Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ:EVGN) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ:EVGN) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript May 20, 2026

Evogene Ltd. misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $-0.6 EPS, expectations were $-0.27.

Operator: Welcome to Evogene’s First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded May 20, 2026. Before we begin, I would like to caution that certain statements made during this earnings conference call by Evogene’s management will constitute forward-looking statements that relate to future events. This presentation contains forward-looking statements relating to future events and Evogene Ltd., the company may, from time to time, make other statements regarding our outlook or expectation for future financial or operating results and/or other measures regarding or affecting us that are considered forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the PSLRA and other securities laws as amended.

Statements that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of such words as believe, expect, anticipate, should, planned estimated, intend and potential or words of similar meaning. We are using forward-looking statements in this presentation when we discussed our value drivers commercialization effort and timing, product development and launches, estimated market size and milestones, pipeline as well as our capabilities and technology. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions described opinions about future events involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance with a caution that certain important factors may affect the company’s actual results and could cause such results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement that may be made in this presentation.

Therefore, actual future events, performance or achievements and trends in the future may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors many of which are beyond their control, including without limitation, the aftermath of the recent work between Israel and each of the terrorist groups amassable you run another original terrorist group supported by run. And any destabilization in Israel neighboring territories on the Middle East region, and those described in greater detail in Evogene’s annual report on Form 20-F and in other information, Evogene files and furnished with the Israel Securities Authorities and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors under the heading Risk Factors.

Except as required by applicable security laws, we disclaim any obligation or commitment to update any information contained in this presentation or to publicly release the results of any revisions to any statement that may be made to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. The information contained herein does not constitute a prospectus or other offering document nor does it constitute or form part of any invitation or offer to sell or any solicitation of any invitation or offer to purchase or subscribe for any securities of Evogene or the company. no shall the information or any part of it or the fact of its distribution from the basis of or be relied on in connection with any action, contract, commitment or relating thereto or the securities of Evogene or the company.

The trademarks include hearing are the property of the owners thereof and are used for reference purposes only. Such use should not be construed as an endorsement of our product or services. With us on the line will be Ofer Haviv, President and CEO of Evogene and Polina Ravzin, VP Finance of Evogene, now I would like to turn the call over to Ofer Haviv, Mr. Haviv, please go ahead.

Ofer Haviv: Thank you for joining Evogene’s First Quarter 2026 analyst call. In today’s call, I will focus on the significant progress Evogene has made over the past quarter and outline the company’s key objectives for this year. Joining me for this part of the presentation are Dr. Gabi Tarcic, the company’s Chief Development Officer; and Dr. Dan Gelvan, CEO of our subsidiary, Atlas which focus on ag chemical development. Following our remarks, our VP Finance, Polina Ravzin will present the financial results. Then we will open the call for questions. As I stated in our previous call, Evogene’s mission is clear and focused to design novel highly potent small molecules optimized across multiple parameters for drug development and chemicals by leveraging campus our computational generative AI engine.

This mission is guided by a strong objective to direct Evogene’s resources toward are where we believe we can create the greatest substantial value. To execute this mission, we made Turkey strategic decision. The first one was to focus all of our technology efforts on our proprietary concessional engine, campus AI. In this context, I would like to emphasize that we strongly believe that technological collaboration are essential for advancing our core platform. This belief was clearly demonstrated in the partnership we announced with Google in 2025. In this collaboration, we successfully developed a breakthrough generative engine capable of designing entirely new molecules structure molecules that are not only highly novel, but also easier to synthesize and better align with multiple product development requirements.

The second strategic decision was to streamline our business activity to concentrate on 2 highly impact market where campus AI provides a strong competitive advantage, pharma focused on small molecule drug discovery and agriculture focused on next-generation ag-chemicals. To maximize the value of our technology, we adopt a clear and consist business model across both domains, which is built on 2 complementary channels. The first channel is establishing strategic collaborations with industry partners for early-stage product development, those collaboration helped reduce both our scientific and financial risk while accelerating innovation. The second channel is the advancement of our own internally funded product pipeline, in this channel, our goal is to mature those program further before entering partnership, allowing us to secure stronger commercial terms with leading industry players.

