Onward Medical N.V. ($ONWD)
Earnings Call Transcript · March 31, 2026
Highlights from the call
Onward Medical N.V. reported its full year 2025 financial results, highlighting a significant achievement in its first year of commercial operations. The company generated EUR 5.4 million in revenue, primarily from the sale of its ARC-EX systems to over 80 U.S. clinics. This marks a substantial increase from EUR 1.7 million in 2024. Management emphasized the successful penetration of 25% of the U.S. rehabilitation clinic market and the expansion into European markets. The company also raised over EUR 50 million in equity capital, strengthening its financial position. Looking forward, Onward Medical is focused on expanding its home use market and advancing its Empower BP pivotal study, with potential FDA approval for ARC-IM expected in the second half of 2028.
Main topics
- Commercial Expansion: Onward Medical sold 117 ARC-EX systems to more than 80 U.S. clinics, achieving 25% market penetration. The company also entered European markets, with sales in the Netherlands, Italy, U.K., Germany, and Switzerland. 'We registered our first sale in Europe to a clinic in Q4,' stated CEO David Marver.
- Financial Performance: The company reported EUR 5.4 million in revenue for 2025, a significant increase from EUR 1.7 million in 2024. Gross profit was EUR 4.4 million, with a product gross margin of approximately 72%.
- Regulatory Milestones: Onward Medical achieved several regulatory milestones, including FDA 510(k) clearance, CE Mark, and IDE approval for the Empower BP study. 'We earned a 510(k), we earned an IDE and we earned CE Mark,' noted Marver.
- Empower BP Study: The Empower BP pivotal study for ARC-IM is underway, with the first implant completed at Craig Hospital. The study aims to address blood pressure instability in spinal cord injury patients. 'We expect enrollment to accelerate,' stated Shari O'Quinn.
- Home Use Market: The company is targeting home use sales, particularly within the VA system, following recent 510(k) clearance for home use. 'We have self-pay home units sold and purchase orders already received,' Marver mentioned.
Key metrics mentioned
- Revenue: EUR 5.4 million (vs EUR 1.7 million in 2024, significant growth)
- Gross Profit: EUR 4.4 million (Product gross margin approximately 72%)
- Operating Expenses: EUR 45.3 million (Increased from EUR 36.6 million in 2024)
- Net Loss: EUR 41.8 million (Compared to EUR 35.7 million in 2024)
- Cash Balance: EUR 68.1 million (Increased from EUR 60.0 million in 2024)
- Interest-bearing Loan Balance: EUR 13.1 million (Decreased from EUR 40 million in 2024)
Onward Medical's strong commercial performance and regulatory achievements position it well for future growth. The company's focus on expanding its home use market and advancing clinical studies are key catalysts. However, challenges such as market adoption outside the VA and competitive pressures in the BCI space warrant attention. Investors should monitor the company's progress in these areas and its potential NASDAQ listing as key developments.
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
OperatorLadies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the ONWARD Medical Full Year 2025 Financial Results and Business Update. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Sebastien Cros, Vice President of Communications. Please go ahead.
Sebastien Cros
ExecutivesThank you, Michel. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to ONWARD's webcast following the publication of our full year results earlier today. Before we get started, as usual, please take a moment to read our disclaimer. Today's presentation includes forward-looking statements, which should be considered with the appropriate level of caution as outlined on this page. This presentation and a recording of the webcast will be made available on our investor website after the call. With us today are 3 members of ONWARD's leadership team; David Marver, CEO; Ali Kiboro, our CFO; and Shari O'Quinn, Chief Clinical Regulatory and Quality Officer. Today, we will present a comprehensive business update before opening the floor to questions. You may submit those orally or via the Q&A module of the platform. With that, I'll hand over to Dave.
