Creatd, Inc. - Annual Report: 2021 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission File Number 001-39500

CREATD, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter) 

(201) 258-3770

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered under Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act: Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of a “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company,” and emerging growth company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check One)

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

As of March 31, 2022, the Company had 19,905,509 shares of its common stock, par value $0.001 per share, outstanding.

As of June 30, 2021, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second quarter, the aggregate market value of the shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $41,044,564 based on $3.75 (on a post-reverse stock split basis), the closing price of the registrant’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share on that date.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Annual Report”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. All statements contained in this Annual Report, other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our future operating results and financial position, our business strategy and plans, potential growth or growth prospects, future research and development, sales and marketing and general and administrative expenses, and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Words such as “believes,” “may,” “will,” “estimates,” “potential,” “continues,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “expects,” “could,” “would,” “projects,” “plans,” “targets,” and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in the “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made in this Annual Report and in other documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) that disclose risks and uncertainties that may affect our business. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for us to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the future events and circumstances discussed in this Annual Report may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, performance, or achievements. In addition, the forward-looking statements in this Annual Report are made as of the date of this filing, and we do not undertake, and expressly disclaim any duty, to update such statements for any reason after the date of this Annual Report or to conform statements to actual results or revised expectations, except as required by law.

You should read this Annual Report and the documents that we reference herein and have filed with the SEC as exhibits to this Annual Report with the understanding that our actual future results, performance, and events and circumstances may be materially different from what we expect.

PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Overview

Creatd, Inc. (“CRTD,” “the Company,” or “Creatd”) is a company whose mission is to provide economic opportunities to creators by multiplying the impact of platforms, people, and technology. 

We operate four main business segments, or ‘pillars’: Creatd Labs, Creatd Partners, Creatd Ventures, and Creatd Studios. Together, Creatd's pillars work together to create a flywheel effect, supporting our core vision of creating a viable ecosystem for all stakeholders in the creator economy. 

Creator-Centric Strategy

Our purpose is to empower creators to prosper through exceptional tools, built-in communities, and opportunities for monetization and audience expansion. This creator-first approach is the foundation of our culture and mission, and how we choose to allocate our resources. It governs our business model and shapes the value we provide for each of our stakeholders across Creatd’s four pillars.  

Creatd Labs

Creatd Labs is dedicated to the development of technology products that support the creator economy. This pillar houses Creatd’s proprietary technology platforms, including Creatd’s flagship product, Vocal. This pillar is operated through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Abacus Tech Pty Ltd.

Vocal

Vocal was built to serve as a home base for digital creators. This robust, proprietary technology platform that provides best-in-class tools, safe and curated communities, and monetization opportunities that enable creators to find a receptive audience and get rewarded. Creators of all types call Vocal their home, from bloggers to podcasters, makers, musicians, photographers, and more.

Since its initial launch in 2016, Vocal has grown to be one of the fastest growing communities for content creators of all shapes and sizes. Creators can opt to use Vocal for free, or upgrade to Vocal+. Upon subscribing to Vocal, either as a freemium or premium member, creators can immediately begin to access the numerous monetization opportunities that Vocal facilitates. Specifically, Vocal creators can earn money i) every time their story is read, ii) by competing in Challenges, iii) by receiving Bonuses, iv) by collaborating on branded content campaigns through the company’s in-house agency, Vocal for Brands, v) through ‘Subscribe,’ which enables creators to receive payment directly from their audience via monthly subscriptions and one-off microtransactions. vi) through the Vocal Ambassador Program, which enables creators to receive additional rewards whenever they refer a new Vocal+ member.

Vocal+

Vocal+ is Vocal’s premium membership program. Subscribers pay a membership fee to access additional premium features on the platform, including: a higher rate of earnings per read, reduced platform processing fees on tips received, eligibility to participate in exclusive Vocal+ Challenges, access to Vocal’s ‘Quick Edit’ feature for published stories, and more. The current cost of a Vocal+ membership is either $9.99 per month or $99 annually. From time to time, the Company offers Vocal+ subscriptions at a discount for a predetermined number of months as a promotion for new subscribers.

Moderation and Compliance

One of the key differentiating factors between Vocal and most other user-generated content platforms is the fact that each story submitted to Vocal is run through the Company’s proprietary moderation process before it goes live on the platform. The decision to implement moderation into the submission process was in direct response to the rise of misinformation and bad actors on many social platforms. In response to these inherent pitfalls within the content landscape, Vocal’s proprietary moderation system combines the algorithmic detection of copyrighted material, hate speech, graphic violence, and nudity, and human-led curation to ensure the quality and safety of each story published on Vocal, thus fostering a safe and trustworthy environment for creators, audiences, and brands. Moderation and compliance are more important than ever in a world where ambiguity can systematically damage value. Vocal’s enforcement of community guidelines and emphasis on content moderation protects the platform, its creators, and Creatd shareholders.

Trust and safety are paramount to the Vocal ecosystem. We follow best practices when handling personally identifiable information, with guidance from the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Platform Compliance Policies include:

Technology Development

Vocal’s proprietary technology is built on Keystone, the same underlying open-source framework used by industry-leaders such as Atlassian, a $43-billion Australian technology company. Some of the key differentiating elements of Vocal’s technology are speed, sustainability, and scalability. The Company continues to invest heavily in research and development to continuously improve and innovate its platform, with the goal of optimizing the user experience for creators. Vocal’s architecture allows it to do more with less cost and provides a model capable of turning a profit.

Additionally, the Vocal platform and its underlying technology allows us to maintain an advantageous capital-light infrastructure. By using cloud service providers, we are able to focus on platform and revenue growth rather than building and maintaining the costly internal infrastructures that have materially affected so many legacy media platforms. Vocal’s technology has been specifically designed and built to scale without a material corresponding increase in operational costs. While our users can embed rich media, such as video, audio, and product links, into their Vocal stories, the rich media content is hosted elsewhere (such as YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo, Shopify, Spotify, etc.). Thus, our platform can accommodate rich media content of all kinds without bearing the financial or operational costs associated with hosting the rich media itself. In addition to the benefits this framework affords to the Company, it is the additional benefit to our content creators, in that a creator can increase their monetization; for example, a creator can embed their YouTube video into a Vocal story and thus derive earnings from both platforms when their video is viewed.

Creatd Partners

Creatd Partners houses the Company’s agency businesses, with the goal of fostering partnerships between creators and brands. Creatd Partners’ offerings include: Vocal for Brands (content marketing), Seller’s Choice (performance marketing), and WHE Agency (influencer marketing). Creatd Partners leverages its network of brands and influencers, along with resources from across Creatd, to help direct-to-consumer brands achieve conversions and reach their target audiences, while driving success for all of Creatd’s stakeholders.

Vocal for Brands

All brands have a story to tell, and our creator community helps them tell it. Vocal for Brands, Creatd's internal content marketing studio, specializes in pairing leading brands with Vocal creators to produce marketing campaigns that are non-interruptive, engaging, and direct-response driven, with creators telling the brand’s story in a way that is both engaging and trustworthy. Further, Vocal for Brands campaigns leverage Vocal’s first-party data and technology, which enables the creation of highly targeted and segmented audiences and optimized campaign results. 

In addition to branded story campaigns Additionally, brands can opt to collaborate with Vocal on a sponsored Challenge, prompting the creation of high-quality stories that are centered around the brand’s mission and further disseminated through creators’ respective social channels and promotional outlets.

WHE Agency

The WHE Agency (“WHE”), acquired by Creatd in 2021, was founded by Tracy Willis with the goal of supporting top creators and influencers, by connecting them with leading family and lifestyle brands and global audiences. Today, WHE represents a roster of over 100 creators across numerous verticals including family and lifestyle, music, and celebrity categories.

Seller’s Choice

Seller’s Choice is Creatd Partners’ performance marketing agency specializing in DTC (direct-to-consumer) and e-commerce clientele. Seller’s Choice provides direct-to-consumer brands with design, development, strategy, and sales optimization services. 

Creatd Ventures

Creatd Ventures houses Creatd's portfolio of e-commerce businesses, both majority and minority-owned as well as associated e-commerce technology and infrastructure. The Company supports founders by providing capital, as well as a host of services including design and development, marketing and distribution, and go-to-market strategy. Currently, the Creatd Ventures portfolio includes: 

Creatd Studios

The goal of Creatd Studios is to elevate creators’ stories to TV, film, books, podcasts, video, and more. 

Application of First-Party Data

Creatd’s business intelligence and marketing teams identify and target individual creators, communities, and brands, utilizing empirical data harnessed from the Vocal platform. The team’s ability to apply its proprietary first-party data works to reduce acquisition costs for new creators and to help provide brands with conversions and an ideal targeted audience. In this way, our ability to apply first-party data is one of the value-drivers for the Company across its four business pillars.

Importantly, we do not sell the collected data, that being a common monetization opportunity for many other businesses. Instead, we use our collected first-party data for the purposes of bettering the platform. Specifically, our data helps us understand the behaviors and attributes that are common among the creators, brands, and audiences within our ecosystem. We then pair our first-party Vocal data with third-party data from distribution platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat to provide a more granular profile of our creators, brands, and audiences.

It is through generating this valuable first-party data that we can continually enrich and refine our targeting capabilities for branded content promotion and creator acquisition, and specifically, to reduce our creator acquisition costs (CAC) and subscriber acquisition costs (SAC).

Competition

The idea for Vocal came as a response to what Creatd’s founders recognized as systemic flaws inherent to the digital media industry and its operational infrastructures. Depreciating value of digital media business models built on legacy technology platforms created a unique opportunity for development of a creator-centric platform that could appeal to a global community and, at the same time, be capable of acquiring undervalued complimentary technology assets.

Creatd’s founders built the Vocal platform upon the general thesis that a closed and safe ecosystem utilizing first-party data to increase efficiencies could create a sustainable and defensible business model. Vocal was strategically developed to provide value for content creators, readers, and brands, and to serve as a home for the ever-increasing amount of digital content being produced and the libraries of digital assets lying dormant.

Vocal is most commonly discussed as a combination of:

Creatd does not view Vocal as a substitute or competitor to segment-specific content platforms, such as Vimeo, YouTube, Instagram, or SoundCloud. We don’t want to replace anyone; we built Vocal to be accretive to the entire digital ecosystem. In fact, one of the most powerful components of our technology is the fact that Vocal makes it easy for creators to embed their existing published content, including videos, songs, podcasts, photographs, and more, directly into Vocal. We see this as a growth opportunity by building partnerships with the world’s greatest technology companies and to further spread our roots deeper into the digital landscape.

Revenue Model

Creatd’s revenues are primarily generated through:

Acquisition Strategy

Creatd’s hybrid finance and design culture is key to its acquisition strategy. Acquisition targets are companies that meet a set of opportunistic or financial standards or that are part of specific digital environments that are accretive and can seamlessly integrate into Creatd’s existing revenue lines. Creatd will continue to make strategic acquisitions when presented with opportunities that are in the interest of shareholder value.

Corporate History and Information

We were originally incorporated under the laws of the State of Nevada on December 30, 1999 under the name LILM, Inc. The Company changed its name on December 3, 2013 to Great Plains Holdings, Inc.

On February 5, 2016 (the “Merger Closing Date”), we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with GPH Merger Sub, Inc., a Nevada corporation and our wholly-owned subsidiary (“Merger Sub”), and Jerrick Ventures, Inc., a privately-held Nevada corporation headquartered in New Jersey (“Jerrick”), pursuant to which the Merger Sub was merged with and into Jerrick, with Jerrick surviving as our wholly-owned subsidiary (the “Merger”). Pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement, we acquired, through a reverse triangular merger, all of the outstanding capital stock of Jerrick in exchange for issuing Jerrick’s shareholders (the “Jerrick Shareholders”), pro-rata, a total of 475,000 shares of our common stock, par value $0.001 per share (“Common Stock”). Additionally, we assumed 33,415 shares of Jerrick’s Series A Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Jerrick Series A Preferred”) and 8,064 shares of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Jerrick Series B Preferred”).

