MindWalk (HYFT) Earnings Call zum 1. Quartal des Geschäftsjahres 2027: Umsatz steigt um 21 %, Gespräche über ReefIQ schreiten voran

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• Der Umsatz im ersten Quartal des Geschäftsjahres 2027 stieg im Jahresvergleich um 21 % auf 3,8 Millionen CA$, was das fünfte Quartal in Folge mit einem Umsatzwachstum gegenüber dem Vorjahr markiert.
• Der Bruttogewinn stieg auf 2,2 Millionen CA$, während sich die Bruttomarge gegenüber 48 % im Vorjahr auf 59 % verbesserte.
• Der Nettoverlust aus fortgeführten Geschäftsbereichen weitete sich von 4,1 Millionen CA$ auf 6,1 Millionen CA$ aus, was höhere Aufwendungen für Vertrieb, Marketing, F&E und aktienbasierte Vergütungen widerspiegelt.
• MindWalk verhandelt mit mehreren großen Pharmaunternehmen über den potenziellen unternehmensweiten Einsatz von ReefIQ. Das Management nannte keine erwarteten Unterzeichnungsdaten oder Vertragswerte.
• Gemessen am Wert sind etwa 80 % der aktuellen kommerziellen Vertriebspipeline als Plattform-Partnerschaften in den Bereichen Datenmanagement, ReefIQ und Multi-Target-Wirkstoffforschung strukturiert, wobei MindWalk an den Erträgen der Wirkstoffe beteiligt ist.
• Das Unternehmen gab eine verbindliche Zusage für eine vorrangige, unbesicherte revolvierende Kreditlinie in Höhe von 30 Millionen US-Dollar zu einem festen Zinssatz von 7 % bekannt, die Kapital ohne die Ausgabe von Eigenkapital bereitstellt.

Wichtigste Finanzergebnisse

Geschäfts- und operative Entwicklung

MindWalk hat ReefIQ im Juni auf den Markt gebracht und konzentriert sich nun auf die Einführung bei Unternehmenskunden. Die Plattform strukturiert komplexe biologische Daten für die Nutzung durch KI-Modelle und soll mehrjährige Beziehungen mit wiederkehrenden Umsätzen unterstützen, die sich mit der Nutzung durch den Kunden ausweiten.

Das Management gab an, dass Gespräche mit mehreren großen Pharmaunternehmen im Gange sind, bisher jedoch keine Unternehmensvereinbarungen für ReefIQ bekannt gegeben wurden. Bestehende SaaS-Abonnements wurden nicht separat beziffert. Das Unternehmen betonte, dass künftige ReefIQ-Vereinbarungen voraussichtlich umfangreicher und breiter angelegt sein werden als seine bisherigen Verträge über wiederkehrende Umsätze mit LensAI.

MindWalk gab an, zu seinen Kunden 19 der 20 weltweit führenden Pharmaunternehmen zu zählen. Seine Forschungsarbeiten haben dazu beigetragen, dass mehrere Dutzend Moleküle die klinische Entwicklung erreichten, darunter 10, die sich derzeit in Studien der Phasen 1 bis 3 befinden, sowie vier, die als Erstentwicklungen („First-in-Class“) beschrieben werden.

Das Unternehmen vollzieht einen Wandel von einzelnen Dienstleistungsprojekten hin zu breiter angelegten Plattform-Partnerschaften mit Vorabzahlungen, Meilensteinen und Lizenzgebühren. Laut Management nutzen gemessen am Wert nun etwa 80 % der aktuellen Pipeline diese Struktur.

MindWalk hat zudem gemeinsam mit AMD und Vultr den Serieneinsatz von OpenFold 3 auf AMD Instinct MI325X GPUs validiert. Seine interne Pipeline befindet sich weiterhin in der präklinischen Entwicklung, wobei mehrere Programme parallel vorangetrieben werden und die Ressourcenzuweisung anhand der Datenlage erfolgt.

Ausblick der Unternehmensführung

Das Management rechnet mit ungleichmäßigen ersten Umsätzen aus ReefIQ, da anfängliche Vereinbarungen meilensteinbasierte Entwicklungsarbeiten enthalten können, bevor sie in jährlich wiederkehrende Umsätze übergehen.

