Circus SE (CA1) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

July 16, 2026

XTRA DE Industrials Machinery operating_results 60 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#1

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our second quarterly update call. A call focused today on our operational progress over the last half year basically and the track record that we have achieved over the last month. Nevertheless, definitely dominated today by the changes we have announced over the course of the night. Basically focusing and refocusing our whole strategy on operational scalability on operational cost focus to really sustain profitable operations and get to a point of profitable growth as fast as we can. Overall for today, we don't want to stay completely away from the progress that we've made over the quarter of this year. So I'm going to start to add a few elements of what we have achieved and definitely also dive deeper into the whole structure of the restructuring of our guidance and our financial plan and growth for the year. We have planned in a significant amount of time also for Q&A at the end of the call. you can ask your questions in the chat, and we will go through the questions over the last roughly 15 minutes of the call. So feel free to make some notes drop the questions already during the presentation. and we make sure to answer as much as we can and the rest after if the time is not enough. Maybe a few words on the core of why we're driving these changes, right? We have been really deep down hands on into the deployment over the course of the last half year or basically since the start in October, November last year with the first deployments with Raven Meta and since then, the growth trajectory over the last month and quarters. What we see is that the systems and the harbor technology that we're deploying on the quality perspective from an overall perspective of production quality, supply chain is at a point where it should be, and we're very proud of that progress and the achievement on that side. But what we see is that not all elements of the ecosystem that we are building are moving at the same pace. So I'm going to back deep into this in a minute, but really to start on the reflection part of where we stand and where we come from over the last quarters is the very first production of a unit back mid last year with the launch of our factory, the first ever cooking robot produced in high volume where we managed to industrialize that patent technology that we have developed over the last years and made sure over the last quarters and when you remember the Q1 call that we have put significant efforts into optimizing production processes, the automation behind and the quality of our systems, which is a very -- on a very successful trajectory and where we're really proud of. And what we're aiming for is nothing else than full autonomy, the affordability, the availability of autonomous robotic maintenance. More than ever, and we're more confident than ever independent of the adjustments of the growth for this year that we are on the right path to achieve that based on the learnings from thousands of customers, tens of thousands of meals who served and tried and multiple deployments right now across the European market actually that prove us that we're moving in the right direction and that we're hitting the market that needs and requests our technology urgently. And when we look into the overall momentum, right, that has not changed at all. We are still in a very, very early situation of the market. Food processing hasn't been really touched yet, independent of all the growth when it comes to when it comes to robotics and investments behind. And we remain completely focused on full autonomy for our systems, for our overall right our growing portfolio of systems and to optimize the operational structures behind you. When you look into the global market and how the pace is right now moving, we're honestly getting at a point that I've been wishing for over the last 4 years, and that has always been quite different thinking about the, let's say, old fling times, right, where you had a massive market momentum that really help the whole markets drive and adopt quite quickly. When we look into the robotics field, 1 of the most invested segments in right now, driven by optimization through AI, and there's a ton of opportunities on the robotic and automation side. on our side with a full focus on automated and food processing. When we look into the U.S. market, which always gives us a good indication of where the market is heading and where the whole momentum in that sector is heading. We see already a ton of companies which are really, really moving ahead. The majority of them still in the R&D phase. But I think it's very important to have that overview and see what kind of peers are developing in what sectors. And that goes from restaurant automation to board producers to focus on price and nuggets to industrial food automation that it still remains one of the largest untapped markets and there with one of the largest opportunities, which we can already see quite dominant in its growth and it's also capital allocation in the U.S. markets. with, I think, some of the greatest founders in the world, Travis Kalanick, for example, the Uber founder, who's right now tackling exactly that problem, and I think it's worth a look of what other players are doing. We're still in a very early phase and where we're still very, very confident that we are years ahead of that. And what we've built to secure that momentum remains unchanged, right? We have right now a portfolio of patents of over 40 patents across different markets. U.S. to the European market, we have achieved quite a couple of significant and valuable certifications which honestly can take quite a few years of time. So all of that combined gives us a strong competitive edge long term, independent of growth of other peers that are right now also jumping into the market. For the next even 5 to 10 years, we don't even see a relevance that more peers are coming up and evolving the only effect that we see as a positive driver in additional momentum and additional adoption and demand in the sector of overall food autonomy. Where do we stand today? Compared to Q1 compared to Q4, right? We launched the very first systems in Q4. The really, really first, some of you might be tried it or seen it in the mid allocation, the reval location and since then have really given all with the teams in my background to scale our growth across Europe and really become a dominant market-leading player in the European peers. Today, we are at 25 operational systems across 7 countries, all completely certified, operational, patent protected, and that includes our recently announced launch in the Ukraine with the Ukrainian ground forces that includes as well, for example, the growth of the German armed forces and of course, also growth across the different sectors in our institutional catering and autonomous food supply solutions. The use cases here remain largely the same. We see the fastest growth in defense and in employee catering with a core focus of care and production facilities everything where 24/7x affordability and availability of meals is necessary and needed. And that's really also where our focus goes with recent launches, for example, Machines Ben growth on the MedLar side, SECURA side, there's a ton of things happening on that end that further strengthens our deployment structure and the active clients from which we learn and with what we with which we improve on the overall scale. This scale is related to growing with partners in an early phase right now where we have long-term growth potential where we can improve our side of operational excellence. This is the perfect example, probably the highest distance cooking robot has ever been up in the air with our recent deployment in Inocap Secura as a starting point. And Secura has evolved to become really a strategically valuable partner, not only in operating and running our systems but also on the operational side to scale through additional partner with us as one of our first strategically valuable scale partners and sales and distribution and operations partners where we are jointly right now in the process of launching customers in the automotive industry, in the care industry and give an entirely new perspective to facility providers to also jump into the market of catering, for example. For that, we bought a small interview as a small insight on the progress that we've made with Secura as a client story and a bit of insight. [Presentation]

