Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Vanessa Liu. It is my pleasure as Chair of Appen Limited to welcome everyone joining us today for our annual general meeting. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the various lands on which you are joining us from and the First Nations people participating in our meeting. I pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. It is now just past 10:00 A.M., the nominated time for the meeting. I've been informed that a quorum is present. I note that the meeting has been validly constituted. I'm pleased to declare the meeting open. I would like to begin by introducing my fellow directors that are present with us today.
Robin Low, Non-executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee. Stuart Davis, Non-executive Director and member of the Audit and. Our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ryan Kolln. Lynn Mickleburgh, Non-executive Director and member of our People and Culture Committee, is joining us by phone as she is based in the U.S. Steve Hasker, our Non-executive Director and Chair of our People and Culture Committee, is unable to be live with us today but has prepared his remarks. We also have various Appen executives present, representatives from the company's auditors, KPMG, and representatives from the company's share register, MUFG Corporate Markets. There are four components. First, I will provide you with an update on the business from a strategic perspective. Second, our CEO, Ryan Kolln, will provide a market overview, a recap of the group's 2025 performance, and outlook.
Third, we will open the meeting for questions on general business. Fourth, we will move to the formal business of the meeting, where the items set out in the notice of meeting and addendum will be put to shareholders. We will also allocate time for questions on each of the items of business when they are considered. Thank you to those shareholders who have submitted questions prior to the meeting. We've endeavored to address these during the upcoming presentations. As you might see, this is my 1st AGM as Chair of Appen, having been appointed to the role on the January 1st of 2026, following Richard Freudenstein's retirement from the Board on the December 31st of 2025. I'd like to take a moment to recognize Richard's contribution.
He joined the Appen board in 2021, became Chair during one of the most challenging periods in the company's history, and stayed the course with discipline and determination. Under his stewardship, we positioned Appen to participate in the generative AI market and has created the foundation from which we now, and the entire board are grateful to Richard for his leadership and his support during the transition. I've had the privilege of serving on the Appen board since 2020. Over the years, I've seen the qualities that make it genuinely special, the depth of its data expertise, the scale of its global crowd, the strength of its technology, and the culture of the people who show up every day to deliver for our customers.
I take on this role with clear eyes, high expectations, and genuine excitement about what lies ahead, and will continue to work very closely with Ryan and the executive team as we continue to execute on our strategy. Before I invite Ryan to speak in more detail about the performance of our business, our strategy, and the outlook, I'd like to reflect on Appen's context in the market and then our progress over the past year. I will provide commentary on the items of business we are asking shareholders to vote on today. We are living through one of the most consequential technology transitions in human history. Artificial intelligence is being interwoven into the fabric of daily life, into the way we communicate, the way we work, the way businesses make decisions, the way scientific breakthroughs happen.
The models powering the transformation are becoming more capable, more multilingual, and more autonomous with every iteration. At the heart of this transformation is a key point. AI models learn from data. Specifically, they learn from high-quality, human-annotated, carefully curated data, the kind that Appen has been creating for As models become more sophisticated, the data requirements do not diminish. They grow. For AI to become even more reliable, the data needs become more complex, more domain-specific, more demanding of genuine human expertise and judgment. This is a great opportunity for Appen because we have the scale, the infrastructure, the global crowd, the reliability and the institutional [knoledge]. With this context, let's turn to our performance over the last year and note that values referred to are in US dollars unless stated otherwise.
In 2025, Appen recorded total operating revenue of AUD 230.8 million, representing growth of 4.5% on the prior year when excluding the impact of the Google contract termination in FY 2024. Underlying EBITDA before FX improved significantly to AUD 12.2 million, an increase of 250.8% compared to AUD 3.5 million in 2024. The board once again made the decision not to declare an interim or final dividend to ensure capital is allocated appropriately. Throughout 2025, the business remained focused on maximizing growth while managing costs. We successfully executed against an AUD 10 million cost reduction program, largely through technology-enabled efficiencies, which contributed meaningfully to the improvement in gross margins. Revenue from generative AI grew considerably. It's now representing 33% of total revenue by the end of the year, up from 22% in 2024.
