Hello everyone, and welcome to our second quarterly update call. A call focused today on our operational progress over the last half year, and the track record that we have achieved over the last month. Nevertheless, definitely dominated today by the changes we have announced over the course of the night, focusing and refocusing our whole strategy on operational scalability, on operational cost focus, and to really sustain profitable operations and get to a point of profitable growth as fast as we can. Overall for today, we don't want to stay completely away from the progress that we've made over the quarter of this year. I'm going to start to add a few elements of what we have achieved, and definitely also dive deeper into the whole structure of the restructuring of our guidance and our financial plan and growth for the year.
We have planned in a significant amount of time also for Q&A at the end of the call. You can ask your questions in the chat, and we will go through the questions over the last roughly 15 minutes of the call. Feel free to make some notes, drop the questions already during the presentation, and we make sure to answer as much as we can, and the rest after if the time is not enough. Maybe a few words on the core of why we're driving these changes. We have been really deep down hands-on into the deployment over the course of the last half year or since the start in October, November last year with the first deployments with REWE and Meta, and since then, the growth trajectory over the last month and quarters.
What we see is that the systems and the hardware technology that we're deploying on the quality perspective from an overall perspective of production quality, supply chain is at a point where it should be. We're very proud of that progress and the achievement on that side. What we see is that not all elements of the ecosystem that we're building are moving at the same pace. I'm going to dive deep into this in a minute. Really to start on the reflection part of where we stand and where we come from over the last quarters is the very first production of a unit back mid last year with the launch of our factory.
The first ever cooking robot produced in high volume, where we managed to industrialize that patent technology that we have developed over the last years and made sure over the last quarters, and when you remember the Q1 call, that we have put significant efforts into optimizing production processes, the automation behind, and the quality of our systems which is on a very successful trajectory and what we're really proud of. What we're aiming for is nothing else than full autonomy, the affordability, the availability of autonomous robotic-made meals.
More than ever, we're more confident than ever, independent of the adjustments of the growth for this year, that we're on the right path to achieve that based on the learnings from thousands of customers, tens of thousands of meals cooked, served, and tried, and multiple deployments right now across the European market, actually, that prove us that we're moving in the right direction and that we're hitting a market that needs and requests our technology urgently. When we look into the overall momentum, that has not changed at all. We are still in a very early situation of the market. Food processing hasn't been really touched yet, independent of all the growth when it comes to robotics and the investments behind.
We remain completely focused on full autonomy for our systems, for our overall right now growing portfolio of systems, and to optimize the operational structures behind. When you look into the global market and how the pace is right now moving, we're honestly getting at a point that I've been wishing for over the last four years, that has always been quite different thinking about the, let's say, old Flynn times. Where you had a massive market momentum that really helped the whole market thrive and adopt quite quickly. When we look into the robotics field, one of the most invested segments in right now, driven by optimizations through AI, there's a ton of opportunities on the robotic and automation side, on our side, with a whole focus on automated and autonomous food processing.
When we look into the U.S. market, which always gives a good indication of where the market is heading and where the whole momentum in that sector is heading, we see already a ton of companies which are really moving ahead. The majority of them still in the R&D phase. I think it's very important to have that overview and see what kind of peers are developing in what sectors. That goes from restaurant automation, to broiler producers, to focus on fries and nuggets, to industrial food automation.
It still remains one of the largest untapped markets, therewith one of the largest opportunities, which we can already see quite dominantly in its growth and in its also capital allocation in the U.S. markets with, I think some of the greatest founders in the world, Travis Kalanick, for example, the Uber founder, who's right now tackling exactly that problem. I think it's worth a look at of what other players are doing. We're still in a very early phase and where we're still very confident that we're years ahead of that. What we've built to secure that momentum remains unchanged. We have right now a portfolio of patents of over 40 patents across different markets, U.S. to the European market. We have achieved quite a couple of significant and valuable certifications, which honestly can take quite a few years of time.
All of that combined gives us a strong competitive edge long-term, independent of growth of other peers that are right now also jumping into the market. For the next even 5- 10 years, we don't even see a relevance that more peers are coming up and evolving. The only effect that we see is a positive driver in additional momentum and additional adoption and demand in the sector of overall food autonomy. Where do we stand today? Compared to Q1, compared to Q4. We launched the very first systems in Q4. The really first, some of you have maybe tried it or seen it in the Meta location, the REWE location, and since then have really given it our all with the teams in our background to scale our growth across Europe and really become a dominant market-leading player in the European theater.
