Marti Turns Profitable, Raises Guidance, and Rides the Autonomous Wave

Turkish mobility platform posts record gross margins and first positive adjusted EBITDA, while launching an AV alliance

MRT · Earnings Call · 2026-08-19

An Inflection Point in Profitability

Marti Technologies reported a landmark second quarter: “The second quarter marked an inflection point for the company” — Oguz Oktem, Executive · 2026-08-19, with adjusted EBITDA turning positive for the first time. Revenue grew 141% year-over-year to nearly $20 million, and gross profit more than tripled to over $15 million, expanding the gross margin to a record 77%. This operating leverage is remarkable: “cost of revenues increased only 32% despite significantly higher business volumes” — Cankut Durgun, Executive · 2026-08-19. The marketplace model is clearly scaling. Management raised full-year guidance to $85 million in revenue and $7 million in positive adjusted EBITDA, citing “much faster growth in the volume of trips on our platform than we had initially anticipated” — Cankut Durgun, Executive · 2026-08-19. The revenue guidance assumes no new city monetization, meaning volume alone is driving the upgrade.

The Growth Engine: More Cities, More Trips, and Delivery

Marti's growth is broad-based. The company now operates in 30 cities, covering ~85% of Turkish GDP, but monetizes only 7 of them — a significant runway. Trips grew 73% year-over-year to 18.8 million, and unique platform consumers rose 76%. The parcel delivery service is still in its early phase, but cross-utilization is high: 55% of motorcycle-hailing drivers in Istanbul also completed delivery trips. As Cankut Durgun noted, “We're still in Phase 1” — Cankut Durgun, Executive · 2026-08-19 for deliveries, with expansion outside Istanbul as the next step. The multi-service flywheel also drives economics — multi-service consumers generate 2.7x higher revenue per consumer than single-service consumers.

The Autonomous Bet

Perhaps the most strategic development is the company's entry into autonomous vehicles. Marti has partnered with Tensor in a multiyear deal to deploy autonomous vehicles on its platform, and is building

Türkiye's Autonomous Vehicle Alliance to bring together autonomous vehicle technology and vehicle providers with Marti leveraging this platform, rider demand and operational infrastructure.
Oguz Oktem, Executive · 2026-08-19

This is a high-conviction move, timed with a Autonomous Vehicle action plan from the Turkish government that includes 12 references to AVs. The company sees itself as the aggregator of demand and operations, rather than a capital-heavy manufacturer. As Cankut explained, the sector is now supply-constrained, so scaling quickly with multiple partners is key. Historically, management has been open about the long-term shift; in a prior call they stated, “We believe that autonomous driving is certainly going to constitute the majority of our ride-hailing trips” — Cankut Durgun · 2025-09-22. The global mobility tape is also showing interest in AV players, though the company's approach is uniquely local.

Margins and Sustainability

The 77% gross margin raises the obvious question: how sustainable is it? Management acknowledges a ceiling. On the prior call, Cankut had said, “there is going to be a ceiling, not too far different from the 70%, 80% figures” — Cankut Durgun, CFO · 2026-05-21. This quarter, he reiterated that something in the 80% range is likely sustainable, but competition could change that. With the company still in early monetization, there is ample room to raise take rates if needed. The stock, however, remains far below its highs — down over 85% from its 2023 peak, though it has stabilized recently, rising 5.4% over the last 90 days. The company's historic cash flow has been deeply negative, as shown by free cash flow data, making the adjusted EBITDA inflection all the more meaningful.