AUDEARA LTD (AUA) - Audeara’s CEO Explains The Strategy Behind Q3 Growth

A kid can’t learn well if the world sounds muffled, painful, or simply out of reach. We’re joined by Dr James Fielding, Managing Director and CEO of Audeara Limited, to talk through a pivotal stretch for this ASX-listed hearing health technology and audio technology company, following strong Q3 FY26 results and a growing global footprint.

We start with what Audeara actually builds: hearing health tech solutions sold as Audeara-branded hardware, plus the AUA Technology platform that can power other brands. James then explains the significance of an exclusive agreement with ShokzHear, the global leader in bone conduction listening devices. The goal is practical and urgent: create an optimised listening option for children dealing with chronic ear infections, particularly in regional and remote communities where in-ear devices can be uncomfortable or unusable. We also discuss just how widespread classroom listening issues can be and what better audio access could mean for learning outcomes.

From there we dig into the numbers investors care about, including back-to-back positive net operating cash flow and accelerating Australian wholesale revenue, supported by closer partner execution with audiology groups such as Amplifon. We finish with Audeara’s Auracast™ momentum, the Clinico partnership in Taiwan, and the BT-03 Audio Broadcaster rollout into environments like universities, hospitals, government buildings, and even sports bars where people can choose exactly what they want to hear.

If you’re tracking ASX small caps, medtech commercialisation, Auracast, bone conduction, or accessible audio, hit subscribe, share this with a mate, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

Transcript

Andrew Musgrave

Welcome again to ASX Briefs. And today we sit down with Dr. James Fielding, the Managing Director and CEO of Audeara Limited, to discuss a landmark period for the Australian Hearing Health and Audio Technology Company following their strong Q3 FY26 results. 
 
 James, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Briefs podcast.

James Fielding

Pleasure.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, James, for investors that may be unfamiliar with Audeara, can you just provide a brief overview of the company?

James Fielding

Yeah, at Audeara, we provide hearing health tech solutions through our own brand as Audeara branded hardware into Australia and globally, and through our technology platform arm AUA Technology. We started out as a hearing test device putting personalized audio into headphones by measuring your individual hearing profile. Now we have technology platforms around the world supporting global brands as we expand the importance of an optimized listening solution.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and you've also announced the exclusive agreement with ShokzHear. So, can you walk us through the significance of this announcement?

James Fielding

Yeah, so ShokzHear is the medical device division of the global leader Shokz, who provide all of the bone conduction listening devices. You see people running, cycling, doing sports and activities. We were approached by a handful of hearing specialists in Australia, predominantly audiologists and also researchers, to find a solution to the growing problem that is chronic ear infections in kids, predominantly in regional and remote communities. And part of the foundation of the technology we're exploring is how do you provide an optimized listening environment for a child who can't have things in or on their ears because of discharge or discomfort. And naturally, we went towards a bone conduction solution. And the best player in the game is Shokz. So, over the last 12 months, we've been working with them in exploring their offerings and what they can do to help us get where we need to be a lot faster. And so, we've been working with their hearing aid division. These products in Australia won't be hearing aids, they'll be sound amplifiers like the rest of our product suite. And we're talking about addressing an issue that can affect, in diagnostic terms, up to 15% of kids in an education setting, which for us is around 600,000 kids that would be suffering an acute problem. And then you expand beyond that into kids that just want the world to sound a bit better. So, there's an awful lot of kids that need help, and we have a world-class solution to help them do that. And because of the work we've done in optimizing that solution, we got the rights to the product here in Australia. And then as we look to other markets, that'll just be on a case-by-case basis.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and if we touch on the financials, the company has just reported its second consecutive quarter of positive net operating cash flow: $359,000 for Q3 FY26 and $380,000 a year to date, compared to a $928,000 outflow in the prior corresponding period. So how significant is this inflection for the business?

James Fielding

We think it's a real milestone in terms of having all the pieces come together. We worked very hard over the last four or five years to focus on optimizing how we were running as a business and generating really strong gross profit sits at the foundation of that, and having these back-to-back operating quarters sets a really strong foundation for a really well-controlled year as we move into profitability and cash flow break even into the future. It's really important to note that we still haven't taken our foot off the pedal. So, we did a massive cost optimization a few years ago and turned our net loss from about three and a half down to a million bucks. And that progression is advancing as we start to add the benefit of the AUA technology because the Audeara branded products, we design, manufacture, and sell hardware solutions, cash comes in, happy days. The AUA technology platform projects can take a couple of years, especially things like a medical device launch we did into China. So, as we start to see the benefits of those AUA tech platforms join the bottom line, we'll start to see a much stronger financial performance from the business. And back-to-back positive quarters is the start of that.