David Marver
ExecutivesThank you, Seb, and thank you all of you who have joined us today. 2025 was a really good year for ONWARD. I've been doing this for 3 decades now as a MedTech leader. And it's really rare and exceptional to introduce a new technology and penetrate 80 clinics in your first year on the market, really rare and exceptional, quite proud of the team for that achievement. We also had some quite important regulatory milestones, not just one, but 3. We earned a 510(k), we earned an IDE and we earned CE Mark. And we also had also quite a rare occurrence. We had simultaneous publications in nature and nature medicine, detailing the clinical feasibility results for our first indication for ARC-IM in blood pressure and stability. So a fantastic year overall. Now, let me run through the achievements in more detail. So 3 buckets here. First, on the commercial side of things. We sold 117 ARC-EX systems to more than 80 U.S. clinics in just our first year on the market. We recorded EUR 5.4 million in revenue, which for our U.S. listeners is over $6 million. We received CE Mark and sold our first ARC-EX systems to European clinics. We received FDA 510(k) clearance and sold our first ARC-EX systems for U.S. home use. We completed MHRA registration in the U.K. and Swissmedic registration in Switzerland, and we received UL mark certification for the ARC-EX system as well. We continue to advance our future pipeline, receiving FDA IDE approval to start the EMPOWER BP pivotal study for ARC-IM. We published ARC-IM blood pressure instability clinical data in both nature and nature medicine, significantly derisking that indication. We published the PATHFINDER II study results showing that sustained access to ARC-EX therapy can drive improvements without plateau at 1 year. We advanced our brain computer interface or BCI leadership studying thought-driven movement restoration in 4 additional people, bringing our total to 7, and we implanted our first human with the ARC-IM lumbar lead, which is designed to help restore mobility. From an enterprise perspective or a corporate perspective, we raised over EUR 50 million in equity capital anchored by Atoba, Invis and ASR. We established a U.S. ADR program. We strengthened our leadership team with additions to our Board of Directors and appointment of new senior executives, 2 of whom you'll be meeting today, and we filed an F1 registration statement with the SEC for a potential NASDAQ IPO in the next 12 to 18 months. That doesn't mean we're going to do the IPO in the next 12 to 18 months, but we wanted to demonstrate that we're making tangible progress for preparing for such a listing. So big year, ARC-EX has been a resounding success in Power BP pivotal study is now underway, and we have significant growth drivers in place for '26 and '27. The entries here that are shaded, I'll be going into more detail in the next slides. Okay. Let's talk about ARC-EX in our rapid commercial traction. For those of you who haven't seen ARC-EX, it's pictured here, this is a hero shot of the neurostimulator. And last year was a good year. If you've been following the company, you know that we started with a limited launch quite intentionally in a rather small sales organization. Then, we increased the field organization, and we brought in the launch. So in total, we sold 117 units. We penetrated more than 80 U.S. clinics, again, really rapid adoption for a new technology. The adoption was also widespread. You can see on the map, very broad geographic dispersion and adoption across 30 U.S. states Again, some of the statistics that I've mentioned already, more than 80 U.S. clinics have already purchased at least 1 ARC-EX system. 1/4 of the U.S. specialized rehabilitation clinics are already penetrated and 1/10 of the clinics have already purchased multiple ARC-EX system. So very good start. That traction was achieved by our U.S. field organization, which, by the way, is comprised solely of former trained physical and occupational therapists. You can see that we have, what, 17 people in the field as of March 2026, and we'll be adding to that over the course of the year. We also made very rapid progress in Europe, where we received CE Mark certification late last year. We registered our first sale in Europe to a clinic in Q4, and we've already sold and delivered to clinics in the Netherlands, Italy, U.K., Germany and Switzerland. Two of them are pictured here. As I mentioned at the onset, it was yet another strong year in terms of scientific evidence generation. They're rare concurrent major and nature medicine publications detailing our blood pressure feasibility study results and the mechanism of action that underlies those results. We also published on the Lyft Home Study, and we use those data to help obtain the 510(k) for home use in the U.S. Also, in October of last year, we executed another high-quality funding round. We raised over EUR 50 million in equity capital supported by demand from high-quality, long-only and sector specialist investors. The financing was anchored by Atabak, our strategic partner as well as well-reputed health care specialist investor Inves and a first-time investor, Dutch insurance company, ASR, who invested through their Global Impact Equity Fund. I'm also very proud to have recruited a number of very strong and seasoned leaders to the company last year. On the left side, you see 3 new C-level executives Sean Chiara, whom you met during our most recent call, and then, Ali Kiboro and Shari O'Quinn, who 'will be joining you here momentarily. Ali is a former CFO at live Dx and Quest Diagnostics. He has NASDAQ company experience and very well trained from the Wharton School. And Shari has experienced a big and small med tech companies and a very strong track record at securing access to global markets for breakthrough medical technologies, such as ours. Our Board of Directors also strengthened significantly. We recruited Tim Dennison, who is currently Professor of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford, and he was Medtronic's top research and engineering leader in their neuromodulation business. We also recruited Lucas Buchanan. We call him Luca over here. He's the former CFO and COO of Silk Road Medical. He led their NASDAQ IPO and was CFO during the acquisition by Boston Scientific. So a nice exit for Luca, and he currently sits on several Boards of Directors for growth companies at a similar stage. Now, I'd like to turn it over to Ali, who's going to tell you more about our financial results.
