Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the RADCOM Limited Results Conference Call for the first quarter of 2026. All participants are present in a listen-only mode. Following management's formal presentation, instructions will be given for the question and answer session. For operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded and will be available for replay on the company's website at www.radcom.com later today. On the call are Benny Eppstein, RADCOM's CEO, and Hod Cohen, RADCOM's CFO. Please note that management has prepared a presentation for your reference that will be used during the call. If you have not downloaded it yet, you may do so through the link in the investors section of RADCOM's website at www.radcom.com/investor-relations. Before we begin, I would like to review the safe harbor provision. This conference call will contain forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements in the conference call involve several risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to company's statements about its momentum, strategic direction and goals, market position and trajectory, future execution and delivery of value to customers and stakeholders, expansion within its existing customer base and expansion of its footprint, development, often enhancing strategic partnership and expected benefits and revenues from collaborations, the success of new technologies, including AI, to, among other things, enhance automation and efficiencies pipeline, opportunities and customer engagements and the timing thereof, the launch and reception of RADCOM Neura and its integration into agentic AI ecosystems, demand for its products and solutions, and the ability to address new customer segments and expand its market reach, trends in the market, the expected benefits of its AI-driven assurance and other solutions, its expectation with respect to research and development and sales and marketing expenses, expectations regarding the growth of 5G and AI and related spending, and its full year 2026 revenue guidance, future growth and profitability.
The company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements. The full safe harbor provisions, including risks that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements, are outlined in today's press release and the company's SEC filings. In this conference call, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are provided to enhance the user's overall understanding of the company's financial performance. By excluding non-cash stock-based compensation that has been expensed in accordance with ASC Topic 718, financial income, expenses related to acquisitions and amortization of intangible assets related to acquisitions, non-GAAP results provide information helpful in assessing RADCOM's core operation performance and evaluating and comparing the results of operations consistently from period to period. Representation of this additional information is not meant to be considered a substitute for the corresponding financial measures prepared in accordance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.
Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures included in the quarter ending release available on our website, www.radcom.com. Now I would like to turn over the call to Benny. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to slide 7. The first quarter marked a strong start to 2026. We sustained financial and operating momentum. We delivered revenue of $18.6 million, representing 12% year-over-year growth and extending the positive trajectory we have built over the past several quarters. Profitability also strengthened, with non-GAAP operating income increasing to $3.7 million and operating margin expanding to 20.1%, up from 19% in the first quarter of 2025. This performance reflects our operating discipline and our ability to efficiently convert top-line growth into higher profitability while investing in innovation and long-term initiatives. Based on our current visibility, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 revenue guidance of 8%-12% year-over-year growth. Now to slide 8.
From an execution standpoint, we delivered financially and continued to strengthen our position within evolving AI-native telecom ecosystem. During the quarter, we signed a multi-year renewal with one of our tier 1 customer, expanding the deployment of RADCOM ACE into additional AI-driven use cases focused on automated data-driven network operations. The extended scope includes enhanced automation capabilities designed to improve service assurance workflows, accelerate issue identification and resolution, and provide deeper real-time network insight across increasingly complex 5G environments. This renewal not only confirmed the strategic nature of our relationship with this operator but also reflects growing confidence in the measurable value we deliver: lower operating costs, faster issue resolution, and stronger service quality in 5G networks. During the quarter, we also launched RADCOM Neura, our AI agent suite designed specifically for agentic telecom ecosystem. Neura represents an important milestone in our AI strategy and product roadmap.
This suite turns real-time network and subscriber data into autonomous intelligence that identifies issues, analyze user behavior, and automates workflows across assurance, network operations, and customer care. Neura integrates directly with existing service management system, including ServiceNow, letting operators embed telecom intelligence into their broader IT and support environments. As we broaden our strategic offering, our AI strategy is receiving positive feedback from operators, ecosystem partners, and industry publications. Last quarter, our predictive complaint resolution agent received the Best AI/ML Innovation award at the Global Connectivity Awards in London, highlighting growing industry recognition for our AI-native assurance capabilities. Turn to slide nine. In March, we launched our second certified connector on the ServiceNow Store, RADCOM Network Case Validation and Verification, which extends deeper network intelligence directly into service management workflows.
The solution lets operators detect, validate, prioritize, and resolve network issues faster without leaving the ServiceNow platform, cutting manual work and improving efficiency. These releases demonstrate our ability to rapidly translate our AI roadmap into deployable capabilities that operators can implement today. AI is reshaping how operators run their networks, and the value it delivers will be defined by the quality of the data it receives. In telecom, the data that matters most is the data that reveals the real subscriber experience on the live network. That is precisely what RADCOM produces. We capture data, accelerate it, and transform it into subscriber-level insight that drive the AI use cases our customer need to deliver real-time benefits and fuel network automation. If data is the new oil, RADCOM operates the refinery, the point where raw telecom data become the subscriber-level intelligence that AI use cases actually need. Turn to slide 10.
