Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rapid Microbiosystems Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker today, Mike Bullier of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining the Rapid Microbio Systems third quarter 2025 earnings call. Joining me on the call are Rob Spignessi, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Sean Wurches, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our third quarter 2025 financial results. A copy of the release is available on the company's website at rapidmicrobio.com under Investors in the News and Events section. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that many statements made during this call may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance are forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements relating to Rapid Micro's financial condition, assumptions regarding future financial performance, anticipated future cash usage, statements relating to the company's term loan facility, guidance for 2025 including revenue expenses, gross margins, system placements, and validation activities, expectations for and planned activities related to Rapid Micro's business development and growth, including the expected benefits from our distribution and collaboration agreement with Millipore Sigma, customer interest and adoption of the Growth Direct system and the impact of the Growth Direct system on their businesses and operations, and statements regarding the potential impact of general macroeconomic conditions on our business and that of our customers. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including our ability to meet publicly announced guidance, the impact of our existing and any future indebtedness on our ability to operate our business, our ability to access any future tranches under our death facility and to comply with all its obligations thereunder, our ability to deliver products to customers in recognized revenue, and market and macroeconomic conditions. For a more detailed list and description of the risks and uncertainties associated with Rapid Micros business, please refer to the risk factors section of our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities Exchange Commission as updated from time to time in our subsequent filings with the SEC. We urge you to consider these factors and you should be aware that these statements should be considered estimates only and are not a guarantee of future performance. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, November 7, 2025. Rapid Micro disclaims any intention or obligation, except as required by law, to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. And with that,

I'll turn the call over to Rob. Thank you, Mike. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'll begin this morning's call with a brief overview of our third quarter performance. Next, I will discuss the record multi-system order we announced this morning and then review our Millipore Sigma partnership. I'll conclude my prepared remarks with a few comments on our updated 2025 outlook, and then turn the call over to Sean for a more detailed review of our financial results and This morning, we reported total third quarter revenue of $7.8 million, above the midpoint of our guidance range, representing our 12th consecutive quarter of meeting or beating revenue guides. Within product revenue, consumables, which are a key indicator of customer demand and usage, increased 40% to a quarterly record. This strong performance helped offset a difficult comparison in system revenue, which included five growth direct placements versus seven in the prior year. Service revenue grew 12% compared to Q3 2024. for. Recurring revenue, which is comprised of consumables and annual service contracts, increased more than 30% year over year. Third quarter gross margins were 9%, reflecting a 70 basis point improvement from the prior year quarter. Higher revenue and productivity gains rose service margins to 40% in the quarter. While product margins were slightly negative, we expect progress on our product cost reduction and manufacturing efficiency initiatives to deliver positive product margins in Q4. Looking forward, we expect continued meaningful gross margin improvement in 2026. Now, I'd like to turn to the significant commercial win we announced earlier this morning. In October, we secured a record multi-system order from an existing top 20 global biopharma customer with contributions beginning in the fourth quarter and extending into 2026 and beyond this customer is deploying growth direct systems across multiple sites in North America Europe and Asia Pacific additionally the customer will utilize a growth direct platform across several manufacturing modalities and fully leverage all of our applications including environmental monitoring, water, and BioBird. This milestone underscores a Growth Direct platform's position as a leading, fully automated solution capable of meeting the demands of increasingly complex, large-scale, and global biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It also reflects the trust and strong partnerships we've built with our customers and illustrates how customers have and will continue to adopt a Growth Direct platform. Importantly, we expect this customer to make additional purchases as they continue to expand and standardize across their network. This achievement is a testament to the outstanding work of our commercial team, and we are now focused on timely and efficient execution as our operations and service teams support this global deployment. In addition to this multi-system order, broader customer engagement remains strong. Last week, we attended the annual PDA Pharmaceutical Microbiology Conference, the largest global industry event focused on microbiology and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Our key takeaways were twofold. Confirmation of the accelerating industry trend towards automation and validation from existing and prospective customers that the GrowthDirect platform is the right product for modernizing pharmaceutical manufacturing and quality control. Now, turning to our collaboration with Millicore Sigma, we remain closely engaged with their commercial team as they developed their global sales funnel. In the third quarter, they began to order Growth Direct systems. Though as previously indicated, their purchase commitments will remain modest in 2025 and become more meaningful in 2026. Next week, Daiichi Sankyo will support our annual Growth Direct Day near their facility outside Munich, Germany. As you'll recall, this event will feature existing and prospective customers discussing the benefits and sharing best practices of the Growth Direct platform. And this year, we're pleased to welcome colleagues from Millipore Sigma and several of their prospective customers, making it our largest Growth Direct day ever. In addition, later in November, our sales and marketing colleagues will work alongside the Millipore Sigma team in the Jason Boos at the Pharma Lab Congress, also taking place in Germany. This will be a valuable opportunity to jointly engage customers and further accelerate commercial momentum for both organizations. Turning to the second component of our Millipore-Sigma collaboration, we are nearing completion of an initial product supply agreement. We are currently conducting material validation studies and assessing additional areas to potentially expand the scope of the agreement. This agreement is a meaningful step towards driving margin improvement as these programs are expected to lower our direct product costs and improved gross margins, with financial benefits starting in the second half of 2026. In summary, we're pleased with our execution and very encouraged by the momentum building as we exit 2025. With strong year-to-date performance across the business and initial contributions in the recent multi-system order, we are raising our full-year total revenue guidance to at least $33 million, which includes at least 27 growth direct system placements. As we look ahead to 2026, there will be three core drivers of revenue growth.