We also sharpened our customer focus, which contributed to strong new project wins in generative AI throughout the year, and particularly in the second half. The combination of revenue growth, improving gross margins, and disciplined cost management delivered continued EBITDA growth across the year. We remain committed to managing our cost base in line with the revenue opportunity while continuing to invest in the technology and talent required to capture the significant opportunity that's represented by generative AI. Ryan Kolln has continued to lead Appen with strong operational discipline and a clear focus on growth. His leadership has contributed financial and operational performance. During the year, we strengthened our executive team with key additions across delivery, sales, crowd operations, and legal functions.
These additions reinforce our capability in the areas most critical to our future growth, particularly in developing complex data solutions with AI, and to delivering consistently strong outcomes for our customers. I want to thank the entire executive team and Appen employees around the world for their continued efforts and commitment. Appen remains committed to delivering strong social, governance, and sustainability outcomes. Customer satisfaction improved meaningfully in 2025, with customer NPS rising up to 68, up from 57 in the prior year. This result reflects the quality of our project delivery and the strength of our customer relationships. Our crowd Net Promoter Score, NPS, declined to 22 from 33 in the prior year, primarily due to project availability and earning stability during certain periods of the year. We recognize the importance contributors place on having a steady, reliable source of income, and improving the contributor experience remains a top priority.
We continue to uphold the principles outlined in our Crowd Code of Conduct and our Global Ethical Sourcing and Modern Slavery Policy. Employee engagement increased to 83%, up from 79% in 2024, and diversity continues to remain a priority. Women represented 58% of our total work. amongst our senior leadership team increased to 54%, exceeding our target of 30%. Just want to touch on governance. As noted, this is my first AGM as Chair following Richard's resignation in December 2025. During 2025, Mini Peiris also retired from the board due to the increasing demands of her executive role in the United States. Mini joined us in 2023 and brought valuable perspective on the digital marketplace in our key market, and we thank her for her contributions and also wish her well.
The board currently comprises five independent non-executive directors and our CEO, Ryan Kolln. We maintain 50% female representation at the board level. I'm satisfied that the board has the right skills, the diversity of thought, and industry depth to guide Appen through this next phase. We remain committed to maintaining a well-balanced, high-performing board. Our governance practices continue to align with the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations. The People and Culture Committee, chaired by Steve Hasker, continues to carefully consider the skills and composition required to drive the company's future growth. Steve Hasker and Lynn Mickleburgh are standing for re-election in accordance with the company's constitution and ASX Listing Rules. Both Steve and Lynn will be addressing shareholders on their candidacy later in the meeting. The board recommends shareholders vote in favor of both re-elections.
Before we cover current remuneration matters, I would like to address the first strike against last year's remuneration report. The board takes shareholder feedback very seriously, and we acknowledge the concerns that were expressed. We have reflected carefully on that feedback, and as you will hear from the chair of the board's People and Culture Committee later in the meeting, we are committed to ensuring that our remuneration framework is transparent and clearly aligned with shareholder outcomes. Appen and the board remain committed to the highest standards of governance and to demonstrating through our actions that executive remuneration is tied directly to the performance that we deliver for you. Turning briefly to remuneration, the 2025 short-term incentive framework was weighted 80% to financial performance and 20% to non-financial metrics.
The final STI outcome for our KMPs, so our key management personnel, was 10% of target, reflecting a year in which our financial metrics did not meet the minimum achievement thresholds, despite both showing substantial improvement over our prior year. Customer NPS was a strong result, achieving 119% of target, reflecting the high quality of service and project experienced. Crowd NPS was below the minimum payout threshold. Under item five of today's agenda, we are seeking shareholder approval to grant 3,024,260 performance rights to Ryan under the fiscal year 2026 long-term incentive plan, valued at AUD 1.5 million. The number of performance rights was calculated using the December 2025 VWAP of AUD 0.746 per share. These rights are subject to vesting conditions based on absolute total shareholder return and revenue CAGR, measured over a three-year period to the December 31st of 2028.
Ryan's total remuneration includes a fixed component of AUD 600,000, an STI opportunity of AUD 600,000, and an LTI opportunity of 250% of fixed pay. The board believes the structure is appropriately rigorous, competitive for the global technology sector, and aligned with shareholder interests. Under item six and seven, we are also seeking shareholder approval for the issue of deferred STI shares to Ryan. Item six relates to 223,777 shares deferred from Ryan's fiscal year 2024 STI award, and item seven relates to 15,640 shares deferred from his fiscal year 2025 STI award. These deferred share issues are consistent with the terms of the STI framework approved by shareholders and reflect the board's commitment to aligning executive remuneration with the long-term interests of shareholders. Later in the meeting, Steve Hasker, Chair of the Board's People and Culture Committee, will speak to the remuneration report in more detail.