Upon closing of the Merger on February 5, 2016, the Company changed its business plan to our current plan.

In connection with the Merger, on the Merger Closing Date, we entered into a Spin-Off Agreement with Kent Campbell (the “Spin-Off Agreement”), pursuant to which Mr. Campbell purchased (i) all of our interest in Ashland Holdings, LLC, a Florida limited liability company, and (ii) all of our interest in Lil Marc, Inc., a Utah corporation, in exchange for the cancellation of 13,030 shares of our common stock held by Mr. Campbell. In addition, Mr. Campbell assumed all of our debts, obligations and liabilities, including any existing prior to the Merger, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Spin-Off Agreement.

Effective February 28, 2016, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Statutory Merger Agreement”), pursuant to which we became the parent company of Jerrick Ventures, LLC, our wholly-owned operating subsidiary (the “Statutory Merger”).

On February 28, 2016, we changed our name to Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc. to better reflect our new business strategy.

On July 25, 2019, we filed a certificate of amendment to our articles of incorporation, as amended (the “Amendment”), with the Secretary of State of the State of Nevada to effectuate a one-for-twenty (1:20) reverse stock split (the “Reverse Stock Split”) of our common stock without any change to its par value. The Amendment became effective on July 30, 2019. The number of shares of authorized common stock was proportionately reduced as a result of the Reverse Stock Split. The number of shares of authorized preferred stock was not affected by the Reverse Stock Split. No fractional shares were issued in connection with the Reverse Stock Split as all fractional shares were “rounded up” to the next whole share.

All share and per share amounts for the common stock indicated in this Form 10-K have been retroactively restated to give effect to the Reverse Stock Split.

On September 11, 2019, the Company acquired 100% of the membership interests of Seller’s Choice, LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company (“Seller’s Choice”). Seller’s Choice is digital e-commerce agency based in New Jersey (see Note 4).

On July 13, 2020, upon approval from our board of directors and stockholders, we filed Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation with the Secretary of State of the State of Nevada for the purpose of increasing our authorized shares of Common Stock to 100,000,000.

On August 13, 2020, we filed a certificate of amendment to our second amended and restated articles of incorporation (the “Amendment”), with the Secretary of State of the State of Nevada to effectuate a one-for-three (1:3) reverse stock split (the “August 2020 Reverse Stock Split”) of our common stock without any change to its par value. The Amendment became effective on August 17, 2020. No fractional shares were issued in connection with the August 2020 Reverse Stock Split as all fractional shares were rounded down to the next whole share. All share and per share amounts of our common stock listed in this Form 10-K have been adjusted to give effect to the August 2020 Reverse Stock Split.

On September 9, 2020, the Company filed a certificate of amendment with the Secretary of State of the State of Nevada to change our name to “Creatd, Inc.”, which became effective on September 10, 2020.

Recent Developments

Registered Direct Offering –March 2022

On March 7, 2022, the Company entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with thirteen accredited investors resulting in the raise of $2,659,750 in gross proceeds to the Company. Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, the Company agreed to sell in a registered direct offering an aggregate of 1,519,857 shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”) together with warrants to purchase an aggregate of 1,519,857 shares of Common Stock (the “Warrants”) at an exercise price of $1.75 per share (collectively, the “Offering”). The warrants will be immediately exercisable and will expire on March 9, 2027.

The Offering closed on March 9, 2022, after the satisfaction of customary closing conditions as set forth in the Purchase Agreement. The gross proceeds from the Offering were $2,659,750, before deducting Offering expenses, which will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital.

The shares of Common Stock were offered and sold by the Company pursuant to a prospectus supplement, which was filed with Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 9, 2022, in connection with a takedown from the Company’s effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3, which was filed with the SEC on November 25, 2020 and subsequently declared effective on April 23, 2021 (File No. 333-250982) (the “Shelf Registration Statement”).

Nasdaq Notice of Delisting

On January 4, 2021, the Company received a letter from the staff of The Nasdaq Capital Market (the “Exchange”) notifying the Company that the Exchange had determined to delist the Company’s common stock and warrants from the Exchange based on the Company’s non-compliance with the Exchange’s (i) $5 million stockholders’ equity requirement for initial listing pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5505(b), (ii) the $2.5 million stockholders’ equity requirement or any of the alternatives for continued listing pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b), and (iii) the Company’s failure to provide material information to the Exchange pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(a)(1).

On February 11, 2021, the Company met with the Exchange’s Hearings Panel (the “Panel”) with respect to such determination, in accordance with the Exchange’s rules and, pursuant to such request by the Company to appeal, the delisting of the Company’s securities and the Form 25 Notification of Delisting filing was stayed pending the Panel’s decision.

On March 9, 2021, the Exchange notified the Company that the Panel had determined to continue the listing of the Company on the Exchange. Notwithstanding the Panel’s determination to continue the listing of the Company’s securities on the Exchange, the Panel issued a public reprimand letter to the Company, pursuant to Listing Rule 5815(c)(1)(D), based on its finding “that the Company failed to meet the initial listing criteria with respect to stockholders’ equity and failed to provide Nasdaq with material information with respect to that deficiency.” Specifically, the Panel found that the Company failed to comply with Listing Rule 5250(a)(1), requiring it to notify Nasdaq of certain significant developments that led to the Company’s prior representations about its ability to satisfy the initial listing requirements being inaccurate. In reaching its determination to continue the listing of the Company on Nasdaq, the Panel acknowledged that the Company has since demonstrated compliance with the initial listing requirement for stockholders’ equity and all other applicable initial listing requirements. The Panel also determined that the violations were inadvertent and that the Company had relied on advice of counsel at the time in its interactions with the Nasdaq staff (“Staff”). The Panel also acknowledged the Company’s efforts to implement structural changes within the Company to avoid similar misstatements in the future and that would allow for proper accounting and disclosure on an ongoing basis.

A Panel Monitor has been implemented under Listing Rule 5815(d)(4)(A) for a period of one year from the date of the Letter. In the event that the Company becomes deficient with respect to any continued listing requirement, the Company will not be afforded the opportunity to submit a compliance plan for Staff’s consideration and Staff will issue a Delist Determination Letter and promptly schedule a new hearing under Listing Rule 5810(c)(2), at which the Company may present a compliance plan for the Panel’s consideration. In the event of a new hearing, any suspension or delisting action would be stayed pending the completion of the hearings process and the expiration of any additional extension period granted by the Panel following the hearing.

On March 1, 2022, the Company received a letter (the “Letter”) from the staff of The Nasdaq Capital Market (the “Exchange”) notifying the Company that the Exchange has determined to delist the Company’s common stock from the Exchange based on the Company’s Market Value of Listed Securities for the 30-consecutive day period between January 15, 2022 and February 25, 2022 falling short of the requirements under Listing Rule 5550(b)(2) (the “Rule”). Although a 180-day period is typically allowed for an issuer to regain compliance, the Company is not eligible to use such compliance period, as the Exchange had instituted a Panel Monitor through March 9, 2022.

The Company is pursuing an appeal to the Panel of such determination, in accordance with the Exchange’s rules and, pursuant to such request by the Company to appeal, the delisting of the Company’s securities and the Form 25 Notification of Delisting filing will be stayed pending the Panel’s decision.

The Company intends to present to the Panel evidence that the Company has regained compliance with the Rule; however, there can be no assurance that the Panel will grant the Company’s request for continued listing.

The Letter has no immediate impact on the listing of the Company’s common stock or warrants, which will continue to be listed and traded on the Exchange, subject to the Company’s compliance with other continued listing requirements. The Company’s receipt of the Letter does not affect the Company’s business, operations or reporting requirements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Securities Purchase Agreement

On March 1, 2022, the Company entered into securities purchase agreements with twenty-eight (28) accredited investors whereby, at the closing, such investors purchased from the Company an aggregate of (i) 1,401,457 shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share and (ii) 1,401,457 warrants to purchase shares of common stock, for an aggregate purchase price of $2,452,550. Such warrants are exercisable for a term of five-years from the date of issuance, at an exercise price of $1.75 per share, and provide for cashless exercise to the extent that there is no registration statement available for the underlying shares of common stock. The Benchmark Company, LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor for the Company in connection with the financing and is entitled to receive 125,000 shares of common stock as compensation for its services. The closing of the financing occurred on March 1, 2022.

Board of Directors and Management

Appointment of New Directors

On February 17, 2022, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of the Company appointed Joanna Bloor, Brad Justus, and Lorraine Hendrickson to serve as members of the Board. Ms. Bloor has been nominated to, and will serve as, chair of the Compensation Committee, and to be a member of the Audit Committee and Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee. Mr. Justus has been nominated, and will serve as, chair of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee, and to be a member of the Compensation Committee and Audit Committee. Ms. Hendrickson has been nominated to, and will serve as, chair of the Audit Committee and to be a member of the Compensation and Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee.

Departure of Directors

On July 16, 2021, Mark Patterson notified the Board of the Company of his resignation from the Board, effective July 31, 2021. Such resignation was not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.

On February 17, 2022, the Board received notice that effective immediately, Mark Standish resigned as Chair of the Board, Chair of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Compensation Committee and Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee; Leonard Schiller resigned as member of the Board, Chair of the Compensation Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee and Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee; and LaBrena Martin resigned as a member of the Board, Chair of the Nominating & Corporate Governance Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee. Such resignations are not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.

Management Restructuring

On August 13, 2021, the Board approved the restructuring of the Company’s senior management team to be comprised of two Co-Chief Executive Officers and appointed Jeremy Frommer and Laurie Weisberg to such positions (the “First Restructuring”). Additionally, Justin Maury was appointed Chief Operating Officer and retains his position as President. Prior to the First Restructuring, Mr. Frommer served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Ms. Weisberg served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Frommer and Ms. Weisberg continue to serve as members of the Board. The Restructuring did not impact the role or functions of the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, Chelsea Pullano.

On February 17, 2022, the Board of the Company approved the restructuring of the Company’s senior management team to eliminate the Co-Chief Executive Officer role, appointing Jeremy Frommer as Executive Chairman and Founder, and appointing Laurie Weisberg as Chief Executive Officer (the “Second Restructuring”). Prior to the Second Restructuring, Mr. Frommer and Ms. Weisberg served as the Company’s co-Chief Executive Officers and Ms. Weisberg served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer. The Second Restructuring does not impact the role or functions of the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, Chelsea Pullano, or the role or functions of the Company’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Justin Maury.

Plant Camp LLC Purchase

On June 4, 2021, the Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Creatd Partners, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (the “Purchaser”), entered into a Membership Interest Purchase Agreement (the “MIPA”) with Angela Hein and Heidi Brown (the “Sellers”), pursuant to which the Purchaser acquired 841,005 common units of Plant Camp LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Plant Camp”) from the Sellers, resulting in the Purchaser owning 89% of the issued and outstanding equity of Plant Camp.

Simultaneous with the execution of the MIPA, and having met all conditions precedent in the MIPA, the parties to the MIPA consummated the closing of the transactions contemplated by the MIPA (the “Closing”). At the Closing, the Purchaser acquired a majority interest in Plant Camp in exchange for a cash payment to the Sellers of $300,000. The MIPA contains customary representations, warranties, covenants, indemnification and other terms for transactions of a similar nature.

On the Closing Date, the Amended and Restated Liability Company Operating Agreement of Plant Camp was amended and restated (the “Second A&R Operating Agreement”) to reflect the purchase and sale of the Membership Interests pursuant to the MIPA.

Underwritten Public Offering

On June 17, 2021, the Company entered into an underwriting agreement (the “Underwriting Agreement”) with The Benchmark Company LLC (“Benchmark” or the “Underwriter”), pursuant to which we agreed to sell to the Underwriter in a firm commitment underwritten public offering (the “Offering”) an aggregate of 750,000 shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share, at a public offering price of $3.40 per share. The Company also granted the Underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 112,500 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. The Offering closed on June 21, 2021.

