Ondas Holdings (ONDS) Q4 2025
2026-03-25 08:30:00
Operator:
Welcome to the Ondas Inc Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, the company would like to remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements. While these forward-looking statements reflect Ondas' best current judgment, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by these forward-looking statements. These risk factors are discussed in on this Periodic SEC filings and in the earnings press release issued on Monday, which are both available on the company's website. Ondas undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances, except as required by law. During this call, Ondas will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is shown in our press release issued on Monday, which is available at the Investor Relations section of our website. This non-GAAP information is provided as a supplement to, not as a substitute for or as superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. A However, management believes these non-GAAP measures provide investors with valuable information on the underlying trends of our business. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the floor over to Eric Brock, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.
Eric Brock:
Thank you, operator, and good morning. We appreciate you joining us today and for your continued interest in Ondas. Let me start by setting the stage for today's discussion. Simply put, Ondas is delivering a whole strategic growth plan we have consistently outlined over the past year. We are doing what we said we would do. We are seeing strong momentum across the business. Revenue growth and increasing market adoption are validating our strategy. At the same time, our acquisitions are adding meaningful strategic value and expanding the scope of what we can deliver to customers. Importantly, this is not happening in isolation. Our business strategy is actively driving the buildout of a scaled operating platform, one that is designed to support global deployment, localization and long-term growth. And as that operating platform scales, we are beginning to see it reflected in our financial model. So when you look at Ondas today, what you're really seeing is a company where strategy is translating into execution, execution is building the platform, and the platform is driving financial outcomes. We believe this dynamic positions us for significant upside as we move through 2026 and beyond. So let's turn to the agenda. I want to highlight that today's investor update will be a bit different than our typical earnings call. We're now at the end of March. And importantly, we provided a comprehensive strategic update at our OAS Investor Day in January along with additional financial and business updates throughout the quarter. So rather than walking you through a detailed recap of 2025, we're going to focus today on the transformation of Ondas and how that transformation has continued to accelerate into the first quarter of 2026. Note that we expect our prepared remarks to be on the longer side this morning, considering the significant activity at Ondas in recent months. Our goal is to give you a clear view of how the business is scaling across our technology portfolio, our expanding operating platform and go-to-market strategy and the rapid maturation of our financial model. We'll begin with a brief introduction and then discuss our new joint venture with Heidelberg, ONBERG Autonomous Systems, which is a key component of our European strategy. We'll also cover the World View acquisition announced on Monday, which is scheduled to close in Q2 2026, along with our partnership with Palantir and how, together, we are building a scalable, software-defined multi-domain ISR platform. Neil will then provide a brief financial review. After that, we will provide a brief update on Ondas Networks and then focus on Ondas Autonomous Systems and our strategic growth program and emphasize how we are creating and compounding value as we scale the business. We'll close with our outlook and then open the call for questions. I'm pleased to be joined this morning by key members of our leadership team, including Neil Laird, our Chief Financial Officer; Oshri Lugassy, Co-CEO of Ondas Autonomous Systems and Meir Kliner, President of OAS, all of whom are quite familiar to you. Neil and I will lead today's presentation, and we'll aim to be efficient with your time. Oshri and Meir will be available during the Q&A to address questions, particularly details around our technology platforms, operations and growth initiatives. I will continue now by highlighting the momentum we are seeing across the business and importantly, how that momentum is accelerating into 2026. Starting with 2025, we delivered strong performance across both our core business and our strategic initiatives. We generated over $50 million in revenue, well ahead of our earlier targets and exited the year with a significantly expanded backlog, reflecting growing customer demand and market adoption. At the same time, we are raising our 2026 revenue outlook to at least $375 million, representing a substantial step-up from prior expectations. This reflects both the strength of our core business and the impact of our strategic growth program. Importantly, we are investing ahead of that growth, particularly in the first half of 2026, to support what we expect to be a significant revenue ramp in the back half of the year and beyond. On the strategic side, we've made meaningful progress accelerating the build-out of our systems-of-systems platform. In the first quarter alone, we announced 5 accretive acquisitions that expand our capabilities across multiple domains, while also enhancing our financial profile. We've done this with a highly attractive capital position ending the year with a pro forma cash balance of over $1.5 billion, which gives us the flexibility to continue executing our strategy at scale. And finally, we've continued to invest in leadership and operational infrastructure to ensure we can integrate and scale these capabilities effectively. So when you step back, what you see is a business that not only exceeded expectations in 2025, but has also accelerated its strategic road map, and we are carrying that momentum into 2026 with a high degree of confidence. I'm excited to introduce ONBERG, our European joint venture with Heidelberg, a key step in Ondas' global expansion and our localized go-to-market platform for Europe. Delivering defense and security solutions today requires more than advanced technology. It demands local manufacturing, talent, and alignment with national and regional priorities. This is especially true in Europe where defense spending is rising to rapidly deploy modern capabilities, including unmanned and autonomous systems. ONBERG is our answer to this market need. This joint venture with Heidelberg, a leading German industrial platform provides local manufacturing, engineering and life cycle support that meet European sovereignty requirements. Heidelberg's established relationships with government and defense procurement channels across Germany and NATO and aligned customers further strengthen our position. By combining Ondas systems-of-systems expertise with Heidelberg's local infrastructure, we're creating a sovereign aligned platform ready to deliver large-scale programs across the EU. ONBERG has already identified strong demand for OAS platforms, particularly in Germany and Ukraine where requirements for autonomous systems are immediate. Strategically, ONBERG enables us to participate directly in European programs as a localized provider critical to winning in this market. Financially, ONBERG represents significant upside. While our current European business is growing, our forecasts do not yet include new incremental revenue from ONBERG. As ONBERG becomes operational in the coming