kneat.com Q3 2025 Earnings Report

kneat.com EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -C$0.01
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

kneat.com Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $16.11 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

kneat.com Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2025
• Date: 11/12/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

Kneat Solutions provides leading companies in highly regulated industries with unparalleled efficiency in validation and compliance through its digital validation platform Kneat Gx. As an industry leader in customer satisfaction, Kneat boasts an excellent record for implementation, powered by our user-friendly design, expert support, and on-demand training academy. Kneat Gx is an industry-leading digital validation platform that enables highly regulated companies to manage any validation discipline from end-to-end. Kneat Gx is fully ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified, fully validated, and 21 CFR Part 11/Annex 11 compliant. Multiple independent customer studies have shown that Kneat Gx reduces man-hours associated with validation documentation by up to 50%, accelerates review and approval cycles by up to 50%, and consistently supports higher standards of regulatory compliance.

kneat.com Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Kneat delivered strong subscription momentum with SaaS revenue up 33% YoY in Q3 and ARR up 37% to CAD 68.6M, supported by new logo wins and a high G2 satisfaction score (98/100).
• Positive Sentiment: Management expects continued margin improvement and aims for typical late‑20s to early‑30s percent adjusted EBITDA margins within the next ~18 months, targeting cash‑flow break‑even later in 2026.
• Negative Sentiment: Operating expenses rose sharply (Q3 OpEx +43% YoY; YTD OpEx +34%), driven by ramped R&D and sales & marketing hires, which could pressure near‑term profitability if revenue growth slows.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management flagged some macro headwinds (tariffs, budgeting uncertainty) and increased competition (e.g., Veeva, new entrants) that have lengthened buying cycles and caused some deal slippage, but said the pipeline remains robust and Kneat is still generally winning key deals.
• Positive Sentiment: The balance sheet is strong with CAD 59.8M cash and management currently prioritizes sustaining the cash position while pursuing profitable growth rather than near‑term M&A or buybacks.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Kneat Third Quarter 2025 Earnings 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 this session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please advise that today's conference is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Katie Keita, IR Lead. Please go ahead.

[Katie Keita, Investor Relations Lead at Kneat]

Thank you, Operator, and welcome everyone to Kneat's earnings conference call for the third quarter of 2025. Today's call will be hosted by Eddie Ryan, Kneat CEO, and Dave O'Reilly, Kneat CFO. Please note the safe harbor statement on slide two and the forward-looking statements disclosure at the end of the earnings release, informing you that some comments made on today's call contain forward-looking information. This information, by its nature, is subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today. For further information on these risks and uncertainties, please consult our relevant filings, which can be found on SEDAR and on our website, www.kneat.com/investors. Also, during the call, we may refer to certain supplementary financial measures as key performance indicators. Management uses both IFRS measures and supplementary financial measures as key performance indicators when planning, monitoring, and evaluating the company's performance.

[Katie Keita, Investor Relations Lead at Kneat]

Management believes that these non-IFRS measures provide additional insight into our financial results, and certain investors may use this information to evaluate our performance from period to period. For your reference, we have filed our unaudited consolidated financial statements and MD&A on SEDAR, and they are also available on our website. I will now pass the call to Eddie Ryan, CEO of Kneat.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. I will take you through an overview of the quarter and the year so far, what we are seeing, and what we are planning. Then Dave will share a high-level recap of the financials. After that, we will open the call for your questions. The third quarter of 2025 reaffirmed Kneat.com's resilience as the market leader in digital validation. We continue on an expansion journey with our existing customers and continue to sign new logos at a strong pace. As a result, our SaaS revenue grew 33% year-over-year, well ahead of the average for companies our size. This demonstrates the continued demand for our platform, even in a more complex investment environment for the life sciences industry, who also have to deal with uncertainty around trade, pricing, and funding.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

While these dynamics are extending buying cycles somewhat, customers ultimately continue to invest in their digitalization journey. As such, our sales team continues to manage a robust pipeline into quarter four and beyond. Kneat. wins because it delivers compelling value for its customers. Our validation workflow platform, Kneat Gx, is configurable and absolutely no coding is needed. It supports all validation workflows, and it meets strict data integrity requirements. That Kneat. has been able to address what our customers need to do the way they want to do it has earned Kneat. our excellent reputation as the leader in digital validation. This market leadership was underscored this past quarter by the software review and comparison platform, G2. Its full report on pharma and biotech software awarded Kneat, a satisfaction score of 98 out of 100, a full 20 points higher than the second-ranked company's score of 78.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

We strive to expand this competitive lead by making the platform better all the time. Our engineering team continues to innovate in line with customers' needs and our strategic vision. Our AI strategy is unlocking new possibilities for speed, intelligence, and insight while maintaining the highest standards of compliance and integrity. Recent advancements include AI capabilities that enhance usability and global reach, with upcoming near-term solutions designed to streamline content creation, content review, and data-driven decision-making. Based on the significant opportunities that lie ahead, we will continue to invest strategically in R&D and go-to-market in parallel with our focus on profitability in the year ahead. I will now hand it off to Dave, who will address the financials in more detail.

