CLEAR Secure Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record Q1 financials — CLEAR finished with 41 million total members, $292M in bookings, $253M revenue (+19.7% YoY), ~31.9% adjusted EBITDA margin, and $185.5M free cash flow while raising 2026 FCF guidance to at least $465M and holding $800M in cash.
  • Positive Sentiment: CLEAR1 enterprise/GovTech acceleration — CLEAR1 bookings were ~5x last year with record multiyear contracts, a FedRAMP milestone and a growing pipeline that should increase predictable, contract-backed revenue.
  • Positive Sentiment: Travel product momentum — eGate coverage now >50% (targeting >80% by end of Q2), average CLEAR Plus wait times 1 minute, app adoption doubled and Concierge expanded to 32 airports, all driving higher NPS, retention and ARPU.
  • Negative Sentiment: Q1 growth was partly boosted by a ~3‑week DHS/TSA shutdown that increased trial enrollments, creating some conversion uncertainty, and macro risks (e.g., oil prices, travel headwinds) could cause short‑term volatility.
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Earnings Conference Call
CLEAR Secure Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good morning, welcome to CLEAR's Fiscal First Quarter 2026 conference call. We have with us today Caryn Seidman-Becker, Founder, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Barkin, President, and Jen Hsu, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, before we begin, today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about the company's future business and financial performance. These are based on management's current expectations, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in the documents the company has filed and furnished with the SEC, including today's press release. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call. During this call, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons will be against the comparable period of fiscal year 2025. Additionally, the company will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures.

Operator

A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures are provided in today's press release in the most recently filed Form 10-Q. These items can be found on the investor relations section of CLEAR's website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Caryn Seidman-Becker.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

The first quarter was a definitive stress test for the global identity landscape. As the physical and digital worlds collided with unprecedented speed, CLEAR met the moment. The seeds we planted to build the world's most trusted, secure identity platform are maturing at exactly the right time. We are operating in an environment of structural instability, where the national travel system is strained and AI-driven fraud is escalating at an exponential rate. In this world, identity is not a feature. It is the foundational infrastructure of a functioning economy. If you get identity wrong, nothing else matters. We ended this quarter with 41 million total CLEAR members, driving bookings of $292 million and free cash flow of $185 million. These record results are the direct output of our forever obsession with frictionless experiences and a fortress approach to security.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

We are meeting this moment by raising identity standards with the speed and urgency this environment demands. As I often say, and we're all now seeing firsthand, travel is hard and getting harder. March underscored the immense strain on our national travel system and highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships. We entered 2026 with incredible momentum in our customer experience and innovation across our travel business, which continued in the first quarter. Our home-to-gate strategy is transforming a fragmented series of travel hurdles into a singular seamless experience. eGates now cover over 50% of our network, and we plan to exceed 80% by the end of the second quarter. The data is irrefutable. One-step, five-second biometric entry is delighting members. Average wait time for CLEAR+ members is now under one minute.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

NPS has reached a three-year high, and it's not surprising that travelers who use an eGate have significantly higher NPS than non-eGate users. This is contributing to strong member adds and improved retention. Our reimagined app, which recently reached number four in the travel app store, is becoming the go-to app for our travelers. By creating certainty and transparency around the day of travel, syncing calendars, travel documents, wayfinding, and partner integrations, mobile app adoption has doubled for travelers. The app is becoming the control center for the day of travel, proactively organizing trips, surfacing gate and security details, and unlocking CLEAR services with just one tap. Demand for CLEAR Concierge continued to increase dramatically during the quarter, and the challenges of the shutdown highlighted the value proposition of our premium product. This is a high-margin, high-touch service, and we are aggressively scaling it to major cities nationwide.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Concierge turns a stressful travel day into a seamless, delightful experience with an ambassador guiding you every step of the way. I want to thank the TSA officers who worked tirelessly without pay through the shutdown. Over 3,500 CLEAR ambassadors worked hand in glove with the TSA to keep travelers moving pre and post-security. The combination of CLEAR ambassadors, our approach to hospitality, and the benefit of our eGate served as a stabilizing force. This is the power of public-private partnerships. Private sector speed and innovation meeting public sector scale. Identity is trusted infrastructure. It is being woven into the fabric of securing physical, digital, and agentic experiences. CLEAR is a trusted brand building the smart network of human identities. The definition of secure has been permanently altered, identity is becoming harder to solve.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

