Affle 3i Limited (AFFLE) Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Apple 3i Ltd. Q1 FY27 Earnings Conference Call, hosted by Ilana Kyan. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions at the end of today's presentation. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Karim Taurani from Ilara Capital. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Manav. Good morning, everyone. On behalf of Ilara Capital, we welcome you all to Q1FI 2027 conference call of Apple 3i Limited. I take this opportunity to welcome the management of Apple 3i Limited, represented by Mr. Ranush Khanna Soham, who is the chairperson, MD, and CEO of the company, and on behalf of Mr. Kapil Bhutani, who is the chief financial and operations officer of the company. Before we begin the discussion, I would like to remind you that some of the statements made in today's conference call may be forward-looking in nature and may involve some risks and uncertainties. Kindly refer to slide two of company's earning presentation for detailed disclaimer. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Anuj Khandaswam for his opening remarks. Thank you and over to you, Anuj.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. I trust all of you are keeping in good health. Q1 FY2027 marks our 14th consecutive quarter of sequential top-line growth, and we recorded our highest ever quarterly revenue, EBITDA, FAT, and consumer conversions. During the quarter, we delivered revenues of rupees 7.47 billion, a growth of 20.4% year-on-year. This is robust considering the negative impact of regulatory and macroeconomic headwinds on some customer segments like RMG. Over 95% of our revenues witnessed over 25% growth year-on-year, adjusting for that impact. Re-affirming our consistent execution on the medium-term guidance that we have committed to our stakeholders. Our continued focus on bottom-line sensibility translated into much better profitability. EBITDA stood at Rs. 1.68 billion for the quarter and recorded a robust 20% year-on-year growth, with stable EBITDA margins at 22.4%. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at Rs. 1.28 billion, growing by 21.7% year-on-year. This proven performance of our differentiated CPCU business model reinforces our compounding growth story. As we deepen our verticalization strategy, strengthen direct advertiser integrations, and expand our audience intelligence capabilities, We continue to enhance the scale and competitiveness of our AI-powered consumer platform stack across connected devices, including mobile, CTV, and now other agentic, autonomous, intelligent, connected devices. These structural advantages provide a strong foundation for our sustained growth as we build on our vision of 10x. India and global emerging markets continue to anchor our business growth, growing by 20.2% year-on-year and contributing 72.2% of our revenues in Q1 FI 2027. Our discipline, sales execution, deeper customer engagements, and continued new logo additions have also strengthened our presence across developed markets, which grew by 20.7% year-on-year and contributed 27.8% of our revenues. Developed markets account for a disproportionately high share of the steadily growing global advertising budgets. Accordingly, we remain focused on progressively increasing our participation across these markets and aligning our revenue mix more closely with the underlying global advertising budget mix. Alongside our market expansion initiatives, we are also very committed to strengthening the way we operate, the strategic acquisition of ad colony assets. Enhances our publisher ecosystem and audience intelligence capability, further reinforcing our ability to deliver premium consumer conversions with measurable ROI for advertisers globally. We aim to unlock significant competitive advantage by activating over 100,000 mobile apps to reach over 500 million connected devices in developed markets this year. Building on the launch of Nikko and Optics AI, we have also enhanced capabilities of our AI-powered consumer platform stack through new AI-led innovations designed to empower mobile app marketers, growth managers, and advertisers with deeper consumer intelligence and full funnel campaign visibility. By combining AI-driven campaign intelligence with real-time performance analytics, these capabilities enable faster, data-driven decision-making, smarter campaign optimization, and stronger marketing outcomes. In parallel to our organic growth initiatives, We would like to transparently update our shareholders that we are making strong progress on the inorganic acquisition or the larger inorganic acquisition as we enter the phase of due diligence by third-party advisors appointed by us. We aim to close the larger M&A by early 2027, and the identified targets shall accelerate our expansion across developed markets by providing deeper and differentiated access to customers and verticals. This quarter, we have featured five customer-approved case studies in our earnings presentation. The first case study showcases how our conversion-first CTV and cross-screen capabilities maximize new converted diners and first orders for a leading OQSR app in India. Next three case studies highlight how leading travel brands across emerging markets leverage our AI-powered Campaign optimization, proprietary audience intelligence, and big optimization capabilities to target high-intent travelers, driving stronger booking performance and consumer engagement. The third case study demonstrates how a leading German quick commerce sphere leveraged Apple's consumer platform to scale its presence in a new European market, Netherlands, by combining AI-powered keyword intelligence, agentic AI, and ad-growth intelligence to target and convert high-intent grocery shoppers with sustained efficiency. Apple continues to be recognized as a technology thought leader across industry forums. This quarter, our platforms won 18 awards at Connected TV Asia Symposium 2026, including Best CTV Ad Tech for Addressable TV and Best CTV Technology Company of the Year Award. We were recognized at the E4M India Digital Marketing Awards 2026, including Best Campaign. The use of mobile and mobile monetization. We also received the Gold Award for the Best Cross-Channel Programmatic Campaign at the Agency Reporter Programmatic Asia Awards 2026. Further reinforcing the global recognition, our platforms continue to be recognized across multiple categories and singular's latest quarterly trend reports. We continue to strengthen our technology IP portfolio through sustained innovation. Our robust IP portfolio, representing 300-plus unique and possible patent claims, spans across fraud intelligence, human versus non-human data distillation, precision targeting, contextual and gesture-based advertising, and next-generation AI-native ads and engagements across key industry verticals. As we look ahead to the upcoming festive quarter, we remain encouraged by the demand environment across our key markets. With a disciplined strategy, a resilient business model, and a clear roadmap for the next phase of Apple's growth journey, we are well positioned to sustain our momentum and create long-term value for our stakeholders. With that, I now hand over the discussion to our CFO, Kapil Bhutani, to take you through the financial details of the quarter. Over to you, Kapil.

