Operational and Strategic review

Execution of our strategy     

Our growth strategy is built on three pillars: disruptive innovation, commercial execution, and operational excellence. These priorities are designed to drive sustainable long-term growth and expand our share across both Research and Applied markets.

In the first half of 2025, we refined our strategic planning process to ensure we prioritise and execute on high-priority opportunities that best leverage the unique features of Oxford Nanopore's technology. This process integrates perspectives from inside and outside the Group, enabling us to focus resources where we can create the greatest long-term value for stakeholders.

Through this work, and by refining our commercial strategy across a market exceeding $150 billion1, we have identified market segments with a potential value of up to $25 billion for Oxford Nanopore. Of this, $13 to $14 billion lies within high-priority areas that the Group is best positioned to capture, underpinned by the unique features and benefits of our technology. The Group is already actively targeting a number of these high-priority segments, where we have established customer and partner engagement. In others we are developing detailed go-to-market strategies - including focused in-house product development requirements and a tailored partnership strategy- to best capture these opportunities most effectively.

Looking forward, we expect the share of value represented by these high-priority segments to increase as we continue to innovate our platform in a targeted way, accelerating commercial conversion and value capture.

This strategic planning capability is becoming an increasingly important enabler of execution as we grow and adapt to evolving market conditions. The work underway will further refine our corporate strategy to support sustained long-term revenue growth, and we look forward to sharing outcomes at investor events in Q4 and in our 2025 annual report.

¹ Source: DeciBio and company compiled estimates

Commercial execution

In the first half of 2025, we delivered strong revenue growth across all regions, and in particularly APAC and EMEAI. Revenue was generated from a diverse mix of customer segments, comprising Research (68%), BioPharma (7%), Clinical (13%), and Applied Industrial (12%).

Engagement continues to deepen across all segments, with notable momentum among Clinical, BioPharma and Industrial customers, where Oxford Nanopore's differentiated platform is increasingly being adopted to address limitations of existing technologies. Our expanding presence in applied markets combined with sustained research demand, reinforces the broad applicability of our technology across a growing customer base.

We continued to make good progress on our partnership strategy. In April, we announced a new strategic collaboration with Cepheid, a subsidiary of Danaher, to develop and commercialise a seamless end-to-end workflow that combines Cepheid's GeneXpert system for pre-sequencing sample and library preparation with Oxford Nanopore's rapid, information-rich molecular analysis platform. Cepheid are developing a simple, integrated workflow (GeneXpert-to-GridION) that can deliver results from bacterial samples in under eight hours-a workflow designed to help hospitals and clinical labs test for infections more quickly and efficiently.

 

EMEAI (Europe, Middle East, Africa and India)

 

Revenue in EMEAI was £44.6 million in the first half of 2025, representing 31% year-on-year growth (33% at constant currency), with strong performance across all subregions. Growth was driven by increased flow cell utilisation across an expanding installed base of high-output devices, alongside the continued scaling of large programmes in human genetics and rare disease.

Device revenue grew 53%, while consumables increased by 25%, driven by a 45% uplift in PromethION Flow Cell revenue. These utilisation gains were supported by enhancements to our service and support infrastructure, focused on reducing onboarding time, improving time-to-implementation, and optimising the customer experience.

In Clinical markets, revenue grew by more than 45% year-on-year, driven by broader adoption in oncology and rare disease. The Marie Curie Oncology Centre in Poland adopted Oxford Nanopore technology for genome analysis and methylation-based tumour profiling, which aims to replace short-read sequencing to access richer diagnostic insights. Adoption also continued to expand across Europe, with more sites using Oxford Nanopore for rapid CNS tumour classification-achieving turnaround times as short as 30 minutes. Similarly, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) implemented direct RNA sequencing in its radiation response and cancer surveillance work, replacing PCR and legacy platforms with Oxford Nanopore's technology to enable detection of native RNA modifications and expanded transcriptomic analysis.

In rare disease, the European Long Read Innovation Network (ELRIN) advanced delivery of its 10,000-genome three-year programme, working towards a transition from short-read sequencing to Oxford Nanopore's platform, based on improved diagnostic yield and the ability to access native methylation data.

