Earnings call transcript: KORE’s Q1 2025 sees revenue dip, optimistic outlook

KORE Group Holdings Inc. reported a 5% decline in revenue for Q1 2025, totaling $72.1 million, with a net loss improvement from the previous year. Despite the revenue dip, the company remains optimistic about future growth, projecting a 2% YoY revenue increase for 2025. The stock saw a 4.93% drop in regular trading, closing at $2.23, and continued to decline slightly in aftermarket trading. According to InvestingPro data, KORE has experienced significant volatility, with the stock down nearly 15% in the past week and 35% year-to-date, though it maintains a healthy current ratio of 1.21.

Key Takeaways

• Q1 2025 revenue decreased by 5% year-over-year to $72.1 million.
• IoT Connectivity revenue fell by 7%, while IoT Solutions saw a 1% increase.
• Operating expenses dropped by 15.3%, contributing to improved net loss figures.
• Positive free cash flow was reported for two consecutive quarters.
• The company anticipates double-digit growth in 2026.

Company Performance

KORE Group Holdings Inc. experienced a challenging Q1 2025, with revenue declining by 5% compared to the same period last year. The IoT Connectivity segment, which is a significant part of the business, saw a 7% decrease in revenue, whereas the IoT Solutions segment managed a modest 1% increase. Despite these setbacks, the company improved its net loss to $14.9 million from $17.6 million in the previous year, showcasing better cost management and operational efficiencies. InvestingPro analysis indicates the company maintains strong free cash flow generation potential, with a trailing twelve-month gross profit margin of 55.9%. For deeper insights into KORE’s financial health and valuation metrics, investors can access the comprehensive Pro Research Report, available exclusively to InvestingPro subscribers.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $72.1 million, down 5% YoY
• IoT Connectivity Revenue: $53.9 million, down 7%
• IoT Solutions Revenue: $18.2 million, up 1%
• Adjusted EBITDA: $14.5 million, down 2%
• Operating Expenses: $41.6 million, down 15.3%
• Free Cash Flow: $600,000

Outlook & Guidance

KORE projects its 2025 revenue to be between $288 million and $298 million, which represents a 2% YoY growth. The company also forecasts a significant improvement in adjusted EBITDA, expecting it to range from $62 million to $67 million, an increase of 19% YoY. Free cash flow is anticipated to grow substantially, with guidance set between $10 million and $14 million, marking a 443% improvement. InvestingPro analysis reveals that while analysts don’t expect profitability this year, they’ve set price targets ranging from $3 to $9, suggesting potential upside from current levels. The stock currently appears undervalued based on InvestingPro’s Fair Value analysis.

Executive Commentary

Ron Totten, CEO of KORE, emphasized the company’s focus on customer satisfaction and innovation: "We want to be loved by our customers." He credited the team for the company’s results, stating, "Our results are only made possible by the grit and determination of our team." Totten also highlighted efforts to build a more agile organization.

Risks and Challenges

• Declining revenue in core segments such as IoT Connectivity.
• Potential macroeconomic pressures affecting sales cycles.
• Market competition in the IoT space may impact future growth.
• Dependence on new customer acquisitions for revenue expansion.
• Technological advancements and R&D investments may strain resources if not managed effectively.

KORE Group Holdings Inc. remains focused on strategic initiatives, including expanding its market presence in healthcare and cloud communication sectors, to drive future growth despite current challenges. With a beta of 1.77 indicating higher market sensitivity, investors seeking detailed analysis can access additional ProTips and comprehensive valuation metrics through InvestingPro’s extensive financial toolkit and research platform.

Full transcript - KORE Group Holdings Inc (KORE) Q1 2025:

Conference Operator: Greetings, and welcome to Core Group Holdings Incorporated First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Vic Vigeberghia, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development.

Thank you. You may begin.

