Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We had a strong start to the year. And the revenue, EBITDA, order intake and backlog all delivered a growth compared to last year. The revenue growth of 42% is coming from the Kambi Group segment at the back of a strong opening backlog and also the awards during the quarter. The EBITDA margin is in line with or at the same level as last year.
It's reflecting the changes in revenue mix compared to last year, where we had fewer ongoing high margin upgrade projects this year. And we also had higher payroll costs and also DBO investments made to expand in sales and marketing and then growing our pipeline. The order intake growth and backlog growth, underlying growth in in these two were just shy of 1966%, respectively, using the constant currency adjusting for the strengthening of the Norwegian kroner. If you look at the order intakes in the quarter, overall, we delivered a book to bill of 1.4. We signed four main contracts in in the quarter.
Our first contract in South Africa for the delivery of a a b two system. It's an industrial customer. And for the customer, this is a full scale pilot plant. And if successful, may lead to higher scope and larger systems to to be delivered. It's a fast track delivery where we expect to ship it this this quarter.
We also signed a contract for an upgrade of a plant that's been in operation since 2008 for the delivery of a new digester. The the third project was a a contract for a b two plant to Southern Water for their Gutters Green plant. The the drivers in in this project the the main drivers were to handle the the older issues at the plant and also to ensure a stable cake. And in The US, we we signed our first contract in the state of Missouri for the delivery of a a b It's the eighth state with a company reference part in addition to Washington DC and following on to the on the momentum we had last year where we signed two new projects and the first one in North Carolina.
So it's following the path that that we expect in The US with a growing pipeline and Combi being the the only THP provider with a reference plant in in the market. Looking at the the backlog, as you can see, the lion's share is in in the Combi Group segment. The Combi Invest backlog is coming from the upstream contracts in in current VEXT. The distribution that you can see here with an expected turnover from backlog of NOK $229,000,000 for the rest of this year is based on assumptions on project execution, the percentage of completion on ongoing projects as well as the expected volume from the upstream contracts in JOINVEXT. It's applying the posting effects at the end of the first quarter, and the uncertainty in the distribution is mainly linked to these two assumptions.
If I move to the segments and the segment performance and then take a look at the commie group first, we did see a strong revenue growth in the equipment subsegment. As I mentioned, it was at the back of the opening backlog and as well as the new awards during the quarter. In the services subsegment, as the mentioned drop in upgrade projects, and we saw a decline of 33. But the rest of the revenue sources in the services delivered in line with last year, being the spare parts sales to support during annual shutdowns and the consultancy. For the EBITDA, we we ended as expected, adjusted for the nonrecurring cost related to delisting on Euronext growth of 1,800,000.
And as already talked about, the book to bill was strong within this segment. It was 1.6, with an underlying growth of 45% compared to last year. Within Combinvest, we we expected a lower turnover than than last year. Last year, it was a mild winter in in Norway. This year, we did not only have a mild winter, but also periods with very cold weather that's affected the the production costs and and thereby also affecting the the EBITDA margin that that we delivered in in the segment.
But overall, we exceeded expectations in the first quarter within within Combin West. When it comes to order intake, there were no major awards in the market in in the quarter as opposed to last year where there were several contracts awarded in in the market. On the balance sheet, we have a very solid financial position following the private placement in the first quarter. And the other elements in the balance sheet is related to mostly ongoing projects. Customer payments are are on track.
And in in the assumption and in the balance sheet, as you can see here, we we have financed The US projects as we have talked about before, and the working capital facility on the WSSC and the Raleigh project. So that's the main changes in under liabilities in the quarter. If you look at the recent development and also outlook, I'm very pleased to see the the momentum that that we have, and we're continuing from from last year. We see a growing interest from for our solutions, not only in the equipment subsegment, but also in the DBO projects. We see customers focusing more and more on other KPIs than the traditional financial drivers behind a project.
We talked about the environmental impact and the carbon footprint analysis included in in in in more tenders than than before, but also the recent development in in, for example, France and Spain, where the focus around hygienization has has increased following the the COVID nineteen pandemic. So that's lead led to to more leads in in our pipeline, which is which is promising. The the tender activity is is high in the first quarter. The the number of price submissions, both in price indications, budget quotes, and formal quotes, were up 50% compared to to last year. And in the marketing efforts that we have, the focus that we have in in sales and marketing, as we talked about, is being the main bottleneck within for for Combi to to grow.
We see a higher stakeholder engagement, more participants in our webinars, both potential customers and also consultants and and other stakeholders, and also the engagement following the these these webinars. We we have so far, in the second quarter, signed two new contracts, both in Poland, and we have signed an LOI with Charlotte Water in North Carolina and USA. For the outlook, we have remained at the same level as previously communicated with a turnover range between $480,000,000 and $510,000,000 At the EBITDA range, we maintain that as well, but we expect to be in the lower end of of the range when when closing closing the year. That was that was the the end of my my presentation. If you have any questions, please, don't hesitate to either give me a call or, send questions to the the investor email, and we'll we'll answer those questions as, as soon as we can.