Ali Kiboro
ExecutivesThank you, Dave. Good afternoon, everyone. I joined ONWARD at the start of the year because I saw a company with strong underlying fundamentals, a differentiated technology and a clear opportunity to accelerate its transition into a commercial stage business. Just as important to me is the direct impact our work has on people living with spinal cord injury, our vision to empower their lives guides how we operate and make decisions. With disciplined capital allocation and operational focus, I believe we can translate that into durable long-term shareholder value. I look forward to engaging further with the investor and analyst community in the coming months. Turning now to the 2025 full year financials. Total revenues for the full year were EUR 5.4 million, comprising product revenues of EUR 3.7 million and grants and other income of EUR 1.7 million. In 2024, total revenues were EUR 1.7 million, of which product revenue was $77,000. The EUR 3.7 million in product revenue in 2025 came from ARC-EX system sales, primarily into U.S. rehabilitation clinics. This is our first full year of commercial operation. By year-end, we had placed 117 units in more than 80 rehabilitation centers, representing approximately 25% penetration of the U.S. rehab clinic market. Grants and other income was EUR 1.7 million, consistent with the prior year, reflecting ongoing research funding from partners, including the for education, research and innovation, SARI; the U.S. Department of Defense; and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Gross profit was EUR 4.4 million. Excluding grants, product gross profit was EUR 2.7 million. And product gross margins was approximately 72%. Total operating expenses were EUR 45.3 million compared to EUR 36.6 million in 2024. The increase reflects 4 areas of investment. First, the buildout of the U.S. commercial and operations, supply chain organization. Second, external [indiscernible] FDA clearance for home use in November and submissions for the Empower BP pivotal study. Third, professional fees associated with capital markets activities and additional legal and tax advisory work. Fourth, recruitment costs for 3 senior leadership hires completed during the year. The net loss for 2025 was EUR 41.8 million compared to EUR 35.7 million in 2024. The interest-bearing loan balance was EUR 13.1 million at year-end compared to EUR 40 million in 2024 with the movement driven primarily by foreign exchange translation. We ended the year with a cash balance of EUR 68.1 million compared to EUR 60.0 million at the end of 2024. As you will recall, we raised EUR 50.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. Total cash outflows in 2025 were EUR 42.8 million. And with that, I will turn the call back to Dave.
David Marver
ExecutivesThank you, Ali. I must say it's nice to have a CFO present so many financial and operating metrics. It reflects our graduation, let's say, our evolution into a commercial-stage business. So welcome.
Ali Kiboro
ExecutivesThank you.
