Good morning, welcome to today's webcast from Gapwaves. With us today is CEO Jonas Ehinger. He will present the numbers from the first quarter 2026. We'll open up for a Q&A after the presentation. You can type in your questions using the form located to the right. With that, I leave the audience over to you, Jonas.
Thank you, Fredrik and Finwire. It's great to be here this morning and presenting our Q1 report that was released earlier this morning. Also thank you to everyone who's joining online for this presentation. As Fredrik said, we'll make sure that there's enough time after the initial presentation to answer questions and discuss additional topics from the audience. I'll start with a short summary for those who are new to Gapwaves or have not heard our the background about the company before. Gapwaves is a Swedish tech company based in Gothenburg, originating from Chalmers and extensive research on waveguide antenna technology. Today we're on our way to become a fully- fledged and strategic supplier of antenna products for our customers.
Right now, our main focus is high-performance antenna solutions, mainly for radar applications and mainly within the automotive market. We also have other market segments that can draw value from our technologies and Gapwaves' know-how. We've also seen some increased interest in some of those areas, I'll discuss that a bit later in the presentation. In automotive, we are what is referred to as a Tier 2 supplier. We provide the antenna product to our customers, the Tier 1s, who build radar products, including our antenna, and then supply those radar sensors to automotive manufacturers with the names that you recognize, and these are just some examples.
Now, Gapwaves is on a very exciting journey, that started already some time ago with some major partnerships and contracts with leading automotive suppliers, world- leading automotive suppliers in the area of ADAS and radar sensors systems for cars. We're in a market where there is strong market potential, the market is driven by regulation and legal requirements. Fundamentally, we see very strong and promising market potential for the company and our technology going forward. We're unique in our technology. It's well-protected by patents, we see takers from all major regions in the industry. Also importantly for investors and for customers is that this is not a theoretical technology that works in the lab and then has challenges in large- scale production.
We've already started that several years back with our partners. High- volume production commenced in Q1 2024, more than two years ago, and it's still ramping up quickly. For those who follow us, you can see that the numbers are quickly growing. The numbers of antennas that are being produced based on Gapwaves technology is reaching very high numbers. Now already more than 1.5 million antennas produced using our technology. That's a rapid growth also. Our business model, which I'll come back to later, is also attractive because it's a asset-light model. We rely on very qualified and competent production partners in this volume phase of our supply to customers. We contract these production capacities to different parties in different parts of the world.
I'll go more into detail in a bit. I know that you're interested in our Q1. Probably you've been able to read it quickly. The purpose here is to summarize the material that was published in the report, and then we can go into the discussion after the presentation. Main message for Gapwaves is that our industrialization journey continues rapidly. We're in a launch of a large- scale production in China. It has started, and it's in a launch phase, and it will continue throughout the second quarter this year. Importantly, it has started, and this has been accelerated together with our customer, which is Valeo in this case. As I already mentioned, the volume of antennas that are being produced, utilizing Gapwaves technology is rapidly increasing.
Now in the first quarter, it was already more than 500,000 antennas. I also want to clarify that the majority of this volume is based on HELLA's license production of our antennas together with Frencken. It is basically a license agreement, and it was started already in Q1 2024. HELLA is earlier, they progressed further in their ramp-up than Valeo has. We're doing the production for Valeo. In the case of Valeo, we're producing and selling the antennas to Valeo. We've said it several times in previous calls and presentations that we're in a scale-up journey, and we're building this capacity, this production capacity, together with our customers and our partners in phases. It has to align with customers' needs.
In the case of Valeo, we've seen since the start of production here in Gothenburg last year, an accelerating need from Valeo and Valeo's customers for more volumes and earlier than planned in a contract. It's been a very big and fundamentally positive challenge for Gapwaves to meet these requirements, which we have been able to. It also drives a lot of extraordinary activities to secure material and capacity, et cetera, at the right time to accomplish this, which we fundamentally see as an investment in the relationship with Valeo and allowing Valeo to gain market share, which will fundamentally build our potential for the future in this contract and for future opportunities together with Valeo. Oh, sorry, I went the wrong way in the presentation.
In terms of numbers, our sales were almost SEK 19 million. It's a bit lower than last year. The main difference is, of course, project revenue is not as high as previous years. On the other hand, product revenues are increasing, but there is a shift in time before they can balance each other. That's also another reason why it's very important that we can accelerate the ramp-up to reach higher volumes sooner. In terms of the EBITDA, we're at SEK -7 , just below SEK -7 . That's a decline versus last year.
