Seer, Inc. Q4 FY2025 earnings call

• In 2025, despite challenging funding, made progress: installed base grew, consumable kit volume increased, proteograph selected for multiple studies, total revenue excluding related party revenue grew 33%, nearly doubled cumulative publications, Prognomic launched early lung cancer detection LDT. - Product innovation: launched third - generation assay and second - generation automation instrument, saw 69% growth in consumable kit volume, expanded installed base by 67%, adjusted pricing and ran campaigns to accelerate market adoption. - R&D roadmap: developing fourth - generation Proteograph Analysis Suite with AI capabilities, planning to commercialize proteoform profiling assay kit in 2027, and an end - to - end sample - to - data proteomic solution. - Cumulative publications nearly doubled, Prognomic launched LDT, strong presence at HUPO with many presentations and posters. - Installed base growth with SIP and STAC initiatives, partnership with Thermo Fisher continues, searching for chief commercial officer.

Fourth quarter revenue was $4.2 million, full-year 2025 revenue was $16.6 million (17% YOY growth). Product revenue for Q4 2025 was $2.8 million, service revenue was $1.2 million. Full-year product revenue was $11.2 million, service revenue was $4.9 million. Installed base grew to 82 instruments (67% increase from 2024). Excluding related party revenue, total revenue grew 33% in 2025.

Expect revenue for 2026 to be in the range of $16 to $18 million (midpoint growth ~3% over 2025). Guidance doesn't include contributions from additional population scale studies which could be upside. The guide reflects ongoing pressure on instrument placements and new project funding due to uncertain funding environment, especially NIH funding.

Ongoing budgetary pressures, uncertainty around NIH funding impacting customer spending decisions, potential for actual results to differ from forward - looking statements due to material risks and uncertainties as detailed in Form 10 - K and other SEC filings.

Q: Maybe to start just on the fourth quarter, can you maybe just walk us through some more of the puts and takes of the quarter? You came in a little bit below the low end of your guide. I mean, was there anything that kind of slipped out of the fourth quarter, you know, into 2026, or how should we think about that?

A: Yeah, Kyle, thanks. It's David. Yeah, I think that, as we said in our prepared remarks, there was some NIH funding that around some projects that got delayed that was supposed to be paid in 25 and didn't, got pushed into this year. So consequently, we had a customer delay a purchase from the fourth quarter. So it was really around that delayed NIH funding. And we've seen it across a couple of our academics where they're much more hesitant now to to purchase without the money in the bank, just given the current environment.

Q: And then maybe just moving on to the guide for 26. You saw a lot of momentum in 2025, including over 30 instrument placements. You have a number of studies analyzing tens of thousands of samples, and there's been a number of third - party publications that have driven a lot more awareness among customers. I guess with that being said, can you walk us through the puts and takes of the guide then? You know, with the momentum you've seen the last couple of quarters, even with the disruptions that you've seen, is there any reason why, you know, growth couldn't be better in 26, just considering the momentum and the number of instrument placements you achieved in 2025?

A: Hey, Kyle. Omid here. Maybe let me start it, and I'll hand it to David. I agree with you that given the install base growth, growth in the consumable volume, the guide may seem conservative. The challenge we have is that until I see a very clear momentum, we want to be guarded in the way we see our revenue projections. Remember, today the customer has a choice to make when they engage in a proteomics study. And that choice is, do they use the approaches that are targeted? Often the readout is on an NGS platform that they're very familiar with. Or do they go to an untargeted approach, the one that SEER offers, where the detector is a different one that they have used or been familiar with, which is the mass spec. And if you've invested years of research in generating lots of data, body of data, that reads on that targeted approach using a detector that you're familiar with, and now comes an alternative, which is the unbiased approach, there's an activation energy to take you off of what you've done, a lot of data that you've generated, and into a new platform. Now, the value of that new platform is becoming very clear, increasingly clear, at a pretty sharp velocity. I mean, we started with literally no publication just three, four years ago, to now 70 publications, showing the value of it, and many of these publications are in top journals like Nature and Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Nature Aging. And we're also seeing an entire diagnostic test being launched on biomarkers that could only be discovered using an untargeted or unbiased approach when you go deep and you do it at scale, and fear is the only solution that does that. So I think there is a matter of time when that activation energy results in a shift and a transition where the potential discovery power of SEER becomes clear. And when that happens, revenue growth shouldn't be in 10%, 20%, 30% range. Revenue should double or even more. I'm just not seeing that yet. But the tailwind is getting stronger. Now, the challenge we have, and I think David should comment, is that when you're in small numbers of revenue, two customers coming or not makes quarters very lumpy. So we're going to have lumpy quarters, and we're going to try to build a business. If you look at it, excluding prognomics, the revenue has actually grown by about 30% or so. But again, these are small numbers. My expectation is that when the flywheel begins to turn, revenue growth will be more substantial. And I'm just not seeing that yet, Kyle. But what I do see is that the tailwind is getting stronger and stronger despite the ongoing headwind of the macro picture, the dynamic around the NIH, you know, and everything else. and our peers are struggling with. David, I'm not sure if you want to add anything. Yeah, all I'd add, Kyle, is, you know, yeah, the guide does assume we kind of have a difficult NIH environment remaining as far as we can see. As I also said in the prepared remarks, we do see some upside from some additional population studies. We are in conversations with several large cohorts. And we did not build that into our guidance because, again, it's kind of binary. It's something where you either get it and it's significant or you don't. So we just decided to be conservative until we get some of those potentially larger studies. So there is some potential for upside if we are able to get some of those additional population scale studies.

Q: And maybe just one more quick one here. Now that you have over 80 placements out there and awareness has grown so much among customers, are there any other factors that are limiting adoption beyond the funding environment and beyond what you just mentioned? What does customer feedback sort of sound like as you place more of these instruments?

A: Kyle, I think the data that's coming from the customers is It's reflected on the publications that are coming. The biological insight that comes when you do untargeted proteomics at scale is profound. And by the way, several years ago, when we were just launching SEER in terms of our commercial product, back then I said that Targeted approaches and an approach like SEER, untargeted approaches, are complementary and will always coexist. Analogous to NGS and microarrays. Value proposition of both for distinct application is clear. The thing is, back then, just going back two or three or four years, there was an arms race for trying to get more and more plex on these targeted approaches to increase it. The thing is, no matter how much you do that, you're never gonna get to the depth of the complexity of the proteome. Untargeted approaches allow that, allows discovery of content that is not known. And what we're seeing now is, in fact, targeted approaches are getting smaller and smaller plex. That is exactly the right answer. In fact, if you look at one, in one case, where they're having enormous success commercially, you know, their flex is a little bit more than 100 proteins. But importantly, those 100 proteins are protein variants that are important in disease. So, for example, a particular phosphorylated form of a protein that results, that has a signal in a disease, not just that protein you know, in its normal form that you would find. So to answer your question, I think what we need is for the evidence to grow. It has grown from almost no publications. In fact, it has grown from no publications to now 70. Those data, the body of data that's coming from the customers, is translating in opportunities like large - scale biobank studies, Remember, we're still relatively early in this game. So to have opportunities to do large - scale biobank studies on the back of 70 publications speaks volume to the recognition that the scientific community has in the profound impact of untargeted proteomics at depth and scale that SEER enables. David, I'm not sure if you want to add anything. No, I think you covered most of it, Omid. Yeah, it's just continuing to... to try and drive the commercial side, Kyle, with all the various facets that we have with evidence and growing body of customers and references.