Saleel Awsare
Analyst · ROTH Capital
Thanks, Brent, and thank you, everyone, for joining today's call. We entered fiscal 2027 from a position of strength, and our first quarter results reflect that momentum. Revenue grew over 8% year-over-year to $32.4 million. Non-GAAP gross margin expanded about 45% and non-GAAP net income increased 50% to $2.2 million or $0.05 per share, reflecting continued solid execution across the business. Embedded IoT Solutions revenue grew 37% year-over-year in the first quarter, driven by continued strength in unmanned systems, a high-growth market where our edge compute platforms are gaining traction. We remain on track for unmanned systems to comprise approximately 15% to 20% of total revenue this fiscal year. Our confidence is supported by new design wins across a growing number of applications. As an enabling technology provider, we are positioned to participate in multiple customer programs and platforms rather than relying on the success of any single deployment. Combined with our status as a Western supplier and our NDAA and TAA compliant solution, this positions Lantronix as a long-term platform partner. Reinforcing that platform position, we added our Open-Q 8550CS SOM to the Blue UAS Framework last month, which identifies vetted components for use in unmanned aircraft systems. This is a key competitive differentiator and gives customers an independently vetted compute platform that simplifies qualification and accelerates deployment. For current and prospective customers, this reduces qualification complexity and program risk, while strengthening our position as a trusted technology partner. It also lays the foundation for bringing additional Blue UAS-ready platforms to market. Building on that momentum, we recently launched Spotter at AUSA in Washington, D.C., where we also met with existing and prospective partners. Spotter brings edge AI compute, vision processing, sensor fusion and vehicle flight control onto one low-power board. By consolidating functions that OEMs might otherwise source and integrate separately, it can simplify system development for autonomous drones and robotics. Instead of piecing together separate flight controllers, vision boards and compute units, OEMs get an all-in-one, off-the-shelf reference and deployment platform that supports open source robotic stacks. Importantly, the underlying technology also positions us to address unmanned systems beyond our current drone class across air, sea and ground. Beyond the hardware, our deep camera and software integration expertise gives us another key competitive advantage. Advanced computer vision and autonomous platforms require more than processing power. Customers need cameras and sensors to work together reliably, not just connect to a processor. We bring years of experience tuning cameras, fusing sensors and integrating complex software for demanding image and vision applications. Our work across the software stack allows us to integrate a range of customer selected sensors. This creates opportunities for high-margin engineering services and software revenue as their programs evolve. When a customer designs the Lantronix SOM into their platform and integrates our custom firmware and software, we become deeply embedded in their product architecture, supporting longer-term customer relationships and next-generation platforms across the commercial and defense markets. We are also seeing new opportunities in counter UAS application, where operators are increasingly repurposing low-cost first-person view, or FPV drones to detect and intercept hostile drones. These missions require onboard compute to process sensor data and support real-time edge-based decision-making, included in contested environments directly supporting our NDAA-compliant platforms. We are also seeing increasing traction in unmanned systems outside North America with activity progressing across Eastern Europe, Australia and Japan. Importantly, the opportunity for our technology extends well beyond drones and defense. We are increasingly leveraging these same capabilities across commercial and industrial computer vision applications, and we are seeing that traction translate into new design wins. Two recent wins for our edge compute solutions highlight this expanding opportunity. The first is with Trimble, where we power their advanced surveying equipment that incorporates multiple cameras and laser technology. The second is with a leading provider of job site security solutions, where our solution enables smart security cameras, providing 360-degree job site intelligence. Both opportunities highlight the importance of delivering high-performance computing in compact form factors. Our technology helps customers extend battery life and reducing operating costs, while directly supporting job site security and safety. In addition, we are providing high-margin design services for this engagement, driven by our deep knowledge and expertise in computer vision, expanding the opportunity beyond the hardware. Together, these wins show how we are translating our unmanned system success into opportunities across adjacent markets. The same computing capabilities driving our success in unmanned systems are increasingly relevant across industrial, construction and other edge AI applications, expanding our addressable market and creating additional pathways for growth. Turning to IoT System Solutions. We are expecting sequential revenue growth driven by our strength in our networking products, supported by improving order trends. In out-of-band management, we are building on our SambaNova win and seeing growing interest from other customers deploying AI infrastructure. As these deployments expand, reliable network access to critical networking and compute equipment is becoming increasingly important, particularly when primary networks are unavailable. We believe this is a broader opportunity for our out-of-band solutions as customers manage more complex AI and data center environments, while reducing costly on-site service visits. Turning to critical infrastructure and software services. We closed the Nero Global acquisition during the first quarter. Importantly, Nero's high-margin recurring revenue has increased our software and service mix to more than 10% of the total company revenue on a pro forma basis. Further advancing our strategy of building a more predictable, high-margin revenue base. Finally, before turning the call over to Brent, I'd like to highlight a couple of additional steps we are taking to strengthen our position across key markets, including adding relevant expertise to our Board and expanding our engagement with industry and government stakeholders. We welcome Jason Lamb as an Independent Director. Jason is a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer and defense technology executive with over 20 years of experience across special operations, technology development and investing. His perspective at the intersection of national security, autonomous systems and commercializations will be valuable as we scale our unmanned system business. Alongside this addition to our Board, we are also taking steps to strengthen our presence in Washington and deepen our engagement with the government and industry stakeholders. We've engaged a government advocacy firm to elevate Lantronix's profile and increase awareness of our broader portfolio of differentiated technologies and solutions, including the edge compute and networking products we provide to federal customers. In summary, I'm encouraged by our strong start to fiscal 2027. Our success in unmanned systems continues to validate our technology and execution, while new design wins in computer vision and other intelligent edge applications demonstrate the opportunity to extend that success into additional markets. And with software and services about 10% of pro forma revenue, we benefit from predictable high-quality revenue. With that, I'll turn the call back to Brent to cover the financial results.