MindWalk Holdings Corp. Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us today for MindWalk's First Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Call. We appreciate your time and interest in MindWalk, formerly ImmunoPrecise Antibodies. Today's call will be led by our CEO, Dr. Jennifer Bath, and Interim CFO, Joe Scheffler. They will provide a review of our financial performance, strategic initiatives, and key operational highlights for the first quarter. Please note that a copy of today's presentation, along with our final financial statements, will be available on our company's website for your reference. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements. These are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors include, but are not limited to, global, political and economic conditions, changes in the market dynamics and other business risks. Unless otherwise noted, all financial figures discussed today are in Canadian dollars. These statements are made as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them, except as required by law. For a more detailed discussion of risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 20-F and other periodic reports. I would now like to turn the call over to MindWalk's President and CEO, Dr. Jennifer Bath.

Thank you, Jordan, and good morning, everyone. For transparency, our first quarter results include contributions from our Netherlands operations, which we owned during the period. Six days into the second quarter, we completed the divestiture of those operations generating $16.1 million in net proceeds. Going forward, we will classify results related to these operations as discontinued operations. This sale strengthened our balance sheet and allowed us to concentrate resources on strategic high priority and high-margin initiatives. Against this backdrop, our Q1 performance was exceptionally strong. On a total operations basis, we reported record revenue of $7.6 million, up 45% year-over-year. Gross profit rose to $4 million, with margins expanding to 53%. Operating loss narrowed to $2.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA loss was cut in half year-over-year to $1.4 million and net loss improved to $3 million. General and administrative expenses declined underscoring our operational discipline. Cash ended the quarter at $5 million plus an additional $16.1 million received in proceeds from the divestiture. Importantly, within that performance, continued operations contributed $3.2 million in revenue, up 28% year-over-year. This demonstrates that even excluding the Netherlands site, our core bio-native AI platform continues to deliver sustainable results. These results give us the foundation to move decisively into our next chapter, our rebranding. The rebranding is much more than a name change. It unifies our legacy companies, ImmunoPrecise Antibodies, BioStrand, and Talem under one identity, MindWalk. We also introduced our new ticker, HYFT, highlighting the foundational role of our hip technology and redefining biologics discovery. Our new identity reflects our evolution into a bio-native AI platform company operating at the intersection of AI, multi-omic data, and advanced laboratory research. Inspired by Charles Darwin's daily thinking path, MindWalk embodies the spirit of curiosity and discovery, revealing hidden biological patterns and transforming them into impactful medicines. At the core of this transformation is our BioIntelligence ecosystem, integrating bio-native AI powered by $25 billion proprietary HYFT connections, generating insights for more clinically viable therapies, a multi-omic platform unifying sequence, structure, and function, and literature to break down silos and enable hyperscale exploration, an advanced lab with a proven track record, over 15 molecules accepted into clinical trials, and over a 98% success rate in our B-cell technology supporting therapeutics diagnostics, vaccines, and peptides. This is not only a brand evolution, but it's also a business transformation from primarily wet lab services to a scalable intelligence model platform. This opens new pathway through Software-as-a-Service, Data-as-a-Service, asset generation, and large-scale partnerships. To summarize, our rebrand reflects three milestones: a unified brand identity, IPA BioStrand and Talem are now MindWalk; a business model shift from services to an integrated platform-driven bio-native AI company; a new NASDAQ ticker HYFT, underscoring the role of the HIT technology across our vertical AI stack. With a stronger balance sheet, scalable growth opportunities, and a track record of execution, we are confident in our ability to deliver sustainable value for shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to our Interim CFO, Joseph Scheffler, to review the financials in more detail.