In Research markets, momentum continued across large-scale genetic disease programmes. The NIHR Bioresource 22,000 sample study is now sequencing more than 300 genomes per week, with approximately 10,000 completed to date. Our Cancer 2.0 programme with Genomics England concluded during the period, generating strong evidence of Oxford Nanopore's value in detecting structural variation and methylation signatures in specific cancer types. Meanwhile, the Rare Disease 2.0 programme is progressing toward the production phase and offers potential to resolve unsolved cases through Oxford Nanopore sequencing.

The UK Biobank programme also made strong progress, completing its implementation and pilot phase and remains on track to enter production phase by the end of 2025. Oxford Nanopore technology will be used to generate the first large-scale epigenetic dataset, analysing 50,000 UK Biobank samples to uncover molecular drivers of cancer, dementia, and other complex diseases. The resulting multi-omic data is expected to transform how genomic data is leveraged for insights are used in early disease detection, personalised treatments, and long-term health outcomes.

In the BioPharma segment, revenue grew more than 30% year-on-year, reflecting growing adoption of Oxford Nanopore technology for quality control applications. At a large European BioPharma customer, our technology now supports QC processes across seven production sites. The customer consolidated workflows previously reliant on mass spectrometry systems and traditional Sanger sequencing, selecting Oxford Nanopore for its ability to reduce hands-on time and minimise operator variability in non-genomic environments. In parallel, a leading BioPharma organisation successfully completed evaluation of our platform for mRNA QC applications.

In Applied Industrial markets, growth was driven by expanded use of Oxford Nanopore sequencing for plasmid workflows, including new deployments by service providers in Germany.

AMR (The Americas)

 

In the first half of 2025, revenue in the Americas was £36.0 million, representing growth of 14.2% year-on-year (16.9% at constant currency), despite continued uncertainty in the U.S. research funding environment. This performance was underpinned by strong momentum across our Applied markets, with particularly strong growth in Clinical applications, where revenue increased by more than 70% year-on-year.

 

Growth in the region was driven by both new customer acquisition and increased utilisation among existing accounts. PromethION Flow Cell revenue rose by approximately 40% year-on-year, reflecting broader adoption of high-throughput sequencing and demand across a wide range of applications. Customers continued to show strong interest in features such as adaptive sampling-a method that enables real-time enrichment of specific regions of the genome during sequencing by rejecting off-target regions-and methylation analysis, which provides insight into base modifications relevant to cancer and disease.

 

In the Research segment, revenue declined modestly as delayed funding and continued caution among U.S.-based laboratories weighed on project activity. Revenue from public health and government agencies, both included in the Research segment, declined significantly year-on-year, reflecting ongoing budgetary constraints at institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, with many laboratories having delayed hiring and postponed the start of new initiatives. However, revenue from academic institutions increased by double digits year-on-year. Average order sizes in the U.S. were significantly lower than in EMEAI, with federal accounts constrained by procurement thresholds that require additional approval processes. In this environment, we may be less impacted than peers due to the accessibility and affordability of our platform, and in the U.S., revenue from Applied markets now exceeds that of research-a structural shift in our customer base.

 

Clinical revenue growth was led by large PromethION device placements across key accounts, including marquee customers utilising the platform across a variety of genomic services, for microbiology research, and rare disease testing. We also saw progress in paediatric leukaemia care, where both St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and UNC Chapel Hill demonstrated the use of Oxford Nanopore sequencing to deliver real-time results for acute myeloid leukaemia, improving turnaround times and enabling faster and more cost-effective decision-making compared to the current standard of care. The paper, published in Nature, noted that 'whole genome nanopore sequencing with adaptive sampling has the potential to provide genomic classification of acute leukemia specimens with reduced cost and turnaround time compared to the current standard of care.'

Revenue from BioPharma customers increased double digits year-on-year, supported by growing adoption of GridION Q for biomanufacturing quality control workflows. We continue to see strong interest in our technology across BioPharma customers, particularly for applications requiring real-time, multi-attribute testing in regulated environments.

