Sabio Holdings Inc. ($SBIO)

Earnings Call Transcript · May 1, 2026

TSXV CA Communication Services Media Earnings Calls 43 min

Highlights from the call

In the first quarter of 2026, Sabio Holdings Inc. reported a consolidated net revenue of $9.8 million, reflecting a significant drop due to an $8 million decrease in political and advocacy spending. Despite this, the company achieved a 10% year-over-year growth in total revenue, driven by strong performance in programmatic and international markets, which now account for 48% of revenue. Management signaled optimism for 2026, anticipating a recovery in political spending and continued growth in new product offerings, particularly with the upcoming midterm elections.

Main topics

  • Revenue Growth and Diversification: Sabio achieved a 10% year-over-year revenue growth, with core revenues rising to $35.2 million from $31.9 million. Management emphasized the shift from a single-product model to a diversified revenue stream, stating, "we transitioned from a business where 97% of revenue in 2024 was driven by a single product and one geography to a more balanced model with 48% now generated from two key growth vectors, programmatic and international."
  • Political and Advocacy Spending Impact: The company experienced a significant decline in political and advocacy spending, which dropped $8 million in the fourth quarter, leading to a consolidated net revenue of $9.8 million. Management noted, "we saw the expected drop-off on political and advocacy spend, along with some incremental softness," indicating challenges in non-election years.
  • Programmatic Revenue Growth: Programmatic revenue surged from less than $200,000 in Q1 to $2.7 million in Q4, now representing 24% of consolidated gross revenues. Management highlighted this growth, stating, "Programmatic gained strong early traction, accounting for approximately 14% of consolidated gross sales and generating USD 5.6 million in revenue during the year."
  • International Market Expansion: International sales more than tripled to $2.6 million, driven by strong traction in the U.K. and other European markets. Management noted, "we are seeing an incredible amount of momentum across the board, and we don't see any real slowdown there," indicating a robust growth trajectory.
  • Cost Management Initiatives: Sabio implemented approximately $1 million in annualized cost reductions in Q1 2026, with further efficiencies expected. Management stated, "we have already seen efficiencies in our current setup as it relates to U.S. and now some of those head counts...are in international," suggesting a focus on operational efficiency.

Key metrics mentioned

  • Consolidated Net Revenue: $9.8 million (vs $18.3 million last year, driven by a decrease in political and advocacy spend)
  • Total Revenue Growth: 10% (compared to the previous year, driven by new product offerings)
  • Programmatic Revenue: $5.6 million (for the year, up from less than $200,000 in Q1)
  • International Revenue: $5 million (up from $1.4 million in the prior year, representing a significant increase)
  • Gross Margin: 57% (compared to 62% last year, reflecting mix pressure from programmatic expansion)
  • Adjusted EBITDA: loss of $2.1 million (compared to a gain of $2.8 million in the same period last year)

Sabio Holdings is positioned for a potentially strong 2026, with diversified revenue streams and a focus on programmatic and international growth. However, the reliance on political spending and ongoing macroeconomic challenges present risks. Investors should monitor the recovery in political spending and the performance of new product offerings as key catalysts.

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

Operator
#1

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Sabio Holdings 2025 Earnings Call. The financial statements and management discussion and analysis are available on SEDAR+. Today is Friday, May 1st. Joining us are Sabio's Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Aziz Rahimtoola; and our Chief Financial Officer, Sajid Premji. [Operator Instructions] Before we begin, please note that today's remarks may contain forward-looking statements and information. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the filings on SEDAR+ for more information. All figures are stated in U.S. dollars unless noted otherwise. With that, I now turn it over to Aziz.