In closing, I am pleased with the progress Appen made in 2025. We delivered a materially improved financial result, with underlying EBITDA growing 250.8% and cash generation turning strongly positive. We grew our China business significantly, strengthened our customer relationships, and deepened our position in the generative AI market. There is much more work to do, but the foundations are strong, and I'm excited about the opportunity ahead. The next chapter of AI is not about bigger models, but about models that work reliably in the real world across languages, cultures, domains, and contexts. Human judgment is more important than ever to make AI trustworthy, safe, and effective. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank all of our shareholders for your continued support. We remain deeply committed to building a business that creates genuine, durable value for our shareholders.
We also thank our executive team and Appen employees around the world for their commitment and contributions during what has been another very important year. I now welcome Ryan to give a CEO address.
Thank you, Vanessa. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I'll cover three areas this morning. First, the AI market and Appen's role in it. Second, our FY 2025 results. Third, our growth strategy and guidance for FY 2026. Let me start with the market. Appen plays a critical role in the AI ecosystem by providing high-quality data that is used to build and monitor AI models. AI development depends on three inputs, algorithms, compute, and data. Algorithms are the way that the models are configured. This approach is highly complex and is how researchers are able to define new techniques for model development. You can think of this as the blueprint for AI development. Compute is what is required to train and run the models. This is the raw horsepower that is in large demand across model builders. The 3rd ingredient is data.
These are the examples that are used to inform the models how to behave, and that increasingly has the largest influence on how models perform. Appen's role in the AI ecosystem is to provide the world's leading AI builders with the high-quality, human-generated data they need to build and improve their models. To understand why that role matters, it helps to look at what data is actually available to model builders. There are three types. Public data is the text, images, and audio that has been collected largely from the internet. The world's leading AI labs have mostly exhausted this source. It's already captured in their existing models, and training on it provides little ability to differentiate. Synthetic data generated by other AI models carries a different set of risks.
Models trained on it can struggle to solve novel or real-world situations, and in some cases, it leads to model collapse, where model quality degrades over successive generations. That leaves real-world human-generated data. This is the input that brings genuine expertise, diverse perspectives, and real-world nuance into model performance. It's the only data type that can push a model into new capabilities and into new domains. This is not a temporary gap. Every new model capability needs from reasoning, domain expertise, to multilingual fluency, and physical real-world understanding requires fresh human data to unlock it. Appen's role is to create high-quality data that is used to build the world's best AI. The models that power the products billions of people use, the assistants, the search engines, coding tools, translation services, were all built with data that companies like Appen provide. AI training is not a singular task.
The techniques and approaches required to build and improve a model are varied, numerous, and constantly changing as the field evolves. Teaching a model to write better code requires human expertise, reviewing its outputs, and explaining what is right or wrong. Teaching a model to understand Japanese or Arabic requires native speakers providing examples in those languages. Teaching a robot to pick up objects requires humans demonstrating the task and having every movement carefully labeled. Each application requires a different approach, different skills, different quality standards, and as AI evolves, new techniques emerge that we need to support. Appen supports the full set of human data techniques used in AI development today. We have deep expertise delivering high-quality data across each of them, and we continue to evolve our capabilities as the demands of our customers change.
That ability to move with the market is one of the things that sets us apart. Three structural trends are driving sustained demand in the AI market. The first is consumer AI globalization. The global digital advertising market is approximately $740 billion. As AI-powered products are deployed across different countries and cultures, they need human data to reflect local nuance. This work requires Appen's global workforce. Second is enterprise AI adoption. McKinsey estimates $2.6 trillion-$4.4 trillion in annual value potential from enterprise AI use cases. Embedding domain expertise into enterprise models requires specialist human data. The third is new form factors. Humanoid and industrial robotics is projected to be a $60 billion-$100 billion market by the early 2030s. Models that interact with the real world need training data that reflects it.
