Velo3D, Inc. (VELO) Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Greetings, and welcome to the Velo3D Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, James Carbonara, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Velo3D's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Before we begin, please note that today's call will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Please refer to our press release issued earlier today as well as our filings with the SEC, including our 2024 Form 10-K for a discussion of these risks. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures during the call. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP results can be found in today's press release, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website. A replay of this call will also be available shortly after its conclusion. With that, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Arun Jeldi.

Thank you, James. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining Velo3D's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. This quarter represents another important milestone in Velo3D's transformation into a high-value recurring industrial technology platform. One that is deeply aligned with the future of advanced manufacturing, digital production and national industrial resilience. Over the past year, we have been executing a disciplined and deliberate transformation strategy, shifting from a hardware-driven model to a scalable platform business built on recurring services, industrial partnerships and mission-critical applications. Our third quarter results reflect that progress. We are delivering steady growth, operational improvement and expanding margins, all while maintaining a clear line of sight toward profitability in the first half of 2026. In Q3, we delivered revenue of $13.6 million, consistent with last quarter and up over 65% year-over-year from $8.2 million in 2024. This growth demonstrates the increasing market validation of our platform, the steady ramp of our rapid production services business and the strength of our relationships with leading aerospace, defense and industrial customers. Our backlog grew to $21 million as of September 30, up from $16 million at the end of quarter 2, reflecting strong repeat orders and long-term production contracts from customers who are embedding Velo3D into their mission-critical supply chains. Our RPS platform is at the heart of this transformation. It enables customers to achieve digitally certified high complexity parts onshore at speed and with unmatched geometric freedom. For many customers, RPS is becoming their preferred pathway to production-grade additive manufacturing, delivering not only agility and precision, but also a repeatable digital thread that enhances traceability and reliability across programs. This business is rapidly evolving into a recurring revenue for Velo3D, providing visibility, predictability and sustainable margin expansion. The third quarter was rich with progress across our key markets and technology roadmap. We achieved several significant milestones that strengthen our position as the technology partner of choice for high-performance manufacturing. $6 million in sales and service agreements were signed under U.S. Navy's Maritime Industrial Base Program, where we developed and qualifying copper nickel alloys for use in our Sapphire systems. This work supports shipbuilding modernization and repair initiatives, key to strengthening U.S. Maritime readiness. We joined the U.S. Army DEVCOM AvMC Manufacturing & Sustainment initiative, advancing cost-effective additive manufacturing for Aluminum CP1. This broadens our materials portfolio and expands our presence in defense-grade lightweight metals, a critical capability for next-generation platforms. Our partnership with Linde's AMT is enabling the domestic sourcing of copper nickel 70-30 powder directly addressing one of the most urgent challenges facing U.S. defense and industrial supply chains, which are materials, security and traceability. We achieved AS9100D certification for our RPS Quality Management System, a major milestone that validates the maturity of our operations and our readiness to scale production within the aerospace and defense sectors. We announced the integration of Dyndrite's LPBF Pro software across our Sapphire and Sapphire XC platforms, unlocking AI-enabled tool path optimization and rapid process development capabilities that shorten customer time to qualification. And finally, we expanded our partnership with Innovative Rocket Technologies, scaling U.S.-based production for reusable launch vehicle and defense propulsion systems, further anchoring Velo3D in the emerging space and hypersonic manufacturing ecosystem. Collectively, these milestones underscore our technological differentiation, our alignment with strategic U.S. industrial programs and our ability to compete in the highest value segments of advanced manufacturing. Beyond operations, Q3 marked a defining corporate milestone for Velo3D. We successfully uplisted our common stock to the NASDAQ Capital Market, a step that not only enhances our visibility and credibility with the broader investment community, but also affirms our progress in governance, transparency and institutional readiness. The uplisting positions Velo3D alongside leading technology innovators and open across to a broader pool of global investors who share our vision for the future of intelligent digital manufacturing. In conjunction with the uplisting, we completed a $17.5 million underwritten public offering for our common stock. The strong participation in the offering reflects growing investor confidence in our transformation strategy, the scalability of business model and our trajectory towards profitability. The proceeds from the offering have significantly strengthened our balance sheet, enhancing liquidity, improving working capital flexibility and providing the fuel to accelerate our RPS scaling, advance R&D programs in new materials and software and invest in automation and capacity expansion at our production facilities. This financial strength enables us to execute from a position of confidence, investing where it matters, scaling where we see opportunity and maintaining clear focus on EBITDA profitability in the first half of 2026. Our performance in the first 9 months of 2025 demonstrates the momentum building across our business. We have a strong order book, expanding customer base, improving margins and tighter cost discipline. Based on this progress and our current visibility into Q4, we are reaffirming our full year 2025 guidance. Our revenue will be $50 million to $60 million and sequential gross margin improvement reaching 30% or higher by quarter 4 of 2025. The non-GAAP operating expenses will be anywhere between $40 million to $50 million. Capital expenditure will be $15 million to $20 million. EBITDA positive in the first half of 2026. These targets reflect our continued confidence and strength of our execution, the resilience of our business model and the depth of demand across our end markets. We believe that Velo3D is now positioning at a unique intersection where digital manufacturing, material innovation and national reindustrialization coverage. Our technology is not only enabling customers to build impossible, but to do so at production scale with quality and repeatability that meet the highest industry standards. We are confident that the steps we are taking today to expand RPS, deepen defense partnerships and invest in material and software innovation will yield a strong profitable growth platform for years to come. With that, I will turn the call over to our CFO, Hull Xu, for a deeper look at our financial performance.