Vic Vigeberghia, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Core Group Holdings: Thank you, operator. On today’s call, we will refer to the first quarter twenty twenty five earnings presentation, which will be helpful to follow along with as well as a press release filed this afternoon that details the company’s first quarter twenty twenty five results. Both of these can be found on our Investor Relations page at ir.corewireless.com. Finally, a recording of the call will be available in the Investors section of the company’s website later today. The company encourages you to review the safe harbor statements, risk factors, and other disclaimers contained on this slide in today’s press release as well as in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which identify specific risk factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in our forward looking statements.

The company does not undertake to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements after this webcast. The company also notes that it will be discussing non GAAP financial information on this call. The company is providing that information as a supplement to information prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in The United States or US GAAP. You can find a reconciliation of these metrics to the company’s reported GAAP results in the reconciliation tables provided in today’s earnings release and presentation. I’ll now turn the call over to Ron Totten, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Vic, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our first quarter twenty twenty five earnings call. With me today is Paul Holtz, Core’s Chief Financial Officer. On today’s call, I will provide an update on the company’s business highlights of the first quarter and then turn

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: the call over to Paul to go through the financial results. After which, I will share our view on the financial guidance for 2025 before turning the call over to the operator for Q and A. Looking at the first quarter, you will see improvement in our operating performance across the business. We have delivered two consecutive quarters of positive free cash flow and our connections continue to grow as we approach 20,000,000 total connections at the end of the first quarter. We can also show progress on our focus on profitable growth as our IoT solutions non GAAP margin shows significant improvement.

We are showing the full benefit of our restructuring efforts announced late summer twenty twenty four with a $7,600,000 decrease in operating expenses in the quarter as compared to the same period a year ago. With our transformation successfully in the rearview mirror, our top priority is growth as part of our value creation plan, which I will share later in the presentation. On Slide six, as we look at the headlines, our first quarter revenue was $72,000,000 which was $4,000,000 lower and adjusted EBITDA of $14,500,000 a slight decline. This is a tough comparative quarter based on some onetime usage spikes with a handful of customers in Q1 twenty twenty four. We also elected to exit low margin products as we spoke about during our last call.

That said, our adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 60 basis points to 20%, and we anticipate this to continue to improve. Although we are only six weeks into Q2, we are encouraged by our financial results thus far, having had a strong April driven by connectivity revenue with no impact of tariff policies on our performance thus far. In Q1, we generated $2,900,000 in cash flow from operations, up 1,000,000 from the same period last year. That resulted in free cash flow of $600,000 for the first quarter of twenty twenty five. Generating cash is a top priority, and we’re pleased to have a second consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow.

We expect this trend to continue and improve as the year progresses. Moving on to slide seven, let’s delve into our IoT connectivity highlights for the first quarter. Total connections have increased by 8% nearing the 20,000,000 mark. We are beginning to see the positive impact of connections ramping up from sales in 2024, which will lead to revenue growth and contribute positively to ARPU. On Slide eight, as we mentioned on our last call, we have shifted to estimated annual recurring revenue or eARR to share our expected growth of recurring revenue in place of the previous metric of TCV or total contract value.

EARR better illustrates our recurring revenue business model because it shows steady state recurring revenue as customers increase their device count or usage pattern. EARR multiplies the estimated monthly recurring revenue in the twelfth month of the contract by 12 to estimate the annual recurring revenue. We believe that this key performance metric is useful investors for forecasting purposes and also for understanding the financial health of our subscription based business. This change is part of our ongoing effort to simplify and improve our reported metrics. We are confident EARR will be more effective for predicting future earnings and demonstrating steady free cash flow.

Turning to our pipeline, we have broken out our total connectivity pipeline into new opportunities, which totaled nearly 52,000,000 in EARR and opportunities with existing customers, which totaled nearly 30,000,000 in EARR for the quarter. We are seeing growth in this measurement, especially with new logos. On the right hand side is the closed one EARR, which totaled over 6,000,000 for new and existing opportunities in the quarter. We expect these numbers to grow as we embark upon our multifaceted strategy for growth, which includes growing our existing customer base, which is nearing 20,000,000 total connections, prioritizing our new business focus on key verticals and select geographies, leveraging our indirect channels and strategic partnership, and increasing our use of AgenTeq AI tools to drive digital marketing growth initiatives. Going to slide nine, we highlight several wins that continue to demonstrate our value proposition, which is resonating for customers in a variety of industries and use cases.