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

As I take you through the numbers for the third quarter, just a reminder that the figures are all in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. I'm pleased to report that Kneat's healthy growth continued in the third quarter, with annual recurring revenue up 37%, total revenue up 26%, and gross profit up 25%. Starting with revenue, for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, revenue came in at CAD 16.1 million, up 26% from CAD 12.8 million for the third quarter of 2024. CAD 15.2 million of that was SaaS license revenue for growth acceleration to 33% over the CAD one one.5 million of SaaS license revenue in Q3 of 2024. Revenue from services of CAD 0.9 million in the quarter compares with prior year services revenue of CAD 1.2 million. This decline indicates partners are stepping up to do more in services, allowing us to focus on our software.

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

These Q3 results take us to CAD 46.3 million in total revenue for the first nine months of 2025, which is up 31% over last year. SaaS license revenue of CAD 43.2 million for the first nine months was up 35% year-over-year. Cost of revenue in the third quarter of 2025 was CAD 3.9 million, up 31% from CAD 3 million in the same quarter a year ago. Gross profit for the quarter was CAD 12.2 million, 25% higher than the CAD 9.8 million in Q3 of last year. Gross margin for the period was 76%, compared with 77% for the same period last year. For the first nine months, cost of revenue was CAD one one.5 million, up 31% from the prior year comparable period.

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

Gross profit for the first nine months of 2025 grew 32% over last year's first nine months to CAD 34.8 million, bringing gross margin for the nine-month period ended September 30th to 75%, which is even with the same period in 2024. Operating expenses grew 43% in the third quarter of 2025 to CAD 14.3 million versus CAD 10 million in Q3 of 2024. R&D expense growth was 47% year on year net of capitalized R&D. Sales and marketing expenses up 45% year-over-year, and G&A expenses were up 32% year-over-year. Looking at operating expenses year to date through September 30th, total operating expenses grew 34% over the first nine months of 2025 to CAD 42.3 million, compared to CAD 31.5 million for the first nine months of last year. R&D expense net of capitalized R&D grew 27% to CAD 16.1 million for the first nine months.

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

Sales and marketing expense grew 38% to CAD 17.0 million for the comparable period last year. G&A expenses were CAD 9.1 million, up 42%, compared with the first nine months of 2024. We ended the quarter with total annual recurring revenue, or ARR, of CAD 68.6 million, up 37% from CAD 49.9 million as of September 30, 2024. Our cash position as of September 30, 2025, was CAD 59.8 million. All in, a solid quarter that sets up for a strong finish to 2025. With that, I will turn the call over to our operator for your questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Doug Taylor of Canaccord Genuity, your line is now open.

[Doug Taylor, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Yeah, thank you. Good morning or good afternoon. Congratulations on another quarter for new customer signings, a strong quarter. I'd like to start by, I mean, asking you about both the macroeconomic headwinds that you referenced in your prepared remarks and in your disclosure, and also the reference to some increased competition that you talk about in your materials. I just wanted to unpack those a little bit. First, starting with the macroeconomic, the challenges you speak about as it relates to tariffs and trade uncertainty. I mean, can we talk about the directionality of that in this quarter? Is that improving or getting more challenging? Perhaps you can speak to the pipeline for expansions as you discuss that with some of your installed base.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Hi, Doug. Good question. Yeah, so speaking to the pipeline, first of all, I guess today we are ahead of where we finished last year from a new company customer perspective. That speaks to our competitive strengths that I'm really proud of in the marketplace today. Looking back over the last nine months and looking at the macros, I would say there's definitely been impact there around customer budgets and uncertainty from that perspective and where they do their investments and all of that. I believe from recent information that it's beginning to stabilize from that perspective, especially around the tariff side of things. There's a lot of optimism, especially stateside in the U.S., around new spending and additional spending and new facilities and expansions.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Of course, a lot of those customers that are in that space are our customers, so I expect we'll benefit from that as we go forward as well in the coming years. While it's not huge, the macro, it has had an impact, and we have seen some deals moving out a little bit, still there in the pipeline, still working on them, not closed out or anything like that. Yeah, and we have a very robust, when I look at the pipeline ahead, we have a very robust pipeline ahead as well.

