Nauticus Robotics (NASDAQ:KITT) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Tuesday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Access the full call at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/228928122
Summary
Nauticus Robotics Inc reported Q1 2026 revenue of $0.2 million, a decline from the previous quarter, attributed to seasonal softness in the offshore market.
Operating expenses decreased to $5.8 million, with a net loss of $9.3 million, influenced by changes in debt instrument fair values.
Strategic initiatives include advancing Nautica’s Toolkit for autonomy in subsea systems, focusing on international expansion, particularly in the UAE, and integrating new sensors and high-definition cameras.
The company emphasizes growth in software licensing and international markets to offset seasonal revenue fluctuations.
Brian Allen joins as Chief Revenue Officer, focusing on expanding revenue streams and leveraging his experience in subsea robotics and AI.
Operational highlights include completing significant maintenance of ROV systems, advancing autonomous manipulation capabilities, and engaging in defense sector opportunities.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Nauticus Robotics Inc first quarter 2026 earnings call. After today’s prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press Star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Kristin Moorman, Corporate Development Lead. Kristin, please go ahead.
Kristin Moorman
Thank you and good morning everyone. Joining me today and participating in the call are John Gibson, CEO and President, Ximene Begares, Interim CFO, and other members of our leadership team. On today’s call, we will first provide prepared remarks concerning our financial and operations results. Following that, we will answer questions. We have now released our results for the quarter ending March 31, 2026 which are available on our website. In addition, today’s call is being webcast and a replay will be available on our website shortly following the conclusion of the call. Please note that comments we make on today’s call regarding projections or expectations for future events are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to review our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC. Also, please refer to the reconciliations provided in our earnings press release. As we may discuss non-GAAP metrics on this call, I will now turn it over to John.
John Gibson (CEO and President)
Well, good morning. Thank you, Kristen. And thank you to everyone for joining us on the call today. The first quarter of 2026 was a seasonally softer quarter for offshore activity, and that’s consistent with what the broader subsea and offshore services market experienced during the winter operating season. We saw similar commentary from larger industry participants, including Helix and Oceaneering, both of which pointed to winter seasonality, lower first quarter utilization, and expectations for stronger activity in the second and third quarters of 2026. For Nauticus, the important point is this we use the quarter productively. While revenue was not where we wanted it to be, our team focused on the work that positions us for improved execution in the second half of the year. As the operating system strength season strengthens, we advanced fleet readiness, completed significant annual maintenance and refurbishment activities across several of the ROV systems, and continued preparing our systems for higher utilization opportunities during the remainder of the year. We also continued advancing Nauticus Toolkit, our proprietary autonomy software platform. Nauticus Toolkit is central to our strategy because it allows us to create value not only through services but also through software licensing, technology enabled services and deployment on customer owned vehicles. During the quarter we continued integrating Nauticus Toolkit across our subsea systems along with new high definition camera systems and other advanced sensors designed to improve navigation efficiency, data quality and customer value. We also made progress with Aquanaut and our autonomous manipulation capabilities. Aquanaut Vehicle 1 has now completed more than 500 hours of in water testing on client driven workflows and more than 200 successful vertical inspection behaviors on mooring lines. These are important steps towards offshore deployment and the data from that testing continues to guide our software and engineering improvements. International expansion also remains another important part of our growth strategy. During the quarter we continued advancing our UAE and broader GCC initiative including work toward a long term operational and commercial presence in Ras Al Khaimah. That region represents a meaningful opportunity for Nauticus across offshore energy technology, licensing, manufacturing support and strategic partnerships. Finally, we’re pleased to welcome Brian Allen as Chief Revenue Officer. Brian brings nearly two decades of subsea robotics autonomy and commercial leadership experience. His focus is clear convert customer interest into revenue opportunities across offshore services, software licensing, hardware sales, fence and international markets. So while Q1 reflected normal offshore seasonality, we believe Nauticus exited the quarter better prepared, more focused on commerciality and positioned to pursue a strong opportunity set through the balance of the year. With that, I’m going to turn it over to Amanda to walk you through the financials.
