DEV Information Technology Ltd

NSE:DEVIT

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for DEV IT's Q4 FY '26 Earnings Conference Call. On behalf of the entire DEV IT team, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our investors, analysts, shareholders and other participants joining us today. We truly appreciate your continued trust, support and interest in our company. As you all know, that DEV IT has evolved significantly since its inception in 1997. Today, we are a diversified technology service company, helping enterprise accelerate their digital transformation journey through our capability across AI, blockchain, cybersecurity, cloud services, enterprise applications, digital transformation, managed IT services and application development, which we call end-to-end IT services.

Over the years, we have built long-standing customer relationships by combining technology expertise with a deep understanding of business requirements. As you all know that our philosophy is people first and business always, and that is how our customer relationship, our customer retainership, our vendor retainership and above all, our employee retentionship is really strong. Our focus has always been on delivering measurable outcomes for our customers while maintaining a strong execution culture. What differentiates DEV IT in our ability to offer end-to-end technology solutions supported by strong domain expertise, quality driven processes and a customer-centric approach, we work closely with clients to understand their business objectives and deliver solutions that improve operational efficiency, strengthen competitiveness and support long-term growth.

Our investments in cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurities, enterprise applications and managed IT services continue to strengthen our positioning in a rapidly evolving technology landscape. Coming to our quarterly performance, Q4 FY '26 was a very important quarter for the company. If I can take you to what we have envisaged or strategized when we started last financial year, because of geopolitical situation, we -- as a management, we decided to focus mainly on revenue, existence and India market so that our revenue growth, our existence and our technology focus remain intact.

And that's been the case for entire year. On a consolidated basis, our total income increased by 8.1% year-on-year to INR 56 crores. EBITDA grew by 68.5% to INR 5.04 crores, while EBITDA margin improved by 322 basis points to 8.99% compared to 5.77% in the corresponding quarter last year. The improvement in profitability reflects our -- sorry, net profit stood at around INR 8.96 crores as against INR 1.13 crores in quarter FY '25. The improvement in profitability reflects our continued focus on operational efficiency, disciplined execution and improving business quality. During the quarter, we continued to strengthen our technology capabilities while maintaining healthy momentum on -- across all the services portfolio, which is our cloud AI, blockchain, cybersecurity and data and data center.

FY '26 was a significant year for entire DEV IT. On a consolidated basis, we reported total income of around INR [193.50] crores, reflecting steady growth in a dynamic market environment. If you recall, we projected around INR 190 crores to INR 200 crores revenue for FY '26. EBITDA stood to INR 7.23 crores with an EBITDA margin of INR 3.74 crores. Here, we have seen not projected value which we envisaged because of various reasons, which I'll discuss later on. During the year, the company reported a net profit of INR 75.60 crores and diluted earnings per share of INR 13.25, which includes an exceptional unutilized gain arising from the reclassification of our Dev accelerator investment following its IPO.

Beyond the reported numbers, FY '26 was a year of significance, year of strengthening our strategic position expanding technology capabilities, expanding our physical presence, deepening client relationships and building a stronger foundation for future growth. Several important milestones which we achieved during the year reinforce our long-term growth strategy. As you all know that last year, during the call, we have also projected that we want our physical presence in North America. We want to have more and more business on our focused technological area called ABCV, AI, blockchain, cloud, cybersecurity, data and data center. to strengthen and to continue that goal which we set last year so that we can build stronger presence and stronger business for DEV IT in coming years. We have strategically aligned with XDuce Infotech, which is U.S.A.-based IT service company, and they acquired 25% stake of the company through market value from promoters.

This partnership is expected to strengthen our capabilities in high-growth areas such as AI, cybersecurity, international market expansion. As you all know that XDuce in U.S.A. and in U.K., they have strong on-site presence. They do have a similar kind of services which DEV IT has. So it's a very natural alignment which we have seen as compared to other opportunities which we got last year in -- after October. And then we decided that XDuce is the right match for DEV IT because we want our presence in North America market. We want physical delivery capability for our customers so that we can achieve more customers, we can achieve more market, and we can also achieve more profitability for the company.

