Q4 2025 Digimarc Corp Earnings Call - Q&A

Speaker #2: At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and the number 1 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue.

Speaker #2: Please note, this call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Charles Beck, Chief Financial Officer of Digimarc. Sir, you may begin.

Speaker #2: Welcome back, everyone. Charles Beck, Digimarc CFO here, and I'm joined again by Riley McCormack, Digimarc CEO. First off, apologies for the technical difficulties last week.

Charles Beck: Welcome back, everyone. Charles Beck, Digimarc's CFO here, and I'm joined again by Riley McCormack, Digimarc's CEO. First off, apologies for the technical difficulties last week. That was quite unexpected and unfortunate. There was an extended outage by our conference call provider's ISP that caused the issue. Today's conference call is intended to be a question and answer forum related to our Q4 2025 financial results and business update, including any questions anyone might have after reviewing our Gift Card Investor Supplemental. While we've had a chance to connect with many of you since the call, we still felt it was important to reconvene to answer any remaining questions.

Charles Beck: Welcome back, everyone. Charles Beck, Digimarc's CFO here, and I'm joined again by Riley McCormack, Digimarc's CEO. First off, apologies for the technical difficulties last week. That was quite unexpected and unfortunate. There was an extended outage by our conference call provider's ISP that caused the issue. Today's conference call is intended to be a question and answer forum related to our Q4 2025 financial results and business update, including any questions anyone might have after reviewing our Gift Card Investor Supplemental. While we've had a chance to connect with many of you since the call, we still felt it was important to reconvene to answer any remaining questions.

Speaker #2: That was quite unexpected and unfortunate. There was an extended outage by our conference call provider, our ISP, that caused the issue. Today's conference call is intended to be a question-and-answer forum related to our Q4 2025 financial results and business update.

Speaker #2: Including any questions anyone might have after reviewing our gift card investor supplemental. While we've had a chance to connect with many of you since the call, we still felt it was important to reconvene to answer any remaining questions.

Speaker #2: We do ask that questions related to our S-4 filing and annual proxy wait until the proxy is made effective by the SEC, at which point both management and the board look forward to engaging with our shareholders to answer any questions and gather any feedback as part of our normal proxy outreach process.

Charles Beck: We ask that questions related to our S4 filing and annual proxy wait until the proxy is made effective by the SEC, at which point both management and the board look forward to engaging with our shareholders to answer any questions and gather any feedback as part of our normal proxy outreach process. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements that have risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our press release for more information on the specific risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Now I will open it up to Q&A.

Charles Beck: We ask that questions related to our S4 filing and annual proxy wait until the proxy is made effective by the SEC, at which point both management and the board look forward to engaging with our shareholders to answer any questions and gather any feedback as part of our normal proxy outreach process. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements that have risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our press release for more information on the specific risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Now I will open it up to Q&A.

Speaker #2: Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements that have risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our press release for more information on the specific risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially.

Speaker #2: Now, I'll open it up to Q&A.

Speaker #3: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and the number 1 on your telephone keypad.

Operator 4: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and the number one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star and the number two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For any participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing your star keys. We will take a brief moment to queue for questions. Our first question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein with Silverberg Bernstein. You may proceed.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and the number one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star and the number two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For any participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing your star keys. We will take a brief moment to queue for questions. Our first question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein with Silverberg Bernstein. You may proceed.

Speaker #3: A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star and the number 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue.

Speaker #3: For any participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing your star keys. We will take a brief moment to queue for questions.

Speaker #3: And our first question comes from Jeff Bernstein, with Silverberg Bernstein. You may proceed.

Jeffrey Bernstein: Hey, guys. Thanks for having the rescheduled call. For the gift card supplemental, lots of great information in there. I had a couple questions on that. You show a company, STL, that I guess prints some of the packaging elements related to the gift cards. They look like sort of a single point of potential success in the supply chain. Can you just talk about your relationship with them and how important that will be?

Jeffrey Bernstein: Hey, guys. Thanks for having the rescheduled call. For the gift card supplemental, lots of great information in there. I had a couple questions on that. You show a company, STL, that I guess prints some of the packaging elements related to the gift cards. They look like sort of a single point of potential success in the supply chain. Can you just talk about your relationship with them and how important that will be?

Speaker #4: Hey, guys. Thanks for having me reschedule the call. And for the gift card supplemental—lots of great information in there. I had a couple of questions on that.

