Highlights

  • FY26 platform subscription Revenue of NZ$19.2 million, up 33% year-on-year, with gross margins of 94% on the subscription line.
  • IKE PoleForeman achieved NZ$11 million in annualised Recurring Revenue within two years of product launch, adopted by eight of the ten largest electric utilities in North America.
  • Positive underlying EBITDA achieved in the month of March 2026; FY27 guidance targets similar subscription revenue growth rates with continued execution of two new customer council-led products.

 

ikeGPS Group Limited (ASX:IKE), the New Zealand-headquartered Utility infrastructure software company, released its FY26 full-year financial update on 29 May 2026, reporting platform subscription revenue of NZ$19.2 million — a 33% increase on the prior comparable period — and confirming the achievement of positive underlying EBITDA in the month of March 2026. The results cap what CEO Glenn Milnes described as the strongest year in ikeGPS' history.

IKE shares were trading nearly 1% higher at AUD 0.98 per share at the time of writing on 29 May.

Subscription Revenue: Growth and Margin Quality

Platform subscription revenue of NZ$19.2 million against FY25 represents substantial top-line progress, delivered alongside gross margins of 94% on the subscription line. That margin profile is consistent with best-in-class software businesses and reflects a product that has achieved pricing power through deep customer embeddedness rather than competitive commoditisation.

The company added 83 new subscription customers during FY26, ending the year with 463 customers across electric utilities, communications companies, and their engineering service providers. Customer retention of approximately 97% is an exceptional metric — it means ikeGPS is retaining virtually its entire installed base on an annual basis, which compounds the subscription revenue base year after year.

Total revenue reached NZ$26.6 million, up 6% on the prior year, with growth in platform subscriptions partially offset by the expected wind-down of hardware-related revenue. Full-year gross margin expanded to approximately 80% from 69% in the prior period, driven by the increasing subscription mix.

PoleForeman: A Category-Defining Product Trajectory

IKE PoleForeman, the company's distribution network structural analysis software, reached NZ$11 million in annualised recurring revenue during FY26 — inside two years from product launch. Approximately 200 customers have subscribed to the product, and it is now the structural analysis standard inside eight of the ten largest electric utilities in North America.

The speed of this adoption is commercially significant. Structural analysis software for utility poles sits inside engineering workflows that, once standardised, are rarely changed. When a Standards Director at a major utility writes IKE PoleForeman into their organisation's engineering standards, every engineer within that utility is required to use it. This creates a switching cost that goes beyond software preference — it becomes a compliance requirement.

AI Strategy: PolePilot and the Pricing Opportunity

The company's PolePilot AI automation module, embedded within IKE Office Pro, enabled a pricing increase of approximately 10% across the IKE Office Pro subscription base during FY26 with no observable churn impact. This is a relatively rare outcome in software markets: a price increase that customers accept because the value delivered — in this case, measurable productivity gains in overhead utility infrastructure engineering — is demonstrably worth more than the incremental cost.

Milnes was explicit that AI is viewed as an accelerant for ikeGPS rather than a competitive threat. The company's position rests on three factors: embeddedness in utility engineering standards, a proprietary dataset of over 20 million human-engineered power Assets, and a net promoter score of 91 that reflects the depth of customer trust and advocacy. General-purpose AI models cannot easily replicate these structural advantages.

Balance Sheet and Market Tailwinds

ikeGPS ended FY26 with approximately NZ$33 million in cash and no Debt — a balance sheet that provides significant runway for product development Investment and selective Acquisition. The company has no immediate Capital requirements and is generating gross margin at a level that funds ongoing operations and growth investment.

The macro environment supporting ikeGPS is well-defined. US electric utility Capital Expenditure is projected at $1.1–1.4 trillion from 2025 to 2030, with an 8.5% five-year compound annual growth rate. The replacement cycle for 130 million wooden poles — up to 35 million requiring action by 2035 — creates durable Demand for digital pole intelligence tools. The $43 billion BEAD broadband program is driving fibre attachment volumes that require structural load assessments for every pole.

Conclusion

ikeGPS enters FY27 with a subscription Business growing at 33%, an exit run rate of NZ$20.7 million, category-defining product traction in PoleForeman, a demonstrated AI monetisation capability, and a balance sheet that eliminates near-term capital risk. FY27 guidance for similar subscription growth rates, combined with the recognition benefit of the FY26 PolePilot price increase flowing through fully in the new year, positions the company's financial performance to continue its upward trajectory.