Exasol AG: First half of 2026 marked by cautious investment by existing customers – strategic focus on data sovereignty and AI drives momentum in new customer business
 

• Cautious investment by existing customers and a delayed sales rollout with a strategic cooperation partner weighed on business performance in the first half of 2026
• Eleven new customers acquired; strategic focus on data sovereignty and agentic AI strengthens momentum in new customer business but could not offset the aforementioned negative effects
• ARR churn rate more than halved compared to year-end 2025, as planned
• Guidance for financial year 2026 revised: ARR expected to change by between -2% and +2% (previously: growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range), revenue expected to decline in the upper-single-digit percentage range (previously: decline in the mid-single-digit percentage range), and EBITDA expected to range between EUR 3.0 million and EUR 3.5 million (previously: EUR 3.0 million to EUR 4.0 million)

Nuremberg, August 12, 2026: Exasol AG (ISIN DE000A0LR9G9), a global technology company and provider of high-performance database technology, reported mixed business performance in the first half of 2026. While demand from existing customers for expansion investments in their existing on-premises database infrastructure and collaboration with a strategic sales partner fell short of expectations, Exasol acquired eleven new customers in the first half of 2026. The increasing demand was driven by Exasol’s strategic focus on data sovereignty and support for agentic AI solutions to analyze large volumes of data. ARR churn also developed positively, more than halving in the first half of 2026 compared with year-end 2025.

The cautious approach of existing customers was attributable, among other factors, to sharply higher hardware prices and the challenging macroeconomic environment in Exasol’s core markets. In addition, the delayed sales rollout of a joint solution with a strategic cooperation partner, due to delays in technical integration work, weighed on business performance.

New business and the reduction in ARR churn were unable to offset the lower momentum in the existing customer business in the first half of the year. Despite the expected continued positive development in new customer business, this is not expected to be sufficient over the full year to offset the effects and meet the previously stated growth targets.

Against this backdrop, the Management Board revised its guidance for financial year 2026. Based on ARR of EUR 38.4 million at year-end 2025, Exasol now expects ARR to change by between -2% and +2% by the end of 2026 (previously: growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range), revenue to decline in the upper-single-digit percentage range (previously: a decline in the mid-single-digit percentage range), and EBITDA to range between EUR 3.0 million and EUR 3.5 million (previously: EUR 3.0 million to EUR 4.0 million).

Development of key financial metrics in the first half of 2026

ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) at the end of the first half of 2026 was EUR 37.9 million (June 30, 2025: EUR 38.1 million). The expansion of existing customer licenses, traditionally Exasol’s largest ARR growth driver, showed significantly lower momentum than expected. This was attributable, among other factors, to substantially reduced investment in new on-premises infrastructure, driven by sharply higher hardware prices since the beginning of the year.

As expected, ARR churn declined significantly. The volume of contract cancellations and adjustments in the first six months of financial year 2026 totaled EUR 1.9 million, compared with EUR 8.1 million in the prior-year period. The ARR churn rate, calculated on a rolling 12-month basis, decreased to 10% as of June 30, 2026 (December 31, 2025: 24%). For the full year, Exasol continues to expect ARR churn to be more than halved compared with 2025.

Revenue in the first six months of financial year 2026 declined by 11.6% to EUR 19.0 million (H1 2025: EUR 21.5 million). The decrease was primarily attributable to lower non-recurring hardware and services revenue. In the first half of 2026, hardware and services revenue reported under other revenue totaled EUR 0.1 million, compared with EUR 2.9 million in the first half of 2025. Recurring revenue totaled EUR 18.9 million, above the prior-year level (H1 2025: EUR 18.6 million).

Exasol generated EBITDA of EUR 1.6 million, compared with EUR 2.0 million in the prior year. The decline was mainly attributable to the aforementioned one-off effect from hardware and services revenue in the prior-year period. Net cash amounted to EUR 21.6 million as of June 30, 2026 (December 31, 2025: EUR 18.7 million).

Data sovereignty and agentic AI as a strategic growth area

The positive momentum in new customer business resulted from the strategic focus on data sovereignty and support for agentic AI workloads.

For agentic AI to support reliable analysis and decision-making in enterprises, it requires fast, controlled access to structured and contextualized data. Exasol integrates and transforms such data for analytical workloads and makes it available in a high-performance analytics environment. This provides AI agents with a reliable basis for analyzing extensive corporate data more quickly and effectively, particularly where data sovereignty, security, and compliance requirements are high. This is already demonstrated in concrete use cases implemented with new customers in the first half of the year.

Jörg Tewes, CEO of Exasol: “Agentic AI is not merely a future topic for us. Its increasing adoption will substantially increase data volumes and query volumes, and with them the requirements for performance, scalability, and data sovereignty. This is precisely what our analytics database is designed for. A high-performance and sovereign data foundation is essential for AI agents to reliably create value. This strategic focus strengthens our position in the growing new customer business in the first half of 2026.”

In the Company’s upcoming webcast on August 19, the Management Board will provide detailed insights into first-half performance and the drivers behind the guidance revision. In addition, Exasol will present specific agentic AI use cases and discuss the related market potential in detail at its Capital Markets Day on October 15.

About Exasol AG

Exasol AG (ETR: EXL) is a leading provider of high-performance database technology headquartered in Germany, specializing in on-premises and hybrid IT environments. The Company offers customized solutions for customers in highly regulated industries and the public sector, ensuring digital sovereignty and compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Exasol is the sovereign analytics database built with the performance and scale that high-concurrency AI and analytics workloads demand. It enables organizations to control data, execution, and governance – across the environments they choose – while equipping developers and data teams with the speed and confidence to build, test and deploy applications and AI agents faster.

Organizations around the world rely on Exasol for outstanding performance and reliability. Powered by in-memory computing, massively parallel processing (MPP), self-optimizing technology and advanced AI capabilities, Exasol enables organizations worldwide to accelerate their AI and analytics workloads.

The result: faster, better-informed decisions with infrastructure costs under control.

For more information about how Exasol can transform your data analytics capabilities, visit www.exasol.com.

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