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#2

Thank you, Martin. Good morning, everyone. Our performance in 2025 reflects a year that was both transformative and volatile. We entered the year with a clear mandate to drive top line growth while diversifying into programmatic and international markets. That strategy delivered strong early results with a 34% year-over-year growth in the first half. As the year progressed, macroeconomic pressures, particularly tariff impacts across two key sectors of auto and telco sectors disrupted momentum, resulting in a flat second half relative to the first, something we had never experienced in our 11-year history. Despite these headwinds, we delivered 10% top line growth, excluding political and advocacy, driven by expansion into new products and global markets. More importantly, we have established a stronger foundation for future growth through diversification and scale. We transitioned from a business where 97% of revenue in 2024 was driven by a single product and one geography to a more balanced model with 48% now generated from two key growth vectors, programmatic and international, all while maintaining a strong 90% renewal rate among our top customers. At the time -- at the same time, we are scaling a third platform, our Creator Television platform, which is expected to contribute meaningful in the year ahead. This positions us well for 2026, which we expect to be another strong political cycle. We'll share more on our outlook shortly. But for now, I'll turn it over to Sajid to walk through the financials in more detail.

Sajid Premji

Executives
#3

Thank you, Aziz. After a record first half with revenue growth of 33%, our core branded business continued to perform solidly into the second half. Results were impacted by tariff-related uncertainty in two of our largest branded verticals. And in the fourth quarter, we saw the expected drop-off on political and advocacy spend, along with some incremental softness. Gross revenue was USD 11.2 million or USD 10.3 million normalized for political and advocacy, up 10% compared to USD 9.4 million in the same period last year on a normalized basis. Expected softness in the nonpolitical fourth quarter was further impacted by domestic tariff-related pressures. Consolidated net revenue was USD 9.8 million compared to $18.3 million last year, driven by an $8 million decrease in nonrecurring political and advocacy spend in an off-election year as well as margin pressure associated with the company's expansion into programmatic markets. Core ad-supported streaming revenue increased by 29% year-over-year, excluding political and advocacy, demonstrating continued double-digit growth in our foundational business and represented [Indiscernible] of gross sales for the quarter. Programmatic revenue scaled from less than $200,000 in Q1 to USD 2.7 million in Q4, representing 24% of our consolidated gross revenues and highlighting strong adoption of automated buying for a new offering launched just this year. International sales more than tripled to USD 2.6 million with less than $800,000 in the prior year, driven primarily by strong traction in the U.K. as our investments in the region continue to deliver high returns. Gross margin was 57% compared to 62% last year, reflecting mix pressure from the scaling of lower-margin programmatic and to a lesser extent, international, partially offset by Sabio's end-to-end technology stack. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $2.1 million compared to a $2.8 million gain in the same period last year, reflecting lower political and advocacy spend in a nonelection year and temporary softness in select advertiser categories tied to tariff uncertainty. Programmatic and International sales combined accounted for nearly 48% of our fourth quarter sales, highlighting the rapid scaling of our newer offerings in geographies. Normalized for political and advocacy spending, full year consolidated gross sales increased 10% year-over-year with core revenues rising to USD 35.2 million from $31.9 million. Sabio continues to demonstrate growth in nonpolitical years with gross sales of USD 41.3 million across all categories compared to $36 million in the prior 2023 off-election year. Our newer offerings were meaningful contributors. Programmatic gained strong early traction, accounting for approximately 14% of consolidated gross sales and generating USD 5.6 million in revenue during the year. International revenues increased nearly fourfold to USD 5 million from $1.4 million in the prior year, representing approximately 12% of consolidated gross sales. Together, international and programmatic represented 0.6% of our sales for the year. Notably, 82% of programmatic and 88% of international sales were generated in the second half of 2025, reflecting rapid scaling over the course of the year. Early trends in the first quarter of 2026 indicate this momentum is continuing with both programmatic and international sales growing at more than 20x year-over-year levels. U.S. reoccurring revenues reached 87%, including 90% of our top logos, underscoring top strong client retention. Meanwhile, our expanding product suite and growing international footprint continue to broaden our roster of leading global brands, driving a 153% increase in new logos in 2025. As we continue to fine-tune our cost structure, subsequent to year-end, Sabio implemented approximately $1 million in annualized cost reductions in the first quarter with further targeted efficiency to be implemented in the near term. Turning to capitalization. Sabio ended the year with USD 1.3 million in cash. And during the quarter, we completed the CAD 1.3 million with issuer financing exemption offering. And subsequent to quarter end, supplemented this with a CAD 900,000 convertible debt financing. [Indiscernible] raise in 2023 enabled the company to secure higher-margin supply ahead of the 2024 election cycle, we believe these actions position us well for a 2026 U.S. midterm election cycle, which will be our first with a programmatic offering. It is worth noting that political clients prepaid their spend with Sabio, which benefits near-term liquidity. The size is significant. In 2024, we received approximately $8 million in prepaid media spend during that election cycle. During the second half of 2025, our U.K. subsidiary entered into a receivables purchase agreement with revamped funding, a common liquidity tool in the ad tech sector. This facility allows us to access cash earlier by advancing against invoices for campaigns that have already been delivered. Our receivables continue to exhibit very low loss rates, reflecting a customer base comprised primarily of major global brands and leading advertising agencies. As collections are received, they are used to repay the facility, which can then be redrawn for ongoing working capital needs, providing a [Indiscernible] [ self-replenishing ] source of liquidity. Collectively, these steps position Sabio with enhanced flexibility as we enter 2026. Aziz, back to you.