As AI accelerates, traditional credentials like driver's licenses have become obsolete vulnerabilities. When identities and credentials can be simulated, the fundamental question becomes, "Are you who you say you are, and what should you have access to?" CLEAR1 is our answer. We are raising the bar for identity standards through a multilayered approach, fusing biometrics, government-issued identification, source corroboration, and device signals to confirm that you are you. This quarter, we achieved significant year-over-year growth, driven by almost two times the amount of signed deals and a record number of large multiyear enterprise contracts. Organizations now realize that identity integrity is a key protective layer. We are committed to securing the nation's digital frontline by establishing total identity integrity across high-stakes environments. Our FedRAMP milestone is the first step towards unlocking our GovTech vertical.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

It builds on our mission with CMS to eliminate the systemic fraud highlighted in the December GAO report, where as many as 125 insurance policies were connected to a single identity. Our work directly supports the White House's executive order on fighting fraud, waste, and abuse. We are aggressively replacing vulnerable legacy systems with a high integrity layer that proactively thwarts bad actors. By ensuring taxpayer dollars and sensitive records remain shielded, CLEAR is delivering the non-negotiable foundation for a secure, functioning digital economy. This is a transformative era. With the World Cup, America250, and record summer travel on the horizon, our mission has never been more critical. We are starting this year from a position of immense strength in innovation, in execution, and in financial performance. We will continue to drive members, bookings, and free cash flow with relentless intensity.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

I wanna thank our extraordinary ambassadors and the entire CLEAR team for their unwavering commitment to our members and our partners. With that, I'll turn it over to Jen.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Thank you, Caryn. Our first quarter results reflect step change growth, continued margin expansion, and accelerating free cash flow generation. CLEAR Travel and CLEAR1 growth is compounding. In Q1, we delivered over 40% bookings growth and approximately 32% adjusted EBITDA margins, while also doubling our absolute free cash flow year-over-year to $185 million. These results build on our strong momentum entering the year. Importantly, Q1 heading into the DHS shutdown was trending to exceed the 25% bookings growth that we reported in Q4 of last year. The shutdown further enhanced a strong quarter, highlighting how well-positioned CLEAR is to improve the travel experience, deliver greater hospitality, and drive the highest levels of security. The consistency and predictability of the CLEAR+ value proposition was evident during the shutdown, boosting member acquisition in the quarter.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Revenue grew 19.7% year-over-year to $253 million. Total bookings increased 40.8% to $291.7 million, and active CLEAR+ members grew to 8.2 million, up 13% year-over-year. Importantly, the investments we are making in member experience are driving improvements in retention on our growing base of CLEAR+ members, translating the strong customer acquisition in the quarter into a durable benefit for our business. The shutdown also accelerated awareness and adoption of our concierge offering. Starting at $99, CLEAR+ members can book an ambassador to greet you at the airport and expedite you through security for an even faster, stress-free journey.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

We are now offering concierge service in 32 airports and remain in the early innings of scaling concierge across our network, driving member awareness and adoption. The products we are building around our home to gate CLEAR Travel experience, whether it be our mobile app, eGates, or services such as concierge, position us to drive greater member growth, strong retention, and increasing levels of ARPU. CLEAR1 is an infrastructure layer for identity, akin to how digital wallets transformed the payments industry. The growing demand for CLEAR1 is reflected in our results. Total CLEAR members grew 31.3% to 41 million, and CLEAR1 bookings were approximately five times those of Q1 last year, representing another record quarter. CLEAR1 is an enterprise business. We typically enter into multi-year contracts with partners that include minimum annual commitments, providing revenue visibility and predictability.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

