Earnings

JFrog CEO On $76 Million Telecom Deal: It's 'Not Being Signed By A Developer'

JFrog's CFO would not walk analysts through the economics of the multi-year contract, while the CEO said security spending now reaches the C-suite.

Matteo Parrino Jonathan Ponciano

Matteo Parrino, Jonathan Ponciano

— 2 min read
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JFrog CEO On $76 Million Telecom Deal: It's 'Not Being Signed By A Developer'

JFrog, which sells a platform for storing, securing and delivering the software packages applications are built from, won a $76 million multi-year cloud agreement with a leading telecommunications company in the third quarter, and executives spent much of Thursday's earnings call defending what it means. Asked about budget owners, CEO Shlomi Ben Haim said "a $76 million deal is not being signed by a developer."

Analysts push on the deal's math

A Guggenheim analyst said its own calculation put the deal at roughly a $40 million expansion, and that cloud revenue would have accelerated in the quarter even without it. CFO Ed Grabscheid replied: "we're not going to go into the math."

Grabscheid said the contract captured 167% growth in data consumption and added security and governance products. He said it will be reflected as a commitment going forward, and that this is why the company showed confidence in its fourth-quarter guidance.

Ben Haim said the relationship began with a migration from Sonatype Nexus to Artifactory and grew through the cloud, added security and then AI-era governance needs. He said no customer is above 3% of revenue.

Security spending reaches the C-suite

Answering a JPMorgan analyst, Ben Haim said more new customers now come from the chief information security officer's office, for governance, compliance or security. Security adoption, he said, "comes with larger checks that are being signed only by the C-Suite."

He pointed to the growth in customers paying more than $1 million in annual recurring revenue, which reached 112, up from 71 a year earlier.

Guidance and the quarter

Third-quarter revenue was $179.2 million, up 31% from a year earlier, and cloud revenue rose 60%, the company said. Grabscheid raised full-year revenue guidance to $680 million to $682 million, and said the company continues to leave its largest opportunities out of the outlook because of timing uncertainty, a choice he described as de-risking.

For the fourth quarter, the company expects revenue of $183 million to $185 million.

Asked about pricing and packaging for security, Ben Haim said the company will share 2026 security results at year-end and make decisions about 2027 then.

Sources

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