months, we expect it to drive meaningful growth beyond our existing targets. Ondas holds a 51% controlling interest in ONBERG ensuring we capture the value as the platform scales. So overall, ONBERG is an important extension of our global strategy. Localizing our platform, expanding our addressable market and positioning Ondas to participate in one of the fastest-growing defense markets in the world. Let me now turn to what we believe is one of the most important strategic developments for Ondas, the acquisition of World View and our partnership with Palantir. Starting with World View. This acquisition brings a unique and highly strategic capability into our platform, persistent sensing in the stratosphere. The stratosphere sits between traditional airspace and low-earth orbit and it is increasingly being recognized as a critical domain for defense, homeland security and commercial ISR applications. By adding this stratospheric layer, we are accelerating the build-out of our systems-of-systems architecture expanding from ground and air into a truly multi-domain ISR platform. Now equally important is how this capability is being integrated, and that's where Palantir comes in. We are very excited about our partnership. We believe Palantir is one of the most important force multipliers for Ondas as we scale this platform globally. Through this relationship, we have access to Palantir's full AIP software stack from operational platforms like Warp Speed and Foundry to mission-critical systems, including Maven and advanced command and control capabilities. This enables a software-defined ISR architecture or data across stratospheric aerial and ground systems is fused in real time into actionable intelligence. Importantly, this is not just technology integration. It is an active commercial partnership. We are already working together on market development, pursuing tailored solutions and program opportunities where our combined capabilities are differentiated. Palantir is also engaged strategically as we expand our layered ISR platform helping shape how we scale over time. So when you step back, the combination of World View, Ondas and Palantir is creating something unique, a scalable, multilayered ISR platform that integrates sensing, data and decision-making into a unified operational system. We believe this platform positions us extremely well for the next generation of defense and intelligence programs, and we expect this partnership to be a meaningful driver of upside as we move through 2026 and into 2027, accelerating our ability to penetrate what we see as a large and high-value market opportunity for layered ISR systems at scale. Before we go deeper into the World View platform and how it fits into our broader ISR strategy, I want to take a moment to introduce Ryan Hartman, President and CEO of World View. The entire Ondas leadership team, including Oshri and myself, is excited to partner with Ryan and the World View team as we accelerate our systems-of-systems road map. Ryan is a true industry pioneer with critical experience across Raytheon and Insitu as well as serving as the UAS representative on the FAA NextGen Advisory Committee and on the FAA Drone Advisory Committee. He brings a proven track record of scaling advanced aerospace technologies into real-world mission-critical deployment. We believe Ryan and his team will be instrumental in scaling this platform and capturing the significant opportunities ahead, particularly in the United States as we expand across defense, intelligence and homeland security markets. Ryan will walk you through the World View platform, including the Stratollite system, key use cases and how this integrates into our broader software-defined multi-domain ISR architecture. He'll also touch on how our partnership with Palantir is helping us accelerate market development and expand program opportunities. Ryan, over to you.
Ryan Hartman:
Thank you, Eric. The team at World View is thrilled to join forces with Ondas and excited about working closely with you and the entire leadership team across Ondas and OAS. I also appreciate the opportunity to be here today with our investors. I'm excited to share our vision for an interconnected intelligent multi-domain ISR ecosystem and why World View is such an important part of that future. At World View, we have helped make the stratosphere an operational domain. For a long time, the stratosphere was largely overlooked. It sits between traditional aircraft operations and space. It was understood scientifically but had not been fully operationalized for persistent sensing. That changed in a very visible way in early 2023 when a Chinese high-altitude balloon incident reshaped how governments think about the strategic importance of the stratosphere. World View is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for stratospheric intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance from the U.S. Department of War, Department of Homeland Security, allied governments across the world and an expanding range of commercial customers. We build stratospheric platforms that can remain over an area of interest for 30 days or more. We do that by using the 4 directional wind bands that exist at different altitudes in the stratosphere by changing altitude with ballasted air, we can navigate or station keep over a target area. It is simple in principle, but complex in execution because you are steering a month-long mission using stratospheric physics. Navigation becomes a vertical decision that creates a horizontal result. We call these platforms Stratollites. Stratollites operate in the stratosphere and often overlooked a strategically important layer of the atmosphere. They deliver a unique combination of persistence, proximity, resolution and flexibility. UAVs are precise and responsive, but their endurance is measured in hours. Satellites are global and predictable, but they operate in fixed orbits with limited revisit. Stratollites fill the gap between those 2 domains. They can deliver high resolution sensing than satellites with much longer endurance than UAVs. And we have built this as a flexible platform architecture, not a single-purpose asset. We have designed a family of stratollites in different shapes and sizes to meet different mission requirements from long duration, navigable altitude-controlled systems with high size, weight and power capacity to shorter duration tactical free float systems. On top of that, we configure payloads to the mission whether a customer needs electrooptical data, hyperspectral imaging, infrared sensing, communications capabilities or a combination of any of those and more, we can tailor the system to the objective. That configurable architecture allows us to serve a broad mix of defense and commercial missions. For maritime surveillance and in-theater operations to border security, critical infrastructure, energy, mining, disaster response and wildfire monitoring. Today, we are seeing demand expand as more customers understand the strategic and economic value of persistent sensing and insight from the stratosphere. Right now, for example, stratospheric platforms like ours are being contemplated as a key layer of the $1 trillion golden Dome system. We are also actively preparing for the inclusion of our technology in support of active U.S. Department of War operations like Epic Fury. But the stratosphere is only one domain. It offers unique advantages just as UAVs, land systems and space-based assets offer their own unique advantages. Even within the UAV segment, different classes of systems serve very different operational needs. And that is exactly what both World View and Ondas recognized independently and early. World View's vision has been to move beyond a single domain sensing company and build toward a broader, integrated multi-domain AI-powered ISR architecture. Ondas has been pursuing a highly