase. In addition, a significant part of these revenues comprises associated services which encompass our field engineers providing support in the mobilization of the equipment and providing training to users.

During the Current FY we saw a sharp fall in our rental and associated services revenues and contrary to our business plan for the Current FY, a lack of growth in rentals revenues. In the Current FY rental revenue was $1,264,804 compared to $1,844,755 in the Previous FY, representing a decrease of 31.4%. We believe this is largely due to the offshore renewable industry experiencing rising costs, interest rates hikes and supply chain issues, which have seen the major operators in this market shelving development projects and seeking to reset contract prices. The offshore renewable energy market is an important sector for our technology and success in this market is important for our growth strategy. It is reported that the slowdown in Europe in the offshore renewable market is attributable to the factors below:

• Operators have seen a 40% increase in the costs of installations (against a backdrop of fixed price contracts negotiated in previous years). This has caused many of these offshore developments/projects to become unviable. Many of the major operators in this sector have now shelved or cancelled projects. Many of these projects are now open to either re-tendering or price reset negotiations (source www.windeurope.org (http://www.windeurope.org), Bloomberg, Financial Times).
• Delays in European offshore providers entering the US Market due to contractual hurdles, inflation, high interest rates – all of which have caused these contracts to become unattractive to execute against. By way of example, Orsted (the world’s biggest developer of offshore wind) in the Current FY warned that several of its offshore wind projects are being hurt by suppliers’ delays which could lead to a significant write down relating to US Projects (such as, Ocean Wind`, Sunrise Wind and Revolution Wind) and more recently headlined in the Financial Times that BP and Equinor have scrapped New York offshore wind contract due to rising costs, interests rates and supply chain problems (source Bloomberg and Financial Times).

Asia is a key strategic market for our growth. During the Current FY we also saw a sharp fall in outright sales (as opposed to rentals) of equipment from the Asia-region. In the Current FY we had sales from Asia of $4,607,786 compared to $5,723,970 in the Previous FY. This is attributed to the slow pace of conversion of our proposals into orders from Asia including Japan, South Korea and China. We continue to believe that these are important markets for our technology and, although in the Current FY sales from that region fell, we do not believe this relates to any systemic problems with our technology or solutions offered but relate to broader macro-economic factors which impacts on investment decisions.

Services Business

In the 2023 FY, the Services Business generated $7,233,022 or 37.4% of our consolidated revenues compared to $7,501,115 or 33.7% in the 2022 FY, representing a decrease of 3.6%. Gross Profit Margin was higher at 51.6% in the 2023 FY compared to 45.4% in the Previous FY, representing an increase of 6.2%. This increase reflects the mix of engineering work during the 2023 FY (more units of manufacturing compared to design work). Total operating expenses fell in the Services Business by 6.3% and were $2,515,664 compared to $2,684,985 in the Previous FY. This is largely related to the reduction in staff headcount. Income from operations was $1,216,121 compared to $722,584 in the 2022 FY. Our Services Segment is comprised of the UK Operations (Martech) and the US Operations (Colmek). During the 2023 FY, the UK Operations has experienced significant delays in securing orders from its UK customers. While we still expect to receive these orders, this delay has impacted significantly on the revenue from the UK Operations of our Services Business and has contributed to the overall fall in our consolidated financial results in the Current FY. We believe the reason for this delay is that some of our customers’ priorities have temporarily shifted to supporting requirements for Ukraine which are land-based solutions and are not, for example, mine-hunting or other naval applications. We do not believe these opportunities have gone away but have, instead, been postponed.

Comparison of fiscal year ended October 31, 2023, to fiscal year ended October 31, 2022

The information provided below pertains to the Company’s consolidated financial results. For information on the performance of each Segment including the disaggregation of revenues and geographical split, see “Note 14 Segment Analysis” and “Note 15 Disaggregation of Revenue” of our audited Consolidated Financial Statements as of October 31, 2023, and 2022.