First, a robust pipeline.

Our sales funnel remains strong with multiple customers planning multi-system global rollouts. These opportunities are similar to our recent record order, motivated by a compelling ROI and a drive to standardize and automate global manufacturing networks. Second, our business model is anchored by an expanding global install base of over 150 fully validated growth direct systems, generating durable recurring revenue from consumable and service contracts. And third, our collaboration with Millipore Sigma continues to progress well. They have begun to order growth direct systems and are building a global funnel of opportunities that we expect to contribute meaningfully to system placements in 2026. In addition to these revenue growth drivers, we remain equally focused on improving profitability. Marginal expansion will accelerate in 2026, driven by internal product cost reductions and manufacturing efficiency initiatives, as well as anticipated benefits from the Millipore Sigma Supply collaboration. Finally, we are well positioned to capitalize on industry tailwinds, including the accelerating use of automation technology and increase investments in the on-shoring of U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing. The growth erects strong customer value proposition, combined with our growing global top-tier customer base, optimally positions us for future pharma industry investment and growth. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Sean.

Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Third quarter revenue of $7.8 million increased 3% compared to the $7.6 million we reported in Q3 2024. We placed five growth direct systems and completed four validations in the quarter and now stand at 174 cumulative systems placed globally, including 152 fully validated systems. Product revenue was essentially flat at $5.2 million in Q3 with record consumable revenue offsetting the impact of two fewer system placements compared to Q3 2024. Service revenue was $2.6 million, an increase of 12% compared to Q3 last year, driven by higher service contract revenue resulting from an increase in the cumulative number of validated systems on a year-over-year basis. Third quarter recurring revenue, which consists of consumables and service contracts, increased 32% to $4.8 million, with consumables growing 40% in the period. Non-recurring revenue, which is comprised mainly of systems and validation revenue, was $3 million. Third quarter gross margin was 9%, marking our fifth consecutive quarter of positive gross margins and a sequential improvement of over 500 basis points compared to Q2. Product margins were negative 7% in the quarter compared to negative 1% in Q3 2024. While consumable margins improved meaningfully compared to Q3 last year as we continued to make good progress on our product cost and manufacturing efficiency initiatives, overall product margins were slightly lower due to a short-term shift in the mix of revenue from systems to consumables. On a sequential basis, Q3 product margins improved by 4 percentage points compared to Q2. Service margins were 40% in the third quarter compared to 29% in Q3 last year. The improvement was driven by higher revenue and productivity, as well as lower service headcount. Total operating expenses were $12.1 million in the third quarter, representing a decrease of 5% from the $12.7 million we reported in Q3 2024, due largely to benefits from the operational efficiency program we announced in August last year. Within OPEX, R&D expenses were $3.5 million, sales and marketing expenses were $2.9 million, and G&A expenses were $5.6 million. Interest income was $0.3 million, and interest expense was $0.4 million in the third quarter. Net loss was $11.5 million in Q3 compared to a net loss of $11.3 