complementary vision, building a portfolio of autonomous systems across adjacent domains with the same underlying belief that the future of ISR is not platform by platform, it is networked, interoperable and decision centric. That shared vision is why joining forces made so much sense. This is not a case of one company plugging into another company's road map. It is the combination of 2 companies that we're moving toward the same future from different points of strength. World View brings the stratospheric layer and a heritage of persistent sensing, Ondas brings complementary autonomous systems and a heritage of building toward multi-domain integration. Together, we can move faster and build more cohesively than either company could alone. Because the broader ISR market still has a structural problem today. Across the industry, most systems still operate in walled gardens, separate data feeds, separate tools, separate teams, separate time lines. Customers are left stitching together fragments just to understand what is happening, let alone act on it. The operator should not have to carry which domain the data came from. The operator should care whether the decision is right, fast and accountable. By joining forces with Ondas and through our recently announced partnership with Palantir, we are building a true system of systems, unified intelligence with one operational picture. That means one workflow language and one set of decision loops that can task the right asset at the right moment. If you need persistence and proximity, the stratosphere can hold station and support edge inference close to the area of interest. If you need precision and rapid tactical response, a UAV or land-based system can execute the mission. If you need broader context, additional domains like satellites can complete the frame. What makes that multi-domain picture operational is the Palantir-powered AI infrastructure we are building underneath it. At the operations layer, it helps increase efficiency across planning, production, mission management, and fleet coordination by connecting workflows that are often fragmented today. At the mission layer, it enables edge inference that can ingest, fuse and contextualize data from across these domains into a single operational picture. The result is not just more visibility. It is decision-ready insight that helps operators understand what matters, act faster and do so with greater confidence. Operationally, this also creates a more unified structure that allows the portfolio of companies to maintain their platform-centric expertise while benefiting from a common ISR tool set, shared tasking, processing, exploitation and dissemination workflows and shared support functions where that creates leverage. The simplest way to think about it is this, we are connecting persistence, autonomy and AI into one operational workflow in a way that has not existed before. We are building what we call an interconnected intelligence ecosystem. In practical terms, that means connecting platforms, sensors, software and operators so customers can move from data to decisions faster. And that is where we believe the market is going. It is not enough to collect more data. The value is turning that data into decisions faster, more coherently and across domains. We believe the future of ISR is multi-domain interoperable and decision centric. World View brings the stratospheric layer, Ondas brings complementary autonomous systems and Palantir brings the software and AI backbone. Together, we're building a more connected way to operate. Eric, I'll hand it back to you. Thank you.
Eric Brock:
I will now hand the call to Neil to provide a detailed financial update.
Neil Laird:
Thank you, Eric. We are pleased to report strong fourth quarter and full year results, which we believe represent an inflection point in the growth of the business, both organically and through our strategic growth program. We believe these results validate both the strength of our core business and the scalability of our operating model as we move into a significantly larger phase of growth. Revenue in the fourth quarter was $30.1 million up 629% year-over-year and nearly 200% sequentially from the third quarter. This performance was at the high end of our preliminary guidance and reflects strong demand across our Ondas Autonomous Systems segment. Importantly, organic revenue growth was also strong, increasing 63% year-over-year, driven by continued deliveries of Iron Drone and Optimus systems. Gross profit was $12.7 million, representing a 42% gross margin, a significant improvement from 21% in the prior year and 26% in the third quarter. This reflects both favorable product mix and the benefits of scaling revenue across our cost base. Operating expenses increased to $36.1 million, driven primarily by investments in personnel and infrastructure to support the scaling of our operating platform as well as increased activity related to our acquisition program. We view these investments as intentional and necessary to support the significant revenue growth we expect in 2026 and beyond. Let me briefly address the movement in other expenses during the quarter, which was primarily driven by a noncash accounting item related to our October 2025 financing. As a result of the structure of that financing, certain warrants are required to be classified as a liability and mark-to-market each reporting period using a Black Scholes valuation methodology. In the fourth quarter, this resulted in a noncash charge of approximately $82.2 million, which is reflected in other expenses. Importantly, this charge is purely accounting-driven and does not impact our cash position, operations or the underlying economics of the business. The valuation of these warrants can fluctuate meaningfully from period to period based on factors such as our stock price, volatility assumptions and time to maturity. And as a result, we expect this line item to introduce variability into our reported earnings going forward. We believe it is important for investors to focus on the underlying operating performance of the business, where we are seeing strong revenue growth, expanding backlog and continued execution of our strategic plan. I also note that this noncash charge was partially offset by approximately $10.7 million of other income, primarily driven by interest earned on our cash balances following our recent capital raises. Cash operating expenses were $23.6 million. A summary of cash operating expenses was included as a table in our earnings release and as an appendix to this presentation. Net loss for the quarter was $101 million driven by the $82.2 million noncash charge related to warrants discussed above. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $9.9 million compared to $7 million in the prior year. Overall, the financial results reflect a business that is scaling rapidly, investing ahead of growth and beginning to demonstrate the operating leverage embedded in our model. Turning to our full year results. For 2025, we generated $50.7 million in revenue, representing 605% growth compared to $7.2 million in 2024 and at the high end of our previously issued guidance range. This level of growth reflects both strong execution in our core business and the early impact of our strategic growth program. Full year gross margin improved significantly to 40% compared to 5% in the prior year, driven by higher volumes and improved product mix, particularly in the fourth quarter. For the full year, other expense was primarily driven by the previously discussed noncash warrant revaluation related to our October 2025 financing, resulting in an $82.2 million charge for the year. As noted, this is a mark-to-market accounting adjustment with no impact on our cash operations or underlying business performance and may introduce variability in reported results going forward. This noncash expense