Thank you much. Good morning, and hope all of you are keeping safe and well. Building on our seven-year track record of consistent execution as a listed entity, we have started F527 with a strong financial performance in Q1, a disciplined growth with focus on operational efficiency, supported by robust, profitable growth. Let me now take you to our financial performance in Q1, financial year 27. On a consolidated basis, we delivered a year-on-year growth of 20.4% in our revenues from operation, 20% growth in our EBITDA, and a 21.7% growth in our profit after taxes. We reported a consolidated revenue of Rs. 7.47 billion during quarter one of FY27, marking a 3.1% sequential growth over our robust growth of quarter four in financial year 2026. This was driven by a broad-based momentum across industry verticals in both India and international markets. On a standard basis, India revenue grew by 20.4% on year-on-year and 9.2% quarter-on-quarter. While on adjusted basis, our India revenue increased by 18.1% year-on-year and 5.9% quarter-on-quarter. Our revenues grew across geographies as Indian emerging markets expanded by 20.2% on a YOY basis and 4% on a sequential basis, while developed markets expanded by 20.7% year-on-year and about 1% sequentially. Our continued investment in scalable platform operations and intelligent automations have enhanced productivity and operational efficiency. This has supported us in a business growth with disciplined workforce, thereby strengthening our operating leverage while sustaining healthy profitability. Consequently, we posted EBITDA of Rs. 1.68 billion, an increase of 20% year-on-year and a robust 4% growth sequentially. Our EBITDA margins also improved from 22.3% to 22.4%. Quarter-on-quarter. Further, we did not see any major volatility in price rates in the current quarter, as seen in quarter-four. Coming from OPEX, our inventory and data costs should add 63.2% of revenue from operations and remain broadly in line with our previous quarter. Our employee costs increased by 3.4% sequentially, primarily on account of annual release of appraisals and bonuses in Q&A. Year-on-year, our employee cost increased by 7.8% despite higher outflows due to impact of currency. Our operations have been executed efficiently with team strategies led by AI-supported workflows as we continue to scale our businesses. During the quarter, our other expenses stood at 5.6% of our revenues from operation and increased margin by INR 2.3 million quarter-on-quarter. Due to our ongoing spending on business promotion activities to support expansion across get-up markets, we achieved profit before tax of Rs. 1.58 billion reflecting a growth of 22.1 year-on-year and 6.6% quarter-on-quarter. Further, we grew our profits before tax from operations by 4.7% sequentially. Our profit after tax at Rs. 1.28 billion, an increase of 21.7 year-on-year and a 7.5% quarter-on-quarter. Our pat margin improved to 16.6% of the total revenue, up from 16% in Q1 last year. On a sequential basis, our pat margin improved marginally by 14 bps. With effective tax rates of 18.6% for full year, this is based on full year basis of F526. We continue to prioritize efficient working capital management, and as such, there were no material changes in our collection risk. The company is on track to achieve robust OCF to PAT ratio for a full year. We had achieved 110% of operating cash flows. To pack in FY26, this upfront higher OCF of the last year is being reflected in the OCF for the current quarter. We believe that as we move to quarter two, OCF to pack ratios will normalize. Backed by a strong performance and balance sheet. And disciplined capital allocation, we remain well positioned to pursue both organic and organic growth opportunities in Nigeria, the next vision. We continue to invest in scalable technologies and strengthen our global revenue mix and execute financial, to be executed with financial discipline as we create long-term value for our stakeholders. With this, I end our presentation. Let's open the floor for questions.

Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have a first question from the line of Karan Taurani from Inara Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks. My first question would be, you know, on this geopolitical impact, right? So you mentioned that 95% of the markets grew towards 25% and above. Could you throw some light here in terms of which markets exactly saw the negative impact? Obviously, one doesn't know in terms of how much time this can last. But could we say that, you know, organically, if things were to be normal, We are on track of, you know, reporting growth in excess of 25% on an analyzed basis, assuming that second half would be higher growth because of festive and other things. Can you throw some light in this, please? Yeah.

Thanks for that question. I think what I was mentioning was that due to regulatory and macroeconomic headwinds, certain customer segments, like we already know RMG had an impact. And last year, RMG was a contributor. This year, it is not. Similarly, there are certain areas of impact we saw in FinTech in certain categories. But overall, when we normalize it, we see our business. It gives me a lot of confidence and even deeper conviction because on an adjusted basis, 95% of our revenues have actually seen over 25% growth year on year. And I think that is defensible. How long will it take for the market forces to adjust till we see? Across the board on 100% of the business, 25% growth. I think we'll wait and see how that works out. But I think the internal confidence, the on-ground momentum is very, very strong. And it gives us a lot of conviction to give guidance on medium-term basis that if the analysts are modeling us at 20% growth, they should derive confidence from the fact that 95% of the business is actually growing at 25% plus.

