Airgain at The Gateway Conference: Pioneering Wireless Solutions

On Thursday, 04 September 2025, Airgain Inc. (NASDAQ:AIRG) participated in The Gateway Conference 2025, where the company outlined its strategic transition from a components provider to a wireless system solution provider. The conference highlighted both the company’s innovative growth platforms and its financial targets, amidst a backdrop of industry challenges and opportunities.

Key Takeaways

• Airgain is shifting focus from components to system solutions with AirgainConnect and Lighthouse.
• The company targets 2026 for a revenue shipment ramp, emphasizing the 4G to 5G transition.
• Financial goals include achieving EBITDA breakeven or positive in the current quarter.
• Strategic partnerships and certifications are enhancing Airgain’s market position.
• Airgain’s innovation addresses key market challenges like thermal and noise interference.

Financial Results

• FY’25 consensus revenue is estimated at $55 million.
• The market value stands at approximately $50 million, with an enterprise value of about $43 million.
• Cash reserves as of June 30th are $7 million, with no debt.
• The gross margin has increased from 38% two years ago to 44%, with further improvements expected.
• The company aims for EBITDA breakeven or positive results in the current quarter.

Operational Updates

• AirgainConnect has secured FirstNet Trusted certification with AT&T and is working on further certifications with T-Mobile and Verizon.
• Lighthouse has received FCC certification, providing a cost-effective solution for 5G coverage gaps.
• A strategic partnership with Omantel was announced, enhancing Airgain’s international presence.
• The company employs a fully outsourced manufacturing model with eight global contract manufacturers.

Future Outlook

• The market opportunity has expanded from $1.1 billion in 2024 to $2.2 billion in 2025.
• Airgain anticipates a 50% growth in its vehicle gateway and smart network repeater markets by 2026.
• There is a strong focus on the transition from 4G to 5G, particularly in public safety and utility sectors.
• Geographical expansion is underway with trials in Europe and Latin America for Lighthouse.

Q&A Highlights

• AirgainConnect’s design overcomes thermal and noise interference, offering a unique market advantage.
• Lighthouse employs advanced technologies like smart antenna and echo cancellation to effectively address coverage gaps.
• Airgain’s software facilitates seamless spectrum aggregation, enhancing its competitive edge.

Readers are encouraged to refer to the full transcript for a comprehensive understanding of Airgain’s strategic initiatives and financial outlook.

Full transcript - The Gateway Conference 2025:

Matt, Host: Presenting company is Airgain, a leading provider of advanced wireless connectivity solutions. I’m pleased to welcome CFO Michael Albaaz and CEO Jacob Swin. We’re here to tell you a little bit more about the company. Michael? Thank Thank you

Michael Albaaz, CFO, Airgain: very much, Matt. Good morning, everybody. My name is Michael Albaaz, and I am very happy to present to you an update on our company Airgain. Airgain was formed almost over twenty years ago, And as a private company, its purpose was really to build a brand of RF expertise. We became public almost ten years ago and based in San Diego, California, our headquarters.

But we do have a global sales and design centers presence. We have design centers in Scottsdale, Arizona along with St. Louis Park in Minnesota, Suzhou in China, Taipei in Taiwan, and Cambridge in The UK, including also San Diego as our headquarters as well too. We are an innovation company, and we are rich in patents and applications over two eighty five, and this is something that we are very proud of. And as a point of reference, our first half of the year 2025 revenues came in around $26,000,000 FY ’25 consensus currently is at $55,000,000 and our market value as of this morning is around $50,000,000 Our enterprise value is about $43,000,000 mainly because we have about $7,000,000 of cash as of June 30, but also because we have no debt whatsoever.

Our purpose is to simplify wireless. We work on solving complex wireless challenges. But our approach to our customers and our approach to our products and solutions is to make wireless simple. Simple to integrate, simple to deploy, simple to maintain. This is the foundation of everything we do every day.

Now a few investment highlights here. One of our key focus over the past few years has been to transition our company from a components provider into a wireless system solution provider. That ability to launch our growth platforms, which I will talk about in a few minutes, has expanded our SAM, our market opportunity, from $1,100,000,000 in 2024 to $2,200,000,000 in 2025. Now we have done so with our growth platforms. Our system solutions we’re launching in 2024.