Benchmark acted as sole bookrunner for the Offering. The Offering was made pursuant to a prospectus supplement dated June 17, 2021, and a base prospectus dated April 23, 2021, which is part of a registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-250982) that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) on November 25, 2020, as amended on April 9, 2021, and declared effective by the Commission on April 23, 2021. The Underwriter received a discount in the amount of 7% of the aggregate gross proceeds received by the Company in connection with the Offering, warrants equal to 5% of the total of all shares issued in the Public Offering, including overallotment shares, exercisable six months from the date of issuance, at the price of $4.08, for a period of five years (the “Underwriter Warrants”), and reimbursement of certain expenses.

The Underwriting Agreement included customary representations, warranties and covenants, and customary conditions to closing, expense and reimbursement obligations and termination provisions. Additionally, under the terms of the Underwriting Agreement, we have agreed to indemnify the Underwriter against certain liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or to contribute to payments the Underwriter may be required to make in respect of these liabilities.

The gross proceeds to the Company from the sale of 750,000 shares of Common Stock, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, will be $2,550,000. We used the net proceeds from the Offering for working capital and general corporate purposes.

WHE Agency Transaction

On July 20, 2021, the Company entered into, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Creatd Partners, LLC (“Creatd Partners”), a Stock Purchase Agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with individuals named therein (collectively, the “Sellers”), pursuant to which Creatd Partners acquired from the Sellers, subject to the terms and conditions of the Purchase Agreement and other related agreements (the “Transaction Documents”) 1,158,000 shares of common stock of WHE Agency, Inc. (“WHE Agency”), a talent management and public relations agency that primarily focuses on representation and management of family and lifestyle-focused influencers and digital creators. The equity interest acquired in the Transaction (as defined below) along with the Voting Agreements described below equals fifty-five (55%) of the voting power and forty-four (44%) of the ownership of WHE Agency’s issued and outstanding shares, determined on a fully diluted basis post-transaction.

Pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, the Sellers sold, transferred, assigned, conveyed and delivered to Creatd Partners their respective issued and outstanding shares of common stock in WHE Agency (the “Transaction”). The aggregate closing consideration of the Transaction is $1,038,271, which consists of a combination of cash, in the amount of $144,750 (“Cash Consideration”), and the remaining $893,521 issued to the Sellers in the form of 224,503 shares of the Company’s restricted common stock (“Closing Share Consideration”).

The Transaction closed on July 23, 2021 (the “Closing”). At the Closing, Sellers received their respective portion of the aggregate closing consideration in the form of a combination of Cash Consideration and Closing Share Consideration, except for 5% of the total Closing Share Consideration that will be subject to a twelve (12) month Indemnification Holdback Period.

The 224,503 shares of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”), were issued as part of the Closing Share Consideration (the “Shares”) to the Sellers are “restricted securities,” as defined in Rule 144(a)(3) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Act”), and accordingly the Shares may not be resold by the Sellers without registration under the Act or an available exemption from registration. Under the Purchase Agreement, the Company will be obligated to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) within ten business days after the Closing, a registration statement on Form S-1 or Form S-3 registering the resale of the Shares by the Sellers under the Act to cover the resale of the Shares issued to the Sellers.

The Purchase Agreement contain representations and warranties made by and to the parties thereto as of specific dates. The Purchase Agreement includes customary representations, warranties and covenants of the Company, Sellers and WHE Agency. The representations and warranties made by each party were made solely for the benefit of the other parties and (i) were not intended to be treated as categorical statements of fact, but rather as a way of allocating the risk between the parties to the Purchase Agreement if those statements prove to be inaccurate; (ii) may have been qualified in the Purchase Agreement by disclosures that were made to the other party in disclosure schedules to the Purchase Agreement, and (iii) were made only as of the date of the Purchase Agreement or such other date or dates as may be specified in the Purchase Agreement.

In connection with entering into the Purchase Agreement, Creatd Partners entered into a certain Voting Agreement and Proxy (the “Voting Agreement”) with certain beneficial owners that collectively own 11% percent of WHE Agency’s issued and outstanding restricted common stock (“Restricted Stockholders”). Through the Voting Agreements entered into with the Restricted Stockholders, Creatd Partners effectively controls 55% of the total voting power of the Company in the aggregate. The Voting Agreements generally require that the stockholders who are party to the Voting Agreements vote or cause to be voted their WHE Agency shares, and execute and deliver written consents and otherwise exercise all voting and other rights with respect to the WHE Agency shares at the direction of Creatd Partners. In addition, in connection with the Voting Agreements, the Restricted Stockholders delivered irrevocable proxies to Creatd Partners. The Voting Agreements terminate upon the twenty-year anniversary of executing the Voting Agreements.

Dune Transaction

On October 3, 2021, we, through Creatd Partners, LLC (“Buyer”), entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement (the “Dune Agreement”) with Standard Holdings, Inc. (“SHI”) and Mark De Luca (“De Luca”) (SHI and De Luca, collectively the “Dune Sellers”), and Stephanie Roy Dufault, whereby Buyer purchased a majority stake in Dune, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Dune”). Pursuant to the Dune Agreement, which closed on October 4, 2021, Buyer acquired a total of 3,905,634 shares of the common stock of Dune (the “Purchased Shares”). The Company issued 163,344 restricted shares of the Company’s common stock to the Dune Sellers.

In addition, pursuant to the Dune Agreement, $50,000 worth of the Company’s common stock issuable to the Dune Sellers on a pro rata basis, priced in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the Dune Agreement (the “Indemnification Escrow Amount”), shall be held in escrow and reserved in each Dune Seller’s name by the Company’s transfer agent until such time as release is authorized under the Agreement.

Each of the Dune Sellers and Buyer have made customary representations and warranties, and covenants in the Agreement.

In connection with the Dune Agreement, Dune, Creatd Partners, Mark De Luca and SHI entered into a Stockholders Agreement dated October 3, 2021, providing for the purchase of the Purchased Shares representing a majority stake in Dune. The Stockholders Agreement contains customary representations and warranties, and covenants.

Registered Direct Offering – October 2021

On October 25, 2021, we entered into a securities purchase agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with institutional investors (collectively, the “Purchasers”) resulting in the raise of $3,825,000 in gross proceeds to the Company. Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, the Company agreed to sell, in a registered direct offering, an aggregate of 850,000 shares (the “Shares”) of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”), at a purchase price of $4.50 per Share (the “Offering”). The Offering closed on October 27, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.

Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, each of the Purchasers was granted the right to participate in a subsequent financing in an amount up to 25% of such subsequent financing. Additionally, under the terms of the Purchase Agreement, the Company and its subsidiaries are prohibited from issuing Common Stock or common stock equivalents for a period of 30 days from the date of the closing of the Purchase Agreement, other than with respect to Exempt Issuances (as defined in the Purchase Agreement) and the Company shall not undertake a reverse or forward stock split or reclassification of the Common Stock without the prior written consent of the Purchasers holding a majority in interest of the Shares, except as may be required in connection with the satisfaction of the minimum bid price requirement of the principal Trading Market.

The Benchmark Company, LLC acted as exclusive placement agent (the “Placement Agent”) for the Company in connection with the Offering. Pursuant to that certain Placement Agency Agreement, dated as of October 25, 2021, between the Company and the Placement Agent (the “Placement Agency Agreement”), the Placement Agent is entitled to a cash fee equal to $267,750, which represents seven percent (7.0%) of the aggregate gross proceeds raised in the Offering, the reimbursement of certain of the Placement Agent’s expenses, and warrants to purchase up to 42,500 shares of Common Stock at an exercise price of $5.40 per share, which represents five percent (5.0%) of the aggregate number of Shares sold in the Offering (the “Placement Agent Warrants”). The Placement Agent Warrants will not be exercisable for a period of six months following the date of the closing and thereafter are exercisable for a period of five years.

The Company’s net proceeds to the Company from the Offering were approximately $3,407,250 after deducting the Placement Agent fees and estimated expenses payable by the Company.

Employees

As of March 31, 2022, we had 56 full-time employees and 23 part-time employees. None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement, and we believe our relationship with our employees to be good.

We believe that our future success will depend in part on our continued ability to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel. Our human capital resources objectives include identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors and consultants. The principal purposes of our equity and cash incentive plans are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of stock-based and cash-based compensation awards, in order to increase stockholder value and the success of our company by motivating such individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives.

Corporate Information

The Company’s address is 648 Broadway, Suite 200, New York, NY 10012. The Company’s telephone number is (201) 258-3770. Our website is https://creatd.com. The information on, or that can be accessed through, this website is not part of this Form 10-K, and you should not rely on any such information in making the decision whether to purchase the Common Stock.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

You should consider carefully the following risk factors, together with all of the other information included or incorporated in this Annual Report. Each of these risk factors, either alone or taken together, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, and adversely affect the value of an investment in our Common Stock. There may be additional risks that we do not know of or that we believe are immaterial that could also impair our business and financial condition.

Risks Related to our Business

The Company is a development stage business and subject to the many risks associated with new businesses.

Our current line of business has a limited operating history and our business is subject to all of the risks inherent in the establishment of a new business enterprise. Our likelihood of success must be considered in light of the problems, expenses, difficulties, complications and delays frequently encountered in connection with development and expansion of a new business enterprise. We have incurred losses and may continue to operate at a net loss for at least the next several years as we execute our business plan. We had a net loss of approximately $37.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, and a working capital deficit and accumulated deficit of approximately $0.9 million and approximately $109.6 million, respectively.

Our financial situation creates doubt whether we will continue as a going concern.

There can be no assurances that we will be able to achieve a level of revenues adequate to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or obtain funding or additional financing through private placements, public offerings and/or bank financing necessary to support our working capital requirements. To the extent that funds generated from any private placements, public offerings and/or bank financing are insufficient, we will have to raise additional working capital and no assurance can be given that additional financing will be available, or if available, will be on acceptable terms. These conditions raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. If adequate working capital is not available, we may be forced to discontinue operations, which would cause investors to lose their entire investment.

Based on the report from our independent auditors dated April 6, 2022, management stated that our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021, were prepared assuming substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of one year from the issuance of these financial statements. The Company’s consolidated financial statements have been prepared assuming that it will continue as a going concern, which contemplates continuity of operations, realization of assets, and liquidation of liabilities in the normal course of business.

We are not profitable and may never be profitable.

Since inception through the present, we have been dependent on raising capital to support our working capital needs. During this same period, we have recorded net accumulated losses and are yet to achieve profitability. Our ability to achieve profitability depends upon many factors, including our ability to develop and commercialize our websites. There can be no assurance that we will ever achieve any significant revenues or profitable operations. 

Our operating expenses exceed our revenues and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

We are in an early stage of our development and we have not generated sufficient revenues to offset our operating expenses. Our operating expenses will likely continue to exceed our operating income for the foreseeable future, until such time as we are able to monetize our brands and generate substantial revenues, particularly as we undertake payment of the increased costs of operating as a public company.

We have assumed a significant amount of debt and our operations may not be able to generate sufficient cash flows to meet our debt obligations, which could reduce our financial flexibility and adversely impact our operations.

Currently the Company has considerable obligations under notes, related party notes and lines of credit outstanding with various lenders. Our ability to make payments on such indebtedness will depend on our ability to generate cash flow. The Company may not generate sufficient cash flow from operations to enable us to repay this indebtedness and to fund other liquidity needs, including capital expenditure requirements. Such indebtedness could affect our operations in several ways, including the following:

A high level of indebtedness increases the risk that we may default on our debt obligations. We may not be able to generate sufficient cash flows to pay the principal or interest on our debt. If we cannot service or refinance our indebtedness, we may have to take actions such as selling significant assets, seeking additional equity financing (which will result in additional dilution to stockholders) or reducing or delaying capital expenditures, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial condition. If we do not have sufficient funds and are otherwise unable to arrange financing, our assets may be foreclosed upon which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Although our shares and warrants have been approved for listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market, our shares and warrants may be subject to potential delisting if we do not meet or continue to maintain the listing requirements of The Nasdaq Capital Market, and we recently received a notice of determination of delisting.