The important point is that as data demand scales with model development, as AI adoption grows, so does the demand for what we do. Let me give some concrete examples of where we are winning in FY 2026. The first example is supporting robotics. We annotated egocentric human video to build data sets for physical AI training, delivering over 50,000 units of data across annotation and evaluation workflows. The second is related to verifying coding outputs from AI models. We worked with a leading coding foundation model to evaluate coding outputs, identifying vulnerabilities and errors. We have a direct relationship with their research team and technical leaders, and the program has expanded multiple times since an initial signing in Q1. The third is related to enterprise AI solutions.
We developed reinforcement learning environments across 20 domains, delivering 1,000 synthetic artifacts with domain experts validating outputs and removing errors and hallucinations. The fourth is AI for music. We evaluate the ability for a model to generate music spanning multiple countries and musical genres. The final example is supporting the development of a multilingual speech model. We delivered data across approximately 60 languages for a leading AI lab. That program has since been expanded into its next phase. What's also worth noting is that physical AI, coding models, and reinforcement learning are amongst the fastest-growing and most heavily invested areas in AI right now. The fact that we are not only winning initial projects in these areas but expanding them is a really strong signal. It tells us that our customers value what we deliver and that we are well-positioned to grow as these markets scale.
Appen is really well-positioned to capture growth at global scale. We have a deep track record supporting the globalization of AI models for consumer-facing applications. We've been doing this for 30 years. The next wave of large-scale AI data demands is in areas where that experience is directly relevant. We're combining that 30-year legacy with new technical capabilities required for the next phase of AI. In the last 12 months, we've added more than 20 industry experts with deep technical backgrounds across AI and machine learning. These are the people who understand our customers' problems from the inside. They're directly contributing to the new projects we are winning and expanding. Our market position in China is one of strength. Appen China revenue is significantly larger than the leading local Chinese-listed competitor. We are the vendor of choice for top Chinese technology companies and model builders.
Finally, we are built to scale. Our products and processes are built to adapt with customer requirements, and technology is central to how we operate and drive operational efficiencies. Now let's turn to our financial results for FY 2025. FY 2025 was a year of meaningful progress for Appen. At the group level, we delivered AUD 230.8 million in revenue, up 4.5% on FY 2024 when you exclude the impact of Google. Growth was driven predominantly by new project wins and expansions in generative AI.
Generative AI is the clear growth driver for the market and a positive signal that we are executing well against our strategy. On profitability, we delivered AUD 12.2 million in underlying EBITDA excluding FX. The full-year margin was 5.3% with a strong end to the year, with Q4 coming in at 18.2% EBITDA margin. We also continue to capture operational efficiencies through technology, innovation, and automation.
Looking at our two segments, on Appen Global, the full-year revenue was AUD 127.9 million, which was down year -on -year. We ended the year on a high note with Q4 revenue of AUD 41.4 million, up 56% on Q3, and EBITDA of AUD 10.2 million at a 24.6% margin. Appen China had an exceptional year, delivering AUD 102.9 million in revenue, up 75% year -on -year, with EBITDA up 640% to AUD 10.6 million. Growth is driven predominantly by new and expanding generative AI-related projects. Across the group, 44% of Q4 revenue came from generative AI, up from 34.8% a year ago. We closed the year with AUD 59.8 million in cash on hand. We continue to drive operational efficiencies across the business. In FY 2025, we realized AUD 10 million in annualized cost efficiencies through technology and automation.
In summary, FY 2024 was a year that demonstrated real progress, revenue growth, improved margins, and exceptional performance from Appen China. As mentioned, group revenue was AUD 230.8 million for the full year. Gross margin improved to 40.3%, up 100 basis points on FY 2024, driven by a higher mix of generative AI projects across both divisions. Underlying EBITDA before FX was AUD 12.2 million, up 251% on the prior year.
Appen Global revenue for FY 2025 was AUD 127.9 million, down 21% on FY 2024, excluding Google, reflecting lower volumes through Q1 and Q3. Q4 told a different story. Revenue of AUD 41.4 million was up 56% on Q3, driven by new project wins. Underlying EBITDA for Q4 was AUD 10.2 million, reflecting a 24.6% EBITDA margin for the quarter. We also executed AUD 10 million at annualized cost efficiencies across Appen Global through automation and operational improvements. Appen China grew 75% in FY 2025, delivering AUD 102.9 million in revenue.