David Marver
ExecutivesAll right. Now on to some commercial trends. This is a 2025 full year call, but we're coming to you on 31 March 2026. So we thought we would share at least some of the trends so far from the first 2 months of the quarter. We didn't want to spoil the next call by giving you all the information for the first quarter. So that's a bit of a tease. So let's take a look at how we did. First, within the VA clinics. And as you know, the VA, the military hospital system in the U.S. is critically important because they care for almost 15% of the paralyzed population in the U.S. The VA cares for the paralyzed population through 25 specialized clinics, which they call VA Hubs. So already, we penetrated nearly half of those 25 hubs. We're in 11 of the 25. And we have 15 total active clinics within the VA Hubs and spokes. The VA was a bit slow early in the year last year. It was spiked a bit by dose and some other dynamics. But now that they are active and engaged, they're really coming on quickly. So we're very pleased at the quality of the partnership and the velocity of things within the VA now. Also, things are strong outside the VA in terms of home use. And as you know, we recently got 510(k) for home use in the U.S. We are initially targeting the VA for home use, but also self-pay. And so within self-pay, very strong early trends. We have self-pay home units sold and purchase orders already received. And we have 92 additional self-pay opportunities in the sales pipeline. So a bit more robust even than we expected. Within the VA home use, 6 of the hubs are already prescribing home use demos, and we've already received 15 orders for home use demos quarter-to-date or at least through March 6. Starting in Q2, we're going to be deploying a patient access support program to facilitate and support case-by-case reimbursement pursuits via workers' comp and private pay. So doing what we can to support and broaden access to this really important therapy. And speaking of this therapy, it is having a big impact out there. We wanted to show you this video. This is A.J. He's a U.S. Navy veteran. He's an ARC-EX user. And he embodies the reason that we're all here on this call, the reason we're all working so hard in pursuit of this mission to bring breakthrough technologies like ARC-EX into the clinic. [Presentation]
David Marver
ExecutivesExcellent. And that video really typifies what we're seeing all over social media, where patients and clinicians at these 80 U.S. clinics where ARC-EX therapy is currently being offered are posting their stories. We're very gratified to hear stories like AJ's where the device is bringing him independent, helping him get dressed in the morning, feed himself and so forth. That really is the value proposition here. And that's why at the clinics where we're seeing ARC-EX therapy being adopted, there are frequently, if not all the time, wait lists and these clinics are considering buying more devices or transitioning patients into the home. Okay. So that's ARC-EX, where, again, the launch has been a resounding success. Now, let's transition to our next priority this year, which is executing well on the Empower BP pivotal study. Empower BP is intended to mask the data we need to get regulatory approval around the world for ARC-IM, which you see pictured here. This is an implanted neurostimulator and spinal cord lead, and the first indication we're pursuing here is blood pressure instability. It's not the first indication many of you may think of after a spinal cord injury, but it's really important. Here's why. This is a big unmet need after SCI. More than 90% of patients treated for blood pressure instability continue to experience symptoms. So this group of people badly needs a new and effective therapy. Blood pressure instability manifests in 2 ways. One of them is orthostatic hypotension, which is very low blood pressure tied to posture or changes in posture tends to manifest when people are sitting up right at a meal, while riding in a car. It can impede their ability to get out of bed in the morning. The other way it manifests is what's called autonomic dysreflexia, which are sudden dangerous spikes in blood pressure because the body has a difficult time processing autonomic signals, such as the full bladder or even an itch. These data are really compelling to me. So 8 out of 10 tetraplegics are diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension or OH. Of those, only 1/3 are treated and 91% continue to experience symptoms even when treated. It's even worse for autonomic dysreflexia. Again, 8 out of 10 are diagnosed, 1/3 are treated, but 98% continue to experience symptoms. So this is a very worthy pursuit for our first indication for ARC-IM. So Shari O'Quinn, our new Chief Clinical Regulatory and Quality Officer, tell us more about Empower BP.
Shari O’Quinn
ExecutivesYes. Thank you, Dave. I'll start by sharing why I join onwards is because I was inspired by its purpose. And I wanted to be part of this unique opportunity to bring truly transformative technologies and therapies to patients with significant unmet needs such as blood pressure instability. And today, I have the pleasure of sharing with you that the first ARC-IM implant was successfully completed at Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado. This marks an important milestone for both the program and for patients. And on the left is a picture of the ONWARD clinical team, along with Dr. Matthew, the neurosurgeons who performed the case. We're now seeing really strong momentum building in the study with 10 active sites in the U.S., and we expect the remaining sites in the U.S. and Canada to be activated by the end of April with the remaining sites in Europe to follow shortly after. This positions us really well to accelerate enrollment in this study. Now, I would like to share a short video of an interview with Dave and Dr. Lisa Moore, who's the Chair of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine located in Miami, Florida, and Dr. Morris was recently activated, and she's going to share with us the significant impact on the daily lives of patients who are living with blood pressure and stability. And with that...
David Marver
ExecutivesDr. Morris, thank you for your time.
Unknown Attendee
AttendeesThank you. It's a pleasure to be speaking with you today.
David Marver
ExecutivesSo we're primarily speaking with investors today. Can you please help them understand why it's important to address blood pressure instability after spinal cord injury?
