Agora, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results

 

SANTA CLARA, Calif., August 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ: API) (the “Company”), a pioneer and leader in conversational AI and real-time engagement technology, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025.

 

“We are proud to deliver our third consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability in Q2, with expanding margins driven by solid revenue growth and continued efficiency improvement,” said Tony Zhao, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Agora, Inc. “Since launching our Conversational AI Engine in March, we’ve partnered with customers to develop voice agents for a variety of applications. We’re now seeing several of these solutions enter real-world production—including in call centers and AI-powered companion toys. Building on this momentum, we will continue to integrate domain-specific expertise and enhance the performance of our solution. We are increasingly confident that our technology will help transform industries ranging from customer service and education to smart devices.”

 

Second Quarter 2025 Highlights

 

Total revenues for the quarter were $34.3 million, an increase of 0.1% from $34.2 million in the second quarter of 2024, which included revenue from certain end-of-sale products of $3.3 million.
Agora: $18.2 million for the quarter, an increase of 16.7% from $15.6 million in the second quarter of 2024.
Shengwang: RMB115.5 million ($16.1 million) for the quarter, a decrease of 12.4% from RMB131.9 million ($18.6 million) in the second quarter of 2024. Certain end-of-sale products generated revenue of nil for the quarter and RMB23.7 million ($3.3 million) in the second quarter of 2024.
Active Customers
Agora: 1,880 as of June 30, 2025, an increase of 12.4% from 1,672 as of June 30, 2024.
Shengwang: 1,997 as of June 30, 2025, an increase of 1.4% from 1,970 as of June 30, 2024.
Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate
Agora: 97% for the trailing 12-month period ended June 30, 2025.
Shengwang: 87% for the trailing 12-month period ended June 30, 2025.
Net income for the quarter was $1.5 million, compared to net loss of $9.2 million in the second quarter of 2024.
Total cash, cash equivalents, bank deposits and financial products issued by banks as of June 30, 2025 was $377.3 million.
Net cash used in operating activities for the quarter was $0.4 million, compared to $7.6 million in the second quarter of 2024.

 

Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results

 

Revenues


Total revenues were $34.3 million in the second quarter of 2025, an increase of 0.1% from $34.2 million in the same period last year. Revenues of Agora were $18.2 million in the second quarter of 2025, an increase of 16.7% from $15.6 million in the same period last year, primarily due to our business expansion and usage growth in sectors such as live shopping. Revenues of Shengwang were RMB115.5 million ($16.1 million) in the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of 12.4% from RMB131.9 million ($18.6 million) in the same period last year, primarily due to a decrease in revenues from certain end-of-sale products, which generated revenue of nil for the quarter and RMB23.7 million ($3.3 million) in the second quarter of 2024.

 

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues was $11.4 million in the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of 12.3% from $13.0 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the end-of-sale of certain products.

 

Gross Profit and Gross Margin

Gross profit was $22.9 million in the second quarter of 2025, an increase of 7.7% from $21.2 million in the same period last year. Gross margin was 66.8% in the second quarter of 2025, an increase of 4.8% from 62.0% in the same period last year, mainly due to the end-of-sale of certain low-margin products.

 

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses were $26.5 million in the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of 18.7% from $32.6 million in the same period last year.

Research and development expenses were $14.0 million in the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of 23.0% from $18.1 million in the same period last year, primarily due to a decrease in personnel costs as the Company optimized its global workforce, including a decrease in share-based compensation from $2.1 million in the second quarter of 2024 to $1.0 million in the second quarter of 2025.
Sales and marketing expenses were $6.5 million in the second quarter of 2025, an increase of 4.0 % from $6.3 million in the same period last year, primarily due to an increase in promotion expenses.
General and administrative expenses were $6.0 million in the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of 26.6% from $8.2 million in the same period last year, primarily due to a decrease in personnel costs as the Company optimized its global workforce.

 

Loss from Operations

Loss from operations was $3.1 million in the second quarter of 2025, compared to $11.1 million in the same period last year.

 

Interest Income

Interest income was $3.7 million in the second quarter of 2025, compared to $4.6 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the decrease in average interest rate.

