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, 2024

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

For the transition period from to

Commission file number 001-40049

SPRINGBIG HOLDINGS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware		88-2789488
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation)		(I.R.S Employer Identification No.)

621 NW 53rd Street
Ste. 500
Boca Raton, Florida		33487
(Address of principal executive offices)		(zip code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (800) 772-9172

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

Title of each class		Trading Symbol(s)		Name of each exchange on which registered
None

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

Title of each class

Common stock, $0.0001 par value

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 Section 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 and posted on its corporate web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted 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 and post such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

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

Large accelerated filer	☐	Accelerated filer	☐
Non-accelerated filer	☒	Smaller reporting company	☒
		Emerging growth company	☒

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. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

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

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, based on the closing price of the shares of common stock on the Nasdaq Exchange on June 30, 2024, was $5.2 million.

As of March 26, 2025, there were 46,470,682 shares of common stock, $0.0001 par value issued and outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s Proxy Statement for the Third Annual Meeting of Stockholders following the effectiveness of the Certificate of Incorporation are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Such proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.

SPRINGBIG HOLDINGS, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

		Page
Frequently Used Terms		ii
Note About Forward-Looking Statements		iv
Risk Factor Summary		v

	Part I
Item 1.	Business	1
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	8
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	36
Item 1C.	Cybersecurity	36
Item 2.	Properties	36
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	36
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	36

	Part II
Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters, and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	37
Item 6.	[Reserved]	37
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	37
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	47
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	48
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	49
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	49
Item 9B.	Other Information	50
Item 9C.	Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections	50

	Part III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers, and Corporate Governance	51
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	51
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	51
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	51
Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	51

	Part IV
Item 15.	Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules	52
Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary	53
Signatures		54

Frequently Used Terms

As used in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, references to:

“amended and restated merger agreement” are to the agreement and plan of merger, dated as of April 14, 2022, by and among Tuatara, Merger Sub and Legacy SpringBig, as amended and restated by Amendment No. 1, dated as of May 4, 2022;

“amended and restated registration rights agreement” are to the Amended and Restated Registration Rights Agreement entered into, by and among Tuatara, Sponsor, Legacy SpringBig, and the other signatories thereto;

“business combination” are to the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement;

“Canadian CRTC” are to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission;

“Cannabis Act” are to the Cannabis Act (Canada);

“Code” are to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended;

“Common Shares,” “Common Stock” or “Shares” are to the shares of common stock of SpringBig Holdings, Inc., par value $0.0001 per share;

“Common Stock Purchase Agreement” are to the Common Stock Purchase Agreement, dated as of April 29, 2022, by and between Tuatara and the Holder, as amended by Amendment No. 1, dated July 20, 2022;

“Company,” “SpringBig,” “we,” “us,” “our” and similar terms are to SpringBig Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries;

“COVID-19” are to SARS-Cov-2 or COVID-19, and any evolutions thereof or related or associated epidemics, pandemics or disease outbreaks;

“CSA” are to the U.S. Controlled Substances Act of 1970, as amended;

“DGCL” are to the Delaware General Corporation Law, as amended;

“effective time” are to the effective time of the certificate of merger effecting the merger contemplated by the amended and restated merger agreement;

“Exchange Act” are to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended;

“FCC” are to the United States Federal Communications Commission;

“GAAP” are to United States generally accepted accounting principles;

“Legacy SpringBig” are to SpringBig, Inc., a Delaware corporation, prior to the business combination, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of SpringBig following the business combination;

“merger” are to the merger evidenced by a certificate of merger between Merger Sub and Legacy SpringBig pursuant to which Merger Sub merged with and into Legacy SpringBig, with Legacy SpringBig continuing as the surviving entity and a subsidiary of SpringBig;

“merger agreement” are to the original merger agreement and the amended and restated merger agreement, collectively, as amended or modified from time to time, by and among Tuatara, Merger Sub and Legacy SpringBig;

“Merger Sub” are to HighJump Merger Sub, Inc., a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned direct subsidiary of Tuatara;

“Nasdaq” are to The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC;

“Notes Purchase Agreement” are to that certain securities purchase agreement, dated January 23, 2024, between the Company and Shalcor Management, Inc and other Purchasers (the “Investors”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to sell a total of $5.4 million of 8% Senior Secured Convertible Notes due 2026 (the “Convertible Notes”), in a private placement.

“original merger agreement” are to the agreement and plan of merger, dated as of November 8, 2021, by and among Tuatara, Merger Sub and SpringBig;

“PIPE subscription financing” are to the aggregate $13,100,000 of proceeds from the issuance of the subscription shares;

“SaaS” are to software-as-a-service;

“Securities Act” are to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended;

“Sponsor” are to TCAC Sponsor, LLC a Delaware limited liability company;

“TCPA” are to the United States Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, as amended;

“transfer agent” are to Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as transfer agent;

“Tuatara,” “we,” “our” or “us” are to Tuatara Capital Acquisition Corporation, an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, the predecessor entity to SpringBig; and

“$,” “US$” and “U.S. dollar” each refer to the United States dollar.

iii

Note About Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements include our current expectations and projections relating to our financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business. You can identify forward looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “plan,” “intend,” “believe,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “can have,” “likely” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of the timing or nature of future cash flows, operating or financial performance or other events. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and Company, management’s beliefs and certain assumptions made by management, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond our control. Accordingly, readers are cautioned that any such forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, results may prove to be materially different. Unless otherwise required by law, we disclaim any obligation to update our view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made in this report.

A number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results reflected in these forward-looking statements are identified in the section entitled “Risk Factors” and in our periodic filings with the SEC. Our SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

You should read this Annual Report on Form 10-K completely and with the understanding that our actual future results, levels of activity and performance as well as other events and circumstances may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

Risk Factor Summary

We are providing the following summary of the risk factors contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to enhance the readability and accessibility of our risk factor disclosures. We encourage you to carefully review the full risk factors contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K in their entirety for additional information regarding the material factors that make an investment in our securities speculative or risky. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following:

●

We have a relatively short operating history in a rapidly evolving industry, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not be successful. We may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to become profitable or maintain profitability in the future.

●

If we do not successfully develop and deploy new software, platform features or services to address the needs of our clients, if we fail to retain our existing clients or acquire new clients, and/or if we fail to expand effectively into new markets, our revenue may decrease, and our business may be harmed.

●

We have a significant working capital deficiency and a history of losses, may need to raise additional funds to meet our obligations and sustain our operations, and may not achieve profitability in the future.

●

Federal law enforcement may deem our clients to be in violation of U.S. federal law, and, in particular the CSA. A change in U.S. federal policy on cannabis enforcement and strict enforcement of federal cannabis laws against our clients would undermine our business model and materially affect our business and operations.

●

Some of our clients currently and in the future may not be in compliance with licensing and related requirements under applicable laws and regulations. We further cannot ensure that our clients will conduct their business in a way that complies with all laws. Allowing unlicensed or noncompliant businesses to access our platform and services or allowing businesses to use our solutions in a noncompliant manner, may subject us to legal or regulatory enforcement and negative publicity, which could adversely impact our business, operating results, financial condition, brand and reputation.

●

Our business is dependent on U.S. state laws and regulations and Canadian federal and provincial laws and regulations pertaining to the cannabis industry, its continued legalization, and the rapid changes in applicable laws and regulations may increase the risk that we will not be successful. We are subject to various standards, laws and regulations and any actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.

●

Our business is dependent on the market acceptance of cannabis consumers and negative trends could adversely affect our business operations.

●

Our business is highly dependent upon our brand recognition and reputation, and any erosion or degradation of our brand recognition or reputation would likely adversely affect our business and operating results.

●

We face competition in marketing and advertising services available to our clients, and we expect competition to further intensify as the cannabis industry continues to evolve.

●

If we fail to predict and/or manage our growth effectively, our brand, business and operating results could be harmed.

●

If we are unable to recruit, train, retain and motivate key personnel, we may not achieve our business objectives.

●

If our current marketing model is not effective in attracting new clients, we may need to employ higher-cost sales and marketing methods to attract and retain clients, which could adversely affect our profitability.

●

We may be unable to scale and adapt our existing technology and network infrastructure in a timely or effective manner to ensure that our platform is accessible, which would harm our reputation, business and operating results.

●

Real or perceived errors, failures, or bugs in our platform or cyber security breaches, unauthorized access or other events could adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects and/or subject us to significant liability.

●

The impact of global, regional or local economic and market conditions or events may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

●

We may improve our products and solutions in ways that forego short-term gains.

●

Future investments in our growth strategy, including acquisitions, could disrupt our business and adversely affect our operating results, financial condition and cash flows.

●

We may need to raise additional capital, which may not be available on favorable terms, if at all, causing dilution to our stockholders, restricting our operations or adversely affecting our ability to operate our business. Further, we may be unable to obtain such financing.

●

Our obligations to the holder of the Convertible Notes are secured by a security interest in substantially all of our assets, so if we default on those obligations, the noteholders could foreclose on, liquidate and/or take possession of our assets. If that were to happen, we could be forced to curtail, or even to cease, our operations. The Convertible Notes also restricts our ability obtain additional debt and equity financing, which may restrict our ability to grow and finance our operations.

●

We may be subject to potential adverse tax consequences.

●

Changes in accounting standards or other factors could negatively impact our future effective tax rate.

●

Cannabis remains illegal under federal law, and therefore, strict enforcement of federal laws regarding cannabis would likely result in our inability to execute our business plan.

●

Our business and our clients are subject to a variety of U.S. and foreign laws regarding financial transactions related to cannabis, which could subject our clients to legal claims or otherwise adversely affect our business.

●

We are dependent on our banking relations, and we may have difficulty accessing or consistently maintaining banking or other financial services due to our connection with the cannabis industry.

●

Due to our involvement in the cannabis industry, we may have a difficult time obtaining the various insurances that are desired to operate our business and/or in enforcing certain of our commercial contracts, which may expose us to additional risk and financial liability.

●

We may in the future be, subject to disputes and assertions by third parties with respect to alleged violations of intellectual property rights. These disputes could be costly to defend and could harm our business and operating results.

●

Some of our solutions contain open-source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software and solutions.

●

The success of our business heavily depends on our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights.

●

We do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future.

●

We may be subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management attention.

●

A significant portion of our total outstanding shares may be issued and/or sold into the market in the near future. This would result in dilution to existing shareholders and could cause the market price of our shares of common stock to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.

●

We may amend the terms of our public warrants in a manner that may be adverse to holders with the approval by the holders of at least 65% of then outstanding public warrants. As a result, the exercise price of your warrants could be increased, the exercise period could be shortened and the number of common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant could be decreased, all without the approval of all security holders.

PART I

Item 1. Business

Our Mission

We provide our clients with an easy-to-use loyalty, digital communications platform that drives their consumers to action. SpringBig empowers our clients to effectively communicate with, increase the loyalty of, and expand their consumer population through the provision of an integrated technology platform supported by robust analytics. Our goal is to become the leading SaaS software platform to cannabis retailers and brands, providing data-driven loyalty, marketing and consumer buying experience solutions throughout the U.S. and Canada, and ultimately expanding internationally and into other regulated markets.

Summary of Our Business

SpringBig is a market-leading software platform providing customer loyalty and marketing automation solutions to retailers and brands. SpringBig believes that it is a market leader in its product categories based on a number of factors, including amongst other, (i) the number of SpringBig customers and consumers enrolled on SpringBig’s platform (as a percentage of known licensed cannabis retailers enrolled in SpringBig’s product service); (ii) scale (SpringBig has operations and clients in all states that have legalized cannabis); (iii) the comprehensive services offered by SpringBig; (iv) the technology offered by SpringBig that, amongst other things, connects the three categories of participants in the cannabis ecosystem (customers, retailers and brands) and provides effective communications and marketing to end-consumers; (v) SpringBig’s expertise in loyalty programs and marketing automation: and (vi) SpringBig’s ability to provide data analytics.

