DRCT Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. - 10-K

ITEM 1A.            Risk Factors

Summary of Material Risk Factors

The following is a summary of some of the risks and uncertainties that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and could make an investment in our Company speculative or risky. You should be aware that these risk factors and other information may not describe every risk facing our Company. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us may also materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and/or results of operations. You should read this summary together with the more detailed description of each risk factor below. Some of these material risks include:

• Our credit facilities subject us to operating restrictions and financial covenants that impose risk of default and may restrict our business and financing activities.

• The substantial doubt raised about our ability to continue as a going concern, which may hinder our ability to obtain future financing.

• We may not be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs, which may in turn impair our growth.

• If we fail to satisfy applicable listing standards, our Class A Common Stock may be delisted from the Nasdaq Capital Market.

• Our strategic shift to focusing on driving digital marketing spend among buy-side and new enterprise customers may not achieve the benefits anticipated by management.

• High customer concentration exposes us to various risks faced by our major customers and may subject us to significant fluctuations or declines in revenues.

• We are subject to payment-related risks and, if our clients do not pay or dispute their invoices, our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.

• If we fail to detect advertising fraud, we could harm our reputation and hurt our ability to execute our business plan.

• Operational and performance issues with our platform, whether real or perceived, including a failure to respond to technological changes or to upgrade our technology systems, may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

• If the use of third-party “cookies,” mobile device IDs or other tracking technologies is restricted without similar or better alternatives, our platform’s effectiveness could be diminished and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

• Unfavorable publicity and negative public perception about our industry, particularly concerns regarding data privacy and security relating to our industry’s technology and practices, and perceived failure to comply with laws and industry self-regulation, could adversely affect our business and operating results.

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• Failure to manage our growth effectively could cause our business to suffer and have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

• Future acquisitions or strategic investments could be difficult to identify and integrate, divert the attention of management, and could disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

• Changes in legislative, judicial, regulatory or cultural environments relating to information collection, use and processing may limit our ability to collect, use and process data. Such developments could cause revenue to decline, increase the cost of data, reduce the availability of data and adversely affect the demand for our products and services.

• Our buy-side clients include DMOs, which often operate as public/private partnerships involving a national, provincial, state and local governmental entity.

• The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources and divert our management’s attention.

• The digital advertising industry is intensely competitive, and if we do not effectively compete against current and future competitors, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.

• A significant inadvertent disclosure or breach of confidential and/or personal information we hold, or of the security of our or our customers’, suppliers’ or other partners’ computer systems, could be detrimental to our business, reputation and results of operations.

• We are a holding company and our principal asset is our equity interest in DDH LLC, and, accordingly, we depend on distributions from DDH LLC to pay our taxes, expenses and dividends.

• If we fail to maintain or implement effective internal controls, we may not be able to report financial results accurately or on a timely basis, or to detect fraud, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and the per share price of our Class A Common Stock.

Risks Related to our Business

Our credit facilities subject us to operating restrictions and financial covenants that impose risk of default and may restrict our business and financing activities.

Our credit facilities, as defined in Note 3 — Long-Term Debt to our consolidated financial statements, contain affirmative and negative covenants including a minimum unrestricted cash requirement of $450,000 at all times. These covenants may limit the amount of our borrowing available under the credit facilities, affect our ability to operate our business and may limit our ability to have sufficient funding or otherwise to take advantage of potential business opportunities as they arise.

Our ability to comply with the covenants and restrictions contained in the credit facilities may be affected by events beyond our control, including prevailing economic, financial, and industry conditions. If the market or other economic conditions deteriorate, our ability to comply with these covenants may be impaired. A failure to comply with these provisions could result in a default or an event of default. Upon an event of default, unless waived, the lender could elect to terminate commitments, cease making further loans, cause its loan to become due and payable in full and force us into bankruptcy or liquidation. If the payment of our debt is accelerated, our assets may be insufficient to repay such debt in full, and the holders of our stock could experience a partial or total loss of their investment.

Our ability to (1) renew our existing term credit facility, which matures on December 3, 2026, or (2) enter into any new credit facility may be limited due to various factors, including the status of our business, global credit market conditions and perceptions of our business or industry by sources of financing. In addition, if credit is available, lenders may seek more restrictive covenants and higher interest rates that may reduce our borrowing capacity, increase our costs and reduce our operating flexibility.

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There is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, which may hinder our ability to obtain future financing.

Our audited consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2025 have been prepared under the assumption that we will continue as a going concern for the next twelve months. As of December 31, 2025, we had cash and cash equivalents of $0.7 million and an accumulated deficit of $27.7 million. We do not believe that our cash and cash equivalents are sufficient for the next twelve months. As a result of our financial condition and other factors described herein, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. These factors include the May 2024 pause by a sell-side customer of its connection to the Colossus SSP resulting from allegations contained in a defamatory article / blog post, which we believe was part of coordinated misinformation campaign. Our ability to continue as a going concern will depend on our ability to successfully manage costs after executing a reorganization plan on July 1, 2024, work with partners to achieve prior volume levels of sell-side revenue and obtain additional funding, as to which no assurances can be given. We continue to analyze various alternatives, including potentially obtaining additional or expanded lines of credit, debt or equity financings, or other arrangements. Our future success depends on our ability to raise capital and/or implement the various strategic alternatives discussed above. We cannot be certain that these initiatives or raising additional capital, whether through selling additional debt or equity securities or obtaining a line of credit or other loan, will be available to us or, if available, will be on terms acceptable to us. If we issue additional securities, these securities may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to those of our Class A Common Stock, and our current shareholders may experience dilution. If we are unable to obtain funds when needed or on acceptable terms, we may be required to modify our business plans and operations, further cut operating costs, forego future development and other opportunities, or even terminate our operations.

We may not be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs, which may in turn impair our growth.

We intend to continue to grow our business, which may require additional capital to develop new features or enhance our platform, improve our operating infrastructure, finance requirements or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in additional equity or debt financings to secure additional capital. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A Common Stock. Any debt financing that we secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities. If we are unable to secure additional funding on favorable terms, or at all, when we require it, our ability to continue to grow our business to react to market conditions could be impaired and our business may be harmed.

Our strategic shift to focusing on driving digital marketing spend among buy-side and new enterprise customers may not achieve the benefits anticipated by management, which could cause a material adverse effect on our business and prospects.

During 2025, the Company worked to reconstitute its prior business, target new customers and develop new products for the sell-side segment but was unable to achieve historical volumes. Beginning in 2026, the Company has shifted its focus to driving intentional digital marketing spend with current and future customers historically classified by the Company as buy-side customers as well as new enterprise customers accessing the digital advertising market through its recently launched product – Ignition+. If we are unable to realize the benefits of this strategic shift, or the change in strategy results in unexpected costs or delays, our business and prospects could be materially adversely affected.

High customer concentration exposes us to various risks faced by our major customers and may subject us to significant fluctuations or declines in revenues.

There is an inherent concentration of credit risk associated with accounts receivable arising from revenue from major customers on both the sell-side and buy-side of the business. For the year ended December 31, 2025, two buy-side customers represented 27% of revenues. For the year ended December 31, 2024, one sell-side customer represented 46% of revenues. As of December 31, 2025, three buy-side customers accounted for 43% of accounts receivable. As of December 31, 2024, three customers (two buy-side and one sell-side) accounted for 34% of accounts receivable.

Additionally, although we continually seek to diversify our customer base, we cannot assure you that the proportion of the revenue contribution from this customer to our total revenues will decrease in the near future. Dependence on a limited number of major customers will expose us to the risks of substantial losses and may increase our accounts receivable and extend its turn-over days if any of them reduces or even ceases business with us. Specifically, any one of the following

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events, among others, may cause material fluctuations or declines in our revenues and have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects:

• an overall decline in the business of one or more of our significant customers;

• the decision by one or more of our significant customers to switch to our competitors;

• the reduction in the prices for our services agreed by one or more of our significant customers; or

• the failure or inability of any of our significant customers to make timely payment for our services.

We are subject to payment-related risks and, if our clients do not pay or dispute their invoices, our business, financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.

Many of our contracts with advertising agencies provide that if the advertiser does not pay the agency, the agency is not liable to us, and we must seek payment solely from the advertiser. Similarly, on the sell-side of our business, we contract directly with our publishers for the right to sell digital ad units, and as such we are contractually required to pay the publisher a fixed rate for digital ad units we sell to advertisers or advertising agencies, regardless of whether we are paid by the advertisers or agencies. Contracting with these parties, which in some cases have or may develop higher-risk credit profiles, may subject us to greater credit risk than if we were to contract directly with other parties such as advertisers or agencies. This credit risk may vary depending on various factors, including the nature of an advertising agency’s aggregated advertiser base. We may also be involved in disputes with agencies and their advertisers over the operation of our platform, the terms of our agreements or our billings for purchases made by them through our platform. If we are unable to collect or make adjustments to bills to clients, we could incur write-offs for bad debt, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations for the periods in which the write-offs occur. In the future, bad debt may exceed reserves for such contingencies and our bad debt exposure may increase over time. Any increase in write-offs for bad debt could have a materially negative effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Even if we are not paid by our clients on time or at all, we are still obligated to pay for the advertising we have purchased for the advertising campaign, and as a consequence, our results of operations and financial condition would be adversely impacted.

Furthermore, we are generally contractually required to pay suppliers of advertising inventory and data within a negotiated period of time, regardless of whether our customers pay us on time, or at all. While we attempt to negotiate long payment periods with our suppliers and shorter periods from our customers, we are not always successful. As a result, our accounts payable are often due on shorter cycles than our accounts receivables, requiring us to remit payments from our own funds, and accept the risk of bad debt.

If we fail to detect advertising fraud, we could harm our reputation and hurt our ability to execute our business plan.

We may be subject to fraudulent or malicious activities undertaken by persons seeking to use our sell-side platform for improper purposes, which could materially affect us. For example, our sell-side platform could be used to divert or artificially inflate advertiser purchases, or to disrupt or divert the operation of our systems and the devices of our publishers and their consumers in order to misappropriate information, generate fraudulent billings, stage cyberattacks, or for other illicit purposes. In addition, the success of our buy-side advertising business depends on our ability to deliver effective digital advertising campaigns to publishers, advertisers and agencies. Some of those campaigns may experience fraudulent and other invalid impressions, clicks or conversions that advertisers may perceive as undesirable, such as non-human traffic generated by computers designed to simulate human users and artificially inflate user traffic on websites. These activities could overstate the performance of our business, including any given digital advertising campaign, and could harm our reputation. It may be difficult for us to detect fraudulent or malicious activity because we do not own content and rely in part on our digital media properties to control such activity. Industry self-regulatory bodies, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) and certain influential members of Congress have increased their scrutiny and awareness of, and have taken recent actions to address, advertising fraud and other malicious activity. If we fail to detect or prevent fraudulent or other malicious activity, the affected advertisers may experience or perceive a reduced return on their investment and our reputation may be harmed. High levels of fraudulent or malicious activity could lead to dissatisfaction with our solutions, refusals to pay, refund or future credit demands or withdrawal of future business, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or results of operations.

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Operational and performance issues with our platform, whether real or perceived, including a failure to respond to technological changes or to upgrade our technology systems, may adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

We depend upon the sustained and uninterrupted performance of our platform to manage our advertising inventory supply; acquire advertising inventory for each campaign; collect, process and interpret data; and optimize campaign performance in real time and provide billing information to our financial systems. If our platform cannot scale to meet demand, if there are errors in our execution of any of these functions on our platform, or if we experience outages, then our business may be harmed.

Our platform is complex and multifaceted. Operational and performance issues could arise from the platform itself or from outside factors, such as cyberattacks or other third-party attacks. Errors, failures, vulnerabilities or bugs have been found in the past, and may be found in the future. Our platform also relies on third-party technology and systems to perform properly. It is often used in connection with computing environments utilizing different operating systems, system management software, equipment and networking configurations, which may cause errors in, or failures of, our platform or such other computing environments. Operational and performance issues with our platform could include the failure of our user interface, outages, errors during upgrades or patches, discrepancies in costs billed versus costs paid, unanticipated volume overwhelming our databases, server failure or catastrophic events affecting one or more server facilities. While we have built redundancies in our systems, full redundancies do not exist. Some failures will shut our platform down completely, others only partially. We provide service-level agreements to some of our customers, and if our platform is not available for specified amounts of time or if there are failures in the interaction between our platform, partner platform and third-party technologies, we may be required to provide credits or other financial compensation to our customers.

As we grow our business, we expect to continue to invest in technology services and equipment. Without these improvements, our operations might suffer from unanticipated system disruptions, slow transaction processing, unreliable service levels, impaired quality or delays in reporting accurate information regarding transactions in our platform, any of which could negatively affect our reputation and ability to attract and retain customers. In addition, the expansion and improvement of our systems and infrastructure may require us to commit substantial financial, operational and technical resources, with no assurance our business will grow. If we fail to respond to technological change or to adequately maintain, expand, upgrade and develop our systems and infrastructure in a timely fashion, our growth prospects and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Operational and performance issues with our platform could also result in negative publicity, damage to our brand and reputation, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our platform, increased costs or loss of revenue, loss of the ability to access our platform, loss of competitive position or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. Alleviating problems resulting from such issues could require significant expenditures of capital and other resources and could cause interruptions, delays or the cessation of our business, any of which may adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

If the use of third-party “cookies,” mobile device IDs or other tracking technologies is restricted without similar or better alternatives, our platform’s effectiveness could be diminished and our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We use “cookies,” which are small text files placed on consumer devices when an internet browser is used, and mobile device identifiers, to gather data that enables our platform to be more effective. Our cookies and mobile device IDs do not identify consumers directly, but record information such as when a consumer views or clicks on an advertisement, when a consumer uses a mobile app, the consumer’s location, consumer demographic, psychographic interest and browser or other device information. Publishers and partners may also choose to share their information about consumers’ interests or give us permission to use their cookies and mobile device IDs. We use data from cookies, mobile device IDs, and other tracking technologies to help advertisers decide whether to bid on, and how to price, an ad impression in a certain location, at a given time or for a particular consumer. Without cookies, mobile device IDs and other tracking technology data, transactions processed through our platform would be executed with less insight into consumer activity, reducing the precision of advertisers’ decisions about which impressions to purchase for an advertising campaign. This could make placement of advertising through our platform less valuable and harm our revenue. If our ability to use cookies, mobile device IDs or other tracking technologies is limited, we may be required to develop or obtain additional applications and technologies to compensate for the lack of cookies, mobile device IDs and other tracking technology data, which could be time consuming or costly to develop, less effective and subject to additional regulation.

Some consumers also download free or paid “ad blocking” software on their computers or mobile devices, not only for privacy reasons, but also to counteract the adverse effect advertisements can have on the consumer experience, including

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increased load times, data consumption and screen overcrowding. Ad- blocking technologies and other global privacy controls may prevent some third-party cookies, or other tracking technologies, from being stored on a consumer’s computer or mobile device. If more consumers adopt these measures, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected. Ad-blocking technologies could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition if they reduce the volume or effectiveness and value of advertising. In addition, some ad-blocking technologies block only ads that are targeted through use of third-party data, while allowing ads based on first-party data (i.e., data owned by the publisher). These ad- blockers could place us at a disadvantage because we rely on third-party data, while some large competitors have a significant amount of first-party data they use to direct advertising. Other technologies allow ads that are deemed “acceptable,” which could be defined in ways that place us or our publishers at a disadvantage, particularly if such technologies are controlled or influenced by our competitors. Even if ad- blockers do not ultimately have an adverse effect on our business, investor concerns about ad- blockers could cause our stock price to decline.

In March 2021, Alphabet Inc.’s Google subsidiary (“Alphabet”) announced that it would phase out cookies and not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor would Google use them in its products. However, in July 2022, Alphabet announced that it would delay its Chrome web browser timeline for the deprecation of cookies to 2024. In July 2024, Google announced that it no longer plans to deprecate third-party cookies and will offer new ways to elevate user choice. These changes, and other privacy controls that may be put in place by other web companies in the future, have the potential to have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition if they reduce the volume or effectiveness and value of advertising.

Unfavorable publicity and negative public perception about us or our industry, particularly concerns regarding data privacy and security relating to our industry’s technology and practices, and perceived failure to comply with laws and industry self-regulation, could adversely affect our business and operating results.

Recently our organization has been the subject of intentionally false, misleading and inaccurate statements attempting to discredit the performance and operations of the Company. We have filed a lawsuit alleging, among other things, defamation against the publisher of these statements. While we are vigorously pursuing this action, there can be no assurance that it will be resolved in our favor or that the reputation of the Company will not be materially impacted, causing clients and customers to stop conducting business with our organization, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

In addition, with the growth of digital advertising, there is increasing awareness and concern among the general public, privacy advocates, mainstream media, governmental bodies and others regarding marketing, advertising and data privacy matters, particularly as they relate to individual privacy interests and the global reach of the online marketplace. Concerns about industry practices with regard to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, whether or not valid and whether driven by applicable laws and regulations, industry standards, customer or inventory provider expectations, defamatory statements, or the broader public, may harm our reputation, result in loss of goodwill and inhibit the use of our platform by current and future customers. Any unfavorable publicity or negative public perception about us, our industry, including our competitors, or even other data-focused industries, can affect our business and results of operations, and may lead to digital publishers or our customers changing their business practices or additional regulatory scrutiny or lawmaking that affects us or our industry. For example, in recent years, consumer advocates, mainstream media and elected officials have increasingly and publicly criticized the data and marketing industry for its collection, storage and use of personal data. Additional public scrutiny may lead to general distrust of our industry, consumer reluctance to share and permit use of personal data, increased consumer opt-out rates or increased private class actions, any of which could negatively influence, change or reduce our current and prospective customers’ demand for our products and services, subject us to liability and adversely affect our business and operating results.

