Liftoff posts $86.7 million profit as AI app supply expands

By Priya Raman

Liftoff generated $237.5 million in Q3 2026 revenue, up from $179.5 million in the same quarter of 2025, and reported $86.7 million in profit after a $5.7 million loss a year earlier.

Shares rose almost 25% overnight after Liftoff exceeded its revenue target and offered an optimistic profit-margin outlook following its second quarterly earnings report, released Thursday after the market close.

Liftoff, a mobile growth marketing platform, ties its growth to a rising mobile economy and an influx of AI-generated apps. It also argues that AI-driven revenue gains require less investment than the AI and data infrastructure built by larger rivals.

What does the AI app surge change for mobile marketers?

Jeremy Bondy, Liftoff’s chief executive, said large language models have made app creation easier. “In the first half of this year alone, new apps released in the Apple App Store doubled versus the prior year to roughly 560,000,” he said.

Every new app creates a separate requirement for users, and Bondy said that produces more demand for user acquisition. For Liftoff, the practical change is more demand for the service it sells. For advertisers, it strengthens the case for investing in their own apps rather than depending on open-web traffic.

Bondy also said AI products are changing where search and discovery begin because consumers can get more answers without visiting websites. In his view, that reduces the open web’s reliability as a traffic and user-acquisition vehicle. It also gives businesses a reason to invest in their own apps, where they can build direct relationships with customers.

AppLovin said after reporting earnings a week earlier that Apple’s plan under iOS 27 to stop cross-site web tracking across all iOS devices will move marketing budgets from mobile web to mobile apps.

Bondy called mobile app advertising drastically under-monetized, with average earnings of about seven cents per hour of attention. That is less than one-sixth of what television earns. He said the gap leaves substantial room for growth.

Diversification beyond gaming

Bondy said mobile marketing gains have accrued mostly to gaming, a category dominated by AppLovin. He put AppLovin’s market capitalization at about 40 times Liftoff’s. More than half of Liftoff’s business sits outside gaming, according to Bondy.

Gaming apps also supply data on whether users make purchases rather than only receive advertising. Bondy said a game spender can be a high-value prospect for a retailer, social media app or streaming service. He identified those non-gaming categories as Liftoff’s expansion opportunity, while AppLovin retains its position in gaming.

Non-gaming apps are more prone to seasonal fluctuation than gaming apps, Bondy said. Liftoff benefited from FIFA World Cup momentum and is seeing a similar NFL-season surge as advertisers invest more in live sports.

He compared the pattern to waves rather than a predictable cycle of consumer engagement. Liftoff has nevertheless converted periodic or event-based customers into steadier, higher-spending accounts, Bondy said.

Liftoff had 396 customers that spent more than $100,000 in the previous 12 months, up from 362 at the same point a year earlier.

AI leverage and capital discipline

Bondy said advances in AI have refined Liftoff’s advertising targeting and personalization without requiring the company to fund the technology at the scale of larger rivals. Its models can identify a major spender in a retailer app, then treat that person as a more valuable prospect in a gaming app.

More longitudinal data also lets Liftoff understand long-term trends and how return on investment develops over a year or more. Campaign returns in the week immediately after budgets are spent still carry the most weight in model decisions, Bondy said.

He attributed the past year’s margin expansion to the relatively low cost of Liftoff’s infrastructure and AI services. Total Q3 capital expenditure, including AI and data infrastructure, was $14 million, or about 6% of revenue.

Bondy contrasted that investment with Meta and Google, which have committed hundreds of billions of dollars to capital expenditures. “As a reminder, our business is capital light,” he told investors, repeating the point throughout the call.

A simpler revenue report

Liftoff will stop reporting Core Advertising revenue because advertising now represents almost the entire business. The segment generated $237 million of the company’s $237.5 million in Q3 revenue.

The company has dropped other, more expensive subscription software operations, including the Vungle mobile ad network, which became Liftoff five years ago, and the acquired GameRefinery game-developer analytics toolkit.

Bondy said AI-optimized advertising has tremendous room to continue growing as Liftoff broadens where it optimizes campaigns for advertisers.

Liftoff’s next proof point is whether AI-driven app creation and mobile budget shifts can sustain customer growth while the company keeps capital spending near 6% of revenue.