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#2

That only as a small insight of a really great success story with the client that right now launched with us that is scaling with us and that is also driving significant improvements on our operational structure with us so that we can stay with really an operational excellence in the background. Jumping a bit to the part of the financial growth over the year. We're coming from a quite more optimistic case to scale our CR1 systems to a larger extent over the course of this year. And from a pure production volume perspective, from a market demand, from a backlog perspective, that's something that is completely achievable. There's no change. We have not lost clients in our order backlog. It's quite the opposite, actually. And what we realized here is that we need to focus more on operations. And I'll get to that in a minute, but the result of these adjustments is that we slowed down the pace of growth over the course of this year, where a lot of growth is shifting towards 2027 and is not lost, it is for us about the right capital allocation and not wasting the capital that we have on operational spendings, but much rather on continuous R&D to get our systems to better and the acquisition to a better state and more autonomous state. We're coming from a pre-revenue state in 2024, launches in 2025 with the first revenues coming in on EUR 1.6 million. And this year, tripling the revenues and also on the deployment side, making significant improvements with right now planned systems overall across 9 countries, over 25 enterprise clients, of which all clients have the opportunity and the potential to scale with us, where we already have customers and negotiations to add follow-on orders and continue the growth trajectory that we have built with them from the first deployment. But that right now as a base for 2026, something that we have set as a very conservative base, but something that we can sustain and that we can really use right now to improve on our overall structure and something that also is achievable and a case that works on us from a funding perspective, we have raised EUR 50 million of fresh capital last year and -- sorry, EUR 50 million of capital last year, which right now fueled our growth and also fuels the change and the delays with the shift towards deployments and the fast serve deployment growth in 2021 that today and right now for the second half of the year, we can focus on operational improvements and getting the technology where it belongs to full autonomy. And that is really something where we're right now driving the growth. On the people side, I mean, we have a team that right now probably already counts a family when you look into the times, how long the people are with us, [indiscernible] right now who has recently celebrated 7 years being with the company, so we have built up a team of really, really and the management of really, really strong candidates who bring the most knowledge in sustainment robotics to the table across the field from sales with the background and rationale with Home coming from the automotive field, a lot of names and faces you've already seen over the last updates and the recent calls that we gave. One new phase today. I saw he was called the mystery man in the news who is not a mystery man anymore starting today basically. Christian, who is joining us as co-CEO and CFO, very, very happy to have you joining with an incredible trajectory of what you've done and built over the last years, but I leave that introduction to you. Maybe Christian, add to you how and why did you end up with us.

Christian Bauer

executive
#3

Thank you, Nico, and thanks, first of all, of having the opportunity to introduce myself today. And yes, I've spent more than 20 years in the industry, specifically in automotive and also aviation, always focused on technology, financing businesses and also scaling businesses. Roughly half of that career was in international companies like Mercedes-Benz, where really execution, operational excellence and also disciplined capital deployment was key. And the other half was helping young people driving scale, so being myself and Managing Director of a scale-up. And also in the recent 1.5 years, being a portfolio manager of 20-plus companies in scale-up phase deploying capital. So I've seen 3 areas, so the corporate world and how to diligently work in that, also the scale-up world, what you can do right can do wrong with all ups and downs and also the investor world, which hopefully helps in the future also scaling can Look, when I look at Circus, I look for a company, a founder company that is not or has not already reached its final destination. So it's a journey, really. And what I found both a technology that really solves a customer pain point, which excited me. So deploying physical AI in the food value chain is tremendous. It's an adacious goal. And with that comes to my second point also a meaningful long-term market potential that you have and that you're building up. And last but not least, what I found also with you with others and the team, an ambitious and resilient team to execute and all the 3 things made it up for me to join.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#4

Maybe as an add-on question, Christian, with a lot of things obviously happening in the company and a very exciting growth stage that we're in. How is your view right now on the growth maybe over the course of this year, the next year, right, and your strategic perspective? I mean we discussed things a lot over these days and weeks, right, but maybe from your side.