was partially offset by approximately $7.7 million of other income, primarily from interest earned on our cash balances. Cash operating expenses were $53 million, net loss for the year was $133.4 million with the warrant accounting and other noncash expenses being major contributors to the increase year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year was a loss of $31.3 million compared to a loss of $28.5 million in 2024, reflecting increased investment in personnel, infrastructure and integration to support the next phase of growth. Now turning to our cash flow and capital position. We ended the year with $594 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash compared to $30 million at the end of 2024. As Eric noted earlier, following our recent capital raise, our pro forma cash balance is over $1.5 billion providing significant financial flexibility to execute our growth strategy. Cash used in operating activities for the full year was $38.7 million compared to $33.5 million in 2024. This includes approximately a $10.7 million increase in accounts receivable in line with revenue growth. Cash used in investing activities was $260 million, the majority of which approximately $207 million was deployed into acquisitions as part of our strategic growth program. In addition, we invested approximately $51 million into short- and long-term investments including a number of strategic investments. These investments are aligned with our broader platform strategy. They support key partners, enhance access to critical technologies, improve supply chain efficiency, and we believe will generate attractive returns over time. Cash provided by financing activities was $863 million, primarily from our equity offerings throughout the year along with proceeds from warrant and option exercises. Looking ahead, we expect cash efficiency to improve over the course of 2026 as revenue and gross profit scale. We do expect higher cash usage in the first half of the year, reflecting continued investment ahead of growth. However, as we move through the second half, we expect to see meaningful improvement driven by operating leverage particularly within our OAS segment. Turning to the balance sheet. We believe Ondas now has one of the strongest balance sheets in the sector and a key competitive advantage as we scale the business. We ended the year with $594 million in cash and following our January equity raise, our pro forma cash position increased to approximately $1.5 billion. This provides us with significant financial capacity to execute on both our organic growth and strategic initiatives. At the same time, the balance sheet was further strengthened by reducing debt by approximately $41.7 million during the year, leaving only a modest debt profile at year-end held by certain subsidiaries, including Ondas networks. The previously discussed warrant liability was recorded at $489 million at year-end. And again, this liability is expected to fluctuate higher and lower perhaps significantly quarter-to-quarter based upon Ondas share price and other value is relevant for Black Scholes valuation and quarterly changes in this measure will result in noncash impacts on our GAAP net income. As a result, our shareholders' equity has increased to approximately $441 million compared to just $17 million at the end of 2024. So overall, we've significantly improved both the scale and the quality of the balance sheet, positioning the company with a capital flexibility and cost of capital advantage to support our growth strategy. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Eric.
Eric Brock:
Thank you, Neil. I want to take a moment to expand on what Neil discussed regarding our balance sheet and liquidity because we believe this is a key differentiator for Ondas. We are benefiting from strong and growing investor support. That support is reflected not only in the strength of our balance sheet, but also in our continued access to capital and a clear cost of capital advantage relative to many subscale competitors in our sector. Since June of 2025, we have raised approximately $1.8 billion including the $1 billion financing we completed in January of this year. That January financing was led by a large U.S.-based institutional investor who knows the Ondas business well and has been a long-time supporter of the company. Importantly, the prefunded warrants associated with that financing have been fully exercised and are in the share count, and we believe the investor currently holds less than 5% of our outstanding shares. More broadly, we are seeing continued growth in our institutional ownership base. Based on Capital IQ data, institutions now hold approximately 33% of our shares. We are actively working to further broaden that base. And we believe Ondas is well positioned for inclusion in additional indices, including the Russell 2000 as we move through 2026. So overall, we see our capital position and investor support as a meaningful competitive advantage, one that enables us to execute our strategy at scale. Let me briefly touch on Ondas' networks. 2025 was an important year for Ondas Networks, highlighted by the formal adoption of our IEEE 802.16 or .16, technology by the Association of American Railroads, as the communications protocol for the next-generation Head of Train/End of Train standard. This is a significant milestone and reflects years of development and validation, including our ongoing collaboration with MXP Rail. More broadly, the AAR has now signaled its intent to adopt .16 across all of its communications networks, which we believe confirms Ondas Networks position as a foundational technology provider for next-generation rail communications. This is a very important development given the large total addressable market with the Class 1 rails in North America and underpins what we believe is substantial value underlying Ondas' networks software-defined networking capability and the network upgrade opportunity that will eventually accrue to Ondas shareholders. From a commercial perspective, we are seeing continued progress with interest in 160 megahertz accelerating from many parts of the industry. We are now engaged with all Class 1 railroads and are advancing multiple infield proof-of-concept deployments particularly around 160 megahertz network applications. These efforts are generating strong feedback, and we expect to begin converting these into commercial opportunities in the second half of 2026. At the same time, ACSES radios for Amtrak are now in production with initial deliveries expected to be completed in the first half of the year. While we are disappointed in the time lines with respect to driving network deployments with our rail customers, we continue to see meaningful long-term value in the Ondas Networks business. As adoption of .16 expands and commercial deployments begin to scale. Of course, we are working to realize that value for our investors, and we think we will make measurable progress in 2026. Let me now turn back to Ondas Autonomous Systems and the broader platform. As we outlined at our Investor Day in January, we are executing against a clear plan across both our core business and our strategic growth program and we are making strong progress. We've already covered our 2025 performance at the OAS Investor Day in January. So rather than revisit that, I want to focus today on how the business has evolved and transformed in the last few months. Specifically, I want to walk you through how we've expanded our technology and capabilities, how we are now positioned across multiple high-value market segments and how we have significantly broadened our operating platform. What you'll see in the next few slides is the result of that transformation, how Ondas is evolving into a scaled multi-domain autonomy platform with the ability to deliver integrated solutions at a global level. This is where the