Hi, I'm Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of Cirata. Thank you for joining me today as we present the results for the general meeting held on the 24th of July, 2026, together with our trading update for the second quarter of FY 2026. I want to start with the fundraise because it's a foundation for the future. Following the shareholder approval at the general meeting, our placing and subscription announced on the 26th of June has now become unconditional. Together with our retail offer, we've raised gross proceeds of $7.2 million. The round was oversubscribed. Admission of the new shares is expected on the 28th of July. This strengthens our balance sheet to drive new logo acquisition, pipeline conversion, and product scale, while giving us the platform to invest with discipline on our growth strategy.
We greatly appreciate the strong support from existing investors and many new U.K. institutions, as well as the retail investor base. Since we came together three years ago, the company has raised circa GBP 35 million net of fees. With those funds and support from investors, we've transformed every part of the company, effectively building a growth company from a broken company. With these funds, we have reduced the expense rate by over 70% from the peak. With this latest fundraise, the balance sheet is strengthened. We can shift our focus to acquiring new customers. Turning to the quarter itself, closing ACV was GBP 5.3 million, up from GBP 4.9 million at the start of the quarter, driven by GBP 0.4 million of net new ACV from renewals and expansion within our existing customer base. We didn't close any new logos in the quarter. This was disappointing.
What gives us confidence looking forward, however, is the pipeline behind the business. Between January and April, our pipeline grew by 40% to GBP 21 million of annual contract value, ACV. Both volume and quality have continued to strengthen since then. That's a result of our go-to-market team now being fully onboarded following the final hires that joined in June and July. The task now is to shift gears from heroic selling in FY 2025 that produced record Q4 results to a repeatable, scalable model based on our methodology to facilitate customer buying cycles.
In the second half, our goal is to execute with focus, demonstrating that a fully resourced go-to-market organization can deliver new customer acquisition and scale building on our FY 2025 growth trajectory. Given Cirata has moved circa 300 petabytes of data for customers, we are best placed to help prospective customers through a petabyte scale data project delivery.
This quarter also saw real progress on Cirata Symphony. We now have our first customer deployed, a major U.K. retailer running iceberg-to-iceberg replication following a successful beta trialing with that retailer. We're also progressing well with Cirata Symphony beta at a large U.S. bank. We also moved to a proof of concept with a new prospective customer in the U.S. On the OEM side, there was a major announcement on the 16th of June 2026 when Cirata Symphony can now be delivered under our agreement with IBM as Cirata Symphony for IBM Big Replicate. That's an important validation milestone for the product. Opens up a significantly wider route to market. It's worth noting that the problems Cirata solves for the customers are amongst the hardest and the most complex large-scale data use cases for Global 2000 companies.
Often, these data challenges are in the too hard category and ultimately career-limiting for CTOs, chief data officers, and CIOs to tackle. With the unstructured live data explosion fueled by the increasing volume of contact center conversations, pictures, videos, social media clicks, just as examples, the infrastructure complexity is growing further. Vendors are seeking to lock in customers and exacerbate the customer quagmire. Cirata Symphony is the open standards platform that helps customers manage this complexity and take back control. With one customer describing Cirata as the Switzerland of data orchestration. Honestly, we need to do a better job telling this story clearly to prospective customers. However, the progress we've made validates our strategy, and the foundations are in place for growth. Turning to cash.
The recent fundraise will provide gross proceeds of $7.2 million. In addition, as of June 30th, our unaudited cash balance was GBP 2.6 million, and with short-term receivables bringing our cash plus receivables position to GBP 2.8 million. In Q1, we recorded the first quarter of positive cash flow. During Q2, we consumed GBP 2.1 million net cash following a weaker Q1 FY 2026 bookings quarter. We continue our expenses discipline with total overheads at GBP 3.2 million in Q2, consistent with our FY 2026 annualized range between GBP 12 million and GBP 13 million, which represents a reduction of over 70% from the peak. We're reaffirming our outlook shared on the 14th of January 2026. We continue to target cash flow breakeven for FY 2026. This quarter also marks three years since the start of Cirata's turnaround. In just the last year, we've divested a legacy business.
