Mitek Systems NASDAQ: MITK reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 revenue growth of 18% year over year, supported by record fraud and identity revenue, higher SaaS sales and continued expansion of its Check Fraud Defender consortium network.
Total revenue reached $54 million, exceeding the high end of the company’s prior guidance range. Adjusted EBITDA margin was approximately 38%, while non-GAAP diluted earnings per share rose 58% year over year to about $0.34. The company raised its full-year revenue and profitability outlook.
Fraud and Identity Growth Supported by SaaS and Age-Verification Demand
Fraud and identity revenue was $29 million, an increase of 14% from the prior-year quarter. Fraud and identity SaaS revenue grew 37%, driven by underlying identity transaction growth, new Check Fraud Defender customers and an unexpected surge in age-verification demand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Chief Financial Officer Dave Lyle said the age-verification volume increase stemmed from new regulations requiring one-time upfront age verification. He characterized the event as a specific regulatory-driven surge and said normalized fraud and identity SaaS growth was in the high teens to low 20% range, consistent with recent quarters.
Chief Executive Officer Ed West said Mitek is seeing increasing demand for identity verification, authentication and fraud-detection tools as AI-assisted, digital and synthetic fraud become more prevalent. He said customers are increasingly adopting broader “multi-signal” know-your-customer workflows rather than using isolated verification checks.
The company also cited customer expansion across onboarding, verification and authentication. West said financial institutions are broadening deployments beyond account opening into authentication use cases, including biometric authentication tied to a verified identity.
Mitek said approximately 80% of its revenue remains connected to financial services, although it is also serving customers in other markets through partners. Recent examples included an enterprise software customer using verification for employee screening and a U.K. football club using Mitek tools to verify and authenticate season-ticket holders.
Check Fraud Defender Network Expands Through Partners
Mitek highlighted continued growth in its Check Fraud Defender, or CFD, data consortium, which uses shared intelligence and cloud-based fraud software to identify check fraud. The company said a top-five U.S. bank completed a pilot and is moving into the CFD consortium after Mitek demonstrated stronger results than the bank’s existing solution.
Fiserv is now live as a reseller of Check Fraud Defender, according to West. The relationship extends access to the network across thousands of institutions served by Fiserv. Mitek also added dozens of logos during the quarter through partners including Abrigo, CSI and DataVisor.
The company estimates that contributing data sets now cover approximately 70% of U.S. checking accounts, with annualized transaction volumes measured in billions. Check Fraud Defender annual contract value grew 73% year over year and exceeded $22 million.
West said Mitek’s direct sales efforts have historically focused on the top 100 financial institutions, while its partner relationships provide access to a broader base of banks. He said the partner channel had begun contributing over the last several quarters and is expected to become an accelerating part of growth.
The company also continued to build out Positive Pay+, a product designed to help stop fraudulent payments at the point of check presentment. Mitek expanded the product with an existing bank and signed its first non-bank design partner, a business-payments company, extending the offering into business-to-business payments and accounts payable.
Check Verification Revenue Boosted by Renewal Timing
Check verification revenue totaled $25 million, up 24% year over year. Lyle said the increase was driven by two large renewals that did not occur in the comparable prior-year quarter, rather than underlying growth. Mitek continues to expect check verification revenue of approximately $90 million on a trailing 12-month basis for the full year.
West said paper-check use continues to decline over the long term, citing a Federal Reserve payment study showing about 9.2 billion checks were written in the United States in 2024. However, he said Mitek’s check-verification revenue has remained range-bound as mobile-deposit penetration and pricing have offset volume declines.
Mitek expects check-verification revenue to soften gradually over time but views the business as a cash-generating foundation and a source of financial-institution and channel-partner relationships. The company noted that its check-verification software also supports the Check Fraud Defender network.
Margins, Cash Flow and Outlook
Total SaaS revenue represented about 46% of revenue over the last 12 months, compared with 41% a year earlier. Non-GAAP gross margin rose about 40 basis points year over year to 85.5%, aided by improved SaaS maintenance and other gross margins, as well as a heavier license-revenue mix from check-verification renewals.
Non-GAAP operating expense declined about 1% year over year to $25.9 million despite the revenue increase, producing approximately 950 basis points of operating leverage. Lyle said cash-based research and development spending increased 17% year over year as Mitek continued to invest in AI-based decisioning, fraud intelligence and biometrics.
Free cash flow was $25.3 million in the quarter. Trailing-12-month free cash flow was $48.6 million, representing a 70% conversion rate that was within Mitek’s long-term target range of 70% to 80%.
The company ended the quarter with $100 million in cash and investments and $54 million in total debt, for net cash of approximately $46 million. Mitek repurchased about $2 million of shares during the quarter and had $48 million remaining under its current repurchase authorization.
- Full-year revenue guidance was raised to $195 million to $200 million, representing about 10% growth at the midpoint.
- Full-year fraud and identity revenue guidance was raised to $105 million to $109 million, or about 19% growth at the midpoint.
- Adjusted EBITDA margin guidance was raised to 32% to 34%.
- Fourth-quarter revenue is expected to be between $42 million and $47 million.
Mitek expects fraud and identity SaaS revenue to decline modestly sequentially in the fourth quarter following the age-verification surge. The company also expects seasonal softness in the first and fourth fiscal quarters due to check-verification renewal timing.
Separately, Mitek said Aaron Saylor will join the company as chief revenue officer effective Aug. 17. The company is consolidating direct and channel sales, customer success, sales engineering and professional services under a unified CRO organization.
About Mitek Systems (NASDAQ:MITK)
Mitek Systems, Inc NASDAQ: MITK is a software company specializing in mobile capture and digital identity verification solutions. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Mitek develops and licenses patented technology that enables organizations to securely capture, authenticate and process identity documents, checks and other physical media using smartphones and other digital devices. Its platforms leverage advanced image processing, machine learning and biometrics to streamline customer onboarding and prevent fraud in real time.
The company's core offerings include mobile check deposit and deposit automation tools for financial institutions, as well as identity verification and authentication services for banks, fintechs, insurers and government agencies.
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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