 

The Applied Industrial segment also delivered growth, led by our customer Plasmidsaurus. As that business continues to expand its microbial sequencing services, it has launched new workflows for adeno-associated virus (AAV) analysis-a critical vector in gene therapy development. In addition, Plasmidsaurus is expanding into RNA and large-genome plasmid sequencing, highlighting the increasing relevance of our platform in synthetic biology and industrial applications.

 

The Americas remain a strategically important region for Oxford Nanopore. We are seeing broadening use of our platform across Applied markets, and the rapid transition to capital purchase by U.S. accounts is improving our long-term value capture.

 

 

APAC (Asia Pacific)

Revenue in Asia Pacific was £24.9 million in the first half of 2025, representing growth of 35.1% year-on-year (38.3% at constant currency). Growth was driven by strong execution across the region, supported by the expansion of our distributor network and increased demand from key service providers.

We continued to see strong growth across key customers in the period, driven by the ability of Oxford Nanopore's platform to generate rich multiomic data-including epigenetic insights such as methylation-which is increasingly underpinning new research initiatives across the region. We also saw growing interest in both direct RNA and circular RNA protocols.

A notable contributor to first-half revenue was the successful delivery of the PRECISE programme in Singapore. In collaboration with a multi-party consortium, we completed 10,200 Oxford Nanopore human genomes on schedule, meeting all contractual quality metrics. This programme demonstrated our ability to deliver complex, high-volume sequencing projects across diverse populations and now serves as a model for future national-scale initiatives.

In China, we delivered double digit revenue growth despite continued end-use control restrictions, which remain a headwind and led to the loss of two significant opportunities where export licences could not be secured. As previously highlighted, in response to constraints introduced in 2024, we developed a combined PromethION 24 and data acquisition unit that meets de minimis export requirements. We continued to expand our commercial footprint, with new service providers adopting our technology for RNA sequencing, methylation analysis and single-cell applications. We also deepened our relationship with existing providers to support broader use of our platform across genetic testing and microbial workflows.

In Japan, Cancer Precision Medicine (CPM) adopted Oxford Nanopore sequencing following positive feedback from academic key opinion leaders and increased visibility of the unique features and benefits of our technology in official workshops and policy forums. This combination of scientific endorsement and policy engagement helped underpin CPM's decision to adopt the PromethION platform for high-throughput human disease research.

Looking ahead, we see a growing opportunity in clinical applications across Asia Pacific, particularly in whole genome sequencing, hereditary cancer, and infectious disease. We are building a healthy pipeline across key markets including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong, where demand for clinical research and translational applications is supporting the next phase of growth.

 

Innovation

Our commitment to innovation remains central to our strategy, as we continue to deliver richer data, faster insights, and new capabilities across Research and Applied markets. In the first half, we made solid progress against our 2025 strategic priorities: expanding adoption in Applied markets, advancing our regulated product pipeline, simplifying the end-to-end user experience, improving product performance, and extending our multiomic capabilities.

Accelerating adoption with increasingly rich, high-performance multiomic data

We continued to improve the performance of our platforms. Our latest basecalling software, which converts raw signals into genetic data, has a clear development path to Q30 (99.9%) accuracy. In collaboration with academic partners, we released new software that allows more complete analysis of complex regions of the genome-an area of growing interest in health and disease research.

In addition, we have delivered improved performance and speed of methylation detection, with many of these now available in real-time on the instrument. This unmatched capability of detecting novel epigenetic markers will drive a new class of translational genomic tests in complex genetic disease and oncology applications.

At London Calling, our annual customer event, the team showed early data of an increased speed enzyme combined with improved flow cell buffers delivering up to 70% improvements in sequencing outputs on PromethION Flow Cells, significantly reducing the price of a genome. Making information rich genomes more accessible supports the move from legacy technologies to native DNA technologies, where additional value is generated. These improvements will be rolled out through beta programmes towards the end of the year.

 

Simplifying products and workflows to support broader usage

To support broader use of our technology, we continued to invest the simplicity and robustness of our instrument software, and our analysis platform EPI2ME. With over 20 key applications in areas such as single cell, human whole genome sequencing, infectious disease detection, cancer genetics, biomanufacturing QC and environmental monitoring, our teams can easily demonstrate the value of our platform in market areas with clear unmet needs which our technology can address.