Christian Bauer

executive
#5

Yes. First of all, of course, and I understand, I mean, today's news were not naturally disappointing, yes, when you change your guidance, but this company is made for the long term in my view because it's not easy to build a prototype, you did that. It's not easy to build a product that customers love and like. And I think what I heard now from the first feedbacks, you have really a good product there. And the last one, which is still harder is then to scale a company overall and bring it to profitability. So I cannot say today good bad things or not because I will start listening and learning in the company the first month where I mean. And together with you make a plan. But what you can count on or also here the shareholders and investors is that I have a very clear leadership approach. I believe in clear priorities -- so the typical focus, focus, focus, I think, is very important for a young technology company, I believe in transparency, and I also believe in disciplined execution, and I actually like it. So -- that's really something what I want to drive forward. And all that, as I said before, with disciplined capital allocation. And when we cruisefully achieve that, we really create sustainable shareholder value.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#6

Maybe with that, jumping to operational topics, Christian, thanks for the words and already soft welcome from my end and I think from everyone.

Christian Bauer

executive
#7

Thanks. And looking forward, obviously, to meet all the other players in the next up comments. Thank you very much.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#8

Thank you. talking operational execution, right? We've started to implement a majority of KPIs that we started reporting last year from an operational perspective. And obviously, the goals with Christian and the approach is matching that we can only win when operational execution and the whole ecosystem in the back runs seamless and runs and runs on low cost. There's always 2 ways for the company. And I've also right now seen both. There's one company where independent of the operational excellence with scale because capital is infinite. And that is a link story, right? That is a hyper growth story. And then there's a way where we aim for profitable growth where we want to be less dependent on capital and constant capital reallocation, constant capital raises. We don't follow the approach to constantly raise capital, and we really want to make sure that the capital allocation matches the path forward, and there is no goal in scaling our operational costs with basically the top bank growth. And when we look today and why we've been making these changes is not coming from the hardware that is not mature. It is from the ecosystem around that we need to build up and where we need to make adjustments to make sure that we can scale -- when you look into the ecosystem that we operate in today, it goes far beyond the robotic systems, even though they're always the most appealing and the kind of shiny object in the middle, right? That goes to ingredient systems, service and maintenance networks and the whole back of house operations on HACCP, hygge and storage -- it goes into payment integration, customer onboarding, marketing and menu management, the daily operations from the persons on ground for running the machines every day. And all these elements are right now half a year old, right? That's where we come from, from a go-to-market. And that's where we have set very, very hard goals that we want to achieve because from our perspective, full autonomy and a really generational company can only be achieved if we really end up with a seamless ecosystem. And there was always 1 great example and an example that we all use on a day-to-day basis. It hurts me to compare our technology with a coffee machine. But from the overall structure and the ecosystem, it gives a really good example of what we want to achieve. If the coffee machine is too hard to maintain or too hard to service, then you just don't use it or you don't want it -- if it's too expensive, you also don't want it. And if you always need to run to a local roastery to get your coffee pads, you also wouldn't buy it, right? So there's a whole ecosystem around where machine stability is 1 thing, but it's from the taste of the coffee to how long does it take to prepare, how much maintenance and service we need to put in to get a coffee out what kind of capsules can I get at what price and how easily and how reliable can I get them. So it's all the elements that come together as one single ecosystem. And that's what we not only won but have to achieve -- and that is really where the focus is. So that we don't right now scale hardware systems into the field that at some point become legacy not based on the robotics technology, but based on the ecosystem around that is not properly structured or that needs to reshape down the line. So we're taking the opportunity now to do that, to shape our ecosystem want to make sure that we get to a coffee machine simplicity and get to the millions and millions of systems out in the world, which the market requests, but always in combination with seamless operations. And I broke some of the numbers that really add to that and give a bit of explanation and some insights of what we see and how we improve. So we reported similar or the same KPIs in the Q1 call. And right now, when you look at the Buck report, which is, I think, the most transparent thing that we can do in terms of KPIs to really see like where are still the things to be improving on the overall technology. You see that there's a constant decline of issues in the field that we constantly evolve right now when it comes to the famous copper in the past, over operational structures, software improvements, payment is something that we have nearly completely resolved across all kinds of