Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Nuix's Full-Year 2025 Results Presentation. I'm Jonathan Rubinsztein, Nuix's CEO, and with me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Peter McClelland. I'll begin today with an overview of our key achievements and performance metrics. Peter will then provide a more detailed analysis of our financial results, and following that, I'll discuss our strategic progress, in particular around Nuix Neo and Outlook, before taking questions. Moving to slide four. Firstly, just some quick comments about Nuix. Nuix is a leading provider of AI-powered investigative analytics and intelligence software that helps organizations find meaning in their digital data. We develop advanced data analysis solutions for e-discovery, legal processing, regulatory compliance, data governance, and forensic investigation. Moving to slide five, let me highlight our key achievements for the year.
We've grown our annualized contract value by 8% this fiscal year, which shows solid momentum despite some challenges. I'm particularly proud of the exceptional growth in Nuix Neo, where ACV grew by 132% as customers embraced our AI-enriched platform. Our focus on operational efficiency has paid off, with our cash EBITDA increasing by nearly 25%. We've maintained positive cash flow throughout the year, and finally, we've successfully delivered on our product roadmap commitments while completing our technology team restructure. These achievements position us well for continued growth. Moving to slide six, annualized contract value, or ACV, finished at AUD 228.4 million, up 8% on the prior year. This growth was primarily driven by the strong performance of Nuix Neo, which we'll discuss in more detail shortly. Revenue came in at AUD 221.5 million, up 0.4% on prior year.
The relatively flat outcome was particularly impacted by a lower incidence of multi-year deals in the period. Net dollar retention was 107.4%, down 5.5% on the prior year, impacted by lower net upsell and higher churn. Cash EBITDA, which is a key profitability metric considered by management, showed strong growth, up 24.5% to AUD 37.2 million. This growth was particularly driven by continued cost discipline. Statutory EBITDA was AUD 47.6 million, down 14.8% on the prior year, primarily impacted again by the lower multi-year deal incidence I mentioned, as well as a significantly high expense proportion of R&D investment, which we'll come to shortly. Finally, we maintained a strong balance sheet with net cash of AUD 40 million, up 5.1% on prior year, providing us with good flexibility to execute on our strategic priorities. I'd now like to invite Peter to discuss the financial results in more detail.
Thank you, Jonathan, and good morning, everybody. As Jonathan mentioned, ACV finished the year at AUD 228.4 million, representing a growth of 8% on the prior year. Particularly noteworthy is the further growth in the recurring component of ACV, subscription ACV, which is up 10.1% and now represents 97% of our total ACV value. We had a particularly busy end of the half, including some contracts shifting from FY 2025 into FY 2026 due to the lengthening of the procurement cycle, as we've discussed previously. Looking at the drivers of ACV growth, in line with our strategy, Nuix Neo was the key contributor, increasing by AUD 15.9 million, or 132% year-on-year, to reach AUD 28.1 million. Jonathan will have more to say about Nuix Neo a little later on. Component ACV remained flat on the year, with limited net upsell, some churn, and migration to Nuix Neo Solutions.
Discover SaaS was also a good contributor to growth, with cognitive AI features introduced late in the half. Lastly, in line with recent trends, other ACV was down, with lower perpetual license sales, as well as lower one-off services, as we focus on the sale of Neo Solutions. Net dollar retention of 107.4% shows we're achieving growth with existing customers, albeit at a lower rate than the prior year. This decline reflects overall levels of net upsell and a lift in churn. Customer churn increased to 7.1% during the year. We churned some individual contracts due to end-of-projects, competitors, and budget constraints, which contributed to this outcome, while a higher number of lower-value customers also churned, as the group's focus shifted toward higher-value contracts. Jonathan will talk further on this strategy a little later on, including some of the recent initiatives we put in place to address churn.