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#4

Thank you, Sajid. To reinforce the strength of our execution, despite the macro challenges we've consistently delivered -- despite the macro challenges, we've consistently delivered strong growth, 31% in nonelection years and 66% in election years, which we are back in this year. Importantly, this performance now comes with significantly greater scale and diversification. Our year-over-year new logos increased by 153% as we expanded both locally and globally while continuing to retain 90% of our top customers. We are also beginning to win back customers we previously lost due to gaps in programmatic capabilities, global reach and unique inventory. We have addressed each of these areas. And as a result, we are now well positioned to accelerate in 2026. To recap and talk about the outlook forward, core growth positioned for strong growth backed by a 90% renewal rate with top brand customers. International expansion is continuing to accelerate. App Science programmatic capabilities in Creator TV, providing more defensible moat. Record numbers of new logos and election year opportunities point to a strong 2026. We're excited about the year ahead and do fully expect to accelerate at new levels here at Sabio. On that note, I'm going to hand it back to Martin for any questions.

Operator

Operator
#5

[Operator Instructions] How do you plan to leverage the 153% increase in new logos to drive deeper wallet share in 2026 and beyond?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#6

Thank you for the question. The way we're going to execute on those new logos is, as we talked about, we have a 90% renewal rate of our top customers. And so once we get a logo, some of the ones that you have seen on the screen, which are obviously very big companies with -- that have different lines of business, we then are able to leverage our App Science programmatic. In addition, we now have Creator TV, which is our first entry into the creator space, which a lot of these brands are very excited about. And so we use that combination to not only land, but expand the spend we have with these 153 logos, and we're excited. And they're -- what we're also finding is these logos are not just logos that once again are -- have reach here in the U.S. market, but now are reaching into Europe. And so that combination is once again a key differentiator for Sabio as we expand globally.

Operator

Operator
#7

What is the target steady-state margin for the programmatic business as it continues to scale?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#8

That's a tough question. And the reason I say that is because what tends to happen is in political years, our margins do increase even on the programmatic side. Programmatic is a function of supply and demand, more so than the managed service business. And what I mean by that is as demand increases, as does in the election cycles, the actual price of inventory and targeting goes up. And so it is a very market-driven dynamic. And so to answer the question, we still are -- this is going to be our first political cycle with political and -- sorry, this is going to be our first political cycle with programmatic, and it still remains to be seen where that's going to end up. But we'd be very surprised if we don't see the range at the end of this year between -- somewhere between 58% to 61%.

Sajid Premji

Executives
#9

Yes. And just to piggyback on that, that represents a huge opportunity for us. 90% of our political spend and upwards is spent programmatically. And we've been operating in a smaller pond this whole time. All of our political sales in the past have been through managed service. So now we're finally operating in that bigger pond for the first time in 2026.

Operator

Operator
#10

We will take our first question now from Gabriel Leung.

