Cellebrite DI Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Cellebrite said Q1 2026 results met or exceeded the high end of its guidance, with ARR up 21% to $493 million, revenue up 19% to $128.3 million, and adjusted EBITDA up 29% to $30.6 million. The company also posted an 86% gross margin and a 32% trailing 12-month free cash flow margin.
• The biggest focus was on new AI-driven products, especially Genesis, which management said quickly drew more than 500 registered users across 15+ countries after launch. Cellebrite also moved Guardian Investigate to general availability and highlighted expanding mobile device unlock capabilities.
• Management said the U.S. federal business is rebounding, helped by FedRAMP High authorization and a 35% year-over-year increase in the federal pipeline. Cellebrite reaffirmed 2026 guidance and expects second-quarter ARR of $510 million to $513 million and revenue growth of 15% to 17%.

Cellebrite DI NASDAQ: CLBT reported first-quarter 2026 results that management said met or exceeded the high end of its guidance for annual recurring revenue and adjusted EBITDA, while executives highlighted a wave of new product launches centered on artificial intelligence, cloud-based case management and mobile device access.

Chief Executive Officer Tom Hogan said ARR rose 21% year-over-year to $493 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased 29% to $30.6 million. The company’s trailing 12-month free cash flow margin was 32%, and Hogan said Cellebrite’s “rule of x” continued to track above 50.

Chief Financial Officer David Barter said revenue for the quarter was $128.3 million, up 19% from the prior-year period. Subscription revenue grew 23%, partially offset by an expected decline in non-recurring training, hardware and professional services revenue. Gross profit increased 21% to $110.2 million, representing an 86% gross margin.

Barter said first-quarter adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 190 basis points to 23.9%, despite foreign exchange headwinds and a full quarter of costs from Corellium. Cellebrite ended the quarter with $535 million in cash equivalents and investments, essentially unchanged from year-end 2025, primarily because of the acquisition of SCG Canada.

AI Products Take Center Stage

Much of the call focused on Cellebrite’s new AI offerings, particularly Genesis, which Hogan described as an “agentic next-gen AI solution” designed to deliver rapid insights from complex and disparate digital evidence sources. The company announced Genesis on March 16 and made it available to a select group of early adopters ahead of planned general availability in mid-June.

Hogan said Cellebrite expected “one to two dozen takers” for early access, but within eight weeks had more than 500 registered users across more than 15 countries. He said the early-access program had no marketing, pricing or packaging attached.

Hogan read several customer comments during the call, including one from a leader of a specialized counterterrorism unit at a regional police force who called Genesis “a quantum leap” in digital evidence analytics. Another customer in Asia Pacific described it as “the finest digital evidence product I have ever used,” citing its ability to process mobile phone data, computers, documents, CCTV and spreadsheets. A detective at a U.S. county sheriff’s office said Genesis identified 16 previously unknown victims in a high-priority online exploitation case within 15 minutes of ingestion, work that otherwise would have required an estimated two weeks of investigator time.

Hogan said Cellebrite’s 2026 plan assumed no AI product-specific revenue, but that will “now obviously not be the case.” He estimated the total addressable market for investigative AI over the next four years at roughly $12.5 billion and said AI revenue over that period could approximate the company’s current total revenue if Cellebrite executes well and continues to innovate.

In response to an analyst question, Hogan said the company’s assumptions were based in part on an estimated 500,000 detectives and investigators globally and potential spending of $20,000 to $30,000 to improve productivity. He said Cellebrite used more conservative assumptions when considering potential penetration of that market.

Guardian Investigate and Unlock Capabilities Expand Portfolio

Cellebrite also moved Guardian Investigate into general availability at the end of the first quarter. Hogan described the product as an AI-powered system of record for case management and a modern alternative to a digital evidence management system. He said it is designed to handle digital evidence including video, audio, call records, ballistics, drones, CCTV and mobile phone data.

