Zeta Global beats Q2 forecasts on AI platform Athena uptake; lifts full-year guidance

Zeta Global's second quarter delivered revenue of $442.8 million, surpassing analyst expectations of $420.7 million by 5.2% and representing 43.5% year-on-year growth. Adjusted earnings per share reached $0.27 against estimates of $0.19 (a 39.8% beat), and adjusted EBITDA landed at $91.7 million (6.1% above the $86.44 million estimate) with a 20.7% margin. Billings grew 43.4% year-on-year to $439.2 million. Despite these strong results, the market reacted negatively to the announcement.

Management attributed the quarter's strength to accelerated adoption of Athena, Zeta's AI-powered platform, and the deepening of cross-industry partnerships with OpenAI, Palantir, and Snowflake. CEO David Steinberg stated that "Athena is fundamentally changing how customers interact with the Zeta platform," citing rapid uptake among large customers and increased multi-use case adoption. The company lifted its full-year revenue guidance to $1.82 billion at the midpoint from $1.79 billion (a 1.8% increase) and set full-year EBITDA guidance at $405.2 million, above analyst estimates of $397.4 million. Operating margin improved significantly to 3.8% from -1.7% in the prior-year quarter.

On the earnings call, analysts pressed management on specific drivers of growth. Jason Kreyer of Craig-Hallum asked how Athena and the OneZeta program would influence multi-use case adoption; CFO Christopher Greiner responded that cross-sell and upsell trends remain strong and that Athena's impact is still in early stages, supporting ongoing ARPU expansion. Matt Swanson of RBC Capital Markets questioned the role of the Palantir, OpenAI, and Snowflake partnerships in accelerating sales. Steinberg replied that these alliances had dramatically increased Zeta's access to major enterprise accounts and drove some of the largest deals in company history. DJ Hynes of Canaccord Genuity sought clarity on the formalization of ZBI (business intelligence) use cases and their prioritization by industry; Steinberg explained that ZBI productization is driven by real customer requests, with vertical-specific solutions added continuously as new features. Elizabeth Elliott of Morgan Stanley explored how the expansion into business intelligence affects wallet share opportunity and sales cycle length; Steinberg said Zeta still targets 7–10% of marketing budgets but now sees new sales cycles with broader enterprise buyers, particularly CTOs and CIOs. Jackson Nichols of KeyBanc Capital Markets asked about the impact of the Palantir Foundry infrastructure transition on Athena-heavy users; Steinberg confirmed the migration was complete and seamless, improving speed, onboarding, and intelligence for customers without disruption.