illumin Holdings Inc.

good morning everyone before we begin the official remarks i will read the cautionary note regarding forward-looking information certain information to be discussed during this call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable security laws including among others statements concerning the company's objectives the company's strategy to achieve those objectives as well as statements with respect to management's beliefs, plans, estimates, and intentions, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance, or expectations that are not historical facts. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management and is subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. please refer to the cautionary statement and the risk factors identified in our filings with CDAR for a more detailed explanation of the inherent risks and uncertainties that could affect such forward-looking statements. Following the presentation, we will conduct a Q&A session. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Simon Cairns, Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Illumin's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. 2025 was a year in which Illumin repositioned the business and our platform towards AI-assisted decision-making and not just campaign spending. This marks a significant shift from how Illumin has historically positioned itself and its brand. Historically, we've been known as a drag-and-drop DSP that helps marketers spend on campaigns. Through 2025, we invested beyond being just a DSP and emerged in 2026 as an AI-enabled platform centered on outcomes, helping marketers not just plan and spend, but now also on how to decide in real time where they want to allocate their budget and what their priorities are. Whereas much larger providers offer these insights in days or even weeks later, Illumine can now enable marketers to drive campaign and budget decisions in real time, setting us apart when it comes to campaign performance. Let me explain. We conducted customer interviews in late 2024, and we correctly perceived the market would shift away from pure play DSPs in 2025. We invested in our DSP and turned it into a platform centered on outcomes, repositioning our brand and our platform, not just as an executor of ad campaigns, but as a leading enabler of real-time decision-making when it comes to campaign options, spending, and budget reallocation, all intent on driving outcomes for marketers. To achieve this, we had to start by ensuring we have a robust exchange. A great outcomes platform needs great supply first and foremost, not just great demand experiences. So we leveraged what we already had and supported that product in its sales and abilities in 2025. We then spent $9 million to extend our DSP side of the platform towards outcomes and decision-making. In particular, real-time decision-making while campaigns were still in flight. We rolled out several features in 2025 and into 2026 to support this. Our intent positions us as a leader in enabling both better performance and smarter budget shifts for marketers, which is where future demand is and where fewer competitors can play. These investments show up in our 2025 results. Exchange sales showed strong growth throughout the year. Sales in our DSP started weaker than last year, but sequentially improved through the year as our platform was rolled out. Our gross margin was impacted by mixed shift in sales, which we believe will catch up going forward as the DSP and brand are repositioned in the market. The operational progress we made during the year, particularly the growth of exchange and the return to sequential growth in self-service, provides a stronger foundation as we enter 2026. Turning specifically to Q4, I'll begin by reviewing the operational highlights for the fourth quarter and full year, and then further discuss the evolution of the platform. After that, I'll turn the call over to Michael, our Interim Chief Financial Officer, who will review the financial results in greater detail. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $43.1 million compared to $49.9 million in the prior year period. Full year revenue reached $143.6 million. These year-over-year comparisons were affected by the roll-off of two large clients that concluded in late 2024. Those engagements represented approximately $23 million of revenue in the prior year across the managed service and self-service segments of our business. Despite that headwind, underlying revenue trends improved progressively through 2025, culminating in strong sequential growth in the fourth quarter. Looking more specifically at our business segments, exchange service continued to scale rapidly, growing 48% year-over-year to $19.7 million in the fourth quarter. Exchange now represents a meaningful and growing portion of our revenue mix and reflects strong execution by our commercial and technology teams. Self-service revenue was $10.2 million, representing 23% sequential growth, with 41 net new client additions during the quarter. The organizational and go-to-market adjustments we implemented in late 2025 contributed to that improved momentum we saw in the fourth quarter. Managed service revenue was $13.3 million. While the segment experienced some softness during the year due to broader advertising spending patterns, it remained a stable contributor to the business. As our revenue mix evolves, particularly with the growth of exchange, growth margins may have fluctuate in the near term. However, these segments provide greater scalability, and we believe they position the company for stronger operating leverage over time. When we entered 2025, we saw a shift in the market away from our historical position, a journey platform that helps marketers execute campaigns via drag and drop interfaces. We spent $9 million in 2025 extending the platform and repositioning our brand towards outcomes, repositioning us as a leading enabler of real-time decision-making for marketers and moving us beyond being just a DSP. We've historically been known as a platform that can combine media execution and measurement, but now we layer up real-time decision-making, and that extends us beyond the traditional territory of a DSP. What marketers increasingly need is the ability to understand campaign impact while campaigns are running and adjust spend and strategy in real time. Most providers who do this take days or weeks, but Illumen enables decision-making and budget shifts in real time while campaigns are still in flight. To complement this, our