24% Revenue Growth in B2 Cloud Storage, 12% Revenue Growth Overall in Q1 2026
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 04, 2026--
Backblaze, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLZE), the high-performance cloud storage platform for the AI era, today announced results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2026.
"In Q1, we exceeded the top end of our revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance, with B2 growing 24% year over year," said Gleb Budman, co-founder and CEO of Backblaze. "We are seeing growing traction with AI customers, including winning a AI training data company and a generative AI video creation company, jointly contributing about $1.5 million in annual contract value, along with a 76% growth in AI customers year over year. As AI models shift from text to multimodal, the volume of data required to train and operate them grows exponentially, and the need for storage that is performant, open, and cost-efficient at scale has never been greater. Backblaze is emerging as a compelling storage platform of choice for the AI economy."
First Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights:(1)
-- Revenue of $38.7 million, an increase of 12% year-over-year (YoY).
-- B2 Cloud Storage revenue was $22.4 million, an increase of 24%
YoY.
-- Computer Backup revenue was $16.2 million, relatively flat YoY.
-- Gross profit of $23.5 million, or 61% of revenue, compared to $19.3
million, or 56% of revenue, in Q1 2025.
-- Adjusted gross profit of $30.7 million, or 79% of revenue, compared to
$27.3 million, or 79% of revenue, in Q1 2025.
-- Net loss was $6.1 million compared to a net loss of $9.3 million in Q1
2025.
-- Net loss per share was $0.10 compared to a net loss per share of $0.17
in Q1 2025.
-- Adjusted EBITDA was $10.1 million, or 26% of revenue, compared to $6.4
million, or 18% of revenue, in Q1 2025.
-- Non-GAAP net income of $2.7 million compared to non-GAAP net loss of
$1.8 million in Q1 2025.
-- Non-GAAP net income per share of $0.04 compared to a non-GAAP net loss
per share of $0.03 in Q1 2025.
-- Cash flow from operations was $3.4 million, compared to $4.9 million in
Q1 2025.
-- Adjusted free cash flow was $(1.8) million, compared to $(2.1) million
in Q1 2025.
-- Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $45.5 million
as of March 31, 2026.
(1) Some amounts may not sum due to rounding.
First Quarter 2026 Operational Highlights:
-- Annual recurring revenue $(ARR)$ was $158.2 million, an increase of 13% YoY. -- B2 Cloud Storage ARR was $93.0 million, an increase of 28% YoY. -- Computer Backup ARR was $65.2 million, relatively flat YoY. -- Net revenue retention rate (NRR) was 103% compared to 105% in Q1 2025. -- B2 Cloud Storage NRR was 110% compared to 105% in Q1 2025. -- Computer Backup NRR was 95% compared to 103% in Q1 2025. -- Gross customer retention rate was 91% in Q1 2026 compared to 90% in Q1 2025. -- B2 Cloud Storage gross customer retention rate was 89% in both Q1 2026 and Q1 2025. -- Computer Backup gross customer retention rate was 91% compared to 90% in Q1 2025.
Recent Business Highlights:
-- AI customer count grew 76% year over year: An AI training data company
and a generative AI video creation company were among the quarter's wins
and together contributed about $1.5 million in annual contract value,
reflecting our growing traction in AI.
-- ARR from large customers grew 72% year over year: The number of
customers generating $50,000+ in ARR increased 51% year over year,
reflecting continued success scaling with larger accounts.
-- Appointed Anuj Kumar as Chief Revenue Officer: With senior leadership
experience at Rackspace, VMware, Red Hat, and NetApp, Anuj brings a
proven track record of scaling cloud infrastructure businesses,
strengthening our ability to accelerate revenue growth.
-- Leading venture firm a16z selected Backblaze for its founder resource
program: Together with our participation in Launch, Startup Grind and
other startup programs, this broadens our reach across the startup
ecosystem and positions us earlier with high-growth companies as they
build and scale.
-- Raised B2 pricing and eliminated transaction fees to deliver greater
value: Effective May 1st, Backblaze increased pay-as-you-go storage
pricing to support our continued investment in performance, while
removing API transaction fees to simplify pricing and support customers.
Financial Outlook:
Based on information available as of the date of this press release,
For the second quarter of 2026, we expect:
-- Revenue between $39.8 million to $40.2 million.
-- Adjusted EBITDA margin between 21% to 23%.
-- Basic weighted average shares outstanding of 60.5 million to 60.7
million shares.
For full-year 2026, we have raised our outlook:
-- Revenue between $161.5 million to $163.5 million, raised from $156.5
million to $158.5 million.
-- Adjusted EBITDA margin range of 23% to 25%, raised from 19% to 21%.
Conference Call Information:
Backblaze will host a conference call today, May 4, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. PT (5:00 p.m. ET) to review its financial results.
Attend the webcast here: https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/290886121
An archive of the webcast will be available shortly after its completion on the Investor Relations section of the Backblaze website at https://ir.backblaze.com.
Register to listen by phone here: https://registrations.events/direct/Q4I1757373
Phone registrants will receive dial-in information via email.
About Backblaze
Backblaze (NASDAQ: BLZE) gives businesses the freedom to innovate without limits by removing the barriers of lock-in, complexity, and cost. Our high-performance cloud object storage accelerates AI workflows, powers data-heavy applications, streamlines media management, and protects critical data. As an award-winning independent cloud, we provide levels of interoperability that enable over 500,000 of our customers to reach and serve hundreds of millions of end users in 175 countries around the world. For more information, please go to www.backblaze.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are frequently identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "likely," "may," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "will," "would," or other similar terms or expressions that relate to our future performance, expectations, strategy, plans or intentions, and include statements in the section titled "Financial Outlook."
Our actual results could differ materially from those stated in or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release due to a number of factors, including but not limited to: the impact of our go-to-market transformation and ability to attract and retain customers, including increasingly larger customers; the continued growth of data stored by our customers; continued growth of AI related business; rapidly evolving technological developments in the market, including advancement in AI; realizing the anticipated benefits relating to cost savings initiatives and the re-investment of savings in additional sales capacity; market competition, including competitors that may have greater size, offerings and resources; effectively managing growth and scaling of our platform; ability to offer new features and other offerings on a timely basis, including new enterprise features, B2 Overdrive offering and geographic expansion in Canada or other jurisdictions, and achieve desired market adoption; disruption in our service or loss of availability of customers' data; cyberattacks; ability to continue to scale the business; the impact of pricing and other product offering changes, including the May 1, 2026 pay-as-you-go storage pricing increase; material defects or errors in our software, such as problems with our internal systems, network, or data, including actual or perceived breaches or failures; supply chain disruption; ability to maintain existing relationships with partners and to enter into new partnerships; hiring and retention of key employees; the impact of changes to global trade and tariff policies, on us or our vendors, partners and customers; war or hostilities, and other significant world or regional events on our business and the business of our customers, vendors, supply chain and partners; litigation and other disputes; availability of additional capital; and general market, political, economic, and business conditions. Further information on these and additional risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those included in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this release are included under the caption "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other filings and reports we make with the SEC from time to time.
The forward-looking statements made in this release reflect our views as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
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