AvePoint Q4 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Strong Q4 and FY25 financials: Q4 revenue was $114.7M (up 29% YoY), SaaS revenue was $88.9M (up 37% YoY), and total ARR finished at $416.8M (up 27% YoY) while the company achieved GAAP operating margin of 7.9% and a “Rule of 46” for the year.
• AI-era platform strategy: AvePoint is positioning its Confidence Platform as a control plane for governance and resilience in the “AI era,” launched an AgentPulse command center for agentic-AI visibility, and is shifting toward bundled offerings and hybrid seat/consumption pricing.
• 2026 outlook and capital priorities: Management guided to ~27% ARR growth to about $525M and ~22% revenue growth for 2026 while calling it an “investment year” with higher marketing spend, continued margin expansion targets, a strong cash balance (~$481M), and ongoing share repurchases.

AvePoint NASDAQ: AVPT executives used the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call to emphasize accelerating growth, expanding profitability, and what management described as broad-based enterprise demand for data governance and resilience tools in the “AI era.” The company also provided 2026 guidance that calls for continued ARR growth and higher operating income, while characterizing 2026 as an “investment year” with increased marketing spend.

Management highlights AI-era positioning and platform strategy

CEO Dr. TJ Jiang said AvePoint’s “leading position in mission-critical data management,” combined with demand for data protection as AI adoption accelerates, helped the company deliver “our 11th straight quarter of double-digit growth in net new ARR” and “double-digit GAAP operating margins” in the fourth quarter. Jiang argued that AI has raised the importance of governance and security, describing data governance as a prerequisite for AI and agentic AI adoption rather than a back-office function.

Jiang highlighted customer examples discussed on the call, including a financial services customer that replaced what he described as “Patchwork Tools” and another vendor with a long operating history, and a consumer packaged goods customer preparing to launch Copilot. He also referenced a construction company that became a new customer in Q4 after a cyber incident, describing its need for “real-time context” into data access and sensitivity as a driver of adoption.

Jiang positioned the AvePoint Confidence Platform as a control plane for policy management and remediation across distributed environments, with an emphasis on “live context” for unstructured data. He said the company recently introduced a sixth command center, AgentPulse, intended to provide visibility and governance for agentic AI, including inventorying agents, monitoring risk and cost signals, and addressing performance drift.

As AvePoint adjusts its go-to-market motion, Jiang said the company is prioritizing bundled offerings, building on previously launched “Control and Resilience packages.” He also said AvePoint expects to move from primarily seat-based licensing toward a hybrid model incorporating capacity- and data-volume-based pricing, particularly as the company expands further into IaaS and PaaS environments.

Q4 and full-year 2025 results: revenue acceleration and margin expansion

Chief Financial Officer Jim Caci said the fourth quarter featured revenue growth acceleration, the 11th straight quarter of double-digit net new ARR growth, and record additions of large ARR customers. He also said the company delivered on goals laid out at its first Investor Day, including GAAP operating profitability and becoming a “Rule of 40” company by the end of 2025. Caci reported that AvePoint finished 2025 with a “Rule of 46” and a GAAP operating margin of 7.9% for the year.

For the fourth quarter, AvePoint reported total revenue of $114.7 million, up 29% year-over-year, or 25% on a constant-currency basis. SaaS revenue was $88.9 million, up 37% year-over-year (33% constant currency), representing 78% of total Q4 revenue. Services revenue was $14.6 million, up 20% year-over-year and 13% of total revenue, while term license and support revenue grew 7% and represented 9% of revenue. Maintenance revenue was approximately $981,000 and continued to decline, as expected. The company said 87% of Q4 revenue was recurring.

Geographically, Caci said revenue growth accelerated across all regions:

• North America: total revenue up 25% year-over-year; SaaS revenue up 34%.
• EMEA: total revenue up 39%; SaaS revenue up 44% (33% constant-currency SaaS growth).
• APAC: total revenue up 23%; SaaS revenue up 32% and services revenue up 25% (31% constant-currency SaaS growth).

AvePoint ended the year with total ARR of $416.8 million, up 27% year-over-year (26% adjusted for FX). Net new ARR in Q4 was $26.8 million, up 48% year-over-year and above the prior quarter’s record. Caci also said 57% of total ARR came through the channel at the end of Q4, up from 55% a year earlier.