Thank you, Jennifer. As a reminder, the Netherlands operations were divested six days into Q2, generating $16.1 million in net proceeds. Beginning this quarter, results from those sites will be classified as a discontinued operation and will no longer contribute to our revenue or expenses going forward. Revenue for the first quarter was $7.6 million, up 45% year-over-year, driven by both project and product revenue growth. Gross profit improved to $4 million or a 53% margin compared to $2.4 million or 45% margin last year. Operating loss, excluding amortization and nonrecurring charges, narrowed to $2.7 million versus $4.2 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA loss improved to $1.4 million compared to $2.8 million last year, reflecting stronger operating leverage. We also saw progress in expenses. General and administrative costs decreased year-over-year, underscoring our focus on cost discipline. Net loss improved to $3 million compared to $1 million last year. Sales and marketing increased as we invested in a digital campaign to support growth initiatives. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $5 million in cash, excluding the $16.1 million in proceeds from the Netherlands divestiture received post-quarter. The stronger capital position enhances flexibility to advance growth opportunities, including Software-as-a-Service, Data-as-a-Service, and translational programs, such as our dengue vaccine initiative. In short, we delivered record revenue, higher margins, disciplined expense control, and improved operating results while reinforcing our balance sheet. I'll now turn the call back to the operator for Q&A.

This is RK from H.C. Wainwright. So first of all, congratulations on the divestiture and also the rebranding of the company, which squarely now says that you are kind of an AI tech bio company. So a couple of questions, mostly on the financials of the company. In terms of the $4.3 million or so that was outside of the continued operations. What portion of that $4.3 million comes from the products that you continue to carry or also from the AI assets that you currently carry?

RK, thanks for joining us. And I appreciate your question. So regarding the revenue from discontinued operations, and which portion comes from products and services we continue to carry. There are very few products and services we do not continue to carry on our full end-to-end spectrum of capabilities. There's really one service in particular that we currently will not be moving forward and utilizing, but we have several alternatives to that one that are preferable from a scientific perspective. That also was not a major cash generator. So with regard to products and services, I think really the main thing that is remaining with that group, which actually was a decent proportion of the revenue and profit margin this last quarter was the off-the-shelf products. We really made a push to ensure that in the first quarter of this year, we got as many of those products out there as possible and focused on revenue recognition and billing to close those things out under the time of the IPA name. So there's very little that we're not carrying forward with regard to our ability for products and services. Importantly, none of the AI products or services are going with that group. A physical product that has been made as an asset to the company is retained by us, and any service that includes any sort of software or artificial intelligence is housed entirely within the Remaining Company.

Okay. And then in terms of the gross margin contribution, which is pretty good, especially showing an expansion of about 50-plus percent. How much of that contribution comes from the continued operations? And how should we think about gross margin from here onwards with the continued operations?

That's a great question. So first of all, with regard to gross profit, Canada is a relatively strong contributor there, although as previously detailed all of our wet lab sites have been profitable. Canada contributes more strongly. When it comes to the actual gross profit margin, we definitely have strong gross profit margins coming out of Canada, and as you have seen with BioStrand as well. BioStrand has historically been pushing over 90% gross profit margins within the company. That's a big focus for us as we continue to go forward and look at the growth of BioStrand relative to its contribution overall as a percent of total revenue. We didn't see that hit really hard this quarter. You saw a little bit in the fourth quarter too. We talked a little bit about that. One of the things that you saw in the fourth quarter was a little bit of research and development. Their products, services, offerings, and applications all have very, very hefty profit margins. When we don't see quite as much contribution, one thing to keep in mind is they have offered some slight discounts for research and development in pilot studies and with larger companies. One thing we didn't include today in our commentary with our press release or here in the script is that BioStrand has very recently signed on one of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies as one of our first large software-as-a-service model partners. In doing so, we offered some R&D and discounts with them to get them utilizing that Software-as-a-Service. So overall, going forward, we are looking for real growth and a stronger contribution from BioStrand overall relative to our total operations and an increasing impact on our gross profit margin percentage as we move forward with these continuing operations.

Okay. So two more questions on the operations side of things. With the dengue vaccine development, what's the strategy going forward? I know you stated that you are starting some preclinical programs. So what's beyond that?