strategy becomes visible in the platform we've built. As depicted on this slide, Ondas has undergone a significant transformation in just the last 9 months. I want to highlight the 5 new acquisitions from Q1 2026, Rotron, Mistral, BIRD, INDO Earth and now World View, which have materially expanded both the scope and scale of our platform. Ryan Hartman and I shared details regarding World View and the strategic fit and road map earlier. We will also provide some context for the other acquired companies a bit later on the call. But make no mistake, these acquisitions are not just additive. They are highly strategic. We are adding mission-ready technologies, established customer relationships and exceptional talent across multiple domains. This is accelerating the build-out of our systems-of-systems architecture and expanding our ability to deliver integrated solutions at scale as these companies are also accelerating the scaling of our operating platform. At the same time, this transformation is having a direct impact on our financial model. We are building a significantly larger backlog, increasing our revenue base and expanding our gross profit pool, all of which support operating leverage as we scale and that operating leverage is what ultimately drives our path to profitability. So this is not just about growth. It's about building a platform that can scale efficiently and generate strong financial outcomes over time. This is a step change in the scale and maturity of the Ondas operating and financial platform. Just 12 months ago, Ondas Autonomous Systems was primarily focused on 2 markets: ISR and counter UAS with 2 core platforms: the Optimus system and Iron Drone Raider. Today, that has changed significantly. Our market opportunity set has been transformed. We are now positioned across 4 high-value defense technology verticals, including Counter-UAS, ISR, loitering munitions and one-way attack systems and unmanned ground vehicles. And with the addition of World View, we've extended that capability even further into the stratosphere, adding an entirely new domain to our aerial and ground capabilities. So what you're seeing is a substantial expansion, not only in our technology base but also in the financial opportunities available for Ondas. We've moved from a focused set of capabilities into a broad multi-domain platform positioned to compete across some of the fastest-growing segments in the global defense market. This slide brings together visually everything we've been discussing. Here, you can see the breadth of our aerial and ground-based platforms, combined with the software-enabled command and control layer and AI-driven applications that sit on top. What makes this powerful is not just the individual systems, it's the integration. We are building a unified platform where sensors, effectors and autonomous systems are connected through a common C2 and software layer, enabling coordinated real-time operations across multiple domains. And with our partnership with Palantir, we are able to take that integration even further, deploying these capabilities into broader mission level systems with advanced data fusion, AI-driven analytics and decision support. So rather than offering stand-alone products, we are delivering an integrated operational capability, one that allows customers and partners like Palantir to move from data to decisions faster and to execute missions more effectively. With that foundation in place, let me now turn to how we are scaling this platform through our strategic growth program. Over the past several months, we've announced a series of strategic acquisitions that are expanding both our capabilities and our market access. These businesses play very specific roles within the OAS platform, enhancing our technology stack strengthening our go-to-market capabilities and accelerating our ability to deliver integrated solutions at scale. I covered World View with Ryan earlier in the call. Here, I want to walk through Mistral, Rotron, BIRD and INDO Earth. And highlight how these transactions are contributing to the evolution of our financial model, adding revenue, expanding our gross profit pool and supporting operating leverage. Importantly, we view these acquisitions as highly accretive, not only to our financial profile, but to the long-term enterprise value of Ondas as we continue to scale. Let me start with Mistral which has been a partner of Ondas since the second quarter of last year and is one of our most strategically important acquisitions. Mistral is a direct accelerant for our U.S. market expansion. It enables Ondas to operate as a prime contractor significantly expanding our access to major U.S. defense programs while also adding critical manufacturing and program execution capabilities. Mistral also brings meaningful market experience and customer access across UAVs, loitering munitions and ground robotics, aligning closely with the core segments of our platform. The company has already captured programs in excess of $1 billion, which we expect to generate significant pull-through revenue. We also expect Mistral to contribute meaningful backlog to Ondas upon closing, which we anticipate in the second quarter. Just as importantly, Mistral brings deep U.S. market development expertise, helping us localize our Israeli developed platforms for U.S. requirements and accelerate adoption across defense and security customers. We expect Mistral to be a meaningful driver of revenue growth and EBITDA leverage beginning in the second quarter of 2026 and continuing as we scale our presence in the U.S. market. Next, let me highlight Rotron Aerospace. Rotron significantly expands our aerial capabilities, adding long-range UAV platforms in the Talend platform, autonomous strike systems with the Defender and Stratos platforms and advanced propulsion technologies. This is particularly important as modern defense strategies continue to shift toward low-cost attritable mass scale autonomous systems that can be deployed efficiently and cost effectively in contested environments. With Rotron, we are extending our platform beyond ISR into a more complete strike and effector layer. Strengthening our overall multi-domain architecture. In addition, Rotron provides a strong local presence in the United Kingdom, where it is competing for programs, including the project break stop, a one-way effector or OWE program. Rotron positions Ondas to engage directly with U.K. and broader NATO rearmament programs, which are seeing significant acceleration. So strategically, Rotron enhances both our technology stack and our geographic reach while positioning Ondas to participate in the next generation of autonomous defense systems, where scale, autonomy and affordability are critical. Next, BIRD Aerosystems. BIRD adds a critical airborne protection layer to our platform with advanced ISR and counter UAS capabilities designed to protect both manned and unmanned systems. This is particularly important in today's environment where the increasing lethality and proliferation of low-cost UAS and loitering munitions is driving strong demand for effective airborne protection solutions across both military and security applications. At the core, our proven mission-critical technologies, including laser-based DIRCM systems, which autonomously detect, track and defeat incoming missile threats in real time, providing active protection in highly contested environments. Importantly, BIRD brings access to long cycle program of record defense budgets, supporting more predictable and recurring revenue streams, along with high-margin systems already deployed on leading global platforms. Strategically, BIRD strengthens our ability to deliver integrated ground to air defense architectures while contributing meaningful backlog, revenue and EBITDA as we scale the business. Finally, INDO Earth. INDO Earth expands our ground system strategy