UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

☐ REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR 12(g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

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

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

OR

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

OR

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

Commission file number 001-36903

KORNIT DIGITAL LTD.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

Israel

(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

12 Ha’Amal St.

Rosh-Ha’Ayin 4809246, Israel

(Address of principal executive offices)

Alon Rozner, Chief Financial Officer

Kornit Digital Ltd.

12 Ha’Amal St.

Rosh-Ha’Ayin 4809246, Israel

Tel: +972 3 908-5800

Fax: +972 3 908-0280

(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

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

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act: None

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report:

As of December 31, 2020, the registrant had outstanding 45,988,613 ordinary shares, par value NIS 0.01 per share

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.

☒ Yes    ☐ No

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

☐ Yes   ☒  No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

☒ Yes   ☐ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).

☒ Yes   ☐ No

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

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, 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. ☐

† The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. ☐ Item 17   ☐  Item 18

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

☐ Yes   ☒No

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain information included or incorporated by reference in this annual report on Form 20-F may be deemed to be “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are often characterized by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “continue,” “believe,” “should,” “intend,” “project” or other similar words, but are not the only way these statements are identified.

These forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements relating to our objectives, plans and strategies, statements that contain projections of results of operations or of financial condition and all statements (other than statements of historical facts) that address activities, events or developments that we expect, project, believe, anticipate, intend or project will or may occur in the future. The statements that we make regarding the following matters are forward-looking by their nature:

The preceding list is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all of our forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and expectations of future performance, taking into account the information currently available to us. These statements are only predictions based upon our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In particular, you should consider the risks described in “ITEM 3.D. Risk Factors” and the additional information contained in “ITEM 4 Information on the Company” and “ITEM 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects.”

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur.

USE OF TRADE NAMES

Throughout this annual report, we refer to various trademarks, service marks and trade names that we use in our business. “Kornit Digital”, the “K” logo and other trademarks or service marks of Kornit Digital Ltd. appearing in this annual report are the property of Kornit Digital Ltd. We have several other registered trademarks, service marks and pending applications relating to our solutions. Although we have omitted the “®” and “™” trademark designations for such marks in this annual report, all rights to such trademarks are nevertheless reserved. Other trademarks and service marks appearing in this annual report are the property of their respective holders. We do not intend our use or display of other companies’ tradenames, trademarks or service marks to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other companies.

CERTAIN ADDITIONAL TERMS AND CONVENTIONS

In this annual report, unless the context otherwise requires:

PART I

Not Applicable.

Not Applicable.

The following tables set forth our selected consolidated financial data. You should read the following selected consolidated financial data in conjunction with, and it is qualified in its entirety by reference to, our historical financial information and other information provided in this annual report, including “ITEM 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes appearing elsewhere in this annual report.

The selected consolidated statements of income data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2019 and 2020 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements appearing in ITEM 18. Financial Statements. The selected consolidated statements of income data for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016, 2017 and 2018 has been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not appearing in this annual report. The historical results set forth below are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected in future periods. Our financial statements have been prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Our business involves a high degree of risk. Please carefully consider the risks we describe below in addition to the other information set forth in this annual report and in our other filings with the SEC. These risks could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. See “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” 

Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry

If the market for digital textile printing does not develop as we anticipate, our sales may not grow as quickly as expected and our share price could decline.

The global printed textile industry is currently dominated by analog printing processes, the most common of which are screen printing and carousel printing. If the global printed textile industry does not more broadly accept digital printing as an alternative to analog printing, our revenues may not grow as quickly as expected, or may decline, and our share price could suffer. Widespread adoption of digital textile printing depends on the willingness and ability of businesses in the printed textile industry to replace their existing analog printing systems with digital printing systems. These businesses may decide that digital printing processes are less reliable, less cost-effective, of lower quality, or otherwise less suitable for their commercial needs than analog printing processes. For example, screen printing currently tends to be faster and less expensive than digital printing on a cost per print basis for larger production runs. Even if businesses are persuaded as to the benefits of digital printing, we do not know whether potential buyers of digital printing systems will delay their investment decisions. As a result, we may not correctly estimate demand for our solutions, which could cause us to fail to meet customer needs in a timely manner or fail to take advantage of economies of scale in the production of our solutions.

Our results of operations will be adversely impacted by our failure to timely introduce new products, or to achieve market acceptance or gain adequate market share for new or existing products.

Our ability to develop innovative new systems and products is important to our business strategy and competitive position. Difficulties or delays in research, development, production or commercialization of new systems and products could adversely impact our sales and competitive position. We cannot ensure that the significant investments that we have made in distribution, sales and customer service teams to launch the new systems will enable us to successfully market, sell and distribute the systems as planned. Market acceptance of the new systems will depend on, among other things, the systems demonstrating a real advantage over existing systems, the success of our sales and marketing teams in creating awareness of the systems, the sales price and the return on investment of the systems relative to alternative systems, customer recognition of the value of our technology, the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns, and the general willingness of potential customers to try new technologies. If we fail to develop and launch new systems and products, experience cost overruns in connection with such development, or the market does not accept our new systems and products, our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected. Even if we are successful in selling our new systems which provide greater efficiency and lower cost per print, sales of ink and other consumables per system may decrease, which may adversely affect our results of operations, including gross margin and overall profitability.

If our customers use alternative ink and consumables and/or alternative spare parts in our systems, our gross margin could decline significantly, and our business could be harmed.

Our business model benefits significantly from recurring sales of our ink and other consumables and spare parts for our existing and growing installed base of systems. Third parties could try to sell, and purchasers of our systems can seek to buy, alternative versions of our ink and other consumables or alternative spare parts. We have encountered limited instances of these activities by third parties in specific regions. Third-party ink and other consumables and spare parts might be less expensive or otherwise more appealing to our customers than our ink and other consumables. Significant sales of third-party inks and other consumables and spare parts to our customers could adversely impact our revenues and would have a more significant effect on our gross margins and overall profitability.

Given the sensitivity of our systems and, in particular, print heads to lower quality ink, which may cause our print heads to clog or otherwise malfunction, our systems are setup to operate at the highest throughput level only when using our original ink and other consumables in order to protect them from damage. In addition, since we are unable to control the impact of third-party inks, their use and the use of third-party spare parts might void the warranty that comes with our systems. We have also sought to protect the proprietary technology underlying our ink through patents and other forms of intellectual property protections and include an RFID mechanism with our ink tanks. These steps that we have taken to ensure the smooth operation of our systems and our ability to fully invoke all our intellectual property rights may be challenged. Any reduction in our ability to market and sell our ink and other consumables and spare parts for use in our systems may adversely impact our future revenues and our overall profitability.

We face increased competition and if we do not compete successfully, our revenues and demand for our solutions could decline.

The principal competition for our digital printing systems comes from manufacturers of analog screen printing systems, textile printers and ink, such as M&R Printing Equipment, Inc., Machines Highest Mechatronic GmbH and S. Roque – Máquinas e Tecnologia Laser, S.A. Our principal competitor in the industrial digital direct-to-garment market is Aeoon Technologies GmbH. We also face competition in this market from Brother International Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, Ricoh Company Ltd. and a number of smaller competitors with respect to our entry level system or in a scenario of multiple entry level systems production site. Recently, a new competitor, with little track record, entered into the market 240 tech LLC /OvalJet. Our competitors in the Direct-to-Fabric (also known as R2R), or DTF, market include: Dover Corporation through its MS Printing Solutions S.r.l. subsidiary; Seiko Epson Corporation through its subsidiary, Fratelli Robustelli S.r.l; Durst Phototechnik AG; Electronics for Imaging, Inc. through its Reggiani Macchine SpA subsidiary; and a number of smaller competitors. The principal competition for our production floor software workflow solutions comes from homegrown solutions developed by existing and prospective customers.

Some of our current and potential competitors have larger overall installed bases, longer operating histories and greater name recognition than we have. In addition, many of these competitors have greater sales and marketing resources, more advanced manufacturing operations, broader distribution channels and greater customer support resources than we have. Some of our competitors in the DTF market gained their current market position by merging with, or acquiring, existing companies in the DTF market. Current and future competitors may be able to respond more quickly to changes in customer demands and devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their printers and ink and other consumables than we can. Our current and potential competitors in both the direct-to-garment and direct-to-fabric markets may also develop and market new technologies that render our existing solutions unmarketable or less competitive. In addition, if these competitors develop products with similar or superior functionality to our solutions at prices comparable to or lower than ours, we may be forced to decrease the prices of our solutions in order to remain competitive, which could reduce our gross margins.

Our move towards a higher proportion of direct sales in place of indirect sales may have adverse consequences.

Our go-to-market strategy consists of a hybrid model of indirect and direct sales, depending on the specific territory into which we are selling. We continually evaluate that strategy in the geographies we serve in an effort to best serve our direct or indirect customers. As we shift towards a direct sales model, we may experience an initial disruption to our sales efforts in those jurisdictions as we transition from our previous sales structure. In addition, a shift to a direct sales model might result in a short-term impact on our results of operations, including due to the acquisition of inventory that requires a step up in basis and other such accounting impacts and costs associated with increased headcount and related expenses. Moreover, the implementation of a direct sales model might require significant management time and attention which might have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations during the transition period. We have been exposed to risks as a result of transitioning from an indirect sales model to a direct sales model, such as difficulties maintaining relationships with specific customers, hiring appropriately trained personnel and ensuring compliance with local product registration requirements.

A significant portion of our sales is concentrated among a small number of customers, and our business would be adversely affected by a decline in sales to, or the loss of, those customers.

During the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, our ten largest customers accounted for approximately 45% and 55% of our revenues, respectively. During those same years, Amazon Corporate LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., which we collectively refer to as Amazon, accounted for approximately 12% and 11% of our revenues, respectively. Given the concentration of our revenues with these customers, the loss of either Amazon or another one of our significant customers, or variability in their order flows, could materially adversely affect our revenues or results of operations.

Our operating results are subject to seasonal variations, which could cause the price of our ordinary shares to decline.

Our business is seasonal. Either the third or fourth quarter has historically been our strongest quarter in terms of revenues, and the first quarter has been our weakest. This seasonality coincides with spending in anticipation of the holidays towards the end of the year, especially in the United States and Europe. In the last three fiscal years, we have continuously increased our operating expenses throughout the year, and as such, the expense run rate at which we have ended each year is significantly higher than where we started the given year. The carryover of such costs into the first quarter of the following year results in downward pressure on operating margins, which is compounded by seasonally lower revenue in the first quarter compared to other quarters.

In addition, during the third and fourth quarters, when customer spending is at its highest levels, we enjoy a more favorable revenue mix, generating greater revenues from the sales of ink and other consumables than in the first quarter. Since sales of ink and other consumables generate higher gross margins than systems sales, gross margin in the third or fourth quarter tends to be higher than gross margin in the first quarter, when our customers typically reduce their system utilization rates significantly, and thereby purchase less ink and other consumables. This impact leads to a reduction in overall operating margins. As we continue to focus our sales efforts on larger accounts, and as we continue to invest in the growth of our business, the impact of this seasonal decline in revenues generated from sales of ink and other consumables has had and may continue to have a more pronounced impact on gross margins and operating margins.

Our quarterly results of operations have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate in the future due to variability in our revenues.

Our revenues and other results of operations have fluctuated from quarter to quarter in the past and could continue to fluctuate in the future. Our revenues depend in part on the sale and delivery of our systems, and we cannot predict with certainty when sales transactions for our systems will close or when we will be able to recognize the revenues from such sales, which generally occurs upon delivery of our systems. Customers that we expect to purchase our systems may delay doing so due to timing of obtaining regulatory permits or a change in their priorities or business plans, including as a result of adverse general economic conditions that may disproportionately impact the ability of the small businesses that constitute a significant portion of our customer base to expend capital or access financing sources. Such conditions could also force us to reduce our prices or limit our ability to profit from economies of scale, which could harm our gross margins. As a result of these factors, we may fail to meet market expectations for any given quarter if sales that we expect for that quarter are delayed until subsequent quarters. Our Allegro, Presto and Vulcan systems are offered at a higher average selling price than our other systems and, as a result, have longer sales cycles. The closing of one or more large transactions in a particular quarter may make it more difficult for us to meet market expectations in subsequent quarters, and our failure to close one or more large transactions in a particular quarter could adversely impact our revenues for that quarter. In addition, we may experience slower growth in our gross margins as our new systems gain commercial acceptance. Our gross margins may also fluctuate based on the regions in which sales of these systems occur.

Our customers generally purchase our ink and other consumables on an as-needed basis, and delays in making such purchases by a number of customers could result in a meaningful shift of revenues from one quarter to the next. Moreover, because ink and other consumables have a shelf life of up to 12 months, we typically maintain inventories of ink and other consumables sufficient to cover our average sales for one quarter. These inventories may not match customers’ demands for any given quarter, which could cause shortages or excesses in our inventory of ink and other consumables and result in fluctuations of our quarterly revenues. To the extent that we have excess inventory of ink and consumables that we are unable to sell due to spoilage or otherwise, we may have to write off such inventory. These inventory requirements may also limit our ability to profit from economies of scale in the production and marketing of our ink and other consumables.

Furthermore, we base our current and future expense levels on our revenue forecasts and operating plans, and our costs are relatively fixed in the short term, due in part to long lead times required for ordering certain components of our systems and ordering assembly of our systems by third-party manufacturers. Accordingly, we would likely not be able to reduce our costs sufficiently to compensate for an unexpected shortfall in revenues during a particular quarter, and even a relatively small decrease in revenues could disproportionately and adversely affect our financial results for that quarter. The variability and unpredictability of these and other factors could result in our failing to meet financial expectations for a given period.

Our contractual arrangements with Amazon, a significant customer, contain a number of material undertakings by us and other agreements the impact of which cannot be fully predicted in advance.

In January 2017, we entered into a master purchase agreement with an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. governing sales of our systems and ink and other consumables at agreed-upon prices that vary based on sales volumes. We also agreed to provide maintenance services and extended warranties to Amazon at agreed prices. The term of the agreement is five years beginning on May 1, 2016 and extends automatically for additional one-year periods unless terminated by Amazon. The agreement was amended effective as of March 1, 2017, January 1, 2018, June 29, 2018, January 1, 2020, September 1, 2020 and February 15, 2021, respectively. Under the agreement, we were required to issue to an affiliate of Amazon warrants to purchase up to 2,932,176 of our ordinary shares, which vested based on payments made by Amazon in connection with the purchase of goods and services from us. Amazon exercised some of those original warrants on a cashless (net) exercise basis in connection with our September 2020 public offering, resulting in the issuance to it, and its sale in the public offering, of 1,689,942 ordinary shares. In September 2020, we and Amazon entered into a new transaction agreement under which we issued to an affiliate of Amazon new warrants to acquire up to 3,401,028 of our ordinary shares at a purchase price of $59.26 per share. Those new warrants vest over a five-year period starting January 2021 based on payments made by Amazon in connection with the purchase of goods and services from us.

Our contractual agreements with Amazon contain a number of material undertakings and other arrangements:

The impact of the provisions listed above cannot be fully predicted in advance and could, in certain circumstances, adversely impact our business or results of operations, or the manner in which investors or analysts assess and perceive our performance.

If our relationships with suppliers, especially with single source suppliers of components, were to terminate, our business could be harmed.

We maintain an inventory of parts to facilitate the timely assembly of our systems, production of our ink and other consumables, and servicing our installed base. Most components are available from multiple suppliers, although certain components used in our systems and ink and other consumables, such as our print heads and certain chemicals included in our inks, are only available from single or limited sources as described below.

The loss of any of these suppliers, or of a supplier for which there are limited other sources, could result in the delay of the manufacture and delivery of our systems or inks and other consumables. For instance, FDMX has from time to time indicated that it may discontinue manufacturing the print head that we currently source from it and use in our systems, although it has never provided notice that it is actually doing so. In the event FDMX discontinues manufacturing the print head, we would be required to qualify a new print head for our systems. In order to minimize the risk of any impact from a disruption or discontinuation in the supply of print heads, raw materials or other components from limited source suppliers, we maintain an additional inventory of such components, in addition to the end of life purchase program that would be available to us if the products we purchase from FDMX were discontinued. Nevertheless, such inventory may not be sufficient to enable us to continue supplying our products should we need to locate and qualify a new supplier.

Other risks stemming from our reliance on suppliers include:

If any of these risks materialize, the costs associated with developing alternative sources of supply or assembly in a timely manner could have a material adverse effect on our ability to meet demand for our solutions. Our ability to generate revenues could be impaired, market acceptance of our solutions could be adversely affected, and customers may instead purchase or use alternative products. We may not be able to find new or alternative components of a requisite quality or find that we are unable to reconfigure our systems and manufacturing processes in a timely manner if the necessary components become unavailable. As a result, we could incur increased production costs, experience delays in the delivery of our solutions and suffer harm to our reputation, which may have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Our new Kiryat Gat facility is being constructed on lands leased by the Company from the Israel Lands Administration, or ILA. If we are unable to continue to use such lands, we would be unable to use the facility and our results of operations and future prospects will suffer as a result. In addition, construction of the facility may subject us to risks of construction delays or cost overruns.

In November 2018, we entered into a development agreement, which we refer to as the Development Agreement, with the ILA for the construction of our new, modern, manufacturing facility in Kiryat Gat on lands leased from the ILA. Construction has begun and is currently expected to be completed towards the end of 2021. The Development Agreement provides that if our company were a “foreign subject,” which includes our company being under foreign control (i.e., a majority of our ordinary shares are held by non-Israelis), that would constitute a fundamental breach under the agreement. We intend to follow a specific standard process for seeking approval from the ILA in which the ILA approves our entering into the Development Agreement despite our potential status as a “foreign subject,” since our shares are traded on Nasdaq, and we are held by multiple shareholders whose identities are unknown. However, should such approval not be provided, the ILA would be entitled to terminate the Development Agreement if our company would be considered a “foreign subject” under the terms of such agreement. If the Development Agreement were terminated, we would be unable to use the new Kiryat Gat facility being constructed on this property pursuant to the Development Agreement, which would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

In addition, in January 2019 we entered into a primary contractor agreement with Agrotop Ltd. to begin construction of our Kiryat Gat facility. In April 2019, we entered into an agreement with Y.V. Galil Engineering Ltd., or Galil, for the design and installation of a production line at the new facility. On June 7, 2020, we signed an addendum to the agreement with Galil for settling disputes regarding the agreement timetable and the unit prices for calculating the consideration for the design and installation of the production line. We are also paying Galil on a time and materials basis. The construction of the production line is expected to be completed towards the end of 2021. We have experienced some delays related to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. We currently estimate that the total cost for land, construction of the facility and design and installation of the production line will be approximately NIS 78.0 million (approximately $24.3 million based on current exchange rates). This project is subject to risks of delay or cost overruns inherent in any construction project resulting from numerous factors, including the following:

Recently, we and Galil began to raise mutual claims for breach of contract regarding, inter alia, delays in performance and delays in payments. We reached an agreement with Galil pursuant to which they will stop their work on the production line and we are currently discussing a commercial settlement.

A material delay or cost overrun in connection with the installation of the production line could adversely impact our results of operations and future prospects.

Disruption of operations at our manufacturing site or those of third-party manufacturers could prevent us from filling customer orders on a timely basis.

We manufacture our ink and other consumables at our facility in Kiryat Gat, Israel (which we are in the process of replacing with a new, modern facility being constructed). We also rely on contract manufacturing services provided by Flextronics Israel Ltd., Sanmina-SCI Israel Medical Systems Ltd. and Hameshavev H.M.T.S. Ltd., which are also in Israel, to assemble our systems. We expect that almost all of our revenues in the near term will be derived from the systems and ink and other consumables manufactured at these facilities.

The loss of any of these contract manufacturers could result in the delay of the assembly and delivery of our systems. If that occurs or these contract manufacturers cease to provide manufacturing services for any reason, the costs associated with developing alternative sources of assembly in a timely manner could have a material adverse effect on our ability to meet demand for our solutions. Our ability to generate revenues could be impaired, market acceptance of our solutions could be adversely affected, and customers may instead purchase or use alternative products.

If operations in any of these facilities were to be disrupted due to a major equipment failure or power failure lasting beyond the capabilities of backup generators or other events outside of our reasonable control, our manufacturing capacity could be shut down for an extended period, we could experience a loss of raw materials or finished goods inventory and our ability to operate our business would be harmed. In addition, in any such event, the repair or reconstruction of our or our third-party manufacturers’ manufacturing facilities and storage facilities could take a significant amount of time. During this period, we or our third-party manufacturers would be unable to manufacture some or all of our systems or we may not be able to produce our ink and other consumables. In addition, at any given moment we have only a limited inventory of our systems and ink and other consumables that we can supply to our customers in the event that our manufacturing is disrupted.

Our operating results could decline in the near-term if we fail to execute on our growth strategies.

Our operating margin was 3.9% in 2018, 4.2% in 2019 and (3.5%) in 2020. Our growth strategies, many of which are aimed at achieving operating and net profit margins, include increasing sales to existing customers, acquiring new high-volume customers, capitalizing on growth in our targeted markets and extending our serviceable addressable market by continuing to enhance our solutions. If we do not execute these strategies successfully, it could adversely impact our revenues and have a negative impact on our operating and net profit margins.

Our business and operations may be negatively affected if we fail to effectively manage our growth.

We have experienced significant growth in a relatively short period of time and intend to continue to grow our business. Our revenues grew from $66.4 million in 2014 to $193.3 million in 2020. Our headcount increased from 251 as of December 31, 2014 to 672 as of December 31, 2020. We plan to continue to hire additional employees across all areas of our company. Our rapid growth has placed significant demands on our management, sales and operational and financial infrastructure, and our growth will continue to place significant demands on these resources. Further, in order to manage our future growth effectively, we must continue to improve our IT and financial infrastructure, operating and administrative systems and controls and efficiently manage headcount, capital and processes. We may not be able to successfully implement these improvements in a timely or efficient manner, and our failure to do so may materially impact our projected growth rate.

Significant disruptions of our information technology systems or breaches of our data security could adversely affect our business.

A significant invasion, interruption, destruction or breakdown of our information technology, or IT, systems and/or infrastructure by persons with authorized or unauthorized access could negatively impact our business and operations. We could also experience business interruption, information theft and/or reputational damage from cyber attacks, which may compromise our systems and lead to data leakage either internally or at our third party suppliers or customers. Both data that has been inputted into our main IT platform, which covers records of transactions, financial data and other data reflected in our results of operations, as well as data related to our proprietary rights (such as research and development, and other intellectual property- related data), are subject to material cyber security risks. Our IT systems have been, and are expected to continue to be, the target of malware and other cyber attacks. To date, we are not aware that we have experienced any loss of, or disruption to, material information as a result of any such malware or cyber attack.

We have invested in advanced protective systems to reduce these risks, some of which have been installed and others that are still in the process of installation. Based on information provided to us by the suppliers of our protective systems, we believe that our level of protection is in keeping with the customary practices of peer technology companies. We also maintain back-up files for much of our information, as a means of assuring that a breach or cyber attack does not necessarily cause the loss of that information. We furthermore review our protections and remedial measures periodically in order to ensure that they are adequate.

Despite these protective systems and remedial measures, techniques used to obtain unauthorized access are constantly changing, are becoming increasingly more sophisticated and often are not recognized until after an exploitation of information has occurred. We may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement sufficient preventative measures, and we therefore cannot assure you that our preventative measures will be successful in preventing compromise and/or disruption of our information technology systems and related data. We furthermore cannot be certain that our remedial measures will fully mitigate the adverse financial consequences of any cyber attack or incident.

We and our customers are subject to extensive environmental, health and safety laws and regulations which, if not met, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our manufacturing and development facilities use chemicals and produce waste materials, which require us to hold business licenses that may include conditions set by the Ministry of Environmental Protection for the operations of such facilities. We are also subject to extensive environmental, health and safety laws and regulations governing, among other things, the use, storage, registration, handling and disposal of chemicals and waste materials, the presence of specified substances in electrical products, air, water and ground contamination, air emissions and the clean-up of contaminated sites. In the future we may incur expenditure of significant amounts in the event of non-compliance and/or remediation. Furthermore, requirements of environmental laws have adversely affected and may continue to adversely affect the ability of our customers to install and use our systems in a timely manner. If we fail to comply with such laws or regulations, we may be subject to fines and other civil, administrative or criminal sanctions, including the revocation of our toxin permit, business permits, or other permits and licenses necessary to continue our business activities. In addition, we may be required to pay damages or civil judgments in respect of third-party claims, including those relating to personal injury, including exposure to hazardous substances that we use, store, handle, transport, manufacture or dispose of, or property damage. Some environmental, health and safety laws and regulations allow for strict, joint and several liability for remediation costs, regardless of comparative fault. We may be identified as a potentially responsible party under such laws. In addition, our customers may encounter delays in obtaining or be unable to obtain regulatory permits to operate our systems in their facilities, which may result in cancellation or delay of orders of our systems.