Right. And gross margins have been coming off since quite many quarters. Obviously, this is on the back of investments in some new markets as pointed by you. But any update over there? When could gross margins see a recovery or pre-inflation of data cost and other things will lead to gross margins being a similar band right now?

Look, we are doing quite a few things strategically to enhance the competitive mode of our company, especially in developed markets. I think the strategic acquisition of assets for AdColony is a meaningful addition to what we will unlock as a significant and sustainable competitive advantage. As we activate over 100,000 apps, which I talked about, we believe we will get to a reach of over 500 million connected devices in developed markets. Thank you. This will actually help with not only margin expansion, but actually greater ROI delivery to our advertisers and, you know, potentially even better performance for the publishers who we will integrate with. So I think this is definitely the direction that we are taking. So margin expansion should happen based on the efforts that we are already doing, and that's fundamentally lifting it up versus, you know, Let's say one of the reasons why you also see impact on the margin, I think in the last earnings call, Kapil had mentioned that if you look at the CPCU rate, now the average CPCU rate is above 60 rupees. But if you look at it on a currency adjusted basis, that means we are actually passing some of the benefit to advertisers because of the currency adjustments that are happening. And that has actually impacted the margins in the short term, you know, a little bit. But overall, I think our business is robust. We are able to create enough value for the advertisers, even with these macroeconomic currency-related headwinds, and yet the margin, you know, our margins are actually expanding from a bottom-line perspective. If you look at art, Profit before tax, it's grown 22% versus revenues growing at 20.4%, and that actually shows that margin is expanding. And, yes, we are negotiating these headwinds, whether regulatory or macroeconomic headwinds, very well while creating value for not only our customers in terms of delivering the ROI, but also to our shareholders. I think you will see within this financial year that we will see better margin expansion, especially in developed markets.

Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Vijay Jain from Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for the question, Jay, and congratulations on a great, broadly diversified growth rate in the quarter. My first question is on Ad Colony. Now, it's been a few months since you acquired it, and I heard you talk about the 100,000 app unlocks, 400 to 500 million devices that you aim to leverage with this acquisition. Would be great to know where this stands right now in terms of those live app integrations, where it stands, and whether, you know, getting to that 100k app unlock requires, you know, sales effort from your side. I mean, just a general flavor of what it requires to get to that level of, you know, app integrations as well as would be super helpful to understand. That's my first question.

Thanks for that question. It's an organic, natural course of business execution where we are taking the technology and the brand results of Ad Colony. And going to the market, so Ad Colony is a very well-established brand name in the ad tech ecosystem. In fact, in 2020, 2021, we had an opportunity to look at the acquisition of Ad Colony as an entire company and not just the assets that we acquired, but the entire business and the entity of Ad Colony. And at that time, the pricing that we were asked to bid around was around $400 million. So ad colony is a big name in the ecosystem. And what we have now managed to do in 2026, which I see as a windfall strategic gain, is to buy those strategic assets. With which we can now organically in the normal course of business with our own existing teams and as part of our, you know, business development activities without, you know, incurring dramatically new costs or anything like that in our normal course of business. The apps that we already deal with, we'll be able to activate them with the SDK integration in the normal course of business through this year. And it will actually unlock the deeper reach, deeper audience and consumer intelligence across 500 million connected devices in developed markets alone. And this is the kind of... You know, strategic advantage that we will unlock in this course of business. So ad colony is meaningful, and it will just happen in the normal course of business. It's not that we have to invest any, you know, humongous amount of ongoing capital. So I see this as, you know, organic unlock of value by utilizing this technology and brand assets that we have acquired.

Thanks. Next question is, you know, so you said in your opening remarks that global ag budget in general, and I'm guessing this is more specific to you guys where you operate, is growing faster in DM than in EM right now. I mean, is that understanding correct? Is that what you were alluding to? And it would be great to understand why you think that is happening. That's my second question. And I'll follow up with the last question after that.

I think for us, India and emerging markets will, you know, continue to grow, you know, meaningfully in a sustained way. We don't see, you know, any challenge in that. In fact, you know, we're very bullish about it. In terms of DMs, what we are saying is that with organic as well as inorganic investments that we are making, We will calibrate up because in developed markets, if you look at the total ad spend in the world, developed markets would easily take more than 50% of the share of the ad budgets that are getting allocated or spent in those markets. It's the size of the markets and the economies. And therefore, what we are saying is that we are also looking at investing towards that and capturing more of those advertising budget mix for ourselves because we are a global player. And when we work with our advertisers, we want a meaningful percentage of that wallet share. So it is our ambition to get to that. And the most effective and efficient path in terms of capital allocation and value creation is what we are going to be navigating towards both organically and inorganically. And I think ad colony acquisition is one very clear evidence of that, right? Because it's super efficient. I mean, had we acquired it in 2020, 2021, we would have paid 400 million for it. We have been very prudent. We have waited. We are very patient. And we have taken the assets that we value, which we know that we can unlock value with. And again, so DMs is clearly a focus area and huge, you know, runway for unlocking long-term growth, right? Next five to 10 years, I think because our base is still small, so we can grow fast. And there is a long, long way to go there because we are still small. The addressable market is very, very large in developed markets, and that's what we are highlighting here. In emerging markets, we have great competitive advantage in India and other emerging markets, and I think most of the competitors are finding it hard to keep up with us.

