AvePoint NASDAQ: AVPT Chief Executive Tianyi Jiang outlined the company’s strategy around Microsoft 365, multi-cloud data protection and artificial intelligence governance during a D.A. Davidson discussion hosted by analyst Rudy Kessinger.
Jiang said AvePoint, founded in 2001, began in the Microsoft SharePoint ecosystem with products for data backup, archiving, migration and governance. He described the company as “the largest Microsoft Office Cloud ecosystem player” in unified SaaS data integration, backup, archiving and governance, while noting that its customer base has expanded beyond regulated industries into small and medium-sized businesses.
“We often got those commentaries like we’re the best company people never heard of,” Jiang said.
AI Push Raises Focus on Data Governance
Jiang said the rise of generative AI has increased enterprise attention on data quality, access control and lifecycle management. He said companies need to curate proprietary and unstructured data across emails, shared drives, Box, Dropbox and CRM systems before AI tools can deliver useful outputs.
He said AvePoint positions itself between the data and model layers of AI infrastructure, helping enterprises manage their data estate, access controls and retention policies. Jiang added that the shift toward AI agents is increasing concerns around “shadow AI,” AI-related risk and token-based cost management.
“Every CFO has to worry about consumption-based, token-based budgeting,” Jiang said. “That means there’s a lot more intentionality towards responsible and cost-effective AI deployment.”
Microsoft Relationship Seen as Complementary
Asked about investor concerns over Microsoft concentration, Jiang said AvePoint has operated in the Microsoft ecosystem for more than 20 years but does not depend on Microsoft as a reseller. He said Microsoft does not resell AvePoint’s products, and AvePoint helps customers complete “last mile” adoption of workloads such as Purview, E5 and Copilot.
Jiang said AvePoint is also active in the Google, Salesforce and AWS ecosystems as customers become increasingly multi-cloud. He said AvePoint is complementary to hyperscalers because it helps customers manage different license types and workloads across multiple platforms.
On Microsoft 365 backup, Jiang said Microsoft Office Cloud has roughly 400 million to 500 million user seats, while AvePoint covers “tens of millions” of seats and is not yet at 100 million. He said the company still sees room for growth, while also incorporating Microsoft’s Backup Express snapshot capability into its own backup stack.
Jiang said many customers use a mix of license levels, noting that E5 penetration remains below 20% and Copilot penetration is about 5%, according to his comments. He said AvePoint helps customers maximize existing investments rather than pushing them toward the highest-cost licenses.
Multi-Cloud Expansion and SaaS Model
Jiang said AvePoint expects non-Microsoft revenue to rise to more than 30% of its mix as the company pursues its goal of reaching $1 billion in annual recurring revenue. He said non-Microsoft revenue is currently less than 10%.
He said the company already has product coverage across ecosystems including Google, Salesforce, Atlassian, ServiceNow and AWS, but go-to-market development takes time because each ecosystem has different partners and channels.
Jiang also highlighted AvePoint’s SaaS-heavy model. He said 88% of revenue is recurring and that AvePoint runs on hyperscaler infrastructure across GCP, Azure, AWS and U.S. government data centers. He said hyperscaler contracts help shield AvePoint from hardware supply-chain shocks and pricing volatility.
“We are a true SaaS company that’s asset light,” Jiang said.
Control Suite and AgentPulse
Kessinger asked Jiang to clarify AvePoint’s role in governance and security. Jiang said the company’s roots in enterprise content management mean it manages the lifecycle of unstructured data, from ingestion, migration, classification and tagging to backup, ransomware recovery and governance.
Jiang said these capabilities are increasingly important in the AI era because AI can accelerate access and data-management problems. He said AvePoint competes across areas that had previously been separate, including migration, backup, governance and data security posture management.
Jiang also discussed AvePoint AgentPulse, which he said became generally available in the first quarter after a preview late last year. He said AgentPulse helps customers discover AI agents running across cloud environments such as Gemini and Copilot, control what systems and data they can access, monitor token consumption and shut agents down when needed.
Jiang said AgentPulse is monetized through AvePoint’s “best” Control bundle and is helping increase Control deal sizes. He said Control represents about 40% of the company’s pipeline, compared with 26% of blended revenue contribution last year, while resiliency remains close to 60%.
Growth Outlook, Retention and Margins
Jiang said AvePoint is guiding for organic, foreign-exchange-adjusted ARR growth to accelerate from 23% in the first quarter to 26% by year-end. He cited 13 quarters of outperformance and 12 consecutive quarters of double-digit new ARR additions as reasons for confidence.
He said the company’s business is seasonal, with the second half typically stronger than the first half. Jiang pointed to the U.S. public sector year-end in the third quarter and large commercial enterprise year-end activity in the fourth quarter as drivers. An operator said U.S. federal business is in the mid- to high-single digits as a percentage of total ARR and could outpace total growth this year because of easier comparisons.
On retention, Jiang said AvePoint’s gross retention is 91% when excluding the migration business. He said churn is higher in SMB and midmarket accounts, while large enterprise retention already exceeds the company’s goals. He said AvePoint is increasingly serving SMB customers through managed service providers to reduce direct churn exposure.
Jiang said the company does not see major seat reductions across customers. He said technology accounts for less than 8% of recurring revenue and that seat reductions have mainly appeared among large tech companies that overhired in recent years.
On profitability, Jiang said AvePoint remains committed to a long-term non-GAAP operating margin target of 25% to 30% by 2029. He said this year’s non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be roughly flat at about 19% as the company invests in the business, while GAAP margins are expected to expand and stock-based compensation is less than 10% of revenue.
About AvePoint NASDAQ: AVPT
AvePoint, Inc NASDAQ: AVPT is a leading software provider specializing in data management, governance, and compliance solutions for Microsoft 365 and related cloud platforms. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, the company offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based and on-premises tools designed to help organizations migrate, manage, and protect their collaboration data. AvePoint's flagship Cloud Platform delivers backup, governance, reporting, and migration services for SharePoint, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, and Salesforce environments.
With a customer base spanning thousands of organizations across more than 100 countries, AvePoint serves enterprises, government agencies, and educational institutions seeking to ensure data security, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience.
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