These workflows can be automated, for further ease of use, on existing automation providers that we work with through our compatible products program, or on the ElysION instrument which is in Early Access.

Product development to enable adoption in Applied markets

In the first half, we adjusted our regulated product roadmap to focus on upgrading GridION Q, which will include the R10 and RNA chemistries for broader adoption with clinical and biomanufacturing QC customers. This upgrade also supports the roll out by the NHS Centres of Excellence for respiratory metagenomics. The GridION Q device is also expected to complete CE-IVD submission in the EU for regulated Clinical markets by the end of 2025 and will be available for specified partners only. 

As part of this shift, we moved the planned launch of our regulated PromethION Q device to 2026, to include key chemistry upgrades that will deliver step-change performance and allow us to better meet customer needs.

Advancing direct RNA sequencing to support breakthrough science

Oxford Nanopore's platform is the only single platform capable of sequencing DNA, RNA and proteins directly. In the first half of 2025, we made strong progress in this area, including the development of a new, enhanced cDNA protocol (which analyses RNA by converting it into DNA) and the launch of an Early Access direct RNA multiplexing kit that allows up to 24 RNA samples to be analysed on a single flow cell-helping customers save time and reduce costs.

These updates are delivering industry-leading performance, supporting a growing number of BioPharma applications beyond mRNA Vaccine Quality Control, including drug discovery, sterility testing, and exploring tissue-specific RNA modifications.

Our direct RNA technology is already enabling important discoveries. In a recent study, three leading research groups used our direct RNA chemistry to observe real-time changes in RNA modifications in response to glucose levels-a finding that could help advance research and treatment discovery in diabetes and metabolic disease.

Pioneering proteomics with nanopores

Our longer-term innovation strategy includes expanding into the proteomics market. Proteins are the key functional molecules in the body and offer important insights into disease and biology. In H1, we made progress across several approaches: screening different protein variants, measuring the presence of disease-related proteins, and identifying full-length proteins. Closed early access programmes for some of these approaches are on track for launch by the end of 2025. In addition, early work on de novo protein sequencing has progressed, aimed at unlocking new frontiers in full-length, reference-free protein analysis on the platform.

This work reflects our goal to create a single platform that can analyse DNA, RNA and proteins together, providing a more complete picture of biology.

 

Operational excellence

In the first half of 2025, we made continued operational advances to support our long-term growth strategy and continued global expansion. We focused on strengthening our manufacturing capabilities, optimising logistics, and improving the customer experience across key markets.

A notable milestone was the relocation of our global fulfilment centre from Harwell to the new Spectrum facility in Abingdon. This upgraded site adds significant technical capacity and supports scalable innovation to meet growing demand. In Europe, we migrated our logistics operations to UPS Healthcare in Roermond, Netherlands, enabling 30% faster lead times and cutting average delivery times by 24 hours.

We also completed the discovery phase of our Salesforce transformation programme and established a new Customer Experience Centre of Excellence. This will significantly improve the way customers quote, order, and receive support - reflecting our commitment to service quality at scale.

On the manufacturing side, we achieved improvements to flow cell quality and production stability through process optimisation and better shipping protocols. We are also continuing to introduce next-generation automated flow cell assembly lines. These lines will deliver higher throughput while occupying less space - enhancing scalability, sustainability and reproducibility.

In parallel, we upgraded supplier audits and quality assurance practices in line with ISO 13485 standards to support our regulated product lines. We also expanded our ESG and compliance efforts across the global supply chain, including stronger onboarding and training for partners, and the introduction of a new KPI dashboard to track performance and reinforce best practices.

During the period, we also delivered an operational efficiency programme that reduced our workforce by approximately 5%, and we are on track to reduce planned non-headcount related spend by approximately 5% this year. Importantly, this capital is being redirected to high priority growth areas.

These developments mark a step-change in Oxford Nanopore's operational strength and readiness for future growth, innovation, and customer success.

