Marti Technologies (MRT) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Nov. 9, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Founder and Chief Executive Officer - Oguz Alper Oktem
• Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer - Cankut Durgun

TAKEAWAYS

• Revenue -- $24.7 million, an increase of 128% year over year driven by higher trip volumes and continued platform monetization.
• Gross Profit -- $20.2 million, an increase of 176% reflecting improving unit economics and significant operating leverage.
• Gross Profit Margin -- 81.5%, a record level for the company that has expanded in every quarter since the beginning of 2025.
• Income from Operations -- $2.7 million, representing the first positive quarterly operating income in the history of the company.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $5.6 million, a 23% margin that nearly doubled from $2.9 million in the second quarter of 2026.
• Net Loss -- $1 million, representing a 91% narrowing from an $11.2 million loss in the prior year quarter.
• Net Loss Per Share -- $0.01, a narrowing from $0.14 in the third quarter of 2025.
• Free Cash Flow -- Close to $1 million, marking the second consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow for the company.
• Trips -- 22 million, an increase of 46% year over year supported by growing ride-hailing usage.
• Unique Platform Consumers -- 2.7 million, an increase of 64% year over year reflecting expansion into new cities and deeper consumer acquisition.
• All-time Unique Ride-hailing Riders -- 5.1 million, an 81% increase that exceeded the company target of 4.9 million for the end of September.
• All-time Registered Ride-hailing Drivers -- 597,000, a 64% increase year over year that exceeded the third quarter target of 580,000 drivers.
• City Footprint -- 40 cities, an expansion from 30 cities at the end of the second quarter, now covering approximately 90% of the Turkish GDP.
• Multiservice Consumer Engagement -- 3.2 times more trips per consumer and 2.8 times more revenue per consumer compared to single-service users.
• Multiservice Supply Efficiency -- 3.2 times more trips for motorcycle drivers and 1.9 times more for car drivers compared to those providing only one service.
• New Consumer Acquisition -- 650,000 record new riders and 53,000 new registered drivers added during the third quarter.
• FY 2026 Revenue Guidance -- $85 million, a reaffirmed target following $60.1 million in revenue generated during the first nine months of the year.
• FY 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance -- $7 million, a reaffirmed target that the company already exceeded with an $8 million result for the first nine months.
• Average Daily Vehicles Deployed -- 20,800, a decrease from 22,300 in the prior year reflecting a fleet optimization strategy and the decommissioning of vehicles active for over five years.
• Cost of Revenue -- 19% of revenue, a decrease from 63% in the first quarter of 2025 due to operating leverage as the platform scales.
• Operating Cash Flow -- $1 million, driven by improving business economics and disciplined cost management.
• Noncash Share-based Compensation -- $2.2 million, a 47.7% decrease compared to $4.3 million in the third quarter of 2025.
• Trip Frequency -- 8.2 trips per unique consumer, a decrease from 8.6 in the prior year reflecting the contribution of newly launched cities where engagement is maturing.
• September Performance -- Revenue has more than doubled year over year in each quarter of 2026, reaching $60.1 million year to date.

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RISKS

• Durgun stated, "seasonally, the fourth quarter is generally slower in our business than the second and third quarters," noting that historical trends impact both ride-hailing and two-wheeled electric vehicle services.
• Oktem noted that ride-hailing development in Turkey represents "a legal battle on all fronts" as the company navigates regulatory challenges and court cases while scaling its operations.
• Durgun warned that the company has increased marketing investments in the fourth quarter to position for growth in 2027, which may impact near-term adjusted EBITDA levels despite exceeding full-year targets early.

SUMMARY

Marti Technologies, Inc. (NYSEMKT:MRT) reported record revenue and gross profit margins during the third quarter, achieving its first period of positive income from operations. Management stated that the company is utilizing its nationwide network to expand into adjacent services and capture additional value from existing consumer and driver relationships. The company reached its unique rider and driver milestones one month ahead of schedule while expanding its ride-hailing footprint to 40 of Turkey's largest cities. Strategic focus has expanded to include autonomous mobility partnerships as the platform seeks to integrate new vehicle technologies into its operational infrastructure.

