ACV Auctions Inc. — Call Transcript 2026

Greetings, and welcome to the ACV Q4 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tim Fox, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin. Good afternoon, thank you for joining ACV's conference call to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results. With me on the call today are George Chamoun, Chief Executive Officer, and William Zerella, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, please note that today's comments include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future financial guidance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and involve factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. A discussion of the risks and uncertainties related to our business can be found in our SEC filings and in today's press release, both of which can be found on our investor relations website. During this call, we will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is provided in today's earnings materials, which can also be found on our investor relations website. With that, let me turn the call over to George. Thanks, Tim. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased with the ACV team's execution in Q4, delivering revenue at the high end of guidance and Adjusted EBITDA above the high end. Our performance was driven by solid execution in our dealer wholesale business, despite challenging market conditions. As we continue to gain market share, expand our dealer partner network, and drive adoption of our value-added dealer solutions. Again, ACV Transport and Capital delivered strong revenue performance. We also executed on our product roadmap to further differentiate ACV's marketplace experience, support our commercial wholesale strategy, and expand our TAM. Turning to 2026, we are expecting revenue growth in the low double digits and Adjusted EBITDA growth of approximately 28%, which includes additional growth investments to support our medium-term financial targets. We're confident that executing on this profitable growth strategy will create significant long-term shareholder value. With that, let's turn to a recap of our results on slide four. Q4 revenue was $184 million, growth of 15% year-over-year. We sold 193,000 vehicles. For the full year, we delivered 19% revenue growth and grew units by over 86,000, or 12% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA grew by over 100%, demonstrating the scale in our model. Next, on slide five, we'll again focus our discussion around the three pillars of our strategy to maximize long-term shareholder value: growth, innovation, and scale. I'll begin with growth. On slide seven, we highlight how ACV is leveraging AI to attract new buyers and sellers, increase penetration and wallet share, and gain traction with large dealer groups. Let's begin with our marketplace. Our highly accurate, condition-adjusted pricing guidance enabled sellers to set more informed reserve prices. Flexible auction durations and scheduling allowed dealers to customize their marketplace experience. Given the challenging market conditions in Q4, dealers increasingly leaned into ACV's technology. For buyers in our marketplace, we tailor their experience across buyer personas and optimize the bidding process by providing AI-enabled recommendations informed by dealer preferences and current market factors. These investments in our leading marketplace experience were key to growing our dealer network in 2025, with 15,000 unique sellers and over 22,000 unique buyers transacting with ACV. Our franchise rooftop penetration achieved a new milestone, reaching 35% during the year, and our major account team delivered impressive results with a 300 basis point increase in rooftop penetration. Next, on slide eight, I'll provide some highlights on our data services. Market traction for ClearCar remains strong, especially for ClearCar Service, that enables dealers to seamlessly produce consumer appraisals and offers from their service lanes. ClearCar is also an effective lever to increase wholesale wallet share and attract new dealers to our marketplace. During 2025, existing dealers that launched ClearCar increased their wholesale volumes at ACV by over 50% after going live. We're also seeing early momentum with our strategy to bundle ACV MAX with wholesale. A recent cohort of new ACV MAX dealers increased their wholesale vehicle sales on our marketplace by an average of 40% within one quarter of launching MAX. Our strategy to offer a broader set of value-added solutions is creating another growth lever for ACV.... Again, this quarter, we're excited to share feedback from one of our dealer partners, the Hendrick Automotive Group, which is using ACV's full suite of offerings. We posted a video on our IR website highlighting the significant value they're deriving from ACV solutions. Turning to slide nine. From a geographic perspective, we continue to drive strong growth within our more established regions, where network effects are driving significant market share. At the same time, our footprint has expanded across the country, as highlighted in these four regions, which delivered strong year-over-year unit growth in Q4. As we discussed in our Q3 call, there are certain emerging regions where we are increasing our territory manager and VCI footprint to drive accelerated growth. These efforts began in Q4 and will continue during 2026. We are confident in the medium-term growth outlook for these markets. Turning to slide 10. Let's review our marketplace service offerings, beginning with ACV Transportation. The transport team had strong execution in Q4, with 20% revenue growth and 110,000 transports delivered. AI-optimized pricing continues to drive strong growth and operating efficiency. Revenue margin has already achieved our midterm target in the low 20s, and our off-platform transportation service continues to gain traction from our dealer partners, creating additional growth opportunities. Last, I'll wrap up the growth section on slide 11 with ACV Capital highlights. ACV Capital delivered strong revenue performance, with 48% year-over-year growth in Q4, despite actively lowering our exposure to higher-risk customer segments. The ACV Capital team implemented new growth strategies while driving process enhancements to mitigate portfolio risk. As such, we are confident that ACV Capital will remain an important value-added service for our dealers and a long-term growth opportunity. Next, on slide 12, I'll address the second element of our strategy to drive long-term shareholder value, innovation. Turning to slide 13, let's go deeper into how we are leveraging ACV AI to drive growth and to deliver value to our dealer and commercial partners. Using machine learning, we combine inspection data and dynamic market data to provide real-time pricing for every vehicle within ACV's pricing platform. For example, we are leveraging our pricing platform to offer ACV Guarantee to sellers and deliver no reserve auction to buyers. This offering remains the fastest-growing channel in our marketplace. We are pleased to see ACV Guarantee mix increase to 19% in Q4. As a reminder, our guarantee sale is a highly differentiated offering that benefits buyers, sellers, and ACV. By accelerating bidder engagement, increasing buyer satisfaction, removing seller market risk, while delivering 100% conversion rate, we're confident our guarantee offering will be another key driver of market share gains. On slide 14, we highlight how we are further differentiating ACV in the market with AI-driven next-gen products like VIPER and Virtual Lift. We are extending our industry-leading inspection technology, vehicle data, and pricing capabilities to dealers looking to unlock consumer vehicle acquisition at scale in their service lane. At the recent NADA Industry Conference, we announced the next wave of availability for the VIPER Early Access Program. Dealer reception was tremendous. We're excited to kick off the commercial launch of VIPER with select dealer partners, providing them with a unique and scalable consumer sourcing platform that will expand our TAM at a rooftop level by tapping into the large peer-to-peer segment. By leveraging pricing models that bundle VIPER with wholesale, we're creating a powerful new lever to drive wallet share expansion and unit growth. Wrapping up on innovation, let's turn to our commercial wholesale strategy on slide 15. We are pleased to see the initial range of capabilities developed over the past year, powering our first greenfield remarketing center in Houston. Our team has been in active conversations with commercial customers to deepen our understanding of the requirements for the next phase of our software build. We believe this new digital model and end-to-end experience will transform commercial vehicle remarketing, and we also look forward to launching an additional greenfield location in Chicago this year. With that, I'll hand over to Bill to take you through our financial results and how we're driving growth at scale. Thanks, George, and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased with our Q4 financial performance, with revenue at the high end of our guidance range and Adjusted EBITDA exceeding the range. On slide 17, let's begin with a brief recap of our fourth quarter results. Revenue of $184 million grew 15% year-over-year, compared to very strong results in Q4 2024. Adjusted EBITDA of $8 million grew 36% year-over-year, reflecting strong expense discipline. Finally, non-GAAP net loss of $1 million was favorable relative to our guidance range. Next, on slide 18, let's review additional revenue details. Auction assurance revenue was 55% of total revenue and grew 11% year-over-year against a very tough comparison of 40% growth in Q4 2024. This performance reflects 5% unit growth, which also faced a tough comparison of 27% growth in Q4 2024. Auction and assurance ARPU of $528 grew 6% year-over-year and 4% quarter-over-quarter. Marketplace services revenue was 39% of total revenue and grew 23% year-over-year, reflecting continued strong performance for ACV Transportation and ACV Capital. Lastly, our SaaS and data services products comprise 5% of total revenue, with year-over-year growth accelerating to 8%. Next, I'll review Q4 costs on slide 19. Non-GAAP cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue increased approximately 400 basis points year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by higher arbitration costs, as expected, within a specific cohort of customers. Recall that our Q4 guidance assumed arbitration costs would remain elevated in the quarter, but that trends would normalize in 2026 following litigation steps we implemented. These steps are already showing positive returns in early 2026. Non-GAAP operating expense, excluding cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue, decreased approximately 400 basis points year-over-year, reflecting operating leverage in our model. Moving to slide 20, I'll frame our investment strategy as we drive profitable growth. In 2026, we expect OpEx growth of approximately 9%, which is a decline from 12% in 2025. Note that 2026 OpEx includes approximately $11 million in additional go-to-market spending to support regional growth objectives. Even with these growth investments, Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to increase by approximately 100 basis points year-over-year. Next, I will highlight our strong capital structure on slide 21. We ended Q4 with $270 million in cash and cash equivalents and $190 million of debt. Note that our cash balance includes $171 million of marketplace float. In the figure on the right, we highlight our solid operating cash flow, which reflects Adjusted EBITDA growth and margin expansion. Turning to guidance on slide 22. First quarter revenue is expected to be $200 million-$204 million, growth of 9%-12%. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $14 million-$16 million, reflecting a 7%-8% margin. 2026 revenue is expected to be $845 million-$855 million, growth of 11%-13%. Note that full-year revenue guidance assumes that our go-to-market investments will drive slightly higher growth in the second half of the year. 2026 Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $73 million-$77 million, growth of approximately 28% year-over-year. We are expecting non-GAAP OpEx, excluding cost of revenue, to grow approximately 9% year-over-year. With that, let me turn it back to George. Thanks, Bill. Before we take your questions, I will summarize. We are pleased with our Q4 execution while navigating through challenging market conditions. We continue addressing these market challenges by enhancing our technology and operating models, ultimately making us even more resilient. We are attracting new dealer and commercial partners to our marketplace and expanding our addressable market, which positions ACV for attractive growth as market conditions improve. We are delivering on an exciting product roadmap, powered by ACV AI, to further differentiate ACV and drive operating efficiencies. We are focused on achieving strong, Adjusted EBITDA growth and delivering on our midterm targets that we believe will drive significant shareholder value. We are committed to achieving these results while building a world-class team to deliver on our goals. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator to begin the Q&A. Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Boone with Citizens JMP. Please proceed with your question. Thanks so much for taking my questions. I would love to just double-click in terms of 4Q 2025 units sold. We've seen this deceleration. Can you just help us understand whether that's competitive pressure, the market, macro, anything you want to call out in terms of highlighting 4Q results? Then I'd love to ask about ACV MAX. It sounds like you guys are seeing real results in terms of better integrating with dealers to just drive more volume. Can you help us understand what's the roadmap to drive better ACV MAX adoption more broadly? Thank you. Yeah. Hey, Andrew. When you look at Q4, first, we, we delivered, as you can see, on our revenue expectations. I think we, we hit a really. We had a strong quarter from a revenue perspective. For the year, we grew, units 12%, so that, that was solid. When you look at the Q4 compare, it was a tougher compare. What we're doing about creating more growth are the things we've talked about. We're adding more inspectors out in the field, so we'll start to see that benefit throughout this year. That's one area we're adding. We also talked about investing in a few more of the regions where we're adding additional territory managers. We talked about that on the call. Then we also talked about our differentiation with our products like ACV MAX, that, that you, that you brought up. I, I do want to actually bring up the, the real, the backdrop here on, on dealer wholesale is growing from the physical auctions. Still, 70% of the business out there is happening at physical auctions. The broader, the broader need is still just to bring more and more business being had at physical auctions over to digital, which between our differentiated offerings, is starting to happen more and more. On your second question on MAX, we are, we are really starting to scale that business where it's now being connected more to wholesale. For some of the rooftops, we added a additional offering that puts a guarantee on units. Not only are we providing pricing guidance, but we'll put a guarantee, and we're starting to scale that with additional rooftops. Look forward to scaling MAX additionally throughout the year. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rajat Gupta with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question. Great. Thanks for taking the question. You know, I had a question, you know, just, just following, following up on the previous one. It looks like, you know, the 2026 guidance, it does not assume much of a change in overall market share growth versus what you saw in recent quarters. Despite your incremental margins moving lower versus where you were last year, I'm curious, you know, why that would be the case? And if there are, like, any one-time investments, you know, maybe VIPER and, you know, other initiatives, other initiatives around commercial that might be causing that incremental margin to slow down. I mean, it just seems a little counterintuitive, you know, to look at incremental margin dropping versus market share not accelerating. If you could clarify that, and then I have a quick follow-up. Thanks. Yes, certainly, Rajat. I'll start, and then Bill can chime in. Two of the investments we're making, at least two, and Bill can chime in with the additional, is what we made with the in-field, which are additional inspectors. We're hiring some additional territory managers, as I mentioned a few minutes ago. That's one area of additional expense, and Bill could kind of go a little deeper. Second is, yes, we're starting to invest in the VIPER rollout, that's also part of the numbers. We believe, Rajat, as we're making these investments throughout the year, we'll start to see more of an impact towards the back half of the year, because obviously it takes a little time to get these things going. Bill, maybe you can chime in some more on this. Yeah. Rajat, just to go through the numbers again. The incremental spend that we baked into our guidance for this year in terms of those go-to-market investments is approximately $11 million. If you look at our incrementals, excluding that, they would have actually grown 500 reps year-over-year from 25%-30%. That's, number one, just ensure you got the right numbers, right? As George said, at this point, it's early in the year. We're making these investments obviously with the objective of driving, you know, more share gains. We're, we're pretty conservative at this point in terms of what we're going to bake into our guidance until we start to see these investments pay off over time. understood. So the market share, essentially, you're implying higher market share acceleration, in, later in the year, assuming your investments bear some fruit. Right? We're assuming a slight increase in the second half of the year versus the first half. Again, we're taking a more conservative perspective at this point until we start to see this play out over time. Understood. Just a quick follow-up, a little more high-level question. Could, could you, you know, maybe, you know, comfort investors around, you know, just the risk of AI to the business? I mean, clearly, there seems to be a lot of interpretations around. Anything you can help, you know, just provide more clarity around that. What differentiates ACV? What differentiates your business model? Is there a risk, is there a benefit from AI? You know, maybe if you could just, you know, just dig a little deeper into that, and just how you're thinking about that. Thanks. Yeah, I mean, the irony, Rajat, is we are that disruptor. We are the AI disruptor in this category, so we are that company that is aiming to change automotive for the better. We're the company who's trying to help a traditional retailer, like a franchise dealer, as cars drive through a service drive, take pictures and videos and, you know, predict the retail price within, you know, $38, what it's going to sell for, and estimate the wholesale value within $100 to the point we'll guarantee it. We're the ones making predictions on what types of inventory they should be buying and selling. We're adding new capabilities throughout the year that we believe will help franchise dealers become more efficient and actually need less people. Yeah, we're huge fans of what you can do with AI. We're aiming to be that disruptor. We're aiming to be their use of these tools. We're integrating with a lot of different vendors, so it's not like we're picking one widget or one thing. We're integrating with all the CRMs and all the DMS solutions. Regardless of what tech stack the dealer chooses, yeah, we're, we should be one of the beneficiaries of the, of this theme that you're hearing from investors, is that all industries will change. AI will change every single industry. This will be one of them, and we should benefit from that. I guess, I guess the interpretation is that there might be like a new startup or a young company, you know, that can, that can do what you're doing in a much easier fashion, in a much simpler fashion, maybe providing that inspection capability to the dealers directly or the pricing capabilities. Is there anything, is there anything you can do to protect your position, or do you even see that as something realistic or practical? Thanks. Yeah, I think, look, I think investors should do their homework. They should watch the video we posted regarding what we do for the largest private automotive company in the country, you know, posted on our Hendrick Automotive. Watch that video, see what we're doing. They should do the research we're doing for some of the public automotive groups who speak very highly about what ACV is doing for them. I think when you do your homework, you'll see, you know, we're not just predicting numbers. We're predicting them to the point where we can back them and guarantee them. Yeah, there, there could be startups that emerge in this category, but I think they'd have to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, to then have the balance sheet and the data, which would be very difficult to do, where we've, we've inspected over 1 million cars a year, that we know all these scratches, all these dents. We've now earned the credibility to be part of the workflow for all these dealer groups. I could see why in other industries they, they would be concerned. In this one, Rajat, we are that disruptor. Fair enough. Great. Thanks for all the color, and good luck. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ronald Josey with Citi. Please proceed with your question. Great, thanks for taking the question. George, I wanted to ask about conversion rates and just wondering if they returned back to normal seasonality in the quarter after, you know, some sort of ups and downs last year and then, and then saw some conversion rates into 26. Then maybe bigger picture, when we look at the unit growth improvements across the Carolinas, South Florida, Southern California to East Texas, remind us what led to that outsized growth year and, and sort of what this means going forward? Thank you. Yeah, certainly, Ron. On the first point, our conversion rate for Q4 was up year-over-year, where most of our competitors were flat or down. We did see a year-over-year improvement on conversion rate. And we saw that, I think, the overall improvement where our no reserve sale is doing this, what we refer to our investors as the guarantee offering. We give the guarantee to the seller. The buyer gets a no, a no reserve offering where they can bid without a reserve. It's, it's, it's really helping not only differentiate ACV, but delivering a better buying experience, better seller experience. We did see, you know, conversion rates. Obviously, Q4 is always tougher on conversion rates, but we're executing well. We actually do see our overall, our guarantee and no reserve offering continue to grow. This quarter, it started out we're already in the 20% range of our total units now selling. We're seeing more and more of our customers start to adopt the product. One, I would say conversion rate, I believe we're starting to become some of the best in the industry. We, we did also, to help on conversion rates, we, we got a little, we were harder on sellers who were giving us overpriced cars. We did get rid of a few sellers. We, we implemented more policies to make sure it's a better buyer experience. We're being more and more prudent on not just chasing units, but making sure we're building the best experience. We started to really sort of manage the marketplace with stricter rules, and that's really coming out. I think we're seeing higher buyer NPS as it relates to the sell-through rate, conversion rate, probably than I've seen in several years. We're seeing a, some confidence from buyers coming back on conversion rates. That was a long-winded conversion. Yeah, Ron, just to put a finer point on the numbers. So sell-through in Q4 was up 150 Bps year-on-year. You know, which, you know, for us, as we think about our business and, and kind of the trends, you know, that we can hopefully drive going forward, you know, that, that can over time become more and more material. Then on your second question, you know, what did we do differently? We, we brought, like, to give you an example of the Carolinas, we took a very strong performer of ours that was in the New York metro area, who was a territory manager. We promoted him to a regional director down to Carolina, so we, we brought somebody that really knew the ACV model. He then worked with the local territory managers. We, we also, I believe, added an additional territory manager in his region. We hired additional inspectors, and we really just doubled down. Strong execution how to present the, our differentiated offering. Yeah, I would say that market, Carolinas, took us a little bit longer than we would like to grow, but now it's growing. We've got strong talent there. They've got great momentum, and we, we feel really good about it. The same story with South Florida. You know, our team down there is just a great team. They, they keep differentiating the ACV offering, whether it be the guaranteed sale. They're also one of the ones that are starting to leverage our inspector teammates to go out and help on the buying activity on the demand side. We're leveraging our inspector base, not only in listings, but just getting out into the field more, both sellers and buyers. That leader down there, I met with him last week, is doing a fantastic job of just building out South Florida. Yeah, we're really showing that region by region. We got more work to do over here, but I'm really, really excited to see where we've got the right talent. We've got the right folks out there. We're, we're starting to take share at, at healthy rates. Thank you, George. Thank you, Bill. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bob Labick with CJS Securities. Please proceed with your question. Good afternoon, thanks for taking our questions. Good. Thank you, Bob. Yeah, I wanted to ask about VIPER. You talked about, you know, rolling out this year. You talked about a lot of dealer interest at, you know, recent shows and stuff. Have you said, I guess, you know, when will it be in the field? More importantly, what are the keys you're watching for in your launch once you get it out there, before you decide to do maybe a more widespread rollout? Yeah. Thanks, Bob. We, we are... Our number one priority with VIPER in these initial rollouts is really to help ensure the dealer is going to be able to leverage us to acquire more vehicles. We think about dealers. When dealers optimizing their revenue is all about the top of the funnel, sourcing more cars. If they can source more cars, then they can optimize and decide which cars should they be retailing, which cars should they be whole, you know, with wholesale. These initial customers primarily have ACV MAX as their inventory management system. They are, our, our goal is to get them to buy more cars. Think a dealer buying, you know, 30, 40, 50, 70-plus cars, off, what they call, off the curb or off street, primarily from their service drive. That's a key KPI, is helping them buy more cars. Some of the dealers we're talking to have very large goals. Bill and I actually met with one of them last week, and the general manager of that store was a dealer who said he'd like to buy 100 and what was the number? He, he wants to retail 100 more used cars, a month. Yeah. Which means he's probably going to buy more like 125 to 130- Yeah. Right. Retail the ones that he wants to keep. That's the example, Bob, of here's a dealer who just got VIPER, you know, and, and that those are the words of a specific dealer. We're excited because here's the simple math: They buy more cars, they're going to wholesale more. The more they buy, they're going to keep the best 60%-70% for retail, and then they'll end up wholesaling somewhere around 30%-40% of these cars. Think about it as TAM expansion for us at a rooftop level. You'll, you'll see cars that either would have went peer-to-peer, or cars that would have went to, one of the large big box type companies, will now get purchased by that dealership. Said another way, we think some of the best run dealerships in the country are going to be dealers that have VIPER. If we could turn that rooftop into one of the best run dealerships in the country, right, then there's a bigger, even a bigger reason to be working with ACV and the ACV portfolio. Okay, that's, that's exciting. Can't wait to watch that as it rolls out. And then you, you gave us a few stats on ACV, you know, price guarantee, 19% in the quarter and ticking up already for, you know, no reserve auctions and, and percent of volume. Is there a, a natural level or goal for that or, or a level that it can't go above? Or how do you think about, you know, the progression in the, you know, no reserve auctions and the percent of volume that could be? You know, I think, you know, if we could see our no reserve sales being, you know, and this, this won't... I don't know what it'll hit this year, but I think if it could hit mid-20% range this year, I'd be ecstatic. Maybe higher, who knows? It's really, we're not saying every single car should run no reserve, right? If you, if you look at some vehicles, you know, like a frontline vehicle, you know, a dealer just running it for 24 hours on our platform. We're not saying every single car needs to run that way, but there is a halo that's happening on ACV's marketplace right now, because the more cars that are running no reserve, buyers are showing up. We're still now... I think I mentioned this a prior call, that we, we've got 9.8 bidders per car. I think we're now at over 10 bidders per car. That, that keeps climbing, where we've got tremendous bid activity. That's on average, because there's some cars that might have 20 or more bidders per vehicle. We've got great bid activity. It's allowing us to have our data science, and predictions are getting better and better. Rajat asked the question earlier about AI. I mean, when you think about the ultimate sort of machine learning, AI predictor is not just using third-party data out there in the internet, but this is our data, where we can put a number on a car, measure it of how well we execute. Then to have the bidirectional integration with the DMS, where we know what dealers are retailing the cars for, we're, we're in a really unique spot. We're, we're really pleased with where we're at today, with our, our guarantee offering and, and how it's producing these sort of no reserve opportunities for buyers. Super, thanks very much. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Pierce with Needham & Company. Please proceed with your question. Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Just to... I just want to understand, I, I may not have the math right, but if I look at just pure auction marketplace revenue per unit, it's in line with Q3. On the prior call, you talked about incentivizing sellers, power sellers, and people to try the price guarantee. I know that incentivizing power sellers has sort of been a long-standing industry dynamic. Should we think about that for you guys as something that's not temporary and that's sort of gonna be sort of like the new normal as industry competitive levels change? Like, am I reading into something? I just want to get your thoughts on that. Yeah, I think that's a good point, Chris. We're, we're revenue per unit in Q4 was healthy, to your point. I, I don't think you should think of that as temporary. We're, we're not that worried about competition, where we think revenue per unit is gonna, like, fall. Bill might be able to add a little more color here, but I, I think that's a really good point. We're, we, we did want to bring up to investors in the last earnings call that we, we didn't want our, our, our investors and analysts, like, significantly increasing ARPU over the next year to give us that ability you just had to reinvest. Having said that, you, you-- I don't anticipate ARPU to go down meaningfully. Bill, maybe there's more you can chime in here. Yeah. Chris, just to, just to look at the numbers. In Q3, right, our auction and insurance ARPU declined slightly from $523 in Q2 to $508, then it bounced back up in Q4 to $528. You know, what's baked into our modeling going forward and incorporated into our guidance is an assumption that that $528 pretty much is flat to maybe up very modestly in Q4, I'm sorry, in 2026. You know, that's kind of the modeling that we've baked into, you know, our financials in terms of what, what we're giving you guys for the year. you know, we'll see how it goes, but, you know, it's, it's, it's gonna hold up probably slightly better, you know, than we previously, were modeling on our last call. Okay. Then just on competitive dynamics broadly, you know, I can't speak for all investors, but I, I feel like there was a school of thought that, you know, if we look back two years ago, wholesale was going digital, and it was gonna be a winner-take-most market. Would you push back that on maybe, maybe investor sentiment changing or industry sentiment changing, that wholesale is gonna go digital, but it'll be a duopoly-type market, and that'll naturally be buffers for each other's growth, and comps will play a role and things like that? Like, I, I guess when you look at the industry three to five years from now, do you have a different perspective than you did maybe 18 months ago? You know, I think at the end of the day, we're gonna focus on being the leader. I, I believe we are still the dealer, dealer wholesale leader. We put on, how many units last year? I saw him call eighty- Eighty-six. 86,000 units. I don't believe anybody else put on 86,000 dealer wholesale units last year. When you think about our differentiator, we're, we're adding-- we're not only in the wholesale category, we're helping dealers operate their business better. I really recommend, as folks are thinking about this, like, not only watching the videos, but talking to our own customers. The people we're working with, are happy with our wholesale results, but they're really saying is, "ACV's helping us run our business better." Go back to Rajat's question about AI changing industries like automotive, and I think investors should be worried that AI will change industries. I think that is a legitimate worry. We're doing that in this industry. We're helping dealers execute better. Is there still a ways to go, where physical auctions are still the majority of the cars sold? Yes, we will continue to grow. Is there also some, I would say, credit to also... it may not be a winner take all. It could be there could be a couple winners in this category. I think there's truth to that, too. I think we're gonna be the leader. I believe we're gonna have the most differentiated offering, I believe there's also room for, for others, 'cause at the end of the day, there's only 30-ish% of the industry right now that's moved to digital. Okay, thank you, and good luck. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question. Thanks so much for taking the question, guys. Maybe two, if I could. Given some of the moves you've made to expand footprint through 2025, how should we be thinking about investments to deepen that footprint reach in 2026 as a driver of growth, and how that fits into your broader strategic priorities? That'd be number one. Any update on Project VIPER? I don't think I saw anything in the prepared remarks or, or anything on the call so far. Just wanted to get a quick update on the technology side from Project VIPER and how to think about that rollout as we get deeper into 2026 as well. Thanks so much. Yeah, certainly, Eric. We are hiring away on the inspectors. I think between next couple of months, we've got between this month and next month, I think we've got, like, 20 or 30 people in training right now. We're hiring, we're training. We will hit our inspector, inspector number goals, I'm hoping by Q3, which incorporates both our, the hiring and training to really get the national footprint I'd like in place right now. You will see us just continually executing in that regard to increase our opportunity of going out, inspecting more cars and growing our footprint across the country. It will take us several quarters to both get the hiring and training in place. I'd like to get this national footprint the way I would like it to be, from a talent and inspecting more cars a day. My, my goal is to get most of this in place, but by, I would say by the end of Q3, is sort of my, my goal. It's an aggressive goal, but we're, we're working hard. That's on the like, how to think about the, the, the talent and, and hiring and training, because obviously, it's not just, it's not just hiring, but it's also training and getting, getting all the people in the right, right places. Then second, your question on VIPER. We are, we're just, we've done two things. One is, we're starting to implement somewhere, I don't know, it's about five to 10 VIPERs a month right now. We're in the early days, Eric. We're, we're out putting somewhere, I think, around five to 10 a month over the next, you know, throughout the year. Think about these as the early dealers that are dealers who are helping us not only integrate with the other third-party vendors, so think about like CRM, CRM companies, DMS, like the various vendors, but also helping us nail down a few of the other requirements. Our goal is to put somewhere north of 100 of these out in the field, maybe as close as 200. Think like 100 to 200 of these. We've, we've got at least 200 hand raisers, probably more than that, of dealers saying they want it right now. I don't think we'll get them all live this year. We'll, we'll see. That'll be getting them all live, making sure the product is accomplishing objective number one, which is helping them buy more cars. Objective number two, helping them have retail photos faster on their websites, which helps them retail cars faster. Objective number three, which is on their service revenue, helping them, dealers, for example, we're predicting tire depth at a pretty incredible. Like, my team is saying 90% confidence, higher than 90% confidence on tire depth. Think about cars going through, and the dealer can now upsell tires to consumers, as they're coming through, and it's also a way to help value the vehicle. Whether it's selling more cars, buying more cars or up- or their service revenue going up, those are the three key things we're watching. Our goal will be to start scaling this early next year, where once we've proved our... We feel really, really good. We just don't want to go build 100 of these a month right now or, you know, some significant number, and then we find out we wanted to tweak something, we just wanted to change, change something. The thought is be prudent. As many of you know, we do move fast, but we are pretty prudent over here. Make sure we feel like everything's going in the right direction, and then early next year, really start to scale this thing, where throughout the year, we'll also start taking orders. Yeah, and, hey, Eric. Just, again, just going through the math. We already talked about the $11 million incremental investment on the go-to-market side. The incremental investment on the VIPER side, that's primarily going to flow through our financials as CapEx, since we capitalize these units and then, you know, amortize those costs over a subscription period, that's also another high single-digit millions. Call it approaching $20 million of incremental investment for those two initiatives combined. You know, more to come on the business model on future calls, think subscription, but also tying back to wholesale. That will be an opportunity for us to both help the dealer achieve their objectives, but also us drive our, our wholesale, wallet share and rooftops working with us. Great. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Eric. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Naved Khan with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed with your question. Okay, great. Thank you very much. George, maybe just looking back, you know, back at your commentary in November. I think when you're talking, thinking about 2026 back then, you said it, it's prudent to probably assume that wholesale market stays flat in 2026, and now, you know, we are in February 2026. Any, any thinking, anything that might have changed in terms of your thinking about the market for this year versus, you know, maybe like three months ago? That's my first question. Then the second question is around arbitration expense. Just wondering, what are the kind of drivers here to get this thing down? Is it really more of a functional price volatility, and as that comes down, you expect it to come down or, you know, you, you did do some cleanup, so just trying to understand the drivers there and any, any kind of there would be helpful. Thanks. Yeah, certainly. On your first question on market, as of right now, we're not changing our perspective of dealer wholesale, being flat for the year, but obviously, a very good question. In January, according to AAA, dealer wholesale was down by 6.5%. You saw January was, you know, the market was down. Obviously, there was a lot of weather. February, there was also. There's been some weather, obviously. I think too early to say it'll be down for the whole year. I, and I, I think there's enough things going on in the industry, between what, what could happen with, the tax refunds and, and, and, and, what could... You know, when you generally think about the benefits right now of buying a used car from a tax perspective, there's benefits. There's, there's gonna be enough benefits on the used car side. There's gonna be supply benefits of off lease coming, dealers are gonna buy a lot of these cars. As of right now, even though I would say the year started out with dealer wholesale being down, I would, we, we are still thinking that it'll be a flattish year. On your second question, arbitration, a very good question. We feel really good about where our arbitration is in Q1 and where we're going into the year. We did, really, we moved out some bad actors on the platform in, in just November and December of last year. We, we started to really just govern the platform better, and that's really playing out well. I think it's also the ACV brand of we're not, we're not letting folks take advantage of us anymore, starting to get out there. I, and I wish I would have just done this sooner, but I think as, as leaders, you just, you, you kind of, as you're growing these businesses, you, you sometimes are just chasing a little bit. I, I'm really proud of the team. Really, really proud of the team. We, we, we executed extremely well in Q4. We are going into the year. I'm seeing NPS, I'm seeing buyer satisfaction. I'm seeing on the seller side and the buyer side, more and more accountability. Yeah, and our, and plus, our technology is getting better. Another thing Rajah mentioned about, like, using AI. We're starting to, starting to use AI to figure out what's going on with sellers and buyers and, and other types of things. Yeah. All in all, I'm proud of how the team's executing on arbitration. One, one other item I would add to what George indicated is we're, you know, with, with all the inspectors that we're adding, that we've already added and we'll continue to add this year, we're also going to be leverage that increase, inspector, you know, you know, headcount out there to also validate certain arbitration claims. That'll kind of give us another opportunity to ensure that, you know, we're, we're paying out when, when it makes sense to pay out based on validated claims. Yeah, this is, this is something we recently started piloting, and having the additional headcount really helps, because we right now send these cars to, a, some type of local dealership. We found really it's been very helpful to go put our own eyes on the car. Yeah, as Bill mentioned, that'll be another. It'll be another, positive way of us managing arbitration and allows us to handle these claims faster. We can it's not only us having a, it, it becomes, for the good actors, a better process, because now we can send our person out there to validate, validate the arbitration. Got it. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, George. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Lick with Stephens. Please proceed with your question. Great. Thanks for taking my question, guys. I got a kind of a series of questions around, you know, helping dealers run their business better. They're all kind of related. Firstly, could you maybe talk a little, dig a little deeper on the usage, you know, the early returns on using VIPER to boost service attachment and upsale in the service lane? Then along with that, if you guys do a scan, you know, do you own the data, or does the dealer own the data, or do you guys both have access to it? Then I was wondering if you also elaborated to, I know you guys are doing some kind of private label auctions or intra dealer auctions with different groups using your data. Just kind of wondering if you could, you know, talk about those things. Yeah, we've, we've been starting to scale our service drive acquisition, both pre-VIPER and, and, and now, now, now starting to leverage VIPER as well. But we're Jeff, we've got rooftops buying, I would say anywhere between four and one as high as 10% of all ROs, repair orders, think service orders coming through their service drive. So these are unbelievable numbers. So think on a rooftop basis, this could be anywhere between 40 and 100 cars a month. Bill and I met with one the other day that was already buying, what did he say? 75? I know he's already, he's already buying over 150 a month. A month. Yeah. We're, we're seeing some. We're, we're already starting to see, Jeff. Now we got to scale it. Think like we got to go from, like, dozens of rooftops to, like, thousands. Where ACV is in place and where the dealer takes our best practices, our numbers are, like, off the chart. We've got to get more rooftops doing it. ClearCar by itself meant the dealers still have to go around. They give you the yes, no question, which, by the way, only takes a few minutes. I would like to see more and more of them using it. We now in parallel for a few rooftops, again, early stage, we'll actually put a guarantee on the cars. That's actually helpful because one of the negatives we're finding is even with all of our tech, they still only go put offers on the ones they really want to buy, which is not good for them or us. Now that we have, in our some pilots actually put a guarantee, now they, they don't feel like they're, they're taking a risk buying a car they had no business buying. That's also being helpful. We just got to take it from, we got to take this from dozens of rooftops to hundreds, to thousands of rooftops. The great thing, what I found in my entire career, I remember when we were selling a few hundred cars a month at ACV Auctions, and we told the world we're going to go out there and disrupt dealer wholesale. Probably a lot of people thought we were crazy. I'm sure there's folks who are saying, "You're going to do all this with AI? It sounds a little crazy." Once you could do it with dozens, you can do it with hundreds, you could do it with thousands. I've seen that throughout my entire career. That, that was your question, one. The question two on data is it's the dealer's data at the end of the day, and then we have the right to use the data in an aggregated methodology. I don't really want to speak any more to that in a public call like this, but it's a win-win on how we've we were respectful about their data, but then how we could use the data for doing the things we're talking about, like, like we're talking about today, pricing, predictions, things like that. We have a very senior team from a legal and data perspective here, and doing it for 10 years. We've been able to do this in a way that's both positive for the dealers and us. Do you see eventually the ability to charge kind of non-volume, contingent, recurring revenue and maybe, you know, charge more for helping the you know, the dealer run their business better and not necessarily tying that to auction volume? It will be both. The way it, the model works, and I was going to try not to talk about the model today, that's really for middle of this year. But at a really high level, the way it'll work is, the dealer will, will pay, you know, several thousand dollars a month. I won't say the numbers just yet, just so no one's modeling it yet. Then there'll be a rebate. If we don't get the wholesale volume that we'd like to get, then they'll just pay us a, a healthy number. By the way, that's still a win-win. If they end up just being a high, high SaaS revenue account for us, and that's what they decide, let's just say that dealer happens to own a physical auction, as an example, right? There's a couple of dealers here- Mm-hmm. that across the country, own physical auctions. We'll. We have a great model. What we're going to charge them is still fantastic, but it would be a more significant subscription revenue. Yeah, it, it'll be a win-win, whether we get the wholesale volumes, which we think the, we think the, the wholesale volumes per, per rooftop, will be, could add TAM expansion. That could be 20%, 30%, maybe more than the typical rooftop. We're, we're pretty excited about it. Great. Thanks very much for taking the questions, and best of luck in 2026. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Gary Prestopino with Barrington Research. Please proceed with your question. Hi, good afternoon, all. Hey, George, I had a couple... I got a question on Guarantee, and I have a question on VIPER. With the Guarantee, once it hits the reserve, do you start to see an influx of increased bidding? Does it kind of work like some of these classic car Mecum Auctions, where once the reserve comes off, the price goes up precipitously? Yes, Gary, that's exactly the way this world operates. Dealers that are bidding on cars want to know a car is for sale. When they know a car is for sale, they'll invest the time. They don't want to go bid on car after car and waste their time. We believe the ACV no reserve sale, let's pretend that's its own auction, as though the rest of ACV doesn't exist, as though the rest of the industry doesn't even exist. While our no reserves sales going on, we believe we have the highest bid activity in the industry. Gary, yes, we're-- we're seeing exactly that, because dealers are willing to invest their time because they know, you know, the top bidder is going to get the car. Okay. Then on VIPER, and I realize it's, it's real early in the game here, but what, what does your system do or how are the dealers getting over the reticence of the individual that owns the car to really trust the data, to trust what's being spit out by the dealership? You know, there's, there's always an inherent conflict of interest there, right? Yeah. Good point, Gary. I think you're really bringing up that between AI and machine learning, we, we need the end customers to appreciate and trust, right, the system. The good news is, we've been out showing the end results of our data profile. When you, when you look at the last, you know, few months, and really the last few quarters, our retail predictions of what a car is going to sell for in the next 30 days, most recent results was within $38. Mm-hmm. That's not me just saying, "Hey, this should work someday." This is saying, our prediction of what the car is going to sell for. Now, it won't always fit. Even if within $100, even within $200, that's incredible. Gary, we're not just... We didn't just build a hardware unit here and say, "Okay, go learn." We've been learning through ACV MAX. We've been learning through ACV Auctions. Our wholesale predictions are within $100. When you have this ability to walk in there with hardware that you've already been learning, you've already been proving, it allows us to have more credibility to do what you're asking, which is how do we change their process to trust it? Because we, we are walking in. Now, will there still be a transitory process to get trust? Of course, but at least we're walking in to this opportunity, with, with, with a lot of credibility. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Gary. Shamil, I think we're, we're at the end of the call. From here, I'll just say thank you for joining us tonight. We hope to see you on the conference circuit over this next quarter. Again, thank you for your interest in ACV, and everybody, have a great evening. Thanks so much. Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Speaker 9: Greetings, and welcome to the ACV Q4 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tim Fox, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin. Greetings, and welcome to the ACV Q4 2025 earnings conference call. greetings and welcome to the acv q4 2025 earnings conference call At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. at this time all participants are on a listen-only mode A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. a question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. if anyone should require operator assistance please press star zero on your telephone keypad As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. as a reminder this conference is being recorded It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tim Fox, Vice President of Investor Relations. it is now my pleasure to introduce your host tim fox vice president of investor relations Thank you. thank you You may begin. you may begin