 

Outlook

FY25 guidance (no change):

Revenue is expected to grow by 20-23% on a constant currency basis, reflecting strong demand across the business while factoring in risks from US Federal funding, particularly at the National Institutes of Health, and tighter export control restrictions in China. Gross margin is expected to be around 59%, supported by operational improvements and the new pricing model, partially offset by the one-off inventory charge. Adjusted operating expenses are anticipated to grow by approximately 3-4%.

 

Medium-term guidance (no change):

Progressing towards profitability remains a key focus, with the Group expecting to reach adjusted EBITDA breakeven in FY27 and become cash flow positive in FY28. This is underpinned by revenue growth of more than 30% CAGR between FY24 and FY27, driven by continued penetration in the Research market and expansion into BioPharma, Clinical and Applied Industrial segments; gross margin improvement to exceed 62% by FY27 through manufacturing efficiencies, volume growth, Applied-market penetration and the updated pricing model; and operating expense growth of 3-8% CAGR, reflecting disciplined investment and leveraging of existing infrastructure.

 

Financial review

 

Revenues include fluctuations in currency unless explicitly stated otherwise.

 

Certain numerical figures included herein have been rounded. Therefore, discrepancies in between totals and the sums may occur due to such rounding.

 

Performance Summary

 

In the first half of 2025, the Group delivered results ahead of expectations, with revenue of £105.6 million (H1 2024: £84.1 million), representing growth of 28.0% at constant currency (CC) and 25.6% on a reported basis.

The Group delivered strong growth across its diverse customer base, with Applied Markets showing particularly strong momentum: revenue grew by 52.9% in Clinical, 27.4% in Applied Industrial, and 18.5% in BioPharma. Research also performed well, with revenue up 22.1%. This growth reflects the meaningful progress we've made in expanding our presence and unlocking new opportunities across all Applied segments. Regionally, performance was led by APAC and EMEAI, with revenues increasing 38.3% and 32.7% respectively on a constant currency basis. Despite continued funding pressures in the US research environment, revenue in the Americas grew 16.9% CC, supported by increasing demand within Clinical end markets in particular.

The PromethION product range grew 59.6% year-on-year, driven by increasing flow cell utilisation across larger platforms (+61%), alongside increasing number of active devices . This performance was partially offset by continued softness in the MinION range, which declined 3.1% year-on-year as customers continue to favour PromethION as a platform for human sample projects and for increased scale. Looking ahead, increasing demand for GridION Q among BioPharma customers is expected to support the next phase of growth in the MinION segment.

Gross margin decreased by 60 basis points year-on-year to 58.2%. Targeted measures to improve gross margin progressed in line with expectations and were meaningfully enhanced by increased adoption of capex purchases by customers, leading to underlying improvements of 525bps. However, these initiatives were offset in H1 by a non-cash one-off charge taken in H1 related to inventory (£3.3 million, -315bps), alongside mix (-195bps) and currency headwinds (-80bps).

The Group reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of £(48.3) million reflecting continued progress on the path to profitability. This represented both a year-on-year and sequential improvement, supported by disciplined cost control and gross profit growth. Adjusted operating costs were broadly flat year-on-year, reflecting good cost control in the period and the restructuring to support reallocation of capital to higher ROI activities as previously highlighted. We continue to assess current and future investment plans with a focus on prioritisation and return on investment to support long-term profitability.

The Group remains well capitalised with £337.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and other liquid investments as at 30 June 2025 (FY 2024: £403.8 million). Cash flow conversion is improving driven by adoption of the new pricing model and a higher proportion of capex purchases by customers, which improves working capital dynamics as the cost of leasing devices to customers fell to £5.5 million in H1 2025 from £14.4 million in H1 2024.

 

 

Results - at a glance

 

£million	H1 25	H1 24	Change (%)
Revenue	105.6	84.1	25.6%
Gross profit	61.4	49.5	24.0%
Gross margin (%)	58.2%	58.8%	(60)bps
Operating loss	(77.8)	(77.0)	1.0%
Adjusted EBITDA	(48.3)	(61.7)	+13.4
Loss for the period	(71.8)	(74.7)	+2.9
£million	30 June 2025	31 December 2024	Change (%)
Cash, cash equivalents and other liquid investments2	337.3	403.8	(16.5)%

² Cash, cash equivalents and other liquid investments includes cash and cash equivalents and investment bonds.