Today, we are at 25 operational systems across seven countries, all completely certified, operational, patent protected, and that includes our recently announced launch in the Ukraine with the Ukrainian Ground Forces. That includes as well, for example, the growth of the German Armed Forces and of course, also growth across the different sectors in our institutional catering and autonomous food supply solutions. The use cases here remain largely the same. We see the fastest growth in defense and in employee catering, with a core focus of care and production facilities, everything where 24/7 access, affordability, and availability of meals is necessary and needed. That's really also where our focus goes with recent launches, for example, with Mercedes-Benz, growth on the Meta side, Secura side.
There's a ton of things happening on that end that further strengthens our deployment structure and the active clients from which we learn and with which we improve on the overall scale. The scale is related to growing with partners in an early phase right now where we have long-term growth potential where we can improve our side of operational excellence. This as the perfect example, probably the highest distance a cooking robot has ever been up in the air with our recent deployment in Ingolstadt with Secura as a starting point.
Secura has evolved to become really a strategically valuable partner, not only in operating and running our systems, but also on the operational side to scale through additional partner with us as one of our first strategically valuable scale partners and sales and distribution and operations partners where we are jointly right now in the process of launching customers in the automotive industry, in the care industry, and give an entirely new perspective to facility providers to also jump into the market of catering, for example. For that, we brought a small interview as an small insight on the progress that we've made with Secura as a client story and a bit of insights on that.
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That only as a small insight of a really great success story with a client that right now launched with us, that is scaling with us, and that is also driving significant improvements on our operational structure with us so that we can scale with really an operational excellence in the background. Jumping a bit to the part of the financial growth over the year. We're coming from a quite more optimistic case to scale our CA-1 systems to a larger extent over the course of this year. From a pure production volume perspective, from a market demand, from a backlog perspective, that's something that is completely achievable. There's no change. We have not lost clients in our order backlog. It's quite the opposite, actually. What we realized here is that we need to focus more on operations, and I'll get to that in a minute.
The result of these adjustments is that we slowed down the pace of growth over the course of this year, where a lot of growth is shifting towards 2027 and is not lost. It is for us about the right capital allocation and not wasting the capital that we have on operational spendings, but much rather on continuous R&D to get our systems to a better, and the ecosystem to a better state and a more autonomous state.
We're coming from a pre-revenue state in 2024, first launches in 2025, with our first revenues coming in on EUR 1.6 million, and this year tripling the revenues and also on the deployment side, making significant improvements with right now planned up to 50 systems overall across nine countries, over 25 enterprise clients, of which all clients have the opportunity and the potential to scale with us, where we already have customers in negotiations to add follow-on orders and continue the growth trajectory that we have built with them from the first deployments. That right now as a base for 2026, something that we have set as a very conservative base, something that we can sustain and that we can really use right now to improve on our overall structure, and something that also is achievable and a case that works for us from a funding perspective.
We have raised EUR 50 million in fresh capital last year. EUR 50 million of capital last year, which right now fuels our growth and also fuels the change and the delays with the shift towards deployments and a faster deployment growth in 2027, so that today and right now, for the second half of the year, we can focus on operation improvements and getting the technology where it belongs to full autonomy. That is really something where we're right now driving the growth. On the people side, we have a team that right now probably already counts as family when you look into the times, how long the people are with us. With Jan right now, who has recently celebrated seven years being with the company.
We have built up the management, of really strong candidates who bring the most knowledge in sustained robotics to the table, across the field from sales with a background on Rational, with Hao Miao coming from the automotive field. A lot of names and faces you've already seen over the last updates and the recent calls that we've gave. One new face today, I saw he was called the mystery man in the news, who's not a mystery man anymore starting today, basically. Christian, who's joining us as Co-CEO and CFO, very, very happy to have you joining with an incredible trajectory of what you've done and built over the last years. I'll leave that introduction to you. Maybe Christian, to you, how and why did you end up with us?
Thank you, Nico. Thanks, first of all, of having the opportunity to introduce myself today. I've spent more than 20 years in the industry, specifically in automotive and also aviation. Always focused on technology, financing businesses, and also scaling businesses. Roughly half of that career was in international companies like Mercedes-Benz, where really execution, operational excellence, and also disciplined capital deployment was key. The other half was helping young people driving scale. Being myself, a managing director of a scale-up, and also in the recent one and a half years, being a portfolio manager of 20 + companies in scale-up phase deploying capital. I've seen three areas. The corporate world, and how to diligently work in that. Also the scale-up world, what you can do right, can do wrong, with all ups and downs.