integrations. But still, when you compare that to a system uptime, system uptime has declined over the fleet over the past 2 months. And when you just compare these 2 things, the first one is how can that be, right? If the system improves stability, how can downtime go down. And the simple answer is there is a human component to every operational step -- and we're introducing an entirely new infrastructure to a market and a product that the world doesn't know yet. And technology that we have invented and we need to invent the ecosystem at the blueprint around -- and that's the painful way of a pioneer and that's a painful way of a first mover to figure things out as a first, and that's also where problems can occur that we need to resolve. And that is where the overall decision comes from to really focus on these things. And when you look at uptime, the overall relation to uptime decrease is the human component, right? You have operators interacting with the systems doing the refiling, filling, doing the maintenance, the cleaning of the system, similar to how you were doing with coffee machine on a daily basis. But we need to make sure that it's seamless and that it doesn't give any room for any mistakes. And the technology is in advanced state but we want to improve to guarantee that this is not the case and that we don't run into operational dependencies based on human label. The whole point of full autonomy is to get away from that. And when you look back at autonomous driving, I don't know, a few years ago when Waymo started, you always had a driver behind the wheel, right? So Waymo suddenly is the same thing as Uber. And you don't want to be an Uber, you want to do autonomous driving. And that's something where we have a certain similarity where we don't right now want to scale. We're the driver basically who's making sure that everything runs perfect day to day, but we want to improve the technology and the ecosystem and the background to a state where we can achieve that. And a second KPI, which really proves our point here that we want to take more time to do these improvements and shifting things and shifting more growth towards 2027, not losing it is that the overall handling time is improving, and we see how operators are getting used to how our customers getting used to using really an entirely new infrastructure that reality differs to operating a kitchen. But we see that these improvements are not at the pace where we wanted to see that we feel comfortable in scaling. And internally, there is a great word of baby sitting mode, right? You don't want customers babysitting mode where you constantly need to make sure that you guide the customer and the operators so everything runs smoothly. And that has nothing to do with the hardware or software stability, but the overall adoption and the pace where we need to improve and get better and build additional solutions. One solution that is key here and something that we have softly already introduced in the Q1 call is that we achieve and get to a point of a higher level of control across the supply chain. We're working with major wholesalers together today. And across the board, it doesn't matter if it's Germany, it's Europe, it's the U.S., if it's Asia, if it's the UAE wholesalers are not at a point where autonomous food production machines and systems like ours are, right? So we can pull autonomy to pen and paper business at the very end of the supply chain. And this is the point of our espresso capture, right? seamlessness and easy to operate solutions where today and over the last weeks, we have introduced right now 31 ingredients, which are used to manage the system, which radically cuts down the handling time at operation time. So you don't need to rely on, let's say, more old-fashioned structure where ingredients and the whole supply chain is not made for robotic operations. So this is really the huge part where our ecosystem evolves and where we need to make sure that the end-to-end process is seamless. We're operating this structure right now across 6 countries, mainly on a frozen base right now also adding fresh components -- we're right now in the test, for example, with the German Armed Forces already on the overall structure with the aim to launch that across all customers over the course of August. I brought some of the elements here, right? So everything you're getting right now is a perfectly structured package you can scan it in. The package is detected by our software system to the gram directly put into the system. That's the structure that we want to achieve. I mean it doesn't matter which one, but the packaging size fitting the silo size, right, Mattingly things easy and seamless, like a coffee capture. And that's from our perspective, the last missing piece on the supply chain that we need to achieve to get to the scalability of a coffee machine and bring that into a healthy household because it's really end-to-end seamless and has no more operation house on the background and the structure. One last thing here is, which will become a huge growth driver for us over the course of time with more and more systems being deployed in the field. The systems are creating a great kind of it's rotors model for us, right? It's selling the hardware, selling the software as a many therapies. And right now, starting from August across all customers, also the mandatory use of our ingredients. We're coming from a structure where we've worked with third-party wholesalers on a more or less moving this in I hope you can still hear me. So we're coming from a structure with wholesalers and the work with wholesalers, where we get a kickback of 2% to 4%. From allowed, that's a structure where we make 45% to 50% margin because we own the supply chain and as we really guide that -- it doesn't mean that we are right now setting up ingredient factories. Everything similar to our hardware production is structured with partners