Zeitpunkt und Umfang des Umsatzwachstums hängen davon ab, wie schnell sich ReefIQ bei Unternehmenskunden durchsetzt. Das Management lehnte es ab, einen genauen Zeitplan für die erste Vereinbarung zu nennen, und verwies auf Faktoren außerhalb des Einflusses des Unternehmens. Es gab jedoch an, dass sich die Verhandlungen in unterschiedlichen Phasen befinden und auch langjährige Kunden einbeziehen.

Der Abschluss des revolvierenden Kreditvertrags wird voraussichtlich bis zu 60 Tage in Anspruch nehmen. Das Unternehmen plant, Mittel nur nach Bedarf zur Liquiditätssicherung abzurufen. Das Management stellte klar, dass die Kreditlinie seine separaten, zweckgebundenen Finanzierungspläne auf Programmebene im Rahmen der Cayman-Struktur nicht ersetzt.

Risiken und wichtige Beobachtungspunkte

• Der Einsatz von ReefIQ muss IT-Sicherheits-, Datenresidenz- und Governance-Prüfungen der Unternehmen bestehen, da die Plattform in die biologischen Daten und Forschungsabläufe der Kunden integriert wird.
• Rechts- und Beschaffungsprozesse können mehr Zeit in Anspruch nehmen, da sich die vorgeschlagenen mehrjährigen Verträge für Plattformen und Ertragsbeteiligungen von MindWalks bisherigen Projektvereinbarungen unterscheiden.
• Der anfängliche Bereitstellungsumfang muss über Programme und Datenbereiche hinweg vereinbart werden, was eine weitere potenzielle zeitliche Einschränkung darstellt.
• Das Management nannte die bisherigen Nettoverluste des Unternehmens, die Marktakzeptanz von ReefIQ und LensAI, die Umwandlung von Plattformnutzungen in wiederkehrende Verträge, Risiken im Bereich des geistigen Eigentums, den Wettbewerb sowie die Kapitalmarktbedingungen als wesentliche Unsicherheitsfaktoren.
• Dem Management zufolge bleiben die Zeitpläne für die interne Pipeline schwer vorhersehbar.

Höhepunkte der Fragerunde für Analysten

Zeitplan für ReefIQ-Verträge: Das Management nannte drei wesentliche entscheidende Faktoren: IT-Sicherheit und Data Governance, rechtliche und Beschaffungsprüfungen sowie die Einigung auf den anfänglichen Bereitstellungsumfang. Es lehnte ab, einen konkreten erwarteten Abschlusstermin zu nennen.

Umsatzprofil: Es wird erwartet, dass die ersten ReefIQ-Verträge aufgrund von Entwicklungsleistungen im Vorfeld und Meilenstein-Komponenten zu unregelmäßigen Umsätzen führen. Jährlich wiederkehrende Umsätze würden basierend auf dem Zeitplan und der Struktur des jeweiligen Vertrags folgen.

Kundenbindung: Das Management gab an, dass Partnerschaftsgespräche nun jedes neue Forschungsprojekt begleiten. Das Interesse an ReefIQ war bei größeren Pharmaunternehmen am stärksten, die in Silos isolierte biologische Daten über mehrere Rechtsordnungen hinweg verknüpfen möchten.

Verwendung der Kreditlinie: MindWalk plant, die Kreditlinie nach Bedarf in Anspruch zu nehmen, um die Kommerzialisierung von ReefIQ, die interne Pipeline-Entwicklung und andere Chancen zu unterstützen. Die Kreditlinie ersetzt nicht die angedachte Finanzierung für zweckgebundene Vermögenswerte.