Thank you, Arun. Third quarter revenue was $13.6 million, up 65% compared to $8.2 million in the year ago quarter. This increase was driven primarily by higher systems and printed parts sales as RPS operations continue to ramp up. Gross margin for the third quarter was 3.2% compared to 49.4% in the year ago quarter and a negative 11.7% in the prior quarter. If you recall, the year ago quarter had a onetime license revenue that significantly lifted gross margin. Sequentially, gross margin improved due to higher absorption of overhead as RPS volume increased along with more efficient system sales turnover. We expect margins to continue to improve as RPS scales and new Sapphire systems are built to order. Operating expenses were $11.1 million, down from $22.9 million a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding $2 million of stock-based compensation, operating expenses were $9 million, demonstrating continued cost discipline. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $11.8 million compared to a net loss of $23.1 million in the year ago quarter. Non-GAAP net loss for the quarter was $9.2 million compared to $14.5 million in the year ago quarter, and non-GAAP net loss excludes stock-based compensation of [$2.6] million. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2025 improved to negative $7.3 million compared to negative $9.7 million in the third quarter of 2024. As of September 30, 2025, we had a backlog of $21 million. This compares to $16 million of backlog at the end of 2024 and $15.9 million at the end of the previous quarter. Importantly, the composition of our backlog made a significant shift toward RPS, driven by strong demand from the system and the defense sector from the space and defense sectors. In terms of our balance sheet, as at the end of the third quarter, we had a cash and cash equivalent of $11.8 million compared to $1.2 million at the end of 2024. We remain confident in our liquidity position and capital plan to reach EBITDA profitability by mid-2026. In conclusion, we remain focused on executing our business strategy with a clear path to profitability. With that, operator, we can open the call to questions.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from Jaeson Schmidt with Lake Street Capital Markets.

Congrats on the progress. Just curious if you could comment on if the government funding backdrop is causing any kind of return friction here. And I might have missed it, but did you guys provide what bookings were in Q3?

Sorry, Jaeson, it was kind of bit choppy, but -- if I understand it correctly, you're asking about the government shutdown, whether there is any impact to our bookings?

Yes. Well, yes, the government funding backdrop is causing any sort of correction in sort of the near term as well as what bookings were in Q3?