First, in the cloud communication space, Core was chosen for its streamlined all in one approach to hardware and connectivity, which simplified procurement and deployment. Competitive pricing on connected devices and data plans added further value, while the ability to scale quickly with additional units supported their growth plan. In the global HVAC manufacturing space, Core One due to its compelling commercial proposition, robust connectivity features, and proven track record within other divisions of that organization. The offering included rug ruggedized laptops with high bandwidth connectivity and multi EMC capabilities to ensure reliable coverage across regions enhanced by eSIM flexibility. Multinational IoT alliances is another area where Core is making an impact.

Core was chosen for its ability to deliver reliable, high performance global connectivity, an essential requirement for their international customer base. Supporting EV charging stations in local markets like Turkey, the solution leverages a strong local network to ensure stable connectivity for critical functions like remote monitoring and payment processing. Lastly, we expanded our footprint in remote patient monitoring. The client selected Core for its ability to deliver seamless multicarrier connectivity combined with preconfigured tablets and mobile device management for its remote patient monitoring needs. A key diff differentiator was the integration with a strategic device partner, which reinforced the value of a unified end to end offering.

These wins alone are expected to deliver a combined $2,100,000 in estimated annual recurring revenue. I would like to draw your attention to a press release that was issued earlier this week with Winnebago in which we are a technology enabler for their next generation RV platform, Winnebago Connect. This is a market leader that is revolutionizing its industry and will support customers as they explore the world in a more connected, secure, and user friendly manner. On slide 10, prior to examining the financials, I’d like to present Core’s value creation plan I spoke about earlier. This is our strategic road map aimed at fostering sustainable long term growth and enhancing shareholder value.

This plan is built on the vision to be a trusted global leader in IoT connectivity solutions for over a hundred million plus connected devices, enabling a smarter, more connected world for all. And with that vision in mind, our mission is to empower innovators to deliver transformative solutions that deliver impactful outcomes to the customers and communities they serve. The plan to deliver on this vision and mission is focused on five key priorities, customer intimacy, product innovation, profitable growth, operational excellence, and a culture of winning. Allow me to elaborate on each of these pillars. Firstly, customer intimacy.

Central to our strategy is an unwavering commitment to our customers. We wanna be loved by our customers. We are strengthening relationships by actively listening, anticipating needs, and providing solutions that drive value and impact to these customers. Our approach includes meticulous monitoring of customer operations and satisfaction metrics through customer health dashboard, investments in tools supporting customers such as the ServiceNow AI tools we spoke about last earnings call, and platform enhancements for resilience and feature improvement. Feedback from customers is very positive, and they welcome our focus on customer intimacy and leveraging technology to improve the customer experience.

Secondly, product innovation. We’re committed to developing next generation products and solutions that will shape the future of our industry. Innovation encompasses not just technological advancement, but also addressing real world challenges in superior ways that will make a meaningful business impact for our customers. We are expediting our r and d cycles using AI development tools, expanding the use of cloud capabilities, hosting hackathons, and providing product and technology feedback from our customer advisory board to ensure our innovations drive benefit to customers with commercial applicability. Our investments in SuperSIM, the Connectivity Pro platform, eSIM, dual profiles, advancing SGP dot 32 exemplify our dedication to product innovation.

Thirdly, profitable growth. Our focus is on increasing revenue without compromising profitability. This entails pursuing intelligent disciplined growth, venturing into high margin segments, scaling in priority markets and meticulously managing our portfolio to ensure every initiative contributes to shareholder value. Early indicators of success are evident in our improving operating results and profitability measures, along with the initial positive trends in our sales pipeline and growth in total connections. Fourthly, operational excellence.

