Second Quarter Revenue of $33.1 Million up 13% YoY
(All monetary figures are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated)
TORONTO, Aug. 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — illumin Holdings Inc. (TSX:ILLM, OTCQB:ILLMF) (“illumin” or the “Company”), the advertising technology platform that enables advertisers to see more and achieve more, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025.
Second Quarter 2025 Highlights
- Second quarter 2025 revenue rose 13% year-over-year to $33.1 million, driven by growth in Exchange service and Self service revenue, partially offset by a decrease in Managed service revenue.
- Self service revenue was $9.2 million, representing 28% of total revenue and an increase of 5% compared with the year ago period.
- The Company onboarded 31 new Self service clients during the quarter, reflecting sales initiatives targeting higher-spend clients and positioning the Company for continued long-term Self service revenue growth.
- Managed service revenue was $10.9 million, down 24% year-over-year, reflective of a period where new client acquisition continued to be challenging and existing clients reduced spend.
- Exchange service revenue increased by 114% year-over-year to $13.0 million, driven by customer growth in this service line as well as increased volume of spend, largely due to improvements made in our platform AI and an expanded sales team.
- Gross margin was 43%, reflecting higher revenue in service lines with lower margins.
- Net revenue, or Gross Profit (revenue less media-related costs), was $14.4 million, up 3% compared with $14.0 million in the prior year period.
- Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $1.0 million, compared to a profit of $0.5 million in the prior year period, primarily attributable to higher operating costs in Sales and marketing and Technology, partly offset by higher revenues with lower gross margins as a result of the product mix.
- Net loss was $5.8 million, compared to $1.0 million in Q2 2024. This was primarily a result of lower Adjusted EBITDA as mentioned above, a net foreign exchange loss versus a gain in the prior year period, and higher severance expenses as part of the organizational restructuring completed near the end of the quarter.
- During the quarter, the company launched its new AI forecasting tool to Self service customers as part of its platform. Launched mid-quarter, the tool has generated strong customer interest, with testing by over 60% of existing users and daily engagement from more than 20%. These figures align well with internal targets for driving future adoption, spend performance, and customer retention.
- On December 23, 2024, the Company commenced a new normal course issuer bid (“2024 NCIB”) for its common shares that will remain open until December 22, 2025, or such earlier time as the 2024 NCIB is completed or terminated at the option of the Company. For the three months ended June 30, 2025, the Company acquired 311,618 common shares at an average price of $1.76 per share for a total of $548,448.
Simon Cairns, illumin’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “For the second quarter, we generated solid revenue growth of 13% year-over-year driven by strong growth in Exchange service revenue and steady performance in Self service revenue, supported by strong new logo adoption. In Exchange service, we have been very successful this year in creating and capturing new and recurring customer demand, due to targeted investments in technology and sales to strengthen our competitive position.”
“Self service revenue growth remained firm in the second quarter, representing 28% of total revenue. We successfully onboarded 31 new Self service clients during the quarter, demonstrating the success of our sales initiatives targeting higher-spend clients as we see further progress in raising customer adoption, conversion and spend performance in this segment.”
“For Managed service, we continued to see challenges that we saw in the first quarter. We are developing a solution that can stabilize this revenue line, as well as benefit Self service. Our plan is to implement in-market as quickly as possible.”
“As we enter the second half of the year, we’re focused on a clear product differentiation strategy, pursuing our client acquisition strategy and expansion, and further streamlining operations to support our cost controls as we navigate a shifting market. Partly due to the changes we see in Managed service, we implemented a number of cost reduction and restructuring initiatives late in the quarter to enhance our profitability in the near term. These include changes throughout our management team, a reduction in our total workforce, and reprioritized planned investments in research and development, and marketing. We expect these initiatives will improve our financial profile, generate higher margins, and drive towards positive cash flow while still enabling us to focus on enhancing the customer lifetime value of our platform and our ability to generate platform returns over time.”
Elliot Muchnik, illumin’s Chief Financial Officer, commented, “Our second quarter year-over-year revenue growth reflects another strong performance in Exchange service, as our targeted efforts to drive adoption and expand demand gained more traction. At the same time, during the quarter we took restructuring actions across the organization to reduce operating expenses and improve cash flow generation. Looking ahead, we remain focused on balancing cost management with investments in key growth initiatives to increase sales and produce meaningful progress in profitability.”
The actions associated with the Company’s cost reduction and restructuring initiatives, net of planned growth within the salesforce and other critical areas, will have reduced the Company’s North American workforce by 10%. In addition, the Company will be decreasing its real estate footprint, reorganizing sales, marketing, and administrative activities to lower expenses while identifying efficiencies to drive sales and conduct operations more effectively. The Company expects to complete these initiatives by year-end.