into military engineering vehicles, providing entry into large-scale defense procurement programs with immediate revenue contribution. This adds a scalable platform in heavy ground equipment with strong visibility into revenue and gross profit, supported by active programs and customer demand. Importantly, INDO Earth also provides a funded services platform in Israel, which we expect will support the broader OAS business and drive meaningful operating expense leverage as we continue to scale our operations in the region. Strategically, this is an important step in broadening our systems-of-systems architecture into the heavy grad segment, complementing our aerial and ISR capabilities. Over time, we see a clear opportunity to integrate autonomy and advanced technologies into these platforms, creating next-generation robotic engineering systems. INDO Earth is a great business and financial opportunity for Ondas. It not only contributes near-term revenue backlog, but also establishes a foundation for long-term growth in autonomous ground systems. Let me bring this all together. We believe these acquisitions significantly accelerate our systems-of-systems strategy while driving meaningful scale in our financial model. This is exactly how we designed our strategy from the outset. The key takeaway here is the level of accretion we are generating both to our financial model and to our enterprise value. Across these 5 acquisitions, we will deploy approximately $550 million of capital and based on our current estimates, these businesses are expected to generate approximately $230 million of revenue in 2026. We view that as a very attractive entry point, particularly given the growth profiles of these businesses and the operating leverage we expect to achieve as they are integrated into the Ondas platform. Importantly, many of these businesses, particularly Mistral, BIRD and INDO Earth have contracted revenue and/or significant backlog, a steep revenue growth curve supported by strong industry tailwinds. And meaningful expected EBITDA generation over the next 12 to 18 months. At the same time, Rotron and World View represent technology-driven platform businesses with strong long-term growth potential as adoption of their capabilities accelerates, aided by the integration with the Ondas operating platform. So this is not just about adding revenue, it's about expanding our gross profit pool driving operating leverage and enhancing the overall quality of our earnings over time. And importantly, we believe this model is repeatable. We are building a disciplined, programmatic M&A capability that allows us to acquire strategic assets at attractive valuations, integrate them into our platform and drive both growth and margin expansion. We look forward to demonstrating that value creation over time but we believe these transactions are already meaningfully accretive and will become increasingly so as we scale. Let me take a moment to step back and explain how this model works and why we believe it is both highly accretive and repeatable. It starts with identifying and acquiring customer validated technology and services platforms operating in markets and categories with strong secular growth tailwinds. In many cases, these businesses are capital constrained. They have strong products and market demand but lack the capital and infrastructure to fully scale making Ondas as an attractive partner to support the next leg of business growth and value creation that allows us to acquire them at attractive entry valuations. At the same time, Ondas benefits from a premium valuation supported by the operating platform we've built and the capital our investors have provided. That creates a favorable dynamic where we can acquire high-quality assets at attractive valuations and integrate them into a scaled platform. That's what we refer to as day one value creation but the more powerful part of the model is what happens after the acquisition. We see what we call a growth double dip. First, these businesses benefit from the underlying growth in their markets. And second, they grow faster as part of the Ondas platform through our go-to-market capabilities, operational infrastructure and access to capital. We are already seeing this in practice. Companies like Sentrycs and 4M, for example, are outperforming the assumptions we made when underwriting the acquisitions. The upside is driven by our growth double dip by virtue of their integration into the OAS platform. And beyond the individual businesses, there is also a portfolio effect. As we integrate these platforms into a systems-of-systems architecture and go to market with more complete multi-domain solutions, we create greater value for customers, which we believe will drive higher revenue and improve margins over time. So overall, this is not just a series of acquisitions or a portfolio of capabilities. Our operating and financial models drive a compounding value creation flywheel, and we believe this strategic growth program will be a major driver of shareholder value in both the near and long term. Let me now turn to how this translates into our outlook. Here, we will focus on our key operating priorities and provide context on the M&A pipeline as well as update our financial targets. Let me firstly touch on our key operating priorities as we move through 2026. At the core, we remain focused on driving order growth, expanding our backlog and delivering continued revenue growth across the business while leveraging the expanded technology base we've built. We are also continuing to invest in and advance our manufacturing capabilities to support scale and meet increasing demand. On the technology road map, advancing the autonomous border protection infrastructure program remains a major focus. This has significant strategic and financial potential, and we expect it to be an important driver for the business as it progresses. In addition, we are rapidly developing what we refer to as a Shahed killer interceptor, and we are optimistic about our ability to field the competitive system in what is becoming a very important market segment. Beyond our core road map, we have also established several new growth platforms that we believe offer meaningful upside to our current financial outlook. Importantly, we have not yet incorporated material contributions from some of these initiatives into our forecast. That includes the layered ISR go-to-market efforts with Palantir, where we are seeing encouraging early engagement and believe this could become a meaningful growth driver as programs develop. Similarly, ONBERG is actively pursuing opportunities in Germany and Ukraine. While we have not yet included revenue from this joint venture in our outlook, we are optimistic about its potential as visibility improves. So overall, we see multiple avenues for upside beyond our current plan as these platforms begin to convert into orders and revenue over time. We will surely keep you updated on this progress. Let me spend a moment on our strategic growth program and M&A pipeline. Our programmatic M&A effort, led by Mark Green continues to be highly productive. We've built a disciplined team and process that spans technical, market, financial and legal expertise, along with dedicated post-merger integration processes to ensure we can efficiently scale these businesses once acquired. As we continue to demonstrate execution, we are seeing increasing inbound interest, including from larger and more mature companies and their investors. We view this as strong validation of our platform and strategy. We believe our ability to source, execute and integrate acquisitions is becoming a core competitive advantage for Ondas. Our pipeline remains robust with over $500 million of potential revenue across active opportunities. That said, our focus is not on driving the size of the pipeline, it's on quality. We are highly