Also the investor world, which hopefully helps in the future also scaling Circus. When I look at Circus, I look for a company or a founder company that is not or has not already reached its final destination. It's a journey, really. What I found was a technology that really solves a customer pain point, which excited me. Deploying physical AI in the food value chain is tremendous. It's an audacious goal. With that comes my second point, also a meaningful long-term market potential that you have and that you're building up. Last but not least, what I found also with you, with others in the team, an ambitious and resilient team to execute and all the three things made it up for me to join you.
Maybe as an add-on question, Christian, with a lot of things obviously happening in the company and in a very exciting growth stage that we're in, how is your view right now on the growth maybe over the course of this year, the next years, right, and your strategic perspective? We discussed things a lot over the last days and weeks, but maybe from your side.
First of all, of course, I understand. Today's news were naturally disappointing when you change your guidance, this company is made for the long term, in my view. It's not easy to build a prototype. You did that. It's not easy to build a product that customers love and like. I think what I heard now from the first feedbacks, you have really a good product there. The last one, which is still harder, is to scale a company overall and bring it to profitability. I cannot say today good, bad things or not, because I will start listening and learning in the company the first months where I'm in, and together with you make a plan. What you can count on, or also here the shareholders and investors, is that I have a very clear leadership approach.
I believe in clear priorities. The typical focus, focus, I think is very important for a young technology company. I believe in transparency, and I also believe in disciplined execution, and I actually like it. That's really something what I want to drive forward. All that, as I said before, with disciplined capital allocation. When we truthfully achieve that, we really create sustainable shareholder value. Yeah.
Maybe with that, jumping to operational topics, Christian. Thanks for the words and already soft welcome from my end, and I think from everyone.
Thanks. Looking forward obviously to meet all the other players in the next upcoming months. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Talking operational execution. We've started to implement a majority of KPIs that we started reporting last year from operational perspective. Obviously, the goals with Christian and the approach is matching that we can only win when operational execution and the whole ecosystem in the back runs seamless and runs stable and runs on low cost. There's always two ways for a company, and I've also right now seen both. There's one company where independent of the operation excellence, you scale because capital is infinite, and that is a Flynn story. That is a hyper-growth story. Then there's a way where we aim for profitable growth, where we want to be less dependent on capital and constant capital reallocation, constant capital raises.
We don't follow the approach to constantly raise capital, we really want to make sure that the capital allocation matches the path forward, there is no goal in scaling our operational cost with basically the top-line growth. When we look today and why we're even making these changes, is not coming from the hardware that is not mature. It is from the ecosystem around that we need to build up and where we need to make adjustments to make sure that we can scale. When you look into the ecosystem that we're operating today, it goes far beyond the robotic systems, even though they're always the most appealing and the kind of shiny object in the middle. That goes to ingredient systems, service and maintenance networks, the whole back-of-house operations on HACCP, hygiene and storage.
That goes into payment integration, customer onboarding, marketing and menu management, the daily operations from the persons on ground who are running the machines every day. All these elements are right now half a year old. That's where we come from a go-to-market, that's where we have set very, very hard goals that we want to achieve. From our perspective, full autonomy and a really generational company can only be achieved if we really end up with a seamless ecosystem. There was always one great example and an example that we all use on a day-to-day basis. It hurts me to compare our technology with a coffee machine, but from the overall structure and the ecosystem, it gives a really good example of what we want to achieve.
If the coffee machine is too hard to maintain or too hard to service, you just don't use it or you don't want it. If it's too expensive, you also don't want it. If you always need to run to a local roastery to get your coffee pads, you also wouldn't buy it. There's a whole ecosystem around where the machine stability is one thing, but it's from the taste of the coffee to how long does it take to prepare, how much maintenance and service do I need to put in to get a coffee out, what kind of capsules can I get at what price, and how easily and how reliable can I get them?
It's all the elements that come together as one single ecosystem, that's what we not only want but have to achieve, that is really where the focus is, so that we don't right now scale hardware systems into the field that at some point become legacy, not based on the robotics technology, but based on the ecosystem around that is not properly structured or that needs to be reshaped down the line. We're taking the opportunity now to do that, to shape our ecosystem and to make sure that we get to a coffee machine simplicity and get to the millions and millions of systems out in the world, which the market requests, but always in combination with seamless operations.
