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MaxCyte, Inc. (MXCT)

Q4 2025 Earnings Call· Tue, Mar 24, 2026

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to MaxCyte, Inc.’s fourth quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To participate, you will then hear a message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, simply press star 11 again. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Erik Abdo with Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Erik Abdo

Management

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for participating in today’s conference call. Joining me on the call from MaxCyte, Inc., we have Maher Masoud, President and Chief Executive Officer; Douglas J. Swirsky, Chief Financial Officer; and Sean Menargas, Senior Director of Business Development. Earlier today, MaxCyte, Inc. released financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 12/31/2025. A copy of the press release is available on the company’s website. Before we begin, I need to read the following statement. Statements or comments made during this call may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Any statements contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance, are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, which are discussed in detail in our SEC filings. Except as required by applicable law, the company has no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. I will now turn the call over to Maher Masoud.

Maher Masoud

Management

Thank you, Erik. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining MaxCyte, Inc.’s fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. 2025 presented a challenging operating environment. It was also a year of meaningful progress for MaxCyte, Inc. We continue to sign new Strategic Platform Licenses, SPLs as we call them, and support customers in advancing drugs to the clinic. We acquired SecurDx, and successfully integrated the business into MaxCyte, Inc. We made meaningful changes to right-size spending and strategically improved our operations. And most recently, we launched a new product, the ExPERT DTX, that will allow us to work with developers earlier in research and development discovery. Let me start by reviewing our financial results. Consistent with the preliminary financials we announced in January, MaxCyte, Inc. reported $33 million of total revenue for the full year, which included $29.6 million of core revenue and $3.4 million of SPL program-related revenue. We grew our instrument installed base to 857, up from 760 at the end of 2024. Douglas will discuss fourth quarter and full year performance in greater detail. MaxCyte, Inc.’s results were within the range of expectations that we had updated you with in August. As previously discussed, the business was impacted by program consolidation and rationalization across some of our SPL customers, which included a 15% decline in purchases and leases from our largest customer reorganizing manufacturing and managing inventory. Now let me give you a little more detail on the launch of our new ExPERT DTX, which I mentioned earlier, and I am very excited to discuss. Even as we faced headwinds in 2025, our focus remained on innovation and leading the market with groundbreaking platforms. In February, we announced the launch of ExPERT DTX, a modular 96‑well electroporation platform designed for research and drug discovery applications. We…

Douglas J. Swirsky

Management

Thank you, Maher. Total revenue for the full year was $33 million compared to $38.6 million in 2024, representing a 15% decline. Total revenue in Q4 2025 was $7.3 million compared to $8.7 million in Q4 2024, representing a 16% decline. The decline in total revenue was driven by decreases in both core revenue and SPL program-related revenue. In Q4 2025, we reported core revenue of $6.8 million compared to $8.6 million in the comparable prior-year quarter, representing a decrease of 22%. Within core revenue, instrument revenue was $1.8 million compared to $1.6 million in Q4 2024. License revenue was $2.0 million compared to $2.6 million in Q4 2024. And PA revenue was $2.3 million compared to $4.2 million in Q4 2024. For the full year 2025, we reported core revenue of $29.6 million compared to $32.5 million in 2024, representing a decrease of 9%. Within core revenue, instrument revenue was $6.8 million compared to $7.1 million in 2024. License revenue was $8.9 million compared to $10.3 million in 2024. And PA revenue was $11.9 million compared to $14.0 million in 2024. These declines were partially offset by $0.8 million of assay service revenue from the acquisition of SecurDx and a modest increase in other service revenue. Total revenue for SecurDx was $1.1 million in 2025, including assay services and licenses. Of note, 47% of our core business revenue was derived from SPL customers in 2025, which compares to 55% in 2024. The year-over-year decrease reflects the impact of program exits and reduced purchasing activity from our large commercial-stage partner. SPL program-related revenue was $0.5 million in Q4 2025 compared to $0.1 million in Q4 2024. For the full year, SPL program-related revenue was $3.4 million as compared to $6.1 million in 2024. As it relates to SPL program-related revenue…

Maher Masoud

Management

Thank you, Doug. It has been a pleasure working with you as our CFO as well. I want to thank everyone at MaxCyte, Inc. for their hard work and dedication in 2025. I look forward to executing on our plan in 2026. With that, I will now turn the call back over to the operator for the Q&A. Operator?

Operator

Operator

Thank you so much. And as a reminder, to ask a question, simply press 11 to get in the queue and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw yourself, press 11 again. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Dan Arias with Stifel. Please proceed.