Growth was driven by new and expanding LLM-related projects, including work supporting the international expansion of Chinese technology customers. The profitability improvement was significant. Underlying EBITDA before FX was AUD 10.6 million for the full year, up 640% on FY 2024, reflecting a 10.3% EBITDA margin. Q4 FY 2025 delivered a record AUD 4.3 million at 13.5% margin. With that financial context, let me turn to our growth strategy and what we're focused on in FY 2026. Our FY 2026 strategy is focused on four priorities. First is data quality. This remains the North Star across our operations, technology, and talent. Quality is what drives repeat business and program expansion with our customers. The second is customer growth. We are focused on market segments with the highest account potential, predominantly hyperscalers and newer foundation model builders.
We have more than 20 industry experts added in the team in the last 12 months who are supporting that growth. Third is new data segments. We're expanding into additional modalities and techniques through co-innovation with our customers. Coding is a real high priority for us in FY 2026. Fourth is operational efficiencies. We're continuing to bed AI-led efficiencies across our operations, which I will cover on the next slide. On operational efficiency, the progress we have made is tangible, and I want to walk through it. In project delivery, we have built custom tools to access data faster, deployed AI quality agents to improve annotation accuracy, and automated workflows to reduce time to deliver. In our workforce operations, we use AI-assisted interviewing to validate contributor performance and provide real-time feedback, improving onboarding speed and contributor quality.
Across the organization, company-wide AI usage and increasingly agentic operations are reducing our operating costs and accelerating our output. We continue to invest in how we are using AI across every part of the business, and we see significant potential for further efficiencies in many areas. This remains an active and high-priority area of focus for us. I'll now cover our outlook and guidance statement for FY26. We remain confident in the AI data market and in Appen's ability to meaningfully contribute to the development of leading foundation models. We continue to see positive signals on LLM-related growth from both Appen Global and Appen China customers. Tight cost controls remain in place in keeping with our focus on managing costs in line with revenue opportunity. As in previous years, Appen Global revenue is predominantly project-based and seasonally skews to H2. Shareholders should expect to see that pattern to continue.
Considering this, Appen reaffirms the following FY 2026 guidance: revenue of AUD 270 million-AUD 300 million and underlying EBITDA margin before FX of approximately 5%-10%. The data market is large and growing. We're laser-focused on the fundamentals of delivering high-quality data for our clients and evolving as their data needs change. I'm very confident in our ability to capture growth in this fast-paced market. I want to thank you for your continued support. I'll now hand back to Vanessa.
Thank you very much, Ryan. I would now like to open the meeting to general business questions. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions pertaining to each resolution when we get to the formal business of the meeting. Before we begin, visitors are reminded that this is a shareholders' meeting and therefore only shareholders, proxy holders, body corporate representatives, or attorneys are able to ask questions at this meeting. Visitors have been issued a red card. If shareholders holding a blue or a yellow card wish to make comments or questions, you should raise your admission card.
When called upon, please state your name, or if you're acting as a proxy, identify whom you are appointed to represent and prior to making a comment or asking a question. In the interest of all shareholders, I would also ask that you be concise in your question or comments, and we will endeavor to respond in the same way. I will now take general business questions. Yes. The microphone is coming.
Hi, everyone. Thank you, Vanessa and Ryan. Could panel share some remarks in terms of the lesson learned from the loss of Google contract, is it reflected in perhaps the Appen China success so far?
I think just some general remarks before I take it to Ryan. Maybe just for all shareholders, the Google contract, we had lost that a few years ago, were the last bits of the revenue we saw in fiscal year 2024. I will pass it on to Ryan, who could talk more about the discussions we have been having ongoing with not just Google, but many other customers.
Thank you. When we look at the success of Appen China, I'll start there. It's really driven by continued focus on our customers delivering really high-quality data. The lesson learned for us from the Google loss is making sure we have that discipline and that laser focus across accounts at Appen Global. I can confidently say that the quality and the depth of relationship with our customers is exceptionally high at the moment. We are laser-focused on the fundamentals, and that is the best way to avoid situations like Google happening again, but it's also the best way to deliver continued sustainable growth in the business. Key focus on the fundamentals, I think, is the big lesson for us.
Other questions? Yes, please.
