Zeta Global Holdings Corp. Annual Report (Form 10-K) - Year Ended December 31, 2025

Unpacking Zeta Global Holdings Corp.'s official Form 10-K filing for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, reveals a concise overview of the company's performance and strategic direction.

Business Overview: Zeta Global stands as a leading marketing technology company, empowering businesses to acquire, grow, and retain customers. It achieves this through its proprietary, AI-powered marketing cloud platform. This platform uses extensive data to deliver personalized, omnichannel marketing solutions, helping clients optimize customer engagement and drive measurable business outcomes across various industries. The company serves a diverse range of enterprise clients, offering unified solutions for customer acquisition, engagement, and retention.

Key Financial Performance for Fiscal Year 2025:

• Revenue Growth: Zeta Global's revenue reached $620 million, marking a 17% increase year-over-year. This growth stemmed primarily from expanded platform adoption and increased client spending.
• Profitability: The company achieved an Adjusted EBITDA of $95 million, demonstrating improved operational efficiency. While Zeta Global reported a net loss of $45 million, this figure reflects ongoing strategic investments in research and development, especially in AI capabilities, and other growth initiatives.
• Cash Flow: Operating cash flow reached $40 million, signaling strong cash generation from core business activities.

Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) Highlights: Management attributed the 17% revenue growth to increased platform utilization by existing enterprise clients, successful cross-selling of advanced features, and new customer acquisitions.

The $45 million net loss primarily resulted from strategic investments in research and development. These investments focused on enhancing the company's AI capabilities and data infrastructure, alongside increased sales and marketing expenses designed to expand market share. Despite this net loss, the positive Adjusted EBITDA of $95 million highlights Zeta Global's underlying operational profitability and efficiency gains. These gains were achieved through scale and cost management initiatives. The $40 million in operating cash flow demonstrates the company's ability to generate cash from its core business, supporting ongoing investments without relying solely on external financing.

Financial Health: As of December 31, 2025, Zeta Global maintained a strong liquidity position with $120 million in cash and cash equivalents. Total debt stood at $210 million, which the company actively manages to support growth while maintaining financial flexibility. Management emphasizes a commitment to prudent capital allocation, balancing growth investments with debt management to ensure long-term financial stability. The company believes its current cash position, operating cash flow, and available credit facilities provide sufficient liquidity to cover working capital needs, capital expenditure requirements, and debt obligations for the foreseeable future.

Future Outlook: Zeta Global's strategy centers on three key pillars:

1. AI Innovation: Continuously enhance its AI-powered platform to deliver more predictive insights and automated marketing capabilities.
2. Customer Expansion: Grow its enterprise client base and expand relationships with existing customers through cross-selling and upselling advanced features.
3. Data-Driven Advantage: Further integrate and leverage its proprietary data assets to maintain a competitive edge in personalized marketing.

The company anticipates continued revenue growth in 2026, driven by these strategic investments and rising demand for data-driven marketing solutions. Management expects to continue investing in its platform and talent, aiming to capitalize on market opportunities.

Competitive Position: Zeta Global operates in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving marketing technology landscape. Zeta Global differentiates itself through its proprietary, AI-powered marketing cloud platform. This platform integrates extensive first-party and third-party data, offering a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for customer acquisition, engagement, and retention. Its competitive advantages include the scale and depth of its data assets, sophisticated AI and machine learning capabilities, and the ability to deliver personalized, omnichannel experiences at scale. Zeta Global competes with various players, including large enterprise software providers, specialized marketing technology vendors, and in-house marketing solutions. It achieves this by focusing on delivering measurable ROI and superior customer outcomes for its enterprise clients.

Principal Risks: Investors should be aware of several key risks:

• Data Privacy and Regulation: Evolving global data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) could impact data collection and usage, potentially increasing compliance costs or limiting operational flexibility.
• Intense Competition: The marketing technology sector is highly competitive, with numerous established and emerging players. This intense competition could pressure pricing or market share.
• Economic Downturn: A general economic slowdown could reduce client marketing spend, impacting Zeta Global's revenue and profitability.
• Reliance on Technology: The company's success depends on the continuous development and reliability of its platform, making it susceptible to technology failures or security breaches.
• Ability to Attract and Retain Talent: The highly specialized nature of the company's technology requires attracting and retaining skilled engineers, data scientists, and sales professionals, a challenging task in a competitive labor market.

Market and Regulatory Information:

• Zeta Global's Class A Common Stock trades on The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol ZETA.
• As of June 30, 2025, the aggregate market value of the company's Class A shares held by non-affiliates totaled approximately $3.2 billion, reflecting its significant market presence.
• As of February 13, 2026, approximately 244 million shares of the company's stock were outstanding, comprising both Class A and Class B shares.
• The company is designated as a "well-known seasoned issuer" and a "large accelerated filer." These designations indicate it meets specific SEC criteria for market capitalization and timely filing, generally signifying a mature and transparent public company.