Again, the background is really the revenue mix, whereas product and product sales, especially in the early phase of the ramp-up, have lower margins than project revenue, which we've been having previous years. That's also a change in the market because the market climate for new projects and new investments is a bit softer than previous years. In terms of cash flow, of course, we're investing in the production capacity, but also to meet the demand from Valeo and also in the early phase of the ramp-up. It requires more, more activities from our side to ensure that we can deliver these volumes sooner. In summary, the general climate, we can see that Valeo is progressing well. We have others that express interest for new products with Gapwaves also.
Generally speaking, the macroeconomic and global factors are impacting the market climate for Gapwaves and especially Gapwaves customers. The underlying market trends that we have mentioned before and in previous presentations are fundamentally strong and have not changed. I've already explained our sales numbers, which we see some effects, but the main effect comes from this transition that we see in the first quarter, and we will see it during the year as well, where we transition from a large dependency on project revenue, and we change to product sales and high- volume production.
Combined with this, we're also changing in the organization, and our cost structure, so we can balance to the extent possible, changing from a project company to a product and production company and a full supplier to our customers. Looking forward, the industrialization for Gapwaves will continue and throughout the year. We're in a very important phase with the large volume production launch in China, which now has started. Sorry, I went wrong slide again. So 2026, like I said, is a transitional year, and we're continuing this transition from research and project-based company to product sales and large volume production.
We're scaling up, and it's very important to continue this investment for Gapwaves to scale- up volumes, so we can see this business and high- volume supply reach a steady state with the right margins and the right revenues. Of course, it's natural that in high- volume production, the unit price is lower. On the other hand, the volumes are much higher, so they compensate, but you have to reach those volumes first. Our focus this year is concerning three main areas, and that's continued scale of production and continue our volume growth to build a very strong fundament long term for Gapwaves that will allow us to have continued growth but also profitability. We're, as you know, probably from previous communication, we're exploring new segments, new market segments outside the traditional automotive industry.
We have made some progress there, but of course the general market climate is impacting these areas also. We have some very clear areas identified that we are targeting, and these areas also have very promising business opportunities and revenue potential as well as margin potential for us. Combined with that, we are working on efficiency improvements in Gapwaves' cost structure. As we change from a project-oriented company and technology company to a production company, we're adapting our cost structure accordingly. I want to spend a short time on our business model and the strategy going forward. As we have explained before, our business model is really to develop custom products for our customers, products that fit their specification and their needs.
We don't develop products on speculation, and it's not standardized products. Our products are specific for specific customers. Typically there is a phase one, which is really development of prototypes and testing, et cetera. As we have reached milestones in accordance to customer agreements, we go into an industrialization phase or phase two, as you see in this slide, where we do, you know, of course, discuss volumes, capacities, geographies where production should happen, et cetera. We start to finalize the serial version of the product, and this is called industrialization. We enter into the production startup phase, the launch phase, where we are right now with Valeo in China, for instance.
Then of course, the final phase where we have large volumes being produced over a number of years is of course the attractive phase where we want to be, but it takes time to get there. In the first phases, one and two, we typically can generate non-recurring engineering type of revenues with high margins. They are limited in size, and they continue just during those phases. Then we have a switch during the launch of the production to a ramp- up to get to the target volumes, which then will be sustainable for a number of years. We've tried to illustrate these processes and our business model in this slide also.
Remember that in Gapwaves, we don't build factories, and in, buy land and get permits and build factories, employ a factory staff. We contract this with our partners, which we pre-select and pre-qualify, based on customers' needs, and in terms of geography and location, et cetera. We have a very flexible model where we can bring in more partners to scale- up. We can also add production in other geographies if there are trade tariffs, et cetera, that make customers require certain geographies for production, for instance.
We also have our own prototype pilot line facility here in Gothenburg, which allows us to start production and commence production, that very first phase of production, much quicker than doing it with external parties, exactly as we have done successfully with Valeo. That has been a key to be very fast and agile together with our customers. Looking at the market, as we have discussed before, the market drivers are there. They have not changed in spite of the recent global events and the crisis, et cetera. They're there. In fact, there are new regulations coming into play in the market in the coming years that will strengthen the demand for active safety features requiring radar sensors.
