Teknova CEO Ties 22% Growth To Biotech Funding Rebound: 'It Is Early'
Teknova raised its 2026 revenue forecast to $46 million to $48 million, but management wants a couple more quarters of proof.
Alpha Teknova, which makes reagents and cell-growth media for life sciences customers, posted 22% revenue growth in the third quarter, and CEO Stephen Gunstream said on the company's earnings call Wednesday that a jump in custom orders from biopharma customers is an early sign of recovering biotech funding. He cautioned that "it is early."
Custom orders lead, catalog lags
Gunstream said growth above 20% was the first in over four years, and that the quarter was the second straight with record revenue. He said much of the custom biopharma demand came from programs already in clinical trials, spread across multiple accounts and therapeutic modalities.
He linked the pickup to biotech funding that, he said, multiple sources report is up approximately 70% on a trailing 12-month basis. Growth also came from custom products sold to life science tools and diagnostics customers.
Catalog products, about 60% of 2025 revenue, have grown in the mid-single digits year to date, with large pharma up in the mid-teens. Headwinds in cell and gene therapy and contract manufacturing offset part of that.
Asked whether the trend is durable, Gunstream said "it is early, right?" and added: "We'd like to see another couple quarters." He said "What we haven't seen is the early stage come back," pointing to small and mid-sized biotechs that are not buying catalog products for discovery work.
Higher forecast, path to breakeven
CFO Matt Lowell said the company is raising its 2026 revenue guidance to $46 million to $48 million, which at the midpoint implies about 16% growth over 2025. Lowell said Teknova expects to turn adjusted EBITDA positive at $52 million to $57 million of annualized revenue.
Clinical solutions revenue rose 86% to $3.2 million from $1.7 million a year earlier. Lowell noted the category is lumpy and said management expects it to become the main engine for its longer-term 20% to 25% growth goal. Lab Essentials revenue was $9 million, up 9% from $8.3 million.
Gross margin was 38.0%, up from 30.7%, helped in part by an increase in finished-goods inventory. The net loss was $3.5 million, or 6 cents a share, against $4.3 million a year earlier.
An analyst at TD Cowen asked how much of the recovery is already in the fourth-quarter outlook. Lowell said the quarter looks good, that he expects the trend to continue into 2027, and called the recovery early.
What the $46 million raise is for
Teknova closed a $46 million equity raise in mid-October, with net proceeds of about $43 million. Lowell said the company did not need the money to reach positive cash flow; the aim was balance-sheet flexibility, a stronger hand in tuck-in deals and a larger float to attract institutional holders. At the end of September it held $16.6 million in cash and short-term investments and $13.2 million in borrowings.
Gunstream said the company is weighing acquisitions, including proteins, but "we're not going to acquire a business that needs a lot of cash to run it."
Lowell said the company will report on any decision to raise commercial investment on the next call, and will give 2027 revenue guidance with full-year 2026 results.
Sources
- Alpha Teknova GAAP EPS of -$0.06 beats by $0.01, revenue of $12.7M beats by $0.93M (NASDAQ:TKNO) | Seeking Alpha — seekingalpha.com
- Alpha Teknova: Q3 Earnings Snapshot | wusa9.com — Associated Press
- Teknova Reports Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results — globenewswire.com