Speaker 12: Good afternoon, thank you for joining ACV's conference call to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results. With me on the call today are George Chamoun, Chief Executive Officer, and William Zerella, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, please note that today's comments include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future financial guidance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and involve factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. A discussion of the risks and uncertainties related to our business can be found in our SEC filings and in today's press release, both of which can be found on our investor relations website. During this call, we will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Good afternoon, thank you for joining ACV's conference call to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results. good afternoon thank you for joining acv's conference call to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results With me on the call today are George Chamoun, Chief Executive Officer, and William Zerella, Chief Financial Officer. with me on the call today are george chamoun chief executive officer and william zerella chief financial officer Before we get started, please note that today's comments include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future financial guidance. before we get started please note that today's comments include forward-looking statements including statements regarding future financial guidance These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and involve factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and involve factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements A discussion of the risks and uncertainties related to our business can be found in our SEC filings and in today's press release, both of which can be found on our investor relations website. a discussion of the risks and uncertainties related to our business can be found in our sec filings and in today's press release both of which can be found on our investor relations website During this call, we will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. during this call we will discuss both gaap and non-gaap financial measures A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is provided in today's earnings materials, which can also be found on our investor relations website. With that, let me turn the call over to George. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is provided in today's earnings materials, which can also be found on our investor relations website. a reconciliation of gaap to non-gaap financial measures is provided in today's earnings materials which can also be found on our investor relations website With that, let me turn the call over to George. with that let me turn the call over to george

Speaker 6: Thanks, Tim. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased with the ACV team's execution in Q4, delivering revenue at the high end of guidance and Adjusted EBITDA above the high end. Our performance was driven by solid execution in our dealer wholesale business, despite challenging market conditions. As we continue to gain market share, expand our dealer partner network, and drive adoption of our value-added dealer solutions. Again, ACV Transport and Capital delivered strong revenue performance. We also executed on our product roadmap to further differentiate ACV's marketplace experience, support our commercial wholesale strategy, and expand our TAM. Turning to 2026, we are expecting revenue growth in the low double digits and Adjusted EBITDA growth of approximately 28%, which includes additional growth investments to support our medium-term financial targets. Thanks, Tim. thanks tim Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today We are pleased with the ACV team's execution in Q4, delivering revenue at the high end of guidance and Adjusted EBITDA above the high end. we are pleased with the acv team's execution in q4 delivering revenue at the high end of guidance and adjusted ebitda above the high end Our performance was driven by solid execution in our dealer wholesale business, despite challenging market conditions. our performance was driven by solid execution in our dealer wholesale business despite challenging market conditions As we continue to gain market share, expand our dealer partner network, and drive adoption of our value-added dealer solutions. as we continue to gain market share expand our dealer partner network and drive adoption of our value-added dealer solutions Again, ACV Transport and Capital delivered strong revenue performance. again acv transport and capital delivered strong revenue performance We also executed on our product roadmap to further differentiate ACV's marketplace experience, support our commercial wholesale strategy, and expand our TAM. we also executed on our product roadmap to further differentiate acv's marketplace experience support our commercial wholesale strategy and expand our tam Turning to 2026, we are expecting revenue growth in the low double digits and Adjusted EBITDA growth of approximately 28%, which includes additional growth investments to support our medium-term financial targets. turning to 2026 we are expecting revenue growth in the low double digits and adjusted ebitda growth of approximately 28% which includes additional growth investments to support our medium-term financial targets We're confident that executing on this profitable growth strategy will create significant long-term shareholder value. With that, let's turn to a recap of our results on slide four. Q4 revenue was $184 million, growth of 15% year-over-year. We sold 193,000 vehicles. For the full year, we delivered 19% revenue growth and grew units by over 86,000, or 12% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA grew by over 100%, demonstrating the scale in our model. Next, on slide five, we'll again focus our discussion around the three pillars of our strategy to maximize long-term shareholder value: growth, innovation, and scale. I'll begin with growth. On slide seven, we highlight how ACV is leveraging AI to attract new buyers and sellers, increase penetration and wallet share, and gain traction with large dealer groups. We're confident that executing on this profitable growth strategy will create significant long-term shareholder value. we're confident that executing on this profitable growth strategy will create significant long-term shareholder value With that, let's turn to a recap of our results on slide four. with that let's turn to a recap of our results on slide four Q4 revenue was $184 million, growth of 15% year-over-year. q4 revenue was $184 million growth of 15% year-over-year We sold 193,000 vehicles. we sold 193,000 vehicles For the full year, we delivered 19% revenue growth and grew units by over 86,000, or 12% year-over-year. for the full year we delivered 19% revenue growth and grew units by over 86,000 or 12% year-over-year Adjusted EBITDA grew by over 100%, demonstrating the scale in our model. adjusted ebitda grew by over 100% demonstrating the scale in our model Next, on slide five, we'll again focus our discussion around the three pillars of our strategy to maximize long-term shareholder value: growth, innovation, and scale. next on slide five we'll again focus our discussion around the three pillars of our strategy to maximize long-term shareholder value growth innovation and scale I'll begin with growth. i'll begin with growth On slide seven, we highlight how ACV is leveraging AI to attract new buyers and sellers, increase penetration and wallet share, and gain traction with large dealer groups. on slide seven we highlight how acv is leveraging ai to attract new buyers and sellers increase penetration and wallet share and gain traction with large dealer groups Let's begin with our marketplace. Our highly accurate, condition-adjusted pricing guidance enabled sellers to set more informed reserve prices. Flexible auction durations and scheduling allowed dealers to customize their marketplace experience. Given the challenging market conditions in Q4, dealers increasingly leaned into ACV's technology. For buyers in our marketplace, we tailor their experience across buyer personas and optimize the bidding process by providing AI-enabled recommendations informed by dealer preferences and current market factors. These investments in our leading marketplace experience were key to growing our dealer network in 2025, with 15,000 unique sellers and over 22,000 unique buyers transacting with ACV. Our franchise rooftop penetration achieved a new milestone, reaching 35% during the year, and our major account team delivered impressive results with a 300 basis point increase in rooftop penetration. Next, on slide eight, I'll provide some highlights on our data services. Let's begin with our marketplace. let's begin with our marketplace Our highly accurate, condition-adjusted pricing guidance enabled sellers to set more informed reserve prices. our highly accurate condition-adjusted pricing guidance enabled sellers to set more informed reserve prices Flexible auction durations and scheduling allowed dealers to customize their marketplace experience. flexible auction durations and scheduling allowed dealers to customize their marketplace experience Given the challenging market conditions in Q4, dealers increasingly leaned into ACV's technology. given the challenging market conditions in q4 dealers increasingly leaned into acv's technology For buyers in our marketplace, we tailor their experience across buyer personas and optimize the bidding process by providing AI-enabled recommendations informed by dealer preferences and current market factors. for buyers in our marketplace we tailor their experience across buyer personas and optimize the bidding process by providing ai-enabled recommendations informed by dealer preferences and current market factors These investments in our leading marketplace experience were key to growing our dealer network in 2025, with 15,000 unique sellers and over 22,000 unique buyers transacting with ACV. these investments in our leading marketplace experience were key to growing our dealer network in 2025 with 15,000 unique sellers and over 22,000 unique buyers transacting with acv Our franchise rooftop penetration achieved a new milestone, reaching 35% during the year, and our major account team delivered impressive results with a 300 basis point increase in rooftop penetration. our franchise rooftop penetration achieved a new milestone reaching 35% during the year and our major account team delivered impressive results with a 300 basis point increase in rooftop penetration Next, on slide eight, I'll provide some highlights on our data services. next on slide eight i'll provide some highlights on our data services Market traction for ClearCar remains strong, especially for ClearCar Service, that enables dealers to seamlessly produce consumer appraisals and offers from their service lanes. ClearCar is also an effective lever to increase wholesale wallet share and attract new dealers to our marketplace. During 2025, existing dealers that launched ClearCar increased their wholesale volumes at ACV by over 50% after going live. We're also seeing early momentum with our strategy to bundle ACV MAX with wholesale. A recent cohort of new ACV MAX dealers increased their wholesale vehicle sales on our marketplace by an average of 40% within one quarter of launching MAX. Our strategy to offer a broader set of value-added solutions is creating another growth lever for ACV.... Market traction for ClearCar remains strong, especially for ClearCar Service, that enables dealers to seamlessly produce consumer appraisals and offers from their service lanes. market traction for clearcar remains strong especially for clearcar service that enables dealers to seamlessly produce consumer appraisals and offers from their service lanes ClearCar is also an effective lever to increase wholesale wallet share and attract new dealers to our marketplace. clearcar is also an effective lever to increase wholesale wallet share and attract new dealers to our marketplace During 2025, existing dealers that launched ClearCar increased their wholesale volumes at ACV by over 50% after going live. during 2025 existing dealers that launched clearcar increased their wholesale volumes at acv by over 50% after going live We're also seeing early momentum with our strategy to bundle ACV MAX with wholesale. we're also seeing early momentum with our strategy to bundle acv max with wholesale A recent cohort of new ACV MAX dealers increased their wholesale vehicle sales on our marketplace by an average of 40% within one quarter of launching MAX. a recent cohort of new acv max dealers increased their wholesale vehicle sales on our marketplace by an average of 40% within one quarter of launching max Our strategy to offer a broader set of value-added solutions is creating another growth lever for ACV.... our strategy to offer a broader set of value-added solutions is creating another growth lever for acv Again, this quarter, we're excited to share feedback from one of our dealer partners, the Hendrick Automotive Group, which is using ACV's full suite of offerings. We posted a video on our IR website highlighting the significant value they're deriving from ACV solutions. Turning to slide nine. From a geographic perspective, we continue to drive strong growth within our more established regions, where network effects are driving significant market share. At the same time, our footprint has expanded across the country, as highlighted in these four regions, which delivered strong year-over-year unit growth in Q4. As we discussed in our Q3 call, there are certain emerging regions where we are increasing our territory manager and VCI footprint to drive accelerated growth. These efforts began in Q4 and will continue during 2026. We are confident in the medium-term growth outlook for these markets. Turning to slide 10. Again, this quarter, we're excited to share feedback from one of our dealer partners, the Hendrick Automotive Group, which is using ACV's full suite of offerings. again this quarter we're excited to share feedback from one of our dealer partners the hendrick automotive group which is using acv's full suite of offerings We posted a video on our IR website highlighting the significant value they're deriving from ACV solutions. we posted a video on our ir website highlighting the significant value they're deriving from acv solutions Turning to slide nine. turning to slide nine From a geographic perspective, we continue to drive strong growth within our more established regions, where network effects are driving significant market share. from a geographic perspective we continue to drive strong growth within our more established regions where network effects are driving significant market share At the same time, our footprint has expanded across the country, as highlighted in these four regions, which delivered strong year-over-year unit growth in Q4. at the same time our footprint has expanded across the country as highlighted in these four regions which delivered strong year-over-year unit growth in q4 As we discussed in our Q3 call, there are certain emerging regions where we are increasing our territory manager and VCI footprint to drive accelerated growth. as we discussed in our q3 call there are certain emerging regions where we are increasing our territory manager and vci footprint to drive accelerated growth These efforts began in Q4 and will continue during 2026. these efforts began in q4 and will continue during 2026 We are confident in the medium-term growth outlook for these markets. we are confident in the medium-term growth outlook for these markets Turning to slide 10. turning to slide 10 Let's review our marketplace service offerings, beginning with ACV Transportation. The transport team had strong execution in Q4, with 20% revenue growth and 110,000 transports delivered. AI-optimized pricing continues to drive strong growth and operating efficiency. Revenue margin has already achieved our midterm target in the low 20s, and our off-platform transportation service continues to gain traction from our dealer partners, creating additional growth opportunities. Last, I'll wrap up the growth section on slide 11 with ACV Capital highlights. ACV Capital delivered strong revenue performance, with 48% year-over-year growth in Q4, despite actively lowering our exposure to higher-risk customer segments. The ACV Capital team implemented new growth strategies while driving process enhancements to mitigate portfolio risk. As such, we are confident that ACV Capital will remain an important value-added service for our dealers and a long-term growth opportunity. Let's review our marketplace service offerings, beginning with ACV Transportation. let's review our marketplace service offerings beginning with acv transportation The transport team had strong execution in Q4, with 20% revenue growth and 110,000 transports delivered. the transport team had strong execution in q4 with 20% revenue growth and 110,000 transports delivered AI-optimized pricing continues to drive strong growth and operating efficiency. ai-optimized pricing continues to drive strong growth and operating efficiency Revenue margin has already achieved our midterm target in the low 20s, and our off-platform transportation service continues to gain traction from our dealer partners, creating additional growth opportunities. revenue margin has already achieved our midterm target in the low 20s and our off-platform transportation service continues to gain traction from our dealer partners creating additional growth opportunities Last, I'll wrap up the growth section on slide 11 with ACV Capital highlights. last i'll wrap up the growth section on slide 11 with acv capital highlights ACV Capital delivered strong revenue performance, with 48% year-over-year growth in Q4, despite actively lowering our exposure to higher-risk customer segments. acv capital delivered strong revenue performance with 48% year-over-year growth in q4 despite actively lowering our exposure to higher-risk customer segments The ACV Capital team implemented new growth strategies while driving process enhancements to mitigate portfolio risk. the acv capital team implemented new growth strategies while driving process enhancements to mitigate portfolio risk As such, we are confident that ACV Capital will remain an important value-added service for our dealers and a long-term growth opportunity. as such we are confident that acv capital will remain an important value-added service for our dealers and a long-term growth opportunity Next, on slide 12, I'll address the second element of our strategy to drive long-term shareholder value, innovation. Turning to slide 13, let's go deeper into how we are leveraging ACV AI to drive growth and to deliver value to our dealer and commercial partners. Using machine learning, we combine inspection data and dynamic market data to provide real-time pricing for every vehicle within ACV's pricing platform. For example, we are leveraging our pricing platform to offer ACV Guarantee to sellers and deliver no reserve auction to buyers. This offering remains the fastest-growing channel in our marketplace. We are pleased to see ACV Guarantee mix increase to 19% in Q4. As a reminder, our guarantee sale is a highly differentiated offering that benefits buyers, sellers, and ACV. Next, on slide 12, I'll address the second element of our strategy to drive long-term shareholder value, innovation. next on slide 12 i'll address the second element of our strategy to drive long-term shareholder value innovation Turning to slide 13, let's go deeper into how we are leveraging ACV AI to drive growth and to deliver value to our dealer and commercial partners. turning to slide 13 let's go deeper into how we are leveraging acv ai to drive growth and to deliver value to our dealer and commercial partners Using machine learning, we combine inspection data and dynamic market data to provide real-time pricing for every vehicle within ACV's pricing platform. using machine learning we combine inspection data and dynamic market data to provide real-time pricing for every vehicle within acv's pricing platform For example, we are leveraging our pricing platform to offer ACV Guarantee to sellers and deliver no reserve auction to buyers. for example we are leveraging our pricing platform to offer acv guarantee to sellers and deliver no reserve auction to buyers This offering remains the fastest-growing channel in our marketplace. this offering remains the fastest-growing channel in our marketplace We are pleased to see ACV Guarantee mix increase to 19% in Q4. we are pleased to see acv guarantee mix increase to 19% in q4 As a reminder, our guarantee sale is a highly differentiated offering that benefits buyers, sellers, and ACV. as a reminder our guarantee sale is a highly differentiated offering that benefits buyers sellers and acv By accelerating bidder engagement, increasing buyer satisfaction, removing seller market risk, while delivering 100% conversion rate, we're confident our guarantee offering will be another key driver of market share gains. On slide 14, we highlight how we are further differentiating ACV in the market with AI-driven next-gen products like VIPER and Virtual Lift. We are extending our industry-leading inspection technology, vehicle data, and pricing capabilities to dealers looking to unlock consumer vehicle acquisition at scale in their service lane. At the recent NADA Industry Conference, we announced the next wave of availability for the VIPER Early Access Program. Dealer reception was tremendous. We're excited to kick off the commercial launch of VIPER with select dealer partners, providing them with a unique and scalable consumer sourcing platform that will expand our TAM at a rooftop level by tapping into the large peer-to-peer segment. By accelerating bidder engagement, increasing buyer satisfaction, removing seller market risk, while delivering 100% conversion rate, we're confident our guarantee offering will be another key driver of market share gains. by accelerating bidder engagement increasing buyer satisfaction removing seller market risk while delivering 100% conversion rate we're confident our guarantee offering will be another key driver of market share gains On slide 14, we highlight how we are further differentiating ACV in the market with AI-driven next-gen products like VIPER and Virtual Lift. on slide 14 we highlight how we are further differentiating acv in the market with ai-driven next-gen products like viper and virtual lift We are extending our industry-leading inspection technology, vehicle data, and pricing capabilities to dealers looking to unlock consumer vehicle acquisition at scale in their service lane. we are extending our industry-leading inspection technology vehicle data and pricing capabilities to dealers looking to unlock consumer vehicle acquisition at scale in their service lane At the recent NADA Industry Conference, we announced the next wave of availability for the VIPER Early Access Program. at the recent nada industry conference we announced the next wave of availability for the viper early access program Dealer reception was tremendous. dealer reception was tremendous We're excited to kick off the commercial launch of VIPER with select dealer partners, providing them with a unique and scalable consumer sourcing platform that will expand our TAM at a rooftop level by tapping into the large peer-to-peer segment. we're excited to kick off the commercial launch of viper with select dealer partners providing them with a unique and scalable consumer sourcing platform that will expand our tam at a rooftop level by tapping into the large peer-to-peer segment By leveraging pricing models that bundle VIPER with wholesale, we're creating a powerful new lever to drive wallet share expansion and unit growth. Wrapping up on innovation, let's turn to our commercial wholesale strategy on slide 15. We are pleased to see the initial range of capabilities developed over the past year, powering our first greenfield remarketing center in Houston. Our team has been in active conversations with commercial customers to deepen our understanding of the requirements for the next phase of our software build. We believe this new digital model and end-to-end experience will transform commercial vehicle remarketing, and we also look forward to launching an additional greenfield location in Chicago this year. With that, I'll hand over to Bill to take you through our financial results and how we're driving growth at scale. By leveraging pricing models that bundle VIPER with wholesale, we're creating a powerful new lever to drive wallet share expansion and unit growth. by leveraging pricing models that bundle viper with wholesale we're creating a powerful new lever to drive wallet share expansion and unit growth Wrapping up on innovation, let's turn to our commercial wholesale strategy on slide 15. wrapping up on innovation let's turn to our commercial wholesale strategy on slide 15 We are pleased to see the initial range of capabilities developed over the past year, powering our first greenfield remarketing center in Houston. we are pleased to see the initial range of capabilities developed over the past year powering our first greenfield remarketing center in houston Our team has been in active conversations with commercial customers to deepen our understanding of the requirements for the next phase of our software build. our team has been in active conversations with commercial customers to deepen our understanding of the requirements for the next phase of our software build We believe this new digital model and end-to-end experience will transform commercial vehicle remarketing, and we also look forward to launching an additional greenfield location in Chicago this year. we believe this new digital model and end-to-end experience will transform commercial vehicle remarketing and we also look forward to launching an additional greenfield location in chicago this year With that, I'll hand over to Bill to take you through our financial results and how we're driving growth at scale. with that i'll hand over to bill to take you through our financial results and how we're driving growth at scale