Our shares and warrants have been approved for listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”) ; however, to keep our listing on Nasdaq, we are required to maintain: (i) a minimum bid price of $1.00 per share, (ii) a certain public float, (iii) a certain number of round lot shareholders and (iv) one of the following: a net income from continuing operations (in the latest fiscal year or two of the three last fiscal years) of at least $500,000, a market value of listed securities of at least $35 million or a stockholders’ equity of at least $2.5 million.

On January 4, 2021, we were notified by Nasdaq that it had determined to delist our common stock and warrants from Nasdaq based on our non-compliance with Nasdaq’s (i) $5 million stockholders’ equity requirement for initial listing, (ii) the $2.5 million stockholders’ equity requirement or any of the alternatives for continued listing, and (iii) our failure to provide material information to Nasdaq. We appealed Nasdaq’s determination and submitted such appeal to the Exchange’s Hearings Panel (the “Panel”), which request stayed any suspension or delisting action by Nasdaq at least until the hearing process concludes and any extension granted by the Panel expires. In an oral hearing that took place on February 11, 2021, we presented to the Panel a detailed plan to evidence stockholders’ equity of $5 million and addressed the other matters raised by Nasdaq. On March 9, 2021, Nasdaq notified us that our securities would continue to be listed on Nasdaq; however, a letter of reprimand was issued and a Panel Monitor has been implemented under Listing Rule 5815(d)(4)(A) for the period ending on March 9, 2022.

On March 9, 2021, the Exchange notified the Company that the Panel had determined to continue the listing of the Company on the Exchange. Notwithstanding the Panel’s determination to continue the listing of the Company’s securities on the Exchange, the Panel issued a public reprimand letter to the Company, pursuant to Listing Rule 5815(c)(1)(D), based on its finding “that the Company failed to meet the initial listing criteria with respect to stockholders’ equity and failed to provide Nasdaq with material information with respect to that deficiency.” Specifically, the Panel found that the Company failed to comply with Listing Rule 5250(a)(1), requiring it to notify Nasdaq of certain significant developments that led to the Company’s prior representations about its ability to satisfy the initial listing requirements being inaccurate. In reaching its determination to continue the listing of the Company on Nasdaq, the Panel acknowledged that the Company has since demonstrated compliance with the initial listing requirement for stockholders’ equity and all other applicable initial listing requirements. The Panel also determined that the violations were inadvertent and that the Company had relied on advice of counsel at the time in its interactions with the Nasdaq staff (“Staff”). The Panel also acknowledged the Company’s efforts to implement structural changes within the Company to avoid similar misstatements in the future and that would allow for proper accounting and disclosure on an ongoing basis.

A Panel Monitor has been implemented under Listing Rule 5815(d)(4)(A) for a period of one year from the date of the Letter. In the event that the Company becomes deficient with respect to any continued listing requirement, the Company will not be afforded the opportunity to submit a compliance plan for Staff’s consideration and Staff will issue a Delist Determination Letter and promptly schedule a new hearing under Listing Rule 5810(c)(2), at which the Company may present a compliance plan for the Panel’s consideration. In the event of a new hearing, any suspension or delisting action would be stayed pending the completion of the hearings process and the expiration of any additional extension period granted by the Panel following the hearing.

On March 1, 2022, we received a letter (the “Letter”) from the staff of The Nasdaq Capital Market (the “Exchange”) notifying the Company that the Exchange has determined to delist the Company’s common stock from the Exchange based on the Company’s Market Value of Listed Securities for the 30-consecutive day period between January 15, 2022 and February 25, 2022 falling short of the requirements under Listing Rule 5550(b)(2) (the “Rule”). Although a 180-day period is typically allowed for an issuer to regain compliance, the Company is not eligible to use such compliance period, as the Exchange had instituted a Panel Monitor through March 9, 2022.

The Company is pursuing an appeal to the Panel of such determination, in accordance with the Exchange’s rules and, pursuant to such request by the Company to appeal, the delisting of the Company’s securities and the Form 25 Notification of Delisting filing will be stayed pending the Panel’s decision.

The Company intends to present to the Panel evidence that the Company has regained compliance with the Rule; however, there can be no assurance that the Panel will grant the Company’s request for continued listing.

We will need additional capital, which may be difficult to raise as a result of our limited operating history or any number of other reasons.

We expect that we will need to raise additional capital within the next 12 months. However, in the event that we exceed our expected growth, we would need to raise additional capital. There is no assurance that additional equity or debt financing will be available to us when needed, on acceptable terms, or even at all. Our limited operating history makes investor evaluation and an estimation of our future performance substantially more difficult. As a result, investors may be unwilling to invest in us or such investment may be offered on terms or conditions that are not acceptable. In the event that we are not able to secure financing, we may have to scale back our growth plans or cease operations.

We face intense competition. If we do not provide digital content that is useful to users, we may not remain competitive, and our potential revenues and operating results could be adversely affected.

Our business is rapidly evolving and intensely competitive, and is subject to changing technologies, shifting user needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. Our ability to compete successfully depends heavily on providing digital content that is useful and enjoyable for our users and delivering our content through innovative technologies in the marketplace.

We face competition from others in the digital content creation industry and media companies. Our current and potential competitors range from large and established companies to emerging start-ups. Established companies have longer operating histories and more established relationships with customers and users, and they can use their experience and resources in ways that could affect our competitive position, including by making acquisitions, investing aggressively in research and development, aggressively initiating intellectual property claims (whether or not meritorious) and competing aggressively for advertisers and websites. Emerging start-ups may be able to innovate and provide products and services faster than we can.

Additionally, our operating results would suffer if our digital content is not appropriately timed with market opportunities, or if our digital content is not effectively brought to market. As technology continues to develop, our competitors may be able to offer user experiences that are, or that are seen to be, substantially similar to or better than, ours. This may force us to compete in different ways and expend significant resources in order to remain competitive. If our competitors are more successful than we are in developing compelling content or in attracting and retaining users and advertisers, our revenues and operating results could be adversely affected.

If we fail to retain existing users or add new users, or if our users decrease their level of engagement with our products, our revenue, financial results, and business may be significantly harmed.

The size of our user base and our user’s level of engagement are critical to our success. Our financial performance will be significantly determined by our success in adding, retaining, and engaging active users of our products, particularly Vocal. We anticipate that our active user growth rate will generally decline over time as the size of our active user base increases, and it is possible that the size of our active user base may fluctuate or decline in one or more markets, particularly in markets where we have achieved higher penetration rates. If people do not perceive Vocal to be useful, reliable, and trustworthy, we may not be able to attract or retain users or otherwise maintain or increase the frequency and duration of their engagement. A number of other content management systems and publishing platforms that achieved early popularity have since seen their active user bases or levels of engagement decline, in some cases precipitously. There is no guarantee that we will not experience a similar erosion of our active user base or engagement levels. Our user engagement patterns have changed over time, and user engagement can be difficult to measure, particularly as we introduce new and different products and services. Any number of factors could potentially negatively affect user retention, growth, and engagement, including if:

If we are unable to maintain or increase our user base and user engagement, our revenue and financial results may be adversely affected. Any decrease in user retention, growth, or engagement could render our products less attractive to users, marketers, and developers, which is likely to have a material and adverse impact on our revenue, business, financial condition, and results of operations. If our active user growth rate continues to slow, we will become increasingly dependent on our ability to maintain or increase levels of user engagement and monetization in order to drive revenue growth. 

We face competition from traditional media companies, and we may not be included in the advertising budgets of large advertisers, which could harm our operating results.

In addition to internet companies, we face competition from companies that offer traditional media advertising opportunities. Most large advertisers have set advertising budgets, a very small portion of which is allocated to Internet advertising. We expect that large advertisers will continue to focus most of their advertising efforts on traditional media. If we fail to convince these companies to spend a portion of their advertising budgets with us, or if our existing advertisers reduce the amount they spend on our programs, our operating results would be harmed.

Acquisitions may disrupt growth.

We may pursue strategic acquisitions in the future. Risks in acquisition transactions include difficulties in the integration of acquired businesses into our operations and control environment, difficulties in assimilating and retaining employees and intermediaries, difficulties in retaining the existing clients of the acquired entities, assumed or unforeseen liabilities that arise in connection with the acquired businesses, the failure of counterparties to satisfy any obligations to indemnify us against liabilities arising from the acquired businesses, and unfavorable market conditions that could negatively impact our growth expectations for the acquired businesses. Fully integrating an acquired company or business into our operations may take a significant amount of time. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in overcoming these risks or any other problems encountered with acquisitions and other strategic transactions. These risks may prevent us from realizing the expected benefits from acquisitions and could result in the failure to realize the full economic value of a strategic transaction or the impairment of goodwill and/or intangible assets recognized at the time of an acquisition. These risks could be heightened if we complete a large acquisition or multiple acquisitions within a short period of time.

Our business depends on strong brands and relationships, and if we are not able to maintain our relationships and enhance our brands, our ability to expand our base of users, advertisers and affiliates will be impaired and our business and operating results could be harmed.

Maintaining and enhancing our brands’ profiles may require us to make substantial investments and these investments may not be successful. If we fail to promote and maintain the brands’ profiles, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business and operating results could be harmed. We anticipate that, as our market becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining and enhancing our brands’ profiles may become increasingly difficult and expensive. Maintaining and enhancing our brands will depend largely on our ability to be a technology leader and to continue to provide attractive products and services, which we may not do successfully.

We depend on our key management personnel and the loss of their services could adversely affect our business.

We place substantial reliance upon the efforts and abilities of Jeremy Frommer, our Chairman of the Board of Directors, and our other executive officers and directors. Though no individual is indispensable, the loss of the services of these executive officers could have a material adverse effect on our business, operations, revenues or prospects. We do not currently maintain key man life insurance on the lives of these individuals.

If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, the value of our brands and other intangible assets may be diminished, and our business may be adversely affected.

We rely and expect to continue to rely on a combination of confidentiality, assignment, and license agreements with our employees, consultants, and third parties with whom we have relationships, as well as trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, and domain name protection laws, to protect our proprietary rights. In the United States and internationally, we have filed various applications for protection of certain aspects of our intellectual property, and we currently hold a number of registered trademarks and issued patents in multiple jurisdictions and have acquired patents and patent applications from third parties. Third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe our proprietary rights, third parties may challenge proprietary rights held by us, and pending and future trademark and patent applications may not be approved. In addition, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we operate or intend to operate our business. In any or all of these cases, we may be required to expend significant time and expense in order to prevent infringement or to enforce our rights. Although we have generally taken measures to protect our proprietary rights, there can be no assurance that others will not offer products or concepts that are substantially similar to ours and compete with our business. In addition, we regularly contribute software source code under open source licenses and have made other technology we developed available under other open licenses, and we include open source software in our products. If the protection of our proprietary rights is inadequate to prevent unauthorized use or appropriation by third parties, the value of our brands and other intangible assets may be diminished and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our products, services, and methods of operations. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results. 

We are subject to payment processing risk.

We accept payments using a variety of different payment methods, including credit and debit cards and direct debit. We rely on third parties to process payments. Acceptance and processing of these payment methods are subject to certain certifications, rules and regulations. To the extent there are disruptions in our or third-party payment processing systems, material changes in the payment ecosystem, failure to recertify and/or changes to rules or regulations concerning payment processing, we could be subject to fines and/or civil liability, or lose our ability to accept credit and debit card payments, which would harm our reputation and adversely impact our results of operations. 

We are subject to risk as it relates to software that we license from third parties.

We license software from third parties, much of which is integral to our systems and our business. The licenses are generally terminable if we breach our obligations under the license agreements. If any of these relationships were terminated or if any of these parties were to cease doing business or cease to support the applications we currently utilize, we may be forced to spend significant time and money to replace the licensed software.

Failures or reduced accessibility of third-party software on which we rely could impair the availability of our platform and applications and adversely affect our business.

