Aware (AWRE) 2026 財年第三季財報電話會議：經常性營收成長與贏得政府訂單

重點摘要

• Aware 公布 2026 財年第三季營收為 440 萬美元，低於前一年同期的 510 萬美元，主因是買斷式授權銷售下滑。
• 經常性營收年增 11% 至 400 萬美元，占當季營收 90% 以上。成長主要由在地端定期授權推動。
• 營業費用自 640 萬美元降至 540 萬美元，反映出實現年化成本節減約 400 萬美元的第一個完整季度。
• 營業損失自 130 萬美元收窄至 90 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 損失則自 80 萬美元改善至 50 萬美元。
• 一家政府機構選用了 Awareness Platform 的智慧活體檢測功能，推動 Aware 的政府策略進入實質部署階段。
• Aware 在本季結束時擁有 1,540 萬美元的現金、現金等價物與有價證券，且無負債。管理層未提供實現持續淨利損益兩平的時間表。

重要財務結果

截至 2026 年 9 月 30 日止的前九個月，營收為 1,110 萬美元，而前一年同期為 1,260 萬美元。經常性營收自 920 萬美元增至 960 萬美元。

前九個月營業費用自 1,770 萬美元增至 1,840 萬美元，其中包括主要於第一季認列的約 70 萬美元一次性資遣費用。淨損失自 440 萬美元（稀釋後每股虧損 0.21 美元）擴大至 680 萬美元（稀釋後每股虧損 0.31 美元）。調整後 EBITDA 損失為 610 萬美元，前一年同期則為 380 萬美元。

業務與營運表現

Aware 的策略仍以 Awareness Platform 及其生物辨識編排、智慧活體檢測、比對與決策功能為核心。公司旨在幫助客戶透過統一平台，管理來自 Aware 與第三方供應商的生物辨識技術。

政府機構的選用是一項關鍵營運里程碑。管理層表示，在國土安全部 (DHS) 的大部分資金於 4 月 30 日恢復後，聯邦招標活動有所增加。然而，採購積壓問題尚未消除，預期未來一年至 18 個月內將出現更多機會。

Aware 還報告了美國、英國、加拿大、德國、巴西和土耳其現有客戶的擴充活動。其「先落地後擴展」(land-and-expand) 策略包括將活體檢測、比對和編排功能交叉銷售給先前僅使用單一 Aware 產品的客戶。

商業活動包括與 Adobe Acrobat Sign 經銷商建立新合作關係、拉丁美洲的客戶活動，以及來自北美與南美的額外興趣。管理層亦確認桑坦德銀行 (Santander Bank) 和伊塔烏銀行 (Itaú Bank) 為 Aware 的現有客戶。

管理層展望

管理層預期將呈現典型的季節性成長模式，經常性與非經常性營收組合大致與第三財季相似。公司還預期第四季營業費用將與 2026 年建立的較低成本結構大致保持一致。

Aware 計劃維持對經常性營收、客戶擴展、政府與國家安全機會的關注，並對 Awareness Platform 進行選擇性投資。管理層強調，從產品與組件業務轉型為平台模式的過程尚未完成。

風險與關注焦點

營收對授權、續約、採購決策、部署與服務活動的時間點仍具敏感性。在地端定期授權可能會造成季度波動，因為大部分營收會在交付時預先認列。

聯邦與國家安全採購週期仍難以預測。管理層表示，儘管採購活動增加且決標時間縮短，但國土安全部的積壓採購仍在處理中。

儘管成本基礎有所改善，營收表現仍令人擔憂。管理層表示，僅靠削減費用是不夠的，必須搭配更強勁、更穩定的營收成長。

Aware 也正在密切關注 Nasdaq 上市合規要求。管理層表示將在必要時採取相應措施，並及時通知股東。

分析師問答集錦

• 聯邦合約：Aware 拒絕說明其是否作為主承包商或分包商參與特定進行中的採購競標，包括美國公民及移民服務局 (USCIS) 的移民生物辨識與身分服務項目。管理層表示，在決標前，團隊合作策略將保持保密。
• 成本節約與損益兩平：公司表示，約 400 萬美元的完整年化成本節約運作率已在第三季實現。未提供實現持續淨利損益兩平的時間表。
• 經常性營收結構：管理層強調，經常性營收同時包含客戶託管與 Aware 託管的部署。無論託管模式為何，首要任務是擴大經常性營收，而非在單一季度內完成雲端轉型。
• 企業擴展：Aware 未討論個別合約擴展，但提及大部分業務的淨美元留存率持續強勁，且對 Awareness Platform 保持持續興趣。
• 更廣泛的反欺詐應用：管理層指出政府福利、銀行、支付及其他對欺詐敏感的使用情境為潛在市場。Aware 預計透過合作夥伴與系統整合商尋求部分機會，因為生物辨識只是更廣泛防詐策略中的一個層級。

