Let's do this.
Good afternoon. This is a packed room for the last presentation of the conference. I'm Louis DePalma. I cover Aerospace and Defense on William Blair's Equity Research Team. This is day three of the 45th Annual William Blair Growth Stock Conference. We're pleased to be hosting a presentation and later a breakout session with the management team of Karman Space & Defense, which IPO'd just a few months ago in February. Karman is the merchant supplier for the drone missile defense and space industry, so they are at the epicenter of many geopolitical trends that have been taking place. Joining me today are CEO Tony Koblinski, CFO Mike Willis, and the head of investor relations, Steve Gitlin, who's in the audience. I am required to inform the audience that a complete list of disclosures and potential conflicts of interest can be found on our website at williamblair.com.
Tony and Mike will provide an overview of the business, and then we will jump into Q&A in the breakout session, which will also take place in this room. Tony, thanks, and Mike, thanks for joining us, and please take it away.
Thank you, Louis. Appreciate it. I assume everyone can hear, and it sounds good, so we'll go forward. Thank you for spending the next half hour at least getting to know Karman Space & Defense. As Louis said, I'm Tony Koblinski, the CEO. I've got Mike and Steve here to support me. We appreciate having just gone public a couple of months ago, the reception of the market, which has been terrific so far initially, and look forward to sharing our story and what makes us different today. Again, I'm sure you've read this, so we don't need to spend time on that. As we go forward, right, with Karman on one page, and the next couple will give you just an overview. Look forward to your questions in a bit. We were purposefully built.
We're a different kind of space and defense company, purposely built to sit in the position that that simple diagram shows. Lots of small piece part providers in our industry, and for years, decades, it's been one of the reasons why we can't go fast, why we may in fact be falling behind and not keeping up with our peer and near-peer nation adversaries. It's difficult to coordinate among the fragmentation of the supply base, and so we built Karman to sit just below the primes. We're a merchant supply. We enjoy that position. We're not making singular bets. We're not developing products and hoping they're adopted, but rather our mission is to make others go faster in their missions to develop and deploy new systems quickly.
We built capability that allows us prime-like capability, as we refer to it, and we'll talk a little bit more about that. As a merchant supply, 70-plus customers, over 100, 120 different programs, so no single bet. We like everybody in the industry, and we help them to go fast. You see some of the elements there. All of our solutions and the secret to our success and why we offer such value is the intellectual property that's embedded in everything we do. We're vertically integrated, both in terms of design, engineering, testing, and into deployment, but also vertically integrated in manufacturing, trying to resolve the bottlenecks that are in the supply chain that prevent folks from finding the right lower-cost solutions and the ability to take lead times out.
We'll talk about some of those capabilities in the charts ahead and designed specifically to drive supply chain efficiencies with the right technical solutions. Though Karman is new, over five years now, the companies that have made up Karman have been serving this industry for decades, into the 1970s. We have flight-proven heritage and intellectual property that isn't a promise to work, but has been demonstrated to work, that we can deploy to our customers as we move forward. A couple of facts, and as you put some dimensions around who we are. Last year's revenues, $350 million. We've been on a 20%-ish plus CAGR for the last several years. We've guided this year to another 24% top-line growth, good margins, broadly diversified revenue base, as I talked about, over 100 programs, no single program representing more than 11% of our revenue.
We've got the ability to increase speed to market and reduce costs. We've got nine acquisitions under our belt so far that have added significant capability. We're pure play in space and defense, no exposure to commercial aerospace, no exposure to fixed wing, but we're in places, and we'll talk about those where there is plenty of growth opportunity ahead. All of that allows us, we believe, fair but significant margins, 30%+ EBITDA margins as we have achieved and as we have guided to this year. Karman on one page, three markets as we look at them, equally split in terms of revenue, and as we look forward, we think equally important in terms of growth. On the left, one of the two defense markets, hypersonics and strategic missiles.
Think new products like Next-Generation Interceptor, think Sentinel, of course, in there, think hypersonics of all kinds, including test beds and the need for the nation to accelerate those. In the middle, you've got more tactical missiles, think smaller in diameter, 12 inches and below, along with integrated defense systems. There is where you can think about uncrewed, both offensive and defensive unmanned vehicles, as well as other systems, and then all things space and launch. Those are the three markets that we face, and the products that we provide can be generally bundled into one of the three product categories you see below: propulsion systems, aerodynamic interstage systems, and payload protection and deployment. We'll get into a little more detail as to what those comprise. As we've talked about, advanced solutions designed to production for over 70 customers and well over 100 programs.