Fair question. All right. So what is beyond that? There are a couple of different things. If you don't mind, I'd like to just start overall with that philosophy because I think that philosophy drives where we're going. The differentiator in this vaccine from our perspective is incredibly strong. To put a bit of context here, what people typically do in building a vaccine for a virus is, I think, what many today with our capabilities in AI and silico technologies would consider to be incredibly antiquated. For instance, existing vaccines often use an entire virus that is attenuated or non-diseased, effectively exposing individuals to a complete virus or sometimes to entire proteins. Most experienced this during SAR-CoV-2 vaccinations, where mRNA effectively entered the body, and it was translated into an entire protein. The problem is that it exposes the immune system to various elements it doesn't need to see, many that will not help, instead of being very specific by targeting the single part that has the highest potential to assist. I won't get into how we did that, but we definitely followed a unique approach. Right now, we have moved into the manufacturing and the preclinical trials. The preclinical trials are shaped by the partners we've been working with and speaking to. We are pulling out of this first round of preclinical trials, primarily looking at one arm of the immune system, the humoral arm that generates antibody production, and asking ourselves if we can generate antibodies that have the supporting evidence to show that the vaccine neutralizes the virus. The next step, while being that, is working closely with the NIH, specifically the branch that deals with infectious diseases and allergies, as this is an area of their interest. We are also working with several partners on where to go with these results. Additionally, we will conduct safety and tolerability analysis on these products to ensure their safety and tolerability for human translation. We are also exploring working with the other arm of the immune system, stimulating a specific subset of T cells to hunt down and kill infected cells to reduce virus replication and prevent further infection. This approach is quite unique, and the next steps rely heavily on partners interested in advancing this project. Some partners have a keen interest in taking this into Phase I clinical trials, and we aim to have this move forward into Phase I clinical trials. Notably, we are focused on finding partners to sponsor the trial and will not be funding or sponsoring the Phase I clinical trial ourselves, but will leverage the downstream recognition and capital as it continues to advance.

Okay. And the last question from me. I would imagine the whole rebranding is aimed at ensuring you are seen more as a tech-focused bio company rather than the CMO or CRO, which you had been known as for so long. To be true to that, if that's what you're aiming to achieve, would you be trying to generate an internal pipeline for the company itself or would it be more about identifying partners with whom you can collaborate to help them progress their pipeline? So which direction do you plan to take the company forward?

That's a great question. This rebranding touches so much of what we do and where we are going. It's true, on the surface level, this rebranding is about unifying our image, as it's harder from the outside to understand who we are and what we stand for with different websites. The short answer to your question is that we are absolutely doing both. One important point is that we have integrated many of these in silico applications into our wet lab. Currently, we have 19 of the top 20 pharma partners and over 750 active clients. When they come to run a therapeutic program with us, it is no longer an option to pick and choose; the in silico component is mandatory, as the outputs are much stronger. Historically, our competition focused on discovery with little data, but today, we can enter the discovery phase of a campaign and ask vital questions right from the start, allowing us to move quickly with the best candidates. The integration of in silico is key for developing better drugs without increasing risk or cost, simply producing more successful data-driven outcomes. To answer your question about partnerships, it facilitates conversations with technology companies and pharmaceutical companies to help them understand our real differentiator. In those initial partnership discussions, we don't want them to get lost in our services; we are providing solutions where the essence lies in the HYFT technology with LensAI. From an investor’s perspective, it’s crucial to focus on partnerships that recognize the rebranding, which is still in its infancy and poised to ramp up significantly over the next couple of months. Thanks to our Head of Sales, Lori Anderson, who is doing an amazing job, it’s already garnering interest, and we're seeing many new opportunities arise. Additionally, regarding internal product development, after observing our results in the vaccine space, we are keen to advance more products since we found a strict HYFT pattern that is fundamental across all viruses. This has proven to be a game changer. We are targeting some additional areas, recognizing this is crucial for demonstrating our differentiating capabilities. Therefore, you will see both the integration of services and partnership work as well as internal product development moving forward.

I'll now hand the call back to Dr. Jennifer Bath, our CEO, for closing remarks.

Thank you very much, Jordan. To conclude, this was a strong first quarter for MindWalk. On a total operations basis, we achieved record revenue, expanded gross margins, and delivered meaningful improvements across operating loss, adjusted EBITDA, and net loss. Our continued operations also grew by 28% year-over-year, underscoring the strength of our bio-native AI platform. Strategically, we sharpened our focus through the Netherlands divestiture, fortified our balance sheet with $16.1 million in proceeds, and completed the soft launch of our rebranding to MindWalk, uniting our legacy businesses under one identity. We advanced our dengue vaccine initiative into preclinical manufacturing and further validated LensAI, demonstrating its ability to derisk biologics development. With a stronger capital base, a scalable platform, and a proven ability to execute, we are confident in our trajectory and remain committed to creating long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you.