• Oktem stated, "We are looking to expand our business as fast as we can to as many cities as possible in the shortest amount of time."
• Management reported that the ride-hailing service is currently monetized in eight to nine cities, with a strategy to wait approximately two to 2.5 years after a city launch before beginning monetization.
• Oktem stated, "Marti is also the only operator offering both car and motorcycle hailing services at scale," which is complemented by delivery and two-wheeled electric vehicle services.
• The company expanded its autonomous mobility ecosystem in October through a partnership with CalmCar, and the first vehicle equipped with the technology has arrived in Turkey for testing.
• Durgun noted that operating in Turkey provides structural advantages such as lower labor costs and insurance premiums, allowing for margins that exceed international benchmarks.
• Management highlighted that multiservice engagement strengthens platform economics, with each new service added increasing utilization on both the supply and demand sides of the marketplace.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Marti Super App: An integrated mobile platform providing access to ride-hailing, delivery, and shared electric vehicle services in Turkey.
• Tensor: A strategic partner collaborating with the company to develop an autonomous mobility ecosystem.
• CalmCar: A technology provider of autonomous driving solutions for vehicle testing and operational integration.
• GDP Coverage: The percentage of Turkey's total Gross Domestic Product represented by the cities within the company's operational footprint.
• Elasticity Measurements: AI-driven models used by the company to analyze how changes in pricing or supply affect consumer demand in real time.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Marti Technologies Third Quarter 2026 Conference Call. Before we begin, I'd like to mention that today's earnings release and earnings presentation are available on Marti's Investor Relations website at ir.marti.tech, where you will also be able to find links to our SEC filings, along with the other information about Marti. Joining me on the call today are Oguz Alper Oktem, Marti's Founder and CEO; and Cankut Durgun, Marti's Co-Founder and President and COO.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on this call as well as in today's earnings release and accompanying earnings presentation contain forward-looking statements regarding our financial outlook, business plans, objectives, goals and strategies and other future events and developments, including statements about the market and about the development and deployment of autonomous vehicle technology and partnerships. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include those described in our filings with the SEC, today's earnings release and an accompanying earnings presentation and are based on current expectations and beliefs as of today, November 9, 2026.

In addition, our discussion today will include references to certain supplemental non-GAAP financial measures, including EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, and margin and free cash flow, which should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for our GAAP financial results. We use these non-GAAP measures in evaluating and managing Marti's business and believe they provide useful information for management and our investors. Beginning with the quarter ended June 30, 2026, we revised our calculation on adjusted EBITDA and prior period amounts have been revised to conform to the current presentation.

Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures where appropriate, together with the description of the revision can be found in today's earnings release and earnings presentation as well as our filings with the SEC. With that, I'll turn the call over to Alper.

Oguz Oktem: Thank you for joining us today for Marti's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. The third quarter was a breakthrough quarter for Marti. We delivered record revenue, record gross profit margin, positive income from operations for the first time in our history and our second consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow. Last quarter, we said that scale was increasingly translating into operating leverage. This quarter, that leverage carried through to our operating performance. As our platform scales, we're generating significantly more revenue without a corresponding increase in our cost base, allowing a growing proportion of our incremental revenue to flow through to profitability and cash generation.

Our strategy remains straightforward, build Türkiye's largest and most engaged mobility network, then leverage that network to expand into adjacent services and capture additional value from our existing consumer and driver relationships. The third quarter results demonstrate that this strategy is working. We are growing our nationwide presence, deepening engagement across our multiservice platform and increasingly translating that growth into improved profitability. During the quarter, we continued to strengthen our nationwide presence. Ride-hailing delivered robust growth across our 30-city footprint. And in October, we launched ride-hailing in 10 additional cities. Today, Marti operates in 40 cities in total, covering approximately 90% of Türkiye's GDP. Our rider and driver networks continue to grow strongly.