and with partners who are focused and specialized on exactly these ingredient structures where we outsource the production, but everything is produced based on the perfect match to robotic systems and then structure to a cool supply chain brought to customers where we are the coordinator and the inventor, but not the operational part of [indiscernible]. Additional updates on the technology side. And I think 1 question that definitely stands in the room in addition to the guidance updates that we make for this year. how does it affect the Celestica production and the overall path of production resources. We have built up and ramped up the production resources over the first quarter. Right now, 60% higher compared to the last year, production right now that takes 8 units in parallel. We shared some great insights on that over the last weeks. And we are staying at exactly that structure. What we're doing right now on the Celestica side is bringing in additional systems also with the recent acquisition of Abrisas a Belgium company, to our portfolio on the CAM side and additional hardware systems that we're right now developing and bringing into the field and always basically tailored around the C1-based patent technology. And what we're doing here with Celestica is continuing to produce in batches. What we have established right now over the course of the last 2 quarters. And what we've structured is a way where we batch production and ship and batch, right? It's a very simple thing to do at the very end. But right now, because we can produce higher volume and can batch also from a logistical point where we shifted from sea to rail as well, which becomes right are much more reliable and significantly cheaper, it becomes easier for us to ship in batches, install in batches and make our life easier from a deployment perspective, from a supply chain perspective on the hardware and the whole logistical and custom structure. We have done that, for example, the last launches. For example, we didn't have launches over a couple of weeks. And I know some of you missed the launch news. Right now, I think what it was 2, 3 weeks ago, we launched Secura and [ Mercedes ] basically in the same week, right? So that's really where bad shipments come from and that we can improve on that, which makes life a lot easier on the handling and the production. In addition to that, we're continuing to setting up subassembly structures in partners with Celestica and also based on our own resources to scale also on certified defense applications to have more dedicated resources towards the scale on that act. One major thing that we have achieved right now over the last quarter and one massive learning also is that we come from a strategic point that the smaller systems are commercial and the larger systems are made for the field. But what we've seen right now in the employment is that customers also on the defense side, request all kinds of different solutions and systems, similar to institutional and commercial customers. So today, what we already have achieved is the complete dual-use certification that every system can also be used in defense environments. The CAM right now in the R&D phase, where it's also about making sure that level here is met and with some additional requirements on the technology, of course, for example, element shock absorption. Nothing you would need when you are inside, but something that in field operations much more necessary. So we're continuing to invest on the R&D side for the CAM to bring that to market right now with the planned first deployments in early 2021. And a slight shift due to the focus right now on optimization on our current systems and the structure that we already have in place. Same thing for the year 1. Most of you have probably seen the integration into bags with the German armed forces. -- which is something that is very, very promising, and it's going very well, where every soldiers as love with our technology, and we can feed solders integrate into the barracks. Lithuania to launch over the course of the year right on plan for Q4. And in addition, our smallest system, the Hybrid system, which right now also has been proven to have a really clear use case for smaller spaces and smaller spaces are also spaces that have its structure and defense field. So it doesn't matter if the commerce of its defense, there's always outdoor and volume -- there's an ingo component for pop means for the C1. And there's also always a very strong case for small spaces where right now, we have achieved the first deployment and the full certification and also the integration with our food supply chain based on the frozen ingredients that we announced with the Ukrainian armed forces. We sent out some news early this morning. And to give you some insights on how that looks based on very limited spaces because the Ukrainian forces don't operate in large-scale barracks but a really condensed basis in hundreds but this is really where our technology comes in to also take the pain away of daily meal operations, and we can bring full autonomy also to these cases beyond the problems that we have right now realized over the past weeks -- when it comes to the German government, for example, Engfocas as one of the largest co-working and real estate providers and brokers in the European field also a market entry on the hybrid system in the defense field. And with that, maybe also some insights from an interview I did yesterday with the team to showcase a bit of that works really right now in the key area in in a field and an environment that is very different to what we have here on our commercial side, but something where right now our technology has been really stress tested to a very different extent over the last weeks and has been proven to be a great addition to the soldiers every day and simplifying their life on branch.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#9