The following table presents a reconciliation of Net loss to Adjusted EBITDA for the periods ended:
| Three months ended | Six months ended | |||||||||||||
| June 30, | June 30, | June 30, | June 30, | |||||||||||
| 2025 | 2024 | 2025 | 2024 | |||||||||||
| Net loss for the period | $ | (5,814 | ) | $ | (1,014 | ) | $ | (7,668 | ) | $ | (2,152 | ) | ||
| Adjustments: | ||||||||||||||
| Finance income, net | (309 | ) | (469 | ) | (646 | ) | (975 | ) | ||||||
| Foreign exchange loss (gain) | 1,557 | (556 | ) | 1,246 | (1,942 | ) | ||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 1,491 | 1,387 | 2,873 | 2,752 | ||||||||||
| Income tax expense (benefit) | (435 | ) | (491 | ) | (498 | ) | (113 | ) | ||||||
| Share-based compensation | 1,053 | 1,108 | 1,790 | 1,807 | ||||||||||
| Severance expenses | 1,415 | 10 | 1,449 | 100 | ||||||||||
| Nasdaq-related costs1 | – | 313 | – | 736 | ||||||||||
| Other non-recurring expenses | 61 | 227 | 61 | 316 | ||||||||||
| Total adjustments | 4,833 | 1,529 | 6,275 | 2,681 | ||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | (981 | ) | $ | 515 | $ | (1,393 | ) | $ | 529 | ||||
(1) Nasdaq-related costs are listing fees and directors’ and officers’ insurance specific to the Company’s Nasdaq listing and have been reclassed below Adjusted EBITDA as they are not recurring.
Conference Call Details:
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2025
Time: 8:30AM Eastern Time
To register for the conference call webcast and presentation, please visit: https://events.illumin.com/q2-2025-earnings-call
Please connect 15 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure time for any software download that may be needed to hear the webcast.
A recording of the conference call webcast will be available after the call by visiting the Company’s website at https://illumin.com/investor-information/.
Non-IFRS Measures
This press release makes reference to certain non-IFRS Accounting Standard measures (“non-IFRS measures”). These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS Accounting Standards (“IFRS”), do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS, and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Rather, these measures are provided as additional information to complement those IFRS measures by providing further understanding of our results of operations from management’s perspective. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for analysis of our financial information reported under IFRS. We use non-IFRS measures including “revenue less media-related costs”, “Gross margin”, and “Adjusted EBITDA” (as well as other measures discussed elsewhere in this press release).
The term “Gross margin” refers to the amount that “revenue less media-related costs” represents as a percentage of total revenue for a given period. Gross margin is used for internal management purposes as an indicator of the performance of the Company’s solution in balancing the goals of delivering excellent results to advertisers while meeting the Company’s margin objectives and, accordingly, the Company believes it is useful supplemental information.
“Adjusted EBITDA” refers to net income (loss) after adjusting for finance costs (income), impairment loss, fair value gain, income taxes, foreign exchange loss (gain), depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation, acquisition and related integration costs, severance expenses, adjustments to the carrying value of investment tax credits receivable, and other non-recurring items. The Company believes that Adjusted EBITDA is useful supplemental information as it provides an indication of the results generated by the Company’s main business activities before taking into consideration how those activities are financed and taxed and prior to taking into consideration depreciation of property and equipment and certain other items listed above. It is a key measure used by the Company’s management and board of directors to understand and evaluate the Company’s operating performance, to prepare annual budgets and to help develop operating plans.
These non-IFRS measures are used to provide investors with supplemental measures of our operating performance and thus highlight trends in our business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS measures. We believe that securities analysts, investors, and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS measures in the evaluation of issuers, and that these non-IFRS measures are relevant to their analysis of the Company.
About illumin:
illumin is evolving the digital advertising landscape by empowering marketers to achieve transformative results through its customer-centric approach. Featuring a unified canvas built around the open web, illumin lets brands and agencies seamlessly plan, build, and execute campaigns across the entire marketing funnel—connecting programmatic channels, email, and social media within a single platform. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, illumin serves clients across North America, Latin America, and Europe. For more information, visit illumin.com.
Disclaimer with regard to forward looking statements
Certain statements included herein constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect, in particular, new information or future events.
For further information, please contact:
| Steve Hosein Investor Relations illumin Holdings Inc. 416-218-9888 x 5313 investors@illumin.com |
David Hanover Investor Relations – U.S. KCSA Strategic Communications 212-896-1220 dhanover@kcsa.com |
|
Please note that the following financial information is an extract from the Company’s Condensed Interim Consolidated Financial Statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025 and 2024 (the “Financial Statements”) provided for readers’ convenience and should be viewed in conjunction with the Notes to the Financial Statements, which are an integral part of the statements. The full Financial Statements and MD&A for the period may be found by accessing SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.
illumin Holdings Inc.
Condensed Interim Consolidated Statements of Financial Position
(Unaudited)
(In thousands of Canadian dollars)
| June 30, 2025 |
December 31, 2024 |
||||||
| Assets | |||||||
| Current assets | |||||||
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 48,267 | $ | 55,952 | |||
| Accounts receivable | 29,621 | 44,650 | |||||
| Income tax receivable | 400 | 613 | |||||
| Prepaid expenses and other | 3,283 | 2,864 | |||||