Andrew Musgrave

And Australian wholesale revenue came in at 973,000 for the quarter, up 75.5% quarter on quarter, and more than doubling versus the prior period. You also secured a record single wholesale order for $560,000 in November. So, what's behind that strength and how sustainable is it?

James Fielding

Our strength in the Australian market is how closely we work with our partners. The audiology industry is a fairly tight group of providers who offer solutions nationwide. And we have an incredible work and relationship with the largest audiology provider in the country, which is Amplifon. We also have really great relationships into the rest of the audiology groups as well, but they're the most progressed in this relationship of ordering single large shipments. The rest of our clients will order case by case, clinic by clinic, and it's a daily uptake, but Amplifon are optimizing their systems, which is incredibly encouraging. And it's those types of optimizations which are leading to improvements in the bottom line.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, you recently announced the expansion of your Auracast™ platform with Clinico Inc., including three new white label commercial programs and introductory purchase orders of approximately $164,000. So, can you explain the significance of this partnership and how it builds on their earlier Clinico sound buds CS1 launch in Taiwan?

James Fielding

So when we think about Clinico, it's important to note that we have a really tight strategic relationship with Clinico because the Clinico CEO, Mr. David Lin, is our largest investor and came in as a strategic investor into the company a few years ago, which then led to the CS1 launch, which coincides with the Audeara Buds launch and then the transformation of that tech into our hearing aids. So, as we start to expand the ways in which we're helping people, including these Auracast™ broadcast transmitters, which is the new accessible and optimized listening platform that's slowly gaining traction worldwide, those solutions are going to be incorporated into the Clinico sound system in Taiwan. So, we'll have venues, be it schools, universities, government buildings, hospitals, their accessible audio solutions, their optimized listening solutions are going to be Clinico branded Auracast™ transmitters, which you can listen to with your Clinico sound buds. And those are platforms that we design with them and for them in a white labelling capacity, which we're really proud of because we have the leader in the market in Taiwan choosing us to act as their RD arm, which is a really proud moment for us as a business. So as these platforms continue to take hold, we'll see increased market dominance in that space, which can only mean good things for the business.

Andrew Musgrave

And on top of that, you've also just launched the BT-03 Audio Broadcaster in Australia with certification underway in the US, Japan, Canada, and the EU. So how does this device fit into the broader Auracast™ ecosystem and what deployment environments are you targeting?

James Fielding

So, our devices are designed to be incredibly simple and be incredibly cost-effective so that people will scale up adoption of the tech a lot faster. Auracast™ is a new technology, and as people start to adopt it, we wanted to make it an absolute no-brainer. The University of Queensland uses our Auracast™ solutions across their campus, and the rest of the Australian universities are currently trialling and getting them up and running, which is very exciting. So anywhere where spoken word is critical, you'll find Auracast™ being a massive benefit. And it goes beyond a person with a hearing loss. We keep promoting the fact that listening well is not a deaf person prerogative. There are people who want to enhance their listening experience for a number of different reasons, from reducing distractions all the way through to English as a second language, allowing you to translate and transcribe live audio. So, places like universities are a great start. And then we're seeing sports bars, pubs, and clubs come along and put Auracast™ into each of their TVs. So, if you walk into a sports bar, you no longer have to choose am I listening to the AFL or the cricket or racing? What's going on? You'll be able to decide how you want to listen, what you want to listen to. And that type of freedom and optimized listening experience is what's getting all these venues on board.

Andrew Musgrave

OK now to wrap things up James, as the company enters the final quarter of FY26 with positive cash flow momentum and a growing pipeline of technology partnerships, what are some of the key milestones investors should look out for over the next 12-18 months?

James Fielding

I think with Shokz being announced today, the distribution partnership we have, the next key milestone, of course, is us receiving orders for them and placing those orders back up to Shocks. So that'll be a key inflection point of that product portfolio, as well as the crystallizing of the Auracast™ orders as they go around globally. And our hearing aid and Optech processing algorithm licensing deals that we have, they'll start to come to the fore over the next few months and build up momentum. So, what you'll see is AUA Tech really start to take some dominance over the Audeara wholesale, which is what we're all hoping will happen because that's a big international scale and high gross margin push. So that'll, you know, as far as we're able and as much as we're driving, it'll get us to our profitable, our break-even, and let us really keep putting the pedal down as we stitch up this whole market.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, James. Well, it's been great to speak today. So, thanks for your time. We wish you all the best, and we look forward to further updates from Audeara in the upcoming months.

James Fielding

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Andrew Musgrave

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.