[Doug Taylor, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Just to maybe go one step further with that, would you say that those macro and the deal slippage, I mean, it clearly doesn't appear to be related to new customer signings. Is that more about expansion plans? Maybe you could tie in your recent changes to some of your pricing models around delayed growth in the initial deal signings in relation to that.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Yeah, so the initial deal signings, I think you're referring to the incentives around the ARR, which is the leading indicator. Yeah, I would say that has Dave can talk a bit on that as well, but that has come down, and it remains similar to what we would have messaged to the marketplace over the last number of months in the single mid-digit type territory from that perspective. On the, what was the question on the macros again, Doug?

[Doug Taylor, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

I mean, I think I got the answer I was looking for there. Let me just circle back then on the competition comments you made in your disclosure overnight here. I believe you're referring to Veeva and maybe some new market entrants or perhaps ValGenesis. I mean, maybe you could expand on why you included that, what you're seeing, and whether that's impacting. It doesn't seem to be new customer signings, but is there a pricing impact? Is it impacting expansion plans to any significant degree?

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

No, not to any significant degree. There is definitely new entrants coming into the marketplace. Veeva is looking to get traction with its technology. By and large, Kneat is still winning all the key deals. There is a bit maybe competition has the ability to slow deals down a little bit, but Kneat is still winning them in general. Nothing significant there, but yeah, for sure, something that I would be concerned about or not concerned about or would be vigilant about into the future.

[Doug Taylor, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Okay, I appreciate that extra color. I'll pass the line. Thanks.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Thanks, Doug.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Erin Kyle of CIBC. Your line is now open.

[Erin Kyle, Director of Equity Research at CIBC]

Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to follow up on one of the questions that Doug asked there just on expansions. I believe last quarter, you mentioned a deferral of some expansions out of the quarter, and ARR growth of 37% while strong, it was still below our expectations for the quarter. Maybe can you just comment on whether you've seen more deferrals in customer expansions or just what you're seeing in that context?

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Yeah, I think I missed the first part of your question, Erin, but I can speak to the latter part anyway, at least. As I said, we would have seen, if we look back over the nine months, we would have seen some slowdown in budgeting and that type of thing, but nothing significant. The customers continue to expand, and we're working. We typically end the year with stronger expansions, and I'm optimistic that will happen again this year. We do not know the end of the year yet. Yeah, there is nothing unusual there. We just have to continue to expand our customers, and they are on that journey with us. They are just deals move around from quarter to quarter. It can be lumpy.

[Erin Kyle, Director of Equity Research at CIBC]

Okay, thanks. Yeah, the first part of my question there was just whether there were any deferrals out of Q3 specifically.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Deferrals out of Q3. Dave, do you have an answer to that?

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

It's more so have any deals that were due to close in Q3, have they moved into Q4? I think the answer to that is.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's true. Correct, Dave. There would have been some deals that would have moved into Q4, yeah, into Q4.

[Erin Kyle, Director of Equity Research at CIBC]

Okay, thank you. I just wanted to also follow up on any effects impact on ARR and revenue in the quarter. If you can quantify that, that would be helpful.

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

ARR, I'll step in on that one. From a quarter-over-quarter perspective on ARR, we have a tailwind of approximately $1 million on our ARR, but the impact on revenue is a lot less. In the quarter, the revenue impacts the tailwind of about $130,000.

[Erin Kyle, Director of Equity Research at CIBC]

Thank you. That's helpful. I'll pass the line.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Gavin Fairweather of Cormark. Line is now open.

[Gavin Fairweather, Managing Director & Co-head of Research at Cormark]

Oh, hey, good morning, good afternoon. Maybe just to start on the product, I know a big initiative has been to build in agile processes and workflows into the product. Curious if you're starting to see some adoption in your existing customers on those approaches and how you think about that as a driver for 2026 expansions.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Yeah, we think it's very important going forward, especially when we're bringing on other technologies, Gavin, around the AI and all of that, to have a very robust, agile, data-centric platform underpinning it all. That journey continues, and that is something that will take a number of releases. I would say we're going to see the customers, our early customers, are using it and giving feedback on it, and there's iterations on it, but it's coming through very strong at the moment, and we're really excited about what it's achieving.

[Gavin Fairweather, Managing Director & Co-head of Research at Cormark]

It's helpful. And then maybe just on the G2 report and related to competition, I mean, really nice to see you ranking so well compared to some of your peers. But you did kind of call out increased competition in the MD&A, but so it kind of begs the question, do you think that your technological edge with all the R&D you're doing is widening, or do you think that it's stable or shrinking? How would you characterize where your platform sits versus competition?