Turning to our regional ACV, growth rates across all three regions were relatively consistent over the full year, with a broad spread of transaction types across all regions and particular success in selling Nuix Neo. Looking at the revenue performance for FY 2025, revenue came in at AUD 221.5 million, up 0.4% on the prior year. As many listeners would know, Nuix's statutory revenue can display a greater degree of variability than ACV due to the impact of multi-year deals. The relatively flat performance in FY 2025 was particularly impacted by the cycling of a larger multi-year deal in the prior period, a key driver of the decline in the multi-year deal proportion compared to last year. Multi-year deals represented 27% of revenue, down from 31% in the prior year. In FY 2026, we don't expect further significant declines in the proportion of multi-year deals.
Total research and development spend increased by 3.5% to almost AUD 55 million for the year. What's particularly notable is a significant shift in the mix between capitalized and expense components compared to last year. The capitalized component of R&D dropped to 41% of the total R&D spend, lower than the 65% we saw in the prior period. This lift in the expense proportion of R&D investment reflects the expansion of Nuix Neo capabilities. As you would expect, this significant increase in the expense component of R&D impacts on our statutory EBITDA, but not our cash EBITDA. Management remains focused on the right outcomes for the overall R&D investment, rather than the accounting treatment as such, which is why cash EBITDA is the key profitability focus for management. Importantly, research and development continues to be funded from the underlying cash flow, demonstrating the sustainability of our investment in product development.
Cash EBITDA for FY 2025 rose 24.5% to AUD 37.2 million. As I've mentioned, this is our key profitability metric for us, as it incorporates the full research and development investment spend, including the capitalized component, while excluding non-operational legal costs and restructuring costs. The cash EBITDA margin expanded to 16.8%, up from 13.6% in the prior year, reflecting both our cost discipline and the lower variable pay associated with incentive programs during the period. I do want to flag that from FY 2026 on, we will be referring to this metric as adjusted management EBITDA rather than cash EBITDA, though there will be no change to the calculation methodology, just a name change so that it more accurately reflects the characteristics of this metric. This metric will remain our core measure of underlying profitability. Let me walk you through the relationship between our different EBITDA measures for FY 2025.
As we've noted, revenue was relatively flat year-on-year, impacted by the fall in multi-year deals, while cash EBITDA showed strong growth driven by general cost discipline and lower variable pay. However, net non-operational legal costs were higher than the prior period, and we also incurred one-off restructuring costs related to the technology team organizational restructure during the year. These factors, along with the higher expense component of R&D, combined to impact our statutory EBITDA, which came in lower than the prior period. This demonstrates why we focus on cash EBITDA as our core measure of underlying profitability, as it provides a clearer view on our operational performance. I won't spend too much time on the income statement, which is displayed here.
We've already spoken about revenue and noted the fall in sales and distribution costs, which were lower despite increased headcount, particularly due to the lower variable pay associated with incentive programs, given the lower ACV outcome. Here, you can also see the impact of the shift of expense versus capitalized components of R&D. Turning to the cash flow, we delivered a positive underlying cash flow of AUD 20.1 million compared to AUD 24.7 million in the prior year. Closure of a number of deals late in the half did impact on cash flows, with cash collection of these deals falling into Q1 FY 2026. After accounting for non-operational legal payments and the tech restructure, overall free cash flow remained positive at AUD 4 million.
We finished the year with a strong cash position of AUD 40 million, and our AUD 30 million debt facility remains undrawn, other than the AUD 1.3 million, which is currently utilized for bank guarantees. I will now hand back to Jonathan for comments on Nuix Neo, the strategy, and the outlook.
Thanks, Peter. Now moving to slide 19. When we launched Nuix Neo two years ago, the intention was to sell larger, more comprehensive solution-based offerings. While we are still in the relatively early stages of Nuix Neo rollout, the contribution to the business has already been very significant. Moving to slide 20, the market response to Nuix Neo has been strong. Neo ACV grew to AUD 28.1 million by the end of the financial year, representing growth of 132% compared to FY 2024. We've expanded our Neo customer base significantly, growing from 23 customers at the end of FY 2024 to 75 customers by the end of FY 2025. This growth has been driven in particular by new Neo sales to existing customers, Neo sales to new customers, and Nuix Advantage support sales. We've seen significant wins across financial organizations, law enforcement, advisories, and regulators.