Unknown Attendee
AttendeesSure. Blood pressure regulation is 1 of the most pervasive, I would say, and potentially impactful symptoms after a spinal cord injury. And it often goes unrecognized both by the patient and the clinical team as well. So it manifests as -- there can be a lot of symptoms ranging from dizziness, difficulty sitting up right, fainting but it can also lead to impaired cognition, brain fog and change in cognitive function.
David Marver
ExecutivesSo your site has only been active for a few weeks, but what has been the reaction so far among patients and clinicians now that you're up and going?
Unknown Attendee
AttendeesSo even though we've only been active for a short period of time, I would say that the response from both patients and clinicians has been really encouraging. And 1 of the advantages, again, that we have at the University of Miami is the strength of our spinal cord injury ecosystem because we're so closely connected with the SCI community, that partnership between patients, clinicians and researchers has really made early engagement, very, very strong and very exciting.
David Marver
ExecutivesGood. It's good to hear that there is some enthusiasm for the study. What do you think a successful study and subsequent FDA approval would mean for the SCI community?
Unknown Attendee
AttendeesWell, first, I would say with significantly improved day-to-day function. More stable blood pressure means fewer episodes of dizziness that are tolerance for sitting in operating activity and greater ability to participate in rehabilitation in daily life. Second, improved cardiovascular stability could support better long-term health outcomes, including improved cerebral perfusion and potentially better cognitive and overall physiologic well-being. There's also a broader implication for the field. Success in this study would demonstrate that neuromodulation can target autonomic dysfunction after spinal cord injury, not just motor or sensory systems, and that opens the door to addressing a range of physiologic challenges that follows spinal cord injury and represent a really important step towards restoring multiple dimensions of neurological function after trauma.
David Marver
ExecutivesThat's good. We hope it makes a big difference for people. Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Morris.
Unknown Attendee
AttendeesOkay. Thank you. you.
Shari O’Quinn
ExecutivesWe really appreciate Dr. Morris sharing her perspective on what a successful pivotal study and subsequent approval of ARC-IM can mean for the SCI community. And following the enrollment and the successful implant in Empower BP that we just announced, we can share that there are now 4 patients fully enrolled and many more scheduled with the 10 sites that are already active and additional sites to follow. We expect enrollment to accelerate the Empower BP moving forward. And also, in 2026, we expect to enroll all the participants that are needed to go about the interim analysis in early 2027. And this is in line with our road map for ARC-IM commercialization as early as the second half of 2028. And with that, Dave will share the outlook.
David Marver
ExecutivesThank you, Shari. All right. So we're almost a quarter in to 2026. And we're eager. We think there's a lot we can get done here. We have a couple of new demand drivers in 2026 and 2027. So in last year, we were focused almost solely on launch to U.S. clinics. And we had the initial sales to European clinics as well. In 2026 and 2027, we have 4 growth drivers that we believe will contribute to very rapid growth. First, our additional U.S. clinic sales. So ARC-EX sales to both new and existing clinics. Also, VA home use sales. Also, U.S. home use sales outside the VA, starting with self-pay and case-by-case coverage pursuit via workers' comp and private payers. And then, also EU and rest of the world opportunities, both clinic and home use. So these 4 buckets offer a lot of opportunity for us to grow the top line this year and next. 2028 promises an additional indication, a second indication for ARC-EX, and we also, as Shari just alluded, expect FDA approval of ARC-IM in the second half of 2028. So that should be a big year for us. as well. As you've come to expect with ONWARD, we should have a lot of news flow. Some of these are already completed, but let's just take them by platform. With ARC-EX, we expect going forward 2 new slow items, 1 being first commercial home use sale in Europe, second being first commercial clinic sale in rest of world, so outside U.S. and Europe. For ARC-IM, 4 more news flow items, 1 being the interim analysis from Empower BP, which as Shari said, we expect early next year. Next would be first in human use of ARC-IM to address bladder function. This is underactive bladder. We're trying to eliminate the need to insert catheters each time a person with paralysis has to urinate. Also, additional implants for ARC-IM in Parkinson's disease, mobility and additional implants for SCI mobility. The last 3 of those are, in fact, grant funded. And then, we expect to continue to extend our leadership in the brain computer interface realm to address movement disabilities. So we expect additional implants for SCI, upper limb, and as well, first implant of the ARC-BCI therapy for stroke also grant funded. So a lot of news flow coming, and there may be some things that we don't even have on this slide. So with that, the prepared portion of the webcast is over, and we'd be very pleased to take questions.