Amanda
Amanda, thank you, John and good morning everyone. I will now discuss our financial results for the quarter of first quarter of 2026 during our first quarter we remained focused on preserving liquidity, maintaining stockholder equity and securing financial resources necessary to support the company. Revenue for the first quarter was $0.2 million, which is down 0.9 million sequentially and essentially flat from the same quarter last year. This performance is consistent with the seasonal trends we typically experience in the first quarter and reflects the overall market John just discussed. Operating expenses for the quarter were $5.8 million, which is down 0.2 million from Q1 2024 and down 0.8 million sequentially. G&A costs for the quarter were $3.2 million, which is an improvement of 1.2 million compared to Q1 2025. Sequentially G&A has increased $0.6 million due to the non recurring legal fee credit received in Q4 2025. Net loss for the quarter was $9.3 million. This is a 9.9 million decrease in net loss sequentially and a 1.7 million increase in net loss from Q1 2025. These variations, both positive and negative, are largely related to the changes in fair value of our debt instruments. Adjusted net loss for the quarter was $6.4 million compared to 10.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 6.6 million in Q1 2025. Cash at the end of Q1 2026 was $5.9 million compared to the $7.6 million at the end of 2025. This decrease is related to cash used in operating activities. As we move into the SECond quarter, we remain disciplined in our approach to managing the business and preserving financial flexibility. I will now pass the call back to John
John Gibson (CEO and President)
thank you, Amanda. Now I’m going to turn it over to our leads that are working on international expansion revenue opportunities. Jason Close will be first with updates on our UAE expansion. Jason
Jason Close
thank you John. Since our last call, we’ve been focused on moving from strategy into execution around our UAE and broader GCC expansion efforts. While the current regional security environment has limited our ability to travel in person, it has not slowed our progress. In fact, we’ve continued to advance the foundational work needed to establish a presence in Ras Al Khaimah and support long term growth in the region. Over the past several weeks we’ve been actively engaged in identifying a location in Ras Al Khaimah that can support our long term operations and commercial goals. We’ve also engaged a UAE based marketing agency to support the next phase of our market activation efforts. That work includes improvements to our website, branding and go to market materials both for the regional market and more broadly as we continue refining how we position the Nauticus portfolio globally. At the same time, we are seeing that business opportunities in the regions continue to move forward and mature even with the broader uncertainty. The current environment has also reinforced the relevance of our solution for government and defense related applications, particularly where unmanned systems, remote operations and increased operational safety are a priority. We are being careful and disciplined in how we approach those opportunities, but we believe our portfolio is well aligned with with several of the region’s long term needs in parallel, we’re seeing increased interest outside the GCC region as we continue expanding our international commercial engagement efforts. Addition, we continue to make progress in our collaboration with Forum Energy Technologies around the Olympic Arm platform. During the first quarter the team completed a review of the existing design documents and in the second quarter we expect to begin collaborative testing activities around the current prototype. This remains an important opportunity to further validate our technology and expand its application through established industry channels. Overall, we continue to see long term potential in these international markets, remain focused on executing our growth strategy in a disciplined and structured way through 2026. With that, I will now hand the call over to Steve Walsh, our sales lead, for an update.
Steve Walsh (Sales Lead)
Thank you Jason and good morning. As expected, Q1 sales reflected the seasonal softness that has traditionally impacted operations across the Gulf of Mexico during the winter months. Weather conditions limited offshore activity throughout much of the quarter and lower oil prices contributed to a more cautious operating environment early in the year. More recently, however, we’ve seen energy markets begin to strengthen, driven in part by geopolitical instability and the ongoing conflict involving Iran. Despite the slower start to the year, we remain very encouraged by the outlook of the remainder of 2026. We are seeing strong momentum in upcoming offshore activity with several new contracts recently commencing across both offshore oil and gas sector and the offshore wind industry. This diversification continues to position us well as demand for subsea services expands across multiple energy markets. In addition, we are continuing to actively pursue project opportunities along both US Coasts, throughout the Gulf of Mexico and in select international markets. We are also expanding our focus within the defense sector where we believe our subsea capabilities, operational experience and technology platforms position us well for future opportunities. To that end, we’re excited to be deploying resources in early June in support of a large defense contractor, the first work of this variety in over a year. Importantly, our team used the slower offshore period productively during the quarter. We completed major annual maintenance and refurbishment activities across several of our ROV systems. These efforts ensure that our fleet is operating at peak efficiency and reliability as we move into what we expect will be a significantly more active 2026 operating season. We also continue to make meaningful progress on the technology front. Nauticus Toolkit, our proprietary software platform, along with new perception capabilities and other advanced sensor technologies are being successfully integrated across our subsea systems. These enhancements improve operational capability, data quality and overall client value while further differentiating us in an increasingly competitive subsea vehicle market as the year progresses. We believe these operational improvements, combined with strengthening offshore demand, geographic expansion, continued technology integration, and growing exposure to the defense related opportunities position the company well for growth and long term success. Thank you again for your continued support and confidence in our team. With that, I’ll turn it over to Brian Allen, our Revenue lead, for his thoughts on 2026.