Revenue:

We realized a decrease in our consolidated revenues of 12.9% in the 2023 FY compared to the 2022 FY. In the 2023 FY revenue decreased in both business segments which did not meet their respective revenue plans. In the 2023 FY the main factors affecting the Marine Technology Business revenue plan are global economic factors such as inflation which has upended growth projections in a number of sectors including Offshore Renewables. In the 2023 FY we realized significantly less units of rentals than our business plan projections due to a number of significant projects being either postponed or shelved because inflation has made these unviable, thus requiring pricing renegotiations between the prime contractors and offshore service providers (the latter being our customers). This is discussed more fully above. This Business segment also realized less sales in key strategic markets such as Asia due to the slow pace of conversion of orders reflecting economic factors in that region. In the Current FY sales in Asia fell by 19.5% and were $4,607,786 compared to $5,723,970 in the 2022 FY. The UK Operations of the Services Business also had reduced order take caused by its defense customers priorities temporarily shifting to land-based assets applications (as opposed to Naval assets-applications) to support the Ukrainian efforts.

Gross Margin:

Our consolidated gross profit margins reported in our financial results may vary according to several factors. These include:

• The percentage of our consolidated sales that is attributable to the Marine Technology Business versus the Services Business. The Gross Profit Margin yielded by the Products Business is generally higher than that of the Engineering Business.
• The percentage of our consolidated sales that is attributable to the Services Business. The Services Business yields a lower gross profit margin on generated sales which are largely based on time and materials for our Department of Defense subcontracts.
• The mix of engineering projects performed by our Services Business (Design prototyping versus manufacturing).
• The mix of sales generated by the Marine Technology Business during the reporting period. The Marine Technology sales in general comprise of:
• Outright sales versus rentals.
• Hardware related sales versus Software related sales (Software is generally a higher margin).
• Custom Engineering around its technology (“services”) versus Field Services (where we as our customers with training and mobilization support; and services relating to repairing and servicing customers’ products.
• Levels of commission on sales. Both the Marine Technology Business and our Services Business work with a global network of sales agents. Most of the sales made by the Marine Technology Business from Asia or South Africa attract commission as those are typically sales via our agents/distributors network. Although the Services Business works with sales agents this is on a lesser scale than the Marine Technology Business and typically commission costs incurred by the Services Business are very low. See “Note 2 Summary of Accounting Policies” (Cost of Revenue), “Notes 14 Segment Analysis” and “Note 15 Disaggregation of Revenue” of our audited Consolidated Financial Statements as of October 31, 2023, for more information covering commissions as a component of Cost of Revenues, segment reporting and the disaggregation of our revenues by type and geography, respectively.
• Level of assets in the rental pool and Cost of Revenue associated with these rental assets – see “Note 2 Summary of Accounting Policies” (Cost of Revenue). The assets utilized for our rental offering are subject to depreciation, a portion of which is allocated to Cost of Revenue.

In the 2023 FY gross profit margins for the Marine Technology Business were 76.7% compared to 80.0% in the 2022 FY. For the Engineering Business, these were 51.6% in the 2023 FY compared to 45.4% in the 2022 FY.

The main factor for the fall in the gross profit margin for the Marine Technology Business is the mix of sales. In particular, there were less units of rentals and customization of technology services work compounded by higher commissions paid in the 2023 FY. The Marine Technology Business incurred commission costs of $794,427 compared to $596,426 in the 2022 FY, representing an increase of 33.2%.

Since there are more variable factors affecting Gross Profit Margins in the Marine Technology Business, a table showing a summary break-out of sales generated by the Marine Technology Business in the 2023 FY compared to the 2022 FY is set out below:

For more detailed information on the composition and disaggregation of our revenues, please refer to “Note 15 Disaggregation of Revenue” of our audited Consolidated Financial Statements of October 31, 2023, and 2022.

Research and Development (R&D):

Research and Development costs are, in general, an inherent ongoing cost for the Marine Technology Business operations since it will need to either maintain the products it has in the market or continue to advance these products and its core technology to keep them competitive (both in price and performance) and to expand the product offerings which we have in the market.

Accordingly, we continue to invest in research and development to further our business goals including maintaining our lead in the real time volumetric imaging sonar sector (Marine Technology Business) and our new-to-market diving technology (DAVD).

In addition, the Services Business incurs research and development expenses on advancing its Thermite® Octal range of mission computer products with the strategic goals of increasing and diversifying its revenues and improving gross profit margins.

In the 2023 FY this category of expenditure decreased by 6.3%. This is largely due to the Marine Technology Business shifting its focus from R&D to other business goals such as marketing, brand building and business development.