We exceeded our September 30 targets for both all-time unique ride-hailing riders and registered drivers, achieving our key milestones a month ahead of schedule. We also continue to advance our long-term growth initiatives. Following our partnership with Tensor, we expanded our multi-partner autonomous mobility ecosystem in October with CalmCar and the first CalmCar equipped vehicle was already delivered and arrived in Türkiye. Continued operating leverage translated into exceptional financial results, too. Revenue increased 128% year-over-year to a record $24.7 million, driven by increasing trip volumes and continued platform monetization. Gross profit increased 176% to $20.2 million and gross profit margin reached a record 81.5%, reflecting improving unit economics and the operating leverage of our model.

Our improving unit economics and disciplined cost management drove a significant improvement in profitability. Adjusted EBITDA reached $5.6 million, a 23% margin, nearly doubling from $2.9 million in the second quarter. Income from operations turned positive for the first time at $2.7 million, and our net loss narrowed to a near breakeven of $1 million. With 1 quarter remaining, our 9-month adjusted EBITDA of $8 million already exceeds our full year guidance of $7 million, and we are positioned to meet our full year 2026 guidance. We are the #1 urban mobility app in Türkiye across both iOS and Android.

Marti is also the only operator offering both car and motorcycle hailing services at scale, which we complement with our 2-wheel electric vehicle fleet and our on-demand delivery services. Since launch, our platform has facilitated more than 217 million trips, serving 8.9 million unique consumers across our mobility and delivery services. Our ride-hailing marketplace continues to expand rapidly as well. As of September 30, we had reached 5.1 million all-time unique ride-hailing riders and built a network of 597,000 registered drivers. These metrics highlight the strength of our multiservice platform and our ability to scale both supply and demand at the same time. Marti has quickly emerged as Türkiye's leading urban mobility platform.

Scale, brand recognition and nationwide operations create meaningful competitive advantages as we continue expanding our services. Globally, mobility markets tend to be led by local champions with deep operational expertise, strong brand recognition and an understanding of local consumer behavior. There is no exception in Türkiye. Our nationwide presence, established brand and integrated platform position Marti to benefit from these dynamics. Following the launch of our ride-hailing in 10 new cities in October, Marti now operates in 40 of Türkiye's largest cities, representing approximately, as I said, 90% of our GDP. This is up to -- up from 30 cities and approximately 85% of GDP at the end of the quarter.

This footprint enables us to launch new services efficiently, deepen consumer engagement and serve the large majority of the Turkish mobility market through a single integrated platform. Our operating metrics once again reflect the strength of our multiservice platform. During the third quarter, trips increased 46% year-over-year to 22 million and the unique platform consumers grew 64% to 2.7 million. Since the first quarter of 2025, trips have grown 2.6x and unique platform consumers 2.5x. Trips per unique platform consumer were 8.2 compared to 8.6 now in the prior year quarter. This modest decline reflects the increasing contribution of newly launched cities where consumer engagement is still developing. We expect engagement to strengthen as these markets mature.

Our ride-hailing service continues to be the primary driver of platform growth and consumer acquisition. As of September 30, all-time unique ride-hailing riders grew by 81% year-over-year from 2.8 million to 5.1 million and all-time registered ride-hailing drivers grew 64% from 387,000 to 597,000. During the third quarter, we added a record 650,000 new riders and 53,000 new registered drivers, further strengthening the scale and liquidity of our marketplace. Once again, we exceeded our targets, which were 4.9 million riders and 580,000 drivers by the end of the third quarter. Our next milestone is to reach 5.65 million all-time unique ride-hailing riders and 630,000 registered drivers by December 31, 2026.

As our ride-hailing marketplace scales, multiservice engagement continues to strengthen and drive stronger platform economics. During the third quarter, multiservice consumers completed 3.2x more trips and generated 2.8x more revenue per consumer than single-service consumers. On the supply side, multiservice drivers completed significantly more trips than single-service drivers, 3.2x more for motorcycle drivers and 1.9x more for car drivers as an example. Each new service we add strengthens utilization and deepens engagement on both sides of our marketplace. We continue to apply AI across our technology stack and operations to improve the efficiency of our marketplace. A good example of this is the core of our marketplace, our dynamic pricing and matching systems.