Speaker #4: You show a company STL that, I guess, prints some of the packaging elements related to the gift cards. They look like sort of a single point of potential success.

Speaker #4: In the supply chain, can you just talk about your relationship with them and how important that will be?

Speaker #5: Hey, Jeff. Thanks for the question. And yeah, STL is the dominant label provider for the gift card industry, and extremely well-respected and thought of in the industry, and a wonderful partner to us because a lot of our solution is software-based, where we're putting down our watermark and we have our detection software that incorporates not just watermark detection, but AI. But a lot of it is also building the Digimarc spec, what kind of labels to use, things like that.

Riley McCormack: Hey, Jeff, thanks for the question. Yeah, STL is the dominant label provider for the gift card industry and extremely well respected and thought of in the industry and a wonderful partner to us because, you know, a lot of our solution is software-based, where we're, you know, putting down our watermark, and we have our detection software that incorporates not just watermark detection, but AI. But a lot of it is also building the Digimarc spec, what kind of labels to use, things like that. Where STL really excels is not just producing the labels, but a lot of material science knowledge and know-how. They're a wonderful R&D partner to us as we advance our spec. Wonderful company.

Riley McCormack: Hey, Jeff, thanks for the question. Yeah, STL is the dominant label provider for the gift card industry and extremely well respected and thought of in the industry and a wonderful partner to us because, you know, a lot of our solution is software-based, where we're, you know, putting down our watermark, and we have our detection software that incorporates not just watermark detection, but AI. But a lot of it is also building the Digimarc spec, what kind of labels to use, things like that. Where STL really excels is not just producing the labels, but a lot of material science knowledge and know-how. They're a wonderful R&D partner to us as we advance our spec. Wonderful company.

Speaker #5: And where STL really excels is not just producing the labels, but a lot of material science knowledge and know-how. And so they're a wonderful R&D partner to us as we advance our spec.

Speaker #5: So wonderful company. As you point, a single point of opportunity. I like that phrase. Dominant share in this industry. And a local organ company, actually.

Riley McCormack: You know, as you point out a single point of opportunity, I like that phrase. You know, dominant share in this industry and a local Oregon company, actually. Wonderful to have one of our neighbors as a partner in this.

Riley McCormack: You know, as you point out a single point of opportunity, I like that phrase. You know, dominant share in this industry and a local Oregon company, actually. Wonderful to have one of our neighbors as a partner in this.

Speaker #5: So wonderful to have one of our neighbors as a partner in this.

Jeffrey Bernstein: Terrific. If I could just get one follow-up. You know, Blackhawk Network and InComm are in there, and I think somewhat familiar to people in the gift card industry, and other related cards. You know, how important are those two guys? I know there are others as well, but they seem to come up a lot.

Jeffrey Bernstein: Terrific. If I could just get one follow-up. You know, Blackhawk Network and InComm are in there, and I think somewhat familiar to people in the gift card industry, and other related cards. You know, how important are those two guys? I know there are others as well, but they seem to come up a lot.

Speaker #4: Terrific. And if I could just get one follow-up. Blackhawk and Incomer are in there, and I think somewhat familiar to people. In the gift card industry and other related cards, how important are those two guys?

Speaker #4: I know there are others as well, but they seem to come up a lot.

Speaker #5: Yeah. The gift card networks, and again, put all this in the investor supplemental. So everybody's got full transparency to what all these who all the players are in the ecosystem to the networks.

Riley McCormack: Yeah, they're, you know, the gift card networks, and again, put all this in the investor supplement also. Everybody's got full transparency about all these, who all the players are in the ecosystem. The networks, you're right, InComm and Blackhawk are the two largest gift card networks in the US and massive globally as well. They orchestrate the delivery of cards to retailers, so incredibly influential in the industry, have, you know, deep relationships with the brands as well as the retailers, as well as the whole ecosystem. You know, two wonderful partners to us as well. We wouldn't be where we are without the two of them. Wonderful partners and very influential.

Riley McCormack: Yeah, they're, you know, the gift card networks, and again, put all this in the investor supplement also. Everybody's got full transparency about all these, who all the players are in the ecosystem. The networks, you're right, InComm and Blackhawk are the two largest gift card networks in the US and massive globally as well. They orchestrate the delivery of cards to retailers, so incredibly influential in the industry, have, you know, deep relationships with the brands as well as the retailers, as well as the whole ecosystem. You know, two wonderful partners to us as well. We wouldn't be where we are without the two of them. Wonderful partners and very influential.

