AvePoint (NASDAQ:AVPT) executives used a discussion at Morgan Stanley’s TMT Conference to outline the company’s focus on what it calls “modern data protection,” emphasizing governance and resiliency for unstructured data as enterprises prepare for broader adoption of agentic AI.
Unstructured data governance and the “Confidence Platform”
Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Mario Carvajal described AvePoint as a global provider helping organizations “secure, govern, and operationalize” their data estates, with a primary focus on unstructured data. Carvajal said unstructured data represents about 80% of an organization’s data today and is generated across productivity and collaboration tools that may include external partners.
- Fragmented data across silos that makes it difficult to apply policies consistently.
- Information sprawl created by growing repositories, accounts, and access points that complicate management over time.
- Data loss risks such as corruption or ransomware encryption, with attackers potentially entering through multiple sources.
- Over-sharing that can inadvertently expose sensitive information through chat tools, file sharing with partners, or internal cross-department collaboration.
Carvajal also highlighted resiliency and recovery needs in the context of cloud outages, referencing AWS and Azure outages from the prior year. He said organizations may need to recover large data sets quickly or prioritize certain elements such as metadata, and positioned AvePoint’s platform as providing capabilities to support those outcomes.
Agentic AI as a “trust layer” opportunity
Carvajal and CFO Jim Caci repeatedly framed AvePoint’s role in AI as foundational. Carvajal said that advanced AI tools require organizations to trust the underlying data, including proper classification and provisioning. He noted AvePoint began shipping an “AI assessment” capability more than two years ago to identify and remediate vulnerabilities across customers’ data estates.
As enterprises move from AI pilots to “agentic AI systems,” Carvajal said the challenge becomes visibility and control: organizations need to inventory agents, track how they interact across repositories, and retain the ability to roll back changes if agents “go rogue.” He added that these controls can also help customers anticipate regulatory requirements, particularly in regulated industries.
In a later audience Q&A about Microsoft Copilot, Carvajal described Copilot as a set of capabilities—spanning Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps and Copilot Studio for low-code automation and agent development—that helped trigger customer urgency around data readiness. He said early Copilot deployments surfaced customer concerns about whether AI outputs were based on curated and accurate data, leading organizations to seek governance and controls.
Carvajal added that enterprise agentic AI systems may blend commercial and proprietary models, and he referenced work by other AI providers entering the enterprise. He also said AvePoint is supporting Google Gemini and the Vertex AI stack as part of the broader ecosystem.
Spending environment and vendor consolidation
Asked whether AI disruption is changing customer spending or creating pricing pressure, Carvajal said AvePoint has not seen major shifts in spending behavior. Instead, he described prioritization around cost and vendor consolidation, with customers seeking fewer point solutions and a “single pane of glass” platform across multiple workloads.
Caci reinforced that perspective, saying the company has not seen AI-related “noise” impact its 2025 results or what it is seeing in pipeline for 2026, while emphasizing that AI itself is not “hype.”
Financial performance highlights and migration demand
In discussing recent results, Caci characterized the fourth quarter as a strong finish to a strong year. He said AvePoint delivered 27% ARR growth and 27% revenue growth year-over-year for the full year, with fourth-quarter revenue growth accelerating. He also said the quarter marked the company’s 11th straight quarter of double-digit net new ARR growth.
Caci pointed to management commitments made at an earlier Investor Day: becoming a Rule of 40 company and achieving GAAP profitability. He said AvePoint reached Rule of 46 in 2025 and achieved GAAP profitability a year earlier than the target, first in 2024 and again in 2025. He also said GAAP operating margin accelerated to 7.9% in 2025. Caci added that the company’s published guidance calls for accelerating top-line ARR growth and improving GAAP profitability in 2026.
On demand trends, Caci said AvePoint saw higher demand for migration solutions—described as data movement—particularly in the second half of 2025. He attributed the activity to ongoing movement from on-prem to cloud, cloud-to-cloud, tenant-to-tenant, and transactions such as acquisitions and divestitures, while also tying migration to AI-era data curation and consolidation efforts. Caci said the company expects healthy demand for migration products to continue and noted migration can serve as an entry point for new customers and an upsell/cross-sell motion for existing ones.
Pricing evolution, Microsoft partnership, and capital allocation
On pricing, Caci said AvePoint already operates with a hybrid model: most licensing is seat-based, while certain solutions include consumption elements tied to compute. He said the industry’s approach to agents initially resembles seat-based licensing, but may evolve toward value-based pricing as the value created by agents becomes clearer. Carvajal added that AvePoint’s platform has been designed with metering to track workloads—particularly around agents—given that more agents can increase activity and risk surface.
Carvajal described AvePoint’s relationship with Microsoft as driven by customer needs, including working with Microsoft teams to understand product direction well in advance. He cited AvePoint’s AgentPulse launch at Microsoft Ignite in November, saying development began roughly two years earlier alongside Microsoft roadmap discussions. He also described go-to-market collaboration, including marketplace availability and customer incentives, and emphasized AvePoint’s platform is independent and connects across multiple ecosystems, including Google, Salesforce, and Atlassian, with additional connectors launched for DocuSign, Smartsheet, and GitHub.
On capital allocation, Caci said AvePoint prioritizes: (1) investing in the business, primarily R&D; (2) M&A to supplement organic efforts; and (3) share repurchases. He said the company ended the year with more than $480 million of cash, providing flexibility to pursue all three. Caci said AvePoint has completed six acquisitions over several years and is evaluating larger deals. He also said the company spent about $50 million on share repurchases in 2025, accelerating in Q4, and had already spent more than $33 million in Q1 2026.
Asked about dividends, Caci said the company does not currently plan to issue a dividend, noting that at its stage—while still accelerating growth—it views share repurchases as the primary mechanism for returning capital to shareholders, including offsetting dilution from stock-based compensation and reducing shares outstanding.
About AvePoint (NASDAQ:AVPT)
AvePoint, Inc (NASDAQ:AVPT) is a leading software provider specializing in data management, governance, and compliance solutions for Microsoft 365 and related cloud platforms. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, the company offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based and on-premises tools designed to help organizations migrate, manage, and protect their collaboration data. AvePoint’s flagship Cloud Platform delivers backup, governance, reporting, and migration services for SharePoint, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, and Salesforce environments.
With a customer base spanning thousands of organizations across more than 100 countries, AvePoint serves enterprises, government agencies, and educational institutions seeking to ensure data security, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience.