David Marver
ExecutivesI think we already have a question from Damia from Stifel. Our usual analyst at Hall is on vacation. We don't know where. But I think Damian is filling in for him. Damian take it away.
Unknown Analyst
AnalystsCan you hear me?
David Marver
ExecutivesYes.
Unknown Analyst
AnalystsYes, it's Damian. As you said, it's for Ed Hall. So 2 questions actually. So first 1 is on the split in ARC-EX placement. So would you be able to provide some more granularity on the location of device placements, including home use versus clinic use, U.S. versus EU? And how many clinics have about additional devices? So this is the first question. And the second one is on pricing for ARC-EX. So could you provide an update on pricing for the device? And has there been any significant developments since launch? And any price changes you are anticipating for 2026?
David Marver
ExecutivesThank you, Damian. So we don't intend to discuss the unit sales in more granularity in terms of category or geography. We can, however, share that of clinics have purchased more than 1 device. So there's that. In terms of pricing, yes, there have indeed been development. So the clinic pricing remains USD 39,000 list price. And the home unit or the personal unit, as we call it, has a list price of USD 29,000, and that is being applied consistently around the world, albeit with respect for differences in foreign exchange.
Operator
OperatorNext is Clement Bassat from BNP Paribas.
David Marver
ExecutivesOkay. Clement, welcome.
Clément Bassat
AnalystsAnd I have 2 questions. The first that I see some major European country are excluded from your target like France. So could we know why? Is it a price concern or regulatory concern or maybe an access concern among the French clinic? And about Empower BP, I have in mind 60 participants and interim results in 2027. So how many patients are required to provide interim results? And would you be allowed by the FDA to fill a submission, but only on this interim results?
David Marver
ExecutivesYes. Thank you. So Clement, we certainly do not intend to exclude France. It's a very important country for many of us. The fact that France is not represented as 1 of the first countries is only a function of the fact that we have not yet established a channel there. So our approach in Europe differs from the 1 that we have in the U.S. In the U.S., we have a dedicated company channel with physical and occupational therapists. In Europe, we're going to take a hybrid approach. So certain countries will go direct, certain countries will go through a distributor partner. And we haven't finalized that yet for France. I imagine once that is finalized, you'll see a clinic sale shortly thereafter. Okay. In terms of the enrollment numbers for Empower BP, Shari, would you like to take that? Or would you like me to take it, as you prefer?
Shari O’Quinn
ExecutivesI can answer that question. So for the interim analysis, we need 33 patients at 3 months to do the interim analysis to determine if we can stop enrollment. But by that point, as I shared earlier, we will have approximately 60 patients enrolled. And we'll need to follow them out to 6 months, in order to file the PMA submission. And that's what's the driver for the PMA approval at the end of 2028 2nd half.
Clément Bassat
AnalystsAnd then the other question is would we submit a PMA application based solely on the interim data? Is that a possibility?
Shari O’Quinn
ExecutivesThat's something we can discuss with the FDA, but at this point, we're planning on 60 that we can evaluate after the interim analysis.
Operator
OperatorThe next one is Mathijs Geerts Danau from KBC Securities.
Mathijs Geerts Danau
AnalystsCan you hear me?
David Marver
ExecutivesYes.
Mathijs Geerts Danau
AnalystsFirst of all, congratulations with the results, of course. I do think AD clinics is indeed very good for the first year. But I did have some questions on the home use uptake in non-VA clinics. What kind of percentage do you think that patients would buy the home use device that are now on clinic devices?
David Marver
ExecutivesYes, I think that we're still in learning mode, Mathijs, for these demand drivers. We only recently got 510(k) for home use in the U.S. and only recently obtained CE Mark for clinic use in Europe. And so we're monitoring the demand. So it's hard to really give you a percentage for how many people outside the VA will be willing to self-pay for the device. I will say that you saw that the pipeline had 92 people in it. So that we think was quite strong. In fact, that surprised us to the positive. But we'll know more as the year progresses. We think that most of our home use sales will come out of the VA system this year because they do have the mechanism to pay for it even today. Self-pay is an unknown. But again, we've been surprised toward the positive, at least in the first couple of months in the year.