We are prioritizing a focused set of verticals, including healthcare, workforce, consumer, and an early but significant opportunity in government and federal relationships. The platform economies of scale in our business model have become increasingly evident. We are driving meaningful operating leverage as we scale, with close to 70% adjusted EBITDA flow through and highly attractive levels of free cash flow conversion. In Q1, we generated $62 million of operating income and $80.6 million of adjusted EBITDA, representing a 31.9% adjusted EBITDA margin and 7.2 percentage points of margin expansion year-over-year. Q1 net cash provided by operating activities was $190.4 million, and free cash flow was $185.5 million, representing 103.2% year-over-year growth.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Our strong performance and operating rigor position us positively as secure identity becomes increasingly complex and foundational. We are accelerating our product roadmap across CLEAR Travel and CLEAR1, and are leaning into marketing to drive greater brand awareness for CLEAR as the leading secure identity company. We are doing this while delivering expected adjusted EBITDA margin expansion in 2026 relative to 2025 and simultaneously increasing our free cash flow guidance for the year. We ended the quarter with $800 million of cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet, which provides us strategic flexibility while capitalizing on macro tailwinds and operating strength.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Turning to guidance, for Q2, we expect revenue of $268 million-$271 million and total bookings of $280 million-$285 million, representing 22.8% and 26.7% growth at the midpoint respectively. In light of our Q1 outperformance and confidence in our ability to sustain the momentum, we are increasing our 2026 full-year free cash flow guidance from at least $440 million to at least $465 million, which would represent an increase of approximately $120 million year-over-year at least 36% year-over-year growth. With that, we will open the call for Q&A.

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. Our first question has come from the line of Joshua Reilly with Needham. Please proceed with your questions.

Joshua Reilly
Joshua Reilly
Analyst at Needham

All right, great. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on an extremely impressive quarter here. So just maybe to hit on the bookings for CLEAR1 to start with. Maybe you could just explain why now, after working on this for a number of years, are you seeing such impressive momentum in the CLEAR1 bookings with both, not only enterprise but government use cases? What is it that's differentiated about your platform that's helping you win this business versus competitors?

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Thanks, Josh. I think that there's a few key points. For a long time, I would tell you that we were a solution looking for a problem. We said that identity is security. We said that identity is infrastructure. You saw the world turn over the last few years. You saw it on the cyber front, you saw it on the fraud front, you saw it on the interoperability of healthcare front. You know, identity has become ever more important in a digital world, and there's now problems looking for our solutions. With a trusted brand, with over 41 million members on the platform, you know, CLEAR is the company that people call to help them solve their problems. I also think that AI is accelerating the need for trusted identity, physical, digital, and agentic worlds. I think that is another accelerant.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

I think identity is absolutely becoming more complex, and so verifying that you are you and connecting you to all the things that make you you has never been more important. You think about what makes CLEAR special. First of all, a trusted brand. Second of all, a network of identities who know that they have enrolled in CLEAR, who have opted in and look for CLEAR in more places. Total identity integrity. A driver's license is no longer true identity. When you look at what we've done in the airport as a qualified anti-terrorism technology with next-gen identity, with source corroboration, with a digital footprint, ensuring true identity. Think about the agentic world. It's not just knowing who you are. That's the foundational piece. What about the 100 agents that are connected to you and what they should have access to?

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Look at the physical world in security. There are events at this point on a weekly basis. You have to know who you are letting in and what they should have access to. Look at workforce with North Koreans infiltrating critical infrastructure. Look at the administration with an executive order trying to reduce fraud. While we've started in Medicare, there's Social Security, there's IRS, right? There's so many places where you need to bring program integrity. It is the time, and we are here to meet the moment. I think we've been very public in airports for 16 years, right? Millions of people go through that every day. There was no better place to build our brand and our capabilities.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

It is a very natural transition to these other areas that have a sense of urgency right now and that we are building strong long-term partnerships with.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Josh, I might just add.

