Viant Technology Inc. (DSP) Earnings

Management highlights

• Strategic Positioning and Market Inflection - Viant has entered a new phase of accelerated growth, with the largest new business pipeline in company history, and is positioned to capitalize on secular trends including linear TV budget migration to CTV and the shift of performance budgets from search/social to CTV - Management notes that advertisers are increasingly prioritizing independent, objective DSP partners (aligned with advertiser incentives rather than walled gardens that own their own inventory, which have conflicting incentives to capture budget at the expense of campaign efficiency) - The company expects to continue gaining market share as friction with competitors drives budget reallocations to Viant • Proprietary Intelligence Layer Expansion - Vyance Identity Intelligence: Powered by patented Household ID, which is embedded in 80% of all programmatic bid requests and 96% of CTV bid requests, with 4x the coverage of competing solutions, mapped to 95% of U.S. household addresses; Household ID revenue attributable to the solution achieved its strongest YoY growth in five quarters - IRIS Content ID: Provides granular show-level targeting (vs competitors' app-level visibility), currently enabled across leading CTV OEMs and streaming services, with nearly 50% bid stream penetration; rollouts planned across Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock and other major platforms in H2 2026, pushing penetration to ~70% by end of 2026 - T-Vision Attention Intelligence: Post-acquisition integration is tracking ahead of schedule; 42 pilot campaigns targeting high-attention inventory saw over 80% achieve higher conversion rates than benchmarks, with an average 1.4x conversion lift; commercial rollout is being accelerated ahead of schedule, and the solution enables pre-bid targeting based on attention value, a proprietary capability no competitor offers • Viant AI and Autonomous Products - The recently launched Outcomes autonomous ad product, designed to compete with walled garden performance products (Google PMAX, Meta Advantage+), already accounts for 5% of total year-to-date ad spend, just six months after launch; Outcomes unlocks CTV as a performance destination for performance advertisers currently limiting spend to search and social - Lattice Brain AI architecture processes real-time proprietary intelligence signals to autonomously optimize campaigns at a level of precision unachievable by humans • Direct Access CTV Growth - Direct access, Viant's direct publisher integration model, delivers 35% lower CPMs for advertisers; over 80% of CTV spend now runs through direct access, up from ~50% in Q1; Viant expects this to rise to over 90% near-term as new publishers are onboarded, with a long-term target of nearly 100% • Financial and Operational Efficiency - Trailing 12-month contribution XTAC per employee increased over 7% YoY, marking 12 straight quarters of improvement, demonstrating consistent productivity gains; the company has a strong balance sheet with $193.1 million cash, zero debt, enabling organic innovation and opportunistic M&A - Cumulatively, $60.6 million has been returned to shareholders via share repurchases since program launch in May 2024, with $39.4 million remaining in authorization as of August 7, 2026

Guidance

• Q3 2026 guidance (midpoint assumes record Q3 performance across all key metrics): - Revenue: $107.5 million to $110.5 million, representing 27% YoY growth - Contribution XTAC: $65 million to $67 million, representing 25% YoY growth - Non-GAAP operating expenses: $46.5 million to $47.5 million, representing 27% YoY growth at the midpoint - Adjusted EBITDA: $18.5 million to $19.5 million, representing 19% YoY growth at the midpoint, with an expected adjusted EBITDA margin of 29% as a percentage of contribution XTAC • Full-year 2026 and long-term guidance: - Contribution XTAC growth is expected to continue accelerating sequentially through the end of 2026, and will consistently outpace the 13% projected growth of the broader U.S. programmatic market, driving further market share gains - Revenue and contribution XTAC are expected to grow faster than non-GAAP operating expenses on an annual basis, leading to modest full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA margin expansion - The company maintains a long-term target of consistent 20%+ annual top-line growth and continued adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, with a target of reaching 40%+ adjusted EBITDA margins over the next several years - Political ad spend is expected to contribute ~200 bps to second half 2026 results, which management describes as de minimis

