UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM  i 10-K/A

Amendment No. 1

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

For the fiscal year ended  i  i December 31,  i 2022 / 

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

For the transition period from ______ to ______

Commission file number  i 001-40729

DATCHAT, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in charter)

 i (732)  i 374-3529

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2022, the last business day of the registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $ i 17,847,418 based upon the closing price reported for such date on The Nasdaq Capital Market as of that date.

Number of shares of common stock outstanding as of May 10, 2023 was  i 20,234,066.

Documents Incorporated by Reference: None.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Also, as required by Rule 12b-15 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), this Amendment also contains new certifications by our principal executive officer and principal financial officer pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, filed as exhibits to this Amendment No. 1 under Item 15 of Part IV hereof. Because no financial statements have been included in this Amendment No. 1, paragraph 3 of the certifications has been omitted and no new certifications pursuant to Section 906 are included as exhibits to this Amendment No. 1.

Except as described above, no changes have been made to the Original Filing and this Amendment does not amend, update or change any other items or disclosures contained in the Original Filing, and accordingly, this Amendment does not reflect or purport to reflect any information or events occurring after the original filing date or modify or update those disclosures affected by subsequent events. Accordingly, this Amendment should be read in conjunction with the Original Filing and the Company’s other filings with the SEC.

PART II

ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls

Our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, after evaluating the effectiveness of the Company’s “disclosure controls and procedures” (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) as of December 31, 2022, the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K, have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective such that the information required to be disclosed by us in reports filed under the Exchange Act is (i) recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms and (ii) accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding disclosure. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, cannot provide absolute assurance that the objectives of the controls system are met, and no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within a company have been detected.

Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f). Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of consolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. All internal control systems, no matter how well designed, have inherent limitations. Therefore, even those systems determined to be effective can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement preparation and presentation.

As of December 31, 2022, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission in Internal Control-Integrated Framework - 2013. Based on this assessment, our management concluded that, as of December 31, 2022, our internal control over financial reporting was not effective because it identified a material weakness. A material weakness is a significant deficiency or a combination of significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

Specifically, management concluded that the ineffectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting was due to the following material weaknesses:

While we used the services of a third-party accountant to provide accounting and financial reporting services to us, we lack both an adequate number of personnel with requisite expertise in the key functional areas of finance and accounting and an adequate number of personnel to properly implement internal control over financial reporting. These factors represent material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. Although we believe the possibility of errors in our financial statements is remote and expect to continue to use a third-party accountant to address shortfalls in staffing and to assist us with accounting and financial reporting responsibilities in an effort to mitigate the lack of segregation of duties, until such time as we expand our staff with qualified personnel, we expect to continue to report material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. 

Attestation Report of our Registered Public Accounting Firm

This Amendment No. 1 to our Annual Report on Form 10-K/A does not include an attestation report of our registered public accounting firm regarding internal control over financial reporting. As a smaller reporting company, our management’s report was not subject to attestation by our registered public accounting firm pursuant to rules of the SEC that permit us to provide only management’s report in this annual report.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during our last fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PART IV

ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES

See “Index to Consolidated Financial Statements” in Part IV, Item 15 of the Original Filing. Financial statement schedules have been omitted because they are not required or are not applicable or because the information required in those schedules either is not material or is included in the consolidated financial statements or the accompanying notes.

The following documents are included as exhibits to this report.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this Annual Report on Form 10-K/A to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized on this 12^th day of May, 2023.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1934, this Amendment No. 1 to the Annual Report on Form 10-K/A has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

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