Our teams continuously refine these AI models to better balance consumer demand and driver supply in real time, match each request with the most suitable driver and improve trip completion rates. In the third quarter, we continued to work on our elasticity measurements, supply and demand forecasting and batch matching algorithms. As our platform expands, the growing volume of transactions provide additional data to continuously refine these systems. We believe these capabilities will become increasingly important in helping us manage a larger marketplace more efficiently while maintaining a high-quality consumer and driver experience. On interesting news, we also made meaningful progress in autonomous mobility this quarter.

As autonomous vehicle technology continues to develop, we believe the key to bringing it to Türkiye will be connecting technology providers with consumer demand and the infrastructure required to operate in each market. Our approach is to build a multi-partner autonomous mobility ecosystem in the country, working with multiple partners and selecting autonomous driving technologies best suited for Türkiye. Marti brings 3 things to this ecosystem: our leading mobility super app and the wider demanded aggregates, our established operational infrastructure, and our ability to engage with regulators and public sector stakeholders. Following our multiyear strategic partnership with Tensor, in October, we expanded this ecosystem through our partnership with CalmCar, a provider of autonomous driving solutions.

The first CalmCar-equipped vehicle has arrived in the country, and we expect to begin closed area testing in Istanbul, subject to obtaining the required test permits. We are also in discussions with additional autonomous vehicle partners. With that, I will turn the call over to my partner, Cankut, to discuss our financial results in greater detail.

Cankut Durgun: Thank you, Alper. Our third quarter results demonstrate the significant operating leverage in Marti's business model. We continue to grow the platform rapidly while keeping cost growth well below revenue growth. This translated into record gross profitability, positive income from operations for the first time and our second quarter of positive free cash flow. Let me now walk you through the financial results in more detail. Trips increased 46% year-over-year, and unique platform consumers grew 54%, driven by increasing ride-hailing usage in our existing cities and the launch of new cities. We ended the quarter with 5.1 million all-time unique ride-hailing riders and 597,000 registered drivers.

As part of our 2-wheeled electric vehicle fleet optimization strategy, we continue to gradually decommission our 2-wheeled electric vehicles, which were first introduced on the field in 2021 and have, therefore, already been active for over 5 years. We reduced average daily vehicles deployed from 22,300 in the third quarter of 2025 to 20,800 in the third quarter of 2026. On the financial side, revenue more than doubled, while cost of revenues and total operating expenses grew at a much slower pace. As a result, our gross profit margin reached a record 81%. Income from operations turned positive for the first time in our history, and adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled from the prior quarter's figure.

Let me now walk you through some of these figures in a bit more detail. On the revenue side, quarterly revenue grew for the sixth consecutive quarter. Third quarter revenue increased to a record $24.7 million, an increase of $13.9 million compared to the prior year quarter. Driven by increasing trip volumes and continued platform monetization, revenue has persistently more than doubled year-over-year in each quarter of 2026. This growth comes with significant economies of scale. Since the first quarter of 2025, revenue has grown 4.1x, while cost of revenues has grown just 1.2x. As a result, our cost of revenues has fallen from 63% to 19% of revenue.

Our Q3 gross profit of $20.2 million implies a record 81% gross profit margin. Our gross profit margin has expanded in every quarter since the beginning of 2025. Perhaps the most significant financial milestone we achieved this quarter was getting to positive income from operations for the first time in our history. Income from operations came in at $2.7 million. This is compared to a loss of $8.8 million in the prior year quarter and represents an improvement of $11.5 million. Our operating margin improved from negative 81% in the third quarter of 2025 to positive 11% this quarter after a steady improvement each quarter this year.