million in Q3 last year. Net loss per share was $0.26 both in Q3 this year and last year. With respect to non-cash expenses and capital expenditures, depreciation and amortization expenses were $0.8 million, stock compensation expense was $1.1 million, and capital expenditures were $0.1 million in the third quarter. We ended the quarter with approximately $42 million in cash and investments. Now, I'll turn to our outlook. As Rob highlighted earlier, we are raising our full year 2025 revenue guidance to at least $33 million, which includes at least 27 growth direct system placements. This guidance reflects the initial contribution from the large multi-system customer order we recently received. We expect this order to contribute meaningfully to system placements and system revenue in Q4, with related installation and validation service revenue recognized in the first half of 2026. These new systems are also expected to begin generating consumable revenue as they ramp to routine use in the second half of 2026. Turning to consumables, we expect Q4 revenue to step down sequentially and be consistent with Q2 levels with variability driven by the timing of customer orders and shipments. With respect to service revenue, we expect to temporarily step down to roughly $2 million in Q4 due to the timing of validation activities. Specifically, most validations of recently placed systems were either completed by the end of Q3 or are planned for 2026, including the validation of systems under the multi-system order we received this quarter. We continue to expect to complete at least 18 validations in the full year 2025, with at least three in the fourth quarter. Turning to gross margins, we expect our gross margin percentage to be in the mid-single digits in Q4. Breaking this down, we expect positive product margins for the first time, driven by higher system placements and continued progress on our product cost reduction and manufacturing efficiency initiatives. Conversely, we expect service margins to step down both sequentially and year-over-year. This reflects lower service revenue and a challenging comparison to last year's Q4, which remains our highest service revenue quarter on record. For the full year, we expect our overall gross margin percentage to be in the mid to high single digits. We expect further meaningful gross margin improvement in 2026, driven by our ongoing product cost reduction and manufacturing efficiency initiatives, as well as increasing volume leverage and anticipated benefits from the Millipore Sigma supply collaboration as we progress through the year. We expect operating expenses to step down from Q3 to Q4 and to now be around $48 million for the full year, with full-year depreciation and amortization expense of approximately $3 million, stock compensation expense of $4 million, and CapEx of $2 million. For the fourth quarter, we expect interest income of $0.5 million and interest expense of $0.6 million to largely offset each other. Finally, we continue to expect to end the year with roughly $40 million in cash and investments. That concludes my comments, so at this point, we'll open the call up for questions. Operator?

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile our Q&A roster. And our first question will be coming from Thomas Flatton of Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is open, Thomas.

Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats on the quarter. Thanks for taking the question. Sean, I just want to make sure I understand, in the last call, you indicated that you would be at the low end of the 21 to 25 system placement, and now you're going to be at least 27, which leads me to believe there might be more than a million bucks in terms of the guidance raised. Can you just square that circle for me?