Best part for this entire alignment is as our focus is also on cybersecurity, XDuce does have acquired a company called Fizen Tech, which is a SOC 2 compliance company in U.S.A. having their physical presence in Tampa. And they have their own intellectual property, IP, product called Verify, which is very important for cybersecurity area as well as BFSI segment. This will increase our cybersecurity portfolio down the line. We also have signed an exclusive master distribution agreement with A21 Technologies to scale our AI-powered intelligence platform across India. This will create new opportunities in rapidly growing AI and product ecosystem in India as well as MENA region. As you all know that Tally has its own presence and Talligence is one of the unique AI-powered SaaS-based product, which is very useful for any client who is using Tally. And Tally has more than 2 million clients across India and more than 1 million clients outside India.

And A21 is one of the biggest strong partner network of Tally, which is a consortium of Tally's biggest 21 partners across India. And having this distribution will give more, you can say, vehicle and more acceleration to Talligence to acquire more and more customers. Another notable achievement which we secured is also a very unique one that all Microsoft 6 solution designation partner certification, which we achieved last year, that will give us more strengthening and more presence in Microsoft ecosystem, not only in India, but also in North America, U.K. and Australia. This accomplishment validates our technical expertise and strengthens our positioning with the Microsoft ecosystem, as I told earlier, enabling us to participate in larger and more complex enterprise transformation opportunities.

During the year, we also took important strategic initiatives to sharpen our business focus. The Board approved the transfer of Talligence and ByteSIGNER product businesses to Byte Technosys Private Limited for cash consideration of approximately INR 11.90 crores. We believe this step will support better value creation and allow greater focus on scaling our core technological service business. Additionally, we continued investing in our people through employee stock ownership, ESOP, initiatives, reinforcing our commitment to attract, retain and reward high-quality talent. The broader technology services industry continues to benefit from strong structural tailwinds. Enterprises across sectors are increasingly investments in -- increasing their investment in cloud adoption, digital transformation, cybersecurity, AI, automation and data modernization.

Organizations are seeing trusted technology partners who can help them improve efficiency, enhance customer experiences and build resilient digital infrastructure. You must have seen that we have acquired many notable and big clients, not only outside India, but also in India that too in government as well as in corporate sector. At the same time, India's rapidly expanding digital economy and increasing technology penetration will continue to create significant long-term opportunities for the industry. If you have seen our growth in acquiring more and more India market, so what we have seen that -- and we have strategized that we will keep our focus on India market as well. We don't want to dilute everything to our export business so that any geopolitical situation can disrupt our company existence.

So though our India market is not so attractive as compared to export market as far as profitability is concerned, but it gives us lots of learning, lots of strength and lots of visibility in the entire ecosystem. As we all know that India domestic market is also growing faster than our export business. This will give us more weightage down the line when more and more companies in corporate world as well as in government will adopt digital transformation. This will definitely give us long-term opportunities and long-term value for entire company. Looking ahead, our priorities remain very clear. We will be focusing on ABCV, which is AI, BI, blockchain, cybersecurity and cloud, data and data center. We will continue strengthening our services capabilities, expanding customer relationships, increasing our presence across high-growth technology segments like North America, U.K. and Australia, New Zealand region and investing in more emerging technologies that align with evolving customer requirements.

Our diversified portfolio, strong execution capabilities, strategic partnerships and customer-centric approach position us well to capture on future opportunities. While market conditions continue to evolve, we remain confident in the long-term outlook for our business. We believe the foundations we have built over the years, combined with the strategic initiatives undertaken during FY '26 will support sustainable growth, long-term value creation for all our stakeholders. Before I conclude, then I'll take you through a few statistics. I would like to sincerely thank all our employees for their dedication and hard work, our customers for their continued support, our partners for their collaborations and above all, our shareholders for their unwavering support and confidence in DEV IT.

Before I take any questions, I would like to just give you a few statistics so that you have an idea that what are our goals and objectives moving forward. As I mentioned last year that due to geopolitical turmoil, we will focus more on revenue and more on India market so that we can sustain if at all any eventuality happens. Thank god, there was no eventuality, but we could able to achieve more contracts from India market. That have definitely decreased our profitability, but that one was not our concern at the time of last year when there was a geopolitical turmoil. -- but still we could able to achieve what we have thought of.