As Peter noted earlier, we've seen good Neo wins across all three regions. Importantly, when existing customers migrate from Component Solutions to Nuix Neo, we typically see a 30%- 50% uplift in value. For new Nuix Neo sales, rather than migrations, the typical sale is two to three times the size of a non-Neo sale. Once again, a reflection of our strategy to focus on larger deal sizes. We are very pleased with the take-up of Nuix Neo and have further innovations planned for this year to help drive further growth. As was the case in FY 2025, we expect Nuix Neo to be the core driver of growth again in FY 2026. Moving to slide 21, a key part of our strategy has been targeting larger contracts, making sure that the value that can be added by our software can be more appropriately captured.
We're seeing clear progress in this area. Since FY 2022, our average customer ACV has increased by 89%, while the new customer average ACV is up 117%. Deals over AUD 500,000 ACV have grown by 74% in the same period. We are actively pivoting towards higher-value customer relationships. We've noted that these more complex transactions have meant a lengthening of the sales cycle. A key learning from our customer discussions was that some organizations wanted a more staged pathway to full AI-enabled Nuix Neo. In response, we developed Nuix Neo Foundation. Foundation reduces friction points by allowing customers to begin their Neo journey with core elements of Nuix Neo capability.
Although only launched late in the financial year, Foundation has already proved successful, contributing significantly to our Nuix Neo growth by making the platform more accessible to a broader range of customers who previously found this pool transaction challenging from a cost, technology, or compliance perspective. We had a very busy period at the end of the half, with some contract closures landing in FY 2025 and some falling into FY 2026. As an example, two significant deals closed just after the end of the period that will impact FY 2026: an advisory deal of around AUD 500,000 ACV and a very substantial regulator deal in the order of AUD 2 million- AUD 4 million in ACV. The regulator opportunity is with the German tax authority and is particularly exciting. This is the kind of deal that can actually act as a starburst opportunity for other similar deals in the region.
These large deals are very tangible indicators of the shift in our focus in line with our strategy. Separately, I just want to touch for a moment on the higher churn we've seen at this result. For a long time, Nuix has had a long tail of smaller customers. Some of these smaller customers won't have the requirement or budget for a Nuix Neo style offering, and some of these customers have churned. These smaller customers do, of course, have a cost to serve, and that's something we have considered quite carefully. Our strategy in relation to maintaining our offering to our smaller customers incorporates the version 10 for Component customers rollout, as well as Nuix Advantage support, which has an important role in both customer SaaS and retention. Some of these smaller customers will also be in a position to take up Nuix Neo Foundation.
In short, our strategy remains on track, and we are executing to plan. We are listening to our customers and, as shown by Foundation, for instance, responding as appropriate. Moving to slide 22, in FY 2025 we delivered several key product releases that demonstrate our innovation momentum. We launched version 10 for our Component customers, while making substantial progress with Nuix Neo Discover SaaS, incorporating new cognitive AI features. We introduced the semantic search functionality we highlighted at last year's Accelerate Conference and launched both Nuix Neo Foundation in response to market feedback and also Nuix Neo Local, providing a far more rapid deployment capability for our customers. These developments were built on time and in line with our strategy. Further, they showcase our continued commitment to executing our product roadmap while meeting evolving customer needs.
Moving to slide 23, I also want to highlight that we've now completed the realignment of our technology teams, consolidating our development hubs globally to improve efficiency and enhance customer support. This restructure has been completed on time and within our cost expectations. Turning now to Outlook on slide 25. Looking ahead, our core focus areas for FY 2026 are: one, to continue to deliver on business transformation strategy, in particular a key focus on higher-value contracts and extending out our platform. Secondly, from a product perspective, further to develop our Nuix Neo capabilities within that platform. Number two, continue ACV growth driven by Nuix Neo. Three, a key focus on revenue to exceed operating cost growth, and this focus is obviously on operating leverage. Finally, number four, underline cash flow positive for the year.