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

I think we sit in a very good place, Gavin. I think the plans we have and what we're bringing through on the platform are also going to be very, very innovative, and it's going to put further distance between us and the competition. Notwithstanding that competition have their own journeys, and they're working on their things. One of the key things about Kneat, I keep reiterating, it's a platform. On that platform, you can configure multiple workflows. If you look at all feedback from the marketplace, including G2, all you're going to see is happy customers, people who love using Kneat. Easy to use, easy to set it up, easy to get the business value, and everyone actually articulates about that business value to us. It's a huge competitive advantage, the fact that users love using Kneat.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

It is really a strong market product fit. Yeah, I'd be very upbeat about what we're doing. It's hard to see it in real time, but it takes time for it to materialize. I believe what we're doing is very positive and very powerful as we go forward, and we'll continue to reinforce our leadership position.

[Gavin Fairweather, Managing Director & Co-head of Research at Cormark]

Appreciate that. Lastly for me, just on the sales and marketing expense line, it is up a decent amount year-over-year. Can you just discuss where you're investing more in terms of the team and the marketing spend, and how should we think about the timelines to productivity on that increased spend and driving some additional ARR growth?

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Yeah, so on the sales and marketing front, we would be expanding from sales account managers would be responsible for expanding existing customers, sales directors, and sales support functions, including internal salespeople. That is where the investment is going there. That is continuing to give return, and we've seen more of it going into 2026. The other thing to say is R&D. From that perspective, we would put in strategic hires. We have a strong journey ongoing around AI and doubling down on that data and agile capabilities of the platform. There is a lot of work ongoing there, along with addressing ongoing customer requests for features as we go along. When we talk about these additional things like the data centricity, we've also got to keep the product working very well for other areas of the business.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

There's multiple products in our platform, as you know. When I look back at the numbers for sales and marketing and R&D, we're tacking down relative to revenue, and we expect that to continue through 2026 as we focus in on profitability and cash flow break-even later in 2026.

[Gavin Fairweather, Managing Director & Co-head of Research at Cormark]

Thanks so much. Congrats on the results. I'll pass the line.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Thanks, Gavin.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Justin Keywood of Stifel. Your line is now open.

[Justin Keywood, Managing Director at Stifel]

Hi, thanks for taking my call. Just on the margins, the adjusted EBITDA was up quite substantially year-over-year. Assuming the growth continues into 2026, that could suggest substantial operating leverage, assuming OpEx moderates. I'm just wondering if we're able to get some bookends on what the margin profile could be going into next year.

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

Thanks, Steven. I'll give you a high level. Yes, the adjusted EBITDA margin has improved. We expect it to continue to improve. Where we see that going is to a kind of typical SaaS-type company profitability, late 20s-early 30s % range. That kind of coincides with our overall view of break-even from a cash flow perspective on a full-year basis.

[Justin Keywood, Managing Director at Stifel]

Just to clarify, did I hear 20%-30% adjusted EBITDA margins could be a target for next year?

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

The next 18 months, I would say.

[Justin Keywood, Managing Director at Stifel]

18 months. Okay.

[Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat]

Overall periods, yeah.

[Justin Keywood, Managing Director at Stifel]

Okay. Yeah, still very healthy expansion. That's helpful. Then just on capital allocation, obviously the balance sheet remains in very strong shape, net cash position. Are you able to outline the capital allocation priorities, be it M&A, share buybacks, or other uses?

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Yeah, thanks, Justin. There are no plans to spend any of that balance sheet right now. I mean, as I said, the goal right now is to continue on and target profitability for next year. As we go into the new year, we're constantly looking at our options and all of that. Right now, we believe a strong balance sheet is a very positive thing, especially when you're dealing with the large customers and large partners that we are dealing with. There is nothing on the short-term horizon, but there's always a discussion around these things.

[Justin Keywood, Managing Director at Stifel]

Understood. Nice to see the results. Thanks for taking my questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. Again, as a reminder to ask a question, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'll now turn it back to Eddie Ryan, CEO, for closing remarks.

[Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat]

Thank you. Kneat was founded with a single mission: to help life sciences develop, manufacture, and deliver therapies to their patients to the highest safety standard. While we have come a long way since our founding, we are still in the early innings, and our customers remind us of this every day. We are energized by their enthusiasm, and we are grateful for your support as we continue on our journey. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Analysts

• Gavin Fairweather, Managing Director & Co-head of Research at Cormark
• Justin Keywood, Managing Director at Stifel
• Eddie Ryan, Co-founder and CEO at Kneat
• Dave O'Reilly, CFO at Kneat
• Katie Keita, Investor Relations Lead at Kneat
• Doug Taylor, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Canaccord Genuity
• Erin Kyle, Director of Equity Research at CIBC