I brought some of the numbers that really add to that and give a bit of explanation and some insights of what we see and how we improve. We report a similar, or the same, KPIs in the Q1 call. Right now, when you look at the bug report, which is, I think, the most transparent thing that we can do in terms of KPIs, to really see where are still the things that we are improving on the overall technology. You see that there's a constant decline of issues in the field, that we constantly evolve right now when it comes to the famous hopper in the past, overall operational structures, software improvements. Payment is something that we have nearly completely resolved across all kinds of integrations.
Still, when you compare that to a system uptime, system uptime has declined over the fleet over the past two months. When you just compare these two things, the first thought is, how can that be? If the system improves in stability, how can downtime go down? The simple answer is, there is a human component to every operational step, and we're introducing an entirely new infrastructure to a market and a product that the world doesn't know yet, and a technology that we have invented, and we need to invent the ecosystem and the blueprint around. That's the painful way of a pioneer, and that's the painful way of a first mover to figure things out as a first, and that's also where problems can occur that we need to resolve.
That is where the overall decision comes from to really focus on these things. When you look at uptime, the overall relation to uptime decrease is the human component. You have operators interacting with the systems, doing the refilling, filling, doing the maintenance, the cleaning of the system, similar how you do it with a coffee machine on a daily basis. We need to make sure that it's seamless and that it doesn't give any room for any mistakes. The technology is in advanced state, but we want to improve to guarantee that this is not the case and that we don't run into operational dependencies based on human labor. The whole point of full autonomy is to get away from that.
When you look back at autonomous driving, I know a few years ago when Waymo started, you always had a driver behind the wheel. Waymo suddenly is the same thing as Uber, and you don't want to be an Uber, you want to do autonomous driving. That's something where we have a certain similarity where we don't right now want to scale with a driver, basically, who's making sure that everything runs perfect day to day, but we want to improve the technology and the ecosystem in the background to a state where we can achieve that.
A second KPI, which really proves our point here that we want to take more time to do these improvements and shifting things and shifting more growth towards 2027, not losing it, is that the overall handling time is improving, and we see how operators are getting used to it, how our customers are getting used to using really an entirely new infrastructure that radically differs to operating a kitchen. We see that these improvements are not at the pace where we wanted to see that we feel comfortable in scaling. Internally, there's a great word of babysitting mode. You don't want customers in babysitting mode, where you constantly need to make sure that you guide the customer and the operators so everything runs smoothly.
That has nothing to do with the hardware or software stability, but the overall adoption and the pace where we need to improve and get better and build additional solutions. One solution that is key here, and something that we have softly already introduced in the Q1 call, is that we achieve and get to a point of a higher level of control across the supply chain. We're working with major wholesalers together today, and across the board, it doesn't matter if it's Germany, if it's Europe, if it's the U.S., if it's Asia, if it's the UAE, wholesalers are not at a point where autonomous food production machines and systems like ours are. We come from full autonomy to a pen and paper business at the very end of the supply chain. This is the point of our Nespresso capsule.
Seamlessness and easy to operate solutions, where today and over the last weeks, we have introduced right now 31 ingredients which are used to manage the system, which radically cuts down the handling time and the operation time. You don't need to rely on, let's say, more old-fashioned structure where ingredients and the whole supply chain is not made for robotic operations. This is really the huge part where our ecosystem evolves and where we need to make sure the end-to-end process is seamless. We're operating this structure right now across six countries, mainly on a frozen base. Right now, also adding fresh components. We're right now in the test, for example, with the German Armed Forces already on the overall structure with the aim to launch that across all customers over the course of August. I brought some of the elements here.
Everything you're getting right now is a perfectly structured package. You can scan it in. The package is detected by our software system to the gram directly put into the system. That's the structure that we want to achieve. It doesn't matter which one, but the packaging size fitting the silo size. Making really things easy and seamless like a coffee capsule. That's from our perspective, the last missing piece on the supply chain that we need to achieve to get to the scalability of a coffee machine and bring that into every household because it's really end-to-end seamless and has no more operation hassle on the background and the structure. One last thing here is, which will become a huge growth driver for us over the course of time, with more and more systems being deployed in the field.
The systems are creating a great kind of Trojan horse model for us. It's selling the hardware, selling the software as a mandatory piece, and right now, starting from August, across all customers, also the mandatory use of our ingredients. We're coming from a structure with wholesalers and the work with wholesalers where we get a kickback of 2%-4%. From August onwards, that's a structure where we make 45%-50% margin because we own the supply chain and because we can really guide that. It doesn't mean that we're right now setting up ingredient factories.