Failure to manage our growth effectively could cause our business to suffer and have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

We have experienced significant growth in a short period of time. To manage our growth effectively, we must continually evaluate and evolve our organization. We must also manage our employees, operations, finances, technology and development and capital investments efficiently. Our efficiency, productivity and the quality of our platform and customer service may be adversely impacted if we do not train our new personnel, particularly our sales and support personnel, quickly and effectively, or if we fail to appropriately coordinate across our organization. Additionally, our rapid growth may place a strain on our resources, infrastructure and ability to maintain the quality of our platform. You should not consider our revenue growth and levels of profitability in recent periods as indicative of future performance. In future periods, our revenue or profitability could decline or grow more slowly than we expect. Failure to manage our growth effectively could cause our business to suffer and have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

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Future acquisitions or strategic investments could be difficult to identify and integrate, divert the attention of management, and could disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

As part of our growth strategy, we may acquire or invest in other businesses, assets or technologies that are complementary to and fit within our strategic goals. Any acquisition or investment may divert the attention of management and require us to use significant amounts of cash, issue dilutive equity securities or incur debt. There can be no assurance that we will successfully identify suitable candidates in the future for strategic transactions at acceptable prices or be able to consummate any desired transactions. Our failure to identify suitable candidates or close transactions with potential acquisition targets for which we have invested significant time and resources could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and cash flows. In addition, even if consummated, the anticipated benefits of any acquisition or investment may not be realized, and we may be exposed to unknown risks, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition, including risks arising from:

• difficulties in integrating the operations, technologies, product or service offerings, administrative systems and personnel of acquired businesses, especially if those businesses operate outside of our core competency or geographies in which we currently operate;

• ineffectiveness or incompatibility of acquired technologies or solutions;

• potential loss of key employees of the acquired business;

• inability to maintain key business relationships and reputation of the acquired business;

• diversion of management attention from other business concerns;

• litigation arising from the acquisition or the activities of the acquired business, including claims from terminated employees, customers, former stockholders or other third parties;

• assumption of contractual obligations that contain terms that are not beneficial to us, require us to license or waive intellectual property rights, or increase our risk of liability;

• complications in the integration of acquired businesses or diminished prospects;

• failure to generate the expected financial results related to an acquisition on a timely manner or at all; and

• failure to accurately forecast the impact of an acquisition transaction; and implementation or remediation of effective controls, procedures, and policies for acquired businesses.

To fund future acquisitions, we may pay cash or issue additional shares of our Class A Common Stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of our Class A Common Stock, which could dilute our stockholders or diminish our cash reserves. Borrowing to fund an acquisition would result in increased fixed obligations and could also subject us to covenants or other restrictions that could limit our ability to effectively run our business.

Changes in legislative, judicial, regulatory or cultural environments relating to information collection, use and processing may limit our ability to collect, use and process data. Such developments could cause revenue to decline, increase the cost of data, reduce the availability of data and adversely affect the demand for our products and services.

We receive, store and process personal information and other data from and about consumers in addition to personal information and other data from and about our customers, employees and services providers. Our handling of this data is subject to a wide variety of federal, state and foreign laws and regulations and is subject to regulation by various government authorities and consumer actions. Our data handling is also subject to contractual obligations and may be deemed to be subject to industry standards.

The U.S. federal and various state and foreign governments have adopted or proposed laws relating to the collection, disclosure, processing, use, storage and security of data relating to individuals and households, including the use of contact information and other data for marketing, advertising and other communications with individuals and businesses. In the U.S., various laws and regulations apply to the collection, disclosure, processing, use, storage and security of certain types of data. Additionally, the FTC, many state attorneys general and many courts are interpreting federal and state consumer protection laws as imposing standards for the collection, disclosure, process, use, storage and security of data. The

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regulatory framework for data privacy issues worldwide is complex, continually evolving and often conflicting, and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. As a result, further restrictions could be placed upon the collection, disclosure, processing, use, storage and security of information, which could result in a material increase in the cost of obtaining certain kinds of data and could limit the ways in which we may collect, disclose, process, use, store or secure information.

While our platform and people-based framework operates primarily in the United States, some of our operations may subject us to data privacy laws outside the United States, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) or similar legislation in the region, which prescribe a complex data protection regime including principles, rights and obligations with extraterritorial reach of EU, UK and data protection authorities of other jurisdictions. The costs of complying with (or paying any fines or penalties under) the GDPR and other foreign data privacy regulatory regimes may make our expansion into these markets less profitable or uneconomical, limiting our potential growth, and potentially adversely affecting our business, prospectus and results of operations.

In addition to government regulation, self-regulatory standards and other industry standards may legally or contractually apply to us or be argued to apply to us, or we may elect to comply with such standards or to facilitate our customers’ compliance with such standards. Some of these self-regulatory bodies have the ability to discipline members or participants, which could result in fines, penalties, and/or public censure of our publishers, which could in turn cause reputational harm to us.

Our legal risk depends in part on our customers’ or other third parties’ adherence to privacy laws and regulations and their use of our services in ways consistent with end user expectations. We rely on representations made to us by customers and data suppliers that they will comply with all applicable laws, including all relevant privacy and data protection regulations. Although we make reasonable efforts to enforce such representations and contractual requirements, we do not fully audit our customers’ or data suppliers’ compliance with our recommended disclosures or their adherence to privacy laws and regulations. If our customers or data suppliers fail to adhere to our expectations or contracts in this regard, we and our customers or data suppliers could be subject to adverse publicity, damages, and related possible investigation or other regulatory activity.

Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations, standards and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our customers may limit the use and adoption of, and reduce the overall demand for, our platform. Privacy concerns, whether valid or not valid, may inhibit market adoption of our platform particularly in certain industries and foreign countries.

Our buy-side clients include DMOs, which often operate as public/private partnerships involving a national, provincial, state and local governmental entity.

Our work for DMOs carries various risks inherent in the government contracting process. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Government entities typically fund projects through appropriated monies and demand is affected by public sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations;

• Government contracts are subject to heightened reputational and contractual risks compared to contracts with commercial clients, including additional scrutiny and publicity;

• Government contracts can be challenged by other interested parties and such challenges, even if unsuccessful, can increase costs, cause delays and defer project implementation and revenue recognition; and

• U.S. government contracting regulations impose strict contractual, compliance and disclosure obligations. Disclosure is required if certain company personnel have knowledge of “credible evidence” of a violation of federal criminal laws involving fraud, conflict of interest, bribery or improper gratuity, a violation of the civil U.S. False Claims Act or receipt of a significant overpayment from the government. Failure to make required disclosures could be a basis for suspension and/or debarment from federal government contracting in addition to breach of the specific contract and could also impact contracting beyond the U.S. federal level. Reported matters also could lead to audits or investigations and other civil, criminal or administrative sanctions.

The occurrences or conditions described above could affect not only our business with the DMOs and related government entities involved, but also our business with other entities of the same or other governmental bodies or with

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certain commercial clients and could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert our management’s attention.

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, and are required to comply with the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of The Nasdaq Capital Market, and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased our legal and financial compliance costs, made some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and increased demand on our systems and resources. Among other things, the Exchange Act requires that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and operating results and maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls over financial reporting. Significant resources and management oversight is required to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls over financial reporting to meet this standard. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business and operating results. Although we have already hired additional employees to comply with these requirements, we may need to hire even more employees in the future, which will increase our costs and expenses.

The digital advertising industry is intensely competitive, and if we do not effectively compete against current and future competitors, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be harmed.

We operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing industry that is subject to changing technology and customer demands and that includes many companies providing competing solutions. With the introduction of new technologies and the influx of new entrants into the market, we expect competition to persist and intensify in the future, which could harm our ability to increase revenue and maintain profitability. New technologies and methods of buying advertising present a dynamic competitive challenge, as market participants offer multiple new products and services aimed at capturing advertising spend.

On the sell-side, we compete with smaller, privately-held companies and with public companies such as Pubmatic, Magnite, and Acuity Ads. Our current and potential competitors may have significantly more financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we have, allowing them to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale and support of their products and services. They may also have more extensive customer bases and broader supplier relationships than we have. As a result, these competitors may be better able to respond quickly to new technologies, develop deeper marketer relationships or offer services at lower prices. Increased competition may result in reduced pricing for our platform, increased sales and marketing expense, longer sales cycles or a decrease of our market share, any of which could negatively affect our revenue and future operating results and our ability to grow our business. These companies may also have greater brand recognition than we have, actively seek to serve our market, and have the power to significantly change the nature of the marketplace to their advantage. Some of our larger competitors have substantially broader product offerings and may leverage their relationships based on other products or incorporate functionality into existing products to gain business in a manner that may discourage customers from using our platform, including through selling at zero or negative margins or product bundling with other services they provide at reduced prices. Customers may prefer to purchase advertising on their own or through another platform without leveraging our buy-side business. Potential customers may also prefer to leverage larger sell-side platforms rather than a new platform regardless of product performance or features. These larger competitors often have broader product lines and market focus and may therefore not be as susceptible to downturns in a particular market. We may also experience negative market perception as a result of being a smaller company than our larger competitors.

We may also face competition from companies that we do not yet know about or do not yet exist. If existing or new companies develop, market or resell competitive high-value marketing products or services, acquire one of our existing competitors or form a strategic alliance with one of our competitors, our ability to compete effectively could be significantly compromised and our results of operations could be harmed.

A significant inadvertent disclosure or breach of confidential and/or personal information we hold, or of the security of our or our customers’, suppliers’ or other partners’ computer systems, could be detrimental to our business, reputation and results of operations.

Portions of our business require the storage, transmission and utilization of data, including access to personal information, much of which must be maintained on a confidential basis. These activities may in the future make us a target of cyber-attacks by third parties seeking unauthorized access to the data we maintain and to which we provide access, including our customer data, or to disrupt our ability to provide service through the Colossus SSP. In addition, we may be

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subject to any flaws in or breaches of our customers systems. Based on the types and volume of personal data on our systems, we believe that we are a particularly attractive target for such breaches and attacks.

Third parties could attempt to gain entry to our systems for the purpose of stealing data or disrupting the systems. In addition, our security measures may also be breached due to employee error, malfeasance, system errors or vulnerabilities, including vulnerabilities of our vendors, suppliers, their products or otherwise. Third parties may also attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as usernames, passwords or other information to gain access to our customers’ data or our data, including intellectual property and other confidential business information.

We currently serve the majority of Colossus SSP functions from third-party data center hosting facilities. While we and our third-party cloud providers have implemented security measures designed to protect against security breaches, these measures could fail or may be insufficient, particularly as techniques used to sabotage or obtain unauthorized access to systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target, resulting in the unauthorized disclosure, modification, misuse, destruction or loss of our or our customers’ data or other sensitive information. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches and improper access to or disclosure of the data we maintain, including personal information, could result in operational disruptions, litigation, indemnity obligations, regulatory enforcement actions, investigations, fines, penalties, mitigation and remediation costs, disputes, reputational harm, diversion of management’s attention, and other liabilities and damage to our business.

Federal, state and foreign governments continue to consider and implement laws and regulations addressing data privacy, cybersecurity, and data protection laws, which include provisions relating to breaches. For example, statutory damages may be available to users through a private right of action for certain data breaches under the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”), and potentially other states’ laws. In any event, a significant security breach could materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

The effects of macroeconomic conditions and geopolitical events, such as economic downturns and market conditions beyond our control, have had, and could in the future have, an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business depends on the overall demand for advertising and on the economic health of advertisers and publishers that benefit from our platform. Economic downturns or unstable market conditions, such as those potentially created by high price inflation, increasing interest rates, health pandemics or geopolitical instability may cause advertisers to decrease their advertising budgets, which could reduce spend though our platform and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. As we explore new countries into which we can expand our business, economic downturns or unstable market conditions in any of those countries could result in our investments not yielding the returns we anticipate. Additionally, actual events involving limited liquidity, defaults, non-performance or other adverse developments that affect financial institutions, transactional counterparties or other companies in the financial services industry or the financial services industry generally, or concerns or rumors about any events of these kinds or other similar risks, have recently and may in the future lead to market-wide liquidity problems, which could also lead advertisers to decrease their advertising budgets and/or reduce their spend though our platform. This uncertainty regarding liquidity concerns in the financial services industry could adversely impact our business, our business partners, or industry as a whole in ways that we cannot predict at this time.

Our success and revenue growth are dependent on adding new customers, effectively educating and training our existing customers on how to make full use of our platform and increasing usage of our platform by our customers.

Our success is dependent on regularly adding new customers and increasing our customers’ usage of our platform. Our contracts and relationships with customers generally do not include long-term or exclusive obligations requiring them to use our platform or maintain or increase their use of our platform. Our customers typically have relationships with numerous providers and can use both our platform and those of our competitors without incurring significant costs or disruption. Our customers may also choose to decrease their overall advertising spend for any reason. Accordingly, we must continually work to win new customers and retain existing customers, increase their usage of our platform and capture a larger share of their advertising spend. We may not be successful at educating and training customers, particularly our newer customers, on how to use our platform, in particular our advanced reporting tools, in order for our customers to get the most benefit from our platform and increase their usage. If these efforts are unsuccessful or customers decide not to continue to maintain or increase their usage of our platform for any other reason, or if we fail to attract new customers, our revenue could fail to grow or decline, which would materially and adversely harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We cannot assure you that our customers will continue to use and increase their spend on our platform or that we will be able to attract a sufficient number of new customers to continue to grow our business and revenue. If

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customers representing a significant portion of our business decide to materially reduce their use of our platform or cease using our platform altogether, our revenue could be significantly reduced, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. We may not be able to replace customers who decrease or cease their usage of our platform with new customers that will use our platform to the same extent.

The market growth forecasts included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may prove to be inaccurate and, even if the market in which we compete achieves forecasted growth, we cannot assure you our business will grow at similar rates, if at all.

Market growth forecasts are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. The forecasts in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relating to expected growth in the digital advertising and programmatic ad markets may prove to be inaccurate. Even if these markets experience the forecasted growth, we may not grow our business at similar rates, or at all. Our growth is subject to many factors including our success in implementing our business strategy, which is subject to many risks and uncertainties. The failure of either the market in which we operate or our business to grow as forecasted could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects or results of operations.

The market for programmatic advertising campaigns is relatively new and evolving. If this market develops slower or differently than we expect, our business, growth prospects and results of operations would be adversely affected.

A portion of our revenue has been derived from customers that programmatically purchase or sell advertising inventory through our platform. We expect that spending on programmatic ad buying and selling will continue to be a source of revenue for the foreseeable future, and that the velocity of our revenue growth will depend on increasing spend through our platform. The market for programmatic ad buying is an emerging market, and our current and potential customers may not shift quickly enough to programmatic ad buying from other buying methods, reducing our growth potential. Because our industry is relatively new, we will encounter risks and difficulties frequently encountered by early-stage companies in similarly rapidly evolving industries, including the need to:

• Maintain our reputation and build trust with advertisers and digital media property owners;

• Offer competitive pricing to publishers, advertisers and digital media agencies;

• Maintain quality and expand quantity of our advertising inventory;

• Continue to develop, launch and upgrade the technologies that enable us to provide our solutions;

• Respond to evolving government regulations relating to the internet, telecommunications, mobile, privacy, marketing and advertising aspects of our business;

• Identify, attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and

• Cost-effectively manage our operations.

If the market for programmatic ad buying deteriorates or develops more slowly than we expect, it could reduce demand for our platform, and our business, growth prospects and financial condition would be adversely affected.

In addition, revenue may not necessarily grow at the same rate as spend on our platform. Growth in spend may outpace growth in our revenue as the market for programmatic advertising matures due to a number of factors including quantity discounts and product, media, customer and channel mix shifts. A significant change in revenue as a percentage of spend could result in an adverse change in our business and growth prospectus. In addition, any such fluctuations, even if they reflect our strategic decisions, could cause our performance to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, and adversely affect the price of our Class A Common Stock.

We often have long sales cycles, which can result in significant time between initial contact with a prospect and execution of a customer agreement, making it difficult to project when, if at all, we will obtain new customers and when we will generate revenue from those customers.

Our sales cycle, from initial contact to contract execution and implementation, can take significant time. Our sell-side sales cycle often has a duration of six-to-twelve months, while our buy-side business sales cycle often has a duration of three-to-nine months. As part of our sales cycle, we may incur significant expenses before we generate any revenue from a

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prospective customer. We have no assurance that the substantial time and money spent on our sales efforts will generate significant revenue. If conditions in the marketplace, generally or with a specific prospective customer, change negatively, it is possible that we will be unable to recover any of these expenses. Our sales efforts involve educating our customers about the use, technical capabilities and benefits of our platform, and working through technical connections and troubleshooting technical issues with prospective customers. Some of our customers undertake an evaluation process that frequently involves not only our platform but also the offerings of our competitors. As a result, it is difficult to predict when we will obtain new customers and begin generating revenue from these new customers. Even if our sales efforts result in obtaining a new customer, the customer controls when and to what extent it uses our platform and therefore the amount of revenue we generate, and it may not sufficiently justify the expenses incurred to acquire the customer and the related training support. As a result, we may not be able to add customers, or generate revenue, as quickly as we may expect, which could harm our growth prospects.