Large customer metrics were a key focus. The company ended 2025 with 826 customers above $100,000 in ARR, up 24% year-over-year, including 64 added in Q4. AvePoint also ended Q4 with 298 customers above $250,000 in ARR, with 28 added in Q4 and 73 added for the year—both records. Caci said AvePoint has more than 100 customers above $500,000 in ARR and 31 customers above $1 million in ARR.

On retention, the company reported an FX-adjusted Q4 gross retention rate (GRR) of 88% and net retention rate (NRR) of 110%, consistent with Q3. Caci noted that migration products carry lower renewal rates and were a two-point headwind to GRR in the quarter; excluding migration, GRR would have been 90%. He also said increased modernization efforts tied to AI deployments drove higher migration contribution in Q3 and Q4 and could put “modest pressure” on GRR in 2026.

Profitability improved. Q4 gross profit was $85.1 million for a gross margin of 74.2%, down from 75.5% a year earlier, primarily due to a higher mix of services revenue. Operating expenses were $62.2 million, or 54% of revenue, down from 59% a year earlier. Q4 non-GAAP operating income was $22.9 million, with a 20% operating margin, representing more than 370 basis points of year-over-year expansion. Caci credited improved sales productivity and increasing channel contribution, noting sales and marketing expense was 31% of Q4 revenue and 32% for the year, versus a long-term target of 30%.

For full-year 2025, AvePoint reported total revenue of $419.5 million, up 27% reported and 25% constant currency. SaaS revenue grew 38% to $319.2 million and represented 76% of total revenue. Full-year net new ARR was a record $89.8 million, up 44% year-over-year. Non-GAAP operating income was $79.2 million for an 18.9% margin, while GAAP operating income was $33 million and GAAP operating margin was 7.9%.

Cash flow, balance sheet, and share repurchases

AvePoint ended the year with $481 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. Cash from operations was $85.3 million for a 20% margin, and free cash flow was $81.6 million for a 19% margin. Remaining performance obligation (RPO) grew 36% year-over-year to $508.1 million, surpassing the half-billion-dollar mark.

The company also disclosed share repurchases: 1.7 million shares bought back in Q4 for approximately $22.4 million, and 3.4 million shares repurchased during 2025 for about $50 million. Caci added that year-to-date through the close of trading the prior week, the company had repurchased another 2.8 million shares for $33.5 million, saying buybacks remain a key pillar of its capital allocation philosophy.

In response to a question on free cash flow timing, Caci cited approximately $7 million of one-time tax payments early in 2025 and timing of collections on invoices—particularly involving some public sector customers—as reasons free cash flow was affected versus expectations. Looking to 2026, he said the company expects free cash flow to remain above non-GAAP operating income.

2026 outlook: continued growth with increased marketing investment

For Q1 2026, AvePoint guided to total revenue of $115 million to $117 million (25% growth at the midpoint; 20% constant currency) and non-GAAP operating income of $19.5 million to $20.5 million. For full-year 2026, the company guided to total ARR of $525.1 million to $531.1 million (27% growth at the midpoint; 26% FX-adjusted), revenue of $509.4 million to $517.4 million (22% growth at the midpoint; 20% constant currency), and non-GAAP operating income of $92.6 million to $96.6 million. The company said the midpoint of its initial guidance implies a Rule of 40 measure of 45.

Caci said the company expects 2026 to be an investment year focused on strengthening go-to-market via “meaningful increases in marketing spend,” while reiterating the long-term target of 25% to 30% non-GAAP operating margins. He also said stock-based compensation is expected to decline further as a percentage of revenue in 2026, and that GAAP operating margins are expected to expand even as the company invests.

Q&A: AI adoption pace, pricing, and public sector dynamics

During Q&A, management said its confidence in ARR guidance is supported by balanced growth across regions, customer segments, and verticals, alongside “nice pipeline building.” Jiang said enterprises are deploying AI in multiple forms, but that Copilot usage can lag due to data readiness and change management issues—areas AvePoint targets with governance and data-quality capabilities.

On pricing, Jiang said the company already uses capacity-based licensing in migration and IaaS/PaaS products and sees a blend of seat and consumption models as agentic AI expands. On agent governance monetization, he said AvePoint is seeing early revenue contributions and that customers are increasingly focused on risk, access control, and cost monitoring for agents.

Regarding public sector performance, Caci said federal civilian weakness weighed on growth rates relative to broader North America trends, while other public sector areas such as state and local and Department of Defense remained strong. He emphasized the company is not “backing down” on the sector.

Closing the call, Jiang said the company sees no signs of slowing momentum and reiterated confidence in its platform’s role in enabling AI-driven transformation with governed and resilient data foundations.

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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