As you all know that India market was our focus, but we could also be able to achieve our export business, mainly on ABCV. As you all know that last year, we focused on having our North America physical presence, and that is how XDuce alignment and association had helped us a lot. Now that kind of integration is going on between XDuce India office and DEV IT so that we become -- DEV IT become XDuce's worldwide global delivery center. As you all know, that GCC market is growing rapidly in India. And that is how DEV IT have participated in a joint venture called ScaleX, which is a joint venture of 4 companies, which will provide GCC as a service and especially in GIFT area, which is Gandhinagar in Gujarat. We have also focused strongly and invested heavily because we know that ERP and enterprise -- Microsoft enterprise business is growing fast and that also giving more profitability as well as more stickiness with the client.

And that is how we have acquired Dhyey Consulting a couple of years ago. Last year, it was a consolidation period for Dhyey as well. And along with DEV IT, we also have focused more that Dhyey should give focus on more export business rather than domestic market. So they have also acquired a good number of U.S.A. and Canada-based clients. It was also very exciting for all of us that UCI have signed recently. This is not in FY '26, but this is just last month, we signed a shareholding agreement with UCI New York that they will be acquiring 25% stake in UCI, and they will also provide an opportunity of more than $3 million worth of business in U.S. market for Microsoft Dynamics, which is a focused business for. We also have invested heavily in Skill development. As I mentioned last year, that last to last year, we have started investing into Skill development that has been continued. We envisaged that Skill development will be over by June '25, June or July '25, but it has continued and it is still on so that we have capable people where our focus is.

We have also strengthened our products like Talligence and ByteSIGNER. Though blockchain business could not pick up last year because of overall market conditions, but we are still optimistic about blockchain business for exports as well as for India government business. As you all know that last year, we have we have planned for a couple of collaborations and then we decided to go with XDuce. That has also taken a lot of our time and efforts because right now, all the strategic integration is going on between 2 companies. As we all know that UCI have invested 25% that also got delayed by 4 to 5 months. Still, there are many opportunities which we are expecting from various partners and collaborations, not only in North America, but also in U.K. and Australia. But currently, our focus is North America and that to integration of XDuce and then integration with UCI and -- our export business last year in FY '26, we did around INR 45 crores, though before that, it was INR 35 crores.

We were not expecting, but we could be able to achieve INR 45 crores. Cloud revenue business got INR 25 crores. Cybersecurity is around INR 5 crores to INR 8 crores of business. India government corporate business, we crossed around INR 110 crores, which was our focus. Currently, we have order book of around INR 50 crores to INR 60 crores worth of INR. We have around 1,000 to 1,100 people right now, and we are expecting more people to join in current year as well. These are all things which we have envisaged, we have planned for next few years. And thank you very much for all our stakeholders for supporting our vision and for standing behind all the time. With that, I would like to open the floor for questions. Thank you very much.

Okay. So as I mentioned during my call that DEV IT was totally an offshore business. And we want to have our on-site presence so that we can have on-site and off-site hybrid business strength as well as we can acquire more enterprise level customers from North America and U.K. region. XDuce being a 20-plus years presence company in U.S.A. and in U.K., they are extremely focused on enterprise-led customer acquisition. Their on-site presence also help our company for this particular times. So -- that is definitely give us a more, you can say, strategic business or focus when we want to acquire enterprise-led customers.

We want to -- we can then expand horizontally and provide more and more other services, which we are very strong at.

And XDuce being a North America company, they are also -- they were also looking for global offshore development company, which has a very strong policies, which has very strong processes and management support. So these 2 have definitely helped this particular alliance and that will strengthen down the line, our focus to increase our revenue and profitability and acquire more enterprise customers.

Yes. So both the companies, XDuce is extremely strong in enterprise, BFSI, health care and government education sector in U.S. And DEV IT, we are extremely strong in offshore delivery, Microsoft technologies. processes and mid-level customer delivery. So this will give us a strengthening. This will strengthen both the companies delivery as well as, you can say, front-end or positioning to newer customers as well as existing customers.

So as far as next 2 to 3 years are concerned, currently, in this year as this integration and various processes set is going on. So this year, we are expecting around $1 million to $2 million business from XDuce. And from next year, from FY 27, we are expecting around $3 million to $5 million business, and that will grow 15% to 20% year-on-year.