We license software from third parties for integration into our Vocal platform, including open source software. These licenses might not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all. While we are not substantially dependent upon any third-party software, the loss of the right to use all or a significant portion of our third-party software required for the development, maintenance and delivery of our applications could result in delays in the provision of our applications until we develop or identify, obtain and integrate equivalent technology, which could harm our business.

Any errors or defects in the hardware or software we use could result in errors, interruptions, cyber incidents or a failure of our applications. Any significant interruption in the availability of all or a significant portion of such software could have an adverse impact on our business unless and until we can replace the functionality provided by these applications at a similar cost. Furthermore, this software may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. The loss of the right to use all or a significant portion of this software could limit access to our platform and applications. Additionally, we rely upon third parties’ abilities to enhance their current applications, develop new applications on a timely and cost-effective basis and respond to emerging industry standards and other technological changes. We may be unable to effect changes to such third-party technologies, which may prevent us from rapidly responding to evolving customer requirements. We also may be unable to replace the functionality provided by the third-party software currently offered in conjunction with our applications in the event that such software becomes obsolete or incompatible with future versions of our platform and applications or is otherwise not adequately maintained or updated.

We need to manage growth in operations to maximize our potential growth and achieve our expected revenues and our failure to manage growth will cause a disruption of our operations, resulting in the failure to generate revenue.

In order to maximize potential growth in our current and potential markets, we believe that we must expand our marketing operations. This expansion will place a significant strain on our management and our operational, accounting, and information systems. We expect that we will need to continue to improve our financial controls, operating procedures, and management information systems. We will also need to effectively train, motivate, and manage our employees. Our failure to manage our growth could disrupt our operations and ultimately prevent us from generating the revenues we expect.

In order to achieve the general strategies of our company we need to maintain and search for hard-working employees who have innovative initiatives, while at the same time, keep a close eye on any and all expanding opportunities in our marketplace.

We plan to generate a significant portion of our revenues from advertising and affiliate sales relationships, and a reduction in spending by or loss of advertisers and general decrease in online spending could adversely harm our business.

We plan to generate a substantial portion of our revenues from advertisers. Our advertisers may be able to terminate prospective contracts with us at any time. Advertisers will not continue to do business with us if their investment in advertising with us does not generate sales leads, and ultimately customers, or if we do not deliver their advertisements in an appropriate and effective manner. If we are unable to remain competitive and provide value to our advertisers, they may stop placing ads with us, which would adversely affect our revenues and business. In addition, expenditures by advertisers tend to be cyclical, reflecting overall economic conditions and budgeting and buying patterns. Adverse macroeconomic conditions can also have a material negative impact on the demand for advertising and cause our advertisers to reduce the amounts they spend on advertising, which could adversely affect our revenues and business.

Security breaches could harm our business.

Security breaches have become more prevalent in the technology industry. We believe that we take reasonable steps to protect the security, integrity and confidentiality of the information we collect, use, store and disclose, but there is no guarantee that inadvertent (e.g., software bugs or other technical malfunctions, employee error or malfeasance, or other factors) or unauthorized data access or use will not occur despite our efforts. Although we have not experienced any material security breaches to date, we may in the future experience attempts to disable our systems or to breach the security of our systems. Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to personal information, confidential information and/or the systems on which such information are stored and/or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target. As a result, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures.

If an actual or perceived security breach occurs, the market perception of our security measures could be harmed, and we could lose sales and customers and/or suffer other negative consequences to our business. A security breach could adversely affect the digital content experience and cause the loss or corruption of data, which could harm our business, financial condition and operating results. Any failure to maintain the security of our infrastructure could result in loss of personal information and/or other confidential information, damage to our reputation and customer relationships, early termination of our contracts and other business losses, indemnification of our customers, financial penalties, litigation, regulatory investigations and other significant liabilities. In the event of a major third-party security incident, we may incur losses in excess of their insurance coverage.

Moreover, if a high-profile security breach occurs with respect to us or another digital entertainment company, our customers and potential customers may lose trust in the security of our business model generally, which could adversely impact our ability to retain existing customers or attract new ones.

The laws and regulations concerning data privacy and data security are continually evolving; our or our platform providers’ actual or perceived failure to comply with these laws and regulations could harm our business.

Customers view our content online, using third-party platforms and networks and on mobile devices. We collect and store significant amounts of information about our customers—both personally identifying and non-personally identifying information. We are subject to laws from a variety of jurisdictions regarding privacy and the protection of this player information. For example, the European Union (EU) has traditionally taken a broader view than the United States and certain other jurisdictions as to what is considered personal information and has imposed greater obligations under data privacy regulations. The U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) also regulates the collection, use and disclosure of personal information from children under 13 years of age. While none of our content is directed at children under 13 years of age, if COPPA were to apply to us, failure to comply with COPPA may increase our costs, subject us to expensive and distracting government investigations and could result in substantial fines.

Data privacy protection laws are rapidly changing and likely will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The U.S. government, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce, is continuing to review the need for greater regulation over the collection of personal information and information about consumer behavior on the Internet and on mobile devices and the EU has proposed reforms to its existing data protection legal framework. Various government and consumer agencies worldwide have also called for new regulation and changes in industry practices. In addition, in some cases, we are dependent upon our platform providers to solicit, collect and provide us with information regarding our players that is necessary for compliance with these various types of regulations.

Customer interaction with our content is subject to our privacy policy and terms of service. If we fail to comply with our posted privacy policy or terms of service or if we fail to comply with existing privacy-related or data protection laws and regulations, it could result in proceedings or litigation against us by governmental authorities or others, which could result in fines or judgments against us, damage our reputation, impact our financial condition and harm our business. If regulators, the media or consumers raise any concerns about our privacy and data protection or consumer protection practices, even if unfounded, this could also result in fines or judgments against us, damage our reputation, and negatively impact our financial condition and damage our business.

In the area of information security and data protection, many jurisdictions have passed laws requiring notification when there is a security breach for personal data or requiring the adoption of minimum information security standards that are often vaguely defined and difficult to implement. Our security measures and standards may not be sufficient to protect personal information and we cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent security breaches. A security breach that compromises personal information could harm our reputation and result in a loss of confidence in our products and ultimately in a loss of customers, which could adversely affect our business and impact our financial condition. This could also subject us to liability under applicable security breach-related laws and regulations and could result in additional compliance costs, costs related to regulatory inquiries and investigations, and an inability to conduct our business.

Changes to federal, state or international laws or regulations applicable to our company could adversely affect our business.

Our business is subject to a variety of federal, state and international laws and regulations, including those with respect privacy, data, and other laws. These laws and regulations, and the interpretation or application of these laws and regulations, could change. In addition, new laws or regulations affecting our business could be enacted. These laws and regulations are frequently costly to comply with and may divert a significant portion of management’s attention. If we fail to comply with these applicable laws or regulations, we could be subject to significant liabilities which could adversely affect our business. 

If any of our relationships with internet search websites terminate, if such websites’ methodologies are modified or if we are outbid by competitors, traffic to our websites could decline.

We depend in part on various internet search websites, such as Google.com, Bing.com, Yahoo.com and other websites to direct a significant amount of traffic to our websites. Search websites typically provide two types of search results, algorithmic and purchased listings. Algorithmic listings generally are determined and displayed as a result of a set of unpublished formulas designed by search engine companies in their discretion. Purchased listings generally are displayed if particular word searches are performed on a search engine. We rely on both algorithmic and purchased search results, as well as advertising on other internet websites, to direct a substantial share of visitors to our websites and to direct traffic to the advertiser customers we serve. If these internet search websites modify or terminate their relationship with us or we are outbid by our competitors for purchased listings, meaning that our competitors pay a higher price to be listed above us in a list of search results, traffic to our websites could decline. Such a decline in traffic could affect our ability to generate advertising revenue and could reduce the desirability of advertising on our websites.

Our business involves risks of liability claims arising from our media content, which could adversely affect our ability to generate revenue and could increase our operating expenses.

As a distributor of media content, we face potential liability for defamation, invasion of privacy, negligence, copyright or trademark infringement, obscenity, violation of rights of publicity and/or obscenity laws and other claims based on the nature and content of the materials distributed. These types of claims have been brought, sometimes successfully, against broadcasters, publishers, online services and other disseminators of media content. Any imposition of liability that is not covered by insurance or is in excess of our insurance coverage could have a material adverse effect on us. In addition, measures to reduce our exposure to liability in connection with content available through our internet websites could require us to take steps that would substantially limit the attractiveness of our internet websites and/or their availability in certain geographic areas, which could adversely affect our ability to generate revenue and could increase our operating expenses.

Intellectual property litigation could expose us to significant costs and liabilities and thus negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be subject to claims of infringement of third-party patents and trademarks and other violations of third-party intellectual property rights. Intellectual property disputes are generally time-consuming and expensive to litigate or settle and the outcome of such disputes is uncertain and difficult to predict. The existence of such disputes may require us to set-aside substantial reserves and has the potential to significantly affect our overall financial standing. To the extent that claims against us are successful, they may subject us to substantial liability, and we may have to pay substantial monetary damages, change aspects of our business model, and/or discontinue any of our services or practices that are found to be in violation of another party’s rights. Such outcomes may severely restrict or hinder ongoing business operations and impact the value of our business. Successful claims against us could also result in us having to seek a license to continue our practices. Under such conditions, a license may or may not be offered or otherwise made available to us. If a license is made available to us, the cost of the license may significantly increase our operating burden and expenses, potentially resulting in a negative effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Although we have been and are currently involved in multiple areas of commerce, internet services, and high technology where there is a substantial risk of future patent litigation, we have not obtained insurance for patent infringement losses. If we are unsuccessful at resolving pending and future patent litigation in a reasonable and affordable manner, it could disrupt our business and operations, including by negatively impacting areas of commerce or putting us at a competitive disadvantage.

If we are unable to obtain or maintain key website addresses, our ability to operate and grow our business may be impaired.

Our website addresses, or domain names, are critical to our business. We currently own more than 415 domain names. However, the regulation of domain names is subject to change, and it may be difficult for us to prevent third parties from acquiring domain names that are similar to ours, that infringe our trademarks or that otherwise decrease the value of our brands. If we are unable to obtain or maintain key domain names for the various areas of our business, our ability to operate and grow our business may be impaired.

We may have difficulty scaling and adapting our existing network infrastructure to accommodate increased traffic and technology advances or changing business requirements, which could cause us to incur significant expenses and lead to the loss of users and advertisers.

To be successful, our network infrastructure has to perform well and be reliable. The greater the user traffic and the greater the complexity of our products and services, the more computer power we will need. We could incur substantial costs if we need to modify our websites or our infrastructure to adapt to technological changes. If we do not maintain our network infrastructure successfully, or if we experience inefficiencies and operational failures, the quality of our products and services and our users’ experience could decline. Maintaining an efficient and technologically advanced network infrastructure is particularly critical to our business because of the pictorial nature of the products and services provided on our websites. A decline in quality could damage our reputation and lead us to lose current and potential users and advertisers. Cost increases, loss of traffic or failure to accommodate new technologies or changing business requirements could harm our operating results and financial condition.

Operating a network open to all internet users may result in legal consequences.

Our Terms and Conditions clearly state that our network and services are only to be used by users who are over 13 years old. Although we will terminate accounts that are known to be held by persons age 13 or younger, it is impractical to independently verify that all activity occurring on our network fits into this description. As such, we run the risk of federal and state law enforcement prosecution.

Unfavorable global economic, business, or political conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets, including conditions that are outside of our control, including the impact of health and safety concerns, such as those relating to the current COVID-19 coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic.

The continuing global COVID-19 pandemic has created significant volatility, uncertainty and economic disruption. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our business, operations and financial results will depend on numerous evolving factors that we may not be able to accurately predict, including: the duration and scope of the pandemic; governmental, business and individuals’ actions, including vaccination requirements, that have been and continue to be taken in response to the pandemic; the impact of the pandemic on economic activity and actions taken in response; and any future variants that may arise and its effects on the overall response to the pandemic. The COVID-19 coronavirus and actions taken to mitigate it have had and are expected to continue to have an adverse impact on the economies and financial markets of many countries, including the geographical area in which the Company operates.