Mathijs Geerts Danau
AnalystsOkay. Interesting. I hope to see some developments there as well. And then I also had a second question more on your collaboration with Auto book. I saw in your annual report that you maybe plan to leverage the collaboration there and potentially go to other geographies outside of Europe? Or am I looking a little bit too deep into that one?
David Marver
ExecutivesIt's a very good question. We -- first of all, Auto box did their own IPO within the past few months. And so a lot more investors are aware of the company, and they're aware of what a high-quality partner they are. I mean, nearly 10,000 employees, very profitable. They've been in this sort of mobility movement disability space for over 100 years. So we greatly value them as a partner. We learn a lot from them. They have experience in many, many global markets with similar devices. And so we leverage that certainly. And there are a couple of areas where we're exploring collaboration, nothing that I would point to yet as sufficiently mature to announce, but we're looking at R&D collaboration. And indeed, we're looking at commercial collaboration where we would leverage their distribution infrastructure in certain countries in the world. So more to come.
Mathijs Geerts Danau
AnalystsAll right. Sounds good. And maybe 1 last question. It's more on China, and how you look at Chinese competition. I believe that there is a BCI approved there. And also 1 that really resembles your ARC-BCI device. How do you look at that -- yes, the dynamic there?
David Marver
ExecutivesYes. China is very interesting. BCI is 1 of their strategic priorities in their recently published 5-year plan. As you know, they've made a lot of strides in certain strategic industries such as electronic cars and alternative energy. They're also making a lot of progress in biotech. So Chinese companies have not been successful in the U.S. and Europe in MedTech thus far, but I don't discount that they could be. We do not have our head in the sand here. In fact, later this month, I'll be traveling to Shanghai. I'm giving the keynote address at a major neurotechnology BCI conference hosted by Fudan University. We will be exploring potential partnerships there. And I think it's important to note that in the area of BCI, ONWARD is quite well positioned. We have a lot of strategic optionality. We have a real expertise in understanding how to stimulate the spinal cord movement. We have a huge IP portfolio in that area. We're aligned with the group at EPFL here, who are the global thought leaders in the area. So that's our real strength. And we have our own BCI, which we've in-licensed from a biomedical research institute in France that has 8-year human safety data and is functioning very well in the 7 humans who we've planted. However, if another BCI presents as suitable or superior to ours, our ARC-IM device is agnostic. So we can pair our ARC-IM, our spinal cord stimulator with anybody's BCI as long as we take the time to connect the software. So we're really in a good position. We can partner with companies in China if it makes sense. We can partner with American companies if it makes sense. We can partner with European companies if it makes sense. But for now, we have our own system with -- that's been developed the right way with a medtech quality system and rigorous engineering and it's performing well, and it allows us to sustain our leadership and be potentially first to market with thought-driven movement restoration solution.
Operator
OperatorWe have Christophe Dombu next from Kepler Cheuvreux.
Christophe Dombu Youta
AnalystsYes. Can you hear me?
David Marver
ExecutivesYes, very well.
Christophe Dombu Youta
AnalystsOkay. Perfect. Congrats, Dave, for this publication. I just wanted to discuss a little bit more about the numbers in 2025, especially about the in-market dynamics because when I look at the numbers, so you have sold 117 units and showing a very strong sequential growth one quarter from the -- I mean the quarter-over-quarter growth was actually very strong. But it looks like in Q4, the -- I mean, of course, the sequential growth was above what -- I mean, it was better than Q3, but at the same time, the top line growth was also slightly below what you have achieved during the first 3 quarters of the year. So I just wanted to better understand if you -- what happened in Q4, if you can provide us some granularity. Can we already talk about some seasonality here? Or it is just some limitation due to your resources? If you can comment more about what happened in Q4. And also, second question is about 2026. I was wondering if at some point in the year, we'll be able to provide some guidance or some direction about how many units you plan to sell in 2026. And more specifically, how you see it in terms of split between the clinics and in-home yes? That's it for me.