Thank you. Last question. So, you know, in general, now we're seeing ad tech industry, you guys as well, as well as the logic is, everyone build out AI and agentic AI in the digital ad product. I would like to understand, you know, how have in general cost of data assets moved in response to that? I can see when I look at the broader industry, some of the walled gardens, like on the social media side, have reported higher yields in general on their ads, whereas other large platforms are seeing a lot of competitive pressures. And, you know, some of the open web platforms, specifically like Trade Desk, have clearly seen a lot of competitive pressures. So, in general, for you, as a player in this ecosystem, in BM markets especially, how have these costs moved? And is there any advantage and opportunities that we see from that?

I can tell you, you know, this, you've asked a very tactical question, you know, related to costs and so on. But, you know, I would like to tell you that the essence of what's happening with AI is way more strategic and impactful. If you look at the discourse I made specifically around autonomous, agentic, intelligent, connected devices. And I think I've mentioned very clearly that what are we talking about? We're saying that these are, like, for example, mobile phone is a device which works with, you know, human input, right? I mean, you have to, you know, click and touch and do something to make it work. But it has agentic intelligence in it. You can have AI agents inside your mobile device assisting you in your human experience and what you're doing. But you will also have autonomous intelligent devices. For example, a smart TV, as we call it today, you know, is smart, is context-aware, who is watching it, who is, you know, what kind of content should be shown. But it will become even more autonomous. It will become even more agentic intelligent. You know, you would see vehicles becoming more autonomous and having agentic intelligence. You'll see screens outside homes, in retail stores, you know, not just being smart screens and showing content, but, you know, perhaps having a screen could have a camera where they're seeing who's coming, and if it is a, you know, a sports person who's walking nearby, the kind of content it would show would be different from if it was an older person or an adolescent walking by. So I think a lot of screens and a lot of digital, you know, A lot of, you know, connected devices, digital connected devices will see autonomous agentic intelligence. And that's the kind of AI disruption that we are seeing, which we are working towards, and we are making sure that our innovations and patent portfolio is covering all of that, not just in emerging markets like India, but also in developed markets where we have covered those patents. And then we are looking at also, in the case of AI, I see a lot of times people are using AI as an automation tool. All right, and I think that is where it comes with either cost-saving or what is the cost-benefit analysis. I think that's very basic, and it's very tactical, and it's a no-brainer. So anything that you can automate with AI, you should absolutely go ahead and do that. I think what we're talking about is much further ahead in terms of human versus non-human content. What is getting created by humans? What is getting created by AI? Are you showing an ad to a human? Are you showing an ad to an AI? Are you showing an ad on a content created by a human? Are you showing an ad on a content created by AI? And I think those kind of... Human versus non-human data distillation technology, that is something that will be a key differentiation, and we are already not only working towards that, but ring-fencing that IP. So I think my answer to you is that we are seeing a lot of advantage, and we are keeping ourselves future-approved and future-ready with respect to AI at a very strategic, at a very deep level.

Understood. Thank you so much. Those were super helpful answers. Let me jump back into the queue.

Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Deepak Saha from Ashika Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on great set of numbers. I have just one question, sir. If we see last week in the US, one of the episodes have reported their numbers and CTV is growing quite rapidly, almost 45-36%, and the commentary around CTV is very strong. And if we see your PPD, very interesting case study for the CTV conversion on dominoes, right? So, just trying to understand the unit economics for CTV and our broader strategy for CTV, because the base would be relatively smaller on the CTV channel, and how are we seeing CTV as a space growing. That's all for mine.

Thanks for that question. I know which, you know, SSP you're talking about, and quite frankly, I'm not particularly impressed by any channel-specific commentary. If you look at Apple, one of the biggest differentiations and competitive, you know, differentiation that our platform offers is that we are a consumer platform. Now, what do I mean by consumer platform? It means that we are... A consumer-centric platform, which is mapping and ensuring that we are engaging with the consumer across the entirety of the connected devices that this consumer is engaging through his journey, which includes mobile. And the same consumer who is on his mobile phone may also be watching the CTV at their own home. The same consumer might move out of their home and go to their car and may have another... Either an autonomous or an agentic intelligent connected device in their car, and that same consumer may go into a pharmacy for a healthcare-related issue or to a retail store to just do their usual grocery kind of shopping in a physical sense and may have another screen that they engage with there. So these are called AICDs, which is Autonomous In-Or. It didn't take intelligent connected devices. So when we as a consumer platform look at a Mr. Consumer with whom we want to drive a conversion, we can show this user an ad on a mobile screen, on a CTV, or other AI CDs, right? And drive one efficient conversion with this consumer for our advertiser, which could be looking at branding and driving offline conversions, or it could be an online performance and driving online conversion. This is what we are doing. Now, in terms of how the consumer attention is moving between mobile, CTV, and other devices, we believe that the advertising budget or the advertising, the number of impressions or the amount of, you know, engagement that we want from the consumer on those devices should be directly proportional to the consumer's own attention on those devices, right? And where we get maximum, let's say, conversions, attention to conversion ratios. And at the moment, CTV is showing very, very positive engagement with our consumers. So the case study that we, for example, showed there was driving conversion-first CTV and cross-screen capabilities. And that's what I mentioned in our conversion-first-focused case study. And CTV working with smart, let's say, QR codes or other engagement models with mobile phones driving conversions, that methodology we have. Now, these other companies which are not having a consumer platform-based approach, they are just selling inventory at a particular touchpoint. And I think that business is, in my opinion, commoditized. And they are selling whatever a buyer is asking for and trying to make their margin on it. And I'm glad they are making some money for now. But I think the core difference in our approach is that we are consumer-centric, and if the consumer is spending more time on CTV and we can drive conversions from there, then Apple is absolutely on it. But, you know, we are conversion-centric, and which channel do we show an add-on, whether it's mobile, CTV, or other AICDs, I think that will be algorithm-dependent from our side. But we are seeing good outcomes at the moment with CTV and combination on mobile.