Dan Arias

Analyst

Hi, guys. Thanks for the questions. Maher, I have to say I really do not like the trajectory of the business right now. Pretty much all the commentary coming out of life sciences companies points to biopharma getting better this year and not worse. Our data points and others seem to suggest the same. When you look at the industry data that is out there on the emerging modality space, cell therapy trial activity seems to be increasing pretty significantly. Trial totals are way up. And so I appreciate the idea that there is some hangover from a tough ’25. But why is the core business expected to decline more this year than it did last year? Are you losing share somewhere? Because if not, then it really suggests that there is something else going on that we do not fully understand. And then ultimately, the question becomes, how do you grow this business again?

Maher Masoud

Management

Thank you for that, Dan. Look, I appreciate the question and the head-scratcher. The headwinds we are facing are $4 million, and it comes down to it is not a deterioration of our business in any way. It is not changing the fundamentals of our business in any way. We have about a $4 million headwind that we face from the customers that we lost last year. That is affecting our revenues this year, and most of it in the first half of the year. So that comes, as I mentioned, pretty much half and half. Half from the leases that we lost from those SPL customers that will not recur this year, and the other half really is from processing assemblies, a lot of it being from our largest customer that went through management and inventory management of their current PAs that they have in stock, where they are drawing down from those PAs. And on top of that, from midyear, we lost some licenses for that largest customer where they reoptimized their manufacturing footprint to go from a few manufacturing sites to a little bit less than that. And that has affected our revenues for 2026. This is not a case of capital spending in the market that is affecting us. I think we saw that more so in early 2025. That is not the case here. I really believe that this is just short-term headwinds. And in terms of where we see the rest of the year and going into 2027 and 2028, then look, if you take a step back, I believe we are going to be supporting roughly four pivotal-stage programs this year, and then five in the next 12 months. We have another seven behind it as well coming in right now that potentially can become pivotal as a second wave there. That bodes extremely well for 2027 and 2028. We also have the launch of the ExPERT DTX, as I mentioned. We are seeing a lot of good traction. We launched it less than a month ago. We are seeing a lot of good traction with customers and potential customers. We believe it will be a growth driver for us in the second half and in future years. In addition to that, we are seeing the ramp of CASGEVY. As I mentioned, we expect it to ramp throughout the year. That is the only commercial product we are supporting now, but we expect many others, especially because right now, as I mentioned, we are supporting more later-stage programs than ever before, Dan. So this bodes very well for us going to the end of the year, in 2027 and 2028. We are continuing to sign new SPLs. We feel confident we continue to sign new SPLs. I feel very good about this, Dan.

Dan Arias

Analyst

Does the outlook for core revenues assume that the industry demand dynamic improves over the course of the year? Or would that be upside to what you have baked in today? In other words, is your 4Q outlook at the industry level similar to what you have today, excluding the individual customer dynamic that you referenced there?

Maher Masoud

Management

That would be upside to what we have right now. So this is not a case where we are waiting for industry to come back for us to meet our core revenue guidance. That will all be upside from here, Dan. I feel very good where we are. I mean, the current guidance with the current situation we are in right now, if there is further industry demand, that is upside from where we are guiding to this year.

Dan Arias

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Maher Masoud

Management

Thank you, Dan.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Hewitt with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed.

Matt Hewitt

Analyst · Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed.

Good afternoon. And, Doug, it has been a pleasure working with you and best of luck in your future endeavors. Maybe first up, could you talk—I realize you just launched it last month—but given that this was built, the DTX that is, was built with the customer in mind, I assume that you had been working with them or at least they had maybe trialed it or kicked the tires a little bit. What does that pipeline look like, and how quickly do you think you could see that start to trickle into the revenues?

Maher Masoud

Management

We see it trickling into revenues in the second half. Anytime we launch a new product, we need about a quarter or two quarters to really build up the pipeline for that product. That is true of any product you launch. But it is already in the hands of multiple beta users. It has been in the hands of multiple beta users. When we launched this product, we did it the right way. We actually listened to our customer needs. We went through the typical NPI process where we understand the user criteria, the customer criteria, the application criteria, and we built it with that in mind. So we see the trickling starting in the second half, but we are also seeing right now some DTXs being sold in the first quarter before it is even over. So it is obviously starting to make traction there as well, Matt. But we see significant traction happening in the second half and then in future years as well. I feel very good where it is. It really is a platform that allows us to go from discovery all the way to cGMP with the same protocols. That is a true therapeutic platform that none of our competition has.

Matt Hewitt

Analyst · Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed.

Got it. And then maybe just a reminder, given that you have four partners that could be going into pivotal studies this year, how do you account for or how do you factor that into your guidance? What kind of a haircut do you take on the potential for those milestones? Thank you.