                                               

 

Revenue by product range

 

Revenue grew fastest across the PromethION product range primarily driven by increasing customer flow cell utilisation. This helped offset softness in the MinION product range.

 

Revenue from the PromethION product range, representing all devices and flow cell sales from the PromethION range, grew 59.6% in H1 2025 reaching £51.1 million from £32.0 million in H1 2024. The increase is driven by strong growth across both PromethION Flow Cell and device revenues. Growth across the PromethION range was supported by increasing demand from customers such as Plasmidsaurus in AMR, PRECISE in APAC and Genomics England in EMEAI.

 

Revenues from the MinION product range, representing all sales of MinION Flow Cells and devices that run MinION Flow Cells (such as GridION and MinION) declined by 3.1% to £27.6 million (H1 2024: £28.5 million) due to a mix of factors primarily related to lower flow cell revenue and currency headwinds.

 

Other revenues, representing kits, service revenues and other devices grew 14.2% to £26.9 million (H1 2024: £23.6 million).  

 

 

£million	H1 25	H1 24	Change ( %)
PromethION product range	51.1	32.0	+59.6%
MinION product range	27.6	28.5	(3.1)%
Other	26.9	23.6	+14.2%
Revenue	105.6	84.1	25.6%

 

Geographical trends 

 

 

The Group aims to make its technology available to a broad range of scientific users, and currently supports users in more than 125 countries. In some territories the Group works with distributors to achieve or enhance its own commercial presence. 

 

On a geographical basis, the strong revenue performance was driven by new and expanded contracts and increasing sales team productivity. Growth was led by APAC and EMEAI, up by 38.3% CC and 32.7% CC respectively year-on-year. Despite ongoing uncertainty in the US research environment, revenue in the Americas grew by 16.9% CC underpinned by increasing demand in Applied markets.

 

AMR revenue grew 14.2% to £36.0 million in H1 2025 (H1 2024: £31.6 million) driven primarily by growth in the US. APAC revenue grew 35.1% to £24.9 million in H1 2025 (H1 2024: £18.4 million) driven by large population genomics programmes in Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong and Indonesia, and increased revenue in China.

 

EMEAI revenue grew 31.0% to £44.6 million (H1 2024: £34.1 million) driven by new and expanded contracts delivering strong growth particularly in the UK and Europe.

 

 

£million	H1 25	H1 24	Growth (%)	Growth CC (%)
AMR	36.0	31.6	14.2%	16.9%
APAC	24.9	18.4	35.1%	38.3%
EMEAI	44.6	34.1	31.0%	32.7%
Revenue	105.6	84.1	25.6%	28.0%

 

 

Revenue by Customer Type

 

Our H1 2025 revenues by customer end market (i.e. the end market of the customer or company buying our products) is as follows:

·      68% came from Research customers who are funded to research novel science such as academic research institutes, this category includes government, public health, grant funding and distributors. Revenue of £72.1 million was 22.1% above H1 2024 of £59.0 million, driven by growth in APAC and EMEAI.

·      12% came from Applied Industrial customers, who are utilising sequencing for application in industrial or service setting e.g. outsourced Synthetic Biology. Revenue of £12.9 million was 27.4% above H1 2024 of £10.1 million.

·      13% from Clinical customers where data may have diagnostic, prognostic or therapeutic value. Revenue of £13.0 million was 52.9% above H1 2024 of £8.5 million, driven by strong growth in AMR and EMEAI.

·      7% from BioPharma customers funded to develop, make, and sell pharmaceuticals. Revenue of £7.6 million was 18.5% above H1 2024 of £6.4 million.