Well, that's really helpful. Just one quick follow-up from the developed market side. If you can help us understand CPC unit economics, my understanding is it would be fairly higher, but at margin, we will say more or less same, but the absolute flow-through would be relatively higher. Is it the right way to think about it?

Yes, it is the right way to think about it, that, you know, the kind of the volumes that we are dealing with in terms of the actual servers, our consumer platform stack at the back end, because we are, you know, globally anchored on emerging markets in a strong way. And now we are calibrating up in developed markets as well. The volume of business. And the volume of traffic that we are dealing with for the level of revenue that you see is much higher. I would say it's five times higher because in emerging markets, there are a lot more users, a lot more connected devices connecting. Whereas in developed markets, you get paid more for less level of activity, right? So in terms of our competitive advantage, we are seeing two things. One, we are able to run, you know, almost a 22%, 23% EBITDA business. With an anchoring on emerging markets, which is extremely hard to do, given the volume of activity that we have to deal with and the unit economics are harsher. When we go to developed markets, I mean, the math is slightly different, but it is to our competitive advantage and favor because our technology stack is dealing with great efficiencies and a much larger volume of data that we are able to filter, distill, and manage well. So when we go to developed markets, we are seeing better unit economics in that sense. I won't go into the exact margin profile and the CPCU numbers, but it would be sufficient to say that it is an easier journey for us in developed markets versus what we have been used to in terms of unit economics of emerging markets.

That's really helpful. Thank you and all the best for the upcoming quarter.

Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we request you to rejoin the queue. A reminder to all, please restrict yourself to only two questions per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we request you to rejoin the queue. Next question is from the line of Kavish Parikh from 361 Capital Market. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on a good set of numbers. Anuj, on the broader global industry today, are you seeing any early signs of an impact from slowing smartphone adoption globally as high memory prices take device costs higher? Are you witnessing any sort of moderation in the incremental device additions that you typically record each quarter or any impact on replacement cycles across your key markets? That's my first question.

Well, thanks for that question. No, we're not seeing any impact. I think what we are seeing instead is, you know, a lot more time that the consumers are spending per consumer per device on, you know, the time spent on digital content consumption is actually going up across the board, across markets. And I think this trend would continue. Now, you know, we don't really look at whether the device is necessarily a new device or an old device. You know, I think what we're looking at is the consumer's attention and the time spent. So, in terms of, you know, just purely number of devices, I think with connected devices, with mobile devices, we are seeing a steady sort of, you know, consistent number and pattern without any, you know, particular sort of deviation versus what you said. It could also be that, hey, some of the people, instead of buying a new device, are going for a second-hand device or just not upgrading or keeping their phone active. So I think we are seeing a number of connected devices following a consistent pattern, and there's no impact at this moment, at least on all the data that we look at.

Understood. Second question, Kapil, CFO2 EBITDA conversion was relatively weak this quarter at about 41%. You did allude earlier that we also saw a couple of quarters of weak cash conversion last year as well, and that subsequently normalized by year-end. Could we just dive a bit deeper into what drove this weak conversion in 1-2-27? Is this an active call to deepen penetration across certain geographies or verticals? Does it pertain to that?

No, it's just the flow of the funds. If I had 110% OCF to Pat ratio, that means I collected about 45 crores. And operating cash flows in the month of March, right, ahead of the year end. So, when you are left with less receivables to be collected over the next 90 days or 80 days, so these get affected, right? So, you had an upfronting of the cash flows, right? So, this will get normalized when we go into the quarter two and quarter three. So, you will see about 80-85% OCF to PATR ratios by quarter three.

Got it. And lastly, on the strong growth and margin performance, could you help us understand the impact of currency movements on this quarter and maybe the last few quarters? What part of our cost base is dollar denominated and how did the dollar movement affect revenues and costs? How much did it contribute to the reported growth? Costs other than data and inventory seem to be fairly in control despite part of it being impacted by dollar. So some clarity on this would be great.

