Gurunavi,Inc. Q2 FY2026 earnings call

• Overall Financial Results

  • Total half-year revenue came in at 6.37 billion yen, operating profit at 0.105 billion yen, and interim net profit at 0.12 billion yen (including a 30 million yen gain on sale of investment securities recorded in Q1). All profit metrics beat the original upper half forecast due to better-than-planned cost control leveraging capabilities built during the COVID-19 pandemic, though overall revenue was slightly below plan. Year-over-year profit declined due to temporary increases in growth-related expenses: expanded headcount after post-COVID downsizing (driving higher hiring and personnel costs) and rising depreciation from accumulated software fixed asset investments.
  • Gurunavi completed its shift to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard market on November 12, and intends to return to the Prime market after strengthening its core business.

• Rakuten Gurunavi User and Partnership Progress

  • Rakuten ID-linked members reached 10.6 million at Q2 end, continuing steady growth. Linked members have a higher average reservation group size (4.6 people, compared to 3.2 people for non-members) due to effective point-based incentives, so growing linked membership expands both reservation count and total送客 volume.
  • The first major new partnership launched October 1: integration between Gurunavi's organizer rank reward program and Rakuten Card's Premium Program for cardholders. Organizer membership has grown as expected, and the company is working with Rakuten Card to expand awareness to non-linked cardholders. Additional partnership discussions with Rakuten Payment are ongoing.

• Product and Service Expansion

  • Marketing Agent added two new subscription services: 1) Influencer matching service connecting restaurants with food-focused Instagram creators, allowing restaurants to directly offer collaborations on-demand; 2) Short vertical video creation service for inbound tourism promotion, optimized for SNS distribution and supported on Gurunavi's official foreign language SNS channels. The company plans to expand service lines for both dine-in and non-dine-in restaurant formats to grow paid member count, and use AI to improve operational efficiency to increase supported store count without major headcount growth.
  • Gurunavi FineOrder mobile order service is currently prioritizing four growth themes: new client acquisition, expansion to additional stores under existing contracted chains, improving customer acquisition functions to raise average contract value, and expansion into new verticals such as hotel room service. The company is currently conducting a pilot rollout to selected stores of major Japanese restaurant group Colowide Group.

• Strategic Cycle

  • The company's core strategy is to expand support scope for restaurants and leverage its customer support strength to build a virtuous cycle: wider support and deeper customer dialogue build more valuable data assets, which in turn enable better product development to further expand support, driving long-term corporate value growth.

1. Stock-type service (core recurring subscription for restaurant support): Grew 8.2% year-over-year, roughly in line with plan. Paid member store count turned to a slight increasing trend in Q2 after a long period of volatile declines, and average revenue per user (ARPU) increased steadily. Online reservation-enabled store count also grew year-over-year, expanding available seat inventory for users. This segment is the primary driver of overall revenue growth, led by the expanding Marketing Agent service line. 2. Spot-type service: Revenue decreased year-over-year, as the company intentionally prioritized stock-type recurring contracts over one-off spot project work to support long-term companion restaurant support, leading to the miss in the upper half overall revenue plan. 3. Promotion services: Revenue increased year-over-year, driven by higher volume of projects for government ministries and local governments. 4. Related businesses: Revenue grew, primarily due to expanding sales from Tempos Gurunavi, a kitchen equipment retail store opened in April of the prior year. 5. Gurunavi FineOrder (mobile order service): Contracted client count reached 139 companies (mostly large chain groups), with 87% of contracted stores fully on-boarded and operational as of the quarter end. 6. Marketing Agent (outsourced digital marketing operation services): Google Business Profile operation support service grew steadily; average user price increased over 1.2x after a July 2024 product renewal, and this service line is the main growth engine for stock-type revenue.

• Management maintains the original full-year profit growth forecast, and considers the half-year position to be a good midpoint for achieving full-year targets. Expanded headcount is expected to start contributing to full business momentum starting in the second half, which will help secure delivery of the current fiscal year plan, with full-year effects driving core business growth starting next fiscal year.
• In the second half, the company will continue growing stock-type recurring revenue while also flexibly pursuing spot-type service contracts to make up for the first half revenue shortfall. Management states that recovery plans are already in execution, and October spot revenue trends are already strong, so the full-year revenue target remains achievable.

• No explicit major operational or market risks were discussed in the available transcript. The only noted items are the temporary headwind from higher growth investment expenses in the first half, and the intentional strategic shift that led to lower spot revenue in the first half which the company expects to offset in the second half.

Q: What caused the first half revenue miss, and can the shortfall be recovered in the second half to hit the full-year target? / A: The miss came from lower-than-expected spot promotion sales and online reservation commission revenue. Management has already finalized and started executing recovery plans, including expanding site traffic through deeper Rakuten Card partnership and launching new products sequentially. October spot sales are already showing strong positive trends, so the full-year target remains achievable.

Q: What is the trend in net growth for stock-type paid member stores, and can the current growth pace be maintained? / A: Both new store sign-ups and plan upgrades for existing stores are gradually increasing, while cancellation rates remain at a low level. Marketing Agent services are driving steady growth in new stock-type members, and these services have inherently low cancellation rates that support net growth. Historically, Q3 (October-December) is a busy season where more restaurants consider joining, so management expects to maintain or improve the current net growth pace.

Q: What is the current penetration of mobile order services, and what is the addressable market size for Gurunavi? / A: Total addressable market including both dine-in and takeout restaurants is roughly 800,000 stores. Gurunavi primarily targets large chain restaurants, with a target pool of ~300-350 chains (~500 brands, ~30,000 total stores). As of September 2025, Gurunavi has contracted ~140 chains, with pilot rollouts ongoing, and penetration can grow to 10,000-15,000 stores over time as full chain rollouts progress.

Q: What are Gurunavi's specific plans for using AI to improve operational efficiency for agency services? / A: Gurunavi launched the cross-company Gurunavi Next AI project last summer, working in three domains: 1) AI to improve internal operational productivity and accuracy; 2) development of the next-generation consumer food experience app UMAME! which is being updated for full launch; 3) AI tools built specifically for restaurant operators, beyond general-purpose AI services. Insights from internal AI use are being transferred to client-facing AI agent services, and this flow of integrating internal AI learnings into client products will accelerate going forward.