Changes in this category by Segment are set out immediately below:

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses (SG&A):

The increase in SG&A is largely due to the increase in the category of Legal and Professional fees resulting from an increase in costs incurred for tax specialists’ fees, increase in board of directors’ fees, increase in our marketing expenses and exchange rate variances.

Notable factors in our SG&A 2023 FY are:

Within the category of SG&A we have transactions which are cash charges and non-cash charges. The non-cash charges comprise Depreciation, Amortization, Stock-based compensation charges and Exchange Rate Variance. In 2023 FY and 2022 FY, respectively non-cash items as a percentage of SGA expenses were 15.6% and 15.1%, respectively.

Stock Based Compensation Expenses (Non-Cash Item). In the 2023 FY we expensed $645,196 for stock-based compensation as compared to $1,130,917 in the corresponding 2022 FY, representing a decrease of 42.9%.

Exchange Rate Variance (Non-Cash Item) We expensed $190,073 in the 2023 FY compared to recording a gain of ($431,314) in the 2022 FY.

Further discussions on SG&A are set out immediately below.

Key Areas of SG&A Expenditure across the Group for the year ended October 31, 2023, compared to the year ended October 31, 2022

In the 2023 FY compared to the 2022 FY:

Wages and Salaries decreased by 6.7%. This decrease reflects a reduction in staff count. This category of expenditure is susceptible to significant increases due to inflationary pressures in this area. Post-Pandemic it is widely reported that the workforce has changed with a significant percentage of employees in a certain age bracket have left the workforce. In the countries in which we operate, USA, UK and Denmark there is a high percentage of skills shortage. This makes competition for employees very fierce – causing high mobility within workforces and wage pressures. In the financial year 2024, we anticipate that this area will increase to reflect inflationary pressure and also new hires for replacement staff and the creation of new strategic positions in the area of business development and marketing. We also will have our new Chief Financial Officer in place in the first quarter of the 2024 financial year and would therefore expect that this area will be significantly higher in the 2024 financial year.

Legal and Professional Fees increased by 27.5% which reflects the increase in fees associated with tax specialists’ services and increased board fees. We recorded $130,767 for tax specialists’ services in the Current FY compared to zero in the Previous FY.

Rent expenditures decreased by 21.5% compared to FY 2022. Rent is not a material expenditure in the Group as most of our premises are owned by the Company, except for premises used in Denmark.

Marketing increased by 9.7%. This is in keeping with our strategy to shift our focus to business development, marketing, and brand building. Expenditures in this area are spent on industry-related trade shows and events, demonstrations particularly on the DAVD market adoption and technology awareness campaigns, marketing events and customer visits. As part of our Brand building endeavors, we have also established a “Digitalization Team” whose focus is on digitalizing the Company’s media content etc. As we continue to ramp up our marketing campaign around the DAVD and our newly developed standalone Digital Audio Communications system (Voice_HUB-4) a derivative from the DAVD technology, we anticipate this category of expenditures will increase in the 2024 financial year.

Overhead related costs as a percentage of revenue for the year ended October 31, 2023, compared to the year ended October 31, 2022

Our overhead SG&A expenditures are constituted of general corporate administrative costs.

Overhead SG&A as a percentage of revenue increased 1.2% largely due to the increase in professional fees resulting from an increase in costs incurred for tax specialists’ fees, accounting and audit-related expenses and other public company-related costs.

Operating Income:

In the 2023 FY Operating Income decreased by 45.3%. This is due to the decrease in our consolidated revenue and gross profit for the reasons earlier discussed combined with a modest increase in our total operating expenses.

Other Income:

In the 2023 FY, we had “Other Income” of $681,676 compared to $128,271, representing an increase of 431.4% from the 2022 FY. In the 2023 FY $642,530 of this amount represents interest income earned on our certified deposit accounts. In February 2023, the Company established certified deposit accounts with its existing bankers. These accounts are for fixed 3-month rolling periods and constitute “cash equivalents” in our current audited Consolidated Financial Statements for period ended October 31, 2023. We anticipate that the interest earned on these certified deposit accounts will be material in the future if interest rates remain the same or continue to rise. See “Note 6 - Composition of Certain Financial Statement Captions” (Other Income) to the audited Consolidated Financial Statements for period ended October 31, 2023, where this is discussed further.