Failure to maintain the brand security features of our solution could harm our reputation and expose us to liabilities.

Advertising is bought and sold through our solution in automated transactions that occur in milliseconds. It is important to sellers that the advertising placed on their media be of high quality, consistent with applicable seller standards, not conflict with existing seller arrangements, and be compliant with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. It is important to buyers that their advertisements be placed on appropriate media, in proximity with appropriate content, that the impressions for which they are charged be legitimate, and that their advertising campaigns yield their desired results. We use various measures, including technology, internal processes and protocols in an effort to store, manage and process rules set by buyers and sellers and to ensure the quality and integrity of the results delivered to sellers and advertisers through our solution. If we fail to properly implement or honor rules established by buyers and sellers, improper advertisements may be placed through our platform, which can result in harm to our reputation as well as the need to pay refunds and potential legal liabilities.

Our business is subject to the risk of catastrophic events such as pandemics, earthquakes, flooding, fire and power outages, and to interruption by man-made problems such as terrorism.

Our business is vulnerable to damage or interruption from pandemics, earthquakes, flooding, fire, power outages, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, acts of war, human errors, break-ins and similar events. A significant natural disaster could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition, and our insurance coverage may be insufficient to compensate us for losses that may occur. In addition, acts of terrorism could cause disruptions in our or our publishers’ and partners’ businesses or the economy as a whole. Our servers may also be vulnerable to computer viruses, break-ins, denial-of-service attacks and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering with our computer systems, which could lead to interruptions, delays and the loss of critical data. We may not have sufficient protection or recovery plans in some circumstances. As we rely heavily on our data center facilities, computer and communications systems and the internet to conduct our business and provide high-quality customer service, these disruptions could negatively impact our ability to run our business and either directly or indirectly disrupt publishers’ and partners’ businesses, which could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Our revenue and operating results are highly dependent on the overall demand for advertising. Factors that affect the amount of advertising spending, such as economic downturns and seasonality, can make it difficult to predict our revenue and could adversely affect our business.

Our business depends on the overall demand for advertising and on the economic health of our current and prospective sellers and advertisers. If advertisers reduce their overall advertising spending, our revenue and results of operations are directly affected. For Colossus SSP, many advertisers devote a disproportionate amount of their advertising budgets to the third and fourth quarters of the calendar year to coincide with the annual holiday purchasing season, and buyers may spend more on advertising campaigns in the second and third quarters for seasonality and budget reasons. As a result, if any events occur to reduce the amount of advertising spending during the second, third or fourth quarters, or reduce the amount of inventory available to advertisers during that period, such as adverse economic conditions or economic uncertainty, it could have a disproportionate adverse effect on our revenue and operating results for that fiscal year. Economic downturns or instability in political or market conditions generally may cause current or new advertisers to reduce their advertising budgets. Reductions in inventory due to loss of sellers would make our solution less robust and attractive to buyers. Adverse economic conditions and general uncertainty about economic recovery are likely to affect our business prospects. In particular, uncertainty regarding the impacts of inflation, increasing interest rates and the war in Ukraine on the economy in the United States may cause general business conditions in the United States and elsewhere to deteriorate or become volatile, which could cause advertisers to delay, decrease or cancel purchases of our solution, and expose us to increased credit risk on advertiser orders. Moreover, any changes in the favorable tax treatment of advertising expenses and the deductibility thereof would likely cause a reduction in advertising demand.

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If the non-proprietary technology, software, products and services that we use are unavailable, have future terms we cannot agree to, or do not perform as we expect, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.

We depend on various technology, software, products and services from third parties or available as open source, including for critical features and functionality of our platform and technology, payment processing, payroll and other professional services. Identifying, negotiating, complying with and integrating with third-party terms and technology are complex, costly and time-consuming matters. Failure by third-party providers to maintain, support or secure their technology either generally or for our accounts specifically, or downtime, errors or defects in their products or services, could materially and adversely impact our platform, our administrative obligations or other areas of our business. Having to replace any third-party providers or their technology, products or services could result in outages or difficulties in our ability to provide our services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Market pressure may reduce our revenue per impression.

Our revenue may be affected by market changes, new demands by publishers and buyers, removal of cookies usage from the existing value chain, new solutions and competitive pressure. Our solutions may be priced too high or too low, either of which may carry adverse consequences. We may receive requests from publishers for discounts, fee revisions, rebates and refunds, or from DSPs, agencies and advertisers for volume discounts, fee revisions and rebates. We may assume responsibility for satisfying or facilitating the satisfaction of some of these requirements through the contracts we enter into with publishers, buyers, and partners. In addition, we may have responsibility for some acts or omissions of publishers, buyers, or partners transacting business through our platform under our contracts or under applicable laws or regulations. These responsibilities could expose us to significant liabilities, perhaps without the ability to impose effective mitigating controls upon, or to recover from, publishers and buyers. Any of these developments could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition. Any failure for our pricing approaches to gain acceptance could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We face potential liability and harm to our business based on the human factor of inputting information into our platform.

We set up campaigns on our platform using a number of available variables. While our platform includes several checks and balances, it is possible for human error to result in significant over- spending. We offer a number of protections such as daily or overall spending caps. However, despite these protections, the risk of overspend exists. For example, campaigns which last for a period of time can be set to pace evenly or as quickly as possible. If a customer with a high credit limit enters an incorrect daily cap with a campaign set to a rapid pace, it is possible for a campaign to accidently go significantly over budget. While our customer contracts state that customers are responsible for media purchased through our platform, we are ultimately responsible for paying the inventory providers and we may be unable to collect when such errors occur.

If we are unable to successfully execute our strategies and continue to develop and sell the services and solutions our customers demand, our business, results of operations and financial condition may suffer.

We must adapt to rapidly changing customer demands and preferences in order to successfully execute our strategies. This requires us to anticipate and respond to customer demands and preferences, address business model shifts, optimize our go-to-market execution by improving our cost structure, align sales coverage with strategic goals, improve channel execution and strengthen our services and capabilities in our areas of strategic focus. Any failure to successfully execute our strategies, including any failure to invest in strategic growth areas, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have a limited operating history and, as a result, our past results may not be indicative of future operating performance.

We have a limited operating history with the current scale of our business, which makes it difficult to forecast our future results. You should not rely on our past quarterly or annual results of operations as indicators of future performance. You should consider and evaluate our prospects considering the risks and uncertainty frequently encountered by companies like ours. Some of these uncertainties relate to the fact that we operate in a rapidly evolving industry, which may present challenges forecasting accuracy, determining appropriate nature and levels of investments, predicting adequate future headcount, assessing appropriate returns on investments, achieving market acceptance of our existing and future offerings,

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managing client implementations and developing new solutions. If our assumptions regarding these uncertainties, which we regularly use and update to plan our business, are incorrect or change in reaction to changes in our markets, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations and our business could suffer.

The loss, modification or delay of large or multiple contracts may negatively impact our financial performance.

Our contracts have generally been for terms of relatively short duration. Additionally, our clients generally will have the ability to delay the execution of services, reduce the number of hours that services require, and terminate their contracts with us upon a short notice for convenience and upon the occurrence of certain defined events, such as “for cause.” The loss or delay of a large contract or multiple contracts could adversely and materially affect our operating results.

We invest significantly in development, and to the extent our development investments do not translate into new solutions or material enhancements to our current solutions, or if we do not use those investments efficiently, our business and results of operations would be harmed.

A key element of our strategy is to invest significantly in our development efforts to improve and develop our software and the features and functionality for our platform. If we do not spend our development budget efficiently or effectively, our business may be harmed and we may not realize the expected benefits of our strategy. Moreover, development projects can be technically challenging, time-consuming and expensive. The nature of these development cycles may cause us to experience delays between the time we incur expenses associated with development and the time we are able to offer compelling platform updates and generate revenue, if any, from such investment. Additionally, anticipated enterprise demand for solutions we are developing could decrease after the development cycle has commenced, and we would nonetheless be unable to avoid substantial costs associated with the development of any such solutions. If we expend a significant amount of resources on development and our efforts do not lead to the successful introduction or improvement of solutions that are competitive in our current or future markets, our business and results of operations would be adversely affected.

We must provide value to both publishers and buyers of advertising without being perceived as favoring one over the other or being perceived as competing with them through our service offerings.

We provide a platform that intermediates between publishers seeking to sell advertising space and buyers seeking to purchase that space. If we were to be perceived as favoring one side of the transaction to the detriment of the other, or presenting a competitive challenge to their own businesses, demand for our platform from publishers or buyers would decrease and our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.

We rely on highly skilled personnel and if we are unable to attract, retain or motivate substantial numbers of qualified personnel or expand and train our sales force, we may not be able to grow effectively.

We rely on highly skilled personnel and if we are unable to attract, retain or motivate substantial numbers of qualified personnel or expand and train our sales force, we may not be able to grow effectively. Our success largely depends on the talents and efforts of key technical, sales and marketing employees and our future success depends on our continuing ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly skilled personnel for all areas of our organization. Competition in our industry is intense and often leads to increased compensation and other personnel costs. In addition, competition for employees with experience in our industry can be intense where our development operations are concentrated and where other technology companies compete for management and engineering talent. Our continued ability to compete and grow effectively depends on our ability to attract substantial numbers of qualified new employees and to retain and motivate our existing employees.

We are, and may continue to be, subject to securities litigation, which is expensive and could divert management’s attention, cause harm to our reputation and result in significant damages for which we could be responsible.

We are subject to securities class action litigation, which is expensive and could divert our management’s attention, harm our reputation, and leave us liable for substantial damages. For example, on May 23, 2024, an alleged stockholder, purportedly on behalf of the persons or entities who purchased or acquired publicly traded securities of the Company between April 2023 and March 2024, filed a putative class action against the Company, certain of our officers and directors, and other defendants in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, alleging violations of federal securities laws related to alleged false or misleading disclosures made by the Company in its public filings. On July 9, 2024, another alleged stockholder filed a similar securities class action against the Company, certain of our officers and directors, also in the Southern District of Texas. These two actions have now been consolidated. Each of these complaints

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seeks unspecified damages, plus costs, fees, and attorneys’ fees. On August 7, 2025, the district court granted the Company's motion to dismiss in full and with prejudice. The lead plaintiff has since appealed that dismissal and has filed an opening brief on November 3, 2025. The Company filed a response brief on January 2, 2026. The lead plaintiff filed a reply brief on February 6, 2026. The Company now awaits the Court's decision about whether to set the case for oral argument. The Company cannot make any predictions about the final outcome of this matter or the timing thereof but believes that plaintiffs’ claims lack merit and intends to vigorously defend these lawsuits.

Litigation of this type could result in substantial costs and diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could adversely impact our business. Any adverse determination in litigation could also subject us to significant liabilities, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

The development and use of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) presents risks and challenges that may adversely impact our business.

We or our third-party vendors, clients or counterparties may develop or incorporate AI technology in certain business processes, services or products. The development and use of AI presents several potential risks and challenges to our business. The legal and regulatory environment relating to AI is uncertain and rapidly evolving in the U.S. and internationally, and includes regulatory schemes targeted specifically at AI as well as provisions in intellectual property, privacy, consumer protection, employment and other laws applicable to the use of AI. These evolving laws and regulations could require changes in our implementation of AI technology and increase our compliance costs and the risk of non-compliance. If we fail to keep pace with rapidly evolving technological developments in artificial intelligence, our competitive position and business results may suffer. In addition, it is possible that artificial intelligence and machine learning-technology could, unbeknownst to us, be improperly utilized by employees while carrying out their responsibilities. AI models, particularly generative AI models, may produce output or take action that is incorrect, that reflects biases included in the data on which they are trained, that results in the release of private, confidential, or proprietary information, that infringes on the intellectual property rights.

Risks Related to Legal and Regulatory Matters

Our business is subject to numerous legal and regulatory requirements and any violation of these requirements or any misconduct by our employees, subcontractors, agents or business partners could harm our business and reputation.

In addition to government contract procurement laws and regulations, we are subject to numerous other federal, state and foreign legal requirements on matters as diverse as data privacy and protection, employment and labor relations, immigration, taxation, anti-corruption, import/export controls, trade restrictions, internal and disclosure control obligations, securities regulation and anti-competition. Compliance with diverse and changing legal requirements is costly, including related to domestic and international anti-bribery and similar laws, time-consuming and requires significant resources. Violations of one or more of these requirements in the conduct of our business could result in significant fines and other damages, criminal sanctions against us or our officers, prohibitions on doing business and damage to our reputation. Violations of these regulations or contractual obligations related to regulatory compliance in connection with the performance of customer contracts could also result in liability for significant monetary damages, fines and/or criminal prosecution, unfavorable publicity and other reputational damage, restrictions on our ability to compete for work and allegations by our customers that we have not performed our contractual obligations.

Misconduct by our employees, subcontractors, agents or business partners could subject us to fines and penalties, restitution or other damages, loss of security clearance, loss of current and future customer contracts and suspension or debarment from contracting with federal, state or local government agencies, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Such misconduct could include fraud or other improper activities such as falsifying time or other records, failure to comply with our policies and procedures or violations of applicable laws and regulations.

We rely on licenses to use the intellectual property rights of third parties to conduct our business.

We rely on products, technologies and intellectual property that we license from third parties for use in operating our business. We cannot assure you that these third-party licenses, or support for such licensed products and technologies, will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. We cannot be certain that our licensors are not infringing the intellectual property rights of others or that our suppliers and licensors have sufficient rights to the technology in all jurisdictions in which we may operate. Some of our license agreements may be terminated by our licensors for convenience. If we are unable to obtain or maintain rights to any of this technology because of intellectual property infringement claims brought by third parties against our suppliers and licensors or against us, or if we are unable

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to continue to obtain the technology or enter into new agreements on commercially reasonable terms, our ability to operate and expand our business could be harmed.

Risks Related to Our Organizational Structure

We are a holding company and our principal asset is our equity interest in DDH LLC, and, accordingly, we depend on distributions from DDH LLC to pay our taxes, expenses and dividends.

We are a holding company and have no material assets other than our ownership of LLC Units of DDH LLC. As such, we have no independent means of generating net sales or cash flow, and our ability to pay our taxes and operating expenses or declare and pay dividends in the future, if any, are dependent upon the financial results and cash flows of DDH LLC and its subsidiaries and distributions we receive from DDH LLC. DDH LLC and its subsidiaries may not generate sufficient cash flow to distribute funds to us and applicable state law and contractual restrictions, including negative covenants in our debt instruments, may not permit such distributions.

We anticipate that DDH LLC will continue to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, as such, generally will not be subject to any entity-level U.S. federal income tax. Instead, taxable income will be allocated to holders of LLC Units, including us. Accordingly, we will incur income taxes on our allocable share of any net taxable income of DDH LLC and will also incur expenses related to our operations, including payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement, described below, which could be significant. See Item 13 “ Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions, and Director Independence ” for additional information. Furthermore, our allocable share of DDH LLC’s net taxable income will increase over time as DDM redeems or exchanges its LLC Units for shares of our Class A Common Stock.

We intend, as its managing member, to cause DDH LLC to make cash distributions to the owners of LLC Units, including us, in an amount sufficient to (i) fund their or our tax obligations in respect of allocations of taxable income from DDH LLC and (ii) cover our operating expenses, including payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. However, DDH LLC’s ability to make such distributions may be subject to various limitations and restrictions, such as restrictions on distributions that would either violate any contract or agreement to which DDH LLC is then a party, including debt agreements, or any applicable law. In addition, liability for adjustments to a partnership’s tax return for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, can be imposed on the partnership itself in certain circumstances, absent an election to the contrary. DDH LLC could be subject to material liabilities pursuant to adjustments to its partnership tax returns if, for example, its calculations or allocations of taxable income or loss are incorrect, which also could limit its ability to make distributions to us.

If we do not have sufficient funds to pay taxes or other liabilities or to fund our operations, we may have to borrow funds, which could adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition and subject us to various restrictions imposed by any such lenders. To the extent that we are unable to make payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement for any reason, such payments generally will be deferred and will possibly accrue interest until paid; provided, however, that nonpayment for a specified period may constitute a material breach of a material obligation under the Tax Receivable Agreement and therefore accelerate payments due thereunder. See Item 13 “ Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions, and Director Independence ” for more information. In addition, if DDH LLC does not have sufficient funds to make distributions, our ability to declare and pay cash dividends will also be restricted or impaired.

The Tax Receivable Agreement with DDM and DDH LLC requires us to make cash payments to them in respect of certain tax benefits to which we may become entitled. In certain circumstances, payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement may be accelerated and/or significantly exceed the actual tax benefits we realize.

