Coda Octopus Group Inc (CODA) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to Coda Octopus Group's Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Shamali, and I will be your operator today.

Before this call, Coda Octopus issued its financial results for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2025, including a press release, a copy of which will be furnished in a report filed with the SEC and will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website.

Joining us on today's call from Coda Octopus are its Chair and CEO, Annmarie Gayle; its Interim CFO, Gayle Jardine; its President of Technology and Director, Blair Cunningham; and Dillon King from their Investor Relations team. Following their remarks, we will open the call for questions.

Before we begin, Dillon King from the company's internal Investor Relations team will make a brief introductory statement. Dillon, please proceed.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Coda Octopus' Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call.

Before management begins their formal remarks, we would like to remind everyone that some statements we're making today may be considered forward-looking statements under securities law and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. As a result, we caution you that there are a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. For more detailed risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our forward-looking statements, please see the disclosures in our earnings release and public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made, except as may be required by law. We refer you to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for detailed disclosures and descriptions of our business as well as uncertainties and other variable circumstances, including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties identified in our Form 10-K for year ended October 31, 2025, and Forms 10-Q for the first, second and third quarters of our fiscal year 2025. You may get Coda Octopus' Securities and Exchange Commission filings free by visiting the SEC website at www.sec.gov.

I would also like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and will be made available for replay via a link in the Investor Relations section of Coda Octopus' website. Finally, as a reminder, this is our fiscal year 2025 reporting and all comparisons, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are with our fiscal year 2024.

Now I will turn the call over to the company's Chair and CEO, Annmarie Gayle. Annmarie?

Thanks, Dillon, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our fiscal year 2025 earnings call.

Despite a challenging global policy environment, our consolidated net revenue in fiscal year 2025 increased by 30.7%, and I believe that we have delivered a solid set of results. For those who are new to the Coda Octopus story, our business is made up of three discrete business operations: the Marine Technology Business, the Defense Engineering Services Business, and our recently added Acoustics Sensors and Materials Business unit.

Within our group, our core business is the Marine Technology Business. This business generates most of our revenue. And in the fiscal year 2025, it generated 49.8% of our consolidated net revenue. It is around this business that we are building our growth strategy. The Marine Technology Business operates in the subsea market and is home to key disruptive on-the-water technologies.

These technologies are bringing the smartphone revolution on the water by providing a comprehensive real-time information platform, which provides vision on the water and allows our customers to make real-time decisions. This technology is a key enabler for the rapidly emerging AI-enabled autonomous capability required by the subsea market as it provides real-time 3D perception on the water. The specific addressable markets, which are of relevance are the imaging sonar market and diving market. It is these market segments that our growth strategy is built around.

Turning to our flagship imaging sonar, the Echoscope. The Echoscope is a real-time three-dimensional volumetric imaging sonar that can generate a real-time three-dimensional image underwater in zero visibility water conditions. This is widely used in the commercial offshore marine market for a range of underwater applications. A significant part of our annual revenue is derived from the commercial offshore marine market.

To achieve the growth that shareholders want to see from our company, we have to increase our market share for underwater imaging sensors in the defense space. There are many ongoing defense programs globally where new classes of underwater vehicles are being adopted. Significant budgets are appropriated for this. the Echoscope's uniqueness of being a single sensor for multiple on-the-sea activities presents a significant advantage over other technologies. It allows the consolidation of multiple sensors into a single power-efficient unit without compromising the various missions to be executed.

We recently launched our next generation of ultra small form factor three-dimensional sonars, the NANO Gen Series. The three-dimensional sonars within our NANO Gen Series are a shade bigger than a smartphone and have been specifically designed for the emerging small class on-the-water platforms, encompassing manned, unmanned, surface, subsurface and fully autonomous robotic vehicles. The addition of the NANO Gen Series allows us to address a larger swath of the imaging sonar market.

Our second key technology is the DAVD, the Diver Augmented Vision Display system. The DAVD provides a real-time information platform for diving operations, increasing safety and efficiency. The addressable market for the DAVD technology includes both the defense and commercial diving sector. The untethered DAVD variant addresses the special forces type of divers and we believe constitutes the largest addressable market for the technology. The DAVD tethered system is already operational and is now the subject of focused business development effort to get broader adoption.