Adjusted EBITDA, which turned positive for the first time last quarter, reached $5.6 million in the third quarter, nearly doubling from $2.9 million in the second quarter and improving $9.2 million year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 23%. For the first 9 months of 2026, adjusted EBITDA was $8 million. This compares to negative $9.6 million in the same period last year and represents a $17.6 million improvement in just 1 year. Our net loss narrowed 91% year-over-year to a near breakeven $1 million. This is a $10.1 million improvement from an $11.2 million net loss in the third quarter of 2025. Third quarter included $2.2 million of noncash share-based compensation expense.

Excluding this expense, we would have generated net income of $1.2 million in the quarter. Perhaps the most important validation of our improving business economics is that this operating leverage is now translating into cash generation. We generated $1 million of operating cash flow and deducting property, plant and equipment purchases from this figure, close to $1 million of free cash flow in the third quarter, marking our second consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow. Turning to our outlook for the year. We are reaffirming our fiscal year 2026 guidance of $85 million in revenue and $7 million in adjusted EBITDA.

Our revenue of $60.1 million in the first 9 months of 2026 already represents 71% of our full year guidance. By comparison, our revenue in the first 9 months of 2025 represented 64% of our full year 2025 revenue. On adjusted EBITDA, with 1 quarter remaining, our 9-month figure of $8 million already exceeds our full year guidance of $7 million. Taken all together, our third quarter results demonstrate the significant progress that we've made in scaling our platform and improving our financial performance. We've expanded our ride-hailing footprint to 40 cities, covering 90% of Türkiye's GDP. We've continued to grow our consumer and driver networks, and we've strengthened engagement across our multiservice platform.

At the same time, we've reached important financial milestones, including record revenue and gross profit margin, positive income from operations for the first time and a second consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow. We entered the final quarter of the year with strong momentum, and we remain focused on disciplined growth and continued margin improvement. We believe that we're increasingly well positioned to capitalize on the substantial opportunity in Türkiye's mobility market and adjacent markets while creating long-term value for our shareholders. We thank you for participating today, and we'd be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Fawne Jiang from StoneX.

Yanfang Jiang: First of all, congrats on a very strong quarter. I want to follow up on your guidance. Again, very strong performance year-to-date. I think if I calculate correctly, you already surpassed your full year EBITDA guidance of $7 million target. I guess the question here is, should we interpret -- but you did not raise your full year guidance. I guess the question here is, should we interpret that as conservatism? Or are there any meaningful incremental investment or seasonal headwinds we should be factoring in for 4Q? And more importantly, how should we think about 2027?

Cankut Durgun: So in terms of the fourth quarter, seasonally, the fourth quarter is generally slower in our business than the second and third quarters. Historically, that's been as valid for our ride-hailing business as it has been for our 2-wheeled electric vehicle business. And as a result, we should expect continued strong performance in the fourth quarter, but not a major uplift, which is the reason for not revising the revenue guidance that we have placed for the full year. From an adjusted EBITDA perspective, you're right, Fawne, we did already surpass in the first 9 months, the full year figure.

And the fourth quarter is going to be a quarter where we are going to be thinking heavily as we already have been about how to invest marketing in an effective way in order to position the company for the highest growth possible in 2027. So that's the reason why, together with a bit of conservatism on our side, you are right, but also together with increased marketing actions that we have started taking. That's why we haven't revised the adjusted EBITDA guidance for the full year 2026.

We are going to be looking to see some of the returns on these marketing investments, which will inform the 2027 forecast, and we do foresee releasing that before the end of the year as well.

Yanfang Jiang: That's fair. Second question is regarding your monetization opportunities across your 40 cities, that's actually where you are operating right now. Last quarter, you mentioned that monetization was only on 7 cities, give and take, and effective take rate around. Has that changed in this quarter? How should we think about the timing and the pace of monetization in the newer cities, particularly heading into 2027?

