Key Highlights

● Liftoff Mobile completed its Nasdaq IPO on June 4, 2026, raising roughly $399 million at a valuation reported near $4 billion, with second-quarter 2026 Revenue of about $219.5 million and trailing-twelve-month revenue near $798.8 million, up roughly 35%.

● Netskope's fiscal second-quarter revenue reached $220.5 million, up 29% year over year, with annual Recurring Revenue of $899 million, up 27%, and management raised full-year fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $888 million to $892 million.

● Octave Intelligence was separated from Hexagon AB on May 24, 2026 and dual-listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and Nasdaq New York, bringing roughly 7,200 employees across 45 countries into a standalone industrial-software company.

● Gloo Holdings' second-quarter 2026 revenue rose 188% year over year to $46.6 million, with its net loss narrowing to $21.2 million from $44.1 million a year earlier, and management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $200 million.

Five very different Nasdaq names, a freshly public ad-tech giant, a scaled cloud-security platform, a tiny Vision AI specialist, a European industrial-software spin-off and a faith-focused SaaS upstart, show how broadly the AI software label now stretches, and why investors should read each story on its own terms.

The Common Thread Is Smaller Than the Headline Suggests

Group any five tickers under one banner and the banner does the persuading. So start with what is actually shared. Liftoff Mobile (NASDAQ: LFTO), Netskope (NASDAQ: NTSK), Rank One Computing (NASDAQ: ROC), Octave Intelligence (NASDAQ: OCTV) and Gloo Holdings (NASDAQ: GLOO) are all common-stock listings on the Nasdaq, which means all five sit inside the Nasdaq Composite. Each also wraps software, data or artificial intelligence into its pitch. Beyond that, the similarities thin out fast.

One is a multibillion-dollar Advertising platform. One is a cloud-security company approaching $900 million in recurring revenue. One is a micro-cap that books single-digit millions per quarter. One is a 7,200-person industrial-software Business recently cut loose from a Swedish parent. One is a vertical SaaS company built for churches. Treating them as a single AI trade would be a mistake. What follows is verified where possible and flagged where not, separated into fact, analysis and outlook throughout.

An AI Narrative That Has to Answer to Cash Flow

The backdrop for September 2026 is a software sector still riding the AI supercycle language that dominates earnings calls, but increasingly being marked on cash generation rather than storytelling. That tension runs through all five names below. Netskope raised guidance and still trades on a loss-per-share basis. Rank One Computing doubled revenue sequentially yet remained loss-making. Gloo nearly tripled revenue while promising adjusted-EBITDA profitability only by the fourth quarter.

The market is rewarding durable recurring revenue and visible paths to breakeven, and punishing companies where the AI label outruns economics. New listings amplify the swings, and four of these five have been public for a year or less. That youth is the real organizing idea.

Liftoff Mobile (NASDAQ:LFTO) Brings AI-Driven Advertising Back to the Tape

Liftoff Mobile, Inc. is the largest and newest of the group. The mobile-advertising, monetization and performance-marketing company completed its Nasdaq IPO on June 4, 2026, raising roughly $399 million at a valuation reported near $4 billion. Its platform pairs a demand-side and supply-side stack with an AI engine branded Cortex that uses neural-network models to optimize advertiser performance.

Second-quarter 2026 revenue was about $219.5 million, trailing-twelve-month revenue near $798.8 million, up roughly 35%, and the company swung from a 2025 net loss of about $23.2 million to positive trailing net income. Shares changed hands near $18.35 on September 11, for a Market Value around $3.1 billion.

Liftoff Mobile is the rare recent IPO that is already broadly profitable and growing in the mid-30s percent range, which explains a Buy-leaning analyst consensus. The risk is valuation and cyclicality. Mobile ad spend tracks app-economy health and consumer demand, and a rich multiple leaves little room for a growth wobble. Watch whether Cortex adoption keeps lifting take rates as the post-IPO lockup dynamics play out.

Netskope (NASDAQ:NTSK) Is the Scaled Software Story, Not an AI Clinical-Trials Firm

An important correction first: this ticker does not belong to an AI clinical-trials company. It is Netskope, Inc., a cloud-security vendor whose platform spans secure access service edge and security service edge. Netskope listed on the Nasdaq in September 2025.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2027, ended July 31, 2026 and reported on September 2, 2026, Netskope posted revenue of $220.5 million, up 29% year over year, with annual recurring revenue of $899 million, up 27%. GAAP net loss per share was $(0.27); non-GAAP net loss per share was $(0.03); non-GAAP Operating Margin was negative 9%; free Cash Flow was negative $29.8 million for the quarter. Management raised full-year fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to a range of $888 million to $892 million and said results beat guidance across every metric. The company was again named a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for secure access service edge and security service edge.

Netskope is the most mature software business in this set, with a $1.2 billion cash cushion reported at fiscal year-end and a genuine AI angle in its AI Security products and low-latency routing to AI destinations. The debate is profitability timing. Recurring revenue growth is decelerating gently even as it scales, and the market will want the operating losses to keep narrowing before it pays a premium for the agentic-security thesis.

