Alarm.com CEO lauds commercial growth initiatives, higher residential revenue retention

TYSONS, Va.—Alarm.com CEO Steve Trundle told investors on a recent conference call that two key factors contributed to increased Q1 2025 revenue numbers that “exceeded our expectations.”  

“Our stronger than expected SaaS results were driven by contributions from our growth initiatives in the commercial and energy markets and higher revenue retention on the residential side of the business,” he said. 

Software as a service (SaaS) and license revenue in the first quarter for the property platform grew to $163.8 million, up from $150.3 million in Q1 2024, and adjusted EBITDA increased 17.5% to $43.5 million, compared to $37 million in 2024.  

Trundle expanded on the company’s commercial growth by summarizing his experience at ISC West in April.  

“One positive takeaway from the event was that most of the service provider partners I spoke with are steadily expanding their use of our commercial services,” he explained. “They expect Alarm.com to continue to innovate for this market, which enables them to gain operational efficiency through more standardization around our commercial offerings.”  

On the residential side, Trundle touched upon the success of a recent addition to Alarm.com’s portfolio, the V729 outdoor floodlight camera that was introduced to the market in 2024. He noted that Alarm.com’s partners have “increasingly incorporated” the 729 and associated services into their offering, with installations into nearly 4,000 properties per month currently, along with strong attachment rates of its video analytics services. 

Trundle added that the company’s video services are “beginning to take more of a hold” in international markets, with 30% of new international accounts including video in Q1, about twice the rate of the same period last year.   

Addressing a question on whether there’s a push for service providers to exclusively sell commercial, Trundle noted that Alarm.com sees advantages in providers selling a mix of both commercial and residential.  

“We think that the best place for most service operators to be is one where they have some diversity in their own business with 20, 30% of the business being commercial and 60% or so being residential,” he stated. “That said, there are an entire class of service providers who really are commercial integrators and that's all they do. So, we are out there working hard to continue to expand into that class of service providers that are almost exclusively commercial.”  

Trundle noted that the 10% baseline tariffs on nearly all U.S. imports that took effect on April 5 are something that the company can “effectively manage.”  

“U.S. tariff policies are obviously difficult to predict, and the trade environment can substantially change with little warning,” he said. “We have also significantly improved and diversified our supply chain over the last several years. Currently, less than 10% of our hardware revenue is derived from products shipped from China.”  

New Alarm.com CFO Kevin Bradley added on the tariffs, “In addition to significantly reducing the company's exposure to products originating from China since 2018, we proactively built some inventory in late 2024 and early 2025 prior to ‘Liberation Day.’  We have approximately nine months on hand, which is higher than we would carry in normal times. Outside of China, we are operating as if the baseline 10% tariff will remain in place.”