2025 has been a year of focus of expanding our customer trials and also certification waves. And we are targeting 2026 to be a revenue shipment ramp for our company. Now all of this investment on the system solutions has been made on an organic basis for a number of years. And by that, I mean is that the profitability of our existing market or existing product lines have been funding those complex wireless solutions development. In fact, the consumer business, which is our embedded antenna for the past twenty years plus, has been a source of great profitability but also revenue growth.

We expect that to be growing double digit this current year. And that is mainly because of the overall technology refresh from our MSOs, cable operators, from Wi Fi six to Wi Fi seven. It’s also from a revenue ramp with a Tier one MNO, mobile network operator, that has designed us in for a fixed wireless access indoor unit. So we continue to invest into this product line, and we continue to really bank on revenue growth in the foreseeable future. Likewise, our embedded modems have also seen quite a bit of growth as well too in the first half of the year.

And this is primarily because of the overall growth of the utility infrastructure monitoring application. And then finally, we are a scalable asset light model. We basically believe in our reasons of beings are to be a leader in innovation and also to be exceeding our customer expectations. And therefore, whatever else we do aside from R and D, sales and marketing has to be questioned. And for example, we are fully outsourced right now from a manufacturing standpoint.

We have eight global contract manufacturers. The key benefit of that is for the size of our company is to be able to have access to a level of expertise in some of the more complex manufacturing capabilities. It’s also to be able to be scaling very fast and to have time to market as well, too, as an advantage. We have a rich product portfolio, IP portfolio as well, and we intend on growing this. And then finally, we also have assembled over the past three years a truly seasoned leadership team that has been really having a wealth of experience in really providing sustainable long term revenue growth.

This team is led by Jacob Suen, our CEO. Jacob has been with the company for almost twenty years. He has led the sales organization for a number of years. And five years ago he became the CEO with a strict mission to transition our company from a component provider to a complex wireless system solution provider. I have been with the company for almost three years.

My background is really in public semiconductor companies, large and small. Doctor. Ali Sadri is our Chief Technology Officer, has been with the company for almost four years. He is one of the foremost thinkers of five gs technology, having led at Intel for almost eighteen years recently, mostly at Intel, the five gs millimeter wave. Vic Blair is our SVP of operation.

He is the architect of our fabless model right now. And Gordon Shank has joined us Gordon has quite a bit of wealth of experience in terms of sales organizations. He actually retired and came back out of retirement because of the opportunity that we offer. Evan and Brian have been recent hires over the past year and a half.

They both come from large organizations and have a great level of expertise in complex product development and launches. And Suzanne has been with us for a few years now as a fractional chief people officer, and she has a wealth of experience as well too in terms of transforming companies and culture. Now a quick word of our about our evolution. Some twenty years ago, we started out as Airgain as a private company and really introduced the first smart antennas. This is actually the heart of our embedded antennas, makes up all of our consumer market, which is about a third of our revenues.

And this is still going on and growing as well too. In 2021, we acquired NimbleLink out of Minnesota, and this is our first entry point into real IoT industrial IoT, actually, market with embedded modems, asset trackers and custom products. The NimbleLink product lines are really the majority of our enterprise revenues, which is about 50% of our revenue today. In 2024, critical milestone for us, that was the launch of our AGEN Connect fleet all in one five gs vehicle gateway. We also introduced our Lighthouse Smart Network Repeater.

In 2025, we announced in Q1 of this year our strategic partnership with Omantel, a leading telecommunication provider in The Middle East, specifically in Oman. But at the same time, we also launched our solar lighthouse version. In 2025, we announced our certification as FirstNet Trusted with AT and T in May 2025 for our AC fleet. And we currently are working through another wave of certification, specifically T1 priority with T Mobile this quarter, Verizon Frontline in Q4 for the Verizon first responders market and then finally also CE certification for both AC Fleet and Lighthouse. In fact, on Lighthouse we announced this morning that Lighthouse was certified by FCC as well too.