The export of our products internationally subjects us to environmental laws and regulations concerning the import and export of chemicals and hazardous substances. In the European marketplace, electrical and electronic equipment is required to comply with the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, or WEEE, which aims to prevent waste by encouraging reuse and recycling, and the Directive on Restriction of Use of Certain Hazardous Substances, or RoHS, which restricts the use of ten hazardous substances in electrical and electronic products. Additionally, we are required to comply with certain laws, regulations and directives such as the United States Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, and the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances, or REACH. These laws and regulations require the testing and registration of some chemicals that we ship along with, or that form a part of, our systems and other products. If we fail to comply with these or similar laws and regulations, we may be required to make significant expenditures to reformulate the chemicals that we use in our products and materials or incur costs to register such chemicals to gain and/or regain compliance. Additionally, we could be subject to significant fines or other civil and criminal penalties should we not achieve such compliance.

Any of such developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Environmental, health and safety laws and regulations may also change from time to time. Complying with any new requirements may involve substantial costs and could cause significant disruptions to our research, development, manufacturing, and sales.

Exchange rate fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and the Israeli shekel, the Euro and other non-U.S. currencies may negatively affect our earnings.

The U.S. dollar is our functional and reporting currency. However, a significant portion of our operating expenses are incurred in Israeli shekels, or NIS. As a result, we are exposed to the risk that the NIS may appreciate relative to the dollar, or, if the NIS instead devalues relative to the dollar, that the inflation rate in Israel may exceed such rate of devaluation of the NIS, or that the timing of such devaluation may lag behind inflation in Israel. In any such event, the dollar cost of our operations in Israel would increase and our dollar-denominated results of operations would be adversely affected. To protect against an increase the dollar-denominated value of expenses paid in NIS during the year, we have instituted a foreign currency cash flow hedging program, which seeks to hedge a portion of the economic exposure associated with our anticipated NIS-denominated expenses using derivative instruments. We expect that the substantial majority of our revenues will continue to be denominated in U.S. dollars for the foreseeable future and that a significant portion of our expenses will continue to be denominated in NIS. We cannot provide any assurances that our hedging activities will be successful in protecting us in full from adverse impacts from currency exchange rate fluctuations since we only plan to hedge a portion of our foreign currency exposure, and we cannot predict any future trends in the rate of inflation in Israel or the rate of devaluation (if any) of the NIS against the dollar For example, based on annual average exchange rates, the NIS appreciated by 0.1%, 0.8% and 3.4% against the dollar in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. During these periods, there was inflation of 0.8%, 0.6% and deflation of 0.7% in Israel in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. The NIS has depreciated by 2.0% against the dollar from the start of 2021 through February 28, 2021. If the dollar cost of our operations continues to increase, our dollar-measured results of operations will be adversely affected. See “ITEM 11. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk—Foreign Currency Risk.” 

In addition, a material portion of our leases are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, mainly in NIS. In accordance with a new lease accounting standard, which became effective on January 1, 2019, the associated lease liabilities will be remeasured using the current exchange rate in future reporting periods, which may result in material foreign exchange gains or losses. See Note 2, “Significant Accounting Policies”, to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 18 of this annual report for more details.

Our business could suffer if we are unable to attract and retain key employees.

Our success depends upon the continued service and performance of our senior management and other key personnel. Our senior executive team is critical to the management of our business and operations, as well as to the development of our strategies. The loss of the services of any of these personnel could delay or prevent the continued successful implementation of our growth strategy, or our commercialization of new applications for our systems and ink and other consumables, or could otherwise affect our ability to manage our company effectively and to carry out our business plan. Members of our senior management team may resign at any time. High demand exists for senior management and other key personnel in our industry. There can be no assurance that we will be able to continue to retain such personnel. Following certain previously reported changes to our senior management team in 2019, as of April 1, 2020, Gilad Yron, our former Executive VP Global Business, was succeeded by Ms. Jecka Glasman, our Chief Commercial Officer. In addition, effective as of November 12, 2020, Haggai Abbu, our former EVP R&D, no longer works for our company and has been succeeded by Mr. Benzion Sender. Furthermore, on November 23, 2020, we announced that we had appointed Mr. Guy Avidan, our former Chief Financial Officer, as President of Kornit’s newly formed business line focused on accelerating the digital transformation of the textile industry to on-demand sustainable production. Mr. Alon Rozner succeeded Mr. Avidan in the CFO role, effective December 1, 2020. In addition, in 2020 two of our regional presidents were succeeded in their positions. To the extent we experience additional frequent changes in our leadership team (or the leadership teams of our subsidiaries) going forward, that could adversely affect our performance in a material manner.

Our growth and success also depend on our ability to attract and retain additional highly qualified scientific, technical, sales, managerial, operational, HR, marketing and finance personnel. We compete to attract qualified personnel, and, in some jurisdictions in which we operate, the existence of non-competition agreements between prospective employees and their former employers may prevent us from hiring those individuals or subject us to lawsuits from their former employers. While we attempt to provide competitive compensation packages to attract and retain key personnel, some of our competitors have greater resources and more experience than we have, making it difficult for us to compete successfully for key personnel. If we cannot attract and retain sufficiently qualified technical employees for our research and development operations on acceptable terms, we may not be able to continue to competitively develop and commercialize our solutions or new applications for our existing systems. Further, any failure to effectively integrate new personnel could prevent us from successfully growing our company.

Under applicable employment laws, we may not be able to enforce covenants not to compete and therefore may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of some of our former employees.

We generally enter into non-competition agreements with our employees. These agreements prohibit our employees, if they cease working for us, from competing directly with us or working for our competitors or clients for a limited period. We may be unable to enforce these agreements under the laws of the jurisdictions in which our employees work and it may be difficult for us to restrict our competitors from benefiting from the expertise that our former employees or consultants developed while working for us. For example, Israeli labor courts have required employers seeking to enforce non-compete undertakings of a former employee to demonstrate that the competitive activities of the former employee will harm one of a limited number of material interests of the employer that have been recognized by the courts, such as the secrecy of a company’s trade secrets or other intellectual property.

We have a significant presence in international markets and plan to continue to expand our international operations, which exposes us to a number of risks that could affect our future growth.

We have a worldwide sales, marketing and support infrastructure that is comprised of independent distributors and value added resellers, and our own personnel resulting in a sales, marketing and support presence in over 100 countries and states, including markets in North America, Western and Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific region and Latin America. We expect to continue to increase our sales headcount, our applications development headcount, our field support headcount, our marketing headcount and our engineering headcount and, in some cases, establish new relationships with distributors, particularly in markets where we currently do not have a sales or customer support presence. As we continue to expand our international sales and operations, we are subject to a number of risks, including the following:

Any of these risks could adversely affect our international operations, reduce our revenues from outside the United States or increase our operating costs, adversely affecting our business, results of operations and financial condition and growth prospects. There can be no assurance that all of our employees and channel partners will comply with the formal policies that we have in place and/or will implement, or applicable laws and regulations. Violations of laws or key control policies by our employees and channel partners could result in delays in revenue recognition, financial reporting misstatements, fines, penalties or the prohibition of the importation or exportation of our software and services and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

If we are unable to obtain patent protection for our solutions or otherwise protect our intellectual property rights, our business could suffer.

The success of our business depends on our ability to protect our proprietary technology, brand owners and other intellectual property and to enforce our rights in that intellectual property. We attempt to protect our intellectual property under patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret laws, and through a combination of confidentiality procedures, contractual provisions and other methods, all of which offer only limited protection.

As of December 31, 2020, we owned 29 issued patents in the United States and 20 provisional or pending U.S. patent applications, along with 41 pending non-U.S. patent applications. We also had 21 patents issued in non-U.S. jurisdictions, and 9 pending Patent Cooperation Treaty patent applications, which are counterparts of our U.S. patent applications. The non-U.S. jurisdictions in which we have issued patents or pending applications are China, the European Union or European countries of the European Union, Hong Kong, Israel, Canada, Australia, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Japan and India. We may file additional patent applications in the future. The process of obtaining patent protection is expensive, time-consuming, and uncertain, and we may not be able to prosecute all necessary or desirable patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner all the way through to the successful issuance of a patent. We may choose not to seek patent protection for certain innovations and may choose not to pursue patent protection in certain jurisdictions. Furthermore, it is possible that our patent applications may not issue as granted patents, that the scope of our issued patents will be insufficient or not have the coverage originally sought, that our issued patents will not provide us with any competitive advantages, and that our patents and other intellectual property rights may be challenged by others through administrative processes or litigation resulting in patent claims being narrowed, invalidated, or unenforceable. In addition, issuance of a patent does not guarantee that we have an absolute right to practice the patented invention. Our policy is to require our employees (and our consultants and service providers, including third-party manufacturers of our systems and components, that develop intellectual property included in our systems) to execute written agreements in which they assign to us their rights in potential inventions and other intellectual property created within the scope of their employment (or, with respect to consultants and service providers, their engagement to develop such intellectual property), but we cannot assure you that we have adequately protected our rights in every such agreement or that we have executed an agreement with every such party. Finally, in order to benefit from the protection of patents and other intellectual property rights, we must monitor and detect infringement and pursue infringement claims in certain circumstances in relevant jurisdictions, all of which are costly and time-consuming. As a result, we may not be able to obtain adequate protection or to effectively enforce our issued patents or other intellectual property rights.

In addition to patents, we rely on trade secret rights, copyrights, trademarks, and other rights to protect our proprietary intellectual property and technology. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary intellectual property and technology, unauthorized parties, including our employees, consultants, service providers or customers, may attempt to copy aspects of our solutions or obtain and use our trade secrets or other confidential information. We generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, service providers, vendors, channel partners and customers, and generally limit access to and distribution of our proprietary information and proprietary technology through certain procedural safeguards. These agreements may not effectively prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of our intellectual property or technology and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our intellectual property or technology. We cannot assure you that the steps taken by us will prevent misappropriation of our intellectual property or technology or infringement of our intellectual property rights. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries where we sell or distribute our solutions do not protect intellectual property rights and technology to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and these countries may not enforce these laws as diligently as government agencies and private parties in the United States. Based on the 2017 report on intellectual property rights protection and enforcement published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, such countries included Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine (designated as priority watch list countries).

If we are unable to protect our trademarks from infringement, our business prospects may be harmed.

We own trademarks that identify “Kornit”, “NeoPigment”, the “K” logo and “Konnect” logo, and we have an additional pending trademark application for the “Custom Gateway” logo, among others, and have registered these trademarks in certain key markets. Although we take steps to monitor the possible infringement or misuse of our trademarks, third parties may violate our trademark rights. In addition, we may not have trademark rights in all of the markets in which we may sell our products. Any unauthorized use of our trademarks could harm our reputation or commercial interests. In addition, efforts to enforce our trademarks may be expensive and time-consuming and may not effectively prevent infringement.

Our trademark rights may furthermore be subject to litigation. During 2016 we were subject to an opposition to our application to the European Union Intellectual Property Office, or EUIPO, to register the “Kornit” trademark in the European Union, on the part of Grupo FB Maquinaria, S.A., or Grupo, which claimed that it had earlier registered that trademark. While we ultimately succeeded, and the EUIPO ruled in our favor in April 2019 and registered the trademark in our name, we could face similar future challenges to our trademark rights in various jurisdictions around the globe.  

We may become subject to claims of intellectual property infringement by third parties or claims by third parties that our intellectual party rights are invalid, and may be required to indemnify our distributors or other third parties against such claims, which, regardless of their merit, could result in litigation, distract our management and materially adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition.

We have in the past and may in the future become subject to third-party claims that assert that our solutions, services and intellectual property infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate third-party intellectual property or other proprietary rights. We, in turn, will seek to assert the validity of our intellectual property rights by any legal means that we deem necessary or appropriate in response to any actual or perceived threats.

Intellectual property disputes can be costly and disruptive to our business operations by diverting the attention and energies of management and key technical personnel, and by increasing our costs of doing business. Even if a claim is not directly against us, our agreements with distributors generally require us to indemnify them against losses from claims that our products infringe third-party intellectual property rights and entitle us to assume the defense of any claim as part of the indemnification undertaking. Our assumption of the defense of such a claim may result in similar costs, disruption and diversion of management attention to that of a claim that is asserted directly against us. We may not prevail in any such dispute or litigation, and an adverse decision in any legal action involving intellectual property rights could harm our intellectual property rights and the value of any related technology or limit our ability to execute our business.

Adverse outcomes in intellectual property disputes could:

We may become subject to claims for remuneration or royalties for assigned service invention rights by our employees, which could result in litigation and adversely affect our business.

A significant portion of our intellectual property has been developed by our employees in the course of their employment for us. Under the Israeli Patent Law, 5727-1967, or the Patent Law, inventions conceived by an employee in the course and as a result of or arising from his or her employment with a company are regarded as “service inventions,” which belong to the employer, absent a specific agreement between the employee and employer giving the employee proprietary rights. The Patent Law also provides under Section 134 that if there is no agreement between an employer and an employee as to whether the employee is entitled to consideration for service inventions, and to what extent and under which conditions, the Israeli Compensation and Royalties Committee, or the Committee, a body constituted under the Patent Law, shall determine these issues. Section 135 of the Patent law provides criteria for assisting the Committee in making its decisions. According to case law handed down by the Committee, an employee’s right to receive consideration for service inventions is a personal right and is entirely separate from the proprietary rights in such invention. Therefore, this right must be explicitly waived by the employee. A decision handed down in May 2014 by the Committee clarifies that the right to receive consideration under Section 134 can be waived and that such waiver can be made orally, in writing or by behavior like any other contract. The Committee will examine, on a case by case basis, the general contractual framework between the parties, using interpretation rules of the general Israeli contract laws. Further, the Committee has not yet determined one specific formula for calculating this remuneration, nor the criteria or circumstances under which an employee’s waiver of his right to remuneration will be disregarded. Similarly, it remains unclear whether waivers by employees in their employment agreements of the alleged right to receive consideration for service inventions should be declared as void being a depriving provision in a standard contract. We generally enter into assignment-of-invention agreements with our employees pursuant to which such individuals assign to us all rights to any inventions created in the scope of their employment or engagement with us. Although our employees have agreed to assign to us service invention rights and have specifically waived their right to receive any special remuneration for such service inventions beyond their regular salary and benefits, we may face claims demanding remuneration in consideration for assigned inventions.

Undetected defects in the design or manufacturing of our products may harm our business and results of operations.

Our systems, ink and other consumables, and associated software may contain undetected errors or defects when first introduced or as new versions are released. We have experienced these errors or defects in the past during the introduction of new systems and system upgrades. We expect that these errors or defects will be found from time to time in new or enhanced systems after commencement of commercial distribution or upon software upgrades. These problems may cause us to incur significant warranty and repair costs, divert the attention of our engineers from our product development and customer service efforts and harm our reputation. We may experience a delay in revenue recognition or collection of due payments from relevant customers as a result of our systems’ inability to meet agreed performance metrics. In addition, the use of third-party inks may harm the operation of our systems and reduce customer satisfaction with them, which could harm our reputation and adversely affect sales of our systems. We may also be subject to liability claims for damages related to system errors or defects. Although we carry insurance policies covering this type of liability, these policies may not provide sufficient protection should a claim be asserted against us. Any product liability claim brought against us could force us to incur significant expenses, divert management time and attention, and harm our reputation and business. In addition, costs or payments made in connection with warranty and product liability claims and system recalls could materially affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We may need substantial additional capital in the future, which may cause dilution to our existing shareholders, restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our pipeline products or intellectual property. If additional capital is not available, we may have to delay our expansion plans or reduce operations.

Based on our current business plan, we believe our cash flows from operating activities and our existing cash resources will be sufficient to meet our currently anticipated cash requirements through the next 12 months without drawing on our lines of credit or using significant amounts of the net proceeds from our initial public offering and follow-on offerings. We have furthermore recently raised $162 million of aggregate net proceeds from our September 2020 follow-on public offering, and have approximately $436 million in cash, cash equivalents, short term deposits and marketable securities as of December 31, 2020. Nevertheless, to the extent our anticipated cash requirements change due to our expansion plans or otherwise, we may seek additional funding in the future. This funding may consist of equity offerings, debt financings or any other means to expand our sales and marketing capabilities, develop our future solutions or pursue other general corporate purposes. Securing additional financing may divert our management from our day-to-day activities, which may adversely affect our ability to market our current solutions and develop and sell future solutions. Additional funding may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.

To the extent that we raise additional capital through, for example, the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, your ownership interest will be diluted, and the terms may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect your rights as a shareholder. The incurrence of indebtedness or the issuance of certain equity securities could result in increased fixed payment obligations and could also result in certain restrictive covenants, such as limitations on our ability to incur additional debt, limitations on our ability to acquire or license intellectual property rights and other operating restrictions that could adversely impact our ability to conduct our business. In addition, the issuance of additional equity securities by us, or the possibility of such issuance, may cause the market price of our ordinary shares to decline.

We have acquired businesses and may acquire other businesses and/or companies, which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute shareholder value, and adversely affect our results of operations.

As part of our business strategy and in order to remain competitive, we have acquired businesses and may acquire or make investments in other complementary companies, products or technologies. Our experience in acquiring and integrating other companies, products or technologies is limited. We may not be able to find suitable acquisition candidates, and we may not be able to complete such acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we complete other acquisitions, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals, and any acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by our customers, analysts and investors. In addition, if we are unsuccessful at integrating such acquisitions or the technologies associated with such acquisitions, our revenues and results of operations may be adversely affected. Any integration process may require significant time and resources, and we may not be able to manage the process successfully. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired technology or personnel, or accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. We may have to pay cash, incur debt or issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition, each of which could adversely affect our financial condition or the value of our ordinary shares. The sale of equity or issuance of debt to finance any such acquisitions could result in dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also include covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations.

We may be subject to additional tax liabilities in the future as a result of audits of our tax returns.

We are subject to income taxes principally in Israel, Germany, Hong-Kong, United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. Significant judgment is required in evaluating our uncertain tax positions and determining our provision for income taxes. We recognize income taxes under the liability method. Tax benefits are recognized from uncertain tax positions only if we believe that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities based on the technical merits of the position. We are currently subject to a tax audit for the years 2013 to 2018 by the Israeli Tax Authority, or ITA. In respect of the years 2013-2014, we have been issued with a tax order, on which we appealed to the district court. The ITA also issued assessments for the years 2015 until 2018, on which we filed an objection, and the ITA has to determine whether to accept the objection or issue a tax order for the years 2015-2018 as well. According to a legal opinion we have received from our legal counsels, the claims we had and the positions we took on our tax returns are solid and valid. Nevertheless, the ITA may disagree with our positions taken in our tax returns for any other years as well, and we may be subject to additional tax liabilities, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

We are subject to risks associated with the provision of cloud-based software as a result of our acquisition of Custom Gateway.

On August 7, 2020, we closed the acquisition of Custom Gateway, a leading global provider of cloud-based software workflow solutions for both B2B and B2C business models. Custom Gateway has approximately 300 customers, including leading brands and retailers. Prior to our acquisition of Custom Gateway, we had not offered customers a subscription-based software service to manage on-demand production. We do not expect this service offering to significantly impact our results of operations in the near term; however, we believe that it exposes us to a number of potential risks, including the following:

If any of the foregoing risks materialize, our reputation may be adversely impacted which could, in turn, impact sales of our products and diminish customer confidence in us.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has had, in the recent past, and could have, once again, harmful effects on our business and results of operations.

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to control its spread have significantly curtailed the movement of people, goods and services worldwide, including in most or all of the regions in which we sell our products and services and conduct our business operations.

At the start of the pandemic, we acted decisively to ensure the safety and health of our staff while maintaining business continuity. In the second quarter of 2020, most of our offices were temporarily closed and most of our employees worked remotely as a precautionary measure intended to minimize the risk of the virus to them, our customers, partners and the communities in which we operate. In addition, our manufacturing sites and R&D facilities operated in shifts and with high discipline to all health guidelines. Our service teams worked closely with our customers (everyone was provided with safety kit), and our global staff shifted to work from home where needed. Ongoing updates were provided by our CEO and senior management to all employees globally. During the second quarter of 2020, our manufacturing and R&D sites returned to full service and our experience centers re-opened and operated in line with safety guidelines of the local authorities. During the third quarter of 2020, due to renewed outbreaks of the pandemic, most of the employees worked partially remotely from home, while our manufacturing sites operated in shifts. During the fourth quarter of 2020, most of our operations returned to full service again, subject to local restrictions. In the first quarter of 2021, as a result of increased levels of sickness, local and national authorities required, once again, that we implement closures and remote work, as we had done during the previous two periods of closure. We cannot provide any assurance that the cycle of openings and closures will come to an end in the near future, or that our manufacturing and R&D sites will continue to operate without interruption, particularly if there are additional resurgences in the pandemic.

The move to remote working has not to date materially impacted our business operations or research and development activity. Nevertheless, if our employees are unable to continue working effectively as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including because of illness, quarantines, office closures, ineffective remote work arrangements or technology failures or limitations, our operations could be adversely impacted. Further, remote work arrangements may increase the risk of cybersecurity incidents, data breaches or cyber-attacks, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations, due to, among other things, the loss of proprietary data, interruptions or delays in the operation of our business, damage to our reputation and any government imposed penalty.

The timing of the initial impact of COVID-19 resulted in significant deferrals of orders that we had expected would otherwise be placed before the end of the first quarter in 2020. Total revenue for the first quarter of 2020 was significantly below our expectations. Similarly, while orders rebounded in the second quarter of 2020, they were still lower than the comparable period in 2019. In addition to revenue, the pandemic also adversely impacted our cost of goods sold and our gross margin due to its impact on our supply chain. Our results for the third and fourth quarters of 2020 reflected a return to strong year-over-year growth in revenues and most other categories of operations. We believe, based on the third quarter and fourth quarter results for 2020, that the pandemic has been accelerating existing trends that are favorable to our business and prospects, including with respect to penetration of e-commerce and “re-shoring” of manufacturing capabilities. Nevertheless, we continue to experience an impact on our sales and marketing due to the inability to hold in-person meetings and attend industry events which has overall resulted in longer sales cycles compared to before the pandemic. We also cannot be certain of the impact on sales of any resurgence in COVID-19 that may occur in the future. As a result of these factors and the impact of the pandemic on our customers, it is more difficult to predict our future performance and we expect it will continue to be more challenging to estimate pipeline conversion rates due to the economic uncertainty, and there is a greater risk that any guidance we provide to the market may turn out to be incorrect.

In addition to other risks discussed in this annual report, the COVID-19 pandemic may give rise to a number of risks, including, but not limited to, the following:

The full impact of COVID-19 on our business and our future performance may also have the effect of heightening any of our other risk factors described in this annual report, and is difficult to predict, so there is some level of risk that any guidance we provide to the market may turn out to be incorrect.

Risks Related to Our Ordinary Shares

Our share price may be volatile.

Our ordinary shares were first offered publicly in our initial public offering in April 2015 at a price of $10.00 per share, and our ordinary shares have subsequently traded as high as $119.41 and as low as $8.10 through March 15, 2021. The market price of our ordinary shares could be highly volatile and may fluctuate substantially as a result of many factors, including:

In addition, recently, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. Broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our ordinary shares, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against that company. If we were involved in any similar litigation, we could incur substantial costs and our management’s attention and resources could be diverted. Furthermore, share price volatility may impact the fair value of the warrants granted to Amazon and as a result may impact revenues and profits.

 We have never paid cash dividends on our share capital, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our share capital, nor do we anticipate paying any cash dividends on our share capital in the foreseeable future. We currently intend (subject to any extraordinary market conditions that might arise) to retain all available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our ordinary shares should be investors’ principal expected source of gain for the foreseeable future. To the extent that volatile or depressed market conditions (whether in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak or otherwise) reduce the trading price of our ordinary shares substantially for an extended period of time, we may potentially consider using a portion of our cash reserves for share repurchases. In addition to considerations related to corporate finance, Israeli law limits our ability to declare and pay dividends and may subject our dividends to Israeli withholding taxes. Furthermore, our payment of dividends (out of tax-exempt income) may retroactively subject us to certain Israeli corporate income taxes, to which we would not otherwise be subject.

As a foreign private issuer whose shares are listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, we may follow certain home country corporate governance practices instead of otherwise applicable SEC and NASDAQ requirements, which may result in less protection than is accorded to investors under rules applicable to domestic U.S. issuers.

As a foreign private issuer whose shares are listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, we are permitted to follow certain home country corporate governance practices instead of those otherwise required under the corporate governance standards for U.S. domestic issuers. We currently follow Israeli home country practices with regard to the (i) quorum requirement for shareholder meetings (25%, which is less than the one-third minimum required under the NASDAQ rules) and (ii) independent director oversight requirement for director nominations (the board as a whole, rather than an entirely independent nominating committee or only the independent directors, handles this under Israeli law). See “ITEM 16G. Corporate Governance.” Furthermore, we may in the future elect to follow Israeli home country practices in lieu of the NASDAQ requirements on other matters, such as the requirement to hold separate executive sessions of independent directors or to obtain shareholder approval for certain dilutive events (such as for the establishment or amendment of certain equity-based compensation plans, issuances that will result in a change of control of the company, certain transactions other than a public offering involving issuances of a 20% or more interest in the company and certain acquisitions of the stock or assets of another company). Accordingly, our shareholders may not be afforded the same protection as provided under NASDAQ corporate governance rules. Following our home country governance practices as opposed to the requirements that would otherwise apply to a United States company listed on NASDAQ may provide less protection than is accorded to investors of domestic issuers. See “ITEM 16G. Corporate Governance.”