Gabriel Leung

Analysts
#11

Just a couple of things. Aziz, I'm just curious if you've seen any sort of prepayment yet for the political campaigns thus far in 2026? And maybe on a similar note, have you seen any sort of recovery from those two key verticals that were impacting the second half of last year?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#12

Good morning, Gabe, thank you for the question. The first question is, have we seen any prepayments? We have not. And what we usually see where we benefit from political is usually it will start kicking in, in June in Q3 because what happens is we traditionally don't play in the primaries, we play in the main races. And so while we saw just a slimmer of spend, really, we're going to see a bigger portion of that as we -- at the end of Q2 and more specifically Q3. And then your second question, sorry, Gabe, what was the second question as it relates to...

Gabriel Leung

Analysts
#13

Yes. No, just sorry, just curious if you've seen any sort of recovery from some of the verticals impacted last -- second half of last year.

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#14

Yes. And so we did see a recovery, specifically in the automotive sector, and we are feeling pretty confident about what's going to happen ahead. We do think that there will be some -- we think automotive is going to be backloaded quite considerably this year. And part of that reason is because there is incentives as part of the tax bill that was passed last year that provides incentives for domestic auto purchases. And so a lot of the automotive makers are revving up for a big push there, namely in Q2 and Q3 and Q4, the summer driving season. Now what's also obviously impacted that a little bit, the surprise war that we went through at the -- in Q1 that we started during Q1. And so that's impacting their positioning. Do they push out those EVs, or do they not? And so that's starting to -- in the meetings I just had with some of our key automaker clients, including General Motors, they told us that there's definitely -- there's a lot of planning going on, and there's a lot of recalibrating based off of gas prices that are currently continue going up. So we do think that there's still a little bit of some challenging environment as it relates to automotive -- a little bit of a challenging environment in automotive, but what we've been told is that they're ready to really start kind of pushing out towards June and then specifically as it relates to Q3 in a big way. And by the way, on other brands, and you saw the logo picture that we painted 157% -- 153% increase in logos, we're seeing a tremendous amount of interest both in our programmatic offering and our Creator TV offering, which is really getting a lot of great traction. And so we're getting a lot of new opportunities. So we've diversified the logo mix even past outside of the automotive category. We're seeing great growth in quick service restaurant. We're seeing great growth in entertainment. And we're also seeing a lot of interest in [Indiscernible] [ pharma, ] so -- and along with financial. So while, yes, going into this year, our dependency on automotive was fairly high, we are finding that automotive is going to continue being important, but it's not going to be as important as we diversify across.

Sajid Premji

Executives
#15

Yes, just to add on to that, it is a testament to that kind of growth that we're seeing in that expansion of logos. We are seeing international and programmatic combined up about 20x year-over-year from last year.

Gabriel Leung

Analysts
#16

Yes. Maybe on that note, I'm just curious on the international growth you're seeing, I guess, primarily in the U.K., is that driven by managed or programmatic? And where do you see sort of the managed and programmatic mix over the course of the next 12 months? And so what does that sort of mean for your, I guess, gross margin profile over the near term?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#17

And that international is coming out of various points, but it's really -- [Indiscernible] [ there ] is coming out of the U.K., but it's really about Europe as a whole. So it's not just necessarily the U.K. market that we're actually doing deals in. It is, we're now doing deals in Africa and the Middle East. And so as it relates to that, that is primarily managed service. We're the first -- we're in a position to be one of the first movers out there. We're going to be announcing some really interesting strategic partnerships fairly soon, along with some new products that we've been working on for that market. We're very excited about this international expansion. And then as it relates to like programmatic, and what we're seeing with that, we're seeing a lot of, once again, traction there. We are -- 75% of all the customers who spent on us last year in programmatic came back and added additional -- increased their spend. And so we are seeing the velocity of programmatic increase and really see the composition of the business driven by three key factors. While managed service has been kind of the core, as we talked about, 97% of our revenue going into last year, in a highly driven AI automated marketplace, everyone wants programmatic. And the only exception is when they want some unique integration opportunities. And so programmatic is going to be a bigger percentage of our revenue, but in the U.S. In international, managed service continues to be a key component for them. And then we have Creator TV, this third component, which is connecting our brands and agencies with one of the top influencers and creators in the media space and essentially allowing them to run efficiently and more effectively on our Creator TV channel as well as our distribution platform. So that is -- and that is managed service. So we have these different variations that are now happening in our business model that is allowing us to scale up both programmatically, internationally and now Creator TV differentiated inventory. So the picture is hard -- so that's hard to say in terms of what will our composition be in the next few months. It's really hard to say outside of the fact that we're growing on all three, especially programmatic and international and Creator TV. So like we're excited, but it's hard to tell you where the end composition would be. Sajid, anything you want to add to that?

