Nauticus Robotics, Inc. (KITT) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Nautic Robotics Incorporated 2026 Q1. To raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Kristin Moorman, corporate development lead. Kristin, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Joining me today and participating in the call are John Gibson, CEO and President Jimena Begaries, Interim CFO and other members of our leadership team. On today's call, we will first provide prepared remarks concerning our financial and operations results. Following that, we will answer questions. We have now released our results for the quarter ending 03/31/2026 which are available on our website. In addition, today's call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on our website shortly following the conclusion of the call. Please note that comments we make on today's call regarding projections or our expectations for future events are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to review our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC. Also, please refer to the reconciliations provided in our earnings press release as we made discuss non GAAP metrics on this call. Will now turn it over to John.

Well, good morning. Thank you, Kristin. And thank you to everyone for joining us on the call today. The first quarter 26 was a seasonally softer quarter for offshore and that is consistent with what the broader subsea and offshore services market experienced during the winter operating season. We saw similar commentary from larger industry participants, including Helix and Oceaneering, both of which pointed to winter seasonality, lower first quarter utilization, and expectations for stronger activity in 2026. For Nauticus, the important point is this. We used the quarter productively. While revenue was not where we wanted it to be, our team focused on the work that positions us for an improved execution in the second half of the year as the operating system season strengthens. We advanced fleet readiness completed significant annual maintenance and refurbishment activities across several of the ROV systems and continued preparing our systems for higher utilization opportunities during the remainder of the year. We also continued advancing Nauticus Toolkit, our proprietary autonomy software platform. Nauticus Toolkit is central to our strategy because it allows us to create value not only through services, also through software licensing, technology enabled services, and deployment on customer owned vehicles. During the quarter, we continued integrating Nautica's toolkit across our subsea systems along with new high definition camera systems, and other advanced sensors designed to improve navigation efficiency data quality, and customer value. We also made progress with Aquanaut and our autonomous manipulation capabilities. Aquanaut vehicle 1 has now completed more than 500 hours of in water on client driven workflows and more than 200 successful vertical inspection behaviors on mooring lives. These are important steps towards offshore deployment, and the data from that testing continues to guide our software and engineering improvements. International expansion also remains another important part of our growth strategy. During the quarter, we continued advancing our UAE and broader GCC initiative, including work toward a long term operational and commercial presence in Ras Al Khaimah. That region represents a meaningful opportunity for Nauticus across offshore energy, technology licensing, manufacturing support, and strategic partnerships. Finally, we are pleased to welcome Brian Allen as chief revenue officer. Brian brings nearly 2 decades of subsea robotics, autonomy, and commercial leadership experience. His focus is clear, convert customer interest into revenue opportunities across offshore services, software licensing, hardware sales, defense, and international markets. So while Q1 reflected normal offshore seasonality, we believe Nauticus exited the quarter better prepared more focused on commerciality, and positioned to pursue a strong opportunity set through the balance of the year. With that, I am going to turn it over to Jimena to walk you through the financials. Jimena?

Okay. Thank you, John. And good morning, everyone. I will now discuss our financial results for the quarter 2020 for 2026. During our first quarter, we remained focused on preserving liquidity, maintaining stockholder equity, and securing financial resources necessary to support the company. Revenue for the first quarter $200 thousand which is down $900 thousand sequentially and essentially flat from the same quarter last year. This performance is consistent with the seasonal trends we typically experience in the first quarter and reflects the overall market John just discussed. Operating expenses for the quarter were $5.8 million. Which is down 200 thousand from Q1 2024 and down $800 thousand sequentially. G&A costs for the quarter were $3.2 million which is an improvement of 1.2 million compared to Q1 25. Sequentially, G&A has increased $600 thousand due to the nonrecurring legal fee credit received in Q4 25. Net loss for the quarter was $9.3 million. This is a $9.9 million decrease in net loss sequentially and a $1.7 million increase in net loss from Q1 25. These variations, both positive and negative, are largely related to the changes in fair value of our debt instruments. Adjusted net loss for the quarter was $6.4 million compared to $10.4 million for the 2025 and $6.6 million in Q1 25. Cash at the end of Q1 26 was $5.9 million, compared $7.6 million at the end of 2025. This decrease is related to cash used in operating activities. As we move into the second quarter, we remain disciplined in our approach to managing the business and preserving financial flexibility. I will now pass the call back to John.

Thank you, Jimena. I am going to turn it over to our leads that are working on international expansion. Revenue opportunities. Jason Close will be first with updates on our UAE expansion. Jason?

