Allan Evans
Analyst · ROTH Capital
Thanks, Brian. So what can I say about the year so far. A lot has changed in the 7 weeks since we discussed last year's results on a previous earnings call. We keep scaling both sales and company sizes. We raised $150 million at $17 a share and then subsequently placed $75 million in raw material orders and signed a definitive agreement to buy Upgrade Energy to really jump start our entire battery position. We continue to be extremely well positioned as a supply chain leader for components for small drones in the U.S. We have the capital to execute and have been growing while maintaining profitability. I'm going to go into more detail now, but I want everyone on the call to note that my following comments are forward-looking and in no way guaranteed. From our perspective, demand remains on track. The current marketplace remains severely supply constrained, and we still see demand outstripping supply this year and deep into 2027. We're continuing to build the company and procure raw material to grow into this demand as fast as we possibly can, and we don't anticipate slowing down anytime in 2026. The primary driver of this growth, it continues to be the Department of War. For example, the Drone Dominance Gauntlet program is one purchasing group, and that remained on track. They announced the timing for Phase 2 as well as reiterate the commitment to buying 60,000 more drones in the second half of 2026. They even were smart enough to put it before the end of the government fiscal year, so that everything will be done and isn't subject to delays that could be caused by continuing resolution. When you look then out a little further in future demand, the proposed budget for the Department of War, it has a 50% increase. They're talking about $1.5 trillion, but I think even more interesting is the dramatic increase in the proposed budget for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, DAWG, moving it to a little over $50 billion, which is really the drone-focused government procurement budget. The Department of War as an end customer has really strong sourcing requirements with the preference for U.S. supply chain and is really the initial force behind driving this relentless demand cycle. In addition to these drone programs, you're seeing counter drone programs that are really starting to materialize and that's becoming an emerging addressable market segment. I think a very good example of what we're seeing there is real orders and partnerships with our first order coming PowerUS, who is one of the companies we invested in, and it's really pushing an even additional category to create this demand. So given this overwhelming demand environment, we were trying to scale as fast as we possibly can to provide our customers with the parts they need to sell into the Defense Department or the Department of War. To facilitate this in April, we placed over $75 million worth of raw materials in order to build out motors and other products. We scaled from 81 employees at the end of 2025 to about 200 employees today, we're definitely adding team members, and we're continuing to add shifts and facilities to deliver the -- just the raw material or the subsystems that our customers need. In addition, and I think very interestingly, we recently announced the merger agreement with Upgrade Energy for the total purchase price of $52 million. The purchase is almost a 50-50 blend of stock and cash with half of the purchase price upfront and the rest being earned out. So Upgrade Energy did just over $6 million worth of revenue. This is unaudited. So as we go through the audit, it may change, in 2025, and that was in their old facility in El Sibringo, California. They very recently moved into a new 18,000 square foot facility, much larger in Torrance, California. And you guys think we're really going to see that ramp quite quickly. I'm personally very excited to work with Matt Barnard, the owner of Upgrade Energy and CEOs, as he joins the team, and really the entire team they built a really strong brand in the battery business. They have some patented protected technology that works in production at scale. And then our ability to work right away with them and to do it at scale is going to let us drive, I think, very quick growth in the battery category. And own now the entire powertrain from the battery to the motor controllers through to the motors to build that full lift platform. Now what I think people might not yet realize is that the purchase and the choice to go do batteries, it's not necessarily a right now choice. It is a strategic choice for what we see as the emerging markets that come next even more than it is just another SKU in our offerings. So we expect the FAA to enable the legislative framework that people are calling Part 108, it should really open up new activities like drone delivery in mid- to late 2027. So defense or attributable drones or one-way drones, whatever you want to call them. They typically only have 1 to 2 batteries per drone. On the other hand, delivery drones because they'll go up and down and up and down and up and down and they'll need to change batteries every time as the batteries recharge are expected to have about 10 batteries per drone. So this purchase and our subsequently planned build-out in Florida for batteries is going to let us get ahead of the supply chain and this problem to really be in a place to do what is a very large battery-to-drone ratio, TAM for what we see as the FAA enabled market segment that we expect to materialize in 12 to 18 months. So not only is it revenue right now with a team we like and people with the same attitude, but it also positions us, I think, to capture a large chunk of the value in the emerging market that the FAA is going to open up. Just a quick summary. First quarter of 2026 is everything working well, kind of working the way we planned it. We're rapidly scaling. Our revenues grew above $8 million. We were able to report a profit, so we're not losing money in doing this. And while our operations are not yet independently profitable, we had about $1.5 million to $1.6 million loss just from operations in terms of cash if you subtract out the equity comp. Our business as a whole is profitable. We're able to raise more money, quickly put that money to work into our supply chain and really drive what we see as a transformative acquisition with the Upgrade Energy merger. Unusual Machines remains at the forefront of the domestic components market, and the market is continuing to really see this extreme growth. We're well capitalized. We're extremely healthy. We have the infrastructure to continue to scale. And we're just going to continue to grow as fast as we possibly can. And I am just completely overwhelmingly confident that our team can meet the demand that exists right now. So I want to say thank you again to our entire staff and all of our shareholders and all of our customers. With that, I'd like to open up the call to questions.