AvePoint NASDAQ: AVPT reported first-quarter 2026 results that management said exceeded guidance on both the top and bottom line, as the company positioned its platform around data governance, protection, and “AI-ready” capabilities. On the call, CEO Dr. TJ Jiang emphasized what he described as a broad shift in enterprise AI conversations away from productivity benefits and toward “enterprise trust” and governance as AI tools evolve from assistants into autonomous agents.
Management frames AI opportunity around “trust layer”
Jiang said data governance has become central as AI agents increase data access and operate more autonomously across productivity applications that were originally designed for humans. “The question is no longer, ‘What can AI do for my organization?’ Rather, ‘Can I trust, govern, and operate AI safely and at scale?’” he said.
Jiang described AvePoint’s approach as building a “trust layer” for AI across three priorities: controlling what AI can access, governing and auditing AI actions, and enabling rapid recovery when issues occur. He said this layer must operate continuously while maintaining data lineage across unstructured and structured sources, which he described as a differentiator versus “legacy point solutions and backup-first vendors.”
Jiang also pointed to Gartner commentary that he said cited AvePoint’s “comprehensive set of capabilities and platform strategy” as superior to native offerings such as Microsoft’s Agent 365.
Product updates highlight agent visibility, AI risk definitions, and expanded backup sources
Jiang highlighted several platform enhancements discussed during the quarter, including updates tied to AI agent monitoring and governance. He said AvePoint now provides unified visibility into AI agent activity and data access patterns, and that organizations can see “across their entire agent stack, including Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, SharePoint Agents, and Gemini Enterprise, all within one screen in Agent Pulse.”
On governance, Jiang said AvePoint launched a “new risk definition for AI agents” aimed at helping organizations assess agent security and correct issues automatically, noting the potential for unmanaged agents to cause “runaway costs” or expose sensitive data. On recovery, he said the company can provide “granular automated recovery” for incidents ranging from ransomware to AI-driven activity, and that it can “often recover several petabytes of data per hour.”
He also said AvePoint made “significant investments into Google Cloud protection” and added multi-SaaS backup sources including Okta, Confluence, Jira, DocuSign, monday.com, GitHub, and Smartsheet.
Customer examples and channel commentary
Jiang cited a new U.S. pharmacy benefits manager customer that wanted to deploy Copilot but faced “data sprawl” across 500 terabytes of unclassified data. He said the customer purchased AvePoint’s highest-tier control bundle along with Opus from the Resilience Suite, and planned to use Modernization Suite for future consolidation and retirement of on-premises infrastructure.
He also described a transportation and logistics conglomerate that initially engaged AvePoint during the pandemic to migrate about 50 terabytes of file share data to Microsoft 365 while preserving permissions, retention, and governance. Jiang said the relationship expanded over time to broader governance and protection and later supported a planned shift from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace, with AvePoint assisting with classification, policy management, insights, and cleanup. He said the customer awarded AvePoint a Q4 2025 data transformation services engagement tied to that move and described the relationship as an example of the company’s “land and expand strategy.”
On go-to-market, Jiang reiterated a “channel-first strategy,” particularly for small and mid-sized customers, and said the company maintains a “comp neutral philosophy” so direct sales teams can work with partners as “a force multiplier.” He also said AvePoint’s sales and marketing costs have improved since going public, attributing much of that to “channel efficiency,” and noted partner feedback that managed service providers can generate service opportunities around AvePoint deployments.
Q1 financial results: revenue, ARR, margins, and cash flow
CFO Jim Caci reported total revenue of $117.2 million, up 26% year-over-year and above the high end of guidance. On a constant currency basis, revenue grew 20% year-over-year. SaaS revenue was $93.4 million, up 35% year-over-year and representing 80% of total revenue. Services revenue rose 33% to $14.5 million and represented 12% of revenue, while term license and support revenue declined 29% and represented 8%.
Caci said 88% of Q1 revenue was recurring. He also noted a reporting change: beginning this quarter, AvePoint is including “legacy maintenance revenues” in the term license and support line item for all periods presented because maintenance is now immaterial.
