Kornit Digital (KRNT) Risk Factors

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.

We are subject to income taxes principally in Israel, United States, Germany, Hong-Kong, United Kingdom, and Japan. Significant judgment is required in evaluating our uncertain tax positions and determining our provision for income taxes, and if the relevant tax authority does not agree with the positions that we take, we could be subject to tax audit and face significant tax liabilities, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. We were recently subject to such a tax audit for the years 2020 to 2021 by the Israeli Tax Authority, or ITA, in respect of which we ultimately reached a settlement with the ITA. We account for income taxes in accordance with ASC 740, "Income Taxes." ASC 740, which prescribes the use of the liability method, whereby deferred tax asset and liability account balances are determined based on differences between financial reporting and tax basis of assets and liabilities are measured using the enacted tax rates that will be in effect when the differences are expected to reverse. We account for uncertain tax positions in accordance with ASC 740-10 two-step approach to recognizing and measuring uncertain tax positions. The first step is to evaluate the tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return by determining if the weight of available evidence indicates that it is more likely than not that, on an evaluation of the technical merits, the tax position will be sustained on audit, including resolution of any related appeals or litigation processes. The second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount that is more than 50% (cumulative probability) likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement. We currently maintain reserves for uncertain tax positions. If the potential tax liabilities in respect of which we have taken these reserves exceed the amount of those reserves, that may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. For more information on our tax positions please refer to Note 14 to our financial statements that appear in Item 18 of this annual report.

Product quality and safety issues could negatively impact consumer confidence in our brand and our business. Our products may not successfully achieve applicable safety standards or customers' expectations regarding safety or quality. Our products may contain or, be alleged to contain, components containing hazardous materials that may present certain health, safety, or quality concerns. Additionally, from time to time, system errors and/or deficiencies may be discovered in the design, manufacturing, assembling, labeling and product formulations of our systems, parts, ink, and other consumables, and associated software. Hazardous materials, errors, and/or deficiencies may also be identified in materials, components, and systems produced by others and used with or incorporated into our products. Some of these issues may not be apparent until after certain products are installed or used by customers, including in circumstances where a product is first introduced, or a new version is released. 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. To the extent that any error, deficiency, or hazardous component (which presents a safety concern) exists in any of our products and is not discovered and corrected before a product is introduced to the market, such product could be unsafe and/or could cause damage, including property damage, personal injury, or death. In such circumstances, the actual, potential, or perceived product safety concerns and/or defects in the manufacturing or design, a failure to warn of dangers inherent in the product, negligence, or strict liability could expose us to litigation relating to product liability, warranty liability, or personal injury, as well as government enforcement actions. Such litigation could force us to incur significant expenses, divert management's time and attention, subject us to adverse publicity, and damage our reputation and competitive position. A successful assertion of a claim against us may result in potentially significant monetary damages, penalties, or fines and adversely affect sales of our products. Although we carry insurance policies covering this type of liability, these policies may not provide sufficient protection should a claim be asserted against us. In addition, costs or payments made in connection with warranty and product liability claims and system recalls could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations in a material manner. Product liability claims, injuries, defects, or other problems experienced by other companies in the digital printing industry could lead to unfavorable market conditions for the industry as a whole.

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. If we cannot demonstrate that such interests will be harmed, we may be unable to prevent our competitors from benefiting from the expertise of our former employees or consultants and our ability to remain competitive may be diminished. As to our U.S. operations, on the U.S. federal level, there was movement in 2023 by federal agencies to make noncompete agreements unenforceable in general. The Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule to ban employers nationwide from using non-compete agreements with their employees and independent contractors, and the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board issued a memo in March 2023 opining that many types of non-compete and non-solicitation restrictions unlawfully interfere with employees' protected rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. If any of these proposed new U.S. federal restrictions becomes effective, or if any state in which we have operations continues to expand restrictions or bans the use of non-compete restrictions, that could adversely impact our ability to protect our investment in our key employees in our U.S. locations, and harm our competitive position.

