Evolv Technologies Holdings, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Evolve Technology fourth quarter earnings results conference call. All participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Brian Norris, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations for Evolve Technology. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to today's call. I'm joined by John Kaczorski, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Chris Kutzer, our Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, after the market closed, we issued a press release detailing our fourth quarter results and our 2026 outlook. The release is filed with the SEC and available in the Investor Relations section of our website. During today's call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to our current expectations and views of future events, but not limited to statements regarding our expectations for future growth, our ability to gain new customers and renew and expand existing customers, future demand for our products, and our ability to meet our business outlook. All forward looking statements are subject to material risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, some of which are beyond our control. Actual events or financial results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements because of a number of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the risk factors set forth under the caption risk factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the SEC earlier today. The forward-looking statements made today represent our views as of March 10, 2026. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that future results, performance, or the events and circumstances reflected therein will be achieved or will occur. Except this may be required by applicable law, we disclaim any obligation to update them to reflect future events or circumstances. Please note that our commentary today will also include non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide additional insights for investors. These measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information paired in accordance with GAAP. These measures include adjusted gross profit, adjusted gross margin, adjusted operating expenses, adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA margin, along with adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per diluted share. Reconciliations between these non-GAAP measures and the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the press release that we issued earlier today. Please note that our definition of these measures may be different than similarly titled metrics presented by other companies. We will be discussing other metrics such as interrecurring revenue, or ARR, and remaining performance obligation, or RPO, both of which we believe are helpful to investors in understanding the progress we are making as a business. Before I turn things over to John, I'd like to highlight an upcoming event for our investors. We will be hosting our 2026 Investor Day on June 9th, 2026. The event will be webcast live on the investor relations section of our website, and we will share additional details as we get closer to the date. We look forward to providing a deeper update on our strategy, product innovation, and long-term financial framework at that time. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Brian, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. As I reflect on the progress we made in 2025, I'm reminded that everything we achieved began with the trust and partnership of our customers and was made possible by the steady, determined efforts of our entire team. Over the past year, we strengthened the consistency and stability of our operations while continuing to build a scalable, high growth, hardware enabled subscription business with increasingly predictable and durable results. We're doing this in a global security environment that is materially more complex than it was even a few years ago. Threat levels across public venues, schools, workplaces and critical infrastructure have continued to escalate. increasing the importance of security solutions that are not only effective, but scalable, consistent, and operationally reliable. That backdrop reinforces our belief that customer demand for modern technology-enabled security solutions will continue to expand. I want to take a moment to address all the discussion of generative AI and what I believe that means for the future of software and software as a service, or SaaS. It's incredible what the latest large language models can do. It's hard to utilize those models, especially in the area of software creation, and not ask yourself if pure SaaS is vulnerable to disruption. We are not pure SaaS. We are unique. We use a tight combination of hardware, sensors, proprietary data sets, and software that enables our AI models to make rapid decisions at customer locations. We control our full solution stack. We design our own hardware from the ground up, from the geometry of the coils we use to generate our electromagnetic fields to how we capture and process the data those fields create. We develop the software that runs on that proprietary hardware. We are able to use the unique data our systems create to train proprietary AI models that make rapid decisions to differentiate many types of weapons from many everyday benign items. Our thousands of deployed systems are cloud-connected, so we have access, with our customers' permission, to the data created by those systems. We use that data to evaluate our new models against real, not simulated scans so that we can best understand what their real-world impact is likely to be. Our solution stack is truly end-to-end. We believe that companies that control their end-to-end solution stack of hardware, software, and data will have a moat that can be defended. Our stack is ours. We have