Joshua Reilly
Joshua Reilly
Analyst at Needham

Awesome.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

I think the business momentum that Caryn just described, is really translating across the board, in our financial and operating metrics for that business. We're seeing our pipeline grow. We have a very healthy number of new partner wins. Seven-figure contract deals are up, and we have very strong net revenue retention. Overall, I think, all positive signals for that business.

Joshua Reilly
Joshua Reilly
Analyst at Needham

Awesome. Just one follow-up. You know, as you look at the 8.2 million active CLEAR+ members, obviously that's a significant acceleration by any way of looking at it. Can you just help us understand, you know, what was the mix maybe of trial customers that were added in the March quarter there with the TSA shutdown versus full paying members and any early read on how you're gonna be able to keep this cohort that you added with the TSA troubles now that things have normalized? Thank you, guys.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Sure. I guess, Josh, I would say I think we expected to sustain and build upon our momentum, heading out of Q4 and entering this year. I think we would have expected sustained growth from a active CLEAR+ metric relative to Q4 of 25. From a trial perspective, I think we feel pretty good about our ability to convert those trial members from the sort of few weeks of shutdown into healthy paying customers and bookings. You see that reflected I think both in our Q1 results, but also in our Q2 guidance. Probably most importantly, the members that we acquired during the shutdown, I think, signed up at a period of time when our value proposition was particularly evident.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

I think we feel very good about our ability to retain those members for the long term.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Cory Carpenter with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your questions.

Cory Carpenter
Cory Carpenter
Analyst at JPMorgan

Hey, good morning, Caryn and Jen. I had to maybe, Caryn, for you, be curious, just, I think there's some debate in there around the broader health of the travel environment. Curious what you're seeing there in recent weeks giving some of the higher oil prices and geopolitical issues. Secondly, just, Jen, the commentary on the demand before the TSA turmoil was helpful. Curious, how has demand looked kind of since the TSA wait times have normalized? Do you worry at all that there could be a bit of an air pocket after perhaps a bit of a pull forward? Thank you.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

I'll go first. I think, you know, I'm going to repeat what we've always said, which is consumers love to travel, and yet day-of travel is really hard. I would look to the other travel companies, whether it be the airlines talking about very strong top-line growth. Certainly, some of that is revenues, but it's also volume going through airports. Airport traffic has remained, I would say, steady. I think the most important thing- Big impact yet from oil. You are seeing corporate travel strengthen, so I think that that's really important. Also, when you look at the type of customer there. For us, it's really about controlling our own destiny and driving the member experience. We're halfway through our eGate rollout. That has just such a massive impact on the customer experience, which drives retention, gross adds, conversions, the whole thing.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Continuing to drive that over the next quarter, rolling out our concierge business, which, while we're excited to be in over 30 airports today, we are still continuing to have an accelerated product release cadence on our app, so we can really build a home to gate experience, not to mention partnerships. We see a lot of opportunity to continue to drive the customer experience, both on our own and with partners against, I would say, a reasonable travel backdrop. We're all watching oil, but thus far, if you look at the other travel companies, demand has remained strong.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Cory, to your question around sustainability of growth, you know, I think that's reflected in our Q2 outlook, which implies 27% year-over-year growth at the midpoint and continues to accelerate relative to where we were entering the year. I also think it's important to emphasize that the strong underlying demands in our business are not masked by what was really kind of a three-week benefit from the shutdown. Our NPS scores have been consistently at a multi-year high, and I think is representative of the work and the investments that we've made over the past few years as travel has gotten harder and become more challenging for consumers. Overall, I think we continue to enhance our value proposition. By the way, we think we still have a lot more to do there.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

We are continuing to roll out our eGates across the network. We are very early in driving brand awareness for concierge as just a few examples.

Cory Carpenter
Cory Carpenter
Analyst at JPMorgan

Great. Thank you both.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your questions.

