Exasol AG, a global technology company providing a high-performance analytics engine, reported significantly improved financial results for the 2025 financial year, driven by the consistent execution of its strategic transformation toward defined focus industries. The company's preliminary results aligned with expectations, showcasing enhanced profitability and a strengthened balance sheet.
Revenue increased by 5.6% to EUR 41.8 million, meeting guidance for mid-single-digit percentage growth. This figure included one-time hardware and services revenue of EUR 4.1 million. EBITDA more than doubled year-on-year to EUR 4.1 million, reaching the upper end of the guided range of EUR 3.5 million to EUR 4.0 million. The strong operating performance positively impacted group net income, which rose substantially to EUR 3.1 million from EUR 0.2 million the prior year. Consequently, the equity ratio improved to 34.2%, up from 23.8% at the end of 2024. Cash and cash equivalents also increased to EUR 18.7 million.
The strategic shift toward focus industries is reflected in the Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) development. ARR in these targeted sectors grew by 10.1% to EUR 26.7 million, increasing its share of total ARR to 68% from 57% a year earlier. However, overall total ARR declined by 8.0% to EUR 39.1 million. This decrease was anticipated and attributed to pull-forward effects, where contract terminations and downsizing originally expected in 2026 occurred earlier than planned. The growth in focus industries did not fully offset the decline from non-focus sectors.
A key operational initiative in 2025 was the realignment of European sales structures to be organized by focus industry rather than across industries, which the company states has increased sales effectiveness and enabled more targeted customer engagement. Technologically, Exasol expanded its analytics engine capabilities. Progress was made on the cloud-based Lakehouse Turbo solution, which connects to the Databricks database platform to offer reduced costs, faster analytics, and continued use of existing environments; it is currently in testing with a reference customer. The company also successfully brought to market a solution for integrating AI and machine learning applications into its engine, reaching a strategic milestone and already serving a double-digit number of customers with these functionalities.
For the 2026 financial year, Exasol expects mid-single-digit percentage ARR growth, driven by a significant reduction in ARR churn and accelerated new customer acquisition, supported by strategic partnerships concluded in 2025 with MariaDB, Stackit, and Exoscale. However, revenue is projected to decline in the mid-single-digit percentage range, primarily due to lagging effects from the 2025 ARR decline and lower expected one-time hardware and services revenue. Against this backdrop and considering planned investments, the company expects EBITDA in the range of EUR 3 million to EUR 4 million. Exasol invites interested investors and media to a virtual webcast, with registration available at https://www.appairtime.com/de/event/94fe37a3-8f7c-4877-8728-060d21f8b292.
