Also, unless otherwise stated, all financial measures discussed on this call other than revenue will be on a non-GAAP basis. I'll hand the call over to Jonathan to discuss our financial results in more detail and provide our outlook for the remainder of the year. In the first quarter, we generated revenue of $216.5 million, representing 14% year-over-year growth. We also delivered adjusted EBITDA of $60 million or 27.7% of revenue and generated Free Cash Flow of $44.2 million.

Starting with sales, we had a strong quarter of bookings activity to start the year, building on the momentum we carried out of 2025 with a record bookings performance for our first quarter. As we've discussed in recent quarters, the cost and complexity of fraud continues to increase across financial institutions. We're seeing continued demand across our platform, strong engagement from both new and existing customers, and increasing alignment between our product portfolio and the strategic priorities of financial Institutions. While the core processor is the transactional system of record, Q2 sits in the flow of every digital interaction, seeing every login, transaction, alert, message, and user decision.

That network took more than two decades to build and operate at scale, and it matters because AI is only valuable as the places it can actually be deployed. Our customers are eager to adopt AI, we have also seen an increase in customer conversations around the importance of managing data, privacy, and access. We believe that our sustained bookings performance, particularly coming off a strong second half of 2025, suggests that the demand environment remains healthy. Even with the continued sales execution, our pipeline is strong, giving us confidence in our ability to continue executing in 2026.

What went well
  • First-quarter revenue landed in line with the high end of guidance and adjusted EBITDA came in meaningfully above, with record results across revenue, gross margin, and adjusted EBITDA.
  • Delivered the best-ever first-quarter bookings performance, subscription revenue grew 17% year-over-year (83% of total revenue), and total ARR grew 12% to $945 million with subscription ARR up 14% to $802 million.
  • Gross margin expanded to 62.1% from 57.9% a year earlier and adjusted EBITDA margin reached 27.7%, up approximately 630 basis points year-over-year, aided by completion of the company's cloud migration.
  • Won a significant digital-banking expansion when existing customer Synovus merged with Pinnacle Financial Partners and the combined institution selected Q2, alongside a new-enterprise fraud win, and noted lengthening expansion-deal terms as a sign of customer commitment.
  • Generated $56 million of cash flow from operations and $44 million of free cash flow, and set full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $237-$242 million (about 27% of revenue).
What went wrong
  • Total ARR growth of 12% continued to trail subscription ARR growth of 14%, reflecting the ongoing drag from non-subscription-based revenue.
  • Management cautioned that sequential backlog can fluctuate quarter to quarter depending on the renewal opportunities available in a given period.

More on Q2 Holdings, Inc.

Reported 2026-04-29 · figures from the Q2 Holdings, Inc. Q1 2026 earnings call.

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