電話會議完整逐字稿

完整財報電話會議逐字稿

管理層陳述

Delaney Gembis

Good afternoon, and welcome to Aware's Third Quarter FY '26 Conference Call. Joining us today are the company's CEO and President, A.J. Amlani; and CFO, David Traverse. Following their remarks, we will open the call to questions [Operator Instructions]

Before we begin today's call, I would like to remind everyone that the presentation today contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and assumptions of Aware's management and involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Listeners should please take note of the safe harbor paragraph that is included at the end of today's press release. This paragraph emphasizes the major uncertainties and risks inherent in forward-looking statements that management will be making today, which will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website.

Aware wishes to caution you that information regarding important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is contained in forward-looking statements and Risk Factors section of today's earnings release and in the company's SEC filings, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statements should be considered in light of these factors. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made.

Although it may voluntarily do so from time to time, Aware undertakes no commitment to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Additionally, this call contains certain non-GAAP financial measures as that term is defined by the SEC and Regulation G. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for financial information presented in compliance with GAAP. Accordingly, Aware has provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures in the most directly comparable GAAP measures in the company's earnings release issued today available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website.

I would like to remind everyone that this presentation will be recorded and made available for replay via a link available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website.

Now I would like to turn the call over to Aware's CEO and President, A.J. Amlani. A.J.?

Ajay Amlani

Thank you, Delaney, and good afternoon, everyone. Revenue for the third quarter was $4.4 million compared with $5.1 million in the prior year period. While revenue was down year-over-year and that is not where we want it to be, there were several meaningful developments this quarter that gave us confidence in the direction of the business. We saw a stronger contribution from recurring revenue, continued to realize the benefit of the cost reductions implemented earlier this year, expanded activity with existing customers, increased pipeline engagement with U.S. federal government customers, and we reached an important milestone in our government strategy with a new government agency customer.

The quarter reinforces the importance of the work we are doing to sharpen our focus, align our resources and build a more scalable business around the areas where we believe Aware can be most competitive. Let me start there.

During the quarter, Aware was selected by a government agency customer to deploy intelligent liveness capabilities from the Awareness Platform. This is important for us for several reasons. First, it moves the Awareness Platform from the broader government opportunity pipeline into an active government agency selected deployment opportunity. Since funding for most of the Department of Homeland Security was restored on April 30, we have seen increased solicitation activity for the biometric identity programs we pursue as agencies look to allocate funding to improve national security, modernize legacy biometric and identity systems and improve user experiences.

Second, it gives us an opportunity to demonstrate how capabilities such as biometric orchestration and intelligent liveness can support high assurance identity environments.

And third, it represents progress against the government strategy we have discussed over the past several quarters, which has already generated additional government opportunities in recent months. Federal and national security procurement cycles remain difficult to predict, and we do not expect progress in this market to occur in a straight line, but converting engagement into an active customer is an important step.

We have spent much of the last year positioning Aware to compete more effectively for these types of programs. That includes continued investment in independent testing, certifications, government evaluations, interoperability, product and other requirements that can help reduce barriers to adoption in mission-critical environments. These activities do not always produce immediate revenue, but they matter because government customers need confidence not only in the technology itself, but also in its performance, security, interoperability and readiness for deployment.

We also continued to expand within our existing customer base. Our long-standing customer relationships across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Brazil, Turkey and other countries gives us a strong foundation to grow from. As we modernize our technology, we are upselling existing customers to additional capabilities and cross-selling the Awareness Platform, including liveness, matching and orchestration into accounts that have historically relied on individual Aware products. We believe this expansion within our core base of flagship customers is an important driver of future revenue growth.

Aware also continued to expand its commercial business. Including a new relationship with Adobe Acrobat Sign's distributor, delivering biometric security for customers using Adobe Acrobat Sign with a new customer activity in Latin America and an additional customer interest from both North and South America. With the modernized Awareness Platform, we are seeing increased interest from commercial customers who want to be in control of their own biometric solutions rather than being locked into existing providers.

Expansion within established customer relationships is an important part of the model we are building. It reflects both the durability of our technology and our ability to support customers as their identity requirements expand into new products, geographies and use cases. That expansion is showing up in our recurring revenue.

Recurring revenue grew 11% to $4 million compared with $3.6 million in the third quarter of last year and represented more than 90% of total revenue for the quarter. That said, because part of our recurring revenue comes from on-premises term license and the timing of those renewals can cause quarterly fluctuations. That is the type of business we are building around the Awareness Platform.