Our scale and efficiency serve as a competitive edge, and we are intensifying our efforts in this area. By closely managing operating expenses, digitizing internal processes, leveraging AI and optimization tools and techniques, We are constructing a more agile and cost effective organization. This enables reinvestment in innovation, compensation for our employees, and enhanced outcomes for our shareholders. Lastly, culture and building a winning team. This strategic vision is unattainable without the right talent and culture.

We are dedicated to cultivating a high performance inclusive environment where exceptionally talented talented people flourish. We have aligned incentives, reinforcing accountability, and fostering a culture that emphasizes collaboration, ownership, and winning. We believe by focusing on these areas, we can further unlock long term value for Core. We have already commenced making progress with a significant investment into learning and development and remain confident in our trajectory. I anticipate sharing further development in these five priority areas as we continue to execute on this plan and deliver impactful results to our customers, employees, and investors.

And now let’s turn the call over to Paul for the financial results.

Paul Holtz, Chief Financial Officer, Core Group Holdings: Thanks, Ron, and thanks for those joining us this evening for our first quarter results. Looking at these results on Slide 12, total revenue for the first quarter decreased $3,900,000 or approximately 5% year over year to $72,100,000 Breaking that down by business lines, IoT Connectivity revenue of 53,900,000.0 decreased approximately 7% year over year and represented 75% of first quarter revenue. The decline in IoT Connectivity is primarily due to a tough comparison quarter year over year as the company had some one time usage revenue from a small number of customers and the low ARPU of CS business, which we had previously communicated with Bean migrated away from core, also contributed to the decline. IoT Solutions revenue increased approximately 1% year over year to $18,200,000 or 25% of first quarter revenue. Overall non GAAP margin in Q1 twenty twenty five was 54%, a decrease of 97 basis points compared to the first quarter in the prior year.

By business line, non GAAP IoT connectivity margin was down 200 basis points year over year to 58.8%. Again, this decrease in margin is mainly due to the higher usage revenue in the prior year quarter. Non GAAP IoT Solutions margin was up three seventy basis points year over year to 39.9%. Total connections at the end of the first quarter were $19,800,000 an increase of $1,500,000 year over year. Average revenue per user per month or ARPU for the current quarter was $0.91 compared to CAD1.05 in Q1 twenty twenty four.

The decrease in ARPU year over year was due to the combination of higher usage in the previous year and the recent additions and connections in the previous quarter coming from lower ARPU use cases. D for the twelve months ended 03/31/2025 was 99% compared to 94% in the prior year. The increase in D VAR was mainly due to the stabilization of IoT Solutions revenue over the past twelve months versus the previous year being impacted by a decline in IoT Solutions revenue due to our number one customer’s LTE transition project in 2023. As a reminder, DBNER is similar to same source sales as it measures the growth of existing customers in the trailing twelve months compared to the same customer cohort in the year ago period. Turning to Slide 13, operating expenses in the first quarter were $41,600,000 a decrease of $7,500,000 or 15.3% compared to Q1 twenty twenty four.

The change in operating expenses is due to decreases in headcount related costs, net of severance, of approximately CAD 6,500,000.0, a non cash foreign exchange gain of CAD2.8 million offset by approximately CAD1.5 million and less capitalization of internal software development costs. First quarter interest expense including amortization of deferred financing fees increased slightly year over year to $13,000,000 versus $12,900,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. Net loss in the first quarter was $14,900,000 compared to $17,600,000 in the prior year. The decrease in our net loss of $2,700,000 year over year was primarily attributable to the improvement in operating expenses described earlier, offset by an increase in tax expense and less margin from the decline in revenue year over year. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter was $14,500,000 a decrease of $300,000 or 2% compared to the prior year.