Speaker #5: You're right. InComm and Blackhawk are the two largest gift card networks in the US, and massive globally as well. And they orchestrate the delivery of cards to retailers.

Speaker #5: So incredibly influential in the industry. Have deep relationships with the brands as well as the retailers, as well as the whole ecosystem. And two wonderful partners to us as well.

Speaker #5: We wouldn't be where we are without the two of them. And wonderful partners and very influential.

Speaker #4: That's great. Thanks. I'll get back in the queue.

Jeffrey Bernstein: That's great. Thanks. I'll get back in the queue.

Jeffrey Bernstein: That's great. Thanks. I'll get back in the queue.

Speaker #5: Great. Thanks, Jeff.

Riley McCormack: Great. Thanks, Jeff.

Riley McCormack: Great. Thanks, Jeff.

Speaker #3: As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and the number 1 on your telephone keypad. We will take another moment to queue for questions.

Operator 4: As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and the number one on your telephone keypad. We will take another moment to queue for questions. Our next question comes from Scott Kimmelman with Kimelman & Baird. Please proceed.

Operator: As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and the number one on your telephone keypad. We will take another moment to queue for questions. Our next question comes from Scott Kimelman with Kimelman & Baird. Please proceed.

Speaker #3: And our next question comes from Scott Kimmelman with Kimmelman & Baird. Please proceed.

Speaker #6: Hey, guys. I actually thought the summary on the gift card business was very, very helpful and in-depth. It was great. I'm walking through my bottlenecks, right?

Scott Kimelman: Hey, guys. I actually thought the summary on the gift card business was very, very helpful in-depth. It was great. I'm more concerned with bottlenecks, right? I know you made some press releases, and I know you said some positive things. I think you used a term like weeks, but where are we really in the firmware updates on the scanning side at point of sale?

Scott Kimelman: Hey, guys. I actually thought the summary on the gift card business was very, very helpful in-depth. It was great. I'm more concerned with bottlenecks, right? I know you made some press releases, and I know you said some positive things. I think you used a term like weeks, but where are we really in the firmware updates on the scanning side at point of sale?

Speaker #6: So, I know you made some press releases, and I know you said some positive things. I think you used a term like 'weeks.' But where are we really in the firmware updates on the scanning side, at point of sale?

Speaker #5: Hey, Scott. Yeah, great question. Two, I guess, technological barriers that we've been working on the last couple of quarters. First is, as you mentioned, with the scanner vendors.

Riley McCormack: Thanks, Scott. Yeah, great question. Two technological barriers that we've been working on, you know, last couple quarters. First is, as you mentioned, with the scanner vendors. I think we classified it in our earnings call last week as, in the prepared remarks, greatest source of historic risk. There are three dominant scanner vendors in the industry, Zebra, Datalogic, and Honeywell, and then the fourth, NCR, or white labels, different models from those three vendors. As we highlighted last week, two things. One, it's been our greatest source of historic timing risk. Two is, you all saw the press releases we put out with those three valued partners end of Q4, early Q1.

Riley McCormack: Thanks, Scott. Yeah, great question. Two technological barriers that we've been working on, you know, last couple quarters. First is, as you mentioned, with the scanner vendors. I think we classified it in our earnings call last week as, in the prepared remarks, greatest source of historic risk. There are three dominant scanner vendors in the industry, Zebra, Datalogic, and Honeywell, and then the fourth, NCR, or white labels, different models from those three vendors. As we highlighted last week, two things. One, it's been our greatest source of historic timing risk. Two is, you all saw the press releases we put out with those three valued partners end of Q4, early Q1.

Speaker #5: I think we classified it in our earnings call last week, in the prepared remarks, as the greatest source of historic risk. There are three dominant scanner vendors in the industry: Zebra, Datalogic, and Honeywell, and then the fourth, NCR, which white-labels different models from those three vendors.

Speaker #5: And as we highlighted last week, two things. One, it's been our greatest source of historic timing risk. But two is, you all saw the press releases we put out with those three valued partners.

Speaker #5: End of Q4, early Q1. And as we mentioned on the call last week, it's not just what they put out a couple of months ago.

Riley McCormack: We've mentioned on the call last week, you know, it's not just what they put out a couple months ago, it's also they're endeavoring to bring these commitments to the retailers, which are obviously very, very important customers to them as well. As we've mentioned, you know, for the relevant models, we think we're weeks away from having this behind us. So that's on the scanner side. Then the other one is the printers, which we also talked a little bit last week. You know, we spent the time with the printing industry making sure that there's more than enough capacity ready to print these cards. You know, while we haven't quantified any guidance for this year, the capacity we built on the printer side is multiples more than we're projecting this year for gift card volume.