Sajid Premji

Executives
#18

No, [Indiscernible] [ we thought that was awesome. ]

Operator

Operator
#19

And now we welcome Nicholas Cortellucii.

Nicholas Cortellucci

Analysts
#20

First thing I kind of wanted to ask was the profitability you're expecting for 2026. Are the levels that you guys reported in 2024 kind of a good baseline, again, with the cadence weighted to the back half?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#21

Great. Thank you for joining our call. I'm going to hand it over to Sajid.

Sajid Premji

Executives
#22

Yes. Yes. I think it's a good question. I think that given the -- there will be a very [Indiscernible] [ stark ] turnaround in 2026 compared to 2025 is [Indiscernible] [ our full ] expectation. I think that when you look at what happened last year, you saw the revenue drag up between '23 and '24 in an election year. You saw a material swing going from a loss of $1.8 million in '23 to a gain of $3.8 million in '24. And we believe that, that's going to be more pronounced this year. I think that looking at the loss for 2025 and where we ended up at, we believe that we can eliminate that loss in its entirety in 2026 and [Indiscernible] up to a low EBITDA margin in 2026 [indiscernible], which will be a very [ stark ] turnaround year-over-year. And that as well even more so going afterwards because going into the last off-election year in 2025, we had a political -- sorry, an international business that was doing $1 million a year. Now that's doing $5 million a year in 2025. In 2026, we're seeing a huge growth in that business up over 10x in Q1. And that's going to continue on for the rest of the year. So if you look at it that way, we could be entering next year in a situation where international alone is going to make up for that full political gap going into the next [Indiscernible] election year in 2027. And that's not even adding programmatic on top of that, which is also scaling up. I mean programmatic scaled up from $200,000 in Q1 to $2.7 million in Q4. It did $5.5 million for the year in its first full year. And so [ you've ] got those two alone that's going to bring a lot more structural consistency to our business. And so to answer your question, Nicholas, I think that we do expect to eliminate that loss that we incurred in 2025 this year. We are well positioned to do so. And I think that what gets us really excited is 2027 and afterwards.

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#23

And Nicholas, one of the things we should add, and I think Sajid said it pretty well across the board is the fact that the reason we're uniquely positioned in programmatic is our data graph, is our App Science household data graph, that 80 million household graph. And we are seeing a lot of incredible momentum there on the programmatic side. And guess what? That is using inventory everyone else has, right? And so when we go up against competitors in the marketplace, okay, great. You got the same inventory. I got the same inventory you have as it relates to programmatic. Awesome. Well, guess what, I have App Science. And that's what clients are using us for on programmatic. Then you add Creator TV on there. And so Creator TV is differentiated inventory now. And so it's giving us a whole different conversation piece, at least in the U.S. for the time being because we haven't expanded internationally. And then the third aspect of that is international. And international is just taking off as Sajid alluded to. We're seeing an incredible amount of momentum across the board, and we don't see any real slowdown there. So -- while when we did this -- a similar kind of act in '23 going to '24, we were coming out of a rough year in '23, and we had one of the best years in company history in '24. And that was before these additional levers. And so now we're coming out in '25 despite the fact that we executed on our key strategies in Q1 and Q2, and we got hit by tariffs. And I just want to explain real quick, what does that mean? Why -- how could we get -- why do we get impacted by tariffs? A company like [Indiscernible] [ Sky ] gets impacted by automotive tariffs. Well, when that category is one of your bigger categories, and you see we did more revenue in Q2 last year than we did in automotive, than we did all of the second half of last year. So that tells you that, that impact was significant in our top category. And yet we were able to deliver this 10% year-to-year growth. And now we're in a position where, as I mentioned, that automotive category is recovering, but other categories have really taken off for us, and we have this international. So we're hitting on all gears. And I think what I think the marketplace is going to see this year is don't underestimate us, get ready for this year because we are going to execute at a high level as we did last year. We didn't anticipate the tariffs as no one did, including our automaker clients, who were surprised by that. Ford had the biggest loss in company history in Q3 and Q4 last year. And so like this is where we are going to execute and diversify -- we diversify and execute, and we're excited about the year ahead.

