Technology firm Blue Prism has raised \u00a3100m to fund its ongoing growth as the impact of coronavirus pushes back its expectations on when it will achieve break-even.<\/p>\n
Its founder and long-standing chief executive Alastair Bathgate will also step down next week and leave the company’s board. He said he will remain a “fervent supporter and major shareholder” of Blue Prism, investing \u00a3200,000 in the current fundraising and now has a 5.4% stake.<\/p>\n
Dr Jason Kingdon, who resumed an executive role in October as executive chairman, will now have an expanded role as chairman and CEO.<\/p>\n
Kingdon, who invested \u00a31m in the fundraising, said: “The capital raised will improve balance sheet resilience and support our path to cash break even. We believe that Blue Prism’s market opportunity remains significant.”<\/p>\n
The institutional fundraising represented 10.9% of the company’s existing share, and was at 1100p per share.<\/p>\n
Blue Prism’s share price had fallen nearly 40% since early February – a more significant drop than the FTSE 350’s average fall in that time – but still has a market value of \u00a31bn.<\/p>\n
Warrington-headquartered Blue Prism specialises in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and believes the coronavirus crisis is strengthening the case for automation and can accelerate its adoption.<\/p>\n
The company is working to meet this demand by helping organisations stay resilient, responsive and competitive through the deployment of a Digital Workforce.<\/p>\n
Kingdon added: “For many businesses worldwide, the protective measures taken to combat the Covid-19 pandemic have had the effect of disrupting trading and increasing uncertainty regardless of industry or sector.<\/p>\n
“In this environment, our Digital Workers are arguably more important than ever in driving organisational adaptation and resilience, and our role as a strategic technology partner to our customers in many ways becomes more emphasised.”<\/p>\n
Blue Prism also updated the market on its recent financial performance. It made an adjusted EBITDA loss of \u00a327.5m in the five months to March, on revenues of \u00a355.5m.<\/p>\n
However it pointed to an increase in monthly recurring revenue – up \u00a30.8m since October to reach \u00a311.4m – and highlighted that it had closed “a number of new deals” since the uncertainty caused by coronavirus began.<\/p>\n
But the impact of the pandemic has caused the company to forecast it will now reach cash break-even in its next financial year, which ends in October 2021.<\/p>\n
Next year will be the company’s 20th anniversary since it was founded by Alastair Bathgate and David Moss, who is still the company’s chief technology officer.<\/p>\n
Bathgate is leaving “to focus on other opportunities”, and plans to work with other UK tech companies to help them scale.<\/p>\n
He said: “Whilst, after 18 extremely enjoyable years, I am sad to be stepping out of an executive role, I remain a fervent supporter and major shareholder of Blue Prism and will be cheering from the sidelines, as well as being available to advise and assist where needed.<\/p>\n
“The team we built at Blue Prism is world class. I know the company is in safe hands and well positioned to continue to grow and dominate the software category that we created.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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