This slide highlights the collaboration and internal programs, Epogen was advancing at the end of 2025. In agriculture, we established 2 strategic collaborations for herbicide development, 1 with Bayer and another with Corteva. At the same time, we continue advancing our internal funded program focused on novel septoria fungicide. It is important to note that Evogene chemical activities began in 2018 and and are carried out to our subsidiary at lens. In parallel, our pharmaceutical activity focused on small molecule brand discovery were launched only at the beginning of 2025 as a division of Evogene. At the end of 2025, our first and only announced collaboration in this field, was with Tel Aviv University, targeting therapies for metabolic diseases linked to a protein aggregation in blood vessels.

Now I would like to present the company’s achievement over the last quarter and to date across those 3 areas: our core technology platform, our pharma activities and our chemical activities. We will begin by reviewing the achievements in the area of our core technology platform, Campus AI. In February this year, we announced our second collaboration with Google aimed at integrating agents into Campus. The collaboration is expected to enable capabilities that currently do not exist in the global small molecule discovery process. Our second collaboration with Google focused on developing advanced AI agents to solve complex scientific challenges. Success in this project will enable Evogene to automatically extract valuable insights from scientific publications and create proprietary data sets.

These data sets will help us build highly accurated computational models for characterizing specific scientific parameters. We will then use those models to support the development of new molecules designed in accordance with the requirement of our target product profiles. Overall, these new capabilities are expected to significantly strength Evogene’s technological leadership and competitive advantage. We will now proceed to reviewing the achievement and activities in the company’s pharma division where the most significant growth secured this year. In the first quarter of the year, the company announced 3 new collaboration agreements, 2 with biotech companies and 1 with an academic institution. In the following slides, Dr. Gabi Tarcic, Evogene CDO will elaborate on each collaboration.

Gabi?

Gabi Tarcic: Thank you, Ofer. I’m excited to share with you the progress in the Pharma division that has taken place since the beginning of the year. In February, we announced a new collaboration with Systasy Bioscience and Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital in Germany. This collaboration focuses on a novel biological target involved in neutrophil-driven hyperinflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, IBD, an area of significant unmet medical need. The collaborations supported by the prestigious Eureka grant brings together 3 complementary capabilities. Evogene Campus AI engine Systasy proprietary pathway profiler technology for high content, functional validation in patient-specific models and the clinical expertise of Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital.

By integrating AI-driven molecular design, advanced functional biology and clinical insights from the earlier stages, we aim to accelerate the identification of high-quality drug candidates while building strong long-term therapeutic and commercial value. In January this year, we announced a collaboration with unravel Biosciences that focuses on a newly discovered target for demyelinating disorders such as multiple sclerosis, to develop brain penetrant therapies capable of restoring milling and improving neurological function. Here, by combining Evogene’s ChemPass drug design engine with unravels patient-derived molecular profiling capabilities we are accelerating the identification of drug candidates and addressing a major unmet medical need in an ore generative market exceeding $26 billion, thereby creating significant long-term partnering and commercial opportunities.

This collaboration exemplifies the strategic partnerships we are pursuing by bringing together deep biological insight and Evogene’s advanced computational chemistry platform to create a differentiated first-in-class therapeutic opportunities with strong pharmaceutical licensing potential. In mid-February, we announced an additional collaboration that focuses on addressing chemotherapy resistance, 1 of the major challenges that limits the effectiveness of current cancer treatments in collaboration with Dr. Mark Adams and the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. Together, we are targeting a newly identified cellular detoxification pathway that enables tumors to resist cancer therapy. The collaboration integrates Evogene’s ChemPass AI generative molecular design engine with advanced cancer genomic expertise to develop novel small molecule inhibitors designed to restore treatment sensitivity by addressing a key resistance mechanism across multiple cancer types, including non-small cell lung cancer.

This program has the potential to generate differentiated oncology candidates with strong clinical and commercial value. I am very proud to present for the first time the small molecule pipelines of Evogene Pharma division, a growing and highly promising portfolio that reflects the strengths of our technology, innovation and strategic collaborations. We are encouraged by the advancement of the molecules generated in collaboration with our partners, and we look forward to seeing these programs progress rapidly into more advanced preclinical and clinical stages. At the same time, we expect additional high potential projects to join this exciting pipeline further expanding the opportunities ahead of us. Looking ahead, I am excited to continue sharing updates on meaningful progress we are making across these programs.

With that, I would like to conclude my remarks and hand over the call back to Ofer.

