Milestone lifts revenue 10% as AI push gathers pace

Milestone Systems increased net revenue by 10% to USD 340 million in 2025. The year also included the launch of Project Hafnia and a collaboration with NVIDIA.

The Copenhagen-based video technology company reinvested nearly a third of its revenue in innovation. Research and development spending rose to USD 102 million, equal to 28.8% of net revenue, from 24.8% a year earlier. Operating income was USD 16 million, compared with USD 16.5 million in 2024.

Over the past five years, Milestone has more than doubled net revenue. In Asia-Pacific, net revenue rose 26% to USD 38 million in 2025, making it one of the fastest-growing parts of the business.

The figures come as the company broadens its product range beyond XProtect video management software. During the year, it integrated BriefCam video analytics and Arcules cloud video surveillance as a service into its operations and acquired anonymisation technology provider brighter AI.

Those moves reflect a wider shift in strategy as demand grows for software that can analyse video and support artificial intelligence applications.

"2025 was a strong year for Milestone," said Lars Larsen, Chief Financial Officer of Milestone Systems. "We saw continued revenue growth and formally integrated BriefCam video analytics and Arcules Cloud video surveillance as a service into Milestone. We also acquired anonymisation technology provider brighter AI and launched Project Hafnia for developing future AI solutions. These achievements allow us to continuously innovate and invest in next-generation software."

AI focus

A central part of that push is Project Hafnia, developed with NVIDIA. The project is intended to address a challenge facing AI developers: access to high-quality, accurate and reliable video data for training visual AI models.

Milestone launched pilot programmes with Genoa in Italy and Dubuque in Iowa. As part of its work with NVIDIA, it also introduced a vision-language model and a video summarisation tool for XProtect.

According to the company, the summarisation tool uses AI to review videos and turn it into text summaries. The technology is aimed at use cases including emergency response and traffic management.

Milestone operates in a market where video is increasingly used not only for security and surveillance, but also for operational monitoring in sectors such as manufacturing, airports, retail and critical infrastructure. That trend has prompted suppliers to add analytics, cloud services and data management tools to traditional video software platforms.

Chief Executive Jeppe Frandsen said the company's 27th year in business marked a period of change. Milestone has historically centred its business on an open platform model and is now seeking to expand that approach across a broader portfolio of software and AI-related products.

"For nearly three decades, our open platform has been the heart of Milestone and remains so. In addition to XProtect video management software, we now have an expanded portfolio to offer to our partners and the world," said Jeppe Frandsen, Chief Executive of Milestone Systems.

His comments highlight a broader repositioning in the video software market, where vendors are trying to combine management systems with analytics and cloud-based services. Milestone's acquisitions and partnerships suggest it is seeking a larger role in that market while keeping its existing platform at the centre of the business.

Portfolio Shift

Artificial intelligence is becoming more important across a range of public and private sector uses, including law enforcement, airports, manufacturing, retail, asset protection, smart cities and traffic management. Milestone is pairing responsible AI and anonymisation tools with analytics and cloud offerings as part of that shift.

The brighter AI acquisition supports that effort by adding technology designed to anonymise video data. This could become more important as regulators and customers place greater scrutiny on how video is collected, stored and used for AI training.

While operating income was broadly flat year on year, the increase in research spending underlines Milestone's willingness to trade some short-term margin for product development and integration. That approach is common among software groups seeking to broaden their offer in fast-moving areas of the AI market.

Milestone sees further opportunities in cloud, analytics and responsible AI in the current year. "Our focus at Milestone is on building solutions that help customers get the most out of video. We will continue to accelerate our work in video management, analytics and cloud solutions so customers can gain easier and deeper insights from their video data," Frandsen said.