The $300,000 decrease in adjusted EBITDA was attributable to three main reasons: one, a benefit from the decline in gross OpEx of approximately $3,500,000 to a total of $27,100,000 or $25,000,000 net of capitalized internal software development costs two, a CAD 1,500,000.0 negative impact to adjusted EBITDA year over year due to a reduction in capitalized internal software development costs and three, a decline in non GAAP margin dollars of approximately CAD 2,300,000.0 due to the decline in revenue year over year. Finally, moving to cash flows. Cash provided by operations in the first quarter was approximately CAD2.9 million. This compared to cash provided by operations of $1,900,000 in Q1 twenty twenty four. Free cash flow measured by cash provided by operations less cash used in investing activities was positive $600,000 in Q1 twenty twenty five compared to negative $2,800,000 in the prior year quarter.

Free cash flow was positive for the second consecutive quarter and is expected to continue to be positive for the rest of 2025 ramping as the year progresses. As of 03/31/2025, cash was $19,700,000 compared to $23,000,000 as of 03/31/2024. And with that, I’ll pass

Conference Operator: it back to you, Ron.

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: Thank you, Paul. On Slide 14, this should not come as any surprise since we just spoke about it a few weeks ago, but we are maintaining our guidance in 2025 for revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. We expect revenue in the range of $288,000,000 to $298,000,000 reflecting 2% year over year growth, which factors in the exit of unprofitable contracts and product lines and positively contribute to overall profitability. Adjusted EBITDA on the range from $62,000,000 to $67,000,000 representing a 19% increase year over year and free cash flow in the range from 10 to 14,000,000, a significant 443% year over year improvement. As we sit here today in the fifth month of the year, I believe we’re in a good position.

And as a team, we are focused on the right areas to ensure we deliver on our commitment. On slide 15, I wanna step back and show you how far we’ve come and where we’re headed. The charts on this slide illustrate our strong financial performance driven by effective execution. The bar charts depict our revenue growth, which is projected to rise from $277,000,000 in 2023 to $293,000,000 in 2025, showcasing our modest but steady growth as we transform the company. Adjusted EBITDA reflects a healthy and above market increase moving from 55,600,000.0 to 64,500,000.0, indicating improved operational efficiency.

And most notably, the free cash flow demonstrates a positive turnaround from a negative 26,600,000.0 in 2023 to a positive $12,000,000 in 2025, highlighting our commitment to generating cash and enhancing shareholder value. The percentage increases noted 6%, sixteen % and a 45% represent growth rate that emphasize our financial trajectory. Overall, these figures underscore that our strategic initiatives are working and give us a positive outlook for the coming years. Before we open the call to q and a, I wanna thank the core team for their hard work and commitment to excellence. We have asked a lot of our team in the past year, and they have stepped up and delivered and are energized by our improved performance.

Our results are only made possible by the grit and determination of our team that they have shown the past several quarters. With that, thank you everyone for listening and I look forward to your question.

Conference Operator: Thank you. And at this time, we’ll conduct our question and answer session. You may press star two if you would like to remove your questions from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. Once again, to ask a question, press star one.

And our first question comes from Scott Searle with ROTH Capital Partners. Please state your question.

Scott Searle, Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners: For taking my questions. Hey, Ron. Maybe just to dive in quickly on, the, eARR. I’m wondering I I’m not sure if I heard it, but are there historic numbers and comps year over year to kinda give us an idea about how that that pipeline has changed and shifted? And what are the sales cycles looking like in the current environment, just given the current macroeconomic climate and provisioning timelines?

Vic Vigeberghia, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Core Group Holdings: And I had a couple of follow ups. Sure.

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: Thanks, Scott. In terms of comps for EARR, we don’t have those. I think that’s something we can follow-up on. Previously, you would recall that TCV used both connectivity and solutions as well as hardware. So it was a combined, where with EAR is really only the connectivity, the recurring revenue.

So it’s it’s not as straightforward as, you know, extrapolation from one to the other. So that’s probably something we can follow-up on separately to give you a like for like comparison with just the connectivity piece. In terms of sales cycles, I know we spoke about tariffs. It was only a couple weeks ago. I would say I’m really encouraged by the sales cycle.