Of course, it's a certain performance level that is required and a certain frequency band, high frequency, millimeter- wave frequency band that will be utilized even more than today. This creates a perfect opportunity and a perfect combination for Gapwaves and our gap waveguide antenna technology for our customers. That's what we have seen clearly in the past few years as we have large interest from leading automotive Tier 1 suppliers. The market will have more and more cars with more and more radar sensors and more and more active safety features. We're in a very attractive and good position looking a few years down the road in terms of market market growth and market size.
Going forward, as an investor, I think you should keep your eyes open in the news flow from Gapwaves when it comes to new customers. We have a pipeline with customer discussions that have not stalled or stopped. They are ongoing. There are projects in our pipeline that we hope to be able to conclude. There are also focused efforts going on for targeting new segments outside automotive, so we can balance the trends and the changes in the automotive market. As a result, we of course expect to close new contracts, both for projects, but also for supply and high- volume supply of antenna products that we design and produce.
In terms of volume production, I know that a lot of investors are asking for financial forecasts, which we cannot provide at this point. It's still too early because of, yeah, certain volatility. But keep your eyes on our volume, growing volume production. It is a clear indication of where Gapwaves is heading and also the robustness of our technology that it holds up in a real world, a real production setting with very, very high quality requirements and cost effectiveness, which is this, required by the automotive industry, for instance. As I mentioned, a majority right now of these 1.5 million antennas and more are being produced under a license agreement by Frencken and for HELLA using our technology and an antenna that Gapwaves designed for HELLA.
For other customers, we're of course a full producer, so we do everything from design to industrialization and production and supplying antenna to our customers. Another very frequent question that I get many times is, what cars do have your antennas? We're not allowed to disclose details about our customers and configurations, et cetera. There are a number of leading and well-known car brands and car manufacturers that now have radar sensors. They utilize radar sensors with our antennas inside. As soon as we are able to, we will communicate specific car models.
Right now we have good visibility on which manufacturers that buy the radar sensors with our antennas inside, but we don't have similar detailed information on specific car models and also which markets they're available in. We announced last fall, of course, that we're present in the Mercedes-Benz CLA EQ technology model that was launched and started to be delivered to the Swedish market last year. Rest assured, we will of course communicate this as soon as it's possible, and it's a topic that we bring up with our customers quite frequently, as it is an interest from our investors. Again, to summarize, Gapwaves is in a very strong, fundamentally growing market.
This trend, this market development will continue for the foreseeable future, for the rest of the decade and beyond that. We have a very unique technology. We have a strong competitive edge in our technology, and I think the production numbers clearly display this, that we are offering value to our customers and their customers. Like I said, this is real world. This is happening now, and this scale-up is not something that we're just talking about. It's ongoing now, and it takes time. It's a very complex chain in the automotive production to, for all the suppliers and all parts and components involved. We are accelerating this, and Gapwaves is not the limiting factor when it comes to our customers and their ramp- up.
I mentioned also that we are asset- light, and we don't tie up capital in buildings, et cetera, constructing them and factory staff that are not fully utilized in during the ramp- up, for instance. We have an attractive business model in a capital, working capital aspect also. Now I'm finishing the presentation, and we will go over to the Q&A part. I also would like to highlight that next week there will be a video interview with the Redeye analysts. If you have any questions that you want him to address with me next week, please contact Rasmus Jakobsson at Redeye. You can see the information here in the slide.
Thank you, Jonas.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jonas, for the presentation. We are going directly to the questions. You reported the Q1 net sales of SEK 18.8 million this quarter, down 17% year-on-year, and also some 25% below analyst estimates from Redeye. What in the big picture are the analysts missing here? Any calendar effects?
No, there are no direct calendar effects. I think from our understanding, they're missing the time the ramp- up takes and how their revenue mix effects are due to that. In fact, we had a ramp start of production last year, but we also have another start of production for the same customer this year with Valeo. Of course, softer or weaker project revenue. I think they've underestimated the effects going through these start of production processes and the initial phases of that.
Okay, thank you. It seems like you produce 500,000 units in Q1. What should we expect in terms of volume as Frencken assume production responsibility?
As men-
When do the company benefit from the revenue also?