Brian Allen (Chief Revenue Officer)
Thank you Steve and good morning everyone. I’m Brian Allen, the new Chief Revenue Officer at Nauticus and this is my first earnings call with the company. So I want to be straightforward with you about how I see things and what I intend to do. You’ve heard about the weather conditions that brought about our Q1 results and it’s going to be my job to broaden our revenue streams across technology, robotic hardware and services in other global locations that help smooth this and move us to more of a rapid growth. Briefly on my background, I spent the last decade building a subsea robotics and AI company called Beam Robotics from scratch to around 230 people, growing revenue at 60 to 100% year on year and creating an 840 million sales pipeline that brought in 90 million of sales and order book in my final 12 months. We sold autonomous inspection tech and tech enabled services into the exact same markets Nauticus operates in. Before that I spent 10 years at sea, starting off piloting RVs, then supervising and managing them to build oil fields and wind farms. So I know these customers, I know this market, and I know what it takes to sell advanced autonomy into exactly this industry. People have asked me why I chose Nauticus and the honest answer is two things I found during my technical diligence that I have not seen elsewhere in any other marine business. First, Nauticus Toolkit is the most advanced autonomy software available to purchase today for subsea vehicles. It is the leader in the category that matters commercially, a deployable supported product that customers can run on their existing vehicles today and I see several near term opportunities in the market for this software. Software sales are our clearest route to smoothing seasonality as they are not tied to weather. Second, this is what really changed my mind the company’s work on autonomous manipulator control. The IP here is potentially five years ahead of the closest competition when you consider how much of the offshore inspection, intervention and repair market is constrained by pilot ability and vessel costs. Reliable autonomous manipulation represents a very significant commercial opportunity. Bringing that to market alongside the core Nauticus Toolkit platform and offering it with Aquanaut is where I see the real step change for this business on what I intend to do. My first priority is generating early commercial wins that rebuild market confidence and I’ve already identified a small number of near term Nautica toolkit opportunities and potential high 7 low 8 figure Aquanaut services tender from my own network that I intend to move on quickly. Beyond that, I’m building the marketing function and sales infrastructure to drive tech sales, technology driven services and Aquanaut hardware sales globally. A key part of my role is generating clear commercial signals from the market that Ximene Begares and the engineering team can use to direct development efforts. The closer we tie what we build to what our customers are telling us they need, the faster the technology converts into revenue. I operate capital efficiently. That is a necessity in this market, and it’s how I’ve always built businesses. I’m already designing systems that use AI to automate parts of our sales marketing function, which allows us to strengthen commercial capability rapidly at a fraction of what a traditional approach would cost with fewer headcount in a company at our stage, every dollar of commercial spend needs to work hard. I want to close with this. I did have other opportunities on the table and I chose Nauticus because the technology here is genuinely differentiated, which is very rare in this industry. The team here is strong and I see an asymmetric opportunity that is worth committing to. I’ve taken a shareholding as part of my compensation because I want my interests aligned with all of yours. And this isn’t spin. I would not have joined if I did not see a bright future for this business. I’m looking forward to updating you all on our commercial progress over the coming quarters. And I’ll hand back to you, John.
John Gibson (CEO and President)
Thank you, Brian. We’re excited to have you here. We recognize that Q1 revenue reflects a slower seasonal period, but we’re encouraged by. the direction of the business. Our fleet readiness is improved. Our technology continues to advance. Nauticus Toolkit is becoming a clearer commercial opportunity and gives the ability to offset some of the seasonality. And our UAE and GCC expansion efforts are moving from strategy into execution. Most importantly, we’re sharpening our focus on revenue with Brian Allen joining the team. A stronger commercial structure and continued opportunities across software, offshore energy, defense, international markets, software licensing and the hardware sales that we believe Nauticus is positioned to build momentum through the remainder of 2026. We appreciate the continued support of our shareholders, our customers, our partners, and particularly our employees. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the quarters ahead with that operator, I’d like …
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