The untethered variant of DAVD, which we believe constitutes the largest addressable market for the DAVD technology has been the subject of a multiyear Hardening Program, which we successfully concluded in fiscal year 2025. Following the successful conclusion of this Hardening Program, we delivered a small batch of 16 new generation untethered DAVD systems. This variant is now going through approved Navy Use assessment, which we believe will be the catalyst for broader adoption of the technology.

We are also pleased with the acquisition of Precision Acoustics Limited, which is a recognized leader of acoustics and measurement sensors widely used in the medical sector. The addition of this company expands our expertise in under-water acoustics, which is critical for maintaining and extending our lead in real-time 3D imaging on the water. It also positions the group to compete for larger defense contracts.

Now turning to fiscal year 2025 highlights relating to our core business, the Marine Technology Business. This business sells its products and solutions worldwide. Key highlights in the period include: this business increased revenue by 3.2%. In respect of its revenue structure in the 2025 period, 46% of revenue was generated from the defense sector with 54% from the commercial marine sector. 71.9% of revenue generated by this business relates to Echoscope and 28.1% relates to DAVD.

Hardware sales increased by 30.5% and were $9.5 million (sic – see release, "$9.4 million") compared to $7.2 million in the previous fiscal year. Hardware sales to Asia, a strategically important market for this business, increased by approximately 7.7% and were $5.9 million compared to $5.5 million in the previous fiscal year.

Rental assets were significantly underutilized in fiscal year 2025, resulting in lower units of rentals and associated services. This also impacted on the gross profit margin of this business. This reflects the change in US policy on funding for offshore renewables, which caused many projects to be shelved as reported by Shell, Orsted, BP and others.

Now turning to highlights relating to the Defense Engineering Services Business. In the fiscal year 2025, our Defense Engineering Services Business revenue increased by 5.6%. This business has long-standing relationships with prime defense contractors and has served the defense market for close to 50 years. It is reliant on receiving funding on the defense programs. During the fourth quarter, it experienced delays in receiving contract awards due to the US government shutdown, followed by the use of continuing resolutions to fund these programs. The success of the Defense Engineering Business is dependent on increasing the number of defense programs that they sell proprietary parts into.

Now turning to highlights relating to the newly acquired Precision Acoustics Limited. In the fiscal year 2025, this business unit contributed 20.4% to our net consolidated revenue. We continue to be very pleased with this acquisition and reiterate that it positions the group to collectively respond to larger defense requirements, particularly in the underwater acoustics space. We continue to make it our priority to focus on executing our growth strategy.

Blair Cunningham, our President of Technology, will be updating you on our progress and various milestones around our core technologies, which underpin our growth strategy. I will now turn the call over to Blair Cunningham.

Thank you, Annmarie, and good morning, everyone. Today, I will focus on progress that we have made around our core technologies, Echoscope and DAVD. In fiscal year 2025, we saw increase in sales of both Echoscope and DAVD, and we also saw strong interest from the defense community.

The Echoscope, our flagship technology. The Echoscope continues to represent the largest opportunity for scalable growth, particularly within the defense and security market. This sector is being fundamentally reshaped by the widespread adoption of next-generation underwater platforms, encompassing manned, unmanned, surface, subsurface and fully autonomous robotic vehicles. The defense subsea market is moving away from large bespoke platforms towards smaller, networked and increasingly autonomous vehicles that can be deployed at scale. This transition favors technologies that maximize performance per unit cost and enable rapid production, modular upgrades and multi-mission flexibility.

A significant portion of these new programs is focused on reducing reliance on human-in-the-loop supervision and control for mission-critical decisions. The launch of the Echoscope PIPE NANO Gen Series, our ultra-compact real-time 3D imaging sonar marks a critical step in enabling next-generation subsea AI-enabled autonomy. As the subsea industry moves away from vessel-intensive human-in-the-loop workflows, NANO Gen Series provides the real-time 3D perception required to unlock scalable software-driven autonomy across a growing range of platforms.

NANO Gen Series delivers true real-time 3D imaging in an ultracompact form factor, enabling autonomous systems to perceive, navigate and make decisions independently under water. Unlike traditional sonars designed primarily for data collection, NANO Gen Series functions as a core perception sensor for AI-enabled platforms, supporting navigation, obstacle avoidance, target guidance and adaptive mission execution without reliance on bandwidth-limited communications or post processing.

