Celebrus Technologies plc

Celebrus ARR increased to $15.6 million, up just under 15% in the first half and just over 20% year on year versus H1 FY25. Total revenue was $10.4 million, lower than last year because license revenue is now recognized month by month under straight-line revenue recognition; management said the change will create about a $6 million revenue impact this year, around $3 million in FY27, and just over $1 million in FY28. Gross profit margin was 93.1% versus 95.4% a year ago. Adjusted PBT was a loss of roughly $1.5 million and adjusted diluted EPS was $0.0351 per share. Cash at half year was $27.3 million, with no debt, and the interim dividend increased 3.2% to 0.98p. Management said current pipeline is $26 million across about 60 opportunities, and they are comfortable with expectations for the year.

Bill Bruno said the company’s story is now centered on selling more Celebrus Software, with the reporting changes meant to make the growth driver clearer. He highlighted recent wins in fintech and financial services, strong upsell potential, and growing customer adoption of use cases around digital identity, fraud, and AI readiness. His tone was confident but pragmatic, noting that the business still faces longer budget cycles and some customer turnover from layoffs and redundancies in the market.

Ashoni Mehta focused on the mechanics of the financial transition: software revenue is being recognized monthly rather than upfront, and costs are no longer being reallocated into cost of sales, which makes the 93.1% gross margin a cleaner software metric. He said OpEx has come down after taking out just over 10 headcount, and that the company still has no debt, $27.3 million of cash, and expects cash to grow ahead of March 2026. He also noted a completed buyback of 500,000 shares for just under $1 million, and explained that treasury shares are being used to offset option dilution.

Analysts asked about competition, churn, customer pushback on the new contract terms, pipeline conversion, and whether the stock could make the company an acquisition target. Management said competitive wins often come against Adobe, but the bigger issue is customer inertia and fear of change; they are trying to identify and manage that earlier in the sales process. On churn, management said it remains low and that full-year detail will be provided at year-end, while on contract changes they stressed customers see no practical difference because invoicing is still annual upfront. They also said recent deals have been direct rather than partner-led, and confirmed that the high cash balance does make acquisition interest a live board-level consideration, even though day-to-day focus remains on execution.