blur Group plc
("blur Group", the "Group" or the "Company")
Quarterly Metrics Update and Year End Update
2015 Revenue expected to be in line with market expectations Enterprise strategy maturing and like-‐for-‐like cash burn reduced by 58%27th January 2016
blur Group plc (AIM:BLUR), the world's first Enterprise Services Platform and marketplace, is pleased to provide the market with its Q4 2015 key metrics.
ALL PROJECTS | Q4 2015 | Q3 2015 | CHANGE |
No. | No. | % | |
Pitching On | 104 | 117 | -‐11.1 |
Kicked Off | 97 | 100 | -‐3.0 |
Completed | 78 | 85 | -‐8.2 |
ENTERPRISE PROJECTS ONLY** | Q4 2015 | Q3 2015 | CHANGE |
No. | No. | % | |
Pitching On | 64 | 57 | +12.3 |
Kicked Off | 64 | 47 | +36.2 |
Completed | 44 | 40 | +10.0 |
**blur defines the Enterprise as a business with 50 or more employees
2015 Revenue expected to be in line with market expectations
2015 EBITDA expected to be slightly ahead of market expectations with sequential, quarterly improvement
Underlying cash burn (excluding Foreign Exchange movements) reduced to an underlying $1.5M in Q4 2015 from $3.6M in Q3 2015 (down 58%)
Cash at period end was $7.1M
Cost base reduced further as platform matures and processes and efficiencies continue to improve
Conversion rate of all Pitching On to Completed projects improved from 72% in Q3 to 75% in Q4
Level of repeat Kicked Off projects from Enterprise customers at 84% in Q4
New offshore technology development capability introduced
During the period, the Group continued with its focus on securing more mature, loyal and high-‐quality Enterprise customers with a higher propensity for repeat business. As the Group's Enterprise strategy progresses, the Board anticipates that such customers will continue to form a larger part of our business.
Q4 saw further increases in the proportion of Enterprise projects Pitching On (49% in Q3 to 62% in Q4) and Kicked Off (47% in Q3 to 66% in Q4) -‐ underpinning an improvement in the overall quality of blur's revenues.
Customer satisfaction levels further improved in the quarter, which is reflected in both blur's Trustpilot rating and also with the increasing trend of repeating Enterprise customers (Trustpilot is Europe's largest and fastest-‐ growing consumer review platform). 84% of all Enterprise projects that Kicked Off in Q4 came from customers who have previously utilised blur's platform.
During the period, blur also added new Enterprise customers to the Platform, including a multi-‐channel British menswear retailer.
The Group continues to generate income from its higher margin products. Specifically, Q4 saw increases in the levels of income from Seller subscriptions as our Service Providers saw the value delivered by access to blur's Marketplace.
The level of maturity in the Version 5.0 iteration of blur's platform has facilitated the introduction of an offshore development resource. This brings a greater level of flexibility to blur's development function as well as reducing development costs.
Two new videos were launched via blur's website in the quarter. The "How it works" and "Demo" videos will support the Group's sales teams as they engage with the Enterprise customer.
As anticipated, operational efficiencies continued to improve in Q4 with the Group increasingly able to streamline its processes. The structural changes made in Q3 and Q4 led to a 58% reduction in the underlying cash burn compared to Q3 2015.
The Group's cash balance at the end of Q4 2015 totalled $7.1 million compared to $8.8 million at the end of Q3. The cash reduction of $1.7 million included $0.2 million of unrealised exchange movements in the period, as the valuation of blur's sterling denominated cash balances was impacted by the decline in the GBP:USD exchange rate in Q4 2015. Excluding these exchange movements, the underlying cash burn for Q4 2015 was
$1.5 million.
Philip Letts, blur Group CEO, commented:
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Since 2010, blur Group has been helping enterprises worldwide eliminate waste and inefficiency in their procurement process. It operates the world's first Enterprise Services Platform and Marketplace. To date over 65,000 businesses have adopted blur to buy or sell services online, including companies like, Tesco, Danone, Trinity Mirror, Argos and PwC submitting over $500m of services requirements to blur Group's platform.
blur Group is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market (BLUR) and is headquartered in the UK with regional sales offices in the US and Europe.
blur Group plc issued this content on 27 January 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 27 January 2016 09:50:29 UTC
Original Document: https://www.blurgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Quarterly-Business-Update-Jan-16.pdf