So we are able to expand our market from just The Middle East a year ago to The US as well to taking advantage of our system integrator approach in The US. So in a nutshell, we have a wealth of product lines really targeted toward the antenna and the IoT solutions. This is our core business. This is what makes up our consumer business embedded antennas, our automotive business, which is really external antennas today, and also our enterprise business as well too, which is made up of IoT and also antenna for the enterprise market. But as we move forward, really our target is to tackle the five gs vehicle gateway market along with the smart network repeater market with our lighthouse platform.

Now, foundationally speaking, the core business is about $1,100,000,000 of its size. But we don’t expect it to be growing much, relatively flat over the next couple of years. What is doubling our market size today is really the entry point on the five gs vehicle gateway and the smart network repeater. And we see that growing by 50% in 2026. Overall, the SAM in 2026 should be growing by 20% for us.

Now this is made up of a lot of external data points, but also our own internal analysis. So the vehicle gateway, for example, is really U. S. Focused right now. And it is made up of the best estimate that we have of the fleet vehicles that are moving from four gs to five gs.

Likewise, on a smart network repeater, this is not the environment of all the base stations by any means or the DAS infrastructure by any means as well too. This is really looking into the markets served and having an under understanding of the pain points. So right now in 2025, we’re talking about The Middle East and also partially The US. In 2026, the growth is also because of the ongoing trials that we have in Europe, but also in Latin America along with The US as well too. So let’s talk about those two key growth platforms.

AirgainConnect platform is really all about an all in one five gs modem, router, antenna, along with all the standards of wireless connections, GNSS, GPS, Wi Fi, LTE, five gs, all in one compact package, sitting on top of the roof. No more than two inches tall. This by itself is a feat because of the RF and the hardware design expertise that we have to be able to put everything together and address any type of noise interference from the different standards, but also the heat dissipation from it. It’s a fully enclosed unit. It also offers eSIM capabilities as well too.

And we can carry up to four carriers, so AT and T, T Mobile, Verizon, plus one more. And that feature makes it the first gateway to be able to have an eSIM capability. Because of this all in one design, the performance is definitely the highest in the marketplace. Speeds and coverage, mainly because of the prevention from RF cable loss. And then finally from an easy installation, this is something that can be installed at half the time that a traditional routerantenna can be installed at.

And the overall, along with the eSync capability, is factoring into a reduced total cost of ownership. To give you a visual picture of the approach to the overall five gs connectivity, today on the right side is a traditional approach. What you see there is a router that has to be trunk mounted and very securely installed to prevent any type of vibration that can impede on the connectivity signals. It’s also having a high performance antenna on top of the roof. Sometimes it’s ours as well too.

But then having a multitude of cable going through from the roof to the trunk up to nine cables, and then again to the driver’s seat as well too. That is a current traditional approach. This approach also allows for up to two SIMs that are physical cards basically. More than that, you have to also expand the number of modems as well to in the car. Our approach is very simple.

We simplify wireless. So this is one unit. It’s rugged because of the eSIM capability. There is no space for physical SIM card. So it’s IP67, IP69 certified.

It’s the smallest footprint. And it’s all about the simplicity behind the deployment, the integration and the maintenance. This next slide provides an overall picture as to our competitive advantages compared to the all in one gateway that is currently in the market. You’ll note that the size itself is really what we offer as a competitive advantage along with the eSIM feature and then the traditional market. Having said that, public safety sectors and utility sectors as well too are under heavy pressure from the carriers to transition from four gs to five gs.

And this is what we believe is the opening door for us to be playing into this marketplace, along with a strong belief that today this is what the market needs. Nothing more complicated than that. Now what about lighthouse? To understand lighthouse, let me preface that the move from four gs to five gs is something that we’ll all have experienced for a number of years. But five gs operates in high frequency bands.

And the higher the frequencies, the higher speed, the greater the capacity of the network. However, the higher the likelihood of interference. And that interference could be a building. It could be the shadowing effect of two buildings next to each other, and that creates coverage gaps. To fix those gaps, a door means installing a new base station or cell tower.