Owen Morgan, shareholder. Ryan, congratulations on the progress you're making. It's really encouraging to see the focus on the fundamentals. I'm interested about the U.S. and what your thoughts might be in relation to expanding revenue there and your customer base. I also note you have a balance sheet that you could leverage.
Yeah, thank you for the question. The U.S. market has massive potential for us, clearly, and it's a really high focus to make sure that we're growing revenue in the U.S. part of the market. What we are really focusing on at the moment is building out capabilities and winning projects in areas that are growing. I think some of the areas that we demonstrated today, like coding, robotics, we are seeing a resurgence in the demand for things like even speech recognition models, which we have very deep expertise in. We're starting to see a really lot of positive momentum from our existing clients and in new clients in these areas that we think are very high growth. The quality feedback we're getting at the moment is really high. We're seeing expansion opportunities on these projects. We're really confident in the progress that we're making.
I think it's only a function of time before we start to see these turn into materially large projects. In terms of the balance sheet, I think we feel pretty comfortable with the level of investment that we have at the moment. We do need some working capital to support the projects because of the differential between when we pay the crowd and when we receive payments from our customers. We want to make sure that we have a sufficient buffer as larger projects come in.
Are there other questions? Okay, seeing no further questions. Thank you so much for those questions. We will now progress to the formal business of the meeting. The notice of meeting and addendum were made available to all registered shareholders in advance of the meeting, and I will take those documents as read. During the course of the meeting, I will present various resolutions to the meeting. We will strive to ensure that shareholders who wish to speak have an opportunity to do so. I have been advised that all proxies received for the meeting have been checked, and I declare them valid for voting. I will disclose proxy votes on your screen prior to the vote being taken for each item. These figures include the results as recorded at the closing time for receipt of proxies, which was 10:00 A.M. On Wednesday, May 20th of 2026.
There are a number of voting exclusions that apply to the resolutions being presented at today's meeting. These were outlined in the notice of meeting and addendum. Voting on all resolutions will be decided via poll, which I now declare open. The poll will be taken at the end of the meeting, and the results announced to the ASX shortly after the close of the meeting. As chair of the meeting and as detailed in the notice of meeting and addendum, I will vote where authorized all undirected proxies in favor of the resolutions in items two-seven and against the conditional resolution in item eight. The first item of notified business is to receive and consider the financial report, the directors' report, and the auditors' report for the year ended December 31, 2025.
There is no formal resolution required for this item, but invite shareholders to ask questions or make a comment on the financial report or the reports of the directors and auditors. Ask questions of or make a comment on the management of the company, or ask any questions of the auditor relevant to the conduct of the audit, the preparation and content of the auditors' report, the accounting policies adopted by the company in relation to the preparation of the financial statements, or the independence of the auditor in relation to the conduct of the audit. I will now take questions on the company's financial statements, the performance of the company over the last year, the directors' report or the auditors' report. No questions. Move on to the next item of notified business, the remuneration report.
Before we move to questions and a vote on the remuneration report, I would like to hand over to Steve Hasker, Chair of the People and Culture Committee, for his reports.
Thank you, Vanessa. Good morning, everyone. As Chair of the People and Culture Committee, it's my pleasure to present Appen's remuneration report for year ended December 31, 2025. The report outlines our remuneration framework, the outcomes achieved for the year, and how those outcomes align with Appen's performance and strategy. It's included as part of the directors' report of the 2025 annual report and is the subject of item two of business at today's meeting. The People and Culture Committee is responsible for overseeing Appen's approach to people, to culture, to leadership development, to succession planning, as well as executive remuneration. In fulfilling this role, the committee aims to ensure that our remuneration practices are transparent, competitive, and closely aligned with the interests of our shareholders. We seek to reward performance that delivers sustainable long-term value, and we are committed to sound governance and continuous engagement with our stakeholders.
In 2025, Appen delivered substantial improvements in profitability. The business grew underlying EBITDA before FX by 250% to AUD 12.2 million, and operating revenue grew 4.5% to AUD 230 million, driven by new project wins in generative AI and operational efficiencies across the group. Notwithstanding this progress, the company did not meet its financial performance targets for revenue and EBITDA in 2025. Short-term incentive outcomes for FY 2025 reflected this performance. The group STI performance scorecard included 80% weighting on financial metrics and 20% on non-financial measures. Financial measures comprised EBITDA at 50% weighting and revenue at 30% weighting. Both financial measures fell below the minimum achievement threshold of 90% of target, resulting in zero payout for financial measures. For the non-financial outcomes, customer NPS achieved 119% of target. However, crowd NPS was below the minimum threshold. Non-financial outcomes were capped at 100% of target.