Riley McCormack: We've mentioned on the call last week, you know, it's not just what they put out a couple months ago, it's also they're endeavoring to bring these commitments to the retailers, which are obviously very, very important customers to them as well. As we've mentioned, you know, for the relevant models, we think we're weeks away from having this behind us. So that's on the scanner side. Then the other one is the printers, which we also talked a little bit last week. You know, we spent the time with the printing industry making sure that there's more than enough capacity ready to print these cards. You know, while we haven't quantified any guidance for this year, the capacity we built on the printer side is multiples more than we're projecting this year for gift card volume.

Speaker #5: It's also their evergreening these commitments to the retailers, which are obviously very, very important customers to them as well. And as we mentioned, for the relevant models, we think we're weeks away from having this behind us.

Speaker #5: So that's on the scanner side. And the other one is the printers, which we also talked a little bit last—

Speaker #1: Last week, you know, I spent the time with the printing industry making sure that there's more than enough capacity ready to print these cards.

Speaker #1: And , you know , we have a quantified any guidance for this year . The capacity we've let up on the printer side is multiples more than we're projecting this year for gift card volume .

Speaker #1: So, fully understand your focus on potential bottlenecks. And on those two, we feel very good.

Riley McCormack: Fully understand your focus on potential bottlenecks. On those two, we feel very good.

Riley McCormack: Fully understand your focus on potential bottlenecks. On those two, we feel very good.

Speaker #2: I mean, obviously the opportunity is very exciting. So it sounds like we're getting there, for sure.

Scott Kimelman: Yeah, I mean, obviously the opportunity is very exciting, so sounds like we're getting there for sure.

Scott Kimelman: Yeah, I mean, obviously the opportunity is very exciting, so sounds like we're getting there for sure.

Speaker #1: Awesome . Thanks , Scott

Riley McCormack: Awesome. Thanks, Scott.

Riley McCormack: Awesome. Thanks, Scott.

Speaker #2: Thank you

Scott Kimelman: Thank you.

Scott Kimelman: Thank you.

Speaker #3: There are no further questions at this time. This now concludes our question-and-answer session.

Operator 4: There are no further questions at this time, and this now concludes our question and answer session.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time, and this now concludes our question and answer session.

Speaker #1: Okay. Well, thank you, everybody. Oh.

Riley McCormack: Okay. Well, thank you, everybody.

Riley McCormack: Okay. Well, thank you, everybody.

Speaker #3: Sorry , Charles . It looks like Jeff Bernstein is joining in for another question with Silverberg and Bernstein . Please proceed . Jeff .

Operator 4: Oh, sorry, Charles. It looks like Jeffrey Bernstein is joining in for another question with Silverberg & Bernstein. Please proceed, Jeff.

Operator: Oh, sorry, Charles. It looks like Jeffrey Bernstein is joining in for another question with Silverberg & Bernstein. Please proceed, Jeff.

Speaker #4: Yeah . Great Yeah , just just a couple of other follow ups . So can you talk a little bit about the second leak detection ?

Jeffrey Bernstein: Yeah, great. Yeah, just a couple other follow-ups. Can you talk a little bit about the second leak detection win and go through a little bit about that application and how that was brought in. You know, did the customer come to you or do you have any resellers in this area, or was it a direct sale?

Jeffrey Bernstein: Yeah, great. Yeah, just a couple other follow-ups. Can you talk a little bit about the second leak detection win and go through a little bit about that application and how that was brought in. You know, did the customer come to you or do you have any resellers in this area, or was it a direct sale?

Speaker #4: When, and go through a little bit about that application and how that was brought in—did the customer come to you, or do you have any, you know, resellers in this area, or was it a direct sale?

Speaker #1: So a couple of things . So yeah , the we have two versions . And thanks again for the question , Jeff . We have two versions of our leak detection solution .

Riley McCormack: A couple things. Yeah, we have two versions, and thanks again for the question, Jeff. We have two versions of our leak detection solution. One is for web content, the other one is for discrete media. The Fortune 100 company that we've been talking about the last couple of quarters and put the press release out was for the web content. That's the one we spent a greater amount of time talking about on the call. The other win we got in Q4 was for the other version of leak detection for the media assets. Again, if you go to our website, you can see a greater description of all of these. That was a company that came to us.