spent more than a decade building it. We control it. We sell our solution to customers as weapons detection as a service. By signing up for that service, customers gain access to the hardware, the software that runs it, the AI models that make threat determinations, and our on-site services to keep our systems operating as designed. At the end of 2025, all of that translated into 8,000 systems deployed, screening over 4 million people per day. And since the launch of Evolve Express, our technology has been used to screen more than 4 billion people worldwide. Yes, that's billion with a B. The more customers that sign up, the more real-world data we can use to evaluate our AI models in different verticals and environments. That data is not useful to anyone but Evolve and its customers. Because without our unique hardware and software, you simply could not use it. Over time, this combination of deployed systems, operational learning, and long-term customer relationships supports recurring revenue through multi-year subscription contracts, drives ARR growth, and builds RPO, a remaining performance obligation. Our fourth quarter results reflect continued execution of this approach. We ended 2025 with annual recurring revenue, or ARR, of $120.5 million, reflecting growth of 21% year over year. As we will discuss in more detail momentarily, we expect this rate of growth to accelerate in 2026 as growth in our recurring revenue base begins to outpace growth in total revenue. Revenue in Q4 was $38.5 million, up 32% year over year. For the full year, revenue was $145.9 million, representing growth of 40% year-over-year. Growth in the fourth quarter and the full year reflected strong new customer acquisitions, continued expansion within existing customers, and a step-up of approximately $15 million in the second half of product revenue, resulting from our decision to directly fulfill purchase subscriptions. We reported our fifth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA with adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.7% in Q4 and 7.6% for the full year. We reported positive adjusted EBITDA of 11.1 million in 2025 compared to a loss of 21 million in 2024, a $32 million improvement in adjusted EBITDA on an absolute dollar basis. Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities increased by $12.8 million sequentially in Q4 25 to $69 million, reflecting strong cash collection effort and discipline around working capital management. We believe this highlights the cash generating potential of the business over the long term. We welcomed over 60 new customers in Q4 and now serve over 1,200 customers globally. we continue to see a strong trend of existing customers upgrading to our Gen2 Express platform. These upgrades, together with solid ad market demand, drove a 13% year-over-year increase in RPO to $293.4 million at the end of Q4. Beyond the financial results, we continue to deliver real, measurable value to the growing number of communities that rely on us. That starts with our customers detecting and tagging an average of 500 firearms daily. At its core, weapon screening isn't just about what's detected. It's about creating a culture of safety where students, staff, and families know that violence prevention is taken seriously. By serving as a visible, everyday layer in a comprehensive school safety plan, our technology can help deter threats before they escalate and reinforce expectations for a safe learning environment, even on days when no weapon is found. Just last month, at a Georgia school customer, a student arrived on campus carrying a knife Our system flagged the threat, and when school police investigated further, they discovered a loaded handgun and drugs in the student's car. Parents there described the incident as a clear message to the community that the system works. And in a high school in Oregon, our solutions identified a student attempting to bring a loaded handgun through the school entrance. Staff were able to intervene immediately, secure the weapon, and keep the school operating without ever needing to initiate a lockdown. These are two more examples from opposite sides of the country that demonstrate how proactive weapon screening not only stops dangerous items from entering schools, but also strengthens overall campus safety every single day. In the fourth quarter, we added 12 new school districts across the U.S., as well as three universities in New York, Massachusetts, and Texas. For the year, we added 65 new education customers, and we're proud to have screened approximately 300 million students and visitors. In the healthcare sector, we are advancing a critical industry transformation by enabling hospitals to strengthen safety through a rigorous, layered security model designed to address one of their most pressing risk areas. Hospitals remain among the most dangerous workplaces in the United States, accounting for nearly 70% of all reported workplace violence incidents. Our solutions provide threat detection at key access points while maintaining efficient patient-centric entry experiences, Recent customer additions include William P. Clements Junior University Hospital in Texas, the University of Oklahoma Medical Center, and Mosaic Life Care at St. Joseph in Missouri. As adoption in healthcare continues to expand, our technology now supports the screening of over 1 million patients, healthcare workers, and visitors each day across medical facilities nationwide. Staying in healthcare, we are pleased to announce a new partnership with the American Hospital Association. under which Evolve has been designated a preferred provider for hospitals and health systems nationwide. This designation marks an important milestone in our healthcare strategy and validates the critical role our technology plays in protecting patients, clinicians, and visitors. Through this collaboration, we will engage directly with AHA's