So as far as the split is concerned, all non-India thing will concern, it will be focused, it will be front-ended by XDuce and the entire offshore development will be done by DEV IT -- so split will be, you can say, 20%, 80%. So 80% comes to DEV IT and 20% comes to XDuce.

As we are there in the last 3 decades and predominantly, our focus in India market and SMB market. So that has really helped us to grow to a particular level. But to increase our profitability, to increase more revenue and to increase more technological focus, we have to have enterprise led and that to overseas clients. And without having on-site presence, it was very difficult for us to grow from level to level. And that is how this entire integration going to help us to grow both the companies. And coming back to your question about what are the change we saw.

The changes we saw are that if we don't bring some kind of unique proposition in our services, then our billing rate is not going to be approved by clients. So there has to be some kind of unique proposition that to AI or some kind of blockchain-based solution. And that is how we have acquired Minddeft 3 years ago, and that is how we have acquired Dhyey Consulting 1.5 years ago. And that is how we are focusing more and more on AI and cybersecurity so that our existence and we can change and we can remain relevant to current technology and current change which we see in the entire world.

Yes. So if I can give you an example with one example that -- so I don't know about how many companies are there who has achieved Microsoft all the 6 competencies. When I saw on asked ChatGPT in North America, it was around 5% of total Microsoft partner ecosystem, they have achieved around all these 6 competencies. So that's a uniqueness. Another thing when enterprise-led customers, they are approaching any partner to provide services, they always see that how many certifications we have. And that too, not only with Microsoft competency, but also various certificates which we achieved -- we are also very proud of having CMMI Level 5, which is extremely relevant in outside India market, also very relevant in India government market.

So these are various points. And if I can give you a latest example where one of the customers, which is a leading sugar process company in Texas in U.S.A., they approached us because of these competencies. And they approached us through Microsoft platform because we have achieved this competency. It's not only Microsoft Dynamics competency, but also various security competencies as well. And we could able to close that deal in spite of having our physical presence in India. At that time, integration was not happened. So we could able to close that $600,000 to $700,000 business, which is significant for Dhyey and DEV IT before prior to XDuce integration. So this is the example which I can probably quote how -- what are the benefits we get from the 6 competencies.

Traditional manpower base is extremely low. I can say it's in some digit. But as far as managed IT is concerned, we are around 27% of our total revenue.

So those are all -- right now, I don't have that data upfront. So I just have to grab that data and give it to you. But it's around $80,000 to $100,000 deal size. And that to for at least 2 years of contract.

Okay. So as far as revenue growth is concerned, we have from last year starting, we have made it very clear that we will focus for revenue growth from India market. And if at all, geopolitical situation is good, then we will achieve more from export business. we could -- we can able to achieve more revenue as far as India market is concerned because we are empaneled with Government of India's MeitY, Gujarat government, Rajasthan government and then Chandigarh government. But we are always very -- you can say, focused that those orders, which we are closing, those has to be very strategic in nature. Second thing, they should be giving certain profitability. And third, our cash flow should not be affected closing those deals.

So this were our main focus. And third one is we wanted to have more and more U.S.A. and U.K. presence so that down the line from current year to next 2 years, we can achieve more revenue and profitability. So last year, it was a very strategic nature where we took a hold, we took a pause that we wanted to achieve certain things so that we can then prepare ourselves for more growth in next 2 to 3 years.

Sorry, come again.

So in FY '26, our India market gave 67% of revenue as it's very significant. And in the geography and when it comes to technology, our cloud and blockchain business unit gave more revenue from this 67%.

It was around 27% to 30%.

So as far as is concerned, we are SMB based. So there are many new customers. So currently, we are having around 600 to 700 live customers going on. So right now, I don't have any exact number for how many new customers we have added, but our focus was to add more and more enterprise and a few government customers. So we achieved around 35 to 40 strategic customers in last year.

Current order book, as I mentioned in my speech, it is around INR 50 crores to INR 60 crores.

INR 50 crores to INR 60 crores.

So as far as current year and next year are concerned, current year, this integration and strengthening of both the team and this UCI and [XDuce] integration is going on. So we are expecting around INR 200 crores worth of revenue for current year. And next year, we are expecting around 15% to 20% growth from current year.