Getting to the next level of detail, if you will, what we deliver is the ability to take from a prime, what is the challenge, what are you trying to accomplish, and then apply our IP. All of our solutions are bespoke solutions for the prime customer and the mission that they're on. We're not trying to sell a particular solution or a particular manufacturing method or material. We can apply what's right, and the news is we've got a catalog and an inventory of proven solutions. As you look at on the left, we've used a missile. It could be a rocket. It could be others. Tip to tail, if you will, from payload protection, shrouds.
We are experts in shrouds and deployment of those, whether it be on a missile or a rocket or a booster, thermal protection systems, heat shields, energetic systems of all kinds. In the middle, you see stage separation. You see safe and arm devices. On the right, you see an example of a lunar lander. We have just finished the construction of our clean room. We will be assembling a fully integrated lunar lander that will be on the dark side of the moon in a couple of years. Propulsion, certainly for the smaller diameter, solid rocket motors, that is where we play. Think a Stinger Javelin size. On the larger ones, we provide significant components, nozzles, cases, igniters, safe and arm. We are involved in, again, all of the major programs that are in existence today and most of, I would say, of the new emerging capabilities that are being developed.
We're experts in deployment, and you see some systems there, launcher systems. As we think about the deployment of various munitions, including unmanned, we're experts in what is the actual munition, what's the bird look like, what do you want to deploy it from, is that a fixed wing, rotary wing, from ground, from a ground vehicle. We've got decades of experience in developing, designing the right deployment capability for a given solution. We talked about nozzles and cases, certainly what we do. That gives you a sense of some of the products that we do. Again, none of those are reused, but the IP, the underlying intellectual property, whether that's just process IP or proprietary process capability or patented design, we've got intellectual property embedded in all of our solutions.
This chart just gives you three examples of case studies where in each of those three markets we've applied our capability to come up with the right solution. We've been asked to deploy, and again, public news on the NGI that the shroud, so we're able to save time and money for the prime customer in terms of integrating all of the capability necessary to build and deploy the shroud for a next-generation interceptor. On the tactical missiles and integrated defense systems side, you see the loitering munitions as an example where we're able to create the deployment mechanism using solid rocket motors or energetic systems to get those moving safely and protect the bird as it would begin its path.
In space and launch, everybody in this example, we're looking at reusable heat shields, but everybody is looking to save money in launch by reusing more, and they're coming to us to help them design and fabricate, in this case, a heat shield where our design was 2,000 lbs less, or I guess it was 1,200 lbs less than the existing design. That's because we're not beholden to any one solution. We're experts in metal forming. We're experts in composite, and sometimes our customers are surprised by what's the right solution. They've got a preconceived notion. We're not trying to sell any one approach, but rather what's the right approach for that. In this case, we are able to save significant weight. Again, weight in launch is money. You can get more payload up, and that's the name of the game. We'll keep going.
I talked a bit about these design capabilities, but we've been around for decades developing analytical models, predictive models that we get the opportunity to test, refine, improve that can be applied to the next. That allows us to go faster from concept to engineered solution. Given the testing, the lower left just demonstrates almost a line-on-line in this example between what the models predicted the performance would be and what the actual performance would be. This enables our prime customers to come to us to greatly shorten lead times and get to solutions faster. We've got a growing footprint. We're principally on the West Coast, as you can see, in 12 different cities at this point. We continue to be acquisitive. You perhaps have read about our most recent two acquisitions. I'll talk about those.
Right now, about 1,200, approaching 1,300 employees, over 800,000 sq ft under roof. Heavy reliance and importance of the engineering community. That number is really approaching 200 of our 1,200 are engineers of all kinds, many with classified clearance. We do a lot of classified work, an important growing sector. As I said, even though Karman is relatively new, we have been around for 40-plus years serving this industry well. We have capability, as I have already mentioned, in all things metal forming, bending, machining, large-scale five-axis, precision joining of similar and disparate materials, electron beam welding, spin forming. We have one of the most capable spin forming machines in the world as we think about spinning an 80-inch, 2-inch thick titanium blank into a nose cone. Not many people can do that, but we can.
We have a lot of capability under one roof, all being supported by design. What it allows is our designers, our engineers, great freedom. We have this vast toolbox of knowledge, capability. As they go and begin to design for a solution, as I have said, they are not beholden to anyone, and they can design with manufacturability in mind, with assembly in mind. We can, from the very beginning, work on cost reduction, cost-effective solutions that meet program targets but allow us the margins that we desire. I was just a few weeks ago in Decatur, Alabama, where we opened a greenfield facility there. That is the one far on the right, of course. There we will be serving customers in that proximity, moving closer to our customers in the Huntsville area, serving ULA and others very well. Our focus is really on organic growth.