As a foreign private issuer, we are not subject to the provisions of Regulation FD or U.S. proxy rules and are exempt from filing certain Exchange Act reports.

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from a number of requirements under U.S. securities laws that apply to public companies that are not foreign private issuers. In particular, we are exempt from the rules and regulations under the Exchange Act related to the furnishing and content of proxy statements, and our officers, directors and principal shareholders are exempt from the reporting and short-swing profit recovery provisions contained in Section 16 of the Exchange Act. In addition, we are not required under the Exchange Act to file annual and current reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as U.S. domestic companies whose securities are registered under the Exchange Act and we are generally exempt from filing quarterly reports with the SEC under the Exchange Act. We are also exempt from the provisions of Regulation FD, which prohibits issuers from making selective disclosure of material nonpublic information to, among others, broker-dealers and holders of a company’s securities under circumstances in which it is reasonably foreseeable that the holder will trade in the company’s securities on the basis of the information. These exemptions and leniencies will reduce the frequency and scope of information and protections to which you are entitled as an investor.

We are not required to comply with the proxy rules applicable to U.S. domestic companies, including the requirement applicable to emerging growth companies to disclose the compensation of our Chief Executive Officer and other two most highly compensated executive officers on an individual, rather than on an aggregate, basis. Nevertheless, the Companies Law requires us to disclose in the notice of convening an annual general meeting the annual compensation of our five most highly compensated office holders on an individual basis, rather than on an aggregate basis, as was previously permitted for Israeli public companies listed overseas. This disclosure is not as extensive as that required of a U.S. domestic issuer.

We would lose our foreign private issuer status if a majority of our directors or executive officers are U.S. citizens or residents and we fail to meet additional requirements necessary to avoid loss of foreign private issuer status. Although we have elected to comply with certain U.S. regulatory provisions, our loss of foreign private issuer status would make such provisions mandatory. The regulatory and compliance costs to us under U.S. securities laws as a U.S. domestic issuer may be significantly higher. If we are not a foreign private issuer, we will be required to file periodic reports and registration statements on U.S. domestic issuer forms with the SEC, which are more detailed and extensive than the forms available to a foreign private issuer. We would also be required to follow U.S. proxy disclosure requirements, including the requirement to disclose more detailed information about the compensation of our senior executive officers on an individual basis. We may also be required to modify certain of our policies to comply with good governance practices associated with U.S. domestic issuers. Such conversion and modifications will involve additional costs. In addition, we would lose our ability to rely upon exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements on U.S. stock exchanges that are available to foreign private issuers.

The market price of our ordinary shares could be negatively affected by future sales of our ordinary shares.

Future sales by us or our shareholders of a substantial number of ordinary shares in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could cause the market price of our ordinary shares to decline or could impair our ability to raise capital through a future sale of, or to pay for acquisitions using, our equity securities.

Amazon is entitled to certain registration rights with respect to the 3,401,028 ordinary shares underlying new warrants that we issued to its affiliate on September 14, 2020, pursuant to a transaction agreement that we entered into with Amazon on that day. All shares sold pursuant to an offering covered by a registration statement will be freely transferable except if purchased by an affiliate. See “ITEM 10.C — Material Contracts — Agreements with Amazon—Transaction Agreement and Warrant” in this annual report.

In addition, 374,526 ordinary shares are issuable under currently vested and exercisable share options granted to employees and office holders as of December 31, 2020. We have filed registration statements on Form S-8 under the Securities Act registering our potential issuance of those ordinary shares under our share incentive plans, of which, as of December 31, 2020, there were options, restricted share units and warrants to purchase 2,180,512 shares outstanding. Shares included in such registration statements may be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, except for shares held by affiliates who have certain restrictions on their ability to sell

We continue to incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management is required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives and corporate governance practices.

As a public company, and particularly since we are no longer an emerging growth company, we continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of the NASDAQ Stock Market and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies, including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel continue to devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance initiatives. Moreover, these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, we expect that these rules and regulations may make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board.

We continue to evaluate these rules and regulations and cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs. These rules and regulations are often subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices.

We are required to comply with the SEC’s rules implementing Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which require management to certify financial and other information in our annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of control over financial reporting. Additionally, as we are no longer an emerging growth company and qualify as a large accelerated filer, we must include an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm.

To maintain the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting, we expect that we will need to continue enhancing existing, and implement new, financial reporting and management systems, procedures and controls to manage our business effectively and support our growth in the future. The process of evaluating our internal control over financial reporting will require an investment of substantial time and resources, including by our Chief Financial Officer and other members of our senior management. As a result, this process may divert internal resources and take a significant amount of time and effort to complete. Additionally, as part of management assessments of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting required by Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our management may conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective due to our failure to cure any identified material weakness or otherwise, which would require us to employ remedial actions to implement effective controls. If we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, if we are unable to comply with the requirements of Section 404(a) or 404(b) in a timely manner or to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion or issues an adverse opinion in its attestation as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting required by Section 404(b), investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the trading price of our ordinary shares could be negatively affected. We could also become subject to investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional financial and management resources.

Irrespective of compliance with Sections 404(a) and 404(b), any failure of our internal controls could have a material adverse effect on our stated results of operations and harm our reputation. In order to implement changes to our internal control over financial reporting triggered by a failure of those controls, we could experience higher than anticipated operating expenses, as well as higher independent auditor fees during and after the implementation of these changes.

Our U.S. shareholders may suffer adverse tax consequences if we are classified as a passive foreign investment company.

Generally, if for any taxable year 75% or more of our gross income is passive income, or at least 50% of the average quarterly value of our assets (which may be determined in part by the market value of our ordinary shares, which is subject to change) are held for the production of, or produce, passive income, we would be characterized as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Based on historic and certain estimates of our gross income, gross assets and market capitalization (which may fluctuate from time to time) and the nature of our business, we believe we were not a PFIC for the taxable year ended December 31, 2020 and we do not expect that we will be classified as a PFIC for the taxable year ending December 31, 2021. However, because PFIC status is based on our income, assets and activities for the entire taxable year, it is not possible to determine whether we will be characterized as a PFIC for our 2021 taxable year until after the close of the year. There can be no assurance that we will not be considered a PFIC for any taxable year. If we are characterized as a PFIC, our U.S. shareholders may suffer adverse tax consequences, including having gains realized on the sale of our ordinary shares treated as ordinary income, rather than as capital gain, the loss of the preferential rate applicable to dividends received on our ordinary shares by individuals who are U.S. Holders (as defined in “ITEM 10.E Taxation and Government Programs—U.S. Federal Income Taxation”), and having interest charges apply to distributions by us and the proceeds of sales of our ordinary shares. Certain elections exist that may alleviate some of the adverse consequences of PFIC status and would result in an alternative treatment (such as mark-to-market treatment) of our ordinary shares. For a more detailed discussion, see “ITEM 10.E Taxation and Government Programs - U.S. Federal Income Taxation - Passive Foreign Investment Company Considerations.”

Certain U.S. holders of our ordinary shares may suffer adverse tax consequences if we or any of our non-U.S. subsidiaries are characterized as a “controlled foreign corporation”, or a CFC, under Section 957(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code.

A non-U.S. corporation is considered a CFC if more than 50 percent of (1) the total combined voting power of all classes of stock of such corporation entitled to vote, or (2) the total value of the stock of such corporation; is owned, or is considered as owned by applying certain constructive ownership rules, by United States shareholders who own stock representing 10% or more of the vote or (for the taxable year of a non-U.S. corporation beginning after December 31, 2017 and for taxable years of shareholders with or within which such taxable years of such non-U.S. corporation ends) 10% or more of the value on any day during the taxable year of such non-U.S. corporation (“10% U.S. Shareholders”). Generally, a 10% U.S. Shareholder of a CFC is required to include currently in gross income such 10% U.S. Shareholder’s share of the CFC’s “Subpart F income”, a portion of the CFC’s earnings to the extent the CFC holds certain U.S. property, and certain other new items under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or the Tax Act. Such 10% U.S. Shareholders are subject to current U.S. federal income tax with respect to such items, even if the CFC has not made an actual distribution to such shareholders. “Subpart F income” includes, among other things, certain passive income (such as income from dividends, interests, royalties, rents and annuities or gain from the sale of property that produces such types of income) and certain sales and services income arising in connection with transactions between the CFC and a person related to the CFC.

Certain changes to the CFC constructive ownership rules introduced by the Tax Act may cause one or more of our non-U.S. subsidiaries to be treated as CFCs, may also impact our CFC status and, thus, may affect holders of our common shares that are United States shareholders. For 10% U.S. Shareholders, this may result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences, such as current U.S. taxation of Subpart F income and of any such shareholder’s share of our accumulated non-U.S. earnings and profits (regardless of whether we make any distributions), taxation of amounts treated as global intangible low-taxed income under Section 951A of the Code with respect to such shareholder, and being subject to certain reporting requirements with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Any 10% U.S. Shareholder should consult its own tax advisors regarding the U.S. tax consequences of acquiring, owning, or disposing our common shares and the impact of the Tax Act, especially the changes to the rules relating to CFCs.

If equity research analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if analysts, including short sellers, issue unfavorable commentary or downgrade our ordinary shares, the price of our ordinary shares could decline. Additionally, we may fail to meet publicly announced financial guidance or other expectations about our business, which would cause our ordinary shares to decline in value.

The trading market for our ordinary shares relies in part on the research and reports that equity research analysts publish about us and our business. The price of our ordinary shares could decline if one or more securities analysts downgrade our ordinary shares or if one or more of those analysts issue other unfavorable commentary or cease publishing reports about us or our business. The market price for our ordinary shares has been in the past, and may be in the future, materially and adversely affected by allegations made in reports issued by short sellers regarding our business model, our management and our financial accounting. If our financial results for a particular period do not meet our guidance or if we reduce our guidance for future periods, the market price of our ordinary shares may decline.

Risks Related to Our Operations in Israel

Our headquarters, manufacturing and other significant operations are located in Israel and, therefore, our results may be adversely affected by political, economic and military instability in Israel.

Our headquarters, research and development and manufacturing facility, and the primary manufacturing facilities of our third-party manufacturers, are located in Israel. In addition, the majority of our key employees, officers and directors are residents of Israel. Accordingly, political, economic and military conditions in Israel may directly affect our business. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a number of armed conflicts have taken place between Israel and its neighboring countries. In recent years, these have included hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, both of which resulted in rockets being fired into Israel, causing casualties and disruption of economic activities. In addition, Israel faces threats from more distant neighbors, in particular, Iran. Our commercial insurance does not cover losses that may occur as a result of an event associated with the security situation in the Middle East. Although the Israeli government is currently committed to covering the reinstatement value of direct damages that are caused by terrorist attacks or acts of war, we cannot assure you that this government coverage will be maintained, or if maintained, will be sufficient to compensate us fully for damages incurred. Any losses or damages incurred by us could have a material adverse effect on our business. While we have commenced implementation of a business continuity plan which provides for alternative sites outside of Israel, there can be no assurance that such plan will be successful. Any armed conflict involving Israel could adversely affect our operations and results of operations.

Further, our operations could be disrupted by the obligations of personnel to perform military service. As of December 31, 2020, we had 376 employees based in Israel, certain of whom may be called upon to perform up to 54 days in each three year period (and in the case of non-officer commanders or officers, up to 70 or 84 days, respectively, in each three year period) of military reserve duty until they reach the age of 40 (and in some cases, depending on their specific military profession, up to 45 or even 49 years of age) and, in certain emergency circumstances, may be called to immediate and unlimited active duty. Our operations could be disrupted by the absence of a significant number of employees related to military service, which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Several countries, principally in the Middle East, restrict doing business with Israel and Israeli companies, and additional countries may impose restrictions on doing business with Israel and Israeli companies whether as a result of hostilities in the region or otherwise. In addition, there have been increased efforts by activists to cause companies and consumers to boycott Israeli goods based on Israeli government policies. Such actions, particularly if they become more widespread, may adversely impact our ability to sell our solutions.

In addition, the shipping and delivery of our systems and ink and other consumables from our manufacturing facilities and those of our third-party manufacturers in Israel could be delayed or interrupted by political, economic, military, and other events outside of our reasonable control, including labor strikes at ports in Israel or at ports of destination, military attacks on transportation facilities or vessels, and severe weather events. If delivery and installation of our products is delayed or prevented by any such events, our revenues could be materially and adversely impacted.

The government tax benefits that we currently receive require us to meet several conditions and will be terminated in the future, which will increase our costs.

We and our wholly owned Israeli subsidiary, Kornit Digital Technologies Ltd., or Kornit Technologies, are entitled to various tax benefits under the Israeli Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investments, 1959, or the Investment Law. As a result of this status, we expect to have a reduced tax rate for our taxable income generated in Israel in 2021. However, if we do not meet the requirements for maintaining these benefits, the tax benefits may be reduced or cancelled and the relevant operations would be subject to Israeli corporate tax at the standard rate, which is currently set as 23%. In addition to being subject to the standard corporate tax rate, we might be required to refund any tax benefits that we have already received, as adjusted by the Israeli consumer price index, plus interest and monetary penalties thereon. Once these tax benefits are eliminated, the amount of taxes that we pay will increase, as all our operations would consequently be subject to corporate tax at the standard rate, which could adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, prior to the expiration of our tax benefits, if we increase our operational activities outside of Israel, for example, via acquisitions, our increased activities may not be eligible for inclusion in Israeli tax benefit programs. See “ITEM 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects - Taxation and Israeli Government Programs Applicable to our Company — Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investments, 5719-1959.”

We have received and may receive further Israeli government grants for certain research and development activities. The terms of those grants restrict our ability to transfer manufacturing operations or technology outside of Israel.

Our research and development efforts have been financed in part through grants from the Israeli National Authority for Technological Innovation, or the Innovation Authority (previously known as the Israeli Office of the Chief Scientist). Prior to 2015, we received various grants from the Innovation Authority, all of which we repaid. In 2019 and 2020, we received new commitments from the Innovation Authority for non-royalty bearing grants to reimburse us for up to 50% of our research and development expenses in connection with our projects, for an amount of NIS 1.59 million and NIS 1.97 million respectively (approximately $0.49 million $0.61 million), in the aggregate. To date, we have received from the Innovation Authority NIS 1.98 million (approximately 0.57 million) of this new committed amount. We must comply with the requirements of the Encouragement of Research, Development and Technological Innovation in the Industry Law, 5744-1984 (formerly known as the Law for the Encouragement of Research and Development in Industry 5744-1984), and related regulations, or collectively, the Innovation Law, in connection with that new funding that we have begun to receive and any past funding that we had received from the Innovation Authority.

When a company develops know-how, technology or products and related services using grants provided by the Innovation Authority, the terms of these grants and the Innovation Law, among others, restrict the transfer outside of Israel of such Innovation Authority-supported know-how (including by a way of license for research and development purposes), the transfer inside Israel of such know-how and the transfer of manufacturing or manufacturing rights of such products, and technologies outside of Israel, without the prior approval of the Innovation Authority. We may not receive those approvals.

The restrictions set forth under the Innovation Law, to which we are subject (even after repaying grants we have received) include:

These restrictions and requirements for payment may impair our ability to sell our technology assets outside of Israel or to outsource or transfer manufacturing activities with respect to any product or technology outside of Israel; however, they do not restrict the export of our products that incorporate know how funded by the Innovation Authority. Furthermore, the consideration available to our shareholders in a sale transaction involving the actual transfer outside of Israel of technology or know-how developed with funding by the Innovation Authority pursuant to a merger or similar transaction may be reduced by any amounts that we are required to pay to the Innovation Authority. Failure to comply with the requirements under the Innovation Law may subject us to mandatory repayment of grants received by us, together with interest and penalties, as well as expose us to criminal proceedings.

Provisions of Israeli law and our articles may delay, prevent or otherwise impede a merger with, or an acquisition of, our company, even when the terms of such a transaction are favorable to us and our shareholders.

Israeli corporate law regulates mergers, requires tender offers for acquisitions of shares above specified thresholds, requires special approvals for transactions involving directors, officers or significant shareholders and regulates other matters that may be relevant to such types of transactions. For example, a tender offer for all of a company’s issued and outstanding shares can only be completed if the acquirer receives positive responses from the holders of at least 95% of the issued share capital, otherwise, the acquirer may not own more than 90% of a company’s issued and outstanding share capital. Completion of the tender offer also requires approval of a majority in number of the offerees that do not have a personal interest in the tender offer, unless at least 98% of the company’s outstanding shares are tendered. Furthermore, the shareholders, including those who indicated their acceptance of the tender offer (unless the acquirer stipulated in its tender offer that a shareholder that accepts the offer may not seek appraisal rights), may, at any time within six months following the completion of the tender offer, petition an Israeli court to alter the consideration for the acquisition. See “ITEM 10.B — Articles of Association — Acquisitions under Israeli Law.”

Our articles provide that our directors (other than external directors, to the extent there are any serving at the time) are elected on a staggered basis, such that a potential acquirer cannot readily replace our entire board of directors at a single annual general shareholder meeting.

Furthermore, Israeli tax considerations may make potential transactions unappealing to us or to our shareholders whose country of residence does not have a tax treaty with Israel exempting such shareholders from Israeli tax. For example, Israeli tax law does not recognize tax-free share exchanges to the same extent as U.S. tax law. With respect to mergers involving an exchange of shares, Israeli tax law allows for tax deferral in certain circumstances but makes the deferral contingent on the fulfillment of a number of conditions, including, in some cases, a holding period of two years from the date of the transaction during which sales and dispositions of shares of the participating companies are subject to certain restrictions. Moreover, with respect to certain share swap transactions in which the sellers receive shares in the acquiring entity that are publicly traded on a stock exchange, the tax deferral is limited in time, and when such time expires, the tax becomes payable even if no disposition of such shares has occurred. In order to benefit from the tax deferral, a pre-ruling from the Israel Tax Authority might be required.

It may be difficult to enforce a judgment of a U.S. court against us or our officers and directors, to assert U.S. securities laws claims in Israel or to serve process on our officers and directors.

We are incorporated in Israel. The majority of our directors and executive officers reside outside of the United States, and most of our assets and most of the assets of these persons are located outside of the United States. Therefore, a judgment obtained against us, or any of these persons, including a judgment based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws, may not be collectible in the United States and may not be enforced by an Israeli court. It also may be difficult for you to effect service of process on these persons in the United States or to assert U.S. securities law claims in original actions instituted in Israel. Israeli courts may refuse to hear a claim based on an alleged violation of U.S. securities laws reasoning that Israel is not the most appropriate forum in which to bring such a claim. In addition, even if an Israeli court agrees to hear a claim, it may determine that Israeli law and not U.S. law is applicable to the claim. If U.S. law is found to be applicable, the content of applicable U.S. law must be proven as a fact by expert witnesses, which can be a time consuming and costly process. Certain matters of procedure will also be governed by Israeli law. There is little binding case law in Israel that addresses the matters described above. As a result of the difficulty associated with enforcing a judgment against us in Israel, you may not be able to collect any damages awarded by either a U.S. or foreign court. It may be difficult to enforce a judgment of a U.S. court against us, our officers and directors or the Israeli experts named in this prospectus supplement in Israel or the United States, to assert U.S. securities laws claims in Israel or to serve process on our officers and directors and these experts. 

Your rights and responsibilities as a shareholder are governed by Israeli law, which differs in some material respects from the rights and responsibilities of shareholders of U.S. companies.

The rights and responsibilities of the holders of our ordinary shares are governed by our articles and by Israeli law. These rights and responsibilities differ in some material respects from the rights and responsibilities of shareholders in U.S.-based corporations. In particular, a shareholder of an Israeli company has a duty to act in good faith and in a customary manner in exercising its rights and performing its obligations towards the company and other shareholders, and to refrain from abusing its power in the company, including, among other things, in voting at a general meeting of shareholders on matters such as amendments to a company’s articles of association, increases in a company’s authorized share capital, mergers and acquisitions and related party transactions requiring shareholder approval. In addition, a shareholder who is aware that it possesses the power to determine the outcome of a shareholder vote or to appoint or prevent the appointment of a director or executive officer in the company has a duty of fairness toward the company. There is limited case law available to assist us in understanding the nature of this duty or the implications of these provisions. These provisions may be interpreted to impose additional obligations and liabilities on holders of our ordinary shares that are not typically imposed on shareholders of U.S. corporations.

Our History

Our legal name is Kornit Digital Ltd. and we were incorporated under the laws of the State of Israel on January 16, 2002. 

In April 2015, we completed our initial public offering, or IPO, pursuant to which we sold 8.165 million ordinary shares for aggregate gross proceeds (before underwriting discounts, commissions and expenses) of $81.65 million. Our ordinary shares began trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, under the symbol “KRNT,” on April 2, 2015. On January 31, 2017, June 18, 2019 and September 21, 2020, we completed follow-on offerings pursuant to which we sold approximately 2.3 million, 5.0 million and 3.0 million ordinary shares, respectively, for aggregate gross proceeds (before underwriting discounts, commissions and expenses) of $38.0 million, $137.3 million and $168.0 million, respectively. In addition, in September 21, 2020 Amazon sold approximately 1.7 million ordinary shares pursuant to exercise of their warrants for the aggregate gross proceeds of $95.0 million.

We are subject to the provisions of the Israeli Companies Law, 5759-1999. Our principal executive offices are located at 12 Ha’Amal Street, Rosh Ha’Ayin 4809246, Israel, and our telephone number is +972-3-908-5800. Our website address is www.kornit.com (the information contained therein or linked thereto shall not be considered incorporated by reference in this annual report). Our agent for service of process in the United States is Kornit Digital North America Inc., located at 480 South Dean Street Englewood, NJ 07631, and its telephone number is (262) 518-0200.

Principal Capital Expenditures

Capital expenditures in the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 were principally used for the purchase of property, plant and equipment ($7.3 million, $5.4 million and $13.5 million in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively). The aggregate amount for 2018, 2019 and 2020 included approximately$2.3 million paid for the land for our new 6,400 square meter manufacturing and ink storage facility in Kiryat Gat, Israel, for which construction began in January 2019. The construction of that new facility in Kiryat Gat, Israel, including a production line being installed there, is expected to be completed towards the end of 2021. We may experience further delays in construction due to, among others, the effects of the coronavirus. We currently estimate that the total cost for land, construction of the facility, design and installation of the production line, will be approximately NIS 78.0 million (approximately $24.3 million based on current exchange rates). We are financing the construction of that facility from cash on hand. On February 7, 2019, we consummated an asset purchase from Hirsch Solutions Inc., our former primary distributor in the United States and Canada, which accounted for 18% and 15% of our revenues in the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2018, respectively, to purchase remaining Kornit business assets related to the former distribution agreement between the companies. On the closing date, our company, through our wholly owned subsidiary Kornit Digital North America Inc., took ownership of relevant Kornit-related customer business assets as well as remaining inventory of systems and ink. Under the related acquisition agreement, the total consideration was $4.7 million.

Industry Overview

The General Textile Industry

Textile is a flexible material formed using various processes, including weaving, knitting, crocheting or felting. This material may be used for manufacturing a broad range of conventional as well as advanced, finished goods, which may be broadly categorized (as related to the focus of our business) into fashion, apparel, home decoration and soft signage applications. According to a report published by GlobalData in July 2020, the value of the global apparel retail market totaled $1.95 trillion in 2019 and was forecasted to be valued at $1.66 trillion in 2020, considering the short-term impact of COVID-19. According to the same report, the market value is projected to be $2.1 trillion in 2023, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2% from 2019 to 2023 and 8% from 2020 to 2023. Evolving consumers’ shopping habits, post-pandemic discretionary spending, and population growth are expected to play an important role in the demand for textile products.

The global printed textile industry involves printing on fabric rolls, finished garments and unsewn pieces of cut fabric at various stages along the value chain in the production of goods for (as related to the focus of our business) fashion, apparel, home decoration and soft signage applications. According to The Future of Digital Textile Printing report published by Pira in 2019, approximately 95% of the global output of printed textile in 2018 was carried out via analog methods of printing. According to the same Pira report, the global value of digital printed textile output was estimated to be approximately $3.2 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to approximately $5.5 billion by 2023, reflecting a CAGR of 11.6% in the five-year period from 2018 to 2023, without adjusting for the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the same Pira report, digital textile output volume was estimated to be approximately 2.2 billion square meters in 2018 and is expected to reach 4.1 billion square meters in 2023, reflecting a CAGR of 13.4% for the five-year period from 2018 to 2023, without adjusting for the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pira estimates that global digital printed textile output constituted less than 5% of the total global printed textile output in 2018.

COVID-19 Impact

In 2020, the textile industry founds itself in the midst of an unprecedented interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with revenues and margins coming under pressure, while at the same time creating new opportunities and fuelling existing ones. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the textile industry has been swift and significant. Lockdown measures caused retailers and brands to close their physical stores partially or entirely for an undefined period, significantly disrupting their ongoing operations in key locations. Additionally, global restrictions imposed on business and leisure activities, combined with the overall economic uncertainty, impacted consumers’ immediate discretionary spending priorities as it relates to the consumption of textile products. Indeed, the fashion industry suffered almost three quarters of listed companies losing money. While consumer behaviour shifted, supply chains were also disrupted.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on global garment supply chains as well. Immediate decrease in retail sales resulted in high inventory levels and pushed global brands and retailers to cancel orders from their suppliers. Additional factors like government-imposed restrictions on production sites (i.e., travel, gatherings) disrupted brands’ and retailers’ supply chains. As a result, many garment factories are suspending production and either firing or temporarily suspending their workers. Brands and retailers are struggling to handle high inventory levels of off-season items while trying to restock best-selling items for upcoming seasons. As a result, many apparel categories experienced reduced product availability, assortment gaps, and stock delays.

