Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rapid Microbiosystems first quarter's 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mike Boyer. Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Shannon. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining the Rapid Microbiosystems first quarter earnings call. We apologize for the delay as we were experiencing some technical difficulties on our end. Joining me on the call are Rob Spignesi, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shawn Werches, Chief Financial Officer. This afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our first quarter results A copy of the release is available on the company's website at rapidmicrobio.com under Investors in the News and Events section. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that many statements made during this call may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance are forward-looking statements including but not limited to statements relating to Rapid Micro's financial condition, assumptions regarding future financial performance, anticipated future cash usage, statements related to the company's term loan facility, guidance for the second quarter and full year 2026, including revenue, expenses, gross margins, system placements, and validation activities, expectations for and plan activities related to Rapid Micro's business development and growth, including the expected benefits from our distribution and collaboration agreement with Millipore Sigma, customer interest and adoption of the Growth Direct system and the impact of the Growth Direct system on their businesses and operations, and statements regarding the potential impact of general macroeconomic conditions on our business and that of our customers. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including our ability to meet publicly announced guidance, the impact of our existing and any future indebtedness on our ability to operate our business, our ability to assess any future tranches under our debt facility and to comply with all its obligations thereunder, our ability to deliver products to customers and recognize revenue and market and macroeconomic conditions. For a more detailed list and description of the risks and uncertainties associated with Rapid Micro's business, please refer to the risk factor section of our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as updated from time to time in our subsequent filings with the SEC. We urge you to consider these factors and you should be aware that these statements should be considered estimates only and are not a guarantee of future performance. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, May 13th, 2026. Rapid Micro disclaims any intention or obligation except as required by law to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Rob.

Thank you, Mike. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin today's call with a brief overview of our first quarter performance and then discuss our priorities for the year before turning the call over to Sean for a more detailed review of our first quarter results and our Q2 and full year 2026 outlooks. Today, we reported total revenue of $8 million representing 11% year-over-year growth, driven by continued momentum across system placements and recurring revenue. During the quarter, we placed six growth direct systems, and as of March 31st, we had 196 systems placed globally, including 160 fully validated systems. Placement activity in the quarter was led by multi-system follow-on order from Samsung Biologics, highlighting continued success with larger key customers. Product revenue increased 36 percent in the first quarter, driven by a record quarter for consumables, which grew more than 30 percent, reflecting increased utilization in a growing installed base. Service revenue was in line with the guidance we provided in March. Recurring revenue increased 28 percent, driven by strong growth across both consumables and service contract revenue, and represented 63 percent of total revenue in the quarter. First quarter gross margin was 5%, consistent with our guidance representing an 8 percentage point improvement from the fourth quarter of 2025. With that overview, I'll now turn to our priorities and review our progress thus far in 2026, starting with accelerating growth direct system placements. We're off to a solid start in 2026. Our commercial team is expanding the funnel. With continued momentum and multi-system opportunities and strong engagement, including global rollout discussions with large customers. In early April, we hosted a Japan Growth Direct Day event in Tokyo that brought together current users and prospective customers, the first of three regional Growth Direct Day customer events planned for 2026. The program enabled robust peer-to-peer discussions regarding implementation and validation and highlighted the operational benefits of automating and standardizing microbial QC on the Growth Direct platform. Following Japan, I visited South Korea and met with customers to discuss their QC automation roadmaps. Across these conversations, we discussed the clear intent in scaling growth direct deployments as customers accelerate their plans to adopt automation and enterprise-wide standardization in microbial QC. The Asia-Pacific region is an important growth driver for Rapid Micro as we work to accelerate system placements and deepen relationships with large biopharma manufacturers. The engagement we're building in the region positions us well to become a long-term technology partner as the imperative to automate continues to broaden. We're also expanding our installed base across the region, with system placements in markets such as Singapore and Australia. In addition, we placed our first growth direct system in China, where investment in advanced therapies, including cell and gene therapies, continues to increase, and regulatory pathways are evolving to support accelerated review. Overall, our activities in Asia Pacific are strengthening customer relationships, building reference sites, and supporting continued acceleration of system placements over time. Looking ahead in June, Amgen will sponsor our first North American Growth Direct Day. We expect the event to bring together existing and prospective customers and further support momentum in our core biopharma market. I look forward to providing an update on our second quarter earnings call. In addition to our direct commercial channel, our collaboration with Millipore Sigma continues to expand the opportunity for growth direct placements, not only in our core pharmaceutical market, but also adjacent markets such as personal care and medical devices. Millipore Sigma is prioritizing automation and digital technologies to help shape the future of the Pharma QC lab. This effort centers on improving productivity, reliability, and data integrity. These are areas where the Growth Direct excels and delivers clear customer value. The Growth Direct platform complements Millipore Sigma's product portfolio, and we are pleased to be included within this broader automation framework. We also entered into a services agreement with Millipore Sigma that makes Rapid Micro the exclusive provider of validation, qualification, and maintenance services to their customers that purchase Growth Direct systems. In parallel, we are progressing toward a supply agreement as part of our margin expansion initiatives and continue to collaborate on joint new product development opportunities and enhancements to existing products. Turning to our priority of expanding gross margins, our performance in 2026 continues to track in line with our expectations and within the framework we've previously outlined. Our primary driver for our full year 2026 gross margin guidance of approximately 20% is a meaningful improvement of consumable margins. We have already begun to realize more favorable pricing from several key suppliers, which is lowering our cost structure and meaningfully improving our visibility. Combined with additional actions underway to improve systems manufacturing efficiency, this gives us confidence in an inflection to positive product gross margins beginning in the second quarter. Service margins, where we are currently meaningfully positive, are also expected to accelerate further in the second half of 2026 as revenue ramps, supporting our outlook for an overall gross margin rate in the fourth quarter in the mid-20% range. Looking further out, we remain focused on our long-term goal of 50% plus gross margins, supported by internal initiatives in our work with Millipore Sigma to reduce costs across systems and consumables. These efforts include manufacturing efficiencies, improved sourcing and supply chain optimization, and overhead leverage as volumes scale. Service margins are expected to continue improving through productivity gains and improve headcount leverage across a growing installed base. To conclude my remarks, customer demand remains strong with purchasing decisions increasingly strategic in nature and in many cases focused on the growth direct as an enterprise priority. Our direct commercial organization is executing well and our collaboration with Millipore Sigma continues to advance. Supported by favorable industry tailwinds, including increased automation, U.S. reshoring initiatives, and the growing complexity of advanced biomanufacturing, these dynamics are enhancing our visibility into our longer-term commercial pipeline, extending into 2027 and 2028. Based on our first quarter performance and outlook, we are reaffirming our full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $37 to $41 million, including 30 to 38 system placements. With that, I'll turn the call over to Sean to discuss our first quarter performance and 2026 outlook in more detail. Sean?