As a party to the Tax Receivable Agreement with DDH LLC and DDM, we are required to make cash payments to DDM equal to 85% of the tax benefits, if any, that we actually realize, or in certain circumstances, are deemed to realize (calculated using certain assumptions) as a result of (i) increases in the tax basis of assets of DDH LLC resulting from (a) any future redemptions or exchanges of LLC Units described under Item 13 “ Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions, and Director Independence ” and (b) payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement and (ii) certain other tax benefits arising from payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement. See Item 13 “ Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions, and Director Independence” for more information. While the actual amount and timing of any payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement will vary depending upon a number of factors, including the timing of exchanges, the price of shares of our Class A Common Stock at the time of the redemption or exchange, the extent to which such redemptions or exchanges are taxable, future tax rates, and the amount and timing of our taxable income (prior to taking into account the tax depreciation or amortization deductions arising from the basis adjustments), we expect that, as a result of the size of the increases in the tax basis of the tangible and intangible assets of DDH LLC attributable to our

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interests in DDH LLC, during the expected term of the Tax Receivable Agreement, the payments that we may make to DDM could be significant.

Payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement are based on the tax reporting positions that we determine, and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) or another tax authority may challenge all or part of the tax basis increases, as well as other related tax positions we take, and a court could sustain such challenge. DDM will not reimburse us for any payments previously made under the Tax Receivable Agreement if such basis increases or other benefits are subsequently disallowed, except that any excess payments made by us to DDM under the Tax Receivable Agreement will be netted against future payments that we might otherwise be required to make to DDM under the Tax Receivable Agreement.

Finally, the Tax Receivable Agreement also provides that, upon certain mergers, asset sales or other forms of business combination or certain other changes of control, our (or our successor’s) obligations with respect to tax benefits would be based on certain assumptions, including that we (or our successor) would have sufficient taxable income to utilize the benefits arising from the increased tax deductions and tax basis and other benefits covered by the Tax Receivable Agreement. Consequently, it is possible, in these circumstances, that the actual cash tax savings realized by us may be significantly less than the corresponding Tax Receivable Agreement payments. Our accelerated payment obligations and/or assumptions adopted under the Tax Receivable Agreement in the case of a change of control may impair our ability to consummate a change of control transaction or negatively impact the value received by owners of our Class A Common Stock in a change of control transaction.

Our organizational structure, including the Tax Receivable Agreement, confers certain benefits upon DDM that do not benefit the Class A Common stockholders to the same extent as they benefit DDM.

Our organizational structure, including the Tax Receivable Agreement, confers certain benefits upon DDM that do not benefit the holders of our Class A Common Stock to the same extent. The Tax Receivable Agreement we entered into with DDH LLC and DDM provides for the payment by us to DDM of 85% of the amount of tax benefits, if any, that we actually realize, or in some circumstances are deemed to realize, as a result of the Tax Attributes. Due to the uncertainty of various factors, we cannot precisely quantify the likely tax benefits we will realize as a result of purchases of LLC Units and LLC Unit exchanges and the resulting amounts we are likely to pay out to DDM pursuant to the Tax Receivable Agreement; however, we estimate that such payments may be substantial. See Item 13 “ Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions, and Director Independence ” for more information. Although we retain 15% of the amount of such tax benefits that are actually realized, this and other aspects of our organizational structure may adversely impact the future trading market for the Class A Common Stock. In addition, our organizational structure, including the Tax Receivable Agreement, imposes additional compliance costs and requires a significant commitment of resources that would not be required of a company with a simpler organizational structure.

We may not be able to realize all or a portion of the tax benefits that are currently expected to result from the Tax Attributes covered by the Tax Receivable Agreement and from payments made under the Tax Receivable Agreement.

Our ability to realize the tax benefits that we currently expect to be available as a result of the Tax Attributes, the payments made pursuant to the Tax Receivable Agreement, and the interest deductions imputed under the Tax Receivable Agreement all depend on a number of assumptions, including that we earn sufficient taxable income each year during the period over which such deductions are available and that there are no adverse changes in applicable law or regulations. Additionally, if our actual taxable income were insufficient or there were additional adverse changes in applicable law or regulations, we may be unable to realize all or a portion of the expected tax benefits and our cash flows and stockholders’ equity could be negatively affected. See Item 13 “ Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions, and Director Independence ” for more information.

If we were deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”), as a result of our ownership of DDH LLC, applicable restrictions could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Under Sections 3(a)(1)(A) and (C) of the 1940 Act, a company generally will be deemed to be an “investment company” for purposes of the 1940 Act if (i) it is, or holds itself out as being, engaged primarily, or proposes to engage primarily, in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities or (ii) it engages, or proposes to engage, in the business of investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading in securities and it owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of its total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. We do not believe that we are an “investment company,” as such term is defined in either of those sections of the 1940 Act.

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As the sole managing member of DDH LLC, we control and operate DDH LLC. On that basis, we believe that our interest in DDH LLC is not an “investment security” as that term is used in the 1940 Act. However, if we were to cease participation in the management of DDH LLC, our interest in DDH LLC could be deemed an “investment security” for purposes of the 1940 Act.

We and DDH LLC intend to conduct our operations so that we will not be deemed an investment company. However, if we were to be deemed an investment company, restrictions imposed by the 1940 Act, including limitations on our capital structure and our ability to transact with affiliates, could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Risks Related to our Offering with New Circle and Owning our Securities

The sale or issuance of our Class A Common Stock to New Circle may cause dilution and the sale of the shares of Class A Common Stock acquired by New Circle, or the perception that such sales may occur, could cause the price of our Class A Common Stock to decrease.

On October 18, 2024, we entered into the Purchase Agreement with New Circle, which was subsequently amended, pursuant to which (i) we issued 1,141 shares of Class A Common Stock having an aggregate value of $150,000 to New Circle as the Commitment Shares, as partial consideration for New Circle’s commitment to purchase shares of Class A Common Stock under the Purchase Agreement in lieu of a cash payment, and (ii) New Circle has committed to purchase up to $100 million of our Class A Common Stock. In addition, we issued 1,818 shares of Class A Common Stock to New Circle in October 2025 as partial consideration for the amendment that increased the commitment size from $20 million to $100 million.

The shares of our Class A Common Stock that may be issued under the Purchase Agreement may be sold by us to New Circle at our discretion from time to time over the 36-month period following the Commencement (such date on which all of such conditions are satisfied, the “Commencement Date”). The purchase price for the shares that we may sell to New Circle under the Purchase Agreement will fluctuate based on the price of our Class A Common Stock. Depending on market liquidity at the time, sales of such shares may cause the trading price of our Class A Common Stock to decrease.

We have the right to control the timing and amount of any future sales of our shares to New Circle, subject to certain limitations set forth in the Purchase Agreement. Additional sales of our Class A Common Stock, if any, to New Circle will depend upon market conditions and other factors to be determined by us. We may ultimately decide to sell to New Circle all, some or none of the additional shares of our Class A Common Stock that may be available for us to sell pursuant to the Purchase Agreement. If and when we do sell additional shares to New Circle, after New Circle has acquired the shares, New Circle may resell all, some or none of those shares at any time or from time to time in its discretion. Therefore, sales to New Circle by us could result in substantial dilution to the interests of other holders of our Class A Common Stock. Additionally, the sale of a substantial number of shares of our Class A Common Stock to New Circle, or the anticipation of such sales, could make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and at a price that we might otherwise wish to effect sales.

Further, we are not restricted from issuing additional securities in the future (other than through a variable rate transaction, subject to certain exceptions), including shares of our Class A Common Stock, securities that are convertible into or exchangeable for, or that represent the right to receive, our Class A Common Stock or substantially similar securities. To the extent that we raise additional funds through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the issuance of such securities will result in dilution to our stockholders.

We may require additional financing to sustain our operations, without which we may not be able to continue operations, and the terms of subsequent financings may adversely impact our stockholders.

We may direct New Circle to purchase up to $100 million worth of shares of our Class A Common Stock under our agreement over a 36-month period pursuant to purchase notices that we deliver to New Circle under the Purchase Agreement. Unless otherwise waived by New Circle, the maximum number of shares that may be purchased pursuant to each purchase notice is equal to a number of shares up to the lesser of (i) the number of shares equal to 100% of the average daily trading volume of our Common Stock during the five trading days immediately preceding the date of our purchase notice or (ii) 100,000 shares, provided that New Circle may agree, in its sole discretion to waive such provision and purchase shares in excess of such amounts in connection with one or more particular purchase notices.

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The extent we rely on New Circle as a source of funding will depend on a number of factors including the prevailing market price of our Class A Common Stock and the extent to which we are able to secure financing from other sources. If obtaining sufficient financing from New Circle were to prove unavailable or prohibitively dilutive, we may need to secure another source of funding in order to satisfy our financing needs. Even if we sell all $100 million under the Purchase Agreement to New Circle, we may still need additional capital to finance our future working capital needs, and we may have to raise funds through the issuance of equity or debt securities. Depending on the type and the terms of any financing we pursue, stockholders’ rights and the value of their investment in our Class A Common Stock could be reduced. A financing could involve one or more types of securities including Class A Common Stock, convertible debt or warrants to acquire Class A Common Stock. These securities could be issued at or below the then prevailing market price for our Class A Common Stock. In addition, if we issue secured debt securities, the holders of the debt would have a claim to our assets that would be prior to the rights of stockholders until the debt is paid. Interest on these debt securities would increase costs and negatively impact operating results. If the issuance of new securities results in diminished rights to holders of our Class A Common Stock, the market price of our Class A Common Stock could be negatively impacted.

Should the financing we require to sustain our financing needs be unavailable or prohibitively expensive when we require it, the consequences could be a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of the net proceeds from our sale of shares of Class A Common Stock to New Circle, you may not agree with how we use the proceeds and the proceeds may not be invested successfully.

We will not receive any proceeds from the resale of shares of our Class A Common Stock by the selling stockholder. However, our management will have broad discretion as to the use of the net proceeds from our sale of shares of Class A Common Stock to New Circle, and we could use them for purposes other than those contemplated at the time of commencement of this offering. Accordingly, you will be relying on the judgment of our management with regard to the use of those net proceeds, and you will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to assess whether the proceeds are being used as you may deem to be appropriate. It is possible that, pending their use, we may invest those net proceeds in a manner that may not yield a favorable, or any, return for us. The manner in which our management uses such funds could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.

We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, which could, if not remediated, result in material misstatements in our financial statements.

The Company is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Company identified a material weakness in its internal control over the technical evaluation of accounting matters that existed as of December 31, 2023, 2024 and 2025. A material weakness is defined as a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. As a result of this material weakness, the Company concluded that its internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2025.

Management has implemented remediation steps to address the material weakness and to improve its internal controls. Specifically, in late 2023, the Company engaged consultants to assist with identifying and testing the design of controls over business processes. The first phase of the project was completed in the first quarter of 2024 and continued through the remainder of 2024. The second phase of the project, which consists of strengthening and enhancing its internal controls over the evaluation of technical accounting matters, including hiring additional qualified accounting personnel and enhancing controls related to assessment and documentation of technical accounting matters started in 2024 and is still in progress to this date. As a result, the Company’s management concluded that the material weakness related to the technical evaluation of accounting matters was not fully remediated as of December 31, 2025. The Company will continue the engagement with outside consultants to review the revised control processes and procedures.

If additional material weaknesses in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting are discovered or occur in the future, the Company’s consolidated financial statements may contain material misstatements, and the Company could be required to restate its financial results. In addition, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements and comply with applicable laws and regulations will be impaired. If we are unable to report our results in a timely and accurate manner, we may not be able to comply with the applicable covenants in our financing arrangements and may be required to seek additional amendments or waivers under these financing arrangements, which may not be granted and could adversely

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impact our liquidity and financial condition. Failure to produce timely and accurate financial statements could also impair our access to the capital markets and/or materially and adversely impact the trading price of our Class A Common Stock.

Furthermore, as we grow our business, our disclosure controls and internal controls will become more complex, and we may require significantly more resources to ensure the effectiveness of these controls. If we are unable to continue upgrading our financial and management controls, reporting systems, information technology and procedures in a timely and effective fashion, we may need to devote additional management and other resources to assist in compliance with the disclosure and financial reporting requirements and other rules that apply to reporting companies, which could adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to maintain or implement effective internal controls, we may not be able to report financial results accurately or on a timely basis, or to detect fraud, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and the per share price of our Class A Common Stock.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms. We are also continuing to improve our internal control over financial reporting. We have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources in order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls or our internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our consolidated financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could also adversely affect the results of management reports and independent registered public accounting firm audits of our internal control over financial reporting that we are required to include in our periodic reports that are filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures, and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the market price of our Class A Common Stock. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to audit the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until after we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting is documented, designed or operating. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have a material and adverse effect on our business and operating results and cause a decline in the market price of our Class A Common Stock.

If we fail to maintain compliance with applicable listing standards, our Class A Common Stock may be delisted from the Nasdaq Capital Market.

In the past, the Company was not in compliance with the minimum stockholders’ equity requirement for continued listing under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1) (the “Stockholders’ Equity Rule”) or the minimum bid price rule for continued listing under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) (the "Bid Price Rule"). The Company is also subject to a discretionary panel monitor which lasts until November 7, 2026 for the Stockholders' Equity Rule and February 12, 2027 for the Bid Price Rule. As reported in our consolidated financial statements, the Company believes that it is not in compliance with the Stockholders' Equity Rule as of December 31, 2025. Should Nasdaq determine that the Company fails to maintain compliance with any Nasdaq continued listing requirement during a panel monitor period, the Staff of Nasdaq’s Listing Qualifications Department will issue a delist determination letter and the Company may seek a new hearing with the Panel. There can be no assurances, however, that we will be successful in maintaining the listing of our Class A Common Stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Delisting from the Nasdaq could adversely affect our ability to raise additional financing through the public or private sale of equity securities, would significantly affect the ability of investors to trade our securities and would negatively affect the value and liquidity of our Class A Common Stock. Delisting could also have other negative results, including the potential loss of confidence by employees, the loss of institutional investor interest and fewer business development opportunities. If our Class A Common Stock is delisted by the Nasdaq, the price of our Class A Common Stock may decline and our Class A Common Stock may be eligible to trade on the OTC Markets or other over-the-counter quotation system, where an investor may find it more difficult to dispose of their Class A Common Stock or obtain accurate quotations as to the market value of our Class A Common Stock. Further,

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if we are delisted, we would incur additional costs under requirements of state “blue sky” laws in connection with any sales of our securities. These requirements could severely limit the market liquidity of our Class A Common Stock and the ability of our stockholders to sell our Class A Common Stock in the secondary market.

We may experience fluctuations in our operating results, which could make our future operating results difficult to predict or cause our operating results to fall below analysts’ and investors’ expectations.

Our quarterly and annual operating results have fluctuated in the past and we expect our future operating results to fluctuate due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. Fluctuations in our operating results could cause our performance to fall below the expectations of analysts and investors, and adversely affect the price of our Class A Common Stock. Because our business is changing and evolving rapidly, our historical operating results may not be necessarily indicative of our future operating results. Factors that may cause our operating results to fluctuate include the following: changes in demand for our platform, including related to the seasonal nature of spending on digital advertising campaigns; changes in our pricing policies, the pricing policies of our competitors and the pricing or availability of inventory, data or of other third-party services; changes in our customer base and platform offerings; the addition or loss of customers; changes in advertising budget allocations, agency affiliations or marketing strategies; changes to our product, media, customer or channel mix; changes and uncertainty in the regulatory environment for us, advertisers or publishers; changes in the economic prospects of advertisers or the economy generally, which could alter advertisers’ spending priorities, or could increase the time or costs required to complete advertising inventory sales; changes in the availability of advertising inventory through real-time advertising exchanges or in the cost of reaching end consumers through digital advertising; disruptions or outages on our platform or by or through third party intermediaries used by our platform; the introduction of new technologies or offerings by our competitors; changes in our capital expenditures as we acquire the hardware, equipment and other assets required to support our business; timing differences between our payments for advertising inventory and our collection of related advertising revenue; the length and unpredictability of our sales cycle; and costs related to acquisitions of businesses or technologies, or employee recruiting. Based upon the factors above and others beyond our control, we have a limited ability to forecast our future revenue, costs and expenses, and as a result, our operating results may, from time to time, fall below our estimates or the expectations of analysts and investors.

The trading price of the shares of our Class A Common Stock has been volatile, and purchasers of our Class A Common Stock could incur substantial losses.

Technology stocks historically have experienced high levels of volatility. The trading price of our Class A Common Stock may fluctuate substantially. These fluctuations could cause you to incur substantial losses, including all of your investment in our Class A Common Stock. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our Class A Common Stock include the following: volatility in the market price of companies in our industry; announcements of new solutions or technologies by us or our competitors; overall stock market fluctuations; changes in customer or investor perception; litigation or regulatory activity; or departures of key employees.

Our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage takeover attempts and other corporate governance changes.

Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in control of our Company. These provisions could also make it difficult for stockholders to elect directors that are not nominated by the current members of our board of directors or take other corporate actions, including effecting changes in our management. These provisions include certain provisions that:

• permit the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly created directorships;

• provide that, after a removal for cause, vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum;

• prohibit cumulative voting in the election of directors;

• require the affirmative vote of the holders of 66 2/3% of the voting power of our outstanding common stock to amend certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws;

• authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board of directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan;

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• restrict the forum for certain litigation against us to Delaware or federal courts;

• permit our board of directors to alter our bylaws without obtaining stockholder approval; and

• establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings.

