KORE Group Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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November 12, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: KORE grew total connections 9% year-over-year to over 20.5 million and recorded a second consecutive quarter of sequential IoT connectivity revenue growth (+1.7% Q/Q), indicating stabilizing demand.
  • Positive Sentiment: Adjusted EBITDA increased 12% to $14.5M driven by lower operating expenses from restructuring; net loss narrowed to $12.7M (aided by a tax benefit), free cash flow improved by $1.1M to -$1.1M, and cash and restricted cash stood at $19.6M.
  • Negative Sentiment: ARPU declined to $0.94 from $1.01 and non-GAAP gross margin fell 147 basis points to 55.2%, reflecting lower‑ARPU additions and mix pressures in solutions.
  • Positive Sentiment: Commercial momentum was strong with $11.3M in new/expansion EARR, an $80.3M connectivity pipeline, and new product rollouts (KORE One, automated switching, AI assistant “Kory”) that reduced support tickets by over 50%.
  • Negative Sentiment: KORE received a purchase interest letter from existing investors Searchlight Capital and Abri Partners, the board formed a special committee to explore a potential sale, and the company suspended FY2025 guidance while the strategic review is underway.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
KORE Group Q3 2025
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Greetings and welcome to the KORE Group Holdings third quarter 2025 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Vik Vijayvergiya, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

Vik Vijayvergiya
Vik Vijayvergiya
VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

Thank you, Operator. On today's call, we will refer to the Third Quarter 2025 earnings presentation, which will be helpful to follow along with, as well as the press release filed this afternoon that details the company's Third Quarter 2025 results. Both of these can be found on our Investor Relations page at ir.korewireless.com. Finally, a recording of the call will be available in the investor section of the company's website later today. The company encourages you to review the safe harbor statements, risk factors, and other disclaimers contained on this slide and today's press release, as well as in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which identify specific risk factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements. The company does not undertake to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after this webcast.

Vik Vijayvergiya
Vik Vijayvergiya
VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

The company also notes that it will be discussing non-GAAP financial information on this call. The company is providing that information as a supplement to information prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States or U.S. GAAP. You can find the reconciliation of these metrics to the company's reported GAAP results in the reconciliation tables provided in today's earnings release and presentation. I'll now turn the call over to Ron Totton, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

Thank you, Vik, and good afternoon, everyone. For today's call, I'll provide an update on the company's business highlights for the third quarter and then turn the call over to Anthony Bellomo, the company's CFO, to go through the financial results. As we look at our results for the third quarter, we delivered steadily improving operating performance with solid growth and profitability while revenue held steady. Our revenue for the quarter was $68.7 million. Notably, our connectivity revenue increased 1.7% over Q2 2025, our second consecutive quarter of strong connectivity sequential growth. Adjusted EBITDA rose by 12%, or $1.5 million to $14.5 million from Q3 2024, as we stayed focused on operational excellence and profitability. Net loss also improved by $6.7 million due to the improved adjusted EBITDA, along with a tax benefit from recently enacted U.S. legislation.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

Now, let's turn to a critical measure of our financial health and operational discipline, our cash flow. In the third quarter, we generated $1.1 million in cash from operations, while our free cash flow improved $1.1 million over the same period last year. This steady improvement in our free cash flow profile is a direct result of our disciplined execution and our commitment to building a resilient and profitable business. Our strategy is centered on our five-pillar value creation plan, and this quarter's results demonstrate that plan in action. On slide seven, you can see clear, tangible proof points on how our focused execution is translating into progress across the entire business. At the heart of our strategy is profitable growth, and this quarter, we delivered, driving a 12% increase in adjusted EBITDA.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

This financial discipline is complemented by strong commercial momentum as we secured $11.3 million in new and expansion EARR and grew our total connections to over 20.5 million. This growth is fueled by our commitment to both product innovation and customer intimacy. This quarter, we launched KORE One, our unified customer platform, and we completed a limited release of a new connectivity offering providing proprietary automated switching and enhanced network resilience. With investments in our products, platform, and infrastructure, and with the launch of a new AI assistant, Kory, we've seen a greater than 50% reduction in support tickets while continuing to improve our customer eScore. It is this combination of superior products and deep partnership that differentiates us in the market and fuels our sales momentum. Underpinning all of this is our relentless drive for operational excellence powered by our winning team.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

We're becoming a leaner, more agile company by executing on our facility rationalization plan and aggressively deploying AI tools to boost productivity. Simultaneously, we are investing in our people, launching our internal AI evangelist program and new development tools to build a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. Now, let's dive deeper into our core IoT connectivity business on slide eight. The foundational metric for our recurring revenue model is our connection base, which continued its strong, steady growth. This quarter, we grew our total connections by 9% year-over-year to surpass 20.5 million. This is a direct result of our ability to win new logos and expand our share of wallet with existing customers. Turning now to slide nine, which illustrates our sales momentum and the forward-looking health of our business. We closed $11.3 million in new EARR this quarter.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

This is a direct result of our sales team's success in converting opportunities into committed recurring revenue. This success is well-balanced, coming from both winning new logos and expanding our relationship with existing customers and validates our land and expand strategy. Looking at our total pipeline, we closed at a healthy $80.3 million in EARR, which, as a reminder, is purely connectivity-related opportunities. Our solid EARR close one and healthy pipeline gives us strong visibility and a growing degree of confidence in our ability to deliver sustained, predictable revenue growth into the future. As we have done previously, here are just four examples from the quarter that showcase how we are winning in the marketplace, highlighting our unique value proposition. First, a major win in fleet management with a leading provider who needed true multi-carrier capabilities and superior economics with our SuperSIM technology.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

