From the Year-end report 2025
“Our integrated streaming and publishing strategy delivered record profitability and cash flow generation in 2025. As we enter 2026, we are focused on scaling this momentum by leveraging AI-driven innovation to lead the future of storytelling.”
2025 proved to be a defining year for Storytel Group, clearly affirming the strength of our business model. Driven by solid subscriber growth in core markets, the introduction of several innovative product features, and exceptional publishing performance across all genres and formats, we achieved record profitability and cash flow.
We exit 2025 confident in our ability to meet and build upon the mid-term targets introduced at our Capital Markets Day in May. Our improved financial situation provides the flexibility to move with speed, balancing disciplined reinvestment in our growth roadmap with a clear commitment to delivering long-term shareholder value.
The Board of Directors has concluded that a transfer of listing to the Nasdaq Stockholm main market creates better conditions for future value creation. The work to prepare the company for the transfer has begun, with the aim of finalizing the process during 2026.
Delivering on our 2025 targets
We successfully delivered on our financial targets for 2025 (which were raised following Q3), achieving topline growth of 9.2% CER. This was supported by 8.1% growth in Streaming revenue and an 18.0% increase in external Publishing revenues.
Our EBITDA margin expanded by 3 percentage points to 18.8% (15.8%), driving EBITDA growth of 26% to SEK 757 million (602). Total operating cash flow amounted to SEK 573 million, and we ended the year with a solid cash position of SEK 136 million.
In our Streaming segment, we expanded our base by 220k new paying subscribers, ending 2025 with a total of 2.67 million (2.45) subscribers. In the Nordic region, we added 60k subscribers for a total of 1.34 million (1.28). Our core growth markets outside the Nordics continued to perform well, contributing more than 140k new subscribers to finish the year at 1.12 million (0.97).
Over the past year, we intensified our focus on AI-powered user experience, introducing a range of feature enhancements including synced listening and reading, a refined search function, and fully personalised content discovery.
A key milestone this quarter was the launch of our pay-per-book offering, expanding our catalogue with more than 35,000 English titles available for individual sales directly in the app.
Our Publishing segment achieved a record performance in 2025, delivering 18% CER external topline growth with a robust EBITDA margin of 29.5%. This momentum was driven by a series of highly anticipated releases across both physical and digital formats.
Norstedts saw a strong year, led by the work of August Prize winner Bea Uusma and bestseller Fredrik Backman, while Gummerus enjoyed significant success with the biography of Sanna Marin.
Lind & Co delivered another outstanding year with successful titles from authors such as Dag Öhrlund and Mikael Ressem. Furthermore, our newest acquisition, Bokfabriken, has exceeded expectations, fueled by the popularity of the Johan Falk series by Anders Nilsson.
Well positioned for future growth
We expect the global book market to continue its growth for the foreseeable future, driven by the sustained rise of digital formats such as audiobooks and ebooks.
The scale of this opportunity is underscored by the fact that in our core markets of Europe and North America, the number of monthly active audiobook users nearly doubled between 2020 and 2025. With industry projections suggesting this user base will double again over the next five years, we see significant further growth potential across our entire footprint.
Our goal is to remain the frontrunner in enriching lives through exceptional stories. We are committed to providing an industry-leading user experience while maintaining a high market share in our core markets.
At the heart of this ambition is our commitment to the creative community; today, our publishers are proud to partner with tens of thousands of authors.
On track to deliver on our mid-term targets
We are well on track to achieving our mid-term targets of a 10% topline CAGR and an EBITDA margin exceeding 20% by 2028. These targets imply a revenue level of SEK 5.5 billion, with EBITDA reaching SEK 1.1 billion by 2028.
Our sales growth in 2025 reached 9% CER, with our EBITDA margin standing at just below 19%. For 2026, we have set a firm target of reaching at least SEK 870 million in EBITDA on an organic basis.
Looking further ahead, we expect to surpass SEK 1 billion in EBITDA and 3 million subscribers during 2027.
Having achieved strong efficiency gains, we recognize significant potential for further improvement, particularly through the integration of AI into our internal processes. With our operations now streamlined, our primary focus is shifting toward accelerating top-line growth.
This momentum will be driven by a combination of organic initiatives and strategic M&A opportunities. We ended the year with a net cash position of SEK 136 million.
Our financial framework includes a leverage target to remain below 1.5x Net Debt/EBITDA. We believe this financial profile allows us to pursue an active M&A strategy while simultaneously continuing to distribute returns to our shareholders.
As we close 2025, our purpose remains clear: Leading the future of storytelling. We move the world through stories.
Our goal is to invite even more readers and listeners into our world—offering stories that inspire, entertain, and brighten everyday moments.
Thanks to the incredible hard work of our team members, we are proud to celebrate another record year. As we shape the next chapter of storytelling, we remain focused on creating meaningful, lasting value for our customers, authors, publishers, and shareholders alike.
We enter 2026 with immense optimism, and I invite you all to continue this journey with us.
February 11, 2026
Bodil Eriksson Torp, CEO