selective and prioritize targets that are strategically aligned, financially accretive and that enhance our systems-of-systems road map. The opportunity set is much larger, and we are careful on how we prioritize and sequence our M&A activity. In terms of capital allocation, we've utilized equity in recent transactions as a way to align with sellers and reflect the value of the platform we are building. At the same time, we remain flexible. We will deploy both equity and cash as appropriate, while maintaining a strong balance sheet. And finally, on the topic of dilution versus accretion, our focus is always on value creation. When we issue equity, the key question is what we are acquiring in return. As we've outlined, we believe these transactions are highly accretive and we will continue to demonstrate that through our results over time. Let me now turn to our updated financial outlook. We are increasing our 2026 revenue target to at least $375 million which represents more than a doubling of the outlook we provided at our Investor Day in January. This increase reflects upside across both our core business and the contribution from the acquisitions we have announced in the first quarter. For the first quarter, we expect revenue in the range of $38 million to $40 million, representing strong year-over-year growth. The full impact of these acquisitions will build over time. In Q1, BIRD is the only newly acquired company expected to contribute meaningfully with the majority of revenue from acquisitions ramping from Q2 through the rest of the year. We also expect backlog to increase significantly in the first quarter, driven by continued order momentum in the core business as well as the addition of backlog from the newly acquired companies. From an investment perspective, we will see increased operating expenses at both Ondas Inc. and OAS in the first and second quarter of 2026, as we continue to build out the team and infrastructure required to support a much larger enterprise. We view these investments as essential to enabling the next phase of growth, and we expect them to drive meaningful operating leverage over time as revenue scales. Importantly, we are maintaining our path to profitability. We expect our product companies to reach positive EBITDA in the third quarter of 2026, followed by OAS in the third quarter of 2027 and Ondas Inc. in the first quarter of 2028. And as we begin to integrate our recent acquisitions and realize the benefits of scale, we believe there is potential to accelerate these time lines. So overall, we believe our outlook reflects a business that is scaling rapidly with strong visibility, increasing momentum and multiple opportunities for upside as we move through 2026 and beyond. Finally, the unmanned and autonomy sectors are transitioning from development to deployment with end markets still early in a 10-plus year adoption cycle and increasing urgency for industry maturity. This creates a generational opportunity for leaders like Ondas, reinforcing our focus on executing the core and strategic growth plan. With that said, I want to thank you again for spending the time with us. Operator, we will now move to take investor questions.
Operator:
[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Austin Bohlig from Needham.
Austin Bohlig:
Congrats on all the solid results. The first question I had is just given kind of the increasing conflict we're seeing in the Middle East, how has the business may have progressed or order flow or interest since that conflict began?
Eric Brock:
Austin, thank you. So without a doubt, that is driving more activity. So we're seeing more demand, more RFP, more urgency. And of course, that's also supporting the long-term thesis we have around how we're building our business and the markets and capabilities we're focused on. I'll ask Meir Kliner maybe to give some more texture to that answer. Meir?
Meir Kliner:
Sure. We believe we have the right products at the right time through our tech companies we are well positioned in both ISR and counter UAS, which are the 2 of the most critical capabilities in today's operational environment. We have seen a very strong demand right now, particularly for the system that we are already proven and deployed around the world. By the way, looking ahead, we don't see this as a short-term dynamic. If anything, once the current conflicts end, there will be a broader recognition that these threats are not going away. So the budget for the government and defense organization is going to increase dramatically, and hopefully, we will be there to supply our capabilities with our tech companies. Thank you.
Austin Bohlig:
All right. And I guess just one follow-up for you guys. Really appreciate the color on kind of the revenue contribution from these recent and sizable acquisitions. For that 2026 kind of number you guys provided in the deck. Should we assume that's what's going to be recognized? Or is that kind of like a pro forma revenue number?
Eric Brock:
So we've given you the target of at least $375 million. We have quite a bit of visibility. We did share some details around what I do believe and I was emphasizing our conservative outlook that we underwrote for the acquired companies in Q1 and I'd highlight that those numbers are full year outlooks. So you got to consider the fact that we're going to only be consolidating the bulk of them over the last 3 quarters of the year. So that's the way to think about the math there.
Operator:
Our next question comes from Jon Siegmann from Stifel.
Jonathan Siegmann:
So the multilayered ISR, I appreciate all the details on World View. It's been a challenge for the military and industry, just to stick even a single pair of these sensors together. Can you comment a bit on how the customers are going to procure this ambitious capability? And is it possible we'll see some near-term contracts? Or is this something that Ondas might participate as a prime? Or is this as a sub to Palantir or somebody else?
Eric Brock:
All right. Great question, Jon, and I'm going to ask Ryan to provide some context. Ryan?
Ryan Hartman:
Yes. Jon, great question. So in the near term, we expect contracts for the single domains and procuring intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance as a service from those domains. The strategy that we have for a service or a system of systems, will ultimately give us the ability to contract for multi-domain with single customers. So we're seeing movement in the customer base to procure multi-domain through single sources. And the partnership with Palantir enables us to provide a portal for customers to be able to access that multi-domain ISR. So it will take some time to build out the Palantir layer of the technology. But once that's built out, we'll be able to start offering multi-domain ISR as a service to specific customers.
Eric Brock:
All right. And I'd emphasize that the Stratollite in the stratosphere that's operational today, and it is leveraging some of the work that World View has done with Palantir so we're demonstrating the value and we do believe that we're going to be able to integrate it into other layers that Ondas has and will have in the future.
Jonathan Siegmann:
And then maybe just one on Mistral, great acquisition there. I think most of us are familiar with the HERO system. But our sense is it's more diversified than just that product line. You mentioned $1 billion IDIQ, which is the hero. Just can you talk a bit more about the other products they produce.
Eric Brock:
Yes, Jon, that's a great point. The HERO is an important product line and program from Mistral, but they do have a bunch of other active systems that they're selling and quite a lot of capabilities around that. So Meir, can you provide some more context around the other things that Mistral is bringing.
Meir Kliner:
So Eric, it was hard to hear. Can you repeat the question, please?