Recurring revenue can still vary from quarter-to-quarter, broadening that base through new customers such as this quarter's government agency win and a new channel partner of Adobe Acrobat Sign is a priority for us. Over time, increasing the recurring component of our business should help us improve visibility and create a more consistent revenue foundation.

We also continue to make progress on the cost side of the business. Earlier this year, we said we were taking approximately $4 million of annualized costs out of the business. Those actions are now increasingly visible in our operating results. Our operating loss for the quarter narrowed to $0.9 million compared to $1.3 million in the third quarter of last year. We recognize that reducing expenses alone is not the objective. Ultimately, we need to pair a more efficient cost structure with stronger and more consistent revenue performance. Establishing the appropriate operating base gives us more flexibility to invest selectively in the products, customers and markets where we believe Aware has the strongest opportunity to create value.

Our strategy remains focused on the Awareness Platform and its biometric orchestration capabilities, helping organizations more easily deploy, manage and modernize biometric identity systems. That includes capabilities such as liveness detection and biometric matching as well as the ability to incorporate technologies from other providers through a common orchestration and decisioning layer. The goal is not simply to sell customers another point solution. It is to give them greater control over an increasingly complex identity technology environment.

We continue to believe that need is becoming more important as AI changes both the threat landscape and the pace at which organizations need to adapt their defenses. Deep fakes, synthetic identities, injection attacks and other forms of AI-enabled fraud make it increasingly difficult to rely on a static identity architecture or a single technology indefinitely. This is where the combination of true biometric and workflow orchestration with liveness, matching and flexible decisioning becomes increasingly relevant.

Looking ahead, we remain focused on execution rather than declaring that the transformation from a product and components business to a platform business is complete, a typical seasonal pattern of growth with a generally similar mix of recurring and nonrecurring revenue to what we saw in the third quarter while continuing to maintain the lower cost structure established this year.

More broadly, the actions we have taken throughout 2026 are intended to put us in a better position entering 2027, a more focused platform approach, a lower operating cost base greater emphasis on recurring revenue, ongoing engagement in the commercial, federal and national security markets and a platform designed to support a broader set of customer identity requirements.

With that, I will turn the call over to David to review our financial results in more detail. Over to you, David.

David Traverse

Thank you, A.J. Now let's review our financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026. Revenue for the quarter was $4.4 million compared to $5.1 million in the prior year period. Recurring revenue was $4 million compared to $3.6 million in the third quarter of 2025. The year-over-year decrease in total revenue was driven primarily by lower perpetual license sales, while the increase in recurring revenue was driven primarily by on-premise term licenses. Because a significant portion of term license is recognized upfront when the license is delivered, the timing of these term license sales and renewals can have an outsized effect on any single quarter.

Operating expenses for the quarter was $5.4 million compared to $6.4 million in the prior year period. The year-over-year change reflects the spending reductions we implemented earlier this year. As we said on our Q1 call, those actions were intended to reduce our operating expenses by approximately $4 million on an annualized basis, and Q3 reflects the first full quarter of those savings.

Operating loss for the quarter was $900,000 compared with an operating loss of $1.3 million in the third quarter of 2025. Net loss for the quarter was $800,000 or $0.04 per diluted share compared to $1.1 million or $0.05 per diluted share in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $500,000 compared to $800,000 in the prior year period.

Now turning to our results for the 9 months ended September 30, 2026. Total revenue was $11.1 million compared to $12.6 million in the prior year period. Recurring revenue was $9.6 million compared to $9.2 million in the prior year period. The year-over-year decrease in total revenue was driven primarily by lower perpetual license sales, while the increase in recurring revenue was primarily driven by on-premise term licenses.

Operating expenses were $18.4 million compared to $17.7 million in the prior year period. As a reminder, the year-over-year increase in our year-to-date expenses reflects onetime severance costs of $700,000 recognized primarily in the first quarter as well as higher compensation costs related to hires we made in 2025. As we noted on our Q1 call, we reduced operating expenses by $4 million on an annualized basis beginning in Q2 2026, and the underlying expense trend reflects those actions.

Net loss for the 9-month period was $6.8 million or $0.31 per diluted share compared to $4.4 million or $0.21 per diluted share in the prior year period.

Adjusted EBITDA loss was $6.1 million compared to $3.8 million in the prior year period. We ended the quarter with $15.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, and we have no debt.

Our balance sheet continues to provide us with flexibility. And we remain focused on a disciplined capital allocation. The objective of the cost actions we implemented this year was to better align our spending with the size of our business while preserving investment in the areas we believe are most important to the future growth, which is primarily the Awareness Platform.