Everything similar to our hardware production is structured with partners and with partners who are focused and specialized on exactly these ingredient structures where we outsource the production. But everything is produced based on the perfect match to robotic systems and then structured to a cool supply chain brought to customers where we are the coordinator and the inventor, but not the operational party who brings ingredients from A to B. Additional updates on the technology side. I think one question that definitely stands in the room, in addition to the guidance updates that we make for this year, how does that affect the Celestica production and the overall path of production resources? We have built up and ramped up the production resources over the first quarter. Right now, 60% higher compared to the last year. A production right now that takes eight units in parallel.
We shared some great insights on that over the last weeks. We are staying at exactly that structure. What we're doing right now on the Celestica side is bringing in additional systems. Also with the recent acquisition of Aalberts as a Belgian company, adding to our portfolio on the CA-M side, an additional hardware system that we're right now developing and bringing into the field, always basically tailored around the CA-1 based patent technology. What we're doing here with Celestica is continuing to produce in batches what we have established right now over the course of the last two quarters. What we've structured is a way where we batch production and ship in batch. It's a very simple thing to do at the very end.
Right now, because we can produce in higher volume and can batch also from a logistical point where we shifted from sea to rail as well, which becomes right now much more reliable and significantly cheaper, it becomes easier for us to ship in batches, install in batches, and make our life easier from a deployment perspective, from a supply chain perspective on the hardware and the whole logistical and custom structure. We have done that, for example, with the last launches. For example, we didn't have launches over a couple of weeks, and I know some of you missed the launch news. Right now, I think, what was it? Two, three weeks ago, we launched Secura and Mercedes basically in the same week.
That's really where batch shipments come from, and we can improve on that, which makes our life a lot easier on the handling and the production. In addition to that, we're continuing to set up sub-assembly structures in partnership with Celestica and also based on our own resources to scale also on certified defense applications to have more dedicated resources towards the scale on that end. One major thing that we've achieved right now over the last quarter, and one massive learning also, is that we come from a strategic point that the smaller systems are commercial and the larger systems are made for the field. What we've seen right now in the deployments is that customers also on the defense side request all kinds of different solutions and systems similar to institutional and commercial customers.
Today, what we already have achieved is the complete dual-use certification that every system can also be used in defense environments. The CA-M right now in the R&D phase, where it's also about making sure that the certification level here is met, and with some additional requirements on the technology, of course. For example, one element, shock absorption, nothing you would need when you are inside, but something that in field operations becomes much more necessary. We're continuing to invest on the R&D side for the CA-M to bring that to market right now with the planned first deployments in early 2027. A slight shift due to the focus right now on optimization on our current systems and the structure that we already have in place. Same thing for the CA-1.
Most of you have already probably seen the integration into barracks with the German Armed Forces, which is something that is very promising and is going very well, where every soldier is in love with our technology, and we can feed soldiers integrated into the barracks 24/7. Lithuania to launch over the course of the year, right now planned for Q4. In addition, our smallest system, the hybrid system, which right now also has been proven to have a really clear use case for smaller spaces. Smaller spaces are also spaces that have its structure in the defense field. It doesn't matter if it's commercial, or if it's defense, there's always outdoor and volume.
There's an indoor component for pod meals for the CA-1, there's also always a very strong case for small spaces, where right now we have achieved the first deployment and the full certification. Also the integration with our food supply chain based on the frozen ingredients that we announced with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We sent out some news early this morning. To give you some insights on how that looks based on very limited spaces, because the Ukrainian Armed Forces don't operate in large-scale barracks, but in really condensed spaces in hundreds. This is really where our technology comes in to also take the pain away of daily meal operations, and we can bring full autonomy also to these cases.
Beyond deployments that we have right now realized over the past weeks when it comes to the German government, for example, Engel & Völkers, as one of the largest co-working and real estate providers and brokers in the European field. Also, a market entry on the hybrid system in the defense field. With that, maybe also some insights from an interview I did yesterday with a team to showcase a bit how that works really right now in the Kiev area, in a field and an environment that is very different to what we have here on our commercial side, but something where right now our technology has been really stress-tested to a very different extent over the last weeks and has been proven to be a great addition to the soldiers every day at simplifying their life on ground.
Maybe to jump in with the questions. I don't want to take up too much of your time. As mentioned, thanks a lot for taking the time. Maybe you can guide us quickly a bit through some of the points. What are or were the biggest challenges when it comes to providing nutritious food? The supply chain, the setup, maybe how it is today, and why you decided to partner with Circus on this?