Since our inception in 2016, we have leveraged our deep expertise in loyalty marketing to develop solutions that address the key challenges faced by retailers and brands, including those in the cannabis industry. Stringent, complex, and rapidly evolving regulations have resulted in restricted access to traditional marketing channels for cannabis retailers and brands, preventing them from utilizing many traditional methods for effectively accessing and engaging with consumers. In addition, the lack of industry-specific data and market intelligence solutions limit cannabis retailers’ and brands’ ability to efficiently market their products, thereby hindering their growth. Our platform enables our clients to increase brand awareness, engage customers, improve retention, and access actionable consumer feedback data to improve marketing. Our clients can use our loyalty marketing, digital communications, and text/email/push marketing solutions to drive new customer acquisition, customer spend and retail foot traffic. Our proven business-to-business-to-customer (“B2B2C”) software platform creates powerful network effects between retailers and brands and provides an ability for both to connect directly with consumers. As retailers and brand scale, a virtuous cycle is created, ultimately expanding SpringBig’s reach, strengthening our value proposition. In addition, our platform enables clients to offer consumers a paid-for premium loyalty tier and facilitates the use of prepaid gift cards within the loyalty wallet as a method of payment.

Today, we serve approximately 900 clients across approximately 2,300 distinct retail locations in North America. Our clients distributed approximately 600 million messages during 2024, and in the last year more than $7.5 billion of gross merchandise value (“GMV”) was accounted for by our clients utilizing our platform.

We believe SpringBig is well positioned to continue to be a leading software platform for cannabis retailers and brands by providing data-driven loyalty and marketing solutions to enhance a frictionless consumer buying experience.

What SpringBig Does

We have developed and commercialized a comprehensive suite of Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) solutions for our customers (who we refer to as “clients” and their end-user customers as “customers” or “consumers”).

Through their subscriptions, our retail clients have access to in-depth campaign data, robust analytics, and actionable feedback and summaries to help inform their business decisions and maximize customer engagement and retention. When a client subscribes to our platform, we charge affordable initial set-up fees and the majority of our revenue is derived from a monthly recurring subscription fee. Typically, our subscription agreements extend for twelve months, and unless terminated in accordance with their terms, generally renew for subsequent and recurring twelve-month periods. Our client subscriptions cover access to our platform as well as messaging services.

Within the terms of a subscription, a client receives a pre-determined quantum of communication credits per month, and we invoice the client additional amounts if the pre-determined credit volume is exceeded in any month (though the subscription agreements do not stipulate the volume of messages the client must cause to be sent during a month). The fees for such excess use are set forth in the client’s subscription agreement. In some cases, a client has separate subscriptions relating to the use of the software platform and the communications and, in other cases, these are bundled into a single subscription.

The monthly subscription fee charged to SpringBig’s clients is set forth in such client’s subscription agreement and is based on the scope of the subscription, which is determined based on (1) the number of customers on a client’s database (e.g., use of the SpringBig platform) and/or (2) the pre-determined quantum of communication credits that such client may use per month. As noted above, if this pre-determined credit volume is exceeded in any month, SpringBig will invoice the client for such excess use by the client.

Secondly, we also generate revenue by empowering brands with direct access to consumers via our brands platform. Our brands platform allows brands to advertise and engage cannabis consumers, drive brand awareness, acquire VIP customers with high lifetime value, and access detailed reporting insights into essential campaign attribution metrics.

Thirdly, we also generate revenue when our clients utilize the paid-for premium loyalty tier in our platform through a revenue sharing arrangement with our client whereby SpringBig receives a proportion of the subscription paid by consumers; and generate revenue on prepaid gift cards, which is calculated as a proportion of the value of the gift card amount.

Industry Overview

We operate within the large and expanding cannabis retail market in the United States and Canada. Cannabis is one of the fastest emerging consumer end markets in the U.S and it is expected to grow to more than $40 billion in the near-term. As of December 31, 2024, 39 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia have legalized medical cannabis, of which 23 states plus the District of Columbia have further legalized cannabis for recreational adult-use. Further momentum from the legislative and regulatory changes is expected to drive expansion of the total addressable market as more states continue to legalize cannabis for recreational adult-use and medical use. We operate in all states that have legalized cannabis in some form (be it recreational adult-use or medical), and we plan to be a first mover in future new markets. Additional tailwinds such as a decrease in raw material costs, intensifying competition amongst cannabis retailers and brands, and increased marketing spends by clients are also expected to contribute to the expansion of our total addressable market as customer engagement and retention will become ever more critical for cannabis retailers and brands to succeed.

Current technology offerings to cannabis retailers and brands are rudimentary, and the technology landscape offers a highly fragmented environment with lots of competition within a pool of small players. We believe that SpringBig as a leading loyalty and marketing software platform of scale to the cannabis industry is nicely positioned to capture the significant uptick expected in marketing spend. There are only a few cannabis-specific companies that provide products similar to our offering, and SpringBig currently does not face competition from traditional loyalty marketing providers due to legal restrictions for cannabis at the federal level.

Key Challenge

The stringent and evolving regulations, which vary state-by-state, restrict retailers’ and brands’ abilities to engage with customers, currently present significant challenges to their marketing efforts. In addition, these retailers and brands lack access to actionable data and analytics tools to market their products to customers efficiently.

The cannabis industry is a highly fragmented and competitive industry where price and promotions are key drivers of sales. Further, traditional marketing channels restrict cannabis marketing, preventing businesses from marketing their products and reaching consumers. Social media platforms serve as an outlet for businesses to market their products in most other industries, but they restrict cannabis companies from operating on their platforms. Some SMS providers also restrict licensed cannabis businesses from accessing networks, and these barriers currently make it challenging for cannabis retailers and brands to drive customer acquisition, retention, engagement, and loyalty. Furthermore, the continued penetration by cannabis focused e-commerce providers have increased competition and decreased customer loyalty for bricks and mortar cannabis retailers.

How SpringBig Addresses The Challenge

SpringBig has developed and commercialized a comprehensive suite of SaaS solutions to address the challenges that cannabis retailers and brands face in this industry. Today’s industry participants lack sufficient visibility into customer behavior and need a solution that bridges communication between consumers, retailers and brands. We believe our solutions foster valuable connections and interactions that improve clarity, trust and satisfaction between these stakeholders.

Further, while cannabis clients do not currently have access to certain traditional marketing channels, including social media platforms, we believe that our platform’s products and services, in particular our data and analytics capabilities, position us well to provide significant value to cannabis retailers and brands whenever these social media platforms become available, by enabling these businesses to determine the effective targeting and focus of their marketing solutions and loyalty programs.

Although carrier-imposed restrictions limit the use of blatant cannabis content being sent directly via SMS, SpringBig has developed a proprietary solution, compliant with TCPA, FCC, and Canadian CRTC, that helps cannabis retailers and brands communicate directly with their consumers, offering a direct communication and engagement channel, using text, images and other forms of media.

We believe our platform empowers our clients to improve and analyze customer acquisition, retention, basket spend and retail foot traffic. Retailers and brands can use SpringBig’s platform to connect with consumers, thus driving improvements in customer engagement and retention and increasing brand exposure. Once customers are engaged, the SpringBig platform enables businesses to amplify consumer spend through differentiated marketing solutions which target the consumer directly in an industry were doing so has been challenging in the past. While brand loyalty in the cannabis market has historically proven challenging, our offerings effectively connect the consumer with brands and drive loyalty.

We provide retailers with the analytics infrastructure to make data actionable. Our data solutions are purpose-built for the cannabis industry and enable our clients to leverage data to more effectively market their products to consumers. Through our integrations with many of the leading point of sale (“POS”) providers, and with major cannabis e-commerce and data providers, our platform offers robust consumer purchasing and marketing feedback data to allow our customers to take direct marketing and promotional actions. These commercial relationships take varying forms, depending on the relationship, including licensing and referral arrangements.

Furthermore, our proprietary auto-connect module supports further automation of marketing campaigns based on data. We also offer marketing automation solutions that provide for consistency of customer communication, which retailers and brands can use to drive customer retention and retail foot traffic. Our platform offers functionality to help build brand loyalty through loyalty programs that offer various rewards and offers. Our reporting and analytics offerings deliver valuable insights that our clients utilize to better understand their customer base, purchasing habits and trends. Consumer actions become measurable, thus providing our clients with data that can be leveraged to make better informed business decisions and more targeted marketing campaigns.

Through SMS marketing, emails, customer feedback system and loyalty programs, we believe our solutions are crucial in managing customer relationships in this emerging industry.

On the consumer side, we offer a suite of elegant consumer-facing products. The enrollment process is streamlined and designed to provide for compliance and clarity. Once enrolled, consumers can develop their profile, will receive appropriate messages and offers and access their retailer’s specific rewards wallet application, where multiple images, videos, and links can be added for the consumer to explore.

An important component of our platform is digital message marketing, which allows clients to send promotions to existing customers via text, email or push notifications directly into a mobile app. Our digital messaging platform offers a variety of features, including multiple customer segmentations, which automatically groups customers into segments based on their preferences and purchase behavior. Retailers also have access to the “autoconnects” feature, which allows them to easily leverage customer data and send messages directly to consumers based on certain actions and includes functionality to help clients avoid missed opportunities to send text messages. We also provide an e-signature app, designed to accommodate a proper ‘double opt-in’ procedure, through both implied and expressed consent, to facilitate compliance with the TCPA, FCC, and Canadian CRTC. We utilize proprietary technology to filter out fake phone numbers, burner phones, and landlines. In an environment where communication with cannabis consumers is constrained, text messaging is extremely effective in influencing purchase behavior, while also driving foot traffic and continuing to reach new customers and target markets.

The consumer application (wallet) itself can easily be customized with a distinct icon, name, layout, and color scheme, thus allowing for brand consistency and a higher-quality and frictionless customer experience. Here, customers can access and check their points, redeem rewards, and view upcoming offers. The wallet fully integrates with cannabis e-commerce providers, allowing customers to place orders directly from their wallet. The features and ease of use that comes with the SpringBig rewards wallet creates customer loyalty and establishes a relationship between the client and the consumer.

Our brand marketing platform offers a leading direct-to-consumer marketing automation platform, with the data-rich direct-to-consumer marketing engine enabling brands to target and measure the complete transaction cycle from initial engagement through point of sale.

We have created a distinct B2B2C platform supported by a wealth of data assets to effectively monetize our large and growing base of cannabis consumers. Currently, the cannabis industry falls significantly short of market intelligence and data solutions that would typically be found in other industries: retailers lack analytics infrastructure to make data actionable for marketing, and lack of feedback data poses challenges for brands to reach and establish relationships with consumers directly. Our leading messaging, loyalty, and customer experience platform recognizes powerful network effects among brands, retailers, and cannabis consumers to enable our clients to make better business decisions. We retain retailers as paying SaaS subscription customers, who then acquire consumers. Brands target retailers that successfully acquire loyal consumers, which drives increased retailer interest and recurring revenue.

The SpringBig platform is also supported by large data assets created by our fully integrated cannabis technology ecosystem. We partner with industry leading data analytics, e-commerce, and POS providers to monetize our base of over 35 million consumers and generate revenue for our clients.

We intend to continue to invest in our platform to enhance its functionality and the value of our data assets so that both we and our clients can continue to grow. We anticipate building on our existing platform infrastructure so that we are well positioned to benefit from the further emergence of the burgeoning cannabis and cannabis-tech markets.

Certain Regulatory Considerations and How We Adapt to Changing Regulatory Landscape

SpringBig helps drive regulatory compliance. The Company prides itself on being ahead of the curve when it comes to changes to regulations to both SMS and to the overall cannabis landscape.