Our direct-to-consumer brands experienced supply-chain issues as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in delayed growth within these business lines. Additionally, the global financial crisis in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic has caused extreme volatility and disruptions in the capital and credit markets. A severe or prolonged economic downturn could result in a variety of risks to our business, including weakened demand for our Vocal platform and our ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all the ways in which the current economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.

Risks Related To Our Common Stock 

The price of our common stock may be subject to wide fluctuations.

Even though we have our shares listed with The Nasdaq Capital Market, the market price of our Common Stock may be highly volatile and subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety of factors and risks, many of which are beyond our control. In addition to the risks noted elsewhere in this Form 10-K, some of the other factors affecting our stock price may include:

For these reasons, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and you should not rely on past results as an indication of future performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a public company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against the public company. Regardless of its outcome, this type of litigation could result in substantial costs to us and a likely diversion of our management’s attention.

You may lose all of your investment.

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. As an investor, you might never recoup all, or even part of, your investment and you may never realize any return on your investment. You must be prepared to lose all your investment.

We may, in the future, issue additional shares of common stock, which would reduce investors’ percent of ownership and dilute our share value

Our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation authorize the issuance of 100,000,000 shares of common stock, and 20,000,000 shares of preferred stock. Currently the Company has 500 shares of Preferred Series E stock outstanding. Additionally, as of March 31, 2022 there are outstanding (i) warrants to purchase 8,580,144 shares of our common stock; (ii) options exercisable into 2,902,619 shares of our common stock; and (iii) 121,359 shares underlying the conversion of Preferred Series E shares.

Assuming all of the Company’s currently outstanding warrants and options are exercised and all convertible notes be converted, the Company would have to issue an additional 11,604,122 shares of common stock representing 59.0% of our current issued and outstanding common stock. As of the date of this filing, none of the Company’s outstanding convertible notes are currently convertible into Common Stock. The future issuance of this common stock would result in substantial dilution in the percentage of our common stock held by our then existing shareholders. We may value any Common Stock issued in the future on an arbitrary basis. The issuance of common stock for future services or acquisitions or other corporate actions may have the effect of diluting the value of the shares held by our investors and might have an adverse effect on any trading market for our common stock.

Liability of directors for breach of duty is limited under Nevada law.

Nevada law provides that directors must discharge their duties as a director in good faith and with a view to the interests of the corporation. Under Nevada law, directors owe a fiduciary duty to the corporation, which is generally comprised of the duty of care and duty of loyalty to the corporation. Except under limited circumstances set forth in NRS 78.138(7), or unless our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation or an amendment thereto provide for greater individual liability (which ours does not provide), a director or officer is not individually liable to the corporation or its stockholders or creditors for any damages as a result of any act or failure to act in his or her capacity as a director or officer unless it is proven that the director’s or officer’s act or failure to act constituted a breach of his or her fiduciary duties as a director or officer, and the breach of those duties involved intentional misconduct, fraud or a knowing violation of law. Our stockholders’ ability to recover damages for fiduciary breaches may be reduced by this statute.

We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future and, as such, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future.

We do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. In addition, and any future loan arrangements we enter into may contain, terms prohibiting or limiting the amount of dividends that may be declared or paid on our common stock. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market by certain of our stockholders could cause our stock price to fall.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock.

We may issue additional shares of preferred stock in the future that may adversely impact your rights as holders of our common stock.

Pursuant to our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation, the aggregate number of shares of capital stock which we are authorized to issue is 120,000,000 shares, of which 100,000,000 shares are common stock, and 20,000,000 shares are “blank check” preferred stock with such designations, rights and preferences as may be determined from time to time by our board of directors. Our board of directors is empowered, without stockholder approval, to issue one or more series of preferred stock with dividend, liquidation, conversion, voting or other rights which could dilute the interest of, or impair the voting power of, our common stockholders. As of the date of this Form 10-K, we do have 500 shares of Preferred Series E stock outstanding.

The issuance of a series of preferred stock could be used as a method of discouraging, delaying or preventing a change in control. For example, it would be possible for our board of directors to issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could impede the success of any attempt to change control of our Company. In addition, advanced notice is required prior to stockholder proposals, which might further delay a change of control. Additionally, our board of directors could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that would grant to holders preferred rights to our assets upon liquidation, the right to receive dividends before dividends are declared to holders of our common stock, and the right to the redemption of such preferred shares, together with a premium, prior to the redemption of the common stock. To the extent that we do issue such additional shares of preferred stock, your rights as holders of common stock could be impaired thereby, including, without limitation, dilution of your ownership interests in us.

Each of our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation and our Amended and Restated Bylaws provide that the Eighth Judicial District Court of Clark County, Nevada will be the sole and exclusive forum for certain disputes which could limit stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with the Company or its directors, officers, employees or agents.

Each of our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation and our Amended and Restated Bylaws provide that unless the Company consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Eighth Judicial District Court of Clark County, Nevada shall be the sole and exclusive forum for state law claims with respect to: (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought in the name or right of the Company or on its behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim for breach of any fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer, employee or agent of the Company to the Company or the Company’s stockholders, (iii) any action arising or asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of Nevada Revised Statutes Chapters 78 or 92A or any provision of the Company’s Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation or Amended and Restated Bylaws or (iv) any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine, including, without limitation, any action to interpret, apply, enforce or determine the validity of the Company’s Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation or Amended and Restated Bylaws. This exclusive forum provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Securities Act or the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. To the extent that any such claims may be based upon federal law claims, Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder.

Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. However, each of our Second Amended Articles of Incorporation and our Amended and Restated Bylaws contain a federal forum provision which provides that unless the Company consents in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in shares of capital stock of the Company are deemed to have notice of and consented to this provision. As this provision applies to Securities Act claims, there may be uncertainty whether a court would enforce such a provision.

These choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with the Company or its directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against the Company and its directors, officers and other employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find our choice of forum provisions contained in either our Second Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation or Amended and Restated Bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, the Company may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm its business, results of operations, and financial condition.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements contain information about our expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding our product development and commercialization efforts, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects, and other similar matters. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions about future events, which are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. These statements may be identified by words such as “expects,” “plans,” “projects,” “will,” “may,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “should,” “intends,” “estimates,” and other words of similar meaning.

These statements relate to future events or our future operational or financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those listed under the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Any forward-looking statement in this Annual Report reflects our current view with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our business, results of operations, industry and future growth. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future performance. You should read this Annual Report and the documents that we reference herein and therein and have filed as exhibits hereto and thereto completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future.

This Annual Report also contains or may contain estimates, projections and other information concerning our industry, our business and the markets for our products, including data regarding the estimated size of those markets and their projected growth rates. Information that is based on estimates, forecasts, projections or similar methodologies is inherently subject to uncertainties and actual events or circumstances may differ materially from events and circumstances reflected in this information. Unless otherwise expressly stated, we obtained these industry, business, market and other data from reports, research surveys, studies and similar data prepared by third parties, industry and general publications, government data and similar sources. In some cases, we do not expressly refer to the sources from which these data are derived.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

The Company currently does not own any properties. Our corporate headquarters consists of a total of 3,200 square feet and is located at 648 Broadway, Suite 200, New York, NY 10012. The current lease term is effective September 9, 2021 through September 9, 2022, with monthly rent of $12,955 for the leasing period. During 2021, the Company also had additional office space located at 2050 Center Ave, Suite 640 and Suite 660, Fort Lee, NJ 07024. The lease term was effective June 5, 2018 through July 5, 2023, with monthly rent of $7,693 for the first year and increases at a rate of 3% for each subsequent year thereafter. Subsequent to December 31, 2021, the Company reached an agreement with the landlord at the New Jersey location to terminate the lease effective February 28, 2022.

We believe that our facilities are adequate to meet our needs for the immediate future, and that, should it be needed, suitable additional space will be available to accommodate any such expansion of our operations.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, we may become involved in various lawsuits and legal proceedings, which arise in the ordinary course of business. 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. Except as set forth below, we are currently not aware of any such legal proceedings or claims that will have, individually or in the aggregate, a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results.

On or about June 25, 2020, Home Revolution, LLC (“Home Revolution”) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Home Revolution, LLC, et al. v. Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc. et al., Case No. 2:20-cv-07775-JMV-MF. The Complaint alleges, among other things, that Creatd, Inc. breached the Membership Interest Purchase Agreement, as modified, and ancillary transaction documents in connection with the acquisition of Seller’s Choice, LLC, from Home Revolution in September 2019. The Complaint additionally alleges violation of the New Jersey Uniform Securities Law, violations of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, fraud, equitable accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and unjust enrichment. Plaintiff also sought to have a receiver appointed by the Court to take over Creatd’s operations. After substantial motion practice, Creatd successfully settled this dispute from June 2020 for a total of $799,000, which includes $660,000 of note principal and $139,000 of accrued interest. The matter has been dismissed on March 3, 2022.

On or about August 30, 2021, Robert W. Monster and Anonymize, Inc. (“Monster”) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, Robert W. Monster, et al. v. Creatd, Inc., et al. (Western District of Washington at Seattle 2:21-CV-1177). The Complaint alleges, among other things, that action for Declaratory Judgment under 28 U.S.C. § 2201 that Monster’s registration and use of the internet domain name VOCL.COM (the “Domain Name”) does not violate Creatd’s rights under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d), or otherwise under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq. Creatd claims trademark rights and certain other rights with respect to the term and the domain name VOCL.COM. Monster seeks a determination by the Court that Monster’s registration and/or use of VOCL.COM is not, and has not been in violation of the ACPA, and that Plaintiffs’ use of VOCL.COM constitutes neither a violation of the ACPA nor trademark infringement or dilution under the Lanham Act. Creatd believes the lawsuit lacks merit and will vigorously challenge the action. At this time, we are unable to estimate potential damage exposure, if any, related to the litigation.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not Applicable.

PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market Information

Our Common Stock is listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “CRTD”.

Holders

As of March 31, 2022, there were approximately 208 registered holders of record of our Common Stock, and approximately 6 holders of record of our Series E Convertible Preferred Stock. Since certain shares of our Common Stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, the foregoing number of holders of our Common Stock is not representative of the number of beneficial holders of our Common Stock.

Dividends

To date, we have not paid cash dividends on our Common Stock and do not plan to pay such dividends in the foreseeable future. Our Board will determine our future dividend policy on the basis of many factors, including results of operations, capital requirements, and general business conditions. Dividends, under the Nevada Revised Statutes, may only be paid from our net profits or surplus. To date, we have not had a fiscal year with net profits and, subject to a valuation by the Board of the present value of the Company’s assets, do not have surplus.

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

During the three months ended December 31, 2021, we issued securities that were not registered under the Securities Act and were not previously disclosed in a Current Report on Form 8-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as listed below. All of the securities discussed in this Item 2 were issued in reliance on the exemption under Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.

Dune Acquisition

On October 3, 2021, the Company issued 163,334 shares of common stock pursuant to a Stock Purchase Agreement with Standard Holdings, Inc., Mark De Luca, and Stephanie Roy Dufault, whereby the Company purchased a majority stake in Dune, Inc.

Employee Options Issuances

On October 27, 2021, the Company issued options to purchase 900,000 shares of Common Stock granted to management and employees under the Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc. 2020 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan. These options have an exercise price of $5.00, vest upon issuance and expire 5 years from the date of issuance.

Board Issuances

During the three months ended December 31, 2021, the Company issued 18,451 shares of common stock and options to purchase 35,174 shares of common stock to members of the board of directors under the Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc. 2020 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan. The options have an exercise price of $2.09, vest on the one-year anniversary and expire 5 years from the date of vesting.

Consultant Shares & Banking Fees

During the three months ended December 31, 2021, the Company issued 365,242 shares of Common Stock to consultants and bankers.

ITEM 6. [Reserved]

Not applicable.