Maher Masoud

Management

We already received one milestone, a seven-figure milestone, in Q1 this year. You can haircut it by saying there might be at least one more, but we anticipate four more. One other customer is currently in pivotal, about to dose patients, that will result in another milestone as well. So at the very least, looking at two of those four, with potential for four this year. It is more of a timing issue. If the remaining two do not come in this year, that is just because those milestones happen in the first quarter or very early part of next year. But that is how you would haircut it. The very least will be two of those four, but potential for four this year.

Matt Hewitt

Analyst · Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed.

Got it. Understood. Thank you.

Maher Masoud

Management

Absolutely. Thank you, Matt.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. That comes from Matt Larew with William Blair. Please proceed.

Jacob

Analyst

Hi. This is Jacob on for Matt. Thanks for taking the questions here. I just want to touch on the SPL cadence. I do not know if you mentioned on the call, but typically, you guide to three to five per year, and you typically have signed or at least announced one by the end of the first quarter. I think the last signing was in October 2025, and biotech funding trends and the whole market environment have really been improving since then. So just curious on your visibility and confidence into the cadence of SPL signings throughout 2026 and maybe what you are expecting for this year and in perpetuity.

Maher Masoud

Management

We have guided to three to five in the past. That is a number where, on average, that is something we sign in any given year. We feel good about signing at least three this year as well, and that three-to-five frames with some years where we have more than that and some years less than that. We foresee that we will sign the first one—I have Sean Menargas here with me and will put pressure on him—in the very early part of the second half of the year, possibly even before that. But I feel very good where we are. We are still the only company that can assign these licenses, and there is a good reason for it. What we provide is a differentiator. What we provide is really a platform that allows companies to go into clinical and commercial and scale and have a therapeutic that has the best chance of going through clinical development. We have done it with CASGEVY. We have signed 31 of these agreements. We signed four last year. I feel very good this year. We will continue to sign more, and do the same in the foreseeable future. And the DTX also adds to that. As I mentioned earlier, the DTX begins to seed that aspect of future SPL partners and customers for us. So I feel very good where we are. The timing of Q1, having not signed one, is just a matter of timing of when we are working with our customers in the research process, not in any way indicative of a reason why we have not signed one, if that makes sense. I am going to turn it over to Sean. Is there anything that you have to add in terms of where you see the signing? I am putting pressure on you here, but do you feel comfortable with this year as well?

Sean Menargas

Analyst

Thanks, Maher, and thanks for the question, Jacob. I do strongly believe it becomes a timing aspect as well. Just to frame your preference, our research customers turn into our SPL customers from there, and these can take 12 to 18 months depending on their development stage, so it becomes a timing aspect as well. But in the last 24 months, we have signed 10 SPL partners. Almost all of them are in the clinic or at least approaching the clinic from there, so looking to continue to add through this year.

Jacob

Analyst

Got it. Thanks. And I did just want to quickly go back to the launch of the DTX platform. You have covered it in pretty good detail so far. It sounds like feedback, traction, early contributions have all been really good. But is there any way you could quantify what you are expecting in the back half, or is it more just kind of a slow trickle and really expect material contributions in 2027?

Maher Masoud

Management

It is too early in the process. It has been a month since we launched it, and it will probably be more than a trickle in the second half. That is where you begin to see meaningful revenues in the second half and a lot more so in 2027. I will update throughout the year. Again, we are seeing very good traction at the beta sites. We are seeing good traction even outside the U.S. We have seen sales in Asia‑Pac as well. It is something that we truly believe differentiates us from any other platform. There are similar 96‑well discovery platforms out there, but none that can optimize the cGMP system like this one can, and none that can do it on a well‑to‑well basis with the same consistency, and really none that can do it where we have built into this our 20‑plus years of electroporation know‑how into this platform to make it streamlined for customers. So I feel very, very good about this, Jacob. Very good.

Jacob

Analyst

Great to hear. Thanks, guys.

Maher Masoud

Management

Absolutely.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Massaro with BTIG. Please proceed.

Vivian

Analyst · BTIG. Please proceed.

Yes. This is Vivian on for Mark. Thanks for taking the questions. I just had two clean-ups on the 2026 guide. Just what is baked in as far as SecurDx contribution? And then I also think you have called out royalty contribution for the first time in the guide. So could you speak to your level of visibility and confidence in that, given it is from a partner therapy? Thanks.

Maher Masoud

Management

On SecurDx, we do not break it out in the guidance, other than the fact we see material growth year over year for SecurDx in 2026 versus 2025. Significant growth there from what we had last year. Obviously, last year’s revenue for SecurDx was a bit disappointing, but it was part of our integration. We bought an early start-up. We are still integrating it, and we are still ensuring that we are building up the processes there, really building up the platform there. So we see meaningful growth this year, and that is part of our guide. In terms of royalties, we finally broke out the royalty revenue. I mentioned earlier, we expect approximately $2 million of revenue from commercial royalty, and that will ramp up throughout the year as that product ramps itself. We feel fairly good about that. That is based on forecasts we have seen with that product from public forecasts as well as what we are seeing so far early this quarter. But we expect that ramp to happen over the year. We will continue from here on out to guide for milestones and royalty on a separate line as well.