To fix the gaps, indoor means upgrading a four g DAS infrastructure into a five g DAS infrastructure. And those are in the 100 of thousand, even million dollars type of effort. What Lighthouse provides is a solution without having to go through this. The beauty of Lighthouse is that it’s been in the works for the past four years, and it is very software heavy. But the beauty of it is that it’s a fast and easy installation.

It takes less than one day to to implement that. As opposed to a cell tower, a small cell, or a DAOs, for example, that is weeks to months of implementation. Because it requires trenching, it requires construction, it requires permitting, it requires also zoning approval. Lighthouse doesn’t. And that in effect reduces the overall total cost of ownership.

For the in building solution, and I’m showing a hospital where we’ve done a trial over a year ago. This is in Oman, where the hospital itself had coverage on the top floors but did not have any coverage on the First Floor or the parking structure. And in a matter of hours, we were able to provide that whole five gs. The beautiful thing of it is that this has a four gs infrastructure altogether. Lighthouse can work with or really leverages the existing infrastructure to be able to provide and propagate five gs and address gaps.

Again, no backhaul required. And so from a competitive standpoint, we’re measuring it actually to something that is a little bit more simpler like a five gs cell site, in this case a remote radio head for example as opposed to a base station. Otherwise those TCOs will be just too much. But in the case of a remote radio head, this is a three times lower TCO. Compared to a five gs upgrade, not a five gs DAS installation which is close to a million dollars, this is just a five gs upgrade in a building.

This is up to about two times lower TCO. And so the ideal use case of Lighthouse is that it really works well for extending five gs and addressing coverage. It is fast to deploy. It can offer capacity offloading to the MNOs as well too, and it operates by using the existing infrastructure. And our pitch here, our value proposition is that it can be part of an ecosystem alongside with the base station and small cell tower outdoor along with DaaS infrastructure to boost your indoor as well too.

As a quick note here from the financial results and midpoint of guidance, we are actually around the $14,000,000 of the midpoint of the guidance for Q3. And one of the key things here is again talking about the organic nature of the funding of those programs is really a desire to be always at EBITDA breakeven, if not EBITDA positive, which we expect to achieve this quarter here. To give you a little bit more sense about our guidance, we do this not only because of the revenue top line, but also from gross margin improvement. Two years ago, our gross margin was about 38%. We’re guiding up to about 44%, and we expect higher gross margin once those system solutions are fully launched.

Same thing on our OpEx, managing OpEx very carefully by realigning any type of expenses away from product line that are existing into new working solutions. And then finally, also SG and A expense efficiencies. So why invest? One is that we are an innovation company. We are small, but we know that innovation has driven differentiation in the past for us, and it will drive differentiation for the future for us.

We are also in the midst of growth platforms that are really addressing real pain points into specific markets, and that is expanding our overall market opportunity. And then finally, we are built to have an operational model that is going to be resilient in challenging times, but also going to give us upside on profitability in good times as well too. Thank you.

Matt, Host: We have about five minutes for Q and A. I don’t know if the audience has any questions.

Michael Albaaz, CFO, Airgain: So it’s exactly what I was mentioning about, the AirgainConnect fleet. I mean, is something that is not new to us. We had actually an exclusive with AT and T on Ben 14 on the first generation of AirgainConnect, actually. So we understand that market and the pain points of that market very, very well. When we decided to launch our Ag and Connect next generation, one key factor here was that we wanted to be service carrier service agnostic, appeal to any type of carriers.

And then came the idea of what about eSIM feature? Because that market doesn’t have that today. So it is stuck into this traditional approach, and this is how we started again, simplifying wireless. ESIM feature. Can we really go after and overcome the heat dissipation, the noise interference, and come up with something that is really compact, rugged, fully enclosed, smallest footprint, make it simple for the customers.

Likewise, on the five gs, coverage gaps as well too, lighthouse specifically. This has been in the making for many, many years. And this is a very, very strong algorithm driven type of a solution, echo cancellation, carrier aggregations, smart antenna system as well too. And this is something that we believe is a bit of a disruptor in the marketplace. Jacob?

Jacob Swin, CEO, Airgain: And I add a couple more comments to your questions. By the way, great questions. So on the AirgainConnect fleet, what are some of the technology differentiation that we bring to the table? Two main issues that people want to do what we do but couldn’t do it. One is thermal issues.

