Aug 13, 2026 earnings call — New CEO and lowered ARR outlook
Cellebrite lowered full year ARR guidance to $550 million to $560 million.
Revenue $0.1B (est $0.1B) · EPS $0.03 (est $0.06)
Key quotes
"As you saw in this morning's release, our Board has appointed Shiv Ramji as Chief Executive Officer, effective today."
"The immediate shortfall was concentrated in a limited number of large transactions that we expected to close in the quarter, but ultimately moved beyond our anticipated time line."
"Genesis, which launched on June 10, generated more than half a dozen customer wins before the end of the second quarter, and that progress has continued into the third quarter."
Analyst Q&A 8
Growth outlook and Europe cloud delays
Q (Shaul Eyal · TD Cowen): Analyst asked what gives management confidence in the business growth. He also asked for more details on the EMEA delays and the extra administrative requirements.
A: Management said this year is an execution reset, not a reset of long-term growth, and they see good early signals from product work and larger deal sizes. They explained a European freedom-of-information audit surprised customers and required vendor anonymization, but they secured four slipped cloud deals and now know how to meet CIO requirements.
"So to be in that spot where a platform order came in, we sold 5 products." — David Barter (CFO)
Defense timing and CEO change
Q (Michael Cikos · Needham): Analyst asked how long Defense and Intelligence sales cycles have elongated and how confident management is in growth. He also asked for details on the planned CEO transition and internal handling.
A: Marcus said delays are smaller in Defense and Intelligence; the longer delays were mainly in civilian federal deals because of new foreign entity permit (FEP) requirements that created a 4- to 5-week delay, and they secured a master FEP to speed processing. Shiv and Adam said the CEO change was a planned transition that was accelerated, and the management team fully supports the move.
"So as Adam had mentioned, this was a planned transition, and both Tom and I have been working on this." — Shiven Ramji (CEO)
Procurement surprises and fixes
Q (Rudy Kessinger · D.A. Davidson): Analyst asked whether the company has reviewed regions and agencies to avoid future procurement surprises, and why they were unprepared this quarter.
A: Marcus accepted responsibility for the miss and said the cloud and AI transition brought unforeseen issues. He said they revised their deal rubric, worked with lobbyists, now understand foreign-filer rules across US, EMEA and APAC, and are confident they will not repeat the same issues, while remaining prudent about possible future delays.
"I would say we were in an unprecedented situation as we transition to cloud and AI, where we're having unforeseen things thrown at us." — Marcus Jewell (CRO)
New CEO’s background and reasons
Q (Craig-Hallum): Analyst asked Shiv to describe his background and why he joined Cellebrite.
A: Shiv said he was drawn by the company's mission and impressive assets, including hardware, cloud, and AI. He believes these can be combined into an autonomous investigative platform and said he firmly believes in the long-term growth opportunity and steady progress toward it.
"So I firmly believe in the long-term growth and opportunity, and we're making steady progress towards those." — Shiven Ramji (CEO)
Insights conversions and federal outlook
Q (Brian Essex · JPMorgan): Analyst asked why Insights conversions and pricing were lower and what percent of business that represents. He also asked about assumptions for federal contribution in 3Q.
A: David said extractions and unlock are expected to be about 80%, 81% of total ARR by year end, and that Insights migrations produced less of the usual pricing uplift this quarter even though conversion volume was similar to last year. Marcus added they have the only FedRAMP high solution for digital forensics, grants are starting to flow, and they are pursuing large programs, so they view the federal business as well positioned.
"So we're driving right now, and I think we kind of indicated that overall between extractions and unlock by the end of the year, that would be about 80%, 81% of total ARR." — David Barter (CFO)
Why Insights migrations gave less uplift
Q (Bhavin Shah · Deutsche Bank): Analyst asked why Insights migrations are generating less pricing uplift than a year ago and whether it's competitive, cohort maturity, or product usage.
A: David said cohorts are maturing and some legacy products are better deployed, and customers now have more product choices like Guardian and Genesis, which affects expansion. He noted gross revenue retention for Insights is up several points and said momentum remains positive.
"Again, I'll kind of reinforce GRR is up, GRR for Insights is up several points." — David Barter (CFO)
Genesis early adopters and customers
Q (Eric Martinuzzi · Lake Street): Analyst asked what types of customers bought the initial Genesis deals and whether they can be categorized.
A: Marcus said the early adopters are a broad mix: international leasing, state attorney general offices, and enterprise customers, with trials and conversions accelerating across markets. David added order sizes ranged from about $6,000 to $200,000, Q2 booked about $400,000 and monetization has continued toward $1 million of ARR, with product-led upgrades possible within cycles.
"We don't see any common use case, which is dominating at the minute." — Marcus Jewell (CRO)
Pipeline slips and sales cycle length
Q (Jonathan Ho · William Blair): Analyst asked how big the pipeline deals lost were, how much has closed since, and how much the sales cycle elongated.
A: Marcus said no deals were lost and that of the business which slipped, $4 million has now closed and been booked, which changed Q2 results. He said the sales-cycle elongation from these issues is approximately 6 weeks.
"Of the business which slipped, as we sit here today, $4 million of that has now closed and booked, which has obviously made our Q2 very different." — Marcus Jewell (CRO)