The TCPA prohibits autodialed text messages, unless made with the prior express, written consent of the receiving party, to any telephone number assigned to a cell phone. Additionally, mobile carriers act as gatekeepers between businesses and consumers. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (“CTIA”), a trade organization for mobile carriers (including SpringBig’s messaging distributors), periodically issues industry best practice guidance which currently includes prohibiting messaging content that contains or promotes sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, or tobacco (referred to as “SHAFT”), and interpretation of this guidance includes cannabis within the tobacco category. SpringBig’s platform (including, in particular, its text message marketing) is designed to ensure compliance with TCPA, SHAFT guidelines, and other applicable CTIA guidance. SpringBig proactively monitors and, as necessary, adapts its platform and services to comply with these guidelines and standards. Further, as part of its proactive monitoring of mobile carriers’ guidelines, SpringBig endeavors to maintain close relationships with our messaging distributors, and as such, have been made well aware of any carrier-implemented restrictions that may impact the way cannabis retailers communicate with their consumers via SMS. These relationships have allowed us to continue servicing our customers in a rapidly changing environment, with no disruption of service or restrictions from sending messages from major carriers.

SpringBig’s customers can utilize the platform consent interface or other means to obtain the consumer’s consent that is required to receive messages, and as an integral part of its services, SpringBig creates templates for its retail customers that are in compliance with SHAFT guidelines to use in promotional messaging. The approved templates do not explicitly discuss or promote cannabis, but rather provide general information about the retailer, the consumer’s reward status and can also incorporate a link that directs opted-in consumers to additional promotional material created by the retail customers.

As a third-party provider of a software platform, state cannabis regulatory marketing rules generally do not apply to SpringBig. The Company’s retail customers are responsible for ensuring that their marketing materials comply with state law.

Additionally, SpringBig has instituted policies and procedures to verify the licensing status of its clients and to conduct periodic screening to confirm the continuing licensing status of its clients. Further, the Company monitors proposed and pending legislative changes on a state and federal level.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe that we are a leading provider of customer loyalty and marketing automation solutions to cannabis retailers and brands, and our key competitive strengths are the following:

We are a leading direct-to-consumer marketing and customer loyalty platform in the cannabis industry. We are one of the largest loyalty & marketing automation providers in the cannabis space with over 35 million consumers enrolled in our platform, and over 900 clients with approximately 2,300 discrete retail locations. We started serving the cannabis market in 2016 and were a pioneer in providing SMS marketing solutions to cannabis retailers. We partner with many of the leading multi-state-operators (“MSOs”), we believe that our differentiated suite of solutions and deep understanding of customer needs will enable us to expand our leadership position as we grow into existing and new markets and expand our offering.

We have a diverse geographic footprint, with operations in all states that have legalized cannabis in some form. We believe that our broader geographic footprint, scope of operations, and established position in the industry all support our efforts to be a first mover in future new markets and may make it more difficult, time-intensive and costly for competitors to replicate.

We provide critical value to our customers. Loyalty and messaging are critical for cannabis retailers and brands to directly engage, connect, and retain their customer base. Our suite of solutions is designed to enable our customers to engage with their consumers in an efficient way, sustainably driving customer retention, acquisition, spend and foot-traffic. On average, our clients can recover the cost of their monthly subscription for the SpringBig platform within a few days of utilizing our offerings each month. In addition, we have successfully integrated with many of the industry’s leading POS systems, which enables us to collect and analyze consumer data and feedback, providing our clients with actionable insights for marketing purposes, and we have also completed our initial POS system integrations outside of the cannabis industry.

Our Growth Strategies

Our goal is to become the leading SaaS software platform to cannabis retailers and brands, providing data-driven loyalty, marketing and consumer buying experience solutions throughout the U.S. and Canada and to expand into other regulated markets.

Our excellent reputation in the cannabis market and comprehensive solutions offering provide us with the opportunity to expand our footprint and grow these accounts via up-selling and cross-selling. We grow alongside our clients via a “flywheel” effect as we benefit from the growth of their businesses and expansion of their customer base, which is, in turn, enabled by their use of our platform.

We also plan to grow our business by expanding accounts with existing clients that may not have initially leveraged our platform for all their locations. Our clients realize significant returns on investment and increased customer engagement, which has historically driven the success of our land and expand strategy. In addition, we expect to further our penetration with existing clients as they enter new markets, as our platform will touch more end-customers and gather more actionable data.

We plan to leverage and expand our existing sales force and marketing strategy to acquire additional cannabis retailers as new clients. As existing markets in legalized states expand and cannabis becomes more widely used, we believe our existing presence positions us to continue to gain market share. We believe that the continued growth of the cannabis market and evolution of regulation, both in terms of legalizing recreational and medical use cannabis (as described below) as well as regarding communications and advertisements, will drive further adoption of our platform.

As an increasing number of states in the U.S. legalize medical cannabis use or transition from medical to recreational cannabis use, a significant growth opportunity presents itself as the number of retailers, the consumer base and total spend all increase. We have historically been responsive as a first mover into new medical and recreational adult-use markets as they become legal, which gives us a significant competitive advantage to grow as state-by-state legalization evolves. We believe our deep understanding of the space coupled with our experienced sales force will enable us to quickly enter and execute in new markets and capture new business, which we can sustain via our exceptional product offerings.

During 2024, we also announced the launch of our messaging capabilities into the gaming industry, offering SMS solutions to skilled gaming apps, casinos, sports betting platforms, horse tracks and betting advise sites.

We intend to continue investing in and develop our technology capabilities to offer our clients more advanced and comprehensive solutions. This will help enable us to extend our platform beyond our core offering which presents significant upsell opportunities.

Approximately $7.5 billion of GMV is currently processed by the retailers that are on our platform. Through our entrenched position with retailers delivering mission critical messaging and loyalty solutions, we believe we are well-positioned to monetize a portion of this GMV through payments and reward points. We plan to capture a portion of this spend through the SpringBig rewards wallet solution that our current clients utilize to manage their rewards program and have recently introduced a gift card payment option. Additionally, with over 35 million consumers and integrations with many of the leading POS providers, we have access to a wealth of data that drive our proprietary insights. While these integrations assist in our ability to offer feedback to our customers, these commercial relationships do not represent a material amount of SpringBig’s revenues, constitute a material amount of shared revenue, or constitute a material distribution source for SpringBig. However, we believe there is a path to monetize this data and create new revenue opportunities.

Sales

Our sales team is primarily based out of our Boca Raton, Florida headquarters with additional team members in our Canadian office in Toronto, Ontario and client services support staff at both these locations and in Seattle, Washington to assist new and existing clients. As of December 31, 2024, of the 67 people we employed, 29 individuals focused exclusively on selling and client service. Our sales force is well versed in our offerings, including consumer facing, retailer platform, and brand platform products.

As we continue to scale, we expect to continue to recognize significant efficiencies with our sales effort. Currently, our primary focus revolves around converting inbound leads, as cannabis retailers and brands look to join our platform upon beginning their operations. We also utilize state cannabis regulators’ lists of licensees to internally generate client leads.

Marketing

Similar to our sales efforts, we expect to continue to achieve marketing efficiency as we scale our business. We believe our platform’s scale and strong customer loyalty market themselves, however we still intend to implement a variety of marketing efforts to attract additional retailers and brands not yet on our platform. Marketing efforts include multiple strategies designed to attract and retain both retail and brands subscribers.

Technology

We invested significantly to create a fully integrated technology stack that connects the three categories of participants in the cannabis ecosystem, namely the customers, retailers, and brands. By partnering with other industry leaders through various data analytics, e-commerce and POS platforms, we help to enhance engagement, analytics, and create a truly omni-channel experience for our clients and their customers.

Our suite of SaaS-based solutions provides cutting-edge technologies, and we continue to be the database of record for over a thousand cannabis businesses, with customer profiles being created first through our loyalty platform, and through integration of our platform with POS systems, where we can collect crucial data points through POS transactions.

Revenue Concentration

We have a diversified client base of approximately 900 clients with approximately 2,300 retail locations. No single client accounted for more than 15% of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024, and 14% of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023. Our top 10 clients accounted for 41% and 34% of total revenue over the same periods.

Research & Development

We conduct concerted product development efforts focused on implementing new, value-add features to our platform, as well as developing new solutions that increase functionality, data-driven actionable insights and enhance ease of use throughout the customer journey. We expect our research and development expenses to remain consistent as a percentage of total revenue with increased growth continuing to support product enhancements.

Seasonality

We have not experienced a significant impact on our results due to seasonality. However, our clients may experience seasonality in their businesses that, in turn, can impact the revenue generated from them. Our business may become more seasonal in the future and historical patterns in our business may not be a reliable indicator of future performance.

Competition

Our direct competitors for various elements of our offerings and services include businesses both within and outside of the cannabis industry that are specifically focused on marketing and customer engagement, commerce and POS solutions or SaaS software, as well as companies focused on technology solutions focused on the cannabis industry.

We believe that the principal competitive factors in our market include, the scale of our operations in all states that have legalized cannabis in some form and the ability to be a first mover in future new markets, the ability to offer comprehensive services across customer relationship management (“CRM”) and marketing software, the ability to support client promotions and the building of loyalty with end-consumers and increase retention, the ability to collect and analyze consumer data and feedback (and providing clients with actionable insights for marketing purposes), and effective communications and marketing to end-customers. We believe we compete favorably based on these factors.

For additional information about the risks to our business related to competition, see the section captioned “Risk Factors - Risks Related to SpringBig’s Business and Industry.

Intellectual Property

Our intellectual property and proprietary rights are valuable assets that are important to our business. In our efforts to safeguard our copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks and other intellectual property rights worldwide, we rely on a combination of federal, state, common law and international rights in the jurisdictions in which we operate.

We have an ongoing trademark and service mark registration program pursuant to which we register our brand names in the United States. As of December 31, 2024, we have been issued trademark registrations in the United States, covering among other marks, “SpringBig.”

We also rely on non-disclosure agreements, invention assignment agreements, intellectual property assignment agreements, or license agreements with employees, independent contractors, consumers, software providers and other third parties, which protect and limit access to and use of our proprietary intellectual property.

Though we rely, in part, upon these legal and contractual protections, we believe that factors such as the skills and ingenuity of our employees, as well as the functionality and frequent enhancements to our platform are larger contributors to our success in the marketplace.

Circumstances outside our control could pose a threat to our intellectual property rights. For more information, see the section entitled “Risk Factors - Risks Related to SpringBig’s Intellectual Property.”

Employees and Human Capital Resources

As of December 31, 2024, we had 67 full-time employees, including employees focused on engineering, client success, corporate development, brands, digital message and general and administrative and professional services. We also engage independent contractors to supplement our permanent workforce. 58 employees are located in the United States and 9 employees are located in Canada.

We consider our relations with our employees to be good. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by collective bargaining agreements, and we have not experienced any work stoppages.

Corporate Information

We were originally formed on January 24, 2020, under the name “Tuatara Capital Acquisition Corporation,” as a blank check company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company, incorporated for the purpose of effecting a merger, amalgamation, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. On June 13, 2022, in anticipation of the consummation of the previously announced business combination among Tuatara, Merger Sub and Legacy SpringBig, Tuatara changed its jurisdiction of incorporation by deregistering as a Cayman Islands exempted company and continuing and domesticating as a corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware and it then changed its name to SpringBig Holdings, Inc.

Our principal executive office is located at 621 NW 53rd Street, Suite 500, Boca Raton, Florida 33487. Our telephone number is (800) 772-9172. Our website address is www.springbig.com. Information contained on our website is not a part of this prospectus, and the inclusion of our website address in this prospectus is an inactive textual reference only.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

Our business involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, together with the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as the risks, uncertainties and other information set forth in the reports and other materials filed or furnished by us with the SEC. We cannot assure you that any of the events discussed in the risk factors below will not occur. These risks could have a material and adverse impact on our business, prospects, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We have a relatively short operating history in a quickly evolving industry that may not develop as we anticipate, if at all. Both our relatively short operating history and the pace of dramatic change in the cannabis industry, and the complex, multiple and sometimes conflicting regulatory regimes applicable to it, makes it difficult to assess our future prospects, and you should evaluate our business in light of the risks and difficulties we may encounter as the industry continues to evolve. While our revenue has grown in recent periods, this growth may not be sustainable due to a number of factors, including the maturation of our business, increased competition and the eventual decline in the number of new major geographic markets in which the sale of cannabis is permitted and to which we have not already expanded. We may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to achieve and sustain profitability.