The pandemic has also proven to be an inflection point for the apparel sector, driving online commerce market share growth to accelerate rapidly, which has an immediate and long-term impact on the entire apparel value chain. Worldwide lockdowns and movement restrictions drove new and existing consumers to shop online more than ever before. While the rapid short-term growth rate is expected to slow down once physical commerce returns, e-commerce market share has grown significantly and is expected to maintain and improve its position.

Mega Trends Affecting Our Industry

Industry 4.0

Digitization of manufacturing is transforming the way products are being produced. This transformation process is also broadly referred to as Industry 4.0, representing the fourth industrial revolution occurring in manufacturing. This fourth industrial revolution is mainly about full digitization and the move away from analog production methods, as well as cloud networks connectivity, and the introduction of autonomous systems fueled by data and machine learning. As a result of the support of machines that keep getting smarter as they get access to more data, the increased use of affordable robotics in production environments, and the data-connected logistics supply chain, our future factories are predicted to become more efficient, productive and less wasteful. The fashion and apparel industry segments in which we operate have been operating for decades in traditional, analog and labor-intensive models, which will yield to what can also be referred to as Textile 4.0. This market landscape minimizes the efficacy of forecasting demand, fashion cycles, and reliance on complex, widely dispersed supply chains that slow fulfillment to weeks, months, and beyond. Demand will become clear on a moment’s notice, and consumers will gravitate towards fulfillers and brands that can satisfy those demands in a similarly quick manner. On the supplier side, the benefit here can best be illustrated by their only needing to “stock” virtual store shelves rather than physical ones (which carries enormous opportunity in eliminating large, often unsold inventories), but conversely, they must be willing and able to produce the virtual product being chosen by the consumer. That is where digital, on-demand production capabilities become essential—the more responsive and agile in response to demand data, the better

E-Commerce Boom

E-commerce has grown globally at an unprecedented rate and is transforming retailing, across industries. Around the world, e-commerce is entirely changing the way people shop. Having access to global shopping opportunities allows consumers to save time, save money and have access to greater choices. E-commerce giants and technology vendors continue to invest in advanced technologies such as virtual reality, 3D modelling, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence in a continuous effort to improve the online shopping experience.

According to McKinsey, the rise of COVID-19 accelerated the trend towards e-commerce, to a sudden and stunning degree. In Q1 2020, e-commerce penetration in the United States doubled the prior 10 years’ penetration, from about 15% to more than 30%. Additionally, 75% of U.S. consumers tried new stores, websites, or brands during the COVID-19 crisis, and 60% of those consumers expect to use those stores/brands again after the crisis has abated. According to McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report, 30% of fashion executives mentioned digital as the biggest opportunity for the fashion industry in 2021 with 70% of executives expecting growth of more than 20% in their e-commerce channels. The report refers to digital mostly in the sense of online brand presence and embracing digital innovations. Per Statista, the most common reasons consumers cited for purchasing online included direct delivery to their homes, cheaper prices, convenience, and 24-hour availability.

In the months following the rise of the pandemic, Walmart reported a 74% increase in online volumes. Nike reported a 30% increase. Adidas reported a 55% increase. H&M, which famously wrote off more than $4 billion in unsold goods in 2018, saw a 32% increase.

According to eMarketer, 2020 saw retail e-commerce sales grow 16.5% globally, at a rate of 15.5% in Asia-Pacific, 16.9% in Western Europe, 18.1% in North America, 19.4% in Latin America, 19.8% in the Middle East and Africa, and 21.5% in Central and Eastern Europe. Statista projects the CAGR for retail e-commerce sales worldwide to be 8.1% from 2020 to 2024.

According to Digital Commerce 360, e-commerce continues to grow as a share of total apparel sales, accounting for 29.9% in 2017 and 38.6% in 2019; 100% of the growth in retail clothing sales in 2019 can be attributed to online apparel sales.

Per a study by personalization firm Nosto, 76% of large fashion retailer traffic now comes from mobile devices, compared to 61% for smaller retailers. Similarly, large fashion retailers generate 64% of their sales via mobile, while smaller retailers claim 53%.

Traditional Retail Meltdown

For the last decade, various factors have resulted in the shrinking, bankruptcy/reorganization, or total closing of numerous traditional North American retailers. Announcements from major retailers of plans to either discontinue or greatly scale back their retail presence continued in 2019 and into 2020. For example, Lord & Taylor (established 1826) filed for bankruptcy in August 2020, and announced it was shuttering all stores a month later. Other major retailers declaring bankruptcy in 2020 included Brooks Brothers, J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, J. Crew Group, Stein Mart, and Tailored Brands (which owns Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank).

While the dynamics of the pandemic economy engender considerable uncertainty, Coresight Research estimates as many as 25,000 stores in the U.S. may prove to have shuttered for good in 2020, following a record 9,302 store closings in 2019 (which represented a 59% jump from 2018). It is worth noting that prior to COVID-19 disruptions, Coresight Research anticipated 12,000 would close, reinforcing the point of a pandemic economy aggravating an already-bleak retail marketplace.

The primary factors affecting the continued closing of traditional retail stores are the shift in consumer habits towards online shopping, a less than inspiring shopping experience at traditional brick-and-mortar stores, retailers’ inability to sell trend-right apparel, and the ongoing pile-up of unsold inventory, which has put pressure on profits. A couple of recent examples are Inditex’s announcement to close up to 1,200 stores worldwide to focus on digital growth, and Diane von Furstenberg’s announcement that it is closing all of its stores and moving to a digital-only model. Traditional retailers are struggling to find the right balance between supply and demand, so that they do not end up with too much inventory on their shelves or in stock rooms, or conversely, running out of their best-selling products without the ability to replenish that stock immediately. When merchandise piles too high, traditional retailers are forced to use steep discounts to deplete inventory and make room for next season’s goods. Further, eCommerce share gains continue to put pressure on traditional retail stores that are finding it difficult to compete with the level of selection, price, service, and convenience provided by many of the pure-play eCommerce companies or scaled omni-channel retailers.

 COVID-19 has accelerated previously existing trends; companies that had embraced digital transformation and Industry 4.0 production and delivery methods saw growth, while those reliant upon more traditional, analog production and delivery methods lagged. This emphasizes the need for digital transformation; the more one’s business model depends on physical storefronts and multinational supply chains, the more susceptible that business is to fallout from major economic disruptions, as seen in 2020.

Social Media Platforms

Social platforms, historically categorized into media and networks (which categories have merged in recent years), have changed the industrial and business landscape, both for companies that have adopted them and for those that have not. Social media platforms have an extremely powerful impact on the ways in which individuals and organizations are communicating with each other, and a powerful impact on consumer trends, demand, and brands perception. The number of social media users, according to DataReportal data from January 2021, was 4.2 billion, 53% of the total world population. In the U.S. alone, according to Statista data from December 2019, roughly 79% of the population use social media. In the wake of COVID-19, 25% of users in the U.S. are checking their social media feeds more frequently. This mainstream effect has a dramatic impact on the ability of small and micro brands, some of which are initiated by individuals or organizations that are leveraging their social influence status to inspire individuals who, in turn, purchase those brands’ products, to achieve ultra-fast recognition and exponential growth at the expense of traditional players, which need to develop agility in order to connect with consumers.

Social media platforms are expanding outside of their traditional boarders as increasing engagement drives platforms, consumers and brands to use social media both as a purchase and a discovery channel, according to McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report.

Sustainability

The need to reduce or contain the ecological footprint of the textile and apparel industry is affecting the entire industrial system. The urgency for change has flowed through from political and environmental activists and scientists, into mainstream government regulators and business leadership across the globe. A sustainable industrial system requires formulation of new strategies and thinking, integrated into business and operational frameworks around sustainable manufacturing, supply chain design, sustainability performance measurement and ongoing management. Industry is now considered not only part of the problem but also part of the solution. From a practical point of view, as it comes to sustainability strategies, companies are focused on technology improvements enabling cleaner production, pollution prevention, and other sustainable manufacturing practices.

The pandemic crisis has emphasized the need to move to more sustainable and responsible ways of working in all areas of the value chain. According to McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report, 1 out of 10 executives cited sustainability as an area of growth, underscoring the mindset shift that has begun over the last few years.

Among the biggest environmental impacts of the textile industry, two noticeable impacts are water pollution and waste of both water and garments.

In some of the countries in which garments are produced, untreated toxic wastewaters from textile factories are dumped directly into the rivers. These are extremely harmful for the aquatic life and the health of millions of people living by those riverbanks. The contamination also reaches the sea and eventually spreads around the globe. 200,000 tons of dyes are lost to effluents every year according to an article published by Sustain Your Style. The textile industry is also the second largest consumer of water. According to Sustain Your Style data, it can take up to 200 tons of freshwater per ton of dyed fabric.

Consumer behavior and frequently changing fashion trends are making it difficult for fashion brands to predict the volumes of items that will be purchased, causing 25% of garments to remain unsold, according to McKinsey. Cost per unit driven traditional supply chains are designed for production of mass volumes of units creating massive inventory leftovers and a negative pressure on financial performance. According to McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report, 40% of garments were sold at a discounted price, creating billions of dollars of lost revenues and margin. Redundant inventory and lack of adequate recycling infrastructure cause textile waste to rise and become an industry wide problem. According to Common Objective, a global tech solution for sustainable fashion business, 39 million tons of post-consumer textile waste is generated worldwide each year.

Considering the size of the textile industry— one of the largest industries in the world—sustainability of the industry is important, but, on top of that, companies can furthermore make a huge difference environmentally, economically and socially. COVID-19 increased the importance of sustainability in purchasing decisions, and the rise of circular business models. The textile industry has many reasons to place an emphasis on sustainability, including reduced costs, protection of the environment and sustained goodwill from its customers for eco-friendly practices. As one of the world’s most water and air polluting industries, sustainability issues in the textile/apparel industry continue to receive great attention.

Mega Consumer Trends Affecting our Industry

Personal Expression 

We believe that modern consumers, impacted by the mega industry trends, are increasingly seeking the ability to express their identities and beliefs through the everyday choices that they make. If in the past it was mainly about the choice of brand affiliation that was considered “appropriate” for their self-image, consumers are now seeking new and creative ways to express their identities through unique, customized or personalized impressions, styles, and messages – whether affiliated with their favorite brands, through the creation of their own “private brands” or via affiliation with unique “no brand” designed goods. According to Facebook’s data, 72% of US fashion shoppers say at least one form of personalization increases their likelihood of making a purchase.

Younger consumers are more and more concerned with social and environmental causes, as many increasingly back their beliefs with their tightly coupled expression and consumption habits, favoring goods and brands that are aligned with their personal, social and environmental values and avoiding those that do not.

In the wake of COVID-19, self-expression has taken on a different dynamic, as protective facial masks have become a common form of expression, and consumers are spending less time at the office and more time at home, driving the need for more expressive casual wear.

Instant Gratification

Modern consumers seek solutions faster and easier than ever before, catalyzed by the explosive growth of technology and mobile applications usage. This shift has given way to an on-demand economy where immediate gratification has become the standard across industries, in the form of instant arrival rides in the transportation industry, unlimited on-demand video streaming, minimal wait time for food deliveries, or in the case of retail, instant visibility and availability of product and inventory, and ultra-fast delivery. Consumers expect to be serviced almost instantaneously and are rewarding the brands that understand and meet their instant gratification needs. According to the Shopify Plus report “The Future of E-Commerce Report 2021,” 67% of U.S. consumers expect either same-, next-, or two-day delivery, while 72% of global consumers want brands to use sustainable packaging. The majority of consumers in the U.S., U.K., China, Germany, France, and Japan say free shipping greatly impacts whether or not they buy from a brand. 39% of U.S. shoppers expect two-day shipping to be free, while the same-day shipping market in the U.S. is forecast to top $9.6 billion in 2022. Three-quarters of U.S. consumers are more likely to buy a product packaged sustainably; many will pay a premium.

According to the merchants surveyed in Internet Retailer’s 2019 Top 1,000 (North American online retailers), 65.4% offer free shipping on at least some orders, and 17.5% offer free shipping on all orders, and more than 50% offer the option to pay for next-day delivery.

This change in consumer behavior is causing retailers to evaluate ways to alter their approach towards their entire supply chain, with high focus on improved inventory management and an efficient and scalable fulfilment infrastructure. In addition to retooling their internal fulfilment capabilities, many retail brands have begun to leverage the capacity of third-party online stores to meet customer demands for delivery speed and product availability.

Social Media Influence 

With the rise of mega social platforms like YouTube and Instagram, and fueled by the explosive mobile device accessibility, influencer marketing continues making waves on social media and narrowing the bridge between discovery, inspiration, and purchase. According to the IPSOS “How COVID-19 Fosters New Purchasing Behavior” report, half of adults, including 33% over the age of 55, tried a new technology in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions. McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report emphasizes the importance of developing more engaging and social experiences to encourage consumers to connect, given the shifts in consumer behavior driven by COVID-19 over the past year. ODM Group finds 74% of consumers rely on social networks with their purchasing decisions (online and offline). According to the Nielsen Consumer Trust Index, 92% of consumers trust user-generated content by friends or acquaintances more than they trust brand content.

According to Morning Consult’s “The Influencer Report” published in 2019, which surveyed more than 2,000 13-38-year-olds in the US, when asked what traits they consider when deciding which influencers to follow, the vast majority (88%) of respondents are looking for influencers who are authentic and genuinely care about their interests. That can explain why sustainable bloggers and green living influencers are becoming an increasingly popular subgroup. Many fashion influencers across the globe are using their platforms to promote ethical fashion brands, spread eco-conscious messages and encourage users to create a positive impact on the planet.

“Be Greener”

Environmental degradation has been hitting headlines in recent years. News articles and documentaries around rising seas, declining air quality and shrinking animal populations have become more commonplace. Sales of reusable coffee cups and water bottles took off, plastic straws were banned in many bars and restaurants, and mega consumer brands like Evian and Coca-Cola have committed to manufacture from recycled materials. The impulse to “be greener” is clearly gaining momentum. According to a recent bespoke study carried out in the U.K. and U.S. by Global Web Index, half of the digital consumers surveyed said environmental concerns impact their purchasing decisions. Millennials are the ones driving the sustainable movement with their lifestyle and behavioral changes. According to the Deloitte 2020 Millennials Survey, Millennials and Gen Zs are inclined to spend their income on products and services from brands that speak about issues that resonate with them most, such as protecting the environment. Also, when asked on the essence of businesses, 31% mentioned improving and protecting the environment. Social impact and ethics are the most common reasons why millennials change their relationships with businesses. This trend has experienced a strong tailwind in 2020, with the impact of COVID-19 as consumers have become more aware of the fashion value chain environmental and social aspects like employees’ vulnerability and safety. In fact, 55% of consumers expect fashion brands to care for the health of employees, according to McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” survey. Often coined the “green generation,” many brands are starting to see the appeal of, and the opportunity to connect with their consumers through, these changes, rather than viewing the changes as a regulatory burden. Per one Stanford Social Innovation Review paper from 2018, more than 90% of CEOs surveyed state that sustainability is important to their company’s success, and companies develop sustainability strategies, market sustainable products and services, create positions such as chief sustainability officer, and publish sustainability reports for consumers, investors, activists, and the public at large.

According to the Global Web Index study, 60% of Millennials (aged 22-35) said they would be more likely than any other generation to pay extra for ecofriendly or sustainable products. With plastic waste currently at the center stage of consumers’ attention, it is likely just a matter of time before consumers better research the manufacturing processes and decoration techniques for their clothes, shoes and bags before buying them, which will increase pressure on brands to connect with the consumer by adopting eco-friendly printing and decoration methods that minimize water pollution, toxic chemicals use and other textile waste. While producers have clearly made overtures to this trend, such as the Greenpeace “Detox” campaign and the broader “Sustainable Development Goals” set forth by the United Nations, the growing attitudes among consumers (especially younger, emerging consumers) to favor responsible, sustainable practices only promises to accelerate in the years to come, and fashion brands and fulfillers will surely find success by capitalizing on that demand.

According to Global Web Index, 41.8% of consumers want brands to be socially responsible. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, this global trend is strongest in developing and rapidly developing markets, led by China, where 67% of respondents say they’d be more likely to purchase products or services from a company with a good reputation for environmental responsibility, with 46% in Sweden, 52% in Australia, and 42% of respondents in the U.S.

Governments and brands are collaborating and joining efforts in forming industry regulation to support the eco-friendly global trends, including the imperatives of circularity, reducing overconsumption, ensuring transparency and traceability, and nearshoring or reshoring operations—eliminating the pollutions associated with transnational supply chains and transport, shrinking production and delivery times, and minimizing supply chain vulnerabilities to inoculate against disruptions and ensure resilience. Considering 86% of textile facilities have been impacted by canceled or suspended orders in the wake of COVID-19, that resilience is a worthwhile goal for stakeholders throughout the textile value chain.

In August 2019, major fashion brands announced a Fashion Pact at the G7 Summit in France, outlining commitments focused on reducing the fashion industry’s contribution to climate change. This was the first-time major industry players have set a level of ambition consistent with the UN Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius. More than 30 companies signed the pact, including Kering, Gap, Nike, Adidas, H&M, and Chanel. The signatories committed to implementing Science Based Targets to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, including sustainable sourcing of raw materials and 100 percent use of renewable energy in their supply chains by 2030.

Implications on Fashion and Apparel Transformation, as it Relates to our Business

Regardless of size and specific segment, industry players in fashion and apparel, whether traditional brands, digital start-ups, new generation e-tailers, or different forms of customized designers, now need to be nimble, sustainable, think digital-first and achieve ever-faster speed to market. They need to connect to the end consumer for self-expression, take an active stance on social issues, satisfy consumer demands for ultra-transparency and sustainability, and ensure they invest in an omni-channel strategy, thereby enhancing their manufacturing productivity, supply chain resilience, lean inventory management, and their ability to respond to the immediate gratification needs of the evolving consumer. Traditional brands are beginning to self-disrupt their own business models, image and offering in response to the new breed of emerging high growth digital native brands that are accelerating, thanks to changing consumer preferences, growing appetite for self-expression, and instant gratification. We expect more traditional brands to follow suit on this omni-channel path of self-disruption, which will have a significant impact on their ability to connect with, and meet the needs of, consumers. In a survey published in 2019 by a leading management consulting firm, top industry executives were asked to describe the words that best describe the industry, with the top three words being: “Changing,” “Digital,” and “Fast.”

We believe the following objectives capture some of the key areas of focus, as they relate to our business, as traditional and new generation online-first fashion and apparel players continue to adapt their value propositions and operating models to the rapidly changing industry environment and consumer preferences. We believe these industry areas of focus will continue to fuel the growing need and demand for our innovative digital textile printing solutions:

Impact on the Industry Need and Demand for Operational Transformation

New generation start-up apparel and fashion businesses born and grown in digital and online retail and production, some of which are existing customers of our solutions, have already implemented successful full or partial on-demand production models as they establish their greenfield environments. We expect these businesses to continue scaling and perfecting their existing digital business and operational models, investing in front-end technologies to continue improving the online customer experience, and operationally scaling their partial or full on-demand production capabilities.

We believe that in order to address the focus areas identified above, traditional industry and brands players will continue to examine and digitally transform their predominantly mass production and inefficient analog operating production models and supply chains, especially as it comes to managing their finished goods inventory levels, which remains a huge financial risk. Traditional companies have continued to invest “upstream the chain” in better predicting buying trends, consumer preferences, and demand via sophisticated big-data analytics, as they plan their collections and inventory levels; however, consumer demand is more volatile and difficult to predict than ever. The challenge with prediction-only production planning is growing, and industry executives, as evidenced in a 2018 study published by a leading management consulting firm, are increasingly shifting their focus “downstream” to the manufacturing environment, seeking a shift to a more agile, partial or full on-demand production model. According to Mckinsey’s 2021 “State of Fashion” report, continued pressure of COVID-19 on supply chains and the need to increase flexibility will drive brands to secure high-quality and reliable production capacity and make the long-overdue shift to a demand-focused model. According to the same report, 35% of fashion executives expect resilience and partnerships in the supply chain to be a top theme in 2021. We believe that industry players will continue to seek ways to adopt major changes to their business and operational models, and supply chains, and - specifically as it relates to our business - in how they design, produce, and decorate garments and apparel.

The below lists a few key production gaps, that prevent a successful transition to partial or full on-demand retailing models, that traditional fashion and apparel manufacturers are looking to close as they plan their future marketing and production strategies:

Mass Customization and Personalization: The capability to manufacture a relatively high volume of product options, carrying unique designs, without tradeoffs in cost, delivery and quality. In a simplified way, the ability to cater demand to mass produce customizable products with unlimited designs, on a one-by-one basis, in a cost-efficient manner.

“Shorter Runs”: Mass production of smaller batches with (most likely) higher number of order amounts, at a similar cost per garment structure achieved by producing large batches. This flexibility reduces finished goods inventory risks by identifying buying patterns and responding to demand in a more accurate manner by replenishing stock in ultra-short cycles. The pressure for smaller batch sizes and on-demand replenishment is driven partly by profitability, but also by a desire for sustainability. In McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report, Louis Vuitton Chief Executive Michael Burke emphasized the importance of short runs and the made-to-order model: “The higher the percentage of made-to-order business, the less overproduction you’re going to get involved with. That’s the first thing that luxury needs to concentrate on; smaller runs, ideally a run of one.”

Proximity Production, Proximity Decoration and Nearshoring: Two decades ago, U.S. and European mass-market apparel brands and retailers shifted production to Asia to gain a cost advantage. Factors are changing this calculus by making it critical for companies to bring new styles to market more quickly and switch out lines mid-season. According to a 2018 survey published by McKinsey, 54% of purchasing managers surveyed in the US and the EU said that proximity to customers is becoming more important. In another study published by a leading management consulting firm, 60% of apparel procurement executives said that they expect that over 20% of their sourcing volume will be from nearshore by 2025. In addition, rising wages for factory workers across Asia mean that production in Asia is less cost-efficient than it used to be. The real prize is shorter lead times. By reducing time-to-market, companies can produce, partially produce, finish, print or decorate more closely in-line with demand, reducing overstocks and increasing full-price sell-through. In 2020, many fashion brands experienced delayed deliveries, as COVID-19 caused lockdowns in China, the world’s largest producer of apparel and raw materials, and scrambled to accelerate diversification strategies, according to McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report. Additional lockdowns in other regions put pressure on supply chains, leading larger-scale suppliers and sourcing agents with multi-country footprints to gain an advantage. Going forward, COVID-19 acts as an accelerator for the transition to nearshore production. Proximity production deals with many of the supply chain risks caused by COVID-19 by shortening lead-time, reducing uncertainties while increasing brands and retailer’s flexibility and reactivity to changes and accommodates the rise of eCommerce and the high demand for specific items. McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report indicates that fashion brands are looking for resilience of their supply chains by considering lower-risk locations and reducing the geographic breadth to make the supply chain easier to manage. According to the same report, cross-border trade also continued to slow significantly in 2020, with port and airport closures disrupting flows. Trade tensions and tariff disputes like the deteriorating relationship between China and the US and the impact of Brexit, added additional challenges. Recent years’ decrease of China’s dominance of the textile production reflects an ongoing shift to nearshore locations in the US, EU, Turkey, Central America and North Africa.

Microfactories, Speedfactories, Reshoring: Smaller and nimble manufacturing sites, usually planned out in an urban cell model, that can efficiently source or produce the raw materials as well as produce and ship finished apparel goods end-to-end. Success of such factories is heavily reliant on a fully digital, real estate efficient, either semi or fully automated manufacturing workflow capability that offsets the inefficient cost structure associated with large analog equipment, rising costs of real estate and labor costs, predominantly in developed countries.

We believe that the technology and solutions that we bring to the market in the form of digital textile printing solutions, as listed in our products and technology sections, are key enablers for these business and operating models. We expect increasing demand and adoption of our solutions by start-ups and new-generation digital apparel brands (some of which are our customers), as well as from traditional apparel brands that need to adapt their operational models in order to remain connected with their customers.

Overview of Textile Printing Processes

The graphic and accompanying description below present various textile printing processes: 

Screen printing is the most commonly used printing process for textiles. The two primary methods of screen printing are rotary screen printing and automated carousel screen printing.

The following chart summarizes the key steps involved in the analog printing process:

Rotary Screen Printing Rotary screen printing is commonly used to print on outerwear, underwear, sportswear, upholstery and linens. It involves multiple, time-consuming process steps. Rolls of fabric pass through rotating cylinders that are engraved with the image or design to be printed. Each cylinder then applies ink of a different color, which forms part of the image or design. This process is generally used to print a pattern on a fabric roll that is then cut and sewn into finished products. Rotary screen engraving is a costly process that takes between four and five hours per cylinder and is frequently done offsite. Preparation of colors typically takes an additional 30 minutes and the setup of the printer itself typically takes nearly 1.5 hours. The process can require up to seven people. The maximum size of an image or design is limited based on the circumference of the cylinders, which is typically no more than 60 centimeters.