 

Investment Income (Loss)


Investment income was $0.8 million in the second quarter of 2025, compared to investment loss of $2.8 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the fair value change in equity investments, as well as an increase in investment income from structured deposits.

 

Net Income (Loss)

Net income was $1.5 million in the second quarter of 2025, compared to net loss of $9.2 million in the same period last year.

 

Net Income (Loss) per American Depositary Share attributable to Ordinary Shareholders

Basic and diluted net income per American Depositary Share (“ADS”)1 attributable to ordinary shareholders were $0.02 and $0.01, respectively, in the second quarter of 2025, compared to basic and diluted net loss per ADS of $0.10 in the same period last year.

 

Share Repurchase Program

 

During the three months ended June 30, 2025, the Company repurchased approximately 13.1 million of its Class A ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 3.3 million ADSs) for approximately US$10.9 million under its share repurchase program, representing 5.4% of its US$200 million share repurchase program.

 

As of June 30, 2025, the Company had repurchased approximately 144.9 million of its Class A ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 36.2 million ADSs) for approximately US$127.2 million under its share repurchase program, representing 63.6% of its US$200 million share repurchase program.

 

As of June 30, 2025, the Company had 362.9 million ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 90.7 million ADSs) outstanding, compared to 449.8 million ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 112.5 million ADSs) outstanding as of January 31, 2022 before the share repurchase program commenced.

 

The current share repurchase program will expire at the end of February 2026.

 

Executive Leadership Update and Change to Board of Directors

 

The Company today announced a change in its executive leadership. Mr. Sheng (Shawn) Zhong has tendered his voluntary resignation from his roles of the Company’s Director, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Scientist for personal reasons. Mr. Zhong will transition his operational responsibilities to Tony Zhao, founder, chairman and CEO of the Company.

 

Mr. Tony Wang, currently Chief Revenue Officer of the Company’s Agora division, and Mr. Jingbo Wang, currently Chief Financial Officer of the Company, have been appointed as directors of the Company, effective as of today.

 


1 One ADS represents four Class A ordinary shares.


Mr. Tony Wang joined the Company in April 2015 as a founding member of the Agora division. Over the years, he has held several key leadership roles, including Head of Operations and Head of Emerging Technology and Market, and was appointed Chief Revenue Officer of the Agora division in May 2022. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Wang co-founded multiple technology and digital marketing startups between 2006 and 2015. Earlier in his career, he served as a senior application developer at InfoSearch Media, a search engine marketing firm, from 2002 to 2005. Mr. Wang obtained a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Southern California in 2002, a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Purdue University in 2001.

 

“On behalf of the board, we sincerely thank Shawn for his dedicated service over the past seven years and for his contribution in building our technology leadership,” Mr. Tony Zhao, founder, chairman and CEO of the Company, commented, “We are pleased to welcome Tony and Jingbo to the Board. As an Agora veteran, Tony has been instrumental in shaping our go-to-market strategy and has demonstrated deep passion and conviction in real-time engagement and conversational AI technologies. Since joining the Company in January 2020, Jingbo has strengthened our financial foundation and played a key role in our business and organizational planning. Their strategic vision and operational expertise will be invaluable to the board as we continue to drive innovation and deliver long-term value for our shareholders.”

 

Adoption of Amended and Restated Global Equity Incentive Plan

 

The Company today announced that it has adopted the Amended and Restated Global Equity Incentive Plan (the “A&R Global Plan”), which amends the Company’s Global Equity Incentive Plan (originally effective upon the Company’s IPO) to increase the number of Class A ordinary shares available for the granting of awards to 50,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, effective as of August 18, 2025. These additional shares will be added to and made available for issuance pursuant to awards granted under the A&R Global Plan, in addition to the shares otherwise available under the Global Equity Incentive Plan in accordance with its terms.

 

Except as expressly set forth in the A&R Global Plan, all other terms and conditions of the plan remain in full force and effect. Capitalized terms used but not defined in this press release have the meanings given to them in the plan.

 

Financial Outlook

 

Based on currently available information, the Company expects total revenues for the third quarter of 2025 to be between $34 million and $36 million, representing year-over-year growth of 7.6% to 13.9%. This outlook reflects the Company's current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.