Thanks, John. Since our last call, we have been focused on moving from strategy into execution. Around our UAE and broader GCC expansion efforts. While the current regional security environment has limited our ability to travel in person. It has not slowed our progress. In fact, we have continued to advance the foundational work needed to establish a presence in Ras Al Khaimah, and support long term growth in the region. Over the past several weeks, we have been actively engaged in identifying a location in Ras Al Khaimah that can support our long term operations and commercial goals. We have also engaged a UAE based marketing agency to support the next phase of our market activation efforts. That work includes improvements to our website, branding, go to market materials, both for the regional market and more broadly as we continue refining how we position the Nauticus portfolio globally. At the same time, we are seeing that business opportunities in the regions continue to move forward and mature, even with the broader uncertainty. The current environment has also reinforced the relevance of our solution government and defense related applications, particularly where unmanned systems, remote operations, and increased operational safety are a priority. We are being careful and disciplined in how we approach those opportunities, but we believe our portfolio is well aligned with several of the region's long term needs. In parallel, we are seeing increased interest outside the GCC region and we continue expanding our international commercial engagement efforts. In addition, we continue to make progress in our collaboration with Forum Energy Technologies around the Olympic arm platform. During the first quarter, the team completed a review of the existing design documents, and in the second quarter, we expect to begin collaborative testing activities around the current prototype. This remains an important opportunity to further validate our technology and expand its application through established industry channels. Overall, we continue to see long term potential in these international markets. We are focused on executing our growth strategy in a disciplined and structured way through 2026. With that, I will now hand the call over to Steve Walsh, our sales lead for an update.

Thank you, Jason, and good morning. As expected, Q1 sales reflected the seasonal softness that is traditionally impacted operations across the Gulf of Mexico during the winter months. Weather conditions limited offshore activity, throughout much of the quarter and lower oil prices contributed to a more cautious operating environment early in the year. More recently, however, we have seen energy markets begin to strengthen driven in part by geopolitical instability and the ongoing conflict involving Iran. Despite the slower start to the year, we remain very encouraged by the outlook of the remainder of 2026. We are seeing strong momentum in upcoming offshore activity with several new contracts recently commencing across both offshore oil and gas sector and the offshore wind industry. This diversification continues to position us well as demand for subsea services expands across multiple energy markets. In addition, we are continuing to actively pursue project opportunities along both U. S. Coast throughout the Gulf of Mexico and in select international markets. We are also expanding our focus within the defense sector where we believe our subsea capabilities, operational experience and technology platforms position us well for future opportunities. To that end, we are excited to be deploying resources in early June in support of a large defense contractor, the first work of this variety in over 1 year. Importantly, our team used a slower offshore period productively during the quarter we completed major annual maintenance and refurbishment activities across several of our ROV systems. These efforts ensure that our fleet is operating at peak efficiency and reliability as we move into what we expect will be a significantly more active 2026 operating season. We also continue to make meaningful progress on the technology front. Nauticus Toolkit, our proprietary software platform, along with new perception capabilities, and other advanced sensor technologies, are being successfully integrated across our subsea systems. These enhancements improve operational capability, data quality, and overall client value while further differentiating us in an increasingly competitive subsea vehicle market. As the year progresses, we believe these operational improvements combined with strengthening offshore demand, geographic expansion, continued technology integration, and growing exposure to the defense related opportunities position the company well for growth and long term success. Thank you again for your continued support and confidence in our team. With that, I will turn it over to Brian Allen our revenue lead, for his thoughts on 2026.

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. I am Brian Allen, the new chief revenue officer at Nautica. And this is my first earnings call with the company, so I want to be straightforward with you about how I see things and what I intend to do. Heard about the weather conditions that brought about our Q1 results. it is going to be my job to broaden our revenue streams across technology, robotic hardware, and services in other global locations that help smooth this and move us to more of a rapid growth pro profile. Briefly on my background. I spent the last decade building a subsea robotics and AI company called Vaarst from scratch to around 230 people, growing revenue at 60% to 100% year-over-year and creating a $840 million sales pipeline that brought $90 million of sales and order book in my final 12 months. We sold autonomous inspection tech, and tech enabled services into the exact same markets Nauticus operates in. Before that, I spent 10 years at Subsea 7, starting off piloting ROVs, then supervising and managing them to build oil fields and wind farms. So I know these customers, I know this market. And I know what it takes to sell advanced autonomy into exactly this industry. People have asked me why I chose Nauticus, and the honest answer is 2 things. I found during my technical diligence that I have not seen elsewhere in any other marine business. First, Nauticus Toolkit is the most advanced autonomy software available to purchase today for subsea vehicles. It is the leader in the category that matters commercially. A deployable, supported product that customers can run on their existing vehicles today. And I see several near term opportunities in the market for this software. Software sales are our clearest route to smoothing seasonality, they are not tied to weather. Second, and this is what really changed my mind, company's work on autonomous manipulator control. The IP here is potentially 5 years ahead of the closest competition. When you consider how much of the offshore inspection, intervention and repair market is constrained by pilot ability and vessel costs, reliable autonomous manipulation represents a very significant commercial opportunity. Bringing that to market alongside the core Nauticus Toolkit platform and offering it with Aquanaut is where I see the real step change for this business. On what I intend to do. My first priority is generating early commercial wins that rebuild market confidence I have already identified a small number of near term Nauticus Toolkit opportunities and potential high-7, low-8-figure Aquanaut services tender from my own network that I intend to move on quickly. Beyond that, I am building the marketing function and sales infrastructure to drive tech sales. Technology driven services, and Aquanaut hardware sales globally. A key part of my role is generating clear commercial signals from the market that Ameen and the engineering team can use to direct development efforts. The closer we tie what we build to what our customers are telling us they need, the faster the technology converts into revenue. I operate capital efficiently. That is a necessity in this market, and it is how I have always built businesses. I am already designing systems that use AI to automate parts of our sales marketing function, which allows us to strengthen commercial capability rapidly at a fraction of what a traditional approach would cost with fewer headcount. In a company at our stage, every dollar of commercial spend needs to work hard. I want to close with this. I did have other opportunities on the table, and I chose Nauticus because the technology here is genuinely differentiated, which is very rare in this industry. The team here is strong, and I see an asymmetric opportunity that is worth committing to. I have taken a shareholding as part of my compensation because I want my interests aligned with all of yours. And this is not spin. I would not have joined if I did not see a bright future for this business. I am looking forward to updating you all on our commercial progress over the coming quarters. And I will hand back to you, John.