In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”). These provisions may prohibit large stockholders, in particular those owning 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, from merging or combining with us for a period of time without the approval of our board of directors. In addition, our credit facilities include, and other debt instruments we may enter into in the future may include, provisions entitling the lenders to demand immediate repayment of all borrowings upon the occurrence of certain change of control events relating to us, which also could discourage, delay or prevent a business combination transaction.

Because we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends on our Class A Common Stock in the foreseeable future, capital appreciation, if any, will be your sole source of gains.

We have never declared or paid any dividends on our Class A Common Stock. We currently intend to retain any earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. In addition, the terms of our existing debt arrangement preclude us from paying dividends and our future debt agreements, if any, may contain similar restrictions. As a result, you may only receive a return on your investment in our Class A Common Stock if the market price of our Class A Common Stock increases.

General Risks

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research reports about our business, our share price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Class A Common Stock partially depends on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us should downgrade our shares or change their opinion of our business prospects, our share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("U.S. GAAP"). If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

U.S. GAAP are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported results of operations and could affect the reporting of transactions already completed before the announcement of a change. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities and disclosure of contingent liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period as shown in the financial statements and accompanying notes appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Actual results could differ from these estimates. We base our estimates on past experiences, market conditions, and other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, and we evaluate these estimates on an ongoing basis. We use estimates to determine many reported amounts, including but not limited to gross vs net assessment in revenue recognition, recoverability of goodwill and long-lived assets, useful lives used in amortization of intangibles, income taxes and valuation allowances and fair values of assets and liabilities acquired in business combinations. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our Class A Common Stock.

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If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies are erroneous or based on assumptions that change or prove to be incorrect, our operating results could fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in our stock price.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on our best judgment, historical experience, information derived from third parties and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as discussed in the section titled “ Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations ,” the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, equity, revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our judgments prove to be wrong, assumptions change or actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in our stock price. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition, stock-based compensation and income taxes.

ITEM 7.              Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under the section titled “ Risk Factors ” or in other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. See “ – Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements ” below. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws and which are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties. We use words such as “could,” “would,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “expect,” “likely,” “believe,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “project” and other similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements, but not all forward-looking statements include these words. All of our forward-looking statements involve estimates and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, any such statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the information described under the caption “ Risk Factors ” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are based on assumptions that we have made in light of our industry experience and our perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. As you read and consider this Annual Report on Form 10-K, you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. They involve risks, uncertainties (many of which are beyond our control) and assumptions.

Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual operating and financial performance and cause our performance to differ materially from the performance expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements. We believe these factors include, but are not limited to, the following:

• the restrictions and covenants imposed upon us by our credit facilities;

• the substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, which may hinder our ability to obtain future financing;

• our ability to secure additional financing to meet our capital needs;

• our ability to maintain compliance with the listing standards of the Nasdaq Capital Market;

• our ability to realize the benefits of our strategic shift to focusing on driving digital marketing spend among buy-side and new enterprise customers;

• any significant fluctuations caused by our high customer concentration;

• risks related to non-payment by our clients;

• reputational and other harms caused by our failure to detect advertising fraud;

• operational and performance issues with our platform, whether real or perceived, including a failure to respond to technological changes or to upgrade our technology systems;

• restrictions on the use of third-party “cookies,” mobile device IDs or other tracking technologies, which could diminish our platform’s effectiveness;

• unfavorable publicity and negative public perception about our industry, particularly concerns regarding data privacy and security relating to our industry’s technology and practices, and any perceived failure to comply with laws and industry self-regulation;

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• our failure to manage our growth effectively;

• the difficulty in identifying and integrating any future acquisitions or strategic investments;

• any changes or developments in legislative, judicial, regulatory or cultural environments related to information collection, use and processing;

• challenges related to our buy-side clients that are destination marketing organizations and that operate as public/private partnerships;

• any strain on our resources or diversion of our management’s attention as a result of being a public company;

• the intense competition of the digital advertising industry and our ability to effectively compete against current and future competitors;

• any significant inadvertent disclosure or breach of confidential and/or personal information we hold, or of the security of our or our customers’, suppliers’ or other partners’ computer systems;

• as a holding company, we depend on distributions from DDH LLC to pay our taxes, expenses (including payments under the Tax Receivable Agreement) and any amount of any dividends we may pay to the holders of our common stock;

• any failure by us to maintain or implement effective internal controls or to detect fraud; and

• other factors and assumptions discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K under “ Risk Factors ,” and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of these assumptions prove to be incorrect, our actual operating and financial performance may vary in material respects from the performance projected in these forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances. New factors that could cause our business not to develop as we expect emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. Further, we cannot assess the impact of each currently known or new factor on our results of operations or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

Overview

Direct Digital Holdings, Inc., incorporated as a Delaware corporation on August 23, 2021 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, is an end-to-end, full-service advertising and marketing platform primarily focused on providing advertising technology, data-driven campaign optimization and other solutions to help brands, agencies and middle market businesses deliver successful marketing results that drive return on investment (“ROI”) across both the sell- and buy-side of the digital advertising ecosystem. Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. is the holding company for DDH LLC, the business formed by the Company’s founders in 2018 through acquisitions of Colossus Media and Huddled Masses. Colossus Media operates the Company’s proprietary sell-side programmatic platform operating under the trademarked banner of Colossus SSP. In September 2020, DDH LLC acquired Orange 142 to further bolster its overall programmatic buy-side advertising platform and to enhance its offerings across multiple industry verticals. In February 2022, Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. completed an initial public offering and certain organizational transactions which resulted in the Company's current Up-C structure as described in Note 6 — Related Party Transactions to our consolidated financial statements. In October 2024, the Company announced the unification of its buy-side businesses, Orange 142 and Huddled Masses. All of the subsidiaries are incorporated in the state of Delaware, except for DDH LLC, which was formed under the laws of the State of Texas.

Direct Digital Holdings, Inc. owns 100% of the voting interest in DDH LLC and as of December 31, 2025, it owns 88.7% of the economic interest in DDH LLC. DDH LLC was formed on June 21, 2018 and acquired by the Company on February 15, 2022 in connection with its organizational transactions. DDH LLC’s wholly-owned subsidiaries are as follows:

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Subsidiary

Business

Segment

Date of Formation

Date of Acquisition

Colossus Media, LLC

Sell-side

September 8, 2017

June 21, 2018

Orange142, LLC

Buy-side

March 6, 2013

September 30, 2020

Huddled Masses, LLC

Buy-side

November 13, 2012

June 21, 2018

Our sell-side advertising business, operated through Colossus Media, provides advertisers of all sizes a programmatic advertising platform that automates the sale of ad inventory between advertisers and marketers leveraging proprietary technology. Our platform is intended to reach across a wide array of media partners to help brands, media holding companies, independent agencies or emerging businesses reach audiences, curated creators and helps publishers find the right brands for their readers, as well as drive advertising yields across all channels: web, mobile, and CTV. Our platform offers advertising inventory and creator content that aligns with brands, media holding companies and mid-market agencies focusing on key growth audiences.

Our buy-side advertising business, now operating as Orange 142, provides technology-enabled advertising solutions and consulting services to clients through multiple leading demand side platforms (“DSPs”), across multiple industry verticals such as travel and tourism, higher education, energy, healthcare, financial services, consumer products and other sectors with particular emphasis on small and mid-sized businesses transitioning into digital with growing digital media budgets. In the digital advertising space, buyers, particularly small and mid-sized businesses, can potentially achieve significantly higher ROI on their advertising spend compared to traditional media advertising by leveraging data-driven OTT/CTV, video and display, in-app, native including programmatic, search, social, influencer marketing and audio advertisements that are delivered both at scale and on a highly targeted basis.

Providing both the front-end, buy-side advertising operations coupled with our proprietary sell-side operations is intended to enable us to curate the first through the last mile in the ad tech ecosystem execution process to drive higher results.

Operating segments are components of an enterprise for which separate financial information is available and evaluated regularly by our chief operating decision maker (“CODM”) for purpose of assessing performance and allocating resources. Our CODM is our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Revenue and operating income (loss) are used by our CODM to assess performance of our operating segments and allocate resources. On and prior to December 31, 2025, we have operated as two reportable segments: sell-side advertising, which includes the results of Colossus Media, and buy-side advertising, which includes the results of Orange 142. All our revenues are attributable to the United States. As further described below in the Liquidity and Capital Resources – Going Concern section, the Company has experienced a series of unexpected setbacks in the past two years, particularly in the sell-side. During 2025, the Company worked to reconstitute its prior business, target new customers and develop new products for the sell-side segment but was unable to achieve historical volumes. Beginning in 2026, the Company has shifted its focus to driving intentional digital marketing spend with current and future customers historically classified by the Company as buy-side customers as well as new enterprise customers accessing the digital advertising market through its recently launched product – Ignition+. In connection with this shift in focus, the Company is currently working on aggregating its operations.

The table below summarizes the financial highlights of our business (in thousands):

Year Ended December 31,

Revenues

Loss from operations

Net loss

Adjusted EBITDA (1)

Net cash used in operating activities

(1) For a definition of Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, an explanation of our management’s use of this measure, and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, please see “ – Non-GAAP Financial Measures .”

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Recent Developments

Nasdaq Compliance Status.

On November 7, 2025, the Company received a decision (the “Panel Decision”) from the Nasdaq Hearings Panel (the “Panel”) regarding the Company’s continued listing on Nasdaq. The Panel Decision indicated that the Company has evidenced compliance with the minimum stockholders’ equity requirement for continued listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1) (the “Stockholders’ Equity Rule”) and, as such, that matter has been closed. However, the Panel Decision indicated that the Company would remain subject to a discretionary Panel Monitor with respect to the Stockholders’ Equity Rule for a period of one year from the date of the Panel Decision. As reported in our consolidated financial statements, the Company believes that it is not in compliance with the Stockholders’ Equity Rule as of December 31, 2025.

The Panel Decision also indicated that the Panel had granted the Company an exception through January 30, 2026, to demonstrate compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) (the “Bid Price Rule”). On January 12, 2026, the Company effected a 55-to-1 reverse stock split of all classes of the Company's common stock, including the Class A Common Stock listed on The Nasdaq Capital Market, which was intended to bring the Company into compliance with the Bid Price Rule. On February 12, 2026, the Company was notified by The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC that the Company has evidenced compliance with the Bid Price Rule, due to the closing bid price for the Company’s Class A Common Stock having closed at or above $1.00 per share for over 20 consecutive business days (the “Compliance Notice”). The Compliance Notice also indicated that the Company would remain subject to a Panel Monitor with respect to the Bid Price Rule for a period of one year from the date of the Staff’s letter.

Should Nasdaq determine that the Company fails to maintain compliance with any continued listing requirement during the Panel Monitor period, the Staff of Nasdaq's Listing Qualifications Department (the "Staff") will issue a delist determination, which the Company may address at a new hearing before the Panel. See “Risk Factors – If we fail to evidence or maintain compliance with applicable listing standards, our Class A Common Stock may be delisted from the Nasdaq Capital Market.”

Amendment to Lafayette Square Facility.

On January 27, 2026, the Company and Lafayette Square entered into the Eleventh Amendment (the “Eleventh Amendment”) to the 2021 Credit Facility which among other things, (1) modified financial covenants effective December 31, 2025, (2) required the payment of a $4.0 million amendment closing fee which allows Lafayette Square to recover the Exit Fee accrued by the Company in the quarter ended December 31, 2025 and (3) modified the principal payment schedule for the outstanding loans under the Term Loan Facility and clarified that the maturity date of the Eighth Amendment Term Loan is September 30, 2026.

Continuation Capital Settlement Agreement.

On November 20, 2025, the Company entered into a Settlement Agreement (the “Settlement Agreement”) with Continuation Capital, Inc. (“Continuation Capital”), pursuant to which we agreed to issue up to 909,090 shares of Class A Common Stock (the “Exchange Shares”) in exchange for the release of certain claims held by Continuation Capital related to third party vendor payables separately assigned by the Company to Continuation Capital in the amount of $3 million. The Exchange Shares will be sold to Continuation Capital at a price of 76% of the lower of (a) the volume weighted average sale price of the Class A Common Stock on Nasdaq during the “Valuation Period,” which is the five day trading period, inclusive of the day of the share request under the Settlement Agreement, which will be extended as necessary to account for multiple tranches of issuances or (b) the average of the four lowest of the most recent five closing prices during the Valuation Period, as defined in the Settlement Agreement. Additionally, as partial consideration for the entry into the Settlement Agreement, the Company paid Continuation Capital a settlement fee of 1,727 shares of Class A Common Stock. The Settlement Agreement was approved on November 21, 2025 by a court following a hearing held on that same date. Accordingly, the issuance of securities under the Settlement Agreement will be exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, in reliance on Section 3(a)(10) thereunder. From the date the Settlement Agreement was executed through the date of this report, $1.6 million has been paid to third party vendors and 817,326 shares have been issued pursuant to the Settlement Agreement.

Equity Reserve Facility.

On October 18, 2024, the Company entered into a Share Purchase Agreement (as amended, the “Purchase Agreement” and together with the facility as a whole, the “Equity Reserve Facility”) with New Circle Principal Investments LLC, a

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Delaware limited liability company (“New Circle”), and subsequently entered into amendments with New Circle on October 24, 2025 and on January 23, 2026, pursuant to which New Circle has committed to purchase, subject to certain limitations, up to $100 million (the “Total Commitment”) of the Company’s Class A Common Stock. The purchase price of the shares that may be sold to New Circle under the Purchase Agreement will be based on an agreed upon fixed discount to the market price of our Class A Common Stock as computed under the Purchase Agreement. The Company sold 433,806 and 28,727 shares of the Company's Class A Common Stock for $7.3 million and $3.0 million, respectively, during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024. Subsequent to December 31, 2025 and through the date of this report, the Company sold 865,000 shares of the Company's Class A Common Stock for $1.2 million .

The Purchase Agreement will automatically terminate on the earliest of (i) the 36-month anniversary of the Purchase Agreement, (ii) the date on which New Circle shall have made payment to the Company for Class A Common Stock equal to the Total Commitment or (iii) the date any statute, rule, regulation, executive order, decree, ruling or injunction that would prohibit any of the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement goes into effect. The Company has the right to terminate the Purchase Agreement at any time, at no cost or penalty, upon five trading days’ prior written notice to New Circle so long as (a) there are no outstanding purchase notices under which our Class A Common Stock have yet to be issued and (b) the Company has paid all amounts owed to New Circle pursuant to the Purchase Agreement.

Reverse Stock Split

On January 8, 2026, we filed a certificate of amendment to our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as amended, with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware, to effect a 55-to-1 reverse stock split of all classes of our issued and outstanding common stock, without any change to par value (the “Reverse Stock Split”). The Reverse Stock Split became effective January 12, 2026. No fractional shares were issued in connection with the reverse stock split as all fractional shares were rounded down to the next whole share, and a cash payment was made in lieu of such fractional shares. The Reverse Stock Split was intended to bring the Company into compliance with Nasdaq’s Bid Price Rule. All share and per share amounts of our common stock listed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K have been adjusted to give effect to the reverse stock split.

Key Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe our growth and financial performance are dependent on many factors, including those described below.

Sell-side advertising business

Increasing revenue from customers through increased advertising spend from buyers

Colossus Media operates our proprietary sell-side programmatic platform operating under the trademarked banner of Colossus SSP. Our customers (or buyers) include ad exchanges, DSPs, agencies and individual advertisers. We have broad exposure to the ecosystem of buyers, reaching on average approximately 174,000 advertisers per month in 2025, an increase of 6,000, or 4%, over approximately 168,000 advertisers per month in 2024. As spending on programmatic advertising increasingly becomes a larger share of the overall ad spend, advertisers and agencies are seeking greater control of their digital advertising supply chains. To take advantage of this industry shift, we have entered into Supply Path Optimization agreements directly with customers which address acceptable advertisements and data usage. As part of these agreements, we provide advertisers and agencies with benefits ranging from custom data and workflow integrations, product features, volume-based business terms, and visibility into campaign performance data and methodology. As a result of these direct relationships, our existing advertisers and agencies are incentivized to allocate an increasing percentage of their advertising budgets to our platform. However, as discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report, including in Item 1A, "Risk Factors" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we continue to face challenges related to our return to historic levels of revenue and profitability.

We continue to strive to retain existing publishers and add new publishers. Our proprietary Colossus SSP platform was custom developed with a view towards the specific challenges facing small and mid-sized publishers with the belief that smaller publishers often offer a more engaged, highly-valued, unique following but experience technological and budgetary constraints on the path to monetization. We believe that our technology curates unique, highly optimized audiences informed by data analytics, artificial intelligence and algorithmic machine-learning technology, resulting in increased campaign performance.

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Monetizing ad impressions for publishers and buyers

We curate advertisers and increase access to publishers with valuable ad impressions. We focus on monetizing digital impressions by coordinating daily real-time auctions and bids. Each time the publisher’s web page loads, an ad request is sent to multiple ad exchanges and, in some cases, to the demand side platform directly from Colossus SSP. In case of real-time bidding (“RTB”) media buys, many DSPs would place bids to the impressions being offered by the publisher during the auction. The advertiser that bids a higher amount compared to other advertisers will win the bid. We continuously review our available inventory from existing publishers across every format (mobile, desktop, digital video, OTT, CTV, and rich media). The factors we consider when determining which impressions we process include transparency, viewability, and whether or not the impression is human sourced. By consistently applying these criteria, we believe the ad impressions we process will be valuable and marketable to advertisers.