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I'll do a quick translation. The first main point is that all the soldiers have very limited time for their nutrition, for their recharging, and this machine could offer the improvement and ensure that this is made more smoothly and easier. This is very important because of the vitamins, nutritions, and from that point, this machine could save energy, time, and fulfill its functions in 100%.
Question was more on the usability, right?
Right.
How is it with the use of the system, your first impressions on the day-to-day use?
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First, it's very easy to use. The implemented user design is very intuitive, so you could easily understand what to click, what to choose, why to choose this, what do I want, and how do I choose it. The next one is the speed of the preparation. That's the main KPI.
Maybe as a last question. Looking ahead a bit, we're at the early phase of a hopefully long-term and long-growing partnership. How do you think this technology will evolve in the context of the future of nutrition? Do you think this will become an essential part in fueling soldiers and in the part of future military nutrition?
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Yes, 100%. Because it's making and improving the whole process of catering of food supply chain in the armed forces, because even in the very little field operational use, you need to plan and to operate on lots of processes that are taking lots of time. This modern technology, it's not replacing all the catering forces, it's complementing it. Because for these cases, for these holes in some processes where you cannot supply people with this kind of products to fulfill their needs quickly, it's the best usage which is possible for these situations.
With that, as an update on also the side of the Ukraine deployment, I already saw there's a couple of questions. We're perfectly on time to have additional 15 minutes for questions. If you have additional questions, happy to run through it. I think, Elena, to your side to coordinate that a bit, maybe.
Sure. Hi, I'm Elena. I'm Head of Investor Relations here at Circus, and I'll be moderating this last stretch. We've got about 15 minutes left, so let's get straight into your questions. As Nico said, we won't get all of them today, but every question gets answered either here or afterwards. Nico, first one for you. We had several questions about where we stand in terms of operations and progress, what happened the last quarters. The question is, what are the learnings from first installments, especially in regards to your plan prognosis? Can you share highlights and lowlights?
Highlight is definitely the maturity of the systems overall. That's where we have spent a significant amount of work on over the last years, and we're very confident on the systems overall. That's where we come from also with the more optimistic plan for the year. That goes for the software, for our own proprietary AI models, as well as the robotic systems as a whole package. That's something that you can test and improve on also in the R&D phase. Some of the lowlights are definitely always the hits into reality when deploying with a customer. Everything you can only imagine to go wrong will always go wrong at some point, and it usually happens rather quicker than later.
There's a lot of small things on the time it takes to really onboard a customer, and that's a bit what I explained earlier, that right now we are investing a lot in further simplifying software use, the use also of our technology, the supply chain, and some of the very lowlights have definitely been that the supply chain that is today in place across the market is not matching the requirements for autonomy at the very other end. That's really something that right now we need to bring together.
Questions about our customers were popular as well. What is the feedback of our customers? What does today's news mean for REWE cooperation? Will it be completely on hold in 2026?
Yeah. Good question. Nothing is on hold. What we're doing is we're focusing on really strategically relevant core customers and core deployments. None of the unit tests in the field will be on hold. We're not really stopping with deployments, we're just slowing down the pace so that we really have time to improve with strategically relevant customers and make sure that there are large follow-on orders that we want obviously to see from every customer over the course of time. That doesn't mean that anything is on hold. From a customer, like B2B customers, it's exactly the feedback that we're getting that drives the improvements we need to further simplify. 80 minutes per day is great. Five minutes per day is better. We're aiming for full autonomy and we're improving towards full autonomy and simplified processes. That's one.
The end consumer is always a different game, the end consumer is the happiest he or she can be. You get a great high-quality meal 24/7 at the best price you can find in the city or in the country even. That's something that's resonating very well. It doesn't matter if it's a customer in REWE store or a Mercedes-Benz factory worker or a soldier in the forces. That goes across the board.
Okay. Coming to figures, numbers, pressing questions around guidance, of course. On your guidance, you guide for 50 deployed systems. Is it all CA-1? What is about CA-M and about i-ROBOT's smoothie machines?
It's a mix. We're operating both systems. We're scaling both systems. You also saw, for example, in the Ukrainian deployment that we're starting with a CAA, how we call it, our smallest machine for soups, pasta cups, smoothies, juices, power shakes, protein shakes. It goes beyond the typical strawberry smoothie there into really nutritious meals, but cup-based on small spaces. The frozen supply chain that really creates the ease of use in these kind of environments. Both systems are scaling. It's roughly even split across the systems. What we've also learned is that the smaller systems are, for very obvious reasons, also a great kind of mark or entry point with the customer.
