Cloudcall boosts revenue and narrows loss

(ShareCast News) - Cloudcall announced its unaudited interim results for the six-month period ended to 30 June on Friday, with revenue up 62% to £2.3m.The AIM-traded company reported recurring revenue up 24% compared to H2 2015, with it now totalling 84% of group revenues.Its operating loss narrowed to £1.8m, from £2.5m last year before non-recurring items.Recurring revenue per user from software subscriptions was up 6% compared to the same point last year, and up a further 3% since the year-end.Cloudcall said its operating expenses remained stable, and the cash absorbed by operations was down 40% compared to the first half of last year, and 17% lower than H2 2015.During the period, its user base was up 35% to 13,299, and up 12% since the year-end.In a separate announcement, Cloudcall revealed it was raising approximately £2.1m before expenses to enable it to accelerate growth and capitalise on near-term revenue opportunities, with significantly reduced working capital constraints"Our first half results demonstrate that Cloudcall's strategy to focus on key CRM partners and customers in a clearly defined sweetspot is working, with strong growth in recurring revenue over the period," said Cloudcall chief executive Peter Simmonds."The board has identified a number of opportunities for further accelerating growth."In particular, the strategic partnership with Bullhorn CRM represents a very real and immediate growth opportunity, particularly in the US."Simmonds said that cost reductions and delayed investments driven by the focus on getting to cash flow break-even have constrained the business in the last six months, however, and hindered the addition of resources to fully exploit the potential customer and revenue growth opportunity."After careful consideration the board believes that, in the interest of long term value creation, now is the optimum time to raise further equity funding to capitalise on the opportunities that are immediately available and drive the business forward."Simmonds explained that the funding will be carefully targeted at additional sales, marketing and on-boarding resources to support the strategic partnership with Bullhorn, and to add further software engineering resource to ensure product features continue to meet the needs of the target clients."I am happy to report that the focused strategy implemented during 2016 is now delivering a much stronger sales pipeline, an increasing and reference-able client base and much greater clarity of product roadmap."With the additional funding enabling the business to invest in resources to deliver on this progress the board looks forward to the future with significantly increased confidence," Simmonds explained.