Cankut Durgun: We still monetize, I believe it's 8 or 9 cities, so certainly less than 10, and the effective take rates have not changed. Most of the cities that we launched, right? So while we're active in 40 cities right now, the vast majority of those, I believe 20 of those were launched in the last 4 months or so. And there's another 16 which were launched in the last 1.5 years or so. And if you take Istanbul as a proxy, right, we only began monetizing Istanbul 2 years after the launch of the city.

That is the reason why we don't foresee adding new cities to the monetization mix at a significant pace beyond waiting instead for them to reach their, let's say, 2-, 2.5-year mark. So that's the reason why we haven't baked in any take rate increases either.

Yanfang Jiang: Got you. Switching gears back to your operating leverage. Your gross margin reached 81.5% for the quarter, already above the 80% sustainable level, I think we discussed last quarter. What drove the incremental improvement? And more importantly, what -- like how should we think about the long-term gross margin fading? And given the structural, say, cost advantage in Türkiye, do you see the potential adjusted EBITDA margin eventually to get to 50%, 60% range when you scale?

Cankut Durgun: The gross margin numbers as well as the adjusted EBITDA margin levels as well as what they are going to be at steady state, I think we need to take them sort of quarter-by-quarter because -- we do have analogies that we can look at in terms of international ride-hailing firms and what their gross margins are and what their adjusted EBITDA margins are. And we do believe that we have specific structural advantage as a result of operating in Türkiye, whether that's in terms of insurance premiums, whether that's in terms of lower cost labor structures that do give us the ability to achieve higher than international benchmark gross margin and adjusted EBITDA figures.

I think we're beginning to demonstrate that, right? The increase that you highlighted in the gross margin to 81% as well as the increase in the adjusted EBITDA margin to 23%. Those are supportive of the thesis that we laid out in -- I believe it was last quarter's call for the first time. And we're going to see where they end up. We're going to continue to track these on a quarter-by-quarter basis and see what the steady-state numbers end up being.

Operator: Next question today is coming from Poe Fratt from Alliance Global Partners.

Charles Fratt: Can you highlight the changes in the October '29 convertible note agreement? And would you also clarify the issuance of 5 million shares when -- to Callaway, when would that occur?

Cankut Durgun: So the October 2029 convertible note agreement was originally an agreement, a financing agreement that we had the ability to draw down on until the end of 2026. It was an agreement that we did not need -- we did not foresee needing the financing. But in the event of it becoming necessarily primarily for potential competitive reasons, secondarily to further accelerate growth, we wanted to have that available. And we decided to continue to have it available in 2027, actually through the end of -- through the mid-2028. So we extended it through July 2028.

And the commitment shares are as part of the financing agreement rewarded in order for giving us -- for the financing partner giving us the optionality to draw down on that $100 million facility should it become necessary.

Charles Fratt: To clarify, when would those shares be issued as the notes are drawn down, Cankut? Or will they be issued in this quarter?

Cankut Durgun: They will be issued this quarter.

Charles Fratt: Okay. And then on the management incentive program, it looks like you've created RSUs, I think, for the first time. Can you clarify that? And then can you -- with the new shares that you issued to Callaway and then the RSUs or the PS, I think they're RSUs. Can you just give me an idea of where your diluted share count will be at the end of the year?

Cankut Durgun: So the details of the financing arrangement as well as the management incentive plan are fully in the filings that we shared and the figures are there as well. The management incentive plan is in the amount of 10% of fully diluted outstanding shares. And part of it is being allocated currently, part of it will be allocated in the future. And that can be added to previous fully diluted share counts in order to arrive at the ultimate number. I would need to look at the specific filings to have a more concrete number that I can get back to you with after this call.

Charles Fratt: Okay. That would be great. I'm sort of thinking more like 100 million diluted shares -- and then when can you talk about rolling out into the 10 incremental cities that you announced in October, well in advance of when you think they'll generate revenues and on top of the 10 you rolled out in the third quarter. Is that going to change your cost structure at all looking at 2027?