The following diagram depicts the analog rotary screen printing process:

Automated Carousel Screen Printing. Automated carousel screen printing is commonly used to print on finished garments and cut pieces. In automated carousel screen printing, a blade or squeegee squeezes printing paste or ink through mesh stencils onto fabric. The process typically employs a series of printing stations arranged in a carousel. At each station, one color of ink is pressed through specially prepared mesh stencils, or screens, on to the textile surface. Between color stations, there are also flash drying stations and cool-down stations to ensure that deposited ink does not inadvertently mix with the next color to be applied. Preparation of the mesh stencils is a specialized process, and its complexity is a function of the number of discrete color separations and screens that need to be prepared for a given design. The process of color separations, film production, and screen exposure and alignment typically takes approximately 1.5 hours for six colors. Once the screens and color separations are complete, preparation of the carousel typically takes between 40 and 60 minutes. After being manually loaded, the textile moves along the carousel from station to station where each color is applied separately. Unlike rotary screen printing, carousel screen printing does not require fixing the image or design with steam or hot air and, in most cases, does not require washing and drying the textile afterward. 

Digital Printing Processes

Digital textile printing uses specially engineered inkjet heads, rather than screens and cylinders or mesh stencils, to print images and designs directly onto fabrics. As such, the use of digital technology eliminates multiple complicated, costly and time-consuming steps, such as screen preparation or cylinder engraving, preparation of pastes or inks, and screen or cylinder alignment.

Most fabrics need to be pre-treated before printing by submerging them in a solution that is designed specifically for the type of fabric and ink being used. This coating process is essential for achieving the desired chemical reaction between the ink and the fabric. The fabric is dried following pre-treatment. After the ink drops are applied, the printed fabric undergoes a process of fixation that is also specific to the type of fabric and ink being used. Digital textile printing generally uses either dye-based or pigment-based ink.

The digital textile printing market principally includes two types of printing processes:

Direct-to-Garment (DTG) In DTG printing, an inkjet printer prints directly on the textile. DTG printing allows for printing images and designs onto finished textiles, such as t-shirts that have already been sewn and dyed. The following chart summarizes the key steps involved in the DTG printing process:

Direct-to-Fabric (DTF) In DTF printing, rolls of fabric pass in-line through wide-format inkjet printers that are utilized to directly print images and designs onto rolling fabric. The following chart summarizes the key steps involved in the DTF printing process:

Recent technological developments in digital printing have supported the adoption of digital printing by the global printed textile industry, including by custom decorators, online businesses, brand owners and contract printers. As a result of consumer and macro trends, which were accelerated during the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted the global printed textile industry businesses, we believe that these businesses offer a significant and rapidly growing market for digital printing solutions.

How Digital Textile Printing Addresses the Industry Needs

The following characteristics of digital textile printing enable new business and operating models, help industry players as they address their manufacturing gaps, and, as these characteristics relate to our business, are driving the shift from analog to digital textile printing:

Manufacturing flexibility: Digital textile printing allows a full image or design to be printed on a garment or cut fabric in one manufacturing step, compared to multiple steps in an analog printing process. Digital textile printing gives manufacturers the ability to print short runs, with personalization capabilities, in a cost-effective manner with a minimum order quantity of one unit. Unlike screen printing, digital printing cost remains the same when printing a single unit or multiple units. This allows printers to execute orders one by one without needing to accumulate large demand for a design before printing. In a post COVID-19 world, manufacturing flexibility will play an essential role in building brands’ resilience. According to McKinsey’s “State of Fashion 2021” report, 76% of sourcing executives said that the need for flexibility and speed will accelerate further in 2021.

Design flexibility: Digital textile printing enables a larger variety of artwork to be imprinted, without limitations on number of colors per design and high-resolution imaging.

Integration with advanced workflow environments: Digital textile printing is better suited for transition to full digitization of the production floor environment, including connectivity to cloud networking elements and productivity analytics software solutions.

Reduced time between design and production: The digital textile printing process allows for samples to be quickly produced, evaluated, and modified, which permits brand owners to increase the frequency and variety of replenishment cycles in response to fashion trends.

Decreased risk of excess inventory: The costly and time-consuming upfront setup required in analog production methods is avoided when using digital printing technologies. Therefore, digital printing enables the cost-efficient production of a smaller quantity of garments, which mitigates excess inventory risk and improves profitability. Stocking blank garments or fabric and decorating them only when demand is identified significantly reduces the amount of inventory at risk. This reduces working capital requirements, thereby enabling the emergence of numerous online businesses which are focused on the sale of printed textiles.

Reduced labor and physical space requirements: Digital textile printing requires significantly less labor to print an equivalent output due to the significant reduction in process steps. The unique Kornit proprietary process of digital textile printing further reduces the need for labor and introduces additional floor space savings for manufacturing equipment by eliminating certain process steps and by consolidating multiple process steps into a single printing system. The combination of labor savings and smaller shop floor footprint, coupled with lower energy consumption and a lack of environmental impact, enables manufacturers to move production closer to consumers in a cost-effective manner. Textile business is very seasonal and the need to retain employees bares a heavy financial burden. The move to digital printing significantly reduces the need for manpower and allows for a more flexible cost structure.

Sustainability: Digital textile printing significantly reduces industrial water consumption and discharge of toxic chemicals by eliminating the need to wash screens for color changes and repeated use. We believe that this results in reduced environmental impact and, in turn, enables manufacturers to comply with regulatory and brand guidelines at a location of their choosing, in many cases in populated areas which are not industrial in nature.

Our Business

We develop, design and market innovative digital printing solutions for the global printed textile industry, with a major focus on the fashion, apparel and home décor segments of the industry.

Our vision is to create a better world where everybody can bond, design and express their identities, one impression at a time.

Our mission is to revolutionize the fast-changing industry by facilitating and expediting the transition from analog processes that have not evolved for decades and are not fit for the rapidly changing business models and self-disruption needs of the industry, to digital methods of garment, apparel and home decor finished goods production and decoration that address the contemporary supply, demand, social and environmental needs of the industry in which we operate.

We focus on the rapidly growing high throughput, direct-to-garment, or DTG, and Direct-to-Fabric, or DTF, segments of the printed and decorated textile industry. Our solutions include our proprietary digital printing systems, ink and other consumables, associated software and value-added services that allow for quality and cost-effective large-scale printing of short runs of complex images and designs directly on finished garments and fabrics. Our solutions address the growing production gaps reflected in the need to shift to shorter runs, proximity production, proximity decoration, partial or full on-demand production, and microfactory models by enabling our customers to print and decorate high quality products in a time efficient, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly manner. This allows textile manufacturers to transition from their traditional business and operating models of supply based on demand predictions, to partial or full on-demand or made-to-order models, by which decoration of fabric and production of finished goods only takes place once a customer order has been issued.

Our solutions are differentiated from other digital methods of production because they eliminate the need to pre-treat fabrics prior to printing, thereby offering our customers the ability to digitally print high quality images and designs on a variety of fabrics in a streamlined and environmentally-friendly manner. When compared to analog methods of production, our solutions also significantly reduce production lead times and enable customers to more efficiently and cost-effectively produce smaller quantities of individually printed designs, thereby mitigating the risk of excess inventory, which is a significant challenge for the industry, as further described in our “Industry Overview” section above.

The success of evolving omni-channel apparel retail is dependent heavily on the ability to show a large variety of designs. Since it is more and more difficult to predict consumer preferences and demand, it is increasingly difficult to stock every possible design. Having digital capacity available allows printers, brands and retailers to offer unlimited design with minimal to no inventory risk. We believe we are well positioned to continue taking advantage of this trend.

Our DTG solutions utilize our patented wet-on-wet printing methodology that eliminates the common practice of separately coating and drying textiles prior to printing. This methodology also enables printing on a wide range of untreated natural, synthetic and man-made fabrics, including cotton, wool, polyester, lycra and denim. With throughputs ranging from 40 to 235 garments per hour, our entry level, industrial and mass production DTG solutions are suited to the needs of a variety of customers, from smaller industrial operators with limited budgets to mass producers with complex manufacturing requirements. Our patented NeoPigment ink and other consumables have been specially formulated to be compatible with our systems and overcome the quality-related challenges that pigment-based inks have traditionally faced when used in digital printing. Our software solutions simplify order to production workflows in the printing process, by offering a complete solution from web and traditional order intake through graphic job preparation and execution. We also offer customers maintenance and support services, as well as value-added services and application consulting, aimed at optimizing the number of impressions printed by our systems.

We have also recently (in April 2019) supplemented our original DTG printing technology with our Kornit NeoPoly Technology, which is our industry’s first digital, industrial process for high-quality printing on polyester, thereby opens the large sport and athleisure market to our digital printing solutions. The new Kornit NeoPoly Technology addresses existing challenges with a new process and ink set implemented in the Kornit NeoPigment^T process. Our new process handles polyester applications without having to compromise on design, run size, substrate or labor. The breakthrough technological innovation has been achieved by an innovative ink set and a physical and chemical process specifically developed for low-temperature curing, and polyester-enhancing functionalities developed to maintain fabric characteristics and provide superior fastness. This unique process overcomes dye migration on polyester. The inks are Eco-Passport certified, and do not contain PVCs or any other toxic ingredients. The first system equipped with our Kornit NeoPoly Technology is the Kornit Avalanche Poly Pro, a member of our industrial platform, which became commercially available in April 2019.

Building on the expertise and capabilities that we have accumulated in developing and offering differentiated solutions for the industrial DTG market, we also market an industrial digital printing solution, the Kornit Presto, which targets the on-demand DTF market. While the DTG market generally involves printing on finished garments, the DTF market is focused on printing on fabrics that are subsequently converted into finished garments, home or office décor, and other items. The Kornit Presto (like our predecessor DTF product, the Kornit Allegro) utilizes our proprietary wet-on-wet printing methodology and houses an integrated curing system. It offers the sole (following its predecessor, the Allegro) single-step, eco-friendly, stand-alone industrial DTF digital textile printing solution available on the market. We primarily market the Kornit Presto to businesses seeking horizontal or vertical expansions into fabric decoration, such as innovative web-based businesses operating on-demand business models that require a high degree of variety and limited quantity orders, as well as to fabric converters, which source large quantities of fabric and convert untreated fabrics into finished materials to be sold to garment and home décor manufacturers, and to sustainable fashion producers seeking a competitive edge in today’s changing supply chains. We believe that with the Presto we are well positioned to take advantage of the growing trend towards customized fashion, home décor and on-demand fabric printing, with increased focus on sustainable production. We began selling the Presto commercially in the second quarter of 2019 (after having introduced our initial DTF digital textile printing solution, the Kornit Allegro, four years earlier, in the second quarter of 2015).

We were founded in 2002 in Israel, shipped our first system in 2005 and, as of December 31, 2020, had approximately 1,300 active customers globally. As of December 31, 2020, we had 672 employees located primarily across four regions: Israel, America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In the year ended December 31, 2020, we generated revenues of $193.3 million, representing an increase of 7.5% over the prior fiscal year. In the year ended December 31, 2020, we generated 68.7% of our revenues from the Americas region, 23.9% from the Europe, Middle East and Asia (“EMEA”) region, and 7.4% from the Asia Pacific region.

Our Competitive Strengths

The following are our key competitive strengths:

Leading player in the fast-growing industrial digital DTG market.

We are the leading player in the fast-growing, industrial and mass production, digital direct-to-garment, or DTG, market based on our sales, and have approximately 1,300 active customers globally (including, recently acquired, Custom Gateway’s customer base). We have been revolutionizing the industry since 2005 and have developed a robust solutions portfolio and scaled our go-to-market infrastructure over the course of this period. Other than our unique intellectual property and technology, and our robust go-to-market infrastructure, our application experts have the best industry knowledge. Consequently, we believe we can greatly support and advise our existing and future customers with the best-known methods to optimize their production environments. We focus on the rapidly growing high-throughput DTG and direct-to-fabric, or DTF, segments of the printed and decorated textile industry. In the DTG segment, based on our extrapolations from third party market data, we project the number of annual impressions to grow from approximately 18 billion in 2019 to approximately 25 billion on an annualized run-rate basis by the end of 2025, considering the decline in demand caused by Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the expected bounce back in 2021. Within the DTG market, we estimate that there were approximately 13.5 billion impressions in 2019 in brands and private labels making it the largest portion of this market, while we estimate that there were approximately 3 billion impressions in the promotional portion of the market and approximately 1.5 billion impressions in the customized design portion of the market. COVID-19 impact varies across the different segments with both tailwinds and headwinds impacting growth rates. We expect an accelerated growth rate of the customized design segment, due to the fact it is mostly based on online sales. In the roll-to-roll market, based on our extrapolations from third party market data, we project the total square meters of fabric printed to grow from approximately 39.1 billion in 2019 to approximately 42 billion by the end of 2025, considering the decline in demand caused by Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the expected bounce back in 2021.We estimate that only approximately 1 to 2% of these impressions are printed digitally today. We therefore believe that our leadership position, combined with continued technology innovation, and operational improvements, will allow us to grow our business in the coming years.

Well-positioned to disrupt the DTF market with our unique single-step manufacturing solution. We believe we are well positioned to capitalize on the growing trend toward on-demand home décor with our unique DTF solution. Our Kornit Presto system (like our former Kornit Allegro), combined with our proprietary process, was designed to offer a single-step manufacturing solution which is especially suited for businesses which do not have a vertically-integrated textile mill. Unlike other digital textile printers, the Kornit Presto does not require multiple pre-processing and post-processing steps that are customarily used in vertically integrated textile mills and that utilize high levels of energy and space and have a negative environmental impact. Kornit Presto unique single-step process prevents water waste and pollution by eliminating the pre/post-treatment and washing of the fabric. Given its architecture, it is perfectly suited for short and micro runs. The Kornit Presto is compact in size, requires a single person to operate, and fits very well in an urban and non-industrial setting. The Kornit Presto unique pigment solution provides the ability to print high-quality designs on multiple fabric types without the need for different inks and consumables, while generally other systems and technologies for DTF digital printing require dedication of discrete printers to specific fabric types. The rising market need for a sustainable and fabric-agnostic process to support short manufacturing runs is pushing the demand for digital pigment solution.

Disruptive technology that enables our customers to adopt new, or improve existing, business models. Our digital printing solutions allow our customers to develop new, or improve existing, business and operational models by enabling them to produce short to medium runs of high-quality customized garments efficiently. This facilitates online business models that require an on-demand and made-to-order basis and allows brand owners to produce and decorate garments in-house. With a constantly growing worldwide customer base of approximately 1,300 active customers, we are witnessing the creation of a global fulfillment network of printing specialists that are leveraged by large numbers of websites that offer customizable garment printing services. As demand from these customers continues to grow, so does utilization of our systems, which in turn print more impressions, consume more ink and once used to their full capacity, require purchasing of more systems. In November 2020, we formed a new business line, founded on the basis of Custom Gateway, focused on enabling brands, retailers, licensors, and marketplaces to realize the benefits of digitization by connecting them to the most suitable on-demand production and logistics operations, while ensuring consistency, quality and brand integrity.

Environmentally-friendly printing processes. A significant portion of global industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing, printing and finishing. We believe that environmental factors are beginning to assume a significant role in the decision-making process of our existing and potential customers, with an increasing number of countries adopting restrictions on the use of technologies like screen printing that generate significant wastewater. Our printing process eliminates the need for separate pre-treatment, as well as steaming, washing or rinsing of textiles during the printing process, which leads to a significant reduction in water consumption compared to conventional printing methods. In addition, our inks are certified by leading industry groups as being safe for system operators, consumers and the environment. Finally, our systems offer energy saving processes that result in the use of significantly less power compared to traditional printing processes. We believe that these environmental benefits will further drive market penetration of our solutions and enable manufacturers to move production closer to the consumer in a cost-effective manner.

Attractive business model. We currently offer a broad portfolio of differentiated digital printing solutions for the digital industrial and mass production DTG market. Our existing and growing installed base of systems results in recurring sales of ink and other consumables, which are specially formulated to enable our systems to operate at the highest throughput level. These recurring sales are generated at attractive gross margins. Recurring sales of ink and other consumables have historically offered us a degree of visibility into a significant component of our results of operations. We believe that our recurring sales model also enables us to foster close customer relationships, as it facilitates ongoing engagement with our customers, which positions us to provide tailored solutions and expands our ability to provide value-added services to our customers. Our customer relationships are further strengthened by a trend towards ownership of multiple systems, as the number of customers with at least two systems has grown from 155 as of December 31, 2014, to 285 as of December 2020. The number of customers with at least 10 systems has grown from 9 as of December 31, 2014, to 17 as of December 31, 2020. We anticipate revenue from services to increase over time as we reach upgrade cycles across our growing installed base and continue to expand our service contracts business model. Additionally, sales of ink and other consumables are generally higher in high throughput systems such as the Vulcan Plus, Atlas, Avalanche and Presto systems. Large customers typically run at high utilization rates and can consume up to five times as much ink per year compared to other customers. By developing and implementing proprietary end-to-end solutions for our customers, we believe our business model is differentiated from more commoditized solutions serving the same end markets. We have proven our ability to grow revenues while maintaining an attractive margin profile and we intend to continue investing in our business to drive profitable growth in the future.

Product upgrade strategy. In 2016 we started implementing a long-term strategy for supporting our installed base with upgrade paths to newer, more advanced, systems. The goal of this strategy is to allow our customers to extend the return on their investment in Kornit systems, and in return, we enjoy growth in system utilization and on-going capital investments in our equipment through the depreciation cycle.

Product refurbishment strategy. In 2019, and going into 2020, we introduced a new line of factory refurbished systems, based on the Avalanche and Storm platforms. This new line of business will enable us to expand our product offering with the latest technology capabilities at different price points, as well as provide us with maximal control over any after-market activity. This initiative makes it easier for our existing customer base to adopt our latest technology as they trade-in their existing relevant installed base, which in turn will find its way to new customers who are more capital expenditure sensitive. As a part of our sustainability strategy, this new line of business enables us to re-use systems, sub-modules and other parts to their fullest potential and life expectancy, thus reducing waste and other environmental impacts of unnecessary production of new systems.

Robust intellectual property portfolio driven by an innovation-based culture. Our intellectual property portfolio reflects over a decade of significant investments in digital textile printing, which we believe creates significant barriers to entry. We have developed a strong base of technology know-how, backed by our portfolio of intellectual property, which includes 50 issued patents and 20 provisional or pending US applications, 41 pending non-US patent applications and 9 pending PCT applications that cover wet-on-wet printing methodology, ink formulations, printing processes and related methods and systems. Our team of over 160 researchers and developers, including chemists, electrical engineers, system engineers, software engineers and mechanical engineers, ensures that our systems remain technologically advanced, and are well engineered, user-friendly and highly reliable.

Extensive product portfolio, strong new product pipeline and end-to-end solutions. With throughputs ranging from 32 to 235 garments per hour, our DTG systems are suited for smaller industrial operators with limited budgets, as well as mass producers with complex needs. Since 2015, we have commercialized several new solutions in the DTG market: the Vulcan and (recently, in January 2020) the Vulcan Plus, cost-effective digital substitutions for carousel screen printing and high-capacity, industrial DTG systems; the HD family of solutions (including, in January 2020, the Storm HD6 Lite refurbished system); the Atlas, our high throughput mass production digital DTG system; and, beginning in April 2019, our specialty DTG solutions - the Avalanche Poly Pro, which enable digital printing on a variety of polyester products and other fabric types, including cotton, cotton-polyester blends, silk, leather, denim, linen and wool. Our future roadmap remains focused on the continued development of proprietary processes, continuously expanding the breadth of applications upon which we can print while pushing the envelope of cost-efficient manufacturing further as a means to expand our serviceable addressable markets.

Kornit extends its business reach and solution scope for our customers with workflow and data management software solutions. Kornit’s cloud workflow software solution, based on the acquisition of Custom Gateway, is a robust platform with a wide range of services to digitally transform our customers’ operations, our workflow solutions provide higher efficiency and productivity to the customers’ production floor as well as enable new business from various online channels, both B2B and B2C. Kornit Konnect, our operational data analytics and business intelligence solution, provides transparency and manageability to our customers, enabling them to monitor production, performance and usage throughout their fleets. The Konnect also enhances their ability to plan and manage activity by providing valuable metrics such as ink consumption, types of prints and garments, as well as comparison between time frames and machines. Kornit’s offering is further enhanced with image processing software solutions provided by partners.

With our aim to provide a wide set of solutions to our customers, based on our familiarity with the industry and customers’ needs, we are approaching the market with an end-to-end solution approach in mind, combining hardware, consumables, software and services, built around the primary offering of printers and ink and enhanced by the software workflow range of integrations and functionality scope.

At the heart of a true industrial revolution, or Textile 4.0. Every digital printing revolution starts with printing small quantities of particular designs where the advantages of digital technology are most pronounced. The ability to expand the addressable market of digital printing relies heavily on constant reduction of cost per printed unit (CPP). Given our deep technological foundations, we have been able to constantly reduce CPP by increasing system output as well as increasing the efficiency of our inks, allowing customers to consume less ink while achieving excellent results. Given this progression, we are now able to offer a cost-effective alternative to screen printing for runs of up to 500 garments, making our products a viable printing solution for large scale retailers who now seek to move to quick inventory replenishment and are constantly moving to shorter runs of production.

Strong management team. Our Chief Executive Officer, Ronen Samuel, and our Chief Financial Officer, Alon Rozner, bring extensive experience of managing publicly traded companies and/or in management roles in the printing industry. Our management team’s industry expertise and extensive experience in running global companies will enable us to execute our growth strategy. Our management infrastructure also includes executives who are experienced in the management of people, large scale business, innovation and product development and acquisitions in larger public organizations including HP, Applied Materials, NICE, Orbotech Amdocs and Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks of America. Over the past five years, we have invested heavily in human resources to support our growth. Since 2013, our workforce has more than tripled from 190 to 672 as of December 31, 2020. Additionally, more than 290 of our employees are in regional locations, enabling us to provide more localized service to our customers.

Our Strategy and Catalysts for Growth

The following are the key elements of our growth strategy and catalysts that will drive our business expansion:

Growing Tech Leadership and Solution Offering

We are focused on ongoing investments in our research and development, product management, solutions and applications development areas to continue driving innovation within the industry, thereby allowing our customers and prospects to grow their businesses by enabling them to expand their product offering with additional applications, designs, and fabric types. We focus on constantly removing barriers as they relate to quality, hand feel, and cost (as evidenced in the release of our latest HD family of solutions). We will continue to drive the productivity of our technology to allow existing and future customers to cost effectively obtain new jobs and transfer existing recurring jobs and impressions from analog to digital printing, which will drive increased sales of systems, consumables, software and services. As part of our strategy, we will continue to bring to the market solutions that enable efficient mass production and customization in a rapidly transforming industry that is shifting to shorter production runs and mass production of on-demand, at times one-by-one, orders. Our recent expansion of our cloud software workflow solutions via the acquisition of Custom Gateway and the formation of our new business line are direct execution initiatives of this strategy. Custom Gateway’s solution connects demand generators with a digitized on-demand manufacturing process. Orders are routed automatically to the production floor and managed to facilitate efficient on-demand production on a mass scale. The technology enables customers to realize the full benefits of digitization by seamlessly connecting the front end, to the most suitable back end element. We believe that removing market barriers includes periodically introducing to the market innovative digital processes that address key industry pain points and gaps, which traditional analog techniques cannot handle, do so with poor quality, or do so in a non-cost efficient or environmentally sustainable manner. We believe that continuing to remove market and technology barriers and developing new features and functionality of our solutions will allow us to win new customers and increase system, consumables, software and services sales to existing customers.

Expanding in Key Markets 

We plan to continue growing our customer base by targeting new customers in markets that are adjacent to the markets in which we have been operating. To-date, we have been catering predominantly to the customized design market, consisting of online businesses of different sizes, focused mainly on mass customization and personalization that are enabled by using our technology. An example of our success in this market is the Master Purchase Agreement, that we entered into on January 10, 2017, with an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. To date we have supplied several systems, large quantities of inks and consumables and have been providing paid service to multiple facilities under the agreement. During the years 2019 and 2020, Amazon related revenues were $22.1 million and $21.1 million, respectively. In September 2020, Amazon exercised its vested shares under the warrant agreement signed in 2017 and immediately entered into a new transaction pursuant to which Kornit issued Amazon a warrant to acquire Kornit’s shares. The shares underlying the new warrant are subject to vesting as a function of payments up to an aggregate of $400 million by Amazon over a five-year period for two different categories of product lines and services. The newly signed agreement with Amazon expresses the close partnership with Amazon and the trust Amazon has both in the existing and future Kornit solutions. We expect that our relationship with Amazon will continue to expand in the future and that they will remain a significant customer. We expect continued growth with other existing customers in the customized design market as they seek to grow capacity, provide new applications and expand into new market segments and geographies. We also expect to add new customers in the customized design market, as the market continues to grow and develop. With the breadth of our existing portfolio and our continued investment in features and functionality, we believe we are well positioned to expand our market reach by penetrating adjacent markets in the form of traditional and start-up brands, private labels, and the promotional market, in which we can drive adoption of digital DTG and DTF printing solutions in place of analog screen-printing production methods, which are currently primarily relied upon. While we have started to penetrate these markets, directly or via third-party fulfillers and decorators, we plan to deepen our penetration into these important markets as they seek to transform their business and operating models.