Speaker 13: Thanks, George, and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased with our Q4 financial performance, with revenue at the high end of our guidance range and Adjusted EBITDA exceeding the range. On slide 17, let's begin with a brief recap of our fourth quarter results. Revenue of $184 million grew 15% year-over-year, compared to very strong results in Q4 2024. Adjusted EBITDA of $8 million grew 36% year-over-year, reflecting strong expense discipline. Finally, non-GAAP net loss of $1 million was favorable relative to our guidance range. Next, on slide 18, let's review additional revenue details. Auction assurance revenue was 55% of total revenue and grew 11% year-over-year against a very tough comparison of 40% growth in Q4 2024. Thanks, George, and thank you for joining us today. thanks george and thank you for joining us today We are pleased with our Q4 financial performance, with revenue at the high end of our guidance range and Adjusted EBITDA exceeding the range. we are pleased with our q4 financial performance with revenue at the high end of our guidance range and adjusted ebitda exceeding the range On slide 17, let's begin with a brief recap of our fourth quarter results. on slide 17 let's begin with a brief recap of our fourth quarter results Revenue of $184 million grew 15% year-over-year, compared to very strong results in Q4 2024. revenue of $184 million grew 15% year-over-year compared to very strong results in q4 2024 Adjusted EBITDA of $8 million grew 36% year-over-year, reflecting strong expense discipline. adjusted ebitda of $8 million grew 36% year-over-year reflecting strong expense discipline Finally, non-GAAP net loss of $1 million was favorable relative to our guidance range. Next, on slide 18, let's review additional revenue details. finally non-gaap net loss of $1 million was favorable relative to our guidance range. next on slide 18 let's review additional revenue details Auction assurance revenue was 55% of total revenue and grew 11% year-over-year against a very tough comparison of 40% growth in Q4 2024. auction assurance revenue was 55% of total revenue and grew 11% year-over-year against a very tough comparison of 40% growth in q4 2024 This performance reflects 5% unit growth, which also faced a tough comparison of 27% growth in Q4 2024. Auction and assurance ARPU of $528 grew 6% year-over-year and 4% quarter-over-quarter. Marketplace services revenue was 39% of total revenue and grew 23% year-over-year, reflecting continued strong performance for ACV Transportation and ACV Capital. Lastly, our SaaS and data services products comprise 5% of total revenue, with year-over-year growth accelerating to 8%. Next, I'll review Q4 costs on slide 19. Non-GAAP cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue increased approximately 400 basis points year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by higher arbitration costs, as expected, within a specific cohort of customers. This performance reflects 5% unit growth, which also faced a tough comparison of 27% growth in Q4 2024. this performance reflects 5% unit growth which also faced a tough comparison of 27% growth in q4 2024 Auction and assurance ARPU of $528 grew 6% year-over-year and 4% quarter-over-quarter. auction and assurance arpu of $528 grew 6% year-over-year and 4% quarter-over-quarter Marketplace services revenue was 39% of total revenue and grew 23% year-over-year, reflecting continued strong performance for ACV Transportation and ACV Capital. marketplace services revenue was 39% of total revenue and grew 23% year-over-year reflecting continued strong performance for acv transportation and acv capital Lastly, our SaaS and data services products comprise 5% of total revenue, with year-over-year growth accelerating to 8%. lastly our saas and data services products comprise 5% of total revenue with year-over-year growth accelerating to 8% Next, I'll review Q4 costs on slide 19. next i'll review q4 costs on slide 19 Non-GAAP cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue increased approximately 400 basis points year-over-year. non-gaap cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue increased approximately 400 basis points year-over-year The increase was primarily driven by higher arbitration costs, as expected, within a specific cohort of customers. the increase was primarily driven by higher arbitration costs as expected within a specific cohort of customers Recall that our Q4 guidance assumed arbitration costs would remain elevated in the quarter, but that trends would normalize in 2026 following litigation steps we implemented. These steps are already showing positive returns in early 2026. Non-GAAP operating expense, excluding cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue, decreased approximately 400 basis points year-over-year, reflecting operating leverage in our model. Moving to slide 20, I'll frame our investment strategy as we drive profitable growth. In 2026, we expect OpEx growth of approximately 9%, which is a decline from 12% in 2025. Note that 2026 OpEx includes approximately $11 million in additional go-to-market spending to support regional growth objectives. Even with these growth investments, Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to increase by approximately 100 basis points year-over-year. Next, I will highlight our strong capital structure on slide 21. Recall that our Q4 guidance assumed arbitration costs would remain elevated in the quarter, but that trends would normalize in 2026 following litigation steps we implemented. recall that our q4 guidance assumed arbitration costs would remain elevated in the quarter but that trends would normalize in 2026 following litigation steps we implemented These steps are already showing positive returns in early 2026. these steps are already showing positive returns in early 2026 Non-GAAP operating expense, excluding cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue, decreased approximately 400 basis points year-over-year, reflecting operating leverage in our model. non-gaap operating expense excluding cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue decreased approximately 400 basis points year-over-year reflecting operating leverage in our model Moving to slide 20, I'll frame our investment strategy as we drive profitable growth. moving to slide 20 i'll frame our investment strategy as we drive profitable growth In 2026, we expect OpEx growth of approximately 9%, which is a decline from 12% in 2025. in 2026 we expect opex growth of approximately 9% which is a decline from 12% in 2025 Note that 2026 OpEx includes approximately $11 million in additional go-to-market spending to support regional growth objectives. note that 2026 opex includes approximately $11 million in additional go-to-market spending to support regional growth objectives Even with these growth investments, Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to increase by approximately 100 basis points year-over-year. even with these growth investments adjusted ebitda margin is expected to increase by approximately 100 basis points year-over-year Next, I will highlight our strong capital structure on slide 21. next i will highlight our strong capital structure on slide 21 We ended Q4 with $270 million in cash and cash equivalents and $190 million of debt. Note that our cash balance includes $171 million of marketplace float. In the figure on the right, we highlight our solid operating cash flow, which reflects Adjusted EBITDA growth and margin expansion. Turning to guidance on slide 22. First quarter revenue is expected to be $200 million-$204 million, growth of 9%-12%. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $14 million-$16 million, reflecting a 7%-8% margin. 2026 revenue is expected to be $845 million-$855 million, growth of 11%-13%. Note that full-year revenue guidance assumes that our go-to-market investments will drive slightly higher growth in the second half of the year. We ended Q4 with $270 million in cash and cash equivalents and $190 million of debt. we ended q4 with $270 million in cash and cash equivalents and $190 million of debt Note that our cash balance includes $171 million of marketplace float. note that our cash balance includes $171 million of marketplace float In the figure on the right, we highlight our solid operating cash flow, which reflects Adjusted EBITDA growth and margin expansion. in the figure on the right we highlight our solid operating cash flow which reflects adjusted ebitda growth and margin expansion Turning to guidance on slide 22. turning to guidance on slide 22 First quarter revenue is expected to be $200 million-$204 million, growth of 9%-12%. first quarter revenue is expected to be $200 million-$204 million growth of 9%-12% Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $14 million-$16 million, reflecting a 7%-8% margin. 2026 revenue is expected to be $845 million-$855 million, growth of 11%-13%. adjusted ebitda is expected to be $14 million-$16 million reflecting a 7%-8% margin 2026 revenue is expected to be $845 million-$855 million growth of 11%-13% Note that full-year revenue guidance assumes that our go-to-market investments will drive slightly higher growth in the second half of the year. note that full-year revenue guidance assumes that our go-to-market investments will drive slightly higher growth in the second half of the year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $73 million-$77 million, growth of approximately 28% year-over-year. We are expecting non-GAAP OpEx, excluding cost of revenue, to grow approximately 9% year-over-year. With that, let me turn it back to George. 2026 Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $73 million-$77 million, growth of approximately 28% year-over-year. 2026 adjusted ebitda is expected to be $73 million-$77 million growth of approximately 28% year-over-year We are expecting non-GAAP OpEx, excluding cost of revenue, to grow approximately 9% year-over-year. we are expecting non-gaap opex excluding cost of revenue to grow approximately 9% year-over-year With that, let me turn it back to George. with that let me turn it back to george

Speaker 6: Thanks, Bill. Before we take your questions, I will summarize. We are pleased with our Q4 execution while navigating through challenging market conditions. We continue addressing these market challenges by enhancing our technology and operating models, ultimately making us even more resilient. We are attracting new dealer and commercial partners to our marketplace and expanding our addressable market, which positions ACV for attractive growth as market conditions improve. We are delivering on an exciting product roadmap, powered by ACV AI, to further differentiate ACV and drive operating efficiencies. We are focused on achieving strong, Adjusted EBITDA growth and delivering on our midterm targets that we believe will drive significant shareholder value. We are committed to achieving these results while building a world-class team to deliver on our goals. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator to begin the Q&A. Thanks, Bill. thanks bill Before we take your questions, I will summarize. before we take your questions i will summarize We are pleased with our Q4 execution while navigating through challenging market conditions. we are pleased with our q4 execution while navigating through challenging market conditions We continue addressing these market challenges by enhancing our technology and operating models, ultimately making us even more resilient. we continue addressing these market challenges by enhancing our technology and operating models ultimately making us even more resilient We are attracting new dealer and commercial partners to our marketplace and expanding our addressable market, which positions ACV for attractive growth as market conditions improve. we are attracting new dealer and commercial partners to our marketplace and expanding our addressable market which positions acv for attractive growth as market conditions improve We are delivering on an exciting product roadmap, powered by ACV AI, to further differentiate ACV and drive operating efficiencies. we are delivering on an exciting product roadmap powered by acv ai to further differentiate acv and drive operating efficiencies We are focused on achieving strong, Adjusted EBITDA growth and delivering on our midterm targets that we believe will drive significant shareholder value. we are focused on achieving strong adjusted ebitda growth and delivering on our midterm targets that we believe will drive significant shareholder value We are committed to achieving these results while building a world-class team to deliver on our goals. we are committed to achieving these results while building a world-class team to deliver on our goals With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator to begin the Q&A. with that i'll turn the call over to the operator to begin the q&a

Speaker 9: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Boone with Citizens JMP. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. we will now be conducting a question-and-answer session If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. if you would like to ask a question please press star one on your telephone keypad A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. you may press star two to remove yourself from the queue For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. for participants using speaker equipment it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys One moment, please, while we poll for questions. one moment please while we poll for questions Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Boone with Citizens JMP. our first question comes from the line of andrew boone with citizens jmp Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 1: Thanks so much for taking my questions. I would love to just double-click in terms of 4Q 2025 units sold. We've seen this deceleration. Can you just help us understand whether that's competitive pressure, the market, macro, anything you want to call out in terms of highlighting 4Q results? Then I'd love to ask about ACV MAX. It sounds like you guys are seeing real results in terms of better integrating with dealers to just drive more volume. Can you help us understand what's the roadmap to drive better ACV MAX adoption more broadly? Thank you. Thanks so much for taking my questions. thanks so much for taking my questions I would love to just double-click in terms of 4Q 2025 units sold. i would love to just double-click in terms of 4q 2025 units sold We've seen this deceleration. we've seen this deceleration Can you just help us understand whether that's competitive pressure, the market, macro, anything you want to call out in terms of highlighting 4Q results? can you just help us understand whether that's competitive pressure the market macro anything you want to call out in terms of highlighting 4q results Then I'd love to ask about ACV MAX. then i'd love to ask about acv max It sounds like you guys are seeing real results in terms of better integrating with dealers to just drive more volume. it sounds like you guys are seeing real results in terms of better integrating with dealers to just drive more volume Can you help us understand what's the roadmap to drive better ACV MAX adoption more broadly? can you help us understand what's the roadmap to drive better acv max adoption more broadly Thank you. thank you

Speaker 6: Yeah. Hey, Andrew. When you look at Q4, first, we, we delivered, as you can see, on our revenue expectations. I think we, we hit a really. We had a strong quarter from a revenue perspective. For the year, we grew, units 12%, so that, that was solid. When you look at the Q4 compare, it was a tougher compare. Yeah. yeah Hey, Andrew. hey andrew When you look at Q4, first, we, we delivered, as you can see, on our revenue expectations. when you look at q4 first we we delivered as you can see on our revenue expectations I think we, we hit a really. i think we we hit a really We had a strong quarter from a revenue perspective. we had a strong quarter from a revenue perspective For the year, we grew, units 12%, so that, that was solid. for the year we grew units 12% so that that was solid When you look at the Q4 compare, it was a tougher compare. when you look at the q4 compare it was a tougher compare What we're doing about creating more growth are the things we've talked about. We're adding more inspectors out in the field, so we'll start to see that benefit throughout this year. That's one area we're adding. We also talked about investing in a few more of the regions where we're adding additional territory managers. We talked about that on the call. Then we also talked about our differentiation with our products like ACV MAX, that, that you, that you brought up. I, I do want to actually bring up the, the real, the backdrop here on, on dealer wholesale is growing from the physical auctions. Still, 70% of the business out there is happening at physical auctions. What we're doing about creating more growth are the things we've talked about. what we're doing about creating more growth are the things we've talked about We're adding more inspectors out in the field, so we'll start to see that benefit throughout this year. we're adding more inspectors out in the field so we'll start to see that benefit throughout this year That's one area we're adding. that's one area we're adding We also talked about investing in a few more of the regions where we're adding additional territory managers . we also talked about investing in a few more of the regions where we're adding additional territory managers We talked about that on the call. we talked about that on the call Then we also talked about our differentiation with our products like ACV MAX, that, that you, that you brought up. then we also talked about our differentiation with our products like acv max that that you that you brought up I, I do want to actually bring up the, the real, the backdrop here on, on dealer wholesale is growing from the physical auctions. i i do want to actually bring up the the real the backdrop here on on dealer wholesale is growing from the physical auctions Still, 70% of the business out there is happening at physical auctions. still 70% of the business out there is happening at physical auctions The broader, the broader need is still just to bring more and more business being had at physical auctions over to digital, which between our differentiated offerings, is starting to happen more and more. On your second question on MAX, we are, we are really starting to scale that business where it's now being connected more to wholesale. For some of the rooftops, we added a additional offering that puts a guarantee on units. Not only are we providing pricing guidance, but we'll put a guarantee, and we're starting to scale that with additional rooftops. Look forward to scaling MAX additionally throughout the year. The broader, the broader need is still just to bring more and more business being had at physical auctions over to digital, which between our differentiated offerings, is starting to happen more and more. the broader the broader need is still just to bring more and more business being had at physical auctions over to digital which between our differentiated offerings is starting to happen more and more On your second question on MAX, we are, we are really starting to scale that business where it's now being connected more to wholesale. on your second question on max we are we are really starting to scale that business where it's now being connected more to wholesale For some of the rooftops, we added a additional offering that puts a guarantee on units. for some of the rooftops we added a additional offering that puts a guarantee on units Not only are we providing pricing guidance, but we'll put a guarantee, and we're starting to scale that with additional rooftops. not only are we providing pricing guidance but we'll put a guarantee and we're starting to scale that with additional rooftops Look forward to scaling MAX additionally throughout the year. look forward to scaling max additionally throughout the year

Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 9: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rajat Gupta with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you Our next question comes from the line of Rajat Gupta with JP Morgan. our next question comes from the line of rajat gupta with jp morgan Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 10: Great. Thanks for taking the question. You know, I had a question, you know, just, just following, following up on the previous one. It looks like, you know, the 2026 guidance, it does not assume much of a change in overall market share growth versus what you saw in recent quarters. Despite your incremental margins moving lower versus where you were last year, I'm curious, you know, why that would be the case? And if there are, like, any one-time investments, you know, maybe VIPER and, you know, other initiatives, other initiatives around commercial that might be causing that incremental margin to slow down. I mean, it just seems a little counterintuitive, you know, to look at incremental margin dropping versus market share not accelerating. Great. great Thanks for taking the question. thanks for taking the question You know, I had a question, you know, just, just following, following up on the previous one. you know i had a question you know just just following following up on the previous one It looks like, you know, the 2026 guidance, it does not assume much of a change in overall market share growth versus what you saw in recent quarters. it looks like you know the 2026 guidance it does not assume much of a change in overall market share growth versus what you saw in recent quarters Despite your incremental margins moving lower versus where you were last year, I'm curious, you know, why that would be the case? despite your incremental margins moving lower versus where you were last year i'm curious you know why that would be the case And if there are, like, any one-time investments, you know, maybe VIPER and, you know, other initiatives, other initiatives around commercial that might be causing that incremental margin to slow down. and if there are like any one-time investments you know maybe viper and you know other initiatives other initiatives around commercial that might be causing that incremental margin to slow down I mean, it just seems a little counterintuitive, you know, to look at incremental margin dropping versus market share not accelerating. i mean it just seems a little counterintuitive you know to look at incremental margin dropping versus market share not accelerating If you could clarify that, and then I have a quick follow-up. Thanks. If you could clarify that, and then I have a quick follow-up. if you could clarify that and then i have a quick follow-up Thanks. thanks

Speaker 6: Yes, certainly, Rajat. I'll start, and then Bill can chime in. Two of the investments we're making, at least two, and Bill can chime in with the additional, is what we made with the in-field, which are additional inspectors. We're hiring some additional territory managers, as I mentioned a few minutes ago. That's one area of additional expense, and Bill could kind of go a little deeper. Second is, yes, we're starting to invest in the VIPER rollout, that's also part of the numbers. We believe, Rajat, as we're making these investments throughout the year, we'll start to see more of an impact towards the back half of the year, because obviously it takes a little time to get these things going. Yes, certainly, Rajat. yes certainly rajat I'll start, and then Bill can chime in. i'll start and then bill can chime in Two of the investments we're making, at least two, and Bill can chime in with the additional, is what we made with the in-field, which are additional inspectors. two of the investments we're making at least two and bill can chime in with the additional is what we made with the in-field which are additional inspectors We're hiring some additional territory managers, as I mentioned a few minutes ago. we're hiring some additional territory managers as i mentioned a few minutes ago That's one area of additional expense, and Bill could kind of go a little deeper. that's one area of additional expense and bill could kind of go a little deeper Second is, yes, we're starting to invest in the VIPER rollout, that's also part of the numbers. second is yes we're starting to invest in the viper rollout that's also part of the numbers We believe, Rajat, as we're making these investments throughout the year, we'll start to see more of an impact towards the back half of the year, because obviously it takes a little time to get these things going. we believe rajat as we're making these investments throughout the year we'll start to see more of an impact towards the back half of the year because obviously it takes a little time to get these things going Bill, maybe you can chime in some more on this. Bill, maybe you can chime in some more on this. bill maybe you can chime in some more on this