nearly 5,000 member hospitals and 43,000 individual members across events, thought leadership platforms, and key industry forums, reinforcing our shared commitment to safer, more secure, and more welcoming healthcare environments. Shifting to sports and live entertainment, we continue to expand our presence with over a dozen new customers in the fourth quarter. including seven professional football teams, reflecting continued demand for modern, efficient screening solutions across practice and training facilities. Teams are increasingly turning to evolve as they look for ways to manage high volume entry points with speed, reliability, and a better experience for players, staff, media, and fans. Each new deployment reinforces our position as a trusted partner in complex, high throughput settings where security and efficiency must coexist. Our market leadership extends well beyond the five major professional leagues where we have already established a leadership position. We added 65 new sports and live entertainment customers in 2025. We also saw continued strength in renewals and Gen 2 upgrades in this market as well. TD Garden, home to the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins, upgraded to Gen 2 Express for walkthrough screening and added four expedite systems for autonomous x-ray screening of bags. Crypto.com Arena upgraded to Gen 2 and added an additional expedite. Other notable renewals and upgrades include the Houston Astros, Houston Texans, St. Louis City Soccer Club, and the Philadelphia Eagles. Across this segment, the combination of new customers, expanding partnerships, and high-value Gen 2 upgrades highlights the strength of our market position. Today, we proudly screen nearly 1.5 million sports and live entertainment visitors every day. Another key market where we are seeing growing momentum is in the workplace. Across commercial office buildings, distribution centers, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities, security leaders are increasingly focused on protecting employees and visitors in environments where high volume foot traffic can create real operational risk. Companies are under growing pressure to strengthen corporate security programs without disrupting productivity. Our ability to provide fast and effective screening is resonating with enterprises that are modernizing outdated systems. In the fourth quarter, we added multiple new Fortune 500 companies, including one of the 10 largest banks in the world, a top 25 U.S. retailer, a Fortune 100 healthcare innovator, a major insurance and financial services company, and a multinational medical technology company. These wins underscore the growing demand we're seeing from large-scale enterprises that view workplace safety as a strategic imperative, and they highlight our growing role in securing the modern workplace. We are proud to be the trusted security provider for over 30 of the Fortune 500. The momentum we're seeing across these key markets reinforces the trust customers are placing in Evolve as their long-term security partners. Building on that foundation, we've continued to invest in broadening our product portfolio, and nowhere is that more evident than the early success of Expedite, our autonomous AI-based bag screening solution. Expedite is resonating across environments where patrons bring bags and our customers want to screen 100% of those bags without slowing down entry, whether in education, healthcare, industrial workplaces, or sports entertainment. After just its first full year in market, we now have 65 Expedite customers, or about 5% of our base of 1,200 customers. Adoption is coming from both existing and new customers. In the fourth quarter, 16 brand-new Evolve customers purchased Expedite, and 11 of them also purchased Express, creating meaningful customer acquisition cost tailwinds as we land multi-product relationships from day one. Early deployments show a strong promise in balancing threat detection with significantly lower false alarm rates. This helps security teams focus on real threats while maintaining a smooth flow for students, staff, and visitors. We continue to believe Expedite will drive stronger attach rates, customer expansion, and deeper subscription stickiness by enabling organizations to run all screening operations through a single cloud connected platform. Before I hand things over to Chris, I want to share some context around our outlook. We continue to see strong momentum across the business. Our pipeline remains healthy and execution is tracking well. For those reasons, we are raising our initial outlook for 2026. We expect to end 2026 with comfortably over 10,000 units deployed. We are modeling full year revenue of $172 million to $178 million, above the $160 to $165 million range we shared last November, with ARR growth in the range of 20% to 25%. While we continue investing in innovation and our product portfolio, we also expect to deliver modestly expanded adjusted EBITDA margins to the high single digits. 2025 is about strengthening our foundation, clarifying priorities, sharpening execution, and positioning the company for the future. As we look ahead, 2026 is about building the engine for durable, long-term growth. We believe weapons screening could become as common in certain types of buildings as sprinkler systems and intrusion alarms are today, not as a luxury, but as standard infrastructure. Getting there will require relentless innovation in weapons detection accuracy, form factor, and cost, And we believe we are well-positioned to lead the industry on all three. Through continued investment in AI, expansion within our install base, new product adoption, and disciplined market expansion, we are building the long-term architecture of a scaled global security platform. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris to walk through our financial results and the details behind our outlook.

