Welcome again, everyone to our next At The Helm series!

At The Helm is a deep-dive into the intangibles of a company (aside from their reports and statistics) by talking to the key people behind the scenes.

The ones that run the day-to-day of the companies, and knows the ins and outs.

This week, we talked to Thomas Laboulle, the current CEO of Toku.

Toku was recently listed on the Singapore Exchange in January 2026. It is an AI-powered customer experience platform that provides cloud communications services.

It’s been almost 2 months since its listing, let’s check in with Thomas to see how Toku is doing.

We are encouraged by the level of engagement we have seen since listing. We have had constructive conversations with both retail and institutional investors.

Many are focused on understanding Toku’s business and technology, and how that aligns with our business strategy and goals.

Most importantly, the IPO was not just about raising capital; it was about:

We are still early in our journey as a listed company, and our focus remains on:

Over time, we believe sustained performance will translate into deeper investor conviction.

The Group does not disclose margin details by individual revenue stream. However, the structural differences between them are significant.

The Subscriptions and Licensing segment carries materially higher margins than Usage, which is why a gradual shift towards software and licensing revenue remains central to the Group’s margin progression over time.

Usage segment’s revenue, which accounts for the bulk of our top line, is predominantly voice and messaging traffic flowing through our connectivity platform. The margins here are influenced by carrier and infrastructure costs and reflect the volume-driven nature of that business.

However, as AI-powered capabilities such as transcription, summarisation, and sentiment analysis gain adoption within the Usage stream, we expect the margin profile of this category to improve over time, since these value-added services carry a higher margin than traditional connectivity.

In short, the margin expansion opportunity comes from two directions: a gradual shift in revenue mix towards higher-margin software, and improving margins within the Usage stream itself through AI-enhanced services.

A labor shortage in tax is driving the need for a new skill set: one that blends technical tax knowledge with digital fluency.

Automation, AI and data-driven insights now define the role of tax professionals.

This new era of tax is not simply about adopting new tools, it’s about reshaping the skill set and mindset required to thrive in this field. Check out this guide for actionable insights into how to cultivate these skills with your team. See how advanced technologies can help bridge the tax tech gap to increase efficiency, ensure compliance, and drive better decision-making.

Download the guide

That is a fair observation, and it reflects the dynamics of a platform business at our stage of growth. The 21% increase in Usage segment’s revenue in FY2025 was driven by:

That growth outpaced the more stable Subscriptions and Licensing stream, which grew modestly at 0.6% but continued to provide a solid contracted recurring base.

As compared to a specific target revenue mix for FY2026, our priority is progressive margin improvement, and we see that coming from two directions.

In short, the trajectory of the Group’s blended margins over time provides a more meaningful indicator of performance than the quarterly mix between Usage and Subscriptions and Licensing revenue segments, as the revenue mix evolves and the margin profile progressively improves.

With the IPO process behind us, our commercial approach in 2026 is increasingly shaped by discipline and selectivity, rather than pursuing growth through aggressive discounting.

Like most enterprise platform companies in their early growth phase, we offered commercial incentives in selected situations to land anchor customers, particularly those deploying across multiple markets or adopting the platform for the first time.

That is a normal part of building an enterprise business. That said, discounting has never been our primary growth lever, and it is not how we build long‑term customer relationships.

As brand recognition improves and our platform becomes better understood, especially among enterprise and public‑sector customers, conversations are increasingly anchored around value, reliability and outcomes, rather than price alone.

This allows us to be more consistent and thoughtful in how solutions are priced, reflecting the scope, complexity and accountability involved.

From a margin perspective, investors should not expect margin compression driven by widespread discounting.

Instead, our focus is on gradual margin improvement over time, supported by mix shift toward higher‑margin software and AI‑enhanced services, greater operational leverage, and a more balanced go‑to‑market model. While competitive dynamics will always exist, pricing discipline remains central to our strategy.

The fluctuations in Hong Kong revenue mainly reflect how we report revenue by geography rather than any change in our customer relationships. Our enterprise relationships with customers connected to Hong Kong remain strong.

Revenue is reported based on where the customer entity that signs the contract is registered, not necessarily where the services are actually used.

Many of our customers are multinational companies, and contracts are sometimes signed through a regional or global entity located in a different country.

From time to time, these companies also reorganise their internal structures, which can change which country the contract is recorded under even though the customer relationship and platform usage remain the same.

As a result, movements in a particular geographic revenue line may not always reflect changes in demand in that market.

Accordingly, the trajectory of the Group’s total revenue and the quality of its customer base over time provide a more reliable indicator of underlying performance than the geographic distribution of revenue in any single period. 

Our philosophy towards acquisitions is disciplined and strategic rather than opportunistic. We see M&A primarily as a tool for accelerating market access and scaling our distribution, not just for adding technology.

Going forward, we would look at targets that meet three key criteria:

Most importantly, acquisitions are not the only growth lever that we are looking at.

Partnerships, especially through our expanding channel ecosystem, can sometimes achieve similar outcomes with lower capital intensity.

We will remain selective and patient and will update as and when there are material developments.

We are very conscious of the trade‑off between accelerating market entry through channel partnerships and protecting the long‑term strength of the Toku brand.

The way we manage this balance is through:

In our core and more complex markets, we continue to sell and deliver directly through our own teams to retain full control over customer experience and brand representation.

Channel partnerships are primarily used to expand into new or adjacent markets, and only where partners meet clearly defined capability thresholds.

As outlined in our Offer Document, scaling through partners requires structured training, education programmes and certification.

Given the complexity of our 360° CX platform and the enterprise environments we operate in, partners are expected to demonstrate enterprise‑grade technical expertise, complete required training, and align with our security, compliance and delivery standards before they are able to sell or deploy our solutions.

This approach deliberately slows down partner onboarding in the short term, but it materially reduces brand and execution risk.

At the same time, continued investment in the Toku platform brand strengthens our position with both customers and partners, allowing us to set clear expectations around quality, accountability and conduct.

To summarise, channel partnerships are not viewed as a shortcut to revenue but a means to build a certified, well‑governed partner ecosystem that supports responsible scaling while protecting brand equity and long‑term value.

2026 is about scaling what we have built.

Overall, our core focuses for 2026 are:

We had a great time talking to Thomas about Toku’s prospects moving forward. If you want to know more about the company, go on over to Toku to find out more!

Regards
James Yeo