Hence, the results translated to a final STI outcome of 10% of target for key management personnel. In line with policy, 75% of the STI was delivered in cash and 25% in deferred equity for the CEO. The board believes these outcomes reflect the disciplined application of our remuneration framework. With respect to long-term incentives, legacy grants awarded in relation to previous roles held by current KMPs were tested during 2025. The 2022 award, Tranche Four, lapsed in full as the 20% UBEPS performance condition was not met. With respect to the 2022 awards, Tranche Three, and the 2023 annual awards, Tranche Two, the service conditions were met during FY 2025, and the performance rights vested. There were no changes to Appen's executive key management personnel during the year.
Richard Freudenstein retired from the board effective December 31, 2025. Mini Peiris resigned as a non-executive director on the May 16th of 2025. We thank them both for their significant contributions to Appen. Vanessa Liu was appointed the Non-executive Chair effective the January 1st of 2026. Subject to shareholders' approval under item five, the board has approved a long-term incentive award for Ryan Kolln for FY 2026. The grant has a face value of $1.5 million, equivalent to 3,024,260 performance rights. The number of performance rights is calculated using December 2025 VWAP of AUD 0.746. These rights were vested over a three-year period from the January 1st of 2026 to the December 31st of 2028 with two equally weighted performance hurdles, absolute total shareholder return or TSR and revenue compound annual growth rate or revenue CAGR.
Vesting for TSR will begin only if the company delivers at least 95% TSR and full vesting at 120%. For the purposes of calculating TSR, the starting share price will be AUD 1.43. For revenue, vesting begins at 26% CAGR and reaches full vesting at 33% or greater. The grant includes malus and clawback provisions. Turning to non-executive director fees, the total amount paid in 2025 was AUD 616,145. This remains well within the shareholder approved fee pool of AUD 1.4 million, unchanged since the 2021 AGM. There will be no changes to non-executive director fees in 2026. The fees are benchmarked against ASX-listed peers to ensure they reflect the scale and complexity of Appen's operations. Non-executive directors do not receive short or long-term incentives.
The minimum shareholding policy requires that all non-executive directors hold shares equal to at least one year's base fee to be achieved within three years of appointment. All directors who have served for at least three years are compliant. Today, we are seeking your support for four remuneration-related resolutions under items two, five, six, and seven. Item two is the non-binding advisory vote on the 2025 remuneration report. Item five is the approval of the proposed long-term incentive award for the CEO. Item six is the issue of the FY 2024 short-term incentive shares to the CEO for past performance. Item seven is the issue of the FY 2025 short-term incentive shares to the CEO for past performance. In closing, I would like to reiterate that the Board is committed to good governance and remuneration practices that reflect Appen's business strategy and shareholder outcomes.
Appen remains firmly focused on its long-term growth strategy, and we believe our remuneration framework remains fit for purpose. We aim to align structure, framework, and outcomes with sustainable shareholder value creation, while also attracting and retaining top talent in the North American and Australian technology markets. With this, the board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the resolutions. Thank you, and I will now hand back to the chair.
Thank you so much, Steve. I will now put the resolution to the meeting as displayed on the screen. Details of votes received for this item are on the screen now. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? Seeing there are no questions, we will move on to the next item. The next item of notified business concerns the re-election of Mr. Steve Hasker as a non-executive director. I put the resolution to the meeting as displayed on the screen. Before opening this item for discussion, I would like to ask Steve to say a few words about his re-election.
Thank you, Vanessa. I've now had the privilege to serve on the Appen board for over 11 years. I believe I bring a distinctive set of skills that enable me to add genuine value here. In my current role as President and CEO of Thomson Reuters, I lead a company of over 27,000 people across more than 75 countries, providing critical news, information, and technology to customers around the world. That role gives me direct, daily experience in navigating the rapidly evolving intersection of AI, data, and professional information services, which is precisely the space in which Appen operates. Before Thomson Reuters, I served as Chief Executive of CAA Global, a portfolio company of TPG Capital, and as Global President and Chief Operating Officer of Nielsen, a global leader in information, data, and measurement.