Rank One Computing (NASDAQ:ROC) Is the High-Conviction, High-Risk Vision AI Micro-Cap

Rank One Computing Corporation is the purest AI label here and by far the smallest. The company is a US-based Vision AI developer specializing in biometric identification, facial recognition, video analytics and mission-intelligence software, and it says it supports more than 300 million annual identity-verification transactions. It priced an upsized IPO at $6 in February 2026 for roughly $21.5 million in net proceeds and rang the Nasdaq closing bell on March 19, 2026.

Second-quarter 2026 revenue, for the period ended June 30, was $5.1 million, nearly double the first quarter's $2.5 million but only about 2% above the prior year. Gross margin reached 90%; the net loss was $0.8 million, or $(0.04) per share; cash stood at $11.9 million with no debt. Government R&D contracts grew 41% year over year to $3.0 million, and its SDK and ABIS product lines grew sharply off small bases. The first quarter's weakness was tied to federal funding lapses.

Rank One Computing pairs strong margins and marquee deployments, a university rollout, a DEA deployment, an ISC West product award, with tiny absolute revenue and dependence on government budgets. Management expects government revenue to rise into year-end, but funding timing is the swing factor, and a micro-cap with this cash balance has limited margin for error.

Octave Intelligence (NASDAQ:OCTV) Is Industrial Software Wearing an AI Badge

Octave Intelligence plc is the odd one out, a spin-off rather than an IPO, and a European-domiciled foreign private issuer. Octave was separated from Hexagon AB on May 24, 2026, with Hexagon shareholders receiving one Octave share for every ten held, and it dual-listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and Nasdaq New York in late May 2026.

The company provides mission-critical software across the asset lifecycle, design, build, operate and protect, spanning Asset Lifecycle Intelligence, Safety, Geospatial and Infrastructure, ETQ and Bricsys product lines. It has roughly 7,200 employees across 45 countries. The separation documentation flagged trademarks carried at $481.2 million as of December 31, 2025, a portion of which could face Impairment during a brand-consolidation review. These announcements did not disclose standalone revenue.

Calling Octave Intelligence an AI stock overstates it. It is a diversified industrial-software house increasingly positioning around industrial AI and operational-data intelligence, which is a slower, stickier market than consumer AI. As a newly independent company, its first few reporting periods will set the narrative on organic growth and margins; a possible Trademark write-down is a known accounting risk rather than an operating one. US investors should also weigh the dual-listing and foreign-issuer disclosure structure.

Gloo (NASDAQ:GLOO) Is the AI-Powered Vertical SaaS Bet on Faith and Flourishing

Gloo Holdings, Inc. rounds out the group as a vertical SaaS company serving what it calls the faith and flourishing ecosystem, selling AI-powered tools such as Gloo Workspace and Gloo 360 to churches and nonprofits. Gloo went public on the Nasdaq on November 19, 2025, raising about $72.8 million.

Second-quarter 2026 revenue was $46.6 million, up 188% year over year, split between roughly $23.6 million of platform revenue and $22.9 million of platform-solutions revenue. The net loss narrowed to $21.2 million from $44.1 million a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA of negative $8.3 million beat the company's own guidance. Management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $200 million, targeted adjusted-EBITDA profitability in the fourth quarter, launched a Gloo Code agentic-coding product on September 8, 2026, and extended $13.2 million of senior secured Debt to April 2028. Shares traded near $3.42 on September 14 for a market value around $313 million.

The growth rate is real and the loss is narrowing on a company-reported basis, but Gloo trades well below its IPO-era valuation, and the business is still burning cash. The fourth-quarter profitability target is the near-term proof point; missing it would test the market's patience with a small, single-vertical SaaS name.

What Investors Should Watch

Three catalysts stand out into late 2026. First, profitability milestones: Netskope's narrowing losses and Gloo's fourth-quarter adjusted-EBITDA target are the clearest tests of whether AI-labeled software can convert growth into cash. Second, funding and contract timing: Rank One Computing's third- and fourth-quarter government revenue hinges on federal budgets rather than product demand. Third, first standalone disclosures: Octave Intelligence's early results as an independent company, and any trademark impairment, will reframe how the market values it.

Cross-cutting risks include post-IPO Volatility across four recently public names, valuation compression if AI enthusiasm cools, and, for Octave Intelligence, the complexity of a dual listing and foreign-issuer reporting.

A Shared Listing Venue, Not a Shared Business Model

All five are genuine Nasdaq-listed software, AI or technology-services companies, with two corrections worth remembering: Netskope is a cloud-security platform, not an AI clinical-trials firm, and Octave Intelligence is Hexagon's industrial-software spin-off, not a credit-trading or mental-health company of a similar name.

Liftoff Mobile and Netskope are scaled; Rank One Computing, Octave Intelligence and Gloo are early, small or newly independent. Over the next few quarters each of these stocks is far likelier to move on its own revenue, cash flow and guidance than on the sector label they nominally share, and the widest gap in the group sits between a business already generating positive Net Income and one still funding growth through debt and Equity markets.