Maximize Impressions

We are focused on increasing sales to existing customers by introducing new digital printing applications, developing new features and functionality of our systems, offering new system upgrade products to make it easier for customers to renew their fleets and update their install base to the latest technology available, increasing sales of software, offering customers empowerment program inclusive of basic and advanced training, with a goal of enabling our customers to increase utilization of their systems. With our move into solution selling, we are focusing on providing our customers with value added services like training programs, proactive services, production consulting and end-to-end workflow improvements. Through these value-added services, we are able to increase system availability and utilization, end-user product quality and to allow impressions production increase. We also intend to actively refer business to our customers by connecting them via our cloud software workflow platform with online businesses that seek fulfillment partners, which will improve our business relationship with our customers. Our objective is to help customers operate their businesses more efficiently, print more impressions and increase utilization of their systems, thereby requiring more ink and other consumables purchases as well as potential investment in new systems as they require additional capacity.

Expanding our GTM  

We continue to invest in our go-to-market infrastructure across geographies, including in our sales, applications, and services teams. While maintaining an overall hybrid go-to-market strategy that includes both indirect and direct sales, we have adopted a direct sales model in North America and are assessing moving towards that model in one or more additional key markets. In North America, we initiated the transition towards direct sales via our acquisition of the U.S.-based digital DTG printing assets of SPSI in 2016, in which we acquired an increasing number of larger accounts, which require a more direct relationship between our company and the related customers. We completed the transition in North America to a full direct sales model in February 2019, with our acquisition of customer business assets from Hirsch, our former primary distributor in the United States and Canada. By fostering direct sales relationships with our North American customers, we aim to deepen our relationship with them as well as better align our product roadmap to meet their needs.

Strategic accounts are an important and valued part of our business and future growth, and we continue to make the appropriate investments in ensuring we serve their needs as it comes to sales, application consulting and services support. We expect to continue developing our strategic accounts practice in a combination of dedicated regional and corporate resources as we strive to help these important customers improve their business performances by delivering best-in-class customer experience.

We are seeking to increase the number of customers that rely on us to provide services for their systems by expanding our service capabilities and driving adoption of our portfolio of services contracts. As of December 31, 2020, we had service contracts in place with approximately 37% of our installed base. Service revenues exceeded 10% of our overall revenues for the first time in 2017 and, in 2020, amounted to $28.4 million. In addition to driving gross margin improvement, we believe this will provide us an opportunity for direct contact with customers with the goal of reducing system down-time, educating customers about optimal use of our systems to drive increased utilization and growth in the number of impressions printed, expanding the variety of print applications and increasing sales of post-warranty service contracts and other professional application development services.

Extend our leadership position through acquisitions and strategic partnerships

We seek to continue to differentiate ourselves and extend our leadership position. From time to time, we may supplement our internal efforts with complementary inorganic initiatives such as acquisitions and strategic partnerships to enhance our positioning. For example, our acquisition of Polymeric Imaging in 2015 expanded our ink technology capabilities, our acquisitions of the digital DTG printing assets of SPSI in 2016 enabled us to strengthen our direct sales channel and gain access to a large screen-printing customer base, and the acquisition of business assets from Hirsch in 2019 helped us transition to a full direct sales model in North America. Our acquisition of Custom Gateway, an innovative technology provider of cloud-based software workflow solutions, in August 2020, enabled us to offer an end-to-end on-demand production solution for our customers. Each of these acquisitions enhanced the positioning of our company. Future acquisitions may also allow us to strengthen our existing portfolio of solutions or add new capabilities.

In the last year, we have witnessed the acceleration of the trends pushing the apparel industry faster towards a digital transformation of the production process. Aiming to cater to the rising demand, on August 7, 2020, we acquired Custom Gateway, a leading global provider of cloud-based software workflow solutions for both B2B and B2C business models. Custom Gateway has approximately 300 customers, including leading brands and retailers. The purchase price was $16.9 million subject to pending working capital adjustments.

We believe this acquisition will strategically accelerate our broad-scale development effort and strengthen our value proposition for brands, retailers and fulfillers in the area of digital transformation. We expect the combination of Custom Gateway software workflow portfolio with our existing and future technologies to bring to the market an end-to-end solution for on-demand production.

Our Products

Direct-to-Garment (DTG) Systems

In 2019 we started consolidation of our core DTG products portfolio to rely on our HD technology. The HD technology enables our customers to produce retail-quality prints with competitive cost per print. This represents a clear focus in our product offering, supporting our strategy to penetrate the market segment of brands and private labels. The combination of our HD technology, together with the Eco-Rapid ink-set, introduced in January 2019, enables our customers to produce retail-quality prints with competitive cost per print, allowing them to replace screen printed jobs, including those targeted for the retail market. Levelling up our entire product portfolio to the superior performance of our HD technology allows us to execute on our screen-replacement strategy across different market segments and a variety of customer types and sizes. The underlying strategy behind this system lineup is to accommodate a variety of customer types with the highest digital printing capabilities at a variety of productivity levels and price points, as they are now able to produce the same retail-quality at the same CPP on all our HD systems. The differentiation across our new line of HD systems is mainly based on system productivity and total cost of ownership, with a clear benefit to our higher productivity systems.

Yearly Output HD Portfolio

In the beginning of 2019, we launched a new industrial DTG platform – the Kornit Atlas. The Atlas represents our next generation direct-to-garment printing platform, equipped with our next generation HD technology and designed mainly for high-volume garment decoration businesses and mid-to-large size screen printers. With its retail-grade print quality, high productivity and attractive total cost of ownership, the Atlas allows our customers to serve additional market needs and open new opportunities.

In January 2020, we introduced the Storm HD6 Lite Refurbished, which effectively replaces the Kornit Storm II, enables DTG printing for smaller print operations, such as commercial printers moving to the industrial market and analog printers broadening their production capabilities. It has a production capacity of up to 60,000 impressions annually and provides on-demand DTG printing that meets high-level, retail quality and sustainability standards.

In January 2020, we also launched the Vulcan Plus, which is currently our highest productivity HD system, with the best total cost of ownership for large production facilities with high volumes of mass customization print jobs. The Vulcan Plus is based on the Vulcan platform, that was introduced in 2016, and was designed based on our customers feedback and field experience with the platform.

Building on the massive new product introduction of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 we were able to create an extensive HD product portfolio, ranging all our main product platforms and a multitude of product configurations – starting from the Storm, through the Avalanche, and all the way to the Atlas and the Vulcan. In alignment with our products upgrade strategy, different upgrade paths are available to the HD systems, enabling our customers to equip themselves with new and superior capabilities and improve cost of ownership on their existing systems, expanding their business opportunities and allowing us to gain additional revenues from our existing installed base.

Specialty DTG:  In 2019 we established another line of products as a part of our DTG offering – specialty solutions. This new line of products introduces a diversification in our offering, representing our product strategy of solutions. The underlying strategy behind this new line of products is to identify specific market needs and application challenges representing major market opportunities and address them with unique and specific solutions. In 2019 we introduced a new and innovative process for printing on dyed polyester, addressing the cross-industry challenge of dye-migration, when decorating dyed polyester. This new solution was introduced to market during 2019 on a new system from the Avalanche platform – the Avalanche Poly Pro.

Based on our new NeoPoly technology, the Avalanche Poly Pro can print on dyed polyester, using our new and innovative low temperature curing process, thus eliminating the challenge of dye-migration, currently existing in all other polyester decoration techniques.

The Avalanche Poly Pro enables the production of on-demand customized polyester products, without minimum order quantity, providing all the advantages of digital printing on polyester. The system can print on a variety of polyester fabrics including poly blends (e.g. poly-lycra, poly-cotton), a variety of fabric builds and textures, including woven and knitted fabrics, as well as on recycled polyester. This new specialty product solution is added to the already existing Avalanche DC Pro, which is the only digital solution we know for discharge printing in the market.

Direct-to-Fabric (DTF) Systems

Presto: The Presto combines a printing system and a drying and curing module so that a full end-to-end manufacturing process is enabled, allows one-step DTF printing. Unlike the Presto, most DTF printers require additional steps. The Presto takes advantage of our patented wet-on-wet methodology to allow for in-line printing on various fabrics, without requiring a separate pre-treatment process, thereby avoiding the need to use textiles that are specifically pre-treated for digital printing. The Presto is designed to achieve high throughputs and does not require water or steam for any part of the printing process, making it friendly to the environment. By using our proprietary pigment-based ink, Presto can print on a variety of natural and synthetic fabrics providing customers with a significant level of flexibility. Most other dye-based systems are specifically designed to print on specific fabric types and cannot be used with other types of fabric as the processes and consumables used vary considerably from one to the other.

Our systems range in pricelist from $69,000 to over $820,000 and consume an average of $5,000 to $300,000 of ink and consumables annually per system.  

Summary of DTG Systems:

The following table summarizes key aspects of our DTG systems, all of which are compatible with a wide range of fabrics, including cotton, wool, polyester, viscose, lycra and various blends, and print at maximum resolutions ranging from 600 to 1,200 DPI. With the introduction of our Avalanche Poly Pro, our systems now also enable large-scale printing on dyed polyester, which has served as an entry point for us into the lucrative athleisure market.

Ink and Other Consumables

Kornit NeoPigment™ inks are water based, non-toxic, phthalate free and free of heavy metals and follow the highest international sustainability standards such as Eco-Passport, GOTS and per specific customer requirements. Our ink and consumables consist of our patented NeoPigment™ ink, proprietary binding agent, priming fluid, wiping fluid and flushing fluid. We categorize our line of inks into two category groups: Direct-to-Garment and Direct-to-Fabric.

For our DTG systems we hold four set of ink series: NeoPigment™, NeoPigment™ Rapid, NeoPigment™ Eco-Rapid and NeoPigment™ Olympia. The first two ink sets are designed for Kornit legacy products while the Eco-Rapid is the most advanced ink set designed for retail quality. These three ink sets are available in seven colors (W+CMYKRG) and a complementary binding agent. NeoPigment™ Olympia is designed for our new polyester printing system, the Avalanche Poly Pro, available in five colors (W+CMYK) and an enhancer. The printing process is unique and innovative specially designed for polyester printing overcoming the challenges by implementing four crucial steps. The first step, a fixation agent specially designed and formulated for polyester fabrics. The second step, white layer with special properties resulting in high quality white color, high opacity and elastic properties for high performance. The third step, CMYK printing, allowing increased color gamut and spot color matching and finishing with a poly-enhancer, designed for high quality finishing with improved durability and refined hand-feel.

For our Direct-to Fabric systems we have two ink set: NeoPigment™ Intenso and NeoPigment™ Robusto. Those are designed for our Roll-to-Roll systems and consist of six colors (CMYKRG), while the Intenso holds additional fluorescent colors and a light-K color. With our Direct-to-Fabrics ink series we have developed and patented a fixation on the fly (FOF) process. This unique consumable allows to print in a single step solution, avoiding the need of fabric pre-treatment and enabling minimal environmental impact. In March 2020 Kornit announced the release of a new NeoPigment™ Robusto Softener. This solution eliminates a key barrier with pigment-based printing, which enables a softer hand-feel, mostly required by brands.

All our inks are formulated for optimal use exclusively in our systems. Our patented wet-on-wet printing methodology that involves spraying a wetting solution on the fabric before applying our proprietary pigment-based inks. This unique capability enables our systems to reach high throughput levels while still producing high quality images and designs. The wetting solution prevents the ink from bleeding into the textile and fixes the ink drops, which enables digital printing with high color-intensity and image sharpness. This printing methodology combines the use of pigments rather than dyes in conjunction with our proprietary binding agent and allows us to print on a wide range of fabrics without the need for a separate pre-treatment process or system reconfiguration, resulting in minimal setup times for each run and high throughput levels. Given the proprietary nature of our printing methodology, our ink and consumables attachment rate is close to 100%. We also continuously invest in the development of new ink formulas for our systems in order to expand the range of applications we can print, further increase the quality of our high-resolution images and designs and improve color fastness.

We have developed two patented methods for printing on dark or colored fabrics. The first method involves printing a layer of specially formulated white ink as a base upon which to print colored images and designs. Printing on top of this foundation enhances color intensity and creates contrast against the dark or colored fabric. In addition, we have developed a patented discharge ink for printing on dark or colored fabrics. The discharge ink bleaches the fabric dye and applies colored ink in the locations where the discharge ink removed the fabric dye. This method, which is primarily used by brand owners and contract printers, allows the printing of high-resolution images and designs without compromising the texture or feel of the garment. 

Software Solutions

Our DTG systems arrive with our QuickP Production software embedded. The software manages the system operation and prepares image files for print. QuickP Production is a simple to use solution that allows users to control key operating parameters, such as print resolution, perform maintenance and calibration procedures and import image files and prepare them for print.

Some of our customers also purchase our QuickP Designer software. QuickP Designer is a software package that combines our own internally developed Raster Image Processing, or RIP, software with other print job management capabilities and includes an advanced ink consumption estimation tool. A single QuickP Designer license can be used to support multiple Kornit systems.

In 2018 we introduced to market a new professional RIP software offering in collaboration with ColorGate. This offering allows customers to enhance our systems’ performance in the areas of print quality and color management, allowing them to achieve superior results and manage high-end color demanding applications. The combination of this new product offering, together with our HD technology, also serves our screen-printing replacement strategy, allowing our customers to achieve color accuracy and matching to screen prints.

In June 2019 we introduced to the market the Kornit Konnect, our cloud-based, software analytics connectivity platform that enables businesses to maximize productivity of their digital printing solutions. In its first phase, the Kornit Konnect enables businesses to monitor production, analyze insights and manage their fleet, in order to eliminate blind spots. It includes a fleet management dashboard, data driven benchmarks, actual production costs, and cost structures per job, making it easy for businesses to learn more, react faster and perform better.

In August 2020, we acquired Custom Gateway, a leading global provider of cloud-based software workflow solutions for both B2B and B2C business models. Custom Gateway’s solution enables Kornit to offer customers an end-to-end solution for on-demand production.

Custom Gateway’s technology connects front end, web-based demand generators such as on-line stores and on-line brands as well as licensors with a digitized fulfillment process, enabling a digitized on-demand manufacturing process. With Custom Gateway’s production floor solution, orders are routed and managed to facilitate efficient on-demand production on a mass scale. The technology enables customers to realize the full efficiency, scalability and profitability benefits of digitization by seamlessly connecting the front end whether online or storefront, to the most suitable back end element.

Custom Gateway’s solution also enables Kornit to facilitate smart connectivity, for operational and business transactions between multiple stakeholders in the on-demand manufacturing ecosystem such as brands, licensors, retailers, blank providers and digital printers.

Our Services

Our services consist of maintenance and support, consulting and professional services. We are seeking to increase the number of customers that rely on us to provide services for their systems by expanding our service capabilities. As of December 31, 2020, we had service contracts in place with approximately 75% of our industrial and mass production installed base. Starting in 2020, this rate began to increase, as according to our policy, each industrial system is now sold along with a service contract. Service revenues exceeded 10% of our overall revenues for the first time in 2017 and, in 2020, amounted to $28.4 million. In addition to driving gross margin improvement, this provides us an opportunity for direct contact with customers with the goal of reducing system down-time, educating customers about optimal use of our systems to drive increased utilization, expanding the variety of print applications and increasing sales of post-warranty service contracts and other professional application development services. These will ultimately assist our customers to increase system utilization and the number of impressions printed.

Maintenance and Support

Starting in 2019, we typically provide a six-month warranty, which covers parts, labor, and remote support. Our customers also usually purchase an additional year of support coverage at the time of purchase. After this period, customers can renew their support contract by purchasing a support package that includes remote support, on-site support, software updates, and on-site yearly maintenance. Alternatively, they can choose to rely on our support on a time-and-materials basis. In the United States, we provide direct service to all of our customers. In the EMEA region, we provide direct service to nearly half of our install base, while the other half receives that support through our independent distributors. In the Asia Pacific region, service is provided by our independent distributors, and we provide second line support, if needed.

Professional Services

Our systems are designed such that customers can operate them without the assistance of our company or our independent distributors. However, we provide the Customer Empowerment Program to ensure an efficient knowledge-transfer process and to help our customers become proficient and independent at operating their systems in a short period of time

The Customer Empowerment Program is composed of four touchpoints:

We have furthermore established three training centers at our regional offices in the US, Germany, and Hong Kong, respectively. We continuously seek to expand the number and content of our training programs.

 Our Customers

Our diverse global customer base consisted of approximately 1,300 active customers as of December 31, 2020. Throughout our growing installed base, our customers can serve a variety of different business models, particularly the new business models that have developed in response to the evolution of consumer trends and the rapid growth of the online retail market. Our solutions enable this category of “on-demand” businesses to fulfill consumer demand more quickly and cost-effectively in a manner that is differentiated from traditional brick and mortar businesses. A number of large-scale, on-demand platforms have emerged. These platforms often leverage digital printing solutions to facilitate business for other content providers.

The ecosystem of on-demand businesses that we currently serve, fulfill for e-commerce business and for high street brands and includes: 

Self-Fulfillment. Companies manufacturing and selling their own designs that are advertised on their own websites and through other marketing means.

Hybrid Printers. Companies that both manufacture in-house and outsource manufacturing to third party fulfillment providers, who are often also our customers.

Third Party Fulfillment Centers. Companies serving as third party fulfillment for other businesses. Third party fulfillment providers include a number of our customers. Demand for these businesses is typically generated online through other web retailers and brands who are looking for flexible inventory management solution and to offer quick reaction to trends and consumers demand.

Proximity to the end customer is a key factor for these businesses since it minimizes shipping costs and enables them to offer rapid turnaround to consumers, which is a key factor in choosing where to buy online apparel. In many cases, retailers have asked us for assistance in identifying our local customers to help with their fulfillment.

With the acquisition of Custom Gateway, we expanded our customer base to include digitally native and traditional creators, licensors, retailers, e-tailers, and brands selling textile and hard good products and fulfilling them using on-demand business models, by leveraging the Custom Gateway network of fulfillers and suppliers.

Custom Gateway’s customer base includes:

Demand Generators. Driven by online presence, but may also include brick-and-mortar presence, notably creators, licensors, retailers, e-tailers, and brands benefiting from Custom Gateway’s ability to diversify their online and physical offering, enable virtual product display, personalized and customized offerings with rapid fulfilment capabilities.

Fulfillers and Suppliers. Utilizing Custom Gateway’s platform to publish their own virtual product offerings, as well as fulfil and manufacture on-demand for the demand generators. These customers include both textile and hard-good fulfillers.

See “ITEM 10. Additional Information— C. - Material Contracts - Agreements with Amazon.”

Our corporate structure consists of Kornit Digital Ltd., our Israeli parent company, and six wholly-owned subsidiaries: (1) Kornit Digital Technologies Ltd., which was incorporated on July 5, 2006 under the laws of the State of Israel, (2) Kornit Digital North America Inc., which was incorporated on September 12, 2007 under the laws of the State of Delaware, (3) Kornit Digital Europe GmbH, which was incorporated on April 20, 2011 under the laws of Germany, (4) Kornit Digital Asia Pacific Limited, which was incorporated on November 18, 2009 under the laws of Hong Kong, (5) Kornit Digital UK Ltd., which was incorporated on August 30, 2017 under the laws of England and Wales, and (6) Kornit Digital Japan KK which was incorporated on March 9, 2020 under the laws of Japan. Custom Gateway Limited, which was incorporated on May 5, 2010 under the laws of England and Wales, is wholly owned by Kornit Digital UK Ltd. Custom Gateway Limited has several subsidiaries.

Our corporate headquarters are located in Rosh Ha’Ayin, Israel in an office and research and development facility consisting of approximately 111,000 square feet. The lease for this office expires in December 2025, with an option to extend the lease for an additional five years. We lease an additional facility of approximately 8,000 square feet near our corporate headquarters. The lease for this additional space expires in June 2022. In Israel, we also lease a manufacturing facility in Kiryat Gat, which consists of approximately 19,000 square feet. The lease for the Kiryat Gat manufacturing facility expires on March 31, 2022. During high season we can more than double our current output at the facility by increasing the number of shifts on the existing production lines without requiring us to expand the physical structure of the facility. We have secured a location for a new, modern, manufacturing facility that we intend to build in Kiryat Gat with the goal of increasing operational efficiency and providing for improved safety and security. Construction began in January 2019 and is expected to be completed towards the end of 2021. The new facility in Kiryat Gat is partly populated (offices, logistic center, labs and clean rooms). We may experience further delays due to the effects of the coronavirus. We have incurred capital expenditures for the new facility in order to complete the acquisition of the property and building of this facility.

Our U.S. headquarters are located in Englewood, New Jersey. We have entered into a lease for these headquarters, which are comprised of approximately 15,845 square feet of offices and warehouse. The lease for this location expires in February 2028. We maintain additional sales, support and marketing offices in Dusseldorf, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and Japan.

None.

The information contained in this section should be read in conjunction with our financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2020 and related notes and the information contained elsewhere in this annual report. Our financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, such as those set forth under “ITEM 3.D. Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements.

Overview

We develop, design and market innovative digital printing solutions for the global printed textile industry. Our vision is to revolutionize this industry by facilitating the transition from analog processes that have not evolved for decades to digital methods of production that address contemporary supply, demand and environmental dynamics. We focus on the rapidly growing high throughput DTG and DTF segments of the printed textile industry. Our solutions include our proprietary digital printing systems, ink and other consumables, associated software and value-added services that allow for large scale printing of short runs of complex images and designs directly on finished garments and fabrics.

We have developed and offer a broad portfolio of differentiated digital printing solutions for the DTG market that provide answers to challenges faced by participants in the global printed textile industry. Our DTG solutions utilize our patented wet-on-wet printing methodology that eliminates the common practice of separately coating and drying textiles prior to printing. This methodology also enables printing on a wide range of untreated fabrics, including cotton, wool, polyester, lycra and denim. Our patented NeoPigment ink and other consumables have been specially formulated to be compatible with our systems and overcome the quality-related challenges that pigment-based inks have traditionally faced when used in digital printing. Our software solutions simplify workflows in the printing process, by offering a complete solution from web order intake through graphic job preparation and execution. 

Building on the expertise and capabilities that we have accumulated in developing and offering differentiated solutions for the industrial DTG market, we also market an industrial digital printing solution, the Presto, which targets the on-demand DTF market. While the DTG market generally involves printing on finished garments, the DTF market is focused on printing on fabrics that are subsequently converted into finished garments, home or office décor, and other items. The Presto (like our predecessor DTF product, the Allegro) utilizes our proprietary wet-on-wet printing methodology and houses an integrated drying and curing system. It offers the sole (following its predecessor, the Allegro) single-step, eco-friendly, stand-alone industrial DTF digital textile printing solution available on the market. We primarily market the Presto to innovative web-based businesses operating on-demand business models that require a high degree of variety and limited quantity orders, as well as to fabric converters, which source large quantities of fabric and convert untreated fabrics into finished materials to be sold to garment and home décor manufacturers. We believe that with the Presto we are well positioned to take advantage of the growing trend towards customized home décor and on-demand fabric printing. We began selling the Presto commercially in the second quarter of 2019 (after having introduced our initial DTF digital textile printing solution, the Allegro, four years earlier, in the second quarter of 2015).

Our go-to-market strategy consists of a hybrid model of indirect and direct sales, with a trend towards adopting a direct sales model in certain key markets, as we have done in North America. We have historically generated a significant portion of our sales through a global network of independent distributors and value added resellers that we refer to as our channel partners. Our channel partners, in turn, sell the solutions they purchase from us to customers for whom we provide installation services, or sell and install our solutions on their own. Our channel partners work closely with our sales force and assist us by identifying potential sales targets, closing new business and maintaining relationships with and, in certain jurisdictions, providing support directly to our customers. Our agreement with our previous primary independent distributor in North America terminated effective as of February 7, 2019, following which we transitioned towards a direct sales model in that region.

Maintenance and support for our systems is performed either by our own service organization or by service engineers employed by our distributors. This varies among the four regions that we currently serve, depending on the infrastructure we have established in each particular region. We provide professional services directly to some of our customers in all regions. Our customers can renew maintenance and support contracts for additional periods by purchasing a maintenance and support package that covers remote support, software upgrades and onsite yearly maintenance or they can choose to rely on our support on a non-contractual time and material basis.

 We have an attractive business model that results in recurring sales of ink and other consumables driven by our growing installed base of systems. Our ink and other consumables are specially formulated to enable our systems to operate at the highest throughput level while adhering to high print quality requirements.

We intend to capitalize on the continued growth of the DTG market by expanding our diverse global customer base, with particular focus on the fast-growing web-to-print businesses. We also seek to increase our sales to existing customers, particularly sales of our ink and other consumables. At the same time, we look to acquire new high-volume customers, which drives higher sales of ink and other consumables. We are also seeking to extend our serviceable addressable market by introducing new features and functionality that enhance the capabilities of our systems and inks, and enable our systems to print on new types of media. We plan to accomplish these goals by investing in our direct sales force, developing new applications for our systems, introducing new solutions and growing our relationships with channel partners.