Nicholas Cortellucci

Analysts
#24

Right. The other thing I wanted to ask about is if you guys have considered any cost-cutting initiatives like you did in 2024, maybe leveraging AI, or if there's some low-hanging fruit out there to rightsize the cost base.

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#25

Yes. AI is playing a big role, and I'll let Sajid get in here as well. We have actually, as Sajid talked about, we've already committed to have executed on over $1 million of cost savings. We actually have some additional in the [ works ] [Indiscernible] really driven by -- I agree with you, it was driven by AI and efficiencies we're seeing there, where our teams are working on automization processes, specifically where we see the biggest impact for us on AI is on the efficiencies that we get from operational capabilities using agents to help set up campaigns, run campaigns, execute campaigns as well as the analytics side of App Science AI. And so we are seeing efficiencies there. We're going to see the gains of that. From a cost structure basis, what is really telling is we actually have -- as it relates to the U.S., our business is actually cost-wise, operating at a lower headcount than we have in the past. We -- our head count has not increased since '23, and yet we are growing. Our top line estimates for this year are $60 million, where our expansion has been, which is not by big numbers, but it has been internationally. So we have already seen efficiencies in our current setup as it relates to U.S. And now some of those head counts, which have not been significant are in international. So part of what we're doing is we are -- have been gaining more efficiency as it relates to our core business in the U.S. and then allocating resources into growth areas such as international and Creator TV, which we see as huge opportunity. Sajid, anything you want to add to that?

Sajid Premji

Executives
#26

Yes. No, I think that was very well said, Aziz. I think, Aziz, kind of reiterated from -- we said in the transcript as well that we did implement about $1 million of cost cutting in Q1. We have identified further areas of efficiency that we plan to enact sooner rather than later. And the interesting thing about our evolution into programmatic is that while programmatic may be a lower margin than running service, it's more operationally efficient. We don't need as many account managers to run a programmatic campaign. We don't need as many senior sellers to operate a programmatic campaign. You can go lower down the funnel into more junior headcount. And so I think that as programmatic grows [Indiscernible] [ as we scale up ] and we scale up in international, where we're seeing higher sales per seller, I think that our business is going to become a lot more efficient, [ and it really reduce that OpEx ] [Indiscernible].

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#27

And on the AI side, we pretty much have eliminated our preplanning teams and have used some of the efficiencies we've seen with some testing of AI as well as some other automations we put in place. So we are looking for efficiencies across the business, and we do believe there's a lot more we can do, and we are actively working on that as we speak. But also keep in mind, a business our size, yes, we're going to see efficiencies, but we've never gotten bloated. And [Indiscernible] where, in fact, AI is benefiting a lot of these bloated companies in a bigger way because [ they're/we're ] paying a lot of staff. In our case, certainly, we do have efficiencies that are going to give us, where it really benefits us is on the operating leverage. As we continue scaling it up, that's where AI comes into play even bigger. So we're going in a different way relative to a [Indiscernible] [ Meta ] or one of these other folks who have to do the major layoffs because they were already bloated to begin with. In our case, we've been efficient. But as we scale up, that operating leverage will increase with AI, and that's what we're excited about.

