Aptamer Group (AIM:APTA) reported revenue of £1.5 million for the year ended 30 June, up 28% from £1.2 million the previous year, as the AIM-listed developer of synthetic Optimer binders moved from proving its technology to commercialising it.
The company recorded its first-ever licensing revenues during the period, following agreements signed with Twist Bioscience and Alphazyme that carry upfront payments, royalties and supply revenue.
Gross profit rose to £0.82 million from £0.58 million, while the adjusted EBITDA loss widened slightly to £2.34 million from £2.19 million a year earlier, as administrative expenses increased to £3.2 million from £2.9 million.
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Aptamer ended the period with £4.4 million in cash, up from £1.1 million a year earlier, after raising £2 million gross in July 2025 and a further £4.5 million gross in April 2026.
The board said this cash position provides runway into calendar 2028, in line with its July trading update, before any further licensing receipts.
The company's sales pipeline grew to £4.8 million by the end of the financial year from £3.1 million at its January half-year update, and has since expanded further to £7.0 million by 21 September, driven largely by large contracts under negotiation with pharmaceutical partners.
Aptamer said it is working to convert repeat business from several top-20 pharmaceutical companies, each of whom has now spent more than £500,000 with the group, into multi-year, multi-target master service agreements, which it described as central to its path toward EBITDA break-even.
One top-five pharmaceutical partner awarded more than £750,000 of new contracts during the period, taking its lifetime contract value with Aptamer above £1 million.
The company also secured its first commercial entry into the radioligand therapy market through a £360,000 development contract with a top-three global pharmaceutical company, engineering Optimer binders as targeted radiopharmaceuticals for cancer imaging.
Its diagnostics programme with Metir, developing binders to detect Cryptosporidium in water supplies, hit its technical feasibility milestone on time and on budget in February, with binders now in final validation ahead of shipment for partner testing.
"This has been a year of inflection for Aptamer," said chief executive Dr Arron Tolley, noting the group had moved from "proving our technology to proving our business model with two royalty-bearing licences now signed, repeat orders from multiple top 20 pharmaceutical companies, and our first entry into the radioligand therapy market."
Cavendish Capital Markets has been appointed as joint corporate broker alongside Turner Pope Investments.
Dr Tolley and chief financial officer Andrew Rapson will present the results via a live investor webinar on Investor Meet Company at 14:00 BST today.