Speaker 13: Yeah. Rajat, just to go through the numbers again. The incremental spend that we baked into our guidance for this year in terms of those go-to-market investments is approximately $11 million. If you look at our incrementals, excluding that, they would have actually grown 500 reps year-over-year from 25%-30%. That's, number one, just ensure you got the right numbers, right? As George said, at this point, it's early in the year. We're making these investments obviously with the objective of driving, you know, more share gains. We're, we're pretty conservative at this point in terms of what we're going to bake into our guidance until we start to see these investments pay off over time. Yeah. yeah Rajat, just to go through the numbers again. rajat just to go through the numbers again The incremental spend that we baked into our guidance for this year in terms of those go-to-market investments is approximately $11 million. the incremental spend that we baked into our guidance for this year in terms of those go-to-market investments is approximately $11 million If you look at our incrementals, excluding that, they would have actually grown 500 reps year-over-year from 25%-30%. if you look at our incrementals excluding that they would have actually grown 500 reps year-over-year from 25%-30% That's, number one, just ensure you got the right numbers, right? that's number one just ensure you got the right numbers right As George said, at this point, it's early in the year. as george said at this point it's early in the year We're making these investments obviously with the objective of driving, you know, more share gains. we're making these investments obviously with the objective of driving you know more share gains We're, we're pretty conservative at this point in terms of what we're going to bake into our guidance until we start to see these investments pay off over time. we're we're pretty conservative at this point in terms of what we're going to bake into our guidance until we start to see these investments pay off over time

Speaker 10: understood. So the market share, essentially, you're implying higher market share acceleration, in, later in the year, assuming your investments bear some fruit. Right? understood. understood So the market share, essentially, you're implying higher market share acceleration, in, later in the year, assuming your investments bear some fruit. so the market share essentially you're implying higher market share acceleration in later in the year assuming your investments bear some fruit Right? right

Speaker 13: We're assuming a slight increase in the second half of the year versus the first half. Again, we're taking a more conservative perspective at this point until we start to see this play out over time. We're assuming a slight increase in the second half of the year versus the first half. we're assuming a slight increase in the second half of the year versus the first half Again, we're taking a more conservative perspective at this point until we start to see this play out over time. again we're taking a more conservative perspective at this point until we start to see this play out over time

Speaker 10: Understood. Just a quick follow-up, a little more high-level question. Could, could you, you know, maybe, you know, comfort investors around, you know, just the risk of AI to the business? I mean, clearly, there seems to be a lot of interpretations around. Anything you can help, you know, just provide more clarity around that. What differentiates ACV? What differentiates your business model? Is there a risk, is there a benefit from AI? You know, maybe if you could just, you know, just dig a little deeper into that, and just how you're thinking about that. Thanks. Understood. understood Just a quick follow-up, a little more high-level question. just a quick follow-up a little more high-level question Could, could you, you know, maybe, you know, comfort investors around, you know, just the risk of AI to the business? could could you you know maybe you know comfort investors around you know just the risk of ai to the business I mean, clearly, there seems to be a lot of interpretations around. i mean clearly there seems to be a lot of interpretations around Anything you can help, you know, just provide more clarity around that. anything you can help you know just provide more clarity around that What differentiates ACV? what differentiates acv What differentiates your business model? what differentiates your business model Is there a risk, is there a benefit from AI? is there a risk is there a benefit from ai You know, maybe if you could just, you know, just dig a little deeper into that, and just how you're thinking about that. you know maybe if you could just you know just dig a little deeper into that and just how you're thinking about that Thanks. thanks

Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, the irony, Rajat, is we are that disruptor. We are the AI disruptor in this category, so we are that company that is aiming to change automotive for the better. We're the company who's trying to help a traditional retailer, like a franchise dealer, as cars drive through a service drive, take pictures and videos and, you know, predict the retail price within, you know, $38, what it's going to sell for, and estimate the wholesale value within $100 to the point we'll guarantee it. We're the ones making predictions on what types of inventory they should be buying and selling. We're adding new capabilities throughout the year that we believe will help franchise dealers become more efficient and actually need less people. Yeah, I mean, the irony, Rajat, is we are that disruptor. yeah i mean the irony rajat is we are that disruptor We are the AI disruptor in this category, so we are that company that is aiming to change automotive for the better. we are the ai disruptor in this category so we are that company that is aiming to change automotive for the better We're the company who's trying to help a traditional retailer, like a franchise dealer, as cars drive through a service drive, take pictures and videos and, you know, predict the retail price within, you know, $38, what it's going to sell for, and estimate the wholesale value within $100 to the point we'll guarantee it. we're the company who's trying to help a traditional retailer like a franchise dealer as cars drive through a service drive take pictures and videos and you know predict the retail price within you know $38 what it's going to sell for and estimate the wholesale value within $100 to the point we'll guarantee it We're the ones making predictions on what types of inventory they should be buying and selling. we're the ones making predictions on what types of inventory they should be buying and selling We're adding new capabilities throughout the year that we believe will help franchise dealers become more efficient and actually need less people. we're adding new capabilities throughout the year that we believe will help franchise dealers become more efficient and actually need less people Yeah, we're huge fans of what you can do with AI. We're aiming to be that disruptor. We're aiming to be their use of these tools. We're integrating with a lot of different vendors, so it's not like we're picking one widget or one thing. We're integrating with all the CRMs and all the DMS solutions. Regardless of what tech stack the dealer chooses, yeah, we're, we should be one of the beneficiaries of the, of this theme that you're hearing from investors, is that all industries will change. AI will change every single industry. This will be one of them, and we should benefit from that. Yeah, we're huge fans of what you can do with AI. yeah we're huge fans of what you can do with ai We're aiming to be that disruptor. we're aiming to be that disruptor We're aiming to be their use of these tools. we're aiming to be their use of these tools We're integrating with a lot of different vendors, so it's not like we're picking one widget or one thing. we're integrating with a lot of different vendors so it's not like we're picking one widget or one thing We're integrating with all the CRMs and all the DMS solutions. we're integrating with all the crms and all the dms solutions Regardless of what tech stack the dealer chooses, yeah, we're, we should be one of the beneficiaries of the, of this theme that you're hearing from investors, is that all industries will change. regardless of what tech stack the dealer chooses yeah we're we should be one of the beneficiaries of the of this theme that you're hearing from investors is that all industries will change AI will change every single industry. ai will change every single industry This will be one of them, and we should benefit from that. this will be one of them and we should benefit from that

Speaker 10: I guess, I guess the interpretation is that there might be like a new startup or a young company, you know, that can, that can do what you're doing in a much easier fashion, in a much simpler fashion, maybe providing that inspection capability to the dealers directly or the pricing capabilities. Is there anything, is there anything you can do to protect your position, or do you even see that as something realistic or practical? Thanks. I guess, I guess the interpretation is that there might be like a new startup or a young company, you know, that can, that can do what you're doing in a much easier fashion, in a much simpler fashion, maybe providing that inspection capability to the dealers directly or the pricing capabilities. i guess i guess the interpretation is that there might be like a new startup or a young company you know that can that can do what you're doing in a much easier fashion in a much simpler fashion maybe providing that inspection capability to the dealers directly or the pricing capabilities Is there anything, is there anything you can do to protect your position, or do you even see that as something realistic or practical? is there anything is there anything you can do to protect your position or do you even see that as something realistic or practical Thanks. thanks

Speaker 6: Yeah, I think, look, I think investors should do their homework. They should watch the video we posted regarding what we do for the largest private automotive company in the country, you know, posted on our Hendrick Automotive. Watch that video, see what we're doing. They should do the research we're doing for some of the public automotive groups who speak very highly about what ACV is doing for them. I think when you do your homework, you'll see, you know, we're not just predicting numbers. We're predicting them to the point where we can back them and guarantee them. Yeah, I think, look, I think investors should do their homework. yeah i think look i think investors should do their homework They should watch the video we posted regarding what we do for the largest private automotive company in the country, you know, posted on our Hendrick Automotive. they should watch the video we posted regarding what we do for the largest private automotive company in the country you know posted on our hendrick automotive Watch that video, see what we're doing. watch that video see what we're doing They should do the research we're doing for some of the public automotive groups who speak very highly about what ACV is doing for them. they should do the research we're doing for some of the public automotive groups who speak very highly about what acv is doing for them I think when you do your homework, you'll see, you know, we're not just predicting numbers. i think when you do your homework you'll see you know we're not just predicting numbers We're predicting them to the point where we can back them and guarantee them. we're predicting them to the point where we can back them and guarantee them Yeah, there, there could be startups that emerge in this category, but I think they'd have to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, to then have the balance sheet and the data, which would be very difficult to do, where we've, we've inspected over 1 million cars a year, that we know all these scratches, all these dents. We've now earned the credibility to be part of the workflow for all these dealer groups. I could see why in other industries they, they would be concerned. In this one, Rajat, we are that disruptor. Yeah, there, there could be startups that emerge in this category, but I think they'd have to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, to then have the balance sheet and the data, which would be very difficult to do, where we've, we've inspected over 1 million cars a year, that we know all these scratches, all these dents. yeah there there could be startups that emerge in this category but i think they'd have to raise hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions to then have the balance sheet and the data which would be very difficult to do where we've we've inspected over 1 million cars a year that we know all these scratches all these dents We've now earned the credibility to be part of the workflow for all these dealer groups. we've now earned the credibility to be part of the workflow for all these dealer groups I could see why in other industries they, they would be concerned. i could see why in other industries they they would be concerned In this one, Rajat, we are that disruptor. in this one rajat we are that disruptor

Speaker 10: Fair enough. Great. Thanks for all the color, and good luck. Fair enough. fair enough Great. great Thanks for all the color, and good luck. thanks for all the color and good luck

Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, thank you. yeah thank you

Speaker 13: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 9: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ronald Josey with Citi. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you Our next question comes from the line of Ronald Josey with Citi. our next question comes from the line of ronald josey with citi Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 11: Great, thanks for taking the question. George, I wanted to ask about conversion rates and just wondering if they returned back to normal seasonality in the quarter after, you know, some sort of ups and downs last year and then, and then saw some conversion rates into 26. Then maybe bigger picture, when we look at the unit growth improvements across the Carolinas, South Florida, Southern California to East Texas, remind us what led to that outsized growth year and, and sort of what this means going forward? Thank you. Great, thanks for taking the question. great thanks for taking the question George, I wanted to ask about conversion rates and just wondering if they returned back to normal seasonality in the quarter after, you know, some sort of ups and downs last year and then, and then saw some conversion rates into 26. george i wanted to ask about conversion rates and just wondering if they returned back to normal seasonality in the quarter after you know some sort of ups and downs last year and then and then saw some conversion rates into 26 Then maybe bigger picture, when we look at the unit growth improvements across the Carolinas, South Florida, Southern California to East Texas, remind us what led to that outsized growth year and, and sort of what this means going forward? then maybe bigger picture when we look at the unit growth improvements across the carolinas south florida southern california to east texas remind us what led to that outsized growth year and and sort of what this means going forward Thank you. thank you

Speaker 6: Yeah, certainly, Ron. On the first point, our conversion rate for Q4 was up year-over-year, where most of our competitors were flat or down. We did see a year-over-year improvement on conversion rate. And we saw that, I think, the overall improvement where our no reserve sale is doing this, what we refer to our investors as the guarantee offering. We give the guarantee to the seller. The buyer gets a no, a no reserve offering where they can bid without a reserve. It's, it's, it's really helping not only differentiate ACV, but delivering a better buying experience, better seller experience. We did see, you know, conversion rates. Obviously, Q4 is always tougher on conversion rates, but we're executing well. Yeah, certainly, Ron. yeah certainly ron On the first point, our conversion rate for Q4 was up year-over-year, where most of our competitors were flat or down. on the first point our conversion rate for q4 was up year-over-year where most of our competitors were flat or down We did see a year-over-year improvement on conversion rate. we did see a year-over-year improvement on conversion rate And we saw that, I think, the overall improvement where our no reserve sale is doing this, what we refer to our investors as the guarantee offering. and we saw that i think the overall improvement where our no reserve sale is doing this what we refer to our investors as the guarantee offering We give the guarantee to the seller. we give the guarantee to the seller The buyer gets a no, a no reserve offering where they can bid without a reserve. the buyer gets a no a no reserve offering where they can bid without a reserve It's, it's, it's really helping not only differentiate ACV, but delivering a better buying experience, better seller experience. it's it's it's really helping not only differentiate acv but delivering a better buying experience better seller experience We did see, you know, conversion rates. we did see you know conversion rates Obviously, Q4 is always tougher on conversion rates, but we're executing well. obviously q4 is always tougher on conversion rates but we're executing well We actually do see our overall, our guarantee and no reserve offering continue to grow. This quarter, it started out we're already in the 20% range of our total units now selling. We're seeing more and more of our customers start to adopt the product. One, I would say conversion rate, I believe we're starting to become some of the best in the industry. We, we did also, to help on conversion rates, we, we got a little, we were harder on sellers who were giving us overpriced cars. We did get rid of a few sellers. We, we implemented more policies to make sure it's a better buyer experience. We actually do see our overall, our guarantee and no reserve offering continue to grow. we actually do see our overall our guarantee and no reserve offering continue to grow This quarter, it started out we're already in the 20% range of our total units now selling. this quarter it started out we're already in the 20% range of our total units now selling We're seeing more and more of our customers start to adopt the product. we're seeing more and more of our customers start to adopt the product One, I would say conversion rate, I believe we're starting to become some of the best in the industry. one i would say conversion rate i believe we're starting to become some of the best in the industry We, we did also, to help on conversion rates, we, we got a little, we were harder on sellers who were giving us overpriced cars. we we did also to help on conversion rates we we got a little we were harder on sellers who were giving us overpriced cars We did get rid of a few sellers. we did get rid of a few sellers We, we implemented more policies to make sure it's a better buyer experience. we we implemented more policies to make sure it's a better buyer experience We're being more and more prudent on not just chasing units, but making sure we're building the best experience. We started to really sort of manage the marketplace with stricter rules, and that's really coming out. I think we're seeing higher buyer NPS as it relates to the sell-through rate, conversion rate, probably than I've seen in several years. We're seeing a, some confidence from buyers coming back on conversion rates. That was a long-winded conversion. We're being more and more prudent on not just chasing units, but making sure we're building the best experience. we're being more and more prudent on not just chasing units but making sure we're building the best experience We started to really sort of manage the marketplace with stricter rules, and that's really coming out. we started to really sort of manage the marketplace with stricter rules and that's really coming out I think we're seeing higher buyer NPS as it relates to the sell-through rate, conversion rate, probably than I've seen in several years. i think we're seeing higher buyer nps as it relates to the sell-through rate conversion rate probably than i've seen in several years We're seeing a, some confidence from buyers coming back on conversion rates. we're seeing a some confidence from buyers coming back on conversion rates That was a long-winded conversion. that was a long-winded conversion

Speaker 13: Yeah, Ron, just to put a finer point on the numbers. So sell-through in Q4 was up 150 Bps year-on-year. You know, which, you know, for us, as we think about our business and, and kind of the trends, you know, that we can hopefully drive going forward, you know, that, that can over time become more and more material. Yeah, Ron, just to put a finer point on the numbers. yeah ron just to put a finer point on the numbers So sell-through in Q4 was up 150 Bps year-on-year. so sell-through in q4 was up 150 bps year-on-year You know, which, you know, for us, as we think about our business and, and kind of the trends, you know, that we can hopefully drive going forward, you know, that, that can over time become more and more material. you know which you know for us as we think about our business and and kind of the trends you know that we can hopefully drive going forward you know that that can over time become more and more material

Speaker 6: Then on your second question, you know, what did we do differently? We, we brought, like, to give you an example of the Carolinas, we took a very strong performer of ours that was in the New York metro area, who was a territory manager. We promoted him to a regional director down to Carolina, so we, we brought somebody that really knew the ACV model. He then worked with the local territory managers. We, we also, I believe, added an additional territory manager in his region. We hired additional inspectors, and we really just doubled down. Strong execution how to present the, our differentiated offering. Yeah, I would say that market, Carolinas, took us a little bit longer than we would like to grow, but now it's growing. We've got strong talent there. Then on your second question, you know, what did we do differently? then on your second question you know what did we do differently We, we brought, like, to give you an example of the Carolinas, we took a very strong performer of ours that was in the New York metro area, who was a territory manager. we we brought like to give you an example of the carolinas we took a very strong performer of ours that was in the new york metro area who was a territory manager We promoted him to a regional director down to Carolina, so we, we brought somebody that really knew the ACV model. we promoted him to a regional director down to carolina so we we brought somebody that really knew the acv model He then worked with the local territory managers. he then worked with the local territory managers We, we also, I believe, added an additional territory manager in his region. we we also i believe added an additional territory manager in his region We hired additional inspectors, and we really just doubled down. we hired additional inspectors and we really just doubled down Strong execution how to present the, our differentiated offering. strong execution how to present the our differentiated offering Yeah, I would say that market, Carolinas, took us a little bit longer than we would like to grow, but now it's growing. yeah i would say that market carolinas took us a little bit longer than we would like to grow but now it's growing We've got strong talent there. we've got strong talent there They've got great momentum, and we, we feel really good about it. The same story with South Florida. You know, our team down there is just a great team. They, they keep differentiating the ACV offering, whether it be the guaranteed sale. They're also one of the ones that are starting to leverage our inspector teammates to go out and help on the buying activity on the demand side. We're leveraging our inspector base, not only in listings, but just getting out into the field more, both sellers and buyers. That leader down there, I met with him last week, is doing a fantastic job of just building out South Florida. Yeah, we're really showing that region by region. They've got great momentum, and we, we feel really good about it. they've got great momentum and we we feel really good about it The same story with South Florida. the same story with south florida You know, our team down there is just a great team. you know our team down there is just a great team They, they keep differentiating the ACV offering, whether it be the guaranteed sale. they they keep differentiating the acv offering whether it be the guaranteed sale They're also one of the ones that are starting to leverage our inspector teammates to go out and help on the buying activity on the demand side. they're also one of the ones that are starting to leverage our inspector teammates to go out and help on the buying activity on the demand side We're leveraging our inspector base, not only in listings, but just getting out into the field more, both sellers and buyers. we're leveraging our inspector base not only in listings but just getting out into the field more both sellers and buyers That leader down there, I met with him last week, is doing a fantastic job of just building out South Florida. that leader down there i met with him last week is doing a fantastic job of just building out south florida Yeah, we're really showing that region by region. yeah we're really showing that region by region We got more work to do over here, but I'm really, really excited to see where we've got the right talent. We've got the right folks out there. We're, we're starting to take share at, at healthy rates. We got more work to do over here, but I'm really, really excited to see where we've got the right talent. we got more work to do over here but i'm really really excited to see where we've got the right talent We've got the right folks out there. we've got the right folks out there We're, we're starting to take share at, at healthy rates. we're we're starting to take share at at healthy rates

Speaker 11: Thank you, George. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, George. thank you george Thank you, Bill. thank you bill

Speaker 6: Thank you. Sure. Thank you. thank you Sure. sure

Speaker 9: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bob Labick with CJS Securities. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you Our next question comes from the line of Bob Labick with CJS Securities. our next question comes from the line of bob labick with cjs securities Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 2: Good afternoon, thanks for taking our questions. Good afternoon, thanks for taking our questions. good afternoon thanks for taking our questions

Speaker 6: Good. Thank you, Bob. Good. good Thank you, Bob. thank you bob

Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted to ask about VIPER. You talked about, you know, rolling out this year. You talked about a lot of dealer interest at, you know, recent shows and stuff. Have you said, I guess, you know, when will it be in the field? More importantly, what are the keys you're watching for in your launch once you get it out there, before you decide to do maybe a more widespread rollout? Yeah, I wanted to ask about VIPER. yeah i wanted to ask about viper You talked about, you know, rolling out this year. you talked about you know rolling out this year You talked about a lot of dealer interest at, you know, recent shows and stuff. you talked about a lot of dealer interest at you know recent shows and stuff Have you said, I guess, you know, when will it be in the field? have you said i guess you know when will it be in the field More importantly, what are the keys you're watching for in your launch once you get it out there, before you decide to do maybe a more widespread rollout? more importantly what are the keys you're watching for in your launch once you get it out there before you decide to do maybe a more widespread rollout