Thanks, John. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm going to review our fourth quarter and full year results in more detail and then walk through our thoughts for 2026. Q4 revenue was $38.5 million, an increase of 32% year over year. All of our Q4 revenue streams performed in line with our expectations. Product revenue declined slightly from Q3, reflecting some of the one-time benefit in Q3 and trail off into Q4 from what was the largest deal in the company's history and had a heavier product mix. Subscription revenue was modestly lower due to the timing of a short-term subscription contract in connection with a major international sporting event in the summer of 2025, which provided a lift in both Q2 and Q3. License fee and other revenue declined as we completed the transition away from our legacy distributor licensing model. Overall, our top line results demonstrate solid underlying growth and continued consistency in the business. Adjusted gross margin was 50% in Q4 compared to 62% in the same period last year. There are a couple of drivers worth digging into. First, as we discussed on our last call, the shift to direct fulfillment of our purchase subscription orders creates near-term gross margin headwind. This dynamic is exactly what we planned for. While it brings lower gross margin in the initial quarter of a new transaction, the direct model delivers higher gross profit dollars over the life of the contract, along with higher revenue, ARR, RPO, and cash flow compared to the legacy distribution model. Another driver to gross margins in the period was an accrual for approximately $1 million for a targeted parts upgrade and proactive field service work. Moving down the P&L, Q4 adjusted operating expenses, which excludes stock-based compensation, loss on impairment of equipment and certain other one-time expenses, were $23.8 million compared to $23.1 million in the fourth quarter of last year, reflecting growth of 3% year-over-year. This contrasts with our 32% year-over-year growth in revenue in Q4, highlighting the leverage in our business model. Q4 adjusted EBITDA, which excludes stock-based compensation and other one-time items, was a positive $1.8 million in Q4-25 compared to $400,000 in the fourth quarter of last year. This resulted in adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.7% in the fourth quarter of 25. Visibility improved again in Q4, driven by another strong booked-to-deployed unit ratio. As a result, we began 2026 with a record level of units in backlog. Looking at a summary of our full year results. As John mentioned, ARR at December 31st was $120.5 million, reflecting growth of 21% year over year. This was fueled by new customer growth and expanding deployments across our customer base. Total revenue was $145.9 million, reflecting growth of approximately $42 million, up 40% year on year, primarily driven by strength and demand. The growth was further compounded by approximately $15 million of year-over-year growth and revenue from our shift to directly fulfilling the hardware portion of our purchase subscription orders, which we told you about in Q3. This change captured more revenue and more gross profit dollars, albeit at a lower gross margin percentage in the second half of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 25 was $11.1 million, or 7.6%. This is up $32.1 million from the prior year loss of $21 million on higher revenue and improved margins. Remaining performance obligation, or RPO, was $293.4 million at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to $259.1 million at the end of Q4 last year. We continue to see a strong trend of customers upgrading to our Gen2 Express platform. These upgrades, which include a new four-year subscription term, together with solid end market demand, drove this 13% year-over-year increase. Moving forward, we expect RPO growth to begin to accelerate, supported by increasing end market demand and by bringing back more revenue in-house through our direct purchase fulfillment motion, which we've discussed with investors over the last six months. Turning to the balance sheet, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities increased $12.8 million sequentially to $69 million. This primarily reflected enhanced cash conversion in the quarter, driven by stronger collection activity and continued discipline around working capital management. Turning to 2026, as John highlighted, the fundamentals of our business remain strong with robust customer demand. And when combined with the foundational changes we made to our business model, we expect ARR growth to begin outpacing revenue growth. Let me expand on the context behind our outlook for 2026. We are currently modeling full-year 26 revenue of approximately $172 to $178 million, compared to our prior guidance of $160 to $165 million, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 18 to 22%. We are currently modeling about a 50-50 mix between purchase subscription and pure subscription in 2026. Changes in mix will affect revenue, ARR, RPO, and our margins. We expect to exit 2026 with annual recurring revenue of approximately $145 to $150 million, representing growth of about 20% to 25% year over year. I want to remind investors that we ended 2025 with about $120 million in ending ARR, so that creates a solid baseline for 2026. which means we're coming into the year with about 70% of our revenue guidance in hand on day one. As we think about revenue growth across 25 and into 26, it's helpful to frame how that profile is being shaped by the fulfillment model change we implemented in mid 2025, which we've discussed the past several quarters. In light of that, this is how we see the year unfolding. In Q1, we expect revenue growth rate to be in the high 30s due to the installation of the record backlog we entered the year with and the step-up in one-time product revenue on direct purchase transactions compared to the prior year. As we move into Q2, we expect modest sequential revenue decline as prior year product backlog is consumed in Q1. As we enter the second half of the year, we will mark the one-year anniversary of our purchase fulfillment change. And despite the expiration of the step-up effect on product revenue, we still expect second-half revenue to be modestly higher than the first half. Overall, our 26 outlook reflects a business that is capturing more of the economic value that it creates while continuing to build a larger base of recurring revenue, increasing visibility through ARR and RPO, and delivering a more durable and predictable revenue profile over time. We remain committed to investing in growth in a responsible way that grows revenues faster than total expenses in 2026, and are modeling full-year adjusted EBITDA margins to expand from 7.6% in 2025 and to grow into the high single digits for the full year 2026, which includes approximately a $1 million headwind on memory chip costs. Finally, a word on our long-term operating model. As we've shared with investors on prior earnings calls, that model, which previously showed long-term adjusted EBITDA margins in the range of 10% to 15%, is now outdated. We now believe continued growth and operational improvements will drive greater long-term leverage in the business. We look forward to sharing more information on that topic at our Investor Day, June 9th. More to come. Before we open the call for Q&A, let me turn the call back over to John for a few closing remarks.