Thank you, Brian. We are excited to have you here. We recognize that Q1 revenue reflects a slower seasonal period but we are encouraged by the direction of the business. Our fleet readiness is improved. Our technology continues to advance. Nautica's toolkit is becoming a clearer commercial opportunity and gives you the ability to offset some of the seasonality. And our UAE and GCC expansion efforts are moving from strategy and execution. Most importantly, we are sharpening our focus on revenue. With Brian joining the team, a stronger commercial structure and continued opportunities across software, offshore energy, defense, international markets, software license and the hardware sales that we believe Nauticus is positioned to build momentum through the remainder of 2026. We appreciate the continued support of our shareholders. Our customers, our partners, and particularly our employees. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the quarters ahead. With that, operator, I would like to open up the line for questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Your first question comes from the line of Peter Gastreich with Water Tower Research. Peter, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. So good morning, and thanks for taking my question. it is great to see the new senior hire with Brian other talent that is been coming into Nauticus recently. I am really looking forward to tracking the team's progress, you know, throughout the rest of this year. But my first question, just kicking off with the, revenue trajectory, Q1, clearly seasonal softness which should be expected, but it does look a little bit softer than expected. Could you talk about your strategy to reduce those seasonal swings in your business going forward? For example, how software would play a role in that? And also in terms of, you know, cadence into Q2 and second half of the year, any anything you can share about, you know, key revenue drivers there would be helpful.

Thank you. Oh, appreciate the question, Peter. It really straightforward as to how we get balance on revenue, and that is we have to begin to do 2 things. Number 1 is we have to sell Nauticus Toolkit, and I will let Brian comment on that in just a moment. That eliminates sort of the seasonality and the weather related risk that you have on revenues. The second thing we need to do is to have some international exposure so that we are not locked in to the seasonality of the Gulf Of America or North America. So I think those 2 strategies executed well will cause us to even out and the revenue profile for the company.

And so it is on the software side. Brian, is there any comments you would wanna make on software and how you think that will eliminate the seasonality and the softness and-- yeah of course. Software. So I guess the fastest lever that we have got on Nauticus Toolkit sales is rate is basically 1 of the fastest levers we have in software licensing Nauticus Toolkit sales. The products mature, already deployed on third party platforms. Including Comanche and VideoRay Defender, and it is outperformed incumbent solutions. Like, 1 of the great things with software sales is they are year round. Like, these devices, they are essentially-- they are used year round. Licenses are charged year round. So in terms of smoothing profile, it is the clearest route. it is generating a year round revenue source that is smoother than the lumpiness that you see in offshore services type contracts.

Yeah. I would have also thought we would have been a little further ahead on activities in the GCC, but the conflict has prevented us ramping as rapidly as we want. it is still going well. And we have got an excellent opportunity there, and we are excited about it. I am looking forward to going back, over to, UAE here probably mid, late June. And, continuing to develop that opportunity. But the conflict there slowed that down a bit, but it has not we have lost no momentum there. So we are excited about working with them.

Now still early stages at this particular point. I mean, I have been with the company for less than 1 week now. But I have got considerable number of contacts already in the industry who I have already reached out to. And there is interest in Nauticus Toolkit. So there is calls there for me to make, there is meetings for me to have, and there is a market which we can sell into which is interested. So think Nauticus Toolkit's gonna be pretty good for our future. it is just a case of how quickly we can convert that pipeline.