Enhancing ad inventory quality

In the advertising industry, inventory quality is assessed in terms of invalid traffic (“IVT”) which can be impacted by fraud such as “fake eyeballs” generated by automated technologies set up to artificially inflate impression counts. Through our platform design and proactive IVT mitigation efforts, including our accredited verification process, we address IVT on a number of fronts, including sophisticated technology which detects and avoids IVT on the front end and back end, direct publisher and inventory relationships for supply path optimization and ongoing campaign and inventory performance reviews to ensure inventory quality and brand protection controls are in place.

Growing access to valuable ad impressions

Historically, our growth has been driven by a variety of factors including increased access to a variety of impressions. Advertisers and agencies often have a large portfolio of brands requiring a variety of campaign types and support for a wide array of inventory formats and devices, including OTT/CTV, video and display, in-app, native and audio. Our omni-channel proprietary technology platform is designed to maximize these various advertising channels, which we believe is a further driver of efficiency for our buyers. The platform is comprised of publishers across multiple channels including OTT/CTV, display, native, in-app, online video (“OLV”), audio and DOOH. In 2025, we processed approximately 170.4 billion average monthly impressions across many unique audiences including multicultural growth audiences at scale with 76.3 billion, or 45%, of those impressions from growing multicultural-focused audiences. The Colossus SSP continues to expand its capabilities to give our content providers more avenues to distribute ad inventory such as OTT/CTV, digital audio, DOOH, etc. and inform our publishers to enhance their ad selling needs by distributing content in various forms to meet the rising demands of the ad buying community.

Expanding and managing investments

Each impression or transaction occurs in a fraction of a second. Given that most transactions take place in an auction/bidding format, we have invested across the platform to further reduce the processing time. In addition to the robust infrastructure supporting our platform, it is also critical that we align with key industry partners in the digital supply chain. The Colossus SSP is agnostic to any specific demand side platform.

We automate workflow processes whenever feasible to drive predictable and value-added outcomes for our customers and increase the productivity of our organization. We utilize best-in-class server infrastructure platforms that together provide increased capacity, faster response times, and expansion capabilities to align with growth in our business.

Managing industry dynamics

We operate in the rapidly evolving digital advertising industry. Due to the scale and complexity of the digital advertising ecosystem, direct sales via manual, person-to-person processes are insufficient for delivering a real-time, personalized ad experience, creating the need for programmatic advertising. In turn, advances in programmatic technologies have enabled publishers to auction their ad inventory to more buyers, simultaneously, and in real time through a process referred to as header bidding. Header bidding has also provided advertisers with transparent access to ad impressions. As advertisers keep pace with ongoing changes in the way that consumers view and interact with digital media we anticipate further innovation and expect that header bidding will be extended into new areas such as OTT/CTV. We believe our focus on publishers and buyers has allowed us to understand their needs and our ongoing innovation has enabled us to adapt to changes in the industry. Our performance depends on our ability to keep pace with industry changes such as header bidding and the evolving needs of our publishers and buyers while continuing our cost efficiency.

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Seasonality

In the advertising industry, companies commonly experience seasonal fluctuations in revenue. For example, in our sell-side advertising segment, many advertisers allocate the largest portion of their budgets to the fourth quarter of the calendar year in order to coincide with increased holiday purchasing. We expect our sell-side revenue to continue to fluctuate based on seasonal factors that affect the advertising industry as a whole.

Segment Reporting

As further described below in " —Liquidity and Capital Resources – Going Concern" , the Company has experienced a series of unexpected setbacks in the past two years, particularly in the sell-side. During 2025, the Company worked to reconstitute its prior business, target new customers and develop new products for the sell-side segment but was unable to achieve historical volumes. Beginning in 2026, the Company has shifted its focus to driving intentional digital marketing spend with current and future customers historically classified by the Company as buy-side customers as well as new enterprise customers accessing the digital advertising market through its recently launched product – Ignition+. In connection with this shift in focus, the Company is currently working on aggregating its operations.

Buy-side advertising business

New Customer Acquisitions

On the buy-side of our business, our customers consist of purchasers of programmatic advertising inventory (ad space). We serve the needs of about 195 small and mid-sized clients, consisting of advertising space buyers, including small and mid-sized companies, large advertising holding companies (which may manage several agencies), independent advertising agencies and mid-market advertising service organizations. We serve a variety of customers across multiple industries including travel/tourism (including DMOs), education, energy, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, financial services and other industries.

We are focused on increasing the number of customers that use our buy-side advertising businesses as their advertising partner. Our long-term growth and results of operations will depend on our ability to attract more customers, including DMOs, educational institutions and energy companies, across multiple geographies.

Expand Sales to Existing Customers

Our customers understand the independent nature of our platform and relentless focus on driving results based on ROI. Our value proposition is complete alignment across our entire digital supply platform beginning with the first dollar in and last dollar out. We are technology and media agnostic, and we believe our clients trust us to provide the best opportunity for success of their brands and businesses. As a result, our clients have been loyal, with approximately 90% client retention. In addition, we cultivate client relationships through our pipeline of managed and moderate serve clients that conduct campaigns through our platform. The managed services delivery model allows us to combine our technology with a highly personalized offering to strategically design and manage advertising campaigns.

Shift to Digital Advertising

Media has increasingly become more digital as a result of three key ongoing developments:

• Advances in technology with more sophisticated digital content delivery across multiple platforms;

• Changes in consumer behavior, including spending longer portions of the day using mobile and other devices; and

• Better audience segmentation with more efficient targeting and measurable results.

The resulting shift has enabled a variety of options for advertisers to efficiently target and measure their advertising campaigns across nearly every media channel and device. These efforts have been led by big- budgeted, large, multi-national corporations incentivized to cast a broad advertising net to support national brands.

Increased Adoption of Digital Advertising by Small-and Mid-Sized Companies

Only recently have small and mid-sized businesses begun to leverage the power of digital media in meaningful ways, as emerging technologies have enabled advertising across multiple channels in a highly localized nature. Campaign efficiencies yielding measurable results and higher advertising ROI, as well as the needs driven by global economic and

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supply chain challenges, have prompted these companies to begin utilizing digital advertising on an accelerated pace. We believe this market is rapidly expanding, and that small-to-mid-sized advertisers will continue to increase their digital spend.

Seasonality

In the advertising industry, companies commonly experience seasonal fluctuations in revenue. Historically, for our buy-side advertising segment, the second and third quarters of the year reflect our highest levels of advertising activity and the first quarter reflects the lowest level of such activity. We expect our buy-side revenue to continue to fluctuate based on seasonal factors that affect the advertising industry as a whole.

Components of Our Results of Operations

Revenues

For the sell-side advertising segment, we generate revenue by selling advertising inventory (digital ad units) that we purchase from publishers to advertisers through a process of monetizing ad impressions on our proprietary sell-side programmatic platform operating under the trademarked banner Colossus SSP. For the buy-side advertising segment, we generate revenue from customers that enter into agreements with us to provide managed advertising campaigns, which include digital marketing and media services to purchase digital advertising space, data and other add-on features.

In connection with our analysis of principal-versus-agent considerations, we have evaluated the specified goods or services and considered whether we control the goods or services before they are provided to the customer, including the three indicators of control. Based upon this analysis and our specific facts and circumstances, we concluded that we are a principal for the goods or services sold through both our sell-side advertising segment and buy-side advertising segment. On the sell-side advertising segment, we combine goods or services into a combined output that forms a single performance obligation to the end customer while on the buy-side advertising segment, we control the specified goods or services before it is transferred to the end customer. Additionally, we are the primary obligor in the agreement with customers in both our sell-side advertising segment and buy-side advertising segment. Therefore, we report revenue on a gross basis inclusive of all supplier costs and pays suppliers for the cost of digital media, advertising inventory, data and any add-on services or features.

Our revenue recognition policies are discussed in more detail under “Critical Accounting Estimates and Related Policies.”

Cost of revenues

For the sell-side advertising segment, we pay publishers a fee, which is typically a percentage of the value of the ad impressions monetized through our platform. Cost of revenues consists primarily of publisher media fees and data center co-location costs. Media fees include the publishing and real time bidding costs to secure advertising space. For the buy-side advertising segment, cost of revenues consists primarily of digital media fees, third-party platform access fees, and other third-party fees associated with providing services to our customers.

Operating expenses

Operating expenses consist of compensation expenses related to our executive, sales, finance and administrative personnel (including salaries, commissions, stock-based compensation, bonuses, benefits and taxes); general and administrative expenses (including rent expense, professional fees, independent contractor costs, selling and marketing fees, administrative and operating system subscription costs, insurance, and amortization expense related to our intangible assets); and other expense (including transactions that are unusual in nature or which are occurring infrequently).

Other income (expense)

Other income. Other income includes income associated with recovery of receivables and other miscellaneous credit card rebates.

Interest expense. Interest expense is mainly related to our debt as further described below in “ —Liquidity and Capital Resources .”

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Loss on debt extinguishment On October 14, 2025, the Company and its lender executed an amendment to the debt agreement which was accounted for as a debt extinguishment, resulting in a loss from the write-off of unamortized deferred financing fees incurred through the date of the amendment as well as revaluation of the remaining debt. See Note 3 — Long-Term Debt to our consolidated financial statements.

Expenses for Equity Reserve Facility. Expenses are mainly related to our Equity Reserve Facility as further described below in " —Liquidity and Capital Resources ."

Derecognition of tax receivable agreement liability. The Company derecognized its tax receivable agreement liability in connection with the full valuation allowance recorded on the Company's deferred tax assets.

Loss on settlement of accounts payable. The Company recognized a loss on settlement of liability associated with the issuance of Class A Common Stock through the Continuation Capital program that the Company initiated in 2025. See further description in “ —Liquidity and Capital Resources .”

Loss on Exit Fee. The Company recognized a $3.6 million loss for the difference between the face value of the Series A Convertible Preferred Stock exchanged and the proceeds received by Lafayette upon the exchange. See Note 9 — Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements.

Results of Operations

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2025 and 2024

The following tables set forth our consolidated results of operations for the periods presented (in thousands). The period-to-period comparison of results is not necessarily indicative of results for future periods.

Year Ended December 31,

Change

Amount

Revenues

Sell-side advertising

Buy-side advertising

Total revenues

Cost of revenues

Sell-side advertising

Buy-side advertising

Total cost of revenues

Gross profit

Operating expenses

Loss from operations

Other expense, net

Loss before income taxes

Income tax expense

Net loss

Adjusted EBITDA (1)

(1) For a definition of Adjusted EBITDA, an explanation of our management’s use of this measure, and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss see “ – Non-GAAP Financial Measures. ”

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Revenues

Our revenues of $34.7 million in 2025 decreased by $27.6 million, or 44%, from $62.3 million in 2024. Buy-side revenue increased $2.7 million, or 10%, while sell-side advertising revenue decreased $30.3 million, or 85%, over fiscal year 2024. The increase in buy-side revenue of $2.7 million was due to growth from new customers of $7.4 million, including $6.0 million from customers in new verticals, partially offset by a $4.7 million decrease in spending from existing customers, including a $4.0 million decrease from customers no longer actively purchasing from the Company. The decrease in sell-side advertising revenue was primarily due to a decrease in impression inventory. The Company sold approximately 163 million average monthly impressions in 2025, a decrease of 85% from the prior period. Management attributes the cause of this decrease to the ongoing impacts of unexpected business disruption amongst our partners, advertisers and clients caused by multiple short attacks and a market-discredited blog post against our supply-side platform, Colossus SSP, in mid May 2024. Sell-side volumes have resumed but not yet at the levels experienced prior to the post in May 2024. During 2025, the Company worked to reconstitute its prior business, target new customers and develop new products for the sell-side segment but was unable to achieve historical volumes. Beginning in 2026, the Company has shifted its focus to driving intentional digital marketing spend with current and future customers historically classified by the Company as buy-side customers as well as new enterprise customers accessing the digital advertising market through its recently launched product – Ignition+. In connection with this shift in focus, the Company is currently working on aggregating its operations.

Cost of revenues

Cost of revenues of $24.3 million in 2025 decreased by $20.6 million, or 46%, from $44.9 million in 2024. Sell-side advertising cost of revenues decreased $26.0 million, to $8.0 million, or 151% of sell-side revenue for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to $34.1 million, or 96% of sell-side revenue, for the same period in 2024. The decrease in costs was primarily due to the related decrease in revenue, while the 55 percentage point increase as a percentage of revenue was due to fixed costs not decreasing at the same proportionate rate as the revenue decline. Fixed cost of sell-side revenues for the year ended December 31, 2025 of $3.5 million decreased by $1.3 million, or 27%, from fixed cost of sell-side revenues of $4.8 million for the same period in 2024. Buy-side advertising cost of revenues increased $5.4 million, to $16.2 million, or 55% of buy-side revenue, for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to $10.8 million, or 41% of buy-side revenue, for the same period in 2024. See gross profit changes described in more detail below.

Gross profit

Gross profit was $10.4 million in 2025, or 30% of revenue, compared to $17.4 million, or 28% of revenue, in 2024, reflecting a decrease of $7.0 million or 40%. The change in margin for the year ended December 31, 2025 is attributable to the mix in revenue between our business segments as our sell-side segment has higher cost of revenues compared to our buy-side segment, as well as the lower sell-side fixed costs related to server capacity, analytic, development and technology-related costs.

Sell-side advertising gross profit decreased $4.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2025 as compared to prior year, primarily due to the decrease in revenue partially offset by lower fixed costs. Sell-side advertising gross margin was (51)% and 4% for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Buy-side advertising gross profit decreased $2.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the same period in the prior year. Buy-side advertising gross margin was 45% and 59% for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, with the decrease in gross margin percentage due to higher cost to provide services to customers and the mix of services provided.

Operating expenses

The following table sets forth the components of operating expenses for the periods presented (in thousands):

Year Ended December 31,

Change

Amount

Compensation, taxes and benefits

General and administrative

Total operating expenses

Compensation, taxes and benefits

Compensation, taxes and benefits of $14.5 million decreased by $1.9 million in 2025, or 12%, from $16.4 million in 2024. The decrease is primarily due to lower payroll costs resulting from a staff reduction made effective July 1, 2024

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when we began to execute an internal reorganization plan that included a staff reduction, a pause on hiring and cost savings measures, which has lowered certain ongoing expenses that positively affected the current period.

General and administrative

General and administrative (“G&A”) expenses of $10.7 million in 2025 decreased from $14.2 million in 2024. G&A expenses as a percentage of revenue increased to 31% in 2025 compared to 23% in 2024. The decrease in G&A expenses was primarily due to lower professional fees, including $1.7 million in 2024 related to costs to regain compliance with respect to delinquent SEC filings, as well as lower sales and marketing expenses, consulting costs and travel expenses due to ongoing cost savings measures.

We expect to continue to invest in and incur additional expenses associated with our operation as a public company, including professional fees, inve stment in automation, and compliance costs associated with developing the requisite infrastructure required for internal controls. However, on July 1, 2024, we executed an internal reorganization plan that included a staff reduction, a pause on hiring and cost savings measures, which have lowered certain ongoing expenses.

Other expense, net

The following table sets forth the components of other expense, net for the periods presented (in thousands):

Year Ended December 31,

Change

Amount

Interest expense and amortization of deferred financing cost and debt discount (premium), net

Loss on debt extinguishment

Loss on Exit Fee

Loss on settlement of accounts payable

Expenses and commitment shares for Equity Reserve Facility

Other income

Derecognition of tax receivable agreement liability

Total other expense, net

nm – not meaningful

Total other expense, net for the year ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 primarily consists of $5.2 million and $5.4 million, respectively, of interest expense and amortization of deferred financing cost and debt discount (premium), net. Interest expense and amortization of deferred financing cost and debt discount (premium), net decreased by $0.2 million compared to the prior period primarily due to a decrease in interest expense from the reduction of outstanding debt resulting from the conversion of debt to preferred stock in the second half of 2025 partially offset by the debt discount amortization and higher costs on the line of credit balance paid off with long term debt. Total other expense, net for the year ended December 31, 2025 also includes $3.8 million loss on debt extinguishment associated with the October 14, 2025 amendment to the Company's long term debt agreement and $3.6 million loss on Exit Fee (see Note 9 — Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements). Total other expense, net for the year ended December 31, 2024 also includes $5.2 million relating to the derecognition of tax receivable agreement liability in connection with the full valuation allowance recorded on the Company's deferred tax assets.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Going Concern

As discussed in Note 9 — Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements, the Company has experienced significant disruption in its sell-side business due to a series of unexpected setbacks in the past two years, particularly in the sell-side. During 2025, the Company worked with its partners to achieve prior sell-side volume levels but was unable to achieve historical volumes. Despite these challenges, the Company was able to reduce expenses, pay off the matured Credit Agreement with a term loan from Lafayette Square (see Note 3 — Long-Term Debt to our consolidated financial statements), convert existing debt of $35.0 million to Series A Convertible Preferred Stock and establish an Equity Reserve Facility raising additional equity of $10.3 million through December 31, 2025. Additionally, the Company (1) incurred a net loss of $27.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2025 including the impact of the sell-side disruption described above, (2) reported an accumulated deficit of $27.7 million as of December 31, 2025, (3) reported

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cash and cash equivalents of $0.7 million and a working capital deficit of $21.7 million as of December 31, 2025, (4) owes its lender $16.0 million (combination of principal, accrued fees, interest and the Exit Fee described in Note 3 — Long-Term Debt to our consolidated financial statements) as of December 31, 2025, under the 2021 Credit Facility (as defined below) which matures in December 2026 and (5) despite demonstrating compliance with the Stockholders' Equity Rule on November 7, 2025 and the Bid Price Rule on February 12, 2026, remains subject to a discretionary Panel Monitor through November 7, 2026 for the Stockholders' Equity Rule and through February 12, 2027 for the Bid Price Rule. As reported in our consolidated financial statements, the Company believes that it is not in compliance with the Stockholders' Equity Rule as of December 31, 2025. These factors raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern over the next twelve months.