Riley McCormack: A couple things. Yeah, we have two versions, and thanks again for the question, Jeff. We have two versions of our leak detection solution. One is for web content, the other one is for discrete media. The Fortune 100 company that we've been talking about the last couple of quarters and put the press release out was for the web content. That's the one we spent a greater amount of time talking about on the call. The other win we got in Q4 was for the other version of leak detection for the media assets. Again, if you go to our website, you can see a greater description of all of these. That was a company that came to us.

Speaker #1: One is for web content, and the other one is for discrete media. The Fortune 100 company that we've been talking about the last couple of quarters and put the press release out, was for the web content, and that's the one we spent a greater amount of time talking about on the call.

Speaker #1: The other one we got in Q4 was for the other version of leak detection for the media assets . And again , if you go to our website , you can see greater description of all of these .

Speaker #1: That was a company that came to us. They had a problem with—they were releasing media assets to their partners under embargo ahead of big releases.

Riley McCormack: They had a problem with they were releasing media assets to their partners under embargo ahead of big releases, and some of those were making their way to social media before they were supposed to. This is a real problem they have with their business. You know, look to grow that relationship over time. I'm sorry, Jeff, you had a couple questions. What-

Riley McCormack: They had a problem with they were releasing media assets to their partners under embargo ahead of big releases, and some of those were making their way to social media before they were supposed to. This is a real problem they have with their business. You know, look to grow that relationship over time. I'm sorry, Jeff, you had a couple questions. What-

Speaker #1: And some of those were making their way to social media before they were supposed to. And so this is a real problem they have with their business.

Speaker #1: So excited to have them on board . And as we said in the call , they're already seeing the tangible benefits . And so , you know , look , to grow that relationship over time and , and I'm sorry , Jeff , you had a couple questions .

Speaker #1: What did I hit on.

Jeffrey Bernstein: Yeah.

Jeffrey Bernstein: Yeah.

Riley McCormack: Did I hit them all?

Riley McCormack: Did I hit them all?

Speaker #4: Kind .

Speaker #1: Of what .

Jeffrey Bernstein: Kind of what-

Jeffrey Bernstein: Kind of what-

Speaker #5: What ? Yeah , a little bit more on kind of what's , what's the go to market .

Riley McCormack: At all or-

Riley McCormack: At all or-

Jeffrey Bernstein: Yeah. A little bit more on kind of what's the go-to-market there now then. Do you have-

Jeffrey Bernstein: Yeah. A little bit more on kind of what's the go-to-market there now then. Do you have-

Speaker #4: There now then? So, do you have some sales folks who are dedicated to this, or how is that working?

Riley McCormack: Yeah

Riley McCormack: Yeah

Jeffrey Bernstein: some sales folks who are dedicated to this, or how is that working?

Jeffrey Bernstein: some sales folks who are dedicated to this, or how is that working?

Speaker #1: Yeah , so we do have people dedicated to this space . We think it's a really exciting space . There's actually a conference at some of the team's going to , I believe , on Wednesday of this week to talk to , to more prospects .

Riley McCormack: Yeah. We do have people dedicated to this space. We think it's a really exciting space. There's actually a conference that some of the team's going to, I believe on Wednesday of this week, to talk to more prospects and, you know, do demos. This is an area I think that's right, you talked about partners. This is an area that would be ripe for partners, right? Of our three focus areas, this is the one that lives completely in the digital domain, so it allows a lot of the benefits of, you know, more traditional SaaS software where we could have reselling partners, we could have technological integrations. You know, this solution would be great for either security platforms or, you know.

Riley McCormack: Yeah. We do have people dedicated to this space. We think it's a really exciting space. There's actually a conference that some of the team's going to, I believe on Wednesday of this week, to talk to more prospects and, you know, do demos. This is an area I think that's right, you talked about partners. This is an area that would be ripe for partners, right? Of our three focus areas, this is the one that lives completely in the digital domain, so it allows a lot of the benefits of, you know, more traditional SaaS software where we could have reselling partners, we could have technological integrations. You know, this solution would be great for either security platforms or, you know.

Speaker #1: And , you know , do demos . This is an area I think that's right . You talked about partners . This is an area that would be ripe for partners , right .