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz zu den Finanzergebnissen

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Hello everyone, thank you for joining us and welcome to MindWalk Reports Financial Results and Recent Business Highlights for First Quarter Fiscal Year 2027. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. I will now hand the call over to Dr. Jennifer Bath, President and Chief Executive Officer of MindWalk Holdings Corp. Dr. Bath, please go ahead. Before we begin, I would like to remind listeners that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in, including the company's history of net losses and the ability to convert platform adoptions into contracted recurring arrangements, market acceptance of ReefIQ and LensAI, intellectual property risks, competition, and capital market conditions. A fuller description of these risks appears in the company's annual report, report on Form 20F, and other filings are available on SEDAR Plus and sec.gov. All financial figures discussed during this call are Canadian dollars. Financial statements and MD&A are available on the company's website at mindwalkai.com, as well as sec.gov and SEDAR Plus. A replay of this call will be available following its conclusion today. I will now turn the call over to Dr. Jennifer Bath, President and Chief Executive Officer of MindWalk Holdings Corp. Please go ahead, Dr. Bath.

Jennifer Bath

Thank you very much. Good afternoon. In this first quarter of fiscal year 2027, MindWalk advanced toward our goal of becoming the leading bio-native AI drug discovery and development company. In June, we launched ReefIQ, our proprietary data platform, and our focus is now on enterprise adoption. For those newer to the MindWalk story, ReefIQ is the substrate layer between complex, unstructured biological data and AI models. It turns that data into structured, biologically meaningful representations, so AI models deliver deeper, more actionable insights for our pharmaceutical partners. ReefIQ's commercial model is built around multi-year recurring revenue relationships that can scale as clients expand their use of the platform.

As ReefIQ is integrated directly into a client's biological data and the discovery workflows, these relationships are designed to deepen over time. As a trusted partner to many of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, we know how drug discovery works inside these organizations and what they need from a platform like ReefIQ. Those relationships give us a real advantage as we drive adoption. We have made good progress. We are engaged with multiple large pharmaceutical companies around potential enterprise deployments of ReefIQ. These discussions vary in maturity, and we are encouraged by how the platform is resonating with our clients. We are not yet in a position to announce specific partners or discuss contract values, but the level of engagement reinforces our conviction of the commercial opportunity. We look forward to providing additional updates as these discussions progressed.

These opportunities are substantially larger than our historical LensAI recurring revenue agreements. Investors should not use prior LensAI contracts as a benchmark for the size or the scope of ReefIQ enterprise relationships. We have built a leading wet lab discovery franchise. Our clients include 19 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. And every one of those relationships is a potential opening for ReefIQ. Two decades of biologics discovery work for our clients across multiple platforms and capabilities has already contributed to several dozen molecules reaching the clinic. 10 are in active phase 1 through phase 3 trials today, and 4 of those are first-in-class molecules. We are also reshaping how we structure our commercial relationships with our pharmaceutical partners.

Increasingly, new engagements are being structured as broader platform partnerships where MindWalk participates in the economics of the assets we help create, rather than simply being paid for discrete projects. This structure aligns our incentives with our partners, has been well received by our clients, and is contributing to increased activity across our commercial funnel. Today, roughly 80% of our current funnel by value is now structured this way, planning data management, ReefIQ, and multi-target discovery. We also reached a clear infrastructure milestone with our engineering partner, AMD and Vultr. We validated a production deployment of OpenFold 3 on AMD Instinct MI325X GPUs. The first of those results are being published this week. OpenFold 3 is open source and any drug discovery team can use it, which is exactly the point. Models commoditize. The layer they run on compounds.

Every model run on ReefIQ enriches the biological context for every other program. And LensAI, our reasoning layer, is deliberately model neutral. So a client can bring their own model, any open source one, or any third party, and still reason over that same context layer. The compute win simply gives us more room to run discovery and scale ReefIQ. This is a marquee week for that partnership with much more to come. Our internal pipeline continues to advance through preclinical development and we remain excited about the opportunity to drive value in this part of our business. Timelines there are hard to forecast, so we advance multiple programs in parallel and prioritize resources based on the strength of the data.

This quarter, we added experienced leaders to accelerate our IND enabling work and move our best programs toward IND filings and the clinic. We will update the market as they hit scientific, regulatory, and development milestones. Finally, our capital position. This morning we announced a binding commitment for a $30 million in unsecured revolving credit facility at a fixed 7% rate drawn as needed. It gives us financial flexibility without issuing equity, which matters given where our stock trades, set against how AI enabled discovery platforms are valued in public and private markets. We do not believe our market capitalization reflects what we have built or the scale of what we are pursuing. This informs how we think about financing the business and makes this facility particularly attractive to us. This is not a response to a step change in our cash needs. Our model is not capital intensive.

