Alpha Teknova NASDAQ: TKNO reported second-quarter revenue growth of 18% from a year earlier, surpassing $12 million for its highest quarterly revenue in the company’s 30-year history. The company raised its full-year revenue outlook, citing first-half performance and confidence in the second half of 2026.
President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Gunstream said growth was broad-based rather than concentrated in a single customer or order. The company’s largest direct customer represented less than 7% of quarterly revenue, he said.
“We achieved growth in sales of our products across all of our major target markets, with the exception of cell and gene therapy related accounts, which were down in part due to order timing,” Gunstream said.
Revenue Growth Across Product Lines
Lab Essentials revenue, which includes research-use-only catalog and custom products, rose 18% to $9.2 million in the second quarter from $7.8 million a year earlier. Chief Financial Officer Matt Lowell said the increase reflected higher average revenue per customer and, to a lesser extent, a larger customer base.
Clinical Solutions revenue, consisting of products manufactured to good manufacturing practices standards for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, increased 18% to $2.4 million from $2.1 million. The growth was driven by more customers, partly offset by lower average revenue per customer, Lowell said.
Management said the company saw significant growth in biopharma outside of cell and gene therapy, led by custom-product sales. Teknova also reported continued strength among liquid biopsy customers and low-double-digit growth in catalog-product revenue across end markets.
Cell and gene therapy remained softer, particularly in early research and discovery activity. Gunstream said an order was pushed from the second quarter into the third quarter, though he characterized the order as relatively small and said there was no risk of a further delay.
Margins, Loss Narrow and Cash Use Declines
Gross profit increased to $4.9 million from $4.0 million a year earlier, while gross margin expanded to 40.1% from 38.7%. Lowell attributed the improvement primarily to higher revenue, partially offset by higher fixed-cost absorption in cost of goods sold associated with faster finished-goods inventory turns.
Operating expenses rose to $7.8 million from $7.4 million, driven mainly by sales and marketing investments, including additional headcount and marketing spending. Those increases were partly offset by lower general and administrative expenses tied to reduced stock-based compensation.
- Net loss narrowed to $3.2 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, from $3.6 million, or $0.07 per diluted share.
- Adjusted EBITDA was negative $0.7 million, compared with negative $0.8 million in the prior-year quarter.
- Free cash outflow declined to $0.6 million from $2.3 million, aided by lower cash used in operating activities.
- As of June 30, Teknova had $17.4 million in cash equivalents and short-term investments and $13.2 million in total borrowings.
The company ended the quarter with 156 associates, compared with 171 a year earlier.
Guidance Raised; 2027 Target Unchanged
Teknova raised its 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $45 million to $47 million, from a prior range of $42 million to $44 million. The midpoint of the updated outlook implies approximately 14% growth from 2025, compared with the company’s prior midpoint expectation for 6% growth.
Lowell said the guidance assumes a second half broadly consistent with the first half, with the company expecting the third quarter to be stronger than the seasonally lighter fourth quarter. Management said it has not incorporated potential benefits from improved biotech funding or recent commercial investments into its second-half outlook.
The company reiterated its target for revenue in the low-$50 million range in 2027. Gunstream said Teknova is maintaining that dollar target because it does not yet have enough visibility into the potential effects of biotech funding, sales investments and customer therapies advancing toward commercialization.
Teknova expects full-year gross margin in the mid-to-upper 30% range and operating expenses of at least $8 million per quarter through the end of 2026. The company expects free cash outflow of less than $8 million for the full year, despite commercial investments and potentially higher capital expenditures during the second half.
Management said it expects to become adjusted EBITDA positive at annualized revenue between $52 million and $57 million. If end markets strengthen and commercial investments generate the anticipated returns, Lowell said the company could report a positive adjusted EBITDA quarter before the end of 2027.
Build-Tek Launch and Growth Drivers
Teknova launched Build-Tek, an artificial intelligence-powered custom order configurator designed to help customers create specifications and submit quote requests for custom products. The tool is an expansion of the company’s buffer configurator introduced in 2024.
Gunstream said Build-Tek is trained on 30 years of Teknova manufacturing experience and can guide users on product type, formulation, container format, manufacturing grade and quality-control testing. Customers can also upload formulations, files or published literature for reference.
The company said the platform can reduce the custom-product design process from weeks to a few business days. Teknova will not charge customers to use Build-Tek, according to Gunstream, who described the tool as a way to strengthen the company’s custom-manufacturing capabilities and bring more customers into custom products.
Management said it soft-launched the service during the prior quarter and has received quote requests from customers that previously ordered only catalog products. Teknova plans to add capabilities including catalog-product customization, online saved requests and instant quotes.
Looking ahead, Gunstream pointed to several potential growth drivers, including products used in more than 70 therapies or diagnostics in clinical trials, increased biotech funding over the past three quarters, and investments in lead generation and field sales. The company expects the commercial investments to begin contributing more meaningfully around early 2027.
Teknova also said it has substantial manufacturing capacity remaining. Gunstream estimated existing facilities could support approximately $200 million in revenue and said the company does not anticipate needing another major manufacturing facility capital expenditure in the near term.
About Alpha Teknova (NASDAQ:TKNO)
Alpha Teknova, Inc NASDAQ: TKNO is a life science tools and reagents company that develops, manufactures and distributes proprietary products to support research, drug discovery and biomanufacturing. Its offerings target academic institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, and diagnostic developers, with a focus on high-purity reagents and optimized workflows designed to accelerate molecular biology and protein science applications.
The company's portfolio includes molecular biology reagents, cell culture buffers, in vitro translation kits, custom recombinant proteins, high-throughput screening buffers and other specialized formulations.
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
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