In fact, if you look at the results that we had in April that I commented on, but even some of the new sales and the growth in connections, you know, we saw probably two things. One is we saw for customers that had connected devices along with connectivity, we probably actually saw an acceleration of them buying because of the uncertainty of what tariffs might mean. And then, of course, you know, the tariff situation’s been sort of changing. You know, business that we’ve been projected to close has effectively kind of closed right on schedule. So we haven’t seen elongated sales cycles.

If anything, you know, we would have probably seen things compress a little bit with some of that tariff uncertainty, which, you know you know, that it’s a fluid situation. But, yeah, that’s my my answers on your first two questions. But it sounds like maybe you’ve got a couple more.

Scott Searle, Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners: Yeah. If that’s okay. Yep. One for Paul. On the on the OpEx front, I just wanna clarify.

I think the number was around 27,000,000 this quarter. But in some of the adjusted tables that you’ve got, there’s some charges for integration, think, of $4,000,000 and otherwise. So what is the normalized OpEx number that we should be thinking about going forward? And from a product gross margin standpoint, I think three of the last four quarters, you’ve been in the 40% or so range. Is that the new norm now?

I know you guys have been walking away from less profitable business, but just want to clarify if that’s how we should be thinking about things going forward.

Paul Holtz, Chief Financial Officer, Core Group Holdings: Yeah. Thanks, Scott. Yeah. So on the first one, the 27.1 was just was prior to, the reduction for capitalized software for the for the quarter. So that was another 2,000,000 that gets you down to a net of 25.

So that’s your number on a kinda go forward basis. Now that could fluctuate up or down depending on comp variable compensation and then payroll taxes and all that sort of stuff re reduce as the year goes on. But ’25 is the net number that you should be looking at. The integration costs that are in there, those are adjusted out. So those aren’t included in those numbers as those are one the onetime items that come out.

But so 25 is your is the is your number that you should be using for forecasting. And then on the gross margin for solutions, yeah, where 40% is is our our target and and what we’re looking like to continue on for the rest of the year. Yeah. We have, as indicated, had gotten rid of a lot of the lower hardware margin business that came out of that. So that’s driving, obviously, the solutions margin up, and we continue we’re gonna continue to see that for the rest of the year as as that business we’re not planning on bringing that business back.

Scott Searle, Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners: Perfect. Thanks so much. And and if I could then, just lastly, ARPUs, you know, came down as as you guys have been talking about a couple weeks ago, just in terms of the mix of some of the new business. When you’re looking at that pipeline, is that where a majority of, the ARPUs are gonna be going so we’re gonna continue to see that pressure? Or I thought there were a couple of large contracts near term that had skewed that number.

So just some thoughts on that front. And since you’ve had two nice quarters in a row here starting to move forward with positive free cash flow, looking out to 2026, Ron, I know it’s still early, but how are you feeling about getting back to double digit growth on the services and the connectivity front? Thank you.

Paul Holtz, Chief Financial Officer, Core Group Holdings: Do want take the first one? Yes. So on the first one, so ARPU, like we indicated from a comp perspective, Q1 over Q1 is a really tough comparison. We had really good spike in usage in Q1, which drove the the ARPU up artificially there. But as we indicated last quarter, we had a bunch of devices that were added in Q4 that were at the lower end of the ARPU range.

So $0.91 in the current quarter and we’re expected to hopefully stay around that. But if we do add obviously some more lower ARPU which we’re we’re seeing an uptick on, it could drive down a little bit but it’s really tough to compare to last year where we had a really high usage quarter that drove it up. If you look at q two from last year, you you see that our revenue did drop because of that one time revenue that would happen in there from usage. So you can see that it is kinda anomaly there.

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: Yeah. I’ll take the second part of that. And and maybe if I could before I do that, Scott, I would say that as far as the pipeline, we’re seeing a more of a balance, with, you know, the the low and the more higher ARPU use cases. I think that, you know, some of those lower ARPU use cases are existing customers expanding their footprint with us. And again, you know, we you know, that’s still, you know, very profitable.

