AI Company Appier Doubles Q3 Operating Profit, Raises Full-Year Guidance for Second Consecutive Quarter
Appier reported Q3 earnings with operating profit up 104.7% YoY and record-high gross margins, leading to another upward revision of its full-year profit guidance.
Appier, an AI-native company centered on Agentic AI-as-a-Service (AaaS), released its fiscal year 2026 third-quarter earnings report. Quarterly revenue reached JPY 13.9 billion, growing 21.8% year-on-year. Operating profit hit JPY 2.1 billion, a 104.7% increase from the same period last year, significantly exceeding previous Q3 guidance. Revenue, gross profit, gross margin, and operating profit all set historical highs. Based on strong core business growth and profitability, Appier raised its full-year 2026 guidance for the second consecutive quarter, increasing the annual operating profit target to JPY 5.9 billion and the projected cash dividend per share to JPY 2.50.
Core business revenue for the third quarter was JPY 13.4 billion, up 27.1% year-on-year, surpassing the original 25% growth target. The gross margin improved to 61.3%, higher than 60.1% in the second quarter, representing a 7.2 percentage point increase year-on-year. Appier attributed the margin expansion to continuous Agentic engineering improvements in R&D efficiency and differentiated algorithms enhancing customer return on investment. Regionally, the US and EMEA accounted for 21% of total revenue, with core business revenue growing 49% year-on-year. Northeast Asia, comprising 71% of total revenue, saw core business revenue grow 33% year-on-year, driven by strong performance in its Ad Cloud business.
In terms of operational efficiency, after fully adopting Agentic AI, quarterly gross profit per employee rose 45% year-on-year to JPY 11.34 million, a historical high. Excluding currency effects, average quarterly revenue per core client (ARPC) increased 10% year-on-year to JPY 5.72 million. The ratio of operating expenses to gross profit fell to 78%, a historical low, indicating that productivity gains from AI over the past three years are accumulating. Despite headwinds from exchange rates, R&D investment remained stable, with the company emphasizing that the improvement stems from operational efficiency rather than reduced investment scale.