Earlier in my career, I spent nearly 12 years at McKinsey & Company as a partner in the global media information and technology practice, advising some of the world's leading companies on strategy and transformation. Throughout my career, I've sat at the center of information, data, and technology, I understand firsthand the strategic challenges and opportunities that come with building AI-powered products and services at scale. I'm deeply committed to helping Appen realize its potential in this very dynamic landscape. I would be honored to be re-elected to continue to serve the interests of Appen shareholders. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Steve. I just wanted to say a quick word on Steve. We're just incredibly lucky as a board to be able to draw upon his expertise. He's obviously in areas that are very relevant when it comes to AI, and also his corporate expertise has been just invaluable for us. We are just very lucky. Details of the votes received for this item are now presented on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? Okay. Seeing no questions. Thank you. We will move on to the next item, which is the re-election of Lynn Mickleburgh, as a Non-executive Director. I put the resolution to the meeting as displayed on the screen. Before opening this item for discussion, Lynn will say a few words about her re-election.
Thank you, Vanessa. I've now had the privilege of serving on the Appen board for over three years, and I believe I bring a range of skills and experience that enable me to add real value to this board. In particular, I have deep expertise in finance, business transformation, and scaling technology businesses, having held senior leadership roles at companies including Adobe, Citrix, and Atlassian. At Atlassian, I served as head of commerce and business optimization during a period of significant growth. I also previously served as a non-executive director of Altium, an ASX 100 public software company, where I was chair of the Human Resources Committee and member of the Audit and Risk Committee.
During my time there, I helped support the company's strategic growth as its market valuation increased from under $1 billion to more than $6 billion , contributing to the journey that culminated in its acquisition by Renesas Electronics in 2024. That experience gave me a strong understanding of corporate governance, executive compensation, and value creation in high-growth technology businesses. I'm genuinely excited about the opportunities ahead for Appen in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, and I would be honored to continue serving the interests of Appen shareholders through re-election to the board. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Lynn. Also wanted to comment that Lynn's expertise, particularly in transformation, has also been incredibly helpful for the board over the last few years. Details of the votes received for this item are now presented on the screen. I will now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? Okay, thank you. Seeing no questions, we will move on to item five. The next item of business is in relation to the grant of fiscal year 2026 long-term incentive performance rights to our CEO and Managing Director, Mr. Ryan Kolln. I put the resolution to the meeting as shown on the screen. Details of the votes received for these items are now on the screen. I'll now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? Okay. Now seeing no questions, thank you.
We will move on to item six. This next item of business is in relation to the issue of fiscal year 2024 short-term incentive shares to our CEO and Managing Director, Mr. Ryan Kolln. I put the resolution to the meeting as shown on the screen. Details of votes received for this item are now on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? Okay. Seeing no questions, we will move on to item seven. This next item of business is in relation to the issue of fiscal year 2025 short-term incentive shares to our CEO and Managing Director, Ryan Kolln. I put the resolution to the meeting as shown on the screen. Details of votes received for this item are now on the screen. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? Okay.
Seeing no questions, we will move on to item eight. This next item of business is a conditional resolution and will only be taken into account if the outcome of item two is such that at least 25% of the votes cast are against the adoption of the remuneration report. I will put the resolution to the meeting as shown on the screen, conditional upon the outcome of item two. I now open this item for discussion. Are there any questions? No. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the formalities of the meeting. Sorry, there is also the voting. Sorry about that. My first time. Shareholders are asked to now complete your voting card. To cast your vote for, against, or abstain, please place a mark in the corresponding box for each item on your voting card.
If you place a mark in more than one box in relation to a resolution, your vote for that resolution will be invalid, and MUFG will collect your voting card now. Okay. Yeah. Oh. I think we just have a few more here up front. Okay. I now declare the poll closed, and as I mentioned earlier, the results of this meeting will be announced to the ASX as soon as they have been counted and verified. I now declare the meeting closed. Thank you so much. I would like to take the chance to also thank my fellow directors and Ryan and the management team for their diligence and commitment to this business. I'd also like to thank shareholders for your support and for coming today. I look forward to meeting with you again at next year's annual general meeting.