Additionally, we may incur increased expenditures which may not result in additional revenue or the growth of our business. If we fail to continue to grow revenue or to sustain profitability, the market price of our securities could decline, and our business, operating results and financial condition could be adversely affected.

If we do not successfully develop and deploy new software, platform features or services to address the needs of our clients, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could suffer.

Our success has been based on our ability to design software, platform features and services that address the needs of our clients. We spend substantial amounts of time and money researching and developing new technologies and enhanced versions of existing platform features, as well as new features, to meet our clients’ rapidly evolving needs. As consumers and clients demand comprehensive data analysis from platforms such as us, in conjunction with their point-of-sale providers, our ability to integrate with a client’s POS system and other third party technology integrations may become increasingly important. If we are unable to arrange or complete new integrations, or improve our existing integrations, we may lose market share to competitors. There is no assurance that enhancements to our software, platform features or new services or capabilities will be compelling to our clients or gain market acceptance. If our research and development investments do not accurately anticipate market demand or if we fail to develop our software, platform features or services in a manner that satisfies client preferences in a timely and cost-effective manner, we may fail to retain our existing clients or increase demand for our services.

The introduction of new products and services by competitors or the development of entirely new technologies to replace existing service offerings could make our platforms obsolete or adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We may experience difficulties with software development, design, or marketing that delay or prevent our development, introduction or implementation of new platforms, platform features or capabilities, or cause errors to arise with our existing software. We have in the past experienced delays in our internally planned release dates of new features and capabilities, and there can be no assurance that new platforms, platform features, or capabilities will be released according to schedule. Any delays or other disruptions could result in adverse publicity, loss of revenue or market acceptance, or claims by consumers or suppliers brought against us, any of which could harm our business. Moreover, the design and development of new platforms or new platform features and capabilities to our existing platform may require substantial investment, and we have no assurance that such investments will be successful. If consumers in the market do not widely adopt our new platforms, platform features, and capabilities, we may not be able to realize a return on our investment and our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.

If we fail to retain our existing clients and consumers or to acquire new clients and consumers in a cost-effective manner, our revenue may decrease, and our business may be harmed.

We compete in a dynamic, innovative, and fairly new market, which we expect will continue to evolve rapidly. We believe that our success is dependent on our ability to continue identifying and anticipating the needs of our clients and, in turn, their consumers, and retaining our existing clients and adding new clients. While we have historically been able to grow and retain our client base, we may grow more slowly than we expect or than we have grown in the past. Our ability to retain clients depends in part on our ability to create and maintain high levels of client satisfaction, which we may not always be capable of providing, including for reasons outside of our control. Any decrease in client satisfaction or other change negatively affecting our ability to retain clients could result in a rapid, concentrated impact to our results going forward. Therefore, our failure to retain existing clients, even if such losses are offset by an increase in revenue resulting from the acquisition of new clients, could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.

If we fail to expand effectively into new markets, our revenue and business will be adversely affected.

While a key part of our business strategy is to add clients in our existing geographic markets, we intend to expand our operations into new markets if and as cannabis continues to be legalized in new markets. Any such expansion places us in competitive markets with which we may be unfamiliar, requires us to analyze the potential applicability of new and potentially complicated regulations regarding the usage, sale and marketing of cannabis, and involves various risks, including the need to invest significant time and resources and the possibility that returns on such investments will not be achieved for several years, if at all. As a result of such expansion, we may incur losses or otherwise fail to enter new markets successfully. In attempting to establish a presence in new markets, we expect to incur significant expenses and face various other challenges, such as expanding our compliance efforts to cover those new markets. These efforts may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenues sufficiently to offset these expenses. Our current and any future expansion plans will require significant resources and management attention.

We have a significant working capital deficiency and a history of losses, may need to raise additional funds to meet our obligations and sustain our operations and may not achieve profitability in the future.

SpringBig is an early-stage company with a history of losses. We incurred net losses of $1.6 million and $10.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively. In addition, as of December 31, 2024, we had a working capital deficiency of $1.5 million and we may need to raise additional funds to meet our obligations and sustain our operations. SpringBig may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future. We may incur net losses in the future, and such losses may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter.

Our efforts to grow our business may be more costly than we expect, and we may not be able to increase our revenue sufficiently to offset our higher operating expenses. We may incur significant losses, and we may not achieve or maintain future profitability, due to a number of reasons, including the risks described in this report, unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays, and other unknown events. Furthermore, if our future growth and operating performance fail to meet investor or analyst expectations, or if we have future negative cash flow or losses resulting from our investment in acquiring customers or expanding our operations, this could make it difficult for you to evaluate our current business and our future prospects and may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

U.S. federal law, and more specifically the CSA, proscribes the cultivation, processing, distribution, sale, advertisement and possession of cannabis. As a result, U.S. federal law enforcement authorities, in their attempt to regulate the illegal or unauthorized production, distribution, promotion, sale, possession, or use of cannabis, may seek to bring criminal actions against our clients under the CSA. If our clients are found to be violating U.S. federal law relating to cannabis, they may be subject not only to criminal charges and convictions, but also to forfeiture of property, significant fines and penalties, disgorgement of profits, administrative sanctions, cessation of business activities, or civil liabilities arising from proceedings initiated by either the U.S. government or private citizens. Any of these actions or consequences on our clients could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition, or could force us to cease operations, and as a result, our investors could lose their entire investment.

Further, to the extent any law enforcement actions require us to respond to subpoenas, or undergo search warrants, for client records, cannabis businesses could elect to cease using our products and services. Until the U.S. federal government changes the laws with respect to cannabis, described below under the caption “Cannabis remains illegal under federal law, and therefore, strict enforcement of federal laws regarding cannabis would likely result in our inability to execute our business plan,” to apply to all state cannabis programs, U.S. federal authorities could more strictly enforce current federal prohibitions and restrictions. An increase in federal enforcement against companies licensed under state cannabis laws could negatively impact the state cannabis industries and, in turn, our business, operating results, financial condition, brand and reputation.

Some of our clients currently and in the future may not be in compliance with licensing and related requirements under applicable laws and regulations. Allowing unlicensed or noncompliant businesses to access our platform and services, or allowing businesses to use our solutions in a noncompliant manner, may subject us to legal or regulatory enforcement and negative publicity, which could adversely impact our business, operating results, financial condition, brand and reputation. In addition, allowing businesses that engage in false or deceptive advertising practices to use our solutions may subject us to negative publicity, which could have similar adverse impacts on us.

While we have instituted policies and procedures in connection with the verification and periodic screening of the licensing status of our clients operating cannabis retail businesses (and our contracts with clients generally provide for client representations relating to compliance, termination of services in the case of client noncompliance, and client indemnification obligations), some of our clients currently and in the future may not be in compliance with licensing and related requirements under applicable state laws and regulations. There could be legal enforcement actions against unlicensed or insufficiently licensed entities selling cannabis, which could negatively impact us.

Any legal or regulatory enforcement against us based on our platform, the content provided by clients, the marketing campaigns created by clients on our platform or noncompliance by our clients with licensing and other legal requirements, could subject us to various risks, including monetary penalties and/or required changes to our platform or business model, and would likely cause us to experience negative publicity. Any of these developments could materially and adversely impact our business, operating results, financial condition, brand, and reputation.

We generally do not, and cannot, ensure that our clients will conduct their business activities in a manner compliant with the complex, disparate and constantly evolving regulations and requirements affecting the legal cannabis industry. As a result, federal, state, provincial or local government authorities may seek to bring criminal, administrative or regulatory enforcement actions against our clients, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial conditions, or could force us to cease operations.

While our solutions provide features to support our clients’ compliance with certain regulations and other legal requirements applicable to the cannabis industry, and we have policies and procedures regarding the verification and periodic screening of the licensing status of our clients, we generally do not, and cannot, ensure that at all times our clients will conduct their business activities in a manner compliant with such regulations and requirements, in whole or in part. Their legal noncompliance could result in regulatory and even criminal actions against them, which could lead to a material adverse impact on our business and operating results or financial condition, and as a result, our investors could lose their entire investment. For additional information, see the other risk factors in this section, including “Some of our clients currently and in the future may not be in compliance with licensing and related requirements under applicable laws and regulations. Allowing unlicensed or noncompliant businesses to access our platform and services, or allowing businesses to use our solutions in a noncompliant manner, may subject us to legal or regulatory enforcement and negative publicity, which could adversely impact our business, operating results, financial condition, brand and reputation. In addition, allowing businesses that engage in false or deceptive advertising practices to use our solutions may subject us to negative publicity, which could have similar adverse impacts on us.”

Our business is dependent on U.S. state laws and regulations and Canadian federal and provincial laws and regulations pertaining to the cannabis industry.

Although the federal CSA classifies cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance, many U.S. states have legalized cannabis to varying degrees. In addition, the enactment of the Cannabis Act legalized the commercial cultivation and processing of cannabis for medical and adult-use purposes in Canada and created a federal legal framework for controlling the production, distribution, promotion, sale and possession of cannabis. The Cannabis Act also provides the provinces and territories of Canada with the authority to regulate other aspects of adult-use cannabis, such as distribution, sale, minimum age requirements (subject to the minimum set forth in the Cannabis Act), places where cannabis can be consumed, and a range of other matters. The governments of every Canadian province and territory have implemented regulatory regimes for the distribution and sale of cannabis for recreational purposes. In addition, subsection 23(1) of the Cannabis Act provides that it is prohibited to publish, broadcast or otherwise disseminate, on behalf of another person, with or without consideration, any promotion that is prohibited by a number of sections of the Cannabis Act. The Cannabis Act therefore includes provisions that could apply to certain aspects of our business, both directly to the solutions we provide and indirectly on account of any noncompliance by those who use our offerings. However, as the Cannabis Act has been recently enacted, there is a lack of available interpretation, application and enforcement of the provisions that may be relevant to digital platforms such as ours, and as a result, it is difficult to assess our potential exposure under the Cannabis Act.

Laws and regulations affecting the cannabis industry in U.S. states and Canada are continually changing. Any change or even the speed of changes could require us to incur substantial costs associated with compliance or alter our business plan, and could detrimentally affect our operations, revenue, and profitability. The commercial cannabis industry is still a young industry, and we cannot predict the impact of the compliance regime to which it may be subject. We will incur ongoing costs and obligations related to regulatory compliance, and such costs may prove to be material. Failure to comply with regulations may result in additional costs for corrective measures, penalties or restrictions on our operations. In addition, changes in regulations, more vigorous enforcement thereof, or other unanticipated events could require extensive changes to our operations or increased compliance costs or give rise to material liabilities, which could have a material adverse effect on us.

Given the concentration of our revenue from the sale of access to our platforms and services, any increase in the stringency of any applicable laws, including U.S. state, or Canadian federal, provincial or territorial, laws and regulations relating to cannabis, or any escalation in the enforcement of such existing laws and regulations against the current or putative cannabis industry within any jurisdiction, could negatively impact the profitability or viability of cannabis businesses in such affected jurisdictions, which in turn could materially adversely affect our business and operating results.

In addition, although we have not yet been required to obtain any cannabis license as a result of existing cannabis regulations, it is possible that cannabis regulations may be enacted in the future that will require us to obtain such a cannabis license or otherwise seek to substantially regulate our business. U.S. and Canadian federal, state, provincial, local and other non-U.S. jurisdictions’ cannabis laws and regulations are broad in scope and subject to evolving interpretations, which could require us to incur substantial costs associated with compliance or alter our business plan. Our failure to adequately manage the risk associated with future regulations and adequately manage future compliance requirements may adversely affect our business, our status as a reporting company and our public listing. Further, any adverse pronouncements from political leaders or regulators about businesses related to the legal cannabis industry could adversely affect the price of our securities.