The structure that we have in place with 3AB, with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is a framework agreement on 25 systems that we want to achieve over the course of time. That is based on the CA-1, and right now, basically, the CAA systems are coming on top to that and creating an easier starting point for operations. See this always as kind of the Model 3, basically, on the Tesla portfolio, and there's a lot more to follow based on this IA usually.
Shifting to the defense side. Where do you stand on the whole NATO test phase? When do you expect that this is scaling up?
On the defense side, it's the freshest sector for us and also the most exciting at the same time. We started first deployments on this this year. Won the first contracts last year, basically weeks after we had announced that we're even entering that sector, which really strongly proves the demand in the market and our direction into that sector as a first mover. We have achieved already last year all certifications required to operate, and it doesn't matter if it's for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, for the German Armed Forces, the NATO procurement agencies, listing and supplier certification, as well as from the Department of Defense. That gives us all opportunities to scale, not limited to the CA-1, but across the whole portfolio. As you can, for example, see right now with the starting point on the CAA with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Lithuania right now over the course of the year will be CA-1, and the CA-M to be added next year. Right now, we're in kind of the first batch of defense deployments with Lithuania, German Armed Forces, Ukraine. I would say the most relevant forces you can deliver to, with right now Lithuania also being a central point for NATO cases and testing scenarios. That's really what we're focusing on for the very moment.
There's a ton more negotiations and news on additional customers in the defense space. Also obviously accounts growing in that field that we already have active. There will definitely be additional growth in the defense sector over the course of the year. The tests right now prove to be perfect and honestly, the best market fit that we see across the cases. Because you have an immediate urgency, you really have unpredictable times where you can't eat or where you want to serve people. That's the best growth case for us right now.
We touched the topics competition and markets already. Here's some more questions. I haven't heard a word on Chinese competitors. Given your struggles on scaling up quickly, I'm worried your operational weakness may impact time-to-market advantages for Chinese competitors, which are generally faster and better at scaling. Already seeing many solutions in China popping up, which are technologically advanced and will be deploying fast. What is your moat?
The moat is the ecosystem, and that's the massive learning for the first half of the year, and that's really the core of where we come from on the guidance adjustment for this year and the shift towards growth through next year. It's not about the hardware reliability, it's about everything that happens in the back. That's something that also no Chinese competitor, or rather, U.S. competitor has, is even close to crack yet. We are right now coming in with our own ingredient structure, with service maintenance networks, with an entire operating system, dedicated proprietary AI models for vision control. The moat really lies in the software, the supply chain, and really the seamlessness of operations, not in the hardware alone, independent of its patent protection.
Let's continue. I had a question about I can't find it right now to put it live. It was about potential capital raises. I'll put it live as soon as I find it, but feel free to already dive into that topic.
Right now, we raised additional capital in December last year. Basically, a kind of a transfer that happened, I would say, over the course of Christmas, which right now gives us also the structure and the capital resources to really concentrate on the adjustments we want to make from an operational perspective before we scale and to really avoid having legacy structures in the field. We right now don't have any short-term capital raises planned. That doesn't mean that happens forever, right? We're a growth company. We're competing with global peers who have access to hundreds of millions of euros. That doesn't mean we need the same amount, but to compete over the next 5- 10 years, there will definitely be a point. Right now, looking also into the market cap of the stock development, it's not a question anyways.
Some more questions regarding the guidance. What is the assumption on i-ROBOT contribution to revenue and the EBITDA? Will you consolidate the full year? What are the plans?
No, we will not consolidate the full year. Only basically the second half of the year as the transaction is right now closed, but that basically being the July. We are right now in the process of integrating the i-ROBOT production into Celestica related production partners, that we can re-ramp that up.
There will be definitely a contribution over the course of the year. We definitely expect that the high ramp to triple-digit volumes on the i-ROBOT side will come next year. The good thing is, compared to the CA-1 and the M, that's a very easy product to scale, I would say, just because it's much cheaper to produce, easier to handle from a logistics side, and also from a whole supply chain components perspective. It's just quicker to produce and sell product. Yeah, there will be a contribution, but no majority contribution for the year.
Okay. Moving on. Talking about our goals. It is always good to have demanding goals. Which risks do you see to achieve our goals?
Right now, we always come from the starting point of the year from a ton of risks that we need to solve, right? We're doing nothing else than solving risks and challenges all day long. That's the state of the company in early phase. We have really achieved great stability in the overall ecosystem of hardware deployments. That's something that we definitely saw as a risk for the first half of the year.