We've been growing, as I said, at 20%+ year over year for the last several. That will continue to be our focus as we've guided people relative to our growth strategy. Inorganic tuck-ins will be part of the story as well. I would say the last two we've made consistent with the previous six or seven, smaller in nature, off-the-run deals. We're not looking to get involved in large auctions. We're not looking for transformational acquisitions, but rather where is there technology that can continue to broaden and deepen our toolbox. MTI was a good example a couple of months ago. Refractory metals, high-temperature metals, anti-corrosive, necessary for the missions that our parts are going into. This brings us more capability in that regard. We already have become composite material experts. We invested in MG Resin.
This was a resin system that is a precursor to a number of things, including carbon-carbon, advanced high-temperature materials used in nose cones, leading edges, and others. We already were an expert in that. With MTI, we've increased our expertise on the metal side. Folks can now reliably come to us to talk about what's the right material for the application here. We're looking for, as I said, those things that bring specific IP. We're not looking to buy a widget maker, but rather somebody who has capability that has IP embedded deeply in it that rounds out our capability. You'll see more of that as we move forward. ISP, which we just closed last week, proud to have Gary and his team on board, but they've developed over the last 40 years significant expertise in small solid rocket motors and energetics.
We've been doing that for decades as well. It's mostly been centered within our Mukilteo and Skagit facilities north of Seattle. We were continuing to invest in that capability. With ISP, who's been doing it for 40 years, hundreds of proven formulations in terms of propulsion and energetic systems, we're able to accelerate what we can offer and just expand that design and manufacturing playbook and toolbox that we've got. Happy to have that team just closed last week, as we've mentioned. Okay. Again, in Gary's case, in the previous first-generation founder-owner, great IP, excellent company, perhaps hit a wall in terms of what growth they could generate without. We've got immediate exposure now to more customers, overlap of customers and capabilities and platforms. That'll continue to be our strategy. Organic growth focus, inorganic opportunities that round out the toolbox.
With that, I'm going to turn it over to Mike Willis.
All right. Thank you, everyone. The competitive moat that we've created over the past few years, it's a result of a few things. It's the strong business strategy. It's the IP-rich portfolio that we've built over several decades and really the napkin sketch to full production design capabilities that our engineering team brings. That brings strong financial performance, as you see on this page here. From 2022 through 2024, we've generated a revenue growth CAGR of 24%. You would notice that all three of our end markets, space and launch, hypersonics, and tactical missiles, are nearly even split in 2024 and more notably since 2022, all three of those end markets growing at strong double-digit growth rates.
Now, shifting below to EBITDA, we've been generating strong EBITDA growth as well in the same time period, posting 31% adjusted margins in 2024. It is a result of a few things. It is operating leverage as we've continued to grow the top line and a strategic deployment of capital. As we look at CapEx, we look at increasing our capacity as well as capability and then strategic improvements of the operational efficiencies. All of those are a result of our strong EBITDA profile. Now, shifting gears a little bit into diversity of our revenue right here. There we go. Just a visualization of our 2024 revenue. Again, the equal split there on the market, but more notably our program exposure. Tony indicated we have over 100 active programs today serving over 70 customers. We've got a strong mix of the program exposures.
Most notably as well, we continue to add to this diversity. When we brought on ISP and MTI, they added not only additional customers, but additional programs, ones that are classified in nature, bringing our third classified space. It has been a great job of adding to the diversity of our portfolio. Now, fast forwarding to the first quarter, we had the pleasure a few weeks ago of presenting our Q1 results. We posted record revenue just over $100 million. Top line, this was 21% year-over-year growth from Q1 of 2024. Record gross profit margins approaching $40 million, 30-plus % growth over 2024, and record adjusted EBITDA as well as EPS, $30 million on the adjusted EBITDA line and $0.05 of fully diluted adjusted EPS. We continue to grow our backlog.
We have a strong business development team that is out there every day, every week in industry events. As a result, we were able to post record backlog surpassing $600 million, so $636 million, that provides us great visibility and confidence into this year and beyond. All right. With that, hand it back over to Tony.
Thanks, Mike. I think in summary, before we would open it up for questions, I would just simply remind that we're a different kind of company. There isn't anybody exactly like us who has the capability that we do, but doesn't aspire to be the next prime. We want to support them all. We think that gives us a competitive advantage. It's risk mitigation. We've got 70 programs or 70 customers, 100 programs. We're well aligned, perhaps never better, with the current national priorities as we think about where the DOD and this administration wants to go. We don't think it's a short-term priority shift. You hear people refer to generational investment in our nation's defense, and we think it's just beginning. We're early innings of that.
