Dive Brief:
- Expensify, which provides software for expense-management and business travel, is preparing to capitalize on an expected surge of interest as it splashes its brand across a fictional Formula 1 race team in a major Apple Original Films summer release starring Brad Pitt. The company declined to reveal Thursday how much it has spent on marketing via the film, F1, as it released first-quarter results.
- Expensify has made payments on its F1 investment “over multiple years” but has not yet recognized the expense, Chief Financial Officer Ryan Schaffer said on a Zoom broadcast with analysts. When recognized this year, the F1 expense will be large, “but not a big impact on cash flow,” he said.
- Expensify trimmed operating costs over the past year as part of a restructuring and said it’s prepared for an uncertain economic outlook in 2025 as many of its customers – who remain “resilient” – brace for impacts from the U.S. tariff war. “We’re hoping for the best, preparing for the worst,” Schaffer said.
Dive Insight:
Expensify’s marketing role in F1 is “possibly one of the best brand placement opportunities ever,” Chief Executive David Barrett wrote Thursday in a note to investors. “Accordingly, we are battening down the hatches in preparation for what we hope will be a wave of new leads that puts our servers, sales team, and customer success to the test.”
Actor Damson Idris, who stars in F1 as a young and upcoming driver, wore a racing suit from the film to the Met Gala this week, which led to a surge of interest in the company, Barrett said Thursday on the analyst call.
“This is just the kind of thing happening right now, and it's wild. It really has an effect,” he said, adding that sign-ups for Expensify’s product quadrupled for a few hours after the annual fashion event Monday night in New York.
The company’s brand is also featured prominently for the first 18 seconds of a Don Toliver-Doja Cat music video, “Lose My Mind,” a track from the film, Barrett said.
In 2019, Expensify spent about $15 million total in Super Bowl advertising, including a 30-second spot featuring the rapper 2 Chainz and actor Adam Scott. The commercial generated $62 million worth of earned media for Expensify – media coverage the company gained but did not have to fund – with sign-ups spiking “over 1000%,” Schaffer said in March at the Citizens Technology Conference in San Francisco, discussing the company’s marketing efforts.
Expensify, based in Portland, Oregon, expects that F1 will yield an even larger return, he said, noting that the company’s logo will be prominent for most of the two-hour movie. “Obviously, we think it can be really great, otherwise we wouldn’t do it,” said Schaffer, the company’s former marketing head.
Other brands featured in the film include AMG, the performance subsidiary of Mercedes Benz, appliance maker SharkNinja and MSC Cruises. F1 is scheduled for international release June 25, with its North American debut two days later.
Separately, Expensify has secured money transmission licenses in 48 states, with Hawaii and New York the remaining two states, Schaffer said at the March conference. The company expects to secure its New York license in early 2026, and will then be able to offer an employer payroll product, likely in 2027, and peer-to-peer payments, he said.
In the first quarter, Expensify posted a net loss of $3.2 million, down about 16% from $3.8 million in the same period last year. Revenue rose 8% to $36.1 million.