Operator

Operator
#28

Since we're almost halfway through 2026, can you comment on how you're seeing trends compared to last year?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#29

Yes. One of the things we're -- and I don't even know we're really halfway through. I mean, we're still seeing a lot of momentum in Q2. What we're seeing is the one trend we are seeing is that -- and this was similar to when we went through the last election cycle. What tends to happen is our political and advocacy gets pushed back a little bit into later quarters, and it gets concentrated into June and then Q3. And then that plays out. And now we have international coming in, in the early part. So we're seeing just overall positive dynamics in our business across multiple categories. And I don't know whether it is the fact that we have these new offerings, both programmatic, Creator TV and then lastly, our international expansion. But we're seeing a lot of great momentum despite the headwinds that you hear about with consumer gas prices and some of the challenges that consumers are having. So we're feeling pretty good. But really, the key differentiation, which is similar to what we saw once again in '24 was that you will see this pushback of political and advocacy moving into later quarters. But what's been great is we have filled a portion of those dollars with, obviously, the international expansion, automotive and some of these other categories that have taken that place. So it's going to be -- the way to look at where Sabio is going to be, it's going to be really heavy Q2 to Q4 kind of cycle. And we're going back to -- as I mentioned, we've never seen the cycle we did last year, which is like we had a great Q1 -- incredible Q1 -- record Q1 and record Q2. And then everything dissipated to the last half of the year. We are starting off slower as it relates to the beginning of Q1 just because advocacy and political gets pushed back a little bit, but we're seeing incredible momentum going on in Q2, Q3, Q4. So we're super excited about what we're seeing overall. Sajid, anything you want to add to that?

Sajid Premji

Executives
#30

No. [Indiscernible].

Operator

Operator
#31

With the 249% growth in international sales, what localized opportunities and challenges are you seeing in the U.K. market versus the U.S.?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#32

And just to clarify, it's more than the U.K. market. It's all of Europe. What we're seeing is we are -- and we're going to be talking about some release some new products there into the international. And I'd rather just refer to as international, not just U.K. We have folks that are working in Spain, with U.K., Africa, the Middle East. What we're finding is there is a need from a marketplace efficiency, transparency with our inventory as well as some of the targeting capabilities we are now working on and bringing to that market fairly soon, targeting and analytics that only -- that we are uniquely positioned to do with App Science. We're super excited about that. And I think we just see a lot of runway without a lot of headwinds at this point. And we're also early mover there. So now when you have a brand, a major brand and a major automotive brand that wants to spend globally, we do have that extension. When we have an automotive brand that -- a quick service restaurant or a fast food chain that wants to expand internationally and wants analytics that they're not getting currently, we have that option. So -- and then you add to it this Creator TV component, which is not only a streaming channel in the U.S., it's a streaming channel globally, even available through Plex there in Canada, Plex, Sling, it's on [Indiscernible] [ Comcast, Xumo ] in the U.S., and we're going to -- and TCL TV globally. And so now we have this expansion, this reach. And it's really, once again, the reception we're getting in the international markets is really positive and has actually superseded any expectations we have had. Sanjay, anything you want to add to that?

Sajid Premji

Executives
#33

Yes. Yes. I think that was well said, Aziz. And I think just to add on to that, typically, in our business, we see most of our sales occurred in the last half of the year, right? And so 2025 was a bit of an anomaly as we talked about how the tariffs impacted us domestically. But the U.K. and internationally, as a whole, did operate more in line with historical trends and even more so. We did about 88% of our sales in the back half of 2025 internationally. We did $5 million of sales in 2025 and 88% of that came in the last half of the year. Now what's really interesting now is that in Q1, as we said, we're up over 10x year-over-year, right? So you're talking about 7 figures in Q1 alone coming internationally. Q2, we're seeing similar trends as well. That's not dropping off. And so if you look at that historical trend in our business, which usually operates between 60% and 70% of sales in the last half of the year. And in the U.K., we saw last year was even more pronounced. That really bodes well for a very strong second half of the year internationally. And then you lump on programmatic that's scaling up on top of that and then you lump on political spending that's going to be coming back as well. We really are set up for a very, very strong second half of the year.

