Quartix Technologies Reports Solid H1 Progress with 11% ARR Growth and Confidence in Full-Year Targets

Quartix H1 2026 trading update shows recurring revenue growth and a steady grip on profit

Quartix has put out a pre-close style update ahead of its full interim results on 27 July 2026, and the headline is pretty straightforward: the business kept growing in the first half, profitability improved, and management says full-year expectations are still on track.

For a company built around subscription-based vehicle tracking, the most important number is usually recurring revenue rather than one-off hardware sales. On that front, Quartix looks in decent shape, with annualised recurring revenue, or ARR, up 11% to £38.9 million on a trailing twelve-month basis.

That matters because recurring revenue tends to be stickier, more predictable, and usually more valuable in the eyes of investors. If you own a software-style business, ARR is the heartbeat.

Estimated Quartix H1 2026 financial results point to higher revenue, EBITDA and cash

The company has stressed that these numbers are estimates and may still change slightly once June management accounts are finalised. Even so, the direction of travel is clearly positive.

Metric | H1 2026 estimate | H1 2025
Revenue | £19.4 million | £17.3 million
EBITDA | £6.9 million | £6.2 million
Adjusted EBIT | £4.6 million | £4.0 million
Free cash flow | £2.6 million | £2.5 million
Closing cash balance | £4.7 million | £4.1 million

EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – a common measure of underlying operating performance. Adjusted EBIT is operating profit before interest and tax, adjusted for certain items. The short version is that both profit measures moved up, which is what you want to see alongside revenue growth.

Free cash flow also edged higher to £2.6 million, which is encouraging because cash is harder to flatter than profit. Better still, the group ended the period with £4.7 million of cash.

Why the cash number is better than it first looks

There is an important wrinkle in the cash flow. Quartix says the estimated free cash flow already includes a £1.1 million corporation tax payment linked to its change in accounting policy on property, plant and equipment under IAS 16 at the end of 2025.

It also expects to make an additional payment of around £400,000 in July after refiling the 2024 tax return. So the business has still produced £2.6 million of free cash flow despite a chunky tax outflow, which makes the underlying cash generation look fairly resilient.

The downside is obvious enough: cash will take another hit in July. But the bigger picture is that Quartix still expects to meet full-year free cash flow expectations.

Quartix ARR growth of 11% remains the key investment takeaway

Quartix says ARR is its key forward-looking growth measure, and rightly so. ARR only includes committed software subscription revenues, not other service revenues that may recur, so it is a cleaner view of the core engine.

On a trailing twelve-month basis to 30 June 2026, ARR rose by £3.8 million to £38.9 million. Of that, £2.1 million was added during the first half alone.

That is a solid result. Double-digit ARR growth is not explosive, but it is the kind of progress that can compound nicely if customer churn stays under control and installation volumes recover in the second half.

Net revenue retention slipped slightly, and investors should not ignore that

Net revenue retention, or NRR, fell slightly to 96.9% from 97.3%. NRR measures how much revenue the company keeps from existing customers over time, after allowing for losses, downgrades and expansions.

Anything below 100% means the existing base shrank a touch before new customer wins are added in. That is not a disaster here, but it is one of the softer points in the update, especially as management says the reduction was mainly due to the UK after that market delivered 100% NRR in the prior comparable period.

In plain English, Quartix is still growing, but it is having to work a bit harder through new sales rather than getting quite as much expansion from the existing customer base. Management says improving NRR is a target across all territories, which is the right focus.

Customer acquisition slowed in H1 2026, but Quartix says the H2 order book is strong

The most obvious negative in the release is that new customer acquisition and new subscription installations were weaker than the same period last year. New customers fell 8% to 3,632, while new subscriptions installed dropped 11% to 36,226.

That is not ideal. Slower intake today can feed into slower ARR growth later if it persists.

However, Quartix says it has a good order backlog for installation in the second half. So management is effectively arguing that demand has not disappeared – some of it is simply sitting in the queue waiting to be installed.

If that backlog converts cleanly in H2, the weaker first-half intake may turn out to be more of a timing issue than a structural problem. If not, investors will likely look back at this H1 slowdown as an early warning.

Geographic performance shows France, Italy and Spain doing the heavy lifting

The country split is useful because it shows where growth is coming from and where it is stalling.

Country | ARR (£m) | TTM ARR growth | Subscription base growth | Customer base growth
UK/EI | 20.4 | 7% | 2% | 1%
France | 10.6 | 14% | 11% | 6%
USA | 3.4 | 1% | (3%) | (3%)
Italy | 2.2 | 39% | 38% | 33%
Spain | 1.4 | 31% | 27% | 15%
Germany | 0.9 | 20% | 14% | 14%

France looks strong and dependable. Italy and Spain stand out as the fastest-growing markets, albeit from smaller bases, while Germany is moving along nicely too.

The weaker spot is the USA, where ARR growth was just 1% and both the subscription base and customer base fell by 3%. The UK and Ireland remain the largest contributor by some distance, but growth there was modest at 7% ARR growth, with customer base growth of just 1%.

That mix tells a familiar story: international expansion is helping, but the more mature markets are not firing as hard. That is not unusual, but it does mean execution in the growth territories matters more.

Quartix dividend increase and full-year guidance confidence matter for investor sentiment

Management says it is confident of achieving market expectations for 2026. Those expectations, before this announcement, were revenue of £40.3 million, adjusted EBIT of £10.1 million, EBITDA of £15.0 million, and free cash flow of £4.9 million.

That is important because the company is not just saying H1 was fine – it is also saying the full year remains on track. In a market that tends to punish even small downgrades, holding the line on expectations is a positive signal.

Quartix also expects to declare an interim dividend of 2.7p per ordinary share, up from 2.5p in 2025. Dividend increases are never everything, but they do suggest the board is comfortable with cash generation and near-term trading.

What this Quartix RNS means for retail investors

My view is that this is a good update, not a spectacular one. The positives are clear: revenue is higher, profit is higher, cash is higher, ARR is still growing at 11%, and the company is confident on the full year.

The less cheerful bits are worth watching too. New customer wins and subscription installs were weaker, NRR dipped below 97%, and the USA remains sluggish. None of that breaks the investment case, but it does stop this from being a clean, all-green trading statement.

If you already follow Quartix, the main takeaway is that the recurring revenue model still looks healthy and the second-half backlog is now the key thing to watch. If that backlog turns into installations and the company maintains profit discipline, the shares have a decent fundamental story behind them.

For now, this reads like a steady, credible update from a business that knows its numbers and is still growing, even if a few gears are not turning quite as smoothly as last year.