 

 

 

£million	H1 25	H1 24	Growth (%)
Applied Industrial	12.9	10.1	27.4%
Clinical	13.0	8.5	52.9%
BioPharma	7.6	6.4	18.5%
Research	72.1	59.0	22.1%
Revenue	105.6	84.1	25.6%

 

 

 

Gross Margin

 

The Group's Gross profit of £61.4 million was up 24% compared to H1 2024. Gross margin was down slightly to 58.2% in H1 2025 from to 58.8% in H1 2024. Underlying margin improvements (+525bps) were driven by targeted margin expansion initiatives and boosted by increased adoption of the new pricing model. However, these gains were offset by a one-off non-cash inventory charge in H1 of £3.3 million (-315bps), mix (-195bps) and currency headwinds (-80)bps.

 

We remain committed to continual margin improvement across all products and will continue to invest in manufacturing innovation, to deliver this goal.

 

 

%	H1 25	H1 24	Change
Gross margin %	58.2%	58.8%	(60)bps

 

 

 

 

Impact of headcount 

 

 

Average headcount (FTEs)	H1 25	H1 24	Change (%)
Research and development	511	504	1.4%
Production	168	156	7.7%
Selling, general & administration	646	621	4.0%
Total	1,325	1,281	3.4%

 

 

 

In H1 2025, the Group increased its average headcount by 3.4% from H1 2024. This increase was predominantly across the production and the commercial teams. The Group's manufacturing headcount has increased by 7.7% from H1 2024 with increases across production teams and supply chain to cater for increased demand from a growing client base.

 

The Group's average headcount in the selling, general and administration functions increased by 4.0% largely from expansion of the commercial teams in key geographic regions supports the Group's global business growth objectives.

 

During H1 2025 the Group entered into a targeted restructuring program, leading to a reduction in the overall workforce of around 5%, spread broadly evenly across R&D, Commercial and Corporate areas resulting in a total cash charge of £5.5 million over 2025 in relation to redundancy payments. The impact on the H1 2025 results of £4.2 million has been treated as an adjusting item in Adjusted EBITDA.

   

Research and development expenses 

 

The Group's research and development expenditure is recognised as an expense in the period as it is incurred, except for development costs that meet the criteria for capitalisation as set out in IAS 38 (intangible assets). Capitalised development costs principally comprise qualifying costs incurred in developing the Group's core technology platform.

 

 

£million	H1 25	H1 24	% Change
Research and development expenses	44.1	48.0	8.1%
Adjusting Items
Employers' social security taxes on pre-IPO share awards	(0.1)	1.5
Adjusted R&D Expenses	44.0	49.5	11.1%
Amortisation of capitalised development costs	(12.9)	(10.2)
Capitalised development expenses	20.1	15.3
Total R&D Expenses and Capitalised development expenses	51.2	54.6	6.2%

 

The Group's adjusted research and development expenses reduced by £5.5 million to £44.0 million in H1 2025 (H1 2024: £49.5 million). This was principally due to:

·      The increase in capitalised development costs of £4.8 million to £20.1 million costs as projects reached an advanced stage of development and reflecting improvements and expansion to the suite of products offered. This included £13.0 million of staff costs and £7.1 million of third-party costs.

 

·      a £3.0 million reduction in materials costs and a £0.8 million reduction in consultancy costs.

 

·      This is partly offset by £2.7 million higher amortisation costs to £12.9 million for the period, and a £0.7 million increase from share-based payments and employers social security taxes on pre-IPO share awards.

Overall investment in research and development was £51.2 million (H1 24: £54.6 million); a decrease of £3.4 million.

 

 

Selling, general and administration costs 

 

The Group's selling, general and administrative expenses increased by £16.6 million to £95.1 million.

 

 

		H1 25	H1 24	% Change
	Selling, general and administrative expenses	95.1	78.5	(21.1)%
	Adjusting items:
	Share based payments expense on Founder LTIP	(2.0)	(1.1)
	Employers' social security taxes on pre-IPO share awards  Restructuring Costs	(0.3)  (4.2)	4.1 -
	Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses	88.6	81.5	(8.7)%

 

 

On an adjusted basis, selling, general and administrative expenses increased by £7.1 million in H1 2025 to £88.6 million (H1 2024: £81.5 million). The main changes were: 

 

·      The total increase in the average headcount in selling, general and administrative of 4.0%, this was primarily driven by our planned increase in headcount in the commercial teams resulting in a £4.1 million increase in payroll costs. Staff related costs were down £1.2 million. Other operating expenses were down £3.3 million.