As mentioned in the presentation, a large portion of these, of the current volumes are of course, done via the licensing agreement with HELLA and their production partner, Frencken, which is also our production partner. But you should expect continued ramp- up, and higher volumes, much higher volumes in absolute numbers, this year. We're just since very recently this, current quarter, we've commenced the launch phase of the production start in China together with Frencken. Once that leaves the starting block, which is ongoing now, like I said, we will see higher, much higher volumes going forward. Of course, the pricing of those volumes will be lower in the beginning.
We also supply right now due to the high demand from our flex line in Gothenburg. There is a lag effect in terms of the revenues. Right now it's important to achieve the volumes, the high- volumes as fast as possible. That's what the main focus is for this year.
Thank you. Can you elaborate of the cooperation with Desay a little bit?
Yes. It's according to plan. We entered into that contract early in the quarter. As I mentioned in presentation, this phase is about developing antenna design and prototypes and samples that Desay will use for testing and to showcase and demonstrate to their customers. That is ongoing now. We're well in accordance with our plan. Deliveries of these prototypes will happen during this quarter to Desay. Of course, Desay's plan is to be awarded contracts from their customers, so production can start later this year. That assumes, of course, that Desay win those contracts. Gapwaves is fulfilling. We're actually slightly ahead of plan when it comes to the development phase with Desay.
Okay. Thank you. About the Valeo contract, when can we expect that production for Valeo is contributing to profit?
It's already contributing to profits. Now we're going into a second start of production with Valeo in China, which is the high- volume line capable of supplying at maximum capacity, around 10 million units per year. Of course, we will see the effects of that once that launch phase is finished and once the ramp- up continues together with Valeo in China, in our China-based production.
Thank you. When can we expect more car models with Gapwaves antenna inside at the roads?
We already have. We already know that our antennas are in more car brands and with more car manufacturers than just Mercedes. We don't have the same visibility in terms of which specific models and which markets those models are being delivered to. As mentioned in my presentation or during my presentation, we are prohibited due to non-disclosure agreements with our customers to disclose these details too early. We are pushing to be able to disclose that. It's ongoing work, and like I mentioned, as soon as we have information, rest assured that we will communicate it as soon as we can, and it's in our interest to do so, of course.
Thank you. You recently took in capital through the rights emission, and the message was then that the new clients basically knocked on the door. Can you give us an update of any new clients reaching out to Gapwaves at the moment?
Yes. There are new clients reaching out. We see a positive interest for Gapwaves. Of course, with all the changes going on, you know, in the global perspective, and uncertainty, of course, things tend to take longer. It's natural for our customers. We're confident that quite a few of these ongoing customer dialogues will result in contracts. It's hard to say specifically when, they are moving in the right directions, and we haven't really seen any ones that disappear since we had a rights issue last fall.
We having entering to the Desay contract that's a result of that, but also our collaboration and development project together with Gotmic here in Gothenburg for an, a completely different application and application area and market segment are also results of that. We're working very, very hard to make this happen sooner rather than later.
Thank you. Can you elaborate on the current status of the delays for Sensrad? Have there been any major volume deliveries during the first quarter?
They have delivered to their customers. Importantly, their military and defense customer in the U.S. is quite active. Sensrad has seen a somewhat softer market or delayed market decisions among their customer projects as we have also during the first quarter.
Thank you. When will the antennas for Magna be produced, and is their production line qualified for volume productions?
They're in the process of securing that capability, production capability right now. As you may know, Magna has taken over the license agreement that was entered into with Veoneer, as they now own Veoneer or that part of Veoneer. From what we understand from Magna or Veoneer and also some production sites that Magna is in the market for setting up production of antennas. We don't have any other information than communicated before on the timeline.
Okay. Clear. How is the volume to smartmicro? The volume order of SEK 90 million , did you start to deliver that?
We have started that, but again, it's intended to be produced and delivered over several years. We are starting that delivery, so those deliveries will start this year, and we will see some revenue also from that coming into Gapwaves during the year.
All right. What is the current market share of waveguide antennas, compared to patch antennas in 77 GHz automotive radar sensors?
Right now on cars that are driving in roads, we think it might be around 10% or so. We're in a very early stage right now. If we expand that window a bit and look at plans for new radars that are coming, hitting the market in the coming two to three years, that is rapidly growing. I've seen independent market research reports that indicate that waveguide antennas will in a few years make up more than 50% of the radars in the cars. That takes a few years, you know. There's quite a few cars that are being produced using, you know, products that were developed and launched several years ago, and that's how automotive works.