Yes. So as I mentioned in my speech that EBITDA margin and profitability decreased as compared to last year. So last year, there were 2 things that exceptional income was there of around INR 13 crores, which is not there this year, it was around INR 4 crores. That is one. Second thing is we have focused mainly on India market where margins were low. And last year, when this geopolitical situation was not so good. So we consciously decided that we will focus more on India market, even though our margins are low so that we don't have any [indiscernible] issues. That is another reason.

Third one is after October or November, the strategic alliance and the partnership has taken lots of time as well as strategic bandwidth because we wanted to first have our back-end strong ready so that our processes are aligned with all the companies. And fourth one is we invested -- we are investing more on people for our focus area called ABCV. We forecasted that all those things will be ready by last June, but it got extended till December, January. So because for that, we have to outsource lots of things to a third party to deliver our cost at having a lower margin.

So as I mentioned earlier that we have strengthened our process. One, we have strategically aligned with XDuce and UCI so that our pipeline becomes very stronger for our future business. And third thing that we become XDuce's global delivery center so that we do not have to spend our sales time going abroad and clocking more clients. So this is how -- these are the various actions which we have taken so that we can build more and more profitability and more and more revenue towards ABCV.

So you mean to say that our order book?

So our order book currently is around INR 50 crores to INR 60 crores.

Okay. So that's a very interesting question. As we are very lean and thin in terms of delivery because we are always very conscious in our investing in various things because it's universal to that our profitability is low. So we set our process is extremely strong. and that we could be able to find in last 9 months having a discussion with a couple of companies for the strategic alliance that our processes are extremely great and that also keep our delivery cost lower than other companies. That is one. Second one is this strategic alliance where we become a very relevant with the company who is extremely strong in that area.

So if I talk about XDuce, XDuce is extremely strong in enterprise, BFSI and health care and education, public sector region, geography in U.S. And similarly, UCI is extremely strong in New York government business. They are preferred and favorable minority women-owned organization in New York state, county and city. And that gives us more visibility and more power to close more and more deals without spending our sales and marketing you can say, muscle.

Yes. So as you have seen that it's always been a DEV IT product as far as [ByteSIGNER] final and Talligence is concerned. What we have seen a few things. One is that there are many strategic partners who just want to align themselves with the products, not with the company. So like what we have signed strategic distribution agreement with A21, so that entire thing arise from -- during that time that we want to have a strategic partnership with the product, not with the company. And another thing that the product business requires lots of investment, not only into developing the product, but also marketing the product. And that is also creating lots of cash is also attracting lots of cash from the system and that is also creating the, you can say, lower EBITDA for DEV IT.

So these are various reasons where we thought that let's move to a company so that DEV IT, which is a focused service business remain service business and Byte Technosys will remain a product.

Are you talking about Byte Technosys for the long-term thing for the Byte Technosys kind of thing?

Yes. So as far as shareholders are concerned, where I'm also one of the shareholders, where one is DEV IT EBITDA will grow more. Second thing, if at all there are talks going on with Talligence where a few strategic investors or companies they want to invest more into that company, that has created more doors for investors to invest into Talligence rather than having that company, that product with DEV IT because when DEV IT was holding Talligence, it was very difficult to attract more and more strategic partnership as well as investors. So as far as shareholder is concerned, this particular transition will definitely add more and more intellectual value as well as valuation like what we saw with the DEVX, similar kind of thing which we are creating with Talligence in Technosys.

As far as all this SPD Microsoft solution partner designation is concerned, that's -- we have not quantified it in value, but that has created more value proposition and visibility in front of our enterprise-led customers as well as more and more geography. So as I mentioned earlier that one of the enterprise-led customers, which we closed in Texas U.S.A. because of this SPD visibility. Same thing we are expecting more. I can't -- because of NDA, I can't give a few names, but in Canada and in U.K. right now, we are in final talks to close high-value business because of these SPDs. That is one.

Second thing is our positioning in entire Microsoft solution partner ecosystem. where Microsoft also provide some benefit to these partners who hold these SPDs, more SPD. So internal use license more and more lead visibility, not only in the North America region, but also in various regions. So we see a really good opportunity, and we have seen that we could able to close enterprise-led customers because of this SPD, which we have achieved.

Thank you, Harsh. Thank you all.