As you think about Golden Dome and other initiatives, which will be tactical missiles, smaller, it will be new interceptors, it will be counter UAS of all kinds, it will be more assets in space, detecting, tracking, sensing, intercepting. That is where we play in all of those markets. We think it bodes well. The company is positioned well. We are executing well. We have good momentum. You do not do any of that without a great team. I have Mike and Steve with me today, but I am always surrounded by talented people that I look forward to you getting to know over time. For those who might be listening of the Karman team, I appreciate what you do every day and appreciate you being here and learning more about us. With that, I think we are in good shape.
We finished up a little early.
Fantastic. Yes, we will start now with the Q&A and then transition into the breakout session. Thanks, Tony and Mike. As Tony and Mike described, Karman is at the center of geopolitical trends. Over the weekend, Ukraine's operation spiderweb attack was compared to Pearl Harbor in that it illustrated innovation in drone launch technology. Tony, can you discuss the different technology and intellectual property that you have as it relates to missile launch and loitering munition launch and how it can be applied to different platforms such as aerial platforms, ground platforms, maritime platforms, etc.? Thanks.
Yeah. As you saw on there, one example of where we are is our expertise in facilitating and integrating what's the munition and what's its mission and how do we make certain that it can successfully begin that. We've created and deployed thousands of common launch tubes. And these tubes can be used for a number of different munitions. We're involved in current drones. You think about the challenge there. You've got a relatively fragile bird that needs to come out of a tube. In this case, tube or canister launched. It needs to get up to about 200 feet per second, but within the length of the tube, about 10 feet. You push too hard, you end up with confetti on the battlefield, and you push too little, and it doesn't get into its flight pattern.
We have got the capability to say what is necessary, tune our energetics to that to make certain that the launch is successful. Combining those, that would be a singular ground launch. We provide the war fighter with easy-to-use, transportable launch mechanisms, as well as those that are fixed wing and rotary wing. We have to understand what are the dynamics of the mission and how do we make certain that they are successful in that. It is through the integration of the software, the controls, the energetics, and then the surrounding structure. That can be applied to either a shroud system, a solid rocket motor, or a UAV launch mechanism.
Great. Along those lines, when I talk to investors, a lot of the investors say that you're in a very good place at the moment in that there's a ton of demand for drones and missile systems, missile defense, and space launch in that the volumes of your platforms, and you showed over 100 different programs, the end volumes are increasing. One other element of the story that you discussed relates to that map that you showed of Mukilteo in which you acquired Systima. I believe Systima had research and development and developed new programs. Can you discuss how, even though you're on 100 programs today, how that number can continue to increase and how you showed a slide of the different systems and components that you provide and how that number should continue to increase over time?
Yeah. You referenced Systima, and it was one of our initial four acquisitions. It really created the final cornerstone of what Karman is today. Since then, we've been adding on new capabilities. Systima has been around for a couple of decades, heavy engineering focus, heavy energetics, integration already. It is really an important part and a tough-to-replicate part of our success moving forward. What we built, though, is an agile organization. We're not building big factories with dedicated lines for a single mission or weapon system. That allows us to be flexible. As priorities shift, as emphasis shifts, we can shift our manufacturing capability easily to meet those needs. We are involved in many programs today. We get involved early on in the industry days and with our prime customers on new programs.
We're embedded in a number of new development programs right now that are moving from development into low-rate production. Really, there is no limitation as to what we can get involved in, given the breadth of capability we have and the ability to shift our resources to what's important.
Great. You also on the slide, you provided some high-level commentary on your acquisition from last week of ISP. How does ISP expand your existing capabilities for loitering munitions as you've already been partnering with many of the platforms? How does this strengthen what you already have?
Yeah. What ISP brings us is, as discussed, proven formulations of propellants used in both small solid rocket motors as well as other energetic devices. You think of energetic devices as doing the work. How do you separate the shrouds, right? They're energetic devices. How do you separate stages? How do you do the work? That's through the energetics. Systima is an expert in that. ISP just brings us more capability, more formulations that allow us to quickly tune the energetic device to the application that we're working on.
Were you already partnering with ISP?
Yep, we were. They've been a part of our supply chain as we've been providing solutions to some of the loitering munition providers today.
This increases your own supply chain strategy.
Exactly. We've tried to own the difficult parts of the supply chain. MG Resin, I'll go back to that. Carbon-carbon, historically tough, high-temperature materials that can withstand the temperatures hypersonics are seeing. Long lead times, over a year, expensive. We said we need to own that so we can provide our customers with better value, shorter lead times. We bought it. We'll continue to do that. Where the supply chain is not robust, where we can add value, we'll continue to add to our capabilities.
Excellent. Thanks. I believe that is all the time that we have for this main session. Now we are going to transition to the breakout session here in this room in which the audience will have the opportunity to ask Tony and Mike questions. I can also ask more high-level questions. Thank you, guys, for joining us.
Thank you, Louis. Thank you all.