Alkami Technology just reported Q1 2026 — and packaged it with a $100 million share buyback. Revenue rose 28.9% to $126.1 million. Annual recurring revenue hit $493.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled year-over-year to $22.3 million.
And the company still posted a $10.0 million GAAP loss.
That's the tension at the center of the Alkami digital banking story heading into 2026: the fastest-growing platform in the space is finally generating real cash flow and just authorized $100 million to buy back its own stock — while still not turning a GAAP profit. Understanding all three sides of that ledger matters if your credit union is on the platform, evaluating it, or competing against institutions that use it.
The Growth Case Got Stronger
Q1 2026 was Alkami's first full quarter as a fully integrated company post-MANTL. Revenue grew 28.9% year-over-year — a deceleration from Q4 2025's 35% but still well into the high end of SaaS growth rates. Subscription revenue continues to dominate the mix, and digital banking ARR churn has held below 1% annually for the third year running. Management expects four client churns in 2026, still under 1% of ARR.
The MANTL acquisition is paying off in ways that show up in the customer base, not just the income statement. Adoption of Alkami's combined Digital Sales & Service Platform (DSSP) — bundling MANTL's account opening with the legacy digital banking suite — has gone from 11 clients to 48 since early 2025. Over half of new logos since Q2 2025 take the DSSP bundle, and those clients show roughly 30% higher ARR uplift than legacy online-banking-only deals. MANTL itself has contributed 61 new logos since early 2025.
Remaining performance obligation — contracted future revenue not yet recognized — sits at $1.7 billion, equivalent to 3.5x live ARR. That's substantial forward visibility.
Credit unions on the platform continue to outperform peers. Per Alkami's own data citing FI Navigator, credit unions on Alkami at least five years show stronger core share growth, loan growth, and revenue per FTE than non-clients. Selection bias or platform effect is debatable — but the correlation persists, and Alkami still holds the #1 market share position among credit union digital banking providers.
Alkami Digital Banking: The Profitability Question, Updated
Q1 2026's $10.0 million net loss was the narrowest in recent quarters and down from larger losses earlier in the cycle. Adjusted EBITDA roughly doubled from $12.1 million to $22.3 million year-over-year. GAAP gross margin held at 58.6%, with non-GAAP gross margin at 64.4% — both inching toward the 70% gross margin target management has laid out for 2030 under its Rule of 45 plan.
But the gap between adjusted EBITDA and GAAP loss remains stock-based compensation. SBC ran approximately 14-15% of revenue in 2025 — meaningful dilution — and the dynamic is unlikely to change materially without a step-up in margin or a slowdown in equity grants. Cash and securities ended Q1 at $77.6 million ($40.4 million cash plus $37.2 million in marketable securities), down from $99.1 million at year-end. Convertible notes due 2030 still total $345 million.
For full-year 2026, Alkami guides to revenue of $527.1-$530.9 million and adjusted EBITDA of $94.9-$97.9 million. Hit those, and the company exits 2026 with sustained positive free cash flow. Miss them, and the cash buffer matters more.
What the $100M Buyback Actually Says
The buyback authorization landed alongside Q1 results, and management framed it as a vote of confidence in cash flow rather than a sign that organic growth opportunities are tapped out. CFO Cassandra Hudson called it "an important milestone that reflects our confidence in both our long-term growth and our robust cash flow generation capabilities."
That framing matters. A $100 million authorization against a roughly $1.7 billion market cap is meaningful — north of 5% of shares outstanding at current prices. It partially addresses the dilution concern stock-based compensation creates: if Alkami buys back roughly as much as it issues to employees, net dilution drops toward zero. If buyback pace lags issuance, it's a slower-bleeding form of return rather than a fix.
Either way, the optics shift. A vendor that can authorize a $100 million buyback while still posting a GAAP loss is signaling balance-sheet flexibility that wasn't on the table six months ago.
What This Means for CUs on the Platform
For credit unions already running on Alkami, operational risk is low and trending lower. Sub-1% churn, $1.7 billion in contracted obligations, $77.6 million in cash plus securities, and a fresh buyback authorization all point in the same direction: the platform isn't going anywhere soon. Product momentum is real — the company's Co:lab 2026 conference in San Diego in April drew over 600 customers and 83 prospects, with DSSP demonstrations completing customer workflows in under two minutes versus a five-minute industry benchmark. Six of seven DSSP design-partner clients have code in production.
The strategic question is concentration — and the texture of that question is shifting. Banks now represent 13% of Alkami's live online banking clients, up from 2% four years ago, and management has said its sales force is split 50/50 between banks and credit unions with balanced pipelines. That's good for Alkami's growth runway, but it means credit unions are no longer the only constituency the company optimizes for. Roadmap, pricing, and account team focus increasingly serve a mixed-charter customer base.
That's fine when the vendor is growing 29% and signing logos every quarter. It becomes a different conversation if growth slows, the convertible notes come due, or macro headwinds compress CU technology spending faster than bank tech budgets.
The Vendor Landscape Is Splitting
Alkami's trajectory is happening against the backdrop of legacy core providers under accelerating competitive pressure. Fiserv shares cratered 44% in a single day in October 2025 after slashing guidance, and the stock is now down roughly 70% from its peak. The Big Three cores — Fiserv, Jack Henry, and FIS — still serve over 70% of banks and nearly half of credit unions, according to Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City research. But cloud-native digital banking providers like Alkami and Q2 are capturing the growth. New client wins aren't going to legacy vendors.
Management noted on the Q1 2026 call that bank willingness to exit core provider contracts is rising under competitive pressure from larger institutions. That's a tailwind for Alkami — and a leading indicator that the bank share of its book will keep climbing.
Credit unions choosing Alkami in 2026 are betting on a platform that's now generating cash, returning capital to shareholders, and winning market share — but is still not GAAP-profitable, still carries $345 million in convertible notes, and is now serving a meaningfully larger bank customer base than it did three years ago. Credit unions staying on legacy cores are betting on stable, profitable vendors whose products are visibly falling behind.
Neither bet is risk-free. But the Alkami digital banking bet in 2026 comes with a sharper specific number: $100 million authorized to buy back stock while the company still posts a GAAP loss. That's not a contradiction — it's a deliberate capital choice. Know what you're buying into.