We won't be providing numeric guidance at this time, although naturally we will update the market if it is appropriate. Before we move to questions, let me take a moment to reflect on FY 2025. While our top line growth was more modest than we initially targeted, there are several indicators that reinforce our confidence in Nuix's future. The strong growth in Nuix Neo, up 132% this year, demonstrates a market's appetite for our offering. Our cash EBITDA expansion shows our ability to drive operational efficiency while continuing to invest in innovation. The successful delivery of our technology roadmap, combined with our completed tech organization restructure, positions us well for FY 2026. With a strong balance sheet, positive cash flow, and loyal customer base, we have built solid foundations for sustainable growth.
While there is more work to do, I'm proud of what the team has achieved this year and confident in our strategy to create long-term value for our stakeholders. With that, I'll now hand back to the operator for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Our first question today comes from Sinclair Currie with MA Moelis Australia. Please go ahead.
At the NDR and churn in a little bit more detail, should we think about the increase in churn as having a linear impact on the decrease in NDR, or was there more of that reduction in NDR related to the lower price average sale of a Nuix Neo Foundation relative to the full Nuix Neo Solution, if that makes sense?
Yeah, hi, hi Sinclair. That's a good question. The churn very much is a component and one of the key drivers, sorry, component of NDR, one of the key drivers of the reduction. It is pleasing that the 107.4% is showing that we're still getting growth with those clients. The churn during the period was very much driven by, at the lower value end of our client base. You know, it's probably the only real trend that's been coming through that churn number, which was higher than what we anticipated, but then not unexpected given the focus on the higher value customers. There is a direct relationship between the two.
As Jonathan sort of mentioned, some of the things we are focused on to address churn and just understanding where those clients are that are particularly wanting to stay on Component is the release of version 10 for Component to sort of keep that product current and add some additional features within there. Also, the introduction of Foundation also helps NDR with a number of our clients as well who are wanting to progress beyond the Component product, but not ready to go into full Neo right at this point in time. All those actions have been put in place to address the churn and continue to maintain/improve our NDR ratios.
Thank you. In terms of the increase in number of clients on Nuix Neo, I think you're up at 76% from memory in the presentation. I'm presuming that sort of uplift from the second half, a lot of that is weighted towards that sort of two-tier strategy you're now adopting with Nuix Neo?
I think we've seen growth in both areas. We're certainly very happy with new logos that have come in. We're also very happy with the migration of existing clients into full Nuix Neo. We've certainly seen existing clients also moving into Nuix Neo Foundation. Overall, the strategy that's been put in place for the business is certainly the right strategy, and we're seeing customer uplifts across all those areas.
Great. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Andrew Johnston at MST Access. Please go ahead.
Oh, good morning, gentlemen. Good to see such a strong cash result. Given the top line, we're probably a little softer than certainly we had expected earlier this year. If we can just go to the top line for a minute, I wonder if you can talk about your sort of general drivers for why the top line was soft for both, I suppose, both in ACV and revenue and between those two you've explained. Just look at whether there's any sort of trends coming through in that. I mean, secondly, I wonder if you can talk about the transition rate of existing customers to Neo and whether that's in line with what you're expecting and what you're seeing there.
Thanks, Andrew. The top line is directly correlated really to the percentage of multi-year deals. We had a key focus on ACV. In terms of both how we rewarded our sales organization, key focus has been to drive the annualized health, if you want, of the business. However, we are below the average of the over the last four years. We do expect the multi-year deal to step up, and certainly, that will impact the stat revenue and then flow down to stat EBITDA. I think in terms of the underlying growth, we are definitely seeing selling new Neo both to existing and new customers. Foundation, Neo Foundation, really has made, there are two friction points that we found where both the smaller customers and often a government and regulator, smaller regulators, find that consumption is a friction point.
Also, having clarity of exactly what the cost is and predictability has meant that we drove a Foundation solution, which actually had very good uptake in kind of the second half, moving from existing customers to Foundation.