We also expect fourth quarter operating expenses to remain generally consistent with the lower cost structure we established following the actions taken earlier this year. We will continue to make adjustments to our operating expenses as appropriate.

Quarterly variability remains a characteristic of our business. Revenue can move between periods based on the timing of licenses, renewals, procurement cycles, customer deployments and services activities. Our financial priorities remain straightforward: drive revenue growth, maintain expense discipline, preserve balance sheet flexibility and direct our resources to the platform and markets where we believe Aware can generate the strongest returns.

With that, I'll hand it back over to A.J. for closing remarks. A.J.?

Ajay Amlani

Thanks, David. As we close, I want to reinforce where we stand. We are pleased with the progress we made during Q3, particularly in the new government agency customer win, establishment of a new important commercial customer relationship, improvement in recurring revenue and the impact of the cost actions we implemented earlier this year.

At the same time, we are not satisfied with simply pointing to signs of progress. Our revenue performance still needs to improve, and our responsibility is to turn the opportunities in front of us into more consistent financial results. That is what we are focused on as we finish 2026 and enter 2027. We have a more focused cost structure than we did at the beginning of the year. We have increasingly concentrated our strategy around the Awareness Platform and the liveness matching and orchestration capabilities it provides.

And we are beginning to see tangible progress in markets such as national security, where we have invested considerable time positioning the company to compete. The next steps are continuing to strengthen the Awareness Platform and focusing on execution. We need to expand the customers we already have, convert the opportunities we are pursuing, continue increasing the quality and durability of our revenue and remain disciplined about where we invest.

We believe the actions taken during 2026 have created a better foundation for that to work. That concludes our prepared remarks.

We will now open the call for questions. Delaney, please provide the instructions.

Delaney Gembis

First question comes from John Phillips. Management previously noted that federal procurement activity returned to normal starting in May 2026. Now that we are in October, did clear DHS backlog flow into Q3 revenue as expected or are federal sales cycles still experiencing friction?

Furthermore, is Aware actively bidding as a prime or subcontractor on the upcoming $100 million-plus USCIS Immigration Biometrics and Identity Services, IBIS contract dropping this month?

Ajay Amlani

Thank you, John, for your question. Yes, this is a really important question. And obviously, the Department of Homeland Security shutdown time, the record shutdown length was difficult for us, but it was obviously much more difficult for all the public servants to be able to get through. Now that DHS has reopened, we've seen a record number of procurements come out. It's coming out much faster. The time lines for being able to award are much smaller. We're seeing that the backlog is not getting cleared necessarily yet. There's still a significant amount still coming through.

And that federal activity did improve after operations normalized, but there's still quite a few additional procurements continuing to come out over the course of the next year to 1.5 years. We don't comment on specifics with regards to the contracts of whether or not we're bidding on specific active federal procurement or whether or not we're bidding as a prime or a subcontractor as our teaming strategy is kept confidential typically until an award is made.

But as mentioned, DHS agencies are looking to modernize legacy biometric systems. USCIS is certainly one such agency. And as you mentioned, the combined IBIS project will provide scalable and secure IT services supporting data analytics, machine learning, biometrics and identity management. And that's all consistent with the significant amount of work happening across DHS and other agencies as well.

As you know, federal and national security identity modernization remains an important focus for us. We're actively engaging with customers and partners around opportunities where our orchestration liveness and matching capabilities are relevant, and we'll disclose material wins when appropriate. Thank you so much for your question.

Delaney Gembis

A.J. Next question also comes from John Phillips. We absorbed roughly $700,000 in onetime restructuring charges in Q2 to achieve $4 million in annualized cost savings. Can you quantify exactly how much of that run rate cost relief was realized on the bottom line during Q3?

And when do you expect the company to achieve a sustained net income breakeven baseline under this new cost structure?

David Traverse

All right. Thanks for the question. We did achieve the $4 million in annualized savings in Q3, which you can see in our operating expenses that declined from $5.4 million this quarter compared to $6.4 million last year. As far as breakeven, we're not giving a time line on that, but we do expect to maintain the lower cost structure and we will continue to make adjustments for operating expenses as appropriate.

Delaney Gembis

Thank you, David. Next question also from John Phillips. As you migrate the business to the cloud-based Awareness Platform, can you provide an update on your annual recurring revenue growth for Q3?

Specifically, what percentage of the Q3 sequential improvement was driven by high-margin recurring SaaS subscription versus traditional model perpetual licenses? This one also goes to you, David.