Hogan said Guardian Investigate is meant to help investigative teams build case narratives, collaborate, securely store evidence and analyze data using agentic AI. He said the response from early adopters has been strong and that the company expects steady growth and penetration in the second half of 2026.

The company also emphasized progress in device unlocking and access. Hogan said Cellebrite doubled down in the second half of 2025 on Android and iOS unlock capabilities and emerged late in the first quarter with what it believes is “the most advanced and comprehensive platform” for unlocking and accessing a broad range of mobile devices.

During the question-and-answer session, Chief Revenue Officer Marcus Jewell said interest in the company’s Advanced Unlock Program has been “incredibly high,” adding that proof-of-concept work is straightforward because customers can connect a phone and see whether it unlocks. Barter said the advanced unlock technology became available in the final 10 days of the quarter and is expected to be a logical attachment in larger platform deals.

Federal Business Shows Signs of Rebound

Hogan said Cellebrite received FedRAMP High authorization to operate on May 6 after more than two years of investment. He said the authorization, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, allows federal agencies to evaluate and pursue the company’s government cloud offerings, including its Guardian platform.

Hogan said the opportunity should ramp gradually over the next several quarters and into 2027 as U.S. federal agencies prioritize technology platforms for fiscal 2027. He also said the U.S. federal business, which was essentially flat in 2025 amid budget pressures and organizational change, is rebounding quickly.

According to Hogan, the rebound is being driven by stabilization of agency leadership, anticipated funding for cyber and digital initiatives, appropriations tied to areas such as digital evidence management and advanced analytics, and broader geopolitical instability. He said Cellebrite’s U.S. federal pipeline has increased 35% year-over-year, and the segment’s growth rate is “clearly headed back to the 20s,” with potential to exceed historical mid-20s growth rates based on large strategic initiatives.

Barter said the Americas represented 53% of total ARR in the quarter, EMEA represented 35% and Asia Pacific represented 12%. ARR grew 18% in the Americas, 25% in EMEA and 21% in Asia Pacific. He added that growth products, including Guardian, Pathfinder, Corellium and drone forensics, doubled year-over-year.

Guidance Reaffirmed for 2026

Barter said Cellebrite’s overall thesis for full-year 2026 is unchanged, and management has increased confidence in the outlook based on the expanded portfolio, platform requests for proposals and pipeline. He said first-quarter growth was expected to be modest because of seasonality and a small base of expiring contracts.

For the second quarter, Cellebrite expects:

• ARR of $510 million to $513 million, implying net new ARR of $17 million to $20 million.
• Revenue of $130 million to $133 million, representing growth of 15% to 17%.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $29 million to $31 million, with a margin of 22% to 23%.

Barter said the second-quarter outlook includes estimated foreign exchange headwinds of approximately two percentage points, as well as costs related to the company’s expanded C2C user conference and regional launch events.

Cellebrite also announced a leadership transition in product and technology. Hogan said Ronen Armon, chief product and technology officer, will retire on July 1. Shiven Ramji has been appointed president of products and technology, effective immediately, and will work with Armon during the transition. Hogan said Ramji brings experience in security, AI and cloud from roles at companies including Auth0, Okta, Amazon and DigitalOcean.

Hogan closed by saying he has not been more optimistic about Cellebrite’s future since joining the company in 2023, citing the pace of innovation and the company’s expanded portfolio. Barter said the company remains positioned to re-accelerate ARR growth while maintaining strong operating results and free cash flow.

About Cellebrite DI NASDAQ: CLBT

Cellebrite DI is a global provider of digital intelligence and forensics solutions that enable law enforcement agencies, government bodies and enterprises to extract, analyze and act on data from mobile devices, cloud services and digital sources. The company's technology is designed to accelerate investigations, support evidence-based decision-making and enhance security operations by delivering actionable intelligence in a secure, scalable platform.

The company's flagship offerings include the Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) series for data acquisition and decoding, Physical Analyzer for advanced data parsing and visualization, and Pathfinder for case-driven investigation workflows.

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