Speaker #1: This is our of our three focus areas . This is the one that lives completely in the digital domain . So it allows a lot of the benefits of , you know , more traditional SaaS software where we can have reselling partners , we can have technological integrations , you know , this solution would be great for either security platforms or , you know , well , a lot of a lot of SaaS applications , there's sensitive information being shared on those applications .

Riley McCormack: Well, a lot of SaaS applications, there's sensitive information being shared on those applications. This is an area that we do have a direct sales motion right now. As we're building this out, we think partners should be a wonderful source of either both leads as well as technological integrations and let them resell it as part of their solutions.

Riley McCormack: Well, a lot of SaaS applications, there's sensitive information being shared on those applications. This is an area that we do have a direct sales motion right now. As we're building this out, we think partners should be a wonderful source of either both leads as well as technological integrations and let them resell it as part of their solutions.

Speaker #1: So this is an area that we do have a direct sales motion right now . And as , as we're building this out , we think partners should be a wonderful source of either both leads as well as technological integrations and let them resell it as part of their solutions .

Speaker #4: Great . That's terrific . And then just one on , on . Holy Grail and , and just some , you know , stuff around timing there .

Jeffrey Bernstein: Great. That's terrific. Then just one on HolyGrail 2.0 and just some, you know, stuff around timing there. So you've got a second countrywide deployment, I guess, happening that they're calling a commercial deployment. It kind of feels like it's still a trial. You know, I guess Belgium is doing flexible packaging if I've got that right, and the solid is Germany. There's the sort of 2030 banner over all this, but how should we think about this actually becoming, you know, real commercial where there's real money getting paid to Digimarc?

Jeffrey Bernstein: Great. That's terrific. Then just one on HolyGrail 2.0 and just some, you know, stuff around timing there. So you've got a second countrywide deployment, I guess, happening that they're calling a commercial deployment. It kind of feels like it's still a trial. You know, I guess Belgium is doing flexible packaging if I've got that right, and the solid is Germany. There's the sort of 2030 banner over all this, but how should we think about this actually becoming, you know, real commercial where there's real money getting paid to Digimarc?

Speaker #4: So, so you've got a second countrywide deployment, I guess, happening that they're calling a commercial deployment. Kind of feels like it's still a trial.

Speaker #4: You know , I guess Belgium is doing flexible packaging . If I've got that right . And the solid is , is Germany and there's the sort of 20 , 30 banner over all this , but how should we think about this actually becoming , you know , real commercial where there's , there's real money getting paid to Digimarc CORP .

Speaker #1: Yeah , it's a great question . Yeah . So I think the term is an end to end market demonstration is what the industry is calling this .

Riley McCormack: Yeah, it's a great question. Yeah. I think the term is an end-to-end market demonstration is what the industry is calling this. It's, you know, we have a truly tested technology in terms of our efficacy. What they're doing in Belgium and Germany is, again, these are real products appearing on shelves, getting bought by consumers and working their way through the sortation and then the recycling facilities, which is what HolyGrail 2.0 has done to date. Now they're gonna take that output and actually create new recyclate. They're calling it a cradle to birth to rebirth, I think is the term they're using for this. Actually showing it, you know, you can actually touch, feel, hold the actual recyclate at the other end.

Riley McCormack: Yeah, it's a great question. Yeah. I think the term is an end-to-end market demonstration is what the industry is calling this. It's, you know, we have a truly tested technology in terms of our efficacy. What they're doing in Belgium and Germany is, again, these are real products appearing on shelves, getting bought by consumers and working their way through the sortation and then the recycling facilities, which is what HolyGrail 2.0 has done to date. Now they're gonna take that output and actually create new recyclate. They're calling it a cradle to birth to rebirth, I think is the term they're using for this. Actually showing it, you know, you can actually touch, feel, hold the actual recyclate at the other end.

Speaker #1: And it's , you know , we have a truly tested technology in terms of our efficacy . What they're doing in Belgium and Germany is , again , these products are these are real products appearing on shelves , getting bought by consumers and working their way through the sortation .

Speaker #1: And then the recycling facilities , which is what Holy Grail has done to date . And now they're taking they're going to take that output and actually create new recycling .

Speaker #1: So they're calling it a cradle to birth , to rebirth , I think is the term they're using for this . And actually showing it , you know , you can act , touch , feel , hold the actual recycle it at the other end .

Speaker #1: The , the timing for Belgium , the expectation , you know , there's already a critical mass of stuff on shelves that needs to work its way through the shelves , through pantries , and then into the waste facility .