 

Earnings Call

 


The Company will host a conference call to discuss the financial results at 6 p.m. Pacific Time / 9 p.m. Eastern Time on August 18, 2025. Details for the conference call are as follows:

Event title: Agora, Inc. 2Q 2025 Financial Results

The call will be available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/mqie27ct

Investors who want to hear the call should log on at least 15 minutes prior to the broadcast. Participants may register for the call with the link below.

https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BI34805eeee29742fa9d1c15fc2c582f52

Please visit the Company’s investor relations website at https://investor.agora.io on August 18, 2025 to view the earnings release and accompanying slides prior to the conference call.

 

Operating Metrics

 

The Company also uses other operating metrics included in this press release and defined below to assess the performance of its business.

 

Active Customers

 

An active customer at the end of any period is defined as an organization or individual developer from which the Company generated more than $100 of revenue during the preceding 12 months, excluding customers from Easemob. Customers are counted based on unique customer account identifiers. Generally, one software application uses the same customer account identifier throughout its life cycle while one account may be used for multiple applications.

 

Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate

 

Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate is calculated for a trailing 12-month period by first identifying all customers in the prior 12-month period, and then calculating the quotient from dividing the revenue generated from such customers in the trailing 12-month period by the revenue generated from the same group of customers in the prior 12-month period. As the vast majority of revenue generated from Agora’s customers is denominated in U.S. dollars, while the vast majority of revenue generated from Shengwang’s customers is denominated in Renminbi, Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate is calculated in U.S. dollars for Agora and in Renminbi for Shengwang, which has substantially removed the impact of foreign currency translations. Shengwang excluded the revenues from certain end-of-sale products. The Company believes Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate facilitates operating performance comparisons on a period-to-period basis.

 

Safe Harbor Statements

 

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical or current fact included in this press release


are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding the Company’s financial outlook, beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements include statements containing words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “project,” “will” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. Among other things, the Financial Outlook in this announcement contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. The Company’s actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, risks related to the growth of the RTE-PaaS market; the Company’s ability to manage its growth and expand its operations; the Company’s ability to attract new developers and convert them into customers; the Company’s ability to retain existing customers and expand their usage of its platform and products; the Company’s ability to drive popularity of existing use cases and enable new use cases, including through quality enhancements and introduction of new products, features and functionalities; the Company’s fluctuating operating results; competition; the effect of broader technological and market trends on the Company’s business and prospects; general economic conditions and their impact on customer and end-user demand; and other risks and uncertainties included elsewhere in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including, without limitation, the final prospectus related to the IPO filed with the SEC on June 26, 2020. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.


About Agora, Inc.

 

Agora, Inc. is the holding company of two independent businesses, Agora and Shengwang.

 

Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Agora is a pioneer and global leader in conversational AI and Real-Time Engagement Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), providing developers with simple, flexible, and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed real-time conversational AI, video, voice, chat and interactive streaming into their applications.

 

Headquartered in Shanghai, China, Shengwang is a pioneer and leading conversational AI and Real-Time Engagement PaaS provider in the China market.

 

For more information on Agora, please visit: www.agora.io

For more information on Shengwang, please visit: www.shengwang.cn

 

 

Investor Contact:

investor@agora.io

 

Media Contact:

press@agora.io


 

Agora, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(Unaudited, in US$ thousands)

 

As of

 

As of

 

June 30,

 

December 31,

 

2025

 

2024

Assets

 

 

 

Current assets:

 

 

 

Cash and cash equivalents

40,327

 

27,083

Short-term bank deposits

35,429

 

168,327

Short-term financial products issued by banks

61,043

 

71,464

Short-term investments

3,032

 

2,787

Restricted cash

200

 

3,745

Accounts receivable, net

26,488

 

30,952

Prepayments and other current assets

9,899

 

22,593

Contract assets

121

 

1,099

Held-for-sale assets

831

 

-

Total current assets

177,370

 

328,050

Property and equipment, net

4,231

 

4,680

Construction in progress in relation to the headquarters project

59,255

 

44,486

Operating lease right-of-use assets

2,945

 

3,866

Intangible assets

352

 

611

Long-term bank deposits

188,501

 

35,500

Long-term financial products issued by banks

52,000

 

61,400

Long-term investments

31,542

 