ITEM 7.  MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report. In addition to historical information, this discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including but not limited to those set forth in “Part I – Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

This Form 10-K and other reports filed by Creatd, Inc., formerly Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”), from time to time with the SEC (collectively, the “Filings”) contain or may contain forward-looking statements and information that are based upon beliefs of, and information currently available to, the Company’s management as well as estimates and assumptions made by Company’s management. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. When used in the Filings, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “future,” “intend,” “plan,” or the negative of these terms and similar expressions as they relate to the Company or the Company’s management identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current view of the Company with respect to future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors, including the risks relating to the Company’s business, industry, and the Company’s operations and results of operations. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ significantly from those anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended, or planned.

Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States, the Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results.

Our financial statements are prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”). These accounting principles require us to make certain estimates, judgments and assumptions. We believe that the estimates, judgments and assumptions upon which we rely are reasonable based upon information available to us at the time that these estimates, judgments and assumptions are made. These estimates, judgments and assumptions can affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the periods presented. Our financial statements would be affected to the extent there are material differences between these estimates and actual results. In many cases, the accounting treatment of a particular transaction is specifically dictated by GAAP and does not require management’s judgment in its application. There are also areas in which management’s judgment in selecting any available alternative would not produce a materially different result. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K.

We intend for this discussion to provide information that will assist in understanding our financial statements, the changes in certain key items in those financial statements, and the primary factors that accounted for those changes, as well as how certain accounting principles affect our financial statements.

Overview

The creator economy is well established and thriving, consisting of over 50 million content creators and a valuation of over $100 billion, and growing. Creatd plays a crucial role within this ecosystem, with a range of businesses established to help creators realize their potential both creatively and monetarily, partnering with peers in their community and brands when the opportunity arises.

Specifically, our role within the creator economy and ecosystem is to provide creators with economic opportunities. We accomplish this through four main business pillars: Creatd Labs, Creatd Partners, Creatd Ventures, and Creatd Studios. Together, Creatd's pillars work together to create multiple flywheel effects and growth drivers, supporting our core vision of creating a viable ecosystem for all stakeholders in the creator economy. 2021 was a positioning year for Creatd, during which the Company established a solid business foundation, fortified its infrastructure, rationalized costs to accelerate cashflow breakeven, and effectively eliminated impediments to rapid growth which we believe will continue to drive revenues.

Results of Operations

Liquidity and Capital Resources

The following table summarizes total current assets, liabilities and working capital at December 31, 2021 compared to December 31, 2020:

At December 31, 2021, we had a working capital (deficit) of $(945,773) as compared to a working capital of $3,052,566 at December 31, 2020, a decrease in working capital of $3,998,339. The decrease is primarily attributable to a reduction in cash and an increase in deferred revenue, accounts payable, and accrued liabilities. This was offset by an increase in prepaid expense, accounts receivable, and a decrease in debt obligations.

Net Cash

Net cash used in operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2021, and 2020, was $20,518,807 and $7,340,487, respectively. The net loss for the year ended December 31, 2021, and 2020 was $37,379,153 and $24,162,783, respectively. This change is primarily attributable to the net loss for the current period offset by share-based payments in the amount of $9,661,174 to employees and consultants for services rendered, accretion of debt discount and debt issuance costs of $3,612,669 due to incentives given with debentures, and a change in fair value of derivative liability of $1,096,287, as well as a change in accounts payable and accrued expenses of $1,714,902.

The increased net cash used in 2021 reflected an extraordinary cash outlay for marketing, which went toward generating a lower creator acquisition cost for paid Vocal subscribers, and an increase in general and administrative expenses.

Net cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2021, was $1,168,123. This is primarily attributable to the purchase of Plant Camp, WHE Agency, Dune Inc., property and equipment, and cash paid for the purchase of investments.

Net cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2021, and 2020 was $17,615,915 and $15,814,083, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company’s operations were predominantly financed by net proceeds of $9,487,223 from the exercise of warrants, the proceeds from sale of common stock and warrants of $5,666,951, the proceeds from loans and notes of $4,358,428, and proceeds from the issuance of stock and warrants, which were partially offset by the repayment of notes and loans of $1,398,113. Similarly, the Company’s financing activity for the year ended December 31, 2020, generated $5,745,485 from loans and note issuances, the proceeds of which were partially offset by repayment of notes of $3,224,418. 

Summary of Statements of Operations for the Year Ended December 31, 2021, and 2020:

Revenue

Revenue was $4,299,717 for the year ended December 31, 2021, as compared to $1,212,870 for the comparable year ended December 31, 2020, an increase of $3,086,847. The year-over-year increase in revenue is primarily attributable to year-over-year growth in Vocal+ memberships as well as consistent growth in the Company’s agency businesses, which was further accelerated by the immediate and growing impact of the acquisition of the WHE Agency, which was successfully integrated during third quarter into Creatd Partners’ growing business lines, as well as the start of material contributions from Creatd Ventures following the launches of Camp and Dune.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021, were $5,300,037 as compared to $1,495,042 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase of $3,804,995 in cost of revenue is mainly related to an increase personnel costs and creator costs around the moderation and content development associated with increasing Vocal+ memberships, as well as the acquisition of WHE, the growth of which requires additional sales and talent management personnel to sustain. 

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2021, were $32,368,400 as compared to $16,001,163 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The increase of $16,367,237 in operating expenses is mainly related to a $6.8 million increase in marketing expenditure, a $1.0 million increase from the impairment of goodwill, a $5.0 million increase in general and administrative expenses resulting from a near-doubling in headcount and related personnel expenses, and a $2.8 million increase in non-cash charges relating to the issuance of equity to management and employees. Much of the increase in marketing expenditure occurred during the company’s second quarter 2021 as it focused significant resources on tactical experimentation utilizing our internal data to generate a lower creator acquisition cost, resulting in significant Vocal+ membership growth, with the Company ending the second quarter 2021 having achieved a new milestone of over 30,000 Vocal+ members. The Company went on to significantly reduce marketing spend in third quarter, 2021 and then further reduce marketing for fourth quarter 2021 and expects future quarterly spend to reflect levels consistent with fourth quarter going forward. During 2021, the company’s non-cash charges totaled $9.7 million, representing past performance-based stock option grants to senior management and board members, which vest over multiple years, year-end employee performance based-stock grants, as well as extraordinary and non-recurring cash charges totaling approximately $2.5 million related to the acquisition audit mainly from WHE, legal expenses, consulting, banking and recruiting fees. 

Loss from Operations

Loss from operations for the year ended December 31, 2021, was $33,368,720 as compared to $16,283,335 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The operating loss increase primarily reflects added marketing expenses during the first half of 2021 as the company launched a comprehensive marketing campaign to support Vocal+ membership growth. Additionally, the Company nearly doubled its headcount during the year to support growth in numerous of its business lines, including the launch of two Creatd Ventures e-commerce brands. During this transition period, the Company experienced the need for duplicate expenditures to maintain operations while training its new hires, though their addition will ultimately reduce the need for outsourced third-party service providers. Going forward, the Company expects the loss from operations to decrease as revenues continue to increase and expenses remain relatively constant.

Other Income and Expenses

Other expenses for the year ended December 31, 2021, were $4,010,433 as compared to $7,929,448 for the year ended December 31, 2020. The decrease in other expenses was predominantly due to the change in gain vs. loss of extinguishment of debt and a reduction in interest expense. This was offset by an increase in derivative expense, change in fair value of derivative liability, and the impairment of investments.

Net Loss

Net loss attributable to common shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2021, was $37,703,652, or loss per share of $2.98, as compared to a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $27,348,485, or loss per share of $5.68, for the year ended December 31, 2020.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

As of December 31, 2021, we had no off-balance sheet arrangements.

Significant Accounting Policies

We believe that the following accounting policies are the most critical to aid you in fully understanding and evaluating this “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation.”

Use of Estimates and Critical Accounting Estimates and Assumptions

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the dates of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting periods.

These significant accounting estimates or assumptions bear the risk of change due to the fact that there are uncertainties attached to these estimates or assumptions, and certain estimates or assumptions are difficult to measure or value.

Management bases its estimates on historical experience and on various assumptions that are believed to be reasonable in relation to the financial statements taken as a whole under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources.

Management regularly evaluates the key factors and assumptions used to develop the estimates utilizing currently available information, changes in facts and circumstances, historical experience and reasonable assumptions. After such evaluations, if deemed appropriate, those estimates are adjusted accordingly. The Company uses estimates in accounting for, among other items, revenue recognition, allowance for doubtful accounts, stock-based compensation, income tax provisions, excess and obsolete inventory reserve, and impairment of intellectual property.

Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

The fair value measurement disclosures are grouped into three levels based on valuation factors:

The Company’s Level 1 assets/liabilities include cash, accounts receivable, marketable trading securities, accounts payable, prepaid and other current assets, line of credit and due to related parties. Management believes the estimated fair value of these accounts at December 31, 2021 approximate their carrying value as reflected in the balance sheets due to the short-term nature of these instruments or the use of market interest rates for debt instruments.

The Company’s Level 2 assets/liabilities include certain of the Company’s notes payable and capital lease obligations. Their carrying value approximates their fair values based upon a comparison of the interest rate and terms of such debt given the level of risk to the rates and terms of similar debt currently available to the Company in the marketplace.

The Company’s Level 3 assets/liabilities include goodwill, intangible assets, marketable debt securities, equity investments at cost, and derivative liabilities. Inputs to determine fair value are generally unobservable and typically reflect management’s estimates of assumptions that market participants would use in pricing the asset or liability. The fair values are therefore determined using model-based techniques, including option pricing models and discounted cash flow models. Unobservable inputs used in the models are significant to the fair values of the assets and liabilities. 

Long-lived Assets Including Goodwill and Other Acquired Intangible Assets

We evaluate the recoverability of property and equipment and acquired finite-lived intangible assets for possible impairment whenever events or circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of such assets may not be recoverable. The evaluation is performed at the lowest level for which identifiable cash flows are largely independent of the cash flows of other assets and liabilities. Recoverability of these assets is measured by a comparison of the carrying amounts to the future undiscounted cash flows the assets are expected to generate from the use and eventual disposition. If such review indicates that the carrying amount of property and equipment and intangible assets is not recoverable, the carrying amount of such assets is reduced to fair value. During the year ended December 31, 2021 the Company recorded an impairment charge of $688,127 for intangible assets.

Acquired finite-lived intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the assets. We routinely review the remaining estimated useful lives of property and equipment and finite-lived intangible assets. If we change the estimated useful life assumption for any asset, the remaining unamortized balance is amortized or depreciated over the revised estimated useful life.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company completed its annual impairment test of goodwill. The Company performed the qualitative assessment as permitted by ASC 350-20 and determined that the fair value of the Seller's Choice reporting unit was more likely than not less than the carrying value, including Goodwill. Based on completion of this annual impairment test, the Company recorded an impairment charge of $ 1,035,795 for goodwill.

Investments

Marketable securities that are bought and held principally for the purpose of selling them in the near term are classified as trading securities and are reported at fair value, with unrealized gains and losses recognized in earnings. Debt securities not classified as held-to-maturity or as trading are classified as available-for-sale, and are carried at fair market value, with the unrealized gains and losses, net of tax, included in the determination of comprehensive income and reported in stockholders’ equity.

The Company accounts for its investments in available-for-sale debt securities, in accordance with sub-topic 320-10 of the FASB ASC (“Sub-Topic 320-10”). Accrued interest on these securities is included in fair value and amortized cost.

Pursuant to Paragraph 320-10-35, investments in debt securities that are classified as available for sale shall be measured subsequently at fair value in the statement of financial position. Unrealized holding gains and losses for available-for-sale securities (including those classified as current assets) shall be excluded from earnings and reported in other comprehensive income until realized.