We built and launched the Cirata Symphony platform, put it into deployment with a major retailer, and delivered our first cash positive quarter in Q1. With the balance sheet now strengthened after the fundraise and our go-to-market team fully resourced, our focus for the second half is clear: execute with discipline and convert that pipeline into new customer wins. Thank you. I'll now take a few questions.
Stephen, thank you for taking the questions. You mentioned the fundraise was oversubscribed. What does that tell you about investor confidence, and how will the proceeds be used?
Yeah, thanks, Scott. It tells us that both existing and new shareholders back the strategy we're executing. The proceeds strengthen our balance sheet and give us the runway to invest with discipline in our go-to-market capability so that we can convert the pipeline we've been building into signed business.
Stephen, ACV growth came entirely from existing customers with no new logos. How concerned should investors be?
Yeah, Scott, I understand why that stands out, and I'm not going to gloss over it. It's below where we wanted to be. Closing ACV grew from GBP 4.9 million in Q1 to GBP 5.3 million in Q2. Net new ACV of GBP 410,000, driven entirely by existing customers. Yeah, we didn't close any new logos in the quarter. Enterprise sales cycles are inherently lumpy, as we flagged back in January. What matters and what's behind the numbers is our pipeline has grown by 40% from January to April and continues to improve in terms of quality and volume. Our sales team only reached full strength and were fully onboarded in the last couple of months. We expect new logo conversion to show up as the year progresses.
Now is the only time during my tenure where the sales team has been fully resourced with high-quality, experienced, consultative sales leaders. Dominic, having been here for just one year now, has changed everybody in sales and hired an experienced team in our biggest geographies.
Stephen, you've mentioned the pipeline is growing. What is the substance behind that?
Yeah, I think it's an interesting question. The pipeline grew 40% in value between January and April, reaching GBP 21 million in ACV. Both the quality and the volume has continued to trend upwards since. That's partly as a result of having our go-to-market team fully resourced now, as I mentioned before. Dominic Arcari's team completed the final hires in June and July in the U.S. and the U.K. We're focused on Global 2000 accounts, both new logos and expansion within our customer base. The team is increasingly embedded in key territories and strategic accounts, working with IBM, that's exactly the kind of activity that should start converting into signed ACV.
Stephen, IBM is a great name to be working with. What is the significance of the IBM OEM agreement for Cirata Symphony?
Yeah, I think it's a really big deal. About 40% of the pipeline is co-sourced with IBM, our strategic partner. The IBM announcement made on the 16th of June 2026 is a genuine validation milestone. Having Cirata Symphony deliverable as Cirata Symphony for IBM Big Replicate means IBM is putting its name and distribution behind our product and platform. It's a big thing and nontrivial for IBM to validate Cirata Symphony for its OEM agreement. That opens up a much wider route to market than we could achieve alone.
Stephen, you have your first deployment customer for Symphony. Why does that milestone matter?
Cirata Symphony has been really a strategic bet for the company. It moves Cirata Symphony from beta and proof of concept into the real-world deployment. A major U.K. retailer is running iceberg-to-iceberg replication in live deployment today, and that's the strongest possible reference point. Additionally, Cirata Symphony is in beta tests for a top-three U.S. bank.
Stephen, you're reaffirming cash flow breakeven for FY 2026. What gives you confidence in that target given the ACV shortfall this quarter?
Our cost discipline is well established. Overheads are down by over 70% since the peak, and this quarter, we've tracked to a cash overhead of GBP 3.2 million, and this is within our targeted annualized range of GBP 12 million-GBP 13 million. Combined with a strengthened balance sheet from the fundraise and a fully resourced go-to-market team with both the financial footing and the commercial pipeline to execute against that target. Pipeline has grown through the year, and now our focus is on converting that pipeline with new and existing customers. Our focus is on building a scalable, profitable growth business.
Well, Stephen, thank you very much for your time today.