Ofer Haviv: Thank you, Gabi. We will conclude the update on the corporate core business activities, the status in the field of a chemical development. Operating in this field are conducted through our subsidiary, a lens. I will ask Dr. Dan Gelvan, AgPlenus CEO, to elaborate on the company’s activities.

Dan Gelvan: Thank you, Ofer. I’m pleased to provide an update on the status of planes activities since the beginning of 2026. The main progress has been in our internal project aimed at developing a fungicide for Septoria and I will elaborate on this topic on the coming 2 slides. But first, I would like to focus on an update regarding our collaboration with Bayer. While planes collaboration with Bayer has yielded significant novel active compounds, thereby thoroughly validating our ability to optimize active molecules it has now become evident that these candidates cannot be further developed due to issues pertaining to the biology of the target protein. As a result of this inherent target problem, we have amicably together with Bayer, decided to terminate our research collaboration agreements.

Based on the strong professional relationships established during this collaboration, we are now exploring potential opportunities for future collaborations that would leverage AgPlenus’ computational chemistry capabilities, discovery platforms and molecule optimization expertise as demonstrated throughout this collaboration. I will be happy to update on the outcomes of these discussions in future updates. Within our internal development pipeline, we are making good progress in developing a new fungicide for wheat blotch as a disease caused by Zymoseptoria. We are working to address a major problem representing an annual market value of over $1.2 billion. Approximately 70% of fungicides applied to wheat in Europe are aimed at fighting wheat bloods.

Concurrently, many existing products such as struggle Lawrence are experiencing diminished efficacy as the disease develops resistance. This underscores the critical need for a new and effective solution. Our initial assessment was not promising as no structural data was available for the target protein. — a common challenge in ag chemistry research aimed at overcoming resistance. We use homology modeling and structure-based development to characterize the active site. Utilizing pointed the initial phase of molecule screening employing ChemPass AI, 440 candidates were selected for testing. Of these, only 11 met enzymatic inhibition thresholds and only 2 demonstrated antifungal activity. From these 2 in vitro and in vivo validated compounds and incorporating the negative results, utilizing active search the subsequent phase of molecule screening that leverage the data generated in the preceding stage, we selected 164 off-the-shelf molecules for purchase.

Subsequently, 38 of these showed in somatic inhibition and 5 demonstrated antifungal activity, demonstrating a clear improvement over the initial screen. Building on these insights, we moved to lead up GPT and generated 27 novel compounds, which were custom synthesized and tested over the past months. Of these 25 met enzymatic inhibition thresholds and 15 also showed the desired biological activity, which represents a dramatic improvement. This progression illustrates how the integration of iterative experimental validation with AI-driven molecular design can transform limited early signals into a focused, high-quality lead set. We have high expectations for this program, and I will be pleased to update you on the progress we make in the coming quarters.

I’m pleased to present and add a Plenish pipeline to that of Evogene’s Pharma division. I believe that consolidating these 2 activities under a single technological platform will create strong synergy and mutual enrichment thereby accelerating product development in both areas and strengthening our competitive advantage and value proposition across the 2 industries in which we operate. With that, I conclude my remarks and hand the presentation back to Ofer.

Ofer Haviv: Thank you, Dan. Looking ahead, we anticipate meaningful progress across all 3 of the company’s core areas of activity, reinforcing our growth trajectory and long-term value creation. With respect to our technology engine, we continue to strengthen our competitive edge through the expansion of additional technological collaborations, designated to further enhance our innovation capabilities and sustain our unique market advantage. Looking at our drug development activity for the pharmaceutical industry, we are expecting to advancing our existing pipeline towards key value-creating milestone. establishing new strategic collaborations with leading biotech companies and academic institution, deepening relationships with global pharmaceutical companies and actively evaluating new opportunities to establish our internal drug development pipeline.

With respect to our chemical development activity for the agriculture industry, we expect the continued advancement of our existing pipeline assets, forming new collaboration with leading ag chem companies and ongoing evaluation of opportunities to expand and strengthen our internal pipeline. Overall, we remain strongly focused on executing partnership expansion and pipeline development across all business areas, positioning the company for sustained growth and long-term success. With this, I conclude my part and hand over the discussion to Polina. This is her first time participating in quarterly call, and I would like to wish her great success as the lead Evogene Finance Department. Good luck, Polina.