This is also the value we bring to our work with key ecosystem partners, including NVIDIA, ServiceNow, AWS, and leading global system integrators such as Infosys, with whom we have recently partnered to develop telco-specific AI agents and network use cases. These partnerships are increasingly important as operators seek AI solution built specifically for telecom environments rather than on globalized AI platforms that lack telecom domain expertise. For us, these partnerships amplify our reach, putting our technology in front of operators we might not have reached directly, carried by trusted implementation partner. The right partner relationships don't just expand our reach, but they accelerate the sales cycle and lower the barrier to adoption. Turn to slide 11.
This partner leverage model is also why we can scale the pipeline efficiently by extending our reach through trusted system integrators and ecosystem partners rather than through proportional growth in direct sales and marketing investment. RADCOM has spent more than 3 decades inside tier 1 operator networks, generating intelligence from live subscriber and service data, the edge cases, protocol expertise, and operational workflows that emerge only at scale. It's what general-purpose AI can't replicate. A useful analogy is that of a fluent speaker versus a native speaker. General-purpose AI applied to telecom may understand the language, but it lacks the context to understand edge cases and service-impacting events. Combining AI with telecom native expertise and product innovation is what turns automation into real customer outcome, and that is what we bring. Turn to slide 12.
Beyond AI capabilities, our technology also stands out for operators focused on lowering a total cost of ownership. During the quarter, ACG Research, a leading telecom research firm, independently reviewed our total cost of ownership against competing solutions. It found that RADCOM can lower an operator's total cost of ownership by up to 70%, even when run on the same hardware as competing solutions. These savings come from our patented cloud-distributed architecture, which requires fewer servers, use less data center space, consume less power, and handle large-scale network data sets more efficiently. Exact savings vary by deployment, workload, and network setup, but the cost advantage held up across every customer environment ACG reviewed. This combination of AI-native capabilities, telecom domain expertise, and cost efficiency is shaping conversation with operators globally and is driving activity across our pipeline.
Growing our tier 1 footprint remains a top priority, and we are actively engaged in multiple sales opportunities, several of which are advancing through technical evaluation and proof-of-concept stages. Ultimately, adoption of next-generation assurance moves at the pace of each operator set, shaped by variety of variables from cloud maturity to AI readiness. That variability is why our pipeline is broad and multi-year by design and why our partner leverage model is built to meet operators wherever they are on that curve. Turn to slide 13. Alongside new opportunities, our install base remains an important validation of our strategy and technology. During the quarter, we advanced deployment work with 1GLOBAL following its selection of RADCOM ACE to monitor 4G and 5G services, supporting around 43 million subscribers.
We also expanded our relationship with a leading European operator through Rakuten Symphony for our network visibility solution, thereby enhancing visibility and real-time insights across virtualized and cloud-native network environments. Both deployments are progressing well and further show how our solutions perform in large scale production networks. We also continue to support AT&T and Rakuten Mobile, where our assurance solutions remain embedded in production networks, supporting millions of subscribers. Turn to slide 14. Stepping back, the broader market landscape is evolving in ways that align closely with our strength. According to a recent Omdia report, 5G core spending increased 83% in the fourth quarter of 2025 as operators accelerated 5G standalone deployments, extended cloud-native architectures, and prioritized AI-driven efficiency initiatives. Operators are increasingly focused on automating their networks, improving subscriber experience, and lowering operating costs while managing rapidly growing data consumption and network complexity.
We believe these industry priorities directly drive demand for cloud-native, AI-enabled service assurance, and network intelligence solutions such as RADCOM ACE and RADCOM Neura. Looking ahead, the FIFA World Cup in June will push operators' networks to increase capacity with traffic levels as much as 5 times normal around event stadiums. High density, high stress events like these are where real-time assurance, subscriber analytics, and automated workflows matter most and where solution like RADCOM ACE deliver the clearest value. Turn to slide 15. From a go-to-market perspective, we also remain highly active during the quarter. We participated in NVIDIA GTC, the TM Forum Tour Tokyo, and Mobile World Congress Barcelona, showcasing solutions in collaboration with ServiceNow, AWS, and Infosys.
Customer and partner responses to our AI agent capabilities and AI-native assurance solutions were very encouraging. We held productive meetings with operators and ecosystem partners that we believe can translate into additional sales opportunities over time. Turn to slide 16. Overall, this was strong start to the year. Revenue grew 12%, operating margin expanded to 20.1%. We reaffirm our full year guidance of 8%-12% revenue growth. The market is moving toward AI-native operations. RADCOM produces the network and subscriber data that telco AI needs to run on. We remain focused on disciplined execution, deepening our installed base, growing our tier 1 footprint, and advancing AI-driven assurance for autonomous networks.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, we expect to expand the Neura agent suite with additional use cases across assurance, customer care, and network operations, and to continue translating our AI roadmap into deployable capabilities that our customer can run today. With that, I'll turn the call over to Hod.