response in 2025 included ensuring that every component of the Illumen platform, from planning through execution and measurement, is designed around the outcomes our customers are trying to achieve. This was a departure from our past focus on just campaign planning and spend execution. During 2025, we made targeted investments across the platform to support that strategy. These investments included expanded support for connected TV, programmatic guarantee capabilities, and deeper integrations with major media ecosystems. We also introduced AI powered forecasting and campaign optimization tools, making capabilities that were historically only available to large advertisers accessible to a broader customer base. In addition, we began rolling out in-app real-time incrementality measurement, which enables marketers to better understand the real impact of their advertising spend. More recently, we've introduced live audiences, a key feature where marketers no longer need to wait for someone to visit their site. Illumine can now build audiences from traffic that was exposed to the marketer's ads. Taken together, these capabilities support our vision of transforming Illumine into a purpose-built, outcomes-based advertising decision-making platform, well beyond its historical remit as a mid-tier DSP. In terms of organizational efficiency, alongside these product improvements, we also completed a number of organizational initiatives designed to align our operating structure with the evolved business model. These actions include headcount restructuring measures and operating efficiency improvements that were largely completed by the end of 2025. As a result, operating expenses essentially remained flat year over year, and we expect to begin to realize those benefits of these actions as we move through 2026. Looking ahead, in summary, 2025 was a year of repositioning aluminum. While the roll off of two large client engagements affected our year over year comparisons, the trajectory of our business improved throughout the year, making the operational foundation of the company much stronger. As we move into 2026, our focus remains on four priorities. Scaling our high growth platform segments, particularly exchange and self-service. Dedicating a selling path and richer product support for managed services. continuing to innovate across our product roadmap with a move towards generative self-service, and lastly, cost control to ensure containment of expenses. As a result, Illumina enters 2026 with an expanded pipeline, and our focus is on executing that pipeline and turning it into sales growth. With that, I will now turn the call over to Michael to review the financial results in greater detail.

Thank you, Simon. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call, which we reported earlier today. Fourth quarter 2025 revenue was $43.1 million, representing 12.8% sequential growth from $38.2 million in Q3 2025 and was $49.9 million in Q4 of 2024. Exchange service continued to be a strong performer this quarter, while the strategic initiatives surrounding managed service started to take root. Self-service revenue performance reflected campaign timing dynamics and the completion of specific client programs. Gross profit or net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $15.6 million, compared with $22.7 million in Q4 2024, reflecting a change in revenue mix, the absence of high-margin client activity in 2025, and broader product mix dynamics. Gross margin for the quarter was 36.3% compared to 45.4% in the prior period. This year-over-year change was driven by a higher proportion of revenue from service lines with lower margins, such as exchange service, as well as overall margin pressure across all service lines due to economic conditions. Exchange service revenue for the fourth quarter increased 48% year-over-year to $19.7 million, reflecting strong new customer acquisitions and augmented spend from existing clients. This performance underscores the impact of the strategic investments we made over the past year in core technology enhancements, strengthened external partnerships, and expanded customer capabilities. Turning to self-service, revenue was $10.2 million for the quarter, down $2.7 million year-over-year, and represented 24% of total revenue. During the quarter, we added 41 net new client additions. Year-over-year comparisons continue to reflect reduced spend from one large customer that underwent a business restructuring. Excluding that customer from both periods, self-service revenue increased 14% compared to the prior year. We remain focused on attracting high-spend customers and seeing continued progress in adoption, conversion, and overall spend performance within the segment. In managed service, revenue here was $13.3 million for the quarter, compared to $23.7 million in Q4 2024. Year-over-year comparisons were influenced by changes in customer marketing spend. To offset these shifts, we have been reallocating resources and implementing a series of initiatives aimed at driving stronger sales and improving performance in this service line. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter of 2025 were $19.8 million compared to $21.8 million during the same prior year period. The year-over-year decrease reflected lower general administrative costs, lower sales and marketing expenses, lower technology expenses, and lower share-based compensation. This was partially offset by increased depreciation and amortization, which was attributable to an increase in and capitalized costs, largely due to IROP funding received in the prior year period, but not in the current year period. Q4 2025 operating expenses as a percentage of revenue was 45.9% compared to 43.7% in Q4 2024. It is up slightly as a result of a change in the product mix mentioned earlier and the lack of IRAP funding in the current year. Excluding IRAP, operating expenses as a percentage of revenue was 44.3% in the prior year. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $0.9 million compared with adjusted EBITDA income of $3.9 million in the prior year period, primarily due to lower revenue and gross margin, partly offset by lower operating expenses. Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $4.8 million, compared with net income of $4.1 million in Q4 2024. This year-over-year change reflects the factors mentioned, as well as a net foreign exchange loss of $1.1 million in 2025, compared with a gain of $3.6 million in the prior year period, largely due to the U.S. dollar weakening against the Canadian dollar during the period. Full year 2025 revenue was $143.6 million, up 2.3%, compared to $140.4 million in 2024. Year-over-year revenue growth continues to be driven by strong performance in our exchange service business, mostly offset by a decrease in managed service revenue. Our growth in exchange service was driven by the addition of new customers in this area, as well as an increased volume of spend from existing clients, largely due to our investments in key technology improvements, working with external partners to improve these capabilities, and added service improvements by our expanded customer support team. Turning to self-service, revenue was $36.1 million, a decrease of 6% from the prior year, and represented 25.2% of total revenue for the year. Year-over-year comparisons in self-service continue to be impacted by a large client that reduced spending this year due to their own specific circumstances, including undergoing a business restructuring. In managed service, revenue in 2025 was $42.3 million compared to $67.7 million in 2024. This year-over-year change was mainly due to the economic conditions and uncertainty I mentioned earlier, which has been influencing some customers' marketing spend. Gross profit or net revenue for 2025 was $57.5 million compared to $65.5 million in 2024, reflecting increased media-related costs due to higher sales year-over-year, as well as a shift in revenue towards lower-margin products. Gross margin for the year was 40.0% compared to 46.7% for 2024. This year-over-year change was due to a change in product mix, the higher portion of revenue coming from service lines with lower margins, such as exchange service. Total operating expenses for 2025 were $72.3 million compared to $70.5 million during 2024. The year-over-year increase was due to higher sales and marketing expenses, higher technology expenses, and higher depreciation and amortization, which was attributable to an increase in capitalized costs. This was partly offset by lower general and administrative costs and share-based compensation. 2025 operating expenses as a percentage of revenue was 50.3% compared to 50.2% in 2024. Excluding IRAP funding received in 2024, operating expenses as a percentage of revenue was 51.4% in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for 2025 was a loss of $2.2 million compared with income of $6.3 million in 2024. Despite higher revenues, year-over-year decline reflects lower gross profit as a result of lower gross margins, increased sales and marketing expenses, higher technology costs, partly offset by lower general and administrative costs. Net loss for 2025 is $14.7 million compared to net income of $0.9 million in 2024. Year-over-year change reflects the lower adjusted EBIT I mentioned earlier. Net foreign exchange loss of $1.4 million versus a gain of $5.1 million in the prior year period, higher depreciation and amortization expense, and higher severance expense as part of the company's cost containment initiatives. We exited the year with $43.8 million in cash versus $43.2 million as of September 30, 2025, reflecting disciplined capital allocation and improved management of the receivable and payable cycles. Cash was $56.0 million at the end of 2024 and was down year over year, primarily related to investments to enhance our product platform, strengthen brand positioning, improve client experience, drive operating efficiencies, and support sales initiatives, as well as lease payments, the repurchase of the company's common shares, and a foreign exchange loss on our cash. These uses of cash were partly offset by strong working capital management. Effective December 31, 2025, the company commenced a normal course issuer bid, or NCIB, to purchase for cancellation up to $3.8 million of its outstanding common shares. As of December 31, 2025, no shares had been purchased under this program. The 2025 NCIB remains open and can continue until December 30, 2026, or until we reach our targeted repurchase limit. Under the company's previous 2024 NCIB, which expired on December 22, 2025, the company had repurchased and canceled 1,025,552 shares on the open market at an average purchase price of $1.53 per share. Turning now to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $43.8 million in cash, up slightly from $43.2 million as of September 30, 2025, driven by disciplined capital deployment and stronger working capital management. Maintaining a strong balance sheet to support a long-term strategy remains a priority. Our liquidity provides financial flexibility to pursue selective, strategically aligned and accretive acquisition opportunities that expand our capabilities and shareholder value. We are seeing an increasing number of attractive opportunities and more rational valuations. We'll continue to evaluate them with a disciplined approach as we move through 2026. As of December 31st, 2025, the total number of our outstanding common shares stood at 51,602,090 shares, compared to 51,821,042 shares as of September 30th, 2025. This reflects our share repurchases during the quarter, partly offset by the impact of shares issued through the exercise of vested equity instruments. On a fully diluted basis, our shares outstanding are $55.8 million, and our insider share ownership is at 25.1%. In conclusion, our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results were driven by a strong performance in our exchange service line as our revenue mix shifted meaningfully towards this business. Managed service showed strong sequential improvement in the fourth quarter, increasing 41.7% from Q3, reflecting the strategic initiatives implemented toward the latter part of the year, although four-year results were lower compared to 2024. Self-service returned to sequential growth in the fourth quarter following the organizational and go-to-market adjustments implemented earlier in the year. Operating expenses remained relatively stable year-over-year as we implemented restructuring initiatives that reduced our North American workforce and resized operating expenses to align with revenue levels. These actions were largely completed as we entered 2026. We ended the year with $43.8 million in cash, no debt, and positive cash from operations. Investments made in product development and platform upgrades during 2025 position us to support revenue growth efficiently as scalable segments expand. As we continue to improve operational efficiency, our capital allocation remains disciplined. With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Simon for closing remarks.