Next question, Peter. Okay. Thank you. So with the you have a Northeast ROV fleet which would be a good, you know, proof point for Nauticus Toolkit. Has that been helpful for you in terms of your life discussions and where do those stand? This it is a-- another really good question. You can hardly sell Nauticus Toolkit running on ROVs unless you eat your own dog food and put it on your own ROVs. And so we are excited to have it deployed there. that is also the best testing so that we know that the quality of the product that we are sending to customers. We are we are very optimistic about the proof. Showing them the work that we are doing, so that they can see the productivity enhancements that you would get from deploying of this type of autonomy on to the current and existing ROV fleet. It gives them the opportunity to either get greater, utilization out of the assets they have, but it also keeps them from having to buy additional ROVs potentially. This is a great way to increase capacity of your fleet if you have 10, and you can get 20-plus percent, that is 2 you do not need to buy. And so I think it is a great financial opportunity for the ROV, commercial operators to improve the utilization of their fleets without having to increase the number of assets. So, putting it on our own ROV is gonna demonstrate and quantify that for ROV operators, and I think improves our chances of selling the software. And so, yes, it is up in the Northeast, and, I think we should be posting some things about the success with it there as we go through this quarter and we do this work.

Okay. Thanks. And Brian mentioned the high-7, low-8 opportunity. Sorry. Could you please just repeat that just to make sure I understand what you have mentioned there?

Yeah of course. So part of my remit is expanding types of revenue across EMEA. And I am looking at both technology enabled services and also toolkit licensing and the longer sales cycle, Aquanaut hardware sales, which we need to build the infrastructure for to convert that. So the 2 short term opportunities are essentially, as I for software licensing and technology enabled services And so to do that, we have to start building a pipeline of potential services contracts in EMEA. Now these are similar to the work that is already taking place in North America. The company already has this capability. it is using similar assets. it is just geographically different. So I am starting to reach out to my network and bring in tendering opportunities a similar nature to what the business can already complete in the US, albeit geographically closer to where I work from.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Kind of a bigger picture question here. Just wanna ask to what extent the, you know, budget cycles are important for your emerging customer base. So, you know, you have, for example, oil and gas. You know, certainly with government type work, you know, I would imagine we might be, you know, past the cycle for the new work in 2026. Is that the way to look at it that we should be focused more on sort of the opportunities for 2027 now? Or do you know, are there still kind of budgets for 2026 that, your customers can work with? And then also, you know, in terms of those 2027 budgets, you know, is there, you know, signaling or confirmation for that you know, time with your customers, the annual budget announcements?

Just curious broadly how that works against your customer cycles. Okay. So a lot of questions in that question, Peter. See how we do here. The first 1 is, I just got back from Washington. And was up marketing and doing business development on the government. Side. We are there, and we are doing a really good job, I think, of positioning what we can do and how we can influence a lot of government work, not all I can talk about. But I would tell you that what we have to do is be there right now and marketing in order for us to be successfully included in the 2027-2028 budgets. And it looks as though they are planning out 2 years ahead. And so you wanna be there and be on the ticket for 2027-2028. And, I think that we are very successful in, positioning ourselves for that 2027-2028 budget. The 2026 budget will require them having probably a vendor default or a vendor issue or an emergency that we can fill in for, and we are positioned to go in and work with them in the event that they have a an immediate need. But I think the real opportunity for us is to be contracted for the 2027-2028 work, and we need to be doing that now. And that is what we are doing. We have finally gotten all of the products ready to go in and just bid commercial work at that level and to be considered a vendor for the 2027-2028 season. So a very positive outcome for us. it is in terms of even our existing customers, we continue in terms of oil and gas. there is still a lot of opportunity. there is going to be a lot of transactional and call out work through the rest of 2026. I think oil and gas prices are gonna be stable at where they are to higher. I would not be opening up the Strait of Hormuz to drop the prices but only for a short period of time until we understand the damage to the infrastructure that has occurred during the conflict. And so look for longer term higher oil prices. And as a consequence, I think you are gonna see the activity continue to ramp in the oil and gas sector, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world offshore as, those are the least expensive barrels to produce. And so it is a tremendous opportunity for us. And I have-- [Inaudible] to that?

Yeah. So I have less history with Nauticus but I can talk about the industry generally from my previous work doing similar work in a similar vehicles in a similar environment. And compared to contracted positions from this particular point in the year, you have a certain ability to forecast revenue for the rest of the year. But that never includes spot work and emergency work. And in my previous company, from where we are today, we typically see a 30% to 40% uplift. Based on forecast revenue. Now that does not directly translate to Nauticus, because in North America, not EMEA. But you generally see a significant increase in revenue in the latter quarters based on spot work. And the spot work market.