Segment performance

Viant Technology does not break out performance across separate product segments in the Q2 2026 earnings call, but reports aggregate and channel-specific performance as follows: - Total Q2 2026 revenue: $104.3 million, up 34% year-over-year (YoY) and 18% sequentially, exceeding the high end of guidance by 3% - Contribution XTAC: $60.2 million, up 24% YoY and 20% sequentially - Adjusted EBITDA: $14.2 million, up 26% YoY and 46% sequentially, exceeding the high end of guidance; 24% of contribution XTAC, up 30 bps YoY - CTV ad spend: increased nearly 50% YoY, representing over 50% of total platform spend (all-time high), with over 80% of CTV spend transacted through Viant's direct access, up from just over 50% in Q1 2026 - Total video (inclusive of CTV): represented 65% of total platform spend, a new record - Emerging digital channels (CTV, streaming audio, digital out of home): collectively represented over 60% of total advertiser spend, up from 54% for full-year 2025 - Non-GAAP operating expenses: $46 million, up 24% YoY and 13% sequentially, partially due to the May 1, 2026 acquisition of T-Vision - Cash from operating activities: $28.5 million, up 36% YoY; free cash flow: $22.4 million, up 39% YoY - End of quarter cash and cash equivalents: $193.1 million, no debt, with $75 million undrawn credit facility

Risks & headwinds

• Forward-looking statements (including all guidance, growth projections, and strategic expectations) are based on assumptions that are subject to future risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from projected results; the company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements unless required by law • Key risks are detailed in the company's Q2 2026 Form 10-Q and other SEC filings, specifically under the Risk Factors section • Competition from large walled garden platforms (Google, Amazon, Meta, The Trade Desk) creates ongoing market competition, though management positions Viant's differentiated proprietary intelligence and independent alignment with advertisers as a competitive advantage

Analyst Q&A

• Q: What drove the sharp quarterly increase in direct access CTV spend penetration? /

  A: Management states the step change came from three main sources: existing customers shifting more budget after being educated on the average 35% CPM savings direct access delivers; the high quality of premium publishers and OEMs already available in the direct access network; and direct access being positioned as a core offering to new customers, especially large enterprise clients, who prioritize the cost savings. All three factors combined drove the sharp increase in penetration in Q2.

• Q: How would you explain the large growth differential between Viant's strong performance and The Trade Desk's weaker recent results? /

  A: Management attributes the gap to Viant's focus on differentiated proprietary intelligence, versus competitors' reliance on undifferentiated third-party data that is available across all platforms. Viant's focus on independent, advertiser-aligned measurement that prioritizes growing clients' top-line results (in contrast to walled gardens' conflicting incentives) also creates a key competitive advantage, especially as DSP selection is increasingly decided by CTV capabilities, where Viant's proprietary Household ID, IRIS Content ID, and T-Vision attention data create unmatchable value.

• Q: What is the timeline for new RFP pipeline to contribute to growth, and how is Viant positioning to capitalize on current industry demand-side disruption? /

  A: Management notes some pipeline will contribute to Q4 2026 growth, but most of the current pipeline follows an annual testing and deployment cycle, with major shifts and revenue contributions expected to occur in 2027. Viant positions itself by leading with tangible, proprietary differentiators (Household ID scale, granular IRIS Content ID, 35% CPM savings via direct access, T-Vision attention data) and translates these capabilities into direct top-line value for client brands, which contrasts with competing platforms' less advertiser-aligned incentives. Independent T-Vision measurement also builds trust with brands evaluating their current channel spend allocation.

• Q: What is the impact of the T-Vision acquisition on margins, and how material is political ad spend to 2026 guidance? /

  A: The T-Vision acquisition created a 150 bps drag on Q2 2026 EBITDA margins, and is expected to create a 200 bps margin drag in Q3 2026. Political ad spend is expected to add just 200 bps to second half 2026 revenue, which management calls de minimis, as Viant does not have a dedicated political sales team and has never been a major political player. Management confirms underlying growth outside political spend is durable and sustainable into 2027.