Before we get started, please note that today's comments include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future financial guidance. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is provided in today's earnings materials, which can also be found on our investor relations website. We are pleased with the ACV team's execution in Q4, delivering revenue at the high end of guidance and Adjusted EBITDA above the high end. Turning to 2026, we are expecting revenue growth in the low double digits and Adjusted EBITDA growth of approximately 28%, which includes additional growth investments to support our medium-term financial targets.
We're confident that executing on this profitable growth strategy will create significant long-term shareholder value. For the full year, we delivered 19% revenue growth and grew units by over 86,000, or 12% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA grew by over 100%, demonstrating the scale in our model. Next, on slide five, we'll again focus our discussion around the three pillars of our strategy to maximize long-term shareholder value: growth, innovation, and scale.
On slide seven, we highlight how ACV is leveraging AI to attract new buyers and sellers, increase penetration and wallet share, and gain traction with large dealer groups. Our highly accurate, condition-adjusted pricing guidance enabled sellers to set more informed reserve prices. Our franchise rooftop penetration achieved a new milestone, reaching 35% during the year, and our major account team delivered impressive results with a 300 basis point increase in rooftop penetration. ClearCar is also an effective lever to increase wholesale wallet share and attract new dealers to our marketplace.
| Metric | Period | Current guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Q1 2026 | $200M-$204M, growth of 9%-12% |
| Adjusted EBITDA | Q1 2026 | $14M-$16M, reflecting a 7%-8% margin |
| Revenue | FY2026 | $845M-$855M, growth of 11%-13% (low double digits), assuming go-to-market investments drive slightly higher growth in the second half |
| Adjusted EBITDA | FY2026 | $73M-$77M, growth of approximately 28% year-over-year |
| Adjusted EBITDA margin | FY2026 | Expected to increase by approximately 100 basis points year-over-year, even with growth investments |
| Non-GAAP OpEx (excl. cost of revenue) growth | FY2026 | Approximately 9% year-over-year, including ~$11M additional go-to-market spending |
| Auction & assurance ARPU | FY2026 | Modeled roughly flat to up very modestly from $528 |
| Metric | YoY | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | +15% to $184M (Q4); +19% (FY) | Solid execution in dealer wholesale despite challenging market conditions, plus strong ACV Transportation and ACV Capital performance; landed at the high end of guidance against a very strong Q4 2024. |
| Units sold | 193,000 (Q4); +12% / +86,000 (FY) | Continued market-share gains and dealer network expansion, though Q4 faced a tougher year-over-year comparison. |
| Adjusted EBITDA | +36% to $8M (Q4); +100%+ (FY) | Strong expense discipline and operating leverage in the model; exceeded the high end of the guidance range. |
| Auction & assurance revenue | +11% (55% of total) | 5% unit growth against a very tough comparison of 27% unit growth and 40% revenue growth in Q4 2024. |
| Auction & assurance ARPU | +6% to $528 (+4% QoQ) | Bounced back from $508 in Q3 (and $523 in Q2); revenue per unit held up healthy despite competition and prior-quarter seller incentives. |
| Marketplace services revenue | +23% (39% of total) | Continued strong performance from ACV Transportation and ACV Capital. |
| SaaS & data services revenue | +8% (5% of total) | Year-over-year growth accelerated, supported by ClearCar and ACV MAX traction. |
| ACV Transportation revenue | +20% (110,000 transports) | AI-optimized pricing drove growth and operating efficiency; revenue margin reached the midterm target in the low 20s, with off-platform service gaining traction. |
| ACV Capital revenue | +48% | New growth strategies and process enhancements, achieved while actively reducing exposure to higher-risk customer segments. |
| Non-GAAP cost of revenue (% of revenue) | +~400 bps | Primarily higher arbitration costs within a specific customer cohort, expected to normalize in 2026 after litigation steps. |
| Non-GAAP OpEx excl. cost of revenue (% of revenue) | -~400 bps | Operating leverage in the model. |
| Sell-through / conversion rate | +150 bps | Growth of the guarantee/no-reserve offering, stricter marketplace rules removing overpriced-car sellers, and improving buyer NPS lifted conversion while competitors were flat or down. |
| Topic | Previous mention | Current period | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACV Guarantee / no-reserve auctions | Fastest-growing channel; incentivizing power sellers to try guarantee | Guarantee mix rose to 19% of units in Q4 (already in the ~20% range early in Q1), delivering a 100% conversion rate; management would be ecstatic to reach the mid-20% range in 2026, with a halo effect drawing over 10 bidders per car (up from 9.8). | — |
| VIPER consumer-sourcing platform | In development | Commercial launch kicking off with select partners at ~5-10 units per month, targeting 100-200 units in the field this year (200+ hand-raisers already); goal is to scale early next year once it proves it helps dealers buy more cars, produce retail photos faster, and grow service revenue (e.g., predicting tire depth at >90% confidence); ~high-single-digit millions of incremental CapEx. | — |
| Regional / footprint expansion | Q3: identified emerging regions needing more territory managers and VCI footprint | Hiring and training of inspectors and territory managers began in Q4 and continues through 2026 (20-30 in training now), targeting the desired national footprint by end of Q3; ~$11M incremental go-to-market spend, with regions like the Carolinas, South Florida, Southern California, and East Texas showing strong Q4 unit growth. | — |
| AI as differentiator and disruption risk | — | Management positions ACV as the AI disruptor in automotive, predicting retail price within $38 and wholesale value within $100 (backed by guarantee), leveraging proprietary data from over 1 million cars inspected per year and bidirectional DMS integration; argues new startups would need hundreds of millions to billions plus the data to compete. | — |
| Arbitration and marketplace governance | Elevated arbitration costs in a specific cohort | Moved out bad actors in Nov/Dec 2025, implemented litigation steps and stricter platform policies already showing positive returns in early 2026; expanding inspector headcount will validate arbitration claims by putting ACV's own eyes on cars, speeding resolution. | — |
| Dealer wholesale market and digital penetration | Prudent to assume market flat in 2026 (November view) | View unchanged at flattish for 2026 despite January dealer wholesale down 6.5%; ~70% of dealer wholesale still happens at physical auctions (only ~30% moved to digital), leaving a long runway, with potential tailwinds from tax refunds and off-lease supply. | — |
| Commercial wholesale strategy | Building capabilities | First greenfield remarketing center live in Houston, powering an end-to-end digital commercial vehicle remarketing model, with an additional greenfield location planned for Chicago this year. | — |
| Helping dealers run their business better / new business model | — | Service-drive acquisition scaling (some rooftops buying 4%-10% of repair orders, one buying 150+ cars/month), with a future VIPER model (details mid-2026) built on a several-thousand-dollar monthly subscription plus a wholesale-volume rebate — a win-win whether revenue comes as SaaS or wholesale (potential 20%-30%+ TAM expansion per rooftop). | — |