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#34

And I want to also mention one thing that these are big brands. Like we have -- these are not small. These are the Hyundai, the Epson that we're seeing internationally. So we're not talking about the small brands that have little dollars. These are brands that now want to also have a connection back. And what's interesting is we're seeing a [Indiscernible]. Essentially, U.S. brands who want to expand out into Europe or already working in Europe, they want one partner to connect the dots. U.K. brands who are working in the U.S., they want one partner to connect the dots. And they want consistency in data analytics. They want consistency in product offering. And so this is really giving us a leg up and a differentiation in the marketplace in a big way.

Operator

Operator
#35

How does the Creator poker championship success inform your future content strategy for Creator TV?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#36

That is a franchise we are really excited about, and it is under the Creator Sports franchise and Creator TV sports, sorry, franchise. And the way that informs and helps us in terms of how we approach sports is a key category in the U.S. As viewing patterns have changed and rating points being challenged outside of sports, sports for brands is critical. And what we're finding is this new franchise that we've created, which is the Creator TV Sports is an opportunity for key brands to reach a younger audience. Some examples of that. As you mentioned, the Creator World Poker Tour event that is actually going to be now airing, we're waiting for final dates, but it's going to be airing on CBS Sports cable network in addition to other partner networks. It is -- there's a lot of excitement behind it. There's a lot of interest. And what we're doing is we're taking the challenges of a fragmented media ecosystem. And we're closing in on the two key elements that our clients want. They want followers. They want people who will tune in. You haven't built into that with, for example, our Creator World Poker Tour event, at the table of that Creator Poker event, we had 105 million followers with those creators that were -- the 5 creators that are on the table, 105 million followers. You then add in the sports component of that, helping reach a younger audience, that third component, that's what is really exciting for our brands. And we have other -- we're doing, for example, a pickleball tournament at VidCon, which is the largest Creator event in the U.S. And we are the ones that are actually organizing and running the Creator TV, Creator Sports Pickleball Tournament. And so we are going to be moving very heavily and including working on some auto racing opportunities. We are actually in conversations with a very major hotel chain that also has, obviously, deep pockets as it relates to sports betting and that franchise. And so we literally are seeing a lot of great momentum there on Creator sports and the excitement that our brands are telling -- are exhibiting as it relates to the opportunity. And so we see that as being a real clear strategy for us. Creator Sports -- Creator TV Sports is going to be a key centerpiece of our strategy there. And once again, there's a lot of distribution partners who want it. And just to be clear, we are not in the production game. What we are in the game of connecting creators with content, and putting them in a vehicle which they are comfortable with and is consistent with their brand that then -- that is also more cost effective than the traditional way production is done. And so in some cases, we're producing with them in the sense that they're working on the production part. We just help fund it or in other cases, we're collaborating with them on the cost, and we're doing that as a joint production. But it is so far had a lot of great excitement and interest, and it's opening the door to brands that we would not have ordinarily been able to talk to. So we're super excited about that overall.

Operator

Operator
#37

There are no further questions. Do you have any final comments before concluding this call?

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#38

I'd just like to say once again and reiterate that we are excited about the year ahead. We have our execution strategies in place, and they are -- we are already seeing the early results of what we laid out and that on top of what we anticipate being another successful political year. So we are excited about the execution strategy ahead and not only for this year, but from the growth elements of our business now, both programmatic -- sorry, programmatic, international and Creator TV going into 2027. And so we're doing all the things that we need to do to make sure this business is diversified, but we are excited about the year ahead. And that's really what I want to [Indiscernible] [ communicate. ] Anything else, Sajid, do you want to add to that?

Sajid Premji

Executives
#39

Nothing [Indiscernible] [ more to say. ]

Aziz Rahimtoola

Executives
#40

Great. Well, thank you again for joining us on the call, and we're looking forward to chatting with all of you again soon.

Operator

Operator
#41

Thank you very much. And this concludes Sabio Holdings earning call. Thank you for joining us today.

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