Income before Income Tax Expense for the year ended October 31, 2023, compared to the year ended October 31, 2022

In the 2023 FY, we had income before income taxes of $3,421,228 as compared to $5,132,335 in the 2022 FY, representing a decrease of 33.3%. Net income before income taxes decreased largely due to a decrease in our consolidated revenues and gross profit in the 2023 FY attributable to the reasons discussed earlier combined with a modest increase in total operating expense.

Net Income for the year ended October 31, 2023, compared to the year ended October 31, 2022

In the 2023 FY we had Net Income of $3,124,149 compared to $4,301,221 in the 2022 FY, representing a decrease of 27.4%. This is a reflection of the decrease in our consolidated revenues and gross profit in the 2023 FY along with an increase in total operating expense for the reasons discussed earlier. In the 2023 FY we recorded a Current Tax Expense of $248,655 compared to $1,005,140 in the 2022 FY and a Deferred Tax Expense of $48,424 compared to a Deferred Tax Benefit in $174,026 in the 2022 FY. Our tax expenses depend on the composition of our consolidated income, and in particular the percentage that is attributable to the Company and its US subsidiaries together versus the percentage attributable to the Company’s foreign subsidiaries. It also depends on the availability of carryforwards losses and R&D tax credits in the UK subsidiaries. In the 2023 FY, the Company and its US subsidiaries had a lower percentage of taxable income than the Company’s foreign subsidiaries, while the Company’s UK and Danish subsidiaries had taxable income in their respective tax jurisdictions. The Company’s UK subsidiaries have carryforward losses and research and development (R&D) tax credits in their tax jurisdiction which has been applied to offset a portion of the 2023 FY tax liability. For 2023 FY, a current provision of $2,930 and deferred provision of $60,970 has been made for tax liability of the UK subsidiaries. Our Danish subsidiary has no carryforwards or other tax relief in its tax jurisdiction and therefore we have recorded current tax provision of $207,371 for 2023 FY.

Comprehensive Income for the year ended October 31, 2023, compared to the year ended October 31, 2022

In the 2023 FY Comprehensive income was $4,418,724 compared to $1,231,156 for the 2022 FY. This category is affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange transactions both relating to our profit and loss expenses and our assets and liabilities on our balance sheet and are largely paper losses or gains, as may be applicable, in the reporting period. In the 2022 FY we recorded a loss of $3,070,065 on foreign currency translation adjustment transactions compared to a gain of $1,294,575 in the 2023 FY. A significant part of the Company’s operations is based in the UK and Denmark, and therefore a major part of the Company’s assets and liabilities recorded in its consolidated balance sheet and profit and loss expenses are translated from the functional currencies of these subsidiaries into USD for reporting purposes, thus accounting for the changes. See Table under the section of the MD&A which concerns “Foreign Currency & Inflation”, and which shows the impact of the currency adjustments on our Income Statement and Balance Sheet in 2023 FY compared to 2022 FY.

Segment Analysis

We operate in two reportable segments, (“Products Business” and “Service Business”) which are managed separately based upon fundamental differences in their operations. Segment operating income is total Segment revenue reduced by cost of revenues and operating expenses (research and development and Selling, General & Administrative) identifiable with the reporting business segment. Overheads include general corporate administrative costs.

The Company evaluates performance and allocates resources based upon operating income. The accounting policies of the reportable segments are the same as those described in the summary of accounting policies.

There are inter-segment sales in the table below which have been eliminated from our financial statements. However, for the purpose of segment reporting, these inter-segment sales are only included in the table below.

Coda Octopus Products constitute the Marine Technology Business (“Products Segment”) is a supplier to the underwater/subsea market and selling both hardware and software solutions which includes imaging sonar technology solutions, diving technology, geophysical products, rental equipment, customization, and field operations services. Coda Octopus Colmek, Inc. and Coda Octopus Martech Ltd constitute the Marine Engineering Business (“Services Segment”) and are engineering subcontractors to prime defense contractors.

The following tables summarize certain balance sheet and statement of operations information by reportable segment for the financial years ending October 31, 2023, and October 31, 2022, respectively.