The Company follows FASB ASC 320-10-35 to assess whether an investment in debt securities is impaired in each reporting period. An investment in debt securities is impaired if the fair value of the investment is less than its amortized cost. If the Company intends to sell the debt security (that is, it has decided to sell the security), an other-than-temporary impairment shall be considered to have occurred. If the Company more likely than not will be required to sell the security before recovery of its amortized cost basis or it otherwise does not expect to recover the entire amortized cost basis of the security, an other-than-temporary impairment shall be considered to have occurred. The Company considers the expected cash flows from the investment based on reasonable and supportable forecasts as well as several other factors to estimate whether a credit loss exists. If the Company intends to sell the security or more likely than not will be required to sell the security before recovery of its amortized cost basis less any current-period credit loss, the other-than-temporary impairment shall be recognized in earnings equal to the entire difference between the investment’s amortized cost basis and its fair value at the balance sheet date. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company recorded an impairment charge of $102,096 for investments.

Equity Method Investments

Investments in unconsolidated entities over which we have significant influence are accounted for under the equity method of accounting. Under the equity method of accounting, the Company does not consolidate the investment’s financial statements within its consolidated financial statements. Equity method investments are initially recorded at cost, then our proportional share of the underlying net income or loss is recorded as equity in net loss from equity method investments in our statement of operations, with a corresponding increase or decrease to the carrying value of the investment. Distributions received from the investee reduce our carrying value of the investment and are recorded in the consolidated statements of cash flows using the cumulative earnings approach. These investments are evaluated for impairment if events or circumstances arise that indicate that the carrying amount of such assets may not be recoverable. There were indicators of impairment related to our equity method investments for the year ended December 31, 2021. During the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company recorded an impairment charge of $487,365 for investments.

Derivative Liability

The Company evaluates its debt and equity issuances to determine if those contracts or embedded components of those contracts qualify as derivatives to be separately accounted for in accordance with paragraph 815-10-05-4 and Section 815-40-25 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification. The result of this accounting treatment is that the fair value of the embedded derivative is marked-to-market each balance sheet date and recorded as either an asset or a liability. In the event that the fair value is recorded as a liability, the change in fair value is recorded in the consolidated statement of operations as other income or expense. Upon conversion, exercise or cancellation of a derivative instrument, the instrument is marked to fair value at the date of conversion, exercise or cancellation and then the related fair value is reclassified to equity.

In circumstances where the embedded conversion option in a convertible instrument is required to be bifurcated and there are also other embedded derivative instruments in the convertible instrument that are required to be bifurcated, the bifurcated derivative instruments are accounted for as a single, compound derivative instrument. 

The classification of derivative instruments, including whether such instruments should be recorded as liabilities or as equity, is re-assessed at the end of each reporting period. Equity instruments that are initially classified as equity that become subject to reclassification are reclassified to liability at the fair value of the instrument on the reclassification date. Derivative instrument liabilities will be classified in the balance sheet as current or non-current based on whether or not net-cash settlement of the derivative instrument is expected within 12 months of the balance sheet date.

The Company adopted Section 815-40-15 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification (“Section 815-40-15”) to determine whether an instrument (or an embedded feature) is indexed to the Company’s own stock. Section 815-40-15 provides that an entity should use a two-step approach to evaluate whether an equity-linked financial instrument (or embedded feature) is indexed to its own stock, including evaluating the instrument’s contingent exercise and settlement provisions.

The Company utilizes a Monte Carlo simulation model for the make whole feature (see note 10) and a binomial option model for convertible notes that have an option to convert at a variable number of shares to compute the fair value of the derivative and to mark to market the fair value of the derivative at each balance sheet date. The inputs utilized in the application of the Monte Carlo model included a starting stock price, an expected term of each debenture remaining from the valuation date to maturity, an estimated volatility, drift, and a risk-free rate. The inputs utilized in the application of the Binomial model included a stock price on valuation date, an expected term of each debenture remaining from the valuation date to maturity, an estimated volatility, and a risk-free rate. The Company records the change in the fair value of the derivative as other income or expense in the consolidated statements of operations.

Revenue Recognition  

Under Topic 606, revenue is recognized when control of the promised goods or services is transferred to our customers, in an amount that reflects the consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services.

We determine revenue recognition through the following steps:

Deferred Revenue

Deferred revenue consists of billings and payments from clients in advance of revenue recognition. As of December 31, 2021, and December 31, 2020, the Company had deferred revenue of $234,159 and $88,637, respectively.

Stock-Based Compensation

The Company recognizes compensation expense for all equity–based payments granted in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 718 “Compensation – Stock Compensation”. Under fair value recognition provisions, the Company recognizes equity–based compensation over the requisite service period of the award. The company has a relatively low forfeiture rate of stock based compensation and forfeitures are recognized as they occur.

Restricted stock awards are granted at the discretion of the Company. These awards are restricted as to the transfer of ownership and generally vest over the requisite service periods.

The fair value of an option award is estimated on the date of grant using the Black–Scholes option valuation model. The Black–Scholes option valuation model requires the development of assumptions that are inputs into the model. These assumptions are the value of the underlying share, the expected stock volatility, the risk–free interest rate, the expected life of the option, the dividend yield on the underlying stock and the expected forfeiture rate. Expected volatility is derived from the Company’s historical data over the expected option life and other appropriate factors. Risk–free interest rates are calculated based on continuously compounded risk–free rates for the appropriate term. The dividend yield is assumed to be zero as the Company has never paid or declared any cash dividends on its Common stock and does not intend to pay dividends on its Common stock in the foreseeable future. Forfeitures are recognized as they occur.

Determining the appropriate fair value model and calculating the fair value of equity–based payment awards requires the input of the subjective assumptions described above. The assumptions used in calculating the fair value of equity–based payment awards represent management’s best estimates, which involve inherent uncertainties and the application of management’s judgment. As a result, if factors change and the Company uses different assumptions, our equity–based compensation could be materially different in the future. The Company issues awards of equity instruments, such as stock options and restricted stock units, to employees and certain non-employee directors. Compensation expense related to these awards is based on the fair value of the underlying stock on the award date and is amortized over the service period, defined as the vesting period. The vesting period is generally one to three years. A Black-Scholes model is utilized to estimate the fair value of stock options, while the market price of the Company’s common stock at the date of grant is used for restricted stock units. Compensation expense is reduced for actual forfeitures as they occur.

Recently Adopted Accounting Guidance

In December 2019, the FASB issued authoritative guidance intended to simplify the accounting for income taxes (ASU 2019-12, “Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes”). This guidance eliminates certain exceptions to the general approach to the income tax accounting model and adds new guidance to reduce the complexity in accounting for income taxes. This guidance is effective for annual periods after December 15, 2020, including interim periods within those annual periods. The updated guidance, which became effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020, did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

Recent Accounting Guidance Not Yet Adopted

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326), Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments (“ASU-2016-13”). ASU 2016-13 affects loans, debt securities, trade receivables, and any other financial assets that have the contractual right to receive cash. The ASU requires an entity to recognize expected credit losses rather than incurred losses for financial assets. ASU 2016-13 is effective for the fiscal year beginning after December 15, 2022, including interim periods within that fiscal year. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the new guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-06, Debt—Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging—Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40): Accounting for Convertible Instruments and Contracts in an Entity’s Own Equity. This ASU amends the guidance on convertible instruments and the derivatives scope exception for contracts in an entity’s own equity, and also improves and amends the related EPS guidance for both Subtopics. The ASU will be effective for annual reporting periods after December 15, 2021, and interim periods within those annual periods and early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the new guidance on its condensed consolidated financial statements.

In May 2021, the FASB issued authoritative guidance intended to clarify and reduce diversity in an issuer’s accounting for modifications or exchanges of freestanding equity-classified written call options that remain equity classified after modification or exchange. (ASU 2021-04), “Derivatives and Hedging Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Topic 815). This guidance amendments provide measurement, recognition, and disclosure guidance for an issuer’s accounting for modifications or exchanges of freestanding equity-classified written call options that remain equity classified after modification or exchange. This guidance is effective for annual periods after December 15, 2021, including interim periods within those annual periods. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the new guidance on its condensed consolidated financial statements.

In July 2021, the FASB issued ASU No. 2021-05, Lessors—Certain Leases with Variable Lease Payments (Topic 842), Which requires a lessor to classify a lease with variable lease payments that do not depend on an index or rate (hereafter referred to as “variable payments”) as an operating lease on the commencement date of the lease if specified criteria are met. ASU 2021-05 is effective for the fiscal year beginning after December 15, 2022, including interim periods within that fiscal year. The Company expects that there would be no material impact on the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements upon the adoption of this ASU.

In October 2021, the FASB issued ASU No. 2021-08, Business Combinations — Accounting for Contract Assets and Contract Liabilities from Contracts with Customers (Topic 805), Which aims to improve the accounting for acquired revenue contracts with customers in a business combination by addressing diversity in recognition and payment terms that effect subsequent revenue recognition. ASU 2021-08 is effective for the fiscal year beginning after December 15, 2022, including interim periods within that fiscal year. The Company expects that there would be no material impact on the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements upon the adoption of this ASU.

Management does not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective accounting pronouncements, when adopted, will have a material effect on the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements. 

ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

Not applicable.

ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Creatd, Inc.

December 31, 2021 and 2020

Index to the Consolidated Financial Statements

	www.rrbb.com
ROSENBERG RICH BAKER BERMAN & COMPANY
265 Davidson Avenue, Suite 210 ● Somerset, NJ 08873-4120 ● PHONE 908-231-1000 ● FAX 908-231-6894
111 Dunnell Road, Suite 100 ● Maplewood, NJ 07040 ● PHONE 973-763-6363 ● FAX 973-763-4430

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Board of Directors and

Stockholders of Creatd, Inc. and Subsidiaries

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of Creatd, Inc. and Subsidiaries (the Company) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the related statements of income, comprehensive income, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for years then ended, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the financial statements). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years then ended, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. The Company is not required to have, nor were we engaged to perform, an audit of its internal control over financial reporting. As part of our audits, we are required to obtain an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we express no such opinion.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS ● CENTER FOR AUDIT QUALITY ● PRIVATE COMPANIES PRACTICE SECTION ● PRIME GLOBAL ● REGISTERED WITH THE PUBLIC COMPANY ACCOUNTING OVERSIGHT BOARD

ROSENBERG RICH BAKER BERMAN & COMPANY

To the Board of Directors and

Stockholders of Creatd, Inc. and Subsidiaries

Revenue Recognition

As described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company recognizes revenue in accordance with FASB Accounting Standards Codification 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”). ASC 606 requires the Company to apply the following steps: (1) identify the contract with the customers; (2) identify performance obligations in the contract; (3) determine the transaction price; (4) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (5) recognize revenue when, or as, the Company satisfies the performance obligations.

For subscription revenue recognized by the Company, the transaction price is reduced for consideration payable to customers. Because such consideration is paid to both customers and “freemium” subscribers, it requires significant estimates as to the allocation and timing of these reductions in the transaction price. These estimates required auditor judgment and consideration of some subjective factors in evaluating the estimates.

How the Critical Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

The primary audit procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included:

Evaluation of Variable Interest Entities for Consolidation

As described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company’s management performs an ongoing assessment of its noncontrolling interests from investments in unrelated entities to determine if those entities are variable interest entities (VIEs), and if so, whether the Company is the primary beneficiary. If an entity in such a transaction, by design, meets the definition of a VIE and the Company determines that it, or a consolidated subsidiary is the primary beneficiary, the Company will include the VIE in its consolidated financial statements. If such an entity is deemed to not be consolidated, the Company records only its investment in equity securities as a marketable security or investment under the equity method, as applicable.

We identified management’s accounting for variable interest entities as a critical audit matter because there is significant judgment required by management to evaluate the contractual arrangements under the variable interest entity consolidation model. Auditing such considerations involved especially challenging auditor judgment in evaluating the appropriateness of the Company’s assessment and an increased audit effort.

ROSENBERG RICH BAKER BERMAN & COMPANY

To the Board of Directors and

Stockholders of Creatd, Inc. and Subsidiaries

How the Critical Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

The primary audit procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included:

Rosenberg Rich Baker Berman, P.A.

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2018.

Somerset, New Jersey

April 6, 2022

Creatd, Inc.

Consolidated Balance Sheets

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Creatd, Inc.

Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

Creatd, Inc.

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit)

For the Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020