So, as I mentioned in my commentary, right, this quarter had a stable USD to various currencies, right, not only INR. So we didn't see any impact, additional impact, what we had in quarter four or quarter three, right, when there was a spike in the USD to other currencies. 72% of our business is largely coming from emerging markets and India, and then we have other cross-currencies, ROIs to be guaranteed to the, or promised to the clients. So you need to adjust to the CPCU rates because the billing may happen in dollar, but you will need to adjust it to the ROIs required in their local currencies also, right? So only 20% of our business of U.S. is dollar to dollar, and the rest is... You have to adjust the CPU rates to the ROIs promised. We are not a service company where you can have a manpower rate and then converting all the revenues in dollar. It's an ROI-based, CPU-based business where you need to calibrate the cross-currency ROIs for the clients. So we had a steep increase in the U.S. currency rates across the last quarter, and that affected our... The pay rate or you can say the inventory cost in the previous quarter for this quarter, if you see sequentially, we have a largely flattish because the dollar payments were not that steep.

Thanks for that. Yeah. Thanks for that. All the way, Wes.

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Anmol Kar from Dam Capital. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I had a couple of questions. Firstly, you know, I mean, if we look at in terms of increasing penetration in developed markets, which are the key areas industry we want to target through organic or inorganic route. And in addition to that, given that, you know, that market is relatively more mature, do you think that it can have an overall impact on our growth rates going forward? Because given that it's in this quarter, if you look at X of currency, our developed market growth will be, you know, on a Y and Y level, maybe in the range of 11-12%. Thank you. Is that market relatively slowing growth overall, and will, as we sort of increase our presence over there, can it affect our overall growth rates?

I don't quite agree with that analysis. Yes, there are mature markets in the sense that the addressable market is large, and it is so large that the overall growth might, from an overall high-level macro perspective, but the fact that we are entering the smaller base with a differentiated business model, Good morning, everyone. A differentiated technology stack. We see that we will be growing at least at 20% plus in developed markets consistently. We see many growth pegs there. We see growth pegs in gaming. We see growth pegs in... e-commerce, entertainment. We are seeing a positive growth even in areas of health care. So we have very strong pieces across, you know, some of the top ten verticals that we are deeply verticalized for. And when we go into this market with our, you know, approach as a consumer platform on a CPCU business model, covering the entirety of the consumer journey, you know, and so on, I think we should be very, very optimistic and very clear that at least 20% growth is sensible to be pegged at. I did mention earlier that internally when we execute, you know, all our business plans internally are pegged at. 25% growth, and we are very, you know, convinced and seeing the right kind of momentum on the ground to realistically peg ourselves internally on that. So when our external stakeholders and analysts are modeling us at around 20%, I don't see why that should be tapered down with the view of developed markets, given that the addressable market is so large, we are small, and we are giving you a very clear thesis of our differentiated execution pathway.

Hello. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for this. Just one second question from my side is, you know, in terms of the SDK integrations for us in developed markets, are you seeing greater willingness among premium app publishers to integrate, you know, Apple's SDKs? How should we think about potential SDK penetration there within the developed markets?

Thanks for that question. I'd answered it in the context of our Ad Colony acquisition of strategic assets, which includes the tech stack, the SDK, of course. It includes the brand of Ad Colony as well. And the brand of Ad Colony has the goodwill and the reputation, especially in developed markets, where the publishers have made for last decade or even two decades. Money by integrating the ad call near SDK. Now, with that kind of a reputation when we are going in there, our execution pathway very clearly shows that within this year, we will activate 100,000 mobile app publishers, and that should result in 500 million connected devices in developed markets, and that's a significant competitive advantage. Being unlocked in the process. It's not just about what Ad Colony stood for. Ad Colony powered by Apple. We'll have unique differentiations in the way we will unlock value for the ecosystem, and I think we will see in due course and time, but this is, again, an organic business development journey for what we were already doing, what we were doing, but this will give us an accelerator because of the ad colony brand and the trust that it has in the ecosystem there. So, Apple may have, you know, a shorter runway in developed markets, but with Ad Colony, we are bringing a lot of credibility and goodwill as we go and engage with the brands and the advertisers to deliver performance to them.

Sure, very clear. Thank you so much for answering.

Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Omkar from Shia Investments. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I have a question regarding the new large acquisition which you are talking about. I mean, can you give a ballpark how it can look like for AFL and how big it can be, how the margin profile, because earlier the margin profile used to be Lower for the acquisitions which you had done and that had tracked the overall margins for you. So this time how it can look like.

Thanks for that question. First of all, with respect to our M&A, our board, and our management has always been very transparent with our shareholders throughout the process because we know it is a meaningful decision for the future. So all along, we have been very clear whether we had shortlisted a certain number of companies or went into due diligence on a few of them. And now we have reached the stage where we have appointed third-party due diligence advisors to do deeper due diligence on the targets. Now, what we are looking for is, you know, completing the process by early 2027, and in terms of our approach, I think we are very clear that any acquisition that we would do has to be, you know, accretive on the bottom line. It has to be supporting the, you know, sensible margin profile for the business and, very importantly, not slowing us down on the growth trajectory. So I would only sign on the dotted line and invest if I am convinced that under the Apple leadership, the combined, you know, the existing business as well as the new inorganic acquisition would continue to deliver combined at least 20% growth and will deliver a meaningful bottom line performance, growing our earnings per share, growing our, you know, cash flows meaningfully. Overall, I think that's the kind of mindset with which we are going to execute on this. So you should be very comfortable that we are, you know, not looking at something that will either slow us down or will not be accretive on the bottom line.