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 print heads for our systems are supplied by a sole supplier, FujiFilm Dimatix, Inc., or FDMX. We entered into an agreement with FDMX in 2015, pursuant to which FDMX sells us certain off-the-shelf print heads and additional products, all of which FDMX regularly sells to providers of inkjet systems. Under the agreement, as last amended on June 20, 2022, the initial term of the agreement will expire on December 31, 2025, and the agreement will automatically renew for an additional two-year period, unless either party notifies the other party at least 90 days prior to expiration of the initial term that it does not want such a renewal. The agreement provides that FDMX may increase the prices of the products that we purchase from it upon 180-days' prior notice at any time, subject to certain conditions. The agreement further provides that FDMX may, at its option, discontinue products supplied under the agreement, provided that we are given one-year notice of the planned discontinuance and are provided with an end-of-sale purchase program. - A chemical used in some of our inks is supplied by B.G. (Israel) Technologies Ltd., or BG Bond, a subsidiary of Ashtrom Ltd., a large public Israeli industrial company. The chemicals were previously supplied under a definitive agreement which has expired, and currently we purchase these chemicals on a purchase order basis. For most of our inks, another chemical is supplied by Brenntag a reseller of The Dow Chemical Company, a multinational producer of chemicals and other compounds. We currently purchase these chemicals on a purchase order basis. - Dispersing agents used in some of our inks are supplied by BASF SE, which to our knowledge is the only source of supply of those agents. We purchase these dispersing agents from BASF on a purchase order basis. We maintain safety stock of these chemicals in an amount which will allow us to continue our manufacturing for several fiscal quarters in case of discontinuation. - Several raw materials and pigments used in some of our inks are supplied by Heubach Group. We currently purchase these raw materials and pigments on a purchase order basis. We maintain safety stock of these raw materials and pigments in an amount which will allow us to continue our manufacturing for several fiscal quarters in case of discontinuation. We are currently in the process of entering into a long-term supply agreement with Heubach Group. - Certain parts of the control system of our systems are supplied by sole suppliers, Yaskawa Europe Technology Ltd., an affiliate of Yaskawa Electric Corporation, or Yaskawa, and Beckhoff Automation Limited. Our turnkey suppliers (Flex and Sanmina- SCI Israel Medical Systems Ltd.), which assemble the control system on our behalf, purchase those control system parts from Yaskawa and Beckhoff. We also purchase additional, spare control system parts from Yaskawa and Beckhoff for our service department on a purchase order basis. - Some of our printing systems are compatible with a dryer that we purchase from Adelco Screen Process, or Adelco, which fulfills most of the demand for that dryer. The dryer is supplied under an April 2019 agreement that we entered into with Adelco. 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 (based only on whatever knowledge we have gained from qualifying print heads in the past). 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 for a longer period, should we need to locate and qualify a new supplier. Other risks resulting from our reliance on suppliers include: - if we experience an increase in demand for our solutions, our suppliers may be unable to provide us with the components that we need in order to meet that increased demand in a timely manner;- our suppliers may encounter financial hardships unrelated to our demand for components, which could inhibit their ability to fulfill our orders and meet our requirements;- we may experience production delays related to the evaluation and testing of products from alternative suppliers;- we may be subject to price fluctuations due to a lack of long-term supply arrangements for key components;- we or our suppliers may lose access to critical services and components, resulting in an interruption in the manufacture, assembly and shipment of our systems or inks and other consumables; and - fluctuations in demand for components that our suppliers manufacture for others may affect their ability or willingness to deliver components to us in a timely manner. If any of these risks materializes, 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.

The principal competition for our direct to garment (DTG) 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 ROQ. Our principal competitor in the industrial digital DTG market is Aeoon Technologies GmbH. We also face some competition in this market from OvalJet, M&R, ROQ, Brother International Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, Ricoh Company Ltd. and a number of smaller competitors that offer industrial level production capacity through multiple entry level systems. More recently, we have noticed some adoption of commercial level direct-to-film printing methodologies, a sub-segment of traditional heat transfer, which are used as a complimentary solution to direct-to-garment printing for specific applications such as caps and surfaces on which it is difficult to print. 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 KornitX global fulfillment network (GFN) offering which enables on-demand production of textiles and other goods, comes from a variety of virtual marketplaces that are offering certain fulfillment services or applications, or purpose-built direct API connectivity to specific fulfillers. 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 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 recently commenced commercial sales of the Kornit Apollo, a DTG mass production and customization system. Our results of operations depend in part on achieving sales of this product within the bulk apparel and screen replacement markets. The Apollo is based on the field proven MAX technology, improved by modules of automation and integrated curing. Market acceptance of our new system depends, among other things, on the system demonstrating a real advantage over existing systems, the success of our sales and marketing teams in creating awareness of the system, the sales price and the return on investment of the system 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 the market does not accept our new system, our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.

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 would 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.

On October 7, 2023, terrorists from Hamas and other terrorist organizations infiltrated Israel's southern border from the Gaza Strip and conducted a series of barbaric attacks on civilian and military targets, including widespread killings and kidnappings. They also launched extensive rocket attacks on the Israeli civilian population. Shortly following the attack, Israel declared war against Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces called up reservists for active duty, including approximately 13% of our Israeli workforce. There has also been increased fighting along Israel's northern border with Lebanon. The south of Lebanon is occupied by Hezbollah, a terrorist organization backed by Iran. In addition, Iran has threatened to attack Israel and has been developing a nuclear program. 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. To date, none of our facilities or infrastructure have been damaged nor have our supply chains been significantly impacted since the war broke out. However, a prolonged war could result in further military reserve duty call-ups as well as irregularities to our supply chain and our ability to ship products from Israel, which could disrupt our operations. 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, as well as acts of terror. 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. Several countries, principally in the Middle East, restrict doing business with Israel and Israeli companies. While some of these countries are eliminating these constraints, additional countries may impose restrictions on doing business with Israel and Israeli companies if hostilities in Israel or political instability in the region continues or increases. Although the recent Abraham Accords have enhanced Israel's relations with certain countries in the Middle East (i.e., the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan), an ongoing state of hostility vis-à-vis other countries, varying in degree and intensity, has caused security and economic challenges for Israel. 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. 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. Iran is backing the Houthi militia in Yemen which has been attacking ships in the Red Sea after the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas in an effort to deter ships from reaching the southern Israeli port of Eilat. If delivery and installation of our products is delayed or prevented by any such events, our revenues could be materially and adversely impacted.