Jason, I can answer that government shutdown and the impact on the booking side for -- I mean, the government shutdown started on October 4. We were a little -- we're not that worried because of the momentum and some of the programs what we are leading actually has already been accrued. The government shutdown might have a little impact of it, but good thing is that they're moving in the right direction. So hopefully, they will ramp up some of those backlog in the last 30 days or so to move fast on some of the programs. But it seems like the bookings might impact a little bit, but we're pretty positive on getting what we are guiding.

Yes. Obviously, it depends on when it opens backup, right? So we are pretty close in signing a couple of things with the primes. I think the timing would be probably the only thing.

Okay. That makes sense. [indiscernible] what percentage of revenue you're going to be exiting this year?

So yes, it continues to ramp -- if we compare to third quarter, second quarter and first quarter -- third quarter was greater than the second quarter. Second quarter was greater than the first quarter. So we expect RPS to land somewhere between 20% to 30% for the year.

Got you. And then just the last one for me, and I'll jump back in the queue. You're obviously seeing some nice traction in defense and space. But just curious, what are some other notable verticals you're seeing momentum in?

Yes. So we're seeing a lot of traction. I mean you can see in the future bookings of ours, like space is picking up pretty fast because we reduced the barrier of entry for RPS programs. Space and semiconductor markets are really, really getting their qualified parts in Q4. So that is a big turn along with defense contracts. And energy is another sector. So if you see we're doing a major impact in energy sector, especially oil and gas. So we're pretty much focused on what our 4 sectors are, defense, space, semiconductor, and energy.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from George Marima with Pareto Ventures.

I have 2 questions for you. The first one is on the Q4 gross margin uptick. Is that more about mix of RPS versus systems or more about efficiency of production of systems that's shifting?

It's also -- I mean, the company actually increased its production on the new machines, the overhead. So overall operational efficiency, one part. And the second part is the RPS gross margins is pretty high. And as we mentioned before, the Q2, Q3 is a snowball effect. We are breaking up and increasing the RPS percentage of revenue, and that actually helps quite a bit. And also, we are very careful on our gross margins on the new machines that we sell. So that's where our confidence level is. That's why we are still guiding at 30%.

So in Q4, will you have kind of gone through most of the old legacy backlog from like a year ago?

Yes. So if you see our inventory levels and others in the past and what you're seeing. That has almost gone. So we're building the new machines, the overhead and everything will be reduced.

Okay. Great. And then my second question, I was wondering if you could provide some more color on the DoD segment, excluding the shutdown period, of course. But like what kind of demand signals are you seeing in terms of -- is there like a higher uptick in velocity of RFPs? Or just are there any concrete examples you can provide of just what is the velocity of the DoD segment for 3D printing parts?

So I'll give a few examples if and you can relate to those. And one of the things is the munitions program. That's upticking quite a bit with a lot of promises in the recent press release and DoD is basically ramping up their manufacturing in U.S., and they want to increase their stockpile. That's another reason if you recently heard that the Defense Secretary has conducted the acquisitions and cutting the red tape to increase the production. That's where all that demand is coming from. And we are in the right place in the right business in one sense is like the manufacturing is the key here to actually increase the production. So all these defense companies now leaving the traditional legacy way of doing things and saw a more value, like one of the programs we are involved has showed them that it can be cheaper and faster than traditional, and that is ticking up pretty fast, and they're moving some legacy parts, some munitions programs and shipbuilding and you see a lot of Army programs and CP1 and other things. So that's where the demand comes from.

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that there are no further questions at this time. So I'll hand the floor back to management for any closing remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. It's me Arun Jeldi, CEO of Velo3D. Before we close, I want to recognize our employees, customers and investors for their continued confidence and partnership. The transformation underway at Velo3D is real, and the results are visible across every dimension of our business. We are executing with focus, innovation with purpose and positioning Velo3D for long-term value creation, both for our shareholders and for the industries we serve. Thank you again for joining us today and for your continued support.

Thank you. That concludes today's conference. All parties may disconnect. Have a good day.