Exasol AG (EXL) Q2 2026 Earnings Report

The call presents a mixed but manageable picture: there are clear operational and strategic positives — notably a significant reduction in churn, near-flat ARR, healthy liquidity (EUR 21.6M), early traction in Agentic AI and sovereign positioning, and disciplined cost control — but growth is constrained by a weaker upsell dynamic, delayed partner ramp (MariaDB), missed expansion deals, and an H1 revenue decline due to last year's one-off hardware sale. Management narrowed guidance but retains financial flexibility and a multi-pronged strategy (developer seeding, partnerships, sovereign/AI use cases) to drive recovery. Given the balance between constructive operational improvements and notable near-term growth headwinds, the overall tone is cautious and pragmatic.

The company updated FY‑2026 guidance to forecast ARR growth of -2% to +2%, revenue declining in the upper single‑digit percent range (revised down from mid‑single‑digit), and EBITDA narrowed to a corridor of EUR 3.0–3.5 million (still “above EUR 3m” confidence); management expects the ARR churn to remain around 10% for the rest of the year. At H1 they reported ARR of EUR 37.9m (≈1% down since the start of the year/38.4m), recurring revenue of EUR 19.0m (H1 2025: EUR 21.5m), H1 net income EUR 1.2m, EBITDA ~EUR 0.4m below prior year, gross upsell rate down from ~113% to ~106%, ARR churn reduced from ~24% to ~10%, and net liquid funds of EUR 21.6m; management flagged a EUR 750k MariaDB prepayment that will be trued up (potential adjustment limited to ~EUR 100k) and said new‑logo momentum should partly offset continued weaker upsell.