Whispir beats IPO prospectus forecast

Cloud communications software as a service (SaaS) company Whispir (ASX: WSP) exceeded its prospectus forecasts today for both revenue and EBITDA, yet its shares are trading below the IPO offer price.

Such is the capriciousness of a volatile share market, especially for tech companies at the moment.

Revenue for the Melbourne-founded company rose 12 per cent year-on-year to reach $31.1 million, representing a $600,000 lift on the prospectus forecast.

At the same time, Whispir's EBITDA loss of $11 million was $900,000 better than what it had indicated in the prospectus.

Whispir's technology allows companies and organisations to set up repeatable triggered communications workflows, which in layman's terms means they can respond quickly to crises or issues whether it be internally or with the public and consumers.

"I am delighted to see the investments we made previously translate to continued growth, as we position the company to be a successful global communications workflow platform provider," says Whispir CEO Jeromy Wells (pictured), who in June told Business News Australia about "on fire" growth in Southeast Asia and good traction with major customers like Disney and Virgin Australia.

READ MORE: SaaS scale-up Whispir makes ASX debut

Wells says momentum continues to build in the offshore business with 24 per cent growth in revenues in the US and a strong performance in Asia.

"We are confident of our outlook for FY20 having achieved our FY19 Forecast ARR (annualised recurring revenue) of $31.5 million at the end of the year," he says.

"Our operating segments continue to perform well, with ANZ and the US showing revenue growth of 17 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

"Whilst headline revenues are down year on year in the Asian market, this segment has done well to recover from a reduced recurring revenue base resulting from a loss of a significant customer, with underlying growth of 31 per cent."

The group spent $9.1 million on R&D in FY19, of which $4.5 million is capitalised as internally generated assets.

"This demonstrates our ongoing commitment to product development for the purpose of expanding the product suite and maintaining the competitive edge that the Whispir Platform enjoys," says Wells.

"Our strong performance is delivered on the strength of our product offering. Over 500 customers have engaged with over 55 million unique people.

"This represents over 1.5 billion interactions. Our use cases continue to expand supporting customer growth and retention.

In their first morning of trading on 19 June WSP shares were up 6.9 per cent on the offer price at $1.71, but on the same day they closed at $1.59 each. Just over two months later they are sitting around the $1.40 mark, despite the positive news of a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced in July. 

Business News Australia