Another unintended consequence of this conflict is I think you are going to see a strengthening emphasis on wind energy and the maintenance, of the wind farms offshore as people try to offset higher oil and gas prices. So our position in doing the wind work in the Northeast is gonna be very advantageous to us, and Steve's got tremendous connections there as does Brian. And so I think we can pursue quite a bit of the offshore wind farm activity, which, people will focus on with price that oil and gas is gonna hold for the longer period. These alternative offshore energy producers are going to, I think, see quite a lot of activity.

Okay. Great. Thank you. I will just ask 1 more question here before getting back in the queue. You have cash sitting at, close to $6 million, and continue to burn. How should investors think about your, funding runway over the next 2 to 3 quarters?

Jimena, you alright to. Answer? I mean, it right now, Q1 was light. On cash flow. As a result, we have looked towards Q2, Q3 as to when the revenue picks up and the collections cash flow is always an issue for a company like this, because collections occur after the work is done. So we probably continue to look at, using the ATM lightly. I will also use the e lock and we have tremendous support from our current, lenders. And so we are not concerned about the availability of the cash. We have taken as little as we can. As we go forward, our goal here is to get the cash flow breakeven and not have to use any other method that might dilute shareholders or would give us long term long term obligations. But the ability to withstand this long term and to get this company where it needs to be as we go into 2027-2028 is there. So we are focused on creating great products, great results for customers, customer satisfaction because this is a long term company, not a short term company, and I think the funding that we need to get through 2026 is available to us. And need to be self funding as we go to the end of the year going into 2027.

Great. Very much for the taking my questions and the presentation from your team. I will get back in the queue.

Your next question comes from the line of Alexander Latimore with Northwind. Alexander, your line is open. Please go ahead. Alexander, your line is open.

Can you hear me? Yeah. We can hear you, Alexander. Oh, you can hear me? Okay. I am not sure how much of a how much came through there. But I am gonna wrap 2 questions into my first 1 here. For the first 1, I was wondering if you could describe the advancements that Nauticus Toolkit provides for subsea vehicles and then-- this is still part of the first. If you have any metrics that show the autonomy benefits before and after the system is upgraded. And then the second part is do you need to upfit customers' ROVs, or do they already have the necessary hardware to run Nauticus Toolkit?

Well, you are knowledgeable. Questioner this morning. Well, first off, let's let's start with the last part, then we will go to the first part. In order for you to be able to control, navigate the vehicle, we have to install additional equipment on the ROV. Typically an INS, so that we know exactly where the vehicle is. And we have the ability to control it. So, yes, there is additional equipment, that needs to be installed on the ROV. After the equipment's installed, what we have the ability to do then is to actually control the dynamic positioning of the vehicle so that we can get bottom locks hold the vehicle at a specified height above the seafloor, and we are able to control it in terms of its navigation from point to point. Now what we have done, which to the first part of your question is, the very first time that we used this, we actually did a quantitative test that I think we posted some short videos up on, X. And what we have discovered was this. When you are doing autonomy on an ROV in the way that we do it with Nauticus Toolkit, you do not know anything about current, but what you do is you optimize the path, and so the thrusters are continuing to operate at different levels in order to maintain a line. And so what it moves from 1 point to the other very efficiently and in a straight line as it is continually adjusting all 8 thrusters in order to maintain the connection and fit to that line. When you are an ROV operator and you are still steering it manually, you are trying to overcome the current, You are trying to pull the umbilical behind you and the and the tether. Everything is working in the currents, and you actually have different currents at different depths. And so it is a pretty complicated operation. And they are using just the thrusters in order to try to move the vehicle from point to point. What we discovered was that there is at least a 20% reduction in efficiency and inability to stay on that line when you are steering it manually. Now that has a lot of consequences. A 20% increase in time as a result of doing it manually, just convert that into 20% of a daily vessel rate, which is running anywhere from say, 25 thousand to a $150 thousand. So we will say in the 40 to $50 thousand a day range, you are saving $8 thousand a day just on vessel time. If you are at the $40 thousand range, that is leaves you a lot of room for a software license on a day rate basis. To improve the quality of those ROVs. The second thing that happens is when you are moving laterally, back and forth and you are moving up and down, your data quality is not as consistent, and you are having to do a lot of post-process on the data in order to get the data that is wanted and desired and the quality that you want. When you hold a fixed position above the bottom and you stay in a straight line, you get much higher data quality and a lot lower, effort and terms of data processing after that. So I think it brings advantages to data. It brings tremendous advantages to cost. It actually is improving, the ROV operators themselves or some of our biggest advocates because it reduces what they spend a lot of time doing. They want to concentrate on the task that they are trying to do in terms of inspection and looking at data and observing the infrastructure as opposed to steering the vehicle. So you are bringing concentration back to the ROV on the task at hand. So there is a lot of benefits to it, and I think we are the adoption of this for the ROV world, I think, is gonna pick up dramatically. They have some of these capabilities on the heavy duty ROVs, but as we are finding, nobody turns those on. They have never really concentrated on a commercial quality autonomy system for the ROV world, I think we are gonna lead in that.