By region, Caci reported year-over-year total revenue growth of 21% in North America, 30% in EMEA, and 28% in APAC. He said total ARR ended at $435.2 million, up 26% year-over-year (23% adjusted for FX). Net new ARR was $18.4 million, which Caci said represented 17% growth year-over-year after excluding $2.8 million of ARR acquired in the year-ago quarter. Caci and Jiang both noted this was the company’s 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in organic net new ARR.
Channel contribution increased, with 58% of ARR coming through the channel versus 55% a year ago. AvePoint ended the quarter with 863 customers with over $100,000 in ARR, up 25% year-over-year. Retention metrics included FX-adjusted gross retention rate of 89% and net retention rate of 110%; Caci said migration products remained a headwind to gross retention due to “naturally lower retention rates.”
Gross margin was 73.4% versus 75% a year ago, which Caci attributed primarily to lower gross margins on services revenue. Non-GAAP operating income was $20.5 million, or a 17.5% margin, reflecting 310 basis points of year-over-year expansion. GAAP operating margin was “just under 11%,” expanding more than 730 basis points year-over-year, which Caci tied in part to “ongoing management of stock-based compensation,” which he said was 6% of Q1 revenue.
Cash and cash equivalents were $444 million at quarter end. Operating cash flow was $24.3 million (21% margin) and free cash flow was $23 million (20% margin), compared with $500,000 of operating cash flow and negative $1 million of free cash flow a year ago.
Share repurchases and updated guidance
AvePoint continued an accelerated repurchase pace. Caci said the company bought back 5.4 million shares for about $60.8 million in Q1, compared with about $50 million in repurchases for all of 2025. He added that through the close of trading the prior Friday, the company repurchased another 1.8 million shares for about $17.7 million. The board authorized replenishing the repurchase program back to $150 million.
For guidance, Caci said the company raised full-year ARR guidance, but that updated full-year revenue and non-GAAP operating income outlook “only includes the Q1 outperformance” as the company accounts for a higher SaaS mix and increased foreign exchange headwinds. He explained that a shift toward SaaS versus term license impacts revenue recognition timing because SaaS revenue is recognized ratably, while term licenses recognize a larger portion upfront.
- Q2 revenue: $120.3 million to $122.3 million (19% growth at midpoint; 18% constant currency growth at midpoint)
- Q2 non-GAAP operating income: $18.7 million to $19.7 million
- Full-year ARR: $523.4 million to $529.4 million (26% growth at midpoint), including a $2.2 million FX headwind; on an FX-adjusted basis, the company continues to expect 26% ARR growth at midpoint
- Full-year revenue: $509.4 million to $515.4 million (22% growth at midpoint), including the Q1 beat of $1.8 million offset by a $2.9 million FX headwind; constant currency growth expected to be 20% at midpoint
- Full-year non-GAAP operating income: $91.5 million to $94.5 million, including the Q1 beat of $700,000 offset by a $2.2 million FX headwind
In response to analyst questions, Caci said the company’s pathway to accelerating from 23% FX-adjusted ARR growth in Q1 to 26% for the full year is supported by improving traction in U.S. public sector, where AvePoint saw softness last year, and he said pipeline is growing. Jiang added that AI adoption tailwinds are showing up broadly across deployments such as Copilot Studio and Google Gemini, rather than being driven solely by Microsoft 365 Copilot seat adds.
On free cash flow expectations, Caci said he would “expect us to be generating free cash flow north of $100 million for the year,” though he noted the company does not specifically guide to free cash flow. He also outlined three drivers behind Q1’s cash flow improvement versus the prior year: higher net income, the absence of about $7 million in one-time tax-related payments that occurred in Q1 2025, and about $6 million of customer payments received in Q1 that in prior years would have been received in Q4.
Closing the call, Jiang said the company was “proud of our first quarter results and raised outlook for the year,” citing demand for “secure, automated, and AI-ready solutions,” and reiterated AvePoint’s conviction in its longer-term goal of reaching $1 billion in ARR.
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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