Yeah, I think there's a couple of moving pieces here, Thomas. So, you know, we talked about – so on the large multisystem order, I think when we talked last quarter, we have said consistently that we have a number of these kind of in the background. We have not been assuming them in the guide. So the transaction that we're talking about today is not something that was considered back then. So it is additive. You know, we've got some things going the other way in Q4 in terms of the guide. So, for example, service, because of mainly timing, I think it's good news for 2026 service revenue, it does have a short-term impact on Q4 service revenue, will actually be lower than we expected it to be going back a quarter. So, you've got some puts and takes here that are kind of netting out to that increase in the overall increase in the revenue guide.

got it um and then kind of at a at a broader level i know the the multi-system order is across three geographies and you said that you know you're going to benefit from onshoring i'm curious though if you look more broadly the demand you're seeing from a geographical distribution what what

does that look like yeah thomas it's it's rob so it's um it it's generally consistent with with where it has been. So, as you know, we operate in North America, Europe, and Asia. I think this most recent multisystem order is a pretty good example. It's a good proxy of end market conditions that we're seeing. You know, things are – I wouldn't say they're more robust in one region than another, and many times it's really dependent on the specific company that we're working with. So we anticipate, you know, it depends quarter to quarter, and timing is always an issue depending on where in the world things are coming from. But, yeah, I think the takeaways from our announcement is that our value proposition is resonating. Customers are trusting us to deploy globally. And we're seeing, you know, generally broad-based demand from our customer base to deploy globally. And notably, this particular win was not due to U.S. onshoring. So we expect that to be a potential benefit in 2026 and beyond. Excellent. Thanks for taking the questions.

And our next question will be coming from Paul Knight of KeyBank. Your line is open, Paul.

Hi, Rob. Congratulations on the order and the quarter. This is what? You're going to have six delivered in Q4 on this order. Did you say total order size?

I didn't say total order size, nor did we say how many we were going to deliver this order specifically out of the order, Paul. But we're not going to disclose the exact order size, but you can think of it as a double-digit order.

And then the next question is real. In the world of analytical instruments, an instrument becomes ubiquitous across the world within each major biopharma. So the question is, how many multiple orders are you looking at? How many customers are saying, I've got to have this in all three continents?

Well, yeah, certainly we're striving for Ubiquity, Paul. So that, of course, is the ultimate goal. So we've had historically customers purchase multi-system orders and deploy globally. This is a notable example of a large single order, and we anticipate more of these going forward. As you said, we've got multiple multi-system orders in our funnel, And our plan is to continue to develop those and close those and get our customers going. Moreover, we also expect over time the Merck-Millipour relationship to build upon this momentum and success. And that's how we look at the next, certainly at the 26 and beyond.

And there's two aspects to Merck-Millipour, right? A, you expect them to sell some units in their own channel, and the others, more cost efficiencies. Where do you think you're on the cost efficiency journey with them? Are you just getting started, and we really see that in 26?

Yeah, I think that's right, Paul. This is Sean. We are working through, I think Rob mentioned some of this in his remarks, the process of looking at materials specifically right now. Some of the key materials that go into our consumables are things that we can procure from Merck. But as you do that, you've got to work through testing, validation, make sure it's all going to work, and the performance is where you want it to be. And then there's a process of kind of moving that over to manufacturing, working through your existing inventory, and transitioning over to the new inventory with that material in it. So I would think about the benefits from that kind of as we're looking at right now probably second half of next year is when we'll start to see some benefits from

that activity. Thank you. Thanks Paul. And our next question will be coming from Brendan Smith of TD Cohen. Your line is open Brendan. Great, thanks for taking the

questions guys. Congrats on the print too. Just wanted to get a sense of how you all are thinking actually about this momentum against the current backdrop. I guess you know we've heard broadly that pharma biotech spending has been again kind of probably hitting instruments and services maybe more than other segments. Obviously, you all are still seeing some pretty steady demand, maybe with some nuances. But I guess my question is really as folks are getting their 26 budgets together and maybe start feeling more comfortable with revisiting some of that spend, do you guys expect that could potentially be an outside growth scale in the first half of next year or is it kind of this steady sequential growth? We've been seeing how we should think about it the next couple of quarters.