Maybe, Nick, to jump in with the questions. I don't want to take -- maybe to jump in with the questions. I don't want to take up too much of your time, right? So as I mentioned, right, thanks a lot for taking the time. maybe maybe you can guide us quickly a bit through some of the points like what are where the biggest challenges when it comes to providing nutritious food, right, the supply chain, the setup, maybe how it is today and why you decided to get to partner with Circus on this.

Unknown Executive

executive
#10

[Interpreted]. So I'll do quick translation. The first main point is that all the soldiers have very limited time for their nutrition, for their recharging and this machine could offer the improvement and ensure that this has made more smoothly and easier. This is very important because of the vitamins, nutrition and -- from that point, this machine could save energy, time and fulfill its functions in 100%.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#11

Question was more on the usability, right? How is the use of the system, your first impressions on the day-to-day use.

Unknown Executive

executive
#12

[Interpreted]. First, it's very easy to use. -- the implemented user design is very intuitive, so you could easily understand what to click, what to choose, why to choose this what do I want? And how do I choose it? And the next 1 is the speed of the preparation -- that's the main KPI, how to say. And yes.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#13

Maybe as a last question, right? So looking ahead a bit, mean we're at the early phase of hopefully long-term and long growing partnership. And how do you think this technology will evolve in the context of the future of nutrition. Like do you think this will become an essential part in fueling soldiers and like in the part of future military nutrition?

Unknown Executive

executive
#14

[Interpreted]. Yes, 100%, yes, because it's the it's making and improving the whole process of catering of food supply chain in the armed forces because even in the very little field operational use, you need to plan and to operate on lots of processes that are that are taking lots of time. And this modern technology, it's not replacing all the catering courses. It's complementing it because for these cases for this calls in some process where you cannot supply people with this kind of products to fulfill their needs quickly. It's the best usage, which is possible for these situations.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#15

And with that as an update on also the site of the Ukraine deployment, right, are saw there's a couple of questions. We're perfectly on time to have additional 50 minutes for questions. So if you have additional questions, happy to run through it. I think Elena to your side to coordinate that a bit maybe.

Elena Coles

executive
#16

Sure. So I'm Elena, I'm Head of Investor Relations here at Cartus and I'll be moderating this last stretch. We've got about 5 minutes left. So let's get straight into your questions. As you said, we won't get all of them today, but every question gets answered either here or afterwards. Niko, first 1 for you. We had several questions about where we stand in terms of operations and progress, what happened in the last quarter. So the question is what are the learnings from first installments, especially in regards to your plan? -- prognosis. Can you share highlights and lowlights?

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#17

So highlight is definitely the maturity of the systems overall. -- so that's where we have spent a significant amount of work on over the last years, and we are very confident on the systems overall. That's where we come from also with a more optimistic plan for the year. And that goes for the software for our own proprietary AI models as well as the robotic systems as a whole package. And that's something that you can test and improve on also in the R&D phase. And some of the low lights are definitely the -- always the hits into reality when deploying with the customer, right? Everything you can only imagine to go wrong will always go wrong at some point, and it usually happens rather quick at later. So there's a lot of small things on the time it takes to really onboard a customer, and that's a bit what I explained earlier that right now, we are investing a lot in further simplifying software use, the use also of our technology, the supply chain and some of the very low lights have definitely been that the supply chain that is today in place across the market is not matching the requirements for autonomy at the very other end and that's something that right now we need to bring together.

Elena Coles

executive
#18

Questions about our customers, what popular as well. So what is the pack of our customers? What does today's news mean for level cooperation? Will it be completely on hold in 2026?

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#19

Good question. Nothing is on hold, right? So what we are doing is we're focusing on really strategically relevant core customers and core deployments. But a lot of units in the field where we on hold. We are not really stopping with the poms but just slowing down the pace so that we really have time to improve with strategically relevant customers and make sure that there are large follow-on orders that we want obviously to see from every customer over the course of time, but that doesn't mean that anything is on. So from a customer like B2B customers, right, it's exactly the feedback that we're getting that drives the improvements. We need to further simplify minutes per day is great, 5 minutes per day is better, right? So we're aiming for full autonomy and improving towards full autonomy and simplified processes -- that's one. The end consumer is always a different game, and the end consumer is the happiest he or she can be. You get a great high-quality your 24/7 at the best price you can find in the city or in the country even -- so that's something that's resonating very, very well. And it doesn't matter if it's a customer in Revista or a Mercedes Ben [indiscernible] factory work or sold forces that goes across the board.

Elena Coles

executive
#20

Coming to figures, numbers and pressing questions around guidance, of course. On your guidance, you guide for 50 deployed systems. Is it all CA1, -- what is about CAM and about beds machines?

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#21

Okay. So it's a mix, right? We are operating both systems. We're scaling both systems. You also saw, for example, in the Ukrainian deployment that we're starting with the CAA, how we call it. So our smallest machine for soups, pasta cabs, smoothies, juices, power checks, protein checks. So it goes beyond the typical store very smoothly there and to really nutritious meals, but cut based on small spaces and the pro supply chain that really creates the ease of use in these kind of environments. So both systems are scaling. It's a roughly even split across the systems. And what we've also learned is that the smaller systems are for very obvious reasons, also a great kind of entry point with the customer, right? The structure that we have in place with RAB, so we the Ukraine forces is a framework agreement on 25 systems that we want to achieve over the course of time, that is based on the C1. And right now, basically, the CAA systems are coming on top to that and creating an easier starting point for operations. So see this always as kind of the Model 3 basically on Tesla portfolio, and there's a lot more to follow based on this year usually.

