Digital Workforce Q1’26 preview: Growth spurt with an acquisition, focus on organic momentum

Translation: Original published in Finnish on 04/16/2026 at 07:52 am EEST

Digital workforce publishes its first quarter 2026 business review on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. We expect the company’s revenue to have grown strongly, supported by an acquisition. We also expect profitability to have turned positive due to the scalability of Continuous Services and implemented efficiency measures. In the report, we are particularly interested in the strength of organic growth and comments on the outlook. The company held a CMD in March, where it thoroughly explained its strategy, and our comments on this can be read here.

We expect revenue to have grown strongly, driven by an acquisition, and the organic growth estimate is conservative

We estimate Digital Workforce's revenue to increase by 20.4% to 6.4 MEUR in Q1. Growth is particularly driven by the e18 acquisition in the UK, which strengthened the company's position, particularly in the healthcare sector. The comparison period (Q1'25: 5.3 MEUR) was also operationally weak for the company, which provides a low bar for comparison. Organically, we estimate revenue to have decreased by 2%, which can be characterized as conservative (Q4'25 organic growth 5%). Organically, growth in Q4 was driven by Professional Services, several projects of which ended at the turn of the year and will transition to Continuous Services in early Q1 (with a smaller revenue impact). We estimate that growth will be weighted towards strategically important Continuous Services, whose share the company aims to increase to improve scalability. In Finland, we estimate that demand for Professional Services continues to be supported by healthcare migration projects.

The figures are affected by the accounting change announced in March 2026, where a portion of license sales will now be reported on a net basis. This change decreases reported revenue compared to previous figures but improves transparency into the true volume of the continuous services business. Our estimates and 2024-2025 figures reflect this new reporting method.

We expect profitability to have improved due to scalability

We expect Digital Workforce's EBITDA to have improved significantly year-on-year to 0.3 MEUR (Q1'25: Adj. -0.3 MEUR). We estimate the adjusted EBIT to have been 0.2 MEUR, corresponding to an EBIT margin of 3.4%. We have adjusted the earnings for our estimated 0.4 MEUR goodwill amortizations related to acquisitions. We estimate that the profitability turnaround will be supported by previously implemented cost-saving measures and the growth of higher-margin continuous revenue. In our view, the utilization of the proprietary Outsmart platform and the management of employee billing rates are key factors in improving the earnings level.

We note that due to the company's small size, the timing of individual projects can still cause volatility in quarterly profitability. The new net licensing revenue model computationally increases margin percentages, although it has no impact on the absolute net profit.

Our attention is drawn to organic growth and outlook

Digital Workforce has guided that 2026 revenue will grow by at least 15%, which we understand to be "comparable" revenue. Additionally, the company expects adjusted EBITDA to be 7–13% of revenue. Our full-year estimates are at the lower end of the guidance ranges (revenue growth 16.6% and adj. EBITDA margin 9.4%). The Q1 performance provides an important indication of the achievability of targets and the potential caution of our estimates. The company's strategic goal is to achieve a revenue level of 40 MEUR by the end of 2026. However, in our view, this would require significant inorganic actions in addition to an acceleration of organic growth.

In the report, we will monitor comments on the commercial progress of AI Agents, as the company has invested significantly in them and they are central to its strategy. In addition, we are monitoring the outlook for the UK market and new contract wins in the healthcare sector, as these could provide positive surprises relative to our cautious estimates. Our confidence in the company's strategic positioning in an AI-driven market has strengthened, but the current year must show that the narrative is increasingly reflected in the numbers.