Okay. that is a great response. that is amazing color there. Let's see. My I guess while we are talking about the data, here, what is the most I guess, if you could rank maybe the top 2 or 3 most valuable data points that you collect And then is there any customer interest in buying that data?

Okay. So we would yeah. I can let some of the other guys here comment too. Typically, we are contracted to collect the data for them, and it is proprietary data. And so we do not have a data library. it is it is something I have pondered as to whether or not we could lower the cost of the data and then have a data library. But most of this is proprietary infrastructure They pay for it. They own it. They use it to manage their infrastructure. And so you return it to them, and we do not provide that as a data library, like you would with, say, SpecSeismic where you collect data and sell it to multiple people. We do not do that in the in the industry for most of the work that is done with ROVs. It and I will make sure I am looking at the folks here to make sure I am not misleading you on this. But, the, the opportunity to do that exists, particularly when you get to the environmental work where you are doing you know, looking at coral reefs, etcetera, but, where it is for the general good, having that data library, but you still need to have somebody collect that data and pay for the collection of it.

Brian, you got any comments you wanna make? Just on in the main part, retaining rights on data analysis of customer data is difficult. But there are strategies that can be followed there, and we should talk after the call.

Yeah. it is it mainly it belongs to them, to the customer. And all of the customers have a-- they want to maintain confidentiality of it. To them, it is a competitive advantage. So it is it is difficult to use it for any other purpose other than basically, fee for service.

We just deliver the data. Okay. Understood. Got you there. I got 1 more question. I was just curious what maybe some of the biggest technology advancements you expect to release this year and next year are And then what are the benefits surrounding those? Would it be adding the new manipulator adding autonomy to the manipulators, something else?

Well, that is a-- another really good question. I think 1 of the things is a strategic decision that the company made, unlike some of our competitors, is we are not in the sensor business. We have 22 sensors on board. And we can choose advances in sensors. And so whenever we see 1 that is got tremendous advancement, we can plug that in and pull another 1 out. And so if we are not locked in on a sensor that might be 2, 3, 4 years old, And, and so we are seeing some really strong advances some of the imaging capabilities. And so we are putting state of the art. In fact, I would say we are we are testing some of the new sensors for some of these companies right now. And that is an opportunity for us is to use our platform to test other company sensors and have them pay for us to actually put these sensors in play and compare it to other sensors as well. And so we are constantly looking at what is gonna give us the greatest differentiation and what is the right way to do the imaging and data collection, whether it be for pipelines, for cables, it, it does not matter. So we are going to be a platform for deploying the best technology not for trying to develop those sensors. that is a very competitive high R&D cost model that, we are not gonna enter into and so exciting. On the autonomy side, we have got the new generation manipulator. The parts are coming in for assembly. And we are very excited about putting that, manipulator on the Aquanaut. I was just talking to competitors and, customers, potential customers, This is an absolutely perfectly targeted manipulator for this market. I congratulate our team here. it is a midrange, manipulator. it is not really a small light range manipulator like you would see, which, are just small arms that can lift, you know, maybe 10 to 15 kilograms. it is also not 1 for a heavy duty work class ROV where it can lift hundreds of kilograms. it is gonna be in that 50- to 70-kilogram range for operation. it is also really well designed with regard to maintenance What we learned about using other manipulators and building manipulators is that you have to have spare parts. You have to have them on board. You want the simplest possible ability to, repair and maintain. You are gonna be in the parts business as soon as you start selling manipulators. These guys are hard on them. So you need to have the ability to produce replacement parts and have a really good ability to source parts to them as they purchase the manipulators. And this manipulator is 3- to 7-degree of freedom. If we do not need all those degrees of freedom to do something, we can drop it back to 3 if you just wanna touch something with a robotic probe or gather a simple sample, or cut something, we do not need 7 degrees of freedom. It does not require a human arm to do that. What you want is the least amount of equipment doing the task the simplest way so that you can keep the cost out of the system and also reduce the nonproductive time, which is the maintenance that occurs when you have got more joints than you need on the arm. So I think it is a it is a fantastic design. Last thing, is all of this is underpinned by autonomy for arms, which I think is incredibly unique here. In the whole of our industry and even in the terrestrial industry, the ability to use an arm not automated where it does the same thing over and over because that is not really possible in the subsea environment because of the position of the Aquanaut, the ROV, you have to have some perception in order to address the object that you are working with. Whereas if you are manufacturing an automobile, you can do automated welding with an arm. You can go to a fixed position, move to a fixed position, pull back, and do that repetitively. that is not the world that we live in maritime. You need to have the ability to observe the environment and interact with the environment. And so I think our toolkit that comes in several flavors. 1's gonna be for the navigation of ROVs. We can strip down some of what is necessary there that we use on the Aquanaut. So ROV-related toolkit, Nauticus Toolkit, we will have the manipulator related software, and then, we will also have it for the Aquanaut or full AUV. So it is the whole market for autonomous manipulators looks very, very exciting.