So, you know, an existing customer that’s on a lower ARPU wanting to buy more, you know, we don’t wanna discourage that. You know, we make good margins on that. In terms of the pipeline though, I think it’s much more balanced between, you know, different use cases and and, you know, ARPU that is, you know, high in some cases. I think that Winnebago press release that we issued again, that would be very much on a high ARPU basis. So I think that’s a good example that would maybe counter some of the the lower ARPU cases we spoke about.

In terms of, yeah, ’26. Yeah. Jeez. We spoke two weeks ago about last year. We’re talking about q one, and you’re asking me about ’26.

I I’m optimistic looking into ’26 in terms of our growth rate. You know, we would like to do better than the, you know, kind of the current guidance that we’ve been been given even in ’25. But if you look at just the kind of fundamentals, you look at connections growing, you look at the EAR business contributing, you look at the recurring nature of our business, yeah, I mean, I don’t wanna forecast out double digit growth, but you know, certainly, we should be, you know, heading in that direction. Be a little too early for me in May here to be telling you that that’s what ’26 looks like. But now we’re we’re we’re feeling good.

April results were strong. I think Paul’s highlighted, yeah, tough comparative quarter. But in terms of just the, you know, the fundamentals, connections growing, closing business, yeah, we’re we’re we’re feeling good where we are. And, yeah, just got to, you know, stay disciplined and stay focused.

Scott Searle, Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners: Great. Thanks so much. I’ll get back in the queue. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Lance Vitanza with TD Cowen. Please state your question.

Lance Vitanza, Analyst, TD Cowen: Thanks for taking the questions, guys. I wanted to start with the Winnebago win. Could you talk, more about how you came to win that business? Was it competitive? How long was that sales process?

Were you already doing business with them perhaps in another capacity? And and then I guess for, you know, for a run of the mill situation like this, if there is such a thing, what would be a reasonable expectation for when this would turn into revenue either on the solution side or the connectivity side?

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: Yeah. Sure. Thanks. So Winnebago was a new logo for us. It was a competitive process.

They evaluated, you know, several other companies. This came to us through a partner. And, you know, just trying to think through your questions. It what’s nice about Winnebago is it does have a minimum revenue commit, to it. So we have, you know, guaranteed revenue.

And then, of course, as as, you know, as usage increases, you know, they start selling more of these new next generation vehicles, and those vehicles are then out on the road. And, you know, then, of course, the monthly revenue stream that you’re all too familiar with starts kicking in. But, you know, what’s nice about that particular opportunity is new logo, highly competitive opportunity, and, yeah, has a minimum revenue commitment, which is which is great for us. But, of course, the the real growth is going to be as they kind of roll that out.

Lance Vitanza, Analyst, TD Cowen: Cool. Nice job on that. Turning to health care, could you talk about the demand environment there as you see it? I mean and and I guess the the genesis of the question is there’s a lot going on with, you know, Medicare, Medicaid funding, Medicare Advantage in particular. And I’m just wondering if that has any impact on your business, or is that sort of someone else’s problem?

And and and just more generally, regardless of what’s going on with the with the funding, how would you just describe the environment for health care for for core these days?

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: Yeah. Yeah. So you’re so thanks for the question again. Yeah. It doesn’t affect us, would be the short answer.

In terms of connected health, you know, this business is is a is a is, yeah, great business for us. You know, I think that we see growth in this sector. We we’ve closed some new you know, some of these logos that we talked about, obviously, remote patient monitoring, one that we featured here was the connected health customer. So, you know, obviously, is a very large TAM. It’s growing, you know, north of 25%.

You know, we feel good about, you know, our retention within the customer base that we have there. And, you know, we have several customers that have multiple divisions that we’ve now, you know, penetrated and and closed deals and now, know, getting revenue from within those those those particular customers, which is which is great for us. So, you know, I think the you know, looking ahead, I would see and think about connected health being, you know, even a larger percentage of of revenues, and and margin than maybe what it was in the second half of last year. You know, we’re definitely seeing some some great results in that area. And it’s it’s obviously been an area where we’ve been focused on in the past.