A single NANO Gen Series sensor supports multiple high-value use cases, including subsea navigation, inspection, 3D modeling, subsea imaging, change detection and gas and oil leak detection, allowing operators and platform developers to consolidate hardware, reduce integration complexity and lower total system cost. This multi-mission flexibility positions NANO Gen Series as a platform-agnostic technology, accelerating adoption across AUVs, ROVs, hybrid vehicles, resident subsea systems and future autonomous fleets.

NANO Gen Series is aligned with the strongest growth drivers in the subsea market, autonomy, edge AI, reduced operational cost and scalable deployment. By enabling higher levels of autonomy and mission efficiency with a single compact sensor, NANO Gen Series strengthens Echoscope role as a critical technology provider to the next generation of intelligent subsea platforms.

We're seeing strong and accelerating interest supported by highly successful trials with a number of key defense customers, including the US Navy and several allied foreign navies across their respective subsea vehicle programs. These engagements span next-generation platforms designed for multi-mission operations, combining manned and autonomous capabilities within a single operational framework. By working closely with naval special operations forces, program sponsors and platform and control system manufacturers, we ensure our technology is aligned with real operational requirements and emerging concepts of use. This collaborative approach enables us to demonstrate best-in-class performance and rapid integration across diverse subsea platforms.

As the market continues to transition away from traditional single-purpose sonar systems towards intelligent AI-enabled perception, our solutions are increasingly viewed as a core enabling technology for future subsea autonomy, situational awareness and mission flexibility.

We anticipate that procurement and program decisions for the active opportunities in which we have already completed end customer demonstrations and operational trials will be made in early 2026. These programs are currently progressing through the final stages of technical evaluation, operational validation and internal budget approval within the respective defense organizations.

Subject to successful contract awards, we expect initial deliveries to commence within the 2026 fiscal year, aligned with customer deployment schedules and platform integration timelines. These programs are structured to support multi-mission subsea vehicles with both manned and autonomous operating modes, providing a strong foundation for follow-on orders, platform expansion and long-term fleet adoption.

Given the strategic importance of these programs and the shift toward AI-enabled next-generation subsea capabilities, we view these near-term decisions as a meaningful inflection point with the potential to convert demonstrated technical leadership into recurring production contracts and sustained growth.

While these active programs are presently focused on 3D perception, navigation and obstacle avoidance enabled by the NANO Gen Series, they represent longer-term growth opportunities for our DAVD augmented vision display solutions. Many of these subsea vehicle programs support diver operations or involved manned subsea platforms, both of which align directly with the target applications and markets for DAVD.

Turning to the other significant pillar of our growth strategy, DAVD, our Diver Augmented Vision Display. This system is a cutting-edge augmented reality technology purpose-built to enhance diver safety, performance and situational awareness and low visibility and technically demanding underwater environments.

In fiscal year 2025, we experienced real momentum around DAVD with increased domestic interest from non-Navy defense organizations and government agencies as well as from several foreign navies and commercial diving entities. We were contracted under several programs and successfully delivered multiple next-generation DAVD systems to this expanded user base, and we'll continue to support, educate and drive further adoption of these systems within this community.

DAVD is being leveraged as a critical life support and visualization component, enhancing diver safety and mission effectiveness by delivering real-time life support data via the DAVD head-up display and 3D situational awareness through the compact Echoscope PIPE NANO Gen Series sonar. These initiatives exemplify the growing recognition of DAVD and Echoscope technologies as mission-critical tools in the evolving landscape of advanced military diving and underwater operations.

During the fiscal year 2025, we completed the funded DUS Hardening Program under which the DAVD technology was jointly funded for adoption for the special forces market by the US and a leading foreign Navy. Following the successful completion and delivery of the DUS Hardening Program, we were awarded the initial order of 16 new generation untethered DAVD systems in fiscal year 2025 for fleet evaluation by US Special Forces. These systems are the culmination of extensive field testing and direct feedback from operational divers funded under the DUS Hardening Program.

Following the delivery of the initial production run of 16 DAVD untethered systems for the US Navy MK16 Rebreather system in fiscal year 2025, the untethered DAVD variant is undergoing final approval of the US Navy's Authorization for Navy Use or ANU approval process. Following completion of this process is expected to support ongoing broader operational use and adoption of the untethered system. The DAVD untethered system continues to be fielded across an expanding community of EOD and Special Forces diver units for fleet evaluation and mission-specific tasking.