Eric Brock:
Yes. So the question Meir is, on Mistral in addition to the loitering munitions, the HERO systems. The other revenue-generating platforms.
Meir Kliner:
Yes, they have not only loitering munition, also ISR and also ground vehicle, I think that we talked about it before that we used to work in Mistral in our portfolio companies, also in the UTV and ISR drones and ground units. So I think it's the whole system. And this is specific in the segments that we are working. And this was one of our interests when we're talking about Mistral. And right now, they have the project for the ISR and not only loitering munition.
Operator:
Our next question comes from Timothy Horan from Oppenheimer.
Timothy Horan:
Eric, can you give us a sense of these acquisitions, what you think the organic growth rate is? And also, can you just talk about the bottlenecks to growth? Is it go-to-market? Is it your manufacturing capacity? Is it just getting yes, any color around that? And then lastly, you have some revenue targets out there for 2030. It seems like you're kind of well ahead of schedule there? Just any thoughts on that revenue target?
Eric Brock:
Yes. So I'll start with the last observation, and I agree with that. So we are quite confident with the businesses that we've put together here, the momentum we have, the success we think we're demonstrating with the model that, that $1.5 billion target is very visible. So coming back to the first question, we did -- if you look at Ondas in the core as it was ending 2025, the full year pro forma revenue would have been in the $90 million to $95 million range. So clearly, we were looking for significant growth when we started the year, and we shared that $175 million target at our OES Investor Day in January. And I would say that in our increase here to $375 million, we see that core growth even stronger. So we feel really good with our visibility, and we think the growth is going to remain significant going into '27 for sure and beyond.
Timothy Horan:
And what's the bottleneck to growth? Is it -- I mean, do you have the manufacturing capacity? Do you have the salespeople?
Eric Brock:
Yes, I don't -- I mean, there are no bottlenecks to what we've laid out. But of course, we're going to have to continue -- because we have the capacity identified and we have been building aggressively the OAS platform, which we've emphasized on this call today, and we're going to continue to do that. We're also investing in integration so that the acquired companies can leverage the OAS platform out of the gates to its greatest extent. So at the same time, of course, this is quite a significant revenue ramp in business opportunities. So we're going to have to build the manufacturing capacity in partners as we're going forward. We'll keep you posted on how we're doing that. But I don't think we have any unique bottlenecks, and we can deliver what we're targeting for the year for sure.
Timothy Horan:
And just lastly on World View. Are we talking thousands of balloons in the stratosphere, ultimately, our tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, I mean, how are you thinking about this? And can you create a cellular network of these stratosphere balloons?
Eric Brock:
Yes. Great. So Ryan, maybe you could share a couple of things a bit about the as-a-service element of this and then add some details around the various payloads that we see customers engaging in and how the markets may open further for other use cases.
Ryan Hartman:
Yes, happy to. Thanks for the question. So the way we operate today is we provide data and intelligence as a service. And so essentially, the way that I've looked at it in the past is data is the new oil, the more data you produce and process, the more customers you can create on a per-flight basis. So when we're looking at the market, we're seeing some great movement in the U.S. Air Force moving towards a program of record. We've seen stated demand that would equate to 250 flights per year just for that 1 customer. In addition to that, we're seeing movement on Golden Dome where the stratosphere is an important layer to the overall Golden Dome architecture. Our assessment is that Golden Dome will make up hundreds of flights per year for that specific capability. And then when we think about kind of the broader market, those 2 specific customers would make up upwards of 450 flights per year. We see equivalent capabilities necessary for Australia, Canada and other allied partners around the world. And then we're building out a commercial capability as well where our technology can be used for things like oil and gas pipeline monitoring, where we can be detecting methane. And we see use cases for monitoring railways and power lines. Anything that's long linear infrastructure, the stratosphere has a unique advantage of being able to see a significant amount of that infrastructure in a single image. And having the right sensors gives us the ability to turn the stratosphere into a very useful asset for, like I mentioned, detecting things like methane, obstructions on railway, falling power lines or foliage encroachment on power lines, things like that. And then on the communications question, yes, absolutely. We can provide a unique mesh networking and/or 4G/5G connectivity from our platforms. So as we start to build out the commercial side, we'll leverage the size, weight and power of the Stratollite to be able to carry multiple sensors or multiple capabilities on a single flight that ultimately increases the gross margin per flight and produces significant revenue on a single flight. So we're quite excited about the number of use cases, excited about the growth and not just the defense market, but the commercial market as well. So to answer your question specifically, are we talking hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands, I believe that scale, we'll be operating thousands of flights per year and something on the order of 50% gross margin on a per flight basis.
Operator:
Our next question comes from Max Michaelis from Lake Street Capital Markets.
Maxwell Michaelis:
If we go back to the core business, Iron Drone and Optimus, I know you gave out guidance. I think it was last fall or summer. You talked about a $25 million and $45 million in 2026. I was curious if you can kind of update us on what that looks like now. I know just with -- I just kind of want to get an idea of sort of the organic growth rate of the original core business.
Eric Brock:
I think the -- what I'll say, Max, is that the growth rate there is similar to what I've outlined by giving the tools with the 90 to 95 core, which is essentially doubling this year. And what I'll add is that we're seeing particular strength on the counter drone side with both Iron Drone and Sentrycs and that's going to be growing faster than Optimus.
Maxwell Michaelis:
Okay. And that kind of leads into my next question. I was just hoping you can kind of call out maybe some of the 2025 acquisitions, ones that are sort of outperforming your original expectations is probably just soon to calling you out on the 2026 acquisitions, but anything that helps kind of around the 2025 acquisitions.
Eric Brock:
It's a good question. I think I can say we're very happy with all the companies and how they're performing. I did highlight in the prepared remarks, Sentrycs and 4M and I've done that because those are some deals that we've announc