 

·      An exchange loss of £4.1 million primarily reflecting the impact of a weakening USD on our USD net monetary assets in GBP entities (H1 2024 credit of £0.4 million). 

 

·      Total share-based payment charge included in Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by £2.5 million in H1 2025 to £7.3 million compared to £4.8 million in H1 2024. The increase was primarily driven by an increase in the Founder LTIP charge (to £2.0 million in H1 2025 from £1.1 million in H1 2024).

 

Adjusted EBITDA

 

£million	H1 25	H1 24
Loss from operations	(77.8)	(77.0)
Depreciation and amortisation	22.9	19.8
Share based payments expense on Founder LTIP	2.0	1.1
Employers' social security taxes on pre-IPO share awards	0.4	(5.6)
Restructuring costs	4.2	-
Adjusted EBITDA	(48.3)	(61.7)

 

Adjusted EBITDA losses reduced to £(48.3) million in H1 2025 from £(61.7) million in H1 2024. This was primarily driven by increased gross profits and disciplined control of the cost base. 

 

Balance sheet 

£million	H1 25	FY 24
Property, plant and equipment	64.4	66.3
Intangible assets	51.5	43.8
Right-of-use assets	33.5	34.9
Net deferred tax asset	2.0	2.6
Working capital	64.1	59.9
Other assets and liabilities	22.8	28.2
Provisions	(8.1)	(7.2)
Cash, cash equivalents and other liquid investments	337.3	403.8
Lease liabilities	(44.1)	(46.0)
Net assets	523.4	586.3

 

Key elements of change in the balance sheet during the period comprised the following: 

·      The net book value of Property, plant and equipment was £64.4 million at 30 June 2025, a decrease of £1.9 million since 31 December 2024. This has been driven primarily by a £1.5 million reduction in the net book value of assets subject to operating leases to £33.2 million, from £34.7 million at 31 December 2024.

·      Intangible assets of £51.5 million at 30 June 2025 has increased by £7.7 million from £43.8 million at 31 December 2024 as a result of additional projects having passed through the capitalisation criteria in the period.

·      Working capital at 30 June 2025 of £64.1 million predominately reflects Inventory of £95.0 million (FY 2024: £99.5 million), trade and other receivables of £64.8 million (FY 2024 £62.7 million) and trade and other payables of £95.7 million (FY 2024 £102.3 million).

·      Net decrease of £5.4 million in Other assets and liabilities is primarily due to the a £3.3 million reduction in the R&D tax credit recoverable and £1.5 million relating to unrealised fair value movements on investment bonds.

 

Cash flow 

·      Cash, cash equivalents and other liquid investments were £337.3 million at 30 June 2025, a decrease of £66.5 million since 31 December 2024. This was comprised of cash and cash equivalents of £194.1 million and investment bonds less fair value gains of £143.2 million.

·      There was a net outflow from operating activities of £48.4 million (H1 2024 £59.9 million). This outflow included:

o  An increase in working capital of £11.7 million included £5.5 million additions to assets subject to operating leases, a reduction from £14.4 million in H1 2024 as a result of increased adoption of capex purchases by customers. Payables also decreased by £7.3 million, compared to an increase of £12.5 million in H1 2024.

o  Receipt of the R&D tax credit of £8.3 million (H1 2024: £4.9 million).

o  H1 2025 cash payments of £5.2 million relating to redundancy and associated costs of the targeted restructuring programme (expected to be a total of £5.5 million in 2025).

 

·      Net cash inflows from investing activities of £48.7 million (H1 2024: £4.3 million) included:

o  The proceeds from sale of other financial assets of £67.0 million (investment bonds).

o  Interest received of £4.2 million.

Partly offset by:

o  The purchase of property, plant & machinery of £2.4 million.

o  The capitalisation of development costs of £20.1 million.

·      Net cash outflows from financing activities of £3.4 million (H1 2024: £2.0 million) included:

o  Lease and interest payments of £4.4 million.

Partially offset by:

o  Proceeds from the issue of shares of £1.0 million.