You mentioned that investors shouldn't be worried about slowing down, but actually speaking, this should enhance your growth, right? We are talking about the last time.

Absolutely. No, I think what I'm saying is that the enhancement and growth. It is not because of inorganic alone. What I'm talking about is that the combined entity on an organic basis, henceforth, would still grow above 20% and would be iterative. That's what I was saying. I think what's important to know is that, you know, you're not just accumulating size. What you're accumulating is that even at that bigger size, your speed and velocity and efficiency in terms of the spirit and the DNA of the organization will absolutely remain on track. So we're not going to do something that will fundamentally change that thesis. Does that make sense?

Yeah, another question is that on the 10x target which you had set, so if you look number-wise, you want around 25-26% kind of growth for a decade from the date which you announced 10x target. So, right now, if you look at last 1-2 years, it has been somewhere around 20-21% kind of growth. So, I mean, is this more of a backward-looking growth than the forward-looking growth you are talking about because of this M&A and other things which you will be doing?

So when we made the 10x growth target, and with a decadal view to that, we had also mentioned that we will achieve it in hopefully half the time of the decade, which means, you know, our past track record shows that we achieved 10x in five years. Okay? And I would like to maintain that. Now, to get 10x in five years, you know, you need to do it as a combination of over 20% or 20% organic growth, plus do some meaningful, important strategic acquisitions, which, when combined, should also continue to grow at 20% plus. And if we achieve that, I think the next milestone for us should be $1 billion of revenue, which should be around the corner in the next few years, with organic growth as well as an acquisition. I think we are very well on track for the 10x, you know, plan that we have. You know, I tell this to my team internally. I'm 48 years old. I think I have at least two more decades ahead of me in terms of providing meaningful, productive leadership to Apple. And I would like to at least see two to three 10x growth cycles in that period of time, hopefully taking us to, you know, a much greater height, you know, that Apple deserves to be at. So that's the mindset with which we are navigating this journey. And I think the first 10x journey, you should see it in the next few years. It should not take so long.

Correct. Just one clarification on that front. The numbers which you are talking about, I mean, when can we actually see those numbers on the ground? Because currently, last five, six quarters, it has been around 20%. So, that's why I asked this question. When can we see accelerated growth?

The answer is that the last... So the last few quarters that you've seen at 20% should give you the right kind of confidence, and we've also given you that the other step of change will also happen through the acquisitions. The strategic acquisition of Ad Colony I've already told you about and told you how organically we'll unlock differentiated competitive advantage there. We've given you guidance that the larger M&A is going to happen. We've been consistently telling you that we've been working on it for the last year or so. We have also raised the appropriate amount of funding to get ourselves ready for that. We have given you a consistent timeline that now we have third-party due diligence partners working on it, and early 27, we will close the transaction, and we'll report back to you on the progress as we, you know, and we'll keep the transparency as far as it is allowed legally. You should have a lot of confidence in that thesis because the 20% growth, organic growth, is the right level of anchoring, and that over six quarters that you're seeing, that you've seen it, should give you validation of that thesis. And with that, a step change of an acquisition-based M&A, stepping that up, is the way to get to that 10x growth, right? And then with the acquisition, we want to make sure the combined entity is still... Proceeding ahead with the same kind of growth velocity and efficiency, both in terms of revenue growth and margin expansion. So, that's our thesis and that's how we are executing and we are absolutely on track.

So, you will be concluding this.

Sorry to interrupt your own card. May it be the best you can do as there are several parts to complete in the future. Yes.

Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Samad Patel from Acura Securities. Please go ahead.

Thanks for providing me the opportunity. My first question was, if I just look at this particular quarter, the direct customer contributed around 79% of the revenue. It was around 74% for the entire FY26. So this is a sharp step up. Is this a one-off or genuine mix shift that we are currently seeing? And how do you expect the agency channel to trend from here onwards?

For us, serving the advertiser

either directly or through its agencies, you know, we don't distinguish between that, we don't show any strategic preference one way or the other. What's most important for us is that whether the advertiser is, you know, having a building relationship with us directly or through its agency, it must have a direct technology integration with us. Because that data integration of, you know, advertiser intelligence and marrying it with the audience intelligence is super, super important to the way we execute our consumer platform's CPCU-based business model. So, 100% of our business has direct advertiser integration. It is important to report From a, let's say, revenue standpoint, that which, how much portion of the revenue is flowing directly from the advertisers versus the agencies. But from a strategic point of view, you should be, you know, seeing it as a direct advertiser integration that we have, and we're delivering conversions for the advertisers with the technology integration that we have. Our relationship with the agencies are very strong, and I think we'll continue to get strengthened. It's also that in certain emerging markets, certain verticals, industry verticals, the advertisers have a tendency to work directly with our platform because we're very strong in these markets. It could be slightly different as we grow and expand and calibrate and develop markets. So this percentage will change based on how we evolve from here. Also, what kind of an acquisition that we do, the math might be slightly different on that front.