The facility gives us the flexibility to invest behind ReefIQ, advance our internal pipeline, and pursue opportunities as they develop on terms that we believe are very favorable to MindWalk and its shareholders. Our focus is on execution, and we believe sustained delivery will be reflected in the stock over time. Turning to the quarter, revenue grew 21% year over year, and gross margin expanded to 59% from 48%. The larger loss this quarter reflects deliberate investment behind the commercial opportunity we see ahead of us. Sales and marketing expense increased by $1.9 million. We are investing to build a larger and more durable revenue base, not simply support the business we have today. On the bottom line, this quarter is not directly comparable to the same quarter last year, which included income from discontinued operations.

With that, I will turn it over to Scott to take you through the numbers. Thank you, Jennifer, and good afternoon, everyone.

Unknown Speaker

I will take you through our first quarter fiscal year 2027 financial results. As a reminder, all figures are in Canadian dollars. Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 was $3.8 million versus $3.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026. This is an improvement of approximately $673,000 or 21%. That represents 5 quarters of consecutive year-over-year revenue growth. Gross margin was $2.2 million, or 59%, for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, as compared to $1.5 million, or 48%, for the same quarter last year. Looking at operating expenses. For the quarter ended July 31, 2026, R&D was $1.3 million compared to $1 million in the same period last year.

This increase is due primarily to increased salary costs to support the commercial development of our platform. Sales and marketing expenses were $3.2 million for the first quarter of 2027, as compared to $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2026, which included non-recurring costs incurred in the quarter. As I mentioned in our prior call, these are planned investments in our commercial infrastructure and represent increased headcount to support our commercial initiatives, as well as investments in advertising and promotion. G&A increased to $3.9 million for the quarter ended July 31, 2026, as compared to $3.3 million for the same quarter last year. The increase is due primarily to non-cash stock-based compensation. Net loss and loss from continuing operations was $6.1 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027, as compared to net loss from continuing operations of $4.1 million in the first quarter of 2026. Overall net loss in the prior year was $3 million, which included $1.1 million of income from discontinued operations.

Turning to the balance sheet. The company ended the quarter with cash balance of $7.6 million as of July 31, 2026. Net cash used in operating activities was $4 million compared to $4.2 million in the prior year quarter, due in part to non-cash expenses related to share-based payments. Cash was $11.3 million at April 30. I am also pleased with our announcement earlier today of a binding commitment for a $30 million U.S. senior unsecured revolving credit facility. This facility demonstrates confidence in our long-term strategy around our emerging pipeline and anticipated adoption of ReefIQ and provides the capital necessary to execute on that strategy. With that, I will turn the call back to Jennifer. Thank you, Scott.

Jennifer Bath

As we've mentioned this morning, we announced the binding commitment for $30 million of unsecured capital without issuing a single share. And this gives us the runway to execute. The strategy is showing up in the business with revenue of 21% and gross margin at 59%. ReefIQ is a recurring revenue business and it compounds as clients adopt and expand. We are in active negotiations with multiple large pharma companies on ReefIQ enterprise deployments. You will hear from us as those conclude. As mentioned, do not measure them against our historical LensAI agreements.

These are a different scale. On the discovery side, we are moving from discrete projects to platform partnerships where we share in the economics of the assets we help create. Both of these are happening with clients we already have a distribution advantage that no new entrants can buy. On top of that, our internal pipeline adds upside with catalysts ahead. The higher losses quarter is an investment behind a larger opportunity. The market is moving toward exactly what we built and our job now is to lead it. Operator, we are ready for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Charles Wallace with H.C. Wainwright.

Unknown Speaker

Could you maybe help us understand what portion of the $3.8 million in the first quarter revenue was contracted reoccurring platform revenue?