Riley McCormack: The timing for Belgium, the expectation, you know, there's already a critical mass of stuff on shelves that needs to work its way through the shelves, through pantries and then into the waste facility, and that's the expected timing of that critical mass sometime in Q2. Germany is a quarter behind that and expecting critical mass in Q3. As you pointed out, there's the 2030 sunrise of the PPWR. There's a whole list of requirements that the industry is going to need to commit to or be able to successfully do in order to hit the requirements in the PPWR. One of them is new fractions of recyclate. Of all the benefits, right, we help produce a higher quality as well as quantity of recyclate, right?

Riley McCormack: The timing for Belgium, the expectation, you know, there's already a critical mass of stuff on shelves that needs to work its way through the shelves, through pantries and then into the waste facility, and that's the expected timing of that critical mass sometime in Q2. Germany is a quarter behind that and expecting critical mass in Q3. As you pointed out, there's the 2030 sunrise of the PPWR. There's a whole list of requirements that the industry is going to need to commit to or be able to successfully do in order to hit the requirements in the PPWR. One of them is new fractions of recyclate. Of all the benefits, right, we help produce a higher quality as well as quantity of recyclate, right?

Speaker #1: And that's the expected timing of that critical mass sometime in Q2. Germany is a quarter behind that, and expecting critical mass in Q3.

Speaker #1: And as you pointed out, there's the 2030 sunrise of the PGP. There's a whole list of requirements that the industry is going to need to commit to or successfully build in order to hit the requirements in the PPE.

Speaker #1: And one of them is new fractions of recycling . So of all the benefits , right , we , we help produce a higher quality as well as quantity of recycling , right ?

Speaker #1: So, more recycling, but also higher quality recycling with our deterministic sort. We can also do new fractions of recycling. And that's just the tangible benefits we can bring to the plastics stream.

Riley McCormack: More recyclate, but also higher quality recyclate. With our deterministic sort, we can also do new fractions of recyclate, and that's just the tangible benefits we can bring to the plastic stream. The other real benefit that we're excited about, and we think the industry is excited about, is data, right? It's because take any item, it is scanned, you know, 10 times before it reaches that front of store scanner and then it goes dark to the world, right? Any data, any post-purchase data is all qualitative or survey data. We provide the ability to actually get quantitative data, to feed back into marketing or more and more these days, obviously into an AI engine. You know what learnings can a CPG or retailer gain from having actual consumption data, brought to them by the end of the life scanning?

Riley McCormack: More recyclate, but also higher quality recyclate. With our deterministic sort, we can also do new fractions of recyclate, and that's just the tangible benefits we can bring to the plastic stream. The other real benefit that we're excited about, and we think the industry is excited about, is data, right? It's because take any item, it is scanned, you know, 10 times before it reaches that front of store scanner and then it goes dark to the world, right? Any data, any post-purchase data is all qualitative or survey data. We provide the ability to actually get quantitative data, to feed back into marketing or more and more these days, obviously into an AI engine. You know what learnings can a CPG or retailer gain from having actual consumption data, brought to them by the end of the life scanning?

Speaker #1: The other real benefit that we're excited about , and we think the industry is excited about , is data . Right ? Is because take any item , it is scanned , you know , ten times before it reaches that front of store scanner and then it goes dark to the world , right ?

Speaker #1: Any data, any post-purchase data, is all qualitative or survey data. We provide the ability to actually get quantitative data to feed back into marketing or, more and more these days, obviously into an AI engine.

Speaker #1: And you know, what learnings can a CPG or retailer gain from having actual consumption data brought to them by the end-of-life scanning?

Speaker #1: So , you know , when this leads to to real commercialization , this is , you know , where we part of our focus , our focus strategy , we talked about last year was focusing on the stuff that we think is right in front of us .

Riley McCormack: You know, when this leads to real commercialization, this is, you know, where part of our focus, our focus strategy we talked about last year was focusing on the stuff that we think is right in front of us, but maintaining our position for things that we think will be future really big opportunities for us. This is one of them. It's, you know, we can't make the industry move faster. All we can do is support the value that we can bring to the entire industry, and be there ready when they're ready to move forward.

Riley McCormack: You know, when this leads to real commercialization, this is, you know, where part of our focus, our focus strategy we talked about last year was focusing on the stuff that we think is right in front of us, but maintaining our position for things that we think will be future really big opportunities for us. This is one of them. It's, you know, we can't make the industry move faster. All we can do is support the value that we can bring to the entire industry, and be there ready when they're ready to move forward.