40,710

Land use right, net

160,364

 

161,395

Other non-current assets

21,053

 

18,956

Total assets

697,613

 

699,654

Liabilities and shareholders’ equity

 

 

 

Current liabilities:

 

 

 

Accounts payable

11,988

 

12,965

Advances from customers

8,117

 

8,738

Taxes payable

1,224

 

2,210

Current operating lease liabilities

1,669

 

1,749

Payables for construction costs

13,824

 

12,834

Accrued expenses and other current liabilities

13,208

 

19,839

Total current liabilities

50,030

 

58,335

Long-term payable

3

 

1

Long-term operating lease liabilities

1,055

 

1,922

Deferred tax liabilities

52

 

92

Long-term borrowings in relation to the headquarters project

60,838

 

46,469

Advance in relation to the headquarters project

20,258

 

20,174

Total liabilities

132,236

 

126,993

Shareholders’ equity:

 

 

 

 

Class A ordinary shares

39

 

39

Class B ordinary shares

8

 

8

Additional paid-in-capital

1,144,702

 

1,144,238

Treasury shares, at cost

(82,031)

 

(72,739)

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(12,582)

 

(12,257)

 


 

Accumulated deficit

(484,759)

 

(486,628)

Total shareholders’ equity

565,377

 

572,661

Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity

697,613

 

699,654

 

 


 

Agora, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss

(Unaudited, in US$ thousands, except share and per ADS amounts)

 

Three Month Ended

 

Six Month Ended

 

June 30,

 

June 30,

 

2025

2024

 

2025

2024

Real-time engagement service revenues

33,716

33,138

 

66,389

65,360

Real-time engagement on-premise solution and other revenues

543

1,071

 

1,139

1,870

Total revenues

34,259

34,209

 

67,528

67,230

Cost of revenues

11,389

12,983

 

22,024

25,780

Gross profit

22,870

21,226

 

45,504

41,450

Operating expenses:

 

 

 

 

 

Research and development

13,976

18,141

 

27,994

36,280

Sales and marketing

6,521

6,270

 

12,756

13,084

General and administrative

6,039

8,228

 

12,277

16,608

Total operating expenses

26,536

32,639

 

53,027

65,972

Other operating income

548

304

 

702

780

Loss from operations

(3,118)

(11,109)

 

(6,821)

(23,742)

Exchange gain

85

110

 

156

65

Interest income

3,706

4,586

 

7,341

9,320

Interest expense

(1)

(105)

 

(6)

(165)

Investment income (loss)

797

(2,837)

 

1,485

(4,872)

Income (loss) before income taxes

1,469

(9,355)

 

2,155

(19,394)

Income taxes

(43)

(9)

 

(84)

(149)

Income (loss) from equity in affiliates

36

122

 

(202)

838

Net income (loss)

1,462

(9,242)

 

1,869

(18,705)

Net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders

1,462

(9,242)

 

1,869

(18,705)

Other comprehensive income (loss):

 

 

 

 

 

Foreign currency translation adjustments

343

(738)

 

(326)

(1,078)

Total comprehensive income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders

1,805

(9,980)

 

1,543

(19,783)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net income (loss) per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders, basic and diluted

 

 

 

 

 

Basic

0.02

(0.10)

 

0.02

(0.20)

  Diluted

0.01

(0.10)

 

0.02

(0.20)

Weighted-average shares used in computing net income (loss) per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders, basic and diluted

 

 

 

 

 

Basic

370,332,857

373,103,149

 

373,734,048

372,644,910

  Diluted

392,602,913

373,103,149

 

400,458,176

372,644,910

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share-based compensation expenses included in:

 

 

 

 

 

  Cost of revenues

29

52

 

75

153

  Research and development expenses

978

2,065

 

2,337

5,110

  Sales and marketing expenses

210

294

 

424

597

  General and administrative expenses

314

748

 

642

1,733

 

 


 

 

Agora, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(Unaudited, in US$ thousands)

 

Three Month Ended

 

Six Month Ended

 

June 30,

 

June 30,

 

2025

2024

 

2025

2024

Cash flows from operating activities:

 

 

 

 

 

Net income (loss)

1,462

(9,242)

 

1,869

(18,705)