Eric Sheridan
Eric Sheridan
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Thanks so much for taking the question. Maybe just one big-picture question, just tying into some of the comments you've made so far. Caryn, just in terms of when you get this type of signal from the end market in terms of product adoption, is there any reordering of priorities, things that you maybe would have had on your long-term strategic or investment roadmap that makes you want to pull those more forward? Just understanding a little bit about reordering the priorities, if any, and what implications that might mean for emphasis on growth relative to incremental margins in the business, not just in 2026, but maybe over the medium term. Thanks so much.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Yeah. Great question. I would say the free cash flow that you saw and that we've projected for the year is inclusive of accelerating investments in product engineering, brand marketing, and security. We are making those investments, and those are in the numbers that we've shared today. Absolutely, we've seen the signals. We are accelerating our investment in product, in marketing, in brand awareness, right? It's very important that CLEAR is known as the trusted, secure identity platform that can solve your problems for your workforce and for your consumers, that we can make experiences safer and easier physically and digitally, right? We need to be known for that. We are telling people about that. You will see more of that. I talk a lot about product release cadence.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

I think, you know, becoming more AI-native, the expectation is that we are releasing more products for both CLEAR1 and CLEAR Travel with higher velocity and better releases in terms of quality and customer launches. You know, we are investing in sales, we're investing in customer success. But again, all of that is inclusive of the numbers that we have put forth. We're really excited to be able to lean in on these fronts and still generate very strong free cash flow. Quite frankly, have a very strong balance sheet, which creates optionality for us to continue to invest in different ways.

Eric Sheridan
Eric Sheridan
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Mark Kelley with Stifel. Please proceed with your questions.

Analyst at Stifel

Great. Thanks for taking the question. This is Brendan on for Mark. I guess first on CLEAR1, I think last quarter, you guys had called out that the business was doubling year-over-year, and now it's growing at, you know, 5x that rate. It's a pretty nice acceleration there. You had a handful of announcements over the last quarter, new partners and inclusion on the FedRAMP marketplace. I was wondering if you'd be able to walk us through kind of what the typical ramp process and timing looks like for a new partner add in the CLEAR1 business.

Analyst at Stifel

Is it just as simple as, like, kind of flipping on a switch to get CLEAR1 turned on, or is there more of an integration and ramp, you know, to get CLEAR1 working across the partner's whole network?

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

I would say that it depends. We can come back to you with an average day, but it depends if we're going through a partner, at which point our partnerships with people that we've previously announced, like an Okta, can be very, very fast. Being in the Epic identity toolbox, right? Those sorts of things are extremely fast, sometimes as quick as a few days. If it's not with a partner, it can be a little bit longer, and we continue to reduce that launch time as well. It does depend on how they come in. I think one of the important things that we've honed that I'm proud of over the past year is less bespoke customization and more off the shelf. I think that's been really important from a discipline perspective as well as an acceleration.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

We understand what our partners want and need. We've built it. We've learned from the launches that we've had so that we can not just launch faster, but sign faster, right? I think that all of those things are accelerating, and we're measuring them closely and trying to do better every single day. The lack of customization has been really important for the business. I think the other piece, and this goes back to an earlier question, is CLEAR has raised the bar on identity. Having total identity integrity, not just a picture of a driver's license, is massively important. Partners wanna work with us. They wanna get this on. They want to improve their customer experience. They wanna reduce fraud. Again, when you have a coalition of the willing, things go faster.

Analyst at Stifel

Great. Thanks. Quick follow-up. You guys called out the World Cup, you know, as a travel-heavy event this year. I was wondering if any of these kind of, you know, big events where a lot of people are booking travel have any impact on your marketing strategy or cadence. Are you kind of looking to reach people at the time of booking or maybe closer to the time of travel? Yeah, I was just wondering if you could touch on that.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Something that's been quite magical for us to communicate is the calendar sync, right? Now that we know when somebody is traveling, and we would encourage everybody to sync their calendars with the CLEAR App, we can better serve potential customers and talk to them for things like concierge. I think there's two things that we think will benefit from the World Cup. One is international. I know we've talked previously 42 visa waiver countries can enroll in CLEAR, you know, with their passport. They don't even have to be in person at the airport. Those international travelers have no other options in U.S. airports for a improved customer experience, so that's important.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

We're also, again, improving products and awareness for calendar sync, but also beyond to let people know when we're launching concierge in their market and to talk to them ahead of their travel or after they've gone through the lane, right? We know where you're going, we could certainly talk to you through email and other ways of communication. We're starting to take advantage of all of those. The app really is the great unlock to communicate seamlessly with travelers about, you know, whether it be update your credit card, update your driver's license, you're not REAL ID ready, do you want a concierge, you can add family members. The ability to personalize and customize and communicate with people in ways that they wanna be communicated with. We were way too constrained to email for far too long.