I might just add one bit of an entry around cash flows as well. Thank you for picking up where the cash performance was, and the fact that we're maintaining quite a strong cash balance at year-end. The cash, the underlying cash flow operation, actually, I'm quite pleased with as well. You'll see in the balance sheet, receivables is higher at year-end. As I mentioned, we had quite a busy end of the half, and a lot of those transactions were closed, actually resulted in the invoices being invoiced and acknowledged as a receivable, but not yet collected, which we're expecting to fall into Q1. Actually, the underlying cash flows of the business remain very strong.
Okay. If I can just follow up on two things. You mentioned the Neo Foundation product, and I missed that during the presentation. You're not based on consumption, on consumption billing, issue, and perhaps if there's other key elements of Foundation that you're finding helping people transition across.
I think your question is, what are the key elements of Foundation? The key elements of Foundation are, first of all, it's not a full AI-enabled capability, so it's more based on tech search. It's the full end-to-end platform, including our automation layer, and we do have some flexibility around not in the Foundation element, not having full consumption. Those are the main elements, which means that the predictability of spend, which in some areas, in particular, with text-based search, is clearer and easier. The two friction points were predictability of spend and also, potentially a lower price point for those customers that don't want full AI capabilities within their platform.
Okay, great. Thanks. If I can just follow up, Peter, on your comment about what the, you know, about things getting pushed into FY 2026. Can you talk about your order book for larger deals and what that looks like compared to, say, six months ago?
Yeah, as Jonathan mentioned, there are a couple of larger transactions that did fall into or fall out of FY 2025 into FY 2026. There is the German tax authority, which is one of the largest transactions, actually the largest transaction, that Nuix has undertaken. The flow-on benefit of that is a potential starburst across both the German tax authority and within the region. That is quite a large transaction. There was also another transaction for a legal provider that will fall into the start of this year. Generally, we're quite happy about the pipeline and where that's sort of sitting.
As I said, we did have a very busy end of the half, but we are seeing great momentum around the Neo product and conversations to those target customer groups, both in terms of value and size, but also some of the segments that are key for us moving forward.
Okay, terrific. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Andrew.
Thank you. Our next question comes from [Wei Xian] with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jonathan. Can you hear me?
Hi, mate. Yeah, loud and clear.
Great. Thank you. My first question is just in terms of the two deals that landed in FY 2026. Just to be clear, is this all new incremental ACV, or is there any kind of renewal component associated to those two?
It's all new, correct.
Okay, great. For that one with the regulator, that range that you've given of AUD 2 million- AUD 4 million is a pretty wide range. Why is the range so large for that?
Part of the larger opportunities relate to the delivery of the actual solution. We will see that, in particular, the larger new platform opportunities require a longer and more complex implementation. We've kicked off the implementation. We've been conservative around the range, but I think we will be within the range. I think the reality is it's signed and we are delivering the next deal. It does have a broader, more complex delivery aspect to it.
Right. For these ones, if we just kind of look into FY 2027, given that there is some implementation involved with them, how should we think about what the subscription revenues from these could look like 12 months down the track into FY 2027?
In terms of this one in particular, this one is a perpetual license. The German tax authority only buys perpetual. We've had a strategy to move against perpetual. However, if we bid for deals and the only option is perpetual, what happens is recurring maintenance falls into our subscription ACV. What you'll find is a larger ACV, which is perpetual, and then the recurring comes through as sub-ACV. I think more importantly, it is the biggest new deal that we've won since I've been at Nuix. I think also, it was an open tender and we're quite excited about the opportunity, not only in the German tax authority area, but just generally from a regulator perspective, we're seeing strong growth. Our growth is strong partly just because we think we have the right product fit, which is from investigations to prosecution.
Our investigation solution plus our legal solution, we think, bodes very well for the regulator market, which is very strong at the moment.
Perfect. Okay. In terms of some of those stats, again, on slide 21, talking about average customer ACV, new customer ACV, and the deal size, I'm wondering if you might be able to provide any color as to perhaps what those numbers look like maybe over the last 12 months considered from FY 2022, just to understand, you know, I guess, the momentum in the strategy execution.