Yeah, Brent, it's Rob. I would say that we're not seeing a demonstrable change. We haven't seen a demonstrable change. It's a little harder to prognosticate at this point about 2026, although it seems to be getting, I would say, maybe a click or two better. As we said in several, what we are seeing, though, the 80-20 of it, if you will, is at least over the past several quarters, it's been fairly consistent where, To your point, yeah, the CapEx budgets have been more scrutinized, and, you know, things are, you know, going through more diligence, if you will. But as we said several times, you know, high ROI compelling investments are getting through, and I think we've been able to continue to be a beneficiary of that. And I think this most recent announcement is a clear and present example that pharma will continue to invest in high ROI projects. And also, as I've mentioned on previous calls, in some cases, and this most recent one, I think is a good example, where there's a strategic impact across an enterprise and multiple sites. we have seen growth direct projects be a bit more resilient to the vagaries of the budget tightening.

Got it. Yep, makes sense. And then really quickly, just maybe piggybacking off of the onshoring conversation a little bit, this is also something we get asked about quite a bit. You know, I guess it's feeling like most people are assuming it's not going to be a huge factor in 26, but could maybe start to hit in 27. Does that kind of gel with how you're thinking about it or what you're hearing? or should we think maybe more 28 plus?

I think that's, listen, I don't think it's going to be a floodgate from what we can tell and just we've been involved over the years in a lot of construction projects with new labs. So what you'll see is it won't be uniform. In some cases, entire sites are being built from a green field. In other cases, other sites are being expanded, which can move a little faster. In other cases, even labs are being expanded, so you'll have this maybe uneven mix. As we talked about last time, there might be a logjam with some of the design and A&E firms out there, so that may play a factor, but I think you could start to see potentially the leading edge more broadly. I won't speak for RMB specifically, but more broadly in 2026, And then I would generally agree 27 could be certainly feature more, and then 28 and beyond, absolutely.

Got it. All right. Great. Thanks, guys.

And our next question will be coming from Dan Arias of Stiefel, Nicholas & Company, Inc. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. This is rolling on for Dan. Thanks for the time here. Maybe a quick one. Regarding the large multisystem order in October, How long does it typically take to place, validate, and start seeing a ramp on consumable pull-through from these systems to try to get a better view on the timeline there? Or maybe just in general, as you alluded to having other, I guess, orders in the pipeline there, or potential orders in the pipeline.

Yeah. Hey, Rowan, it's Sean. I think as we look at this particular deal, I think we expect it to kind of follow the following path. The placements, they're going to have a meaningful impact in Q4. And moving into the first half of next year, we expect to get those systems installed and validated. I think we have a motivated customer, and we are ready to go with them in that time frame to get that work done, which I think is a tailwind as we think about services in that time period. And then as we get into the second half of the year, what typically happens and what we expect in this case is that, you know, they'll get the validations done. They'll kind of work through their internal process and start to ramp up into GMP use, and we expect to see at least the front end of that in the second half of next year from a consumable standpoint. So that's the kind of timeframe we typically expect to see. Yeah, I think different customers can move at different speed depending on resourcing and things like that, but I think this one we feel good is, you know, there's good alignment between us and the customer to work along that timeline.

Okay, thank you for that. And maybe just one more quickly, you know, in the past, Rapid has alluded to wanting to penetrate adjacent markets such as personal care. How much traction are you all seeing in that market? You know, what has become of those efforts?

Yeah, thanks, Owen. It's Rob again. So, you know, as we have mentioned, there are sizable adjacent markets. Personal care, as you mentioned, is certainly one of them. So our current strategy from a rapid micro direct sales commercial effort is principally focused on global pharmaceutical and biopharma. Our strategy to develop those adjacent markets, personal care, med device, and others, is generally focused on our collaboration with Merck Millipore Sigma. Some of those markets, they're large or can be large. They tend to be a bit more fragmented, a little bit different sales cycle, so having a larger sales force that Merck Millipore Sigma has focused on those markets and more uniformly spread globally is really our strategy to go after those markets, and our collaboration agreement allows for that and encourages that, frankly. Okay, thank you. I'll jump back in the queue. I think that's the last question. So thank you all for the question. We'll conclude the call at this time. Appreciate everyone's time and attention, and we look forward to speaking with many of you soon. Thank you.

And this concludes today's program. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.