Operator

Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Dana Telsey with Telsey Advisory Group. Please proceed with your questions.

Dana Telsey
Dana Telsey
Analyst at Telsey Advisory Group

Hi, good morning, congratulations on the terrific results. As you think about your network outside of travel, like Medicare, any updates on that and what you're seeing in the progress there? Then you speak about marketing. How do you think about marketing spend going forward? Also just overall on pricing and any new demographics that you're getting coming into the network? Thank you.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Dana, that's not one question. That's like five.

Dana Telsey
Dana Telsey
Analyst at Telsey Advisory Group

Yeah.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

We'll start with CMS. You know, CMS was originally, you know, part of reducing fraud in Medicare. I think what you're seeing in CMS is the focus there is extending, as I talked about, to other areas. Social Security and Medicare are closely connected, but you look at the rural health dollars, I think the administration has budgeted $50 billion for rural health. That's Medicaid. Taking that same concept of what we can do for Medicare to Medicaid and other places in the government. Now there's an executive order to reduce fraud. I do think it's gone from CMS to other agencies, and that is why you've heard us talk this morning about GovTech, right? CMS is healthcare, but GovTech is a broader opportunity for CLEAR.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Obviously, it's where we started in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security. We feel acutely capable of this opportunity to be really good partners and continue to build public-private partnerships with the administration. In terms of demographics, I think you bring up a really interesting point, and I think this ties a little bit to the marketing spend that we talked about before. Jen talked about, like, net member growth and performance and digital marketing. I think one of the learnings is, you know, we need to be talking to Medicare patients who may not be travelers, right? Letting them know who we are and what we do. Even if you do know, if you think, "Oh, well, that's a subscription in the airport that I need to buy," but in fact, it's free for you.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

It's a simple enrollment. CLEAR is a trusted brand that will protect your privacy and secure your data. That's a new messaging opportunity for us that we are investing in is really important for us, and that does expand our demographics, right? You are seeing demographic expansion through CLEAR1 with partners like CMS, but with partners like Home Depot. Typically, and we've talked about this, typically, when we launch a new partner in CLEAR1, we might have 25% overlap with a CLEAR traveler, and then it builds over time. That really is the power of the network. Our network is growing, our use cases are growing, and our demographics are expanding.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Dana, I think you had just a broader marketing point. Caryn alluded to this, but that is an area that we intend to lean in, given the momentum. We expect to pursue a brand marketing campaign to really emphasize, I think CLEAR's umbrella position as the leading secure identity company across our CLEAR Travel and our CLEAR1 portfolios. We do expect marketing to increase modestly, but obviously we will do that in a disciplined manner in the way we've always done and while we continue to expand overall margins simultaneously. I think the other question you had was around pricing.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

I would start by saying, I think our first focus is always around delivering value for our members, which starts with member experience, and we've made a lot of progress there. When we do that, we believe the opportunity to adjust pricing comes alongside that. You've heard us say in the past that we anticipate taking a more measured approach to price increases, which would be consistent with our pricing actions in 2025, and I think our philosophy there remains consistent.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Yeah.

Michael Barkin
President at Clear Secure

Yeah. The one other thing that I would just add on the, on the marketing side is that there's certainly the dollars that we invest, but then it's also how we think about how we market to our customers through the whole customer journey. When we think about the experience that we're providing in the airport, which we think both drives the marketing that we have there, as well as the experience that drives retention, and then we think about how we can use performance marketing in a very efficient way to reach our members, and increasingly, with the broader network, we have more people who we can reach through that. It's both what we invest directly, but then it's also how we use performance marketing and our experience to drive that for both new members and for retention.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Wyatt Swanson with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.