David Marver
ExecutivesOkay, Christophe. So what you observed in 2026 was we had a limited launch, and then, there was some latent demand that we didn't satisfy in Q1 and Q2 because we didn't have a field organization in place, and moreover, we wanted to limit the launch because it was a new technology, and we wanted to see how it went. And so that was expressed largely in Q3. And then, you saw an increase sequentially from Q3 to Q4, nearly all of those sales were into clinics. And as you know, there aren't that many clinics in the U.S., and we've already penetrated 25% of them. And sure, we can penetrate more, and we can sell more than 1 unit to some of these. But we don't believe that the clinic business in the U.S. is going to grow that fast going forward. And indeed, the clinic business is most important for us because it provides the foundation for home use sales. And it's home use sales, VA and non-VA, they're going to fuel top line growth going forward for ARC-EX. The reason that those 80 clinics are so important for us is because this is where the patients experience ARC-EX therapy have their programming parameters set they learn how to use the device, their caregiver learns how to use the device. And so it becomes an easy transition to home use. So we're very, very happy actually with the home use penetration. You should not expect us to sell that many clinic units on a go-forward basis. We don't know really what the study state is. It might be 20 to 30 units per quarter. 47 is a lot of units. Not all of them are clinic, but most of the growth will come from the home going forward. No question. Okay. Also, I want to go back to Damian's question from Stifel because I told him that we weren't going to split out the sales by geography, but Ali reminded me that it's actually in the annual report. So we are indeed comfortable sharing that today. So maybe, Ali, you can share the geographic split as conveyed in the annual report.
Ali Kiboro
ExecutivesSure. Damian, so if you go to the aereportin the back, we are splitting out the revenues by region. There's $3.7 million of product sales in 2025, $3.2 million of that or 86% roughly was in the U.S., $330,000 was in Europe, and then, there's another $175,000 in the rest of the world. If you use that to estimate where the 117 more approximately, I think it will be in the right place as to where the units were for that $3.7 million of product revenues.
David Marver
ExecutivesAll right. Thank you. Damian's mic is not live, but I'm sure he's thanking you, Ali. Okay. So we also got some questions before the call from David, the analyst at Degroof Petercam, who couldn't join us today. The first question is macro factors aside, can you elaborate on any commercial and/or clinical milestones that you deem essential to be able to execute a NASDAQ listing? Yes, indeed, so at the beginning, I told you that we did file with the SEC. It's called an F1 filing for a foreign issuer. And this is among the preparations that we're making for a NASDAQ IPO. We've talked about that possibility since we first did our Euronext IPO in 2021. we are going to be very prudent. We're going to look at market conditions and so forth, which do change when there are awards, market conditions are not favorable. When there are no wars, market conditions are more favorable. Some of the factors that are important would be revenue scale, revenue growth and revenue predictability because, particularly in the U.S., it's important to meet and beat analyst expectations. So that answers question number one. Question number 2 is what are the remaining clinical catalysts, particularly for ARC-IM, and we have a lot of them. I detailed some of these in the news flow slide, but there's the urinary incontinence first in human for ARC-IM. There's ARC-BCI's use in stroke and SCI mobility there's some additional work that we intend to do in mobility that I expect we'll announce over the course of the next year. Also, within Empower BP, we might announce some enrollment milestones and also the primary outcome completion when we have a sufficient number of enrollees and sufficient time for those follow-up. So no shortage of new flow at ONWARD as per usual. Any other questions from the analysts.
Operator
OperatorNo.
David Marver
ExecutivesOkay. And I think we talked about Auto box. Any other questions in the teams.
Operator
OperatorNo. All right. Ali, Shari, would you think of your first call?
Ali Kiboro
ExecutivesFirst year onwards.
Shari O’Quinn
ExecutivesAnd I have the pleasure of announcing the first implant in the Empower BP and signed over the coming year to share more news about the study.
David Marver
ExecutivesYes, having 10 sites activated really gives us the machinery to enroll more quickly going forward, doesn't it?
Shari O’Quinn
ExecutivesExactly. That leaves the foundation and the magnitude of screening that we can do will drive that enrollment.
David Marver
ExecutivesExcellent. Seb?
Sebastien Cros
Executives[indiscernible].
David Marver
ExecutivesAll right. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining. And thank you, Michel, from Virginia for moderating.
Operator
OperatorThank you. This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.
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