Just as importantly, they chose us because we acted as a true strategic partner, building a strong, responsive relationship at both the executive and technical levels. Next, we secured an exciting innovator in the anti-theft space. For their solution to work, connectivity must be flawless. They chose our SuperSIM for its resilience and reliability, enabling them to remotely access devices for GPS tracking and video transmission across different networks. This is a mission-critical application where good enough connectivity simply isn't an option. Our third win highlights our leadership in the heavily regulated connected health space. A global healthcare leader selected KORE for their medical technologies initiative. They chose us for our deep expertise, our proven compliance framework including HIPAA and ISO certifications, and our ability to provide a complete single vendor solution for hardware, logistics, and global connectivity.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

Finally, I mention a win with a fast-growing AI-powered telematics company where they required high reliability for a video telematics and in-cabin sensing platform. While competitors offered lower cost, we demonstrated that the superior reliability, performance, and long-term quality of our native SIM technology provided far greater value. They understood that for a mission-critical application, total cost of ownership and reliability are what truly matter. The common thread connecting these diverse wins is clear. These market leaders required more than just connectivity. They needed a global and strategic partner to solve complex IoT challenges at scale. Our ability to deliver resilient technology, navigate highly regulated industries, and provide a complete end-to-end service are our differentiators. This is why we continue to win marquee customers, and it is the engine behind our sustained growth. Now I'll turn the call over to Anthony to cover the financials in more detail.

Anthony Bellomo
Anthony Bellomo
CFO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

Thanks, Ron, and thanks to those joining us this evening for our third quarter results. Total revenue for the third quarter was approximately flat year-over-year to $68.7 million. Breaking revenue down by business lines, IoT connectivity revenue was flat at $56.7 million. Most notably, IoT connectivity revenue showed sequential quarter-over-quarter growth of 1.7%, which followed the second quarter's sequential growth of 3.2%. This sequential growth is a clear indication that our transformation is producing results. IoT solutions revenue was down slightly to the prior year at $11.9 million, driven primarily by timing of orders from customers. Overall, non-GAAP gross margin in Q3 2025 was 55.2%, down 147 basis points from the same quarter of the prior year. By business line, IoT connectivity non-GAAP gross margin was down to 59.6% from 60.9%, and IoT solutions non-GAAP gross margin was down to 34.3% from 37% due to revenue mix.

Anthony Bellomo
Anthony Bellomo
CFO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

Average revenue per user per month, or ARPU, for the current quarter was $0.94 compared to $1.01 in Q3 2024. The decrease in ARPU year-over-year was due to the recent additions to total connections coming from lower ARPU use cases. On a sequential basis, ARPU was unchanged from Q2 2025. Operating expenses in the third quarter were $42.2 million, a decrease of $1.7 million compared to Q3 2024 due to cost savings from restructuring actions taken over the last 12 months. Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was $14.5 million, an increase of $1.5 million, or 12% compared to the prior year. The $1.5 million increase in adjusted EBITDA was primarily attributable to lower operating expenses, as discussed. Net loss in the third quarter was $12.7 million compared to $19.4 million in the prior year.

Anthony Bellomo
Anthony Bellomo
CFO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

The decrease in our net loss was due to a tax recovery as the result of recent U.S. tax legislation, as well as the same factors that drove the improvement in adjusted EBITDA, as described above. Finally, moving to cash flows, cash provided by operations in the third quarter was $1.1 million, approximately flat with the prior year. Free cash flow measured by cash provided by operations less cash used in investing activities improved by $1.1 million to negative $1.1 million in Q3 2025 compared to the prior year quarter due to our lower level of capitalized expenditures. As of September 30, 2025, cash and restricted cash was $19.6 million. In closing, our solid third quarter performance is evidence that the company's transformation has begun to take hold. With that, I'll pass it back to you, Ron.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

Thank you, Anthony. As you may know, we recently announced that KORE received a letter from two existing investors in the company, Searchlight Capital Partners and Abri Partners, on behalf of each of their affiliated funds. The letter indicated an interest in entering discussions to acquire all of KORE's common stock not already held by Searchlight and Abri. In addition, KORE's board of directors has formed a special committee to review, evaluate, and negotiate a potential strategic transaction and any alternative. The potential range and timing of outcomes from the strategic review process make it difficult to continue to provide an outlook that would meaningfully represent the range of expected outcomes. As a result, the company is suspending guidance for the remainder of fiscal year 2025.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

With that said, I want to emphasize we continue with business as usual, with full attention on delivering innovation and service to our customers and working closely with our partners. I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude for our global KORE team. You've demonstrated an incredible focus on execution and innovation, not only by securing key wins, but by doing so with a discipline that strengthens our entire business. I'm proud of the work you do every day to serve our customers and move our company forward. In closing, overall, we had a solid quarter. We improved our profitability, produced a second sequential quarter of strong connectivity revenue growth, and continue to stay focused on managing operating expenses. Thank you, everyone, for joining today's earnings call.

Ron Totton
Ron Totton
President and CEO at KORE Group Holdings, Inc.

We look forward to updating you next quarter on our progress in the fourth quarter of 2025 and our full year results. Have a good evening. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

Executives
    • Vik Vijayvergiya
      Vik Vijayvergiya
      VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Development
    • Anthony Bellomo
      Anthony Bellomo
      CFO
    • Ron Totton
      Ron Totton
      President and CEO
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