The DAVD untethered system remains the largest growth opportunity for this transformative technology. For context, in the United States alone, there are approximately 14,000 divers within the potential government and defense user community for the DAVD untethered system.

Fiscal year 2026 is an important year for the company in terms of reaching new milestones such as broader adoption of DAVD by foreign navies and Echoscope technology being adopted on some of the new autonomous AI-enabled platforms as a core perception sensor for navigation, obstacle avoidance and target guidance.

I will now turn the call over to Annmarie, and will be available to take your questions.

Thank you, Blair. Let me now turn the call over to our Interim CFO, Gayle Jardine, to take you through our financials for fiscal year 2025 before I provide my closing remarks.

Thank you, Annmarie, and good morning, everyone. Let me take you through our fiscal year 2025 financial results.

Starting with revenue. In fiscal year 2025, we recorded total revenue of $26.6 million compared to $20.3 million in fiscal year 2024, an increase of 30.7%. Our core business, the Marine Technology Business generated revenue of $13.2 million compared to $12.8 million, representing a 3.2% increase over fiscal year 2024. Our Acoustic Sensors and Materials Business, which was added to our group in October 2024, recorded revenue of $5.4 million in fiscal year 2025 and added 20.4% to our consolidated net revenue. Our Defense Engineering Business generated revenue of $7.9 million compared to $7.5 million, representing a 5.6% increase over fiscal year 2024.

Moving on to gross profit and margin. In the fiscal year 2025, we generated gross profit of $17.7 million compared to $14.2 million in the fiscal year 2024. Consolidated gross margin was 66.5% versus 69.8% in fiscal year 2024. This 3.3 percentage points decrease is mainly due to the impact of the lower-margin Acoustic Sensors and Material Business being added, which accounts for 2 percentage points as well as mix of type and geography of sales in our core business.

In our Marine Technology business, gross margin decreased to 74.5% in fiscal year 2025 compared to 77.9% in fiscal year 2024, reflecting the mix of type and geography of sales with 30.5% more units of hardware sale compared to a reduction of 36.6% in the higher-margin rental sales. The Acoustic Sensors and Materials business realized gross margin of 58.6%. Our Defense Engineering Business gross margin increased to 58.6% in the fiscal year 2025 versus 55.8% in the fiscal year 2024, again, reflecting the mix of engineering projects during fiscal '25.

Now looking at our operating expenses. Total operating expenses for the fiscal year 2025 increased by 24.0% to $13.1 million, compared to $10.6 million in the fiscal year 2024. The main factors for the increase in total operating expenses were the addition of Precision Acoustics Limited into the group, which added 22.1% to these costs as well as the weakening of the US dollar against the British pound and Danish kroner, which impacted on these costs when translated into US dollars from the base currencies for reporting purposes.

Our selling, general and administrative costs in the fiscal year 2025 totaled $10.7 million, an increase of 27.9% from $8.3 million in fiscal year 2024, reflecting the addition of the new business unit into the group and the inclusion of the earn-out provision as per the Precision Acoustics Limited acquisition agreement. SG&A as a percentage of consolidated net revenue in fiscal year 2025 was 40.2% compared to 41.1% in the fiscal year 2024.

Operating income in fiscal year 2025 was $4.5 million compared to $3.6 million in fiscal year 2024, an increase of 26.6%. Operating margin was 17.1% compared to 17.6% in fiscal year 2024, which we attribute to the impact of the overall increase in our total operating expenses by 24.0% in conjunction with an increase in consolidated net revenue of 30.7%. Pretax income in fiscal year 2025 was $5.5 million compared to $4.6 million in fiscal year 2024. Net income after taxes in fiscal year 2025 was $4.1 million or $0.37 per diluted share compared to $3.6 million or $0.32 per diluted share in fiscal year 2024. In fiscal year 2025, we provided for a current tax expense of $1.1 million compared to $0.7 million in the fiscal year 2024.

Switching now to our balance sheet. As of October 31, 2025, we had $28.7 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand and no debt. This represents an increase of $6.2 million from October 31, 2024, where the comparable figure was $22.5 million. Total assets increased by $6.9 million to $64.5 million in fiscal year 2025.