We were founded in 2002 in Israel and shipped our first system in 2005. As of December 31, 2020, we had 672 employees located across four primary regions: Israel, America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions. 

The information contained in this section should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and related notes and the information contained in ITEM 18. Financial Statements. Our financial statements have been prepared in accordance with US GAAP. 

Components of Statement of Operations

Revenues

Systems, Ink and Other Consumables, Value Added Services

Our revenues are generated from sales of our systems, ink and other consumables and service including software subscriptions. Prior to 2017, we derived, and in the near term we expect to continue to derive, a majority of our revenues from sales of our systems. However, in 2017, due to lower systems sales, which resulted in large part from the delay in receipt of permits for a new site for one of our large customers in the United States, we derived a larger portion of our revenues from sales of ink and consumables.  In the medium term, we are targeting an equal mix of revenues from our systems compared to ink and other consumables, due to our growing installed base, which generates recurring revenues from sales of ink and other consumables. We do not, however, consider the period-to-period changes in our total installed base to be a helpful metric in assessing our performance because we currently sell a number of different systems that have significantly different throughput characteristics and average selling prices, which do not, therefore, provide evidence as to revenues from systems sales or expected consumables sales. Instead, because we have not experienced material changes in the prices at which we sell ink and other consumables, we believe the best measure of the success of our strategy for recurring revenues from our growing installed base is the amount of the increase in revenues from ink and other consumables that is generated in each period.

We generate the services portion of our revenues from the provision of spare parts to our distributors and customers, system upgrades, post-warranty service contracts, time and material based services and software subscriptions.

We have historically sold our products directly and through independent distributors who resell them to customers. Sales by our distributors accounted for approximately 30% and 14% of our revenues during 2019 and 2020, respectively. On February 7, 2019, our agreement with our previous primary independent distributor in North America, which accounted for 15% of our revenues in the year ended December 31, 2018, terminated.

We recognize revenues in accordance with ASC No. 606, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers”. As such, we recognize revenue under the core principle that transfer of control to our customers should be depicted in an amount reflecting the consideration we expect to receive in revenue. Therefore, we identify a contract with a customer, identify the performance obligations in the contract, determine the transaction price, allocate the transaction price to each performance obligation in the contract and recognize revenues when, or as, we satisfy a performance obligation.

We periodically provide customer incentive programs including product discounts, volume-based rebates and warrants, which are accounted for as variable consideration which is deducted from revenue in the period in which the revenue is recognized. These reductions to revenue are made based upon reasonable and reliable estimates that are determined by historical experience and the specific terms and conditions of the incentive

See “-Critical Accounting Policies-Revenue Recognition”. 

Geographic Breakdown of Revenues

The following table sets forth the geographic breakdown of revenues from sales to customers located in the regions indicated below for the periods indicated:

Shipping and handling

Shipping and handling fees that are charged to our customers are recognized as revenue in the period shipped and the related costs for providing these services are recorded as a cost of revenues.

Cost of Revenues and Gross Profit

Cost of revenues consists primarily of payments to the third-party contract manufacturers who assemble our systems and who are responsible for ordering most of the components for those systems. Cost of revenues also includes components for our systems for which we are responsible, such as print heads, as well as raw materials for ink and other consumables. Cost of revenues includes personnel expenses, such as operation and supply chain employees, and related overhead for the manufacturing of our systems, as well as expenses for service personnel involved in the installation and support of our systems, shipping and handling fees and overhead for the manufacturing process of ink and other consumables. We expect cost of revenues to increase in absolute dollars due to increased revenues but remain relatively constant or decrease as a percentage of total revenues, as we continue to improve our manufacturing processes and supply chain and as the costs related to our service infrastructure, which have a fixed component, are leveraged across a larger installed base. 

Gross profit is revenues less cost of revenues. Gross margin is gross profit expressed as a percentage of total revenues. Our gross margin has historically fluctuated from period to period as a result of changes in the mix of the systems that we sell and the amount of revenues that we derive from ink and other consumables versus systems. In general, we generate higher gross margins from our high throughput systems compared to entry level systems. In addition, customers that purchase our high throughput systems generally use larger quantities of ink and other consumables, which generate higher margins than sales of systems. We expect that gross margins will increase due to improvements in economies of scale and improvements in services gross margin. 

We currently provide maintenance and support for all of our systems sold in the United States even if the sale is made through a distributor. We are seeking to increase the number of customers that rely on us to provide maintenance and support for their systems by expanding our maintenance and support capabilities. In addition to driving gross margin improvement, we believe this will provide an opportunity for direct contact with customers with the goal of reducing system down-time, educating customers about optimal use of our systems to drive increased utilization, expanding the variety of print applications and increasing sales of post-warranty service contracts and other professional application development services. Our service operations have not been profitable on a stand-alone basis. We are seeking to generate greater revenues from our service offering, and thereby leverage the fixed cost component associated with it, by increasing sales of post-warranty service contracts, selling upgrade kits and providing other professional services. 

Operating Expenses

Our operating expenses are classified into four categories: research and development expenses, net, sales and marketing expenses, general and administrative expenses and restructuring expenses. For each category, the largest component is generally personnel costs, consisting of salaries and related personnel expenses, including share-based compensation expenses. Operating expenses also include allocated overhead costs for facilities, including rent payments under our facility leases. We expect personnel and allocated costs to continue to increase at a controlled pace as we hire new employees to support growth of our business, but at a slower pace than in prior years. In the long term, we expect operating expenses to decrease as a percentage of revenues.

Research and Development Expenses, net. The largest component of our research and development expenses, net of government grants is salaries and related personnel expenses for our research and development employees. Research and development expenses also include purchases of laboratory supplies; expenses related to beta testing of our systems; and allocated overhead costs for facilities, including rent payments under our facilities leases. We record all research and development expenses as they are incurred, except for development expenses which are capitalized in accordance with ASC 350-40. We expect research and development expenses to slightly increase in absolute terms as we continue to hire additional personnel for the development of upgrades to existing systems and additional systems that we develop. Our current research and development efforts are primarily focused on our next generation of DTF and DTG systems. We are also investing in the development of new ink formulas for our new systems and in order to expand the range of fabrics on which we can print and further improve color quality and diversification of our high-resolution images and designs. We are improving our software solutions to simplify workflows in the printing process, by offering a complete solution from web order intake through graphic job preparation and execution.

Sales and Marketing Expenses. The largest component of our sales and marketing expenses is salaries and related personnel expenses for our marketing, sales and other sales-support employees. Sales and marketing expenses also include trade shows, other advertising and promotions, including distributor open houses and media advertising; sales-based commissions and allocated overhead costs for facilities, including rent payments under our facilities leases. We market our solutions using a combination of internal marketing professionals and our network of channel partners. We expect sales and marketing expenses to continue to increase in absolute terms in the near term as we add sales and marketing personnel, including pursuant to our direct product distribution strategy in certain key markets.

General and Administrative Expenses. The largest component of our general and administrative expenses is salaries and related personnel expenses for our executive officers, financial staff, information technology staff, and human resources staff. General and administrative costs also include fees for accounting and legal services, insurance and costs for facilities, including rent payments under our facilities leases, partially allocated to other departments. We expect our general and administrative expenses to increase in absolute terms in the near term, but at a slower pace than in prior years, in which we hired a substantial amount of additional personnel to support our growth and to support our operations at our U.S. headquarters at Englewood, New Jersey.

Finance Income, Net

Finance income, net consists of interest income and foreign currency exchange gains or losses. Foreign currency exchange changes reflect gains or losses related to changes in the value of our non-U.S. dollar denominated financial assets, primarily cash and cash equivalents, and trade payables and receivables. As of December 31, 2020, we did not have any indebtedness for borrowed amounts. Interest income consists of interest earned on our cash, cash equivalents, short-term bank deposits and marketable securities, offset by amortization of premium on marketable securities. We expect interest income to vary depending on our average investment balances and market interest rates during each reporting period.

Taxes on Income

The corporate tax rate in Israel has been 23% for 2018 and all subsequent years. However, as discussed in greater detail below under “Taxation and Israeli Government Programs Applicable To Our Company — Israeli Tax Considerations and Government Programs,” we and our wholly-owned Israeli subsidiary, Kornit Technologies, are entitled to various tax benefits under the Israeli Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investments, 1959, or the Investment Law.

Starting January 1, 2014 and based on the Israeli law, we consolidate the two separate results of our Israeli operations only for tax purposes such that net operating loss carryforwards of Kornit Technologies generated from 2014 onwards can be used to offset our taxable income. Kornit Technologies currently generates enough carryforward net operating losses to offset our taxable income. Accordingly, we were not subject to effective income tax in Israel in 2018, 2019 or 2020, and our effective tax rate was the blended rate of our Israeli tax and those of our non-Israeli subsidiaries in their respective jurisdictions of organization. 

Under the Investment Law and other Israeli legislation, we are entitled to certain additional tax benefits, including accelerated depreciation and amortization rates for tax purposes on certain assets, deduction of public offering expenses in three equal annual installments and amortization of other intangible property rights for tax purposes.

Comparison of Period to Period Results of Operations

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2019 and 2020

Revenues

Revenues increased by $13.5 million, or 7.5%, to $193.3 million in 2020 from $179.9 million in 2019, which is net of $5.1 million and $5.4 million, in 2019 and 2020, respectively, in fair value of the warrants associated with revenues recognized from Amazon. The growth in revenues resulted from: a 18.3% increase in ink and other consumables revenues to $77.1 million in 2020 from $65.2 million in 2019; a 22.1% increase in service revenues to $28.4 million in 2020 from $23.3 million in 2019, and a decrease of 3.9% in systems revenues from $91.4 million in 2019 to $87.8 million in 2020. The $11.9 million increase in ink and other consumables revenues was due to a larger installed base, partially offset by install base transition to HD technology (which does not consume ink and other consumables as much). The $3.6 million decrease in systems revenues was attributable to the initial impact of COVID-19 pandemic on our revenues in the first two quarters of 2020. The increase in our service revenues was due to revenues generated from sale of software subscription and due to an increase in sales of spare parts and service contracts to our expanding installed base as well as an increase in systems upgrades.

Cost of Revenues and Gross Profit

Cost of revenues increased by $7.7 million, or 7.9%, to $105.5 million in 2020 from $97.8 million in 2019. Gross profit increased by $5.7 million, or 7.0%, to $87.8 million in 2020 from $82.1 million in 2019. Gross margin slightly decreased to 45.4% in 2020, compared to 45.6% in 2019 due to an increase in headcount and payroll related items in 2020 and an increase in inventory write-offs by $2.4 million in 2020 compared to 2019

Operating Expenses

Research and Development, net. Research and development expenses net of government grants increased by 40.4% in 2020 compared to 2019. This primarily reflected the robust growth in our operations in 2020 and was mainly driven by an increase of $5.5 million in salaries and related personnel expenses and share based compensation due to an increase in the number of employees, with higher seniority and variable compensation payout, compared to 2019; an increase of $1.7 million in materials consumed in research and development activities and an increase of $1.0 million in expenses related to consulting services primarily resulted from the capitalization of internal use software development expenses in 2019, which had the effect of increasing research and development expenses in 2020. As a percentage of total revenues, our research and development expenses increased during this period to 16.3% in 2020 from 12.5% in 2019.

Sales and Marketing. Sales and marketing expenses increased by 8.4% in 2020 compared to 2019. This increase was primarily due to: an increase of $5.5 million in salaries and related personnel expenses and share-based compensation expenses, mainly due to a higher average number of employees during 2020 compared to 2019; offset, in part, by a decrease of $2.2 million in travel expenses due to COVID-19 pandemic. As a percentage of total revenues, our sales and marketing expenses slightly increased from 18.7% in 2019 to 18.8% in 2020.

General and Administrative. General and administrative expenses increased by 44.1% in 2020 compared to 2019. This primarily resulted from an increase of $3.2 million in salaries, related personnel expenses and share-based compensation expenses mainly due to the hiring of additional personnel and an increase of $1.4 million in consulting services; an increase of $0.8 in directors and officers insurance expenses. As a percentage of total revenues, our general and administrative expenses increased from 10.3% in 2019 to 13.8% in 2020.

Finance Income, Net

Finance income, net amounted to $3.3 million in 2019 compared to an income of $3.5 million in 2020. The $0.2 million increase is primarily resulted from an increase of financial income from interest on marketable securities in 2020 offset, in part, by an increase in financial expenses related to exchange rate differences and amortization of premium on marketable securities compared to 2019.

Taxes on Income

Taxes on income amounted to $1.6 million in 2020 compared to $0.7 million 2019. We record net deferred tax assets to the extent we believe these assets will more likely than not be realized. As of each reporting date, our management considers new evidence, both positive and negative, that could impact management’s view with regards to the future realization of deferred tax assets for each jurisdiction.

We (along with our Israeli subsidiary) are currently subject to a tax audit by the ITA for the years 2013 to 2018. In respect of the years 2013-2014, we have been issued with a tax order, on which we appealed to the district court. The ITA also issued assessments for the years 2015 until 2018, on which we filed an objection, and the ITA has to determine whether to accept the objection or issue a tax order for the years 2015-2018 as well. For more information, please see the risk factor in Item 3.D above that begins “We may be subject to additional tax liabilities in the future as a result of audits of our tax returns.”

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2018 and 2019

We have omitted in this annual report a discussion comparing the results of our operations for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2019. In order to view that discussion, please see “ITEM 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects - A. Operating Results - Comparison of Period to Period Results of Operations - Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2018 and 2019” in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019, which we filed with the SEC on March 23, 2020.

Critical Accounting Policies

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (U.S. GAAP). These accounting principles are more fully described in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report and require us to make certain estimates, judgments and assumptions. We believe that the estimates, judgments and assumptions upon which we rely are reasonable based upon information available to us at the time that these estimates, judgments and assumptions are made. These estimates, judgments and assumptions can affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the periods presented. To the extent there are material differences between these estimates, judgments or assumptions and actual results, our financial statements will be affected. We believe that the accounting policies discussed below are critical to our financial results and to the understanding of our past and future performance, as these policies relate to the more significant areas involving management’s estimates and assumptions. We consider an accounting estimate to be critical if: (1) it requires us to make assumptions because information was not available at the time or it included matters that were highly uncertain at the time we were making our estimate; and (2) changes in the estimate could have a material impact on our financial condition or results of operations.

We believe that the following significant accounting policies are the basis for the most significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

Revenue Recognition

We generate revenues from sales of systems, consumables and services. We generate revenues from sale of our products directly to end-users and indirectly through independent distributors, all of whom are considered end-users. We recognize revenue under the core principle that transfer of control to our customers should be depicted in an amount reflecting the consideration we expect to receive in revenue. Therefore, we identify a contract with a customer, identify the performance obligations in the contract, determine the transaction price, allocate the transaction price to each performance obligation in the contract, and recognize revenues when, or as, we satisfy a performance obligation.

Revenues from products, which consist of systems and consumables, are recognized at the point in time when control has transferred, in accordance with the agreed-upon delivery terms.

Revenues from services are derived mainly from the sale of print heads, spare parts, upgrade kits, software subscription and service contracts. Our print heads, spare parts and upgrade kits revenues (collectively “Spare parts”) are recognized at the point in time when control has transferred, in accordance with the agreed-upon delivery terms. Service contracts are recognized over time, on a straight-line basis, over the period of the service.

For multiple performance obligations arrangements, such as selling a system with a service contract, installation and training, we account for each performance obligation separately, as it is distinct. The transaction price is allocated to each distinct performance obligation on a relative stand-alone selling price, or SSP, basis, and revenue is recognized for each performance obligation when control has passed. In most cases, we are able to establish SSP based on the observable prices of services sold separately in comparable circumstances to similar customers and for products based on our best estimates of the price at which we would have sold the product regularly on a stand-alone basis. We reassess the SSP on a periodic basis or when facts and circumstances change.

We do not account for training and installation as a separate performance obligation due to its immateriality in the context of our contracts. Accordingly, revenues from training and installation are recognized upon the delivery of our systems.

We periodically provide customer incentive programs in the form of product discounts, volume-based rebates and warrants, which are accounted for as variable consideration that are deducted from revenue in the period in which the revenue is recognized. These reductions to revenue are made based upon reasonable and reliable estimates that are determined according to historical experience and the specific terms and conditions of the incentive.

In cases in which old systems are traded in as part of sales of new systems, the fair value of the old systems is recorded as inventory, provided that such value can be determined.

Inventories

Inventories are measured at the lower of cost or net realizable value. Cost is computed using weighted average cost, on a first-in, first-out basis. Inventory costs consist of material, direct labor and overhead. We periodically assess inventory for obsolescence and excess and reduce the carrying value by an amount equal to the difference between its cost and the estimated net realizable value based on assumptions about future demand and historical sales patterns. This valuation requires us to make judgments, based on currently available information, about the likely method of disposition, such as through sales and expected recoverable values of each disposition category. These assumptions about future disposition of inventory are inherently uncertain and changes in our estimates and assumptions may cause us to realize material write-downs in the future.

As of December 31, 2020, we had $52.5 million of inventory, of which $18.0 million consisted of raw materials and components and $34.5 million consisted of completed systems, ink and other consumables. We recorded inventory write-offs in total amounts of $1.8 million, $2.6 million and $5.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Share-Based Compensation

Under U.S. GAAP, we account for share-based compensation for employees in accordance with the provisions of the FASB’s ASC Topic 718 “Compensation - Stock Based Compensation,” or ASC 718, which requires us to measure the cost of options and RSUs based on the fair value of the award on the grant date.

The fair value of each RSU is the market value as determined by the closing share price at the date of the grant.

We selected the binomial option pricing model as the most appropriate method for determining the estimated fair value of options which requires the use of subjective assumptions, including the expected term of the award and the expected volatility of the price of our common stock. We recognize compensation expense over the vesting period using the straight-line method and classify these amounts in the consolidated financial statements based on the department to which the related employee reports. We will continue to use judgment in evaluating the assumptions related to our share-based compensation expense on a prospective basis. As we continue to accumulate additional data, we may have refinements to our estimates, which could materially impact our future share-based compensation expense.

Taxes

We are subject to income taxes in Israel, United States Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and Asia Pacific. Significant judgment is required in evaluating our uncertain tax positions and determining our provision for income taxes. We recognize income taxes under the liability method. Tax benefits are recognized from uncertain tax positions only if we believe that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities based on the technical merits of the position. Although we believe we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions, no assurance can be given that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be different. We adjust these reserves when facts and circumstances change, such as the closing of a tax audit, the refinement of an estimate or changes in tax laws. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different than the amounts recorded, such differences will impact the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made. The provision for income taxes includes the effects of any reserves that are considered appropriate, as well as the related net interest and penalties.

We recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for future tax consequences arising from differences between the carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities under U.S. GAAP and their respective tax bases, and for net operating loss carryforwards and tax credit carryforwards. We regularly review our deferred tax assets for recoverability and establish a valuation allowance if it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. To make this judgment, we must make predictions of the amount and category of taxable income from various sources and weigh all available positive and negative evidence about these possible sources of taxable income.

While we believe the resulting tax balances as of December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 are appropriately accounted for, the ultimate outcome of such matters could result in favorable or unfavorable adjustments to our consolidated financial statements and such adjustments could be material. We have filed or are in the process of filing local and foreign tax returns that may be audited by the respective tax authorities. We believe that we adequately provided for any reasonably foreseeable outcomes related to tax audits and settlement; however, our future results may include favorable or unfavorable adjustments to our estimated tax liabilities in the period the assessments are made or resolved, audits are closed or when statute of limitations on potential assessments expire.

Warranty costs

During 2020 we typically granted a six-month warranty on our systems and recorded a provision for warranty at the time at which a product’s revenue was recognized. We estimate the liability of possible warranty claims based on our historical experience. We estimate the costs that may be incurred under our warranty arrangements and record a liability in the amount of such costs at the time product revenue is recognized. We periodically assess the adequacy of the recorded warranty liabilities and adjust the amounts as necessary.

Marketable Securities

Marketable securities currently are comprised of debt securities. We determine the appropriate classification of marketable securities at the time of purchase and re-evaluate such designation at each balance sheet date. In accordance with FASB ASC No. 320, “Investment Debt and Equity Securities,” we classify marketable securities as available-for-sale. Available-for-sale securities are stated at fair value, with unrealized gains and losses reported in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), a separate component of shareholders’ equity, net of taxes. Realized gains and losses on sales of marketable securities, as determined on a specific identification basis, are included in finance income, net. The amortized cost of marketable securities is adjusted for amortization of premium and accretion of discount to maturity, both of which, together with interest, are included in finance income, net. We classify our marketable securities as either short-term or long-term based on each instrument’s underlying contractual maturity date and our expectations as to sales and redemptions in the following year.

On January 1, 2020, we adopted Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, using the modified retrospective transition method. Upon adoption, we modified our impairment model for available-for-sale, or AFS, debt securities and discontinued using the concept of “other than temporary” impairment on AFS debt securities. Each reporting period, we evaluate whether declines in fair value below amortized cost are due to expected credit losses, as well as our ability and intent to hold the investment until a forecasted recovery occurs. Allowance for credit losses on AFS debt securities are recognized in our consolidated statements of income, and any remaining unrealized losses, net of taxes, are included in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) in stockholders’ equity.

During the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, no impairment were recorded related to our marketable securities.

Business Combination

We allocate the fair value of purchase consideration to the tangible assets acquired, liabilities assumed and intangible assets acquired based on their estimated fair value. The excess of the fair value of purchase consideration over the fair values of these identifiable assets and liabilities is recorded as goodwill. Such valuations require our management to make significant estimates and assumptions, especially with respect to intangible assets. Significant estimates in valuing certain intangible assets include, but are not limited to, future expected cash flows from acquired technology and other intangible assets, their useful lives and discount rates. Our management’s estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable, but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable and, as a result, actual results may differ from estimates. During the measurement period, which is not to exceed one year from the acquisition date, we may record adjustments to the assets acquired and liabilities assumed, with the corresponding offset to goodwill. Upon the conclusion of the measurement period, any subsequent adjustments are recorded to earnings.

Recently Issued and Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

For a summary of recent accounting pronouncements applicable to our consolidated financial statements see Note 2, “Significant Accounting Policies” to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part III, Item 18 of this Annual Report on Form 20-F.

Taxation and Israeli Government Programs Applicable to Our Company

Israeli Tax Considerations and Government Programs

The following is a brief summary of the material Israeli tax laws applicable to us, and certain Israeli Government programs that benefit us.

General Corporate Tax Structure in Israel

Israeli companies are generally subject to corporate tax on their taxable income. Since 2018, the corporate tax rate has been 23%. However, the effective tax rate payable by a company that derives income from an Approved Enterprise, a Benefited Enterprise, a Preferred Enterprise, a Special Preferred Enterprise, a Preferred Technology Enterprise or Special Preferred Technology Enterprise (as discussed below) may be considerably less. Capital gains derived by an Israeli company are subject to the prevailing corporate tax rate.

Law for the Encouragement of Industry (Taxes), 5729-1969

The Law for the Encouragement of Industry (Taxes), 5729-1969, generally referred to as the Industry Encouragement Law, provides several tax benefits for “Industrial Companies”. The Israeli companies are an “Industrial Company” as defined by the Israeli Law for the Encouragement of Industry (Taxation), 1969.

The Industry Encouragement Law defines an “Industrial Company” as a company resident in Israel, which was incorporated in Israel and of which 90% or more of its income in any tax year, other than income from certain government loans, is derived from an “Industrial Enterprise” located in Israel or in the “Area”, in accordance with the definition under section 3A of the Israeli Income Tax Ordinance (New Version) 1961, or the Ordinance, and owned by it. An “Industrial Enterprise” is defined as an enterprise whose principal activity in any given tax year is industrial production.

The following tax benefits, among others, are available to Industrial Companies:

Eligibility for benefits under the Industry Encouragement Law is not subject to receipt of prior approval from any governmental authority.

There can be no assurance that we will continue to qualify as an Industrial Company or that the benefits described above will be available in the future.

Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investments, 5719-1959

The Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investments, 5719-1959, generally referred to as the Investment Law, provides certain incentives for capital investments in production facilities (or other eligible assets) by “Industrial Enterprises” (as defined under the Investment Law).

The Investment Law has been amended several times over the recent years, with the three most significant changes effective as of April 1, 2005, or the 2005 Amendment, as of January 1, 2011, or the 2011 Amendment and as of January 1, 2017, or the 2017 Amendment. Pursuant to the 2005 Amendment, tax benefits granted in accordance with the provisions of the Investment Law prior to its revision by the 2005 Amendment remain in force but any benefits granted subsequently are subject to the provisions of the 2005 Amendment. Similarly, the 2011 Amendment introduced new benefits to replace those granted in accordance with the provisions of the Investment Law in effect prior to the 2011 Amendment. However, companies entitled to benefits under the Investment Law as in effect prior to January 1, 2011 were entitled to choose to continue to enjoy such benefits, provided that certain conditions are met, or elect instead, irrevocably, to forego such benefits and have the benefits of the 2011 Amendment apply. We have examined the possible effect of these provisions of the 2011 Amendment on our financial statements and have decided not to opt to apply the new benefits under the 2011 Amendment and the 2017 Amendment for our company, and for our Israeli subsidiary we elected to apply the benefit under the 2011 Amendment. The 2017 Amendment introduces new benefits for Technological Enterprises, alongside the existing tax benefits.