David Traverse

Yes. No, thanks again for the question. Recurring revenue did grow in the quarter from $4 million to $3.6 million compared to last quarter. As we've talked about, the Awareness Platform is a strategic and important part of the evolution of the company as we transform Aware from a product and components business into a platform business. And -- but we've got to be clear, that won't happen in a single quarter. Many customers still require self-hosted deployments.

And while we expect that shift toward our cloud over time, our focus is on growing recurring revenue whether customers host it themselves or we host it for them. And we want to be very clear that recurring revenue can still vary from quarter-to-quarter. So we encourage investors to look at the trend over multiple quarters as we build a more durable recurring revenue foundation.

Delaney Gembis

Thank you, David. One last question from John Phillips. It was great to hear about the year 2 subscription renewal with a top 15 global financial institution last quarter. Have you successfully expanded or cross-sold additional biometric features like passive liveness into that account during Q3? And what does the broader enterprise sales pipeline look like outside of that anchor client? This one goes to you, Brian.

Brian Krause

Sure. Thanks for the question, John. So all of our relationships with customers are built on a land-and-expand model. It's very common in our industry. It allows us to improve the performance and the scalability of our technology and production environments. I can't speak to specific contracts or customer expansions. I can say that we do work every quarter with all of our customers to try to solve as many problems as they present to us with our technology. We do continue to see really good signals out of that work with indicators like continued strong net dollar retention performance across most of our entire business.

With respect to the broader commercial pipeline, as you've heard, we are super heavily focused on the Awareness Platform and the work there. We continue to see consistent market interest in that product and that offering. We remain enthusiastic about its potential impact on our revenue. Specifically as it relates to the land and expand customer approach that I talked about previously.

Delaney Gembis

Thank you, Brian. Next question comes from Phil [indiscernible] and Glendon B. Nickerson Jr. They both asked a question regarding our stock price and NASDAQ listing requirements? This one is for you, David.

David Traverse

Thanks. I appreciate the questions from Phil. And we understand the concern there, and we share it. And we believe our focus should be and is on executing our business plan, which we believe is the best path to building long-term shareholder value. We are aware of the NASDAQ requirements, and we'll address them if and when the time occurs. And of course, we'll keep the shareholders informed.

Delaney Gembis

Thank you, David. This next question comes from Glendon B. Nickerson Jr. I noticed on the Aware website, you are listing many companies and organizations that rely on Aware. Are Santander Bank and Itaú Bank current clients of Aware? And this one, it can go to you, Brian?

Brian Krause

Sure. Thanks, Glendon. I appreciate the question. Yes, all the current customer logos you noticed, we're glad you noticed in the recent website update are currently today Aware customers.

Delaney Gembis

Thank you, Brian. One more question from Glendon Nickerson Jr. Aware has been focused on bidding for DHS contracts and for airport biometrics. There are so many other areas where state and federal governments are subject to fraud. Has Aware made any effort to target biometric sales for welfare fraud, food stamp fraud, unemployment fraud, SNAP, credit card fraud, checking account bank fraud, the list is endless. The cost of Aware's biometric software is pennies on the dollar versus the amount of potential fraud savings of hundreds of millions of dollars? A.J., you can take this question.

Ajay Amlani

Yes. Thank you, Glendon, for this wonderful question. Biometrics do apply across all of these different use cases. And we see opportunities for biometrics well beyond border security and airports. Government benefits, banking, payments and other fraud sensitive use cases are just some of those. Our Awareness Platform actually is a wonderful solution to be able to apply across all of these different use cases as it allows customers to be able to utilize best-in-class technology from both Aware and from other third-party providers to be able to solve some of their most critical problems and be able to save a significant amount on fraud.

Billions are lost to fraud every single year and biometrics are the one tool that ties identity back to the human that's capable of being able to rectify identity back to the source of truth. We do have to be disciplined with regards to where we focus directly as well as through partners. And so focusing on the state market and some other customers, we have established partners and systems integrators to be able to reach a broader set of government and commercial opportunities.

But many of these challenges come back to the same question, right? Is the person accessing the service or account really who they claim to be. And our capabilities through the Awareness Platform and identity verification, liveness detection, matching, biometric orchestration really helps to address impersonation, synthetic identities and account takeover. But biometrics by itself is not a complete fraud solution. So we do rely on partners, and we do like to work with partners and allow for it to be a critical layer within a broader fraud prevention strategy.

Delaney Gembis

Thank you, A.J., and thank you, everyone, who submitted questions. That completes our Q3 FY '26 broadcast. As a reminder, this presentation is recorded and made available for replay via a link available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website. Thank you, and you may now disconnect.