(Sharecast News) - Robotic automation technology company Blue Prism reported a 35% improvement in bookings in its first half on Thursday, to £98m.
The AIM-traded firm said group revenue was 24% higher year-on-year for the six months ended 30 April, at £80.4m, with recurring licence revenue share standing at 98%, compared to 97% a year earlier.
Its adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to £8m from £32.8m, while its operating loss shrank to £20.9m from £53.8m in the first half of 2020.
Blue Prism used £8.1m cash in operations in its first half, compared to £31.2m year-on-year, while net cash at period end fell to £126.5m from £140.8m.
On the operational front, the company said it continued to strengthen long-term relationships with enterprise customers, with "significant" in-built opportunities for continued scaling.
It reported gross revenue retention of 98% and net revenue retention of 115%, adding that its top 50 customers spent an average of $1.5m per annum.
The company said it increased its investment in product and research and development, released 'version 7' of its technology in May, and planned to double product function headcount by the end of the calendar year.
Blue Prism said it was still planning to achieve exit run-rate underlying cash break even within the 2021 financial year, and continued to expect financial performance to be in the ranges outlined in its May trading update.
"We continue to attain strong retention metrics and new bookings for our Blue Prism Cloud (BPC) software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform grew 65% year-on-year, and accounted for 22% of new bookings for the period," said chairman and chief executive officer Jason Kingdon.
"Whilst remaining disciplined on spending and re-confirming our aim to be cash break-even by the end of the full financial period, we have significantly invested in research and development, enabling a record number of product releases to enhance scale and usability of the core product.
"With over 2,000 customers, we want to remain at the forefront of developing next generation intelligent automation, so we are reviewing our go-to-market model and the product and service formats to ensure we meet the needs for strategic transformation demanded in the C-suite."
At 0929 BST, shares in Blue Prism Group were up 6.68% to 958.5p.
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