Yeah, look, I think it's a continuation of the trend. What we can see is that winning a big one can shift the averages even with the current cohort. What we have also seen is that the adoption in EMEA this year has been some of the smaller customer base in the platform, so we've seen a slight drop. On the whole, our expectation is, again, that we are seeing a materially bigger sales from the Component into platform, and we expect that trend to continue.
Okay, perfect. That's all for me. Thank you very much.
Thanks, mate. I appreciate it.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question today comes from Garry Sherriff with RBC. Please go ahead.
Hi, Jonathan and Peter. I hope you're well. Just wanted to check on that sales pipeline, maybe any update from what you're seeing in the U.S. from a government perspective. Are budgets still, I guess, under a fair bit of pressure given the geographical instability? Any update just on what you're seeing from a U.S. government perspective on that pipeline?
Thanks, Gary. Look, I think what we are seeing is, and we have seen a slowdown in decision-making. In terms of the pipe, what we are seeing is actually a strong pipe. The regulators, again, and that has been a key focus area for ourselves, and we're moving into a strong focus in the regulators this year. We are seeing that the regulator demand is contracyclical. We are seeing that our product fit within the regulator market is strong. I think we're seeing a lengthening of the sales cycle, but in terms of the actual pipe, we're seeing a strong pipe. Also, our U.S. government business is still showing growth. I think it's less around the pipe and more around the actual closing period in particular. I think that's globally, I'm not sure it's simply related to the U.S.
I think the geopolitical complexities have just slowed down the total sale period. Also, that together with the larger deal size, we've also seen that, and selling to more senior prospects, that process is taking longer than the prior year, if you want.
Understood. When you talk about those two deals that fell into FY 2026, sorry to labor the point, but the German tax authority, that was what to the formula ACV makes sense. The other one, the legal provider, what was the ACV on that one, just for interest?
That was AUD 500,000.
Okay, about half of. I guess the only question then I've got is if we add both of those, even if we take the top end of the AUD 4 million and the AUD 0.5 million from the legal provider, that's still for our ACV, doesn't hit the low end of your, I mean, I know you pulled that guide, that 11% to, I think it was 16%. If I add both of those back in, even if I take the AUD 4 million and the AUD 0.5 million, that still comes below in terms of ACV growth, like you're only just hitting 10%. Was there anything else that we were missing there that you're expecting to fall in FY 2025?
I think, again, what it does show, Gary, is that one or two deals can make a massive difference. What we are seeing is, first of all, I think our churn at the lower end was higher than we expected. I think, although higher, it was part of the strategy where, you know, we had a big chunk of churn in the AUD 0 -AUD 50,000 ACV customer base, which was expected. A version 10 plus Foundation, we think, will mitigate some of that churn. That's on the downside. On the other side, we are seeing, again, big opportunities and larger platform opportunities and good Neo adoption, and we expect that to continue. I think those two are really what has impacted the ACV range.
Okay, makes sense. Last question just on cash flows. You did flag that big receivable in the second half. How much of that is coming into the first half of 2026? How many big projects is that? I assume it's not one big project, but maybe just a bit more understanding of that big receivable that's built up in the second half and how we should expect that to revert into the first half of 2026?
Yeah, there was one larger transaction in and of itself that was just an aging of a current client. That one was sort of due to land just before June, it landed just afterwards. That's already been banked. A large step-up of a large part of that step-up will all land in Q1.
Got it. Thank you. The assumption with cash flows for the first half of 2026, when you report, will we still likely have that issue in terms of the size of those receivables come down?
We should expect those receivables to come down. A lot of that will also depend on deals that close at the end of the first half. There'll be a timing impact of those as well. We certainly sort of see them landing in. As I said, again, it will depend on where the deals that close towards the end of the first half also land.
Thanks very much. Thank you.
Thanks, Gary.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jules Cooper at Shaw and Partners Limited. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Can you hear me?
Yep, good. Just can hear you.