Jennifer Bath

I guess, yes, let's start there. Thank you. Scott, if you have those numbers before you, I don't know if we do have those broken out. I can say that if we're if by platform recurring revenue, we're referring to ReefIQ. ReefIQ is not a data management program or platform that is currently in place. These are the ones that we've just discussed negotiating, that is like a whole new level of engagement from clients that you'll definitely hear about as we proceed through that. And this was the platform that we just released in June, quite recently. Now, if it's recurring revenue or annual recurring revenue off of the SaaS model subscriptions, we do have that. We have announced that historically. I'm not sure that we have that broken out since we don't break these out by cost centers, but I can have Scott confirm.

Unknown Speaker

Okay, so I guess for my next question. So for the active negotiations that you mentioned with the multiple large pharma partners for the ReefIQ, which, you know, as you mentioned, just launched in June, what are the current gating factors in these negotiations? And when do you expect to see these convert in fiscal year 2027? Yes.

Jennifer Bath

Fair question. So the gating factors between each group actually differ significantly. In terms of, sorry, we're getting a lot of feedback on our side. In terms of negotiations with clients on our side for gating factors, what we are seeking are primarily people who are already engaged with MindWalk, are running different programs already with MindWalk and primarily starting off with people who are also engaged through the SaaS model subscription. We do look at, uh, for large pharmaceutical companies, when they're moving, you know, into a vendor bringing a vendor into their core infrastructure. None of them are really about whether or not the platform works. They kind of fall in 3 buckets for us. The first big one is really about IT security and data governance review, which is something you've probably heard us talk a lot about over the last 6 months. ReefIQ is different in the sense that it sits inside of a client's biological data and its discovery workflows. And so it goes through the same enterprise security, data residency, and governance processes as really any system of record.

The second one is legal and procurement. And, you know, these are multi-year platform relationships. So instead of like project statements of works that we've done historically with our large pharmaceutical client, and then also when we're sharing in the economics of different assets during COVID, development and partnership relationships. So the contract itself is a very new shape. It's very different than the historical contracts we've had. And so it's different for their procurement terms as well. And then I would say, Charles, probably the third component of that is the scoping and just agreeing which programs and which data domains that the first deployment are going to cover, so that it lands cleanly and then it's expanding from there. And so I would say those are kind of the 3 core areas as companies are by and large taking a relatively new and fairly big step in bringing us fully into the data landscape of what exists throughout their company, oftentimes in a multinational setting. As far as when we plan to, um, this is close our first agreement or when we plan to see these start closing. I'm going to leave that question alone for now. I don't want to, I don't want to create that specific of an expectation. But what I am comfortable saying at this point on the call is that we have these negotiations occurring at various different stages, and, um, that includes groups that have worked with us for many years. Um, that also includes 1 group that's been with us as many years and also has a SaaS model subscription and has been in negotiations, in this particular component across multinational jurisdictions for their company for quite some time. So we have a very good line of sight on where and how this is going and when we anticipate it closing. But of course, not everything's under our control. So I'll hold off on giving an exact more specific timeline.

Unknown Speaker

No, yeah, that's very helpful. And then maybe 1 final question, maybe on the $30 million revolving credit facility. So when do you expect the initial draw from this facility and kind of over what timeframe and how will it be allocated between the ReefIQ commercial rollout and the biological programs? Biological programs. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

So we have 60 days to get the credit agreement drawn up. So we won't be able to do anything until the credit agreement is completed. As far as the investments, you know, we'll draw capital as we needed and as we need liquidity, but, you know, we still have cash runway in our bank account as well.

Unknown Speaker

Great. And maybe 1 final follow up to that question. Does this credit facility replace kind of the ring-fenced program level financing structure that you have in the Cayman asset in a style of financing? That does not. Sure, we hear you.

Jennifer Bath

Exactly. It absolutely does not replace that. So we still have interested parties and investing in ring-fenced assets within the Cayman structure and are probably 90, 95% of the way in in terms of completing the legal and the tax planning efforts that go around the estate setting up those structures.

Unknown Speaker

Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dania Ben-Hale with Jones. Please go ahead.

Unknown Speaker

How should investors think about their revenue growth over the next 12 months and next 2?