Because our business is dependent, in part, upon continued market acceptance of cannabis by consumers, any negative trends in the market could adversely affect our business operations.

We are dependent on public support, continued market acceptance and the proliferation of consumers in the state-level and Canadian legal cannabis markets. While we believe that the market and opportunities in the space will continue to grow, we cannot predict the future growth rate or size of the market. Any downturns in, or negative outlooks on, the cannabis industry may adversely affect our business and financial condition.

Expansion of our business is dependent on the continued legalization of cannabis and its sale through regulated cannabis distributed channels.

Expansion of our business is, in part, dependent upon continued legislative authorization, including by voter initiatives and referenda, of cannabis in various jurisdictions worldwide, including the legalization of recreational and medical use cannabis. Any number of factors could slow, halt, or even reverse progress in this area. Progress for the industry, while encouraging, is not assured. While there may be ample public support for legislative action in a particular jurisdiction, numerous factors could impact the legislative process, including lobbying efforts by opposing stakeholders as well as legislators’ disagreements about how to legalize cannabis as well as the interpretation, implementation, and enforcement of applicable laws or regulations. Further, our clients face substantial competition from unlicensed cannabis operators selling cannabis on the illicit market, as well as the growth of psychoactive hemp products which are proliferating in response to a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill, both of which are sold outside the regulated cannabis distribution channels utilized by our client base.

Any one of these factors could slow or halt the legalization of cannabis, or create substantial competition for the regulated cannabis industry, which would negatively impact our ability to expand our business. Additionally, the expansion of our business also depends on jurisdictions in which cannabis is currently legalized not narrowing, limiting or repealing existing laws legalizing and regulating cannabis, or altering the regulatory landscape in a way that diminishes the viability of cannabis businesses in those jurisdictions.

We believe that our business is highly dependent on the SpringBig brand identity and our reputation, which is critical to our ability to attract and retain clients and consumers. We also believe that the importance of our brand recognition and reputation will continue to increase as competition in the markets in which we operate continues to develop. Our success in this area will depend on a wide range of factors, some of which are within our control and some of which are not. The factors affecting our brand recognition and reputation that are within our control include the following:

●

the efficacy of our marketing efforts;

●

our ability to maintain a high-quality, innovative, and error- and bug-free platform and high quality client service;

●

our ability to maintain high satisfaction among clients (and our clients’ consumers);

●

the quality and perceived value of our platforms and services;

●

successfully implementing and developing new features and revenue streams;

●

our ability to obtain, maintain and enforce trademarks and other indicia of origin that are valuable to our brand;

●

our ability to successfully differentiate our platforms and services from competitors’ offerings;

●

our ability to continue to integrate with POS systems;

●

our ability to provide our clients with accurate and actionable insights from the consumer data and feedback collected through our platform;

●

our compliance with laws and regulations;

●

our ability to address any environmental, social, and governance expectations of our various stakeholders;

●

our ability to provide client support; and

●

any actual or perceived data breach or data loss, or misuse or perceived misuse of our platforms.

In addition, our brand recognition and reputation may be affected by factors that are outside our control, such as:

●

actions of competitors or other third parties;

●

consumers’ experiences with retailers or brands using our platform;

●

public perception of cannabis and cannabis-related businesses;

●

positive or negative publicity, including with respect to events or activities attributed to us, our employees, partners or others associated with any of these parties;

●

interruptions, delays or attacks on our platforms; and

●

litigation or regulatory developments.

Damage to our reputation and loss of brand equity from one or more of the factors listed above may reduce demand for our platform and have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. Moreover, any attempts to rebuild our reputation and restore the value of our brand may be costly and time-consuming, and such efforts may not ultimately be successful.

We currently face intense competition in marketing and advertising services available to our clients, and we expect competition to further intensify as the cannabis industry continues to evolve.

The cannabis marketing and software services market is rapidly evolving and is currently characterized by intense competition, due in part to relatively low barriers to entry. We expect competition to further intensify in the future as cannabis continues to be legalized and regulated, new technologies are developed and new participants enter the cannabis CRM and marketing solutions market. Competitors for individual components of our service platforms include businesses both within and outside of the cannabis industry. These include businesses focused on marketing and customer engagement, commerce and POS solutions, and SaaS or other technology solutions for brands and retailers. In addition, if legal market for cannabis becomes more accepted and/or the regulatory regime for cannabis evolves, it may eliminate existing barriers preventing our clients from using traditional marketing and advertising channels. This could result in increased competition in our industry from both products and solutions offered by internet search engines and advertising networks, like Google, social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, various other newspaper, television, media companies, outdoor billboard advertising, and online merchant platforms, as well as new participants entering into the cannabis CRM and marketing services market. Such potential competitors may have substantially greater financial, technical, and other resources than existing market participants. Additionally, as consumers and cannabis industry clients demand richer data, integrations with other cannabis industry participants such as point-of-sale providers may become increasingly important. If we are unable to complete such new integrations as quickly as our competitors, or improve our existing integrations based on legacy systems, we may lose market share to such competitors. Our current and future competitors may also enjoy other competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition, more varied or more focused offerings, better market acceptance, and larger marketing budgets.

Additionally, as the legalization of cannabis continues, cannabis cultivators, product manufacturers and distributors could experience consolidation as existing cannabis businesses seek to obtain greater market share and purchasing power and new entrants seek to establish a significant market presence. Consolidation of the cannabis markets could reduce the size of our potential client base and give remaining clients greater bargaining or purchasing power. This may in turn erode the prices for access to our services and platform and result in decreased margins. Further, heightened competition between cannabis businesses could ultimately have a negative impact on the viability of individual market participants, which could reduce or eliminate their ability to purchase our services and solutions.

If we are unable to compete effectively for any of these reasons, we may be unable to maintain our operations or develop our products and solutions, and as a result our business and operating results may be adversely affected.

If we fail to manage our growth effectively, our brand, business and operating results could be harmed.

We have experienced rapid organic growth in our operations, which places substantial demands on management and our operational infrastructure. To manage the expected growth of our operations and personnel, we expect we will be required to improve existing, and implement new systems, procedures and controls including, among others, financial and operational systems. We will also be required to expand our finance, administrative and operations staff. We intend to continue making substantial investments in our sales, service and marketing workforce. As we continue to grow, we must effectively integrate, develop and motivate a significant number of new employees, while maintaining the beneficial aspects of our existing corporate culture, which we believe fosters innovation, teamwork and a passion for our products and clients. In addition, our revenue may not grow at the same rate as the expansion of our business. There can be no assurance that our current and planned personnel, systems, procedures and controls will be adequate to support our future operations or that management will be able to hire, train, retrain, motivate and manage required personnel. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, the quality of our platform, efficiency of our operations, and management of our expenses could suffer, which could negatively impact our brand, business, profitability and operating results.

The growth of our business depends on our ability to accurately predict consumer trends, successfully offer new services, improve existing services and expand into new markets.

Our growth depends, in part, on our ability to successfully offer new platforms, products and services and improve and reposition our existing platforms and services to meet the requirements of our clients and their customers. This, in turn, depends on our ability to predict and respond to evolving consumer trends, demands and preferences. Our strategy is based on certain key trends and the projected growth of our key markets. However, historical trends may not be indicative of future trends and forecasts or estimated growth rates may not be accurate, in whole or part, or ever materialize. Further, underlying markets could decline, overall growth rates in our product categories could be slower than anticipated.

The offering of innovative new platforms, products and services and expansion into new offerings involves considerable costs. Any new platform, product or service offering may not generate sufficient consumer interest and sales to become profitable or to cover the costs of its development and promotion and, as a result, may reduce our operating income. In addition, any such unsuccessful effort may adversely affect our brand and reputation. If we are unable to anticipate, identify, develop or market new offerings, that respond to changes in consumer requirements and preferences, or if our new offerings fail to gain consumer acceptance, we may be unable to grow our business as anticipated, our sales may decline and our margins and profitability may decline or not improve. As a result, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

If we are unable to recruit, train, retain and motivate key personnel, we may not achieve our business objectives.

Our future success depends on our ability to recruit, train, retain and motivate key personnel. Competition for qualified personnel in the technology industry is intense. Additionally, we face challenges in attracting, retaining and motivating highly qualified personnel due to our relationship to the cannabis industry, which is rapidly evolving and has varying levels of social acceptance. Any failure to attract, train, retain and motivate qualified personnel could materially harm our operating results and growth prospects.

We use our sales team to build relationships with our client base. Our sales team builds and maintains relationships with clients primarily through phone, email and other virtual contact, which is typically designed to allow us to cost-effectively service a large number of clients. We may need to employ more resource-intensive sales methods, such as increasing sales teams, to continue to attract and retain clients, particularly as we increase the number of our clients and our client base employs more sophisticated marketing operations, strategies and processes.

We have experienced increased spending in connection with growing our sales, service and marketing operation and we expect to incur higher sales and marketing expenses, which could adversely affect our business and operating results.

It is critical to our success that clients and consumers within our geographic markets be able to access our platform at all times. We may experience service disruptions, outages or other performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, capacity constraints, and distributed denial of service, or “DdoS,” fraud or security attacks. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve the availability of our platform, especially during peak usage times and as our products become more complex or dependent on integration with third parties, or as usage or traffic increases. If our platform is unavailable when our clients (or their consumers) attempt to access it or it does not load as quickly as they expect, they may seek other solutions and may seek to cancel and not renew subscriptions for our services. We expect to continue to make significant investments to maintain and improve the availability of our platform and to enable rapid releases of new features and products. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, respond adequately to service disruptions, upgrade our systems as needed or continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business and operating results would be harmed.

We expect to continue making significant investments in the functionality, performance, reliability, design, security and scalability of our platform. We may experience difficulties with the development of our platform that could delay or prevent the implementation of new solutions and enhancements. Software development involves a significant amount of time and resources for our product development team, and we may not be able to continue making those investments in the future.

To the extent we are not able to continue successfully improving and enhancing our platform, our business could be adversely affected.

Real or perceived errors, failures, or bugs in our platform could adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.

We update our platform on a frequent basis. Despite efforts to test our updates, errors, failures or bugs may not be found in our platform until after it is deployed to our clients. We have discovered and expect we will continue to discover errors, failures and bugs in our platform and anticipate that certain of these errors, failures and bugs will only be discovered and remediated after deployment to clients. Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our platform could result in negative publicity, security incidents, such as data breaches, government inquiries, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our platform, loss of competitive position, or claims by clients for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for client relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to help correct the problem.

We implement bug fixes and upgrades as part of our regular system maintenance, which may lead to system downtime. Even if we are able to implement the bug fixes and upgrades in a timely manner, any history of inaccuracies in the data we collect for our clients, or unauthorized access or damage to, or the loss, acquisition, or inadvertent release or exposure of confidential or other sensitive data could cause our reputation to be harmed and result in claims against us, and cannabis businesses may elect not to purchase our products or, in the case of existing clients, renew their agreements with us or we may incur increased insurance costs. The costs associated with any material defects or errors in our software or other performance problems may be substantial and could harm our operating results and growth prospects.

A distributed denial of service attack, ransomware attack, security breach or unauthorized data access could impair or incapacitate our information technology systems and delay or interrupt service to our clients and consumers, harm our reputation, or subject us to significant liability.