30

The Company’s reportable business segments sell their goods and services in four geographic locations:

• Americas
• Europe
• Australia/Asia
• Middle East/Africa

31

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of October 31, 2023, the Company had an accumulated deficit of $11,052,487, working capital of $37,608,719 and stockholders’ equity of $48,428,766. For the year then ended, the Company generated cash flow from operations of $2,389,876.

We believe that our current level of cash and cash generation will be sufficient to meet our short and medium-term liquidity needs. As of October 31, 2023, we had cash and cash equivalents on hand of $24,448,841 and both billed and unbilled receivables of $3,537,712. Our current cash balance represents approximately 36 months of Selling, General and Administrative Expenses. The Company continues to critically evaluate the level of expenses that it incurs and reduces its expenses as may be appropriate within its business priorities.

We also have access to a revolving line of credit of $4 million from HSBC NA. This line of credit is available to the Company for short-term working capital purposes. All amounts under the Revolving Line of Credit are payable at the end of each financial year. The facility was renewed for another year until November 2024. To date, the Company has not had reason to borrow any funds for its operations under this credit line.

Our main liquidity issues are forward buying components and inventory for our products which encompass specialized electronics for which there is no after-market except for the products to which they are designed for, funding our research and development program (“R&D”) which requires significant expenditures in attracting engineering skills and incurring non-recoverable costs for researching, developing and prototyping products and managing our currency exposure and business development and marketing costs required for the success of our business.

Operating Activities

Net cash generated from operating activities for the year ended October 31, 2023, was $2,389,876. We recorded net income for the period of $3,124,149. Other items in uses and sources of funds from operations included non-cash charges related to depreciation of fixed assets, amortization of intangible assets, deferred tax asset and stock-based compensation, which collectively totaled $1,361,452. Changes in operating assets decreased net cash from operating activities by $1,538,896 and changes in current liabilities decreased net cash from operating activities by $556,829.

Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities for the year ended October 31, 2023, was $1,520,775.

Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities for the year ended October 31, 2023, was $17,963.

Foreign Currency and Inflation

The Company and its subsidiaries maintain their accounts in the native currencies of their operations, and which are:

The Company’s consolidated financial results therefore include the translation of its subsidiaries functional currencies into U.S Dollar. See “Note 2 Summary of Accounting Policies” (Foreign Currency Translation) of our audited Consolidated Financial Statements as of October 31, 2023, for more information on the applicable rates used for our Balance Sheet transactions and Statement of Income and Comprehensive Income.

The Company’s consolidated results are a combination of its US operations and foreign operations and these companies maintain their accounts in the functional currencies of their jurisdictions which are noted above. The various entities within the Company’s group are detailed in the overview organization chart in Part 1 (Business) of this Form 10-K. Fluctuations in currency exchange rates can directly impact on the Company’s sales, profitability and financial position when the transactions of the foreign subsidiaries are translated from their functional currencies into USD for financial reporting. In addition, the Company is also subject to currency fluctuation risk with respect to certain foreign currency denominated receivables and payables incurred in the ordinary course of its business operations (cross-border transactions such as inventory purchasing). In general, the Company’s subsidiaries perform financial transactions in their native currencies. Exceptionally, a subsidiary may perform financial transactions in currencies other than its native or functional currency (purchasing inventory from a foreign supplier, for example, in foreign currency). Furthermore, the Company holds significant cash balances in foreign currencies, such as British Pound, Euro and Danish Kroner. The Company cannot predict the extent to which currency fluctuations may affect its business and financial position, and there is a risk that such fluctuations may have an adverse impact on the Company’s sales, profits and financial position.

Applying the Constant Rate (as the term is defined immediately below), the impact of currency fluctuations in the 2023 FY compared with the 2022 FY, is shown below.

These are the values we have used in the calculations below which show the impact of these currency fluctuations on our operations in the 2023 FY:

This table shows that the effect of Constant Rate versus the exchange rate applied for the Current FY, increased net income for the year by $32,936 and increased net assets by $1,208,966.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We do not have any off-balance sheet arrangements.

Inflation

Inflation affects our Business in several ways including:

• Cost of Operations (including wages, salaries, utilities)
• Bill of Material (BOM) Costs of our Products
• Our revenue – as an inflationary environment reduces demand for our goods and services.