Thank you, Benny, and good morning, everyone. As a reminder, unless otherwise noted, I will refer to non-GAAP results. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP measures are provided in our press release and presentation. Additionally, all comparisons are year-over-year unless otherwise noted. Please turn to slide 18 for our quarterly financial highlights. We grew revenue 12% year-over-year to $18.6 million and managed expenses effectively even as we increased strategic R&D investments, resulting in improved margins and profitability. Gross margin in the first quarter was 76.5%. Operating income reached $3.7 million, and the operating margin was 20.1%. Net income was $4.7 million or $0.28 per diluted share, compared with $4.1 million or $0.25 per diluted share last year.
As shown on slide 19, our gross R&D expenses for the first quarter totaled $5.1 million, up 19.7% year-over-year. This growth reflects our focus on strengthening collaboration, fostering innovation, and expanding our product portfolio. We plan to continue strategic R&D investment to deliver advanced intelligent solution with a focus on agent-to-agent and multi-modal workflow while supporting our strategic partnership and productization effort. Sales and marketing expenses for the first quarter totaled $4.3 million, a 1.4% year-over-year increase. We continue to invest in our sales capabilities to support pipeline growth and expansion in high value regions. On a GAAP basis, as shown on slide 20, our net income for the first quarter of 2026 was $3.1 million, a 26.1% year-over-year increase.
GAAP earning per diluted share were $0.18 compared with $0.15 last year. We ended the first quarter of 2026 with 328 employees. Turning to the balance sheet on slide 23, we closed the quarter with $108.4 million in cash equivalents, and short-term bank deposits, reflecting a $1.5 million negative cash flow. Mainly due to annual bonuses payment. Thank you. We will now pass the call back to the operator for any questions.
Thank you. The first question is from Arjun Bhatia of William Blair. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Perfect. Thank you so much. Benny, I'm curious, you mentioned you're kind of talking to a lot of tier 1 operators. You're engaged in sort of several opportunities at various stages, it sounds like the pipeline is strong. I'm curious if you can just touch on how, where you are in these deals, when you expect they might convert, and, you know, is that growth opportunity 2026 better or is it further out in 2027 and 2028?
Arjun, thanks for the question. I believe that, at least, you know, part of it will translate into revenue in the second half of 2026, definitely. At least what I, you know, believe in it's Q4 definitely will reflect some of the new customer that currently we are engaging with.
Okay. Got it. Perfect. On your new AI offering Neura, is that a new sort of monetization motion? Is it going to be like an add-on pricing or some premium pricing? How do you think about sort of layering that into your contracts with customers and prospects?
I believe it's variety. The idea is to orchestrate different AI agents within the agentic ecosystem as a whole, it will definitely be monetized based on the number of use cases, the agents, AI agents that you'll acquire from us. It could be also part of a larger bundle and also part of a partnership play that we mentioned today with either, you know, with Infosys and, or others. It very depends on the requirement and very specific to customer pain points. I can put it like that.
Okay. Got it. Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
The next question is from Ryan Koontz of Needham & Company. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks for the question. Wanted to maybe ask about your partnerships here, your kinda ecosystem partners with ServiceNow and maybe AWS to a lesser degree. Can you update us maybe on your joint sales motion there and, you know, how that's playing out for you? You know, what's been working so far and maybe what you think about where how that relationship evolves in the future?
Sure, absolutely. Thanks, Ryan. Yeah, the number of existing customer and new prospects that we are working together, we're actually expanding some of the geographical reach due to that. We're making good progress. As you know, telco sales cycle is a bit long.
We are.
Yeah
seeing good and positive response from our customers, looking into it and also kinda extending, you know, their reach and their platforms with our capabilities, bringing a lot of value to our end customers. Definitely good prospects. Same here, I do hope to get something in production by end of the year or early 2027.
Great. Thanks for that. Maybe a follow-up on, you know, similar vein, but thinking about from a technological perspective as you see, you know, 5G standalone cores, you know, we're hearing a lot more about that momentum picking up out there. You know, how does that affect your opportunities out there for your customer base with regards to, you know, the proliferation of standalone? Thanks.
We see a lot of need to move to a cloud-native architecture. We see some struggle with our competitors and the ability to providing those abilities. I think with us, we already know how to work with each and every cloud provider and also to support the private cloud solution. Overall, I think it's pushing the customer towards the more innovative and current technology-based solution versus legacy. Definitely helping us combine with the Neura and the AI agents that we're putting into the ecosystem. It's definitely something that promoting our business globally.
That's great, Benny. Appreciate the insights.
Thank you so much.
There are no further questions at this time. This concludes the RADCOM Ltd. first quarter 2026 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.