customers, dedication of our employees, the support of our partners, and the confidence of our shareholders. As we look ahead, we see significant opportunity to further scale the platform and unlock additional leverage, and we look forward to sharing more at our 2026 Investor Day. We are proud to be building technology that truly matters, helping to keep people safe where they work, learn, live, and play. And with that, we're happy to open the call for questions.

Terrific. Operator, we'd like to open the call now for Q&A.

We will now begin Q&A. For today's session, we'll be utilizing the raise hand feature. If you'd like to ask a question, simply click on the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. Once you've been called on, please unmute yourself and begin to ask your question. Please limit to one question and one follow-up before jumping back in the queue. Thank you. We will now pause a moment to assemble the queue. Your first question comes from Jeremy Hamblin with Craig Hallam. You may now unmute your line and ask your question.

Thank you and congratulations to the team on a great year and a quarter. I wanted to just start by understanding you raised the revenue guidance pretty significantly and want to understand the context for it. You had a bit more modest sequential ARR growth in Q4. Now you are raising your ARR growth from 20% to 22.5% at the midpoint. But just want to understand, there's been a lot of change in your pricing model and the fulfillment, obviously, for purchase deals. Can you help us just to understand, you know, how that's likely to play out in terms of maybe ARR per unit? You know, how that's played out, you know, in 25 and now into 26? Are you likely to get ARR? acceleration in the back half of the year as you're getting higher, you know, value per unit installed. But color that you can share, you know, again, in context of the very strong rays of revenue guidance.