Speaker 6: Yeah. Thanks, Bob. We, we are... Our number one priority with VIPER in these initial rollouts is really to help ensure the dealer is going to be able to leverage us to acquire more vehicles. We think about dealers. When dealers optimizing their revenue is all about the top of the funnel, sourcing more cars. If they can source more cars, then they can optimize and decide which cars should they be retailing, which cars should they be whole, you know, with wholesale. These initial customers primarily have ACV MAX as their inventory management system. They are, our, our goal is to get them to buy more cars. Think a dealer buying, you know, 30, 40, 50, 70-plus cars, off, what they call, off the curb or off street, primarily from their service drive. Yeah. yeah Thanks, Bob. thanks bob We, we are... we we are Our number one priority with VIPER in these initial rollouts is really to help ensure the dealer is going to be able to leverage us to acquire more vehicles. our number one priority with viper in these initial rollouts is really to help ensure the dealer is going to be able to leverage us to acquire more vehicles We think about dealers. we think about dealers When dealers optimizing their revenue is all about the top of the funnel, sourcing more cars. when dealers optimizing their revenue is all about the top of the funnel sourcing more cars If they can source more cars, then they can optimize and decide which cars should they be retailing, which cars should they be whole, you know, with wholesale. if they can source more cars then they can optimize and decide which cars should they be retailing which cars should they be whole you know with wholesale These initial customers primarily have ACV MAX as their inventory management system. these initial customers primarily have acv max as their inventory management system They are, our, our goal is to get them to buy more cars. they are our our goal is to get them to buy more cars Think a dealer buying, you know, 30, 40, 50, 70-plus cars, off, what they call, off the curb or off street, primarily from their service drive. think a dealer buying you know 30 40 50 70-plus cars off what they call off the curb or off street primarily from their service drive That's a key KPI, is helping them buy more cars. Some of the dealers we're talking to have very large goals. Bill and I actually met with one of them last week, and the general manager of that store was a dealer who said he'd like to buy 100 and what was the number? That's a key KPI, is helping them buy more cars. that's a key kpi is helping them buy more cars Some of the dealers we're talking to have very large goals. some of the dealers we're talking to have very large goals Bill and I actually met with one of them last week, and the general manager of that store was a dealer who said he'd like to buy 100 and what was the number? bill and i actually met with one of them last week and the general manager of that store was a dealer who said he'd like to buy 100 and what was the number

Speaker 13: He, he wants to retail 100 more used cars, a month. He, he wants to retail 100 more used cars, a month. he he wants to retail 100 more used cars a month

Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 13: Which means he's probably going to buy more like 125 to 130- Which means he's probably going to buy more like 125 to 130- which means he's probably going to buy more like 125 to 130-

Speaker 6: Yeah. Right. Yeah. yeah Right. right

Speaker 13: Retail the ones that he wants to keep. Retail the ones that he wants to keep. retail the ones that he wants to keep

Speaker 6: That's the example, Bob, of here's a dealer who just got VIPER, you know, and, and that those are the words of a specific dealer. We're excited because here's the simple math: They buy more cars, they're going to wholesale more. The more they buy, they're going to keep the best 60%-70% for retail, and then they'll end up wholesaling somewhere around 30%-40% of these cars. Think about it as TAM expansion for us at a rooftop level. You'll, you'll see cars that either would have went peer-to-peer, or cars that would have went to, one of the large big box type companies, will now get purchased by that dealership. Said another way, we think some of the best run dealerships in the country are going to be dealers that have VIPER. That's the example, Bob, of here's a dealer who just got VIPER, you know, and, and that those are the words of a specific dealer. that's the example bob of here's a dealer who just got viper you know and and that those are the words of a specific dealer We're excited because here's the simple math: They buy more cars, they're going to wholesale more. we're excited because here's the simple math they buy more cars they're going to wholesale more The more they buy, they're going to keep the best 60%-70% for retail, and then they'll end up wholesaling somewhere around 30%-40% of these cars. the more they buy they're going to keep the best 60%-70% for retail and then they'll end up wholesaling somewhere around 30%-40% of these cars Think about it as TAM expansion for us at a rooftop level. think about it as tam expansion for us at a rooftop level You'll, you'll see cars that either would have went peer-to-peer, or cars that would have went to, one of the large big box type companies, will now get purchased by that dealership. you'll you'll see cars that either would have went peer-to-peer or cars that would have went to one of the large big box type companies will now get purchased by that dealership Said another way, we think some of the best run dealerships in the country are going to be dealers that have VIPER. said another way we think some of the best run dealerships in the country are going to be dealers that have viper If we could turn that rooftop into one of the best run dealerships in the country, right, then there's a bigger, even a bigger reason to be working with ACV and the ACV portfolio. If we could turn that rooftop into one of the best run dealerships in the country, right, then there's a bigger, even a bigger reason to be working with ACV and the ACV portfolio. if we could turn that rooftop into one of the best run dealerships in the country right then there's a bigger even a bigger reason to be working with acv and the acv portfolio

Speaker 2: Okay, that's, that's exciting. Can't wait to watch that as it rolls out. And then you, you gave us a few stats on ACV, you know, price guarantee, 19% in the quarter and ticking up already for, you know, no reserve auctions and, and percent of volume. Is there a, a natural level or goal for that or, or a level that it can't go above? Or how do you think about, you know, the progression in the, you know, no reserve auctions and the percent of volume that could be? Okay, that's, that's exciting. okay that's that's exciting Can't wait to watch that as it rolls out. can't wait to watch that as it rolls out And then you, you gave us a few stats on ACV, you know, price guarantee, 19% in the quarter and ticking up already for, you know, no reserve auctions and, and percent of volume. and then you you gave us a few stats on acv you know price guarantee 19% in the quarter and ticking up already for you know no reserve auctions and and percent of volume Is there a, a natural level or goal for that or, or a level that it can't go above? is there a a natural level or goal for that or or a level that it can't go above Or how do you think about, you know, the progression in the, you know, no reserve auctions and the percent of volume that could be? or how do you think about you know the progression in the you know no reserve auctions and the percent of volume that could be

Speaker 6: You know, I think, you know, if we could see our no reserve sales being, you know, and this, this won't... I don't know what it'll hit this year, but I think if it could hit mid-20% range this year, I'd be ecstatic. Maybe higher, who knows? It's really, we're not saying every single car should run no reserve, right? If you, if you look at some vehicles, you know, like a frontline vehicle, you know, a dealer just running it for 24 hours on our platform. We're not saying every single car needs to run that way, but there is a halo that's happening on ACV's marketplace right now, because the more cars that are running no reserve, buyers are showing up. We're still now... You know, I think, you know, if we could see our no reserve sales being, you know, and this, this won't... you know i think you know if we could see our no reserve sales being you know and this this won't I don't know what it'll hit this year, but I think if it could hit mid-20% range this year, I'd be ecstatic. i don't know what it'll hit this year but i think if it could hit mid-20% range this year i'd be ecstatic Maybe higher, who knows? maybe higher who knows It's really, we're not saying every single car should run no reserve, right? it's really we're not saying every single car should run no reserve right If you, if you look at some vehicles, you know, like a frontline vehicle, you know, a dealer just running it for 24 hours on our platform. if you if you look at some vehicles you know like a frontline vehicle you know a dealer just running it for 24 hours on our platform We're not saying every single car needs to run that way, but there is a halo that's happening on ACV's marketplace right now, because the more cars that are running no reserve, buyers are showing up. we're not saying every single car needs to run that way but there is a halo that's happening on acv's marketplace right now because the more cars that are running no reserve buyers are showing up We're still now... we're still now I think I mentioned this a prior call, that we, we've got 9.8 bidders per car. I think we're now at over 10 bidders per car. That, that keeps climbing, where we've got tremendous bid activity. That's on average, because there's some cars that might have 20 or more bidders per vehicle. We've got great bid activity. It's allowing us to have our data science, and predictions are getting better and better. Rajat asked the question earlier about AI. I mean, when you think about the ultimate sort of machine learning, AI predictor is not just using third-party data out there in the internet, but this is our data, where we can put a number on a car, measure it of how well we execute. I think I mentioned this a prior call, that we, we've got 9.8 bidders per car. i think i mentioned this a prior call that we we've got 9.8 bidders per car I think we're now at over 10 bidders per car. i think we're now at over 10 bidders per car That, that keeps climbing, where we've got tremendous bid activity. that that keeps climbing where we've got tremendous bid activity That's on average, because there's some cars that might have 20 or more bidders per vehicle. that's on average because there's some cars that might have 20 or more bidders per vehicle We've got great bid activity. It's allowing us to have our data science, and predictions are getting better and better. we've got great bid activity. it's allowing us to have our data science and predictions are getting better and better Rajat asked the question earlier about AI. rajat asked the question earlier about ai I mean, when you think about the ultimate sort of machine learning, AI predictor is not just using third-party data out there in the internet, but this is our data, where we can put a number on a car, measure it of how well we execute. i mean when you think about the ultimate sort of machine learning ai predictor is not just using third-party data out there in the internet but this is our data where we can put a number on a car measure it of how well we execute Then to have the bidirectional integration with the DMS, where we know what dealers are retailing the cars for, we're, we're in a really unique spot. We're, we're really pleased with where we're at today, with our, our guarantee offering and, and how it's producing these sort of no reserve opportunities for buyers. Then to have the bidirectional integration with the DMS, where we know what dealers are retailing the cars for, we're, we're in a really unique spot. then to have the bidirectional integration with the dms where we know what dealers are retailing the cars for we're we're in a really unique spot We're, we're really pleased with where we're at today, with our, our guarantee offering and, and how it's producing these sort of no reserve opportunities for buyers. we're we're really pleased with where we're at today with our our guarantee offering and and how it's producing these sort of no reserve opportunities for buyers

Speaker 2: Super, thanks very much. Super, thanks very much. super thanks very much

Speaker 6: Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Bob. thank you bob

Speaker 9: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Pierce with Needham & Company. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you Our next question comes from the line of Chris Pierce with Needham & Company. our next question comes from the line of chris pierce with needham & company Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 3: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Just to... I just want to understand, I, I may not have the math right, but if I look at just pure auction marketplace revenue per unit, it's in line with Q3. On the prior call, you talked about incentivizing sellers, power sellers, and people to try the price guarantee. I know that incentivizing power sellers has sort of been a long-standing industry dynamic. Should we think about that for you guys as something that's not temporary and that's sort of gonna be sort of like the new normal as industry competitive levels change? Like, am I reading into something? I just want to get your thoughts on that. Hey, good afternoon, everyone. hey good afternoon everyone Just to... just to I just want to understand, I, I may not have the math right, but if I look at just pure auction marketplace revenue per unit, it's in line with Q3. i just want to understand i i may not have the math right but if i look at just pure auction marketplace revenue per unit it's in line with q3 On the prior call, you talked about incentivizing sellers, power sellers, and people to try the price guarantee. on the prior call you talked about incentivizing sellers power sellers and people to try the price guarantee I know that incentivizing power sellers has sort of been a long-standing industry dynamic. i know that incentivizing power sellers has sort of been a long-standing industry dynamic Should we think about that for you guys as something that's not temporary and that's sort of gonna be sort of like the new normal as industry competitive levels change? should we think about that for you guys as something that's not temporary and that's sort of gonna be sort of like the new normal as industry competitive levels change Like, am I reading into something? like am i reading into something I just want to get your thoughts on that. i just want to get your thoughts on that

Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that's a good point, Chris. We're, we're revenue per unit in Q4 was healthy, to your point. I, I don't think you should think of that as temporary. We're, we're not that worried about competition, where we think revenue per unit is gonna, like, fall. Bill might be able to add a little more color here, but I, I think that's a really good point. We're, we, we did want to bring up to investors in the last earnings call that we, we didn't want our, our, our investors and analysts, like, significantly increasing ARPU over the next year to give us that ability you just had to reinvest. Having said that, you, you-- I don't anticipate ARPU to go down meaningfully. Yeah, I think that's a good point, Chris. yeah i think that's a good point chris We're, we're revenue per unit in Q4 was healthy, to your point. we're we're revenue per unit in q4 was healthy to your point I, I don't think you should think of that as temporary. i i don't think you should think of that as temporary We're, we're not that worried about competition, where we think revenue per unit is gonna, like, fall. we're we're not that worried about competition where we think revenue per unit is gonna like fall Bill might be able to add a little more color here, but I, I think that's a really good point. bill might be able to add a little more color here but i i think that's a really good point We're, we, we did want to bring up to investors in the last earnings call that we, we didn't want our, our, our investors and analysts, like, significantly increasing ARPU over the next year to give us that ability you just had to reinvest. we're we we did want to bring up to investors in the last earnings call that we we didn't want our our our investors and analysts like significantly increasing arpu over the next year to give us that ability you just had to reinvest Having said that, you, you-- I don't anticipate ARPU to go down meaningfully. having said that you you-- i don't anticipate arpu to go down meaningfully Bill, maybe there's more you can chime in here. Bill, maybe there's more you can chime in here. bill maybe there's more you can chime in here

Speaker 13: Yeah. Chris, just to, just to look at the numbers. In Q3, right, our auction and insurance ARPU declined slightly from $523 in Q2 to $508, then it bounced back up in Q4 to $528. You know, what's baked into our modeling going forward and incorporated into our guidance is an assumption that that $528 pretty much is flat to maybe up very modestly in Q4, I'm sorry, in 2026. You know, that's kind of the modeling that we've baked into, you know, our financials in terms of what, what we're giving you guys for the year. Yeah. yeah Chris, just to, just to look at the numbers. chris just to just to look at the numbers In Q3, right, our auction and insurance ARPU declined slightly from $523 in Q2 to $508, then it bounced back up in Q4 to $528. in q3 right our auction and insurance arpu declined slightly from $523 in q2 to $508 then it bounced back up in q4 to $528 You know, what's baked into our modeling going forward and incorporated into our guidance is an assumption that that $528 pretty much is flat to maybe up very modestly in Q4, I'm sorry, in 2026. you know what's baked into our modeling going forward and incorporated into our guidance is an assumption that that $528 pretty much is flat to maybe up very modestly in q4 i'm sorry in 2026 You know, that's kind of the modeling that we've baked into, you know, our financials in terms of what, what we're giving you guys for the year. you know that's kind of the modeling that we've baked into you know our financials in terms of what what we're giving you guys for the year you know, we'll see how it goes, but, you know, it's, it's, it's gonna hold up probably slightly better, you know, than we previously, were modeling on our last call. you know, we'll see how it goes, but, you know, it's, it's, it's gonna hold up probably slightly better, you know, than we previously, were modeling on our last call. you know we'll see how it goes but you know it's it's it's gonna hold up probably slightly better you know than we previously were modeling on our last call

Speaker 3: Okay. Then just on competitive dynamics broadly, you know, I can't speak for all investors, but I, I feel like there was a school of thought that, you know, if we look back two years ago, wholesale was going digital, and it was gonna be a winner-take-most market. Would you push back that on maybe, maybe investor sentiment changing or industry sentiment changing, that wholesale is gonna go digital, but it'll be a duopoly-type market, and that'll naturally be buffers for each other's growth, and comps will play a role and things like that? Like, I, I guess when you look at the industry three to five years from now, do you have a different perspective than you did maybe 18 months ago? Okay. okay Then just on competitive dynamics broadly, you know, I can't speak for all investors, but I, I feel like there was a school of thought that, you know, if we look back two years ago, wholesale was going digital, and it was gonna be a winner-take-most market. then just on competitive dynamics broadly you know i can't speak for all investors but i i feel like there was a school of thought that you know if we look back two years ago wholesale was going digital and it was gonna be a winner-take-most market Would you push back that on maybe, maybe investor sentiment changing or industry sentiment changing, that wholesale is gonna go digital, but it'll be a duopoly-type market, and that'll naturally be buffers for each other's growth, and comps will play a role and things like that? would you push back that on maybe maybe investor sentiment changing or industry sentiment changing that wholesale is gonna go digital but it'll be a duopoly-type market and that'll naturally be buffers for each other's growth and comps will play a role and things like that Like, I, I guess when you look at the industry three to five years from now, do you have a different perspective than you did maybe 18 months ago? like i i guess when you look at the industry three to five years from now do you have a different perspective than you did maybe 18 months ago

Speaker 6: You know, I think at the end of the day, we're gonna focus on being the leader. I, I believe we are still the dealer, dealer wholesale leader. We put on, how many units last year? I saw him call eighty- You know, I think at the end of the day, we're gonna focus on being the leader. you know i think at the end of the day we're gonna focus on being the leader I, I believe we are still the dealer, dealer wholesale leader. i i believe we are still the dealer dealer wholesale leader We put on, how many units last year? we put on how many units last year I saw him call eighty- i saw him call eighty-

Speaker 13: Eighty-six. Eighty-six. eighty-six

Speaker 6: 86,000 units. I don't believe anybody else put on 86,000 dealer wholesale units last year. When you think about our differentiator, we're, we're adding-- we're not only in the wholesale category, we're helping dealers operate their business better. I really recommend, as folks are thinking about this, like, not only watching the videos, but talking to our own customers. The people we're working with, are happy with our wholesale results, but they're really saying is, "ACV's helping us run our business better." Go back to Rajat's question about AI changing industries like automotive, and I think investors should be worried that AI will change industries. I think that is a legitimate worry. We're doing that in this industry. We're helping dealers execute better. 86,000 units. 86,000 units I don't believe anybody else put on 86,000 dealer wholesale units last year. i don't believe anybody else put on 86,000 dealer wholesale units last year When you think about our differentiator, we're, we're adding-- we're not only in the wholesale category, we're helping dealers operate their business better. when you think about our differentiator we're we're adding-- we're not only in the wholesale category we're helping dealers operate their business better I really recommend, as folks are thinking about this, like, not only watching the videos, but talking to our own customers. i really recommend as folks are thinking about this like not only watching the videos but talking to our own customers The people we're working with, are happy with our wholesale results, but they're really saying is, "ACV's helping us run our business better." Go back to Rajat's question about AI changing industries like automotive, and I think investors should be worried that AI will change industries. the people we're working with are happy with our wholesale results but they're really saying is "acv's helping us run our business better." go back to rajat's question about ai changing industries like automotive and i think investors should be worried that ai will change industries I think that is a legitimate worry. i think that is a legitimate worry We're doing that in this industry. we're doing that in this industry We're helping dealers execute better. we're helping dealers execute better Is there still a ways to go, where physical auctions are still the majority of the cars sold? Yes, we will continue to grow. Is there also some, I would say, credit to also... it may not be a winner take all. It could be there could be a couple winners in this category. I think there's truth to that, too. I think we're gonna be the leader. I believe we're gonna have the most differentiated offering, I believe there's also room for, for others, 'cause at the end of the day, there's only 30-ish% of the industry right now that's moved to digital. Is there still a ways to go, where physical auctions are still the majority of the cars sold? is there still a ways to go where physical auctions are still the majority of the cars sold Yes, we will continue to grow. yes we will continue to grow Is there also some, I would say, credit to also... it may not be a winner take all. is there also some i would say credit to also it may not be a winner take all It could be there could be a couple winners in this category. it could be there could be a couple winners in this category I think there's truth to that, too. i think there's truth to that too I think we're gonna be the leader. i think we're gonna be the leader I believe we're gonna have the most differentiated offering, I believe there's also room for, for others, 'cause at the end of the day, there's only 30-ish% of the industry right now that's moved to digital. i believe we're gonna have the most differentiated offering i believe there's also room for for others 'cause at the end of the day there's only 30-ish% of the industry right now that's moved to digital