The Company anticipates sources of liquidity to include cash on hand, cash flow from operations, cash generated from its sales under the Company's Equity Reserve Facility and cash generated from other potential sales of equity and/or debt securities and has taken several actions to address liquidity and performance concerns. Such plans include (1) a shift in focus to driving intentional digital marketing spend with current and future customers historically classified by the Company as buy-side customers as well as new enterprise customers accessing the digital advertising market through its recently launched product – Ignition+ allowing for further growth and a return to profitability and (2) refinancing the 2021 Credit Facility by raising additional funds in a registered or private offering. There can be no assurance that the Company’s actions will be successful or that additional financing will be available when needed or on acceptable terms.

Sources of Liquidity

The following table summarizes our cash and cash equivalents and working capital deficit on December 31, 2025 and 2024 (in thousands):

December 31,

Cash and cash equivalents

Working capital deficit

To fund our operations and service our debt thereafter and depending on our growth and results of operations, we have and may continue to raise additional capital through the issuance of additional equity and/or debt, which could have the effect of diluting our stockholders. Any future equity or debt financings may be on terms which are not favorable to us. As our credit facilities become due, we will need to repay, extend or replace such indebtedness. Our ability to do so will be subject to future economic, financial, business and other factors, many of which are beyond our control.

Lafayette Square

On December 3, 2021, the Company entered into the Term Loan and Security Agreement (as amended, unless the context indicates otherwise, the “2021 Credit Facility”) with Lafayette Square Loan Services, LLC (“Lafayette Square”) as administrative agent, and the various lenders thereto. The term loan under the 2021 Credit Facility initially provided for a term loan in the principal amount of up to $32.0 million, consisting of a $22.0 million closing date term loan (the “Term Loan”) and an up to $10.0 million delayed draw term loan (the “Delayed Draw Loan”). The loans under the 2021 Credit Facility are calculated using Term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“Term SOFR”) with a credit spread adjustment of 0.10% per annum for interest periods of one month and 0.15% per annum for interest periods of three months. The loans under the 2021 Credit Facility bear interest at Term SOFR plus the applicable margin minus any applicable impact discount. The applicable margin under the 2021 Credit Facility is based on the consolidated total leverage ratio of the Company at a rate of 7.00% per annum if the consolidated total leverage ratio is less than or equal to 1.00 to 1.00 with gradual increases as the ratio increases up to 10.00% per annum if the consolidated total leverage ratio is greater than 3.50 to 1.00. The maturity date of the 2021 Credit Facility is December 3, 2026.

Quarterly installment payments on the Term Loan and the Delayed Draw Loan, due on the last day of each fiscal quarter, began March 31, 2022 with a final installment due December 3, 2026 for remaining balances outstanding under each loan. Each quarterly installment payment under the closing date term loan was $0.1 million from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2023, and each quarterly installment payment thereafter until maturity is $0.3 million. Each quarterly installment payment under the Delayed Draw Loan was 0.625% of the amount of the Delayed Draw Loan through December 31, 2023, and each quarterly installment payment thereafter until maturity is 1.25% of the amount of the Delayed Draw Loan. At times, amendments to the 2021 Credit Facility have modified this payment schedule.

The 2021 Credit Facility contains customary affirmative and negative covenants, including restrictions on the ability to incur indebtedness, create certain liens, make certain investments, make certain dividends and other types of distributions,

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and enter into or undertake certain mergers, consolidations, acquisitions and sales of certain assets and subsidiaries. Current financial covenants as of and subsequent to December 31, 2025 include (1) a minimum unrestricted cash balance of $0.5 million, (2) minimum quarterly consolidated EBITDA of ($1.9 million) for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2026 and $0.5 million for each quarter thereafter, (3) minimum quarterly sell-side revenue of $2.5 million and $5.0 million for the fiscal quarters ended March 31, 2026 and thereafter, respectively, (4) maximum consolidated total leverage ratio of 3.50 to 1.00 for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and 3.25 to 1.00 for each quarter thereafter and (5) minimum fixed charge coverage ratio of 1.25 to 1.00 for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and 1.50 to 1.00 for each quarter thereafter. The Company was in compliance with the financial covenants under the Credit Agreement, as amended, as of December 31, 2025.

Prior to entering into the Fifth Amendment as defined below, the Company entered into the second, third and fourth amendments to the 2021 Credit Facility. On October 15, 2024, with an effective date of June 30, 2024, the Company and Lafayette Square entered into the Fifth Amendment (the “Fifth Amendment”) to the 2021 Credit Facility which among other things, (1) deferred quarterly installment payments on the Term Loan and the Delayed Draw Loan for the periods from June 30, 2024 through December 31, 2025, (2) required that the Company pay a commitment fee of 50 basis points or an amount of $0.1 million to Lafayette Square, (3) allowed proceeds from future equity raises by the Company, if any, to cure potential financial covenant noncompliance, (4) provided for one-month and three-month interest periods and (5) modified financial covenants. The Fifth Amendment was accounted for as a modification. In connection with the Fifth Amendment, fees paid to Lafayette Square totaling $0.1 million were capitalized and are being amortized to interest expense using the straight-line method, which approximates the effective interest method, over the life of the debt.

On December 27, 2024, the Company and Lafayette Square entered into the Sixth Amendment and Waiver (the “Sixth Amendment”) to the 2021 Credit Facility. Under the terms of the Sixth Amendment, among other changes, Lafayette Square extended a term loan equal to $6.0 million (the “Sixth Amendment Term Loan”). Lafayette Square and the Company agreed to use (1) $4.0 million out of the Sixth Amendment Term Loan to prepay the revolving credit notes under the Credit Agreement as defined below, and (2) $2.0 million to fund an interest reserve under the 2021 Credit Facility. The Sixth Amendment also (1) modified financial covenants, (2) requires Lafayette Square’s prior written consent for certain permitted dividends, including dividends to the Company’s shareholders and (3) waived certain existing events of default related to minimum EBITDA covenants. Lastly, a $3.0 million exit fee, which was fully earned upon execution of the Sixth Amendment and is payable directly to Lafayette Square at maturity or prepayment, was added to the term loan balance. The Sixth Amendment was accounted for as a modification. In connection with the Sixth Amendment, the $3.0 million exit fee was capitalized and amortized to interest expense using the straight-line method, which approximates the effective interest method, over the life of the debt, and fees paid to third parties totaling $0.1 million were expensed as incurred.

On August 8, 2025, the Company and Lafayette Square entered into the Seventh Amendment (the “Seventh Amendment”) which among other things, (1) provided for the conversion of $25.0 million of outstanding term loan obligations into newly issued shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, (2) required the payment of a $1.0 million amendment closing fee and a $0.1 million amendment fee and (3) modified financial covenants. The Seventh Amendment also established a $25.0 million exit fee due upon redemption in full of the newly issued preferred stock with reduction in the amount of the exit fee outstanding for any amounts redeemed or converted. As Lafayette Square did not grant the Company a concession and the terms of the Seventh Amendment were not substantially different, the Seventh Amendment was accounted for prospectively as a modification and no gain or loss was recognized. The shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock were recognized at fair value of $21.4 million upon issuance (see Note 4 — Stockholders’ Deficit and Stock-Based Compensation to our consolidated financial statements) and the Company established the new effective interest rates based on the carrying value of the modified debt. The difference between the fair value of the shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock and the carrying value of the existing debt converted into Series A Convertible Preferred Stock is reflected as a debt premium.

On September 8, 2025, the Company and Lafayette Square entered into the Eighth Amendment (the “Eighth Amendment”) to the 2021 Credit Facility which among other things, Lafayette agreed to make a term loan in the principal amount equal to $3.8 million (the “Eighth Amendment Term Loan”) to repay in full the outstanding amounts owed under the Credit Agreement (as defined below). The Eighth Amendment also provided for a $0.1 million interest reserve and a less than $0.1 million amendment fee. The maturity date of the Eighth Amendment Term Loan was October 30, 2025 which was extended to October 30, 2026 on November 10, 2025 and later revised to September 30, 2026 pursuant to the Eleventh Amendment (as described below). The Eighth Amendment was accounted for prospectively as a modification and no gain or loss was recognized. The Company established the new effective interest rate based on the carrying value of the modified debt.

On October 14, 2025, the Company and Lafayette Square entered into the Ninth Amendment (the “Ninth Amendment”) to the 2021 Credit Facility which among other things, (1) provided for the conversion of $10.0 million of outstanding term loan obligations, including the $3.0 million exit fee established by the Sixth Amendment, into 10,000

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newly issued shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, (2) required the payment of a $3.5 million amendment closing fee at maturity, (3) modified financial covenants, (4) requires prepayments when the Company has an aggregate cash balances in excess of $2.5 million, (5) increases the Seventh Amendment exit fee from $25.0 million to $35.0 million and (6) waives any noncompliance with covenants as of September 30, 2025.

On October 28, 2025, the Company and Lafayette Square entered into the Tenth Amendment (the "Tenth Amendment") to the 2021 Credit Facility which among other things, allows the Company to request that Lafayette Square exchange and/or convert (each, an "Exchange"), in whole or in part, shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock into shares of Class A Common Stock; provided, that Lafayette Square is permitted to decline any such request. The Tenth Amendment provides that the ratio for each Exchange shall be, for each share of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock so exchanged, the quotient of (1) the Accumulated Conversion Value (as defined in the Certificate of Designation for the Series A Convertible Preferred Stock) attributable to such share of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, divided by (2) the volume-weighted average price of the Class A Common Stock for the 20-trading day trailing period immediately preceding the delivery of the notice pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Tenth Amendment, rounded down to the nearest whole share. The Company and Lafayette Square also agreed to modify the terms related to the Exit Fee such that the amount of the exit fee outstanding is also reduced for any proceeds received by Lafayette Square in connection with such exchanges pursuant to the Tenth Amendment. Finally, the Tenth Amendment removes the requirement for the Company to make a prepayment of the loans under the 2021 Credit Facility with any proceeds received from the sale of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock and provides for certain other technical amendments to the 2021 Credit Facility to permit the Exchange. The Tenth Amendment also provided for a less than $0.1 million amendment fee.

As the Ninth Amendment and Tenth Amendment were executed shortly after one another, they were evaluated together for purposes of assessing the transactions under relevant guidance and accounted for as a debt extinguishment. As a result, the Company recognized a $3.8 million loss on early debt extinguishment in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. The Series A Convertible Preferred Stock issued in connection with the Ninth Amendment was recognized at its fair value of $9.7 million upon issuance (see Note 4 — Stockholders’ Deficit and Stock-Based Compensation to the consolidated financial statements), and the Company established the new effective interest rates for the new debt based on the fair value of the debt.

On January 27, 2026, the Company and Lafayette Square entered into the Eleventh Amendment (the “Eleventh Amendment”) to the 2021 Credit Facility which among other things, (1) modified financial covenants effective December 31, 2025, (2) required the payment of a $4.0 million amendment closing fee which allows Lafayette Square to recover the Exit Fee accrued by the Company in the quarter ended December 31, 2025 and (3) modified the principal payment schedule for the outstanding loans under the Term Loan Facility and clarified that the maturity date of the Eighth Amendment Term Loan is September 30, 2026.

At the Company's option, the Company may at any time prepay the outstanding principal balance of the 2021 Credit Facility in whole or in part, without fee, penalty or premium other than the $3.5 million amendment closing fee and the $4.0 million amendment closing fee due at maturity or prepayment, as defined under the Ninth Amendment and the Eleventh Amendment, respectively. The obligations under the 2021 Credit Facility are secured by senior, first-priority liens on all or substantially all assets of the Company. As a result of entering into the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and the resulting debt extinguishment treatment, the Company recognized a $3.8 million loss on early debt extinguishment in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, primarily related to the write-off of $3.5 million of deferred financing costs and $3.0 million of debt premium, the expensing of $3.5 million of lender fees associated with the Ninth Amendment, partially offset by a $0.2 million gain on extinguishment representing the difference between the reacquisition price and the net carrying amount of the extinguished debt. Unamortized deferred financing costs as of December 31, 2025 and 2024 were $0.1 million and $4.2 million, respectively. Unamortized debt discount as of December 31, 2025 and 2024 was $0.2 million and $1.7 million, respectively. Accrued and unpaid interest was $0.8 million and $0 as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Accrued and unpaid fees were $1.2 million and $0 as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively.

Equity Reserve Facility

On October 18, 2024, the Company entered into a Share Purchase Agreement (as amended the “Purchase Agreement” and the facility as a whole, the "Equity Reserve Facility") with New Circle Principal Investments LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“New Circle”), and subsequently entered into an amendment with New Circle on October 24, 2025 (the “Amendment”) pursuant to which New Circle has committed to purchase, subject to certain limitations, up to $100 million (the “Total Commitment”) of the Company’s Class A Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Class A Common Stock”). Under the applicable Nasdaq rules, the Company was not permitted to issue to New Circle under the Purchase Agreement more than 19.99% of the shares of all classes of the Company’s common stock outstanding immediately prior to the execution of the Purchase Agreement (the “Exchange Cap”), unless (i) the Company obtained stockholder approval

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to issue shares of its Class A Common Stock in excess of the Exchange Cap in accordance with applicable Nasdaq rules, or (ii) the average purchase price per share paid by New Circle for all shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock, if any, that the Company elected to sell to New Circle under the Purchase Agreement equaled or exceeded certain minimums permitted under the rules of the Nasdaq Stock Market. The purchase price of the shares that may be sold to New Circle under the Purchase Agreement is based on an agreed upon fixed discount to the market price of our Class A Common Stock as computed under the Purchase Agreement. On December 27, 2024, October 13, 2025 and December 30, 2025, the Company’s stockholders approved the issuance and sale of up to 154,545, 909,090 and 1,818,181 shares, respectively, above the Exchange Cap to New Circle under the Purchase Agreement.

As consideration for New Circle’s irrevocable commitment to purchase shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock upon the terms of and subject to satisfaction of the conditions set forth in the Purchase Agreement, the Company paid New Circle structuring and legal fees of less than $0.1 million. In addition, the Company issued 1,141 shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock to New Circle in October 2024, and an incremental 1,818 shares of the Company’s Class A Common Stock on October 24, 2025 in connection with the Amendment. The Company sold 28,727 shares of the Company's Class A Common Stock for $3.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2024. During the year ended December 31, 2025, the Company sold 433,806 shares of the Company's Class A Common Stock for $7.3 million. During the year ended December 31, 2025, the Company incurred incremental issuance costs, which were expensed in the consolidated statements of operations, given the nature of the Equity Reserve Facility. Subsequent to December 31, 2025 and through the date of this report, the Company sol d 865,000 shares of the Company's Class A Common Stock for $1.2 million .

The Purchase Agreement will automatically terminate on the earliest of (i) the 36-month anniversary of the Purchase Agreement, (ii) the date on which New Circle shall have made payment to the Company for Class A Common Stock equal to the Total Commitment or (iii) the date any statute, rule, regulation, executive order, decree, ruling or injunction that would prohibit any of the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement goes into effect. The Company has the right to terminate the Purchase Agreement at any time, at no cost or penalty, upon five trading days’ prior written notice to New Circle so long as (a) there are no outstanding purchase notices under which our Class A Common Stock have yet to be issued and (b) the Company has paid all amounts owed to New Circle pursuant to the Purchase Agreement. The Company and New Circle may also agree to terminate the Purchase Agreement by mutual written consent.

Continuation Capital Settlement Agreement

On November 20, 2025, the Company entered into a Settlement Agreement (the “Settlement Agreement”) with Continuation Capital, Inc. (“Continuation Capital”), pursuant to which we agreed to issue up to 909,090 shares of Class A Common Stock (the “Exchange Shares”) in exchange for the release of certain claims held by Continuation Capital related to third party vendor payables separately assigned to Continuation Capital in the amount of $3 million. The Exchange Shares will be sold to Continuation Capital at a price of 76% of the lower of (a) the volume weighted average sale price of the Class A Common Stock on Nasdaq during the “Valuation Period,” which is the five day trading period, inclusive of the day of the share request under the Settlement Agreement, which will be extended as necessary to account for multiple tranches of issuances or (b) the average of the four lowest of the most recent five closing prices during the Valuation Period, as defined in the Settlement Agreement. Additionally, as partial consideration for the entry into the Settlement Agreement, the Company paid Continuation Capital a settlement fee of 1,727 shares of Class A Common Stock. The Settlement Agreement was approved on November 21, 2025 by a court following a hearing held on that same date. Accordingly, the issuance of securities under the Settlement Agreement will be exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, in reliance on Section 3(a)(10) thereunder. From the date of the Settlement Agreement was executed through December 31, 2025, $0.7 million has been paid to third party vendors and 209,162 shares have been issued pursuant to the Settlement Agreement. Subsequent to December 31, 2025 through the date of this report, $0.9 million has been paid to third party vendors and 608,164 shares have been issued pursuant to the Settlement Agreement.