Polina Ravzin: Thank you, Ofer. Before I move on to the update regarding the first quarter financial statements, I would like to provide an update on the activities of Evogene’s subsidiaries that in line with our biostrategy are no longer part of our core business for the companies fall into this cation, Lavie, Biomica and Costera. We will begin with an update regarding the company’s with activities, we have decided to discontinue or significantly scale down Lavie Bio and Biomica. The Viva’s activity, Evogene subsidiary in the field of logical was inquired by ICL in 2025. The ripios operations were discontinued at the end of the first quarter of 2026, we are distributing the Romanian cash balance accumulated in the company as a result of the sale for duration to.

The company expects to receive 2 additional payments under this transaction. With respect to Biomica, subsidiary in the field of therapeutics based on the human microbiome, and significant events have occurred in the beginning of the year. Biomica license is a lead oncology candidate, BMC128, collision pharmaceuticals in early 2026. is currently completing a Phase I clinical trial for BMC128. has received approval to distribute the company’s remaining cash to its shareholders. We will continue to provide updates on these 3 metrics in the coming quarter. We will now move on to the update regarding Costera, our subsidiary in the caster cultivation sector for oil production for byproducts and alternative energy. As previously noted, although this activity is not part of our core business, its activity is ongoing, and we are evaluating the potential primarily in Brazil.

I would like to note that operations have also undergone a significant reduction in recent months in order to align its activities with Brazil only. As we noted in the previous quarter, we are evaluating the potential inherent in Coster’s operations in Brazil. As part of this activity, we are pleased to report 2 significant events. In April, we reported strong results in terms of the economic performance of our varieties and commercial still trials in Brazil. In May, we reported that the company is conducting approximately field trials of our commercial immune varieties in 7 target regions in Brazil under different cultivation regimes. We expect that this activity will form the basis for the commencement of sales in tester seats for 2027 growing season.

Now we will move on to present the company’s financial statements for the first quarter of the year and we’ll begin with the balance sheet. Let’s start with our cash position. As of March 31, 2026, Evogene held consolidated cash, cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits of approximately $13.1 million. The consolidated cash usage during the first quarter of was approximately $2.8 million. During the first quarter of 2026, Lavie received court approval for the distribution of $4.25 million dividend to its shareholders. In April 2026, Biomica received court approval for the distribution of $2.7 million dividend to its shareholders. Bonded distribution processes are expected to be completed in the second quarter of the year. In February 2026, Evogene entered into a warrant inducement agreement with an existing investor for the immediate exercise of all August 2024 Series A and Series B warrants resulted in a gross proceeds of approximately $3.4 million before fees and expenses.

As consideration for the exercise, investor received in a private placement, new unregistrated Series A1 and Series B-1 warrants to purchase up to an aggregate 6924 ordinary shares. The new warrants are immediately exercisable at an exercise price of $1.25 per share, the CRS A1 and Series B1 warrants were classified as a liability in the consolidated statements of financial position initially recorded at for value and subsequently were measured at each reporting date is in bestows option pricing model. As of March 31, 2026, the warrants liability totaled approximately $1.7 million. We will now focus on the income statement. Revenues for the first quarter of 2026 totaled approximately $0.3 million compared to approximately $2.3 million in the same period of 2025, representing a decrease of approximately $2 million.

The decrease is mainly attributable to lower revenue recognized by, which in the first quarter of 2025 included significant seat sales of approximately $2 million. Cost of revenues for the first quarter of 2026 was approximately $0.1 million compared to approximately $1.5 million in the corresponding period of 2025. I — the decrease in cost of revenues is consistent with the decline in revenues during the quarter. Research and development expenses, net of nonrefundable brands for the first quarter were approximately $1.8 million compared to approximately $2.5 million in the corresponding period of 2025, representing a decrease of approximately $0.7 million. The decrease is mainly attributable to lower R&D expenses in Biomica, and net plans.

Sales and marketing expenses for the first quarter of 2026 and 2025 were approximately $0.4 million with no material change between the periods. General and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2026, remains stable at approximately $1.2 million compared to the corresponding period of 2025. Although there was a material decrease in the company’s G&A expenses, it was substantially offset by the impact of exchange rate for creations between the U.S. dollar and the need as well as transaction costs related to the warrant inducement transaction. Other income net of approximately $30,000 was recorded in the first quarter of 2026 mainly attributable to the sale of fixed assets compared to other income of approximately $191,000 recorded in the first quarter of 2020 filed which was mainly related to the accounting treatment associated with evident sublime.