Yeah, awesome. Okay, Jonathan, you've been not as transparent and clear on the, you know, the specific outlook, but you have made comment for growth and that Neo would be driving that growth. When we look at the performance in FY 2025, I think you added about AUD 16 million of ACV from 52 customers, if I'm just deducting one from the other. Can you maybe make a comment as to, now that is maturing, you've got some reference sites in the market, what your expectations would be just directionally around the performance of Neo in FY 2026 relative to 2025?
Sure. The complexity, as we said, is that the deals are bigger, the geopolitical uncertainty has made the forecasting of closure more complicated. However, we are very excited about the Neo growth, and we look to see further growth. As we've mentioned also, we've got some deals that flipped over into this financial year. I think at the moment, our expectation is further growth in Neo, and Neo is our core growth driver. We have put in, and Foundation will facilitate that, some of the new product development, in particular around our legal solutions. We're seeing good opportunities this year in Neo legal. We're expecting further growth in Neo, and also more larger platform sales.
In terms of churn protection, we've released version 10 which we think will protect at the Component level, and we do expect churn to hover and hopefully be lower than it has been in the prior year.
Okay. All right. Thank you. That's helpful. Just on that German tax authority deal that you said AUD 2 million- AUD 4 million ACV, you just mentioned there that it was a perpetual sale. Essentially, you're booking the, you know, and you said it was also a fairly complex delivery process. Can you just give us a bit more color around how that actually impacts? There's a license fee. I imagine there's some services. What is the consumption? How does consumption work with a perpetual sale moving forward there?
Yeah. On some of the large regulators, there is no consumption, and that's quite typical. We're seeing typically consumption is more in the corporate market than in the regulators or law enforcement. It just simplistically, you know, I use the example, if you're chasing the bad guy, then you can't quick, you can't run out of a license and then have to up, you know. The reality is, again, primarily in government and regulators, you find less consumption. In terms of the RevRec, there is a perpetual fee in year one and some implementation fee in year one. The maintenance is spread over the duration of the contract, which is a long contract. The other area is that what we have shown is just part of the contract that we've won.
There is a material contract, and there are a number of other regulators in Germany that are also, and that has not been included in the opportunity and the starburst opportunity that we mentioned. This is really an exciting one. It was an open tender. It was a customer that, as I said, went to market and selected Nuix. This is, again, what we are, the AUD 2 million- AUD 4 million is just part of the contract that we've won also. It's not the full contract value that can extend out over some of the other, over the duration of the contract.
All right. Just last from me, the operating cost growth being less than revenue as part of the outlook statement, I just want to confirm that aligns to the difference between, essentially aligns to the AUD 162.4 million in FY 2025, which is that operating cost between cash EBITDA and your gross profit line. Is that correct?
It relates to the operating cost of the business. Yes, that's the line that it's associated with. We would expect this year, we sort of flagged that within that cost structure of the current year, there is a lower proportion of that variable pay, which was with the lower ACV growth. They naturally adjust according to whether revenue is higher or lower as well. You will see a step up in those costs with the growth of ACV into the future or otherwise. That will, as that component steps up, as revenue steps up, those components of cash will step up accordingly. A large chunk of the rest of our cost structure is relatively fixed in the immediate term.
Okay. Capitalized development costs came down, you know, relatively materially in FY 2025. What's sort of the expectation as you look at the roadmap and the plan looking into FY 2026?
Yeah, I mean, our key focus is on managing the total pool of R&D rather than just the accounting treatment of that, which is why we focus on our cash EBITDA.
Okay, maybe just the total R&D then, just sort of thinking about what the roadmap looks like in terms of total spend?
I think the spend in total R&D will sort of step up with inflation, but not substantially step up in terms of cost structure. Your current expense to capitalize ratio is probably about where it will track moving forward.
Okay, all right. Okay, thank you. That's great. Thanks.
If you have a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. This concludes the question and answer session. I'll now hand back to Mr. Rubinsztein for closing remarks.
Thank you for joining us today and for your interest in Nuix. We look forward to meeting with some of you over the coming days and weeks. Thanks very much.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.