Finally, to summarize the financial impact in the fiscal year 2025 of the introduction of the Acoustic Sensors and Materials Business into the group. It contributed 20.4% of net consolidated revenue and 18.0% to gross profit. Gross profit margin for this business was $3.2 million or 58.6%.

Thank you. That completes my summary. So let me turn the call back over to Annmarie for her closing remarks.

Thank you, Gayle. I am very pleased with the increase in revenue in the fiscal year 2025 and our overall financial results, including earnings per share.

I'm also pleased with the progress we're making against our key milestones for growing our business. Some of these include in respect of our revenue structure, we increased sales in the defense sector, where 46% of our core business revenue emanated from the defense sector and 54% from the commercial marine offshore sector, realizing sales of $3.7 million relating to DAVD in the fiscal year 2025, successfully completing the DAVD Hardening Program, which paves the way for broader adoption of the DAVD technology by the military diving market, subject to receiving approved Navy Use status.

The launch of our NANO Gen Series sonar, which we believe is well positioned as a core real-time perception sensor in the rapidly emerging AI-enabled autonomous and semi-autonomous platforms in the subsea market. And finally, receiving our first order from a highly influential European foreign Navy for the DAVD untethered system.

We certainly believe that fiscal year 2025 was critical for completing key development activities under the DAVD program, which were a prerequisite for broader adoption as well as for launching the NANO Gen Series, which positions us to support a growing range of AI-enabled subsea robotic and autonomous systems.

In terms of cash deployment, we will continue to prosecute our M&A strategy in fiscal year 2026, and we are continuing to build our M&A pipeline. We are very keen to close another acquisition in fiscal year 2026. Through our strategy, we aim to pivot the revenue model of the Marine Technology Business towards a multiyear program-based adoption model, which supports recurring multiple sales on the programs of records and long-tail revenue as we have started to see with the DAVD products line. We continue to work to create stable long-term shareholder value and execute against our strategy to grow the business, which is our single biggest priority at the group. To conclude, we would like to thank our shareholders for their continued support.

We're now happy to answer any questions. Operator?

(Operator Instructions) Brian Kinstlinger, Alliance Global Partners.

This is Kevin for Brian. First, we were hearing about certain deliveries to the Indian Navy through International Prime. What Coda products were shipped to the Indian Navy? And is this a brand-new customer? Or have you worked with the Indian Navy in the past? And then broadly speaking, do you see any significant opportunities within India in the near to medium term?

Sorry, thanks very much for that question. I'm not clear the Indian Navy, I'm not sure where that has come from.

Okay. Maybe I must be mistaken. I can move on to a different one. Can you update us on the progress in Europe? I believe you delivered two untethered systems to a European Navy. How is the satisfaction? And do you expect larger orders ahead from the Navy?

Right. Thank you very much for that question. So I'm really, really excited about that development. As we mentioned earlier, we've completed the DAVD untethered Hardening Program. That's really the precursor to broader adoption. So what we really feel at this stage on the DAVD technology, which is one of our key pillars for our growth, we feel like we've spent last year focused on completing the Hardening Program and delivering systems to the US Navy, really, now we're really waiting for that to complete the approved Navy Use status, which then means the product will be operational and will be the catalyst for broader adoption.

Then pivoting from outside of the US, really this year, what is really key for Coda Octopus is broader adoption of the technology outside of the US. And in our fourth quarter, we delivered two systems to a very, very influential European Navy, and we will be providing training to that Navy in our Q2, and then we believe that will be the catalyst for further adoption of the DAVD untethered system. So we're really, really excited about that, and we're waiting to support that customer. And we would expect Q3, Q4 would be where we start understanding opportunities for that customer.

And then can you quantify cumulative deliveries of the untethered DAVD system? And last quarter, I believe you said --

Sorry, could you repeat that? Could you -- sorry, could you repeat that?

Yes. Could you quantify the cumulative deliveries of the DAVD untethered system? And I think last quarter, you said your target was $3.5 million to $4 million of DAVD in fiscal 2025. Did you achieve that? And then given the progress you're making, what kind of range do you expect for DAVD contribution to revenue in fiscal '26?

So in fiscal 2025, we did $3.7 million for DAVD. And for 2026, really, of course, we -- our internal business plan presupposes that we beat this. However, it's really difficult to say as we're waiting for completion of the assessment of the approval, the approved Navy Use status for the product, which is the prerequisite for the product being operational. So we expect really to have that close to the end of Q2. And really, Q3 and Q4 is really where we can really start understanding what revenues will be for the untethered variant in 2026.