So to be able to make this thing into an all in one. Everybody is to want to integrate all in one. Right? I mean, ideally, even at home. Right?

Can you compact make things into one compact device? That’s ideal. But actually, how do you do it? That’s where our differentiation come into play. How do you resolve the thermal issue?

Being this system out, you know, I mean, this device we have out there on top of the vehicle, and you can’t have any kind of airflow. Like, unlike at home, you have to have airflow. We don’t even have that. How do you overcome that thermal issue? That’s one.

Second of all, now we’re gonna put all of these, you know, GPS, WiFi, all of that into one small form factor. You got noise issues you gotta overcome. So thermal issues, noise intervening issues are two major problem that others couldn’t do what we do. And how we’re able to do it is the years of our experience. That’s how we grew up.

We talk about the antenna background. That’s how we’re able to build this complex system in a really small form factor that others couldn’t do. And then all the benefits that comes with it. Right? The performance benefit because of the cable list.

Right? And then on the the the the Lighthouse smart network repeater, again, we hired, I believe, one of the best, if not the best guy, doctor Ali Sathri, who was the really, they used to call him the father of millimeter wave in Intel. He spent eighteen years at Intel. He has done a lot of development. But when we hire him and have him come on board, the first thing he say, you know what?

Let’s not go to millimeter wave. Millimeter wave, while it’s really you know, it’s it’s the future, but the future is not not for for many more years. So what we’re seeing is the c band. So from my perspective, to hear that from him was, you know, was really intriguing. And then because all the know how, you know, the millimeter wave is just a lot more complex.

To do something actually at c band is actually easier for him. And this is where we build this highly differentiated, you know, lighthouse repeater that really is the replacement for a small cell. So what we’re seeing here, you know, we talk about the the extending coverage. But for me, the biggest problem out there today is the coverage gaps. Not only on the from a data perspective, but from a cellular perspective.

I’m sure all of us have issues when we’re driving or when we go to a different your house. Right? Some of them, my house, I have both issues. I have a data issue and a cellular issue. Some of them you say, okay, finally I got my fiber into my house.

I saw my data issue. But I’m still have to running around and say, you know what? Wait a second. I’m, you know, I need to go to my window to be able to talk to you. All of us have experience.

Right? You know, even here, out here, you know, I’m trying to make some calls. There’ll be spots where I’m like, okay I have a problem. And you complain. You complain to AT and T.

You complain to T Mobile. But they say, you know what? Look, we understand but we it’s sometimes it’s cost prohibitive for me to put a small cell out there. Put a space station out there. Here comes the lighthouse.

No back hole needed. Sometimes don’t even need the power. We actually can be powered by solar. Put this thing in a low lamppost out there somewhere and point it to the to the to the base station. And within a day, you got coverage.

Not only data, but cellular improvement as well. And that’s what this device is gonna help you. And why others couldn’t do it? Again, it’s going back to our technology’s promise. This one’s got smart antenna technology in there.

That’s where Airgain was founded. Right? So we have our IP on smart antenna technology that can really always look for the the best route because you may have several base stations. Where’s gonna pick the right one? We, you know, we got a lot of software features where we can actually support two carriers at the same time.

Nobody else has that. We can actually aggregate channel. So AT and T just bought EchoStar. They’re getting some of spectrum. But there are bits and pieces.

You know, you got some here, some there. With our software, can actually aggregate seamlessly, adding as one, you know, one spectrum. So those are just a few features that we do. Echo cancellation. That’s why we’re not a traditional repeater.

Traditional repeater, you got you got really like blow know, like loud speaker. Right? You you have this noise issue you have to overcome. But with our solution, we have this echo cancellation that can solve that. So I know I give you a lot of information, but Thank much.

You I gave you a long answer. So sorry.

Matt, Host: No. Unfortunately great questions. Yeah. Great answer. Great question.

Unfortunately, we’re out of time. Michael, Jacob, thank you so much for telling us the Airgain story.

Michael Albaaz, CFO, Airgain: Everybody. Thank you very much.

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