Oguz Oktem: I guess I'll answer this. So we are looking to expand our business as fast as we can to as many cities as possible in the shortest amount of time. And thankfully, our business allows for us to launch these new cities without much investment locally. And we operate out of Istanbul, this is where our HQ is. And whenever we're launching a new city, it's just switching the city on and doing marketing activities there. So the cost structure per city launch is not going to be much different than it has historically been. And we also cover already 85%, 90% of the GDP of the country.

So the cities we're launching now are not as large as the ones we launched previously. So as we're rolling out newer cities, we are reaching smaller and smaller and smaller markets as we go along. The real growth is coming from the growth of the cities that we launched earlier. So I don't foresee any significant cost changes to our new city launches going forward. We actually will be reaping the benefits of the launches we've done over the past few years.

Charles Fratt: Okay. And then, Cankut, can you just -- your gross margin was over 80%. I think on the last call, you sort of alluded to there being a hard cap at 80%. Can you just help me understand how you got above that? It looks like discounts dropped from 10% to a little under 9%. But can you just sort of give me a little more color on how you're thinking about that hard cap? Was that just -- any color would be helpful.

Cankut Durgun: I'm learning as we go along as well. This is uncharted territory, right, a ride-hailing firm with these margins. It's where that hard ceiling is if there is a hard ceiling. What I referred to in the last quarterly call was that this isn't a SaaS business at the end of the day, right? Like so we do have an off-line service that we're delivering, and therefore, there are certain cost items related to delivering what is ultimately an off-line service that do exist, which don't exist for fully online digital services. And therefore, I was estimating that 80% would probably be a good ballpark for where our gross margin could head to.

We have hit that number as early as the immediate quarter. So perhaps I was I wasn't optimistic enough about where this will be. This is going to be something that we'll continue to monitor on a quarterly basis.

Charles Fratt: But I guess the -- would you think that the hard cap or the ceiling, as you put it, is closer to 85% or you're not changing that sort of your view on the ceiling?

Cankut Durgun: We're going to continue to monitor it on a quarterly basis.

Operator: Our next question is coming from Dick Ryan from Oak Ridge Financial.

Richard Ryan: Cankut, you had a nice -- obviously, the legal win in the quarter at the appeals level. It certainly looks like that arena is changing because initially, it was the lower court, then going up to the appeals court back to the lower court. So now it looks like that dynamic is changing with the appeals ruling and then obviously going to a higher court at some point. Can you just kind of put in perspective where you're currently sitting, what your current thoughts are on the legal issue?

Oguz Oktem: Cankut, do you want to take this or...

Cankut Durgun: You can go ahead.

Oguz Oktem: Right. The development of ride-hailing has never been easy in any country, let alone Türkiye. Türkiye is the one that's catching up to the rest of the world. So it is a legal battle on all fronts. But our base case is strong, and that's why we're operating at scale without any impediment to our business. As you've thoughtfully summarized, it was the first court of first instance that we started in. There were a few decisions that were made and then the Court of Appeals sort of like overturned them. But the final decision on the 14th Court of Appeals of the city of Istanbul is very indicative of how this business model is viewed nationally.

It basically says there is the freedom of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the Turkish constitution and no service specifically banned by any law cannot be shut down by the courts. And that is a more theoretical and overarching decision than the technicalities of ride-hailing itself. So we see our court cases slowly disappearing into the background and becoming noise as we scale even further and extending our service to as many people as possible. So this is obviously going to go to a higher court, but we know that our base case assumptions and base case legal position is very strong, and we will continue to operate while working on these court cases one by one.

The tactic here is obviously by our opponent is to turn this into a war of attrition or as many court cases as possible, just trying to overwhelm us with sheer volume. But it's clearly that technique is clearly not working, and we're winning on all fronts, and we are growing very rapidly.

Richard Ryan: Obviously, your results aren't -- are impressive. What's the competition? I mean, is there any competition out there that you're seeing that are taking notice of your successes? Are you running into any issues? Or are you anticipating any in the near term?