The following discussion is a summary of the Investment Law following its most recent amendments:

Tax Benefits Subsequent to the 2005 Amendment

The 2005 Amendment applies to new investment programs and investment programs commencing after 2004, but does not apply to investment programs approved prior to April 1, 2005, referred to as Approved Enterprises. The 2005 Amendment provides that terms and benefits included in any certificate of approval that was granted before the 2005 Amendment became effective (April 1, 2005) will remain subject to the provisions of the Investment Law as in effect on the date of such approval. Pursuant to the 2005 Amendment, the Israeli Authority for Investments and Development of the Industry and Economy, or the Investment Center, will continue to grant Approved Enterprise status to qualifying investments. The 2005 Amendment, however, limits the scope of enterprises that may be approved by the Investment Center by setting criteria for the approval of a facility as an Approved Enterprise.

The 2005 Amendment provides that Approved Enterprise status will only be necessary for receiving cash grants. As a result, it was no longer necessary for a company to obtain the advance approval of the Investment Center in order to receive the tax benefits previously available under the alternative benefits track. Instead, a company may claim the tax benefits offered by the Investment Law directly in its tax returns, provided that its facilities meet the criteria for tax benefits set forth in the 2005 Amendment. Companies or programs under the new provisions receiving these tax benefits are referred to as Benefited Enterprises. A company that has a Benefited Enterprise may, at its discretion, approach the Israel Tax Authority for a pre-ruling confirming that it is in compliance with the provisions of the Investment Law, as amended.

Tax benefits are available under the 2005 Amendment to production facilities (or other eligible facilities) which are generally required to derive more than 25% of their business income from export to specific markets with a population of at least 14 million in 2012 (such export criteria will further be increased in the future by 1.4% per annum). In order to receive the tax benefits, the 2005 Amendment states that a company must make an investment which meets certain conditions set forth in the amendment for tax benefits, including exceeding a minimum investment amount specified in the Investment Law. Such investment entitles a company to receive a “Benefited Enterprise” status with respect to the investment, and may be made over a period of no more than three years ending in the year in which the company requested to have the tax benefits apply to its Benefited Enterprise. Where a company requests to have the tax benefits apply to an expansion of existing facilities, only the expansion will be considered to be a Benefited Enterprise and the company’s effective tax rate will be the weighted average of the applicable rates. In such case, the minimum investment required in order to qualify as a Benefited Enterprise must exceed a certain percentage of the value of the company’s production assets before the expansion.

The extent of the tax benefits available under the 2005 Amendment to qualifying income of a Benefited Enterprise depends on, among other things, the geographic location within Israel of the Benefited Enterprise. The location will also determine the period for which tax benefits are available. Such tax benefits include an exemption from corporate tax on undistributed income for a period of between two to ten years, depending on the geographic location of the Benefited Enterprise within Israel, and a reduced corporate tax rate of between 10% to 25% for the remainder of the benefits period, depending on the level of foreign investment in the company in each year. The benefits period is limited to 12 years from the year the company first chose to have the tax benefits apply.

A company qualifying for tax benefits under the 2005 Amendment which pays a dividend out of income derived by its Benefited Enterprise during the tax exemption period will be subject to deferred corporate tax in respect of the gross amount of the dividend distributed (grossed-up to reflect the pre-tax income that it would have had to earn in order to distribute the dividend) at the corporate tax rate which would have otherwise been applicable. Dividends paid out of income attributed to a Benefited Enterprise (or out of dividends received from a company whose income is attributed to a Benefited Enterprise) are generally subject to withholding tax at source at the rate of 15% or such lower rate as may be provided in an applicable tax treaty (subject to the receipt in advance of a valid certificate from the Israel Tax Authority allowing for a reduced tax rate). The reduced rate of 15% is limited to dividends and distributions out of income derived during the benefits period and actually paid at any time up to 12 years thereafter. After this period, the withholding tax is applied at a rate of up to 30%, or at a lower rate under an applicable tax treaty (subject to the receipt in advance of a valid certificate from the Israel Tax Authority allowing for a reduced tax rate). In the case of a Foreign Investors’ Company (as such term is defined in the Investment Law), the 12-year limitation on reduced withholding tax on dividends does not apply.

During the years 2010 to 2019 we were entitled to a tax exemption for undistributed income and a reduced tax rate under the Benefited Enterprise programs under the Investment Law. Our company had enjoyed these tax benefits until 2019. We believe that we qualify as a Preferred Technology Enterprise under the 2017 Amendment (as described below), and we are considering whether apply for benefits under the 2017 Amendment.

Tax Benefits under the 2011 Amendment

The 2011 Amendment canceled the availability of the benefits granted to companies in accordance with the provisions of the Investment Law prior to 2011 and, instead, introduced new benefits for income generated by a “Preferred Company” through its “Preferred Enterprise” (as such terms are defined in the Investment Law) as of January 1, 2011. The definition of a Preferred Company includes an industrial company that was incorporated in Israel, which is not wholly owned by a governmental entity, and which has, among other things, Preferred Enterprise status and is controlled and managed from Israel. Pursuant to the 2011 Amendment, a Preferred Company is entitled to a reduced corporate flat tax rate of 15% with respect to its preferred income derived by its Preferred Enterprise in 2011 and 2012, unless the Preferred Enterprise is located in a certain development zone, in which case the rate will be 10%. Such corporate tax rate was reduced to 12.5% and 7%, respectively, in 2013 and increased to 16% and 9% in 2014 and through 2016. Pursuant to the 2017 Amendment, in 2017 and thereafter, the corporate tax rate for a Preferred Enterprise which is located in a specified development zone was decreased to 7.5%, while the reduced corporate tax rate for other development zones remains 16%. Income derived by a Preferred Company from a ‘Special Preferred Enterprise’ (as such term is defined in the Investment Law) would be entitled, during a benefits period of 10 years, to further reduced tax rates of 8%, or to 5% if the Special Preferred Enterprise is located in a certain development zone. As of January 1, 2017, the definition of “Special Preferred Enterprise” includes less stringent conditions.

The tax benefits under the 2011 Amendment also include accelerated depreciation and amortization for tax purposes.

As of January 1, 2014, dividends paid out of preferred income attributed to a Preferred Enterprise or to a Special Preferred Enterprise are generally subject to withholding tax at source at the rate of 20% (in the case of non-Israeli shareholders - subject to the receipt in advance of a valid certificate from the ITA allowing for a reduced tax rate, 20%) or such lower rate as may be provided in an applicable tax treaty. However, if such dividends are paid to an Israeli company, no tax is required to be withheld (although, if subsequently distributed to individuals or a non-Israeli company, withholding of 20% or such lower rate as may be provided in an applicable tax treaty will apply).

The 2011 Amendment also provided transitional provisions to address companies already enjoying existing tax benefits under the Investment Law. These transitional provisions provide, among other things, that unless an irrevocable request is made to apply the provisions of the Investment Law as amended in 2011 with respect to income to be derived as of January 1, 2011: (i) the terms and benefits included in any certificate of approval that was granted to an Approved Enterprise which chose to receive grants and certain tax benefits before the 2011 Amendment became effective will remain subject to the provisions of the Investment Law as in effect on the date of such approval, and subject to certain conditions; (ii) terms and benefits included in any certificate of approval that was granted to an Approved Enterprise which had participated in an alternative benefits track before the 2011 Amendment became effective will remain subject to the provisions of the Investment Law as in effect on the date of such approval, provided that certain conditions are met; and (iii) a Benefited Enterprise can elect to continue to benefit from the benefits provided to it before the 2011 Amendment came into effect, provided that certain conditions are met. Kornit Technologies has filed a notification that it wishes to apply the new benefits under the 2011 Amendment.

New Tax benefits under the 2017 Amendment that became effective on January 1, 2017.

The 2017 Amendment provides new tax benefits for two types of “Technology Enterprises”, as described below, and is in addition to the other existing tax beneficial programs under the Investment Law.

The 2017 Amendment provides that a technology company satisfying certain conditions will qualify as a Preferred Technology Enterprise and will thereby enjoy a reduced corporate tax rate of 12% on income that qualifies as “Preferred Technology Income”, as defined in the Investment Law. The tax rate is further reduced to 7.5% for a Preferred Technology Enterprise located in development zone A. These corporate tax rates shall apply only with respect to the portion of the Preferred Technology Income derived from R&D developed in Israel. In addition, a Preferred Technology Company will enjoy a reduced corporate tax rate of 12% on capital gain derived from the sale of certain “Benefitted Intangible Assets” (as defined in the Investment Law) to a related foreign company if the Benefitted Intangible Assets were acquired from a foreign company on or after January 1, 2017 for at least NIS 200 million, and the sale receives prior approval from the National Authority for Technological Authority (previously known as the Israeli Office of the Chief Scientist), referred to as the Israel Innovation Authority (“IIA”) .

The 2017 Amendment further provides that a technology company satisfying certain conditions will qualify as a “Special Preferred Technology Enterprise” and will thereby enjoy a reduced corporate tax rate of 6% on “Preferred Technology Income” regardless of the company’s geographic location within Israel. In addition, a Special Preferred Technology Enterprise will enjoy a reduced corporate tax rate of 6% on capital gain derived from the sale of certain “Benefitted Intangible Assets” to a related foreign company if the Benefitted Intangible Assets were either developed by the Special Preferred Technology Enterprise or acquired from a foreign company on or after January 1, 2017, and the sale received prior approval from the IIA. A Special Preferred Technology Enterprise that acquires Benefitted Intangible Assets from a foreign company for more than NIS 500 million will be eligible for these benefits for at least ten years, subject to certain approvals as specified in the Investment Law.

Dividends distributed to Israeli shareholders by a Preferred Technology Enterprise or a Special Preferred Technology Enterprise, paid out of Preferred Technology Income, are generally subject to withholding tax at source at the rate of 20% (in the case of non-Israeli shareholders - subject to the receipt in advance of a valid certificate from the ITA allowing for a reduced tax rate, 20%) or such lower rate as may be provided in an applicable tax treaty. However, if such dividends are paid to an Israeli company, no tax is required to be withheld (although, if such dividends are subsequently distributed from such Israeli company to individuals or a non-Israeli company, withholding tax at a rate of 20% or such lower rate as may be provided in an applicable tax treaty will apply). If such dividends are distributed to a foreign parent company holding, solely or together with another foreign company, at least 90% of the shares of the distributing company and other conditions are met, the withholding tax rate will be 4% (or a lower rate under a tax treaty, if applicable, subject to the receipt in advance of a valid certificate from the Israel Tax Authority allowing for a reduced tax rate).

We believe that we and our Israeli subsidiary meet the conditions for “Preferred Technological Enterprises”, and accordingly are eligible for the tax rate of 12% on income that qualifies as “Preferred Technology Income”, as defined in the Law. The tax rate for Preferred Technological Enterprises located in development zone A is 7.5%.

From time to time, the Israeli Government has discussed reducing the benefits available to companies under the Investment Law. The termination or substantial reduction of any of the benefits available under the Investment Law could materially increase our tax liabilities.

As of December 31, 2020, we had approximately $125.8 million in cash and cash equivalents, $224.8 million in short term deposits and $85.3 million in marketable securities, which, in the aggregate, total $435.9 million. We fund our operations with cash generated from operating activities and cash raised via our equity financings, including our January 2017, June 2019 and September 2020 follow-on offerings. In the past, we have also raised capital through the sale of equity securities to investors in private placements.

Our cash requirements have principally been for working capital, capital expenditures and acquisitions. Our working capital requirements reflect the growth in our business. Historically, we have funded our working capital requirements (primarily for inventory and accounts receivable) and capital expenditures from cash flows provided by our operating activities, investments in our equity securities and cash and cash equivalents on hand. We have funded our acquisitions from the proceeds of our April 2015 initial public offering and cash on hand. Our current capital expenditures relate primarily to our manufacturing facility for our ink and other consumables in Kiryat Gat, Israel. In addition to investments in this facility, our capital investments have included improvements and expansion of our worldwide locations and corporate facilities to support our growth and investment and improvements in our information technology.

The most significant elements of our working capital requirements are for inventory, accounts receivable and trade payables. We partially fund the procurement of the components of our systems that are assembled by our third-party manufacturers. Our inventory strategy includes maintaining inventory of systems and inks and other consumables at levels that we expect to sell during the successive months based on anticipated customer demand. Our accounts receivable increased in 2020 due to the increase in our revenues. Our trade payables increased in 2020 due to an increase in sales projected for 2021 compared to the projection for 2020. 

As of December 31, 2020, we have a line of credit with an Israeli bank for total borrowings of up to $1.1 million, all of which was undrawn as of December 31, 2020. These lines of credit are unsecured and available subject to: (i) our maintenance of a 30% ratio of total tangible shareholders’ equity to total tangible assets; and (ii) the total credit use must be less than 70% of our and our subsidiaries’ receivables. Interest rates across these credit lines varied from 0.3% to 2.3% as of December 31, 2020.

Based on our current business plans, we believe that our cash flows from operating activities and our existing cash resources will be sufficient to fund our projected cash requirements for at least the next 12 months without drawing on our lines of credit or using significant amounts of the net proceeds from our initial public offering or our follow-on offerings. Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our rate of revenue growth, the timing and extent of spending to support product development efforts, the expansion of our sales and marketing activities, the timing of introductions of new solutions and the continuing market acceptance of our solutions, as well as other business development efforts.

The following table presents the major components of net cash flows for the periods presented:

Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities

Year Ended December 31, 2020

Net cash provided by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2020 was $32.4 million.

Net cash provided by operating activities consisted of net loss of $4.8 million, as adjusted upwards in an amount of $19.6 million for non-cash line items, including stock-based compensation expenses, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, fair value of warrants deducted from revenues, amortization of premium on marketable securities, realized loss on sale of marketable securities and foreign currency translation gain on inter-company balances with foreign subsidiaries and other adjustments not included hereunder in an amount of $11.7 million.

During 2020, our accounts receivable increased by $9.5 million reflecting the increase in our revenues in 2020. DSO for the year ended December 31, 2020 increased to 98 compared to 82 for the year ended December 31, 2019.

During 2020, our inventory increased by $15.0 million compared to the year ended December 31, 2019, out of which $15.8 was attributed to cash operating activities. This was primarily due to the cost of deferred systems and the need to maintain higher level of inventory to support increased install base and future business activities.

We had an increase of $6.9 million in trade payables in 2020 that mainly derived from an increase in the sales that we projected for 2021 compared to 2020, in line with the growth in our sales and operations.

We also experienced an increase of $24.3 million in deferred revenues and advances from customers in 2020, which was mainly due to performance obligations that were not fully satisfied.

Year Ended December 31, 2019

Net cash provided by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2019 was $11.0 million.

Net cash provided by operating activities consisted of net income of $10.2 million, as adjusted upwards in an amount of $16.0 million for non-cash line items, including stock-based compensation expenses, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, fair value of warrants deducted from revenues, amortization of premium on marketable securities, realized loss on sale of marketable securities and foreign currency translation gain on inter-company balances with foreign subsidiaries and other adjustments not included above in an amount of $1.6 million.

During 2019, our accounts receivable increased by $18.6 million reflecting the increase in our revenues in 2019. DSO for the year ended December 31, 2019 increased to 82, compared to 56 for the year ended December 31, 2018.

During 2019, our inventory increased by $7.4 million compared to the year ended December 31, 2018, out of which $4.2 was attributed to cash operating activities. This was primarily due to our new product introduction and the need to maintain higher level if inventory to support increased install base and future business activities.

We also experienced an increase of $6.0 million in trade payables in 2019 that mainly derived from an increase in the sales that we projected for 2020 compared to 2019, in line with the growth in our sales and operations.

For more information, please see “ITEM 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects— A. Operating Results— Comparison of Period to Period Results of Operations— Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2018 and 2019” in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019, which we filed with the SEC on March 23, 2020.

Year Ended December 31, 2018

For a discussion of our cash flows provided by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2018, please see “ITEM 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects— B. Liquidity and Capital Resources— Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Operating Activities—Year Ended December 31, 2018” in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019, which we filed with the SEC on March 23, 2020.

Net Cash Provided by (Used in) Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities was $114.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, which was primarily attributable to our investment in marketable securities and bank deposits of $165.7 million, purchase of property, plant and equipment of $13.5 million and cash paid in connection with acquisition of $15.5 million, offset, in part, by $80.2 million of proceeds from the sale and maturity of marketable securities. Net cash used in investing activities was $179.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was primarily attributable to our investment in marketable securities and bank deposits of $205.5 million, purchase of property, plant and equipment of $5.4 million and cash paid in connection with acquisition of $4.7 million, offset, in part, by $37.5 million of proceeds from the sale and maturity of marketable securities.

Net Cash Provided by Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities was $167.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, which was primarily attributable to our follow-on offering in September 2020, in which we raised $162.0 million of net proceeds. Net cash provided by financing activities was $135.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was primarily attributable to our follow-on offering in June 2019, in which we raised $129.7 million of net proceeds.

For a description of our research and development programs and the amounts that we have incurred over the last three years pursuant to those programs, please see “ITEM 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects— A. Operating Results— Components of Statement of Operations— Operating Expenses— Research and Development Expenses” and “ITEM 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects— A. Operating Results— Comparison of Period to Period Results of Operations.”

Our results of operations and financial condition may be affected by various trends and factors discussed in “ITEM 3.D Risk Factors,” including “If the market for digital textile printing does not develop as we anticipate, our sales may not grow as quickly as expected and our share price could decline,” and in “ITEM 4.B Business Overview—Industry Overview.” Additional trends that could potentially impact our results of operations and financial condition include changes in political, military or economic conditions in Israel and in the Middle East, general slowing of local or global economies and decreased economic activity in one or more of our target markets.

We do not currently engage in off-balance sheet financing arrangements. In addition, we do not have any interest in entities referred to as variable interest entities, which includes special purposes entities and other structured finance entities.

Our contractual obligations as of December 31, 2020 are summarized in the following table:

The following table sets forth the name, age and position of each of our executive officers and directors as of the date of this annual report:

Executive Officers

Ronen Samuel has served as our Chief Executive Officer since August 2018 and as a director since August 2019. Prior to joining our company, Mr. Samuel served in various capacities at Hewlett –Packard, or HP, over the course of the previous 18 years. Most recently, he served as Vice President and General Manager of HP Indigo and WebPress EMEA. Prior to that, Mr. Samuel led HP’s Asia Pacific and Japan region for seven years. He was also engaged in Strategic Marketing while at HP, working closely with Research and Development to define future products. While at HP, Mr. Samuel also served in various capacities as product/project manager. Prior to his career in printing technology, Mr. Samuel spent seven years in the Israeli Air Force, rising to the rank of major while serving as a fighter pilot and leading the establishment of Israel’s second Apache Squadron. Mr. Samuel received an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and received an undergraduate Business and Law degree from The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.

Alon Rozner has served as our Chief Financial Officer since December 2020. Prior to joining us, Mr. Rozner served as the chief financial officer of Orbotech, a leading global supplier of yield-enhancing and process-enabling solutions for the electronics manufacturing industry. Orbotech was traded on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: ORBK) until its acquisition by KLA (NASDAQ: KLAC) in February 2019. During his 13-year tenure at Orbotech he served in a broad range of senior finance, business and operational positions, including executive management positions in the Company’s operations in Asia Pacific. Prior to Orbotech, Mr. Rozner served as chief financial officer of Wintegra Inc. a Fabless semiconductor company and as an accountant for Ernst & Young – Israel. He is a CPA and holds a B.A. in Business Administration and Accounting from The Israeli College of Management.

Jecka Glasman has served as our Chief Commercial Officer since November 2019. Prior to joining our company, Ms. Glasman served as the US General Manager for SodaStream (NASDAQ: SODA) since December 2017. Prior to joining SodaStream, for 3 years since November 2014, Jecka was the President and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks of America, A Daimler Trucks subsidiary of Daimler AG (ETR: DAI). Jecka began her career as an Officer in the Israel Defense Forces, followed by a decade in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. She then joined Comverse Technology, a world leader in the telecom industry (NASDAQ: CMVT) where she spent over 10 years progressing from a Project Manager to various sales and operations leadership positions covering Central Europe and EMEA. Her last position at Comverse was Senior VP, Global Services Business Unit. Jecka holds an Executive MBA from Tel Aviv University, a BA in Computer Science and a BA in Economics and Business Administration from the Tel Aviv Jaffa Academic College, Israel.

Omer Kulka has served as our Chief Marketing Officer since July 2017. Omer joined Kornit in 2011 with years of extensive experience in the semiconductor industry, holding positions spanning R&D to Marketing and Business Management. Since joining Kornit he has held several managerial positions at the company including Director of the Wide-Format Division and Director of Product Marketing. Omer holds a BSc in Computer Science, a BA in Philosophy and an MA in History and Philosophy of Sciences and Ideas from Tel Aviv University.

Kobi Mann has served as our Chief Technology Officer since January 2020, prior to that he has held the position of VP Consumables & Application development since September 2017. Kobi Mann joined Kornit in 2004 as an R&D Chemist and has held core technology roles. As one of Kornit’s founders he brings over 17 years of experience in the field of Inkjet Technology. Kobi has played a critical role in the design and the execution of core projects and processes in the company. During his tenure at Kornit, he has managed and led R&D Chemistry, technology groups, transfer to production, Print heads and QA as well as lead Kornit’s Ink plant design. Prior to his executive, Kobi has held several managerial positions including Business Development of Consumables and Director of Global Application, an arena he established in Kornit. Kobi holds a B.Sc. Chemistry and Executive MBA – both from Bar Ilan University in Israel.

Directors

Yuval Cohen has served as the Chairman of our board of directors since August 2011. Mr. Cohen is the founding and managing partner of Fortissimo Capital, a private equity fund established in 2004 and our former controlling shareholder. From 1997 through 2002, Mr. Cohen was a General Partner at Jerusalem Venture Partners (“JVP”), an Israeli-based venture capital fund. Prior to joining JVP, he held executive positions at various Silicon Valley companies, including DSP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSPG), and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC). Currently, Mr. Cohen serves as a director of Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ: WIX). He also serves on the board of directors of several privately held portfolio companies of Fortissimo Capital. Mr. Cohen holds a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University in Israel and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in Massachusetts.

Ofer Ben-Zur is a co-founder of our company and has served as director since 2002. From April 2014 to July 2016, Mr. Ben-Zur served as our President and Chief Technology Officer. From 2002 to April 2014, Mr. Ben-Zur served as our Chief Executive Officer, as well as the manager of our department of research and development. Currently Mr. Ben-Zur serves as the CEO and founder of Tritone Technologies, an Israeli start up specializing in Additive Manufacturing of metals. Mr. Ben-Zur holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology in Israel, an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Tel Aviv University in Israel, and an M.B.A. from Bradford University in England.

Lauri Hanover has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2015 (until August 2019, as an external director under the Companies Law), and serves as the chairperson of our audit committee and a member of our compensation committee. Ms. Hanover has served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Netafim Ltd., a global leader in smart irrigation systems, since August 2013. From 2009 to 2013, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of the Tnuva Group, Israel’s largest food manufacturer. From 2008 to 2009, Ms. Hanover served as Chief Executive Officer of Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy and Greenberg & Co., an Israeli law firm. From 2004 to 2007, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Lumenis Ltd. (NASDAQ: LMNS), a medical laser device company. From 2000 to 2004, Ms. Hanover served as the Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Vice President of NICE Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: NICE), an interaction analytics company, and from 1997 to 2000, as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Sapiens International Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ: SPNS), a provider of software solutions for the insurance industry. From 1981 to 2007, she served in a variety of financial management positions, including Corporate Controller and Director of Corporate Budgeting and Financial Analysis at Scitex Corporation Ltd., a developer and manufacturer of inkjet printers, and Senior Financial Analyst at Philip Morris Inc. (Altria), a leading consumer goods manufacturer. Ms. Hanover holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an M.B.A. from New York University.

Alon Lumbroso has served as a member of our Board since March 2015. Since June 2019, Mr. Lumbroso serves as the CEO of Cardo Systems Ltd. the world’s leading communication devices for the motorcycle industry. Since June 2015 until August 2017, Mr. Lumbroso has been the chief executive of Dip-Tech Ltd. and from August 2017 until November 2018 served as Managing Director of Dip-Tech that become a subsidiary of Ferro (NYSE: FOE) a leading global functional coatings and color solutions. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Lumbroso served as President of Mul-T-Lock Ltd., a subsidiary of ASSA ABLOY, a global supplier of locks and security solutions, as well as Market Region Manager of ASSA ABLOY. From 2005 to 2011, he served as Chief Executive Officer and director of Larotec Ltd., a developer and manufacturer of web-based end-to-end solutions. From 2000 to 2003, he served as Managing Director of Creo Europe (now CreoEMEA and formerly CreoScitex), a manufacturer and supplier of digital presses and printers. In addition, from 1998 to 2000, Mr. Lumbroso served as Managing Directors of Scitex and CreoScitex Asia Pacific, Hong Kong. Currently, he serves as a partner and director of iCar 2007 Ltd. Mr. Lumbroso holds a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Tel Aviv University in Israel and an M.B.A. from Bar-Ilan University in Israel.