Elena Coles

executive
#22

Shifting to the defense side. Where do you stand on the whole Nat test phase? When do you expect that this is scaling up?

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#23

So on the defense side, it's the freshest sector for us and also the most exciting at the same time. We started first deployments on this this year, on the first contract last year, basically weeks after we had announced that we're even entering that sector, which really strongly improves the demand in the market and our direction into that sector as a first mover. We have achieved already last year, all certifications required to operate and it doesn't matter if it's for the Ukrainian forces for the German arm forces, the native procurement agencies listing and supplier certification as well as from the Department of Defense. So that gives us all opportunities to scale, not limited to the CA-1, but across the whole portfolio, as you can, for example, see right now, with a starting point on the CAA with Ukrainian forces. Lithuania right now in the course of the year will be CA-1 and the CAM to be added next year. Right now, we're in kind of the first batch of defense deployments with Lucania, German forces Ukraine. So I would say the most relevant forces you can deliver to with right now Lithuania also being a central point for for Nate cases and testing scenarios. So that's really what we're focusing on over the very moment. There is a ton more negotiations and news on additional customers in the defense space and also, obviously, accounts growing in that field that we already have active -- so there will definitely be additional growth in different sector of the course of the year. And the tests right now prove to be perfect and honestly, the best market fit that we see across the cases because you have an immediate urgency, you really have unpredictable times where you can eat or where you want to serve people. So that's the best growth case for us right now.

Elena Coles

executive
#24

We touched the topics competition and markets already. Here's some more questions. I haven't heard a word of Chinese competitors, given you struggles on scaling up quickly and who your operational weakness may impact time-to-time market. type per market advantages for Chinese competitors, which are generally past and better at scaling, already seeing many solutions in China popping up, which are logically advanced and will be deploying fast, what is your moat?

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#25

So the moat is the ecosystem, and that's the massive learning for the first half of the year, and that's really the core of where we come from on the guidance adjustment for this year and the shift towards growth through next year. It's not about the hardware reliability. It's about everything that happens in the back. And that's something that's also no Chinese competitor or rather U.S. competitor has is even close to crack yet. We're right now coming in with our own ingredient structure with service maintenance networks with an entire operating system, dedicated proprietary AI models for vision control. So the more really lies in the software, the supply chain and really the seamlessness of operations, not in the hardware alone independent of its paper potential.

Elena Coles

executive
#26

Let's continue I had a question about -- I can't find it right now to put it live. It was about potential capital raises. I put it live as soon as I find it, but feel free to already dive into that topic.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#27

Yes. So right now, I mean, we raised additional capital in December last year. So basically kind of a transfer that happened, I would say, over the course of Christmas, which right now gives us also the structure and the capital resources to really concentrate on the adjustments we want to make from an operational perspective before we scale and to really avoid having legacy structures in the field. We right now don't have any short-term capital raise as planned. That doesn't mean that happens forever, right? We're a growth company. We're competing with global peers who have a hundreds of millions of capital doesn't mean we need the same amount. But to compete over the next 5 to 10 years, there will definitely be a point. Right now, looking also into the market cap and the stock development, it's not a question anyways.

Elena Coles

executive
#28

Okay. Some more questions regarding the guidance. What is the assumption on Abe's contribution to revenue and the EBITDA? And will you consolidate the full year? What are the plans?

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#29

No, we will not consolidate the full year, only basically the second half of the year as the transactions right now closed, but that basically been July. We are right now in the process of integrating the ibis production into Celestica related production partners so that we can revamp that up. So there will be definitely a contribution over the course of the year. We definitely expect that the high ramp to triple-digit volumes on the hybrid side will come next year. And the good thing is compared to the C1 and them, that's a very easy product to scale, I would say, just because it's much cheaper to produce, easier to handle from a logistics side and also from a whole supply chain components perspective, is just a quicker to produce and sell products. So there will be a contribution, but no majority contribution for the year.