Oguz Oktem: I mean right now, we are 100% focused on our product, our services and our expansion. Right now, there's no meaningful competition. I don't know if any will show up, but no market is ever a monopoly for long, if it's correct to use the word here. But for now, I think we are basically selling water in the desert in the sense that Türkiye is parched when it comes to tech-enabled mobility services, especially ride-hailing. And wherever we're launching, we're getting good results, and we will continue to do so in the near future.

Richard Ryan: Sorry...

Cankut Durgun: Sorry, I was just going to add. I mean, if we look at the transportation space, right, the transportation space in Türkiye, while we are the market leader, it is competitive, right? So whether it is car-based transportation, whether it is public transportation, whether it is the 2-wheel electric vehicle category. The only area where we have a clear leadership position is in a subsegment of the overall transportation space, which is specifically car hailing and motorcycle hailing. But that is a subsegment which relative to the sort of total volume of trips, right, we always share that the transportation space is one which across the country is going to be having close to 4 million daily trips, right?

We shared, for example, as of the third quarter that we completed the quarter with about 22 million trips, right? So if you take 22 million and you annualize that figure, you're at sub 100 million trips in a market that we believe is going to carry 4 million daily, which on an annual basis, that would suggest over 1 billion trips. So we're still very, very early, we believe.

Richard Ryan: Good perspective, Cankut. I appreciate it. Congratulations on another impressive quarter.

Operator: Our next question is coming from Theodore O'Neill from Litchfield Hills Research.

Theodore O'Neill: Congratulations on the great quarter. Cankut, I wonder if you could just give us some highlights of what we could expect to see on the autonomous vehicle front going forward, I would say, over the next 6 to 12 months, whether that has any operational expense or CapEx impact on the company?

Cankut Durgun: The autonomous vehicle partnerships that my partner, Alper highlighted, right, are first, they're in pilot form, right? So these are -- I believe the most advanced city globally has hundreds, if not thousands of autonomous vehicles operating in it. These are pilot agreements with the goal of, in each case, deploying sub-10 vehicles over the next year. So these are very early stage and both due to their early stage as well as due to -- as a result of their early stage, the financing vehicles in order to scale these fleets have yet to be determined, right, whether it's going to be Marti financing or third-party financing.

At the current stage, they don't have a significant impact on our financials, either from a cost perspective or from a revenue perspective because we don't anticipate that even when they are launched, right, when we have approaching 600,000 drivers offering ride-hailing service, having a few autonomous vehicles are not going to have a significant impact on the revenue side or on the cost side in the short term.

Theodore O'Neill: But it's important to be there strategically, right?

Cankut Durgun: Exactly. That's the goal, right? What we believe is we believe in bringing innovation and especially tech-enabled urban transportation innovation to Türkiye. And just like we took the lead in the launch of 2-wheeled electric vehicles, just like we are taking the lead in hopefully, the introduction of ride-hailing at scale into Türkiye, we would like to be in a similar position for autonomous vehicles.

Oguz Oktem: Let me add something. Marti was originally a -- although it's a much smaller portion of our business now, we were originally a micro-mobility company, a 2-wheel electric vehicle sharing company. And what that means is we had maybe 30,000, 40,000 vehicles on the street at some point. And that means charging and swapping batteries of 40,000 vehicles a day. That's 40,000 little like deliveries every single day, charging stations, maintenance infrastructures, maintenance employees, spare parts, transportation, sourcing, efficient management of logistics of these vehicles, monitoring them online and on the field, theft and vandalism prevention and this was in like 20 cities. So our core competency is on the field as operators.

So this autonomous vehicle angle comes to us so naturally, and our team is so easily able to handle this. I think we have a huge strategic and technical advantage because of our experience of doing so in the field. There is not much of a difference between -- obviously, it's 2 very different vehicles. I mean, electric mopeds and autonomous cars, but the logic of it, the logistics of it, the operations of it are very significant. There's a lot of stuff that translates into this AV business.

So I think as this thing scales, we will be better than literally anybody else in the market in managing it as efficiently and as effectively as possible because we have the expertise, we have the teams in place, and we have been doing this nearly a decade now.

Operator: We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. And ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

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