Revenues double at software firm despite £81m losses

Revenues have almost doubled to more than £100m at Warrington software firm Blue Prism.

Despite the sharp rise in revenues the firm reported a loss of £81m compared to £26m last year.

This increase in revenue was generated by an increase in sales volumes, in particular in upsells, where the group worked with its existing customer base to unlock further revenues.

However, average deal sizes reduced at the start of the year, largely as a result of the impact of the one-year-one-digital-worker commercial framework.

This was introduced in the fourth quarter of 2018 and drove increased sales volumes, in particular with new customers, but reduced average deal sizes.

In the second half strong upselling in both quantity and size meant that average deal sizes increased significantly, resulting in a strong close to the year.

Total business (which measures the total contract value from new customers, upsells and renewals generated over the period) was £181m (2018: £143m).

There was a significant increase in total business won in the second half of the year, with increases in the volume and size of upsells driving the £115m won during the second half.

In January 2019 the group raised £100m to accelerate its investment plans, capitalise on the market opportunity and reinforce its status as the leading provider of enterprise grade RPA.

The investments made during the year allowed the group to continue to expand globally via spend in sales and marketing, and to strengthen its proposition through continued product development.

These investments were made across the 2019 financial year, with the profile of the spend weighted toward the second half.

Adjusted EBITDA losses increased to £(71.9)m (FY18: £(21.5)m) as a result of these investments.

The reported operating loss was £(81.4)m (FY18: £(26.0)m).

Executive chairman Jason Kingdom said: “We have made excellent progress in operations and financial performance during 2019, with revenue and MRR exceeding the levels guided to in our trading update in November.

“Our enterprise customer base has grown significantly and our track record of upselling remains very encouraging. This upselling capability generated record quarters in each of our key geographies in the second half of the year, with increases in both volume and sizes of upsells.

“The increasing momentum we have seen as the year progressed reflects the investments we made during 2018 and we expect this to continue, as our 2019 investment programme begins to show returns.

“Following this investment the business is well positioned to take advantage of the significant opportunity its enterprise focused RPA represents. Blue Prism’s differentiated role as the partner for enterprise grade RPA is increasingly demonstrated by our high quality customer base and this underpins our confidence in the future.”