Yes, Jeremy, that's correct. We do anticipate ARR to accelerate throughout the year. The changes that we made last year in bringing purchase prescription back in-house, at the same time, we also changed pricing, where we lowered the upfront price of hardware, the one-time price, and we raised the price of our software and services that will take time to go out through the year. I'll remind you that NICS also drives the the rate of ARR growth as subscription compared to purchase subscription where subscription is higher ARR.

Got it. That's helpful. And then just want to understand, and it's a little bit related, I'm thinking from the last question, but in terms of your gross margin curve, you know, you saw your subscription gross margins sequentially improve like 700 basis points. Your service gross margins, however, declined about 900 basis points and overall gross margins were a little bit lower than street expectations. Again, is that captured by the change in pricing model? And how should we be thinking about overall adjusted gross margins to trend over the course of 2026?

Thanks, Jeremy. I'll take this one to start. We do expect gross margins to be in line or slightly better in 26 versus 25, first of all. Related to the first part of your question, there is more gross profit dollars now being pushed into RPO in future periods compared to where it has been in the past because of everything we just talked about. So I won't revisit that, but that is a conscious... and direct effect of the actions we took that we're pleased with because, of course, more dollars come with it, more gross profit dollars, more revenue, et cetera. Otherwise, we have, of course, the other thing we highlighted, about a million-dollar accrual for some targeted service costs that we incurred in the period as well. It was a one-timer.

Got it. Last one for me, and then I'll hop out of the queue. But you also have your Plexus relationship that's going to turn on here in 2026. When do you expect production from Plexus to begin? And what quarter do you think that it will start to flow into the financials given inventory turns in your current position?

So when we announced the Plexus deal in Q3 and Q4, We stated that the schedule was to get to full ramp with Lexus in the second half of 2026. I'm pleased, Jeremy, that we're on that schedule. We still expect that same timing.

We do expect that transition, as we've said before, to be a slight tailwind to gross margin over time. And I think there's some working capital improvements that can be had there as well.

Thanks so much for taking my questions. Best wishes.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Eric Martinuzzi with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Yeah, the cash flow is very good. Obviously, the $18.7 million in 2025. Just curious to try and see if there's any linkage here that we can draw because there's so many moving parts in the revenue between the adjusted EBITDA forecast for 2026, which, you know, I'm coming up with a midpoint of $14 million in 2026 for adjusted EBITDA. Is there any way to connect that to your expectations for cash from ops in 2026?

Yeah, thanks, Eric. There's a couple things there. We did have a very strong Q4 cash generation quarter, which we're proud of. That was both working capital efficiency, but a very strong focus in delivery of cash collections. We've talked about 25 being a foundational year implementing new process and improvements and cash flow and cash collections was one of those areas. So we did take some steps there that were more 2025 and won't be repeated going into 2026. So the quarter was a very strong cash collection, some of which isn't repeatable going forward. In terms of cash flow for 26, we haven't shaped 26 or forecasted it at this point. I would say, however, a couple of things. Very proud of Q4. We do expect to be cash flow positive in the second half of 26. The first half is going to be shaped as well by our Q1 incremental cash costs of our incentive payments from the prior year. And when you take all of that, John and I are very focused on improving cash flow going forward, both in 26 and beyond. So with all of that baked in, I think you can expect improved trajectory with more specifics to come.

Is the expectation that cash flow will be greater in 26 than 25?

Absent, again, the incremental $7 million that I'm expecting in Q1 for prior year incentives, that's incremental compared to the prior year payments, I am expecting cash flow improvement. I think it's going to be close. I'll get back to you later in the year on whether I'm going to call that slightly down or cash flow neutral.

Got it. Thanks for taking my questions.