Elena Coles

executive
#30

Okay. Moving on, talking about our goals. It is always good to have demand in goals, which risks do you see to achieve our goals.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#31

I mean right now, we always come from the starting point of the year from like a ton of risk that we need to soft, right? We're doing nothing else than solving risk and telling all day long, that's the state of the company in early facts. So we have really achieved great stability in the over ecosystem of hardware deployments. That's something that we definitely saw as a risk for the first half of the year, also with geopolitical issues where Nexi was not the most reliable, also got a lot more expensive. So there has been definitely quite a few things that we had to adjust over the first half of the year when it comes to supply chain deployment logistics. That's a risk that right now is pretty much managed. Looking forward, we really have calculated to an extent that we limited the risk to basically 0. That's where the very hard guide investment comes from, but something that is much more reliable to plan with and to guide it.

Elena Coles

executive
#32

Okay. And when would the rollout of the systems in the U.S.A. and UAE take place, what does the time line look like? I think it's a very general question looking forward about our rollout in general.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#33

So -- and the first system to Abu Dhabi will launch together with also entities related to the Royal family. So we've really made great connections there and one great customer cases. The first unit is already on the way. So that's the problem that would happen over the next weeks, and you will see quite a couple of news over the course of August, September on this, including launch events and go live and so on in Abu Dhabi, Dubai to follow fairly shortly after. For the U.S. market entry, we have received the NSF certification, so that we allow to deploy and sell food with first systems in our portfolio and right now working on achieving that for the whole portfolio of systems -- we don't plan to have commercial market entry in the U.S. over the course of this year, but definitely targeted for next year. And we already have clients who want to grow with us from Germany to Europe to the U.S. So the first customers will most probably be customers that we already have active over the course of this year and scale them into the U.S. market since they already also have offices, locations and so on in that area.

Elena Coles

executive
#34

There was -- there were also some several questions about a major topic. I want to squeeze in about food quality and about our ingredient supply chain, having frozen gradients and to ingredients.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#35

And yes, maybe on 2 points, right? So 1 point is we're probably the most agenetic system or probably are the most identic kitchen, if you want to call it that way, that you can ever find in the market. Our ingredients are stored inside the machines. It doesn't matter which system it is, which are constantly cold or stay frozen over 24/7, right? So for the CA, for example, constant frozen ingredients that then get basically through heat and pressure brought to suppose cab or to smoothie or proving shake or something similar. Same structure or similar structures with children on the C1 and ask for the M. That really reduces the hygienic risk to the absolute bare minimum and basically 0. From a quality perspective, that's definitely something that we have been struggling with over the course of the first half of the year, not based on like quality, but, for example, consistency in the ingredient itself, right, the thickness of the sources, the size of the chicken cubes. It makes a difference for robot, if you put in or chicken brand or a chunk and if your wholesaler structure doesn't really provide for that, it becomes quite hard. So that's also where we come from to really dive deeper into our own ingredient development to really make sure we can keep these standards as high as we want them to.

Elena Coles

executive
#36

I would like to add 1 more question regarding focus. Christian also touched the topic of focus. And you asked some questions about if we can elaborate on the reasons for the change of focus which concerns are the drivers behind the change and was about the ambitious road map that we touched earlier also. And of course, share price is a dominant topic. Yes, about our change of focus in our strategy going ahead and a few words on share price and our communication policy.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#37

So I mean, overall adjustment, I don't believe in a structure where you force growth at our cost and where it creates short-term growth for long-term legacy. That's something that in my young career, I've done and done in other companies, and that's something that becomes much more of a risk then very hard just short term. And I know that it's also a very hard hit for the stock price. But we're not here to ramp a stock price in the short term, but we want to build long-term generational profitable company, and we have all the foundation from a market perspective, from a client perspective, and from a technology that is protected that is ready to scale. That's something that we have, and that's something that we want to build on. So it is never ideal right. And I know that this is quite a strong hit for the stock price, but it's something that we can sustain with the funding that we have. We have a very clear path to growth in 2021. growth is not lost, but basically shifted by around 1 to 2 quarters, which has a quite radical effect, but that is mainly due to our backloaded structure in 2026 that we have planned that right now shifting and that causes a quite significant adjustment. But still, from a pure business decision that we need to drive for long-term healthy and profitable growth on system level on a company level, it's the best decision we can drive. And I strongly believe it would pay up also already over the next few months and quarters and will become visible that this has a strong effect on how we grow and how we also scale customers and their happiness with our overall ecosystem and the structure that they can use seamlessness.

Elena Coles

executive
#38

Thank you Nik. Try to squeeze in as many of your questions as possible. There's still a lot left and please don't stop asking. We'll reach out to you afterwards and keep in touch. And I'm looking forward to the next quarterly call.

Nikolas Bullwinkel

executive
#39

Thanks, everyone, for joining. And yes, looking forward to the next one. We always have some more great news to bring as well and won't start with the structure similar to today. So thanks, everyone, and have a great day. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

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