We may become subject to DdoS attacks, a technique used by hackers to take an internet service offline by overloading its servers. In addition, ransomware attacks against businesses of all sizes are becoming increasingly common. Further, we may face increased cybersecurity risks due to our reliance on internet technology and the number of our employees who are working remotely, which may create additional opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities. Our platform may be subject to DdoS, ransomware or other cybersecurity attacks in the future and we cannot guarantee that applicable recovery systems, security protocols, network protection mechanisms and other procedures are or will be adequate to prevent network and service interruption, system failure or data loss. Moreover, our platform could be breached if vulnerabilities in our platform are exploited by unauthorized third parties or others. Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access change frequently, and the size of DdoS attacks and the number and types of ransomware attacks are increasing. As a result, we may be unable to implement adequate preventative measures or stop such attacks while they are occurring. A DdoS attack, ransomware attack or security breach could delay or interrupt service to our clients and consumers and may deter the utilization of our platform.

We also use information technology and security systems to maintain the physical security of our facilities and to protect our proprietary and confidential information, including that of our clients, consumers, and employees. Accidental or willful security breaches or other unauthorized access to our facilities or information systems, or viruses, loggers, malware, ransomware, or other malfeasant code in our data or software, could compromise this information or render our systems and data unusable. Additionally, we rely on third-party “cloud-based” providers and we are therefore dependent on the security systems of these providers. Any security breaches or other unauthorized access to our service providers’ facilities or systems, or viruses, loggers, malware, ransomware or other malfeasant code in their data or software, could expose us to information loss, and misappropriation of confidential information, and other security breaches. In addition, our employees, contractors, or other third parties with whom we do business may attempt to circumvent security measures in order to misappropriate personal information, confidential information or other data, or may inadvertently release or compromise such data. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to or sabotage security systems, or to obtain unauthorized access to data we or our contractors maintain, change frequently and are often not recognized until after an attack, we and our service providers may be unable to anticipate the techniques or implement adequate preventative measures.

Any actual or perceived DdoS attack, ransomware attack, security breach or other unauthorized access could damage our reputation and brand, result in decreased utilization of our platform, expose us to fines and penalties, government investigations, and a risk of litigation and possible liability, require us to expend significant capital and other resources to alleviate any resulting problems and otherwise to remediate the incident, and require us to expend increased cybersecurity protection costs. We expect to incur significant costs in an effort to detect and prevent security breaches and other security-related incidents. Numerous state, federal and foreign laws and regulations require companies to notify individuals and/or regulatory authorities of data security breaches involving certain types of personal data. Any disclosures of security breaches, pursuant to these laws or regulations or otherwise, could lead to regulatory investigations and enforcement and negative publicity, and may cause our clients and consumers to lose confidence in the effectiveness of our data security measures.

Additionally, our discovery of any security breach or other security-related incident, or our provision of any related notice, may be delayed or be perceived to have been delayed. Any of these impacts or circumstances arising from an actual or perceived attack, breach or other unauthorized access could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, reputation and relationships with clients and consumers.

Furthermore, while our errors and omissions insurance policies include liability coverage for certain of these matters, if we experienced a significant security incident, we could be subject to claims or damages that exceed our insurance coverage. We also cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for data handling or data security liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have a material and adverse effect on our business, including our financial condition, operating results, and reputation.

We rely upon cloud-based technologies provided by third parties, and technology systems and electronic networks supplied and managed by third parties, to operate our business, and interruptions or performance problems with these systems, technologies and networks may adversely affect our business and operating results.

We rely on technologies and services provided by third parties in order to host our cloud-based infrastructure that operates our business. If any of these services becomes unavailable or otherwise is unable to serve our requirements due to extended outages, interruptions, or facility closure, or because it is no longer available on commercially reasonable terms, our expenses could increase, our ability to manage finances could be interrupted and our operations otherwise could be disrupted or otherwise impacted until appropriate substitute services, if available, are identified, obtained, and implemented.

We do not control, or in some cases have limited control over, the operation of the data center facilities and infrastructure we use, and they are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures, cyberattack, terrorism and similar other events. They may also be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct, to adverse events caused by operator error, and to interruptions, data loss or corruption, and other performance problems due to various factors, including introductions of new capabilities, technology errors, infrastructure changes, DdoS attacks, or other security-related incidents. Changes in law or regulations applicable to data centers in various jurisdictions could also cause a disruption in service. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, the occurrence of a natural disaster, an act of terrorism or other act of malfeasance, a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in our platform operations and the loss, corruption of, unauthorized access to or acquisition of client or consumer data.

Our platform also depends on our ability to communicate through the public internet and electronic networks that are owned and operated by third parties. In addition, in order to provide our solutions on-demand and promptly, our computer equipment and network servers must be functional 24 hours per day, which requires access to telecommunications facilities managed by third parties and the availability of electricity, which we do not control. A severe disruption of one or more of these networks or facilities, including as a result of utility or third-party system interruptions, could impair our ability to process information and provide our solutions to our clients and consumers.

Any unavailability of, or failure to meet our requirements by, third-party data centers or other third-party technologies or services, or any disruption of the internet, utilities or the third-party networks or facilities that we rely upon, could impede our ability to make our platform accessible, harm our reputation, result in reduced traffic from consumers, cause us to issue refunds or credits to our clients, and subject us to potential liabilities. Any of these circumstances could adversely affect our business, reputation and operating results.

The impact of global, regional or local economic and market conditions may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our performance is subject to global economic conditions and economic conditions in one or more of our key markets, which impact spending by our clients and consumers. A majority of our clients’ access to capital, liquidity and other financial resources is constrained due to the regulatory restrictions applicable to cannabis businesses. As a result, these clients may be disproportionately affected by economic downturns. Clients may choose to allocate their spending to items other than our platform, especially during economic downturns.

Economic conditions may also adversely impact retail sales of cannabis. Declining retail sales of cannabis could result in our clients going out of business or deciding, to stop using our platform to conserve financial resources or move to different marketing solutions. Negative economic conditions may also affect third parties with whom we have entered into relationships and upon whom we depend in order to grow our business.

Furthermore, economic downturns could also lead to limitations on our ability to obtain debt or equity financing on favorable terms or at all, reduced liquidity, decreases in the market price of SpringBig’s securities, decreases in the fair market value of our financial or other assets, and write-downs of and increased credit and collectability risk on our trade receivables, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

Negative economic conditions may be created or exacerbated by catastrophic events or health crises, including, among others, re-occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic or similar wide-spread public health crises.

Catastrophic events may disrupt our business and impair our ability to provide our platform to clients and consumers, resulting in costs for remediation, client and consumer dissatisfaction, and other business or financial losses.

Our operations depend, in part, on our ability to protect our operations against damage or interruption from natural disasters, power or telecommunications failures, criminal acts and similar events. Despite precautions taken at our facilities, the occurrence of a natural disaster, an act of terrorism, vandalism or sabotage, spikes in usage volume or other unanticipated problems could result in lengthy interruptions in the availability of our platform. Even with current and planned disaster recovery arrangements, our business could be harmed. Also, in the event of damage or interruption, our insurance policies may not adequately compensate us for any losses that we may incur. These factors in turn could further reduce revenue, subject us to liability and lead to decreased usage of our platform and decrease sales of our marketing services, any of which could harm our business.

Fluctuations in our quarterly and annual operating results may adversely affect our business and prospects.

You should consider our business and prospects in light of the risks and difficulties we encounter in the uncertain and rapidly evolving market for our solutions. Because the cannabis CRM, marketing services and technology markets are new and evolving, predicting their future growth rate and size is difficult. This reduces our ability to accurately evaluate our future prospects and forecast quarterly or annual performance. In addition to the other risk factors discussed in this section, factors that may contribute to the variability of our quarterly and annual results include:

●

our ability to attract new clients and retain existing clients;

●

our ability to accurately forecast revenue and appropriately plan our expenses;

●

the effects of increased competition on our business;

●

our ability to successfully expand in existing markets and successfully enter new markets;

●

the impact of global, regional or economic conditions;

●

the ability of licensed cannabis markets to successfully grow and outcompete illegal cannabis markets;

●

our ability to protect our intellectual property;

●

our ability to maintain and effectively manage an adequate rate of growth;

●

our ability to maintain and increase traffic to our platform;

●

costs associated with defending claims, including intellectual property infringement claims and related judgments or settlements;

●

changes in governmental or other regulation affecting our business;

●

interruptions in platform availability and any related impact on our business, reputation or brand;

●

the attraction and retention of qualified personnel;

●

the effects of natural or man-made catastrophic events and/or health crises (including COVID-19); and

●

the effectiveness of our internal controls.

We may improve our products and solutions in ways that forego short-term gains.

We seek to provide the best experience for the clients who use our platform. Some of our changes may have the effect of reducing our short-term revenue or profitability if we believe that the benefits will ultimately improve our business and financial performance over the long term. Any short-term reductions in revenue or profitability could be greater than planned or the changes mentioned above may not produce the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

We currently have clients across the United States and Canada using our platform. We anticipate growing our business, in part, by continuing to expand our foreign operations. As we continue our expansion, we may enter new foreign markets where we have limited or no experience marketing and deploying our platform. If we fail to launch or manage our foreign operations successfully, our business may suffer.

We are subject to industry standards, governmental laws, regulations and other legal obligations, particularly related to privacy, data protection and information security, and any actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.

We are subject to regulation by various federal, state, provincial, local and foreign governmental authorities, including those responsible for monitoring and enforcing employment and labor laws, anti-bribery laws, lobbying and election laws, securities laws and tax laws. These laws and regulations are subject to change over time and thus we must continue to monitor and dedicate resources to ensure continued compliance.

In addition, our business is subject to regulation by various federal, state, provincial and foreign governmental agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing privacy and data protection laws and regulations. Numerous foreign, federal and state laws and regulations govern collection, dissemination, use and confidentiality of personally identifiable health information, including state privacy and confidentiality laws (including state laws requiring disclosure of breaches); federal and state consumer protection and employment laws; the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA; and European and other foreign data protection laws.

We receive, store, process, and use personal information and other user content. The regulatory framework for privacy issues worldwide, including in the United States, is rapidly evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future, as many new laws and regulations regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personally identifiable information, or PII, and other data have been adopted or are under consideration and existing laws and regulations may be subject to new and changing interpretations. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission and many state attorneys general are applying federal and state consumer protection laws to impose standards for the online collection, use and dissemination of data. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA imposes significant additional requirements with respect to the collection of personal information from California residents. The CCPA, among other things, creates new data privacy obligations for covered companies and provides new privacy rights to California residents, including the right to opt out of certain disclosures of their information. The CCPA also creates a private right of action with statutory damages for certain data breaches, thereby potentially increasing risks associated with a data breach. It remains unclear what, if any, modifications will be made to this legislation or how it will be interpreted. Additionally, a new privacy law, the California Privacy Rights Act, or CPRA, significantly modified the CCPA, which has resulted in further uncertainty and requiring us to incur additional costs and expenses. The CPRA created a new California state agency charged with enforcing state privacy laws, and there is uncertainty about potential enforcement actions that the new agency may take in the future. The effects of the CCPA and the CPRA remain far-reaching, and depending on final regulatory guidance and related developments, may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to comply.

We are also currently subject to a variety of, and may in the future become subject to additional U.S. federal, state and local laws and regulations on advertising that are continuously evolving and developing, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or the TCPA, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, or the CAN-SPAM Act, and, at the state level, the CCPA (as described above), the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act of 2021, or VCDPA, and the Colorado Privacy Act, or CPA. Many states are discussing potentially adopting similar comprehensive privacy legislation and we expect many of these will be implemented over the course of the next few years. These laws and regulations directly impact our business and require ongoing compliance, monitoring and internal and external audits as they continue to evolve, and may result in ever-increasing public and regulatory scrutiny and escalating levels of enforcement and sanctions. Subsequent changes to data protection and privacy laws and regulations could also impact how we process personal information and, therefore, limit the effectiveness of our product offerings or our ability to operate or expand our business, including limiting strategic relationships that may involve the sharing of personal information.