Wow. Awesome. that is great. It seems the tailwinds are blowing in Nauticus' favor here. I am excited to watch you guys progress. Thank you.

I appreciate it. I mean, we put 2.5 years in getting these products ready, now we are gonna put the next year in getting them to market and really showing the revenue that can come from the investments that have been made. And appreciate all the shareholders that put money in this because it is put us in a great place.

Your next question comes from the line of Robert Mendrala, a personal investor. Robert, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and thank you for the investor update. Brian, welcome to Nauticus. I have a 2-part question for you. So given your background scaling subsea robotics and autonomy businesses and to clarify what might have been mentioned, in this call. Where do you believe you can have the earliest impact on revenue, you know, whether it be services, software licensing, hardware sales, or international partnerships, And as you look at the opportunity pipeline, how should investors think about the potential size and timing of commercial opportunities, I guess without getting into too much formal guidance?

Well, great question. And thank you for the welcome. So let me split that into 2 parts. So on where I see the earliest impact, I think about it as 3 time horizons running in parallel. Rather than different buckets. So this is not really a services versus software versus hardware play. They are all inter interdependent on each other. And rely on and bounce off each other. Of all of those, the fastest lever for us to move is the Nauticus Toolkit software licensing offer. That can be moved on in a period of months. We already have contacts. In the market that are interested. We already have stats on how it outperformed incumbent solutions in head to head trials. We have it already integrated with the Forum Comanche, VideoRay Defender, and other vehicle as well. I am currently working on a few different flavors of vehicle. So that is a product that I can actually sell now. And the team as a whole have identified quite a number of opportunities that we can work on. So that is probably where you will see the earliest commercial signal. The second lever running alongside it is technology enabled services. And our service business is the operational engine that proves that technology in the field. And it is there that we expect to see margin expansion happen as we use autonomy for vessel time and pilot time as toolkit comes into our own systems and using in much, much greater detail. Now that it is a functional strong product and commercially hardened. So as Steve covered, Q2 and Q3 are the natural seasons for that to start showing improvement as well. And that third lever that we mentioned is hardware and international partnerships. For conversion at scale, those require a sales infrastructure that does not really exist strongly in the company today. Now we have got early success there and early meetings and interest but we really need a bit more sales infrastructure, which is what I am gonna be putting in place over the next 3 to 4 months. Now EMEA for the international partnerships, it is a market I know really well from my previous years. And the operators there are actively looking for this kind of autonomy capability that we have got. But rather than make promises or basically-- yeah. Rather underpromise and overdeliver on international than the reverse. So caution against framing this as software versus hardware. The thesis is the services revenues, development and testing area. Nautica's toolkit software demonstrates real market interest in the software, and then that naturally pulls the hardware through behind it as people see the capability. Now Aquanaut hardware sales are a longer sales cycle but will generate high tens of millions once that engine is running well in sort of 2 to 4 years' time. But right now, the mix shift and my main responsibility is in moving us towards higher margin software and recurring revenue. that is like kind of the direction of travel that I intend to sort of push on at the moment. So no, cannot give formal guidance. Really would not want to in my first week. But the way I would frame it is the opportunity sets really large and the serviceable market for autonomy enabled subsea services software runs into the billions. And the consolidation pressure right now in traditional ROV contractors with a lot of those who have created some of their own hybrid solutions create a window for commercially available autonomy players to take share and that window is open now It will not stay forever, but we are the first mover in that space when there is already commercial pressure as people are trying to compete with others. So honest framing is that you should expect to see a commercial signal and pipeline growth before you see revenue scale. Because software licensing recognizes differently than from project services. And the bigger international hardware deals have a longer sales cycle. So what to look for, for you to track is the leading indicators, mainly quality and breadth of pipeline. After that, look for news about third party deployments and some third party platforms, partner announcements, and then also be talking about repeat business and framework agreements as those come in. So those are the things that will tell you the commercial engine is working, and they will show up in the numbers 6 to 12 months after those sorts of announcements. So I will be able to update you on commercial progress each quarter. I would rather you measure me on what we actually book than on what I can project. From this seat on my first call.

Okay. Great. Thank you. And here's another revenue question referencing growing opportunities in defense related applications, can you provide additional color on where Nauticus is seeing interest? For example, inspection, surveillance, autonomy, intervention, or subsea support and whether you expect defense to become a more meaningful part of the company's revenue mix over time and also with respect to the Leidos partnership.