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Historical Cash Flows

The following table sets forth our cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024 (in thousands):

Year Ended December 31,

Net cash used in operating activities

Net cash used in investing activities

Net cash provided by financing activities

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

Our cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2025 were held for working capital and general corporate purposes. The decrease in cash and cash equivalents compared with December 31, 2024, primarily resulted from $8.9 million in cash flows used in operating activities partially offset by $8.3 million in cash flows from investing activities.

Operating Activities

Cash provided by operating activities has typically been generated from net income and by changes in our operating assets and liabilities, particularly in the areas of accounts receivable and accounts payable and accrued expenses, adjusted for certain non-cash and non-operating expense items such as depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation and deferred income taxes.

In 2025, net cash flows used in operating activities were $8.9 million and consisted of net loss of $27.7 million, $15.7 million in adjustments for non-cash and non-operating items and $3.1 million of cash inflows from working capital. Adjustments for non-cash and non-operating items mainly consisted of depreciation and amortization expense of $5.5 million, loss on debt extinguishment of $3.8 million, loss on Exit Fee of $3.6 million, stock-based compensation expense of $1.5 million, interest paid in kind of $1.1 million and loss on settlement of accounts payable of $0.3 million.

The $3.1 million increase in cash resulting from changes in working capital primarily consisted of $1.8 million decrease in accounts receivable, a $0.9 million increase in accounts payable and a $0.6 million increase in accrued liabilities and TRA payable, partially offset by a $0.2 million decrease in operating lease liability. The decrease in accounts receivable is mainly due to the reduction in revenue for the year and the increase in accounts payable and accrued liabilities is mainly due to the debt refinancing which extended payment terms on certain fees and interest as described in Note 3 — Long-Term Debt to our consolidated financial statements.

In 2024, net cash flows used in operating activities were $8.6 million and consisted of net loss of $19.9 million, $7.1 million in adjustments for non-cash and non-operating items and $4.1 million of cash inflows from working capital. Adjustments for non-cash and non-operating items mainly consisted of $6.1 million of deferred tax expense, depreciation and amortization expense of $3.5 million, stock-based compensation expense of $1.6 million, provision for credit losses of $0.6 million and expense and commitment shares for the Equity Reserve Facility of $0.5 million partially offset by $5.2 million for the derecognition of the tax receivable agreement liability.

The $4.1 million increase in cash resulting from changes in working capital primarily consisted of $31.6 million decrease in accounts receivable partially offset by a $26.3 million decrease in accounts payable. The decrease in accounts receivable and accounts payable is mainly due to reduction in revenue and related cost of revenues for the year.

Investing Activities

Our investing activities to date have consisted primarily of purchases of software, office furniture and leasehold improvements.

In 2025 and 2024, net cash flows used in investing activities of less than $0.1 million were primarily related to software enhancements, office furniture and leasehold improvements.

Financing Activities

In 2025, net cash from financing activities was $8.3 million mainly resulting from $8.7 million of proceeds from issuance of Class A Common Stock under the Equity Reserve Facility and $3.8 million proceeds from term loan partially

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offset by $3.7 million for payments on the line of credit and $0.3 million for payments on the financed insurance premiums.

In 2024, net cash from financing activities was $5.0 million mainly resulting from $4.0 million proceeds from notes payable, $0.7 million net draws on the Credit Agreement and $1.6 million from issuance of Class A Common Stock partially offset by $0.9 million payment of tax related to shares withheld upon vesting of restricted stock units.

Contractual Obligations and Future Cash Requirements

As of December 31, 2025, our principal contractual obligations expected to give rise to material cash requirements consist of the 2021 Credit Facility, the Credit Agreement and non-cancelable leases for our various facilities. We anticipate that the future minimum payments related to our current indebtedness over the next five years will be $12.3 million in 2026, less than $0.1 million in each of 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030, and $0.1 million thereafter, assuming we do not refinance our indebtedness or enter into a new revolving credit facility. The leases will require minimum payments of $0.3 million in 2026, $0.3 million in 2027, $0.2 million in 2028, $0.2 million in 2029, less than $0.1 million in 2030 and less than $0.1 million thereafter. As of December 31, 2025, we had cash and cash equivalents of $0.7 million.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), including, in particular operating income, net cash provided by operating activities, and net income, we believe that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, as adjusted for stock-based compensation, expenses and commitment shares for the Equity Reserve Facility, losses on debt extinguishment, Exit Fee and settlement of accounts payable and derecognition of tax receivable agreement liability (“Adjusted EBITDA”), a non-GAAP measure, is useful in evaluating our operating performance. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to Adjusted EBITDA is net income.

The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss for each of the periods presented (in thousands):

Year Ended December 31,

Net loss

Add back (deduct):

Interest expense and amortization of deferred financing cost and debt discount (premium), net

Amortization of intangible assets

Stock-based compensation

Depreciation and amortization of property, equipment and software

Loss on debt extinguishment

Loss on Exit Fee

Loss on settlement of accounts payable

Expenses and commitment shares for Equity Reserve Facility

Income tax expense

Derecognition of tax receivable agreement liability

Adjusted EBITDA

In addition to operating income and net income, we use Adjusted EBITDA as a measure of operational efficiency. We believe that this non-GAAP financial measure is useful to investors for period-to-period comparisons of our business and in understanding and evaluating our operating results for the following reasons:

• Adjusted EBITDA is widely used by investors and securities analysts to measure a company’s operating performance without regard to items such as depreciation and amortization, interest expense, provision for income taxes, stock-based compensation, derecognition of tax receivable agreement liability, and certain one-time items such as acquisition transaction costs, losses from financing activities and costs for the Equity Reserve Facility that can vary substantially from company to company depending upon their financing, capital structures and the method by which assets were acquired;

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• Our management uses Adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with GAAP financial measures for planning purposes, including the preparation of our annual operating budget, as a measure of operating performance and the effectiveness of our business strategies and in communications with our board of directors concerning our financial performance; and

• Adjusted EBITDA provides consistency and comparability with our past financial performance, facilitates period-to-period comparisons of operations, and also facilitates comparisons with other peer companies, many of which use similar non-GAAP financial measures to supplement their GAAP results.

Our use of this non-GAAP financial measure has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our financial results as reported under GAAP.

Critical Accounting Estimates and Related Policies

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities and disclosure of contingent liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from these estimates. The Company bases its estimates on past experiences, market conditions, and other assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable under the circumstances, and the Company evaluates these estimates on an ongoing basis. The Company uses estimates to determine many reported amounts, including but not limited to gross vs net assessment in revenue recognition, recoverability of goodwill and long-lived assets, useful lives used in amortization of intangibles, income taxes and valuation allowances as well as stock-based compensation.

Revenue recognition

The Company recognizes revenue using the following five steps: 1) identification of a contract with a customer; 2) identification of the performance obligation(s) in the contract; 3) determination of the transaction price; 4) allocation of the transaction price to the performance obligation(s) in the contract; and 5) recognition of revenue when, or as, the performance obligation(s) are satisfied. The Company’s revenues are derived primarily from two sources: sell-side advertising and buy-side advertising. For additional segment disclosures, refer to Note 7 — Segment Information to our consolidated financial statements. The Company maintains agreements with its customers in the form of written service agreements, which set out the terms of the relationship, including payment terms (typically 30 to 90 days).

For the sell-side advertising segment, the Company generates revenue by selling advertising inventory (digital ad units) that the Company purchases from publishers to advertisers through a process of monetizing ad impressions on the Company’s proprietary sell-side programmatic platform operating under the trademarked banner Colossus SSP. For the buy-side advertising segment, the Company generates revenue from customers that enter into agreements with the Company to provide managed advertising campaigns, which include digital marketing and media services to purchase digital advertising space, data and other add-on features.

In connection with the Company’s analysis of principal-versus-agent considerations, the Company has evaluated the specified goods or services and considered whether the Company controls the goods or services before they are provided to the customer, including the three indicators of control. Based upon this analysis and the Company’s specific facts and circumstances, the Company concluded that it is a principal for the goods or services sold through both the Company’s sell-side advertising segment and buy-side advertising segment. On the sell-side advertising segment, the Company combines goods or services into a combined output that forms a single performance obligation to the end customer while on the buy-side advertising segment, the Company controls the specified goods or services before it is transferred to the end customer. Additionally, the Company is the primary obligor in the agreement with customers in both the Company’s sell-side advertising segment and buy-side advertising segment. Therefore, the Company reports revenue on a gross basis inclusive of all supplier costs and pays suppliers for the cost of digital media, advertising inventory, data and any add-on services or features.

In the advertising industry, companies commonly experience seasonal fluctuations in revenue. For example, in our sell-side advertising segment, many advertisers allocate the largest portion of their budgets to the fourth quarter of the calendar year in order to coincide with increased holiday purchasing while, in our buy-side segment, the second and third quarters of the year reflect our highest levels of advertising activity and the first quarter reflects the lowest level of such activity.

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Sell-side advertising

The Company partners with publishers to sell advertising inventory to the Company’s Colossus Media-curated clients and the open markets (collectively referred to as “buyers”) seeking to access the general market as well as unique multi-cultural audiences. The Company generates revenue from the delivery of targeted digital media solutions, enabling advertisers to connect intelligently with their audiences across online display, video, social and mobile mediums using its proprietary programmatic SSP. The Company refers to its publishers, app developers, and channel partners collectively as its “publishers”. The Company’s platform allows the Company to sell, in real time, ad impressions from publishers to buyers and provides automated inventory management and monetization tools to publishers across various device types and digital ad formats. The Company recognizes revenue at a point in time when an ad is delivered or displayed in response to a winning bid request from ad buyers.

Cash payments made to customers to support integration efforts and long-term contracts are recorded to prepaid expenses or other long-term assets (other assets) and amortized to revenue over the term of the contract. The Company recorded these cash payments in prepaid expenses and other current assets for $0.3 million and $0 and in other long-term assets for $0.1 million and $0 as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. During the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, other assets amortized were $0.1 million and $0, respectively.

Buy-side advertising

The Company purchases media based on the budget established by its customers with a focus on leveraging data services, customer branding, real-time market analysis and micro-location advertising. The Company offers its services on a fully managed basis, which is recognized over time using the output method when the performance obligation is fulfilled. An “impression” is delivered when an advertisement appears on pages viewed by users. The performance obligation, consisting of a series of distinct services, is satisfied over time as the volume of impressions are delivered up to the contractual maximum. Many customers run several different campaigns throughout the year to capitalize on different seasons, special events and other happenings at their respective regions and localities. The Company provides digital advertising and media buying capabilities with a focus on generating measurable digital and financial life for its customers.

Revenue arrangements are evidenced by a fully executed insertion order (“IO”), a master service agreement (“MSA”) and/or a statement of work ("SOW") covering the scope of work to be accomplished and could be a combination of marketing execution tactics. Generally, IOs specify the number and type of advertising metrics to be delivered over a specified time at an agreed upon price under payment models commonly referred to as CPM (cost per impression) or CPC (cost per click). The majority of the Company’s contracts are flat-rate, fee-based contracts and may include provisions for management, agency or other professional fees.

Cash payments received prior to the Company’s delivery of its services are recorded to deferred revenue until the performance obligation is satisfied. The Company recorded deferred revenue (contract liabilities) to account for billings in excess of revenue recognized, primarily related to contractual minimums billed in advance and customer prepayment, of $0.5 million and $0.5 million as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Revenue recognized during 2025 and 2024 from amounts included within the deferred revenue balances at the beginning of each respective period amounted to $0.5 million and $0.4 million, respectively.

Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 606 provides various optional practical expedients. The Company elected the use of the practical expedient relating to the disclosure of remaining performance obligations within a contract and will not disclose remaining performance obligations for contracts with an original expected duration of one year or less.

Goodwill

As of December 31, 2025 and 2024, goodwill was $6.5 million, including amounts related to acquisitions in 2018 and in 2020. The goodwill is deductible for tax purposes and is assessed for impairment at least annually (December 31) starting with a qualitative assessment to determine whether it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit containing goodwill is less than its carrying value. This qualitative assessment may include, but is not limited to, reviewing factors such as macroeconomic conditions, industry and market considerations, cost factors, entity-specific financial performance and other events, such as changes in our management, strategy and primary user base. If the Company determines that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying value, then a quantitative goodwill impairment analysis is performed. Depending upon the results of the quantitative measurement, the recorded goodwill may be written down and an impairment expense is recorded in the consolidated statements of operations when the carrying amount of the reporting unit exceeds the fair value of the reporting unit. Goodwill is tested annually for impairment or more frequently upon the occurrence of a triggering event. The carrying value of the Company's

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sell-side reporting unit was negative as of December 31, 2025. Goodwill of $1.2 million as of December 31, 2025 is allocated to the sell-side reporting unit, which is included in the sell-side reportable segment. The remaining goodwill of $5.3 million is allocated to our buy-side reporting unit. There was no accumulated goodwill impairment as of December 31, 2025 and 2024. Our reporting units align with our segments (see Note 7 — Segment Information to our consolidated financial statements).

Intangible assets, net

Intangible assets consist of customer relationships, trademarks and non-compete agreements. Intangible assets are recorded at fair value at the time of their acquisition and are stated within the consolidated balance sheets net of accumulated amortization. Intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives and recorded as amortization expense within general and administrative expenses in the consolidated statements of operations. The Company’s intangible assets are being amortized over their estimated useful lives, using the straight-line method with non-compete agreements over 5 years and other intangibles over 10 years.

Impairment of long-lived assets

The Company evaluates the recoverability of long-lived assets, including property, equipment and software costs and intangible assets if facts or circumstances indicate that any of those assets might be impaired. ASC 360-10-15 requires the Company to group assets and liabilities at the lowest level for which identifiable cash flows are largely independent of the cash flows of other assets and liabilities and evaluate the asset group against the sum of the undiscounted future cash flows to determine if a write-down to fair value is necessary. No impairment loss was recognized during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024.

Stock-based compensation

Stock-based compensation cost for options and restricted stock units (“RSU”) awarded to employees and directors is measured at the grant date based on the calculated fair value of the award and is recognized as an expense over the requisite service period (generally the vesting period of the equity grant). Contingently issued awards with a requisite service period that precedes the grant date are measured and recognized at the start of the requisite service period and remeasured each reporting period until the grant date.

The Company estimates the fair value of RSUs based on the closing price of the Company’s common stock on the date of the grant. The Company estimates the fair value of stock options using the Black-Scholes valuation model. Key input assumptions used to estimate the fair value of stock options include the Company’s stock price, as well as assumptions regarding the expected common stock price volatility over the term of the stock options, the expected term of the stock options, risk-free interest rates and the expected dividend yield. The risk-free interest rate is derived using the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at date of grant. Other assumptions are based on historical experience and activity. The Company considers an estimated forfeiture rate for stock options based on historical experience and the anticipated forfeiture rates during the future contract life.

Income taxes

In February 2022, concurrent with its organizational transactions, the Company entered into a tax receivable agreement (“Tax Receivable Agreement” or “TRA”) with DDH LLC and Direct Digital Management, LLC (“DDM”). The TRA provides for certain income (loss) allocations between the Company and DDH LLC under the agreement. DDH LLC is a limited liability company, is treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes and generally is not subject to any entity-level U.S. federal income tax and certain state and local income taxes. Any taxable income or loss generated by the Company is allocated to holders of LLC units (“LLC Units”) in accordance with the Second Amended and Restated Limited Liability Company Agreement (“LLC Agreement”), and distributions to the owners of LLC Units in an amount sufficient to fund their tax obligations. The Company is subject to U.S. federal income taxes, in addition to state and local income taxes with respect to its allocable share of any taxable income or loss under the LLC Agreement. Pursuant to the Company’s election under Section 754 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), the Company expects to obtain an increase in its share of the tax basis in the net assets of DDH, LLC when LLC Units are exchanged by the members of DDH, LLC. The Company made an election under Section 754 of the Code for each taxable year in which an exchange of LLC interest occurred. During the year ended December 31, 2025, members of DDM exchanged 28,955 shares of Class B Common Stock into shares of Class A Common Stock. No shares were exchanged during the year ended December 31, 2024.

Table of Contents

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are determined based on differences between financial reporting and tax bases of assets and liabilities and are measured using the enacted tax rates and laws that will be in effect when the differences are expected to reverse. A valuation allowance is established when it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. The establishment of a valuation allowance requires significant judgment and is impacted by various estimates. Both positive and negative evidence, as well as the objectivity and verifiability of that evidence, is considered in determining the appropriateness of recording a valuation allowance on deferred tax assets.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2 — Basis of Presentation and Consolidation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies to our consolidated financial statements for accounting pronouncements recently adopted and accounting pronouncements not yet adopted.