High inflation affects our business in a number of areas including costs of operations, including wages and salaries which have increased in relation to the number of staff in the Current FY (which has reduced) compared to the number of staff in the Previous FY. In addition, our general costs of operations have increased along with raw material costs for our products and solutions.

Inflation is also an inherently destabilizing factor for both retaining staff and recruiting staff and therefore impacts on our business plans and the effectiveness of our workforce.

Furthermore, our revenue was affected in strategic markets and geographies due to inflationary pressures which reduced the demand for our technology and solutions.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Attached as exhibits to this Form 10-K are certifications of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, which are required in accordance with Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act.

This “Controls and Procedures” section includes information concerning the controls and controls evaluation referred to in the certifications and it should be read in conjunction with the certifications, for a more complete understanding of the topics presented.

Disclosure controls and procedures are controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive and financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, a public company’s principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, and effected by the board of directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles (“US GAAP”) including those policies and procedures that: (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company, (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with US GAAP, and that receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company, and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of October 31, 2023. In making this assessment, our management used the criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO 2013 Framework). Based on its assessment, our management believes that, as of October 31, 2023, our internal control over financial reporting was effective based on those criteria.

In the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022, the Company’s management, under the supervision and with the participation of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial (and principal accounting) Officer, carried out an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design and operation of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a15€ and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act) as of October 31, 2022 (the “Evaluation Date”). Based upon that evaluation the Company concluded that as of October 31, 2022 (the Previous FY), the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as a result of the existence of the material weaknesses in the Company’s internal controls over financial reporting described in Item 9A of the Company’s Annual Report filed on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022. In the Form 10-K, we disclosed that we identified material weaknesses concerning a lack of adequate processes and procedures regarding the identification and review and elimination of relevant intercompany entries in the consolidation of our financial reporting, thus representing a material weakness in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Management and the Company’s Board of Directors are committed to improving the Company’s overall system of internal controls over financial reporting. Consequently, the Company implemented a comprehensive remediation plan in the first quarter of the FY 2023 designed to address the identified material weakness. This included:

• Management identification of the root cause for the elimination errors.
• Management introduction of a new control which extended to identification of all intercompany transactions by using designated codes in the financial system designed to identify and assess the nature of the intercompany transactions and their impact on the consolidation elimination process.
• Management designing and implementing a standalone “Elimination Workbook” designed to identify all intercompany transactions in all entities, their nature and as such their accounting treatment. This standalone workbook is then used as a cross-verification tool when the Consolidation of the entities is performed within the independent Consolidation Financial System.
• Management introducing an Error Log designed to record errors and omissions during all financial closing procedures. The error log is used as part of our testing of the effectiveness of the Company’s internal controls and is used by senior management as part of its review process. The Error Log also records all corrective actions taken if required.
• These remediation controls and procedures were reviewed and approved by the Audit Committee.

Since filing our Form 10-K for the year ended October 31, 2022, management and the Audit Committee monitored in each the effectiveness of the aforementioned controls during the closing procedures relating to each of these subsequent periodic reporting periods (first, second and third FY 2023 reporting quarters) and concluded that the remediation actions identified above are effective to address the material weaknesses identified in our Form 10-K for the year ended October 31, 2022. We therefore believe that as of October 31,2023 the material weaknesses reported on our Form 10-K for the year ended October,31, 2022 have been remediated and the associated risks have been eliminated through application of our new process described above.

This annual report does not include an attestation report of the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm regarding internal control over financial reporting. Under SEC rules, the management’s report was not subject to attestation by the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

For the fiscal year commencing November 1, 2022, management designed additional controls to remediate the previous material weaknesses in Item 9A on Form 10-K covering the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022 and in Item 4 on Form 10-Q for each of the quarters of fiscal year 2023. Given the remediation actions described above, the oversight of our Audit Committee in this area, and the testing of the applicable controls in each of the quarters of fiscal year 2023 completed during the said periods and the determination in each of those subsequent fiscal quarters that the controls that were designed and implemented have addressed the material weakness identified on our Form 10-K for the fiscal year October 31, 2022 are operating effectively, management has concluded that the material weakness in Item 9A on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022 has been remediated as of October 31, 2023.