Adjustments to reconcile net income (loss) to net cash used in operating activities:

 

 

 

 

 

Share-based compensation expenses

1,531

3,159

 

3,478

7,593

Allowance for current expected credit losses

1,332

2,557

 

3,016

4,848

Depreciation of property and equipment

525

930

 

1,117

1,938

Amortization of intangible assets

130

129

 

259

402

Amortization of land use right

848

858

 

1,697

1,716

Deferred tax expense

(20)

(20)

 

(41)

(62)

Amortization of right-of-use asset and interest on lease liabilities

540

688

 

1,078

1,348

Investment (income) loss

(797)

2,837

 

(1,485)

4,872

(Income) loss from equity in affiliates

(36)

(122)

 

202

(838)

Loss on disposal of property and equipment

2

17

 

3

15

Changes in assets and liabilities, net of effect of acquisition:

 

 

 

 

 

Accounts receivable

(572)

(3,284)

 

1,527

(7,791)

Contract assets

912

-

 

978

(29)

Prepayments and other current assets

474

(2,118)

 

15,291

(12,476)

Other non-current assets

(2,209)

(106)

 

(3,424)

7,140

Accounts payable

710

2,125

 

(810)

4,573

Advances from customers

(959)

(144)

 

(645)

357

Taxes payable

27

213

 

(991)

654

Operating lease liabilities

(587)

(759)

 

(1,159)

(1,642)

Deferred income

-

63

 

111

(194)

Accrued expenses and other liabilities

(3,665)

(5,336)

 

(4,847)

(7,761)

Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities

(352)

(7,555)

 

17,224

(14,042)

Cash flows from investing activities:

 

 

 

 

 

Purchase of property and equipment

(317)

(377)

 

(872)

(964)

Purchase of short-term bank deposits

(10,429)

(12,000)

 

(35,507)

(43,100)

Purchase of short-term financial products issued by banks

(5,070)

(20,091)

 

(15,348)

(20,091)

Proceeds from maturity of short-term bank deposits

20,077

51,098

 

178,404

74,241

Proceeds from maturity of short-term financial products issued by banks

13,429

-

 

36,442

10,029

Purchase of long-term bank deposits

(9,000)

(10,000)

 

(163,001)

(10,000)

Purchase of long-term financial products issued by banks

-

(3,400)

 

-

(9,400)

Purchase of construction in progress for the headquarters project

(3,472)

(4,199)

 

(13,753)

(10,977)

Disposal of property and equipment

4

49

 

30

56

Cash received from disposal of long-term investments

-

127

 

-

127

 


 

Refundable deposit received in relation to disposal of subsidiaries

-

-

 

4,410

-

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities

5,222

1,207

 

(9,195)

(10,079)

Cash flows from financing activities:

 

 

 

 

 

Proceeds from long-term borrowings

3,507

4,310

 

14,134

11,054

Proceeds from exercise of employees’ share options

181

167

 

477

375

Deposit received in relation to headquarters project

-

-

 

-

19,280

Repurchase of Class A ordinary shares

(10,862)

(2,346)

 

(12,103)

(5,754)

Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities

(7,174)

2,131

 

2,508

24,955

Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

(10)

(98)

 

(838)

(141)

Net (decrease) increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash

(2,314)

(4,315)

 

9,699

693

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period *

42,841

42,182

 

30,828

37,174

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period **

40,527

37,867

 

40,527

37,867

Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:

 

 

 

 

 

Income taxes paid

33

1

 

73

109

Cash payments included in the measurement of operating lease liabilities

587

759

 

1,159

1,642

Right-of-use assets obtained in exchange for operating lease obligations

86

177

 

86

513

Non-cash financing and investing activities:

 

 

 

 

 

Proceeds receivable from exercise of employees’ share options

46

33

 

46

33

Proceeds receivable for dividend

110

-

 

110

-

Proceeds receivable for disposal

2,909

-

 

2,909

-

Payables for property and equipment

191

32

 

191

32

Payables for construction in progress in relation to the headquarters project

11,497

991

 

12,138

2,785

Payables for treasury shares, at cost

37

74

 

37

74

 

* includes restricted cash balance

230

280

 

3,745

280

** includes restricted cash balance

200

280

 

200

280