Operating loss for the first quarter of 2026 was approximately $3.2 million compared to approximately $3 million in the corresponding period of 2025. The increase in operating loss is mainly due to decreased revenues, partially offset by lower operating expenses as described the move. Financing expenses net for the first quarter of 2026 were approximately $2.7 million compared to financing income net of approximately $1.1 million in the corresponding period of 2025. The change was primarily attributable to the accounting treatment of pre-funded warrants and warrants issued in August 2024 fund raising and warrants issued in February 2026 and transaction. As part of the February 2026 warned in Houston transaction, the company recorded financial expenses of approximately $3.8 million during the first quarter of 2026, partially offset by financial income of approximately $0.9 million related to the revaluation of on.

Income from discontinued operations net for the first quarter was approximately $40,000 compared to a loss from discontinued operations net of approximately $1.1 million in the corresponding period of 2025. This amount primarily reflect the financial results of the buyers operations as well as expenses related to the development and maintenance of AI for Ag which are presented in a single line item in the consolidated statement of profit and loss. Following the sale of majority of the bus assets as well as average and for up in July 2025, live by no longer maintains ease and its operating expense level has decreased significantly. Net loss for the first quarter of 2026 was approximately $5.9 million compared to approximately $3 million in the same period last year.

The increase of approximately $22.9 million was mainly due to decrease in revenues and increase in net financing expenses. partially offset by a decrease in operating expenses and a reduced loss from discontinued operations net I’ll now conclude my remarks, and we will open the call for questions.

Q&A Session

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question, when can you sign a strategic deal via tech partner, pharma partner, a partner that would include an investment into the shares.

Ofer Haviv: This is Ofer. And I say that this question came from Patrick, which I’m really happy to hear from him. It’s been 1 we were in contact Well, I think that trying to project when touched in a transaction could took place activity bank on the progress and results we achieved in the different earnings that you mentioned, AG, Pharma or the technology itself. I think that since Imogen is highly active in the ag sector. And we already have site and over there some very significant results. It was presented today by Don I intend to believe that this is one of the first pages where we can see a strategic transaction that might not necessarily, but might also include equity investment. But definitely, it should be something that is meaningful for the plan and also, of course, definitely for Epogen.

So this is 1 of the areas that I believe could represent a catalyst in the way that we described in the next in the future. The next area actually is technology. I believe that over there, since we are working with some big names, company strategy Google, and I can also maybe disclose that we are talking with some other companies in the same sites like Google where we are looking for earlier to elaborate with them and expand our technology advantage. I think that this type of companies or the miller to demand to Google could be another earlier that maybe after the could lead to a significant transaction. In the pharma, once again, I was asked to emphasize the point that we initiated our activity there only at the beginning of 2025. And the fact that today, we have actually 4 ongoing collaboration this area and we are now talking with some other partners or additional collaboration, it’s very, very impressive, and I’m really excited about it.

Still in order to convince the big pharma or the big biotech companies to adopt our technology in a way that it will lead to a significant transaction and equity investment — it will take a while. I’m not talking about many years, but I’m not talking about — of course, it’s not going to be in the next few quarters. The good news is that we have already started discussion with big pharma. Of course, I cannot disclose the name in this day — there is an interest in what we are doing. And I believe that when we start to see results coming from our ongoing collaboration in this market segment, it will be much easier for us to start to build a relationship with the big pharma company, which action hopefully, can lead to the type of strategic collaboration that will also involve involve equity investment.

So I think that we are in the right direction. And actually, each segment is feed the proved of the test of the other segment. So a success in the ag, we see the potential success in the technology segment. And of course, both of them is going to feed the progression of success to — for such an engagement with bipharma in the farm in the bitcoin in the pharma industry. I hope that addressed your question.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Haviv, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Ofer Haviv: Yes. Thank you, and I really appreciate the time of all the people that participate in this analyst call. And we are all looking forward to continue to update you on the progress, and I really hope is will continue with the same speed of new collaboration and agreement like we did at the beginning of this year. Thank you very much.

Operator: This concludes Evogene’s First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.