Wyatt Swanson
Wyatt Swanson
Analyst at D.A. Davidson

Hey, thanks for taking the question. I appreciate it. Could you maybe detail how you think, you know, continued strong top-line growth like this is sustainable beyond the second quarter and into the second half of 2026 and 2027? Maybe talk to how average revenue per CLEAR Plus member may change over the coming quarters, given some changes that you've made with different partners. Thanks.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

Yeah. Wyatt, I would come back to member experience. We, you know, we've made a lot of progress, which has been the outcome of, I think, investments, again, over a multi-year period, and that is starting to show up in our flywheel, if you will, of stronger NPS scores, which drives greater member acquisition and then ultimately member retention, which started to improve and increase in the back half of last year. I think, again, I would point to Q2 guidance, which is a reflection of our ability to sustain the growth.

Jen Hsu
Jen Hsu
CFO at Clear Secure

I think, we have confidence in the balance and the back half of the year, and, we have broader levers, I think, beyond that, both from a member growth perspective, a pricing perspective, and then the momentum in CLEAR1 to sustain our growth, in future and outer years.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

I think if I can just add to that with a little bit more granularity, we still only cover 75% of the U.S. from a travel perspective. We think that there's network growth, so think of that as stores. I think, again, no different than CLEAR1, you know, solution looking for a problem versus a problem looking for a solution. I think what you saw in March was the structural challenges and instability of the travel industry and ecosystem, CLEAR can play a massively important part, and we did. We drove efficiency, we drove throughput, we drove customer experience. I think more airports want that in the U.S. then tangentially, outside the U.S. There's opportunities for network growth. The better the customer experience, the stronger the retention.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

I will say that we've built a strong data analytics and business intelligence capability that not only goes to the performance marketing that Michael and Jen were talking about before, but also talks about how we serve our current members. There are so many opportunities, not to mention products. You do see ARPU opportunities based on our partnerships, but you also see it importantly based on take rates of new products, whether that be driving the family attach rate because you have a great experience, whether that be concierge and then PreCheck and more. Continuing to drive that creates opportunities in the travel business. It's still early days in PreCheck growth. We're really only two years into that program, let alone concierge, when we're at day one.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Then on the CLEAR1 business, you know, we're just getting started. We also think that there's more products in the airport side. Again, I think identity is massively important across the airport ecosystem, not just for travelers, but for workforce. This is really about prioritization here, improved product release, brand awareness and marketing, and we're investing into that this year, and you already see that in the numbers. They're included in the numbers that we've put forth that will not only continue to fuel this year's growth, but out year's growth.

Wyatt Swanson
Wyatt Swanson
Analyst at D.A. Davidson

Got it. That's really helpful. I guess one quick follow-up. How do you think about your ability to maybe support a broader travel member network, given like the eGate rollout, maybe the ability to just support more travelers without increased wait times and maybe balancing that versus price increases for members? Thanks.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Look, I think you're seeing the throughput from eGates that we've talked about, you know, significantly higher NPS scores from eGates versus non-eGates. We've talked about average wait times of under a minute. We've talked about, you know, verification in less than five seconds. That is throughput. You're seeing in some markets, if you live in New York, hopefully in LaGuardia Terminal C, you'll see a single eGate going into a double eGate. Right, continuing to drive that is so important. We think that there's a lot of opportunities. Quite frankly, you saw low wait times even in really challenged periods in March. I think the efficiencies that this drives, not just for us, but for all travelers, and for our partners at TSA, is already evident.

Operator

Thank you. We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would now like to hand the call back over to Caryn Seidman-Becker for any closing comments.

Caryn Seidman-Becker
Caryn Seidman-Becker
Founder, Chair, and CEO at Clear Secure

Thank you for joining our first quarter earnings call. This quarter underscored the importance of being a trusted, secure identity platform as the world needs greater security and more frictionless experiences, physically and digitally. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Analysts
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