Another good area to talk about, Robert. Appreciate the question. We are actively engaged in a project that is going to commence shortly, and it is it is principally related to, service related work on working on a an AUV. And so our knowledge of hardware is what really is our strength in this particular 1. As soon as we, we complete that, it will be the software on that piece. And so those 2 things will be in this project. I think this is a smaller project, but it is 1 that can lead to quite a lot of growth with this particular large defense contractor. We have a really we spent 3 days at the Sea, Air, and Space, Conference, and in Washington, meeting with basically all of the large defense contractors. I think our product line fits really well. In fact, it was in encouraging to walk around the floor there and see how differentiated we are. You have a lot of people doing USVs. I would say 70% of the people at the conference were showing unmanned surface vehicles. You have a lot of well, I will call it is an AUV, but it is not really an AUV. it is more of an, underwater drone than it is a missile, which an AUV tends to be propped on the back. Go straight. We saw almost nothing in that space. We saw quite a number of people doing different sizes, different depth ratings for AUVs, which are just the bullet So everything was hugely differentiated. Everyone we wanted to speak to, we got senior level meetings. And, all the meetings were really productive. We have some follow ups to do with them. And I think the defense sector is really has a lot of demand for the capabilities and the competencies that we bring. And I think we are also ahead of the market in this area. The manipulators themselves particularly autonomous manipulators, their understanding of how to use those and the demand for those is just now emerging. We are in particularly emerging markets, and I appreciate the patience that shareholders have had because when you are in an emerging market, it is a little harder to get traction and put it out there. But everything we are doing is an underserved market. We are not in the you know, improving productivity in an existing market. We really are in underserved markets and with new solutions. And the defense side's a great area for us right now.

Okay. Thank you, John. that is very helpful. And I have 1 last question. Given the company's technology assets, market opportunity and current capital needs, how is the Board thinking about the full range of options to maximize shareholder value including strategic partnerships, licensing arrangements, commercial alliances, financing alternatives, or other strategic opportunities.

Another good broad question, Robert. So how is the board thinking about this? We have a great board. Okay. that is first. Absolutely focused on creating shareholder value. And so any proposal that came in on this strategic opportunity side, you would if you would see that they would give it a fair viewing. Because what they wanna do is increase the shareholder value. So proposals come in, they are gonna get reviewed by the board. This there is no filter here on taking things out. It truly is a board review of what should we do. This is in the best interest of shareholders. On the-- in terms of licensing, we started down that lane with the Forum Energy Technology. We are really excited as to how that is developing. We are learning how to be a good partner there and working with them. And licensing is a phenomenal way for us to work without having to actually put all the capital in to manufacture those, but get the benefit of the intellectual property that we have created in this particular case. it is our 1 of our first manipulator generations that will be used on ROVs. I am really excited about that. it is a low capital high margin approach to the manufacturing industry. The same would be true for Aquanaut. While we will build them, in Ras Al Khaimah, under the agreement that we are working on now that we would be quite amenable to licensing that technology to where that is built and the cost of manufacturing is covered by someone else and we would get a licensing fee on the Aquanauts. Toolkit is a clear license, And so what we have to do overall as a company to get the kind of, margins that we would like to have, which is on a blended margin basis, we need to be above 50%. Now you are looking in the 80th percentile range for the software side of the You are looking in the, you know, 25% to 35% range for the services side of the business. You are looking in that 25% to 30% range for hardware. And I would like to be in that you know, 15%, 20%, 25% range without having the cost capital for the manufacturing. So that is how we are looking at the licensing. Capability on the hardware side. Software side is gonna be 80-plus. And so the goal is to have blended margins, above 50% in our model. The with regard to strategic partnerships, you know, we have a good relationship with the Leidos at this point and are enjoying communicating with them about potential projects going forward, and we will continue to do that. But that is not an exclusive arrangement, so we are talking to many other defense contractors. And, we would be excited to be working in partnership with them on any on any project that fit what our competencies and capabilities are. So we are very open on that, Robert.

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now hand the call back to John Gibson, CEO, for closing remarks.

Appreciate everybody being on the call. You know, you have an investment in an emerging company. We have got great products. We have got a great strategy. And I think the testament to that is the quality of people that we have on the management team today. it is incredibly strong, with incredible commitment to what is possible for this company and wanting it to achieve its full potential. And so I appreciate your patience with us, and I appreciate the investment that you have made. And we are gonna continue to work hard to create shareholder value here. And I would just like to thank our lenders, our board, our shareholders, our employees, our vendors. I mean, there is so many people that play a part in the success of a new company like this that, with emerging technology. We are blessed to have all of you. Appreciate it, and we will look forward to updating you, when we get through with the quarter. Take care.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.