Vivian

Analyst · BTIG. Please proceed.

Okay. Perfect. And then I just had one follow-up, kind of higher level. I think you have previously mentioned the dynamic that customers are opting for in vivo therapies over ex vivo. So could you discuss how you are seeing an opportunity for more complex edits longer term and maybe over what time frame would you expect that customer appetite to transition to ex vivo edits?

Maher Masoud

Management

We have been seeing the complexity of editing increase over the years. This is no longer the single‑base CAR‑T therapy. We are now seeing edits of five, six edits. I see what you are getting at regarding in vivo versus ex vivo. We are still a huge believer in the actual cell therapy space. In fact, we are seeing that start to return as well. We have had some headwinds there, but if you look at our programs, we have allogeneic programs, we have autologous programs, all progressing. The SPLs that we are signing right now are cell therapy programs, some of which are even coming back where at one point they were not in the clinic and now they are coming back to the clinic. I am a huge believer in the cell therapy space. I think as these therapies become far more complex, as we are seeing, it lends itself to cell therapy, especially cell therapy electroporation. You can control the safety, you control the dose, and the science is catching up. Our platforms are built for that. That is exactly what it is. So we are seeing that come back. That is what makes me feel very good about going into the second half of the year. It makes me feel even better about 2027 and 2028. That complexity lends itself to our business, and it lends itself to what we have built over the last decade. And we are seeing that traction start to come back to cell therapy.

Vivian

Analyst · BTIG. Please proceed.

Okay. Perfect. Thanks for taking the questions.

Maher Masoud

Management

Excellent.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Matt Etoge with Stephens. Please proceed.

Matt Etoge

Analyst

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe to follow up on Dan and Jacob’s questions. We have seen funding pick up in the space in general. So I just want to get your sense of what you are hearing from customers in terms of the macro environment, what you are seeing in terms of demand. How should we think about the recent funding backdrop flowing through potential demand throughout FY ’26?

Maher Masoud

Management

Great question. As I mentioned, this is not so much anymore a demand issue or customer funding issue. This is about the headwinds we saw, and that is what affected us in Q1. This is more of a second‑half‑weighted guide that we are giving in that core revenue of $25 million to $27 million. We are sitting here right now about one week away from quarter end. This is not official guidance, but looking at where we are on the core, we see that upticking into Q2 and then being more second‑half weighted. I feel comfortable that $6 million on the core is appropriate for Q1, and none of that is contingent upon an upside in capital spending or customer demand. That is just where we sit right now. I feel extremely good where we are at the guide. I feel good where we are in Q1. This is a case of just building back a new base from the SPL customers that we lost in 2025. We found a new base here. Our largest customer is optimizing the processing assemblies, and they are drawing down from the inventory they have. We found a new base there. I feel very good about the year as it transpires. I appreciate it. I will leave it there for now. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And as a reminder, if you have a question, please press 11 to get in the queue. We have a question from Chad Wiatrowski with TD Cowen. Please proceed.

Chad Wiatrowski

Analyst

Congrats, Doug. Look forward to seeing what your plans are going forward. Just one on the DTX. You have mentioned a few orders already flowing through here in the first quarter. When you are thinking about those couple of orders, but also the bolus more in the second half, are those mostly existing customers enjoying the convenience of that? Or is this something that enables more newer customers? And how do you expect that mix to play out through the year?

Maher Masoud

Management

Great question. The current customers are going to be the easiest ones to convert over because they are going to enjoy the aspects of it. Those are the ones we are approaching. But this is a mix of both. It is not just for current customers; it is also for new customers. Because this is a 96‑well discovery platform that can now allow you to transfect primary cells, this can be used for early discovery for the in vivo space as well. So this is, in essence, a platform we have never had before, which we are targeting for our current customers now, but we are prospecting for future customers as well. We are seeing that in the early placements. Actually, one of those early placements is a new customer. It is not a current customer. So it is a mix of both, but we are being very smart about it and ensuring that we work with our current customers because that is also where you learn about some of the things you may have to make improvements on any time you launch a product. I have said it earlier: innovations are hard. We are going to continue to innovate this product. We are going to continue to launch new products in the coming years. This is one of many to come.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session. I will now pass it back to Maher Masoud for closing remarks.

Maher Masoud

Management

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on today’s call. I feel very good about 2026, just as good as, if not better than, the future years and what we are building here. I look forward to talking to all of you in the next three months on our next earnings call.

Operator

Operator

This concludes our conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.