It takes time for these to be introduced in the market, and it needs to coincide with new car platforms and new car models also.
All right. What are the key revenue drivers for the company in this quarter, and what is the outlook for the rest of the year?
I've already described the outlook. It's a continued ramp-up, continued production increases together with Valeo, but also we'll see that with the license production that HELLA is conducting based on our antennas. The drivers is of course those volume increases. Accomplishing the SOP during this quarter will be key to that. Certainly, as mentioned also in my presentation and in a previous question, we're targeting new customers in the automotive segment. We're also targeting new customers in new segments. Typically project revenues, those contracts, development contracts, they can be entered into much quicker. It's our ambition to see some of these coming in also during the rest of the year.
Thank you. If your production plan holds, forecast holds this year, how is the possibilities to show some black numbers before the year is over?
It depends on the types of contracts that we can enter into. You know, a very important revenue stream in that case would be new project type of revenue. We're already well into the year, I think the time window to really close new substantial new projects that we are not aware of today already, that time window is closing. We have good opportunities, but as an investor, you should consider the longer midterm perspective and also the ramp- up with Valeo. It's only until we reach those high million units or more per year for in terms of supplying our products that we can have the opportunity to see black numbers.
Okay, thank you. The planned SOP with Desay in Q4, will that be with Frencken as well in China?
That will be with Frencken in China. Desay is a Chinese Tier 1, and they're targeting not only Chinese car manufacturers, but also European and North American. That production will be handled with our partner Frencken in China.
Is it also high-resolution antennas?
It's higher resolution antennas. I wouldn't call it highest resolution or imaging, for instance.
Now a question about the margins, Valeo versus HELLA. How can you elaborate? Are there different margins on those two?
Absolutely. Since, with HELLA and HELLA's production, or specifically HELLA's production, we get a royalty per produced and sold antenna, and the gross margin of such royalties are very high, of course. In absolute numbers, that royalty is much, much, much lower than the product price that we get for a complete antenna product that we produce and supply to a customer, like Valeo, for instance.
Thank you.
The margins for that antenna product that we supply, especially in the early phase of the volume production, is much lower compared to a pure royalty or license per unit type of fee.
Okay, thank you. For last couple of years, automotive has been the big thing, and every Tier 1 producer wanted Gapwaves. Is this evidence that automotive can't provide Gapwaves with expected income?
Um-
Do we need to look for new possibilities?
Automotive will be very important for us going forward. It's a big opportunity, high potential, and growing market that will grow regardless of global factors because of safety regulations and also competitive offerings among car manufacturers. We want to balance that because as everybody knows, the automotive, European or Western automotive industry is under pressure due to certain factors, not least the Chinese, much stronger competition. We want to balance that with other market segments and it becomes a healthier or less risk dependency on just one market segment. That is part of our strategy going forward.
All right. We are down to the last question. Earlier you got talking about a facility possibility in U.S. Is this still an option?
It's absolutely an option. It's, there are discussions ongoing with potential partners for that. It also, it's something we do in very, very close collaboration with our customers, the Tier 1s when it comes to automotive. Given the last year or 15 months, turmoil in terms of trade tariffs and geographies and a very, you know, weekly changing message from the political system in the major markets, then our customers are definitely securing optionality or requiring suppliers and partners like us to have a readiness to engage or commence production in different regions.
This is one of the very good things with our business model, that we have a very good or high flexibility to accomplish that on very short timelines, and that's why we try to stay ahead of the curve and have engaged with potential partners also in the U.S., and North America, or essentially the U.S., together with European, where we're pretty much ready to go if that is required. We already have the existing production capacities available in China. We're also looking at adding production capability in Asia, but outside of China, because some customers are requesting that. Those plans are also progressing.
Thank you, Jonas, for this presentation and this Q&A session. Now I leave you and the company for some closing remarks.
Again, thank you very much for the time spent. Don't hesitate to contact us with questions, especially for next week's interview with a Redeye analyst, Rasmus. Also, I think I've emphasized the important things with our scale-up and industrialization ramp-up phase that we are right now. We will keep you in the loop in terms of our development. Importantly, it's very well understood by the company that we should try to extract information and communicate information about the car models and car producers that are utilizing radar sensors with our antenna technology. Stay tuned. We will be able to communicate that as soon as we are allowed by our customers.