Speaker 3: Okay, thank you, and good luck. Okay, thank you, and good luck. okay thank you and good luck

Speaker 6: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 9: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you Our next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with Goldman Sachs. our next question comes from the line of eric sheridan with goldman sachs Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 4: Thanks so much for taking the question, guys. Maybe two, if I could. Given some of the moves you've made to expand footprint through 2025, how should we be thinking about investments to deepen that footprint reach in 2026 as a driver of growth, and how that fits into your broader strategic priorities? That'd be number one. Any update on Project VIPER? I don't think I saw anything in the prepared remarks or, or anything on the call so far. Just wanted to get a quick update on the technology side from Project VIPER and how to think about that rollout as we get deeper into 2026 as well. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for taking the question, guys. thanks so much for taking the question guys Maybe two, if I could. maybe two if i could Given some of the moves you've made to expand footprint through 2025, how should we be thinking about investments to deepen that footprint reach in 2026 as a driver of growth, and how that fits into your broader strategic priorities? given some of the moves you've made to expand footprint through 2025 how should we be thinking about investments to deepen that footprint reach in 2026 as a driver of growth and how that fits into your broader strategic priorities That'd be number one. that'd be number one Any update on Project VIPER? any update on project viper I don't think I saw anything in the prepared remarks or, or anything on the call so far. i don't think i saw anything in the prepared remarks or or anything on the call so far Just wanted to get a quick update on the technology side from Project VIPER and how to think about that rollout as we get deeper into 2026 as well. just wanted to get a quick update on the technology side from project viper and how to think about that rollout as we get deeper into 2026 as well Thanks so much. thanks so much

Speaker 6: Yeah, certainly, Eric. We are hiring away on the inspectors. I think between next couple of months, we've got between this month and next month, I think we've got, like, 20 or 30 people in training right now. We're hiring, we're training. We will hit our inspector, inspector number goals, I'm hoping by Q3, which incorporates both our, the hiring and training to really get the national footprint I'd like in place right now. You will see us just continually executing in that regard to increase our opportunity of going out, inspecting more cars and growing our footprint across the country. It will take us several quarters to both get the hiring and training in place. Yeah, certainly, Eric. yeah certainly eric We are hiring away on the inspectors. we are hiring away on the inspectors I think between next couple of months, we've got between this month and next month, I think we've got, like, 20 or 30 people in training right now. i think between next couple of months we've got between this month and next month i think we've got like 20 or 30 people in training right now We're hiring, we're training. we're hiring we're training We will hit our inspector, inspector number goals, I'm hoping by Q3, which incorporates both our, the hiring and training to really get the national footprint I'd like in place right now. we will hit our inspector inspector number goals i'm hoping by q3 which incorporates both our the hiring and training to really get the national footprint i'd like in place right now You will see us just continually executing in that regard to increase our opportunity of going out, inspecting more cars and growing our footprint across the country. you will see us just continually executing in that regard to increase our opportunity of going out inspecting more cars and growing our footprint across the country It will take us several quarters to both get the hiring and training in place. it will take us several quarters to both get the hiring and training in place I'd like to get this national footprint the way I would like it to be, from a talent and inspecting more cars a day. My, my goal is to get most of this in place, but by, I would say by the end of Q3, is sort of my, my goal. It's an aggressive goal, but we're, we're working hard. That's on the like, how to think about the, the, the talent and, and hiring and training, because obviously, it's not just, it's not just hiring, but it's also training and getting, getting all the people in the right, right places. Then second, your question on VIPER. We are, we're just, we've done two things. I'd like to get this national footprint the way I would like it to be, from a talent and inspecting more cars a day. i'd like to get this national footprint the way i would like it to be from a talent and inspecting more cars a day My, my goal is to get most of this in place, but by, I would say by the end of Q3, is sort of my, my goal. my my goal is to get most of this in place but by i would say by the end of q3 is sort of my my goal It's an aggressive goal, but we're, we're working hard. it's an aggressive goal but we're we're working hard That's on the like, how to think about the, the, the talent and, and hiring and training, because obviously, it's not just, it's not just hiring, but it's also training and getting, getting all the people in the right, right places. that's on the like how to think about the the the talent and and hiring and training because obviously it's not just it's not just hiring but it's also training and getting getting all the people in the right right places Then second, your question on VIPER. then second your question on viper We are, we're just, we've done two things. we are we're just we've done two things One is, we're starting to implement somewhere, I don't know, it's about five to 10 VIPERs a month right now. We're in the early days, Eric. We're, we're out putting somewhere, I think, around five to 10 a month over the next, you know, throughout the year. Think about these as the early dealers that are dealers who are helping us not only integrate with the other third-party vendors, so think about like CRM, CRM companies, DMS, like the various vendors, but also helping us nail down a few of the other requirements. Our goal is to put somewhere north of 100 of these out in the field, maybe as close as 200. Think like 100 to 200 of these. One is, we're starting to implement somewhere, I don't know, it's about five to 10 VIPERs a month right now. one is we're starting to implement somewhere i don't know it's about five to 10 vipers a month right now We're in the early days, Eric. we're in the early days eric We're, we're out putting somewhere, I think, around five to 10 a month over the next, you know, throughout the year. we're we're out putting somewhere i think around five to 10 a month over the next you know throughout the year Think about these as the early dealers that are dealers who are helping us not only integrate with the other third-party vendors, so think about like CRM, CRM companies, DMS, like the various vendors, but also helping us nail down a few of the other requirements. think about these as the early dealers that are dealers who are helping us not only integrate with the other third-party vendors so think about like crm crm companies dms like the various vendors but also helping us nail down a few of the other requirements Our goal is to put somewhere north of 100 of these out in the field, maybe as close as 200. our goal is to put somewhere north of 100 of these out in the field maybe as close as 200 Think like 100 to 200 of these. think like 100 to 200 of these We've, we've got at least 200 hand raisers, probably more than that, of dealers saying they want it right now. I don't think we'll get them all live this year. We'll, we'll see. That'll be getting them all live, making sure the product is accomplishing objective number one, which is helping them buy more cars. Objective number two, helping them have retail photos faster on their websites, which helps them retail cars faster. Objective number three, which is on their service revenue, helping them, dealers, for example, we're predicting tire depth at a pretty incredible. Like, my team is saying 90% confidence, higher than 90% confidence on tire depth. We've, we've got at least 200 hand raisers, probably more than that, of dealers saying they want it right now. we've we've got at least 200 hand raisers probably more than that of dealers saying they want it right now I don't think we'll get them all live this year. i don't think we'll get them all live this year We'll, we'll see. we'll we'll see That'll be getting them all live, making sure the product is accomplishing objective number one, which is helping them buy more cars. that'll be getting them all live making sure the product is accomplishing objective number one which is helping them buy more cars Objective number two, helping them have retail photos faster on their websites, which helps them retail cars faster. objective number two helping them have retail photos faster on their websites which helps them retail cars faster Objective number three, which is on their service revenue, helping them, dealers, for example, we're predicting tire depth at a pretty incredible. objective number three which is on their service revenue helping them dealers for example we're predicting tire depth at a pretty incredible Like, my team is saying 90% confidence, higher than 90% confidence on tire depth. like my team is saying 90% confidence higher than 90% confidence on tire depth Think about cars going through, and the dealer can now upsell tires to consumers, as they're coming through, and it's also a way to help value the vehicle. Whether it's selling more cars, buying more cars or up- or their service revenue going up, those are the three key things we're watching. Our goal will be to start scaling this early next year, where once we've proved our... We feel really, really good. We just don't want to go build 100 of these a month right now or, you know, some significant number, and then we find out we wanted to tweak something, we just wanted to change, change something. The thought is be prudent. As many of you know, we do move fast, but we are pretty prudent over here. Think about cars going through, and the dealer can now upsell tires to consumers, as they're coming through, and it's also a way to help value the vehicle. think about cars going through and the dealer can now upsell tires to consumers as they're coming through and it's also a way to help value the vehicle Whether it's selling more cars, buying more cars or up- or their service revenue going up, those are the three key things we're watching. whether it's selling more cars buying more cars or up- or their service revenue going up those are the three key things we're watching Our goal will be to start scaling this early next year, where once we've proved our... our goal will be to start scaling this early next year where once we've proved our We feel really, really good. we feel really really good We just don't want to go build 100 of these a month right now or, you know, some significant number, and then we find out we wanted to tweak something, we just wanted to change, change something. we just don't want to go build 100 of these a month right now or you know some significant number and then we find out we wanted to tweak something we just wanted to change change something The thought is be prudent. the thought is be prudent As many of you know, we do move fast, but we are pretty prudent over here. as many of you know we do move fast but we are pretty prudent over here Make sure we feel like everything's going in the right direction, and then early next year, really start to scale this thing, where throughout the year, we'll also start taking orders. Make sure we feel like everything's going in the right direction, and then early next year, really start to scale this thing, where throughout the year, we'll also start taking orders. make sure we feel like everything's going in the right direction and then early next year really start to scale this thing where throughout the year we'll also start taking orders

Speaker 13: Yeah, and, hey, Eric. Just, again, just going through the math. We already talked about the $11 million incremental investment on the go-to-market side. The incremental investment on the VIPER side, that's primarily going to flow through our financials as CapEx, since we capitalize these units and then, you know, amortize those costs over a subscription period, that's also another high single-digit millions. Call it approaching $20 million of incremental investment for those two initiatives combined. Yeah, and, hey, Eric. yeah and hey eric Just, again, just going through the math. just again just going through the math We already talked about the $11 million incremental investment on the go-to-market side. we already talked about the $11 million incremental investment on the go-to-market side The incremental investment on the VIPER side, that's primarily going to flow through our financials as CapEx, since we capitalize these units and then, you know, amortize those costs over a subscription period, that's also another high single-digit millions. the incremental investment on the viper side that's primarily going to flow through our financials as capex since we capitalize these units and then you know amortize those costs over a subscription period that's also another high single-digit millions Call it approaching $20 million of incremental investment for those two initiatives combined. call it approaching $20 million of incremental investment for those two initiatives combined

Speaker 6: You know, more to come on the business model on future calls, think subscription, but also tying back to wholesale. That will be an opportunity for us to both help the dealer achieve their objectives, but also us drive our, our wholesale, wallet share and rooftops working with us. You know, more to come on the business model on future calls, think subscription, but also tying back to wholesale. you know more to come on the business model on future calls think subscription but also tying back to wholesale That will be an opportunity for us to both help the dealer achieve their objectives, but also us drive our, our wholesale, wallet share and rooftops working with us. that will be an opportunity for us to both help the dealer achieve their objectives but also us drive our our wholesale wallet share and rooftops working with us

Speaker 4: Great. Thank you, guys. Great. great Thank you, guys. thank you guys

Speaker 6: Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Eric. thank you eric

Speaker 9: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Naved Khan with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you Our next question comes from the line of Naved Khan with B. our next question comes from the line of naved khan with b Riley Securities. riley securities Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 8: Okay, great. Thank you very much. George, maybe just looking back, you know, back at your commentary in November. I think when you're talking, thinking about 2026 back then, you said it, it's prudent to probably assume that wholesale market stays flat in 2026, and now, you know, we are in February 2026. Any, any thinking, anything that might have changed in terms of your thinking about the market for this year versus, you know, maybe like three months ago? That's my first question. Then the second question is around arbitration expense. Just wondering, what are the kind of drivers here to get this thing down? Okay, great. okay great Thank you very much. thank you very much George, maybe just looking back, you know, back at your commentary in November. george maybe just looking back you know back at your commentary in november I think when you're talking, thinking about 2026 back then, you said it, it's prudent to probably assume that wholesale market stays flat in 2026, and now, you know, we are in February 2026. i think when you're talking thinking about 2026 back then you said it it's prudent to probably assume that wholesale market stays flat in 2026 and now you know we are in february 2026 Any, any thinking, anything that might have changed in terms of your thinking about the market for this year versus, you know, maybe like three months ago? any any thinking anything that might have changed in terms of your thinking about the market for this year versus you know maybe like three months ago That's my first question. that's my first question Then the second question is around arbitration expense. then the second question is around arbitration expense Just wondering, what are the kind of drivers here to get this thing down? just wondering what are the kind of drivers here to get this thing down Is it really more of a functional price volatility, and as that comes down, you expect it to come down or, you know, you, you did do some cleanup, so just trying to understand the drivers there and any, any kind of there would be helpful. Thanks. Is it really more of a functional price volatility, and as that comes down, you expect it to come down or, you know, you, you did do some cleanup, so just trying to understand the drivers there and any, any kind of there would be helpful. is it really more of a functional price volatility and as that comes down you expect it to come down or you know you you did do some cleanup so just trying to understand the drivers there and any any kind of there would be helpful Thanks. thanks

Speaker 6: Yeah, certainly. On your first question on market, as of right now, we're not changing our perspective of dealer wholesale, being flat for the year, but obviously, a very good question. In January, according to AAA, dealer wholesale was down by 6.5%. You saw January was, you know, the market was down. Obviously, there was a lot of weather. February, there was also. There's been some weather, obviously. I think too early to say it'll be down for the whole year. I, and I, I think there's enough things going on in the industry, between what, what could happen with, the tax refunds and, and, and, and, what could... Yeah, certainly. yeah certainly On your first question on market, as of right now, we're not changing our perspective of dealer wholesale, being flat for the year, but obviously, a very good question. on your first question on market as of right now we're not changing our perspective of dealer wholesale being flat for the year but obviously a very good question In January, according to AAA, dealer wholesale was down by 6.5%. in january according to aaa dealer wholesale was down by 6.5% You saw January was, you know, the market was down. you saw january was you know the market was down Obviously, there was a lot of weather. obviously there was a lot of weather February, there was also. february there was also There's been some weather, obviously. there's been some weather obviously I think too early to say it'll be down for the whole year. i think too early to say it'll be down for the whole year I, and I, I think there's enough things going on in the industry, between what, what could happen with, the tax refunds and, and, and, and, what could... i and i i think there's enough things going on in the industry between what what could happen with the tax refunds and and and and what could You know, when you generally think about the benefits right now of buying a used car from a tax perspective, there's benefits. There's, there's gonna be enough benefits on the used car side. There's gonna be supply benefits of off lease coming, dealers are gonna buy a lot of these cars. As of right now, even though I would say the year started out with dealer wholesale being down, I would, we, we are still thinking that it'll be a flattish year. On your second question, arbitration, a very good question. We feel really good about where our arbitration is in Q1 and where we're going into the year. We did, really, we moved out some bad actors on the platform in, in just November and December of last year. You know, when you generally think about the benefits right now of buying a used car from a tax perspective, there's benefits. you know when you generally think about the benefits right now of buying a used car from a tax perspective there's benefits There's, there's gonna be enough benefits on the used car side. there's there's gonna be enough benefits on the used car side There's gonna be supply benefits of off lease coming, dealers are gonna buy a lot of these cars. there's gonna be supply benefits of off lease coming dealers are gonna buy a lot of these cars As of right now, even though I would say the year started out with dealer wholesale being down, I would, we, we are still thinking that it'll be a flattish year. as of right now even though i would say the year started out with dealer wholesale being down i would we we are still thinking that it'll be a flattish year On your second question, arbitration, a very good question. on your second question arbitration a very good question We feel really good about where our arbitration is in Q1 and where we're going into the year. we feel really good about where our arbitration is in q1 and where we're going into the year We did, really, we moved out some bad actors on the platform in, in just November and December of last year. we did really we moved out some bad actors on the platform in in just november and december of last year We, we started to really just govern the platform better, and that's really playing out well. I think it's also the ACV brand of we're not, we're not letting folks take advantage of us anymore, starting to get out there. I, and I wish I would have just done this sooner, but I think as, as leaders, you just, you, you kind of, as you're growing these businesses, you, you sometimes are just chasing a little bit. I, I'm really proud of the team. Really, really proud of the team. We, we, we executed extremely well in Q4. We are going into the year. I'm seeing NPS, I'm seeing buyer satisfaction. I'm seeing on the seller side and the buyer side, more and more accountability. Yeah, and our, and plus, our technology is getting better. We, we started to really just govern the platform better, and that's really playing out well. we we started to really just govern the platform better and that's really playing out well I think it's also the ACV brand of we're not, we're not letting folks take advantage of us anymore, starting to get out there. i think it's also the acv brand of we're not we're not letting folks take advantage of us anymore starting to get out there I, and I wish I would have just done this sooner, but I think as, as leaders, you just, you, you kind of, as you're growing these businesses, you, you sometimes are just chasing a little bit. i and i wish i would have just done this sooner but i think as as leaders you just you you kind of as you're growing these businesses you you sometimes are just chasing a little bit I, I'm really proud of the team. i i'm really proud of the team Really, really proud of the team. really really proud of the team We, we, we executed extremely well in Q4. we we we executed extremely well in q4 We are going into the year. we are going into the year I'm seeing NPS, I'm seeing buyer satisfaction. i'm seeing nps i'm seeing buyer satisfaction I'm seeing on the seller side and the buyer side, more and more accountability. i'm seeing on the seller side and the buyer side more and more accountability Yeah, and our, and plus, our technology is getting better. yeah and our and plus our technology is getting better Another thing Rajah mentioned about, like, using AI. We're starting to, starting to use AI to figure out what's going on with sellers and buyers and, and other types of things. Another thing Rajah mentioned about, like, using AI. another thing rajah mentioned about like using ai We're starting to, starting to use AI to figure out what's going on with sellers and buyers and, and other types of things. we're starting to starting to use ai to figure out what's going on with sellers and buyers and and other types of things

Speaker 13: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 6: All in all, I'm proud of how the team's executing on arbitration. All in all, I'm proud of how the team's executing on arbitration. all in all i'm proud of how the team's executing on arbitration

Speaker 13: One, one other item I would add to what George indicated is we're, you know, with, with all the inspectors that we're adding, that we've already added and we'll continue to add this year, we're also going to be leverage that increase, inspector, you know, you know, headcount out there to also validate certain arbitration claims. That'll kind of give us another opportunity to ensure that, you know, we're, we're paying out when, when it makes sense to pay out based on validated claims. One, one other item I would add to what George indicated is we're, you know, with, with all the inspectors that we're adding, that we've already added and we'll continue to add this year, we're also going to be leverage that increase, inspector, you know, you know, headcount out there to also validate certain arbitration claims. one one other item i would add to what george indicated is we're you know with with all the inspectors that we're adding that we've already added and we'll continue to add this year we're also going to be leverage that increase inspector you know you know headcount out there to also validate certain arbitration claims That'll kind of give us another opportunity to ensure that, you know, we're, we're paying out when, when it makes sense to pay out based on validated claims. that'll kind of give us another opportunity to ensure that you know we're we're paying out when when it makes sense to pay out based on validated claims