Also with geopolitical issues where sea freight was not the most reliable, also got a lot more expensive. There has been definitely quite a few things that we had to adjust over the first half of the year when it comes to supply chain deployment logistics. That's a risk that right now is pretty much managed. Looking forward, we really have calculated to an extent that we limited the risk to basically zero. That's where the very hard guidance adjustment comes from, something that is much more reliable to plan with, and to guide with.
Okay. When would the rollout of the systems in the U.S.A. and UAE take place? What does the timeline look like? I think it's a very general question looking forward about our rollout in general.
Yeah. The first system to Abu Dhabi will launch together with also entities related to the royal family, we've really made great connections there and won great customer cases. The first unit is already on the way, that's deployment that would happen over the next weeks, and you will see quite a couple of news over the course of August, September on this, including launch events and go live and so on in Abu Dhabi. Dubai to follow fairly shortly after. For the U.S. market entry, we have received the NSF certification so that we are allowed to deploy and sell food with first systems in our portfolio, and right now working on achieving that for the whole portfolio of systems.
We don't plan to have commercial market entry in the U.S. over the course of this year, definitely targeted for next year, and we already have clients who want to grow with us from Germany to Europe to the U.S. The first customers will most probably be customers that we already have active over the course of this year and scale with them into the U.S. market since they already also have offices, locations, and so on in that area.
There were also several questions about a major topic I want to squeeze in about food quality, and about our ingredient supply chain having frozen ingredients and chilled ingredients.
Maybe one, two points. One point is we're probably the most hygienic system, or probably are the most hygienic kitchen, if you want to call it that way, that you can ever find in the market. Our ingredients are stored inside the machines, it doesn't matter which system it is, which are constantly cooled or stay frozen over 24/7. For the CA, for example, constant frozen ingredients that then get basically, through heat and pressure, brought to a soup, to a pasta cup, or to a smoothie, or a protein shake, or something similar. Same structure or similar structures with chilled ingredients on the CA-1 and also for the M. That really reduces the hygienic risk to the absolute bare minimum and basically zero. From a quality perspective, that's definitely something that we have been struggling with over the course of the first half of the year.
Not based on the pure quality, for example, consistency in the ingredient itself. The thickness of the sauces, the size of the chicken cubes. It makes a difference for a robot if you put in a whole chicken breast or a chunk. If your wholesale structure doesn't really provide for that, it becomes quite hard. That's also where we come from to really dive deeper into our own ingredient developments to really make sure we can keep these standards as high as we want them to be.
I would like to add one more question regarding focus. Christian also touched the topic of focus, and he asked some questions about if we can elaborate on the reasons for the change of focus, which concerns are the drivers behind the change, and about the ambitious roadmap that we touched earlier also. Of course, share price is a dominant topic.
Sorry, again.
Yes. About our change of focus in our strategy going ahead, a few words on share price and our communication policy.
Okay. Overall, on the adjustment, I don't believe in a structure where you force growth at all cost, where you create short-term growth for long-term legacy. That's something that in my young career, I've done in other companies, that's something that becomes much more of a risk than very hard chunk short-term. I know that it's also a very hard hit for the stock price, we're not here to ramp a stock price in the short term, we want to build a long-term, generational, profitable company. We have all the foundation from a market perspective, from a client perspective, from a technology that is protected, that is ready to scale. That's something that we have, that's something that we want to build on. It is never ideal, right?
I know that this is quite a strong hit for the stock price, it's something that we can sustain with the funding that we have. We have a very clear path to growth in 2027. Growth is not lost, but basically shifted by around one to two quarters, which has a quite radical effect. That is mainly due to our backloaded structure in 2026 that we have planned, that right now is shifting, and that causes a quite significant adjustment. Still, from a pure business decision, that we need to drive for long-term, healthy, and profitable growth on system level and on a company level, it's the best decision we can drive.
I strongly believe it will pay off also already over the next few months and quarters, will become visible that this has a strong effect on how we grow and how we also scale customers, their happiness with our overall ecosystem and the structure that they can use seamlessly.
Thank you. I tried to squeeze in as many questions as possible. There are still a lot left, and please don't stop asking. We'll reach out to you afterwards and keep in touch. I'm looking forward to the next quarterly call.
Sure. Thanks everyone for joining. Yeah, looking forward to the next one. We always have a ton more great news to bring as well, and we won't start with a structure similar to today. Thanks everyone, and have a great day.