Speaker #1: But maintaining our position for things that we think will be future, really, really big opportunities for us. And this is one of them.

Speaker #1: It's , you know , we can't make the industry move faster . What we can do is support the value that we can bring to the entire industry and be there ready when when they're ready to move forward .

Speaker #4: Great . That's great . And then just the last one , you had a win in tax stamp authentication . Can you just talk about that application as well as how that win came through and what the selling motion is in that application , which seems like it would probably be a pretty big one .

Jeffrey Bernstein: Great. That's great. Just the last one, you had a win in tax stamp authentication. Can you just talk about that application as well as how that win came through, and what the selling motion is in that application, which seems like it would probably be a pretty big one.

Jeffrey Bernstein: Great. That's great. Just the last one, you had a win in tax stamp authentication. Can you just talk about that application as well as how that win came through, and what the selling motion is in that application, which seems like it would probably be a pretty big one.

Speaker #1: Yeah. So that one is through one of our partners, who's taking our solution and applying it to a tax stamp solution that they're rolling out.

Riley McCormack: Yeah. That one is through one of our partners, who's taking our solution and applying it to a tax stamp solution that they're rolling out. You know, we do have the ability we talked about. We put out a press release probably about a year ago. We do have a, I guess, for lack of a better term, a higher grade solution. What this company is doing is they produce tax stamps as it is, and so they have a whole solution that has multiple layers, and they're using us as not a standalone solution for tax stamps, but as a layer, security layer in their tax stamp solution.

Riley McCormack: Yeah. That one is through one of our partners, who's taking our solution and applying it to a tax stamp solution that they're rolling out. You know, we do have the ability we talked about. We put out a press release probably about a year ago. We do have a, I guess, for lack of a better term, a higher grade solution. What this company is doing is they produce tax stamps as it is, and so they have a whole solution that has multiple layers, and they're using us as not a standalone solution for tax stamps, but as a layer, security layer in their tax stamp solution.

Speaker #1: You know , we do have the ability we talked about our put out probably about a year ago . We do have a , I guess a lack of a better term , a higher grade solution .

Speaker #1: But what this company is doing is, they produce tax stamps as it is. And so they have a whole solution that has multiple layers.

Speaker #1: And they're using us as as not a standalone solution for tax stamps , but as a layer security layer in their , in their tax stamp we , you know , have a option we could sell directly .

Riley McCormack: We, you know, have an option we could sell directly that has a lot more capabilities and features than our traditional anti-counterfeiting solution. This specific win was through a partner who just wanted our more off-the-shelf offering as a security layer in their total solution.

Riley McCormack: We, you know, have an option we could sell directly that has a lot more capabilities and features than our traditional anti-counterfeiting solution. This specific win was through a partner who just wanted our more off-the-shelf offering as a security layer in their total solution.

Speaker #1: That is a lot higher . That has a lot more capabilities and features than our traditional anti-counterfeiting solution . But this specific win was through a partner who just wanted our more off the shelf offering as , as a security layer in their total solution

Speaker #3: Thank you. This now concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call over to Riley for closing comments.

Operator 4: Thank you. This now concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call over to Riley for closing comments.

Operator: Thank you. This now concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call over to Riley for closing comments.

Speaker #1: Great . Well , thank you all again . As Charles said , we apologise for the technical snafu last week and you know know we've had a chance to talk to a lot of you on the intervening time , but .

Riley McCormack: Great. Well, thank you all again. As Charles said, we apologize for the technical snafu last week. You know, I know we've had a chance to talk to a lot of you in the intervening time, but appreciate you all dialing in and rejoining us today for the Q&A session. We hope you have a great rest of your day. Thanks a lot.

Riley McCormack: Great. Well, thank you all again. As Charles said, we apologize for the technical snafu last week. You know, I know we've had a chance to talk to a lot of you in the intervening time, but appreciate you all dialing in and rejoining us today for the Q&A session. We hope you have a great rest of your day. Thanks a lot.

Speaker #1: Appreciate you all dialing in and rejoining us today for the Q&A session. We hope you have a great rest of your day.

Speaker #1: Thanks a lot

Operator 4: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This concludes today's conference. Please disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This concludes today's conference. Please disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.

Q4 2025 Digimarc Corp Earnings Call - Q&A

Demo

Digimarc

Earnings

Q4 2025 Digimarc Corp Earnings Call - Q&A

DMRC

Monday, March 16th, 2026 at 9:00 PM

Transcript

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