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, simply click on the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen. Your next question comes from Shaul Eyal with TD Cohen. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Congrats on strong completion of 2025. Can you guys talk to us about the mix between new logos and existing customers this quarter? I know you touched on that briefly, but maybe any additional color will be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, we added about 60 new customers in the quarter, and that took our total count to over 1200 customers, which we're extremely proud of and reflects the strength we're seeing customer adoption of our solution. Historically, we're always seeing a close to a 50-50 split of our new orders coming from new customers and existing customers expanding, which we think is a great testament to the strength of our solution. We highlighted that we now have 30 Fortune 500 customers, and we're really encouraged by the uptake of Expedite. Not only the new logos that we're bringing on with Expedite, but also the attachment that we're seeing between Expedite and Express.

Got it. Got it. And Chris and John, what are the hiring plans for fiscal 26 as the business is clearly scaling and accelerating, but also EBITDA is gradually nicely expanding. So just thinking out loud here, what are your hiring plans in terms of headcount? Thank you.

We're encouraged by what we're seeing inside the market and the security environment overall. And we are investing to capture that growth. And that's reflected in us raising guidance here as we look into 2026. So we are going to make investments in R&D, sales and marketing. We still have some work to do in GNA on the operational side of the business, as Chris communicated in the middle of last year. But we're committed to doing that in a responsible way. And what does that mean to us? We're going to grow top line. faster than we grow expenses. And you see that in us expanding our EBITDA margins in 26.

So one piece of color I would add here, especially if you dig into the K et al and you look at actual headcount, Our headcount is approximately flat to where we left, where we started the year, despite the reduction in force that was put in place in Q1. But a significant amount of the people that were added back were brought in-house for what used to be done by expensive consultants and contractors. So we insourced a significant amount of services of our customers, and that's something we want to control and touch our customers directly with anyway. So that's a net trade from paying contractors to adding people in-house. We did the same thing on a few G&A places as well, where we added headcount instead of paying external consulting firms to do the work for us. So while some headcount might shift, it doesn't commensurate with additional spend. underpinning what John said, but I wanted to triangulate that in case you're looking at some headcount numbers in the K. Perfect.

I think we have time for one more. Go ahead and finish your question.

Go ahead, Joel.

Your next question.

I was saying thank you so much for that. This is extremely helpful. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Your next question comes from Alex Lattimore with Northland. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Hi, guys. Alex Lattimore here on for Mike Lattimore. Great call here. I just had two questions. First one is, what percent of bookings are you seeing from current customers versus new customers throughout the year? And what do you expect in 26?

It's been approximately 50-50 of customers expanding versus that new customer acquisition, and we anticipate that to continue.

Awesome. And then one other unrelated question here. Do you see the AHA certification that you have now accelerating the hospital deals this year?

We're very excited about that partnership. And absolutely, as we look forward, we continue to think that health care is going to be a growth vertical. I'll provide this as an additional tailwind on top of what you saw in the state of California, where they've mandated advanced weapons screening across that state to be implemented by 2027. We also recently saw what's happening in Georgia, where Georgia has a bill going through the legislation. It has not yet passed that would mandate weapons screening inside all schools. We fervently believe that all schools should have weapon screening. We look at these two case examples where regulations are coming down, mandating technology as ours, as a tailwind as we look into 2027 and the future of our business and beyond.

Understood. That's all for me. Thanks, guys. Perfect, Alex. Thank you. John, you want to close it up?

Thank you. We're really excited about where we left 2025. And as we look forward in 2026, you see the excitement and the strength that we see in our business and our pipeline, the improved execution that we built in Q4 in raising our overall guide, the changes that we put into the business, allowing us to capture all the revenue on purchase subscriptions and adjust pricing for long-term value are coming into the market as we had forecasted. As we look into the second half of the year, building additional scale with our new contract manufacturing partner, Plexus, makes us very optimistic. Overall, we're building a very strong business. This is a hardware-enabled SaaS business that combines our proprietary hardware that generates proprietary data that we can use to continue to strengthen our models, and we monetize that in long-term recurring revenue, as you see in our RPO or any performance obligation. We look forward to sharing more details about the long-term outlook of our business at our upcoming investor day. Thank you very much for your participation.

Thank you for joining. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.