So DAVD revenue will be lumpy and back-ended to third quarter and fourth quarter for the simple reason that until it goes through, we've delivered the evaluation systems and until it gets on the annual list, which is the approved Navy Use list, it's very difficult for us to quantify what the budget is going to be.

In addition to that, though, we're really focused on, as I said this year, getting broader adoption for the DAVD technology outside of the US. So we feel we've done all of the development programs. We've got good understanding of where the trajectory of the product in the US. We're pretty much waiting for budgets and waiting to understand the budget line appropriation. Programs are now being funded by continuing resolutions. So we really don't know what 2026 US budget is going to be. There will be budget, but we don't have visibility of that right now.

But that aside, we take that as a given and we presuppose that we're going to beat our $3.7 million, but we're really laser-focused now on the broader adoption now that we finished the development program, broader adoption outside of the US. And this delivery to this European Navy is really a pivotal moment for the technology because this is really a trendsetter Navy in Europe. So we're very excited about that. So I can't say what our target is. I really don't know because we're waiting for budget allocation in the US. But I think what we're seeing is that we did $3.7 million in fiscal 2025, and we anticipate beating that.

Great. And then can you quantify how many foreign navies have tested or are testing, DAVD? And once you get in the door, can you discuss the sales cycle? How long might that occur and then time frame for deliveries? And then what would be a reasonable assumption for large quantity sales?

Blair, did you want to talk about just broadly the business development activities with the broader Navy community?

Yes. Absolutely, yes. I think it's been critical in both 2025 and prior to that, that having a very close relationship with the US Navy is critical for the product because as Annmarie stated, having the ANU, Authorization for Navy Use, it's critical for the rest of the navies to understand that this is equipment that they can push the budget lines and move forward.

In terms of the number of physical navies where we presented this product to, typically in diving, we've been involved in a number of what I would call worldwide Navy collective missions, including RIMPAC, for example, which is in Hawaii, at which point, even at that single event, I think we had 10 different country navies diving the system. That's obviously not a statement that all 10 of those navies have budget and can move forward with that, but it gives an idea of the number of entities that we're working with.

I think it's probably easier to focus on the European sector because that's much more being defined. And of the Navy we deliver the system, I've personally been working with them for the last two years, just to give you an idea of the gestation cycle. And now that the product is coming close to being annual deliverable, they are making their early investments into the program. But they are very, very committed.

I think the influential also is such that, that particular Navy has a very strong investment in Navy diving of all factors, so that's special forces, hard diving, salvage, for example, which we cover all bases. But they are incredibly well connected to all of the neighboring navies such that when they place an order, it's fairly well read that the adjacent navies will also follow suit and they will adopt the same level of equipment. And that's exactly what we are seeing today.

So I think as Annmarie said, we're delivering out the first of those systems to that Navy. There will, I'm sure, be invites of the other neighboring navies to that training event that I'll be conducting and then Q3, Q4 is when we really understand how that progression moves forward.

Yes. And just to add there, the key benchmark for us in 2026 is to secure meaningful adoption of DAVD outside of the US. That is our key benchmark. We feel in terms of the product, its acceptance on the US side, we take that as a given.

As Blair says, we've got very good relationship. The customer is very excited about the technology. I think the team did a great job with really understanding the requirements of the Navy, the feedback, delivering the 16 systems based on feedback. And I feel all of that is settled.

In addition to that, also last year, what we saw, we saw real momentum on broadening the scope of the DAVD technology actually. So we had funding from several programs where they want to integrate the DAVD in their infrastructure as a critical tool for their applications. So we feel the DAVD technology is really now mature and really all the development that we've been talking about, we feel we've invested in that. That's behind us. And now we are really focused this year on adoption outside of the US, and that's what we are focused on.

And in terms of your question was quantities, I'm really -- that's pure conjecture. I really can't see what quantities. But what I really want to emphasize, last year, we did $3.7 million in DAVD our internal business plan assumes that we will beat this number.

And one caveat I want to say is that DAVD revenue will be lumpy for a number of reasons. We're waiting for the annual process. We expect our European customers, it's the third and fourth quarter before really any form of procurement will take place. And so I think that that's really where I'll leave it on DAVD and its trajectory.