Yeah.

So I wouldn't give you a guidance on that. But I think what's very important for you to note is that the end advertiser has a direct technology integration with us. And that's the most important sort of aspect here.

That was very helpful, sir. Now, my next question is, what would be our vertical mix across, let's say, the categories EF, GH, and specifically in India for this particular quarter? Any qualitative flavor that you can give to us? I mean, which are the verticals, which grew fastest, etc., would be really helpful. Absolutely. So I think category E and category F.

These are the categories that are absolutely, you know, robust and doing really well for us across the board. I think in category G, RMG, you know, the recovery phase is still on on that front. And I think it's well understood. And I think in category H, healthcare, hospitality, I think we are also doing really well there at this moment. And I have, you know, very strong convictions. So overall, in categories E, F, G, and H, I would say you can order it as category E, F, H, and G in terms of qualitative ranking on how we're doing in Indian emerging markets. But if you look at developed markets, then it would be Category E and G doing better at this moment versus Category F and H. Okay. And again, F and H, you know, we see strong momentum and possibilities ahead. But, you know, it's just giving you a qualitative color on that.

Understood, sir. That was really helpful. And that's it from my side. Thanks for providing me the opportunity.

Thank you. A reminder to all participants, please restrict yourself to only one question per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we request you to rejoin the team. Ladies and gentlemen, please restrict yourself to only one question per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we request you to rejoin the team. Next question is from the line of Sagar Karkhanis from Ashika Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for this opportunity. I wanted to understand in the developed markets for our growth going forward, do we see higher growth in the US market or higher growth will come from the non-US market? Thank you.

We would see meaningful growth in developed markets. We are very convinced with the kind of case studies we have built and the inroads we have already got, you know, the team that we are building. So, we have very strong momentum at this moment. We see competitive advantage in the way we are executing. And so U.S. versus non-U.S., we haven't split that up, but we are seeing meaningful growth in the U.S. U.S. is the largest one, and I would say that U.S. is where the strategic focus would be, both organically and inorganically. And so U.S. should be growing across the board in categories EFGH for us. So the verticalization strategy is working. The CPCU business model is working. The consumer platform business approach across mobile, CTV, and other AICDs is working really well for us. Great.

Thanks for that.

Thank you. All the best.

Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Sanjel Adda from Bastion Research. Please go ahead.

Thank you so much, sir, for the opportunity, and congratulations on a very good set of numbers, sir. Sir, I just wanted to highlight that we have, you know, highlighted in the press list that, you know, these 136 crore of investment for sale for bubble, and in the recent press list, this company has filed for bankruptcy due to non-payment of debt and interest. As a prudent company, does we have write off this amount or make a provision for this become sooner or later? And no sooner or later, this can be the case that, you know, either we have to write it down or the company is no longer doing any more business, some sort of that. So just wanted to have your views on that side. What is the, you know, things which we are doing on that side?

Sure. Thanks for that question. Well, fundamentally, our management and our board believes that Bobble as a technology, as a keyboard platform with almost 15 to 18 million active users in India, is a valuable asset. What we strongly believe, and it's validated by some of the court orders by, you know, Singapore's arbitration as well as the Indian High Court orders, that it is not being managed well by the management of that company, and the courts have ordered inspection rights for our company to go and inspect into how it is being managed or mismanaged. And the inspection rights, even after the court orders and the SEAC orders, have been denied by the management. And in order to avoid a lot of these, you know, very clear court orders that have gone against the management of the company, we believe for a very paltry sum of, you know, five crores or something, they have allowed for this insolvency proceeding to happen. But the matter is, you know, with the courts, we have appealed and challenged. We think that something, you know, inappropriate is happening. And, you know, we'll take the appropriate action with the advice of our lawyers. We are also evaluating what should be done with respect to it, and therefore, our auditors, our audit committee, and the board have all approved the right level of disclosures that need to happen, and therefore, your question. I think we'll be very prudent, and we will take a decisive step in the next few quarters. At this moment, we are of the view that the underlying asset, we will need to have more clarity and inspection ability to know, you know, what is the real sort of reliable value of this asset.

Sure, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Kapil, do you want to add to it? I hope I've answered it appropriately, but if there's any qualifications you need to give to it from a legal perspective, otherwise please complete it from my behalf.

From the accounting perspective, it was discussed, and since it is in early stage, there is no reliable... This is to make a permanent impairment on the asset. So it has been discussed that the impairment would be tested once the appeal is decided in NPLAT.

Thank you.

We will take that as the last question of the day and

hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Well, thank you so much for your continuous support and belief in our journey. As I mentioned, we are on course for our 10x growth plans. And we will deliver it well ahead of the decade ending. Our track record shows that we have done it in five years before. I would like to achieve it. It will be a combination of organic growth modeled sensibly at around 20%. And I think we are showing you clear evidence that why that is reasonable. And we are very transparently giving you guidance on what we are looking to do inorganically as well. So there is a lot of conviction that we will achieve our 10x growth plan sensibly. And while achieving that, we will maintain our velocity in terms of growth as well as efficiency on the bottom line. So with that, thank you very much and stay tuned.

Thank you. On behalf of Ilara Capital, that concludes the conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.