Vertiqal Studios Announces Q1 2026 Results

Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – May 15, 2026) – Vertiqal Studios Corp. (TSX: VRTS) (FSE: 9PY0) (“Vertiqal” or the “Company”) Vertiqal Studios, a leading digital-channel network and video-production studio, as well as the owner of North America’s largest gaming and lifestyle network on social media, today announced its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2026.

Key Financial Highlights for First Quarter 2026:

• Vertiqal generated revenue of $726,091 for the three months ended March 31, 2026, an increase of $20,246, or 2.9%, compared to $705,845 in the prior year period. Gross profit for Q1 2026 was $532,751, representing a gross margin of 73.4%, compared to gross profit of $567,186 and a gross margin of 80.4% in Q1 2025. The compression in gross margin reflects the shift in revenue mix toward direct media advertising, which carries higher associated content production and delivery costs relative to the Snapchat programmatic revenue it partially displaced.
• The overall growth reflects two offsetting segment-level dynamics; (i) direct media advertising revenue increased meaningfully compared to Q1 2025, driven by stronger brand partnership activity; and (ii) the contribution of new insertion order demand across the Company’s owned and operated social media channels.
• The revenue growth reflects both the expansion of the Company’s channel footprint following the Enthusiast Gaming asset acquisition in September 2025 and improved monetization of its digital advertising inventory.
• The revenue growth was partially offset by a decline in Snapchat programmatic revenue compared to Q1 2025. The decrease reflects continued softness in the Snapchat advertising market, including lower CPM rates and reduced demand from brand advertisers on the platform, consistent with broader industry trends in short-form OTT monetization.
• Snapchat programmatic revenue, which is recognized on a net revenue-share basis with minimal incremental cost of sales, represented a proportionally larger share of the prior year revenue base; as direct media arrangements — which require the Company to fulfil insertion orders and deliver content directly to brand advertisers — became a more significant contributor in Q1 2026, cost of sales increased accordingly.

2026 Outlook:

The Company received CAD $2.7 million (USD $1.948 million) in private placement proceeds during through the issuance of secured debentures (see press release dated April 13, 2026) providing working capital to support operations and growth initiatives. “Q1 2026 demonstrated meaningful progress across the business, with direct media revenue more than doubling from the prior year as we continue to deepen relationships with brand advertisers and expand the monetization of our owned and operated channel network,” said Max Desmarais, Chief Executive Officer of Vertiqal. “Our gross margins remain healthy, and the foundation we built through our 2025 acquisitions is now fully operational. We are focused on driving operating leverage from that base. As we move through 2026, our priorities are clear: grow direct media revenue, scale the multi-channel network business, and close the gap to positive normalized EBITDA. We are energized by the opportunity in front of us and look forward to sharing our continued progress.”

Financial Results

Below is a summary of the financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2026, and March 31, 2025.

About Vertiqal Studios

Vertiqal Studios is a scaled digital-channel network and video-production studio that owns North America’s largest gaming and lifestyle network. The Company helps global brands reach Gen Z and Millennial audiences through data-driven creative, always-on digital campaigns, and performance-oriented distribution. Vertiqal manages 200+ channels across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat, producing over 100 pieces of content per day for a community of more than 52 million followers. Revenue is generated through a mix of direct brand partnerships, agency relationships, and platform monetization across its owned and operated channels.

For more information, please visit www.vertiqalstudios.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward‐looking statements and forward‐looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward‐looking statements or information. The forward‐looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of the Company. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward‐looking statements and information since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct.

Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Since forward‐looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward‐looking statements and information contained in this news release.

The forward‐looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward‐looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Non-IFRS measures and reconciliation

This press release includes non-IFRS measures such as normalized EBITDA. These measures do not have standardized meanings under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures used by other issuers, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable IFRS measure will be provided in our MD&A, available on SEDAR+.

This news release makes references to certain non-IFRS measures. These measures are provided as additional information to complement those IFRS measures by providing further understanding of our results of operations from management’s perspective. The Company believes that disclosing these non-IFRS measures provides readers of this news release with important information regarding the Company’s financial performance. By considering these measures in combination with IFRS measures, the Company believes that readers are provided with additional and more useful information about the Company than readers would have if they simply considered IFRS measures alone. We use non-IFRS financial measures including “normalized EBITDA”.

These non-IFRS measures are used to provide investors with supplemental measures of our operating performance and thus highlight trends in our core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS measures. We believe that securities analysts, investors and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS measures and industry metrics in the evaluation of issuers. The Company’s management also uses non-IFRS measures and industry metrics to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period, to prepare annual operating budgets and forecasts and to determine components of management compensation. The non-IFRS measures reported by the Company do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and the Company’s method of calculating these measures may differ from those of other issuers or companies and may not be comparable to similar measures used by other issuers or companies. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our financial information reported under IFRS.

Certain information, including definitions, about non-IFRS financial measures, non-IFRS ratios, and supplementary financial measures can be found in the Company’s Q1 2026 MD&A which is available on the Company’s SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/297692

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