Many foreign countries and governmental bodies, including Canada and other relevant jurisdictions where we conduct or may, in the future, conduct business, have laws and regulations concerning the collection and use of PII and other data obtained from their residents or by businesses operating within their jurisdiction. These laws and regulations often are more restrictive than those in the United States Laws and regulations in these jurisdictions apply broadly to the collection, use, storage, disclosure and security of data that identifies or may be used to identify or locate an individual, such as names, email addresses and, in some jurisdictions, internet protocol addresses and other types of data. In Canada, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, or PIPEDA, governs the collection, use and disclosure of PII in many provinces in Canada, and though it is silent with respect to territorial reach, the Federal Court of Canada has found that PIPEDA will apply to businesses established in other jurisdictions if there is a “real and substantial connection” between the organization’s activities and Canada. Provincial privacy commissioners take a similar approach to the interpretation and application of provincial private-sector privacy laws equivalent to PIPEDA. Further, Canada has robust anti-spam legislation. Organizations sending commercial electronic messages to individuals must either have express consent from the individual in the prescribed form or the situation must qualify as an instance of implied consent or other authorization set out in Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, or CASL. The penalties for non-compliance under CASL are significant and the regulator, the Canadian Radio- Television and Telecommunications Commission, is active with respect to enforcement.

Although we are working to comply with those federal, state, provincial and foreign laws and regulations, industry standards, governmental standards, contractual obligations and other legal obligations that apply to us, those laws, regulations, standards and obligations are evolving and may be modified, interpreted and applied in an inconsistent manner from one jurisdiction to another, and may conflict with one another, other requirements or legal obligations, our practices or the features of our applications or platform. Any failure or perceived failure by us or our contractors to comply with federal, state, provincial or foreign laws or regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations or other legal obligations, or any actual or suspected security incident, whether or not resulting in loss of, unauthorized access to, or acquisition, alteration, destruction, release or transfer of PII or other data, may result in governmental enforcement actions and prosecutions, private litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity and could cause employees, clients and consumers to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. Any inability or perceived inability (even if unfounded) on our part to adequately address privacy, data protection, and information security concerns, or comply with applicable laws, regulations, policies, industry standards, governmental standards, contractual obligations, or other legal obligations, could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation, inhibit sales, restrict our ability to utilize collected personal information, and adversely affect our business.

We also expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws, regulations and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection and information security in the United States, Canada and other jurisdictions, and we cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. Future laws, regulations, standards and other obligations, or amendments or changes in the interpretation of existing laws, regulations, standards and other obligations, could impair our or our clients’ ability to collect, use, disclose or otherwise process information relating to employees or consumers, which could decrease demand for our applications, increase our costs and impair our ability to maintain and grow our client and consumer bases and increase revenue. Such laws and regulations may require us to implement privacy and security policies, permit users to access, correct and delete personal information stored or maintained by such companies, inform individuals of security breaches that affect their personal information, and, in some cases, obtain individuals’ consent to use PII or other data for certain purposes. In addition, a foreign government could require that any data collected in a country not be transferred or disseminated outside of that country, or impose restrictions or conditions upon such dissemination, and we may face difficulty in complying with any such requirements for certain geographic regions. Indeed, many privacy laws, such as those in force in Canada, already impose these requirements. If we fail to comply with federal, state, provincial and foreign data privacy laws and regulations, our ability to successfully operate our business and pursue our business goals could be harmed. Furthermore, due to our acceptance of credit cards, we are subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (also known as the “PCI-DSS”), which is designed to protect the information of credit card users.

In the event our determinations are challenged and found to have been incorrect, we may be subject to unfavorable publicity or claims by one or more state attorneys general, federal regulators, or private plaintiffs, any of which could damage our reputation, inhibit sales and adversely affect our business.

Governmental regulation of the internet continues to develop, and unfavorable changes could substantially harm our business and operating results.

We are subject to general business regulations and laws as well as federal, state, provincial and foreign laws specifically governing the internet. Existing and future laws and regulations, narrowing of any existing legal safe harbors, or previous or future court decisions may impede the growth of the internet or online products and solutions, and increase the cost of providing online products and solutions. These laws may govern, among other issues, taxation, tariffs, user privacy, data protection, pricing, content, copyrights, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, consumer protection, broadband residential internet access and the characteristics and quality of offerings. It is not clear how existing laws governing issues such as property ownership, sales, use and other taxes, libel and personal privacy apply to the internet or online services. There is also a risk that these laws may be interpreted and applied in conflicting ways across jurisdictions, and in a manner that is not consistent with our current practices. Unfavorable resolution of these issues may limit our business activities, expose us to potential legal claims or cause us to spend significant resources on ensuring compliance, any of which could harm our business and operating results.

SpringBig may require additional financing to fund its operations or growth. The failure to secure additional financing could have a material adverse effect on the continued development or growth of SpringBig. Such additional capital may cause dilution to our stockholders. Further, the likelihood that our warrant holders will exercise their warrants, and therefore the amount of cash proceeds that we would receive, is dependent upon the trading price of our shares of common stock, which is currently below the applicable exercise price. If the trading price for our shares of common stock remains less than the applicable exercise price, we believe the warrant holders will be unlikely to exercise their warrants. If our need is due to unforeseen circumstances or material expenditures or if our operating results are worse than expected, then we cannot be certain that we will be able to obtain additional financing on favorable terms, if at all, and these additional financings could cause further dilution to our stockholders. Any funds we raise may not be sufficient to enable us to continue to implement our long-term business strategy. Further, our ability to raise additional capital may be adversely impacted by potential worsening global economic conditions, increasing interest rates and the recent disruptions to and volatility in the credit and financial markets in the United States. Due to the current legal status of cannabis under U.S. federal law, we have experienced, and may in the future experience, difficulty attracting additional debt or equity financing. In addition, the current legal status of cannabis may increase the cost of capital now and in the future. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include equity conversion rights, covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, expending capital, or declaring dividends, or that impose financial covenants on us that limit our ability to achieve our business objectives. Debt financings may contain provisions, which, if breached, may entitle lenders to accelerate repayment of loans, and there is no assurance that we would be able to repay such loans in such an event or prevent the foreclosure of security interests granted pursuant to such debt financing. If we need but cannot raise additional capital on acceptable terms, then we may not be able to meet our business objectives and satisfy our financial obligations, our stock price may fall, and you may lose your investment.

Our obligations to the holders of the Convertible Notes are secured by a security interest in substantially all of our assets, so if we default on those obligations, the noteholder could foreclose on, liquidate and/or take possession of our assets. If that were to happen, we could be forced to curtail, or even to cease, our operations.

On January 23, 2024, the Company entered into the Notes Purchase Agreement with the Investors, pursuant to which the Company issued the Convertible Notes. Simultaneously, SpringBig, Inc. entered into a guaranty agreement to guarantee the Company’s obligations under the Convertible Notes and the Company and SpringBig, Inc. entered into a security agreement, pursuant to which the Investors were granted a security interest in all the assets of the Company and SpringBig, Inc. to secure repayment of amounts due under the Convertible Notes. As a result, if we default on our obligations under the Convertible Notes, the Investors could foreclose on its security interests and liquidate or take possession of some or all of the assets of the Company, SpringBig, Inc. and its subsidiaries, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations and could require us to curtail, or even to cease our operations.

Our notes and related agreements restrict our ability to obtain additional debt and equity financing which may restrict our ability to grow and finance our operations and, further.

The agreements related to the sale of the Convertible Notes contain a number of restrictive covenants that may impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us while Convertible Notes remain outstanding or unless the restrictions are waived by consent of each noteholder, including restrictions on our ability to incur additional indebtedness and guarantee indebtedness; incur liens or allow mortgages or other encumbrances; prepay, redeem, or repurchase certain other debt; pay dividends or make other distributions or repurchase or redeem our capital stock; sell assets or enter into or effect certain other transactions (including a reorganization, consolidation, dissolution or similar transaction or selling, leasing, licensing, transferring or otherwise disposing of assets of the Company or its subsidiaries); and adopt certain amendments to our governing documents, among other restrictions. A breach of the covenants or restrictions under the agreements governing our indebtedness could result in an event of default under these agreements. As a result of these restrictions, we may be limited in how we conduct our business, unable to raise additional debt financing to operate during general economic or business downturns and/or unable to compete effectively or to take advantage of new business opportunities.

Changes in laws or regulations, or a failure to comply with any laws and regulations, may adversely affect our business, investments and results of operations.

We are subject to laws, regulations and rules enacted by national, regional and local governments. In particular, we are required to comply with certain SEC and other legal or regulatory requirements. Compliance with, and monitoring of, applicable laws, regulations and rules may be difficult, time consuming and costly. Those laws, regulations and rules and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, investments and results of operations. In addition, a failure to comply with applicable laws, regulations and rules, as interpreted and applied, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We may be subject to potential adverse tax consequences both domestically and in Canada.

We are a Delaware corporation that is treated as a C-corporation for U.S. federal and most applicable state and local income tax purposes. We are subject to taxes, such as income, payroll, sales, use, value-added, property and goods and services taxes, in both the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. Our domestic and foreign tax liabilities are subject to various jurisdictional rules regarding the timing and allocation of revenue and expenses. Additionally, the amount of income taxes paid is subject to our interpretation of applicable tax laws in the jurisdictions in which we file and to changes in tax laws. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities. From time to time, we may be subject to income and non-income tax audits. While we believe we have complied, and will continue to comply, with all applicable income tax laws, there can be no assurance that a governing tax authority will not have a different interpretation of the law and assess us with additional taxes. Should we be assessed with additional taxes, there could be a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. In addition, audits may require ongoing time and attention from our management, which could limit their ability to focus on other aspects of our business and impact our business in the future.

The ability of SpringBig to utilize net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards is conditioned upon SpringBig attaining profitability and generating taxable income. SpringBig has incurred significant net losses since inception. Additionally, SpringBig’s ability to utilize net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be limited.

As of December 31, 2024, SpringBig had approximately $26.8 million of U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards available to reduce future taxable income, which can be carried forward indefinitely. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”) included a reduction to the maximum deduction allowed for net operating losses generated in tax years after December 31, 2017, and the elimination of carrybacks of net operating losses. In addition, net operating loss carryforwards and certain tax credits may be subject to significant limitations under Section 382 and Section 383 of the Code, respectively, and similar provisions of state law. Under those sections of the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income or tax may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” will occur if there is a cumulative change in ownership by “5% shareholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. If SpringBig has experienced an ownership change at any time since its incorporation, SpringBig may already be subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its existing net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes to offset taxable income or tax liability. In addition, the business combination, and future changes in SpringBig’s stock ownership, which may be outside of SpringBig’s control, may trigger an ownership change. Similar provisions of state tax law may also apply to limit SpringBig’s use of accumulated state tax attributes. As a result, even if SpringBig earns net taxable income in the future, its ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes to offset such taxable income or tax liability may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future income tax liability to SpringBig.

Changes in accounting standards or other factors could negatively impact our future effective tax rate.

Our future effective tax rate may be affected by such factors as changing interpretation of existing laws or regulations, the impact of accounting for equity-based compensation, the impact of accounting for business combinations, changes in our international organization, and changes in overall levels of income before tax. In addition, in the ordinary course of our global business, there are many intercompany transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain.

Although we believe that our tax estimates are reasonable, we cannot ensure that the final determination of tax audits or tax disputes will not be different from what is reflected in our historical income tax provisions and accruals.

Changes in tax laws or regulations and compliance in multiple jurisdictions may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or operating results.

We are subject to the income tax laws of the United States and Canada. New income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations, or ordinances could be enacted at any time, which could affect the tax treatment of our U.S. and foreign earnings. Any new taxes could adversely affect our domestic and foreign business operations, and our business and financial performance. In addition, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations, or ordinances, such as Section 280E of the Code, discussed below, could be interpreted, changed, modified or applied adversely to us. Furthermore, changes to the taxation of undistributed foreign earnings could change our future intentions regarding reinvestment of such earnings. The foregoing items could have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or operating results. Requirements as to taxation vary substantially among jurisdictions. Complying with the tax laws of these jurisdictions can be time consuming and expensive and could potentially subject us to penalties and fees in the future if we were to inadvertently fail to comply. If we were to inadvertently fail to comply with applicable tax laws, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Certain taxing authorities may successfully assert that SpringBig should have collected or that in the future SpringBig should collect sales and use or similar taxes for certain services which could adversely affect our results of operations.