And, yeah, we’re seeing good, you know, strong results there. It definitely feels that even with the, you know, the tariff and some of the macro environment challenges is, you know, there’s new trials being awarded, you know, the very nature the innovative nature of that sector, works really well for us, that, you know, even through some of the, you know, the the tariff situation that’s been uncertain, we we haven’t seen If anything, we’ve seen an increase in in, in connected health.

Lance Vitanza, Analyst, TD Cowen: Thanks for that. And then if I could squeeze one more in, actually, just back on, slide nine. And I you probably mentioned this, so bear with me. But are those four wins, are they all new logos? Or did could some of that represent new projects with existing customers?

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: Yeah. I think I think one is I think three are yeah. Three are new and one is existing. In fact, we mentioned it being a new division within an existing customer. So again, some people might consider that a new logo and and for us, we we don’t.

That’s a that’s an existing one. And then I’m also reminded here by Paul that I didn’t answer one of your other parts of your question and the Winnebago, I I I wanna say the sales cycle was around nine months was was the time frame there.

Lance Vitanza, Analyst, TD Cowen: Thanks for circling back on that. But sticking with this this idea of new versus existing customers, just as you sort of take a step back and think more broadly about the opportunity. Obviously, you’re gonna you’re gonna get customers you know, you’re gonna get more business from both channels. But do you see like, what where should we be thinking that the the bulk of the demand is coming from as we think about the current pipeline or what you think is doable over the next year. Is it is it mostly new logos or is it existing guys?

And and to the extent that it’s existing customers, is it them just seeing broader deployment on existing use cases, just shipping out more units under the existing uses? Or are they coming back to you existing customers coming back to you and saying, hey, we wanna launch a new a new application, and so there’s a whole new, you know, set and a whole new setup that’s involved.

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: Yeah. No. Good good well thought of question. You know, I I will wanna get back to you with this specific percentage, but based on, you know, based on, you know, thinking about Salesforce, I would say that, you know, certainly, we’re more weighted towards and I’ll just use a number to be validated later. 70 per 75% new, 25% existing.

And and part of that is with existing customers, it’s it’s in some cases harder to forecast where that demand is gonna come from. You know, like they’re an existing customer. And and yeah. And if they have a new division, if they have a new deployment, yeah, then those are what would represent in the kind of in the pipeline. But, yeah, I would probably think about it in in those terms and, you know, we’ll come back and and validate those those numbers.

You know, for us, you know, and I’ve touched on it, you know, multiple times, you know, having, you know, you know, approaching 20,000,000 connections, you know, working those existing customers is a is it’s a real asset for us. And then obviously, the goal is to find and add the new logos in addition to that. So that’s, you know, where we, you know, from, you know, the the last few questions related to, you know, growth and and then the earlier question related to ’26. I mean, that’s where we start to see, you know, growth really starting to accelerate from, you know, last year and this year being relatively conservative in terms of the growth rate. So I don’t know, Paul, if you have anything to add to that.

Paul Holtz, Chief Financial Officer, Core Group Holdings: No. I I I think on the existing side of things, right now, the growth that we would see from there would be, as Ron mentioned, from new departments that are looking to consolidate vendors and and basically bring all connectivity to to one versus having multiple vendors. So we’re being opened up to other parts of the organizations. I think that’s will be where majority of existing customer growth will come from.

Vic Vigeberghia, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Core Group Holdings: Thanks very much, guys. Yeah.

Conference Operator: Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the q and a session. I’ll now hand the floor back to Ron Totten for closing remarks.

Ron Totten, President and Chief Executive Officer, Core Group Holdings: Yes. Thank you, everyone, for joining us for today’s earnings call. We spoke only a few weeks ago, but it was great to be here today, and we look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter with our second quarter results in August time frame. Thank you, and have a good evening.

Conference Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s call. All parties may disconnect. Have a good

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