And then last question is for the next-generation Echoscope, could you give us an update on what customer feedback is like?

Blair, did you want to take that?

Yes. Yes, I can take that one. Yes. Thank you very much for that question. Yes, I think we are exceptionally excited to launch our NANO Gen Series. It really is a game changer for us in terms of really how wide a program we can actually fit our technology on. And I think that has been incredibly swiftly noticed by both the defense and oil and gas and other markets around the NANO technology.

I feel very much so that we have really strong interest from a lot of those programs and especially on the Navy side, where we are already seeing considerable interest for existing funded programs. So they would typically execute what we would call a PIP or a product or platform improvement program. And that really is a formal engineering and funding pathway for upgrading already fielded systems, so either adding new capability, addressing, say, system deficiencies, improving reliability and inserting new technology into existing platforms.

So the interest to date from the community has been largely focused on the capability growth enabled by NANO. So we're adding brand-new capability to those existing platforms. But the introduction of NANO does actually address multiple of those justification categories. So as a result, I see the opportunities are much closer to program execution. They're carry lower acquisition risk, and they're definitely much more shorter term with a predictable volume profile. In other words, we can integrate on to existing platforms that are in the field, and this isn't waiting on perhaps a new funding program for an entire new vehicle.

That said, we are also being approached by multiple defense companies for integration of the NANO technology at a ground-up level, which is also very exciting. But we understand that those programs have got a longer gestation period. So we're very much, again, laser-focused on the PIP approach where we can integrate our technology on to already well-established programs and products.

And I do see also that we will have closer and closer relationships with some of those sort of people involved in those programs as we integrate the NANO into that program. But really, it's taking the existing well proven for 20-odd years at our 3D real-time volumetrics, which we still really stand almost alone in that capability and bringing that to these new AI enabled vehicles, be they autonomous, semiautonomous or manned platforms. And we're really excited to see the growth on that.

(Operator Instructions) [Nick Walters], (inaudible).

I just had a quick one and a quick follow-up. So as you look into calendar 2026, how would you characterize the offshore commercial demand environment? Do you see it improving out of 2025? And what indicators do you look for?

Well, look, the commercial market is really our -- the commercial marine market, we're well established, and it's less a fight about what the technology can and can't do. So I think year-on-year out, we see good opportunities for the Echoscope within the commercial market. I think what the rental side has been really sort of slow, but Q4, we saw quite an uptick in rentals. And rentals are important for the business in so far as they are the big offshore companies who don't really buy equipment but run these very long projects where you can have multiple Echoscope and engineering services on those programs. So they're really, really important to us.

For the first three quarters, the rental side was down. But in the fourth quarter, we saw a significant uptick in rental opportunities and rental fees. So looking out for us, the important part for our revenue growth is the defense market. It's always -- and the reason for that is because the defense market has opportunities for multiple sales and long tail revenue. So that's pretty much really where our effort is as a business to grow. And Blair talked very much about -- we've got a number of programs where the Echoscope is contender for being embedded into those programs that will yield this long tail recurring revenue that we talk about, but also excitingly for us, we have broken into some nearer-term catalysts on these PIP programs.

So I feel really for us for the business to really grow, it is the defense market that really we are allocating most of our resources and business development effort because, as I said, in the commercial markets there, we're well established. We've been in this game for over 30 years. We're well known. It's a small community.

But the side that we really have to grow is the defense space. And I'm also very pleased with our core business revenue structure this fiscal year because previous fiscal year, we did around 40% in the defense space. This year, we did 46%. So I feel we're making progress. And that's what we have to do to see significant growth for our business. And these PIP programs that are nearer-term catalysts, particularly with the focus on NANO is really, really where we're spending a lot of our time this year.

And then looking forward, now that you have $28 million in cash on hand, a pretty hefty amount, how do you think about capital allocation priorities going from here?

Well, as I said actually in my closing remarks, recognizing we do have quite a lot of cash, we feel the best way to give returns to investors and also to grow the business is by -- through accretive value-added acquisitions. So we're really actively seeking to complete an acquisition this year. We're still looking at targets. But of course, we really want to make sure we make the right decision for the group. So we're putting a lot of work into screening what makes sense for our business.

And at this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Annmarie Gayle.

Thank you, operator. Thank you for attending today's earnings call. Have a great day. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you for joining us today for Coda Octopus' conference call. You may now disconnect.