We do not collect sales and use or similar taxes in the United States or Canada based on our determination that such taxes are not applicable to our platform. Based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair, certain state taxing authorities may assert that SpringBig had economic nexus with their state and was required to collect sales and use or similar taxes with respect to certain past services that SpringBig has provided (or with respect to future services that SpringBig will provide), which could result in tax assessments and penalties and interest. A successful assertion that SpringBig should be collecting additional sales and use or similar taxes or remitting such sales and use or similar taxes directly to states or other jurisdictions could have an adverse effect on SpringBig and its business.

Additional Risks Related to the Cannabis Industry

Cannabis remains illegal under federal law, and therefore, strict enforcement of federal laws regarding cannabis would likely result in our inability to execute our business plan.

Cannabis, other than hemp (defined by the U.S. government as Cannabis sativa L. with a THC concentration of not more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis), is a Schedule I controlled substance under the CSA. Even in states or territories that have legalized cannabis to some extent, the cultivation, possession, and sale of cannabis all violate the CSA and are punishable by imprisonment, substantial fines and forfeiture. Moreover, individuals and entities may violate federal law if they aid and abet another in violating the CSA, or conspire with another to violate the law, and violating the CSA is a predicate for certain other crimes, including money laundering laws and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government has the authority to regulate and criminalize the sale, possession and use of cannabis, even for individual medical purposes, regardless of whether it is legal under state law. For many years, however, the U.S. government has not prioritized the enforcement of those laws against cannabis companies complying with state law and their vendors. No reversal of that policy of prosecutorial discretion is expected under the Trump administration, although prosecutions against state-legal entities cannot be ruled out especially in light of President Trump’s appointment of Pam Bondi as Attorney General and Derek S. Maltz as acting DEA Administrator, each of whom have more traditional views regarding cannabis enforcement.

On January 4, 2018, then U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum for all U.S. Attorneys (the “Sessions Memo”) rescinding certain past DOJ memoranda on cannabis law enforcement, including the Memorandum by former Deputy Attorney General James Michael Cole (the “Cole Memo”) issued on August 29, 2013, under the Obama administration. Describing the criminal enforcement of federal cannabis prohibitions against those complying with state cannabis regulatory systems as an inefficient use of federal investigative and prosecutorial resources, the Cole Memo gave federal prosecutors discretion not to prosecute state law compliant cannabis companies in states that were regulating cannabis, unless one or more of eight federal priorities were implicated, including use of cannabis by minors, violence, or the use of federal lands for cultivation. The Sessions Memo, which remains in effect, states that each U.S. Attorney’s Office should follow established principles that govern all federal prosecutions when deciding which cannabis activities to prosecute. As a result, federal prosecutors could and still can use their prosecutorial discretion to decide to prosecute even state-legal cannabis activities. Since the Sessions Memo was issued nearly three years ago, however, U.S. Attorneys have generally not prioritized the targeting of state law compliant entities.

As such, we cannot assure that each U.S. Attorney’s Office in each judicial district where we operate will not choose to enforce federal laws governing cannabis sales against state-legal companies like our business clients. The basis for the federal government’s lack of recent enforcement with respect to the cannabis industry extends beyond the strong public sentiment and ongoing prosecutorial discretion. Since 2014, versions of the U.S. omnibus spending bill have included a provision prohibiting the DOJ, which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration, from using appropriated funds to prevent states from implementing their medical-use cannabis laws. In USA vs. McIntosh, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the provision prohibits the DOJ from spending funds to prosecute individuals who engage in conduct permitted by state medical-use cannabis laws and who strictly comply with such laws. The court noted that, if the spending bill provision were not continued, prosecutors could enforce against conduct occurring during the statute of limitations even while the provision was previously in force. Other courts that have considered the issue have ruled similarly, although courts disagree about which party bears the burden of proof of showing compliance or noncompliance with state law. Certain of our clients that are retailers currently (and may in the future) sell adult-use cannabis, if permitted by such state and local laws now or in the future, and therefore may be outside any protections extended to medical-use cannabis under the spending bill provision. This could subject such retailer clients to greater and/or different federal legal and other risks as compared to businesses where cannabis is sold exclusively for medical use, which could in turn materially adversely affect our business. Furthermore, any change in the federal government’s enforcement posture with respect to state-licensed cannabis sales, including the enforcement postures of individual federal prosecutors in judicial districts where we operate, would result in our inability to execute our business plan, and we would likely suffer significant losses with respect to client base, which would adversely affect our operations, cash flow and financial condition.

On October 6, 2022, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order which, in part, directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to begin the administrative process of reviewing the scheduling of cannabis under the Controlled Substances Act. On August 29, 2023, in response to President Biden’s Executive Order, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) provided a formal recommendation to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III based on its scientific findings and medical evaluation. The DEA, which has the final authority to schedule or reschedule a drug, has yet to issue a decision on the recommendation,

On September 27, 2023, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee passed the SAFER Banking Act on a bipartisan vote of 14-9, which would shield banks from enforcement of federal anti-money laundering statutes for offering services to state-legal cannabis businesses. While various versions of the bill have passed the U.S. House of Representatives under prior leadership, the passage in the U.S. Senate Banking Committee marks the first time the U.S. Senate has acted to reform cannabis banking. However, following the Republican takeover of both chambers of Congress in January 2025, the bill’s prospects have become increasingly uncertain. GOP leadership has signaled a shift in legislative priorities, making it unclear whether the full U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives will take further action on the measure. It remains unclear whether the bill will pass the full U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives.

Industry observers have mixed opinions on the prospects of cannabis reform in the U.S., with many expressing concerns about the DEA’s handling of the rescheduling process and the uncertainty surrounding the new administration’s stance on cannabis reform. However, we cannot provide assurances about the content, timing or chances of executive action to reschedule cannabis or the passage of a bill legalizing cannabis or liberalizing cannabis regulations. Accordingly, we cannot predict the timing of any change in federal law or possible changes in federal enforcement. In the event that the federal government were to reverse its long-standing hands-off approach to the state legal cannabis markets and start more broadly enforcing federal law regarding cannabis, we would likely be unable to execute our business plan, and our business and financial results would be adversely affected.

We and our clients are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States regarding financial transactions. Violations of the U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) laws require proceeds from enumerated criminal activity, which includes trafficking in cannabis in violation of the CSA. Financial institutions that both we and our clients rely on are subject to the Bank Secrecy Act, as amended by Title III of the USA Patriot Act. In Canada, the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (Canada), as amended and the rules and regulations thereunder and the Criminal Code (Canada) apply. The penalties for violation of these laws include imprisonment, substantial fines and forfeiture.

In 2014, the DOJ under the Obama administration directed federal prosecutors to exercise restraint in prosecuting AML violations arising in the state legal cannabis programs and to consider the federal enforcement priorities enumerated in the Cole Memo when determining whether to charge institutions or individuals based upon cannabis-related activity. Around the same time, the Treasury Department issued guidance that clarified how financial institutions can provide services to cannabis-related businesses, consistent with financial institutions’ obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act. Then-Attorney General Sessions’s rescission of the DOJ’s guidance on the state cannabis programs in early 2018 increased uncertainty and heightened the risk that federal law enforcement authorities could seek to pursue money laundering charges against entities, or individuals, engaged in supporting the cannabis industry. On January 31, 2018, the Treasury Department issued additional guidance that the 2014 Guidance would remain in place until further notice, despite the rescission of the DOJ’s earlier guidance memoranda. As of 2025, the regulatory landscape remains uncertain. While the previous administration under President Biden took affirmative steps toward cannabis reform, the newly elected Republican-controlled Congress and Trump Administration have introduced new uncertainty to federal cannabis policy. It remains unclear whether the U.S. Department of Treasury will maintain or revise its longstanding guidance, further complicating compliance considerations for financial institutions serving the cannabis industry. As of March 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has not publicly commented on cannabis policy. During his confirmation hearings, discussions largely focused on tax policy and financial regulations, with no direct statements regarding the Treasury Department’s approach to cannabis-related banking or anti-money laundering guidance. It remains unclear whether Secretary Bessent will maintain, revise, or rescind existing Treasury guidance related to financial services for state-legal cannabis businesses.

We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States, Canada and elsewhere that prohibit money laundering, including the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act (Canada) and the Money Laundering Control Act (U.S.), as amended, and the rules and regulations thereunder and any related or similar rules, regulations or guidelines issued, administered or enforced by governmental authorities in the United States, Canada or any other jurisdiction in which we have business operations or to which we export our offerings. If any of our clients’ business activities, any dividends or distributions therefrom, or any profits or revenue accruing thereby are found to be in violation of money laundering statutes, our clients could be subject to criminal liability and significant penalties and fines. Any violations of these laws, or allegations of such violations, by our clients could disrupt our operations and involve significant management distraction and expenses. As a result, a significant number of our clients facing money laundering charges could materially affect our business, operations and financial condition. Additionally, proceeds from our clients’ business activities, including payments we have received from those clients, could be subject to seizure or forfeiture if they are found to be illegal proceeds of a crime transmitted in violation of anti-money laundering laws, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Finally, if any of our clients are found to be violating the above statutes, this could have a material adverse effect on their ability to access or maintain financial services, as discussed in detail below, which could, in turn, have a material adverse effect on our business.

We are dependent on our banking relations, and we may have difficulty accessing or consistently maintaining banking or other financial services due to our connection with the cannabis industry.

Although we do not grow or sell cannabis products, our general connection with the cannabis industry may hamper our efforts to do business or establish collaborative relationships with others that may fear disruption or increased regulatory scrutiny of their own activities.

We are dependent on the banking industry to support the financial functions of our products and solutions. Our business operating functions including payroll for our employees, real estate leases, and other expenses are handled and reliant on traditional banking. We require access to banking services for both us and our clients to receive payments in a timely manner. Lastly, to the extent we rely on any lines of credit, these could be affected by our relationships with financial institutions and could be jeopardized if we lose access to a bank account. Important components of our offerings depend on client accounts and relationships, which in turn depend on banking functions. Most federal and federally-insured state banks currently do not serve businesses that grow and sell cannabis products on the stated ground that growing and selling cannabis is illegal under federal law, even though the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, issued guidelines to banks in February 2014 that clarified how financial institutions can provide services to cannabis-related businesses, consistent with financial institutions’ obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act. While the federal government has generally not initiated financial crimes prosecutions against state-law compliant cannabis companies or their vendors, the government theoretically could, at least against companies in the adult-use markets. The continued uncertainty surrounding financial transactions related to cannabis activities and the subsequent risks this uncertainty presents to financial institutions may result in their discontinuing services to the cannabis industry or limit their ability to provide services to the cannabis industry or ancillary businesses providing services to the cannabis industry.

As a result of federal-level illegality and the risk that providing services to state-licensed cannabis businesses poses to banks, cannabis-related businesses face difficulties accessing banks that will provide services to them. When cannabis businesses are able to find a bank that will provide services, they face extensive client due diligence in light of complex state regulatory requirements and guidance from FinCEN, and these reviews may be time-consuming and costly, potentially creating additional barriers to financial services for, and imposing additional compliance requirements on, us and our clients. FinCEN requires a party in trade or business to file with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, or the IRS, a Form 8300 report within 15 days of receiving a cash payment of over $10,000. While we do not receive cash payments for the products we sell, if we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, the imposition of a substantial penalty could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. We cannot assure that our strategies and techniques for designing our products and solutions for our clients will operate effectively and efficiently and not be adversely impacted by any refusal or reluctance of banks to serve businesses that

SEC Form 10-K filed by SpringBig Holdings Inc.