Unknown Speaker

Yes, I mean, these initial ReefIQ agreements are probably going to be relatively lumpy. It's just the nature of the structure. They're they're going to be milestone based, there's their engineering efforts at the at the outset, and then they become annual recurring revenue. So I do think revenue is going to be a little lumpy. It's hard to forecast. It really just depends on how quickly we get adoption of ReefIQ.

Unknown Speaker

Okay, and so we expect it to be around these numbers during the next few quarters until things settle down and you get more information. subscriptions and annually and things like that.

Unknown Speaker

Yes, I think once we're in a position to announce an agreement, I think we'll take a deeper dive into what the revenue model looks like and what we expect recurring revenue to occur based on the timing of the contract.

Unknown Speaker

Yes, okay, thank you. And just another question about the discussions with the pharmaceutical and biotech companies. What are they focused on? Are they getting more engaged with ReefIQ? Is it more the subscriptions right now for um the [indiscernible?] Yes, what parts of it are there?

Jennifer Bath

Yes, that's actually a great question, Dania. No, I really appreciate that. So 1 of the things we've talked about in the past is, you know, we definitely went about this from a different direction from others. You will see that there are companies that have a technology and some discovery capabilities that prepared those offerings for others as a partnership model. Um, and, you know, really a little bit more on the premise of it's extremely low risk, so we'll backload it, but without really having the proof point or the evidence to support the quality of the work. And, um, that low risk was given in exchange for not having not having that type of a relationship with those clients. We've really done the exact opposite. We've spent the last 5 years demonstrating our ability to send really good molecules to the clinic that are quite successful in the clinic, and then also demonstrated our ability to do that with an understanding of the function of a molecule and its mechanism of action, providing a greater probability of success in later stages of a clinic.

And that's been a really different approach that we've made. So as we enter into these conversations, you know, we've mentioned before, we're working with hundreds of different clients in building these therapeutic drugs. And 1 of the biggest changes we've had in the last 2 quarters is that every 1 of those programs coming in is an integrated lab in the loop with our in silico work intertwined very directly with our wet lab work, providing clients with data sooner, larger amounts of data for more data driven decision making. But there's 2 components of that that really tie in, actually technically 3, Dania, that I think specifically address your question. 1 of them is that all of that data is turned back within LensAI. Clients are directly exposed to the SaaS model subscription. They have the opportunity to use base layer applications within our LensAI. And that has brought more clients to the table with those inquiries around SaaS model subscriptions.

So it expands their ability to work with the data within the platform in which it's being received. The conversations around the partnerships, which are back-loaded but always include some sort of upfront payment, the structure of those being ones that are milestone and royalty based, that is now a conversation happening with every single client. So that fee for service option that we have provided in the past where we use that opportunity to build a relationship with these clients to be 1 of their preferred vendors, which is no easy task, and to demonstrate the competencies that we have, I would say superiority that we have in our AI and wet lab drug discovery is what we're building on in those discussions. So every single 1 of those discussions is now a partnership discussion. There's no longer the opportunity to just walk in the door and put down money for fee for service. So it is a longer negotiation period for us. So even given the fact that we're still up in revenue with these double digits over last year where we were up significantly in revenue as well, while backloading approximately 80% of the discussions now in the pipeline as partnership discussions. To us is bringing us additional confidence.

These clients are not walking away from that discussion. They're not, you know. They're not turning away from it because we've become the trusted provider that we've shown we can execute. And so that's enabled this discussion with going back to your question. Actually, every single 1 of our And then the third component of that is ReefIQ. And I would say the majority of the earlier adoption interest and communications we're having from that is from the larger pharmaceutical companies, which I guess makes sense. These are companies that are oftentimes juggling multiple jurisdictions, a lot more siloed And are also oftentimes being asked from the top down to find a solution to help their data make sense and to connect their data. We're really seeing it across the board in all 3 areas.

I would say the majority of those conversations, if we had to pick the 1 that was leading the way, would be partnership discussions, because again, that's not an option. Have that discussion with us any longer. And then the second most would be ReefIQ, where people are looking for an advantage to find meaning in their data, an advantage to get away from hallucination and make their AI models better than their competition. And we're able to bring that to the table with something we've been building for 20 years and something that no one else has was able to offer.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, and this will conclude today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.