Speaker 6: Yeah, this is, this is something we recently started piloting, and having the additional headcount really helps, because we right now send these cars to, a, some type of local dealership. We found really it's been very helpful to go put our own eyes on the car. Yeah, as Bill mentioned, that'll be another. It'll be another, positive way of us managing arbitration and allows us to handle these claims faster. We can it's not only us having a, it, it becomes, for the good actors, a better process, because now we can send our person out there to validate, validate the arbitration. Yeah, this is, this is something we recently started piloting, and having the additional headcount really helps, because we right now send these cars to, a, some type of local dealership. yeah this is this is something we recently started piloting and having the additional headcount really helps because we right now send these cars to a some type of local dealership We found really it's been very helpful to go put our own eyes on the car. we found really it's been very helpful to go put our own eyes on the car Yeah, as Bill mentioned, that'll be another. yeah as bill mentioned that'll be another It'll be another, positive way of us managing arbitration and allows us to handle these claims faster. it'll be another positive way of us managing arbitration and allows us to handle these claims faster We can it's not only us having a, it, it becomes, for the good actors, a better process, because now we can send our person out there to validate, validate the arbitration. we can it's not only us having a it it becomes for the good actors a better process because now we can send our person out there to validate validate the arbitration

Speaker 8: Got it. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, George. Got it. got it Thank you. thank you Thank you, Bill. thank you bill Thank you, George. thank you george

Speaker 6: Got it. Thank you. Got it. got it Thank you. thank you

Speaker 9: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Lick with Stephens. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Lick with Stephens. our next question comes from the line of jeff lick with stephens Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 7: Great. Thanks for taking my question, guys. I got a kind of a series of questions around, you know, helping dealers run their business better. They're all kind of related. Firstly, could you maybe talk a little, dig a little deeper on the usage, you know, the early returns on using VIPER to boost service attachment and upsale in the service lane? Then along with that, if you guys do a scan, you know, do you own the data, or does the dealer own the data, or do you guys both have access to it? Then I was wondering if you also elaborated to, I know you guys are doing some kind of private label auctions or intra dealer auctions with different groups using your data. Great. great Thanks for taking my question, guys. thanks for taking my question guys I got a kind of a series of questions around, you know, helping dealers run their business better. i got a kind of a series of questions around you know helping dealers run their business better They're all kind of related. they're all kind of related Firstly, could you maybe talk a little, dig a little deeper on the usage, you know, the early returns on using VIPER to boost service attachment and upsale in the service lane? firstly could you maybe talk a little dig a little deeper on the usage you know the early returns on using viper to boost service attachment and upsale in the service lane Then along with that, if you guys do a scan, you know, do you own the data, or does the dealer own the data, or do you guys both have access to it? then along with that if you guys do a scan you know do you own the data or does the dealer own the data or do you guys both have access to it Then I was wondering if you also elaborated to, I know you guys are doing some kind of private label auctions or intra dealer auctions with different groups using your data. then i was wondering if you also elaborated to i know you guys are doing some kind of private label auctions or intra dealer auctions with different groups using your data Just kind of wondering if you could, you know, talk about those things. Just kind of wondering if you could, you know, talk about those things. just kind of wondering if you could you know talk about those things

Speaker 6: Yeah, we've, we've been starting to scale our service drive acquisition, both pre-VIPER and, and, and now, now, now starting to leverage VIPER as well. But we're Jeff, we've got rooftops buying, I would say anywhere between four and one as high as 10% of all ROs, repair orders, think service orders coming through their service drive. So these are unbelievable numbers. So think on a rooftop basis, this could be anywhere between 40 and 100 cars a month. Bill and I met with one the other day that was already buying, what did he say? 75? Yeah, we've, we've been starting to scale our service drive acquisition, both pre-VIPER and, and, and now, now, now starting to leverage VIPER as well. yeah we've we've been starting to scale our service drive acquisition both pre-viper and and and now now now starting to leverage viper as well But we're Jeff, we've got rooftops buying, I would say anywhere between four and one as high as 10% of all ROs, repair orders, think service orders coming through their service drive. but we're jeff we've got rooftops buying i would say anywhere between four and one as high as 10% of all ros repair orders think service orders coming through their service drive So these are unbelievable numbers. so these are unbelievable numbers So think on a rooftop basis, this could be anywhere between 40 and 100 cars a month. so think on a rooftop basis this could be anywhere between 40 and 100 cars a month Bill and I met with one the other day that was already buying, what did he say? 75? bill and i met with one the other day that was already buying what did he say 75

Speaker 13: I know he's already, he's already buying over 150 a month. I know he's already, he's already buying over 150 a month. i know he's already he's already buying over 150 a month

Speaker 6: A month. A month. a month

Speaker 13: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 6: We're, we're seeing some. We're, we're already starting to see, Jeff. Now we got to scale it. Think like we got to go from, like, dozens of rooftops to, like, thousands. Where ACV is in place and where the dealer takes our best practices, our numbers are, like, off the chart. We've got to get more rooftops doing it. ClearCar by itself meant the dealers still have to go around. They give you the yes, no question, which, by the way, only takes a few minutes. I would like to see more and more of them using it. We now in parallel for a few rooftops, again, early stage, we'll actually put a guarantee on the cars. We're, we're seeing some. we're we're seeing some We're, we're already starting to see, Jeff. we're we're already starting to see jeff Now we got to scale it. now we got to scale it Think like we got to go from, like, dozens of rooftops to, like, thousands. think like we got to go from like dozens of rooftops to like thousands Where ACV is in place and where the dealer takes our best practices, our numbers are, like, off the chart. where acv is in place and where the dealer takes our best practices our numbers are like off the chart We've got to get more rooftops doing it. we've got to get more rooftops doing it ClearCar by itself meant the dealers still have to go around. clearcar by itself meant the dealers still have to go around They give you the yes, no question, which, by the way, only takes a few minutes. they give you the yes no question which by the way only takes a few minutes I would like to see more and more of them using it. i would like to see more and more of them using it We now in parallel for a few rooftops, again, early stage, we'll actually put a guarantee on the cars. we now in parallel for a few rooftops again early stage we'll actually put a guarantee on the cars That's actually helpful because one of the negatives we're finding is even with all of our tech, they still only go put offers on the ones they really want to buy, which is not good for them or us. Now that we have, in our some pilots actually put a guarantee, now they, they don't feel like they're, they're taking a risk buying a car they had no business buying. That's also being helpful. We just got to take it from, we got to take this from dozens of rooftops to hundreds, to thousands of rooftops. The great thing, what I found in my entire career, I remember when we were selling a few hundred cars a month at ACV Auctions, and we told the world we're going to go out there and disrupt dealer wholesale. Probably a lot of people thought we were crazy. That's actually helpful because one of the negatives we're finding is even with all of our tech, they still only go put offers on the ones they really want to buy, which is not good for them or us. that's actually helpful because one of the negatives we're finding is even with all of our tech they still only go put offers on the ones they really want to buy which is not good for them or us Now that we have, in our some pilots actually put a guarantee, now they, they don't feel like they're, they're taking a risk buying a car they had no business buying. now that we have in our some pilots actually put a guarantee now they they don't feel like they're they're taking a risk buying a car they had no business buying That's also being helpful. that's also being helpful We just got to take it from, we got to take this from dozens of rooftops to hundreds, to thousands of rooftops. we just got to take it from we got to take this from dozens of rooftops to hundreds to thousands of rooftops The great thing, what I found in my entire career, I remember when we were selling a few hundred cars a month at ACV Auctions, and we told the world we're going to go out there and disrupt dealer wholesale. the great thing what i found in my entire career i remember when we were selling a few hundred cars a month at acv auctions and we told the world we're going to go out there and disrupt dealer wholesale Probably a lot of people thought we were crazy. probably a lot of people thought we were crazy I'm sure there's folks who are saying, "You're going to do all this with AI? It sounds a little crazy." Once you could do it with dozens, you can do it with hundreds, you could do it with thousands. I've seen that throughout my entire career. That, that was your question, one. The question two on data is it's the dealer's data at the end of the day, and then we have the right to use the data in an aggregated methodology. I'm sure there's folks who are saying, "You're going to do all this with AI? i'm sure there's folks who are saying "you're going to do all this with ai It sounds a little crazy." Once you could do it with dozens, you can do it with hundreds, you could do it with thousands. it sounds a little crazy." once you could do it with dozens you can do it with hundreds you could do it with thousands I've seen that throughout my entire career. i've seen that throughout my entire career That, that was your question, one. that that was your question one The question two on data is it's the dealer's data at the end of the day, and then we have the right to use the data in an aggregated methodology. the question two on data is it's the dealer's data at the end of the day and then we have the right to use the data in an aggregated methodology I don't really want to speak any more to that in a public call like this, but it's a win-win on how we've we were respectful about their data, but then how we could use the data for doing the things we're talking about, like, like we're talking about today, pricing, predictions, things like that. We have a very senior team from a legal and data perspective here, and doing it for 10 years. We've been able to do this in a way that's both positive for the dealers and us. I don't really want to speak any more to that in a public call like this, but it's a win-win on how we've we were respectful about their data, but then how we could use the data for doing the things we're talking about, like, like we're talking about today, pricing, predictions, things like that. i don't really want to speak any more to that in a public call like this but it's a win-win on how we've we were respectful about their data but then how we could use the data for doing the things we're talking about like like we're talking about today pricing predictions things like that We have a very senior team from a legal and data perspective here, and doing it for 10 years. we have a very senior team from a legal and data perspective here and doing it for 10 years We've been able to do this in a way that's both positive for the dealers and us. we've been able to do this in a way that's both positive for the dealers and us

Speaker 7: Do you see eventually the ability to charge kind of non-volume, contingent, recurring revenue and maybe, you know, charge more for helping the you know, the dealer run their business better and not necessarily tying that to auction volume? Do you see eventually the ability to charge kind of non-volume, contingent, recurring revenue and maybe, you know, charge more for helping the you know, the dealer run their business better and not necessarily tying that to auction volume? do you see eventually the ability to charge kind of non-volume contingent recurring revenue and maybe you know charge more for helping the you know the dealer run their business better and not necessarily tying that to auction volume

Speaker 6: It will be both. The way it, the model works, and I was going to try not to talk about the model today, that's really for middle of this year. But at a really high level, the way it'll work is, the dealer will, will pay, you know, several thousand dollars a month. I won't say the numbers just yet, just so no one's modeling it yet. Then there'll be a rebate. If we don't get the wholesale volume that we'd like to get, then they'll just pay us a, a healthy number. By the way, that's still a win-win. If they end up just being a high, high SaaS revenue account for us, and that's what they decide, let's just say that dealer happens to own a physical auction, as an example, right? It will be both. it will be both The way it, the model works, and I was going to try not to talk about the model today, that's really for middle of this year. the way it the model works and i was going to try not to talk about the model today that's really for middle of this year But at a really high level, the way it'll work is, the dealer will, will pay, you know, several thousand dollars a month. but at a really high level the way it'll work is the dealer will will pay you know several thousand dollars a month I won't say the numbers just yet, just so no one's modeling it yet. i won't say the numbers just yet just so no one's modeling it yet Then there'll be a rebate. then there'll be a rebate If we don't get the wholesale volume that we'd like to get, then they'll just pay us a, a healthy number. if we don't get the wholesale volume that we'd like to get then they'll just pay us a a healthy number By the way, that's still a win-win. by the way that's still a win-win If they end up just being a high, high SaaS revenue account for us, and that's what they decide, let's just say that dealer happens to own a physical auction, as an example, right? if they end up just being a high high saas revenue account for us and that's what they decide let's just say that dealer happens to own a physical auction as an example right There's a couple of dealers here- There's a couple of dealers here- there's a couple of dealers here-

Speaker 7: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. mm-hmm

Speaker 6: that across the country, own physical auctions. We'll. We have a great model. What we're going to charge them is still fantastic, but it would be a more significant subscription revenue. Yeah, it, it'll be a win-win, whether we get the wholesale volumes, which we think the, we think the, the wholesale volumes per, per rooftop, will be, could add TAM expansion. That could be 20%, 30%, maybe more than the typical rooftop. We're, we're pretty excited about it. that across the country, own physical auctions. that across the country own physical auctions We'll. we'll We have a great model. we have a great model What we're going to charge them is still fantastic, but it would be a more significant subscription revenue. what we're going to charge them is still fantastic but it would be a more significant subscription revenue Yeah, it, it'll be a win-win, whether we get the wholesale volumes, which we think the, we think the, the wholesale volumes per, per rooftop, will be, could add TAM expansion. yeah it it'll be a win-win whether we get the wholesale volumes which we think the we think the the wholesale volumes per per rooftop will be could add tam expansion That could be 20%, 30%, maybe more than the typical rooftop. that could be 20% 30% maybe more than the typical rooftop We're, we're pretty excited about it. we're we're pretty excited about it

Speaker 7: Great. Thanks very much for taking the questions, and best of luck in 2026. Great. great Thanks very much for taking the questions, and best of luck in 2026. thanks very much for taking the questions and best of luck in 2026

Speaker 6: Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. thank you jeff

Speaker 9: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Gary Prestopino with Barrington Research. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. thank you Our next question comes from the line of Gary Prestopino with Barrington Research. our next question comes from the line of gary prestopino with barrington research Please proceed with your question. please proceed with your question

Speaker 5: Hi, good afternoon, all. Hey, George, I had a couple... I got a question on Guarantee, and I have a question on VIPER. With the Guarantee, once it hits the reserve, do you start to see an influx of increased bidding? Does it kind of work like some of these classic car Mecum Auctions, where once the reserve comes off, the price goes up precipitously? Hi, good afternoon, all. hi good afternoon all Hey, George, I had a couple... hey george i had a couple I got a question on Guarantee, and I have a question on VIPER. i got a question on guarantee and i have a question on viper With the Guarantee, once it hits the reserve, do you start to see an influx of increased bidding? with the guarantee once it hits the reserve do you start to see an influx of increased bidding Does it kind of work like some of these classic car Mecum Auctions, where once the reserve comes off, the price goes up precipitously? does it kind of work like some of these classic car mecum auctions where once the reserve comes off the price goes up precipitously

Speaker 6: Yes, Gary, that's exactly the way this world operates. Dealers that are bidding on cars want to know a car is for sale. When they know a car is for sale, they'll invest the time. They don't want to go bid on car after car and waste their time. We believe the ACV no reserve sale, let's pretend that's its own auction, as though the rest of ACV doesn't exist, as though the rest of the industry doesn't even exist. While our no reserves sales going on, we believe we have the highest bid activity in the industry. Gary, yes, we're-- we're seeing exactly that, because dealers are willing to invest their time because they know, you know, the top bidder is going to get the car. Yes, Gary, that's exactly the way this world operates. yes gary that's exactly the way this world operates Dealers that are bidding on cars want to know a car is for sale. dealers that are bidding on cars want to know a car is for sale When they know a car is for sale, they'll invest the time. when they know a car is for sale they'll invest the time They don't want to go bid on car after car and waste their time. they don't want to go bid on car after car and waste their time We believe the ACV no reserve sale, let's pretend that's its own auction, as though the rest of ACV doesn't exist, as though the rest of the industry doesn't even exist. we believe the acv no reserve sale let's pretend that's its own auction as though the rest of acv doesn't exist as though the rest of the industry doesn't even exist While our no reserves sales going on, we believe we have the highest bid activity in the industry. while our no reserves sales going on we believe we have the highest bid activity in the industry Gary, yes, we're-- we're seeing exactly that, because dealers are willing to invest their time because they know, you know, the top bidder is going to get the car. gary yes we're-- we're seeing exactly that because dealers are willing to invest their time because they know you know the top bidder is going to get the car

Speaker 5: Okay. Then on VIPER, and I realize it's, it's real early in the game here, but what, what does your system do or how are the dealers getting over the reticence of the individual that owns the car to really trust the data, to trust what's being spit out by the dealership? You know, there's, there's always an inherent conflict of interest there, right? Okay. okay Then on VIPER, and I realize it's, it's real early in the game here, but what, what does your system do or how are the dealers getting over the reticence of the individual that owns the car to really trust the data, to trust what's being spit out by the dealership? then on viper and i realize it's it's real early in the game here but what what does your system do or how are the dealers getting over the reticence of the individual that owns the car to really trust the data to trust what's being spit out by the dealership You know, there's, there's always an inherent conflict of interest there, right? you know there's there's always an inherent conflict of interest there right

Speaker 6: Yeah. Good point, Gary. I think you're really bringing up that between AI and machine learning, we, we need the end customers to appreciate and trust, right, the system. The good news is, we've been out showing the end results of our data profile. When you, when you look at the last, you know, few months, and really the last few quarters, our retail predictions of what a car is going to sell for in the next 30 days, most recent results was within $38. Yeah. yeah Good point, Gary. good point gary I think you're really bringing up that between AI and machine learning, we, we need the end customers to appreciate and trust, right, the system. i think you're really bringing up that between ai and machine learning we we need the end customers to appreciate and trust right the system The good news is, we've been out showing the end results of our data profile. the good news is we've been out showing the end results of our data profile When you, when you look at the last, you know, few months, and really the last few quarters, our retail predictions of what a car is going to sell for in the next 30 days, most recent results was within $38. when you when you look at the last you know few months and really the last few quarters our retail predictions of what a car is going to sell for in the next 30 days most recent results was within $38

Speaker 5: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. mm-hmm

Speaker 6: That's not me just saying, "Hey, this should work someday." This is saying, our prediction of what the car is going to sell for. Now, it won't always fit. Even if within $100, even within $200, that's incredible. Gary, we're not just... We didn't just build a hardware unit here and say, "Okay, go learn." We've been learning through ACV MAX. We've been learning through ACV Auctions. Our wholesale predictions are within $100. When you have this ability to walk in there with hardware that you've already been learning, you've already been proving, it allows us to have more credibility to do what you're asking, which is how do we change their process to trust it? Because we, we are walking in. Now, will there still be a transitory process to get trust? That's not me just saying, "Hey, this should work someday." This is saying, our prediction of what the car is going to sell for. that's not me just saying "hey this should work someday." this is saying our prediction of what the car is going to sell for Now, it won't always fit. now it won't always fit Even if within $100, even within $200, that's incredible. even if within $100 even within $200 that's incredible Gary, we're not just... gary we're not just We didn't just build a hardware unit here and say, "Okay, go learn." We've been learning through ACV MAX. we didn't just build a hardware unit here and say "okay go learn." we've been learning through acv max We've been learning through ACV Auctions. we've been learning through acv auctions Our wholesale predictions are within $100. our wholesale predictions are within $100 When you have this ability to walk in there with hardware that you've already been learning, you've already been proving, it allows us to have more credibility to do what you're asking, which is how do we change their process to trust it? when you have this ability to walk in there with hardware that you've already been learning you've already been proving it allows us to have more credibility to do what you're asking which is how do we change their process to trust it Because we, we are walking in. because we we are walking in Now, will there still be a transitory process to get trust? now will there still be a transitory process to get trust Of course, but at least we're walking in to this opportunity, with, with, with a lot of credibility. Of course, but at least we're walking in to this opportunity, with, with, with a lot of credibility. of course but at least we're walking in to this opportunity with with with a lot of credibility

Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you. Okay. okay Thank you. thank you

Speaker 6: Thank you, Gary. Thank you, Gary. thank you gary

Speaker 12: Shamil, I think we're, we're at the end of the call. From here, I'll just say thank you for joining us tonight. We hope to see you on the conference circuit over this next quarter. Again, thank you for your interest in ACV, and everybody, have a great evening. Shamil, I think we're, we're at the end of the call. shamil i think we're we're at the end of the call From here, I'll just say thank you for joining us tonight. from here i'll just say thank you for joining us tonight We hope to see you on the conference circuit over this next quarter. we hope to see you on the conference circuit over this next quarter Again, thank you for your interest in ACV, and everybody, have a great evening. again thank you for your interest in acv and everybody have a great evening

Speaker 6: Thanks so much. Thanks so much. thanks so much

Speaker 9: Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you for your participation. Thank you. thank you This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your line at this time. this concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your line at this time Thank you for your participation. thank you for your participation